At least this guy has a sense of humor. I bet the guilty party was pretty embarrassed too!
Month: January 2012
Blink.Blink.Blink… Blink…Blink…Blink… Blink.Blink.Blink
Jeremiah Denton is a POW during the Vietnam “conflict” and he was able to convey a message to people on the outside that he was being tortured while in captivity. Unfortunately Morse Code is a dying art and something like this will probably never happen again…
How To: Getting Personal Documents on Your Kindle
If you have a Kindle this is a must read… The Gadgeteer, one of my favorite tech blogs, has a great writeup on how to get just about any document on your Kindle.
Incidentally, The Gadgeteer, founded by Julie Strietelmeier, is based out of Columbus, Indiana. Not exactly a place were you’d expect one of the big tech blogs to be located!
There are several ways to convert and transfer documents to the Kindle. Some methods are free and other cost a few pennies per MB. Either way you do it if you want the most convenient way to transport and access documents while traveling the Kindle is definitely the way to go.
Fundraising – No Agenda Show
Hopefully, by now, most of you know what a Podcast is. Believe it or not I was part of the Man Fights Back podcast a while back. We ended up recording 44 episodes before putting things on pause for a while. Hopefully we’ll get to a point where we can start recording again.
Publishing a podcast is a lot of work. Coming up with material, time to record, time to edit, time to produce and, most importantly, building your audience. Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak at the No Agenda Show podcast have figured all of this out and find time to publish 2 episodes a week totaling 5+ hours of content. They give the show away and only ask for donations to keep the show going. As of January 15, 2012 they’ve recorded 374 shows, along with a few special episodes.
Donations of $50 or more get their name or organization mentioned in the show. The top two donations for each episode get Executive Producer and Associate Executive Producer credits. It’s all turned out to be a pretty cool concept. Individuals who accumulate $1000 (or more) worth of donations (or donate it all at once) get a special “Knighthood” designation and customized ‘hit them in the mouth’ ring complete with old-fashioned envelope sealing wax that you can make an impression in with the ring.
The No Agenda Show is hard to describe but it covers a lot of current events and things you don’t hear about in the mainstream media. The discussions are lively and often times very humorous especially with all of the musical jingles and memes. The show notes are a treasure trove of links and media clips that allow you to dig deeper into the topics you find interesting. I’ve gotten a lot of ideas for the IndyScan.com blog posts from this podcast.
I’ve been planning on donating to the show for a while now but thought it might be kind of neat to pool together some donations from IndyScan.com readers and submit them on the behalf of IndyScan.com and its followers. The goal is to add a little more money to what I was going to donate ($100) and get some press for the blog.
Starting today I’m going to place a special donation button on the IndyScan.com site and will take contributions (via PayPal) until February 29, 2011. Every penny contributed will be added to my donation and submitted to the no Agenda Show for inclusion in one of the early March shows.
I hope you have a chance to check out the No Agenda Show and find it something you want to listen to and make a donations towards.
You can also donate from this blog entry:
United States Patent: 8095941
September 7, 2006 IBM files United States Patent: 8095941. This patent was for:
A system for generating an electronic notification containing a portion of a day out of office notice, comprising: an application server node operably associated with a database server having an application data supporting personal information management (PIM) system, the application server node configured to execute a personal information management application, the application server node further configured to store the personal information management application…
Yes, they applied for a patent for the Out of Office notification! This is only a piece of the “claim” in what has to be one of the longest run-on sentences I have ever read.
XBox 360 – F1 2011
I’ve been a “gamer” since my first computer (Apple IIc) back in the 80’s. I’m not as hard core as a lot of people, mainly because I have a job that requires me to get a good nights sleep and focus on the tasks at hand.
I posted earlier about the Microsoft Speed wheel for XBox 360 and I referenced the F1 2011 game. I thought I’d share some feedback and a few videos, just in case you’re interested in checking it out.
Actual Gameplay (Qualifying Lap):
Here’s a comparison of the game vs. a real life lap:
As you can see by the videos above this is a pretty realistic simulator. Fortunately there are a lot of computer assist settings you can enable to make the game playable. I turned all the assists off and could barely drive the car around the track. I imagine in real life these multi-million machines are VERY difficult to drive, let alone race.
F1 2011 for Xbox retails for around $50. Last years version can be had for about half that price at Game Stop. If you’re looking for a realistic and challenging racing simulator you’ll probably like this game.
Indianapolis – 96th Street Steakburgers
Indianapolis has a lot of great places to get a hamburger and one of my Northside favorites is 96th St. Steakburger. It’s been there for a few years and it seems to stay pretty busy. On my last visit I ordered a double cheeseburger, fries and a drink ($6.99).
The burgers are thin like Steak & Shake so a double is a good way to go. The standard toppings of lettuce, tomato and “special sauce” complete the burger. You can “Styilze” your burger and get it Lettuce Style, Mustard Style or Monster Style. I stuck with the classic this time around.
Lettuce Style replaces the bun with, you guessed it, lettuce. Mustard Style has mustard grilled into the bun. Monster Style has grilled onions and uses a Mustard Style bun. I’ve had the mustard and monster styles and they’re a nice option if you want something different. For $0.99 you can add a variety of toppings such as bacon and blue cheese.
The french fries are fresh-cut with the skin on. They’re similar to Penn Station only thinner. On this visit my fries were a little under cooked. Not by a lot but they could have stayed in the fryer another minute. Bottles of malt vinegar are available to add a little tang. The fries do not come seasoned so a little salt helps too.
Service is usually fast and your order takes 4-5 minutes to get ready. That’s plenty of time to fix your drink and grab some condiments. Seating is a mixture of booths, free-standing tables and high-tops. If you’re in the 96th & Keystone area and want a pretty decent burger give 96th St. Steakburger a try.
Xbox 360 – Wireless Speed Wheel
I had a bit of money burning a hole in my pocket so my son & I took a trip to GameStop. I’ve wanted to buy the new Formula One racing game but I’ve never been very impressed with the Xbox 360 controller when it comes to driving games. Then I found the Xbox 360 Wireless Speed Wheel and everything changed.
I checked out a few reviews online and found a lot of positive comments on the performance of the Speed Wheel. It’s not cheap ($59) but it’s a lot less expensive than the wheel/peddle setups that cost several hundred dollars.
The Speed Wheel has a nice design and all the necessary functions are where you would expect them to be. It’s missing the 2 shoulder buttons found on the Xbox 360 controller but I have yet to find a game that needs them. The triggers are a lot larger than on the regular controller and they allow a very precise application of the accelerator and brakes.
Since the Speed Wheel is wireless it relies on you holding it in front of you while you use it. On long racing sessions this can get a little tiring. As far as performance goes, this thing is very accurate and steering inputs are immediate with no perceived lag. In fact, if you are using the in-game camera view that shows the steering wheel it mimics your movements exactly in real-time.
Unfortunately the Speed Wheel does not measure forward and backward motion which would make it a great controller for flight simulators. It’s only purpose is for driving games and it works very well for that purpose. If you’ve been as frustrated as I’ve been with the regular Xbox controller you should definitely check it out.
Personal Goal – 365+1 Posts in 2012
I’m not one for New Years resolutions (mainly because I forget I made them) but I’ve seen a lot of “projects” online that revolve around doing something (mostly photos) once a day for the entire year.
I’m going to challenge myself to publish 365 +1 (leap year this year) blog posts in 2012. So far so good, it’s January 14th & this will be my 15th post of the year. I got a little carried away on January 7 and posted 2 items in one day.
I commented on Facebook the other day I was running out of ideas, even though I had 27 draft posts in the queue… Some of those 27 will get published but many will end up being deleted because they are no longer relevant or I can’t find enough to write about to make it worth posting.
Happy 2012 to all & I hope you have as much fun reading the 365 +1 posts as I’m going to have writing them.