The fastest text messenger isn’t some teenage punk, but a 93-year-old. He managed to not only transmit the entire chosen message verbatim (avoiding the shortened txt and slang versions of words) but he did it entirely in morse code. Granted, the old man has 70+ years of experience while the cell phone user only has a few experiences using SMS, but it’s still very retro. Thanks Jon for the link.
Category: Cool
My Life Is Now Complete
This site has been linked as a citation in a Wikipedia article (the article linked to this page). Woohoo, I’m famous (or intelligent, one or the other).
…
OK, now that my 5 seconds of fame are over, carry on.
We’re A Nielsen Family
I forgot to post this when I got this last week (my stomach bug took me out), but we’re a Nielsen Family (at least for the week). If you’re not aware of what Nielsen does, they’re the company that determines the fate of radio and TV shows around the country by determining the ratings for those shows. They do this by a variety of methods, but one of them is picking random folks to send TV diaries to log their TV viewing habits for the week. In return for the survey, they get a few bucks (we got $10).
The thing is, we don’t watch TV much at all. Our kids don’t watch much TV, and when they do, it’s for something specific that we have on video (we have to write “Pre-recorded DVD” in the spot instead of the show we’re watching). So, for the most part, the survey is blank.
I got a phone call tonight from the Nielsen folks, asking if we had any questions about the diary, comments, concerns, etc… . The lady I talked to was very nice, and sympathized that she was wasting my time by asking me these questions, but one thing she did point out that I didn’t realize is that I can post comments on here to say, for example, list why we’re not watching TV (as I mentioned it was fairly blank). If we’re not watching because everything on is crap, we can note it. If there are something on TV that we’re offended by, we can note it. If I’m pissed about something, we can note it, because, she said, people really pay attention to this stuff (but should couldn’t go into any details).
After that conversation, I thought about fudging with my results to keep some shows on the air, but Barney convinced me otherwise (now that he’s directly affected by the Nielsen’s). But man, think about how much you could screw things up. I just know these stupid ratings have gotten rid of some wonderful shows back in the day. Wonderfalls and Sports Night are two shows that come to mind that were ditched.
Anybody else have any great shows that got screwed by ratings?
Guess The Google Search
Everybody’s linking to this, so I might as well. This is a brilliant Flash game that’s as fun as it is difficult. I got a 295 on my first attempt (out of 400 points, I assume). How’d you do?
Flash Time Killer For The Day
Another game to waste away your Monday. I love old-school simple games like this fun little racing game. Reminds me of that 4×4 racing game Super Off Road that I used to bury quarters into as a kid.
This Game Is Going To Make Me Kill Somebody
Something to kill most of your Monday workday. I’ve played it probably a hundred times, and I can’t beat the computer. Can you?
I Only Wish This Was Legal Around Here
We have a pile of stray cats that run around our neighborhood, tearing things apart, fighting in the middle of the night, pooping in yards, etc… . While animal control doesn’t really give a rip about them, I wish I could just trap them or something like they tried to do in Wisconsin.
Turning A Quarter Into A Ring
It’s technically illegal to do this, but this is still way cool. Link via Hack A Day.
E-mailing From The Road
If you’re like me and hate changing SMTP servers whenever you’re on the road, and you don’t want to always be using your Web host’s SMTP server, you can always use Gmail, according to Greg. Great tip, thanks!
Speaking of Gmail, did you you know you could run Linux on it? Or that you can use Gmail as a spam filter? Now you do.
Another Site Added To The Feed Reader
Random Acts of Reality is a blog written by an ambulance driver about the cases he comes across and the emotional and physical tolls the job will take on you. Having know a great deal of EMTs and Firefighters throughout my life (my mom was an emergency room nurse for 20+ years), and even running the Hood To Coast one year with a bunch of EMTs, I really enjoyed reading the site. It’s now in my Feeddemon feed list, and will be added to my Blogroll once I re-do the thing (there are lots of sites I read that aren’t on there, and vice versa).