Like many geeks of my age, I'm a Monty Python fan. One classic scene is the Knights of the Round Table song from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Here's the original, as a reference.

There have been some great remixes and remakes. This Lego version is a few years old, but it's still awesome.

This is an awesome Star Trek remix.

There are a bunch of pretty good ones with animations from various computer games, but I thought these were the best.

Anyway, enjoy...

The IE Program Management team went bowling Friday afternoon last week to let off a little steam. I managed to trip and fall on my first ball due to a shoe malfunction. I kind of screwed up my knee; it still hurts this week. (We did have a good time nonetheless, and I'm sure the team enjoyed watching me splat myself on the lane, drawing a foul in the process.)

By contrast, check out this crazy bowling video. The guy sets a ball rolling slowly down the lane, then sends a faster one down. The faster ball knocks down nine pins; the slow ball then picks up the spare. Amazing.

GPSActionReplay is a cool Java applet that lets you plot multiple GPS tracks over a map or image. It animates the tracks so you can see how each track formed. The obvious application of this is to replay races. The app has a bunch of extra features for sail racing like wind charts, etc. The UI is a bit confusing, but it's a fun way to watch and actually pretty educational (well, to sailors at least).

Here's the replay from a few boats in the race I did this week (our track isn't in there yet).

As a long time Microsoft employee, I am saddened and sometimes embarassed by the consistently, um, poor quality of our ads. It makes me very happy when I see a great ad coming out of the company. Invariably, it seems that they come out of our international subsidiaries and not Redmond.

Here's a very well done and funny ad from the Dutch sub. Here's the blog of the guy who did the ad.

Here's an old one from the New Zealand sub that was fantastic too. I think it was pulled though by the corporate police. Too bad.

Anyway, enjoy.

My friends John and Ann got married today, unbeknownst to anyone at the office. John let the world know today through his blog; this is undoubtedly the first time I've learned of a friend's wedding through the blogosphere.

I think they're both wonderful and think they're even better together. I'm sure they'll be very happy together.

Congrats!

As you know, I love these stupid web surveys. According to the latest, my Star Wars identity is Lando Calrissian.

Hm, not sure how I feel about this, but these web surveys are never wrong...

Last weekend, Andrew (9), Michael (6), and I had a grand ol' time geocaching in a park in Renton (a suburb on the south end of Lake Washington). We even found the cache this time (not always the case, unfortunately).

First, a little about geocaching for the uninitiated. Geocaching is a game where people hide caches and then list the coordinates on Geocaching.com. More often, there are multiple sets of coordinates, each leading to a clue that plays into a subsequent set of coordinates. Seekers then use their GPS' to work through the coordinates/clues until they find the cache. The caches vary, but they're usually some container with a logbook and some trinkets (the boys each picked up a small toy in this last one.) The guys (and I) love geocaching because it's a treasure hunt; it adds a lot of dimension to our hikes. It's a good excuse to play with gadgets too...

Anyway, the park where we geocached is the Black River Riparian Forest; the unique thing about this park (other than the fact the Black River has been gone for the almost ninety years since the Montlake Cut lowered the water level of Lake Washington) is that it's home to a huge heron colony, one of the biggest in Washington. As you can see from the photo, the trees are filled with heron nests. I understand they've laid their eggs already; the ones that survive predation from the bald eagles that have taken up residence very near by (we could easily the eagles' nest) will hatch in a few weeks. I want to come back then and see the hatchlings learn to fly. It was pretty cool even now.

A few tips if you go:

• Bring binoculars. The viewing area is across a creek, so you need magnification if you want to see anything.
• Bring a loooong lens. If you're planning on taking photos, you'll need a lot of reach. I had my 70-200 2.8 with a 1.4x tele and didn't have nearly enough reach to get a good shot. I don't think 500mm with an extender would be crazy. Compounding the difficulty, the birds move quickly and its often overcast here. High ISO, fast shutters, and stabilization are key. I was shooting on my monopod, which was good. There was a guy using a tripod next to me, but he seemed to be having problems tracking flying birds. Much easier on the monopod.
• <spoiler warning>The geocaching clue tells you to count the number of nests and work that into the equation. While I was busy getting frustrated counting the nests through the binoculars, Andrew noticed the value canceled out in the clue (you added it at the beginning and subtracted it back out at the end). Good thing one of us can do math.

If you're interested in trying to find this cache, it's GC5602 on Geocaching.com.

I'm often proud of the work Microsoft does; I think the software we make and the impact we've had are great. However, the thing that really makes me proudest is the charity of the company and the employees. Our employees donate more per employee than any other company, and the generous matching program we have makes those dollars go even farther. (And don't get me started about how cool the Gates Foundation is.)

Now, the Windows Live Messenger team has kicked off the i'm initiative, a program where Microsoft will donate a portion of the Live Messenger advertising revenue to a cause you select. You can choose from the American Red Cross, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, National AIDS Fund, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, ninemillion.org, Sierra Club, stopglobalwarming.org, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and Unicef.

There's no cost to the participants, and Microsoft guarantees at least $100K to each cause with no cap. The only real bummer (aside from having to pick between these causes) is that the program is only available in the US right now.

I know the cynics will say we're just doing this to drive Messenger usage and for PR. I'm sure that's part of it, but there's real money going to really good causes here vs. just buying an ad somewhere.

So, check it out and send some IMs.

(In case you're wondering, I chose stopglobalwarming.org. It was a tough call, but at the end of the day, I really think global warming will be the biggest crisis the world faces with the hardest solutions. We need to start now.)

As you may recall, Michelle and I have a fascination for giant squid and octopus. (Every couple has odd things that bring them together. Huge and scary smart sea monsters are our thing. Deal with it.)

Anyway, we loved today's news story about the thirty-nine foot long (12m) and 990 pound (449 kg) colossal squid caught off Antartica this month. (BTW, colossal squid is the species name, not just a description. I thought giant squid were big, but who knew there were colossal squid that are even bigger!)

Aside from the huge size, according to Wikipedia, colossal squid have "sharp swiveling hooks" at the tips of their tentacles and eyes a foot wide (all the better to see you with before ripping you to shreds with those sharp swiveling hooks). Creepy. 

I love how the expert from the University of Auckland put the size in perspective, saying if calamari rings were made from the squid they would be the size of tractor tires.

However, I say to all my huge and scary cephlapod friends - not everyone wants to eat you. I renew my offer of a truce between our species. We won't eat you if you don't eat us.

A year ago, I wrote that one site estimated that my blog was worth $13,548.96 based on some funny math about inbound links and so on.

Somehow, despite the fact I have more links than before, my blog is now apparently worth a few hundred dollars less: $12,984.42.

By contrast, the IE Blog has increased significantly in value, from $1,018,994.70 last year to $1,478,530,26 now.

Maybe the people linking to me are worth less now than the ones who linked to me last year. Time to go find some sugar daddy to link to me...