Month: April 2006

iAlertU (from /.) – Introducing the remote controlled motion sensitive alarm system for the MacBook Pro. Utilizing the built in motion sensor technology, iSight camera and the infrared remote control your MacBook Pro can now be turned into a high tech alarm system. iAlertU is aimed at being a tamper/theft deterrent system for those times when you need to step away from your work momentarily. See video.

The most adorable spambot killer ever – Enter Oli, and his moment of “thinking outside the text box.” While computers are getting better and better at optical character recognition, one thing that they still have great difficulty doing is recognizing the contents of pictures. Oli, who runs a web site called ThePCSpy.com, realized that a computer would have a great deal of difficulty in telling the difference between different types of fuzzy animals. So he came up with KittenAuth, a test that requires the user to identify which three out of nine pictures contain kittens. The “3 in 9” grid leaves the poor spambot with only a one in 84 chance of randomly picking the right answer. Larger grids or number of picks can make the chances lower still. pretty darn cute!

‘Star Wars Kid’ cuts a deal with his tormentors – wow. how long ago was this posted on the web.

Chiropractor Claims He Can Go Back in Time – A chiropractor who claims he can treat anyone by reaching back in time to when an injury occurred has attracted the attention of state regulators. … While he knows of no other people who have his particular skill, he said lawmakers and regulators should allow alternative forms of treatment for the patients who seek them. I agree. People who’d fall for this should lose their money.

School Nightmare: Toilets Stop Working – For three hours, teachers took their classes in shifts to the other campuses while the city’s utilities crew repaired a water main break that caused the problem, said Bonham’s principal, Diane Rose. What happened to going the old traditional way where you hide behind a bush. It’s good fertilizer for the bush too!

Students lack basic financial knowledge? – The study tested 5,775 12th graders in 37 states on issues such as whether stocks or bonds have higher long-term returns (stocks do), whether they have to pay taxes on interest earned on savings accounts (they do), and whether they would keep their health insurance if their parents lost their jobs (they would not). Sigh…

‘Karate kids’ rescued after Japan mountain quest – Three Singaporeans were found safe Thursday after getting lost on what they said was a mission to find a legendary karate expert on a snowy mountainside in Japan. Enough said.

little gamers – found this online comic strip after entering a contest. Contest date already ended, so no point of telling it here, but I found the characters of little gamers to be so adorable! They even have Kenya Lions and Tigers on the shelf in the background!

(img) 午後ティー – Afternoon Tea – pya! cookies
(img) トマホーク – Tomahawk – Please Stand Closer – Your TOMA HAWK is not so long as you wish – Manager – I guess the janitors were finding pee everywhere?
(img) ガンダム – Gundam
(vid) ピアノでマリオ（日本人バージョン） – Mario Piano (Japanese Passion) – the way his fingers bend gives me the hibby jibbies.
(img) 駐車 – Parked Car – furry car – I’m guessing it’s resembling a hamster.
(img) もう行くの？ – Can we go? – cute kitten
(swf) チャーハン – Fried Rice – quite an annoying flash video. reminds me of the kids getting seizures after watching Pikachu flash so much.
(vid) 実写版テトリス – Real Life Tetris – this commercial is so neat!
(img) 都会のジャングルに – In the City Jungle – I wonder how he got the giraffe out of the tape.
(img) いまどきのこども – Where’s the Kid – tons of DVDs, books, and Hot Wheels.
(img) 畳はいいnya・・・ Tatami Mats are Good – cute sleeping kitten
(img) もっさり – Sluggish – Car covered in grass
(img) ○ – O – what is this creature?
(img) おかしな結婚式 – Strange Wedding – i wonder what they’re dreaming about
(img) 全身ローラースーツ – Full Body Roller Suit – now you can roll in any position you want!
(img) 作っちゃった(*´∀｀*) – pya! Book
(img) 熟睡犬 – Sound Asleep Dog
(img) 誰が風を見たでしょう？ – Weather By Looking at the Wind – Wymoing Wind Sock – Strength of wind from chain angle – 0° Broken – Notify meteorologist; 30° Fresh Breeze; 45° Gentle zephyr; 60° Hurricane in area; 75° Beware of low flying trains; 90° Welcome to big wonderful Wyoming
(img) 田園迷彩 – Rural Camoflauge – another grass covered car
(img) 争いワイヤー – Fighting Wire – pretty neat little figures he made
(img) ハンモックnya – Hammock – cat sleeping on a hammock
(img) (nya＋wan)かくれんぼ – (Dog + Cat) Time to hide

Interesting quote (from /. – #15084625)

There’ve been 2 key reasons for “revolutions”. Mostly one: Despair. The other one is idealism, but that one is rarely used and pretty much died out by today.

Despair has been a good fuel for every revolution ever. French revolution, Russian revolution, when people ain’t got nothing to lose but their life, and especially if said life is close to being gone anyway, that’s when they take up anyone as a leader.

Of course, governments learned since. What we got now in the US (and most of the “civilised” countries) dates back to the Roman Empire and panem et circenses: Bread and games. And of either there is no shortage in any “western” country. You have access to cheap food and cheap entertainment. Everything else is expensive, regulated and culled. Freedom isn’t amongst the first things people want. What they want is food and entertainment.

And they got that. Plenty of that.

So you won’t see a revolution anytime soon. People simply don’t care. They don’t care about freedom. They don’t care about junk mail. They don’t care about anything as long as their bellies are filled and their nerves are tickled.

If there was a God, he’d have replaced humanity with a sentient lifeform by now.

Random Crap:

Foshata (from MS newsgroup):

what is foshata?

there once was a website for Fanta Shokata which let you add subtitles to foreign video clips. i liked it a lot, but then it went away and that made me sad. so really my only incentive to make this site was to be less sad.. which is kinda depressing. but in a larger sense, i value creativity highly and encouraging creativity through foshata makes me happy.

Some interesting ones:

• Guess Who!
• Tiny Men in my Head
• Stephen Hawking’s Noise

You can also go through the most highly rated ones by clicking best -> all time in the upper right box.

Expert Says Hard Liquor Helps Houseplants – For home gardeners who don’t want their flowers to tip over, a Cornell University horticulturist thinks he has the answer: Get the flowers a little tipsy with some hard liquor. Giving some plants diluted alcohol — whiskey, vodka, gin or tequila — stunts the growth of a plant’s leaves and stems but doesn’t affect the blossoms, said William Miller, director of Cornell’s Flower Bulb Research Program.

Canada gives maple syrup in thanks – Grateful Canadians have given five tonnes of maple syrup to a Norwegian coach as thanks for helping cross-country skier Sara Renner win an Olympic silver medal after her pole broke during the women’s team sprint race.

Famous One-Eyed Kitten to Go on Display – The one-eyed, noseless kitten that inspired an international debate last year over whether it was a hoax is coming to a new museum of oddities in central New York. I always thought this was a photoshopped, but according to Snopes, it is indeed real! Cyclopes (or Cy for short) is really a one-eyed cat. Unfortunately, it died one day after it was born.

Curbing betel chewing in Taiwan a tough nut to crack – “I just can’t get enough of betel nuts because eating them is like making love to my wife on our wedding night,” said Lin Shuei-wang, 58, as he popped into his mouth a betel nut freshly wrapped in a leaf coated with spices. Haha! Either his wedding night sucked, or those are some really good nuts!

Cut off by floods, man survives on frogs – A Czech man ate frogs and other small animals for four days after he was trapped on an island cut off by flooding, the daily Pravo reported Wednesday.

Man held as terrorism suspect over punk song – British anti-terrorism detectives escorted a man from a plane after a taxi driver had earlier become suspicious when he started singing along to a track by punk band The Clash, police said Wednesday. It might be a good idea to listen to those songs privately. ;p

Health Problems Related to the Geek Lifestyle (from /.) – The typical geek trains their brain to be heavily focused while multitasking day after day. Is it surprising that this same brain does not do well when forced to isolate down to one task?

New device allows woman to see, even without eyes (from /.) – Some call her the bionic woman. Others call her a medical miracle. But Cheri Robertson has given herself another title: “I just call myself the robo-chick.” Robertson is blind, but this device allows her to see, not with her eyes but with her brain! Fifteen years ago, she lost both of her eyes in a car accident. She was just 19 years old. It’d be interesting to actually see on a screen what the user sees. One step closer to creating cyborgs!

Ancestor worship a mouse click away in China – Virtual carnations, memorial messages and tribute songs are some of the online services available to China’s Web surfers too busy on Wednesday to pay proper respects at the graves of their ancestors. As China passes Tomb Sweeping Day — a traditional festival where people pray, offer food and burn paper money at relatives’ graves — authorities are urging people to care for the environment and honour relatives online instead, Xinhua news agency said. 清明 (Qing Ming) is the day of the dead where everyone in the Chinese culture goes to the grave of their ancestors and prays and cleans the surrounding. I wonder how many people would actually use this service. Guess another reason to be lazy. Who’s going to pull the weeds around the grave?

Self-Parking Cars Coming To U.S. (from /.) – New Toyota hybrid cars are now available in Britain with a $700 “parking assist” option. Local 6 news showed video of a driver sitting and allowing the car’s steering wheel to turn on its own as it pulled into a tight parking spot on a London street. The reporter never touched the wheel as the car parked itself. I first saw this in action as a College project. Apparently Toyota has already implemented it and selling it as a $700 option in their hybrid cars. One step closer to auto-pilot! The video wasn’t as interesting as the College one, but still shows you it in action.

Paperweight Severs Calif. Teacher’s Hand – A teacher who kept a 40 mm shell on his desk as a paperweight blew off part of his hand when he apparently used the object to try to squash a bug, authorities say. Took me awhile to figure out a shell here isn’t a seashell, but a bombshell.

“Loyal” donkeys better than wives, says textbook – A textbook used at schools in the Indian state of Rajasthan compares housewives to donkeys, and suggests the animals make better companions as they complain less and are more loyal to their “masters,” The Times of India reported Tuesday. Haha! Reminds me of the Reasons Why Beer is Better Than Women.

Lack of women turns tables on suitable boys – Long, twirling moustaches and bejewelled daggers are no longer enough for a man seeking to marry in India’s desert state of Rajasthan, long considered a land of fearless warriors. But if he is lucky enough to have a sister, he can relax, a newspaper report said Sunday. A declining sex ratio in the state is prompting a girl’s parents to spurn offers of marriage from men unless the potential groom’s family also has a marriageable daughter for their son, the Sunday Express said.

Alienware Sentia m3200 laptop – This little laptop doesn’t look that bad. At only 4lbs, I might actually consider this over a IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad X-Series, since it should be considerably cheaper for the same specs.

Take bribes but be fair, soccer refs told – Football referees in Nigeria can take bribes from clubs but should not allow them to influence their decisions on the pitch, a football official said on Friday. I always thought that was the best move to take. Take bribes, and whatever money you get, just donate it to the government. Of course there may be repercussion, but there could also be repercussion if you deny the bribe in the first place.

Study fails to show healing power of prayer – A study of more than 1,800 patients who underwent heart bypass surgery has failed to show that prayers specially organized for their recovery had any impact, researchers said Thursday. In fact, the study found some of the patients who knew they were being prayed for did worse than others who were only told they might be prayed for — though those who did the study said they could not explain why. Maybe they were praying to the wrong god.

WestJet asks customers to assume “winglet” pose – Canada’s WestJet Airlines Ltd. issued a press release on Friday urging customers to help it conserve fuel by imitating a winglet, the vertical extension at the end of airplane wings, while in their seats during flights. “Beginning tomorrow, we ask that every guest aboard a WestJet aircraft assume the inflight winglet position upon takeoff,” the release said. “This involves straightening the arms at a 90-degree angle to the side of the body, holding the fingers together and positioning the hand at an 90-degree angle upward.” The Calgary-based airline, Canada’s second-largest behind Air Canada, later said the release was indeed a joke to mark April Fool’s Day on Saturday, but also served to promote the company’s recently acquired Boeing 737-700 aircraft. It expects to have 12 of the planes leased this year and six more in 2007 as it replaces older, less fuel efficient models.

Stacked Can Art (from MS newsgroup) – It would be awesome if supermarkets stacked their cans like this! Must…fight urge…to knock over… Those are some pretty neat designs!