A Few Fun Sites

A site I had heard about a long time ago but never really looked at is delicious. It is a little add-on web app for IE. It keeps all your bookmarks and is an easy way to share them with other people.
I just started, but you can see mine at del.icio.us/sockmonkeyfun
They get kudos for the clever use of the almost useless .us ;)

Next up are a few sites that are, what I call blog-lite.





Tumblr.com is a cool little blog service that provides Tumblelogs. What is a Tumblelog? you say-
From Wikipedia
"A tumblelog is a variation of a blog, that favors short-form, mixed-media posts over the longer editorial posts frequently associated with blogging. Common post formats found on tumblelogs include links, photos, quotes, dialogues, and video. Unlike blogs, this format is frequently used to share the author's creations, discoveries, or experiences without providing a commentary."

I signed up for this too, (I am such a joiner) but I don't really have anything on mine. :-D

Lastly are two even lighter blog type service sites. These are both just for writing very quick posts about what you are doing at any given moment. Good for keeping track of how you are spending your time.
I'll list my favorite, of the two, first.

Jaiku is very similar to its predecessor twitter.com, but it has a few features that the other does not. One is the easy ability to add all your different feeds into one place... ie... your flickr, your main blog, your del.icio.us, your tumblelog... ect... and you can add other feeds as well. It's like one big amalgamation of feeds. :)
To see what I might be up to, you can check my jaiku


That is all for now!

More Peeks at Transformers

With the release date looming ever closer and the summer movie season upon us, more and more leaked pictures and videos are pouring in and out of YouTube and other leak-tastic sites. Through my... travels across the interweb, I have found some pretty neat looking pics of the Optimus himself and a pretty scary picture of Megatron chasing young Sam "Spike" Witwicky (Shia LeBeouf). Enjoy!

Heroes Tonight! Here's a little recap

Monday April 23rd is the date that everyone has been looking forward to, when Heroes returns from its almost two month long hiatus for its last batch of new episodes. However, since it’s been awhile, I figure we should revisit the status of each of our Heroes in order to refresh our memory after the hiatus acted went all ‘Haitian’ on our brains.

Claire

Status: On the run from Primatech.
Psychological State: She recently discovered that her grandmother has been involved in her life in some capacity, and that she and the Haitian are both trying to keep her safe. Plus, she might never see her parents again. She’s in a bit of a tough shape, and it might even make her dye her hair to cope with it all. Just a hunch.

Nathan

Status: Appearing on “Linderman’s Kitchen,” a cooking show where Linderman blackmails political candidates to doing his bidding while making vegetarian delights.
Psychological State: Considering that Linderman just offered him the Presidency, I’d say that he’s pretty happy on one side, and morbidly concerned on the other. Plus, Linderman both has sharp knives and the ability to have him killed, so I think he’ll probably take the deal. Just a hunch.

Hiro

Status: Transported into the near future, post-bomb, with Ando and experiencing the carnage that ensues…although he now has the sword in his possession. Huzzah!
Psychological State: He’s kind of depressed about, you know, utter desolation, but he’s got his abilities back so it’s looking up for Hiro’s role in future episodes. After slumming in Las Vegas for awhile, he deserves a chance to break free.

Mr. Bennet

Status: Apprehended, along with his wife, by Primatech thanks to the shape-shifting hero recently brought into the show.
Psychological State: He recently had his memory wiped, but was smart enough to inform his wife ahead of time. Of course, he wasn’t smart enough to realize that the shape-shifter would take his wife’s form and fool him into revealing that he had some knowledge of Claire’s whereabouts. Which puts him in a little bit of turmoil.

Peter

Status: Shoved up against a wall by Sylar and currently having a large incision being placed into his skull which is resulting in a rather alarming amount of blood.
Psychological State: Well, Sylar is kind of trying to kill him, so I think he’s probably a tad bit frazzled. He could also be considering whether or not he’s quite mastered Claire’s healing capability, and whether or not anyone is nearby to try to help him. Like Claude, perhaps. Who knows.

Sylar

Status: Shoving Peter up against a wall and cutting his head open.
Psychological State: In my view, Sylar’s a great multi-tasker. He’s planning out tomorrow’s grocery shopping, and wondering if Peter maybe has a power that gets blood out of clothes easier. Because that would be spectacular, those dry cleaner bills are murder.

Mohinder

Status: Attached to the ceiling of his apartment while bleeding out onto the ground.
Psychological State: “LOVE HANGIN’ LOVE HANGIN’ HA HA HA.” [See 1:30 of the link for the reference. Be warned: It’s Muppets.]

Matt Parkman

Status: Tied to a gurney somewhere within Primatech awaiting his fate.
Psychological State: They’re probably controlling his mind as much as possible, but he’s probably wondering where he was for most of this episode. They should really consider finding him something to do soon, he’s unstimulated.

Niki/Jessica

Status: Assisted Nathan in getting to Linderman, only after killing the two FBI people listening in, while all the while technically being hired to kill him.
Psychological State: I don’t even care anymore; she’s messed up, I get it, can’t really say I’m too perplexed by it all. Honestly, can we just kill her off? Her and her entire worthless family who haven’t done anything meaningful in weeks?

Isaac

Status: Isaac just finished painting something while high, and it happened to be his own death. Harsh.
Psychological State: Well, his girlfriend just got killed, and then the shape-shifter became her to freak him out, and now he’s prophesized his own death…I’m sure he’s fine, seems about normal to me.

The Daily Fix: Samus Vs Master Chief

Yesterday's fix featured two of the great superheroes, Superman and Batman, paired together to defeat evil. It was a great example of what a great idea paired with the skills to execute it can create. Today's fix is similar in that it shows two of the most recognizable game icons in recent years. But this time... they're in an all out battle royale!

It's been long disputed who would win in an all battle between Samus Aran from Metroid and Master Chief from Halo. (Okay not really, but it's a cool concept!) And now you're going to find out! Check it out!

The Daily Fix: The World's Finest....

Today's daily fix is a video of a movie that, if it had been released, would have been amazing! According to the person who released the video, they simply made it for fun. I don't know who the guy is who does this sort of thing "for fun", but he needs to be hired by one of the big studios quick! Honestly, I would pay to see this. Now grab a seat, put on your bib (trust me, you'll be salivating by the end), and enjoy the teaser for the movie that should have been!

The Daily Fix: Oragami

What do you get when fold a 70cm x 70cm piece of paper 1,361 times? Aside from some painful paper cuts, you get the most remarkable piece of papercraft art, ever! Check this out:

Secret Movie Embedded In Windows XP

I came across this today mostly be accident. It turns out there is a secret ASCII version of the entire movie Star Wars Episode 4:A New Hope! All you have to do to watch it is this:

Start--> Run
Type telnet
A command prompt box will open.
Type the letter "o"
then type towel.blinkenlights.nl

Enjoy!

The Daily Fix: Superconducting Levitation

This is a neat video that explores how superconductor technology can be used in conjunction with the Meisner effect and a simple magnet to create actual levitation and suspension. To be honest, I don't fully understand the science behind it, but the relative simplicity of the concept is interesting and could very obviously yield results that include actual hover cars, levitating trains and more. Enjoy the video!

Google My Maps

A few days ago Google came out with a very neat addition their ever-popular Google Maps application. It's called My Maps. It's a simple way to add Placemarks, lines, and other various objects onto the Google Maps Interface. You can import the maps you use into Google Earth.

As a kind of side project, and demonstration as to how it works, I created my own private map. It's a general map of my life and major events that have happened to me. It's not complete by any means, but it gives you the idea of how the program works. Check it out here.

Donkey Kong Post-It Mural

So what do you do when your entire department at work has nothing to do and just tons of Post-Its just sitting around? You build a 4-story old school Donkey Kong mural, that's what!

Pure awesome!

UCSC School of Engineering & Economics

My Sims (Wii)

Over the past month or so, I've been really enjoying playing around with the Wii. I've only gotten the chance to play Wii Sports, Wii Play, and Zelda: Twilight Princess, and I'm completely sold on it. I had Zelda beat just outside of a week, and had a ton of fun the whole time. Chrissy and I still play Wii Sports and Wii Play to the Wii hours of the morning. :)

Unfortunately, a lot of developers haven't put much interest in the system as it was a financial wild card. No one knew if it would do well or not. Well, 3 (4?) months after it's release, I challenge anyone to find one in the store. It's nearly impossible. Developers have noticed this and are quickly trying to punch out some games to get a piece of the market. One of the games that I am particularly looking forward to is My Sims. It's a neat little game that revamps the Miis into something much cooler than your bowling avatar. You can socialize in town, build your own house, customize your Sim and just have fun doing whatever you enjoy doing in The Sims. Check it out:

Grow

So the other day, I was carousing through some game sites such as Friv and Orisinal and I happened to stumble across an interesting little site with a set of interesting little games. The site is called Eyezmaze. The game is called Grow. The games themselves are very simple; You have somewhere around 8 to 10 different seemingly random objects, such as a ball, a spring, a meeple, and some water, that you place into these mini worlds in a specific order so certain events can happen in the correct order. It's an interesting concept that makes for hours of exciting and sometimes frustrating gameplay. The picture above is one Chrissy (my wife) and I complete today. It took a few hours to figure it out. Try it yourself.

Coolest Garden Sculpture/ Stepping Stone Ever!

My brother is an artist of all sorts of mediums- he sometimes makes sculptures from left over cement. I love how his latest one came out.
Meet Cement Goomba! I think Mario should be next.



Check out the rest of his blog at tylertinsley.com

The Daily Fix: Tricking

Today's Daily Fix features an emerging sport called "Tricking". Tricking is an extreme form of gymnastics and has it's roots in break dancing and martial arts. Honestly, it's absolutely incredible. When you watch the video, be prepared to see feats of human strength beyond what most thought was possible. You will see things from people running up walls, jumping (with outside help whatsoever) 3 times their own height, and doing pushups with only no feet and only one hand. I kid you not. Enjoy!

DRM-Free Music On iTunes: Awesome?

In one of the best most confusing moves for the consumer the music industry has ever done, EMI in conjunction with Apple has announced today that they will be releasing DRM-Free music on iTunes for $0.30 more. This most certainly comes as a complete surprise to most of us and is definitely a welcome step in the right direction for moving towards a completely DRM-free world.

However, one has to ask: Why would they make such a seemingly selfless move like this? They obvious answer seems to be that they would make more money, seeing as how they are charging a quarter and a nickel more per DRM-free song. But I have a few issues with this.

One of which is that the DRM-free songs are still in the AAC format. Most devices play primarily MP3 and OGG Vorbis. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that means only iPods can play these songs still. So all of those folks out there sporting their iRiver, Zune, Creative, and Sandisk players won't be able to even take advantage of these DRM-free songs. Hmmm, that stinks.

Another issue I have is that they are charging more for the DRM-free songs. Media is media, it's the same song, is it not? DVD Music, SACDs and CDs all cost the exact same, why must we now pay MORE for DRM-free, slightly higher quality music?

And lastly is the oh-so-interesting fact that TV shows and movies are not DRM-free as well. If Mr. Jobs and EMI truly supported this DRM-free movement, then why wouldn't Jobs push for DRM-free Disney movies (and all of the subsidiary companies therein, e.g. Pixar, ABC, Touchstone, Miramax, etc). Keep in mind that Jobs owns a considerable amount of shares in The Walt Disney Company and is one of the senior members on the Board Of Directors.

All in all, I think this is most certainly a move in the right direction, but at the moment, it seems that the rights of the consumer are skewed in the eyes of the big wigs in charge of the record labels. Here's hoping for a DRM-free world that is that much closer to a reality!

Offical Annoucement Here

Virtual Console Monday!

After releasing several virtually unknown games that nobody really cares about, Nintendo is finally getting their Virtual Console channel back on track. Today, we get 3 great games:

Star Fox 64 - N64 - 1000 Wii points ($10)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - NES - 600 points ($6)
Dragon's Curse - TurboGrafix 16 - 600 points ($6)

Mmm, Retro goodies!

NiGHTS: Journey Of Dreams Confirmed

Yes.

According to Famitsu, Sonic Team USA will have its sequel to legendary Saturn title NiGHTS ready for a Wii release this winter. NiGHTS 2 will now be known as NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (although that name isn't confirmed for the Japanese market). Famitsu explains that the main attraction of Journey of Dreams is how it provides gameplay with the Wii Remote, where you can glide, drift, ascend, and loop-the-loop without even thinking about the controls. Takashi Izuka of Sonic Team USA is Producer of NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams. He leaves Famitsu, and the rest of the weeping-with-tears-of-joy world, with this comment:

"In 1996, we created the NiGHTS character to achieve a concept of 'being refreshed from being able to fly in the sky'. 11 years later, at last, we have broken our silence. NiGHTS will now fly in a new dream world: new stages, new story, and on the new Wii platform. Please look forward to NiGHTS and friends exploring this brand new adventure."

Yes.

Via Joystiq

April 2, 2007 -- Nisan 13/14

Text for Monday, April 02, 2007



Monday, April 2

Memorial Date

After Sundown

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of the Christ?—1 Cor. 10:16.

In what way do those partaking of the wine at the Memorial ‘share in the blood of the Christ’? They certainly do not share in providing the ransom sacrifice. Through their faith in the redeeming power of Christ’s blood, their sins are forgiven and they are declared righteous for life in heaven. (Rom. 5:8, 9; Titus 3:4-7) It is by means of Christ’s shed blood that the 144,000 joint heirs of Christ are “sanctified,” set apart, cleansed from sin to be “holy ones.” (Heb. 10:29; Dan. 7:18, 27; Eph. 2:19) Yes, it is with his shed blood that Christ “bought persons for God out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and . . . made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they are to rule as kings over the earth.”—Rev. 5:9, 10. w 2/15/06 10a

Memorial Bible reading: (Events on Nisan 13 and 14) Matthew 26:17-56; Luke 22:7-13

Kingdom Hearts 3 Secret Trailer