Say what you want to say in 12 seconds

By Mark O’Neill
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

They say a week is a lifetime in politics, but I would say 12 seconds is a lifetime on the internet.   That’s what I’ve discovered anyway after trying out 12 Seconds.

There are lots of websites on the internet that allow you to leave videoclips and webcam clips but most of them are mindnumbingly boring, mostly due to the fact that the person in the clip doesn’t know when to shut up.   They ramble on and on, not realising that they are inflicting the terrible excruciating punishment of “death by waffling” upon their online audience.

This is where 12 Seconds really shines.    As the name suggests, you only get 12 seconds to say what you want to say.  Then you get cut off.   Look upon it as the “Twitter of videoclips”.   You get a strict time limit of 12 seconds and that’s it – no extensions.   This forces you to be concise and to the point.   It also forces spontaneity and off-the-cuff inventiveness, which can mean some pretty funny stuff sometimes.

But as I said, it makes you realize that 12 seconds can be a really long time.

Here’s my page here if you want to see my pathetic attempts, and although the service is invite only at the moment, I can send you an email invite if you want in.    Just send me an email at mark AT betterthantherapy.net and I will send you an invite.    I have 50 invites in my account, but I’m sure I can get more from 12 seconds if I ask nicely enough.

What would you say if you only had 12 seconds in which to say it?



Millennium Falcon Cake would make any geek cry for joy

Edit: Please note that we’ve been asked to remove the pictures from the page by the owner of said pictures. These pictures have been widely distributed through the blogosphere, and no harm was intented by posting them here. On the contrary, we wanted to promote the company that made the product since their culinary artwork was absolutely awesome.

The Millennium Falcon Cake has been made by Charm City Cakes in Baltimore, MD, and was offered for the birthday of one lucky geek by his brother, who by the way earns a living as a system administrator. Hmmm, I wonder why I’m not surprised by this!

Ok folks, I hereby declare that this is the most awesome cake that has ever been made. Period. I mean, have you seen all the details on this thing? It looks absolutely amazing! If you don’t agree with this, then you’re probably not a real geek.

Other cool cakes from Charm City Cakes:

Does Gmail Suggested Contacts solve the problem?

By Mark O’Neill
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

As much as I love my Gmail, there are still a few things that annoy me about it and the main bone of contention centers around the address book.   While Gmail Labs is busy giving us stupid little things like different stars to put next to our emails or “Old Snakey” games, I think they should better spend their time instead improving whats already there – starting with the address book (or contacts, whatever you prefer to call it).

But credit where credit’s due – they have already made one improvement by introducing Suggested Contacts.   This begins to eliminates something which was making me curse in a half-dozen different languages (some of them made-up I have to admit) everytime I opened my address book.

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Hire a Bigfoot hunter on eBay

By Mark O’Neill
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

Isn’t it nice to know that eBay takes care of all your needs?   Whatever you need to get through your day, eBay has it covered.    Wait…..is that Bigfoot driving through the neighborhood on his bike causing a disturbance?   Man… not again!   Don’t worry though!  eBay to the rescue!

With all the stories and rumors surrounding the legend of Bigfoot, I think it is time to have the right person hunting (searching) for the real answers. Most of the TV shows,books,and articles covering the search for Bigfoot are a joke. Nothing but pure amatuers (sic). Most searches involve people setting up trail cameras,etc.,in stationary settings,this is totally the wrong approach. My methods would be covering lots and lots of territory in very remote country.I have been a big game hunter nearly all of my life and am an experienced big game hunting guide and am currently employed by a big game hunting outfitter in Wyoming.Contact me if you would be interested in funding an expedition that will get results.

All for the bargain basement price of $150,000.

Oh and don’t forget shipping costs of $15.95 Priority Mail! I’d love to see the postman dragging a Bigfoot up the driveway and fitting him in the mailbox. I wonder if USPS will deliver him internationally?

Via Boing Boing

Google’s new experiment – keyboard shortcuts

By Mark O’Neill
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

Despite all the great things Google has given us over the years, one of the things I have always wanted out of them is keyboard shortcuts.   I love the idea of just being able to navigate up and down the search results page with nothing more than my J, K and enter keys.    Where we’re going, who needs a lousy mouse?

Well now you can do this, thanks to Google Experimental.    You can head on over there and join the keyboard shortcuts experiment and don’t worry, if you decide you don’t like it, you can leave anytime and have your old Google back.   But I love it and I’m sure you will too.

The concept is very simple.   After making your search, just use J and K to go up and down your search results page, and then either O or ‘enter’ to open the result you want.   / puts the cursor in the search box and the ESC key takes the cursor out.   Easy.

I’m sure there are some of you who are wondering why this is useful, but if so, you should try it and see for yourself.   Using keyboard shortcuts (once you have memorized them) utimately saves you time because you don’t have to stop typing to reach for the mouse to click on the desired link.

I really hope this Google feature moves from the experimental section into the permanent one and not into the graveyard where certain products go to die.   I can always hope.

Lock the Network Doors and Swallow the Key

There is a rather sensational story on the Drudge Report at this moment about an apparent disgruntled network engineer who granted himself god rights on a network, then locked out everyone else’s administrative rights. He then went to jail rather than divulge his password. It’s the equivalent of locking the door and swallowing the key. City Officials claim that the damage caused by this could be in the millions of dollars.

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The Most Irresponsible Science Lesson Ever Taught

Now before you hit that play button, here’s a quick warning: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! (Or, in fact, anywhere else!)

The fifty most influential female bloggers

By Mark O’Neill
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

When I was working as a trainee journalist in newspapers back in the 1990’s, it was still considered to be very much a “boys club” (at least in the UK anyway).   Yes women were working in newspapers too but nevertheless, if you wanted to climb the ladder and get into editorial positions, those jobs generally fell to “the lads”.  I was a very young chap back then, just out of school, so my newspaper mentor was showing me the ropes.   One day, he told me in the cafeteria, “nowhere are you going to see more sexism, testosterone and outright machoism than in a newspaper newsroom”

Fast forward to today, 2008 and the internet.   How things have changed with blogging and the fifty most influential female bloggers.    Lists like these really make me happy because it shows that things really have moved on in the world.   No longer are we seeing discrimination and sexism in media.   Now women are really getting the chance to pull their weight and prove that they too can do the job just as well as a man, if not better.

After looking at the list, it’s more a case of recognizing the blog more than the person.    However, there are a few recognizable faces in there such as Veronica Belmont, Xeni Jardin, Tamar Weinberg and of course Ariana Huffington.

Do you agree with the list?   Who do you like?   Anyone you disagree with?   Anyone who isn’t there that should be?

NxE’s Fifty Most Influential Female Bloggers

Mower: The Robotic Lawn Mowing Sheep

Yep, you read that right. A robotic sheep that will mow your lawn while you lie down in the sun sipping a delicious strawberry daiquiri. The sheep, named Mower, has been designed by Osman Khan, a visiting assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon’s, with Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” in mind.

The robot features GPS navigation, obstacle avoidance sensors and lawn mowing teeth. It will move around your backyard on 6 little articulated legs, cutting grass wherever it steps. If you want to check him out, Mower is currently on display at the Robot 250 festival in Philadelphia, PA.

Manipulate Radiohead’s Laser-Made Music Video in Real Time

The folks from RadioHead just released a new video for their latest song “House of Cards.” The thing that makes this video so special is that no cameras or lights we used to film it. Instead, the producing team used two 3D technologies to capture motion and images: Geometric Informatics and Velodyne LIDAR.

Geometric Informatics scanning systems produce structured light to capture 3D images at close proximity, while a Velodyne Lidar system that uses multiple lasers is used to capture large environments such as landscapes. In this video, 64 lasers rotating and shooting in a 360 degree radius 900 times per minute produced all the exterior scenes.

Check out the video below, and once you’re done, hit this link to manipulate the video’s data in real time.