Offbeat

Gear Bits April 10, 2012

Frank Warren’s TED Talk on Half a Million Secrets

There is not a Sunday morning that goes by where I don’t check out the latest offerings from PostSecret, a project started after its creator, Frank Warren, had a dream while visiting Paris in 2003. The idea behind the site is that people send in their secrets anonymously, on 4×6 postcards that they have created themselves. Senders are told to “Reveal anything – as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before.” The beauty of Frank’s project is that sometimes the secrets shared are secrets that could be yours, or they are secrets that will relate…

Editorials April 10, 2012

Need Proof Optical Media is Dead? Look at My Wife.

If ever you wondered if optical media (CDs and DVDs) is dead and gone this brief interaction from last night should make the point with utter clarity. A bit of background before the “blow by blow” Elana is not a techie. She’s not anti-technology either. As she often puts it, “I think this stuff is amazing and I appreciate what it can do but that is where it ends for me. I just can’t get excited about it the way you do.” But when it comes to the 11″ MacBook air she has been using for the past year and…

Gear Bits April 7, 2012

Think Making a Promo-Video is Easy? Think Again.

If you think making a promo-video is easy, then you need to think again. What you see on TV, in the movies or even on You Tube has been sliced and diced in more ways than you can ever imagine. It also likely took five or ten or fifty takes to get the right words in the right places. Most of the time you’ll never see the outtakes except on a bloopers reel. And even then, the bloopers have been edited for effect. So what if we had a bloopers reel that proves that what can go wrong will go…

Gear Bits April 6, 2012

Would You Sell an Extra Organ for the Latest Tech?

I have no idea if the story I just read in the Telegraph is true or not, but supposedly there is a 17 year old in China who is suffering from a renal deficiency after selling his kidney to be used in an illegal transplant operation. He got 22,000 yuan (about £2200 or $3500) in the trade, which only sounds slightly better than a handful of magic beans; he used the money to buy a freaking iPad and iPhone. Supposedly his mom only found out about the crappy trade when she asked him how he got his shiny new gear….

Gear Bits, News & Features April 5, 2012

Nyan Cat Gets an ‘Adventure’ for Its First Birthday

Hard to believe that the meme that is Nyan Cat is only one year old today! It is a sign of the fast-moving times that these things go from nothing to everywhere to nothing again so quickly! Here are the basics from Wikipedia: Nyan Cat is the name of a YouTube video uploaded in April 2011, which became an Internet meme. The video merged a Japanese pop song with an animated cartoon cat with the body of a Pop-Tart, flying through space, and leaving a rainbow trail behind it. The video ranked at number 5 on the list of most…

Gear Bits April 4, 2012

The Cure for a Bad Day

I had a bad day today. Nothing terrible, but it started with a dog that popped out of nowhere to harass me during my run, continued with me nearly falling over trying to avoid the dog, followed up with severe traffic on my way to work, and of course, computer problems in the office. Plus my ankle is a bit sore from the dog incident. Poor Sarah has gotten the bulk of my complaints about today, and when I got home from work she presented me with this list from Buzzfeed, “Thirteen Simple Steps To Get You Through A Rough…

News & Features April 1, 2012

Love Bacon? Now You Can Take Your Love to the Grave!

You are born. You live. You die. And now … you can be buried in a BACON coffin! According to a local NBC news story, a Seattle company named J & D’s Foods – the guys behind products such as Baconaisse and BaconLube – have just introduced the Bacon Coffin. Here is their description: Is there a better way to show your love of bacon forever than to be buried wrapped in it? We don’t think so. This genuine bacon casket is made of 18 Gauge Gasketed Steel with Premium Bacon Exterior/Interior, and includes a Memorial and Record Tube, Adjustable…

News & Features April 1, 2012

Twitter Meets Toilet Humor with Sh-tter

Before I get into Sh-tter, the Twitter Toilet Paper (and yes, it is a real product!), I need to share a quick story. You see, this is not my first experience with novelty toilet paper. After college my friend made extra money by advertising moving services on Craigslist, and somehow a bunch of us got sucked into helping. One of our jobs was to pack a U-Haul for a grad student who was moving, and his biggest concern was packing the room full of “Sh*t-Be-Gone” toilet paper he was selling. It is the only time in my life someone has…

Gear Bits March 28, 2012

Is This Revenge for “Frogger”?

It has been an animal-themed week at Gear Diary! First ferrets, then giant bunnies, now a killer frog… Want to know more about the angry frog? Just check out the video below! And does anyone know what game the frog was “playing”?

Gear Bits March 27, 2012

The Bunny Rabbit of Your Nightmares

My coworker very excitedly called me to her desk today to show me pictures of a giant rabbit she saw in a pet store (and nearly purchased!) Apparently they are called “Flemish Giants” and can grow to be up to 50lbs! According to Wikipedia: Flemish Giants can be docile and tolerant of handling; frequent interaction with humans is a requirement for this to occur. Flemish Giants, like all rabbits, can become fearful, and sometimes violent, if handled incorrectly or irresponsibly. Their larger frame requires special attention paid to the spine alignment when handling a Flemish Giant, or any rabbit for…

News & Features March 27, 2012

Your Ferret Doesn’t Want to Run!

Okay, maybe the headline is a bit misleading. You see, it is not that “your ferret doesn’t want to run!” as much as it is the fact that your ferret “won’t enjoy running”. Yes, researchers have determined that ferrets do not get the same “runners high” that humans and dogs get when they run. Now, this leads to a few questions: -Why did the researchers choose ferrets? Were ordinary house cats so disinterested in running that they didn’t even show up for the study? -How did researchers measure this? Did the ferrets run on little ferret-sized treadmills or normal human sized…

Gear Bits, News & Features March 24, 2012

Adult TV Ads Poke Fun at Adult Movie Tropes!

You don’t even have to be a fan of adult movies to know about some of the clichéd plots – a pizza delivery guy comes to the door, and a beautiful woman answers and the next thing you know … well … Anyway, over at AdWeek they have a look at commercials made for the Canadian Adult station ‘Amour’. The spots cannot (obviously) use X-rated content, but still need to lure customers to check out the station. Here is the run-down: Doing ads for adult-television networks—not an easy job. You can’t use the channel’s content, for one thing. Yet Amour,…

Gear Bits March 23, 2012

Businessweek Looks at Absurd Slogan Trademarks

I love Bloomberg Businessweek because they have a sense of humor. They cover serious subjects, and then they run with the fun stuff but with a straight face. Hence their very amusing analysis of which catchphrases are trademarked and therefore off-limits (hint: apparently). Seriously. Check out their sample of what phrases have been legally protected: Barbarian Group: “It’s gonna be awesome” Great Clips: “It’s gonna be great” Amscan Holdings: “Who you gonna be?” Bank of New York Mellon: “We should talk” Physicians Mutual Insurance: “Maybe we should talk” STG Marketing: “Who’s got your stuff?” General Mills (GIS): “How do you…

Gear Bits March 17, 2012

For St. Patrick’s Day, the Muppets Sing ‘Oh Danny Boy’

In between your corned beef and cabbage and green beer, enjoy a good laugh. Have a great day! Source: GeekDad

Editorials March 17, 2012

Cupertino, Start Your Photocopiers! Oh, You Already Did?

For many who have watched Apple and Microsoft for decades, the mantra of an Apple product launch leading immediately to new ‘innovations’ from Microsoft that are remarkably similar has become beyond a cliché. There are certainly inspirational elements to the point that Microsoft has even occasionally admitted to copying from Apple (legally, of course, unlike Trash/Recycle, QuickTime/Windows Media, Widgets/Gadgets, Aqua/Aero, etc), but as many also note – Apple is not immune from the occasional ‘peeking at Microsoft’s paper’. But all of that stuff is serious … and this is just fun. The Microsoft Zune – it was a ‘MP3 player’…

Gear Bits March 16, 2012

Off-Broadway Becomes iBroadway in ‘Rated P, for Parenthood’

Elana and I spent this evening in Manhattan. We had a bite to eat and then got to see the new Off-Broadway show Rated P for Parenthood. Rated P, was written by Sandy Rustin, made its initial debut at the South Orange Performing Arts Center just down the street from my synagogue. (Disclosure: I know Sandy and she is a fantastic writer and comedian.) It has now moved to its new home at the WestSide Theater and is getting rave reviews. The reason for the rave reviews is quite simply the fact that it… is… awesome! The hour and a…

Editorials, Music Diary March 15, 2012

Nick Brignola Fans Prove that the Internet Makes the World Smaller

Nearly 8 years ago I posted the following as part of a forum thread entitled ‘What concerts have you seen?’: – Nick Brignola (this one is a club show, but I enjoyed getting to see this jazz giant of the baritone sax playing ‘at home’ many Thursday nights at the Italia restaurant in Troy NY) Nick Brignola is no stranger to fans of the music generally called ‘hard bop’, straight-ahead jazz form that took the core of bebop and brought in blues and soul and other elements to form a fusion made popular by the recordings of Miles Davis’ first…

Gear Bits March 13, 2012

What Do You Do When the Internet Is Down?

I’m not going to lie — this looks more like the way I behave than I’d care to admit; okay, minus the crying in the mirror part. My family can tell you that when I am trying to edit or write and the internet goes down, I am an absolute pain in the butt to be around; grumpy and moody and prone to random curse word outbursts. It’s not pretty. I’m almost as bad when our WiMax internet service is hiccuping and slower than usual. Anymore, I try to leave and go on a long hike when this happens, but sometimes ……

News & Features March 12, 2012

Really Cool Time Lapse Pregnancy Video Shows 9 Months in Under 2 Minutes!

I am really happy that I made my wife let me snap a couple of shots of her while pregnant with both of our kids. A couple of weeks ago when our ‘baby’ turned 14 we were flipping through and it was a sort of time lapse as we looked at my wife as she progressed and then the baby and our son as he grew. But this cool video shows the entire pregnancy from start to finish, one week at a time. It is amazing to watch the personal changes, the move from smaller to bigger space, and so…

Gear Bits March 8, 2012

Real Men Don’t Wear Pink; They Can’t, Because It Doesn’t Exist!

The color pink, technically called Magenta, is in theory a blend of Red and Violet. That is wonderful for mixing paints … but in terms of the electromagnetic spectrum it makes no sense. Why is that? Because colors are based on a continuum, that means that in order for a color to exist it needs to follow some progression of wavelength shortening from red to violet. Color is visible to us based on the wavelength of light, and aside from the so-called ‘primary colors’ ROYGBIV’ (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet), all other colors are merely combinations of…

Gear Bits March 8, 2012

Stuff Companies Were Foolish Enough to Introduce on ‘Apple Event Day’

You don’t tug on Superman’s cape You don’t spit into the wind You don’t pull off the mask of the old Lone Ranger … And you don’t do an announcement on the day Apple holds a major press event. Any person who is interested in technology in any way – even if they HATE Apple and would never buy their products – was glued to find out details. My family all knew it was happening, it was on our local news and in the local paper as well as being a major hallway conversation topic. There is a saying that…

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