Category Archives: Uncategorized

Now you can start your Christmas shopping.

Hint: it’s not your processor.

Interesting reading on Google’s gatekeeper status and free speech throughout the world.

Obama’s hurts the gullible left as he comes to the middle with his cabinet picks instead of hanging on the fringe with them.

Remember the crowbar and Half-life strategy guide that went to the Large Hadron Collider guy that looks like Gordon Freeman? Yeah, he’s put it to good use.

Hot Corners. Something Macs have always had that Windows should have had since 98.

Ultra-high definition (3673 x 1740) of the 1966 Earth-rise image.

Wallpapers. For when you’re bored with your Deviant Art stuff.

Square America. Fascinating.

Live Piracy Map. Check out all the pirate action on the high seas.

Humanitarian aid correspondent for What You Ought To Know. Yep, she’s hit the big-time. Next is CNN, I bet.

Anyone else notice that Amazon’s Prime 2-day shipping is almost never 2 days anymore? Since October only one of the five orders has actually gotten to me in 2 days. It’s at least 3 days and sometimes up to 5 days if weekend is involved. What’s up with that?

Can they top the original MST3K “Santa Clause Conquers the Martians”? Should they really be messing with it? I’m leary.

Internet over power lines in your house. Still a bit expensive, I say.

College student’s bonfire lit off the Montecito fire.

Germany and Italy having trouble meeting Kyoto’s requirements, decide to ignore it.

Also, *ominous music*

“Italy and Germany have grown nearer”

Yes, I ripped it out of context. It’s better that way.

It’s my birthday tomorrow. It’s not too late to get me a nice gift card.

Or, my wish list is available.

AAAGGGHHH!

Free ZoneAlarm Pro firewall .

Last week, the government announced a program that will substantially lower payments for many homeowners who have little or no equity, but only if they are at least 90 days delinquent.

You know, I could do a lot with the money I’d save not paying my mortgage. Hmm.

But what about the moral obligation to pay off a debt?

Shut up.

If you meet these requirements and can document your income, your servicer will reduce your monthly mortgage payment – including property taxes, insurance and association dues – to 38 percent of your gross income.

Ah, phooey, I’m below that already. Curse my common sense.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Schiff says. “People are going to feel like complete morons if they don’t participate. The people getting punished are the ones who never made an irresponsible decision to buy a house they couldn’t afford.”

Yep.

I realize that was all the exciting moments stuck together to attract the non-Trek audience, but I fear this movie may not be anything at all like Star Trek. 15 minutes of rebel Kirk at the beginning will make me annoyed. Which makes me sad.

Was out sick most of the week, so it’s a bit light. Sorry.

Food art.

Orwell’s diaries.

The Font Conference.

Coping with tragedy, ala James Bond. (NSFW)

If you love America, you throw money in its hole.

Iran and corn farmers are upset over the low prices of gas lately. Why weren’t they complaining in the 90s or the 80s or the first half of the 00s?

Christopher Hitchens.

Those who think that they have just voted to legalize Utopia (and I hardly exaggerate when I say this; have you been reading the moist and trusting comments of our commentariat?) are preparing for a disillusionment that I very much doubt they will blame on themselves. The national Treasury is an echoing, empty vault; our Russian and Iranian enemies are acting even more wolfishly even as they sense a repudiation of Bush-Cheney; the lines of jobless and evicted are going to lengthen, and I don’t think a diet of hope is going to cover it. Nor even a diet of audacity, though can you picture anything less audacious than the gray, safety-first figures who have so far been chosen by Obama to be on his team?

Three predictions about the Obama presidency.

Media bias matches market. Who knew they were just trying to make money? I’m shocked.

Steven DeBeste.

Michele Catalano.

Seven Post-Election questions.

McCain Malaise.

I can has a Congress?

Instapundit has some excellent advice.

Can I ask that, regardless of who wins, we tone things down a bit?

We don’t have to agree on issues, or on leaders. But if we can’t agree that a free and fair election can produce a legitimate president even when it’s not the candidate we like, then we’ve got a very serious problem.

Google’s live map.

Daily Kos has a sweet map, if going there doesn’t make your head explode.

This means I get to complain about the federal government for 4 more years.

It’s always exciting voting in Idaho. You can vote for the republican or, well, just the republicans. A few initiatives to raise taxes to raise money for roads and police and stuff and you’re done. 10 minutes max. I was #22 at 7:30am.

Oh yeah, we still use scantron sheets, so no touchscreen shenanigans to report.

I guarantee the new Three Stooges will suck. Guarantee.

Starbucks will give you a free cup of coffee for voting tomorrow. Which is probably illegal.

Amazon’s Windowshop. Nice.

MySpeed. Changes the playback speed of online videos. Great for reviews and stuff where you just wish they’d get to the point.

Stuck on a glacier with Magyver. Old, but worth revisiting.

Dead husband coffee maker review. Read the replies. I LOL’d. I almost ROFLed.

Second Light. Microsoft make Surface 3-D.

Scientists think they may have found the planet Vulcan. Which is awesome.

Sweet OLED news from Samsung.

The race is as close as Bush/Gore in the polls. Yes, I can’t wait to hear the screaming should the race be close, or, god forbid, McCain win with all the “Obama is ahead by miles” talk.

One free Taco Bell taco for you because someone stole a base in the World Series. Yay!

Amazon Windowshop. Now they need to personalize it.

Japanese Monkey rides a Segway. He has some sweet moves.

LOLdog.

Whatever You Like – Weird Al Yankovic, really captures the economic outlook of America.

Duck Confit. I probably should have saved this for after I try it, but this week or next I’m doing it.

Monster Size Selection of Awesome Photoshop Tutorials. Truly.

People raised on black and white TV dream in black and white more. That’s just weird. Brains are frightening and powerful things and who knows what they are doing up there.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc’s U.S. customers, increasingly worried about their own financial security, are waiting until they get their paychecks to buy even the most basic necessities, the retailer’s U.S. division head said on Tuesday.

What were these people using to buy basic necessities before?

5 presidential election campaigns dumber than this one. (Cracked, so NSFW)

Also, if this doesn’t cure you of believing the pundits when they say this is the most divisive time politically in America’s history, nothing will. Really, more divisive than the 1850-1860s?

I point this out purely for the awesomeness of this line:

So basically you can have the First Amendment and the Second Amendment but don’t try to combine the two into one freedom peanut butter cup….

I think a year or two of Obama will cure them. On the other hand, maybe they just want 4 years of column fodder. Clever.

Disposable diapers easier on the environment carbon-wise, probably still not as easy on the landfills. The British government isn’t happy about this though I’m not sure why they are so emotionally invested in what diapers their citizens use.

Mark Steyn on Joe the Plumber.

Anyway, our Fact Check Unit ran the numbers on the Obama tax-cut plan and the number is correct: “95.” It’s the words “percent” immediately following that are wrong: that’s a typing error accidentally left in from the first draft. It should read: Under the Obama plan, 95 of the American people will get a tax cut.

So inside the Beltway types admit indirectly what outside the Beltway people suspect: That Washington, DC is run by people who believe IN Washington, DC. Government is the answer whether you are John McCain or Mike Huckabee or Hillary Clinton or, most of all, Barack Obama. It is just a matter of degree. No one believes Joe The Plumber is the answer. No one trusts Joe The Plumber. No one trusts Joe The Plumber except that he needs to pay his taxes to fund their pet projects. Joe needs to learn his place and be patriotic and do his civic duty–which is to pay to keep the Beltway folks in power.

Link

A horse stuck in a tree ala Winnie the Pooh.

The Spyderco Whale Rescue blade: I’ve heard it cut through a 2 inch synthetic rope in 2 seconds.

Peter Gunn: That’s some quality TV, Lou. On top of having the awesomest theme song EVAR.

People take advantage of Hawaii’s universal children’s health care.

A state official said families were dropping private coverage so their children would be eligible for the subsidized plan.

Let’s think about Obama’s healthcare plan and see if we can predict what will happen.

Alaskan glaciers grow.

For the first time in the area’s recorded history, area glaciers have begun to expand, rather than shrink. Summer temperatures, which were some 3 degrees below average, allowed record levels of winter snow to remain much longer, leading to the increase in glacial mass.

Joe the Plumber is getting hammered.

Stills from the new Star Trek movie.

The ship looks pretty cool, except for Uhura’s station, what is she playing an Atari 2600 over there? But not at all like TOS.

Small banks say no to government money.

Community banking executives around the country responded with anger yesterday to the Bush administration’s strategy of investing $250 billion in financial firms, saying they don’t need the money, resent the intrusion and feel it’s unfair to rescue companies from their own mistakes.

But regulators said some banks will be pressed to take the taxpayer dollars anyway.

You take this money now or else!

Some perspective on the nature of American government.

Politics has no ultimate victor. It has no final, decisive battle. It just goes on and on, like soap operas and Law and Order.

If guys want the annoyance that is wearing pantyhose, more power to them. I foresee this dying out quickly.

To all those that said gas would never drop below $100/barrel or $3.00/gallon and that we would soon all be walking and the world would come to a screeching halt.

Remember this as you consider the future of the stock market and the US economy. Just like people who thought the good times would never end were wrong, those that think the bad times will never end will be wrong too.

No Christmas music until the day after Thanksgiving. This is something Congress should be working on, not that stupid bailout stuff.

xkcd – The Universe to scale

Windirstat – Find those pesky files that are wasting your drive space. I freed up 7GB in one fell swoop.

Mock Porchetta – Aww, yeah. I used a picnic shoulder, didn’t use capers and sorta just guestmated herb amounts, but it’s a fabulous thing to do with shoulder.

Great Fark Headline – who cares what the story was.

ESV Study Bible: Coming October 15th. I like how the ESV does verbs, very clear.

Mother’s Cookies is going under.

Does this mean no more Circus Animal cookies? I don’t think I want to live in a world without Circus Animal cookies.

The stock market’s history with bull and bear markets clearly marked.

The market sucks because it’s October.

LA Times blogger gets pwned over her complete lack of knowledge of firearms. Some of the comments are great.

105% of eligible voters registered in Marion County, Indianapolis.

There’s more.

The coolest library I’ve seen this week.

Again with the advice for McCain/Palin.

Drawing on Obama’s own record and statements, they need to paint him as a big spender, class warrior and cultural elitist; they need to say he’s never worked across party lines or gotten his hands dirty solving big issues. But the duo must also give voters reasons to support them. They must crystallize a positive, forward-looking vision so people who see Obama as unqualified have something to hang on to. It can’t be a laundry list of positions.

The economic union, not so much.

The whole “give some pumpkin puree to a dog for constipation thing” works. Daisy was having issues for a couple days–I blame the beef bone she had Saturday–I gave her about 1/3 cup of canned pumpkin, 6 hours later I took her for a walk and viola.

Of course, then I had to pick it up. There’s pluses and minuses to everything.

The best samurai tap dance you’ll see today.

Desktoporgraphy: beautify your desktop

Samurize: Make your desktop more useful.

Sauted Shrimp w/Tumeric and Mustard Seeds

Bento Lunches: Since I’m brown-bagging it lately, why not step it up a notch. I don’t even remember how I came across it now.

AIDA32: Learn more than you ever wanted to know about your computer. I knew about this before, but forgot.

UxTheme Multi-Patch + Tiger 2 VS = Win

System 47: The coolest screensaver evar.

Or not.

It’s been around since the 1900s.

Microsoft is putting out a new “cloud computing” OS for all your online app needs in few weeks. While working on Windows 7.

Vista: it’s Windows ME on steroids RAM.

How not to sink in the financial downturn.

Your government at work.

Let the children lead the way.

Interesting pictures from an interesting technique.

“The Great Moderation” doesn’t have the same ring as “The Great Depression”.

But despite the alarms, including dire warnings from President Bush, economists insist there is no risk of a second Great Depression because, for some time now, the U.S. economy has been in the midst of a very different, less-threatening phenomenon: “the Great Moderation.”

Star Trek and the A-Team.

As a general proposition, when told by unanimous elites that a particular course of action is urgent and necessary to avoid disaster, there’s a lot to be said for going fishing*.

Also, Boy George.

Where the next pandemic is coming from.

Actually, everything on this list seems unlikely to be a pandemic. But you weren’t worried about your stocks for a minute right?

Anyone that drinks instant coffee gets what they deserve.

I wonder how long until we figure out that everything in made in China has corners cut and the price of stuff goes up.

This’ll help you get out of that jam you’re in.

Greenest people fly furthest, thereby negating all their green living and more.

While we weren’t looking they are building an ion drive.

I hate the Adobe Updater.

I need 100,000 unique visitors to start rolling in the dough. I haven’t checked my stats in months, for all I know I should be making money now. I find it unlikely however.

Amazon has video on demand now. I’m having a tough time seeing why I would want to pay 10 bucks to watch a movie on my computer. Or pay $2-$4 to rent it on my computer.

Other than Netflix is slow getting stuff up to watch instantly and I MUST WATCH IT NOW, of course.

Plus, it’s DRM’d so I can only put it on two other devices.

Vending machine pizza.

So, the new Android is out. I am mildly interested, but don’t have a need for a phone that does more than makes phone calls and texts which dampens my enthusiasm for spending $200. But it does look pretty cool.

It was because my head light was out. I didn’t get a ticket. Your snickering was in vain.

Also, he was a good cop. Didn’t ask where I was coming from or where I was going, which is nice because like it’s their business. But the hassle of the whole “am I under arrest?” libertarian freedom thing just isn’t worth it. I need to get to the grocery store. Which I guess is why they still ask. Meh.

BTW, tuna on sale at Super-1, 48¢. That’s a steal.

Red light and speed cameras soon will be able to track you nationwide.

It’s for the children.

Gesture controlled TVs.

For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive-you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you had to do was wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope. It saved a lot of muscular expenditure of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriatingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same programme.

– HHGtG

It’s Talk Like a Pirate Day. Mateys.

Gawker has the alleged screenshots of Sarah Palin’s hacked email.

How it happened.

Freaky unidentified space object found and lost.

Yeah, $92. Now if only gas would drop below $3 at the pump.

$50 for a second bag on United, each way? That’s excessive.

You could overnight it cheaper.

You’re on your own until, well, later. Here’s some pictures to make your day a little smoother:

The Hadron Collider has not obliterated mankind yet, forcing me to have to get up this morning. *shakes fist*

Has the Large Hadron Collider destroyed the world yet?

Live CERN webcast.

Reddit and Fark team up to save us. God help us all.

They have the patent.

Frightening.

While 82% of voters who support McCain believe the justices should rule on what is in the Constitution, just 29% of Barack Obama’s supporters agree. Just 11% of McCain supporters say judges should rule based on the judge’s sense of fairness, while nearly half (49%) of Obama supporters agree.

The truth about the American voter.

Don’t want to vote for Obama or McCain? Here’s your other choices.

The pacifist party guy has a crazy look in his eye.

Why Obama has lost the race.

French surrenders.

When even Gawker says Democrats are being narrow-minded hicks, you know Democrats have gone too far.

Indeed.

I’m a little upset that rocket mail never took off, so to speak.

Google’s satellite launches soon.

A nice roundup of the Palin controversies and their impact.

Google’s new browser, Chrome, comes out today. Why would I switch from Firefox?

UPDATE: Trying it now. Excellent use of the screen real estate. But it needs extensions. Mouse gestures, flash block, ad block. I’m sure that will come with time, but in the meantime, it’s a drag.

Obama’ll give me a bigger tax cut.

And I’d like to thank everyone that makes more than $600,000 for paying my way. You rock, thanks.

Rumor has it McCain has picked Sarah Palin for Vice President.

Thank God it’s not Lieberman. At least someone I’ve never heard of doesn’t make me want to vote for him even less.

Ubiquity.

I just downloaded and started messing with it, but I think it has great potential.

They’re taking over Europe. Article includes irrefutable picture.

He was delicious.

video

There’s too much information available, tax the internet.

Look, buddy, voters have always been ill-informed and always will be. They just don’t care, they’re busy living their lives. Also, the fact that you’re a lawyer working for a nonprofit environmental group causes me to doubt that ill-informed voters is really your issue. You just don’t want us using precious electricity, do you?

Rather than call for government regulation of technology itself, perhaps the best way to limit the avalanche is to make the technologies that overproduce information more expensive and less widespread. It could be done via a progressive energy tax designed to keep energy prices at a consistently high level (while providing assistance to lower- and middle-income Americans).

Provide assistance to lower- and middle-income Americans and you end up back where you started, no? Those are the rabble-rousers that are out there voicing their opinions all over the place that you’re worried is blocking out the important information. Except with this plan we have an added layer of government. That’ll help. The government always helps.

It’s possible that over time, an energy tax, by making some computers, Web sites, blogs and perhaps cable TV channels too costly to maintain, could reduce the supply of information. If Americans are finally giving up SUVs because of high oil prices, might we not eventually do the same with some information technologies that only seem to fragment our society, not unite it? A reduced supply of information technology might at least gradually cause us to gravitate toward community-centered media such as local newspapers instead of the hyper-individualistic outlets we have now.

Yes, information flow should be restricted to only those who can afford it. Let the rich decide what we need to know. That will make the world a better place.

Idiot.

This guy built a full Boba Fett suit, including gun, out of Legos. Bonus picture of his Darth Vader outfit.

Misha has something to say about politicians that are less than solid when it comes to religious dogma (NSFW language).

If you upgrade your CPU, it breaks Windows Media Player’s DRM and you have to erase that folder and upgrade it before you can use Netflix’s Watch Instantly again.

Just so you know.