World's Ugliest Dog

Read all about it here

Zoom It!

I found this really awesome little program called ZoomIt. If you ever do presentations on your PC, run this little puppy (only 100K or so), and it lets you zoom in on your screen and break into draw mode, so you can draw on your screen with your mouse.
Check it out

Agua de Coco

Folks,


If you ever get tempted to try some Agua de Coco, or Coconut Water...take some advice from your good buddy Wbobth. DON'T!!!!!


I had been intrigued for weeks by seeing the cans of coconut water on the shelves of the Hispanic section of the supermarket. Finally I gave in to the temptation, and bought myself a can of Coconut Water, which I assume that people actually drink as a beverage for enjoyment.


Some of the main ingredients are:


Young coconut juice


Sugar


Young coconut pulp





Not knowing what to expect, I poured myself a glass.









It looked like when the kids eat some white bread, then decide to take a sip of my water. Or it looks like when you leave milk in a glass too long, let it solidify, then pour hot water on it in an attempt to loosen the congealed milk on the bottom of the glass.
Anyway, strike one for Agua de Coco for looking nasty.
Strike two for Agua de Coco for being horrifically nasty. The kids actually took a sip before I did, but I was not persuaded by the nasty face they made since anything new they try is automatically nasty.
The flavor is not quite coconutty, but like nothing I can describe.
The only thing I can recommend is for you to buy a can of Agua de Coco yourself just after I told you not to.

Computer Maintenance 101

A few days ago our computer was experience some massive problems. It was experience really bad lock-ups. By a bad lock-up I mean the screen just froze. No mouse. Not CTRL-ALT-DEL. No Blue Screen. The clock even stopped. It would happen between 10 seconds and 5 minutes after the computer started.
At first I feared a virus or worm. Then I feared hard drive failure, or bad RAM. (Of course it has to be the hard drive...I haven't backed up for a few months...)
So I started in safe mode to rule out and bad device drivers. The computer didn't crash after an hour on, but the fan was going like crazy. We have one of those temperature sensitive fans that turns on when it starts to get hot.
Wondering whether or not it was hot, I rebooted into BIOS mode, and went to the section that told me the CPU temperature. Almost 70C (160F). I did a quick search on normal CPU temperatures, and I found the normal range was 30 to 50C.
I shut the computer off, and looked at the CPU fan. I could not see the cooling tower for all the dust.
I took the fan off, got out the vacuum, and vacuumed off the eighth inch carpet of dust from the CPU cooling tower (being careful not to touch any components inside the computer)
The computer has been fine ever since.

You try and tell the young people of today...

...and they won't believe you!

7 things

It seems I've been tagged.

So, here goes:
1. I used to live on a street called Garfield Avenue.
2. I happen to really like the Garfield cartoons.
3. We had gerbils, a turtle, fish, a snake, cats, a rabbit, a bullfrog, and an anole for pets when I was growing up. (Not all at once, of course)
4. The rabbit lasted a day because the cats ate it.
5. My pet names are very unoriginal (Boxy, Scales, Jumper and Anole). See if you can guess which animals belong to which names.
6. I vowed to never become a programmer.
7. I'm a programmer.

Now...who to tag next... I don't know 7 people who blog. So, anyone reading this and wants to do this, have at it!

Sticky Situation

If you ever find yourself in a sticky situation...it's probably not as sticky as this guy's.

Sandwich bags

I got video editing software for myself. Here is my lousy first attempt.

Wanna win a new puter?

Have some rusty C++ skills? Have no C++ skills at all?
Great!
Then submit an entry to the OMGWTF programming contest.
Where the goal is to write the bestest worstest code that actually sorta runs.
Winner gets a new puter.

Pancakes

Tonight I made some pancakes.
First, I followed the normal Bisquick recipe:
2 Cups mix
1 cup milk
2 eggs

I made a few of the pancakes normally (read: for the picky kids).
Then I experimented.
I warmed up half of an apple, skinned and chopped into cubes with a bit of brown sugar to taste in the microwave for 30 seconds.
I had prepared a cup of Tazo Chai in advance, because I was thinking on the way home how I was going to doctor the pancakes. I left it steeping in the bag for 5 - 10 minutes to get it good and strong.
I added half a cup of the strong Chai and the warmed apples to the pancake mixture, and cooked in a well oiled griddle to get the edges nice and crispy.

I topped with butter and syrup, and melted away in a sea of Apple-Chai pancake bliss.

Conspiracy? Nah! Never!

When I browse Microsoft's documentation website in IE, my page looks like this.


This is what it looks like in Firefox.


Also, you'll notice the different URLs. When I paste the URL into IE, it redirects me to the correct page. In FF, I get no such redirect. Methinks Microsoft doesn't want people reading their website with THAT browser.
Here's the URL if you want to try it yourself.

Watch out Geordi!

Scientists are working on a visor for the blind that will translate light into brain signals for you.



In other news, scientists have cracked the secret of Photosynthesis. Keep an eye out for green cars...literally. Perhaps in 20 years all we'll have to do is scoop some pond scum into the water tank on top of our cars for fuel.

Android Entertainment

Commander Data, having been newly outfitted with his human emotion chip, now knows exactly how to give maximum entertainment to the audience.






(OK...I'm obsessing over this Vitas guy. He is just so hilarious in his badness, yet obviously thinks he is the koolest kat on the planet. In this clip, he looks amazingly like Brent Spiner A.K.A. Commander Data without the makeup.)

Michael Jackson move over...

This guy sings sort of normally until about a third of the way through...
He would make a wailing banshee proud...

R U A L33T H4X0R?

See how far you get...

http://www.hackerskills.com/

So Artful...So Craftful...

This is the result of the dye marathon that I videoed the other day.








Ain't she talented?

The next Yo Yo?

Dyeing in Style

Here is me harrassing my wife as she tries to dye some fiber. And yes, I got permission (as though I'd need it...)

Snow Fly...Dont' bother me.

Looks like I'm not the only one surprised by the snow storm yesterday...

Russian Karaoke

This is my tribute to Vladimir Vysotsky. Find him on the Wikipedia here.
He was a dissenter during the Soviet era, and his rebellious song lyrics drew a large following.
He died at age 42 from liver disease.