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Google Christmas Present

136 Comments

I received my first Christmas card this year… and it was from Google. It’s a digital photo frame… pretty cool if you ask me.

Comes with a mini USB cable, power cord, batteries, and an international power adapter. The international power adapter will really come in handy for some other stuff. 🙂

According to the instructions, it’s a 960×240 screen and supports JPG images, MP3, WMA or WAV audio files and AVI movies. It also has a SD card reader for extra memory.

Sports

Chargers vs. Raiders

7 Comments

I went to the game today, and dude… the Chargers looked like dog do-do as far as how they played. Lucky for the Chargers, they only need 1 player to play well (LaDainian Tomlinson). The Chargers scored 3 touchdowns (2 in the 4th quarter), with Tomlinson rushing for 2 and passing for one. I guess if you are going to have an off day, the Raiders is the team you want to do it with.

House Stuff

We Have A Foundation/Slab

14 Comments

The foundation/slab was (finally) poured for the house today, so I figure I’ll post another time lapse video (it ends this afternoon).

Sorry the quality is lame and it’s little, YouTube downsamples the video, not me… To give you an idea of how the “real” video looks, this is the last frame of the video:


Games

Nevada Gaming Device

8 Comments

One of the pictures that almost got us all thrown in jail. We took pictures of our poker table, which is forbidden because it’s a “Nevada gaming device”.


Uhm, how do you like your hand there Shoe’? 🙂

(picture ripped off from Shandy King, so if you want to arrest anyone, it’s him. I know nothing.)

Update

I saw on Shoemoney’s site that he found a video that Brent took (same guy that took the pictures… at least we know who should go to jail for recording/photographing a Nevada gaming device)…

Toys

Open a Tattoo Parlor For $15

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Damn, why didn’t they have these toys when I was a kid?

Open up your very own pretend play tattoo parlor. This easy-to-use tattoo maker kit includes an electronic tattoo pen and funky stencils. Using soft, safe pulsating action, the tattoo pen creates realistic, washable designs with dramatic effects. Requires two AA batteries (not included).

Update

Oops, forgot to post the link…

//www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000HVRNKM/

Sports

And More Importantly, San Diego Wins…

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The San Diego Chargers won by far their most important game of the 2006 (regular) season… And guess what? Their defense has been “crippled” the last 3 weeks and they are about to get back their 3 best defensive players… Shawne Merriman, Shaun Phillips and Luis Castillo. Their offense has been keeping them alive lately, but with their defense back soon, they should really start to dominate.

//sports-att.espn.go.com/nfl/recap?gameId=261119007

House Stuff

Lots Of Conduit

2 Comments

It’s hard to see, since this is just one area, and it’s all buried anyway, but there is lots and lots of conduit under the house (the grey pipes). That way you can run wires or whatever else to different locations in the house as needed in the future (for example maybe you need some super-duper fiber-optic cable to run your holographic TV in 15 years). Just feed the wire to the pipe that goes to the family room TV area, and you are done (no ripping up walls or floors). 🙂

BTW, it looks like we will be (finally) pouring the slab/foundation for the main house on Tuesday.

Jokes

My Citizenship Is For Sale

15 Comments

I know it’s rather unpatriotic to sell my citizenship to any country who gives me the lowest income tax rate, but well… it’s all good. I did a little (very little) research and found places like Russia have a 13% flat income tax rate (no wonder they can’t afford to launch their Soyuz). 🙂

Hopefully if I move my business and servers to another country, if it would be considered US income tax if I didn’t actually *work* while in the US… I could just live here as a permanent tourist. {shrug}

Anyway, if you are a representative of a country, you may place a bid here in comments, but please be advised it’s not a legally binding bid until I receive the notarized version (see below).

To the countries bidding:

  • Please remember that it’s an excellent investment, as I should be able to generate a good income tax revenue stream for you over the course of my lifetime.
  • While I can’t promise anything, I’m pretty smart, so I might do something cool like win a Nobel Peace Prize or perfect cold fusion (which would bring notoriety to your country).
  • Upon request, I can offer a few years of my US income tax records so you can make an educated bid.
  • I don’t really care if I have the right to vote (if it’s allowed in your country).
  • Please don’t bid on my citizenship if you are just looking for soldiers for your army or community service workers. I’m not going to do any sort of government assigned job.
  • All bids must be notarized with an original signature of your respective leader (president, prime minister, supreme overlord, etc.)
  • I will consider inter-planetary citizenship at my sole discretion, but please keep in mind that bids from countries outside of Earth are not legally binding.
House Stuff

Wolf Stove – DF606DG

6 Comments

I picked appliances for the house a few weeks ago, and I ended up with a pretty cool stove (I ended up with the 6 burner, 22″ griddle configuration).

The best part about it is this:

Certified by Star-K to meet religious regulations

Huh? Must be a Jewish/kosher thing I’m thinking… {shrug}

//subzero.com/wolf/description.asp?category=dual%20fuel%20ranges&id=30

This will be great because I should be able to cook up some bad ass Top Ramen with this thing.

Travel

Las Vegas -> San Diego -> Phoenix -> San Diego

6 Comments

That is the route I took to get home from Pubcon in Las Vegas. It was a very odd route by the airline. Got on a plane in Vegas that was a direct flight to San Diego (and supposed to get to San Diego at 1:05 am this morning). Circled around San Diego for about 30 minutes, then we flew (and landed in) Phoenix, Arizona (another state), that way I could catch an 8:30 am flight to San Diego from Phoenix. 🙂 Fun!

(too much fog in San Diego to land)

Update

Just as a FYI, if you turn on your cell phone in-flight, the plane does not drop out of the sky. I turned on my phone so I could text message my ride that we weren’t landing, and to go home, and it didn’t crash the plane (and the text got through fine too).

Update 2

I spliced together the two actual route maps that Brian posted in a comment. A very odd route to get from Las Vegas to Phoenix… “Oh, let’s go check out San Diego before we go to Arizona…” heh

Games, Travel

Anti-Semitic Poker Dealer At Binions

1 Comment

Played some poker tonight (this morning?), and we had George, a closet anti-semitic poker dealer for his 30 minute shift. George really liked us (especially Dax)… or not… it was hard to read his true feelings about us. 🙂

Hopefully someone will post the illegal pictures we took of a “Nevada gaming device”.

Update

I almost forgot one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen while playing poker… (comedy supplied by Dave).

Dave: {whispering to me} Does a 4 of a kind beat a flush?
Me: Yes.
Dave: {turning back to table} Okay, I’m all in.

Update 2

Man, it’s all starting to come back to me… (more comedy supplied by Jen). Cell phone text messages (none left out)…

Jen: (10:19 pm) Where u
Me: on way to binions
Jen: (12:24 am) Where u
Me: at binions
Jen: (1:51 am) Where u
Me: at binions, in poker room

Travel

Hugh Hefner Suite

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Yahoo Publisher Network hosted the best party at Pubcon (at least of the ones I went to). They threw it in the Hugh Hefner Sky Villa at the Palms (it’s a 9,000 square foot, $40,000/night “room”) on Wednesday night.

Microsoft threw a party in the Kingpin Suite Thursday night, but I decided that going to see Borat and playing poker afterwards would be more fun than hanging out with Microsoft people (I’m sure they are nice people and all, I just don’t perceive Microsoft people as a barrel of monkey fun). 🙂

Law, Weird Stuff

Worlds Hardest Head

4 Comments

This woman was shot 6 times in the head… the bullets were lodged under her scalp, but none of them penetrated her skull.

Pereira was shot Friday in the small city of Monte Claros, about 900 kilometers (560 miles) north of Sao Paulo, after quarreling with her former husband, who was reportedly upset because she refused to get back together with him. She was also shot once in the hand.

Doctors could not explain why the .32-caliber bullets did not penetrate Pereira’s skull and didn’t even need to be extracted immediately.

//www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/11/11/shot.in.head.ap/

Weird Stuff

Terrorist No Fly List

5 Comments

I know this is about a month old (I read it back then, bur forgot about it until I just ran across it again).

I wonder who the genius was that put 14 of the 19 9/11 terrorists on the national “no fly list”. Did they somehow think they survived the plane crash into the World Trade Center and were going to try to get on a commercial plane again? 🙂

Saddam Hussein is on the no fly list. What intelligence do we have to support that he’s a terrorist? I wouldn’t personally want to be on the same plane as him, but it more has to do with him just being crazy. But even then… when he went up to the ticket agent to get his ticket and showed his Iraqi passport with the name “Saddam Hussein”, wouldn’t that in itself throw a red flag? “Hold on sir, let me check the no fly list… nope, you aren’t on it. Go ahead.”

Evo Morales (the president of Bolivia) is also on the list. Was it the same CIA agent who put dead terrorists on the list that also thought the president of Bolivia was going to hijack a plane? 🙂

//www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/05/60minutes/main2066624.shtml

Science

Concrete That Cleans Air

5 Comments

Hmmm… concrete that eats pollution. That’s pretty slick if you ask me.

The results so far are astonishing: A street in the town of Segrate, near Milan, with an average traffic of 1,000 cars per hour, has been repaved with the compound, “and we have measured a reduction in nitric oxides of around 60%,” says Italcementi’s spokesperson Alberto Ghisalberti. In a test over an 8,000 square meter (or approximately 2 acres) industrial area paved with active blocks near Bergamo, Italcementi’s hometown, the reduction was measured at 45%.

In large cities such as Milan, with persistent pollution problems caused by car emissions, smoke from heating systems, and industrial activities, both the company and outside experts estimate that covering 15% of all visible urban surfaces (painting the walls, repaving the roads) with products containing TX Active could abate pollution by up to 50%, depending on the specific atmospheric conditions.

//www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/nov2006/id20061108_116412.htm

Weird Stuff

Vampire Bite

14 Comments

I woke up this morning and noticed that the middle finger on my right hand had been bitten by a vampire while I sleep, so in my boredom, I decided to take a picture for your viewing enjoyment.

The picture doesn’t really do it any justice. I did however learn that it’s extremely difficult to take a picture of your finger. Thankfully Alison told me how to put my camera in macro mode to do it (I always wondered what the little flower icon on my camera was for).

Okay, okay… it was from me trying to open a beer bottle with my bare hands last night at poker. 🙂
Law, Weird Stuff

Burger King Now Serves Weed Burgers

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Two police officers sued Burger King Corp., claiming they were served hamburgers that had been sprinkled with marijuana.

The lawsuit says Mark Landavazo and Henry Gabaldon, officers for the Isleta Pueblo tribal police, were in uniform and riding in a marked patrol car when they bought meals at the drive-through lane October 8 of a Burger King restaurant in Los Lunas, New Mexico.

//www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/11/07/pot.burgers.ap/

Law, Weird Stuff

Naked Man Arrested For Concealed Weapon

2 Comments

Uhm, what goes through people’s minds sometimes??? hahahahaha

A man was arrested on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon after police found him outdoors — naked — and he told them he had a tool in his rectum, authorities said.

The man was lying on a tree stump, masturbating beside a nature path, near a Bay Area Rapid Transit station Thursday, police said.

John Sheehan, 33, of Pittsburg, was initially arrested on suspicion of indecent exposure. But when asked whether he was carrying anything police should know about, Sheehan mentioned the tool, said El Cerrito Detective Cpl. Don Horgan.

“You can’t get much more concealed than that,” Horgan said.

Officers drew their weapons and firefighters were called to the scene. Sheehan removed a 6-inch metal awl wrapped in black electrical tape without incident.

//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061104/ap_on_fe_st/armed_and_naked_6

Tech Stuff

Can A Laptop Be TOO Nice?

5 Comments

So I finally broke down and got a new laptop (mine old one was like 6 years old). The one I opted for was the faster 15″ MacBook Pro (2.33Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, 256MB video RAM, etc.)

All in all, a pretty sweet machine (and I can run things like SuSE Linux [or any other x86 operating system] on it at the same time as I run OS X [without emulation]), but here’s the problem… I turned it on, created the admin account and now I find myself using my old laptop instead of the new one because the new one is just *too* nice. Like I don’t want to get any fingerprints on it or something (I don’t know why exactly). haha

Hopefully it will pass soon… otherwise I have an expensive piece of art that no one is allowed to touch. 🙂

MPAA

Oh Wait… We Don’t Own The Copyright

27 Comments

This is something I’ve known about for a few months (obviously), but now that I ran across the information on other sites, I don’t see any issue with posting about it now…

Universal City Studios Productions (the entity suing me [more or less] on behalf of the MPAA) doesn’t actually have a legal right to sue because they didn’t own the copyright. {lol}

You can read the motion to dismiss over here if you are bored.

It is of course a technicality, and assuming the whole case is indeed thrown out, I’m sure once they get their heads screwed on straight they will probably start the whole process again with the correct entity (you know, one that actually owns a valid copyright). 🙂

Regardless if they do (or don’t) want to come after me again (again, assuming it is thrown out), it opens up a whole new can of worms. For the hundreds of people that “settled” for $2,500, are those settlements even legal/valid? If they turn out to be invalid, what can I do to help everyone get their settlement money back from Universal/MPAA? They’re legal right to make settlements with people would be along the same lines as me settling with you for downloading Star Wars. I’m thinking if people were paying me because I told them I owned the copyright to Star Wars (but I didn’t really) may be illegal in itself.

Request

I never received a copy of the proposed settlement agreement (I didn’t request one since it wasn’t an option in my mind), but if anyone happens to have one or know anyone who has a settlement agreement for allegedly downloading Meet The Fockers, could you leave a comment here on this post (I’ll contact you to coordinate getting a copy). That way my lawyers can go over it and see if it’s legally binding if Universal City Studios Productions never owned the copyright to begin with.

I saw it on Tech Dirt, but I knew about it first (I swear!).. hah

//techdirt.com/articles/20061031/192204.shtml