Wi-Fi detection via shirt

Walking around looking for a Wi-Fi connection to leech off of, you’d probably wish for some kind of portable wireless network connection detection device. But those suckers are bulky, not very good, a little pricey, and often have poor user interfaces. Thanks to ThinkGeek, you now have the answer in the ultra-portable, easy-to-understand, take anywhere Wi-Fi detecting shirt.

wifi_shirt_anim.gif

Here at ThinkGeek we’re pretty lazy when it comes to technology. We expect our gadgets to do all the busywork while we focus on the high level important tasks like reading blogs. That’s why we hate to have to crack open our laptops just to see if there is any wi-fi internet access about… and keychain wi-fi detectors, we would have to actually remove them from our pockets to look at them. But now thanks to the ingenious ThinkGeek robot monkeys you can display the current wi-fi signal strength to yourself and everyone around you with this stylish Wi-Fi Detector Shirt.

The shirt isn’t available yet, but should be in just a couple of weeks. You can pick one up at the product page for just $30 (minus a penny).[tags]Wi-Fi, Wireless detection, Think Geek, Geek shirt[/tags]

Off-duty sheriff’s deputy goes on shooting spree at a private home

This is just freaky news:

An off-duty sheriff’s deputy went on a shooting rampage early Sunday at a home where seven young people had gathered for pizza and movies, killing six and critically injuring the other before authorities fatally shot him, officials said.

. . .

The circumstances of the shooting were hazy Sunday and it wasn’t immediately clear what the gunman’s motive was, but the mother of a 14-year-old victim said the suspect may have been a jealous boyfriend. The shooting occurred in a white, two-story duplex about a block from downtown Crandon.

The shooter in question is 20 years old, and apparently touched in the head (and not in the good way).

[tags]WTF, Shooting spree, Touched in the head[/tags]

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If you love your children, you’ll get them proper protection

As a full-fledged member of the tinfoil hat self-protection society (note: I am not aware of an actual society with this name, merely making something up to promote the effectiveness of this post), I realize the importance of protecting not only my own brain from s00000per-sekrit thought-penetrating waves, but also that of my unborn child (note: I am not actually capable of carrying my unborn child, nor am I aware of any unborn children I might have in the future that would currently need protection).  While I can (and most certainly do) wear a tinfoil hat for my own protection, I’ve always wondered what I could do to protect my child properly.  Now, thanks to the brilliant minds at MummyWraps, I have a way to prevent my child’s corruption from evil-doers who would seek to infiltrate his thoughts with bad things.

From conception to birth, your baby undergoes the most rapid growth of its life, with incredibly fast cell-division taking your precious one from a single fertilised ovum to a beautiful baby in just 9 short months. However, such incredibly rapid growth also carries with it great risk of cell mutations that could cause major medical problems or even miscarriage.

Electro-Smog, or Electro-Magnetic Radiation (EMR) as it is more commonly known, is a complex and pervasive energy field radiating from both natural sources and from man-made electrical and electronic systems. EMR sources include cosmic rays, x-rays, radar, microwaves, TV and radio stations, cellphones, and all other wireless communication systems. International research has shown that prolonged exposure to EMR can be detrimental to human health, particularly that of unborn children.

Oh.  Well.  So they say they are protecting from stray electric and magnetic pollution.  I still think it’s a front for s000per-sekrit thought penetration electro-waves brain penetration protection.  And for $70, you can’t pass up that kind of safety.  (via Futurismic)

[tags]Tin-foil, s00per-sekrit, tinfoil hat, Brain protection, Thought waves[/tags]

Blogger fired for blogging about work

This would be easy to hear about initially and start griping about how wrong it is, but in the end it’s just a case of properly being punished for being stupid.  A young lady from Nintendo posted to her blog things about work.  She criticized cow-orkers, perhaps thinking that because she didn’t name them specifically she wouldn’t get in trouble.  Someone at Nintendo found out about her blogging and she was fired.

fired_blogger_clip On August 31, Jessica Zenner was driving her 3-year-old son to day care when her BlackBerry rang. It was the human resources director at Zenner’s work calling to tell her she was fired. The cause, Zenner says, was because her bosses at Nintendo discovered her personal blog, Inexcusable Behavior.

. . .

One post on Zenner’s blog—titled “The Daily Weed”—begins with her disputing her friends’ perception that she is a pothead. She digresses into a wry tirade against one of her bosses: “One plus about working with [a] hormonal, facial-hair-growing, frumpy [woman] is that I have found a new excuse to drink heavily,” Zenner writes. “My gut tells me that this woman hasn’t been fucked in years.”


Now really, I totally get griping about cow-orkers.  I tell others allllll the time about the stupidity I see and suffer through at work.  But I’ve been careful to not gripe too specifically on the Blahg about work, and decided to remove the one really bad post I made after I put it up last year.  Blogging and anything about one’s job just don’t go together for non-work blogs.  It’s not wise, and anyone who thinks about it can see why companies are not keen on having their employees blog about work – even anonymously (although claiming the post anonymously and posting a picture of yourself on your blog aren’t really compatible thoughts).

I feel for her, because she’s young and made a mistake that an older worker probably would have realized could be trouble.  But I’ve seen others call out first amendment protections or claim that since she wasn’t blogging AT work, she can’t be fired for it.  I don’t think those are applicable here since she’s not at all anonymous nor can one freely criticize others and not face consequences just because one doesn’t use specific names.  If it’s easy to figure out who she’s talking about, she’s going to cause trouble for her employee.

On the plus side, she has since found a new job, and I’m pretty sure her new employer knows about this and has most likely already specifically condoned further personal blogs (although I bet they have advised her on things not to blog so she doesn’t get into this kind of trouble again).  (via Joystiq)

[tags]Stupid, Blogger fired for personal blog, Protected speech[/tags]

Thermaltake case

This one is just for the case geeks in the audience. My current favorite case is a Thermaltake, so I’m already a fan of the hardware. Here’s the next big thing to come from the company, and I have to say – if I had the dough, I’d probably buy one.

I’m a sucker for a pretty case, and that sure is a fine looking box.

[tags]Thermaltake, Computer case, Case geek[/tags]

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Rush and those phony soldiers

Like many others, I heard about Rush and the phony soldiers comment. My response was approximately “Meh…”

Really – this is what Rush does. He says offensive things, trying to get a specific message across (in this case – soldiers opposed to the war are phony) while usually speaking carefully enough that if too many people get too upset, he can back pedal and truthfully say that he didn’t actually say what he is accused of saying. It lets his listeners and viewers feel comforted with the insults of those they dislike while leaving wiggle room for Rush to pretend he didn’t mean whatever gets him in trouble.

I would suggest to my (still above average and incredibly good-looking) readers that many well-known political commentators do this same thing in some manner, and most of their listeners eat it up the same with the ditto-heads do.

Yet for some reason, this particular comment really has riled up the Democrats. I am actually surprised at how upset many people have gotten over this. I heard his comment and promptly ignored it, thinking that the blowhard effect should push this away where it can be forgotten like so many other irrelevant comments. I suppose not everyone recognized meaningless hot air for what it is, and now we get wasted Congress-critter time so the liberals can finally play tough against someone in the whole war debate.

Thankfully, there is at least one source of commentary that took the proper action and made fun of the entire non-event to highlight how meaningless it really is.

Just hours after Sen. Harry Reid, D-NV, took the senate floor to call on radio talkshow host Rush Limbaugh to apologize for using the term “phony soldiers” during his Friday broadcast, a newly-formed, grassroots veterans organization endorsed the senate majority leader’s efforts.

Sadly, I think the source of the story will cause it to be ignored in favor of more sites supporting this silly uprising to condemn a talking head for, well, talking out of somewhere else.

[tags]Rush, Blowhard, Hot Air, Phony Vets[/tags]

Men – hide your stash of pr0n better than this guy

Pr0n! One of the driving factors in the growth of the intarpipes, I am certain. Fantasy get-away for many men. For one man, however, it was only a sure-fire method to peeve the old-lady and suffer a serious hurting.

A Chicago woman who became enraged after discovering her longtime boyfriend’s stash of pornography shot and killed him in their South Side home over the weekend, prosecutors said.

. . .

Strowder and Martin had lived together in the 5300 block of South Shields Avenue for the last two years, prosecutors said at a hearing Tuesday at which Strowder was ordered held in lieu of $600,000 bail. On Sunday night, Strowder found CDs inside the home containing images of nude women and lost control, authorities said.

Ding-dang-diggity! That’s some freaky scary stuff, right men?

[tags]Pr0n for disaster[/tags]

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