Nick Burns Your Company's Computer Guy!

Somehow my blog dropped a previous posting I made to this website showing some great Nick Burns clips. Hopefully this one will stay.

Dee @ Shaw ROCKS

Nice! I finally had a good experience calling my Internet provider (Shaw Cable Systems). I've been waiting for ages (okay, a couple months but it FEELS like foreever) to find out why I haven't been transferred to a higher speed connection as I requested back in November. After 4 unanswered emails I decided to call and wait for tech support to call me back.

When I hear from Shaw I'm used to "professional", stale, boring, faceless, corporate personalities on the other end.

This time I was lucky enough to speak with Dee. She was unprofessional, easy to speak with, hilarious, personable, a little quirky and SHE TOTALLY MADE A BAD THING GOOD.

As of NOW my Internet connection is almost 3x faster than it was before speaking with Dee. Turns out one of her (less qualified, less personable) co-workers put me on an enhanced telephone service instead of an enhanced Internet service. Easy mistake? I'm guessing not.

Dee. I encourage you to send the link to this blog to your boss to let him/her know how much I appreciate your help tonight. You were one of the most helpful, well spoken and personable tech support people I've ever spoken with. For real. I think that says a lot since I've been in the computer industry for nearly 15 years (like you).

Thanks a bunch, Dee. You made my day.

The Sith Sense

A beautiful piece of programming - care of Burger King?!
The Sith Sense

Vader actually got my first one (an orange) but "a woman" apparently stumped him. Maybe the burn torched his privates a bit too much?

Redwire DLX

This site suggests that Levi's will be making a new line of jeans that

will include an iPod cradle sewn into a pocket on the hip

and more...
Who's going to be the first to get me a pair!?

Einstein's 'spooky action' seen on a chip

Wow. We're living in a science fiction movie.

New Scientist Breaking News - Einstein's 'spooky action' seen on a chip

What ... a ... retard

David Hasslehoff singing Hooked on a feeling.
Has he no shame?

Wild Ride

50 Fun Things To Do With Your iPod

Some great ideas! I'm still chuckling about piPod.

50 Fun Things To Do With Your iPod (kottke.org)

One Lucky Deer Video

This guy is the worst hunter EVER.

FM Tuner for the iPod

About time! Didn't I write about this earlier?

Ah yes, I did

Burned CDs Last 5 years Max

This isn't good news - I could have sworn I read that they might last as long as 10 years a while back.

Quick Laugh

I felt the need to share a quote my Dad just sent me:

When a woman wears leather clothing
A man's heart beats quicker,
his throat gets dry,
he goes weak in the knees,
and he begins to think irrationally.

Ever wonder why?

Because she smells like a new truck.

Want a Cool and Quiet PC?

Dunk it in Oil

(complete with video)

Let them sing it for you

My buddy Jeff sent me a link to this cool site.
Click here and when you arrive, you can type in some words and the site will play them back for you.
You'll see what I mean...

Google Pack

Now THIS (Google Pack) could have saved me a lot of time while configuring a new machine.
Its still a bit green, but I LOVE the idea. It'd be great if we could customize the software in the package.
This kind of thing would convince me to blow away and re-install Windows more than once every year or so.
I know my buddy Jan is gasping at that 'cause he apparently does it every couple of WEEKS.

SharpReader RSS Aggregator

My good buddy Jeff asked me a good question tonight: "What do you use for an RSS client?" For what its worth, I'm using SharpReader RSS Aggregator. Does everything I want.

Now that we're on the topic, here are some good feeds:

• Official Google Blog
  Speaks for itself, so I'm not sure why I'm adding this...
• IronSpace
  Do you need to ask?
• Joel on Software
  Smart, smart guy running this site. Sharing his experience working in our industry
• Twit
  GREAT podcasts
• PeekJ's Blank Blatherings
  A buddy of mine runs this site - he knows his stuff and finds GREAT stuff out there
• Snicker
  Something for the boys
• Bastardly
  Hilarious write-ups about stuff happening in the entertainment world
• Dvorak
  One of the most well known tech-writers today (and for a while now)
  (also a contributor to the TWIT podcasts I mention above)
• Wired
  Really interesting science articles from this site
• CNet News
  See above
• Slashdot
  More hi-tech, but still great articles to help keep us up to speed with our fast moving industry

WMF Vulnerbility

UPDATE:
Microsoft (wisely) released a patch for this vulnerbility 5 days ahead of schedule so don't bother what's below.
Why are you reading this? Didn't you just hear what I said? Eeesh.

---

If you're running Windows and you're reading this before January 10, your computer is potentially at risk for a creepy new attack on the Internet.

You really should read this article.

Attack of the Rat Monster

This is the best prank I've seen ... EVER.

Poker chip tricks

I'm going to have to learn some of these before our next game.

March of the Penguins

This was an absolutely fantastic film. Some of the most amazing cinematrography I've ever seen.