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Year: 2006

A Christmas Carol

I got this in an email from my brother, who like me, was born and raised in the Pittsburgh, PA area…and he still lives there.  

Isn’t it scary to think that people like me who have been gone from there for many, many years now, still understand all this…and still have hints of this in their speech?

A Pittsburgh Christmas Carol

Yinz better wahtch aht,
Yinz better not paht,
Yinz better not cry,
I’m tellin yinz hauscome,
Santa Clause is commin’ dahntahn.
He’s makin’ a list,
He’s checkin’ it aht,
He’s gowen find aht who’s nebby an ‘at,
Santa Clause is commin’ dahntahn.
He knows if yinz es a jaggoff,
He can see inside your haus,
He knows if you’ve been workin’ hard,
Or sittin’ on your caach.
Yinz better wahtch aht,
Yinz better not paht,
Yinz better not cry,
I’m tellin yinz hauscome,
Santa Clause is commin’ dahntahn!…..
GO STILLERS!

Blue

Bluetooth Logo

My wife has been wanting to upgrade her cell phone to one that has a built-in camera.  So I figured I would get her a new phone as an early Christmas present.  So, off we went to local purveyor of fine cell phones and returned with a brand new Motorola RAZRTM V3r.  The “r” in the V3r denotes the color, which is “Metallic Red.”  And since the phone is Bluetooth® compatible, she also got one of those wireless speakers you see hanging on many people’s ears these days.

End of story?  Well not quite….

Continue reading “Blue”

The Big Box has A New Feature

Check out the new and improved Big Box. You can now view the content of the Big Box in addition to viewing random selections.

Just click on “Empty the Big Box” in in the popup containing the random image.

Web 1.5

Web 1.5 Badge

A few days back, someone asked me why I have declared HR’s halfVAST Blog as “100% Web 1.5 Guaranteed,” rather than “100% Web 2.0 Guaranteed.”  Well, the short answer is that because it isn’t Web 2.0.

Here is what halfVAST.com does:

  • uses xHTML 1.0 Strict as its markup language
  • uses CSS to separate layout from content
  • uses <table> tags for tabular data, not for layout
  • uses Javascript for some functions
  • uses PHP and Mysql for dynamic server-side applications and data management.

And here is what halfVAST.com doesn’t do:

  • it does not fully utilize the technologies that are included in most definitions of Web 2.0, such as AJAX.
  • it does not implement the Semantic Web model
  • It does not have mashups in the true definition of the term.

So I use the term “Web 1.5,” as I like to think halfVAST.com is indeed chasing the Web 2.0 Brass Ring, but still needs to take many more rides on the Carousel!

Many sites are advertised as “Web 2.0” or even “Web 3.0” based on their outward appearance…but as we all know, looks can be deceiving.  Sort of reminds me of the Plasma and LCD TV advertisements…some can display true HDTV out-of-the-box while others are “HDTV-Ready” and need an external tuner to provide true HDTV.  You typically have to read the fine print to determine which is offered with a particular make and model.

Fantastic Machine

I got this in an email today. If you’ve never seen it, take a look. It is really impressive.

This incredible machine was built as a collaborative effort between the Robert M. Trammell Music Conservatory and the Sharon Wick School of Engineering at the University of Iowa. Amazingly, 97% of the machine’s components came from John Deere Industries and Irrigation Equipment of Bancroft Iowa, yes farm equipment!

It took the team a combined 13,029 hours of set-up, alignment, calibration, and tuning before filming this video, but as you can see it was WELL worth the effort.

It is now on display in the Matthew Gerhard Alumni Hall at the University and is already slated to be donated to the Smithsonian.

fantastic_machine.wmv