Hijinks Inc.

Category: Aaron Nelsen

  • Dear iPod

    Dear iPod,

    Why you got to be hatin’? Ours has been such a torrid affair, and while I understand that you make a living being all closed format and crap, I need more, seriously, I just want to rock my Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) encoded songs… maybe a little Ogg Vorbis on the side. Where’s the love, iPod? Where is the love?!

    I hate to do this do you, but I have have to install a third party boot loader on you. I just can’t live like this anymore. You see, Rockbox lets me play all sorts of codecs, even that accursed WMA, which I stupidly encoded so much of my music in when I was younger. Plus, I can even play Doom! Now that’s what I’m talking about. It actually gives me control over how I listen to my music, and with countless plug-ins I can do anything from install a Game Boy emulator to play some Pong.

    It’s over iPod. Your firmware is dead to me, Rockbox is the one for me now.
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  • That hurts…

    As of the time I’m writing this, 46.24% of visitors who happen upon Hijinks Inc. don’t ever come back. That’s right. Good old Google Analytics had that bit of happy news waiting for me when I logged in today.

    Those of you who actually came back, what brought you back? Those of you were are considering leaving at this very moment, what types of posts would bring you back on a regular basis?

  • Facebook could be the biggest IPO since Google

    Facebook LogoRemember when Blackstone (NYSE: BX) was touted as “the biggest IPO since Google” and it’s been falling every since it’s debut, and VMWare (NYSE: VMW) turned out to be a the hot item instead? Good times those were. And now we can’t go a day without hearing some rumor of Facebook going public, or being bought out (which isn’t likely). Now there is an IPO I would cash in on, I missed out a Google being broke at the time, but that will not (hopefully) be the case if Facebook goes public.

    Facebook is currently well on it’s way to 60 million users by the end of this year and has also recently received bona fide status as a social phenomenon in the form of a lawsuit by two of Mark Zuckerburg’s former classmates, claiming he stole their idea. They are suing him for fraud, copyright infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets… brilliant! Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss the twin brothers behind the lawsuit are the founders of the lesser known social networking site ConnectU.

    Lawsuit aside, Facebook is paving the way for potentially amazing performance if/when it goes public. Another rival of Facebook, Classmates.com is readying for its own IPO which may be the push other social networking sites need to get them to go public.

  • Salt water, the new clean energy?

    Clean energyJohn Kanzius of Erie, Pennsylvania has quite by accident stumbled upon what very well may be the next generation of clean energy. While working towards his already lofty goal of trying to cure cancer using radio waves, John happened to create a method with which one could ignite and burn salt water.

    Last week, a Penn State University chemist named Rustum Roy held a demonstration proving that the science is sound, noting that the water doesn’t burn, though the radio frequencies weaken the bonds holding together the salt, releasing hydrogen which is ignited when exposed to the RF field. Mr. Kanzius and Dr. Roy say the question now is the efficiency of the energy, and are presenting the technology to the US Department of Defense and Department of Energy to investigate how useful the technology will be.

    Still don’t believe it? Check out the video after the jump.
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  • An Illustrated Guide to Coffee

    caffe mochaI love coffee, but that doesn’t mean I have a clue what goes into most of the drinks I consume.

    Well, now you can find out at a glance just what was in that Caffe Mocha you just ordered, thanks to Lokesh Dhakar’s “Coffee Drinks Illustrated” an illustrated coffee guide. Simplistic, yet brilliant work. Even if you don’t drink much coffee it’s worth a look, pretty interesting stuff.