Find out who you were in a past life (interesting)

Even if you don't believe in past life experiences (like me), this is kinda fun - Past Life Analysis. It's at least good for a laugh!

Violation of free speech - or protecting the children?

Well it's a tough call on this one - a Catholic high school principal has informed his students that they must take down their blogs and other personal online sites like pages on myspace.com and xanga.com. So that begs the question - is he violating their rights to free speech, or just doing what he thinks is right to protect his kids from predators online? It's a tough call - I can see both arguments having validity, but I bet the voices on the side of protecting the students (the principal, his staff, the kids' parents) will veto any arguments the kids can come up with against this new policy.

Gotta go back in time...

Check it out folks - someone went to all the time and trouble to craft the DeLorean from Back to the Future out of LEGO - here's the link to the pictures.

NASA worries that long space missions could be jeopardized by - wait for it... SEX!!

Oh yeah, I'm not kidding. Here's the link to the New Scientist article I just read that goes into NASA's misgivings about sex in space - in detail. So OK - people but together on a long space mission like say, to Mars (it would most likely be a 30 month trip to reach Mars), would potentially want to do it. That is a given, I think. So now NASA is going to study the issue, and they better hurry - they plan to conduct new missions to the moon by 2018! Do you think they have enough time?

Yep, more pictures from Vegas

Here are some pictures of a few hotels on the Strip -

Here's The Mirage.

This is The Palms - the new tower was still under construction while we were there.

Here's a shot of The Venetian.

And here's a shot of The Stratosphere.

Yet more Vegas pictures

Here you go, even more pictures from Vegas!!

Inside the Wynn lobby, they have trees with large topiary balls hanging from them, so here's a shot of one.

This is a shot of the stream that runs through the landscaping outside the hotel.

Here's a shot of the cool hanging lanterns inside the Wynn.

The Wynn lobby also has these neat tile mosaics all over the place, inlaid into the marble floors. Very fancy!

Even more Vegas pictures

Got some more Vegas pictures for you - here's a few more of the new Wynn hotel.

Another exterior shot of the Wynn Las Vegas

Like other Vegas hotels, the Wynn has a video sign outside - but the Wynn's is special. The video is one thing while the logo is down, like this shot...

And switches to something different while the logo moves up, like it is in this shot. Pretty cool when you see it in action.

And here's a shot looking into the lobby of the Wynn hotel.

I've got a few more shots taken at the Wynn, and I'll share them soon!

More Vegas pictures

Well, I'm posting it later than I'd hoped to, but as promised - here's are more of my pictures from our Vegas trip.

Another shot of the Eiffel Tower at Paris Las Vegas.

A shot of the fountain outside Paris Las Vegas.

Here's the electronic sign outside Paris Las Vegas - it's even more impressive at night!

Here's an exterior shot of the new Wynn Las Vegas - a pretty cool place indeed.

More pictures from Vegas (better late than never...)

I know I promised more pics - here they are (finally)!

This is the replica Arc De Triomphe outside of Paris Las Vegas

And here is a shot of the Eiffel Tower at Paris Las Vegas

More to come - perhaps later today, if I have a chance (fingers crossed!)

Apple announces new iPod that plays video

There had been rumors that Steve Jobs was going to make the announcement about video iPods on the 12th, then the websites spreading those rumors were told to stop. And sure enough, Jobs announced that new iPods would soon be available that play video. 150 hours of video (on the 60 GB model I'd assume) - but you have to watch it on a 2.5 inch screen. Maybe I'll wait till they make one with a bigger screen... nah, who am I kidding - I want one now!

One day only - download Divx Create software for free!

Looks like this is legitimate - one day only (today), you can download the Divx Create software package for free. It's normally $19.99, but they are giving it away free today to celebrate their five year anniversary. Here's the link - enjoy!!

Meeting of the minds - TIME interviews Joss Whedon and Neil Gaiman

And as you can read in the article, both Neil and Joss have film coming out this Friday. Neil's got Mirrormask, and Joss has Serenity (of course). It's a pretty long article (so long that I've only had time to skim it so far), but pretty interesting. And Neil has declared September 30th as 'National Geek Day', and it sure will be! I'll be in a theater watching Serenity on Friday - how about you?

Windows Vista - the REAL reason it's taking so long to bring it out

Here's a great article from the Wall Street Journal all about the next version of Microsoft's Windows operating system, and the problems that have caused it to be delayed many times over. It goes into the change Microsoft implemented in how they code their software, and how it wasn't an easy sell with their engineers - or Bill Gates himself. Definitely worth a read.

From the Earth to the Moon - again

Well, it's official - NASA is going to return to the Moon before the end of the next decade, probably in 2018. The spacecraft they plan to develop looks remarkable similar to the Apollo program spacecraft - but it will be updated (of course). It'll also apparently cost somewhere on the order of $100+ billion dollars to develop and build. Not sure if it's worth it, but the new vehicle is also expected to be the main way to deliver people and supplies to the International Space Station (replacing the Shuttle) and will also possibly be the vehicle (or one of the vehicles) used for human exploration of Mars. Maybe it's worth it, but I don't know - we'll see I suppose. I'm sure many people will weigh in with their opinions over the next few days and weeks.

Nintendo reveals the real reason they are calling their next console 'Revolution'

The story broke yesterday - Nintendo, which has been very tight about info on the new Nintendo Revolution console up till now, officially unveiled the new controller for it at the Tokyo Game Show. Big deal, I'll bet you're thinking. But it actually is - read this article from 1up.com to find out all about it. Has Nintendo done it again - or will the Revolution suffer the same fate as the GameCube?

Release date for Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children

It's been a long time coming, but the fully CGI rendered movie 'sequel' to Final Fantasy VII will be available on DVD on November 29th. More info about the DVD available from AnimeNation. You can also find out more about Advent Children on it's website - it's a Japanese site, but not too hard to glean at least some info from it. You might also be interested in this interview with Tetsuyo Nomura (Director of Advent Children), where he talks about his idea of remaking the original FFVII, as a full CGI version for Playstation 3. Now THAT would be awesome - getting to play FFVII again, but it looks like the CGI animation used in Advent Children!!

As promised - some pictures I took in Vegas

I know I promised this a long LONG time ago, but here it is finally - I've got some pictures I took in Vegas to share with you. Like this one - a shot of the hallway leading away from our room at Rio (exciting stuff, I know).



Here's one of the cars on the Las Vegas Monorail - all Borgified. Cool, huh?



I've got more to share - but no time to put 'em up right now, unfortunately. Hopefully later today or tomorrow.

The Bushes on vacation

Man, this picture is hilarious! My father-in-law emailed it to me, so thanks go out to him for brightening my day! If you want to see the image larger you can just click on it.

Bill Gates speaks out about the competition facing Microsoft

Here's a link to an interview Bill Gates did with the Seattle Post Intelligencer, where he talks about Windows Vista, the next version of Office, and the competition Microsoft faces from such companies as Apple and Google - who he admits are doing some things better than Microsoft is. Of course, he believes that he'll eventually crush them, but that's nothing new. Interestingly enough, Gates also recently did an interview with CNET - here's the link to that one. If you're pressed for time the interview in the Seattle PI isn't very long, but I think the one in CNET is more in depth.

Oh, this is just too funny - check this link out!

Got the link to this website emailed to me by a friend, and I laughed my butt off once I went there and read the site - here's the link. You may not want to read this if you believe in creationism/intelligent design, unless you have a good sense of humor!