I DO like Starwars...

nonetheless...

This looks pretty facinating...

The concept is brilliant actually (but he doesn't get to the actual concept until the end). If this little guy can get past the two Goliaths to the end user I imagine the two Goliaths with go the way of... well... Goliath.




A couple more links to longer videos with some more explanation:
Part 1
Part 2

breakin the habit...

post title = my goal

Reality = fail

What is up

So I've been playing Starcraft 2 lately when I have spare time in the evenings (I was one of the lucky few who got selected to participate in the beta). Granted spare time is not in an abundance but what little I get to myself after other responsibilities are taken care of has of late been used to hone my skills as a SC2 player. I am ranked 32 in one of the copper leagues (each league has 100 players). This means that I am not the very worst player but then its all relative... above copper is bronze, silver, gold and platinum (filled no doubt with people who live in their parents' basements drinking cases of redbull to sustain them as they spend the work day, the evenings and the late nights working towards Starcraft grand mastery... that or 12 year old Korean kids. I'm not being ethnocentric or racist or anything; South Korea has the biggest and most fanatical fanbase for Starcraft anywhere on the planet.) Anyway that has been a nice distraction while I wait for the morning air to warm up a bit.

As soon as I start seeing consistent temps in the mid-50s when I wake up, I plan on cycling to work as much as possible. This year I am going to try out these tire liners called spin-skins made by a company called turtleskins. They make products from various high density synthetic weaves... police body armor, safety gloves, snake boots and... bike tire liners. I got so tired [pun] of getting flats halfway to work it became a mental deterrent for me so I hope these make that a rare occurrence. Well that is about all I have to write about today. I've also started working (again) on my Microsoft certification so I can update my woefully out-of-date Windows 2000 MCSE but I will cover that in a later blog... maybe after I pass the first test and actually have something to show for my study effort.

Wait for it...

Me wants one!

http://gizmodo.com/5472774/a-millennium-falcon-that-actually-flies

My weekend project was a success!!

I read this how-to on making your own HD antenna for broadcast hi-def TV and as I was unhappy with my $40 radio shack 'professional' antenna I figured it wouldn't hurt to give this one a try. I did have to redesign it a bit because the wood screws were getting their heads popped off before I could get them tight enough to hold the two layers of coat hanger wire in place so instead I drilled 1/4" holes and used 1/4" bolts and nuts so I could get everything as tight as I needed. I also discovered that neither Wal-mart, Target OR K-Mart sells plain old bare-metal coat hangers anymore. I had to rely on the few we had in our own closets and replace them with the readily available plastic variety.

The cost was pretty minimal, a few bucks for a 3x24x3/4" piece of pine, a few more bucks for the hardware and then I think about $6 for the transformer that lets me plug the antenna into coax cable. The actual coax cable (50') was a LOT more expensive than the antenna was. So long story short, I got the antenna build, installed (in the attic), ran the coax cable down from the attic inside the wall and out below the TV and it works GREAT! We watched Nascar yesterday in Hi-Def and saw only a handful of pixels here and there (but NO disruption of the broadcast) over the course of 4 hours... AND it was during a moderate snow storm with quite a bit of wind. I expect it will work completely flawlessly in good weather.