Must watch video: Internet people

Sorry, but this video was just too good to pass up posting. The sad thing it, I've seen most of the videos it makes reference to.

Internet People - Watch more free videos

Interesting Links Roundup 1

This is the first installment of Interesting Links Roundup.
To start off, we have Hiding an Airplane Factory.
An amazing feet of ingenuity, hiding such a massive building.

Then we have Images of extreme Rich/Poor lines.
Incredible contrast between the buildings on one side of a city and the other.

From OhGizmo! comes a silly picture of an ESC key, escaping.
I didn't say it was useful...

I found a story on digg about a CPU a professor created that's 100 times faster than the current best. It's actually 64 processors on one chip.

And finally, from OhGizmo again, there's a story about super image resizing. Trust me, it only sounds boring. It's hard to explain what it does and why it is special here, but the video there will make it all clear to you.

And that's it folks! Tune in next time.

Why not to start a startup

After my last post, it would be good to mention an article I came across while going through my del.icio.us bookmarks. It's called Why not to start a startup, and it talks about the reasons people have for not trying to start their own business. Apparently the writer is affiliated with a program that helps create startups by means of grants.

Making money from blogs

If you have spent any significant time on the web, then you know that many people make money from blogs. One of those people's blog is about making money from blogs. He makes money off of a blog that tells people how to make money... I wish I could think of something clever to say about that.
Anyway, his blog is called Problogger. It's the old faithful of blogs about making money from blogs, and one of my favorites.

Where apple should go with the ipod touch and the iphone

Where apple should go with the ipod touch and the iphone.
Both the ipod touch and the iphone have touch screens. It would be quite logical to give them a note-taking application, like tablet PCs, which would be great for students who do not want to pay for both an ipod and a tablet PC.
Another thing they should have is a place where you can download new software to put on the ipod touch/iphone. Some of the software would be free, others you would pay for using your itunes account. If the software avaliable included document and spreadsheet editors, it could make both devices a good pda replacement (having them function as a pda would also make them seem a like a much better deal).
With the note-taking ability and the software improvement combined with the wifi, music ability, and web browser, the ipod touch could replace:

1. An ipod (duh)
   
2. A PDA
   
3. ..and possibly even a tablet PC
   

Given the above improvements, the iphone could replace:

1. Again, an ipod
2. A PDA
3. A cellphone
4. A point-and-shoot digital camera
5. ..and possibly even a tablet PC

Now imagine if apple gave the iphone and ipod touch 3d gaming on par with a Sony PSP or Nintendo DS...

Toasters should ding

Ovens and microwaves ding when they are done. Cars ding at the slightest offense, reminding you to correct your operation error. Washing machines ding, dryers ding, even some refrigerators will ding if the door is left open. So why don't toasters ding?
Countless times I have walked in to the kitchen to discover that there was some cold toast sitting in the toaster that I had completely forgotten about (I did that just now). A simple bell or buzzer would make toasters so much more useful to a distractable person like myself. Having a count-down timer on the toaster showing how much time left until you get toast would also help. I would suggest a toaster that e-mails you when the toast is done, but that would be overkill.

Because no one reads my blog anyway...

Because no one reads my blog anyway, it can't hurt to express my less-than popular political views here. I can't lose readers, right?

Firearms refresher course
1. An armed man is a citizen. An unarmed man is a subject.
Guns have a perfectly legitimate use as defense weapons; they've saved lives.

2. A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.
The response time of a .357 is far grater than that of the police, even if they are next door.

3. Colt: The original point and click interface.

4. Gun control is not about guns; it's about control.

5. If guns are outlawed, can we use swords?
If you outlaw guns, outlaw will continue using them. If you get rid of all guns, they will just find another way (or make their own guns).

6. If guns cause crime, then pencils cause misspelled words.
Crime is caused when people choose to do bad things, not when a gun chooses to fire.

7. Free men do not ask permission to bear arms.
I believe we have a right to own and operate any mechanical device, regardless of what it does.

8. If you don't know your rights, you don't have any.

9. Those who trade liberty for security have neither.

10. The United States Constitution 1791. All Rights Reserved.

11. What part of "shall not be infringed" do you not understand?

12. The Second Amendment is in place in case the politicians ignore the
others.

13. 64,999,987 firearms owners killed no one yesterday.
Guns kill far less people each day than cars. So lets outlaw cars, and see where that gets us, eh?

14. Guns only have two enemies; rust and politicians.

15. Know guns, know peace, know safety. No guns, no peace, no safety.

16. You don't shoot to kill; you shoot to stay alive.

17. 911: Government sponsored Dial-a-Prayer.
How many times have the police ever prevented a crime in progress, instead of just catching the criminal?

18. Assault is a behavior, not a device.

19. Criminals love gun control; it makes their jobs safer.
If you were a criminal, you would not care weather or not the law says you can carry a gun, you'll carry one anyway. You do care if your target has a gun.

20. If guns cause crime, then matches cause arson.

21. Only a government that is afraid of its citizens tries to control
them.

22. You have only the rights you are willing to fight for.

23. Enforce the gun control laws we ALREADY have; don't make more.

24. When you remove the people's right to bear arms, you create slaves.

25. The American Revolution would never have happened with gun control.


If you say we should outlaw guns because they are dangerous (or because they can be used for crime), then by that logic you should outlaw matches. You can get hurt with them, and you can commit a crime using them. They have useful purpose, starting fires, and so do guns, shooting things.

Flickr widget

For fun, I just made a flickr widget:

Flickr badge

Just trying out the flickr flash badge:

www.flickr.com

Darn. Blogger doesn't let it work.

Passive solar homes video

This video is about passive solar houses from a company called enertia. They use an interesting design technique described in the video to make the houses provide all the heating and cooling needs from the power of the sun.

Here's a more detailed explanation of how it works.