Here’s a 5-minute video showing what happens when a laptop battery ignites: It sets off a chain reaction, where successive battery cells ignite, each one releasing more heat and increasingly big jets of flame (up to 6 feet high). Amazing and scary.… Read the rest
Month: November 2006 (Page 2 of 3)
This is kind of cool: TextMarks is a service that lets you create your own custom SMS quick-response codes. People enter the code and send it to the TextMark short code (41411), and then they get the text that you specify, in return.… Read the rest
Memo to Britney: SMS is no way to break up with the father of your children.… Read the rest
Not because of my bluegrass banjo-pickin’ talent, but because I’ve just been selected to go take part in The Climate Project’s next training session, Dec. 1-3.
Along with about 200 other volunteers, I’m going to get trained by Al Gore, so that I can go out and give presentations on the global climate crisis and what people can do about it.… Read the rest
Kevan Atteberry says he’s the guy who designed Clippy, the animated paperclip in Office. I wonder who designed Einstein?… Read the rest
This morning the poll workers in San Mateo offered me a choice of voting on a traditional paper ballot, or using their one electronic voting machine: an E-Slate system from Hart Intercivic. After looking at the machine and being assured that I’d have a chance to review a printed record, I chose the E-Slate.… Read the rest
For the past year I’ve been toting around a USB drive that has a folder full of portable applications, such as Thunderbird and Firefox. That way I can run these applications (with all of my data) on any machine I plug the key into.… Read the rest
Ever notice those “Free Speech Zones” that the authorities put up outside political conventions, trade summits, embassies, and basically anywhere else someone might feel like expressing an opinion? What’s up with that? Last I checked, the whole country was supposed to be a “free speech zone.”… Read the rest
Google’s newish Blog Search is a handy way to keep track of the “buzz” about a particular blog, in addition to posts from that blog itself. Just go to blogsearch.google.com and type the URL of your blog into the box. The resulting search results include posts from your blog, as well as other bloggers’ posts that link to your site.… Read the rest
Clara, last night: “Daddy, do you know what the best part of Halloween is?”
“No, Clara, what’s that?”
“The part where the candy goes into your bucket.”
She confirmed that she likes that part even better than the part where you actually eat the candy.… Read the rest