Friday, May 30, 2008

Weezer: Pork and Beans

So Weezer, one of my favorite bands, is coming out with a new album next month, and you may have heard the first single, "Pork and Beans."

They've released a video chock-full of internet memes.



Here is one of many websites that start cataloging the memes.

No Rick-Rolling, though!

Edit: I almost forgot to give credit where credit is due - thanks for the heads-up Cobra!

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

World War Z

I recently finished an audiobook as well - World War Z by Max Brooks.



It's by the same author that wrote the Zombie Survival Guide, which I've seen and flipped through, but never read.

World War Z was my first audiobook, and I listened to it on my ~20 minute commute. It was very well...written? Read? Both. I'm not sure how the dead tree version is, but this was made up of interviews from survivors of various nationalities and professions. I immediately recognized Henry Rollins and James Woods, but there are a few more that I new but couldn't place a face with the voice. I found the multiple actors a definite plus to the experience, but I wonder if that is due to the interview style of the book. I don't have any prior audiobook knowledge to compare.

If I didn't have 40 minutes per day alone, I probably wouldn't have even tried it.

I got it from emusic.com, for which I had a coupon for some free music and an audiobook.

24: 1994 Pilot

So 24 got picked up by Fox again (duh), but it won't be until next year before we get some Bauer-licious action. What to do in the interim? Feast your eyes on this lost pilot recently unearthed from the archives.



Luckily it's posted to youtube.com and not just the Humor-Site-that-will-get-you-fired-and-in-hot-water-with-your-wife.

Thanks Shayne!

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

7,365,886: Method and apparatus for feeding a document to a device

That's me, babies! One of my ideas finally made it through the near-interminable wait in the US Patent Office. Big Ups to Christa, too, my mentor when I got to the printer group.

It was submitted December 2004!! Normally it can take a long time to go through the US Patent Office as the clerks try to determine if there is prior art or if it actually is patentable.



At work, if someone submits an idea, it goes to the patent committee, which is a group of senior engineers from just about every area in technology. If it passes muster through a scan over email, the inventor gets to defend it in person at a weekly patent meeting. You better have your ducks in a row. If you successfully defend it here, it goes through Legal to our patent attorneys, with whom you work to create the actual disclosure. Then it goes to the Patent Office where you may or may not hear anything for some number of years, and all of a sudden, BOOM! You are a patent holder.

While your idea is at the patent office but before it is granted patent status, it is an application. I have more waiting in the wings, so hopefully this is just the start.

You get a plaque in a meeting, a similar plaque goes up on the wall at work, and you get a free certificate that you can frame (or buy a metal plaque). There are also other benefits for this process, but that's just money and stock options - BFD, right? Yes!

I don't know if getting on through the USPTO will open any doors, but I'll let you know.

Personalized gift cards

We get occasional "On the Spot" instant bonuses at work, usually around $50, and you can pick what kind of gift you want - usually I select a Visa gift card. Once you log on and verify the code number, you have the option of adding a personalized message to the card face, which I did.



I got zero response from any vendor to whom I presented the card. My friends thought it was funny, but I guess all the merchants' sense of humor has been ground down to nothing.

I know what you're saying - "$48? I thought you said $50?!" Yes, it is a $50 gift minus a $2 processing fee for the privelige - nay, the honor! - of getting one of their cards. Lame.