Tuesday, March 22, 2005

- On April 29th, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy will hit the big-screens. This movie is based off the wildly popular book written in the late 70s by Douglas Adams. The Hitchhiker's guide is a combination of science-fiction and humor. I can easily say that it is the funniest book I have ever read. I highly recommend it. Adams wrote five books chronicling his Hitchhiker universe. The first book is a classic, but the other books degrade in quality with each new book. Regardess, all five books are worth reading. Douglas Adams spent over 20 years trying to get the Hitchhiker's Guide made into a movie. He died of a heart-attack in 2001, but plans for the movie were already in motion. Here is a website devoted to Douglas Adams, and his wonderful books:
http://www.floor42.com/

- There are lots of websites on the internet for testing your typing speed. Try this one. I like it better than most. Use the comments section to let us know how you did:
http://www.typingtest.com/contents/java/typetest/default.htm

- The progress of technology and medicine increases on an exponential curve. There is a good chance that new drugs and surgical techniques will let our generation significantly extend our lives. Get use to this idea. It's a virtual certainty that our children will have life-spans many times greater than our parents. There is even a chance that our children wont die from "natural causes" like disease, heart-conditions, or old-age. Perhaps only accidents and war will end their lives. Here is a detailed article explaining what could lie ahead:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-1522606,00.html

- My goodness blogging is becoming popular! How do I know this? Well, there are many indicators, but my best indicator is that Microsoft is getting into the blogging business. They have started a beta-site for blogging called MSN Spaces. If you are interested in starting your own blog, or know someone who does, here is a link to MSN Spaces, and two other websites that have started offering blogging services:
http://spaces.msn.com/HomePage.aspx
http://360.yahoo.com/reg/whatis.html
http://www.bloglines.com/

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

- One in ten people are left-handed. I believe out of all the people who read this website, I am the only person who is left-handed (if I am wrong, send me an email.) I take great pride in being left-handed, and feel lucky that I was born in a time when parents and educators wouldn't try to teach a child to be right-handed. Here is a website dedicated to left-handed people. Drill through the website and take a look at the incredible number of famous athletes and actors who are left-handed. It's not a coincidence. There is a science to it. Send the link to your left-handed friends and family members. They will get a kick out of it:
http://www.left-handersday.com/index.html

- "No ship that small has a cloaking device, track it!" - Captain Needa, The Empire Strikes Back. Needa didnt permanently disable the hyperdrive on the Falcon, and he didnt know that human-beings on a little blue planet called earth would be very close to creating cloaking devices for their vehicles. I cant believe Vader didnt whack this chump. Here is a link to an article about how real-life scientists are close to realizing this sci-fi staple:
http://www.livescience.com/technology/050228_invisible_shield.html

- When I was a child, I loved to read the Guiness Book of World Records. I would buy each new edition, and spend countless hours memorizing all the facts and figures. The Guinness Book has its own web-site, and its better than I thought it would be. I assumed it would simply be one large advertisement for its print version, but instead the website has many of the records you would find in the book. Here is a link:
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/

- I have been searching for a way to send large files to my friends, and I may have found it. The website, YouSendIt.com, allows you to send files up to 1 gigabyte (1 billion bytes) to anyone with an email address. The website stores the file on their servers for 7 days, and you download the file from a link they send you. The file is never actually sent to your email address. I havent tried it yet. The service appears to be free, but I wonder if there is some kind of spam-mail involved. Here is a link to the website. Give it a try, and let me know what you think of it:
http://s10.yousendit.com/