How to Mod a USB Flash Drive

Hm. I guess it really is that easy.

Top 87 Bad Predictions about the Future

When predicting the future, it is important to keep certain points in mind.

In regards to predicting the future Howard H. Stevenson says, Prediction is at least two things: Important and hard. Important, because we have to act, and hard because we have to realize the future we want, and what is the best way to get there.

The act of predicting the future --both near and distant-- has always been fraught with difficulty. Certainly, it was hard prior to Nostradamus' day. Throughout history and pre-history it has been the purview of witch-doctors and shamans, scientists and inventors, stockbrokers and entrepreneurs. The wisest of the wise and the wackiest of con men have all tried their hand at the proverbial (or literal) crystal ball.

Hindsight can be quite fun here. Looking back and marveling at predictions that came true for those lucky few that said the right thing at the right time can be amusing. But the real excitement happens when someone steps in it big time and inserts their own foot in their mouth. Here's a few highlights from a nicely compiled list.

Everything that can be invented has been invented. - Charles H. Duell, an official at the US patent office, 1899.*

It will be gone by June. - Variety, passing judgement on rock 'n roll in 1955.

The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty, a fad. - The president of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford's lawyer not to invest in the Ford Motor Co., 1903.

Would you like more? Check out the full list at Top 87 Bad Predictions about the Future.

*Note: Apparently, this quote from the patent office is a widely recycled misquote. A few of the others on the 2spare.com list are also debunked. Don't believe everything you hear.

Internet Explorer 7 Fonts

If you want to clear up the fonts in IE7 you will need to do the following.

*Go to Tools>Internet Options>Advanced
*Go to Multimedia and Uncheck the Clear Type for HTML box
*Ok the changes and restart IE.

The Internet's Early Years

It's hard to think about now, but at one point in the not-too-distant past, the Internet was new. Reporters for major news organizations looked at it and scratched their heads in confusion. For instance,...

--a dazzling array of information--

I'm trying to figure out how old this is. There are some important thinkers here, but I'm sad to see that they concentrated so much on Bill Gates. Huh? But there are some great ideas that we still use today and some that seemed important at the time, but have fallen by the wayside. That wrist watch? The virtual reality-esque shopping mall? This specific video is not entirely a parody, but it has a menu screen at the end referencing Jimmy Fallon's new Late Night show. I'd guess that these are a combination of multiple clips of various Tom Brokaw interviews and several other pieces spliced together.

Original source: Nikomas.com- The Internet is All Grown Up

Windows 7 European Edition

When it's available, I want a copy of Windows 7 from Europe. It will ship without Internet Explorer. Read more on BBC NEWS.

Did Your Television Stop Working?

Did you pick up a new T.V. by now? As of today, all non-digital broadcast television signals have stopped. You've probably gotten sick of hearing about it by now. But if you woke up this morning and were surprised to learn that your screen is blank, then it's time to pick up either a new box or a converter. You can learn more at DTV Answers.com.

Don't have one yet? Get a digital television as soon as possible.

Circuit City Closed

I've briefly mentioned Circuit City before (thought I can't find it now), but I wanted to briefly link to their updated page regarding their recent closing of all stores in the United States.

Circuit City would like to thank all of the customers who have shopped with us over the past 60 years. Unfortunately, we announced on January 16, 2009, that we are going out of business.

Please check back later for updates about the status of our website. In the meantime, we hope the information below will help answer most of your questions.

View the full FAQs at Circuit City Closed. I never worked there and I rarely shopped there, but it does make me sad to see them go.

Wil Wheaton's keynote at Penny Arcade Expo [mp3]

I bookmarked this over a year ago, but I listened to it again today in full. I checked back through my stuff and realized that I've never linked to it anywhere. It's worth mentioning for all kinds of reasons, mostly for the video game nostalgia trip that you will have if you are over the age of 30. Most geeks our age will recognize the name of Wil Wheaton from his role as Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation as well as Gordie Lachance in the film Stand By Me (a.k.a.the best Stephen King movie ever!) as well as many other great roles. If you haven't seen him recently, he is still working and is active in the online community of bloggers and video gamers.

In 2007, he gave the keynote speech at the Penny Arcade Expo, a hugely successful fan-driven, industry-sponsored festival for tabletop, videogame, and PC gamers. He tells a series of biographical stories starting in his early youth and moving to his role as a parent. Honestly, it's the most topical speech on video games and what they mean to us today. If you have not already heard it, you must hear it now. Give yourself an hour and then hit play.

Wil Wheaton's keynote at Penny Arcade Expo 2007

The following video is only an excerpt of the speech intro but it's coupled with a few moments after the speech as Wil graciously meets with a fan. It encapsulates the reaction a little to see a fan shaking his hand.

Found via Delicious.

More Information

• Article on Stage Select
• Article on Macworld

What To Do With This Site?

I mentioned this before, but this site was birthed from something left behind by another site that I didn't originally create or develop. Read some of the previous archives for more details:

• January 2007
• February 2007
• March 2007

I felt weird about it at the time mainly because of the traffic, Google Pagerank and the promotion that had previously gone into promoting the "techlifeblogged.blogspot.com" sub-domain. I felt luck to have gotten it, but didn't want to take advantage of it too much.

With PR updates over the last several months, the value has dropped to zero and the traffic is low. There are still lots of visitors to older pages originally created by Scott (where I redirect them to his site as best I can) and a fair number of visitors to new posts that I've created.

But it may be time to end this project. I have too many pots percolating at once and this year promises to be even busier. My plan at the moment is to update the page template to something simple and post the content over FTP to my own site. From there, I won't necessarily delete the whole site as it is still working in the occasional redirect. But the URL will become a sub-page or subdirectory off of my home page. Since he hasn't stopped by, I'm going to assume that Scott won't mind if I do this.

Anyhow, that's the direction for 2009.