This weekend we watched Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. In a desperate attempt to keep my brain from escaping, I spent most of the movie writing a simple little Spirograph Screen Saver. It's not the most interesting thing in the world, but it kept me sane during the movie.

Here's another useless screen saver for your enjoyment. Well, actually, since my screen savers are written with a target audience of one in mind, you might not enjoy it that much, but I find it strangely pleasing.

Seattle freeways are going to install so called smart signs. You know what sign I'd like to see? It'd be a plain-old dumb sign at the bottom of the Kennydale Hill:

Speed Limit 60
This will require you to press down on the gas pedal to maintain your current speed. It might even require downshifting.

I'm really tired of the traffic jams that this hill causes because people fail to notice they're slowing down to around 40 mph.

Got to enjoy Star Wars in Concert yesterday with family. It was quite a treat to enjoy the symphony orchestra, and the touches they added to make it entertaining to the masses worked out well. And seeing Anthony Daniels was fun, I'm always impressed at how much he's embraced the C3PO role.

In a discussion of the future of Blu-ray, one of the minor things being mentioned is how they plan to get rid of load times: By doing the loading during the time when you're being forced to watch previews. In other words, the concept of splash screen is coming to Blu-ray discs, but just in the form of trailers.

Maybe I missed something, but why does setting up a menu, even in a limited device like a set-top player, require any effort? DVDs may have had their fare share of things I couldn't skip, but at least they never made me wait to connect to the internet, download updates, and then compile menus, all so the menus could dance around and find new ways to annoy me.

Because of this YouTube video, my next trip will be to Germany. I don't think I have a choice.

Local lawmakers are now considering turning the secondary offense of talking on a cell phone while driving into a primary offense. They've apparently figured out that no one cares about a law if you make it unenforceable.

My question: Why? Since 1979, it's illegal to be a negligent driver. Clearly this law isn't being enforced, so how will yet another law help matters? This is a larger cultural issue that needs resolution that simple laws won't help. Sadly, lawmakers seem to see the solution to a problem as a new law.

Now, it turns out aspirin may help prevent colon cancer. I think I'll put the doctors behind this study and my doctors in a Mad Max-esque Thunderdome and let a battle determine which treatment advice I should follow.

Interesting: Scientists have developed a gene therapy that can be used to cure colorblindness.

It's on been demonstrated on animals, but it would be amazing for me to be able to see colors I've never seen.

What is the Dissenting Pebble?