Hufu, Flesh For Dinner?
October 31, 2005 | 5 Comments
Samantha Bee did a Daily Show segment on Hufu, which I found hugely disturbing. This soy based product is being marketed as a “Healthy Human Flesh Alternative.” Absolutely vile… It made me a bit ill, so I figured I’d share the story with all of you.
I do wonder how they determined this matches the texture and flavor…
Enjoy!
Tags: cannibalism, flesh, meat alternative, soy,disturbing
eMachineShop
October 29, 2005 | 4 Comments
Cliff pointed me at eMachineShop months ago. I’ve been patiently waiting for him to blog it so I wouldn’t steal his thunder.
Anyway, they have downloadable CAD software that you can use to mock up any part you want. Then you can instantly get a price on what it would cost to get any number of those parts manufactured. Prices drop substantially if you large quantities.
Having worked next to the engineers at Ruger Pine Tree Castings for a couple years doing computer support, I have a reasonabe understanding of how complex their jobs were. I am amazed this company can run a real machine shop, do engineering, casting, etc for parts on a potentially one off basis. I would be curious what the quality of their merchandise is.
To me this appears to be a great example of a company using long tail as their business plan in an area that was previously reserved for large companies with big clients ordering lots of parts.
Tags: casting, emachineshop, engineer, engineering, investment casting, long tail, machine shop, part, parts, pine tree castings, ruger
World’s Fastest Furniture?
October 27, 2005 | 4 Comments
I stumbled across the Casual Lofa” today which happens to hold the Guinness Word Record for fastest furniture. This thing has been officially clocked at an extreme 87mph. What I find more entertaining is that these same guys have built a bed on wheels called the “Street Sleeper” that will do 69mph. I think they went a bit too far with the “Bog Standard” which is a tub, toilet, sink combo that cruises at 71mph.
Not sure what the deal really is with these Cummfy Banana guys, but according to their site:
Cummfy Banana is an innovative company which designs, manufactures and provides unique vehicles for advertising, corporate promotional work and special occasions such as weddings and proms.
Truthfully, I don’t think anyone is currently competing against them for the title of World’s Fastest Furniture, so its quite likely they’ll hold this title for some time to come…
Tags: bog standard, casual lofa, couch, crazy, cummfy banana, fast bed, fast furniture, furniture, guinness book of world records, mph, racing furniture, record, records, sofa, speed, street sleeper, wacky, world record, world's fastest, world's fastest furniture
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act
October 26, 2005 | 1 Comment
The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act is an Act targeted at financial institutions, which also applies to higher education institutions. In turn, they must be aware of and in compliance with the Act. Of specific concern is the Safeguards Rule [PDF].
In summary:
Under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Safeguards Rule, enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, requires financial institutions to have a security plan to protect the confidentiality and integrity of personal consumer information.
Luckily the FTC has published: Financial Institutions and Customer Data: Complying with the Safeguards Rule, which as the name implies gives a nice summary of how to comply. Of particuar interest to me is the “Information Systems” section.
As a quick side-note about GLBA, it turns out that maybe the single key reason this Act received bypartisan support and in turn passed is because of Victoria’s Secret.
Tags: act, education, federal trade commission, financial institutions, ftc, glba, gramm-leach-bliley, gramm-leach-bliley act, higher education, privacy, victoria's secret
Identity 2.0
October 25, 2005 | 7 Comments
After reading about Web 2.0 for the last few weeks, I started to imagine how these principles would apply to the identity management concerns I’m facing daily, and often blogging about. I imagined a world where identity was driven by users in a centralized manner. No more reproduction of identity information across hundreds of seperate sites. This seemed like a great idea.
Then I realized I was a few years late in my thinking. A drive toward Identity 2.0 has already begun. Leaading this charge are guys like Kim Cameron and Dick Hardt. Hardt is the CEO of Sxip which seems to have a reasonable solution for this problem that thankfully could be a solution all the way down the long tail.
Today I watched one of the greatest presentations of my life (discovered here). Hardt has been giving variations of an Identity 2.0 presentation all over the place. This presentation should definitively answer the “Why do I care?” question which often slows down discussions of any emerging technology. Generally I’m a fan of very few slides, lots of engaging speech, this is a fantastic exception.
Go watch it now, you won’t regret it.
Trust me.
Go now…
Some other Identity 2.0 Resources:
O’ReillyNet: Identity 2.0 Gathering: Getting to the Promised Land
Planetwork: ID Commons
2idi: Global i-Name
Tags: Dick Hardt, identity, identity 2.0, identity management, Kim Cameron, planetwork,2idi, sxip,presentation, web 2.0
Romance of the Jedi
October 24, 2005 | 7 Comments
Cliff sent me over to Screenhead to check out a hilarious video titled “Romance of the Jedi.” Basically it is a parody on Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith portaying Obi-Wan and Anakin as lovers. It rules, check it out.
Tags: comedy, film, funny, man man combo, revenge of the sith, romance of the jedi, screenhead, short film, star wars, video
Good Night, and Good Luck
October 23, 2005 | 7 Comments
George Clooney was on The Daily Show promoting his new movie, Good Night, and Good Luck. After hearing him talk about it along with the short clip shown, I was hooked.
This is a Warner Independent Pictures film done in black and white with a bunch of real footage mixed in. The cinematography alone interests me, but more importantly, the story revolves around the real life conflict between Edward R. Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950’s. McCarthy was on a witch hunt for communists and Murrow plus his newsroom staff at CBS stood up to him in an extremely public feud.
Unfortunately, as an independent film it isn’t getting shown on as many screens as I would hope. Right now the closest place to see it is in Boston. Now I’m trying to find an excuse to be in Boston so I can see this. Probably won’t happen and I’ll have to wait for the DVD.
Tags: 1950s, black and white, cbs, clooney, Daily Show, edward r murrow, george clooney, good night and good luck, independent film, joseph mccarthy, mccarthy, murrow, newsroom, press, the daily show, warner independent pictures