Who does Nancy Grace remind you of?

Every time I see her on The Soup, I can't help but think of Roland Freisler.

Taiwanese animated news: Snooki

I've been loving the NMA animated news "reenactments" that have been featured on The Soup and elsewhere, but googling around for it, I found perhaps the best one of all, centered around Jersey Shore inmate, Snooki:



Best of all is the last few seconds of the video boldly predicting the coming end of her 15 minutes.

There really is an "I" in team

You just have to use the correct font.

What's Hollywood-speak for Deja vú?

Remember when SkyLine used to be Independence Day?

Or perhaps you remember when it was called War of the Worlds?

Come on, Hollywood. Please.

Apple store funnies

I was at the Apple store today and happened to pick up an iPad that was sitting there. When I woke it up, this is the image that greeted me:



I thought I was the only one that trolled at retail stores... :)

Networking pi(e)

This is a speed test through the MiFi I did while waiting for the train home at Redwood City:



Tee hee.

Astound your friends!

I'll pick a number (an integer, to be specific) between 0 and 255. You can ask me 8 yes-or-no questions, and then you should be able to tell me which number I picked.

Solution below (highlight with your mouse):


First question: "Is the number greater than or equal to 128?"
Second question: "Is the number greater than or equal to either 192 (if question 1's answer was "yes") or 64 (if question 1's answer was "no")?

And so on. Each question give you an opportunity to throw away half of the remaining field. Dividing by two progressively, you start with 256, then 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2 and then 1.

Actually, the last question can be "Is the number odd?" since at that point you'll have narrowed the field to two adjacent numbers.

Note also that if you write down the answers with "yes" being a 1 and "no" being a 0, from left to right, you'll have written down the number in binary.

This works for any number range. The number of questions required is the log₂ of the size of the range rounded up to the next highest whole number.

Anyone whoever gets the "clock" game on TPiR should be able to nail each prize in about 10 seconds. Start at 1000. If higher, go to 2000. Cut the range in half each guess until you get inside of a $10 range, then just roll through all 10 remaining prices starting at $xx9 and counting down. Let's say a prize is $667. $1000, $500, $750, $650 (not half way, but easier under pressure), $700 (again, a compromise), $675, $660, $670, $669, $668, $667. Boom.

Seriously, there's nothing better they can do with their time?

News comes to us via the MurkySnooz that the state assembly has declared next week a no cussing week.

Fuck that bullshit!

Adventures in bad marketing

Saw this ad on the side of a Samtrans bus today:



Now, I can't read Hindi, but I can't possibly imagine what this text might say that would be a reasonable attempt to market beef to Hindus.

Either that, or McDonald's is implying that there is no beef on their dollar menu (never mind there is a prominent picture of a double-cheeseburger in the ad). This is, in fact, the case in India - the McDonalds' there serve mostly chicken sandwiches, I am told. But this is Redwood City, not New Delhi.

Either way, it seems like dumb marketing to me.

Now THIS movie, I'd go see...

I'm glad to see Tom Hanks branching out.

Why, it's a major award!

Look what Scarlet bought for me!



We spent the late part of an evening and a little time in the morning to finish it. I'm undecided as to whether to take it all apart again or shellack and frame it.

Epic win

Look what I saw today:



The bumper sticker is available at I Park Like An Idiot.com. I can neither confirm nor deny any information concerning how the sticker got there.

Happy Halloween!

Free Joke

Here's a joke you can use on your friend. It requires you to be sort of good at improv, and your friend to be up on Hollywood gossip. It goes something like this:

You: "Man, what happened that all of the Celebrities are all dying at the same time? Karl Malden, Michael Jackson, Billy Mays... And the latest is some Hollywood actress just died after she stabbed herself with a knife!"

Him: "Really? Who was it?"

You: "I read about it this morning. I don't quite remember the name. Her first name started with an R.... Something like 'Reese.'"

Him: "Witherspoon?"

You: "No, no. With a knife."

Ba-dump bump. Thank you. I'll be here all week. Try the waitress and tip the veal.

I wonder what they were really thinking

I don't think I quote or point to other blogs too often.

But I saw this one on EngrishFunny, and just had to share it:



Now, I can understand the "Toilet for ladies only" part, but what's up with the "Don't choking" warning?!

YouTube fun!

Check this out. It's not the first time I've seen this sort of thing, but they've done a relatively good job. It's not quite Cookie Masterson material, but I have high hopes that they'll get better over time.

How not to sell a car

I was walking down the street this afternoon, when I saw this car:



That's a Honda Civic from the early '90s, and it's for sale. Note the big selling point: that the car has a clean title.

The car is worth, what, about $19.47? Why would it not have a clean title?! Why would you even mention that?! Wouldn't you see that and imagine the seller saying, "Oh, I know the last pearl-white '87 Honda Civic I tried to sell turns out to have been stolen, but I can assure you that this one has a clean title."

Memo to the MythBusters: next time you guys need to blow up or trash a sub-compact, I know where you can find one with a clean title!

iPhone 3.0 firmware update released early

Looks like Apple has released the iPhone 3.0 firmware a bit early. Now we can finally use Stereo Bluetooth headsets to listen wirelessly to music! Check out Apple's iPhone page for all the juicy details.

Gizmo vs CalTrain

Gizmo seems bemused by my HO gauge CalTrain.

More YouTube: Fun with dry ice

No, it's not the coolest or most fascinating dry ice related video on YouTube, but I thought it was pretty cool.