867 - Geek stuff

You think yesterday put you to sleep, wait until today. WAIT, it is today. Sooooo, don't wait. You're here. Lucky you. Let's talk about computer operating systems! Wow, that woke you up didn't it. Well here's something that will probably keep you awake in the future. Windows 7. You're going to upgrade from your present operating system, right? Microsoft will help you do it. NOT!

UPGRADE (no) HELP


So here's something a little less depressing. Here's PC Magazines top 100 sites for 2009.

TOP 100

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866 - Sleeeeep

Remember sitting in class while the professor talked on in a monotone voice? No? Well here, let me remind you. This theme is 'Why Societies Collapse'. Take notes and let me know what to watch out for. It's from TED (see link on the sidebar). (warning - 20 minute clip)(blogger warning - Amanda may be moving in with you after watching this (if she can manage to download this whole thing)) (John, if they make you watch this during your test, you're toast)




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865 - Bright Idea

Unintended consequences. That's what you get with fluoresent light bulbs. Here's an article from the Washington Times (thus the conservative angle) about the bulbs and the problems they can cause.

BULBS

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864 - Cartoon Tuesday

Does everyone know Bilbo is leaving today?


Everything is a government conspiracy, right? Well maybe yes maybe no. Probably no. Because the government couldn't put together a conspiracy if it was ordered to and not mess it up. Dilbert proves it in the next cartoon.


And then here's what Amanda has to look forward too (12 years?).


And then here's what Amanda has to look forward too. (did I say that already?)(don't get morning sickness from reading this!)



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863 - Prayer (sort of)

My daughter had a birthday party over the weekend. She got several interesting cards but this was by far the best. John now needs to modify a regular prayer to an updated one.





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862 - Free healthcare

This is the start of the US universal healthcare system.




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861 - em eye es es eye es es eye peepee eye

On a bus, two men with really heavy accents start a conversation. The lady next to them can't help but overhear.

One of the men says, "Emma come first. Den I come. Den two esses acoma together. I come once-a-more. Two esses, they comma together again. I come again and pee twice. Then I come one lasta time."

The lady jumps out of her seat and exclaims, "You dirty mouth pigs! In this country we don't talk about our dirty sex lives in public!"

"Hey, whats sa matter with you?" says the man. "I'm a justa tellin' my friend how ta spell 'Mississippi.'"

860 - California

Haven't heard from Fiona in a while. Maybe this will get a rise out of her.

*************************

Do you know what happened 159 years ago this fall ... back in 1850 on September 9th?



California became a state,
the people had no electricity,
the state had no money,
almost everyone spoke Spanish,
and there were gunfights in the streets.


So basically, nothing has changed except the women had real boobs.

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859 - How old is too young?

I won't type too much here because this is a long article and there's links to look at. But first take a guess at how old your kid has to be before they can go hunting by themselves. Well in the US it depends on what state you're in. In Missouri it's 11.

HUNTING KIDS

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858 - Best quote of 2008

My friend Frank sent me this email rant.

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POLK COUNTY FLORIDA SHERIFF GRADY JUDD ---

An illegal alien in Polk County Florida who got pulled over in a routine
traffic stop ended up 'executing' the deputy who stopped him..
The deputy was shot eight times, including once behind his right ear at
close range. Another deputy was wounded and a police dog killed.
A state wide manhunt ensued.

The murderer was found hiding in a wooded area with his gun.
After he shot at them, SWAT team officers open fired and hit the guy 68 times.

Now here's the kicker:

Naturally, the liberal media went nuts and asked why they shot the
poor undocumented immigrant 68 times.

Sheriff Grady Judd told the Orlando Sentinel:
Talk about an all-time classic answer.
'Because that's all the ammunition we had.'

***************************

So I say to myself, "Is this another email falsehood floating around the internet?"

Check it out on SNOPES.

Turns out they're not very good shots down in Florida. 62% is failing in my book. Unless we're grading on the curve.

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857 - Recycle

I was looking for something else in my previous posts when I found this. I decided to recycle and repost.

**********************

All the organs of the body were having a meeting, trying to decide who should be in charge.
"I should be in charge," said the brain, "because I run all the body's systems, so without me nothing would happen."
"I should be in charge," said the blood, "because I circulate oxygen all over so without me you'd all waste away."
"I should be in charge," said the stomach, "because I process food and give all of you energy."
"I should be in charge," said the legs, "because I carry the body wherever it needs to go."
"I should be in charge," said the eyes, "because I allow the body to see where it goes
"I should be in charge," said the rectum, "because I'm responsible for waste removal."
All the other body parts laughed at the rectum and insulted him, so in a huff, he shut down tight.
Within a few days, the brain had a terrible headache, the stomach was bloated, the legs got wobbly, the eyes got watery, and the blood was toxic. They all decided that the rectum should be the boss.
The Moral of the story?
The asshole is usually in charge.

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856 - Shocking

Looking through 'Today's Big Thing's' site I found this one. Watch the paper clips dance around as the Japanese bullet train starts and stops. Then think about people with pacemakers. I wonder if there's a notice on the door like there is next to a microwave oven. It would read something like this, 'Warning, keep pacemakers as far away from floor as possible'.



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855 - Toilet humor

Literally, toilet humor.



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854 - Hot air ballon copter

Another old joke recirculating. Bandit sent this to me as a political joke. I've tricked him and found the original (from what I remember). Like I said it's an old joke.

And I also found a newer joke to go along with yesterdays microsoft joke.

********************

A man in a hot air balloon realised he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a man below. He descended a bit more and shouted, “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.”

The man below replied, “You’re in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You’re between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.”

“You must be an engineer,” said the balloonist.

“I am,” replied the man, “How did you know?”

“Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you told me is technically correct, but I’ve no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help at all. If anything, you’ve delayed my trip.”

The man below responded, “You must be in Management.”

“I am,” replied the balloonist, “but how did you know?”

“Well,” said the man, “you don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you’ve no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my fault.”

******************

A helicopter was flying around above Seattle when an electrical malfunction disabled all of the aircraft's electronic navigation and communications equipment.

Due to the clouds and haze, the pilot could not determine the helicopter's position. The pilot saw a tall building, flew toward it, circled, and held up a handwritten sign that said "WHERE AM I?" in large letters. People in the tall building quickly responded to the aircraft, drew a large sign, and held it in a building window. Their sign said "YOU ARE IN A HELICOPTER."

The pilot smiled, waved, looked at his map, determined the course to steer to SEATAC airport, and landed safely. After they were on the ground, the copilot asked the pilot how he had done it.

"I knew it had to be the Microsoft Building, because they gave me a technically correct but completely useless answer."

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853 - Puter stuff

I know I've seen this email joke before. I would have sworn I posted it. But a search of this blog has turned up .... nothing! So this will probably come back to you as it did to me as you read it. And you'll swear you posted it.

************************

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated,

'If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.'


In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:

If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics.

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.

6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single 'This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation' warning light.

7. The airbag system would ask 'Are you sure?' before deploying.

8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

10. You'd have to press the 'Start' button to turn the engine off.

******************

Did you find the two words I was searching for yesterday?

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852 - Misc

Some miscellaneous stuff today. Bandit sent me a couple a emails. One of them was 26 true false statements that were all supposedly true. I checked out some of them (he let's me do that) and they weren't. So much for that post.

Here's some phrases I found on other blogs recently. (with new words)

- click to embiggen
- Nice to meet you... or intermeet you..


And then there was one Bandit sent me that I'll probably use tomorrow. The strange thing is I swore that I've seen and used it before. So I did a word search on my blog. I put the word 'powered' in the search box. No hits. What? A simple word like powered? Nope, not one hit.

OK how about the word 'freeway'? Nope, no hits here either. Seems I've never used these words in over two years of blogging. Of course now I'll get one hit on each word. After tomorrow two hits.


And how about this for trivia. I checked my favorites folder in explorer. Over the years I have gathered 1406 favorites. My guess is there's some duplicates in there. And I probably haven't check most of them since I saved them to begin with. But I've got them if I need them.

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851 - Sticking with it

As long as we're on a word theme here, let's keep it going. As a matter of fact, why don't we make up some new words?! What would that make you? A word maker? Nope, a neologist. Is that a good thing? Maybe, maybe not. Here's the dictionary definition of neologism.

------------
1. a new word, meaning, usage, or phrase.
2. the introduction or use of new words or new senses of existing words.
3. a new doctrine, esp. a new interpretation of sacred writings.
4. Psychiatry. a new word, often consisting of a combination of other words, that is understood only by the speaker: occurring most often in the speech of schizophrenics.
------------

Uuuuuuh, what was that number 4 definition? Let's expand on number 4 a little more by going to wikipedia.

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In psychiatry, the term neologism is used to describe the use of words that only have meaning to the person who uses them, independent of their common meaning. This is considered normal in children, but a symptom of thought disorder (indicative of a psychotic mental illness, such as schizophrenia) in adults.

People with autism also may create neologisms.

Use of neologisms may also be related to aphasia acquired after brain damage resulting from a stroke or head injury.

In theology, a neologism is a relatively new doctrine (for example, rationalism). In this sense, a neologist is an innovator in the area of a doctrine or belief system, and is often considered heretical or subversive by the mainstream clergy or religious institution(s).
-------------

So think about that when you people make up new words for word verification letters. I'm sure glad "I" don't do that.

Lots more info.

And then if you haven't had enough words UNCLE JAY has a good word this week.

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850 - "What?"

This is a Bilbo blog. He may already know about this but in case he doesn't I'm going to get a post out of it. Besides, sending people off to other sites is more fun than all that damn typing. Bilbo, "have" you seen "this site"?

The "blog" of "unnecessary" quotes

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849 - Health care

Having just gotten hurt a little made a PBS show I saw last night a little more meaningful. It's about the health care coorporate scum that run the companies that you THINK you have health care through, but don't try and use it or they'll dump you so fast your head will spin. It's a long on one (51 min), so make sure you have time to watch Bill Moyers interview a former health care VP.

VIDEO


(today's friday the 13th, so be aware)

848 - Habitat pictures

Here's the gable wall in the morning. It had already been set in place and was braced. I circled the brace where it was attached at the top and where it went through the doorway.


Here's me working on the first truss behind the west end of the gable wall. The guy that really got hurt was right behind me on a ladder. When the wall went over I was standing in about the same spot with my back to the wall.

The sky and the wall are kind of hard to tell apart. It's easier to tell on the next picture.


Here's the guys working on the east end of the truss.


I found out through some emails yesterday that the west end of the wall didn't come off the house. That could explain why I didn't get hurt more. I probably only fell half the distance before the west end of the wall hit the ground with the east end still attached.

Here's a picture of the wall down all the way. The gable wall is mostly intact but the truss is broken.


Since there was a crane already on site they brought it over to the house and had it laying a new truss back up on top pretty quickly.


And then it put the gable wall back up. We were back in business within an hour.


The guy that got hurt was released from the hospital that day. He'll have a 4 to 8 week recovery period.

847 - Habitat

Well it was an exciting day at habitat. About 10 am we were setting trusses. We had worked back to middle and had just moved to the front where the double truss gable wall was aready set by crane. It had your typical brace from the top of the window opening to the floor.

There were five or six of us trying to get the first truss in behind the gable wall. We were having trouble. Everybody was trying something to get it to fit when .... over went the gable wall. With me on it. After a 14' fall all seems to be well. It's a strange feeling when you start going over and know there's nothing you can do. I landed on my back on the wall. A ladder and a wheel barrow seemed to have decelerated the wall right at the end (I think).

I got off easy though. There was a guy right next to me on a ladder. He was half up into the gable area. When the wall went over a truss pulled him backwards over a beam (I think). He went to the hospital with two cracked vertibra.

I kept on working the rest of the day. I basiclly just got a few scrapes. I'll probably be sore today. When I got home yesterday I spent an hour in the whirlpool tub. Hopefully that will prevent some of the muscle soreness I'll have. I'll let you know how I feel later. If I can get out of bed.

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846 - Habitat

Habitat today. Going to pound nails. Have to get up in the middle of the night!!!!

845 - Music troubles

Is what you are hearing in a song real? Maybe not. Do you already know about this little trick. A pitch adjusting program called 'auto tune' that makes singers sound better. And the fact that it can be built INTO a microphone also. It's been around awhile but not to many people talk about it. Here's a video from Nova Science Now about the program and how it works. The video is segment 3 of the show and about 7 minutes long. Click on the third segment to start it. (the 4th segment is good too)

And as back up, there's a link to a short Wikipedia article with a little more info on auto tune. And then a link to a blog run by a music purist complaining about auto tune. The blogger has examples of songs that have been altered.

VIDEO

WIKI

BLOG

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844 Debit card warning

You think the banks can get you with credit cards fees? Try overdraft fees for debt cards. My son has already been through this and now no longer has a debt card. Here's a few paragraphs from an article in the newspaper today.

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Now automatic enrollment in overdraft programs, which allow consumers to draw more than what's in their accounts, is an industry standard. Consumer advocates, who have long criticized the practice, note that some banks are even raising overdraft fees.

In February, Bank of America changed its policy to charge $35 for the first overdraft in a 12-month period, up from the previous $25. It also raised to 10 the number of times a day an overdraft fee could be charged, up from the previous five. Then last month, the bank instituted a second $35 fee for overdrafts that weren't paid off within five days.
*******

So as you can see it can add up real quick. Let's say a week. 10 times a day times $35 is $2450. Plus $35 times 10 times 2 is another $700. So if your using your card alot and don't know your overdrawn, you can rack up $3150 of fees in a week. Sounds like racketeering to me, doesn't it? Keep it up for a year and it's $163,000. A lot of money for not paying attention isn't it? I don't think most criminals get fee'd that much.

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843 - Job searching

No not for ME! For all my still working friends out there. Here's some don't do tips from the web. You know this has to be accurate. It's from the web. These used to be must have on your resume. Now they're stale. But don't lose them, they'll be back.

Results-oriented professional
Cross-functional teams
More than [x] years of progressively responsible experience
Superior (or excellent) communication skills
Strong work ethic
Met or exceeded expectations
Proven track record of success
Works well with all levels of staff
Team player
Bottom-line orientation

I think that last one is the one that trashed the economy.

So what's the latest? A link with a voice resume. So polish up those speaking skills. Or better yet, get somebody else to do the voice stuff. Find a new job quick before video resumes become all the rage. At least in person they have to wait for you to leave before they laugh at you.

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842 - Mirror mirror in your head

Mirror neurons in your head that is.

In the comment section of Gilahi's June 15th post (his latest by the way), I commented, "I went to a BS&T concert in the 60's. That's when I found out I'm not fond of live music. Give me that ol' recording studio perfection."

He commented back with, "Mike - I've been to some concerts that were clunkers too, but overall there's something that's very special to me about being in the presence of rock & roll legends. With 20,000 of my closest friends."

I can be in a crowd, but I'd rather not. I think Gilahi has more MIRROR NEURONS than I do.

Again, this is a time sink warning. The video is 14 minutes long and there are several associated articles. Plus there's a dancing tip for those so predisposed to dance.

841 - Take it off

Warning - time sink ahead.

Here's a short (12 min) video on obesity from NOVA science now. Plus there are two Q&A articles along side the video access. The first article has a shorter video inside it. Altogether you could spend (let's see, it's Sunday, right?) quite awhile reading and watching ...... just kidding! Would I do that to you?!

VIDEO

-From one of the articles.-
"Put simply, our ancestors had to work very hard to obtain enough food to eat. Now we have to work very hard to earn enough money to join a gym and get rid of the food we have already eaten."

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840 - Tests

What kind of tests? Music tests. No not that kind. These are the kind that make you feel inferior. I think the tests are messed up. I couldn't be that bad.

MUSIC TESTS

There's three test. The link takes you to the first one.

839 - Need a job?

Here's a list of the hardest jobs to fill from 2008. But some of these just don't make any sense. Especially the skilled trades. And then if you read the article you'll find out that engineers bounced on and off the list. So engineers may not even be on the list for 2009. Maybe they can come out with a monthly list.

The 10 Hardest Jobs to Fill, as reported by U.S. employers for 2008, are:
1. Engineers
2. Machinists/Machine Operators (10)*
3. Skilled Trades
4. Technicians (4)
5. Sales Representatives (1)
6. Accounting & Finance Staff (8)
7. Mechanics (3)
8. Laborers (9)
9. IT Staff
10. Production Operators
* Rank in 2007 Top 10 Hardest Jobs to Fill

ARTICLE

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838 - Copy cat?

Of course everyone goes to INDEXED's site everyday, right? That's what I thought. So surprise suprise that she has competion. From whom? You. That's right. You can make your own graphs and venn diagrams and hope they pass muster and get posted.

Here's the site - CRAPPY GRAPHS

HERE'S one I made.

If you have trouble finding the 'make your own graph' page it's HERE.

Plus I added it to my 'other interesting sites'.


And a bonus - My own google result of 1. The quote I made up on post 835 comes back with one result.

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837 - Ah Choo

What a lame title. It's so bad it's funny. But this is nothing to sneeze at. After all it is allergy season. That would be from January 2nd to December 30th here in St. Louis. I have allergies, my son has them, everybody I know seems to have them.

Could it be because of where I live? St. Louis is 16 out of 100 on this LIST. And I don't even want to look at this ONE.

How many times have you had your back stuck with the 150 little pins? And then when that doesn't find anything you get to do the injections under the skin on your arm! And then get told you have 'non specific' allergies. I guess that's why the call it the 'practice' of medicine.

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