-
Rudolph Fail
via youtube.comAs a former band geek I kind of feel sorry for the marching band behind Rudolph.
-
Spelling Matters
I am sure everybody has received that email that says spelling really doesn’t matter, as long and the first and last letter of each word is right. Then it has a paragraph that you can totally read, but a lot of the words are misspelled. I have always believed that it was true, but is it? The video above explains the truth.
-
Shop Vac by Jonathan Coulton
This is such an awesome video for one of my favorite Jonathan Coulton songs. Great job Jarrett Heather.
-
Fuck You If You Don’t Like Christmas
-
White Wine in the Sun
So last December I posted a video and link to buy Tim Minchin’s amazing Christmas song “White Wine in the Sun”. Once again all money made from the song from November 21st to January 1st is going to charity.
This year in Australia, the amazing Kate Miller-Heidke covered the song for a Christmas CD for charity. Christian groups were outraged that the song was on the CD, despite the fact that proceeds go to a Christian charity. I think it’s a great song that shows Christmas is about more than religion. It’s about spending time with family whatever your religions beliefs are.
I saw Kate Miller-Heidke in concert last year and she has an amazing voice. Here is her version of the song:
And if you want to hear the song performed by Tim Minchin, here is that version:
-
I’m glad I don’t fly much
So today supposedly a bunch of people are going to refuse the airport scans and request the pat-downs. I think it’s pretty stupid. I don’t feel sorry one bit for the people getting patted down a little too much. It serves them right. I feel more sorry for the TSA people that have to pat down the idiots.
First, if privacy is what they are worried about they may have a point. The only images of the scanners I have seen have been online. I am not sure how valid they are, or if they are photoshop jobs. You may be able to see a little bit of an outline of some boobs or a penis, but who cares. Aren’t we all adults here?
Second, if health reasons are what they are worried about they really shouldn’t. There are two technologies being used in the new scanners. Millimeter wave, and Backscatter X-ray. There is no heath concerns with Millimeter wave scanners. They use radio frequency radiation that is non-ionizing and cannot cause cell damage leading to cancer. The Backscatter X-ray scanners on the other hand uses ionizing radiation which can cause cell damage and lead to cancer. The thing is there is similar naturally occurring ionizing radiation all around us. In 42 minutes of ordinary living, or 2 minutes in a plane flight, you would be exposed to the same amount of radiation. So the amount of radiation you are getting from the scan is almost nothing.
You deserve to be felt up if you refuse to go through the scanners. I don’t agree with the extra “security theater” the TSA is putting on though. I think the new body scanners are a waste of money. I don’t think the TSA has ever caught anybody trying to blow up a plane. All this extra “security theater” is just telling the terrorists that they are winning. The TSA always seems to be a step behind. I can think of so many attacks that could happen that really couldn’t be stopped. What would happen if someone set off a bomb waiting in the security line? Then what would we do? You really can’t stop anybody that is willing to kill themselves to cause terror.
I think the TSA should be doing stuff that can actually make us safer. Taking off our shoes, throwing away our fingernail clippers, and putting our liquids in plastic baggies really doesn’t make us much safer. Wouldn’t the money spent on these scanners be put to better use on educating TSA agents, and coming up with strategies that actually make us safer, and maybe less inconvenienced?
-
iPad version 4.2.1
I bought an iPad two days after they became available. I usually don’t buy version 1 products, but the iPad looked so good I couldn’t wait. So I have been using it now for seven months and totally love it. It’s the perfect couch computer. It’s so handy to have on the couch to either look something up on IMDB, check sports scores, or check up on Twitter. I also think it’s a great ebook reader. I have read many books on it, and prefer it over paper books. I have never read a book on a Kindle though. The smaller size, and non-backlit screen may be your thing, but I love the color screen and multiple uses the iPad has. It has pretty much replaced my laptop on short trips. Longer vacations I need my laptop, but if I just want to keep up with my RSS feeds, my iPad does the job.Yesterday the long awaiting iOS 4.2 came out. I was looking forward to it coming out since the day I bought my iPad. It finally brings the much needed folders, and multitasking. My iPad now seems even more useful. The update does one stupid thing though. It changes the screen orientation switch into another mute switch. It boggles my mind why they did this. I use to use that switch all the time. Now it takes four button pushes to lock the screen orientation. Holding the volume button down for a second or two has always muted it. Why do we need another mute switch? There are only four buttons on the damn thing, why do two of them have to be mute?
We will see if I miss the old screen orientation lock. If I miss it too much, I will might just have to jailbreak it again.
-
Surprise
via i.imgur.com -
New printer
So a couple of weeks ago I bought a new printer. The ink for my old printer was getting harder and harder to find. Target was the only place that had it, and last time I bought some it was covered in a layer of dust. Yeah, it wasn’t a very popular ink cartridge. I figured the days of easily finding ink for that printer are numbered. I was low on both black and color ink, so —for almost the price of the ink— I just bought a new printer.
If I remember correctly this the fifth printer I a have bought, and every time I am always amazed at the new one, and kind of shocked how crappy my old one was.
The first printer I bought was back in the early 90s. It only printed in black. I was amazed at how crisp and clean the black was and, gasp, it could print different fonts. It was much better than those dot matrix printers we had in school.
A few years later I bought my first color printer. It could print color, but really couldn’t handle pictures. Just some basic color in documents. It was my first and only HP printer. After that I started buying Epson printers, and that is all I have bought since.
My third printer was my first Epson and I was amazed how good of photos it could print. Looking back at those photos now, they are pretty crappy.
My fourth printer is the Epson printer that I am getting rid of now. It prints pretty good photos. I can’t really tell the difference between my printed photos, and printed photos from stores. Nowadays though, it’s easier and probably cheaper to just get photos printed at stores, so I seldom print photos at home.
My new printer is an Epson WorkForce 633. I’m sure the print quality is better than my old printer, but honestly I can really see a difference. Printers have gotten so good now that print quality really doesn’t matter much anymore. It’s other features that I love about my new printer.
It’s an all in one printer, like most of them are nowadays. It’s nice to have a scanner again, since mine went to hell a few years ago. I don’t really scan much, but it’s nice to be able to. It has a nice document feeder too, so I can copy or scan multiple of pages easily. The thing I really like about it is it’s paper try. I can put a half of ream of paper in it, and not have to worry about paper levels for a long time. Plus it holds the paper flat, so it doesn’t get all curled up.
It’s WiFi, but I don’t really see a benefit to that. It still has to be plugged into my computer to scan, so it didn’t eliminate and wires. The only advantage I can see of it is that other computers on the network can print when my main computer is shut off, but my computer is never shut off, so who cares. It’s probably more of a feature for noobs that don’t know how to share a printer on the network.
My favorite features are probably the speed —It prints super fast— and that it can print double sided. It’s pretty cool how it prints one side, sucks it back in, and then prints the other side.
Have I really typed this much about something as unsexy as a new printer? Holy crap. Well, I don’t by printers too often, so I guess I really notice the changes when I do.
-
All my book are eBooks or Audible books now
My “to read” book list is always growing faster than I can read. From time to time I just buy a bunch of them in the Kindle format to keep my wish list down. I now have over 20 books I haven’t read yet on my iPad, but getting them on my iPad is the first step. Once they are there, I will read them eventually.
For some reason, I haven’t gotten around to reading any of Phil Plait’s books yet. I have no idea why I haven’t. I read his blog every day, and love everything he does. His first book, Bad Astronomy, is not available on Audible. I moved it right to the top of my Audible Wish List, which is another wish list that grows faster than I can keep up with. It will be my next Audible listen when I get my next book at the end of the month.
The iPad might not be the most perfect ebook reader, but it works great for me, and has more uses than just an ebook reader. I now seldom read paper books. It’s either an ebook, or an audible book.
I hate the fact that Audible, and Amazon’s Kindle books contain DRM though. In the past I refused to spend money on DRMed products, and probably still wouldn’t if it wasn’t so easy to remove. It’s a little bit of a pain, but I strip off the DRM from my Audible, and Kindle books right after I download them. I want to be able to read or listen to my media the way I want. I prefer the iBooks app on my iPad over the Kindle app. Once DRM is removed, I can read Kindle books in the iBooks app. Just like Amazon’s MP3s, and now iTunes, as soon as a non-DRM book store opens I am there.
