Saddam spectacle, fringe economy, apple suits, back taxes

Last post of 2006! Hope you all have a fun and safe New Year's celebration!
A few items to read when you have the day off work tomorrow:

• Saddam execution shown on tv and web (links to a story about this; I'm not linking to any execution footage). I hope I'm not the only one that finds this absolutely horrendous. I will not be looking for this footage. I don't care what you thought of him, I think it is disturbing that anyone would want to watch footage of someone dying. It is vengeful thinking or extreme morbid curiosity. For it to be shown on CNN and Fox is no better, in my opinion, then terrorists floating around videos of killing captives. (And yes, I know those were available on the web too, and that people here would want to watch that makes me sick.) The trial and fact he was executed is certainly news, but that can be covered adequately without showing this footage. I fear it is only a few years before real executions are part of America's reality tv culture. Time to rebuild the Coliseum for gruesome entertainment!
  
• Millions living in America's "fringe economy". Read this if you get a chance, because it was fascinating and sad. It is amazing to think about how much money these people are losing, just in order to survive. It also will further divide the rich from the poor in this country.
• Apple facing more lawsuits: Is iTunes/iPod an illegal monopoly? Does the iBook G4 logic board fail at an unusually high rate? Does the Nike/iPod infringe on patents? Stay tuned in 2007 for the exciting answers!
• Mystery billionaire pays $200M in CA back taxes, almost single-handedly closing their revenue shortfall. That's a lot of tax, and my question is how did the state not know someone owed $200 million?
  

Tough job, expiring leader, apple options

Here's a few more links for you:

• Think your job is bad? This guy was arrested for barring his employees from leaving, under feeding them, and arranging beatings. But what is the health insurance like?
• Saddam to be hanged by Sunday. Or one of his many look-alikes will be hung. Hmmm.
• Questions raised in Apple stock options. But then they gave the investigator iPods and no one cared anymore.
  

Ford, fees, finds, fun, fleece

Happy Holidays! I hope your holidays are going well; mine have been great!
Here's a few quick links for you to browse while finishing off the Christmas cookies:

• President Gerald Ford passed away this week. The link goes to various quotes from the former president.
• Might be a bit late for your holiday travels, but it's worth reviewing the 35 most outrageous fees (and how to avoid them).
• As we reach the close of 2006, what have we learned? 50 things we know now that we didn't know at the same point in 2005.
• At ROXIK, there is a cool interactive drag-and-drop people in the wind thing. (Better to see than to take my feeble description.)
• Lastly, a couple of fun looking projects at Instructables:
• Customizable fleece hats for the cold winters ahead.
• Low cost illuminated signage for your leftover Christmas lights.
  

Eragon

Tonight, I went to the movie Eragon. I've not read the book, but thought it looked to be OK based on the commercials. It is maybe geared for a slightly younger audience (as long as they like a little blood and violence). The effects are alright, but I noticed something early on about the plot.

At this point, I will reveal a lot of spoilers, so stop reading if you don't want to know.

Eragon is Star Wars.
Please see the following plot summary that applies to both movies:

• The knights rule peacefully until one betrays them and ends up wiping them all out.
• A princess steals something that belongs to the head bad guy.
• The thing ends up in the hands of a small town farm boy.
• The farm boy meets up with a mysterious stranger with a noble past.
• The farm boy realizes he might have a destiny.
• The bad guys (technically the ruling empire) kill the farm boy's uncle.
• The farm is burned down.
• The farm boy and the mysterious old, oh let's say knight/wizard, go on the run.
• The knight/wizard helps the farm boy learn to tap into his magical powers.
  
• They are looking to meet up with the rebels.
• They take a detour to save the princess from the bad guys' stronghold.
• The older knight/wizard is fatally wounded and dies during this.
• They are helped by a scoundrel with a shady past, but ultimately a good heart.
• The farm boy, princess, and scoundrel meet up with the rebels.
• The rebels and bad guys fight.
• The farm boy plays the critical role that wins them the fight. This involves fancy flying and trusting in yourself.
  

The evil king lives on for the next movie, and I will cringe if we find out he is the farm boy's real father. Sorry, I suppose I should have also included a Star Wars spoiler warning for you as well.

It wasn't a terrible movie (not nearly as good as when it was Star Wars, of course), but the pacing was bad. Everything happened so fast that you never really cared about any of them, and never felt that it was even remotely believable (for a movie about dragons and magic, that is).

Ageless turtles, coicidence, bad hack, vacuum shoes

Hi, just a few items for you today:

• Turtles may be immortal. Bow before the might of Turtle!
• 15 strange coincidences. Includes that tired Lincoln/Kennedy one. The others are interesting, but I wonder how many are just urban myth or stories.
• Logic bomb backfires on hacker and costs him $23,000. Well thought out, sir.
• Electrolux unveils "vacuum shoes" concept. Great, how am I supposed to walk under the coffee tables?
  

Country quiz, seven wonders, scams, txting

Here's a few items for the day:

• World geography quiz; a cool little test that I unfortunately did not do as well at as I'd hoped.
• The Seven Wonders of every US State, of the ones I looked at there are a lot of not so impressive wonders.
• Keep your eyes open for the top 10 scams of the year. I guess I take for granted that some of these scams would be obviously suspicious to most people, but apparently a lot of money is lost to them.
• Text messaging blamed for bad English. I'm totally fine with texting where appropriate, but I think it is disappointing that people can't write more formally, IMHO.
  

Food safety, nullity, scary mary, scrubs Christmas

Hi, here's some things to look at:

• Nine people get food poisoning at a buffet at a food handling training conference. I suppose that's one way to train. Kind of like letting your kid touch the hot pot on the stove. They won't do it again (and may need medical attention).
• A computer scientist has solved the age old "divide by zero" problem by inventing a new "number" called "nullity". So dividing anything by 0 results in nullity. Wait, how does this solve anything? I agree with one comment poster that divide by zero isn't a computer "problem", it is an exception and the problem is if the programmer didn't handle it correctly. Also, I need more things "in quotes".
  
• I don't browse a lot of YouTube (usually finding things from external links instead), but occasionally there's some good things out there. Like this clever recut of Mary Poppins footage to make it looks like a horror movie "Scary Mary".
• Or, this clip of the Charlie Brown Christmas redubbed by the cast of Scrubs. Ha!

Healthy states, evd, gadget bag, lottery prank, player displays

Hello, new collection of items for you today:

• Hey, I'm in the healthiest state in the union! I'm sure Whitmarshall is greatly influencing that rating.
• Can't decide between Blu-ray and HD-DVD? Just wait for the EVD format when China takes over the world.
• I don't need this at all but thought it was a cool idea: Elekson's keyboard/gadget bag.
• If you were thinking about creating a fake winning lottery ticket as a prank, don't.
• Pitch speed meters, digital line markers, the glowing FOX hockey puck? All ancient technology. What's next? Electroluminescent displays on player uniforms.
  

Trivia, vista, digestion, ps4, riddles, hamster

Hello! Here are a few interesting things to take up your time:

• 50 Things Everyone Should Know (or 50 useless, but mildly interesting facts). It is a nice list of trivia, and since I found it on the Internet, I can only guess that some of it might be true.
• Why Vista might be the last of its kind. An interesting perspective on Microsoft Vista (versus Google tools and such). The thing I found most amazing in the article was that it took Microsoft 10,000 employees for 5 years to create Vista! Wow!
• Can't finish that last bit of food? You can put it in the digestive table, which is simultaneously neat and gross.
• I haven't gone for a Sony PS3 yet, but why bother now that they've announced the PS4 will be available shortly (in 2010)?
  

Site of the day:

Weff Riddles - a very fun and challenging web puzzle path. It was refreshing how clever it is even though it is very low-tech.

And just for fun, here's a clever and cute YouTube video of a live action hamster video game:

Seven wonders

Hello!
Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I haven't been really motivated to post due to the extremely low readership of this blog. If you are reading and like it, spread the word!

Anyway today I took a look at the New 7 Wonders site. The idea here is that since only one of the original seven wonders of the world still stands (Great Pyramids), that they are going to vote in seven new wonders. The list is down to 21 candidates, and you can vote via the site or phone until July. I think this is a cool idea, but what I'd really love is if they started rebuilding/restoring the original seven wonders. Who wouldn't want to visit the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? In general, I think the world has a vast shortage of Colossi, as it is.

Tolerance, maps, polls

Happy November to you!

I ran across this interesting site recently, Tolerance.org's Active Hate Groups Map. It lets you see the locations of known hate organizations in the US. Interesting, but sad. It is especially sad to see the sheer number of active groups around. With as much education and information that is out there today, it is still shocking that people here in the US can hold such hateful opinions of other people for cultural, religious, racial, or historical differences.

Regardless of the content, the Hate Group Map is a good use of map technology on the web. A recent Lifehacker post lists the top ten (non-Google) map innovations. While I am not a hardcore map nut, I do like to check out map technologies and mashups occasionally. I also do like the Flickr geotagging feature quite a bit.

And another good map use for the link of the day:

Pollster.com - See the latest political poll results on a map. A great way to see the standing of current races.

Check it out and then remember to vote on November 7th!

Stay the buzzphrase, lottery odds, regifting, elemental

Odds and ends today:

Bush says we've never said 'stay the course' in Iraq, but this blog article lists six other times when he's said exactly that.
I don't care what politician it is, but they all seem to have a very short memory and a completely oblivious attitude to what they've said in the past, even if it has been recorded.

It pays to work for the lottery as Ontario lottery insiders have a unusually high proportion of wins. From the article:

The odds that the 214 insiders who claimed major prizes — $50,000 or more — since 1999 won as a result of pure luck, is one in a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, said University of Toronto professor Jeffrey Rosenthal, who conducted the analysis.

The City of Chesapeake asks for chesapeake.com domain name for almost ten years. The tech company that owns the domain eventually decides to give it to the city for free. So what does the city do? Sell it to a company for $120,000, of course! That just seems a little inconsiderate, like selling your Christmas gifts for a profit.

For the science fans out there (and who isn't?): the Periodic Table gets a makeover into a new "spiral" design. Gee, I know it will change my life.

Site of the day:

Mrs. Dewey - a prototype search engine/avatar. Not all that practical yet, but I thought this was a neat glimpse at maybe some future search engine possabilities.

Full time, crazy court, crazy defendant

Hello there! A few short news stories:

Ask Yahoo!: How did 40 hours become "full time"? What? 40 hours is full time? I generally work more than that! I know there are a lot of people that gripe if they have to work much more, but when you look back historically to times when 60 or 70 was the norm, we've got it pretty good today.

Briton accused of killing a cabbie has execution delayed in Pakistan due to Prince Charles visit. Here's the part I found scary: the guy was assaulted by the cabbie and killed him in self defense, he was cleared by the courts, but the Islamic Court still imposed a death sentence on him.

Man presents defense in his murder case. The defendant shot a man in the back of the head, torched the body, cut off the head, threw it in a river, burned the man's store, and lied about even being involved. His brilliant plan now? Plead not guilty because it was self-defense. Let's see how well that works for him.

World food

Hello! Been a few days since posts, as I've been having a lot of long nights (and some early mornings) at work lately due to problems and last minute emergencies. Otherwise, I was also out of town this weekend, once again at the World Food Festival in Des Moines, IA. A little chillier than last year, but a good time. There were more vendors there (see the web link for more details) this year, but unfortunately my stomach was smaller than my ambition, so I didn't sample all that much. I did however have:

• Chicken Curry over Steamed Rice, Crab Rangoons - from Cafe Fuzion (Asian non-specific)
• Pork Pupusa with cole slaw - from Pupusas de El Salvador
• (also sampled a Canoa from this same place)
• A sample of hummus - from Saloo's India

All very good, and it makes me wish whitmarshall had a little more variety in restaurants.

Site of the day:

The Pumpkin Lady - a whole bunch of pumpkin patterns for your jack o lanterns.

Vanishing cursive, assaulting language

I didn't write earlier this week as it was a bad one at work. I actually worked through the night Tuesday on an issue we had, then was back around noon Wednesday. Long nights at work is a tiring ordeal, but thankfully it isn't all that frequent for me.
The long work hours seemed even longer since it was early autumn when I started, and we had snow when it ended! We had snow on the ground this morning. I can't believe it is already here.

Some stories for the day:
Cursive writing is being forgotten. 15% of SAT essays were written in cursive handwriting in 2006. A lot of schools are scaling back or dropping instruction in cursive as more and more computer use takes its place.
Quote from one of the teachers in the article:

"I can't think of any other place you need cursive as an adult other than to sign your name," she said. "Cursive -- that is so low on the priority list, we really could care less. We are much more concerned that these kids pass their SOLs [standardized tests], and that doesn't require a bit of cursive."

I think this is sad because it feels like a good skill is vanishing. Cursive writing is faster for note taking (and there will always be times when you don't have a keyboard to write with), and it helps with cognitive development. According to the article, kids instructed in cursive end up better able to express thoughts. So, I certainly hope this trend turns around.

In other news, watch out what you say to VP Cheney! According to this story, this man was arrested for "assault" for calmly telling Cheney "Your policies in Iraq are reprehensible." I would hope that is not true, but it wouldn't be the first report of someone being arrested for a peaceful expression of opinion against the administration.

Nightmare dream homes, monopoly, xbox blogging

It's official. TV Dream Homes are a nightmare. I've read stories about "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" houses where the community has had to pitch in afterwards to help the family pay for the property taxes and such, then the linked article is about an HGTV Dream Home sweepstakes house that is driving the winning family to financial ruin. You watch those shows and are wowwed by the homes and think the people are so lucky, but no one things about the electric/utility costs, the maintenance costs, the property taxes, etc. To be fair, I think the family in this article has a lot to blame on themselves (why keep making payments on the old house, why spend so much on gifts and entertaining, why the heck does a two adult family need seven cars??? It is more of issue with people owning a million dollar house thinking they need to live like millionaires as well.).

Maybe you are better off winning the McDonald's Monopoly game. If that is your plan, here is a guide to the game pieces, including which ones are rare vs common.

My XBox 360 is now writing its own blog. Weird? Yes. But I thought it was a neat little service available from 360Voice. For the most part, you'll be able to read how I'm neglecting my game console.

Link of the day:

10 Reasons People Make Stupid Decisions - a list to reflect on to help you make wise decisions.

A secret letter, war, online communication

Here are a few items for today:
A very candid and interesting Secret Letter from Iraq is circulating, and it gives a great, sometimes moving, perspective of a Marine officer who is there. It is refreshing in that it isn't full of the spin that all of the politicians try to put on this war, and it makes you really feel for the heroes that are putting their lives at risk for our country. It is very much worth your time to read.

In a much more politically charged piece, Keith Olbermann about to be wiretapped and arrested. Okay, I made that headline up, but this is a very critical opinion piece claiming President Bush is focusing more on his enemies the Democrats instead of his enemies the terrorists. I take any commentator's opinion pieces with a grain of salt, but there are some good points in there too.

The Internet is dying! Some youth rethinking online communications. I posted this because 1) good points about the value of online relationships versus face to face, and 2) it is from my alma mater Iowa State University.

And in the ironic story of the day: Veteran actor dies unexpectedly on stage in a play in which he portrays a character that dies unexpectedly. Ironic in the sad sense, I suppose, but at least he went out doing what he loved.

Site of the day:

Make: - it's in my Links section, but in case you missed it there, this is a good site for people that mod, hack, craft, make, and like to know how things work.

Witch infiltration

In a followup to the earlier post about book banning, here's another recent similar story. A Georgia mother wants to ban the Harry Potter books from her childrens' school because the books are evil and encourage children to practice witchcraft and to be Wiccans. I've read the books and I know I've certainly been more encouraged in the black arts! Sheesh. The school's response is that using the criteria to ban the Potter books would also lead them to ban Cinderella, The Wizard of Oz, Lord of the Rings, Alice in Wonderland, Chronicles of Narnia, and others. OK, good point. I would say in the Potter books, the lead child characters have a much more active magical life and participation than in many of the others cited.
Again, I think this is a case of making sure that you've helped your kids understand real v. fiction. These books are fun to read and so they encourage reading, and thus they should be encouraged.

Hey, did you watch the 'Lost' season premiere last night? If not, why the heck not?!

Link of the day:

Top 15 Movie Mistakes - I question that some of these qualify as the 'top' mistakes, but a neat list nonetheless. Caution: some pictures from Harry Potter movies!

These are the days of our lives

Who needs daytime soaps? The Rep. Mark Foley scandal has become one, rivaling that of the Anna Nicole Smith soap opera saga. If you're keeping track, Foley sent a bunch of inappropriate emails and instant messages to male teenage pages (all while being co-chair of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children), was found out, originally blamed it on a campaign smear, resigned, blamed it on alcoholism, now admits he's gay, and now blames it on being molested by Catholic priests when he was a child, leading to controversy in what Republican leaders knew about it and when, and now leading to some of those leaders suggesting that House Speaker Hastert should resign based on his handling of the scandal.
(take a breath...)
And as for the more tragic, and more unusual Smith case: she marries a 89 year old oil tycoon who dies a year later, is wrapped up in legal wrestling over the estate, has a baby girl, three days later her 20 year old son dies from an accidental lethal combo of medicines, 18 days later she marries her lawyer who says he's the father of the girl, her ex-boyfriend pipes up that he is the father and files a lawsuit for a DNA test and for the baby to be tested for drugs (what the?).
Well. Have you ever watched a movie and been disgusted with the plot because "that's ridiculous, nothing like that could ever happen in real life", "that's just too unbelievable and unrealistic", etc.? I'm probably pretty bad about picking apart movies like this, but current events these days are quickly shattering my ability to do so. If some strange connection between Foley and Smith surfaces in the next few weeks, I'll have to conclude that reality really is much stranger than fiction.

Like of the day:

FactCheck.org - I've posted it before, but with campaign season heating up, I thought I'd list this political fact check site again. Good resource.

Burn that book!

Good day to you!
Parent asking school to ban "Fahrenheit 451" from reading course. He's suggesting replacing it with books about Irony and Not Getting The Point.
OK, I made that last sentence up, but still you have to appreciate the request to remove a book that is about, among other things, a world where reading books is banned and thought is discouraged. Maybe the parent misunderstood and thought they'd be watching "Fahrenheit 911" at school.
I think "Fahrenheit 451" is a great read and gets you thinking about freedom of speech and expression, critical thought, and even technology and apathy. I do understand that it may not be appropriate for any age, but can't see how it would be much of a problem for high school sophomores. They had some religious based complaints as well, but I think that if reading a book will do that much damage to your beliefs, then maybe you don't really understand your own beliefs that well. So, I'm not sure that this was a very enlightened request. Especially considering this quote:

"It's just all kinds of filth," said Alton Verm, adding that he had not read "Fahrenheit 451." "The words don't need to be brought out in class. I want to get the book taken out of the class."

Link of the day:

Better Fonts - 10,000 free fonts. Everyone needs more fonts.

War, decisions, denial, quotes, widgets

We're having a beautiful weekend here, so I'm starting to prep the yard for fall. Trimmed all the bushes yesterday, and with all the traffic at the yard dump it looks like a lot of other people had the same idea. Need to get to my garden yet; maybe I'll wait a week on that. The vegetables didn't really survive some of the earlier cold nights, but a lot of the flowers still look OK.
Some links:

• Maps of War has an interesting animation that shows 5000 years of Middle East control in 90 seconds.
• Perhaps Rock, Paper, Scissors would be a good alternative to war. We could use this guide on how to win at it.
• I thought President Bush came from the state of Texas, but maybe it was the State of Denial. I don't know; I mainly posted this as an excuse to link to the top ten Bushisms (some with audio and video).

And my link of the day:

Widgetbox - a great collection of widgets for your website or blog.

Whitmarshall Celebration Day

Hey, it's my birthday!
I had a pretty good day. Co-workers took me out for lunch, team members gave me balloons and candy, a friend baked me a cake; all good birthday things. I went to a semi-nearby casino this evening to try out their birthday money booth (you stand in it for 20 seconds and try to catch bills and slip them through a small slot). I got $15, which I proceeded to lose on their lousy slot machines. I don't think I'll do this again. I was carefully examining the booth and it was probably 90% ones, a smattering of fives, and I saw only one ten. In the past, I went and caught a twenty and generally saw better bills. Plus, now they require that you have a casino membership card and you gamble there at least 6 times over the year, or they won't let you do the birthday booth again.

Here's my link of the day:

Baby Toupee - Just what it sounds like. What a wonderfully unusual idea!

Terror intelligence, sci-fi cliches, toast art, not time travel, hand shake, not your photos

Hello, here's a handful of links for you to browse:

• Global terror intelligence report declassified and released. Does not give a rosy picture of the Iraq war effects. But then, it was a war after all.
• Sci-fi themes that should be retired. Anonymous crewmen killed by monster not on the list. Maybe for part 2.
• Toast art. Underrated?
• Grandmother gives birth to own grandson. Be prepared for disappointment. Turns out she was a surrogate. When I saw the headline, I thought maybe time travel was involved.
• The Time Curtain. Again, big time travel let-down. But it is a cool clock thing.
• Exchange info with a shake of the hand. Know what would be neat? A little paper card with your business info on it to exchange with others.
• The Blind Camera is a neat idea for taking other people's photos. Especially if you take really boring photos.
  

Changing the design (again)

Sorry for the mess. I decided that I never really liked the previous look of my site, so I'm working on something new again.
Not quite there yet, and it is a bit frustrating when the preview looks different than the published site, and I can hit Refresh several times in a row and get several different alignments, font sizes, and layouts....

Contractor deaths, csi props?, ijeans, super fish

Cold today here. A bit rainy. What happened to summer?
Links:

• Contractors sue over deaths in Iraq. Think about that when you think your job is bad.
• Body washes up on set of CSI. Second dead body found near a CSI show set. Now I question how they do their research for the show.
• Levi's iPod Jeans. Now that just seems excessive.
• Fish used to detect terror attacks. And they're also delicious.
  

Gas prices, soda pop, wii, zune, outrage, nay ney, spinach

Links:

• Complaining about gas prices? You are actually paying lower in real terms than gas in 1980. So there.
• I call it "pop", but "soda" is fine with me. I don't understand why anyone would call it all "coke" when it is not Coke, but here is a generic names for soft drinks by county map so at least I know what to call it to fit in.
• Nintendo Wii available November 20 for $250. Still no word on availability of the Nintendo They.
• I am liking this new iTunes 7, but more news is breaking this week about the Microsoft Zune. I don't think I'll replace my iPod anytime soon, but here are a couple stories on the Zune for you:
• Microsoft releases new details on Zune.
• Zune details and thoughts wrap-up.
• Muslims furious with the Pope. Aw, and they had been getting along so well.
• Rep. Bob Ney pleads guilty in Abramoff probe. But he had been saying he was not guilty all this time? Does this mean he was lying?
• E coli outbreak in bagged spinach. Children cheer and say "told you so".
  

Blogger bugs, free furniture, swim teacher, speeches, apple news

I used the wrong font in last time's post, but can't correct it. I've been having trouble with Blogger recently where it doesn't let me edit past posts (just get a blank editor screen). Don't know if anyone else is having that issue.

Today's news:

• Furniture store offered deal of free furniture if the Bears shut out the Packers, and guess what? It happened. They are honoring the promotion. The article says that insurance will cover the $300,000 loss (not sure how that works).
• Want to learn to swim without getting wet? Try this old mechanical swimming teacher.
• Bush accused of using 9/11 speech for political reasons. He is a politician, so how is this different from any other speech?
• Apple unveiled several new products/services today including movie sales on iTunes, game sales on iTunes, new incremental iPod releases, and a smaller iPod Shuffle (careful to not lose it!). Also some mention of their new iTV product coming later. I got the new version of iTunes today and it has some cool new features. I'll have to play with it some more to see if it is more than eye candy (or iCandy, as it were) additions.
  

Fall, footboall, lost, ilium and olympos

Wow, it is chilly here. And rainy. And very un-summer-like. Fall has fallen. I actually spent part of the day watching pro football (didn't really plan it, but got kind of sucked into the season starting games). I'm sure there will very soon be a post over at Kahn's Korner about the Bears destruction of the Packers.
Otherwise, fellow Losties need to be sure to pick up Season 2 on DVD (available last week) if you haven't already.

I'm starting my rewatching of the season now.

As far as books go, I'm not quite done reading the second one yet, but I recommend "Ilium" and "Olympos" if you're in the mood for something very different. This set includes almost everything from the Trojan War and Greek gods, Shakespearean characters, cyborgs from Jupiter, little green men, human cloning, and quantum mechanics. It seems like a ton of stuff (that's not even related) to pack into a couple books, but it all comes together nicely and seems to make sense.

Labor day, cfl bulbs, star wars comparison

Happy Labor Day weekend, everyone!
In the last post, I linked to a story about Wal-Mart pushing compact fluorescent bulbs to their customers. Shortly after that, I ran across this story about ten reasons why CFLs will change the world. I've been using a few (older ones) for a couple years now, so I decided to start switching out my other incandescent bulbs for CFLs.
Sure enough, our Wal-Mart had bulb displays in other areas (like the grocery side of the store), but they had regular incandescents right along with the CFLs; how does that sway customers to the CFL?
As an aside, our Wal-Mart has 20 some checkout lanes, but I never see more than 5 manned, so I always have to wait in line. That is, unless I use the self-checkout. But the thing I don't understand is that usually half or more of the self-checkouts are also turned off. What's the deal? Did the self-checker call in sick? Is this the case at all Wal-Marts? (I've never seen the checkout lanes more than half staffed at our Shopko or K-Mart either.)

Anyway, here's a time waster for you this weekend: This month, the 2004 Special Edition of Star Wars: A New Hope (Episode IV) is being released on DVD with the original 1977 version as a bonus disc. Here is a scene by scene comparison showing the differences. Many are obvious, but there are a lot that are subtle.

Hot gas, geotag, vista, bulbs, blu, open mic, music

Here's some new stuff for you!

• Hot gas costs us money. Basically, gas expands when it is hot, so you may be getting slightly (very slightly) less than you pay for if you pump in the heat of the day.
• I haven't checked it out yet, but the new Flickr geotagging feature looks kinda cool.
• Hey, you can already preorder Windows Vista on Amazon. Yikes, the Ultimate version will cost you 400 bucks!
• Wal-Mart to start major push on compact fluorescent bulbs. Actually, that sounds like a good idea.
• Still more troubles for Blu-Ray.
• CNN anchor Kyra Phillips leaves her mic on in the bathroom during live President Bush speech. Boy, there is going to be one uncomfortable family get together after this one. Funny though:

I've been listening to the new The Panic Channel - (ONe) CD lately, and it is very good. I actually checked it out after watching "Rockstar: Supernova", and while I probably won't listen much to Supernova, I'm glad it directed me to The Panic Channel.
Main CDs currently on the rotation for me:








(OK, I don't really have the St. Elsewhere CD, but "Crazy" is one of my most listened to songs at the moment.)

Wrong thoughts, cat wheel, big photo, k-fed strikes

Getting a quick post in before the "Treasure Hunters" finale tonight. Some stuff to look at:

• Ten most commonly thought things that are wrong. And from the comments to this post, the list may be wrong itself. (And I am not the Brian W that posted a comment.)
• It works for hamsters, but a running wheel for cats?
• The Legacy Project creates the world's largest photograph. Darn, so I need to get a new camera?
• Kevin Federline, why did we ever doubt thee? *Statement is dripping with sarcasm. (Caution: strong language in the comments.)
  

No call, new planets, nuclear beings, software, nyc lego

Ever since my hassles with PeoplePC's telemarketers, it seems like I'm getting a ton of telemarketer calls every day (like 4 or more); did it increase after I got after PeoplePC? Maybe I've just hit a point of frustration and am noticing them more. So, I finally broke down and registered myself on the National Do Not Call Registry.
But, in other news:

• As a follow up to last post's Pluto/planet story, looks like the new planet definition will open things up to more planets. Ceres, Charon, and Xena: welcome to the neighborhood.
• We've always known nuclear war would be bad. But now I am terrified to learn that it could create evil super human mutant overlords.
• I'd seen this a while ago, but it is still funny for software developers: a cartoon depicting how software development really works.
• This is cool: a New York City made of Legos.
  

Pluto status, gel ant farm, volcano tunes, game kit

Today's stories:

• Throw out your old textbooks, looks like Pluto may be reclassified as not a planet, or several other solar bodies will be classified as planets. I hope none of them contain hostile alien invaders.
• Even ants are getting more high tech, with this gel filled ant farm.
• Volcano music made by feeding seismographs into a MIDI interpreter. Of course! I would have thought of that!
• Microsoft to release cheap version of XBox 360 game development tools. You could make the next Tetris!
  

Rain, Talladega, 3d murals, human control, next gen dvd

Rain, rain, and rain. Thunderstorms last night, then rain this morning, and now it is raining as I write this. It's much better than the drought-like conditions we had earlier this summer, but now it is going a bit overboard with the water.
I saw Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby this weekend. It was one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time. The dialogue and interactions are hilarious. If you go to the Ricky Bobby website (from the link earlier), you can generate a NASCAR nickname and banner for your site. Here's mine:


In other stuff:

• Here are some amazing pictures of the 3D illusion murals of artist Eric Grohe. Even more can be found on his site.
• Scientists have figured out how to artificially control human walking and balance. Finally! I'm tired of doing all my own walking.
• HD-DVD or Blu-ray... is it possible that both are losers?
  

Foiled plot, security patches

Links:

• Well, the obvious big news item is the foiled airline terrorist plot today. Again, I hope you are not getting your main news from my site. Good job to those that caught this horrible plot before it could happen.
• I spent a late night at work Tuesday as we applied the latest round of Microsoft security patches. There are some very critical ones in there, so make sure you run your Windows Update. (Even the Homeland Security Department wants you to.)
  

Wired home network

Hello,
I just wired some network cable through my home yesterday, replacing my wireless network. I'd been having a hard time get a good signal (something was causing interference; possibly my furnace was in the way). Also, I think one of my neighbors is starting up their own wireless network as I had a laptop and a PC try to connect into mine, and my downstairs PC could find their network, but not my own. I figured it was time to wire in for it, as it would also give me better speed. I use my XBox 360 as a Media Center Extender, so the faster speed is better for video.
It was a more challenging task that I thought, the most frustrating of which was trying to figure out how to thread the cable from my upstairs office down through my utility room. Then I wanted especially to state that if you are in the need of wire staples (little brackets to nail wires and cables up in place), I highly, highly recommend staying far away from Leviton staples, which I bought for cheap at Wal-Mart. More than half of them broke as I was nailing them in.

New touch interface, mistaken mpg, Beruit devastation

Links for today:

• Please watch this fantastic presentation by Jeff Han at the TED conference. He demonstrates a new 'interface free' touch based system that is incredible.
• Cars on average 8% more fuel than they claim. But, hey, fuel's cheap, right?
• Amazing and sad satellite photo Before and After of Beruit.
  

Branson vacation photos

16 Kansas City Zoo - Tiger
Originally uploaded by Brian Whitmarsh.

I've made some of my KC/Branson vacation photos available on my Flickr account. Feel free to browse.

The tiger pictured here was basking in the heat at the Kansas City Zoo.

Dark Place, alien coverup, light art, questionable sources, rubber artillery, website dna

Taking a moment to post as I was all set to watch Garth Merenghi's Dark Place on Sci Fi (which was listed in the guide), but they had that lame "Ghost Hunters" show on instead. I saw "Dark Place" for the first time last week, and thought it was hilarious.
But instead, I post:

• Allegations of a SETI coverup. Did they indeed receive signals from aliens?
• Some cool light animations done with webcams and light pens.
• Where did that web video spoofing Al Gore come from? Wait, the Internet was used for devious purposes?!?
• I had a rubber band gun when I was a kid, but today, you can get plans for a rubber band machine gun. When will the escalation end?
• Would you like to see your website represented as human DNA? Not sure why you would, but there's a site that will do it for you.
• And I thought about posting an endless list of links about Mel Gibson's recent issue, but decided the mainstream media is covering that very much well enough.
  

Annoying PeoplePC, science, projects, furnishings, centaur, tmnt

I just recently finished an angry email to PeoplePC because their Contact Center has telemarketted me 3 times in the last two weeks. It is obviously an offshore Indian call center (which generally I don't have issues with; just when they are really bad like this one), though they all gave "American" names. I don't like it when they do this. It is belittling to them by having to use a fake name (especially when sometimes they have trouble pronouncing it) and everyone knows that they are lying. The first agent kept up even though I said "no" seven or eight times. I try to be respectful, so I took the time to explain why my 5MB cable model is better than the dial-up he was offering. He was not understanding me and trying to stick to the script, so he responded with "So is your main concern about tying up your phone line?".
The next call was after 8PM on a Sunday (not against the law to my knowledge, but I thought general courtesy of telemarketers is to avoid this time). I told the agent I already had a call and was not interested. She proceeded to tell me I was hasty in declining and was argumentative.
The third call was relatively straightforward; the agent said OK and goodbye after I said this was the third call.
I don't see how any company expects to do business like this, but it is getting more and more common.
Anyway, here are some unrelated links for me to browse while waiting for the inevitable fourth call:

• Could you pass 8th Grade Science? online quiz. I was a bit disappointed in how easy it was.
• Tired of paying Coca-Cola for their drink? Make your own Coca-Cola.
• Bleach Spritz Clothing looks to be an easy craft project for decorating old shirts. I may give this a try.
• I think of parabolic dishes for signal reception, but not as a parabolic lamp. This is an interesting idea.
• Redoing that living room? You might want the sensor embedded carpet that can guess shoe size, age, gender, and other characteristics of the person walking on it.
• Think the two wheeled Segway is not for you? You may like the 4 wheeled Segway Centaur concept.
• What you've been waiting for: trailer for the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles move. Wait... they're making a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles move?
  

Back from vacation in Branson

Well, I'm back! I visited fabulous Branson, MO, with a stop in Kansas City on the way. Today's links will be for some of the spectacular vacation fare that I experienced:

• Kansas City Zoo - Nice zoo, but not as fun when it is 105 degrees out.
• Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art - Very good museum. Got kicked out because they were closing.
• Silver Dollar City - Fun theme park. Not huge, but good variety. (On most of the rides: you will get wet!)
• Ripley's Believe It Or Not! Museum - full of great oddities.
• Titanic Museum - I thought it was a bit out of place in Branson, but it was very well done.
• Grand Country Square - Didn't stay at the hotel, but ate at the buffet and played the mini golf course.
• 57 Heaven (in Dick Clark's American Bandstand complex) - awesome collection of 1957 cars.
• Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede - horse show and singing, and a four course meal with no silverware.
• Hollywood Wax Museum - just creepy enough.
• The Track - go-karts and other rides.
  

Vacation

Well, I'll be heading out on a mini-vacation here soon, so no updates for a while.
See you in a bit!

Dancing around the world, open mic, clean bills, generous corps, cap magnets

So, what's new? Looks like I'm past the blistering heat here for the moment (over 100 degrees this weekend...fahrenheit, that is). Here are some links for you to read as you sit in your nice air conditioned space:

• If you haven't seen Matt Harding's Dancing Around The World videos, you really should. They are a little goofy, but also kind of touching. What a fun project to do!
• President Bush really needs to learn to be careful around open mics. Candid with some language.
• Two robbers misunderstand money laundering. I hope they used the right detergent.
• The nation's most generous corporations by charitable givings. Wal-Mart is number one? I thought they were supposed to be evil!
• Here's a simple craft project that's kind of neat: turn bottlecaps into magnets or thumbtacks.
  

Whitmarshall new look (and other stuff)

Sorry for the long stretch between updates. I've been working on a new design for the site (as you can see by now), but it took longer than I planned (and was difficult to find the time to work on it. There are still a few rough edges (like the alignment around the top), but I wanted to get it out there. I welcome any feedback on it!
In other news:

• Rare, mutant two-toned lobster caught. He's been immediately signed to be in "X-Men 4".
• RIAA loses a file sharing case. If only they would have downloaded a better legal argument.
  
• Google sends blogger aspirin after he writes a post entitled "Dear Google, You're Giving Me A Headache." Funny, but does this mean Google is reading everything on the web?
  
• This hilarious Darth Vader video on YouTube is one of the funniest things I've seen lately. The video author took Star Wars footage and dubbed in James Earl Jones lines from other movies. Genius.

And that is all the news there is for the day...err, except all that Israel/Hamas/Palestine/Lebanon/Hezbollah/Syria/Iran/North Korea/etc. stuff...

Censor, executive gift, payment pals, marios, msPod, KFed's good joke

Hello, here's some new links:

• Need to stay incognito? You need the Black bar 'censor' sunglasses.
• Nintendo sends Bush a birthday gift of a DS Lite and "Brain Age". Finally, a gift he can use. (By the way I have "Brain Age", and my brain age is currently 22!)
• eBay banning users from using Google Checkout as a form of payment. No self interest there.
• Very sweet animated gif of infinite Super Marios.
• Some new details of Microsoft's iPod killer have been released. Blue screen of death not listed.
  
• Kevin Federline insists his first song release was actually a joke all along. Yeah, we all believe that.
  

The Star Mangled Banner, annihilation, genuine spying

Hope you have a fun and safe Independence Day tomorrow. But before then, here are some links:

• With Independence Day comes the singing of "The Star Spangled Banner". Are you one of the two thirds of Americans that don't know all the lyrics to our National Anthem? I think the might change that just to Anthem. By the way, the last words are not "play ball" or "gentlemen, start your engines".
• And we can celebrate our Independence thinking about North Korea's threat of an 'annihilating strike' and 'nuclear war' in case they are pre-emptively attacked. Of course, I suppose that is only if we don't pre-emptively attack the couple nuclear bombs they have.
• I mentioned it last time, but here is another article about Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage spying on you.

New China, Genuine spyware, internets, struggling penny

Boy, it's been a while. I had much trouble at work this week, with some late nights working on issues. The last few days I've just been catching up on home stuff and trying to not do too much computery stuff. I saw Superman Returns the other day, and generally liked it. I thought it was a bit too long. This new guy does a lot in his performance that really makes you think of Christopher Reeve, and didn't really seem unnatural in any way. (Maybe I'll post a longer review later.)
In other news:

• More evidence that China discovered America. And this would be before Columbus... or it wouldn't be much of a story.
• Lawsuit says Windows Genuine Advantage anti-piracy software is spyware. I've noticed this thing (firewall catches it) trying to dial home several times a day. It is a bit annoying, and I've wondered exactly what it is trying to send.
• Senator Ted Stevens delivers brilliantly insane speech on why he voted as he did on the net neutrality subject.
• The penny may be on the way out due to it now costing 1.2 cents to make the 1 cent coin.
  

Long life (until the asteroid), ignoring the law, maglev frame, grill pizza, Digg

Here's some links for the day:

• We may one day live to be 1000. I don't know if I'll keep my blog up that whole time though.
• Half mile wide asteroid to pass by Earth on July 3. Bruce Willis readying his spaceship now.
• President Bush adds 'signing statements' to laws he signs to say that he can ignore them if he wants for national security purposes. Must have missed that whole "checks and balances" part in American History class.
• This magnetic levitation picture frame is pretty cool, but the $150 is a bit steep (cost when you add in the magnetic display unit).
• And this is a nifty tool: grill top pizza stone.
• I've mentioned it before, but Digg is a great social news site (the best, I think), and they've just gone live with version 3. Check it out for a good place to get top submitted stories.
  

Wireless troubles, future of Futurama, animations, the birds

I'm going to suggest avoiding D-Link routers. My Linksys burned out a few weeks back, so I went and bought a new wireless router and wireless adapter for my PC (I got the WBR-2310 router and the PCI adapter recommended to go with it. They have Rangebooster! and are supposed to get me up to 108 Mbps rates.) I'm having trouble with it.

• Firstly, my PC that is directly hooked to the router occasionally just loses internet access. A reset of the router or sometimes unplugging it or rebooting the PC is required to fix it.
  
• Secondly, my other PC (which is downstairs, probably about 30 - 40 ft away) gets a weak signal and will also lose the network.
  
• Thirdly, today some of my router settings were wiped out (including network name) so my other PC and XBox couldn't connect at all (this was possibly due to the router reseting and unplugging I've needed?).
  
• Lastly, and not really a product problem, I found out after the fact, that this router is not "certified" for the XBox 360, but I've generally been able to get it working so that may not be a big deal.

I called D-Link support today and after giving a ton of information, the guy had me make some router config changes to try and address the first issue. He didn't seem to even want to address the second and third (and I hadn't realized the settings were wiped out at the time of the call), saying we should try and fix one first. He gave me a case number and said I'll have to return the router to the place of purchase if the dropped connection issue continues (which is conveniently about 2 hrs away). I was not impressed with their tech support at all. If anyone reading has any ideas, please let me know.

In other news:

• Futurama returns! with all new episodes for Comedy Central.
• Visit this fun and clever animation of animator versus animation.
• Some other good animated shorts at Alan the Box. I haven't spent much time here yet, but found it from the "B & W Drama Theater 13" which I thought was funny.
• And while you're watching stuff, check out this amazing video of a flock of starlings crushing a tree.
  

Average cable and internet service, quote quiz, Holy Trinity renamed

Hello, all! A few links:

• Comcast service person falls asleep on customer's couch after spending an hour on hold with home office and missing three scheduled appointments. Customer videotapes this.
• AOL wants to make sure your dead loved ones have their service.
• Test your quote knowledge with the Ann Coulter or Adolf Hitler Quote Quiz.
• Some Presbyterian Churches considering renaming the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to gender inclusive options like "Mother, Child, and Womb", "Rock, Redeemer, Friend", or others. Oh, Rock, why have you forsaken me?
  

Cars, routers, web dislikes, msPod, config.shirt

Hello! How are you? I had a decent Saturday, and saw the movie "Cars", which i thought was excellent (like all Pixar movies). There's not a single human or animal in the movie (technically), yet it still conveyed a lot of emotion. Plus, it contains probably the only "Larry the Cable Guy" performance that I even found to be tolerable, which is a tremendous feat.
Today, I've been struggling with my new wireless router and PCI card for my home network (my previous router blinked its last light a week or so ago). I got this new one set up relatively easily, but I'm having problems with it dropping the network or dropping my Internet connection until I reboot. So, if you are shopping for a router, I may have a suggestion about one to avoid.
But in other news, here are some links:

• What people hate about web sites. Are your pet peeves on the list?
• Is Microsoft developing a rival to the iPod? But with...er, more reboots?
• For the customizer: a configurable t-shirt, but a rather low-tech one.
  

Dozens, vanity surprise, smart states, liquid armor, Gates steps down, light faucet

Looking for some links? Here are some:

• Theives steal 279 copies of "Cheaper By The Dozen" on DVD. Apparently it's a lot cheaper by the 3,348.
• Maybe not the 'value-add' service they were expecting, but several customers found drug 'bricks' in their Home Depot bathroom vanities.
• How does your state rank on the list of most educated states?
• Another step towards Terminator 2... liquid body armor could help protect our troops.
• Bill Gates to step down from day-to-day duties in 2008. I hope he's saving up a nice nest egg before leaving the job.
• Tired of not knowing the temperature of your water? You need the Equa Light Delight faucet that changes color with temps.
  

Rove safe, bogus assistance, interrogation methods, music sharing contained, iSweatshop

How do I pass on great stuff to you? Through links:

• Karl Rove will not be indicted in leak case. Boy, that guy must have some friends in high places.
• The GAO finds up to $1.4 Billion in bogus assistance given out for Katrina and Rita. This news is causing me mental anguish, such that perhaps some government restitution is in order.
• The Pentagon won't hide some interrogation techniques in a classified section of their manual. Or, are they just going to classify the existence of that section of the manual? Think about it.
• RIAA chief says music piracy is "contained". Whew! I have noticed the increase in quality of life already!
• Is Apple producing their iPods in overseas sweatshops? Employees working 15 hr days for $50/month... but at least they get to listen to sweet tunes while they work.