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May 25 Segway MommaTo get you all in the mood for a lazy Memorial Day Weekend, I bring you "The Laziest Mom in Seattle":
 (via Crunchgear and LiveJournal) May 19 Of Apple iPhone and Scotty's AshesMoral of the story: don't always believe what you read in blogs. Apart from this one that is, haha. I'm talking about "news" blogs and the stories are not always accurate. Engadget, whom I hold in high regard, have screwed up twice in this week:
 OK, this one isn't really Engadget's fault since Apple's email system was apparently compromised, but their breaking of the story on the Engadget blog caused $4 billion dollars of market capital to be wiped off Apple's stock in a mere 6 minutes. The stock recovered around 20 minutes later after people figured out the story wasn't true.Read more at TechCrunch: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/05/17/applegate/
 Actor James Doohan played "Scotty" in the original Star Trek TV series. Engadget reported that Scotty's ashes were to be launched into space by Space Services Inc and Celestis International's "Legacy Flight" service, and stated the flight failed and the rocket crash-landed somewhere in New Mexico. Engadget subsequently posted that the ashes were recovered 20 days later.Unfortunately for Engadget, and perhaps for our beloved Scotty, the plan was never that his ashes were to remain in space. The actual plan was for a sub-orbital flight lasting a mere 4 minutes, after which the rocket was to return to earth and the ashes given back to his family. The flight was not a failure, and the rocket landed pretty much within the target area.
I was kinda hoping his ashes would remain in space forever - and I expected this was the case having read stories about it prior to the event. I don't really feel a 4-minute ride is worth the time, expense and trouble of launching a rocket with 200 dead people's ashes as payload :-( May 18 I don't like ads!Personal opinion time once again folks. I don't like ads. I do whatever I can to avoid them either when I am watching TV (I like to record the show to my DVR or MCE and avoid the ads that way) or when I am on the computer browsing the web.
To that end, I like to think of the internet in the spirit it was originally intended - the free availability of information and the free exchange of communication among online communities. I still remember when the internet and the web was generally uncommercialized and ad-free. The internet today, though, is crowded with junk, whether it's banner ads, text ads or spam in your inbox, it's all JUNK that reduces my productivity and reduces my enjoyment. It amuses me that some companies, including the one I work for, are in the business of preventing spam while simultaneously shoving ads in your face at every opportunity. I don't think I can differentiate between spam email and a banner ad. It's all junk I never asked for, adding clutter, reducing the speed of my page loading, and trying to take my money, etc.
There is only one reason why we all suffer through this: it's profitable. Companies are making a lot of money from all this junk that they push in your face. Any why is it profitable? Because YOU ARE STUPID!
Yes, YOU, end-user, consumer of information and user of online applications. Are you seriously going to tell me that you LIKE seeing ads? Do you EVER click on any of those banner ads or text ads? Do you EVER respond to spam mail in your inbox? I don't do it. Nobody I know personally does it. But there are enough people out there AND YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE.
It baffles me that obviously enough people do it that it's a very profitable business. Come on people, be smarter than that! If you would just be a little bit smarter and clued-in, then it will eventually reduce the junk that we have to deal with. Until then, I guess I'll have to keep using my Firefox browser with Adblock Plus extension to strip away most of it. May 16 Halo 3 Fever!Other than playing and playing and playing (or waiting for them to fix the Crackdown problem preventing you from playing), I highly recommend pausing for a second and doing the following things:
May 11 My Lovely HorseIn honor of tomorrow's Eurovision Song Contest final (an annual event in Europe since 1956), I'd like to present Ireland's finest ever entry to the competition. My Lovely Horse, by Fathers Ted Crilly and Dougal McGuire. Here they can be seen in an early rehearsal prior to the event.
I really wish Dermot Morgan was still alive, making genius comedy like the clip above from Father Ted. A new government for Northern IrelandI never thought I would see the day when these two "gentlemen" would be sitting next to each other and smiling... Direct rule of Northern Ireland from London has ended, and there is now a new power-sharing government.
You won't understand the significance unless you've followed the Northern Ireland story, but trust me, if I didn't know it was true, I would have suspected it to be a Photoshopped image, or April Fool's Day. On the left is Ian Paisley, on the right is Martin McGuinness. They have long been at the forefront of the "troubles" in Northern Ireland, from directly opposite sides.
I could say a lot of negative things about these two, but I'll bite my tongue. Let's just say that I am not on either side. I grew up seeing these two guys on the TV news almost every night, spewing forth the most hateful bile. In the end I was numb from it, and I could care less what happened to Northern Ireland, I wanted nothing to do with it. Perhaps they really have mellowed and are sincere in wanting to work together, but having left Ireland almost 9 years ago, my memory of how they used to be is still fresh, and the thought of these two being part of a legitimate government makes me feel like the devil himself just got voted into office...
I suppose it might be good to read about it from a neutral position (not Irish nor British) - so here is a link to the article in Der Spiegel. May 09 More on the Xbox/Messenger/Windows Live ID problemMajor Nelson says there is an update coming to fix the inability to change Windows Live ID for Messenger on the XBox 360:
Q: The email address assigned to my Xbox LIVE account is different to the email address I use on my PC for Windows LIVE messenger. Is there a way for me to still access my messenger account? I left the following comment:
An XBL account is linked to the PUID (Passport unique user ID - a hex value) only. The actual email address associated with that hex value should be irrelevant with the exception of reserved domains. @hotmail.com is one such reserved domain. Hotmail users therefore cannot change the email address associated with their Windows Live ID (AKA Passport account). This has nothing directly to do with XBL. However, since Hotmail users are very likely the vast majority of Messenger users/Windows Live ID account holders, it would seem that the majority of XBL users are stuck with the inability to change the email address associated with their XBL gamertag. The correct fix in my opinion would be for XBL to allow users to associate their XBL accounts and gamertags with a completey different Windows Live ID, which is not something that you can do today (the XBL account and Windows Live ID are inextricably linked together). If the fix that the Major mentions simply allows people to use alternate email addresses for Messenger chat only, that is only half a fix IMHO. Major, could you please outline how the fix will work, conceptually? Also a timeframe would be great. As it stands, the Messenger integration feature that I was so looking forward to is really useless to me and very many others. People won't buy TIDs unless they can use Messenger! Messenger problems - Xbox 360 Spring Dashboard UpdateOther websites have more detailed coverage of what's new in today's Dashboard update than I have time to duplicate here, but I do have one thing that I want to rant about. First a definition of terms since many product names have changed:
My Xbox Live account and my gamertag are associated with a Windows Live ID. I originally established the link between my Xbox Live account and my Passport a few years ago, on the original Xbox, and of course nobody expected that a few years down the road, Messenger and Xbox 360 would be integrated.
Now, of course, one of the main features of today's new update is the ability to chat with your MSN Windows Live Messenger buddies, and for them to see what game you are playing, etc. However, I discovered that you can only use the Windows Live ID that is associated with your Xbox Live account and gamertag. The problem is, I don't use that Windows Live ID for Hotmail or Messenger or Spaces any more. I want to use a different Windows Live ID than the one I originally used years ago. But I can't. They are forever inextricably linked together.
This sucks! What do I have to do to fix it? I don't want to have to create a new XBL account and lose all my gamer friends, achievements, points and so on just to chat on Messenger. Curious EnglishThere are many differences between British English and American English. And then there's GW Bush's version of English which is something else entirely, but I digress.
Some of the differences are relatively minor spelling or grammatical differences, for example:
Of greater cause for concern, however are the cases where a word has a different meaning altogether. These are alway confusing. First let's review some confusing but ultimately benign terms:
So, what are the key takeaways?
You have been warned! There are many more examples - leave your favorites in the comments :) May 07 Symmetrical daysI didn't notice until it was already well after midnight, but yesterday was one of those symmetrical dates, where the numbers are either the same or in sequence - yesterday being 05/06/07. I've always liked days like this. Now I'm looking forward to the big one this year - 07/07/07. I guess it should be a little bit more interesting and special than those many regular days! May 04 So did you sell YHOO today?Yahoo was up around 20% today based on the strength of a NY Post "exclusive" rumor that Microsoft was going to acquire it for 50 billion dollars. Later in the day, the WSJ published an article saying it wasn't true. YHOO finished the day up around 10%. Could it be true? well, what the hell would I know about it. It's not the first time that this rumor has gone around, last time was around a year ago, and nothing happened then. So today might have just been a "pump and dump" ruse to make some stock brokers a lot of money. I've heard a lot of rumors in my 10 years. If there's anything I've learned it's that the rumors you hear usually turn out to be false. It's the things you never hear about until the ink on the contract is dry - those are the things worth knowing about. May 03 Brekkin' Da LawJust my little contribution to the DMCA rebellion...
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