An interesting day at work. (not mine)

Policeman hijacks payroll plane

A couple Australian pilots flying a small plane carrying a lot of payroll money had an interesting day at work. The two police guards flying with them pull out their guns and forced them to land the plane. The pilots are okay and the 2 million in cash has been recovered.

It's bad that one of the robbers was shot dead (tho maybe he deserved it) but it's good that the victims are okay. Hopefully they're psychologically sound after this. I imagine them laughing it off over a few drinks. Of course, I'm very very removed from the situation and I don't know these men so my imagination is ill-informed.

Gettysburg address powerpoint presentation

http://norvig.com/Gettysburg/

23AndMe Will Decode Your DNA for $1,000. Welcome to the Age of Genomics

An interesting article... well, I was interested for a while but I stopped reading on the fourth page.

I'd kind of like to know what is in my genetic makeup.

http://www.wired.com/medtech/genetics/magazine/15-12/ff_genomics?currentPage=1

cleans up nicely

evolution is an award winning short film that shows a model from no make-up to the final billboard picture to show what goes into idealized beauty.

there are two of me

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 2 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

The Man Who Saved the World by Doing ... Nothing

Thank God.

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/09/dayintech_0926

Cool Wallet

Here's an article in wired about a Stewart/Stand wallet that I think would be cool to have. It's made of woven stainless steel thread. Of course, I'm not the kind of person to pay $80 - $125 for a wallet even if I think it's cool.

gored

The American Heart Association has a women's heart health campaign going on now. they call it "Go Red"

The web address is goredforwomen.com

I don't think I want to be gored for anyone.

Incidentally, I don't like the TV ad. They just show pictures of different women. The reds are really intense and the skin tones are pushed to yellow. I think they were trying to make it a graphical look. To me it just looks like they have the colors turned up too high... like above normal "broadcast legal" limits. I appreciate what they're trying to do, but I'd lower the saturation of the skin colors and, after pumping up the reds to where a lot of the detail is lost, pull the over all saturation down so it does look it was shot in a radiation leak.

I told you so.

According to this page:
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mcobweb.html

Cobwebs do come from spiders.

:p

The future of computer interfaces?

Click the title bar for the article that alerted me to these clips.

A guy named Jeff Hahn gave this talk at a conference last year.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zwGAKUForhM

Here's a more recent demo of the tech he developed.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ysEVYwa-vHM

It's very cool to watch and for some of the things I do... particularly video compositing and graphics work. would be a very cool way to work. Maybe someday it'll trickle down to something I can afford. :)

I have seen some video of this stuff before (maybe even blogged about it then) but it's still cool to see.

holographic posters

cool stuff.

Pay your artist

http://motionographer.com/2007/02/07/the-infamous-craigslist-post/

An interesting rant about artists/illustrators not getting paid.

enter to win a toilet

[image from http://www.rotorooter.com/]

Windows Vista... Not gonna do it... not for a while anyway.

I just read (most of) an article discussing how much joy Microsoft has released into the work in it's latest operating system's digital rights management (copy protection) features.

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html

Unfortunately, the recording industries zeal to protect their intellectual property (an understandable concern) will, most likely, prevent us from viewing and managing our media in the the way we're accustomed to. Sadly, the days of hooking up any audio/display device to any compatible port to watch/listen to our music or video may be coming to an end. The content will have to be able to determine whether or not our output devices are secure and if they aren't they'll refuse to play at full quality or perhaps at all.

I have a DVD player that can upconvert DVDs to HD resolution. If I want to watch a commercial DVD, I need to have a TV with an HDMI connector. An HDTV ready display with DVI or component inputs (both HD capable ports) won't work in this instance.

I suppose it's a good thing I didn't buy an HDTV ready TV before I knew all of this stuff.

It just not good for the consumers. I'll possibly be one of those people who'll do something to strip the DRM from the media so I can watch my legitimately purchased content on whatever device I choose.

I'm rambling... sorry.

cool high speed camera footage

http://www.lucidmovement.com
I've always been interested in this kind of stuff.

Lab disaster may lead to new cancer drug

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070205/sc_nm/cancer_drug_dc_4

I don't think I'd classify what happened as a disaster but still this is cool news. I hope it works out.

Thank God for accidents and miscalculations.

Grrrr Computer Problems

My work PC went kaput. It didn't turn on. I hadn't used it for several days. I turned it on and nothing happened. I think it's the power supply (again) but I'm not sure. It made a clicking sound with it plugged in. When I detached the motherboard from the power supply and plugged the power chord back in the clicking stopped. That worries me because it makes me think it may be the motherboard and a more expensive repair. If I need to replace the motherboard and CPUs (how do you know if the RAM and CPUs aren't fried?) I probably won't get something as high-end as I have/had. Of course, it's a few years old so I won't have to spend as much to match its performance.

I probably won't do anything to it until I get paid for a freelance job I did for the University of Virginia. I was going to use that money to pay down debt, not repair equipment. At least I'm not doing any work that requires me to use it at this moment. If work like that comes along, I can install my productivity software on my entertainment PC though it doesn't have as much RAM as I'd want for serious graphics work. I could also use the computer I'm using at my old room mate's house. I'm not worried about it... just bummed out.

Cool driftwood sculptures

http://www.jansch.freeserve.co.uk/

Horses made out of driftwood. Looks cool.

Keep metalic things away from those MRI machines

http://www.simplyphysics.com/flying_objects.html#

Florescent Pigs!!

Okay, so they only go green under UV light.