Drivl.com | What code DOESNT do in real life that it does in the movies

January 6th, 2007

Here is an article that dispells some of the myths of TV and Movies about programmers. If you believe that programmers can watch scrolling code, have to be teens or a few keystrokes will recover a blurred image, read ahead…


What code DOESNT do in real life that it does in the movies

Matthew Inman
Posted on 6/12/06 by Matthew Inman

Matt craps on a bunch of ridiculous ideas about programming and code that Hollywood cant seem to stay away from. Following up our article: Top 20 Hackers in Film History and Vibrants Top 10 Servers in the movies, I felt obligated to dispel some of the notions about programming that these movies endorse. I understand that Hollywood needs to dress things up to make them more entertaining, but in the case of programmers, code, and hackers theyve done more than dress things up - theyve morphed a little stuffed teddy bear into a cybernetic polar bear covered in christmas lights and phosphorescent hieroglyphics with a fog machine pumping rainbow smoke out of his ass. In other words, theyve layered a ridiculous amount of extravagance on top of something that in reality is very grounded.

Read the entire article (and be sure to read the comments too!

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Blogging by Email

January 5th, 2007

I quite excited. I love the feeling of accomplishment when you get something technical working! I just got post by email working. Basically, I can write a blog post, email it to my blog address and waa laa, it is posted! It is so cool. Now I can even send posts from my BlackBerry! This opens up new possibilities!
I am using the Wordpress blogging platform. I am going to be posting more posts by sending them in by email. That way, I can be anywhere and post to my blog via email. It is quite a great feature and hopefully this way, I can write a lot more. If you have ever wanted to get your own blog going, you can do so at http://www.wordpress.com, or contact me and I can direct you to a solution.

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2006 Darwin Awards

January 4th, 2007

File this under Humor: I have been following the Darwin Awards for years. They are quite funny. You can read more about them at http://www.darwinawards.com

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The Darwin Awards are an annual honor given to the person who did the gene pool the biggest service by killing himself or herself in the most extraordinarily stupid way.

Last year’s winner was the fellow who was killed by a Coke machine which toppled over on top of him as he was attempting to tip a free soda out of it. And the nominees this year, in reverse order, are:

7. A young Canadian man, searching for a way of getting drunk cheaply because he had no money with which to buy alcohol, mixed gasoline with milk. Not surprisingly, this concoction made him ill, and he vomited into the fireplace in his house. The resulting explosion and fire burned his
house down, killing both him and his sister.

6. A 34-year-old white male found dead in the basement of his home died of suffocation, according to police. He was approximately 6′ 2″ tall and weighed 225 pounds. He was wearing a pleated skirt, white bra, black and white saddle shoes, and a woman’s wig. It appeared he was trying to create a schoolgirl’s uniform look. He was also wearing a military gas mask that had the filter canister removed and a rubber hose attached in its place. The other end of the hose was connected to one end of a hollow tube approximately 30″ long and 3″ in diameter. The tube’s other end was, for reasons unknown, inserted into his rectum and was the cause of his suffocation. Police found the task of explaining the circumstances of his death to his family very awkward.

5. Three Brazilian men were flying in a light aircraft at low altitude when another plane approached. It appears they decided to moon the occupants of the other plane, but lost control of their own aircraft and crashed. They were all found dead in the wreckage with their pants around
their ankles.

4. A 22-year-old man was found dead after he tried to use octopus straps to bungee jump off a 70 foot high railroad trestle. Fairfax County police said Eric Barcia, a fast-food worker, taped a bunch of these straps together, wrapped one end around one foot, anchored the other end to the trestle at Lake Accotink Park, jumped, and hit the pavement. Warren Carmichael, a police spokesman, said investigators think Barcia was alone because his car was found nearby. “The length of the cord he assembled was greater than the distance between the trestle and ground.”, Carmichael
said. Police say the apparent cause of death was “major trauma.”

3. A man in Alabama died from rattlesnake bites. It seems he and a friend were playing a game of catch using the rattlesnake as a ball. The friend, no doubt a future Darwin Awards candidate, was hospitalized.

2. Employees in a medium-sized warehouse in west Texas noticed the smell of a gas leak. Sensibly, management evacuated the building, extinguishing all potential sources of ignition: lights, power, etc. After the building had been evacuated, two technicians from the gas company were dispatched. Upon entering the building, they found they had difficulty navigating in the dark. To their frustration, none of the lights worked. Witnesses later described the sight of one of the technicians reaching into his pocket and retrieving an object that resembled a cigarette lighter. Upon his operation of the lighter-like object, the gas in the warehouse exploded, sending pieces of it up to three miles away. Nothing was found of the technicians, but the lighter was virtually untouched by the explosion. The technician suspected of causing the blast had never been thought of as ‘bright’ by his peers.

AND THE WINNER…..(ouch….)

1. Based on a bet by the other members of his threesome, Everitt Sanchez tried to wash his own “balls” in a ball washer at the local golf course. Proving once again that beer and testosterone are a bad mix, Sanchez managed to straddle the ball washer and dangle his balls in the machine.
Much to his dismay, one of his buddies upped the ante by spinning the tank on the machine with Sanchez’s balls in place, thus wedging them solidly in the mechanism. Sanchez, who immediately passed his threshold of pain, collapsed and tumbled from his perch. Unfortunately for him, the height of the ball washer was more than a foot higher off the ground than his testicles are in his normal stance, and his balls were the weakest link. Sanchez’s balls ripped open during the fall, and one testicle was plucked from him forever and remained in the ball washer, while the other was compressed and flattened as it was pulled between the housing of the washer, and the rotating machinery inside. To add insult to injury, Sanchez broke a new $300.00 driver that he had just purchased from the pro shop, and was using to balance himself. Sanchez was rushed to the hospital for surgery, and the remaining threesome was asked to leave the course.

Note: This last one wouldn’t normally count, because the idiot didn’t die. But because he cannot reproduce as a result of his qualifying act of stupidity, we allowed it.

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Getting Listed in Google

January 4th, 2007
I have found that a there are a couple of ways to get listed in Google.
1. First is to blog about a site and reference the URL, such as http://www.chrisshaul.com
2. The second way is to use the google toolbar. If you install the google toolbar and then search for a URL, if it is not listed, then it will be shortly.

Both of these ways are much faster than going through the traditional link addition at the google site. Plus, it appears much more natural to google.

If you have any other ideas, let me know.
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Love those Weimaraners

January 3rd, 2007

Tobu, the Weimaraner was feeling a little intellectual tonight and so I snapped her photo.

Here are some other Weimaraner photos:

PuppyDogWeb.Com Great Photos of the Weimaraner at the PuppyDogWeb.Com

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Tomorrow is today - Flat Lights

December 20th, 2006

Being a big fan of sci-fi and all things techno, this idea is really cool. You’ve seen flat panel tv’s and monitors. Now there is flat panel lighting. This would be really cool for illuminating a space that doesn’t have enough traditional room for separate lamps. Perhaps you have a room that doesn’t have recessed lighting but want the ceiling to illuminate. You can read more about it here

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Goodbye TV, Hello Broadband

December 19th, 2006

As a follow-up to my last post, I ran across this interesting article on how a family cut the cable (literally) ties and lived off of watching the Internet. Things are moving away from commercial off the air or cable TV to view on demand internet connection. Interesting read:
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It was the ultimate challenge for any lifelong TV watcher. Wired News asked me to cut the coax cable snaking into my HD-ready television, and for 30 days rely solely on legally available internet content to satisfy the video entertainment needs of my family of five.

We posed the question: Is the internet finally ready to kill old-school television?

The rules were simple: Anything I could download was fair game, but thered be no TV signal via cable, satellite or the airwaves. We decided that watching television that had been cached on the familys TiVo box was also cheating, so that went into the closet. At my editors insistence, I physically severed the cable between the wall and my television with wire clippers. And on a blustery November day, my cable company came and took my set-top box away.

Wired News: Goodbye TV, Hello Broadband

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Satellite TV for PC

December 5th, 2006

Let me first start by getting one thing straight. I hate TV. Especially ordinary TV!

There are too many commercials. I have to find what I want and watch it on their schedule. Then, I have to battle with the family for the control of the remote.

Before I continue, why am I writing this? Because a trusted friend told me about a new product on the market called Satellite TV for PC. When I first heard about this, I thought that that was a great idea. I always knew that TV and the computer would eventually merge.

So I clicked over and I have got to say this is one of the coolest concepts in years. When I read the site, I was impressed with both the idea and with the positive comments people are writing about this tool. So did I buy it? — No.

Then a couple days later, I was cleaning out my email and saw the letter from my friend again. I went ahead and checked it out once again. It was at that point that I decided to give it a try.

So what is Satellite TV for PC? Well, it is software that you can download and install on your PC that allows you to watch hundreds of Satellite channels on your computer! You do not need to buy another TV. You can watch it when and how you want to. The only thing you need is a broadband connection.

So what did I think? Well of course it was great, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing about it. It was everything as described and it allowed me to watch news channels and movie channels. I could even watch Chinese channels if I want (having lived in Hong Kong, this was familiar, though I don’t speak Cantonese). In fact, I’m watching Jay Leno as I write this!

So bottom line, would I recommend it? Of course, why else would I write about it?Satellite TV for PC

Was it worth the money? Yes.

Was it simple? Yes. It was very easy to setup. Actually, just three simple steps got me up and running.

So if you want to watch Satellite TV on your PC in just a few moments, go ahead and get your copy of this cutting edge software now.

Click here to get your copy of Satellite TV for PC!

One more thing, as an added bonus if you order this through the link above, email me your receipt to info@chrisshaul.com and I will send you a free ebook copy of “The Computer and Internet Security Handbook“. This is a $19.95 retail value. I have copies to give away for those that buy through the link in this article.

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Remembering Fujinomiya

December 3rd, 2006

I often go to Japan and one of the places I stay is in Fujinomiya. It is a “small” town of 121000+ in Shizuoka prefecture. Tonight perusing the web, I ran across this article that sums it up about Fujinomiya. In fact, my last trip to there included a visit to Jusco Depato. So this article brought back several great memories. Funny how by reading something simple, you can relive an event… You can read more at this website.

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Many people will walk in and out of your life…

November 26th, 2006
Many people will walk in and out of your life