to netZoom Nummer zwei, the second article in the series where I share interesting discoveries and news from the series of tubes we call the Internets.  I’ve got some funny, weird and interesting things to share with you this week (thought not necessarily in that order), so let’s get started!

Printing food

The first time I ever saw a 3D printer was while watching Jurassic Park 3.  In the movie, a tool builds a Raptor’s voice box one layer at a time, effectively creating a working, life size model of something that was last seen on earth 65 million years ago.  At the time I dismissed the whole thing as impossible mumbo-jumbo, but today I have to say I’m surprised I didn’t take the idea more seriously.  3D printers do exist, and they have existed for a while now.

Although I couldn’t pin point exactly when they were invented, looks like some guy named Chuck Hull actually patented a 3D printing method back in 1986.  At the time, the process required a small elevator, some lasers and a bucket of liquid photopolymer (a liquid that hardens when a laser hits it).  Nowadays, however, the process has changed slightly.

Today’s 3D printers are like our everyday inkjet printers: they have nozzles that move and squirt out some kind of material (typically plastic).  Thing is, the material doesn’t always have to be plastic, and some people have started playing around with other materials.

A printed miniature space shuttle made of ground scallops and cheese

I was listening to one of my regular radio talk shows this week (yes, I have regular talk shows) and was surprised to learn that some people down at Cornell have been printing food using this 3D printing technology.  Although still in its early stages, the researchers imagine a world where our food will be built for us by in-home 3D printers, one layer at a time.

This would allow for us to have food that is catered to our needs.  For example, if you’re on a diet, you could ask the printer to prepare your dish with a limited number of calories.  You could also have the printer build your child some toy-shaped broccoli, or a birthday cake prepared in such a way that “Happy Birthday” appears on the inside of the cake (visible only when you cut it).

Its some pretty crazy stuff, and I can’t wait to see if we’ll have startrek-esque food replicators in the next couple of decades…

Read more about 3D printing here…

Real life shrek

Chances are you’ve never heard of Maurice Tillet, the french actor, poet and wrestler who would speak 14 different languages.  Oh, and did I mention this guy looks a lot like Shrek.

Maurice Tillet, Freak Ogre of the Ring

Although I was unable to find any proof of a link between the man and the character, the similarities are still quite stunning.  That a man who suffered from acromegaly (a disease where one’s bones grow uncontrollably) would become a wrestler known by some as the Freak Ogre of the Ring sixty years before Shrek appeared is a somewhat eerie coincidence.  Though probably not as eerie as the Wreck of the Titan…

Read more about the real life Shrek here…

In Other News…

• Car GPS System Kidnaps Woman for 3 days
• Man Arrested for Placing 18,000 Prank Calls to 911
• Spiders Catching Cars On Fire

And On This Day In…

• 1797 – the first ever peaceful transfer of power between elected leaders in modern times, John Adams is sworn in as President of the United States, succeeding George Washington.
• 1902 – The AAA is established in Chicago, Happy 109th AAA!
• And a lot more…

Video: The Key of Awesome – Monster

I havn’t had cable since I moved to Montreal back in summer of 2009, and truth be told, I don’t miss it one bit.  I get my news from the internet, my shows from online streaming services, and my movies from Netflix and other movie download services.  And with all that, I also spend a lot of time on YouTube.

One of the shows I’ve been watching on YouTube is called The Key of Awesome.  This music parody show has posted 35 music videos for the past year and a half, many of which are a must see.  Most of the time, their videos make fun of existing songs and artists (for example Katy Perry, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Kesha, Michael Jackson/Glee, etc…), although some videos are original songs (Twilight Sucks, Awkward Sex, Winter Girls, etc…).

Take a look at the vids and let me know which is your favorite. There are so many that I personally can’t pick an absolute favorite, althought today’s video is one that I watched over and over again: Kanye West’s Monster (don’t miss the surprise cameo at the end of the video).

Enjoy!

And that’s pretty much it…

for this week.  I’ll be travelling during the next couple of weeks, so the next netZoom article will probably show up at the end of March.  See you then!

I like it because this is probably the first site that I’ve ever created for myself, and after a year and a half online, I find nothing more relaxing than sitting back and looking at my site, which I built the way I wanted to, without the constant input from some external party about advertising revenues and traffic statistics.

Its not that I hate developing sites for other,  I’ve been doing that for as long as I can remember, and I don’t see any reason why I would stop.  But there is something liberating about creating a site that is yours and yours alone, a site where you have final say on content, look and feel, and overall organization.

And that’s what Folaji.com is for me: a place I can escape to and be myself, where I can publish ideas, stories, and videos that had once only been a sentence on a piece of paper in an old binder.  A place where others can come and read those stories, discuss them, and share their own if they would like.  (Ok, maybe the Folaji.com community isn’t big enough for that yet, but hey, I can dream, can’t I?)

Alright, so why am I writing all this?  Well, I came to the realization a few days ago that none of this would be possible if not for the array of wonderful free web tools available online.  When you look at this site, you should understand that the look and feel, the blog engine, the different tools showing up on the side bar, were all developed by a large online community of bloggers and developers that offer their products for free.  If it weren’t for these people and their willingness to share their tools with the online community, then Folaji.com would only be a shadow of its current self.

So I decided that, as a thank you for everyone’s efforts, I would take the time over the coming months to review each widget, plugin and tool I use on Folaji.com.  This would be my way of thanking the community for such great work, and for allowing me to create this site, and hopefully will encourage others to do the same.

My Internet was installed yesterday afternoon, and I couldn’t be happier.

Now I’ll be spending the following couple of weeks catching up on updating Folaji.com, with the first update being the post of RAWR: Expedition to Chult – Part 3, written by Fyrewind and sent to me way to long ago.

Hope you enjoy, and hope that those of your participating in the RAWR D&D adventure have fun tomorrow (if there is a session).

I would like to cancel my internet account and get a refund. I have been waiting since sept 1st for my connection to be setup.

Last week, when I called support to find out why I still did not have the internet I was told that a work order was never sent to Bell for my connection.  I was told it would take 4 business days and that I would have the internet by this wednesday.

Today I am still without the internet and, after another call to support, found out I won’t have the internet until the 23rd and that I have to be home all day that day.

This is totally unacceptable, and I ask that you cancel my account and refund my credit card.  I will find another internet service provider.

What I fail to mention, partly because my thumb was getting numb from using the touch screen keyboard, is that two days earlier I called tech support and they told me the connection was setup, only that it needed to be activated, and that would happen the following day around 11am.  Whoever I spoke to obviously didn’t take the time to look up my account information, because the guy last night quickly told me that no connection was ever made.

Anyways, now I’m shopping for a new ISP.

This sucks.

Although they were quick to take my payment, they never contacted the technicians responsible for setting my connection, and its now been three weeks since I’ve had Internet access at home.  This means that, other than my work computer (which I shouldn’t use to surf the web) and my cell phone (with its small touch screen and frustrating windows mobile keyboard) I’ve been without the Internet for about a month.

It’s not that I’m addicted to the internet, though you have to admit it would be useful for someone who just moved to a new city.  Finding places of interest that would usually take less than a second with Google maps, now rely on my poor yellow-pages skills and a whole lot of luck.

Anywho, after a quick call placed to my ISP, they’ve apologized, refunded my unused connection time, and finally called a tech this week (who should be stopping by sometime Wednesday).  So if all goes to plan, I’ll finally be able to surf from home once again, as well as use my VoIP phone.  Also, I’ll finally be able to post RAWR part 3, which has been sitting in my Folaji.com inbox for over a month.

Lets just hope they remembered to call the tech…