I originally posted about this a couple of years ago but it’s funny enough that I thought I would revisit it.
Or click directly right here. Make sure you have the sound turned on. Watch and listen, there’s a whole bunch of little stories going on in that globe. But the real fun comes when you give it a shake…
When I first saw this I thought it was some kind of CGI. The relative proportions are beyond absurd. But I did some checking and, not only is this real, but this is actually a fairly “normal” (!) example of the waves that these folks take on.
The human animal does not evolve very quickly. Evolution in the normal sense simply doesn’t work that way, generations are required to effect change. Also, we’ve arrested our development in many arenas due to our social and moral interventions. Yet, mentally, we seem to keep moving forward at a staggering pace that draws us physically along with it.
Some of the extreme sports, however, put the lie to the term “physical limits”. When I was younger and saw some of the more spectacular skateboarders I figured that we’d pretty much already pushed the envelope to the very edge of human physical capability. But every year I see that we are accomplishing feats of skill and stamina that, were they not being done right now, right in front of me, I would have said were not possible.
You cannot overestimate what human drive and ingenuity can accomplish. Try to set a limit on what can be done and you will be shown to be a short-sighted nay sayer. Our species simply will not be constrained.
Yech!
I can honestly say I’ve only ever had one person throw up in a plane while I was flying. It was while I was still taking lessons and we took a passenger along since she’d expressed an interest in checking out the flying thing.
The nice thing about air-sickness is, once you actually finish heaving, you feel fine afterward. We went out and had lunch afterward.
Now this video takes your air-sickness scenario and goes over the top. I have no idea how the camera was mounted to capture this but it is very stable.
If you’re *really* squeamish you should probably give this a pass, but otherwise it’s great for a laugh!
About a year ago (November 2006) I picked up a laptop for Mich from MicroCenter. The guy I usually deal with has always been trustworthy in the past so I worked with him to pick up this new machine.
I didn’t want to spend a *lot* of money on this laptop, according to Michelle her existing (200 MHz) laptop was fine. But I knew that the browsing experience on that old machine was glacial and unsatisfying. So we compromised and went for one of those “back-to-school” type of machines.
We settled on an Acer 3680 for which I also shelled out for an additional Gigabyte of memory to ensure that it would be as fast as a lower end machine could be. Al, the MicroCenter guy, practically begged me to not buy this machine. He told me the warranty was such that you needed to send it to Acer yourself if you have problems so if I *was* going to buy this box, I should at least get the extended warranty so that MicroCenter would deal with problems and the manufacturer on my behalf.
The machine was a night-and-day improvement for Michelle’s experience, nicer screen much more responsive, the new battery actually worked (the old machine was a sell-off from my old company and I got it with a pretty much dead battery… but the price was right and it was never intended to be mobile.).
Heh, it seems I should have listened to Al. The Machine’s motherboard failed sometime in late April 2007 and they were good enough to do some basic troubleshooting over the phone and quickly agree that we should ship it to them and they would replace it.
We sent off the machine in late May (hey, life happens) and they were true to their word. A few weeks later the repaired machine arrived and we were right as rain again.
Man, a couple of months ago – after one of those 2nd Tuesday M$ updates, the machine rebooted but did not come back up. Complaining about a missing hard drive – never a good sign. Using the old 1 inch drop rule the machine corrected itself but I knew this was going to grow into an issue soon. Sure enough a couple of weeks later the machine failed again. Opening and reseating the hard drive worked until the next reboot at which point NOTHING I did helped.
So the machine is winging its way back to Acer in Texas again. I’ll credit them with pretty good customer service as far as addressing these failures, but I am concerned about modestly-used hardware having so many failures. I’m more concerned about what to expect once the warranty period ends (oh.. next week).
I just wanted to toss out this cautionary missive. I cannot speak for anybody else, but I’ve personally owned 3 laptops and probably 6 or 7 desktop computers not to mention the ones that have been in my care for work and I seldom have failures. Prior to this I’ve had a video card fail on a Dell machine near the end of it’s life as my primary machine (for which their dismal customer service on a $25 part cost them my business for my next machine) and a couple of power supplies on an NEC box for which their repair and replacement service was outstanding.
But I’m not used to defective products. I own two Honda cars. A 1995 Civic and a 1997 Odyssey. I do basic routine maintenance on them, major services and such. I also make sure that their braking systems and tires are kept in top-notch condition – rule 1 for cars: always be able to stop – but for both of these vehicles the worst thing that’s happened is that one of my Odyssey electric windows (rear left passenger side) needed to be repaired. This is a level of quality that I’ve come to expect from every corner of my life and I am significantly disappointed if products do not clear that bar.
I do not repatronize merchants that do not live up to their claims or my expectations. I vote with my dollars. I am willing to pay a little more up front for less hassle down the line. And I will evangelize anybody who I feel has done right by me.
**Update** I wrote the above before sending the Acer off to Texas for repair. I just wanted to report that the machine was returned in working order (albeit with all the data and programs missing from the hard drive). So so far so good. Hopefully, if we treat the machine with especial kindness it may last through my hoped-for lifespan of 3 years…
Man, do I ever enjoy Bruce Willis’ John McClane character in the Die Hard movies.
This song, which I first heard probably a year or so ago, has been buzzing around in my head for a few days now. I just rented the “Live Free or Die Hard” video from Blockbuster and really expect (hope?) it will be satisfying.
Anyway, for your listening and viewing pleasure. I may have to go rent the other movies now!
OK, so I realize that looking at other folks’ pictures is not always the most exciting thing in the world, but maybe you’ve got some free time on your hands! 🙂
Here is the photo album from our Charleston, South Carolina trip if you’re interested:
We’re here in beautiful Charleston, South Carolina eating breakfast at “Joseph’s”. The food portions are generous and the atmosphere convivial. There is a live band playing sax, clarinet and guitar about 15 feet from us.
Here is a link to the growing album. I’m trying to blog more or less real-time.
We had a bit of a SNAFU when we arrived last night, they assigned us to a room that had plenty of space, but few amenities:
There were a couple of other hiccoughs but I used the “comments” section on their internal website and the manager called us this morning to apologize and is moving us to a new room. I’ll let you know if things are great now.
We met up with the Naidus in Savannah over Thanksgiving. We spent a couple of days at the “Westin Savannah Harbor“. Hint, if you’ll be spending a lot of time in your room, shell out the extra $30 a night and get the River view. The golf course view is OK, except it’s really the “parking lot, marsh, roadway *then* golf course view”. 🙂 No worries for us since we spent so little daylight time in the room but it *does* explain why there were no images of that view on their web site.
Check out the pictures here:
Largely the place was a ghostland for Thanksgiving. I was *very* surprised. The River Street that I was expecting is completely packed, you know tourists in the sidewalk, kids in their parent’s cars cruising up and down the boulevard. So we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Since we arrived later in the day we were looking for a place to eat right away, but most places were either closed, or their kitchens were closed.
Fortunately, a friend at work told me about
Kevin Barry’s (Irish) Pub. They were open until the wee hours (at least *much* later than we were going to be up), but they had some great live music – Irish songs, of course.
We ended up at the Bacon Park Golf course before heading home. Not one of my best games, but I’ve been unable to practice much lately at the driving range…
Overall a great trip and a nice diversion. We only spent the Thursday and Friday there so we still had the rest of the weekend available for getting the Christmas decorations culled (still haven’t set those up yet!).
If you enjoyed Jill’s song you’ll probably enjoy this tongue in cheek offering from TED talks. This one about Global Warming. The first 25 seconds of TED credits are always a little much but the content of ANY TED talk is worth it. I subscribe to both the video and audio TED feeds and heartily recommend them to anybody. They cover a breadth of topics that are sure to have an appeal for anybody with an interest in anything…
