You may have heard that Microsoft suddenly dropped the cryptic Seinfeld commercials. The company line is that they had planned on changing the direction of the campaign all along, but considering the fact that there is at least one Seinfeld commercial that was filmed and hasn’t aired, it seems like this has more with critical reception rather than planning. I do think the new ads make more sense, emphasizing the diversity of PC users by showing sports stars, actors, scientists, and shark divers declaring their Windows preference by saying “I’m a PC.” However, Microsoft may have a credibility issue on their hands. One enterprising internet sleuth looked at the metadata of the images on the web and found that they were created using Adobe CS3 on a Mac. It seems like the first step in getting people to accept that your software is just as creative and capable as the competitor would be to actually use it to create the ad. I guess even Microsoft knows that Macs are better at photo editing.

It’s simple, and it’s silly, but it’s also kind of fun. Put on your virtual artist beret, and head on over to JacksonPollock.org to create your paint dripping masterpiece. Just drag your mouse around, clicking to change the color. As you would expect, quick jerky movements will leave thin lines, while slow movements will leave thick lines and blotches. It makes me want to fire up the movie Pollock with Ed Harris for another viewing, since I now can play along at home. Estimated wasted time: 3 minutes (website only); 122 minutes (movie and website)

Fortunately, I’ve never had a problem with coworkers stealing sandwiches out of my lunch bag, but if you have that problem, then you should think about this solution from skforlee. “Anti-Theft Lunch Bags are regular sandwich bags that have green splotches printed on both sides. After your sandwich is placed inside, no one will want to touch it.”

Thanks to Kris for letting me know about Shelfari. It’s a social networking site which specializes in books and reading. You can track the books you’ve read and make a list of books that you want to read. There are lists of the most popular and highest rated books by other members as well, so it’s a good place to find a new book to read, too. It’s a great idea, but it could use a few more key features. I’d like it to look at the books I’ve read and rated highly and suggest others that I would like based on other users who have similar interests. The database also needs to be cleaned up. Some books I searched for were listed 4 different times because there were paperback and hardcover versions and other print runs. I don’t want to choose a specific version of The DaVinci Code that I read, especially if it’s not going to match my friend’s copy. I hope they continue to improve the site, because it really does have some potential.

Do you need something to take your mind off of work for a little while? The idiot test might be enough to do it. This flash based quiz starts with simple questions, and gets progressively more difficult in an old school Simon kind of way until you finally slip up. You’ll then be ridiculed by the site, and you’ll be compelled to share the site with a couple of friends so you won’t be the only one who feels like an idiot. Estimated time wasted: 12 minutes.

There was a time when college dormitories were imposing and monastic brick buildings, offering sparse accommodations and quiet places to study. The Time photo essay about the evolution of the college dorm shows that they are now becoming big business, with high-tech computer equipment, fitness centers, 24 hour cafeterias, and cable TV. As the cost of going to school goes up, the competition to acquire good students and keep them happy goes up as well. Some would argue that the plush life is detrimental to the learning environment, but the current generation of young people feel that they are entitled to everything life has to offer, and I don’t see this trend reversing any time soon.

Regardless of your political views, this is a clever cartoon. Combining the events of Hurricane Gustav, and the Sarah Palin coming out party at the Republican National Convention is a nice touch. Click on the picture for a larger view.

The time wasting site of the week is Sensible Units, a site of measurements and comparisons. Just type in any measurement to find out some equivalent units. How would you estimate 5 pounds? How about 49 golf balls, 5.5 cans of baked beans, or 3 copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in hard cover. 1 mile is equivalent to 15 football fields, 5 Eiffel towers, and 32 Olympic swimming pools. Your 20 gallon fish tank? It holds the same volume as 13 footballs, 12 party balloons, and 4.5 average microwave ovens. As long as you can think of more things that you want to compare you can keep wasting time. I estimate that you can take it for about 10 minutes before getting too bored.

Before I started clicking through to see the answers, I was able to come up with 33 of the 46 movies from the Empire Poster Quiz. I might have been able to come up with a few more if I would have stared at them long enough, but the temptation is strong to pull up the full posters of the ones you can’t quite think of. At any rate, this is a fun little quiz, and you’ll surprise yourself that you can come up with so many movies from just one letter. Then you’ll be surprised again when you see the answers for the easy ones that you couldn’t think of. Be honest now … how many did you get before you started cheating?

You’ve got to admire scientists who think outside the box to come up with interesting ideas which may or may not catch on. These living tree root structures may one day be houses outside of which Al Gore would be proud to park his Toyota Prius. “The concept of coaxing living trees into useful objects, sometimes called tree shaping, arborsculpture, living art or eco-architecture, isn’t new. But now engineers and plant scientists from Tel Aviv University have taken their leafy designs to the next, and more practical and playful, level. Pilot projects under way in the United States, Australia and Israel include streetlamps, gates and playground structures made entirely from trees, as well as hospital park benches that grow their own foliage for shade.” There’s no doubt that the idea is cool, but I think it will be a long time before it moves from benches and lamp posts to single family homes.

This week’s completely pointless website is the tower of bears. A bunch of teddy bears make an innocuous pyramid like some 10-year-old girl’s fantasy cheerleading team. Mouse over a bear to see it topple to the ground, taking with it any teddy standing on it. Leave them alone for a bit, and they will dutifully recreate their original configuration like a little stuffed Sisyphus. Estimated time wasting potential: 3 minutes.

Finally a stick figure family decal has been put to good use. Someone took a picture of the Ass Family minivan and posted it on flickr. Maybe they will add a dog named Lard.

First there was the mini-scandal about updates to the page about Tim Russert before his death had been officially announced. Now Wikipedia is at the center of another manufactured scandal about the Sarah Palin page. NPR reports that “Someone, and apparently it was just one person, felt like the existing [Wikipedia] biography wasn’t appropriate for a vice-presidential candidate. On Friday, 15 minutes before the rumor that John McCain had picked Palin as his running mate, a Wikipedia editor discovered 30 mostly favorable changes had been made to the Alaska governor’s profile.” Is it suspicious? Maybe. But isn’t that what Wikipedia is all about? If someone has new, different, or better information, then they can update any entry they want. Someone else may have conflicting information, and if they have better sources to back it up, then they have the right to make their own updates.