majiksznak

Video: Gone Daddy Gone cover by Gnarls Barkley. Very very mildly NSFW. See the Fight Club moment?

Awesome Halloween costume idea: dead pixel

Maddog and I carved a pumpkin at work. We call it, "Viva la Calabaza!"

Bill Maher's Steve Irwin costume.

People trying to get into bus only routes. I'm not sure where this is, but they use a system of retracting metal poles that pull down to let buses through then pop back up. This video shows how idiotically "Bean"-like some people are.

Hilarious video: David Blaine is a Demon. Thanks, Andrew!

Sumo wrestling spectators chuck their seat cushions to show outrage. It's like huge red confetti!

Apparently, some Japanese tourists go crazy when visiting Paris. The difference between what they think it will be like and how it really is just happens to cause real mental breakdowns.

Funny George W. Bush book.

Pictures from Rick and Melissa's 2006 Halloween Party.

As many of you know, David is a skilled Halloween Costume maker. Here's his Starscream costume from this year's Halloween. It won him $500 at the Joe FM Halloween party.

Want to see an 8.6 Gigapixel image?

Ugly surprises in the Microsoft Vista EULA.

The most awesome audition tape.

Here are a couple of pictures of my camera with the Nikon 18-200mm lens attached. Just for giggles.

Whoooah Black Betty, bam-a lam.

Some helpful people are tagging DRM-infected products on Amazon.com with the keyword "defectivebydesign".

I like this conversation. It appears that a non-techie misunderstood the meaning of the tag by using it on a water board.

Home pole dancing kit for 4-6 year olds. What the Hell?!

So, the unfortunate trend of nutsacks for pickup trucks is drifting up into Canada. It's confusing as Hell, because if you see balls like that, you'd think to see an asshole right above, but instead the asshole is inside the cab.

I remember a while ago hearing a comedian talk about how stupid people should wear a sign on their head. There is no longer any need.

Remember DOA: Extreme Beach Volleyball? It was the game ostensibly about playing volleyball but that focused heavily on large-breasted, scantly clad, computer-generated women bouncing about.

Well, DOAX2 is coming out, and they seem to have abandoned all pretenses. This trailer is basically not safe for work although it just consists of computer generated women exhibiting ridiculous behaviour, breast physics, and outfits.

It's really quite pathetic.

Michael J. Fox did a political endorsement where he talked about Parkinson's and stem cell research. Rush Limbaugh commented that he figures Fox was hamming it up.

He is moving around and shaking, and it is purely an act.

Various people are talking about it.

Miraculously, I have obtained the rare Nikon 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 VR lens I had mentioned earlier. By some fluke, Memory Express had one. The top image is at full wide (18mm), the bottom is at full telephoto (200mm). I've been spoiled by the 50mm f1.8 lens, though: I have to crank up the ISO at full telephoto unless I've got enough light.

The Tornados: Robot. A music video to engage the senses.

Now I can Disco Dance.

Music video for "I Wanna Love You Tender" apparently as sung by Prince Adam. Unless he's holding aloft his magic sword, he's pretty much a pansy.

Satellite imagery fun: Mountain that looks like an Indian (Native American) listening to an iPod, and a building that looks like a giant iPod.

The worst video game names of all time. I don't know: I'd totally play "Ninja Hamster". They're right about the #1 worst, though: "Irritating Stick".

From an episode of Top Gear: Shooting cars at a target.

If you've ever put a CD in a microwave, you know it's awesome (try it at home, kids!) These people take it a step further by bringing a Tesla coil into the mix. Science!

Belinda Belekovic and Borat are on the new Borat movie soundtrack. Just to jog your memory, she's the slutty-dressing keytar goddess.

Man. This Chinchilla must be pissed.

The fastest street-legal car. If you don't mind getting 5 mpg, this would be a pretty good time.

Star Wars Worth 1000 Photoshop contest.

Planes do not I like, foo!

Kinetic physics-related games. Check out the flaming hamster one.

In improv, there's a warm up / learning game called "Make it Worse, Make it Better". You start acting out a situation or describing one, and you are told to "make it better" or to "make it worse". It's a good exercise.

This guy is definitely "making it worse".

Something Awful Physics:



This is truly a wondrous thing, and deserves to be embedded rather than just linked to.

I'm selling my Sony DSC-F717. If you jump to the last page of that review, you'll see how people raved about it when it came out. It still takes beautiful pictures, and thanks to my anal retentiveness in terms of charging it, its battery still lasts forever (over 2 or 3 days of constant shooting). I believe I still have the original box, and it comes with all the original accessories except the worthless 32MB memory card:

• Sony DSC-F717
• AC adapter and charger (works on 110V 60Hz or 220V 50Hz power: I went to France with it)
• Rechargeable lithium-ion battery
• Audio/Video cable so you can do slide shows and stuff
• User manual


• USB cable
• Camera strap


• Lens cap

Also, I'm including two 256MB memory sticks (Sony brand: Memory Stick Pro).

Some specs:

• 5 Megapixels (2560 x 1920)
• 5x optical zoom (equivalent of 39mm to 190mm on a 35mm film camera)
• Full manual control, buttons for everything (no hunting through menus)
• Fast startup time, fast shutter lag, fast saving of images
• Excellent Carl Zeiss lens: at full wide, you get f2.2, which basically just means that you get enough light to get a good picture and narrow field of focus for macro shots
• Records 320x240 video at about 20fps (I think) with sound and no time limit
• Record voice notes / sounds attached to pictures using built-in consenser microphone
• Screen swivels up and down to shoot from the hip or take a shot holding the camera up above a crowd
• Hologram Autofocus (Lasers shoot out to help focus, meaning you can pretty much focus on a featureless surface and in total darkness
• Nightshot (infrared pictures, augmented by 2 built-in IR LEDs)
• Night framing (use the IR mode to frame your shot in the dark, but then it takes a normal picture)
• Built-in flash

I took a lot of awesome shots with this, and will definitely miss it. I need to sell it to help pay for lenses for my new camera. I'll probably miss its excellent macro feature the most. You can focus about 2cm away from the lens and get amazing shots of bugs, flowers, etc.

I'm putting it up on Craigslist for $450 next week. If you are interested, talk to me.

Sony Bravia commercial. I posted a video someone had taken of the building with the exploding paint rainbow before. This is the commercial that footage was being filmed for.

The complete works of Charles Darwin.

Supposedly, the human race is headed to split into two different species, just like H.G. Wells said would happen in The Time Machine.

Ever wonder what 300 lbs water balloons dropped from a building look like? Wonder no more. In fact, you can stop wondering like 15 seconds into this video. It repeats itself a lot.

What is this monstrosity?! Make it stop!

Demetri Martin is a hilarious guy.

A lot of people don't like bumper stickers, but I do. Because to me,a bumper sticker is just a little sign that says "Hey, let's never hang out"

Also on YouTube. His style reminds me of Mitch Hedberg.

I anticipate deaths in the UK over the news that changing lanes can defeat UK speed cameras. I can just see it: people speeding through speed traps while swerving madly from one lane to another: all colliding into one another.

Google Code Search turns up swearing in comments. Oh my!

It seems Minnie's been gettin' a little Goofy, if you know what I mean. Safe for work: it's some Euro Disney mascots miming some debauchery.

Here's a newscast on The Internet in 1993 followed by a clip of the now famous song "The Internet is for Porn". It provides a nice contrast between the haughty vision of intellectual connectedness that the Internet was supposed to be and what it has become.

This GOP political campaign ad never went on the air, but... Wow.

Today I experimented a bit with some fake macro photography. It's fake because I just took my 50mm prime lens, flipped it around, and held it in front of the camera while manually setting the exposure. In this particular image, I was pretty shaky so I had to crank up the ISO, which is why it's a bit grainy. This technique is frought with problems, but I'm going to have to experiment with it further.

An interview with Richard Dawkins, author of "The God Delusion" and "The Selfish Gene". He's under fire quite a lot these days because of things like this:

It's interesting that you link those two words -- intelligent and atheistic. Are you saying the more intelligent you are, the more likely you are to be an atheist?

There's a fair bit of evidence in favor of that equation, yes.

Here's a really good Dove commercial showing the makeup, photography, and image altering tricks that go into making an ad.

Barats & Bereta Productions make funny videos. You may have seen their "Cubicle War" one. I've seen "Robot" and "So Smooth" so far and they're awesome too.

I'm so hip your granddad broke me.

Anti-DRM videos. The only ones I like are the "Sometimes the solution is worse than the problem" one and the last one, which I've posted about before.

Shrimp on a treadmill! All that's missing are cartoon running sounds and <SPROING> and "WHEEE!" sound effects.

Truth catches up to comedy. I distinctly remember a Far Side comic where two hopeful parents watch as their kid plays Nintendo, fantasizing about job offers for expert Mario Brothers players...

Today's GU Comics strip and today's Real Life Comics strip seem to share a theme...

Look: even animals know to be frightened of Paris Hilton.

Holy crap. Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez have a new movie coming out called "Grindhouse". Ridiculous violence, sex, and action collide with big stars in this brand new '70s grindhouse tribute film.

This guy really knows how to make a resume. Let that be a lesson to you guys: if you really want a job, make sure you send a shitty self-aggrandizing video detailing your crackpot theories on success as well as footage of you pumping iron, skiing, playing tennis, dancing, and doing Karate.

Impossible... is nothing

That quote actually reminds me of how the unattainable is unknown at Zombo.com.

Funny otter picture. Aww.

Holy Hell! Google bought YouTube.

Apparently, you can steal coke from certain Coke Machines pretty easily. Of course, you have to be a cheap bastard and a stupid cock of a guy who unironically makes gang signs at a camera.

You can read the article about guys who make rocket belts if you want. I'm happy just looking at that picture and thinking, "Wheeeeeeeee!"

This article on randomness of songs played on an iPod in shuffle mode is really interesting. It talks a bit about a phenomenon that interests me greatly: the human propensity for perceiving patterns in randomness.

Know how your iPod seems to have a mind of its own sometimes? It's all in your head. :)

Thomas F. Wilson sings about life after being Biff Tannen in the Back to the Future movies.

How far do you figure an 800hp off-road car can make it over water? There's so much "guy-awesome" stuff in this clip I won't even talk about it.

This video makes me terrified of going into the United States. This guy was featured in a crazy internet video a while ago: he had been running from police so the police just ran him over and arrested him.

This time his girlfriend was shooting at police out the window of their pickup as he tried to escape. There are so many terrifying things in this video: the fact that he was pushing 70mph in a residential area, the fact that the police officer, in reaction to being shot at, shoots through the cab of the truck rather than at the tires, and the fact that you can be driving on the highway minding your own business and get run into by gun-toting maniacs trying to escape from police.

Thanks to the expert help of Hobbson McClure, I've completed my R2-D2 shirt.

Swans will kick your ass. Somewhat NSFW personal ads.

When was the last time you saw a robot doing the robot?

I wish my professors had whiteboards like this.

Forget Winamp visualizations: I want a fire tube!

Vacation pictures of a sex doll. No nudity: totally safe for work. Just vacation snaps... of a sex doll.

WHY?!

I usually don't just point to someone's website and laugh (as is done so well on Something Awful), but I have to make an exception for this guy. He's been manipulating images for 14 years now, and the culmination of his work is... bad.

To boot, it seems like Google is taking a shot at him.

Apparently, the Daily Show is as substantive as the news.

The new Viper, the SRT-10, gets reviewed. I totally want that guy's job.

If you haven't caught up on the latest teleportation news, well, here you go.

I'm becoming... Brundlefly. Don't you think that's worth a Nobel Prize or two?

Line Rider is an awesome Flash game. Helicopter Escape is an animation of one insane person's Line Rider adventure.

Help improve the Transformers movie. Do it now!

Tap the rhythm of a song on your keyboard and they'll guess what it is. If they can't, help out by submitting the name / artist. It didn't get "Around the World" by Daft Punk or "Du Hast" by Rammstein, but it got "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash.

I'm selling my Sony DSC-F717. It comes with the original accessories and two 256MB Memory Stick Pro cards (both Sony cards). The battery still lasts a really long time: I took really good care of it. You get 2 or 3 days of shooting on a charge.

You guys know about this camera. If you have questions about it, let me know. I'm selling it for $400 OBO.

I am now a Nikonian! The D70s goes for $680 at Memory Express. McBain matched the price for me. Eventually I'll be receiving my Nikon 18-200mm lens from them. I also picked up the 50mm F1.8 Nikkor lens for portraits and, well, to be able to take pictures until I get the 18-200.

A compilation of Simpsons "couch intros". Slightly NSFW ads.

Village Sniper. I don't really know what to say about this video. A village hires a sniper to really spruce things up. Slightly NSFW ads.

Who write better? Blogurz or Hi Skoolurz? Me not no, but mebbe sum ppl does.

This company keeps track of bad customers. In any Internet business, you run a great risk. Even if you are able to prove to a bank or credit card company that you have supplied a product to a customer, anybody can claim they didn't get anything or that they didn't purchase something, and your business will get the money the customer paid taken away, and you get dinged an extra amount of money for what is called a chargeback.

Many people are unscrupulous enough to take advantage of this, as Credit Card companies don't question the customer. Online, you can't get a signature, and without a signature, you can get a chargeback on anything.

It appears that the company I link to exists to help businesses protect themselves against this kind of thievery, however I can see that the potential for abuse is great. An unscrupulous company could very well put someone on the blacklist for obtaining a chargeback on a product that was deficient or undelivered. It's a matter of "us vs. them" that you really need a legal system to take care of effectively. Having worked with web-based commerce, I've also seen that people just don't know what they're doing and change their minds about purchasing non-refundable merchandise. If you buy a video game from a store: you can't return it if you have opened it. It's as simple as that. If you buy something non-refundable online and change your mind, you can just steal from the company.

This annoying article assumes that honest, business-savvy customers are the target of the list. It fails to make the point that the blacklist service is there to protect against unscrupulous consumers but is essentially flawed.

What do you guys think? Is there any moral way an honest business can protect itself against this sort of theft?

Sapheron is a friend from University. One of the things he does well that I didn't know about is taking pictures.

Here are a couple of other skilled shooters I know:

• Ninethousand
• Adam Richardson

Stick a Ribbon on your SUV. A musical number. Language issues make it NSFW if you don't have headphones.

Oh, stick magnetic ribbons on your SUV. Keep your apathy, and get off scot free.

Catchy tune.

Check out this 1700mm F4 lens by Carl Zeiss. For those of you who aren't familiar with what those specs mean, the 1700mm refers to "how zoomed-in" the lens is. Just for some perspective, the silver camera I have does 38mm (at its widest) to 190mm (telephoto). You may have seen some great big professional Canon lenses that do 300 mm to 600 mm.

This Carl Zeiss lens is over 500lbs. I sure hope the one hung above the crowd is a mock-up.

A Discworld cake for all you fellow Pratchett nerds out there.

Conan the Raver. Warning: NSFW fake personal ads.

The Suspicious Looking Device is a device specifically designed to look suspicious.