a gthing science project

Posted by Sam at January 25th, 2007

Instruction for use:
Below you will find a link to a file which contains 10 songs and some awesome custom compilation album artwork for iTunes. I will not name the songs here (for fear of a lawsuit). If the link does not work, then you got here too late - the songs will only be made available for a few days.

These songs are hand picked by me, and will change your life. They are awesome. Hopefully they are from new bands that you’ve never heard of, and you’ll at least love one of these songs enough to go seek more music from that artist. Thanks for this compilation goes to Jake, Cameron, Brikon, Dean, and Oli for various and sundry reasons.

Do not, under any circumstances, listen to these songs until you are in the proper mood. Fun exciting times aren’t the times for this music. Fun exciting times are times for fun exciting music that you’re already familiar with. Don’t listen to these songs when you’re busy and cannot devote a discerning ear to them. Do not listen to these songs when you’re in a hurry, or don’t have time to devote to listening to an entire song and gaining an appreciation for it.

I repeat: DO NOT LISTEN TO THESE SONGS UNTIL YOU’RE IN THE NEW SONG LISTENIN’ MOOD. Otherwise, their life changing properties might pass you by, never giving you a second thought.

The best time to listen to new music is when you’re slightly depressed, your significant other just broke up with you, or you just had a hard day at work and need to unwind. In the car is good. Burn them to a CD or throw them on your iPod and wait for the right time. If you get poisoned against this music because you listened at the wrong time, it’s your own fault.

So there it is. Please leave some comments and let me know what you think. Enjoy.

(LINK REMOVED) Sorry folks, should’ve gotten here quicker! Stay tuned for volume 2.

Posted by Sam at January 24th, 2007

Flying, laser vision, super strength - those are all old hat. I mean, every super hero can do those. If a super hero doesn’t want to follow the crowd, he should cultivate one of these super powers:

Slam Dunking

Think about it! A super hero who can slam dunk can do just about anything. I’m talkin’ kiss the rim, twiser, windmill, toss slam, Dr. J. Jam, skim the rim, back slam, statue of liberty, air jordan, and the 2 handed hammer. If an evil villain throw a bowling ball with a candle sticking out of it, you can slam dunk it right back into his face.

The ability to blow up the world

When all else fails, you can win any battle by blowing up the world.

Extra fingers

With extra fingers, you can play the piano like a madman. The one downfall is if you get caught by an evil doer who tortures people by cutting off their fingers one by one. It could take a while, and would result in extra pain for you.

Low price radar

Falling prices at Wal*Mart? The ability to detect where one can get the lowest prices locally on goods and services would be a godsend. Your arch nemesis would be a bargain hunter who has to go store to store the old fashioned way.

Jedi phone powers

Every time you have to talk to your cellphone company, your doctor, or any other bill collector who is trying to rip you off, you could activate your Jedi phone powers and convince them that you either don’t exist, you’re not the droid they are looking for, or that you simply don’t owe them any money. Jedi phone power man is good at finding loopholes and threatening lawsuits. He’s also good for getting retail stores to take things back without a restocking fee.

Posted by Sam at January 22nd, 2007

If you don’t know what the title of this article says, then you definitely need to brush up on your l33t speak. But that is beyond the focus of this article. Today we’re going to be talking about chat room shortcuts - acronyms that convey your thoughts quickly. These are universally understood so that anyone in a chat room can understand you quickly without the need for too much typing.

You might be familiar with some of the basics:

LOL = Laughing Out Loud (Beginner)
BRB = Be Right Back (Beginner)
JK = Just Kidding (Beginner)
IMHO = In My Honest Opinion (Intermediate)

Here are some that you might not be as familiar with, but are in common use among the most l33t of all chat room chatters. Throw these down, and people will know you talk the talk:

IHAOL = I Hate AOL
MMWLM = My Mom Won’t Let Me
DWAIGGBTTMBGCDBILY = Dude, When Am I Going To Get Back That They Might Be Giants CD I Lent You?
WWOWMCD = What Would Oscar Winner Michael Caine Do?
ROTFLOLATSWKV = Rolling On The Floor Laughing Out Loud At This Star Wars Kid Video
INAHFOPC = I’m Not A Huge Fan Of Phil Collins
PCIO = Phil Collins Is Okay
IADAAW = I Am Dressed As A Woman

Sometimes I like to throw these out in regular everyday conversation to see which of my friends understand, thereby detecting who is leading a secret double life as a l33t h4×0r by night.

Posted by Sam at January 20th, 2007

Saint Petersburg Florida cops invaded a “tent city” built by homeless people and, armed with box cutters, cut every tent to shreds as their occupants watched in shock.

The police wouldn’t give much reason other than the tents were a fire hazard because people might be smoking in them.

Phew … I’m glad that fire hazard is removed, now all those people can die of exposure instead.

Posted by Sam at January 18th, 2007

I have obtained a small preview of part of Vocal Point’s upcoming album slated to be released sometime this fall.

Their all-voice reproduction of the THX sound you hear at the beginning of movies is absolutely amazing. Click play below.

Read about how the actual THX sound (AKA Deep Note) is made here. It’s actually really interesting.

This is posted with permission from Vocal Point. Thanks Jimmy D.

Posted by Sam at January 17th, 2007

I just noticed something interesting on Google. Upon searching for “USB to PCMCIA” I noticed the first result showed “2 visits” next to it. Wondering what this could be, I clicked on the page and then went back and reloaded the google page. It now said “3 visits.”

I tried it again, but the counter remained at 3. My other computer isn’t showing this, is it possible they are rolling something out on select data centers?

It’s possible that it is some extension or something I have installed, but how is it counting other hits? Just while sitting here it went up to 4 hits. Then I reloaded again and it went back down to 3.

I restarted my browser, disabling a few extensions I thought might be causing it, and it went away. It now shows normally. I re-enabled my extension and restarted firefox again, and it still shows normally - no counter. Can anyone else see this or confirm that it is happening?

Posted by Sam at January 14th, 2007

Whenever people refer to downloading music as stealing, I think to myself (and sometime out loud) copyright infringement is not stealing. It is not theft, and never was. People only call it that because of a mass campaign headed by the RIAA. Anyway, this Slashdot poster said it better than I can:

“Copyright infringement is not theft. The most obvious and conspicuous difference is that the former is civil and the latter criminal law. This has vast implications vis-a-vis the manner in which suit is brought, the possible penalties for the defendant, and the burden on the plaintiff. Another huge difference is that the latter involves denying the owner the use of an asset whereas the former involves unlawfully creating/distributing copies of a work. Copyright infringement and theft are not even closely related issues, and it’s impossible to discuss them usefully without realizing that.”

Posted by Sam at January 10th, 2007

I’ve been talking about the iPhone for about as long as the rumors have been flying. I hoped and hoped for the iPhone from Apple, and now they have announced it.

For those of you still not in the know, the iPhone is revolutionary enough to turn the entire cell phone industry upside down. Apple is really pushing the envelope here and other companies will have to adapt or die. It’s available on Cingular only (or will be in June) and I see a mass exodus of people who want the new phone. One need only visit the Cingular or Apple website to know what I am talking about. This is the hottest phone, iPod, mobile internet device - EVER, PERIOD. Just ask RIM or Palm, whose stock crashed after the iPhone announcement.

However, I can foresee a few reasons NOT to buy the iPhone. In the words of The Little Mermaid, “I want more.” For starters, the revolutionary device comes with last generation’s wireless technology - EDGE. This was a major disappointment. I want high speed data, and I want it everywhere. Samsung has been on the ball with 3G data implementation, but for whatever reason Apple has decided against implementing it. They do make some concessions, like the inclusion of 802.11g wireless, which is pretty hot, but not as good as having HSDPA data service in my opinion.

The other reason not to buy the iPhone is Apple’s notorious problem with first generation products. It will be more expensive, have less features, and be generally less awesome then the second generation iPhone. The second generation iPhone will no doubt have more memory, 3G data, and less bugs then its older sibling.

Okay, the phone is hot enough that I might just buy one in June anyway, despite the flaws I know it will have. I hate the idea of having to wait even until June to replace my aging and incredibly craptastic Treo, let alone waiting until iPhone v2.0 which probably won’t be out until the fall (I anticipate a quick update since it’s such a hot product).

It will be interesting to see what the other smartphone companies do to try to keep up.

Posted by Sam at January 6th, 2007

As many of you know, I’m usually a hater when it comes to Microsoft. My boss and I have discussions debates arguments mortal kombat on the subject on a regular basis.

So, to prove I don’t only hate, but participate, I just have to mention something Microsoft is doing that I think is cool. Even though I’m not a fan of their family of operating systems, I am willing to admit when they make smart moves or come out with cool products.

It may or may not surprise you to know that Microsoft is the biggest developer for the Mac platform after Apple themselves. It follows then, that Microsoft would have a presence at Macworld. I wonder what kind of reception they get in such an environment - while the companies have learned to coexist it often seem that the users have not.

Microsoft is upping the ante this year and seems to be holding out a hand of peace to the Mac-head community. At macworld, not only will they have a booth but they will also be sponsoring a “blogger lounge” - a place where people can go hang out, sit on a couch, drink some coffee, and blog from their computers or one of the Microsoft-supplied Computers, Notebooks, or tablets.

Even with all my anti-Microsoft sentiments, would I go to such a booth? I sure would! This is a great move by Microsoft to help Mac users warm to them. All the bloggers hanging out at the blogger lounge will be talking about the show on their blogs and of course add in a mention of the comfortable accommodations Microsoft has provided.

The history and relationship between Apple and Microsoft is one of the most interesting and dynamic in the computer industry. The fact that they can still maintain a relationship like they have is pretty cool.

Posted by Sam at January 4th, 2007

The other day Dave, Tess, and I went up to the Clark planetarium in Salt Lake and watched a movie about black holes. I went in thinking the movie probably couldn’t teach me much about black holes and that I could learn more by reading space a science news sites. I always assume movies shown at museums are outdated.

Well, I was wrong and the movie was awesome. Besides some cheesy in-house animation, the movie was really informative and showed what we know about black holes, talked about Einstein-Rosenberg bridges (worm holes), and the mass of some of these black holes.

One of the most amazing things I learned is that once a black hole compresses matter so much, it simply ceases to exist. The now gone matter leaves behind only its gravity. This is pretty cool because the matter probably goes SOMEWHERE, but where it goes would be independent of its space-time sphere.

So, theoretically, if I understand correctly and my assumptions are correct, and mathematical point sized ball of immense gravity and compressed matter could appear at any place at any time. Watch out!

One of the theories about stars dying is that they send out a gravitational shock-wave. I don’t really understand all of it, but basically they have some really big instruments that can detect these gravitational changes and they are currently searching for them. These instruments bring in a lot of data which must be processed, and the project uses distributed processing power. So basically you download a program, and it will get bits and pieces from the Einstein@Home servers, and my computer will run calculations trying to find these gravitational waves. Pretty cool, eh? I am now responsible, in part, for future breakthroughs in our understanding of the Universe.

Here is a picture of the client running on my computer.

The sphere is made up of the constellations in our sky. They are backwards because we are viewing them from way outside in space. Earth would be situated in the middle of this sphere. You can see the milky way on the left, curving towards the center.

This little globe just sits and rotates, looking all cool. That means that not only am I helping science, but when people walk by I look like I’m doing something really important (which, I mean, I guess I am).