Archive for the 'For Fun' Category

Apr 30 2010

Fighting Crime Through Facebook

Published by Bryan Sims under For Fun, Internet

I don’t practice criminal law. However, in the event that a future criminal stumbles across my website, let me offer a piece of advice: Don’t steal someone’s phone, take a picture of yourself, and upload that to the internet. Yes, I realize that the phone was set to automatically upload photos to facebook when the phone was connected to a computer. However, I don’t find that to be a very good excuse.

I mean really, if you have stolen a piece of electronic equipment, shouldn’t you make sure it isn’t going to phone home before you plug it into a computer?

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Dec 25 2009

Merry Christmas

Published by Bryan Sims under For Fun

Here’s the best geek Christmas song (Chiron Beta Prime by Jonathan Coulton) put to a Christmas light show.

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Nov 23 2009

Good Grammar is Important

Published by Bryan Sims under For Fun

I had a submission published on the blog of The society for the Promotion of Good Grammar. This was a sign in a parking garage where we parked when I went to a Jonathan Coulton concert recently with a friend. The worst part was that this was not an isolated sign. My friend and I saw at least a half a dozen signs in the part of the garage we were in.

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Oct 12 2009

And Now for Something Completely Different: Jonathan Coulton

Published by Bryan Sims under For Fun

I know that this has nothing to do with anything legal, however, this weekend I was finally able to see Jonathan Coulton in concert. For a good description of the concert, check out this review. The short version is as follows:

Paul & Storm opened and did a fantastic job. They are hilarious and I would love to see them do a full show.

They took a short intermission and then Coulton came out with Paul and Storm and performed the entire They Might Be Giants Flood album. For an explanation of why, see Jonathan’s blog here.

After that, Jonathan went into his own stuff and played a really enjoyable set. The audience clearly loved songs such as Code Monkey, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Skullcrusher Mountain, and Re Your Brains. The only songs I really missed that he did not play were Chiron Beats Prime and The Presidents.

The concert started at 8 and didn’t end until about 11:15. Although there was a brief intermission, it was still basically 3 hours of musical goodness.

If you like Coulton at all and you are anywhere near where he is performing, I can’t recommend him highly enough.

Also, I would recommend the venue where we saw the concert: Park West. This was a great venue with good seating (we sat in a booth) and an attentive, but not overbearing, wait staff. After looking around, I am not sure that there is a bad seat in the house.

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Aug 19 2009

The Future: Brought to You by Microsoft

Published by Bryan Sims under For Fun

I am neither a Microsoft hater or a Microsoft apologist. However, I found this way to funny not to share.

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Aug 19 2009

Grammatical Graffiti

Published by Bryan Sims under For Fun

I am not quite sure why, but I find this comic absolutely hilarious. Hat tip to the (new) legal writer for pointing this out.

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Jun 03 2009

JukeFly and Bubbles, A Great Combination

Published by Bryan Sims under For Fun, Gadgets

Let me admit now, this post has nothing to do with the practice of law. However, somedays I am still amazed at the things that technology allows us to solve our problems. In this instance, I have approximately 40GB of music sitting on my computer at home. While at home, I can easily serve this music to the other computers in the house. Recently, however, I was thinking that it sure would be nice to be able to do listen to all of that music while I was at work as well.

After a few minutes of research (also known as Googling), I found a solution that I like quite a lot. The first component of the solution is a program called JukeFly. JukeFly describes itself as:

a social music player designed to play your music collection anywhere.

As long as your “anywhere” includes high speed internet access. I think this is an accurate description. After you create an account (which is free). JukeFly installs a small server app on your computer with the music that allows you to access it when you are away. The server applet is quite similar in concept to those found in programs such as LogMeIn.

Once you install the applet, you simply tell the program where to find your music. The program then indexes your music in a short period of time. My 40GB of music took only a couple of minutes to index. Once indexed, the music is available for you to listen to anywhere that you have high speed internet access. You simply log in to your JukeFly account and listen to your music through your browser.

JukeFly could not be easier to use and by allowing me to listen to my music collection regardless of my location, it provides me with an invaluable benefit.

The only issue I have ran into with JukeFly is that I would like to see a shuffle feature of some sort to shake things up a little.

JukeFly also includes some social media aspects to it as well. However, I have not yet explored any of those.

I quickly fell in love with JukeFly, but  I had a problem where I was repeatedly closing my web browser, and thus closing JukeFly. I found a great solution for this problem in a program called Bubbles. Bubbles describes itself as:

an application platform, based on Browser technologies. It detaches Web Applications from the classic Browser and offers them with the familiar accessibility, capabilities and always-on nature of Desktop applications.

In plain English, Bubbles detaches certain web applications (in my case JukeFly) from the web browser an lets you run them as a stand alone application, just as though the web app was a regular desktop app. With JukeFly, I can listen to my music and not worry about whether I am closing my web browser. Instead, when minimized, JukeFly sits as an applet in my notification area, taking up no space on my task bar, but giving me ours of music pleasure.

Bubbles works with many web apps, including GMail and Facebook.

For more information about JukeFly, click here. For more information about Bubbles, click here.

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Jan 27 2009

Best Blago Quote I have Seen Yet

Published by Bryan Sims under For Fun

I normally avoid political topics on the blog, but with the impeachment trial going on in Springfield, it is impossible to ignore. The best comment I have heard about the whole mess comes from a post from Eric Zorn. He was commenting on fact that Blagojevich had purchased a puppy for his children because they were having a hard time with the arrest and impeachment process. Zorn noted:

I genuinely do feel bad for the Blagojevich girls. What a heartbreaking and scary ordeal this must be for them.  What a bleak future they face.

The sympathies I feel here are similar to the sympathies I feel for Lura Lynn Ryan, the wife of our imprisoned former governor. But they also remind me family, particularly children, should always be an extra incentive to do right in this world.

He then concluded with:

Those closest to you pay an unfair and heavy price for your sins so, you know, maybe you should think about that before you indulge in an orgy of venality instead of trying to compensate later by buying a puppy.

Awesome. Just awesome.

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Oct 01 2008

September Madness

Published by Bryan Sims under For Fun

OK, this is not exactly legal related. However, it is too good not to pass along. From Tech Crunch comes September Madness.

Tech Crunch explains:

Any college basketball fans who’ve been watching the bank failures and consolidations recently will understand and appreciate this September Madness chart.

Click through to see the chart.

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Apr 22 2008

Zits & Blogging

Published by Bryan Sims under For Fun

I have a Zits calendar on my desk. For those of you not familiar with Zits, it’s a comic about a teenage boy. Really, it’s much funnier than it sounds. Anyway, yesterday’s comic from my calendar was too good not to share.

Zits

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