A geological statistician named Mohan Srivastava cracked several lottery tickets in Ontario in 2003. This article is fascinating: Srivastava would look over a “tic-tac-toe” lottery ticket, hunting for numbers that appeared only once. If three of those numbers appeared in a row, then the ticket was probably a winner. He was able to pick 19 out of 20 tickets as winners or losers through this system. I love how badass this guy is. Upon finding out that he could potentially make up to $600 a day scamming the tickets, Srivastava just thought, “I make more than that as a consultant.” Thrill of the hunt? No, sir. Money.
Lightwriting is so fun. Add a couple robots, a lightsaber and some sweet battle scenes and, even though we argue that this shouldn’t really be called “Starwars V Startrek”, you’ve got a cool little short.
Here’s something you can annoy your friends with! The Spooky Sound Pad is an app that comes with all sorts of creepy or otherwise Halloween-esque sounds. The rest of the site is really helpful, too, as there are all kinds of different sound effects and creepy music. So, if you’re one of those people who sits in front of their strobe-lit garage with these kinds of sounds on loop, you can rest easy. Tomorrow will be a good one.
You procrastinated and now you have like zero hours to make a costume. That’s ok–the Internet has a wealth of ideas for getting something together quickly and cheaply. And most of these are fun and meme-ish, so your geeky friends will know what you’re supposed to be.
Best Halloween costume ever? NOPE, Chuck Testa. For the ladies: Sexy Chuck Testa. Check out this and other meme costumes on the cheap at Nerve.
Remember when Mark Zuckerberg said he’d only eat an animal if he’d killed it himself? Yeah, that’s sort of old news now. But if you have to have a costume to get free drinks at the party, this one’s pretty easy. Check out Animal Killer Zuck and 11 other geeky, last-minute costumes on DViCE.
Just about everyone has an old iPod lying about, and even on limited time and funds you can probably find a piece of colored foam board. Dress in black, borrow some paint, stick that board to your back and go. Check out this and a few other (ridiculously) easy costumes for tech geeks.
Bathrobe. Towel. Boom, you’re a sci-fi icon. It doesn’t get much simpler (or more comfortable or warm) than an Arthur Dent ensemble. And you’ll know immediately who your hoopy frood friends are–but just in case, tuck a Kindle in your pocket (or a copy of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, if you have extraordinarily large pockets) and hitch a ride to the party. And for your pals, check out these other super-easy, probably free costumes from Wired.
Bad Staffer is going as Daria. Any other great suggestions, Geeks?
For as many times as I have watched the Indiana Jones films growing up, I’ve never dressed up for Halloween as any of the characters. Now that I’ve seen this bad boy, I don’t think I will ever need to. The Indy costume has been taken as far as it could go. And what a wonderful place that is.
In a move that is sure to separate the vampire community right down the middle, researchers at the University of Edinburgh have successfully made oxygen-carrying red blood cells. This is really great. Keith Richards can have as many as he wants, now. In movies, forget corn syrup! Why not get the real thing? And like I said: vampires will now be faced with a moral dilemma. My guess is them sticking with a live human neck.
For those of us fascinated with all things space but still broke enough that peanut butter and bread constitutes a reasonable lunch, there is good news! The International Space Station can actually be seen with the naked eye. How might one go about knowing where and when to look, you might ask? Well, tuck in, because the ISS Astroviewer has a chart full of times and locations. Sweeet!
The folks at Google have recently released this brilliant ad showing what a store’s online checkout process might look like in real life to promote their kick ass analytics service. Check it out!
