Attention Alien Hunters: Join Team Macenstein
Filed under: Aliens are cool, News, Not Mac - But Cool, Slow News Day
If there’s one thing we’ve learned from Hollywood, it’s that aliens are always friendly. And as someone who has been unable to make HUMAN friends, I’ve recently cast my lonely gaze skyward, in hopes of finding someone who shares my love of tech, my obsession with cheeseballs, and who can help me build my own light saber. So I decided to join the SETI@home program, which, for those of you who are unfamiliar, is a scientific experiment run by the University of Berkeley that uses Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). I assume the ultimate goal is to detect aliens so we can sneak up on them and steal their space oil, but I’m hoping to make a friend or two as well.
Basically the deal is you sign up, download the SETI program BOINC, and then set your computer to help search for ET whenever it is idle. You have full control over how much computing power you let SETI use, and when it uses it. So for instance, you can set it to only run at night, or you can set it to run whenver the Seti Screensaver runs. It’s up to you.
Never one to do anything half-assed (well, OK, I do everything half-assed) I decided to start my own Seti Team. So far the team consists of me and one faithful reader from the UK, Mr. Billy Cape of Yorkshire on Pudding. But I hoping by reaching out to my vast readership, we can make that number DOUBLE. So sign up (takes 1 minute) and join Team Macenstein. I have a feeling when we find alien life, everyone in the program gets a free jetpack or sex robot or some such other technological space wonder, so sign up now! (CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR TEAM).
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OK, well if you are having trouble figuring out how to join our team, do this
1 – sign up, download the BOINC app.
2- give it an e-mail address and a password
3- launch it, and choose the SETI@HOME project under “attach project”
4 – Next, go here “http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/team.php”
5 – Search for “macenstein”
6 – Click JOIN TEAM (you’ll need to be logged into the SETI@home page first with the e-mail and password you set up in BOINC)
The best thing ever
Filed under: Awesomeness, Humor, Not Mac - But Cool, video
Odds are if you’ve spent any time on the interwebs, by now you’ve all seen this video 1000 times, but I am reposting it here because it is probably the best thing I have ever seen. Sure, it has nothing to do with the Mac per se, but we mas Mac users do seem to get pulled into flame wars more than others, so I think you will appreciate this. A lot of humorous things on the web come close to greatness but just miss. But this video, which nicely sums up the “Flame War Comment Culture”, is pure brilliance from start to finish. Assuming you spend too much time on the internet (and I know you do) then you will appreciate the attention to detail that went into this. (Warning: Strong language).
Thanks to faithful Macenstein reader Marshall for the link!
Woah
This would obviously be cooler in a Mac, but it’s still pretty damn cool.
Thanks to faithful Macenstein reader James for the tip!
CNN Newsflash: “10 is less than 9″
Faithful Macenstein reader Ian was reading CNN today and stumbled across an exclusive CNN story that will likely change mathematics as we know it.
Looks like it’s time to upgrade to OS 9!
Why you kids can’t use Wikipedia as your sole source for information in a research project
Filed under: Awesomeness, Humor, Not Mac - But Cool, Slow News Day, Useless Information
I came across this while reading up on Optimus Prime, something all of you should be doing. Not that this is at all Mac-related, I just thought this was funny.
…despite the slight degree of autonomy they possess, the Combat Deck and Roller would not be able to survive without him.Optimus Prime has played soccer for Portsmouth Football club for the past 3 seasons. He filmed Transformers on his summer break.
Additional powers included (somewhat inconsistently) in the animated series and comics are…
Well, that’s what you get for letting anyone edit the wiki. Everyone knows Optimus played for Southampton for the 2005-2007 seasons before being sidelined with a hamstring injury.
Just watch the first 23 seconds
I like to try to keep the non-Mac-related stuff here to a minimum, but when I see something that makes me laugh out loud, I just have to share.
Even with only my 8th grade Spanish, this is funny. Apparently if Michael Knight asks you to install platinum spark plugs in Kitt, you better damn well do it! Thanks to faithful Macenstein reader Dersky for the vid.
If you can sit, you can get fit… The Hawaii Chair!
Filed under: Awesomeness, Not Mac - But Cool, Slow News Day, That's Weird..., video
OK, this is not Mac related, and I know you guys frown on videos, but if you don’t at least crack a smile watching this, you have no soul.
(iPhone users click here to watch the video)
Thanks to faithful Macenstein reader Kelly (who begged us not to post it) for the link!
A search engine that sucks (in a good way)
Filed under: Microsoft Bashing, Not Mac - But Cool, Software
If you’re a glass-half-empty kind of person (like me), odds are you are annoyed by all the optimistic results traditional search engines provide. For instance, type “iPod” into Google, and you’ll be presented with Apple’s iPod site, iLounge, iPod Hacks, etc. All pretty rosy, pro-iPod sites. But, what if you were looking to buy an iPod for the first time, and wanted to know the types of potential problems you might encounter? You’d have to scroll pretty far down in the results to find out. That’s where ifsuck.com comes in. Just type in your search query, and ifsuck will tell you if it sucks, saving you time and money.
Above: Does the Zune suck? Yeah, apparently it does.
Actually, what ifsucks seems to do is just run your search term through Google with the term “sucks” added to it. While this may seem like a stupid idea that may itself sort of suck, it’s actually kind of useful. Often when I am researching for a purchase, I want to see what people’s problems are with it more than I want to hear about what they like best. I usually already know the good points about it, that’s why I am considering it. For instance, if I’m looking for a new HDTV, and I know I am leaning towards a Sharp Aquos, I don’t really want to read a lot of glowing reviews telling me how great the picture is. I’m more interested in the people who were so upset by their purchase that they bothered writing about it. For example, while from the description of the Aquos on the Sharp product page I might already know how many and what type of inputs are on the back, I may not know that the placement of those connectors sucks. With ifsuck, I know immediately the worst things about an Aquos, and can then decide if they matter to me. Read more
Write a caption, win a prize
Filed under: Awesomeness, Free Stuff, Not Mac - But Cool, Photos, Slow News Day, contests, iTunes
“Where all the white women at?”
Think you’re funny enough to be the next Margaret Cho? Well, now’s your chance to prove it to the world. Write your best caption for the above photo of what we assume are 3 German rocket scientists enjoying a day at the pool, and if we think it’s the funniest,
we’ll send you off a $25 iTunes gift certificate.
Leave your caption in the comments below. The contest is open to everyone, anywhere, and runs until Monday (Jan 14th) at 9PM EST. You can enter more than once if you are feeling “Carrot Top“-prolific. Good luck.
(image from APTGETUPDATE)
[UPDATE: We have a winner! The winning caption was "Where all the white women at?", sent in by Brian. Yes, it was the stupidest, and had the least to do with the actual picture, but it was the one that made pretty much everyone here laugh out loud. Perhaps our being big Blazing Saddles fans helped influence the decision, but what can we say? We're immature idiots here, and funny is funny.
So congrats, Brian. Assuming you used a valid e-mail address, your gift certificate is on its way! We'd like to thank everyone who sent in a caption, and we had fun with this, so we'll see if we can't make this a regular contest here. If you have a suggestion for an amusing photo that needs a caption, please send it to us.]
Shatner does Star Wars?
Filed under: Not Mac - But Cool, Slow News Day, video
Ok, am I crazy, or does the narrator here sound exactly like Bill Shatner?
Especially at the end.
Read more
