In 1962, Corning Inc (that 159 year old glass company, I’m sure you’ve heard of them) invented something called Chemcor. Originally designed to be as strong as steel, it fell short of its design goal and was only 2 to 3 times as strong as normal glass. Oh, it is also paper thin. And it’s damage resistance properties are downright otherworldly!
Back in the day, Corning was hoping to use this glass in car windshields but were beaten to the punch by a British company that could make a suitable material for cheaper. The project fell by the wayside and was never looked at again. Right up until recently . . .
Asian electronic manufacturers needed some way to protect their nice new TV’s and cell phones and went to Corning. Corning, in turn, went through their old database and found Chemcor. Slap the new name Gorilla Glass on it, and you have a winning product!
My wife and I were sitting in bed one night and she turned to me and asked “What are you thinking.”
I gave my usual answer of, “Absolutely nothing.” It’s not a lie; I usually keep a pretty blank mind!
The problem is, a wife can only hear that so many times.
Long story short, I was challenged to think of something to say. For whatever reason, the only words my mind could piece together were “Banana Jam”. I immediately had a sick taste in my mouth. Taken literally, the thought of jam made from banana sounds disgusting. Taken as a euphemism (as I often do), it’s even worse. It’s become kind of a horrible joke between my wife and I, almost a marital meme.
If you remember the days of the one red button joystick, cell phones as big as your head, and betamax, then this video is for you. If everything that I just said made you scratch your head and say “huh?”, then you’re obviously not up on your history and should be ashamed of yourself. (What are they teaching kids in schools these days?)
Some of us just happen to broadcast them in front of 30 Million viewers.
My wife has sort of gotten me onto the whole American Idol kick. I realize the show has gone on for eight years now, and so I’m a little late to the party but I really don’t care. After sitting with her through all of last season and hearing some of the awesome performances (as well as the more miserable ones) I’ve come to understand that the show might actually have some merit to it.
Then we have last night’s “Country Night”. Some people moved up, some people moved down, and some people stayed right where they’d been for awhile. One person in particular had done an incredible job in previous rounds and I really found myself rooting for him (even if he has ridiculous emo hair). Last night, however, I was honestly waiting for lightning to come and strike him down.
Well, I originally had a few drafts I was going to finish up for today . . . but things happen. So instead, we have a random list of observations/thoughts for today. An actual post will be up tomorrow instead.
WordPress updated to a new version today. I of course instantly upgraded. I of course did not back up the old installation. As a result, when we realized that no matter how cool the new admin menus were, they didn’t mean much when we couldn’t write anything, we also realized we couldn’t go back to the old system. After maybe an hour of looking around online, we found that another plug-in the site uses was conflicting with the new back end, and all was cleared up.
I realize that there are many words that geeks/gamers use that are entirely unique to our sub-culture. However, there are others that were originally not meant for us at all, but we’ve adopted anyway; frag and uber being two that immediately come to mind.
Now, to the uneducated, those words sound like they had to be created by some Halo players and managed to be sneaked into the common vernacular, but in actuality the opposite is true! It’s just that many of these words have fallen out of use by the general public and have now become associated with geeks.
The inspiration for this post’s subject came from a rather unexpected place: maxi pads. No, I’m not kidding. While watching TV, the commercials came on and my brain stopped paying attention. Right up until one word was uttered in the weirdest context.
I would like to think that I’m rather handy around the house; I like to fix things, improve things, and learn new skills to do so. One slight downfall is that I’m usually learning how to do something, while trying to fix it at the same time (installing new power outlets, having never done so before). I usually figure that I’m bright enough to figure things out as I go.
This is normally ok, as I’m often right and can figure out the basics and go from there very quickly. This is how I learned how to build computers, service furnaces, maintain a car, rewire circuit breaker boxes, reassemble a clothes dryer, crimp networking cable, and troubleshoot Microsoft Windows. It does, however, leave me with an end product that is a little less than polished: the laptop I’m using now has no fan so we have to use it in short bursts, I’ve electrocuted myself more times than I can count (or remember), and never use a grounding strap when building computers.
I know that a lot of those who work on and visit this little website of ours have at some point in their lives worked tech support in some capacity. That being said, last night a guy in one of my classes brought this video to my attention. It’s very funny because it’s very true but if you’re offended by language, then you may not want to watch it. Also, if you work in an environment where borderline NSFW material can get you fired, you may want to wait until you get home to push that play button.
Now, you can argue all you want that Paul is a musical genius, and I won’t argue you. But even Einstein had problems with math at times! I have my own gripes about Christmas music playing too early in the year, but you live with it (I mean, you can’t really avoid it). My wife is notorious for loving Christmas and everything about it, but even she can’t stand this song. It’s only annoying in short bursts, but it seems that department stores have some sort of special 35-minute torture version that they play overhead.
Entries (RSS)