I love Nintendo!

Iwata also revealed for the first time that a new game called The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass would be released for Nintendo DS later this year.

[ Nintendo.com News : Nintendo President Challenges Developers To Create Bold New Games ]

Video here:

Kevin was typing passwords in and couldn't determine where a particular X came from. It looked different than the other X in the same password. This prompted the following research:

	Arial Unicode MS	Anonymous
Latin Capital Letter X	X	X
Latin Small Letter x	x	x
Greek Capital Letter Chi	Χ	Χ
Greek Small Letter Chi	χ	χ
Cyrillic Capital Letter Ha	Х	Х
Cyrillic Small Letter Ha	х	х
Tibetan Sign Rdel Nag Gcig	༝	༝
Roman Numeral Ten	Ⅹ	Ⅹ
Small Roman Numeral Ten	ⅹ	ⅹ
Hangzhou Numeral Four	〤	〤
Fullwidth Latin Capital Letter X	Ｘ	Ｘ
Fullwidth Latin Small Letter x	ｘ	ｘ
Box Drawings Light Diagonal Cross	╳	╳
Saltire	╳	╳
Multiplication X	✕	✕

In the end the culprit was "Multiplication X", but I have no idea how anyone typed that in...

One of our readers asks, "When did Spring start?"

Well, Ms. Yasir of Alexandria, Virginia, it seems that is a more complicated question than one might think.

Shouldn't spring always start the same exact second every year?

While it’s true that we’ve traditionally celebrated the beginning of spring on March 21, astronomers and calendar manufacturers alike now say that the spring season starts one day earlier, March 20, in all time zones in North America. Unheard of? Not if you look at the statistics. In fact, did you know that during the 20th Century, March 21 was actually the exception rather than the rule?

[ SPACE.com ]

And how do they figure all this stuff out? Math? Apparently it has its uses...

I love these little cups.

I keep meaning to pick up more espresso cups for my collection, I just never have the time (or funds) these days.

One day I hope to have the time and money to buy all of the cute little espresso cups that I can find. *sigh*, one can dream...

This may be it:

Mega Man is on a quest to restore peace in the world after Dr. Wily takes control of several robots in hopes to rule the planet. Completely re-designed for the PSP™ system with new bosses and puzzles to master, Mega Man Powered Up is the only action platformer that lets gamers create their own levels and share with friends.

[ Capcom: Mega Man Powered Up (PSP) ]

Although I had been playing quite a bit of Untold Legends, the other 2 games I picked up (Prince of Persia and Death Jr.) haven't held my interest. This, however, should. A great blast from the past, this cartridge includes the original game and what is essentially the same game but with an all new engine that plays 2-D but is totally 3-D. It now has extra in-engine cinematics that help the story, and with full voice overs. Well done, Capcom, I expect many eager developers to get their MCP because of you...

The simplest way to create a glossary is to type your glossary by hand at the end of your document. Word has no built-in method of creating a glossary automatically, but you can use hyperlinks or the Table of Authorities functionality to create a glossary for one or more documents.

[ Microsoft Word Help FAQ. How to create a glossary in Microsoft Word ]

This article was certainly helpful. Why on earth is there no built-in glossary functionality in Word? What is in the bloat then?

Too cool.

Why do I feel like the US gets cheated when it comes to KitKats? And Pocky too, for that matter. We export our junk food, and Nestlé brings their junk food here. Why not more Japanese junk food?

Of course, even if we did get tons of it, this has very limited appeal since we don't celebrate the Cherry Blossoms in the US like it is in Japan. Even here in DC where we do celebrate our gift from Japan, it's mostly about cross cultural exchanges, and not the big deal that it is over there.

Four Things Meme:

Four Jobs I've Had
1. library page
2. bakery assistant (not baker's, but more cleaning and greasing)
3. video store assistant manager
4. CTO

Four Movies I Can Watch Over And Over
1. Ladyhawke
2. Crouching Tiger, Hiden Dragon
3. Bladerunner
4. Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Four Places I've Lived
1. Silver Spring, MD
2. Richmond, VA
3. Alexandria, VA
4. Washington, DC

Four TV Shows I Love
1. Good Eats
2. Globe Trekker
3. The Colbert Report
4. Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations

Places I've Vacationed
1. Ireland
2. Indonesia
3. Japan (just for a day)
4. Morocco

Four of My Favorite Dishes
1. Anything Mole Poblano
2. Pizza (Neapolitan style)
3. Fried Rice (preferably Indonesian or Thai)
4. Kebab (preferably Afghani)

Four Sites I Visit Daily
1. bloglines
2. google
3. flickr
4. i love egg (or maybe wikipedia)

Four Places I Would Rather Be Right Now
1. Mecca, Saudi Arabia
2. Pantai Losari, Makassar, Sulawesi
3. San Francisco Bay Area, California
4. Somewhere in Japan

Four Bloggers I'm Tagging
1. Shiny Donkey
2. KooshMoose
3. My simple life
4. The Swarthy Rants

[ Welcome to Pizzahut ]

Why does this not seem like the same Pizza Hut that I've been to?

One of the new guys (but I didn't say who, Chris, so they won't know it's you...) has apparently not heard of Homestar Runner before. This made me think that there are a few sites out there that I thought everyone knew about, but apparently some people haven't heard yet.

1. A funny site (this is the Homestar Runner)
2. A site with some tech news (for Nar)
3. Some good links
4. #3 seemed to be a mirror, but there's a new site with a hierarchical approach
5. Or you can just search for stuff
6. Another funny site
7. A site with reviews of new electronics (and a sister site about cars)
8. What we all really need, just in case
9. Software listing on the web, no more need for archie
10. Satellite maps of your house
11. Language translations
12. Online shopping
13. Free books

And that's about it. They're always adding new sites to the Internet, so I'll try and post about them when I hear something...

UMPC nee Origami isn't anything new, but Microsoft and Intel want to weigh in. One thing that is new is some interfaces including this swell new touch-screen thumb-pad that Microsoft has licensed for the UMPC:

This, of course, means that I've spent too much, too soon on my PSP and my new phone, but that's the price to pay when you're a gadget freak like me, ne?

The Ultra-Mobile PC is portable, lightweight, and configured to connect on the go. It’s the device that you’ll always want with you.

[ Ultra-Mobile PC - Go Everywhere. Do Everything. ]

Though, perhaps I'm not getting it. It sounds like a tablet PC. Is it better? Cheaper? Or is this a super-big WinCE device that finally has some power, a real OS, full connectivity? Perhaps it's just the time to hit a striking point between the 2. A sort of "life drive" killer...

The big question, of course, is how much money will I be spending to buy one...

I ♥ GameFly. And now they're giving me deeper discounts, and $20 a year in stuff:

Remember, your GameFly Rewards never stop! When you reach Level 3, you'll get 5 GameFly Dollars every 3 months and 10% off all purchases as long as you remain a member.

[ Video Game Rentals: Rent or Buy PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360, GameCube, GBA, DS, PSP Games ]

And I know that thousands of potential candidates read my blog, so here's the quick description:

At Doceus, our Senior Interactive Designers create dynamic and exciting facades for web applications for small to midsize businesses, associations, and non-profit organizations. Duties include conducting creative workshops, devising information architecture, creating fresh websites, building flash presentations, and helping clients achieve their goals by leveraging solid design techniques.

[ doceus :: accelerate success ]

I'll rush back to my desk now, so I can handle the flood of resumes.

Total Commander is a File Manager, FTP, Registry Editor, LAN browser, all-in-one app for your Windows Mobile device. The price is right (free) and it appears to be happy to run off of a expansion card.

As always, use caution when hacking that registry!

Simply place .mp3, .wma (including DRM WMA!), or .midi files in the root folder of your "Storage Card" and they will be available as a ringtone for your phone!

Check all of the "ringtones sites" you want, I think this is the only way to get a Dengue Fever ringtone!