I know my brother is really going to like this. If you go to Planearium you too can create your very own South Park character. There is a fairly large selection of options to put together, so give it a go!

Thanks to carpeaqua for the link!

Technorati Tags: southpark

This is really cool. In the true Google style of easy to use and works right, the good people at Google have released a mapping service. Complete with directions and everything else you’d expect from maps. Hey, it found my parent’s house in the middle of nowhere, so it will probably help you.

Google Maps

Ray told me about FeedBurner today. It’s pretty cool. It will create nice stats for your XML feeds, massage them so that they display in any reader or browser. Automatically put enclosures around media files. That makes it perfect for podcasts. All and all pretty cool.

I may be a nerd, but I’m not as nerdy as this guy. How nerdy are you?

Hey Folks,
I have a course this semester called Information Management and I just found out its about computer stuff. Well on a scale of 1-10 on my computer genius level I put myself around -4 or -5. I’m really hoping some of the more computer savy SDF1-ers have some reading materials I can borrow. I apparently need to learn how to use Access and Excel. I know what Excel is, I use it to put lists in alphabetical order. lol Access???

In order to do this course i apparently need three text books:
Exploring Microsoft Excel 2002 Volume 1 (Grauer)
Exploring Microsoft Access 2002 (Grauer)
Management Information Systems (Laudon)

Does anyone have any of these three books from your own computer wiz studies? I dont necessarily think I need 2002 versions of how to use Excel and Access, any book or guide would be better than what I don’t know right now.
Thanks SDF1!
Staysea

Halloween day at work. Brought the order of the Crescent Moon to the good people there. Also a basket of candy apples that Staysea and I made, and she so perfectly packaged up. Thanks to Spencer for the fog machine for my cube, it added that nice extra mystery.

I’ll see if I can update with a clearer picture later on today.

Last week I started using Google Desktop. It is an application that brings the searching power of Google to your local machine. It changed the way I use my computer. The download is very small, so even people on dial-up can use it. It requires a gig of hard drive space to install, which is my only complaint, and will index just about all of your office files, email and AOL messenger (if you’re one of those who uses it).

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The latest Resident Evil movie, due out on the 10th should be even more entertaining for the residents of Toronto. The movie was filmed primarily in Toronto, and features Toronto City hall as the Laboratory where the zombie creating chemicals are created. Which invariably gets blown up. Much of the Toronto core is shown, with certain digital omissions and duplications. Watching the trailer show more than a few places you might recognize.

If you want to buy a piece of the movie, the site even has their Auction of props up on ebay. A portion of the proceeds go to ‘Find the Children’ charity.

I’m very excited, I get to be part of the ecto 2.0 beta. Ecto is the software I use to post to my blog. The Mac version is written by Adriaan Tijsseling. I find it invaluable when updating and adding to my blog. In fact this will be my first post with the new version. I already like the changed layout. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Japan successfully launched the world’s first solar sail. Basically it a large thin sail that catches radiation and over time accelerates, indefinitely. The acceleration is slow as inertia needs to be overcome, and extremely large sails would have to be used to move a ship. But with no need for fuel, it is a first step towards deep space probes.

Institute of Space and Astronautical Science | JAXA:

“ISAS succeeded in deploying a big thin film for solar sail in space for the first time in the world.

ISAS launched a small rocket S-310-34 from Uchinoura Space Center in Kagoshima, Japan, at 17:15, August 9, 2004 (Japan Standard Time). The launch was the culmination of a historic new technology, and the success this time has really made a great achievement in the history of solar sail.

A solar sail is a spacecraft without a rocket engine. It is pushed along directly by light particles from the Sun, reflecting off its giant sails. Because it carries no fuel and keeps accelerating over almost unlimited distances, it is the only technology now in existence that can one day take us to the stars.”