Simultaneity

August 3, 2007

Interesting XP Problem

I recently upgraded my laptop with another GB of memory, bringing the total to 2GB (thanks for the sale Best Buy!).

A few days later, I started noticing that my laptop light was blinking after shutting down (I usually hibernate through pushing the power button). I've even stuck it in my bag thinking it was shut down to find it pretty warm when I pulled it out.

Turns out there's some sort of problem with XP power manager finding a block of memory to hibernate if you have more than 1GB of memory. Then, once it fails to do that, you need to reboot...and it may work again. Our you can install the hotfix described on this site.

Posted by Jesse at 12:42 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 6, 2007

Google Map's API

Just finished playing around a little with the Google Map API and added a better location/direction page for our church.
The API has a lot of neat things and there are quite a few creative sites popping up, like the Jacktracker, tracking the current location of Jack Bauer.

Posted by Jesse at 8:17 PM | Comments (1)

January 29, 2007

White Men Can't Jump

Dancing, I guess, is a good stress reliever after a long day at the Air Force Academy.

Posted by Jesse at 7:46 PM | Comments (0)

January 22, 2007

Wow...

I don't embed many things into the blog...or blog all that often anymore, but this one is worth seeing.

It's called "Children See, Children Do."

And while I was going to embed the video, the poster chose a frame that could be deemed profane so I've linked instead.

Posted by Jesse at 5:15 PM | Comments (0)

October 19, 2006

Ms. Pac-Man

Not sure of the point of this study, but it's neat to see an ape playing pac-man.

Posted by Jesse at 3:32 PM | Comments (0)

October 1, 2006

Smooth

Really smooth card trick.

Posted by Jesse at 2:07 PM | Comments (0)

September 11, 2006

To the Curb

You probably noticed that my blogging habits changed over the summer....ok, they were non-existent. I thought that might change, and I'll still blog more than I did during the summer, but now it seems I'll probably think more about blogging than actually doing it.

Anyhow, not only have my posting habits changed, so have my reading habits. There's a lot of good blogs out there...but I need to cut my list back some. I currently have 70 sites on my blog list and the simple fact is, I don't read them all. So, I'm making some cuts. But I want to remember some of the ones that I'm cutting, so I'm posting a list of those that I'm cutting, but want to remember. If your site is on this list, it's nothing personal, in fact I'll likely be back - that's why I'm making a list.

DashHouse
YSMarko
Gladwell.com
The Sneeze
The Dilbert Blog
Gizmodo
Reality Blurred

The cuts have brought my list down to 56...there's more to come, but I'll update this post so they'll all be in one place.

And, just to be clear, I think all of these are good blogs, I just don't have time to read them...if you have some extra time, give them a glace, you might find something you like.

Posted by Jesse at 7:36 PM | Comments (0)

June 16, 2006

Silent Game Show

The people of Japan have some very interesting game shows from time to time. This one is like fear factor, but it takes place in a library...and it's a good example of what happens when you get a bunch of men together.

Posted by Jesse at 11:24 AM | Comments (0)

June 9, 2006

Optical Illusion

There's a ton of optical illusions out there so I rarely follow the links, but I did for this one and was very impressed. Check it out and be sure to read the instructions.

Posted by Jesse at 6:50 PM | Comments (0)

June 6, 2006

The Fresh Maker

For some time now...I think it was just after an episode of Numb3rs...I've been wanting to take Kevin to the park to try the mentos and soda fountain. I think it'd be pretty neat, but it wouldn't look anything like these guys....

Posted by Jesse at 2:05 PM | Comments (0)

June 2, 2006

Innovative Juggling

This is one of Greg Kennedy's creative ways to juggle. You can see some pieces of others at his website.

Posted by Jesse at 6:28 PM | Comments (0)

April 25, 2006

SALT and Light

The new(ish) South African Large Telescope (SALT) has some incredible pictures. They say it's powerful enough to see a candle flame from the distance of the moon - or, if you're good with big numbers, it can see celestial objects a billion times too faint to be seen with the unaided eye.
They hope that they can learn more about gas giants like Jupiter, why galaxies take the forms they do and will look at some of the most violent events in the Universe.
I wonder if Louie Giglio has seen these pictures yet.

Psalm 19:1
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Posted by Jesse at 4:56 PM | Comments (0)

April 13, 2006

Flickr Questions

I've been using Flicker's free service and was comfortable with the caps they listed, but didn't notice the 200 pictures per photostream. Does this mean that it will only show my most recent 200 pictures, no matter the search? In other words, if I give a URL to the photo and it "scrolls off" will the link no longer work?
Also, if I have more than 200 does the first one get deleted when I add another or is it inaccesable? and when I delete one, would I be down to 199, or would the one that scrolled be available again?

Posted by Jesse at 2:47 PM | Comments (2)

February 2, 2006

Privacy?

You can fight for privacy or you can just give up and let the whole world know what's going on at your house.

You can find out all you want about this house in the Netherlands:

• what rooms have lights turned on
what their last phone calls were, or who they called
answering machine messages
how much electricity and gas they’re using at any given hour
how cold their fridge is
when the doorbell rang last

Posted by Jesse at 10:54 PM | Comments (1)

January 30, 2006

Let your fingers do the talking

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, but can Jack beat Kimberly Yeo?

Text Messaging World Record
Kimberly Yeo, a 28 year old Singaporean business student has smashed—yes smashed, I say—the Guinness World Record, making the new record 26 words tapped into a mobile phone in a stunning 43.24 seconds.

Posted by Jesse at 1:41 PM | Comments (0)

December 3, 2005

How to argue and win everytime

The Internet is a great place to find information. Unfortunately, not all of that information is based on facts. Even more so as it grows.

With that, of course, comes arguments, flame wars, and the like. Scott Adams recently asked his readers to tell him why they think he is stupid, and from that derived a great soon to be classic post on how to debate in this medium.

For extra comment fun, feel free to use his suggestions to refute this entry.

Posted by Jesse at 1:23 PM | Comments (0)

November 18, 2005

Nostalgia

If like to pull things apart or a fan of the Atari computer, check out this guy's site...he buit an Atari laptop.

Posted by Jesse at 11:26 AM | Comments (1)

November 15, 2005

Time is of the essence

Dear future me....

From now until the end of the month, Forbes.com is collecting e-mails to deliver in the future. They've worked out a system to almost guarantee that a mail you write today can be delivered up to 20 years from now. I didn't get to deep into the article, but they seem to have a good system of redundancy and unless Forbes, Yahoo, and Codefix consulting are out of business you should get your mail. Of course, the weak link in the whole plan is having the same address you have now.

I've had my current e-mail address for a number of years, but most people I know change their address often especially when the hot new system comes down the road (how many people switched from hotmail to Gmail...and how many will switch to something new?).

So provided you have something to ask or remind yourself and you think you'll have the same address send yourself an email....or go here if you need it sooner.

I've tried both and if I'm still blogging when I get them, I'll let you know (and you won't need to wait 20 years).

Posted by Jesse at 6:39 PM | Comments (1)

November 3, 2005

Interesting Demographics

MMI - Interesting Demographic Information
Interesting figures from the Demographics blog... this information is from the US Census Bureau among others...

There's some pretty interesting stats - for instance there's more vegetarians in the US than Asians - and some odd matches - the same number of gay men, Non-denominationls, and prison population. Not that any of those have to do with each other or anything, just weird.

One thing really struck me though - it says that the percentage of US population that is Christian is 76.5%. Seems really high, even if you allow for the fact that some religions that protestants say aren't Christian label themselves as that. What's even odder is that the percentages of protestant and "born-again" don't match...by about 25 million people.

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'..."Matthew 17:21-23

Posted by Jesse at 10:29 AM | Comments (0)

October 31, 2005

Getting the Point

Microsoft attempts to get a better understanding of its users through the We-SYP program.

Posted by Jesse at 10:35 AM | Comments (0)

October 18, 2005

Horton Hears a Heart

FALnet's tagline is "Humor for Smart people with bad taste." I've never been much of a Poe reader, but the Tell Tale Heart is one of the few books from english class that I still remember. On the other hand, I am a Suess fan and remember Horton Hears a Who quite well...so why wouldn't a blend of the two be at least appealing enough to read.

Then I heard it again. But - who was it? Where?
... From the theedlewog bush? No! It can't be from there!
Well, it's not from the theedle that I hear this thumping
It must be Sam's compacted heart - it's still pumping!
My ears are quite large, and I do hear this sound
and I feel his cold stare through all six feet of ground.

Careful, it's not a good bed time story for toddlers - it's more Poe than Suess.

Posted by Jesse at 2:08 PM | Comments (0)

September 27, 2005

Get some pants and a free TiVo

If you've been thinking about getting a TiVo, but just not sure, now may be the time. I'm a little late on posting this since the sale ends on the 28th, but you still have time....

Buy $100 worth of Docker apparel and you'll get a free 40 hour TiVo and 3 months of service.

So head on over to dockers.com or head out to JC Penny and get some pants....and if you think about it, put me down (jesse AT sillypuppies DOT com) as your referrer.

Posted by Jesse at 12:20 AM | Comments (0)

July 18, 2005

Blogging and the Bible

An interesting look at what blogging technology would be used by who, if the Bible was blogged today.

Posted by Jesse at 1:06 PM | Comments (0)

May 27, 2005

May the Farm be with you

Join Cuke Skywalker as he fights against Lord Tater.

A much better commercial than anything you find on TV.

Posted by Jesse at 8:02 PM | Comments (0)

January 1, 2005

Meet Max

In the time before time, a time before the Internet....well, actually, time existed as did the Interenet but the Internet was still in academic stages...there was what was called a BBS. Back then, I played on line games, sometimes. They were all text based, most of them were not real time, and few were multi-player. Some were role playing games, but as RPGs do, they took to much time to learn and even more to master. So, as the on-line community grew, I stuck with off-line gaming - other than a few LAN games that I played with Teri.

I'd heard of MMOGs before, but never got into playing them - until Christmas. City of Heroes caught my eye and gained my interest, I'm not sure why. After getting it for Christmas, I took my first dive into on-line gaming and so far it's been a very good experience. CoHs allows you to do solo work, but encourages teaming through better rewards. As such, the game players are very friendly when it comes to teaming up for short periods of time, which is perfect for me since I only play for a short time here and there. As they suggest, it's very friendly to the casual player, but there are people who are into it like any other MMOG. In other words, there are spreadsheets, forums, and regular newsletters if you want to devote a significant portion of your life to the game (I wouldn't suggest you do though).

I suppose, like all other games I play, I'll tire of it soon. I may even tire before the free 30 days expire, but you can help fight this by supporting addicting gaming habits and sending me a subscription card for more time.

Oh, and if you wonder who Max is, his name is Mindful Max, my first hero. Called Mindful Max because his super power is based on mental powers, like levitation or draining energy, rather than brute force.

Posted by Jesse at 3:52 PM | Comments (1)

December 26, 2004

Google Desktop

I installed Google Desktop about a month ago and haven't had any problems with it. It's a nifty tool that indexes your text, mail and other office apps as well as AIM messages and lets your search your hard drive, just like you use Google. It's much faster than the search that comes with windows since it indexes things as you go.

That being said, I uninstalled it today. I found that it took much longer to download mail while it was running - to the order of minutes, which is rather annoying. Additionally, I haven't really found that I needed to search for anything. I generally keep a much neater file structure than I keep anything non-virtual, so things are easy to find. Additionally, my laptop only holds 40 GB so it's going to come to the point where archives, which I would need to search, will be stored on CD, not the hard drive.

Posted by Jesse at 8:18 PM | Comments (0)

November 23, 2004

Caller ID with an Attitude

A company called Privacy Corps has developed a caller ID box that does more than just ID the caller, it also screens your calls. Using a preferred call list, calls ring though or are sent to voice mail, and there's a option to completely block numbers so you don't even get voice mail.

The box also lets you set times that you will accept calls so that you can block calls during dinner or when you wish to sleep. However, skimming the release announcement I can't really see any differences from options that most people can get through their carrier.

Posted by Jesse at 11:38 AM

We the People

We the people is a project, supported by Bush and congress to put close to 30 million pages from news papers on-line. National Endowment for the Humanities is working to put old issues of newsprint on-line giving access to anyone with a computer. Most of these articles are currently available in libraries on microfilm, but putting them on the 'net will open them to easier searching and allow teachers and students to access them from anywhere.

USA Today Article
The first of what's expected to be 30 million digitized pages from papers published from 1836 through 1922 will be available in 2006.
"Anyone who's interested — teachers, students, historians, lawyers, politicians, even newspaper reporters — will be able to go to their computer at home or at work and at a click of a mouse get immediate, unfiltered access to the greatest source of our history," said Bruce Cole, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. He announced the project in a speech at the National Press Club.

1836-1922 was selected because papers older than 1836 used a type that is difficult for optical scanners and papers from 1923 forward are still under copyright protection.

Posted by Jesse at 11:38 AM

November 16, 2004

Batteries that last for years

While I was at a computer conference a while back I heard about "smart dust," which is tiny sensors that can be spread in an area to pick up temperature, humidity sound, weight, just about anything. I was quite intrigued but never really considered the power source for these specks of dusts.

An article in The Feature addresses powering these and other tiny sensors without needing to replace thousands of batteries. One particularly interesting topic is that of nanograss. It's a real geeky read, but impressive technology.

Posted by Jesse at 7:17 PM

November 13, 2004

Geek Gadget

If you have a spare $500+ hanging around, a bluetooth phone and you're a big time trekkie, e-bay has just the thing for you - a working original series style communicator. Better hurry, as of this posting, there's only about 25 hours left in the auction.

Posted by Jesse at 1:16 PM

November 12, 2004

Buy a piece of history

Kids get toys and other items as gifts for birthdays, Christmas and a number of other occasions. For much of Kevin's stuff, we've saved the boxes with the intent of selling outgrown stuff on e-bay so we could get - you guessed it - more stuff for Kevin.

So, if you want a piece of history, a part of Kevin's past (hey, you never know, he may become famous)....or better yet, if you know someone that has an infant or is expecting, we've got a few things going on e-bay now, and will likely have a bit more over the next week or so. For now, I've listed stuff that we have the boxes for.

Check out Kevin's yard sale. Oh, and I'm also looking to get rid of a few VHS films on e-bay (en mass) and on half.com.

Posted by Jesse at 10:58 PM

November 5, 2004

Brain, Brain, what is Brain?

As Carson would say, this is Wild, Wacky Stuff

CNN.com - 'Brain' in a dish flies flight simulator -A Florida scientist has developed a "brain" in a glass dish that is capable of flying a virtual fighter plane and could enhance medical understanding of neural disorders such as epilepsy.

The "living computer" was grown from 25,000 neurons extracted from a rat's brain and arranged over a grid of 60 electrodes in a Petri dish.

The brain cells then started to reconnect themselves, forming microscopic interconnections, said Thomas DeMarse, professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Florida.

Posted by Jesse at 11:13 PM

TiVo Permalinks

The iTunes music store has been encouraging websites to post links to music at their store. This has been so successful that they have actually paid some sites to post links. So what does this have to do with TiVo?

Well, George wrote them a letter saying how useful it would be if TiVo created permalinks so that when someone posts about a show, you could click on the link and have it show up in your ToDo list using remote scheduling.

In other words, if TiVo could create a way that Network TV sites and review sites could enable users to click on a link and have it dropped on the TiVo, it could be a real boon for TiVo, just like it has been for iTMS.

Not being ones to sit on their laurels, TiVo did just that. You can now create links to TiVo Central Searches, individual episodes, or shows and TiVo Central Online will adjust to the users time and channel listing automatically to match up the show.

Now, when I talk about shows like Third Watch you can click the link and add it to your TiVo ToDo list. Now all they need to do is make shorter URLs and make them easier to generate and we'll really have something. Is TiVo RSS next?

Lastly, if you are thinking about TiVo, don't hesitate, go get one....not a DVR, go get TiVo. When you sign up, I'd love the referral, but you should get one even if you don't give me the referral.

And for those keeping track, I need one more referral for the 140 hour unit - feel free to pass a referral on so Teri can have a real nice Christmas gift.

Posted by Jesse at 10:41 PM

November 4, 2004

Tribal Solutions

Decision making is not always about getting the right answers, more often it's about asking the right questions.

Fast Company recently ran an article exploring the decision making process, a council ceremony, that dates back to early Native American - with links to the Mayans and Incas. In the ceremony, leaders leave behind their traditional roles, focus more on listening then talking, and base decisions on the good of the whole rather than what's good for their part of the company.

In the council, 8 leaders speak to the problem being addressed, taking on a certain role (or way to look at the problem). Sitting in a circle at each of the 8 points of the compass, a talking stick is passed around, in order, giving each "chief" a turn to address the problem. The person with the talking stick begins with their name, identifies how they are looking at the problem, and then addresses the group. Only the person with the stick speaks and comments only from their "point." Arguments are eliminated because each speaker is talking from a different perspective, addressing a single way of looking at the problem.

As everyone speaks, information accumulates and often understanding emerges. While not all council ceremonies lead to a consensus, the group usually feels more engaged in the process and is more supportive of the outcome. When an agreement is not reached, the council can take a break and come back at another time or they can give someone the authority to decide, with the understanding that not everyone is in accord.

The 'chiefs':

• East - Heyiehkah Chief is responsible for speaking to the tribe's freedom and creativity.
• SEast - Peace Chief focuses on the current situation with "present conditions and appreciation"
• South - War Chief who address emotion - especially the power and danger represented in the issue
• SWest - Women Chief speak to Maintenance and balance, focusing on healing, nurturing, protecting and caring for the tribe
• West - A second Woman Chief
• NWest - Woman Chief that focuses on timing and inter-relatedness. They must answer the question, "Is this the right time?" and focus on the flow and turn of events within the life of the tribe.
• North - Hunter/Worker Chiefs who focus on strategy and implementation - their keywords are clarity and action.
• NEast - Law Dog Chiefs focus on integrity and vitality and must determine if the council has spoken sufficiently to reach a decision or if the wheel must go around again, take a break, or assign a decision maker.

Discussion begins in the East and proceeds clockwise. Each person rises to speak, identifies them self and position and usually speaks no more than 10 minutes. In the center are Zero Chiefs who are responsible to make sure that the process is honored and discussion moves forward.

As the article mentions, I doubt that this will ever get used much in corporate America, it does seem like a good way to take leaders out of the "power grab" mode of meetings and ensure that all sides of a problem are looked at with relation to the company. All in all, an interesting look in to a different decision making process. If you have the time, give it a read.

(How to Make a Decision Like a Tribe) - Fast Company

Posted by Jesse at 3:05 PM

October 29, 2004

Cool Costume

I was more of a Volton fan than transformers, but this is a cool costume. Click on the image to see more than meets the eye.

Posted by Jesse at 10:41 PM

October 20, 2004

Thank you Captain Obvious

I thought people who use Macs were considered smarter than the rest of us.
How to pick up and carry your iMac G5

Posted by Jesse at 11:34 PM | Comments (1)

October 18, 2004

Critter Trapper

My mom & sister installed a door for their cat, problem is, the cat brings in critters with it...and they're not dead. They are then released to run around the house until ushered outside. I know Allyson's cat brings things in as well - but I think most of those have passed.
I'm not usually interested in things cat, but thought the above parties would be interested in this Flo Control system for the cat door.

Posted by Jesse at 6:21 PM

October 16, 2004

Gross

The site I found this on said "Stupid people sure are stupid." Not much I add to that.

Posted by Jesse at 4:07 PM

October 15, 2004

Google your Desktop

Google recently launched a desktop version of their search engine to help you find data that's on your computer. It's in beta right now and only available for XP & 2000 SP3 (sorry Mac fans!) but I suspect that will change some with a full release.

It indexes your computer during any idle time and is able to search through IM logs, recently viewed websites, documents and outlook mail. It's accessed using your browser and appears to run a little server on port 6446. It also adds search results from your files to the top of the results of any Google Web search that you perform.

On the upside, it's WAY faster than windows search since it indexes everything. Of course, the down side is that you may have to wait a few minutes for new e-mail and files to appear in your search results. Of course, if you need to search for something you JUST created or read, maybe you've got a little too much going on. A few things are missing that would be nice to have...MS Search will find stuff in your recycle bin, Goggle doesn't. It also doesn't search inside of ZIP or PDF files - and Publisher files would be a nice touch as well.

An expanded version that let you give access to others our that could sit on your home network and index on the computers on the network would be a good next step, of course, the security implications would be huge.

Posted by Jesse at 3:06 PM

October 13, 2004

A political side note

Most people that know me know that I am a republican and my reasons behind that. You should also know that I feel anyone that votes solely on political party rather than the issues is messing up the political system and should just stay home on when the polls are open.
I see most politicians as in it for themselves and used to blame them for how messed up our system is. However, videos like this one show that it's really the clueless people that have put us where we are. If you are a Clinton supporter, don't listen for the republican slant, listen for the fact that those who are buying his book and saying that he was a good President can't give a reason why they feel that way. Listen to how they've bought into the "economy" bit.
And please, comment on people and the system, not your thoughts on Clinton - use your own blog for that.

Posted by Jesse at 11:36 PM | Comments (2)

October 9, 2004

A Zike Bike?

This is just bizarre.

Posted by Jesse at 11:02 PM

October 8, 2004

Is it just me?

Halolab is producing an airbag for motorcycles. At first it seemed like a good idea, but after watching the crash tests they have on their site, I'm not so sure that an inflatable jacket really something that'll be that worth while - maybe it's just me. Sure, your vital organs will be spared, but after flipping over a car or skidding down the road, your limbs and possibly your neck will be rather worthless.

Posted by Jesse at 11:46 PM

October 6, 2004

Are we living in the dark ages?

Computers are getting faster and faster, works of print are being moved to digital format and new discoveries are being made almost daily. But, will all the information from the information age be lost? Will historians look back and consider this one of the dark ages because they can't access any of the information from this age?

Think about all the data that you so carefully stored just five years ago. How accessible is it now?

Data Gets Old Fast | Gadgetopia
Say you're on death row, scheduled to be wrongly executed that evening. Someone hands your lawyer a PDF 1.0 document on a 5 1/4" floppy and tells him that it contains the identity of the real killer. Do you think you'll live to see the next day? Keep in mind the PDF format was originally released on June 15, 1993.

The Long Now Foundation has a very interesting article on this subject noting that it's not just the data type, but the actual medium that gets outdated. It also mentions

Today's bleeding-edge technology is tomorrow's broken legacy system. Commercial software is almost always written in enormous haste, at ever- accelerating market velocity; it can foresee an “upgrade path” to next year's version, but decades are outside its scope. And societies live by decades, civilizations by centuries.

Posted by Jesse at 10:27 PM | Comments (1)

September 30, 2004

Dammit, Jim, I'm a Doctor...

Not quite a hypospray, but darn close...

Transdermal Drug Delivery-SonoPrep Topical Anesthetic Procedure Tray
The SonoPrep is a hand-held ultrasound device that painlessly opens microscopic pores in a small area of the skin, allowing medication to pass into the bloodstream.

The SonoPrep works by applying ultrasound waves to a small area of skin, about one square centimetre, for about 15 seconds. The ultrasound disrupts a protective membrane under the skin, allowing fluids to flow in or out.

The openings allow larger molecules, including those of many drugs, to pass through quickly. The skin returns to normal in 12 to 24 hours.

Posted by Jesse at 11:23 PM

Save Money - Go to the Library

This is a nifty little bookmarklet that will let you check your local library to see if the book you're looking at buying on-line is available.

Sadly, my library system uses GeoWeb, which isn't supported, nor does it see to have a way to look up a book using the ISBN in the URL.

Jon Udell: LibraryLookup homepage
After you've "installed" your bookmarklet in this way, you can look up books at your local library. Let's say you're on a book-related site (Amazon, BN, isbn.nu, All Consuming, possibly others), and a book's info page is your current page. (Specifically: its URL contains an ISBN. Choose a hardcover edition for best results -- see tips below.) You can click your bookmarklet to check if the book is available in your local library. The bookmarklet will invoke your library's lookup service, feed it the ISBN, and pop up a new window with the result.

If anyone is familiar with GeoWeb and knows how to use the ISBN in the URL, I'd be grateful to hear from you!

Posted by Jesse at 1:11 AM

Cameras, GPS, Radios, and now...Magnetic sensors

They're putting all sorts of things into phones, now they may be adding a magnetic sensor. Through the use of GPS and the phone's "compass", you could point the phone in the direction of a building or other public area and get information about it. For example, if you see a store that you want to visit later, you can point your phone at the store, get operating hours and additional information about the store - maybe some downloadable coupons - or if it's a restaurant, maybe a rating or even reservations. See Let Your Mobile Do the Pointing at TheFeature.

Posted by Jesse at 12:51 AM

September 28, 2004

Tonight on Biography

I tend to avoid memes to the best of my ability, but I saw this one on JC's journal and couldn't resist:

In ten years, my biography is written down by someone. What's the title, and who writes it?

Posted by Jesse at 4:02 PM | Comments (1)

September 20, 2004

Little Billy Learns to Post

Most of us remember the health class videos done in the ancient "duck and cover" format. Turns out, it's not just a good way to learn about your body, but about posting as well.

Posted by Jesse at 3:02 PM

August 26, 2004

Insiders Guide to Jobs

From Ballon-Twister to Box Flattner there's a special something to any job....now you can know too.

The Morning News - Tricks of the Trade
For every occupation, there is a catalog of secrets only its employees are aware of—such as how waiters with heavy platters know to look straight ahead, and never down. Armed with a bag of reader mail, Matthew Baldwin unfurls a whole lot more true insider knowledge.

Auto Mechanic
Always put copper grease on the battery terminals after servicing a car. The performance benefit is negligible, but when customers look under the hood they will immediately see that something’s changed and thus feel happy to pay you.

Posted by Jesse at 8:50 PM

August 22, 2004

Smiley face drops prices

Wal-mart has a laptop priced at under $600. Doesn't seem to be to bad of a set up:

• AMD Athlon XP-M 1600+ processor
• 128 MB RAM
• DVD-ROM drive
• Integrated 802.11b (11Mbps) LAN
• On-board 1GB/100M/10M Base-T LAN Ethernet
• 40 GB ATA 100/66/33 hard drive
• S-Video TV - Out connector

There's a few more things on the list, but for $600, it looks like it'd be great for students.

Posted by Jesse at 9:58 PM | Comments (3)

August 18, 2004

A better way to spam?

A small request

Posted by Jesse at 10:57 PM

Magic Door

I don't know why, maybe it's the dance, but I find this Movie really funny. found via AntiClown

Posted by Jesse at 10:47 PM

Bunnies in the movies

If you liked "The Exorcist in 30 Seconds," then you're sure to enjoy Angry Alien's latest "Jaws in 30 seconds."

I used to hate the water...

Posted by Jesse at 10:43 PM

July 29, 2004

Caching in on a Birthday

Teri and I have both mentioned when we've hit blog milestones, and I've made attempts to get some of you to travel over to a new blog now and then, so I thought maybe I would combing the two. Blogs4God is celebrating their 2nd Birthday today. Surf on over and give them a look, there's tons of little known blogs that deserve a little more readership.

Posted by Jesse at 3:56 PM

July 26, 2004

Time in a bottle

We all have spare moments that we use for hobbies. Some of us are fans of something and devote moments to that hobby. Others decide to spend countless time being anti-fans. In what appears to be a great mis-use of spare time, someone has set up a web site devoted to banning the use of comic sans.

Actually, the website is designed to raise the level of typography awareness, which I have to agree is needed. I see far to many printed pages that are poorly designed. In all aspects of work, things are printed and distributed and one of the sad things that ease of production has brought is that more people thing they are experts in layout and design. There are pleanty of "do-it-right" web sites out there - this is a pretty neat approach.

Posted by Jesse at 1:11 PM

An Engineering look at God

I already have a great number of books in my reading que and I am not a fan of reading books on-line, but "God Exists: An Engineer Explains Why" looks like it would be an interesting read, and it's available on-line as well.

If any of you happen to read some or all of this, let me know how it is.

Posted by Jesse at 12:30 PM

July 22, 2004

KITT for sale

K.I.T.T. car from Knight Rider
This highly-modified 1983 Pontiac Trans Am is an original screen-used hero car used during the second season of the hit TV series.
After being released from its film duties, KITT found its way into the show circuit by promoting many Budweiser World of Wheels car shows for a number of years. []The original, futuristic dash built by universal would only illuminate and was not intended to be functional; the owner commissioned Scrivani to make the dash fully functional, thus, the various non-functioning consoles were removed, cleaned up and made functional with pushable buttons, sound and visual effects. The dash received fully operational gauges and instruments[]. The original scanner mounted in the front of the vehicle was restored and functions properly. The scanner sound effect is also added to external speakers so it can be heard while the scanner is running.

This car can be yours for the low opening bid of $40,000.

Posted by Jesse at 10:18 PM

July 17, 2004

Blogger Get Together

Call for D.C. area get together of blog4God'rs - blogs4God.com
I'm thinking, let's get together and meet face to face. Yes, we tried the MeetUp route a couple of years ago to no avail ... but since then we've added about 1200 new bloggers to our rolls.

If you are interested in meeting other people who are listed on Blogs4God and live in the DC area, visit the link above and let Dean know.

Posted by Jesse at 8:38 PM

June 26, 2004

A voice in the dark

In today's culture you hear about teens that are missing the point, teens that are headed down the wrong path, or teens that are incredibly self-centered. The web is full of them so I thought I would point out a blog that I've started reading lately. It the blog of a 14 year old that is into classical music, the piano, and loves classical literature. Her perspective on the world is a refreshing voice in an often negative flow of information. If you have time, check out Lazy Reflections and find out more about the author.

Just in case you ever wonder how I got to be the way I am the answer is quite simple: my parents. It may be odd for a 14 year old to be crazy about people like Chopin, Jane Austen, Bach, George Eliot, Mozart, Charles Dickens, Beethoven, and many more. When all the other girls my age are putting posters of Orlando Bloom on their walls I put up quotes from the latest book I’m reading. [...]I remember being especially discouraged from listening to the Backstreet Boys. [...] Some might have resented this, and I probably did, for a little while, but my parents always gave me the alternative of classical music, and others. I’m really glad that my parents did this. And I don’t just like Classical. I love jazz, and Celtic. I really enjoy musicals, too. Fiddler on the Roof, West Side Story, and My Fair Lady are my favorites. That kind of music makes life so rich! Anyway, that’s just in case you ever wondered what kind of planet I’m coming from…

Posted by Jesse at 9:54 PM | Comments (1)

June 24, 2004

Macgiver eat your heart out

Gummi bears defeat fingerprint sensors | The Register
A Japanese cryptographer has demonstrated how fingerprint recognition devices can be fooled using a combination of low cunning, cheap kitchen supplies and a digital camera.

He got by 4 out of 5 (80%) fingerprint biometric systems using etching fluid, photoshop, superglue and gummi bears.

Posted by Jesse at 10:19 PM

June 13, 2004

Turning a PC into a Mac

Well, not really....

engadet has an article on how to change the PC screen to look like a Mac. I'm a little tired of my current configuration and might give it a try once the summer planning dies down. I'll let you all know what happens if I do.

Posted by Jesse at 1:08 AM

June 12, 2004

Duct Tape Has Been Ousted

Duct tape, once known as the substance that bound the universe together, has been overthrown and a new leader has emerged. Obviously, this was a recent coup and not many know about it. I only learned of this while surfing Googlism where I learned JC Cohen "is the glue that holds everything else together."

Although he is a "bundle of strangeness," I can't say that I am opposed to this new leader in the bonding market. It should be noted, however, in the sprit of fair disclosure that I am a friend and my views may be tainted.

Posted by Jesse at 11:44 AM | Comments (2)

May 31, 2004

Typing without fingers

A few friends on LiveJournal have been typign with body parts and I thought I would compare...my username there is sp_jesse

nose: sp_jesse
elbow: wwp-_)uh3eswswe3w
tongue: sp_jesse
chin: xszp;P{_njesse
foot: sp_ju3eewwswe
eyes closed: sp_jesse

Posted by Jesse at 7:02 PM | Comments (1)

May 28, 2004

Local Blogs

While we were in San Diego I learned about their blog, which is basically a feed from any San Diegans that push their blogs to that site. I think it would be neat if College Park had one, so I went looking.

I haven't found on yet, but I did find this neat metro map that gives a list of blogs based on proximity to a metro station.

Posted by Jesse at 11:55 PM

May 15, 2004

A Tale of Two Shows

Worth1000 is having another great photoshop contest. Photoshopers are combining two TV shows to come up with another. Some of the names are great and some of the images are even better. I think that some o fthe best are: "Everybody Love Zoidberg," "Queer eye for the P.I.,"queer as Frasier," "CSI:Dawson's Creek," and "Matlock in the Middle."

Posted by Jesse at 3:39 PM | Comments (1)

April 11, 2004

A Lego Easter

As the Passover festival drew near, the chief priests plotted against Jesus.

Jesus made his way to the Mount of Olives where He is betrayed with a kiss.

He was then tried, crucified, and on the third day rose again.

See the whole Bible done in legos.

Posted by Jesse at 10:11 PM

World Domination

If you are planning to take over the world, or become an evil overloard, here's a few tips from a long list you may want to look into:

Peter's Evil Overlord List

• My ventilation ducts will be too small to crawl through.
• My noble half-brother whose throne I usurped will be killed, not kept anonymously imprisoned in a forgotten cell of my dungeon.
• The artifact which is the source of my power will not be kept on the Mountain of Despair beyond the River of Fire guarded by the Dragons of Eternity. It will be in my safe-deposit box. The same applies to the object which is my one weakness.
• When I've captured my adversary and he says, "Look, before you kill me, will you at least tell me what this is all about?" I'll say, "No." and shoot him. No, on second thought I'll shoot him then say "No."
• I will not interrogate my enemies in the inner sanctum -- a small hotel well outside my borders will work just as well.
• I will be secure in my superiority. Therefore, I will feel no need to prove it by leaving clues in the form of riddles or leaving my weaker enemies alive to show they pose no threat.
• One of my advisors will be an average five-year-old child. Any flaws in my plan that he is able to spot will be corrected before implementation.
• All slain enemies will be cremated, or at least have several rounds of ammunition emptied into them, not left for dead at the bottom of the cliff. The announcement of their deaths, as well as any accompanying celebration, will be deferred until after the aforementioned disposal.
• The hero is not entitled to a last kiss, a last cigarette, or any other form of last request.
• I will never utter the sentence "But before I kill you, there's just one thing I want to know."
• When I employ people as advisors, I will occasionally listen to their advice.

Posted by Jesse at 9:08 PM | Comments (1)

April 5, 2004

Oh, Yes! Wyoming!

American Express has gotten advertising right.

I have a pop-up blocker, I watch almost everything through TiVo and avoid the ads, and have several other tools to avoid ads in my life. With all that in mind, I have just spent the last 15 minutes watching a commercial for American Express. Not only that, but now, I am in essence advertising for them as well.

Seinfield and Superman have teamed up to make webisodes, short vignettes. There's only one right now, with another in the making, but I enjoyed it. If you like the AmEx commercials with Seinfield, you'll probably enjoy www.americanexpress.com/jerry. It's a flash site complete with a making of, some photos, and an interview from the Today show.

Imagine, advertising that you don't mind watching, and can watch when you want. What a concept. (Listen to the Sing-a-long)

Posted by Jesse at 11:14 PM

March 31, 2004

Offline Blogging

I'm writing this with MTClient, a client that should allow me to type in a post and add it to my blog the next time I am near a connection. It's not that big of a deal since I am almost always near a net connection, but it could have it uses.

The spell check feature is really nice, almost to the point where I could use this rather than going to the web to do my updates.

Posted by Jesse at 11:29 PM

Gmail

Now that it has a fresh new facelift, Google is looking to expand, like yahoo, and offer e-mail. But with enough space that you won't have to delete it. They plan to expand their adword campaign through this as well.

Google to offer gigabyte of free e-mail | CNET News.com
Google, the company that made off with the search market, is setting its sights on free e-mail.
The company, based in Mountain View, Calif., on Wednesday will launch a test with about 1,000 invited guests to try out a new e-mail service called "Gmail." Google, which made its name in search but has added numerous services, such as a news aggregation page and a newsgroup interface, says that Gmail is search-based e-mail.
Like Yahoo Mail and MSN Hotmail, Gmail will let users search through their e-mail. Unlike those competitors, though, Google will offer enough storage so that the average e-mail account holder will never have to delete messages.
Hotmail currently offers 2MB of free e-mail storage. Yahoo offers 4MB. Gmail will dwarf those offerings with a 1GB storage limit.

Posted by Jesse at 10:50 PM

March 22, 2004

RSS feed of ESV Bible

Not sure I'll ever have the need for this type of feed, but I'm blogging it just in case.

The Journal: RSS Feed for ESV bible
The webmaster of Good News Publishers, the publishers of the ESV Bible, emailed me on Saturday to let me know that GNP now have an RSS feed for the ESV bible. There are two feeds. One is a 'Verse of the day' Feed and the other is a lookup feed. I have taken the Verse of the Day feed and replaced the versescrape script on this page. It's much simpler and doesn't rely on a regular expression that can be broken any time that the Bible Society changes it's text file.

Posted by Jesse at 4:43 PM | Comments (2)

March 21, 2004

Want to join a band?

Ever think about joining a garage band? Here's a few names that have already been taken.

Afghanistan Banana Stand
Crappy the Clown and the Punch Drunk Monkies
Disappointed Parents
Hitler Stole My Potato
Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of Death
Iowa Beef Experience

Posted by Jesse at 11:17 PM

March 16, 2004

Name That Font

What the font? is a nifty tool that allows you to upload an image or URL and then it spits out a list of possible fonts and where you can get them. Great if you are looking to duplicate a look.

Posted by Jesse at 10:19 PM

March 10, 2004

This is Art?

The sculpture can be yours for $100,000, but if you want the whole building it's $2.5 million.

Posted by Jesse at 9:45 PM

March 8, 2004

TiVo for the Web

In early February, my entry on Information Overload made a small mention of Awasu, my RSS tool, but I didn't go into much detail. RSS is quickly becoming the next big think and I have to agree with Robert Scoble who says, in the article below, "If you're not reading it in RSS you're wasting your time."

RSS isn't mainstream yet, and many sites still need to add XML abilities before the frustration element us completely eliminated, but there is enough information available via RSS that it is well worth your time to find out what I am talking about.

Simply put, RSS is a way of syndicating information. Many of the larger sites have such syndication available, as do most blogs and journals. Your reader will go out to each of the sites that you subscribe to and pull down the latest headlines or entries.

For instance, I currently read about 16 blogs, 2 newszines, 3 comics, and keep tabs on a site that publishes regular articles. In my RSS reader, I can read all the blogs and both zines without leaving the application. I can either quickly scan the entries/headlines and jump to what I want to read, or read the entries. For the comics I read, I'm able to combine them into one feed so I don't have to go to three places to read them. The article repository doesn’t use RSS, but my reader is able to tell me when they've updated their page.

The down side is that not everyone implements RSS on their site and those that do don't always do it the same way. For example, some of the blogs I get will feed the entire entry, others only send an excerpt. Either way, I can decide much faster about reading the information.

RSS is likely to be the TiVo of websites allowing you to down load what you want and read it when you want without ever leaving your desktop.

Posted by Jesse at 2:16 PM

Bloggers kill kittens!

Imagine, plagiarism on the internet, who would have imagined such a thing.

A study is being done to find out how epidemics on the internet are started and they found that many sites don't credit their sources. Many of the popular sites according to Google's page rank are not the sites that start the information, but simply the ones that help it go more mainstream. Often the bigger sites get their information from the little guys.

Posted by Jesse at 1:54 PM

Neato

This is pretty neat.

Posted by Jesse at 10:00 AM | Comments (1)

March 4, 2004

Opportunity blogs more than once

If the rover could blog, it would probably read just like this livejournal:

Posted by Jesse at 10:44 PM

Far Side Contest

For all the Gary Larson fans, Worth 1000 is hosting a Far Side photoshop contest to give us an idea of what the cartoon would look like in real life. Here's one that I enjoyed:

Posted by Jesse at 9:42 AM

March 2, 2004

Bionic Snails

It's like something from Star Trek...wasn't there a problem when the Daystrom Institute did something like this?

Sounds interesting, but I'm not so sure I believe a website called Betterhumans.com

Posted by Jesse at 8:28 PM

February 20, 2004

It's odd, but interesting

I've got no idea how to play, but basically the order in which to drag various items into the middle gives you points and makes things happen. Each time you drag an item, the items you've already placed change ("level up") and interact with each other. The goal is to drag all the items in the right sequence to advance them all to their maximum levels. (The maximum score is 20,000.)

So far I've maxed out eight items and scored 9500. Good luck!

Posted by Jesse at 11:12 PM | Comments (2)

February 14, 2004

Happy Anniversary

Today, 166 entries later, my blog turns one year old. I was going to make some changes to the page, but never got around to it so instead I'll just give you a neat link. Everyone likes water balloons, I think space is neat, so here is some videos of Popping Water balloons in low gravity.

Posted by Jesse at 3:36 PM

Is Jenny there?

Do you remember the Tommy TuTone song "Jenny" where her phone number 867-5309 was part of the song? Seems there are at least a few people who remember the song and are big, big fans, and there is at least one lucky soul in New York who has that cell phone number.
Thanks to the new portability rules, he's selling that number on eBay. I discovered this from reading boingboing, who reported it from another blog that said the bid was around $750. I thought that was a bit high for a phone number, but when I last checked the sale was just a hair over $6,000 with over a week to go. Man, what a country.

Posted by Jesse at 2:15 PM | Comments (1)

February 10, 2004

Girl inflicted pain

Following up on my post about people taking more pain when it is dished out by females, I present Throw Rocks at Boys.

Posted by Jesse at 8:59 PM

February 2, 2004

Looking for a vacation spot?

I'd be inclined to visit Kenya based on this, wouldn't you?

And just in case you wonder if there are badgers in Kenya, there aren't.

Posted by Jesse at 10:31 PM

Subs

This evening we journeyed to Whole Foods markets, a place that sells mostly organic foods. We went looking for beef products, all the stores close by only sell hamburger and it's been forever since I've had a steak. They have a nice variety of steaks (and the prices that go along with hormone free meat) and we decided to make steak subs tonight and get some beef for stew later this week.

As it turns out, I'm not used to beef any longer. There really wasn't that much meat on my sandwich, but it felt like someone had punched me in the stomach after I finished. Several hours later, it moved to feeling like I'd eaten rocks, and I'm just now starting to get hungry again. I'm glad we decided not to get steaks. Having not had beef (other than hamburger) in a long time we figured more than 2 meals of beef would not be a good thing and now I'm pretty sure we were right.

Never the less, we enjoyed the subs. Speaking of which, we just saw the new quizno commercials. I knew that the on-line ads featured the spongemonkeys, but I'm surprised that they're using them on TV....actually, I'm surprised they are using them at all, the Badgers are much better.

Posted by Jesse at 10:21 PM

January 31, 2004

Take the red pill

I've never made fun of tree-huggers outright but I always laugh a little at some of the things they do. However, The Meatrix is a well done site about factory farming. Turns out the site is also helpful in finding stores and restaurants where I can find hormone-free beef and dairy products as well.

Posted by Jesse at 12:05 AM

January 27, 2004

My quest for a hobby

Some of you know that I'm looking for a hobby. I like music, so this is an option but, for now, I think I'll keep looking.

Posted by Jesse at 10:02 AM | Comments (1)

January 25, 2004

Stuck in your head

Warning: This site will get stuck in your head. You have been properly warned.

I showed this site to Kevin (he's 1) and I know it was stuck in his head because he dances to the music now when we just say Badger badger badger. It's a rather dumb song and doesn't seem like something you would rememeber, but it comes back when your not expecting it.

Posted by Jesse at 9:16 PM

January 19, 2004

Reading this post may cause eye strain

While surfing Weblog Wannabe I came across her post about wacky warning labels and decided to check out the winners:

Warning: Clicking on any link on this site may cause muscle fatigue

Posted by Jesse at 11:50 AM | Comments (1)

January 15, 2004

Optical Illusion

There's a ton of them out there and sometimes it seems like I've seen them all, but a freind sent me one today that is new and is amoung the best I've seen.

It's a bit different, you'll need to make sure that you speakers are on, it uses sound to enhance the illusion. The sound takes a little while to load so you have about 30 seconds to figure it out before the sound kicks in.

Good luck on finding out what's wrong in the picture!

Posted by Jesse at 11:12 PM | Comments (1)

January 10, 2004

My friends call me wiskers

Some of you know that I also have a Live Journal account (thanks Mark!). I don't update it, it basically exists so I can read entries of friends that have locked some of their entries. Anyhow, on Live Journal, you can subscribe to RSS/XML feeds from news sites, comics, and some blogging software (like movabletype).

Anyhow, this site has been syndicated through LJ since before I had an account there. Currently, the cost of viewing the syndication (if you need to know what I am talking about, go to LiveJournal.com and look up syndication costs) is 0.537. The more that subscribe, the cheaper it is. I've figured out 3 of the subscribers, but I'm at a lost to who the forth person is...hence this post.

Two questions: Who is the 4th person, and why does this entry have the title it does?

Posted by Jesse at 11:02 PM

January 8, 2004

Addicted to Blogging

Hardly. According to the quiz Are You A Blogaholic? I scored 36 out of 100.

What does this mean?
36 points is in the 21 through 50 precent
"You are a casual weblogger. You only blog when you have nothing better to do, which is not very often. There's nothing wrong with that. But if you'd post a little more often, you'd make your readers very happy. "

Posted by Jesse at 10:19 PM | Comments (1)

December 24, 2003

Funny Attraction

I'm not sure how the rankings went so high, but my entry on Circuit City has reached number two when using google to search Circuit City Sucks.

What started as a rant about being lied to has begun attracting disgruntled consumers and defenses by CC employees.

Go figure.

Posted by Jesse at 9:50 AM

December 4, 2003

FOUND: 26 Items

At the beginning of November I started working on a scavenger hunt run by sh1ft.org. We're supposed to be done by December 1 and post our entries, but it's taken me a few days to post.

Posted by Jesse at 8:36 PM | Comments (2)

November 26, 2003

Has anybody seen an ear?

What do you get when you cross a classic toy and classic art?

You can see my rendition, family...or you can make your own at Mr. Picassohead.

Posted by Jesse at 10:47 PM

November 6, 2003

Picture this...

I think I'll join in on a time waster that I found while wandering around on the 'net. 26 Things : The Photographic Scavenger Hunt
has no winners list, no prizes handed out and is just for fun, but it has an appeal to me, I don't think I've ever been part of an international competition (of sorts)...I'll let you all see the 26 items or however many I have when the deadline rolls around.

Posted by Jesse at 3:30 PM

November 4, 2003

Tomacco Becomes A Reality!

For my Simpson loving friends:

Posted by Jesse at 2:55 PM

November 3, 2003

Still reading?

I'm not sure how many readers I have, nor am I sure what's so interesting. I just caught up with Teri's Blog and the writing is much better than here. Oddly though, I have more comments, I wonder if it's just the look of the sites.

Anyhow, if you're looking for better reading when you're done here, check out some of my blog roll.

Posted by Jesse at 10:46 PM | Comments (1)

Googling is like a box of chocolates

Although an amusing article, it is not an amusing thing to think of Google being owned by Microsoft, which is currently courting the search giant. After seeing them ruin other on-line acquisitions, I'm glad to hear that Google seems to have no interest and is thinking about going public...not sure what the price would be, but it'd be an interesting IPO to watch.

Posted by Jesse at 11:41 AM

November 1, 2003

The Structure

Quite some time ago, I was forwarded an e-mail with a link to a page about some guys neighbor. It's been a long time topic of conversation at the office and I was glad that I was once again able to find the story of the Redneck Neighbor to share.

Beware, this page has casino pop-ups. I don't link to link to any page with pop=ups, but this story is well worth the annoyance.

Posted by Jesse at 10:30 PM | Comments (2)

October 1, 2003

Breakfast anyone

I like ceral. Probably more than most people. I'd say I go though a couple of boxes a month, but these guys take it to a new level.

Posted by Jesse at 2:36 PM

September 22, 2003

Reading vs Spelling

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.
ceehiro!

Posted by Jesse at 9:34 AM

August 25, 2003

Why we blog

Calvin & Hobbes sums up why we blog.

Posted by Jesse at 11:17 AM

August 13, 2003

Interesting Links

• Luxury Loo: The next generation toilet
• Dog Rescues abandoned Baby

Posted by Jesse at 2:10 PM