Mar 31, 2006

Link: Patently Silly

In my search for funny sites I came across Patently Silly, a site with some very humorous patents.

The patents comes with some great diagrams and descriptions, with some being very detailed. At first I thought they were all fake patents, but I looked up a few and they were all real.

If you thought there was nothing wrong with the U.S. patent system, check out Patently Silly and think again.

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Mar 31, 2006

Joke 126: Why God Never Received Tenure

Why God Never Received Tenure at the University:

  • Because he had only one major publication.
  • And it was in Hebrew.
  • And it had no cited references.
  • And it wasn’t published in a refereed journal or even submitted for peer review.
  • And some even doubt he wrote it himself.
  • It may be true that he created the world but what has he done since?
  • His cooperative efforts have been quite limited.
  • The scientific community has had a very rough time trying to replicate his results.
  • He never applied to the Ethics Board for permission to use human subjects.
  • When one experiment went awry, he tried to cover it up by drowning the subjects.
  • He rarely came to class, just told students to read the book.
  • He expelled his first two students for learning.
  • Although there were only ten requirements, most students failed his tests.
  • His office hours were infrequent and usually held on a mountain top.
  • When subjects didn’t behave as predicted, he often punished them, or just deleted them from the sample.

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Mar 30, 2006

My Favorite Pranks

Since I just started a new job a week ago, I can’t really go around pranking everybody like I used to… not yet anyway. As such, with April Fool’s Day coming, it feels like I need to do something special here for it, but since I probably won’t be doing any pranking for awhile, I figured I may as well highlight some of the pranks I have done or been the victim of.

  • Prank 7: Chair Troubles - Okay, so this prank may seem pretty weak, but it was something that me and my old coworkers did constantly to each other. It got so bad for awhile that we all ALWAYS shook our chairs before sitting down to make sure the wheels and/or backing wasn’t detached. There were a couple really good falls that made the whole thing worth it.
  • Prank 2: Mouse Problems - I will admit that this prank isn’t all that creative, but it gets the job done. I’ve done it to others and it has been attempted on me (but I had already done it before so I knew what the problem was already). It’s a quick and easy prank that works.
  • Prank 1: Icon Malfunction - This prank has quickly become a classic. It’s such a simple prank once you know it, but if you do it on somebody that doesn’t know that much about computers, it really does weird them out. I’ve done this prank on a few different people in and out of the office.
  • Prank 9: Site Switch - This is a prank I’ve never done but was attempted on me. It’s a damn good prank and would work on just about anybody, but in my case I didn’t have my homepage set to what the guy was trying to screw with so it didn’t really work and I was able to figure it out as a result.
  • Prank 26: And Begin - Unfortunately I have never experienced this prank. I know I said these would all be pranks I have done or had done to me, but this is a prank I thought up that I tried to get my old coworkers to do with me but never got a majority to agree to it. Some day I WILL do this prank.
  • Prank 4: Foiled - This is my favorite prank by far for two reasons. The first reason is that it is such a classic, harmless but hilarious prank to pull off. Not only does your coworker get pranked, the entire office will notice it and be amazed. The second reason it’s my favorite is because me and some old coworkers actually pulled this one off on another coworker who was out of the office for a few days. We did an amazing job, if I do say so myself, and the result was fantastic.

One thing you may have noticed is that I haven’t done any of the newer pranks. The reason for this is that I’ve changed jobs a couple times and you really do need to be somewhere for at least a little while before you can be comfortable enough to start screwing with your coworkers. I’m sure in a few months I’ll start pranking again.

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Mar 30, 2006

Term 2: Verbiage Methodology

Verbiage Methodology:
Using an excess of words inappropriately in order to falsely sound more intelligent that one is.

Key examples include the words verbiage and methodology, which are constantly used incorrectly by people attempting to sound more sophisticated or intelligent.

A major side effect of the increase in verbiage methodology in the past years is that many now are practice verbiage methodology without their knowledge as they have come to misunderstand the words they frequently use due to hearing them from others that do the same.

The cyclical effect is of great concern with the few people that have managed to not be consumed by the phenomenon.

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Mar 30, 2006

Joke 125: Mathematics Revisited

  • Life is complex. It has real and imaginary components.
  • What keeps a square from moving? Square roots, of course.
  • The law of the excluded middle either rules or does not rule.
  • In the topological hell the beer is packed in Klein’s bottles.
  • To a mathematician, real life is a special case.
  • I heard that parallel lines actually do meet, but they are very discrete.
  • In modern mathematics, algebra has become so important that numbers will soon only have symbolic meaning.
  • Some say the pope is the greatest cardinal.
  • But others insist this cannot be so, as every pope has a successor.

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Mar 29, 2006

News: Billionaire Horoscopes

Forbes has released an interesting study dealing with the horoscopes of various billionaires. Halfway down the article there is a link to detailed information on specific horoscope signs and how they match up with different billionaires.

I personally don’t believe in astrology and horoscopes, though I am an Aries and apparently Aries are supposed to be pretty aggresive, arrogant, impatient, quick-witted, and quick-tempered… which pretty much sums me up, so maybe they mean something after all.

File that under I’m not arrogant, I’m confident.

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Mar 29, 2006

Link: America’s Next Top Model Falls Down Video

Okay, this video showing the model falling down isn’t that great, but the caption Hedonistica placed on the file is pure funny. “If your job is to walk and not fall down, maybe you should learn to walk and not fall down.”

Being a software engineer, I count myself lucky to not have to know how to walk without falling down.

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Mar 29, 2006

Joke 124: Proving All Odd Numbers are Prime

How each profession attempts to prove that all odd numbers are prime:

  • Mathematician: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, and by induction - every odd integer higher than 2 is a prime.
  • Physicist: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 9 is an experimental error, 11 is a prime,…
  • Engineer: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 9 is a prime, 11 is a prime,…
  • Programmer: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 7 is a prime,…
  • Salesperson: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 9 — we’ll do for you the best we can,…
  • Computer Software Salesperson: 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, 9 will be prime in the next release,…
  • Biologist: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 9 — results have not arrived yet,…
  • Advertiser: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 11 is a prime,…
  • Lawyer: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 9 — there is not enough evidence to prove that it is not a prime,…
  • Accountant: 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, 9 is prime, deducing 10% tax and 5% other obligations.
  • Statistician: Let’s try several randomly chosen numbers: 17 is a prime, 23 is a prime, 11 is a prime…
  • Professor: 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime, and the rest are left as an exercise for the student.
  • Computational linguist: 3 is an odd prime, 5 is an odd prime, 7 is an odd prime, 9 is a very odd prime,…
  • Psychologist: 3 is a prime, 5 is a prime, 7 is a prime, 9 is a prime but tries to suppress it,…

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Mar 28, 2006

News: Rejected Hallmark Greeting Cards

Hallmark NO board

Not all Hallmark greeting card ideas are gold. The ones that are either too offensive, profane, or just plain bad get hung on a wall at the Hallmark Inc. office.

The article points out that the rejected cards beat out “winning” cards nearly 10 to 1. I actually thought that number was pretty low, as I would have thought there would be a LOT more cards that didn’t make the cut. But then again, there are quite a lot of cards that do make the cut, and most of them kinda suck.

I’d just like to point out how awesome it is that they put the rejected cards on a giant fabric “NO” board. That has to be one of the coolest ideas ever.

File that under no means no… I think.

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Mar 28, 2006

Link: Glass Door Prank

I didn’t quite see what was happening when the first victim ran into the glass door prank, but it quickly became both clear and hilarious. I wish the quality of the video was a bit nicer and the reactions could be better, but it’s still pretty good.

Now, I’d put this up as an office prank, but you’d be hard pressed to find an office with a door that you could do this to without much of a hassle and/or getting into some serious trouble.

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