This Japanese commercial for cup noodles is funny, but turn down your speakers before playing it – there’s a lot of screaming:
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March 2010
Every job has its tedious part, but my job has an unusually high number of moments of pure awesomeness, such as those pictured below. I’ll explain more about the project later, but for now, enjoy the photos!
This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.
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You’ve heard the stories about people choosing terribly obvious passwords for their various computer accounts, such as “password” and “12345”, but what are the other ones? In his book, Perfect Passwords: Selection, Protection, Authentication, Mark Burnett compiled the most common easy-to-crack passwords, most of which are ordinary words or key sequences that are easy to type on a QWERTY keyboard. I’m amused by some of the pop culture-based passwords, such as “Rush2112”, “8675309” and the X-Files inspired “TrustNo1”.
Someone else — I don’t who who did it — decided to turn that list into the hand-lettered poster shown above. You can click it to see it at a larger size.
In addition to being a good list showing the sort of password you shouldn’t use, it’s also a great name generator. You could take two random items from the list to create new character names for a Metal Gear game (“Tomcat Eagle1” makes just about as much sense as “Solid Snake” or “Sniper Wolf”) or any three to come up with the name of your band or prison softball team (“Bigdick Magnum Juice”).
This article also appears in Global Nerdy.
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Maybe it’s me, but I think that this setup is asking for Murphy’s Law to attack when you least expect it. However, if you’re short a laptop bag and have a hooded sweatshirt handy, this hack might work for you:
This article also appears in Global Nerdy.
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The comic below, created by John Campbell, is a snarky but amusing deconstruction of Star Trek: The Next Generation:
I always found it funny that the “empathic” character Deanna Troi had the power to sense plainly obvious emotions and painful that they had to explain bits of human behaviour that one should’ve picked up by the end of adolescence. That being said, much of the show’s audience was teenage boys, and teens often figure out the world through stories, so why not explain that stuff? And as someone much wiser than me once said, science fiction is a sandwich: once you’ve gotten past the bread of aliens and future tech and the thin slices of plot meat, it’s all about the thick moral mayo.
The last panels in this comic had me laughing out loud, especially since I imagined the line as delivered by actor (and dater-of-inapproriately-young-women, the lucky bastard) Patrick Stewart himself, using that William. Shatner. Mode. Of. Delivery.
In case it’s not apparent who the comic figures are, here’s a quick guide…
This article also appears in Global Nerdy.
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Photo courtesy of M Thru F.
I assume that someone did this using this trick.
This article also appears in Global Nerdy.
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I’ve heard a lot of people say that the need to have arguments in public and win popular support is an unintended consequence of social networking services. I think that things like Twitter and Facebook make it easier and that they vastly expand the reach of an argument, but that we’ve had that urge to have flamewars long before the internet.
Here’s a data point for my thesis: a placard from 1839 that wouldn’t seem out of place on any online debate, aside from the dated language.
This article also appears in Global Nerdy.
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Given that the United States’ health care reform bill has passed, I thought it would be a good time to share this great “Scooby-Doo” parody created by Terrence Nowicki:
Nowicki even included a bonus comic:
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Once upon a time, the great Van Halen were known for producing some really fun rock and roll. As far as I’m concerned, they haven’t been the same band since David Lee Roth left and Sammy Hagar took over as lead vocalist, and since Eddie Van Halen’s transformation from gifted guitarist and synth player into incoherent alcoholic with a penchant for Smoking Loon wine (which is pretty decent, if consumed in moderation).
These days, the Van Halen guys are probably better known for their food-related side projects. Michael Anthony has a line of hot sauces and Sammy Hagar has a couple of nightclub/restaurants bearing the name Cabo Wabo, the newest one of which opened in Las Vegas in November.
While in Vegas last week to attend the MIX10 conference, my coworkers and I dropped last Sunday to get some food and tequila:
We ended up catching (and joining) the band 3 Digit IQ, who do a weekly live karaoke night there.
Naturally, I had my accordion with me, and you’ve probably already guessed what happened.
The video at the top of this article shows me doing a couple of numbers with them – I Wanna Be Sedated by the Ramones and Ritchie Valens’ hit, La Bamba – and the photos show some of the fun we had.
I wasn’t the only one with an accordion; their keyboard player, Botielus, had his accordion with him, and we had a great time jamming.
We stayed a bit longer than we’d planned to because people who join the band get free tequila (Sammy Hagar’s own brand, Cabo Wabo, which is pretty smooth stuff). Apparently people who bring accordions get free tequila for their whole table, and well, the night gets a little bit fuzzy from there. Rest assured, the local constabulary did not get involved.
My thanks to 3 Digit IQ and Cabo Wabo for the fun!
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In honour of St. Patrick’s Day and to keep the ordering process simple, just about every bar in Vegas had this sign posted outside, offering these Irish-themed drinks specials:
To be fair, the Bud and Bud Light came in festive green bottles.
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Take a look at this sign, located right by Mandalay Bay’s elevators:
That’s right: rather than having to figure out which of your garbage goes into separate bins marked “paper”, “plastic”, “organics” and “trash”, you simply use the trash cans on Mandalay Bay property. Someone else will riffle through the mountain of trash and do the separating for you, leaving you free to do more Vegas-y things, such as recreate the events from The Hangover.
I’m glad I don’t have that job.
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This vending machine in the men’s room in Accordion City’s Pearson Airport dispenses everything you need for the perfect weekend in Las Vegas:
The offerings from the vending machine are outdone by the goodies awaiting guests of the Mandalay Bay hotel, where I’m staying. Miniature Snickers bars trump breath mints every time!
Being the rather – ahem – “earthy” person that I am, I had to inspect “The Love Box”. Its contents are listed on the back of the box, which I photographed and posted below:
Is it me, or does the list of contents sound a bit…clinical?
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It’s still here after all these years – the ad for The Gun Store, which greets you at the baggage carousels at Las Vegas’ McCarran airport. It’s far more memorable than a mere “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign:
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