My coworker Andrew pointed me at this video of a rapping Barney the Dinosaur. This kind of humor is so cheap and easy but I just can't resist.

Stumbled across these really amazing photographs of apartment buildings in Hong Kong. I want one! I want one! ...but a single print will run you $5k. Bah.

A week ago I was finally able to see my friend Mike's absolutely amazing film, The Carniverous Syndrome in 3D. Mike has been a carniverous plant enthusiast for a long time and he spent the last couple years making timelapse 3d movies of them. To do this, he constructed a lego robot that takes pictures of a plant over the course of days, moving it back and forth in tiny degrees in order to get stereoscopic separation.

I saw the robot in action at Mike's place about a year ago. I still don't understand how he managed to get the precision required - the teeth in lego gears have a fair amount of 'play' between them, and the tolerances for the camera movements must have been tiny.

He also did some really crazy 3d graphics using hand-written scripts (I forget the language - Mike?).

Anyway, the net result is truly incredible. You will never see anything like this. Click on the image below to learn more or even buy the DVD (comes with 3d glasses!).

I just have to pause a moment to sing the praises of Go Fug Yourself , which has rapidly become one of my favorie blogs. It is updated frequently, the writing is great, and the photos are truly appalling (coming from someone who will never be accused of being a fashionista).

For me, it's also a bit strange in that GFY has become a primary conduit of information for me about popular culture. I've definitely moved a ways down the curve into aged-out-of-touch-hood, so I often don't know who a lot of these people are or what they do. There was a reality show about finding a singer for INXS? Who knew? (not me, that's who, at least until I read about it in FGY).

It's kind of like people who get their news from the Daily Show. Massively Indirected Media. Sign o' the times.

Anyway. My favorite GFY quotes of the week:

She looks like Bjork by way of the Teletubbies , crossed with one of Santa's elves, and topped off with a light sprinkling of the Fruit of the Loom strawberry.

...

Haiku for LiLo:

Really ugly boots,
Bad enough. But what's with the
Maternity shirt?

Pretty shiny hair
Why the grandma cardigan?
You know much better.

Security tag
Still on your new purse. Oh well,
Thank God you're not blonde.

I'm giving a talk tomorrow night to the Java SIG on how to cluster your Plain-Old-Java-Objects with Terracotta DSO.

I'm just getting over a nasty cold that laid me flat this weekend, so it should be extra fun. :/

Update: the talk went pretty well. Well-attended, about 75 folks, AFAICT very senior Java architect type guys for the most part. Chris Richardson gave a really good talk on Spring, and fortunately, most people stuck around for my part. Lots of questions - borderline choas, actually. Didn't even make it through my slide deck. Was fun though. GaryN took some photos but didn't get a good one with the crowd in frame. Oh well. I'm really talking to a bunch of people here, honest. :)