entombed in the shrine of zeroes and ones

I'm sick of my smart phone experience.  Motorola has done a shitty job at keeping Android up to date on the original Droid and the Droid 4.  In addition, i want to avoid the temptation of a hand-held distraction.  Right now, my first choice would be a plain phone that can act as a WAP, plus a small tablet like a Nexus 9 or iPad Mini.  That way, my phone will just be a phone, and if i truly need to do something that requires Internet access, i'll pull out the tablet.

The crux is the first part: the plain phone with wiffy hotspot.  Do you, gentle reader, know of such an animal?  If not, do you have an alternative suggestion?  I'm not going to get an iPhone or any other smart phone; i want a phone that is just a phone, like in the old days, when we beat out text messages with rocks on a 10-digit keypad.  Any other suggestions are welcome.

In my efforts to find a new job, i've signed up for an AWS Bootcamp class, because THE CLOUD is one of the New Hotnesses that i lack.

So far, i am dismayed by the difficulty some of the people in this Intermediate class are having with finding stuff on a page, following instructions, and figuring stuff out.

Safari and TouchTerm SSH allow me to deal with most of the problems that crop up during my on-call period from the safety and warmth of my bed.

I started my new job at YouSendIt (youSENDit?) yesterday (Tuesday was my last day at eFORCE), and today they gave me an iPhone.  For reals (well, i imagine i won't get to keep it if my employment were to suddenly end).  And my biggest concern right now is how much time i'll have to spend figuring out how to use the damn thing.  Next to me is a guy who used to work with 2wanda and allannah ten years ago, who was hired a mere week before i was, and both of us were placed by the same recruiter.  Small damn valley.

OK, nostalgia time: Texas Instruments' Little Professor.  Who here didn't spend their time as a young child obsessively crunching numbers in their head thanks to this handheld taskmaster?  It was apparently updated at some point, but the new version lacks the charm and stolidity of the original.  There ought to be a Wii version, damn it.  Kids these days are missing out.

divisadero embedded a preview to possibly the greatest videogame-based movie of all time.

Remember Liquid Television?  sanspoof linked to something that reminds me heavily of the best parts from that show.  As far as LTV goes, one short that always stuck with me was "The Running Man" (part 1/part 2); the haunting music in the final minute remained imperfectly in my memory, so that when i first heard Michael Hedges's "Spare Change", i thought it was the music they used in the cartoon (it isn't).  Although there isn't a performance of "Spare Change" on YouTube, there is a huge amount of Michael Hedges content there, and, well, thank god for YouTube, because now i've seen Michael Hedges play.  Unless you know tronpublic, you've probably never seen anyone play guitar the way Hedges plays "Silent Anticipations".

Theo Jansen is a kinetic sculptor.  He does amazing stuff.

Via warrenelliscom, a levitating, powered lightbulb.  Thank you, Nikola Tesla, wherever you are.

"It took my 8-year-old son just a few seconds to shake loose some hidden history from within the official transcript of the [Coalition Provisional Authority]."  Thank you, Microsoft Word.

"Just think about your options.  You know Coach isn't going to give you back your scholarship just like that.  If she finds out [that you're pregnant] and if you decide to keep it, that's gone."

I've written about the horror that is the Flavia Beverage System.  Equinix's facility at Lundy Av also has one of these terrible machines.  I have documented the process for you, with the help of my new Nokia 6102i (which replaced my old Nokia 6102, which broke after i dropped it on thib_gc's kitchen floor while in my cups).

The Iron Maiden.  Note the packets sitting innocently atop the infernal device.


Pick your poison.


It looks sinister, but i assure you only good can come of this.


I select a victim.  No, wait, that's me.  Note the square plastic tip.


The square plastic tip proves that the contraption is armed and ready to deliver its toxic payload.


Almost, but not entirely unlike coffee.  Share and Enjoy.™

devonapple brought to my attention this little device that, by judicious application of microwaves, extracts oil and gas from plastics, rubber, and just about anything that has a hydrocarbon base, and leaves a remainder of pure carbon.  The video linked therein is a mediocre production, but it's still impressive.

I think butterflygenius and xoloki will especially enjoy this article about the Ravezooka.

Two Mormon kids have developed a car air conditioner based around Peltier chips which could halve the fuel currently spent on running Freonrefrigerant-based air conditioners.  Thanks to bivaughn for the link.