WIGGUM DAILY

 

The good folk from Redmond who just finished shipping Windows Vista have today revealed details of a new computing concept to replace the traditional desk bound computers, and even the mobile and convenient laptops. Simply called SURFACE I have to say it looks very awesome and I can see Apple Inc just saying "Damn, I wish WE invented that first"

 

 

 

To best see what it’s all about you need to watch the three videos over on the the SURFACE website.  There are several moments, esp in the second two, that make you go "WOW… that is just extremely cool…  I want it NOW !!!" 

 

And if you feel the burning urge to be just like Tom Cruise in Minoritory Report, you can indeed buy it now for a lazy USD$10,000. Expect to see units appearing in "public spaces" towards the end of 2007. Places like shops, restaurants, bars etc. Very Cool…

 

 

Nothing more to say except… IDIOTS  

 

 

Or does it ?  Watch the video and decide for yourself if this is some new form of Soviet levitation aviation, or merely a clever effect created by syncing the FPS rate of the camera to the rotational speed of the helicopters blades.

 

 

I came across this fellow on my Sunday beach walk. A dead adult CAPE FUR SEAL washed up on the beach. I could not tell if it’s head was missing or just buried under the sand. There were no obvious injuries that I could see. Seemed to be fairly much intact. Was a long way from the water. Looked "fresh" so I reckon it washed up on the high tide the night before. It was a long way up the sand, only 4-5m from the highest tide mark on this beach.

 

            

 

Was a lot bigger than I thought they were. I’d estimate the body to be 120cm long, with another 30-40cm for the "feet" at the back. Very round and big in the body. I couldn’t have wrapped my arms around it. Estimate weight at 80-100kg.  I’ve seen these seals washed up these beaches before, but mostly younger ones about 1/3 the size of this specimen. I tried to include my foot in one picture for scale. Somehow it was bigger in real life than came out in the photo.

 

These fur seals breed just a few km’s from this very spot on the aptly named SEAL ROCKS off the coast of PHILLIP ISLAND.  This is the largest fur seal colony in the southern hemisphere. In fact you can just see Seal Rocks on the horizon of the photos that have the open water in them. The rest of the land on the horizon is Phillip Island. 

 

You can CLICK HERE to view a map of the area and marker pins showing the exact locations of the dead seal in these photos and Seal Rocks where I guarantee this fellow was living happily on until recently. 

 

 

 

Just a couple of quick "panoroma" pics I took with the trusty

phonecam on my sunny sunny Sunday afternoon beach walk.

 

  

 

A fairly low tide today (0.83m).

I’ve seen this beach at tides under 0.20m and as high as 3.40m

Needless to say, completely different animals…

 

 

 

Wow… not bad. Guy is yelling a bit too much.

But I guess I probably would too if I was there taking that video.

 

My favourite part is at about 1m 30s when he pans up and shows the whole thing.  Granted, it’s not one of those giant big "black" tornadoes that rips buildings apart and flips cars across the road. But spectacular none the less.

 

 

This was taken on the same day when a giant

F5 tornado levelled the town of Greensburg in Kansas.

 

 

He deserves SOME kind of prize for this effort I reckon

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unless you’ve ever registered an internet domain name it unlikely you’ve ever come across ICANN. They’re the body charged with overseeing the hand out of internet domain names in the TLD’s of .com, .net, .org etc…  Whenever you register a domain name in one of these TLD’s you pay an ICANN fee as part of the domain registration process. No biggie. It’s not much money. As you’re about to find out.

 

So anyway, I was over at my favourite domain register GoDaddy last week registering a couple of domains and I noticed there was a CREDIT on my account for USD$0.09…   nine whole cents. 

 

    

 

Turns out that there was some changes to the ICANN fees and I got back three cents for each effected domain I have registered.  Now I did think about investment strategies for some time.  I called my broker.  I called Donald Trump.  I called George Bush. They all said the same thing.  "Boy… you’ve got to SPEND money to MAKE money…"  So as you can see, I immediately reinvested the USD$0.09 refund on the purchase of a new domain for a new site I’m working on. 

Thanks GoDaddy.  Thanks ICANN.

You’ve made it all possible…

 

The story goes that this guy (the pilot) had just purchased this new helicopter, using a portion of cash far larger than his brain. And he has also just recently gotten his pilots license to fly helicopters. (possibly from a cornflakes packet)