Look at what I got in the mail today. A Rio Red Swingline stapler. Milton would be so proud.

Some friends and I were up in Tahoe this weekend doing a little snowboarding at Alpine Meadows. Sadly, I managed to break my left wrist. I’ll post more details this evening. This is my first typing attempt since the injury and I now realize it’s really hard to type using only one hand.

Yes, you read that correctly. Sharp has unveiled a refrigerator that can keep food warm. Your miso soup or chicken katsu can be kept warm at 130 degrees Fahrenheit (55 degrees Celsius) while you grab a cold Kirin in the neighboring compartment. Hubby, wife, or life partner coming home late? The warming area can be set to act like a real fridge and chill the food. What will the Japanese think of next? Probably a handheld gaming system with dual touch screens. That would be sweet!

Francis Hwang had a cool idea. He wanted to auction off a modified version of Apple’s U2 iPod. When the Unauthorized iPod U2 vs. Negativland Special Edition was listed on eBay, Apple got wind of it and told eBay to pull the plug. That was December 2004. Now it’s 2005 and Francis won’t let the man keep him down. He is currently auctioning the iPod on his own site. I’d like to meet Francis because he’s got some serious cojones. Apple will sue at the drop of a hat. I wish him the best of luck. Auction ends March 14, so place your bids while you can.

via Wired News

I’m on a wallpaper making frenzy. Here’s a little something for all of the Red vs. Blue fans out there. Don’t forget the headlight fluid.

I thought I’d make a sweet ass wallpaper by throwing together two things I love, iPods and Halo 2. You like it? I thought it was pretty cool. Until…

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I am always amazed when people are inventive and creative. I guess that’s why I like computers. With a little time and mental capacity, you can make something really cool. A friend of mine sent me a link where a guy did just that. CVS sells a $20 digital camera that you can use and return to CVS for processing. After it’s all said and done, you’ve spent upwards of $35 to process 25 pics. Well, some guy wanted to stick it to the man. So he modded the camera so he can download the pics to his PC. Now he doesn’t have to fill the pockets of CVS’s execs. Instead he can take as many pictures as he wants and only print out what he wants. My favorite part of the mod, a warning he posts before attempting to flash the firmware:

WARNING: It is easy to kill your camera if you make a mistake following these instructions. If losing the $20 you paid for your camera is too much for you to risk, stop now and go watch TV or something. Follow these instructions at your own risk.

You’ve been warned. See you at CVS.

So here’s the deal. If your not using Firefox, I’d highly recommend it. And I’m not gonna give you the ‘it’s more secure than IE’ crap. I’m asking you to use it because it’s cooler. Adding a news aggregator is one thing, but the Firefox community has so much more to offer. The ability to personalize your browser is a huge reason why I use Firefox. I have no doubt that anyone that uses it would feel the same. If you’re interested in trying it out, click on the banner I provided. Here are a few cool things you can download to make your Firefox experience a bit sweeter:

Themes - Themes change the look and feel of the browser.

• My fave right now is called The Enigma Machine. It looks cool and has great buttons.

Extensions - Applets that add functionality to the browser. I recommend the following:

• Sage - Our friendly news aggregator
• Tabbrowser Preferences - Adds some extra options to the basic tab controls.
• ForecastFox - Displays weather in your status bar. Click on the icons and Firefox takes you to Weather.com.
• FoxyTunes - Control your fave music player from your browser. Supports Winamp, iTunes, WMP, et. al.
• Tab Clicking Options - Allows you to control tabs via mouse clicks. Way cool.

Of course there’s more, but I have to run to a meeting. If you try it, hope you like it. If you don’t, shame on you.

Some of the Nug’s loyal readers are probably wondering about my little blogasm yesterday. Usually I post on topics I run across when I surf. It’s a very passive way to find info to blog about. That all changed when I downloaded an extension for Firefox called Sage 1.3.1. It’s a news feed aggregator that is displayed in Firefox’s sidebar. It’s pretty sweet. So essentially, I visited all of my fave sites and added their RSS or Atom feeds to Sage. Now I get the news delivered to me. Needless to say, it’s a much more efficient method of news gathering. The results were pretty obvious yesterday.

If you’ve been under a rock, or at the very least not watching Comedy Central, you probably don’t know that new episodes of South Park will be starting to air on March 9th. Be there.

From the desk calendar I got for Christmas, here’s a pretty interesting trivia question:

Which U.S. racetrack was the first to install a photo-finish camera?

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Whilst reading a post about the Airbus A380 on the Londonist, a link to the Polish Poster Gallery was given. What is wrong with them? This is their movie poster for Weekend at Bernie’s. WEEKEND AT BERNIE’S! Damn!

Via the Google Blog, the world’s most popular search engine now has an operator that will help you find movie-related info in a jiffy. Looking for a movie about rings and elves. Try [movie: rings elves]. How about a Steve McQueen flick? Try [movie: Steve McQueen]. Heck, maybe you want show times for a film in your area. [movie: Las Vegas, NV] should do the trick. I said it before. I’ll say it again. Google. Cool like the other side of the pillow. And I thought the [define] operator was sweet.

Mobile PC Magazine has released their cool and controversial ‘The Top 100 Gadgets of All Time‘. Some notables from the list:

99. SWINGLINE 747 STAPLER, 2002
89. RUBIK’S CUBE, 1974 (Which I can solve in under 5 minutes!)
65. MATTEL FOOTBALL II, 1978
46. TEXAS INSTRUMENTS SPEAK & SPELL, 1978

I wish they still made ‘Speak & Spell’. That should totally be higher on the list!

I know everyone’s probably heard about Apple’s revamped iPod line. They’ve added a new 6GB iPod Mini, increased the iPod Mini battery life to 18 hours, lowered the price on the 4GB iPod Mini, 20GB iPod, and all iPod Photos. Not bad.

Unfortunately, the old adage “get what you pay for” holds true. The iPods are cheaper, but they come with fewer accessories. Apple is no longer including a firewire connector for new iPods in favor of the more Windows-friendly USB 2.0. And according to The Apple Blog, some much loved items are also missing from the iPod Photo bundles.

“The iPod photo also no longer ships with a dock, AV cable, or carrying case, so to get a 60 GB iPod photo that is feature-equivalent to the original, your accessories tab at the Apple Store will run you $77 plus whatever you spend for the case.“

Although the new price point for the 60GB iPod Photo is much more attractive, the fact that you get much less sours the deal some. I guess no matter how cool a business is, it’s still business. The bottom-line matters most of all.

Okay, is it just me, or is it really morbid to print pictures that an unsuspecting couple took right before they were crunched by the tsunami? And of course, in the last photo they are almost underwater. Sad.

Larry found one of the coolest sites ever. OpensourceCMS provides one location for everyone to play with some of the more popular content management systems. The username and passwords are provided. All you have to do is visit, logon, and play. No need to worry about mucking up the site. Everything gets rebuilt from scratch every two hours. If anyone is interested in online publishing or blogging, swing by. It’s gnarly!

Due to “human error”, a spam message sent to MSNBC was distributed to their breaking news subscriber list. MSNBC posted the usual apology online stating “[the company] regrets the error and is taking steps to make sure it does not happen again.” This just goes to show that all the money in the world cannot cure stupidity.

As seen on Memepool, a children’s show called Rainbow that ran from the late 70’s to the early 80’s in the U.K. was written by a pervert and includes all kinds of sexual innuendo. This episode clip is one example. Please keep in mind this was broadcast and seen by millions of children. Crazy.

Melissa and I were in Las Vegas this weekend and got a chance to see Cirque du Soleil’s Ka at the MGM Grand. Not having seen the “O” show at the Bellagio I cannot draw any comparisons between the two. However, I believe that Ka stands alone as a visually and aurally stunning show that you have to see to believe. The amazing acrobatic performances are matched with a soundtrack that mixes Asian inspired sounds and instruments with tribal drums and rhythms. Surround sound audio effects are recreated with speakers within every seat so that every audience member hears them from the same perspective.

The backdrop for the story is a mechanical stage that is an engineering marvel. The main stage deck is suspended over a giant pit and has the ability to rotate in almost every direction, even becoming a sheer vertical wall for several acts. The stage completely and smoothly morphs between acts to recreate completely different scenes. From a pit, to a flying boat, to an imperial ceremony, to a boat at sea, to a beach, to a mountain, to a cliff, to a factory, the stage morphs from one amazing environment to the next. There is also a rear stage platform that has the ability to move from backstage to frontstage and several other secondary stage platforms and columns that moved in and out of scenes. The stage environment itself is almost like another character in a cast of nearly eighty artists and deserves its own applause.

Weaving martial arts styles from around the world as well as floor and high-wire acrobatics, the show’s storyline is action-packed. But it is also filled with enough fantasy to engage young children. One of the acts depicts a pair of crabs, a starfish, and a turtle interacting with characters stranded on a beach. These creatures, played very flexible human beings, seem to almost magically appear out of the sand on stage. Amazing. At the end of this act, all of the sand, tons of it, is dumped off the stage onto the pit below as if to imply the passage of time. Genius. Unfortunately, it would take many pages to describe the entire show in detail. Let’s just say that you have to see it.

Before Ka opened, many people claimed that the best two shows in Las Vegas were “O” and Mystere, the other Cirque shows. Now, it seems that Cirque du Soleil may boast the best three shows in a town filled with world-class entertainment.

Before the show, we were able to go backstage and meet one of the primary cast members, pictured here with Melissa. What we saw backstage did not hint at the awe-inspiring magnitude of the show. And we realize (now) that what we saw was but a small portion of the backstage area. Either way, seeing what was behind the curtain didn’t spoil the magic one bit.

Thanks to Ka Publicist Reggie Lyons for her kindness and hospitality.