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.