Tylenol Extra Strength Rapid Release Gels

I just had to show you that.

You can get a $1.00 off Coupon here:

http://www.tylenol.com/vcrc/manage/nmtycampaign.jhtml?oid=5422&id=rrg

You have to print the Coupon with Internet Explorer though.

Cool Huh?!

GOSH!

Talk to you all Monday night!

SAY NO! TO TOURS DE SPORT!

JOIN THE CAMPAIGN!



HELP SAVE SEAN!

I just wanted you know that I'm still on your side Sean. Even though I have my own selfish reasons to want Tours De Sport is disappear. The biggest of those reasons being the lack of you in the chatroom last night.

Hopefully things will have calmed down by tonight and you'll be able to log on. If that doesn't happen I'll have to start a new campaign.. The "Threaten 'Laptop Guy' Campaign!"

.: DataFuse.net - Sakaguchi will help next gen Xbox.

.: DataFuse.net - Sakaguchi will help next gen Xbox.:

Sakaguchi will help next gen Xbox.
By Benoit Leterme: 26 Feb 2005, 2:36 pm (GMT 1)

Sakaguchi, a miracle maker for both Nintendo Co. and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. is now hired by Microsoft Corp. to help the next-generation Xbox (Xbox Next or Xbox 2 as it is called at the moment) with its games.

By taking Hironobu Sakaguchi, a top Japanese video game developer, away from Sony and Nintendo, Microsoft might be able to gain a piece of the market when it comes to more fantasy like games such as popular game: Final Fantasy (which has been developed by Sakaguchi).

Microsoft will hire Saka. to develop two role-playing games which will only see the Xbox platform.

While Microsoft has only sold a quarter (20 million) of Sony's Playstation 2 consoles (80 million). Sony is very dependant on games such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. Which might cause an increase for the U.S. console compared to the Japanese makers. "

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This is really huge news. For every 5 people here in the US who don't know this guy there are 50 in Japan who do. He's a legend in the gaming business.

The reason I care is because I want to see the Xbox platform prosper in Japan. So far it's been the toughest nut to crack. Most Japanese gamers and developers want console gaming to be exclusive to their country. So putting a man such as Sakaguchi in charge of content development at Microsoft Gaming Studios will bring legitimacy to our beloved US console.

I can't wait to see how his ideas unfold on Xbox Next. I love the Final Fantasy series of games. I still doubt we'll get a game with the "Final Fantasy" moniker attached to it however. I'm almost certain that's a trademark of SquareSoft which Sony has a tight grip on. What we will see are Final Fantasy calibur games on Xbox. I can't wait.

Work Work Work

A new beginning, in a brand new store. What more could a simple cashier ask for? We got brand new cash registers, with scanners and large print screens. The Newest available for us. They rock!! I can't forget the sliding automatic doors. They are very sensitive right now, though. They open if a candybar falls in front of them. But they are still awesome. We are working three to a shift at the moment, which is a very smart idea. I hope they keep it that way. They are contemplating a third shift, and they have asked me if i would be interested. That is $1 more in pay, which would be awesome too. But the down-side is third shift is when I see you guys, so I am thinking long and hard about it. To work, or not to work....That is the question! I will figure it out in time. Oh, and now I am in charge of the new Esspresso machine. They call me the coffee Conesuir(unknown spelling) and I have yet to figure it all out, lol. I will in time. While I am at it, I will be hopped up on caffiene all the time, testing my skills with the machine. That ought to be interesting!

Upgrade!

Earlier today my sister called me. I asked her if she was back online yet and she told me no. Then she said that she wanted SBC Yahoo! DSL like I've got and that she wasn't going to sign up for anything else until she got it. After she said that I told her I would check the prices to see if she could qualify for the Free Modem and Activation. I went to the SBC Yahoo! DSL promotion site..

When I got there the page had changed a little from when I signed up in November. Their DSL package tiers were different. Instead of the four tiered system they had before there were only two tiers:

Up to 1.5Mbps = $26.95/month

Up to 3.0Mbps = $39.95/month

So I kind of freaked out for a minute.. I was locked into a 12 month contract paying $26.95/month for speeds up to 384kbps. This didn't really seem fair. Especially since they didn't notify me of this new promotion.

For people who don't know, 1.5Mbps = 1464.8 kbps

That's more than THREE times faster than my current speed, almost four times, and all for the same price I'm paying now. What a travesty! I couldn't just sit on that information. I acted immediately after my sister was done jabbering.

I called SBC. Found the Billing Department from the menu system and told them that we should be getting the 1.5Mbps deal. The lady on the other end agreed and started setting it up.

There was only one small catch. I had to extend the 12 month contract. Which isn't a big deal since we'd only had this current promotion for about 3 months. Our current contract will end March 2nd and the new one will start the same day. We will not be charged an early disconnection fee as a result of the termination of our November contract.

I'm pretty excited. Sometime within the next week or so my Internet connection will become up to 1080.8kbps faster. There won't be a streaming music or movie station safe from my wrath for a long time to come.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy..

I was doing my daily route through the Blogosphere this morning and came across something that actually got me excited. You know, the way a little kid gets all giddy when they announce a new Harry Potter film.. I haven't felt like this in a long, long time.

It was a post to the Google Blogoscoped blog about the new "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" movie. If you haven't read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy before you've most likely heard of it. It's a hilarious book series and a best seller which is still in print today.

To show you how large of a phenomenon the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is I want you to click this link.

Search: Hitchhiker's Guide Galaxy @ Google.com

That search gave me roughly 309,000 hits. Now there are two more things that you really should look at. Trust me. You'll want to see this!

Watch the Trailer @ HitchhikersMovie.com

AND

Watch the NEW Trailer @ Amazon.com

OR

Download the NEW Trailer @ EOD.com

--

More Hitchhiker's Information:

The Movie @ IMDB.com

The Book @ Amazon.com

Exclusive: NASA Researchers Claim Evidence of Present Life on Mars

Exclusive: NASA Researchers Claim Evidence of Present Life on Mars
Exclusive: NASA Researchers Claim Evidence of Present Life on Mars
By Brian Berger
Space News Staff Writer
posted: 16 February 2005
02:09 pm ET

WASHINGTON -- A pair of NASA scientists told a group of space officials at a private meeting here Sunday that they have found strong evidence that life may exist today on Mars, hidden away in caves and sustained by pockets of water.



The scientists, Carol Stoker and Larry Lemke of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, told the group that they have submitted their findings to the journal Nature for publication in May, and their paper currently is being peer reviewed.



What Stoker and Lemke have found, according to several attendees of the private meeting, is not direct proof of life on Mars, but methane signatures and other signs of possible biological activity remarkably similar to those recently discovered in caves here on Earth

New stuff.. Just playing around..

The world above, below, around, and inside..

Scanning Electron Micrograph (SEM) Imagery


It's crazy seeing what is all around us from a much different perspective.

http://www.eyeofscience.de/eos2/index2.html (Click Gallery)

This Google Image Search also has some good pictures.

Domo, Domo.. Domo, Domo..

Click Here to listen to the MP3 version of Mr. Roboto

Here is an essay by T. J. Myers, which received an "A+" in a freshman writing class at Syracuse University in 1999:

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto

New technology in industry is putting blue-collar workers out of work.

The album “Kilroy was here,” by the group Styx tells a fictitious story about a world famous rock star named Kilroy. The story is set in the near future, and each song tells a different part of that story and social meaning. The story briefly goes like this: Dr. Everett Righteous, the founder and leader of a group called MMM (Majority for Musical Morality), has his own television channel and “preaches” about the immorality of rock music. At one of Kilroy’s concerts the MMM storms the stage, captures Kilroy, and sends him to jail with other captured rock and roll stars. Also in this time, Robotos (robots) have taken over the meaningless jobs once done by humans, like factory labor, and work in jails. In Kilroy’s jail the MMM forced mind controlling propaganda at the rock and roll inmates all day. Meanwhile the leader of the rock and roll resistance, Jonathan, jams the signal and replaced it with an outlawed tape of one of Kilroy’s concerts. Kilroy’s hope is reborn and he escapes inside one of the “security guard” robotos. After his escape he leaves the roboto “mask” on while he searches out Jonathan. When he meets up with Jonathan he can finally escape from his “mask.”

This song’s literal meaning depicts his escape from jail, but the true meaning of this song is hidden in the words and expresses Dennis DeYoung’s (the lead vocalist and writer) thoughts about the average blue-collar worker.

He first educates the listeners about the workers in their meaningless lives. He sings of how the workers are human on the inside, but on the outside, treated sub-human, as if they only exist for the company’s profit.

My heart is human, my blood is boiling, my brain I.B.M

I’m not a robot without emotions-I’m not what you see

This is a metaphor about how being forced into working in dulldrum factory jobs is dehumanizing. He explains the futility of the workers efforts to get out of this type of work.

I’m just a man whose circumstances went beyond his control
Beyond my control-we all need control
I need control- we all need control

There is no way for these workers to escape their jobs, except through the use of robotos to do take their place.

He starts thanking the robots for taking their jobs in the third verse. This might seem contradictory to his entire ideal that robots are bad, but he is merely being facetious and sarcastic. The entire third verse is devoted to thanking the robotos for taking their jobs so they don’t have to “suffer” any more. The irony is explained in the part after the “thanking” when he states:

The problem's plain to see: too much technology
Machines to save our lives. Machines dehumanize.

He sympathizes with the workers because machines are taking the place of human jobs. This can be good or bad. Good in the sense that now people’s intelligence doesn’t have to be insulted anymore, but bad because people are losing their jobs. But what if the recently fired worker does not have the education to go out and find another job?

In short, they are screwed. Mr. Roboto is a song that addresses the issue of class, specifically the lower working class. In a world that technology is advancing so rapidly that robots and other automated machines take over human jobs, it’s too easy to overlook how this can affect people on the personal level. In fact the end of this song explains the workers getting “fed up.” They throw away the mask, so everyone can see who they really are, human beings with feelings.

“Mr. Roboto” explains what it feels like to lose your job to a machine.

--

Mr. Roboto
Written by Dennis DeYoung
Lead Vocals by Dennis DeYoung

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto,
Mata ah-oo hima de
Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto,
Himitsu wo shiri tai

You're wondering who I am-machine or mannequin
With parts made in Japan, I am the modren man

I've got a secret I've been hiding under my skin
My heart is human, my blood is boiling, my brain I.B.M.
So if you see me acting strangely, don't be surprised
I'm just a man who needed someone, and somewhere to hide
To keep me alive-just keep me alive
Somewhere to hide to keep me alive

I'm not a robot without emotions-I'm not what you see
I've come to help you with your problems, so we can be free
I'm not a hero, I'm not a saviour, forget what you know
I'm just a man whose circumstances went beyond his control
Beyond my control-we all need control
I need control-we all need control

I am the modren man, who hides behind a mask
So no one else can see my true identity

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto, domo...domo
Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto, domo...domo
Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto, domo...domo
Thank you very much, Mr. Roboto
For doing the jobs that nobody wants to
And thank you very much, Mr. Roboto
For helping me escape just when I needed to
Thank you-thank you, thank you
I want to thank you, please, thank you

The problem's plain to see: too much technology
Machines to save our lives. Machines dehumanize.

The time has come at last
To throw away this mask
So everyone can see
My true identity...
I'm Kilroy! Kilroy! Kilroy! Kilroy!

--

Most of the credit for this post goes to www.StyxNet.com for the really great page they composed on the topic. That page can be found HERE.

I hope the posts that I made today will keep you all busy for the night. I wish I could be there to chat with you. I'm going to Joey's though. He returned Mercenaries to the rental store and got a football game. All I can think is that there better be some alcohol. We'll probably just watch movies or something anyways.

Have Fun until I get back. Hopefully that'll be tomorrow night. I'll find some more crazy stuff to post here in the blog for you if I'm not online by then.

Boing Boing: Moon landing scrolling panorama

Boing Boing: Moon landing scrolling panorama: "Saturday, February 12, 2005

Moon landing scrolling panorama

A reader writes, 'This web site has pictures from the Apollo moon landings and stitched them together to create panoramic views. Use your mouse to navigate. Also, use the pull down menu to see panoramic views of scenes from around the world. You can scroll right and left, and sometimes up and down.'

posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:40:05 AM

--

This is a pretty intesting site. I think you would like it Sean. Just get your Quicktime warmed up because these Panoramas can only be viewed using it.

http://www.panoramas.dk/fullscreen3/f29.html

Boing Boing: Turing machine built from model railroad

Boing Boing: Turing machine built from model railroad: "Saturday, February 12, 2005

Turing machine built from model railroad

The first computer hackers started out as railway hackers, members of the MIT 'Tech Model Railway Club,' monkeying around with model trains and the gates that controlled them (this is wonderfully documented in Steven Levy's classic Hackers: Heros fo the Computer Revolution, in passages like this: 'The other faction centered on the Signals and Power Subcommittee of the club, and it cared far more about what went on under the layout. This was The System, which worked something like a collaboration between Rube Goldberg and Wemher von Braun, and it was constantly being improved, revamped, perfected, and sometimes 'gronked' in club jargon, screwed up. S&P people were obsessed with the way The System worked, its increasing complexities, how any change you made would affect other parts, and how you could put those relationships between the parts to optimal use.').

So it is only fitting that a group of art-hackers in Vienna's Museumsquartier should build a functional Turing machine out of model railway tracks -- a calculating engine whose motive force is a scaled-down locomotive.

Scale trains have existed for almost as long as their archetypes, which were developed for the purposes of traffic, transportation and trade. Economy and commerce have also been the underlying motivations for the invention of computers, calculators and artificial brains.

Allowing ourselves to fleetingly believe in an earlier historical miscalculation that '... Computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh 1 1/2 tons.' (Popular Mechanics, March 1949), we decided to put some hundred tons of scaled steel together in order to build these calculating protozoa. The operating system of this reckoning worm is the ultimate universal calculator, the Turingmachine, and is able to calculate whatever is capable of being calculated. One just would have to continue building to see where this may lead...

posted by Cory Doctorow at 12:57:45 AM

BetaNews | Yahoo Builds Toolbar for Firefox

BetaNews | Yahoo Builds Toolbar for Firefox: "Yahoo Builds Toolbar for Firefox
By Nate Mook, BetaNews
February 10, 2005, 12:46 PM

In yet another sign of the growing support behind Mozilla's Firefox, Yahoo has released a beta version of its toolbar for the open source Web browser. Yahoo Toolbar for Firefox closely mirrors its companion for Internet Explorer, only lacking the company's Anti-Spy feature and support for International Yahoo IDs.

Although Firefox runs on Mac OS X and Linux as well, Yahoo says the toolbar has only been cleared to work on Windows. 'We are working on fixing known problems, so please check toolbar.yahoo.com again in the future for Mac and Linux support,' the company says.

Additionally, Yahoo hinted that it may also support Mozilla and Netscape browsers in the near future.

Yahoo is the first major search engine to support Firefox with its toolbar; MSN and Ask Jeeves only work with IE. Despite serving as the default Web site for Firefox, Google has yet to release its toolbar for the up-and-coming Web browser. Google has, however, begun showing support for Firefox.

In January, Google hired two Mozilla developers, including Firefox lead engineer Ben Goodger, to join its ranks. But Google has allowed both new employees to donate half their time to work on Firefox, indicating the search giant has future plans for the Mozilla platform."

Google + Wikipedia.. Love Connection?

Google Offers to Host Wikipedia

By Nate Mook, BetaNews

February 11, 2005, 12:56 PM

From Internet domains to Web browsers, Google seems to have its hands all over the Web these days. But the search giant shows no signs of slowing its reach, and has offered to host the Wikipedia online encyclopedia. Wiki Media Foundation, which runs Wikipedia, says Google has volunteered to supply servers and bandwidth to the project.

Wikipedia is an open online encyclopedia that can be edited by anyone who volunteers. The project has become immensely popular on the Web, and is having problems sustaining its growth.

Although exact terms of Google's offer have not be publicly disclosed, Wiki Media's board of directors is considering a deal and plans to meet with Google in March. The foundation did say that Google will not insert its text based advertising on Wikipedia.

"Google has at least tentatively agreed to give us access to a certain number of dual Xeon servers at one or more of their data centers and with unlimited bandwidth," a Wikipedia administrator said.

"I've been told that there are no strings attached, meaning they don't expect us to do anything for then, such as having Google Ads. In short, this is wonderful news."

My Dentist Appointment..

.

Well I went to the first of my three Dentist appointments today. It all went good actually. If you know anything about teeth they worked on my number 18, 19, and 20 molars. There wasn't much pain involved because of the new "Wand" thing they use now. The numbness is starting wear off fast as I'm typing this so I'll know how the rest of my night will go after that.

.

Before the dentist started doing anything I sent Joey a text message. After the appointment was over I went ahead and gave him a call. Now it looks like I'll be going over to his house tonight. Unless my jaw hurts too bad. He rented Mercenaries for his Playstation.. I'll see how the loading times compare to the Xbox version I guess. I know it'll look the same since Lucasarts kept the texture resolution low.

.

The CousServer will be online even if I'm not. Right now the IP is the same as it was a couple of days ago, but after I finish typing this I'll have to reboot. Those updates require me to and Windows keeps bugging me about it every two minutes or so. If DAL starts acting all crazy like it apparently has been today (From my log I've been Disconnected/Reconnected at least 5 times) then jump over to my server. That's what it's there for.

.

My next two Dentist appointments are in March so I don't have to think about it for a while. Unless my "Bite" is wrong. Then I'll call to complain and they'll have me in there to fix that. Enough Dentist crap for a while..

.

I'll talk to you all tomorrow night if I can and possibly even later tonight. It all depends on my teeth and Joey. Everyone have fun. I just blitzed the blog. Three posts in a row! Talk to you all later.

.

Sorry about the "." after every paragraph. I'm writing this in IE because Firefox isn't rendering the editbox properly. For some reason IE keeps deleting my empty spaces.. Don't worry. I'll fix it when I have more time.

Microsoft "Patch Tuesday"..

From PCWorld.com:

Microsoft Plans Major Patch Day on February 8

Biggest Patch Tuesday in months will include fixes for Windows, Windows Media Player, and Office, among others.

Stacy Cowley, IDG News Service

Friday, February 04, 2005

Microsoft is expected to release 13 new security patches on Tuesday, February 8, including several "critical" updates.

The release, part of Microsoft's regularly scheduled monthly security update, is the company's biggest patch roundup in months. Included will be nine Windows updates, with at least one rated "critical." Also in the update bundle will be a "moderate-risk" update for Microsoft's SharePoint Services and Office; a .Net framework update rated "important"; a "critical" update affecting Office and Visual Studio; and a "critical" update affecting Windows, Windows Media Player, and MSN Messenger.

Microsoft announced the number of planned patches in a security bulletin advance-notification message posted to its TechNet Web site. The company has adopted a schedule of releasing security patches in batches on the second Tuesday of each month.

Details of this month's patches will be available when they are released on Tuesday. Microsoft will host a Webcast at 11 a.m. Pacific Time Wednesday to outline technical details of the updates, followed by a question-and-answer session. This month's Webcast has been extended by an hour to allow extra question-and-answer time.

--

You should all run Windows Update at the first chance you get tonight. I just did and there were 9 Security Updates waiting for me. Some of these issues affect Windows ME users too so.. That means you Becky!

http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

Sorry for the really crappy picture up there. I was in a hurry. I'll try not to let it happen again, but it will.

Google Maps..

From BetaNews.com:

Following the launch of its local search, which provides address information for nearby businesses, Google has gone one step further: telling you how to get there. Google Maps was quietly unveiled in beta form today, further building up the company's ecosystem of search related utilities.

Even in beta, Google Maps offers a few advantages over competitors. Maps can be dragged to view adjacent areas, which means users do not have click and wait for graphics to reload. Zooming is also instantaneous with the help of a slider placed atop the map.
"It's like having a huge map you can scroll around in," Google says.

Google Maps is also closely tied with the company's local search. Instead of entering a specific address, users can simply search for a term such a "sushi," which would then show all nearby sushi restaurants directly on the map.

Like current map providers, Google offers step-by-step directions for traveling between two points. Clicking on one of the steps pops up a floating bubble containing a magnified view of the area. For the time being, however, Google Maps is limited to the United States and Canada.

"Google is focused on organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful, and this experiment is another step forward in helping users find the local information they need," the company said in a statement.

Although no official announcement has been made, Google has apparently partnered with TeleAtlas to power its map service.

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I gave this thing a try and it really does work well. You know me. Now I have another reason to Google more often. Pretty soon there won't be any time left to chat with everyone!

http://maps.google.com