Archive for the ‘technology’ Category
New Facebook
Thursday, September 22nd, 2011Programming Languages
Friday, September 16th, 2011Nerdy, but, I’m a nerd. So deal with it.
For Travelers
Wednesday, September 14th, 2011Well I will file this one under “how the hell did it take me so long to try and figure it out” because that is how I feel after discovering that hotel thermostats can be hacked. It took me approximately 1,674 uncomfortably warm hotel stays to finally arrive, specifically at 3am this morning, to the following thought: I need to solve this effing motion detector issue with the thermostat.
If you travel a lot, you know what I’m talking about. Energy conscious hotels (who likes the environment anyway? AmIright?) install motion sensors in the room so that when there isn’t anyone in there, it shuts off the AC (or heat). Makes enough sense. Problem is, I don’t know about you, but when I’m sleeping I don’t walk around the room and do shit. Well, unless I’m really drunk. Anyway, 3am this morning I wake up sweating as I almost always do when I’m in one of these rooms during the summer. I finally think to myself, what the fuck, there has to be a way to deal with this. Why in the world I decided this particular morning was the time to address the issue opposed to the countless other times its happened is beyond me.
So, I go online and do some searching. Turns out the thermostats in most hotel rooms can be hacked with a combination of button presses a la video games of our childhood. Awesome, welp, I started messing around and found out this sequence worked for my hotel room:
Hold down the display key, press off, then up, and release the display key. Great success!
My unit said “VIP” after I did that which made me feel extra awesome after I found the winning combo move. Also worth noting that enabling this feature allows you to lower the room temperature below the preset 65 degree limitation normally in place. Double win! I read that after 24 hours it returns to normal, so don’t feel bad about leaving it in place and absolutely destroying the environment (the obvious and unavoidable side effect to doing this).
I shall sleep well tonight, indeed. And hopefully those of you on the road and in the future can do the same.
Too Much Caffeine
Friday, September 9th, 2011Is probably the reason I find this as amusing as I do, since clearly none of my friends found it as entertaining.
Humblebrag Power List
Friday, August 5th, 2011If you haven’t been keeping up with the Humblebrag Power Rankings each month, do yourself a favor and hop on over to Grantland to check them out.
Oh wait, you don’t even know what a #humblebrag is? Well since you’ve crawled out from under your rock and got on the internet, let me enlighten you. </sarcasm> (I haven’t expected this to catch on yet, so its actually acceptable you don’t know what it is yet. Also, I generally still hate twitter where this is the most prevalent, though facebook comes in a very, very close second)
From the original piece written by Harris Wittels:
“A Humblebrag is basically a specific type of bragging which masks the brag in a faux-humble guise. The false humility allows the offender to boast their “achievements” without any sense of shame or guilt. Unfortunately/fortunately, Humblebragging is very commonly used in our society, and for some reason Twitter seems to be the perfect forum for people to do it. So, about a year ago, instead of just silently griping about it to myself, I gave it a name and started an account on Twitter on which I retweet Twitter’s most flagrant Humblebraggers (www.twitter.com/humblebrag).”
Mobile Phone Trending
Thursday, August 4th, 2011Nerd alert. I find this interesting, but I don’t really know what to make of it. Trying to think of a correlation between states and phone operating systems. 
Blockbuster = Fail
Friday, July 8th, 2011“To summarize: Blockbuster’s new service has absolutely no late fees, yet if your DVD is not returned within the 3-day grace period–even if it was dropped in the mail in time, no longer in your possession, entirely in the hands of the postal service, and eventually returned to Blockbuster–consumers will be charged $19.99.”
http://www.fastcompany.com/1765646/blockbuster-please-please-change-your-habits
In case you are having a hard time believing that quote, you read it right. You will be charged the cost of the DVD if you don’t get it mailed back within 7 days. This is the plan the company has to save itself.
Seriously, who the hell is running these companies? Can I be a CEO? Ugh.
E-mail Forwarding
Tuesday, July 5th, 2011
Computer Lessons
Wednesday, March 30th, 2011Thanks to Wonn for digging this gem up. This instructional video will teach you how to stay safe on the interwebs, and believe me (I work in network security) these steps are really the way to go. I feel like a lot of it is common sense, being careful in chat rooms for instance, but there are some good points in there, such as not meeting strangers. I routinely go out with my friends to meet people in sketchy locations that we’ve chatted with online, and never realized the inherit danger in doing that. We are lucky nothing bad ever happened to us!
Facebook Overload
Monday, March 28th, 2011Seriously, take it easy guys, I’ll post your stupid article to facebook. Jeez.
