Experience liftoff at Kennedy Space Center

Today marks the opening day of the Shuttle Launch Experience at Kennedy Space Center. I'm not sure what the cost of this ride is but it sounds like a real trip! The rides creator promises an experience more realistic that the simulators used by NASA and the US military. Check out the Wired article...

Web History - another reason to love google!

Google has created another tool that I love! Web History works only if you have a Google account, but why wouldn't you? It's free and packed with cool tools! Once you've signed up and have granted the tool the right to call home, Web History keeps tabs on all of your Google searches. Want to find that cool sight you discovered a month ago? Log into your Google account, select Web History, and you're on your way. Big deal my browser can do that! True but this assumes that you are on the same computer that you used to conduct the original search... the real beauty of this tool is that you can log into Google from any computer, anywhere, and see your combined searches whether they were conducted at your work place, your home, your laptop... you get the idea. The interface is a familiar blog style listing with an intuitive calendar that displays the dates you searched with a colour coded frequency indicator, the more searches you conducted the darker the green, if you didn't search the day displays with a white background. You can manage your search history by removing items you don't care to see any more and there is a very cool trends page that shows you statistics about your searching habits like the time of day or day of the week that you search the most. As if that weren't enough! you can also add a bookmarking feature to your browser's link section so your bookmarks can follow you around as well.

firefly

After hearing much about the short lived firefly tv series from 2002, I happened upon the 4 disc set on the shelf of the local Future Shop and as luck would have it, it was marked down. I'm only 5 episodes in and already I'm hooked! If you are a Star Wars, Star Trek, or Battle Star Galactica fan you'll love this show. It reminds me of the old westerns that I watched as a child and that was the intention of the shows creator, Josh Whedon, I'm sure. It doesn't rely on a great deal of FX, has great story lines, and elements of humour. The thing that sets this show apart from the others mentioned above is the notable absence of alien races and droids, at least in the episodes I've viewed thus far. The set comes with all 14 series episodes, some audio commentary, deleted scenes, gag reel, and 3 never-aired episodes. If you are a sci-fi fan and can get your hands on this dvd set it's well worth the investment. I'll be on the lookout for the follow up movie of 2005 - Serenity.

Great Big Geek Store!

Great big news! I've added an Amazon aStore to the site in order to give you an opportunity to purchase some of the products that I like, have written about, or will write about in the future. Amazon's aStores works through their affiliates program so anything that is purchased through the aStore is tracked and Great Big Geek will receive a commission. I'm going to limit the items in the store to things that I personally own and trust or things that I've researched and believe in. I've elected to receive Amazon gift certificates as payment for a couple of reasons. Firstly, if they pay me by cheque (check) they take a $15 handling fee. Secondly, they don't appear to issue direct deposit payments to Canadian banks. oh well, I guess I'll have to buy more gadgets to review ;-)

You can also support Great Big Geek by clicking on the google ads, the amazon ads, or buying a SCOTTeVEST through my link... hey, a guys got to make some beer money some how!

Technorati

I've just signed up with technorati, for those of you who are not familiar it is a blog search site which helps you to drive more traffic to your blog. Check out my Technorati Profile!

Another golf gadget...

I don't golf as much as I did when I was younger, or as much as I might like to. I've never been a great golfer, though back in high school I had a respectable 15 handicap. If you are into gadgets and golf, there is no end to the number of tools and devices claiming to help you cut strokes from your game. I'm pretty skeptical when it comes to most of these gadgets as I believe, when it comes to golf, you either have it or you don't. Yes, practice helps but there is something that the elite athlete has that the rest of us will never possess.

Here though is a neat little gadget that just might work, my father swears by it, and I think it can be reasonably explained through physics. According to the manufacturer of this device, no golf ball is perfectly aligned when it leaves the factory. The Check-Go Sweet Spot Finder spins a golf ball to an impressive 10,000 rpm automatically realigning the ball's heaviest areas along it's equator. Once this is accomplished the machine's LED indicates that the ball is spinning in balance and the user then inserts the included marker into the machine to draw a line along the ball's sweet spot. Aligning the marked line with your golf club or putter will ensure that the ball tumbles as truly as possible in flight or on the green, and just might give you that little extra advantage during your next match play. Did I mention that my father is an engineer, an avid golfer, and a Check-Go believer...

Geek art?

I read 2 magazines regularly, Wired and Business 2.0. Both of these satisfy my needs to keep up with all things geeky and I nearly always have 2 or 3 of them laying around the house in various stages of being read. I like the broad view that each takes in covering technology, that's to say, they don't pigeon hole themselves by being too specific or geared towards any one technology. Each issue of either magazine covers varying topics from Internet to biodeisel, gadgets to IPO's.

Besides the compelling content, I have always admired Wired's fantastic cover art and during a recent purge of my home office's book shelves I was torn between the love of the magazine and my need to make room. What to do? Well, when you can't bare to throw it out... frame it!

While I most certainly am an early adopter when it comes to technology, there are a few things that, to me, can only be done in the traditional fashion. Barbequing is one of those things! I’ve had my Weber® Kettle grill for 15 years and it has been a trusted friend. For a very long time family members have been begging me to “upgrade” to a gas grill, and I have been the butt of many jokes regarding ole faithful. There is an art to grilling with charcoal and the barbequing experience is much more fulfilling when you’ve nurtured the coals to that perfect pinkish-white.

Alas, this year I’ve finally given in to the mobs of flesh hungry drones that inhabit my home… okay so that’s a little dramatic, but it does seem as though I’ve tossed a friend to the curb! I’ve just purchased my first gas grill, but of course not just any grill, this is the 56,000 btu stainless steel beauty that I’ve passed in the isles of the local grocery store since there was still snow on the ground. I’ll admit it did catch my eye and I did occasionally envision my self standing in front of a large brontosaurus rib, Fred Flintstone style… The L@H 56,000 BTU stainless steel BBQ is a real performer, it assembled easily and fired up first try. I was amazed at the speed at which the thermometer climbed to +500 deg. F. It’s been in constant use since the purchase and I think I may be becoming one of the converted… rest assured, no BBQ was harmed in this experiment as the Weber will be heading for the summer place.

By the way, the L@H utensils are a marvel of engineering! :-)

Spy coins, eh!

LOL... this is a great story of technology and espionage! Apparently some U.S. defence contractors got suspicious of the coins which they found in their rental car while traveling here in Canada. The coins in question are the commemorative Rememberance Quarter of 2004 (on the right below). The quarters, as you can see, have a very distinct red poppy in the centre which appently also fluoresces under a black light. You can read the entire story here.

By the way, I do understand the need to be paranoid if you are a defence contractor. Guys... watch out for the 2006 Cancer Ribbon coin too!

Perhaps I should rethink the domain name???

Just doing a little surfing before calling it quits for the night and I happened to check the definition of geek on the Merriam-Webster site. I was really worried until I got to the last one... I believe that I'm fairly well liked, and I haven't bitten the head off of anything lately!

Oh, got my SCOTTeVEST Microfleece Pullover today, a day early!!! I'm lovin' it! Cost a little more than I had planned on spending once exchange, shipping, and duties are considered, but still worth it.