My personal glimpse into the first half of the 21st Century for some yet to be known future
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
The bear at the Bellagio
Here's the bear in the Bellagio (Vegas) xmas display. Its adorable, but if it was real, I'd never be this close.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Las Vegas Getaway
December 10, 2010 to December 15, 2010 with Mike Puckett, Alice, Victoria Davis, Chris Davis and Jennifer Szabo, visited Las Vegas, Nevada, Encore at the Wynn Resort, The Strip Las Vegas NV, New York - New York Hotel & Casino Las Vegas, Fremont Street Experience and Bellagio Las Vegas.
Great getaway, and catching up with old friends. (Original post/backup link)
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Senseless Sunday: fruitville
- The peanut is misnamed since it is actually a legume.
- Pineapples are coalesced berries.
- If a raisin is dropped into a glass of fresh champagne, it will float and sink over and over.
- From 1923 to 1969, Illinois had a law making American their official language[1].
- After Canada and Mexico, Russia is the nearest neighbor to the United States, via Alaska. In the middle of the Bering Strait, Russia’s Big Diomede Island and the U.S.’s Little Diomede Island are only two miles apart. "I can see Russia from my house."
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Android Top 10 Utility, Tools and Communications Apps for 2010
- Star Contact by StarObject provides advanced Contacts search functionally that is missing from almost all smartphones (even Palm). Though I do not use this app every time I need to look up contact, it proves itself to be essential when searching contacts based on criteria other than a person's name. (Also listed in 2009.)
- Easy Dialer Premium by UIP ($) does cost a small nominal fee, but it is worth the chump change! It provides a well designed speed dial interface that really should be the standard for any Android smartphone. There is a free version with small and unintrusive ads called Easy Dialer. (Also listed in 2009.)
- App Referrer by Drathus allows one person to quickly give an app to another person's phone by scanning a simple barcode. (Requires Barcode Scanner app from Google.)
- Blogaway by Kumar Bibek is a simple and convenient method to post articles to your blogger.com blogs.
- WordPress by Automattic, Inc (WordPress makers) is a fairly powerful app that allows you to add and edit comments, articles and pages to your WordPress blog.
- Shazam by Shazam Entertainment Ltd is a powerful tool that can quickly identify a work of music just by listening to it, with information about the artist, myspace pages, etc.
- FPT System Manager by FPT Software is a powerful app provides detailed system and app information, with many tools built-in. Unfortunately, this app may no longer be available.
- Mute by Marko Mitic is a very simple tool that allows for one-button press to toggle the fully muted mode on the Android phone. This is on my home screen and I use it almost every day.
- Tip Calculator by Techmind determines a tip on the pre-sales tax price. It also calculates the amount each person owes on split bills. There are many tip calculators on the Android Market, but this is gets straight to the point with a simple and easy to use interface.
- Twidroyd for Twitter by PostUp, Inc is a great Twitter client app with a lot of bells and whistles that are missing from Twitter.com homepage. It tracks multiple accounts, has LivePreview which automatically shows webpages or profiles associated with a particular tweet, and has an intuitive interface. There is also a paid version called Twitdroyd Pro for Twitter, which I recommend if you want additional control over your Twitter experience.
Sunday, November 07, 2010
Senseless Sunday: stop the numbers!
- Adding 10 inches to 6 millimeters equals exactly 26 centimeters (10 in + 6mm = 26cm).
- Tautonyms is the word for scientific names where the genus and species are the same.
- Taxi is spelled exactly the same in English, French, German, Swedish, Portuguese, and Dutch.
- Mexico uses the Spanish word alto on stop signs; Spain uses the word stop.
- Don’t ask a quantum physicist to define the time length for a jiffy. You might get a long answer.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Senseless Sunday: eyeing time
- The old statement “a broken clock is right at least twice a day” is meaningless if the clock is digital.
- A giraffe can clean its ears with its 18 to 21 inch long tongue. Find more random giraffe facts here.
- The tool used in old shoe stores to measure foot size is called a Brannock Device.
- The eye muscle is the fastest reacting muscle of the whole body. It contracts in less than 1/100th of a second.
- The number googolplex cannot be written out since a googol of 0’s (zeros) cannot fit into the observable universe.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Free Right Turn rule in California
One of the biggest questions in California is about something called free right turn. Many larger intersections have right turn lanes that are separated (channelized) from the intersection by a traffic island. These lanes rarely have signals or signs directly associated with cars in the lane. The confusion comes from how to use the lane when there is a red light in that direction. In most cases, a right turn is allowed on a red light only after a full and complete stop. However, when there is a separated lane, the car may treat it as a yield. In other words, it's OK to precede on a right turn as a yield on a red light (if safe) for separated right turn lanes.
Here's the funny part. There is no law on the books in California that actually make this declaration, as far as I know. The free right turn rules seems to come out of the same absence of law regarding the requirement for a stop on red for those lanes. It's important to note that this rule only applies if the traffic signal is after the segregation of the right turn lane (which does make sense).
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Alaskan Cruise Day 3
After a lengthy ride on a bus (with a driver that was more than happy to tell her personal story of how she and her husband ended up in Alaska), our tour group arrived at a small dock in Auke Bay. The tour boat had a heated cabin. We took off from dock and headed out of the bay.
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At first, there were no whales in sight. As we headed north, we began to see spouts of water off in the far distance. The crew finally got us near some humpbacks. Over the next couple of hours, the boat went from one area to another trying to give us a glimpse of the whales. As the day progressed, we had better sightings.
Near the end of the tour, we watched excitedly as a whale lunged out of the water to fill its mouth full of fish. That was an impressive sight!
As we headed back to dock, I asked Allie's mom how many whales she spotted. She excitedly held up her hand showing all her fingers and said, "FIVE!" with as big of a smile as I've ever seen gleam. Everyone had a lot of fun on this excursion.
Navigation: See all Alaskan Cruise articles here
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Nice to have authentic burrito
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
Tuesday Two: Loonie fingers
Tuesday Two
NASA and Goodyear teamed up to develop a "spring tire" that can bare 800 lbs without air. It is designed for Lunar and Martian exploration. The tire is more energy efficient and won't blow-out (which sucks on Earth, but would really suck on the Moon.)
CEMS Systems now has a portable fingerprint reader, useful for roaming and ad-hoc security checks, such as construction sites or bus boarding.
Epoch-Fail
Remember those obnoxious jerks that used to walk around city streets supporting a loud boom-box on their shoulder? Well, there back! Here's an invention that tells the world that you just don't care about other people around you. It's the Stereo Neckphones!
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Tuesday Two: Shingles Thermometer
Tuesday Two
Dow will soon make a roof shingle that generates solar power. It's called DOW POWERHOUSE Solar Shingle. Home and business owners will soon have more options to help power their homes, businesses and occasional gazebo. Viva Sol!
CorTemp Ingestible Core Body Thermometer Pill isn't just a mouthful of words, it's actually a thermometer that you swallow! Once the pill is ingested, a quartz crystal sensor vibrates at a frequency that is relative to the body's temperature. This creates a low-level signal that can be detected outside of the body.
Monday, August 30, 2010
SolidWorks Blogger and Press Event 2010
August 30, 2010 with Richard Hall, Jeff Mirisola, Matthew West, Jason Raak and Ricky Jordan visited SolidWorks HQ and Concord, Massachusetts. (Original post/backup link)
Monday, August 23, 2010
Failed predictions by Sylvia Browne
Sylvia Browne makes a lot of predictions. Every once in awhile, she claims this or that successful prediction. In her book The Other Side and Back, Browne even boosts,
I could fill a separate book with my predictions that have come true...
She doesn't talk about her unsuccessful predictions very often, from what I've seen. I imagine she has many, indeed. I'm not going to get all high and mighty about failed predictions. I'm just going to list a few.
In the book mentioned above, Sylvia has a list of predictions for the year 2000 that did not end up happening or that where so basic that they really don't count (whether right or wrong).
- Three major hurricanes, with hits in Florida and Carolinas (among other regions). Fail. According to USA Today, "no hurricanes hit the USA" in 2000.
- Notable earthquake hits Niagara Falls in 2000. Fail. The last notable quake in that area occurred in 1897.
- Bill Bradley won the presidential election and there was "close competition from the Reform Party". Fail and Fail. Though that election may have been stolen with the wrong outcome, Bradley and the Reform Party were no where in sight.
- David Letterman quits his nightly show at the end of 2000. Fail. Even after the scandals of 2009, he's still running strong.
- Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston marry. Success! But is this really a prediction or something that was rather obvious? She also predicted they wouldn't last long. They didn't last, but they did last longer than many Hollywood marriages.
- In 2000, there would be a new flu strain that would start in the Eastern U.S. Asian immigrants coming into the U.S. would "help quell this flu virus". Fail. Although a new flu strain popped up in 2005 called Avian Flu, and that was actually blamed on an Asian source. So, I count this as a double and triple fail.
- In the year 2010, aliens will be seen on Earth and act as observers. She also predictions they will teach humans about the anti-gravity technology. I'll make a counter prediction. No aliens. No anti-gravity devices.