I like the way this guy talks...

There is something about the plain speech saturated with fact and reason that makes me agree with this commentary.

Carefull!

Wiimotes as multitouch whiteboard sensors

Johnny Lee's description of "Low-Cost Multi-point Interactive Whiteboards Using the Wiimote" may sound boring, but it's actually a very cool and very innovative use of the Wiimote. Since you can hook the controller up to your computer and accept inputs using the Wiimote library interface, you can use its infrared sensors to detect and track infrared light on any kind of surface.

Awesome commercial!

AOL News Presents… Where Are They Now? - Funny blooper videos are here

This Generation of Students

I came across this video while playing with youtube on my ipod. It has a pretty powerful message. I recommend you watch it and leave a comment.

Poli(ticks)

Poli-ticks : from the greek root Poly, meaning many and ticks, meaning blood suckers.

I just wanted to make known that posting the Ron Paul thing on my page does NOT necessarily mean I am voting for him or support him. I just really like the idea that a libertarian has infiltrated the Republican party and is really pissing people off like Hannity!

I have some reservations on some of the things he supports (like how the hell do you have a monetary standard in an economy when 0s and 1s are the primary tender?) But I think he can refresh (or scare) the republican party quite a bit.

Also, on the local side.. after looking into school vouchers, I decided to support the opposition. I don't like the idea that public taxes could potentially benefit a private religious school.

Ron Paul - The R[EVOL]UTION

~~~ UPDATE ~~~

Remember remember the 5th of november....

iPod touch

I have been thinking of getting an iPod touch but they seem expensive! So I am playing with a demo to see how useful it is in browser mode. So, to impress you with the features I wrote this whole post on one.

The worst part of Halloween.

The very worst part of Halloween is:


Once its over, people think its okay to start playing CHRISTMAS MUSIC!!
People! Its CHRISTMAS MUSIC! Not FALL/WINTER music!!

If they start playing that stuff in my store earlier than two weeks before Christmas, I am deciding its time to have some very loud game or movie demos playing in my department.

There, I said it.

Church ordered to pay $10.9 million for funeral protest

Original Text http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/10/31/funeral.protests.ap/index.html

BALTIMORE, Maryland (AP) -- A grieving father won a nearly $11 million verdict Wednesday against a fundamentalist Kansas church that pickets military funerals in the belief that the war in Iraq is a punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.

A member of Westboro Baptist Church protests outside a veteran's hospital in Maywood, Illinois, in April 2006.

Albert Snyder of York, Pennsylvania, sued the Westboro Baptist Church for unspecified damages after members demonstrated at the March 2006 funeral of his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq.

The jury first awarded $2.9 million in compensatory damages. It returned later in the afternoon with its decision to award $6 million in punitive damages for invasion of privacy and $2 million for causing emotional distress.

U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett noted the size of the award for compensating damages "far exceeds the net worth of the defendants," according to financial statements filed with the court.

Church members routinely picket funerals of military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, carrying signs such as "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "God hates fags."

A number of states have passed laws regarding funeral protests, and Congress has passed a law prohibiting such protests at federal cemeteries.

But the Maryland lawsuit is believed to be the first filed by the family of a fallen serviceman.

The church and three of its leaders -- the Rev. Fred Phelps and his two daughters, Shirley Phelps-Roper and Rebecca Phelps-Davis, 46 -- were found liable for invasion of privacy and intent to inflict emotional distress.

Snyder claimed the protests intruded upon what should have been a private ceremony and sullied his memory of the event.

The church members testified they are following their religious beliefs by spreading the message that the deaths of soldiers are due to the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.

Their attorneys argued in closing statements Tuesday that the burial was a public event and that even abhorrent points of view are protected by the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech and religion.

The judge said the church's financial statements, sealed earlier, could be released to the plaintiffs.

Earlier, church members staged a demonstration outside the federal courthouse.

Church founder Fred Phelps held a sign reading "God is your enemy," while Shirley Phelps-Roper stood on an American flag and carried a sign that read "God hates fag enablers."

Members of the group sang "God Hates America" to the tune of "God Bless America."

Snyder sobbed when he heard the verdict, while members of the church greeted the news with tightlipped smiles. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

1 out of 10

I got a text yesterday as I was leaving work that said I was one of ten people who, in a drawing, were selected as finalists for a campus wide contest. It is being sponsored by the Ken Garff dealership, the University of Utah School of Business, and Spring Wireless. I went to a meeting downtown today to go over the rules and sign a release to have my likeness used in promotions. Its kinda scary, I've helped out on many campus events that have included drawings and prizes, but I've never BEEN in one.

So Thursday October 18 around 10:30 I will be in a group of 9 other students with a key. One of the keys will alarm a 2007 Saab sports coup (Its for a 1 year lease not too keep the car). The second prize will be a $2,500 Scholarship. I told the other participants if I win the car I will trade them for the scholarship haha.

20% of the group will walk away with some pretty valuable prizes, but we were all told we will get some trinkets and consolidation prizes for our time. I'm already excited just to be a part of it, and I'm totally alright seeing any of the other cool students I met win.

How can the Sky make strangers talk to each other?

Rachel and I went to Smith's Marketplace today to shop for a few things. Took us a while in the self check out because some of the stuff was not ringing up correctly. There were people in line waiting and the kiosk clerk looked like she was getting tired of everyone. I don't blame her, she must see a lot of 'eccentric' people all day long. When we finally finished our purchases we walked out and saw an AMAZING cloud formation right up against the mountain. The photo does not do it justice. It almost looked like the sky was on fire. I pull out my camera and hold it up just as I look to my left and see four other people all holding their camera phones up doing the same thing. I snapped a few pictures playing with the light adjust to try to get the color to show up right. Rachel and I walk toward the truck to put the groceries in and I turn back to see people exiting the Smiths and stopping and pointing, all gathering in the forming line of camera phone picture takers. But when I look above the Smiths I saw another amazing sky. The sky was a very rich cobalt blue with high contrast multi-tone orange and grey clouds. I walked over to the line of people to tell them to look behind them and they all turned with camera phones prone to capture the sight behind them. Everyone just started talking to each other at once like they knew each other and I left to walk back to the truck. Rachel was putting Elizabeth into the truck and I turned to take more pictures when a guy about my age stopped and started commenting to me on how neat the sky looked. We talked a little bit and he mentioned he was unfortunate not to have a camera phone himself. I had to break off conversation so I could help Rachel with the groceries. As we were driving back home I thought: Its interesting how many people we see everyday. We walk through crowds while shopping and going about our lives. We live in communities that make so much possible but its rare we actually engage ourselves in the community. It took an impressive sky to make strangers talk to each other. When its done we continue on our way and thing nothing of it. And if it was a common place occurrence we'd not even allow it to affect us. But I was grateful for the opportunity to share the sky with strangers today.


Here are the photos of the Event

Wii

I got myself a birthday gift. I'm not much of a console gamer, I usually prefer computer games just because they allow a lot more modification and diversity. But lately I've been wanting something that I can play socially with friends who actually live around me as opposed to my World of Warcraft friends who most of which I've never met. So I finaly got a Nintendo Wii. I set it up yesterday. It was very easy, even setting it up to connect to the wireless router, which is two floors up! I grabbed Rachel and we played some laser hockey, she kicked my butt :) I can even picture myself playing this with my parents haha.

Eventually I hope to get two more controllers (to make 4) so I can take it to friends' houses and play. If anyone has any suggestions for games let me know. Till then I will save up to get these few:

Mario Kart Wii (2008)

Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Christmas 2007)

Excite Truck

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess *BOUGHT* This is a great game!

Chill out a sec!

I think we all have days when we feel like this:

eeeek!

$4140.00The Cadaver Calculator - Find out how much your body is worth. From Mingle2 - Dating Site

Mingle² - Dating Site

Currently the best ever candybar...

We recently starting carrying the 3 Musketeers Mint at our store and they are GREAT! Find them and eat them. You'll love em.

Stupid in America

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out

This is a discussion with the late Richard Feynman. He is the author of one of my favorite books (QED- Quantum Electro Dynamics) and was an amazing teacher of all things scientific.

The Worth of a Water Buffalo

When what the last time you made someone cry from happiness? When was the last time you did something for someone they could never have done for themselves?

Stan Meyer - hydrogen oxygen ( HHO )

The Enemies of Reason

I have tremendous respect for Richard Dawkins. As I am a biologist by nature, I admire the way we can speak on the topic of biology with a respect and excitement that till now, I've only seen in the religious when speaking of their faith. Dawkins is not admired by everyone, in fact he is targeted by many as an enemy to their religious beliefs because he makes no compromise to his views to make them more comfortable. I actually respect that, because NOBODY should have to compromise their beliefs to make another comfortable. (With respect for Rachel's recent post I must point out this is only the case when the beliefs of one do not cause unavoidable harm to another human) I understand there are religious people in this world, and I understand there are non-religious people in this world. And saying that, I think they can co-exist just fine once they both start acting like adults.

Here is Dawkin's latest program shown on Brittish Television: The Enemies of Reason (in two parts)

Part 1


Part 2

Semester opening, the Christmas season of the campus.

Instead of ornaments and wrapping paper its binders, varying subject notebooks and "USED" stickers peppering the book spines in the crowded text isles. This semester was like any other fall semester in the country. Thousands of new students with wide eyes see campus for the first time, while the returning students have met up with already established friends and make straight lines from building to building in an already familiar campus.

Seeing a semester opening at the University of Utah surprises me every time. We always think we are completely prepared, and we never are. Professors missed adoption time lines, this means the books they want does not make buyback, which means less inexpensive used books are available, meaning the bookstore gets criticized. (By the way, if you want to complain about expensive books write a letter to Barnes and Noble, who averages 50% on their margins, not a college text department that makes <25%). This year, something was messed up in the enrollment system. Either that or students waited till the last minute to enroll in every class. Since we use this information to buy books for the class, we depend on history patterns and 'intuition' to make sure we don't order too many or too few books, in which both cases the cost of the books are increased either because we have to rush more books in, or pay to send extras back. This time, every class was short on books. My math class had no homework this weekend because our book was sold out and the sorry asses who didn't bother to get the book till it was too late complained to the teacher.

Just a day into semester opening the credit card system went down. I found out by email it was a front end processor back east that crashed and 140 college store were affected. Imagine that, 140 universities across the country during the busiest season of the year have NO credit cards and no debit cards. This lasted all of Tuesday. I'd have to say our staff was AMAZING though. Everyone stepped up, everyone helped every customer, I even heard one customer started to get annoyed at the number of times he was offered help! haha. There were jokes made to keep the mood light. Everyone showed their amazing talents, and we all made it through the tough spots, even if a little delusional from the experience. At one point I was taking a stack of books from the service desk back to shelve in the text section. I wanted to arrange them on my way in order of section I knew I'd be walking through when I lost my coordination on two of the big texts crashed to the floor. Once I noticed the book that landed face up I started laughing out loud. It was the text "Motor Control".

I will try to update this post with more. Till then, happy Fall Semester!

This semester opening has been fun.

Dynamic Photo Re-sizing (Scene Carving)

I can see a lot of practical applications for this technology.

I'd love to work here:

Lip Dub - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger from amandalynferri and Vimeo.

Why can't more companies be like this? I guess its another reason being a nerd pays off.


The CV Office from Jon Feldman and Vimeo.

And of course there is the Googleplex

Ban di-hydrogen monoxide!

We MUST ban di-hydrogen monoxide! Watch this video to become INFORMED





This brings up an interesting point.. are people more interested in supporting a cause than the cause itself? As a buyer in the retail world, I learn that if you attach a cause to something, people participate. If you order any color shoulder bag and try to sell it, you rely on the functionality of the bag for people to weigh cost vs. need vs. want. Order a shoulder bag with a little pink ribbon on it, and tell people its for breast cancer awareness, and all the sudden the equation changes. The cost is less of an issue, the need is unchanged, and the want increases. People buy it, regardless of how much actually makes it to the cause!


It makes me less likely to respect the validity of the infamous "Save Tibet" bumper sticker. What is complaining about saving Tibet on your Prius's bumper going to do about it? Raise awareness? NO. Make people think you are world conscious? Thats the idea. Forget the fact that China has brought food and organized education to Tibet. Or the fact that previous to occupation Tibet was pretty much in feudalism with the religious power oppressing a serfdom of laborers. But in the words of Penn and Teller on the subject, "the lesser of two evils, is still evil".


My point is, people need to stop and think about what they actually support, and what they are willing to do for it. Here is another example of how easily people are taken advantage of: