Computers & Technology
Geocaching--A Potential New Hobby For Me?
Submitted by k9hi on Sat, 03/13/2010 - 11:39
While reviewing some pricey iPhone apps today, I came across one involving called iPhone Geocaching from Groundspeak. I was somewhat familiar with the hobby of Geocaching before now, but had never really paid it any serious attention for the simple fact that I don't own a GPS unit. At least, I thought I didn't. It turns out, the new iPhone 3GS I purchased last month gives me full GPS capability. Coupled with this new app, it would appear that I can get out there and play the game with everyone!
From Wikipedia:
"The first documented placement of a GPS-located cache took place on May 3, 2000, by Dave Ulmer of Beavercreek, Oregon. The location was posted on the Usenet newsgroup sci.geo.satellite-nav as 45°17.460′N 122°24.800′W / 45.291°N 122.4133°W. By May 6, 2000, it had been found twice and logged once (by Mike Teague of Vancouver, Washington). According to Dave Ulmer's message, the original stash was a black plastic bucket buried most of the way in the ground and contained software, videos, books, food, money, and a slingshot."
The main web site for this past time (is it a hobby or a sport?) is www.geocaching.org. According to this web site, there are, at present "1,004,652 active caches and an estimated 3-4 million geocachers worldwide." Now, that's an impressive amount of activity for a past time that began only ten years ago.
Controversial Church's Next Picketing Project: Twitter HQ
Submitted by ptemples on Thu, 01/28/2010 - 12:29
Reverend Fred Phelps’s Westboro Baptist Church plans to picket Twitter’s San Francisco offices tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. PST. The Kansas-based church is picketing because it believes that “the people who run Twitter … don’t use their position & voice to warn a generation of rebels of the consequences of their rebellion.”
See original: 
Controversial Church's Next Picketing Project: Twitter HQ
Photo du Jour: Merry USB Christmas!
Submitted by ptemples on Thu, 01/07/2010 - 15:42
December 4, 2009: Ariel gave me this cute little USB-powered Christmas tree made out of fibre optics. It's sitting atop my iMac at work. The tree changes colors--turquoise; purple; pink; white; red; green; blue--every few seconds. It's something to watch when I get extremely bored.
Icon From The Past
Submitted by ptemples on Sat, 01/02/2010 - 11:17
I watched the movie Autumn the night before last. It was quite entertaining; it highlighted the rise and fall of a fictional Dot Com company called Landshark founded by two brothers--one, a computer techie-genius; the other, a sliver-tongued snake-oil businessman/CEO.
There's one scene from the movie that I especially liked--the business brother arrives at the startup company's offices to find every staff member huddled in the conference room around a laptop. When he enters, they try and hide what they've been looking at. It's the web site, FuckedCompany.com. FC's tagline was, "the official lubricant of the new economy." Anyway, in the movie, Landshark had made it onto FC; it reportedly had only a few weeks of operating capital left. As in the real world of the early 21st century, the report of the fictional company's demise in the movie plot is uncanningly accurate. Reports were more often supplied by insiders who had intimate knowledge of a company's upcoming F-d status.
When I tried calling up this iconic site this morning, I was greeted with a rather humorous statement from FC: "Fuckedcompany is... sorta fucked." Seems the FC is kaput. Sigh. It, along with the other iconic symbol from the movie--Omni Magazine--have been relagated to the /dev/null of history. I did find all the old archives of FC on archive.org. In fact, it appears that FC remained in business up until about August 11, 2008 until it, too became, well, F*cked.
2010 prediction:"Google finally flips the switch and creates Skynet." -Nilay Patel, Engadget
Submitted by ptemples on Sat, 01/02/2010 - 10:39
ptemples: 2010 prediction: "Google finally flips the switch and creates Skynet." -Nilay Patel, Engadget
See original: 
2010 prediction:"Google finally flips the switch and creates Skynet." -Nilay Patel, Engadget
True headlines ripped from the tabloids: "Terrorist plot to blow up internet on 1/11." I'm glad I took out internet insurance...
Submitted by ptemples on Fri, 11/27/2009 - 12:30
ptemples: True headlines ripped from the tabloids: "Terrorist plot to blow up internet 1/11." I'm glad I took out internet insurance last month.
TV ad: "You could be Microsoft-certified and make REAL money!" Sounds great--I'm tired of this monopoly $ I make as a UNIX...
Submitted by ptemples on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 20:08
ptemples: TV ad: "You could be Microsoft-certified and make REAL money!" Sounds great--I'm tired of this monopoly $ I make as a UNIX sysadmin.
See original: TV ad: "You could be Microsoft-certified and make REAL money!" Sounds great--I'm tired of this monopoly $ I make as a UNIX...
"1 billion=7." Huh? Why in the world would I want to install an OS created by a billion people?
Submitted by ptemples on Tue, 11/03/2009 - 19:53
ptemples: "1 billion=7." Huh? Why in the world would I want to install an OS created by a billion people?
See original: "1 billion=7." Huh? Why in the world would I want to install an OS created by a billion people?
Would-be Onion headline: "T-mobile Sidekick customers automatically enrolled in free data deletion service."
Submitted by ptemples on Sun, 10/11/2009 - 14:09
ptemples: Would-be Onion headline: "T-mobile Sidekick customers automatically enrolled in free data deletion service."
See original: Would-be Onion headline: "T-mobile Sidekick customers automatically enrolled in free data deletion service."
