Jason's Blog of Many Things

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2009-10-13T10:32:00.000-07:00

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test post

2009-10-13T09:52:00.000-07:00

click here to go to the link. I hope that these colours match max's expectations for proper colour.

BCIT

2009-09-12T10:57:00.001-07:00

first week of bcit finally over... despite already being a bit behind :(

... bcit servers wont allow downloads so no pictures..

Passenger Saves Plane After Pilot Dies

2009-04-13T22:54:00.000-07:00

The plane was travelling from Florida to Mississippi when the pilot died in mid-air. From what is still not known, but that doesn't mean that the plane went down. Luckily a passenger, who has had some flying experience, although with smaller and single engine planes, took over for the deceased pilot, and with the help and advice of traffic controllers, landed the larger, twin engine Super King Air. The passenger, Doug White, was with his family when this happened. They were the only people on board. He told them to "pray very hard", obviously because you never know whats gonna happen when something like this happens. But despite the horrific situation, in which most people would begin to lose their mind, Doug stays quiet calm, only starting to feel doubtful when he was about to land the plane. But, that doubtfulness proved to be nothing big, since the plane landed successfully and nobody, other than the already deceased pilot, was hurt. This truly was an "Easter miracle".

Msn Messenger and WebMessenger

2009-04-08T17:47:00.000-07:00

I dont know if anyone out there has had this problem as well, but lately I found that i could not log into my msn messenger on my computer. It works on others, just not mine. What happened at first is that it said "your account is unavailable. please try again later". When i logged onto msn on my brothers account it worked fine. Then i went back to my computer and it would be able to log in again. But now its almost a different story. I try to log on, this time the error message i get is "Your contact list is not available at this time. please try again later." I go onto my brother's computer i try logging in, it works. I go back to my computer and try to log in, just as i did originally, and it doesnt now its the same error message. It had already gotten to the point where i was already pretty annoyed and it didnt really matter much. But now i found a solution. that is Webmessenger. It is the same as msn, except completely online. You dont have to download anything, like you do with msn messenger or windows live messenger, just sign in. another internet window pops up and voila, theres your old msn again. By "old" i really mean it. The format of it is just like it was half a decade ago, when it looked pretty primitive. But, oh well... it doesnt matter how it looks, as long as i get msn back its alright. Oh yea, theres a little lag time between your messengers when you press enter. you have to wait a second, so typing got a little slower for all those who like to write, the click enter, write, enter, write, and enter. But its definitely a good temporary solution for anyone with msn problems.

Earth Hour

2009-03-28T20:39:00.000-07:00

Its Earth Hour right now! Earth Hour starts at 8:30 pm pacific times and lasts for one hour. During this hour, people turn off the light in their houses, apartments, condo's, etc. It is a symbol that at least some people in society care about saving electricity and about going green, although to what extent could be another matter. Anyways, be green-smart and join in with millions of people around the world (those on the other side of the world would have already done this yesterday because of different time zones) in a simple effort to show the greener side of everyone!

Yale Student Sues for Lost Xbox

2009-03-28T19:38:00.000-07:00

Jesse Maiman, 21, has sued US Airways $1 million for a lost Xbox. It is stated that the Xbox has a "specialized" hard drive of some sort, although to what extent is not known. If the airline does not want to take up the court case, Jesse Maiman demands that they pay $1700 for the system, and the maximum damages allowable. A spokeswoman for the airline said that government limits liability for lost luggage to $3,300 per bag. The Xbox was lost during his flight from Conneticut to Cincinatti, back in December. In my opinion, anything of value should not be put into luggages onto airplanes, especially if one is travelling to or from the US, unless it is small enough to be carried on your person, or put into a carry-on travelling bag. Too often does belongings keep getting messed up or gone missing since security is so tight in the US that almost everything must be checked extremely thoroughly.

Naturally 7

2009-03-23T16:33:00.000-07:00

Naturally 7 is an a cappella group of young men, playing in a 'band'. Thing is... they use no instruments. What they use are their own voices, imitating instruments in a way so natural, its kind of freaky (in a good way). They've been a group for over 10 years but only recently became a bit more popular, thanks to a viral video of them singing it off in a Paris subway. The "band," which since its birth way back in 1999 had different singers and artists come and go, currently consists of Roger Thomas (musical director, arranger, 1st baritone, Rap), Warren Thomas (percussion, guitar, clarinet, 3rd tenor), Rod Eldridge (1st tenor, scratching, trumpet), Jamal Reed (4th tenor, electric guitar), Dwight Stewart (2nd baritone), Garfield Buckley (2nd tenor, harmonica) and Armand "Hops" Hutton (bass). So far, they've appeared at several performances, featured on Ellen, appeared on the Jay Leno show, and even toured with Michael Bublé as his opening act. To the right is a picture of the current members.

3rd Generation iPod Shuffle

2009-03-17T17:11:00.000-07:00

The new 3rd Generation iPod Shuffle, is really something. It's got absolutely no buttons on it, and is nearly half the size of the old iPod shuffle. So how do you maneuver it? On the earphone wire, completely seperate of the actual iPod, there are two buttons for the volume (up and down) and a clicker button. One click equates to play/pause. Two clicks is skip the song, and three clicks is to skip back to a previous song. Although a very, very neat piece of technology, it appears that most people, in their reviews of this new gadget, prefer the other iPods, which arent so buttonless.

Spring Break!

2009-03-13T18:03:00.001-07:00

whooo! its spring break!!

Man Survives Jump into Niagra Falls

2009-03-11T16:33:00.000-07:00

Earlier today, a man jumped into the Niagra Falls. He was in freezing waters for at least 40 minutes before being rescued. Initially, a helicopter was sent in for rescue but was unabled so used the wind from the helicopter's blades to push the man closer to shore where a firefighter named Todd Brunning swam about 200 feet, got ahold of the man and brought him back to shore. The man did not try to help his rescue in any way, and whether he did not want to or couldn't is still unsure. When he was rescued he wasn't wearing any clothing, though the Niagra Falls Fire Department said that losing things while things such as clothing is not unexpected while on the way down in the waterfall. To the right is a picture of the man after he is rescued.

AngelaBaby's Interview

2009-03-10T16:19:00.001-07:00

AngelaBaby, turning 20 this year, is one of Hong Kong's biggest supermodel, and recently had an interesting interview. She says that she looks up to British model Kate Moss and that "She's my idol. She's very fashionable, very pretty. I hope we have similar styles. I like to see her pictures and see how she dresses." Eventually, she revealed, that she would also like to have her own fashion line, as celebrities often do, including Kate Moss as well. When the interviewer asked her what she likes being about model, she said that there are pros and cons. The best thing she likes about modelling is the places she gets to travel to, and the worst is that she is always away from home, due to busy schedules, as well as having "to shoot summer-wear in winter, and then winter-wear in summer. So it's very hard for me. It's either very hot or very cold!" When asked about her rumoured romantic involvement with Jay Chou, a Taiwanese superstar, she said "The newspapers only tell stories!" while laughing, though including that Jay Chou is a "very very good person." Ever since she was 11, Jay Chou has been her idol, and couldn't believe it when she finally got to work with him. Below are pictures of AngelBaby and her idols Kate Moss and Jay Chou

Big Gains in Stock Market for 2009

2009-03-10T15:22:00.000-07:00

Today has the stock markets biggest gain in 2009. All three major indexes logged their best day of this year. Dow Jones went up 379 points, which is its highest since november. S&P 500 gained 43 points, best since December. And Nasdaq went up 90 points, its best since november as well. This climb comes after Citigroup lessened some stresses when regulators said they may reinstate a trading rule. Citigroup made a big climb as well, going up 38%. A lot of other companies' stock went up as well, including Bank of America (BAC), Wells Fargo (WFC), General Electric (GE), Cisco Systems (CSCO), eBay (EBAY), Dell (DELL), google (GOOG) and many more.

Facial Expression Controlled iPod

2009-03-09T15:55:00.000-07:00

Kazuhiro Taniguchi, a researcher at Osaka University, Japan, has created special earphones. It is called the "Mimi Switch" or Ear Switch in english. These earphones have infrared sensors built in to read facial expressions. And instead of using your fingers to control your iPod, the sensors allow you to use facial expressions instead. Simply make a wink, stick out your tongue, smile, frown, almost anything, and it'll have its own seperate function. Don't expect this to be on sale soon, it wont come out until two or three years. These earphones are great for tech junkies, anyone who has the money to buy it (assuming that it will be quite costly), and for those who dont mind making random faces and risk offending a bystander or pedestrian.To the right are some pictures of a model with the earphones.

Muziic

2009-03-08T21:53:00.000-07:00

The new internet phenomenon: Muziic. One only needs to download this program and by doing so, gains access to all the music videos there are on youtube, and compiles them into a music video playlist which is streamed directly to your computer. It is free and 100% legal, although such a wonderful program should be criminal to have. When the program is downloaded, it will appear and behave almost exactly the same as any other media player such as real player, windows media, quicktime, etc. The only difference is that you can see the video too. Anyone interested can visit the website by clicking here or click on http://www.muziic.com/

Saturn's New Moon

2009-03-04T19:51:00.000-08:00

A new moon orbitting saturn has been discovered. The moon, quite small, only about a half kilometer across, orbits on saturn's sixth ring. This moon was discovered by the Cassini spacecraft's camera, and the spacecraft is expected to follow up a mission for closer picture taking in early 2010. It was not announced whether the moon has been named. To the right are some pictures of the moon as it is seen at some distance, which appears to be a little speck of light.

Math Holiday: Square Root Day!

2009-03-03T16:36:00.000-08:00

Today is Square Root Day because its March 3rd, 2009 or 3/3/09, and three is the square root of nine: 3² = 3 x 3 = 9. This amazing occurcence comes only nine times every century. The last time was February 2, 2004 (2/2/04). A facebook group for this event suggests that people should celebrate by eating roots like potatoes and radishes. But the roots cant be eaten just in any way, of course. They'd have to be cut into squares! (obviously!) the next Square Root day will be on April 4, 2016 (4/4/16). Another mathematical holiday in the VERY SAME MONTH is Pi day on March 14. But not only does it go to the third digit of 3.14 but at exactly 1:59:26 AM, the magical number can be taken back to 7 decimal places! March - what a numerically magical month it is!

Apple's New Mac Pro and Mac Mini

2009-03-03T16:02:00.000-08:00

The new Mac Pro will be priced at $2,499 for the quad-core and $3,299 for the eight-core version. It uses the "Nehalem" processor which runs at 2.93 GHz.

Another thing that was unveiled today is the new Mac Mini. What's new in this one is the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics card that is in it. It supposedly will improve the graphics from the previous Mac Mini five times. Apple also stated that it is the world's most energy efficient desktop computer.

Topless Coffee Shop?!

2009-02-27T23:10:00.000-08:00

At a time when the economy isnt doing so well, at least one thing appears to be recession proof - and that's a topless coffee shop in Vassalboro, Maine. The name of the place is the Grand View Topless Coffee Shop. Although the coffee shop has only opened for less than a week, business is already booming, and there are already regulars at the place. Most of these regulars are couples and females (surprisingly). Not only are there loads of customers, but there are lots of resume's coming in as well, so far there has been over 150 job applications, most of which belong to people who have just been laid off within the last couple months. In total, there are ten women, and five men working at the shop, and topless, of course. Donald Crabtree, the owner and the man who came up with this quite profitable idea, says that he did not hire only "10's" referring to the beauty scale, but hired "skinny to big-boned women," treating everyone equally. Despite not being "10's" the tips are coming along nicely too. Tips at the shop are averaging $30 a table, and one waitress even got a hefty $100 tip, just for one cup of coffee. The cafe has a really simple look to it from the outside. Just outside the door it says "over 18 only, Coffee shop, no cameras, cash only, and thank you". The place certainly does seem to be quite the success for quite a limited budget to start the business.

Girl Does Almost Anything for $3

2009-02-26T20:18:00.000-08:00

Chen Xiao, a girl in China - aged 26, decided to let internet surfers, otherwise known as netizens, control her life for $3 an hour. After a bad 2008 when her clothing shop went bankrupt, harsh blizzards, a devastating earthquake, and even friends divorcing, she decided that no matter what she did, bad things were bound to happen. So, that is why she is letting citizens of the internet decide things for her. Of course, not EVERYTHING. She says that she will not undertake a request that is illegal, immoral or violent (of course there will always be people there to do just that). So far she has taken care of some of these netizen's sick relatives, delivering pet food, taking care of stray cats, and even providing some of the homeless with a hot meal. So far the oddest assignment was attending the birth of a child. The father was a stranger who just wanted to someone to take some photos and since he heard about Chen Xiao, he decided, why not? Doing things for others, she says has made her her happier. She says that she does not know when she'll go back to her own life, except it is only when others stop needing her.

To the right is a picture of Chen Xiao in front of Tiananmen Square

free iPhones in Japan

2009-02-26T16:38:00.000-08:00

iPhones are now free in Japan. Starting this friday, the only seller of Apple's iPhone in Japan, SoftBank Mobile, is having a special deal. With the purchase of a two year contract, a free 8GB iPhone 3G. Even with this awesome sale, marketing consultants predicted that the iPhone would not do so well in Japan. It is because the phones in Japan are too different from the iPhone which have a more "American" feel to it, being from Apple and all. Text messaging in Japan usually only consists of using just one thumb and not with qwerty keys. The iPhone's camera falls below standard compare to the average camera phone over there, the iPhone's display of emoji, or cute emoticons, is much harder to use, mostly everyone already has an iPod touch, and finally, Japan being one of the toughest cell phone markets in the world, doesn't help much neither. If this free iPhone deal was here in North America, there would no doubt be so much more sales in one of the most technology innovated countries, it might be a little bit harder to pull off.

Too Much Playstation Causes Skin Condition

2009-02-25T15:48:00.000-08:00

Recently an unnamed girl in Geneva, Switzerland had developed what her doctors called "PlayStation palmar hidradentitis." These are lumps, which are a variation of "idiopathic eccrine hidradenitis," which causes red and sore lumps usually on the palms or soles of the feet, appeared on her palms from a combination of sweaty hands, tight grip and physical movement when playing on the playstation. After being prescribed "no playstation" for ten days, the lumps disappeared.

This is not the first report of a game related injury. In the past, adults have been reported of suffering from "Wii knees," which is from over-enthusiastic playing of the Wii. Several first player shooter games have been known to cause dizziness and even make people nauseous as well.

Below are pictures of an angry gamer, playstation 3, and a peculiar Wii console.

This console, showing Darth Vader on one side with red LED lights, appeared on eBay just a little over a year ago. Also included in the set are a pair of black Wii-mote and Nunchuk controllers and a black sensor bar. The seller claims that only four of these were created, specially made for the promotion of the Star Wars game "The Force Unleashed." The asking price for this set was $15,000. No further information whether the image of Darth Vader is paint or vinyl or even just a skin was given.

Xbox 360 Elite: Limited-edition Resident Evil 5

2009-02-25T15:29:00.000-08:00

Microsoft is releasing a limited edition red Xbox 360. It will be packaged just like the Xbox 360 Elite and will also include Resident Evil 5, which is coming out on Friday the 13th of March. A free voucher Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix will also be included as a bonus. The pricing for this limited edition is the same as the regular Xbox 360 Elite which comes to $400. Below are some pictures of the limited edtion Xbox set.

Green Comet to Pass Earth

2009-02-23T17:22:00.000-08:00

Starting today, a green comet, called Lulin, will be visible to the naked eye after 10pm tonight. It should be located to the right of saturn in the southern skies, below the constellation of Leo. It will be seen by places of mid-northern latitudes, such as North America and Europe. The reason for its green coloring is due to ionized cyanogen and carbon gases emitting radiation in green wavelengths. The special thing about this comet is that for the first time ever, it entered our solar system and also for the first time it will be seen by human eyes. It was discovered in Nantou, Taiwan on July 11, 2007 through a collaboration between Taiwanese and Chinese astronomers.

LG: Transparent Keypad

2009-02-17T20:03:00.000-08:00

Just announced by LG, a slide-phone with a transparent keypad will be launched in either May, and if not, then sometime in the second half of the year. This phone is called the LG GD900. The keypad is almost entirely transparent with a slight glow around the edges to illuminate the numbers and keys. Other than this bit of information, LG has released no other details on the phone so far. Below are some pictures of the phone.