Taken on my trip to DC. More to come soon.
Category Archives: genius
Mini vMac DS
One of the editors of my favorite Apple websites, The Unofficial Apple Weblog, contacted me about one of my Flickr photos. I grabbed a shot of Mac System 6 running on my Nintendo DS and posted it in their photo pool. They caught notice of my flagrant geekery and ran a story along with the photo.
Auditory Revelation
I just realized that Sister Sledge’s hit “Good Times” is one of the audio samples used om The Sugarhill Gang’s hiphop hit “Rapper’s Delight.”
Turn Your Gold Into Cash!
You may have seen the commercials for GoldKit, where you send in your old jewelry for cash. According to the official website they will buy all of your “scrap gold jewelry, coins… you can also sell a gold tooth.” I wish that last bit was a typo, but it is not.
Here is the deal. GoldKit sends you an envelope to put your gold in. You send it back in a pre-paid Business Reply Mail envelope. They send you a letter back detailing what your stuff is worth, and you get to decide if you want to cash in.
How could I possibly resist taking part in this scam? I dashed to the official website and within 48 hours a GoldKit envelope arrived in the mail. Only it arrived unsealed. Classy. I definitely want to send my precious metals in a company’s envelopes when they can’t close properly.
It is time to load my precious metals into the enclosed bag and envelope.
What did I send?
- A necklace I found on the ground
- A golden Dorito
- A SanDisk MicroSD to SD card adapter
- A code cartridge for a blood glucose monitor
- A gold Post-It Note of a treasure chest that I drew
Stay tuned to see how this turns out. I hope the Dorito gets there in one piece.
Transitive Property of Verbs: A Counterexample
Why does the rooster crow, but the crow does not rooster?
Little Things My Parents Did Right
As I grow older I realize that there were many little things that my parents did right. At the time they made no sense and were unfair. Now it all makes sense. When we went shopping for my first bicycle I wanted a Power Wheel. They put their foot down because:
- We weren’t rich.
- I would get more exercise with a bicycle.
- I wanted to get the Power Wheels Ford Pinto, the car that would burst into an inferno with the slightest bump on the rear.
In retrospect it was the right choice. Thanks Mom and Dad.
Disruptive Technology
In George Orwell’s prophetic novel 1984 the telescreen cannot be turned off. It streams constant propaganda, but perhaps even more disturbing, it watches your every movement. The telescreen captures the minds of the audience and prevents them from the enemy most dangerous to the stability of the ruling class, critical thought.
This weekend I assembled an Adafruit Industries TV-B-Gone kit. Critical thinkers often view the instruction manual merely as “suggestions.” I too did not follow the directions verbatim for the kit and had some parts left over. With the help of my local Radio Shack, a 2x3x1 project box, a momentary switch, 4 chrome LED mounts, and some wire I now have a box that would through any TSA Agent into an apoplectic terrorgasm.
The kit is an LED array that sends out a series of signals via infrared. A small microcontroller has the codes stored and can be reprogrammed for any device that uses a remote. The signal your TV remote sends out to turn the set on is also the same to turn it off. The IR panel on your TV must always have power to receive these signals so the kit actually works both ways. Since there are multiple TV manufacturers with different codes, the kit sends out a long series of codes for different manufacturers.
The first victims of the kit were some of my neighbors playing Halo 3 on a humongous flat panel TV. They were speechless to explain the sudden disruptions in their game play. Target and Sears experienced similar disruptions in their electronics departments. My anticipation is that these disruptions may occur sporadically in the future.
This TV-B-Gone kit is actually my second attempt. The first kit I assembled worked for 15 minutes before it failed. The momentary savor of victory left me wanting more. My second TV-B-Gone would be an improvement. Sure enough model two was more complex and better executed.
Disruptive technology interferes with the programming found in everyday life. The people who play with ideas, tinker with the world around them, and read into a deeper understanding are less likely to be controlled by that programming. Disruption promotes critical thinking, but is disturbing to those who lack the capacity to do so.
The power lies with the proles.
Charts and Graphs
In the January 22, 2008 issue of The Advance Titan, Oshkosh’s college newsrag, the “Busted!” section reported a dearth of alcohol related incidents. I have compiled a handy chart to help you digest the stats. Bear in mind that the BAC statistics are merely the ones that were reported and that there are more with alcohol involvement who received citations. Discuss amongst yourselves.
Abandoned Along H41
Proof that God has a sense of humor exists. In the Creation Story of Genesis we find that the Almighty separated light from dark, the water from the land, and populated it with flora and fauna. To rule over all His creation the Almighty creates man. Despite the illustrious position, man is ill-qualified to dominate the forces of Nature. He is powerless to prevent the sun from rising, the oceans reclaiming land, or predators preying on the weak. This is the first joke God played.
About five miles north of Kaukauna, Wisconsin there is an abandoned lot along Highway 41. The solitary structure has vehicles parked in its driveway, which led me to believe that despite its decrepit state was occupied. Upon closer inspection I was delighted to discover that it was only a squatter’s domain. The lot was also surrounded by a communal dump. With no rhyme or reason cars, busses, trailers, and other large refuse littered the landscape. The beauty in decay is not difficult to find or appreciate. Despite man’s machination Nature continues to eat away at steel and rob well-engineered structures of their integrity. There-in lies God’s great joke. Slowly and surely the eternal forces of creation continue despite mankind’s oversight. I have posted just over 100 photos of the property in an album on Flickr.
That was deep.
Confession Time
Right now there is a trade show going on called CES 2008 where electronics manufacturers show off all of there latest wares. Coverage has been blanketing the interblogs and telescreens with the latest and greatest in tech geekery. The tech blog Gizmodo has recently come clean about a prank they’ve pulled at the show. Demonstrators show-wide could not figure out why their screens where just randomly turning off. Wall after wall of tv-aided sales pitches suddenly went dark. You can’t help but giggle. The editors for the blog were using a product called TV-B-Gone. I too may have used this product in the past. Mwahahaha….