Compact Calendar

Even though there are many digital versions of calendar, paper calendar still rocks much because of its simplicity and usability. I came across this compact calendar in an excel template, which can be customized and printed.

later...

I love the woot descriptions

Today's [12/22/2006] woot description...

Woot Sells PS3? Wii, Wii!

So, hey, check it out: there’s this awesome new gaming system that we just can’t stop playing. Too bad it’s so hard to find in stores – we guess they just didn’t make enough of them. It’s called the Nintendo Wii, and holy mother of Zelda, is it ever a blast. If the Wii is cool with polygamy, we might ask it to marry us.

The controller – so easy! No more intricate push-this-twice, pull-that-three-times trickery, just easy waves of the hand. The console – so cute! It actually makes our gaming room look better, unlike the bulky, ugly consoles we could mention. How does Nintendo keep the price so low on that thing, anyway? And the games, good Lord, the games! Not to mention those adorable avatars. We’ve already created virtual versions of the entire staff, so we can beat each other virtually-bloody instead of actually-bloody, like we usually do. The only problem is that none of the nose options are as big as Jason’s actual nose. But that’s a minor quibble.

In fact, we love the Wii so much, we want to give a Wii to everybody on our payroll. To fund this Wii-for-the-People program, we're selling this Sony PlayStation 3. The SIXAXIS wireless controller is basically the same complicated gazillion-button-style controller you know from past PS models, but at least you won’t be fighting Grandma for gaming time. Along with the usual roster of ho-hum games, the PS3 can play CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Ray discs, and the 20GB hard drive can store music, videos, and music videos. It’s certainly, er, rather full-figured, for those of you who want a lot of heft for your money. And its HDMI capabilities give you polygons and frames-per-second out the wazoo, if you prefer that stuff to having fun.

Best of all, for every PS3 you buy, we can buy Wiis for two of our employees. So when you get frustrated by those intricate combo-button moves, or bored by the underwhelming game offerings for the PS3, keep the spirit of the season in mind. Remember all those happy Woot staffers whose lives have been changed by their super-fun Nintendo Wiis, paid for by you. Heartwarming, isn’t it?

Features:

• Plays video games and stuff

And no I didn't cut off the rest of the features, that was all there

Merry Christmas!

later...

Surviving through a wind storm

The Pacific Northwest was hit by a ferocious wi nd storm on thursday night (December 14, 2006), you can read about it here. The results were bad, about 1.5 million people were left out without power and as of this writing most except about 200,000 got power.

At about 1/2 hr past midnight on thursday, the power went out in our apartment, I slept through all night, waking up intermittently for the loud thuds and transformer pops. The extent of the disaster was very much visible the next morning and to my bad, I forgot to fill up gas in my car and I was riding on the empty line in the fuel gauge. Several trees were taken out by the storm, and they rested on the apartment blocks, but there was no damage to my block. The necessity of electricity struck within an hour, no food, no warmth, no phone (I have VoIP), no internet, and no gas stations. But, we had friends! Thanks to Arul for hosting us in his home, he had gas stove with which the food problem is taken care of. I spent the next couple of days at Vijay's place (he got power by friday evening) with Shobha's delicious food.

Puget Sound Electricity crews were working day and night to restore the power to their customers as fast as they could. Our apartment got power by Sunday morning and life returned to normal. I hope life returns to normal soon for the rest of the people who are still suffering from the aftermath of the wind storm.

More pictures...

(thanks to Kartik for the pictures)

later...

Samsung Blackjack

Shopping for a new phone, check this one from Cingular, the new Samsung Blackjack. It is a Windows Mobile Smartphone with full QWERTY keyboard. Check here for full specs.

[click on the above image and hit space to play again]

It has the new HSDPA broadband data speed, but heard it sucks out the battery a lot.

later...