Lobster Game

Eating lobster has always seemed weird to me. You go into a restaurant, pick out your lobster, and then they cook it while it's still living Eat what you like, but please don't play with your food first. Yes that is what you think it is, it is a lobster "claw" vending machine game. I don't think I can look at a claw game again without thinking of seafood. I wouldn't think this is considered by law as animal cruelty (or else they couldn't sale them), but it sure is weird.
I've never been that good with games like this, how in the world are you expected to get a wet slippery lobster out with a metal claw? Lets also say by chance that I do win my prize lobster, now do I take it to the owner of the bar or restaurant and have them cook it up for me for free? I guess that's part of the deal, but I'm not sure.

Size of the Enterprise

For all your Trekies out there, here's a link to a representation of how big the actual Starship Enterprise is. Now that I think about it, I would guess that most Trekies have a pretty good idea of the size of the ship, so I guess this would be more for non-Trekies. Either way, it's a pretty good site with some thought put into it. I enjoy how it shows both the height and the length as opposed to just the length. It's funny how some of the people got into arguments in the comments about how many decks there were on the ship.

Loch Ness Monster Caught on Video

One of the coolest mythical creatures has been filmed once again. I must admit, I'm not a believer in the monster of Loch Ness, but I do wonder what these sightings are all about. Obviously there is something behind them, but it's hard to believe that if such a creature did exist that it could hide from humans as much as it does. I thought this was an interesting story mainly because, with all the technology we have and all the research that has been done, we still can't figure out what this thing is or where it comes from or if it's real. Thought I'd share it with you. Check out the video, it's pretty good footage, although not as good as the footage of it on the Toyota commercial.

Also, exclusive photo brought to you only on this blog!

Van Cam

I find that Google Earth is probably one of the handiest tools for travel for people like me who spend a lot of time on their laptops, but don't have a GPS. You can check out the city that you're in and actually reference what buildings you may pass on your journey. Wired Magazine blogged earlier today about a "geeked out" Van that roams a city and takes pictures every 8 meters.
With this technology implemented you could pull up a picture of the street you're on and see what is right around the corner if you chose to walk that way. It may save you from getting lost, you could virtually get lost instead of getting lost, hence saving time and your feet. After reading through a few of the comments this feature apparently is already implemented in the "Google Streets" portion of Google Earth, although not by the same people.

Update: After posting this, I saw a link to the new Google streets. I thought if you were interested in this blog post you'd like that too.

Quick Photo Blog: Squirrels with Lightsabers

Since you're used to some Star Wars stuff over the past week, I couldn't resist linking this photo of Squirrels with Lightsabers.

Microsoft Milan (Surface)

In my morningly tech news reading (when I'm barely awake may I add), I noticed a few different references to a new Microsoft product that is code named the Microsoft "Milan" but officially named the Microsoft Surface. One of the articles about this that appeared on Digg today was an actual demonstration of this done by Bill Gates. This looks pretty neat but I'm not sure anyplace would get their $10,000's worth out of it. I do like the idea of paying at a restaurant by simply laying down your card on the table, seems possibly a useful technology for something later down the road.
Another article from wired shows a few clearer shots and another video of this device. The whole time while watching/reading these, all I could think of is more versions of Vista to put out there... Microsoft Vista Advanced Surface edition and if you want to have less features, but pay less, Microsoft Vista Clean Surface edition.

More Star Wars Stuff

I'm not sure if you've noticed or not, but I've blogged a lot about Star Wars recently. The reason why is that it has been in the news a lot due to the 30 year anniversary (May 25, 1977). Even though the original movie was released before I was born, the original trilogy has had more effect on my life than any other movie series, so I'm more than happy to continue blogging about it. Here's some interesting stuff I've seen out there lately I thought I'd throw it into this one blog just for fun.
A Vader Helmet decorating exhibit in "Mos" Angeles.
Vader Helmet Balloon.
Make your own Star Wars movie -- now this one seems really cool... you can mix Star Wars clips in with your own videos. Seems like something really cool to try. If you make one, feel free to link it in the comments or email me a link.
Enjoy and Happy Anniversary Star Wars!

Words We Should All Know

I never was much on English and vocabulary when I was in highschool and college. Sure, it's kinda interesting, but other classes seemed more important and entertaining. I guess that is why I'm not too sure I understand the need for this vocabulary list compiled by the American Heritage dictionaries. Sure knowledge is power and knowing is half the battle, but what do you get for having a "superior command of the language". I know a few of these words, but not nearly half, I guess I'm not a Superior Language Commander.

Long Term Real Estate

Looking for some ocean front property? You can now get it really cheap if you're willing to wait for your investment for let's say, 10,000 years. A Hawaiian real estate company is somewhat jokingly selling real estate that is 3000 feet below sea level for $39.95. I saw "somewhat jokingly" because they do take your money, but they give you a deed. It's kind of like buying a star, you really can't call yourself an owner, but you get something saying you are. Interesting concept, but I don't know how well it will go over.

Memorable Star Wars Quotes

The article I'm referencing tonight is called "30 Most Memorable Star Wars Quotes". It isn't necessarily the most memorable from all the Star Wars movies, just the first one, which is kind of explained but not very clearly. If you see some missing that you really like, it's probably because they're not from the first movie.
I enjoy quoting the Star Wars lines and tend to do so several times daily, so I really enjoyed this link. So, check it out, memorize some more of your favorite lines and "laugh it up fuzzball".

Anakin's Disease

With all this talk about the 30th Star Wars Anniversary going around, I thought I would share with you this Wired article about Anakin's disease. We don't hear enough about Psychology nerds, so this blog post is dedicated to them. I thought this was the time for Psychology people to shine in their evaluation of Anakin. They did a really good job of analyzing all the different aspects of his personality. Next analyze Jar Jar.

15 Tech Myths

Here is an interesting article about 15 tech myths that was sent to me the other day. The good thing about this article is that it has a "Myth rating" on a scale of 1-5. It explains if it is really a myth or something that appears to be a myth, but is true.

Shields Up

I thought I would share with you a page that has some really useful security features. The site is called Shields Up. It was developed by Steve Gibson who is also the author of Spin Rite and a leading security expert. What it does is scan your network to see what ports are vulnerable to possible intruder attacks. If no vulnerabilities are present your network is considered to be in whats called "Stealth Mode". When you go to the page it does look kind of generic, but it does what it says it does and is reliable. Mr. Gibson has also created several other free programs you may find useful to help out with security.

Really Sweet Star Wars Collection

For anyone who has ever collect Star Wars items, you can really appreciate this collection. This guy really has some cool Star Wars stuff. The linked article contains pictures and info about Steve Sansweet's Star War's collection which is second only to George Lucas'.

Are You a Bob or a Tim

I read this story about name associations the other day and found it interesting. It pretty much says that people can look like their names. For example "Bob" is a round word so you would think that someone named Bob has a rounder face. "Tim" is a word that is thin, so you would think of Tim as a thin guy. It also says that "Brian" is an easily identifiable name-face match.... I wonder what is behind that (does he looks like he blogs?). I never have really thought about this too much, but it does make sense. Maybe that's why I get people's names wrong all the time, I just call 'um like I see 'um.

Snake Smuggler Thwarted

I know you have seen this somewhere already today especially if you read blogs and internet news, but I just had to mention it. A man in Cairo was caught smuggling 700 snakes onto a plane. This seems like quite a familiar story. I have not seen the Snakes on a Plane movie yet, so I kinda wonder just how would you get 700 snakes onto a plane.... I wouldn't guess you could do it in a carry-on bag. He should have known that Samuel L. Jackson would never let those #@%$ on no $#@$% plane.

Cut Out AT-AT Walkers

Here's another crafty thing to do that would make a great desk toy. It's a cut out AT-AT walker. The great part about this, is it's highly detailed, and the instructions seem pretty straight forward. I haven't attempted one of these yet, but it's something I plan on doing soon. I wonder if they could withstand the powers of the breeze from my desk fan :).

Protective Undies for Cellphone Users

About a year ago there was a television show on about the dangers that men can face by carrying their cellphones in their pockets (due to radiation). I didn't watch the show, but my neighbor did and informed my wife of these dangers. Apparently this show caught on and scared several people to the point where there were special protective undies made to prevent this kind of potential radiation. Here's an article that talks a little about the entire ordeal in more detail. My solution... make a cellphone holder out of duct tape, it protects everything.

Collection of Web Hoaxes

I'm sure you've seen the forwarded email that goes around from time to time that tells some unbelievable story. Here's a collection of some of these stories that are hoaxes. It's amazing how some of them are based on facts, however some of them are pure out lies. I had seen some of these before, but many were new to me. I found this to be a really interesting story.

Special thanks to Wally for the heads up on this story.

Atheism Debate Response

For anyone who is wondering, I did get a chance to watch the Atheism/Christian debate that took place on Nightline and I must admit I wasn't too impressed with either side. Being that the burden of proof was on Mr. Cameron and Mr. Comfort and they didn't provide indisputable scientific evidence to confirm Christianity (which was their claim), I would say they lost. I was also unimpressed at their lack of research they did on their opponent. They may have done the proper research on the facts they were presenting, however, they seemed completely unprepared for any argument their opponent presented.
With that said, I recently emailed the "Focus on the Family" group (lead by James Dobson) about the Blasphemy Challenge to see what their response was. They sent me the following link that I found very interesting and intelligently presented. This is not their official response, just a link to a resource they sent to me in response to my question.

Gallery of Geek Pride Run

I saw this gallery of the Geek Pride parade on CNET last night and thought I'd share it with you. Some of these costumes were really creative, however, what are the people going as Mii's thinking. A cardboard cutout of their Mii face... clever... disguise the real thing with a cardboard cutout of the fake. I'll call it an anti-costume.

IT Crowd Coming to America

As you recall, in January I blogged about the British comedy called "The IT Crowd"(link to the blog of it although it looks like the video of it has been removed). I watched a few of these shows and, working in the IT field, was able to relate to this show. Good news for us Americans, this show is going to be ported to NBC. I really like the IT members they cast now (especially Moss), so I hope they do as well with the cast as they did with "The Office" when it came over from Britain. I'm really looking forward to this, special thanks to Mike for the heads up on this story!

Useful Firfox Tip

I tend to be a Firefox user/endorser. I saw this article on digg earlier about simple firefox tips. Some of these I was already aware of, but most of them were new. I really enjoy the / search, it just makes sense if you have a "vi" background (although I keep wanting to push "n"for the next result). Thought I'd share this with you.... just a few quick tips.

Goats to the Rescue

We've heard of the wildfires out in the LA/Hollywood area. The citizens of the city of Los Angeles are now demanding goats and shepherds to be imported to take care of this problem. Goats are known for eating everything in their path, so it seems like an obvious solution to get them in there and eat the dry grass. There's actually a petition to get the goats imported that you can sign on the linked site. I hope they get the goats soon, I hear the fires are pretty baaaad.

Mario Line Rider

I'm not sure if I've mentioned Line-Rider before or not, but if not suggest you at least try it out. You draw a line and a little sledding guy rides on it, pretty easy concept. Unfortunately, I'm really horrible at it, get frustrated and usually stop messing around with it after about five minutes. With that short introduction, here is an example of what someone talented can do with Line-Rider. Here's a creation of the first level of Super Mario Bros. recreated in Line-Rider. There are several of these Line-Rider creations out on the internet.... check'm out.

Top 10 Bird in Sports Moments

Apparently last year ESPN did a segment on the top 10 sports moments involving birds. The video goes through several really good bird moments, although sadly some of the birds didn't make it. The last two are really the best. You get to see how protective a mother duck is even when someone is there to help out.

Photoshop haX0rz

So a site called worth1000 has held a Photoshop contests where people edit everyday signs/products to make them include "1337 speak"(elite speak). There are quite a few on the linked page, I think my favorites were the c0Lg8 and the pwnd signed. These participants did an excellent job on these, they look authentic.

CD to Make you High

Music can have some serious effects on you, like making you happy when you're sad, or take you back to fun times. Now, a new company is claiming their music can make you high. This is a really interesting, yet questionable concept. You can go to their site and sample some of their music to see for yourself how it does. I know when I heard their music I had to run and get some Cheetos.

Here's a quote from their software download description that sounds like a bunch of made up stuff.
"The I-Doser application scientifically syncs your brainwaves to achieve a specific mood or experience, as outlined by the dose you are taking. It does this through the use of a binaural beat dose that changes your brainwave patterns to make you feel a certain way. Binaural brainwave doses for every imaginable mood. I-Doser includes 2 free one-time-use doses: Alcohol and Content..."
Try it for yourself and have fun tripp'n.

Are You a Stupid Computer User

I saw this questionnaire on Digg the other day and thought it was fairly entertaining. It's several questions to answer to see if you're a stupid computer user. I especially like # 11 Is your home network’s name “linksys”? I went to a high rise building to fix someone's computer the other day and saw several "linksys" networks around.
The writer of the article seems a little harsh, not everyone can be an expert on computers, if so, I'd be out of a job. All in all though, I did get a good chuckle out of the questions.

Dwight as James Bond

Since last night was the season finale of The Office and I'll miss it until another season starts this fall. I thought I'd post a link to this video that features Dwight as James Bond.

Twirl a Squirrel

Ever had a problem with squirrels eating your bird's food, I haven't, but if I did, I'd be sure to invest in a Twirl a Squirrel. This is one of those videos where you feel guilty for laughing because it's mean. It's amazing how long these squirrels hang on.

...In the Old Ball Game

Last year in fantasy baseball a friend of mine had a team filled with older players. Now it is a running joke in the office that he only picks the "seasoned" players. I saw this article yesterday about older All-Star baseball players and it reminded me of my friend's team. I enjoy how the writer breaks it down at the end into one team of veterans.
It's not only extraordinary that these players are still in the game, but how well each one of them does. These players are true baseball legends and continue to amaze us daily.

Turtle vs Cat

As previously mentioned, I'm not a fan of cats, so to see this video of a cat getting pwnd (owned) by a turtle over and over gives me much pleasure. This turtle seems to be in a bad mood and very determined. Feel free to watch this over and over again and laugh. The funny part is how the cat never learns. It just continues to move 5 feet, then lay down and completely forgets about the raging turtle.

Kid Nation

I don't know if you've heard of this or not, but this fall there is going to be a really interesting show called Kid Nation. Here's the link to the CBS fall preview, from here, click on the Kid Nation link on the left, 3rd from the top, sorry it was all in flash so I couldn't directly link it. Anyway, the concept sounds like every kids dream. No adults, and they get to own their own city. This will require them to have a government and to have jobs. The video goes into details of what exactly is going to happen and it sounds really neat.
The interesting part is that when you're a kid all you want to be is an adult, when you're an adult, you'd like to be a kid. This will give them a chance to experience the responsibilities of growing up really quickly, but give them an opportunity to go back to childhood eventually. This seems like a wonder experience to build character and leadership skills for these children. It also looks as though the people they have chosen are extremely mature for their age.

What's a Website

If you're reading this, you probably know more about current technology than one British judge. During the trial of 3 potential terrorists accused of inciting terrorism via a website, the judge had to have the term "website" (linked definition of website just in case) explained to him. If these guys are terrorists I hope they get prosecuted to the full extent of the law, but even terrorists deserve a fair trial, get a different judge.

Another Star Wars Kid Video

I would hope that by now everyone that is on the internet has seen the Star Wars Kid video. This video was the first viral video I remember seeing and is now the most viewed viral video ever according to the Wikipedia article. Anyway, I thought that it has been a little too long since we've seen another one of these videos so here's one of the best I've seen. I imagine the original video had to be humiliating to the kid when it was first posted, but I would hope by now he's proud of it and advertises the fact that he's the Star Wars kid.

Ruby Vs. Java

Ok, another clever spoof on the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" commercials. Here's Ruby on Rails versus Java. Even though it's about programming languages, everyone should get a laugh out of it. You gotta like the hibernate jar ;).

Advertising a Virus

I saw this article on Techdirt today that talks about a security researcher who ran a banner that advertised a virus. It contained the text "Is your PC virus-free? Get it infected here!" and still got 409 clicks within 6 months. I've often wondered who clicks on these banner ads and who buys things out of spam email. Are the people who click on these things the people to blame. This begs the question "If no one reacted to SPAM and banner ads and pop-ups would there be less of them?". I could think of a few answers to this questions, all which lead to "we have ways of blocking ads, pop-ups and SPAM so let's just say live and let live". Any answers on the contrary are more than welcome.

Chase the Rainbow

I'm never quite sure what to think of these strange crook stories. Here is one where a man stole a truck full of Skittles, $250,000 worth to be exact. It's not clear on why he grabbed the skittles truck, but I like to imagine a scenario where he is a disgruntled ice cream man trying to steal the profits. I know it's a stretch, but there are still seven palettes of skittles missing.

Here Come the Robots

One thing I've always found cool are robots. Are they to be friends or foe, only time will tell. Lots of advancements have recently been made in robotics, here is a link to an interview with Rodney Brooks with MIT who talks about some of the advancements and futures of robots. My favorite part of this article was the pictures of Domo (named for the Styx song) who has creepily real looking eyes.

Google Tricks

I saw this link on Digg earlier that tells some unknown tricks of Google. I like the animal spotting tricks and appreciate the coordinates that are included. I really enjoy Google Earth and all that can be done with it. I find it great if you're in a city and want some visuals on where to go. Also I've noticed that if you plug in "Hurley's numbers" (from LOST) correctly as coordinates you'll end up somewhere in the South Pacific.... a possible crash site for the plane.

More Talk on the JFK Assassination

One of my big research projects in college was a paper on the assassination of President Kennedy. I had seen JFK and had heard many stories about it, but never did the research for myself until that time. The book I read was Gerald Posner's Case Closed. This book goes through the life of Oswald and the events that took place leading up to and after the assassination. It also goes through each conspiracy theory and explains why each one could not happen.
The story of the assassination was once again in the news today. Vincent Bugliosi, famous lawyer, is going to take on the task to once again prove that Oswald acted alone. Fortunately, his work has been done for him several times, but I'd say he'll have a best seller. The book comes out tomorrow.... here's a link to it on Amazon if you want to check it out.

E-Cigarette

It seems that hardly anyone smokes anymore. Which is excellent for health, but bad for gossip. It used to be the "cool" thing to do, all the rebels did it. Now that everyone's on a health kick it's not so cool so people are stopping. If you still want to get your smoke on and even get your nicotine, but still be reasonably health conscious, they're coming out with an e-cigarette.
This idea seems kinda silly and you'd probably get laughed off the smoke dock for bringing one, but hey, at least you won't get emphysema.

Golf Made Easy

I'm must admit, I'm probably the worst golf player ever. I saw this golf video and now it all seems clear. By following these tips perhaps I can do better than last place in the company golf tourney this year.

Baseball Scorecard

I'm not sure if I can remember a much more exciting first month of baseball season than what we've had so far (unless you're a Reds fan). If you're planning on going to a game anytime soon, one fun thing to do when you go is to fill out a scorecard. This gives you a way to really get into the game and keep your mind off the rowdy drunk people behind you. If you've never done this, and are afraid to ask how because you'll be scorned by the baseball experts near, you may want to check out this baseball scorecard tutorial. Not only is it something to do, but they're usually cheaper than a hotdog and make a much better souvenir.

Conan at LucasFilm Part 2

So there was a little bit more to the video I posted last week where Conan was at LucasFilm in San Fran. Here's a link to the second part of this saga and it may be even funnier. The best part is where he's talking to the girl and all the other guys are just staring at him. Is it sad that I keep a fan on my desk too so I can remember what a breeze feels like :).

From New York to London

This has been out on the internet for awhile, and I've seen it a few times, but never tried it. If you go to maps.google.com and Look up directions from New York to London, in the results, step number 24 asks you to swim across the Atlantic. This is probably a Google programmer's joke and a way around a programming "gotcha". The question isn't necessarily why does it say to swim, but why is someone looking up driving directions from New York to London. Just go to La Guardia. Unless of course you have a gogo gadget boat.

Colbert and His Arch-nemesis

As mentioned before I enjoy Stephen Colbert, and think he's one of the funniest men on TV currently. The other day he was talking about how he was one of the most influential people in Time magazine (as voted by the people), but ahead of him was a Korean singer named Rain. He has now decided to make a Korean music video to try to beat Rain. Here's a link to the video. Very clever video and song.

Man Dies During Danceoff

I think that Michael Jackson taught us best that when a conflict arises, the best thing to do is to have a dance off. I've never seen one of these, but I think it'd be something entertaining to attend. In fact I thought danceoffs were just a joke out of Zoolander until I read this article about a man dying during a danceoff. Who knew a such an event would have such an unfortunate ending.
If I could dance, I think I would try to settle my conflicts with a danceoff. I could imagine how that'd go. Wife says "Did you forget about the dishes" my response "I'm tired of this, I did them last night, it's a danceoff" and the conflict would begin and end in a bitter dancing battle, despite the results I'd be destined to do the dishes.

SpamTrap

Here is an odd little device that has the appearance of 0 usefulness other than the cool factor. It is called the SpamTrap. Although it does help in building up spam filters for us all, I'm not too sure what the point of shredding the pages are other than to demonstrate how useless spam is. It's nice of him to recycle the paper he wastes, however, he could help the environment more by not wasting it, but all the same it's cool and I want one :).

XTreme Baseball

Here's another unrealistic sport that you've probably never heard of. It's called XTreme Baseball. Theres no better explanation for it than this YouTube link, but it's kinda like playing baseball, but backwards and more people on the field. I don't really call this Xtreme, I call it annoying. Extreme baseball would be played with no gloves and, like kickball, you throw the ball at the runner to get them out. Having people run both ways just sounds confusing, perhaps dangerous, but not extreme.

Gameboy PC

I enjoy checking out case mods, and I haven't seen many good ones lately. I guess after looking at a few, you get kinda bored. However, this one is one of the best I've seen in a while (right up there with the beaver mod). It is a complete PC shoved inside an original Gameboy case. The article says it won't be playing anymore Mario, but I'd imagine emulators would run fine on it.

Girwrath

It seems like every time I take a trip somewhere I end up at a zoo and one of the places I try to visit is the giraffe cage. These guys are usually very docile creatures, funny to look at, and fun to watch. A Lithuanian student would now probably disagree with my statement considering one hospitalized him. The student was drunk and decided to climb into the giraffe's cage for some reason and was then pummeled.
I can't really say I blame the giraffe. He has this little cage for a home, and someone wakes him up in the middle of the night by breaking into his home. Good thing giraffes aren't NRA members.

"W" does U2

Sometimes we see videos where the creator just had a little bit too much time. Here is an example of such a case where George Bush sings Sunday Bloody Sunday. I wonder how long it took the creators to do this, but they did a really good job on it (although not as good as Bono).

Pikeville Rocks

At the title you may think, "I don't live in Pikeville, so I don't care", but I thought I'd let you in on a really cool story that has developed here in Pikeville. On my way to work on Monday morning I noticed a rock slide had occurred and one of the main streets of the city was blocked. I wasn't headed into town, so I took the detour (which is my normal route anyway) but saw a bulldozer doing some cleaning work. On my way home I had a better view and thought "wow this is a huge slide". The logical thing to do was to drive on home and walk on down to see what really happened.
As I was walking toward the slide, I noticed something quite peculiar, the trucks with the rocks were going the wrong way, meaning to the slide instead of away. I checked out the newspaper this morning and read the story twice to make sure I got it right. Here's the details... we have a rockslide so the solution is to haul more rocks in, make a 40 ft ramp, knock down more rocks, remove slide, repave road where it was messed up. Something just doesn't make sense.
I don't know much about construction, so I speak my plan out of pure ignorance, but here goes. Block road, bring in crane, knock the heck out of some mountain, make a really cool crash with a crater of rocks in road, upload the video of it to youtube cause it's bound to be good, clean up, repave road. As mentioned, they probably have a good reason for their solution as opposed to mine, but hauling more rocks in to a rockslide just seems weird to me.

Lost Connection

A co-worker and I were having our regular chat about the television show LOST earlier today, when we got to talking about how all the characters were connected. When I realized we may be onto some interesting stuff, I pulled out a piece of paper and decided to take some notes about the connections we recorded. Here's what we came up with.

Jack	->	Claire	Unknowingly Half Brother and Sister
Hurley	->	Locke	Locke worked for a Box company owned by Hurley
Sawyer	->	Locke	Locke's Dad was somewhat responsible for Sawyer's parent's death
Sayid	->	Mikhail	He had a cat that a lady whom Sayid previously tortured owned
Kate	->	Sawyer	Kate's Mom served Sawyer lunch and Sawyer's ex-girlfriend helped Kate get back in touch with her mother
Shannon	->	Sayid	Shannon got Sayid in trouble at the airport before the plane boarded
Libby	->	Hurley	Both in the same mental Hospital
Anna Lucia	->	Jack	She went to Australia with Jack's dad and drove him around
Desmond	->	Jack	Desmond was running up the bleachers and spoke with Jack after Jack performed a major surgery
Eko	->	The Island'	Eko's brother was found dead on the island
Eko	->	Claire	Eko went to see the daughter of the psychic Clair went to see about her pregnancy
Libby	->	Desmond	Libby Gave Desmond the boat

This is just what we came up with in our conversation. We did some research and came up with some other sites with similar information. Here is a random LOST site with connection info, and another called Lost Hatch. If you find any more feel free to post a comment or feel free to correct me where I'm wrong. Special thanks to James C. for the LOST discussion.

Ask Algorithm

Ask.com is starting a new ad campaign which talks about their search algorithms. I really enjoy clever advertising and don't care at all to pass it on. Will the advertising turn me away from using Google searches, probably not, but it may make me use Ask.com as a second search engine. One thing about it though, don't get caught searching with a bad algorithm.

Special thanks to Goyle for this contribution.

Chess Boxing

When many people think of boxing, they'll think of one fool beating up another who is willing to get beat on. Even Rocky said, he couldn't do anything with his mind so he decided to fight. If you do have that stereotype in your head, here's something that will blow your mind. It's called Chess Boxing. I couldn't believe it when I heard about it either, but it's for real. I heard about it this morning while watching sports center. Here's a link to the ESPN Videos of it.
Here's the explanation of it. They play a round of speed chess followed by a round of boxing, then back to speed chess again with a minute in between. The first one to get a knockout or a checkmate wins. Even though most of us have not heard of this sport, it's really big in Germany and other parts of Europe. Sounds like some intense training and focus must take place for this sport.

Rocket Fishing Rod

I stayed up a bit too late last night and when you stay up late, u see the weirdest commercials. One of the commercials I saw was for the Rocket Fishing Rod. This is a pretty funny commercial, but yet sad at the same time. I'm not much of a fisherman (I usually go about once a year), but it seems like it takes something away from a fishing trip when you have a kid with a pole that looks like a gun.
The commercial mentions taking aim... this makes me think of how much cooler this product would be if it had a spear at the end instead of hook and bobber. "I gigged 5 fish with my new rocket fishing rod". The moral of the story is, stay up late, u get to see all the cool commercials.

Betamax Promo Video

Feel'n old school? Here's a Betamax promo video that'll take you back a few years. I'm not sure why it didn't make it over the VHS (not that VHS was bad). I only remember seeing one of these things, and, strangely enough, my grandmother had it. If only they knew what was to come with the TiVo/DVR age. I wonder if the Blue-ray player will go the way of the Betamax, to me it looks that way, but then again, I'm not in the HD market.

Computer Work Not Always Glorious

The other day on Digg they had this interesting article on about 10 Reasons It Doesn’t Pay To Be “The Computer Guy”. I think I've mentioned before, but it's worth mentioning again, that sometimes being the computer guy isn't always glorious. It's really not a good idea to volunteer the information. My CS101 professor announced on the first day, that yes he was a computer teacher, but no he couldn't fix your Windows problems.
From my experience as an IT person, many Windows problems are just trial and error, some we see that reoccur and we're able to fix immediately, but others can take several troubleshooting steps just to identify. I compare this to the medical field. My wife is a medical student and, like a computer person, she is always being asked questions about medical issues. For now she can use the excuse.... "I haven't studied that yet" but in a few years, she'll be expected to perform miracles just like IT people are (although, her stuff will be more important than computer stuff). If you meet someone for the first time and they ask what you do, tell them you're a logger chances are they won't ask you to fix their computer.

Conan Goes to LucasFilm

I've been a Conan fan since he first came out with his own show in 93, and try to watch his shows from time to time. This week he is in San Francisco instead of New York and he decided to stop by the LucasFilm building. I have to admit I didn't know (or forgot) that he wasn't a Star Wars person. This came as a surprise to me, I'd always seen him as a nerdy kinda guy, now I'm not so sure. How did he just barely recognize Vader.

Demolition Prank Call

As a child, I must admit I did do a few prank calls, but I wasn't ever good at it and fortunately it was in the days before caller id. Here's some audio of a girl who made a prank call to a demolition crew to knock down her school. I'm not sure quite how she kept from laughing, but she sure was entertaining to the people working at the demolition company. She seemed like a very intelligent girl, and never broke character, quite an entertaining call she made.

LOLTrouble Wit Tribles

So, there's this thing that I'm sure not too many people have heard of, called LOLCats where there are still life pictures of cats with captions. They're really kinda lame, although cat lovers may think they're cute. Anyway, as a spoof of this, here's a Star Trek still with captions of the famous Trouble with Tribles episode. There is also a further explanation and some examples of lolcats on there. The tribles captions are pretty funny and well done.

Helo as Magneto?

Have you heard about the new Magneto movie? This should be a most interesting movie, taking us back to a younger Magneto, allowing us to understand that he's really not such a bad guy. There is some speculation of a slight possibility that Helo (Tahmoh Penikett) from Battlestar Galactica could play this part.
I find this particularly funny because Helo is sort of an inside joke on the Galactica Watercooler podcast. They talk all the time about he is the "multi-purpose" BSG character. I believe he has been in almost every position on the Galactica. He started out as a radar watcher in the back of a Raptor (their small arms transport/recon vessel) but has just moved back and forth at random for no apparent reason to different positions on the Galactica (including XO and Captain). It just seems like whenever they need a generic guy to do something it's Helo. Need a Magneto, hey, I bet Helo's up for it.

DC vs. Marvel

I hate to post yet another Mac vs. PC parody, but this one brings up an interesting debate that I've been in many times. This video is of DC vs Marvel. Who do I like better you ask? I really prefer the DC characters to Marvel characters, but it seems like Marvel gets better story lines and more attention in general. DC has such great characters as Superman, Batman, Green Lantern.... characters that just seem to have a lot of depth. Marvel has Spiderman, Captain America (well, they did RIP), and X-men.... superheros that, at least to me, don't seem so much heros as they are super, however they do get into some cool situations. I love how the superhero movies have taken off as of late and look forward to a few more.
Who's your favorite... DC or Marvel? I'd love to know.

Who, What, I Don't Know.... a Great Lineup

I'm not sure if there as ever been a funnier skit than the classic "Who's on First" skit by Abbot and Costello. This type of humor is remade all the time, but there's really nothing like the classic. I post this for the youth out there in hopes they can get as much enjoyment in this humor as the rest of the world has. I laugh really hard every time I hear it. Most the time I've experienced this Who's on First skit, it has been over the radio, but the above like is that actual video of it.

Coffee Good!!!

Good news for us coffee drinkers. We've heard over and over how bad coffee is for us, but now there are new studies on the contrary. It looks like now it can reduce our risk of all kinds of bad things like Diabetes and Parkinson's. It's funny that coffee's popularity could have been greatly decreased except for monks who couldn't stay awake in church.
Not mentioned in this article, however, all the data and research was done in just a few hours on a caffeine high. Thank you Dr. Chase and Dr. Sanborn.

Mind Games

The Wii has done a lot for modern gaming. We now take game interaction to an entire different level. However, could it soon go just another step further? Now they're introducing toys and games that are being controlled by the mind. I wonder if some people would have trouble getting these things to work ;).
This seems like a really cool technology, but also, really scary. I may be a little old fashioned on this, but our thoughts are really our only private thing. How much more technology would it take to collect some of our thoughts and desires by such a device and upload them to some unwanted marketing source. I'm sure there would be some sort of control over this, but it's still kinda scary to think of..... still, will this stop me from wanting one? Probably not.