It’s March 14th, pi-nally! (I’ll wait a few minutes for you to stop chuckling at my punning GENIUS.) What is Pi Day, you ask? Naught but a cheeky holiday – nay, celebration! – observed by quality nerds and math enthusiasts the world over to celebrate the Greek letter of Pi ( π ), which is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Pi = 3.1415926535… so it’s only fitting that March 14th (3.14) = Pi Day. And now that you’re all edjumacated, let’s look at some awesome holiday-themed gifts that you’ll absolutely pi’ne over. (Somebody, stop me!)
There’s an awesome collection of “math appreciation” and Pi Day Gifts out there, but my favorites are the Albert Einstein action figure (“go go, Gadget Relativity Theory!”); the fantastic – and refreshing! – Pi shaped ice cube tray; and the t-shirt with its iconic symbol constructed from the first 4993 digits of Pi. Freakin’ genius!
Pi Day Gifts
Albert Einstein Action Figure – $8.99
Pi Ice Cube Tray – $8.99
Pi By Numbers T-Shirt – $16.99
Look … I get that this whole DIY project is meant to be in jest, but WTF crafters?! I know I occasionally rag on you for your scrapbookin’, crochetin’, quilt makin’ tendencies – but this Laptop Compubody Sock is just a hazard. Not only because it’s virtually guaranteed to overheat your laptop (and your head), but because you’ll almost certainly be dragged off to the mental ward for wearing this in public. But take heart! You can always knit yourself a straitjacket iPhone cozy.
Laptop Sweater Instructable
As a web designer and Wordpress developer – hell, as a plain ol’ Internet user – Internet Explorer 6 has been the bane of my existence for years. Thanks to quirky rendering of stylesheets and a host of other nagging bugs, creating a website that looks the same in IE6 as other browsers can be an absolute nightmare. While the modern versions of IE, Firefox, Chrome and Safari all play relatively well together, designing for IE6 usually entails CSS hacks and conditional styling, and the smallest of style changes always have the potential to cause yet another rendering issue.
While web and graphic designers have been imploring stubborn IE6′ers to upgrade for ages, our pleas were mostly falling on deaf ears. But finally there’s light at the end of the tunnel! Google has announced that it will phase out support for IE6 in Google Docs and Google Sites on March 1st – but the big news is that some current and future YouTube features will no longer work for IE6 users as of March 13th. Huzzah! I’m expecting that more major sites will follow suit in the near future, and there’s really no reason not to. After all, the vast majority of folks who still use IE6 are likely only doing so because they either don’t know how to upgrade their browser, or don’t have any idea that it’s out of date – and with some not-so subtle nudges in the right direction, I’m hopeful that the number of hold-outs will dwindle significantly.
But if you’re one of the defiant 6′ers who abjectly refuses to upgrade for your own incomprehensible reasons, maybe this will sway you: a wildly unofficial (but hilarious!) IE6 funeral, to be held in Denver, Colorado on March 4th. Show up in your best funeral attire and get ready to pay your last respects, bishes!
Note: When I was researching this post, Google Suggest offered the phrase “IE6 is a bag of smashed buttholes” as a search option. Freakin’ made my day! =)
I have to admit that I generally avoid Facebook groups and fan pages like the plague. While I see the cheeky humor in joining a group dedicated to scoring more fans than XYZ musician, or that celebrates some random thing that many of us have in common (Scarlett s now a fan of “Hitting the Snooze Button 800 Times in the Morning”), I’m pretty hardcore about streamlining my FB experience, so the less groups, pages and apps to deal with, the better. But having grown up with the comedy gold (pun sooooo intended) of The Golden Girls, this is one hilariously awesome group that I can hardly resist:
The idea is simple and so genuinely well-meaning that it kinda warms my heart, even if it is completely random. Essentially, the fella who started the Betty White to Host SNL group back in December ‘09 thought it would be a keen idea to gather folks together and urge Lorne Michaels, producer of Saturday Night Live, to invite the fabulous Betty White to host the show – something that (despite her many decades in show business), she had never been invited to do. In an interview with L.A. Times, White was tickled (if a little incredulous) about the whole affair, but seems keen to take on the challenge if offered a hosting spot. True, the TV legend just turned 88 in January, but something tells me she has all the moxie and comedic genius necessary to kick the gig into high gear, especially if her hilarious Super Bowl commercial is any indication.
So will Lorne Michaels take the bait? It’s anybody’s guess, but almost 445,000 fans (at the time of this writing) is pretty impressive. And if the whole thing should pan out, it would be an awesome testament to the power of social networking. In the meantime, cross your fingers, brush up on your Golden Girls on Lifetime TV, and check out these rad GG themed t-shirts. Stay Golden!
Stay Golden T-Shirt – $22.00
Hot Like Bea T-Shirt – $18.00
