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February 28, 2005
LA - Car chases and those who watch them
Being from LA, I know what's really important - car chases. And just in case I'm not in front of a tv (very unusual), I can rely on this service to message my phone anytime one happens.
Posted by Edwin at 04:04 PM | Comments (0)
Creepy, moving mannequins
As if mannequins weren't creepy enough, a japanese firm is making mannequins that move. And apparently it spies on you to find out your age, gender, and even what places you've shopped at from the bags you're carrying. Oh, but don't worry, it currently doesn't have legs to chase you down. Instead it just crawls after you.
Posted by Edwin at 02:54 PM | Comments (0)
8Bit Nostalgia on paper
Here are pics and an explanation of how this groups of nerdy vandals used post-it notes and a series of windows to re-create Mario Brothers.
Posted by Bryant at 12:41 AM | Comments (0)
February 27, 2005
Tennis at the Burj Al Arab
I can't believe this isn't photoshopped.
Here are some photos of Andre Agassi and Roger Federer playing tennis on the world's highest tennis court which is in Dubai.
If you look at some of the other pictures you'll see a safety net, but still would you go dive after a 100 mph serve when you're playing here?
Posted by Bryant at 05:06 PM | Comments (1)
February 26, 2005
First photo Ever posted on the Web
Seeing how Edwin has been posting interesting photos from the web, it made me realize that there are literally hundreds of photos out there on the world wide web now, but even just a few years ago nobody had digital cameras and few people had photo scanners.
Somewhere there had to be the first photo ever posted to the web. Well here it is. This is supposedly the first picture ever posted on the world wide web posted in 1992. It's Les Horribles Cernettes:
Posted by Bryant at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)
February 25, 2005
Security Glass Ad
Posted by Edwin at 01:21 PM | Comments (2)
February 23, 2005
Knife Rack
Posted by Edwin at 06:32 PM | Comments (1)
Wonderful Holiday : National Engineers Week
Yes. It's that time of year again. Actually I never remember this happening before, but at work we're celebrating our nerdiness this week because it's National Engineers Week.
I don't think I've seen the cards in Hallmark yet, but you can still celebrate by baking your favorite engineer a Pi or telling him how cool his or her but probably his dilbert comic strip and calculator collections really are.
And if you're an Engineer, go out there and go hog wild. Enjoy the probably tens of thousands of people who will come up to you on the street and thank you for your service. But remember the party ends on Saturday.
Posted by Bryant at 10:27 AM | Comments (0)
A trip down Nerd Memory Lane
Here's a nostalgic trip back through my nerdy childhood. Mobile PC has compiled an amusing list of their top 100 gadgets of all time
I associate these gadgets on this list of top 100 gadgets as milestones in my life. This list has everything from compasses to pdas to the abacus. The only one I don't really know about is the Ronco inside the shell egg scrambler?
Posted by Bryant at 12:06 AM | Comments (0)
February 22, 2005
Video: The Crazy Horn Playing French...
midterms this week and next, sorry i havent been around. till i can be prolific again and produce works of quality. this will have to do.
Posted by Jesse at 04:02 PM | Comments (0)
Independence Air College Fare
I know a lot of you out there are either college students or still have your college ID. I just ran across this today:
20% off all independence air flights with a College ID
Posted by Bryant at 09:39 AM | Comments (6)
Paris Hilton Sidekick Hacked
Apparently getting a hold of Paris Hilton's most privates is quite easy. This is the second time her phone has been hacked in the past few weeks. Not good news for Paris Hilton or for T-Mobile. This girl can't seem to get a good break. Is there any positive publicity about her? This time the contents of which have been leaked. And as always this provides for some interesting viewing.
Here are her contacts
Don't bother calling any, I'm sure they're all changed
Here are her cameraphone pics.
Leave your jokes in the comments sections.
Posted by Bryant at 12:30 AM | Comments (0)
February 19, 2005
Free Download: Microsoft Antispyware Beta
everyone needs a good spyware program and well microsoft is trying to create just that... this a free program which can improve the proformance of your computer and get rid of any spyware lurking on it...
PS im sure bryant will have some opinion on why this is a horrible program...
Posted by Jesse at 11:35 AM | Comments (2)
February 18, 2005
Blockbuster Lawsuit
Blockbuster has supposedly had "the end of late fees," and has dramatically announced it in series of commercials. If you look at the fine print, though, it's not quite "the end" as you still get charged a restocking fee if you keep a rental for more than a week past its due date and the full price of the dvd if it's been more than a month. You can return it, but you'll still get charged the fee.
I imagine a lot of people are keeping their rentals out for long periods of time thinking they won't get charged. It's a dirty trick, and I'm glad that they're being sued for it.
If you really don't want to pay late fees, go for Netflix, though there is a monthly charge.
Posted by Edwin at 08:21 PM | Comments (44)
The war goes on
It seems these days that the internet is used for a lot more bad than good these days. The RIAA and the MPAA would like you to believe that it's you, but I think the much bigger problem these days are spammers and Spyware creators.
As the House is preparing the Securely Protect Yourself Against Cyber Trespass Act (SPY ACT), spyware authors are getting more sophisticated by creating a new breed of spyware that is difficult to detect and even more difficult to remove.
Like how Spam is illegal yet people get dumped with Spam like crazy every day, i doubt that this SPY ACT will do much good to thwart people are out there maliciously creating these programs.
The fight against spam has gone pro-active in that infrastucture changes are being made, and sophisticated spam detection devices are stopping spam before it hits people's mailboxes.
Adware and Spyware protection on the other hand has largely been passive. Wait until you get hit, then try and get rid of it using common tools like Spybot or Adaware. This new breed of spyware called, kernel rootkits is designed specifically to go around this hole.
So again I urge you to consider joining the 250 million downloaders in using Firefox or if you're at all techinally savvy try moving to linux. Or at least please stop clicking OK whenever a box pops up and tells you to.
Posted by Bryant at 03:43 PM | Comments (0)
Natural Computing
For those of you who have always thought that the Microsoft Natural Keyboard was sort of misnomer, I introduce to you the tanomi wooden keyboard.
No longer do your fingers feel insensitive plastic keys while you're busy wasting time, now you can really feel the internet by typing on wooden keys. Just pray that you won't get splinters.
The only problem I see is that hippies will really want this earthy keyboard, but I also doubt that there are that many hippies with $2500 to spend on a organic keyboard.
Posted by Bryant at 10:38 AM | Comments (0)
Honestly Who throws a shoe?
At a debate between Richard Perle and Howard Dean, apparently it got so exciting that it caused some incredible things to happen.
Just as Perle was beginning his comments, a protester yelled out "Liar, Liar" threw her shoe, and then was dragged away.
Who throws a shoe? What happened to the good old days of eggs and rotten vegetables?
Posted by Bryant at 08:31 AM | Comments (1)
February 16, 2005
Bush Wins, America Wins, Iraq wins, Democrats Confused?
Here's an interesting article penned by a liberal in the New York Magazine.
In this article Kurt Andersen confirms what I have been thinking all along. Democrats love bad news for America. They love bad news for America because that means bad news for Bush.
Like “radical chic,” a related New York specialty, “liberal guilt” once meant feeling discomfort over one’s good fortune in an unjust world. As this last U.S. election cycle began, however, a new subspecies of liberal guilt arose—over the pleasure liberals took in bad news from Iraq, which seemed sure to hurt the administration. But with Bush reelected, any shred of tacit moral rationale is gone. In other words, feel the guilt, and let it be a pang that leads to moral clarity.
In this article, Andersen poses an interesting challenge to liberals. What if you started being happy for all the good that is going on in Iraq. Be thankful for the successfull elections. And be proud of America and George W. Bush granting freedom to a nation like Iraq?
Posted by Bryant at 01:35 PM | Comments (1)
February 15, 2005
Gay Penguins
some male penguins are all in a pen together at this one zoo. they try to mate with each other and pretend stones are eggs. So the zoo keepers think, "well maybe if we put some females in the cage this will change." At this point Gay and Lesbian groups(human ,not penguin) protest that the penguins will be forced to be hetero when they apparently homosexual...
what are we to make of this?
Posted by Jesse at 04:17 PM | Comments (0)
Dinner in the Ocean
I like google maps, because the maps look cleaner, the maps are bigger, and the user interface allows for easy moving and zooming. The javascript and DHTML wizards that brought you gmail now have made a mapping application that seems to work seemlessly in firefox and Internet explorer. Some guy has even whipped up a python script to interface with GPS Receivers to locate yourself on google maps called movin Gmap. A decent solution, but it requires you to have a laptop with a GPS antenna and a high speed internet connection.
My first and only problem happened last night when I was trying to find how to get to a place for dinner. I decided to try out my trusty new friend Google Maps. However, it told me "We currently only support road-based driving directions."
Upon further investigation, I found that google apparently thought this restaurant in Arlington, VA was in the middle of the Atlantic. Here's a link to the page. If you zoom all the way out, and move west a little, you can start to see the United States. Mapquest on the other hand seems to find this little place no problem.
So whats the problem google gods?
Posted by Bryant at 10:24 AM | Comments (0)
February 14, 2005
Beer is no laughing matter in wisconsin...
Isac Aguero lives in Racine Wisconsin and likes to hit the bars drinking bud light. happens the local newspaper takes pictures to dipict the nightlife (mardi gras) in Racine and snapped a pic of Aguero enjoying his favorite beverage.
Now the problem. Isac works for Miller. Isac was fired....
Posted by Jesse at 05:44 PM | Comments (2)
February 13, 2005
A Random Number Generator Sees the Future
I'm incredibly skeptical of this, but it made slashdot and the research is being done at Princeton.
The basic premise is that human beings can affect random number generators. This in turn can be used to predict major world events.
My problems with the article are that it states at the random machine generator is influenced my major human influence, it mentions the death of Princess Diana and New Years Eve, but it also mentions that the machine prediced 9/11 4 hours before it happened and the Tsunami 24 hours before it happened.
9/11 was only known by a handfull of people 4 hours before it happened, and the Tsunami was known by no people 24 hours before it happened, so how could it predict these events?
Rather I think what is happening is that there are random spikes in this random number generator, which is probably a pseudo random number generator, and seeing how there is some sort of news on every night, they can say that on days that the machine exhibits "weird activity" it predicted the news for that night.
Plus what good is a device that predicts major events, but doesn't tell you what it is? It doesn't even tell you if its going to be good or bad?
Posted by Bryant at 10:06 AM | Comments (1)
February 09, 2005
Japanese Girls Watch Wrestling!
So last week, RAW was taped in Japan for the first time ever. Check out this footage from the show! After Randy Orton gets a little hurt during his match (probably another "concussion") look at the reaction in the crowd! Look who is in the crowd! Actual females! Attractive females! Who are all dressed up with make-up and jewelry and everything. Those japanese girls sure know how to show proper respect to wrestling. If only the crowd at american WWE shows was like this...
Posted by Bernie at 03:07 PM | Comments (1)
February 08, 2005
Connecticut PWN3D
wow bad week for connecticut... first the entire state is told to evacuate (note: this is a pretty funny story). and now some kid from there has set the world record for wearing a Green Bay Packers Jersey. He has worn the thing for 408 days straight...
The Greatest Quote Ever from his dad and Packers President...
"Chuck Witthoft grew up in Milwaukee and maintained his allegiance to the Packers through moves to Minnesota, California and California.
He proudly proclaimed that “David didn’t have a choice,” on his selection of a favorite team."
Said Packers President Bob Harlan, with a chuckle: “Just another typical diehard cheesehead. I hear from them all the time.”
side note: the article makes refernce to a town called Sobieski. Anything to do with Shannon?
Posted by Jesse at 10:28 PM | Comments (1)
I Shall Name Him, Sir Monksalot..
Bolivian Zoo is having an auction to name their newest monkey just go to www.charityfolks.com and bid tween feb. 24th and March 3rd...
or we could name him shelly... that one was for you noah...
Posted by Jesse at 10:13 PM | Comments (2)
Rare Wisconsin State Quarter: Wisconsin Rocks!
Quick search your pockets. seems as if several rare Wisconsin state quaters have been found. The difference is all in the corn's lower leaf, some have the leaf up, down, and normal. here is a link to the pics of the different coins. note the oddball coins are becoming worth a lotta money...
Posted by Jesse at 10:06 PM | Comments (1)
Plumbers look out in Virginia
Virginia has passed legislation that now states that if you're in public with your underwear showing in a lewd or innappropriate manner you can get fined 50 dollars.
Just a few things that come to mind immediately.
1. Plumbers around Virginia might fight this one.
2. They should get some kind of Citizens Arrest Incentive program where if you turn in someone you get a cut of the 50 dollar fine.
3. They should start legislation on other ridiculous things like socks and sandals, tucking in sweaters, and people wearing things that are by all means too tight for their large figures
Algie Howell Jr. apparently introduced this bill at the urging of his constituents. So if we start our campaign now, we might see results soon. So write your congress person today.
Posted by Bryant at 09:49 PM | Comments (0)
Superbowl Ad Malfunction
This message is brought to you by 1and1.com
The Superbowl was mediocre. The metric I'm using here were the commercials. Ever since a couple years ago when people had money to spend on stupid ideas and animals the overall quality of commercials and the focus of the commercials has gone down. I think the Fedex Kinko's ad pretty much summed up the state of the union.
The GoDaddy.com ad was supposed to be provacative and was supposed to poke fun at last years superbowl half time show. It just seemed more inappropriate and lame than witty. Apparently, it was supposed to show again at the 2 minute warning, but the NFL told Fox not to show it again. Apparently Godaddy payed 5 million for the two spots and is now seekig damages. In my opinion it was a waste of 5 million dollars, why not instead go to 1and1.com. Spending 5 million to advertise yet another domain registry service for 1 minute seems like the biggest waste of money. If they gave me half of that. I could have made a much better ad campaign.
Here's a link to video clips of a handful of the commercials from Superbowl XXXIX
Posted by Bryant at 12:46 AM | Comments (1)
February 07, 2005
Ipod's 20% off
Quick deal Item. This may not work soon. For Some reason Apple doesn't like it when they put discounts on their iPods so pricing is less than MSRP:
All Ipods except for the shuffle 20% off.
Go to CompUsa search for iPod.
Use Coupon Code BEADS2
Posted by Bryant at 09:24 AM | Comments (0)
February 05, 2005
Family Guy Video Game
Looks like Fox is finally looking to capitalize on all the Family Guy's DVD's success. Not only is the Family Guy coming back to Fox on May 1st, Fox and Take-Two Interactive will release a Family Guy video game for multiple consoles in 2006.
I guess we'll finally get to see what the Family Guy looks like in 3D and how they'll handle the next generation gaming platforms. It will also be interesting to see what kind of rating the game gets.
Also look out for the Premiere of American Dad after the Super Bowl
Posted by Bryant at 03:29 PM | Comments (2)
February 04, 2005
Another Geography Test
Thanks to Taemin for the heads up on this.
Probably thought you were done with these in Middle School, but we like to keep you on your toes.
Here's another US State Geography test.
Leave your scores in Comments
Posted by Bryant at 05:01 PM | Comments (2)
What if Windows was never a Success?
Warning: The contents below are extremely technical and nerdy. Proceed at your own caution.
Larry Osterman has written an interesting Blog Entry that play's the What If Game. It's fun to play games like, What if Bryant's dad never got him a computer when he was younger? Where would the internet be now?
Larry Osterman plays this game with a somewhat more significant player: David Weise. Weise was the person who developed the capability for applications to run in Windows in protected mode, which allowed for Windows to become a success. But what if Weise never existed and OS/2 would be the dominant Operating system on the scene? Here are a few of the interesting speculations that Osterman or people who left comments on his blog have mentioned:
Would linux be as popular now that IBM has a successful OS?
Would Compaq grown big enough to take over HP and DEC?
Would we all be running OS/2 5x isntead of Windows XP?
Would Microsoft Flight Simulator existed to train terrorists and would 9/11 have happened?
Where would Commodore and Novell be?
Anyways I thought it was interesting.
Posted by Bryant at 02:25 PM | Comments (0)
February 03, 2005
South Korean "Beauties"
Plastic surgery is the new craze in South Korean and it's cheap (and dangerous) to boot. I've heard of lots of people in the US even flying over there to get surgery done (surgery in korea + airfare is still cheaper than surgery in the us).
Posted by Edwin at 08:46 PM | Comments (0)
Top 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America
time has published their list of the top 25 evangelicals (prodestent Christians).
Posted by Jesse at 12:59 PM | Comments (0)
American Girl Doll Fed Up With Getting Her Lunch Money Ganked...
this has caused a lil comotion down here in chicago. The American Doll Company makes expensive dolls with elaborate backstories. Their new Mexican/American doll's story detials her horrible crime filled life in the Pilsen (Chicago)neighborhood. In order to achieve a better life their move to the burbs (desplains).
Of course the actual residents of Pilsen have absolutely nothing to say about this...
Posted by Jesse at 12:45 PM | Comments (0)
I need a body Now, DAMIT.
You are a militant Islamic Fundamentalist and you want to get in on all that wonderful kidnapping and beheading of American Soldiers. One small problem... You aren't actually that good at kidnapping people. What's a young Jihadist to do? The next best thing: Kidnap a G.I.Joe action figure and proclaim that you are going to kill him. Yes that appears whats happened over in Mess-o-Potamia. The AP had this story about militants claiming to behead an american soldier. It even included pictures. However the pictures actually appear to be of a G.I.Joe action figure.
 |  |
| The picture from the AP. | The Toy |
Anyways hope that the fundamentalists can keep up the good work.
Posted by Hux at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)
Set Phasors to stun
For along time military eggheads have been working on "less then leathal" weapons. You know to only sorta kill the bad guy. Anyways I read this story about some of the weapons that might be deployed to Mess-o-Potamia. The part I really liked was this:
Active Denial System (ADS). This one looks like a small, flat, radar dish. It transmits, a 92 gigahertz signal which will penetrate human flesh to less than half a millimeter, and in less than a second make people feel like their skin is on fire. But people would require the beam to stay on them for over four minutes before any actual burning would take place. Tests on volunteers confirm the burning sensation, and the desire to get out of the area quickly. How well this would work against various types of hostile crowds is not known. But the system has been in development for some fifteen years, and it’s thought that it will be safe and will produce no surprises. Some scientists have warned of possible eye damage, but this has not shown up in human tests. Current range is about 500 meters, although work has been underway to extend that by at least fifty percent. However, used on a large crowd, it could cause a stampede that could cause injuries, and even death. In any event, the media will condemn the system as inhumane.
Just thought I would share it out.
Posted by Hux at 09:54 AM | Comments (0)
February 02, 2005
Lego City
ryan and i made some cool lego castles back in our day. this guy though made an entire city and makes our creations look pretty shabby.
Posted by Jesse at 02:56 PM | Comments (0)
Picasa Photo Organizer: Free Download
Google has some really great FREE programs for download on their site. couple of days ago i downloaded Picasa 2. This program searches your entire computer for photos and image files then arranges them by date and folder so you can easily see where your photos are and what they are of. It really is a fantastic program especially if you're like me and have problem with organization. It was able to find photos i forgot i even had.
feel free to check out the other programs and if any others peak your interest put them in the comments...
Posted by Jesse at 01:30 PM | Comments (0)
The new Janet Jackson?
This is just weird. This is apperently a photo of Janet Jackson. This woman was previously Janet Arvizo. She is the mother of Gavin Arvizo, the kid that is claiming that he was molestered by Michael Jackson.
Apparently, Ms. Arvizo married a Mr. Jackson, and now her name is Janet Jackson. The source on this is Drudge
Posted by Bryant at 12:03 AM | Comments (0)
February 01, 2005
Built Ford Ugly...
this is the coolest thing in the world.... way cooler than bryants tweel....
meet esuvee Ford's idea to convince drivers not to speed...
Posted by Jesse at 12:24 PM | Comments (0)
More news on the greedy RIAA........
.... wait I was wrong this time its not the RIAA or the MPAA or Microsoft who are jumping on the IP (Intelectual Property) rights bandwagon. But rather military contractors.
When I was younger I tried to build model airplanes (the only ones I ever finished was a Harrier Jet and a Hornet). Unfortunetly it seems that my kids (all six of them) wont be able to when they get older. The reason: the military hardware vendors want more money. Some nim-witted executive decide that they need to charge royalties in the tune of $40 on model kits (the kits themselves usually only cost between $15 and $40).
These royalty demands grew out of the idea that corporations should maximize “intellectual property” income. Models of a companys products are considered the intellectual property of the owner of a vehicle design. Some intellectual property lawyers have pointed out that many of these demands are on weak legal ground, but the kit manufacturers are often small companies that cannot afford years of litigation to settle this contention. In the past, the model kits were considered free advertising, and good public relations, by the defense firms.
Regardless of the weak ground that these cases rest on, I think its a little pretentious for the hardware makers to do this considering that US tax payer money funded the development of designs in the first place.
Anyways here's the link No more plastic models
Posted by Hux at 10:33 AM | Comments (0)