Thursday, May 24, 2007

LolCat Builder » Home

Things just got interesting...LOL!

 

These image macros have spread like wildfire.  Since January 11, 2007, icanhascheezburger has been posting these hilarious pictures, (called image macros because of the overlay lettering) terming them lolcats.

Now you can build your own.

Link to LolCat Builder » Home

For some inspiration:

http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/05/08/a-special-in-depth-analysis-by-david-mcraney-l337-katz0rz/#more-1347

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/02/08/massive_cache_of_kit.html

http://www.zerosummind.com/

http://boingboing.net/2007/05/16/where_lolcats_come_f.html

http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=2823158&thread_type=voteresults&ok=1

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/24/lolpresidents_photos.html

The Path to Least Resistance

 When I was young, the walk to the bus stop would inevitably lead through a neighbour's front yard, via  a 1-foot trench in their lawn where everyone else walked.  I think they tried to sod it a few times and gave up.

Rather than letting this happen, they could have done a few things to resolve this.

1. Ask the city to move the bus stop. (hundreds of hours and probably a petition involved.)

2. Brick the trench and create a walkway.

3. Put a sign up to keep off the grass.

4. Build a fence.

5. Chain a guard dog to the front yard.

I will have to see what they ended up doing next time I drive by there.  My guess is the trench is still there or they bricked it over, since that's the path to least resistance for them (no confrontation and little effort)

Here's an article on this theory.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_of_least_resistance

And a story from a blogger I read regularly that got me thinking about this:

That reminds me of a story I heard in business school 40 years ago. A developer of a new campus of buildings purposefully did not do any landscaping or paved walkways for a couple months until well after the residents had moved in. Then he simply paved the areas where the people had walked, and he landscaped appropriately. I have never forgotten that.

When you build something, it’s always for the user. It’s never about the builder.

Source: Bill Cara: Cara’s Daily Commentary, Thurs., May 24, 2007, 8:55 AM

Walking through High Park last night with my dog, I could see this in action.  Pathways from all of the bikers, walkers, dogs, and runners go off in various directions, but you would seldom see new paths, unless a maintenance fence was put up. 

Of course the path to least resistance is also procrastination, so I had better get back to work...

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

A quaint motel in Toronto for your summer vacation

Centrally located is about all this hotel seems to have going for it.   A fun place to spend your summer vacation.  Oddly enough it is #89 of 96 hotels... that means there's 7 more worse than this one! (no wait, the rest of them aren't rated!)

This place is one of the worst place to stay on earth. I may be exaterating, but it may be true. This place is not even a motel. It's a drug addict and prostitude's home. In every floor there is only...

This Place is Nasty the worst place on the face of the earth I would rather sleep in a big steamy pile of cow dung there is rats all over the place and only three common washrooms which look like theve...

If there was a rating below "one yellow dot", I would have clicked on it. This so-caleld motel is very very deceiving. The sad part is there is a huge billboard overlooking the inside of the Toronto Bus...

Absolutely disgusting. Numbers on the door are written with pen...The lamp inside the room uses a RED BULB. Why? I just simply cannot answer.....and those are just the minor (funny) things!

Source: The Bay Street Motel, Toronto - 17 Motel Reviews - TripAdvisor

Kevin Ham, the $300 million master of Web domains - June 1, 2007

Looking into the future brings us this article... 

Given Ham's reach on the Web -- his sites receive 30 million unique visitors a month -- it's remarkable that so few people know about him. Even in the clubby world of domainers, he's a mystery man. Until now Ham has never talked publicly about his business. You won't find his name on any domain registration, nor will you see it on the patent application for the Cameroon trick.

Source: Kevin Ham, the $300 million master of Web domains - June 1, 2007

Polar Race 2007 Results

 The Polar Race is one of the most extreme races in the world.  One of the people I went to see at (of all things) Donald Trump's real estate seminar, managed to finish it this year.

http://raymondaaron.wordpress.com/

 

2,000 people have climbed Everest.

400 people have been to Outer Space.

160 people have rowed the Atlantic Ocean in a row boat.

But, fewer than 100 people have ever reached a Pole on their own efforts (no dogs, no snowmobiles, no airplanes, etc.).

Monday, May 21, 2007

spreeder.com - online speed reading application

Check out spreeder.com to see how many words per minute you can read. 

Spreeding 1095 words @ 700 wpm

Source: spreeder.com - online speed reading application

Thursday, May 17, 2007

wavesmash on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

wavesmash

Source: wavesmash on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

DIY: Mod a $5 flashlight into a $95 light - Lifehacker

Kryptonite rules! 

Reader Kip modded a cheap $5 throwaway flashlight into a blinding torch that's brighter than a $95 fancy pants flashlight. Hit the play button to see how

Source: DIY: Mod a $5 flashlight into a $95 light - Lifehacker

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Massive GTD Resource List | zen habits

 

My tribute to all the GTD junkies out there (a group that includes me) — a massive list of GTD stuff. It’s far from comprehensive, but who can be comprehensive on a topic this huge?

Source: Massive GTD Resource List | zen habits

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Stephen King to Make his First Ever Canadian Appearance at BOOKED!, a New Readers' Fest in Toronto

My favourite author is going to be at the Metro Convention Centre in Toronto next month.  Got my tickets! 

And, BOOKED! is proud to announce a gala tribute to master storyteller and multi-million-copy best-selling author Stephen King-his first-ever public appearance in Canada-to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Canadian Booksellers Association. The event, to be held at the John Bassett Theatre at the MTCC on Friday, June 8 at 7:30 pm will include an on-stage interview with a surprise celebrity guest. Presented by BOOKED! in partnership with Luminato, International Readings at Harbourfront and Simon & Schuster Canada.

Source: Stephen King to Make his First Ever Canadian Appearance at BOOKED!, a New Readers' Fest in Toronto

So who sold more books - JK Rowling, or Stephen King?  What's more important is who would win in a Celebrity Deathmatch?  Guess I'll never know.. Youtube pulled the video.

In the insanely detailed fan club for Stephen King, there is a wiki article listing every cultural reference to him.... my favs:

In the episode Insane Clown Poppy King has a small cameo as himself. While sitting at a book fair, Marge asks King if he has been writing any new horror. King says no: "I'm working on a biography of Benjamin Franklin. He's a fascinating man. He discovered electricity, and used it to torture small animals and innocent babies--And that key he tied to the end of a kite? It opened the gates of Hell!" Marge asks him to contact her when he gets back to horror, and he writes a note to himself: "Call Marge, re: horror."

King was actually speaking of Edison, who used to electricute animals in his laboratory for parlour tricks.  What a nice guy... father of lightbulbs and all...

Bart: "Don't you mean The Shining?
Groundskeeper Willy: "Shh, boy! Do you wanna get sued?"

"No TV and no beer maker Homer go crazy" - don't mind if I do!

Besides The Simpsons, King has been referenced in dozens of TV shows, films, and songs.  Even ABBA got into the mix.

Should be a fun and memorable night...

Bruce Willis hangs out on chat boards...

 

here are my top 5 or 6 movies, which I generally watch 3 to 5 times a year.

Dr. Strangelove,

Raging Bull,

The first 2 Godfathers,

Taxi Driver,

Goodfellas,

Spartacus,

Bridge on the River Kwai,

Bullitt,

the Great Escape,

On the Waterfront,

Resevoir Dogs,

Patton,

I really dug 300,

the first Alien,

Last Picture Show....

that's more than 5 or 6... thanks bw

Source: Bruce Willis is Talking Back - So Here's A TalkBack To TalkBack With Him about DIE HARD 4 -- Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Dude, yer gettin' a Dell? Whoops..wrong guy...

 Jared, the Subway guy who inspired thousands of overweight geeks to eat turkey subs 7 days a week, was a bit of an entrepreneur in college.

Well, it turns out in college, the All-American Jared was known for something entirely different. According to our source, while studying at Indiana University, Fogle ran a very successful pornography rental company out of his bedroom. His porn collection was vast and extensive, and Fogle took his business pretty seriously. A video would run a patron a dollar a day (cheap!), and people would come from all over to take advantage of the deal. Needless to say, Jared had enough porn to keep his customers happy.

Source: Best Week Ever » Blog Archive » BWE Exclusive: Jared Fogle, The Pornography Guy

And it wasn't his Aides that got him hooked on Subway - it was the closest fast-food restaurant in walking distance.

Good thing he didn't stick to Tuna Subs...

The 6" version has 530 calories and 31 grams of fat, not to mention over 1000 mg of sodium.

Between the salt and the sugar, it's no wonder people become addicted to eating fast food.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

You're a Nobody Unless Your Name Googles Well - Look at Brrreeeport, such a cute baby!


 No longer just Googling domain names, now you have to make sure your baby's name is searchable?

So when Ms. Wilson, now 32, was pregnant with her first child, she ran every baby name she and her husband, Justin, considered through Google to make sure her baby wouldn't be born unsearchable. Her top choice: Kohler, an old family name that had the key, rare distinction of being uncommon on the Web when paired with Wilson. "Justin and I wanted our son's name to be as special as he is," she explains.

Source: You're a Nobody Unless Your Name Googles Well - WSJ.com

Saturday, May 05, 2007

Fly With Blake (and now me too)

At 25 years old i've decided its time for a career change! At present i'm currently working as a System Administrator for a well known broadcasting company. I've always wanted to become a commercial pilot and I finally decided to take the plunge.

Days since beginning: 488
Cost to-date: $21449.40
Hours Flown: 91.20
Blog Entries: 233

Source: Fly With Blake

Blake details his experiences while becoming a commercial pilot in his blog.

As for me, I'm at 0 days since beginning, $53.00 for a flight, $1 for a training manual I picked up at a garage sale, .6 hours flown, and 2 blog entries...  only $21,395.40 to go....

I found out that taking off and flying a plane is actually fairly straightforward. It's landing that's the hard part.  

My first private flight...

It's a beautiful day today, so I decided to schedule my first introductory flight lesson for $50.00 just north of Toronto this evening.

After this, it's either take the courses for $395 + $395 materials + some expensive flight time, or just go out and get a flight sim & some controls and do it couch potato style & save some cash... or do both.

 For $50 US, you get over 60GB for X-Plane scenery on Dual-Layer DVDs...  Guess I should go out and buy a D/L DVD player.

This is X-Plane + NEW WORLD-WIDE global scenery (seven dual-layer DVD's covering all of Earth between +/- 60 degrees latitude) for Mac, Windows, and Linux.
The disk requirement to install the entire planet is 60 GIG!

Source: X-Plane, by Austin Meyer Products > X-Plane Software

Then there's Microsoft Flight Simulator X for $79.99 CDN at Futureshop.  Only $40 per expansion pack!

Here's a good site with a ton of Flight SIm downloads, an Orbital Space flight sim and news.

http://flyawaysimulation.com/

For those that want to learn about gliding...

http://www.condorsoaring.com/

Here's a site to share your images of planes and other photos - max 1MB.

http://classicbritishfiles.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=101

Finally, Flightgear is one of the best open source flight sims out there.

http://www.flightgear.org/links.html

Plus you'll need some gear... like Pedals

http://www.amazon.com/CH-Products-Pedals-Simulator-300-111/dp/B0000512IE

and maybe a USB Yoke...

http://www.amazon.com/CH-Products-Flight-Yoke-200-615/dp/B000056SPM/ref=pd_bxgy_e_text_b/103-4320738-9717436

So getting FSX, X-Plane, the Yoke and the Pedals, a Dual-Layer DVD burner, a video card upgrade, a new hard drive, X-Plane, a comfy chair, and some scenery add-ons, I'm looking at around $700-$800.

Yes, flying is expensive...

Friday, May 04, 2007

3rd Annual Nigerian EMail Conference

 

"Write better emails. Make more moneys."

I am Mr. Laurent Mpeti Kabila, a senior assistant leader of the Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone.

I present to you an urgent and confidential request: I request your attendance at The 3rd Annual Nigerian EMail Conference. This is an excellent opportunity to meet your distinguished colleagues, learn new marketing techniques, and spend your hard-earned money. Attending this conference demands the highest trust, security and confidentiality between us.

Source: 3rd Annual Nigerian EMail Conference

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

The War is Over.... A Hex is still on Digg

I would link to this digg but it has the hex code in it.... :)

"But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you ’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be." - Kevin Rose
Submitted:
1 hour 9 min ago, made popular 1 hour 7 minutes ago

It took only 2 minutes to get this popular, and it has 2367 diggs after only an hour.  No make that 2398.  No 2415... No 2435... I give up.  2461...2470... at this rate they should have 864,000 diggs by tomorrow morning.  3069 diggs... 3108 diggs...

What kind of movies do pirates like? The one's rated RRrrrrrrrrrrr

I was wrong.  It was over 15,000 diggs for the original story.  I don't think they have ever had that many.

Digg's still down.

And here's the guy who started the war:

"My friend Chris Haley was smart enough to save the entire page at almost the height of its fame. At 15,492 Diggs, HERE IS THE FULL ARTICLE IN ALL ITS GLORY. All the comments are there. You can even expand the hidden comments. Thanks Chris!"

Source: Stuff to Think About: How I got banned from Digg

RIAA,MPAA, before all that there was the MPPC and Edison.

For the first ten years, the use of the new movie cameras and projectors was tied up in a protracted patent war between Edison and other inventors. In 1907, Edison formed the Edison Licensee Group. In 1908, this group joined with the Biograph Company to form the Motion Picture Patents Company, which was able to dictate royalties for the creation and showing of motion pictures.

http://www.edwardsamuels.com/illustratedstory/isc3.htm

Early copy protection was developing pictures of the stills of a movie, since copyright law could be enforced with photos.

My friend once had an idea to sell "Pirate CDs" on the internet, back in '94 or '95.  We would have made a killing, and probably could have raised a million dollars in venture capital.  Of course, these pirate cds would have pictures of Blackbeard, and parrot sounds.  We probably would have been sued for infringement anyway... somebody must own those parrot sounds.

Arrr... Really Bad Pirate jokes.

What the Hex is going on?!?

One of my favourite sites is Digg, a sort of Survivor or Big Brother for news, where the best stories get voted to stay on the island, and the worst get dugg down. The original Digg was Slashdot, but Digg adopted Web 2.0 and various other features which caused Digg to take over.

Digg is known for 'The Digg Effect' which cripples underpowered web servers whenever a popular story links to them. I am still getting hits from the few stories I submitted a few months ago.

Today Kevin Rose, one of the founders of Digg, announced that they are removing postings that announce a hex key used for breaking high-definition DVD protection, due to a legal notice (from one of their sponsors, no less). Almost immediately the site was flooded with stories about this, and every single Top 10 topic involved Freedom of Speech and this story.

Usually popular stories get 1000-2000 digs to get into the Top 10. DIGG: What's Happening with HD-DVD Stories? is #1 at 6630 diggs, over twice the usual traffic.

Digg seems to be hit by it's own Digg Effect right now... and the top story on Slashdot is how Digg is trying to suppress the revolt.

Am I going to post the hex key? No way! Not that most people would even know what to do with it.

1001111110010001000100000010100111 010111010011100011100000000000000000000000 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Link to Digg / News

Like the Digg Effect, the Wal-Mart Effect can also cause problems with traffic, namely walk-in traffic in a competing store.

By dropping the price of the 42" flat-panel TV to $998, they caused an onslaught of new purchasers to buy into the flat-panel revolution, and, in the words of one of their competition:

"The tube business and big-screen business just dropped off a cliff," says Stuart Rose, chief executive officer of Rex Stores. "We expected a drop-off, but nowhere near the decline that we had."

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/WalMartEffectStrikesAgain.aspx

Futureshop, Best Buy, Circuit City, and many others will probably suffer because of Wal-Mart's guerilla pricing strategy.

Now when will the HD Projectors come down to $998 - that's what I'm talking about...

http://www.shopbot.ca/c-47-2-0-1.html

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Sued By Scotts - Worm Poop is more valuable than Gold

 This company is trying to turn an unfortunate legal problem into free PR for its environmentally-friendly products.  It's a David vs. Goliath battle, and unfortunately since they're based in the US it would probably be cheaper to just close up shop and move to China than to employ a bunch of lawyers to try and defend this one.

Scotts claims that the two companies' products look similar and will confuse customers because some TerraCycle plant foods have a green and yellow label with a circle and a picture of flowers and vegetables on it.

Source: Sued By Scotts

 

Although they say they haven't made a profit yet, they employ over 30 people and have annual sales of $1.5M.

[the] story is a reminder about following your dreams. The pot of gold may require dealing with a ton of crap." -- CBS Evening News

Friday, April 20, 2007

YTMND - NES of a Down

 

Link to YTMND - NES of a Down

Evening out the playing field - 25 years murder-free in 'Gun Town USA'


 I think that mandating that everyone in town own a gun is ridiculous, but according to this article it worked for this town.

As the nation debates whether more guns or fewer can prevent tragedies like the Virginia Tech Massacre, a notable anniversary passed last month in a Georgia town that witnessed a dramatic plunge in crime and violence after mandating residents to own firearms.

Source: WorldNetDaily: 25 years murder-free in 'Gun Town USA'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennesaw,_Georgia

Monday, April 16, 2007

Dave Gorman - Googlewhack Adventure

The funniest stand-up I have seen in a long time.  Read the book first. 

Googlewhack Adventure - The stage show

At the age of 31 I decided to give up my stupid ways, grow a beard and write a novel. I failed to do two of those things. I did however grow a beard.

Source: Dave Gorman - Googlewhack Adventure

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Student punished for spaghetti beliefs | Metro.co.uk - Arrr..

 

Bryan Killian says that he follows the Pastafarian religion, and that as a crucial part of his faith, he must wear 'full pirate regalia' as prescribed in the holy texts of Pastafarianism.

Source: Student punished for spaghetti beliefs | Metro.co.uk

"Most Valuable Marketing Blogs 2007

Here's a list of the 32 most valuable blogs in the advertising world according to Joseph Jaffe's readers:

  1. Logic + Emotion - http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/
  2. Russel Davies - http://russelldavies.typepad.com/
  3. “Why Business People Speak Like Idiots” - http://www.fightthebull.com/blog/
  4. “Eggs, Bacon, Chips & Beans” - http://russelldavies.typepad.com/eggbaconchipsandbeans/
  5. Seth Godin - http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
  6. Jaffe Juice - http://feeds.feedburner.com/jaffejuice
  7. Cool Hunting – http://www.coolhunting.com/
  8. NussbaumOnDesign - ???
  9. Beyond Madison Avenue - http://www.beyondmadisonavenue.com/
  10. Wired – http://blog.wired.com/
  11. Adverlab – http://adverlab.blogspot.com/
  12. BrandAutopsy - http://brandautopsy.typepad.com/
  13. Gaping Void - http://www.gapingvoid.com/
  14. Hello_World - http://missinglink.typepad.com/hello_world/
  15. Mark Cuban - http://www.blogmaverick.com/
  16. SpringWise - http://www.springwise.com/
  17. PSFK - http://www.psfk.com
  18. Adliterate by Richard Huntington - http://www.adliterate.com/
  19. http://servantofchaos.typepad.com/
  20. http://conversationagent.typepad.com/
  21. http://blog.creativethink.com/
  22. http://www.scottweisbrod.com/index.php/
  23. http://www.micropersuasion.com
  24. http://www.toprankblog.com
  25. http://www.pronetadvertising.com
  26. Where’s The Sausage - http://wheresthesausage.typepad.com/
  27. Branding Strategy Insider - http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/
  28. http://www.ck-blog.com/
  29. http://powrightbetweentheeyes.typepad.com/
  30. Church of the Consumer - http://www.churchofthecustomer.com/blog/
  31. Modern Life is Rubbish - http://www.modernlifeisrubbish.co.uk/
  32. radical Trust - http://www.radicaltrust.ca

27 Marbles Training - Creativity Explained

A friend of mine asked me to publish a link announcing her new business venture. Here you go Leslie...

27 Marbles Training is the insider’s go-to training company for highly effective workshops that deliver a-ha moments to advertising, marketing and related creative industry professionals – and ultimately provide your organization with a true competitive edge.

I'm sure it will be as successful as she is, and I am glad she is teaching others her craft. Leslie is one of the most creative people I know, and has done some really wild things... how many people can say they hosted a television show, was a director at a successful advertising agency, travelled the world, and sang in a movie or two...


Here's a sample course outline from a recent class.

Her business partner, Joan McArthur, helped to pitch (and win) Oglivy's advertising campaign for Microsoft, presenting directly to Bill Gates. Here is

an interesting bio on her... And some comments from another blogger who spent some time with Gates on March 6, 2007 talking about the future of creativity in advertising.

Given a long enough timeframe … all mass ads will be targeted to individuals.
-- Bill Gates, March 6, 2007.

I wonder if Bill means by using his Smart Watch.

Here's a link to the 27 Marbles web site, or contact her at info@27marbles.com to request some one-on-one...

http://www.27marbles.com/

I hope the two of them start a blog - I'm sure they have many interesting stories to tell.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

It's who you know, and who knows you

Wild article from May, 2007 issue of Fast Company on how Facebook originated and where it might be going.

Thefacebook.com, as it was originally called, launched on February 4, 2004. Within two weeks, half the Harvard student body had signed up. Before long, it was up to two-thirds. Zuckerberg's roommates, Moskovitz and Chris Hughes, joined in, helping to add features and run the site using a shared hosting service that cost $85 a month. Students from other colleges began approaching them, asking for online face books of their own. So the trio carved out new areas on the site for places like Stanford and Yale. By May, 30 schools were included, and banner- type ads for student events and college-oriented businesses had brought in a few thousand dollars.

Source: Hacker. Dropout. CEO. - Mark Zuckerberg - Facebook - Social Networking

 

When I was in school, I was the first person to setup a game on the school's network that many people could play at once.  I'm afraid it probably cost a lot of people their semester.  The game was called Doom.

Before this I had set up IRC (the first massive chat system) & MUDs (highly addictive multiuser dungeons, think text-based World of Warcraft) on the network.  It was amazing how quickly people found out about these things and how they spread, and how empty computer labs filled up at 3 in the morning with people chatting on IRC.

Ironically, one of the most popular global groups started on Facebook was Students against Facebook News Feed.

In less than 48 hours, 700,000 people had joined the protest, and the blogosphere declared it the end of Facebook. News crews camped outside the Facebook offices, as if a bald Britney Spears were being held captive inside.

Their news feed supposedly distributes more 'news' in 1 day then in the history of conventional media.

Facebooks biggest advertiser? Microsoft.

Esperance bird deaths caused by lead?

 More on the continuing investigation as to why the skies have become eerily quiet after over 4000 birds died in an area of Australia.

Mining and other industries are other sources of lead in the environment. While some of the largest sources of lead pollution – leaded gasoline and lead in paint – have been phased out, lead continues to be mined, processed and transported. Recently, accidental and undetected release of a lead compound during shipping has been suggested as the possible cause of an extensive die-off of wild birds in Esperance, Australia. Such incidents remind us that the fates of birds can be a mirror of human fortunes: lead that is killing birds may be poisoning people and other animals as well. We need to pay close attention.

Source: Lead Poisoning in Birds: How and Why Birds Die from Lead Poisoning

Monday, April 09, 2007

New York Auto Show: Roadster gets 600 HP from lithium - Autoblog

 

Watching a car burning off an inch or two of rear rubber in almost dead silence is eerily unnatural.

Source: New York Auto Show: Roadster gets 600 HP from lithium - Autoblog

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Wow. Martin swims the Amazon.

Martin’s health took a turn for the worse last evening as he struggled with dizziness, vertigo, blood pressure jumping off the charts, diarrhea, nausea, and delirium. Despite having difficulty standing and being ordered by the doctor not to swim, Martin is obsessed with making it to Belem, and insisted on night swimming.

Martin fended off disease, dehydration, whitewater, weather, pirates, piranhas, and lost contact with his crew at one point.

He made it to Belem after 5,268KM of swimming, breaking his own world record.

I will make a toast tonight for Martin, to the Piranha I brought back from Brazil.  That is, if my wife hasn't thrown out the disgusting-looking thing like she is always threatening to.

 

Here's Martin looking like he's a character in Pink Floyd's The Wall, or maybe the Invisible Man.


 

Sign Martin's guestbook.

http://guestbook.martinstrel.com/index.php?L=2

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Google Maps - Draw on it!

 

Google just launched a facility to draw and annotate on Google Maps.

Great for sending directions or tracking your vacation.

Link to Google Maps

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Petoria down under

Did you know that there is a country within Australia?  It's called the Hutt River Province, and it has a Prince, who is also a farmer.

Declaration of war.

Fine strategist, this patient and peaceful Prince, decided that he had enough of the pressures  and harassments from  the Administration and abruptly declared war to Australia.

The geographic situation of the Principality of Hutt River Province, distant of less than 70 km from Geralton's military base, was making the challenge hazardous.

A simple police action would have been enough to put an end to the extraordinary adventure of the CASLEY Family, and to some other families wich followed him.

Nevertheless, on December 2, 1977, the Principality declared very officially war to the powerful Australia. The Australian Authorities ignored magnificently what they took for a bragging.

On the other hand, the Press, more attentive and maybe more amused, once again marked its sympathy for the small Principality.

Some days later, Prince Leonard notified the Governor General of Australia on the cessation of "hostilities".

The Principality overcame the conflict with Australia, what was quite interesting on the legal point of view.

Indeed, international law stipulates that sovereignty is automatically acquired for a country which gets out of a conflict unhurt.

Source: History of  Hutt River Province

There's no new news since December, 2005.  Hopefully they made it through 2006 unscathed.

The territory is approximately the same size as Hong Kong, but with 13,000 people (worldwide) instead of 7 million.

After succession in 1970, a drama unfolded when Prince Regent took over most commercial operations.  Throughout the 80's and early 90's, stamps, coins, and knighthoods were issued by the Prince.  There was even an attempt to overthrow Prince Leonard and found a new kingdom on a Pacific Island. (tax haven, anyone?)

See the Wiki article for more info.  Anyone know how to get citizenship for this country?

The Australian government generally appears to avoid any legal challenge to the HRP. While HRP builds its own buildings (without any Australian government approval), offers company registrations, car licences, sells coinage, philately and even runs its own University, many of these activities would seemingly draw the ire of the Australian government on any Australian citizen. However the Australian government has so far not interfered with HRP sovereignty in these matters, and appears to avoid any legal stoush with the HRP

I wonder what emissions standards they have there?

Here's a link to some coins and stamps available from Hutt River.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Ask Pud: April Fools

Apparently Pud didn't sell his web site... or did he.

Many people were confused... if this were an April fools joke, how did we get Wired, Valleywag, and others to play along days before the joke? And with everyone saying FC and Techcrunch should belong together anyway, is it really that funny?
Anyway, odd timing, sort of a clusterfuck, but nobody got hurt. Except maybe all the people who
fell for it.

Source: Ask Pud: April Fools

Monday, April 02, 2007

Problogger - 30 steps to a good blog

 

The Problem: Who reads this stuff anyway?

The Solution: Make it readable.

Present a Problem, The Solution, and The Results: Don’t present a solution before the reader understands there is a problem. Present the problem, give us the solution, and then lead us through the results and the benefits of the results. When readers follow along with the process, they better understand how it works and why it works for themselves.

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/04/02/blogging-is-about-writing/

Saturday, March 31, 2007

Ask Pud: Life in general


There are two types of haters you'll encounter.

  1. People who are jealous of your drive and possible success, and make themselves feel better by beating you down.
  2. People who are so conservative and afraid to take risks, that they just can't understand your logic and figure there must be something wrong with you.
I'm not saying you should drop your friends, but you should try to surround yourself with like-minded peers -- people who will think what you're doing is awesome and will root for you.

Source: Ask Pud: Life in general

Pud sold his web site to Techcrunch for 1.3 BILLION dollars. (or maybe just some stock and a cow bell for his drum set.).

Consumption Junction, what's your function?


As unobtrusive as a small electric clock, the PowerCost Monitor™ is a powerful real-time direct feedback display device for domestic energy consumers. It tells them at a glance, in real-time, how much electricity their home is using in dollars and cents and in kW.

Source: Blue Line Innovations

Save money & save the environment with this $150 gadget that will tell you how much power your electronics are drawing.

Google Notebook & Microsoft OneNote


Google launched a tool called Notebook last year which is similar to a scaled-down web-enabled version of Microsoft OneNote, less the ink.

If you are looking for a quick, free, and useful tool to track notes from a browser, this is it.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/note-this.html

If you're looking for the best tool to track notes, journal your day, research & documentation  from your desktop then get Microsoft OneNote.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/onenote/default.aspx

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Toronto Real Estate Wealth Expo

Last weekend I attended Trump's wealth expo organized by Learning Annex. I have attended some pretty amazing events with them in the past (speakers including Lance Armstrong, Bill Clinton, Sir Richard Branson) and this one, though mostly one big infomercial, had it's pluses and reinforced many of the things I have read about selling, psychology and finance.

There's quite a few postings about the disappointment people felt after attending these events.
  • I grew tired of all the “happy go lucky” types.
  • All the speakers pretty much told me things I pretty much already knew: buy low, sell high (brilliant)
  • One guy pointed to a curve illustrating when to buy a stock (the lowest point of the curve).
  • When to sell the stock (the highest point of the curve). I’m going to be rich now
    I almost smacked the person next to me, when they actually wrote that down — maybe some peopledo need help
  • I went back on Sunday, late in the day because I can only take so much idiocracy. I toned down my attitude a bit because I realize a lot of people were buying their packages.
  • One woman sitting next to me just loved James Ray (the Secret). She was yelling positive re-enforcementsback at him when he was giving his speech — I felt out of place.
  • I felt a lot of folks there were willing to try anything to be successful.
  • I felt that a lot of people were victimized this past weekend.

http://www.wealthjunkie.com/2005/11/10/should-you-waste-your-money-on-the-learning-annex-real-estate-wealth-expo-one-reader-says-no-way/

I caught myself writing down 'get out of debt' with everyone else before I stopped. For $50, I thought it was an interesting way to spend the weekend. If I had to pay for a hotel or any travel costs, or full price for the ticket it probably would not be something I'd do unless I personally knew someone speaking at the event. Take it with a grain of salt - there's no free ride to getting wealthy and buying someone else's training course probably won't do it.

Out of all the speakers I listened to this weekend, there were a couple of standouts:

  • Tony Robbins, an incredibly motivational guy - he is _the_ motivational speaker to listen to, and knows how to hypnotize a huge audience. If it was a hundred years ago, he would be speaking in tents and throwing snakes around. If I had $1 million I would probably go to his training course in Tahiti to kill a weekend.
  • Bill Bartmann, the billionaire you never heard of, who started his billion-dollar business from his kitchen with $13,000. (which he borrowed from a bank where he already owed $1m, to start a debt-collection agency). I saw him twice. If you want your kid to become a billionaire, make sure his first name is Bill and his last name starts with a B. Bill's selling a Billionaire Mentoring Program, and is a bit late in getting his reality TV show off the ground. You can sign up for his free evening seminar here. A review is here. He said that he'll be organizing a free concert event for 50,000 students at the Rogers Centre to combat drug and alchoholism abuse. Note to Bill, get rid of those extra exclamation marks and the announcer on your web site. NOW IS THE TIME!!!

And more than a few other "characters":

  • Don Burnham, who spoke like someone out of the Sopranos but was signing $1000 training contracts like he was signing autographs. Don't you want to get rich? Fuggeddaboutit.
  • The Secret is.... don't watch the secret. I walked out after they started rehashing Tony Robbins' meet-and-greet tactics. blech.
  • Free Money from the Government's Chris Johnson, who almost caused a stampede by offering his training materials for free to the first couple of people who rushed to the back.
  • Real Free Money from Robert Shemin, who was handing out $80-$100 to people who put up their hand. His was an interesting seminar, since many of the previous speakers, whom he called his mentors, attended, including..
  • Dr. Al Lowry. He's 82, looks 62, and shows how working hard and having fun can extend your life.
  • Raymond Aaron. He's 61 (I think), lives in Richmond Hill, and has an ego bigger than his paycheque, though it seems to be working for him. The mind can do some interesting things, and his convinced himself to do a 350-mile footrace to the North Pole next week. All the best Raymond, and bring lots of warm socks.

Plus, using his own innovative techniques developed over the last two decades, he shows you how to—step-by-step—take conscious control of your world so you can double, triple, even quadruple your income doing what you love to do.

What if I want to quintuple my income. Guess I'm out of luck with his program. I think to become a millionaire I need to at least tredecaple it.

The surprise for me was Harry Stinson, the condo guy of 1 King West in Toronto. He was probably the most down-to-earth of the bunch, and really spoke out about what he believed in and how others could do what he has done to succeed. He is on his way to billionaire status, just two or more bankruptcies and he'll be there.

This week, Mr. Trump declared he wished all of his competitors were like Mr. Stinson, who he alleged "was talking about how he was going to beat me and then he went bust."
Mr. Stinson fired off his own response, pointing out that Toronto's Trump Tower looks "like a parking lot ... My condo-hotel at One King West is full tonight, by the way."

When Tony Robbins was speaking, he showed how a 'demotivational' speaker would walk into a room (shoulders down, head to the floor, "Don't Worry, be Happy" playing) and how a motivational speaker would (head raised, fist pumping, techno music). Harry was walking in to Bobby Mcferrin, though he did admit he wasn't a trained speaker as he read his notes. You could tell that he spent some time getting ready for the event, and even cracked a few jokes at Trump's expense. (tallest nonexistant building in Toronto? Here's your nonexistant award.)

So to me, $50 to attend was better than $50 to go to dinner & the movies (or maybe just the movies nowadays). I'm not rich yet, so I guess I'll probably have to go again next year.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Banknotes.com - Introduction to Collecting of World Banknotes - Currencies of the World

Interesting to note that paper money was introduced because of emergency shortages in coins and metal money. 

When Marco Polo came back from his travels in China (1275-1292), people in Europe didn't believe that the Chinese used paper for money. Paper money in Europe came 300 years later. The use of paper money in China stopped in 1455.


The history of paper money in Europe is interesting. It started as emergency money sustituting for regular money. The first emergency paper bills are from 1483. The first bank notes were printed in the 17th century.

Source: Banknotes.com - Introduction to Collecting of World Banknotes - Currencies of the World

 

Similar to Income Tax, which was collected as a "temporary" wartime measure, and now dominates most fundraising activities by governments.

Of course, there are glitches in the automated tax collection systems from time to time.

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) system went down sometime Sunday night or Monday morning and, "We have now traced the source of the problem to software maintenance conducted on March 4, 2007," says a CRA statement. "We are currently working to bring all systems back online gradually."

Source: P2P.NET

This could potentially cost the government, it's employees, and the Canadian economy millions.  The government will lose interest on unpaid taxes.  If nobody gets their refund on time, consumers will be less inclined to purchase items that are non-essential, like plasma TVs or iPods.  RRSP loan borrowers will have to float their loans longer, which may cause some borrowers to default on payments.

Last year the government processed almost 25 million individual and 1.7 million corporate returns, returning $18 billion dollars.  That's over 49 million dollars a day.  Not to mention the cost to H&R Block and other tax professionals who no longer have a way to quickly skim a percent or more off your instant return.  Moneymart & RentCash should be doing well right now...

Whatever happened to backups & mirrored systems?  If this were a bank machine being down for more than 5 days, how many CIOs would last through that one?

On another note, mortgage rates appear to be on the rise.  Here's one way to make your house tax-deductible to offset the pain a bit.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

The Geek's Guide to Getting Free Stuff | The Free Geek

 

The Geek's Guide to Getting Free Stuff

Whoever it was that said, "There's no such thing as a free lunch," didn't know about the Internet. There are a lot of free things online, and a lot of it is actually legitimate and valuable. Better yet, many of them won't spam you with additional offers unless you've okayed it.

There are also offline ways to get free stuff, most of which you don't have to pay anything for, or very little (taxes, shipping). So here's our list of ways to get free junk or links to other lists. Most of what's here should appeal to the geek, and since most geeks still drink, eat and bathe, there are some freebies listed in that vein.

Source: The Geek's Guide to Getting Free Stuff | The Free Geek

Monday, March 05, 2007

Carbonmade

 Carbonmade is a site to display your art portfolios, and will shortly be hosted on the ever-expanding Amazon S3 service.  There are some amazing artists here.

I like the way the payment plans are broken out.  I'll pick meh...

Whoo! is our pro plan. For only $12/month you get 50 projects with up to 500 hi-res images and 10 high quality videos.

 

 

Meh. is our free plan. It doesn't cost you a thing and you get 5 projects with 35 images.

Source: Carbonmade: Create an account

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Canada's web conference - Toronto, May 30th and 31st, 2007

 

connect

Canada's premier Web conference, being held in Toronto on May 30th & 31st, 2007, is a chance to connect with people who are as excited about the potential of the Web as you are – people who want to know more about how it is changing the way we live, work and interact with the world. And you won't just connect with them in the hallways – at mesh, every panel and workshop is interactive.

Source: Canada's web conference - Toronto, May 30th and 31st, 2007

Friday, February 23, 2007

ScrewAttack - Angry Video Game Nerd: Atari 5200

One of my first video game systems, after my Intellivision, was the Atari 5200, the horribly mutated big brother of the 2600.

Between the 2600 & 7800 was the worst Atari system ever made, but with better graphics than the 2600.   To give an idea of how bad, the Atari 7800 was backwards compatible with the 2600, but not the 5200!  Talk about killing the upgrade path. 

Some of the not-so-memorable games were Jungle Hunt, Centipede, Joust, Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom, and my favourite, Congo Bongo.  And if you got sick of the 15 games made for the system, you could get the VCS cartridge adapter to play 2600 games - for only $15 more than an Atari 2600.

Here's a positive(ly funny) review on the worst system ever made.

Link to ScrewAttack - Angry Video Game Nerd: Atari 5200

Here's a link to the emulator if you want to bring your computer down to the level of a 5200.

Atariage

Or just buy the thing on e-Bay for $4.99, and pay $200 for shipping the 200 lb bohemith. 

This auction is for a Atari 5200 game console only. It appears to be in good shape it does show wear and scratches from use. I was not able to test it so I am selling it "as is". The game Frogger is in the console but it has no original tag and someone just wrote with masking tape "frogger" so I am not positive if that is the game for sure.

Be sure you're running it on a separate circuit breaker.  Buy lots of extra joysticks.  On second hand, for $4.99 you'll probably get a cardboard box with a hand-drawn Atari logo on it and a Tupperware lid with frogger-labelled masking tape, so don't bother.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Shaving a religion?

My barber is one of the few in Toronto that

still uses a straight razor. 

"Once these guys realize they can switch and in most cases alleviate those skin problems, some of them are almost in tears. It has actually changed some people's lives," Lubrano said.

Joel Ferman also converted because he was "absolutely miserable," his skin red and irritated. He has become a collector in his quest to try blades, and now owns 150 straight razors.

He also runs BadgerAndBlade.com, the largest online forum for wet shaving. After a year in operation, the site gets 200,000 to 300,000 hits per day, Ferman said.

The forum has helped foster a subculture of straight-razor enthusiasts that sometimes borders on religious.

Source: The lure of the straight razor

 

More tips.

Shave after your shower or soften your whiskers with a hot, wet towel for a minute or two before getting started. Apply shaving cream.

Angle the blade 30 degrees away from the face. NEVER slice it across your skin, and try not to use pressure. Also, watch your fingers.

When you're done, dry off the blade with a few strokes on the leather or by stropping it lightly a few times on a towel. Rinse your face with cold water and apply a gentle after-shave appropriate for your skin.

For more information

www.badgerandblade.com

www.classicshaving.com

www.straightrazorplace.com

www.uniclectica.com/conserva/ razor1.html

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Coding Horror: The cost of leaving your PC on

 

So leaving my server on is costing me $200 / year, or $16.68 per month. My home theater PC is a bit more frugal at 65 watts. Using the same formulas, that costs me $81 / year or $6.75 per month.

So, how can you reduce the power draw of the PCs you leave on 24/7?

Source: Coding Horror: The cost of leaving your PC on

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Skandia Cowes Week 2007 - Welcome

When seven yachts signed up for the first organised yacht race at Cowes on 10th August 1826, it is unlikely anyone envisaged that this would become the annual world-class yachting event that we now know as Skandia Cowes Week. With over 1,000 yachts and 8,500 competitors taking part in some very challenging first-class sailing, the Event attracts a wide range of local, national and international entrants, from true amateurs to Olympic and World champions.

Source: Skandia Cowes Week 2007 - Welcome

 

I want to go to this event one year.  Last year we didn't get to make it to the Isle of Wight due to an unfortunate car mishap.  Maybe next year...

This event was also the cause for creating the only 2nd production app launched for Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), the new technology launched by Microsoft and embedded in Windows Vista.

Of course, MS doesn't exaggerate their case studies (!) but here is a good quote on how long it took them to build this new app.

Cut Development Time from Months to Days

After developing version 1.0, Middlemiss needed a faster way to build its successor. He got it with the new technologies in Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 and Windows Presentation Foundation, along with the XAML-based tool Expression Blend. Using these technologies, Middlemiss created the rendering engine—which had taken three months to develop the year before—in a weekend.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Open Culture: Lifehack for Learning Foreign Languages

Lifehack for Learning Foreign Languages

Here is a quick "lifehack" for you. You can now learn foreign languages and stay current on politics all at once. How so?  By taking advantage of a smart podcast concept being used by French and German broadcasters. (See our complete collection of foreign language lesson podcasts.) Radio France Internationale (RFI) issues a daily podcast called Le Journal en français facile (iTunes - feed - web site), which delivers the nightly international news in slow and easy-to-understand French. Along the same lines, the German media company Deutsche Welle (which puts out many great language and music podcasts) also has its own nightly news program — Langsam gesprochene Nachrichten (iTunes - feed - web site). It's essentially the same concept: informative news presented in very simple German, and, in this case, it's spoken very slowly.

Now, what's very nice about these programs is that they also provide a written transcript of the spoken word. So you can read along as you listen and make sure that you're really comprehending. (See transcripts in French and German). Even cooler, with the German version, if you have a video iPod, you can read the transcript on your little portable screen. (See directions).

Finally, check out this offbeat suggestion sent our way by a reader:  Nuntii Latini (mp3 - web site) is "a weekly review of world news in Classical Latin, the only international broadcast of its kind in the world, produced by YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Company."

For more, see Open Culture's complete collection of foreign language lesson podcasts.

Source: Open Culture: Lifehack for Learning Foreign Languages

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Strong Bad invents a new word

Closimonies - (n) the closing ceremonies in the 2007 Strongbadiathon competition.

Homestar Runner games now on the WII

http://digg.com/gaming_news/Homestar_Runner_Games_Now_Available_on_the_Wii

Plus, yet another reason for me to buy Guitar Heroes II.

Monday, January 22, 2007

The Fundamentals Of Retailing - Forbes.com

 

The Fundamentals Of Retailing
Edited by Brett Nelson 01.09.07, 6:00 PM ET

Of all businesses, a retail shop might be the most basic. You buy inventory, mark it up and sell it at a profit. Simple.

Source: The Fundamentals Of Retailing - Forbes.com

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Is it the wetsuit?

Over the last year I have read two books on extreme achievements that stick out in my mind, and both revolve around the Amazon. Paddle to the Amazon, by Don Starkell & Amazon Extreme, by Colin Angus & Ian Mulgrew tell true stories about unbelievable travels and achieving the unimaginable.

Paddle to the Amazon documents extreme adventure pioneer Don and his sons as they travel from Winnipeg to Brazil in a canoe in 1980.  Yes, that is Winnipeg, Canada.  Yes, that's over 12,000 miles and two years worth of canoeing.  "With minimal supplies, depending on their wits and the good will of strangers", Don has no sponsor and risks his life (and his son's) to achieve his dream.  Afterwards, Don canoed the Arctic, among other places.

Amazon Extreme is no less an amazing book, as three guys substitute two years worth of canoeing with five months of white-water rafting from the beginning to the end of the Amazon.  In typical To-The-Extreme MTV Generation fashion, without sponsors, with limited planning, an underfunded, undersupplied and unprepared journey was successful.  Even though they almost died hiking to get to the river before they even started.  Guys, especially extreme guys, don't ask for directions.

Now what if any of these guys decided to ditch their boat and just swim?

That would be insane.

Meet Martin Strel.

According to Martin, "As a young boy, I was beaten a lot by my parents and schoolmasters. This no doubt contributed greatly to my ability to ignore pain and endure..."  Evidently this included numerous blows to the head.  He has decided to swim the Amazon, from the start near a mountain in Peru to the finish on the coast of Brazil.

Not that this impossible.  If a piranah can do it, why not Martin?  He has millions in funding.  He swam the Danube river twice, the Mississippi river, the Parana river from Iguazzu Falls to the Rio de la Plata, and recently the toxic, multicoloured Yangtze river in China.  After swimming the biohazard that is Yangtze, he probably has superpowers and webbed feet. 

Swimmer Martin Strel has dedicated this swim to the preservation of the rainforest, to raising awareness for Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders, and to promoting telemedicine as a valuable tool in bringing modern medicine to remote areas

It is for some great causes, he has tons of sponsorship, lots of world records and Jacques Cousteau's old boat tagging along.  He's gotta do it.

His swim starts February 1st, 2007.  Find out more on his web site.  

Let Us Now Praise Crazy Mofos.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Is it the shoes?

DEAN KARNAZES WAS SLOBBERING DRUNK. IT WAS HIS 30TH BIRTHDAY, and he'd started with beer and moved on to tequila shots at a bar near his home in San Francisco. Now, after midnight, an attractive young woman – not his wife – was hitting on him. This was not the life he'd imagined for himself. He was a corporate hack desperately running the rat race. The company had just bought him a new Lexus. He wanted to vomit. Karnazes resisted the urge and, instead, slipped out the bar's back door and walked the few blocks to his house. On the back porch, he found an old pair of sneakers. He stripped down to his T-shirt and underwear, laced up the shoes, and started running. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

more...

 

I don't think this was the old pair of sneakers he found, but these are what he's wearing now.

 

Buy them here

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Live from Macworld 2007: Steve Jobs keynote - Engadget

"There's an old Wayne Gretsky quote I love -- 'I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it's been.' That's what we try to do at Apple. Thank you very, very much." Huge, huge applause, standing ovation.

Source: Live from Macworld 2007: Steve Jobs keynote - Engadget

 

Sure, the iPhone looks cool, probably works well, and may win a bunch of design awards, but it still isn't as cool as having this:

 

 

The FY8850 cell phone is a fully functional redesigned replica of a 1980's cell phone but with 21st century technology. Features 1980's look and feel complete with huge battery and long external antenna. Includes color LCD screen, polyphonic and MP3 ringtones, speaker phone and long battery life. True to its root, this cell phone does not have headset, USB connection or car charger jacks. This phone is unlocked so it can be used with any GSM carrier using 900, 1800 or 1900 frequency bands.

Birds fall from sky over town | NEWS.com.au

 

THOUSANDS of birds have fallen from the skies over Esperance and no one knows why.

Source: Birds fall from sky over town | NEWS.com.au

Torontoist: Portrait of the Artist as a Vanishing Library

 

On Saturday, at 401 Richmond's Red Head Gallery, artist Robin Pacific began giving away her entire personal library of 1,670 books in a conceptual art installation called "Shelf Portrait." If you heard about this over the last couple of weeks and it occurred to you that a well-publicized giveaway of free, interesting books in downtown Toronto on a Saturday might draw a bit of a crowd, well, you were right. Torontoist is happy to report that the same thing also occurred to the show's organizers, and they were well prepared for Saturday's mob scene. They distributed tickets with times printed on them -- 50 tickets per half-hour interval -- sparing attendees from having to wait in line all afternoon. (I showed up at 1:30 and snagged a 3:00 ticket.) Pacific also imposed a 4-book-per-person limit, ensuring that the show wasn't cleaned out by the end of the first half-hour.

Source: Torontoist: Portrait of the Artist as a Vanishing Library

MIT OpenCourseWare | Master Course List

 

Departments

Source: MIT OpenCourseWare | Master Course List

Sunday, January 07, 2007

52 game ideas

 

Every week in 2006 I posted a new original game idea. If you like, you can read all about the challenge I issued myself. By the end of the year it was quite cumbersome to sift through the site for find them all. So here’s all 52 game ideas in one easy list!

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

PublicRadioFan.com

 

Welcome to PublicRadioFan.com

PublicRadioFan.com features schedule listings for thousands of public radio stations and programs around the world. Follow the audio links to hear your favorite programs and discover new ones.

Getting started: Set your time zone, then use the main menu in the left column to navigate the site. Station names (with color backgrounds) link to online audio. Follow the (i) link next to any station or program to search for schedule listings and information. For more help, see our new user info page.

Customizing: You can customize the design of this front page (basic design, advanced design, custom design) and many other settings.

Podcasts: Our public radio podcast directory has grown to over 800 podcasts.

Source: PublicRadioFan.com

Friday, December 29, 2006

wavesmash (n) - this blog's author

wave

(v) : to move back and forth repeatedly; to wave one’s hand in greeting or departure

smash

(v) : to break (something brittle) violently; to hit extremely hard

"the demolition team smashed the buildings to rubble."

A really fast dictionary... fast like a ninja

Friday, December 22, 2006

Tesla's wireless electricity comes to market

http://www.wildcharge.com/solutions.html

WildCharge is the first--and as yet the only company--to provide a universal solution: a solution that actually works for virtually any mobile device. This is ideal for mobile professionals who can now trade in their multiple chargers and adapters for one streamlined package.

Tesla under rug swept

Interesting site (link here) about a 3rd & 4th grade schoolteacher who has provided over $120,000 worth of $6000 busts of Nikola Tesla to various universities, libraries, and institutions... except the Smithsonian.

 

"This is a photograph of our finished bust we offered to the Smithsonian. Dr. Bernard S. Finn, (Curator of the Division of Electricity and Modern Physics) refused us, claiming he had no use for it.

We could not understand why the Smithsonian would have no use for a $6,000 bust of such a great American and eminent scientist."

More info on Tesla at Wikipedia

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Merry Christmas

What rolls down stairs
alone or in pairs,
and over your neighbor's dog?
What's great for a snack,
And fits on your back?
It's log, log, log

It's log, it's log,
It's big, it's heavy, it's wood.
It's log, it's log, it's better than bad, it's good."

Everyone wants a log
You're gonna love it, log
Come on and get your log
Everyone needs a log
log log log

*whistle*
LOG FROM BLAMMO

Friday, December 01, 2006

Download of the Day: Any Video Converter

The program supports just about every video format known to man, including AVI, DivX, FLV, RM, and VOB. It also comes with output profiles for devices like the iPod and PSP, though you can easily create a custom profile with the audio and video specs of your choosing.

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Not enough fish in the sea

3. What is the state of fishery resources?

3.1 The quantities fished in seas and oceans increased from 1998 to 2000, and stabilized at a slightly lower level since 2001 (84 million tonnes). This slight decrease is mainly due to lower catches in the Southeast and Northwest Pacific, but trends vary greatly between regions. Tuna is the single most important exploited resource in the high seas, particularly in the Pacific Ocean. More...

3.2 In many areas, traditional stocks have been depleted and less valuable species are being targeted by fishers. About half of all monitored stocks are now fully exploited and another quarter are overexploited, depleted, or slowly recovering. The remaining quarter are under- or moderately exploited. Available data leads to the conclusion that the global maximum potential for marine capture fisheries has been reached and that restrictive management measures are needed. More...

3.3 Fishery policies and management have usually focussed on single fishery stocks. Growing concerns about ecosystems have prompted a call for increased research into processes that affect, or are affected by, fisheries. Much more needs to be known about interactions with habitats, aquatic communities, land-based activities, climatic changes, and so on. However, the current state of fishery resources and their ecosystems allows little room for delay in management actions that should have been taken in the last three decades. More...

3.4 Fish stocks in inland waters are more difficult to monitor and very few countries can afford to supply complete data. Inland fishery resources are often undervalued and under threat from unsustainable fishing activities as well as from habitat alteration or degradation. Many river basins, especially in developing countries, support intensive fisheries, and in many cases catches are increasing. Inland fish are considered to be the most threatened group among all the vertebrates used by humans. Nevertheless, efforts have been made in many areas to enhance fish stocks in inland waters. More...

 

Start with a charity in your own backyard.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

nepalese backwhack

nepalese backwhack is a Google Whack. I dug this one up on my 3rd try, right after I finished watching Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure, probably the funniest video I have seen in a long time.

Dave Gorman, whose 15 minutes of fame include trying to track down all the Dave Gormans in the world and meet up with them, decides to take on a bet by his friend, also Dave Gorman, to start a chain. It would be a chain of Googlewhacking that would take him around the world a few times, spending his book publishers advances on a quest to get 2 Googlewhacks from every Googlewhacker.

All these mentions of Google whacking should either get me banned or put me in the first page of search results on Google.

Here's a link to his book that I will probably try and pick up soon.

Another book Amazon suggests customers ultimately buy after viewing this item is:
8% buy The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A. J. Jacobs $11.20

So instead of buying Dave's book, they picked up AJ Jacobs? I really enjoyed his book, it was another one of those quirky, hilarious, idiotic but strangely purposeful reads. AJ decides to go about reading the dictionary, turning it into an obsession and ultimately a book.

I think I have a similar obsessive personality trait to these two... at one point early this year I was asking everyone I knew 3 ways they thought they could get rich. This was most likely because of the books I was buying at the time: Pay Yourself First, Grow Rich Slowly, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Eat The Rich, and Homemade Money (not a book on counterfeiting) to name a few.

Most people suggested playing the lottery, marrying wealth, or selling real estate. Since I was married and didn't own any real estate, the answer was to buy lotto tickets. I didn't go crazy and spend all my money on quickpicks and scratch 'n wins, but I did use some of my pocket change to pick up tickets on a regular basis. How much did I win?

$3 I think.

I didn't measure how much I lost, which really didn't matter to me that much. It was the fact that so many people think the lotto was the way to gain wealth, and it isn't.

Another obsession of late has been the stock market, which is the king of all gambles. Like the casinos, banks and brokeragehouses all have the upper hand and whether you win or lose they will make money. It is only when you step away from the table that they really do lose.

According to Wikipedia, the source of all knowledge, "Gambling offers the near-certainty of completely losing the original stake over the long term, even if it offers regular wins along the way."

The "get rich slowly" way, according to all the other books I have read that don't have "rich" in the title is this:

Start your own business
Work hard
Fail, sometimes many times
Get noticed
Become successful.

This seemed to play out well for those with the Youtube view of things. Youtube probably would have been sued into Napster oblivion if it hadn't been for Google coming by with a chunk of change. Google set the trend and opened the coiffers of many venture capitalists who were once-bitten twice-shy about the dot com craze.

Quoting from the story Google's Abject Failure

"In its 21-month life, YouTube has created value at the rate of $80 million dollars a month, sending every venture capitalist and smart kid searching for the "next big thing" in Web 2.0 "

November has seen a huge amount of Web 2.0 sites trying to capitalize on the craze. Remember the Million Dollar Homepage? There's a bunch of copycats. One red paperclip? There's Swapace. Web 2.0?

Well, what really is Web 2.0, but Web 1.0 with less clicks? Youtube's success was probably moving the play button from the toobar to the middle of the screen. The television's success was the remote. The computer's success was the mouse.

Simplification of great ideas and bringing them to life could be the way to success.

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

New Rules

New Rule: When I ask how old your toddler is, I don't need to know in months. "27 Months." "He's two," will do just fine. He's not a cheese. And I didn't really care in the first place.

All right, New Rule: If you forgot to buy Halloween candy, just say so. Don't hand out random crap from your kitchen. Last year, there was a guy on our block who was handing out batteries and mini-packets of soy sauce. I got so pissed, I had half a mind to poke him in the eye with my fairy wand. [photo-shopped photo of Maher in fairy costume]

-- Bill Maher

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Scott Adams gets his voice back

, while helping on a homework assignment, I noticed I could speak perfectly in rhyme. Rhyme was a context I hadn’t considered. A poem isn’t singing and it isn’t regular talking. But for some reason the context is just different enough from normal speech that my brain handled it fine.

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick.
Jack jumped over the candlestick.

Darwin Search

This site contains every Darwin publication as well as many of his handwritten manuscripts. All told there are more than 50,000 searchable text pages and 40,000 images. There is also the most comprehensive Darwin bibliography ever published and the largest manuscript catalogue ever assembled. More than 150 ancillary texts are also included, ranging from reference works to contemporary reviews, obituaries, descriptions of Darwin's Beagle specimens and important works for understanding Darwin's context. Free audio mp3 versions of his works are also available.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Name your lane in Toronto

http://www.newmindspace.com/nameyourlane/step2.php

Choosing a Name
The city has prepared an informational document on choosing a name for a street or lane called Street naming/renaming. Its contents are summarized here.

Acceptable Names
In general, street names should reflect local history or the environment. This means honouring great Torontonians, remembering events from local history, celebrating diversity or reflecting local plants and animals.
Certain names are unacceptable, including names that are duplicates or similar to existing streets, offensive and advertising. If you cannot think of a name, we have prepared a short list of street names. The City Surveyor also keeps a list of proposed names on file. You may also consider visiting the Toronto Archives (255 Spadina Rd.) for names of important Canadians or events.

Street Type Designation
The following are recommended when considering what kind of street it is.

Street, Avenue, Road, Boulevard - for major thoroughfares or streets of several blocks in length
Drive, Trail, Way - for streets which are winding or curved
Terrace, Gardens, Grove, Pathway, Heights - for minor or short streets
Lane, Mews, Close - for narrow streets generally used for service
Crescent - for streets which form a crescent
Court, Place - for cul-de-sacs
Circle - for streets that are circular
Gate - for a short street that provides an entrance to a subdivision
Square - for streets that form part of a square
You may also choose North, South, East, West and Upper & Lower if it is appropriate.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

World Map of Innovation

This is a Google maps mashup of Alexa traffic.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Wynn elbows away $139 million

"Smack in the middle ... was a black hole the size of a silver dollar. 'Oh s---,' he said. 'Look what I've done. Thank goodness it was me.'"

Monday, October 02, 2006

Is Google a God?

Google raises my IQ around 15-20%. Consistently people ask me questions that I would answer with a few key hacking terms against Google.

Windows bluescreen? search for site:microsoft.com BSOD
MP3s? search for filetype:mp3 hendrix (blogsearch.google.com of course!)
Video? video.google.com
What is the population of Tuva? Google "wiki Tuva Feynman"
How much is a stock? Google "YHOO"
What car shouldn't I buy? Google misled

Now you just burn out on knowing the answer to everything. This is what God must be like knowing everything. How many times have I been in a restaurant and wanted to clap my hands and have Google come down from ceiling and solve an argument?

Is Google a God

And why isn't Yahoo considered as smart?

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Hard to find 800 Numbers




Google.com (we have been unable
to reach a live human at Google. If you have, let us know how!)
650-253-0000



866-246-6453
Main switchboard



Advertising
Press 5 for cust. service or technical help. Good luck finding
a live human :)

Monday, August 21, 2006

Top 50 Brunch Stops in TO

NOW names T.O.'s top 50 brunch joints, from cheap to chic, plus the five best dim sum spots, our fave all-day breakfasts and four more great places to satisfy your mid-morning to late-afternoon cravings.

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Voltron on Robot Chicken

Voltron

Mama packed a sack lunch,
Mama gave a juice box...