August 25, 2006
Not Just Any Record Store Cats But The Original Record Store Cats
Like most people, we follow the time-wasting Internet site recommendations of people we respect. That’s why, when Thomas Hawk recommended a site devoted to “The Original Record Store Cats,” we clicked away expecting to see something very, very cool. What we found were, um, animated cats wearing headphones in record stores (no false advertising there) that are kind of scary and not all that cool. Still, if you watch them long enough, they strangely grow on you.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 04:24 PM | Comments (0)
August 10, 2006
Cell Phone Shoved Down Throat or Swallowed? You Decide.
Cell phones are dangerous, that we all know. Too many accidents happen when distracted drivers gab away on their devices, and a hard-core group of people still believe cell phones cause brain cancer. Now, however, a new cell phone danger has emerged: someone might shove a phone down your throat or, in the alternative, you might swallow it. It’s a proven fact that one of these two things happened recently.
Courtesy of SmartMobs, a man has been charged with assaulting his girlfriend by…shoving a cell phone down her throat. He, however, claims she swallowed the phone to keep him from seeing the numbers she had called. That’s not even the best part. The girlfriend claims “she couldn’t remember how the phone got in her throat, saying she had too much to drink that night.”
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 12:05 PM | Comments (0)
July 26, 2006
On the Internet, No One Knows You're a Pigeon
Far be it from us to make fun of a good cause, but this is too good to pass up. A University of California assistant professor, Beatriz da Costa, is setting up the Internet’s first blog written by…birds. Pigeons, to be precise. She plans to release 20 pigeons wearing “tiny” backpacks containing pollution-measuring devices into the San Jose skies during the 9-day conference of Inter-Society for the Electronics Arts conference. The pigeon packs will also be equipped with transmitters that will ship the data to the…Pigeon Blog.
But that’s not the best part. This endeavor, aimed at helping develop new ways of measuring air quality, is also, inexplicably, billed as a “cutting-edge art project.” (Tip to SmartMobs).
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 06:51 PM | Comments (0)
July 13, 2006
Stay Jewish...You Invented the iPod
Courtesy of Boing Boing comes this pamphlet from Jews for Jesus that apparently seeks to convert Steve Jobs. (Click on thumbnail for the full view). The bizarre tract draws parallels between Jobs’ humble beginnings and those of Christ. Here’s a passage:
Steve, you might be able to run circles around circuits. But reality is found in Jesus. iKnow and uShould too, since your life story and his have more than a few things in common.
Huh? We’re not sure, but by pointing to Jobs (the pamphlet highlights his amazing success story), this campaign might backfire. It might end up converting more people to Judaism.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 11:58 AM | Comments (0)
June 09, 2006
So, Does This Make Steve Jobs the Messiah?
As loathe as we are to promote anything have to do with The DaVinci Code, this parody of Opus Dei is too good to pass up. It’s particularly funny if you’re a Mac acolyte or close to someone who is. It’s Apple Dei, othewise known as So Dark the Con of Mac. Our favorite bit: a new Cilice that is iPod ready. (Hat tip to Good Morning Silicon Valley).
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 02:43 PM | Comments (0)
April 15, 2006
The $218 Trillion Phone Bill...Next Time Try Skype
Courtesy of Boing Boing, this poor soul in Malaysia who managed to stay upright when he opened a phone bill and discovered that he owed…$218 trillion. It seems that Telekom Malaysia sent Yahaya Wahab a bill for his late father’s now-disconnected phone service and the amount owed was 806,400,000,000,000.01-ringgit (U.S. $218 trillion). The phone company was seeking payment or else Wahab would face a lawsuit. No word yet on whether he paid the bill. Maybe he should look into Skype.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 04:28 PM | Comments (0)
March 29, 2006
Blog for People Who Like to Put Stuff on Their Cats (not making this up)
Niche content is what the Internet is all about…Chris Anderson’s famed “long tail.” But courtesy of Cory Treffilletti, comes an ultra-niche blog replete with long tails. It’s StuffOnMyCat.com. A website for people who like to, well, put stuff on their cats. Really. The introductory blurb begins: “Do you like to put stuff on your cat? So do we..” And there are literally hundreds of items complete with photos related to putting stuff on cats. The site even has this activity broken into categories, i.e. “Food on My Cat,” “Gadgets on My Cat.” Along the same lines, as Cory points out, is, and again we are not making this up, a social networking site for…dogs.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 12:14 PM | Comments (0)
March 14, 2006
Internet Radio for...Cats
OK, so this is technically not from a blog, but it’s too good to ignore. It seems there is a website called CatGalaxyMedia which produces Internet audio and video webcasts for…well, cats. CatGalaxyMedia, which is a service by an Arizona computer tech company called PantherTek, explains it this way: “We are an Internet radio and TV station specifically for cats to listen to and also watch.”
CatGalaxyMedia tells us there will be a live morning show for cats starting on March 20, with guest hosts Isis, Jade and Icarus. This is definitely narrowcasting at its extreme — one show (warning: the MP4 takes forever to download) consists of interviewing the “characters” at a local Renaissance Festival about their cats.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 10:58 AM | Comments (0)
March 07, 2006
Code Will Make You Crazy
The life of a software engineer must be very, very difficult. That’s the only conclusion regarding a bizzare hobby among Silicon Valley engineers that entails meeting in a proverbial garage and clubbing one another with toilet seats, mops, magazines and other strange items. WE ARE NOT MAKING THIS UP. Just see for yourself here. These are real fights too — no mamby-pamby roughousing. One organizer, named Gints Klimantis, defends this activity by claiming that “it’s similar to other sports and activities.” (Hat tip to Valleywag.)
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 11:40 AM | Comments (0)
January 21, 2006
Pee-Powered Cell Phones In Our Future?
We love finding new uses for urine, particularly if this by-product can help the cause of improving communications. So it’s a good thing we came across this item in Cellular News. It seems that physicists in Singapore have developed a battery that can be powered by human urine. Originally developed for health care kits, these batteries use urine as it power source charge. Upon discovering this new invention, the folks at Cellular News said “we naturally couldn’t pass up the opportunity to comment on such a product being used for those ‘emergency’ phone calls when your conventional battery had died.” We say yes, you could have passed up the opportunity to consider these pee-powered batteries for cell phone use.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 11:06 AM | Comments (0)
December 29, 2005
I Know You Wanted an iPod Son, But Here's Some Meat Instead
Santa Claus is a tricky little prankster — witness this poor Hawaiian boy who opened up his sealed Apple iPod box only to discover that the shiny new cool device had been replaced by…meat. Some kind of sealed fish or meat product to be precise. His mother purchased the pricey gift at the WalMart where she works, but the box had purportedly been sealed before reaching the store. It could have been worse. The boy could have received clothes instead. (Tip of the hat to Engadget.)
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 07:37 PM | Comments (0)
December 22, 2005
But What About Those Secret Messages Jon Stewart Hurls At Me?
David Letterman has been warned by a New Mexico judge to stop harassing a viewer by…using code words on the air to communicate his desire to marry her and make her a co-host on the show. Yup, District Judge Daniel Sanchez actually granted a restraining order against Letterman for this outrageous behavior, a restriction requested by Colleen Nestler. Sanchez ordered Letterman to stay at least 3 yards away from Nestler, who also asked the judge to order Letterman to not “think of me, and release me from his mental harassment and hammering.” Letterman’s lawyer says “This constitutes an unfortunate abuse of the judicial process.” Yeah, well he’s not the one being bombarded by code words, is he? (Hat tip to Boing Boing.)
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 08:28 AM | Comments (0)
December 12, 2005
For Those of Us Who Like to Dance Alone in Our Skivvies
OK, the iPod bed we can understand and appreciate, because we’re kind of lazy and anti-social and lying around in bed listening to music only we can hear seems like a really good idea. But iPod underwear? Yup, courtesy of Oh Gizmo, and ultimately The Cult of Mac, comes news of underwear for “gadget-savvy music lovers.” Men’s underpants that have little pockets for iPods…how cute. Or as the product description reads, “this button fly boxer has a discrete front pocket which is perfect for holding your iPod, other mp3 players or your cell phone.” Guess what they’re called? iBoxers.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 07:49 PM | Comments (0)
November 17, 2005
Government Plot Unveiled - Tinfoil Hats Enhance Radio Waves
Courtesty of Groklaw, top researchers at MIT have discovered that contrary to what you might think, aluminum hats don’t block radio waves to the brain. The hats actually enhance the government’s ability to pump propaganda and nefarious directives into your mind. Members of MIT’s Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, along with staff from MIT’s Media Lab, conducted a study with a $250,000 network analyzer and found that although all aluminum helmets attenuate invasive radio frequencies, certain frequencies are in fact greatly amplified.
These amplified frequencies coincide with radio bands reserved for government use according to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). Statistical evidence suggests the use of helmets may in fact enhance the government’s invasive abilities. We speculate that the government may in fact have started the helmet craze for this reason.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 09:37 AM | Comments (0)
October 18, 2005
Baby Named Google...Enough Said
In scrolling through our favorite blogs this morning, one in particular stopped us dead in our tracks. The Official Google Blog has a seemingly proud item explaining how Walid Elias Kai, a Ph.D. in search engine marketing (there is such a degree?) and an avid fan of the company has named his newborn son…Google. Well, at least the poor tot’s middle name is Google. He’s Oliver Google Kai. Even Google isn’t 100% sure of the wisdom of this name. The company hopes that little baby Google’s “schoolmates aren’t too hard on him.” We share the view of Search Engine Watch in hoping that this isn’t the start of a bigger trend of naming children after search engines.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 11:03 AM | Comments (0)
September 09, 2005
Steer Clear of the Internet. It's Grumpy Today
Courtesy of CNET’s Missing Links blog, something called the Informatics Institute at the University of Amsterdam has developed a technique for taking the emotional temperature of…the Internet. The Moodgrapher currently scans the LiveJournal blog and reports on the emotional state of the bloggers. While the researchers behind Moodgrapher say that studying the “mood” of the Internet can predict mass behavior over time, we’re not so sure. Moodgrapher tracked how “distressed” the blog entries were after the London bombings in July (click on thumbnail for chart.) Not surprisingly, the predominately UK-based bloggers experienced a spike in their distress levels following these events. Hello? We could have predicted this without the Moodgrapher.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 09:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 05, 2005
Let's Use the Internet to Wriggle Sperm
Courtesy of Smart Mobs, researchers at the University of California and the University of Queensland, Australia, are using super-fast broadband connections to manipulate….sperm. The scientists are working on micromanipulation using optical tweezers that don’t damage the little swimmers. But, a connection of at least one gigabyte is needed to perform the delicate manipulation.
The sperm experiment has implications for in vitro fertilisation, Heckenberg [Norman Heckenberg, physics professor at the University of Queensland] says. “It helps to cut the tails off the sperm because it makes them easier to handle; they can’t swim away,” he says. “Then it’s a matter of drilling a hole in the side of the ova and you pop the sperm in.”
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)
August 04, 2005
Not Tonight Dear. My Broadband Connection is Acting Up.
Courtesy of Dan Gillmor, a PR pitch that involves the military, sex toys and the Internet. The pitch was lobbed at the Houston Chronicle’s Dwight Silverman, who described it on his TechBlog. Let’s just say it has to do with spouses separated by military duty maintaining their conjugal closeness with streaming video and remote controlled devices. Everyone is being coy about the company involved lest the PR gambit succeed.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 03:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 05, 2005
Um, Wouldn't It Be Easier To Just Take Away Their PCs?
Courtesy of TechDirt, the Beijing Military Region Central Hospital has come up with a brutal method for ridding teens of their Internet “addictions.” One source for this news is an Inquirer piece on the same subject. According to the Inquirer, adolescent web addicts receiving the following cure:
Treatment includes 30-volt charges to pressure points, intravenous potions made from a secret recipe injected to balance brain secretions and sticking needles in various parts of the body.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 04:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 12, 2005
Please, Let's Hope No One Is Good At Decoding European Testicular Displays
David Weinberger sums up his view of the European Reboot conference with a bit of imagery that should never ever be used in a blog. While he lauds the event overall, he concludes with criticism that we would ordinarily resonate to:
Ok, one thing not to like was the meagre presence of female presenters, including zero keynoters. Yet, fwiw, the atmosphere felt less testosteronic than at the typical US geekorama. I heard less techno one-upmanship, saw less swagger. On the other hand, maybe I’m just not as good at decoding European testicular displays.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 11:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
