Jimmy posted the details of how the other RB team members initiate new members into the team - somewhat of a hazing. Here is a video of the latest initiation. But make sure to read the full story at the RB Blog named Coder Hazing: Anthony Gets Punk'd...
I am a bit embarrassed to say I know someone who knows this person.
Check out the video:
In case you missed it, Matt Siltala and I met up at SES Chicago a few weeks back. He is my long lost brother. Matt posted this picture on his blog a couple weeks ago:
I am not sure why these types of things make me laugh, but they do and I am sorry. Remember when I was amazed at the car that parked on top of another car?
Well, how about a single SUV parking on top of two cars and then driving away. Check out this video:
Via @Jason.
Friday night is the start of the two days of Rosh Hashanah, but did you know that Saturday is Talk Like a Pirate Day? You see the pickle I am in? I don't know if I should come to synagogue (shul) dressed in a pirate costume or if that would be just too over the top and inappropriate.
I mean, I can come in both:
Think that would work? ;-)
In any event, if you do go to synagogue and you want to geek yourself out on that day, then just tell your friend...
Happy New Yaaaaaar!
They might think you are crazy, but who cares - you will laugh and that is all that matters.
Everyone, have a happy and healthy New Yaaaar!
It is hard to top the Best (Worst) Bird Poop on Cars post (if you haven't seen it, it is a must see).
But based on my baby pooping on three people (including myself) over the weekend, I thought I should do a baby version of this post.
The best/worst baby poop shots caught on film.
The issue is, only one of the images I found on Flickr allow embedding on blogs, so here is that one, the rest, I'll add links to below.
Here the non-embeds that require a click: poop explosion, I pooped, poop-leg and poopsplosion.
Poor Guy!
Over Passover, I parked my park at the Synagogue and it sat there, under a tree for three days. The result? The back half of my car is covered in bird poop. Time for a car wash...
I was too lazy to take a picture, so I went to Flickr and searched for cars with bird poop on them. There were tons of pictures, so I thought I share my favorite shots of cars nailed by bird poop.
I wouldn't stand there if I were you:
Bird's eye view:
Bird diarrhea?
Ugh:
Goes well with the Honda logo:
Can birds vomit?
Bird pellets:
The classic station wagon:
Bird poop and a parking ticket?
Bird looking for revenge:
What in the world did this bird have for dinner?
This was sent to me via email, I thought it was funny, so I thought I would blog it...
A disappointed salesman of Coca Cola returns from his assignment to Israel.
A friend asked, "Why weren't you successful with the Israelis?"
The salesman explained:
When I got posted, I was very confident that I would make a good sales pitch. But, I had a problem. I didn't know how to speak Hebrew. So, I planned to convey the message through three posters:
And then these posters were pasted all over the place.
"Then that should have worked!!" said the friend.
"The hell it should have!!" said the salesman. "I didn't realize that they read from right to left !!!!!!"
Happy 3/3/9, also known as "Square Root Day." Get your geek on!
Details at Search Engine Roundtable.
Guys, get off the feed and take a look at the Search Engine Roundtable today, we have a sweet theme up for Mardi Gras! Here is a picture of it via my iPhone:
I did a post at the Search Engine Roundtable on the other search folks doing logos for the day, like Live.com, DogPile, and AOL. But Google, Yahoo and Ask.com have nothing for the day.
So what do you think of this theme for the Search Engine Roundtable?
Recession is here, Google's schwag at their booth is Silly Putty...
I got the new iPhoto '09 the other day and I started tagging some photos. I decided to tag "The Jackson."
Who knows, maybe a look alike will show up in one of my pictures?
Remember I told you that we finished building our wall of Red Bull? Guess what!
Two Red Bull girls stopped by in a Red Bull car to give us free Red Bull! I kid you not!
Here are pictures to prove it...
Red Bull Car:
Delivering Red Bull:
Awesome Red Bull girls with Jimmy:
Our new batch of free RedBull:
Thank you Red Bull! This is just way too funny.
Trust me, this is not the end of RustyBrick and RedBull (RB & RB). Wait until you see what happens when we finish these cans.
Via AviW, this is just so funny. Well, maybe not for the guy in this video:
Last night, I was with a group of people, 10+, who work in the building. Either they work for other companies in the building or they own the company.
In any event, one guy said - I wish I could just hang out with you (RustyBrick) for a day. He added something like, "you guys seem like real fun, cool guys and do cool things there."
I laughed, almost saying most of our work is boring web software.
But then I looked around and saw who I am comparing RustyBrick to. The type of businesses in my office building include lawyers, mortgage brokers, doctors, recruiters, and so on.
If I had to say, RustyBrick is probably the coolest company in the building. But that doesn't say much. It is nice to know that people think so, at least.
Last night, I finally played the game known as werewolves or in our industry, the Search Spam Card Game. The fun part is that, I am a card so I was hoping to secure my own card.
It was the first time I played the game, so I decided to play two rounds. The first round, I had a feeling Matt Cutts was a black hat (werewolf), so I voted for him. Matt conned the rest of the table to turn on me and vote me out. Long story short, Matt was a black hat, I was white hat and they voted me out and the black hats took over.
The next round was pay back time. I had the fun of being a black hat. I played the game right, convinced the table that two white hats were actually black hats, plotting against the white hats, and we voted those two out. Then the rest of the game was easy, once Matt was out - cause he is good and very convincing. So we took care of Matt right away.
It is a fun game, thanks SEOMoz.
Honestly, it is really fun being a black hat - maybe I should change teams and have SEOMoz change my card?
I cannot stand receiving email forwards, you know, those joke emails that people send to each other. Chain emails with jokes or things you must do for good luck. I can't stand them!
In fact, I am the type of guy that has the nerve to email anyone back who sends it to me with the short and to the point:
Take me off your list please.
But there is something about some of these political email forwards that I enjoy. I have even been guilty of forwarding on these emails to a select few, that I thought would enjoy the forward. There has definitely been a rise of political based emails going around. I wonder why....
In any event, I hate all email forwards 99% of the time. So don't start putting me on your list. If you do have a political email joke and you know who I am voting for, then feel free to forward it directly to me. ;-)
Here at RustyBrick, we can't have enough fun in the day. The latest example is our coders love of Red Bull (not Kosher). When they are done with a can, they rip off the tab at the top and then place it on the window. This is about a month-plus of drinking red bull, between 3 coders.
RustyBricker, Jimmy Mancusi is the man behind this experiment and he is the guy in the picture.
Their goal is to create two full walls of red bull cans. Use the sugar free cans, the lighter cans, to write an R and B (not for Red Bull, but for RustyBrick). That would be cool. ETA until the RB Red Bull wall is about 2 more months, if I had to guess.
Who knows, maybe when Red Bull sees this, they will stop by in the Red Bull Car to visit us.
This was weird. A college student walks in and asks to speak to someone about a project. I come out and say hello, how can I help you.
I notice it is a young kid, holding a manila folder with about 4 white papers in the folder.
He asks me if I can help him program a game he designed. He said he designed it for a class project. He said it has to be done in Java or Flash. I immediately said, we do not code games, I am sorry. So he left.
There are a few things wrong with this:
(1) Why come to my office to ask us if we would do a project for you? Why not call first? Gas is expensive!
(2) I look at him and he says he is a college student, I immediately think there is no money involved or little money involved. Don't start off your sales pitch (or reverse sales pitch) with saying your from college.
(3) We do not do people's home work! Although he did not word it that way.
TV simply does not get better than this!
Fox, you guys rock!
Two months old, but still funny:
I don't get into politics, so I am not going there. Shmuly Tennenhaus's Vanity Kippah, and also a buddy I correspond with regularly, sent me a McCippah.
Here is a picture of me wearing it:
Will I wear it around? I doubt it, maybe over Succots. ;-) (extremely inside joke)
While driving in Boston this week, I noticed a huge CTIGO gas station sign.
Why am I telling you about this sign?
(1) It is really really really big.
(2) It may be bigger than the Amoco sign that I saw in St. Louis a couple years back.
So when I spotted it, I made my wife take a picture, so I can simply blog about it.
The sign does not look as big as the Amoco sign but it may be. The Amoco sign in St. Louis was not all that high. This CITGO sign was mounted on top of a building, but the Amoco sign was just on top of a gas station. So it is hard to visualize which was bigger.
So, I got this office neighbor who is very computer illiterate. That translates into me and others in my office providing technical support on how to open a web browser and so on.
In any event, he was having problems opening his stock ticker system. So I came in and double clicked on the application and it opened. It opened up all red.
It was like a blood bath.
I asked him, should I close it for you now? :)
Ah, my humor - it just kills me sometimes. I guess you had to be there.
Chris Hooley ran this hysterical SEO voting poll and has now posted the results. I am glad to say, I won the "SEO Most Likely to Become President." LOL
Check out all the results, this is seriously funny, if your in the SEO industry.
As for me, I came in second place for "SEO Most Likely to Succeed," behind Danny (of course). Third place for "Most Athletic SEO," since I play a ton of basketball. Lisa totally stole the "Best SEO Blogger," but she deserves it. I only got third for "Biggest SEO Nerd," I am bummed! Bottom three for "SEO Social Media Addict," which kinda makes sense. Last place for "Mr / Ms Congeniality."
This is funny, very funny. Happy July 4th, btw.
The other day I wrote about how I have moved JewishTweets notified me of a popular recent story named The Stalled Server Room.
The short story is that this company's server room is now part of the office's bathroom. Too make a long story short, the company had to switch offices. But the new office in the building did not have room for a server room. So they put the server room in a closet that is only accessible through the woman's bathroom.
Here is the email from the building management company:
As you all are aware, we have new tenants that have moved into the 2nd floor suites. The access to the server room is now via the women’s bathroom.There will be a sign on the woman’s door that can be changed
from OPEN to CLOSED and vice versa.
Should you need to enter the server room, please change the sign
to CLOSED. Once you are done, please change it back to OPEN.
Once you enter the bathroom, you will be able to access the
server room via the handicapped stall. Please close the stall
door prior to entry, just in case someone doesn’t see that the
bathroom is closed.
I know this isn’t ideal, but if we adhere to this protocol, I
don’t think anyone will be disrupted.
Thanks! Let me know if you have any questions.
And I was complaining about moving domains to a new server. Imagine if I had to move my servers into a bathroom.
This explains the problem with DVRs... Watch the video:
A show runs longer then expected, you are out of luck.
How funny is this!
Last night, I spent about two hours in the Verizon Wireless store. My wife's phone couldn't keep a charge, so we brought it in. In order to get support in the store, you need to sign in at a kiosk. So we sign in and notice our name is number nine on the tech support queue. We take a seat and watch as the customers before us obtain their tech support.
Now, imagine this. There is a sign under the tech support area that says "Worry Free Guarantee." Have that in your head? Okay, good.
Every single person that was serviced by customer service seemed very upset when they left. Here are some stories, I couldn't help, but over hear.
(1) I can't retrieve my voicemail or something, I think the phone is broken. He hands the phone to the tech support guy. The guy shows him how the phone is cracked and scratched on the outside. He said you must have physically damaged it and our warranty only is for manufacturer defects. The guy argues that he didn't drop it or anything, that "it just happened." LOL - how does a phone crack by itself. In any event, the guy walked away very angry with his broken phone. Why? Because he wasn't willing to pay $50 to replace it.
(2) This next story was just funny, really nothing to do with bad customer service, but I thought I would share it. A daughter and father team walk up. The daughter needs her phone replaced. The daughter asks the tech guy to transfer the songs and numbers. The tech guy says it is X dollars extra to transfer your songs. The dad said no, we don't need it. The daughter says she does and keeps at it. The father said, you were not even allowed to download those songs. The daughter said, but (sister name goes here) does. He said she shouldn't either! He then tells the tech guy to put a block on that feature on all phones on his account. Too funny!
It ended up, they told the guy they wouldn't replace the phone. He was there for the fourth time with the same issue. So he got upset and said, the 3rd time they promised to replace it if the issue comes back. I don't know if he ever got the new phone, I left before hand.
(3) This woman tells the tech guy that she left her charger with them and she never got it back. She wants Verizon to give her a new charger. The guy walks in the back and doesn't find a charger. He comes back and said there is no charger back there. She begins yelling. You stole my charger and never gave it back and now I need to buy a new one from you! I'll spare you the rest. The end, she walks out without a charger and very upset.
(4) By the time it was my turn, I just said, here is the money, just replace my wife's phone. I didn't want to argue, I just wanted to go home. They said they would transfer the numbers. They forgot and then argued with me about how they can't. I then looked at the guy who told me he would do it, who looked at the guy who was helping me on the replacement, and he did it for us.
Worry Free Guarantee. I guess it was referring to something else?
Last night, I conned my wife into coming with me to one of my favorite restaurants, because we were only 5 minutes away, and I was starving.
When we got there, we reviewed our choices and the waiter came by. I had my wife order first, because all polite men do that. ;-) Then I told the waiter my request. He asked, would you like mash potatoes, backed potatoes or french fries with that. What did I say?
"French Fries"
My wife then looked at me and said no. Then the waiter smiles and he looks at me for my next move. He was shocked to hear me say...
"French Fries"
My wife said no again, but with less emphasis, which I then looked back at the waiter, smiled and said...
"French Fries"
The men who read this will think what I thought. This is one small victory for all man kind.
The women who read this will think another thing. Men are so stupid.
I was thinking about coming out with Barry Schwartz branded products. You know, like the George Foreman grill.... So I got this prototype in the mail, Schwartz Hand & Feet Cream!
What do you think?
Nah, I am just kidding. I got this via email from someone who will remain anonymous. This is stuff they apparently sell in Israel.
I get these calls once in a while...This time is went like this...
Caller: Hi, may I speak with your safety inspector or head of safety.
Me: We don't have a safety inspector.
Caller: Don't you lay bricks? Aren't you a bricklayer company?
Me: We sit behind computers all day.
Caller: Oh, I am sorry.
A bricklayer according to the current Wikipedia page says:
A bricklayer or mason is a tradesman who lays bricks to construct brickwork. The term also refers to personnel who use blocks to construct blockwork walls and other forms of masonry. In British and Australian English, a bricklayer is colloquially known as a "brickie".
On a deeper, more philosophical level, we are a type of bricklayer. We lay the building blocks of your web site and web business. ;-)
Not going to mention who this text exchange is with, cause it is not important. I know this person wouldn't mind me mentioning it, but since I didn't clear it 100% with the individual, I won't say who it is...
In any event, don't you hate when a morbid joke goes bad? In this case, this person missed a flight and had to get on the next flight. The person missed their flight cause they had to do a good deed and it took too much time. So I try to be funny and tell them their good deed will pay off, but see for yourself...
So here it goes:
You see how a good joke (IMO) turned bad too quickly?
Kinda funny and don't worry, no one was insulted.
My brother's kid had to come to the office today for an hour or so. During that time, she ended up playing with something in my office.
She then got up, walked into the corner of the room and laid down.
Seconds later, she was out cold. Sleeping away. So my brother first tried offering her a pillow but that didn't work out too well. He then grabbed my camera and snapped some pictures.
Now, how often do I have kids falling asleep in my office? This is the first time. I am sure, some of you have home offices, and this may not be uncommon for you - but very uncommon here.
Anyway, she then woke up 15 minutes later and looked around. She seemed a bit frightened, and I told her that her dad was in the office next door. She walked over there and then seconds later, I hear a big cry. I scoot over to his door and close it.
Why did I close the door. People were on the phone with clients, and it might sound weird hearing a kid crying in the background.
Charlie Rose Face Plants To Save His MacBook Air from TechCrunch reports that PBS's Charlie Rose is such an Apple fan that he decided to save his new Apple MacBook Air over saving his face.
Reportedly, Rose tripped over a pot hole and on the way down he made a choice. Protect his MacBook Air or protect his face. He decided to protect the MacBook Air, which is doing well.
Instead, his face landed directly into the pavement. Check out TechCrunch for pictures of Charlie Rose with a huge black eye.
Lisa Barone is making a huge statement at SES by placing a black ribbon over the Ask.com logo on her Ask.com bag. My question is why isn't she using an RB bag?
In any event, I think Lisa may start a trend with that black ribbon!
Now that more and more people are buying Macs, there are more and more hard core Apple fans.
Now, if you are extremely hard core, you might create an iWipe out of an old Mac.
Give an old Mac new life by turning it into an iWipe from Shawn Morton demonstrates how you can build an iWipe out of an Macintosh SE case and about $15.
The perfect bathroom accessory.
Hat tip goes to bro-in-law.
Watch this movie:
I see it is old, but I never saw it.
This is funny to any Jewish person who has cleaned for Pesach:
Now, I wonder how much tinfoil this took. Too funny.
This video demonstrates why I don't like going to the beach.
And you thought it was because of the sun glaring on my computer screen. ;-)
My brother-in-law sent this to me and I know it might help those who are frequent travelers.
If you are sitting next to someone who irritates you follow these instructions:
Classic.
I was driving to work yesterday, yes I work Sunday mornings, and I saw this car.
(1) What first caught my attention was that the car had its top down in 30 degree weather. Brrrrrr.
(2) Then I saw the interesting license plate, as you can see in the image above.
(3) Then when I passed the car, I notice a dog was buckled into the passenger seat. The dog was sitting up like a person, wearing a snow hat. Way too funny.
SEOmoz announced a new game they are releasing at PubCon Vegas next week named "Search Spam."
Basically, they have adapted the card game Werewolf for the Search Marketing industry. I am privileged to be one of the characters, see the left card, that is me.
There are 24 cards and you have to register for the event to be invited in. I won't be there, but SEOmoz promised to send me a deck this Monday - so I am looking forward to getting it.
If you will be there, the event is at Wednesday, December 5 from 8-10pm in the South Hall. Don't forget to register. It sounds like a blast!
In short, this game is a way for Googlers, SEOs, Black Hats & industry mavens to kill each other without actually hurting anyone. Nice concept. :)
ALSO: PubCon goers... If you want free tickets to shows in Vegas, check out Joe's blog now!
Orthodox Jewish men typically put on a Tallit every morning for morning services. So typically, the Tallit goes in a Tallit Bag.
The above picture is a typical tallit bag. At the top, typically, you see one's initials or Hebrew name. If you know Hebrew, this one may make you laugh. Why? Well, it reads "שמאק" which in English sounds like "schmuck."
The definition of a "schmuck":
When used as a pejorative, schmuck is a noun meaning a detestable person, or a jerk. The word also means a stupid or idiotic person. In these senses, schmuck entered English as a borrowed word from Yiddish, where it is an obscene term and an insult.
I received three different emails about this picture this morning. So I guess it is new.
I play basketball a few times a week. One of the three times, I play in this small league. This year, I got a new shirt for the season. I have a new but yet unique number.
Now, I think that looks like a backwards 6. The guy who imprinted the number actually did it backwards - if that is possible. Personally, I think it is great. It confuses the referees.
ESPN or ESPN2 supposedly showcased portions of the 2007 WSSA Championship, WSSA you say? Yes, World Speed Stacking Association.
Watch this video to see what they do:
That is a kid named David Wolf, an 11 year old German kid, playing the game.
So this is real.
The folks at Oddcast slipped me, well, the cartoon version of me, into their Flash demo on their home page.
Here is a screen cap, about 30 seconds in the video:
This is way cool. Why? Because they created the technology for me to make Cartoon Barry speak in the Daily Search Coverage recaps, that I do daily.
Here is a funny Dilbert some of you, but not all of you, will appreciate.
Wanted to wish you all a happy Talk Like a Pirate Day! Say it with me! Arggghhh!
I have more details about the day at Search Engine Roundtable!
Here is the theme there:
This is Rand Fishkin hugging me at the SMX conference a few months back in Seattle.
You see, Rand was so excited there was a conference in his town that he decided to start hugging people.
In realty, Tamar took this picture, Rand wanted to be funny - so it turned out to be an awkward looking picture of one man hugging another.
I have been very excited about FiOS for a while now. In fact, if I do move, I hope to get FiOS in the new house.
The question is, am I that excited about getting FiOS that that I am willing to sacrifice my house being set on fire by a Verizon FiOS tech?
NetworkWorld reports on a story:
A small electrical fire at a Pine Grove Street home Wednesday, August 8, - accidentally caused by a Verizon employee - forced the Fire Department to shut down power to several nearby homes.
Verizon denied this:
I'm in the press office for Verizon. Unfortunately, this story differs quite a bit from the version of the Verizon staffers on the scene. Here it is: One of our new techs was installing a triple play at a Needham home (they're selling like hotcakes, btw). When drilling a hole for the Optical Network Terminal, he accidentally hit an electrical wire, knocking out power to the house. Our bad, but no smoke, and no fire. Out of an overabundance of caution (always a good thing)the local fire department was called. The FD cut a hole in side of house where the drilling took place to expose the area and check for a fire. There was none. An electrician and power utility restored power shortly thereafter. And, the same tech came back and finished the install. Verizon is paying for any repairs to the house. We are calling the local paper to give them the string of events. BTW, nice of you to point readers to the EE Times article about Verizon Business' Disaster Recovery mobile unit, which is pressed into action after regionwide natural disasters, not accidental, individual instances such as this.
Anyway, still funny.
Too funny.
Picture this. Your wife gets made at you and tells you to sleep on the sofa tonight... That is the standard joke...
But check this out...
Man Living in Car Since '00 Upsets Town from SFGate.com reports that a man who got in a fight with his wife back in 1999, has been living out of his car since 2000.
Now the car is in his backyard, while the wife lives inside the house.
The neighbors are very upset:
But his neighbors, who say Graham plays loud music, often spouts obsenity-laced tirades and uses his yard as a toilet, aren't amused. They have asked the city to prohibit such living arrangements.
Now, my question, while reading the article, was where do he go to the bathroom. As I continued reading, I found out.
The neighbors say one of their biggest complaints is that Graham may be using his yard for a toilet.
Graham denied that, but here is what the neighbor said:
"I walked out there, and (the smell) was terrible," she said. "Then Ronnie came out the back door and said, 'It smells just like back in Baghdad.' He said he'd been on detail where they have to burn excrement and said that was exactly what it smells like."
Anyway, this brings a whole new meaning to sleeping on the sofa.
Check out this mock demo on how copy and paste should work on an iPhone... The best is the ending, where he said, "I Love You." Made me really laugh...
iPhone Copy and Paste from lonelysandwich and Vimeo.
Via Via Via Engadget..
Too funny... iDating Goes Warp Speed with iPhone via iphonesavior.com.
Just when you think you've seen it all, singles groups across the country find new hope for romance via iPhone speed dating."iDating" parties have become so popular in some cities like San Francisco, California, adding multiple nights and still packing in standing room only crowds. "The iPhone makes speed dating more user-friendly, because you're rejecting a photo not a real person." said Niko Atuna who co-hosts her own iDating parties in the downtown San Francisco area for $25 a person.
So now we have speed dating made for iPhone lovers. :)
More coverage at MyiTablet.
This phone keeps getting cooler.
I actually learned how to make popcorn with it. Check out the video to see how it works.
Pretty cool, eh?
You guys know I am having second thoughts on the iPhone...
Appleinsider is reporting that there are two guys already on line at the Apple Manhattan store, since Monday - four days before the iPhones go on sale, to get themselves an iPhone first.
Gizmodo has posted a video of an interview with the first two people who camped out for the iPhone.
Supposedly, this guy is a "veteran camper" who was one of the first to get the PS3 and so on.
Vicarious Music has a picture of the guy with a sign.
Now that is dedication - or simply crazy.
I wanted some of you to look back at an old post I named The Leaning Tower of Snapple.
It is one of my favorites, believe it or not.
About a month ago, I set up Akisment on my blogs to reduce comment spam. It has been working wonders. But for some people, it continuously marks them as spam and I have to dig them out and mark them as not spam over and over again.
Akismet is suppose to learn over time if a comment is not spam. But I guess it takes a lot of time...
I laughed at Matt Cutts when his comments started to be labeled as spam. Well, now the joke is on me!
Not only does Akismet find all my comments to be spam, so does bsb.spamlookup.net.
What a pain. :(
I saw this car with this license plate parked at a school last night.
I suspect this person is a math teacher.
Google's czar of spam (aka "Search Quality), Matt Cutts, has his blogged labeled as a spam by SpamLookup.
I was checking a recent comment Matt left at the Search Engine Roundtable. The reason I checked it, was because he used words like Viagra, and I was curious how it passed through the filters... In any event, I also noticed that Matt's blog was considerd on a spam list by the SpamLookup.
The SpamLookup domain lookup service at bsb.spamlookup.net marked mattcutts.com as spam.
Because of other criteria, Matt's comment was published, because it received a positive score overall.
I thought the SEO community would enjoy knowing that Matt's blog is on a spam domain list.
My brother-in-law ripped out a Dilbert for me the other day and I thought it would be funny to share with data and analytics people. It is from May 17th.
Some may enjoy it, other's won't. Sorry, if you don't.
Nothing.
Spotted on Digg this house is on the World's Steepest Street. Yea, which is named Baldwin Street in Dunedin, New Zealand.
At its maximum, the slope of Baldwin Street is approximately 1:2.86 (19° or 35%) - that is, for every 2.86 metres travelled horizontally, the altitude rises by 1 metre.
This is no joke!
Here is a 19° angle via Photoshop.
Crazy.
Advertising Age interviewed Bill Gates (chief Microsoft). At the end of the interview, they asked Mr. Gates about the Mac Ads. This is too funny.
GARFIELD: I want to ask you one more thing: Those Mac ads -- how do you feel about the John Hodgman character?GATES: I can't comment on someone else's ad.
GARFIELD: OK ... but he's you.
GATES: Yeah, I'm not gonna comment on someone else's ad.
GARFIELD: OK, well, Bill Gates, thank you so much for joining us.
(Silence)
GARFIELD: Can I just have a clean goodbye?
(Silence)
GARFIELD: OK, can you just say goodbye? Thank you or goodbye or something like that?
GATES: Goodbye.
LOL - thanks for sending this to me Judah...
Blogged about this at Search Engine Land under Marge Simpson "Googles Herself" & Uses Google Maps. Watch this video, the whole thing, I find it funny.
There is no question that drug use amongst teens is a problem, big problem in America. One father took an usual approach.
Dad Makes Son Wear Sign for Using Drugs from SFGate.com reports that a father made his son wear a sign that read, "I abused and sold drugs."
Why, because his son abused and sold drugs and his Dad wanted to send him a message.
"I'm not out here doing this to humiliate my son," the father told WATE-TV as the teenager walked up and down the sidewalk Wednesday in front of Cedar Bluff Middle School."I'm doing this because I love him," he said. "We do have an extreme drug problem in America, and maybe it's time for extreme measures that parents need to take to monitor this problem that we have."
What is also pretty crazy is that the father learned of his son's drug use through reading his son's MySpace page!
I guess it could have been worse. His dad could have made him ride this bicycle to school every day.
;-) Thanks Judah for the YouTube video.
Todd Mintz informed me that I am a hurricane this year! I was flattered, seriously flattered. I thought he was talking about my writing. But it turns out he was being very literal.
The Hurricane Names for 2007 includes "Barry." So yes, technically, my name, "Barry" is a name up for grabs on the 2007 list of hurricane names.
Wish me luck. I am hoping to be a big one!
Other hurricane names up for grabs this year include; Andrea, Chantal, Dean, Erin, Felix, Gabrielle, Humberto, Ingrid, Jerry, Karen, Lorenzo, Melissa, Noel, Olga, Pablo, Rebekah, Sebastien, Tanya, Van, and Wendy.
The picture above is from the SES Miami show back in July of last year. One day there was a pretty big storm. It took down that poor tree. :-(
Judah pointed me to a blog referencing the Gotta Go Briefcase.
Yes, you open the briefcase, pull out the paper, sit down and do your business.
When you are done, make sure to wipe and off you go.
This is a real invention...
The water proof briefcase retains an elegant yet durable appearance with high quality Mahogany leather, a strong lightweight aluminum internal structure, and stainless steel bowl with generously equipped sealing lid. Quietly and discreetly go about your personal "business" anywhere you please with a fold out leather privacy panel which tucks away neatly to the side when you have completed your multi-tasking. A toilet paper dispenser easily swings out and can be conveniently stored in an inconspicuous storage compartment under the padding [for added discretion] when not in use.Included with the Gotta Go Briefcase are a small tray with cup holder (clips onto the privacy panel), attachable vanity mirror, and refillable hand sanitizing dispenser. The newspaper and air freshener are not included but recommended.
Hmmm....
A much needed laugh for today:::
Like skiing?
No snow?
Big city?
Solution.
Thanks Judah again!
Judah sent me a link to the Geek-a-Cycle. It is an exercise bike attached to a computer desk. How creative... Here is one of their videos of it in action.
Wonder how productive such a working environment would make for my employees?
If they can peddle to save me money on my electric bill, well then, maybe it is the answer for that.
How much is it? $400... You can order it if you like or just laugh at the idea.
Years ago, I got an email from a long time client that read something like this.
There is a bug with portion X of the system.F/U!
I scratched my head and thought, what they heck! It is a small bug, why is he so upset!
Plus it is not in his nature to use such language, even when upset.
So I read it like fifteen times and finally figured out F/U stood for "follow up."
So in a sense he wrote, please follow up with me when you look into it.
Just remembered this story, figured I share it with you.
Judah from Diamond Vues showed me a post at BornRich.org describing the Tryane II. The Tryane II is a car made of wood, completely by hand.
The car took 2000 hours of work, it is 900 lbs, 13' 7" long, 5' 4" wide and 4' 4" tall. It can drive up to a 100 miles per hour and gets between 55-70 miles per gallon. It is made of gaboon marine ply and mahogany veneers bonded with epoxy resin.
How crazy is that? Imagine seeing someone drive by you in that. Imagine this car crashing into yours. Ouch!
Man Tries to Cash $50K Check From God from SFGate.com shows how Kevin Russell tried to cash a check at a Chase Bank, that was from " "King Savior, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Servant."
In the Jewish orthodox world, there is a saying.
God Provides
There are many jokes that go along with that. For example, a young married man who may learn in yeshiva, and make very little money, may be asked - so how do you support your family. He would answer, "G-d provides." His father-in-law, who is standing next to him at the moment says, "it is OK, you don't have to call me your god."
Back to the article, this man may still be in Lake County Jail, if you want to visit him.
Just amazing!
I was driving to the bank a couple hours ago and I looked in the rear view mirror and saw this car. I looked closer and it was a Red Bull promotional truck.
I pulled out my treo and attempted to take some pictures of it. They aren't great, because I was driving and the Red Bull Truck was behind me.
I looked up some past Red Bull Cars and found this but that is a totally different car.
I spotted this while driving on Airmont Road, towards College Road, in Suffern, NY.
Anyway, thought this was interesting and would make a good personal blog post.
More pictures at Flickr.
I am a Mac user, but I found Charlie Brooker's I hate Macs rant to be very entertaining.
I hate Macs. I have always hated Macs. I hate people who use Macs. I even hate people who don't use Macs but sometimes wish they did. Macs are glorified Fisher-Price activity centres for adults; computers for scaredy cats too nervous to learn how proper computers work; computers for people who earnestly believe in feng shui.
Charlie, I am a Mac user but I don't hate PC users.
Charlie argues, "Ultimately the campaign's biggest flaw is that it perpetuates the notion that consumers somehow "define themselves" with the technology they choose." So you hate me, because I choose a Mac? Or you hate me because you think Mac users feel they are superior to PC users?
In any event, I love you. But, like you, I hate those Mac commercials.
Talking about a die hard Chicago Bears fan. Woman offers pregnant belly as ad space for Super Bowl tickets tells the story of a devoted Chicago Bears fan that wants tickets so bad to the Super Bowl that she is willing to sell her pregnant belly's ad space to get a pair of tickets.
Jennifer Gordon "self-professed "die hard" Chicago Bears fan is offering up her nearly nine-months pregnant belly space for advertisers to paint. She'll showcase it at the Feb. 4 Super Bowl, when the Bears play the Indianapolis Colts in Miami."
Her Craigslist ad reads:
I will agree to have your message painted on my belly visible to Super Bowl attendees and the millions of fans around the world who watch
This kid better be a sports fan, if not, he/she will have a sad life. I think the idea is cool - but I doubt my wife would ever do that. ;-)
I was talking to an old elementary school buddy about 4th grade this weekend. Side note: 4th grade may have been one of my favorite years in elementary school. In any event, I told him about how I remember finding a large piece of card board paper. I took that piece of card board paper and made it into a super big paper airplane.
I then opened opened the window in my class room, which was the class room at the highest point in that building. I stick the airplane through the screen (or did I take the screen off?). As I am ready to release the airplane from my hand, out into the playground yard, the school's principle stops in to say hi.
You have to understand, the principle rarely ever stops by. But he did at the exact moment I was about to launch this airplane out the window. He could of walked in 5 minutes before, or a few seconds after, but not. He walked in as I was in the motion.
I actually did not get in trouble for it. Nothing at all happened. Never knew why.
A flash from my past.
DIY Day by Danny at his personal blog (like that Danny), explains how he spent a large portion of his day doing odd jobs around the house. It included; hanging a mirror, hanging other things up, setting up Christmas lights, and other small jobs. Danny explains he rather pay someone to do this all for him, I agree - but the issue is that no one will come in to do such small jobs. Hence, the job of a husband is to hang up a new picture, set up Chanukah candles (in Danny's case, Christmas tree), install things that need to be installed and so on. What is great is the comment Danny's wife left on his blog. She wrote ins response to "Any task I undertake has to be accompanied by great huffing and noise. This is to establish for my wife what a huge effort I'm undertaking."
My god - if you spent the same effort doing DIY as you do blogging, the work would be done in half the time. The huffing doesn't make me think you're making a huge effort...it makes me think you're plonka. x
First I had to ask what "plonka" meant, and it means "idiot" in UK language. :)
I checked the 30 or so comments my wife made on my personal blog, none of them were that big of a ding to me. Huge kudo's to Mrs. Sullivan.
Why am I not afraid to show this to my wife? Well, I have only been married for a bit over 6 months. I am still in the period where I do stuff around the house. Oh, I did forget to take out the trash but my wife let that slide.
Great comment again!
I was checking some of the old web stats and noticed a number of referrals from hotornotdesigns.com/hot yesterday. I saw we were ranked number seven in the "hottest designs." Credit definitely goes to the designer here and to DaveN (for the cartoon barry).
So for now, I am hot.... hehe. :)
If swimming is good for your figure, explain whales to me.
A joke sent to me by a friend, it is part of a series of jokes, so maybe I'll share on each day.
One thing that can almost always make me laugh is a big fat man doing stupid things. That is exactly what Ask.com used in one of their latest promotions, in the UK. This YouTube video illustrates Ask.com's use of fat, naked humor to get people to use Ask.com. The Ask.com Challenge, as it is called, is to stop Sam (the fat man in the video) from dancing and stripping by searching at Ask.com.
Here is the video:
Oh, not only does searching at Ask stop Sam from dancing, it also can win you prizes.
Nice job Ask!
As I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable, Yahoo! Rents Out Hugh Hefner's Sky Villa in Palms Hotel but what really happened? Here is a run down of some candid images I took of some people who attended this event.
So I enter the suite:
I walk upstairs and find Rand cheating on his girlfriend!
But then he gets me and Andrew to jump on the bed with him, so I figure, he is not cheating on his girlfriend, he just wants to create some link bait...
But then I walk into the massage room and see him in this position!
Dirty dirty dirty Rand! You better clean off in Hugh's shower!
So then I walk back down the stairs, a bit stunned from what I experienced upstairs...
And I see ShoeMoney staring at one of the attractive looking bartenders. Shoe! You're married!
Nah, he was checking out the beer he was getting.
I have more pictures at Flickr, too funny.
A friend sent me this video of the famous LoneyGirl15 that you must listen to. She says something that makes you go - WOW! I was absolutely stunned by it. You got to listen...
The video is at http://youtube.com/watch?v=6cy8P1roPnQ.
Yea, I know her story was in the NY Times and all but still, this is nuts, just listen to it.
The AP reports that a teenager in Cedar Rapids, Iowa tried to scare a random driver with his BB gun. He pointed the gun at an unmarked cop car, the policemen got out and pointed back with their real .40-caliber Glock handguns. Wow! He said he was trying to scare people for the Halloween spirit.
"They thought it was a real gun," police Lt. Kenneth Washburn said. "He dropped the gun and attempted to run and was apprehended."Shelton told officers he was "just playing around" and trying to scare people during the Halloween night incident, police said.
The police charged him for "assault while displaying a dangerous weapon." He was later released to relatives.
Oh, the picture is from Flickr, it is not a picture of the kid who was charged.
Shmuly, a guy I met at a local lunch place one Friday, has posted this funny video of him using the gym equipment at a local Walmart to get his daily workout. Check it out his blog here. He writes some very interesting stuff.
He starts off by stretching, then lifting some weights, then the bicycle, then the treadmill, heck, I think he even does some fishing.
Good work out man!
So you all know I went to Yahoo! Monday and Tuesday. Heck, they gave me all this great Yahoo! shwag but it is important for me to tell you how wonderful they treated us. Let me break it down for you...
Pre-Trip:
- Ask if I am interested in going and what dates work best
- Follow up to make sure I am still interested
- Ask what is the best time for me to leave and come back
- They provide booking options from a few airports
- They provide a detailed schedule from point A to point B emailed several days prior to leaving
The Trip:
- I land in LAX
- Driver is waiting to take me to Yahoo!'s headquarters
- The receptionist is expecting me and calls over Yahoo! rep
- Yahoo! rep and a few other Yahoo! reps welcome me
- They take me to a conference room and other Yahoo! reps great me
- They give me great Yahoo! shwag
- They help me get Internet connection (stealing an ethernet port from an open computer)
- I have full access to Yahoo!'s network (ouch!)
- They bring in glatt kosher food for me at lunch
- Plenty of caffeine throughout the day
- They have a limo waiting for us to take us to the hotel
- The beautiful and comfortable Graciela Burbank hotel was outstanding
- They invite us to a sweet and expensive restaurant for dinner (i didn't go)
- After dinner, they went bowling
- I spent $30 for a 10oz Diet Coke and bag of pretzels
- I realized there was a super market next door
- Limo waiting for us in AM to take us back to Yahoo
- We are greeted again by receptionist
- Yahoo! feeds us again
- We go to new room and we get net access (sharing ethernet cables)
- Feed us again
- Give out more YPN invites
- Give us invites to a party coming up
- Driver waiting to take me back to LAX
- Flight on time
They treated us so well. I am not sure if I am allows to mention names here. But a huge thank you to all at Yahoo! You treated us all so well and we appreciate it. I cannot imagine how much time and effort you put into this. But it definitely shows.
I just feel bad walking around at Yahoo! all day with the Ask.com Timbuk2 bag. Towards the end of the meet, I got smart and placed my "Yahoo! Passport" entry card on top of the Ask.com logo. I still love you Ask, dont worry, just being respectful. :)
Thank you Yahoo!
Two girls won the legal right to play on the Winnipeg school boys hockey team. In any event, they didn't make the cut in try outs.
The funny part is that now the boys want to be allowed to try out for the various girl teams. The Winnipeg Sun reports;
Joe, a Grade 12 student at a south Winnipeg high school, is one of a handful of boys who have come forward to request tryouts on girls' school teams in the wake of last week's Manitoba Human Rights Commission ruling.
Now that is funny.
Just got a wonderful gift from my friends at Ask.com, I believe Gary Price is to thank for this, so thank you Gary...
I got this wonderful Ask.com Water Bottle...
Which came in this neat Ask.com Tote Bag...
In the tote bag was an Ask.com T-Shirt and Ask.com Hat, which I am sporting here...
And the coolest Ask.com Schwag, is this Ask.com Messenger Bag...
Thank you Gary and Ask.com - Jim, did you have any part of this?
Update: Yes, I took the pictures with my web cam, iSight. Yes, I was too lazy to reverse them in Photoshop. No, Photobooth does not have a mirror image option. Yes, that is a Timbuk 2 Commute bag.
Learning to drive? Parallel parking is a hard thing to do, for new drivers. But parallel parking with a dog in the way is even more challenging.
There is this online flash game that will help you Park Perfectly.
There are only four or so stages.
(1) Park your car in a spot, front forward
(2) Park your car in a spot, by backing in
(3) Park your can in a spot, by parallel parking
(4) Park your car in a spot, by parallel parking and with a dog in the way
You cannot hit an other car, a wall or the dog!
Neat game, play it here.
I heard this on the news this morning, that Yankees Fan Jack Nicholson Refused To Wear Red Sox Cap in New Film. The director of the film is Martin Scorsese and he was the one who could not convince Jack Nicholson to put on the red sox hat on. Deal is, Nicholson is playing a role as a Boston, Massachusetts, gangster. S'more details at NY Mag.com.
Even worse, Jack’s sadistic Irish Southie is so evil that he wears a Yankees hat on the streets of Boston. “First of all, they wanted me to wear a Red Sox hat,” he grumbles, “but I said, all things being equal, I don’t want to.“My Yanks, they came before the Lakers, of course,” says the Jersey native. “But Kristen [Dalton], my inamorata in the picture, she wore a Red Sox cap both to subtly indicate domestic conflict and to politically mollify the fans in Boston.”
And Yankee fans are proud in this forum.
I am all about bringing to light some of Microsoft's misfortune, heck why not? Below is a video of Microsoft demonstrating their voice recognition software, and it totally not working.
Microsoft blamed "ambient noises" for the problem, but did you hear anything prior to the test failing? More here.
Too funny.
WebMD has an article says 2 Out of 3 Americans Don't Wash Hands. Wow! Shocking!
A thousand Americans participated, evenly split between men and women. All were at least 18 years old.Here are the percentages who admitted they might not wash their hands properly in these situations:
- After sneezing or coughing: 37%
- After handling animals or pets: 27%
- Before eating or handling food: 10%
- After going to the toilet: 7%
- A bit more than three in 10 said they wouldn't skip or skimp on hand washing in any of those situations. But the remaining 69% didn't make that clean-hands claim.
But Germans have dirtier hands than American's.
So how can you better wash your hands, the article says?
Or get a singing, music playing soap dispenser. You can buy the Soap Genie™ Automatic Dispenser, which plays a charming musical chime while you wash at, Amazon.com, SkyMall, Sharper Image or other fine retailers.
Advertisers often pay more to have a radio personality read a scripted advertisement live on the radio, then to play a pre-recorded commercial. This morning I was listening to Q 104.3 on the radio on the way to work and heard live scripted commercial for Purina dog food. He was reading off the script and then ad-libbing to the commercial, to make it stand out. As he was talking, you can hear the co-host in the background holding in her giggles. It was pretty humorous, I mean, it sounded to me that Jim Kerr was having way too much fun with the commercial. :)
Hey, I enjoyed it.
One of the stories I covered today was about how Google may be classified as an investment fund company because they have more than 40% of their assets in investments. While I was covering the story, I was on the phone with someone. We were talking about scheduling something on a Monday. But at the same time, I was writing the title of the blog post.
Original (Typo) Title: "Google Has Too Much Monday, Possibly Classified As Investment Fund"
Real Title: "Google Has Too Much Money, Possibly Classified As Investment Fund"
I bolded the typo to add some emphasis.
So if you did a search in Google News for Google throughout the day you may have seen:
Yea, pretty embarrassing. But also a bit funny. I actually got Monday to be bold by searching in Google News for monday. :)
I was wondering why I didn't get a hundred emails from people who noticed this typo. I mean, it was like that for well over an hour. So I asked the IRC WebmasterRadio.FM chat room and one person said...
that is actually pretty funny.... I saw that in my RSS reader and, while it confused the hell outta me, I just accepted it that you guys knew more than me, and it was some type of weird investemnt-related terminology
Wow, dangerous.
Sorry about that guys.
Buddy DaveN has posted a video of (I think) one of his employees running around a traffic circle naked. Now that can cause a huge accident. Im surprised no one got hurt. Or...
Upset I shared this with you?
Also, what is it with Brits finding naked men running naked in the public so funny?
I finally made it into one of the blog entries of the new Men of SEO blog. It is a blog by an SEO chicklet, who talks about "the men of seo." Here latest post is about Bearded Babes, and she has a roundup of those with goatees. In the group are Martinibuster, Stuntdubl, Matt Cutts, WebGuerrilla and myself.
What did she say about me specifically?
Barry Schwartz of RustyBrick smiles, knowing the 2 guys behind him don't stand a chance.
Stand a chance to grow a goatee, I guess. :)
Oh, that is Andy with the thumbs up, right above me.
I subscribe to a ton of blogs, as you can see by a select few listed on my link farm. One such blog is the Yahoo! Shopping Blog where they post interesting products listed at Yahoo! Shopping every now and then. The latest entry they posted about is a computer bag made specifically for a blogger. Yea, a blogger bag.
Timbuk2 makes a bag called Blogger, a bag for a blogger!!!
Timbuk2's newest computer bag "the Blogger" is a vertical shoulder bag featuring ballistic nylon exterior, classic Timbuk2 three-panel design and a built-in padded laptop compartment (fits 15" laptop). Two exterior pockets and rubberized bottom keep contents protected at all times. Padded shoulder strap adds comfort and convenience.
Features Listed specifically for bloggers?
It seems like this bag would fit my current 15" PowerBook and I am sure my new MacBook Pro. I currently use a bag from Lands End that I have personalized with rustybrick.com on the front flap. Wonder if this "blogger bag" would be more useful and helpful to me???
I most likely would buy this blogger back, if I could personalize it as well.
Here are images of the outside and inside of this blogger bag.
Prices start at $80, find more at Yahoo! Shopping.
I am still getting over that a company designed a bag specifically for a blogger. I am also still trying to figure out why this bag is not for a computer geek, as opposed to a blogger?
Blogger bag features I would like to see added include:
Gets me thinking... The RustyBlogger Bag... :)
Cute, very cute - http://bigbluepineapplechair.wordpress.com/.
Re: Big Blue Pineapple Chair and The Obscure Query Revisited: A Look at SEM Forum Discussion which is now resolved, but not fully because of the above.
Made me laugh. Too funny.
Watch this video until the video tells you to look away. I know it gets boring, but keep watching until the video says stop. Then, watch Cartoon Barry do a little wave shuffle.
http://www.ask.com/web?q=lederhosen
http://images.google.com/images?q=lederhosen
http://images.ask.com/pictures?q=lederhosen
Click for a larger image.
Need I say more? Want the story behind it? See here.
Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.
The Yahoo! Video blog posted this video of a hamster really running quickly. So quickly that it, well, looses control.
This video kind of reminds me of Sonic The Hedgehog, I used to play that game years ago. Now he was quick! There is a pretty detailed wikipedia entry on Sonic the Hedgehog, if you are interested.
Back to the hamster, gotta love that, don't ya.
So as you know, I am in St. Louis this week. We drove by this Amoco station, which is now a BP station and I was amazed by the size of this sign. I had to come back to the camera, so I did. Look at how big this sign is. It must be some sort of landmark for the Amoco sign to remain while the station has been converted to the BP brand.
It seems like I am not the only one fascinated with this Amoco sign. Seems like many others tagged pictures at Flickr with the keywords amoco and some even with amaco but many of the images are of this particular station.
The station is named Hi-Pointe Amoco, St. Louis, MO and is located at the corner of Skinker and Clayton in St. Louis, Missouri. I have posted more pictures of it at Flickr.
My brother-in-law sent me this after confirming that this billboard is actually up on 54th and 7th in Manhattan, New York.
Now that is too funny.
Don't mess with smart & witty women. But more importantly, don't cheat on your wife.
Blogging My Life...