Calculus Airband 2000

So a week ago, CheyBoyAhDi IMed me asking if I still had the airband videos somewhere. I scratched my head. For a very long time, they were were stored on my hard drive, but I was pretty sure I backed up them a year or two ago when I needed disk space. Disk space may be cheap nowadays, but during college, cheap still didn’t cut it.

Anyway, I said I would get back to him and began searching through my spindles and spindles of CDs and DVDs and I finally found it. It was labeled AirBand 2000.

For those who are unfamiliar with the term airband, it’s this traditional thing (well not anymore since Kimura has retired) that every Calculus class did for our Christmas party. I believe ours was called Winter Jamboree, but I could be confused between my junior year and my senior year. Yes, I went through two years of this, but unfortunately, I don’t have any records of my junior year. I won’t bore you with our propaganda about getting ‘5’s and being committed, but it was basically dancing in tune with cuts of random music of our choice. Although it may not look that great, it did take a lot of time and we had a lot of fun. I’ve decided to upload everything that I have online: Calculus Airband 2000.

I had burnt everyone in BC a copy of the performances on a CD, but there were extra stuff which I didn’t include such as the photos, the practice videos, and the slideshow. Back then I don’t think DVD burners were even out yet and only a select few had CD burners.

Each available video has too versions. Original encoded at 640×480 and small is re-encoded at 320×240. Video streams I believe were taken from AMonkeyJ’s camcorder. We originally had 2 (one shooting from each side), but I forget why, but the other one had malfunctioned pretty much at the beginning. The re-encodes were made after complaints of “long” download times and I don’t blame them. The performance videos are about 200MB each. The small versions are about 100MB each. If the streaming isn’t working for you, underneath each video is a Download movie link, which you can right click and “save link as”.

Performances: (original / small)

AB Period 0:
airband 2000 - calculus ab - period 0airband 2000 - calculus ab - period 0

AB Period 4:
airband 2000 - calculus ab - period 4airband 2000 - calculus ab - period 4

AB Period 5:
airband 2000 - calculus ab - period 5airband 2000 - calculus ab - period 5

AB Period 6:
airband 2000 - calculus ab - period 6airband 2000 - calculus ab - period 6

BC:
airband 2000 - calculus bcairband 2000 - calculus bc

When rewatching these, it was rather embarrassing. SueOn agreed and said they might’ve been better buried in my stacks of CDs and DVDs. However, if I don’t post them now, they’ll probably be lost forever.

The practice video is stitched together with scenes during class and during our airband practice. But for some reason, there was no audio track associated to these videos, and I no longer have any idea who has the source to these. Therefore, I just tacked on our airband music and looped it. I was thinking of syncing it with relative music and random voice tracks, but that project would be probably left for another day and time somewhere in the far far future. Be warned, this video is 1.5hrs long and the original encode is over 1GB.

airband 2000 - calculus bc practiceairband 2000 - calculus bc practice

Then there’s the our famous ending slideshow. When I was rewatching our performance video, I was like, where the heck did we get that projector. I don’t recall the school having one. After asking SueOn, apparently it was his church and it all came back to me.

airband 2000 - calculus bc slideshowairband 2000 - calculus bc slideshow

Here’s the original mp3 of our airband song:
Calculus_BC_Airband_2000_Song.mp3

And finally some random photos taken during our airband practices: Calculus BC Airband Photos

Did I mention how embarrassed I am about rewatching these videos?


Oh yah, if you’re experiencing playback problems on Firefox saying you don’t have the right plugins installed, I found the fix: Firefox can’t play application/x-mplayer2 embeds. All you have to do is download those 2 .dll files and drop them into your Firefox plugins directory.

New Love

Did you know that M&M’s now come in dark chocolate!?!?! Our group admin had a jar of plain M&M’s in front of his office and I grabbed a handful, and the moment I popped a few in my mouth, I was like, “these M&M’s are especially delicious. I looked at the M&M’s themselves and they now say m Dark.

I think I just found my new love: M&M’s Dark

m&m's dark

Interestingly enough, Walgreens appears to have a deal on it this week (from SD).

2 bags for $3 (11oz to 14oz). The original price is 2 bags for $4.

m&ampm's candy bags

On top of that, if you purchase $10 (before coupons) worth of M&M’s (11oz to 14oz bags), you get a free Easter plush. See page 27 of the EasySaver Catalog PDF file (page 52 in the actual catalog).

m&m's easter plush

There’s a mention of an additional coupon from something called Valassis, which appears to be some sort of marketing company, but I have no idea what they’re referring to.

I had noticed a limit on the coupon, but someone claimed that Walgreens ignores the limit, while another says that that some Walgreens ignore while others are strict about it. Anyway, it looks like I need to purchase at least 5 bags of M&M’s before I qualify for the free Easter plush.


Random Crap:

I was watching a new Chinese TV series and they used a phrased that my dad frequently used when we were kids: 自覺 (zi4 jue2). I believe this is a Cantonese only phrase and doesn’t really have a meaning in Mandarin. It has never dawned upon me that these were the 2 characters that were used to make up this phrase. The overall meaning to the phrase is similar to self discipline. 自覺D啦 = Have more self discipline or be more obedient. The words by themselves translate to literally self feel, but I think it’s a shortening of 自己覺得 or 自己發覺 which means self opinion or self realization, which is still pushing it to be self discipline or self obedient. I guess when you can realize the truth about something, self discipline comes afterwards.

Did you know that WIKI was an acronym for What I Know Is? (from Acronym Finder)

My Costco only sold cup ramen of chicken flavor which I really dislike. Maybe it’s because I ate too much of it back at home, but then again I ate a bunch of shrimp flavored but I never seemed bored of that. Anyway, they didn’t sell the shrimp flavor here in Washington (at least the 2 Costco’s I’ve been to), so I stopped bothering to look for it whenever I went to Costco. Anyway, I happened to be in instant ramen section the other day and noticed they know have Kirkland Signature cup ramen! I wonder what Kirkland Signature doesn’t have. Anyway, there was only chicken flavor, but I decided to get it a try. I was shocked. I actually liked this new KS cup ramen. I’m not sure, but I think they actually have little chunks of chicken in it, but that may just be my imagination. They’re actually produced by Nissin (the same company that makes Top Ramen and 出前一丁). If you don’t know, 出前一丁 is my favorite ramen.

Scandal brews over China tea-for-urine samplesA group of Chinese reporters came up with a novel idea to test how greedy local hospitals were — pass off tea as urine samples and submit the drink for tests. The results: six out of 10 hospitals in Hangzhou, the capital of the rich coastal province of Zhejiang, visited by the reporters over a two-day period this month concluded that the patients’ urinal tracts were infected.

Boy puts urine in teacher’s coffee potAn eighth-grader faces expulsion after admitting he put urine in a teacher’s coffee pot, officials said. The Wilson Middle School teacher noticed that the coffee had an unusual odor Friday and reported it to the principal, Muncie Community Schools officials said. A student who overheard classmates discussing it also reported the incident to officials.

Teen ends up on ice chunk in Miss. RiverAmos Benjamin Cohen, 19, stood frozen with fear as the six foot by 15 foot ice chunk swirled in the water, floating toward shore then drifting back to the middle of the river, witnesses and rescuers said. “He stood there so still,” like the Statue of Liberty, said Sue Hillberg who spotted him from her mother’s kitchen window.

Lawsuit Says Education Dept. Overcharged on Student Loans (from Consumerist) – The Education Department penalizes consolidated loan borrowers who fail to make all of their annual payments by June 30 by adding penalties to the principal of their loans, on which they then have to pay extra interest. Pfeiffer discovered that she was being fined unfairly, her lawsuit says. She made her June payments on time and sometimes early. But the department was penalizing her for not making a separate payment for the days between her June payment and June 30, the suit says, even though her next wasn’t due until July 21. The penalties were then capitalized — or added to the principal of her loan. Interesting… Maybe I should start looking more closely at my loans.

Activist to zoo: Wrong to save baby polar bear (from Cari) – The baby polar bear is SO CUTE!!! Do check out the cute video.
baby polar bearbaby polar bear

Hundreds line up for sheep testiclesHundreds of people waited in lines for up to an hour for a chance to taste something different at the 16th annual Mountain Oyster Fry. Servers at five booths dispensed about 130 pounds of “fried oysters,” or sheep testicles, at the Saturday event in this historic mining town about 25 miles southeast of Reno.

Burglars steal 220-pound gold barA group of burglars stole a massive block of gold worth over $2 million from a Japanese museum in a heist that police said could have been prevented — if only the curators hadn’t left the showcases wide open. The Ohashi Collection Kan museum in Takayama, in central Japan, kept the 220-pound gold bullion unguarded by sensors or even by a case because it wanted visitors to be able to touch it, local police officer Shinji Kurake said Monday.

220lb gold bar

Windows Vista: more than just a pretty faceWindows Vista has had something of a troubled birth. Hyped features were pulled, and the project as a whole took far longer to complete than expected, partly due to standing still while MS dropped everything to work on Windows XP Service Pack 2, but in part also due to a decision to “reset” and scrap much of the new development. This has led some commentators to dub the project a “train wreck.” But is it? I found the review rather good as it actually tells you what is different in Vista instead of just the “new look”.

Daylight Saving Time

It’s that time of year again, but this time, we’re a couple weeks ahead of schedule due to changes in policy. Since it’s Spring, we’re set the clock forward (spring forward, fall back). Both my computer and my Weather Channel radio controlled clock jumped from 2am to 3am.

UserFriendly – SundialSuddenly. These are looking pretty fabulous to software maintainers.


Random Crap:

There was another strip from UserFriendly that I found amusing: Cracked Copy of Vista for Cracked Copy of Civilization 4.

RayAlome had sent me a link to the trailer of Paprika. The animation was amazing. I really liked the quote it had near the end:

Evidence that Japanese animators are reaching for the moon, while most of their American counterparts remain stuck in the kiddie sandbox.”

-Manohla Dargis, THE NEW YORK TIMES

Stereogram Tut Animated Shark Small (from Digg) – I was just talking to Lisymle the other day about Magic Eye and Stereogram images and she told me she has never gotten a magic eye to work. I tried to show here a few websites and techniques on trying to focus beyond the screen and merge the 2 images, but she hasn’t been able to do it yet. This was the first magic eye in animation that I’ve seen. Pretty neat. See if you can see the shark wiggle.

Big Brother State – An animated short about public surveillance by David Scharf (from Digg) – an interesting film. When I saw it earlier, it was a higher quality version. It appears you can still download the higher quality version off bittorrent or download it from Internet Archive. I do have to disagree with his bit on TC (Trusted Computing). It may be true that TC will warn users about particular software that’s being installed, but I still have final say if something gets installed or not (or at least I hope so).

German man chainsaws house in two in divorce split (from Digg) – A 43-year-old German decided to settle his imminent divorce by chainsawing a family home in two and making off with his half in a forklift truck. Awesome!

Mom accused of driving son to fight boyThe mother of a 13-year-old boy was arrested for allegedly driving her son to a fight with another boy, then cheering him on as he struck his smaller opponent. Police say the mother shouted down another woman who tried to break up the fight across from Sutter Middle School on Monday. A student caught the scene on video.

Hole in pyjamas reveals Internet plagiarismCandidates for British universities have been caught red-handed copying their applications from the Internet after hundreds mentioned “burning a hole in pyjamas at age eight” on their online entrance forms. The phrase, taken from a Web site which provides examples of personal statements used by successful candidates, describes an early encounter with a chemistry set.

Fans pay to chat with Jackson in Japan) – Excited fans got the chance to meet Michael Jackson in Tokyo on Thursday — but only those who could afford to pay 400,000 yen (1,770 pounds) for the privilege.

Animaniacs – Rob Paulson (Yakko) – Nations of the World (from RayAlome) – Here’s a little thing a friend of a f… Here’s a little thing a friend of a friend of mine went to. She saw Rob Paulson who is absolutely awesome! He’s here singing the world song! You can hear her scream her lungs out at the end! Enjoy! =P It’s been so long since I’ve watched this cartoon. Oh what sweet memories.

Beijing’s Olympic Stadium (from Digg) – I’ve got to say, the design is rather cool.

25 UC Berkeley Courses Available via Free Video (from Digg) – Not long ago, we wrote a popular piece about UC-Berkeley’s iTunes initiative which, to sum it up, allows anyone, anywhere, to download complete university courses to their iPods for free. Amazing. Today, we want to point out that Berkeley also makes available full-fledged courses via video/webcast. You can find the complete list of courses here, but below we have listed below 25 courses that figure into a “core” undergraduate curriculum. In short, this list includes many good nuts and bolts courses, which will teach you a lot and, even better, cost you nothing. Each of these courses, coming straight from the classroom, can be accessed with Real Player, and some can also be accessed as MP3s. I remember when I had to go through a whole semester’s worth of these before finals. Or did I…?

Random Crap

Rapidshare Search Engine (from Angelus) – An interesting tool I didn’t know existed.

Tesco Cans Refunds Policy After 360 Pricing Mishap (from Tera) – A pricing error in January meant that XBox 360 games consoles were advertised in the store for £297.81. When the machines’ bar codes were scanned at the till, customers were asked to pay £299.97 — £2.16 more. Under the policy, Tesco allowed the shoppers to take the consoles for free. Ouch. Great news for crafty British shoppers, but for Tesco, not so much. They’ve now, rather wisely, ditched the offer, replacing it with a deal where “customers will get back double the amount they were overcharged”. Guess that’s what happens when you abuse a good policy.

Chocolate Wii Controller (from Digg) – Wondering what to do with the packaging that your wiimote and nunchuck controller came in? Why not fill them with chocolate! We did. They’re both stuffed with sponge fingers to fill them out a little, otherwise we’d have used a lot more chocolate. Not a bad thing in itself, but we didn’t have that much chocolate. I would’ve thought the hot chocolate would’ve melted the plastic.

There’s a common saying in Cantonese during the new year: 恭喜發財, 利是逗來 (gong hey fat choy, lai see dao lar), which literally translates to wish you good fortune, hand over the red envelope (money pouch). I didn’t know how to write the character for dao, so I was searching online for this phrase. I landed on this page: 舒展超 之 大玩派 (they’re using Chinese Traditional Big 5 encoding if you’re seeing random characters). Anyway, there was this post that I found hilarious:

農曆新年期間,例牌在手機上收到相當多的賀年短訊(SMS)。當中有的頗為「行貨」,求其整兩句「恭喜發財,萬事如意」便算;有的則明顯是對方收到後,再順手轉寄的,否則怎會整篇都是簡體字?

但無論「行貨」也好「借花」也好,心意是一定有的。這種短訊祝福雖然很數碼化,但也一樣可以見字如見其人吧!

說到「如見其人」,不得不提我收到的一個賀年MMS;這MMS與SMS的不同之處,就在個M字,代表Multi-Media(多媒體)也!而拜3G手機所賜,這個M字也可以說是Movie吧!

話說年初一那天,手機「嘟嘟」響起,收到短訊;打開一看,卻是一則多媒體短訊(MMS),由朋友P君寄來的。當中包含了一段短片,須先下載才能觀看,我就不由分說同意下載了。

不消一會,下載完畢,影片播出。只見一個歲零兩歲的細路,一副拜年的裝束,向我邊抱拳邊牙牙學語;背景有一男聲,明顯是其父親P君,在指導(指使)他說:「恭喜發財,利是逗來。」細路就照樣學道:「公器罰財,你屎倒來。」

我看了之後,哭笑不得!忽生一計:既然你用MMS拜年,我就用MMS派Cyber利是!於是用手機自拍一段派利是的短片,回了過去!夠絕!

The overall post talks about a guy receiving Chinese new year greetings over MMS and SMS. One of them included a video clip of a very young kid learning from his father how to say, “Gong Hey Fat Choy. Lai See Dao Lar.” Chinese has a bunch of characters that sound the same and in Cantonese. To complicate that even further, there’s like 6 or 7 tones for each sound, making it even easier to screw up. In Mandarin, there’s only 4 default tones, with a soft 5th tone. So the kid basically says most of the sounds correctly, but in the incorrect tone, making a completely new sentence saying “public machine fines wealth, your poop has arrived.” It’s a common tradition when a kid wishes you good fortune to give them a red envelope (usually filled with some cash). However, since this person used a MMS to greet him, he decided to reply with a cyber red envelope, instead of a real one with cash.

I was telling this story to Cari and she tells me a story in return:

haha my mom’s god son.. he says fat choi like the vegetable.. the black hair like things we eat. so his sister made fun of him and said.. why is he congratulating a vegetable?

How To Give A Great Man To Man Hug (from SueOn) – Pretty funny to tutorial.

clocky (from Digg) – The alarm clock that runs away and hides when you don’t wake up. Clocky gives you one chance to get up. But if you snooze, Clocky will jump off of your nightstand and wheel around your room looking for a place to hide. Clocky is kind of like a misbehaving pet, only he will get up at the right time. Haha! Perfect gift for your kid going to college. They’ll need it.

Photosynth Technology Preview (from Digg) – Welcome to Photosynth, a new technology from Microsoft Live Labs that takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and displays them in a reconstructed three-dimensional space. Pretty neat and it utilizes Windows Presentation Foundation for the neat UI graphics.

What your Sleeping position says about you (from Digg) – Scientists believe the position in which a person goes to sleep provides an important clue about the kind of person they are. The names they gave to the sleeping positions are rather funny: Foetus, Log, Yearner, Soldier, Freefall, and Starfish. I definitely swap between the Foetus and Soldier positions.

Beer launching fridge (from Digg) – Wow. Now this is an idea that could pick-up: a mini fridge with a catapult on top and an automatic beer launcher. The cool part is that it’s very small and incredibly accurate. Seriously, it’s a gadget that I would buy! I really like the little contraption on how they pull the can out from the fridge.

Stand-in Chinese mistress sought to take wife’s abuseA Chinese businessman has advertised on the Internet for a stand-in mistress to be beaten up by his wife to vent her anger and to protect his real mistress, Chinese media reported on Monday.

TMNT Arcade ‘Level 1’ gameplay (from MS newsgroup) – I remember spending countless quarters playing this game (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) at the arcades. If this game supports multiplayer (all 4 controllers), it’d be super neat!

Guess what’s in my pants (from Angelus) – Jimmy Kimmel from The Man Show sticks something inside his pant pocket and asks random women on the street to feel it and guess what it is. Rather hilarious. One woman actually starts biting it.

Russian Tunnel Video (from Tera) – This 3150 m long tunnel in Russia is the longest in-city tunnel of Europe. There is a river running over it and water leaks at some points. When the temperature reaches -38 degrees like it did this winter, the road freezes and the result is the attached video taken during a single day with the tunnel camera. And the answer to the most popular question: the name of the song on the video is “Avalon” performed by an artist who goes simply by the name “Juliet”. The album is “The Best of NYC Afterhours – Volume 3”. You’d think they’d put up big red flashing signs warning people to drive slower…

Beatboxing flute inspector gadget remix (from Hjo3) – Beatboxing Flute player Greg Pattillo inspector gadget with a twist like nothing you’ve heard (unless you’ve been wandering through washington square park and heard him there) The 2nd song he’s playing is actually Axel F (from Axel Foley) and isn’t really related to Inspector Gadget.

The Really Big Guide To Secret Menu Items – More secret menu items at Taco Bell, Wendy’s, Chipotle, Subway, Jamba Juice, In-N-Out Burger, Starbucks, Dairy Queen, Chili’s, Blimpie, Burger King, Popeye’s, TGIFriday’s, Denny’s, and Arby’s.

Costco’s Electronics Return Policy (from The Consumerist) – Due to abuse, Costco is once again updating their return policy. The following items now have a 90-day return window: Televisions, Computers, Cameras, Camcorders, iPod/MP3 players, and Cellular phones. However, it does come with 2 year warranty from the date of purchase, which is rather neat. This only applies to purchases after this policy goes into effect which is being slowly pushed into all stores. Good thing I bought my TV before then 😉 There is something new where Costco is offering in-home TV setup. I wonder if that means they’ll deliver the TV too, which was one of the main reasons I didn’t get a TV till recently.

Parents raise copycat risk from TV’s revhead tot (from /.) – AN award-winning TV commercial showing a toddler driving a four-wheel-drive has been pulled off the air. The Advertising Standards Board said it had banned the ad for Hyundai’s Sante Fe 4WD after more than 80 viewer complaints. You can watch the ad here: Hyundai Santa Fe. I thought the ad was rather cute.

Toilet Paper Folder & Dispenser Prototype (from Digg) – This is a project that me and my friends built for school (UC Berkeley). Its made of lego mindstorms, scissors, and some scrap metal. With all things considered, I think it turned out alright. Not only does it fold your paper for you, it also cuts it. It would be the perfect accessory for a fancy, high-tech, Japanese bathroom! This video shows two test runs; the first run works well, while the second one could have gone a little smoother… Haha! I need one of these!

wahaha milk - mario yoshi copy
Wahaha Calcium Milk blatantly copies the Mario/Yoshi combo (from Digg)

Random Crap

Pictures From the Sky (from Digg) – Very pretty pictures. They appear to have been taken from YANN ARTHUS-BERTRAND.ORG.

Bar Code Clock (from Digg)

Massive Pound-And-A-Half Rats Infest KFC/Taco Bell In The West VillageThey are big. A pound or a pound and a half. Rats! Plump, healthy-looking and oh-so-agile. CBS 2 cameras caught dozens of them early Friday morning through the window of this closed KFC-Taco Bell in the West Village. And now CBS 2 has learned that the Department of Health will keep the restaurant closed until it can reinspect it. The video shows these big rants running around KFC. This KFC was in fact operational, and was opened even last night. Yahoo! News has more information about it.

No need to diet AND exercise to lose weight?– A new study debunks the widely held belief that diet plus exercise is the most effective way to lose weight. Researchers report that dieting alone is just as effective as dieting plus exercise. … Thirty-five overweight but otherwise healthy adults — 16 men and 19 women — completed the 6-month study. Twelve were assigned to a diet-only group; they reduced their calorie intake by 25 percent. Twelve were assigned to diet plus exercise; they reduced their calorie intake by 12.5 percent and increased their exercise by 12.5 percent. The remaining 11 subjects made no significant diet or exercise changes. Redman and colleagues found that the diet-only group and the diet plus exercise group lost roughly the same amount of weight, albeit by different means. They lost about 10 percent of their body weight, 24 percent of their fat mass and 27 percent of their abdominal “visceral” fat — the deep internal fat linked to heart disease risk.

Meetings make us dumber, study shows (from Digg) – People have a harder time coming up with alternative solutions to a problem when they are part of a group, new research suggests. Scientists exposed study participants to one brand of soft drink then asked them to think of alternative brands. Alone, they came up with significantly more products than when they were grouped with two others. It’s not just “two heads aren’t better than one”, it’s “two heads are worse than one”.

Technical Support in Medieval Times (from MS newsgroup) – Shows what happened to scholars when scrolls were upgraded to books and the support they needed to use the new system. Hilarious skit.

PS3 Song (from MS newsgroup) – A rather funny parody song making fun of Sony and the PS3. The song is called “How To Kill A Brand” and this person just took the song and added a slideshow behind it. The song it’s parodying is The Fray – How To Save A Life.

**********GAMER CAST NETWORK**********

“How to Kill a Brand” by Doc Adams.

****I DID NOT MAKE THIS SONG****

I added the photos and made it into this video but the song is all Doc Adams.

*Puts on Flame Suit*

I found the song at GamerCast Network: How To Kill A Brand
(to save as mp3 right click and save as)

I want to offer a thanks to Doc Adams for endorsing this video. He did a great job I only put it here for all you to see. enjoy 🙂

******UPDATES********
Official name of the song is “How to Kill a Brand” -By Doc Adams and he has graciously given me the green light to keep this on here.

-Thanks to everyone for the feedback. If I would have know it was going to get this much attention I would have spent more time on the editing. Hopefully next time the video will be as good as the song. Thanks again.

***I DID NOT MAKE THIS SONG***

LYRICS

Step 1, You make your console cost the most,
You Beat your chest and proudly Boast,
Despite no good exclusive games
You make a bunch of ridiculous claims,

Then ignore our need to play online
Don’t make it fun like Xbox Live
Use Blue Ray, Which I don’t need
Now you’re getting your ass kicked by the Wii

Sony, you went wrong, with your PS3
I’ll just keep playing my 360
Hope this song has helped, you understand
Now you know, How You Killed Your Brand.

Phil Harrison yeah you know best
Except you didn’t Beta Test
Sure I can surf the net
But I can’t find my Gaming Friends

You Say Halo 3 Don’t worry you
Instead you offer Killzone 2
But Killzone 1 sucked before
So what made you think we wanted more?

Repeat Chorus..

Phil Quotes

Repeat Chorus

Phil Quote.

Photo Illusions (from Digg) – A photographer went around the world with objects and photos and realigned them to take the picture, showing you the original merging into the scenery of the current.

Smart Guys Date in Parallel (from Digg) – So a few days ago, I was on the phone, whining to my dad about throwing a Fifth Annual F—— Valentine’s Day party and trying to figure out my personal life. My dad listened thoughtfully, and then began explaining to me what I was doing wrong. The problem, he said, is that I date girls serially. His diagrams are hilarious! Tera then asks, “so… women are appliances?” I replied, “They’re resistors. Guys are batteries and we send the love current through them.”

Windows Vista (from Digg) – This set contains my work from the Microsoft Photoshoot I did late 2005 – early 2006. My mission was to create genuine images to be a part of the Windows Vista Wallpaper collection. Two shots from the Photoshoot (first two in the set) made it to Vista’s Wallpaper Collection, while many others remain here, and waiting to be uncovered. I couldn’t be honored enough for the privilege to work with Microsoft on this fantastic project. Special thanks go to Jenny Lam, and Luciana Misura from the MSX Design Team for this wonderful opportunity. Interview with me by Long Zheng about The Vista Photoshoot. You can download High Resolution (1920×1200) versions of most of these images on my website (www.hamaddarwish.com)

Aerial Photographs of Mexico City (from Awesome Pics of Mexico City) – This are a few of the pictures that I have taken while working as a Helicopter Pilot over Mexico City. The best and most recent Mexico City Stock Aerial Photography, I hope you find them interesting.

A few interesting test answers provided by kids today: (from Digg)

how to determine gender of a catadding imaginary objects in the system to get the desired resultwhy did the boss fire him?

New Zealand fishermen land massive squidNew Zealand fishermen may have caught the largest Colossal squid ever found — weighing around 450kg (992 pounds) and with rings the size of tyres.

largest collosal squid

Little People

These cute photos were emailed to me by ChewyDenise. I don’t know the real origin, but I think it has to do with some pastry store or something that creates desserts, sweets, and other yummy stuff.

little people playing soccer on top of a carton of eggs as a fieldlittle people sun bathing on top of mashed potato and gravylittle people playing in snow made of whipped cream. a father drags a kid along in his sleighlittle people painting mushrooms red with white polka dotslittle people trying to push sugar into cup of coffee and creates a mess for janitor to clean uplittle people as construction workers attempting to pick seeds out of watermelonlittle people wearing hazmat suits trying to find radioactive material on top of a creme bruleelittle people walking along the beach made of ice creamlittle people mowing the hair off kiwislittle people cleaning up mess after a big chunk breaks off of pastrylittle people climbing up pastry with powdered sugarlittle people as construction workers investigate crack in donutlittle people working in a chocolate minelittle people biking around a round pastry


Random Crap:

Get a Mac – Security (from Digg) – I can’t help but laugh, because it’s so…

7 Deadly Sins and Their Combinations (from Digg) – someone came up with a diagram of what if you mixed 2 sins together, what do you get. A pretty funny set of examples, like with Lust and Gluttony, you get edible underwear. With Gluttony and Pride, you get fat men in Speedos.

The Best Place To Hide Money: Conversation With A Burglar (from Digg) –

I had quite the interesting conversation this weekend with a person who happened to be a former burglar. It was great timing because I was wondering if something like the skid mark underwear for hiding money would really work. I also figured that if you wanted to know the best place to hide your money from a burglar, a former burglar was the person to ask.

Your best strategy, then, is to actually leave some money in obvious places for the burglar to quickly find (the same applies if you keep all your money in the bank). This can not only save your other stash of money, but may actually keep the burglar from destroying your place as he looks for where you have hidden your money. If they believe they may have found the cash that you have in the house, they are much less likely to keep looking (remember, they want to get out asap). In the end, if you hide all your money well, you may win a moral victory in not letting the burglar find the money, but you’ll likely have much more damage done to your place that will end up costing you more in the long run.

So the question of where is the best places to hide money still hadn’t been answered?

His number one recommendation for money was in toys in a young child’s room. As he explained, young children don’t have money, they have an abundance of toys and most parents don’t trust a child around money. Therefore, parents will rarely hide money there. In addition, when money is hidden, it is usually hidden away neatly and securely — a child’s room is rarely a neat place making it an unlikely place for money to be hidden. Plus with all the stuff in a child’s room, it is not someplace that a burglar can search quickly and get out (rule #2).

The Folding Chair (from Angelus) – a pretty neat project where this chair is like an accordion or slinky and you and bend and twist this chair into a couch of many different shapes and forms. I wished they would have showed more people sitting on it in its extended form to see the strength of it. There were a few people who sat and there was a guy who tried pushing it down to see if it’ll bend. I was surprised it actually held up. I’m not sure where this is, but they were speaking traditional mandarin (not a local dialect), so I can only imagine it being a major city in China or maybe Taiwan.

Gambler gives birth on N.J. casino floorA woman playing the penny slots Saturday morning left the Resorts Atlantic City casino with her own little jackpot — a new baby boy. Eight-months pregnant Nyree Thompson, 32, went into labor on the casino floor about 9:30 a.m. I can’t stop and wonder if the casino environment is really a good place for a pregnant woman to be. I’m hoping she at least was in the non-smoking area.

Mexican seeks world chili-eating recordFor most people, even the smallest bite of a raw chili pepper means a flushed face and a rush for a gulp of water. But Manuel Quiroz can guzzle down dozens of Mexico’s spiciest chilies, rub them on his skin and even squeeze their juice into his eyes without so much as blinking.

Oklahoma school auctions tuition on eBayThe university on Saturday kicked off an eBay auction of a year of tuition, room and board at the private college. The bidding had reached $4,425 by 11 p.m. Bidders can buy the tuition for themselves or someone else. Among the bidders will be current students at the school, which has an enrollment of about 1,030 students. Is there really a point to this? I mean if I was a current student there and already will be paying for room and board, why wouldn’t I just bid my tuition minus a little?

Cool art that will mess with your head (from Digg) – a nice set of optical illusions.

Laurie McGuinness – Mac PC Spoofs (from Digg) – nice parodies for the Get a Mac ads.

I don’t usually care much about Mac and Vista comparisons, but this guy compares the Lenovo Thinkpad (formerly IBM) vs the MacBook Pro:

If the MacBook Pro is a 911 Carrera, then the ThinkPad is a BMW 7 Series that any executive would want to be seen in.

Honestly, to me, there is no comparison. I also didn’t think it was fair to compare the 15″ MacBook Pro against the X60 which is a 12″ laptop known for super portability and reliability, which the 15″ MacBook Pro or even the 12″ MacBook Pro is not known for. You can tell I’m a bit biased for Thinkpads.

HDClips.net (from Digg) – a place where a bunch of HD (high definition) clips are posted so you can test out your new HDTV.

A Wink and a Smile (from Digg) – Men and women often misunderstand each other’s flirtation signals. … “One of the surprising facts in this study was that women do not send clear rejection signals,” write the study’s authors, led by Karl Grammer, Ph.D. “A woman sends sexually explicit signals without having much interest in the man.” This behavior may encourage men to reveal more about themselves, the authors suggest, allowing women to verify their initial impressions. What’s more, women used subtle signals such as nodding to direct the flow of conversation, and they avoided contact with men only if the men talked too much initially.

Taiwan anthem played for China officials diplomatic gaffe marred Saturday’s inauguration of a China-financed stadium on this Caribbean island when a band performed the national anthem of Chinese rival Taiwan. Chinese Ambassador Qian Hongshan and scores of blue-uniformed Chinese laborers who built the $40 million Queen’s Park stadium as a gift were visibly uncomfortable as Taiwan’s anthem echoed inside the 20,000-seat venue. Haha! I can’t help but laugh given China and Taiwan’s history.

Free International Phone Calls

You’ve probably heard of AllFreeCalls and Future Phone where you call some number in Iowa and make free long distance calls. They make their money with a new law that all incoming calls are charged a few cents and then just pipe you over the VoIP network. It’s been brought to my notice that Future Phone is no longer available. I also found it funny that they have a big red sign across their homepage saying: THIS SERVICE IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE. However AllFreeCalls is still going strong and getting more people everyday.

I was thinking… with Google Maps’ Click to Call feature Windows Live’s Call for free feature, we can have free calls and not pay long distance to Iowa. I’m assuming that AllFreeCalls will still get paid since it’s still considered an incoming call and even more people will start to use this service.

I’ve always considered these features to sort of be like Jajah, where Jajah initiates the call to both ends and therefore is the one paying the toll. Google and Windows Live just supports it for businesses, and well, AllFreeCalls is considered a business. If they decide to add their listing to Google Maps or Windows Live, it’s basically free calls for everyone.


Random Crap:

I’m thinking, given that I tend to write multiple entries in one sitting and not write anything for a few days, I’m going to start queuing them up. Meaning, I’ll still be writing multiple entries in one setting, but I’ll change the publish date instead of immediate to a day or 2 later. That way it won’t be like reading 5 posts of random crap in 1 day vs reading 5 random crap posts over period of 5 days.

Also wanted to wish GwaGwaSan and Mister0124 a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Product Placement (from Digg) – news article headline shows: Teacher hit by car outside Queens school and then there’s a pop up ad for Toyota. ;p

The Best Homework Ever? (from Digg) – Cassidy Curtis’s marvelous surface drawings Those drawings are rather neat. Reminds me of Mechy.

Iowa students get laundry e-mail alertsDing! Time to throw your drawers in the dryer. That’s the message University of Iowa students can now receive by e-mail. Thanks to software installed along with new high-efficiency washers last fall, the school’s dormitory residents can receive e-mail alerts when their laundry cycles have finished. I wished this was available back when I was in college. Usually I remember to go down to get my clothes, but once in awhile, I don’t remember until the next day.

Artist to honour Wii heroes with statuettesIn the old days, heroes were commemorated with stone statues in public squares. In today’s video game obsessed society, players can get a Mii. U.S. artist Paul Thiel is crafting figurines that are replicas of the virtual characters users of Nintendo’s popular console Wii play games with. Neat! If you have a Mii that really resembles you, I can see this being a totally awesome gift.

Web site helps name that tune in your headYou know that annoying tune that you can’t place or get out of your head? A U.S. company has recently launched a Web site, www.midomi.com, that names most tunes that you can hum, sing or whistle a tune into your computer microphone. If you give this a try, do let me know if it works.

Man bets wife in card game, losesA Russian man lost his wife in a game of cards after putting her up as a stake instead of cash. … When he lost the game and his opponent Sergey Brodov turned up to claim his winnings his wife Tatiana was so angry she decided to divorce her husband and started a relationship with Brodov. Haha! Awesome way to get rid of your wife. 😉

One Year Later, Quadruple Amputee Still Wants Answers (from Digg) – A local woman went to the hospital to have a baby, and while she was there, she contracted a flesh-eating bacteria, WESH 2 News reported. Doctors had to amputate both her arms and both her legs to save her. That was one year ago, and she’s still searching for answers. Such a sad story… If I was her, I’d like some answers too!

Pink milk puzzles farmerA farmer whose cows produced pink milk after eating carrots solved the problem by feeding them white carrots instead. Pink milk reminds me of strawberry milk.

Why can’t a person tickle himself? (from Digg) – . Our studies at University College London have shown that the cerebellum can predict sensations when your own movement causes them but not when someone else does. When you try to tickle yourself, the cerebellum predicts the sensation and this prediction is used to cancel the response of other brain areas to the tickle. Ahhh! So that’s the key to not being ticklish!

That’s an ad on your eggWhich came first — the chicken or the ad? In a month-long campaign that began in Japan on Thursday, 1.8-cm (0.8-inch) advertising stickers touting chicken ramen instant noodles will be stuck on the shells of ordinary eggs, sold in packs of 10. Updated the link that has an image of it.

More and more junk

Sigh… My blog entries are queuing up faster than I can blog:

Your Drafts: Unknown, Open Season, The Queen, Blood Diamond, An Evening With Kevin Smith 2 – Evening Harder, The Corporation, Kanon, Poseidon, Hacking Democracy, Accepted, Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, 黑社會 (Election), DragonZakura, Superman Returns, L.A. Confidential, Cars, The Science of Sleep, The Departed, ゼロの使い魔, Sneakers, The Notebook, Little Miss Sunshine, The Triplets Of Belleville, Love Actually, Transamerica, Two for the Money, Thumbsucker, When Do We Eat, The Sentinel, Who Killed the Electric Car?, The Benchwarmers, Basic Instinct 2, Sympathy for Lady Venegance, Saving Electricity, Food Scarcity, xxxHOLiC, Blood+, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Episodes, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Episodes 1 – 8, Temperature Scales, Black Cat, REC, Fate/stay night, Bleach Episode 71 – 83, Hellsing Ultimate OVA, Detective Academy Q Episodes 31 – 39, Dial Tone, Monster Episodes 66 – 74, Initial D Fourth Stage Episodes 21 – 24, 24 – Season Four, Full Metal Panic – The Second Raid Episodes 9-13, Naruto Episode 150 .

Every time I think of something or watch a movie, I just create a new draft post and enter the title and any little details I don’t want to forget. Then it just starts piling up. I’ve pretty much given up on posting a blog for each anime episode. If I feel like it, I’d have entries on certain episodes that really stood out, or I’d blog about once I complete the series.

Random Crap:

Mysterious samurai saves Police in UK (from Digg) – A samurai sword wielding vigilante has come to the rescue of two Police officers when they were attacked by an armed gang in South Shields, England. Could it be a Hiro wannabe? I’m curious what the guy dressed like, or if they just labeled him as “a samurai” because he was wielding a curved sword. Who knows if the sword was even curved…

h&r block refund Freudian slip
H&R Block’s Freudian Slip (from The Consumerist)

It’s estimated Americans overpaid their taxes by nearly a billion dollars.* Don’t be one of them. H&R Block will get you the maximum refund you’re entitled to, or your tax preparation is FREE. So every dollar you’ve earned is where it belongs. In our pocket.

It’s funny how much a difference a ‘y’ would make in this case.

Netflix offers streaming movies to subscribers

The new service will be rolled out gradually but should be available to all Netflix subscribers by July. The amount of video that can be watched on the PC varies depending on the subscription plan. Users with the $5.99 plan will get six hours of online viewing each month, while those with the more common $17.99 plans get 18 hours. The decision to offer this in terms of “hours” rather than “movies” could potentially frustrate customers who don’t want to wait until next month to see the second half of Casino Royale, but it does allow for stopping, starting, and switching films without developing some convoluted definition of what it means to “watch a film.”

The initial selection is fairly thin, with only 1,000 titles available (out of more than 70,000 available on DVD), but this was the same number of DVDs that Netflix launched with back in 1999. It’s probably just as well; Netflix has made clear that they want to roll out the new technology slowly to make sure that everything works correctly. As CEO Reed Hastings notes, this isn’t a market that is going to pay big dividends for a few years yet.

A rather interesting service. From the feedback I’ve read, the quality’s really good, almost as good as DVD quality, though I’d believe it when I see it. Then again, DVD quality is only 480p and I’ve been spoiled with 720p and 1080p content recently. I’d like to see how far this goes and how big it can become. Maybe I’ll cave and get a Netflix subscription.

Male panda said too fat to have sexChuang Chuang the Panda is just too heavy to have sex. Thai authorities have put him on a strict diet as part of a long-running campaign to get him to mate with female partner Lin Hui at the Chiang Mai Zoo in northern Thailand. Haha.

Are You Gonna Do It? (from Digg) – “I’ll just walk into Steve’s office, pull down my pants, and urinate on his desk. What could he say to that? It’s guaranteed to work.” We laughed, thinking that not even Burrell would have the guts to do that. … “Are you gonna do it? Are you really gonna do it?”, asked Steve. Somehow, word about the urination threat had gotten back to Steve, and he was genuinely curious if Burrell would go through with it or not. I was disappointed he didn’t do it.

My Kids Are Perverted (NSFW) (from Tera) – Hilarious story of what the kids keep asking this teacher. Since it’s not safe for work, you’ll have to click the show button. (Show)

Jeep® Waterfall (from Digg) – From Detroit to Beijing, the Jeep Waterfall has mesmerized auto showgoers from across the globe. Tune in to discover how this H20 wonder works. Amazing piece of engineering. Apparently you can drive this waterfall/rainfall as if it was an inkjet printer. Rather interesting.

Boy, 9, sneaks on to plane (from The Consumerist) – Police in Lakewood, Washington, say the boy (Semaj Booker) has a history of stealing cars and running away from home. He was apparently trying to get to Dallas, where his grandfather lives, and where the boy himself used to live. But he came up short, only getting as far as San Antonio after hopping two separate flights. Police say he apparently found a Southwest Airlines boarding card and made it through airport security. I really wonder if airport security really exists, or is it just their to inconvenience people like us.

Porsche – Double Take (from Derek) – An interesting ad, but it does show where a car’s *cough* is.

Life Lessons (from SD) – A bunch of figurines being sold by TLC with rather funny sayings. Like #20 If you want to get rid of a guy,tell him you love him. Or #58 – Never introduce her as “my future ex.”

Punchy! (from RayAlome) – It’s all fun and games until someone gets punched in the face. And then it’s even more fun! Funny skit where some guy can’t control punching people in the face.

The Towel Trick fixes 360’s? (from MS newsgroup) – Everyone’s dreaded the red circle that appears on your Xbox 360 to notify you it’s broken. Recently, there’s been a spread of the “towel trick” and apparently many people who’ve gotten the red circle of death are claiming it fixes their Xbox 360. What you do is wrap your Xbox 360 completely in a towel (basically enclosing the whole thing) and turn it on and wait 10-15 minutes. At this time, your Xbox 360 will get really hot, and I mean REALLY HOT. Turn it off and turn it back on and your machine might magically work. No one really knows why this is fixing their Xbox 360s, but CDMCC suggests that it might have to do with the soldering problem.

College Saga – Episode 1 (from Cari) – Once upon a time, when Earth was still a beautiful place, an evil force came to turn all living things into Vegetarians. Three students from suburban Massachusetts would step up against this catastrophe… to end Vegetarian Supremacy. Mark, Jesús, Maria and their foes would make amazing personal discoveries as the two forces clash. And so began the ultimate saga about friendship, heritage, sex and explosions. A hilarious skit done by a group of college students, where they go through college as if it was a RPG game.

Random Crap

School board finds name hard to swallowSome Bay District School Board members have a problem with the proposed name for a new elementary school — Breakfast Point Academy. … “Pat and I want to know what the mascot is going to be,” Littleton asked. “The Croissants,” Sabiston answered. Board attorney Franklin Harrison suggested “The Biscuits.” Haha!

Wisconsin hunter bags deer with 7 legsRick Lisko hunts deer with a bow but got his most unusual one driving his truck down his mile-long driveway. The young buck had nub antlers — and seven legs. Lisko said it also had both male and female reproductive organs. “It was definitely a freak of nature,” Lisko said. “I guess it’s a real rarity.” Unfortunately they didn’t have a good photo of the whole deer.

death kitty and the fat man (from Cari) – the flash was really cute and really sad. though the kitty does becomes Death’s pet in the end, she’s not as cute as before.

What if you took the summary of Star Wars and changed all the character’s names into Harry Potter characters. This is what you’ll get (from Esca):
star wars harry potter exchange essay

Monzy performs at Stanford Univ. (from RayAlome) – Raw footage of a performance that “CS rapper” Monzy gave last summer outside Stanford University’s Computer Science building. This footage was shot for the documentary, NERDCORE FOR LIFE. Nerdcoreforlife.com A very geeky song called Kill -9 (dash nine).

Jerome Murat (from Digg) – A French performing artist that does a really AWESOME show. The music the orchestra is playing along is just pure harmony. He’s painted completely in white with some sort of port and does this little magic show where he has 2 heads and it’s really neat. I haven’t totally figured how he did it yet, but I’m pretty sure a hand was involved with the 2nd head. The solemn facial look and the movements just made the head look really alive. It’s really cute. In the end, he kisses the announcer on the cheek and leaves some white powder on her.

Humming Search – If you have a tune stuck in your head and don’t know what the song is nor the lyrics, you can hum into your microphone and this website claims to be able to tell you what the song is. I haven’t tried it yet, but that’s probably because I don’t have my microphone setup yet. If you try this with success, please let me know.

Dead crows scare away living crows – It’s pretty obvious that dead corpses scare away animals of the same species, unless you eat dead corpses (i.e. vultures), then it’s a happy scene.

Had a car crash? It’s all in the stars, study saysAccording to a study by InsuranceHotline.com, a Web site that quotes drivers on insurance rates, astrological signs are a significant factor in predicting car accidents. The study, which looked at 100,000 North American drivers’ records from the past six years, puts Libras (born September 23-October 22) followed by Aquarians (January 20-February 18) as the worst offenders for tickets and accidents Leos (July 23-August 22) and then Geminis (May 21-June 20) were found to be the best overall. That’s why my dad drives so slow. As a Capricorn, I’m goal oriented. They’re more concerned about the destination than the journey. They feel that the rules of the road are for other drivers to follow so that Capricorns can get to their destination faster. If insurance companies do use these statistics, go check out what they say about you at Car Carma

Family Guy Spoof on Mad TV (from Digg) – A spoof of Family Guy that aired on Mad TV. Hilarious spoof. They even have a real live version. There’s also Making of Family Guy (from Digg) and I’m surprised that Seth MacFarlane is the voice of so many characters. I was even more surprised the the voice of Meg was the girl from That ’70s Show.

Top 10 Gamer Cakes (from Digg) – As a gamer, I want to show my gamer pride, and what better way to do that than to adorn your celebratory cakes in a gamerly fashion. After hours upon hours of scouring the net, pouring through pages of cakes, skipping over numerous Cakemania images, and whatever the hell this is, I have sorted through the cream of the crop of the geekiest of the geek. Behold mortals, the top 10 gamer cakes. Here’s the story behind the gamer wedding cake: Have Your Games and Eat Them Too! (from Digg)

Gambia gives ex-presidents free holidays for lifeThe bill entitles ex-leaders of the West African nation to have three cars with drivers and fuel, holidays abroad each year, personal secretaries and 1 million CFA francs (1,000 pounds) a month, courtesy of the state. … A bird lover who often carries a ceremonial sword, Jammeh has said he wants to rule the former British protectorate — where 60 percent of people live on less than $1 (50 pence) a day — for another three decades. Sigh…

Lettuce ladies urge Kazakhs to go vegetarianTwo British animal rights campaigners clad in nothing more than bikinis made of lettuce leaves braved freezing temperatures on Tuesday to urge the people of Kazakhstan to stop eating horses and go vegetarian. You can check out the video: Vegetarian Protestors or check out the gallery of girl protestors from PETA.

Peeking at your gifts? You’re not alone-surveyCan’t resist a quick shake and peep at that present under the Christmas tree? You’re not alone, with a U.S. survey finding one in five adults are present peekers.

Humping Dog (from Digg) – This is Humping Dog. USB MEETS LOVE. Only humping,no function. I like how they censored the USB “connector”.

Greatest Video Game Collection Ever (from Digg) – Now that’s what I call a video game collection. This person probably owns every game, console, and accessory in existence. Lots more pics after the jump. Wowza! It’s like a geek fantasy come true!

Nuckin’ Futs – The JibJab Year in Review (from Digg) – JibJab’s version of all the important events that happened this year. Really funny. All sang by little kids.

Game periods – a comic strip from little gamers explaining why video games and couches were invented.

Srcubs JD’s AirStrike (from Digg) – From the first episode of Season 6. JD on Scrubs describes his “experience” using war terminology. Really hilarious.

iTude 0.1 released (from Digg) – The other night, I awoke with a start: How, if iTunes requires you to authorize your computer with their servers, play iTunes purchased music offline? This guy figures out how to authorize as many computers to play DRMed music purchased from iTMS as you want. I generally wouldn’t care about this, since Apple allows you to authorize up to 5 computers, but they have a broken system where you’re only allowed to reset once a year. In the event your hdd crashes or your library gets corrupted or somehow your computer gets deauthorized, but their main system doesn’t know about it, you’re out one authorized computer. Apparently this trick works in Windows too and the files you need to backup is located in:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\SC Info.

Virtual Reality (from Digg) – (NOT WORK SAFE!) UCB at its finest. Quite a sketch I’ve got to say.

Fast Hands (from Digg) – 2005 National Hammered Dulcimer champion Max Zbiral-Teller plays ‘Apple Juice.’ an original composition at Bard College. You can find this piece on his latest CD ‘Many Tastes Are Loaded,’ at his website www.maxzt.com and shortly on his YouTube page. Pretty neat instrument. Reminds me of those ancient Chinese instruments: the guqin.

Google Blatantly Copies Yahoo!? (from Digg) – Back when IE7 launched, Yahoo! created a customized version and began to market it to our existing IE users. … Today it seems that Google has similar intentions. So similar, that they decided to basically copy our page and slightly Googlify it. If you look, the design, layout, and most of the text are the same! I wonder what was going through the head of the programmer in charge of this… There’s another blog entry in regards to this here: The Race for Optimizing IE7

Street Pranks (from Digg) – Tape Sculpture and Street Installations by Mark Jenkins aka Storker. Courtesy: xmarkjenkinsx.com Really funny situations made with tape sculptures and half mannequins.

XNA Game Studio Express Has Been Released! (from MS newsgroup) – XNA Game Studio Express will allow people to develop games for the Xbox 360. The framework is free, but if you plan on reselling games or want samples to help you start, there’s a subscription fee.

Mythbusters Rube Goldberg machine (from Digg) – The Mythbusters build a rube goldberg machine. Happy Holidays from the Mythbusters. Witness the longest piece to camera in mythbusters history. It’s a Rube Goldberg machine. That should be enough to get you to watch it.

Computer Repair Fraud (from Digg) – Who can you trust to repair your computer these days?

33 Names of Things You Never Knew had Names (from Digg) – I’m actually surprised some of these things have names! (i.e. ARMSAYE – The armhole in clothing; MINIMUS – The little finger or toe.)

TelePresence (from Digg) – Visit to Cisco TelePresence demo at Headquarter Campus (San José, CA) by projectteam Fontys University. Wow! What a neat way to hold conferences. One day, every house will have something like this and you won’t even have to go into work.

So much SNOW!

Driving home was sort of a pain today. Cars were going really slow. Took me about 10 minutes to go 2 blocks. The average freeway speed was about 40MPH.

Then there was the hill. I live somewhat on the side of a big hill and the drive back was somewhat scary where my tires sometimes lost traction and turn left/right didn’t really respond. That probably means I’ll need to get some chains for my wheel. The closer I got to home, the more snow there was (due to the fact less people drove there, so less snow got rubbed away). Anyway, I get to about 10 yards from my house and my wheels get stuck. No matter what I try, it wouldn’t go up anymore. I had tried scooping the snow away from the front of my wheels, but that didn’t seem to help. A couple friendly neighbors came and help. We tried putting cardboard underneath the wheels and that helped somewhat, but still didn’t really get much further.

They ended up helping me push my car in front of another neighbor’s driveway for now and hopefully the snow will melt away soon.

Turns out my trip home wasn’t as bad as my fellow colleagues. It took them 6 hours and a couple near death encounters compared to my mere 45mins. Looking at the weather, it looks like it’ll be warmer tomorrow. People are already sending in WFH (work from home) emails.

Global warming? Haha.


Random Crap:

Today’s Japanese phrases are 大切 (taisetsu) and 命 (inochi) which means important and life respectively. Together 命は大切 (taisetsu ha inochi) means well, life is important.

Free Services to Inspire Your Cellphone (from Digg) – Here, for your gratitude-generating pleasure, is a rundown of some of the most exciting and powerful services awaiting your cellphone at this very moment. Better yet, at the moment, they’re all free. So interesting story. I was on my way to get my eye examined, but I forget which plaza the doctor’s in. I know the general area it was in, but this being my visit, I was too 2 blocks from my house already and it was too far to go back. I called 1-800-FREE-411 and listened to a 10-15sec advertisement and got the the phone number, despite me saying “overlake eye center” vs “overlake eye design”. Do note, someone mentioned if you mix up the FREE and 411 (e.g. 1-800-411-FREE), you get connected to an adult server. The free international calls is interesting. I wonder if you really have to use a cell phone for that.

Science a la Joe Camel (from Digg) –

The producers of former vice president Al Gore’s film about global warming, myself included, certainly agreed. So the company that made the documentary decided to offer 50,000 free DVDs to the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) for educators to use in their classrooms. It seemed like a no-brainer.The teachers had a different idea: Thanks but no thanks, they said.

In their e-mail rejection, they expressed concern that other “special interests” might ask to distribute materials, too; they said they didn’t want to offer “political” endorsement of the film; and they saw “little, if any, benefit to NSTA or its members” in accepting the free DVDs.

Gore, however, is not running for office, and the film’s theatrical run is long since over. As for classroom benefits, the movie has been enthusiastically endorsed by leading climate scientists worldwide, and is required viewing for all students in Norway and Sweden.

Still, maybe the NSTA just being extra cautious. But there was one more curious argument in the e-mail: Accepting the DVDs, they wrote, would place “unnecessary risk upon the [NSTA] capital campaign, especially certain targeted supporters.” One of those supporters, it turns out, is the Exxon Mobil Corp.

Sigh… when the educational system fears to distribute knowledge because of repercussions by their supporters turning off the money tap, that’s when you know how bad our educational system has gotten.

Speaking of which, someone submitted this letter on Digg:
teacher is wrong but still gives detention

April 20th, 1994

Dear Mrs. _____,

You may already know this, but in case Alex has neglected to tell you, I am assigning him to detention for one hour this Friday, April 22nd. The reason is as follows:

Alex consistently defied me. During class he contradicted me numerous times when I insisted that the length of one kilometer was greater than that of one mile. Every other student in class accepted my lesson without argument, but your son refused to believe what I told him, offering such rebuttals as, “You’re lying to the class,” and commanding other students to challenge my curriculum.

Although he was correct, Alex’s actions show a blatant disregard for authority, and a complete lack of respect for his school. In the future, Alex would be better off simply accepting my teachings without resistance.

Please see to it that your son understands this.

Regards,
Adam Hilliker

I have a feeling it’s a fake, though Friday, April 22nd, 1994 does exist. Though that last sentence seems awfully forceful and the fact that a student was commanding other students to challenge her curriculum is something you hear in college, not elementary or high school (which it sounds like). Then there’s the fact a 1994 email just popped up on the internet in the year 2006. Though if it’s true… MY GOD!

Was reading Foxtrot and the iguana is so cute!!!
foxtrot iguana