This was on Digg on Monday. The meat is at about 60 seconds from the end. But, the whole thing is impressive.

At first I feel like, "How do you learn to do that." By the end my mind is simply blown. I start throwing up all over myself, I just can't believe it.

Sam the ugliest dog.

Look at this!!!
Meet Sam. He is no longer with us (he went back to the Pit from whence he came). But, during his brief escape from hell, he was voted the ugliest dog several years in a row (I know, hard to believe).

I am teaching a class at Utah Career College. Most of my students are vet tech students. They love animals. They pointed me in this thing's direction. If you want to know more about Sam, you can go to his blog.

Rapture of the nerds started early

Some eager beaver crawled through apple's website yesterday and found the new 2.0 firmware on a server a day before it was to be released. So the nerd army jumped on it, downloaded the new itunes, installed the new firmware, and started installing 3rd party apps last night. I happen to be a proud member of that nerd army.

I wrote in a previous post about the new 3G iphone being released today, what I didn't explain was that 2 things happen today, the new phone comes out and the new software. The 2.0 software will run on both the new 3G phone, and the current Edge based phones. There are two important differences with the 3G phone, it has better GPS and it's faster. While this is all well and good, the real magic is in the new software, that runs on both phones.

The new software makes the iphone an open platform. 3rd parties can write software that runs on the phone. "So what?" . . . Well thousands of new features are going to be made available. So far there are several hundred new applications available, about half of them are free.

I have put about 12 new applications on my phone. There are new games, that use the accelerometer function in the phone, so you play the game by tilting the phone. There are location based search services, you ask about restaurants and the phone looks up your location, then using online databases looks up restaurants that are close by. These online databases include reviews, details, and other information.

There are applications like ebay, facebook, etc. The advantage here over just using the iphone's browser is there is less information that needs to be transfered so these apps will run much faster.

Pandora has an app, so you can listen to internet radio on your iphone. I installed an app that finds my location and then shows me photos that others have taken in nearby locations.

These apps are nice, but the ultimate capabilities are much more profound. For example, I am a real estate agent, I want to be able to be driving through a neighborhood and have the iphone grab the nearest 20 properties for sale and display them on a map. I want it to use sold comps information and cross reference to zillow to estimate the approximate value of the homes.

I want it to tell me about what my friends are doing and whether or not they are nearby (opt-in of course).

There are and have been other phones that do some of these things already, but none have done them really well, and none have been as appealing. The real power from all network based systems is when they are adopted into the mainstream. Each additional user of the system increases its usefulness, so hopefully apple can get major buy in and mobile computing will become common in the US.

Real Ultimate Power

I don't know if you have heard of Real Ultimate Power or not yet, but if not, you better get a life quick!

Speaking of powers, they've apparently unearthed some real mutants who have super human powers. 7 Mutants I had heard of the german kid with super muscles, I guess he's about 9 now. Here's a toddler in the US named Liam with the same condition. I hope he lives a normal life, apparently Wendy did OK.

The eating guy is weird. But, the Godhand guy, that's just Awesome. Real Ultimate Power!

July 11, greatest day of the year!

Why, you may be asking, is July 11 a great day. Well, I'm glad you asked, I'll tell you. To start off, the new HellBoy comes out that day. I wasn't a huge fan of the first Hellboy, but I did like it. It was a little soft around the edges, not dark enough, not serious enough, too cartoony. The new one looks like it's much more intense, so I am way excited to see it. Now that Hancock is out and getting bad reviews, Hell Boy becomes my #2 most anticipated movie this summer (after The Dark Knight).

Second, on July 11 we are having a family dinner. I know that really only affects me, but still I'm excited for it.

Another thing that happens on July 11? I will be watching the new episode of Burn Notice, USA's summer hit from last year. Seriously, this show is awesome. Now, technically, the show comes out on the 10th, but I'm gonna be watching it on the 11th. I just am.

Originally I thought that the new Strongbad game for the wii was going to come out on the 11th, but I can no longer find any proof of that, so I may have imagined it, or dreamed it or something. But, there's no evidence that it's not going to come out on the 11th, so I am going to count that, too.

Finally, the coup de gras, the new iphone comes out on the 11th. Now, most of you are probably thinking, "Great, the new iphone, whoop dee doo." Well, I say to you, you don't know until you have lived it. Buy one, and then you will see, everything is different after the iphone becomes a part of your life. Sunsets are more beautiful, food tastes better, life seems more exciting. In a post iphone world there is unending peace and prosperity.

Let me just give you one example: Let's say that you are at Blockbuster, you are thinking of renting a movie, but you aren't sure what you want. You saw the previews for "Jumper", and it looked pretty good. However, trailers can be deceiving. So you want to know what critics had to say. If you are a normal, everyday Joe, you are plumb out of luck. But, in an iphone enhanced reality, you can look up that information on the internet, while you are browsing the shelves. Results: you find out that jumper was a huge disappointment, disaster averted. Instead you rent Sling Blade, which you had never heard of, but Billy Bob Thornton is in it and it turns out is awesome. This is true power, right at your fingertips. Plus, it also doubles as a phone.

Traci and I were talking about cartoons . . .

and she expressed how frustrating it was to her that Wiley Coyote never caught the Roadrunner. I found that odd. I had never considered that to be a desirable outcome. I always saw Wiley as a villain who got what he deserved. I identified with the Roadrunner. I considered him the protagonist. Was I wrong?

This theme occurs again and again in kids cartoons, Yosemite Sam and Bugs Bunny (although here Traci likes Bugs), Sylvester and Tweety Bird, Tom and Jerry, etc. I can see how if you identify with the predator, Sylvester, Yosemite, etc. you would find these cartoons unbearable.

I have added a poll to my blog. If you remember Loony Toons or any cartoon where this structure is set up, vote for who you rooted for on the right. I am curious to see whether there are many other folks who feel the way my wife does.

A special thanks to Alex Albrecht, Jeff Cannata, and Dan Trachtenberg (hosts of the Totally Rad Show) for reminding me of a forgotten piece of my youth. Leroy v. Sho'nuff - the final fight scene of The Last Dragon. Take a look:




When my brother and I were boys, we used to act this scene out. Justin would usually initiate, "Who is the master?!?"

If you've watched the clip, you may be asking, "These fine actors, what happened to them?" Well, I'll tell you, Julius Carry, aka Sho'nuff aka the Shogun of Harlem, is still acting, mostly in TV shows, but one notable appearance was in the summer blockbuster "The New Guy", he played "Coach". "The New Guy" made almost $30,000,000 at the box office.

Leroy Green, real name . . . wait for it . . . Taimak. Just Taimak. He still acts, looks like a lot of martial arts movies, but they are still making B martial arts movies so he's got a pretty solid thing going.

Laura Charles, who played the damsel in distress, she also only has one name, Vanity. She was a Canadian Model. Her last recorded part was in '95. (Last Dragon came out in '85).

What about the white guy, aka Mr. Corrupted Moneybags, aka Eddie Arkadian? His name is Christopher Murney. His most recent gig was as a voice actor for the video game Neverwinter Nights 2.

Here's some more 80's magic.



William H. Macy is in this clip. He's still around. The good stuff is at 1:01 and 4:30.