<body><script type="text/javascript"> function setAttributeOnload(object, attribute, val) { if(window.addEventListener) { window.addEventListener('load', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }, false); } else { window.attachEvent('onload', function(){ object[attribute] = val; }); } } </script> <div id="navbar-iframe-container"></div> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://apis.google.com/js/platform.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> gapi.load("gapi.iframes:gapi.iframes.style.bubble", function() { if (gapi.iframes && gapi.iframes.getContext) { gapi.iframes.getContext().openChild({ url: 'https://www.blogger.com/navbar.g?targetBlogID\x3d7788626342964640561\x26blogName\x3dSerial+Bus\x26publishMode\x3dPUBLISH_MODE_BLOGSPOT\x26navbarType\x3dBLUE\x26layoutType\x3dCLASSIC\x26searchRoot\x3dhttps://sbus.blogspot.com/search\x26blogLocale\x3den\x26v\x3d2\x26homepageUrl\x3dhttp://sbus.blogspot.com/\x26vt\x3d-8511933860783535603', where: document.getElementById("navbar-iframe-container"), id: "navbar-iframe" }); } }); </script>

About

"Serial Bus is a place for me to dump interesting links that I find."

Recent

"Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo."

Archives

'Loose Change' Parody Tuesday, July 31, 2007 | comments



I know this is old, but it's still funny and most of you probably haven't seen it.

On a related note, when I was working at the Daily, I once got a package from someone at another college newspaper containing only a DVD of 'Loose Change' (which, if you haven't heard of it, is a 9-11 conspiracy video)

Sulfur Hexafloride = Anti helium | comments


Wikipedia page about SF6

Trick plays are cool Monday, July 30, 2007 | comments


Best headline I've seen today Sunday, July 29, 2007 | comments

http://wcco.com/watercooler/watercooler_story_208223600.html

[via fark]

Space Balloon Thursday, July 26, 2007 | comments

in sppacccceeee <--link

Oscar the death-predicting cat | comments

Our cats could always tell when you were sick and would sit with you. This cat takes it a little bit further

[via my dad]

Smart cat | comments


Seriously? Drew Carey? Cmon. Tuesday, July 24, 2007 | comments

I wish my life was rotoscoped Monday, July 23, 2007 | comments

Or that I had enough free time to do something like this.

White Stripes play secret, one-note show, people love it Thursday, July 19, 2007 | comments



I do believe that's the first note to "Hello Operator."

Hero? I wanna be a Guitar Champion | comments

What Guitar Hero did for letting you feel like you're playing guitar, Jam Sessions will do for letting you sound like you play guitar.

The game comes bundled with a bunch of songs it teaches you to play, but really you can use it to play most anything (that has chords). Here it is in action.


(Compare to the actual song here.)


And they say they've got distortion effects and everything. You can even hook it up to real distortion pedals. IGN says it comes out in September. Amazon pre-orders goes so far to say that it comes out Sept 11.

Wow, this whole post reads like an advert doesn't it? Who do I think I am: Brian?

Chess boards and rollercoasters Wednesday, July 18, 2007 | comments












These are great and based on an XKCD comic (link fixed).

Me Against The Music: Part 1 | comments

Right now it's 4:25am and the guy next door (who you'll remember from this post is playing We Die Young by Alice in Chains. I already know the next song he's going to play because he plays the same songs every day, and they're always Alice in Chains songs.

I've gone from [Heh: now he is singing along]...from knowing about zero Alice in Chains to knowing a lot of lyrics and I can now identify songs by their intros thanks to this guy. He pretty much only plays Alice in Chains. And I have no idea why.

Now I could solve this by banging on the wall a couple times, going over there and talking to him, blasting my own music, or writing sort of passive aggressive note, but it's far more interesting to try something different.

I'm going to make him a mixtape.

I'll make a CD that is full of songs that I won't mind hearing over and over, that he will like, and that isn't Alice in Chains. Sure there are more effective ways to deal with this, but there aren't more amusing ways. I asked Mike Foss to give me a hand with song selection and I'm seeing what Pandora internet radio has to offer as well. Once I've got a good selection of songs, I'll find a way to get it to him anonymously.

And the beauty is, I'll know how it turned out by what songs adds to his plays-constantly playlist.

[Side note: six songs after playing "We Die Young," he's playing it again]

edit: It's not that he's playing his music loud as much as he's playing it at all. The walls here are paper thin to the point that I can hear pretty much anything he does over there: turning pages on books, throwing down his keys, sighing.

Kids + Train Tracks Tuesday, July 17, 2007 | comments

YouTube Meetup | comments

All these youtubers got together to post videos of someone taking video. Kinda like how photographers take pictures of photographers taking pictures. Check out the laptop at the end

I Should Get A Job as a Cop Monday, July 16, 2007 | comments

I know I could do better than this guy

Radiolab: Zoos | comments

A bunch of us went to the Toledo Zoo this weekend (photos will be up later this week). While listening to my NPR Podcasts, it turns out that Radio Lab did a show about Zoos and part of it (the below segment) took place in the Toledo Zoo. The Toledo has a thing every year in which, rather than their typical diets, the animals get fed real animals. It's worth listening to for the kids' reactions to seeing it.

They turned my eyeballs into webcams. Sunday, July 15, 2007 | comments

As I mentioned before when I wrote up a list of my favorite podcasts, Correct Me If I'm Wrong is a podcast by the San Francisco Chronicle. The Newspaper gets a lot of strange calls and they post the best voicemails online. The most recent one, They Turned My Eyeballs Into Webcams, is a good one. Go listen.

Nom nom nom Friday, July 13, 2007 | comments

Someday I'm going to crash the internet Thursday, July 12, 2007 | comments


Breaking News: All Online Data Lost After Internet Crash

I want this tarp on my fantasy team | comments

Will it Blend - iphone | comments


Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Wednesday, July 11, 2007 | comments

It's good. It is the HP equivalent of The Empire Strikes Back. Watch it yourself with that in mind and report back to me once you see it.

Some people yell at the TV. Other people... Tuesday, July 10, 2007 | comments

Here's the setup. The Cubs go into an inning leading 8-3 against the Rockies. The Cubs relieving pitcher, Bob Howry, gives up six runs which allows the Rockies to be ahead 8-9. Here's where we pick up [from this article]:
A fan wearing a Cubs jersey ran onto the field and headed toward Howry on the mound, shouting to the embattled reliever: "What are you doing?"

Before Howry could make a move, Migursky flew from his perch next to the Cubs' dugout and tackled the fan, preventing him from a potentially violent act.

"I didn't even notice him until as soon as I turned around, the guy clothes-lined him and took him down," Howry said of Migursky's tackle.

Howry said he wasn't worried about the fan, because "he wasn't that big."

"He said, 'What are you doing?' " Howry said. "I said, 'I'm out here trying to give up home runs. What do you think?' "

Things I learned in California | comments

I'm back from California. Here's two things I learned that you wouldn't necessarily expect

Crappy Hotel is Better than Mediocre Hotel - When I went to Indiana to shoot a wedding, I stayed at a cheap, cruddy Travelodge for like 40 bucks a night. I forget what the hotel in California cost me, but I'm sure it had to be double that at least.

At the crappy hotel they try to give you stuff to make up for their crappyness: a bunch of TV channels, free wifi, etc. At the mediocre hotel, they try to make you buy stuff. Want more than 12 channels? That'll cost you. Want to drink that bottle of water on the counter? $3.50. Want to park in our parking lot? $14/day.

California Traffic is Better than Michigan Traffic
- There are a lot of cars on the expressways in California--six lanes of em--but in a way, I think it's easier to drive there. Everyone knows how to drive, so you can tell when someone's going to get over. People let you in because they know that it's tough to get over with so much traffic. And everyone's going the same speed so it's easy to keep track of where everyone is in relation to your car.

Now if only more cars in traffic didn't mean slower traffic.

Friday, July 6, 2007 | comments

I'm on internet that doesn't work well (I can't put a title on this entry for example) and it's costing me by the minute to use it. It's like it's like being on AOL in the year 1992.

California or Bust Wednesday, July 4, 2007 | comments

I'm packing up stuff to fly to California to go shoot a wedding. Therefore, the song, California, is in my head. The only embeddable version is an O.C. clips version so sorry, but I guess that's ok given that I'm flying in to Orange County.



In other news, I totally plan to visit Laguna Beach and also hang out with Casey at some point, who, due to UMich graduation diaspora, lives in L.A. these days. It's a shame San Francisco is 6 hours from Orange County or I'd go drive up and see Eston too.

At least these days traveling to CA doesn't mean that I have to worry about my oxen dying trying to ford the river.

Let's hope that this doesn't happen once I arrive in CA:

Mike Rowe Used to be on QVC Tuesday, July 3, 2007 | comments

You know Mike Rowe, right? He's got his show, Dirty Jobs, and he does the voiceovers for American Choppers and everything else Discovery. And he does shark week too. Here he is:



Okay, yeah, you remember him. Ok. Now here's what he used to do:

Soapy the Germ Fighter | comments

Done MST3k style. Beware the "disease germs"

Guy gets paid $200 to buy an iPhone Monday, July 2, 2007 | comments


jonathon, whaddya think? | comments


Death to Wasps | comments

The beach house had some paper wasps build a nest on their sliding glass door. It was my no means a huge nest but it was still not something you wanted by your door. So I bought some wasp stuff and waited for them to all come home at dark.

Brian came out and took this shot of me dispensing justice upon the wasps. The wasps flowed down the window on a stream of poison. They moved around for a little bit on the ground but didn't last too long.


One brave soul remained


and Brian took it out.


And then there were none.

Potassium Chlorate Rules Sunday, July 1, 2007 | comments

Just throwing that out there.

Pew pew pew, nyom nyom nyom | comments


I picked up a copy of Star Wars: Starship Battles at the game store. [Incidentally, I was a the game store to play in a tournament that no one except me showed up for]. It's a pretty great game. Above: a game in progress after the capital ships launched star fighters. It's pretty impossible to play this game and not say "pew pew pew kkkkkggrgrggrgrgrg" when you fire at anything.
star wars battleship miniatures
Good looking minis.

And good tasting too: Zooey chomps down on a Sith Infiltrator.

Also, I now have this mashup from Party Ben in my head.