15 posts tagged “geekwad”
Found over at PhysOrg.com a little tidbit sure to amuse.
There's a startup out of San Francisco that is developing cars, and hopes to begin actual production by 2010.
Electric cars, with a charge sufficient for 2500 miles.
And they're inflatable.
And they get shipped to you, in a couple of boxes.
And you assemble them yourself.
Enter XP Vehicles.
They claim you can drive the car of a cliff and it'll be OK, and that there's no single pocket that vandals can slash. They figure that someone vandalizing one of their cars would really have to go at it.
Thing is, even if it's all true, I don't see the powers that be allowing this in the US. I figure they'll just say the cars aren't street legal for whatever passel of reasons (don't weigh enough, can't assure they were constructed accurately, mysteriously don't pass crash tests) but I bet they'll be fine overseas.
I hope XP Vehicles just lasts long enough to be able to get things in production and sold.
Over at Brownie Points there's a fabulous tutorial up for mock sushi, stuff that looks real but is based on things like rice krispy treats.
And to think I don't even really like sushi but I love these.
Looks like ten new planets outside our system have been discovered. New methodology has been paying off, and new insights in how planets get to be is what they're expecting from these.
That's what I love about science, how everything builds on the stuff that came before but we're not inextricably wedded to it. The whole point is to try to get as solid a base as possible by constantly testing it and rising up from there. I remember a chemistry teacher I had in high school who told us about being in class one day during his undergrad work and partway through a message was given to the lecturer. The lecturer then paused and undid everything that was up on the board, and by the next day word was out on how to handle new approaches.
Way cool, indeed.
Now if we could just spin off the anti-evolutionists, I bet we could seriously evolve.
For those who have everything they want and have said to themselves, "Screw peace on Earth, I want to annoy people for no good reason!" I give you the wrong number generator. Note: this isn't a random number generator, which might be useful to someone. No, this is a wrong number generator.
You hook this little baby either right up on the regular landline in plain sight or you can use a little creativity to be more devious. Either way, whenever a number is dialed with this thing riding along, it will cause a different number to actually be dialed.
But wait! There's more!
It also gives in and lets the correct number dial through one-fourth of the time to really screw with your victim.
Mwahahahaha!
That's so elegantly evil I'm in actual awe.
Of course, there's lots of gift ideas that aren't for insanely evil overlords also available at i like totally love it, but be warned that this thing's out there.
Unfortunately the one in Cardiff is supposed to be only temporary. When I'm elected God I'll keep it like that permanently.
Presumably a deck of cards was just too ordinary and easy to deal with.
Wonder if these people have special shoes for when rocks fall on them?
So for the last week and a half I've been trying to train a new guy who's the replacement for the woman who was working with me. She was the one who did the premade scones and muffins and such while I did the actual desserts each day. The hard part is trying to get him to improve. He started out bright and eager to learn, and still says he loves the job and really wants to keep it, but he's...so...very...very...sloooooowwww.
Argh.
The first couple of days I could understand, since the gal he's replaced trained him in her job. She left behind notes that I deciphered and reprinted in something useable, since they were awfully disjointed. I thought that was why he kept having to puzzle over them every five minutes. Even after that, he has a tendency to just stop dead and not do anything at all for a few minutes. It's like he hates having to decide what he needs to be doing, and he also resents being told what should be done by when.
Double argh.
And lastly, he really sucks at math. Which wouldn't be so bad if he didn't have a habit of asking, say, how many trays of mini cookies he should do for the next day's catering and then cock his head and say, "Are you sure?" when I answer. Which then has him immobile and me frustrated that I have to try to explain basic division to him rather than work on my own stuff. Dude, if you're not going to trust my answer, then don't ask. Bring a calculator, whip out pen and paper, whatever, but don't ask me and then treat me like I don't know what I'm doing. The stuff we do, it has to be all multitasking, all the time...but he can't possibly ever do more than one thing at a time. I keep swooping in and baking up stuff for him (and traying it up, for that matter) because he still can't figure out that he's supposed to get all the baking done in four hours because it'll take another four to pack it all up and send it out. So not only am I doing my job, but I'm also doing most of his, and we're both racking up serious overtime.
I really hope he gets a clue soon, because I really don't feel like doing my job and his all through the holiday season. It's only going to get busier from here on in and I'll be damned if I have no life because he can't get with the program.
On a totally different note, I recommend you all check out homebrew science which has lots of tutorials and forums for being a better mad scientist. Highly recommended especially for those of you who'd like to be the cool aunt or uncle who encourages kids to make things that blow up.
Boy gets bored, boy starts time-intensive project, boy ends up with artful things made from mundane beginnings.
Or becomes a stalker.
But seriously, aren't these amazing? Live trees carefully coaxed to grow in totally unintuitive ways. I especially like the gazebo-like setup of narrow trees braided with each other and topped with greenery. It's almost architectural. There are more of these where I found them, at slightly warped.
Meanwhile, I can't get my lawn to be even.
Nothin' like putting your petty pidgeonholing prejudices in order, alphabetically by height.
I've been fretting about various things here and there (money, impending fascist state, money) but really the big thing has been trying to get used to the new schedule. I work Sunday afternoon till ten pm, and the other nights tend to be eight pm till four or so. This is what I cobbled up to fit around choi kwang do and family time, like I get any.
I'm covering a class early Monday afternoon as well as teaching in the late afternoon and hopefully training, working Monday night, and they also want me coming in Tuesday morning at Really Big Pharma to do some baking for them. Between that and the regular dishes/laundry/clean cycles it's all I can do to get actual sleep.
Meantime, vox doesn't want to take any of the images I keep trying to upload, so I'm having trouble with things like the geek hierarchy chart that I found on digg, and it does make me giggle like a little schoolgirl every time I see it.
Maybe it's the lack of sleep, but now I have this urge to write erotic Star Trek furry fanfic.
