Monday, May 25, 2009

World stats

http://www.worldometers.info/

Interesting.

Anticipated tech: Google Voice

Since I can't take my cell phone into work with me, some people have a hard time reaching me (because they don't have my work number, and because they don't realize that I'm an e-mail addict). With Google Voice, I would be able to have one phone number dial all three of my phones. Brilliant! Unfortunately, Google Voice is only in a closed beta right now. However, the FAQ page indicates that they will opening it up in a matter of weeks. You can learn more about it, including its other cool features, here: https://www.google.com/voice/about#.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Wolfram Alpha

Wolfram Alpha is the new "computational knowledge engine" that everybody's talking about (well, all the nerds are). If you don't know what this is or haven't seen a demo, check out this video: http://www.wolframalpha.com/screencast/introducingwolframalpha.html. It's kinda long, but you'll probably get the idea after a couple of minutes.

I don't think this is gonna put Google out of business or anything, but it does look pretty awesome.

Saturday, May 09, 2009

Meat poisoning and geeking out.

Note to self: don't enter another eating contest against Steve Mitori. A group of 11 coworkers (and some friends/family) got together last night for dinner at Bacana, a classy churrascaria buffet. Steve and I wanted to settle once and for all who had the bigger appetite, as we were uncertain after past dining experiences together. Despite his slight stature (I would guess 5'-5'', 130 lbs), the man can put the food away. This time, I was to match him bite for bite - everything he ate, I had to eat as well.

I hung with him for a good hour or so through many cuts of meat (my favorites were the garlic fillet and the bacon-wrapped chicken), a plate of sides, and a plate of salad. In the end, however, he prevailed by eating an extra cut of tenderloin and a lime mousse desert. The triumphant moment was immortalized in picture, and I don't look forward to its appearance on Facebook. Congratulations, Steve.

After dinner, a few of us joined a few others (11 in total) for the Star Trek movie. The movie was pretty solid (3/5 on the Netflix scale) and I didn't throw up during it from meat poisoning, but there was a guy sitting in front of us whom I wanted to punch in the face several times for making annoying comments that I'm pretty sure only he thought were humorous. Being the grinch that I am, I was also annoyed when the audience erupted into an ovation at the end of the movie - this is one of my pet peeves.

Speaking of Star Trek, I was surprised the other day to find a Star Dates calendar had been added to my Google Calendar account. I later found out that those tricky Google folks had done this automatically for anybody with a Star Trek event in their calendar. Sneaky, sneaky...