The best never rest.

Why is Google the best search engine out there? Simple, they are constantly making subtle changes to there search engine. While the changes, on the whole, are hard to see that doesn't mean that they don't have a big impact. Have a look at some of the new stuff that Google is working on here. Here's a good review of the new features over at ars technica.

Now I've played with them and all of them are pretty useful. The Alternative View feature is awesome, especially the timeline.

Of course some people disagree about Google being the best search engine.

The beginning.

There is no picture of man fashioning the first stone tool. There is no picture of the first alloy of bronze being smelted.

Think of those things and then look at the these photos. For better or worse, the Atomic Age is born.

Avast ye scurvy dogs.

This will prove to be one of the most interesting legal cases about copyrights yet to come. I'd love to say that the Pirate boys have nothing to worry about but they've really pissed off a lot of people.

Anyway, I love the logo they are running today.

A glimmer of hope?

Celebrity hosts for American "Top Gear"?

While I enjoy reading car magazines I wouldn't exactly call the average automotive journalist "entertaining". When you let automotive journalists have a TV show you get MotorWeek and while it can be informative I would only recommend it to insomniacs looking for a good nap. Sure they know A LOT about cars but holy hell is it boring. MotorWeek is a lot like what is referred to as "Old Top Gear" by fans of the show. While the "old" show was better than the likes of MotorWeek it was still highly technical and very dry. Once the BBC allowed Clarkson to recreate Top Gear the way HE wanted it became what it is today, entertaining. So while the Top Gear hosts are automotive journalists they are very unique in that field because they have great humor and charm.

Fine, no journalists. Then who better than a race car driver to host a show? Have you ever listened to a racing driver talk after a race or in an interview? They are the whores of the automotive world and are rarely seen without a sponsors dick in their mouth. That would be the least objective show on television....NEXT!

Celebrity car nuts, now that is interesting idea. Let's take the examples given in the article of Seinfeld and Leno. Here are two guys that are funny, rich and are absolutely insane about cars. Who better than to host a show like that? First, they've got enough money that they don't give a shit who in the car world they piss off. Second, they are both great on camera. Third and most importantly, they both LOVE cars.

I just had a look at Leno's website which seems to cast some doubt on his objectivity. It's plastered with GM ads. Also, Seinfeld is probably the world's maddest Porsche collector, hardly an indicator of objectivity. He owns 10 Boxters? Come on Jerry, variety is the spice of life!

Wah! Cry the Mac Fanboys.

I'm sick of hearing all the Mac Fanboys cry about their blessed technology being copied. Those morons think that anything that has glassy icons on a customizable background is a copy of the Mac OSX interface. Steve Jobs didn't invent the Graphical User Interface, he stole the idea from the braintrust at PARC (along with WYSIWYG Fonts, printers, the mouse, etc). So isn't it appropriate that everyone else steals ideas from Apple?

I believe that's called Karma.

Another brilliant Idea I didn't have.

Watch these videos, Drunk History.

Now why the hell did I not come up with this shit? It's pure genius. I mean all you have to do is get hammered then tell some crazy ass historical account.


Fucking Aaron Burr.....

Great Planning!

So Dubai has BILLIONS to spend on artificial island communities and the world's tallest building but they don't have a redundant communications link installed? Watch, next week Dubai will start building their own Internet 3.0. That's just their style.

And (insert sarcasm) I feel so sorry for all those companies that relocated their "customer service" phone centers to India.

YAWN!

Another day of too much work and not enough interesting Internets news. Here's the best of what I could scrape up today:

• There's a couple new ZeroPunctuation Reviews up...hilarious as usual.
• Fifth Gear is back on but as per usual it is a REALLY poor substitute for Top Gear.
• John Edwards decides to throw in the towel....Does it seem early to you or is just me? He's probably been offered a VP slot by Hillary.....
• For those of you that don't watch Top Gear (what the hell is wrong with you?) here's a great bit by JC about the Peal.
• Drop the Googlebomb on those stupid bitches.
• The end is nigh. Whatever.
  

Boring day

I honestly haven't found anything entertaining to blog about today. Unless you want to read about spoiled children and irresponsible parenting.

Of course given the driving escapades of my youth I should be the last one to cast stones.

This was a triumph....

This anti-Scientologist video is getting huge press on the internet. I applaud the person(s) responsible and think that the use of a computer generated voice is brilliant.....it's just so creepy. I think they should say "The cake is a lie" at the end though.

Video 1

Video 2

Sn4tchbuckl3r for president

You suck at Photoshop #4 is up. There's a lot of people theorizing that this is really Dane Cook doing these bits and I think it's more than possible that this is Dane Cook. Here's why:

1. This NY Times article is about his tech savvy nature and the fact that he was WELL ahead of the curve in relation to the internet. So it's feasible that he could have enough computer knowledge to either do this or at least have the idea.
   
2. My Damn Channel was founded, in part, by David Wain. He and Dane Cook both worked on Crank Yankers at nearly the same time.
   
3. The humor fits.
4. The voice is so close but that can be imitated.
   

Music sites

Yes, piracy may be rampant but it still illegal. How about trying out some legal ways to listen to free music on the internet?

Pandora Radio
Want to broaden your music tastes? If so you should definitely check out Pandora. Enter a band that you like and Pandora will recommend and play music from similar artists. You can rate the music Pandora recommends and determine if the song is good or bad. The interface is very nice and their catalog is fairly large.

SeeqPod
Google for music. Enter an artist and SeeqPod searches the entire internet for music. The results can be unpredictable but it's rare that it can't find what you want to hear.

Last.fm
Want to listen to music and meet new people? Last.fm has tons of full audio tracks and also functions as a social networking site. They have videos as well.

Great article.

This is a fantastic article about modern media piracy.

It must suck to see your multi-million dollar business model reduced to ashes by some teenager in his basement. But it's hard to feel sorry for MediaDefender, their "tactics" have never really worked and are hard to consider ethical. The best you can say about them is that they were successful at using scare tactics to convince the content providers to pay for their services.

The part of this article that speaks to me is the part about Fans vs. Pirates. I consider myself a movie buff and I purchase an above average amount of DVDs ( including both HD-DVD and Blu-ray). But I have also downloaded content from P2P sites like the Piratebay. Why? Because I loathe movie theaters and I refuse to buy a DVD unseen. I download a movie and watch it, if I like it then I will buy it once its available.

Is this ethical or legal? No, but who is being harmed by this? I'm not downloading these movies and charging admission. I'm not burning the movie to DVD and selling it (even though I've been begged to do just that on many occasions). So I'm costing the movie theater an admission fee that I wouldn't have paid in the first place.

The entertainment industry is obsessed with the war on piracy and it is a war that they will never win. They should just move on and figure out a way to exploit the majority of computer users that have no fucking clue how to actually pirate media. I've tried to explain how to use Bittorrent to a lot of people and they just don't get it.

I'm sorry that the Movie, Music and Television Industry have not kept pace with technology but that's not my fault.

Land of confusion?

No, it's the land of fake tans, hair product and collagen lip injections. Welcome to the Garden State.

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday to LEGO. Thanks for fostering my creative imagination as a child!

Sign me up!

Fresh pictures of a production BMW X6. Overall, I love that shape. Hey Porsche, this is what the Cayenne should have looked like.

The only problem, what's up with those wheels? The wheels themselves are cool but I wonder how big they are. That gap between the tire and the body is just too wide so I hope that those are like 16" wheels but those are the same wheels that are available on the X5. According to the BMW website those wheels only come in 21".

Fun with snow

I wish I had a WRC Car....then I could do this stuff.

I got called out

Someone finally called me out on something that I have done for years. I was beginning to wonder if any would ever notice my explicit use of the word "should". Look at these two sentences:

I will have that done tomorrow.
I should have that done tomorrow.

Now in that situation what I'm saying is that there's a 50% chance that it WILL NOT get done tomorrow. I could use the words "might" or "may" in that same sentence but those words make me sound doubtful that I'm actually going to meet the deadline. Whereas "should" has a ring of confidence about it, a kind of reassuring tone. It's really total bullshit.

If you hear me use the word "should" then realize that I'm already planning an excuse for why I didn't get the task done, plan accordingly.

KENYANS!!!!

An Internet classic is born. This video gets added to the Pantheon of classic internet videos.


Dude....400 BABIES!!!!!! Priceless.

Edit: I just watched the sequel.....more pricelessness.

Check it out Douche-Fags I'm going Bear-Blasting.

It is smooth, like snake.

Check out this amazing pro street racing, Romanian style. Props to Mark for finding that gem.

That made me think of a site that I love but only visit once in a while. English Russia. Warning, there are hours of entertaining observations there.

Living like penguins

This video is cool because its a great example of some amazing engineering. She's walking down a hallway that looks like it could be in any small hotel while outside the average human would only survive for minutes.

Get your ice cold pot here

Don't you mean Pop? No I mean Pot. That is some crazy shit.

Of course I work in the pharmaceutical industry so I love to see more drugs everywhere!

Riding dirty

I think that Shaquille O'Neal needs to change his name to Sheik Mohamed O'Neal. What do want from the guy, he's 7 feet tall. Should he be rolling in a Prius? I don't think you can get 22" wheels on a Prius.

Ha Ha Funny.

NSFW link to SFW Porn. Did that make your head hurt?

How to deal with IT.

I get a lot of complaints from friends and family about the IT people that they deal with at their places of work. Most of the time these complaints are funny to me because I get to see the problem from both sides. So here are some tips on how to deal with your IT support.

• IT people are lazy. We have better things to do (like Stumble Upon) than fix your problems. So don't expect me to jump up and rush to your aid RIGHT NOW.
• IT people hate telephones. Don't call me unless you want to leave a voice mail that will NEVER be listened to.
• IT people love email. Email is like Caller ID for IT people and we can't live without it. I can read what YOU think the problem is, make fun of what a retard you are and THEN figure out how to fix your problem without you ever knowing that you're a total dipshit. This is win-win, trust me.
• IT people hate being ambushed. See above, email is our preferred means of communication. Don't stop me in the hallway with your problems because the only reason I ever leave my office is to piss or eat. You also run the risk that I will not be able to disguise my utter disdain for your ignorance and make you feel like an asshat.
• Have you rebooted your computer? Have you rebooted your computer? Have you rebooted your computer? Seriously, reboot your fucking computer before you even bother contacting me by any means. Every time someone comes to me with a problem the FIRST thing I ask them is...Have you rebooted your computer? Why do I ask this? To hear the sound of my own voice? No, because 9 times out of 10 you haven't rebooted your computer for days or weeks...thats insane! Reboot your computer every day and 98% of the problems you have will disappear and I can go back to Stumble Upon.
• Don't lie to IT people. This usually goes hand in hand with the whole rebooting thing. I know you're lying to me and do you honestly think that I can't tell that you didn't reboot your computer? Seriously, you need to tell me what you have done that could have caused the current problem. If you lie then I spend 2 hours fixing something that would have taken 15 minutes if I had known the truth. Once that has happens I will make it my purpose in life to make your life a living hell.
• I CAN make your life hell, don't fuck with me. Most people can't do their jobs without a computer. If you want to continue doing your job then I recommend that you go out of your way to be polite and truthful with me. I can destroy your ability to work and I will do it in such a way that will not implicate me in any fashion.
• Your home computer is a piece of shit. What ever you bought was too cheap and now it doesn't work....so what? Had you come and asked me for a recommendation prior to buying a computer I may have felt sorry for you. No, I will not come to your house and fix your computer. I'll fix it in my office on company time if YOU go and ask my boss for permission. Otherwise, good luck with the Geek Squad.
• I am not above bribery. I will accept cash, snacks and low cut shirts as payment for "priority" service.
  

There you go, keep all this in mind when dealing with your IT people and you MAY get better support.

Learn something new

I've always loved maps. I especially love looking at a progression of maps to see how things have changed over the centuries. I think it's sad that most Americans have little appreciation for just how much the rest of the world has changed in the short time that we have been a country. The formation of the United States is fascinating but watching centuries old borders in Europe being rewritten time and again is just astonishing. Once you understand how these sweeping changes to borders have effected the associated population then you gain a much better perspective on something like the war in Bosnia or Chechnya.

Anyway, this site has several interactive "flash" maps that are VERY informative.

Thanks Stumble!

Neighbors are great

This story made me laugh out loud. Not just because it's funny but because I've had some bad neighbor experiences myself. We have two neighbor families that I think are nearly as bad as JD8.

Family # 1
Dad - aka Nascar Bob
Mom - aka TW (Titless Wonder)
Kid #1 - aka Roger Ramjet
Kid #2 - aka Stripper in Training
Kid #3 - Baby Jesus
Grandma - aka Granny

• So that brood live in a house that can't possibly be more than 3 bedrooms and is MAYBE 1600 square feet.
• Stripper in training is like 11 years old and I see her making out with boys in the alley behind my house all the time. And she's got that shrill little girl scream down to a science.
  
• Roger Ramjet is so named because he used to ride down the middle of our fairly busy street in Baby Jesus's stroller....when he was about 9 years old.
• Baby Jesus is 4-5 years old and is regularly seen riding his Little Tikes car up and down the sidewalk...unsupervised. The rumbling of that damn toy car echoes through my house like it was a cattle stampede.
• Nascar Bob...where do I start. He as loud-ass ancient Toyota 4Runner that he lets warm up for 30 minutes every morning. He's got a Harley with the loudest exhaust money can buy. His front yard is MAYBE 14 feet deep from the sidewalk to his porch, he chose to fill that valuable space with a massive play house/jungle gym for Baby Jesus. He has at least 3 dogs that bark for hours every day and night. Once he crashed a kite over the top of my house and trees, he cut the kite free of the string but left the rest of the string hanging from my house and tree across the street directly to his yard. Now that's subtle.
  

Family #2
Dad - aka Captain Pasty
Mom - The Junk Queen
Kid #1 - Fatty Fat
Kid #2 - Crazy Biatch

• Captain Pasty is so named because he usually mows his yard with his shirt off while wearing those hideous short running shorts. Let's just say his skin color is somewhere around pale blue.
• The garage is full of junk. The backyard is full of drunk. The driveway is full of drunk. The FRONT YARD is full of junk. They just go and pick up junk and unload it from their van into the front yard. The Junk Queen has a small "anitque" store downtown that I've never been inside of but they do occasionally have "antique" sales in their front yard. I've never seen them sell anything. Where I'm from we would call these "rummage" sales or just put a sign in front of the stuff that reads "Free Junk".
• Fatty Fat entertains herself by screaming and jumping on her trampoline in the back yard.
• Crazy Biatch sits in the front yard and talks to herself....even their dogs won't play with her.
• Now that brings us to the dogs. For a while they only had a Collie that I once had to punch when it tried to jump the fence and bite my face. Then they got some little yappy dog that I always heard but never saw, this one disappeared one day much to my delight. Months later I found out that while the family was gone one day the Collie got hungry and FUCKING ATE the little dog! Now they also have two nasty little poodles that snap and snarl at you like little fluffy demons.
  

The Daily Show

I go through spurts where I watch The Daily Show every day for months then I just stop watching it. I've been watching videos at random on the Comedy Central site and I this morning I found one that I had forgotten about. Absolutely priceless.

Car crazy

So I've gone a bit car crazy this morning because something has my blood all angered up.

Every year at the end of the Detroit Auto Show they choose the "North American Car of the Year". This year the winner was the "All New" Chevrolet Malibu. Which is odd because last year the winner was the then "All New" Saturn Aura. These cars are really identical in every way but styling and are based on the GM Epsilon Platform. The platform was first used for the Europe-only Vectra which receives mostly lukewarm reviews as being "boring". So the best car, in the opinion of the judges at the show, is the same car two years running which is really a four year old European design? Wow.....that's telling.

So the American car companies are waking up to the reality that they have been asleep at the wheel for a long time. I can't fault them for copying the European designs and marketing them in this country, I think its a great idea.

So while they're at it why don't they copy and produce the 2008 European Car of the Year, the Fiat 500. This is the car that the New Mini should have been. I mean you MAY be able to buy one of these sometime in 2010 from an Alfa Romeo dealership but why doesn't GM just license the rights to make and sell them. It's no secret that American car companies are hopelessly inept at building small cars so let the Italians do it.

So GM licenses the brilliant 500 from Fiat...how do they sell it? I say sell it at Buick dealerships. That's madness! Scream the onlookers, they'll never sell! Ponder this, who drives Buicks? Yes, old people buy Buicks. Next time you're out driving around have a look and see what all the old people are driving these days. I see them mostly in small Hondas, Hyundais, Toyotas and Kias these days. Which makes sense because they are smaller, cheaper, more reliable (better warranty) and get way better gas mileage than some enormous Buick. What better way to either bring new young buyers in or keep the elderly out of giant Buick battering rams than to have a great small car to sell.

Australians are a bit odd

I mean look at this. These 'Ute things sell like hotcakes in the Land Down Under and I think they are the most wretched abortion of automotive design that I have ever seen. They look hideous enough as two doors but add another set of doors and you may as well park this thing under a bridge. Don't get me wrong I like the IDEA of the 'Ute and the utility of it is intriguing but man are they ugly.

Ugly does not sell.

For example, the Subaru Baja. This was based on the fantastic Legacy platform but managed only a fraction of sales of its Outback stable mates. I mean 30,000 cars in 4.5 years is abysmal for a company that sold nearly 200,000 cars in 2008 alone. Why was it a poor seller? LOOK AT IT! Under that disgusting body is a well made, reliable and safe Subaru Legacy.

Apocalypse, coming through.

You see wacky shit like this going on and you start to think that the apocalyptic donwfall shown in I Am Legend may be closer than we think.

Pretty boys listen up.

Welcome to the new world order. Maybe one day "The cake is a lie" will be the ultimate come-on line.

Mad skills

Talk about talent, this is amazing art.

I should be excited.....

Holy Shit, the trailer for the next Star Trek movie has hist the Internets. I SHOULD be excited about this but with Star Trek movies there's always a bittersweet aftertaste. I mean J.J. Abrams is a genius most of the time and Cloverfield is supposed to be amazing.

Anyway, watch the trailer before proceeding.

Abrams you bastard you better not screw this up. I swear if you ignore the Enterprise TV series, which I liked, then I'm going to set fire to something you own. Why does this "construction" scene look like something out of the Industrial Revolution? And why the hell is the Enterprise being constructed on the ground? True Star Trek nerd time: Even the NX-01 "Enterprise" was built in a space dock!

You can't beat free...right?

The best First Person Shooter ever is Wolfenstien: Enemy Territory. It just happened to be free, which didn't hurt, but it was the first good class-based FPS game. The best thing about ET was that the system requirements were low enough that nearly any PC made since 1998 could run it well enough to not be annoying.

The only other FPS I really enjoyed was Battlefield 2 which I played 'till my fingers bled. Now it was popular but you needed a decent system to run it well enough. BF2 was an oddity as well because it was a franchise that EA purchased and didn't ruin....until BF2142. Thanks EA but if I wanted to play Halo or Unreal Tournament then I'll play the originals and not some inferior copy.

Now Battlefield Heroes has been announced and at first glance looks great. Lower system requirements are meant to draw the casual gamer crowd away from their dreary flash game hell. They claim the game is free which when dealing with EA should be a huge red flag. The reason it's free is because EA can use the in-game advertising system they used in BF2142 to generate cash. They're also talking about turning the gaming environment into something like a social networking system. Also, is it going to be a copy of Team Fortress 2?

My kind of town....

One of the most interesting new buildings under construction is the Chicago Spire. Interesting location as well, right next to Navy Pier.

It's too bad that the LMDC wouldn't let Libeskind build something as unique as this building at the WTC site. This thing makes the Freedom Tower look pretty pedestrian. Have a look at this page for the size comparison.

Internet Classic

The Daily Show is still one of my absolute favorite shows on TV.

I still can't believe that there are people that haven't seen these legendary videos about the series of tubes... Comedy Central was kind enough to make the Daily Show clips available on their own web site after forcing their removal from You Tube last year.

First, the genius of Senator Ted Stevens.
Second, clearing the tubes for valuable commerce.
Third, the true genius of John Hodgman.

HD Disc War

Some people have complained that they did not understand what the whole HD format war was about and why I even gave a shit about it. This article summarizes the whole mess and how it really ended earlier this month.

The sad thing is that HD-DVD really is a superior format because it is a completed standard. Blu-ray was rushed to market because of HD-DVD and is still not finished. Which leads to the biggest problem of all; even though Blu-ray has "won" the war you SHOULD NOT BUY a Blu-ray player at this time. That's because the Blu-ray standard is still not finished and won't be until the end of this year when the Blu-ray Profile 2.0 players hit the market.

So if you must buy a Blu-ray player you must buy a Playstation3. That is the only FULLY upgradeable Blu-ray player on the market. So when Blu-ray Profile 2.0 is finally finished you'll be able to update your PS3 to play them.

So why does it matter? Well if you haven't actually watched an HD-DVD or Blu-ray on a decent home theater system then you don't know what you're missing. If you've got a $600 Walmart LCD TV and a Fisher Price 5.1 system then don't even bother wasting your money at this point.

Another 'Vette WTF?

So I think GM has lost their collective marbles? I mean the Z06 was a sensation because you got supercar performance (with some rough edges) for less than $70,000. It was at least $30K cheaper than its nearest rival. So here they come with the ZR1 at just under $100,000, that's dangerously close to Porsche 911 Turbo country.

Ask Ford how well an AMERICAN performance car sells once it hits six figures...they ended up making 500 less Ford GTs than they expected to sell. Now the ZR1 hasn't been officially reviewed yet so no one knows (except GM) just how fast the thing really is. It better be pretty damn fast for that kind of money considering that you're going to be able to buy a Nissan GT-R for under $60,000 when they drop later this year.

I mean I love the 'Vette but $40,000 less for around 80% of the performance......

Brilliant!

Valve's Portal has been universally loved and showered with praise for its unique game play. The worst thing anyone can say about Portal is that it is entirely to short. Having played Portal myself I can find no fault anywhere in the game and loved every minute.

Trust me, you really should play Portal.

But the best thing about Portal isn't the game play or the clever commentary from GLaDOS. No, the best thing about Portal is the ending. I can't remember a better game ending....ever. You'll be humming that song for weeks.

Remember, the cake is a lie.

A novel combination of ideas

Lonnie Johnson's claim to fame is as the inventor of the Super Soaker. Which really is a milestone product if you grew up in the days of sadly underpowered traditional squirt gun.

Aside from inventing a better water gun he also has multiple engineering degrees and worked for both the Strategic Air Command and JPL for years. So it should be no surprise then that his new invention is a bit more serious than the Super Soaker.

He's come up with a novel new way of combing the principles behind solar collectors and heat pumps. It is a stunningly simple idea that uses the heat generated by the sun to "pump" ions through a membrane and thus generate an electric current. It really functions a closed hydrogen fuel cell which means that the hydrogen in the system is not consumed just manipulated. The only thing that is consumed as "fuel" is the solar energy. Its almost so simple you wonder why the engineers and scientists that have been designing and building nuclear reactors for the last 50 years didn't think of something similar.

My own crusade

This is a great one, I love this guy's style. However, it has been my experience that the door-to-door variety of Christians are a bit thin in the intelligence area. I doubt that most of this would have made sense to your average bible thumper. They just try to sound smart by quoting a book that is based on the cutting edge ideals of 2000 years ago.

Which brings me to this picture:


Now you may think that is a great example of mad photoshop skills. Sadly, I believe that it is real and is most likely something that you could find here.

Now that is frightening shit.

Needs more cowbell....

So Rock Band is a sensation and if you haven't tried it yet you're seriously missing out. It's the most fun I've had playing a multiplayer game since Golden Eye for the N64.

So when I see add-ons like this it makes me as happy as a little girl. Rock Band parties are the new Chic.

Comments!

I've decided to open the comments up, at least until I'm forced to close them by some asshat in the future. So start commenting and make sure you send the link to anyone who may be interested in my unique view of the internet.

This is the cream of the crop people.

How'd I miss that?

NSFW post, you were warned.

A friend pointed this one out to me and its absolutely hilarious so make sure you watch it even if you don't suck at photoshop.

This one is for those of you that have a craving for carnage, you know who you are. Be warned there is some seriously disturbing stuff at that site.

Let's go shopping

Ah the world marketplace at it's finest.

Hilarious.

Pathetic

I think it's funny when people get all defensive about their children and their choices as parents. I always hear the same thing, "You don't understand because you don't have kids". Oh nice comeback, just because I don't have some little genetic milkshake chasing me around means I have no concept of love or how to care about something. I've had pets, I get it.

So when I see a story like this, I feel compelled to comment. Keep sheltering your little darlings because everybody knows that not exposing children to the dangers of the world will keep them safe. The funniest thing is the whole "wear a helmet when doing anything" mentality. All you're doing is lulling them into a false sense of protection, you should let them fall down and hurt themselves if you want to teach them something. We used to do some insane shit when I was a kid and all without a helmet. I learned several things that I would not have learned had I been wearing a helmet.

1. When you cut your head it bleeds a lot! But it looks kind of cool like you were in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
2. Baseballs and baseball bats are hard and will hurt if you get beaned by one. You should duck.
3. Skateboards + ramps = concussions and should be avoided.
   
4. Being pulled by a car while on a snow sled is really fun BUT mailboxes are very hard.
5. You will not see little birds circling your head despite what Bugs Bunny says.

Please Sony....be reasonable

I bought a PSP, actually someone bought me a PSP as a gift. Would I have spent my own $199 on a PSP? That's a tough question. The PSP has been out for nearly three years now and by most accounts has not been a huge success. If you compare it to the sales of its nearest rival, the Nintendo DS, then the PSP is an utter failure. If you own a PS3 though, the PSP may actually be worth it.

I primarily bought mine to use with the PS3 remote play, which works amazingly well. You can save music and video on your PS3 and play it remotely using Wi-Fi on your PSP. It looks and works great, I wish it could stream video from a Blu-ray disc or even a PS3 game. Sadly, that looks to be either not possible or counter to Sony's mysterious ambitions.

Which brings me to this point, if the PSP has "failed" as a game platform then why not turn it into a kick ass media player. What needs to change in order for this to happen?

1. Better native format support....especially Divx/Xvid and x.264. Hell, why not throw in quicktime while you're at it.
2. USB host support. Yes Sony I have seen through your "subtle" plot to shove MemoryStick up my ass. But if I could use one of my numerous 1gb-16gb USB Flash drives with my PSP that would be fantastic. What's more important MemoryStick sales or PSP sales?
3. Better browser support. Why not license Opera or something with better plug-in support.
4. Support for NFS or SMB shares over WiFi. That goes for the PS3 as well, DLNA support is great but I want easy access to my existing Windows Media Center file shares.
   

Now there is a pretty active homebrew community for the PSP and some of those things are available if you use hacked firmware. I'll do it if I have to, but I shouldn't have to.

Take that Chevy!

Dodge has decided to follow Chevy's lead and "unofficialy" take the wraps of the 2008 Challenger. What can I say except that this is the best, IMHO, of the retro-styled muscle cars. The rear end is a little weak but the front and the side profile is sweet.

Great timing

Read this. That's a great idea and I think that the movie(s) will be better for it. But I also think that The Order of the Phoenix and The Half Blood Prince could have benefited from this treatment as well. But I guess making 10 movies instead of 7 was just too much to ask.

Thats fine I'll just use my imagination to fill in all the subplot and character minutia that the brilliant screenplay writers cut out.

Um...it's called a mental illness.

Watch the video on this page.

Now, watch it again. And remember, there's now way in hell that Tom Cruise didn't watch this video and approve of its content and use.

That video finally pulled back the curtain for me on Scientology. I always thought that it was a bunch of absolute bullshit but this video really made me understand what Scientology is all about.

Scientology only makes sense to people that are really mentally ill. It's a case where someone came up with this totally screwball explanation for things that makes crazy people say...holy shit! Everyone else is crazy and I'm totally sane!

If you watch that video and think to yourself that Tom Cruise has found some profound meaning in the world, then you need to seek professional psychiatric help. And that is what Scientology should be referred to as; not a church but an organization offering alternative therapy to people with mental illnesses.

Now just wait, I bet Britney Spears will be the next poster child for Scientology.

Worth a thousand words....

This picture really makes you think. how much longer can these insular nations keep their citizens in the dark? The pace of technological advances is only increasing. People in these countries already have access to international television via satellite so why do they still care about preventing access to the internet? For the same reason that the internet is replacing television in more enlightened societies. Television is a very entertaining medium but it is inherently passive. The internet allows for realtime interaction between anyone, anywhere...almost.

Once you can interact with your supposed "enemy" it's much easier to develop your own opinions and thoughts about their supposedly corrupting influence. And allowing people to think for themselves is dangerous....at least for a dictatorship.

But pretty soon either LEO Satellites or some form of terrestrial wireless is going to make this kind of censorship impossible.

Thanks eBay!

I used to think that I was a pack rat but I've got nothing on this woman.

Yeah, what he said.

This story really got me thinking. Why doesn't Sci-Fi produce more of their own content? Is it money? That can't be it because they're owned by NBC Universal which has deep enough pockets to finance whatever they want. It must be the number of viewers, the dreaded ratings problem. I mean Heroes belongs on Sci Fi but it runs on NBC where it can and will get way more viewers. After BSG goes away next year I'm afraid there will be nothing left worth watching on Sci Fi.

Personally I think they should go after some of the good Sci Fi-oriented game titles that are out there for a show basis. How's about a Halo-based series or Mass Effect? Or how's about a show based in the Half Life universe. These shows could be animated, live action or CGI. Basing a show on these game properties would be bring in the younger viewers that seem to be missing from Sci Fi's other shows.

Lol!

This is pretty funny.

And remember:

What was that sound?

That sound you heard was every Mac fanboy exhaling a collective WTF?

That's is the ultimate example of what really matters more to Apple, form or function. This is the worst design idea I have ever seen on a laptop. I mean it may make sense to the people that live close to an Apple store so they can take their new Air Mac to the Genius Bar for a battery swap. But that's not a lot of people.

I've supported laptop users for 10 years now and while batteries have improved they still fail with frightening regularity. I'd say that after 1 year of use your average laptop battery is down to 85-90% of its capacity. After 2 years then you should really be thinking about replacing it. And I've seen a handful of batteries that have lasted less than a month.

Hey, its Macworld

Yawn.

Seriously, I'm not a Mac hater I just don't get into all the hype. No other manufacturer has their own special product launch conferences like Apple does. Can you imagine the hype that would surround Presario World!

It just goes to show what Apple is really good at.....Marketing. Every breath that Steve Jobs expels has the power to heal the ozone layer and save endangered species.

Jesus mother-humping....

I take a day off an I miss this story? This made my eye twitch....I knew there was something fishy going on here.

I need to go lie down.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

There is no God. There is no Top Gear without Clarkson, May and Hammond.


Mark my words, this will be an abomination.

Great Deals

This is probably just the last throes of the dying format but if you own a HD-DVD player then you should definitely check out Amazon's deals. Lots of great movies for $14.99.

Or you could just watch this. That gets my award for the best use of subtitles ever.

What career?

When the old guys that run car companies think that you're cool enough to promote their product you should really worry.

But that ZR-1 is pretty hot.

Now that's hot

Ever run into a girl that you haven't seen in a long time and she's way hotter now that she used to be? That's how I feel when I look at this Lexus. The only other Lexus that I've ever giving a second look was the now defunct IS300. The new IS looks a bit too much like a Camry for my liking.

Lexus is trying to shake off the rather stodgy image they've developed. I mean they really have built some pretty boring cars and I have always preferred Infiniti myself.

The sad thing is that this car should really be a Toyota model with a Supra badge on it. Now that would kick ass.

FAIL!

Wow, where do I start with this one.

First, there are legions of Mopar guys that are going to shit egg rolls about seeing the Demon name on this car with Chinese underpinnings.

Second, front wheel drive? Are you serious? Let's look at the cars that this is going to compete against to see how many are front wheel drive. For the sake of ease, cost is not a factor in this list.

Mazda Miata....RWD
Pontiac Solstice/Saturn Sky...RWD
Honda S2000...RWD
Nissan 350Z....RWD
BMW Z4........RWD

So that's pretty much every two-door two-seat convertible on the market for under $40k. So this means that the Dodge will be the only FWD car in this class. That's not the kind of unique you want to be. The whole point of this type of car is a fun, sporty drive which is the opposite of FWD. If they are trying to compete against other FWD convertibles like the Beetle or Mini then they're screwed already by the lack of a rear seat.

The only hope is that Dodge is aiming for some insanely low price point like under $20K. That would make the Miata the closest competitor price wise. They better keep that price well below $20K because there is no way in hell that a FWD, Chinese-based roadster is going to be able to compete against the Miata.

This sucks!

Read this story.

Now that sucks! Golden Eye is a game that is totally burned into my psyche. It was one of the first multiplayer CONSOLE games that was actually worth playing. I held onto my Nintendo 64 for a long time for just two reasons; Golden Eye and Mario Kart. I vividly remember bringing home the presentation projector from work to play Golden eye 4-way multiplayer on a 100inch screen. We would play for hour upon hour. Sadly, my N64 finally packed it in a couple of years ago and since then I've played Golden Eye a few times via a PC emulator. But, while emulators are great it's not really a good solution for multiplayer.

So why ya hating Nintendo? If you can't come to an agreement with M$ then just publish it for the Wii Virtual Console. Or is the Wii not capable of running a N64 game....oh, that burns. No the real reason is that the Xbox 360 has the only truly functional online play of the "Next Generation" game systems.

Now, there's a PlayStation3 fanboy somewhere that just had an aneurysm. I now have all three consoles; the Wii, the 360 and the PS3. So I feel qualified to comment and I have to say that while I think the PS3 is elegant and powerful, the PlayStation Network pales in comparison to Xbox Live. Yes, I know that PSN is free and it has to be because no one would pay for that service in its current state. And to be fair Xbox owners get the Silver level of Live for free which is still a way more polished package than PSN.

Sleepy head

These are some pretty cool alarm clocks. Back before I had the ultimate alarm clock, known as Girlfriend 3.0, it would take a nuclear blast to wake me up. I really could have used one of these back in the day.

Classics

Check out this page on Wired. Great commercials from yesterday.


These are awesome.

Yet another "wireless revolution"

The dust of CES has cleared and now another wireless revolution has begun. This revolution will be televised....fuck you that's funny.

Wireless HDTV is exactly what it sounds like, a way of sending full 1080P HD video from devices like cable boxes to a HD display. Now that sounds awesome and will un-complicate a lot of wall mounted installations of HDTVs but it's far from revolutionary. Why? Because you still have to provide power to that display which means there is still going to be a power cord. If I have to hide one cord then why would I care about three or four cables? One bad apple spoils the bunch.....

Now revolutionary will be a HDTV that has this wireless transmission capabilities AND a hydrogen fuel cell. Where's that technology? And where's my flying car bitches?

A let down?

The 2009 Camaro has been much hyped for it retro-inspired looks. At least the concept that has been splattered everywhere, including its appearance in the Transformers movie, has been much hyped because until today the production car had not been officially unveiled.

All I can say is that something's gone funny with it, that droopy nose just doesn't look right at all. I hope it's the color or the angle that is throwing me off because that nose needs some rhinoplasty.

Drop dead gorgeous

Why can't anyone make a modern car with amazing lines like this classic Zagato Aston Martin? You can mass produce nearly any shape with modern composites these days, it doesn't take a trained and experienced craftsmen to hand form steel and aluminium like it used to. Think about buying a car with the performance of a BMW M3 with the body of a Jaguar E-Type.....drool. Actually there are some cars exactly like that for sale in Europe.


I guess I really need to move to Europe. Too bad I always sucked at foreign language.

Hello!

Seriously, Veronica Belmont could be reviewing the latest in cow milking equipment and I would still watch the video in rapt fascination. She's just so damn cute.

And the site she reports for, Mahalo Daily, is pretty good too.

Wonders never cease

Wow, a government agency actually attempting to defend the rights of its constituency? This has got to be some kind of trick.

Ironic story considering that as of this morning it appears that my new Comcast overlords have begun filtering my P2P traffic. Look forward to numerous bile spewing rants on this subject in the coming days.

Should the Germans worry?

The press embargo on the new CTS-V was finally lifted. And I have to admit that it looks pretty good. The original CTS left me a bit cold. The exterior styling was ok but the interior was cheap feeling, depressing and cramped. The previous CTS-V had a rushed (not the performance but the packaging) feel to it and somewhat shady reliability.

I've seen quite a few of the new regular CTS models on the road an I like the exterior changes. The interior looks miles ahead but I have not sat in one yet so I cannot attest to "look and feel" which is where the old CTS failed miserably. The biggest problem is the curse that is befalling all performance cars these days and particularly the sports sedan....those damn semi-automatic gearboxes.

Yes, I know they've come along way. Yes, I know that they are faster shift-to-shift than a manual. Yes, I know that they are better for fast launches (debatable). But the problem is one of feel, a traditional manual transmission and clutch just involves the driver so much more in the pleasure of actually driving. Not to mention the simple pleasures of heel-toe downshifts and blipping the throttle to strike fear in the hearts of pedestrians. I hope all of you sissies out there that have never driven anything but an automatic are happy because you are ruining all of my fun now. Wah-wah I need to drive in traffic and a manual makes me tired. Grow a pair.

At least BMW wised up and is offering a PROPER gearbox in the M5 for 2007. Now if someone would just read this and give me $85,000 for my hilarious wittisisms then I could know the pleasure that is the Ultimate Driving Machine.

Time to switch?

This could be the best reason yet to switch to DirecTV. I was a Dish Network subscriber for 10 years but due to stupid regulatory requirements I could not get HD Locals from Dish. So I've lived with cable for two years now and it's been ok. But my biggest complaint is that I have to use their useless Motorola DVR (I've mentioned this in the past). I have two Windows Media Center PCs that I would love to use for watching TV.

If that DirecTV PC tuner works as advertised then I'll be the first in line.

How much?

$1500 for a keyboard, bitch please.

The Optimus Maximus keyboard has become something of a Holy Grail in the computer/ultra nerd world. But at $1500 it's just a toy for dot com asshats (see Dickipedia).
But the guys at Gizmodo seem to think that if the price was half that it would be worth it. Check out the video they have, it looks pretty amazing.

Sweet Jesus!

So guess what's trying to make a comeback? The Ghettoblaster (or boombox for the PC crowd) is trying to claw its way back from the grave made for it in the 80's. If you're under 30 and don't know what the hell I'm talking about then educate yourself.

Of course this comeback will be heavily laced with modern technology. Look at this thing, that's just cool. The old school Lasonics were the best boomboxes out there, I used to go to flea markets and beg my Mom to get me one. She ended up buying me some Magnavox at Sears, weak.

I for one hope that we get back to the days of kids carrying these things on their shoulders and blasting music at insane volume. It's hard to be a public nuisance with earbud headphones and being a public nuisance is part of growing up. I'd rather see kids laying cardboard down on the sidewalk and breakdancing than these fucking emo kids sitting on park benches trying to look like their so suicidal.

I'm going to go home and watch Crush Groove or maybe Breakin'.

Times change

Can you really hate on Hyundai anymore? I mean look at the new Genesis sedan, that's not a bad looking car. And if they can really sell it for $30,000, they will get plenty of buyers. They'll never get Lexus or Mercedes buyers to switch because of snob factor but they will get tons of Accord and Camry buyers that want to LOOK like they own a Lexus. The two smartest things that Hyundai has done are; unabashedly copying other manufacturers styling and putting VERY few Hyundai badges on their cars. Look at the Genesis again....see, only one badge on the back. The majority of people will that see car on the road will think its a Lexus just like everyone thought the latest generation of Sonata is a Honda Accord.

Smart, very smart.

HD-DVD twists in the wind

So back in August of last year it was announced that Paramount and Dreamworks were going to release their content exclusively on HD-DVD. There was a lot of bitching about this from the Blu-ray camp because the HD-DVD consortium supposedly threw millions at these studios, essentially buying their loyalty. This deal was to last for 18 months and was considered to be a saving grace for the HD-DVD format because it meant that they would have "catalog parity" with Blu-ray. Well it would seem that Paramount was smart enough to negotiate the contract in such a way that they could weasel out under circumstances. It appears that one of those circumstances was met when Warner backed out last week. You can be sure that Dreamworks and Universal will follow suit if Paramount makes an announcement. The best that can be hoped for is that they will produce for both formats but I wouldn't count on it. The old saying is true, you can't buy loyalty.

Dead format walking.

Two thumbs up!

Thank dog for Stumble Upon. If it wasn't for that most addictive of internet "tools" I may never have found the Dickipedia. Talk about a libel case just waiting to happen, check it out before anyone of a dozen teams of lawyers puts the hurt on this one.

CES!

The giant geek-gasm that is CES as begun. I'll try to highlight some stuff but there's so many announcements.

Lucky Brits will be the first to be able to use their Xbox360 as a set-top box, IPTV is the future people.

The Slingcatcher may finally be a reality after 16 months of being nearly available but for $250, ouch. That's a bit pricey for a media player with NO internal storage.

Wow, that is by far the coolest monitor I've seen yet. Coming soon for several thousand dollars I'm sure.

Real guitars are for old people, but this is cool.

Cool device if you're an XM subscriber like me.

I love my Harmony Remote. No wait, I want to marry my Harmony remote, it's that good. So this new Harmony One looks even better.......

The HD format war is over

So while I was away for a few days Warner Bros Studios announced that they would stop releasing their catalog of movies on HD-DVD and fully support Blu-ray. I know, it seems underwhelming but it is nothing less than the death blow for HD-DVD as a viable format.

I feel bad about this on many levels. First, I chose my side in the format war and my side lost. I was tempting by the tumbling prices on HD-DVD and my ingrained mistrust of Sony. Lets face it the last few format revolutions that Sony championed have been total cluster fucks (MiniDisc, ATRAC, UMD) and I bought into MiniDisc big time. So now based on the strength of PS3 sales Blu-ray has won the war, the PS3 fanboys will be intolerable.

Also, the Blu-ray standard is STILL evolving this late in the game. If you go and buy a new player today then you won't be able to play the latest "1.1" Blu-ray titles that are expected to come out later this year. Way to piss on your early adopters by making all their hardware useless. Your best bet is to buy a PS3 which is firmware upgradable and has plenty of CPU power to spare. That aside I always thought the technology behind Blu-ray was superior to that of HD-DVD.

Oh well. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft spins this since they were big supporters of HD-DVD.

Is Aptera's Typ-1 the future?

A few weeks ago I wrote about electric cars being the future. Apparently the future is now because Aptera is set to begin production and sales of their Typ-1. This is an extremely aerodynamic two passenger electric car that can go 120 miles on a charge. That's interesting enough, especially at an estimated cost of $30,000.

But later this year they will release the Typ-1h which will be a Series Hybrid with an onboard gasoline powered generator. The Typ-1h will have an unlimited range and an estimated fuel economy of 300 miles per gallon. No kidding, 300.

Here's a review, including video, done by Popular Mechanics. Remember where you were when you watch it, this thing may just be the future.

The best year for movies, ever?

I know, you always here people say crap like this but this time it could be true. I don't care who you are and what your interests may be, there are some great movies coming in 2008. Look at this list.

54 reasons why 2008 will be great.


The comic fanboys (myself included) are going to have a fantastic year. Hell Boy 2, The Dark Knight, Iron Man, and The Incredible Hulk. You want action movies? How's about Indiana Jones, Jumper, Rambo, James Bond 22 or the new Mummy. Fantasy/Epic or Sci-Fi your thing? Fine then there's Harry Potter 6, Prince Caspian, Speed Racer, and Star Trek XI. And talk about great comedies; Harold and Kumar 2, Zack and Miri Make A Porn, Be Kind Rewind, Semi-Pro and Pineapple Express.

But in just 16 days the movie I'm most looking forward to is released, Cloverfield. I hope that it isn't all hype because this movie looks awesome and scary as hell. Bring it!

Fresh Hell

Below is a link to a photo that is disturbing AND hilarious. The picture is probably NSFW and you may go to hell after looking at it. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Jesus

Internet Classics

Warning! NSFW!

An internet classic, The Star Wars Gangsta Rap.

Scare Tactics.

Oh, the RIAA. Always prepared to try and frighten you into thinking that doing anything with a Audio CD is illegal.

Did you here the latest news? A kitten dies every time you loan a CD to a friend without sending $5 to the RIAA.

Another pointless toy?

I've gotta have one of these. I mean $300? I'll find something to use it for.

Ring in the New Year, German Tuner Style

In case you weren't aware, the Germans are in the midst of a horsepower war. Mercedes, BMW and Audi have been one-upping each other for the last few years trying to take the title of Pferdestärken König.

Mercedes has technically taken the title with the 600hp+ twin turbo V12-engined monster, the SL65 AMG. But the mad Merc's power is really only good for shredding tires. Audi's RS4 and R8 feature one of the most amazing V8 engines to ever grace the planet but are still just a touch on the under-powered side at a paltry 420hp. BMW has the insane F1 derived 500hp+ V10s in the M5 and M6 making them probably the best all round sedan and GT cars (at least of the Germans).

The Germans are now where America was in the 60's, these ARE modern muscle cars. They all started out using technology to squeeze as much horsepower out of there existing "standard" engines. But now it's descended into a displacement war. It's really Mercedes that started the big bore battle with there huge 6.2litre V8s. Just like the American Muscle Car era there are some insane German "tuners" out there. The difference is that these guys charge 100K+ for their upgrades.

Look at this insane M5 upgrade. The first scary thing is the price, $130,000 plus the cost of an M5. The second scary thing is that it makes 730hp with the twin superchargers only running at 0.5bar of pressure. Can you imagine the kind of power you'd get out of twin turbos running modest boost like 5 psi? I'm glad the Germans are on our side now.