Category: Computer

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Service Buffer

I was thinking, if I was going to provide a service that has a limit for a given amount of time (i.e. number of minutes per month, gigabytes of transfer per month), I’d provide a 1 month tolerance for you to get below the limit.

Lets say if you have a 1000 minute cell phone plan. One particular month, you went over and used 1100 minutes. If you could keep below 900 minutes in the following month, you’d wouldn’t be charge anything extra.

You’re thinking this sounds awfully similar to Cingular’s Rollover minutes, but it’s not exactly the same. Cingular allows you to save up minutes to use on a rainy day (sort of like a savings account), but what I’m suggesting is more like a buffer zone/tolerance level. It’s sort of like those fines the EU commission has given Microsoft. If Microsoft can comply with their orders by a certain date, they’d be off the hook. However, if they fail to comply by the given date, the fees will back date to when they were found guilty.

Sometimes one just can’t anticipate when emergencies might occur or forgets to monitor ones usage, but when notified, they’d try to be more careful next time. So like a warning, I thought such a system would be very user friendly.

Random Crap:

Fat Brit kids hunt Australia’s outback and viewers – New reality television series “Fat Teens Can’t Hunt” — a kind of “Survivor” meets “The Biggest Loser” — will see 10 overweight British teenagers sent to Australia’s outback to live and eat with remote Aboriginal communities.

Museum pays cash for live cockroaches – – A Houston museum is paying cash for live cockroaches as it seeks to populate a new exhibit. The 25-cent-per-bug offer comes from the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

Judge sues cleaner for $65M over pants – The Chungs, immigrants from
South Korea, realized their American dream when they opened their dry-cleaning business seven years ago in the nation’s capital. For the past two years, however, they’ve been dealing with the nightmare of litigation: a $65 million lawsuit over a pair of missing pants. I can’t believe someone who’s job is a judge can do something so inhumane. Manning said the cleaners made three settlement offers to Pearson. First they offered $3,000, then $4,600, then $12,000. But Pearson wasn’t satisfied and expanded his calculations beyond one pair of pants. Sigh…

Spare any change? Canada unveils C$1 million coin – The Royal Canadian Mint unveiled a welcome addition to any piggy bank on Thursday — a monster gold coin with a face value of C$1 million (455,000 pounds) that it says is the world’s biggest, purest and highest denomination coin. Maybe USA should bring back the $1000 bills.

Frog juice in high demand in Peru – She’s preparing frog juice, a beverage revered by some Andean cultures for having the power to cure asthma, bronchitis, sluggishness and a low sex drive. A drink of so-called “Peruvian Viagra” sells for about 90 cents.

Robot Chicken: Star Wars Trailer (from Digg) – A first look at the Robot Chicken: Star Wars special that premieres on June 17 on Adult Swim. The creators of “Robot Chicken” will be at Celebration IV offering a sneak peek at the show. Check out the news here. Here’s the Direct link to watch video.

The Keyboard Waffle Iron (from Digg) – Because breakfast isn’t nerdy enough, I present to you the Keyboard Waffle Iron. There’s really nothing else to be said about this wonder of modern technology, but I invite you to make your best keyboard/waffle puns in comments. Come on, let’s see what you’ve got.

Yesterday’s ‘Heroes’ (from Digg) – Niki/Jessica as scream queen? Micah Sanders as sitcom moppet? Nathan Petrelli on Cruise control? Before their characters go forward, check out some of the past roles of the actors who play them. I didn’t know Sylar was in 24!

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Mike Gravel

There’s been a lot of buzz with Mike Gravel and Ron Paul recently in the news. Both have been very controversial candidates and with big news outlets not allowing users to vote for either and actually deleting user comments that mention Ron Paul, people have been striking a storm over the net.

I first came across this video on Digg: Sen. Mike Gravel at SC Debates 04/26/07 – Former Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska … Former Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska won Best of Show at the Presidential Debate in South Carolina. http://petulantrumblings.com Full debate footage available at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18296908/

I’ve got to say, despite being a bit crazy, I really like this guy and his positions. From his website: Gravel 2008:

The War in Iraq
Immediate and orderly withdrawal of troops followed by aggressive diplomacy

Iran
Senator Gravel firmly opposes a military confrontation with Iran and advocates a diplomatic solution to the current situation.

National Initiative for Democracy
Empower Americans and turn every citizen into a lawmaker by enacting a national initiative.

A Fair Tax
Eliminate the income tax and replace it with a progressive national sales tax – Fair Tax.

Global Warming/Climate Change
We must reduce America’s carbon footprint in the world by passing legislation that caps emissions and improve energy efficiency while generating energy from low-carbon sources.

Universal Healthcare Vouchers
A National Health Care Voucher plan will provide health care for all Americans.

I’m shocked. I actually agree with every stance he has on the above issues. I personally think that income tax is unfair and if the government needs more money, it should raise sales taxes. Xyon and a couple of us has discussed this to some extent and if you search the web, you’ll noticed that the IRS has been unable to provide any evidence that supports income tax is legal. We’re just paying because they’re “big brother”.

I’m really starting to like this guy. Many say he doesn’t have a chance at office, but this is the first man that’s willing to stand out and say the truth. Others as he mentioned are just doing the political dance around the main issues.

Here’s an additional video that I really enjoyed: Mike Gravel for President! Straightening out the Media (from Digg) – All too brief example of speaking truth to media.

Random Crap:

2xav – a new comic from Below the Mean. Punchline: What have you been doing for the past 3 hours?! Watching 9 hours of lecture.

Spider-Man (Marvel) and Superman (DC) discuss the state of their respective film divisions in this take on the Mac/PC ads. Let me know what you think! These are some hilarious sketches done with Superman and Spider-Man action figures. They’re parodying the Mac ads which show PC on one side and Mac on the other. He’s made 4 additional videos which also introduce the Hulk and Batman:

Magicians sue over revealed tricks – A group of Japanese magicians sued TV broadcasters on Tuesday for revealing closely guarded secrets behind a series of coin tricks, a news report said. Forty-nine magicians are seeking $16,000 in damages from Nippon Television Network Corp. and TV Asahi Corp. for airing shows last year that revealed how magicians perform tricks involving coins, according to Kyodo News agency. Haha! Now they just have to prove that they own the tricks. ;p

Confused by your neighbours? Then Ask a Mexican! – Why do Mexicans use their car horns as a doorbell? Why is Mexican television so obsessed with dwarfs and transvestites? Why do they park their cars on the front lawn? Do Mexican children get tamales at Christmas so that they have something to unwrap? What is it about the word “illegal” that Mexicans don’t understand? The chances are that you will know the answers to some of these questions if you live in the United States and read the wickedly funny “Ask a Mexican!” column syndicated in more than a score of weekly newspapers across the country.

Good samaritan canoeists get $85 tickets – Canoeist Dennis Bohrn and his companions were stunned when they saw a woman jump off the Perrine Bridge, her body landing near them in the Snake River. Many in the group were crying by the time they managed to reach the woman and paddle her body to shore. So Bohrn was shocked when an officer walked up and instead of thanking or comforting the group last Sunday, wrote out a couple of $85 tickets for failing to have life jackets on board either of the two canoes.

Tiny terrier dies after saving 5 kids – A plucky Jack Russell terrier named George saved five children from two marauding pit bulls, but was so severely mauled in the fight that it had to be put down, its owner said Wednesday. That’s why dogs will always be greater than cats.

Scientists: Emergency resuscitation procedures may be the killing blow (from Deadlock) – Today’s life-saving techniques could be killing potential survivors, a Dr. Lance Becker from Pennsylvania suggests, in an article written by Newsweek’s own Jerry Adler. In an emergency room, in a desperate situation where paramedics are trying their hardest to get the flatlining patient’s heartbeat back, they might be doing more harm than good.

The real Computer Monster (from Consumerist) – Another great one from Henson and Oz. Parodying the Cookie Monster, this is the Computer Monster which eats electronic parts. Wait till the end for the surprise.

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Random Crap

15 ways stores trick you into spending (from Consumerist) – Ever notice how you can go to a store to pick up just one thing and then, by the time you get to the check stand, you have five or six things in your cart and a bigger bill than you had anticipated? The list is in my opinion pretty much common sense. That’s why retail stores are so much about will power and people who purchase online don’t often have this problem. Unless of course if you browse deal sites all day long. Like this weekend, I purchased a new KitchenAid knife set ($54 shipped), some software (make $13 after rebate shipped), leather case for my Canon PowerShot SD1000 ($21 shipped), a photo color printer (make $4 after rebate shipped). See why my wallet cries every night?

Woman ‘tricked into sex’ by penis cream treatment (from Digg) – A Syrian-born airline pilot allegedly tricked a schoolteacher from Haverfordwest into having sex with him by pretending he had to administer ointment on the end of his penis, a jury heard yesterday (Tuesday).

Gene explains why people are night owls – A genetic mutation called the “after-hours gene” may explain why some people are night owls, it is revealed in Science journal today. I so must have this gene! I’m typing this at 4:52am.

German thief betrays himself to get free beer – A German phone thief led police right to his front door when they called the stolen mobile to say he had won some free beer and he willingly gave his address.

Legendary ‘Hogzilla’ to hit big screen – Hogzilla, a near-mythical monster hog that roamed south Georgia, is about to get a little bigger.

hogzilla
That’s one giant hog!

Porn dominates Saudi mobile use (from Digg) – Up to 70% of files exchanged between Saudi teenagers’ mobile phones contain pornography, according to a study in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom.

Only another 5,500 calories to go … (from Digg) –

A Swedish university has replicated Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me junk food binge under lab conditions. The early results are surprising, says Marten Blomkvist.

…

Well, at one Swedish university, a group of students are getting the chance. At the University of Linköping, the Spurlock experience is being replicated under clinical conditions. In February, seven healthy medical students in their early 20s spent weeks stuffing themselves with hamburgers, pizzas, milk shakes and 200g bacon breakfasts – all on the university’s tab. A second group of subjects are just now hitting the junk food. Physical exercise is to be avoided. Bikes are out. To discourage walking even the shortest distance, free bus passes have been issued.

…

The students managed to gain between 5-15% extra weight over the month. They felt “tired and bloated”, especially during the first week, but there seemed to be no signs of the mood swings towards the end that the rather despondent Spurlock reported.

Final results from the questionnaires will be released at the end of the study. But judging from the provisional results, no one suffered anything like as much as Spurlock. One of the most shocking scenes in the film is when his three doctors urge him to abandon his experiment after getting the results of blood tests which show that his liver is so badly damaged it looks as though it is the result of heavy drinking – “You’re pickling your liver!”. While Nyström and his team also noted “significant” changes in the liver, relating to the liver enzyme levels in the blood, and the content of fat in the liver, the changes were “never even close to dangerous”.

Japanese patch measures pet stress – Wondering if your dog or cat is stressed? Just stick a special patch on the bottom of its paw and you’ll be able to tell, according to a Japanese company. Reminds me of those flat heat sensor things that measure your stress by the color it changes to when you put a finger on it.

Pipe cleaners are the new sexy (from Digg) – With that in mind, it’s no surprise that nobody put me in charge of the “Really Cool 3-D Video Game Pipe Cleaner Sculpture” department. Someone over at HumorMe has, thankfully, filled that spot. Those pipe cleaner models are actually pretty cute.

Indian groom too drunk to wed, so brother steps in – Villagers at a wedding in eastern India decided the groom had arrived too drunk to get married, and so the bride married the groom’s more sober brother instead, police said on Monday. … “The groom apologised for his behaviour, but has been crying that word will spread and he will never get a bride again,” Singh said by phone.

Feeling Cingular (from Consumerist) – Check out the Feeling Cingular music video. Watch as the tragic story of Feeling, the spurned Cingular customer, trying to find his missing, depressed speaker, Most Blown 2 after his other speaker Most Blown 1 was killed by Cingular/ATT’s GSM RF interference. Ever experience your speakers going tk tk tk tk when your cellphone is next to your speakers and is about to ring? Well, this guy made a pretty cool video of how his cellphone blew out his speakers.

Incredible monitor setups (from Derek) – So many LCDs! *drools*

The voice of Pikachu (from RayAlome) – this is awesome! The Japanese voice of Pikachu!!! She even sounds like Pikachu in real life!

9 things I learned about the world according to anonymous stock photo models. (from Digg) – The list is hilarious. The ones I enjoyed included:

  • Attempts to portray sincere parent/child relationships always seem creepy.
  • Kids love manual labor.
  • That one-handed, one-knee laptop bullshit is the preferred way to get real work done.
  • Random-ass white dudes should be placed all over your corporate website for no fucking reason. – Ungsunghero said instead of “ass”, it should be replaced by “douchey prick“

Inmates take swipe at toilet paper cuts – One side effect of the policy could be that toilet paper will become a new form of currency among inmates.

Duck penises show “arms race” between sexes – An exception is ducks — especially mallards. Although mallards pair off to mate, females are often raped by stray males. Yet studies show that these rapes do not pay off for the males. “Even in a species where 40 percent of the copulations are forced copulations, the ducklings still are mostly sired by the mates,” Brennan said. … What they found surprised them — corkscrew-shaped oviducts, with plenty of potential dead-ends. “Interestingly, the male phallus is also a spiral, but it twists in the opposite, counterclockwise, direction,” said Yale ornithologist Richard Prum in a statement. See what real duck genitals look like in this article: Duck genitals locked in arms race (from Digg).

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Haloid

Someone from MS newsgroup sent out a link to this video: Haloid. It’s actually a really cool video showing a battle between Master Chief (from Halo) and Samus (from Metroid) and tons of those alien guys from Halo. The main battle music was from The Matrix where Neo battles a gazillion Agent Smiths. He even incorporated the spinning in a circle kick scene. The animation was done really well as well as the choreography. Unfortunately, even I knew Master Chief is suppose to be a guy. But I guess that gives it a twist. Oh, did I just spoil it for you? ;p

Artemyst wanted to download it, but GameTrailers didn’t make it easy. There was no direct download link and the actual location of the flv file was hidden since they call their flash movie viewer with an id, which goes and looks up the url in the background. However, nothing escapes Ethereal. I ended up getting this ip: 207.226.113.35 and this location: /gt_fanmovies/um_31603-91737-HaloidFull-1176793690.flv. However, apparently their movies are on a shared server and 207.226.113.35 resolves to 207-226-113-35.pccwglobal.net which gives me a 404 when I try to open the link.

However, Ethereal apparently also captures DNS lookups and the DNS lookup that resolved to 207.226.113.35 was trailers.gametrailers.com.

So if you want to download Haloid to watch on your own computer outside a browser, you can do so by downloading: Haloid flv file.

Do note, you’ll need a FLV player to watch this. VLC Media Player and Media Player Classic both support it natively I believe, or maybe I had to install ffdshow to get the flv codec.

Anyway, enjoy!

* UPDATE *

Thanks to jpm for donating this link: Download File – Monty Oum – Haloid – High Resolution:

MOV [123.3 MB]
WMV [118.1 MB]
MP4 [46 MB]

No longer do you have to suffer the bad quality of FLV.

Random Crap:
Moved Random Crap to a different entry.

* UPDATE #2 *
Turns out the new direct HD downloads doesn’t have the final piece Master Chick VS Samus, where they have a dance off. If you download the FLV above, it still has the 1 minute clip at the ending.

I’ve decided to rip the Master Chick VS Samus clip from the FLV file. The video quality is large and small respectively:
master chick vs samusmaster chick vs samus

Don’t forget to checkout montyoum’s other works at deviantART and GameTrailers.

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Samsung SGH-t519 Bluetooth Synchornization

Thanks to KrunkReader and Artemyst for telling me about Samsung PC Studio, a free software you could download off their website. Apparently if you use their software, you CAN synchronize with Bluetooth and it’s EXTEREMELY easy! Guess I should’ve done more research before I ordered that USB cable.

So after installing the software, there was a connection setup wizard, which was rather simple. I chose Bluetooth and it went and automatically went through steps to pair with my phone.

One thing I noticed right off the bat was that the UI is very nice! Very shocking as most of these cell phone programs I’ve used before were flaky and often crashed or did something unexpected. Worse thing was it was often hard to figure out exactly what you had to do to make it do what you wanted it to do. I’ve got to say Samsung has done an excellent job with this software. Here are some screenshots:

samsung pc studio - connection wizardsamsung pc studio - pc syncsamsung pc studio - main window

This is totally awesome!

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Samsung SGH-t519

So my mom flew up to visit me, bringing along me my new toy: Samsung SGH-t519. From the picture itself, it looks rather bulky. However, if you look at it from the side, it’s actually really thin.

samsung SGH-t519

I haven’t really had much time to play with it. It came with the regular stuff such as manuals, ac charger, car charger, headset, battery, and the actual phone. Fortunately, we didn’t change phone numbers this time and all I had to do was swap the SIM card.

The 1st thing I tried was of course to sync with my contacts in my Outlook contacts list. However, apparently even though this phone supports bluetooth, it doesn’t support synching via bluetooth. It supports headsets, handsfree, serial port, dial up networking, file transfer, and even object push. Just not synchronization. I then hopped onto eBay and purchased a USB Data Cable for less than $5 shipped, which apparently comes with software called PC Sync which supports Outlook and Outlook Express.

For now, there’s only 3 #s in my phone book:

  • Customer Care
  • Voice Mail
  • 411

Which appear to be defaults that T-Mobile has preset.

I was actually contemplating on entering commonly used numbers into my phone manually, when suddenly I remember the SIM cards address book feature. It’s quite limited, but should suffice for this week while I await my data cable to arrive. I copied all the existing phone numbers from my Sony Ericsson T610 onto the SIM and then copied it over onto the phone. Of course with SIM cards, instead of having 1 entry per person, you get 2 or 3 each followed by a /M (mobile), /H (home), or /W (work). And after I transfered all the phone numbers into the phone, I went and tried to delete it from the SIM card. Apparently to copy stuff onto it, you can do so without authentication. To delete from the SIM card requires a password. I tried entering all the combinations which it could be. Turns out the password is 00000000, which I found after searching with the query: forgot sim card password.

For reviews and more description, you can read about it on Amazon.com.

Update:
I got to play with my phone for a few days. I’ve noticed some interesting things. There’s only 1 port used for both charging and the headset. Holding * locks the keypad. Holding # enables/disables silence mode. When charging my phone, the backlight won’t turn off. Good thing I don’t sleep next to my phone.

There’s even a microSD slot. I’m guessing for storing pictures, music, and video. There was a deal at Office Depot this week: FAR Dane-Elec 1GB microSD Memory Card @ OD B&M. If you’re not familiar with the bargain lingo, FAR = free after rebate, OD = Office Depot, B&M = brick & mortar = retail store (vs online). There’s 2 rebates involved, but I was already willing to shell out a few bucks just got get this memory card. Who can beat free, right?

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AIM WeeMee

AIM WeeMee (from SueOn) – I’m guessing this is AIM’s answer to Wii’s Mii (hear the resemblance?). You can create these characters which will in turn become your buddy icon/wallpaper. The wallpaper showed up for me on AIM 6.0:

krunk4ever aim weemee wallpaper

I’m not sure if it’s supported back on AIM 5.x, but Adium on Mac OSX didn’t show the wallpaper. The wallpaper is really a bad design. I immediately went into preferences and disabled all wallpapers. Look at how little space left there is to chat. I could expand the window, but that’d just be a waste of real estate. To disable wallpaper in AIM 6.0, go to settings (from edit menu or F7). Under the Expressions tab, the 2nd to last checkbox says: Display Wallpaper. If you uncheck that, anyone else’s wallpaper will not show up.

I’ve also gone into aim Expressions and removed the wallpaper. If you want to create your WeeMee, but don’t wont to use the wallpaper, just create the WeeMee you want and then go to your Expressions (on the AOL/AIM website) and click reset under “Buddy Wallpaper”.

So I’ve retired my Detective Conan buddy icon in place of this new WeeMee:
krunk4ever aim weemee

I do have to say that it resembles me quite a bit (minus the beach). I actually own a shirt that looks like that. It’s an Old Navy Ringer Tees. Plus the white iPod Nano. Haha. Pants wise, I have a dozen of khakis that look like that. I’m not sure why it gave me green eyes in the wallpaper. As you can see, I chose brown eyes in my buddy icon.

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Random Crap

First of all, let me wish Deadlock a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Man arrested in feces-filled home – A man living in a home with a layer of animal feces between 2 and 3 inches deep and as many as 300 cats, both alive and dead, was arrested Friday, authorities said.

Company: Toilets might catch fire – Japan’s leading toilet maker Toto Ltd. is offering free repairs for 180,000 bidet toilets after wiring problems caused several to catch fire, the company said Monday.

Wanna bet on global warming? You can – Think global warming will raise the oceans enough to submerge Cape Hatteras? Want to bet on it? An online gambling service has started taking bets on global warming, including whether it can submerge some of the East Coast’s top vacation spots. The odds that Virginia’s Cape Henry will be under water by 2015 — 200-to-1 at BetUs.com. Its odds for Cape Hatteras flooding by the same date — 300-to-1.

Donkey Kong Climbs E2 (from Digg) – Donkey Kong (Miyamoto, et. al.,1981) was the first appearance of the Itallian plumber we now know as Mario. While this game’s early ’80s arcade popularity predates most of today’s engineering students, it represents the amazing results that a small development team can produce. Today Donkey Kong is ranked as the 3rd most popular arcade game of all time, selling over 65,000 units. Currently this work is visible at the E2 building at UCSC, it is scheduled to be removed on or before May 1. This looks like the same building they did the Super Mario post-it.

The Unilever Series: Carsten Höller (from Deadlock) – To date Höller has installed six smaller slides in other galleries and museums, but the cavernous space of the Turbine Hall offers a unique setting in which to extend his vision. Yet, as the title implies, he sees it as a prototype for an even larger enterprise, in which slides could be introduced across London, or indeed, in any city. How might a daily dose of sliding affect the way we perceive the world? Can slides become part of our experiential and architectural life? How cool would it be to ride a slide down from whichever floor you work on!

N.C. clerk wins $200,000 by mistake – A store clerk’s slip-up at the cash register has paid off big time. Wayburn Allen on Tuesday accidentally rang up two duplicate Powerball tickets for a customer in this western North Carolina town. At the end of the day, after she was unable to sell the second ticket, Allen paid for it herself. The next day, Allen returned to the store and found the ticket matched all five numbers — earning her a $200,000 jackpot. When Allen went to Raleigh to claim her prize, she met the customer who purchased the original ticket. The customer also will receive a $200,000 jackpot. I’m thinking… If I was one of the few people who got asked if I wanted to purchase that $1 Lotto ticket, I’d be baning my head against the wall. On the other hand, if I was the original customer who chose these winning numbers, I’d be banging my head because now I have to split the money with someone who took my numbers.

Dead billionaire leaves all to feng shui master – The sole beneficiary of Hong Kong tycoon Nina Wang’s multi-billion dollar fortune is her feng shui master, a legal notice published on Friday showed, paving the way for a likely legal battle with her family.

Crook wins damages for injury during theft – A Canadian man who admitted shoplifting C$106 in razor blades has been awarded C$12,000 ($10,645) for injuries he suffered when he was tackled by store security guards. I was just imagining the scene when the security guards jumped him and the razor blades started to go everywhere. OUCH!

Chinese poplar trees to undergo “sex change” – Beijing’s female poplars are to receive “sex change operations” to stop them from producing flying pollen that has overwhelmed the city and worsened allergy and asthma problems among its citizens, Chinese media reported on Friday. What about the tree’s rights! Maybe it doesn’t want to be a boy!

Dad makes son wear sign for using drugs – A father says he wasn’t trying to shame his 14-year-old son when he made the boy wear a large sandwich-board sign saying, “I abused and sold drugs.” “I’m not out here doing this to humiliate my son,” the father told WATE-TV as the teenager walked up and down the sidewalk Wednesday in front of Cedar Bluff Middle School. Now there’s a responsible parent. You don’t need a court order just to punish your kid.

Love at first bite? – An Israeli woman accidentally bit off part of her boyfriend’s tongue during a heated French kiss, an Israeli hospital that reattached the tongue said on Thursday.

Woman gives birth to seven babies – According to the latest Guinness World Records, there have been three known cases of seven children surviving birth; two in the United States and one in Saudi Arabia.

Woman registers a .47 on breath tester – A woman arrested following two car crashes last week registered a .47 blood-alcohol content on a breath test — nearly six times the legal intoxication threshold and possibly a state record. I still remember asking if the alcohol concentration limit was 8% and the person who I told it to was shocked. He said it was more like .08%.

China law blind to nude Web chats – The 36-year-old woman, surnamed Li, had been charged with “organizing pornographic activities” for using a Web cam to chat with people on the Internet in the buff and for organizing online chats for nudists. But law officers investigating the case found that nude chat rooms were not defined in China’s pornography laws, an oversight the official Xinhua news agency described as a legal “blind spot.”

Home Depot – Eco Options – In Celebration of Earth Day On Sunday April 22nd, We will give away 1,000,000 n:vision Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs (CFLs) to customers who visit any U.S. The Home Depot Store. That’s this Sunday if you want a free CFL.

The Biggest Sell Is the Audition (from Consumerist) – Rare is the Hollywood movie, network television program or Broadway show that casts its stars from an open call. But QVC, a $7 billion annual business, where hosts can have television careers that span decades, does. The nominal stars of QVC are the budget clothing and jewelry designers who offer their creations, inventors touting new housewares and faded celebrities with exercise programs. But on a network that can move tens of thousands of dollars of merchandise a minute, the host plays a crucial role: part cheerleader for a celebrity guest, part M.C. executing the orders of producers to end a slow-selling item’s airtime gracefully, part fantasy friend to viewers, coaxing them to call. It’s a rare skill set, and industry sources say the network is willing to compensate hosts for it extremely well, up to $500,000 a year. I’m in the wrong business!

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Random Crap

Funny or Die (from Ars) – Comedian Will Ferrell and partner Adam McKay quietly launched their newest contribution to the pool of ever-growing video sites last week, called FunnyorDie.com, which allows users to upload their own comedy videos to the site to be voted on by other viewers. FunnyorDie functions more or less like the other video sites already in existence, except with one key difference: the votes determine whether the videos stay on the main site, where they are categorized, or whether they get banished to “The Crypt.”

Only 244 copies of Genuine Windows Vista sold in China (from /.) – Microsoft spent millions of dollars advertising its next generation OS ‘Windows Vista’ in China, in fact the IT juggernaut threw up the biggest Vista Ad on the 421 meter high Jin Mao tower in Shanghai China. However after 2 weeks (Jan 19 to Feb 2) from launch Microsoft managed to sell a mere 244 copies of Windows Vista. Software piracy is rampant in the middle kingdom and a pirated version of Vista sells for a mere $1 on the streets. The following numbers are quoted by Windows Vista chief distributor in Bejing.

Oh, and I’m supposed to take the ring back, too… – Bernd Dressler, who charges 50 euros ($68) to tell people they have been dumped, says he has helped end 200 relationships in the last 11 months.

Russia trains seals for submarine defence – Russian marine biologists are training seals to defend the country’s fleet of nuclear submarines, the Izvestia newspaper reported on Tuesday. Haha! Reminds me of those Warner Bros. cartoons back in the day.

Wisconsin law hinders lewd library case – A law protecting library records’ confidentiality has hamstrung officials pursuing a man who reportedly masturbated among the books at the Neenah Public Library earlier this month. City Attorney James Godlewski said the library can’t turn a surveillance video of the man over to police without a court order.

Elephant dung helps scientists develop new biofuel – Scientists in the Netherlands have discovered a fungus in elephant dung that will help them break down fibres and wood into biofuel. Bioethanol firms currently extract sugars from crops like grains and sugar beet, but some are developing technologies to extract energy from fibre such as wheat bran, straw or wood.

Semi driver checks on doughnuts, crashes – A semi driver whose truck rolled on its side, dumping a load of specialty sunflower seeds, says it happened when he tried to check on a couple of doughnuts. Doughnuts! They’re EVIL!!!

Jack Thompson Blames VaTech on Bill Gates (from Ungsunghero) –

‘Several Korean youths who knew Cho Seung Hui from his high school days said he was a fan of violent video games, particularly Counterstrike, a hugely popular online game published by Microsoft, in which players join terrorism or counterterrorism groups and try to shoot each other using all types of guns.’

Mr. Gates, your company is potentially legally liable the [sic] harm done at Virginia Tech. Your game, a killing simulator, according to the news that used to be in the Post, trained him to enjoy killing and how to kill.

Despite what crazy J.T. claims, Counter Strike (or Half Life) is created by Valve, not Microsoft. However, apparently Microsoft did “publish” the Xbox version. Thompson Targets Microsoft in Latest Crusade (from Ungsunghero) –

Unfortunately, there are at least two glaring issues to be found in Thompson’s latest letter. First, as mentioned earlier, The Washington Post article referenced by Thompson has since been edited to remove any references to Counterstrike and any other video game. Second, while Microsoft did publish the Xbox version of Counterstrike, the game was originally developed by Valve Software, with Vivendi Universal handling the publication of the game on the PC.

WaPo writer talks VT shooter/Counter-Strike connection, removal (from FuzzyWuzzy) – Apparently the mention of Counter Strike was from Washington Post and friends mentioned they saw him playing at a cybercafe. I’m assuming it’s a PC version since most cybercafes do PCs and CounterStrike is really a PC game. Roommates in college said they never recall him playing video games on his computer.

ロボットに変形するNIKEシューズ (from Angelus) – The Japanese there translates to Robot Transforming Nike Shoes. I wonder if you can actually wear these Transformer shoes.
transformer nike shoes

SAVENETRADIO… Please join us! (from Consumerist) – I hope you’ll join us. To add your voice to this movement, please take a minute to sign the PETITION urging your representatives in congress to act at the new website Savenetradio.org. RIAA is going to raise fees, and services such as Pandora won’t be able to survive. Contact your congressmen via the Petition and make them do the right thing.

Food delivery gone bad (from Angelus) – One of the crazy scene from “Resurrection of the little match girl” Edit: Let me explain, this guy came to this company to deliver jajang noodles, the receiptionist answer rudly and told him off as no ones even order takeout while a guy in the background laugh. At the end, he says that he remember his voice from over the phone. The song playing in the background is the English version of SES – Dreams Come True.

Grayson (from RayAlome) – John Fiorella adaptation of DC comics… John Fiorella adaptation of DC comics Robin. Fan made trailer about the death of Batman and the Boy Wonder’s search for the truth. Wow! This trailer/film was amazing! If you didn’t know, Robin’s (from Batman and Robin) real name is Dick Drayson. It’s also been said that Superman protects New York during the day and Batman protect Gotham City (also representative of New York) at night. Superman actually appears in this video, as well as Wonder Woman, Joker, Penguin, Riddler, Cat Woman, etc.

TypingMania 4 (from FuzzyWuzzy) – Remember Typing of the Dead game, where you have to type fast enough for your gun to kill the Zombies. Well, this game is similar where you have to type the romanji or words of these songs. Extremely difficult.

floppy disk on fridge
Floppy Disk on Fridge (from SueOn) – The note says: Hello Dear, I found the disk you were so frantically looking for yesterday.

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M&M Easter Plush!

Forgot to wish Liam HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

My M&M Easter Plush came! I got the yellow peanut guy. It has these little cute bunny ears too!

m&m easter plush - yellow peanutm&m easter plush - yellow peanutm&m easter plush - yellow peanut

As FuzzyWuzzy says: your m&m looks stoned krunky

I brought 4 of my 6 bags of almost-a-pound dark chocolate M&M’s original to work and they were gone within a week or 2, mostly by me. Hehe. I still have 2 bags left, but I’m saving those for some other time.

Random Crap:

Eibeler’s Platinum Parachute (from Tera) –

Here’s a run down of what he gets for being fired:

  • $2,475,000 in severance pay.
  • Immediate vesting of stock options and shares which includes 100,000 shares of restricted stock, options to purchase 450,000 shares at $21.28 and options to purchase 75,000 shares at $19.89
  • Accrued but unpaid base salary and vacation and unpaid expenses through his last day at the company.
  • A job as a consultant for the company through Oct. 4, 2007 paying $50,000 a month.
  • No change in his health care benefits through his consultancy
  • An $800 a month car allowance through his consultancy

Dentist guilty of urinating in surgery sink – A British dentist was found guilty Thursday of urinating in his surgery sink and using dental tools meant for patients to clean his fingernails and ears.

Chilled oil bath may cool hot processors (from Digg) – Submerging computer chips in oil could make them more energy efficient, according to a UK company that hopes to start selling such systems within a year. … Hopton first got the idea after seeing computer enthusiasts discuss the idea online. Oil does not affect the function of electronic components and offers a potentially useful cooling solution since it transports heats more efficiently than air. The company that’s planning to do this is called Very PC. I remember posting images awhile back (awhile meaning like 5,6 years ago) of some guy’s whose project was a styrofoam box, 3 jugs of mineral oil and a PC.

Study reveals “Robin Hood impulse” in human nature – People taking part in a game designed to explore egalitarian impulses in human nature consistently robbed from players assigned the most money while giving money to those with the least, scientists said on Wednesday. Tekman and Xyon were just discussing about the origin of Robin Hood the other day, if it was originally a book or if it was tale told from mouth to mouth. We finally decided to Wikipedia it and it turns out it was not originally a character from a story, but appears to be a tale told among the people.

Buy A Shredder, Hamster Powered Or Otherwise – A post on BoingBoing about a hamster-powered shredder reminded us to tell you that you need to buy a shredder. Everyone should have one. We got a small one at Target for 15 bucks. A video of it in action would be nice.

Frucall (from B$) – While shopping out in a store, have you ever wondered: “How much would I save if I bought this on the Internet?” Call Frucall to get your answer. Frucall not only reads back the best online prices to you, but it also allows you to buy items directly from online merchants while you’re on the phone! Try it now in 3 simple steps. It’s free, easy, and fun! Just add the number into your cell phone or remember the simple: 1-888-DO-FRUCALL. Google has it’s free 411 now and I’ve been using 1-800-FREE-411.

FICO® Score Estimator (from Consumerist) – Answer these ten easy questions and we’ll give you a free estimated range for your three FICO® scores, plus customized product recommendations from myFICO, the most trusted name in credit scoring. This is my estimate: Your FICO® scores are estimated to be between: 695-745 I think I’m higher than that though… Need to apply for my WAMU card to get free credit scores.

Building houses 2 (from Hjo3) – The idea is to build up the solid shape indicated by the views to the left – but only using the number of cubes given. There are 10 problems, called figuur1 to figuur10. Be warned: they are not easy. The only one I didn’t get was figure 1. Hjo3 showed me the answer later. The color coding is a bit confusing. Green means you’ve satisfied the top/front/right diagrams, but you’re still using too many blocks. When it turns yellow, it means you’ve solved it with the minimum number of blocks.

Wifi Signal Strainer (from Consumerist) – In this instructable I make a common WiFi Thumbdrive into a beefy wifi extender!’ The parabolic Asian cooking(dumpling) strainer is the perfect candidate for this project. I was able to pick up 20 more access points in the city and connect to a network a few blocks away! This is BY-FAR the most simple of all Wifi extensions!

Safe table saw (from Deadlock) – Could this be the end to shop teachers with missing fingers? Really interesting idea to stop most injuries with the table saw.

Contronyms (from FuzzyWuzzy) – The word contronym (also the synonym antagonym) is used to refer to words that, by some freak of language evolution, are their own antonyms. Both contronym and antagonym are neologisms; however, there is no alternative term that is more established in the English language. Very interesting list…