Visit the set I took on flickr at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ktgeek/sets/72157627539270500/ or view the slideshow below:
Archive of posts filed under the Cool category.
More than meets the eye!
In news that disrupts major portions of my life, there’s this happening:
Robots in disguise will likely alter your commute for the next few days as filming for the third installment of the Transformers film franchise takes over the Magnificent Mile.
Michigan Avenue between Wacker Drive and Ontario Street will close Thursday night and will remain shut down through 5 a.m. on Monday, July 19.
But that’s okay, because that’s a pretty cool thing to have the filming of Transformers 3 in town. Even cooler is what’s on Michigan Avenue between Wacker and Ontario: my office.
Because I don’t intend to sit in the office all weekend, I’ve set up a web cam pointed down at the street. On Friday I’ll aim it better, but for now, you can watch the traffic on Michigan Ave.
Also, here’s a bonus photo of my buddy Chris with an Autobot he found in the loop last weekend. (Click for the full size.)
So, I’ve gained an evil twin
I’m not exactly sure what this means, but I think its pretty cool.
And his first tweet appears to be “Comics are for children.” He IS my evil twin.
Where have you been?
Heather found this and put it on her blog, its kinda fun. Between personal and work travel, I’ve covered a lot of ground. However, I have some really weird holes…
visited 32 states (64%)
Create your own visited map of The United States
I’m just trying to be heart healthy
I always knew I was taking care of business for the right reasons. Thanks to the scientists behind Stinky farts may help regulate blood pressure for confirming it.
A smelly rotten-egg gas in farts controls blood pressure in mice, a new study finds.
The unpleasant aroma of the gas, called hydrogen sulfide (H2S), can be a little too familiar, as it is expelled by bacteria living in the human colon and eventually makes its way, well, out.
The new research found that cells lining mice’s blood vessels naturally make the gas and this action can help keep the rodents’ blood pressure low by relaxing the blood vessels to prevent hypertension (high blood pressure). This gas is “no doubt” produced in cells lining human blood vessels too, the researchers said.
iPhone review
I wrote this for work, but I thought I’d repost it here, stripping out some of the work specific stuff.
Last Friday July 6th at about 1 I picked up my iPhone. I wanted to give it a serious couple of days of use before I posted about it.
We all heard and read about the activation problems in the first 24 hours or so. I’m happy to report that those issues were non-existent when I went to activate. Almost everything you do with the phone starts with iTunes, and activation is no different. I fired up iTunes, plugged the phone into the USB port and just started answering the questions. The activation went very smooth and I was mostly using my phone within 15 minutes of getting back from the Apple store. The snag I had though was in transferring my number from my old carrier. It took them 24 hours to give up the number to AT&T. During that time I could make calls and do network functions like e-mail and web surfing, but I couldn’t receive calls. Once that was done, it went like a shot.
Synchronization is also done via iTunes. On my OS X based MacBook Pro, this provides for a very tight integration with tools that Apple ships with OS X. The good side is much like an iPod sync, things just go when you cradle your device. The down side is that you’re tied to using iTunes. If you’re on OS X or Windows this isn’t really an issue. For those on other platforms, this could be a limiting issue. I haven’t tried syncing the phone with Windows so I can’t comment on what you can and cannot do via iTunes on the Windows and how well it integrates other than knowing what tools Apple says is supported on the stats page.
The rest of this will really focus on the parts of the phone I really interact with. If I don’t mention an app or don’t really talk about it, I haven’t used it much yet.
Continue reading ‘iPhone review’ »
A Scrubs Charlie Brown Christmas
Via TV Squad. This is brilliant.
A Christmas miracle
So, my mom pointed us at a device that you can use to help you fix burnt out Christmas light strings. I had to post about it because I would have thought it was a totaly scam if you told me about it, but having seen it work…
Yes, lights are usually cheap enough that you can probably just buy a new set every year and not really empty out your pocketbook, but its really wasteful. Also, for those of us with a fetish for prelit trees, its not always easy (or possible) to restring.
Anyway, its called the Light Keeper Pro. You just plug in the affected string of lights, replace a bulb with the tool, squeeze the trigger a few times, and your light string works again. The burnt out ones are easy to see as they aren’t lit, you replace those, and you’re golden. Supposedly there is a demo video on their site. Still, I don’t think I would have bought it except for watching my mom use it not 2 feet from where I was standing.
This post reads like an infomercial to me, but the tool just blows my mind. I’ve "saved" 4 strings of lights for our main Christmas tree. None of which worked when I pulled them out of storage and plugged them in. I haven’t even gotten to the outside ones
yet…
[Update 12/4: I know I haven't described this well, but the how it works section on their web site does.]