Small Fish, Big Pond

Thanko has a USB mouse with a speaker in it for people who don’t want to splurge on speakers (that cost less). Paired up with a microphone that clips to your shirt you can have VoIP calls holding the mouse to your ear.

It reminds me of the old Maxwell Smart gag, “I want you to speak into my elbow while you look up my nose” (I guess you have to have to have seen it).

Or like Scotty trying to communicate with a 20th century computer in Star Trek IV.

Geekstuff4U via Akihabara News

I’m glad Natalie Dee is doing research in the field of smells, the pleasant, the funky, and the heavy freaking gross smellements.

I also like the relationships between smellements, like the 4th period appetizing transitional being all breads; starting with the basic Br “Bread” and progressing in to the heavier Cb “Cinnabon”.

Click for larger Smellements

Natalie Dee

More fun video from Gizmodo. I love the Walt Mosspuppet videos, they’re far more entertaining and informative than the real thing.

XKCD has a cool infographic showing what it takes to escape the gravity well of the major bodies of the solar system.

Astronomy has been a passing interest of mine since childhood, so it’s always cool to see a simplified version of the dynamics of gravity so it’s a bit easier to wrap your head around.

I like the description of Deimos and Phobos, if man ever makes it out there I think being the first person to throw a baseball into Phobos’ orbit is just as cool as being the first person to land on the moon or a planet.

The Earth has a huge moon for its size and is pretty unique in that regard. All other minor planets have little more than rocks orbiting them. The only other heavenly body with a closer ratio of planet to moon is Pluto which technically isn’t a planet anymore.

Pluto and Charon are so closely matched in size that the center of gravity between them is above the surface of Pluto. Imagine linking hands with somebody twice your weight and then the two of you spinning around. Your hefty friend will orbit the center of gravity in a smaller loop than you will.

Jupiter is sometimes referred to as the “Star that almost was.” Its gravity isn’t quite enough to compress hydrogen enough to begin the process of fusion. Gas Giants between the size of Jupiter and actual stars are referred to as “Brown Dwarfs”, referring to the fact that they don’t have high enough gravity to sustain fusion. If additional mass falls into them they can “ignite” and become stars; this was used as a plot device in 2010: Odyssey Two, where the Monoliths reproduce in Jupiter lowering the density and causing the planet to ignite into a second sun.

Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine are technically retired now, Dick is doing some other projects and is basically taking a year off so his music and influence isn’t gone, just on hiatus or in transition to a new project depending on your interpretation.

However there are still some new CDs coming out in the next few months including the new studio album “Ok Bartender”. Hearing this I ran to his site to pick it up directly and found out they have a great deal going to join his “Super Fan Fun Club”.

I know you’re rolling your eyes hearing the word “fan club” so let me translate it to something you’ll understand.

6 Richard Cheese CDs for $41. Or $6.80 a CD.
(The site looks like it was made in 1997, I’m not sure if that’s fitting RC’s comic mentality or indie nature of the group.)

Now I’ve been meaning to buy his CDs for a long time. I have two at home, but I admit I have his entire works in mp3 form as well. Sorry Richard, but as I stated in a treatise at last.fm once, online downloads are my music preview method. The whole reason I bought 2 CDs in the first place was because I liked what I heard online, now I’m collecting the entire discography as I can find CDs.

Which brings me back to the Super Fun Fan Club. The price for 6 CDs is cheaper than any store you can get them from unless you get them used, and Richard Cheese is too popular to ever be in the used bin. On the rare occurrence you find a used CD is you’ll likely be paying more than $6. They throw in some stickers and stuff too because it’s a “fan club” thing but the CDs that are out will ship ASAP, the new ones are shipped before official release dates.

The main point is $41 for 6 CDs purchased directly from the man himself, to support the band and their endeavors. I know a lot more than just me have their music already but few have taken the extra step to support the band they found the love.

So act now, deal runs out Jan 5th.

PS for those who haven’t heard of Richard Cheese, head over to last.fm, youtube or your favorite preview site and check out a few tracks. The band does covers in a hilarious lounge act style. Kick up your feet with a martini, pretend you’re in the Las Vegas Holiday Inn Lounge, and enjoy the music.

hate the future usually has some funny posts. Unfortunately I don’t think this one is a joke.

Kat Hannaford at Gizmodo wants to take the words Geek and Nerd back.

I agree, everybody who uses a computer claims to be a Geek now which is a bit tiresome since most are just morons trying to not to be morons (but hey at least they’re trying). So here’s the definition I’ve been going by for the last few years on what is a geek and what is a nerd.

Nerd = Somebody who goes to Star Trek conventions in full Klingon regalia and/or Spock Ears. May also be a WoW addict or other shut-in. Japanophile versions refer to themselves as “Otaku” thinking it’s a compliment or Japanese for “Geek” (see below).

Geek = Somebody who goes to E3 and tech conventions. Builds computers for nerds and morons. May also program their own apps and software. Usually pompous and feign exasperation when asked to help fix computers although it’s what they live for.

Moron = Person who thinks the internet was invented sometime around 2000 by Google. Refers to a computer tower as the “Hard Drive”. May be a Facebook or twitter addict but simple html is a foreign concept. May own an iPhone or other smartphone but only because it’s trendy, they need a geek to help them get it working.

Kat’s post was inspired by a story that David Anderegg a professor at Bennington College says that the words Nerd and Geek should be avoided saying that they’re akin to racial epithets.

I couldn’t disagree with him more, for one thing it’s not that big of a deal, I mean saying that nerd is on par with the n-bomb?! Even in the 80’s when being a nerd guaranteed an atomic wedgie or a beating by jocks it wasn’t as bad as spewing racial hatred.

I’d equally consider myself Nerd, Geek, and Moron depending on the situation and circumstance (although I aim for Geek). I don’t think that the problem is in calling a person a nerd, I think the problem is in thinking that that person is ONLY a nerd.

Maybe if we took the time to get to know them a bit more we’d see that’s just one facet of who they are, and maybe even learn why being a nerd, dressing up and going to a sci-fi conventions isn’t always a bad thing.

This Australian Toyota commercial pushes the limits of sexual innuendo. Apparently too far, alot of people want it removed. I can see why people object, I’m frankly amazed it got this far (although I’m sued to the US’s much more sexually repressed* ideals).

Doesn’t make it any less funny though.

Toyota “She can take a good pounding in any direction” ad at “The Age”.

*US objects to sex but seems to lead he world in gratuitous violence in media.

I am the original DJ Hero

Currently only 5 episodes and here’s hoping that all episodes are put on hulu in the future.

It’s hard and expensive getting all the Rhino releases… Assuming you don’t resort to torrents.
Space mutiny is my personal favorite. The hero “Big McLargehuge” keeps screaming like a girl for no apparent reason.

And remember December 16th Rifftrax is live in theaters for Christmas Shorts-fest, I already have the day off.

Thanks to giz.

Quote of the day:

I used to make fun of the Green Lantern for being vulnerable to the color yellow. Then I choked on my orange juice one morning and nearly suffocated.

…

*sigh*

BTW I’m wearing my Quantz failure shirt today. I like his comic so much I should permanently add a link to it and boost his google rank by an infinitesimally small amount.

I always get tons of comments from people while wearing his shirts.

Pink Tentacle(via Gizmodo) has an awesome old set of magazine illustrations from Japan predicting what life would be like in the future.

I love this kind of stuff because it’s always so overblown, like the Jetsons which aired in 1962 and takes place in 2062.

2062 seriously?!

Anyway these 1969 images (of life in 1989) from Japan are even better because the majority of the predictions have actually come true (roombas, personal computers, laptops, computers in the classroom, telecommuting, remote surgery). There may not be 1960’s styling but this guy basically saw what life would be like us today (minus the flying car); technically he was 20 years off but still pretty good considering that “computers” in his day took up an entire room, and by “computers” I mean big calculators.

Be sure to check out all three images broken down on the site.

Thank You Mario!

Just a reminder, since I forgot and just now barely remembered; the day after tomorrow is the live broadcast of Rifftrax doing “Plan 9 from Outerspace”
Get your tickets for your local theater now.

If you don’t know what Rifftrax is: It’s Mystery Science Theater 3000 except they’re doing it now with current big budget movies, not old episodes from the 90’s with B movies that are out of copyright. And it’s the same cast of Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett (Mike, Tom, and Crow). Head over to the Rifftrax link above to get a feel for it. The Empire Strikes Back riff was one of the best!

If you’ve never heard of Rifftrax or MST3K I pity you. The good thing is that you have tons of hilarious entertainment to catch up on now.

Also if you’ve never heard of either and you’re about to skip to another webpage take this opportunity to go out and see Plan 9 from Outerspace, widely regarded as the worst movie ever. Not only is this a chance to see it on the big screen, it a chance to see it made fun of by people who have been doing this for nearly two decades.
What better way to spend a Thursday night? (I mean for those of us who are single)

Watching some leftover Japanese programs reminded me of this clip. Mari Yaguchi is cute/funny with her reactions in it but I really want this game to come overseas. It looks hilarious; an entire generation of 8-bit gamers over here love the old games, seeing something new that has the 8-bit feel with a bit of comedy would be great.

No embed for this youtube, links only, click the picture.