What the hell??!? (blah, blah of a wannabe alien)
Archive for March, 2006
Saint Patrick’s Day Pictures
87 years ago
by Shawn
in Uncategorized
Julien sent me a couple pictures from Saint Patrick’s Day, so I tossed them up in the photo gallery if anyone is really bored.
About to drink the foulest drink ever made.
This guy looks a lot like the guy that thrashed me at golf recently – gee, I look pretty serious too
“There is no such thing as fun for the whole family.” Bahahaha! Caught groping Julien, augh!
I might actually look better in Anne’s jacket than Anne does 
(maybe)
Daily Dancer
17 years ago
This guy cracks me up… it’s like a train wreck. You don’t want to watch, but you can’t help it.
You can check out a ton of his dances, and even make requests.
And Google Said, Let There Be Shawn.
3This was taken from the Book of Google (chapter 1, verse 1-5)…
In the beginning Google created the web.
Now the web was formless and empty. Spam was on the surface of the results, and the spirit of Google was hovering over the face of the index.
And Google said, “Let there be Shawn”. And there was Shawn.
Google saw Shawn, and saw that Shawn was good. Google divided Shawn from the spam.
And Google called Shawn awesome, and the spam he called lame.
You know the rest… Anyway, it looks like my blog is no longer banned in Google’s index (believe it or not, I actually have some useful posts/information once in awhile). I can only assume that Matt Cutts may have had something to do with it since he read (and commented) on this post last week (since it’s been banned for 15+ months and I’ve tried 3 or 4 re-inclusion requests without any success).
This is what my traffic (just from Google) looks like this month:
Shania Twain Helps Drunk Driver Drive
17 years ago
This is just weird… and even weirder that he got off because of it.
One of the most notorious drunk drivers in the Ottawa area has been found not criminally responsible on his latest impaired driving charges because of a mental disorder that makes him believe female celebrities are controlling his actions.
Matt Brownlee was arrested last October after police spotted a pickup truck speeding along a busy street in downtown Ottawa.
Matt Brownlee believed singer Shania Twain was helping him drive. (AP file photo)
The 33-year-old man told psychiatrists that he knew the legal repercussions of his actions, but believed singer Shania Twain was helping him drive.
Brownlee pleaded not guilty to four charges, including impaired operation of a motor vehicle and driving while disqualified.
On Monday, the judge drew on several psychiatric assessments in ruling that Brownlee was not criminally responsible for his actions because he suffers from delusions that celebrities such as Twain are communicating with him telepathically.
Ten years ago, Brownlee was given a seven-year prison sentence and barred from driving for the rest of his life after he killed an Ottawa woman, Linda Lebreton-Holmes, and her 12-year-old son while driving with a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit.
Earlier in March, a psychiatrist told the court that Brownlee suffers from psychosis and mood disorders resulting from a brain injury caused by the 1996 car crash.
Brownlee has been undergoing a series of assessments at the Brockville Psychiatric Hospital since last fall.
Another assessment of how much risk he poses to the community could see Brownlee being detained in hospital, released under supervision in the community, or given an absolute discharge.
Plans Submitted To City
17 years ago
by Shawn
in House Stuff
I forgot to mention that the city now has my plans for my house, so breaking ground on it is now in their hands as far as when they issue building permits.
Man Cuts Off Own Penis To Throw At Cops
117 years ago
I don’t really have anything that I can say that would make this any more (or less depending on who you are) funny… But DAMN it’s funny.
Fik, 33, cut off his own penis during a Northwest Side rampage Wednesday morning. When confronted by police, Fik hurled several knives and his severed organ at the officers, police said. Officers stunned him with a Taser and took him into custody.
Random Email #11
07 years ago
by Shawn
in Uncategorized
I’m a bank now too it seems…
Hi , I live in Ukraine how I can get bank account or credit card in USA ?
Please answer.
Just send me your money (cash only please), and I’ll see what I can do.
How To C-Walk
77 years ago
by Shawn
in Weird Stuff
I don’t even know what in the hell a “C-Walk” is, but it’s pretty funny.
First you must begin with a signature stance, something that says,”Watch Out FOOL!
After that, take a quick little breather. But keep looking cool.
You should have the proper state of mind, such as pretending you have ants in your pants.
During your c-walk, take the time to check out the ladies if you’re impressing them at all.
Hat Of Poop
37 years ago
by Shawn
in Weird Stuff
If you ever wanted to wear poop on your head, but didn’t care for the smell, now you can!
The Japanese aren’t shy about bodily secretions and have a sense of humor about them unparalleled. And with their ability to make anything cute and cuddly, they have made even poo an irresistible fashion trend. This joke poo hat has the unmistakable color and shape of dung. With a black elastic strap to keep it firmly on your head, this plush poop is 5.5″ wide at the base and 4″ high. A fun party item or just wear it to make everyone around you think you’ve gone crazy. A hilarious item that is made in Japan… where else?
http://www.jlist.com/PRODUCT/MAR028/TEXT/WACKY/TREN/
The guy wearing the hat looks “so” happy about it. hah
Beat Down At Golf
0Dude, I got the beating of a lifetime at golf today by Scott. He beat me by… uhm… 29 strokes.
Oh well, at least I beat him at foosball (once).
6 1/2 Pounds Of Food
1Julien called me this afternoon…
Hey, let’s go to Big Bertha’s and see if we can do their “Big Ass Burger Challenge“.
So me, Anne and Julien tried it (we failed). In reality it’s 6 1/2 pounds of food… 1 lbs of beef, 1/2 pound for the rest of the burger (bun, lettuce, tomato, etc.), 2 lbs of beer, but the kicker is there is no way it was 1 lbs of fries… it was 3 lbs of fries.
Oh well… I finished the burger, beer and 1/3 of the fries… but it was too many fries for me (plus I wasn’t all that hungry to start with).
Installing APC On BSD Variants
07 years ago
by Shawn
in Server Admin
Alternative PHP Cache is a PHP caching mechanism (like Turck mmCache, eAccelerator, etc.) that is being developed directly by PHP developers. In fact, PHP 6.0 is going to include APC Cache in it’s core framework, so it’s certainly something PHP developers/admins should start looking at.
Anyway, if you install APC Cache and Apache fails to start afterwards, check your Apache error log to see if you get something like this:
[Thu Mar 23 15:18:28 2006] [apc-error] apc_shm_create: shmget(0, 67108864,914) failed: Invalid argument. It is possible that the chosen SHM segment size is higher than the operation system allows. Linux has usually a default limit of 32MB per segment.
PHP Warning: Unknown(): Unable to load dynamic library './/usr/local/lib/php/apc.so' - (null) in Unknown on line 0
Most BSD variants (including Mac OS X Server in my case) don’t allow much shared memory to be allocated by default. Lucky, it’s an easy fix…
My OS had a default allowance of 4MB max for shared memory. You can alter that by adding this to your /etc/sysctl.conf file (or creating it if it doesn’t exist):
My new /etc/sysctl.conf file…
kern.sysv.shmmax=134217728
kern.sysv.shmmin=1
kern.sysv.shmmni=32
kern.sysv.shmseg=8
kern.sysv.shmall=32768
kern.sysv.shmmin=1
kern.sysv.shmmni=32
kern.sysv.shmseg=8
kern.sysv.shmall=32768
shmall should be shmmax/4096
So the above config will let you use up to 128MB for shared memory.
You can't dynamically set the shared memory kernel variables with the sysctl command because once it's set, it can't be altered. Because of that, you must reboot your server after you edit the sysctl.conf file...
Drew Brees Gone
1
San Diego lost their starting quarterback this off-season to free agency (he went to the New Orleans Saints).
He hurt his throwing arm at the end of last season, and his ability to play at all this season was in question a little bit. I just hope Philip Rivers doesn’t turn out to be another Ryan Leaf.
Final Design Review
07 years ago
by Shawn
in House Stuff
I haven’t seen the “official” review response, but I think it went well today. Pretty much the HOA just wants a fence moved (maybe some other minor things), but all the “big” stuff I was worried about seemed to be fine.
So for the most part that means the house is pretty much good to go as far as the home owners association goes (this was the last of 3 necessary design reviews).
The members approved a retaining wall over 6 ft. conditioned upon it being faced with stone. This decision was made because it is a wall that will not be seen by anyone unless they are on your property. They also asked that your fencing proposed at the top of the slope adjacent to Lot 69 be dropped out of the line of sight for that property.
Google Not Interpreting robots.txt Consistently
117 years ago
by Shawn
in Server Admin
I had an issue where Googlebot was spidering parts of my site that were not allowed in the robots.txt file…
My old robots.txt file…
User-agent: *
Disallow: /tools/suggestion/?
Disallow: /search.php
Disallow: /go.php
Disallow: /scripts/
Disallow: /ads/
Disallow: /tools/suggestion/?
Disallow: /search.php
Disallow: /go.php
Disallow: /scripts/
Disallow: /ads/
User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /ebay_
Hmmmm... that's weird... Googlebot is still spidering stuff it shouldn't be...
www.digitalpoint.com 66.249.66.138 - - [14/Mar/2006:06:21:07 -0800] "GET /ads/ HTTP/1.1" 302 38 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)"
www.digitalpoint.com 66.249.66.138 - - [14/Mar/2006:10:26:18 -0800] "GET /ads/ HTTP/1.1" 302 38 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)"
www.digitalpoint.com 66.249.66.138 - - [14/Mar/2006:14:29:35 -0800] "GET /ads/ HTTP/1.1" 302 38 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)"
www.digitalpoint.com 66.249.66.138 - - [14/Mar/2006:17:47:21 -0800] "GET /ads/ HTTP/1.1" 302 38 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html)"
So I made an inquiry to Google about this, and I actually heard back (nice!)...
While we normally don't review individual sites,
we did examine your robots.txt file. Please be advised that it appears
your Googlebot entry in your robots.txt file is overriding your generic
User-Agent listing. We suggest you alter your robots.txt file by
duplicating the forbidden paths under your Googlebot entry:
we did examine your robots.txt file. Please be advised that it appears
your Googlebot entry in your robots.txt file is overriding your generic
User-Agent listing. We suggest you alter your robots.txt file by
duplicating the forbidden paths under your Googlebot entry:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /tools/suggestion/?
Disallow: /search.php
Disallow: /go.php
Disallow: /scripts/
Disallow: /ads/
User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /ebay_
Disallow: /tools/suggestion/?
Disallow: /search.php
Disallow: /go.php
Disallow: /scripts/
Disallow: /ads/
Once you've altered your robots.txt file, Google will find it
automatically after we next crawl your site.
Okay... I can live with that... easy fix. But check this out... Google's own robots.txt testing tool within Google Sitemaps show the old robots.txt as being able to block Googlebot as expected.
So how about some consistency here? And more importantly, if anyone at Google is reading this, how about someone tell me why my blog is banned in your index...
Drunk Bigfoot
07 years ago
Supposedly this is some new Bigfoot footage that someone shot in Minnesota, but it just looks like a drunk guy in an ape suit to me…
MPAA Suing Me
2I’ve been waiting for this lawsuit for a few months now, and yesterday I finally got served the official complaint filed in the US District Court (San Diego).
Now we can finally get this show on the road… I’m sure it will give me all sorts of interesting stuff to blog about in the coming months.
I’ll meet with my attorney tomorrow to give them the stuff…
Skateboarding Dog
1Here’s something else I saw last summer at a friend’s house and just ran across it again on the Internet tonight… Tyson the skateboarding dog.
Family Walks On All Fours
37 years ago
I saw this a couple weeks ago, and just now ran across it again. Dammit, I forgot to post it the first time around… oh well… better late than never.
An extraordinary family who walk on all fours are being hailed as the breakthrough discovery which could shed light on the moment Man first stood upright.
Scientists believe that the five brothers and sisters found in Turkey could hold unique insights into human evolution.
The Kurdish siblings, aged between 18 and 34 and from the rural south, ‘bear crawl’ on their feet and palms.
Study of the five has shown the astonishing behaviour is not a hoax and they are largely unable to walk otherwise.
Researchers have found a genetic condition which accounts for their extraordinary movement.
And it could provide invaluable information on how humans evolved from a four-legged hominid into a creature walking on two feet.
Reviving A Dead Dog
07 years ago
Those crazy Russian scientists… always doing interesting/werid stuff.
Apparently back in the 1940s they were running experiments where they were bringing animals back from the dead…
Coke and Mentos
47 years ago
I’m not sure why, but the video oddly makes me want to try it myself to see if it really works.
Nobody Likes Anne
0I would just like to throw out a big *F-U*!!!! to Anne. She went golfing with Julien, Scott and myself this morning. Naturally Scott won (he has played a lot longer than anyone else). But it was Anne’s first time ever playing golf and she kicked the crap out of me and Julien.
“Oh… gee, another drive onto the green.” Whatever… no one likes playing with you Anne. Go eat corned beef instead.
I did get my first birdie ever today, so I’m still cool.
Random Email #10
07 years ago
by Shawn
in Uncategorized
Here’s another one (in it’s entirety)…
i want to see guys pictures or any thing thats will fun or not fun yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hmmm… don’t know who you are, but are you uhm… drunk?
All About Darknets
07 years ago
by Shawn
in Tech Stuff
I ran across this excellent mashup when reading about some MPAA stuff (specifically how they got slammed at the SXSW 2006 event)…
http://ia310128.us.archive.org/2/items/All_about_darknets/darknets.mp4
Cat5 Action Figures
17 years ago
Someone who is more of a dork than me (and with too much free time), decided to unwind CAt5 ethernet cables and make action figures out of them.
http://www.lobzik.pri.ee/modules/news/article.php?storyid=404
Japanese Robotic Fish
17 years ago
A $250,000 robotic robot… wouldn’t it be cheaper to just buy a real fish?
Insect Cyborgs
17 years ago
I saw this on Boing Boing this afternoon… it looks like DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is starting to research the feasibility of engineering insect cyborgs…
Quote from their website…
DARPA seeks innovative proposals to develop technology to create insect-cyborgs, possibly enabled by intimately integrating microsystems within insects, during their early stages of metamorphoses. The healing processes from one metamorphic stage to the next stage are expected to yield more reliable bio-electromechanical interface to insects, as compared to adhesively bonded systems to adult insects. Once these platforms are integrated, various microsystem payloads can be mounted on the platforms with the goal of controlling insect locomotion, sense local environment, and scavenge power. Multidisciplinary teams of engineers, physicists, and biologists are expected to work together to develop new technologies utilizing insect biology, while developing foundations for the new field of insect cyborg engineering. The HI-MEMS may also serve as vehicles to conduct research to answer basic questions in biology.
Random Email #9
27 years ago
by Shawn
in Uncategorized
More of them…
Hi!I can’t get asleep.What are U doing?I hope U are not sleeping tooo!
Why would anyone bother to email you just to wish their misfortune of insomnia on you? Bastards!
Google Earth In A Car
27 years ago
Volkswagen stole my idea, but at least now we get to see some images from it. Looks pretty cool.
Basically it’s just Google Earth running in a car stereo for things like navigation.
No Mexican Jail For Me
3Julien, Anne and myself made it back from the Baja 250 without spending a single day in Mexican jail.
You can get pretty close to the race action (as you can see here)…
On the way there… What the hell is this? 50 miles worth of snow at 4:00 am? Lame!!!!
We made it… this is what was going on.
On the way back… This was rather interesting… this was a Mexican jumping the US border to get INTO Mexico.
Baja 250
0I *could* be in a Mexican jail right now, but if all goes well I’m in San Felipe watching the start of the Baja 250 race.
Hopefully this whole “write now, publish later” thing in WordPress works… I’m even more hopeful that by the time you read this, that I actually made it to San Felipe, and am not in jail.
Finger Break Dancing
17 years ago
by Shawn
in Uncategorized
This is a nicely choreographed break dancing routine… Must have practiced for years to get this one right.
Get Drunk Remotely
17 years ago
by Shawn
in Weird Stuff
The site calls them “Lover’s Cups”, but I think they are just a way for lazy people to get drunk with each other (like if I’m too lazy to go to a buddies house)…
Lover’s Cups explore the idea of sharing feelings of drinking between two people in different places by using cups as communication interfaces of drinking. Two cups are wireless connected to each other with sip sensors and LED illumination. The Lover’s cups will glow when your lover is drinking. When both of you are drinking at the same time, both of the Lover’s Cups glow and celebrate this virtual kiss.
http://web.media.mit.edu/~jackylee/cups.htm
Neverland Ranch Shut Down
07 years ago
Today is a sad, sad day for the entire world… Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch was shut down today…
Michael Jackson has been ordered to shut his Neverland ranch by California authorities who have fined the pop star $US169,000 ($230,700) for failing to pay his employees or maintain proper insurance.
Jackson’s sprawling ranch in the central California foothills was closed yesterday, at least temporarily, by an agent of the State Labor Commissioner after the office discovered that his workers’ compensation policy had lapsed in January.
On a brighter note, Michael Jackson is looking pretty good these days, don’t you think?