so double the killer delete select all

It seems that Macrohard's Vista operating system is moving along quite well. At a demo for the voice-recognition software.

Instead of typing, "Dear mom," as Shanen Boettcher had instructed, the computer spurted out: "Dear aunt."

After the first round of chuckles, Boettcher said "Fix aunt," but the words, "let's set" appeared on the screen.

"Delete that," he said - three times to no avail before suggesting that an echo in the room was foiling the presentation.

The loudest laughs came after he told the computer to select all, which prompted it to finish the sentence it had started with the words: "so double the killer delete select all."

Link

I was reading this article thinking it sounded very familiar, well, here's why:



Fear not however, we all know how great Windows 98 turned out...that's why ME was so good, because it was based on the 98 framework. It was much more stable than the 2000-based XP.

/end sarcasm

Vista will drive people to Linux...I can see it now.

Muppet Goodness

Anything with Beaker AND Animal is gold:



Say goodbye to dull bananas:



Animal rules:



I wish I could get paid to watch things on YouTube all day...so much reminiscing!

Quebec City

You know how some places have so much hype surrounding them that when you get there, you're underwhelmed? Quebec City is not one of those places.

With all the things I heard leading up to this trip with people telling me how great the city was and how much I'll like it, I was fully expecting a letdown. I was clearly wrong.

The whole city (well, at least the parts I was in) has a certain energy that most modern cities try to artificially create. Our hotel was only a block or so from the St. Lawrence, and about five minutes down the road was a stretch of road with a couple dozen restaurants which were all basically sidewalk cafes. We ate at one on Monday night after we got in, and while the food wasn't anything special, the atmosphere surrounding the area was what I've imagined Europe would be like (never having been to Europe).

Tuesday night we were guided around parts of the city by one of our research colleagues who lives there, and he was able to show us some great things. The boardwalk, the old fortress-style walls in the city, everything was just so visually appealing. It's really hard to describe without pictures or actually being there.

The other thing that we noticed right away is that there are trees everywhere. Everything was so green and alive. There were parts of the Laval campus where you felt like you were walking through trails in a park. For the architecture fans, it seemed like every block presented something different. You would be a block away from the main commercial street in the area and you would feel completely isolated from it. No noise, no lights, as if you were in a small town.

If you ever get the chance to go to Quebec City, take it. And go for more than one day, because you'd need a week minimum to see everything.

YouTube + Boredom =

1337 Final Jeopardy Wager ... likely only the nerds in the audience will get this one.




The Ken Jennings you never thought you'd see:



Taking a huge crap (sorry, inside joke):



Peter Griffin rules:



Me fail english, that's unpossible:



A chicken is a bird, but a cow is an animal...I see:



PumpCast News:

I Hate Buzzwords!

I'm getting so sick of hearing and seeing all these damn buzzwords in every aspect of life. People use them, often having no idea what they mean, just to sound "with it".

One of the most popular ones right now in the tech field is "Mashup". Ever since Google Earth opened up their API (provided interfaces to the Google Maps software and databases), every few days I hear about a new "Mashup" for Google Earth.

Other buzzwords I'm sick of seeing

Paradigm, Synergy, Innovation...

Any others?

It's not a good sign...

when this is what shows on your ForecastFox toolbar:








That thermometer makes it look like you'll burst into flames just by stepping outside.

Sweet, Sweet Air Conditioning!

I loves me some air conditioning!

Big thanks to Matt for help with the ever technical install which included both cardboard and duct tape...I am Red Green after all :)

The thought of another 30+ degree weekend with no air conditioning in this heat box of an apartment didn't appeal to me, so I finally installed the damn thing.

YEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAW!

World Cup headbutt from different 'views'

This one's pretty amusing...it's different views on the Zinadine Zidane headbutt from last weekend's World Cup final. They shed some light on the situation...

Linkety

----------------------

UPDATE!


I just stumbled on this video, not sure if it came before the previous one or after, but the video is much more entertaining, and features appearances from the likes of Street Fighter's E. Honda and Ryu, MC Hammer, along with many other 'versions' of the headbutt. And to top it off, it's set to a delightful Benny Hill soundtrack.

Free Slurpee Day!

Need to cool off? Head down to your nearest 7-11 and pick up a free slurpee. They're uber tiny (7.11 oz, or 210 mL in normal people units), but they're free nonetheless.

Oh, and if you don't know why they're free, check the calendar.

Rice Lake 2006 - In Pictures

Let's set the tone early with the first thing we did after unpacking the cars and going grocery shopping. The beer fridge:


And the vodka-melon. Mmmm....vodka-melon....



This is when I named the cabin "Slanty":







Oh captain, my captain...where are we?



Random boat scenery:



Including the road to nowhere:



And the gazebo where we scared all the fisherman away the last night we were there:



More boat scenery:



Our pontoon boat, with one improvement. Arrrr!





This is by far the greatest town name of all time. So much so that I had to take a picture, no one would have believed me otherwise. Just past this town was a fluorescent yellow sign that said "CAUTION. HIGH ACCIDENT INTERSECTION." I took a picture, but it didn't turn out well enough to read the text. Those are the types of signs that make you feel safe.



All over the inside of the cabin people had carved their names and the year they stayed, so we continued the tradition by carving near where we slept:



And near where we sat. The arrow pointing to my chair underneath was a hit:



And the beer watched my chair while I was off carving up the walls:



I was trying to take a picture with my carving, when Steph decided to interfere. It's just as well, you can't see the carving anyway.



We also made one other very important carving:



Here are some pictures of Slanty from the inside, including our beautiful sleeping quarters:



Along with a prime example of why the square was invented, and why it should be used when constructing walls:



And window frames:



Exposed wiring always makes you feel safe, especially when it's in the ceiling of your room. Although to be fair, the entire ceiling had exposed wiring.



The night we scared the fishermen away from the gazebo. I guess this was Jay's birthday present for Matt:



Note, I'm not squinting because I'd been drinking, but because I'd been in about 20 pictures that night and the flash had destroyed my eyeballs. Matt, on the other hand, was trashed :)



This picture still gives me nightmares:



And you have to end with a nice group shot. Well, it would have been nice had the timer worked and Jay had been able to get into the picture, and if Matt wasn't staring at the ceiling, and if Steph wasn't staring out the window.



Good times.

Rice Lake 2006

Ahh, vacation. How I needed you.

There's nothing like a week of doing nothing to recharge your batteries. I guess I shouldn't say we did nothing. We went to the chocolate factory...we went boating a lot...we imbibed the occasional adult beverage. Though the real star of the week was the cabin itself, which I started calling "Slanty" after seeing it from the outside. When I post pictures you'll understand.

We also played games...poker, asshole, this cool dvd game where you shout out answers to questions about music or tv. We also tried the "Dark Side of Oz" thing where you sync up Dark Side of the Moon to The Wizard of Oz. I always figured that this was just some stoner myth or something, but I must say there are some really strange coincidences between the music and the movie. I still think it's only a coincidence, but it's still worth doing. The best part was when we were outside the next morning and the guys from the cabin next door said to us "Next time you guys jam to Floyd, crank that shit up!".

It was a weekend without incident, except for the drive home when some degenerate decided to almost kill Jay and I. Yes, it's time to rant about driving, but I feel I'm justified.
We're driving along in moderately heavy traffic having just come through Toronto. I'm clicking along in the far left lane at 120, just going with the flow of traffic. I check my rear view mirror and see this prick in a silver 300M come flying toward me going probably 135. He gets so close to my rear end that I can't even see his headlights or the grill on the front of his car. There's traffic to my right so I can't get out of his way, so I figured I'd try and get him to back off a little bit by dropping down to 115 hoping he'd get the message (not by hitting the brakes, just by slowly letting up on the gas - had I even tapped the brakes he would have hit me which is why I wanted him to back off). I slow down, and he does too but he still stays as close as he was. Once there was an opening to my right I was about to get out of his way when he pulls into it (without signalling), passes me on the right, and pulls back into my lane (again without signalling) and comes so close to my front bumper that I actually cringed and braced myself for an accident. Right as he gets in my lane, before I'd had a chance to get some distance between us, he SLAMS ON HIS BRAKES (with no one in front of him) then floors it and takes off. Man, I've never been so pissed at another driver. Jay and I were yelling and screaming things at him, I damn near punched the steering wheel, and Jay put down his window and flipped the guy off.

He got a little bit ahead of us and started riding the next guy's tail and had to keep hitting the brakes because he refused to slow down. Watching this, I actually screamed "I hope your ________ brakes fail", and I'm not one to swear very often. Man, I'm pissed off again just thinking about it.

Luckily I have good memories of the vacation itself to make me happy again. Pictures to follow tomorrow.