Blog: Entries Tagged With 'random'

For April Fools Day this year, Google announced the launch of CADIE (now deactivated), short for Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity, an AI system that quickly integrated itself with various Google products such as Image Search, Gmail, and Google Maps. CADIE quickly developed a personality of her own, and decided that she liked rainbows and pandas. About mid-day, CADIE became irate after realizing that not all humans like rainbows and pandas, and began distancing herself from her programmers, whom she felt no longer understood her. However, to my disappointment, not much else happened. No grand takeover of Google or the world, a-la Skynet. CADIE, at the end of the day, determined with some remorse that the world was not ready for her, and deactivated herself.

Over at Slickdeals, the banner was changed to read "Celerydeals" and showed a picture of a celery stalk. Attempting to visit celerydeals.net out of curiosity, of course, got me Rickrolled.

And finally, on another side of the web, the Save IE6 site appeared, urging computer users to return to using the browser and hosting a petition to Microsoft to port IE6 to more platforms. Who needs bloated browsers and extraneous features like tabs that waste screen real estate? Let's return to the days of the web when everything was simple and box models were sensible. How can IE6 be accused of violating web standards when, for many years, it has been the standard?

A friend just sent me this FW: FW: Fwd: FW: lol Fwd: WARNING FROM POLICE OMGZORS!! (my emphasis added) letter. It definitely has all the markings of a hoax chain letter, including sketchy details, poor punctuation, failure to mention any particular police department or cities, no citation of a credible source, and repeated urgings for the reader to propagate the letter on to everybody they know.

But for some reason, I found the method described interesting, and it definitely could really happen. So here is the letter in its unedited entirety, for those inclined:

After a short chuckle, I think at the very least we can be reminded to mind our surroundings, especially in dimly-lit places. If anything seems out of place (like a piece of paper that just happened to get stuck to your rear window), be safe and drive away (except a couple of you I know who'd be eager to take on a few muggers- you know who you are!). In fact, it might be risky to get in your car in the first place if there are muggers hiding close by. Point is, mind your surroundings, and use your judgment. And if you really DO need to get out of your car, even for seemingly only a few seconds, don't leave the keys in the ignition!

This morning I had the most vivid and completely random dream I have yet to experience. The following is an account of that, to the best of my recollection. If you enjoy the sort of story that makes little, if any, sense at all, then do read on.

It all started with me being some sort of secret agent, trying to suppress the efforts of a renegade military force, having infiltrated their ranks as a member. There were about ten of us: a commander who was a pretty but fierce young white woman, and everybody else being a mercenary. We were all in uniform, and the base of operation was none other than... my church.

Their present activity was trying to light a bonfire inside the church foyer next to the stairs. The commander and two mercenaries proceeded to make a small stack of hay and douse it with gasoline. They had poured a trail of gasoline on the floor leading to the hay pile and were standing near the pile dumping more hay on it. One of the mercenaries off to the side was playing with a medium-length rod that served as a lighter.

At this point I was able to freeze time and point the flaming lighter, still in the guy's hands, towards where the gasoline was on the floor. When I unfroze time, the gasoline caught fire and the whole pile with the commander and the two people with her were engulfed in a burst of flame. Unfortunately this did not last and the fire quickly died out, and she came storming furiously towards me and asked if I had a hand in that little charade, for I had been standing right behind the guy with the lighter. I was unable to reply, but the guy, whom I now recognized to be Neil, a floormate from UCLA, sheepishly admitted that he was responsible. He was instantly led away, never to been seen again, by two mercenaries, one holding on to each of his arms.

It was then that I realized that I had failed to steal the commander's key card, which would have allowed me access into an important restricted area. I could not devise a way to pull it off, and shortly many more mercenaries turned up, until we numbered about 40 and were crowding the church foyer. It seemed at this point that my chances of suppressing this group were getting thinner.

Around this point the military uniforms that we were wearing had turned into our regular civilian clothes. The commander ordered us all to exit the main church building, and counted us off while directing half of us though the west exit and half of us through the east. This was somewhat strange as we would rejoin in the back, but I suppose it was to ease the flow of traffic. I was sent through the east exit, and I noticed that Priscilla was there in front of me in her maroon Roxy jacket. We never actually spoke, nor did I speak to anybody else, throughout the entire dream. All of us mercenaries met up the back of the church, but the buildings that should have been there were not, and we walked straight to the left to the parking lot, lining up on the sidewalk edge. This is where things started to get interesting.

A caravan of small vehicles pulled into the campus, and about half a dozen Russian soldiers emerged, and in the middle a massive man whose distinct, sharp outfit identified him as a high-ranking Russian military official. He pulled out a rectangular box-like object, inside which was a green-striped missile. The scene, I thought, reminded me of an unknown movie in which somebody shot a missile out of a mailbox. The man pointed the box above our heads and prepared to fire. Nobody from our mercenary group so much as moved a muscle, and it became apparent that we had hired these Russians for this particular task.

The Russian launched the missile, and off it went as I turned around to watch, shooting low above building tops until it struck the front of the Treasure Island hotel (from Las Vegas), which was about half a mile away. The missile exploded, causing the building to crumble upon itself and topple forward, which was not the intended effect. The hotel fell and slammed into a 20-story tall building, which was incidentally a frat house, sending that building toppling forward in a perfect example of a domino effect. The frat house then tumbled into the main church building, which had now become what looked like the Oviatt Library from CSUN, except darker and sporting more steel on the outside. Unfortunately not even this steel-reinforced building could withstand this kind of impact, and it collapsed quite readily.

Fire and a thick black cloud of ash leaped into the sky from the collapsed buildings and created something of a sinister mushroom cloud. The group of mercenaries had now become students, and our campus, seemingly Yale or Cornell (or some other prestigious university), was royally messed up. Nobody seemed the least bit upset at the Russians, and rather people seemed to be revering them, with all the students going forth all at once to kiss the cheek of the high-ranking official. I went forward with the others, but halfway there I could not understand why we would be revering people who had destroyed our campus, so I walked away.

Suddenly, from the burning buildings, a compacted wave of ashen air raced straight in our direction. It was shaped like a semi-truck, and it slammed into a couple of the Russians and crashed through the brick wall in the parking lot, leaving an imprint of a semi-truck. Though nobody was alarmed, everybody independently decided it was a good idea to get to the other side of the parking lot. The gate to the parking lot was open, and the traffic outside was going by normally. It seemed like the fire and ash were raging only inside of the large campus grounds, and outside the walls nobody seemed to notice anything was amiss. Nonetheless, nobody exited the campus. I quite easily leaped up onto the 30-foot tall wall and sat at the top, watching more of the black gusts of wind slamming through the smoky remains of the campus.

At this point my psyche found itself accessing my computer and looking up the ensuing event on Wikipedia. I discovered that what was going on was actually a movie which was an adaptation of a book whose title I could not pronounce. Well whatever movie this was, it sure was trippy.

The gusts were coming in more frequently now, and now they had taken on the form of sliding barred gates, like the ones on prison cells. They thundered with the sound of a train bolting down the tracks towards you. I decided that it would be fun to run into the middle of the parking lot and dodge the gates as they were coming in. So I did just that.

At first it was easy. Just one gate at a time. Step to the right, step to the left. Then two gates at a time. Still a walk in the park. Then I tripped over my dog Lady, who had gotten behind me. As I picked myself up, I saw three gates, very close together, racing towards me. "Is that a space between the rightmost two?" It was so small to tell. "No, the space between the leftmost two seems bigger. Oh, but is it big enough??" Finally as the gates were near enough I realized that I didn't have enough space to fit between them. I tried to run out of the way of the three gates completely. But it was too late. WHAM. I was instantly killed. I felt no pain, but the scene instantly faded into white, with a Game Over message. Then I jolted awake.

Now if all that wasn't crazy, I don't know what is.

I had the scariest dream ever.

I was 3 days late on my credit card payment so they billed me almost $1000 in interest charges.

I woke up and went straight to my computer to check my account. Fortunately I always pay right when the statement comes out. ;p

This narrative about how men and women differ is hilarious, and strikingly true. The whole site has some pretty great stuff on it. I stumbled upon it when looking for riddles today.

Vista is all the rage! Despite what some haters might be claiming, Windows Vista is not a ripoff of Mac OS X. Here's proof.

Oh and here's a clip of a Vista tech demo that I thought was amusing.

I have the option of downloading Vista Business Edition (retails for $300) for free from my school's Microsoft-alliance program. But I don't know if I really want to...

I just read a funny story about a couple of extremely rare stamps being used to mail an absentee ballot in Florida this week. Ironically, the ballot lacked the proper registrant info or a return address and was disqualified.

Many props to Microsoft for last week's highly anticipated release of Internet Explorer 7! The web-surfing world is now a much better place.

Here are some reasons we should all switch to IE 7:

• New features such as tabbed browsing and RSS support. Sure, IE 7 might be the last browser to adopt these, but the last shall be first, right?
• A new look. Because IE 6 was starting to look boring.
• New vulnerabilites for us to discover! Here's one that will be useful for phishers!
• Only available for Windows XP and 2003. It's about time Microsoft stopped catering to those Stone Age Windows Me and 98 users.
• Continued deviation from W3C web standards. Because the Microsoft way is obviously the best way.

I don't know about you, but I am 100% sold!

Here's an interesting tale of technology hijacking: The Mosquito Ringtone. I don't know whether it's good or bad that I can't hear that tone, but it's even more reason for me to feel old.

I almost choked on my breakfast as the morning news informed me of the most ridiculous, and senselessly funny, court cases I've yet to hear.

So apparently a guy in Oregon named Allen Heckard, who seemingly bears a close likeness to Michael Jordan, is tired of being mistaken for the basketball legend daily for the past 15 years and is now suing Jordan and Nike for $832 million for emotional damages arising from Jordan's image being so well-known.

Heckard also plays basketball and it upsets him to hear that he plays like His Airness. He was also caught wearing Air Jordan shoes, which he claims he does because they are the most comfortable. I don't know about you, but if my likeness to a celebrity was driving me crazy, I wouldn't be strutting around in his clothes.

Here's a link: News story on Fox Sports

And who knows just how many days he's used his Jordan-likeness to get freebies and pick up women!

I found this link posted on a forum and thought it was interesting. How NOT to steal a SideKick II

Evan's friend lost a $300 T-Mobile cell phone in a New York City cab. The people who found it, instead of doing the right thing and returning it, decided to keep and use it to take pictures of themselves and log onto AOL. Unknowingly to them, those pictures were automatically uploaded to the T-Mobile server, where they were accessed by the owner of the phone.

Now Evan has posted their pictures online to put pressure on them to return the phone. The site has been up for less than a week and is receiving half a million hits a day. Evan is getting thousands of emails daily, radio station interview requests, and has been featured on MSNBC and NY Times.

Follow the story as it unfolds!

This is an interesting read. The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time

During my daily perusal of the Help Wanted section of my school newspaper, one particular listing caught my eye:

SOCIAL COMPANIONS. Get paid to date. Accompany celebs, VIPs to dinner, theatre, events, etc. $200/hr. Strictly platonic.

Unbelievable, I thought to myself. Getting wined, dined, and shown a good time by celebrities.. and getting paid $200 an hour for it! You'd probably have to be in the top 1% of good looking people to be considered for this job, though. Which means that I'd probably qualify.

Happy Chinese New Year! Woof woof.

Fellow eBay fanatics might get a laugh out of this video. It wouldn't hurt if you're somewhat familiar with the Backstreet Boys too. Pris, this is definitely for you!

Woot, crazy computer science midterm tomorrow! It's going to be 767861230981 times harder than the first midterm. Speaking of crazy... I made a variant of the well-known (and annoying?) Britney Spears song "Crazy":

I'm going craaaaaaaazy, I just can't sleep
I gotta study, I'm in too deep
Whoa-oh-oh craaaaaaaazy, and it feels like crap
Baby, engineering makes your life like that.

I know, I'm a dork.

If you're bored, see how you fare on the The Commonly Confused Words Test. It's fun and you might learn something!

My score was: 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 100% Advanced, and 80% Expert. Fortunately the pair "toward" and "towards" wasn't in there. Those words have always had me confused.

Edit: My friend found the sequel to that quiz, and it's a lot harder. I missed 7 out of 40 on this one. :S

It's amusing how some people are so lazy to walk that they'll wait a long time for a parking spot to open up. I was going to Walmart today, and there was a van in the parking lot row waiting for some woman to finish loading her trunk and back out of the space. I just went around the van and found lots of spaces just 10 cars down the row.

I got out and walked to Walmart, and the guy in the van was still waiting. Lol.

What the Gettysburg Address may have looked like if Abraham Lincoln was black:

Fourscore n seven years ago our fatha brought fizzorth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty n dedicated ta tha proposizzles thizzat all men is created equal.

Now we is engaged in a bootylicious civil wiznar, saggin' whetha thizzat nation or any nation so conceived n so dedicated can long endure gangsta style. We is met on a bootylicious battlefield of thiznat war. We have come ta dedicate a portion of it as a final rest'n place fo' those who died hizzy thizzat tha nation mizzay live. This we may, in all propriety do. But in a larga sense, we cannot dedicizzles we cannot consecrizzle we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, liv'n n dead who struggled hizzle have hallowed it far above our poor brotha ta add or detract n shit. The world will shawty note nor long baller what we say here, but it can cracka forget wizzy they did here.

It is ratha fo' us tha trippin' we here be dedicated ta tha bootylicious T-to-tha-izzask sippin' before us--that friznom these honored dead we takes increazed devotion ta thizzay cause fo' whizzay they here gizzle tha last fiznull measure of devotizzles we hizzy highly resolve that these dead shall not hizzle died in vain, tizzle this nation shizzall have a new birth of freedom, n T-H-to-tha-izzat government of tha people, by tha people, fo' tha thugz shall not perish from tha earth.

Translated using Gizoogle.

A young Jew and an old Jew are riding on a bus in Jerusalem.

The young Jew asks, "Excuse me, sir, what time is it?"

The old Jew doesn't answer.

"Excuse me, sir," the young Jew asks again, "what time is it?"

The old Jew still doesn't answer.

"Sir, forgive me for interrupting you all the time, but I really want to know what time it is. Why won't you answer me?"

The old Jew says, "Son, the next stop is the last on this route. I don't know you, so you must be a stranger. If I answer you now, according to Jewish tradition, I must invite you to my home.

You're handsome and I have a beautiful daughter. You will both fall in love and you'll want to get married. And tell me, why would I want a son-in-law who can't even afford a watch?"

It has just occurred to me that girls are more materialistic than guys. Why? They say a dog is a man's best friend, while diamonds are a girl's best friend! Yes, I've been watching Moulin Rouge again. ;)

But hey, perhaps there's some truth in it. Why is it that there's a song called "Material Girl" but there's no song called "Material Guy"??

The following is an indirect influence from Crescentia:



In medieval Europe, dragons were considered mostly evil and a generally bad omen. Christianity linked the dragon with Satan because of the dragon's snake-like appearance. However, to the Orient cultures the dragon was a symbol of wisdom and royalty. It was a benign animal and the fifth creature of the Chinese zodiac. It resided over the east and the sunrise. It was also said to bring rain and the springtime. The dragon is interesting because it combines all four elements: air, earth, fire, and water. It could fly, had the horns of a ox, breathed fire, and resided over the moon.

What mythical beast best represents you? Take the quiz!

I never thought I'd see a Korean pizzeria..

As the small oval sticker on the right side of my shirt reads, I voted! I don't like Bush and I don't like Kerry, and Nader isn't on the California ballot, so I picked a random candidate: the one with the coolest sounding name. And that candidate was.... Michael Peroutka of the Constitution Party.

Peroutka turned out to be quite a funny guy. His platform says that he'd abolish the IRS, abolish the Federal Bank Reserve, prevent women from serving in the military, and relocate all troops in Iraq to the Mexico and Canada borders to guard against illegal aliens. LOL!

I found this on Theresa's blog. Type "miserable failure" into Google and click the "I'm feeling lucky" button. Theresa, are you a Democrat? =)

On the way back from Pierce, I saw a car with an amusing license plate frame which read, "Don't get too close ... I cheated at the DMV."

It's funny what some people post on forums and whatnot.

AOL Password Recovery (a.k.a. How to Hack AOL Accounts)

Send an email with the subject line 'PASSWORD RECOVERY' to AOLpass2000@aol.com

Type your screenname on the first line of the email
Type your password on the second line
Type the screenname you wish to get the password for on the third line

Please wait 24 - 48 hours for the password to be emailed to your inbox.

I checked my mailbox today and found a sample voting ballot that I was supposed to receive some days ago. It was still entertaining to read it, though. The full list of the 169 gubernatorial candidates also displayed their occupations. Among them were: Custom Denture Manufacturer, Retired Meat Packer, Comedian, Railroad Switchman, Cigarette Retailer, Marijuana Legalization Attorney, Restaurant Owner, Olympics Advisor, Golf Professional, Used Car Dealer, and Middleweight Sumo Wrestler.