From Yahoo News: Oddly enough:
SANTA FE, N.M. - Just in time for Christmas, Snaphappy Fishsuit Mokiligon got a gift from the state Court of Appeals: a name change. The Albuquerque resident's new name will be Variable.
With a name like Snaphappy Fishsuit I would change it as well. And at least the new name is better than foobar (in the army sense of the word)
I packed some liquid Italian delicatessen Sunday before a flight early Monday morning. Security was a high priority, as I wanted to make sure it did not break and damage the other contents of the suitcase.
The engineer in me was pretty proud of my invention: 2 metallic espresso coffee containers and some bubblewrap made a very secure container for my gift.
Too secure...
Airport security probably went on red alert when my tube went through the metal detectors.
I'm just glad they did not do a full body cavity search when I landed. Still waiting for the suitcase to arrive. Hope they're not organizing a SWAT team to meet me when I finally get to pick up the suitcase.
There are a lot of useful USB devices out there but I'd rather pass on the USB Eye Massager.
USB Eye Massager is the latest-designed health care Product specially for the Person which long time use their eyes, Such as the Computer operator. The product could relax the stress of the Eyes. and make your whole body in the situation of the unstressing by the product vibration.
I use my eyes the whole day, thank you very much, and hope to do so for a long time to come. This thing looks just plain wicked and more like a torture instrument than something that makes me relax.
The guys at EC21 definitely has a lot of fantasy:
USB Plug In Piezo-Ionizer For Computer designing specially for Computer Operator. It could substantially prevent the inhalation of toxic particles such as smoke, dust, dangerous particles in office. At same time irritating the function of blood-Creation, improving the immunity, relaxing your pressure when you long time inhale the negative ions.
Via [i4u]
The tranquilizing effect of bubble wrap. Just what the doctor orders when your boss drives you crazy. Put on the headset and click away.
You can also try the insane bubble wrap version without a headset if you want to break the balls of your cubicle colleagues.
All the big search players are working on desktop search:
Scoble has posted a Desktop Search Reviewers' Guide. My top evaluation criteria are:
MSN Desktop search - KO
Why include other crap like a password manager, pop up blocker etc? These are separate products and features that I makes sense to use independently of the desktop search feature. At the moment I'm using Maxthon which offers all the features anyway.
I didn't get very far with the evaluation though as the setup gave me the following error:
MSN Toolbar Suite cannot be installed because your version of Windows I not supported. MSN Toolbar Suite requires Windows 2000 SP4 or later or Windows XP.
Microsoft's obsession with XP is really starting to annoy me. I'm using Windows 2003 on my laptop and I'm unable to install the latest software like Windows Media Player 10 and other software like Photo Story 3 that require a "Genuine Windows Validation"
Google Desktop Search - KO
I didn't get further with Google Desktop Search either:
Google Desktop Search is not currently compatible with another program on your system. You will need to uninstall this program if you would like to install Google Desktop Search. The following may help to identify the program:
Different network providers:
WinSock Proxy [udp]
MSAFD Tcpip [RAW/IP]
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Firewall Client\wswsp.dllI01
Click OK to report this problem to Google, or click cancel to exit without reporting the problem.
Looks like I'll continue to use the Advanced Search in Outlook for finding my mails and findstr for everything else
I knew that playing with fire was dangerous but it looks like playing with lava is even worse: Exploding lava lamp kills man
A 24 year old man left a lava lamp on his stove, and it exploded. A shard of glass pieced his heart, killing him instantly.
Via [Boing Boing]
These links have been "maturing" in my inbox for a while. None of the links are work place, or kids, or wife, safe (I guess you'd better stop reading...)
Real Doll As the name says: it is a doll that is as real as it gets. For $6.500 you get to configure size (of everything), hair (everywhere), tattoos, tan lines and whatever else turns you on.
For the budget conscious shopper there is always the electronic concubine: Visualize a decapitated (but stacked) quadruple amputee after multiple rounds of kitten bonsai, and you get what this looks like
Not even Santa has to stay lonely on Christmas eve with the inflatable reindeer
Via BoingBoing and other sources that prefer to be anonymous
Having a lot of money has it's benefits. Yahoo reports on Bill Gates fight against spam:
Bill Gates receives four million e-mails daily, most of them spam, and is probably the most "spammed" person in the world. But unlike ordinary users, the software mogul has an entire department to filter unsolicited e-mails and only a few of them actually get through to his inbox, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said here Thursday
...
Steve Ballmer said he was "probably also amongst the most spammed people in the world" because he gave out his e-mail address -- steveb [at] microsoft.com -- in all his public speeches. "I receive many pieces of spam (but) only about 10 of them actually make it into my inbox because of the spam technologies that our IT department implements."
While we wait for Microsoft to release this wonderful anti spam technology there is only one choice: get rich enough to get someone to filter your email.
Man, this makes me feel old: Only old people use e-mail in Korea
Leading the big change, unprecedented in the world, are our teens and those in their 20's. The perception that "email is an old and formal communication means" is rapidly spreading among them. "I use email when I send messages to elders," said a college student by the name of Park. For 22-year-old office worker Kim, "I use email only for receiving cellphone and credit card invoices."
A poll conducted by Chungbuk University computer education professor Lee Ok-hwa on over 2,000 middle, high school and college students in Gyeonggi and Chungcheong provinces in October revealed that more than two-thirds of the respondents said, "I rarely use or don't use e-mail at all."
The reasons given for shunning email are that it's impossible to tell whether an addressee has received a message right away and replies are not immediately forthcoming. Still another reason is that you send messages through SMS or messenger as if you were playing a game, while doing so through email makes you feel as if you are doing homework or performing a task. "The new generation hate agonizing and waiting and tend to express their feelings immediately," said Professor Lee. "The decline of email is a natural outcome reflecting such characteristics of the new generation."
Great news for the mobile phone companies and online services like Vodafonelive!
I didn't know there were many computer geeks with tattoos but bmezine has large collection of Geek tattoos
The perfect Christmas gift for a web developer:
And for the gadget freek that has it all:
What happens when there are too many Project Managers and too few technical people?
Via [Randy Holloway's Weblog]
