Drunk tilted room sketch

really funny stuff-

Online Math (free) textbooks

This great online list of online math textbooks make a great contribution to any student's life. The list was gathered by George Cain, and I'd like to thank him for it on behalf of all students out there.

Read them all for free here.

Sheep Reaction Test Game

This fun game is all about your hand-eye co-ordination. You have to press the "tranquilizer" button as soon as you see a sheep run from the herd. After five tries you are told your average and well you've done.

After three tries I got ranked as a "Rocketing Rabbit". Try and beat that :-).


@@@@@%% - 7/10 on the total fun scale.

Scale explained:
@@@@@%%%%% - a total of 10 available points awarded for each game.

Roadmap into Linux

IBM published a roadmap for developers making the transition to Linux. This overview of the process will help people (developers, students) make the transition a lot smoother, from a Windows OS to the Linux OS.

Over the past several years I've come across several surprises from the people at IBM. I wonder if they are still worthy of the notorious nickname they've had for years, "Big Blue".

By adopting Drupal, supporting Open Source contributing to many open initiatives, I think that my personal view of IBM is changing.

At the bottom of the page you'll find lots of helpful links they've collected.

Jumping Dogs

Help the jumping dogs jump over the apples. Four of them at the same time, in four different tracks.


Picture of the dog from the game is (c) of its owner.

Pixel City Creator

Pixel Art is a fun new art form, thriving in the information age. I can't tell you exactly how long ago it was create, but I can point out that over the last two years there have been more and more artist who choose they kind of art to express themselves.

Some examples come to mind, and this one's my favorite.

Some call it Isometric art, others Pixel Art. I like to define it be example, and the best one is Eboy. That's what I call Pixel Art [picture to the left].

The guys at Eboy never cease to amaze me. Their work is high quality pixelated scenes of many different type, cities, space, past, present and future. I check out their website from time to time, only to get so many more examples of how good they are in this new form of art.


For a while I've wondered how one can get started in doing pixel-things, but the new City Creator solves that problem for me. Simply drag&drop ready-made pixel creations into your own version of a pixel city [top picture].

Both pictures are (c) of their respective creators.

Shrek 3 is coming

Shrek 3 is coming this summer, and towards it we finally have some trailers to look at:









A link to the movie's website

Amazing new Icons for your Desktop

This is a great link to icons for your desktop that I've come across in Devianart.

Link.

World's hottest Chile pepper

I always thought that it's pronounced Chilly or Chilli peppers, and therefore never considered the option that it could be a Chile Pepper I was dealing with. Well, that's just me :-).

The hottest Chile pepper in the world was just declared by the Guiness Book of World Record. It is 100 times (!!) hotter than the jalapeno.

Wanky the safety cat

Stumbling upon this insightfull post by Murilee Martin, I thought that I was dreaming - he took a stuffed cat and turned him into a turning&breaking light indecator. Of course there were others who do that and even sell the outcome, as he describes in his blog. I still find his report on the whole ordeal very insightful and nicely annotated (with pictures and all).

Make your own BioDiesel

This 15 year old kid did. The article goes on to describe the processing lab he built in the family barn, costs, taxes and so on.

Dos Games Abandonware

This is a great list of many of the old DOS games we used to play.

Brings back lots of memories.

Their homepage here.

Agreeing to terms automaticly

A post I found here shows a video of a site where before you finish entering your details for ringtone downloads, it automatically adds a checkmark next to the "i accept the terms" line. When you try to disable it, it comes right back on, and should you finish entering your number, it makes sure that the "i agree" is set to "on", and clicks the continue button automatically.

I wonder how that company thinks that is legal...?

Nanaca Crash

Nanaca Crash is a funny Japanese game you can play online. Pick an angle to hit the character with your bike, and try to keep it bumping up and down.

After a few tries you can pass the 1000 meters, though I can't tell you exactly what's the goal in the game. It's just fun.

@@@@@%%% - 8/10 on the total fun scale.

Scale explained:
@@@@@%%%%% - a total of 10 available points awarded for each game.

Ellipsis

Ellipsis is an online game where you have to protect your circle from the attacking squares. Very addictive (and time consuming).


@@@@@%% - 7/10 on the total fun scale.

Scale explained:
@@@@@%%%%% - a total of 10 available points awarded for each game.

Star Trek's Plasma Converter becomes Reality

This article tells the story of a person who built a Plasma Converter, just like the ones first thought of in Star Trek.

Free Linux eBooks

This is a cool list of free Linux ebooks. From Firewall to scripting, from server hacks to shell scripts, it's quite a big list.

Flow

Flow is an amazing Web2.0 game, surfacing sometime in 2006 only to claim world fame. Its unique approach to gaming, along with genuine game objectives, graphics and interface make this game one of my favorite games of 2006-2007.

Play the game.

@@@@@%%%% - 9/10 on the total fun scale.

Scale explained:
@@@@@%%%%% - a total of 10 available points awarded for each game.

The Simpsons Movie - Trailer #3

Coolest trailer yet is out for the upcoming Simpsons Movie



Checkout this unfinished scene from the movie

Fine Photography

An interesting photography link. I really like this one.

Vandenbrink Carver

This amazing radical new car design is mix between a 4 wheel car and a motorbike.







This is their website.

IT department of the middle ages

What would we do without the help of the IT guys?...



I guess some things never change.

Space re-entry of a booster rocket

I came across this amazing footage from NASA of a booster rocket disengaging and falling back into Earth.

One of the more amazing things is that the whole fall takes less than 5 minutes to watch (doesn't look edited, but I may be wrong).

Process Explorer

Quite often I find myself asking whether a certain process running in the background is part of the OS, or is it some form of Malware. This is where the Process Explorer comes in.

Developed at Microsoft by Mark Russinovich, it is supposed to solve all my unanswered questions on the system processes running in the background.

I first read about it Watching the Net, via Reddit.

The guys at Watching the Net have a nice tutorial with screenshots and explanations.

Paraglider pulled up to 30,000ft by storm

This lucky paraglider miraculously survived a thunderstorm that elevated her to 30,000ft.

This is another report about her in the Telegraph.

Unbelievable.

The Law: A Profession, a Trade or Both

[This post is a response to a blog post at the Wall Street Journal]

Legal Education
First off let me start by saying that I am a 3rd year Law student. During my studying I chose to volunteer in an organization that does paralegal work for underprivileged people. My legal education up to that point gave little understanding of what it really means to be a lawyer. True, certain classes are very important (i.e. Labor Law, Commercial Law if you want to work in those fields), but all the classes I've taken so far have not given me direct access to Legal work in the proper sense or to the profession itself.

For these reasons I took it upon myself to choose to volunteer last year in the paralegal work, and this year I chose to work in the Clinics in my Law School. Those were my choices. I am certain that many of my peers, who've not chosen to be part of the Clinics (or do any paralegal work) have not had that benefit. One of the things that I would like to point out about the profession is that many of them DO NOT want this experience or exposure.

Legal education goes a long way in preparing the necessary background for a Lawyer. Many of my peers will probably use that background to fuel their craving to go to the large corporate firms and do the corporate work, unprepared for one of the foundations of our job - the human factor. If you were to ask them whether they feel unprepared they will answer that they are feeling just fine. To most of them, the idea of doing paralegal work, volunteering or joining one of the Clinics seems like a waste of time. "Why would I need to go to a clinic if I want to be a corporate attorney?" they would ask. My answer to them would be that being a lawyer is beyond being a corporate attorney.

In my opinion, being a lawyer is to be an ambassador of the society to which he belongs. The lawyer is the Standard Bearer in all things legal. The term "officer of the Court" has a hidden aspect to it, a second agenda if you will - officer of the society. The lawyer must lookout for the interest of the Court, the interest of his client as he is entrusted with faith and good will from all sides concerned.

We as lawyers are the holders of the Keys to the doors of society as it is the Law that governs society. The legal framework that's been set forth decades ago gives us the keys, the authority and responsibility to use them wisely.

It was Franz Kapka who wrote "Before the Law", where it reads "Before the law sits a gatekeeper. To this gatekeeper comes a man from the country who asks to gain entry into the law." We are not the gatekeepers, but rather the key holder and the ones who will represent that man who wants entry to the law.

Whether you are a corporate attorney or a neighborhood attorney, we are all in debt to society to give back part of what was given to us. Empowering the "Man who asked to gain entry into the Law" is part of what we do, and part of our moral responsibility.

I agree with Brandon who said that the legal education needs to incorporate both the current legal curriculum, while adding Clinic work as part of it.

It is my opinion that along these lines, part of our legal training as well as part of our time after graduation should be spent in giving back to society (empowering people by teaching them what is the law, how does it work, how does it reflect them and so on).

Regarding the apprenticeship model suggested, I do not believe that switching to a full apprenticeship model is the key to the issues at hand. Nor is it right or fitting, in my view, that schools will have to find apprenticeships for its students. That will only emphasize the differences between the Law Schools in terms of connections, money and other resources. It could lead to a wrongful situation where only the top schools would get the "good" apprenticeships, increasing the gap between those who studied in the top 5 schools and those who haven't.

Is the Law a profession, a trade or both? I think that the answer is a mixer of both, with a zest of responsibility to give back to society and empower the people you come in contact with*.


*I know and understand that for Commercial lawyers there isn't much empowering to be done in the course of their work, but imagine how better off society will be if every corporate lawyer would volunteer once a week/month for a few hours to help underprivileged people in the ways of the Law.

Some more HP secrets leaked

Another great post at the Consumerist about HP secrets. Things you never knew existed about your latest printer, just a click away.

Quoting Wikipedia as a Source

As a university student, one of the things you look for when writing a paper is supporting sources for your work. You scan and skim through many articles, essays, books and other sources before you can find write one for you.

In the Digital Age, searching has become a tedious job. With a click of a button and a scroll of the mouse we can now skim and brush through so many more sources than ever before. The information age brought with it the opportunity to explore databases and sources that were never before available to us at a very small (almost nil) cost.

I came across this article in Yahoo (by AP News Agency) that tells of how in Middlebury College students are not allowed to quote Wikipedia as a source.

This should not come as a surprise to people, students and teachers alike, since Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales was quoted saying that for Academic papers you should not base your material only on Wikipedia in an event in UPenn.

It is understandable, since Wikipedia relies on user input to generate its knowledge (though there are problems with plagiarism from time to time). There is no scientific research to coroborate the information in the Wikipedia, and also no sure way to verify its authenticity.

The only logical conclusion is that Wikipedia is a good starting source for a project, pointing you in the direction of the quotable sources that'll be academic enough for your university/college paper.

HP secrets from an ex-employee

This is a list of company secrets explained posted on "the consumerist". If you have an HP printer, I think you'd be interested in reading this.

I wonder what this says about the other Printer-makers out there.

Michael Crichton on Patenting Life

Michael Crichton writes about the Patenting of Life - that is the issuing of patents to human genes.

I think his article is self-explained, so here is the link to it

New Transformer Toys

As the movie is about to start (July 4th, 2007), Hasbro has released pictures of the new Transformer toys, described here at the "Autoblog".

This gives me the opportunity to voice my opinion that Prime looked a lot better as the Original, season 1, trailer that he was. Why they changed him into this new truck, I can't say, but it is not a change for the better.

More pics on the Hasbro site.

FS2004 pics slideshow

A collection of pictures from the "Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004" (a.k.a. FS9 or FS2004). Note that it takes a while to load -

Quick Update

Hi,

This is a quick update to let you know several things. First, we're now on the New Blogger. It took a few days to get things done in an orderly fashion, but now that we're all set things are about to transform.

There are many ideas in the pipeline, layout changes, updates, and perhaps a bit of CSS chanes along that too. I can wait to have it all up and running. Look for it over the coming days as I revamp the blog.

All I can say right now is that the new features that are now available are really cool, and with the design changes I have in mind - well, it's gonna be fun!

Cri Cri Airplane

Cri Cri is a French custom built plane. I first noticed it when I saw a short video on YouTube demonstrating its capabilities. Here are two such videos:





Finding a link to more information was the next logical step. This plane is amazing - custom built from cheap parts, twin engines and aerobatic capabilities add this plane to my Wish-list.

I found a model for the FS2004 of the Cri-Cri, and that was the definite next step on the road to getting to know the Cri-Cri.

Then came this next find of a French origin- yet another movie in YouTube, that looks a bit older than the rest.

Chris Langan

The smartest man in the world, so they say. I.Q. estimated at 190-210. I think you'd like to hear they interesting man's tale-

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3

Drupal 5 Benchmarked

Dries Buytaert benchmarks the Drupal 5 in comparison with the Drupal 4.7 on cache and no-cache settings. Worth a look!.

"405" - short movie

Imagine a plane about to land in the middle of a Highway. Watch what happens (funny)-

Almost a Talistrike

Almost a tail-strike for this Tunisian Plane-



Link to the original responses on the YouTube site.

Open Source on a USB flash memory

French students will get a USB drive filled with Open Source software for their own use. The article goes on to explain why and how, but I just wanted to express my opinion that it's a novel idea. Using a USB drive and giving it for free to teenagers is a step in the right direction in teaching them about the Open Source alternatives to other software they already know.

80 year old Chinese washes hair after 26 years

With a beard as long as 5ft. and hair as long as 6ft., this 80 year old Chinese man washes his hair for the first time in 26 years. The picture attached to the article is mind boggling - how can you have all that hair and not wash it for such a long time? and another, so much hair is a lot of weight on your head - how does he move around without it all falling to the ground?

Here's the link again.

The Journey is the Destination II: Chicago to New York

Taking pictures on the way from Chicago to New York, this is a nice 3 minute movie (not time lapse).

How to know when a site was made by a lazy designer?

Well, the answer is a list of certain things you can see, either in code or by the design itself. I can think of a few things to add there, like "not changing the default color scheme" and "not writing proper code (W3C standard)".

Make Firefox look like IE

I never thought of it, but John Haller has - why not make Firefox look like IE and help non-tech folk enjoy Firefox?
In his great tutorial he describes what it takes to make the necessary conversions and advises on the various stages of the process.
Firefox users also get a look into all sorts of extensions you never knew existed. I, for one, was looking for an extension like the Menu Editor Extension for some time now.

Korean Noodle Commercial

A noodle commercial like never before. I'll let you watch and see what you think.



Feel free to leave a comment:-).

If you like this one, maybe you'd like the Korean DHL commercial too.

Nintendo commercial

This is a cool Nintendo commercial that beyond being cool all by itself even has a short part where they do homage to "The Matrix".