YAG

Yet another game :-)

My kids have been addicted to One More Level since I stumbled across it a while ago. Every time they visit, there are new games to play (and not the kind that cost $15 per game cartridge!). Their current fascination is called Color Fill. Kinda addicting...

Reverse Tetris

In the classic Tetris game, you try to remove all the blocks before the tower of bricks gets too tall. 99 Bricks is the exact opposite. Instead of removing blocks, you try to add as many as you can, building the tower higher and higher before it collapses. Can you stack all 99 Bricks before they fall?

It's all in your mind...

Is this a new version of the Rorschach inkblot test? Does what you see first reveal something about you?

What did you say?

I learned something new tonight. Actually, it's just another example of how smart Google is, and how powerful their assistance can be... when you know where to fund it.

When I get bored, sometimes I hit the "Next Blog" link at the top of the Blogger site. This takes you to a random blog. Fortunately for Blogger, they're international. That drives more traffic, more eyes, and hence money (at least in someone's business plan, though I'm still not sure how). Unfortunately for me, I don't speak Portuguese, Romanian, Japanese, Spanish, nor many of the other languages of people that post on Blogger. Fortunately for me, I know a little about Google. :-)

I know that Google has a Language Tools link on their home page next to the search box. That page then has a Translate a web page section. If you give Google a URL and tell it to translate from Portuguese to English, for instance, you can generally get a good enough machine translation to get the gist of the site. But what if you don't know the starting language? Us dumb Americans suck at internationalization stuff. Well, a little URL hacking and I found out that Google doesn't really care what the originating site's language is (or more precisely, they can figure it out themselves.) So, by adding http://translate.google.com/translate?u= in front of a site's URL that you need translated, Google will do all of the work!

I'm working on a bookmarklet that will do this automatically, but it's getting late. I'll add that as a follow up post tomorrow.

Auf Wiedersehen. Arrivederci. Tot ziens. Adeus. :-)

Is it Memorex? Or is it live?

OK, so that title relates to audio, not visual art, but that's the best thing I could think of to represent this site. The artist creates drawings so detailed, you literally can't tell that it's not a photograph! Here2See has a great post about Linda Huber and her incredible artistry, including videos. Or, you can visit Linda Huber's own site.

Linda says, "...most all of my work takes anywhere from 20-80 hours." That shows the level of skill, dedication and detail she puts into each piece. Truly AMAZING! -- and she does commissions! :-)

I challenge you to find a better photo-realistic pencil artist!

Set 'em up and make 'em fall.

Dominoes is almost as classic as Lego as far as childhood games are concerned. Not the Dominoes where you have to match the count of those darn dots. I'm talking about the stacking of Dominoes in such a way that they fall in a Slinky-like motion, each falling Domino leading to another falling Domino. Well that was the plan anyway. It didn't always go as planned. After spending what seemed like, or maybe was, hours setting up hundreds of individual Dominoes, keeping the cats and siblings at bay so as not to knock over a critical keystone, I would hold my breath and tap the first brick. All that work either led to an incredible rally that lasted 15 seconds at best, or a dismal failure that lasted maybe 3.

Well, as with all things nowadays, even the Domino rally has come to the web. Drawminos allows you to build a Domino chain in your browser, then see it fall. Unlike the real world, this site lets you make modifications to correct those gaps and misalignments that caused the dismal failures. You can move them around even after they fall to craft a piece of art. You can save your successes or view other's as well.

This site is good for at least few minutes of reminiscing.

Research

If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called "research." -- A. Einstein

One wish

If you had one wish, what would you wish for? More money? Health? More time? More love? A better job? Better body? Happiness? A super power? A cure for cancer? Knowledge? World peace?

As I started thinking about this, I kept coming back to one thing -- money. I feel back about that. Money isn't everything. Money isn't a LOT of things. But... Money can HELP with a lot of things.

Looking at my list above...

Health. With more money, you have access to better care. Better doctors. You could fly to German or Switzerland if that's where the best surgeon resides.

Time. There isn't a way to slow the clock down yet, but with more money, you could hire someone else to do some of the things that you're responsible for (cooking, cleaning, working, etc), freeing up more of your time.

Love. Money can't buy real love, but money can buy enough fake love to make you think it's real love.

Job. If you had all the money you needed, you wouldn't need a job.

Body. Money could buy cosmetic surgery, or limb or organ replacement.

Happiness. Whatever makes you happy could be increased with money. If happiness is a particular food, or place, or activity, money can make it happen, or make it happen more often. Even if your happiness is obtained by making other people happy, more money would enable you to make more people happy.

Superpower. More money spent on R&D is leading to things only seen before in science fiction. How much of the cool hi-tech stuff seen originally in Star Trek or Wars is now common place? Personal communicators, seeing through walls, flying, robots, even invisible cloaks are here, or right around the corner.

Cancer. We're getting closer every day. Additional monies would help speed the process.

Knowledge. Whether it provides access to more knowledge directly (memberships, etc), or simply facilitates that collection (world travels, etc), money can even help here.

World Peace. I'm sure that there's a connection there somewhere.

I know, I know. We've all heard the stories, or seen the TV specials about how lottery winners lives have been ruined by money. I'm not saying that's not true, or that it wouldn't be the ultimate outcome, but used wisely, by a wise person...

It's a sad, but realistic, fact I think...

Leave a comment below with what your wish would be.

Simon game (the Google Chrome version)

Nooooooooooooooooooo......... Don't jump!

The US economy sucks. Beg to differ? You're insane! It's likely to get worse before it gets better unfortunately. Bailouts, bridge loans, consolidation, economic stimulus packages won't be enough. It's gonna be rough for a while. Buckle up!

If you want a daily reminder of how bad things are getting across the country, head on over to Lay Off Daily where they remind you DAILY!

Two rules for success in life.

1) Never tell everyone everything you know.

2)

There are 10 types of people in this world...

...those who understand binary and those who don't.

Really big numbers

There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.

-Richard Feynman, physicist, Nobel laureate (1918-1988)

Fear

"Come to the edge."
"We can't. We're afraid."
"Come to the edge."
"We can't. We will fall!"
"Come to the edge."
And they came.
And he pushed them.
And they flew.

Guillaume Apollinaire
1880-1918 French poet & philosopher

No one is safe!

There have been articles before about hackers breaking into public figure's web mail accounts (Yahoo, Hotmail, and even GMail). Most recently, Vice Presidential Nominee Sarah Palin's Yahoo account was cracked and personal details were released. Embarrassing, controversial, private communications have been released for all the world to see. Some of those revelations may have changed the course of history. Some may say that's part of being a public figure. Others say it's illegal.

Now they've gone too far, though. They've attacked the Big Guy's GMail account!

Coupon site

Here's a site you can use to save a little green this holiday season.

Civics test

A friend passed this one along. He said that US officials scored 44%. I scored better than them, but I'm still not as smart as a fifth grader. :-(

We should all know and care about how our country works, and why it works that way. Some of this may seem like trivia, but in the end, it's what makes America... America

How do you score? Find out by taking the Civics Test.

Don't save the planet!

There! Got your attention. :-)

I was watching a low-budget film on the Sci-Fi channel the other day. It was about some scientist who's attempts to save the world from global warming had led to the creation of an invention that had gone astray. Typical sci-fi disaster film (but without the 300 foot monster).

In the midst of this terror, many people had been trapped in a lab with the scientist and only he had the code to let them out. In his despair over not being able to save the planet because of the device failure, he was putting the rest of the occupants of the building at risk as the lab collapsed around them. One of the scientists pleaded with him to "wake up" and help them escape. In trying to convince him to help, she
commented a fatal flaw in his pursuit -- that he thought he was trying to save the planet. The planet doesn't need to be saved. It will be here millions of years after we all die. What he was really trying to do was save the people (or "inhabitants" to rightfully include the "flora and fauna" as well). Thus, he could still save people of the Earth by helping them escape the building was her logic.

That got me thinking about all of the other "green" initiatives that are so prevalent in the media now days. They all talk about "saving the planet." The planet is a big rock floating through space. Hundreds, if not thousands of others just like it exist in the universe (plus or minus intelligent life). Why should we care about this one. Um... 'cuz we live here!

How much more personal, and effective, would those campaigns be if they asked for assistance in saving someone's life -- your mother, father, sister, brother, son, daughter, grandson, grand daughter, great-grandkids, etc...

I wonder...

Analog Google

OK, we all know that Google is a dominant player in all things digital. I've talked about Goog-411 (800-466-4411) before as an essential number to have on your cell phone, but I was surprised to see it on an analog phone the other day while shopping. Clearly this was the phone manufacturer's attempt to up-play it's otherwise lack-luster run of the mill cheapo phone. "Capitalize on Google's name, sell more product." It appeared to be an official logo (not sure if they paid for it's use or whether it's legal or not). Called out right underneath the LCD display was a button with a Goog-411 logo on it. The obligatory "burst sticker" image was on the outside of the box proclaiming it's compatibility with Goog-411 as well. Well, duh. Can't ANY phone make a toll-free call?

Brother, can you spare a dime?

Most Americans are seeing a little (or a lot) less green in their pockets these days. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs, and even their houses in the last few years. Thankfully, I've lost neither yet. Times are definitely tight, though. Well, unless you're the CEO of a major company.

Corporate excess has been around for a long time. Corporate greed has been around for even longer. People who have it, like to flaunt it. That's most of the fun in having it for them. I understand that. When a company is doing good, and rolling in dough (though legitimate means), I have no problem with that. It's a fact of life. But… When your company is bleeding red ink, and jobs just as fast, you need to have a bit of humility and compassion.

The banking industry is the first recent example. Million dollar golden parachutes, millions in bonuses, even as they are seeking (and got) $700 Billion, that's Billion with a capital 'B', from the Government. No wait, the government is handing it out, but it's us taxpayers who they're actually getting the money from… After receiving the bailout, the big-wigs went on an executive retreat costing more than a few bucks. Can you say "rub salt in the wounds?"

Then, after everyone swallowed that reality came the Automotive industry looking for $25B in governmental assistance. Whether it's a loan or a bailout is still a toss-up. But they still live in the public eye as wealthy barons. The automotive CEOs took a lot of heat on Capitol Hill yesterday. I caught one quote last night that really seemed to sum up the complaints. To paraphrase, "you guys rolled in here in Rolls Royces with a tin can held out looking for assistance." I can picture that in my head. And that's the same image I had ahead of time, too.

When one Senator (?) proposed that each of the CEOs take a pay cut from the millions they are currently paid to a more reasonable $1 given the current situation, two of the three said "No thanks." COME ON! You think that they would seriously be impacted, I mean down to the level that the rest of us peons are surviving on, if they gave up their salaries for a year or two?! Their interest on investments alone make more in a day than most of us make in a year! Heaven forbid they might actually not be able to eat $250 dinners EVERY night any more. They might have to cut back a little.

Once they get that silver spoon in their mouth, they just don't wanna let go. I understand, but that says a lot about their character. 'Nuf said.

As for the bailout, I'm still on the fence. I'm mad as hell about the bank bailouts, and the possibility of the Auto bailout. Toss that 700 BILLION over to us that need it a little more and we'll jump start the economy! The banks will get a lot of it anyway as we pay off our growing credit card debt, our mortgages that are bigger than our house valuations. The retail and service outlets will see their share as well as we repair/replace all the things that are falling apart that we've not been able to afford for several years. Even the retail food industry will benefit as people actually have the money to "splurge" and eat out again as a release from the stresses of debt.

I'm not an economist, and I have never played one on TV. I'm not a psychologist, but I've listed to many people complain about their situation. I know very little about high finance, investments and how the "world really operates," but I can tell you this – I'm not alone in my thoughts that the arrogance of people with money does nothing to endure them to us at lower end of the economy. Their day will come. I just hope that our day will come too – soon…

Short Term Memory Checker

I've hooked quite a few people on the eye test in the past several days. That's a good thing (unless you're getting eye-strain and can't see straight anymore!)

Here's the next site to keep you on your toes. This one is the Short Term Memory Checker.

How many lower case letters are in the alphabet?

WRONG! That's what I thought too! But, NOPE!

It's report card time and my wife received them when the kids brought them home the other day. She had already had a chance to digest them before I got home. I asked how they were and she said that they were really good, but...

Then she asked me how many lowercase letters are in the alphabet. I thought this was a trick question. We've both joked about falling behind my 5th grader already and having trouble helping her with homework, but surely I knew the answer to this one... I replied 26 with a bit of trepidation.

Apparently... There are 28. The "a" and "g" get special cousins included now as well. And I was just getting used to the idea of "New math" -- though I still don't know what it means.

The "a" can be made as a circle with a line down the right side (that's one), and it's cousin is drawn with a hat on top (that counts as a second). The normal "g" was a circle on top and a curved line down the right side with a tail off to teh left. Its cousin (now apparently an official part of the Letter family tree) looks like a circle on top with a slightly squished and offset circle underneath.

I've given up playing "Are you smarter than a Fifth Grader?" I already know the answer, but GEEZ. Now even kindergartners have one up on me? That's not right! :-(

If Dilbert's funny... it's time to find a new job

Cross eyed

Eye test game: http://woodgears.ca/eyeball/

Trophy Kids

The Wall Street Journal had an interesting article the other day entitled "The Trophy Kids Go to Work." It talked about what they're terming the "Millennials", those born between 1980 and 2001, entering the workforce and how they feel entitled to a lot of things in the workplace that others may not agree with. I've heard this theme for quite a while now in business magazines and books. For those born in the boom years, when money was a lot more free flowing, it seemed like all they had to do was ask for something and they got it. Need new clothes -- here you go. Want a job that provides free meals -- plenty to choose from. Want to work from home 3 days a week -- take this company laptop with you and let us pay for your Internet connection too.

Those days are gone, for most of us at least, if we ever got to see them in the first place. But the entitlement mentality of the working class coming up behind us has not caught up with reality.

I'm all for paying your dues and earning perks, but it seems that the next generation seems to think along the lines of "pay me a lot and give me a bunch of perks and I'll show you that I deserve them." The real world says, "Show me what you're worth and I'll reward your efforts." I guess that doesn't apply to CEO bennies though :-( Have fun with that bailout money guys!

No problem!

I was reading a James Patterson book the other day when something that one of the characters noticed caught my attention. He made an observation that when he had thanked someone for a particular task, the reply was, "No problem" as opposed to "You're welcome." That might seem a little insignificant, but I have noticed that myself in the past several weeks at work as well. Not just others responding that way (usually in an instant message session), but myself as well.

In reality, it wasn't a problem, but it still seems like one of those things that you use to cover up something. Kinda like the "favorable" letter of recommendation -- "We would be happy to see Johnny work for your company..." when what they really mean is "get this guy outta here he's crumbling our company!" No problem almost makes it seem like you meant to say, "you inconvenienced me, but I did it for you anyway." You're welcome sounds more like you are almost honored to be helping someone else. That's the way it should be. Helping others should make us feel good. I love to share information with people at work, or do something quickly that I (and they) know would take them much longer. It's a lot easier, when I've got the time, to just write a quick query, or create a pivot table, or send them a URL I already have, than for them to mess around, dig for an answer and get frustrated. We both benefit. I get a sense of being useful and they get to move on to be more productive.

The people I work with are all pretty technical -- in their own realm -- and sometimes I feel a little "beneath" them in a jealous way. They seem so smart, spouting things with such confidence and knowledge, about things that I just don't understand. It's not a belittling act on their part at all, it's just that I don't "live in their world." So when they come to me for something that they know I know a lot about (MS Office, SQL, the data in, and structure of, our database), it makes me feel worthwhile.

Although it's not as quick of a finger combination for me yet, I've actually started using "yw" as a shorthand closing in my instant messaging conversations as opposed to "np." It makes me feel different some how. As an added bonus, when I have to explain what "yw" means to someone, I think it makes them stop and appreciate the assistance more as well. Sometimes it is the small things that really make you stop and think...

Snapshots of History

Earlier this week, Barack Obama made history when he was elected President of the United States. Regardless of who you voted for, it was a significant achievement for America.

If you want to see how the rest of the world is viewing this presidential selection, jump on over to Newseum's collection of front page newspaper covers for the day after the election.

"Star Wars" - an a capella tribute to John Williams

Playing catchup

Been a while since I've had to time post anything, so I've built up quite a few draft articles I'll try to pump out tonight. Sorry for the dry spell. Thanks for reading!

. . . - - - . . .

The Smithsonian reports:

"The International Radiotelegraphic Convention adopts three dots, three dashes and three dots - SOS in Morse code - as the standard wireless distress signal, on November 3rd, 1906. Chosen because it is easy to send and hard to misinterpret, the signal, which doesn't actually stand for anything - not even Save Our Ship - can't save the Titanic, which sends out SOSs in 1912. In 1999 a global satellite system replaces SOS on all large ships"

New Stock Market Terms

AmyOops offers a few contemporary additions to Webster...

CEO --Chief Embezzlement Officer.

CFO-- Corporate Fraud Officer.

BULL MARKET -- A random market movement causing an investor to mistake himself for a financial genius.

BEAR MARKET -- A 6 to 18 month period when the kids get no allowance, the wife gets no jewelry, and the husband gets no sex.

VALUE INVESTING -- The art of buying low and selling lower.

P/E RATIO -- The percentage of investors wetting their pants as the market keeps crashing.

BROKER -- What my broker has made me.

STANDARD & POOR -- Your life in a nutshell.

STOCK ANALYST -- Idiot who just downgraded your stock.

STOCK SPLIT -- When your ex-wife and her lawyer split your assets equally between themselves.

FINANCIAL PLANNER -- A guy whose phone has been disconnected.

MARKET CORRECTION -- The day after you buy stocks.

CASH FLOW-- The movement your money makes as it disappears down the toilet.

YAHOO -- What you yell after selling it to some poor sucker for $240 per share.

WINDOWS -- What you jump out of when you're the sucker who bought Yahoo @ $240 per share.

INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR -- Past year investor who's now locked up in a nuthouse.

PROFIT -- An archaic word no longer in use.

US Election explained in plain English

My daughter is leaning about politics in her school class. We were talking the other night about who gets to decide who's President. Yes, simplistically, I explained that we, as US citizens, get to vote to see who's elected, but I also explained a bit about the Electoral College. I had to explain that it's not jsut who gets the most votes (think Election 2000).

I don't think I did a thorough job, and I wasn't sure that she compeltely got it. I ran across this video on CommonCraft the other day that explains the US Election process in plain English. Very timely. After watching it, I think she got it.





There are a lot of other useful, plain English videos at CommonCraft as well that might be worth a look.

Waterboarding... Again!

No, not THAT waterboarding, something FUN, and COOL!

Bubblegum Pop music

Save on Gas

I think it's pretty safe to say that we're all trying to save money in one way or another nowadays. As things continue to get worse on Wall Street, and unemployment rises, and foreclosures continue, and gas prices continue to remain high, every little bit helps. But we can't always cut out the trips and errands that still need to be done. One thing you can do, though, is to combine all of your errands into one trip (or fewer at least) and make that trip the most efficient you can.

I wrote about the Travelling Salesman Problem a while ago, but now it has an even more direct benefit -- saving gas! One of the sites I mentioned in that post, the Optimap site, can help you get all of those errands done as quickly and efficiently as possible. Tell it the locations of the pet store, the grocery store, Johnny's football practice field, the recycling center and the oil change shop and let it calculate the best route.

Folding laundry is FUN again!

...or could be if you had something like this... Maybe the kids would like to help too!

Would you say something?

The building I work in has a little break room where people can go to eat their lunch. In this "lunch room" there is a table set up with snacks that one can purchase, with funds going to a company sponsored charity. All the stuff is out in the open and there is a coffee can to put your money in - the honor system. The table is managed by one of the Executive Assistants in the building and is quite well stocked. Each item's price is clearly marked.

While sitting at a nearby table today eating my lunch, I noticed a visitor glance over at the table, walk up to the can, tap it on the side with his knuckle (to make the coins rattle) and then grab a candy bar, stick it in his pocket and walk off. At first I wasn't sure I had just seen what I thought I had. Had he really just done that?

Do I say something? I had no proof. How high up the org chart was he? Certainly higher than me. What if denies it? Then what? Who was he meeting here? Had he done that before? He could certainly afford to pay for it. There was intent here. He knocked the can to make the noise in case anyone was watching (listening). Did I really see that right?

I decided not to say anything. But, as I got up to leave shortly afterward, I noticed that there was only $0.50 in change in the can, and someone had to break a larger bill earlier, so there was only a $20 bill sitting on top of it. The snack he took was labeled $0.65. Did he put in the $0.50? I don't think so, but I have no proof. I'm kind of mad at myself for not taking action. I can rationalize that it's because I don't want to risk my job security in this market. I'm not one that likes confrontation in general, either. I fuss and fume to myself when someone cuts me off on the road instead of even honking the horn most of the time (who knows what they've got in the glove box, or underneath their shirtsleeves). Still it makes me angry. This was, or was it, very blatant. I wonder if he's still in his meeting...

LEGOS!

Here's another Useloos gallery -- this time of HUGE Lego sculptures.

More "Get Noticed" business cards

When I was younger I used to collect business cards (and matchbooks). I had some that I remember as being pretty creative, but nothing compared to this business card gallery at Useloos.

Spanish Lesson

A Spanish teacher was explaining to the class that, in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine. 'House' for instance, is feminine: 'la casa.' 'Pencil,' however, is masculine: 'el lapiz.' So, a student asked, 'What gender is 'computer'?' Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether 'computer' should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.

The men's group decided that 'computer' should definitely be of the feminine gender ('la Computadora'), because:
1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;
2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;
3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval; and
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

The women's group, however, concluded that computers should be Masculine ( 'el computador'), because:
1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;
2. They have a lot of data but still can't think for themselves;
3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem; and
4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model

The women won.

[editor's note: It must have been a 'la profesor' :-) ]

Growing up...

I know it's not report card time yet, but...

A father passing by his son's bedroom was astonished to see that his bed was nicely made and everything was picked up. Then he saw an envelope, propped up prominently on the pillow that was addressed to Dad. With the worst premonition he opened the envelope with trembling hands and read the letter.

Dear Dad:

It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm writing you. I had to elope with my new girlfriend because I wanted to avoid a scene with Mom and you. I have been finding real passion with Stacy and she is so nice. But I knew you would not approve of her because of all her piercing, tattoos, tight motorcycle clothes and the fact that she is much older than I am. But it's not only the passion...Dad she's pregnant. Stacy said that we will be very happy. She owns a trailer in the woods and has a stack of firewood for the whole winter. We share a dream of having many more children. Stacy has opened my eyes to the fact that marijuana doesn't really hurt anyone. We'll be growing it for ourselves and trading it with the other people that live nearby for cocaine and ecstasy. In the meantime we will pray that science will find a cure for AIDS so Stacy can get better. She deserves it. Don't worry Dad. I'm 15 and I know how to take care of myself. Someday I'm sure that we will be back to visit so that you can get to know your grandchildren.

Love,
Your Son Timmy

PS. Dad, none of the above is true. I'm over at Tommy's house. I just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than a report card that's in my center desk drawer. Call me when its safe to come home.

Getting across the river

Every couple of weeks I glance back through the logs to find the reason that people visit my site. It's mostly just curiosity, but once in a while I get a surprise or an idea for something to write about. While looking last week, I noticed that that my post on the Japanese River Quiz was drawing quite a few hits. But they weren't looking for a game to play, they were looking for the answer! Apparently, there are companies using this as an employment test. Go figure!

Well, if you haven't been hired, yet, memorize this before your next interview.

1) cop & con
2) cop
3) cop & girl1
4) cop & con
5) mom & girl2
6) mom
7) mom & dad
8) dad
9) cop & con
10) mom
11) mom & dad
12) dad
13) dad & boy1
14) cop & con
15) cop & boy2
16) cop
17) cop & stripe

Or if you think that they're looking for "out-of-the-box thinkers," you might suggest that they all work together and build a bigger raft from the trees on the shore, or even just push the tree over the flowing water and walk across it! Good luck!

Interresting gadget site

Technogad is an interesting, and inspiring, gadget site. Some of the items shown are far from commercial, but if you need a little design inspiration, I'm sure that you can find something here. If you need a little geeky "wow" in your day, I'm pretty sure you can find something here as well.

"Remember, I want you..."

When my youngest son was learning to put himself to sleep, my wife and I used various methods to make that easier on him. At first, we would lay on the floor while he went to sleep. He'd know that we were there, but we kept our distance. Then we started limiting the time that we stayed with him and he'd finish his journey with the Sandman by himself. In the last stage of staying with him, I had moved to his doorway, half closed, and read my books. This made my walking away a little more subtle and quiet. During that transition away from his more direct sight, he would often times remind me that he wanted me to stay with him while he fell asleep, not to leave.

We've moved on from the need for so much comfort and security when it's bedtime, but every night, he still reminds me, "Dad, remember, I want you..." I say "I know..." and walk quietly out of his room and on to my other nighttime duties.

Though he's repeated this to me for many months now, for some reason I started thinking about it more thoughtfully last night. I know I'm reading more into it than he's intending, but taken more to heart, he wants me to do more than stay with him while he goes to sleep. He wants me to be there for him when he scrapes his knee. He wants me to play games with him. He wants me to go on a bike ride with him. He wants me to tickle him and laugh with him. He wants me to teach him to read. He wants me to watch him grow up. He wants me to teach him to drive and see him get married and play with HIS kids.

Maybe he's not thinking that far into the future. Does he know what's in store for him in the future. I doubt he has any clue.

Maybe it's because I'm re-reading Randy Pausch's book, and fearing my own mortality.

Whatever the reason, "I remember...And I want you too son..."

End of the universe?

Earlier this month, a billions of dollars (Euros, Francs, and a bunch of other monies) came to fruition as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) officially came on-line. The intention of those billions of dollars is to smash a few itsy-bitsy particles into each other and make a big bang. OK, I'm paraphrasing.

This project is not without its detractors, though. There are many that think that the billions of dollars, and millions of man-hours could be better spend on ending global warming, feeding the hungry, or even paying down the nations' debts. There are over 80 countries with their teeth sunk into this thing. In addition to concerns over the use of all that money and other resources, there are those that fear we're messing with the universe in ways that we don't understand. In the same was as those who were alive at the time of the dawn of atomic energy (and bombs) there are those that think that this "experiment" will run amok and out of control, consuming a lot more than just public scrutiny. Some have even gone so far as to predict the end of the world. Who knows, maybe their right. The scientists tell us not, but if their wrong, who's gonna be around for us to blame?

There are several sites on the Web that have posted real-time web-cams of the LHC. Most of the "official" (read: Government Sponsored) sites are still hard to get to because of all the traffic generated by the press, but I found a couple cams that are still on-line. The fastest one is available at http://lhc-live.com/. They've got a camera aimed at one of the collision points (they say you might even be able to see a tiny flash during the actual collisions). The other camera looks more like a security camera from a guard house of the parking lot or something.

I'm not sure what to think about the whole project. It might lead to some interesting science, but is it really worth Billions, with a B, at a time like this? Tell me your thoughts...

My son, the Terminator

My son is much more in touch with his feelings that most kids his age. Some might call him a bit emotional at times, but that sensitivity comes with a lot of empathy for other people's feelings as well. He also knows what's right from wrong -- though sometimes he forgets when playing with is siblings, but we're working on that :-)

Anyway, his class had a substitute teacher the other day. Apparently, this teacher had decided that a classmate of my son's deserved a bit of harassing that day. The teacher continued to berate the other student and embarrass him. The belittling and verbal jabs were so bad that this 4th grader started crying. My son and a few others knew that this was not right and, when the opportunity presented itself, they located the school principal and informed her about the situation.

The principal investigated the claims, speaking to other children as well as the substitute. She collected enough information that, after reprimanding the teacher, informed my son and his classmates that the teacher would not return to his school as a substitute ever again.

This school is really great at protecting the kids and the learning environment. They seem to know exactly what to do to make sure that the kids all have a safe and comfortable learning environment. They know that if you lose the kids now, it's a lot harder, if not impossible, to re-light that spark of interest and desire to learn.

I'm very proud of my son for recognizing something as wrong and taking a stand to correct it. The meek will truly inherit this world if they continue to stand up for each other.

Good job son!

Advertising collection

LinkInn (not to be confused with social business site LinkedIn) is a place for people to create photo collections. Some are pretty amazing. One that caught my eye the other day was a collection of outdoor advertising. Those creative minds keep raising the bar as we become more and more numb to the injection of advertising in our lives. They need to find something that will draw our attention -- something unique, quirky, insightful... I think that you'll find all those and more in this collection. Enjoy.

Thank you

I caught a short clip on TV the other night, Batman Begins I think. All I remember about the scene was the following quote:

"I never said 'Thank you'."

Batman replied, "And you'll never have to."

How truly magnanimous of him. He's going to do what he does because it's the right thing to do, not because he's expecting something in return. He's doing what he can do to help because he can, and because it needs to be done, not because he gets some kick out of publicity and fame.

If I recall correctly, he's got a little bit of money himself already, so he's not in it for the money either.

When you see something that needs to be done, are you looking around to make sure that someone sees you perform your good deed so that they can pat you on the back, sing your praises to the world and hold you in high esteem? Or do you see that piece or paper on the floor and instinctively pick it up and put it in the trash? Do you hold the door for someone without a second thought? Do you let someone with a couple of items cut in line in front of your basket load at the supermarket?

I know that not every act of selflessness will be paid back in kind, but that's not the point. There are people that will take advantage of your kindness... but it's the right thing to do.

While typing this entry, I'm listening to Pandora, and Jewell's "Hands" song is playing. There's a phrase in there, "Only kindness matters in the end." That just happened to play while I was typing... Kinda eerie...

We're being invaded!

It used to be the Asian beetles that look like their much more docile Ladybug cousins, now it's house flies!

Each fall for the past several years we've dealt with literally swarms of the Asian Beetles all over our house. This year, for some reason it's been the (way too) common housefly. The other night I killed 12 on the downstairs window and then another 8 upstairs while watching TV.

I can't find the source! There is nothing that is acting as a breeding ground that I can find. While there may a loose screen or something somewhere in the house that would provide a doorway for them, I'm not sure why they seem to be swarming right now. No drastic weather change. No rotting corpse that I can find (or smell).

I just don't get it!

Creepy Crawlers

Most people are afraid of spiders. I admit that they're not one of my favorite creatures, but I can handle them. If you're in the majority of people what would rather see them squashed than enjoy their beautiful webs, this sight might let you enjoy a little fun at their expense (or creep you out even more).

The folks at One Motion have a realistic spider model that moves about your screen. You can interact with it and even feed it. Kinda cool!

Now Google really DOES know what you're searching for before you ask for it

Well, kinda. Apparently they've kicked another project out of the labs and into the wild. Google Suggest will automatically suggest search terms for you as you type them in to Google. It will also give you a relative indication as to the popularity of the search term. They say it helps reduce spelling errors and speeds typing in the search terms of the users. It doesn't seem to work on iGoogle yet, though.

Another write up on the Google Suggest roll out can be found on arstechnica site.

Political observations

Two things keep coming up in the very few conversation I have had about politics recently.

First, regardless of who wins the US presidential elections shortly, history will be made. We will either have 1) the oldest elected President and a female Vice President, or 2) the first Black President.

Second, the people that we vote to put into office do not run the country (by themselves). As a friend of mine so eloquently stated today, I paraphrase, "One good apple does not turn a bushel of bad apples good."

American politics, like most other politics I suspect, is going to take a long time to right itself in the eyes of the People.

The Voice has died...

Don LaFontaine is one of those famous people that you've never heard of. Well, that's probably not true. Let me try that again. Don LaFontaine is one of those people you've heard a lot of that you never knew the name of. Movie trailers will never be the same...

Where's Perry?

One of my kid's favorite shows right now is Disney Channel's Phineas and Ferb. The show's about a couple of young boys that have outrageous adventures (seemingly in secret) while their sister tries to get them in trouble with their mom. The boys have a new adventure every day during their summer vacation. They also have a pet platypus named Perry. A story-within-a-story is Perry's secret identity as a secret agent. While Phineas and crew are off having a grand ol' time, Perry is battling the Evil Dr. Doofenshmirtz. Shortly after the show begins, Perry sneaks off unnoticed as his alter-ego and then Phineas utters, "Hey, where's Perry."

OK, that was kind of a long lead in to what I really wanted to comment on. My point is that no-one pays attention to the platypus doing the real work. They don't miss him. They don't go off searching for him. They don't put up wanted posters. They even greet him with a nonchalant, "Oh, there you are Perry," when he returns home at the end of the show.

It's the quiet ones (OK, I know platypus can make some sounds) that are getting the work done -- saving the world. Sure, the ones that like being on the stage get the credit. There are those that suck up to the boss, always appear to be busy, but never get anything done. There are those that are always choosing the "glory" project so that their name is on all of the important emails and lists. But... Without the silent majority, those that just go to work and dutifully do their job, do their job efficiently and effectively, fly under the radar and avoid the public praise, the people taking the credit wouldn't have anything to take credit for.

As the US economy continues to suffer, and managers must determine where to shed costs, I only hope that they know the truth behind the true productivity of the workplace.

Uncle URLs

A coworker of mine (the one who buys up cool domain names as a hobby) noticed the other day that the top-level-domain (TLD) ".me" was available now. [The TLD .me is the country indicator for sites registered in Montenegro, in the same way that .ca is for Canadian sites] Actually, I think it's been available for a while, but he had just received an email from a registrar advertising it. That got him thinking (he really never stops), "there have to be a lot of cool words that could be made into domains -- words ending in 'me'."

We consulted OneLook that allows wild card dictionary searches and came up with quite a few. I don't want to give away any potential targets of his, but some of the ones that hit me were:

• http://www.call.me/


• http://www.read.me/


• http://www.tag.me/

It also got me thinking about other TLDs that have been used like this... The first one that came to mind was the social bookmarking site del.icio.us. Another is the Interes.tingness site mentioned a few days ago. I'm sure I've seen many, many others, but for some reason none of them are coming to mind. Can you think of others like these? Leave a comment...

Politics

Detroit Politics are so absurd they are mashing up songs about it's mayor... This is the clean one of the bunch -- Take A Bow, by Rihanna, mixed by a local radio station.

Remember when...

BELOIT COLLEGE RELEASES ANNUAL MINDSET LIST FOR THE ENTERING COLLEGE CLASS OF 2012

This month, almost 2 million first-year students will head off to college campuses around the country. Most of them will be about 18 years old, born in 1990 when headlines sounded oddly familiar to those of today: Rising fuel costs were causing airlines to cut staff and flight schedules; Big Three car companies were facing declining sales and profits; and a president named Bush was increasing the number of troops in the Middle East in the hopes of securing peace. However, the mindset of this new generation of college students is quite different from that of the faculty about to prepare them to become the leaders of tomorrow.

Each August for the past 11 years, Beloit College in Beloit, Wis., has released the Beloit College Mindset List. It provides a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college. It is the creation of Beloit’s Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and Public Affairs Director Ron Nief. The List is shared with faculty and with thousands who request it each year as the school year begins, as a reminder of the rapidly changing frame of reference for this new generation.

The class of 2012 has grown up in an era where computers and rapid communication are the norm, and colleges no longer trumpet the fact that residence halls are “wired” and equipped with the latest hardware. These students will hardly recognize the availability of telephones in their rooms since they have seldom utilized landlines during their adolescence. They will continue to live on their cell phones and communicate via texting. Roommates, few of whom have ever shared a bedroom, have already checked out each other on Facebook where they have shared their most personal thoughts with the whole world.

It is a multicultural, politically correct and “green” generation that has hardly noticed the threats to their privacy and has never feared the Russians and the Warsaw Pact.

Students entering college for the first time this fall were generally born in 1990.

For these students, Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson, Ryan White, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Freddy Krueger have always been dead.

1. Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.
2. Since they were in diapers, karaoke machines have been annoying people at parties.
3. They have always been looking for Carmen Sandiego.
4. GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.
5. Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles.
6. Shampoo and conditioner have always been available in the same bottle.
7. Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.
8. Their parents may have dropped them in shock when they heard George Bush announce “tax revenue increases.”
9. Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option.
10. Girls in head scarves have always been part of the school fashion scene.
11. All have had a relative--or known about a friend's relative--who died comfortably at home with Hospice.
12. As a precursor to “whatever,” they have recognized that some people “just don’t get it.”
13. Universal Studios has always offered an alternative to Mickey in Orlando.
14. Grandma has always had wheels on her walker.
15. Martha Stewart Living has always been setting the style.
16. Haagen-Dazs ice cream has always come in quarts.
17. Club Med resorts have always been places to take the whole family.
18. WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling.
19. Films have never been X rated, only NC-17.
20. The Warsaw Pact is as hazy for them as the League of Nations was for their parents.
21. Students have always been "Rocking the Vote.”
22. Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.
23. Schools have always been concerned about multiculturalism.
24. We have always known that “All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned i Kindergarten.”
25. There have always been gay rabbis.
26. Wayne Newton has never had a mustache.
27. College grads have always been able to Teach for America.
28. IBM has never made typewriters.
29. Roseanne Barr has never been invited to sing the National Anthem again.
30. McDonald’s and Burger King have always used vegetable oil for cooking french fries.
31. They have never been able to color a tree using a raw umber Crayola.
32. There has always been Pearl Jam.
33. The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno and started at 11:35 EST.
34. Pee-Wee has never been in his playhouse during the day.
35. They never tasted Benefit Cereal with psyllium.
36. They may have been given a Nintendo Game Boy to play with in the crib.
37. Authorities have always been building a wall across the Mexican border.
38. Lenin’s name has never been on a major city in Russia.
39. Employers have always been able to do credit checks on employees.
40. Balsamic vinegar has always been available in the U.S.
41. Macaulay Culkin has always been Home Alone.
42. Their parents may have watched The American Gladiators on TV the day they were born.
43. Personal privacy has always been threatened.
44. Caller ID has always been available on phones.
45. Living wills have always been asked for at hospital check-ins.
46. The Green Bay Packers (almost) always had the same starting quarterback.
47. They never heard an attendant ask “Want me to check under the hood?”
48. Iced tea has always come in cans and bottles.
49. Soft drink refills have always been free.
50. They have never known life without Seinfeld references from a show about “nothing.”
51. Windows 3.0 operating system made IBM PCs user-friendly the year they were born.
52. Muscovites have always been able to buy Big Macs.
53. The Royal New Zealand Navy has never been permitted a daily ration of rum.
54. The Hubble Space Telescope has always been eavesdropping on the heavens.
55. 98.6 F or otherwise has always been confirmed in the ear.
56. Michael Millken has always been a philanthropist promoting prostate cancer research.
57. Off-shore oil drilling in the United States has always been prohibited.
58. Radio stations have never been required to present both sides of public issues.
59. There have always been charter schools.
60. Students always had Goosebumps.

NEWS ALERT! Google and Microsoft merge!

I don't usually make fun of people for their lack of knowledge (I STILL have to write my Domain Knowledge versus Common Knowledge post), but I heard something this morning on a conference call that I thought was REALLY funny...

It was a conversation about Microsoft Sharepoint needing (in this particular implementation) a separate search function than the Google Enterprise appliance currently in use. Google simply couldn't index and return search results from any of the Microsoft SharePoint content. The speaker said in very frustrated tone something along the lines of "It's the same company! Why can't they just make them work together." After a brief moment of "did she really just say that" silence, someone finally tried to clarify if she did indeed think that Google and Microsoft were the same company. She was educated on the extremely competitive nature of the separate corporate entities and the conversation moved on... I wonder where this person gets their news from.

Someone to watch over me...

About a month ago I started taking a different route to and from work. A co-worker of mine turned me on to it talking about it as a much faster route. Though it was a couple of miles out of the way, it was about 10 mins quicker! The faster, more continuous speed was also better on my fuel economy.

On the way home, I pass under a pedestrian overpass. I think that there's a school or something on one side of the street. several weeks ago, I started noticing that there was s guy standing in the middle of the overpass watching cars pass underneath on my way home. At first I thought he was just taking a break on his way across the bridge. Then I started to wonder if there was something else going on. He was there every day for two weeks on my way home -- even when I left 1-1/2 hour earlier, or 1/2 hour later than normal. What was this guy up to? There was full fencing on both sides of the overpass so he couldn't be waiting to drop something on the cars below. Is he homeless? Or bored? He doesn't look like he's doing a traffic survey for MDOT or even waiting for someone to meet him from the school.

Then, on the way home last Friday, he wasn't there. I actually started to worry about him. Why wasn't he there? Had something happened to him? Was he alright? Had he finally been told to "Move along?" Why was I worrying about this total stranger?

He wasn't there on Monday either... Then he reappeared tonight. Like nothing had ever happened. In the same place on the bridge. Did he know that people were worried about him? Geez! How about a phone call once in a while or a letter to say you're still alive or something?! :-(

I gotta start paying more attention to the radio (or the road) on my way home or something...

Have you seen this one?

How many digital pictures do you have stored on your hard drive? I have over 25,000! And those are just in the directory that they're supposed to be in --not the ones that have managed to stay hidden elsewhere on the drive. They're not all award winners, but there are some really good shots in there.

No multiply that 25,000 by the tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Flickr users and there's no way you can catch all the good ones. Even if you tried... Flickr helps a little by indicating a number of images are "interesting" each day. Their algorithm is their own secret sauce, but sometimes the secret recipes are the best ones...

A Daily Dose of Interesting Photographic Inspiration from Flickr provides an entire, artistically delivered screen of these "interesting" Flickr images. It's interesting [pun intended] to just site back and watch as the images flicker before your eyes. Like other photo gallery sites, a simple click on the image will enlarge to show more detail and citations. The images change daily (or by a randomize button) so enjoy a changing glimpse into the world through other's lenses.

It's a small world...

Search is pretty much done. So says Google. Sure, they'll continue to get incrementally better, but until it knows what you're searching for and delivers it before you ask for it, it's still gonna be search. All that's left is to deliver the actual results a little differently, provide a little niche that can grab a few users every now and then.

That's what Tag Galaxy is attempting. OK, it's limited to Flickr images, and may be a little slow at times, and not a complete index, but what do you want then you're trying to slog through the millions of images tagged on Flickr? What they do is present the search results (and maybe more importantly, the search refinement process) in a unique way. You start off with an initial tag -- a keyword representing an image you are looking for. It then it finds related tags and presents the whole search process as planets (or satellites) around a central object -- complete with celestial texture overlays on the orbs. The size of the sphere represents the relative quantity of shared tags. You refine your search by clicking on any additional tag you want to add until you have your search terminally defined. When complete, click on the central orb and you'll be presented with your selected images pasted on a 3D sphere like a mirrored disco ball. You can spin the gallery with your mouse and click on an image to enlarge it.

Is this the end of Google? Hardly, but it's another search site worth looking at...once...

Visual word search

OK, I know that any word search is visual, or they'd call it sound search or touch search, but just give me a sec to explain. I was trolling the labs sites (Yahoo, Google, etc) and happened across this really cool Flickr game on Yahoo. You give it a tag (word) and it grabs pictures from Flickr that match taht tag and puts the tags themselves into a world search, but... instead of providing the tags for you to find, it provides the pictures as the clues.

It's called PhotoSoup, and unfortunately, it looks like you might need a Yahoo account to play (I had to log in). There's a time limit, and a hints button which provides the text tags. Not quite as addicting as Google's Image Labeler, but fun nonetheless.

Stop wasting it!

As Americans we've been a consumer nation. We're extremely affluent as a nation when compared to other nations. As such, we've become a little sloppy in our conservation of resources. Some of that's finally changing as people adjust to massive layoffs, the cost of gasoline and everything else rising, an invigorated Green movement, and more and better education about what we're leaving behind for our next generations.

One thing that we're still working on preserving is human mind power. As the UNCF states in its slogan, "The mind is a terrible thing to waste." Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University must agree because they saw a lot of that mind power being wasted on necessary, but some might say frivolous, CAPTCHA responses. CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. In plain English, it's those pesky little distorted letters or words that a lot of web sites put up for you to type in before you can get to where you want to go, or do what you want to do. They're really hard for computers intent on spamming sites to understand and reply to, but, for the most part, easy for true humans to interpret.

Carnegie Mellon had a large collection of images that looked just like CAPTCHAs. Problem was, they were not computer generated, but rather text from old and decaying books they were trying to preserve by digitally scanning and converting to text. So, in a classic academic move, they made a game out of it and released it to the public for assistance (remind me of the Google Image Labeler project). Another great example of crowdsourcing -- getting a bunch of random people to do the work normally reserved for an employee.

You can read the full article on how they enlisted major Internet players to utilize their "CAPTCHA" images to do what computer scanners could not effectively do in this arstechnica article.

Those academics are really pretty smart after all... :-)

Still amazing...

I think I've posted about this before, but it amazes me every time I see it...


You can read more about this amazing photo touring application if you're interested. Simply amazing what you can do with enough data, computing power and ingenuity.

Ah, the good 'ol days

I remember in high school, I thought I had big ears for some reason and so I used my hair (I had a lot more back then) to hide them. I didn't have long hair, I graduated in the late eighties, but it was longer than it maybe could have been. I gained a little self confidence after that and cut it shorter and I've been losing it more and more quickly ever since.

I haven't' looked at my own yearbook in quite a while, but if you have a recent digital picture of yourself you can relive those glory days regardless of when you graduated by visiting the Yearbook Yourself site. Upload a face shot and it adds the background (big hair and all) for the last several decades worth of graduation pics. Wow and I glad I didn't graduate in an earlier decade... :-)

Fontasy

I'm no doctor, but sometimes my handwriting is just as bad. I'm strong enough to admit my weaknesses, that's why I type everything I can instead (auto correct and spell check is a handy side benefit). My creativity comes in the mental arena, solving problems, out of the box thinking, etc, not the physical side of things like building, drawing, designing, etc. If I was more adept at that side of the arts, I might fancy a site like the FontStruct site at FontShop. That site allows you to build an entire font from scratch, online, for free! Let your right brain go while and get a little crazy, or simply express your own personal style. The site is full of powerful tools, some of which are demonstrated int eh video below. Make your own characters, pictures, etc and assign them to standard keyboard letters. Once done, save your font as a normal True Type font and use it to show the world how creative you are.

Do you hear what I hear?

There are many radio stations to listen to, plus satellite, plus MP3 players, plus CDs, and more while driving in your car. Tonight I happened to be listening to the radio and looked back to see the girl driving behind me dancing around and singing. That's not the unusual part. Though I listen to 2 of the top 4 radio stations in this market and have for as long as I can remember, I have never caught someone listening to the same station as me... This time, though, I was able to match her singing (or the movement of her mouth anyway) and bobbing to the song on my radio. That's a first for me. Nothing that notable, but a first nonetheless.

Have you caught this before?

I'm pregnant!

OK, well not really, but someone thinks so. I've been getting free formula, coupons, etc. for about a month now from different companies. Initially I wrote it off as having accidentally checked the wrong box on one of my "free" sites, but the strange thing is that all the stuff is coming to me using my "real name" not the name I go by. Strange. I NEVER use that name...

I'm putting all the stuff to good use though anyway. You're welcome Lily! I bet Thomas Beatie is getting a lot of free baby stuff about now too...

Say that again...?

In my searching for stuff to post here for your perusing enjoyment, I stumbled upon the Useloos site a little bit ago. Problem is, there's a lot of stuff on the site that I can't understand. Some things are pretty obvious and can draw my attention with a little bit of English or a picture, but the site itself is in Dutch. I know I'm missing some really cool stuff because I don't know what they're talking about. NO MORE!

I hadn't bothered with it before tonight, but... GOOGLE to the rescue! Google will translate entire web pages for you (once you figure out what language the site it in). Take a look at Useloos in English. Granted it's machine translation, but still a lot better than I could do even with a dictionary :-) (You can improve Google's translation of a page if you're fluent in the language as well -- just hover over the text with your mouse.)

Have another site that you need translated? Head on over to Google's Language Tools. In fact, I get a lot of visitors from all over the world, so, if English isn't your first language, try the translate button in the lower right corner of this page.

Happy translating!

More Presidential coverage

It's been so hard to get any information on the current presidential contenders here in the US. The news media just refuses to cover it... NOT! Even so, I thought you could use some more political information

According to The Book of Useless Information, by Noel Botham

• More presidents have been born in the state of Virginia than in any other state.
  
• David Rice Atchinson was president of the United States for exactly one day.
  
• George Washington had to borrow money to go to his own inauguration.
  
• Abraham Lincoln's famous Gettysburg Address consisted of just 272 words.
  
• Herbert Hoover was the first US president to have a telephone in his office.
  
• Jimmy Carter was the first US president to be born in a hospital.
  
• Ronald Reagan married his first wife, Jane Wyman, at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California.

I profess no political affiliation in this blog, just thought the above were interesting...

Great Shot!

My daughter starts a digital photography class this week. She won the week-long class while attending a Radio Disney event last spring. She really likes taking pictures and has an eye for creativity. This picture of two bugs enjoying an afternoon tea in the garden is but one example. I hope that the class gives her a chance to learn some of the mechanics of photography -- lighting, composition, special effects, etc. One thing about digital photography is that it's all about the numbers. The more pictures you take, the more good pictures you'll get -- whether you're a good photographer or not.

Useloos has a gallery of other kids that have been bitten by the photography bug. These are really amazing -- not only for their stunning image, but that these kids were able to place themselves in the position to get the shot!

One step ahead

When you're walking up, or down, stairs the next time, think of the people behind these creative staircases. Even the lowly step can become a work of art. 10 notable staircases from the folks over at Mental Floss. Want more mental enrichment? They have a Mental Floss magazine too! Keep that mind agile!

STOP!

When you hire a consultant, you're not supposed to be just hiring someone to do your "dirtywork." Hire a "dirtywork" company for that stuff. When you hire a consultant, you're hiring someone to consult with you -- hence the consult-ant. They consult because they have the knowledge and skills that you and your company may not have internally.

Sometimes, though, the consultant company is geared too much to just doing the "dirtywork" -- whatever that may be that the company wants, despite their best judgement -- and not sharing, or on occasion, enforcing the right thing to do. I'm sure that you've run across a company like this one that caves to the whim of a demanding, though uninformed, client...

glumbert - Stop Sign Re-Design

The true skill and talent of a consultant is knowing when to say STOP! even if it's not what the client wants to hear. A consultant's job is to use their knowledge and skills in the best interest of the client, not just bow to their uneducated demands if it will be detrimental in the long run.

Am I off-base here? Watch the video to see how far this can go if not checked...

Eye Heart You

I may not always remember to say it, and sometimes I may not show it as well as I could, but please remember that I ♥ U!

When a simple "Wash me" isn't enough

We used to have a little ceramic "plaque" hanging in our house that said something like "You can touch the dust, but please don't write in it." It was recognition that our house isn't always the cleanest, but it had that "you don't have to rub it in" humor attached to it. That wall hanging has come down for now as my wife is in painting mode, but if it was still hanging you wouldn't be able to see it anyway because of the dust from the paint prep work... :-) It'll all get vacuumed up and look great in the end.

Steve Wade, on the other hand, seems to like a little dust. No, make that a LOT of dust. This guy doesn't just tell you to get a car wash, he creates works of art in the dust! Useloos has an incredible gallery of his dust artistry. You can his full gallery at his Dirty Car Art web site.

That musta been one GIGANTIC spider!

You've come a long way baby. From a geeky scientific research project at DARPA to the Internet as we know it in just 39 years! According to Google, the World Wide Web has just hit a new milestone -- 1 trillion (as in 1,000,000,000,000) unique URLs on the web at once! And despite Google's vast store of data, that's STILL only a portion of the Web itself. No wonder you can find ANYTHING on the Web...

Let go my Legos...

Every little kid loves Legos. They're durable, simple (well, they used to be) and they last literally for generations. My step brothers still have TONS of Legos that they pull out anytime my kids are around. They used to be just basic brick shapes that you put together with your hands and your imagination (or with the easy-to-follow instruction booklet until you lost it). Now they've got so many themed packs, and fancy one-of-a-kind shapes it makes you dizzy. A fun time for everyone!

Tech site Gizmodo takes you inside the Lego factory. Videos and an interesting article as well. There are lots of links in the story for even more in-depth information.

Are you safe?

Not everyone is as nice as you are. Some people are downright dangerous. We all deserve a chance, but it's best to be informed. There are a lot of crime maps available on the Internet to help you see what's going in in your neighborhood, or where you hang out, or where your kids go to school, or where you might be moving. GoogleMapsMania has *several* that integrate with Google's maps interface. Another one is available at CriminalSearches.

There's a certain inner debate when looking at sites like these. There's a little bit of voyeurism -- kinda like slowing down as you pass an accident on the side of the road. There's a little bit of shame -- you don't know all of the circumstances surrounding the crime, maybe they're reformed. A little bit of fear -- could they do it again, or worse. Then there is the technical awe that all of this information is available and so easy to navigate on this fad called the Internet.

I'll let you battle those things by yourself, but it's still a good idea to find out what's going on around you.

Be safe.

Too geeky even for me

I admit it. I'm a little bit geeky. But ASCII art on curtains is just too much for me. Ditto for Space Invaders wallies... I realize that some people might enjoy these kind of, um, decorations, so here ya go: Home Decor for the Absolute Geeks. Or just hire a decorator :-)

Ice, Ice, Baby

Here's another one from Day Tipper. Actually, I heard about this on the Internet, the news, from friends, from radio, and I'm sure the little kids on the corner selling lemonade last summer as well, but Day Tipper offers this reminder about adding ICE (In Case of Emergency) to your phone.

Simple and effective, and something that is apparently not an urban myth from the Internet - mark one for the good guys! And you know what? Even if someone thinks it is a myth, enough people know about it that it might work anyway...

Basically, you put an entry in your cell phone with the name "ICE" (maybe followed by the person's real name) and then put in their phone numbers as well. Now this ICEy person is not just anyone, it's someone that if you're injured or otherwise incapacitated, you'd want Emergency Services to contact. If they can find your cell phone, they'll look for ICE first and contact them to let them know you're injured, etc. It doesn't cost anything and it just might come in handy...

Camera Protection

Digital cameras can be expensive and costly to replace, but if you lose yours, the first thing that you're likely tyo think about is the lost pictures, not the lost camera.

I saw a very useful tip while surfin' around tonight. On the Daytipper site, it was suggested that you create an image that has your name and phone number on it and put it on your camera as img_001.jpg or whatever is appropriate for your camera. The idea is that if an honest person happens across your camera when lost, they'll be able to track you down and return it (with the irreplaceable pictures still intact it's hoped).

I did this one little step better by making this the image that shows on my camera's LCD when you turn the camera on or off as well. I included my name, address and phone number as well as a note about a reward for extra incentive.

Can you hear me now?

The guys over at Improv Everywhere (who brought you the Best Buy, Frozen Grand Central, and many other pranks) are at it again... Under the banner of Urban Prankster, this time they decided to make sure that a Verizon customer really felt the power of The Network...

http://view.break.com/537412 - Watch more free videos

Celebrity Hookups

OK, usually you'd hear about the latest celebrity - celebrity coupling with a title like that, but this time it's about the latest celebrity - YOU hookup! Calm down, it's just virtual. But if you were lucky (?) to be part of a celebrity hookup, what would your babies look like? Make Me Babies lets you find out ahead of time -- before you get stuck in all of the paparazzi pics... You pick the celebrity, upload your own picture, and let the Internet do all its magic. You may never see the flesh of this experiment, but then again...

Save trees. Trees save.

My wife and I encourage our kids to reduce, re-use and recycle. We teach them to care for the environment. We teach them to value life - no matter how small.

My kids have organized recycling campaigns. They've made posters to "Save the Earth." They've helped with returning cans and bottles.

I think that they'd like this un-sourced advertisement. It's very understated and yet very powerful. It simply says, "Save trees. Trees save."

Got any money left?

If you've still got any money left after filling up your car this week, and feel like investing in the market, you might wan to use Google's new Stock Screener to help you find a stock of interest.

Using criteria such as Market Capitalization, 52 Week Price Range, Earnings per Share, Volume, Dividends paid, Current Ratio, Margins and Growth as well as quite a few more, you set the min and max value for each of your criteria and Google Finance will list the stocks that match your levels from it's list of 3692 companies. It also gives you links right to more detailed analysis of the companies in your list.

Another interesting feature is that it will plot out the distribution of all of its known companies for each of the criteria including showing the min and max values.

If only I had spare cash laying around, this might be a bit more useful for me...

Guitar hero it's not...

Came across this game the other day. It has a similar style to the very popular Guitar Hero... but no guitar, no heavy metal, and no high price tag. But it's just like it otherwise. :-)

It's called Music Catch, and it it actually intended to relax you I gather. Moving your mouse, you try to collect points by rolling over "notes" and other special characters, while avoiding the red guys. It's mildly addictive -- enough to keep you going through the sleepy music, but not enough to make you come back every day. Unless you're really stressed out...

iGoogle tabs

As I've mentioned before, I use iGoogle for my news reader because it allows me to stem the information overload a little bit by restricting the items to just 3-5 per feed. I still wanted to be able to sort them a bit though, so I created tabs. I have my home tab that has my GMail preview and a list of visitors to this blog as well as a few other miscellaneous widgets. Then I have my Google tab that has all the unofficial RSS feeds dealing with Google and Google products. I have an official Google Blogs page as well. I have a free stuff tab, a videos tab a finance tab and a couple of miscellaneous tabs -- literally "Misc A-J" and "Misc K-Z." The problem is that the reason I had to split the Misc tabs was because there was too much on the one tab, and I had created other tabs since then... So my Misc K-Z was 3 tabs over from the Misc A-J tab. I know, I know -- big deal. Well, at the time, Google offered no way to move your tabs around. I saw one hack provided on Blogoscoped I think that involved exporting your settings as XML and then editing the XML file and then restoring from that exported backup... Too much for me to worry about, so I just got used to it.

Then...

Out of the blue, I noticed the other day that Google had snuck in a feature that allows you to change the tab order! I love finding these little surprises. Now my alphabet is contiguous! :-)

How fat is your state?

I'm not talking about how many miles across from state-line to state-line. I'm talking about the girth of the average citizen. CalorieLab has an interesting article and graphic that shows us what we all pretty much knew -- we could afford to lose a few pounds. I include myself in that category, and apparently I'm not alone, although Michigan has dropped one rank since last year (because of a tie). What are you doing sitting here reading my blog posting?! Get out there and run a few miles! ...then come back and check my blog again :-) please...