I was playing around with the night vision feature of my digital camcorder today. It makes my sons look downright eeeeevillllll…
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| Evil Tommy |
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| Evil Petey |
Fear the Jarnot children…
Ricky Gervais, creator and star of the excellent British comedy, “The Office“, has been asked by Matt Groening to write for The Simpsons.
Springfield, the garish home of the dysfunctional American cartoon family The Simpsons, is a long way from Slough. But the two towns will be linked next year in the form of Ricky Gervais, aka David Brent of The Office, who said yesterday he had become the first British writer to be asked to work on the American series.
Matt Groening, a fan of British comedy in general and The Office in particular, asked Gervais to write an episode after meeting him in Los Angeles last year when the British comedy won two Golden Globe awards.
“It was embarrassing, because he was saying how much he loved The Office and I was saying how much I loved The Simpsons. It turns you into a nerd because I was quoting bits of the show back at him,” said Gervais.
Having agreed to write the script with executive producer Al Jean, Gervais said he had already completed a first draft. “I bang it down, give it to them, they make it funny and I claim the credit,” he said. “I feel like I know Homer. It’s a joy.”
Almost forgot about this bit of shameless self-promotion. From the September 21, 2004 edition of the Mortgage Bankers Association’s MBA Newslink newsletter:
Kevin Jarnot, technology managing director at DebtX, Boston, has been appointed to a key committee of the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO). He will serve as co-chair of the MISMO Commercial Architecture Workgroup, which oversees the development and proposed maintenance to all Commercial MISMO specifications.
Via BoingBoing:
I wish I had this when I was a little kid…
The Funhaler is an asthma medicine delivery device for kids. Traditional asthma inhalers scare kids into misuse (or non-use), but the Funhaler apparently “overcomes these difficulties by motivating the child to inhale willingly and effectively by the use of breath-driven incentive toys attached to the device, such as whistles and spinning discs.”
Wow. Someone named “Beale Screamer” has cracked MS’s Digital Rights Management (the copy protection in WMV and WMA files):
Beale Screamer has successfully cracked Microsoft’s copy protection used in Windows Media digital right management software. The crack called Freeme strips off the piece from the WMA or WMV file that prevents copying the file.This is extremely bad news for Microsoft. Because they had some deals going with movie studios and record labels in order to get WM used as a standard in digital media distribution online.
Microsoft’s has built DRM2 software in way that does allow copy-protection upgrades, so even that songs that are previously locked with WM technology can be unlocked, new songs can contain new copy-protections. But still these locks will be cracked as well. All copy protection methods are and will be cracked in the future.
Just in case you want to know what you can and cannot take onto a plane: the TSA’s Permitted/Prohibited List
Interesting list from the BBC. A few random selections:
3. Brussels sprouts have three times as much vitamin C as oranges.
8. Brazilians are the nationality most likely to read spam.
19. The collective noun for rhinos is “crash”.
26. The full names of Scooby Doo’s Mystery Inc members are: Fred Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley, Scooby “Scoobert” Doo. Shaggy is actually Norville Rogers.
43. In 1911, Pablo Picasso was one of the suspects arrested for the theft of the Mona Lisa.
47. A “jiffy” is 10 milliseconds in computer science terms.
66. An American girl aged between three and 11 has, on average, 10 Barbie dolls in her toy box.
67. It’s 30 years since the world’s first barcode was used. It was on a 10-pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit at a supermarket in Ohio. The gum is now an exhibit in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC.
75. Freak conditions above Everest can cause the sky to “fall in”. An analysis of weather patterns in May 1996, by University of Toronto researchers, said eight people died when the stratosphere sank to the level of the summit.
97. Matt Groening’s father – the inspiration for Homer Simpson – has only complained once about his alter-ego’s actions. It was an episode in which Homer badgered Marge into walking some considerable distance on a hot day to fetch him something.
100. Bill Clinton sent just two e-mails while he was president.
Wow Wee Toys, the makers of the obnoxious-but-cool Robosapien, is coming out with an ultra-realistic robot monkey head.
On the more mind-blowing and unusual side, is the new Wow Wee Robotics Alive Series. These are life-like, animated, remote-controlled robot heads that include stereoscopic hearing so they can track your position and even your distance away. Wow Wee’s first demonstration of this technology is a frighteningly real looking monkey head with a fully articulated face. The real stunner, though, is the expected price: $129. George York, Wow Wee’s chief designer on the project said he’s been working with the company’s divisions in Hong Kong and China to have the robots ready for a 2006 release.
Also see PC Magazine article.
I want one!!!
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