Sunday, July 30, 2006

This week in colorful review language

For the record, I was not looking for porn when I discovered this review. I was simply looking for a way to hack into the Suicide Girls website, since I am constantly barraged with their ads on the sites I frequent, and I wanted to finally find out what it was all about. Plus, I found their $4/month fee outrageous. That's almost an entire Combo #1 at Wendy's and a man's gotta eat. See, not a pervert. Just a guy exploring the deepest, darkest reaches of the internet...academically.

To illustrate, I've heard that if you were to stuff me into a blast furnace, fill it with white phosphorous grenades, set them off and turn on the furnace, and then bury the whole thing in the molten core of the sun, I would still be significantly less hot than the Suicide Girls, even if we did it in the middle of August.

Waterloo..It's not just an ABBA song anymore

We all know Napolean lost big time at Waterloo, but how many people know the real details of that final battle? How dd he get outsmarted?

I know what you're thinking: I'd rather watch an analysis of Kasparaov vs. Deep Blue narrated by William F. Buckley, Jr, but this simulation lets you explore different strategies that may have changed the outcome of history. This is what I love about the internet. With 6 billion people on the planet, some of them have found a way to make an endeavor like this worthwhile. The human race is on its way to a single consciousness.

It is June 18, 1815 and the campaign has begun. While not all has gone exactly as Napoleon would have hoped, things have gone well enough. Just two days earlier he beat the Prussians under Blucher at Ligny. On the same day at Quatre Bras Ney kept Wellington's troops from intervening. Now in front of him stands Wellington barring the way to Brussels. Trusting that Grouchy is still chasing Blucher's defeated army he believes they will not be a factor in the coming battle. Napoleon has decided to finally test the skills of Wellington near the sleepy hamlet of Waterloo.

Or you can check out this full blown game from a few years back. I found it on ebay for a penny.

Friday, July 28, 2006

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Ultimate plug...

You know you've got a viable entertainmnet experience when you get endorsements like this one. Gary Coleman, whose claims to fame include a 30 year old tv show, and Postal 2!, one of the most offensive and violent video games produced to date.


In other news, Dream Authentics is a new partner of Video Games Live concert series. Look for their machines at the next show

Priorities

That's just the way it is. Some things will never change.

Friday, July 21, 2006

You're the man now dog!

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Miracle Max was Right!

Miracle Max: See, there's a big difference between mostly dead, and all dead. Now, mostly dead: he's slightly alive. All dead, well, with all dead, there's usually only one thing that you can do.

Inigo: What's that?

Miracle Max: Go through his clothes and look for loose change.

Of course, that fantastical exchange between Billy Crystal and Mandy Patinkin occured in the 1987 surprise hit, Princess Bride. So of course I was surprised to read this latest article from Wired:

Alam goes to work on the chest, removing part of a rib to reveal the heart, a throbbing, shiny pink ball the size of a fist. He cuts open the aorta – an even more lethal injury – and blood sprays all over our scrubs. The EKG flatlines. The surgeons drain the remaining blood and connect tubes to the aorta and other vessels, filling the circulatory system with chilled organ-preservation fluid – a nearly frozen daiquiri of salts, sugars, and free-radical scavengers. Her temperature is 50 degrees Fahrenheit; brain activity has ceased. Alam checks the wall clock and asks a nurse to mark the time: 11:25 am. But 78-6 is, in fact, only mostly dead – the common term for her state is, believe it or not, suspended animation.

Whoa. I guess that could only mean that somewhere out there a six-fingered man is conducting pain research on "The Machine."

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Tesla Roadster


This car is powered by 6800 Lithium Ion batteries.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Nanaka Crash Toys?




Tomoko Hoshima

Christian Coalition Action Figures


Tell me again why this is out of stock!

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Def Leppard "picks" are winners

Not everyone believes me, but growing up in Indiana can have its slow days. Sometimes, those slow days would fall back to back. We called this summer. However, one particular summer was interrupted by an activity that wasn't CB tag. I went to this fairly awesome Def Leppard concert..in 1988! I went with a fellow life guard named Steve. (I will post some pictures from this historical night later.) It was the Hysteria Tour and that album had just started to blow up. Indiana State Fairgrounds. Outdoors. In the summer. In the rain. Lots and lots of rain. It rained so hard they had a power outage. I remember this concert vividly. General Admission meant no assigned seating, so when they opened the gate the crowd just poured in. I was literally carried through the crush of people and dumped on the inside without even seeing a ticket taker or turnstile anywhere.

This led to an idea. I got on the closest pay phone (cel phones in 1988?) and called Yojay (yes, same name) and had him get off his ass and bring his girlfriend down to the show ASAP. I handed him our tickets through the fence and Presto!...free concert (for him anyway).

Waiting for Yojay left me at the back of the pack, as far from the stage as possible without being in the seats. We all started working our way to the front of the crushing crowd while Europe opened. I remember it got to be too much for Yojay and his girl, so they retreated to the safety of the grandstands (and the shelter from the crappy weather) but I knew if I could make it just a little bit further, I would have the front row in my grasp. Everything was going as planned. As I squirmed my way through the crowd, trying to keep up with Steve, my path was suddenly and inexplicably blocked on all sides. Like a chessmaster, I paused, planning my next move. That's when I heard a voice above all the music. "Where do you think you're going little man?" My 135lb, 17 year old suburban, white boy, Boston Red Sox cap wearing head looked up and my front row dreams went way way down. I was looking at the biggest black guy I'd ever seen outside of the NFL. Elf was about to die.

How was I going to get past this guy? Just then, through the rain, in the middle of the night, a beacon of light shone down on 2 people just over this giant's shoulder, near the front row. My friend Steve had met a girl in the parking lot and she had just passed out in his arms from the heat. He was hoisting her onto his shoulder and was trying to get her to the safety of the Security Guard up at the stage. I pointed over my new gatekeeper's shoulder and yelled "See that girl?! She's my sister. She just passed out from the heat. I'm trying to get to her." He turned and saw her lifeless body slumped over Steve's shoulder. He turned back to me and he took a deep breath. Half expecting him to start laughing, instead he opened his mouth and said:

"Yo! Make some room. This guy needs to get through. Get out of the way!" and he cleared about 8 people ahead, pushing me toward the front and within a few feet of Steve and his mystery girl. I looked over my shoulder and said "Thanks" and left it at that. I just prayed I'd be far enough up ahead that he wouldn't be able to see me rockin' out in the front row after my little white (boy) lie. I felt like I betrayed some sort of unspoken , passed out sister rock concert bond. Yea. I felt really bad about that...for about 3 seconds. Besides, karma was totally on my side. It was nothing sunshine, pie, puppies and clowns from here on out.

As Steve handed her over the railing he had the sudden and unfortunate realization that he would have to go with her, since she was unconscious. As he climbed the railing I waved goodbye and said I'd find him later. I was in the FRONT ROW BABY! getting crushed against the railing, watching bouncers scoop rainwater out of the plastic tarps covering Def Leppard's amps and handing it to the desperate fans. I even handed an ice cold Coke back to someone behind me as they handed a wad of cash up front to the bouncer, with a twenty on the outside. Nice exploitation, bouncer guy.

At one point I took off my Red Sox cap and wringed it out to drink it. Girls were in line to get some, it was THAT hot. It was pouring. And then it happened. As Def Leppard cranked through hit after hit, guitarist Phil Collen chucked guitar picks into the crowd. He flicked one right at me. I reached for it in the rain and it bounced off my wrist. I watched it fall into the mud and water at my feet. There was no way to bend over to get it and I couldn't see it anyway. It was gone. I was so close, and then, nothin'.

Karma, you fickle bitch!

Fast forward 19 years. I am at Disney with my girlfriend and 10-month old daughter talking to a girl who works in the shop in an Irish Pub. The conversation turns to Def Leppard (as it probably does with her no matter where she is) and I tell a short version of my story. She says, "I know Phil. he's a friend of mine. Do you want me to get you a pick?"

"Huh?"

"No, seriously. I'll see them in Tampa in July. Give me your address."

This arrived in the mail yesterday:


This is where I sing my "Karma can suck it!" song. It took 19 years, but I'm back on top baby!

Friday, July 14, 2006

Quite Honestly...


I have no explanation for this.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

The Bet -- Day 15

Did you think I gave up? Nope--just that whole lifestyle adjustment thing. The amount of time to run, eat correctly, and blog about it ran smack into the juggernaut that is my kids last week. Unfortunately, something had to lose, and the state of Florida is pretty adamant about leaving children unattended for long periods of time.

Nevertheless, the training continued. I find my biggest stumbling block is that I find running boring. I can only last about 10-15 minutes before I get extremely bored and frustrated with the whole damn thing. I haven't found anyone to run with me, so it makes things difficult. Still, I've kept up at it, continued to eat well, and am now in pretty good shape. Dropping alcohol from the diet (an unrelated event, but fortuitous none the less) made a huge difference--I've lost 10 pounds in two weeks.

So where do I stand on the bet? I still put my chances at 50/50. I ran a mile in 5:30 yesterday, so I feel like I have a shot. The real question is can I do enough long distance running to build up my endurance. I have no problem running every day for 15-20 minutes. Beyond that, though, I haven't been able to muster much. Maybe that will be enough? Perhaps, but at least I'm in great shape for soccer season and the upcoming canoe races.

Somehow they got smart...indeed

I can only assume that this application is some type of extension of Skynet, but I won't worry about the details. Check out this application for making prank phone calls. Here's how it works: it can spoof any caller ID that you like. I've tried it out on my phone (...uh oh, does that mean Skynet now has my number? Crap!) and it's amazing. I set it up to look like Yojay was calling me and viola--15 seconds later my phone was ringing and the caller ID said Yojay. Only, it wasn't Yojay, but a computer voice reading the text I had entered.

Yeah, no one will EVER get in trouble with this thing. All I can say, is that it's a good thing I'm an adult now, because if they had stuff like this when I was a kid, I would have been arrested several times.

Okay, enough Sky Lab--who is actually doing this? Well the quick-and-dirty application is created by Office Solutions Plus. Check out their mission statement:

Office Solutions Plus is a full service web hosting, web design, and computer repair company. We have actively been involved in the computer industry since 1998. We continually strive to upgrade our knowledge and expertise in the internet arena, so that our clients can compete in the global climate with confidence and assurance in knowing that Office Solutions Plus is here to help 24/7.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? How the hell does a prank phone call bot help clients compete in the global climate? Somehow, this doesn't seem like a good fit.

Well, I can't give Office Solutions Plus all the credit. See, they just put together a quick-and-dirty front end application for the real deal, a phone notification appication created by CYDNE corporation. From their website, they "develops, markets and supports a comprehensive suite of data enhancement, data quality and data analysis Web services and business intelligence integration."

....wait a minute, what was the name of that company that made Skynet? Cyberdyne? CYDNE? Oh Shit!

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Somehow they got smart...

The Oscar caliber pivotal plot point from the original Terminator, where Kyle says "Somehow they got smart" has finally come true. I just got a phone call from a website..posing suspiciously like gstdog.

Curse you Sarah Conner!

Pirates of the Car(r)ib(b)ean vs. Superman Returns

After Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest blew up at the box office, I thought I'd see if Google Trends reflected the same lopsided interest in the flick over the current runner-up, Superman Returns.

A quick search shows us that recent searches for Superman Returns are beating the crap out Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, the #1 movie in the world times 6!

Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot?

I had to get to the bottom of this. How was this possible? Was it because the world was so agonizingly stupid that they searched for a misspelling of "Caribbean" as "Carribean" almost equally with the correct spelling?

Yes. Yes it was.
A little tweak of our search and we see that Pirates is, in fact, back on top. Ah, Google Trends...how we hardly know ye.

Monday, July 10, 2006

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Google Search hacking

Yeah, ok. So it's a book...for sale. But it's also part of a constantly evolving website called johnny.ihackstuff.com.

These guys (well, at least one guy named Johnny Long) detail ways to unlock the information on the internet using Google, going beyond the newly pedestrian act of merely finding the answer to almost any question instantaneously. If knowledge is power, then Google hacking approaches absolute power. I can understand the thrill of the hacker conquest. I was guilty of a few crosses over the legal line in the fledgling BBS days of PC networking (er..Atari 800 dial-up phreaki..I've said too much). But the best part about these hacks is that they're barely hacks at all. They require no coding by the end user. They are all engineered to work through the Google front end, exposing the incredible power of Google to sort through the impractically infinite internet haystack for as many needles as you want. Be sure to check out categories like:

  • Various Online Devices: This category contains things like printers, video cameras, and all sorts of cool things found on the web with Google.
  • Web Server Detection: These links demonstrate Google's awesome ability to profile web servers..
Surely there are unlimted ways to dig for data. I recommend using these as a starting point and 'hacking' your way to your own happiness, whatever that may be. And if it requires a password, chances are, you can find it using google...

Monday, July 03, 2006

RTE Radio shake-up and why we care

So, there seems to be some unrest in the Irish broadcasting world. I imagine time will tell whether the execs in charge of the shake-up will be remembered as geniuses or idiots. Competition brings out the best and worst in everyone, but if you don't pay the bills, you're out the door. That is for certain.

So, why do we care here at yojayy.blogspot.com? Ryan Tubridy is my first cousin. And besides, it was time time for a much needed break from "The 5-minute man" mania that has gripped this site for the past week.

(If you want to follow the link, you need to register with unison.ie. Of course, there's always
www.bugmenot.com).

RTE fears mass radio defections Sunday July 2nd 2006
FRANK KHAN

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The latest shake-up in RTE Radio, involving between 50 and 60 staff, sent shock waves through the station on Thursday and Friday when thosebeing moved were told of the changes "on the telephone by line managers".
But the decisions for the dramatic shake-up which has hit top programmes such as the Pat Kenny Show, Marian Finucane Show, Liveline and the Ryan Tubridy Show were taken by Managing Director of Radio, Adrian Moynes, and the new radio chief, Ana Leddy.
The latest changes come less than a month after Ms Leddy reshaped the Radio One schedule, controversially axing the arts programme Rattlebag and John Kelly's Mystery Train while relegating John Creedon to a late-night spot.
Ms Leddy joined RTE from BBC Radio Foyle less than five months ago and has quickly set about the shake-up which sources say has sent morale plummeting.
Worst hit by this week's changes was the Tubridy Show which has lost its entire backroom staff while the other programmes have had their staff of reporters andresearchers moved to other areas.
Among them was Tubridy's roving reporter Katriona McFadden - who is moving to the Dave Fanning Show .
Worried presenters will now find their shows short-handed even as they gear up to face what is expected to be aggressive Newstalk106 competition. The source added: "People were just told they were being taken off a programme and there is apparently no recourse. They've been scattered to the four winds."
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There was speculation that Eamon Keane would take over as producer of the Ryan Tubridy Show . He is understood to have been offered the position but turned it down. Keane has been presenting the popular Round Midnight programme.
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Last night Seamus Dooley, the Irish Secretary of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) said: "We have been disturbed at RTE's lack of consultation with the RTE Group of Unions. Changes could have been handled more sensitively and we have requested a meeting with Ms Leddy which is expected to take place in the next two weeks."