Put yer teeth back in, yeah?

Do me a favour, take a look at your computer base unit. Chances are, unless it’s older than six or seven years and you’re in your late twenties, early thirties, neither you or it will recognise this:

That, for the uninitiated, is a 3.5″ floppy disc. It’s also the latest storage unit to succumb to the ever-advancing march of time and technology. For over twenty years, they reigned supreme and were as ubiquitous as the CD-ROM became (and now the memory stick).
Recently, however, Sony finally decided it wasn’t cost effective to continue production and called time on it all.

Unfortunately, if yer anything like me, you will probably have a stack of the wee beggars hanging around at the back of a drawer somewhere. In these days of recycling and reduced carbon footprints, we don’t want to just sling them in the bin, but what can we do with them?
If yer feeling creative, here’s one suggestion:

If on the other hand, creating a sculpture like that looks a bit too much like hard work, the BBC compiled a list of 40 other options… Click here to find out more.
Thanks to… Riscy, I think it was. (It’s been a while, lurking in my bookmarks)

First up, cheers to Jay fer bringing this to the fore.
Next, ye may want to read a related article Chris wrote some time back… (Beware Movie Pirates)

Now; as you know, people who make, sell or buy products that are clearly not of kosher origin are unpatriotic heathens with no respect for property and must be pursued and punished with the full force of the law. Or, to put it another way, knock-off goods and illegal downloads cost untold millions to the economies of various countries.

There’s just one little detail though: that word, “untold”. Up until now, the US government has been able to provide suspiciously accurate figures on just how much such piracy is costing. However, a new report by the internal watchdog (Government Accountability Office or GAO) has finally skewered these skewed ‘reports’ once and for all. And it’s not finished yet, either.
Here’s just one example: The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) set up their own little research into how damaging illegal movie downloads were to the industry. Actual figures aside, the GAO have now revealed that the MPAA report overstated the piracy by three times the real quantity.

I’m not going to paraphrase the whole thing – especially since there’s such a good article on it over at ars technica.

My boorish opinions on this commercial are below, but I really posted it because this is our local news WZZM.  (Don’t click that! The site is full of ads and hurts your eyes.) The local news is like listening to your mom talk about her Facebook friends. WZZM is constantly discussing their FB fan page and I would guess that 30-40% of their reporting is about things they read on Facebook. So this is what you are missing if you don’t live in West Michigan.

This commercial is really strange. In my opinion it seems like they are making fun of individuals who post nonsense to social networks. Yet, they’re insulting the very people that are the market for the phone they are trying to sell. I guess they are banking on the fact that freaks like us who post to social networks every 5 minutes must have a sense of humor.

Fair enough.

And so ends my shortest rant ever.

Links I Never Got Around To Blogging in March

Vintage ads that are oh so wrong. (One is the picture above) thanks @tone_def

Someone wants to change the Georgia state bird to a chicken because so much of the economy is based around its production, Flip the birds.

The Map of Every Fast-food burger in America.

You can have your own social news network like, digg or reddit and share it between friends. Perhaps, I should use Slinkset and spare you all these personal comments.

The Oatmeal tries to categorize the folks you talk to on the phone. Who actually uses phones anymore?

The Commodore 64 is coming back? Oh my, I am showing my age.

Shatner has started his own Social Network- MyOuterSpace

Manpacks – It’s only clever when you say it out loud. Or not. For those men who don’t want to go commando, but can’t be bothered to shop for underwear.

Single serving fun- That’s what Bea said.

Google Maps now includes bike lane information.

A music box made from the solar system – SolarBeat

Best of March at Sikkdays

Super slow-mo awesome – Pedigree: Catch

Beardyman – I’ll be honest, when I saw it was an hour long I reacted just as I did to Dances with Wolves, No Way! However, Beardyman is crazy talented. It was amazing.

I liked it, surprised it didn’t take off – My Mom’s on Facebook

Not your mom’s tampon ad.

Ben Folds doing Chatroulette during a concerts.

The Onion – Some Bullshit is happening somewhere.

I like Corsets – If you’ve got an hour to kill watching Beardyman above, why not listen to a podcast of us having dinner?

Trololo Cat – I saved the best for last.

I should really make this part interactive, huh? Like the last week of the month, or so, have folks vote on FB or twitter? What do you think? Comment and tell me.

I caught this piece while listening to Only Hearsay Episode #10, which was an excellent episode of the weekly podcast. The Onion takes aim at the very thing I hate about news, the hype over absolutely nothing.

Feel sorry for the people living in southern parts of Taiwan, because they know exactly what it’s like to be dumped on from a great height.
Apparently, airline companies were getting huge amounts of complaints from people, due to an incredible spread of yellow, flaky particles coating everything from cars to washing on the lines.
Why airline companies? Because people must have been flushing the toilets during a flight and they were the less-than-gracious recipients of the … ah… waste.

Except they were wrong. The toilets on planes are not emptied out mid-air, but rather when the aircraft have landed.
So, what was it? Have a look at a close-up and see what you think…

Give up? Ok, I’ll tell ye.
It’s crap, alright; Bee crap, to be precise.

Apparently, it’s not harmful to humans, but it’s a bugger to wash off, according to Kaohsiung city’s environmental protection bureau.
(original article)

art by Naoko Ito

The Things I Never Got Around to Posting This Month

This youtube video has been my go-to for the month any time I was feeling uninspired.

The Oatmeal give you the 5 Reasons Pigs Are More Awesome Than You.

A classy campaign against solicitors, I know you are just doing your job.

Insomnia ruled my life this month. You know you should be sleeping when you find Hot Chicks with Stubbed Toes Making Sex Faces.

Science! The Top 10 Common Faults In Human Thought. Obviously number 11 is Marital Monogamy.

Bing gets into the URL shortening game with a longer URL? WTF? Old people.

Seinfeld Wars – Apparently I am the only one who has grown tired of the Star Wars crap.

The Beatles in infographics, um wow.

I should have probably give Sleep Talkin’ Man their own blog post. “It’s CHICKEN and you LIKE IT. Lentil-loving, bean burger-shitting wanker.”

The Best of Sikkdays in January

Nic Cage as everyone is my nightmare.

GOOD Magazine has two interesting, and animated, pieces about the American prison system. Jailbirds and Organ Donors.

Just as disturbing as Nic Cage, Cheetah man.

Music video goodness of January: Wacked out animation with NSFW 3 boobs or fast food icons with NSFW strippers.

I actually created something, rather than steal material from another blog. From the SikkLabs, I give you the 3 channels of Television.

A must read: The Abridged Avatar script.

I started a little basketball competition for the visitors of Sikkdays only to get beat by a girl.

Hilarious animated penis is NSFW and also educational.

Everyone really seemed to like the Charlie Brooker video on how to report the news.

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