Surveying my domain

I registered nathanintownsville.com yesterday with Dedicated Host. Thanks to an awesome coupon deal through Oz Bargain offering 90% off forever on hosting and domain registration.

Stay tuned for news on my movement to that domain – but in the meantime, $2 a month for 5GB and 15GB of data transfer seems like a good deal to me. The deal finishes tomorrow.

Umbrella capers

Tokyo Raiders is a very good bad Hong Kong Kung Fu movie. With an umbrella wielding protagonist. As featured below.

He also competently wields a vacuum cleaner in this scene…

Effective. One can only imagine he’d have been more effective with this custom made umbrella weapon. The Umbuster .

Facebank eats money, scares children

I can’t get enough of these pointless gadgets people are inventing. Here’s a new take on the piggy bank – complete with motion sensors. It will eat your money. Buy it here for $22US. Watch it in action below.

Face Bank from Dynamism on Vimeo.

She <3 Huckabee

This post is really only an excuse to point out a pop culture reference opportunity gone begging over at Slate Magazine - this New Yorker really like's Mike Huckabee…

As I said, I'm a New Yorker—and a pretty serious one. I root for the New York Mets. I can't name a single person who lives in my apartment building. I fantasize about tripping tourists who insist on walking three-wide, arm in arm, at a glacial pace on a narrow sidewalk. I routinely have cereal and paper towels delivered, and I haven't seen the inside of a washing machine in a decade. I'm also in my late 20s, which, coupled with my hip address, ensures that my taste is well-seasoned, appropriately edgy, and probably better than yours. I will obsess over anything Ricky Gervais does. I can name at least 10 boutique vodkas. My music interests are sufficiently sophisticated that I can condescend to most other age groups with authority. Finally, I'm also a grad student—at NYU, no less—so I'm supposed to be one of those cosmopolitan academics who have designer eyeglasses, a subscription to Artforum, and a ready collection of aphorisms to quote from the likes of Foucault, Derrida, and Sartre.

Indeed, I am guilty as charged. But as Sartre once said, "Man is not the sum of what he has already, but rather the sum of what he does not yet have, of what he could have."

So, a guy like Mike Huckabee isn't supposed to be in my wheel house. Girls (and boys) like me are supposed to go for Anderson Cooper types. My friends think I'm a traitor to my age, my island, and my vast (and almost fully paid for!) intellect—but I don't care. If loving Huck is wrong, then I don't want to be right.

Duller

Last week I posted about the self proclaimed dullest blog in the world.

Here’s a sample post from that one.

Opening a cupboard door…
October 16th, 2005

There was a cupboard in the corner of the room. I reached out my hand and gripped the door handle. I pulled the door towards me, thereby opening the cupboard.

Like most self proclaimed titles – eg the World’s Strongest Man – this one fails at the truth test. Here, today, I give you a new candidate for World’s dullest blog. A chance for the Australian Government to prove it really hasn’t come to terms with technology despite their claims to the contrary. Here’s an excerpt from Lindsay Tanner’s first post:

“I’m pleased to be able to join with the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy in welcoming you to the Government’s first online consultation trial. There is a happy synergy in government using its first blog trial to deal with the important questions of the future of the digital economy, and Minister Conroy and his department deserve credit for their initiative in getting this consultation established.”

“While the primary aim of this blog is to get your feedback on aspects of the digital economy, we also want to use this opportunity to explore the mechanics of government blogging and hear your thoughts on how we should interact with you online.”

At least the comments are entertaining. Like this one from Gaz.

“Excellent initiative, so well done. Can I suggest that to facilitate civil discussion that your Ministerial partner, Sen Conroy refrain from implying that those who oppose your net filtering plans are somehow supporters of child pornography as he has done in the past? His comments instantly caused the debate to veer off into unproductive directions and were therefore extremely unhelpful. I hope he can raise his standard of contribution in the spirit of the sort of “effective engagement” you quite rightly mention.”

Ahh, democracy in action.

Eye-fi with my little i

We're living in iTimes. I was walking through the supermarket yesterday and was surprised by the number of people who shop while attached to personal sound devices. Anyway, I digress. The reason for this post is actually the Eye-Fi – which makes it easier to share your photos with your iFriends via your photo platform of choice. It's an SD card with built in wireless and it's about $100US – I'd buy it if I could justify the expense and if it wasn't so easy to use a cable. Good trick for garage sailing (sic) though – provided your laptop comes with a 3G modem and you want your spouse to approve.

Reverse Dictionary

Have you ever had that thing. That mental blank where you can't remember what word you're after but can remember how to describe it. Of course you have. Well, the Reverse Dictionary is here to save the day. Just type your description and away it goes. Pretty useful. I was looking for something like this a while ago – it's like a thesaurus, only with multiple input fields.