I won’t say where or when but I am going to be doing my first stand up act in a few days. It is open mic night so it’s not like I am headlining but it’ll be an interesting experience nevertheless. So you people who have been telling me I should be doing standup here I go.

If it goes well enough I’ll post my set video on here. Don’t hold your breath though.

If you didn’t know already I had a catostrophic engine failure as a result of a timing belt failure back in June. It costs me over $4000 to fix it and I thought I was stuck with the cost but apparently it’s happened to enough people that Audi had no choice but to settle a class-action suit.

They even have a website. If you own a 2000-2003 A4 or TT that is under 105k miles you can get some relief here.

I just got back from the Bahamas where my friends have a house and invited me out. Had an amazing time. Saw all the stars one could see and came back with some new outlooks on life. I also got to see the Bimini Road which I am now not so certain was a road but I am not a scientist

I also got bitten up by some bugs that are still itching me now…

Two things when you go to the Bahamas…Take less clothes than you think you need and take bug spray.

Want to focus at work or on a task that requires concentration and a clear head without hearing your co-workers or fiddling with your ipod trying to find the songs that don’t distract? Well, head over to SimplyNoise. These guys generate “White Noise” which has enough sound to drown out background noises yet is bland enough to not distract. I have it running right now and it doesn’t phase me in the least.

Well, I am an uncle again. My Brother Dennis who posts over at idude.org just had their second girl. I can’t wait till I can spoil this one ;)

This just tells you how distracted the general populace is. We landed on Mars and they are going to be looking for life in the arctic ice but all people seem to talk about is the stupid Sex in the city movie. Maybe if Nasa had a new Iphone 3g strapped to their rover it’d get some attention. btw, here is the site for all the Phoenix lander info if you want to keep an eye on something meaningful:

 

Ok, this is a stretch but I have had this in my file for awhile and I post it more for humors sake rather than a serious concept. The Japanese, in WWII decided to use the then-unknown Jet stream to send over balloon bombs across the ocean and bomb the Pacific Northwest. A few dozen were shot down. The press and military covered it up to avoid panic and a bunch of them are still rusting away in the forest somewhere.  Amazing that most people have never heard of this attack in WW II. It is the only known aerial bombing of the American homeland by a foreign adversary. Read on Wiki

I am CLEARED now! Breeze through airport security. If you sign up use my code and sign up I get a free  kitten! My code is: DSCAM1138815

In a time when the City and the team are just fighting for the location and timeframe I think something more important has been missed. We’ve seen images in the past of what a new stadium might look like but those renderings are old and the selection of an architect is not even solidified yet.

On the other hand. Other cities and clubs are more focused on the asthetics and uniquiness of their new home field.

One Impressive stadium is Valencia FC’s ambitious new stadium.

See more at the architects homepage.

Portsmouth Football club and Sellar Properties have today unveiled ambitious plans for a 600m development in Portsmouth. It also only holds 36,000 which I think would be a great size for DC United and would allow us to host International matches and house Beckham’s posse.

Via Yanko Design

From Yanko Design:

Hive is a simulated surround sound speaker system. As of now the market only has two options - either spread speakers around the room for the real experience or invest in a sound bar which usually consists of a long bar housing anywhere between 8-30 small speakers pointing in every direction for a simulated experience.

The Hive takes the latter approach but adds in a bit of design since sound bars are pretty boring. The hexagonal honey comb pattern is graphic, bold, and each cell can pivot or turn for a truly customized audible experience. And don?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t worry about messy cables or cords. The Hive only has 2 at most - one for power, and one to connect to your home entertainment system.

Designer: Oskar Daniel

My Corporate logo:

This is one of those stories you see on the history channel when they are not doing a Hitler special. The Howard Hughes movie “Aviator” didn’t really touch at all on this part of his life. It is a compelling read about espionage at the deepest depths of the ocean. The retrieval of a Russian Nuclear sub. Enjoy the timewaster.

Other good reading:
Project Jennifer / Hughes Glomar Explorer
Scientific American Frontiers . Mysteries of the Deep

You can listen to the ocean under the Antarctic ice via this research station feed. It’s called: PALAOA ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú the PerenniAL Acoustic Observatory in the Antarctic Ocean. Read more here.

It is usually just clicks and pops but I listened long enough to hear some ice collisions or what I thought were ice collisions and what sounds like storms occasionally.

One of my good friends indy movie has a new trailer up. If you watch closely you can see my truck.

A Q&A with Doug about his 2008 April fools prank.

Q: Ok, to catch up, what was your prank this year?
Well, this year was a last minute thing. I haven’t really done a proper April Fools prank in the past beyond just stupid office pranks so it was around 11pm on sunday night and I came up with the idea. I had about 12 hours before I’d activate the prank so I got ahold of my brother who runs a webhosting company and he got my new domain set up (www.manutdpresswire.com). We installed Wordpress 2.5 and over the next 3 hours I changed the template and added some real content from the Manchester United site to make it look like a press release portal. I wanted it to look real but since I didn’t have all night I had to put just enough content that was current so people wouldn’t question it. I then added a small press release that had the crux of my deception on it.

I basically told everyone that I was heading to Europe to work for the legendary football club Manchester United. People knew I wanted to leave and I played into that knowledge and wrote a nice email thanking everyone for their support and how excited I was to get this job. I fooled my own brother for a few minutes before he knew what I was up to. He set the thing up and he was fooled!

Q: What was the reaction from your peers and associates.
I only sent it to friends that I knew pretty well. Not my clients (they’d be happy for me but not get it). I got a lot of nice messages from some of my close friends. It was kind of tough because I was torn between the awesomeness of the prank and on the other hand my friends were sending heart-felt congratulations and sentiments and it was because of a stupid prank. In order for the ruse to work I came up with fake “Out of Office” messages which I think is what saved me a bit. I didn’t have to respond to them and make it “real”.

I also had some people who figured it out quickly. My soccer buddy Jaon was the first to call me out. Either they knew it was AFD or were skeptics and did a bunch of internet detective work and found out that the website was fake. The website was really good. They couldn’t discount it on content. They had to dig deep to find the truth.

Q: Speaking of your friends. Did you feel guilty? Did you get any odd confessions or anything?
No, no “Please do go! I am in love with you…etc…” I mean, that would have really been a great AFD joke to play on me. I mean, there are some people who could have really reversed the tables and smashed me by counter-pranking me. But again, maybe that’s just me projecting what I’d do ;)
To answer your question. Yea, at first I did. I am not one who lies and it felt like a lie even though it’s really the one day you can get away with it. I was cringing all day from the emails. Some were tough to read but I appreciated seeing them. I wasn’t doing this to fish for compliments but it was starting to feel like the guy that fakes his death to see how people felt about him. Well, not that drastic but at times I felt that kind of guilt.

Q: Did anyone get bent out of shape over it?
Not that I am aware of. Some people were shocked when they heard the news and were equally shocked when they knew it was a fake. That website really sold it. I got a lot of props on the quality of the prank. Again, I think the joke backfired on me a little in that I felt the worse for wear because it wasn’t true and I’d love it if it were. The odd thing was the people that didn’t respond at all. I mean, did they get the message and just think it was a prank and not acknowledge it or did they not care or did they not get the message. I guess I won’t know in some cases. It really keyed me in on who my real friends are versus acquaintances.

Q: Did you make any mistakes that could have blown it? What would you do different if you can do it again?
hmmm, if I had to do it again… and I am not sure I would at this point, I’d have 2-3 fake websites with?Ǭ† .co.uk domains?Ǭ† that were registered overseas instead of using my brothers company. That’s how my friends Jason and Chris figured it out. I’d seed the information out there a few weeks in advance to get google involved. I’d also use a lessor soccer club like Motherwell in Scotland or Everton or something. I’d also include some fake photos from a “trip” over there and also actually plan a trip out there as a vacation to make it real for the last minute doubter. I mean, there are a 100 things I could do to make it real but at what point do yo just enjoy the joke and make a day of it.

Q: Are you going to do something again next year?
It’ll be hard because people won’t forget this one and they will expect it next year. I have to do something that is completely different and is very hard to fake. Even by saying that people will expect something odd. I may have to take a year off. I expect people will prank me next year and I deserve it!

Ok, this is really cool. This guy is a real talent:

Can’t believe I never posted this but I really enjoyed this site. Even though my truck has some modifications I have nothing on this.

Use Google Calendars? Use Outlook (not express) at work? Want to finally sync the two and now have twice as many things to do? Check out Google Sync for Calendars. Enjoy

Also, You will start noticing a lot more useful content on this site in the future. It really has become a mind-free zone lately. Enjoy

I was laughing my arse off at this one. Love the O&A and Little Jimmy.

I found a really cool free photo tool. Its free for now as well.

Got an ipod touch 16g. I freaking love it. The wifi works well and is very responsive. The itunes store is very easy and very simple to use. I even encoded a large video (no, it wasn’t pron!) and encoded it for Ipone format with Quicktimes built in converter and it plays like a dvd player. Smooth and clean. The only gripe is that there are no volume controls without unlocking the device and I can’t wait until they hack it so I can have email because this thing should be usable as a PIM.

Also, I don’t want an Iphone. The sweatheart deal with AT&T and the lack of high speed 3g makes the device way too expensive. I am still rocking the crackberry and won’t change until Apple opens this device up for 3rd parties and stops the monopolistic behavior.

Don’t buy a high end camera until they bring this bad boy into production.

Casio Developing World’s Fastest-Shooting Digital Camera

Ultra-high speed burst shooting captures 60 still images per secondHigh speed movie recording, at 300 fps, catches motion faster than the human eye

Undercover reporter Michelle Madigan (Associate Producer of NBC Dateline) got a little more than she bargained for when she tried to sneak in to DEFCON 2007 with hidden cameras to get someone to confess to a felony. When DEFCON staff announced the spot the undercover reporter game and told the audience that an undercover reporter was taking video to catch someone confessing to a hacking crime, Madigan bolted from the conference premises followed by a pack of ~150 DEFCON attendees and reporters trying to photograph and video tape her. DEFCON officials never got the chance to bring Madigan on stage to offer her a press badge so that she could cover the rest of the event above board.

Histerical!

It’s not a crash but probably could have caused one

So many people have asked that I have no choice but to post these photos.

I regret that I wasn’t able to blog daily on my travels in Morocco. Internet connectivity was very difficult and hard to find. When I got home I got (and still have) post vacation depression and I feel that trying to relive everything is too tough at the moment. I’ll be posting more and more as I get out of this funk.

Link to photos here:

This is a classic. It’s Bill Burr tearing apart 1/2 the city of Philadelphia at the O&A Virus tour. The Crowd was wasted and making shit at Bill and he pretty much shut down a few thousand pests!

Caution Very offensive.