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.