Tiny animals on fingers Aug 17, 2006
This Flickr photoset shows a bunch of tiny animals on peoples' fingers.  My favorite is the hamster.  (via Neatorama) #entertainment
Technology birthdays Aug 15, 2006
I didn't want to write about this stuff because it was so geeky.  But who am I kidding?  I'm an uber geek. 

August 12, 1981 - IBM launched the world's first personal computer, the IBM PC 5150, at a cost of $1565.  It came with a green screen, 16KB of memory, and Microsoft DOS. 

August 6, 1991 - The world wide web went live, combining information and communication and making it accessible via a PC (quickly followed by porn, email forwards, and spam). 

So happy birthday, computer and internet. #technology
Experts Exchange (2) Aug 15, 2006
Whenever I search for help on web programming languages (html, css, php, etc.), one or more of the results is always located at Experts Exchange.  It's a great site full of tons of information, but it has a major flaw:  After you scroll past all the junk and view a page once, you can't go back and view it again unless you sign up for their service.  I don't sign up for things unless I absolutely need to, so I'm sometimes not a fan of the site (plus the site charges some sort of fee).  But a comment on this site shed light on the solution:  Disable cookies for Experts Exchange.  In Firefox, it's easy:  Go to Tools -> Options -> Privacy -> Cookies, and add it to the exception list as something to block.  Now every time I go to an article on Experts Exchange, I can view it as many times as I want.  Problem solved. #technology
SwissMiniGun Aug 15, 2006
The SwissMiniGun is a tiny little 2-inch long revolver that shoots 2.34mm bullets.  Its muzzle velocity is 426.5 ft/s, as compared to the M16's 2800 ft/s.  Its range is somewhere around 180 feet, as compared to the M16's approximately 980 feet.  (via Boing Boing)
#products
Giant sticky notes Aug 14, 2006
The Genius Table is a piece of "sticky note furniture", which is a table whose top consists of 12"x12" sticky notes.  (via Neatorama)
#products
Khakis and white sneakers Aug 14, 2006
For several years now, I've been casually observing strange people (males) who wear khaki pants and white sneakers (usually high-tops).  Not that I'm in any position to make judgements about other people's fashion sense, but I doubt many people would argue that this is a very unusual and "uncool" style.  I used to see it in high school, and I figured it was a passing trend that people would eventually grow out of.  But then I saw a few people who dressed like that in college.  At that point, I figured these people would probably grow out of it the next time they bought clothes.  But later on I'd see them with brand new khaki pants and brand new white shoes. 

The bottom line here is that it just looks terrible.  I'm not a fan of white shoes to begin with.  But coupled with khaki pants or jeans with big seams at the bottom, white shoes look ridiculous.  Like I said, I'm no fashion queen king, but even I know this doesn't pass as "acceptable". #lifestyle
Motorcycle parking Aug 14, 2006
Although I have a longing for a motorcycle, I can't stand when they waste parking spots.  Especially when they waste good parking spots.  A normal parking spot is for a full-size vehicle, not a tiny little motorcycle.  You could easily fit 4-6 motorcycles in a standard parking spot.  And motorcycle riders usually travel in packs, so this shouldn't be that difficult.  My advice (or plea) to motorcycle riders is to stop wasting parking spots.  Park farther away or park with a friend.  Park on the sidewalk.  Park in that dead zone near the handicap spots.  Whatever you do, just stop taking my parking spot. 

I used to work at a place that had designated parking spots for motorcycles.  This was the smartest thing I've ever seen.  A normal parking spot was divided into 2 or 3 smaller spots and a sign was posted designating those spots for motorcycles.  No complaints from car drivers, and no complaints from motorcycle riders.  Parking lot zen. #travel
Intrasite picture links Aug 11, 2006
I updated my Zenphoto theme to include a function similar to Intrasite Links.  So if a WordPress post references a Zenphoto picture, the Zenphoto picture page will say so. #technology
JPEG lossless rotation Aug 11, 2006
Windows XP lets you rotate pictures by either right-clicking on them and clicking "Rotate Clockwise" or "Rotate Counter Clockwise" or by opening them in Windows Picture and Fax Viewer and pressing the corresponding button on the toolbar at the bottom.  However, when rotating certain pictures, a warning message pops up that says,
"Because of the dimensions of this picture, rotating it might permanently reduce its quality.  Rotating a picture automatically saves it using the original name.  To save a backup copy first, see 'Copy an image' in help." 
The first time I saw this was when I got a new, more powerful camera, so I thought it was a result of the image size (5.0 megapixels vs. 2.0 megapixels).  So I lowered the image quality on my camera from "large" to "medium". 

But today I found out that the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer can only losslessly rotate pictures if the horizontal and vertical pixel values are divisible by 16.  This worked for my old 1280 x 960 pictures (divided by 16 is 80 & 60) but not for my newer 2592 x 1944 pictures (divided by 16 is 162 & 121.5).  The solution to this is to download something like the JPEG Lossless Rotator, a freeware utility that "performs a special lossless block transformation" which produces a rotated image with the same quality as the original.  When I used it, it produced a smaller file size, but apparently this is ok (I don't know everything when it comes to digital images). #entertainment
Punctual (1) Aug 11, 2006
Punctuality is something I value very highly.  I think it has something to do with how I was raised.  My mom was always on time when she drove us places, so it just became the norm.  I developed this idea in my head that said there's basically no other option than to be on time.  Why use a time-keeping device if you don't intend to abide by it?  This has definitely followed through to today, where I make a big point of being on time to things.  If I say I'll be at a certain place by a certain time, I intend to do exactly that, and I'll treat it as a major shortcoming if I don't succeed.  It's not that my whole entire life is scheduled into very specific time intervals, and one can't run over into another.  It's just that I place a high value on reliability, and reliability often shows itself as punctuality. 

This was very evident when I mentioned my coworker who almost made us late to a meeting.  When I agree to meet a person at a certain time (not "around 7 or 7:30", but "at 7"), I uphold my end of the bargain.  Even in the event of a major catastrophe or the apocalypse, I would still show up on time.  And if I was gonna be late, I'd call to let them know.  So when people don't uphold their end of the bargain, it gets me really mad.  I realize this is partially my fault for having unrealistic hopes for a person's reliability, but is it really so much to ask?  Is it that difficult to show up on time?  And if you can't be on time, is it that difficult to call and tell me?  And what gets me even madder is when the "offender" doesn't even acknowledge their offense.  My coworker who was 10 or 15 minutes late didn't even mention it.  Sure 10-15 minutes is a small amount of time.  But would you be mad if McDonald's took 10-15 longer than usual?  Would you be ok with a 10-15 minute longer commute?  Probably not.  Another more recent offender was a friend who was supposed to meet me at my house before going on a hiking trip.  He was supposed to be there at 8am.  At 8:05, I stopped watching the window.  At 8:10, I turned on the TV.  At 8:15, I told myself I'd give him a few more minutes before I called.  At 8:20, I called him and he said he just left his house (25 minutes away).  When he arrived, he didn't even mention the fact that he was 45 minutes late.  He didn't even acknowledge that anything was wrong.  I felt compelled to slit his throat. 

Wendy went to Kenya a few years ago for a missions trip.  She said the people there have an interesting method of dealing with time:  They completely ignore it.  They go to school and work like most of the rest of the world does, and they even have social events that start and end at certain times.  But when they say they'll meet you at 3pm, they may choose to show up 2 hours late.  Why?  Who knows?  And when they finally show up, they treat it as if nothing happened.  There's no "Sorry I'm late, I was killing a zebra" or "Sorry I'm late, I got attacked by the Maasai".  They're just 2 hours late.  I wouldn't be able to survive in that country.  My blood pressure would get so high, my head would pop. #psychology