Bored? Some Google video should perk you up

I got bored waiting for the J2EE JDK to download: so I watched some video from Google's top 100 videos. Google Video is a good source of time-wasting material. Dizzley has just discovered the magic words to embed Google video into the blog so you're going to get some!

Here's a glorious juggling finale – all done to a Beatles soundtrack (Steve!). The guy is Chris Bliss who opened Michael Jackson's "Victory" tour with his juggling. I don't know who's joining Michael on his "Defeat" tour…

I'll post more videos on a separate blog page: here.

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Whole Body Teleportation (Pat. Pending)

I was thinking about buying a new car, but with the price of fuel and the monthly payments I'm considering Whole Body Teleportation. John St. Clair has filed a patent application with the US Patents Office. The application describes the whole thing, with diagrams, and how the inventor experienced the effect first-hand.

United States Patent Application: 0060071122 (link opens in new window) is a triumph. I'm convinced. Either that or Mr St Clair is smoking his own sun-dried underwear. Make your own mind up.

And why is it that the USPO site is such a pile of poop technically? I thought the US was THE place for technology and innovation. This site is the very poorest combination of the two.

 John Quincy St.Clair lives in San Juan, Peurto Rico.

 

The Saddest Thing I Own (site)

A sad, sad place to visit: The Saddest Thing I Own. Here you will find postings of inner secret memories. The site's author  Matthew Belanger says:

There are some things that we own that are just so sad. You know what we mean. Sad. It seems likely that these sad things illuminate our vulnerable places, one way or another.

The Saddest Thing I Own invites people everywhere to share the saddest thing they own. What are these sad things? What makes things sad? Do things start off sad? Do some sad things begin as happy things that then become sad? Are some things only sad because for some sad reason we kept them? Are some things just plain sad no matter what? This is what we want to know.

Schadenfreude, n: a German expression (from Schaden: damage, harm; and Freude: joy) meaning pleasure taken from someone else's misfortune or shameful joy. The word is often capitalized, however since all German nouns (proper or common) are capitalized it should be possible to spell it lower case in English. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schadenfreude

 

Pretty Blue Planet

Pretty Blue Planet is a collection of awe-inspiring photographs of the third rock from the sun.

Look at these photos and tell me you wouldn’t want to live there! This page is a great golden nugget in an otherwise mediocre Internet experience. Go there and enjoy it. If you visit this place do send me a postcard.

 

‘Leap second’ – didya catch it?

New Year 2006: someone decided it would be a great idea to add an extra second to the year 2005. Why would it be a great idea? Because astronomic time had begun to deviate from atomic time.

In 1958, the second was re-defined as the period it takes for 9,192,631,770 cycle states of Caesium 133 atoms (when excited in a magnetic field). It used to be 1/86400 of the time taken for an average planetary rotation… or an Earth day as we humans call it.

Now there is controversy – is it best to adjust atomic time (= Coordinated Universal Time) to match planetary motion or leave it and suffer the consequences of reprogramming all the time-locked gear like GPS? But adding a leap second upsets systems like power grids, financial systems and more.

I had the plasure of hearing Big Ben strike 12 and the crowd cheer in the New year one second before the on-screen clock hit midnight.

I make that People 1, Technology 0.

Read the full story at the St Paul Pioneer Press.

 

Why Web2.0 is Wrong

In fact, much of what passes as Web2.0 is morally indefensible.
Link: Web2.0 at Wikipedia (a bit laboured).

Imagine this:

1. I get the idea for a cool site presenting the Best In Photography
2. I scour the web for the best photos one could find
3. I find a couple of thousand at National Geographic
4. AND some phenomenal shots at nikonsmallworld.com
5. AND those really tasty celebrity shots by David Bailey at kodak.com
6. I compose a beautiful site. The harvested photos shine off the page.

Looks great eh? But maybe by now my conscience is pricking me? Or is it the Cease and Desist letters dropping onto my doormat? That David Bailey page contains the following note:

Notice: All of the photographs displayed on this site are © David Bailey. You may not sell, publish, license or otherwise distribute any of these photographs without the written permission of the photographer.

Yes: that is called stealing someone’s work.

What if I just included links to the photos in my <IMG> tags? Well, my conscience still hurts – but just a little less.

How can I get away with this? If I were to write an Ajax application which just gleaned this content from the Web as I need it – how would that be? I think that Richard Stallman would be convinced, but those Cease and Desist letters keep on coming.

How Google gets away with it
Google lets you search for stuff, photo images included. Lets try searching for Mr Bailey’s work on kodak.com – http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=david+bailey+site%3Akodak.com

How did that feel? Fine? I believe that society endorses Google’s position as a search organisation. I personally have no objection to searching (and finding) images via Google, MSN Search, Dogpile, whatever. No-one is going to sue me. Kodak and David actually want me to find this content.

Where Google would be sailing close to the wind
What if Google presented a Web2.0 site which searched for David Bailey’s photographs, added value such as a rating system and combined other data, layed all this out impeccably and decorated the page with GoogleAds? Would that be acceptable? I just don’t know.

What’s the difference? Is Google’s Web2.0 any more worthy than my own?

 

Ah, rugby! Welcome to the world of my Friday nights

Last Friday was a curious day. It was my birthday, and I woke at 5.30 over the Atlantic to a breakfast of fruit, bacon sandwich and a glass of champagne. Well it was my birthday and I was flying club class.

I spent the afternoon at home, jet-lagged, having flown from Philedelphia to London then on to Manchester. I was so pleased to be home with my family I forgot there was a crucial rugby game that evening: Sale Sharks played Leicester Tigers (Edgeley Park, 8pm). I must heap blessings and thanks on my wife as she insisted I go: I might regret missing such a game and it would maximise the joy of my birthday.

And what a game it was… Sale showed their true strength in depth. They were down 9 (some say 12) internationals and still fielded a side capable of beating the Tigers. The Sharks’ backs, especially Ripol, Robinson and Larrachea defended impeccably. I saw Robinson smash a breaking opponent straight off the park around 10m from the try line. Larrachea kicked much better than I saw him against Wasps. The pack did well but lacked the dominance of Sale’s first choice. It also felt we were playing 16 men as the referee judged every decision against Sale. Sale were reduced to 13 players for a time – last time this happened at Leeds. Same ref.

Also, I can recommend the beer at Ye Olde Vic. I wish I could remember its name.