dev

Open your mouth and you're dead

2012-02-13T01:18:00.001-05:00

Outside Magazine has an intro article to freediving. Utterly mad, but incredibly fascinating at the same time:

http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/water-activities/open-your-mouth-and-youre-dead.html?page=all

[via mefi]

The Scale of the Universe

2012-02-10T17:06:00.000-05:00

A very cool simulation showing the scale of things in the universe:
http://htwins.net/scale2/

[via mefi]

Biking cliff-side trails

2011-12-26T19:02:00.002-05:00

Umm. What?!?[via kottke]

A Meeting with Gorillas

2011-12-21T23:38:00.001-05:00

1:05 Gorillas passing by2:36 Really amazing part starts[via mefi]

Street Skiing in Nelson, BC

2011-12-01T22:31:00.001-05:00

Frickn Amazing. Takes awhile to get to the good stuff, but pretty fantastic when you get past the teasing:

JP Auclair Street Segment (from All.I.Can.) from Sherpas Cinema on Vimeo.

[via mefi]

Teutonia downhill skateboarding race

2011-11-20T21:08:00.001-05:00

Downhill skateboarding championship in Brazil. 70 mph and horrible pavement condition. Documentary of a very cool sport:

Dalua Downhill - Episode 4 Teutonia (English Version) from Zeppelin Filmes on Vimeo.

[Similar to: Rollersuiting down the Alps][via Kottke]

2011-11-19T00:35:00.001-05:00

"First get your facts; then you can distort them at your leisure." -Mark Twain

Unthink social network

2011-11-11T01:12:00.001-05:00

Unthink.com is a new social network website, which seemed to be trying to unseat Facebook by taking the more common sense approach of the user owning their personal data.

Given the initial splashy photos on its front page and the mention on the TechCrunch, it seemed refreshingly promising.

I was able to try it out and it was a huge let-down. I'm predicting dead-pool, unless they dramatically change things.

First, when you sign up, you're presented with extremely pretentious and wordy 'covenant', declaring that your personal data is yours. No shit, Sherlock. Just say that in simple terms, not in flowery legalese language.

Next, they have tutorial videos that look like that they're drawn by the same people, who filled the software with clip-art in the 90's:

Lastly and perhaps most importantly, the actual website itself looks like a feature cluster-bomb exploded in the browser. I seriously had to go to the help forums to figure out how to invite people.

A social network needs to:
1) Make it easy to invite friends/import them from Facebook.
2) Make it easy to share media and statuses with them.
3) Make it easy to change your privacy.

That's it. Everything else is secondary and should not clutter up the screen.

The site is also quite slow, but given it's just starting up, it's to be expected. (But I imagine the feature clutter certainly does not help things.)

It seems to me that people are dying for a Facebook alternative. And from an outsider perspective, if you just made a simplified Facebook and added common sense to the privacy philosophy, you'd have a hit. Unfortunately, Unthink currently is not doing that.

Surfing Tahupoo

2011-08-30T20:10:00.001-04:00

Gaud dang...

I think the question goes like: With balls that big, how does he sit down?

More Surfing Videos

An ode

2011-03-30T22:30:00.000-04:00

Dearest Lucille,

This technology is like some sort of magic trick.

To this day, I am still flabberghasted that I can hear your beautiful voice, whilest you are miles and miles away.

Oh, but it is wonderful and I would not trade it for anything else.

In my mind, I sometimes replay certain words and phrases that you say, like "lugubriousness," to remind myself of the wonderful sensualness and melodious lilt that I savor in your voice.

If only I had the talents to compose such wonderful compositions as to match how I feel about you, I would be the next Bach or Mozart.

Alas, I do not have the gift and my only reconcilliation is to wait another week, when I can hear your voice once again.

If I may be so bold and please do say if I am being overly forward, may I request that you play Giminiani's concerti grossi in D minor?

With unshakeable respect and admiration for you and 98.1 KRPE,

Markus

Attack

2011-03-30T21:56:00.000-04:00

Get out your best cutting spoon
And your fave gimlet shoes
Cuz we gonna rumba
these sitting ducks wake
and eat them foie gras
no hesitate.

Jimmy Doodles, Mr. Mean
ain't here to besmirch
your good name, we here to
eat your dog,
jack your mom an
collect all them dere battered whites.

Rubber Glass and Suction Cup Tape

2011-03-26T18:11:00.000-04:00

Pretty darn Cool:

At Inventables.com

[via Mefi]

Asus NX90

2011-02-17T22:42:00.000-05:00

Was casually thinking about getting a new laptop and was looking through Asus' offerings and stumbled upon their NX90, which looks to be quite a unique product.

Why didn't Windows Phone target the business market first?

2011-01-29T00:33:00.000-05:00

Word is that the Windows Phone isn't selling as well as hoped, despite decent reviews for a first gen product. The question I have is: why doesn't Microsoft just focus on taking over the Blackberry market first?

1. I have yet to meet anyone who loves their Blackberries and in particularly, they hate how slow the default browser is. i.e. it seems like this segment would be open to a better option. (And yes despite how much flack IE gets, I think it's relatively okay and better than the Blackberry browser)

2. Microsoft has a dominant positions with many IT departments of large corporations with Microsoft Exchange/Outlook as well as Office. That means they already have major ins and knowledge of what IT administrators look for in terms of security and management. Also, they have the channel for selling there.

3. They have the inside knowledge when it comes to integrating the phone productively with Outlook and Office. (although this point, they've already half-hit with their integration with office)

4. The current mindshare for the broader consumer technology fabric seems to be: Apple (iPod/iTunes, iPhone, iPad and laptops), Google (Search, gmail, browser and phones) and Facebook. From a consumer perspective, it's hard to imagine Microsoft prioritizing these market essentials over pedaling their own products. i.e. Microsoft's other consumer products (search, email, etc) would need to be miraculously grow in popularity for this consumer-focused phone to be successful.

Am I missing something? Why didn't Microsoft originally target the corporate segment? In fact, I still think Microsoft still has time to do so.

World Record breaking Nonagenarian

2010-12-08T21:33:00.001-05:00

Interesting article describing research on a Nonagenarian, whose muscle do not seem to be breaking down as quickly of almost all others her age. It goes on to talk on about the potential beneficial effects of exercise on aging.

[via mefi]

Opting out of junk mail

2010-10-31T14:02:00.000-04:00

OptOutPrescreen is a joint venture of Equifax, Experian, TransUnion. Can opt out permanently from pre-selected credit card and insurance applications.
Opt out of phone books
American Airlines Citi card - call in citi card's account number and ask to opt out of non-account specific mailings.

Climbing to the top of a transmission tower

2010-09-21T23:26:00.002-04:00

What the F*ck.

See more funny videos and TBT Videos at Today's Big Thing.

2010-09-20T22:16:00.001-04:00

Ben's 120 Pound journey

Frickn Bloody inspirational.

Muro

2010-08-10T22:47:00.002-04:00

Very cool free, account-free web sketch tool: muro.deviantart.com

[via mefi]

NYTimes Round of websites for learning a language

2010-07-31T15:56:00.000-04:00

Learning a Language From an Expert, on the Web

Lego House

2010-07-20T21:25:00.002-04:00

Actually, I find the bright colors to be tremendously appealing.

See more funny videos and Technology Videos at Today's Big Thing.

The open toilet in the middle of the bathroom meets the man who produces toxic gas when he eats jalapenos.

2010-06-18T01:35:00.002-04:00

(Slightly inappropriate for kids and the easily offended. Sorry, that's just how it turned out. Also, upon re-reading this, not one of my better pieces...)

Paco de Lucia felt right earlier, my thinking being that the rhythmic, staccato flamenco chords would provide a chill, summer-time Spanish feel.

But as Jim gulped down his beer and stared down with hollow eyes at the table, it instead gave the party environment an unnatural, dramatic and almost surreal cinematic mood.

I cursed under my breath. I had not quite lived down the malfunctioning hair-band robot incident.

Jim looked up and continued his harrowing story.

Strangely, his words seemed to exactly match up with the beat of the bongos.

There was a 1:30 meeting

with Antonio, Sarah and Richard

and I was starving

Buh buh!

Burritos were the special

Cha!

of the day in the basement cafe.

Shuh!

I was in a rush

Pit da da dee da de da

and I was still

thinking of Annie with Bob

bi duh buh

FUZZPERDY COMPANY OFFICE, 2ND FLOOR, JACK'S OFFICE - EARLIER THAT DAY

Hey Susan, how are you doing?

Hi Jack, I'm doing okay. How are the kids?

Talkative and a handful as always. Okay, who do we have on the phone?

Hey Jack, this is Richard and I've got John here with me too.

Hello Richard, hello John. Long time no see, heh heh.

Hah, yeah, seriously, we don't see each other often enough.

Hi Jack, this is Michael also here, how is it going?

Hey Michael, thanks for joining, especially at the last minute. Anyhow, I know all of you are busy and this is going to be a long meeting, so let me go over the agenda first. Did you all get the webex link I sent out?

FUZZPERDY COMPANY OFFICE, 3RD FLOOR, JACOB's CUBE

Jacob had on black ear-buds and two large LCD monitors in front of him. On the right screen was Excel, calculator and Los Coronas playing on iTunes. On the left, was Eclipse and a whole slew of java code files.

Jacob paused and sipped on some coffee. He scratched his shoulder and then started drawing out a few diagrams on a notepad.

FUZZPERDY COMPANY OFFICE, LOBBY

Brian, a salesmen with squat, balding head, was using the video conferencing feature on his new iPhone 4. He pushed the up elevator button.

MY APARTMENT

Thankfully, the music had switched over to some generic album, called Ultra-chill or Mega-Lounge or Smoke-a-hookah-And-Get-it-on or something along those lines.

Jim had not finished with his story.

Mimi had seemingly gotten *physically* uncomfortable with where the story was headed. For a few minutes she had been shifting side to side in her seat, as if one of her butt cheeks had colluded in alternating falling asleep on her. I wouldn't have minded giving her a butt massage. I am not a butt man, but goodness, from day one, I could not stop staring at her butt.

She and Gregg ended up moving to the living room to play Wii Sports Resort.

I could have sworn I heard something sounding like a squeeky fart emit from the room, accompanied by laughter afterwards, but I could not be 100% sure. I scribbled down a line on my sticky note-pad to remind myself to make fun of her later.

Meanwhile, I was in the kitchen with Jim, Mike, and Dean. There was no longer the surreal aural match-up of voice to beat and beat to voice; but visually, they all looked like they were on an unimaginative band album cover.

It was not clear whether this was just random happenstance or whether they had all gotten collectively self-conscious with the lounge-music and positioned themselves into the coolest pose they could come up with. If that was the case, they had hopelessly failed. Mike was in his 50's and Dean a bit older; both thought that bleached jean shorts and t-shirts with vests were relaxed party-wear. Instead, their outfits made me want to bust out singing Journey:

Don't stop...

Believing!

I took a swig of my beer and Jim continued with his story. I continued with my humming.

To recap, he had ordered a burrito and mistakenly gotten jalapeno chilis.

Shortly afterward, a sickening churning feeling, erupted from his stomach and rapidly reached upwards towards his throat and simultaneously, southward towards his intestines and anus. He started getting the sweats and ice-cold tingling all over his body.

I wrote down the line, "What's colder than cold?"

Jim: "As you probably can imagine, I was panicking. I was switching between running and walking. There were times I had to grab at my stomach with one hand and try to keep myself from spewing out of his mouth or butt with my other hand."

"During one of those awful moments, I got a glance of my watch. 1:22pm. I wondered if there was any chance in hell of making some part of my meeting. There was no way I could make it on time, but I was thinking I could perhaps catch the last 15 minutes. There was no way I was missing Sarah's massive rack in that tight button-up shirt of hers."

"In any case, I happened to be on the second floor and at first glance, it looked like any other bathroom. You know pink, brown and white tiled floor, forgettable wall-paper. But when I looked to my left, there it was. A f***'n toilet, sitting dead-f***n center of the bathroom, without any f***ing stall walls. It was like a statue art-piece or some Ode to S***ing Picasso or some s*** like that."

"I almost frickn' threw up then and there. I mean, seriously, what the f***?"

"This was the 2nd floor bathroom?" Mike asked.

"Yeah. I swear to God, a frickn' toilet in the middle of the bathroom."

Mike, Dean and I looked at each other with a glimmer of suspicion in our eyes. I had seen Jim plow through those Flintstone vitamins like Tic-Tacs. Yes, it wasn't speed or uppers, but who knew what the hell 900% of your daily allowance of zinc and Vitamin E did to your mind, let alone your bowels?

I wrote down the word, "bowels."

"There wasn't any time. I had to use that frickn' toilet. I felt like I was about to puke my testicles through my eye sockets and sh** a stream of liquid to rocket-blast me to Mars."

"So there I'm sitting with my f***ing pants down to my ankles in the middle of the godd*** bathroom without any stall walls protecting me and all I could think of was that the trash-can was too far away to grab for puking. So I ended up switching between sh**ing and standing-up and puking."

"Jesus."

"And during one of those times, I'm standing up, with my a** hanging out, and of course the f***ing door opens."

FUZZPERDY OFFICE, 3RD FLOOR, JACOB'S CUBE

Jacob popped out his ear buds and headed to the hallway. As he approached the men's room, his mind was still abuzz with code. If he made uberHackStreamObject a child class of hackStreamObject and had a bridge pattern with lateralFlipThingy, that just might work. He just had to think through it a little bit more.

Lost in thought, Jacob tripped over the yellow, plastic fold-out sign, stating "out-of-service" and flipped head-long into the trash-can on wheels that was propping open the door.

FUZZPERDY OFFICE, 2ND FLOOR, HALLWAY

The elevator door opened and Brian stepped out. He was still talking on the phone, "yes, Sarah, I think your product pricing was in-line with what I was thinking, around 25 a pop."

He opened the bathroom door.

He saw a man mooning him and then, was blasted with a nuclear stink-wave that singed off his face.

He collapsed to the ground.

"hello? Brian, are you..... What?! Ahhhhhhh!!!!!"

FUZZPERDY OFFICE, STAIRWELL

Jacob's head reeked of garbage and he was having trouble making his cheeks and ears return to their normal color.

After the janitor had helped him out of the trash can, he ran to the stairwell to sit down and hide his embarrassment.

He let out a sigh and walked down a floor.

Strange, there was a shrieking noise and a pair of legs sticking out of the bathroom door. What was going on today?

Jacob walked closer to see if the man was okay. He fell atop of Brian.

FUZZPERDY 2ND FLOOR, JACK'S OFFICE

Susan: "Jack, how about we take a 5-minute break?"

Jack: "That's a good idea. I need to step out for a quick bio-break."

Susan: "Me too," smiling at Jack.

As Jack and Susan stepped out into the hallway, Jack spotted the two men lying on top of each other. God! The wild, untethered lifestyle of homosexuals! There was a brief stirring in his pants.

Susan, previously staring at Jack's chiseled jawline, finally spotted the men too and gasped, "Oh my god, what happened?"

Jack put on his best serious frown and said, "I don't know, let me see."

He walked closer, secretly hoping they would still be in the act.

And then BAM!

Black. As if his head got creamed by a 6 foot long banana.

"Jack!!!" Susan screamed.

Panicking, Susan pulled the fire alarm by her right side.

And ran over to Jack.

She too was overtaken.

MY APARTMENT

"Jim!!!"

"hey Jimmmmmmyy Boooyyy!"

I don't know what the haell is goingz on anymoooore. Someone has puts ons the PowerPuff Girls soundtra, trak and we have swertched to shots of Jacky Daniels. I am feeeeling a litttle. litt. schhwoooozy.

I write down, "Jacky!"

Jim: "I heard a thump and something comes sliding into the bathroom and then there's this sound of a woman screaming."

"I'm like what the s***? I turn around and it's a cell phone with Sarah, of all people, on video. I was f***ing flashing Sarah, my dream woman."

"Then I had to puke, so I think I ended up giving her a close-up of my ball sack."

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!! Ball sak!!!

I kicks Jim in the nuts.

HooorraahhH!

He goes down in pain.

Yeeaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!

I runss to tha rooms, wha?

Waaat?

Mimi!!!

MIMIIIIII!!!!!!

"No!"

uhh- ohhh, errrrrr

Blleeeaaarrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhh!

Puke!!

Blllloooooooooooooarrrrrrggg....

uhhhhh.

[Black]

NATIONAL GUARD OFFICE, 15001 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE, WASHINGTON D.C.

Sir, we believe the two incidents are related. Five of those at Mr. Landberger's apartment, including Mr. Landberger himself were employed at Fuzzperdy.

Yes sir, there are two survirors, Mr. Jim Kurk and Mr. Foss Landberger. Mr. Kurk is in good condition, except for severe bruising to his groin, sir.

Yes, his groin, sir.

Mr. Landberger is in stable condition. Apparently, he holds some level of immunity to the toxogen, sir.

Yes sir, the CDC arrived 10 minutes ago. They are currently taking samples from Mr. Landberger's apartment.

Yes sir.

Yes sir.

Sir, may I ask a question?

Yes sir, I would like to know

ack.

(whispering) sir, there's been a...

ack.

[Silence]

"THE MAN WHO PRODUCES TOXIC GAS WHEN HE EATS JALAPENOS demands to know who he is speaking with!!!!"

NEXT WEEK ON ORIGINS: THE MAN WHO PRODUCES TOXIC GAS WHEN HE EATS JALAPENOS MEETS HIS OLD FRIEND AND NEMESIS, THE NUT KICKER, OUT FOR REVENGE!!!

The designer

2010-06-04T21:42:00.001-04:00

Excelsior gripped the stick, held it downward at a 45 and made gentle jabbing motions.

He frowned, lifted up the stick and pulled a small iron weight upwards a centimeter and counterclockwise around the stick a half-degree.

Then he again swung the stick downward and made the same pointing motions.

He next twisted his wrist so the stick made some loose sideways-eight motions.

His frown loosened and he let out a quiet hmmph of satisfaction. On the desk nearby lay a 0.7mm Parker Sonnet Indigo Mechanical Pencil, which he took up and used to record the measurements he had just taken in precise, straight strokes.

His eyes scanned the rest of the page and then the next 10 pages, which were full of numbers and diagrams. He occassionally eyed the stick that he had lain down next to him.

He held impeccable posture.

13 minutes and 50 seconds later, he heaved a long sigh, tapped the papers into order and placed them into a large envelope with address and stamp, already written and placed respectively on the envelope. He dabbed the glue of the envelope lid moist with a wet sponge piece and precisely drew two fingers along the edge to press it closed. He then stuck it out of his mail slot and lifted the flag to indicate mail pick up.

Afterwards, he sat down on his minimal cot, turned 90 degrees, laid down and fell asleep.

The night passed. At 5:15 am, he opened his eyes and turned his head to the door.

He went back to sleep.

The night passed. At 5:15 am, he opened his eyes and turned his head to the door.

He went back to sleep.

The night passed. At 5:15 am, he opened his eyes and turned his head to the door.

A package was there.

He sat up, grabbed the shirt neatly folded to his side and briskly, but not hurredly put it on.

Next his pants.

Then his slippers, first his right, then his left.

He stood and went to the package, which was long and rectangular and wrapped in brown wrapping paper.

With three efficient strokes of an exacto knife, he cut the paper and opened the box inside and removed the contents.

His eyes scanned the object from right to left.

Next he picked it up and felt the weight, bobbing it up and down in his hand.

He then pointed it downward and made the same gentle jabbing motions as before.

Lastly, his left hand traced the surface of the object from bottom to tip.

He looked to the side deep in thought, then placed the object down.

He left the room for 8 minutes.

When he returned, he walked purposefully towards the object.

He picked up the toilet scrubber and went back to the bathroom.

Grey sock

2010-05-13T21:21:00.003-04:00

The lone grey sock felt like it had nothing more it could give.

A psychologist would probably have diagnosed the grey sock with having depression, but the sock did not have such meta thoughts. It was a sock after all.

So when its owner was distracted trying to open the laundry room door, the lone grey sock, or S, as it referred to itself, unceremoniously leaned over the ledge of the laundry basket and tumbled to the ground.

After the door had shut, S did not scream "Freedom!" or "Hooray for no more dance parties!" or "No more forgetting to remove me before unbelievably tacky-looking sex!" Please do remember that this was a sock and not some faux rebellious teenager. And in addition, it was certifiably depressed and all of the emotions and color had been drained from its view of life.

Instead, S inch-wormed itself slightly off-skew of the center of the hall, the logic being to best position itself to, ironically after so many years of being on a foot, be kicked by an unobservant passer-by.

And sure enough a brunette twenty-something year old girl, dressed in a slim white dress, with a cell phone propped in between her head and right shoulder, a leash tied to a yappy white shih tzu in one hand, and shopping bags containing an eclectic mix of make-up, a ribbon, a pint of raspberries, 3 cups of yogurt and a bag of quinoa in the other, came through on the first try. Albeit, wearing flats, the girl almost took a spill that would have embarrassed the creator of the exaggerated banana peel falls you see in movies; nevertheless, she managed to kick S forward near the door leading to the outside of the apartment building.

Now, the area near the door was the most likely place for S's adventure to come to an early end. In the best-case scenario, another passer-by would, like the young girl had, inadvertently boot S outside onto the Philadelphia sidewalks. In the worse scenario, however, a snooty resident might spot S and kick it to the corner, so that a disgusting sock would not, God forbid, sour the clean modern aesthetic of the apartment lobby and if all was right in the world, a dutiful janitor would sweep this bandit sock out of sight into its rightful place of the trash bin. That is just the way the world works sometimes.

I should take the time to note that in no such scenario would a good Samaritan ever notice how close the lone sock was to the laundry room, pick up said sock and return it to the laundry room. No person exists, so wholesome as to pick up some stranger's single, potentially dirty sock without prompting.

To return to the story S, it did make it outside, although not without some close calls. There were plenty of dogs who sniffed at S in curiosity, a number of puzzled and/or disgusted looks (none of which S feel much better about itself), and a very close miss of tomato sauce and cheese from a slice of pizza held by a 35-year old business man, very much in a rush to go pick up his dry-cleaning before the cleaners closed at 4.

Of course, of course, of course, it was a 5 year old boy who came to S's rescue, his eyes wide with giddy excitement at having found something he could soccer-ball-dribble. And of course, his wary mother caught on and made him leave the sock alone. S was left near a newspaper box, the boy giving one last rueful glance before being pulled forward, towards children's yoga class.

S inched forward purposefully with no particular destination, always cautiously minding the sidewalk cracks. S's "mother," a 53 year old sock manufacturer employee in Fort Payne Alabama and the beneficiary of such cautiousness, noticed that her back felt unusually limber that day.

When S came across the motionless homeless man, curled up on top of the steam vent like a large shrimp on a small grill, S followed the rest of the other pedestrians on the sidewalk in giving an unnecessarily wide berth to the man. There's no telling what such a man could do.

It was one of those days, that was not cold for those popping out for a 10 minute errand, but had a devious chill that quickly set in for anyone out longer than that. And S, for the first time, suddenly missed his owner's foot. Obviously, not so much for the foul smelling, sweatiness of it that together with the stretching slowly worn down at his seams, but rather for the warmth it provided S.

It started raining.

And if you know anything at all about the world, there is nothing worse than a cold, wet sock.

Well, except for cold, wet underwear.

And speak of the devil, S had snuck into a back alley, only to find itself cloth to cloth with a cold, wet pair of men's boxer briefs, size S (28-32) and black as the night.

The two fierce pieces of undergarments sat motionless for a few minutes, contemplating the consequences of an all-out battle.

To the uninformed observer, it was a bizarre sight that quickly led to some uncomfortable questions. Was there some man, who was running around without his underwear and with only one sock on? How did this go down? Perhaps there was a hormone induced young couple that could not resist the throes of their passion any longer?

A second imaginary, astute observer might have responded: No. There was no female clothing or any male outer garments to be seen.

No outer garments! Gasp! Did someone...

Did someone poop themselves and have to dispose of their sundered undergarments?

If anyone were to come to such a conclusion, I hope to hell that on a cold, rainy day or any day for that matter, they would not have the desire to investigate whether they had correctly hypothesized or not.

Meanwhile, a nearby traffic light turned green and almost as if by some sort of law, a young man unnecessarily gunned his Mustang forward, only to get stuck behind a bus not 10 feet away.

The young man cranked up his rap music in compensation.

The bouncing bass made it too loud to hear whether the Sock v. Underwear battle had started, for apparel battles were performed by the rubbing together of fabric. Like an ape beating its chest, the rubbing sound quickly signaled many attributes, such as the quality of material, texture, the history of the apparel, etc and for the very best of the best of these duelers, all it took was a single rub and others instantly not only recognized the function of the apparel, but also the supiority in its thoughtfulness of design and manufacturing.

S did not generally have the need to duke things out, but it could hold its own when it did. S was a rather unique sock, one with toes especially made for runners. Over its lifetime, S had proved its worth, having been dragged through the smelliest of mud pits, washed with ocean salt water and baked stiff and dry on flat rocks in the focused Baja California sun.

S made a tense scrunching up motion, an act whether made out of nervousness or just in preparation, only the sock gods knew.

S spoke first.

.

The rain continued to tap at the pavement and bounce off the tops of umbrellas.

Passing cars made that distinctive sound of tires rolling on wet pavement.

And yet there was silence from S's boxer-brief opponent.

Puzzled, S called out again, slightly louder and a bit bolder.

Still nothing.

A car splashed through a nearby puddle that concealed a large pot hole. The chasis yelped in complaint.

Just when S was about to speak for a third time, he heard a response. Spoken slowly, almost inaudibly.

S froze.

It was a familiar voice.

The Peachtree roadrace, the Bay to Breakers, the Kentucky Derby marathon flashed before S...

One might say that the underwear before him and S had shared the same owner, playing a part on a cohesive running apparel team from 2002 to 2004.

The owner had referred to the underwear as Defs. The explanation the owner publicly provided was "definite win." Privately, however, the owner spent a few seconds longer than necessary checking himself out in the mirror with them on and thinking to himself, "defined."

It was jarring enough for S to encounter such a blast from the past in such an unexpected situation.

But it was a double shock, when S realized that Defs had just spoken its last words.

S had gotten to that alleyway just in time to witness Defs' elastics giving out.

S wriggled its toes, ruminating for a whole minute, thinking in a sock-manner about its existence.

... It then continued on its journey to nowhere.

Later that day, posted on Philadelphia Craigslist's Missed Connections:

Defs, I don't know where you are, but today I had pang of nostalgia. As you know, I can no longer run, but I sometimes like to put on the old gear and imagine myself at the starting line. I miss you, you made me look good.

P.S. One lost, grey Injinji sock. Last seen in the Dorchester. If you've seen it, please email or call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx.

Zip up, please.

2010-05-07T22:36:00.002-04:00

He had crossed the men's bathroom ettiquette and he knew it. He had turned around early before unzipping.

Ice Cream

2010-05-07T22:35:00.000-04:00

There is no way to eat an ice cream cone and look elegant.

Tea

2010-04-24T01:29:00.002-04:00

(Ick, still working on this. Don't like the pacing. For the subject matter, it feels too rushed)

Strange.

Matcha green tea.

That experience, that flavor, that texture in matcha green tea was how she would describe the situation later.

And not the cheap matcha green tea either, with its bland, purposely inoffensive front flavor and a mild but still unpleasant graininess.

But the good stuff - stuff with some personality, richness, depth.

It was really the subtlety that caught her off-guard, since work always seemed to be about going from extreme to extreme. Lay-offs, a boss chewing out a subordinate, a heinously inappropriate emotional outbursts. Those experiences physically gave her a sharp twisting pain in her lower abdomen. Finishing a successful project, connecting honestly with a co-worker, getting earnest praise from someone she respected - she felt those in her neck and upper back, feelings that could amp up to an almost violent electric shake, depending on the level of her satisfaction.

But this.

The disparate parties had come in to solely to socialize with each other and had allotted themselves a length of time that simply felt luxurious, as if they were all bathing with time. And in that drawn out, relaxed state, conversations about kids and family and hobbies organically evolved into a relatively intricate multi-party agreement. And there was still plenty of time to enjoy and soak in.

She sat back in her chair and rolled her tongue over her teeth. She swore she could even taste that very slight graininess in her mouth.

At that point, much to her and her colleagues' surprise, a loud, un-overlook-able fart then erupted from her innards.

Bathroom Discussion

2010-04-19T23:10:00.005-04:00

It was coming.

Keep it together, Paul! Pause your story about doubling the revenues. Hold your breath. Thumb your nose a bit.

Shit, still no good.

"As you know, the entire industry was struggling with how to increase demand..."

See if you can sniff it back. Sniff!

"and..."

Ooh, still coming.

"... I admit at first I was stumped too..."

Sniff, sniff.

"..."

Sniff.

Paul, not too much! You'll look like you're some kind of cocaine user!

"but at one point, I had a headache and glanced at the instructions on the Tylenol..."

*It* was oozing down.

"The instructions said to..."

Slowly at first.

"... and I thought, wouldn't it be great if we could double our demand..."

Picking up speed now.

"... couldn't double the actual usage amount..."

Oh God.

"... but we could convince consumers to..."

Oh God, no.

"...and that's how I came up with Lather, Rinse annn..."

Ahhhhhh choooooooooo!

...

There was a tangible silence, as if a giant sponge had filled the room.

Paul slowly opened his eyes. The sight was one of violence.

The blood that had been slowly making its way down his nostril had exploded past his much-too-late hand, across the desk and had speckled the impeccable white shirt and circular glasses of his interviewer, Mr. Johnson.

Paul gaped his mouth open a bit, like a fish gasping for air, and would have continued in that fashion, if there had not been still more blood trickling down from his nose.

"Oh dear, would you happen to have a Kleenex?"

Swiss Cheese

2010-04-13T00:07:00.000-04:00

There was a look of quiet desperation in his eyes. Phil could get seriously insecure at moments like this.

"Please tell me what's so funny."

Dell held back laughing more, but her laughter trickled through into the crinkles of her smiling eyes.

"I'll tell you later. It was a funny joke at the office."

"So you're not laughing at me?"

"No."

When in fact she was, there was a piece of bread that had managed to somehow get caught on his budding goatee.

And strangely, with that piece of bread stuck there, Phil reminded her of a big wheel of cheese.

Swiss, specifically.

And every time he talked, all she could imagine was Phil's face, complete with goatee, plastered on top of a gigantic wheel of swiss cheese, yammering on like on some surreal combination of a late-night tv comedy show and Sesame Street.

Five days later, the bread piece had been taken out, yet Dell still could not get the mental image out of her head.

She swore she could even smell cheese whenever he came into the room.

The absolute worst was when they were making love. Having a bloody wheel of cheese huffing and puffing and sweating on top of her, it wasn't just a turn-off, it was just completely unbearable.

Two days later, she broke up with him. She gave him the "it's not you, it's me" line.

Walking away, she really could not tell whether she was lying or not.

Phil's intricate cheese break-up strategy had worked beyond his wildest dreams.

City Surprise

2010-04-12T22:07:00.001-04:00

Jim hungrily looked around for a shimmer of curiosity in the eyes of the strangers passing by in their expensive Armani suits and organic snake-skin shoes that were so trendy these days.

But no such luck.

At best, they might just steal a puzzled glance downwards and quickly resume their purposeful walking away.

It was a good thing Jim was so patient.

He knew, eventually, one of them would come. They just wouldn't be able to resist. They just had to figure out what that puzzling triangular gray object was.

And just as they leaned over, right at that exact moment that they would lose their balance if something surprised them, he would jump into action.

Bam! A blur of white and gray! A splash of water!

So inhumanly quick that bystanders would look at each other and ask themselves what had just happened!

And it would be all explained by the newspaper the next day, with a headline in bold that read:

Sewer Shark Claims Another Victim!

The Lone Lit Window

2010-04-12T21:36:00.000-04:00

Out for my evening stroll, I glanced upwards at the one lone window, lit among all of the ones sleeping.

Inside the rectangular frame, something shifted.

I squinted.

It was then I realized that I was looking at the full moon.

The immortal jellyfish

2010-03-23T20:33:00.000-04:00

So cool: The immortal jellyfish

Prezi.com

2010-02-24T21:46:00.002-05:00

Prezi is a pretty darn slick presentation tool. No slides, just a big canvas.

[via mefi]

HP Dv6500t Realtek High Definition Microphone Issues in Windows 7

2010-01-10T20:32:00.000-05:00

Goodness, hopefully this will help someone out there, as this took much much too long to find the answer to.

I recently upgraded my HP DV6500t laptop to Windows 7, which went smoothly, except for one minor hitch. The microphone produced garbled recording.

Here's the solution, as mentioned by Ethan F on this forum, who said it more succinctly. But it's worth spreading across the web more:

1) Download the latest Windows 7 Realtek drivers from the Realtek website. I just grabbed R2.40 today.
2) Afterwards, I found the microphone didn't produce any sound whatsoever. Launch Realtek HD Audio Manager (It's supposedly in the control panel, but I found easier to look for it from the Windows Start Button)
3) Hit "Device advanced settings" in the upper right of the window
4) Select Separate all input jacks as independent input devices.

It seemed to do the trick for me. Hope it's the same for you if you're struggling with the same issue.

Identity Fraud

2009-11-19T13:50:00.000-05:00

I thought this NYTimes "Building an Online Bulwark to Fend Off Identity Fraud" article was useful for knowing options for preventing identity fraud.

Olympic Best of Us Challenge

2009-11-02T21:00:00.000-05:00

To market for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the Olympics have launched a Youtube campaign, showcasing offbeat talents of Olympic competitors. They challenge viewers to see if they can beat them in the events. Here is the official Best of Us page. So far, my favorite is Rafael Nadal's:

Asafa Powell's stick balance is also pretty impressive as well. My leg got sore just watching him.

Is exercise good or bad for immunity?

2009-10-14T22:03:00.000-04:00

The NYtimes has a OpEd piece on the effect of exercise on one's immunity to colds and the flu. It runs along the lines of common sense, saying that moderate exercise helps boost mice's immunity, while extreme exercise dramatically worsens it.

Old Adidas ads...

2009-10-08T20:27:00.000-04:00

Bloody brilliant and what's remarkable is that they still hold true of runners today. All of them are here.

Walden Pond

2009-10-03T02:47:00.000-04:00

NYTimes showcases Walden Pond, one of the few things I miss about living in the Boston area. I used to live a 12 minute car drive away from Walden pond and I took full advantage of it. The tranquility of swimming outdoors under the sun and without stupid man-made pool lanes was just exquisite.

Here's the official website.

The Porcine Fund

2009-09-29T19:48:00.000-04:00

The stock market is all over the place these days. Need a little certainty in investing? Well try The Porcine Fund, which

is specifically designed for wealthy individuals and institutions who wish to offset inconvenient capital gains with a countervailing capital loss... The Porcine Fund is available to any individual or institution with an immediate need to sustain a monetary loss.

Its investment include the San Bromista Cat Ranch, which creates an infinite supply of cats for cat fur sales to Europe, Enron and Worldcom.

I know this is old (copyrighted 2002-2004), but this is hilarious.

Snook.ca

2009-09-20T20:49:00.000-04:00

Holy smokes. www.snook.ca is a bloody visually compelling blog. Makes any changes I do here seem like I'm still stuck in the stone ages.

Mulling over a re-design....

test jumptext

2009-09-20T13:33:00.002-04:00

hello, this is the preview text of the jumptext. I really only want this to occur when searching or browsing archives, but this appears to occur everywhere besides the item page.

This is now the full text. The bright red fox jumped over the fat lazy cow, who then mooed and farted 10 times, leading to further global warming.

Al Gore then gave a speech saying that his Nobel Prize winning efforts had not worked and we were doomed.

Kelly woke up to find it had only been an odd odd dream. But where was Epcot her little calico cat, who usually slept besides her and who usually promptly awoke her 6am meowing for food?

Alternatives to Blogspot commenting system

2009-09-20T11:13:00.002-04:00

This is a solid writeup to the pros and cons of alternatives to the Blogger commenting system. This other website links to some demos of the comment system alternatives. For now, I'm sticking with Blogger's commenting system, but I really would like to see threaded comments.

CSLPod, MDBG, Chinese forums

2009-09-11T19:17:00.000-04:00

I really liked using CSLPod.com so far. It's pretty much like Chinesepod.com, but free. It's got a requirement that if you want to download the trascript for lessons, you have to comment, so there is a bit of activity, mostly in Chinese. I think it's organized by people from Beijing, so there's more of a reliance on Chinese than English, which is great if you're learning.

Just stumbled upon MDBG Chinese English dictionary, which has been great for translating from Chinese to English, since it seems to give better translations than Google Translate and provides pinyin as well.

Also wanted to point out Chinese Forums, which seems to have a pretty active community for Chinese learners.

Meditation Classes

2009-09-10T17:42:00.000-04:00

I think yoga and meditation are both pretty complementary to running.
Stumbled upon this Meditation class in Philly and might try it out.

Blogging LinkWithin Widget

2009-09-09T21:58:00.003-04:00

LinkWithin provides a widget for your blog that generates pictures and links to other related blog posts. It's certainly a fast and simple process to add the widge to your blog, but I'm not sure if I like the large vertical space it takes up just yet. Thinking it over at the moment...

Just for reference, here's a text way of showing links to related posts.

Blogspot Expandable Posts

2009-09-08T12:48:00.005-04:00

I want to show expandable posts only when someone searches my blog, exactly like what google or any other search engine does, but I need some more time to look through how to do this.

Here are a couple links on expandable posts:

Blogbulk Collapsible Posts (has a nice AJAX version, which unfortunately doesn't work in ie)
Blogspot just implemented jump/expandable posts more officially.

The above links are a kind of bummer since they require changes to each post, demarcating which section of your post you want shown as the "preview" and which you want in the full "read more" post. For searching, I'd want something that's just automatic.

I'm a little unclear on this, but it seems both make the expand/jump changes on your index page and on archive listings. I'm kind of looking for something a little more fine-tuned than that, like having these expandable/jump posts only on search results. I'm trying to figure out the pagetype object and suspect that others are also trying to do similar things, judging by this blogpost.

Random Blogspot Customizations

2009-09-08T12:12:00.002-04:00

Changing the Blog Footer (Inspirations)
Adding a Contact Form
Drop Cap your posts
Customize the look of Post Titles

Language learning portals : lingq.com vs chineseblast.com

2009-09-06T01:51:00.000-04:00

I'm still trying to work out how to best improve my Chinese on my own and don't want to spend extra dollars if not necessary. I've found a couple of language oriented portals, Lingq.com and Chineseblast.com, which I've started to use.

Lingq.com tries to aggregate a bunch of mp3 feeds, allows you to focus on each mp3 and gives you a script of the mp3 in Chinese. When you hover over each character, it gives you a hint (as suggested by other users) and you mark off whether you know it or whether you need to review it. If you need to review it, it goes into your flash-card pile. The hover-over translation feature is pretty handy for reading new material.

Meanwhile, chineseblast.com is focused on you doing translation work to improve your language ability. It allows you to upload short video or audio clips or post text and then you proceed with adding the chinese characters, pinyin and English translations. They actually provide a dictionary that when given Chinese characters, will spit out both pinyin and English, so the process is speedier than doing it completely on your own. However, if you're translating a video or audio file, it can still be difficult if you can't quite understand something. Lastly, oddly, it seems that the website has been over-run with spammers and almost seems devoid of anyone seriously trying to learn the language.

Shrug, I'm still in the middle of deciding which is the most effective for me, but will return to this post, when I have a better idea.

Blogspot footer icons

2009-08-27T16:59:00.002-04:00

Blogbulk gives a simple tutorial on how to add catchy icons to the post footer of your blogspot blog.

Changing the Favicon on blogspot

2009-08-17T19:29:00.000-04:00

Just changed my favicon on my food blog by adding the following code right above the </head> tag

<link href="(Link to Fav icon image)" rel='shortcut icon' type='image/vnd.microsoft.icon' />
<link href="(Link to Fav icon image)" rel='icon' type='image/vnd.microsoft.icon' />

Find out more details on these blogs:
widgetsforfree
woork
findhow

This code seems to be working for Firefox and Chrome, but not for IE. I'm using a gif, but am not sure if I'm going to bother figuring out how to get it to work for IE.

Blogspot Scrollable Label Select Box

2009-08-16T18:49:00.006-04:00

**Edit Aug 27, 2009** This scrollable link list may also be useful for my growing blog link list as well.

I was accumulating way too many labels in my food blog and needed an simpler way of showing them than just listing them out. So I worked out a way to put them in a select box. Here's my code in case you want to do it too. And see it in action at my food page.

<b:widget id='Label1' locked='false' title='Labels' type='Label'>
<b:includable id='main'>
<b:if cond='data:title'>
<h2><data:title/></h2>
</b:if>
<div class='widget-content'>
<form NAME="labelform">
<div>
<select name="labelselect" size="12" WIDTH="230" STYLE="width: 230px" onclick="window.location.href=document.labelform.labelselect.value">

<b:loop values='data:labels' var='label'>
<b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:label.url'>
<option disabled='true' value='data:label.url'><data:label.name/> (<data:label.count/>) </option>
<b:else/>
<option value='data:label.url'><data:label.name/> (<data:label.count/>) </option>
</b:if>
</li>
</b:loop>

</select>
</div>
</form>

<b:include name='quickedit'/>
</div>
</b:includable>
</b:widget>

Blogspot currently doesn't support selection of multiple labels at once, but if it does eventually support that, I'll probably switch over the select box to one of these nice scrollable checklists.

Motivation for exercising

2009-08-16T16:29:00.000-04:00

Pilates, Yoga and Strength training

2009-08-14T14:53:00.002-04:00

My gf and I are trying to get ourselves back into shape. Beyond just ramping up my running (in which runningahead is the only website that I really need), I've been trying to supplement that with other strengthening and flexibility exercises:

I really like Lorie Baker's pilates routine, which absolutely kills my abs when I do the exercises one after another and do the recommended 3 sets.

I like combining that with this NYtimes video for strengthening the quads and gluts for protecting your knees.

As well as adding either doing as many push-ups (and push-up variation) as I can. Alternatively, this Miyuki Fox routine for upper body would also be decent if I could supplement it with something else. Found some other body weight exercises on Body by Fish that I'm going to try out.

Finally, I found this free hatha yoga video to be a decent relaxation exercise, which is nice for the all important rest days. Also found this short Tara Stiles Yoga for runner video that I'm going to try out.

Learning Chinese on your own

2009-08-11T16:01:00.004-04:00

I'm trying to continue practicing and learning Chinese on my own and I thought this "Hidden moments" post, on using flashcards, an mp3 player, and Chinese sources (like a newspaper) during moments where you're not doing anything exciting was a great post.

Also looking at the same blog, he reviews a software called Anki, which helps you remember vocab. Will give that a whirl.

There's of course Chinesepod.com with their mp3 and character lessons, but until I run out of alternative ideas, I don't really want to pay to learn just yet. I'm also hoping to see if I can survive outside of such a structured learning environment.

So far, I'm trying to explore a number of different avenues, but will post links to things as I as find they are working.

Entering Chinese on US Keyboards

2009-08-11T15:34:00.004-04:00

For inputting Chinese into say Microsoft Word, Outlook, a browser or for other text on the computer, I use the following IME's (on Windows).

Google IME - Easy to use once you get used to it.

Translation for Google IME - The Google IME settings are all in Chinese. If you need an English translation, this page is brilliant. It also includes some instructions for installing and setting up the IME.

Pinyin input (link directly to zip installer) by Imron Alston - allows you to input pinyin with the tone marks. Great in that you can switch to the Chinese keyboard and then toggle between entering pinyin or actual Chinese characters.

Windows Vista has built in fax

2009-03-24T21:13:00.003-04:00

Strange, I was looking for a free/cheap easy fax web service before, but I never found one that I trusted with somewhat sensitive documents and I ended up using my school's fax.

I never realized that Windows Vista has a built-in fax software. If you have a phone line, a modem and Windows Vista Business/Ultimate/Enterprise edition, you're good to go.

Here are more details.

For sending one-off faxes, I've stumbled upon, but have never used:
faxzero.com - Has ad on cover page if using free service
www.gotfreefax.com
faxorama.com

PDF Creation

2009-03-16T22:37:00.003-04:00

Up to now, I've been using an old version of Adobe Acrobat, which had its quirks with Vista, but the basic print-to-pdf functionality always worked reliably if not a bit slowly.

But because of a complete OS re-installation (my laptop was brought in for repair), I'm now exploring alternatives. And there are a number of free alternatives.

I'm currently trying out bullzip, which seems like it'll do the job, but my impression of people's opinions of the options are:

BullZip PDF Printer - Seems to match feature-wise with PrimoPDF. Allows you to print, append to pdfs, add passwords and other neat stuff, but people say it's faster.

PrimoPDF - See BullZip description

doPDF - Simple, no frills. Just print to PDF and go

CutePDF - Like doPDF.

Photoshop tutorials

2009-02-20T13:36:00.000-05:00

Best Photoshop Tutorials

Low tech fixes for high-tech

2009-02-19T12:24:00.002-05:00

Clever workarounds for high-tech gagdets. Cool

I work for OMG

2008-12-22T18:31:00.005-05:00

This must suck to toil so hard only to have your company name usurped by young teenieboppers as a common internet term:
I wonder if they are aware of the OMG phenonmenom. That picture telemarketer certainly seems like he's in the know.

Flash games

2008-11-25T13:38:00.004-05:00

I'm a big fan of the concept of casual games. That's one of the reasons I responded so strongly to the Nintendo Wii. It's also why I'm a fan of Kongregate.

I'm guessing there's probably other independent flash games that I don't get exposed to and I believe that the casual internet game sector is over-due for one or more websites that review and champion unknown and underappreciated casual games. Like how Pitchfork Media came along and started to influence the indie music scene.

So far, all I can come up with is Jayisgames. Do any other sites do this?

State Taxes on your cell phone bill

2008-11-19T21:00:00.002-05:00

I was looking at my cell phone bill today and noticed that I was still being charged for Massachusetts state taxes, even though I had moved to Pennsylvania. Curious to see if I could shave a few dollars off of my bill, I gave my cell phone service a ring.

The state taxes are dependent on what is called your primary usage location, which is based on where you initially signed up for your cell phone service. However, if you move, you can change the primary usage location.

So if you've moved out of state lately, it may be worthwhile to double-check whether you can reduce your cell phone bill slightly. There's an old USA Today article listing the state taxes, but it's probably worthwhile calling up your mobile phone provider to see what the current state taxes are. (Either way, I'm better off holding on to my MA taxes)

Robotic Assisted walking

2008-11-11T19:06:00.002-05:00

Honda has applied what it knows from its walking Asimov robots to develop mechanical legs to assist people's walking. Frickn bloody brilliant:

IE css/font size rendering quirk?

2008-11-05T17:26:00.003-05:00

Is anyone else seeing this IE specific rendering quirk in font sizes? The above article looks like it has an open font size tag that hasn't been closed, but given that it's the NYTimes website and that it renders fine in firefox, I almost think that it's an issue with my IE. I've only recently started seeing this.

Complex repeating patterns in Photoshop

2008-10-21T02:01:00.003-04:00

Finally, found this post on creating complex repeating background patterns ala:

And if you don't want to do it, there's a number of sites that you can download patterns from.

Wireframing in Photoshop

2008-10-21T01:58:00.002-04:00

Finding more very cool photoshop tips and tricks, this time creating 3d wireframe effects:

Check it out at nicetutz

Fractalius

2008-10-21T01:49:00.004-04:00

Fractalius is a Photoshop plug-in that extracts the "hidden fractal texture of an image." Most of the images they post are kinda noob/geek images, but I thought this one of the lion was quite striking.

I <3 World Wide Words

2008-10-20T21:18:00.003-04:00

Love it, love it, love it! World Wide Words explains random English words and phrases, such as Quockerwodgers and all kippers and curtains. Now I can start responding to people with quirkily old-school phrases.

[via mefi]

Palin found guilty of abusing powers

2008-10-11T03:19:00.003-04:00

Palin is found guilty of abusing the powers of her office.

This just seems so fitting. Palin seems pretty smart, but she always came off like a small-town Machiavellian. It'll be interesting to see this story plays out.

Simpleweather.com is done for?

2008-10-06T18:27:00.003-04:00

How deeply saddening. The hands-down best weather website, simpleweather.com, the pride of minimalist, relatively ad-less and functionality-first websites, has apparently shut down operations due to a lack of funds. (If you're unfamiliar with them, Time chose them as one of Time's 50 best websites at one point.)

To the simpleweather team, thanks for all of your work and I just hope this will be a brief pause in operations until something can be worked out financially. I'll be on the lookout for the donation link.

SearchPerks (or Microsoft's attempt to gain internet search market share)

2008-10-02T01:08:00.003-04:00

Microsoft just launched a service called searchperks, which in exchange for tracking how many times you search through their live.com or msn.com search engines, gives you points, which you can redeem for prizes. Read the full low-down at techcrunch.

It certainly reminds me of the dot-com days, when there were companies which posted ads in your browser and paid you depending on how much time you surfed. (Anyone remember those good 'ol automated scripts that would simulate you surfing and allow you to bank up the money?)

Anyhow, I'm giving it a shot. It seems like an interesting way to try out Microsoft's search engine...

(Funny, I don't think they support searches through Firefox. I guess that would make sense.)

Microsoft Image Composite Editor

2008-09-24T00:28:00.002-04:00

If you've ever taken multiple pictures to create a panaroma later, Microsoft Image Composite Editor will be your new best friend. Check it out:
Microsoft ICE Website

Cross Fit

2008-09-22T19:50:00.001-04:00

Recommended by a Marine on building strength and endurance using simple exercies.

Ubiquity for Firefox

2008-08-27T12:22:00.001-04:00

This looks pretty cool, like Quicksilver for Firefox: http://www.azarask.in/blog/post/ubiquity-in-depth

[via waxy]

Workout without weights

2008-08-12T01:38:00.003-04:00

It's hard to watch the olympics without being inspired to get in better shape. I'm always looking to get a workout in without the trouble of going to the gym or getting special equipment (one of the reasons why I like running).

Buzzfeed gives a bunch of links on how to do a strength workout without weights. On a brief perusal, the 100 push-up challenge and Zen Habits' roundup seem like the most straightfowardly laid out.

Live.com Olympics Photo Background

2008-08-11T21:01:00.003-04:00

Google gets all this hoopla for having "cute, quirky" variations of their logo, depending on current events or a holiday. Today, they're going with an Olympic diving theme.

I just noticed that Microsoft's live.com is also doing something similar in a more Microsoftian slick manner with photos from the Olympics in the background. I must say that it's kind of nice looking.

Rollersuiting down roads of the Swiss Alps

2008-08-11T03:27:00.002-04:00

I am a big pansy driving down roads like this let alone what this dude is doing. This is insane:

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Waboba Ball

2008-08-04T02:21:00.001-04:00

Intriguing: Waboba is a ball that can bounce on water.

Telegraph background article

Livescribe Pulse Pen

2008-08-01T18:54:00.002-04:00

Pretty slick:

Too bad that in addition to the electronic pen, you also need to buy the special notebook as well. Here's the Livescribe website.

Sell your gadgets

2008-07-30T00:53:00.002-04:00

Of course there's Craigslist, but there are a couple of websites that also let you sell or recycle your old electronic gadgets.

www.gazelle.com - Has set prices for electronic gadgets and if it's too old, they'll recycle it.

www.macofalltrades - Buy and sell mac hardware

China a long ways to go?

2008-07-29T14:29:00.002-04:00

A Washington Post outlooks & opinions article questions whether everyone is overly enthusiastic about China's potential to become the next world superpower and is ignoring some serious issues.

Too many constraints are built into the country's social, economic and political systems. For four big reasons -- dire demographics, an overrated economy, an environment under siege and an ideology that doesn't travel well -- China is more likely to remain the muscle-bound adolescent of the international system than to become the master of the world.

The full article: A Long Wait at the Gate to Greatness

Windows & Mac Desktop backgrounds

2008-07-29T14:25:00.003-04:00

Looking for a new desktop background? Interfacelift provides a number of desktop backgrounds in various sizes.

Windows Vista Dreams

2008-07-24T18:10:00.002-04:00

Vista supports video backgrounds, called dream scapes, and I never really paid much attention as I figured they'd be a big performance hog. But
I happened upon this dream: Blissful dream, seen to the left and I'm actually considering getting it.

You'll need to install Stardock's Dreamscapes program and need to purchase thei individual dreamscape for $9.

International Mail Formats

2008-07-15T16:52:00.003-04:00

I occasionally have to send thank you letters internationally, specifically to Hong Kong and I always forget whether they format their address on their envelopes differently than we do in the U.S. (They certainly do in China). This (personal) page, Bitboost, thankfully gives the details.

Ecards

2008-06-27T02:44:00.003-04:00

<11/25/08 Update> Looks like some others thought the same as me. MyPunchBowl presents some very presentable and customizable free ecards. I will definitely be using their service.

< 6/28/08 Original Post>

I like sending cards in snail mail. It's a process that forces you to take a bit of time to be thoughtful. You have to find a card that matches the recipient's personality and what you're trying to say. You have to think about what you're going to write so you don't screw up in pen and have scratched out words on the card. And there's the implicit element of (hopefully happy) surprise for the receiver's end on getting the card in the mail.

I'm happy with the amount that I pay for a good card and postage. It is well worth the money.

So far, I can't say the same thing about e-cards. They're generally free, but most are such crap. Are they crap because no one was willing to pay for them? Or is no one willing to pay for them because they're crap?

For Valentine's day, apparently, Forbes made a list of ecard and other stuff websites. While this is handy to have, so that I know which are the "good" ecard websites, I'm still puzzled as to why there isn't a great ecard site yet.

Neat Receipts

2008-06-18T02:19:00.003-04:00

Neat Receipts is a company creating a fairly niche, albeit useful product of a very portable scanner that allows you to scan your receipts and business cards.

I think the average joe tends to accumulate tons of receipts, a few of which are fairly useful, but hard to track among so many receipts. It's probably more advantageous to a business person who has to track expenses.

They sell their products through their website, the Neat Receipts scanner coming in at $199. Note that they do sell refurbished products for half that price.

HEELLLLLLS YEEEAAAAHHHH!

2008-06-18T00:05:00.001-04:00

Yeeeeeaaaaahhhhh Celtics!!!! YEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!

C'mon Celtics!

2008-06-13T01:55:00.001-04:00

One more win to go guys!

Google AJAX weblets

2008-06-12T13:03:00.002-04:00

Google apparently has a bunch of AJAX modules that you can put on your website, ranging from a dynamic update of news from selected websites to having a searchable version of Google maps on your site. I might be adding some of these later on.

Woooooo!

2008-05-30T23:36:00.001-04:00

Congratulations Boston Celtics! It's so nice to see Pierce and Doc Rivers finally getting to the finals. Wooohooo!!

Grandkids Gift Guide

2008-05-19T15:37:00.003-04:00

What a great idea. As the name suggests, Grandkidsgiftguide.com
is a blog of suggestions for gifts for grandkids. I always have trouble thinking up the perfect gifts for others and while I don't have grandkids, this might come in handy for when friends start to pop out little kids of their own.

I particularly like this scanimation book, a book that apparently has animated images, activated when you flip the opposite page.

Discoveries in Space

2008-02-10T19:33:00.000-05:00

Stumbled upon this via the Smell of Space entry of Metafilter, but these "blog" like entries from astronauts on experiments in space is pretty damn cool.

Here's one on experimenting with bubbles in space:
Space Chronicles 8

[via Mefi]

Sweat Equity Enterprises

2008-01-15T20:36:00.000-05:00

This is kind of cool. Sweat Equity Enterprises is an organization that matches city kids who like designing things with fairly well known companies to produce real stuff for sale. Both sides benefit - the kids get the opportunity to design something real and the companies get new fresh designs and a perspective into a demographic that's pretty hard to access.

Ugly Amazon Kindle

2007-11-19T14:34:00.000-05:00

>edit<
I've been rethinking and reconsidering the Kindle, mainly after reading this Newsweek article and after seeing how small the Kindle is (Images on Amazon - about as big as a paperback)

Ugliness - yes, it's still ugly as hell. They say they were going for a bookish aura, but I think they underestimate how classy books can be. This point is especially noticable, comparing it to the competitor, Sony Reader, and other portable electronic devices such as laptops, iPods/Mp3 players, etc. But it's smaller than I thought it was, so this slightly decreases the ugliness factor.

Price $399 (vs Sony's $299) - The price covers the wireless service of downloading books. In other words, the wireless service is "free" after you purchase the Kindle, making the comparative price with Sony's more reasonable.

Lack of color together with price - yeah, I suspect this is just the cost/drawback of the E-Ink technology at this stage.

I think the potential markets for this are actually fairly large, especially if Amazon can get the Kindle selling in airports or partner with libraries somehow. Again, I'd be excited to see when this E-Ink technology supports color and the prices of overly expensive textbooks drops.

The Newsweek article mentions a number of ways the Kindle might change reading habits that are pretty interesting to think about.

One more point - If they really wanted it to be like a book, why wouldn't they have some sort of electronic pen device for things like highlighting / note-jotting?

>original post<
The Amazon Kindle is beige, boxish, and ugly as all hell and it certainly doesn't help that it's black and white.

Does it remind anyone else of the 1990's computers, like the IBM PS2?

I find it hard to imagine that the Amazon Kindle will be very successful, especially after so many people have gotten used to their stylish laptops with great displays. The $399 price definitely needs to come down dramatically - costwise, why would I pay that much (for such an ugly product) and then have to pay an additional amount per book?

(It's almost too bad that this product wasn't developed as a startup, which might have tried alternative customer segments, such as universities where the ebook could reduce the egregious book costs.)

Dock for Windows

2007-10-24T22:23:00.000-04:00

Trying out the Stardock Object Dock, which attempts to emulate the OS X dock. I must say they do a pretty decent job; it's nice looking and it's a touch faster to get to the programs that I want to get to. (I still wish I had a quicksilver equivalent though). The only thing that I'd complain about is the behavior of showing running programs, which is slightly clumsier than OS X's dock.

Free PDF Creation

2007-06-19T00:55:00.000-04:00

Looking for free PDF writers. So far, the only one I've found that doesn't seem to install spyware is this open source project:
PDFCreator

Trying it out with some webpages, it's still not quite there, missing images and background colors.

Preventing Identity Theft

2007-06-19T00:17:00.000-04:00

A reference article for preventing Identity Theft. Includes useful links for opting out of credit card and insurance offers:

OptOutPrescreen - Opt out of prescreened offers from the 3 major credit bureaus
Direct Mailing Association - Can opt out of some direct marketing mail.

Adding depth of field to picture

2007-05-21T10:29:00.000-04:00

Northwest Airlines adds Wedding Gift Registry

2007-05-06T23:39:00.000-04:00

Northwest Airlines just added a wedding gift registry. I thought this was an interesting business idea, although I suspect other airlines will probably quickly follow if it turns out to be a successful initiative.