egg explosion!

This has gotta be the wish-we-had-a-camera-rolling so we could post it on YouTube moment.

It is common knowledge that when you microwave a hardboiled egg, they could potentially explode in the microwave and make a mess. But I bet you did not know that if they did not explode while in the microwave, they would explode long afterwards and make a mess outside!

You see, we microwaved 2 hardboiled eggs for dinner earlier this week along with some chicken. About 5 minutes after we took the bowl out, I reached for the egg with my spoon, as I poked into it. "BOOM!!!" Talk about in-your-face!

Jean could not stop laughing for about 30 seconds as she looked at me (face and shirt splattered with yellow yolk). Charlie, on the other hand, was happily licking all the goodies off the floor unaware that his back is also splattered with yellow spots. Both Charlie and I had to be herded carefully into the backyard and clean up before we were allowed back in the house.

Man, only if we had a camera rolling...

DARPA Urban Challenge 2007 (Stanford's Junior!)

I've been following the DARPA challenge since its inception. It is essentially a challenge offered by the U.S. gov't to come up with a driver-less vehicle. Knight-rider in reality.

It was called "Grand Challenge" (desert course), but the $2M was dished out in 2005, the next phase is called "Urban Challenge" (street course).

In 2004, no team finished the desert course. In 2005, five teams did, Stanford finishing at 1st. Yesterday, DARPA paid a visit to Stanford and "Junior" did very well. There's a video on SJ Mercury here.

The government will continue in coming months to visit all 53 teams and pick about 20 for the race in November 2007! Can't wait...

I just saw an iPhone in person!

We just saw someone (probably one of these ppl) at Cupertino Chili's who took out his iPhone and showed another older gentleman, looks like his dad, for about 2 minutes!

Woah woah woah!

Update: On the 2nd to last day of WWDC, someone put this up on Flickr, is he an Apple employee? Is that a real iPhone? is it just another 2 weeks before June 29th?

New iPhone ads (June 29th!)

In case you have not watched TV or surfed the Internet in the last 48 hours (hmm.. then I wonder how you are reading this...), here are the latest 3 iPhone TV ads from Apple.

If you only have time to watch 1 out of the 3, check out ad #3 titled "Calamari", that's my favorite. Apparently it's been YouTubed already.Anyone know the name of the song of that background music? I want to buy it...

Update:
Fourth ad is out too, see all ads here.

Can I see your ID please?

Most people (especially females) would love to be asked the above question when purchasing liquor, clubbing or visiting casinos. But buying a lotto?!?!

Yup! In the last 5 years, I've been asked exactly that in 7 separate incidents at 4 different gas stations. "Cynthia" at the gas station by our house finally recognized me and stopped asking me for my ID =)

The first time was back in 2003.

"Can I have one Super Lotto, quick pick, cash. Please" As I hand him a $1 bill.

"Can I see your ID please?"

"ID? Oh no, I'm just buying a lotto" Thinking to myself: "did he hear me wrong? I'm not buying alcohol or something that requires me to be 21, weird?"

"I know, but you have to be 18..."

Still in state of amusement, I went back to the car to get my wallet, as Jean looked at me even more confused, as to why I needed my wallet to buy a lotto. Ever since, She is always prepared to hand me my wallet whenever I walk back to the car empty handed with the it-happened-again look on my face.

This week, while attending a talk by "Former Apple Industrial Designers Robert Brunner and Jerry Manock, with moderator Bill Moggridge" @ the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, it happened again!

The front desk asked if I wanted to purchase a "student membership." I guess that's not as bad since a "student" can be of a wider age range.

Who knows how many more years this will go on...

My sister's Twitter

at work...

at work..

at work...

still at work...

at work..

going back to work...

still at work..

sick of work...

So Jean asks me, why does Chris even bother to Twitter given that we know where she is ALL the time =)

"So what the heck is Twitter and that blue thingy you have on the right side of your blog" you ask?

Here's my explanation of it to my non-techie friends. It's kinda like a mini-blog + IM status. Sign up and twitter away with me.