Archive for 2009
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »Solution To Auto Industry’s Cash Problems? Charge It!
[ Comments Off ]Posted on January 13, 2009 by admin in Clean & Green, Technology
Tuesday, January 13th, 2009A Day Late And A Petrodollar Short
It’s a bit of shame that the American auto industry’s sudden excitement about electric cars comes across more as a knee-jerk reaction than an insightful foray into new technology. Someday American automakers may again be recognized as innovators in vehicle technology, but this year the Green Car of the Year award goes to the 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI, which is actually powered by “clean diesel”. Funny that the first electric car was built in the 1830′s and Detroit is still trying to figure things out. If you haven’t been keeping up with what’s going on with EV’s, TreeHugger.com has a nice overview of 23 electric cars that are driving the revolution. By the way, if you’re intrigued by the stylish electric Cadillac Converj pictured here but intimidated by the likely price tag, don’t worry. It doesn’t really exist yet.
Antisocial Networking
[ Comments Off ]Posted on January 13, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Tuesday, January 13th, 2009Why You Should Show Some Love For FaceBook Apps
 It’s Actually Cooler To Be Against The Thing That It’s Cool To Be Against |
As an obsessive observer of social networking phenomena (it’s like a free anthropology class!) I was amused recently when a bunch of friends proudly “became fans” of Ignoring Application Requests on FaceBook, apparently overlooking the fact that without the revenue from these Apps, the site would inevitably have to place more ads for income. Hey kids, try IgnoreAll instead! Of course that’s just not as cool as saying you’re against something. So if you want to show you’re too cool for FaceBook like other Internet Famous People, why not delete ten friends and get a free Whopper™ with Whopper Sacrifice? If you’re hip to the idea that being too cool for social networking is one of the best ways to expand your friend list, there are lots of other sites out there. Like Isolatr. Let Isolatr’s patented technology help you “Find Where Other People Aren’t”. Or Nemester, “an online community that connects paranoids, egotists, villains, and monomaniacs through networks of competing agendas and incompatable ideologies for bitter conflicts, mutual loathing, or to find their one, true nemesis.” At HateBook.com, users can share things they hate, like old naked men in the gym: “I hate the old naked men in the gym locker rooms. Why must you walk around naked for 20 minutes, its called a towel you use it to cover and dry yourself, please stop air drying your old testicles while you watch sports center, and for love of god DO NOT stretch“. And for some reason no-one’s logged in since November 26th, 2007 over at NOSO, where they offer a unique opportunity to create NO Connections by scheduling NO Events with NO Friends.
My Job Is To Make You Late For Yours
[ 6 Comments ]Posted on January 12, 2009 by admin in Editorial & Opinion
Monday, January 12th, 2009If We’re Doing Our Job, You Aren’t
We’ve had so few visitor comments lately that I can’t guage if these Monday Demotivators are doing their job, or if it’s just that no-one’s reading any more. I hope it’s the former. As I’ve said before, I don’t enjoy the darn games myself, I just take perverse glee in the idea of making you late for work if I can. So here we go. If you’re still in a pre-caffeinated state, Flubber Rise might be the place to begin. Just keep clicking the little Flubber guy. Remember, as the game says: “Flubber fountains make you grow!” I can’t believe I just typed that. What’s maybe even scarier is that you’re reading it. Next up: Dodge. Crap, I actually enjoyed that one. You just, well, DODGE stuff. On the other hand, Colordefense is evil. Move a tri-colored circle around so the colors match the color of the little squares attacking you. Simple enough, except the bastard that created the game made it so you use your W, A, S, and D keys to move around. Speaking of “the other hand”, maybe if you’re sinistral, Colordefense is easier to play. Let me know, lefties. Moving on, does the adjective “xtreme” bother you as much as it bothers me? Try xTreme Ball Racing anyway. I’m not really into racing little balls in real life, but this game’s visuals made me a little dizzy, which is something I DO enjoy for some reason. Just avoid the blueballs. Er, I mean, the blue balls. And lastly, for those who insist on using their brain a little, we have Gravitat. Kind of like an overwhelming version of Tic-Tac-Toe, but with gravity.
Best of Bootie 2008
[ Comments Off ]Posted on January 11, 2009 by admin in Music
Sunday, January 11th, 2009You need no other mashup collection
With a title like Best of Bootie 2008, you might think I’m promoting some kind of rapper chick porn, but the fact is that after hours of (sometimes excruciating) listening, I can comfortably say that this is the absolute best selection of mashups (which we’ve previously discussed here) of 2008. There are a LOT of people doing mashups these days, and many of them, though conceptually clever, are almost unlistenable (like Eminelton, for instance), or in other cases they’ll be alright except for the fact that the “mashup artist” gets a little lazy with polishing up the final product to make sure that things are rhythmically tight and not harmonically incongruent. Not a problem with Best of Bootie’s selection – not only are all the tracks exceptionally well-remixed, they’ve even put them in a very listenable sequence. You could pretty much toss this on at any party and not have to think about it again. Some faves of mine include (all direct mp3 links): Overdub’s mix Come As The Starlight (Nirvana vs. The Supermen Lovers) manages to make Kurt Cobain sound like a motown classic; Totom’s track Every Kind Of Creep (Radiohead vs. Robert Palmer) turns “Creep” into the jazz song it always secretly was anyway, and DJ Y Alias JY’s Duffy Train Running (Duffy vs. Doobie Brothers) somehow actually makes both artists sound better. Here’s a little preview of “Come As The Starlight” for you:
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Grandma Asks “What The Hulu Is Joost?”
[ Comments Off ]Posted on January 10, 2009 by admin in Popular Media
Saturday, January 10th, 2009Time To Finally Put Away Those Rabbit Ears
Many of us don’t have to worry about the switch to digital broadcast TV scheduled for February of this year, but apparently 3 Million viewers are expected to let their TV’s “go dark” on that day. Although corporate media news sources have been saying since the early 90′s that we would soon live our entire lives through our Internet connected TV (see this Time Magazine cover), the stark reality is that in spite of the availability of TV content on the web via services like Joost and Hulu, and in spite of ill-conceived notions like Yahoo’s TV Widgets (with TV screens already 20% full of “crawl”, who needs more, even if it’s personalized?) we still think of TV time and Internet time as separate activities (with the web winning sometimes). With all the available options, I’m personally left as befuddled as the old lady in the video clip at left, which ironically is TV content brought to you via YouTube. Especially in light of current economic uncertainty, it’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out. My bet since 1992 or so has been on AT&T slowly beating Comcast , but whatever the outcome, AT&T’s ventures into this market so far are expected to at least benefit customers through increased competition.