An Amazing Bird Formation

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?cl=8704649

I believe the link on Yahoo! indicated that this was a flock of Starlings. I just find it remarkable how they move around like some kind of amalgam jellyfish! Nature is just wild!

Johnny Chung Lee Creates "Minority Report" Effect with Wii Remote

So this is pretty neat.



Since I work at a company that makes input devices, this does make me wonder if we'd better think about trying to hire this guy...

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/projects/wii/

This one...not so much

I just heard today that there is a company selling a product that claims to counteract entropy. Why just rehydrate and replace all those lost electrolytes when you can instead just ingest a few drops of this libation and "create order out of chaos"?

This is either condescension in its purest form or brilliant marketing.

I really, really need to get one of these

The article at the other end of this link describes a 3D "printer".

I can't even begin to count the number of times where something like this would have come in incredibly handy! Not just for work, but the various broken battery casings and lost bits and pieces that currently force me to do a crappy hack job.

The moment that somebody finds a cheap and effective way to make these devices for the home consumer market, then they will truly take over the world. If nothing else, it will give duct tape a run for its money...

Are Wii Having Fun Yet?

Alright, so the title is a little cheesy, but what can I say...I'm hooked...


I have heard about the Wii for quite a while now, and by all appearances it is a hit. In particular, the Wii Sports games are the hottest item, specifically the tennis game. I have wanted to try it out for as long as I've known about it, but this has been difficult thus far because (1) Wii is not yet available for sale in Taiwan and (2) when it is eventually released, it will probably be the Japanese version.


At present, the only way to get the Wii is through local importers that buy them in Japan and bring them over for sale in Taiwan. Many of my colleagues have been chomping at the bit for Wii, and thus given the recent delays and shortages, they finally decided to take the plunge and just buy one of these imported models.


It was thus that a Wii appeared in our conference room just after lunch today, along with an extra controller and the Wii Sports game pack. When I found out what was going on, I was suddenly struck with both fear and excitement. I was excited to be able to finally try this sucker out, and afraid that I would like it as much as I thought I might.


Turns out that I was not disappointed on either count...


After about 30 minutes of playing both the tennis game and the boxing game, I consider myself a believer. My arms are tired, and my back is tight, yet I keep finding myself glancing back towards the conference room of temptation. I have boatloads of work to do, and yet I still catch my mind drifting back towards getting another crack at the tennis game.


This will sound like crazy talk and thinly veiled justification, but I really think that this will actually help the workplace be more production. All of the boys in the office are naturally hooked as well, but we are all showing self restraint in playing during work hours (thus far). Folks have only gone back to play for a few minutes at a time during their breaks as kind of a reward for cranking through the tasks that they had on their plate. I for one have found myself more focused and efficient because I am motivated to get done so that I can go back and play without too much guilt. Plus, it's a fun group activity, it really (REALLY) is pretty good exercise, and it brings an element of fun into the office that raises morale.


I just hope it does not cause any incidents with folks slacking when they should not be, which I really doubt will be a problem. I'm guessing this will pretty much have the same effect that the foozball table at our headquarters had on the office - good fun during breaks, but generally not an issue.

Pirates of the North China Seas

Holee crap!!!

From Slashdot:

"Whilst Microsoft was bragging about the sales number of their latest OS Windows Vista, few would actually know that they have only managed to sell 244 copies in the whole of China in the first 2 weeks. You heard that right, and that's the number quoted from the headquarters of the Windows Vista chief (90% national volume) distributor in Beijing."

I would have been shocked if they had claimed 2440 copies...this is just ridiculous!

I guess I really shouldn't be surprised since it is possible to buy US$1 DVDs of movies pretty much anywhere in China...

...the day after it comes out in the US...

...often weeks before it even reaches the Chinese movie theaters...

I've actually watched a couple during long business trips to China (cheaper than Blockbuster), and the main difference is that the quality just gets better as the bootlegs improve. Eventually, the DVD starts to near DVD quality until the day that it gets released on DVD, at which point it's pretty much over.

Enterprising capitalists never fail to impress!

This just gives me the willies

The following headline caught my eye:

Japan drafts their own version of robot ethics

I don't know about everybody else, but seeing this sort of news just makes me nervous. It might have to do with the fact that we're quickly gaining on the so-called "not-too-distant future", and such laws are now seeming like an awfully good idea.

I wonder how long it will be before our new robot overlords start to pass their own laws on human ethics.

But doesn't this almost defeat the point???

I just received an offer in my Amazon.com "gold box" that made me wonder if the company that makes this is either clueless or genius when it comes to understanding their target demographic for their product.

Below is an excerpt from the blurb on the Amazon website, presumably with content provided by Taylor:

Experience an easier body fat scale with no bending over or lifting the scale up off the floor to program. The simple, easy-to-detach wireless remote can be held easily in the hands, making programming and reading your body fat and weight readings effortless.

Seriously, if you can't be bothered to bend over or squat to program the scale to check your body fat percentage, then how much could you really care about the reading?

Excellent new Japanese workout program

I found this and thought it was too incredible to keep to myself.

http://blogs.forbes.com/digitaldownload/2007/03/mr_incredible.html

Beer Dispensing Machine

This is a little gem that I just wanted to share with everybody - the Incredible Beer Dispensing Machine!

The first time I saw this was during a layover en route to Asia. The United Red Carpet Club in the Tokyo-Narita airport had a few of these sitting next to the soft drink and coffee dispensers. At first, I wasn't sure about exactly what it was I was looking at. I stood there and stared at this machine for a good 30 seconds before a fellow traveller walked up next to me, pulled a frozen glass out of the freezer next to the machine, loaded it up and pushed the beer button.

At this point, I heard the heavenly chorus, cherubs descended sprinkling laurels and rose petals, and a bright spotlight came on from up above. I had just witnessed my first automatic beer machine!!!

The way it works is simple:

1. Place the chilled glass onto the small stand
2. Press the button with the beer icon
3. The machine tilts the stand at a 30 degree angle and starts to pour in the beer
4. When it is 4/5 full, the machine then tilts the stand back to the starting position and pours in ~1.5 inches of head
5. Remove the beer from the stand
6. Enjoy a perfectly poured frosty Japanese beer

There really isn't any better way to pass the time in an airport...

Silly math comic that fascinates me for some reason...

I can't really say why I like this comic, but it cracks me up somehow.

http://www.xkcd.com/c135.html

Maybe it's because, on some level, I'm convinced that I can solve the problems pretty easily.

Besides, you never know when you'll encounter a raptor.

This can't be right...

China heralds year of the fluorescent green pig

BEIJING (Reuters Life!) - Chinese scientists have successfully bred partially green fluorescent pigs which they hope will boost stem cell research, Xinhua news agency said.

A research team at the Northeast Agricultural University in Harbin managed to breed three transgenic pigs by injecting fluorescent green protein into embryonic pigs, Xinhua quoted Professor Liu Zhonghua as saying.

"The mouth, trotters and tongue of the pigs are green under ultraviolet light," said Liu.
Genetic material from jellyfish was injected into the womb of a sow which gave birth to the three pigs 114 days later in Harbin, he said.

China celebrates the start of the Year of the Pig in February.


...I really don't know how to react to this...