Tag / Things That Are Weird

by Greg

Trololo?

Thanks to a friend of ours, we have now been exposed to an apparent internet phenomenon, a video of a lip-syncing Russian from 1978, singing a song without any words.

Yes. You read that right.

The reason we know it’s a phenomenon is the incredible number of alternate versions available on YouTube, including this very well produced mash up below:

Really. I have no idea how this became such a hit, but… I can almost guarantee you’ll be humming this after watching both of these videos.

You’ve been warned. 🙂

by Greg

Bits vs Bites … Scam

I have already learned that there is a difference between a bit and a byte. That’s why when you buy a hard drive that says it’s 1 TB … you’re actually only getting 976.56 GB. Or something like that. Because one kilobyte is 1024 bits, and one megabyte is 1024 kilobits, etc.

For some reason I forgot to apply that to bandwidth estimates.

I’ve always been seriously annoyed by my ISP’s claims regarding my available bandwidth. I use their speedtests and I see that the results are close to (have even exceeded) their numbers, but I also check it against the various bandwidth measuring tools I have on my computer. I am supposed to have at least 1 MBps upload speed and up to 20 MBps download speed… but the best I get is about 133KBps upload and 2-3MBps download. What gives??

Well, “what gives” is that the difference is a factor of 8.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, what my computer is telling me is the BYTES version and what our ISPs tell us is the BITS version. Ugh. I know it’s not really a “scam”, but it feels like it! They inflate their numbers 8-fold!

For example, a 256Kbps (kilobits per second) upload speed is only a 32KBps (kilobytes per second) upload speed. Those numbers are very different. Let’s apply that to the 1MBps speed (would be 1024KBps) I thought I was getting (which is actually only advertised as 1Mbps, capitalization being very important…) and I end up with 128KBps. (Which is about what I get!)

So there is truth in advertising!

Problem is, who actually knew that capitalization could be so important? I now understand. It now makes sense.

It still irks me a bit. (Or would that be a byte?)

For further study, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit.

by Greg

12-21-12

Mayan CalendarFor some reason the topic of the world ending in 2012 came up in a conversation with a friend yesterday. So, I decided to look it up online and found a History Channel documentary from a couple years ago called Doomsday 2012: The End of Days.

It was pretty interesting stuff… There are several strange coincidences involving not on the Mayan calendar predicting the end of time on Dec 21, 2012, but a Chinese ancient book and a few other things. Even a computer program designed to predict the stock market has predicted major catastrophes accurately, and seems to predict the biggest one in the year 2012. There is even some astronomical event (the earth and sun will be perfectly aligned with the center of the Milky Way galaxy… which might be bad…) which supposedly only happens every 25,000 years or so.

That’s a pretty rare occurrence.

Jesus said we won’t know when the end is coming. I believe him. But all this stuff is quite fascinating, and I can’t wait till December 21st, 2012. 🙂 It will be funny when/if that’s just a normal day…

by Greg

[Things That Are Weird] Phone Walkers

I tend to walk around and do stuff while I’m on the phone. Sometimes it’s even just aimless walking, but usually I am just multi-tasking. Do you? I was meeting with a new client yesterday, and he did the same thing. He just took off and started pacing his house as soon as he answered the phone. He was a pretty good phone walker!

The cutest though is Kirsten and Julia. Whenever they chat with their grandparents, they are usually hold the phone to their ear and walking around our entire first floor. Julia usually just starts walking in a very tight little circle! So cute!!

But… since this is a Things That Are Weird…

Why DO we feel the need to start walkin’ when we’re chattin’ on the phone?

by Greg

[Things That Are Weird] Waking Up In A Dream

Continuing the “Things That Are Weird” theme…

It can’t get much weirder than going through some sort of wake up routine, going about your daily business after turning off your alarm and getting out of bed… only to have the alarm go off again, and you find yourself STILL in bed!

Perhaps it gets weirder when the “regular morning routine” was actually not regular at all, and was in a completely different (fabricated) house and geographic location.

Wonder what I ate last night?

by Greg

[Things That Are Weird] Gambling Aversions

I know that I probably just can’t understand, since it really has no pull on me, but one more Thing That [Is] Weird to me is how much of an aversion some folks have to gambling on any level. Not just Christian, “God hates gamblers” folks. Regular folks who feel like any wagering is fruitless, and even dangerous. Can’t it just be a fun way to spend money (and possibly make some?) just like going to a movie, or an amusement park or something? (Perhaps those games at amusement parks are equal to gambling? Odds are just as good…..) 🙂

Just one more of the many Things That Are Weird.

by Greg

Powerful Thoughts?

I don’t know if this is for real, but I got it from a friend on Facebook and thought it might be possible? 🙂 Does mind over matter include over other matter? 🙂 Also, can’t you affect how a plant grows by how you talk to it?

The rest of the experiment (says the video) is at www.themanifeststation.com/intention

(I don’t think I’m on the same page as the folks at that site… but the video was interesting anyway…) 🙂

by Greg

[Things That Are Weird] Wiper Fluid Containers

Windshield Wiper FluidDoes anyone else wonder why windshield wiper fluid is sold in a container/amount that is only slightly more than fits in your empty windshield wiper fluid dispenser in your vehicle? I have never understood this. And I don’t believe I ever will.

I will often just hand a container like this to the nearest person in the parking lot and say, “Have some wiper fluid!” (It is usually received well…) 🙂

If it were a lot more, then I would understand. But it’s just a little bit too much. Very, very strange.

I think I’ll keep this as a recurring theme here at GregsHead.net. Stay tuned for more Things That Are Weird.