11-19 Dish: Random slashdot articles

Well, it is the weekend and celebrities usually take this day off from being the world, according to my sources that is. So for today’s dish I have the celebrity birthdays and some off topic things.

Celebrity Birthdays…

Ann Curry - 19 November, 1959
News Anchor
Calvin Klein - 19 November, 1943
Esther Duller - 19 November, 1966
Gail Devers - 19 November, 1966
Gene Tierney - 19 November, 1920
Glynnis O'Connor - 19 November, 1956
Jason Riddington - 19 November, 1968
Jerry Hogsett - 19 November, 1963
Jodie Foster - 19 November, 1948
Kathleen Quinlan - 19 November, 1955
Larry King - 19 November, 1933
Meg Ryan - 19 November, 1961
Robert Beltran - 19 November, 1957
Rodney Ochoa - 19 November, 1940
Ted Turner - 19 November, 1938
Terry Farrell - 19 November, 1963

The other topics I wanted to bring up were from 2 slashdot articles I read. Here is the first one.

Lauren Weinstein writes to raise an alarm about a new Google service, Click-to-Call. As he describes it, the service seems ripe for abuse of several kinds. One red flag is that Google falsifies the caller-ID of calls it originates for the service. From the article: "Up to now, the typical available avenue for manipulating caller-ID has been pay services that tended to limit the potential for large-scale abuse since users are charged for access. Google, by providing a free service that will place calls and manipulate caller-ID, vastly increases the scope of the problem. Scale matters."

I have yet to use Click-to-Call but it sounds really cool.

And here was the other article.

"In an effort to handle its nighttime public urination problem, Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, is considering installing high-tech urinals that disappear below street level during the day. Then at night, an operator comes by with a remote and the Urilift hydraulically lifts to sidewalk level in about two minutes. Then the unit is ready to serve all the nighttime party animals who don't mind peeing in a very exposed public urinal. The $75,000 system has been installed across the Netherlands, and have spread to London and Belfast, but Victoria will be the first North American city to try them out."

I just thought it was funny. There is no real reason I put this in the dish today.

Finally, I just found another Slashdot article. The ad that goes along with it is really cool. But I wouldn’t go to it unless you have a good pop up blocker.

"Everyday objects can produce interesting effects when you stick them in a standard microwave. Grapes spark, matches create superheated plasma fireballs, mini lightning-bolts arc between sheets of aluminum foil, and soap both splits open and puffs up, creating a somewhat vulgar spurt of bubbly excrement that has to be seen to be fully appreciated. However, as cool as microwave experimentation can be, balls of plasma and the like are bad for both your eyes and your microwave, so it's probably best not to try these things at home.

update This site apparently is behind a really nasty popup that I missed (yay Firefox) the first time through. You've been warned... here it is but given the overall rottenness of the pop-up, I guess I wouldn't bother. Some folks know no shame. My apologies to the readers.

 
Plus there is a nice YouTube search for microwaves.
 

Alright, that’s the weekend!!