Ideas

  • 12 Reasons You Need Google Voice in Your Life

    12 Reasons You Need Google Voice in Your Life

    Google Voice is a free telephone service that does practically everything your current provider does, like make phone calls, receive voicemails, and send texts. But it’s so much more than that. Like many people, I’ve had the same phone number for so long that I can only estimate when I first got it. There’s a…

  • The Perfect (Cheap) Gift for Geeks

    The Perfect (Cheap) Gift for Geeks

    Do you know a geek that loves television shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who, Star Trek, or Battlestar Galactica? You probably do and just don’t realize it because geeks are everywhere. And I know the perfect cheap gift for them. Say what you will about Netflix and their pricing fiasco, they currently have…

  • In the future everyone will have their 15GB of backup.

    This past weekend, my computer started acting funny. At first it was just annoying (as it always is) but then it became frustrating. So frustrating, in fact, that when I got angry over it, I slapped the top of my desk in an stupid fit of frustration. I didn’t pound it, I didn’t smash it…

  • Selling Virtual Things

    Selling Virtual Things

    My cousin, Steve Metze, asked me how one could make money selling virtual things. Well, the entire Second Life economy is a lot like the US economy, only it’s based on the Linden (L$), which is their version of the dollar. Now, if it was just play money I wouldn’t be excited about it in…

  • We are mostly nothing!

    We are mostly nothing!

    Do you realize that we are mostly empty space? And when I say “mostly” I mean, almost entirely. Not just 75% or 90% or even 99%…we’re something like 99.99999999999999999% completely empty space! Want to see what I mean? I created a graphic that represents an electron as one pixel, which means that the proton graphic…

  • Stewart-Colbert2008.org Now Online

    It’s time to change the sheets! Let the campaign for a new America begin! It’s not official yet, but that doesn’t mean we can’t start the groundswell of support. Sure, it’s a bit cynical of us to want a couple of television stars to run the nation, but if an actor can get elected as…

  • How to Write a Good (Basic) Essay

    1. Write a five-sentence summary about the whole paper, and try to make it mimic what your paper will look like when you’re done. The first sentence, like the first paragraph, is your introduction. The next three (or two, or four, or thirty, or whatever) sentences should be your “body” sentences, like the body paragraphs…

  • Statue of Oxidated Liberty

    Statue of Oxidated Liberty

    I would like to see something done about the discoloration of the Statue of Liberty. Not many people realize that the distinctive green color that is associated with the statue is different from its natural color. It is a copper structure, and it has been weathered from constant exposure to the Atlantic winds. I suggest…

  • A Thought Experiment

    Where does a good story begin? In a dark, wet alleyway of a large city? How about a cotton field in Texas? A business cubicle just before midnight? No. It starts inside an atom, just inside the electron shell. The hum of the spinning protons, neutrons and electrons create a weird echo in here. We…