TV Shows – Page 3 – Krunk4Ever!

May 6, 2007May 15, 2007

Random Crap

Experience the hardest Mario ever (no fluffing required!) (from Ungsunghero) – If you are ever in a situation where your little sister complains about a Mario game being too hard, please just slap her and show her this video. Created by a random somebody in Taiwan (my vote is for escaped mental patient), this Mario mod is like a sick work of art. Granted, I would most likely give up after about one minute, but the sadomasochist inside of me wants to play it to death until I complete it. I mean, seriously, beating this would give you the ultimate video game bragging rights. I don’t even think Lucas would stand a chance. This is the ultimate Super Mario Bros. level. You can also watch the version with commentary: Super Mario Bros: Frustration, which makes it a whole lot funnier. He does cuss a lot, so be warned. I love the hidden coin blocks which just so conveniently blocks many of his jumps causing Mario to fall to his death. Once you get to level 2, it starts getting really repetitive, so you might as well stop watching it. Both Ungsunghero and I noticed that he could have actually jumped to the top of the ceiling during one of tries. Ungsunghero theorizes that if he did it, it’d take him to the warp zone. I wonder if I could get ahold of this game and give it a try. I would however actually need to have quick state save.

Ipod saves Soldier’s Life (from MS newsgroup) – I have talked to Kevin and he has told me the real story of getting shot in the iPod. The Armor stopped the bullet. Kevin didn’t know he was shot. The iPod was how he found out. The full story: iPod tells soldier he was shot – the real story

Joke from MS newsgroup:

Two guys were speeding along in their beat up old pick-up. They approach a red light and the driver blasts right through. The passenger, startled, exclaims “that was a red light!” The driver turns to him and says, “don’t worry, my brother runs red lights all the time”. The passenger replies, “oh, okay”. They come up to the next light screeching to a halt. The passenger again startled exclaims “it is green, go!” The driver replies, “what are you crazy, my brother could be coming the other way”.

Someone replies: That’s not a joke, that’s driving in New Delhi 🙂

Cal Dining wins the Oscar of eateries (from MS newsgroup) – Chez Panisse, French Laundry, Spago, Charlie Trotters … and Cal Dining? That’s right. Berkeley’s campus dining service recently earned its place among these much-lauded establishments when it snagged (as the others have in the past) a prestigious Ivy Award. Given by the trade publication Restaurants & Institutions, Ivy Awards — the equivalent of Oscars for the food industry — recognize excellence in food service by restaurants, hotels, and institutions. Industry peers (and the previous year’s winners) submit nominations, a ballot is assembled, and the magazine’s 154,000 readers vote for their selections. What happened!?!?! The Dining Commons back when I was there was horrible!

Gates vs. Jobs (from Digg) – Bill Gates and Steve Jobs square off in the clean white virtual world of the iconic Mac ads. The voice of Bill Gates reminds me of Kermit the Frog.

spiderman 3 speed painting in photoshop 7 (from FuzzyWuzzy) – great paint session in photoshop 7! four hours in three minutes. music by Danny Elfman, spiderman’s sountrack composer. Wow! This drawing is amazing!

So I mentioned nightmares the other day to Ungsunghero and he replied back, don’t you mean daymares, which got me thinking what the etymology of the word nightmare is. I mean the word night is simple, since it just refers to it occurring at night (most people sleep at night and have nightmares I guess), but does mare (by itself refers to a female horse) mean bad dream? According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, mare refers to goblin that causes nightmares.

Jack Bauer, Dammit! (from Digg) – Students would like Bauer to run for president in ‘08 because first of all, he’s better than anyone else trying to get nominated, and second of all, he helps students relax. Every time he says, “Dammit,” someone lifts a brew in his honor. As proof, check out the Jack Bauer Dammit video, if you haven’t already. Haha! A 24 drinking.

13 Little Things That Make A Geek Happy (from Digg) – The list is pretty accurate. Things I totally agree with include:

Someone submits something I wrote to digg.
A new referrer pops up
Someone posts a real comment on one of my blog entries.
My code works perfectly on the first try.
Technorati and Alexa Ranking that increases each week.

Errol Morris: Commercials (from Consumerist) – a bunch of amusing Miller High Life commercials. Reminds me of the Real Men of Genius commercials from BudLight.

Gentlemen, rate yourselves: cucumber or banana? – Singapore’s Society for Men’s Health and a pharmaceutical firm are proposing a four-point scale for erectile dysfunction, allowing men to rate their own hardness with four categories: cucumber, unpeeled banana, peeled banana and tofu (bean curd).

April 17, 2007April 21, 2007

Random Crap

Jishaku – Telephone Club – Japanese comedy skit performed by the duo Jishaku (magnet). Taken from the TV show “Enta no Kamisama”. Subtitled in English for the benefit of foreign audiences. The translation notes can also be viewed on this page: ハッピー・エープリル・フールズ・デイ . A very hilarious skit revolves around a telephone club. A “Telephone Club” is a sort of telephone dating network. Guys pay to enter a booth and wait for who want to hook up to call in. Google “Telekura” for more details if you’re curious. You can also see it on YouTube: Japanese Comedy – 磁石　テレクラ　（エンタの神様より、英語字幕あり）

China restaurant forks out $75,000 for lucky fish – A Chinese restaurant has paid $75,000 for a giant golden-coloured tiger fish, a symbol of wealth and good fortune, state media said on Tuesday. The fish, weighing in at 48 kg (105 lb), was caught on Sunday off the coast of Zhanjiang in the booming southern province of Guangdong, the China News Service said.

The Male Brain vs The Female Brain – Some interesting differences between men’s and women’s brains, collected from sources listed below. Read with a grain of salt, and further investigate the ones that get you riled up.

nullDC (New DreamCast Emulator) v1.0.0 Released! (from Digg) – Thanks to floopy for bringing attention that the first public beta for the latest and greatest Dreamcast emulator, nullDC, has been released. Here is what drkIIRaziel has to say at emuforums regarding the emulator:

After many months of coding, here is the first public beta of nullDC.
Read the ReadME before you ask anything.

Setup (includes all needed runtimes, recomended)
http://emudev.com/funstuff/nullDC_100b1_setup.rar

Plain files :
http://emudev.com/funstuff/nullDC_100b1.rar

oh, and happy april fool’s day (make sure to check Google’s jokes )

Enjoy

PS. Site/forums should be up within this week
PS2. This is rev 525-118

Americans are NOT stupid – WITH SUBTITLES (from Top 10 April Fool Pranks 2007) – So what if they don´t know how many sides a triangle have? Or who Tony Blair is? That is not fair…just because their president is as intelligent as a door, it doen´t mean they´re all like that…if you still think american people are stupi, watch this video and change your mind 🙂 Hilarious film, yet so sad…

~~Der Knut-Song! (from Digg)~~ der knut-song – The really cute baby polar bear is back! With its own song. ~~If you’re getting access denied because you’re not in Germany, just reload the page and it should work.~~ clipfish.de has been started to giving me the access denied constantly, so I’m linking to a different website that doesn’t have the Germany requirement. Along the way, I also found these extra videos: Knut der kleine Eisbär – www.knutlied.de and Knut der kleine Eisbär Kitty & Knut Video. Apparently this polar bear already has a song about him.

PIXELATOR (from Digg) –

Pixelator is an unauthorized on-going video art performance collaboration with the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority, Clear Channel Communications, and its selected artists.

Since 2003, the MTA has made available for exhibition purposes 80 LED screens located at subway entrances across New York City. Unfortunately, the high cost of exhibiting (an estimated $274,000 per month per screen) prevents most artists from having access to these facilities. While the MTA’s effort to create more opportunities for video art exhibition in public spaces is to be commended, selected works remain wholly fixated on commercial goods and media conglomerate events, a short-sighted curatorial choice that regrettably ignores the full potential of these promising exhibition spaces.

In an attempt to broaden the scope of MTA’s video art series, Pixelator takes video pieces currently on display and diffuses them into a pleasant array of 45 blinking, color-changing squares. Since the project is an anonymous collaboration, the resulting video is almost entirely unplanned and unanticipated, with the original artists helping to create new works of art without any knowledge of their participation.

(Translation: Pixelator turns those ugly, blinding video billboard ads into art.)

Add Compact Flash to almost any iPod (from Digg) – Well, Mark Hoekstra is back with a new CF card modding picnic that works with any 1/2/3/4G iPod. The mod works (eventually, anyway) by installing a CF adapter of Hoekstra’s design. No need to solder all 88 connections yourself!

97 – Where (and How) Evolution Is Taught In the US (from Digg) – Scientists generally accept the theory of evolution as the back-story of how animal species (including humans) came into being over a period of several billion years. Religious literalists maintain their belief in creation, as laid down in the Bible: God made the earth and all that is on it (including humans, after His own image) in one week, a couple of thousand years ago. This has a map of what different parts of America is teaching the kids today.

On the same line: School Bans Pokemon Games for Promoting Evolution (from Digg) – The Kansas State School Board has banned all things Pokemon from its schools–not because it’s keeping kids from doing their schoolwork, but because they claim it promotes evolution. Oh, but wait, it gets better. Teachers will now have to search the students before each class to make sure they’re not in possession of any of eighty bazillion different Pokemon games; if they are, the game will be confiscated permanently and the student will face punishment that could range from simple suspension to expulsion from school. Kicked out of school. For Pokemon.

One of the keywords that Amazon’s script has highlighted was Monterey Park, which returned this book: The First Suburban Chinatown: The Remaking of Monterey Park, California. I didn’t know there was a book on Monterey Park!

Richards says father comment a joke – The 63-year-old rocker caused an international uproar on Tuesday when newspaper New Musical Express quoted him as saying: “The strangest thing I’ve tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father. He was cremated and I couldn’t resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow … . It went down pretty well, and I’m still alive.“

Why the long face? Rio’s obese treated like horses – Rio de Janeiro hospitals have been sending obese people to share medical test equipment with horses at the local race track, drawing complaints from activists who say the practice is humiliating.

Porn swap sparks Japan defence leak furore -report – Three Japanese naval officers who swapped pornography on their computers triggered a scandal over a possible leak of sensitive data linked to Japan’s missile defence system, a newspaper said on Thursday. … The officer told police he accidentally copied the confidential data onto his computer’s hard disk when copying porn from a computer belonging to a crew member from another destroyer, the Yomiuri newspaper reported.

Man to Live Underwater for 2 Weeks (from Digg) – Marine biologist Lloyd Godson is attempting a brave experiment to investigate sustainable living. He’s going to live in a sealed box for two weeks, which will be placed underwater. The experiment is taking place near Albury-Wodonga, in Australia. Godson will be cultivating algae both as a food source, and to produce oxygen. He will also have electricity via a stationary bike that he’s using as a generator.

April 16, 2007April 30, 2007

Crisping Tray

Once again, it’s been a long week. My random crap has already been backlogged to 3/28. I haven’t even check Digg ~~and~~ in 3 days. It’s going to take me awhile for me to push this crap onto you guys. ;p

A few weeks ago, IRobertI IMed me asking what the those gray disks that microwavable pizza come with are called. I had always thought they were just just paper cardboard with some plastic/wax thing on top of it. He tells me if you try microwaving a pizza normally without this special cardboard, the pizza’s crust becomes all soggy. I ~~think~~ then propose the fact that since most of these dishes allow air to go underneath it, that may have something to do with making it crispy.

Here’s what one of them look like:

I started searching online and there’s a bunch of threads and patents that popped up, but nothing really that describe how it works. Some claim there’s some sort of metal in it and it acts as a resistor, heating up when microwave frequencies hit it. But isn’t putting metal into the microwave counterintuitive? Anyway, I started reading the back of my Bagel Bites box and they refer to it as a crisping tray.

I decided to take apart one and unless the gray coating on top of cardboard is the metallic part, I found ~~now~~ no evidence of any sort of metal hidden inside the cardboard. If anyone knows exactly how this magic is done, I’d like to know.

Random Crap:

Bruce Lee – high speed painting – This is a bit different from my normal stuff. Check out my other art at http://www.philinthecircle.com / MySpace. Music: Elephine / Song: Five / http://www.myspace.com/elephine Nice painting, but sure spent a lot of time and energy.

UPS: Request Delivery Intercept – UPS has rolled out a new service where when you pay some extra amount, you can request UPS to perform one of the following actions:

Return to Sender: Return the package to the shipper
Deliver to Another Address: Reroute the package to a new address
Reschedule Delivery: Hold the package for delivery on a future date
Will Call: Hold the package for pickup by the consignee

How Eisenhower solved illegal border crossings from Mexico (from Digg) – A very interesting article. First get rid of corrupted officials. Second, don’t just drop them at the border and give them a chance to just get back across, take them deep into Mexico before releasing them.

Yahoo Mail Announces Unlimited Storage (from Digg) – Yahoo is announcing that all Yahoo Mail users will have free unlimited email storage starting in May 2007. The current storage limit is 1 GB per account (2 GB for $20/year premium users). With this change, Yahoo leapfrogs Gmail (2.8 GB and growing) and Live.com Mail (2GB). Yahoo mail currently has 250 million global users, more than any other online service (Live.com has 228 million and Gmail has 51 million users). See this feature by feature comparison of the services for more information. I wonder what paying users get then…

Japanese goldfish live in (and clean) a deep fryer (from Consumerist) – More here: Deep-fry diving for goldfish in Japan. Someone commented: Unfortunately they don’t really explain well enough to understand well. But there is a cooling system between the water and the oil. It took them ten years to develop it. So the bits of tempura batter fall down and stick together, which keeps the oil clean (the bits don’t float around and burn). Also, if you throw frozen pieces of food into a fryer, usually the oil will react violently, but now the waters sinks and cools instead of becoming vapor.

Gateway 2 (from Digg) – a pretty fun, yet somewhat depressing flash game. It’s one of those escape from the room type games, but in this one you’re trying to piece together a story. If you need help, walkthrough, or solution, scroll down to beppe1’s post over at Escape The Room.

Home is where the heart is for world’s tallest man – The world’s tallest man, whose search for a bride covered the world, ended up marrying a woman from his home town nearly half his age and more than two feet shorter, Chinese media reported on Wednesday.

Mad Track in a Japanese Game Show – Sasuke 2007 (from Digg) – The Japanese are famous for their extreme game shows on TV. Here is an example of the tracks the competittors need to finish on a TV program called Sasuke. This is their spring special aired march 21st 2007. It’s quite amazing (and this is just the first level). Wow, this really puts American Gladiators to shame.

If you like the previous IMDb page layout, apparently you can still visit it at http://former.imdb.com/.

Real Life Comics – Relevant Information – As someone who does computer tech support for my family and relatives and friends, these little jokes always hit it home.

Google Maps – from Chicago, IL to London, UK (Consumerist) – If you take a look at step #20: Swim across the Atlantic Ocean 3,462 mi. Appears to be some sort of joke that the developers decided to add in. The minimal amount of driving directions come from Boston, MA to Le Havre, France, which still results in a 29 day swim. At 3,426mi in 29 days, we’re still talking about 119 miles per day and 5 miles an hour (non-stop). Programatically, all they had to do was connect Boston to Le Havre in their map and give it a distance and time. Therefore, any location that’s connected into the USA can reach any destination that’s connected into France. Unfortunately, Mexico doesn’t have any maps on Google, so Central and South America are basically cut from this. And it looks like only Western Europe can connect into France.

xkcd – The Difference – The difference between a normal person and a scientist. 😉

Don’t Do This With a 19 Inch Dildo (from Tera) (content is work safe, but ads are not) – Here’s something not to do with a 19 inch dildo. So my friend is a nurse. She tells starts telling me this story about a guy walking into the emergency room hunched over and walking funny. The guy says he has a pain coming from his stomach and butt. He doesn’t mention anything else to doctors. So they Xray him to find out what’s wrong. Here’s what they found.

Ancient riddle of the Great Pyramid’s construction is turned inside out (from Digg) – In Paris tomorrow, Jean-Pierre Houdin will unveil the fruits of eight years’ work by describing at a conference how the pyramid of the pharaoh Khufu was built from the inside out. He will propose that the Egyptians carried the building blocks up an internal ramp that formed a spiral tunnel within the structure’s outer wall. These tunnels, he believes, must still exist today. With the help of sophisticated computer software developed by the French company Dassault Systemes, M. Houdin has been able to reconstruct a three-dimensional simulation of how the great limestone and granite blocks of the pyramid were put together stone by stone.

WiigoBot: The Perfect Game – Presenting a Lego NXT Wii Playing Robot that can bowl a perfect game. I wonder if the robot knows when its his turn again, or if it’s just timed.

Wonderbra Ad Malfunctions (from Derek) – Really clever ad for the Wonderbra or just a broken billboard?

Amazing French Beatboxer Part 2 – The same awesome beat boxer we posted last week was back on French idol dropping some sweet beats. This time he does a little Justin Timberlake and I gotta say this guy is talented. Here’s Part 1 (Looks like this is from an American Idol type show in France, one of the contestants is an amazing Beat Boxer. Listen him seamlessly go from Michael Jackson Billy Jean to Usher Ya! When does he breathe?) and part 3 (The Amazing French Beatboxer is back and again with another great performance. This time he mixes a little techno music with Britney Spears and more.) if you’re interested.

April 10, 2007April 9, 2007

Random Crap

Humor in church: the rite stuff? – “Fight truth decay” is a favorite. “Come in for a free faith lift,” is another — two examples of the toe-curling puns plastered across so many notice boards outside British churches. … Among the classics she cited were “Chxxch — Have you guessed what’s missing.UR!” and “God, you’re great!”

The Wisdom of Children (from Digg) – A Conversation at the Grownup Table, as Imagined at the Kids’ Table:

MOM: Pass the wine, please. I want to become crazy.
DAD: O.K.
GRANDMOTHER: Did you see the politics? It made me angry.
DAD: Me, too. When it was over, I had sex.
UNCLE: I’m having sex right now.
DAD: We all are.
MOM: Let’s talk about which kid I like the best.
DAD: (laughing) You know, but you won’t tell.
MOM: If they ask me again, I might tell.
FRIEND FROM WORK: Hey, guess what! My voice is pretty loud!
DAD: (laughing) There are actual monsters in the world, but when my kids ask I pretend like there aren’t.
MOM: I’m angry! I’m angry all of a sudden!
DAD: I’m angry, too! We’re angry at each other!
MOM: Now everything is fine.
DAD: We just saw the PG-13 movie. It was so good.
MOM: There was a big sex.
FRIEND FROM WORK: I am the loudest! I am the loudest!
(Everybody laughs.)
MOM: I had a lot of wine, and now I’m crazy!
GRANDFATHER: Hey, do you guys know what God looks like?
ALL: Yes.
GRANDFATHER: Don’t tell the kids.

No sex please, we’re daddy’s little girls – It has all the ingredients of a wedding. The proud tuxedo-clad father, the frosted white cake, the limousines and an exchange of vows. But there is no groom and the girl in the long gown is no bride. She’s daddy’s little girl, there to take a vow of chastity.

Best of Car Talk Letters – Response to MIT’s invitation letter – Gentlemen: Given your recent reading of the college application essay and your ties to that other (lesser) institution in Cambridge, I thought you might enjoy this. Yours sincerely, Stan McGee. MIT certainly has a reputation to be proud of, but its admissions department went a little over-board, I think. The first letter is an honest-to-goodness mailing from MIT, the second is one prospective student’s reply.

IRS Urges E-Filing — But by Vendors Only, Please – The IRS recommends that taxpayers file electronically — e-filing saves the government time and money, and is more accurate than IRS employees who type in the data from paper returns. But the IRS refuses to set up its own Web portal to receive the filings. Instead, most Americans have no choice but to e-file through private companies like Intuit (Turbo Tax) and HR Block (Tax Cut). There is something very very wrong with this system. E-Filing should be free if not have an extra discount. I mean, how much man hours are we saving them by having all our tax documents and numbers in digital formats which they can simply import it into their database. But no, instead, they decide to outsource it to other companies which charge a fee to save IRS some time. Sigh…

The Cure for Insomnia (from Tera) – The Cure for Insomnia, directed by John Henry Timmis IV, is officially the world’s longest movie, according to Guinness World Records, as of its release in 1987. Running 5220 minutes (87 hours) in length, the movie has no plot, instead consisting of artist L. D. Groban reading his lengthy poem “A Cure for Insomnia” over the course of three and a half days, spliced with occasional clips from heavy metal and pornographic videos.

pSX emulator (from Angelus) – This emulator fully emulates the Sony Playstation. Compatibility is fairly high, most games I’ve tried work well. An R3000 debugger is contained which may be of interest to people working on translations. Check out the screenshots.

TomTom PLUS services – I get this email a few weeks back saying apparently I can download new voices for my TomTom GO 700 (for a price of course) and they were advertising Mr. T. Check out what he sounds like when giving directions.

popuri.us (from Digg) – A tool to check at-a-glance the link popularity of any site based on its ranking (Google PageRank, Alexa Rank, Technorati etc.), social bookmarks (del.icio.us, etc), subscribers (Bloglines, etc) and more!

How do you prove photography to a blind man? – That was the question I was asked: how would you prove to a blind man, that photography exists? A very interesting article.

Couple tie knot in ‘moving’ ceremony – Because the bride is a snowboard instructor, her guests rode snowboards. The bridegroom is a ski instructor, and his guests were on skis. The Rev. Mike Boucher skied backward to face the crowd, wore a helmet camera during the ceremony and had a ski-mounted lectern that housed a public-address system.

People banned from SNL – Saturday Night Live’s producers, especially Lorne Michaels, have famously and dramatically banned for life several celebrities from ever appearing on the television show. Reasons for these bans vary, as sometimes they can be seen as a rational response to a star’s grossly innappropriate on-stage behavior, while at other times the reasons are harder to understand as they stem from far more mild, or even superficial transgressions.

Eddie Griffin Crashes Ferrari Enzo (from Derek) – While practicing for a charity race to promote his new movie Redline, comedian Eddie Griffin crashed a rare $1.5 million Ferrari Enzo. I guess the Undercover Brother never learned how to drive a stick. How many Enzos have crashed? Isn’t there a limited number of them?

2 Chinese Boys Sing Jessica Simpson “A Public Affair” – The two Chinese Boys who did Back Str… The two Chinese Boys who did Back Street Boys are ack doing Jessica Simpson’s new single “A Public Affair!” You get to see their roommate in the background, and you wonder how he can stand this. ;p

March 7, 2007January 2, 2008

smartycast

My friend Ryawn imed me today and told me about this new site he’s working on called smartycast. In fact, I’ve actually linked to his site in my friends list for some time, however when I added that link, their site was still just a place holder. He noticed that I had an entry on uTorrent the other day and told me the purpose of his site.

His first tutorial on that site is How To Automatically Download TV Shows. As his disclaimer states: By learning how to download TV shows you’ll also learn a little bit about Bit Torrent in the process. Keep in mind that you may be violating copyright laws and I am not in any way responsible for any trouble that you might get yourself into. With that said, let’s get to work! I also do not endorse any illegal activity that may be “inspired” by my site.

His tutorial shows you step by step on what to download and how to configure the application so downloading TV shows online doesn’t have to be rocket science.

Random Crap:

TMNT Arcade confirmed for release on Xbox Live Arcade (from Digg) – While a release date has not been announced yet (the new movie comes out in March), we do know that Ubisoft is working with Digital Eclipse to port the Heroes in a Half Shell onto XBLA. The finalized title is expected to cost only 400 points, and will include co-op support for up to four players via offline and Xbox Live modes. No word yet if they’re including upgraded support for HD. Sweet! 4 player TMNT here I come!

50 States in 10 Minutes (from Hjo3) – You have 10 Minutes to remember as many of the 50 United States as you can. After 10 Minutes, the correct answers will appear in this space so you can see which ones you’ve missed. I missed 6. (Show). I actually did a lot better than I thought I would.

Biggest Shotgun In The World (from Derek) – This shotgun is so big it takes two men to carry it. I guess its called a punt gun and I cant think of a practical use for it, except to destroy a lot of stuff at once. To me, it’s more like a portable canon. Hehe.

Teenager leaves “deposit” in bank (from Cari) – An 18-year-old man has been detained for repeatedly defecating in front of a cash machine in a bank vestibule in the southern German town of Eggmuehl, police said on Tuesday.

Mario Too – A new Perry Bible Fellowship comic strip that I found rather amusing.

Fat toddlers ‘risk early puberty’ (from Digg) – Girls who are overweight at the age of three risk reaching puberty as early as nine years old, a US study suggests. What about boys?

Great Firewall of China (from NextLust) – Want to see which sites are blocked behind the Great Firewall of China? Just visit this site and pass in your link. Apparently all livejournals are have been block recently. I just tested krunk4ever.com and it appears to be valid within China.

50 Amazing Ads You Haven’t Seen (from Digg) – A set of 50 advertisements that stand out from the rest. Each of these is unique and creative. Collected over a 5 month period. These are rather interesting and funny.

Xbox360 Homebrew in Progress: MAME360, ScummVM (from Digg) – We got this interesting email from a trusted developer that wishes to remain anonymous for now. He has been working on a port of MAME and ScummVM for the Xbox360 for some time now. The development and pictures below are from a devkit, but with the recent Hypervisor Exploit (kernel 4532/4548 only for now) there’s hope you’ll be able to run this on a retail Xbox360 some day. Wow! Speaking of which… maybe I should setup MAME on my Media Center PC, get one of those Xbox 360 Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows

I was introduced to Dead Karl on 4chan, but I found a bunch more on this thread: [Animation Gif] Dead Karl. The Chinese name is 史前動物 (史前动物) which translates to Prehistoric Animal. He’s created a bunch of animated gifs which I wanted to share:

Click image to start animation or view it in the gallery.

I do have to warn you, these little animated stories are somewhat gory.

Off-duty Northwest employee charged – An off-duty Northwest Airlines employee was arrested after a woman on a flight from Seattle complained that the man had ejaculated on her.

Dirty car windows become artist’s canvas – Wade, with his scraggly graying hair and a fondness for shirts with wacky prints, doesn’t wash his car when it first develops a fine coating of limestone dust. For the past four years he’s created art on it instead.

The People’s Mario (from Cari) – Based on that silly Rumor saying mario had subliminal communist propaganda. What if Mario was really a Communist? A short flash animation showing you Mario with a hammer killing Goombas and Koopa Troopas backed by Communist music.

First ever HD South Park episode for free on Xbox Live Marketplace (from SD) – This coming Tuesday is a big day for people that are both fans of South Park and Xbox 360 owners. Comedy Central is releasing the first ever high definition episode of South Park on the Xbox Live Marketplace to all members (we’re assuming this means Silver and Gold) for free. That’s right, everyone’s favorite word — free. It will be on Marketplace at that low, low, price of free for two weeks, and will also be available as a free HD-DVD to people buying a new Xbox 360 console or the HD-DVD add-on drive at Best Buy from March 20th through April 3rd.

Discover just updated their list of 5% Cashback Bonus for the months of April through June (from SD) – Lowe’s, Linens ‘n Things, Bed Bath & Beyond, Ace Hardware, Sears, Kohl’s, JCPenney, Dillard’s, DICK’S Sporting Goods, Circuit City, Borders, Godiva Chocolatier, Inc., FTD.COM. Pretty sweet list. Guess if you have house improvements, you should just wait up the next 2 months.

March 1, 2007February 28, 2007

My New HTPC

I finally got my hard drive replacement yesterday and reinstalled Vista and now my living room setup is semi-complete. I’m still missing a few key items which I’ll be getting along the way which include a small coffee table, a better TV stand, a HDTV tuner card, a bluetooth keyboard and mouse set, and a surround sound system.

Anyways, let’s talk about my HTPC. It’s made up of the following components:

Motherboard: Abit IL9 Pro Motherboard – $85
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 CPU – $204
Case: Lian Li PC-C30A Case – $130
Graphics Card: Asus EAX1600PRO SILENT Radeon X1600PRO 256MB – $93
Memory: 2x Kingston 1GB DDR2 DDR2 667 RAM – $136
Hard Drive: Western Digital 500GB SATA – $140
Optical Drive: NEC ND-3550A 16X DVD Burner – $29*
Power Supply: Ultra V Series 500W – $0
Input Devices: Remote Control and Receiver for Media Center – $25; Remote Keyboard for Media Center – $45
Cables: HDMI DVI Cable – 10ft – $5.74; 3.5mm Stereo Plug/2 RCA Plug cable – 6ft – $1.25
UPS: APC BX 1500 Battery Back-UPS – $100

The final total comes up to be $994. Most of these items were purchased out of state (via Newegg), so there wasn’t any sales tax and most of them had free shipping.

I originally had purchased a Seagate 7200.10 500GB SATA hard drive with perpendicular recording, but the drive was rather noisy, especially when writing, so I swapped it out and replaced it with the Western Digital 500GB SATA drive which people have commented on to be quiet, and indeed is.

*I also swapped DVD burners between my main machine which had the NEC ND-3550A (or 3540A) which is very quiet, but no longer carried by Newegg. I had gotten the NEC 7170A-0B 18X DVD Burner, hoping that since it’s still NEC, it’d be nice and quiet like their previous models, but boy was I wrong. Apparently this drive is actually manufactured by Optiarc, a joint company formed by Sony and NEC. I’ve tried tools like CD Bremse and Nero CD-DVD Speed as recommended by those at CDFreaks.com, but neither worked. Someone also suggested AnyDVD, but I have yet to try it. What these tools are suppose to do is set the drive to run at a slower speed, so it can never goes into high speed mode (i.e. 18X), because who really needs 18X when watching a DVD. I’ve tried flashing the drive, but the tools don’t seem to be able to control it. On the contrary, both were able to control my ancient NEC ND-3550A.

Here are some pictures of while I was building the HTPC:

Installing Vista was a breeze, a lot easier than I had expected after hearing “horror” stories. Though then again, I was installing it on a clean machine and had been warned what hardware was compatible and what were causing problems (apparently nVidia Vista drivers are still iffy). After updating drivers and running the performance test, I hit 4.3 and the limiting factor was my graphics card. 4.3’s already an really good score, so I wasn’t too worried.

My next problem as I realized was there wasn’t a easy way for me to connect my HTPC to the existing network and internet. Derek and I had spent something walking up and down my stairs trying to figure out the best way. At first I thought I would just get a wireless bridge and use 802.11g to talk wirelessly. However, with all the HD content that I’ll soon be accumulating, having gigabit would be nice. So I ended up pulling a long cable from my switch to my new HTPC. I purchased a bunch of these cable hooks from Lowes and hammered them around my stair frame. I also didn’t have a ladder, so I used my plastic table as a platform to stand on.

I’ve also rearranged the couches so that I have more living room space to actually put something in between the couch and the TV. The main reason being that I was setting up StepMania with my USB dance pads and they didn’t really fit in the old configuration. Now that I pushed the sofas back, I have a lot more space and can actually fit a coffee table or maybe even an exercise bike. What’s neat is also there’s 2 front USB ports on my Lian Li case and that’s perfect for 2 DDR dance mats.

Our company store today just announced that the Wireless Entertainment Desktop 7000 was available. Derek and I have been looking at the Logitech diNovo Edge. However, I wonder when the Wireless Entertainment Desktop 8000 will be released.

Here’s some pictures of my semi-final TV setup with my so pretty Vizio 47″ 1080p LCD HDTV:

Remember, each picture also has a FULL SIZE.

February 28, 2007February 28, 2007

Random Crap

Rapidshare Search Engine (from Angelus) – An interesting tool I didn’t know existed.

Tesco Cans Refunds Policy After 360 Pricing Mishap (from Tera) – A pricing error in January meant that XBox 360 games consoles were advertised in the store for £297.81. When the machines’ bar codes were scanned at the till, customers were asked to pay £299.97 — £2.16 more. Under the policy, Tesco allowed the shoppers to take the consoles for free. Ouch. Great news for crafty British shoppers, but for Tesco, not so much. They’ve now, rather wisely, ditched the offer, replacing it with a deal where “customers will get back double the amount they were overcharged”. Guess that’s what happens when you abuse a good policy.

Chocolate Wii Controller (from Digg) – Wondering what to do with the packaging that your wiimote and nunchuck controller came in? Why not fill them with chocolate! We did. They’re both stuffed with sponge fingers to fill them out a little, otherwise we’d have used a lot more chocolate. Not a bad thing in itself, but we didn’t have that much chocolate. I would’ve thought the hot chocolate would’ve melted the plastic.

There’s a common saying in Cantonese during the new year: 恭喜發財, 利是逗來 (gong hey fat choy, lai see dao lar), which literally translates to wish you good fortune, hand over the red envelope (money pouch). I didn’t know how to write the character for dao, so I was searching online for this phrase. I landed on this page: 舒展超之大玩派 (they’re using Chinese Traditional Big 5 encoding if you’re seeing random characters). Anyway, there was this post that I found hilarious:

農曆新年期間，例牌在手機上收到相當多的賀年短訊（SMS）。當中有的頗為「行貨」，求其整兩句「恭喜發財，萬事如意」便算；有的則明顯是對方收到後，再順手轉寄的，否則怎會整篇都是簡體字？

但無論「行貨」也好「借花」也好，心意是一定有的。這種短訊祝福雖然很數碼化，但也一樣可以見字如見其人吧！

說到「如見其人」，不得不提我收到的一個賀年MMS；這MMS與SMS的不同之處，就在個M字，代表Multi-Media（多媒體）也！而拜3G手機所賜，這個M字也可以說是Movie吧！

話說年初一那天，手機「嘟嘟」響起，收到短訊；打開一看，卻是一則多媒體短訊（MMS），由朋友P君寄來的。當中包含了一段短片，須先下載才能觀看，我就不由分說同意下載了。

不消一會，下載完畢，影片播出。只見一個歲零兩歲的細路，一副拜年的裝束，向我邊抱拳邊牙牙學語；背景有一男聲，明顯是其父親P君，在指導（指使）他說：「恭喜發財，利是逗來。」細路就照樣學道：「公器罰財，你屎倒來。」

我看了之後，哭笑不得！忽生一計：既然你用MMS拜年，我就用MMS派Cyber利是！於是用手機自拍一段派利是的短片，回了過去！夠絕！

The overall post talks about a guy receiving Chinese new year greetings over MMS and SMS. One of them included a video clip of a very young kid learning from his father how to say, “Gong Hey Fat Choy. Lai See Dao Lar.” Chinese has a bunch of characters that sound the same and in Cantonese. To complicate that even further, there’s like 6 or 7 tones for each sound, making it even easier to screw up. In Mandarin, there’s only 4 default tones, with a soft 5th tone. So the kid basically says most of the sounds correctly, but in the incorrect tone, making a completely new sentence saying “public machine fines wealth, your poop has arrived.” It’s a common tradition when a kid wishes you good fortune to give them a red envelope (usually filled with some cash). However, since this person used a MMS to greet him, he decided to reply with a cyber red envelope, instead of a real one with cash.

I was telling this story to Cari and she tells me a story in return:

haha my mom’s god son.. he says fat choi like the vegetable.. the black hair like things we eat. so his sister made fun of him and said.. why is he congratulating a vegetable?

How To Give A Great Man To Man Hug (from SueOn) – Pretty funny to tutorial.

clocky (from Digg) – The alarm clock that runs away and hides when you don’t wake up. Clocky gives you one chance to get up. But if you snooze, Clocky will jump off of your nightstand and wheel around your room looking for a place to hide. Clocky is kind of like a misbehaving pet, only he will get up at the right time. Haha! Perfect gift for your kid going to college. They’ll need it.

Photosynth Technology Preview (from Digg) – Welcome to Photosynth, a new technology from Microsoft Live Labs that takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and displays them in a reconstructed three-dimensional space. Pretty neat and it utilizes Windows Presentation Foundation for the neat UI graphics.

What your Sleeping position says about you (from Digg) – Scientists believe the position in which a person goes to sleep provides an important clue about the kind of person they are. The names they gave to the sleeping positions are rather funny: Foetus, Log, Yearner, Soldier, Freefall, and Starfish. I definitely swap between the Foetus and Soldier positions.

Beer launching fridge (from Digg) – Wow. Now this is an idea that could pick-up: a mini fridge with a catapult on top and an automatic beer launcher. The cool part is that it’s very small and incredibly accurate. Seriously, it’s a gadget that I would buy! I really like the little contraption on how they pull the can out from the fridge.

Stand-in Chinese mistress sought to take wife’s abuse – A Chinese businessman has advertised on the Internet for a stand-in mistress to be beaten up by his wife to vent her anger and to protect his real mistress, Chinese media reported on Monday.

TMNT Arcade ‘Level 1’ gameplay (from MS newsgroup) – I remember spending countless quarters playing this game (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) at the arcades. If this game supports multiplayer (all 4 controllers), it’d be super neat!

Guess what’s in my pants (from Angelus) – Jimmy Kimmel from The Man Show sticks something inside his pant pocket and asks random women on the street to feel it and guess what it is. Rather hilarious. One woman actually starts biting it.

Russian Tunnel Video (from Tera) – This 3150 m long tunnel in Russia is the longest in-city tunnel of Europe. There is a river running over it and water leaks at some points. When the temperature reaches -38 degrees like it did this winter, the road freezes and the result is the attached video taken during a single day with the tunnel camera. And the answer to the most popular question: the name of the song on the video is “Avalon” performed by an artist who goes simply by the name “Juliet”. The album is “The Best of NYC Afterhours – Volume 3”. You’d think they’d put up big red flashing signs warning people to drive slower…

Beatboxing flute inspector gadget remix (from Hjo3) – Beatboxing Flute player Greg Pattillo inspector gadget with a twist like nothing you’ve heard (unless you’ve been wandering through washington square park and heard him there) The 2nd song he’s playing is actually Axel F (from Axel Foley) and isn’t really related to Inspector Gadget.

The Really Big Guide To Secret Menu Items – More secret menu items at Taco Bell, Wendy’s, Chipotle, Subway, Jamba Juice, In-N-Out Burger, Starbucks, Dairy Queen, Chili’s, Blimpie, Burger King, Popeye’s, TGIFriday’s, Denny’s, and Arby’s.

Costco’s Electronics Return Policy (from The Consumerist) – Due to abuse, Costco is once again updating their return policy. The following items now have a 90-day return window: Televisions, Computers, Cameras, Camcorders, iPod/MP3 players, and Cellular phones. However, it does come with 2 year warranty from the date of purchase, which is rather neat. This only applies to purchases after this policy goes into effect which is being slowly pushed into all stores. Good thing I bought my TV before then 😉 There is something new where Costco is offering in-home TV setup. I wonder if that means they’ll deliver the TV too, which was one of the main reasons I didn’t get a TV till recently.

Parents raise copycat risk from TV’s revhead tot (from /.) – AN award-winning TV commercial showing a toddler driving a four-wheel-drive has been pulled off the air. The Advertising Standards Board said it had banned the ad for Hyundai’s Sante Fe 4WD after more than 80 viewer complaints. You can watch the ad here: Hyundai Santa Fe. I thought the ad was rather cute.

Toilet Paper Folder & Dispenser Prototype (from Digg) – This is a project that me and my friends built for school (UC Berkeley). Its made of lego mindstorms, scissors, and some scrap metal. With all things considered, I think it turned out alright. Not only does it fold your paper for you, it also cuts it. It would be the perfect accessory for a fancy, high-tech, Japanese bathroom! This video shows two test runs; the first run works well, while the second one could have gone a little smoother… Haha! I need one of these!

Wahaha Calcium Milk blatantly copies the Mario/Yoshi combo (from Digg)

February 25, 2007

Random Crap

It’s been awhile since my last post. You can blame the TV. Been playing with it too much. It’s so sexy!

This past week was somewhat weird. I’ve had training for a course in Advanced Windows Communication Foundation (Indigo), which was quite informative. Unfortunately this 2-day class began at 9am, and for as long as I remembered, I don’t recall getting up at 8am for work. I also ended up going to sleep around 12am (ahhh! so early!) for those few days.

This past weekend, Stanman and his gang came over to my placed and we played the Wii, Guitar Hero, Xbox 360, and some other stuff on my new TV.

I’ve been meaning to post my new HTPC experience for awhile, but I’m still waiting to get my hard drive. I currently have the Seagate 250GB + 500GB 7200.10 SATA hard drives in my HTPC. They’re a bit noisy. I’ve already purchased the Western Digital 500GB SATA hard drive (which everyones seems to say is very quiet) and should be arriving this week, at which point, I’ll be swapping out the Seagates and putting in this Western Digital. Then my HTPC will be complete (minus the TV tuners, which is a later project) and I’ll blog about it.

When watching TV or movies on my new TV, I feel a bit odd, somewhat out of place. Before, I would always be multi-tasking. Watching a movie, surfing the net, and chatting with friends all at the same time. Now putting me on the couch and just watching TV feels a bit odd. I’m thinking I might just start using my laptop while I watch TV so I don’t feel so weird. That or I can purchase an exercise bike and force myself to exercise when I’m watching TV. Derek suggests that I make the bike be the power source of the TV so if I stop, the TV turns off.

More Creative and Beautiful Wallpapers (from Digg) – Wallpapers can be creative, inspiring, gorgeous and hilarious. Recently we’ve posted an overview of Selected Wallpapers for Desktop and Web Design and Christmas Wallpapers. Now it’s time for something fresh, original and creativie. Let’s take a look at some more creative and beautiful wallpapers for your personal desktop. A nice collection of sites with some pretty wallpapers.

$1500 electric guitar made from 1/3 of a $15 Ikea table (from Digg) – Zachary built a very nice looking electric guitar top from a $15 Ikea end table. He says he can build three tops from one end table.

Construction of the World’s Highest Bridge (from Digg) – Construction of the Millau Bridge in France – The Millau bridge over the River Tarn in the Massif Central mountains is more than 300m (984ft) high – taller even than the Eiffel Tower. With its concrete and steel pillars soaring high above the morning fog in the Tarn Valley, the construction makes a spectacular sight.

Speedtest.net (from Digg) – Another pretty neat speed testing site. A lot more fancier than Broadband Reports’ Speed Test.

Empty boxes and politeness dent generosity – The research by Victoria University of Wellington’s economics department showed that how much is already in a donation box, the mix of coins and notes, and what sorts of signs are present will influence how generous the public will be. … “The most important thing is to never leave the box empty,” said senior lecturer John Randal. … More banknotes than coins led to larger individual donations, but a fall in the number of donations, while more coins saw more donations but of a lower value. Interesting study.

Dog store sign angers Seattle residents – A newly opened store catering to very pampered dogs, especially female dogs, is getting more than questioning looks for its name, High Maintenance Bitch. Haha.

Wii Quarters (from Digg) – A parody Wii game cover for a common college game: Quarters. Hilarious piece of work.

Not just good, but good for you (from Digg) –

Mounting evidence suggests sex helps keep us healthy

Easing depression and stress

Relieving pain

Boosting cardio health

Countering prostate cancer

Healing wounds

Fighting aging

There were some rather funny/interesting quotes:

But wait, there’s more. A recent study of college students at the State University of New York in Albany suggests that semen acts as an antidepressant. Females in the study who were having sex without condoms (see safe sex caution, above) had fewer signs of depression than women who used condoms or abstained from sex.

I can’t resist another plug for semen. It’s possible that male goo can lower blood pressure. Another recent study found that women who gave their men oral sex, and swallowed, had a lower risk of preeclampsia, the dangerously high blood pressure that sometimes accompanies pregnancy.

The Poshest Gas Station in Los Angeles (from Digg) – A very funky modern architectural gas station. I didn’t know what poshest (or posh) meant, but according to dictionary.com, it means smart and fashionable. I would hardly describe this thing as “fashionable”. Also, it shows a clear misunderstanding of what octane is (i.e. 87, 89, 91) by describing them as good, better, and best respectively. I guess that’s what the common people believe to be the case.

Vegetables as we don’t see (from Digg) – An interesting assortment of animal carvings from vegetables and fruits:

February 16, 2007

Cyanide and Happiness

I’ve been reading a new comic strip called Cyanide and Happiness. Rather funny, but humor’s a bit crude. Not sure if you’ll all like. Here’s a select few that I found:

Random Crap:

Wow, it’s been awhile since my last post. Been really busy at work with Beta 1 sign off and Deep Dive and have been pulling 10-14hr days. It’s finally over and I think things will return back to normal. I didn’t even get to watch 24 (2 episode special) till today. I’ve had to actually get to work before 10 for a few days, meaning I have to wake up at 9. I couldn’t believe how hard that was. I guess going to sleep at 4am didn’t help.

I’ve also been playing Ys: The Oath in Felghana (GameSpot), another thing that’s been keeping me away from blogging and keeping me up till 4am. I’ll be talking more about this in a later thread.

Finally, all my computer parts have arrived and I’ve built my HTPC. Unfortunately the copy of Vista I got was the incorrect version and somehow ended up with Enterprise instead of Ultimate. Will report to you about my HTPC later too with pictures! Too bad my HTPC doesn’t have a TV to broadcast on yet. Derek’s been making fun of me and saying I should’ve driven to Silverdale (1.5hrs each way = 3hrs of driving total). Maybe I’ll just show him and get a better, bigger, and cheaper TV. ;p

The youngest mother ever (from Digg) – The youngest mother was a 5 year old Peruvian girl. … Her name was Lina Medina, a Peruvian girl from the Andean village of Ticrapo… Lina’s parents initially thought their daughter had a large abdominal tumor… but Lina was eventually transferred to a hospital in Lima, where she delivered a six-pound baby boy by Cesarean section on 14 May 1939. Lina’s father was temporarily jailed on suspicion of incest, but he was released for a lack of evidence and authorities were never ableto determine who fathered Lina’s child. Even Snopes.com says it’s true. The question everyone’s asking is, if it’s not the father, who’s the child’s father?

Gela Skins (from Digg) – GelaSkins are made using premium grade vinyl with advanced adhesive technology by 3M and photo quality graphics by artists from around the world. These skins look rather cool and according to the Gearlog, they can be purchased at GelaSkins.

Vasectomy: $400. Speechless look on her face: priceless. (from Digg) – A hilarious story about how someone pwned his girlfriend when she claimed she was pregnant with his child.

Paradoxical Undressing (from Digg) – Victims of even slight hypothermia often exhibit altered states of judgment, which is known in mountaineering circles as being “cold stupid”. One common but especially bizarre behavior of hypothermia victims is a conundrum known as “paradoxical undressing”. … Paradoxical undressers remove their warm clothing even as they are freezing to death. An interesting read.

A few interesting films (from MS newsgroup):

Karma – We all make mistakes but do we always take responsibility for our actions? Karma has unique ways of catching up especially when we know what we are doing is wrong. The film was shot with a Panasonic HVX in two days with a crew of three (director, DP and one person to help out with lights/sound). Shot in Seattle in October whenever it stopped raining.
9 Seconds – Tucker Gray has the power to “rewind” time nine seconds. He finds this ability amusing, until the day comes when nine seconds forever changes his world.

Guide to Secret “Off The Menu” Items/ Call for Entries – Jamba Juice has an entire secret smoothie menu. We remember that it used to be on Wikipedia, but has mysteriously vanished. All the smoothies are made from stuff in the store, but most aren’t as healthy as the ones the promote. They are, however, in the register. Some secret ones to try: Strawberry Shortcake, White Gummy Bear, PB+J, Pink Starburst, Skittles, Red Gummy Bear, Sourpatch Kid, Now and Later, Push Pop, Fruity Pebbles. The consensus seems to be that “White Gummy Bear” is the most delicious substance known to man. I’ve gotta try that White Gummy Bear next time.

Enable Netflix Video-On-Demand – If you’re not one of the lucky people who has Netflix video-on-demand pushed to their account, you can click here to enable it.

Fla. teen hiccuping for over 3 weeks – Jennifer Mee can’t stop hiccuping. For more than three weeks now, the 15-year-old St. Petersburg teen has hiccuped close to 50 times a minute — despite the best efforts of doctors and home remedies.

Mother cat adopts pup rejected by mother – – Who says cats and dogs don’t get along? Workers at the Meriden Humane Society are marveling at a short-haired mother cat who has willingly adopted a six-day-old Rottweiler puppy that was rejected by its mother. Story wasn’t that interesting. The puppies were so cute though:

puppies adopted by cat

Chinese workers paint mountain green – Workers who began spraying Laoshou mountain last August told villagers they were doing so on orders of the county government but were not told why, media reports said Wednesday. Some villagers guessed officials of the surrounding Fumin county, whose office building faces the mountain, were trying to change the area’s feng shui — the ancient Chinese belief of harmonizing one’s physical environment for maximum health and financial benefit.

The man who fell 12,000 ft … and survived (from Digg) – It’s the most gut-wrenching, mesmerising and shocking clip of video footage imaginable. Shot from the tiny camera in the helmet of champion skydiver Michael Holmes, it records with chilling clarity what happened when he plummeted 12,000ft to earth. This article’s been posted everywhere, but The Mail apparently has exclusive rights to the video forcing all other news outlets to remove the video and even the YouTube uploads to remove it. You can watch the video at World exclusive skydiver video… watch the incredible footage here!

Got milk? Got beer! – Great news for beer and milk lovers: A liquor shop owner in Japan’s largest dairy farming region has stopped crying about local spilled milk and started making beer from it instead. Hmmm…

Top 5 ways to hustle free drinks (from The Consumerist) – The main theme of all these hustles is something called a Propostion Bet. Basically, a proposition bet is a challenge which looks like it only has one outcome…and it does…it always favors the person placing the wager. That’s because you know something the other folks don’t. You know the ‘challenge’ is always going to go your way. Always. A show in Britain called “The Real Hustle’ does these bets often as a way to show you how much fun they can be, and also how to avoid getting caught out by them. So, here we go. My Top 5 free drink hustles, in no particular order. Watch the videos, they’re rather interesting. So if you get hustled into buying others alcohol a lot, you should remember these tricks.

The Original Hamster Dance ?!? (from RayAlome) – I was watching some of my old Disney Cartoons when I recognized this one tune at the beginning that the rooster is whistling. then I realized, “Whoa, it’s the hamster dance”. this is a video I threw together bored on a Wednesday night. The clips are from the Disney Cartoon “Robin Hood” and the song is “The Hamster Dance”

The Most Amazing Waterfall In The World (from Digg) – The power of nature is truly magnificent! Enjoy this stunning video footage of one of the largest waterfall in the world. The waterfall Iguassu forms a natural border for Argentina and Brazil, and consists of about 275 waterfalls, sure beats the hell out of a fence…. I will have to agree that the pictures of this waterfall are AMAZING!

Zoo tours cash in on hot monkey love – Genevieve Chandler has been visiting the Lowry Park Zoo since she was a kid, but the tour she got the other night was definitely not the G-rated fare of her childhood. Among the things Chandler, 30, and her date learned on their “Wild at Heart” zoo tour: Male pigs have a unique corkscrew endowment and impressive, um, output; manatees have orgies and don’t really care if their partners are male or female; and a male porcupine has only one four-hour window a year to mate — very carefully, of course.

Britons ignorant about sex, survey reveals – Nearly one in three Britons think that if a woman jumps up and down, washes or urinates immediately after sex, she can prevent pregnancy, a survey revealed Monday. Haha!

I was reading this strip from Real Life Comics when I realize what the guy is saying is true: Have you ever noticed how “keeping it away from someone else” seems to be a common thread in cereal commercials? With Trix, they’re trying to keep it away from the rabbit, Fred’s always trying to keep Barney from eating his Fruity Pebbles. Hell – that leprechaun actively tries to keep kids from eating his lucky charms! Besides that, there’s the police trying to keep the robber and his dog from getting their hands (and paws) on Cookie Crisp. It’s just an interesting idea which I never noticed.

February 4, 2007February 4, 2007

Burger King Xbox 360 games for only 99¢ each

Burger King games just $0.99 (from Digg) – I was going through the Burger King at Redstone Arsenal yesterday and noticed that the BK games were just $0.99 with a combo meal. So, I finished out my collection and bought Sneak King for a buck. Supplies are limited. The BK Gamer website still lists the games as $3.99 each, but there’s been several confirmations. Not sure if this is nationwide, but if you’re visiting a Burger King and see they’re on sale for a buck, please let us know.

Even though I purchased 2 for $3.99 each, they were definitely worth the money. I can’t say that’s the case for their food. But it did get me to go into Burger King twice when the promo started. It must definitely helped them: Burger King Earnings Rise 40% Helped By Xbox Promotion. I wonder if this price decrease is to get more people to come in.

I’ve posted my reviews on the 2 games I got:
Burger King releases Xbox 360 games
Pocketbike Racer

Random Crap:

Coach fired for ‘check manhood’ comment – A high school coach who told his players at halftime to reach into their pants to “check their manhood” before returning to the basketball court was fired.

Joey Chestnut downs a record 182 wings – Professional competitive eater Joey Chestnut devoured a record 182 chicken wings Friday to win his second consecutive Wing Bowl, a gut-busting annual event that draws thousands of revelers to the city’s sports complex in the pre-dawn hours. His face just wants to make me want to throw up. “I love to eat,” said Chestnut, 23, of San Jose, Calif. “Today I was swallowing wings, swallowing bones, whatever it took.“ Apparently he swallowed the wing whole (including bones) – from SueOn.

Getting fabulous hair takes a bit of bull … semen – An upmarket London beauty salon says it can give your hair the ultimate shine by treating it with a mixture that includes semen from thoroughbred bulls.

Windows that become mirrors at the flip of a switch (from digg) –

A fancy new glass has been developed in Japan, one that promises to cut down on the energy usage of buildings everywhere. It looks like a normal window regularly, but at the flip of a switch it turn to a mirror. How does this affect energy costs, you ask? Walk with me.

When used as exterior windows, the mirrors can deflect the sun on hot days. This keeps the interior cool, cutting down on AC costs. When the temperature drops, you can turn the windows back into regular windows, letting the warm sun filter on through and lowering heating costs. It’s win/win, really. Plus it would be really cool to see someone flip the switch and an entire skyscraper suddenly don a mirrored shell. Heck, if it isn’t too outrageously expensive I don’t see why this couldn’t catch on in residential building as well. Time will tell.

A triple-venti-Americano-decaf surprise? (The Consumerist) – Consumer Reports finds McDonald’s coffee better than Starbucks. The magazine reported that McDonald’s was “decent and moderately strong. Although it lacked the subtle top notes needed to make it rise and shine, it had no flaws.” As for Starbucks, the magazine called it “strong, but burnt and bitter enough to make your eyes water instead of open.”

KC Police Seek Answers in Case of Arrested Woman Who Miscarried (from Digg) – For now, Sofia Salva will let her attorney and the videotape of two police officers ignoring her pleas for medical help speak for her. Salva, who said she was three months pregnant and bleeding when Kansas City police stopped her for traffic violations last February, believes she wouldn’t have had a miscarriage had officers aided her. A police videotape released Tuesday brought attention to the incident. Salva also has filed a wrongful death and personal injuries lawsuit against the Kansas City Police Department and two officers who arrested her. “It’s tragic, it’s disappointing, it’s frustrating, it’s sickening at times,” Salva’s attorney, Andrew Protzman, said Wednesday. “This is a lady who was in severe medical distress and clearly needed emergency medical attention and medical treatment.” Like the attorney says, it’s a tragedy.

Scientists offered cash to dispute climate study (from Digg) – Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one of the world’s largest oil companies to undermine a major climate change report due to be published today. Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Sigh…

Sleepwalking woman had sex with strangers – Sleep medicine experts have successfully treated a rare case of a woman having sex with strangers while sleepwalking. … Circumstantial evidence, such as condoms found scattered around the house, alerted the couple to the problem. On one occasion, her partner awoke to find her missing, went searching for her and found her engaged in the sex act.

Blondie Unlocks Car (from Crooked Brains) – An unique way for women to recover keys they forgot in a locked car. Is this real? Can you really use a tennis ball to do this? If you can, I’d imagine any sort of air pump would also work. Maybe it’s just certain cars?

Conan O’Brien Defeats Serena Williams in Wii Sports Tennis (from Digg) – Conan O’Brien, popular late night host on NBC, defeated Serena Williams in a Wii Sports Tennis match on his show Thursday night, questioning the authenticity of the recently completed Australian Open. Well, not really but it was entertaining to watch.

Happy end to iguana penis saga (from Digg) – Mozart, the iguana whose penis was surgically removed after he got a permanent erection, is back with his girlfriends and enjoying a healthy sex life again. As the title of the Digg entry proclaims: THE BACKUP WORKS!

Woman with bionic arm regains sense of touch (from Digg) – A woman fitted with the world’s first “bionic arm” controlled by thought alone has been given back a sense of feeling. Claudia Mitchell, 26, a former US marine, regained the ability to carry out simple tasks such as cutting up food when she was fitted with the prosthetic arm last year. Now doctors have re-routed the ends of arm nerves to a patch of skin on her chest — allowing her to regain the sensation of having her lost hand touched. Awesome! Cyborgs here we come!

Orange Snow in Omsk, Russia (from Digg) – Yesterday a strange phenomena happened in Omsk region Russia. Pretty vast territory of Omsk region was covered with a snow that had an unusual color. It was orange. Now we have a few photos, mainly screenshots from Russian TV channels. There is still no one exact explanation about the origin of orange color of this snow.

Russian Puzzle (from Digg) – The challenge is to fit the five pieces into the square. The pieces can touch, but they may not overlap. Use the mouse and click and drag to move the pieces. To rotate a piece, press the SHIFT button, and then click the mouse button. Pretty difficult puzzle. The key is in the rotation of the shapes (clicking while holding down the shift key). I finally gave up and took a look at the hint.