Bill Murray’s Anti-Tech Rant From 1982
No commentsI just found this raw footage of Bill Murray ranting about the high-tech innovations of the early 1980s. The future really was then!
The footage is from a never-completed series called “Wired In”, which aimed to focus on the technological trends and innovations of the time.
I know those new-fangled “digital watches” were a bit hard to get my head around when they came out… because I was 7! But throw R2D2 into the mix and you have a recipe for comedy gold!
“I don’t mind robots. I mean, R2D2 was alright. He was a fine actor.”
Toyota Prius: Silent AND Deadly
1 comment so farEarlier this month, 8 year old Owen Erickson was struck by a Toyota Prius while riding his bike in the middle of the street with a friend. Thankfully, the boy was unhurt. His mother, however, was quick to place some of the blame on the “totally silent” Prius, claiming her son never heard it coming.
Of course, this happened in America, the land of not having to take responsibility for one’s own actions. What happened to mum’s needing to teach their children to not play in the middle of the street?
Still, this does open a can of worms for Toyota, and any future electric cars. Earlier this year, Maryland launched a study, and passed legislation aimed at vehicle noise levels (more specifically, the “lack of” audible decibels), citing a legitimate concern for the blind. Just last month, a bill was introduced in the House of Representatives to study whether or not a “minimum sound level” needs to be established for these highly-efficient silent runners.
We obviously haven’t “heard” the end of this hybrid-electric argument, but in the meantime, in the interest of public safety, maybe Prius owners can spend the money they save on fuel on a massive car stereo?
GodTube Hoping For Ungodly Returns
No commentsGodtube.com, according to its FAQ, is a “video-driven social network designed for both Christians and non-Christians to share the message and love of Christ.” It appears to have kicked off towards the end of 2006 and has become not just one of the fastest growing Christian sites, but one of the fastest growing social networking sites around.
According to paidcontent.org GodTube:
has received a big $30 million funding round from hedge fund GLG Partners… The valuation for this round was around $150 million. It has previously raised about $2.5 million from private investors, including Norm Miller of Interstate Batteries. While the $30 million is an ungodly big amount, it compares to the other video sharing sites such as Metacafe, Veoh and others in the post-YouTube era. In all of these cases, bandwidth ends up being a huge cost center.
I don’t know how many non-Christians will be rushing to sign up and share the message and love of Christ – that seems to be a specifically Christian domain. If the venture capital is comparable with other video sharing sites, you would certainly hope the user base is of a comparable size. I suddenly have a new business model! I’m going to try my hand at domain speculation: mustube.com sounds like a go-er! theprofitmohammedtube.com might be a bit wordy…
In the meantime, feel free to hit up GodTube for a free faith lift!
That was terrible! I might has well have said “You too can help fight truth decay!”
I’ll stop now.
Techcrastination
No commentsI first came across the term Techcrastination on Wired.com after a heated discuss about the word Woot being named Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year in 2007. MWO defines the term as an interjection “expressing joy (it could be after a triumph, or for no reason at all); similar in use to the word ‘yay’.” As Susan Arendt concludes, “This doesn’t meant that “woot” will ever find its way into the print version of the Merriam-Webster dictionary, but it ups the odds a bit. Today “woot,” tomorrow “pwnd”!”
Then an explosion of discussion. “‘Pwnd’ totally pwns ‘w00t’” etc… I’m not going to pretend I know how to speak l33t as it were. Anyways, after missing out on another amazing prospective domain name by mere minutes to those geniuses at GoldenPalace.com, I staked my claim on Techcrastination.com (I believe it was “ecopreneurs” or something along those lines…)
“The_Steve” who put forth Techcrastination as a contender for word of the year defines it as “Repeatedly postponing purchases of electronic equipment in order to wait for the latest and greatest cutting edge device.” One wonders whether The_Steve works for (or is) a pointy-haired boss…
Anyways, I intend to blog about the latest and greatest cutting edge devices, and you, dear reader, get to procrastinate a little with each visit. Wi-Five! (my submission for word of the year – defined a wireless high five.) (It helps if you say it as Borat would…)