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  • Safe Dating

    For the next time you go on a date:

    Get Out of Date Free Card

    Images Thumbs 09F12770Dd43B924Dca175C0F6648Cce

    Oh, ho, ho, ho. What will small companies think of next to get a mention in USA Today and freak people out? Secure Networks is offering a free service called SecureSingles which allows you to punch in a few pertinent details about your next date and, if things don’t go so well or your date chops you into small, tasty bits your friends and neighbors will receive an SMS, phone call, or email message after a certain time. Great for wrapping things up after he starts talking about his “kittens” and “wax paper collection.”

    …

    Product Page [SecureSingles via USA Today] [via Gizmodo]

  • Strange Things Are Afoot

    The other day I was driving around and realized that the clock in my car was almost right (it is usually horribly off). I never reset it for spring so now I’m trying to figure out who changed it. Are there people who break into cars and reset clocks? Hmmm.

  • Are you a Grup?

    New York magazine has an article talking about Grups*. It’s the new thirtysomething. Or something like that.

    He owns eleven pairs of sneakers, hasn’t worn anything but jeans in a year, and won’t shut up about the latest Death Cab for Cutie CD. But he is no kid. He is among the ascendant breed of grown-up who has redefined adulthood as we once knew it and killed off the generation gap.

    *Also known as yupster (yuppie + hipster), yindie (yuppie + indie), and alterna-yuppie. Our preferred term, grup, is taken from an episode of Star Trek (keep reading) in which Captain Kirk et al. land on a planet of children who rule the world, with no adults in sight. The kids call Kirk and the crew “grups,” which they eventually figure out is a contraction of “grown-ups.” It turns out that all the grown-ups had died from a virus that greatly slows the aging process and kills anybody who grows up.

    Thankfully I only seem to partially fall into this classification. I hate being labeled too easily.

  • Those Darn Snakes

    It’s finally here, though the video quality isn’t that great. I give you the trailer for Snakes on a Plane.

  • Looking for Martians

    Mars Images Mars Logo

    Today brings us the latest offering from Google: Google Mars. Explore the red planet in three different ways: an elevation map shows color-coded peaks and valleys, a visible-imagery map shows what your eyes would actually see, and an infrared-imagery map shows the detail your eyes would miss. It is pretty nifty. Check it out!

  • Anime in the News

    Yesterday, the New York Times had an article about some of the anime that is currently showing in the US. It’s pretty good, though a little bit simplistic. The one thing I liked about it was that it was explaining a little of how these shows are different than the stereotype of what many people think anime is (Pokemon/Yu-Gi-Oh). The point where I feel the article falls a little flat is in its examples. While I enjoy Naruto, I think Fullmetal Alchemst might have been a better one to go into detail with. My guess is they were went with a show that was on at a watchable time.

    It is nice to see some mainstream media coverage of anime that helps to show a bit of why I enjoy the method of storytelling so much.

  • Japanese Drum Machine


    Picture 2

    Posted by Accordion Guy, a funky Flash animation called Drum Machine.

  • The Gizmo Project

    Gizmo Project A Free phone for Your Computer

    I’d heard of Gizmo a while back, but hadn’t had a chance to check it out until today. I’ve got to say, it’s pretty slick. I think it may just replace Skype for me.

    For those of you who aren’t up on the latest in internet telephone services, Gizmo and Skype are internet telephone services. You can call other users on their services for free, and for a small fee make outgoing calls, and accept incoming calls if you rent a phone number from them. They also have basic IM services built in.

    So why do I like Gizmo? It uses open standards and I’m a geek for that kind of stuff. The interface also seems quite nice and it runs on everything (Skype does too). It also offers some features for free that cost money on Skype (like voicemail). So if you are doing the internet telephone thing I highly recommend giving it a try. You can give me a call at gregoryblake.

  • Growing For The Holidays

    I’m just starting to really get into the Christmas mood. And I just saw a link to a new GROW puzzle, this one with a Christmas Tree. It was pretty easy though. Enjoy!

  • Repetitive Information Injury

    Just as I was coming to grips with NADD, I find out that there’s another aspect to it: Repetitive Information Injury.

    NADD sufferers walk a delicate tight rope between effectively consuming large amounts of information and losing themselves in a endless loop of useless, frustrating information acquisition motions that I’ll call Repetitive Information Injury (“RII”).

    For me RII shows up late in the day. I’m between meetings and having nothing urgent on my to do list. I sit down at the computer and scan my unread email. Once done there, I click on a couple of tab groups in Safari and scan the news. Lastly, I switch to NetNewsWire and scan for changes on my 75+ feeds.

    And then… I do it again.

    And again.

    It sounds silly, but I’m literally stuck in a loop of information acquisition. What I am looking for? Something interesting informational tidbit which grabs my attention and if I don’t find it, I’ll often loop four or five times before I realize that I’m in this useless, non-productive loop. [Rands in Repose]

    Crap, this describes many an afternoon for me. I may need professional help.