Seriously, don't watch this, it will stick in your head for days.

I warned you..

Patent: Apple Details Multi-Touch Mac User Interface - Mac Rumors

Who drew these, Matt Groening?

15 Images You Won't Believe Aren't Photoshopped | Cracked.com

What appears to be some normal-sized machine cropped and pasted onto a skyline is actually a gigantic machinized monstrosity designed for excavation by some Germans. Those things that look like saw teeth big enough to cut down the Empire State Building are actually buckets, each of which could pretty much scoop up your whole house.

If this thing's secretly a transformer, we're screwed.

I've found several people echoing thoughts I've had about the high fuel prices. My biggest positive is "onshoring" of jobs, where the flow of manufacturing work out of the US might be turning around. Tech jobs can still be off-shored fairly easily though.

What I really don't understand though is, why did the price hike that started after Hurricane Katrina never go down? Who decided it wouldn't?

Hurray For High Gas Prices! - Freakonomics - Opinion - New York Times Blog
High Gas Prices Good for America

Though I've heard the HDTV on satellite is the bomb compared to Comcast, this article thinks the technology for satellite television is winding down.
Could Satellite TV Get Creamed by Cable? | Epicenter from Wired.com

Could Satellite TV Get Creamed by Cable?

Great article from former Olympian and Christian on the highs of victory and lows of having achieved them.

More Precious Than Gold | Today's Christian

More Precious Than Gold
Winning an Olympic medal was everything it was hyped up to be, but the high didn't last. So where does my real hope come from?
By Josh Davis

Josh Davis won three gold medals in swimming at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, then two silver medals at the 2000 Games in Sydney, where he was captain of the U.S. swim team. Today, he's a motivational speaker, swimming coach, and author. The following is adapted from his new devotional book, The Goal and the Glory (Regal Books), which features devotions from numerous Olympians.
More Precious Than Gold

At the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, as I stared down my lane to lead off the U.S. 4x200 freestyle relay, the thought crossed my mind that 4 hours of swimming each day for 10 years—a total of 25,000 miles—now came down to one moment in time.

The starter's gun released me, and I led off the relay with a lifetime best! My early lead got the rest of the team pumped up, and in the end, we won by over a body length! The joy and relief we felt was indescribable. The intense satisfaction of accomplishing a lifelong dream in front of a home crowd and of coming together with my relay mates in perfect execution was a high I had never felt before.

Soon after, we put on red, white, and blue awards jackets and were escorted to the podium for the medal ceremony. As they announced, "Gold Medal, United States of America," we all stood together, waving to 10,000 screaming fans. I couldn't believe it was happening.

The next several hours were a blur of high-fives, hugs, and hellos. Celebrating with family and teammates was incredible. Soon, we were whisked off to do a live interview for NBC, while ESPN and Sports Illustrated wanted some quotes. Everybody we saw treated us like gods. I finally fell asleep that night with my new gold medal around my neck and a huge smile on my face.

The morning after
When I woke up the next morning, all the excitement, all the hype, all the adrenaline … it was all gone! Granted, I was still living in the Olympic Village, eating the free food, and looking forward to some more races, but the mood was drastically different from the night before.

I had finally tasted the best the world had to offer, and it was sweet … but oh, so short! Having had a taste of glory, I now felt empty. It was sobering to experience the shock of a high so high followed by a low so low.

I looked for encouragement and perspective in God's Word, turning to 1 Peter 1:7: "Your faith … [is] of greater worth than gold." I found comfort in the knowledge that my relationship with Jesus is infinitely more valuable and more precious than gold.

Matthew 6:19-21 adds these words: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. … For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." I realized then that my medal wouldn't last forever, but it was good to know that there is something that will.

These days, when I give motivational speeches at schools, I pass my gold medal around the room so each student can hold it or wear it. I always enjoy watching the reactions of the children: Their eyes get big as they "ooh" and "ahh." Several people over the years have accidentally dropped my medal, and it is dented and scratched. Meanwhile, my cool monogrammed Olympic suitcase is falling apart, my Olympic towels are starting to unravel, and some of my Olympic clothes have bleach stains.

This wear and tear reminds me that, eventually, everything material in this world will fall apart. God's Word reminds us that there are only three eternal things: God, his Word, and the souls of men and women. And when we invest our lives accordingly, by serving God and others in and through his love, we are storing up gold medals in heaven that will last forever.

Heaven's awards ceremony
I still smile when I watch the tape of my team winning—but not as much as I do when I discover someone has committed his or her life to Christ. While only a few know what it's like to win an Olympic medal, the experience will pale in comparison to the awards ceremony that awaits us in heaven. That's a promise straight from Scripture:

We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (2 Cor. 4:18).

..is no longer free :(

Well, there is an ad-based free version but that is no longer free in my book. Probably as enjoyable as calling the bank for the weather report..

Anyhoo, I'll probably splurge for the $3.95/month plan as I love calling in appointments to my Google Calendar and tasks into my Toodledo list.

New rate plans for Jott

Google Maps

Chattanooga's real homeless campus..

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is under a bridge by the Saddlery.. and nearby under the Interstate where Google dare not tread.

Spaceship House

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Presumably due to the coming VW plant, Chattanooga is now one of Google's street view cities.

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chattanooga - Google Maps

iPhone Games - Quake 3 Arena Ported to iPhone - iPhone Hacks
Maybe the greatest thing to happen to iPhone: will update when i jailbreak my touch and play it.

Presumably due to the coming VW plant, Chattanooga is now one of Google's street view cities.

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chattanooga - Google Maps

More funny (to me) stuff:

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Hey dude, shouldn't you be waving me to a spot?

Notice the difference between GMaps Satellite and Street View. Something's missing..

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GMaps car is slow.. backs up traffic:

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I've noticed that all sorts of basic cables for electronics are priced sky-high in recent years, particularly those carrying digital signals (1's and 0's) where it either works or doesn't and signal noise isn't really a problem. Anyhoo, CNet noticed as well: The economics of cables | The Pervasive Datacenter - CNET News.com

People tend not to comparison shop. It's something you need now. Prices are in tens of dollars not hundreds of dollars and are often considered in the context of the more expensive electronics the cable is being used with.

Here are a bunch of HDMI cables as good as any others for $10 or less.