iPhone Squared

What an age in which we live. My parents remember the days before they owned a television. My mother literally came to the U.S. on a boat in the 1940s.

There is a new app, called Square, created by the co-founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, that turns one's iPhone (and other smartphones, in the future) into a credit card reader and payment system. Reading the following article is pretty hilarious for  someone with a seriously Irish name like me (Colin Patrick O'Higgins). The major players are the aforementioned Mr. Dorsey, Jim McKelvey, and Tristan O'Tierney. Sounds more like a drinking team than a group of enginerds! So, an Irishman, an Indian, and an Asian walk into a bar...I'm getting off track.

Here's a blurb from the article. So simple. I can't believe I didn't think of it. From GigaOm - 


What Is Square?
It’s essentially a small magnetic reader that plugs into the headphone jack of an iPhone. When a credit card (or a debit card) is swiped through the reader, it reads the data and converts it into an audio signal. The microphone picks up the audio, sends it through the processors and then is routed to Square’s software application on the iPhone. From there the encrypted data is transmitted using either Wi-Fi (for iPod touch) or a 3G Internet connection to back-end severs, which in turn communicate with the payment networks to complete the transactions.

This Is Pretty Phat

Click on the album cover to go to Black Bobby's website and download his new mix tape. It's free, so that's pretty phat, I mean awesome.

Boo-hoo! Ja mon!

Halloween arrives in only 17 days! No doubt, 85% of people will go as pirates, but of the remaining 15%, at least 8 will go as MJ. How do I come up with these figures? I love Halloween and I have a gift for it.

If you decide to go as the King of Pop, please go to this site and do it right. You can get an exact replica of his sequined glove for a mere $550. Believe me, it doesn't work if you buy a cotton glove and try to glue sequins and glitter on it. I did that in 2001 and I am still ashamed that I did not execute better. I wish I had a photo of that costume handy, but I'm fairly certain I have one in storage.

Anyway, here's the site. It's awesome, but it might be a total scam, so be careful. Any time I'm ordering from somewhere that seems kind of sketchy, I'll type in "_____ scam" or "_____ problems" and see if something comes up in a search.

The B Movie Team

I used to get all psyched for sequels to movies I loved or when they would turn old TV shows into blockbuster Hollywood movies. I even got excited about the GI Joe movie before I started hearing about all the production problems and the fact that it wasn't screened early for critics. That's a very bad sign.

You know what? When they make movies about old TV shows, they almost always suck, because if they had a good idea for an action movie, they wouldn't need the gimmick of an old TV show (that's probably really terrible if you were to watch it today, by the way, but happened to be good during its time) to get people to watch it.

Doing remakes of movies from other countries, however, seems to work pretty well. Maybe they're smarter than we are.

I do have to make an exception for Miami Vice, even though many people think that was also terrible. The movie was directed by the creator of the TV show and more of an embodiment of his vision anyway. I loved it. Saw it twice in the theater and had a Miami Vice theme party on opening night. If you didn't like it the first time, give it another shot. Have I ever steered you wrong?

Oh, so the reason I was prompted to make this post is that they're filming a movie version of The A Team. As soon as I saw that on WWTDD, I heard the theme song in my head. Which brings me to another point of contention. Why don't they include the theme songs in the movie versions??? In the 80s the theme songs were the best part of the show. They got you all psyched up to watch. I give you Air Wolf, as an example. The opening song is so awesome that you watch the show even though it's terrible.

So, here's the A Team theme. I guess I should say "the The A Team" theme -
A-team theme

And here's the A Team theme played on classical guitar -

Here's Airwolf -

And Miami Vice -

Look how good Magnum PI's is -


See how awesome the 80s were?

Go See This Movie

Where's Your Brain? Why'd You Hit Me? Where's Your Brain?

370 Beech Street, Highland Park, IL is the real-life property that served as the home of Ferris Bueller pal, Cameron Frye. It's for sale. Awesome [Ferrari not included].

Killer Dead Ringer

Holy crap this dude looks like Bale's Bateman. Song's not a bad Talking Heads cover. The original was, of course, featured in the classic "Wall Street," without which, there would not likely have ever been an "American Psycho."

Bacon!

MJ

If you've always wanted to properly learn the Thriller dance and now you really want to because The King died, check out this amazing site. The instructor has broken down every little piece of the dance and you can download instructions and mp3s that are slowed down. This is the kind of stuff that makes the internet so awesome.

http://www.thrilltheworld.com/

Here's a great Thriller tribute that shows just how crazy people go over that song and dance -

Who's Got the Keys...

To my Bimmer? This is the new Z4. Me likey this car very much.

3 for 3

Kanye might be a gay fish, but he is on fire with his new foray into the fashion world. Maybe it's because he's a gay fish. I didn't love the third Air Yeezy colorway when I first saw it, but it has grown on me. I think it just might be the most interesting so far.

Click on the photo to see more photos submitted to Kanye's blog.

Steeeeee-rike!

This is the coolest thing I've seen a sitting president do. I cannot imagine the pressure he was under in throwing out the first pitch at a baseball game in front of a packed stadium and an entire country watching. At the end of the video, chants of "U-S-A" break out. Best...country...ever.

$1,550/Month

This guy won a contest for coolest, littlest apartment in New York. It's only 210 square feet. I'm actually feeling a little claustrophobic looking at it. I just totally spelled "claustrophobic" right. From the Daily News -

In Memoriam

From ESPN's Dan Raphael -

This one never, ever gets old. I could watch my DVD of the Showtime bout every week. But four years ago, on May 7, 2005, at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo waged the single greatest fight I have ever seen. It was a privilege to be ringside for one of the best fights in boxing history. They traded toe-to-toe for the entire fight in what was already a classic by the time they reached the 10th round of the lightweight unification bout. The 10th round, one of the greatest ever, sent the fight into legendary status as Corrales survived two rough knockdowns (helped, no doubt, by spitting out his mouthpiece twice) to rally for the improbable TKO victory in the final minute. It was jaw-dropping stuff. Fights simply get no better. It turned out to be Corrales' final victory. He lost his next three (including a rematch) and, sadly, two years to the day of the fight, Corrales died in a motorcycle accident. It's an anniversary I never forget.

Nerds Are Funny

Click on the photo to see some of MIT's best pranks pulled over the years -

This Is Like Cronkite Meets T-Pain

Watch Auto-Tune the News and more funny videos on CollegeHumor

Tennis Elbow

Tennis elbow is NOT awesome. Not even "pretty awesome". What is awesome is a website I found called Discomfort Free that shows a self-massage technique that I just tried with great success.

She goes on for a while, but the basic idea is to place your hurt arm on a padded surface in front of you and use your other arm to make a sawing motion across the forearm and palm. This technique helps both tennis elbow and carpal tunnel syndrome. Try it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpJWI59eHI8

Magnanimous

Everyone knows I love Kanye, so I got a few heads-ups that he was featured on last night's South Park. I haven't even seen the episode, but I assumed it was a pretty scathing portrayal. I expect nothing less from Stone and Parker. They are comic geniuses and Scientologists (I love that spell check thinks that's not a word) are the only people who take themselves so seriously that they don't think South Park is funny.

I just like this guy more and more. Kanye's reaction to the episode is nothing if not magnanimous-

SOUTH PARK MURDERED ME LAST NIGHT AND IT'S PRETTY FUNNY. IT HURTS MY FEELINGS BUT WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM SOUTH PARK! I ACTUALLY HAVE BEEN WORKING ON MY EGO THOUGH. HAVING THE CRAZY EGO IS PLAYED OUT AT THIS POINT IN MY LIFE AND CAREER. I USE TO USE IT TO BUILD UP MY ESTEEM WHEN NOBODY BELIEVED IN ME. NOW THAT PEOPLE DO BELIEVE AND SUPPORT MY MUSIC AND PRODUCTS THE BEST RESPONSE IS THANK YOU INSTEAD OF "I TOLD YOU SO!!!" IT'S COOL TO TALK SHIT WHEN YOU'RE RAPPING BUT NOT IN REAL LIFE. WHEN YOU MEET LITTLE WAYNE IN PERSON HE'S THE NICEST GUY FOR EXAMPLE. I JUST WANNA BE A DOPER PERSON WHICH STARTS WITH ME NOT ALWAYS TELLING PEOPLE HOW DOPE I THINK I AM. I NEED TO JUST GET PAST MYSELF. DROP THE BRAVADO AND JUST MAKE DOPE PRODUCT. EVERYTHING IS NOT THAT SERIOUS. AS LONG AS PEOPLE THINK I ACT LIKE A BITCH THIS TYPE OF SHIT WILL HAPPEN TO ME. I GOT A LONG ROAD AHEAD OF ME TO MAKE PEOPLE BELIEVE I'M NOT ACTUALLY A HUGE DOUCHE BUT I'M UP FOR THE CHALLENGE. I'M SURE THE WRITERS AT SOUTH PARK ARE REALLY NICE PEOPLE IN REAL LIFE. THANKS FOR TAKING THE TIME TO DRAW MY CREW. THAT WAS PRETTY FUNNY ALSO!! I'M SURE THERE'S GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN THIS... THAT'S HOW YOU KNOW IT'S ME!

Your Business Card is Crap

"I think this is pretty awesome." - Jeff Boden, PhD Candidate

They Even Glow in the Dark

Do you ever see something that you think is so awesome that you kind of hate it? Like when you live in Miami and there are gorgeous women everywhere and for some reason it's annoying? This is in spite of the fact that I'm super charming and sometimes even get to smooch those sexy ladies. My mother tells me I'm handsome all the time, so I know I am at least a little bit.

What does this have to do with sneakers? I think the answer is obvious, since this is like the tenth post I've made about these shoes and I'm clearly running out of good titles. I'm not telling anyone that the pink and black ones come out on May 2nd because then everyone will want to come and hang out with Larry and me when we camp out to buy them. We're going to make s'mores maybe. We won't even have to make a fire since it's like a billion degrees out already. In closing, I hate Kanye and his stupid awesome sneakers and all the hot women in Miami and the humidity in this town. It's only April! Dammit. (Pssst, click on the photo to take an awesome tour of the making of the sneaker on the Complex website. You'll love it.)