Who Am I?

Xander Harris
45% amorality, 72% passion, 54% spirituality, 54% selflessness

Xander. Loyal, brave, true and passionate. Perhaps the best friend a
person could have, always willing to jump into the frey to help out his
buddies.
Also, one of the most popular characters in the Buffy universe.
Congratulations!
THE 4-VARIABLE BUFFY PERSONALITY TEST


My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

	You scored higher than 12% on morality
	You scored higher than 69% on repose
	You scored higher than 26% on spirituality
	You scored higher than 59% on selflessness

The Grinding Gears of Progress

I want one!

It's a pizza vending machine! Can you believe it? One more job for hapless tennagers - outsourced - to a MACHINE!

Terrifying

I went to Lincoln Park Zoo last Saturday and saw the chimpanzees, so maybe, just maybe I know how Sonic feels. You see, Sonic, along with Team Sonic member Yuji Naka went to visit a German hedgehog sanctuary recently. Though the article (you can find it here at UK Resistence) doesn't explicitly state what they were up to, Sonic seems to be presenting a check for 1,500 Euros - paying homage to his natural ancestors.


Or, Sonic might need to consume his genetic relatives to absorb their Earth Magics, fueling his supernatural speed. Take your pick.

Link via Kotaku

Long, Long Distance

If you submit your name here they'll burn it onto a CD-ROM for free! Does that sound lame. Well, it would be if that was the end of it. Fortunately, rather than gathering dust in a jewel case somewhere, that CD will be loaded aboard the New Horizons probe and blasted into space on a mission to Pluto!

Mr. Eno, Would You like to be Paid $5833.33 per Second?

I had previously heard that Brian Eno was responsible for the Windows Start-Up sound. However, that's about all I knew - until now. Did you know Eno was reportedly paid $35,000 for a six-second sound? This blog post at Music Thing spells it out in far more detail and links to this article in the San Francisco Gate, an interview with Mr. Eno:

The idea came up at the time when I was completely bereft of ideas. I'd been working on my own music for a while and was quite lost, actually. And I really appreciated someone coming along and saying, ``Here's a specific problem -- solve it.''

Read the whole thing.

Family Guy vs DS9

This image, aparently from the Family Guy "Movie", just leaves me speechless. Consider my dollars spent.

Simpons Season 6 Packaging: Fox Will Fix For Some D'oh!

Are you dissatisfied with the packaging for the Simpsons Season 6? Many people out there are FURIOUS! The calm, soothing design of the pervious seasons has been replaced with garish near-life-size plastic shell designed to look like Homer Simpson's head!

Do you find that disturbing? Some might call it clever package design. However, most DVD collectors value uniformity above all else. On that basis, Fox has initiated a box replacement program! Even if you don't own the box set, or have no intention of replacing it, the faux-disgust for those desire such a switch is well worth a read. After all, they'll replace the box for only $3 and a UPC label. They're entitled to a little hostility at that price.

Geekpundit Gets Results from the Indianapolis Star

Well, it's actually more like my Mother got results from the Indianapolis star. Regardless, there's a profile of me in today's MetroWest section under the regular "Neighbors" feature. If you've read my blog profile, there aren't too many surprises. However, you might still enjoy it.

JACK FM - Mostly Harmless

The Onion AV Club Blog (I didn't know the Onion AV Club had a blog!) features a post that seems to have (mostly) reserved approval for JACK FM. It's worth a read. For those of you that don't have JACK, it's sort of an "anything-goes" radio station without DJs or any clear format. JACK appeared in Indianapolis about 6 or 7 months ago, replacing the local oldies station - much to my parents' dismay. Now it's done the same thing in Chicago. Though it's all over the place in different markets, it's just a single feed that, I believe, is beemed out of British Columbia. Watch out! JACK's coming to a town near you!

Hayek vs Hayek

Place your bets.
VS

Back to the Future

According to DefenseTech, Uranium is back in vogue at the DoD! Read on:

...Uranium -- which fell out of favor with US nuclear weaponeers in the 1950s -- may be the hip Fall fashion in certain New Mexican locales... Bob Peurifoy, a retired Sandia executive, favors dumping plutonium weapons in favor of low-tech uranium designs. Actually, Peurifoy prefers the current US arsenal, but Congress says the weapons labs should relax Cold War design requirements to build new warheads that are more reliable and require less toxic industrial processes... In that case, Peurifoy says, you can't do better than Uranium 235, which isn't nearly as expensive, toxic or fickle as plutonium.

Uranium fall down, go boom.

They're Coming

And they can drive...

The Hazards of Better Fuel Economy

According to the BBC:

Small cars driving through a safari park in Merseyside have been chased by confused lions who think they are prey... David Ross, park manager, told the BBC News website that a group of lionesses chased after one Smart car after being confused by its compact appearance... "With Smart cars and sometimes Mini Coopers the lions definitely raise an eyebrow. It sparks their interest because of their size.

DEVELOPING...

Bad idea.

PSP Windshield Mount

This strikes me as a bad idea.


You can't look away...

Some Say Blogs Here Began Out There

Ron Moore's Battlestar blog is back! Unfortunately, I believe something fishy is going on. This blog entry is dated "July 23". Yet, I visited Mr. Moore's blog only last week to find no new update since April! Further, in the podcast for "The Farm", dated Aug. 12, Moore appologizes for not updating the podcast. Or maybe it was the one before that... Either way, this new blog post (very much worth reading, by the way!) appears to have been dated in order to give the appearance of a more regular schedule of updates. Why would this happen? Could it be a glitch? Would Ron Moore LIE about the regularity of his blog posts? EXPLAIN YOURSELF, MOORE!

Hey, you two - Time travel is for sissies!

iPod Lacks Korean Seoul

According to Channel Register, the iPod isn't properly dressed to impress in South Korea, holding only 13 percent of the market for mp3 players - that's compared to about three quarters of the American market. Apparently, here's why:

The company's numbers are unsurprising given the differences between local music players and Apple's. It's generally held that the Mac maker's minimalist approach to design and, arguably, functionality plays better with Western audiences than South Korean firms' preference for machines crammed with features and sporting a mass of controls and coloured lights. The devices are that way because that's what works well for South Korean buyers, confirmed by GfK's figures.

Here's something that would apparently satisfy the Korean sensibility.

Stupid

This article in the New York Times on "Girl crushes" is just awful. I'm going to wait for Phoebe Maltz's take. Then I'll post a link. It's really more her area than mine.

To Explore Strange New Blogs...

Here's a blog dedicated entirely to improper use of the lowercase "L". For instance, if a word is written, otherwise, entirely in caps, one would expect the "L" to follow suit. However, that is often not the case.

For an especially egregious example, check out this post

"Get Pissed"

Introducing: Horse Piss Beer!
With the slogan "Get Pissed", HPB is the finest new obscenely named beer in the marketplace. According to Gerald Russel, the owner of HPB, "Horse Piss Beer is dedicated to helping others. A percentage of the sales of the beer and merchandise will be donated to help retired race horses." Perhaps "Grayhound Vodka", for the adoption of simmilarly retired dogs should be explored. Until then, enjoy your Horse Piss Beer.

Via: Strange New Products

"Goin' on a holiday

According to the New York Times, the private company that sent Dennis Tito into space is now looking to finance a private shot around the moon for a couple lucky passengers. "A roundtrip ticket will cost $100 million.". The company would pay the Russians and the Russians would do the heavy lifting. The articles goes on:

Eric Anderson, the chief executive of Space Adventures, said he believed the trip could be accomplished as early as 2008. Mr. Anderson said he had already received expressions of interest from a few potential clients.

The Soyuz vehicle to be used does not have the power to reach the Moon on its own, so the Russians have devised a plan to send up a booster. The Soyuz would dock with the booster, either in low Earth orbit or at the International Space Station.

The booster would take the passengers the rest of the way. The price of the two tickets, Mr. Anderson said, would pay for the costs of the Moon shot. His company's demographic research, he said, suggests that 500 to 1,000 people in the world can afford to do this.

I'm all for private space travel, though I'm not certain this is the best way to approach it. Nonetheless, I wish everyone involved the best of luck.

Worst Nightmare

I'll admit, during my unemployed period earlier this summer, I expected to play a lot of videogames. And I do me A LOT. However, it was not to be. I had better things to do, like renting season after season of Six Feet Under. It would seem, though, that I dodged quite a bullet given this news out of South Korea:

A 28-year-old South Korean man died of exhaustion in an Internet cafe after playing computer games non-stop for 49 hours, South Korean police said Wednesday.

Let that be a lesson to you, games of the world!

Brussels Overreaches, Tweaks Bavarian Tradition

According to The Brussels Journal, the Eurocrats may find themselves stepping on some teutonic toes down south:

A dirndl is a traditional costume worn by women in Bavaria and Austria. It is characterised by a generally rather revealing décolleté and consists of a dress and apron with a tight, low-cut top whose figure enhancing effect is accentuated by a short white blouse. Bavarian barmaids typically dress in dirndls. However, under the European Union’s Optical Radiation Directive, which is to be voted in the European Parliament next month, employers face heavy fines if they fail to protect their employees against the risk of sunburn.

Apparently, the Bavarians are none too happy about this measure, prompting protests. It's not hard to understand why.


Dirdle tread on me!

Jennings Goes Where Countless Men Have Gone Before

It's sad to see Peter Jennings go. That probably goes without saying. I knew he was ill, but I guess I had just assumed he'd beat his cancer and return to television. Then, there's this article at NJ.com (New Jersey). Take a gander:

He (Jennings) was Mr. Spock to Brokaw's folksy Bones McCoy and Rather's impetuous Captain Kirk -- an alien intelligence from the planet Canada, offering not a hug or even a reassuring pat on the shoulder, but a poker face that was accented, on rare occasions, by a faintly raised eyebrow.

As much as I appreciate the reference, I've never quite bought the totemic status assigned to the network news anchor. Sure, it's a position of responsibility and distinction, but the constant grouping of these three men in a way as though they alone scaled the hights of Everest and therefore belong to a unique class above the rest of society has always bothered me. Maybe it's just a product of the time in which I grew up. For the generation that was informed soley by the calming voice of Walter Cronkite, maybe the idea of a network news anchor still means something. For me, its just a face or a personality. Today, I don't have to pick between just three different approaches to the news. While sticking Jennings, Rather and Brokaw in the future might affectively illustrate their various personality quirks, the future is also the last place the network news anchor belongs.

Nintendo Revolution Controller REVEALED

Gameplay. Revolutionized.


via Gizmodo
Also, here's the Ninetendo Controller Fake Editor for your own enjoyment.