CSI, Facebook, and Method Man

Apr 30, 2008 by Dan Taylor    No Comments    Posted under: News, Technology

Sounds like the intro to a joke eh? Bear with me, and I’ll tie these three together, and (try) to make a decent point.

I watched the latest episode of CSI last night (Las Vegas of course, New York doesn’t even register for me, and while Miami is ok, nothing beats the original). During the opening credits, I happened to catch ‘Guest Appearance – Method Man‘. Hmmm…ok, i thought. Given Mariah’s stellar screen debut, and Britney Spears’ oscar winning performance, I wasn’t expecting much from a Musician come actor (although, I did think that Eminem did a decent job in 8 Mile).

Well, shut my mouth, because Method Man (aka Clifford Smith) did an outstanding job. His role centered around a Vegas club owner who was serving a short 8 month sentence for a ‘weak ass weapons charge’. While he’s doing time, all hell breaks loose on the outside with a double homicide centering around the woman who raised him, a high priced prozy, a boatload of cash, and his baby mama. Method Man delivers an outstanding performance, completely believable, and never for a second did I think that he was pushing the boundaries of his acting ability. He’s even portrayed as the like-able criminal who stages a breakout, only to save the life of his future child, while never putting up a protest to return to jail after the scene plays out.

The Facebook tie in.

Ok, perhaps just because these are areas of interest to me, but this line jumped out at me like a red flag. During an initial interview with Captain Brass (Paul Guilfoyle) regarding the relationship between two of the female characters, Method Man is quoted as saying:

“…one minute, they’re sending each other cupcakes on facebook, the next, they’re trying to kill each other over a broken curling iron…”

After my initial chuckles died down, I got to thinking about this digital culture comment. Two years ago, this line might have been written a bit more like so:

“…one minute, they’re sending each other glitter tweety birds on myspace, the next they’re trying to kill each other over a broken curling iron…”

And while many others have already written about this topic, let me just put it here in writing; In 2007

“MySpace showed a yearly growth of 19 % Facebook grew at a rate of 125%.” – mybroadband.co.za

Clearly this facebook reference by Method Man (and respectively the CSI team of writers), is yet other subtle mention of what I’ve been preaching for a while now: Myspace is a dying horse.

Sure while myspace still enjoys a much higher share of eyballs, March 08 compete.com data puts Myspace at 68,339,999 visitors, with Facebook receiving 31,233,452 vistors (both figures based on US traffic only), the growth rate is the important factor to watch. In March 08, yet again, Facebook is the clear winner with a 9.3% growth rate, Myspace, 3.9%.

While I’m not sure that Facebook is ever going to overtake the eyball count that News Corp.’s Myspace has, in my opinion Facebook has already won the battle of cultural superiority. While Method Man/CSI’s cupcakes on Facebook reference was the first integration of Facebook that I’ve heard in a television series, I’d bet the farm that it won’t be the last.

‘s Baggers delivers food iRobot

Apr 8, 2008 by Dan Taylor    No Comments    Posted under: News

Ah the Germans.  Such a fun group of people.  They’ve given us Aspirin, the Zeppelin, and the Diesel engine.  In the next wave of German ingenuity, they\’ve now come up with the (almost) fully automated restaurant system.

If you’ve ever been to B&H photo/video in NYC, have a think about the product delivery method used in the store.  Whizzing overhead on a system of pulleys and tracks, baskets of cameras, lenses, and memory cards come up from the basement storeroom, and are delivered to the cashier’s desk.  Now imagine the process in reverse, products coming from the roof down on a series of rollercoaster-like tracks.

‘s Baggers in Nuremberg has come up with a rather genius way of not only pulling in customers, but cutting labor costs at the same time.  While there are still a few ‘waiters’ within the restaurant, none of them are actually taking orders or running food to tables.  They’re there rather to inform and instruct patrons on how to use the system.

Each table has an assigned number, and each seat a color code.  Diners use a touchscreen display to select their seat (tables are preassigned according to the monitor…so I guess I’m not sending that cute blond at table 12 a drink), and then flip through the electronic menu.  After an order is placed, patrons can then use the touchscreen to send an email, an SMS, or simply browse away.

While there may be no waiters coming to your table to take your order or deliver your food, fear not, all the food is prepared by human beings in the kitchen high above the dining room floor.  All food is prepared fresh, and when possible ‘s Baggers uses local Bio ingredients.  When the food is cooked, it’s then sealed, color coded with a sticker, and sent down to diners via the ‘coaster tracks.

Local business owner Michael Mack says, “I wanted to come up with a complete new restaurant system, one that would be more efficient and more comfortable”.

Not only does automating the restaurant make it more efficient and labor cost saving for Mack, but it also saves the consumer: No waiter…no need to leave a tip!

At long last PROOF! Drinking Beer is Good for you!

Apr 5, 2008 by Dan Taylor    6 Comments    Posted under: News

A (semi) recent publication over at the Scientific American reveals that drinking a moderate amount of beer per day can improve recall of both visual and emotional stimuli.  In other words…1-3 beers a day can actually improve your memory…and make you smarter!  And really let’s face it, by this point I should be a genius!  Yay beer!

If you want to read the whole article, it’s located Here, but if not, no worries, I’ll save you the time.  First, go to the fridge, grab an ice cold half liter (or a third of a liter if you happen to live in North America) of malt-hops beauty in a bottle and return.  I’ll wait…..no really…do it…..it’ll make you smarter.

Right…now that you’ve taken that glorious first sip, let me break it down quick and dirty style.  Basically it works like this:

“There are human epidemiological data of others indicating that mild [to] moderate drinking may paradoxically improve cognition in people compared to abstention,” says Maggie Kalev, a research fellow in molecular medicine and pathology at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and a co-author of an article in The Journal of Neuroscience describing results of a study she and other researchers performed on rats. “This is similar to a glass of wine protecting against heart disease, however the mechanism is different.”

In other words…1-3 (or maybe even one more…depends on your individual tolerance) glasses of beer a day helps to improve memory, by way of strengthening the NR1 receptors, a subunit of N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) receptors (right, if you’re so inclined, click the link).  More so than those that do not drink a beer (or two…or three) per day.  Basically, the same concept that we’ve heard for a few years now, “Drink wine…it’s good for your heart”.

Hmm…I wonder…so if I have a glass of beer before dinner, and a glass of wine a bit later on in the evening, am I actually improving my quality of life?

In more ways than one I do believe!

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Candidate Chooser 2008

Feb 1, 2008 by Dan Taylor    No Comments    Posted under: News

I’m not one to normally write about politics, and this isn’t going to be a political post. Lord knows there’s enough political bloggers out there right now, but I actually found this link quite useful.  The Minnesota Public Radio site has developed a Candidate Chooser for those of you out there that are either:

• Completely overwhelmed by the staggering amounts of information out there about each candidate (including the slanderous counter- response tactics of some politicians and their campaigners) or
• Completely disinterested and just want the machine to tell us who to choice.

I’m hoping that it’s option 1, but in either case, give the survey a try.  I can’t stand by it’s accuracy, but given that it’s hosted by a non-profit, non-partisan public radio station, I’m hoping that it should be bias free.  Funny thing is my results actually pointed me to a guy (so yes, it wasn’t Hillary) that I’ve only vaguely heard of, and sadly probably won’t make it much past Super Tuesday; but then again…stranger things have happened

Peter Petrelli is a Woman!?!

Oct 26, 2007 by Dan Taylor    No Comments    Posted under: Humor, News

D’OH! Looks like someone in the props department forgot to give this one the final proof. In the weeks episode of Heroes, we see Peter Petrelli’s passport. Interesting to know his (or should I say her) birthday is December 23rd 1974, but it seems that our friend Peter is really Petra, as his/her sex is listed as F, at least according to Homeland Security (or is it the INS…who the heck issues passports these days?).
Oh well….as we keep finding out that Peter has more and more abilities that we never knew about, perhaps this is one of them as well? In that case, the Irish love interest is in for quite a surprise. Hmmm…perhaps a reverse ‘The Crying Game’?

Google Blackout

Oct 22, 2007 by Dan Taylor    No Comments    Posted under: News

BigBlueBottle sent this one over to me with the heading…it’s a puzzle, hint…Javascript. So, doing what any self respecting geek would do, I turned off Java and hit refresh, only to find something even more perplexing: 37* 25? 38?, -122* 5? 57?

The 37* 25? 38?, -122* 5? 57? didn’t take me long to figure out, Longitude and Latitude coordinates. Find a reverse geocoder and plunk them in, and go figure….the coords are an exact match of Google’s headquarters, 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043. OK, so now for the number countdown. This one took me a bit longer. Obviously it’s quite a large number, and running in reverse. So a quick trip to el calculator, divide by 60 to get minutes, again my 60 to get hours, next by 24 to get days, then a quick Google search of “How many days are left in this year“, and low and behold…the numbers match.

So in essence, what we’ve got here is…a dual function expression, one an expression of time, the other an expression of location. But what does it all mean?

Given the recent Lights out SF, and Google’s commitment to it, perhaps they are going to stage another? Perhaps this has something to do with Google’s phone? Perhaps this has nothing to do with Google at all, and the private registrant is having a great laugh watching blog posts and site visits shoot through the roof?