Nice spot crafted by Porsche higlighting the GT2 Nordschleife record setting run of 7:32.

Tiling - trippy when running smoothly.

I was reading a post on Lifehacker about a hypothetical Gmail account hijack. What would you do if someone gained access to your Gmail, or any web service, and changed your password? This brings up two important issues that I feel mostly over looked. The first is changing your password every 90-days. I know most of you are forced to change your password by corporate network administrators. The same logic applies to your web services.

The second point is backing up your data. I am guilty of not backing up all my data and have yet to come up with a solid strategy for the webapps I use but I realize the importance. I have lost data on my home system by not backing up; enduring the pain of loss only takes once to motivate you into action. Webapps are no different. I have jumped into Googleland with both feet using Gmail, Gcalendar, Doc and Spreadsheets, Greader and Gfinance to manage my life. Although the interface design and accessibility of Google apps are fantastic there is no substitute for a cross platform, local backup of your digital life. Don’t wait for a data disaster. I urge you to take the time to research and implement a backup schema for your important data.

The object of the game is to move the red block around without getting hit by the blue blocks or touching the black walls. If you can go longer than 18 seconds you are phenomenal. It’s been said that the US Air Force uses this for fighter pilots. They are expected to go for at least 2 minutes (I doubt our tax dollars were used to create such a simple test but you never know).

My PR is 59.16 seconds – mostly dumb luck.

(Hat tip: Levi)

Ullmer made the (turning into) annual trek to Chicago this past weekend. We started the festivities with a show at Donny’s Skybox Theatre at The Second City called No Offense, Assh*le. This show is written by up-and-coming writers that take classes at the famous Second City; one being Ullmer’s friend LeMar. The show lived up to its title – it had some rough content that was sure to offend someone, just not me since as BM says I have no soul.

Saturday started out slowly as we watched the OSU game at a subdue Vaughan’s Pub. The victory left us hungry so Kate suggested we grab a big bite to eat at Minnies. This place was sweet and really resonated with my wife’s propensity to seek things mini.

We concluded the night with LeMar’s 30th birthday party at Rocks; by far his favorite bar. One observation I need to air here. I can no longer hang late night with the youngsters – getting older is a bitch.

Oh, did I forget to mention I took delivery of the iconic designed iMac lamp. This legacy system is going to server as my learning platform for my switch to Apple. I can hear Caldwell’s sigh from here.

This will not surprise anyone but I could no longer hold out. Even with the turbulence of hacked, bricked phones I had to purchase it. I am happy to report I have zero regrets although there are a few short comings to note. I will keep this brief as no one really like a complainer.

1. Can’t send a SMS to more than one person at a time. Pretty sure ALL other phones can accomplish this.
2. Can’t send a multi media SMS. Whatever.
3. Non Apple earphones do not fit in the recessed jack. Design oversight for sure.
4. Outlook for Windows, ‘nuf said.
5. No syncing with gCal or gContacts. You must download and configure a third party app to get this to kind of work.
6. Only music playlists can be synced. I, at least, am not able to drag albums on to the device.
7. Battery life is somewhat limited. I guess you can not expect too much; that LCD is quite large and sucks up the juice to light it.
8. The EDGE network is dreadfully slow.

All-in-all this is a leap forward from a technological standpoint. This phone is at least 2 years more advanced than anything on the market. Nice to see Apple is going to release a SDK so the applications should start blossoming. I am happy in my geekdome.

Here is my first ever YouTube uploaded video. This was taken with my new point-and-shoot Casio Exilim S880 (More on this later).

The wife and I headed down to West Lafayette to watch The Ohio State Buckeyes take on the Purdue Boiler Makers. The near shut out ended in a 23-7 OSU victory. The smallish stadium was packed with OSU fans evidenced by the sea of scarlet. On the walk in a Purdue fan glanced in our direction and muttered to his friend “Is this a Purdue home game?”.

While I am not sure why the Dallas Cowboys need a new stadium this thing is incredible.

(hat tip: Wakley)

While I am not a huge baseball fan (I reserve my fanatical attention to a sport with wheels) I do live on the north side of Chicago which by default makes me a Cubs fan. Living 4 blocks away from Wrigley Field places me amongst some pretty hardcore fans. Evidenced last night with the hanging of a sacrificial goat (warning: graphic) from the Harry Caray statue to rid ourselves of the Curse of the Billy Goat. It appears the CPD had fun cutting it down as well.

I love sporting extremism.

Update: Well the goat didn’t work.

Wow, Dave pushed it pretty hard in this clip.

I just got back from a badly needed vacation to Napa Valley and upon my return Halo nation has exploded. I am not what you would consider a gamer. In fact I do not even own a game system unless you count the Sony PSP as a light weight version. But the release of this game even has me a little excited as I enjoy watching others get snipered by 12 year olds. Good luck J-rome and DC; you are going to need it.

There are many reviews littered all over the internets. A wide range of opinions have emerged but in general it appears as thought Bungie has done a superb job in this the third version of Halo. Although not as snappy as the Gears of War television commercials, a few will hold your interest.

Update: Appears that the game developers chose to short the 720P HD format for smoother frame rates at 640 def.

I have been sitting on this post for a few months and now that I have gotten around to showing my organization skills I realized I kind of botched it. I thought I had pictures of the rat nest under my home computer desk but a search yielded nary a result.

Anyways my inspiration came from decluttered.com where the process is well documented. Routing the cables is much harder than it appears but all-in-all I feel the project was a success.

I was quite shocked to hear of Collin McRae’s passing today. The World Rally Champion (WRC) legend crashed in his Squirrel helicopter in a field near his home in Scotland. It appears as though his son and other guests have all perished in the accident. It is just so ironic how these types of accidents happen to people that earn a living in such a high risk profession. For those of you not familiar with WRC here is a video of the motorsport; a tribute to McRae.
Update: Helicopters are trouble as of late. Prodrive chief executive David Richards had to crash land his helicopter.

I have linked to Dark Roasted Blend a few times now. The collection of photos Avi pulls together on a routine basis are entertaining to say the least. I enjoy flipping through gReader to view the subject matter at hand; although today I will admit I was taken back by the September 11th premonition photos he selected. Freaky.

I always knew that avocados were not the healthiest option to eat but it is a fruit - all natural. One 6-ounce avocado contains about 325 calories and 31 grams of fat. That is absurd! Can someone please verify this fact?