I hope this sequence of events is true. I really do. Could be the best thing Obama has ever done.
Author: Nathan Campbell
Nathan runs St Eutychus. He loves Jesus. His wife. His daughter. His son. His other daughter. His dog. Coffee. And the Internet. He is the pastor of City South Presbyterian Church, a church in Brisbane, a graduate of Queensland Theological College (M. Div) and the Queensland University of Technology (B. Journ). He spent a significant portion of his pre-ministry-as-a-full-time-job life working in Public Relations, and now loves promoting Jesus in Brisbane and online. He can't believe how great it is that people pay him to talk and think about Jesus. If you'd like to support his writing financially you can do that by giving to his church.
Obama: LOL Catz
A rivers runs through it
I love the Rivers clothing shop ads. I love how understated they are and how they bag out their own products. Particularly the latest ads for the $3.90 pairs of “Ugly” crocs. The whole family can be ugly together. Brilliant.
Epic fail
A few days ago in my post on coffee snobbery I mentioned that I liked the idea of rewiring my breadmaker so I wasn’t subject to it’s stupid cycles.
I had to wait half an hour for the motor to kick in and spin the beans. Now they won’t spin at all.
It sounded so easy on the website. Just add a wire here, a switch there. It wasn’t. I’ve killed the breadmaker (I think, I’m in the process of rewiring it again).
There was a spark, and a bang as the fuse blew when I turned it on for testing.
My soldering skills aren’t up to scratch and now I’m feeling a little light headed. In a rare moment of wisdom in this little episode I purchased the lead free solder. That could possibly have saved my life.
The breadmaker’s body, when you strip all the plastic off, is quite sharp. I now have cuts on my arms, the back of my hand and a nasty one right on an existing scar on my thumb.
The most annoying thing is the death of the breadmaker. Hopefully I’ll be able to fix it or replace it before the next batch of beans is due to be roasting.
If any of my readers have some electrical expertise and feel like coming around to take a look I’ll make them a coffee.
The best bits – February 7, 2009
Here's what has excited me from the blogosphere today.
- Fake Plastic Trees: Radiohead Leads the Rock ‘n Roll Green Movement
- #11.5% statistics
- How Starbucks Saved a Man’s Life
More stuff journalists like.
Fired, Divorced, Then Diagnosed with Brain Cancer… so he got a job at Starbucks. See, they’re not all bad. Right?
My Desk
WordPress has a widely reported glitch with third party posting software that strips angled brackets – < – these things – from incoming posts. So you didn’t get to see the photo of my spectacularly messy desk that I used in the test post before. So here it is. In all it’s glory. I can find most things on it when I need to…
Another Test
I’ve changed a setting. I tried showing off my messy desk last time. This time here’s a picture of one of the Townsville weirs (Aplins Weir) from this week.
Dear subscribers
I’m moving my feed over to feedburner. This appears to have broken the old feed.
But here’s a nice little link for you to use to update your feeds.
Not a subscriber? Maybe you should be, try Google Reader. It’s awesome.
Thanks for your patience.
White noise
There’s an odd white space appearing at the top of my blog at the moment. Can anyone else see it, or is it just me. Seem’s it’s working ok in Explorer. It’s just a Firefox thing.
Fixed. Hooray. Now all I need to do is figure out the Livewriter issue.
Now coming to you from Windows, Live
Nope, didn’t work. Let’s try again.
I am Robot
Admit it. You’ve always looked at Dr Evil with envy because of Mini Me. I know I have. A little me running around doing my bidding would be awesome. Especially if the “mini me” was every bit as funny as I am. And if they looked, and sounded, like me that would be extra awesome.
Well, your own army of robot minions is no longer an unattainable dream. Little Island, A Japanese company, is producing them upon request. No idea what it costs though. But here are the specs:
Features:
We produce the Look a Like Doll with the hand making.
The Look a Like Doll is able to make a speech in the person’s voice.
It is possible to talk over from the remote place to
the person who exists completely in front of the Look a Like Doll,
and to monitor it.
It is possible to use it as only LAN cable is connected with
the power cable, and the setting doesn’t exist.
The operation only turns on the power on/off switch and is OK.
Please call when you end, “Shutdown”. ”
Function
Voice recognition
It is possible to operate the Look a Like Doll using Voice recognition.
Voice synthesis
The Look a Like Doll synthesize the person’s voice, and it talks using the voice.
Remote Control
It talks from the destination with the person who exists completely in front of
the Look a Like Doll.
The appearance in the room etc. can be seen.
RSS reading out
The Look a Like Doll will tell you Today’s weather and fortune-telling, etc.
Specifications
☆ Shape
We will make Look a Like Dall for the customer’s hoped design.
The height is about 40cm.
☆ CPU
LX800（500MHz)(AMD Geode)
512MB DDR SDRAM
80GB Solid State Disk
10/100Base-TX Ethernet
☆ Software
WindowsXP（Ｍｉｃｒｏｓｏｆｔ）
ＡｌｉｆｅＥｎｇｉｎｅ
☆ Power Supply
ＡＣ１００－２４０Ｖ １．２Ａ
☆ Others
Camera：0.1M pixel CMOS sensor
Speaker：1W(0.5W+0.5W)(200Hz-20kHz)
World Wide Web
Hate spiders? Don’t go here. Otherwise check out this cool flash demonstration.
Awkward return
Imagine workplace “water cooler” conversations today at this Townsville workplace…
“so, used toilet paper lately?”
Background: this guy was originally sacked because his toilet hygiene was considered inappropriate. He used bottled water rather than paper for his ablutions. He’s back at work today after the company backed down.
When will she go away?
“Former US Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin is still mad at media coverage of her candidacy, particularly “anonymous, pathetic bloggers” who she says spread falsehoods about her.”
Guilty as charged. Although I’m not anonymous. And I don’t think anything I said was false. From the SMH.
“”If I were giving advice to myself back on the day my candidacy was announced, I’d say, ‘Tell the campaign that you’ll be callin’ some of the shots. Don’t just assume that they know you well enough to make all your decisions for ya,” Palin said.”
That would have been a real difference maker. She can’t open her mouth without sounding like an illiterate yokel.
“When I was in high school, my desire was to be a sportscaster,” she said. “Until I learned that you’d have to move to Bristol, Connecticut. It was far away. So instead, I had a daughter and named her Bristol.””
The best bits – February 6, 2009
Here's what has excited me from the blogosphere today.
- Once Again, The AP Tries To Redefine Fair Use; Goes After Shepard Fairey For Obama Poster
- Have You Ever Wondered How Much It Would Cost To Build Your Own Death Star? Hint: I Didn#39;t Even Know That Was A Real Number
- Emoticon from 1862?
- DIY IKEA Lack Lounge Room PC
- Authorities Warn Against Road Sign Hacking on Radio
- Hopside Down Glass Will Really Confuse You After a Few Beers
- A class on The Wire
- Cornify Lets You Add Rainbows and Unicorns to Any Site
- Running out of whys
- Handling Criticism: 6 Options to Get Through It
- The 5 Hardest Games in the Whole Wide World
- Use Butter To Keep Cheese Soft And Unspoiled
- Bus Wars: God Totally Exists, Say Christians To Atheists
- What where they thinking !
- Electronic Frontiers Australia spokesman receives death threat for opposing the Great Firewall of Australia
There are a couple of questions that spring to mind when I read a story like this. One, who knows the kind of facts used in this sentence:br(The Death Star has) a volume of 17.16 quadrillion cubic meters. At 1/10 volume, we’ll need 1.71 Quadrillion cubic meters of steel, weighing in at 134 quadrillion tonnes. In 2008 steel products, from wire to ingots were selling for an average of $962 per tonne, so our cost of steel alone is $12.95 quintillion.brTwo, who cares enough to research this bit:br(The Death Star has) a volume of 17.16 quadrillion cubic meters. At 1/10 volume, we’ll need 1.71 Quadrillion cubic meters of steel, weighing in at 134 quadrillion tonnes. In 2008 steel products, from wire to ingots were selling for an average of $962 per tonne, so our cost of steel alone is $12.95 quintillion.
Table PC – a good idea.
I’m very much looking forward to watching the Wire when my order from JB Hifi arrives. They were (and I’m not sure if they still are) selling them for $15.98 a season.
My brother-in-law Hilton asks a pertinent question regarding Bigpond. brI have to agree. Their page is hideous.
More stimulating discussion
“By contrast, new converts to Keynesianism, such as Rudd and Barack Obama, believe in a positive multiplier. They believe extra government spending, like handouts to those most likely to spend it, creates new income on top of the governmental spend, as the unemployed are put to work.
This process is brilliantly satirised by Norman Lindsay’s magic pudding, which freely recreates itself the more that is eaten. The magic pudding perfectly captures the unmet promises of Australian politicians.”
UNSW Professor of Finance Peter Swan in the SMH.
I probably tend to think this policy is a bad idea. But I want to have my cake and eat it too. How’s that for a mixed metaphor.
I would like the government to give me $950. It’s only fair after they taxed me to give all that money to other people.
But I think it’s a bad idea for them to give other people money. I suspect a large amount will be whacked into paying off debt or savings accounts. Which is a positive cultural turn.
Treasury secretary Ken Henry says the stimulus will work – and interest rates will still need to be lowered. At least I think that’s what I heard on the Today Show this morning. If we weren’t planning to become students again at some point in the future now would be a great time to buy. Although I think there’s more hurt for home prices to come.