http://www.petroleumjelliffe.com Your source of information about John Basedow, the Muffin vs. Cupcake debate, using Outlook like Gmail, and how to kill your TV. Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:28:59 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Data sculptures create objects out of mathematical functions. This skyline is the histogram of an image, basically the tally of different shades of gray within an image. This chair is produced by a sound wave. By varying frequency and amplitude over time, you get a 3-dimensional volume. ... http://www.petroleumjelliffe.com/2007/11/data-sculptures/ I just noticed the microwave at my office has a record a message feature. I noticed this because it said to press 'Message' to listen to a message. This actually seems like a cool feature. If you want to leave instructions for loved ones that they'll have to microwave ... http://www.petroleumjelliffe.com/2007/11/talking-microwave/ When scrolling through a list, the list should always show you the next item in teh list. That way you never hit the last item on the screen without seeing the next item (unless you're at the very last item). You don't register seeing the item you want before you ... http://www.petroleumjelliffe.com/2007/11/scrolling/ This magnetic nail polish reminds me of these magnetic contact lenses from a few months back. Could you track the magnetic fields from your fingertips in the same way they intend to track the contact lenses? There's probably an instrument idea in there somewhere. I just hope they're not ... http://www.petroleumjelliffe.com/2007/11/magnetic-accoutrements/ Gizmodo, which consists almost entirely of cell phone press releases these days, is really pandering to a lowest common denominator. In this recent post about a pink hard drive, they suggest buying one is second only to squeezing a ripe pear of tittles (sic) in celebrating Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I thought ... http://www.petroleumjelliffe.com/2007/10/gizmodo-readers-are-scum-of-the-earth/ A spoof explaining Kaspar the friendly ghost's origin. [via Ironic Sans] http://www.petroleumjelliffe.com/2007/10/its-german-for-the-my-baby-the/ Cops in Germany let off a man for hurling his computer out a window because he was having technical problems. "Who hasn't felt like doing that?" said a police spokesman. Amen. If I had a swear jar for PC related problems, I'd have enough to buy a Mac. ... http://www.petroleumjelliffe.com/2007/07/not-just-cold-and-calculating-but-sympathetic-too/ Stare at the 2 images below until your eyes cross and you see 3 images. The middle one will be in 3D! What's happening is your left and right eyes are focusing on the left and right images respectively, which is how the brain perceives depth. All I did ... http://www.petroleumjelliffe.com/2007/07/stereoscopy/ This tip from Tricks of the Trade says writing down something you want to remember is better than highlighting it. I bet that's true, but I wonder whether typing something affects recall as well. Would texting it improve recall even further since, at least for me, it requires ... http://www.petroleumjelliffe.com/2007/07/writing-soemthing-down-improves-memory/ ... for today I paid off my college loan. All 17 grand of it. Time to save up for my yacht and sail the globe! http://www.petroleumjelliffe.com/2007/07/im-a-free-man/