US army relies on the web in the war on terror -- sort of scary, if you ask me. Here's some more of the army's nifty toys.
Found this on a local newsgroup, and it makes me chuckle each time I read it:
This cat showed up at my sisters home one day and wouldn't leave she is allergic though so I said I would take it. That was 2 months ago and I have found out that I am really not a cat person and this guy isn't one of those who falls asleep by himself he constantly craves attention. He is pretty cool (for a cat) doesn't mind the car will walk on a leash, doesn't chew or scratch, also don't know if this is weird or not but loves to be vacuumed. I do have a pic if you want to see Tigger.
Walks on a leash, doesn't mind the car, loves the vacuum -- hey, that is pretty cool for a cat ;)
I scream, you scream, we all scream for strippers!
Ruth Smith hasn't had to worry about her neighbours since she moved to the area. But now the ice cream stand across the road could become a strip club, and Smith is starting to worry.
Couldn't help myself w/ that funny quote from this article.
16:36 |
2002/05/30
15:01 |
2002/05/29
Nortel wants to rid itself of its optical division, the very same sector that brought in all the bucks back in the glory days:
The company said it will either sell or chop its optical components business. Nortel does not see a "meaningful recovery in the long-haul (optical components) market before late 2003/early 2004," the company said.
I wonder what the next boom will be? The wireless wave sure didn't ride on in on the tail of the optical wave as expected . . . What kind of product is going to get people spending again?
Imagine you had to tip the computer support guy when he came to help you? And what havoc s/he'd wreak on you if you were a bad tipper?
16:31 |
2002/05/28
Despite the feedback solicited from the public regarding the new Canadian War Museum (previous post), the design is still up in the air.
Guimp.com: described as the world's smallest website, though more appropriately it's the smallest interface.
16:20 |
2002/05/27
88 buildings were open to the public this past weekend. I checked out four of them: the NRC wind tunnel, the Diefenbunker (cold war bomb shelter for Canada's gov't), the Lemuiex Island Water Purification Plant (where water from the Ottawa river is treated before being pumped into the city), and the Picard Environmental Centre (where used water from the city is 'improved' before being returned to the river).
The water treatement plants gave me a new appreciation for my drinking water, and the Diefenbunker would have been more interesting if more than one of the four underground stories had been open to the public (I'll have to return for the full tour). I'd have to say the wind tunnel was my fave.
Links
Laptop-based robot doesn't sound too impressive, imo.
Koneisto: a Finnish electronic music festival w/ quite an organic website.
DIY flying machine:
As Larry and his lawnchair drifted into the approach path to Long Beach Municipal Airport, perplexed pilots from two passing Delta and TWA airliners alerted air traffic controllers about what appeared to be an unprotected man floating through the sky in a chair.
I found the "real story" more interesting than the email that eventually circulated.
Emotionally intense reconstruction of morning of 9/11 from phone calls and emails, by the NYT (requires registration) -- it's a pretty solemn read and offers a frightening perspective from inside the towers.
15:42 |
2002/05/24
Optic fibres in clothes make for interesting design possibilities, potentially even for moving pictures.
16:32 |
2002/05/23
Kartoo: and interesting visual search engine (in Flash). Repeating a previous Google search yielded a mix of same and different results.
16:18 |
Rexy recommends: Arnie pranks.
Office Mayhem
I've been moved again. I had to have an overhead cabinet relocated in my new cube, so a fellow came by to move it yesterday. He nearly toppled my cube wall trying to do so. He gave up and returned this morning w/ a friend to help. They did knock my cube wall down into the hallway. Hilarious! A second friend was recruited, and the three managed to get my cabinet up on the wall. Whew.
11:33 |
2002/05/22
Starbucks will now be serving Fair Trade coffee:
Starting this week, fair trade coffee will be sold as the "coffee of the day" at least once a month. Consumers can also ask for a cup of fair trade coffee or they can buy fair trade beans.
WOW! That's amazing, especially when contrasted w/ Bridgehead, who only serve Fair Trade coffee as their coffee of everyday . . . At least you now have the choice of Fair Trade coffee at Starbucks, which is a good start. I wonder when/if other chains will follow:
Second Cup and Tim Hortons have so far refused to sell fair trade coffee.
dEb was right, carrots did indeed used to be purple.
So much for that finger-scanning grocery payment system, fake fingers are just as good as the real thing (80% of the time).
Upcoming Wendy's ads to tribute founder, Dave Thomas.
16:54 |
2002/05/21
CNN reports terror!
16:48 |
Suicide bombers in the States? What a wonderful world . . .
10:08 |
2002/05/17
I think someone fell in the Ottawa river yesterday afternoon. On my walk home, I saw police and fire vehicles on the E.B. Eddy bridge, along w/ ambulances on nearby Victoria Island. There were police officers under Portage Bridge as well. Looked at the news this morning, but couldn't find anything . . . strange . . . I just heard over lunch that there were boats cruising around the area, as well as unmarked police vehicles all over the place, but still nothing in the news . . . stranger still . . .
16:20 |
2002/05/15
Man, I want an egg chair.
16:32 |
LeBreton Flats used to be a neighborhood, but was torn down years ago due to its unsightliness. Regardless, it is now a large greenspace just west of downtown Ottawa, previously used for festivals, recreation, and whatnot.
About three quarters of LeBreton Flats has recently been fenced off -- all of which being that portion I cut through when walking to work. LeBreton will be the new home of the Canadian War Museum, and the Parkway is being redirected through the Flats!
Although annoyed that the Flats are being developed, I'm happy that the public is being consulted on the actual design of the new museum. There are three proposed designs, which you are invited to study here, and you can submit your comments until 05/24.
My main interest lies in preserving as much greenspace as possible, and after studying the designs, and specifically the overhead site plans (1, 2, 3), I think I prefer 1, as it features a partially grass-covered roof -- the plan is designed to 'emerge' from the landscape. This seems the least intrusive design imo.
I think design 2 cuts out too much of the 'commons' area with its 'group entry' walkway, so no. 3 would be my second choice, for its interesting use of solar lines marking significant historical dates and what looks like nice and plain landscaping on the north-west corner of the property.
13:37 |
2002/05/14
11:00 |
2002/05/13
I've added a commenting feature (hosted by YACCS), so you can now comment on my posts via the link below each post. Enjoy!
10:58 |
2002/05/10
16:07 |
2002/05/07
The @ in your email address results from a hasty decision made by the inventor.
Payment via finger scan tested at grocery store.
Beach Combers reunion (?) stalled.
During a televised sporting event, a "high five" is commonly shared between fans to express the joy and excitement of a touchdown, home run, game-winning basket, birdie or other positive occurrence. Unfortunately, as known in the art, a "high five" requires the mutual hand slapping of two participants, wherein a first participant slaps an upraised hand against the elevated hand of a second participant. As such, a solitary fan is unable to perform a "high five" to express excitement during a televised sporting event.
Worry no more! There's a patented apparatus for simulating a "high five" for all you lonely sports fans out there! (Click on 'image' button for amusing pics.)
16:43 |
2002/05/06
The Spiderman movie was pretty good! The comic-book aspect was great: attention was paid to making clear the motivation behind the different characters, and the visuals were all-round decent as well -- though, I preferred the amateurish Spidey suit of the first part of the film compared to the flashy new suit of the latter portion. The love story, unfortunately, was a tad cheesy. It wasn't so much the love plot itself, but the horribly cliched dialog that made me gag. Definately one of the better comic book movie adaptions. I'm just waiting for Dr. Octopus to make his on-screen debut!
Link
Unhappy hotdogs.
16:29 |
As mentioned in previous posts, dEb and I had been busy building an autonmous robot for OCAD's Sumo Challenge. Here's how it went . . .
All Your Base Are Autonomous (aka Basey)
After some late nights, we finally got the robot up and running, and had Basey completely functional within only hours of the competition. It was the edge sensors that proved the most challenging aspect of our design -- being the first problem we tackled when we began building the robot, and being the last thing to get working properly before the competition. The robot circuit is a simple, analog design, where edge sensors, IR sensors (to detect the opponent bot), and bumper senors (to detect collision w/ the opponent) are used to trigger the appropriate bot behaviour (forward, reverse, turn, etc.); if nothing is detected by the sensors w/in a predetermined amount of time, the robot turns 90deg to look in a different direction. The body is designed to resemble our Halloween costumes. (Once photos are developed and scanned, I'll post a seperate page w/ all the robot details.)
Round I
Our first match was against "Clockwork Metal" built by fellow Ryersonian, Pawel Grodecki. Probably due to sensor/beacon misalignment, Basey's IR sensors failed to find Clockwork Metal's beacon. As a result, Basey simply turned round and round, looking for the opponent, while said opponent approached and finally pushed Basey out of the ring. A dissappointing match, indeed.
Round II
Before beginning the match, we ensured Basey could see the opponent bot, "One Eye", built by Norm White of OCAD. The round began, and Basey quickly located One Eye and attacked. Unfortunately, Basey was underpowered against One Eye's stronger motors, and eventually was pushed from the ring after a long struggle. We were informed by the ref. that if Basey had stayed in the ring w/ One Eye for ten more seconds, we would have won the three minute round for aggressiveness on account of Basey's initial attack.
Winner?
Although Basey lost as a result of being underpowered, the robot behaved as expected, and dEb and I are very pleased with that. Thanks to the archetypal robot theme achieved w/ our matching costumes and robot, we won the Judges' Choice Award; quite a gratifying surprise!
13:01 |
2002/05/02
The solution to our paper problem ... is not to use less paper but to keep less paper. Why bother filing at all? Everything we know about the workplace suggests that few if any knowledge workers ever refer to documents again once they have filed them away, which should come as no surprise, since paper is a lousy way to archive information. It's too hard to search and it takes up too much space.
I agree! But I also feel strongly that we need strong/effective recycling initiatives, as it's all too easy to just print up another hardcopy of a work in progress, only to discard it once handmade edits have been transferred back to the softcopy. Have you ever wondered where all that stuff in your recycling box really goes? I'm not suggesting that it doesn't get recycled, but I often wonder just how effective recycling is in fact . . . (As an ironic aside, the linked article suffers from several typographical errors.)
16:40 |
2002/05/01
17:05 |
