- Reviews for Revenge of the Sith are starting to hit the internet. It's getting better reviews than I thought it would. I have read about 40 reviews so far, and only three of them were negative. Rotten Tomatoes (the best website on the internet for tracking movie reviews), as of this writing, has posted 28 reviews...26 of them positive, 2 negative, for a 93% freshness rating. The number of reviews posted on RT will skyrocket to over 150 reviews by the time Revenge of the Sith is released world-wide. If Revenge of the Sith keeps above 90% freshness, its going to make an insane amount of money. I predict Revenge of the Sith will finish between 70 to 80% freshness. Media companies hold negative reviews of movies until the movie is released or just after it is released. This is especially true of big movies like Revenge of the Sith. Magazines and newspapers want to avoid effecting the movie's box office and thus upsetting the company that made the movie. Here is a link to Revenge of the Sith at Rotten Tomatoes. You wont see any spoilers, but if you click on any of the review links at Rotten Tomatoes, you will be inundated with spoilers:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_wars_3/

- I dont have an anti-virus program on my machine. Considering all the websites I read each day, I should install one. The following website has delayed my purchase of anti-virus software. Trend-Micro has the ability to scan your computer for viruses, and remove those viruses. Best of all, this website is completely free!
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/housecall/start_corp.asp

Despite its silly name, I read the website Lifehacker almost everyday. Its choked full of great information for getting the most out of your modern electronics. Want to know how to maximize the potential of you cell-phone, make your computer run faster, or how to get the most out of the internet? Then this website is for you:
http://www.lifehacker.com/

- I have Star Wars fever! I have it bad...real bad. It's deep in my bones, and I can't shake it. I don't think I want to shake it. It's more painful than Marburg fever, and twice as contagious. I have been debating on various SW-related messageboards about how much money Revenge of the Sith will make. I won't frighten you with an endless, manic diatribe. I will simply say that if ROTS is better than the first two prequels, I think it will make around 370 million. If it's the same quality as the first two prequels, it will make around 310 million. Here are links to websites that keep track of box-office totals. These websites will be fun to read during the summer blockbuster season:
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/
http://www.boxofficeguru.com/

- Remember the scene in Blade Runner, where Harrison Ford tests a person to find out if it is a replicant? For over fifty years, human beings have been devising tests that hopefully can determine whether something is a computer or an actual human. Here is an example of one such test. Some web-servers use this test to keep automated computer programs from registering with their websites:
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050416/mathtrek.asp

- A few nights ago, I was watching an interesting program on the Discovery Science channel about future evolution on earth. The program showed clips of earth and it's animal life 5 million, 100 million, and 200 million years in the future. Obviously, such conjecture is pure guess-work, but nevertheless, it's fun to speculate. What fascinated me the most was the depiction of future tectonic shifts in the earth's crust. After watching this show, I decided to cruise the net looking for animations which show how earth's prehistoric crust (also known as Pangea), transformed into the current continents. This link is the best animation I could find. It's amazing how the continents kind of fit together like a jigsaw puzzle:
http://wrgis.wr.usgs.gov/docs/parks/pltec/pangea.html

- I want to make a formal apology to anyone who is reading this blog. During my entries two weeks ago, I made a link to an online encyclopedia called Wikipedia. It's quite an exhaustive encyclopedia, and anyone can add or edit articles on that website. I thought the website had an editorial process, but I was wrong. Many of the articles, especially the ones dealing with politics or religion, are extremely biased. As with most websites on the internet, the people who hate something are much louder than the people who love something, so the articles tend to be very negative about the topics they explain. The article about George W. Bush, for example, reads like a pamphlet Michael Moore would hand to college students. I will keep the link to that encyclopedia on my web-blog, but if you visit it, take the encyclopedia with an extra-large grain of salt.

- Ever heard of Moore's law? Its not about physics, chemistry, or any other physical science. It's a law regarding computers. In 1965 the co-founder of Intel, Gordon Moore, hypothesized that the speed of a micro-processor (your computer) would double every 24 months. This hypothesis, even forty years later, turned out to be correct (thus becoming a law.) Some computer-scientists feel that Moore's law may be coming to an end in the next ten years. These scientists believe that unless some brand-new, and completely radical way of building a computer is discovered, the acceleration of the computer's processing speed will dwindle, and eventually we will hit a wall regarding how fast a computer can function. Others feel that Moore's law will stay true for a quite a while. Here is an article about Moore' law, and what might happen to computers in the future:
http://msn.com.com/2100-9584_22-5647824.html?part=msn&subj=ns_2543&tag=mymsn

- I am always looking for free online encyclopedias, and I finally found a really good one. Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia, that is also considered open-source. That means anyone can write an article for the encyclopedia, and even edit articles. The website does have an editorial process, and it seems rather professional. Here is a link to the encyclopedia. I was astounded at the number of the articles contained in Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

- Not all search-engines are created equal. The term "google" has entered our daily vernacular as a way of asking someone to search for something. I use google several times a day, but Google isnt always the best search-engine to use. There are many search engines on the internet, and some are better at finding certain types of information that others. For example, if you want to find a picture of a particular place or thing, you have a better chance of finding it using Yahoo's image search, than Google's image search. Here is a webpage that tells you which search-engine you should use when looking for certain topics:
http://www.philb.com/whichengine.htm

- Speaking of Google, the popular search-engine now offers the ability to search for locations using satellite pictures. I tried it last night, and found a picture of my home from outer space! When you visit the webpage, you will notice a link in the upper-right hand corner called "Satellite." This changes the webpage from a regular map viewer, to a satellite picture viewer. Try to find your home. It's fun to view your neighborhood from a top-down perspective. Here is the link:
http://maps.google.com/

- 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/

- 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/

- Hunter S. Thompson committed suicide today. I was a fan of his writing, despite him being a drug addict, alcoholic, and proponent of the most vile left-wing politics. He invented a style of writing called "gonzo journalism", which involves over the top descriptions of actual events with the author including himself in the affair. He was portrayed by Bill Murray in the movie Where the Buffalo Roam, and by Johnny Depp in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (both dreadful movies.) I first discovered his writings while reading ESPN.com, where he did a semi-regular column (getting Hunter to do anything on a regular schedule was a monumental task.) Here is a link to his articles at ESPN.com, and a link to his article about the 2001 Kentucky Derby. His description of the derby is legendary:

UPDATE...ESPN (owned by Disney) has decided to cash in on the death of Mr.Thompson. They have turned these articles into subscriber articles, which means you now have to pay money to view them. When I wrote this Sunday night (2/20), these articles were free. Gee, I wonder how Hunter would have felt knowing that ESPN is cashing in on his death.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/archive?columnist=hunter_s._thompson&root=page2

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/thompson/010507.html

- I truly love the internet. I cant imagine life without it. Not for its practical uses, like checking your bank account, buying airline tickets, or looking up sport scores. No, I love the internet for all of the little things I find on it. Here is a webpage that will show you how common a person's first name is. Simply type in the name, and you will get a graph showing how many people were given that name during each decade of the 20th century. My first name was fairly popular during the 60's and 70's, but has fallen dramatically since then. I have only myself to blame.
http://babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html

- Some day, in the not so distant future, we wont worry about the number of soldiers who die in Iraq. We will worry about how much money we are wasting on robots who are doing the fighting for us. The American military is already working on using robots, instead of humans, to fight our future wars. Here is an article with more information:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-asecrobosoldier20022005feb20,1,1160052.story?coll=orl-home-headlines&ctrack=1&cset=true

Big update today. Lots of good stuff...

- The Oscar nominations have been announced. If there is an awards presentation in this country, that is needlessly affected by politics, it's the Oscars. I am happy to announce, however, that this year's nominations seem to be free of politics and political-correctness. I think the nominations this year are rather good. Michael Moore, thankfully was shut-out of the nominations. There is even a rumor floating around Hollywood that the big-wigs who run the movie studios are sick of making movies that only appeal to the "blue states" and want to start making movies that appeal to everyone. Apparently there are a few people in La-la land who prefer to make money. I will believe it when I see it. Anyways, here are my picks for the winners of each major category, and a link to the nominees for all the categories for 2005. This is a tough year to pick. If you scroll down, you will notice that my picks from last year were all correct. There is little chance of that happening this year:

Best Picture: The Aviator
Best Director: Martin Scorsese
Best Actor: Jamie Foxx
Best Actress: Anette Bening
Best Supporting actor: Morgan Freeman
Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/awards/oscars/2005list.jsp

- Holograms are tough to create in a real-world setting, but a company recently created a machine no bigger than a computer, which creates wonderful holograms. Here is a link explaining how the machine works:
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/tech/200501/kt2005013117582612350.htm

- Can you beat a polygraph? Here is an article from someone who tried several tips for beating the machine. Perhaps the most interesting information from this article is that the person who invented the lie-detector also created the comic-book character Wonder Woman! Now I know where the golden lasso comes from.
http://www.slate.com/Default.aspx?id=2112734

- Certain people who read this website (and they shall remain nameless) will love the beginning of this next article. In many parts of the developed world, populations are dwindling. The reasons are numerous, and important to all of us. An ancient prophet once wrote that in order for man to ascend to true greatness, he must become extinct. Well, some countries are accidentally fulfilling this prophecy. Their economic and political models are causing their populations to decrease, instead of increase. If a country's laws help its citizens, then naturally a country's population should increase, since its citizens are well-off, and have the necessary resources to bear and care for children. I wrote about this topic several months ago, but this article does a much better job of explaining the situation than the last article I linked.
http://techcentralstation.com/012705D.html

- Happy Groundhog's day! Read the following article to learn more about Groundhog's day, and then read the 2nd article explaining why the movie Groundhog's day is a true gift to humanity (this article completely over-analyzes the Bill Murray classic. I like the movie, but geesh!) By the way, my family has a tradition very similar to Groundhog's day. During the first phone call I receive from my parents on February 2nd, if either my mother or father tells me how "dreadfully disappointed" they are in me, then I know there will be six more weeks of winter.
http://wilstar.net/holidays/grndhog.htm
http://www.nationalreview.com/goldberg/goldberg200502010801.asp

- Enrico Fermi was a famous physicist who helped split the atom, and helped develop the first atomic weapon. He is mostly known for his accomplishments in physics, but he was also a amateur UFO investigator. Fermi proposed the following question..."if there are so many planets and galaxies, then why havent we bumped into any aliens?" This simple question is rather complicated to answer, and is now referred to as The Fermi Paradox. Here is a link explaining the paradox:
http://www.space.com./searchforlife/shostak_paradox_011024.html

- The tsunami in south-east asia last month didnt quite hit my psyche until I read the following article. The earthquake not only increased the speed of rotation for the earth, it also made the earth slightly more round. It was the most powerful earthquake recorded in the past 40 years. That sounds like a big deal to us, but if the earth has been around for over 5 billion years, then how many more powerful earthquakes have occurred, or will occur? The tsunami helped remind me that we live on a spinning globe made of rock and magma that can change unexpectly, just like all things in this universe.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9596_22-5536983.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=zdnet

I use hotmail for my personal e-mail account that I share with my friends. By only giving my hotmail e-mail address to friends, it helps avoid spam. I also have a yahoo e-mail address that I use for business transactions, or when I need to give an e-mail address to someone outside my circle of friends. My yahoo e-mail address receives over 100 spam e-mails a day. I am a beta-tester for a new e-mail service created by Google. It is called Gmail, and it can store 1 gigabyte (1 billion bytes) of e-mail. If you want to try Google e-mail, send an e-mail to my hotmail account, and I will invite you. People who are already testing the service can invite others to join. It's completely free, and this is the only way that you can participate in the service right now. Whatever e-mail address you pick during the beta-phase of Gmail you can keep during the full-release. Here is a link to the Gmail website:
http://gmail.google.com/

- Time magazine picked George Bush as their person of the year. Its a good pick, and one I can accept, but I would have picked Karl Rove. Karl Rove predicted, over three years ago, that the key to Bush winning re-election was to crank out the base. He knew right after the 2000 election that firing up the Republican base, and increasing the base by appealing to religious conservatives who didnt vote in the 2000 election would get Georgie re-elected. No person in this country has a better understanding of the geo-political trends and demographics shifts in the American electorate than Karl Rove. Not bad for someone who doesnt have a college degree. Here is an article from the Washington Post about Rove:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/wh2000/stories/rove072399.htm

- Here are some predictions for 2005 from the writers and editors at the National Review:
http://www.nationalreview.com/symposium/symposium200412300827.asp

- On July 2nd 1937, Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, disappeared over the Pacific ocean, between Australia and Hawaii. Numerous explorers, scientists, and treasure-hunters have tried to find her plane, but no one has succeeded. Here is an article about the latest attempt to find her, and what may have actually happened to poor Amelia:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/12/18/hunting.for.earhart.ap/index.html

- On December 17th a movie called "The Aviator" hits the big-screens. It stars Leonardo Dicaprio as Howard Hughes. I am not a fan of Leo's, but I am fan of Martin Scorsese (who directs the film), and I am a huge fan of Howard Hughes. I may be forced to see this movie. Hughes was a world-class engineer, multi-billioniare industrialist, and held all the air-speed records until Chuck Yeager came along. Hughes was the inspiration for Tony Stark, who is the comic-book character Iron Man, and Hughes is certainly an inspiration to me. He was one of the giants of the early 20th century, until he went stark-raving mad, and became more famous for being a recluse, than for his many accomplishments early in his life. Here is a good article about him:
http://www.socalhistory.org/Biographies/h_hughes.htm

- When I watch science-fiction movies or TV shows, it drives me nuts to see characters walking around in space-ships as if they had normal gravity. Even Star Wars doesnt bother to explain this physical impossibility. Well, for 40 years NASA has been working on this problem, and here are some of the ideas they have come up with:
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/artificial_gravity_041125.html

- While cruising the internet, you may have come across some strange language such as " r u w8tng 4 sum1? " (translated to "are you waiting for someone"), or "joo r d34d foo" (translated to "you are dead fool"). This bizarre syntax is called "l33t speak", and there is a rhyme and reason to it. In the 1980s, hackers would use this language to obscure their websites from search algorithms and government do-gooders. Now people on the internet, and mainly teen-agers, use it express themselves. I never use l33t speak. I find it obnoxious and a perfectly good waste of time. Nevertheless, given my line of work, it helps to know some of the vernacular. Here is a website that explains l33t speak, and how to read it:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A787917