somebody's missing the point

take a look at this organic sofa... now take a look at the price...

obviously someone doesn't get that environmental products geared towards the richest of the rich aren't really going to help the environment all that much... sure a few dozen, maybe even a hundred or 2 might purchase this environmentally friendly chesterfield, but it's price puts it beyond the reach of most people - so the majority of us will continue buying environmentally unfriendly sofas...

environmentally friendly alternatives have to be attainable by the middle and/or lower classes, otherwise they aren't really alternatives... when a product is an order of magnitude more expensive than the product's it's competing against then it really isn't a competition - and an environmentally friendly product that isn't competitive can't make much of a difference...

help! i'm trapped!

The Dark Room

so can you figure out how to get out of the room?

those poor deprived people

this so-called USB Eye Massager comes from a part of the world that has obviously never heard of the three stooges...

why i oughtta ...

this ain't your run of the mill cardboard box house

Houses of the Future

because being a derelict doesn't mean you have to abandon style...

just in case

just in case you thought nobody was bothering trying to solve the worlds problems anymore, take a look at this

Boing Boing: Genetically engineered plants detect land mines by changing color

japan does it again

another great idea (of the why hasn't anyone thought of this before variety) from japan...

Japanese hands-free umbrella - Engadget - www.engadget.com

form or function

adjustable shoe

this looks like a brilliant idea - a woman's shoe with an adjustable heel height... but i don't think many women will wear it though... as functional and practical as it may be, it just does not look stylish...

in fact, it kinda makes me think of lego (even though it doesn't actually look like it's made of lego)... if girls won't wear lego (and i'm pretty sure they won't - they won't even play with it so some brainiac came up with girlie lego called ello) then i don't think they'll wear this...

from the incredibly useless technology category

get a load of this usb mince pie...

well, ok, maybe not entirely useless - it does store data, but really, i can't see this as being the next big thing unless the world's population is suddenly converted to weebl and bob...

i'm an uh-oh!

y'know, i always liked denis leary's asshole song but it occurred to me today that it's not the sort of song you can let young and impressionable children listen to... we need a version that is safe for kids... so that's what i'm going to try to do, i'm going to try and make one...

folks, i'd like to sing a song about the adolescent dream
about me
about you
about the way our adolescent hearts beat way down in the bottom of our chests
about that special feeling we get in the cockles of our hearts [why not, it was pubescent humour the first time 'round]
maybe below the cockles, maybe in the sub-cockle area
hopefully not in the liver or anywhere near the kidneys
and i don't want to know anything about your colon, so don't ask me

i'm just a regular kid, with an afterschool job
and occasionally part of an unruly mob
i like baseball, and lego, and games with high scores
i've got an average room where you can't see the floor
my mom and my dad,
our cat and our dog
my feet on the sofa,
and my secret pet frog.

but sometimes that just ain't enough to keep a kid like me interested (oh no, no way, uh-uh)
so i gotta go out and have fun at someone elses expense (oh yeah, yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah)

i walk really slow in big lines when it rains
while people behind me are going insane
i'm an uh-oh (he's an uh-oh, what an uh-oh)
i'm an uh-oh (he's an uh-oh, such an uh-oh)

i use public toilets and i saran wrap the seats
i run around in the summertime and i never wash my feet
i'm an uh-oh (he's an uh-oh, what an uh-oh)
i'm an uh-oh (he's worlds biggest uh-oh)

sometimes i fart in fancy-pants places
while fancy-pants people make fancy-pants faces
i'm an uh-oh (he's an uh-oh, what an uh-oh)
i'm an uh-oh (he's a big troubled uh-oh)

maybe i shouldn't be singing this song
mommy is crying and dad says that it's wrong
good thing my attention span isn't that long
hah!
i'm an uh-oh (he's an uh-oh, what an uh-oh)
i'm an uh-oh (he's worlds biggest uh-oh)

you know what i'm gonna do, i'm gonna get myself a nice big economy sized bundle of toilet paper from the local grocers, 2 ply, with lots of fluffy white softness and all the absorbency you could ask for and pictures of flowers printed on every single square, yeah! and i'm going to take that toilet paper and wrap it around other peoples cars, right around the undercarriage, all through the wheel wells and up into the exhaust pipe, and i'm going to leave the windshields free so i can smear vaseline all over them and when i'm done smearing cars with petroleum jelly i'm going to wipe my bum with other peoples mail and put the letters back in the wrong mail boxes and there ain't a gosh darned thing anybody can do about it. do you know why? because i got my mom, that's why. 2 words. emotional freakin' manipulation, OK?. neighbors, teachers, postmen, they can have all the discipline they want, they can have a big discipline spank-walk right through the middle of nathan phillips square and it won't make a lick of difference because i've got my mom. OK?

your cat's not dead, he's frozen and as soon as you find him in amongst the mixed peas you're going to thaw him out he's going to be really ticked off. do you know why? have you ever taken a cold shower? well multiply that by 15 gazillion times, that's how ticked off your cat's gonna be. so go get your cat, and your hat, and your fox and your socks, take 'em out of the freezer, and drive down to the vet's

(you know you really were an uh oh) why don't you shut up and sing the song pal
i'm an uh-oh (he's an uh-oh, what an uh-oh)
i'm an uh-oh (he's worlds biggest uh-oh)
emm, eye ess, tea eh, kay ee, everybody
M, I-S, T-A, K-E
ruff, ruff ruff, ruff ruff, ruff ruff
{place strange sounds here}

i'm an uh oh and i'm proud of it

there, that should do it... no bad words at all, that should definitely be safe for kids...

what happened to ronald mcdonald?

ok, something is very wrong with this commercial... can you tell what it is?

this is a side of ronald mcdonald i've definitely never seen before... i wonder what the hamburglar and grimace look like in that dimension...

for the literal among us

when it comes to usb drives, there are thumb drives and then there are REAL THUMB DRIVEs...

i thought 'bird brain' was supposed to be an insult

i never trusted birds... i never felt that anything that large should have the gift of flight... it's too big a tactical advantage... well, guess what, it's not their only tactical advantage - add being deceptively smart to the list...

it slices, it dices, it sticks it to the (power company) man

dick van hoff: the tyranny of the plug

ever heard of a blender that didn't use electricity? how about a food processor? well you have now...

children of the corn

so here we have biodegradable blue ray dvds made from corn...

do you see the problem that i see?

when i burn my valuable data to an optical medium, the last thing i want to see happen is for that medium to degrade, much less biodegrade... i know that 'technically' cd's and dvd's don't last forever, but come one, at least try to humour us - there's no way i'd trust my data on something that looks like a giant corn chip...

i can't help but feel like this innovation is as useful as milkbone underwear...

i spy with my little eye

move over, scotty... your transparent aluminum is old news... now we've got Light transmitting concrete...

here we go again

4 more years of bush's quasi-dictatorship... great...

y'know, right about now i imagine some of the folks in the states are realizing just how important education really is to the political process... why?... because 'your fellow american is a dumbass'...

"computer, end simulation"

holo-emitter technology - check
holo-deck floor - check

what's next?... oh yes, solid holograms... ok world, invent solid holograms...

in the eye of a storm

well, we're in the eye of a scary storm... what scary storm? well, yesterday was halloween, tomorrow is the US presidential election...

nothing today though, that's why it's the eye of the storm... a plain ordinary day stuck in between two scary days and wouldn't you know it [channels garfield] it's a monday [/channels garfield]...

oh well, good luck everyone... hope to see you all after the apocalypse...

halloween for the young at heart

so you know you're too old to engage in all the halloween activities you engaged in when you were a kid but that doesn't mean there's no fun to be had... now, for your guilty pleasure carve your own pumpkin...

a not-so-unfair advantage

ever play chess against a computer?

ever win?

maybe it would be easier if you could get a glimpse into what the computer was thinking while you play...

Thinking Machine 4

cat's and zero gravity do not mix

'nuff said

i like lego

i've linked to a few lego creations here before so i guess it's not really a surprise that i am an 'adult fan of lego' (as this page puts it)...

i also happen to be a fan of puzzles, especially rubik's cube and similar puzzles... well, seems a guy named maarten has gone and put the two together...

shocking sex photos

Gizmodo : Circuits Discover... Each Other

there's an electrical engineer out there somewhere with too much free time (among other things, i'm sure) on his hands...

rise of the machines

imagine an attack helicopter that needs no pilot, can supposedly tell between friend and foe, combatant and non-combatant, and make it's own decisions... does it sound familiar to you? it certainly sounds like something out of a particular movie to me... i wonder what movie that could be... i wonder what the outcome was....
Telegraph | Connected | Mission possible day or night for the pilotless attack helicopter

i was once asked if i thought that the future portrayed in the terminator movie was a plausible outcome of AI development (with an eye on military applications, since they have the biggest budgets) - my answer was to the effect of 'how many advancements have come without unintended/undesirable consequences?'...

the sims: live

just how far can we take the reality tv concept? well in germany they're hoping to take it pretty far...

take one big brother production company, build a small town in which contestants are to live and be watched (truman-style), and hope that they'll fall in love, go to school, get married, etc. for years to come (or at least as long as they have an audience)...

watching all that sort of sounds like watching the sims, to me... only these folks are real live people instead of simulations on a computer screen... expect the cuteness factor of the sims to die horribly real soon now as a result of this...
we make money not art: Big Brother TV village

sim president

you get to decide what your president should look like with Build a better Bush

help us, obe wan kenobi, you're our only hope

and technology marches ever forward... some guy has finally made a projection system that can project an image or video into thin air - R2D2-style...

[object HTMLImageElement]

now i've heard of everything...

frankly, this doesn't even sound plausible as science fiction but there are actually people working on a way to make Spray-on spacesuits... i wonder where you're expected to put your tools and instruments...

i think i'll wait for them to come out with the deoderant stick version, roll-on space suits...

great game

Flash Game: Alien Hominid

it's violent, it's fast paced, it pits an alien reminicent of stitch (from lilo and stitch) against fbi agents and robots and things... if you can't get in touch with me for the next little while, this is probably the reason...

it's a bird! it's a plane!

it's something completely different... it's weird and wonderful and basically defies description... just follow the little red ball...

TREASURE BOX

the land of the free is no more

long story short - 3 teachers (who are pro-bush) get ejected from a bush rally and threatened with arrest for wearing t-shirts that read "protect our civil liberties"...

yes, that's right, bush apparently decided your civil liberties and various other things guaranteed by the US constitution were in opposition to his campaign's best interests and didn't inform you of that...

Bend.com - Press Release "Teachers' T-shirts bring Bush speech ouster": News and information from Bend, Oregon

how on earth can there be any question that this man is bad for the US (and the global community)? inch by inch, the most powerful nation in the world is turning into a totalitarian regime with only the meager illusion of freedom and democracy, and if the bush administration decides they need to suspend the election (as they've been looking into) what do you suppose will be the party line on that? "september 11, 2001", "the terrorists are coming! the terrorists are coming!"...

it's been said that the cost of freedom is eternal vigilance - apparently that cost is too high, as americans are being called on to redeem their freedoms for (a false sense of) *so-called* homeland(TM) 'security'...

"Those who would trade freedom for security deserve neither freedom nor security."

—Benjamin Franklin

USB the way it was meant to be - absurd

what, who, me? oh, i'm just sticking raw fish in the back of my computer... i guess it won't be raw for long, and with the fan going i'm sure we'll all smell it...

Gizmodo : Sushi USB Flash Drives

money grubbing weasels

i think i've mentioned before how amazing it is how far some people will go to make a buck... well, prepared to be amazed all over again... a company has done the unthinkable and registered "happy birthday" as a trademark... looks like bakeries everywhere will have to find some other birthday greeting to put on their cakes...

:: Xinhuanet - English ::

why haven't we ever heard of one of these before...

take the front wheel off a bicycle and attach one of those old-school manual lawn mowers in it's place and you get this..

Gizmodo : Homebrew Riding Mower

low tech innovation rides again... giddyup!

Bender, Bender, where for art thou Bender?

we make money not art: A robot predisposed to alcohol

i don't know about you, but the first thing to come to mind when i read about a robot that drinks beer was the animated character Bender from the show Futurama... only this robot begs for money to buy beer, whereas Bender would just as likely rob you for beer money... i'm sure once this self-interest-motivated robot gets a few upgrades it'll be rolling bums for booze or change too...

now if you don't mind, i have a spacious closet to furnish...

bad vibes

i knew there were places in the states that had rather puritanical views but this is just silly... in tennessee, a child's bath toy has been deemed an illegal sex toy simply because it vibrates...

Yahoo! News - Sponge Duck Toy Creates Buzz in Tennessee

logically the next on their chopping block should be electric toothbrushes and practically all modern cell phones... then they can move on to those vile automotive 'vibrators' that happen to also move people from point A to point B...

we won't mention to them what the molecules of any substance do when the substance's temperature is above absolute zero... it wouldn't do well to outlaw all matter...

blurring the lines of decency

i was never expecting to run across something that is either safe for boxes of children's cereal or isn't safe for work - but as is often the case the unexpected is what turns out to catch my interest...

so apparently kelloggs have started giving away electric toothbrushes in their cereal, the snap/crackle/pop totem pole version of which happens to look somewhat phallic in profile when you remove the bristles...

aidey_love: vibrator-fun for the whole family!

i expect there to be a greater than average number of adults eating cereal in the near future (because adults, unlike kids, can't bear to get a box of cereal exclusively for the prize inside)...

now there's something you don't see every day...

does this look familiar to you?
Infrared Zoo Gallery - Scorpion

sure it does... it looks like something out of the first predator movie... but wait, there's more... a lot more... lots and lots of animals as viewed in infrared... like this puppy or these elephants...

shock and awe

the phenomenon known as reality tv (you know, those totally artificial scenarios that studio exec's put complete nobody's in in order to cheap entertainment and kill off scripted drama) now has a body count...

a reality tv contestant has died, and what did the show do? put his corpse on display so that now he's more popular than any of the living contestants, and viewership of the show has doubled...

i always knew reality tv was low class, but this is a low i was not anticipating...

CNNNN: Reality show contestant more popular than ever after death

file this under 'envy'

Albino Blacksheep / Flash / Extreme Walking

envy? envy?!?!!? is there something wrong with me?

well, i guess there must be, 'cause that flash movie depicts all kinds of things i wish i'd done but haven't... was it a lack of opportunity? perhaps a big wide yellow stripe running down my back (or alternatively, one too many brain cells)?

or perhaps it was the realization, after being experimented on (unsuccessfully) for the purposes of behaviour modification, that the ideal of being oneself is a luxury not everyone can afford... at least, not in public...

thinking back to those carefree days of running and jumping and scaling the outside of buildings - good times...

what's a zoom quilt, you say?

i really have no idea where the term came from... nor can i, after seeing this example, say that i know what exactly it is... but it's neat, whatever it is... quite artfully rendered, too...

zoom quilt

wait, wait, wait... all we ever seem to do is wait...

don't you just hate grocery shopping? people are so slow!

i wonder if maybe i could get me one of these and speed things up a bit...

rocket powered shopping cart

ummm... what?

what have they done to spiderman?

spider ganesh

it's bad enough spiderman is part man, part spider, but apparently someone decided to throw in some elephant for good (religious) measure... elephants, as you well know, are notorious for climbing walls and dangling from . . . their trunks... i'm sure this can only improve on stan lee's creation...

i wonder what superman would look like with a trunk... maybe we should give wonder woman extra arms while we're at it...

google google google google google

are you like me, folks? do you like google? i mean really like google... do you have a nearly unhealthy (i'm on the edge man!) obsession with it such that you have to check out everything that they do and wish that one day you too could work for such a cool company?

if only you could prove yourself worthy... well, guess what... you can!

Google Blog

i snooze, i lose...

damn... someone beat me to the punch on another one of the ideas i had... it's a good thing i've got a deep well of ideas otherwise this sort of thing would really piss me off...

also, this one was sort of obvious so i'm really more pleased that such a product is finally available than i am upset about not being the one raking in the money...

Matias Wearable Half Keyboard

killer hamster

this is weird, and just a little bit scary... who knew those little guys could be so dangerous?...

Killer hamster ices owner | The Register

i've never heard of a bite-happy hamster before, but oh boy am i ever going to steer clear of ferrets in the future...

now this is definitely some ingenious design work

check out these walking wind-powered sculptures - they won't be what you expect, i can guarantee you that...

we make money not art

more irony

asahi.com : English

this is a mostly uninteresting business news story... the thing that really catches the attention (and the imagination) is that apparently japan has a kind of beer made out of peas...

where's the irony in that? well, consider this - it's a beer that starts out as peas and ends up as . . . well, i think you know the final state of all beer...

poetic justice

[probably not work-safe if your boss has 4 legs and tail]

there's a word for this (JPEG Image, 370x332 pixels)... that word is irony...

apparently irony isn't a well liked concept in canine circles... can you blame them?

apple of the earth...

IOL: A Step Beyond

you can eat 'em, you can drink 'em, you can shoot 'em, you can make prints with them, you can remove broken light bulbs with them, you can power your alarm clock with them, and now you can drive them... yes, that's right, the worlds most useful food just got better - you can now drive a car made with potatoes...

(boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew)

more robot videos

OmniHead

i just couldn't let this one go by without comment - look at all the things that robot can do... it can do a handstand... i can't even do a handstand... it can kick and throw too...

but don't be fooled into thinking robots don't relax and catch some rays, 'cause they do... it's just that it gets old fast, especially when there's places to go and people to meet...

of all the robot videos i've seen lately, this site has to be the best... bravo!, why don't you take a bow...

well, goodbye little robot...

so the milky way is candy after all...

Scotsman.com News - Sci-Tech - Frozen sugar at centre of Milky Way

ok, so maybe it's not the creamy caramel center one might be expecting, but still this is good news for giant galaxy gobbling super-beings... i guess that means it's not such a good thing for us...

blue screen of death meets orange pixelboard of subway?

rebooting the subway

oh, i hope the ttc never gets high-tech enough that it can crash (bad enough to see air traffic shutdown due to microsoft windows)

speaking of 'biodegradable' and "returning to the earth"

am i morbid for thinking about my own death? i don't think so, i think everyone does it from time to time in one way or another... usually what i think about is the practical what's the best way to get rid of the body?

there are a number of unorthodox options i've thought up as alternatives to the standard highly preservative burial (where my body would just sit there in a sort of time capsule, barely decaying for decades to come) or the inefficient cremation (where a whole lot of energy is wasted just to turn me into something you can pour into a can)... it would seem i'm not the only person who favours a more natural post-end...

capsulamundi

ideally i was thinking something more along the lines of being eaten by wild animals, but i suppose a more conservative approach would be easier to execute...

children of the corn

not too long ago (relative to kurt time, which is funny since i don't wear a watch or keep track of the passage of time) i posted a link to an article about optical disks made out of corn... well, it's not just for optical disks anymore...

NEC's biodegradable corn-based laptops

because really, it isn't enough just to buy a laptop and watch it devalue over time, you should get to see it denature over time and return to the earth....

thought for the day

what is the difference between an empowering technology and an enslaving technology?

i think the difference is this: an empowering technology is one that helps you do what you want to do while an enslaving technology is one that allows you to do what you need to do...

kind of a subtle difference, really... and if i were the kind of person who gave people the benefit of the doubt, i think that subtlety would be a likely cause for things like product/vendor lock-in... it's easy to misuse the term "want" when "need" is more appropriate, then when you think you're just adding features what you're actually doing is reducing the number of viable options...

FBI document about concealed weapons

this is really a must read document (with pictures) of some very clever concealed weapons... it makes me wonder why security checks at airports aren't more involved....

concealed weapons

now, don't get me wrong - i'm not about to condone the use of weapons on planes or anything but some of those key-knives made me wonder... what on earth has ever stopped anyone from simply using regular keys as a stabbing weapon? or, come to think of it, why not a pencil/pen?... heck, just about anything could be used as a club-type weapon, and shoelaces make for a handy garrot... why do they even bother taking away our nail-clippers when metal framed glasses can be used to puncture someone's lungs or heart?

i think maybe we've past the point of diminishing returns on the banned materials front and maybe we should start looking at alternative means of dealing with people who use everyday items as weapons, because boarding white padded planes buck-naked or in straight jackets seems a little far fetched and those are the only ways of preventing all everday items capable of being used as weapons from actually getting used as weapons... we need to save out toenails... instead of banning these things, have someone on board whose trained to deal with these things...

of all the rip-offs

normally i might find this kinda neat, but no this isn't just a working phone made out of lego, it's a lego phone someone is charging $135 for!... made in taiwan? more like made in some kid's playpen... cell phone companies are practically giving away phones so what exactly is it that one would be paying $135 for? the lego bricks?

Phone Vault: Lego Phone

claim that iraquis holding Optimus Prime hostage is a hoax, it's only Bumblebee

The Raw Feed

ok, there's nothing about iraquis in there anywhere, i'm just captioning now... the hoax part is real (ironically)... it's a very cool graphic though... click here for a different view (in flash)...

ruuuun osama, ruuuuun!

7291976886464954.JPG (JPEG Image, 425x284 pixels)

source

to help satisfy any curiosity you might have

if you've ever wondered what it would be like to see a lightning strike up close and personal (but not so up close and personal that medical rescue teams start referring to you as a 'crispy critter') then click this near miss...

yikes

and here we have a robotic blanket that crawls over you as you move to make sure you're always covered...

we make money not art

now if i'm in bed and i'm not quite asleep and not quite awake, tossing and turning in a darkened room, i'm pretty sure the last sensation i want to feel is that of something crawling all over my body...

it's a good thing this was intended as art and not an actual product... and hey, what if you don't want to be completely covered? or what if someone figures out how to hack this thing and make it smother you? it does have a wireless transceiver after all... (can you tell i've never trusted wireless technology? can you tell this makes me trust it even less?)

because a USB flashdrive watch alone isn't cool enough

so about a year ago i was browsing through the new stuff at one of my favourite geeky gadget online stores and i stumbled across a neat idea, a watch that doubles as a USB flashdrive, with a short USB cable that tucks nicely (and inconspicuously) into the watchband... ThinkGeek :: USB Memory Watch

now someone has taken that idea to it's next logical step... they stuck in an MP3 player and a headphone jack...
ThinkGeek :: Laks Memory Music Watch

wing flapping paper airplane

before i got interested in origami there was paper airplanes... i even had a book with a variety of paper airplanes in it... it didn't have this one though...

Flapper_Steps.jpg (JPEG Image, 1500x2300 pixels)

the cat loves it, maybe not because of the wing flapping (really he likes anything that moves) but i can at least convince myself that it is for the next 5 or 10 minutes...

spinning propellor shaped spy drone - what could go wrong?

Defense Tech: WHIRL-A-DRONE BEGINS TO SPIN

this is definitely not the kind of spy drone you want to shoot down, not unless you really don't care about your civilian population getting sliced, diced, and julianed...

where in the world is mark robinson?

10 years ago... 10 years to the day... i met mark on the second floor of the innis college residence on st. george street in toronto... we were assigned to the same 'appartment' (or whatever they were called) at the rez and as is usually the case with people i live with, he and i became friends...

good friends from my perspective, and while i can't comment on his perspective i gather i was one of the few people from UofT he kept in contact with... that is until april, this year...

mark moved out of the city, out of the country, off of the continent even... british virgin islands he says... i'll call you when i get settled he says... problem is mark isn't the kind of person who calls people, mark is the kind of person other people call - so no calls from mark... i've managed to get around this problem once before through some clever uses of online phone directories but not this time - no luck finding a recent directory of that area so no luck contacting mark... and what didn't occur to me until it was too late was that the email contact i had for him was his work email address, which obviously would be useless since he would no longer be working for the same company...

so, it's been months now and no word... i don't know if he's still alive (though i imagine the island life is probably just too enthralling for him) or what's going on but i sure would like to hear from my friend... so mark, if you're reading this (seems like a long shot but hey) email me! there's a link for doing so right at the top of the page...

hmmm...

hmmm... making a pillow out of used dryer sheets... that could work, and it would smell good too...

it goes up, it goes down, it goes round and round and round

as someone who owns a few yoyos himself, and probably spent more than the average amount of time playing with them, i can certainly appreciate the skill displayed here...
yoyo performer

one thing, though... i always thought a trick was considered unsucessfully executed if you couldn't get the yoyo to return at the end - look closely and you'll notice him restarting the yoyo to get it to return on a number of occasions...

whew!

wow, i think i'm finally caught up... last weekend was a birthday barrage, and gift hunting is hard... hunting for that one perfect gift for paytn all day saturday and not finding it, then deciding that i'd head out to a store i had a good feeling about on sunday before making pancakes, then not being able to because my router died overnight and i had to spend 2 hours on the phone with the manufacturer to find out that the warranty on my $150, 1.5 year old router only lasted for 1 year...

things were looking up, though, when i found the gift i was looking for later in the day and i got a new router from another manufacturer for $25 that has a 3 year warranty...

then skipping out of work early on monday for the celebration, getting paytn and kruz in trouble for noise, until we went outside to play tag... my friend lee ann's neices and nephews were a lot harder to run down on foot than paytn and kruz, and paytn and kruz were on bikes (and i'm in worse shape than i used to be) - i think those 2 need to get more exercise...

i didn't really feel up to sorting through them after work but i've finally weeded through all my wacky links now, so i should be all caught up...

a public service announcement for geeks

DVD's aren't the top of the removable storage media food chain anymore...

Optware's 1TB Holographic Versatile Disc - Engadget

an interesting blip on the otherwise useless convergence landscape

i have no watch, i'll say that right now... i walk around day in and day out with basically no concept of what time it is and i'm happy... i don't need to know what time it is all the time, in fact it's rare that i need to know what time it is... i need to know when to wake up, when to stop working, and when to go back to bed... occasionally i need to know if it's close to the time i was intending to meet someone... in all those situations there are almost always timekeeping devices on hand that i can use instead of being shackled to my own personal moment counter... i escaped from the slavery of clock-watching years ago when my last watch broke and i haven't given serious thought of returning until i saw this...

Lacrosse Technology UV-100 Ultra-Violet (UV) Index Watch

being of the fair-skined persuasion (hey, i'm a redhead), i can definitely appreciate a gadget that allows me to gauge my risk of exposure to harmful UV rays and act accordingly... and it's built into a fairly ordinary looking digital watch... and it's not like i'm the kind of guy who goes around with all sorts of gadgets (i may like gadgets, but i also like to travel light)... wearing a gadget like that on my arm just makes sense, and isn't that what good product design is all about?

all things chia

once upon a time there was the chia pet... it was novel, it was green, and you could put it away when the novelty wore off...

then there was the chia head... extra novelty points for being able to play with funny green hair-dos...

the chia keyboard, however, doesn't strike me as a step in the right direction... chia furniture, sure... chia clothing even... but chia computer peripherals just don't work for me...

Gizmodo : Organic Computing

halloween came early

if you weren't afraid of snakes before, this picture might just change your mind...

Yahoo! News - World Photos - AP

that snake doesn't look too pleased about having been exposed to that man's magic nose goblins, though... maybe this makes for unlikely nightmare material...

seeking inspiration?

well, if the inspiration you seek is for new ways of getting your personalized license plate ideas past the license plate censors then maybe this will help...

URPL8SUX: Licensed To Offend - September 3, 2004

i gotta say, though, some of the complaints here seem a little far fetched... i mean, i realize that "kike" is generally considered bad but "kike jr" seems like it's referencing someone and referential license plates usually reference the owner... who'd call themselves a "kike" unless it had another meaning? like maybe a proper name? i think with some of the weird names out there it just might be possible... i went to school with a girl who had the rather unspectacular name of laura goodenough... and at university there was a girl whose last name was hoare... now just imagine being told your license plate (that has your name on it) is offensive...

thank goodness 'wismer' is just the name of a pokemon... hopefully that won't offend anybody (except those radical anti-pokemon zealots, but they can eat my shorts)...

ATV's of the future are here today

Gizmo

basically a 4-wheeled all terrain vehicle with class and an environmental conscience...

splat!

Skydiver killed in plunge

i've got to agree with the fark folks on this one... if you go to a skydiving school and the instructor's name is "Pancake", you are definitely in the wrong place...

there's something you don't see everyday

/home/tero Lehtileikkeleet

right... when the machines take over the earth, this is the first place they'll go - to a crane (or something) with a giant circular saw blade on it...

what on earth could they be cutting with a saw whose teeth are each the size of a minivan? where are there trees that big, really?!

truth in advertising

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Photo Gallery (Kern County Sheriff)

yes, that's right... a cop car that says "we'll kick your ass and take your donuts too"... and get this, at least part of that message is real (though all of it is the truth)...

the earth is saved!

RedNova News: Inventor Makes Car Engine that Runs Off Air

stick a hand-powered air compressor on that thing and no only do you do away with the non-renewable energy costs of feeding a compressed air car but you also help keep people in shape!

wouldn't it be neat . . .

wouldn't it be neat if everyday normal houses were more like this?
ESA Portal - Space houses on Earth

now for something a little more thought provoking

The Morning News - Tricks of the Trade

this is interesting not just because of the tricks they discuss but also because of what those tricks say about people...

i'm so excited!

it's finally here, it's finally here... trailers for the up-coming farscape miniseries... how am i ever going to wait for it to get on tv? it's still almost 2 months away...

Farscape: The PeaceKeeper Wars

more mini-chopper vids

The Raw Feed

it's becoming like a contageon... everyone is obsessed with tiny remote control helicopters...

it's the little things

now here is a pretty good idea, and it's pretty low-tech too (and i just love good low-tech ideas - being the progessive luddite that i am)... why don't i already have one of these?

oh well... i think i'll wait until someone comes up with a device that turns non-retractable cords into retractable cords... (why did a fishing rod just pop into my head?)

SchwarzTech | Sumajin Smartwrap

this link was not brought to you by the society for the prevention of cruelty to fishies

Italbrass Moody Aquarium Washbasin

when i see this aquarium sink i think of filling the sink up with water and putting fish food in it and watching the fish try and get to it through the glass/plastic/whatever...

more inventions

well, what do you know... someone has finally invented the hoverboard....

Eddie's Big Challenge: Ground-Effect Turbulence

holy origami batman!

i like to fold paper, i make no secret about that but holy crap i wish i was as good as some of these folks...

Yahoo! News - World Photos - AP

previous convention

to suggest it or not to suggest it... that is the question...

when i saw this i immediately thought of soren's son, mads... but then it occurred to me that soren's way is actually better - let mads pound away at a real keyboard, getting real feedback from windows... why treat babies as second class computer users?

plus mads has discovered things that soren wouldn't have even thought to look for... i think mads should be put on the payroll as software tester...

baby keyboard

more star wars inspired stuff

peddle power personal submarine

i'm pretty sure i saw obe wan, qui-gon, and jarjar riding in one of these on their way to a gungan city, but i don't remember them having to peddle it...

are remote controlled helicopters robots?

maybe they are, maybe they aren't... but they're still pretty neat, especially when they're really tiny... here's videos of 2 that have been in the news... the smaller one looks it's body is made out of a big paper clip...

small helicopter, even smaller helicopter

those poor germans!

i know some folks would actually like this - a german invention that complains when you lift the toilet seat... the idea is to stop men from peeing while standing (which is funny considering there are also inventions to allow women to do the very same thing)...

lift the toilet seat and you get berated by a machine... hmmm... either there will be a lot more guys sitting down to urinate, or there will be a lot more urine on the toilet seat... i'm guessing the latter...

story

just saying it is fun

co-ed jello wrestling in antarctica

more robots!

robo battle video 1, robo battle video 2 and walking crab robot video for your viewing pleasure...

olympic cartoon

if the olympics were this entertaining, i'd definitely pay more attention to them...

olympics

pure advertizing gold

no words needed

sometimes an ad idea comes along that's so good it doesn't need words... strange then that this one isn't officially endorsed by the product's creators...


source

for people who had no intention of getting on their flight

get a load of this . . . mp3 player... i'm sorry that the makers chose to advertize their mp3-player-in-an-AK47-clip product using a woman in a camoflage bikini and carrying (you guessed it) an AK47 (so this is probably not safe for work), but the concept alone - i mean come on, who in their right mind thinks they'll actually be able to go anywhere with this mp3 player?

Kalashnikov in MP3

stranger than fiction

the title of the page speaks for itself... but some of the pictures have to be seen to be believed...
Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness

robots!

robots, robots, robots!

i like robots the way some kids like ninjas... that's all i can manage to verbalize at this time...

robots!

a day worth noting

anyone uninterested in the tiny details of my life, skip to the next entry...

friday, party day at andrew's place... friday the 13th part 2... part 1 was back in february or something and we all stayed indoors but not this time... big backyard bbq with all the fixings... andrew was a little anxious at first about not being better prepared when i got there but really, even when i'm late (which i was) i'm early (which i was) - by the time people really started flooding in everything was running smoothly... his co-host and one of two house-mates lisa, with her candle light idea, attention to ambiance, and somewhat shameless promotion of her friends as being 'available' ([ahem] she might not have used those precise words) seemed to be rather clearly trying to create an environment where people would be more inclined to 'hook-up'... and it seemed like ravi may have been heading in just that direction if certain [ahem] 'obstacles' hadn't gotten in the way... i, of course, did not 'hook-up', much to mariann's dismay i'm sure... dismay in the 'disappointed cheering section' sense that is - what were you thinking?... mariann was with someone (i must not ask the right questions on those rare occasions when i get to chat with her 'cause i never get the best details) and andrew was right, i would never have been able to guess who it was even with the hint that it was someone from compublox... there weren't many unmarried guys at compublox, even fewer now, and what would otherwise seem like the best bet has gone home to his beloved PEI and i can't really see him coming back...

anyways, unlike the first party where i was basically on my own surrounded by people i'd never met before a good chunk of the time (the only one there i knew was andrew and he had too many guests to hang out with me all evening, but i'm certainly not complaining - it was interesting and fun) this one had a whole bunch of my old friends, many of whom i hadn't seen in some time (9 months in minh's case) so instead of spending quality time with strangers i opted instead to spend the time catching up with my friends (who knows when i'll get a chance to again), meeting furrukh's 'partner in crime' and hearing the story of how they met, finding out minh's expecting his wife to finally arrive this wednesday and that now he's got to find a new place to live 'cause that tiny little bedroom in stan's basement is too small for 2 people (my words, not his)... i originally thought i'd make better use of my time amongst strangers, but oh well - maybe next time...

so what if it stretches and bends - they should be calling it 'shiney rubber'

the mind boggles a the volume of possibilities for a rubbery material that can conduct electricity... especially for any kind of folding electronics...

Popular Science | A Limber Future

i knew it!

i always knew aromatherapy was all about strange smelling stuff, now i have the proof...

osCommerce - Smell My Nuts

that's right, a candle in a mason jar with a label that says "smell my nuts"... i don't think it can get any stranger than that, can it?

you killed my webcam! you bastard!

ummm, right... so there's this webcam that looks like kenny from south park...

but wait, there's more... if you don't like a webcam that looks like kenny from south park, it's got lots of outfits you can dress it up in... even a little mexican number with a miniature sombrero...

your chihuahua would be so jealous...

I4U News - Sombrero Wearing USB Webcam 352 Review

i can resist no longer!

i didn't want to give in, really, but i couldn't help it - it's funny and it's catchy and probably everyone in the free world (and some of the not so free parts) have seen it but i don't care... it's that good...

this land

hillside fall down, go boom

i don't know what it is about natural disaster videos, but i like 'em... if you hadn't guessed this is a news story (with video) of a landslide from probably one of the better perspectives - on the hillside about 100 meters from the slope that slipped...

look ma, those trees are on an escalator...

Atlanta,Georgia,11Alive,ATLANTA,News,Weather,Doppler,sports,events

sigh...

i miss fireworks... i wish we had fireworks more often... i guess i'll just have to be satisfied with things like this...

Albino Blacksheep / Games / Fireworks: JHANABI

if you fart in the matrix, does it have a smell?

ok, i admit it... i occasionally like bathroom humour... i like spoofs even more... put them together and what do you get?

The Fartrix

it almost makes me want to go to an art gallery

this is a computer video of a pretty neat moving sculpture... i'm not exactly the biggest appreciator of art but i like this...

Greyworld Movies

MSN Web Messenger

MSN Web Messenger

ummm... yeah... that's pretty neat - too bad it doesn't get people around those nasty firewalls that keep them from using msn in the first place...

and i can't imagine it'll stay free for long... this is microsoft, after all...

if only there were one of these in toronto

if you've taken a look at my feet, or rather my shoes, lately then you'd know i need new ones... in fact you'd probably suspect that i've needed new ones for years... shoe shopping is such a pain in the butt, though... it's really not convenient at all...

how should we, as an innovative society solve this dilemma? why with sneaker vending machines of course!

Sneaker vending machine - Engadget - www.engadget.com

too funny!

don't look if you're easily offended (or if you're at work), but if that doesn't apply to you or your situation then check this out... falsies for men! (and i am potentially using the term loosely [which term?])

EMPOWERED PRODUCTS - The Bulge^TM

now that's tough

i've heard of tough vehicles before, but it's always been lipservice... they never really displayed how tough it was... until now...
the timex of trucks

it's amazing what some people can do with those little bricks

this really looks like you could put strings on it and play it... that is, if you knew how to play such things...

nef's gallery :: Lego Guitar

where's mark hammel when you need him

this moon-sized, ummmm, moon bears a striking similarity to something luke skywalker destroyed in a galaxy far, far away...

Cassini-Huygens-Multimedia-Images

i want me one of these

how cool would that be to live in a house that's a spherical bubble floating on the water...

just one thing, though... i think i'd like at least a couple rooms to be not quite so transparent... you know, like the bedroom and bathroom... some things i'm just not ready to share with the world yet...

ThisisLondon

gross!!

have you ever thought to yourself "gee, wouldn't it be nice to have clothing and accessories made out of (hopefully) fake human skin"?

if so, you and these people need to get far away from me, cause i think i'm going to spew...

SkinBag

the REAL big brother

this has nothing to do with that lame reality tv show i know you watch (or does it?), this is related more to the unadulterated form of the concept that that reality show bastardized...

coming to a country called the united states near you...

ACLU - Pizza

great observation...

i just overheard an observation on tv that really bears repeating...

a difference between adults and kids when it comes to new things - adults often are unhappy with their beginner skills, they expect more from themselves than they're able to deliver while kids are generally happy with everything they do...

now i happen to know i was a perfectionist kid (to the point of not talking around other people until i had practised and perfected normal human speech) but i can definitely see where this sort of thing can inhibit one's enjoyment and personal growth... it's important to have realistic expectations when it comes to things we've never done before and it's important to not beat ourselves up over our failures...

the future i want no part of

i guess genetic engineering is probably unavoidable but hopefully we can do it with a little more taste than is displayed here... that one with the tongues is just sooooo creepy...

GenieCorp (TM) | WE ADD SPLICE TO LIFE (TM)

i like the way micheal moore thinks

maybe you've read about it but now you can see and hear him say it... micheal moore doesn't have a problem with file sharing...

micheal moore on file sharing

you're off to see the wizard . . .

ok... apparently it's not entirely clear to some people that when a cop asks you your name and why you hit someone with a battle axe you should put your dice down and leave your dungeons and dragons attitude at the door...

the wizard

sad... very sad...

microsoft patents the idea of making us want to watch more tv - the clear and overwhelming lack of prior art (everybody else seems to be driving us away from tv) must be the reason this patent was granted...

all hail microsoft...

United States Patent: 6,766,524

somebody just doesn't get it

first the preamble - google owns blogger (this free blog hosting service)... google bought picasa, a company with an image hosting service and p2p software to allow you to share images, add them to your blog, etc...

but come on... installing p2p software in order to add pictures to a blog?

these folks have much simpler solution... a simple web page for uploading pictures that you can direct link to or whatever you want (they even provide you with the code for the most common types of image linking)... see my previous entry for an example...

ImageShack (TM) - Hosting

the only downside i can see is the problem of organizing your images... no folders, no way to rename the files, just a flat list of numbered filenames... still quite usable, though... this is the kind of simplicity an image hosting service should have...

and y'know what? that's just one of many free, simple, web based image hosting services... check out this directory of free image hosts with descriptions and reviews...

he's not a cat, he's a chicken

never have i ever seen a cat back away from a squirrel... never until peeler...

he doesn't back away from me, though...

ummm... if she has a baby bipedal monkey, can we name him ceasar?

it's like something out of the movies, with a twist... a monkey who walks upright on 2 legs because of suspected brain damage...

so that's what happened to us...

Yahoo! News - Monkey Apes Humans by Walking on Two Legs

well what do you know...

y'know, i've seen the odd picture that tries to test whether or not you have a dirty mind and i've always managed to see the dirty image first until now... apparently the dodge truck logo is really a representation of the female reproductive system with nostrils...

Dodge's Vagina Emblem

wow...

for $100 you can have your very own walking/running/dancing/throwing/farting/belching robot...

interesting movie preview of the toy, but why make a robot that farts?

ThinkGeek :: Robosapien

this man scares me

[cartman voice]he has warped my fragile little mind[/cartman voice]...

go ahead, view the site, but don't do it just before bed - i can't be held responsible for any nightmares that might ensue...

The Ligher Side of Trach Life

and the future of robots is . . .

. . . tim burton?

wow, that looks so much like something out of "The Nightmare Before Christmas"...

Living Creatures Homepage

here's another gadget

i like it when someone comes along and turns traditional design on it's head... here's a printer that prints on partially rolled up paper in order to significantly cut down the form factor of the printer... it looks to be about the size of a coffee mug... i'd definitely call that a portable printer...

Design Explorations

don't you love skirting around the issue?

so there's this 'ray gun' that can stop newer model cars by disrupting the electronics in them... it shoots 'radio' waves that induce electrical surges in the electronic components...

have i heard of this before? sure - it sounds an aweful lot like an electro-magnetic pulse (radio waves are part of the electro-magnetic spectrum)... so they've developed an EMP gun but they don't want to call it an EMP gun because? maybe it has something to do with the perceived connection EMP weapons seem to share with weapons of mass destruction...

Car chase zapper to end OJ-style chases - Engadget - www.engadget.com

i never thought they'd try this in the 'civilized' world

the science museum in london is thinking about generating it's own electricity using poo... (no pictures, i promise)

Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage

it's a great idea and i hope they go through with it... i just never thought i'd see anything like that outside of a 3rd world country... poo is generally something no one in the industrialized world wants to deal with... we're mostly too full of ourselves to get our hands that dirty...

i wonder

you remember that jackie chan movie, not too long ago, called "tuxedo"? i wonder if that tux came with a pair of these...

Cufflinks World Compass and Thermometer Cufflinks

i love gadgets

ok, so maybe it's just me but it seems like earphones that can be turned into speakers (*earphones* remember, not headphones or something big a clunky) seems like just about the ultimate in portable speakers...

now if i could only figure out why they called them "earhorns"...

Earhorns! - Engadget - www.engadget.com

braille t-shirts - what could possibly go wrong?

i wasn't trying to cop a feel, really i wasn't... i was just trying to read your t-shirt...

notvanilla braille t-shirts and wearable art; provocative, touchable and interactive.

i like me some optical illusions

Backwards City: Our Brains Don't Work

yum... i wonder what happens when you put these CD's in the microwave...

PCWorld.com - Corn-Based CDs Delayed

in other news, hungry dogs give chase to edible cars...

holy starwars, batman!

what do you get when you cross a motorcycle and a hovercraft?

Get your real live jetbike right here - Engadget - www.engadget.com

wouldn't you like to be a pepper too?

well i think we all know what happens when you leave a tooth in a cup of pepsi or coke for an extended period, but this is just bizarre...

dr. pepper safety warning

this goes out to all you people who think superman is just the greatest . . .

Matthew Craig - The Blog!: SUPER-DUDES!!!!!!!!!!!

[edit]
ack! the link died... ok, try this...
[/edit]

watch your head...

when you're driving around in some sort of crane-type contraption, don't you think it would be a good idea to be careful while driving under power lines?

nbc4columbus.com - News - Vehicle Becomes Tangled In Power Lines

what's a good way to say . . .

. . . something that isn't quite so good? with a euphemism of course...

The Always Amusing Euphemism Generator

i am research man!

i've been spending some late nights, recently, trying to find some useful information and tools with regards to RSS and related technologies...

so one of the problems i've encountered with RSS is finding a feed for a particular site, so imagine my excitement when i found an online service that performs RSS Discovery when given a url... very cool in theory, unfortunately it doesn't seem to find the feeds for sites even when i can...

a worse problem one faces is when there is no feed for a particular site... does that mean we give up? heck no, it means we need to find a way to make an RSS feed for a site that doesn't have one - it's called 'scraping'... MyRSS.com has an automated service for generating feeds for sites but so far the one i tried hasn't been very successful, probably because it's completely automated - i could pay to have the scraping hand-optimized, which should definitely improve the situation, but i haven't given up on finding a free solution yet... ScrapedFeeds.com seems to be that solution, though i haven't tried it yet - but it is a manual operation and it's free (though the guy behind the operation could definitely use some donations)...

in the process of looking for feed scraping services i found RSSgenr8 which generates an RSS feed for a user specified site if that site contains suitable tags for picking out individual items... it's not much of a help so far as scraping arbitrary sites is concerned, but it should allow one to create an RSS feed for their own web pages since one generally has some degree of control over the tag content of your own page...

no discussion of RSS would be complete without talking about RSS readers/aggregators... i've tried some applications for reading feeds but ultimately was unimpressed... then it occurred to me to look for online aggregator services and i found Bloglines.com (and a few others but i liked this one best)... Bloglines has a lot of nice features like the ability to save news item clippings or the ability to do RSS discovery, it even does free blog hosting (though i think i'll stick with blogger.com)... the best part is that i can read my subscriptions from any computer, not just one where i have a reader installed... the benefit of running an RSS aggregator locally is that i could use it to read feeds that i scrape myself (using something like this) but for me that just doesn't beat the convenience of web based aggregator services...

future darwin award contender, i'm sure...

how many wrong things can you do in the same place at the same time? this guy went for gold by driving the wrong way on a one way street while naked from the waist down while watching kiddie porn on his laptop that he was downloading over stolen wireless network access...

if life imitates art then this was a comedy of errors, starring a very flawed individual...

Winnipeg Sun: NEWS - Man takes wrong turn

wow, it's a robot!

wait, no, it's a kit... wait, no it's a robot kit!... build your own android, how cool is that?

Wow Robot KHR-1

an idea whose time has come (i hope)

why don't we see more japanese designs in north america? i think we're really missing out... take this one for instance, this is a seriously good idea for redesigning power cord plugs... and i'm certain it could be done in north america... so what are we waiting for?

ring plug

leonard nemoy sings!

some things just don't stand the test of time... this is definitely one of those things... leonard nemoy music videos, oh my...

The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins

need something to kill time with?

then you're reading the right blog entry... try this simple game for size..

GameRival - Free Online Games!

number 5 is alive!

and i will gleefully kiss the ground our new robotic overlords roll over, and of course i'll help wipe the bums of their cute little baby robots...

MSNBC - Air Force testing robots as security guards

the idea i never had

well, it's nice to know there really are still some new things under the sun... i think this is cool for no other reason than i have never thought of it or anything like it before... chairs made of dirt with grass growing on them... make sure you arrange them right the first time, though...

Terra Grass Armchair

how cool is this?

y'know, there was a time when i was forever coming up with ideas for strange and unusual things - not the least of which being a home made flame thrower... mine wasn't nearly as involved as this one, though...

The Awful Forums - Homegrown PVC flamethrower (56k image heavy)

i'll frag to the finish 'cause my laptop eats spinach...

oh, man! they beat me to it... i had the idea of using plant material to generate power through photosynthesis years ago when i was in highschool but i couldn't do anything about it...

Could laptops run on spinach?: Solar cells turn over a new leaf.

this is rather ingenious

origami cameras... real cameras made out of folded paper...

it's probably not waterproof though...

IdNProShop | Product Details

sim teen?

i don't know what it is but i can seem to put it away...

Avatar High

off-colour wackiness

this is a rather bizarre test of your ability to tell the difference between dog toys and marital aids... see if you can be trusted to care for the dog...

D O G T O Y :or: M A R I T A L A I D - You decide.

ways to freak out a cat

try making a low hissing noise (pretend like you have a slow leak) continuously for as long as you can in the cat's presence.... it only works the first couple of times but the look on the cat's face as it tries to figure out what happened to you will be priceless...

and thus was born the sniper paparazzi

a digital camera with a 30X zoom, so you can get closeups for madonna from a mile away...

it's called a digital camera scope, and it really does look like it should be mounted on something... hmmm... maybe assassins will use this to prove they've made their kill-shot?

AkibaLive: The Kowa TD-1 Reappears

file this under "not exactly useless"

maybe it's because i'm a guy and i take the (supposed) luxury of being able to pee while standing up for granted (easily done when you consider mens washrooms typically don't have any kind of dividers between the urinals - yeah, very luxurious), but i can't see this being a big hit with the ladies...

female pee-while-standing aid

wherefore art thou, neo?

guess which evil empire has taken the next step in creating "The Matrix"...

Microsoft patents body power | CNET News.com

would you like to surf while you surf?

a wifi capable laptob embedded in a surfboard... so where are the foot controls? and how do i find a hotspot when i'm in the ocean?...

BBC NEWS | Technology | Surf the net while surfing waves

so how bored are you?

not as bored as these people, i'm sure... painting a baseball over and over again for 27 years so that now it's a 1,300lb ball of paint takes boredom to a whole new level...

BALL OF PAINT

ummm... i don't get it....

ok, so aside from the fact that it seems like it's laser day, this gadget has me a little confused... adding lasers to thing don't make them magically better (well, maybe some things they do, but not just anything)...

the site says it makes your hair thicker and fuller - uh huh, like hair is a plant that grows better in certain types of light... hello, i'm mr. chia head...

laser comb

the force is strong with this one

somehow, not quite as menacing as the ones in the movies... maybe size has something to do with it...

megalaser, the worlds brightest green laser pointer

gentlemen, set your phasers on 'stun' - wide dispersion

Defense Tech: NEXT-GEN STUN GUNS TARGET CROWDS

i'm sure glad i wasn't anywhere near this

couldn't find a picture but i'm sure the mental image is enough for this one to send shivers down your spine...
ABCNEWS.com : Truck Carrying 9 Million Bees Spills in Mont.

hows this for convenience

no longer do you have to get out of your car and walk into the restaurant to rob the joint at gunpoint... just drive up to a conveniently located drive-thru robbery portal, reach inside, and take them for everything they've got...

local6.com - News - Man Climbs Through Drive-Through Window, Robs Restaurant

if you're finding breathing too easy...

... then maybe you should try one of these on for size... just strap it on to your face and make believe you're on a mountain top where the air is thin...

and people around you can make believe you have too many dollars and not enough sense...

Altipower Personal Hypoxicator

this just defies classification

i normally like stuff that has pictures (oooh, look at the pretty
pictures) but this one stands on it's own even without the graphic (in
fact the graphic would probably have been too graphic)...

company forced to move due to neighbour's simulated beastiality with simulated beasts

[edit]
i hate it when things expire... try this...
[/edit]

what a rip off...

"how can the government spend $500 on a hammer?" you say? by purchasing it from people like this...

The $6,700 Power Cord

nifty quote

"it may be that your sole purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others"

hmmm... i can't wait to use that in context...

looks like fun

cooking implement or tobogan? you be the judge...

chiseen | Wok Boarding

slippery when frozen

Hilarious Funny Pictures - Weird, Strange, and Funny Pictures

KILL BILL

you've seen the movie, now play the flash online game - the bride vs. the crazy 88... kill 'em all!

KILL BILL

cops - we can rebuild them... we have the technology... we can make them faster, stronger...

ok, so this is just cgi, but it looks SO real... check it out...

Tetra Vaal Robot - realistic 3D animation - Analogik

i could tell you what this is about but then i'd have to kill you

click me

i don't care if it fulfills a need or not...

the japanese have come up with tetra-pack containers (drink boxes for those of us who don't know the technical term for every mundane thing under the sun) that look and feel like the fruit the juice they contain came from...

the japanese are therefore officially cool...

Sourcefruit Juiceboxes

not so little...

do snails make you feal uneasy?

how about if they were as big as a child's head?
newsobserver.com | News

sad but true

y'know it really says something about the society that we have created when one comes to the realization that men need women to enable them to meet other women...

it's sad, it really is... apparently men on their own (or worse, in a group) are considered less approachable/desirable than if there's a woman in the mix... this does not bode well...

Wingwomen.com

here's a news article with a first person account (from the enabler's perspective) of how it works...

story

just when you'd thought you'd heard of everything

and you thought the swedish chef was weird - look out for these guys, who knows what they'll think of next...

RedNova News: Swedish Packing Researchers Build Cardboard Piano

so that's where morning breath comes from...

please folks, please teach your kids which end is up... cuddling up with the family pooch just isn't the same, otherwise...

Filesoup Forums -> Ever wonder where "morning breath" comes from?

"Jackass"ery

the anti-climactic story of a bunch of guys, a speeding car, 40lbs of popcorn and a video camera...


lets make popcorn angels

geek alert!

super heroes face off - who beats who?

my favourite line: the hulk's one major weakness - he's a dumbass...

Comic Book Duels - Superman vs. Thor

ummmm... okay...

there are apparently some very industrious folks out there who can figure out how to make a buck off of anything... case in point - imaginary girlfriends...

Imaginary Girlfriends - Find Your New Imaginary Girlfriend Today!

turn your shower head into a flash ligh - neato!

ok, so here's the question... why not use this same principle to power a small heating element in the shower head and thereby get more hot water for less overall cost?

Energy

have you ever felt not quite clean?

well, maybe our friends in japan can lend a hand - or better yet, their technology...

Toto's Techno Toilet Tomorrow

i must be a geek 'cause i think this is neat

did you know that you can build a mechanical computer (as opposed to an electronic one) capable of solving polynomial equations out of Meccano?

Robinson's Difference Engine

Robinson's Differential Analyzer

cats gone wild

kitty bloopers

seat-in-a-box

it's not terribly humourous but it is rather interesting to see what people come up with when faced with an unusual challenge...

CITY Magazine: UN_FOLD

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

great, now i want a house so i can put one of these in it...

Spiral Stair Slide

this is a whole new level of GEEKness

windows 95 and/or 98se on a pocket pc thanks to a DOS emulator?

so, what exactly is the justification for those lame cut down apps called pocket word and pocket excel? clearly the pocket pc is powerful enough to run the real thing.

PocketGamer - Windows 95 makes it to Pocket PC

this is too cool...

for those of you who get embarrassed easily and wish you could blend into the background, that dream is just around the corner... check out optical camoflage...

Optical Camoflage picture

there's a movie on my chest 2

more companies making shirts with monitors in them - this time with pictures... looks more like video sandwich board to me...

adwalker : wearable.media.solutions

there's a movie on my chest and everyone's invited

t-shirts with embedded 11 inch monitors and speakers playing movie trailers - because just wearing someone's logo doesn't make you enough of a brand-whore anymore...

i wish i could have found a picture so i can find out if they're using that new OLED display technology... i just can't imagine how you could put an 11 inch monitor into a t-shirt with conventional monitors... even a laptop-like LCD screen would be a stretch...

Hollywoodreporter.com

[edit]

i found pictures! yay!
multi-media shirts

ummm....

ok so, i remember that once upon a time there was a joke about gamers heading towards over-developed digits (usually thumbs) as a result of excessive gaming... so, should we expect the same thing if we game with our tongues?

i leave it as an exercise for the reader to imagine all the unusual and suggestive places this could lead...

Tongue Boy SP

if you ask me, there are too many exposed circuits for me to feel comfortable using my tongue with that setup - but maybe i'm just a drooler...

file this under "too much free time on their hands"

[sarcasm] golly i wonder what it would be like to work for the company that patented the butt-kicking machine [/sarcasm]

US engineers perfect butt-kicking machine | The Register

drip...drip...drip...

i've got a water problem... it's not a leaky faucet, or a busted pipe (well there is a busted pipe but that's not the problem at hand), no it's condensation...

condensation is forming on the cold water pipe leading to the downstairs bathroom at my place and dripping down all over everything... so in my typical style i thought to myself how can i solve this with the contents of my trash bin... hey, that's what you do when you're trying to be ingenius - you look at problems in an odd way...

paper... yes, i have a fair amount of paper in my garbage at the moment because i cleaned my desk... i'm going to try wrapping paper around the pipe and see what happens... the paper should absorb the water, the capillary action should help keep it more evenly distributed around the circumference of the pipe and the greater surface area should aid in it's evaporation... it's an experiment, i'm going to see what happens...

and you thought scientists were dull and boring people

well, ok - they are... but with the right catalyst who knows what might precipitate...

Molecules with Silly or Unusual Names

beware of tourists

yes those smiling, camera toting visitors may just decide to turn their disposable cameras into stun guns as described here:

TechTV | Dark Tip: Reach Out and Zap Someone

who likes puzzles?

i like puzzles... and apparently this guy does too... so much so he expanded the standard rubik's cube problem to the point of figuring out how to make a robot solve a scrambled cube....

JP Brown's Serious LEGO - CubeSolver

do you ever worry . . .

. . . that you're a crummy parker - that you didn't pull in far enough, or the car is a little crooked, or you tapped the bumper of the car in front of you? well, this picture really puts things in perspective...

really bad parking

is that a PDA in a PEN?

Universal Display Corporation

do i want it? you betcha!... and who wouldn't? a screen the rolls up in to a pen-like form factor is very cool and a lot more portable than what we've got right now...

yes, you read that right, a screen that rolls up...

oh, the memories - whatever happened to wonderful tv content like this?

"Gritty Kitty ain't so pretty,
But it's really thick.
It fills my cat box oh so snug;
It always does the trick.

I like to rub it on my toes
And squish and squish and squish!
It rare offends my tender nose,
Like a smelly fish!


Its texture is a joy to me,
It's just as smooth as silk.
It makes my little whiskers twitch;
It stays crunchy, even in milk!

I may not be the President,
I may not be the Pope,
But as long as I have Gritty Kitty,
I shall never mope!"

ren & stimpy, where are you? i need some rubber nipples to protect me from harmful UV rays while i touch nasty disgusting things...

Do not go gentle into that good night - Dylan Thomas

y'know, there's something kinda neat about getting to hear a famous poem recited by the author (even if it is a recording)....

here's another
The road not taken - Robert Frost

music makers weigh in on file sharing

as if anyone really gave a rat's ass about the health of the RIAA... the folks who really matter are the ones who make the music, the artists...

How do musicians feel about file sharing?

special delivery?

Man sent gun instead of MP3 player

i wonder what the audio quality was like, and where is the headphone jack... maybe you're just supposed to hold it up to your ear and press play...

it's about time we got us some Droids

Dyson UK - Find out about DCO6 and how it works.

come on, you know you want it...

walls are hard - don't collide with them

yes, i ran into a wall today... had a good laugh about it too - i mean how many grown 'people' run into walls? it's one thing to walk into a door, but to run into a wall?

well, i was playing with the cat... running after him (because he likes to run and i like to make sure he has motivation to do so) down a hallway parallel with a staircase... normally at the end i grab the banister to do a 180 (with a couple of one-footed sliding hops - very cartoony, i know) only this time (for whatever reason) i missed the banister and whack! right into the wall... just call me Wile E Coyote...

from the "oh, i'm goin' to hell for this one" category

jesus christ action figure

now with walk-on-water action!

hey, if you save everyone (by, say, dying for our sins) then you're a hero, and heros deserve to be immortalized as action figures...

from the "some people just have too much time on their hands" category

Math Trek: Riding on Square Wheels, Science News Online, April 3, 2004

someone told me once i should make a list, maybe that's what's happening here... maybe i'm making a list of all the crazy wacky things i've seen...

another from the "i'm speechless" category

CAUTION!!!

careful there, if you have delicate sensibilities you don't want to click this link...

oh heck, if you have delicate sensibilities you probably don't want to be reading this blog... there is no telling what you'll find here...

otherwise click away and see if you can remember the original jingle...

[credit goes to minh for passing this one on to me]

perfect your t-shirt folding technique

Best T-shirt folder on the planet

i had to check this out, and now you have to check this out - wow, she's good... if i master this it'll make laundry day go a lot faster...

now if someone will just show me a trick to folding boxer-briefs...

from the "i'm speechless" category

banana phone

it's just... it's just...

i don't know how to describe it without doing it an injustice... all i can say is this is one of the things i love about the web...

Care and Handling of CDs and DVDs: A Guide for Librarians and Archivists

[kyle's mom] what, what, WHAT!? [/kyle's mom]

i'm shocked, simply shocked to learn that cd's and dvd's don't last forever (or at least until the heat death of the universe)... and no, this isn't even proton decay, it's a simple physical breakdown of the materials and bonds present in our favourite optical medium...

Stop spam with Sneakemail 2.0, the spam stopper, disposable email, forwarding, spam filter service

this is actually a pretty neat service... what you do is, when you're registering with some website that you don't know you can trust with your real email address, you open another window and login to sneakemail and create a throw-away address for this particular registration...

the site then has an address at which they can reach you (since the emails are passed on to your real address) and you can reply to emails you receive without giving away your real address (since your replies are passed on to the recipient through sneakemail), and if at some point you find the the sneakemail address was leaked to spammers you can delete it without giving up your real email address... it's perfect!

why is there no advanced filtering for newsgroup posts in mozilla? you can choose from a variety of headers and even define custom ones for email, but for newgroups you're stuck with subject and sender and that's it...

hardly sufficient to deal net abuse in usenet...

Learn How to Speak Irish Gaelic!

why? because it's an endangered language, silly...

and i said "let there be blog" and there was and it was guid.