Press "Enter" to skip to content

Day: 19 January 2003

Fun: Optical Illusions

January 19, 2003
1 Comment

[Optical Illusion]I came across this collection of optical illusions via A Girl’s Gotta Blog and have had a little bit of fun with them.

They’ve got (in the little flash presentation) the “count the black dots” illusion: there aren’t any black dots (only white ones) on the grid, but the eye is confused by the grey bars and the black squares, a picture of a face with the word “LIAR” hidden on it, a many legged elephant, the musician and the face illusion, the spiral confusion one and many others.

Take a look and have some fun. I warn you know, they can cause you to see things that aren’t necessarily there (like the black dots…)

Joke: Ford Cars Technical Support

January 19, 2003
1 Comment

Ford motor cars doesn’t have a “technical” support help line for people who don’t know how to drive or operate their cars – mainly because people don’t buy cars like they buy computers, but imagine they did….

Help Line: “Ford Cars Help Line, how can I help you?”
Customer: “I got in my car and closed the door and nothing happened!”
Help Line: “Did you put the key in the ignition slot and turn it?”
Customer: “What’s an ignition?”
Help Line: “It’s a starter motor that draws current from your battery and turns starts the engine.”
Customer: “Ignition? Motor? Battery? Engine? How come I have to know all these technical terms just to use my car?”

Continue ReadingJoke: Ford Cars Technical Support

Poll: What’s Your Movie Dream Car?

January 19, 2003
1 Comment

[My dream car is the BatMobile]According to the What’s Your Movie Dream Car? poll I found via One Rainy Day, my movie dream car is Batman’s BatMobile as I’m “Mysterious, Dark, Spandex-Laden and really really rich”. Shall we say it’s half to three-quarters correct 😉

I was tempted to select the obvious answers to get Austin Power’s Shaguar, but I went by my ‘gut instinct’. Personally, I would have liked to get the Back To The Future DeLorean, but 🙁

Co-incidentally, I’ve just finished watching the Only Fools And Horses episode “Heroes And Villains” where Del Boy and Rodney dress up as Batman and Robin…

Techy: GeoURL and GeoTagging

January 19, 2003
1 Comment

[Binoculars Earth]It seems that geographically tagging your website has really taken off. Around a month ago, I added a “meta tag” to this blog detailing where I am physically located – I mainly did this to try and enhance the details of my blog shown on Syndic8 (which, unfortunately, hasn’t picked up the tags yet). Syndic8 pointed me towards the Geotags site which helped inform me what format the values correctly.

Since then, GeoURL has really taken off and currently lists around 3,200 sites which have been correctly “ICBM tagged” – I guess the coverage by an extremely large number of people making blog entries about the geographical site database service – most of whom seem to have heard of the service via this Slashdot article.

So, why am I posting about it now?

First of all, a little explanation of GeoTagging in general is necessary I think. Therefore, here is a nice description and instructions about GeoTagging:

Continue ReadingTechy: GeoURL and GeoTagging

Personal: Family wiped out a la Armageddon?

January 19, 2003
1 Comment

[Armageddon Heart]I’ve just watched most of Armageddon on BBC TV again and it started my mind wandering.

Basically, the film is about an asteroid “the size of Texas” heading for Earth and a bunch of oil drillers being sent up to the asteroid to “nuke” it from the inside. Part way through the film, Nasa Mission Control thinks they’ve lost the Independence shuttle and crew in the asteroid’s debris as it tries to land on the shuttle. The crew includes AJ (Ben Affleck) who is Grace’s (Liv Tyler) boyfriend. Grace is still in mission control and is obviously extremely upset at the loss of her boyfriend. Then the other shuttle – Freedom – lands on the asteroid and lose contact with Mission Control: making them think that both shuttles have gone missing. Grace is devastated because the second shuttle contained her father (Bruce Willis) – and, from what I can work out, her only living relative.

That got me thinking – what would I do if all my immediate family were killed? Would I cope? What would I do? And who would ask to come with me to lend moral support at the funerals? Whilst I’m close to my GESF, we’ve only met each other once (well, over 3 days) and we’re just close friends at the moment – so would it be “wrong” for me to ask? Or how about my ex-fiancee who I was with for around 3 years and who actually knew my family extremely well – or would it be “wrong” to contact an ex for something like that?

Luckily, I’ve “only” had to attend one funeral in my life (my Great-grandmother’s around 2 years ago), but then I had my entire family and my fiancee with me. But what would it be like if I suddenly had nobody?

It’s not really a nice thing to think about, but it is brain provoking.