Wow, just goes to show that you should live your life now, while you can. So sad to think that he has all this money now, and he will never get to enjoy it.

Comedian and Chicago native Bernie Mac died early Saturday morning from complications due to pneumonia, his publicist confirmed.

Mac, 50, had been hospitalized for about a week at Northwestern Hospital, according to his spokeswoman. A few years ago, Mac disclosed that he suffered from sarcoidosis, a rare autoimmune disease that causes inflammation in tissue, most often in the lungs.

I was reading QuadsZilla's post about the week he is having on the SEO Black Hat, and have to admit that it sounds like I am going about this whole software development thing the wrong way.

  We were even hanging with Wiesn Playmate Anna Scharl (Miss October for German Playboy) and her sister most of the time we were out; they’re both sweethearts.

  Tonight I’m going to the Opera and tomorrow I’m doing some 3-hour caving expedition. Ahh, the life of a spammer. It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it.

I have been working in this industry for 8 years, working on web sites for reputable companies, making decent money.  I would say that I would be the kind of person that any organization would want to have, but I find that I enjoy working at smaller start-ups, due to lack of waste more then anything, and I need a little more stress then your average person to get things done.

But if I can use my talents to startup some stupid website and just milk money away from Google and the unknown people out there, is there really a downside?  Is it illegal?  I can provide better for my family and not do something illegal.   Why would I not? 

My instinctual answer is that I wouldn't want to do it for the sake of not helping to proliferate crap on the Internet.  But (not that I would really want to) if spending 1 month a quarter coming up with some stupid website and then go spend time with my family and just watch the money come in... why is that not a good option?

I would love to hear from others that have had this same thought, and where they are on why the continue to work at a "real" company versus going out on their own taking advantage of the framework that Ad revenue has presented to us. 

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If you would like to find out more about Quadzilla, and a little insight into what makes him tick, listen to this interview that he did on Shoemoney's Net Income Show.

(Note: that this is a picture of the Shoemoney guy not Quadzilla)

So I had seen the old videos on YouTube, but as you would expect the marketing machine that is Microsoft has me saying HOLY SHIT!!!

For those of you that are tech savvy this is old news, but for those of you that don't keep up on blogs, etc. and never click on the links I provide, I implore you to please check this out... IT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND.  Now if they can just deliver on the hype!

Microsoft Surface - a whole new kind of computer interaction.

I'm completely stealing from my buddy Phil (congrats on the new baby!) but this video is just too amazing not to share. 

I like how mid way through the video he picks up a Vans sponsorship.  If only they would pay him for the placement!

Here is a brain teaser:

Three players enter a room and a red or blue hat is placed on each person's head. The color of each hat is determined by a coin toss, with the outcome of one coin toss having no effect on the others. Each person can see the other players' hats but not his own.

No communication of any sort is allowed, except for an initial strategy session before the game begins. Once they have had a chance to look at the other hats, the players must simultaneously guess the color of their own hats or pass. The group shares a hypothetical $3 million prize if at least one player guesses correctly and no players guess incorrectly.

The same game can be played with any number of players. The general problem is to find a strategy for the group that maximizes its chances of winning the prize.

I am a trained problem solver.  I am not very organized and sometimes I have lack of motivation issues, but sometimes, more rarely then I would like, I surprise myself with how obvious something seems.  Dilbert calls it "the knack ", my Mom calls it a gift from god.  I just call it common sense, but I guess that is relative.   

Apparently the above brain teaser has been caused a stir in the mathematical community, but after I read the brain teaser on an older web site post the correct answer just came to me and I knew it was right.  That is how my brain works... when I know the answer is right you cannot move me off of it unless you offer additional information.

Do other technologist and engineers feel the same way?

What is the difference between toasting and roasting? Is it based on what you are toasting? Do you toast carbohydrates? You can toast nuts and bread, but you roast marshmellows, pork, potatoes, meat... so what is the difference?

Flatulence, not turbulence forces plane landing in Nashville

"Flatulence brought 99 passengers on an American Airlines flight to an unscheduled visit to Nashville early Monday morning..."

This is the best example of why I went to Georgia Tech versus UGA. Can you imagine how much more fun I had to GT versus UGA!

Two Scholarships Winners

What do you call it when you basically punk yourself? I was looking at an old post of mine and fell for the trick that I was trying to get all the readers to fall for. So I guess I will just cal it a Sotcha (for Self Gotcha).

If you are curious the link was here.

So I just learned what the root of Lesbian is Lesbos (incorrectly I might add, as the people of Lesbos are called Lesbosians and not Lesbians). But the term comes from the writing of the ancient "muse" Sappho, of whom I had never heard. From the link below is the following paragraph:

Her style was sensual and melodic; primarily songs of love, yearning, and reflection. Most commonly the target of her affections was female, often one of the many women sent to her for education in the arts. She nurtured these women, wrote poems of love and adoration to them, and when they eventually left the island to be married, she composed their wedding songs. That Sappho's poetry was not condemned in her time for its homoerotic content (though it was disparaged by scholars in later centuries) suggests that perhaps love between women was not persecuted then as it has been in more recent times. Especially in the last century, Sappho has become so synonymous with woman-love that two of the most popular words to describe female homosexuality--lesbian and sapphic have derived from her.

I guess these are some of the interesting facts that my non-Liberal Arts education neglected me of.

More on Sappho here