Can you pop popcorn with a cellphone?
[Mobile Phone + Maize = Popcorn – YouTube]
Nope.
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Category: Miscellaneous
If you’ve got an hour to spend, this Google Tech Talk by David Weinberger is worth a listen. In it he explains how the breakdown of categorization designed for physical objects when applied to digital or abstract objects (such as thoughts) can be overcome through new kinds of categorization—ie. tagging.
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Pavement Skating
This is a video of four people driving along a Saudi Arabian road with three of them outside the car doing what what appears to be sliding on concrete wearing nothing special on their feet.
[Only in Saudi Arabia – YouTube]
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The Hitler Meta Meme
Constantly being remixed with new subtitles on various themes, scenes from the 2004 film “Downfall (Der Untergang)” by Oliver Hirschbiegel, set in 1945 showing Hitler’s last 10 days in his Berlin bunker, recently turned into a meta meme, making fun of the remixes with a remix. Unfortunately, that old version was taken down by a bogus DMCA request, but Brad Templeton, an EFF chairman, has created this fun and clever meta version to replace it.
A small selection of other versions:
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Lilly, Mapmaster at 2
Check out this very interesting video of Lilly, the almost two year old master of the map. Apparently she showed off her incredible talent when she appeared as a guest on Oprah recently.
[The Original Video of Lilly: The World Map Master – YouTube]
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My Oscar Picks
There is less than an hour before the Oscars air. I’ve decided to make some predictions again this year.
Best Original Screenplay:
Diablo Cody – Juno
I loved the writing in Juno—very clever.
And the winner is: Diablo Cody – Juno
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role:
Cate Blanchett – I’m Not There
And the winner is: Tilda Swinton – Michael Clayton
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role:
Julie Christie – Away From Her
And the winner is: Marion Cotillard – La Vie en Rose
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role:
Javier Bardem – No Country for Old Men
He has creepy down!
And the winner is: Javier Bardem – No Country for Old Men
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role:
Daniel Day-Lewis – There Will Be Blood
“I drink your milkshake! I drink it up!” Loved it.
And the winner is: Daniel Day-Lewis – There Will Be Blood
Best Director:
Ethan and Joel Coen – No Country for Old Men
This movie was a bit insane, but some of the subtleties in performances were fantastic.
And the winner is: Ethan and Joel Coen – No Country for Old Men
Best Picture:
No Country for Old Men
I would rather see There Will be Blood get it, since I enjoyed it more. The unresolved plot in No Country for Old Men was a bit frustrating but it’s a movie that stays with you and I think it’s a sure thing for the win.
And the winner is: No Country for Old Men
Of the seven categories I made predictions on, I got 5 of them right. I think I am getting much better at predicting these things than I have been in previous years.
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Jesus Cat
Everybody loves the Jesus Cat. (371k .swf with sound)
Jason Scott explains:
I happened to show this to an IRC channel, and linked to a “stuff I have lying around” directory on one of my servers.
Two days later, 91,000 people visited.
And it was that specific URL too, and since I didn’t put it anywhere other than that channel, once, it meant someone gave it to someone else, or pasted it in another IRC channel, and then it just exploded outward. I see 3,000 matches for the original URL, and if you spend the time browsing them, you find lots of commentary. I’ll save you time and tell you the general responses:
- Hilarious!
- Stupid.
- That cat’s not REALLY walking on water.
- This reminds me of endless other cat stuff HERE’S SOME LINKS
- I will now riff on the idea of a cat as a savior for the next paragraph.
91,000 throws it way past anything I’ve done, ever with regards to serving a popular file. Some of the others might have more longevity over the Jesus Cat (the Goatse article, for example, is still packing them in a year later) but for sheer popularity, Jesus Cat stands above them all.
God bless his wet, matted little fur.
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Bubble City
I’m not sure if it can be considered sci-fi, since Bubble City takes place in the real world involving potentially real technology, but it’s got enough techie panache and thrilling conspiracy that make it the most fun fiction I’ve read in awhile.
Bubble City, a serial novel currently being written by the brilliant Aaron Swartz.
Remember how 0.02 dollars does not equal 0.02 cents? “Eyeless Writer” has done some follow-up research:
I did some research in early 2007 for an article that I ultimately never got around to publishing. It was a follow-up article to the story told by VerizonMath.com, where a customer recorded 6 different Verizon managers quoting a rate 100 times less than they actually charged, and then not being able to see the mistake when it was pointed out to them. The results of that research—an informal survey in which I called Verizon’s sales line 56 times—are as relevant now as ever. With the recent battles between Google and Verizon Wireless over so-called, “open networks”, now seems like an excellent time to wonder exactly how bad a phone company can get if they’re allowed to trap their customers. This article seems like pretty good evidence that Verizon Wireless should not be the entity deciding future wireless laws.
Here is a video made by “Eyeless Writer” that compiles those 56 calls to Verizon Wireless and asks them to answer two questions about their rates. The operators misquote Verizon’s rate 93% of the time.
[How Bad Can a Cell Phone Company Get? – YouTube]
(via)
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McAfee SiteAdvisor Phishing Quiz
A few weeks ago I received a comment on one of my flickr photos that was an obvious phishing attempt. I promptly erased the message but just to be safe, I emailed my friends and family and warned them to be on the lookout for such dangers on the web. I soon realized that my parents, for example, have no idea what phishing is, and probably many other folks out there don’t either.
Take McAfee’s short ten question phishing quiz and see if you know how to recognize a real site verses some malicious site after your passwords and bank accounts, and if not, educate yourself in the process. I scored 9 out of 10 — somehow the fake Amazon site tricked me.
How well did you do?
Update: The quiz is gone.