You Can't Count on Dracula

You know, it seems like when we have a good myth out there someone always goes and ruins it by telling us it can't be. Give us Vampires at least, what'd Count Chocula ever do to you other than giving you part of your complete breakfast?
Apparently, if vampires were real, numerically speaking we'd all be vampires by now. It also warns in the article about not confusing fictional movies with fact.... where's the fun in that??

Worst Halloween Costumes

As you're finishing up with the Trick or Treaters tonight, see if you can recall anyone having one of these costumes. I feel really sorry for the kids who would have dressed up in one of these, ok, maybe not the rubik's cube, but all the rest. I mean c'mon the leather man from the Village people??? Who makes that costume and thinks that's a good idea.

Halloween on Warcraft

Here is a very clever video made on World of Warcraft about zombies. I'm highly impressed at the amount of detail these guys put into it. Also, the song isn't too bad either considering..."At least they're not unreasonable, they won't eat your eyes".

New Vista Sounds

So, with every version of Windows, I'm always curious about what the new sounds are going to be. I know it's a bit silly to anticipate your new startup and shutdown sounds, but it's something we gotta hear everyday, so it's exciting to hear them for the first time.vvI really enjoy the ones for Window XP, but you gotta admit, they're getting kind of old. Well, here's a link to some New Sounds for Windows Vista.

Daylight's Wasting Time

Let the count down begin to March 11, 2007 when Daylight Savings time is back. I know yesterday was the first official day of not having daylight savings time, but today was the first work day without it and I gotta tell you, it's frustrating and this is just the begining. By the time I get home at 6pm it's already dark... the day is gone. Unfortuantely it'll continue getting darker until December 21 (first day of Winter) and then next year DST will be extended.
Sorry for this rant and I know it doesn't follow the goal of my blog which is the websites I've been to, but I just had to say something. Here's a link about DST for your internet reading enjoyment. Apparently someone shares my feelings about it ending.... notice the message at the top of the article .... "Because of recent vandalism or other disruption, editing of this article by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled. Such users may discuss changes, request unprotection, or create an account."

All Out of Black Cats

If you live in Boise, ID and you want a black cat you may be waiting for awhile. The animal shelter has banned the adoption of black cats until November 2. The shelter is afraid that the cats may be hurt in some sort of prank or sacrifice due to the upcoming Halloween holiday.
In other news... many stray cats in Boise have been seen hiding under ladders on top of pennies on tails.

The Band is Out on the Field!!!

Just in case you've never seen "the play" before, I thought I'd link it for you. That link is the last minute of what is considered the best play ever in football history. We see this trying to be reproduced from time to time in the NFL, but I haven't seen one quite as amazing.
I thought of this because of a commercial I saw while watching an NFL game today. I got to thinking there may be people out there who hadn't seen it. Who could ever forget the reference "The Band is out on the field"... it has become known as something you say when something impossible happends.
Here is a link to the explanation and verification of the play.

Not Appropriate to Dress as Captain Underpants??

A New York Principal didn't feel like dressing up as Captain Underpants was an appropriate "Super Hero Day" costume. I'm not sure what the big deal about wearing underpants outside of your clothes is, Superman did it for years and no one complained. I guess it crosses the line when all you wear is underpants and a cape, of course in this case, they were actually wearing clothes, just nude colors to make it appropriate.
I wasn't familiar with Captain Underpants until this story and I'm wondering if the principal was familiar with him. Captain Underpants is a cartoon principal's alter ego who helps protect the students from monsters.... I would think that the principal, if anyone, would dress as this superhero or at least appreciate the fact that students are recognizing a principal as a superhero.
And of course this blog entry wouldn't be complete without a stupid video.

Six Common Misconceptions about the Wii

I've been a Nintendo fan since the original NES came out in 1985, but I got to admit, up until E3 this year, I was really frightened about their future. When I first heard about the Revolution (beta name for the Wii), I thought, well, it's finally the end of Nintendo, another gamecube for kids. Once E3 came and there were actually previews and some names of titles were released, I knew I had to have one. Here is a link to the Six Common Misconceptions about the Wii. I must admit, I subscribed to most of these ideas until I've read more about it. One of my favorite parts about it is how you can download the old games for the NES for it.

The First "iPod"

When most of us think about the first portable music player we think of the good ol' Walkman by Sony. Well, we're wrong!!! Before Sony got the idea there was another, called the Stereobelt. The creator knew he was on to something, but noone would beleive him. Even though his idea didn't take off, he was smart enough to get a patent on it and made lots of money on it from Sony. It kind of makes you wonder how many great ideas out there have been put on the side burner and forgotten about. My hats off to you Mr. Andreas Pavel for your idea of putting a soundtrack to life. I'm sure Steve Jobs thanks you too.

College Days

This is a really silly video. It was made at the College I went to and actually looks like it was in the Suite that was next to one I lived in. The called it Pikeville College: The Movie. When I was going there, things got loud and crazy from time to time and I gotta admit there were a few things that went off the balcony, but no one was stupid enough to film the evidence (ok so we filmed us dropping a gallon of orange drink off the 4th floor, but that's harmless, right??), much less post it on the internet. Also, when we jammed out, the guitars weren't made of plastic or pillows. My question is, what were these guys think'n??? Well, apparently they did get into trouble for it, I'm not sure what kind, but maybe next time they'll keep there actions to a lower profile.

Make Art the Geeky Way

I signed up for an RSS feed for How to's of the day. Today's "How To" was How to Master the Etch a Sketch. I chose to blog about this not because the article seems helpful, but because it seems to think it is. Who can actually get good at these things. I've never had one, but played with them in stores and messed with the ones other people have. Maybe you can find this how to helpful, but I just don't have the patience for it. Who knew that you could drill a whole in the back, drain it and it'd keep :)

Punk Principal

I'm not too sure what to think about this one. Here's a story about about a Montana Principal that gave one of his students a wedgie. According to the story he not only gave the classic wedgie, oh no, he gave the good ol' Punk wedgie. Where you pull the shirt over the head and then do it. I gotta say though, I'm surprised at the outcome. He only got suspended for 6 days, and from another story I read about this, not all of those were unpaid days suspension. It'd be cool to find video of this.

Stupid Things People Do

Here's a list of people doing stupid things. I haven't read through this entire page, because of its massive amount of content, but alot of these things I've read are hillarious, partly because I've exprienced similar issues. There is one about someone trying to fax a piece of paper that is folded. I saw that one and I just knew they were talking about the person I'd heard of that was trying to fax paper to another office because they were out.

Are the French that Rude???

If you ever had the desire to go to Paris especially if you're Japaneese, this link may make you reconsider. Apparently there are some cases where Japaneese tourists get so upset by the rudeness of the French that they have to undergo therapy after a visit to France. By reading the article it seems like so far the Japaneese are the only ones that have been diagnosed with this 'Paris Syndrome', but it must effect others as well. So, it looks like you may want to take your money from your Paris trip to a nice Japaneese vacation (at least they're nice!!!).

Dog Gone!!!

It'd be nice to know how to train a dog to fetch, or sit, or maybe even jump through a hoop, but this guy has trained his dog to skateboard. Here's another really ridiculous video that you just don't know why it's funny, kinda like the racecar webpage. This is a really amazing video.... I had to watch it twice to beleive it, and still question it. It's the future Doggy Hawk!!!!

Virtual NES

Ever long to play your favorite games from the past? Well, with the vNES you can. It runs off Java virtual machine so there is no need to install software as long as you have Java turned on. Just going through the list of the games takes me back to my childhood, waiting for my allowance so I could go to the local movie store and rent the latest NES game. I hear the Wii is going to have a feature where you can buy these old games and play them on there, I can't wait!!!!!!!

**<Disclamer>**
Brian's blog does not endorce any type of piracy. I'm not sure of the legality of this site so play at your own risk.

All the TWiT's are in the can???

Last week I was out of town on a training trip so I didn't have my usual 45 minute commute (the time I use to catch up on my Podcasts and tech news). I checked on my normal Podcasts on Sunday nite and found the TWiT and Security Now epidsode listed (as expected) and downloaded them. I also went to the TWiT website to see if this week's epidsode only to find the title of "No Twit Today" (which is ok, I was behind anyway) followed by a message that there will be no TWiT today nor next week, but then this line :

"I'll decide what happens to TWiT, the show, when I come back, but at this point it looks like it's on life support and the heart monitor is flatlining."

Wow, that's really saddening to geeks everywhere. I'm hoping it's just a frustration with Leo that a couple weeks off will cure, but it seems uncertain at this time. If someone else has more information on this feel free to comment on it, I'd like to know. For now though, things don't look good.

Biggest Computer Flops Ever

I'm not too sure that I totally agree that these are the worst computer flops ever, but this is a really good list of flops. Of course no flop list is complete without Microsoft's BOB!!! The word Flop doesn't even begin to describe what Windows ME was. Interesting article, however, I was surprised that (other than Windows ME) we hadn't had any "modern" computer flops.... could it be time... the Zune, or maybe even the long anticipated $100 laptop???

$100 Laptop Preview

I've been reading articles for about a year now on this $100 laptop project which seems like a great idea. On that topic, here is an article with some pictures of the latest model. It looks kinda funny. I think Fisher Price had to be in on the design. I wonder how much functionality it actually has, it has a "slimmed down" version of Redhat Fedora (Linux OS) running on it. The future children will all be L33T HAXORs:).

Optimizing Firefox

Now that IE 7 is out, before you switch (for whatever reason) back from Firefox, you may want to consider this article on some optimizations you can make. One of the problems I've had with firefox in the past is that it tends to take up a little more memory than I'd like. Apparently this isn't a memory leak, but a caching feature built in (theres the "it's not a bug it's a feature" card). However, if you don't like the feature that takes up a lot of memory click on the above link and follow the steps. So far it has worked well for me.

Ultimate Movie Preview!!!!

I saw this Mother of all Trailers a few weeks ago and now I can't watch a corney movie preview without thinking of this. A genius cast at work starring Edward Norton at least three times and a salami sandwich. Every since I saw this, I've been quoting this stupid thing "Until Now!!!" "But First". Also, how in the world did I miss Howard the Duck part 2, looks like I have some catching up to do ....

Jack's Point of View

In the spirit of Halloween, here's a new take on the life and death of a pumpkin. I, myself, find it distrubing and feel a little bit bad about my plans to carve a Jack O' Lantern next week, but it still won't stop me. It's a spooky little video about how the pumpkin feels when it is taken from it's home to become a Jack O' Lantern.

A Year in the Making

I've seen these videos before, but this is pretty intelligently done. This guy took a picture per year to produce this video. Usually when you see these videos, the person taking them is just taking pictures to see how they've changed. This guy actually has an interesting "play" going, as well as some pretty good music.

Cubed Roots

Here's another cool party trick brought to you by Brian's Blog. It explains how to find the cubed roots of up to 9 digit numbers. Sure you may never need it in a practicle situation, but it can be used to impress your friends.

Convenient Cover

Well, here's something funny. While in Afghanistan Canadian troops have come across a forest of 10ft marijuana plants. Apparently the Afhghans have been using it as cover to hide from the troops; even to camouflage their cars. They've tried burning it down (excuse the pun) but it is so saturated by water that they can't burn it.
First of all, I bet I know some people who can make sure it goes up in smoke. Secondly, speaking of up in smoke, doesn't this sound like something from a Cheech and Chong movie. One thing about it, by the time the Canadian troops find them, they probably won't care. I'm think'n they'll probably get found around 4:20.

Don't Cry on Your Cellphone

CNET has an article about how tears can damage a cellphone. Apparently if you are crying while on your cellphone, it can receive water damage. So, if you're feeling sad, find a non-cellphone to cry on. At least it doesn't cause it to explode :)

The Most T-Shirts ever worn

I wonder sometimes how these people come up with these world record ideas, but I gotta give my hats off (or maybe even my shirt off) to this guy who has worn the Most T-Shirts ever. I don't know about you, but the first think I can think of when I see this is how much fun it'd be to run and knock him over, or if I were him, to get knocked over in that. Seems like a good time for a fall. I wonder where he got all those shirts at, especially when it comes to the larger sizes.

One Expensive Burrito

I like me some burritos as much as the next guy, but this lady ended up paying $5,000 for her burrito, of course it had a few extras in it. I gotta give it to her, that's an original idea for smuggling in drugs, although a waste of a tasty burrito.

RaceCar!!!!

This is funny.... I'm not sure why, but for some reason racecar noises made by humans are funny. It's cool when he shifts it into high gear. I'm sure most people have seen it, but for those who haven't enjoy!!!

How to Solve a Rubik's Cube

Here's a cool link I was sent not too long ago. It's something that makes for a cool party trick. How to sovle the Rubik's Cube. I've tried it on my own with only the success of sovling one side. This sure beats having to solve it the Ghetto ways:

1) take the stickers off
2) find you a good screwdriver and take it apart

Sure these methods are challenging in their own ways, but if you ever want to solve it the right way here ya go.

North Korean BodyGuard video

Wow, these guys are hardcore.... "From the minute you wake up he makes you hit stuff continuously"... impressive!!! They are dodging knives, that's pretty crazy. I wonder if they can dodge bullets, or catch them in their teeth like Bruce Leroy, however I doubt they have the power of the glow ;). Anyway, I guess when you're a crazy dictator it pays to have you some harcore body guards.

Different Approach to Stopping Piracy

I saw this article posted on TechDirt and the title (Would Jesus Get Music From P2P Networks?) immediatly caught my eye. This is displaying this as a moral issue, which I agree with. Stealing is against the law and breaking the law, in most cases, is not morally the correct thing to do. What I did find interesting was the response some Christians were giving to this which is that by using P2P it is helping spread the word.
First of all I want to say, I don't like DRM's and think they hurt those who are trying to do stuff legally most of all. I also thing that in most cases people who are not Christians are not going to want to randomly download Christian music, so it's not likely to spread the word. The more effective way to spread the word would be to tell people the good news of Jesus, through your good deeds, or even inviting people to a church.
To answer the question posed in this article I would say. No, Jesus would probably not get music from P2P networks (excluding non-copyrighted material). If he wished to spread the word through music, I would say he would write his own music proclaiming the good news, record it, and distribute it for free.

New Way for Traffic Reporting

Discovery Channel news posted an article on how cell phone companies are experimenting with a new technology to track where heavy traffic areas are. It can do this by examining where the cellphones are at and looking for a signal. Not just by the amount of people on the phone. This is an interesting idea. It sure beats a guy flying overhead in a helicopter shouting at you on the radio.

Make your own WiFi Antenna

Ever think your WiFi signal stinks and wish you could boost it a little. Well, you may be able to do so for free. You can make your own directional WiFi antennas by using the magic of Aluminum foil, parabolas, and a nice little predesigned pattern. It's called the EZ Parabolic Reflector, and the simple instructions can be found here. I haven't tried it myself, but it was featured on the latest episode of dl.tv (episode 101). They show an exaple of it and explain it a little bit further.

Star Wars in HD

Coming up in the not so far far away future, Star Wars will appear in HD for the first time ever. I would hope this is a good thing, but could it upset some Star Wars fans? Since the original Star Wars was made in the 70's on a limited budget, I'm a little worried about what may show up in HD. Hopefully Lucas fixed everything in digitally remastered versions.
In other Star Wars news, I heard that the orginal films were lost and Lucas had to go back to the laser disk versions to get some of the original footage where Greedo didn't shoot first. Does this mean he could possibly fix this blunder?

A name of your choosing

A Marine by the name of Cody Baker, is letting the public bid on changing his name. And he promises to make it legally binding. He is doing this to raise money for his family, put himself through college, and to raise awareness of orphanages. I would wonder if there are any naming restrictions by law. We've all heard of the guy who changed his name to Optimus Prime, so we know at least that is legal, and people from peta who have changed their names. It'll be interesting to see what his name ends up becoming. I have no clue what I'd name him if I'd win, post comments with your names if you won!!!

FireFlown???

To all of us Firefly fans out there, things aren't looking too good. It's been been a few years since the season was canceled, and about two years since the movie, and nothing seems to be looking up. On October 1, Joss Whedon said on his blog: "There's no sequel, no secret project regarding Serenity or somesuch and I'm not even sure how anyone thought there was talk there. I've seen Nathan and Tim (and Summer and Alan) recently because they're my friends because I'm so, yeah, awesome. So let's put that to bed and smother it with a pillow."

If that's not just a punch in the stomach:( Still for anyone out there reading this that haven't seen the Firefly series/Serenity see it soon, ask me and I'll even loan you the DVD's, but you'll want to buy your own copy I'm sure. It's excellent!!!! Too bad almost all hope is gone for another go round.

Smoking bird

The tobacco company now has a new market. Here's a picture of a bird who actually smokes. I believe this bird was also featured smoking in MSNBC's this week in pictures a few weeks ago. He says it's just a social habit and he can quit anytime he wants to.

Geek Squad Ripoffs???

We've all seen the Best Buy commercials and most "IT staff" works nowadays have probably been called it, yes I'm talking about the Geek Squad. Sometimes doing free lance computer work, I've often wonder what the rates the Geek Squad charges are. I was sent this article yesterday about how Best Buy and their geek squad fixes computers and their rates. It looks like maybe I should charge more and fix less. Sounds like they're ripping people off. It seems like your "best buy" would be to avoid them and hire someone cheaper.

The Exploding Whale

Another oldy but goody. This video has been around for a while, actually since 1970. So, the story behind it is that there was a whale that washed up on a beach in Oregon and they didn't know what to do about it, so they decided to blow it up with dynamite. Watch the above video for further details. Another funny part of this is that there are several sites on the internet dedicated to this, and even several that claim to be the "official site" for it. If you've seen it before, sorry for the reposting, but if you haven't, you've really missed out and here's your chance!!!!

9 Reasons To Become an Evil Super Villain

Right up there with Peter's Evil Overlord list is this list on 9 Reasons to Become an Evil Super Villain. Deep down, who doesn't want to be an Evil Super Villain, it really sounds like a lot of fun. Enjoy!!

New way to Make water

Well, if this isn't refreshing!!! Wired magazine ran a not so deatailed article on a new method of making water from thin air. Even though they went into no detail about how it is actually done, they did talk about how much money it would save from porting water to our troops in Iraq. Apparently, it currently cost $30/gallon to get water to them. One thing I thought was cool was that it was farmed. This kinda reminded me of Luke's job on StarWars. He actually worked on a moisture farm. So the idea is an old one, the technology is new. Really cool!!!

How not to be seen Halo Style

This is a pretty clever video for all you Monty Python fans out there. It is a remake of the Monty Python How not to be Seen skit done with Halo. Pretty funny stuff. Just in case you haven't seen it before, here's a link to the original video for those who have not seen it.

Nerds are better Lovers

As I was going through some of the sites I'd looked at before I came across this article from last summer and thought I'd pass it on. It's about how Nerds make better lovers. I tend to agree with this. A lot of nerds are just glad to have a girl hanging out with them, so they will tend to listen more. It always seemed to me like all these "pretty boys" and jocks are too caught up with themselves. It seems like this article mainly applies to girls finding guys, but I beleive this same priciple holds true for girls. So whether you're a guy or a girl find yourself a good nerd!!!

Sneak Preview of Transformers Scenes

I just came across this article. Some great pictures of the new Transformers movie and some amature video some filmed of the making of a scene from the move.... at the end of one clip you can even hear the guy say "I got this all on camera".
Also, there is a contest you can enter to make Optimus Prime say a dialog of your choosing during the movie. Of course it will be them choosing your choosing so, it's really just something to let them declare a winner.

Making your own Gonk Droid

Here's something else I've put on my list of things to do. Build my own gonk droid. These are the droids on star wars I always thought looked a little like trash cans with legs. I found this while looking at how to build my own R2D2 after watching some show about it on G4. I'm think'n the best time to do this would be right after Christmas. The rubbermaid containers are abundant in all shapes and sizes in the stores then. The cool part about this, is that it doesn't look too hard to do, nor too expensive. I guess the reason I haven't done it yet is that I haven't figured out where I'd put the thing.

Programmers Shooting themselves in the Foot

Here is an article that appeared in a link on digg earlier today. Being a programmer myself, I really appreciate the different ways programmers are shooting themselves in the foot. The article explains the ways a programmer would have to write the code for shooting their foot. For the non-programmers out there, it probably won't be as funny, but it's at least worth a glance.

The Science of a Curveball

So, as baseball season comes to a close and you're watching the playoffs, here;s something to think about. Most people who know me know I'm a baseball fan so to come across this article was exiciting. It's about how curveballs work. This is explained by Bill Nye... you remember, the science guy!!! He once had his own show in the 90's, and was kinda like Mr. Wizard. Anyway, after reading this you'll want to watch a curve ball in slow motion in the playoffs tonight.

Watch it McFly!!!

You ever wonder what happend to Biff from back to the future? Well, neither did I, but I still yet came across this video of what Biff does now. It's kinda sad, but he seems to be enjoying himself. If only he could fly his way back to 1985 and relive his moment of pseudo-fame.

How a Lightsaber works

I ran across this interesting article about a year ago about how a lightsaber works. It's kinda funny, but I'm surprised at how thorough it is. It's just a really cool article if you're a Star Wars fan, and maybe even if you're not.

Interview with Optimus Prime

This is really cool The USA Today posted an interview with Peter Cullen or as we all know him as OPTIMUS PRIME!!!! This is a really great interview, I learned alot about him. Turns out the voice of Prime was always within him. Also I found out that BotCon will be in Lexington, KY this weekend. I have a friend who went not too long ago, and it looks like he had a blast!!! He actually got to met Peter Cullen.

Make your own Sock Monkey

I like creating things and tinkering. I found these Plans for a Sock Monkey not too long ago and have been meaning to make them, but never have. The main reason is at one time they had a link to buy "Monkey Socks" but they were around $17 and I thought that'd probably be too much to pay for me to mess them up. Post a comment if you can find a place to purchase a decent pair of monkey socks for cheap.

Posting Comments

Hey, feel free to post comments. I have enabled the Anonymous posting of comments, only thing is, it sends me an email asking me to approve them when you post. I can't think of many reasons why I wouldn't approve one, so post away. Don't worry if it doesn't show up at first, it's because I haven't checked my email to release the message yet. Happy Posting!!!

Peter's Evil Overlord List

An oldy, but a goody. If you've never seen it, or heck even if you have already. You have to check this out!!! I first saw Peter's Evil Overlord List several years back. Saw it about a year ago, bookmarked it, now I'm passing it on. ENJOY!!!

Brian J Green Esq.

So, I'm contemplating adding a new title to the end of my name. What's to stop me really? I wondered what made a lawyer have the special title of Esquire so I decided to look it up. According to this Wikipedia article there are no legal requirements to receive the title. I'm no lawyer, but hey I think I'll try. Even though it is usually a given title, I think I'll sign it a few times and who knows, maybe it'll catch on.

Who Knows when you may need this

Ever want to be a member of the bomb squad? Probably not, but if you ever need to, Wired magazine has an article to get you on your way How to: Dismantle an Atomic Bomb Lets hope none of us ever need this!!! The last line is the best.

This Just in Norton Antivirus Stinks!!!

I just ran across this article on the 20 reasons the world despises Norton Antivirus
I'm glad someone finally said it!!! It's pretty bad when we have to decide what is worse, the virus or the Anti-virus, especially when they seem so similar.