I Read Stuff!!

Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Q-Tip, Now Throw It Away

You may think you got moves on the dance floor, but you're about to get served. This little guy is going to blow you away, and he's going to do it without any arms.



This should probably be a mandatory instructional video in junior high health class.

Friday, March 23, 2007

Kids and Cameras

Warning: Thought Provoking!

I realize its Friday, and on Friday one doesn't really want to use their brain. Don't worry, this won't hurt you too bad, but it probably will make you go 'hmm'.



This is a snippet from NPR's 'This American Life' which is being animated and shown on Showtime. I don't know much about the program, but I can tell two things from this clip. One, the series will be excellent. Two, it will fail because the people who will appreciate it have already written television off as a wasteland.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Ooo! Ooo! Ooo!



Looks like it'll be over 3 hours long, but I don't care. I'm excited.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Pet Problems

The Menu Foods group has accidentally poisoned a batch of pet food that they make. My response was, who's Menu Foods? Well, it turns out they make pet food for just about everybody. Odds are pretty good that you are currently feeding your pet tasty morsels that originated from a Menu Foods facility. In the interest of your pet's kidney's take a look at this list.

Poisoned Cat Food

Poisoned Dog Food

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

It's Not Delivery


The machine pops out 9" pizzas in under 2 minutes. Can you imagine a place in America where this wouldn't make money? It's really rather shocking that this idea hasn't become more prevalent.

If I was Wonder Pizza, the first thing I'd do is put them in public schools.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

BRAINS

A buddy dropped this fun story on me. It's Resident Evil's Umbrella Corp in the real world, only it's called Sanofi-Aventis. They are the makers of Ambien the sleep medicine. Only it seems to put you into a less than ideal sleep state.

"The Australian drug agency said it had uncovered a variety of unusual activities by consumers using the product, including sleep-driving, sleep-eating, and, in one case, a woman who painted the front door of her home while asleep."
I wonder how susceptible the sleep walker is to suggestions? Can I get my wife to stuff envelopes while she sleeps? I hear you can make millions!

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

The 'V' Word

This is an interesting controversy. Manly because I think everyone's argument is standing on pretty firm ground.

A group of high school juniors decided that they wanted to do an excerpt reading of "The Vagina Monologues" at a school sponsored literary event. At the auditions, the faculty told them they will allow the students to read the excerpt as long as they did not use the word 'vagina'. The students agreed, but during the Friday night presentation the juniors emphasized the word by speaking it in unison whenever it appeared in the excerpt. The students were suspended.

Now as I said there are two interesting sides to this argument. The word vagina is a basic body part. While slightly taboo, there is no good reason it should be censored. "The Vagina Monologues" is an award winning play that celebrates feminism. In such a context, the use vagina is doubly more appropriate.

On the other hand, the students agreed to the restriction. They gave their word (pun intended) that they would make the changes asked of them. The students should have escalated the debate when the censorship occurred. Breaking their word and throwing it in the face of authority is damaging. It makes the whole incident look like a grab for publicity.

Monday, March 05, 2007

Best Buy Strikes Back

Years ago when Amazon was still pretty new they tried a business strategy. The idea was they would track the purchases you made and offer you discounts on products similar to what you were buying. After some research by some concerned customers it came to light that Amazon was offering discounts on products you might buy, but they were also raising the prices of popular things you would buy.

For instance, I enjoy fantasy novels. If some new author came out with a fantasy book then Amazon would offer me a discount. However if Robert Jordan came out with the next book in his series, Amazon would actually mark that book up for me specifically.

This business model would fall under the label "EVIL".

The Dark Lord of consumer electronics decided they might try a similar tact. If you went to the Best Buy web site and saw some amazing deal, you might be inclined to run to the actual store to partake. Arriving to the store, crushing despair awaited as the amazing deal is not present. You quickly run to an in store computer and pull up the web site to prove that you deserve the amazing deal.

Betrayal...

The in store web site is cleverly designed to not show the online sales and deals. This is called, a bait and switch.

There are two things you can do to armor yourself against such a tragedy. First, ensure that the deal is not 'Online Only'. Secondly, print the page out with the quoted price and date. That way you have something to wave about like a battle flag when you confront Customer Disservice.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Addictions

We all have our little addictions. For some people they aren't so little. Personally, my addictions generally revolve around the Internet.

So the other day I was playing online when suddenly my connection went to crap. Games became difficult to play and websites started loading like molasses. I started doing speed tests at my house and other's to see if it was just criminal college kid congestion.

Turns out the cable company decided to restructure their services. My service, the bronze level, use to be 1.5 Mbps. Under their new setup it's 512 Kbps. I can't live under these conditions! Shoot me now!

I'd switch to DSL but you have to pay for a landline. It costs $30 for a landline plus $20 for 1.5 internet. It's just cheaper to jump up to the cable silver plan which is $30.

I feel extorted.


Games
GameInterestRelease Date
Civilization IV1
C&C 31
Company of Heroes1
Half Life 21
Half Life 2: Episode One1
Supreme Commander1
Call of Duty 22
Darwinia2
Dungeon Runners2
Dungeon Siege II2
Far Cry2
Galactic Civilization II2
Hitman: Blood Money2
Jade Empire2
Neverwinter Nights 22
Prey2
Psychonauts2
Sam & Max: Episode 12
Titan Quest2
Dark Messiah Might and Magic3
Defcon3
Heroes of Might and Magic V3
Indigo Prophecy3
KOTOR II3
LEGO Star Wars3
Marvel Ultimate Alliance3
Space Rangers 2: The Rise of the Dominators3
STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl3
Stubbs the Zombie3
War Front3
Warhammer: Mark of Chaos3
Infernal35/8/2007
Shadowrun25/9/07
Pirates of the Burning SeaM6/1/2007
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars?6/5/2007
Two Worlds?6/26/07
Sins of A Solar Empire?8/1/2007
BioShock18/21/2007
Mass Effect19/7/07
Age of ConanM10/30/07
Crysis1Fall 2007
Elveon?Fall 2007
Half-Life 2: Episode Two1Fall 2007
Portals1Fall 2007
Spore1Fall 2007
Stranglehold?Fall 2007
Tabula RasaMFall 2007
Team Fortress 22Fall 2007
Dragon Age?Winter 2007
Fable 2?Winter 2007
Field Ops?Winter 2007
Halo Wars?Winter 2007
Gods & Heroes: Rome RisingMWinter 2007
Haze?Winter 2007
Hellgate: London1Winter 2007
HuxleyMWinter 2007
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men?Winter 2007
Left 4 Dead?Winter 2007
The AgencyMSpring 2008
Empire Earth III?Spring 2008
Guild Wars 2 MSpring 2008
Jericho?Spring 2008
Sacred 2?Spring 2008
Savage 2?Spring 2008
Time Shift2Spring 2008
Universe at War: Earth Assault3Spring 2008
The Witcher?Spring 2008
CellFactor?2008
Darkest of Days?2008
On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkeness: Episode 122008
Warhammer OnlineM2008
Alliance: The Silent War??
Alone in the Dark??
Assassin's Creed??
BioWare MMO??
The Crossing??
Dungeon Hero??
Fallout 3??
Lego Batman??
Mythos??
Overloard??
Space Seige??
Culdcept SagaPC??
Gears of WarPC??
God of WarPC??
Beautiful KatamariPC??
OkamiPC??
Resistance: Fall of ManPC??
Odin's SpherePC??
Castle CrashersPC??

1 - I will buy it
2 - I'll buy it at discount
3 - Other people think it's good, but I wasn't interested when I first heard about it
M - Mainly Multiplayer. See if friends get interested.
? - Find out more about this game
PC? - Will it be released on the PC?