/dev/null/kevin

... I will make it illegal for radios to play some sounds you might hear while driving:

• Sirens
• Cell phone ringing
• Car horns
• Screeching Tires
• People yelling, "Get off the sidewalk, you moron!"

Someone please explain this to me.

These wheelchair steps (?) are in the toddler play area at Legoland in San Diego.  They continue up about 5 more steps.  The first step is high enough for a wheelchair-bound person to lift themselves from their chair to the step, but then what?  There must be a real reason for this, but I can't figure it out.  I doubt that this is just a mistake.

Update [May 20, 2008]: OK, no responses yet.  Maybe someone at Legoland is just really stupid.

The CSI armada of shows is sailing in shark-infested waters and each of the shows is jumping them.

CSI: Miami jumped years ago.  I stopped watching when I couldn't take the show, or David Caruso, seriously anymore.  The only time I see the show is on The Soup, when they make fun of David Caruso.

The original CSI is usually pretty good, but it had a potential shark moment with the episode written by the guys who write Two and a Half Men.  That idea doesn't even sound good on paper, so I can only assume it was some bizarre concession made to end the writers' strike.

And while CSI: NY as never been awesome, I watch it when I can.  That may change if the New Yorkers don't stop being so Web 2.0 savvy, or at least thinking that they're savvy.  It's bad enough when they try to solve crimes in Second Life, but the most recent episode actually featured the following line when tracking down a kidnapped blogger, who continued blog while captured:

I'll create a GUI interface using Visual Basic.  See if I can track an IP address.

-- Spoken by Agent Dumbass

Are you freaking kidding me?  That is just so wrong on so many levels.  I had flashbacks to the magical "Unix GUI" in Jurassic Park.  She might as well have said, "I'm going to draw a pretty picture with Crayola Brand crayons."

I could not watch any more after that.  I should just delete that episode from my TiVo before those bits corrupt any of my other shows with their lameness.

Update: Look for CSI: Target soon. 

We went to Legoland in San Diego recently and saw sculpture sticking out of a tent.

My first thought was, "Wow, a Lego monkey butt!"

My second thought was, "someone had to make that."

I wonder if they put that accomplishment on their resume:

• Legoland - Lead Monkey Butt Builder

His mom must be so proud.

There was a recent story about Google's CAPTCHA being broken.  CAPTCHAs are the little tests that websites use to prove the user is a human and not an automated system (spammer).  This very blog uses the simple, and easily broken, "add these numbers" test to leave a comment.

Here are my (not serious) suggestions for improved CAPTCHAs:

Use Pop Culture References:

Which character ruined Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace?

A. B. C. D. All of the Above

Answer: D

What internet meme died on April 1, 2008?

1. Dramatic Hampster
   
2. Rick Rolling
3. LOL Cats
4. Scientology
   

 

Answer: B

 Use Song Lyrics: 

How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?
The answer is: --> blowin' in the wind

Who ya gonna call?
--> Ghostbusters!

Who's the black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks?
--> Shaft!
You're damn right

Who is the man that would risk his neck for his brother man?
--> Shaft!
Can ya dig it?

Who's the cat that won't cop out when there's danger all about?
--> Shaft!
Right on!

You see this cat Shaft is a bad mother--
--> Shut your mouth
But I'm talkin' about Shaft
--> Then we can dig it

 Use Trivia: 

How Many Licks Does It Take To Get To The Tootsie Roll Center Of A Tootsie Pop?

--> 3

What... is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

--> African or European?

 Use Jeopardy Questions: 

 Catagory: POTPOURRI

The most undeserving popular blog at blogs.sun.com.

--> /dev/null/kevin

Please phrase your response in the form of a question

--> What the hell is /dev/null/kevin?

Comment approved.

Tags: lolcat lolcaterpillar lolcatrpilr lolcats
May 02, 2008 07:18 AM PDT Permalink | Comments [1] |

I'm questionable.  Got a huge freaking spider bite on my big toe, and I can barely get a shoe on and hobble around at work.

--Chris W.

Thanks to Chris K. for the laugh.

 Code Orange!  Code Orange!  Hazmat teams to Playground One!

When you have a kid in school you learn all about other kids with food allergies.  The most common allergies seem to be wheat, dairy and peanuts.  Schools are careful that no one is served food they shouldn't eat but some schools actually ban all kids from bring food with peanuts in it.

I have to wonder what the extra zealous schools would think of the following snack: Keebler Cheese and Peanut Butter Crackers.  Motto: It's the trifecta of allergens!

And, yes, I'm pretty sure that this isn't so healthy for kids without allergies to be eating, either.

For Earth Day, I am retiring my old (and dangerous) Sun Blade 2000.  I'm replacing it with a new Ultra 24.  Granted, it's not up the drool-worth specs of Rama's system, but it will do for now.  I expect my office to be much cooler now (and quieter).

This will also allow me to use the latest xVM Server hypervisor technology, which is good because I'm on the xVM Ops Center team and I need to get some of this stuff to work. 

Dilbert.com was relaunched last week and it's terrible.  The pointy-haired boss has won.  They tried for Web 2.0 but ended up with Web 2.Oh No!

Now that I've gotten the one-liners out of the way, here are the specifics.  With a plethora of new features that might have sounded good on paper, the new site looks like a MySpace page with hemorrhoids.  It's loud, obnoxious, filled with Flash 9, and causes an itching sensation.  Tim Bray said it best:

Tim's not the only one who doesn't like the new site.   Venky also doesn't like the new site, but the most negative comments come from Dilbert's own readers: 

Today's Sunday strip was particularly bad as the Flash application didn't even display the entire strip all at once.  I needed to page through the Sunday strip to see it all.  Whatever humor there was in the strip was lost as I had to deal with the navigation.  I'm lucky that the Flash even worked for me since many of the comments show that Flash 9 doesn't work on many platforms, including Solaris and some PDAs.

Perhaps Scott Adams needs to buy his own copy of How To Make Webcomics from the guys at halfpixel.com [1 2 3 4] who really know how to make a web site for comics.

Update [04/25/2008]: Scott Adams has revealed the "secret" back door page with just the comic.

It's currently 84 degrees F here in Silicon Valley (29 C) and the shorts are coming out, and so are the white legs.  This seems to be a popular trend on twitter, and I am no exception.

Here is a screen capture, as that search will probably change over time.  It's amazing how self-deprecating the twitter community is. 

Long, long, ago, I used to play roller hockey with Joe, Rama and Will.  We played in the parking lots between Sun's Mountain View buildings (now all Google buildings).  Eventually I moved to ice hockey and hadn't touched the roller gear in years.  This week my wife's cousin needed a sub on his roller hockey team.  Not wanting to break my ankle trying to do an ice stop, I laced up the old pair and headed down the street with my dog running along side.  I took a few test turns, and then *snap* - I was on my butt.  Fortunately, it was not my ankle, but the skate itself.  The entire bottom half of the skate just broke off.  It was a cheap, plastic boot, not leather, and I guess we now know the lifespan of a cheap roller hockey skate.

The good news is I had two pairs of skates (outdoors and indoors) so I was still able to play since the game was indoors.

Flickr launched its new video service today (Tuesday 08 April).  For me this is awesome because I already use flickr for my photos.  Like most people, my digital camera also takes decent quality videos and it is very nice to have them in the same stream as my photos.

There are two features that really make flickr better for personal video clips over YouTube.

1. Better image quality - See below.
   


2. Can download the original - I liked Google Video for this same reason.  It's very valuable to have off-site backups of your photos and videos so now I have both in one place.
   

Of course, with only a 90 second limit, YouTube, and other services, are still better for longer and professional vids.

Compare the quality of the same video uploaded to both YouTube and Flickr.

YouTube:

Flickr Video:

Update: Found one strike against Flickr: The embedded video doesn't appear/play in Google Reader. If you don't see the Flickr video window try here.

Update 2: According to Kellan of Flickr, this is a known problem.  You can work around the Google Reader problem by subscribing using the RSS feed and not the Atom feed. 

Minute Maid Light Orange Juice has less than 50% of the calories of regular Minute Maid Orange Juice.  Have you ever wondered how they accomplish this amazing feat?  (ok, just play along)

I have here the super secret formula for creating Light Orange Juice Drink:

+ =

That's 42% OJ to 58% water.

But remember to charge the same price as regular orange juice.  That's the real secret.

I lost a good friend yesterday.  He lost his battle with cancer.  It was surprisingly swift.  I didn't want to post anything yesterday since it was April Fool's Day, which is a really bad day to deliver bad news.

John and I have played drums together for over 20 years now.  We both went to the same college (UC Davis) and were in the marching band.  I was still in college when he recruited me into an offshoot band called the California Repercussions.  We have been playing together, year round, ever since.  He became my mentor of drumming.  The band has taken multiple trips outside of the US, as well as a trip to Hawaii just last year, and the whole band is like an extended family.  The percussion section is even closer.

In addition to the Reapers, John and I also played percussion in various musical theater productions.  John has a massive collection of drums and percussion which he would lend to me at any time.  Where else can you borrow a set of timpani or a bell tree?  We would sub for each other and discuss the best way to play a song (much of the drum/percussion parts are improvised).  One of my favorite show memories is the two of us covering the entire West Side Story part, written for four percussionists.

John's last show (just weeks ago) was playing High School Musical with his 11 13 year old son, Eric.  I'm really glad that he got to do that.  I may be called up to take up John's part in the band.  I hope it's only temporary.  It would be nice if Eric could take his father's place in the future.

Here are some pictures from our trip to the 2007 Pro Bowl in Hawaii:

John and I with Hula Cheerleaders

Playing outside the Pro Bowl