And in a story related to the previous post, the Marines have several new toys to play with. There\’s a robotic spy plane outfitted with video and infrared cameras, a radio-controlled car equipped with a camera, a robotic helicopter, and a robotic lobster used for detecting and disarming mines. I can\’t wait to see big, macho marines fighting over who gets to play next.
[ From Slashdot ]

In an effort to boost recruitment, the U.S. Army is now making video games. America\’s Army is a free first-person shooter that\’s supposed to present an authentic look at what the Army is really like:

AMERICA\’S ARMY: SOLDIERS is a game that mimics life. You must guide a computer generated soldier through the US Army and help him or her to develop a career, get an education, and climb up in rank. You\’ll be able to not only visit the recruiter and sign up but also progress through the Army and see for yourself what a rich life experience the U.S. Army offers.

Sounds like fun, I think. Looks like they put a lot of effort into it as the graphics look pretty good. But it remains to be seen if it\’s worth it and more kids join the Army cause of a video game.

Neat, Disney\’s auctioning off the pilot\’s car of the monorail on eBay. The auction starts at $100 and the winner has to agree to use it only as a collectible. Now I can finally get started on my backyard monorail.

I\’m gonna be visiting relatives in Sacramento the next 3 days, so if you see some posts, that means someone\’s cracked my password and is pretending to be me for some reason. Damn hackers.

Um….so Disney is selling housepaint now? They signed a $100 million deal with Home Depot to sell Disney-colored paint and decorative hardware.

So does this mean we\’re gonna start hearing about limited edition red paint that\’s only available for a short time before it\’s locked in a vault for 50 years?
[ From Boing Boing ]

Religious Merger Creates 900 Million Hinjews

Hinjews across the world, meanwhile, said they also were too busy dealing with integration to worry about Pakistanis, Palestinians, or any other opponents.

\”Surprisingly, it\’s not the big issues, like is there one God or are there many? It\’s the little things,\” said New York City Hinjew Nathan Feldman. \”Like my Hindu half acknowledges that this world is full of suffering, but my Jewish half just goes on and on about it.\”

Weird Al\’s classic UHF is finally coming to DVD on June 4th. It includes deleted scenes, a commentary, and behind-the-scenes stuff. Wheel of Fish! Teaching poodles how to fly! Badgers! All in digital!

Great news! According to this article Skinny Puppy is reforming. ohGr was supposed to play at the Arvika festival, but backed out \”due to several factors including problems with the healing and therapy of my broken hand, and a studio time urgency related to the reformation of skinny puppy(my emphasis).\” Ogre and Cevin will be joined by 3 other guys and according to this update they\’ll record an LP and tour in 2003. Finally I\’ll get to see Skinny Puppy live. Seeing Ogre and Cevin play together in ohGr last year was pretty close, but this next tour will be the real thing.

Dead Man\’s Switch looks like a really useful piece of software. You set up the program to automatically perform some tasks if you don\’t check in with it. So, for example, if something happens to you and you don\’t reset the program, it\’ll encrypt some files, post some messages to forums, and send out some e-mails. It\’ll probably get annoying resetting the program every day though.

\”Copy-proof\” CDs cracked with 99-cent marker pen

Technology buffs have cracked music publishing giant Sony Music\’s elaborate disc copy-protection technology with a decidedly low-tech method: scribbling around the rim of a disk with a felt-tip marker.

Internet newsgroups have been circulating news of the discovery for the past week, and in typical newsgroup style, users have pilloried Sony for deploying \”hi-tech\” copy protection that can be defeated by paying a visit to a stationery store.

Ha ha! Take that Sony copy protection! Now if only they would put out music worth copying…