April 2007
William Spaetzel: William is Watched his brother give a great sermon at church today.: http://tinyurl.com/yqw4jq (via Twitter / William Spaetzel)
William Spaetzel: William is had a great dinner in PE. Off for a walk now.: http://tinyurl.com/2c8qbh (via Twitter / William Spaetzel)
William Spaetzel: William is Off to Port Elgin to visit his parents.: http://tinyurl.com/34vf7g (via Twitter / William Spaetzel)
Turn WordPress blogs into Commodore 64s →
Cory Doctorow:
Rod McFarland’s “Commodore” theme for WordPress turns your blog into a command-line driven Commodore 64 interface. It’s endlessly fascinating and deliciously pointless.
Link
(Thanks, Rod!)
William Spaetzel: William is 300 Was Great!: http://tinyurl.com/2jcomt (via Twitter / William Spaetzel)
William Spaetzel: William is in the theater. About to see 300.: http://tinyurl.com/29oksp (via Twitter / William Spaetzel)
William Spaetzel: William is Which Sitting in the UCC. Hoping that Laura-lee is enjoying her party.?
I’ve got nothing for .. http://tinyurl.com/2slwwp (via Twitter / William Spaetzel)
William Spaetzel: William is headed home. Watching 300 tonight.: http://tinyurl.com/2b8yca (via Twitter / William Spaetzel)
Jalopnik Weekend: Supercar Weekend: Get in Touch... →
Had we been in the middle of this, and had we been 12-years-old, we would have been dead from an aneurysm. For back when we were wee Jalops, just sighting a single slant-nosed 935 made us hyperventilate. This very well could have been us, too, as the Las Virgenes exit they pass on the 101 North is just a few miles from where we grew up out in bat Reagan country. More importantly, a few more...
Mythbusters fangirl →
I love my job, I really do. But if the Mythbusters ever decided they needed a female host (that knows absolutely nothing about mixing ballistics gel or building samurai robots) it would give me a moments pause. Ryan and I have become obsessed with Mythbusters - we probably watch two or three episodes a day now, or at least try to. We quote them in daily conversation (”I reject your reality and...
William Spaetzel: William is Wondering if Twitterfeed will do what I want. rss2twitter seems to be dead.: http://tinyurl.com/2s4uok (via Twitter / William Spaetzel)
blue drop →
Ink drop in water, shot while we were shooting some video elements last night at the office.
You’ll want a Windows Home Server. No, really, you... →
Over at ZDNet, I’ve just posted a review of Windows Home Server, which is now in beta. Here’s a snippet:
Microsoft hits a home run with Windows Home Server
Almost without exception, the first reaction when people hear that Microsoft is working on Windows Home Server is, “Why would I want that?” After they see it, the first reaction is much simpler: “I want that.”
So set aside that first...
GADGETS: Bullshit Button →
Although this bullshit button is quite similar to Staple’s Easy Button, and both are actually available for purchase, the bullshit button actually does something useful. See, whenever your buddies make some outlandish claim, just slam on this button and it’ll pop out one of five “clever” sayings.
• “(Beep) That was bullshit”
• “(Siren) Bullshit...
LED Digg Button Kit by Adafruit Industries →
Last Thursday at the Digg Million User Celebration, Ladyada of Adafruit Industries and Phillip Torrone had a table setup and they were selling their new, open source Digg Button Kits (v1.0). The kits contain multiple components that when soldered together create are really cool manual LED Digg Button that you can digg up to 999 and then reset back to 0. Who knows, maybe someone will be able to...
Funny coffee mugs to animalize your face →
David Pescovitz:
Attua Aparicio Torinos designed a line of funny white coffee mugs with cartoon animal parts on the bottom. Also available in pig and rabbit for £10.00 from Thorsten Van Elten. Link
PLAYSTATION Eye Dated For Europe →
It seems the PLAYSTATION Eye peripheral has been dated “Summer” for Europe. Makes sense as it should correspond with the release of the hugely successful karaoke game Sing Star, which apparently will use the peripheral. In a press release we’ve found here, but not the SCEE site, it does mention a summer release and detailed info about the product. Selected tidbits include:
A...
Elias →
On April 12th, Veerle and Andy gave birth to their second son, Nathan. On this picture, Elias is cuddling Nathan while still in his mother’s tummy.
reflected hotel →
Sheraton Hotel seen from Nathan Philips Square.
On making decisions →
Tom Toles used the ridiculous hand-wringing over global warming to make his point with this carton, but it could easily describe how some organizations respond to a shifting marketplace.
On making decisions →
Tom Toles used the ridiculous hand-wringing over global warming to make his point with this carton, but it could easily describe how some organizations respond to a shifting marketplace.
HOME SERVER: Geek to Live: Build an internet... →
by Gina Trapani
Just because you’re away from your home computer - and all the beloved gigabytes of music you’ve collected over the years - doesn’t mean you can’t listen to your tunes.
You already know how to set up a home web server to get to your files from anywhere, but when it comes to music, a pure web server’s not the best interface. Free, open source...
BOOZE BELT: Booze Belt Will Transform You Into... →
Once in a while, Gizmodo comes across that rare object, that invention that showcases the amazing nature of human genius and the never-ending quest for perfection that lifts the spirits of every man and woman in the planet.
That gadget is clearly not the Booze Belt, something that celebrates two of the finest american traditions: shooting and getting drunk, but not necessarily in that order....
Telcos force neutrality.ca shut-down →
A few days ago neutrality.ca, which housed an online campaign to fight for an Internet that is not controlled by the big telcos, removed its site and put up this message “Due to increasing legal concerns resulting from our public participation in the Net Neutrality debate,
we have at this time decided to shut down the operation of these sites.” I don’t know all of the details,...
Even CEO can't figure out how RadioShack still in... →
Hack Attack: Control multiple computers with a... →
You don’t need a hardware switch to share one keyboard and mouse amongst several different computers. All you need is the free, cross-platform application, Synergy. Synergy connects one keyboard and mouse to any computer on your network, making a dual- or triple-computer setup work more like a dual- or triple-monitor setup. Synergy even allows you to share clipboard data across your...
Kryptonite discovered, yes, really →
I first heard about kryptonite being discovered from Robin Quivers news segment during this morning’s Howard Stern show and then as I’m reading through the morning’s RSS feeds, I saw the BBC story confirming below. For those who don’t know, the Quivers news segment on the show is where they talk about real news stories and make fun of them.
Researchers from mining group Rio Tinto discovered...
Get free audiobooks from Simply Audiobooks →
Audiobook-download site Simply Audiobooks offers a selection of free public-domain titles.
The books include Mark Twain’s The Stolen White Elephant, Jack London’s Call of the Wild and Joel Benton’s The Life of P.T. Barnum. There are 11 titles to choose from, all of them in WMA format (which leaves iPod users out, unless they convert the files to AAC or MP3). Cleverly, the books...
Rent The HAL-5 Exoskeleton For $590/mo →
Tired of carrying in those groceries for your elderly neighbor all the time? Need to change the flat tire on your 1981 IROC-Z Camaro in the driveway? Don’t bother exerting all your energy on these mundane tasks when you can just pay for a Japanese invention that makes it easier. The HAL-5 exoskeleton can now be rented for just $590 a month for the next year, basically allowing anyone who saw...
Canadian professor denied US entry for taking LSD... →
Cory Doctorow:
W sez, “Vancouver psychotherapist Andrew Feldmar has been barred from entering the United States. The reason? During a random stop-and-search at a US/Canadian border crossing, a Google search of his name led to his article from the Spring 2001 ‘Janus Head: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature, Continental Philosophy, Phenomenological Psychology, and the...
Postcards from 1900 depict tech of 2000 →
Cory Doctorow:
This collection of German postcards were originally give-aways in Hildebrands chocolates in 1900 — they depict the world as it would be in 2000. Included are a water-unicycle, slidewalks, locomotives pulling houses, personal airplanes, weather control systems, amphibious railways, police X-rays for seeing through walls, and, of course, zeppelins. Beautiful artwork,...
…and then just walked away →
I was lucky enough to pass by the scene of a vandal, which made for a good photo:
Stephen Colbert Parodies on YouTube = Legal →
If you want to parody Stephen Colbert clips on YouTube, go right ahead: Viacom admitted today that it had made an error by pulling a parody clip during its YouTube cleansing, and the lawsuit against Viacom by the EFF was dropped.
Viacom used the DMCA to pull down more than 100,000 clips, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation complained that the takedown had included those clips that are...
Social Technographics and a Power Law of... →
Charlene Li at Forrester just came out with a report on Social Technographics that surveyed user engagement. The framework is very similar to my Power Law of Participation, but it is an entirely different thing to have some data behind it.
I haven’t seen the report itself, but Steve Rubel says “this is the first report I have seen that really delves into what drives and motivates...
Bank Of America Let Conwoman Steal My Dead Aunt's... →
Ariel’s wealthy aunt died. When his mom went to open her safe deposit box, which was supposed to hold $300k in bonds and jewels, it was empty. The bank clerk said that it had been emptied that morning, by the aunt…
Further investigation found that it was actually a woman using his Aunt’s identity who cleaned out the box. This woman had “befriended” the aunt in the...
T-shirt makes fun of Todd Goldman →
Mark Frauenfelder:
Todd Goldman has made a lot of money selling art and apparel with his artwork on it. His company, David & Goliath is best known for a shirt that says “Boys are stupid, throw rocks at them.” I’ve always hated Goldman’s work — the art is unappealing and the messages he conveys are just sad. Another reason I found for disliking his work is that...
Practice Speaking on Mic Before You Record Your... →
Here’s a trick (or two) for the newbie podcasters out there… slow down and enunciate.
If you’ve never been in front of a microphone or had the experience of being on television or radio, there’d be no reason for you to know how you sound to an audience hearing your amplified and recorded voice. […]
The Zelda Tramp Stamp Tattoo →
Wow. Not really a whole lot to say about this one. I’m sure some of you will find this extremely sexy while others of you will find it distasteful. For me, well… the best thing I can say is at least it’s well executed. Oh, and can I have one of those Oreos? Wait, those are the vanilla ones, never mind. now there is officially nothing in this picture to interest me.
A picture...
Todd Goldman's lawyers sending nastygrams →
Mark Frauenfelder:
Todd Goldman, an artist whose work often so closely resembles the work of other artists that one can only marvel at the freakishly-rare coincidences. It’s as if a thousand worms, crawling over a palette of oil paint onto a canvas, made a perfect copy of the Mona Lisa. Take a look for yourself at the incredible coincidental resemblances between Todd Goldman’s art...
Lifetime free Pro accounts to developers -... →
Jack Thompson, Busted →
The shooting on the Virginia Tech campus was only hours old, police hadn’t even identified the gunman, and yet already the perpetrator had been fingered and was in the midst of being skewered in the media.
Video games. They were to blame for the dozens dead and wounded. They were behind the bloodiest massacre in U.S. history.
Or so Jack Thompson told Fox News and, in the days that...
Fast Food Ads Vs Reality →
We’ve posted on this topic before with Tengaport’s flickr pic of the Wendy’s Spicy whatever sammich vs reality. Since we liked that post so much we were delighted to see that someone had made a serious study of the topic. —MEGHANN MARCO
Fast Food: Ads Vs Reality (Thanks, Alex!)
The Landlord →
Xeni Jardin: I’m a few days late, but can’t let the week evaporate without pointing to “The Landlord,” an internet video in which a famous celebrity argues with a child. No, not that one! Will Farrell and an irascible, tiny girl named Pearl McKay who likes to get her booze on, bitch. Video Link. Wired News has a related story today.
Fire Table Keeps Your Coffee Warm, Toasts Your... →
Even though spring is definitely here, we still like the idea of a cozy fire, and this Fire Table from British design firm Fuego is just weird enough to satisfy our firebug jones. Hey, any excuse to play with fire is good enough for a recovering smoker.
This one’s exceptionally easy to use, where all you need to do is light up its alcohol-based gel (it’s like Sterno) and whoosh! The...
Gallery: Party at the Nintendo House →
I don’t know exactly where this is, but I’m willing to book my roundtrip ticket right now if it costs less than a grand. Investigation of the tags on Flickr reveal two little words: “CMU” and “booth”. Could this be this year’s follow up the last ingenius booth from the kids at Carnegie Mellon University?
I don’t care how many raffle tickets it...
A Tale of Two Geeks and a Poseur →
If you work in an engineering group, these are three types of geeks that may seem familiar to you.
Genius Geek: Dude who knows more than you, your teammates and your boss put together.
Smart Geek: Dude who works hard and knows enough to get his job done. And if he doesn’t know, he will go find out himself.
Poseur Geek: Dude who fakes being smart and relies on others for all information.
...
ImageKind Scores Partnership With Flickr →
When we wrote about Photo printing site ImageKind in February, the company said they were close to announcing a large portal distribution partnership.
Earlier this month a reader suggested to us that the partnership might be with Flickr based on some code that appeared on the ImageKind site that accessed the Flickr API. Today, that reader turned out to be right - Flickr launched integration...
Photos of fast food in ads and in real life →
Mark Frauenfelder:
This is a great idea. These folks bought fast food items and photographed them, then placed the photos side-by-side with the photos in ads for the same product. Shown here: KFC Famous Bowl
Each item was purchased, taken home, and photographed immediately. Nothing
was tampered with, run over by a car, or anything of the sort. It is an accurate
representation in every case....
Visual Studio Express Orcas Available →
The first Community Technology Preview of all four Visual Studio Express “Orcas” products are available for download now. You can go to Channel 9 to see Soma’s video, or just go to http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/future to download and install. I’m incredibly interested in your feedback on these four products, especially on the DLINQ designer and the WPF designer, which...
Talking video cameras in England scold citizens →
Mark Frauenfelder:
Tomston says: “Britain gets 1984 telescreens — CCTV cameras that bark at you when you do something wrong. Scary stuff, particularly when there’s a regular CCTV camera for every 5 people in Britain already.”
Link