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August 31, 2005
So you think a trilogy is a Box Set?
So for those of you who think mebbe 1-5 discs makes a decent box set, here's one for you.
The new Buffy the Vampire Slayer Box set will include all 7 seasons of the show plus a bonus DVD. This complete collection weighs in at 40 discs. 40 discs of viewing pleasure.
This means you could watch a disc per day for over a month.
In future related news, After receiving a box set from Amazon, Bernie has been reported missing.
Posted by Bryant at 12:44 PM | Comments (1)
Stupid Americans or stupid Study?
Here's an excerpt from this article which basically says American's are idiots
American adults in general do not understand what molecules are (other than that they are really small). Fewer than a third can identify DNA as a key to heredity. Only about 10 percent know what radiation is. One adult American in five thinks the Sun revolves around the Earth, an idea science had abandoned by the 17th century.
I find this hard to believe, but maybe I view the general public optimistically. Oh yeah, and I'm already expecting all of you liberals to insert your Bush bashing jokes here.
Posted by Bryant at 12:30 PM | Comments (3)
August 25, 2005
Review: Voipbuster
So Jesse come's running to me to tell me about talk.google.com. I don't get what all the hype is about with Google Talk. They're using an existing protocol and they're doing nothing new. Again, if you're using Gaim like I mentioned before you're doing fine without Google Talk. But this article is really about VoipBuster and Let's get back to that.
Jesse was excited that you could talk to another Google Talk user on a computer for free. While that was cool in 1999, this just doesn't cut it nowadays. So I directed him to try Voipbuster. Read more of the Review after the Jump :
What is it :.
How would you like to talk to anybody on any phone in the United States and 20 other countries for as long as you'd like for free. Here's their rate table for other countries.
All you need to do is download the Voipbuster software, sign up for an account and then put 1 euro into your account. This can be paid by credit card or paypal so you're safe.
Sound Quality :.
So you're probably wondering how the sound quality is. I would venture to say that its better than regular phone service, but this probably has to do with the better microphone and speaker connected to the computer than the phone.
Real World :.
I loaded voipbuster software on my girlfriend's laptop before she went on a trip to Japan. Using free Wi-Fi over there she was able to make completely free completely clear calls back to the states. Voipbuster seemed to work fine for all calls with no noticable latency.
Verdict :.
Where's the press on Voipbuster? Why is crappy Google Talk getting all the attention of the media when Voipbuster is much better? If you need to make a lot of long distance or international calls, it's a no brainer. Go out and download it.
Posted by Bryant at 10:49 PM | Comments (5)
Does A Body Good... Does a Job Very Bad
a marlins batboy was suspended for six games for accepting the infamous jackass milk drinking challege. An ex marlin and now dogder pitcher challenged the youngster to finish one gallon in under an hour before the game; the prize for succeeding $500 dollars.
now you may ask if the batboy gets suspended for accepting what happens to the adult who did the challenging: NOTHING.
but seriously what kid wouldnt accept that challenge and what is wrong with accepting...
Posted by Jesse at 02:45 PM | Comments (2)
Your School Sucks, Now I Can Prove it....
princeton review came out with their annual ratings for colleges today. where they rank worst food, partty school, best acedemics, etc. the list is very cool to read and some notables...
best food
5. Wheaton College (my current place of study)
Happiest Students
3. Brown Uni-must be because all the student body reads bc.com (bryant went there)
Stone-Cold Sober Schools
3. Wheaton College again... YAY!
Scotch And Soda, Hold The Scotch
3. Wheaton No Surprize there...
How widely used is beer?
3 Wheaton No beer here
NOW the wisconsin love
Lots Of Hard Liquor
3. Madison
Lots Of Beer
3. Madison
Party Schools
1. Madison- thats right at least my state is number one in something...
Posted by Jesse at 12:14 PM | Comments (3)
Everything Looks Better with HD
Well, It's getting to that point where Korea is releasing so many new phones that well just about everybody must have their own phone.
This latest entry by Samsung has along with the usual laundry list of features, a widescreen swivel display that can receive HD feeds.
How many people in the states have never even seen HD in their house? Yet these techno gadget hungry and apparently innovative Koreans are putting Wireless HDTV's into everyone's pocket.
Posted by Bryant at 10:08 AM | Comments (0)
August 22, 2005
Ever been to Fargo?
Ever been to Fargo? Apparently Amazon.com has. How do I know this? Well I just found pictures of their grand road trip.
Tonight I was pondering about how a9.com has been a complete flop and the its attempt to enter the dominated web search market may have been naive.
But today when I visited it, I found some feature that I had never seen or heard about before. They now have maps. And as a part of maps the have something called BlockView.
So go ahead try punching in an address. If amazon has been there, you'll see what your destination will look like. It's pretty stinkin cool. So you can go ahead and see what your house looked like on a random day. Now if we could only figure out what time they'll be at what location, we could really have fun with this.
The cities listed right now are limited. Which again brings me back to my original question, Ever been to Fargo?
Posted by Bryant at 01:21 AM | Comments (2)
August 19, 2005
One More Reason to Buy a Powerball Ticket...
here is an article i found on forbes.com about the most expensive homes for sale in the world....
if you click this link you can cycle through them all. enjoy.
Posted by Jesse at 05:29 PM | Comments (3)
August 17, 2005
What are they all running To or From?
Thanks to Eric for this.
What do you think they're all running from? Maybe they're all running towards something?
What force could be so great that an estimated 10,000 people would rush a gate like that?
Is it Britney? Tsunami? How about Tiger?
It looks like they're all running for a grab at 50 dollar powerbooks at RIR
Posted by Bryant at 03:48 PM | Comments (0)
Bar at Center of Milky Way
Thats right! and whose state could produce such results...... WISCONSIN.
"The stronger the bar the more influence it has on everything going on in the galaxy," said Benjamin.
source
sounds about right...
Posted by Jesse at 11:34 AM | Comments (0)
Triple Booting OsX, Windows XP and Fedora
Sorry. Major Major nerd alert here, but right now I'm in geek heaven. I'm posting from my Sony laptop thats running OsX.
As you might already know, Apple is switching over to Intel for their chips. In preparation for this massive switch, they have started distributing developer boxen with OsX compiled for x86 on them. Using some hackery, people have posted instructions on how to get an image of one of these machines running on your own PC.
What you'll need.
Supported Hardware
OsX disk image - check mininova
Linux Live Boot CD - ubuntu or knoppix work fine
6 gigs of HD space
What'll make your life easier
vmware
I'll post my screenshots tomorrow.
Ask any questions in the comments section.
Links:
Instructions for using VmWare to Multi-boot
Original Post that started it all
FAQ
Link to boot vid:
Boot vid
Some screen shots:
Posted by Bryant at 02:33 AM | Comments (0)
August 16, 2005
Did AOL get rid of Warning?
Remember those days when people first got AOL instant messenger? It was such a novelty adding new buddies and then chatting away.
Then remember those days when people found out about Warning? And remember warning back and forth? Ever remember getting a warning level above 100%?
Remember spoofing Screen names so that you could sneak warn people?
Well I hadn't been warned or hadn't seen anybody on my buddy list with a warning. So I decided to try and warn a few people. Didnt work. Instead I got this:
(21:56:37) Unable to send message: Request denied
Maybe AOL has gotten rid of this feature. While its entertainment value was great, I'll never quite figure out if it actually served a real purpose.
On a side note, I haven't seen AOL ad's in a while. I'll use this as a second to plug GAIM as an open source alternative to AOL's ad battered client. It works just like AOL instant messenger, you can talk to all your buddies on AIM, but you don't have ads and you get tabbed windows.
Posted by Bryant at 10:00 PM | Comments (2)
Cures for hard drive failure
Thanks to Rob for this
So a while back, I posted that I had run into several bad laptop Hard drives over the years.
One of the tricks that I gleaned from the Dell forums was to put the Hard disk in the freezer for a while. Actually this seemed to work. I think Bernie was able to recover his entire drive.
However, before blindly telling people to pop bad drives into the freezer, I guess you should qualify the statement with better instructions :
Posted by Bryant at 03:28 PM | Comments (1)
August 15, 2005
BC.com Contest: Expensive Men's Jeans
the last post intrigued me so ive decided to try to find the most expensive mens jeans available. most likely custom jeans will be the most expensive, but not necessarily. here is the most expensive pair i found at a very "hip" site....
1st- bryant $4,000 (with diamonds) and pic
2nd place- aimee $933.40
3rd place- aimee$653.37
4th place- bryant $595.00
5th place- Lisa $240.00
6th place-Jesse $179.50
(post your links in the comments)
Posted by Jesse at 01:41 PM | Comments (13)
August 13, 2005
MSN: Top Ten Lists
the folks over at msn singles have composed a list of the top ten items a single man and women should own as follows. (my comments in paretesees)
Men
1. A top-notch coffee/espresso maker (not an entirely idea a lot of girls i know dig a good cup of coffee)
2. A lamp in your bedroom (note: glow in the dark stars are way sexier)
3. Swiffer Sweeper + Swiffer Cloths + Swiffer Wet Cloths (nice to know swiffer sponsers dating artilces)
4. A comfortable couch (MUST be leather)
5. Nice underwear (i guess)
6. A key-ring that can fix, cut, and open anything (i personally reccomend the leatherman squirt i have the red one)
7. $150+ jeans (eh? seriously... tad too metro for my taste plus TJ MAX is where its at)
8. $200+ dress shoes (metro)
9. 300-thread-count cotton sheets (put this one a tad higher on the list)
10. The Joy of Cooking (put this higher too; ive impressed more women with my cooking skills than you can shake a stick at)
source
women
1. A fabulous photo of yourself (not a bad idea to have round ladies)
2. A pretty pair of heels (being a short guy im going to have to shoot this one down; just buy a pair of birks)
3. An Eminem CD (nothing says atractive like poor taste in music*)
4. A great pickup line... and a way to blow 'em off (too cheesy)
5. A six-pack of good bottled beer (move this up a few spots; and second it with a great bottle of wine)
6. Bathroom reading (whoaa... NO BIGTIME. last thing i want to think about is a fine woman in the bathroom, not cool)
7. A business card (unless you have a cool profession like aligator wrestling do not attempt)
8. Earplugs (yeah some guys snore; not a bad idea untile the fire alarm goes off and you cant hear it)
9. A straight male friend on your speed-dial (whoaa... NO, i saw when harry met sally. sex always gets in the way. biz markie said, "never trust a girl who says she just has a friend."
10. A condom (this makes a girl seem cheap to me but then i am fairly conservative morally)
source
if aimee, shannon, or other female (or male) readers disagree with my take let me know.
Posted by Jesse at 01:46 AM | Comments (7)
Lost on DVD
soon (sept 15) Season One of LOST will be released. amazon has a great pre-order deal to save yall a bundle. a good buy if you are a fan or if you wanna see what all the fuss is about.
Posted by Jesse at 01:40 AM | Comments (0)
August 10, 2005
Death by Starcraft
sadly as an adolescent i spent many many hours playing starcraft insteading of developing the social skills necessary for scoring a girlfriend. Yet, as bad as i was it never got as bad as this: in South Korea a 28 year old played 49 hours straight of SC and died......
source
if you might like to follow in his footsteps may i reccomend dota maps for WCIII (warcraft III) enjoy...
oh and im back...
Posted by Jesse at 02:58 PM | Comments (1)
August 09, 2005
Checks that sign you up for stuff should be illegal
You know what really grinds my gears?
Those checks that credit card companies send to you to sign up for worthless crap like "credit monitoring service" upon cashing.
Normally it doesn't bother me that much, but today, received an envelope from CHASE that had my name in a faux handwritten font, which also grinds my gears. Who actually belives that somebody took the time to handwrite every single letter. But anyways, there was a handwritten note on the envelope saying special offer Check Enclosed.
As I went to open the rear flap, I noticed that the gold seal was a bit loose. It turns out this was because the entire contents of this envelope were missing.
So now I'm thinking theres some jerk out there who's cashed a check made out to Bryant Choung and scored off with 10 bucks while I sit here stuck signed up for god knows what for eternity and without a single phone number to call to cancel.
These damn things should be illegal. Anybody can clearly see this is a scam and you can't just send a check which might end up getting cashed on accident between a couple rebate checks.
Anyways I called the credit card division, and here is a short transcript of our call
Me: Hello, I'm calling to ask about an empty envelope I received from Chase.
Greg Redford(Phone center Operator): yes?
Me: Well I'm concerned that I may have been signed up for one of your services because the envelope says "special offer check enclosed"
Greg: Ok
Me: Well who can I speak to about this?
Greg: Well this is the credit card office
Me: Ok, well do you know who I can call or talk to about this?
Greg: I work in credit cards.
Me: I understand, but at this point I have no point of contact, I just need some direction on where to go.
Greg: Do you have a social security number?
Me: Is this necessary?
Greg: Just give me your social security number.
Me: XXX-XX-XXXX
Greg: You don't have a credit card with us.
Me: I know I just want to talk to whoever can clear up this envelope situation.
Greg: I don't know anything about that. I'm in credit cards.
Me: Please just tell me who else in Chase might be able to help.
Greg: Call your local Branch
Me: The local branch? It looks like this is something sent nationally.
Greg: Have a nice day.
Chase apparently doesn't have a local branch in the DC area so I searched in NYC. Apparently I got the Chase branch in Chinatown.
Me: Hello, I was directed here from the Credit card office.
Assistant Branch Manager: Ok
Me: I received an empty envelope that says "special offer check enclosed" and I wanted to make sure that I wasn't signed up for any of your services
ABM: We sent you an empty envelope.
(I wasn't sure if this was a statement or a question)
Me: Yes. And I just wanted to know who I could call to get this cleared up
ABM: Call the Credit Card division.
Me: I just called and they sent me here.
ABM: We didn't mail the envelope.
Me: I know. I just need a number to call.
ABM: Sorry, I don't know anything
Me: I just need to know what department or division I can call
ABM: Check inside envelope for phone number.
Me: The envelope is empty
ABM: Sorry.
Me: Sorry?
ABM: Sorry. Have a nice day.
So now I'm out of ideas and I'm tired. Thinking about running for office just so I can pass a law that makes these things illegal, or I'll just wait till I get my first bill.
Posted by Bryant at 11:16 AM | Comments (5)
You can do what with the internet?
Thanks to Rob for this.
It seems like every day the internet lets you become more and more of a pirate. Free music, then free movies, and the long time favorite free software or warez.
For those of you who do these kind of illegal activities, apparently you should look into google china. The Chinese even with their censored internet seem to be a great source of information on free software.
Posted by Bryant at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)
August 08, 2005
IBM enters the mix
Looks like IBM Research has an entry into the Search Engine world. However, this search engine based on concepts and facts instead of only keywords. However, this is more of a solution for private search engines instead of the big public ones like Google, Yahoo and MSN
Posted by Bryant at 09:17 PM | Comments (0)
August 02, 2005
Death of Google to Start.com?
Does this signal the end for google?
It looks like Microsoft is working on a very worthy competitor. The advantages of Google seem to dissappear with this new search portal.
Not only does it feature clean and simple design with advanced features. It uses javascipt and other web browsing hacks very well and it runs in *gasp* firefox and linux quite well. And where are all the crazy Microsoft logos and cheesy inspirational phrases?
Try it out here. I think I'm going to try this as my primary search engine for the next few weeks.
I like it. Makes up for my lackluster experience with windows vista.
Posted by Bryant at 11:45 PM | Comments (1)
The Apple Revolution
So it looks like apple is breaking ground and releasing a revolutionary new mouse. This new mouse supports 2 click buttons, scrolling, optical sensor... wait... this has all been done for years on PC's.
I guess this is about as revolutionary as a flash based mp3 player with no display.
I hate how people always say anything new that uses metal or plastic stole from Apple design. I wonder what those people will say now.
Posted by Bryant at 11:47 AM | Comments (2)