Month: January 2005

This video clip has to be fake…

Ananova reports that “A Slovak man trapped in his car under an avalanche freed himself by drinking 60 bottles of beer and urinating on the snow to melt it.” Maybe I should keep some “emergency” beer in the trunk… 😉

Check out these Jesus Inspirational Sport Statues. I’m speechless…

Check out this great Error Message Generator, complete with lots of icons and some customizing options.

Boing Boing has posted the awesome MP3 Whistler’s Delight, a mashup by DJ Riko that mixes 22 whistling songs. Here’s the list of songs according to DJ Riko’s site:

Peter Gabriel – Games Without Frontiers

Bangles – Walk Like An Egyptian

Credit to the Nation – Teenage Sensation

Brother Bones – Sweet Georgia Brown

J. Geils Band – Centerfold

Earl Hagen – The Fishin’ Hole (Theme to the Andy Griffith Show)

Bernard Herrmann – Twisted Nerve

Scorpions – Wind of Change

Bobby McFerrin – Don’t Worry Be Happy

Muzzy Marcellino – 4:20 a.m.

Otis Redding – (Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay

Roger Miller – Robin Hood

Air – Alpha Beta Gaga

Honky – The Whistler

The Lovin’ Spoonful – Daydream

Rick James – Loosey’s Rap (Loosey’s House of Trix Mix)

Adam Ant – Something Girl

RZA – The Whistler

Guns N’ Roses – Patience

Dwarf Chorus – Heigh Ho

X2 – Trigga da Whistla

Handsome Boy Modeling School – Rock n Roll (Could Never Hip Hop Like This) Part 2

Definitely worth the download; other mixes/mashups on his site are pretty cool too…

The Washington Post reports on Dick Cheney’s remarkable lack of decorum at the recent ceremony at Auschwitz:

At yesterday’s gathering of world leaders in southern Poland to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the United States was represented by Vice President Cheney. The ceremony at the Nazi death camp was outdoors, so those in attendance, such as French President Jacques Chirac and Russian President Vladimir Putin, were wearing dark, formal overcoats and dress shoes or boots. Because it was cold and snowing, they were also wearing gentlemen’s hats. In short, they were dressed for the inclement weather as well as the sobriety and dignity of the event.

The vice president, however, was dressed in the kind of attire one typically wears to operate a snow blower.

There are more details on his “dressing down” in the article. What a moron…

For those of you with TiVos, a great new feature called TiVoToGo was unveiled last week. As Wired News reports, TiVoToGo enables you to transfer programs you’ve recorded on your TiVo to a computer or laptop connected to the TiVo over a home network, allowing you to view programs on the computer and eventually burn them to DVD (the rollout of this feature hasn’t happened yet). The software upgrade that allows you to make use of TiVoToGo will eventually be pushed to all TiVo users, but you can place yourself on a priority list to expedite the process. I did that and received the software update in about three days, although the TiVo page said that even priority users may have to wait a week or two.

Besides the software upgrade, you need to download the latest version of TiVo Desktop software, obtain a Media Access Key, and choose a password for playback. Yes, unfortunately there is some DRM associated with this, but did you really think it would be that easy?

The transfer from TiVo to computer is relatively slow over a wireless network, unfortunately, since as far as I know TiVo doesn’t support 802.11g yet. If I remember correctly, it took 15-20 minutes to transfer a 30-minute program recorded at the lowest quality (378MB if I remember right), so you will have to be patient.

Once I transferred the show via TiVo Desktop on my computer, I was able to view it with Windows Media Player after entering my password (annoying, but necessary). So far, I haven’t had much luck with my usual player, JetAudio, although Media Player Classic is a much less obtrusive (and open source!) alternative that works.

I tried to see whether Nero could author a DVD with the video, but no luck yet, although it sort of played the video. Right now, it appears that TiVo is partnering with Sonic MyDVD in allowing you to record DVDs with TiVoToGo, although as I mentioned, it’s not available yet. You can sign up to be notified once that feature is ready, though. I’m anxiously awaiting this feature and hope that it will be implemented in a way that actually allows you some flexibility in how you record programs. If no editing options are available, then I’ll be pretty pissed off, although I’m confident that someone will figure that out if it’s not enabled out of the box… 😉

Anyway, as you can probably tell, I’m a big fan of TiVo, and I think TiVoToGo makes it that much cooler. The DRM scheme (Media Access Key, password, etc.) is annoying but is probably a necessary evil for TiVo to be able to do this without the MPAA throwing a fit. I know that alternatives like ReplayTV or a home-built PVR don’t have those issues, but there are cons with them as well. I just hope that TiVo doesn’t take DRM and possible DVD authoring restrictions too far, because at some point the user experience will suffer to a point where it’s no longer worth it…

The Rolls Royce flash video entitled Journey Through A Jet Engine does a very good job of showing how a jet turbine engine works, not only graphically showing the path that air takes through an engine, but also correlating that route with current rpm, temperature, and pressure values. Very cool…

The Smogbuster Fuel Disc is being promoted as a device that “significantly increases gas mileage and improves air quality” by emitting “holographic frequencies into the gas tank [that] change the molecular structure of the gasoline.” The disc, about an inch in diameter, sticks to the bottom of the fuel tank and retails for $299. Now I don’t know about you, but I’m flabbergasted that the SmogBuster turned out to be a hoax! OK, I’m actually more astonished that anyone actually paid almost $300 for a freakin’ sticker! I mean, at least make it a magnet… 😉

Take a look at “The Travels and Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen Illustrated with Thirty-Seven Curious Engravings From The Baron’s Own Designs and Five Illustrations by G. Cruikshank.” Terry Gilliam’s excellent 1988 film The Adventures of Baron Munchausen was loosely based on these stories, and they’re actually a lot of fun, although obviously a bit dated. 😉