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March 25, 2005
Genius or Impostor?
I'm really conficted about if this person is a genius or a total git. I ssupect that both are applicable. I mean, you've got to admire the guts of someone who makes paintings then sneaks them into the most famous art galleries in the world...
A British graffiti artist has managed to evade security and hang his work in four of New York's most prestigious and well-guarded museums... Some of the pieces went undetected for several days - such as a beetle with missiles attached to its body... Banksy raided the Metropolitan Museum, but decided to spare the Guggenheim. "I would have had to appear between two Picassos," he said. "And I'm not good enough to get away with that."
Posted by baggers at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)
These Tentacles were made for Walkin'
And that's just what they'll do,
'Cause one of these days these tentacles
Are gonna walk all over you...
(with apologies to Nancy Sinatra)
Posted by baggers at 09:37 AM | Comments (0)
March 23, 2005
A Solar Eclipse...on Another World
Chalk another one up for the Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity: NASA has just released some very cool videos of their observations of the moons of Mars crossing the sun. So that's a solar eclipse on another world. How cool is that?
[NOTE: I guess that they aren't technically eclipses since the moons of Mars are too small to block out the sun, but I still think it's freakin' cool.]
Posted by baggers at 09:52 AM | Comments (0)
French drivers should be more like the English?
I find this a little hard to swallow, having been nearly mown down numerous times in London by taxi drivers, bus drivers and various lunatics riding bikes...
French motorists are being urged to copy British drivers and their "legendary civility" during a national road courtesy day on Thursday.The government-backed campaign says the "British recipe" explains why it has some of the safest roads in Europe and far fewer road deaths than France.
Posted by baggers at 09:43 AM | Comments (0)
March 22, 2005
In search of "Alica"
Ever see a face in an advert and think I've seen that person before! Rob Cockerham did: he spotted the same model in two Spam adverts and decided to keep track of her appearances. As befits the man who answered the question "How much Whipped Cream is there in a can of Reddi Wip?", his investigation was through and conclusive. I won't spoil the ending for you, but this model does seem to get around...
Posted by baggers at 04:25 PM | Comments (0)
The history of the Portable PC
Chris Null has written a great article on the history of the portable PC, including PCs like the IBM 5100, the world's first production portable PC. Portable beign a relative term, of course: it weighed in at 50 pounds, had 64kb of RAM and a built-in tape drive.
Posted by baggers at 03:09 PM | Comments (0)
March 21, 2005
Green card tales
So this morning Kath and I had the interview for my green card, and I’m pleased to report that it seemed to go pretty well. We were both kind of nervous about it, but (as these things usually do), it turned out to be pretty simple and hassle-free...
The interview itself took about 30 minutes, including a large amount of paper-shuffling, form-stamping and tapping away at the computer. The interviewer was a little cold to begin with, but she seemed to relax when she realized that we really are an old married couple, not just two strangers pretending to be. She asked us a few questions, asking why we had filed separate tax returns (mainly because, as a non-resident until recently, I had to) and how we met. She also asked about our wedding, who was there, where we went on honeymoon, etc. I really got the impression that she didn’t care that much what the answers were – she was more interested in the way we replied, if we backed each other up and that we didn’t sound rehearsed or fake.
So we answered all of her questions, and she seemed happy. She said that everything seemed to be fine, but they didn’t give me the card there and then: they are still waiting for the FBI name check, where they look me up to make sure that I am not an international arms dealer or mass murderer. I’m pretty confident that I am not either, so hopefully I’ll be all fully carded within a few weeks…
So that’s good news! I’ll save the celebrations for when I have the actual card in my hands, but it’s definitely progress and is a big weight off our minds.
Some things that they didn’t ask (but which we were prepared for)
- What color socks is your spouse wearing? (black for me, grey for her)
- What color toothbrush do they use? (we have an electric toothbrush with two heads: hers is green, mine is blue)
- To see the wedding pictures. I’d spent a lot of time putting together an album of wedding and other photos, but they didn’t ask to see them. Mind you, they would have wanted to see them if we hadn’t brought them, of course...
Posted by baggers at 09:47 PM | Comments (0)
Build your own Nintendo DS dock
I'm a great fan of do-it-yourself solutions to problems, so this one appeals to me. Looking for a dock for your Nintendo DS? Why not build it out of Lego?
[Via BoingBoing]
Posted by baggers at 09:30 PM | Comments (0)
March 15, 2005
How much is that doggy in the window? The one with the huge bat-shaped ears?
My wife sent me a link to this dog with the message "come fly with me". LuAnn is a Chihuahua & Dachshund mix who is looking for a good home, but I think she really deserves a part in a Harry Potter film...
Posted by baggers at 03:52 PM | Comments (0)
Cool type collage tool
This is pretty cool: type in a word and it builds a type collage of the word from images. It's based on the Yahoo API, which allows you to access the search engines inner workings within a script. Clever stuff!
Posted by baggers at 12:13 PM | Comments (0)
March 14, 2005
Wiener Dog Advert
Looking for an interesting way to advertise your product or service? Why not advertise on Peanut the Weiner dog! Bids are surrently up to $1500.
Posted by baggers at 09:03 AM | Comments (0)
March 11, 2005
Slightly used laptop for sale
As seen on HardOCP, this slightly used laptop is for sale on eBay. The vendors used an innovative technique to remove the spyware from it: a shotgun.
"On this particular laptop, we researched a combination of verbal vulgarity and 12 gauge shotgun shells. The results of our research will be published in our forth coming book, "Spyware Go Bye Bye." Own this piece of RD R & D history."
The auction ends on the 19th of March, current high bid is $51. And don't forget, eBay offers financing for this one of a kind purchase!
Posted by baggers at 11:58 AM | Comments (0)
March 09, 2005
Strangers in the night, exchanging iTunes....
So this is a sweet little story of geek love. Boy walks into coffee shop, spots iTunes library on the wireless network. Boy sends message via his iTunes library, girl responds. I won't spoil the ending for you, but like the coffee it is kind of bittersweet...
Posted by baggers at 10:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 07, 2005
Reflecting on the Moon
Thirty five years, ago, men walked on the moon. When they came back to earth, they left a few things behind (including, apparently, a number of very expensive cameras). One thing that they left is a laser refelctor that is still going strong and has just been used to prove one of the principles of General Relativity...
Posted by baggers at 04:39 PM | Comments (0)
SouthPark yourself...
A self-portrait, created with the SouthPark Studio (version 2). Not a bad likeness, I think. All it needs is a few cats gnawing on the couch in the background and it would be pretty much true to life...
As discovered by Jason Calcanis.
Posted by baggers at 02:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack