Philips Digital Key Chain Camera

The Philips 010 Key Ring Camera takes much better pix than the phone camera did.

Picture of your intrepid adventurer Rik Sagar



Take with one of these:



See Toys For the Boys

Walt Disney Pictures Presents ...

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

http://movies.yahoo.com/movies/feature/thehitchhikersguidetothegalaxy.html

No! Say it ain't so. They'll fucking ruin it. There'll be singing
teapots, talking lions and all kinds of shite.

Douglas must be turning in his grave.

Don't Panic, DON'T PANIC!! Too right I'm friggin' panicing.

Free Phone and Free Flight to USA

Thought this looked like a pretty good deal! Free flight from UK to USA with a 12 month contract (12quid/month).

O2 Store

Kids 'Bat Rope' Utility Belt Grappling Hook versus Sony Walkman Earbud

Don't know about you. But I recall that, when I was a kid, I was
always frustrated with my "Bat Rope". The sexy little plastic
grappling hook at the end of the rope was totally useless. It would
never grapple onto anything. Trees, Sheds, Lorrys, Fences, all
impervious.

Now contrast that to the earbuds that come on your headset for your
mobile phone/iPod/Sony Walkman. If I take that earbud out for a
second while I'm walking into a store, the car, work, whatever, that
little fucker always manages to get itself grappled onto the flattest,
smoothest, most polished of chrome or brushed aluminium.

The number of times my left ear has been yanked into the car window
because the right earbud was out and decided to mate with my seat
belt.

It's so annoying. But I guess it answers the top question of a ten
year old boy. "Howcome batman never has trouble with his grappling
hook" Obviously his was made by Sony, not Tomy.

Kids 'Bat Rope' Grappling Hook versus Sony Walkman Earbud

Don't know about you. But I recall that, when I was a kid, I was
always frustrated with my "Bat Rope". The sexy little plastic
grappling hook at the end of the rope was totally useless. It would
never grapple onto anything. Trees, Sheds, Lorrys, Fences, all
impervious.

Now contrast that to the earbuds that come on your headset for your
mobile phone/iPod/Sony Walkman. If I take that earbud out for a
second to go into; a store, the car, work, whatever, that
little fucker manages to get itself grappled onto the flattest,
smoothest, most polished of chrome surface imaginable.

The number of times my left ear has been yanked into the car window
because the right earbud was out and decided to mate with my seat
belt, it's unreal.

It's so annoying. But I guess it answers the question of a ten
year old boy. "How come batman never has trouble with his grappling
hook" Obviously his was made by Sony, not Mattel.

SPAM

Is it just me, or has SPAM seriously gone down in volume this last week?

My rik AT sagar DOT ... has gone down from 20-30 a day to 2-3 a day!

Spread Firefox - New York Times ad campaign an astronomical success!

Spread Firefox - Igniting the web: "ew York Times ad campaign an astronomical success!
NY Times Ad Campaign As you're surely well aware, the New York Times ad campaign was by all measures an incredible success! We hardly thought we'd hit $50,000 let alone $250,000 but sure enough, the Spread Firefox community came through and blew through any reasonable estimate we might have made! In this single act, our community not only affirmed its commitment to Firefox (while making other open-source projects froth with jealousy), but we also clearly and defiantly demonstrated to the rest of the world that the open-source donation model is a powerful and feasible way for communities to express their support of products and ideas that they believe in!"

Presentation Skills Envy

I've always envied people who have the balls to do presentations
without a 4Megabyte Powerpoint presentation full of animations.

Yesterday, at the Developer Testing conference at PARC, Kent Beck did an hours talk with no more than a single
hand-scrawled slide. Bastard! And he was entertaining! Bastard!
How can people talk for an hour - AND be entertaining - without use of
clipart and animations.

Rik



p.s., did you notice, three geek-out name drops in one sentence!?
PARC, Developer Testing AND Kent Beck.

Don't Mess With Texas ...

today's news suggests it's already messed-up enough!!

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Camouflage was in and cross-dressing was out at a rural East Texas school district on Wednesday after a Christian legal group complained a long-standing school tradition of reversing social roles for a day would promote homosexuality.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=6847147

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Hunters soon may be able to sit at their computers and blast away at animals on a Texas ranch via the Internet, a prospect that has state wildlife officials up in arms.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&e=19&u=/nm/life_hunting_dc

Yahoo! News - Mom Breastfeeds Puppy to Protect Baby

Must be a slow news day ...

Yahoo! News - Mom Breastfeeds Puppy to Protect Baby: "WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A woman in New Zealand says she is breastfeeding her pet puppy because she wants it to protect her baby daughter as they both grow up.



Kura Tumanako told the NZPA news agency Wednesday that she had started breastfeeding the Staffordshire bull terrier pup after her baby stopped taking her milk.

'I didn't want to waste it so I gave it to Honey Boy,' she said."

Let's play Spot the Turkey

Let's play "Spot the Turkey"





I pick the one on the left, no, the right, no wait, oh, I don't know. They both look like turkeys to me.




Yeah, I know, cheap shot. I couldn't resist


Yahoo! News - Top Stories Photos - AP

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Bono sings famous Band Aid line

Bono sings famous Band Aid line: "Bono returned from Ireland to record the new rendition ..."

His Line. He had to fly in for one frigging line!

Now, in this age of digital audio and Internet connectivity, you'd think he could have just 'phoned it in'.

Sounds like a tax fiddle to me!

Ion propulsion rocket gets to the Moon - (United Press International)

Ooooh!

Ion propulsion rocket gets to the Moon - (United Press International): "A European Space Agency rocket entered moon orbit Monday in a unique mission using a pioneering [ion] power plant."

Aaahhh!

Ion Engine

Camera Phone Photos Are Lame Quality Man!

Can't say that I'm overly impressed with pix from the camera phone.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jedorm/slideshow?.dir=/e1e9&.src=ph

ONJava.com: Got Project Automation?

This book talks about automated testing of software projects. A good idea, particularly if you subscribe to the Agile Methodologies that seem to be A La Mode these days.

Anyway, one trick that I liked was the idea of controlling a couple of Lava lamps (one red one green) based on the success of your build and test scripts.

I'm veeeeery tempted to get out my soldering iron ...

ONJava.com: Got Project Automation?: "Hark, the build has failed! It's a good thing CruiseControl lit up the red lava lamp ... In your haste you forgot to check in a new file. This is embarrassing, but at least you can easily fix the build now.

After checking in the missing file, you force a quick build on the build machine just to make sure everything is golden. Glancing over your shoulder you see the red lava lamp go dark and the green lamp come back to life. Crisis averted; life is good."

Camera Phone

Wow, I finally got with the 21st century and got a camera phone.

Er, well, actually, I have one for a project at work and I'm taking advantage ...

Here's the Phone

Philips 855 Camera Phone

Already I'm taking random pix of stuff that no one's interested in. (Check out my MoBlog).

Not to be out done by dad, the rest of the family is getting in on the action...


Super Ben



Lucky Dog

Reuters AlertNet - Arctic thaw could open vast oil and gas region

Reuters AlertNet - Arctic thaw could open vast oil and gas region: "An accelerating thaw of the Arctic may open vast regions for oil and gas exploration"

Er, HELLO! the reason for the arctic thaw is because we're already burning too much frickin' oil and gas ass-holes.

Talkabout a snowball effect ... though ironically the concept of a snowball might soon be relegated to the history books!

GMail Invites -- Just give $30 to Charity

OK, Here's what I want you to do

1. Read the following extract from JW House
   
2. Go to JustGive.org


3. Donate (at least) $30 to JW's charity
   
4. Remember to check the Send Email Address option, or I won't know where to send the GMail invite!
   
5. In the Gift Option box type Geert Tell Rik Sagar to send me the GMail invite
   
6. Send your donation
   
7. Go to JW House to convince yourself this is not a scam and I'm not just phishing
   
8. Do good and feel good!
   

At the age of 14, JW Knapen had a normal life - he was a freshman in high school, played the bongos for the choir, enjoyed drawing and sculpting, and was the loving big brother and oldest son of a close-knit Belgian family. But over Thanksgiving break in 2002, JW began to have seizures and was quickly diagnosed with three different brain tumors. Over the last two years, 16-year-old JW Knapen has shown courage and grace in his grueling fight against brain cancer, enduring surgery, radiation and chemotherapy treatments. In April 2004, when a virulent, inoperable new brain tumor was discovered, JW decided to focus on how he might help others with medical struggles of their own. He decided to build a house near Kaiser Hospital, in Santa Clara, California where families can stay with their loved ones during long hospitalizations. He wants this house to be a place for brothers and sisters to talk quietly; a place for moms and dads and grandparents to be able to eat together; a place to talk with other families that are facing similar challenges — a place that feels like a “home away from home”. With the help of his oncologist and friend, Dr. Alan Wong, JW’s dream is becoming a reality. JW’s generous spirit and determination to make a better future for other families touched by illness is inspirational and humbling. We would like to invite you to join in building the JW House. Please consider making a donation to the JW House today. Together we can make JW's dream come true.

So what are you waiting for. Go donate. I'll be giving away my GMail invites until they run out. Remember, it's tax deductable, so really, it's only costing you about $15! Do it fast before they run out ... and don't whine if you end-up giving $30 to charity and don't get an invite just coz you were too slow. NO GUARANTEES.

Disclaimer: I am in no way linked with JustGive or JW House Fund. JW is the son of a coworker.

Slashdot | Bit Rot Stalks Your Digital Keepsakes

Yeah, my point entirely. This is exactly why I don't do the digital camera. 35mm and a trip to Costco for a picture disk. Much more dependible if y'ask me.

Slashdot | Bit Rot Stalks Your Digital Keepsakes: "'The NYTimes has an article about the problems of digital archiving. How many of your digital memories will still be around 50 years from now, considering lost disks, incompatible formats, hard drive crashes, fading CD-Rs, etc.? Unfortunately Peter Briggs' solution won't work for most of us. The only real way to make sure that your grandkids get to see your digital photos is to make real photographic prints from them. (When I bought my Mom a digital camera I installed Picasa for her, and made sure she knows to order real prints of all the pictures she wants to survive through the ages...)'"

Corporate Content Filtering Kicked In Today

Today, for the first time, I noticed the effects of my Retarded Multinational Employers web traffic filtering policy.

See, they have this third party provide a list of sites that are deemed "not business related" and then program the HTTP proxy server to block access.

Today I clicked on a link to The Incredibles and I got a message;

Forbidden:
You were denied access because:
Access denied by access control list.

AAArrrrrggggghhhhhhh.

But on a positive note, http://men----ingdogs.com still works fine.

Wonder how long it's going to be before they stop me updating my blog on company time.

Well, if that happens I'll just have to resort to the drinking malt liquor under my desk and watching movies on my corporate approved TV.

The Worlds First Inflatable Pub!

Thank-you Airquee!



The Worlds First Inflatable Pub!

Fool.com: Spam Scam Lands 'Em in the Can [Motley Fool Take] November 5, 2004

Fool.com: Spam Scam Lands 'Em in the Can [Motley Fool Take] November 5, 2004: "Jeremy Jaynes of Raleigh, N.C., one of the Internet's top 10 spammers, according to watchdogs, was convicted in the first felony spam case -- just up the road from Fool HQ in Loudoun County, Va. He and his sister, Jessica DeGroot, were both found guilty by a jury that then recommended a jail term of nine years for Jaynes and a fine of $7,500 for DeGroot."

Nokia phone adopts handwriting recognition

Nokia phone adopts handwriting recognition - News - CNETAsia: "Nokia on Tuesday announced it plans to start selling a new smart phone capable of handwriting recognition."

Are they for real! Didn't they get the memo that no one's doing handwriting reco any more. That Palm joke Graffiti has been replaced by a keyboard on all the best PalmOS PDAs

Recruiting Engineers

This would be my first question to anyone I was recruiting for an engineering job:

When did you first realize you were an engineer?

Judging by the number of disinterested people working in engineering these days, I have to assume that really they're not engineers, they're people who assume engineering is like flipping burgers, but better paid.

Engineering should be a passion. It's creating something. You should be launching something into existence that has a life of it's own, something that interacts with other humans and that they have an opinion about. Therefore it is an extension of you and you are forced to be proud of it, or ashamed of it if you were unsuccessful in creating something that delights.

In my opinion, if you're happy to unleash a product (piece of software, vehicle, bridge) when you never really gave a f^%# about how crap it was, then stop calling yourself an engineer. Go get a job an McDonalds.

In a way, it's a problem that engineers (hardware and software) in the US are relatively well paid. It attracts the wrong people. In Britain only ENGINEERS consider becoming engineers because, (a) the pay's crap compared to accountants, doctors and plumbers and (b) the term engineer is synonymous with Train Spotter, hence, chicks don't dig engineers. Ergo, no dosh, no kudos, no skirt. Only the commited take up engineering in Britain!

So, if I were recruiting a software subordinate, I would ask the question:

When did you first realize you were an engineer?

More over, I'd only accept answers in Morse Code or UTF-8 - encoded as DTMF squeeks of course! Naturally I'm looking for an answer that doesn't resemble

well I did this degree right. I didn't know whether I wanted to go into journalism, life sciences or software engineering...

The Observer | Cash | Is this how tomorrow's homes will be made?

The Observer | Cash | Is this how tomorrow's homes will be made?: "Building homes on-site will largely cease. Instead factories here and in China will churn out 280,000 units a year for the British market, mostly in pleasant, curvy, shapes made possible by advanced materials and computer-aided design."

An interesting article, with some merit...

'... manufactured houses would have high R&D budgets, so their designs would be better.'

Good point, when you think about it! The complexity of modern houses is typically limited to what a dozen uneducated, drunk, Irish lackys can be coerced into throwing together in a set time period.

Imagine the wonderful architectural creations that could be realized if the limits of paddy-dexterity were removed and replaced by nimble teenage chinese slavegirl fingers!