One of my guys here just received an email from someone asking him to give him his email address. Got that? This guy emailed someone for their email address.

If you don't get it yet, let me explain it another way. It is like calling someone's cell phone number and then asking them to give them their cell phone number. Hey, you just dialed my cell phone number.

Here an edited out screen shot of this email:

The guy is serious. He emailed a specific email address, asking for the email address that he just emailed.

I cannot get over this.

Posted at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (5)

I had a meeting recently and when I entered the lobby, I noticed a picture of the guy I was going to meet with.

I personally found it a bit strange to see a picture of the individual in his own lobby. It is not like this company is a talent agency or something. They do very technical stuff, in a very specialized market. To have a picture of this person in the company's lobby, just seemed out of place.

I was thinking, maybe I should hang a picture of me (see up and right) in the lobby of RustyBrick. Think it would be a good idea?

It kind of reminds me of that show my wife likes, Flipping Out. The guy, I forget his name (update, Jeff Lewis), has a self-portrait of himself behind his desk (see image 8 of 11). So when you are sitting at his desk, facing him - you are forced to look at two of him.

Maybe that is a good intimidation factor? Maybe I should do that? Hmmm.... Or maybe not.

SEO Side Note: That episode I saw had Jeff Lewis and his "partner" of some sorts argue about his web site. Supposedly, his partner bid on his name in AdWords. He basically showed ads for this guys name and drove them to his web site. Then when Jeff made his own web site, he used a .tv TLD, and Jeff said, he learned the hard way that .tv domains don't rank in Google. LOL - funny all the myths in SEO. .TV domains do rank in Google, but .tv is a country level top level domain (TLD) for islands of Tuvalu and thus Google geo-targets it for that region, unless you specific you do not want it to be geo-targeted in Google Webmaster Tools. Ah, SEO - too much fun.

Posted at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (2)

Can't believe this, just cannot believe this.

Posted at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (2)

I just don't get it. I get the weirdest phone calls ever. Seriously, you got to read this. Here is how the phone call went...

Caller: Guy calls our 800# and asks, do you know how long it takes to get from Suffern to some city name.

Me: Excuse me?

Caller: Yes, do you know how long it takes to drive from Suffern to city name goes here?

Me: First of all, I never heard of that city name. Second of all, why in the world would you call RustyBrick to get that type of information?

Here is the kicker people...

Caller: Well, I "Googled" companies in Suffern, hoping they would know.

Me: You what?! Did you ever hear of Google Maps?

Caller: Yes, I have.

Me: So, just go to Google Maps and type in [Suffern to cityname] and it will tell you.

Caller: Oh, okay - thanks.

Seriously, I get the weirdest phone calls. Ronnie told me, this is what you get for ranking too high. I don't think that is the reason we get so many weird calls...

Posted at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (1)

I normally do not hesitate before writing a blog post, but this time I did. In the past ten days, I have heard about three suicides. These are from people I know who were impacted by this - thankfully I personally did not know them, but this was not just blatant news. Before this, I think I knew of one suicide in my life time. Thankfully, I have never had a direct friend or family member who went that route.

Suicide is something I simply cannot understand. I just can't comprehend it. No matter how bad life is for you - I just can't understand why someone would do it. Don't get me wrong, I am not judging anyone - I am just saying, I don't understand the rational.

No matter how bad things are, committing suicide hurts so many more people. I hate to say this publicly, but to me, it seems like a selfish act. Of course, I cannot comprehend how bad life is for people who think about doing such acts - so me saying that, is easy for me to say and does unjust to those who suffer with these conditions (if it is a condition).

I just wonder, do sane people commit suicide?

Religiously, I know both in Judaism and Christianity, suicide is frowned upon. In the Jewish world, someone who commits suicide technically should not have a eulogy and should not be buried in the main section of a Jewish cemetery. I think similar rules apply in other religions. But many Rabbis get around this rule due to the sanity claim. If a person was not him/herself then it really was a sickness and thus the person can be given a proper funeral. I get that.

Which gets me back to the question, do sane people commit suicide?

There are certain, but rare, circumstances where Jews are allowed to take their own life. I forget all the situations, but they are rare.

Tough topic - just incredible that three people that I know have experience a friend or family member take such extreme action to end their suffering.

Posted at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (12)

Tamar sent me this video. You have to watch it:

Posted at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (3)

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!

Posted at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Funny , Just Weird , Religion | Comments (4)

Last year, at exactly 8/8/08 at 8:08 I captured the time on my computer. This year, I forgot cause I got busy. Err!

But Google has a Doodle up for the event.

There is nothing more exciting or important then this right now!

Posted at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (0)

This morning, I took a bag of M&Ms to snack on. The interesting part, outside of my wife who will scold me later for eating them, is that when I poured some out, only orange ones came out.

I promise, I did not make this up. The bag was mixed with all colors, but when I looked down to eat one, I saw that they were all orange, at least the ones that came out of the bag. I snapped a picture, cause it was interesting.

No, I did not make this up and separate out only orange ones, simply to blog about something. I am not that type of desperate blogger.

In any event, what does this mean? Some type of sign from G0d? Should I be worried? :)

Posted at 9:28 AM | Permalink | Category: Food , Just Interesting , Just Weird | Comments (6)

Today I am back in the office. I probably won't be here all day, but I need to prepare for my iPhone arriving tomorrow ;-). In any event, I am pretty much isolated in my little office here and I posted a sign to make sure the RBers stay away.

Do you think this sign will do the trick?

Awkwardly cute?

Posted at 9:57 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (0)

I don't know how to write this in a nice way. Every now and then, a random person (sometimes two people together) walks into my office, looking for money for the charity they collect for.

Typically it works like this...

The person(s) walk in, look around, walk past the front area where 3 people sit. They peek into the various offices and find me. They find me, I guess because of my door sign and then they don't ask me if I have a minute, they just close my door and sit down in the chair(s) on the opposite end of my desk.

No matter what I am doing, they just sit down and start talking to me.

They ask about me, where I grew up, etc. It is often hard to be not nice to them and yell at them to leave. Why? Well, often they are older people and I have this strong thing about respect, especially respecting older people. So I try to be nice and patient.

In fact, I am not too nice to sales people who solicit when there are no soliciting signs. But in a sense, these people looking for money for their charities are soliciting as well and yes, there is a no soliciting sign posted in the building.

After they are done talking, I try with the utmost respect to tell them that this is not the right place or time to do this. Some times I tell them they cannot just walk into an office, unannounced, and take up people's time. But I only do that if they keep coming back.

I rarely ever give money to people who ask for charity in my office. I do in other places, i.e. outside super markets, in synagogue, my home, etc but not in my office.

Also, I give a nice amount of my money to charity. At least 15% of my income goes to charity of some sort. It is called צדקה Tzedakah in Hebrew.

There just seems something wrong with someone walking in without calling, asking for money. But I always feel bad turning them away.

Posted at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (5)

Do I have to worry if I start finding RustyBrick code marked up with ASCII art of this?

                       ,
                      dM
                      MMr
                     4MMML                  .
                     MMMMM.                xf
     .              "M6MMM               .MM-
      Mh..          +MM5MMM            .MMMM
      .MMM.         .MMMMML.          MMMMMh
       )MMMh.        MM5MMM         MMMMMMM
        3MMMMx.     'MMM3MMf      xnMMMMMM"
        '*MMMMM      MMMMMM.     nMMMMMMP"
          *MMMMMx    "MMM5M\    .MMMMMMM=
           *MMMMMh   "MMMMM"   JMMMMMMP
             MMMMMM   GMMMM.  dMMMMMM            .
              MMMMMM  "MMMM  .MMMMM(        .nnMP"
   ..          *MMMMx  MMM"  dMMMM"    .nnMMMMM*
    "MMn...     'MMMMr 'MM   MMM"   .nMMMMMMM*"
     "4MMMMnn..   *MMM  MM  MMP"  .dMMMMMMM""
       ^MMMMMMMMx.  *ML "M .M*  .MMMMMM**"
          *PMMMMMMhn. *x > M  .MMMM**""
             ""**MMMMhx/.h/ .=*"
                      .3P"%....
                    nP"     "*MMnx

Just kidding... When I saw the article of Red Bull Cola could be banned in Germany - after traces of cocaine are found in it I joked about our tremendous amount of RedBull (which is now gone) and Jimmy (who hasn't blogged in months) said, "whatever makes us write the code faster right boss!?"

What happens when you try more creative drugs like LSD or Marijuana while coding? Do you see this type of ASCII art in your code comments?

Would be funny but crazy...

Posted at 2:21 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (1)

This morning, I woke up in a panic. I had a nightmare! The dream is a bit foggy to me now, but I'll try to recap the main points.

Somehow, I ended up in a cell phone store. Somehow, they convinced me to trade in my iPhone for a Blackberry. I honestly do not know how they convinced me to do so. But I gave up my iPhone and had a blue Blackberry device.

I came home or left the store and was with friends. I then take out my phone and I see it is a Blackberry. I begin to panic. I need my iPhone, I am lost with this junky Blackberry.

I then wake up and look around and see my iPhone in my trusty iHome. I felt a overwhelming relief and then went back to bed.

What a nightmare! I am not kidding.

Posted at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (4)

You sometimes hear of underground networks of terrorists or other groups, using newspapers or web publications secretly to pass encoded messages to one an other. I don't know much about how this works or if it is real.

I often joke about one blog post on the Search Engine Roundtable named Lost? Google Mobile Phone Locator Will Find You. I posted it in November 2007 and since then, it gets a constant stream of comments, with phone numbers. It now has well over 400 comments and those comments did not come in a single day, they come almost every day, a few at a time.

I often wonder if a group of people are using the comments area in that blog post to exchange ideas and plans. Just scan through some of the comments. Most take the form of, "I lost my phone, here is the number." But why would someone bother with that? Maybe people are stupid?

Maybe I am stupid for writing this. Do I believe people are using my blog for terrorist planning? I really don't. But sometimes, I wonder - "what if."

Posted at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (3)

Lawyers scare me. I admit it. Most things don't scare me. But lawyers do.

A couple weeks ago, I received a subpoena from a law firm, requesting information about an employee. The thing is, that individual is not an employee, he is an independent contractor. So I called the law firm requesting the information and the assistant told me to just send the lawyer an email that this person is an independent contractor. So I did.

Today, a strange man walked in and handed me a subpoena. I have been served. I have never been served before. So I told this guy that I sent the information via email. He wasn't interested in talking. I then asked him, nicely, please - just tell me what I should do now.

He said, email them again and also mail them a response. So what I did now was, resend the email, print the email out and mail it to them and also left the assistant a voicemail.

As I am writing this entry, the assistant called me back and said, I don't need to do anything. They sent the subpoena two ways, one via certified mail and one via messenger. I told her, I want confirmation that we are okay. I don't want to get in trouble, I said. She said, you won't get in trouble, they have everything they need. I said, just please reply to my email that we are good. She said they would.

Lawyers make me squirm. Nothing against lawyers, as people, just professionally, they make me feel weird.

And before I hit the "post" button, the assistant confirmed receiving my email and that they don't need anything else. So I am much relieved.

Posted at 2:49 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (5)

I rarely look outside my office window. The office window it to my back, and since I am always blogging, I rarely turn around to look outside. But today, I noticed something, and I looked. It is an old, crusty, dead bird. Here is a picture:

Must have been from a couple days ago, at least. The head seems to be detached.

I have a history of spotting dead birds. I suspect they just love flying into these windows. Here are my older posts:

• Birds Fly Into My Office Window, September 6, 2006
• Dead Bird After Window Accident, August 14, 2007
• Bird on Crack Cocaine Dies on Friday, December 7th 2007, December 7, 2007

Posted at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (4)

Right now, it is 8:08 am (EST), on the 8th of August (8), in 2008.

Picture from my Computer's clock and calendar:

Posted at 8:08 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (3)

This woman got struck by lightening while on camera. Watch it:

Now, she explained:

Because you insisted, here's the unedited screaming version. I also added video from a minute before the lightning struck so you can get an idea of how hard it was raining. From what i understand, it went through my left hand holding the camera, crossed my back and exited out of my right hand holding onto the metal railing. No entry or exit wounds, as i was not directly struck, i got just a really good zap from one of the "finger arcs" that happen when lightning hits.

Wow!

Posted at 9:13 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Interesting , Just Weird | Comments (1)

Offering my nearly new baby for sale, as it has gotten too loud. It is a male baby, nearly 28 inches long and can be used either in a baby carrier or a stroller.

That is how the ad read on eBay, after the 23-year-old mother and 24-year-old-father placed that listing. The parents live near, Unterallgäu, southwestern part of Bavaria, Germany. They posted the ad as a joke, and that joke got their new baby boy taken away from them.

Case dropped against parents who put baby on eBay from the AP reports $1.59 EURO sale price got them into big trouble over "possible child trafficking." But after the prosecutor dug deeper, he learned that this was really just a joke that went bad.

How long did this couple have their kid taken from them? "Several days" reports the AP who spoke with the parent's deputy chief of youth services.

How crazy!

Posted at 2:13 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (3)

Last night, I was taking things out of my trunk, when I noticed a bag in the corner. I keep my car very clean, so it just seemed out of place. When I took the bag out, I noticed a gallon of water, shriveled up and slightly damp.

Here is a picture of this bottle of water, after taking it out of my trunk:

I have no idea how long I left it in my car, but the heat clearly got to it. The corner of the trunk this water was in, was pretty damp.

You see what happens when you work 18 hour days and have no life? You blog about water bottles shriveling up. :)

Posted at 8:52 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (2)

UPS just arrived with several deliveries, but one delivery stood out as being weird. I received a package from Bed, Bath & Beyond. The package was originally mailed to my old home, but somehow reached my office's address (UPS is smart like that). I opened the box to find that it was a present, here is a picture:

Yippie! But I decided to look closer. I noticed the gift card and read it. It reads:

I scratched my head... Who is this Amy? I decided to look at the packing slip. I noticed on the packing slip that this was ordered just about a week ago. Who would mail me a gift over two years after my wedding? I looked at the name and called my wife. We both had no idea who it was.

I assumed at that point that something is wrong. I received a gift from someone's registry. Did someone accidently purchase something from my registry, which is still live at Bed, Bath & Beyond!

This brought me back to an older post I did at the Search Engine Roundtable named Wedding Registries Being Indexed Causing Fraudulent Registry Orders. It seemed like people were buying items off my wedding registry and shipping it to other places. Yes, I believe we didn't get everything that was 'purchased' off our register. Is the same thing happening to a different new couple? Did I get their gift? Doesn't seem 100% logical.

I am not sure what is going on. But I will make sure to return the Oxo Good Grips 11" Whisk to Bed, Bath & Beyond and have them deal with this mess.

Posted at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (3)

You know how you can "Search by Company" in Facebook? Well, I recently noticed that a couple Facebook users who are not and were never part of my company, were listed in my company directory in Facebook.

So, I asked around if there was an easy way, as the company admin in Facebook, to remove false employees. No one had an answer, and some people asked me to blog about it when I did get the answer.

So I decided to use the report abuse form at Facebook to ask them. Last night, I received a response that said:

These users are not in your work network. Unfortunately, there is no way to remove this information. Sorry for the inconvenience. Let me know if you have other questions or problems.

Thanks for contacting Facebook,

Well, it seems like one of the users - who was actually pretty good looking, was removed. I assume it was a fake account and they banned that account. The other user, Ernest Lau Facebook ID 14304505, is still listed in my company profile. So, if I wanted to edit my work profile and list myself under, um - Facebook, that would be cool with them? I doubt it.

Anyway, if you want to become a friend of mine on Facebook, here is my profile. While you are at it, my twitter account and linkedin account.

Posted at 8:57 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (0)

Here is a video of Microsoft's CEO getting egged during a presentation at Budapest University in Hungary.

Now, I am not a Microsoft fan on many fronts. But this is totally not appropriate on so many levels. It is childish, it looks so bad for the school and for the person. There are better ways to make your point, IMO.

Posted at 9:42 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (2)

Okay, I am taking you all to one of the most private places I go - the bathroom. I would consider a bathroom very private, maybe not all of you do - but I do. Even public bathrooms are private, where you go to take care of your most private matters. Kings, dictators, and so on mostly hide the fact that they went to the bathroom. Of course they went, but it was something that wasn't proper to talk about. In my opinion, it is a private matter.

This morning, I went to use the bathroom in my office building. Yes, I use the bathroom. :) When I walked in, I heard someone talking in Russian. I then looked around and noticed the voice was coming from a person in a stall, talking to someone on his cell phone.

I know people talk on their phone while in their personal bathroom. As you can see from the image above, many hotels have a phone in the bathroom for that reason. Personally, I find it weird to talk on the phone while taking care of your most personal and private business. But yes, many people do talk on the phone while doing that. It just isn't for me.

I think you take it to a whole new level when you bring your phone conversations into a public bathroom. It makes me uncomfortable to hear someone talking on their phone while in a public bathroom. Standing by the sink and talking is one thing, but...

Again, I have nothing against bathroom phone talkers. Just another personal blog post on my personal preferences.

Posted at 9:11 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (8)

This morning, outside of the elevator up to my office, I found money. It wasn't a huge amount, but it wasn't just a dollar. I don't want to say how much, because I might use that to return the money to it's owner - if possible.

I have a few options:
(1) I can keep it, which I think is legal and also in accordance with Jewish law (in this situation).
(2) I can give it to charity.
(3) I can post a sign in the elevator saying, if you lost money call ###. Then if people call, I can quiz them on information about the money (i.e. how much, where, how many bills, etc.)

My concern with number three is that I would get a ton of calls from different people. Then they might get mad at me if I determine they are not the rightful owners of the money. It just can get hairy and for the amount, it is likely not worth fighting over.

Just not sure what to do here... I never found money before.

Posted at 8:41 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (12)

Today marks the day of a second dead bird I found outside my office building. Here is a picture:

From the looks of the crime scene, the bird was on some major crack cocaine. Kids, listen when I tell you, stay off the crack! If not, you can be like that bird.

In any event, this is not the first time a bird died outside my window. There was a dead bird from a window accident several months ago. I am telling you, birds love my windows.

FYI - there is nothing I can do about the windows. It is an office building and I only sit by a few of them.

Posted at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (1)

I was thinking up the best present for my wife this Chanukah and then I saw these puppies.

Silver post PowerBook earrings reported by Tuaw. You can buy them at 925Works.com and they come in earrings, as shown above or bracelets, or Cuff Links.

Now that is style!

Pretty sweet.

Posted at 9:57 AM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs , Just Weird | Comments (3)

I was scanning my RSS feeds and saw a headline that read Man in India Marries Dog As Atonement.

At first, I just clicked away. Then I thought for a second and said, what did that say?

So I searched my Google Reader feed for "Man in India" (outstanding feature in Google Reader, btw) and yea, it said Man in India Marries Dog As Atonement.

Man in India Marries Dog As Atonement!!!!

A man in southern India married a female dog in a traditional Hindu ceremony as an attempt to atone for stoning two other dogs to death — an act he believes cursed him — a newspaper reported Tuesday.

P. Selvakumar married the sari-draped former stray named Selvi, chosen by family members and then bathed and clothed for the ceremony Sunday at a Hindu temple in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, the Hindustan Times newspaper said.

A religious ceremony? If so, then cool with me. Just seems a tad off. But so do some things in my religion. :)

Posted at 2:26 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (2)

Here are two pictures Judah sent me. I really don't have much to say about them.

Why paint your car, wallpaper it with computer chips:

Got enough screens there pal?

Posted at 9:39 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (2)

There is almost a profession for anything. Now, there are Professional Line Waiters, and they are utilized for just that.

Remember the iPhone craze? Well, it is now going on in the UK as the lines begin to fill up for the release of the iPhone in the UK. You pay these guys to stand in line for you and buy the item you want.

How much do they make? Reports say they make about $250 per day.

Yes, it is a hard job:

So how much can that turn into for a year? Let's say you work 300 of the 365 days per year, all of it, waiting in line. That is $75,000 per year for waiting in line.

Posted at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird , iPhone | Comments (5)

There is this company that is receiving some buzz named GoodBarry. They basically offers a hosted solution for website creation, lead management, email marketing, online shopping, blogging, and business analytics.

What is with the colors and naming it Barry? Those are my colors, that is my name!

The about page says:

Who is this Barry guy?

Barry is the customer support "alter ego" of our CEO Bardia Housman. Bardia's a customer focussed kinda-guy, so he always liked to get his hands dirty and help out with the customer support and software development - but he'd always sign off as Barry.

Why’d you call yourselves GoodBarry?

As CEO, software developer and customer support rep you can imagine that "Barry" had the powers to grant a lot of our customers' wishes. As the resident online business genie, Barry quickly become loved and known for his quick responses and willingness to help.

This is both cool and a bit worrisome to me.

Posted at 9:57 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (7)

Every single time I open my IM client to see my 80+ active 'buddies' I get a request from a rickz4508 to chat.

It is like on an auto request feature. Every single time I open my IM client, I get the request. It looks like this:

So RickZ4508, please stop, please! Or if you want to connect, at least tell me who you are. Or maybe you are just a virus wanting to be downloaded?

Posted at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (1)

I am not kidding. If you use the Internet, you can die! So stop reading and shut off your internet now!

Why are you still reading?

Man in China dies after three-day Internet session from Reuters reports a Chinese man died after using the internet for three-days.

A Chinese man dropped dead after playing Internet games for three consecutive days, state media said on Monday as China seeks to wean Internet addicts offline.

What! Say again!

The man from the southern boomtown of Guangzhou, aged about 30, died on Saturday after being rushed to the hospital from the Internet cafe, local authorities were quoted by the Beijing News as saying.

Huh! You kidding?

What happened exactly? They think he died from exhaustion brought on by too many hours on the Internet.

Why are you still reading this? Are you asking for it? If you are, you can read more at Google AP.

Posted at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (3)

First, watch this video of a B-52 flight test uploaded to YouTube about one year ago.

Yea, see that huge plane take a nose dive and crash?

That is the same model of a plane that accidently took nuclear warheads over North Dakota to Louisiana.

Air Force investigates mistaken transport of nuclear warheads from CNN reports that a B-52 bomber carried six nuclear warheads between Minot Air Force Base to Barksdale Air Force Base last Thursday. It was a total accident. It was not in accordance with Air Force rules.

Shepperd said the United States had agreed in a Cold War-era treaty not to fly nuclear weapons. "It appears that what happened was this treaty agreement was violated," he said.

Supposedly, the crew on that flight had no idea that this plane was carrying the warheads.

"Secretary [of Defense Robert] Gates was quickly informed of this incident ... and he has been receiving daily briefings from Gen. Buzz Moseley, the Air Force chief of staff, on actions that the Air Force is taking and the progress of their investigation," Morrell told reporters Wednesday.

"I can also tell you that it's important enough that President Bush was notified of it."

Ok, now back to the video at the top.

Feel safe? ;-)

Posted at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (2)

I am not feeling to well. Starting last night, couldn't stop sneezing and had a runny nose.

This morning and now I feel pretty bad, I may have fever, I dunno.

Here is a picture of my eyes, via my iPhone.

It is never a good time to get sick, is it? Well, maybe the weekends.

I used to get sick only on Fridays, which worked out well. I would sleep the whole weekend and not miss any work. I guess it can't always work that way. So here I am at work, probably with a fever. At least I have an appetite (no comments from family ;-) )

Posted at 1:18 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (4)

$1.5 Million Yacht Plunges Nose-First Into the Ocean from Gizmodo is a true story.

That $1.5 million yacht slipped right off its sling when being lowered into the water and bam.

It ended up upside down.

Snopes.com confirmed the story.

A marketing representative with Carver Yachts confirmed that this explanation is basically correct:

We are aware of this accident. The sling broke while it was being placed in the water. They are legitimate pictures that you have forwarded on to us.

Thanks Judah for the tip.

Posted at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (2)

People buy gun safes to keep children away from their guns.

Boy, 10, Gets Locked in Store's Gun Safe from the AP reports that a young boy got locked in a gun safe while at a Sam's Club.

Reportedly, the kid was locked in the safe for 15 minutes.

Daniel's mother, Laura Jancura, had brought him, his older brother and a cousin on a shopping outing. The boys came across the safe — which is 5 feet tall, 30 inches wide and 22 inches deep — while she wasn't looking.

Playing with the key pad on the lock, they somehow managed to open the door. Daniel crawled inside and the door locked behind him.

Now, is there a way to make sure a 5 feet tall, 30 inches wide and 22 inches deep safe will not lock while being demo'ed on the store floor?

Hmmm...

Posted at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (1)

Sad news people.

I found this outside my office building, pretty much, just about where my office window lines up.

Yes, sad. I found it lying there, dead, on it's back, with those little feet up in the air.

I have this issue, Birds Fly Into My Office Window way too often. But I believe this is the first dead one I saw outside of my office.

So sad.

Posted at 3:01 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (21)

Talk about crazy...

Surgically alters thumbs to better use iPhone from North Denver News reports Thomas Martel, a 28 year-old, had his thumbs surgically altered in a form of "whittling." This surgery allowed him to easy type on his iPhone, since he had large thumbs.

"From my old Treo, to my Blackberry, to this new iPhone, I had a hard time hitting the right buttons, and I always lost those little styluses," explains Martel. "Sure, the procedure was expensive, but when I think of all the time I save by being able to use modern handhelds so much faster, I really think the surgery will pay for itself in ten to fifteen years. And what it's saving me in frustration - that's priceless."

The surgery involved "making a small incision into both thumbs and shaving down the bones, followed by careful muscular alteration and modification of the fingernails." The Doctor said "We're turning plastic surgery from something that people use in service of vanity, to a real tool for improving workplace efficiency."

Posted at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs , Just Weird , iPhone | Comments (3)

Woman Has Pencil Removed From Head from the WashingtonPost reports a woman has decided to finally remove a pencil stuck in her head after 55 years.

Yes, she had a pencil stuck in her head for 55 years and only now decided to remove it. Here is an xray of the head:

Pretty hair... :)

When she was 4, she fell while carrying a pencil. Yup, it went through her cheek, and into her head and remained their until this week. Now at 59, the pencil, which has been such a big part of her life, has been excavated from her head.

Of course, back then, she couldn't do much to remove the pencil. Now, with medicine and technology, they were able to remove it.

And now Wegner, the wife of German boxing coach Ulli Wegner, will no longer have the headaches and nosebleeds, and her sense of smell should also return soon, Behrbohm said.

Posted at 9:38 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (2)

The picture from Reuters really tells the whole story.

Elton John's war on the web from The Age reports that Elton John wants the Internet to vanish.

He is clearly not making enough from sales of his latest albums so he said, "Hopefully the next movement in music will tear down the internet."

"I do think it would be an incredible experiment to shut down the whole internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced over that span," he said.

The funny thing is that in March this year Elton John had a deal with Apple to make his entire music catalogue of 400 tracks available through iTunes music store.

Let's kill the Internet, because of people who steal music. Errr...

Posted at 9:52 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (2)

Ariz. hospital sends patient a $49M bill from Seattle PI reports that a hospital sent out the wrong bill to 587 patients who were treated at Northern Cochise Community Hospital in Willcox.

One patient received a bill for $49 million, while many received bills for over $100,000.

"The highest statement is $49 million," Aguirre said. "I can't wait to hear from that person."

How did this happen? They installed new computer software to manage their billing, which caused a glitch with the invoicing.

This should all be resolved within 10 business day.

Posted at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (5)

Man Beats Peacock He Says Was Vampire via the Washington Post reports that a man beat up a peacock because he thought it was a vampire.

Reportedly, the peacock walked into a parking lot neat Burger King. A man spotted it and thought it was a vampire, so he beat it, beat it so bad that all of its tail feathers fell out. In fact, the bird had to be euthanized after the beating.

Richard Gentles, a spokesman for the city's Center for Animal Care and Control said:

"It's just unbelievable that someone would do something to a poor, defenseless animal and do it in such a cruel fashion."

He seized the iridescent bird by the neck, hurled it to the ground and started kicking and stomping the creature, said worker Felicia Finnegan, 19. WOW.

Vampire vs. Peacock:

Hmmm....

Posted at 2:52 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (3)

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.

Posted at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs , Computers , Just Funny , Just Weird , iPhone | Comments (2)

Did you know I have a horse?

Nah, I am just lying. I was at a wedding yesterday, and they had horses. So, of course, I take a picture standing next to one - so I can blog about it.

Well, the wedding was sweet. Up on a mountain in upstate NY. Horses, gardens, castle-like resort, awesome food and good music.

Posted at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (6)

The Chicago Tribune reports that a 15-year-old Indian kid has performed surgery. Specifically a Caesarean section birth.

Why did he do it? His parents wanted him to be in the Guinness Book of Records as the youngest person to perform surgery. His parents are both doctors who have performed the surgery successfully in the past.

They video tapped the whole thing. And when the Guinness Book of Records was questioned, of course they said they don't condone such "bad medicine." In fact, the son has conducted more surgeries in the past.

So now what? The parents might end up in jail.

Posted at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (2)

Mich. Man in Wheelchair Takes Wild Ride from the Washington Post reports that Ben Carpenter was strapped to the front of a semitrailer in his wheelchair and was pushed for several miles at speeds of 50 mph.

The 21-year-old Michigan resident said, "I was probably thinking that this is going to keep going and not stop anywhere, 50 or 60 miles somewhere."

How did this happen?

(1) Son pushes father across street
(2) Light turns green before son finishes route across street
(3) The semitrailer begins driving
(4) Wheelchair handles get lodged into the grille of the semi
(5) Ben goes for wild ride

How did it stop?

Other motorist saw this as it was happening and dialed 911. Cops stopped the semi and informed the driver, who had no idea.

Nuts!

Posted at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (2)

Gold bathtub stolen from Japanese hotel reported at The Age shows how a Japanese Hotel reported a $1.21 million gold bathtub was stolen from their premises.

The Kominato Hotel Mikazuki in Kamogawa was the residence of the 18-karat gold and 80 kilograms gold tub. It was located on the 10th floor of the hotel.

The tub was the main attraction for the hotel. They only opened it up a few hours a day for security reasons.

Now get this. A chain was the only thing preventing someone from stealing it. They did not have a security camera nor more advanced security.

Posted at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (1)

Man Sleeps Through Gunshot to the Head from the Chicago Tribune reports a man slept through being shot in the head by a gun.

Michael Lusher apparently is a sound sleeper. A small-caliber bullet struck the 37-year-old Altizer man in the head as he slept Sunday morning, but he didn't realize it until he awoke nearly four hours later and noticed blood coming from his head, said Cpl. R.H. McQuaid of the Cabell County Sheriff's Department.

The bullet travelled through two of the walls in his trailer before striking the man. Supposedly, the bullet lost enough velocity that it did not cause serious damage. Oh, and yea, it also didn't travel fast enough to wake him up.

Supposedly, his mobile home was sprayed will bullets, and only one hit him. The one that hit him, just caused him to bleed.

Lusher came home from a night on the town about an hour before he was shot while lying in bed, McQuaid said.

I wonder what he had to drink that night?

Posted at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (1)

I took the elevator down to the lobby when I went to my afternoon meeting. I noticed a blotch of ink on the first floor elevator button.

Of course, I snapped a picture on my Treo.

Why? To warn you. Before pressing a button in an elevator, make sure there is no ink on that button.

Did I get inked? Nope, I hit the side of the button. Lucky me.

Posted at 3:39 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (5)

I had a dental appointment at 2:30 today. It is nice because they are on the same floor in the building RustyBrick is based in. So they called me 10 minutes before the appointment to tell me that there would be a five minute delay. I walk in, I wait one minute and then go into the dental chair.

FYI, I twittered a lot of the dental experience.

In any event, I went for a cleaning.

They did x-rays first, those turned out perfectly. Then came the cleaning part, so now I am tatar free - whoo hoo. It was overall pretty quick. It did hurt at several points but I don't think I cried. :)

All isn't great. I have to have my wisdom teeth pulled eventually. The Dr. said it doesn't have to be tomorrow.

Did I mention, my father-in-law is a dentist. I am sure he will do it.

What do I mean by blacked out at the dentist?

Good question. Towards the end of the appointment the lights went out. There was a true blackout. So that means a blackout in my office. So when I got back to my office, Ronnie was getting up our test servers and fixing our phone system. All is working now. But I did not black out at the dentist office, the building did.

Oh that picture is right after the appointment on my Treo.

Posted at 4:18 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (7)

Porn played on Disney Channel in N.J. from the AP newswire tells an unusual story.

5 year old boy watching cartoon on the Disney Channel. All of a sudden, porn comes on. The kid continues watching. Father walks in. Notices porn. Dad looks at the channel and notices this porn is airing on the Disney Channel.

Customer Paul Dunleavy would also like to know. He was stunned Tuesday morning to find his 5-year-old son watching something other than "Handy Manny," a cartoon about a bilingual Latino handyman and his talking tools.

"It was two people doing their thing, it was full-on and it was disgusting," the Middletown father of three told The New York Daily News for Wednesday newspapers. "I couldn't believe it."

This issue was confirmed as a "programming error" which occurred around 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday. It was isolated to "a local New Jersey facility," the article says.

"My son was extremely upset because he thought he'd done something wrong," Paul Dunleavy, Comcast Cable customer.

Posted at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (114) | TrackBacks (1)

I track the links pointing to my sites in for my Daily Link Finds write ups. And one link I found disturbed me a bit...

Technorati Widget Survey Enlightening by Jason Dowdell, someone I have known for a few years now, scared me..

He wrote:

I've learned a lot about Barry in recent months by simply watching his profile automatically update with the song he's currently listening to. That simple widget (if you will allow me to call it that) has given me insight into Barry's love of Southern and Classic Rock-N-Roll and it has come about from automation.

What! Stop watching me!

In fun, you could have learned the same by just reading this blog. ;-)

Jason, hope all is well!

Posted at 8:47 AM | Permalink | Category: Buddies , Just Weird | Comments (2)

I got home early from my basketball game and was thinking, now what? Go to bed? Nah... Dreaming... But that led me to think about the last time Matt Cutts had SEO Dreams. I was wondering, if Matt dreamt about SEO since? Have you?

How about others. I know I have dreamt about SEO and dreamt about blogging. Have you?

OK, now that I posted this. Now what? :-)

Ill run through more feeds.

Handle some more RB stuff.

Then maybe go into bed and watch the Rangers game. Oh wait, I think House is on later.

Posted at 8:37 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (4)

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.

Posted at 2:05 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Funny , Just Interesting , Just Weird , Motor Vehicle | Comments (1)

Via Digg, over 2,200 Diggs at this point, a MacBook Pro got shot but it still works.

The picture was originally hosted at Flickr but it seems to have been deleted. I suspect due to all the traffic that photo received from Digg.

Wired posted a copy of the picture, which I then posted here.

Supposedly, the MacBook Pro got shot while in a Brazilian mugging, saving a life. I doubt it.

Posted at 1:52 PM | Permalink | Category: Apple Macs , Just Weird | Comments (0)

I received a comment spam like I do every now and then, but this one was weird...

It actually had the attribute, nofollow, appended to the link.

Here is the exact comment added to Google Personalized Home Page Adds Expand & Collapse Per Post:

Very nice. <a href="http://www.aesistech.com" rel="nofollow">Aesis</a>

That is the first time I have seen that...

More details on what is the nofollow attribute here.

Posted at 3:25 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird , SEO Tips | Comments (2)

Niall Kennedy posted a picture on his Flickr account of Google putting a T-Rex on their campus. Here is a picture:

Funny...

Posted at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (0)

Not many of you know this, but I do not like to sing and I do not like to dance. I figure, I'll leave the singing and dancing to professionals, no reason for me to start messing around with that stuff.

Seriously, I never sing.
Seriously, I do whatever I can, not to dance.

Thing is, at my wedding, I had to dance. But at Jewish weddings, dancing is not real dancing. You basically go around in circles with other men, in a walking pattern. It kinda looks like this:

So I had to pull that off at my wedding. But honestly, it was sad. My wife loves to dance, so she played it up. But since men and women dance floors are typically separated at orthodox Jewish weddings, all the action was on her side - which was cool with me.

Posted at 9:06 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (0)

I heard this news yesterday, Window Washer Falls Asleep on 20th Floor. A really tired window washer fell asleep while washing windows at the 20th floor.

A window washer working on a downtown Nashville high-rise building apparently fell asleep on the job, authorities say.

The man, whom fire officials did not immediately identify, was cleaning the glass on the 20th floor of the Fifth Third Bank building on Church Street Friday when several onlookers noticed he was not moving.

The man came to after firefighters tugged on his ropes, then held up a sign from inside the window to get his attention. The worker lowered himself to the sidewalk, where he was examined by paramedics.

The question is, do you wake him or wait for him to naturally wake up? What if he is startled and falls off? :)

Crazy.

Posted at 8:59 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (0)

I heard this on the radio in the morning and I was shaking my head back and forth in disbelief. Via SFGate.com, Owner: Man Tried to Hide Guitar in Pants.

Ok, if you try to steal a guitar, keep in mind, it is not like stealing batteries. It won't fit in your clothing properly!

Clifton Lovell, the owner of the store said,

The neck of the guitar was almost down to his knee and the back of the guitar was almost up to his neck. It wasn't hard to spot. There was no way he could sit down or get into the pickup.

Too funny!

Posted at 9:27 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (0)

Two weird stories via MSNBC this morning...

(1) DUI suspect tries to swallow keys, bites officer

Yea, a drunk driver in Moscow tried to swallow his keys after officers had to confiscate his car. Not sure what exactly swallowing the keys will do.

(2) On that same page, there is a story about "A town named Bucksnort." Yes, Bucksnort, is in Tennessee, they even have a Wikipedia page. Supposedly the town is so small that there "is no U.S. Census data for the location and there is no post office." Also, if for some reason you are passing through, the recommended place to eat is at Rudy's Restaurant right off of Hwy 40, Exit 152.

Posted at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (1)

Sometimes, the RSS feed on this site updates without me updating a post or adding a new blog entry. I honestly have no idea why. Two possibilities...

(1) The RSS feed is broken
(2) My blog reader is messed up

So my question is, do you see this weirdness with this RSS feed? If yes, feel free to comment with specifics.

Here is a poll also:

Thanks and sorry if you are affected by this.

Posted at 8:42 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird , Polls | Comments (11)

coin toss
Originally uploaded by therese flanagan.

The coin toss was held on Friday, in accordance with state law, to break the tie since both candidates had 19 votes.

Posted at 9:58 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (0)

Boston.com reports that a 15 year old Florida boy stole a bus and began driving a bus route, stopping at all stops and collecting fares from passengers.

In Saturday's incident, he took the bus from the Central Florida Fairgrounds in Orlando, where it was parked awaiting sale at an auction, a Seminole County sheriff's report said. The bus belongs to the Central Florida Transportation Agency, which runs LYNX public transit services in the Orlando area.

The boy claims that he "drove that bus better than most of the LYNX drivers could." LOL

A court will decide if he is to be charged as an adult for grand theft auto and driving without a license.

Posted at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (0)

TechLH in the WebmasterRadio.FM chat room informed me of a local6.com article named Principal Suspended After Giving Boy Wedgie.

In short a Montana, Livingston Principle of Park High School has been suspended for six days, two days without pay, for giving a student a wedgie. Superintendent Hannibal Anderson said;

It has been clearly recognized and stated that the behavior is inappropriate, unprofessional and unacceptable.

From Forbes:

Messerli cried Monday as he read a statement to the board and the public.

"I've made mistakes in my life, but none have had the impact that this one has had," he said.

He said his first reaction was to resign, but he wanted to "tackle this mess" head on.

"I want to live in a world where we don't have to hide when we screw up," he said.

Public comments about Messerli, voiced by students, parents and community members, ranged from reprimand to encouragement.

"What could be better than showing how you bounce back after a mistake?" community member Brad Snow said.

Here is a funny article on it.

Posted at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (0)

Is it weird that I want this new shirt named the T-Qualizer Shirt? Basically, it is a t-shirt that has these vertical bars that go up and down and change color to the music. There are YouTube videos of it in action to the music here.

ThinkGeek is selling them so they have to be for the uber geek.

Product Features:

• EL Lit Glowing Equalizer animates to ambient noise or music
• Battery Pack fits in small interior pocket inside shirt
• Each Equalizer bar reacts differently depending on sound frequency
• 4 AAA Batteries Required
• Battery pack is removable, shirt must be hand washed

Only $40!

Posted at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird , Shopping | Comments (9)

I missed this, but Reuters reported Thieves steal NY mayor's car. The mayor was not in the car, but his assistant was, and was wrestled out of it. The 2001 Lexus was found about two hours later in Fair Lawn, N.J., it was stolen in Hackensack, N.J. I guess Bloomberg needs strong assistants, reportedly his assistant was 62 years old but he was not injured badly from the scuffle.

Posted at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (0)

Eiffel Tower by night
Originally uploaded by swinging girl.

Around a dozen Japanese tourists a year need psychological treatment after visiting Paris as the reality of unfriendly locals and scruffy streets clashes with their expectations, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

Already this year, Japan's embassy in Paris has had to repatriate at least four visitors -- including two women who believed their hotel room was being bugged and there was a plot against them.

Previous cases include a man convinced he was the French "Sun King", Louis XIV, and a woman who believed she was being attacked with microwaves, the paper cited Japanese embassy official Yoshikatsu Aoyagi as saying.

Posted at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (0)

Playing Tag, 2 of 4
Originally uploaded by *CA*.

Posted at 8:18 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (1)

Cute Bird... (?)
Originally uploaded by chris lynch.

Posted at 1:43 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (1)

The other night, my wife gets a phone call on her cell phone. It is from an "unknown id" and the message is in Hebrew. She knows some Hebrew and she does have friends and family in Israel, so she listened to it. The message told her to press 9 to be forwarded to some other place. She pressed 9, then got suspicious quickly after and hung up.

After she told me about it, I looked up in Google cell phone hoax 09 and found something very similar mentioned at Trend Micro. In short, by dialing 9, you may be giving the fraudster access to make long distance calls on your cell phone. You will get hit with the huge international bill and not them.

I then decided to call Sprint. I spoke with customer service who suggested she change her phone number and then talk to tech support. Tech Support thought what happened was cool, they never heard of it. But they looked at the account and saw no suspicious activity. They suggested us to do nothing, leave the number, but call the fraud department to get their thoughts. The fraud department wasn't open at that time, so we called back the next day. Fraud told me that they also don't see any crazy fraudulent activity on the account and that I don't have to do anything. I questioned that, and they said if I want to be 100%, I should take the phone to a Sprint store and reprogram it so the SID on the phone is changed. Ah, that makes sense to me - changing a phone number seemed kinda archaic to me.

So now my wife needs to go to a Sprint store and reprogram her phone.

Posted at 1:13 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (1)

The 2nd morning in a row my hands started itching and getting red. I thought it may be hives. I got hives once before, a really long time ago, and I remember it being similar.

But this is weird. My hands get red botches, they begin to itch and the more I look at them the more it itches. But like yesterday, today, the itching and redness went away early afternoon - late morning.

I am thinking it may be the Cheerios I began eating for breakfast in the morning.

That is the main thing I changed yesterday.

My hands after they stopped itching:

Posted at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (4)

I have been saving a few stories to blog about, and these seemed appropriate for the weekend.

WebMD named one recent article 26% of Teens Drive Drunk or on Drugs and then a few days later wrote an other article named Teen Drinking, Drugs: Parents Unaware.

More than one in four teens who drive say they've driven drunk or on drugs.

and

55% of adolescents who had smoked cigarettes, 50% who had used alcohol, and 47% who had used marijuana had a parent who knew that they used... About 8% of teens said they had used such drugs, while only 3% of their parents said they knew about that drug use.

So if you have a kid and they have a drivers license, then they have a 1 in 4 chance of driving drunk and you are very likely not to know about it.

If you don't have kids or if you are worried about driving, you can read How To Spot A Drunk Driver and What To Do.

Related stories: Practice Parking Your Car Online

Posted at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (0)

Rocking Horse
Originally uploaded by Brandon Vrosh.

"Laws get passed which at the moment in time made a lot of sense. As you go back and look at the administrative code, it is easy to find parts of the code that are out of date and no longer make sense.

Posted at 2:23 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (0)

We installed an access control system for our office like three or more years ago. Today, the system went bad. A device shorted and blew up, locking a few of the doors that device controlled. One of the rooms it locked was the main room where the RustyBrick programmers work in.

We tried a bunch of things to get it open, including:

• Accessing the software, did not work
  
• Unplugging the device, it ran off a back up
  
• Unplugging the back up, it was a fail-safe (meaning if everything goes off, they remain locked)
  
• Swapping out a good device for a bad one, but since we had to use one that was in use already, it didn't work
  

In any event, Joe (RB Guy) and I was able to get that door open with a credit card - yea... I also called the company who installed it over to fix the problem, they did. They also did some routine maintenance on the system, while they were here.

To be honest, the system is incredibly old. It is one of those proprietary, old school, access control systems. I wonder if someone will create an open source equivalent. Like with PBX software, we now have an open source solution named Asterisk, we use it here and it is awesome. Would love an open source access control system.

We don't use it for security. We use it for convenience. I hate carrying a dozen of keys around with me. I only need to cary one keychain to open all the doors in my office building. It is convenient, until it stops working.

Guess what, I do have backup keys for all the doors. But for some reason, that one door, the key doesn't work. All the other doors work just fine. So I am out to replace that lock with a new one as soon as possible. Until then, that door remains open.

Posted at 9:59 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (4)

Seriously, a man has taken a bite out of a panda bear's back. The BBC News reports that a "drunken Chinese tourist says he bit a panda who attacked him after he jumped into a zoo enclosure to "hug" the bear."

The man's name is Zhang Xinyan he is 35 years old and you can see a picture of him at the The Sydney Morning Herald. Oh and the bears name is Gu Gu. The subtitle from the picture at BBC News is "Gu Gu the panda is said to have suffered no harm after the event."

The newspaper said Mr Zhang had a "sudden urge" to touch Gu Gu with his hand, so he jumped over the waist-high railing into the enclosure.

"When he got closer and was undiscovered, he reached out to hug it," the newspaper added.

So weird...

Posted at 8:04 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (0)

Before the Jimmy Buffett concert I had a meeting with a prospect who has an office across the street from Grand Central Station. He decided he would like to walk to Grand Central to sit down there and discuss business, so we did.

I believe we walked up to a restaurant named the Campbell Apartment and had coffee there while discussing business.

During our meeting, the alarms and sirens kept on going off. We looked around and noticed that people kept on doing what they were doing as if nothing was going on. So we decided to continue our business. They then shut off. But a few minutes later they went back on. Same thing, business as usual there - so we carried on.

Then some woman went on the loud speaker, but she said something that was so hard to hear that no one could comprehend what she said. Did she say, there is an emergency, please proceed to the nearest exit or did she say that it was a false alarm. No one knew...

I figured the place would be swarming with cops if there was an issue, so we stayed.

In any event, I stole the picture above from Wikipedia and tried to trace out the alarms that I saw going off, there were more, but these were the ones I can make out in this picture. I also uploaded one at Flickr and used the "add note" tool to make the sketch of the alarms more interactive, it is cool, check it out.

Posted at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (0)

I can't remember the last time I was this mad. You spend a ton of time, money and energy giving a non-profit an awesome, high end web site and it comes to bite you in the behind, not once, but twice!

Like many non-profits, this one has a board. One individual on that board is too lazy to do his job and blames everyone else but him. The deal is, we did our job, documented it and this person keeps seeding lies.

I was about to post on the site a demo on how easily it ease for people to update the web site.

Then I decided to calm down and go to people on the board that are above this person.

I documented everything, the history, the process, added QuickTime videos with demos and clearly showed who is at fault.

Heck, I did this site for free - a site I would charge anyone else $15,000 for.

Just amazes me how some evil people can be.

Posted at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (2)

Yesterday, a new type of coffee was announced. The coffee is not something you drink, instead you eat it with a spoon. It is named Espesso, not Espresso. See the difference? Espresso versus Espesso. Ferran Adrià a renowned Spanish chef, who made the Time 100 Innovators list, has come up with Espesso, "a play on the Italian word "spesso," meaning thick."

Espesso takes about 12 hours to make, the recipe is secret but the "mixture is placed in pressurized containers and allowed to set for 12 hours, before being sprayed into a cup to be eaten with a spoon." "The result is a mousselike, cold solid sprayed right out of the canister." It costs costs $2.49 per cup, and comes in three choices; basic espesso, espesso cappuccino and espesso macchiatto.

Lavazza.com has more information on it, and you can watch a video of it by visiting this page. Also, news coverage at ABC Chicago and Chicago Sun Times - oh, yea, you can get this coffee in Chicago.

Posted at 8:21 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (0)

Gabs pointed over to a weird type of memory drive made out of wood. A company in the Netherlands named Oooms, creates, by hand, wooden USB drives.

How much are they? 256 MM Drive is 45 EURO, a 512 MB drive is 60 EURO and a 1GB drive is 70 EURO.

More pictures and details at Oooms.nl.

Posted at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Category: Computers , Just Weird | Comments (0)

Sitting here on a Saturday night, baby-sitting for nieces, with Yisha. So she is baby-sitting, I am playing on my computer. I took some photos of myself using iSight & Photo Booth. This one is kinda scary, me in XRay mode:

Here is a flickr bade of me with other Photo Booth effects (including Mirror effect, where it seems like I can make it look like I am kissing myself - yea, I am bored). First time I actually used this program, pretty neat.

Posted at 11:25 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (0)

I remember when growing up in my parents home when I was younger. My parents built on an extension to their kitchen, which pushed back the kitchen several feet into the backyard. Soon after the extension was done, the same bird (at least I was told then that it was the same bird) kept on flying into that window, over and over again. I saw it a few times actually fly into the window. Often, one would hear a big bang, and look at the window and find nothing - but sometimes I saw it happen.

The same thing happens in my office building. For some reason, frequently enough, a bird flies directly into the window of my office. I am on the 3rd floor, pretty much in the middle of the office building. The building has been here for about 10 years, so I doubt it is one of those flight pattern things. Maybe it is just dark when I get here.

Did you know that windows are one of the leading causes of bird death? The picture above is from a bird that is recovering from a window accident, for real, click on it and it will show you a caption.

It's estimated that more than 90 million birds are killed each year as a result of hitting windows. Stopping the collisions is a matter of changing the birds' perception of what they see in the window.

So why do birds fly into windows, like my office building's windows? Good question, the answer is at WildBirds.com.

Tall buildings that relied heavily on large sheets of glass surface were especially hazardous. Birds see a reflection of the outdoors in the window and do not realize they are flying into a solid object. The end result is a stunned bird or a bird with a broken neck. During the spring, birds will appear to attack windows. They are really defending their territory from the "other" bird they see reflected in the window. They lunge at the "other bird" and peck it, trying to drive it away.

Preventing this is possible. eHow.com has an article on How to Prevent Birds From Flying Into Windows.

I never thought in a million years I would write about birds flying into my window, go figure.

Posted at 6:53 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (10)

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.

Posted at 2:19 PM | Permalink | Category: Daily Grind , Just Funny , Just Weird | Comments (1)

The esteemed Gary Price documented a Forbes list of America's Drunkest Cities.

1. Milwaukee
2. Minneapolis
3. Columbus
4. Boston
5. Austin
6. Chicago
7. Cleveland
8. Pittsburgh
9. Philadelphia
10. Providence
11. St. Louis
12. San Antonio
13. Seattle
14. Las Vegas
15. Denver/Boulder
16. Cincinnati
17. Kansas City
18. Houston
19. Portland
20. Francisco-Oakland

The list continues, it is a pictorial list of each city and can be accessed here. New York is ranked number 32 out of the 35 cities judged, go NY!

How did they come up with these rankings? Well, they posted the methodology, which basically describes that pulled stats by state laws, drinkers, heavy drinkers, binge drinkers and alcoholism of each city. They calculated scores for each category, added them up and then ranked the cities.

Now, where was Mel Gibson?

Posted at 5:41 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (0)

There are just some things you do not post in public. One of those things are private messages. If someone sends you privileged information in private, you must - without a shadow of a doubt - keep that information private, unless you have explicit permission from the source that you can share that information with the public.

Nintendo posted the full transcript of a private message sent to him via Threadwatch from Adam Lasnik of Google at ThreadWatch (which was pulled), at DigitalPoint forums and at Google Groups. I will not quote it here, but the context is not relevant to my point. The private message was sent privately to Nintendo and was not understood to be posted in a public setting.

Adam replied in the Google Groups area;

Encouraging further e-mails to my personal address and e-mail subjects with my name in 'em probably isn't the most scalably-smart thing to do ;-).

Before Threadwatch deleted the conversation from their site, I caught a few responses from both Matt Cutts and the founder of Threadwatch, NickW.

Matt Cutts said;

I'm also surprised that you're quoting a PM from Adam Lasnik. Doesn't PM stand for "Private message"? Most people I know dislike having private replies quoted without asking.

NickW said:

Obnoxious little shit Nintendo, you are a fuckwit of gargantuan proportion. You snivelly, sneaky little whining shit. How disgusting to post privately communicated info in public, and how much worse to then continue your obnoxious teenage footstomping after being told your a dickhead (in politer terms, but that's what Matt meant.). You twat. PS: Why the fuck is this on the homepage? Hellllloooo.... anyone paying attention?

Now, that is why I have a published Search Engine Roundtable Code of Ethics which I and the authors at the Search Engine Roundtable are required to uphold.

Trust is just so important and it only takes a second to lose it. Be careful!

Posted at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird , SEO Tips | Comments (0)

What am I getting for the holidays? At least two Pleo's. What is a Pelo? Yea, it is one of those green dinosaurs.

Pleo is a 'designer species'. He incorporates all the basic traits of autonomous life. He is specifically engineered and enhanced to mimic life and relate to his owner on a personal level.

Pleo is equipped with senses for sight, sound, and touch. He learns as he explores his environment. He will exhibit genuine reactions to sensory stimuli. Every Pleo begins life with certain tendencies but, interaction with his environment has subtle effects on his behavior. Every Pleo eventually exhibits a unique personality.

Pleo is capable of expression. He can feel joy and sorrow, anger and annoyance. When Pleo is tired, he will become drowsy and go to sleepóeven dream. Two or more Pleos will recognize one another. Be careful though. They can transmit colds to each other. Achoo! Pleo even sneezes!

Don't believe the marketing speak? Check out this live demo at demo.com.

The Pleobot blog reports that the Ugobe, makers of the Pleo, is taking pre-orders on December 24th. They will begin shipping in early March.

I posted a forum thread on this at Search Engine Roundtable Forums back in March of this year.

Posted at 9:10 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (0)

I was snapping some pictures of recent traffic I was in on the way into Manhattan tonight. While getting on to the George Washington Bridge (GWB), I was reminded that no pictures are allowed on the GWB. So, of course, before I got on, I decided to snap some pictures of the sign that disallows camera usage. Don't worry, Yisha pulled the camera from me before we merged on, so no pictures were taken while on the bridge.

Click for a larger image, it will take you to Flickr.

Posted at 8:27 PM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (0)

You know those number games, where someone can predict what number you were thinking? They ask you do add, subtract, shift numbers around and then asks you to remember which number it was. And to your surprise, they are able to predict the number that you had written down?

Well, there is this flash based game that does it over here, it is cool, because the Flash animation is fun and interactive.

They also mix it up so that you don't think you are getting the same response each time.

Don't ya just love math?

Give it a try at LearningEnglish.org.uk. Link bait...

Posted at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (0)

In the SEO World, people cloak for a few reasons:

(1) To serve search spiders different content then the users
- To rank better
- To save bandwidth
- To block bad spiders
- To spam
- etc.

(2) To direct users based on IP to the most geo-specific page possible
- Google does it also, if you come to Google.com in Israel, you will get the Google Israel search engine.

(3) There are more reasons...

But here I found an interesting and upsetting use of cloaking. Caitlyn Martin at O'Reilly Linux DevCenter Blog wrote that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadenijad new blog detects if your IP address is from an Israeli geo-location, and if it matches, then it will send you a "virus or trojan (reports vary) designed to exploit an Internet Explorer vulnerability."

More details at Yael K's blog, an American-Israeli and YNetNews.

Posted at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Category: Just Weird | Comments (1)