(My mature attempt at humor)Things have been getting too consistent around here, I had to random it up a bit, so here's something a little more boring =)
Google Docs now lets you work offline, which I think is pretty sweet. Google explains it much better than I, so go ahead and watch the video.
So it seems to me like Cuba is the Inverse of America.
In the latest move by Fidel's little brother, Cuban citizens may now stay in hotels that were previously only open to tourists. A few days ago they got cell phones, and a few weeks ago they got microwaves, computers, and dvd players.
Let me unpack my first statement, you see when America was a young nation, we had places like the wild west, and there weren't many laws or restrictions (kind of like Montana still is...), and then slowly we acquired more and more laws, statutes, restrictions, etc. to the point where you need 8 years of schooling just understand the laws, in one state!
Now consider the last few decades in Cuba, they weren't allowed anything, I mean come on, banning microwaves? But now they are starting to receive some of the most basic of freedoms. They initially had no freedom, but are slowly being allowed more. And I hope they continue to move away from communism so we can add Cuba to our list of spring break party countries.
Candles are made from petroleum too.....
Earth Hour urges homeowners and big corporations to turn off their lights for an hour, not to save energy, but to make people stop and think about global warming.
Well I don't believe in global warming, so my first reaction to this movement was of course negative, but I still think using energy irresponsibly is a bad thing. So I support the movement, but for different reasons.
But I thought it was funny that 'they' were encouraging people to use candle light instead of incandescent light. Last time I checked, candles are made from petroleum (the same thing gas is made from), paraffin is a byproduct of petroleum, and when it is burned it releases Carbon Monoxide, Carbon Dioxide, and many of the same pollutants that your car produces. So it seems kind of counterproductive....
Ok, so I'm really not into animals or anything... you will never catch me watching Animal Planet or carrying a miniature schnauzer around in my purse. I just thought this was amazing...
So, from what I've read, about 10 years ago a couple of artists and an "elephant expert" started an academy to teach retired elephants how to paint. Retired from what, I don't really know... I mean honestly, they're elephants. Anyway, these elephants can paint shapes, objects, or even themselves. I guess they're extremely smart- their brains are almost 4 times the size of ours so I suppose they would be. Whatever. I'll hold to my theory that an elephant still can't pass Thermodynamics with a better grade than me.
And to top it all off, they make music and can use tools! Hmm... I wonder if they can learn how to use a bench grinder...
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If you don't remember my past post Mutant Robotic Deer-Puppy! it's about a sweet quadruped robot destined to spawn AI and kill us all... well I found a parody of it, which is quite hilarious (as with any parody, only if you've seen the original). So here are both of them, side by side.
The Original
The Parody
This short film is pretty clever (and I thought it was a little creepy too).
Thanks to Steatopygous Mathophile.
Check it out, I made my first video to upload to youtube, I mean... I found it and uploaded it... and.... I'm politically neutral.
Inspired by the Google Blog.
Be sure to bump my rating on youtube =)
My uncle sent this to me and I was impressed. I just wonder how easy it is to replace the aluminum brake, (I'm sure it's easier/cheaper than replacing your fingers...)
A little person is filing a complaint against a McDonald's employee because she "shrieked and ran away at the sight of him".
The employee apparently has a phobia of little people. She defended herself by stating, "Imagine if you saw a snake or a spider, how would you respond?". Ethan Wade, who suffers from a form of dwarfism responded, "You can't have a phobia of a person. I'm a human being. You can't have that type of phobia."
Now I think it was probably immature of the employee to respond like that, but I also think Ethan Wade's statement is incorrect, you can have a phobia of a person, yes it's irrational to have that fear, but last time I checked, that's the DEFINITION of phobia.
Well this reminded me of a certain South Park episode, (sorry about the edits in between clips, they removed the original video I had)
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7,113 anti-aircraft guns will be aiming their sights at any cloud near the Beijing Olympics that threatens rain.
"China's national weather engineering programm employs 500 'weather modification professionals' in charge of over 30 aircraft and their crews, as well as 37,000 part-time, mostly peasant, workers who are constantly on call to annihilate clouds with their 7,113 anti-aircraft guns and 4,991 rocket launchers."
Armed with silver iodide and dry ice, the plan is to make the clouds rain before they near the stadium. And if that doesn't work, they'll fly planes loaded with liquid nitrogen to delay the rain until the clouds pass.
I knew the Chinese government was a little wacky, but this one takes the cake.
Thanks to The Inquirer.
"USA TODAY REPORTS that on an average day, 40 per cent of the 800 million computers connected to the Internet are bots used to send out spam, viruses and to mine for sensitive personal data."
Can you hear that? That's an infant crying, his name is Skynet.
Thanks to The Inquirer.
DARPA is giving Sun Microsystems $44 billion to "explore the high-risk idea of replacing the wires between computer chips with laser beams."
So I've pretty much decided working for DARPA, or for a company contracted by DARPA, would be the best job ever. They fund projects like the Urban Challenge, where independent teams build robotic cars that drive themselves and race for a prize (usually in the millions). And other projects like the robotic dog I posted about earlier.
When using Google Reader the "j" key does NOT work when you have your Caps Lock on, I found this out after angrily smashing my keyboard after repeated attempts to skip to the next item.
Just thought you might like to be forewarned, it might save you a keyboard or two.
I've commented on this article before, Official Google Reader Blog: J-walking with Reader, and I still think the feature is pretty sweet...
This image is so true, why are old people so afraid of messing around with things they don't quite understand?! Just start pressing buttons until you figure it out.
Thanks to Gizmodo.
In the latest Skynet update, this robotic dog's (which looks more like a deer to me) maneuverability is pretty amazing. And it's funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which makes it even more likely that it will spawn AI, become evil, and kill us all.
Thanks to Steatopygous Mathophile for the link.
Air for sale? You got it, if you have an extra $20 billion under the mattress....
This recent article explains an auction held by the FCC where they sold a large chunk of bandwidth licenses. The big winner was Verizon, although bidding by Google stirred up most of the interest in the blogging community. It's obvious why Verizon would show interest, but Google doesn't host any wireless communication...... yet.
Last time I checked there are a finite number of usable frequencies used for communication, so where did these new frequencies come from? Well I had an assumption, I did some digging and it proved to be correct. A few months ago I remembered reading about The Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005, (see www.dtv.gov to see a website so dull only our government could have possibly designed it). The FCC is making everyone switch to a digital signal, therefore freeing up all those cute little sinusoidal waves. And yes, they're the same airwaves up for auction.
The reason for the switch? As the name implies, the claim is that it "will free up frequencies for police, fire, and emergency rescue communications", and they also said they're doing it for us (yeah right), so we will have a higher quality picture.
So if the FCC's primary reason for transitioning TVs to a digital signal is to free it up for emergencies, why did they just sell a large chunk of it to a cell phone company?
Technical Info (If you're actually still reading at this point, you might as well continue)
There are 5 frequency "Blocks", A B C D E, that all range in the UHF frequency (redundant, I know) band of 698-746 MHz. The latest auctions were within the C and D blocks, with the D not selling too well. There were a few other auctions about 4 years ago that brought in ~ $1.4 billion, within the C and D blocks. And straight from FCC.org, "Auctions for the A, B, and E Blocks have not been scheduled." Well I'm guessing by the looks of that statement (and by how much the treasury likes auctions that bring in billions....) it's just a matter of time before they hit the auction block.
So what am I trying to get at with this uncommonly long post?
Simply this, why can't our government just tell us how it really is? They just need some quick cash. I have absolutely no problem with the transition, it seems like a win-win, better quality picture for us, free up bandwidth for emergency frequencies, Verizon grows even larger, therefore decreasing chances of competition... (Ok, maybe not that one =/ ) .
All I ask is that they explain it how it really is, "Hey, we're gonna rake in tens of Billions of dollars while slightly inconveniencing everyone with an old TV."
So I've been reading a lot about blogs and marketing and all that stuff, and the #1 thing they all say is "produce quality content", a close 2nd to that was to isolate your content, make the main topic of your blog extremely specific.
Well anyone who subscribes to my blog knows that my content is unpredictable at best. When entering the description for my blog I drew a blank, I had no idea how to describe it. And I still don't, my only response to the 'experts' is, "screw it" I like what I like even if it doesn't fit neatly into a box.
(Darth Vader is Thirsty)I don’t have any time today for a real post, so this will have to do, it always makes me laugh every time I see it.
Well, Google Reader came through again with this story.
The UK Church of the Jedi has purchased land on the moon from a lunar real estate agent, and is currently seeking jedis to fill administrative positions in their new nation.
"The nation is called The Galactic States of Jediism, we have our capital city on the moon called Testa City. We are also going to be selling Baron or Lord titles to the public as well."If interested in becoming a Baron, or federal official, please stop by your local mental hospital for an application.
I'm always on the lookout for new projects being developed that are laying the foundation for the inevitable takeover by Skynet. This story caught my eye today, Israeli Residents are suing their government because they aren't providing enough protection from Palestinian rocket fire. The residents are demanding the government buy SkyGuard, a high energy chemical laser missile defense system developed by Northrup Grumman.
With Bounty Hunting still fresh in my mind I came across this article.
Apparently a small Iowa town (I mean SMALL, Population: 200) has more stray cats than it has people, so the local government put out a bounty on the heads of all stray cats, $5 a piece. Now I was a little disappointed to find out they had to be alive (sorry guys, not a cat lover). Latest Career title change: Nicholas Kamm, Professional Bounty Hunter, Specialization: Small Kitties (Preferably de-clawed).
Go to NWI.com for the full story, or stay here to read my version (or do both, I don’t care).
Here’s my version of the story from the perspective of 20 year old Brandi Goldman from
“This weed is giving me the munchies, it’s only
“Crap, why is there traffic at
“Wow, those uppers are wearing off, I’m feeling tired.”
.
.
.
“Good morning officer, what seems to be the problem?”
(Officer) “Ma’am it’s
Needless to say, she ended up in the hospital…. And then jail. This story fuels the debate, do drugs make you stupid or is it just that stupid people do drugs?
See this is why I use Google Reader to subscribe to the Official Gmail Blog, because you find out nifty tricks like these.
Summary of the post, my email address, NicholasKamm@gmail.com, Nicholas.Kamm@gmail.com, or NicholasKamm+Bank@gmail.com are all equal, the operators " . " and "+ " can be used freely in your email address allowing you to take advantage of your filters. This knowledge just opened up a whole new world of email organization for me!
Will the Terminator 2.5 tv show be up for a 2nd season? According to Fox we won't know until May. [edit] the verdict has since been returned, it will be back! Check out my latest post about its return [/edit] If you haven't seen the 1st season (especially the finale) you can check out the last 6 episodes on Fox On Demand [edit] this has been disabled, see below for list of sites to watch videos [/edit], and for the first few, a search on google returns some promising results, but I didn't find anything fantastic (or legal).
So how long do you think it will be before the Governator makes a cameo on the show?
[edit] If you want to do your part to procure a second season, head over to the Official Terminator Site and subscribe to their newsletter (or subscribe to my blog, I'll be announcing Fox's decision as soon as it's released) to show your support, or you can head over to the fan created wiki and post on Speak up for Season 2, hopefully that will get Fox's attention. [/edit]
Watch Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Episodes*
Here's the last two episodes, 3-7 found below.
Episode 8: Vick's Chip
"I seriously want to see this asshole and his camcorder buddies slowly tortured, crippled, and then left to suffer for the rest of their miserable shitty little lives."Now let's face it, cruelty to animals is bad, but what kind of person are you wishing such things on another human being, humans are worth more than animals, plain and simple.
I was messing around with the NWI.com site, trying to add it to my Google Reader, and I stumbled upon this. Apparently the banks in Northwest Indiana have been robbed a lot more than I expected, NWI Times provides a map of all the banks including the dates that they were robbed, it's quite startling. They note a sudden increase in robberies, stating that in 2006 there were none reported in lake county, compared to 23 reported robberies in 2007. The full story can be read here.
I've already posted once today, but this one was too funny to pass up, MIT students submitted a paper to WMSCI (the World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics) that was written by a computer program they created to generate random "context-free" jargon. See http://www.theinquirer.net/ for the full article, which includes some pretty hilarious phrases generated by the program.
I didn't have much going on today, so I thought I'd create an album of some of the more notable places I've been.
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