Entries from May 2007 ↓

Not exactly terminator material, but it seems that a robotic lawnmower in Denmark has killed its operator. The lawnmower is a commercial lawnmower meant to replace the large riding lawnmowers used by lawn care professionals. I can’t say I’ve ever heard of it before, but it looks pretty cool. The lawnmower is controlled by a remote, much like the radio controlled race cars you can buy in most toy stores.
In this case, it seems that the mower fell down a hill onto it’s operator. Killing the operator instantly with a blow to the head from a blade. No word yet on whether the mower was charged with a crime or not. Lets just hope that this isn’t the beginning of a robot revolt. LOL

All jokes aside, The guy did die. Not exactly a nice or funny thing. My question is why was the guy sitting directly under the mower on the hill? Seems like if the hill was that steep, then he should have been farther off to the side.

Check out the story at Ekstra Bladet Man from Ballerup killed by a lawn mower Sorry for the auto translation, but I couldn’t find an English news story.
Via Engadget: Robot lawnmower kills Danish man

I found this essay on the Internet troll over at drewspeak. It’s a complete analysis and commentary on the practice of trolling. If you haven’t encountered the trolls, then you really haven’t spent much time on message boards, or at least don’t bother reading the comments sections of some of the bigger blogs. Trolls are those people who deliberately start arguments for no reason other than that they can. They purposefully go around insulting and attacking people from behind their partial Internet anonymity.
The statement “don’t feed the trolls” means don’t respond to their comments and attacks. By responding, you are giving them exactly what they want.
Here is a quote from the essay:

“The troll comes to the door of a new forum and sets down his bag of tricks. If he has a grudge against the people inside discussing and debating their passions with a certain degree of amicability, peacability and decorum, he does not show them. He has the cracked, stoic smile of Robin Goodfellow, a Puck with the simple desire to disrupt peace itself. He loves chaos; his bag is full of golden apples he can lob to set the masses squabbling. He has also many masks, smoke bombs, straw men, cloaks, puppets, matches, ethanol, knives, dust, sand, and magicks of the most arcane sort. He knows what he is about - causing trouble. Why? This is the troll’s darkest mystery - if any one knew his secret, he would die. For all trolls, their motive power is this: without contraries, they cannot progress.”

Read the entire essay here: The Internet Troll As The Trickster Archetype Via Boing Boing

43folders.com has an interesting piece on dealing with email overload. Many of us who work in the IT world (or for that matter are simply active online) have way too much email to deal with. Many of the emails I get are skimmed and ignored. And if I can’t ignore them, then often the lower priority ones will get a quick “Yes I got your email” type of response. Mainly because it can take me anywhere from 10-20 minutes to form a real response.
The concept of email bankruptcy is to simply declare that you have lost, and do a blanket delete of the entire inbox. So far, I’ve never reached the point where I was so overloaded that I felt I needed to declare “email bankruptcy,” but I’ve come close a few times.
Read the article, it’s actually pretty interesting.
The strange allure (and false hope) of email bankruptcy

A few months ago, I posted a video of a computer interface concept that allowed you to navigate and control the computer using nothing but the screen. It seemed to me, that a multi touch interface was going to be the future of computers.
It looks like Microsoft thought so too. They recently announced a new computer platform called Microsoft surface. The entire interface of the computer is the screen.
Watch the video below to see how it works. It is pretty cool. Initially this will be marketed to restaurants and resorts, but if it does well, I can see this going mainstream.

Official website: Microsoft Surface
Via TechCrinch: Microsoft Announces Surface Computer

LolCode is a new(theoretical) programming language based on Anil Dash’s LoLCat grammar dictionary. If you haven’t read it you really should. It’s hilarious. You can find his grammar dictionary at Cats can has grammar.

Anyway, back to the programming language. Here is an example of loop to count to 10.

HA
  ICAN HAS STDIO?
  I HAS A VAR
  IM IN YR LOOP
    UP VAR!! 1
    VISIBLE VAR
    IZ VAR BIGGER THAN 10?
      KTHXBYE
  IM OUTTA YR LOOP
KTHXBYE

I love the beginning and ending tags in the language. Hai and Kthxbye are just great.

Check it out here: LOLCODE.com

And if you are interested in seeing a big repository of cats with funny captions, you can check out this site: Meme Cats

For all of you retro gamers out there. If you ever wondered about Pac-Man’s anatomy. Here it is, the Pac-Man skeleton.
If you have a ghost problem in your house, this should scare them away. All you need to do is place this prominently in your home, with some cherries(remember Pac-Man has to eat the cherry to kill ghosts) and all your ghost problems will go away. LOL

Via Table of Malcontents: Pac-Man’s Monstrous Skull Exposed

I seems that if you own a Nissan Altima or the Infiniti G35, you need to keep the key away from your cell phone. Close proximity to the phone, when it is receiving a call, can scramble the electronic code used by the key fob. Once the key code is scrambled, you can no longer use it to unlock your car. Which basically makes it useless.
This could be a big problem. Especially for people like me who keep their phones in their pockets. Of course, I don’t have the bad luck of owning a Nissan.
It does seem that this is something that could have been tested for in the lab before production. If the key fobs are that susceptible to other electronics, then there are probably other devices that can also affect them badly.

Via Techdirt: Nissan Warns Drivers: Don’t Put Mobile Phones Near Our Keys

A company in India is starting to mass produce the first air powered car. Rather than run on electricity, gasoline, or hydrogen, this car runs on compressed air. It will go up to 68 miles per hour, and has a range or about 125 miles on a single tank. You can refuel it anywhere you can get access to compressed air. It also has a built in air compressor that can be run by simply plugging it in. The built in air compressor takes about 4 hours to “refuel” the car. So it’s something you would want to do overnight.
The cool thing about this car, is that it is completely emissions free. Whether you believe strongly in the dangers of global warming, or not, you have to agree that anything that cuts down on pollution is a good thing. Of course, the electricity that is used to produce the compressed air has to come from somewhere. So if it comes from a dirty coal burning plant, then all you have done is shift the pollution away from you.

Via EcoGeek: Air-Car Ready for Mass Production

On par with the scariest swing in the world from China, comes the dinner in the sky from Belgium. They strap you and your dinner guests into a table attached to a crane. Then the crane lifts you up into the sky to have dinner. That is if you don’t get sick from fear of heights. Check the website out. There are more pics, and even a video showing people being served by the waiter and the chef. The table seats 22. So your dinner in the sky can actually have a pretty big group. They will even take the table to a location of your choice(in Belgium).
Personally I think this is just too scary for me. Also, what happens if you drop a fork? Or have to pee?

Official Site: Dinner in the Sky

Found this photoblog of strange and off beat looking houses from around the world.

I’m not sure if it is, but this picture looks a lot like a house out at the beach where I live. The house is somewhat famous for being “hurricane proof.” So it’s possible.

Check out the page for a lot of other house pictures.

Amazing Things:

The most interesting and amazing houses from the world