Greetings,
The
trailer to the new movie Oblivion has me gripped. I WANT to watch this movie. Period.
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| Just in case you didn't realise, Tom Cruise acts in this movie. Like, FYI or something |
The 'plane' Tom Cruise flies around looks a little familiar but I can't put a finger to it. In the trailer, the vistas and scenery is breathtaking. Oh, and there are robots and shooting and stuff gets blown up.
Dav out
Greetings,
I caught this on the news today:
"Starbucks to phase out coloring from crushed beetles"
I'm like, yeah, so maybe its on their logo or on cups or something. Turns out I'm wrong. Oh. So. Wrong.
"Starbucks Corp said on its blog on Thursday that it will stop using a natural, government-approved coloring made from crushed beetles in its strawberry flavoring by late June, bowing to pressure from some vegetarian customers."
Wow. Crushed bugs? Seems like Starbucks has been using the extract in its strawberry frappuccinos and smoothies, as well as some deserts like raspberry swirl cake.
- Lucky I'm not a strawberry frapp kinda guy
- I'm more of a cheese cake person
Turns out that this isn't a new thing.
Wikipedia says that the dye has been in use since the 15th century to dye material a deep crimson colour.
Now, FYI, this is what goes into your drink (ground up of course):
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| Shaken, not stirred please |
Once you get over the whole "There's BUGS IN MY COFFEE?" it seems like this is pretty much a normal thing, the US FDA says its ok with them.
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| Uh, mom, why's that barista crushing something to a bloody pulp and adding it to my drink? |
Well
veterinarians vegetarians all around the world should be able to breathe a sigh of releif as Starbucks will be amending their recipes to make use of lycopene, a natural, tomato-based extract.
Next we'll have this happen and give up on that as well.
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| We should have used beetles instead! |
Dav out
I like it like that!
Hey windows down, chillin’ with the radio on
I like it like that!
Damn, the sun’s so hot, make the girls take it all off
I like it like that!
Yeah, one more time, I can never get enough of everybody
Sing it right back, I like it like that!
Greetings,
Recently I've been peppered by a different kind of pop, namely K-Pop. I blame MTV (MTV Asia to be precise) because they tend to lace their normal music video programms with K-Pop music videos.
From what I've seen so far Korean Pop (K-Pop) comprises of a special formula:
- Male artist - androgynous
- Female artist - as many as you can pack into a bus
- Female artist - legs, as many as you can pack into a bus
- Any artist - must be able to say these words in English - "Yeah. Oh baby. Yes. OK etc"
- Not afraid of glitter and makeup
Seriously, some of these Korean bands have up to 13 members.
Thirteen.
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| Hi, can we just have the band in here please? Oh, you ARE the band? |
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Its not surprising that many of the female bands dress the way they do, its a multi million dollar (Won or Won, you pick) industry. Being sexy translates into more album sales, and more work.
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| For the Korean won before the North–South division, see Korean won. |
I'm not going to throw around K Pop band names, that's what Google is there for. Super Junior, Wonder Girls, 4 Minutes by the way are just to name a few. Band shelf life goes from anywhere between 6 months to 10 years, depending on the Scoville scale of how hot you are.
One bit of news I found a little amazing while reading up on K Pop is that there have been plans by
South Korea to weaponize it, just to annoy the hell out of North Korea. Just imagine playing
Avicii - Levels, over and over again just because your idiot neighbor does home improvement work on a Sunday morning.
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These aren't cute girls, they're actually Voltron in disguise.
You just need to know how to assemble them the right way |
I think the boots market should be doing very well in Korea.
Dav out
Greetings,
I use a
LOT of Excel in my everyday life. I blame work (of course I blame a lot of things on work, but that's for another blog post).
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| Crazy, but not that crazy |
Excel makes things..orderly. Order is good! Order is next to Godliness I hear. Anyway, I'm sidetracking.
I periodically (re: every Friday) send out an email to some of the guys at work with some weekend music, and after a while I was receiving requests for spesific songs and couldn't keep track of what I've sent out and what I had cued on for the following weeks.
Cue Excel!
So from a 3 column sheet, I progressed on to a 8 column Excel sheet, and more importantly, a drop down for song status where I could select 'Sent' or 'Not Sent'.
After a while (22 new rows) I was sorting each row by Status and I realised the way I was managing the 'Sent' status could be done in a more logical, automatic manner. So I fired up Google and looked up IF statements as well as Nested Statments.
Microsoft's Help page was not so much help because I was not looking for a complex macro. About.com's page on nested IF statements hit the nail on the head for me.
This page had a simple to understand example, and got me thinking that I could just simplify an IF formula in Excel to do what I wanted.
My requirements were simple, if I put in a date in a column (Sent Date), I wanted the column (Sent Status) to change to "Sent". If there was no date value, I'd want the column to say "Not Sent".
Warning, formula below!
=IF([@Date]> 1,"Sent", "Not Sent")
Sample excel below FYI
http://www.mediafire.com/?ksktpp1aqraljxg
So I've nerded out this week. I am ashamed.
Dav out
I resolve to call her up a thousand times a day
Ask her if she'll marry me
in some old fashioned way
But my silent fears have gripped me
long before I reach the phone
And before my tongue has tricked me
Must I always be alone
Greetings,
I've been putting this off for a while, mainly because I didn't want to jump on the bandwagon. So, here it is. RIP Steve Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011).
There are so many photos out there of him, and some of them have been used on every site possible. Instead, I'm opting to have this photo, to remember him by. Taken in 1979 (wow, special year that eh?), you cant but help think that he's a natural born sales person. A pioneer even.
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| Steve Jobs poses with an Apple computer, September 1979. Photograph: Ralph Morse/Time & Life Pictures/Getty |
His passing was pretty much a shock, mainly due to the fact that the new iPhone was launched not days before.
I've never really been a fan of Apple products, but my issues with Apple were mainly centered around the proprietary way Apple's products worked. iTunes nearly cost me my sanity once, so never again I promised myself. Did their products work? Yes. Did the products do things in a new, unique, human way? Yes. And that's where Jobs excelled. That's where I think Apple excelled. Pushing the envelope.
Let's see who picks up the mantle now.
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| Jobs - the man with a vision, the money to pull it off, and the insane mad drive to make things happen |
Huge loss. Would love to read the full autobiography when it comes out. For now, there's a
great review here.
Dav out
Oh my life is changing everyday
Every possible way
Though my dreams, it’s never quite as it seems
Never quite as it seems
Greetings,
Well its all over the news by now, but those fake Apple 'Stores' in China are being closed down as we speak. Oddly, they are being closed because some of them do not have a license to operate, and not because they are infringing on any rights of the principal company.
Is this a case of 'creative license' gone too far in terms of mimicking an Apple store, or is really more of "imitation is the best form Of flattery"?
Kudos to the
original blogger that brought this to light, but I'm pretty sure this was already known by the locals though no one really bothered to act on it.
Strangely so, Apple has also been mum on this. As long as they are selling genuine products maybe?
*shrug* Welcome to the new world order.
Dav out
Greetings,
I don't really watch all that much TV, and god forbid if it was American
Effigies (Idol, Latin!). The thing is, I was watching this documentary on
TBM's and there was an advert for the American Idol finals.
Imagine my surprise when I saw this guy's photo:
Hey ma, look at me!I've never heard him sing, but the only thing that comes to my mind when I look at that photo is Alfred E. Neuman. If you don't know who that is, then you're way too young!
Come on, look at the similarities!
What? Me worry? Only if I don't win in American IdolIts hilarious that they've made that 'Reality TV' show last this long. What is it at now, Season 11? I can't even remember all of the Idols.
Dav out
If you think you're getting away
I will prove you wrong
I'll take you all the way
Boy, just come along
hear me when I say
Hey
Greetings,
Have you ever taken time off to think about how rough your local coffee Barista has it?
He (or she) has to put up with line after line of pompous, pretentious coffee and tea guzzling drones, each with a unique but not almost on the menu order. I've always wondered how they cost and calculate revenue for a normal Chai latte when someone comes up to the counter and asks for half half cream with two pumps of Chai, one shot of expresso and a twist of lemon.
Is that
even tea anymore?
But I digress!
A recent study has shown that
sex and coffee may 'trigger a stroke'.
. . . . . . . .
I'll let that sink in for a while.
Your local Barista's life has just become a little more darker and colder now after seeing that in the BBC news. Of course, blowing your nose might even do you in, but lets not worry about that shall we? ;)
Dav out
Ja ja jaded
You got yo mama's style
But you're yesterday's child to me
So jaded
You think that's where it's at but is that where it's supposed to be
Trolling
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
| Author:
Dav
Greetings,
Just felt like trolling around today. And since I haven't gotten off my Inception kick yet, I present you with the below!
Dav out
Greetings,
It feels like every time I start the damn thing up, there's an update. I'm talking about the PS3 here. Sure, 'Sorney' wants to make sure their system and software is updated and there are those pesky hackers running around trying to crack the consol, but why, dear lord WHY are there so many updates?
Pirates? Oh come on!
New features? Oh come ON!
Anyway, long story short, not having a bigger bandwidth sucks, its like trying to suck quick drying cement through a crazy straw.
Lucky for me, I found out (OK so I'm slow, sue me)that you're able to download the update to a USB stick and then run the update off that instead of directly downloading the update via the PS3. EVERYONE must already know of this, but here's a
link to the Sony PS3 site anyway.
I'm cooking with gas now!
Dav out
Greetings,
Oh. My. God.
It is here, Quantum computing.
One of the most complex efforts toward a quantum computer has been shown off at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas in the US.
It uses the strange "quantum states" of matter to perform calculations in a way that, if scaled up, could vastly outperform conventional computers.
The 6cm-by-6cm chip holds nine quantum devices, among them four "quantum bits" that do the calculations.
The team said further scaling up to 10 qubits should be possible this year.
Rather than the ones and zeroes of digital computing, quantum computers deal in what are known as superpositions - states of matter that can be thought of as both one and zero at once.
I'm already drooling.Imagine the technological push this will give us, cancer research, gaming, etc.
Dav out
Greetings,
Microsoft has found yet another way to annoy me! Now, with Windows Live Messenger 2011 (or the Windows Live suit) you not only get an updated version of MSN Messenger, but its now more tightly integrated with all sorts of services that you never wanted.
First major issue, advertising. Windows Live Messenger sees fit to inject an advertisement right smack on your chat box, taking up space and distracting you till you KILL it with a click of the (x) button. Problem is, that sucker comes right on back if you close the chat window (which I do, REGULARLY!).
Hello, I'm here to bother you till you curl up in a cave and dieSo I Googled around and it seemed for a while that you could only get rid of the advertising by either downloading a 3rd party patch or haxing your b0x (editing some registry so your machine doesn't 'see' the advertising URL / feed).
But you can breathe a sigh of relief, because apparently
this site details exactly how you can disable said advertising without any patches and registry edits (its actually a checkbox within Live).
All your base are belong to us, and we can switch off adverts too nowOther issues are mainly how you're not really able to just save your email login info without your password (its now email AND password together) which makes it harder to stop someone from logging into your account if you leave your machine without locking it. Oh and the Social integration. Why? Why do I want to go down that slippery road?
Bleah.
Dav out
Greetings,
So over the weekend I watched Season of the Witch at the cinema. Any movie with Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman (Hellboy, Mutant Chronicles and soon Conan the Barbarian) as Crusaders with the Black Plague thrown in is a movie I'd want to watch for sure!
First thing's first, yes, Cage still has weird hair.
Check, weird hair.
(Maybe I should just set fire to my hair and be done with it)Ron Perlman on the other hand, looks pretty much the same.
(I am a man. No, a man's MAN!)When both of them fist came on screen at the same time (wasn't too bad of a battle), first thing that came to mind was "Wow, these guys are tall!". Nick Cage is 6' (1.83 m) and Ron is 6' 1" (1.85 m) (I Googled, so sue me!). Which is nice to know, since I'm in the same height range
*win!*Though not 10 minutes into the movie, and I started wondering, wait, where are the witches?
Highlight over for spoilers:THERE ARE NO WITCHES! Well, ONE witch, maybe. I'm not sure.
Hey, you pay good money to watch witches, and I wana watch witches!So yeah. That was pretty much my major beef with the movie. The scenes were ok, some of them paced well. Can't say I have a favorite scene though, besides the initial battle.
Go watch it, and then start counting witches.
Dav out
Greetings,
Really unrelated to anything I've posted before, but I was reading about tigers and the wild, and then I found a post about a
tigress eating her cub. Wiki-crack (yes, its a word!) and I found Ranthambhore (its a tiger sanctuary!) and then I came across the fun fact that Katy Perry and British comedian Russell Brand were married there (October 23, 2010).
Then, via the amazing powers of Google, I came across the picture above. Look at them. Hell, look at HIM.
So, why's the universe askew now?
Dav out
To be a joke and look, another line without a hook
I held you close as we both shook for the last time take a good hard look!
Greetings,
I'm a geek. I love technology as much as the next guy (or girl!). I own a Windows Mob 6.5 phone as well as the cheapest possible Blackberry on the market (mostly for work). Yes, the windows mobile phone OS is getting on, Win Mob 7 isn't quite there yet, and I think Android is the next best thing since sliced bread.
Home made sliced bread. Thickly sliced.
But Apple, wow. Now I can't get my head around Apple and its products.
Yes, they make amazing hardware, and amazing software to go with said products. But at those prices, and at those feature-functions? Damn, costs a bit much no?
Always good for laughs,
Oatmeal's take on all of this.
Dav out
This is a Christmas cop out. I haven't had the time to really post anything much, so enjoy a neat Xmas tree on me.
Happy holidays people!
Dav out
Greetings,
I think the chorus to this song is just amazing. I have no idea why, but it touches me. Like, jumps up, and touches me.
Linkin Park - Waiting for the End
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qF_qbaWt3QDamn you sappy feelings!
Dav out
Greetings,
Whilest browsing teh Interwebs, I came across a comic that I usually read, but this time, it was one that really made sense.
lesser horsemen of the apocalypseLets just say the third panel hath happenth before.
Dav out
Greetings,
The Blackberry is LOADED with stuff. Just uh, loaded. Recently I found an icon on my home screen that was too small to view. It looked like a green triangle, or even a house.
After 2 days of trying to figure it out (Google and borrowing people's glasses hoping I could magnify the icon) I was on the edge of going to the phone store and choking the life out of the guy there.
The Blackberry alert icons usually show up with a small star, and if you're not sure what the alert star is for, it usually shows up when you start to browse the applications within your phone. The alert star will be shown clearly over the application in question (usually a new update, or new version of the application is now available etc).
That icon was no where to be seen. I LITERALLY went through every, single, application, possible on the phone.
Now, 2 more hours of intensive Goggling and I've found the answer!
The icon is from BBM Groups. Go into Blackberry Messenger, then under the Blackberry Groups section you should see the updates. In my case, it was a new Blackberry group chat.
So now you know.
And knowing is half the battle. The other half is hiding from technology.
Dav out
Greetings,
Thought I'd try a funny pun to the title. It is of course, in reference to
this issue. Imagine finding that in your morning breakfast toast, or your evening munchies sammich!
What I find odd is that the interview has him saying he took extra care to check the slices of bread... AFTER he found that there was a mouse at the bottom of the loaf?
Also, who buy's bread online? Am I the only guy that finds that a little weird?
*shrug*
Our furry friend taking a long nap
Dav out
