Online Scavenger Hunt

For most of us the internet has become a huge part of our daily lives and is only going to get bigger. Internet research skills are therefore becoming more necessary than preferred to get ahead. The ability to find information within an infinite range of subjects using the internet as a tool is an invaluable skill, asset, and privilege to which no other generation before has had anything comparable. Most people don't realize how extremely valuable having so much information (or having access to it) can be.

For this reason, I am in the process of designing an online research competition, i.e. scavenger hunt. It will be open to all who want to participate and there will be a prize of a gift certificate to any (online) store/site the winner chooses. The value of this prize is dependent upon the level of interest and/or participation in the competition. I will start the prize at $20 but if public interest exceeds my expectations I will be inclined to raise the stakes.

The hunt will not involve or require any illegal actions by me or the participants, but it won't be like the scavenger hunts you did in grade school. It will require a high level of divergent thinking...and internet familiarity would obviously be an asset. It will be strictly web-based and involve internet sites and applications, all of which are and will be free and accessible by anyone.

I look forward to hosting this event and hope you will participate and invite your friends.

All pertinent information can be found at ResearchCompetition.blogspot.com

Things I am Selling on Craigslist

These items I am currently selling on Craigslist in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I am willing to ship everything except the monitor to anywhere in the lower 48 if anyone wants to buy.

http://tulsa.craigslist.org/sys/2176353974.html

Video Editing/Converting Hardware & Software

http://tulsa.craigslist.org/ele/2176374541.html

Walkie Talkies

http://tulsa.craigslist.org/pho/2176368207.html

Canon Video Camera

http://tulsa.craigslist.org/sys/2176326143.html

!7" Flat Panel LCD Monitor

http://tulsa.craigslist.org/sys/2176305600.html

Computer Accessories

iPhone Security Tip

We all know that about the iPhone's passcode lock feature which enables the user to set a 4-digit number which then must be entered prior to accessing the phone. This is a good security feature for people who have sensitive information on their phone such as bank account accessibility, passwords, or things they don't want their significant other to see. But for some a 4-digit code isn't enough security; while others think 4-digits is too much of a hassle to enter every time they use their phone.

That's where the Simple Passcode mode comes in. The default 4-digit passcode is what you get when the simple mode is enabled. It only allows combinations of 0-9. However, if you turn it off (on the same page where you create your passcode; Settings->General->Passcode Lock->Simple Passcode: Off), you are then allowed to use any of the 146 unique characters within the iphone keyboard to make a passcode with an unknown maximum length (longest passcode tested was 50 characters long). What's so good about this is that with more possible characters, the passcode becomes exponentially stronger, even with fewer digits, i.e.:

Number of characters available:
0-9 = 10 characters
a-z = 26 characters
A-Z = 26 characters
Diacritic Letters = 31 characters
Symbols = 53 characters
Total = 146 characters

Probability = Pⁿ, where P = Possible outcomes per digit and n = # of digits.

Simple Passcode: ON = 10⁴ = 10,000 possible combinations

Simple Passcode: OFF = 146⁴ = 454,371,856 possible combinations

Of course this amount raises exponentially with each additional character you add. And for the lazy people who don't feel like entering 4 numbers every time they use they're phone, even with a length of only 2 characters the passcode is still twice as strong: 146² = 21,316.

"The Town" Deserves a Razzie

I finally watch the Ben Affleck project "The Town". I was kinda iffy about it before because the trailer looked decent but I was afraid it might suck. Well...it sucked.

The dialogue was laughable:

["Every pewee in town knows what an FBI rear antenna looks like. So in the future you guys need try to be slick, be slicker than a six year old!"]

["This is the not-fucking-around crew so get me something that looks like a print because this not-fucking-around thing is about to go both ways!"]
["I'm puttin this whole town in my rear-view!"]

Jon Hamm, who played FBI Agent Frawley, was surprisingly horrible. His scenes were not believable at all and made me think I was watching a reenactment on Unsolved Mysteries or something. This was definitely a change for the worse from his lax tv dramas.

Finally the story was kinda boring and mostly unoriginal. (Bank robber wants to go clean for a girl but is talked into one last big job which is the one that finally goes wrong.)

There were some positive aspects to the film though. The action scenes were well made and choreographed. Definitely original but not groundbreaking.

And lastly, they obviously hired a superb trailer editor who made this film look good enough to pay to watch.

Damn you, Ben Affleck.

2 Girls 1 Cup

So I finally saw the infamous 2girls1cup video. My first reaction: "I must have the wrong video, everyone I talked to said it involved two hot chicks. Well, no, they're doing everything everyone described...but they're ugly...so who cares?!?"

Custom Painting My Coffee Table

A while back i had an idea to give my boring coffee table a paint job. I wanted it to be the James Bond sketch from the poster for From Russia With Love. The easiest way I knew to do that was with a stencil. Since there wasn't a stencil already made for the job, I made my own using GIMP. The rest of the project can be followed in the photos below.

Since I didn't have a large scale printer, I used my projector to display the
image on the table so I could create a stencil.

I traced the image ironically onto another James Bond poster.

Detail of stencil. Notice the orange highlights where I chose to put
"bridges" to connect the islands.

I sanded and painted my brown coffee table white and later painted the legs
and underside flat black.

The painted table with stencil attached, pre-paint.

Flat black.

Results 1.

Results 2.

Text results. Notice the red hammer & sickle I added to match the original. I cut
out a tiny stencil for it while cutting out text.

Final piece.

Online Strobe Light

I sometimes use my living room projector as a monitor for my laptop to stream movies I have on it...or just because its cool. I was wanting a strobe light for a party a while back when I thought to myself, "Hmm, I could really go for a hot dog right now."

After I had a hot dog I had a great idea that my projector could easily be turned into a massive strobe light. "Off to the internets for research!" I said with a dash...and found this site. Enjoy.

Strobe Light