Steve's Stuff

Last week, I posted a quick introduction to the drum corps activity and DCI. If you missed it, you can check it out here: An Introduction to drum corps and DCI

In that post, I mentioned that drum corps performers work hard. Very hard! In fact, ESPN2 picked up the broadcast of the DCI Championships in 2005. During the broadcast, they had a side feature about a performer that they hooked up to all sorts of monitors to measure their energy level during a performance. The results and observations were very interesting. Having performed in a competitive high school marching band that is very similar to drum corps, I completely agree with ESPN’s conclusions about DCI. Enjoy the clip!

Google gets pretty hilarious on April Fools’ Day. They take it very seriously! Here are my top three “hoaxes” they have published on April 1:

#3 – Gmail Paper
Imagine getting all of your emails printed and sent for free on paper. All you have to put up with is a bold red advertisement printed on the back of each message. Even image attachments would be printed on photo paper. Sound files would not be printed! Check it out here: http://mail.google.com/mail/help/paper/index.html and http://mail.google.com/mail/help/paper/more.html

#2 – CADIE (Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity)
Supposedly, Google engineers have created an artifical intelligence. A quite outstanding AI as a matter of fact. One that seems to be starting to outsmart the Google engineers themselves! Check it out here: http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/cadie/index.html

#1 – Google TiSP (Toilet Internet Service Provider)
Yes, Google claimed to have a new way of providing free internet to homes everywhere. Google claimed a fully functional internet connection that you used by dropping a fiber-optic cable into your toilet. The cable would find its way through the sewer system while the home user held on to the other end. A Google dispatcher would fish the cable out of the sewer, hook it into a TiSP access point, and you’d be connected in under an hour! Check it out here: http://www.google.com/tisp

Interesting in seeing the hoaxes that didn’t make it on this list? Check them out here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_hoaxes

Don’t forget to check out the hoax(es) for this year: http://www.google.com

Have a fun April Fools’ Day! Remember not to take anything too seriously.