
Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.
Author: Joey deVilla
I got my first real-life look at one of the One Laptop Per Child laptops at the CommandN party last Thursday. While noodling with it, I got the idea to get a picture of it beside my accordion to show just how compact it is:

The OLPC XO and my accordion. Click to see more photos in an article on Global Nerdy.
It’s nice and portable. No wonder the “One Accordion Per Child” idea never got any traction.
For more, see my article on Global Nerdy.
Vintage “Lad Mag” Covers
Here’s a nice Friday time-waster for you: a Flickr photoset of vintage men’s magazine covers. A sample:

Just another Saturday night, back when I was single.
Click the picture to see the full set.
Man Hands!
It’s all about the giant hands:

Photos from Esquire, courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.
Here’s what these wonders are:
- Fist Crushing U.S. Fighter Plane, Libya
- Monument to President Laurent Kabila, Democratic Republic of Congo
- Lenin’s Mausoleum, Russia
- Monument to President Saparmurat Niyazov, Turkmenistan
- Mao Leading the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, China
- The Hands of Victory, Iraq
- Monument to the Founding of the North Korean Worker’s Party, North Korea
Render Into Caesar
If the folks at Family Security Matters have their way — see this article from Google’s cache titled Conquering the Drawbacks of Democracy (they’ve since taken the article down from their site) — America could earn its own totalitarian wonder. Here’s an excerpt (the emphasis is mine):
Caesar pacified Gaul by mass slaughter; he then used his successful army to crush all political opposition at home and establish himself as permanent ruler of ancient Rome. This brilliant action not only ended the personal threat to Caesar, but ended the civil chaos that was threatening anarchy in ancient Rome – thus marking the start of the ancient Roman Empire that gave peace and prosperity to the known world.
If President Bush copied Julius Caesar by ordering his army to empty Iraq of Arabs and repopulate the country with Americans, he would achieve immediate results: popularity with his military; enrichment of America by converting an Arabian Iraq into an American Iraq (therefore turning it from a liability to an asset); and boost American prestiege while terrifying American enemies.
He could then follow Caesar’s example and use his newfound popularity with the military to wield military power to become the first permanent president of America, and end the civil chaos caused by the continually squabbling Congress and the out-of-control Supreme Court.
President Bush can fail in his duty to himself, his country, and his God, by becoming “ex-president” Bush or he can become “President-for-Life” Bush: the conqueror of Iraq, who brings sense to the Congress and sanity to the Supreme Court. Then who would be able to stop Bush from emulating Augustus Caesar and becoming ruler of the world? For only an America united under one ruler has the power to save humanity from the threat of a new Dark Age wrought by terrorists armed with nuclear weapons.
It’s a bit over-the-top, even for neocons. I had to look around the site to confirm that it wasn’t some kind of Daily Show or Onion-style parody. Apparently, it’s the real, non-ironic deal.
Anyhow, if Family Security Matters get their wish, may I suggest this as a design for their totalitarian monument?

He Didn’t Order the Happy Meal
We all have days where we feel like this guy:

Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.
Ten Ways to Look Like a Total Toolbag
I enjoy both smart-assery and dressing up, so this snarky-but-spot-on piece in Magnificent Bastard, titled Ten Ways to Look Like a Total Toolbag, amused me to no end. Here’s a preview:

Click the picture to see the article.
The ten ways, which are elaborated upon in the article, are:
- Backwards baseball cap
- Oakley Blades sunglasses
- Bluetooth headset
- Gold necklace
- Tommy Bahama shirt
- National Review magazine
- Belt-clipped cellphone
- “Cause” wristband
- Over-the-knee double-pleated shorts
- Crocs
I do occasionally wear a Tommy Bahama shirt when it climbs past 30 degrees (that’s 86 for my American friends), but I have a genetic right: I’m from a tropical country and I can pass for Hawaiian.
Notes from FacebookCamp, Part 1

Facebook’s Caitlin O’Farrell gets the ball rolling at FacebookCamp Toronto.
Accordion City loves Facebook — we’ve got 725,000 Facebook users (out of a population of around 3 million), and until recently, we were the number 1 city in the world as far as Facebook users go.
It’s not just ordinary Toronto Facebook users who are in love with social networking site; Torotno developers are also interested, if last night’s attendance at FacebookCamp Toronto — 450 to 500, depending on whom you ask — is any indication. This gathering of developers interested in writing applications for Facebook — the first of its kind held outside the U.S. — attracted so many people that they had to change the venue three times before landing a place big enough to accomodate everyone: the MaRS Centre, a centre for promoting high-tech and biotech research in Toronto. Even with the MaRS Centre’s large auditorium, set to seat over 400 people, they set up a spill-over room with simulcast video to handle all the attendees.
My first set of notes from last night’s presentation is up, and you can read them on these blogs:
- On the tech blog I get paid to write, The Tucows Developer Blog
- On the tech blog I write for kicks, Global Nerdy
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Wayne “bunnyhero” Lee approves of FacebookCamp’s sponsors.