ceramic owl mug

Michael Baird February 7th, 2007

I threw this together yesterday to help out my sister-in-law with her ongoing quest to be the most popular girl in high-school on flickr. Flickr is a photo sharing website, and so much more. I like to think of flickr as a double headed dragon. On one head, it is a normal photo-sharing site. People can upload photos, share them with friends and family and print them extremely easily. On the other head is this weird competitive/narcissistic communist marching comment squad, where people are subscribed to hundreds of group photo pools to show other complete strangers that they are creative too, have thousands of contacts who they don’t know, yet are compelled to leave suspicious non-comments about other people photos. Comments like ‘interesting idea’ or ‘nice angle’.

I originally signed up for the ease of use and sharing and I admit I do sometimes submit my photos to groups to show my stuff, but I’m not really sure why. What I do know is that jumping from the first head of the dragon to the second is all to easy, and a slippery slope at that. It only takes one comment from some anonymous person on one of your photos, and all of a sudden, you think you need deserve more comments from strangers. Next thing you know you submit every photo to a group, then you stop posting photos as regularly, thinking what if some anonymous person sees that not all of my photos are fabulous (sharing with family & friends goes right down the drain).

Next the thought creeps into your head that maybe you aren’t posting enough, and people you don’t even know, who thought you were creative, might forget about you if you don’t prove on a regular basis that you do belong and are part of the group.

It is at this point that you join the 365 pool, where you force yourself to post a photo everyday and submit it to the group for review and comments. Don’t get me wrong, I think chronicling your life is a great and fascinating idea, it can be extremely introspective, especially upon review. What I don’t always get is the need to showcase your life.

Then again maybe I’m just jealous of the attention that other people get…I mean, I do have a blog for god sakes (though i’m pretty sure no one reads it).

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Michael Baird December 29th, 2006

Olivia Faye Baird
Born November 22nd
6 Pounds 15 Ounces
20 1/2″ Long
More Photos

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Michael Baird October 3rd, 2006

In the most dangerous and trying times this country has seen in the last 50 years, instead of statesman and deep thinkers we end up with [Bush-Cheney-Rowe-Condi].

-Smooth Coat Fox Terrier (fark.com)

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Michael Baird August 29th, 2006

I ran into this guys website a while ago, maybe on fark W.T. Wallington runs a website theforgottentechnology.com and uses his 35 years of experience in the construction industry to move absolutely huge objects (20,000+ pound concrete slabs) using mostly counterweights and fulcrums. He and his son moved a 30′x40′ 10 ton pole barn 200 feet in 40 hours by hand without using wheels or rollers. His site is full of interesting video footage of his methods in action. Firefox users beware, the videos only seem to work properly in internet explorer (can’t speak for other browsers).

He proposes that his technique could have been used to build the great pyramids and Stonehenge. To prove his point, he has begun to build a replica of Stonehenge out of eight 10 ton blocks on end with 2 ton blocks on top. By himself.

A quote from his site: “One man, no wheels, no rollers, no ropes, no hoist or power equipment, using only sticks and stones.”

I am truly amazed at human ingenuity

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Michael Baird August 28th, 2006

While getting ready to BBQ this last weekend, I was shopping for some steaks and some cheeckin at the local Jewel in Chicago. While placing the meat in my basket, a small sticker from the steak package stuck to my shopping list.

The sticker read something along the lines of how to safely handle the meat products, detailing how to clean the meat and the area and utensils you use during the preparation.

I noticed something odd about the sticker though. It wasn’t made of paper, and it was kind of thick, with a thicker band running around the edge of the sticker about 1/4″ wide. I tried to tear the sticker in half, and couldn’t, it had a sort of thin laminated plastic coating. I took out my keys and jabbed at it until it tore open, and sure enough RFID inside.

Then I looked down the aisle; every package of meat, be it beef, swine or bird, had one of these ‘safe handling’ stickers on it.

What I want to know is this: who is so interested in the meat that I am eating and why?

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Michael Baird August 23rd, 2006

We are all still alive. I will be able to complete my wok cooking correspondence course.

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Michael Baird August 16th, 2006

So my lovely wife was asking me last night about a website or piece of software that would help schedule her day.

It would combine the usefulness of Google maps & directions with a daily schedule, say from the Google calendar, to create a daily schedule & route planner.

It would be able to schedule multiple events with addresses throughout the day, and produce a set of maps with directions for the whole schedule, possibly telling how long it would take to get to the next location, and when you would need to leave the current location by.

Now, only if people actually read this thing…

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Michael Baird August 14th, 2006

“Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.”

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Michael Baird August 11th, 2006

I found this article posted on boingboing.net that details the possibility of Iran’s intent to destroy the world to be extremely fascinating. I wasn’t worried when I first read it because, as EVERYONE knows, the world won’t end until the winter solstice in December of 2012 (as predicted by the Mayan long count calendar).

Then I did a little more research and found a guy by the name of Steven Hairfield who claims to have recalculated the correlation between the Mayan calendar and the current calendar system. According to his calculations, the 2012 End of Time theory will actually take place in the year 2006 between the months of June and October.

The disaster he is predicting will result in a major change in the earths water table and land mass. This link is to a log of his appearence on the Coast to Coast radio show, along with some audio and links to some maps of the post disaster earth as interpreted by a woman named Lori Toye.

I had so much planned for the next six years, now I have to fit it all into the next 11 days.

Thanks for the heads-up boingboing.

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Michael Baird August 4th, 2006

Between Ted Stevens and a tech consultant.

Tech: Basically what you need to know is that all information on the internet is transmitted in small packets of information, and they travel through vast networks, some DSL, some cable, larger networks use T1 and T3 lines some of the fastest networks use OC-12 and OC-768.

Stevens: I’m not following you. I want to be able to communicate this clearly to the rest of the congress. What are the kids calling fast internet connections these days?

Tech: Well, fast is really relative to what you are used to. But if you feel you have a fast internet connection, some people used to call it a ‘fat pipe’.

Stevens: A pipe? Like a sort of tube?

Tech: Well kinda, they are relating it to a tube, not that..

Stevens: A tube! That makes perfect sense! No wonder the internet is so slow sometimes, some big companies must be clogging the internet tubes.

Tech: Well, that can’t technica….

Stevens: Hush up for a second. Did I ever tell you about the time I asked one of my interns to send me the internet so I could review it? It never even showed up! There has to be some way to stop those big companies from clogging the tubes. They think they can just dump all their data into the tubes like dump trucks and it won’t effect the rest of us.

Tech: Well, actually a lot of people find the information from the large companies to be extremely useful, and the web would nothing but a bunch of blogging morons if it weren’t for some usable content from companies like google, yahoo and amazon.com.

Stevens: I’m sorry, did you say something? I wasn’t listening.

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