In-Flight Messaging: Invasion of Privacy or the Wave of the Future?

Besides offering in-flight movies and TV for its commercial flights, Virgin Airlines is also allowing its passengers to chat with each other. Tech Diary from the WSJ recently did a hands-on investigation of this new service, and the results are nothing short of hilarious.

"11F rocks!" Oh. My. God.

Aquafina is just tap water

I've always preferred tap water to bottle water, since I felt the water was just as nutritious, plus it reduced plastic waste. The fact that water was supposed to be better if it came out of a bottle seemed kind of pointless to me, since the United States spends a great deal of time purifying water in its treatment facilities.

Well, I'm happy that one company, Pepsi, is coming clean with claiming any sort of superiority with bottled water. Forbes just reported that Aquafina labels will now say "P.W.S," meaning public water source. So, is it really worth it to spend $3 at an amusement park for some water that would cost 3 cents if you filled a water bottle at home? I don't think so.

Desktop Backgrounds

I work at a computer company, so obviously, the use of a computer is one of necessity. In only a few weeks, I've developed a certain bit of affinity with my workspace. Of course, it doesn't hurt to have a super-fast Dell Precision 690 and 2, yes TWO, 24 inch HP monitors.

But, whenever you lock your computer or step away for a minute, your desktop background is broadcast to whomever looks your way. And so far, I have seen some pretty bad backgrounds. A no-no is keeping the templated background that is given to you when you first boot up. I think it shows a lack of creativity. There are others that like to put up a candid picture, perhaps of their pet or maybe a girlfriend/boyfriend. These are nice, but small digital cameras don't take pictures in 1920x1200, meaning there's always some ugly blue space surrounding the picture.

What people need are elegant, artistic, and even funny desktop backgrounds. So please, if you are reading this, visit the following three websites and download a background and help beautify your office-space:


- Vladstudio.com - this site is amazing. Original, creative, and free! If you want to get backgrounds for a 1920x1200 screen, you have to register.

- mandolux - a really sweet site, with precise, high-def images that go nicely on dual-monitors.

- InterfaceLIFT - this site has a wealth of backgrounds, and a variety at that. Be sure to sort by resolution to get the best wallpaper for your computer!

Two interesting cycling articles

Since I have an interest in road cycling, I thought I'd share two interesting articles published by the NYTimes:

1) The Bicycling Paradox: Fit Doesn't Have to be Thin

- The jist of the article is that unlike running, where thin, strong people are the best, even people who are overweight can be decent cyclists. Much of this has to do with how the body sits on the bike, and how your center of gravity can allow you to still be powerful on a cycle. I guess I can relate somewhat to all of this, since I am by no means and thin, and seem to do a lot better on a bicycle than running.
2) A New French Revolution's Creed: Let Them Ride Bikes

- Interesting - Paris is allowing for cheap rentals of bikes to get around various sections of the city. It's a great idea and should hopefully help significantly reduce CO2 emissions in the city. I wonder if anything like this would work in the US, however. Off the top of my head, SF would be too difficult because of all the hills, NY would suck because there's really no bike lanes and the Metro/buses/taxis seem to be good enough. Maybe Chicago. LA is too spread out. How about Las Vegas? Doubtful. Anyway, I'd be interested in seeing another article about how this program works out in a year.

I'm done!

In the most anti-climactic way possible, I have finished all my undergrad classes. Next quarter it's Camp Stanford - no classes, but finishing up my senior thesis. I'm kind of sad that I won't be taking any fun courses next quarter, but with all of my free time, the possibilities will be endless!

If you've into YTMND vidoes, check out these two Harry made for my birthday:

http://reidmustardout.ytmnd.com/

http://reidhumps.ytmnd.com/

Censoring Wikipedia

From the NYT, February 21, 2007:

"A History Department Bans Citing Wikipedia as a Research Source"

A real interesting article. I, for one, would never use Wikipedia in a paper, but I would definitely consult it for an initial summary of whatever I'm interested in.

Clothes > Sex

Oh no!!!

As Reuter's repots on February 5th:

"For most women, the choice between sex and a new wardrobe is simple -- they go for the clothes.

Women on average say they would be willing to give up sex for 15 months for a closet full of new apparel, with 2 percent ready to abstain from sex for three years in exchange for new duds, according to a new survey of about 1,000 women in 10 U.S. cities.

Sixty-one percent of women polled said it would be worse to lose their favorite article of clothing than give up sex for a month.

"Some people say clothes make the man, but the right clothes can even replace him," fashion designer, stylist and TV personality Carson Kressley from the reality TV show "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" said in a statement accompanying the poll.

The study also suggested that clothes often wear better than relationships.

The average woman between 18 and 54 years of age has hung on to her favorite article of clothing for 12 and a half years, a year longer than she's held on to her longest relationship.

Almost three-quarters of respondents, or 70 percent, also said they believed in love at first sight when it came to finding the perfect article of clothing, while only 54 percent of women were as confident in spotting the right man.

Nearly half of the women, or 48 percent, taking part in the survey by consumer products giant Unilever said their favorite article of clothing was more reliable than their man in giving them confidence and making them feel sexy."

I'm not surprised that researcher have not conducted a similar study on men. The answer would be too obvious.

Super History!!!

I've called attention to the awesomeness of the pictures on Something Awful. Here are some of my favorites from their older form, entitled, "Super History."










I hope you enjoyed these as much as I did!

Photoshop Phriday

Something Awful.com is awesome. One of my favorite sections on the site is Photoshop Phriday where users creatively alter a bunch of historical pictures. Check out the latest thread on Clown History. The commentary is especially funny.

Blades of Glory

Is Will Ferrell crazy or a genius? Perhaps, both.

Watch the preview for his new movie, Blades of Glory.

Cupcakes!

Given Jenny's and mine recent interest in gourmet cupcakes (see post on Spinkles and the picture from Magnolia Bakery in New York City), the following article makes it quite clear that cupcakes are not created equal.

I'm Prepared To Do Anything To Get That Cupcake

There is something quite pressing that I must make clear immediately. I am afraid I am going to have to take that cupcake. That cupcake...

Classic Videos

I don't claim to watch every single internet video that gets posted, but here are a few classics that I think everyone will enjoy. Just click the relink to relive the magic.

It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

- It's just a dancing banana telling us what time it is. And it hardly makes sense. Why is a banana cheering about peanut butter jelly? What the heck is a PB&J with a baseball bat? Tic tac toe? Freestyle? You style? Where does it all come from? And why does he keep dancing after the song stops? Did the creator not know any rules of grammar? Still, it's a classic. Incredibly addictive. Incredibly stupid. Incredibly awesome.

- Favorite Line: Where you at? Where you at? Where you at?

Badger Badger Badger

- I have fond memories of my friend Harry doing a rendition of this cartoon in the car. I could not stop laughing for the entire ride home and would repeat the stupid song for the next month. There's also versions with "Potter Potter Potter" and a Christmas version if you read the Wikipedia article about this cartoon.

- Favorite Line: SNAAAAAKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Guitar - Homestar Runner

- Strongbad cartoons were all the rage a few years ago, and although I don't watch them anymore, this one was a favorite of mine. The Homstarrunner site has a lot of really good content; it would take hours to go through it all. Another popular email is number 58, entitled: Dragon, where Trogdor is introduced.

- Favorite Line: And the dragon comes in the NIIIIIIGHTTTT

End of the World

- I think this video had the widest reach a few years ago. People who normally didn't use the internet would watch this in my high school classes. Hehe, "Chinese Sons of Bitches"

- Favorite Line: And Australia is still like, wtf, mate?

What Would Asians Do?

- I gotta include this clip that was made using a poster my friend Wilmot produced. It's not a classic, but it should be!

- Favorite Line: wwad?!?!

Geostationary Banana Over Texas

Hilarious. Maybe some of you will want to donate money to make this happen. Either way, be sure to read their "On the Concept" page.

Check out the site here.

And thanks to For Your Entertainment's blog for this link.

Card's Apologize for Winning the World Series

Cardinals Apologize For Winning World Series

ST. LOUIS—Calling Friday night's victory on baseball's grandest stage "a terrible mistake," members of the St. Louis Cardinals issued a formal apology for making the playoffs, winning the World Series, and depriving baseball fans everywhere...

I can't believe I missed reading this article. It's hilarious! Read it NOW!

Funny Story: What? That was 23 years ago, Officer

From the AP Press and Yahoo! Oddly Enough News:

What? That was 23 years ago, officer

Talk about the slow wheels of justice. A man was arrested on a 23-year-old bench warrant that he said he thought was taken care of years ago.

Merle Hulbert Jr., of Eldred, was brought Thursday before McKean County Judge John Yoder, who noted that Ronald Reagan was president when the warrant for failing to appear at a hearing was issued.

Hulbert said he had no idea the case, a driving-while-intoxicated charge, was still open. His former attorney has since died and he said he was stopped once or twice by police before without the warrant coming up.

Yoder ordered the case to be scheduled for a plea, then told prosecutors he hopes they have a witness with a good memory.

I find it pretty funny that the police would take the time to follow up on a case like this, especially at this time of the year. If you're interested in more postings of odd news articles, please let me know in the comments box.

How to effectively waste time over Winter Break

I had the goal of writing most of my Senior Thesis over Winter Break. It was a grand plan, consisting of staying in my room, with my laptop and my hundreds of pages of notes and articles, typing away on Microsoft Word for two straight weeks. I wanted to hit 60 pages over break. But who am I kidding? There's no way I could be that productive. It's Thursday night and I don't think I've even hit twenty pages, and it's twenty poorly written pages at that. So what have I been doing? Here's a list of five things.

*Before I begin, I would like to thank my friend Wilmot, for singlehandedly dropping my productivity with his amazing links that have distracted me this entire break. If it wasn't for him, there might have been no need for this post. Oh, by the way, this is Wilmot pictured here.

1) Lemmings Online:

I got this link from Wilmot. If you haven't played Lemmings before, the game is quite simple. Lemmings drop from a hatch and start walking mindlessly in one direction. It's up to you to direct them to do certain tasks, like digging, climbing, blocking, or even turning into a bomb to blow themselves up. Your goal is to get a certain number of Lemmings into their exit before time runs out. It's much harder than it looks. Of course, I decided I had to complete as many stages as I could. Unfortunately, the Javascript platform would not register the necessary fast clicking needed to make bashers bash fast enough to beat the Mayhem level I was stuck on. So, I had to move on. Nonetheless, I was up until 5-6am many nights playing this game.

Reward: Nothing

2) Eyemaze: Grow Cube, Rpg, ver. 3.

From Wilmot again. It's hard to explain these puzzles. They're 3D and based off a flash platform. The object is to complete the puzzle in a correct order. And it's hard! Things interact with each other differently based upon on the order that you use them. Of course, Jenny had to figure out how to beat the level before me an hour after I started playing. So besides finding out that I'm pretty dumb, I stayed up until 7am playing this game. Double dumb.

Reward: Seeing a cube turn into a lizard and a bouncing ball travel through a tube.

3) Orisinal.com's Winterbells

Courtesy of Wilmot. This game features the cutest that can be bunny as it hops higher and higher on white winterbells. Each bell you hit gives you 10 points plus 10 more for each subsequent bell you hit and every now and then there's a dove that will DOUBLE your score! Needless to say, this game really has no upper threshold, so you can play as long as you want for and go as high as you want.

Reward: Hitting 1,088,576,251,100. Basically 1 trillion points. That's fulfilling. Sorta. No, not really.

4) NY Times Crossword Puzzle / Yahoo Crossword Puzzle / St. Louis Post-Dispatch Crossword Puzzle

I became a crossword puzzle fiend over break. My family has been into them for as long as I can remember, but since I was the only one really around the house, I got first dibs. I did the print editions of the St. Louis Post Dispatch Puzzle which included their own puzzle plus an older puzzle from the New York Times. And if I was feeling lucky, I would do the one found in the NY Times. And when that ran out, there was always a puzzle on Yahoo games. But this would be something I could only do Monday - Wednesday. After that, it gets too hard, except for the Post-Dispatch puzzles.

Reward: Completing a puzzle feels good. A self-esteem boost when you have no friends.

5) Drinking

Of course this would screw me over. How could I ever think some wine would make it any easier to write a paper at night? With my sister's boyfriend visiting for the past few days, work was a no-no past dinner.

Reward: Being tipsy feels nice. Everything seems so much more funny.

Except for the last two, Wilmot contributed mightily to all of this procrastination. So thanks a lot. I can't say its been all that bad. I've definitely had a relaxing break, I've gotten a lot of sleep, and I even did productive things like get my license renewed, cleaned parts of the house, and went shopping. But when I think about all of the work I could've done, I just get sad. And then I go back to surfing the internet. :-)

A Ghost Story

Last fall, a group called Campus Movie Fest came to Stanford. The task was to give each group a camera, a laptop, and a week to film a five minute film. The short films would then be entered into a campus competition, with the winners moving on to a regional competition and so on. Winners would win iPods, laptops, fame, and glory. A few of my friends entered the competition and produced what I thought was the most professional video out of the entire Stanford group. They were in the top 16 (out of 70!). The video is only five minutes, so watch it! Here's their clip.



If you're interested in watching more clips or reading more about Campus Movie Fest, check out their website at:

http://www.campusmoviefest.com

Carson Williams is Awesome

When I found out that it was a gentleman named Carson Williams who had created the amazing Xmas lights display that was Break.com's #4 video for 2006, I was curious if he had made one for this holiday. I was not surprised to find that he had. Here he is with "Jingle Bells" by Barbara Streisand.

Ever since his video of the Trans-Siberian orchestra's piece "Wizards of Winter" circulated the internet, Williams found himself a new job. He has started Consar Lights which provides custom holiday lighting. Northfield Stapleton in Denver, Colorado hired him to do a lights show for the Christmas season. Here's a TV report courtesy of YouTube - the display here is even more incredible than the one rigged up for his house:

I can't wait to see this guy do something incredible for the Super Bowl or a huge choreographed show during 4th of July fireworks.

Deer

There were two deer running around my backyard a yesterday. Here's photographic proof. Regardless of these pictures, I want to emphasize to my Stanford friends that I do not live on a farm!

Of course, I didn't get to close to them, since deer can be pretty vicious, as this stupid hunter found out:

Amazing Christmas Lights Show

Here's one of the most elaborate Christmas lights display I have ever seen. I'm not sure if it tops the Trans-Siberian Orchestra light show put on last year, but it sure comes close. Check it out:



Here's last year's video, which was used later used for a Miller Light commercial. It's Break.com's #4 video of 2006.