CES and gadgets, religious trends, alien sensations, old body - new tricks

• Lots of cool info popping up from this year's Consumer Electronics Show (caution: loud, annoying music on site); Gizmodo and Engadget are a couple good places to find some interesting coverage.
• Like Sony's new e-book reader. I really like the thought of e-book readers in theory, but I think I'd need some time getting used to it. I know past attempts at them have failed, and maybe it's because people, like myself, like the feel of a "real" book.
• Check out the Entertaible, an electronic, LCD based board game. Now this, I think is a really cool idea. You can load various different board games onto it, but still play it like an old fashioned board game.
• Trying to decide if you should go HD-DVD or Blu-ray for your next DVD player? Gizmodo links to a couple sites that tell which movies are being released in each format.
• Bush giving $6000 of Abramoff raised campaign money to charity in the same manner of other politicians trying to distance themselves from the lobbyist. Wait, if it was campaign money, shouldn't it have been spent on the campaign?
• For the religious minded, Newsweek's five most important religious trends of 2005 offers some insightful thoughts.
• Are you an alien abductee? offers a pretty worthless checklist ("Has someone seen you being abducted by aliens?" to paraphrase one of them).
• MSN Men's Health 18 tricks to teach your body gives some tricks for fighting ice cream headache, minor burns, stuffed nose, and more.
  

Furby hacking, guilty lobbyist, picnic on the go, Google googles the PC

• Hacking your Furby. And I thought these things looked creepy with the fur on!
  
• Lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleads guilty, agrees to cooperate. Congressmen everywhere put hands in pockets, whistle a tune, and try to look innocent.
• Want to enjoy a picnic, but don't have the time to stay still? Try this motorized picnic table.
• Google may be releasing the Google Cube low cost PC at Wal-Mart. Article includes surprising quote of "In fact, Google could over time become more of a hardware company than anything else."
• More Google road to domination: Lexar USB flash drives to include Google software. Google software soon to be installed in televisions, media players, pace makers, and newborn babies.
  

Your celebrity face

I hope everyone has a safe and happy New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Here's an interesting site I found on another blog today: my Heritage's face recognition demo. You can upload a picture of your face and run face recognition software against pictures of celebrities to see who you most resemble. I did this, and here are the top ten. The amazing thing they all have in common is that they don't look like each other.
Brian apparently looks like:

• Carlos Castaneda 63% match (yeah, I hadn't heard of him either)
• Angelina Jolie 59%
• Steven Soderbergh 58%
• Jeff Goldblum 55%
• Margaret Atwood 51%
• Margaret Thatcher 50%
• Eddie Murphy 50%
• John Hume 47%
• Goran Persson 47%
• Tom Hanks 47%

Yes, you read that right - I am a 50% match on both Margaret Thatcher and Eddie Murphy. I've always thought they were separated at birth.

Intel logo, speakers, race car, things we know, Jeep spending, Bush quotes

• Intel launches new logo. New slogan as well, but Intel is still inside.
  
• Of course, please compliment your iPod with these $4000 speakers. That seems sensible.
• New Nissan concept that also functions as a video game machine. Having your actual car function as a racing game console. Now that is a safety minded idea.
• An interesting list: 100 Things We Didn't Know This Time Last Year.
• The Marines buy Jeeps at $100K a piece. If only I could get them to come to my garage sale...
• "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job." is 2005's top Bush quote.
  

Jockey goof, cats and pods, Microsoft surprises, pac-movie, water clock

• Jockey celebrates early and ends up losing the lead. 80 meters left.
• Want to combine your love of cats with love of iPods? Try the iKitty.
• The ten biggest Microsoft surprises of 2005. Security issues? How is that a surprise?
• Pac-Man to be a movie. Yes, the yellow dot guy. Also, Tekken and Castlevania movies, because hey, videogame movies are always really good, right?
• A water powered clock. Shh, don't let Big Oil find out!
  

Net usage, toast portraits, role models, dash, tech talk

Hope everyone has been having Happy Holidays! I'm back from Christmas in Iowa and here are a few leftover Christmas goodies for you:

• 68% of United Statesians use the Internet (from this set of Internet stats), and you might be one of them! (I'm pretty confident in the "you're using the Internet" part, not so much the "you're a United States citizen".)
• Are you bummed that portraits don't mysteriously appear in your toast? Here's a way to laser engrave your own toast.
• British teen girls came up with this insightful list of the ten most inspiring celebrities. Let's let them decide the Nobel Prize winners.
• The new Mercedes S-Class has a digital dashboard. Included is picture-in-picture that constantly plays "Cannonball Run".
• 2005's tech exec foot-in-mouth awards. Who would have thought a tech executive would speak inelegantly?
  

Our new robot leader, that crazy Congress, wiretap rules?

• New robot that can recognize itself in a mirror. Huge market for robot makeup and hair products just around the corner.
  
• Senate blocks defense spending bill that includes Alaskan refuge oil drilling. Alaskan refuge oil drilling in a defense bill. Also in this defense bill: hurricane relief money and help for low income families to pay heating bills. Why can't Congress logically group things in their bills? Oh, and there should have been a Congressional pay raise tacked on.
• Oh, that's why! they're paid to pass laws in exchange for campaign donations.
  
• Quote from April 2004 Bush speech: "Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution." Hmmm... and Bush began authorizing warrantless wiretaps in 2001?
  

Corrupt Congress, edible lawns, table defense, mac IE, super MIT bros

• Sen. Reid calls Congress "most corrupt in history" Not sure if he is complaining or bragging.
• How to eat your own lawn. I should clarify, this is for humans. If you are a sheep, you probably already had it figured out.
• Finally! A bedside table that will help defend against those invading Visigoths and Vandals.
• Mac users: Internet Explorer for Mac being phased out. This must be heartbreaking considering how much you love Microsoft products.
• Someone(s) with a lot of time turned a MIT hall into a Super Mario level. Yes, fine college education at work.
  

Blog this blog! Spying, soap, portable tv, chalk wear, toys

A friend of mine was commenting that he hardly knows what a blog is, since he felt people use (and mis-use) the word for all kinds of things. I guess I don't hear it incorrectly used that often, but he went to the interesting point of "'blog' is going to become the next 'smurf'." (as in "Holy smurf, here comes Gargamel!"). Well... yeah, I guess that could happen.

I don't usually get overtly political in my blog blogs, but was bothered by the story President Blog authorizes spying on citizens without warrants. It's one blog to protect America, but by violating (or potentially violating) liberties and freedoms to do so kind of defeats the purpose. There is that great quote by Benjamin Franklin that goes "They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security." Also, we have a government of checks and blogs, so for the Executive Blog to start spying on citizens without involvement of the other branches (typically the courts), is allowing too much power to the blog.

Other blog:

• Want to blog your own soap? TeachSoap is filled with info on the topic. Surprisingly interesting.
• Oh, the wonderful blog of the Japanese! HDTV on the go for when blogging HDTV in the home is not enough.
• The Blackboard T-Shirt with chalk. Finally a shirt that never goes out of blog. Know what you could blog on it? Blog.
• Popular toys of the last 100 years. Lots of classics, but I was surprised to see blog missing from the list.
  

No read good, terror release, e-ink clock, more

• 1 in 20 American adults is illiterate. If you're one of them... well, I guess you can't read this.
  
• Al-Zarqawi caught then released. I'm not a military strategist, but that doesn't seem like the surest road to victory.
• If you've been looking for a 52 inch wide, flexible wall clock, the Citizen e-ink clock is for you.
• Google might buy Opera? A web juggernaut buying a browser?
  
• Bush and McCain agree on torture ban. Why exactly did this take so long?
• Korean human cloning was faked. This is a sad day in my quest for the All Brian Army.
  

Dead law, dead wrong, dead presidents, long dead finds, and... um Google

• If you outlaw death, then only outlaws will die.
• Iran's president - not a fan of Schindler's List apparently.
  
• New dead presidents dollar coins to start debuting in 2007.
  
• The 10 most puzzling ancient artifacts. Odd, there's no mention of the eight-track cassette...
• Google lets you build a custom Google homepage. But that's it. They have to be about out of ideas.
  

Santax, wake n' bacon, pixel power, colorful past

• Argentina's taxmen dressing as Santas. What better way to encourage the kids to give money to the government.
  
• Now, this is ingenious: an alarm clock that wakes you by cooking bacon. And it has a clever name: The Wake N' Bacon!
• A 39-Megapixel camera?? What insane photographer could possibly need this?
• Check out Bound for Glory, America in Color 1939-1943. A great Library of Congress website exhibition. (And be sure to browse some of the other great exhibitions online.)
  

Bangalore, Xbox discounts, drumsheets, happy media

• Bangalore gone!.. the way of Madras, Calcutta, and Bombay. City name change in the plans.
  
• Xbox sales so bad in Japan, prices slashed to $150 with ISP contracts.
• Need a way to bring excitement to that boring old spreadsheet? How about an Excel drum machine plug-in?
• What wonderful times we live in... Happy Meal toys might be replaced with media players.
  

Integrity, poles, populations, pooh, and more

• I don't know if we should be pleased by 'integrity' being the most looked up word on web dictionaries. On the one hand, it means Americans are possibly interested in integrity, but on the other, it means most of them don't know what it means.
  
• Here's a very cool PC case mod adding a Japanese touch.
• Better sell all your stock in compass companies. Earth's magnetic poles are drifting.
• An interesting view of the world: a map of Earth with country size scaled to population.
• Winnie the Pooh gets a new friend. Disney replacing Christopher Robin with a girl. Next up: Piglet replaced by rapping wild boar and Hundred Acre Woods gets a paved skateboard park.
• Looking for a new hobby? By like this guy and create your own homemade nuclear fusor.
• Hope you didn't pay huge dollars for an Xbox 360 online. They can't even get rid of them in Japan (at a lower price than in the US, no less).
  

Narnia, PC phone calls, answers, bioprint, alarming news

• The new Narnia movie opens tomorrow, and I will probably see it, even after this review calling it a LOTR wannabe. Sheesh, criticizing it for relying on good versus evil? Did you read the book?
  
• Yahoo! to offer cheap PC to phone calls, in the one to two cents per minute range.
• Speaking of Yahoo!, have you tried Yahoo! Answers? (It's a yes or no question.)
  
• You know, I can print regular or glossy or on sticker paper, etc., but I would like to print organs on demand.
• A flying alarm clock. Now that is innovation! Personal jetpacks and flying cars must be right around the corner.
  

SNL iPod, awesome light show, super broccoli, dog phones

• SNL iPod skit - funny, in case you missed it.
• A Christmas lights display that I had in a previous post, has been taken down due to causing a car crash and traffic buildup. See, I told you it was an awesome Christmas light show.
• Cancer team makes "super broccoli". Now why wouldn't they have put the effort into pizza?
• Having trouble staying in touch with your dog? New dog cell phone is just the thing for you.
  

Google rules, NBC iTunes, Charlie Brown Christmas

• Google's Ten Golden Rules. Interesting points in their company philosophy.
  
• NBC to offer TV shows on iTunes. Good news for iTunes fans. I'll admit I've bought a couple episodes of 'Lost' off of iTunes, but haven't been impressed with their so-far meager offering of shows (just 5 ABC properties).
• Do you like "A Charlie Brown Christmas"? Of course you do. Here's a brief article with some facts about it, and here is a quiz about the holiday special. I scored a worthy 18/20 (though I admit to some guessing).
  

Star wars reference, 9/11 commission report, Xbox class action, iPods cheap!

Well, as I write this, I can't get into my own blog (and I noticed the same errors on some other blogspot blogs), but oddly I can still get into the Blogger edit tools (and thus, I can still post; hope this makes it to my actual blog OK).

• Need a Star Wars encyclopedia? Of course you do! Try the Wookieepedia, a clever take on the wonderful Wikipedia (a great resource if you take into account that anyone can change any page; so trust with caution).
• More F's than A's. Is it time to call Homeland Security's parents in for a chat?
• Man starts class action suit against Microsoft for releasing the Xbox 360 "defectively designed". Also, he thinks "Call of Duty 2" is too hard.
• Attention, if you are going to try and buy iPods using fake barcodes, you might want to try a more realistic price than $4.99.
  

Snow, photos, photos of snow

And still more snow... it is slowly, but surely coming down, and everywhere you look is blindingly white. I put a few pictures from the beginning of the week up on my Flickr account. I mentioned long ago that I'm using Flickr, and I have now upgraded to the pro account (after running into the transfer and photo set limitations on the free account). Over in the right column of this page -> is a badge linking to my account as well. There are some public photos there, but if you know me and would like access to some of my other photo sets, just send me an email.

Paper watch, lampshade, jury duty, hit points, in his manger

• The first e-paper watch soon to be available. Just what you want (and can't afford).
• Want your own origami paper lampshade? Instructions here.
• President Bush gets out of jury duty. Wouldn't it be a little intimidating to have the President of the United States in your jury box?
• Final Fantasy Potion beverage. Further blurring the lines of video games and reality. It may restore Hit Points, but please remember: do NOT drink Ether to restore your Magic Points.
• Spears and Federline turn baby's room into Nativity scene. Yeah, this kid is not going to grow up with any ego issues.