Ugo Cei’s Weblog
Slashdot - Mars Rovers Return to Exploration: “Typically, the solar panels on each rover produce about 700 watt-hours of electricity per day — enough to light a 100-watt bulb for seven hours, according to NASA.”
Honestly I didn’t think that the fact that multiplying 100 watts times 7 hours yields 700 watt-hours was so controversial that stating it needed qualifying the statement with “according to NASA”. What about the square root of 2 being approximately 1.4142 “according to Archimedes”? 
Creepy Japanese training video. I guess this might be useful for Japanese girls who are afraid of being robbed by two thugs while traveling to an English-speaking country. I wonder if they have a version for being robbed by one, or three thugs, or more.
(Via James Governor)
Winner of the 2007 World’s Ugliest Dog contest: Elwood.
Winners of the 2007 Dumbest Dog Owners contest: the Tutens.
…being able to register myself as “His Holiness”, that’s what.
Considering the badly composed and horribly compressed stock photo on the left, with the chap using what is obviously a white MacBook with the Apple logo photoshopped out, I think they should add “Web Designer” to the list of titles and start interviewing everyone who registers as such for a job.
(Via Zoli Erdos)
Warning: if you’re subject to epileptic seizures, don’t watch the promotional video for the 2012 London Olympics (on YouTube here until they take it down). And if you don’t, and puke on the keyboard nonetheless, don’t tell me I didn’t warn you.
As for the logo, from the moment Michele made me notice it, I cannot look at it and not think immediately of Lisa Simpson giving head.
Luckily, surfing around on YouTube starting from that hideous video, I discovered some other really excellent British product. Enjoy!
Technorati Tags: london, 2012, olympics, logo, lisa simpson, the kinks.
I wish we had a Creation Museum in Italy as well, it would be fun.
Via PZ Myers.
LOLCODE: “HAI! This site provides community documentation of the emergent LOLCODE language. It is our hope that the examples can grow in a way that is both internally consistent and suggest a real, feasible computing language.”
Some people definitely have too much time on their hands ;). The examples are hilarious, anyway.
HAI CAN HAS STDIO? PLZ OPEN FILE "LOLCATS.TXT"? AWSUM THX VISIBLE FILE O NOES INVISIBLE "ERROR!" KTHXBYE
I bashed Google Maps before for suggesting ludicrous trips across the Bay of Sidney in order to cross a street, but this is way more funny than annoying.
A couple years ago I made fun of Microsoft for suggesting a trip across most of Northern Europe for going from Haugesund, Norway to Trondheim, Norway. It’s only fair then that I poke fun at Google now for suggesting that you cross Sydney Harbor (going via a toll bridge) if you merely want to go from 200 Sussex Street to 201 Sussex Street, which amounts to basically crossing the street.
Google Embarrassed in Australia | TechCrunch: “Reporters at a Sydney, Australia newspaper discovered an embarrassing flaw in Google’s Map product - Google recommends a 10.4 kilometer trip, across the harbor and back, to go the thirty steps from Google’s Sydney headquarters to a hotel located across the street. The suggested route would also include a AU$3 bridge toll. Any query for driving directions from areas east, south or west of Google’s headquarters will suggest the same detour across the harbor, using a toll tunnel or bridge.
Google is blaming MapData Sciences, the Sydney-based company that supplies the mapping data to Google, for the problem. I imagine MapData is working on a fix rather urgently.”
At least they don’t make you cross half a dozen national boundaries and a couple seas to get there.
Don’t play the video below if you value your mental health and your stomach. I did and my life will never be the same.
Celine Dion and Anastacia doing a cover of AC/DC’s You Shook Me All Night Long. Urhg!
(Via The J Train.)
No, really. And you can be, too, if you have a Mac with iSight, OS X Tiger and Safari or Firefox—they say Safari is required, but for me it worked with Firefox 2).
Head over here and use Shift+Cmd+4 to grab a screenshot or use Grab.app, to your liking.
Nice trick, huh? Well, I was thinking of adding a line to my resumé stating:
2006 - Named Person of the Year by Time Magazine.
Now I can even prove it ;).
(Via James Duncan, who didn’t even notice I had tagged him a few days ago. 
)
I don’t know who this David Keppelmeyer is. The name is probably fake, but he got me completely—hook, line and sink—before I realized this was just an elaborate prank:
In the last few years Apple has been the darling of the gadget press. Profits and sales are reported to be sailing higher than ever, and at a glance, the company’s success would seem to be assured. Under the surface however, there is little to be happy about for followers of the Macintosh, Apple’s aged platform, and the iPod. While the iPod is a solid if limited music player, it’s an offering without the backing of Microsoft, and missing several killer features of the Redmond giant’s new Zune music player.
Taken by itself, every single point he makes sounds outrageous, but not something you haven’t heard yet from the ever-present Apple-bashers and Microsoft-lovers. It’s only when you consider them all together that it becomes clear that it’s just satire.
Or was I simply too credulous? Judging from the comments, it seems like I’m in good company. Even TUAW seems to have taken the piece seriously. In any case, read it all, it’s fun.
Image courtesy of goopymart.
Technorati Tags: david keppelmeyer, danaquarium.
From: Costumer Service <costumers@amazon.com>
Dear Amazon Online Member:
Thank you for choosing Amazon Online. Unfortunately there has been a
problem processing your billing information for the month of September, 2006.Please review our billing requirements at KW: Billing. You will be able to
update your billing information quickly and easily using our secure server
web form. Please understand that without promptly updating your billing
information, your Amazon Online may be discontinued. To
update your billing at this time, please visit our secure server web form by
clicking the hyperlink below.
Costumer Service? How dumb do you think I am? No wonder their hosting has been suspended. I’m tempted to post their whois record. They’re so clueless it might even be true.
See more at TEH INTERNETS.
Destined For Destiny: “In this remarkable achievement from Scribner and Simon & Schuster Audio, George W. Bush offers readers and listeners an intimate, plainspoken, and often endurable look at the character-shaping achievements that led to his inevitable rise to the office of President of the United States.”
If it weren’t for the fact that one of the authors, Scott Dikkers, is editor-in-chief of The Onion, it would be easy to mistake this one for a serious biography.
But if the book is only half as fun as the video, it’s going to be great.
Technorati Tags: bush, the onion, dikkers, destined for destiny, autobiography.
Whenever someone tries to convince you that his particular brand of religion can be accepted on rational grounds, just show them this video:
Actually I was surprised that such an open satire of religion can be broadcasted on mainstream TV in the US nowadays. I figure there will be hordes of fanatics wanting to burn down Comedy Central’s headquarters and countless mails being sent demanding the head of Jon Stewart on a silver platter. Or maybe not.
Anyway, thanks for YouTube. It would be impossible for us here to watch The Daily Show if it weren’t for YouTube.
Via Pharyngula.
Technorati Tags: youtube, daily show, comedy central, jon stewart, steven colbert.
Be careful when you choose a domain for your company website, particularly if you’re justaxposing words. You might end up with results like:
1. A site called ‘Who Represents‘ where you can find the name of the agent that represents a celebrity. Their domain name… wait for it… is
www.whorepresents.com
2. Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at
www.expertsexchange.com
3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at
www.penisland.net
4. Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at
www.therapistfinder.com
5. Then of course, there’s the Italian Power Generator company…
www.powergenitalia.com
6. And now, we have the Mole Station Native Nursery, based in New South Wales:
www.molestationnursery.com
7. If you’re looking for computer software, there’s always
www.ipanywhere.com
8. Welcome to the First Cumming Methodist Church. Their website is
www.cummingfirst.com
9. Then, of course, there’s these brainless art designers, and their whacky website:
www.speedofart.com
10. Want to holiday in Lake Tahoe? Try their brochure website at
www.gotahoe.com
(Via Blue Sky On Mars, originally found at Independent Sources.)
Want to see the World Cup matches live streaming on the Internet? Well, assuming you’re not too picky about image quality, you can try:
telnet dedhost-075.sil.at 2006
or
telnet ascii-wm.net 2006
On the plus side, you won’t need a lot of bandwidth for this ;).
Now there’s a video podcast worth subscribing to.
On a related note, the French Maids said they are working on a new episode. It’s about time!
Technorati Tags: playboy, french maids, sexy, podcasting, video.
