I was browsing through the pages of Freshome.com when I saw these hideous monstrosities of furniture.
and the fugliest chair to rule all fugly chairs…
Who in the world bought these things?
(via Freshome.com 1 & 2)
The human-powered search engine, Mahalo, sent me a goodie bag with a beach towel, a tote bag, and a hat. Clearly hats are not my thing.
If you are part of a company giving out free swag get in touch.
My roommate, Jaime, had to make a website about poetry for one of her classes. Her idea was to present the poems of several 19th century American poets along with a recording of a reading. Guess who got to lend his voice to the poetry reading? That’s right, it was me!
I was happy to help out with voice over work and recording. I borrowed a R0DE Podcaster Microphone
In fact in the 8th grade one of my assignments was to memorize and recite in front of the class Whitman’s “O Captain! My Captain!” Even after all of these years the words flew off my tongue with ease.
Jaime’s site is pretty interesting and well designed for a first time website maker. Take a look around and take a listen to the other poems.
This is one of those “in the right place at the right time” kind of photos.
From the photo caption on Flickr:
Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico(Monday June-2-2008) Seven competitors from yesterday cyclist race were severely injured after being hit by a drunk driver, one of them died and other three were hospitalized. The drunk driver was arrested after the rest of the participants tried to lynch him.
30 year old Alejandro Alvarez, from Brownsville,Texas, was pronounced dead on the scene, while Alejandro Salvador Tamez, 18, Juan Machaita, 38, and Guadalupe Martinez,, 16, were severely injured.
Cyclists were participating in a race from Matamoros to Bagdad Beach, when drunk driver Jesse Campos, a Brownsville, Texas resident, in his Ford Grand Marquis, license 659-FKF from Texas, impacted seven cyclists, even as they were being escorted by Local Transit Officials.
Source: The Daily Telegraph
Picture: Jose Fidelino Vera Hernandez
Twitter has been facing all kinds of problems lately. In light of this I figured I would share this funny Twitter exchange between Jason Calacanis and Stu Maschwitz I happened to capture a screenshot of several weeks ago.
In case the JavaScript version of the original Super Mario game got a bit boring, Nihilogic has redone Super Mario Kart in much the same way. Weighing in at a mere 11Kb this proof concept lets you choose your driver (Mario, Luigi, or the Princess) and one of two courses. There is no collecting coins, knocking out opponents with turtle shells, or even counting laps. You can use the arrow keys of your keyboard to steer around a simple loop course over and over again until the end of time. The computer controlled drivers help keep up the pace though you can pass right through them as there is no collision detection.
Music is included to add to the nostalgia of the old SNES days. There’s not much else to this except to prove what can be done with modern JavaScript when applied to interactive games.
Sorry for the grim title but I just discovered this great infographic featuring statistics of how men in the United States will die in 2008. There are various causes covered including suicide, heatstroke, and electrocutions. The data was collected from the CDC’s WONDER Database. WONDER stands for Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research which is a collection of data that’s available to public health professionals and the public at large, boasting a wide array of public health information.
Thanks to this it looks I don’t have to worry about shark attacks (1), foreign objects left behind during surgery (2), or fireworks accidents (5).
UPDATE: This originally appeared in the November 2007 issue of Men’s Health and was designed by Julia Hoffman.
UPDATE 2: From Sean Nolan, Director of Men’s Health Online
Please remove the copyright-protected graphic from Men’s Health magazine currently at this URL:
https://blog.v3.russellheimlich.com/stats-on-how-i-will-probably-die/
You do not have the permission of Men’s Health to us it.
Sorry people!
There are many web services and tools that can be used with Twitter. Such oddball web service/Twitter mashups include TrackThis which sends you a twitter message every time the status of a package you are tracking changes, and Timer which helps act like an alarm for things you need a reminder about. But I just stumbled across Fuelfrog which is one of the more useful collaborations.
Fuelfrog provides a simple service allowing you to track your cars mileage per gallon as well as the average price you pay at the pump. Using their website you enter 3 things: the miles you traveled since your last fill up, the price you paid per gallon, and the total number of gallons you bought. Fuelfrog will then tally your findings and provide you with some handy specifics over time. I only started using the tool today but the site will tell you the frequency you are filling up, the average MPG your car gets and the average price per gallon you are paying. In the future they hope to let you compare your performance to other vehicles to see how you are doing.
This simple tool comes in handy for tracking the performance of your car. My parents used to do this manually by writing down the mileage from the trip odometer onto the gas receipt and do the number crunching later at home. But thanks to Twitter integration I can ditch the pen and paper and simply tweet my gas stats straight to Fuelfrog. After providing my twitter username (kingkool68) I can now send a tweet from my phone to @fuelfrog with the miles, price per gallon, and total purchase amount in that order. A handy nemonic is MPG – Miles, Price, Gallons. There is also a Windows Mobile app if you want to be lazy about it.
I’m going to be using this over the next couple of weeks to see if I notice any patterns about my fueling habits. At the very least I can look back and remember when gas used to only be $3.71 a gallon!
(via DownloadSquad)
I was churning through my array of video podcasts this morning on my commute when I came across this 3 minute demo of InkSeine which stopped me dead in my tracks. InkSeine is a prototype ink application designed from the ground up to completely rethink how people interact with tablet computers. Gone are the menus that run across the top and instead are replaced with contextual gestures that can appear anywhere on the screen. Take a look at the video to see what I mean.
Technology like this would be really useful on a touch-screen mobile device, say maybe like an iPhone
Today is my 23rd birthday, but I’m not the only one who has a special day today. Did you know American Idol first season winner Kelly Clarkson‘s birthday is today? Or how about Chipper Jones, the 3rd baseman for the Atlanta Braves who was also born on this day? Apparently Benedikt Lechler, a famous composer, celebrates his 414th birthday today. He was born in 1594.
Thanks to BrainyHistory.com I know all of this random trivia about April 24th. But not just limiting themselves to birth dates, Brainy History also offers a catalog of death dates and important events. Estee Lauder died at the age of 97 on the same day I turned 17 in 2004. But my favorite event that happened on April 24th hands-down has got to be from 1982 when the IBM-PC was introduced. Those that know me realize this is a perfect fit for me.
But birthdays aren’t all about looking back and reflecting; they’re about getting free stuff on your special day. HeyItsFree.net (via Pammy) has the ultimate list of food, entertainment, and services that give away free offerings to birthday boys or girls. We’re talking mostly about free ice cream and cake but some places like Chevys mexican restaurants give away a free desert and a sombrero. The catch is you have to sign up in advance to take advantage of most of the offers. Too late for me now, but maybe next year.
Finally my Dad reminded me that when he was 23 he was in Vietnam in charge of 30 guys in a supply department on the USS Warrington. I sure am lucky I’m not off in a war zone and get to spend my birthday with family and friends.
Kristina made me brownies and got me grown presents like shoelaces, belts, and the movie 300
Blowing out candles is still fun no matter how old you are.
