Have a blast, and bring it in with cheer.. but be safe!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
16 Anti-Theft Gadgets and Designs to Deter Thieves
We all own many different cool gadgets and items that are important to us either for the utility they provide or perhaps because of an intimate or personal reason. Whatever the reason is, we really hate it when someone comes and touches our personal belongings and worst yet..steals them.
In order to avoid such mishaps and unfortunate events, we have gathered here a great collection of different Anti Theft Gadgets and Bizarre Designs that are meant to help individuals make their devices and belongings less attractive, appealing or desired to a normal bystander. Moreover, there are a few security gadgets and projects that may also interest the more techy of you, who may be looking for some new gizmos to own or security diy to built.
The following aren’t guaranteed to deter thieves or work colleagues from getting at your gadgets but are meant as an additional things to make them think a second time before getting at your personal stuff.
80’s Walkman iPod Case
Although this Walkman iPod Case was made for the classic iPod models, I am sure a different version can accommodate the iPod touch as well. It is a great solution for those that feel threatened by bystanders staring at their new iPods and would rather have them look another way.This cool case is an ode to old music gadgets by re-using an old Walkman cassette case as a case for a newly innovated gadget. While everyone is walking around listening to their iPods, talking on their iPhones and perhaps even watching a movie on their Zune, you could make sure to remain below the radar, for your music product is just so old…no one would be interested in it. Who even listens to cassette tapes anymore?
Speaking of cassettes..
Fake Cassette Tape Car Stereo
With the innovation of gadgets, let alone music gadgets, most car stereos advance as well, adding CD’s, disc changers, mp3, video and even video games to be played while riding in the vehicle. In order to get thieves to decide to move on to the next vehicle after a glimpse at your stereo dashboard, this cool diy is a funny one.The Fake car stereo utilizes an old cassette tape deck as a facade that attaches on top of your current stereo deck in your car.
This way, when thieves take a look at your stereo, they would think twice before breaking in for a 90’s car stereo that will be useless in today’s market.
Continue reading..
Via
Monday, December 28, 2009
NFL Week 17 -- NFC
Wow. I love the last week of the regular season in the NFL.
95% of all your "fantasy football" involvement is now gone, and playoff scenarios are getting cut down to about 1/3 after everyone plays a game. And yet this season, there's still tons of things that can happen. Well, in the NFC, anyway.
I won't bore everyone with that crazy total scenario monologue that you hear a little too much, but it's incredibly crazy in the NFC with a week to go, though... and here's why:
Dallas and Philadelphia have both locked-up a playoff birth. But they just happen to play each other in the final week - for the NFC EAST division championship, and at worst a home playoff game... but better yet, each team is also gonna be motivated by the fact that a Minnesota loss gives us a chance at a first-round bye! But of course we gotta win! And a few more chances for something else to happen. But,
The winner is very likely to host the 6-seed in a wildcard game... which just happens to be each other. Oh yeah, and both have as good a chance as any NFC team of going as far as anyone.
DAL 26-17
Almost..
No one takes more advantage of his post-game press-conferences like Brett Favre. Right? Does anyone else go that deep into his thought process? Kurt Warner, maybe, but hey.. don't they get tired?
They.. the Vikings.. have lost 3 of 4 now, and will limp into the playoffs whether or not they win next week, really. But no doubt they'd much rather play at home - in da dome? But we get the Giants? Damn.. I haven't picked this game yet, but nothing would make these G-Men happier at this point.
Packers/Cardinals are both playing very well at the moment, but it could always change. Don't forget Kurt Warner's most important statistic. The Cardinals have at least won three of their last 5, after an eerily similar start as Minnesota. But haven't won more than 3-striaght all season. A season which has been very similar to their last, in which we saw them win those three straight at JUST the right time, en route to the Big Game. I don't think anyone would look forward to playing the Packers, either. But having lost twice in 5-weeks to the Vikings, at least they can hope to avoid them, which is very possible.
GB 34 Arz 27
Wait, the other team is the New Orleans Saints. Having already gotten to the 13-0 mark, I think they realized just what they had achieved, and also know exactly what they are doing. Of course, they'd like to have won the last two. But they knew this 2 weeks ago. Maybe a "get it out of your system now" or "these 3 games are meaningless" mind-set. Even Carolina is gonna be a tough win next Sunday, but Saints go into the playoffs with the best, most complete team. Sunday will be a huge key to how this NFC will unfold. But I think this is the team to beat.
Super Bowl Odds after NFL week-16:
Saints - 5:1
Eagles - 7:1
Cowboys - 15:2
Cardinals - 12:1
Vikings - 13:1
Packers - 16:1
I will be updating this! And will also be back for the AFC.
95% of all your "fantasy football" involvement is now gone, and playoff scenarios are getting cut down to about 1/3 after everyone plays a game. And yet this season, there's still tons of things that can happen. Well, in the NFC, anyway.
I won't bore everyone with that crazy total scenario monologue that you hear a little too much, but it's incredibly crazy in the NFC with a week to go, though... and here's why:
Dallas and Philadelphia have both locked-up a playoff birth. But they just happen to play each other in the final week - for the NFC EAST division championship, and at worst a home playoff game... but better yet, each team is also gonna be motivated by the fact that a Minnesota loss gives us a chance at a first-round bye! But of course we gotta win! And a few more chances for something else to happen. But,
The winner is very likely to host the 6-seed in a wildcard game... which just happens to be each other. Oh yeah, and both have as good a chance as any NFC team of going as far as anyone.
DAL 26-17
Almost..
No one takes more advantage of his post-game press-conferences like Brett Favre. Right? Does anyone else go that deep into his thought process? Kurt Warner, maybe, but hey.. don't they get tired?
They.. the Vikings.. have lost 3 of 4 now, and will limp into the playoffs whether or not they win next week, really. But no doubt they'd much rather play at home - in da dome? But we get the Giants? Damn.. I haven't picked this game yet, but nothing would make these G-Men happier at this point.
Packers/Cardinals are both playing very well at the moment, but it could always change. Don't forget Kurt Warner's most important statistic. The Cardinals have at least won three of their last 5, after an eerily similar start as Minnesota. But haven't won more than 3-striaght all season. A season which has been very similar to their last, in which we saw them win those three straight at JUST the right time, en route to the Big Game. I don't think anyone would look forward to playing the Packers, either. But having lost twice in 5-weeks to the Vikings, at least they can hope to avoid them, which is very possible.
GB 34 Arz 27
Wait, the other team is the New Orleans Saints. Having already gotten to the 13-0 mark, I think they realized just what they had achieved, and also know exactly what they are doing. Of course, they'd like to have won the last two. But they knew this 2 weeks ago. Maybe a "get it out of your system now" or "these 3 games are meaningless" mind-set. Even Carolina is gonna be a tough win next Sunday, but Saints go into the playoffs with the best, most complete team. Sunday will be a huge key to how this NFC will unfold. But I think this is the team to beat.
Super Bowl Odds after NFL week-16:
Saints - 5:1
Eagles - 7:1
Cowboys - 15:2
Cardinals - 12:1
Vikings - 13:1
Packers - 16:1
I will be updating this! And will also be back for the AFC.
The 15 Most Influential Video Games of the Decade
The 2000s will be remembered as the decade when the videogame industry got flipped on its head.
Going into the year 2000, the general feeling was that the game industry was ready to put away childish things. The era of Nintendo and kiddie entertainment was over, and the videogames of the future were about multimillion-dollar budgets, mind-blowing photorealism and “digital actors” playing out their parts with human realism thanks to “emotion engines,” etc.
Instead, it went down like this: A whole bunch of companies dumped a whole lot of money down the next-gen sinkhole, and the number of publishers that could be counted on to deliver bleeding-edge entertainment without going broke in the process dwindled to just a few.
Meanwhile, many more publishers came to the belated realization that all those simple, accessible games from days gone by weren’t obsolete; in fact, there were untold millions of people playing Solitaire on their computers, just waiting for something better to come out.
Our list of the most influential games of the past decade includes, therefore, many games that made big leaps and defined what would come to be traditional aspects of the big-budget grand adventure, and others that pushed the reset button on game design.
Half-Life 2 (2004)
If Halo is the game of choice for the trigger-happy, Half-Life 2 is the thinking man’s shooter, the game that got our brains churning. Puzzles relied on physics, the well-written story wasn’t spoon-fed, and the protagonist saw the world through prescription lenses. Half-Life 2 ensured that we’d never think about the first-person shooter in the same way again.
World of Warcraft (2004)
The MMORPG had its genesis in the ’90s with EverQuest and Ultima Online. But Blizzard’s World of Warcraft blew them all away, taking MMOs from niche pursuit to mainstream passion. Besides establishing that a critical mass of players will pay $15 per month to play a single videogame if it is sufficiently complex, WoW created a gold standard by which all other massively multiplayer games are measured. By grouping players into alliances and guilds, WoW created strong social circles among its devotees, who are so deeply involved in the culture that they attend the yearly BlizzCon convention. The game has influenced many other publishers to jump feet-first into the MMO genre. Most, so far, have failed miserably.
Grand Theft Auto III (2001)
Few games this decade generated such controversy — or inspired so many other designers. Yes, any game released a month after Sept. 11, 2001, that allowed players to kill civilians and public servants was certain to be controversial. But beneath those attention-grabbing elements was a revolutionary open-world gameplay system. Grand Theft Auto III defined the “sandbox,” a sprawling playground with sports cars instead of swingsets, rocket launchers instead of monkey bars. Players weren’t forced to advance the Scarface-style criminal narrative; they could just amuse themselves in Liberty City. Forget the avalanche of clones: It’s hard to find any third-person action adventure game nowadays that doesn’t crib at least something from the GTA formula.
Continue to the list..
Via and a few others
I guess on the 1990s list Madden had to be #1, although it's improved so much more since about 2003 than it did right off the bat. I'm also guessing that it's the title of the article "most influential" as opposed to "best". The Madden NFL series has seriously kicked most other sports games well out of commission.
Ten Best- and Worst-Performing Stocks of 2009
Given the recession-marred year and the battering the U.S. stock market took in 2008, it should come as little surprise that many of the current year's best-performing stocks are comeback stories.
Also to be expected, perhaps, is the heavy presence of financial companies among 2009's worst performers, given the sector's ongoing troubles that resulted in the failures of more than 130 U.S. bank and thrift failures during the year.
The Best:
Ford Motor Co. up 309%
The auto maker in December reported it sold many more U.S. vehicles in November versus a year ago on strong demand for its fuel-efficient vehicles.Expedia Inc. up 210%
The online travel site is viewed as well-positioned to continue to swipe market share from traditional competitors....and 8 others here
The Worst:
Citigroup Inc. down 52%
The banking giant's surprisingly low pricing of a mid-December offer illustrated just how wary investors were about Citi's ability to return to fiscal health.Eastman Kodak Co. off 40%
The company in early December said it would sell its business that develops screen technology to end a long-standing dispute as it shifts from its fading traditional camera and film business into digital technology....and 8 others here
10 Great Organic Smells
With all the perfumes and body sprays on the market, there is no excuse not to smell nice. Everyone tries to impress a possible mate by smelling good. The problem with perfumes and body sprays is that they contain all kinds of chemicals that can be harmful to you and to the ecosystem. But, with a new line of all organic products, there are now organic perfumes and body sprays that contain no chemical enhancements, just straight up oils from plants mixed together to make you smell nice.
Sandalwood
This term is used for a bunch of fragrant woods. They can be found in Australia and Hawaii. The oils used from the sandalwood plants will provide perfumes with a woody smell. It can be used as a base to many other oils to enhance their fragrance.
Lavender
There are 39 different species of this plant. This plant can be used in dried flower arrangement, potpourri, and harvested for its oils to be put into perfumes, body sprays, soaps and shampoos. It can also be used for aromatherapy, as a part of a recipe, and medical use.
Continue to the rest..
Via
Other scents I particularly love (not necessarily organic): Plumeria, coffee, freshly-cut grass, clean laundry in the drier, my wife, meat on the BBQ, cinnamon..
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Mike Portnoy - The Count of Tuscany
From Dream Theater's Black Clouds and Silver Linings
My Christmas gift to you!
My Christmas gift to you!
Friday, December 25, 2009
Thursday, December 24, 2009
A Few Quickies
Miss Cellania must be all-knowing because she saved me a ton of time by posting The Sports Links of the Decade. Incredible..
Hang On, Dammit!! - Simply a must-see from Wirecutter at Knuckledraggin My Life Away.
Some great reading in this post by Skip over at Website Wednesdays: Every misconception imaginable: The Book of General Ignorance
Disclaimer: This one could take you all day
Hang On, Dammit!! - Simply a must-see from Wirecutter at Knuckledraggin My Life Away.
Some great reading in this post by Skip over at Website Wednesdays: Every misconception imaginable: The Book of General Ignorance
Christmas: The Trans-Siberian Orchestra
No doubt you've heard the main 3 or 4 they play every Christmas. But you probably haven't heard these:
Especially for You
Especially for You
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
12 Dynamic Bathroom & Bedroom Design & Décor Ideas
We spend at least one-third of our lives in our bedrooms and bathrooms, yet the design of these essential domestic spaces is nearly always an afterthought. But smart, sleek design can transform an otherwise bland room into a relaxing space that packs in as many features as possible without visual clutter. Instant lofts, bedroom tree houses and bathrooms that unfold like origami to reveal their components are just a few of the 12 beautiful bathroom and bedroom design and décor ideas that follow.
High-Tech Futuristic Bathroom Design
At first glance, this bathroom appears to be incredibly simple – a ceiling-mounted showerhead and a slatted wooden floor in a large, empty room. But there’s much more to this elegant, minimalist space than meets the eye. The floor opens up to reveal what lies literally just beneath the surface – a set of benches on either side of a luxurious tub.Hanging Bedroom in a Box
Those living in small spaces have to be creative about dividing up the space, but putting up screens only gets you so far. This ingenious solution is an entire loft bedroom that securely hangs from the ceiling, providing a sleeping space that makes use of high ceilings. Positioned as it is within this particular room, the loft still leaves enough room for adults to stand up beneath it, but is low enough to easily walk into from the elevated portion of the space. The back surface of the loft could even be used as a movie screen.Sleek, Luxurious Black Bathroom
Who says bathrooms have to be filled with cold, shiny white surfaces? This bathroom design goes against the grain with exotic dark hardwoods and the curving, ergonomic shapes of Morphosis high-end bathroom fixtures. The design of the steam shower in particular is anything but the expected, with a sloping wooden seat that’s both comfortable and beautiful.Continue reading..
Via
Leaves
These two pictures were taken today. You'd never have any idea that I raked leaves for an hour and, along with a little help from both my wife and mom, filled 6 huge bags with leaves. (Click to enlarge..)
Isn't this supposed to take place during "autumn"??
The worst part about it? The tree's not done!
Isn't this supposed to take place during "autumn"??
The worst part about it? The tree's not done!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Golf on Christmas Morning
Four old-timers were playing their weekly game of golf when one one of them commented on how nice it would be to wake up on Christmas morning, roll out of bed - and without an argument, go directly to the golf course to meet his buddies for 18 holes. All three of his friends unanimously agree, “Let’s do it! We’ll make it a priority, figure out a way and meet here early Christmas morning!”
A few weeks later it’s Christmas morning - and there all are standing next to each other on the first tee box. One friend exclaims “Boy this game cost me a fortune! I had to buy my wife such a huge diamond ring, she can’t even take her eyes off it.”
Another friend says, “I spent a ton, too. My wife is at home planning the cruise I gave her. She was up to her eyeballs in brochures.”
The third friend replies “Well, my wife is at home admiring her new car… reading the manual.”
Silence from the fourth guy.
The other three friends in the group look puzzled, while the final guy in the foursome is staring at them like they must have lost their minds. “I can’t believe you all went to such and expense for a round of golf. I just woke up, slapped her on the butt and said, ‘Well babe, Merry Christmas! Golf or sex, what’s it gonna be?” and she said “Take a sweater.”
Via
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