Lady Can't buy All the iPhones

The #1 story on Digg today was about a lady who tried to buy all the iPhones up from an AT&T store so she could sale them on ebay. She brought with her $16k and bought the front line spot for $800 and prepared to buy all the iPhones when the store opened. Turned out that the store was only selling one phone per customer so it didn't do her much good.
I really enjoy this story. When the Wii's came out it really made me angry to see people buying multiple units to sale them on ebay when others couldn't (and still can't) get them. In this case, it seemed to have gone a little further. She was willing to take the iPhones from all the people that had been waiting hours in line. Kudos to AT&T for putting this kind of limit on their product. Life seems just a little bit fairer now.

Zelda And the Lamp Shade of No Real Significance

As a Nintendo fan, I really enjoy Zelda games. I came across this Zelda flash game called Zelda and the LampShade of No Real Significance a few weeks ago and must admit it's not too bad. It has a really weird story to it, but it's fun nonetheless. I guess the best part is that since it is a silly flash game, you can beat fairly easily and quickly in one sitting.

Firefly In Space

All this month there has been a project going on of getting Serenity and Firefly DVDs into space for the people on the International Space Station. I'm glad to see there are browncoats not only around the world, but now in space. The whole story starts off and is explained in this original link of the project's blog. It looks like on Wednesday they finally got pictures of the DVDs up on their site inside the spacestation. Here is a link to their blog about this. If you're a Firefly/Serenity fan like me, you may enjoy the overall story.

Interesting Bandwidth Fact

So, I hadn't really thought about it much until today, but our CIO sent a message out that he saw where the IIA stated "YouTube uses as much bandwidth today as the entire internet consumed in the year 2000". I did a search for the text and found the reference on the IIA site. It's amazing how big of bandwidth hogs we are nowadays. Now that I think about it, back in 2000, alot of us (myself included) were still on the good ol' dial up connections. Now that most people are on broadband of some sort, going to high bandwidth sites isn't something we think twice about. We have the pipes for both the YouTube traffic and our spambots.

10 Hated Words on the Internet

Recently there was a poll taken about the top 10 most hated words on the internet. Here's a link to the results. I must agree, I too hate these words (maybe not cookie), especially "blogosphere". Who coins these phrases anyway, and better yet, who says, "Hey, that's a good word, I think I'll use that".

Getting an iPhone N64 Style

One of the classic "viral videos" out there is the Nintendo 64 kid. Back in 1996 he received an N64 and completely freaked out (both he and his sister). The poor kid's parents filmed the whole thing and it ended up on the internet. I saw a site yesterday that redid the video as if the kid, who is now grown up, got an iPhone for Christmas. It's pretty funny and true to the old N64 video. Also, for those who did not see the original N64 kid video, it is included on the page for your enjoyment.

The Return of a Giant

Now that the genetic genome has been cracked and cloning is possible, scientists are left with the debate of resurrecting extinct animals. One such debate is whether or not a Mammoth should become "unextinct". It seems like scientists are not too far off from knowing the full DNA of the mammoth, so it has been brought up if they should bring it back.
My thoughts.... I say we bring a few back and put them on a protected island. We could charge a fee to view these creatures; that would pay for the research and funding the scientists needed for such a project. What could possibly go wrong?

Professional Line Waiter

So, if you're in a larger city and want an iPhone, you can now hire someone to wait in line for you. I now know a few people that are actually purchasing an iPhone and it seems like they may be difficult to get your hands on despite the $600 cost. For the people who want one and money is not an option, it may be worth hiring a Professional Line Waiter, but I wouldn't recommend it. I enjoy the picture Gizmodo put up on the above link. You might say, "paying $250 for someone to hold my place in line, that's crazy", but some people think paying $600 for the phone is crazy too.

Mike Rowe on QVC

I mentioned the other day about liking Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch" show. Another show on the Discovery channel I enjoy is "Dirty Jobs". Last night I found out that before being on the show "Dirty Jobs", Mike Rowe was a QVC sales person. My wife found this video of him on QVC selling a lava lamp. It's good to see that while he was there, he still had his same "intelligently inept" attitude.

iPhone Cost

Friday is a big day for a lot of techies. It's the day the iPhone comes out. I do not plan on purchasing one of these, but I've seen the guided tour video and I must admit some of the features on it look pretty sweet.
I saw this Wired article about the costs of the iPhone. This may be something you want to look at before purchasing one. They do specify in the article that the iPhone's rates are comparable to that of other smart phones. It looks like it could be worth it if you're in the market for a smartphone and have the extra money. If you get one soon you're sure to stand out in a crowd when you pull out your phone.

Transformer Pics + Others

I was checking the Wired blog earlier today and noticed they have a lot of stuff about Transformers this week (the cover of the new magazine is Optimus Prime). I was looking at one article (ok just the pictures) and thought, "ah cool, pictures of the new Transformers". As you go through you see one unfamiliar looking transformer, then Gigantor. I wondered what Gigantor had to do with Transformers, but apparently he was an inspiration to their creation.... Just something surprising I thought I'd share with you.

More 300 Parodies

Last night I posted an entry about a PG rated 300. Since then I've received a few more of these sent to me. Here are two of them:

The 305 - an Officish parody of 300.
Another Random 300 Parody - I'm not quite sure how to classify this one, but its funny

Thanks to Carl for these 2 videos. I enjoyed them, I hope everyone else does too.

Crab Fever

Lately I've really gotten addicted to this show on Discovery channel called "Deadliest Catch". If you haven't seen it, it's about crab fisherman in the Bering Sea who fight with treacherous weather conditions and work really long hours to bring us crab. From my description it doesn't sound like it's too great of a show, but watch it once and you'll be hooked (pun always intended, even though they don't use hooks).
What's this have to do with my blog. Well, really not much, but I found the site of my favorite crab boat on the show, the NorthWestern. On the right there is a "Jobs" link that tells you how you can get a Job as a crab fisherman, but you'll need to be tough. They also have a link to get some cool gear, although I was sad to see they didn't have the coveted NorthWestern jacket. That's reserved for the elite crabbers.

Driving Commandments

I'm not sure if you've seen the story or not, but last Tuesday the Vatican issued a series of commandments for driving. I gotta admit, these are pretty good standards in which to drive by, pretty much common sense.
In response to these commandments, a car talk radio program also came up with some useful commandments to follow while driving. The list seems to be a good addition to the ones issued by the Vatican. I especially enjoy the second to last one :
"Thou shall keepeth thy 17-year-old son bound to the slowest and ugliest 1979 Volvo which hath presenteth itself on the list of craig."
With some of the drivers out on the road we really do need these commandments, if not more.

PG 300 -- Danke Kommissar

I was checking out my friend Kommissar Krunch's blog earlier today and noticed that he linked to a very funny video of a PG rated 300. I thought I'd share this link with my readers as well.......Brush your Teeth!

Revisiting MST3K

Back in the 90's I enjoyed watching Mystery Science Theater 3000. To me, this show is what defined Comedy Central (mainly because it was on the first time I turned on Comedy Central). This show made "B movies" fun to watch, and created something fun to do in movies you just don't like.
I saw this article not too long ago about how the creators of MST3K are releasing MST3Kisms for modern movie flops. Although you have to purchase them for $3 each, it may be worth it to revisit the old days.
Bonus: Here's an interview with Mike Nelson.

Punch-Out Trailer

I was sent this Punch-Out Trailer earlier today. It's a trailer made as if they were making a modern day Punch-Out. They did a great job on this video, it's not only pretty funny, but stays true to the original game. Nintendo needs to make a boxing game (other than Wii Sports boxing), mainly because the one on Wii Sports is so much fun and good exercise, plus who doesn't miss Punch-Out.

Dog Beer

I'm not currently a dog owner, and I'm not a drinker either, so I guess it's obvious that I don't understand a product such as "dogbeer". The idea does make sense though. I've seen dogs drink beer before (don't ask why) and they really do seem to like it. I could imagine with a beef flavor, they may like it even more...perhaps even humans would like it even more with a beef flavor.
The problem with this whole idea is the expense of the dog beer. Dogs like beer, but they also like drinking water from the toilet, and you don't have to pay $8 for that.

Note: I found it ironic that the maker of this is named Miller and they refer to it as Miller's brew.

Seattle's Paper Mario

Here's a well done Paper Mario picture on a pole in Seattle. I guess technically it's a picture from the old 8-bit SMB, but since it's done on paper it sounded cool to say Paper Mario (plus thats what the article title called it. Wonder how long that took to create and how long it will last especially considering Seattle's frequent rain.

Cheap, but Cool Gadgets

I enjoy having gadgets around to mess around with, but at the same time I'm cheap and will be hesitant to purchase them. I found this website yesterday of 10 cheap gadgets for under $10. Many of them are from ThinkGeek which I check from time to time just to see what they have. I had seen the Annoy-a-tron before and think it's something that would be great as a prank.

Binary Adder

MAKE magazine does some pretty cool stuff. Here's a really neat 6 bit binary adder. It's hard to look at the picture and figure out what it does, be sure to check out the video. Once you see it in action, you'll realize how cool it actually is.

Golden Stick Wiffle Ball Highlights

I saw this video of highlights from a wiffleball playoff game a few months ago and thought about blogging about it, but for some reason or another I didn't. During lunch today I mentioned something about a wiffleball league and it seemed to be a good conversation item so I thought I'd share it with you.
Who knew adults that played in wiffleball leagues, but it seems really fun. I think it might be just a little more fun if they had the plastic red fatbat.

Video Simulation of 9/11 Attacks

On CNN's site this morning I saw where they had an article about the simulation videos of the world trade center attacks on 9/11. These videos seem highly detail and go through step by step what the actual damage was like on that horrible day. I commend Purdue University for their research and simulations. One thing I found interesting from this news story is that CNN linked to a YouTube video. I may be behind, but this is the first time I've seen this happen. I enjoy that CNN realizes the usefulness of this site and wonder if eventually they (as well as other news sites) will move away from their proprietary video players to a medium like YouTube. I doubt it would happen, but it's an idea.

Nice Lego collection

From time to time I'll run across a page with a nice lego set on it and be tempted to blog about it and then wonder if people care and move on (I think I have blogged about legos a little). I came across this collection of lego masterpieces today and thought I'd share it with you. Make sure you click at the bottom to view the other pages. Personally, the sports arena one was the most impressive to me.

Anatomy of a One Punch Knockout

I spend a lot of time watching educational videos, so when I came across this video of the Anatomy of a One Punch Knockout I thought it was pretty cool. It's amazing what professional fighters put their bodies through and are still able to survive and fight again a few days later.

Magic Tricks Revealed

I've never been too clever at magic tricks, but I do appreciate the manipulative nature of them. Here's a link to a blog that has videos to 20 magic tricks revealed just in case you're interested. Personally I'd like to know how to walk through the Great Wall of China or make the Statue of Liberty disappear, but these'll do for now

Perhaps the Coolest Stroller Ever

Think'n of raising a Star Wars fan, this may be the perfect stroller ever. I'm not sure if there are many things cooler than cruising around in your own personal ATAT. Sure, you may look like a dork in public while pushing this around, but later in life your kid will thank you for it.

Question of the Month

I like to know how my readers feel about certain subjects, but I understand that not all people like to do comments. I have created a new section on the right side of the main page called "Question of the Month" in which I will post some question I have for my readers. The first one is "Do you polish your shoes?". This was derived from a conversation my wife and I had earlier when I was polishing my shoes. She says, "I find it old fashioned that you polish your shoes", for which my response was "who doesn't". I asked a friend and he said he did, so I'm wondering if my friend and I are just weird and polishing shoes is old fashioned, or if we're in with the majority. I'm hoping this is a successful poll, if so, I'll continue to put up questions (and remind you when I do so), if not I'll give it a few months and remove it, either way, it'll be interesting to know what you think.

Anniversary of the naming of Lou Gehrig's Disease

Today is the anniversary of the naming of Lou Gehrig's disease in 1939. Shamefully, I must admit that I did not know too much about Mr. Gehrig until recently. I now know he played in a lot of consecutive games (second only to Cal Ripkin), could field the ball like nobody's business, holds the record for most grand slams, and was voted best first baseman to play baseball. Obviously I never got to see him play, but I bet it was amazing. Here's a short tribute video I found on Youtube from "Pride of the Yankees".

My Old Kentucky Home

Back in March I went on vacation and had a tour of the great state of Kentucky and got to see many historical sites. While looking for stuff to blog about tonight, I ran across this list of ""50 Kentucky Facts " I thought I'd share with you. My personal favorite is:
"26. Pikeville annually leads the nation in per capita consumption of Pepsi-Cola. "
Anyway, I thought it was an interesting site and fortunately I've had the opportunity to go to some of these magnificent places around this fine state.

International Panic Day

Yea, you guessed it, today is officially International Panic Day. I've been kind of panicking over what to blog about, but thanks to my panic I now have a blog entry for the day. This reminds me of the Douglas Adams book Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. If you haven't read it or saw the movie, do so, but for the purposes of this blog, in it it contains a book that has most of life's answers in it and on the back is printed "Don't Panic".
I watched the movie a few weeks ago and was thinking how nice it'd be if we had a book we could turn to for such answers if we ever wanted to know something trivial. Well, we kinda do, although it's not a book it's a site... called Wikipedia. If you ever need to know some obscure fact about a country or an expired device, you can likely find it there. What we've (I say we because it's created by everyone) done is created an ingenious site that is similar to Douglas Adam's Guide to the Galaxy. What an ingenious idea that has been put in production by Mr. Jimmy Wales, so on this day we don't have to panic.

By the way, International Panic day is not on Wikipedia, it may not exist.

Injured Stormtrooper

Here's a pretty funny video my older brother made me aware of earlier today. It's a video of what happens to an injured storm trooper. This isn't an incident that happens very often so they kinda get confused on what to do.

Alex Trebek Sent to Another Demention

I believe the trick is to send someone to a different dimension you need to have them say their own name backwards (or at least that's how it worked with Mr. Myzptlk in Superman. Recently on an episode of Jeopardy a contestant tried this method on Alex Trebek when he was left with only $1 in final Jeopardy. It didn't work too well, in fact, Alex even took his dollar.

Desktop or Laptop

Here's an interesting story that discusses the advantages of having a desktop over a laptop in college. I do a lot of the employee purchase computer sales at our company, so I hear parents ask questions many times about what type of computer to get their kid going off to college. I must admit, I had both in college, and I believe the desktop was probably a bit more useful, even though the portability of a laptop was nice. Now that I'm out of college and in the work field, having a laptop does make more sense in the work field I'm in. This article would be very easy to disagree with, but it's something to consider.

Farming of the Futrure

Here's an interesting way to have a farm. For some reason a garden skyscraper just seems wrong. Sure you don't have to worry about contamination or irrigation issues, but to me it seems a little unnatural. I'm used to seeing the tractors and farmlands spread across America as you drive down the road, but this may be something that will become popular as the population of the country grows. We may need to get rid of some of the farmland for housing in the next century and have skyscraper farms. It's a really cool idea, but I hope it happens no time soon.

50 Year old Car Unearthed in Oklahoma

Back in January I blogged about a car in Tulsa, OK that was buried underground 50 years ago in celebration of Oklahoma's 50 years of statehood. Today, an update on this story, the car was unearthed. The linked article includes pictures, but all things considered, it looks to be in decent shape. My prediction is there is no way it will start, but we'll find out next week. I just thought this was an interesting story and since I saw an update on it, I thought I'd update you as well.

Pun of the Day - Grape Mimes

Grape Mimes
They all Think Alike

Original artwork by Brian Green

Safari -- The Next Tech Browser?

I saw the other day where Safari (the main Mac webbrowser) came out for Windows. When I first heard about it I thought... "yea right, nothing could make me switch from Firefox", but the more I thought about it, the more I thought, well maybe it could be the next tech's browser. Here's what I mean. It's no secret that Firefox is the browser of choice in the tech community, and we can see obvious reasons why. Tabbed browsing (I know, IE 7 now has it too), really sweet add-ons, easily configurable skins that make it look how you want it, and a false sense of security (even though it doesn't run Active X controls, it still does javascript). To get me to switch a browser isn't going to have to be as good as Firefox, it's gotta be a bit better.
I decided to download Safari to try it out. It's buggy, but what do you expect for a Public beta, it'll get better. The first thing I noticed was that it looked a lot like Firefox which is good because that's what I'm used to. I like the fact that when you click on fields it glows in blue, that's really cool to me. I imagine, it being the popular web browser for apple, that it probably has similar add-ons to it, which could throw it up to being at least somewhat as good as Firefox. What could push this over to being the next tech's web browser? A few things:
1) It's fashionably late for the browser wars. - I must admit, we thought the browser war between IE and Firefox was over with no decisive winner, but maybe there is another contender to show them both up.
2) Cross Platform is on the move. - People are switching from Windows to Apple and vice versa, and if we get used to using Safari on a Mac and can now have it on a PC as well, why not? It's the default browser, no work is required to get it up and running (although little is required of Firefox). This is the reason IE is still the most popular browser on the internets.... it's default.
3) Safari has a big name behind it. - Firefox is a great browser, but who actually makes it... the open source community. It is possible that the Firefox browser could be bought or possible even done away with. Apple has a lot of money, therefore, just like IE, Safari probably will go nowhere anytime soon (not to say Firefox is, but it's possible). We must also consider, with the money and resources they can put into it, they can probably find something to make it better than Firefox.
In summary, I don't see myself switching to Safari anytime soon, but I do see Safari taking a bigger role in popular browsers soon. I've mentioned Safari coming to Windows to a few PC users now and they aren't too familiar with it.... yet. I think it'll be interesting to see how it fairs with the other browsers. I could be completely wrong in what I'm saying, but it's at least something to think about.

Don't Click it Project

I saw this "don't click it" site once about 6 months ago, but for some reason or another didn't blog about it. I came across it at random last night so and was reminded how cool of an idea it was. Anyway, the whole idea about it is to not click on anything. Let the web 2.0-ness guide you through navigation until you can't resist but to click. It's weird, but a cool concept.... I like to click everywhere, I think I'm what they call a "button pusher". If it's there, I gotta see what it does.

RIP Mr. Wizard

As a child, I loved to watch Mr. Wizard. For those of you who may not have seen it, it was kinda like "Bill Nye the Science Guy".... The show was inspiring and showed how something as boring as Math and Science could be fun and applied to our every day lives. Of course, I watched the revamped episodes in the 1980's, but it was still as applicable and edutaining.
Today, Mr. Wizard, Don Herbert, passed away. It's a great loss to the multiple generations of Science geeks around the world who grew up loving your show. Thanks for your many years of inspiration and education.

Classic Singer with a New Way for Music Sales

Bon Jovi has entertained us now for several years and is now having an excellent idea to sale their new CD. He's providing an option for an Album-Ticket package in which you can download his new album from iTunes with the cost of the ticket. Sure you could just buy the regular ticket, then go to iTunes and buy the album, but why not do it all at once, especially if you're a fan. I thought this was a great way to promote the sale of an album and worth mentioning. Of course when I first saw the title of the article I was hoping the album came for free with the ticket (which would be even better), but I was incorrect. I'm not sure if this is a "new" idea or not, but it's the first time I've heard of it, so it's new to me.

Gaming's Baddest Villains

I've seen lists of evil villains before, but because I haven't really found much more useful from Computer World Magazine, I thought I would post this list of Gaming's Baddest Villains. I enjoy how they have it separated out into categories. One of the top villains on my list would have to be Emperor Kefka from Final Fantasy 3 (mainly because of the laugh). I'm glad to see him getting the most sinister award in this article.

Game Controller Evolution

I came across this site earlier about Video Game Controller Evolution. I thought it was a neat chart that shows how video game controllers went from the good 'ol Atari analog stick to where they are today. I enjoy how Nintendo revolutionized it all in the 80's with their gamepad... hopefully the wii-mote will revolutionize things again.

Chuck for President

Until today I was undecided on who to vote for in the 2008 Presidential election, now I'm certain it'll be Chuck Norris. The linked site is to an article Mr. Norris wrote about how things would change if he were president. A lot of people would get really offended if they were joked about like Chuck Norris is, but he's cool enough to embrace it and just keep joking right back. My favorite change he would make is

Turn the Rose Garden into a new fighting ring for the World Combat League, in which liberals and conservatives will fight for legislative leadership and priority

Hey, why not.... Chuck '08!

Car Crash Test

You ever wondered how safe your car is during a crash? I have, but now after seeing this Consumer Reports crash test site I kinda wish I didn't know. This site includes a wide selection of vehicles to choose from to see how well they fair in a crash test. I warn you to check out your car's safety rating at your own risk. One thing is for certain though, if you're in the market for a new car, you should check out how it did in these tests.
With that said, it always seems odd for them to crash these new cars into a wall or have something crash into them. I guess this allows for the best visual tests, but it seems like they could save thousands if this whole process could be accurately simulated.

Graham Crackers and Corn Flakes

It just so happens that I come across multitudes of useless information. Something that I learned today is about a man called Sylvester Graham. This is a man who was part of the temperance movement and believed that spicy foods would influence sexual urges. In order to counter these spicy foods, he invented the graham cracker (I link the Wikipedia articles because the story is a little bit unbelievable). To add to this, he also had a major influence on John Kellogg, who invented Corn Flakes for similar reasons. All of this is probably common knowledge, but I just learned it today so I thought I'd share it with you. I found it kind of interesting.

100 Great Movie Quotes

I saw this YouTube video of 100 Great Movie quotes earlier today and thought I'd share it with you. One of the things that would have been cool if they would have put the movie title on them as well, some of them were a little before my time so I didn't recognize the movie. I thought that overall this was a good reminder of some of the sayings you wish you would have said first.

Great Way to Find Stuff

I keep a pretty big MSN messenger list which always seems to come in handy for me. One of the ways it particularly presents an advantage is finding sources of stuff on the internet. It's enjoyable to ask people what page their currently on when you know they are just surfing. I'll often come up with some excellent results that not only give me something to blog about, but help me find great things I would not have found otherwise.
One of these things I got sent the other night is this really cool music site called musicovery. You tell it what mood you're in, it picks the music for you. You can filter by genre or era and if you end up liking the song you're listening to, there's links to purchase it. Special thanks to Christy for this cool music site referral.

XKCD - Webcomic

A few months ago I found a really interesting web-comic called xkcd which I've pretty much been keeping track of every since. On Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at midnight a new comic is posted. In their own words its "A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language". Upon further research I've found out that it's never been quite revealed where the name xkcd came from, it's not an acronym though. According to the author it was a random screen name he used that couldn't be phonetically pronounced. I find the comic overall cleverly humorous, clean, and simple. One of my favorite comics I've seen so far is this one about a hamster ball.

Wiiitis

When I first got my Wii and started playing it, I was fairly sore from the physical activity. Wii Sports is quite a workout. It seems like now people are starting to get Wiiitis which is a Wii sports injury from playing a little too hard. I read an article not too long ago about how Wii was becoming a cultural phenomenon, and this just goes to drive home this point.
Could it be that there will be a new medical term will be created just for the Wii. Not since the control pad thumbs have we had such a mighty gaming injury. My wife is currently studying for her Osteopathic boards, I'm not sure if she's gone over the "Game medicine" chapter yet or not.

Drawing Superman

I haven't seen too much good stuff to blog about tonight, so I thought I'd share this Superman drawing video that I saw not too long ago. I like to draw and I mess around with the Gimp some to make my own drawings so I particularly found this interesting. Watching all this come together and being given instructions on how to do it yourself is pretty neat even if you can't reproduce it.

Wagon Wheel on Wikipedia

I've mentioned it before, but one of my favorite bands currently is Old Crow Medicine Show. Their most famous song is called Wagon Wheel and was started by Bob Dylan, but finished years later by Old Crow's own Ketch Secor. The whole story of the song is really interesting.... here's the Wikipedia article that explains a little bit about it. For a little more information, check out this short audio interview with Ketch about the writing of the song.
Since I'm on the subject, I may as well bring up this article about the band and some of the rough roads they have faced. It's kind of a long read, but well worth it. Also, I want to recommend again, if you ever have a chance to see them in person, do so. I've seen them in concert twice now and really enjoy the performance, it's just amazing how well they harmonize and work together.

Invisible Mario Cart

Here's an interesting Mario Cart video I thought I'd share. It is slow to start off, but pretty funny, especially if you've played Mario Cart. I'm not too sure I understand the ending, but I won't ruin it for you, so check it out.

Winning Paper, Rock, Scissors

I really enjoy settling things like real gentleman, with a good old match of Paper, Rock, Scissors. This is a common way I use to settle a conflict or disagreement.... that is why I hesitate to post this blog entry. On my how to of the day today, it was "How to Win at Paper, Rock, Scissors". I post this in hopes to increase a fairer way of settling things as opposed to heads or tails, wet or dry, or what other methods there are. One more tip, make sure you're always the one to call what you're playing for, for example, you may want to say "Winner buys lunch", then immediately start the game without further time to think. The person playing against you will have the automatic will to win, however, if they do lose, they could likely think you claimed the loser buys lunch since they have the feeling of a loss. This is one way to perhaps skew the odds in your favor, it may not work, but it's worth a try.

Something's Missing

I saw an article today on the USAToday site about some things in our culture that have disappeared. Some, I'm sure, we've all noticed and are glad to see gone, but others have just been forgotten. I was thinking not too long ago about phone booths, you used to be able to find them everywhere, now not only is it almost impossible to find a phone booth, but it's very difficult to find a pay phone. I wonder when that happened, apparently while I was asleep (or busy talking on my cellphone). One other thing about this article though, I really don't remember the Beta Max being popular. It was probably before my time, but I seem to remember the VHS as always the popular option, but now that too is gone.

Remembering D-Day

Just a reminder that 63 years ago today was D-Day. Today we remember the start of the Battle of Normandy which was the turning point of World War II for the allied forces. The D-Day article I linked isn't that great of an article, but the one for the Battle of Normandy is. Be sure to check these out and to remember and appreciate those who have given their life to save so many more. Also, you may want to check out the prayer that FDR gave when addressing the US.

Closer to being Beamed Up

Good news for Star Trek fans out there, we're one step closer to being beamed up. It'd be super sweet to be able to be beamed to different places all over the world.... talk about a solution to our fuel issues.
I find the whole theory of quantum entanglement just a little bit weird. Einstein described the science as spooky, and I have to agree. If you want to read up on the science that may some day make this possible check out the quantum entanglement article.... + 300 Nerd points if you actually understand it (I don't).

Optimash Prime

My friend Kommissar Krunch (see link Atlas Shirked) blogged last night about the new transformers toys that are coming out. I saw an interesting one that I thought I'd mention to add a little bit to what he said. It's Optimash Prime. I enjoy how Mr. Potato head has kept up with the popular toys throughout the ages. I'm not too sure which is better, Optimash Prime or Darth Tater.

Pirate Myths

Being a fan of pirates, I was interested in this article about "Did pirates really say Arr". Myself, I like to think they said YAR! instead. Although real pirates aren't so cool, you gotta appreciate what pirates have become. I'm hoping that if you're a pirate fan you too celebrate talk like a pirate day every September 19th. I'll try keep you posted a day or so you'll have time to prepare. In the mean time, you may want to check out the Piratitude book all about pirates and now to be one.

Forgetting is Good

I tend to forget a lot of things necessary and remember a lot of useless information. I read this article and found out that sometimes forgetfulness is good. I guess the way I forget things seems to be completely against the way things are supposed to work.... it's all about the unimportant stuff :). Pretty neat article showing that forgetfulness is good, as long as your forgetfulness filter isn't broken.

Don't Do Bags, Brew!

For those of you who don't know, I'm a fan of drinking tea. I don't do the bags, I buy loose leaf tea and brew it. It takes a lot longer, but the obvious advantage is the taste and quality. According to recent studies, brewing tea is better for you too. Apparently the brewed tea allows you to intake more antioxidants which is the reason many people drink tea in the first place.
Since this article was out there I thought now would be a good time to share with you this experience. If you want to try some brewed tea, but don't know how, here's an easy to follow guide. If you don't know where to get loose leaf tea, I get mine from Harney & Sons website. For my caffeine fixes, I tend to go with coffee in the morning, and tea in the evenings.

Internet License

I saw this article on the wired site today about a group of experts who met up to discuss the issue of internet security. They were all in agreement that this was a problem and user education was a key in fighting this.
One of the solutions brought up in this meeting was an Internet license. This was something that was joked about very often when I worked at a call center. I heard "Why did these idiots get a computer, they should be required to have a license to operate one, just like a car." Similar to a car, computers do need maintenance and proper care. Also, similar to a car, when these things are not adhered to, a computer will not function properly. As for the solution though, I'm not sure that it's too much of an option. If the Government chose to require a license it could not be enforced internationally without some international regulation on the internet which is really bad. A good idea in concept, but it could lead to some really bad issues.
I do not know a solution to stop these bot nets, but I did like the suggestion of ISPs taking action. I do know from personal experience that this does take place. I was working on someone's computer trying to save their data, Windows install, and their currently installed programs (for which they had lost the disks). I unwittingly plugged their infected computer into my network to download anti-spyware programs and it contacted its botnet to distribute viruses to others. The next day, my internet was down, and when I contacted my ISP they said there was some suspicious activity going on and my internet was shutdown to prevent it. I just happened to know the guy at my ISP, I explained the situation, he knew I worked on computers and what I was doing so he turned my internet back on. So it does appear that some ISPs are stepping up to do their part in preventing spyware and botnet computers, but we obviously need some other solutions.

Stealing Bases

Usually when you hear of someone having two stolen bases within the same night, it's a good thing, but what if it's the manager? Manager of Minor League, the Mississippi Braves, went completely crazy Friday night in Chattanooga, TN after getting thrown out of the game. Not only did he steal two bases (literally), but threw one, played in the dirt, crawled on the field and threw a rosin bag. I'm not sure what kind of penalty will be enforced for this, but it has to be big. Sometimes I guess you get into the game just a little too much.

Job Hunting - Impreial Style

We all assumed that the Emperor died when the Death Star exploded, but this video tellss a different story. After the explosion he decided to look into other career opportunities, and here we see just how he did. I guess sometimes it's just best to stick to what you're accustomed to doing.

World Song

I remember watching Anamaniacs as a kid and loved the sense of humor it portrayed. Although it was funny and entertaining, it was sometimes educational. One particular thing I remember seeing and found again tonight was this "World Song" which mentions all the countries of the world. It's a short song with a catchy beat and you may learn something :).

Tribute to Mr. Rogers

I saw this article about Mr. Rogers earlier on Digg. Mr. Rogers, one of my personal heros, was truly a great man, and this goes through some of the his greater features. As a child I watched this show quite a bit, it's amazing how much genuine care this man seemed to have for his viewers.