January 2006 Entries
‘‘It wasn’t some yahoo stunt,’’ Pierre said. ‘‘I chose to do it so it would open up doors so I could witness my faith in Christianity.’’
About 100 feet into the jump, Nielsen said Pierre couldn’t keep his skis under him and went upside down. He landed headfirst and blew a hole 6 feet deep into the snow. [newspaper report]
Stolen from somehwere I can't remember: Looks more like 244
[via BrennanG]
Everyone, literally everyone is talking about the Arctic Monkeys.
Here’s my review: I think the lyrics are inventive and clever and I love the way he says “füking”, but I wish it was musically a little more adventurous.
Now playing: Arctic Monkeys - When The Sun Goes Down
Technical note: Do you know how to add accented characters in Windows on a standard English installation and US Keyboard?
The easy way is to go to all programs, accessories, system tools, character map, select the character, hit the select button and copy, then paste it where you need it.
The hard way...
Mythbusters is a good show. For those who don’t know, it is on the Discovery channel where these two guys, Jamie and Adam, special-effects experts, recreate urban legends and various myths testing whether they are “busted”, “plausible” or “confirmed”. It is like a live-action Snopes or Straight Dope. I’ve seen them all and it fulfills my geeky TV quota nicely. In my favorite episode they prove that it is completely plausible that the escape from Alcatraz via rubber boats made from prison issue raincoats could have happened for example.
The thing is, the show really makes me want to move to San...
Mike Gunderloy who writes the useful Daily Grind tacked on this little blurb on Windows Vista in # 803
Manuel Clement and Robert Scoble team up to bring us a list of reasons to upgrade from Windows XP, complete with Channel 9 video links. Some of these have got to be jokes … I personally won't be upgrading, … (because I optimize for getting my work done, not for eye candy). … Microsoft is on the verge of releasing an OS that is pretty much irrelevant to me. If you're still playing the cutting-edge game, I hope you enjoy it.
I’m glad I...
Alien Skin Software has released a new plugin set called Exposure, which can reproduce the look and feel of specific types of film stock. "Simulate the warmth and softness of real world film, both color and black and white. Reproduce realistic film grain, and simplify your digital photography workflow."
[via Unofficial Photoshop Blog]
I had just yesterday been thinking about the need for this tool.
As I was browsing this photographer’s Flickr site, I noticed that I could tell which photos were digital and which were film. There doesn’t seem to be EXIF information, so I can’t validate whether I was right...
I recently had to dust off the programming skills for a small project at work. The type of thing I was doing was really well suited to the new GridView and other productivity stuff in ASP.NET 2.0, so that’s where I turned.
After a too long interval where I browsed the various quickstart sites and not really getting anywhere on my project, I went to brick and mortar Barnes & Nobles and bought the 1253 page behemoth Professional edition from Wrox.
The interesting thing here is my project falls in the “simple” category of web development yet this book wasn’t...
Today’s blogger conspiracy theory:
The administration purposefully made Medicare D a terrible program to “prove” that government run healthcare is a bad idea in general.
That’s Ben, that’s a steep field of pure virgin snow behind him. We skied this same bowl all day long. There was a medium hike up to it, but a nasty, long traverse on the way out that kept the un-hearty and snowboarders out (not that I have a problem with snowboarders, I’m one myself 50% of the time). This was the North Country area of Crystal Mountain in Washington State.
This place has just been receiving dump-truck loads of snow. 117” of accumulation at the summit. You know you are in for a good day when there is a “deep snow warning.”...
I am going to start tipping hybrid cab drivers double.
I saw my first yellow Ford Escape hybrid yesterday (actually I saw two) and decided that there ought to be some way to encourage their adoption. Since you can’t really choose your cabs very specifically, I came up with the tip idea. Since most of my rides are in the $15 and under category, this will only cost me an extra buck here and there. I feel like if drivers hear about this, they are going to be asking their cab management companies for them and definitely if they own their own...
My dad just bought the (Audiovox?) 6700 from Sprint. It is a Windows Mobile 5 device with all the fixin’s. There is a large, comfortable slide out keyboard as well as a stylus hidden in the antenna part. It can use Sprint’s high speed cell network and Wi-Fi. On and on, a high powered device.
Since I host his email domain, I wanted to get it up and running with Exchange integration. This turned out to be quite a challenge.
<Tech section>
My phone, the Audiovox SMT5600 could be set to skip strict checking of certificates on my self-created Exchange cert...
Oh my, that is sexy. The color scheme is only temporary.
Still my biggest interest/concern for the upcoming season is the sound of the new smaller V8 motor. Man I hope I don’t turn into one of those old timers that sits around going “Boy, you should have heard those V10s, now *that* is an engine.” Sigh…
One of my favorite books is NonZero: The logic of human destiny by Robert Wright. I catch his editorials whenever I can and a few weeks into it I stumbled on BloggingHeads.TV. Robert does a splitscreen video with Mickey Kaus and they discuss the issues of the day. They strike a good balance of being on different sides of particular issues, but since they are friends and have to do this over and over, are mutually respectful and try debate with genuine (intellectual) authenticity.
They do these in about 30 minutes, but if you select the Podcast/Download link on the bottom left that looks like...
spinningplates
Originally uploaded by nuwanda.
Check me.
One of my neices or newphews got a spinning plates set from Santa. I set to work mastering some moves. That show-boatin' uncle Corey at it again.
The "plates" are specifically designed for this purpose and have a cone in the middle and the sticks are pointed at one end, so the spinning surface area is really small, low friction and once you get it going the "plate" spins and spins for a long time.
More or less fun than a yo-yo? Less.