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some interesting surfing for you today. though not very exciting. I was listening to my music this morning with my awesome sony headphones when i noticed some earwax. eww. well, i was curious, so here’s some random, probably useless info on earwax via wikipedia.

also via wikipedia, by way of my brother. Fernet-Branca, a liqueur we had last night that tasted like someone mixed whiskey and gin together. I enjoyed, he enjoyed it, and come to find out, its base is a grape, with a lot of herbs and spices (not unlike gin). So good, i think i’ll be getting a bottle in the not-to-distant future.

i have been toying with idea of getting rid of this blog as a link sharing method. my commentaries, while enlightening and witty (i’m sure), can be time consuming and tedious. plus in my social web surfing way of life, i’ve come to be the generator of several social feeds (del.icio.us, etherealnation.net, flickr, digg, google reader, and several others). a while back i found tumblr, made an account, didn’t figure out what it could be useful for, and just gave up. well, in my quest to minimize my data output (more accurately, simplify) i went back to tumblr, and added in a ton of my data feeds. here is what has happened: my tumblr. sorry to say it doesn’t look like it backfills anything, so there isn’t anything posted there. but don’t worry, it will soon be waaaay too full of stuff for most normal people. so eat your hearts out (on glaring lack of privacy). similar, quicker, but not quite as nice is soup.io.

i do a lot of work with people who work with a lot of other people. do you know what this means for me? MAJOR SCHEDULING ISSUES. so i found timebridge. i’ve recommended it to the people in my life who swear that it would take a full day just trying to schedule 30 minutes with 5 busy people. and the good news is they’ve actually started using it, and so far, it’s really nice. simplified, it’s almost like a business version of evite. but, it allows for alternative date suggestions and it can put the agreed upon meeting time into your google, msoffice, or ical calendars.

and finally for a bit of science, check out nasa’s page for a neat article about a sun spot taking on the shape of the trilobite. also, here’s the video. it’s pretty intense. i mean for one thing, you’re watching the magnetic waves emanating from the surface of the sun. and for another thing, according to the article you’re actually seeing into the sun.

Here’s a great list of web2.0 web applications that let you do day to day computing from anywhere. so far, i stick with google docs and keep it simple. other webapps that i enjoy regularly are moneytrackin’ and instacalc.

Great page of information on all the thought that should go into acquiring a credit card from the federal reserve. a must read for financial hopeful’s like me.

in hong kong a gym is beginning to add electric generators to the treadmill equipment to create the electricity for the building. this isn’t a new idea i’m sure, but this is the first i’ve read of anyone actually doing it.

a man in georgia kills a bear by throwing a log at it while protecting his son. he gets a ticket for not securing his campsite. sweet irony.

is apple really going to be able to deliver on the battery life of the upcoming (THIS WEEK) iphone? slate delves into how they may have made this happen.

youtube is seemingly becoming a more legitimate media outlet, signing on a reality tv show for ad revenue sharing.

pretty interesting article (from the sound of it. i haven’t read it entirely yet, but i’m about to) on class differences becoming a factor in which social engine you use (facebook vs. myspace). i use virb for my band, and myspace for exposure, facebook for friends, and linkedin for business. i’m connected baby.

welcome to another edition. this will be a mixed bag, but i’ll sort by source.

From some publication on the Left Coast in LA, word is out that Mr. Wizard died yesterday. I hate admitting this, but for some reason when I watched this on NICK as a kid, I always thought Mr. Wizard was Patrick Stewart. TRAVESTY OF TRAVESTIES.

Next up, from the pages of make!

Surreal Wallpaper! Queue jokes about eating shrooms without all the hassle. But I’m intrigued. Maybe I’ll find a great little room of my own just for putting up this paper.

In early alpha, Wii Media Center X. I’m pretty excited to toy around with this one so I can stop using my XBOX for media. But that’s Bias, since the XBOX hates on my network at home.

A spanish blog noticed a small picture “hidden” on the Windows Vista Business CD. Conspiracy? I think so. God I despise M$, not that this really has anything to do with them. I just thought I’d let you know.

And now from the top lists of Reddit

Straight dope’s response to: Can you open the hatch of a commercial airliner in midflight? BUT WHAT ABOUT IN THE MOVIES?

I would include a more in depth explanation of my beliefs, but I don’t think that this blog is the correct venue for this. Suffice to say that I completely disagree with the idea of “God Said Pi=3” and another article on the same topic, sited by the other. Why don’t you site the Missler/Numerology explanation of the original Hebrew manuscripts that was given in the comments section? And finally in answer to Mr. Dutch’s Question: Your humility. In your presentation of pi, you pridefully assume that you know more than God. This hubris causes you to assume that your interpretation of the Word of God is absolute and final. And with that I will always disagree.

And back to our regular programming. I hope google really isn’t evil. Now that they are moving into universities their market will expand a great deal, as will their access to more information. While I applaud the business of their movements, I am still concerned.

Ninja? In Italy? Who is Russian? Oh the cultural hilarity that ensues.

And now, my new RSS subscription filed under fun: The Fake Steve Jobs Blog!

Afternoon Edition!

An interesting article on arstechnica through digg about Verizon disclosing records to the NSA, claiming the first amendment in defense of a lawsuit. I haven’t had time to check the facts on this one too deeply, but there is a great comment on the digg page and a link to an interesting write up on the rights of corporations.

A top 25 list from usatoday about public meltdowns. Who knew famous people were this crazy? Oh wait, we all do.

I was thrown a little curveball by this article, but thought I would comment on it briefly. More and more I’m becoming a huge fan of Ron Paul, so when I saw this article I was very interested to see how it would turn out. I ended with slightly mixed feelings. I started reading expecting more information about Paul and ended up getting a lot of rhetoric about the “new media.” Don’t get me wrong, the “old media” makes me absolutely sick. I’m just not a big fan of rhetoric. So now I’m looking for a transcript of the debates because it’s looking like Ron Paul might be my man for the big “P”. More info on my findings later

And finally, some good news from Cisco. I don’t typically follow stocks as much as I probably should, but Cisco interests me because the recently acquired webEx, and I’m a regular user of that software.

Just a couple little tidbits in the morning rush of things.

Found a neat little piece of software that tracks the programs you use on your computer similar to the way last.fm tracks the music you play on your media player. It’s called Wakoopa, and you have to download a little program on your computer for it to work. The signup is really easy and the weberface is really clean and seems easy to use. I haven’t actually gotten to stretch it’s legs though because I believe work is blocking me from being able to connect the program to their servers. I’ll bring more news on that when I get it to my lappy at home.

I’ve been listening to Further Seems Forever a lot recently. This is an album that I got from someone at work without thinking too much about it. I’ve always heard a lot about them because of their relationship to Dashboard Confessional, but never really got into them. Well, like I said I was listening to their album, How to Start a Fire, and I just got really into it. So I checked it out on wikipedia, and they broke up last year. Bummer.

An instructable on a sphere speaker array. I’m adding this to my growing list of diy summer projects. I didn’t check out the research on this, rather, i’m intrigued by this project simply because of my girlfriend’s paper lamp room. A spherical speaker would go really well in there.

I forget where I stumbled on this, but here it is: a nautical map of internet communities. This reminds me of the software war map, but I forget where I saw that. Oh well, moving on.

Next up are a series of make goodies I found particularly interesting for various reasons. The first two are guitar hero hacks! I’ve always wanted to turn my old fender into a guitar hero controller. Chalk one more up to the diy project list. The second looks like a piece of software that turns your guitar hero controller into a sampler. I’ll have to combine that with some kind of midi hack for my reason/ableton setup.

The last make tidbit is a write up about the new WORLD OF WARCRAFT REWARDS VISA CARD. Oh holy crap. I’d get this but I don’t play anymore. Maybe if they came out with an LOTR card, and I actually got LOTR, and played LOTR. But I’m too busy playing Gears of War and Saints Row right now.

Stumbled onto this cool site that documents speed traps (apparently truckers call highway cops “bears”), new little factoid for me. Unfortunately I didn’t find it too useful for the Philly area mostly because if there is a trap listed they try and get you to buy some book or something first. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll just file this under “one of those great ideas that is ruined by commercialism.” But see for yourself.

Really neat artist site. Of particular interest were the dress tents. A visually fun stop on in the vast infinity of the internet.

Lifehacker recently posted a handful of really helpful articles on posture and ergonomics in the cube. Also there’s a neat little timer program that reminds you to do various stretches at set intervals. I’ll be trying that out soon, getting my tweezercize on.

And I’ve got a bit of a triple play with lifehacker and desk oriented goodness today, so I’ll submit to you this article on desk organization. Not that I need it. I’m desk OCD.

I’ve been following some really neat articles on one of my “geeky” subscriptions (probably lifehacker again, but i can’t tell) about eliminating wallet size, and came across a great carabeaner (sp?) wallet. As soon as I find out about the local legality of ID hole punching, I’m on my way!

Totally insane! Change the channels and the volume while having a pillowfight! KIYA!

I haven’t tested this yet, but there’s a neat-looking Real-Costs firefox plugin that purports to show carbon offsets when setting up flights online. It seems they also have a google maps driving version in the works as well. Note: I’m not totally convinced about the whole carbon offset stuff, I’m just interested in alternative resources.

Big news in the drugs and miscellaneous abusables department – Absinthe will be available soon in the US. For those of you wondering, it is illegal to sell and import absinthe, but not really illegal to consume it. At one time or another I have considered having some smuggled/air mailed to me, but without much fruit to the idea.

Dell announced this morning that it will begin selling pcs installed with ubuntu. Based on my experience, I just hope it works with the video card and two monitors.

In what I think is a bold and brilliant move, the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo, has banned almost all forms of outdoor advertising. I’m in the camp that says “ads destroy and clutter the external environment and confuse the mental environment.” The business camp of things will have to wait and see about how devastating this move is for their economy. Will they be creative enough to work around it? I doubt it, but I’m hopeful.

My last post on MS was way off, so hopefully I’ll get this one right. Dell has started offering computers that have XP on them (as well as models with Vista). They did this based on the response of people at their IdeaStorm site. MS is again fumbling through the PR saying

Microsoft countered that Dell’s move was in response to a ‘small minority of customers’ with a ‘specific request.’

Insane google maps find of what seems to be Tibetan carved into an iced over lake. I found this on reddit. Some of the comments on this are interesting, some are funny, some are senselessly stupid. I guess that’s par for course.

Comic depicting the “reality” of war in terms of the close-to-home deaths at VT. Guess what? WE’RE AT WAR. THAT’S WHAT YOU DO IN WAR, YOU KILL PEOPLE. YOU DON’T KILL PEOPLE IN AN [INSERT COURSE HERE] CLASS. Brazen yes, but I think it’s an observation I’ve made that I think might be worth mentioning.

And we’re back after a grueling weekend.

Interesting, common sense blog article on Free and Open Sourced Software (FOSS). While this article is probably a little oversimplified, I’m always interested in the benefits/drawback of free software that you can reprogram yourself (if you’ve got the programming resources).

A new virus was discovered in Australia after three patients received transplants and subsequently died. Their organs were from the same donor. Somewhat gruesome, but the doctors seem upbeat simply on the fact that they were able to detect and will be able to test it further.

Mac’s are hack-proof… sort of. I didn’t see any specifics on the rules that were laxed to make this possible. I find it interesting that he spent 9 hours programming the site to exploit the security hole. Intense.

I’m not totally versed in N. Korean culture. But this UK Times article about a man not selling them anymore giant rabbits for consumption is just cool. (That they are using rabbits as food, not that he’s not selling to N. Korea anymore). Because rabbits reproduce so quickly, this seems like a great way to relieve some food shortage issues.

The Twinky vs. the Carrot? A great article on obesity, caloric pricing, the Farm Bill and politics. Via Megnut.

Some phenomenal hand-made electronica instruments. I really need to try my hand at some of this. Sigh. Via Made.

A free and open sourced bass synth modeled after the Roland TB-303. (NOT A CLONE, mind you). Another musical project endeavor. Sigh, sigh.

Article from BBC on sleep and how much you should be getting. 8 hours isn’t really standard, the article says about 7.25 is OK. I think I need like 9, because I’m always tired at work. There’s just not enough time in the day for sleep.

The leader, Boris Yeltsin, is dead. His career seems to be marked with varying highs and lows. He seemingly ushered both democracy and economic decline into Russia.

Japanese like the wii so much they’re making cell phones with motion-based games. I just wish that instead of having their own games, they could connect to the wii and be used to some capacity. A NINE+ BUTTON CONTROLLER WITH MOTION! overkill? nahhh

And I fall prey to laziness. I’ve always said “Laziness is an Expensive Habit”. Thanks coder journal. Nothing like a swift kick in the rear