You are in monthly Archives.
January 30, 2008
Don't double dip that chip!
Researchers at Clemson University launched a study of bacteria transferred from mouth to dip based on the Seinfeld "Double dip" chip scene. (via kottke)
On average, the students found that three to six double dips transferred about 10,000 bacteria from the eater’s mouth to the remaining dip.
Each cracker picked up between one and two grams of dip. That means that sporadic double dipping in a cup of dip would transfer at least 50 to 100 bacteria from one mouth to another with every bite.
How could we make this worse...
I really like Apple's presentation program, Keynote.
There is only one glitch. But it's the worst you could have.
About one in every six times I hit "play" on the slideshow, it restarts the computer instantaneously! Why should these two things even be linked? In the past, when there is a software error the worst that has ever happened is a program quits unexpectedly. I guess they decided to take it to the next level.
Ok, so maybe it's not the worst glitch you could have. It would be bad if you hit play and instead of your slides it went right into an episode of Full House.
So, now every time I start my presentation it's like Russian Roulette. I flinch as I hit that little triangle, wondering if I am going to have to wait three excruciating minutes for my computer to restart. What makes it worse is Macs are usually pretty quick about booting up, unless you didn't properly shut down last time. So there you go. Please fix this, Apple.
January 28, 2008
Caption this image...
January 24, 2008
Question of the day
What will YOU do with your rebate?
Update: I had been trying to think of a analogy for the whole rebate thing since it doesn't seem to be a very good fix. Last night I dreamt that I told Barack Obama that the rebate was like taking blood from a sick person and giving it back to him in hopes of curing them. (Does that work? Do you have a better one?)
I also told him if we want to "fix" the immigration problem we need to help Mexico develop its economy.
January 21, 2008
Caption this image...
January 20, 2008
Lists
I updated my movies list and realized that I've been keeping track of every movie I have watched for a little over 10 years now. It's up to over 1,500. I've probably missed a few over the years. I did have some pretty impressive stretches during the summers of 98 and 99 when I was in Duluth checking out a bunch of movies from the library (and watching a lot of bad movies in the theater because they were free). Those summers I had a conscious effort to watch as many movies as I could, which I think anyone who has an interest in film, or wants to educate themselves in film, needs to do. College is probably the best time to do that.
My other goal was to watch every movie on the IMDB Top 250 list. At one point I was down to about 12, but it's a real challenge to keep up. I'd sit through some obscure foreign film I don't particularly like only to see it drop off the list a week later.
I suggested to Aaron he keeps track of all the movies his kid Evan watches so he'll have a complete list. That would be impressive. Even more impressive than this guy who has over 7,700 (he started the list when he was 12).
Edit: And since I don't work at Apple anymore I can laugh at (and share) this.
January 17, 2008
Predictions
Clinton and Romney will win the nominations.
Scabulous will be pulled from Facebook. Word nerds will protest (9 points).
iTunes movie rentals will be too expensive ($4 for new movie in SD, $5 for HD), but studios won't let Apple lower the price. Movie piracy continues without much problem.
The Packers will meet the Patriots in the Super Bowl. The Packers will win and my brother Ben will punch something.
...did I miss any?
January 08, 2008
Sound and the other thing
While researching high definition DVD players, I came across this page (which kottke recently linked on his site). It compares The Lord of the Rings HD vs. DVD. Pretty cool.
It turns out I am a pretty bad researcher because I ended up getting an HD DVD player through Amazon because it seemed like a pretty good deal. Well, it looks like HD DVD is on the way out and Blu Ray is the projected winner.
At any rate, HD DVD looks great on our projector. It's difficult to go back to regular DVDs now. The only thing that worries me is the copy protection that comes along with the new HD format. My sister couldn't play some of her Blu Ray disks because the firmware wasn't upgraded. Other people have had similar digital rights management problems.
I think we'll get our moneys worth since I don't really plan on buying any HD DVD movies (yay Netflix!). Buying regular DVDs right now doesn't make much sense either, except that they are so cheap.
On the audio side of things: a video about the "loudness war" of music compression and deconstructing Sgt. Pepper (Aimee and I are watching the fantastic Beatles Anthology right now so I had to include this).
January 04, 2008
Puzzle time
Cooperate with yourself to win this interesting puzzle game... how many tries did it take you?
January 03, 2008
O-o-o Obama
Caucused tonight. It was a good time. Biden's group had to recruit some supporters to get a delegate. Obama had twice as many caucusers (not really a word) as the next most popular candidate, which I think was Edwards. We had about 276 people show up. Obama had 102, Edwards about 50, Clinton about 45, Richards 42, Biden 42 (approximately). A candidate had to have 42 votes to be viable. I was thinking about supporting Dodd but when I got there not only did the guy introducing everything forget to ask if there was anyone for Dodd there but there were only a couple other potential Dodd'ers.
I guess there was a very good turnout overall. It seemed pretty crowded in the elementary school gym we went to. Finding a parking spot was not fun.
We in Iowa can move from the "Ha! We have more influence than you!" phase into the "Hey where did everybody go?" phase.
January 01, 2008
Toys (without Robin Williams)
From the 1985 one (click for a bigger view):
I want the 7 1/2 foot aircraft carrier! I can put my George W. Bush action figure on it and re-enact "Mission Accomplished!"
Looks like it's only $109
Only one page of Star Wars stuff... too bad.