So I found out that some of the older Tivo/DVD player combos allow you to use the Tivo without having to pay the monthy service fee. With all new Tivo's they won't function unless you're paying for the service. It's Tivo Basic, so no Season Pass manager. It's basically record this channel at this time on these weekdays. Anyway, so I bought a used Tivo/DVD player combo from a guy on craigslist. Works great! Yay Tivo and Yay no monthly charge! (Sorry Cam)
He said he had three of them so if anyone wants one here's the link.

ComingSoon.net reported that Hugo Weaving (The Lord of the Rings) will voice the villainous Megatron in Michael Bay's upcoming Transformers movie. [more]

e British Independent newspaper reported that an unfinished book by Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien, which was completed by his son, will go on sale next month, according to the Agence France-Presse.

The Children of Hurin, which Tolkien began in 1918, will be in bookstores on April 17, the Independent reported on March 25. The author's son, Christopher, spent 30 years completing the story, working from the many drafts produced by his father. [more]

There are a few things that can be done in times of grave emergencies. Your mobile phone can actually be a life saver or an emergency tool for survival. Check out the things that you can do with it:


FIRST
The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112.
If you find yourself out of the coverage area of your mobile; network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly this number 112 can be dialed even if the keypad is locked. Try it out. (I have entered in my cell phone number directory.)

SECOND
Have you locked your keys in the car?
Does your car have remote keyless entry? This may come in handy someday. Good reason to own a cell phone: If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their cell phone from your cell phone. Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. Your car will unlock. Saves
someone from having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other "remote" for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk). Editor's Note: It works fine! We tried it out and it unlocked our car over a cell phone!"

THIRD
Hidden Battery Power
Imagine your cell battery is very low. To activate, press the keys *3370# Your cell will restart with this reserve and the instrument will show a 50% increase in battery. This reserve will get charged when you charge your cell next time. (I
have entered the access # in cell phone directory.)

FOURTH
How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone?
To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits on your phone: * # 0 6 # A 15 digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep it somewhere safe. When your phone get stolen, you can phone your service provider and give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even if the thief changes the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless. You probably won't get your phone back, but at least you know that whoever stole it can't use/sell it either. If everybody does this, there would be no point in people stealing mobile phones. And Finally....(I have made note of my phone's serial number.)

FIFTH
Cell phone companies are charging us $1.00 to $1.75 or more for 411 information calls when they don't have to. Most of us do not carry a telephone directory in our vehicle, which makes this situation even more of a problem. When you need to use the 411 information option, simply dial: (800) FREE 411, or (800) 373-3411 without incurring any charge at all. Program this into your cell phone now. (I have entered this # in my cell phone directory.)

Noelle's Note: I have tried most of these and they do, in fact work...

A simple (?) online game…

The solar panel on the roof of this Toyota Prius is a $4,500 aftermarket add-on produced by California-based Solar Electrical Vehicles (SEV). That makes this one of the least expensive cars in the Robb Report special issue.

The roof panel, which boosts fuel economy in the Prius by about 15 miles per gallon, also works on Toyota's popular Highlander Hybrid SUV. On the Highlander, it more than doubles fuel economy, according to SEV.

Installation takes a couple of hours for do-it-yourselfers, the company claims. [link]

* Look, you could buy ROBOSAURUS!
* News in Haiku. The name says it all.
* And, on a completely different note, Kiva is an interesting charity. You don't give money; you loan it. Once the loan is repaid, you can either take it back or loan it to someone else.

YAY! Alex may get to keep his job!!! WHOO HOO! [more]

Thanks to everyone who came out to help with Sprinkler Mania this weekend!

Jon, Kay, Esther, Wendy, Carl, Morgan, Amber, and Jeff ROCK!

We are mostly done installing the sprinklers, they need some riser adjustment and burial, which I will do on Weds (will be working from new home).

At the moment, I cannot even fathom trying to do that. I have a really bad sunburn, every muscle in my body aches, and I feel like I may fall asleep at any second. However, soon it will all be worth it, we'll have actual grass and we have flowers and will have trees. *sigh*

Anyway, thanks again to everyone who came to help - it was much appreciated!

If anyone is available to help on Saturday lay down pipe and glue and stuff, please let me know. We'll probably start work about 10, but you could show up whenever before 12 and we'll probably have something for you to do!

Thanks!

Nine Inch Nails’ new album “Year Zero” hits the streets in April. The first single from the album, “Survivalism,” is already available for purchase from the iTunes Store, and if you want to take a crack and mixing it yourself, a GarageBand version is available for download from the Nine Inch Nails Web site, for free. [more]

So I have been mostly absentee because I have spent the past several weeks working on Chris's house getting it ready for various contractors to come and do things:
1) Cleaned out Garage so new Garage door could be installed.
2) Cleaned out all interior rooms so new windows could be installed
3) Did work on front and back yard in preparation for Sprinklers to be installed by us this next weekend. This included digging trenches under the sidewalk.
4) Insulation was piped into the walls and ceiling, since there was none.
5) Generally helped organize things so there's room for me to move in at some point soon.

I'm dead tired and ready for a spa weekend, but the house looks so much better and I think Chris will be a lot happier with it, so it's worth it.

I am currently planning all the phase 2 projects....

Go see it. It's a comic book version of the Spartan story, and therefore sort of graphic, but the imagery is beautiful, the story is good, and the gore in the movie is so over the top that it doesn't even look that real anymore. Well worth seeing on the big screen!

YAY NERDS!!!!!!!!

Labels: Pi

LOL!

Personally I vote for DST 365 days a year. That would rock...

by cooley (261024) on Monday March 12, @09:06AM (#18315109)
(http://www.ubuntu.com/)
Is DST WORTH IT? Boy, Let me tell you a story about the place I come from.

I live in Indiana (a midwestern US state). Up until last year, we'd never done DST before at all (with a few exceptions in towns whose economies were linked to cities across the border in other, DST-observing states).

Before we had DST, it was HELL. All year, it got dark at like 2:00pm. There was no Little League Baseball, no football (american or otherwise) for the kids. Most of our youth joined gangs, who roamed the incessant darkness in large, heavily fortified bad-mpg SUVs, kicking puppies and beating up old ladies just for fun. There was no Christmas and no birthdays, and if we saw the Easter bunny we ATE HIM.

Though many people had the misconception that we were "America's Breadbasket", in fact the darkness prevented us from raising any sort of sustenance crops and most of us resorted to cannibalism to survive. Most Hoosiers (that's what we're called, it means "land of eternal darkness" in a Native American tongue) eventually starved to death, which was viewed as a welcome respite from the hellish, unstoppable night. Dogs and cats, living together, you get the picture.

Then, we elected a new Governor who brought us into the light (literally). With the introduction of DST, and the seemingly random (almost whimsical, really) distribution of our Counties between two time zones, our lives were changed forever. Now, it's light outside pretty much twenty-four-fucking-seven. Our kids are all on at least six sports teams and never shoot each other anymore. They call you "sir" or "ma'am" (these words were not used before, as it was difficult to discern gender in the darkness), shine your shoes for you, and present you with ice-cold lemonade from stands with amusingly misspelled signs. We discovered oil everywhere, we grow more crops than the world could ever possibly use (which has ended hunger globally) and we're all filthy, stinking RICH. All the women have big perky boobs, all the men are RIPPED, and everybody has an IQ of at least 160.

Yes Sir, I don't know what we'd do if it weren't for good ol' DST. I have to assume that with the new DST-extending rule from our good friends in the US Congress, we'll probably just evolve to a higher state of being and shed these silly, out-dated husks to become super-intelligent beings composed of pure energy.

[via]

Wow. That guy is nuts.

Free streaming movies still in the theaters. Some work some don't.

That was awesome!

Here's a silly beatbox video for you! :)

Erin felt it too! She said if felt pretty strong. I guesss it would since she was only 3 miles from the epicenter!

Go figure.

Anyway, you too can throw some at him and see him in the real live flesh. Well, if you wanna be "near" him, it's $100, if you wanna actually see him, it's $250.

LOGE -UPSTAIRS BELOW CROSS AISLE -US $250.00
MAIN FLOOR - FLAT FLOOR SEATING -US $150.00 - US $250.00
BALCONY - UPSTAIRS ABOVE CROSS AISLE -US $100.00 - US $150.00

[get enlightened]

So I was sitting here right after my 7:30 meeting and I felt something. Then that somehing got bigger and louder. "Hm," I thought to myself, "I hope that doesn't keep getting bigger..."

Luckily, it stopped at 4.2. [check it]

The Bay Area has a campaign to stop wasting trees and get rid of Junk Mail. This site will provide you with letters, etc to get the ball rolling. You print them out, fill in the addresses you want removed and send them back to the people sending you junkmail. I like it! [Stop the insanity!]