I saw a Linux logo I liked on Google Images a while back, but all instances of it have been removed. I got tired of searching, so last night I hacked around in Photoshop and recreated it.

• 500 x 750 JPEG
• 500 x 750 PNG

So, we’ve been developing a slick cross-platform media framework to standardize or products on (proprietry, of course), and I couldn’t resist building an ASCII text renderer. It was surprisingly easy using our SDK and a free library called libcaca… seriously, that’s it’s name. It looks okay small, but of course it breaks down as you scale up. Anyways, now we can watch video using xterm via ssh… use case? Who cares!… it’s ASCII video

Okay, now the large size (video source: D1 MPEG-4 30 fps):

Okay, stories like THIS irritate me (emphasis mine):

Pittsburgh Public Schools officials say they want to give struggling children a chance, but the district is raising eyebrows with a policy that sets 50 percent as the minimum score a student can receive for assignments, tests and other work.

At the same time, they said, the 50 percent minimum gives children a chance to catch up and a reason to keep trying. If a student gets a 20 percent in a class for the first marking period, Ms. Pugh said, he or she would need a 100 percent during the second marking period just to squeak through the semester.

“We want to create situations where students can recover and not give up,” she said, adding a sense of helplessness can lead to behavior and attendance problems.

While some districts use “F” as a failing grade, the city uses an “E.”

“The ‘E’ is to be recorded no lower than a 50 percent, regardless of the actual percent earned. For example, if the student earns a 20 percent on a class assignment, the grade is recorded as a 50 percent,” said the memo from Jerri Lippert, the district’s executive director of curriculum…

This is just stupid! It lowers the value of a diploma and doesn’t prepare kids for real life… the harsh reality where people don’t care how you feel and performance is king. A quote by Albert Einstein in a RECENT POST of mine comes to mind:

“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the universe.”

Okay, this is classic… a parody on Tickle-Me-Elmo. It’s hilarious if you’re familiar with the Emo movement. Enjoy!

(requires Adobe Flash plugin… click HERE to watch it on YouTube)

I can’t make this stuff up…

A burglar who broke into a home just east of Fresno rubbed food seasoning over the body of one of two men as they slept in their rooms and then used an 8-inch sausage to whack the other man on the face and head before running out of the house, Fresno County sheriff’s deputies said Saturday.

More specifically, Pappy’s Seasoning was used.

…the piece of sausage used in the attack was discarded by the suspect and eaten by a dog.

Well, there goes the evidence.

Thanks to Steve and Scott for the link.

I recently ran across a few quotes that I feel worth mentioning here. The first 3 relate to technology, and are noteworthy. The remaining ones deal with stupidity. They may seen overly negative to some, but they are intended to be read with an bit of humor.

Arthur C. Clark’s three “laws” of prediction:

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

The 3rd law was rephrased by NASA’s J. Porter Clark into one of my favorite quotes:

“Sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice.”

A corollary to this is called Hanlon’s razor:

“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”

And while I’m on the subject, here’s a great quote from Albert Einstein:

“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the universe.”

Finally, German General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord (what a name) shared these observations about the risks of human stupidity:

“I divide my officers into four classes; the clever, the lazy, the industrious, and the stupid. Each officer possesses at least two of these qualities. Those who are clever and industrious are fitted for the highest staff appointments. Use can be made of those who are stupid and lazy. The man who is clever and lazy however is for the very highest command; he has the temperament and nerves to deal with all situations. But whoever is stupid and industrious is a menace and must be removed immediately!”

The Sydney Morning Herald has a great piece on a computer malfunction that showed up during the 2008 Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing. The dreaded “Blue Screen of Death” (BSOD), familiar to Windows XP users, was projected on the stadium ceiling when one of the display computers crashed. Here’s one of the images:

It seems that Lenovo (the PC supplier for the games) chose Windows XP instead fo Vista. From the article:

Lenovo chairman, Yang Yuanqing, was quoted as saying that because of the complexity of the IT functions at the Games, it was decided to not use the the more recent operating system. “If it’s not stable, it could have some problems,” he said.

Ironically, former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates was in the crowd (he can run but he can’t hide).

Gizmodo has some more images and links to the incident.

We recently went and looked at the new Chevy Tahoes… of course with OnStar. Rob was nice enough to point out this video parody called BlondeStar

(requires Adobe Flash plugin… click HERE to watch it on YouTube)

On February 20th, 1991, during Operation Desert Storm, the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt was conducting flight operations in the Persian Gulf. Early that morning, the crew was preparing to launch an A-6 Intruder off the flight deck when things went terribly wrong for petty officer J.D. Bridges.

That morning, Mr. Bridges was training a new recruit. The recruit successfully secured the plane’s front landing gear to the catapult, and Mr. Bridges went in to verify the recruits work. However, in a momentary lapse in judgement, he got too close to the jet intake and was sucked inside. Luckily, he put his arm up which helped get him wedged into the intake for a few seconds… those few vital seconds it took for his helmet to damage the turbine blades after it was sucked off his head. His helmet caused the blades to slow down and lessen the pressure inside the intake long enough for the pilot to shut the engines down. Miraculously, he crawled out under his own power.

I’ve embedded 3 videos of the incident (in the following order): a quick clip of what happened, a longer segment from Spike TV, and a much more detailed segment from the History Channel. Enjoy!

(requires Adobe Flash plugin… click HERE to watch it on YouTube)

(requires Adobe Flash plugin… click HERE to watch it on YouTube)

This last video requires you to wait a few seconds for the person to change the channel

(requires Adobe Flash plugin… click HERE to watch it on YouTube)

For every major event in the news, there’s someone who believes it’s a conspiracy… so why would the attack on the Death Star be any different? The guys over at Debunking911 have a great satiracal piece about this monumental Star Wars event; it was an inside job.  It’s funniest if you (a) actually remember Star Wars, (b) are kind of a nerd, and (c) are familiar with “real” conspiracy theories (like the ones surrounding 9/11… video: 1, 2, 3, 4).

And so the Death Star conspiracy goes:

We’ve all heard the “official conspiracy theory” of the Death Star attack. We all know about Luke Skywalker and his ragtag bunch of rebels, how they mounted a foolhardy attack on the most powerful, well-defended battle station ever built. And we’ve all seen the video over, and over, and over, of the one-in-a-million shot that resulted in a massive chain reaction that not just damaged, but completely obliterated that massive technological wonder.

Like many, I was fed this story when I was growing up. But as I watched the video, I began to realize that all was not as it seemed. And the more I questioned the official story, the deeper into the rabbit hole I went.

Read the full story HERE.