Press Release: 

IF NASA FINDS CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE OF AN OCEAN ON MARS, AMERICA EATS FREE GIANT SHRIMP

"We have closely followed NASA's recent exploration of Mars and all of us are rooting you on to find ocean water on the Red Planet," Davis wrote. "The 'Free Giant Shrimp' offer is our way of saying NASA's exploration of Mars and the discovery of ocean water would be 'one small step for man, one giant leap for seafood.'"

Riiiiiiight... Hey, ya never know?

If you are interested in what Mars actually looks on the ground, you need to check this out.

Someone named Lyle has put together a web site that takes raw feed images from the Mars Spirit rover and aggregates them onto a web site for viewing. This is from slashdot:

"I've spent a few hours hacking together some software to deal with the Mars Exploration Rover imagery at JPL. The software puts together a webpage and RDF feed of new raw imagery as it is posted to the JPL site, along with technical information decoded about how the picture was taken. It also produces stereo anaglyphs and color images that NASA has not seen fit to convert and make publically available. Be sure to also check out the ultra high resolution image of the lander as viewed from Spirit."

This is cool, and a perfect example of what someone can do on the Internet with a little interest, passion and expertise. So cool. ;-)

My friend and coworker, Scott, forwarded me a link to a blog review where Steve Clarke describes his experience with the Acer C300 Tablet PC, which was recently introduced to the market. I have been using the same Tablet model for the last 6 weeks, and have found I like it a lot. Almost to a “T“ I agree with what Steve has to say.

Scott has the newest Toshiba Tablet PC, which is also a cool device. It has a smaller screen/slate, but higher pixel resolution. Like Steve, I have found the larger screen on the C300, even with max res of 1024x768, to be pretty darn nice. But, hey - Scott's into pain, so I am sure eye strain counts for something. :-) Just kiddin' man!

Scott and I have also been running some interesting software for the tablet that I seem to have better luck with on the Acer than Scott has had on his Toshiba, but then again, with all the stuff he installs on his computers, well - who knows, eh! ;-)

(Oh, and Scott turns 30 on Thursday, so be sure to give him a ration if you happen to read this and have a chance!)

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today ...

 - Dr. MLK Jr.

Before you run the linked file, read the instructions below - It is important that you follow them closely.

Check this out:

1. Keep one hand on your mouse throughout the whole time you are doing this.
2. Download, unzip and then run the attached program (optical.zip, linked below).
3. Concentrate on the small dot in the center of your screen for about 30-40 seconds.
4. Now look closely at your hand (the one which is still on the mouse).
5. Now enter a comment below. :-)

 - g

The image of a toilet in the middle of a tranquil pond is strange enough. But that's not the weirdest part. Or maybe it is, I dunno.

Uh, yeah. Let me think. Not. Who the heck comes up with this stuff, anyhow?

 - g

(p.s. you need Quicktime to view the movie thing)

I was blog surfing here, meaning hopping from the blog of someone I know to some blog they had linked, and through several iterations of that process, whenever something seems like it might be interesting (sounds kinda like “my sister's girlfriend's cousin's brother's second-grade teacher's daughter, eh?). Sometimes you find things you can't help but read and tell others about. Some of those things are, well, just wrong. Others I can post to my blog. :-)

So, here is one I can post, and you gotta read this. But first, for the record, how I got there:

I'm reading an RSS feed from Tom's Adventures in Troubleshooting web site (and no, I don't know him, but someone else somewhere has his site linked and it was interesting to me). Tom had a comment (link above) about a problem Julia is having on her web site (which I am respectfully not linking to because I know there are a number of younger readers of my blog and the language is a little too colorful for those people). Julia, in the midst of her troubles, consulted an attorney named Adam Rosman, who practices law in Washington, D.C. and apparently worked in the White House as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Staff Secretary in 2000-2001. Cool. Makes me wonder if he likes to watch The West Wing, too? I mean, he worked there. Can you watch a TV version after actually working there?

So anyhow, that's the end of the surfing trail, because Adam Rosman's web site contains a truly-interesting article he wrote entitled “A LEGAL ANALYSIS OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS - Gandalf as Torturer: The "Ticking Bomb" Terrorist and Due Process in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.”

I write this from my bed, only because I can't get out of it right now. Thank goodness for notebook PCs, better batteries and the advent of wireless networking. If it wasn't for these, I would have to watch TV, and that's not exactly a really exciting prospect on a Sunday morning, if you know what I mean.

Having finally made a run for it in 4WD-Low-range, I busted out of this snow hell with my neighbor, spinning tires and sliding out as I went. Fun. Worth it? ABSOLUTELY. You know, it's not that I mind being home all the time - that's actually not so bad. Rather, is the fact that I couldn't leave if I wanted to that bothered me the most.

Yeah, so - anyhow... We busted outa here late Friday evening. I promptly drove to the Honda dealership where another neighbor works and purchased the 4-wheeler ATV I have been planning to get for the past couple of months. I really should have acted earlier, but hey - oh well. The next time it snows like this (yeah, right), I'll be ready. And I won't get lost (or at least won't have an excuse to) since it has GPS on-board. Ohhhhh geek machines have hit the marketplace. W00t!!

Hmmm, seems I lost my train of thought. Ahhh, age - yes, that was it. Let's just say that if you already know you have an bad back, and you decide that - despite your physical condition - it would be really fun to load the new 4-wheeler up with snow shovels and stuff to clear the drive... Well, anyhow my lower back is keeping me in bed for now. If anyone has any muscle relaxants, let me know and I can fire up this nifty GPS on my really cool ATV and email you my latitude and longitude so your helicatoper pilot can find me out here in The Middle of Nowhere.^TM

And since someone's bound to ask (in email of course since no one I know seems to understand the concept of blog comments, LOL), it's the green one. Well, “olive“ really. Got Windows Media? Here's a video.

Argh.

http://blogs.msdn.com/

'Nuf said.

I can't take it anymore! I'm making a run for it - cross your fingers!!!

EDIT: Dunno what I was thinking. 4WD and no traction - sliding everywhere. Must be crazy. Dog thinks so.

More cool Microsoft media stuff. I've run Windows Media server systems for the past 4 years. When Windows Server 2003 came along (actually .NET server betas), I got excited for the first time since first working with the technology - the improvements in the 2003 Windows Media Services were huge.

Something equally cool is here: High Definition Windows Media Video. Specially encoded DVDs will allow movie content at resolutions greater than the standard DVD's 480i - Now resolutions up to 1080i will mean really, really great pictures.

“The movies will be available at retail in two-disc DVD sets that contain both the movie in standard definition for playback on any DVD player and a companion DVD disc that contains the entire feature film in high-definition video and 5.1-channel surround sound using WMV HD, for playback on a Windows® XP-based PC.“

This web site has some links to sample content. Big downloads, so use a fat pipe connection. :-)

Some have speculated that Windows XP Media Center Edition was a dead horse (a stance I still don't fully comprehend), but then came the 2004 release, and now comes an announcement that they will be extending the Media Center reach to - get this - other devices, including (glad I bought one!) the XBOX. And hey - the Portable Media Centers have already got me sold. Wow - this is a big announcement, when you think about it.

The Windows Media Center Extender technologies and products were just announced at CES 2004. Arrival slated for later this year. Microsoft has a cool PDF brochure that gives a good picture of what's in store. It looks like you buy a remote and some software for the XBOX (in the case of that product) and off you go. Cool - maybe we can finally make use of that hard drive in there for real. Now if they would just put a web browser in the thing... :-)

The other options - Extender TV's (can you say “Borg?”) and what looks to be an Extender appliance-type device, also look interesting.

One way or another this looks like the way of the future for television and multi-source media use. Whether Microsoft's technology is the defacto standard or not, this is likely indicative of where things are going.

Anyone have a link to Gates' keynote video at CES? I can't find it. That would be cool. :-)

On a related (well, at least similar) note, Snapstream is stepping up their game. Nimble company there. Wow. My TiVo, as much as I love it, could - possibly - become a thing of the past, although they did announce HD support and other cool stuff for later this year.

Thoughts?

I am not sure why, but I feel I have to post this. Golum - hero to white wannabe rapper kids. Argh.

Have a nice day :-)