Some Great Web Videos

Here are a couple of hilarious shorts. One of them is The Truth about Sushi and my personal favorite is The Matrix with Additional Sound Effects. You'll need to download Windows Media Player 10 to view them.

Horse Acapella

This is simply a well-programmed Flash site, especially for horse-lovers. Click on the horses in different order and then try turning them on and off individually to get different rhythms.

Things Mother Taught Me

1. My Mother taught me about ANTICIPATION...

"Just wait until your father gets home."

2. My Mother taught me about RECEIVING....

"You are going to get it when we get home!"

3. My Mother taught me to MEET A CHALLENGE...

"What were you thinking? Answer me when I talk to you ... Don't talk back to me!"

4. My Mother taught me LOGIC...

"If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, your not going to the store with me."

5. My Mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE...

"If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to freeze that way."

6. My Mother taught me to THINK AHEAD...

"If you don't pass your spelling test, you'll never get a good job."

7. My Mother taught me ESP...

"Put your sweater on; don't you think I know when you're cold?"

8. My Mother taught me HUMOR...

"When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me."

9. My Mother taught me how to BECOME AN ADULT...

"If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up."

10. My Mother taught me about THE BIRDS AND THE BEES…

"How do you think you got here?"

11. My Mother taught me about GENETICS...

"You're just like your father."

12. My Mother taught me about my ROOTS...

"Do you think you were born in a barn?"

13. My Mother taught me about WISDOM OF AGE...

"When you get to be my age, you will understand."

14. And my all time favorite... JUSTICE...

"One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you... then you'll see what it's like"

Oldie But Goodie: The Talking Dog

A guy is driving around and he sees a sign in front of a house: "Talking Dog for Sale." He rings the bell, and the owner tells him the dog is in the back yard. The guy goes into the back yard and sees a Labrador Retriever sitting there. "You talk?" he asks.

"Yep," the Lab replies.

"So, what's your story?"

The Lab looks up and says, "Well, I discovered that I could talk when I was pretty young, and I wanted to help the government; so I told the CIA about my gift, and in no time at all they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping. I was one of the CIA's most valuable spies for eight years running. But the jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn't getting any younger so I wanted to settle down. I signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security work, mostly wandering near suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some incredible dealings and was awarded a batch of medals. I got married, had a mess of puppies, and now I'm just retired."

The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog..

"Ten dollars," the guy says.

"This dog is amazing. Why on earth are you selling him so cheap?"

"Because he's a liar. He didn't do any of that crap."

Another Wild Picture e-Mail

I wonder what percentage of the picture e-mails people send and receive are funny, weird or porn? And what percentage are just jokes (bad or otherwise)? It would make a really interesting survey question. Just got this one today and even if it's not real (which may often be the case), it's a cool picture. I also had this other Yahoo! shot sent to me yesterday. Very bizarre!

Wireless Hotspots

I just posted a piece on my RobertinSeattle blog about my experiences with trying to get a wireless network up and running. I also wanted to post a link here to a really cool site where you can locate (and report) the latest free wireless hotspots across the States. Ain't technology cool?

When a Baby's Born in Japan...

A friend forwarded this terrific Japanese commercial -- it's about a 3Mb mpeg file and you can either download it or stream it to watch it. Some of the best commercials come from overseas (that's probably what they say about our commercials over there!)

Better than eBay?

Woot! has been around for a short while now and I love checking in when I'm near a computer at 11:00 at night my time in Seattle (they're on Central time). In case you've never checked them out yet, Woot! puts up one item every day on their site (complete with well-written descriptions) at a fantastic, irresistible prices that can only be offered by closeout specialists like them. The item stays up for the day and many often sell out within minutes after posting, taunting you with a Sold Out! headline until the next posting. Great concept. You'll love it. (And yes -- I've already checked it tonight before posting this!)

Classic Carson Copper Clappers

We'll all miss Johnny Carson. I remember first watching him as early as the 70's when I lived in Toronto; the man had class and style to go with his impeccable sense of timing and delivery. Irreplacable! Here's his classic Copper Clappers skit as could only have be done with the original Dragnet's Jack Webb. I think I can hear Ed MacMahon in the background laughing.

Why Paint Cats?

A friend of mine just circulated an e-mail with some of the pictures from a book and website titled, Why Paint Cats? How anyone came up with the idea is beyond me but some of the images are pretty cool. And some of the pissed-off reactions they've posted are also pretty cool. PETA -- eat your heart out!

The Case Against Hyphenated Last Names

Some newly-married people who probably shouldn't be hyphenating their last names!

Hyphen15 

Hyphen10 

Hyphen11 

Hyphen12 

Hyphen13 

Hyphen14 

Hyphen5 

Hyphen6 

Hyphen8 

Hyphen9 

Hyphen2 

Hyphen3 

Hyphen4 

Hyphen1 

Online Confessions

Method is a new soap manufacturer with an edge. To promote their products online, they've created a really cool Flash site called ComeClean. Really slick. You can choose to either fess up your own confessions or see what other people have owned up. The pair of hands show a confession that gets washed off in the sink (with Method soap, of course) so you can see a new one. Another in the new face of online advertising: low key, well-done and memorable.

Where Did the Time Go?

OK -- wait 'til mid-day Monday and you'll be wondering where the time's gone already. Here's a great way to find out (takes about 5 minutes). Some great web design and sound.

The Art of Speed: Rocket-Fueled Short Films

This Nike-sponsored site showcases 15 short films by up-and-coming directors. Watch the quick flicks, then read bios and interviews with the filmmakers, who were each commissioned to explore the concept of speed on digital film.

The Human Clock - A Photo for Every Minute of the Day

Here's a guy down in Oregon who has managed to create an online clock that changes to a different picture every minute of the day (he's now also added a calendar). Just click on the Clock picture at the top of the screen and it'll start the clock. You can also submit your own pictures if you feel so inclined!

One more geek with wa-ay too much time on his hands! (But it IS pretty cool!)

iPod vs. The Cassette

Ha ha -- the guys at the No Name No Slogan Labs have done it again! Here's another one of their great comparison that pits the iPod vs. The Cassette. Slideshow's pretty good and some of their past results are fun too if you have too much time on your hands on Monday morning!

The Last Page of the Internet

I know, I know -- many of us have seen this one circulating around for years. But it's still kind of fun to send along to newbies!

Your Ecological Footprint

Your Ecological Footprint Quiz estimates how much productive land and water you need to support what you use and what you discard. I'm too ashamed to publicly post what my score was...

If nothing else, a good place to get us thinking about the resources we burn to do what we think we need to do.

Oh what the hell... And here's Google Labs.

Here are all the links to the latest goodies that Google has been working on, Betas and all. Some you may never have even known existed. Their skunkworks is called Google Labs. It really looks like these guys have the wind behind them and there's such tremendous momentum to their phenomenal success that companies like Microsoft will be truly hard-pressed to catch up for a while. These guys have figured out a real Interenet-based model, much like eBay settled into their model for being a global community trading platform. The Internet presented a way to generate AND aggregate a whole lot of information. Finding ways to search for and organize that dynamic flood of data is the challenge and opportunity. People are turning even more to the Internet for all of their information search needs -- like maps and pictures -- and presenting them with really cool ways to find it all seems to be Google's primary mission. Everyone else seems to have lost their way, including Yahoo! Another clear example of right place, right time, I suppose.

And Now... Google Maps

It almost seems as if Google is launching a new app every week. I don't know how they can keep it up. Their latest Beta is Google Maps service and it's damn hard to believe it's still in experimental stage. There are three tabs available: one is just a map of the address you're looking for, the second gives you a Local Search for businesses nearby, and the third is for directions. The turn-by-turn driving directions are among the slickest I've ever seen and highly interactive. Easy-on-the-eyes colors and the ability to selectively look at individual steps along the way in detail. If this is the experimental Beta version, I can't begin to imagine what the finished version will look like! This is really going to give everyone else a run for their money. Check it out.

The Exorcist in 30 Seconds (and re-enacted by bunnies)

I love the crazy 30-second Bunnies Theater animated series from Jennifer Shiman ("Angry Alien Productions"). Check out "The Exorcist in 30 seconds with bunnies."

Hillbilly Bookcovers

Wow! I've always enjoyed pulp fiction art from the old days. Check out the hillbilly book series then go back and check out some of the other genres on this really cool archive site. Sure don't see too many covers like this on fiction paperback covers any more.

Monday Morning Test

Another of the many trick question sites.

Weird News Photos

A collection of 99 of the more interesting news-making photographs of the past few months. Just click on the News Of The Strange Slideshow link on this news page from WFTV in Florida. I love weird photos!

Dog Judo

The dog judo site -- just silly and inane. People with too much time on their hands!

Screen Cleaner

Hey -- a CLEAN screen cleaner link!

U.S. Geography Lesson

Remember your Second Grade geography maps? How well do you remember the states? This is some pretty cool coding and a fun geography test for kids of all ages. Amazing how little American geography most people remember (or know).

A truly unbelievable pet clip

Animal Planet hosted their Pet Stars competition on Discovery Channel. When you see Einstein the parrot, you'll easily understand why she won First Place! This has gotta be one of the coolest animal clips I've ever seen. Makes you want to just run right out and buy a parrot. I can't begin to imagine how much time and patience it took to train her. Anyone would be absolutely remiss in comparing this to David Letterman's Stupid Pet Tricks -- this bird is truly in a class all her own. (Even if you normally don't bother looking at stuff like this, you HAVE to take a couple of minutes to see this!)

Road Accident Pic

Road Accident -- a few survivors ar in the foreground, I think...

Road Accident in Germany

Apparently from a road accident in Germany and this picture's being passed around on the Internet already.

In the beginning...

Well, geez. I've been online for around 20 years now. It started out with the earliest modems at 300 baud and Delphi was considered a state-of-the-art way to access information online. Compuserve and AOL eventually came along and they encouraged people to start their Special Interest Groups (SIG's). Those were pioneer days, with people sending hours every night in fron of their little screens keeping up with all the posts in their group. It was all a labor of love then and many were content simply to get free access in return for maintaining their postings! (There weren't Google ads then!)



Anyway, fast forward to today and here we are getting hundreds of e-mails a day (90%+ of which are probably spam) in our bulging Inboxes! I depend on my e-mail every day to stay in touch with business projects and family and friends across town and all over the world. But just as often, it serves as a simple social network to let my friends know that I'm still alive and staying in touch. They send me e-mail jokes, political statements and urban legends galore and I, in turn, dutifully forward the ones I find interesting or silly to my network of friends. Sometimes if I'm traveling (or sick on rare occasion), I'll miss a day or two. And that's when the e-mails pile up in my Inbox. And friends start writing or calling to see if I'm all right. It's a cool social network phenomenon.



All of this actually reminds me of something similar in nursing homes: I've got several friends who live in assisted living facilities all over the US and Canada. I've noticed that most all of them employ a very simple, nonintrusive way of knowing someone's OK. Late at night, the floor patrol personnel would hang something (like a plastic bracelet) on the doorknob to each apartment. If someone didn't open their door in the morning to head to the cafeteria for breakfast, they'd know right away and be prompted to make sure everything was all right. A low-tech version of a social network.



Anyway, with as much stuff as I receive and send out each day. I thought a daily compendium blog of some of the best bits I receive each day might actually save a lot of e-mail. I might even be able to start encouraging more of my friends to get in the habit of checking this blog page and expecting fewer e-mails from me. In many ways, I suppose this is one of the functions of a blog; to allow anyone to post a little bit of stuff at a time simply and quickly without the need to go through many of the traditional layers of web page publishing.



I hope those of you who do find this blog will continue to keep coming back to see what's new. And any comments or words of encouragement are definitely welcome.