Category: What The?!

Wireless PAN – Gimme Some Skin

I’ve heard the term P.A.N. (Personal Area Network) tossed around for a few years now what with Bluetooth becoming almost ubiquitous in today’s small technical gadgets. The idea is that rather than having wires joining various electronic devices together we use the wireless technology to create a small network that is centered around our person.

That’s all fine and good, but some people don’t like the idea of allowing other people to quietly pick up these P.A.N. signals and snoop on our private data. So a new idea has surfaced:

Use our skin as the means of transmitting electric signals between devices.

Here’s an article on the company that has applied for patents on this process.

Now this just kind of freaks me out, bringing forth the spectre of the cyborg. It works, and is pretty cool in terms of geek. but man, doesn’t the idea just give you the heebie-jeebies?

Big Fish Or Small People

Either this shows a very big fish or two very small people.

My mind boggles at the idea that this fish was caught. How old would this fish be? What exactly does a fish this big look like swimming around spawning?

How’s this for silly-speak?

This is the largest individual fish of the species that’s listed as the biggest in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Couldn’t he have just said BIGGEST FISH EVAR!!!!!

Updates:

High resolution image
A large stingray from the same area

Apparently these catfish are critically endangered, according to National Geographic, so it makes me a little sad to see something so obviously old and valuable to its species chopped up and fed to a village, no matter how hungry they may be.

Finally – a Jedi in British Parliament!

Mr. Jamie Reed burst onto the Parliamentary scene in Britain with an announcement that he is a Jedi.

I crave the indulgence of the House in interrupting such an important and enjoyable debate to deliver my maiden speech. Furthermore, as the first Jedi Member of this place, I look forward to the protection under the law that will be provided to me by the Bill.

Terribly brave of him, I must say. I suppose the idea that we co-exist with a race of small intelligent creatures (medichlorians) which, through training and meditation, we can co-opt to manipulate our environment isn’t all that far fetched. I wonder if we’ll see a Jedi religion come to fruition soon … it’s no stranger than the idea that we were planted here by an alien species, and it has historical stories of magic and mysterious things to help back up its veracity.

But I mean, come on! Becoming a Jedi is not an easy thing – even Anakin had trouble doing it.

You Want Me To Get Out Of My Car, Officer?

I’m not claiming racism here, but I think the police can be a scary bunch of lunatics.

I’m talking about a video clip taken by a patrol car camera of the takedown of a nefarious criminal, found fleeing in her SUV.

Here’s the video, and a page with comments.

A woman is pulled over, and then apparently refuses to get out of her car when the police officer asks her to step out. He naturally uses his tazer weapon to extract the criminal from her vehicle. Twice.

There is also some commentary by another police officer there for your listening pleasure. I like the one where he agrees with the officer’s choice of tazer versus pepper spray. His reasoning is bullet-proof: the 22 year old woman, when asked to exit the vehicle, could have gone for a weapon. The pepper spray wouldn’t have stopped her cold like the tazer – the office was avoiding the greatest risk.

Oh, her crime? Driving with a suspended license.

I’m Only Here To Help

I know a few people who are currently slaving away in their academic dungeons, trying feverishly to finish some kind of ‘learned’ document. It could be some kind of monster thesis, or it could be some weekly assignment. These things can be tough, as often these people are thinking in the back of their minds that they may or may not want to publish these papers once they’re written.

So I want to help. I found a great service online where you can have your paper written for you, and it will be generated in a way that it is ready for submission to whatever body of approval you desire. It’s not going to be gibberish either, it will include images, citations, and all that other stuff that makes paper committees smile when they wake up in the morning.

There’s only one limit – it will only generate papers suitable for computer science academics. Sorry, but perhaps there is some special attribute of the computer science industry and it’s willingness to accept silly names and words for common things that makes this work so well. I mean really, what the heck is a CPU anyways? Can’t we just call it a ‘computer brain’?

If you’re interested in getting your paper made for you, go check it out.

If you’re curious about the veracity of the results, know this – a paper was created using this program and was accepted for a conference this year. Yes, the conference committee apparently read it over and thought it would be interesting enough and informative enough to have it presented at the conference. Quality stuff, I tell ya.

If you’re still in doubt, I could mention that the team behind this new tool is currently attending the esteemed M.I.T institute … or is that redundant? OK, just M.I.T.

Did I mention it’s free? I’ve even thrown together a sample paper, which you can view here

Badgers, Badgers, Badgers, Badgers

Last summer my cousin Adrian introduced me to something a little special. I wanted to share it now, as I’ve only recently encountered it again.

I’m happy to say that it has survived the test of time. Back in those hot sunny days of summer it seemed downright hilarious, but we all know that bright days and cool nights can do some funny things to a person’s mind. So now that I have come across it again, and I have confirmed that it still is, in fact, damned hilarious, I wanted to share it.

Some of you may take a look and not laugh, heck you may not even smile. But I assure you, this is damned hilarious.

Enjoy.

Please note, you’ll need to be able to play Flash animations for this one, but the site can walk you through that if you don’t have it installed yet.

Can I Patent the Patent Process?

My recent acquisition of an iPod has lead me to a little thinking in terms of interfaces. I understood that nobody else could use the circular interface found on the iPod because Apple had a patent on it. I thought this was a little silly, and wanted to see the contents of the patent with my own two eyes. The US Patent Office offers a public search of all granted and pending patents through it website (found here).

I found an interesting article that took a look at some of Apple’s current patents, and my mouth fell a little agape. Apple’s patenting practises right now make me think that the patent process is simply broken. They have attempted to patent some amazingly simply things in an effort to (apparently) protect their intellectual property and innovation. As the article points out, they were smart enough to patent the trash icon you find on their desktop. Notices that Windows does not have a trash icon, but rather a recycling bin?

But things get a little sillier.
Continue reading Can I Patent the Patent Process?

Cloning Felix and Fido

I just shake my head.

Sometimes, I just shake my head.

Genetic Savings and Clone is willing to charge you a lot of money in order to clone your pet for you.

Genetic Savings & Clone enriches the lives of pet lovers through superior cloning technologies. Cat cloning available today; dog cloning available in 2005.

You would think this was a joke site, other than the fact that it really is a legitimate company offering what they feel is a legitimate service. Frankly (pun intended) the testimonials are a little unsettling. Talking about how “Little Gizmo” has the same mannerisms, same favorite chair, and same habits as it’s dead .. what do you call it? A relative? An ancestor certainly…. It’s self?
Continue reading Cloning Felix and Fido