I remember from high school history class that a key advantage we
Americans had over the British during the American Revolution was that
the British simply didn't know who to shoot. The American rebels
all looked like farmers, and farmers looked like nonthreatening
civilians. The British forces, on the other hand, were clad in
bright red wool uniforms (“The Red Coats”), making it blatantly obvious
that they were the bad guys. They might as well have been wearing
red and white target circles on their chests with sandwich-board signs
proudly declaring, “We're the bad guys! Shoot at us!”
My country hasn't really |
I'm far from being a shopaholic, but I definitely have a weak spot for
electronic toys. I've made quite a number of dumb purchases in my
life (most often electronics), but these particular ones reverberate in
my wistful memories. Thank God for Ebay!
The Cotton Candy Machine
I once beheld a home cotton candy machine for sale in a catalog
specializing mostly in useless, single-purpose home appliances. I
just had to have it. This purchase would change my entire
life--friends would flock to my lively cotton candy parties, and
princess-like model-esque girls would swoon at the sugary goodness
served by yours truly.
My ultimate goal was to put my arm into the machine and encase it in
cotton candy. Unknown at the time was the
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I
went through a really weird phase my first year of college.
Maybe
it was the unchecked freedom granted after high school graduation, or
an overdeveloped need to assert my individuality, or the weed I was
smoking--but in short I became a freak. I still am a freak to
this day, but 1995-1996 was on a totally different level of
freakishness.
The Pekkle Pager Case
Like I said I just had to be different. I
still had a pager while most were already converting to cell phones.
My pager was encased in a bright blue nylon Sanrio "Pekkle"
pager
case [Pekkle was Sanrio's duck character counterpart to Hello Kitty].
It was quite an odd sight for an 18 year-old guy.
I think those
that saw it (including my family) questioned my sexual orientation.
Facial Hair
Like every boy in 1995, I tried to grow a goatee.
But in my case I
didn't quite have the hormones for it. The beyond-platinum
blond hair
above my upper lip refused to |
Has anyone besides me noticed the uncanny resemblance between Google
and "Skynet" from the Terminator
movies?
It's
no secret that Google's ultimate goal is control of the world's
information through the proliferation of "cloud computing." On
the surface Google's core business looks like a simple search engine;
however, their true mechanics lie within their massive Skynet-like
datacenters. They construct the web infrastructure allowing you
to surrender your information up to the cloud, promising unparalleled
"access anywhere" convenience and data resiliency.
Think about
it. Some people's entire lives are on Google's systems--email,
calendar, photos, address book, blog, discussions, videos (Google owns
YouTube), and soon even your operating system will be Google
(Chrome OS coming soon). Google will no doubt eventually sell
their free OS and cloud computing model to small businesses and
enterprise customers as well--demolishing Microsoft's antiquated client
PC model.
Google is an information vampire, implementing
info-harvesting services wherever the opportunity exists. Here
is a breakdown of a very realistic future scenario:
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