Cool idea: old wine bottles repurposed as candle holders

While visiting the NPR building in Washington DC this week, I saw these cool wine bottle candle holders in the gift shop




I thought that this was a pretty neat idea. why not repurpose the bottles instead of throwing them out.

What else could you repurpose a wine bottle for? I guess maybe something like a bird feeder. You could maybe make some sort of tiki torch as well. What about a penny piggy bank... not sure if pennies will fit.. but dimes might and you can always just put dollar bills in the bottle... but in order to get the bills out, you might have to break the bottle


Here are also some wine bottles with labels based on NPR podcast titles, that was pretty cool as well

I am not familiar with these podcast shows, the only NPR podcast I listen to on a regular basis is Planet Money

Panini WC 2018 codes for free sticker packs

As a kid I used to have the figurine panini sticker albums for the soccer world cup. I remember having the 1982 one and I had lots of fun filling in the empty spots and trading the duplicate stickers with other friends. The Maradona, Zico and Kempes stickers were my favorite ones

Now they have the album in digital format, there are mobile apps as well as a website You can reach the website app here: https://paninistickeralbum.fifa.com/game/flash

Here is what the France page in my album looks like after I added the 3 stickers I had for France

For some reason you can only open a certain packs per day.

Right now I have 9 packs but I have to wait 10 hours till I can open another 5

There are codes that will give you free packs, you can use these codes below, each one will give you a pack of 5 stickers


HAVE-NICE-WC18
COKE-BEST-GOAL
2018-COOL-GAME
FIFA-COCA-COLA
COKE-FAIR-PLAY
FOOT-BALL-LOVE
2018-COKE-GAME
FIFA-FOOT-BALL
GIFT-CODE-2018
ZPID-S1DM-13WL
W1PZ-V1UR-D197

FREE-FIFA-PACK
FIFA-FAIR-PLAY
OPEN-FIFA-PACK

OPEN-YOUR-PACK
FRA1998
OPEN-YOUR-GIFT

KEEPFREE2018
ARG1978
BRA1958
CRO1912
ENG1966
GER1954
JAP2002
KOR2002
URU1930
AUS1963
COL1936
COS1927
DEN1904
EGY1923
ICE1947
IRA1948
MOR1955
NIG1933
PAN1970
PAN1938
PER1924
POL1923
POR1914
RUS2018
SAU1956
SEN2010
SER1919
TUN1960
ESP2010
MEX1970
SWI1904
BEL1904
SWE1958

2742Q-QR
2ABXX-QR
2EJCA-QR
2FSE7-QR
2G74R-QR
2HZVF-QR
2MXS5-QR
2NTUE-QR
2NZPB-QR
2PA3Z-QR
2PF35-QR
2Q7PV-QR
2QKP7-QR
2RN3E-QR
2SMS2-QR
2TGPB-QR
2TKEH-QR
2V96K-QR
2XGW3-QR
2ZW78-QR

26VU5-QR
2GFB2-QR
2D73X-QR
256JM-QR
2J8VB-QR
24Q3G-QR
2MW7J-QR
2P8UC-QR
2HZVF-QR
2UAVQ-QR

These 7 panini ones don't work at the moment

panini1 (this will give you 1 pack)
panini2 (this will give you 2 packs)
panini3 (this will give you 3 packs)
panini4 (this will give you 4 packs)
panini5 (this will give you 5 packs)
panini6 (this will give you 5 packs)
panini7 (this will give you 5 packs)

The total of the 7 panini codes above is 25 packs !



TROPHY-TOUR
READYFOR
CASANOVA
COCACOLABR
2SR2C-QR
2018-FIFA-CLUB
COCACOLA

CASANOVA
COCACOLABR
2SR2C-QR
2018-FIFA-CLUB
COCACOLA
TUDOPRONTO
TUDOPRONTOBRASIL
PANINICOCACOLA
2018KICKOFF1
LISTOSPARA
COCACOLABRASIL

After entering all those codes I have now 35 packs waiting to be opened... that is a whole week since you can only open 5 packs per day

As of now my album is 33% completed

So far I have not found any of the top 10 players like Messi, Ronaldo, Modric, Rakitic, Neymar, Kroos, Lewandowski, Hazard or Kane

As of 3/27/2018 5 AM I have not completed a whole page yet.

Edit 3/27.. Swapped Modric and Rakitic and I have finished my first team page, it is Croatia

Edit 3/29 at 41% completion, 25 stickers in swap area

Edit 3/30 at 50% completion, 19 stickers in swap area, have 36 packs that have yet to be opened
Finished the 2nd team page, it is Korea

Edit 3/31 at 60% completion, 13 stickers in swap area, have 33 packs that have yet to be opened
Finished the 3rd team page, it is Iceland

Edit 4/7 at 99% completion... need only one player... it's Neymar from Brazil/Paris Saint Germain

There are some prizes you can win, here is the info from the website

Edit 4/8  completed the album

When you click on the Album Complete Get Reward button, you can download a PDF. Right now the PDF is just 1 page, you can see what it looks like in the image below. I guess we have to wait a couple of more weeks before they have that album finalized

GRAND PRIZES
The first 50 names drawn at random from those participants who successfully complete the Panini Digital Sticker Album on or before 31 August 2018 will receive a grand prize.

Each of the 50 lucky winners will receive a luxury, hardbound book version of 2018 FIFA World Cup™ Russia Panini Official Sticker Album.

Each winner will also receive one MyPanini code allowing them order 10 printed copies of a single MyPanini sticker for free on www.mypanini.com (shipping is free for prize winners).


RUNNERS-UP
The second 50 names drawn at random from those participants who successfully complete the Panini Digital Sticker Album on or before 31 August 2018 will receive runner-up prizes

Each runner-up will receive a free MyPanini code for use on www.mypanini.com. Each code is valid for 10 copies of a single MyPanini sticker (shipping is free for prize winners).

MyPanini™ stickers allow you to customise your very own unique Panini stickers and stick yourself into football history. MyPanini™ stickers will ensure you have something extra-special to stick, swap or gift your friends and family.

Tesla Model 3 or Tesla Model S..

Walked around near the train station today and saw a Tesla car. Initially I did not notice that this was a model 3, it looked like a model S to me

Here is what the car looked like



The blue car is the model 3, the grey car is a model S.  The model S doesn't look that much bigger to me. I wonder if it makes sense for anyone to buy the model S at this point. Is there such a big difference between these two Tesla cars to warrant the price difference.  At the Princeton Junction parking lot there are about 8 or so Tesla cars I see regularly. Now with a ~33K price tag for a model 3, I wonder how long before we see more than 30 or even 50 of these cars?

According to Bloomberg, Tesla is producing 832 cars a week and have produced 10,299 model 3 cars so far.

You can see these number for yourself at the Bloomberg Tracker site here: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-tesla-tracker/


How about you, have you seen any Tesla Model 3 cars yet?

TWID Jan 15, 2018

This is a post detailing some stuff I did, learned, posted and tweeted this week, I call this TWID (This week in Denis). I am doing this mostly for myself... a kind of an online journal so that I can look back on this later on. Will use the label TWID for these


Finished the blockchain pluralsight course this week and started on the Github course

Should be done with the Github course by tomorrow

Watched Hell or High Water,  the movie was really good and I especially like the music. The music is by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis and it's I guess Western music?


Started to listen to the King of Kings podcast from hardcore history, I think this is the third time I am listening to it. Such great stuff!!

This Week I Learned

Merkle tree
While watching the Pluralsight course Blockchain Fundamentals I learned about a Merkle tree

In cryptography and computer science, a hash tree or Merkle tree is a tree in which every leaf node is labelled with the hash of a data block and every non-leaf node is labelled with the cryptographic hash of the labels of its child nodes. Hash trees allow efficient and secure verification of the contents of large data structures. Hash trees are a generalization of hash lists and hash chains.

The concept of hash trees is named after Ralph Merkle who patented it in 1979

More about Merke Tree here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkle_tree


White Plague
Heard about this on the Lore podcast episode 77. White plague is also known as consumption or tuberculosis, never heard it called white plague before. Tuberculosis I know very well, my grandfather died from it, he was 23 years old and when he died my father was only a month old. It was a rough time for my grandmother having to raise 3 kids on her own in the 1950s past war time frame.


Iron
Heard about the different kind of iron on the How it began podcast episode: Mastering Metals: From Sticks & Stones to Cars & Computers
Wrought iron... this is produced by putting the rock on a fire and then manipulating the iron by banging on it
Cast iron...  this is produced by using ovens and melting the iron.. it is however brittle
Steel... this is produced by removing carbon and it is not brittle like cast iron

This Week I Tweeted

A Vast, 430-Year-Old World Map, Full of Places and Creatures, Real and Imagined

The map shows a lush, highly personalized take on the world, with a surprisingly large collection of real and fantasy beasts carousing and cavorting on land and sea. Rumsey’s scan and digital assembly of the cartographic puzzle represents the first time that Monte’s work has been seen in its full glory: It is the single largest world map of the 16th century, and one largely forgotten or overlooked by cartographers and scholars.

Some interesting stuff, would be nice to have this hanging on the wall


Royal Mail’s Game of Thrones Stamp Collection available to order

These stamps look great.

Twitter, Snapchat tie up with Fox to provide coverage of FIFA World Cup

Twitter Inc is partnering with Twenty First Century Fox Inc’s Fox Sports to stream a live show on the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament set to be hosted in Russia later this year.  

Who is going to watch this on crappy telephone screens?

Some cool stuff you might enjoy

Good block chain material from ycombinator: http://blog.ycombinator.com/building-for-the-blockchain/

Small sample

• The official Solidity docs are a good place to start.
• The Truffle Framework is one of the best solidity frameworks.
• See how tokens and token sales are developed in the zeppelinOS repo, one of the most trusted libraries to build dApps.
• Blockgeeks also provides an in-depth Ethereum token guide with code samples and high-level concepts.
• You can even learn from Crypto Kitties and create your own digital game on the blockchain.

In addition, the developer communities are remarkably receptive and helpful. Check out:

• /r/ethereum
• /r/ethdev
• https://blockgeeks.com/

Find more here: http://blog.ycombinator.com/building-for-the-blockchain/

Some pics I took

Eight feet of snow.... will take a while to melt.

Use Purse.io to shop on Amazon and pay with bitcoin

A couple of years ago I mined some bitcoin with ASIC Antminers. This bitcoin amount was still sitting in my bitcoin wallet until now. I needed some stuff from Amazon and decided to see how I could use some of this bitcoin I had to pay for these items. Amazon doesn't take bitcoin as a payment but there is a 3rd party site you can use. This site is Purse.io

The way it works, you create a wishlist or add the items. Then you can add a discount, I tried 11% for the 4 items and someone accepted

Sweet, 11% on top of the low Amazon price is not bad at all. The way it works is that the people who buy the items for you will get the bitcoin.  Once the order accepted, the amount is put into escrow and when it is delivered and acknowledged by you, the amount goes out of escrow into the buyer's wallet

Not sure if this is the right way to do it, it worked for me and maybe it can work for you as well. Let me know if you tried Purse.io and if it worked out for you as it did for me

TWID Jan 07, 2018

This is a post detailing some stuff I did, learned, posted and tweeted this week, I call this TWID (This week in Denis). I am doing this mostly for myself... a kind of an online journal so that I can look back on this later on. Will use the label TWID for these


Skipped last week, so here is a bunch of stuff from two weeks combined


Made a whole bunch of chicken broth from the leftover bones I saved up over the last couple of weeks



I use this as a base for lentil soups, vegetable soups, risottos or I just have it as is to warm me up.


Finished: The Russian Revolution: A New History by Sean McMeekin

This was pretty good, if you like history I recommend this book

Blueprint for Armageddon

Since a lot of podcasts took a hiatus or had a best of episode, I had some spare time. I decided to listen again to the fantastic World War I podcast episodes Blueprint for Armageddon by Dan Carlin. I think this is the 3rd of 4th time I have listened to it.


Cold spell is still going strong in the Northeast. Worked from home Thursday and Friday. For some reason there was a Comcast cable above ground. The first snow cleaning truck that passed by clipped that cable right into pieces. There went cable and internet. Used the hotspot on my phone to continue working. Comcast had the cable repaired within 2 hours so that was not too bad

Went to pick up some eggs and cheese at the farm and saw these cows drinking water.
The water was frozen in the container on the right side so these cows were pushing each other to get to the water in the container on the left side. The cows seemed contend, not sure how because it was bitter cold. Maybe now if you mil them, you get ice cream instead of milk  LOL




I finally watched Downfall
The movie is well known as the inspiration for "Downfall parodies". One scene in the film, in which Hitler launches into a furious tirade upon finally realizing that the war is lost, has become a staple of internet videos. In these videos, the original German audio is retained, but new subtitles are added so that Hitler and his subordinates seem to be reacting instead to some setback in present-day politics, sports, entertainment, popular culture, or everyday life

I highly recommend this movie, although you know the outcome, if was interesting to see Hitler as a broken man suffering from Parkinson's Disease and still thinking that the war could be won. The human treatment of Hitler raised some concerns by critics

This Week I Learned

kebeb case
Snake Case

In Snake Case, all words are lower-cased, then all spaces between words are replaced by underscores.
So you would get

then_all_spaces_between_words_are_replaced


Kebab Case is similar except that the first letter of each word is capitalized, and hyphens are used instead of underscores:
So you would get

Then-All-Spaces-Between-Words-Are-Replaced

More here: http://blog.greglow.com/2017/12/29/sdu-tools-converting-t-sql-strings-snake-case-kebab-case/

bombogenesis
Bombogenesis, a popular term used by meteorologists, occurs when a midlatitude cyclone rapidly intensifies, dropping at least 24 millibars over 24 hours. A millibar measures atmospheric pressure. This can happen when a cold air mass collides with a warm air mass, such as air over warm ocean waters  https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/bombogenesis.html


Who comes up with these words?

This Week I tweeted

As drone demand soars, New Jersey poised to bar drunken droning

U.S. drone sales in 2017 topped $1 billion for the first time ever, but don’t raise a glass too quickly if you are in New Jersey, where lawmakers are poised to outlaw drunken droning next week.

Drunk droning is the new drunk driving...


Christopher Nolan on the power of the people and why '2001' should be required preschool viewing

I understand you showed “2001” to your children when they were very young, like 3 or 4?
I did. I think they’re able to absorb it on the most important level at a young age. That’s what happened to me. I saw it when I was 7 years old, and that’s the level I think it works the best — pure cinematic spectacle. I was extremely baffled by it, but excited by it.

When people talk about the age of people watching a film, part of what they’re asking is, “How does a 7-year-old parse the content?” And if you look at “2001” and you think about it, you can’t parse it anyway as an adult. The experience is the thing.

Interesting... most people I know say this is the best movie ever or a very boring movie

Some cool stuff you might enjoy

Listen to live Bitcoin transactions: http://btclisten.com/ 

Listen to live Wikipedia updates: http://listen.hatnote.com/


 Smells Like Teen Spirit’ music video auto-tuned to major chord

Nirvirna - Teen Sprite from Sleep Good on Vimeo.

Wow this really is uncanny valley territory

Some pics I took

Trail near my home, looks cold but it is actually very nice to run on snow.


Went to pick up some eggs and cheese at the farm and saw these cows drinking

Series I watched in 2017

After the Movies I watched in 2017 post, it is time for the series I watched in 2017 post. I watched 33 seasons in 2017. Here is the complete list with links to IMDB, I also gave a 1 sentence blurb below each season.

Best 2 seasons I watched this year

The leftovers season 2
GoT season 8


I have 4 seasons that would tie for 3rd place so I decided to spare you from that.....


Here is the list


Title: Twin Peaks Season 1
Channel: Showtime
Day watched: 1/25/2017

I watched this back in the 90s but when I heard that they were doing a new season, I decided to rewatch the original series. Still great and confusing as ever.

Title: The Affair Season IV
Channel: Showtime
Day watched: 1/29/2017

This is a show that I watch with my wife, the first couple of seasons were better.


Title: Vikings Season V
Channel: History Channel
Day watched: 2/2/2017

Love this show, it is too bad that a major character died

Title: Timeless Season I
Channel: NBC
Day watched: 2/22/2017

This is ok, it got cancelled and then it did not get cancelled after feedback. If you like history you will probably like this



Title: Twin Peaks Season 2
Channel: Showtime
Day watched: 2/24/2017

Rewatch to prepare for season 3


Title: Shameless Season IV
Channel: Showtime
Day watched: 3/15/2017

This is a great show with over the top scenes, the manage to insult everyone on this show. It's great


Title: Planet Earth II
Channel: BBC
Day watched: 3/26/2017

Spectacular cinematography


Title: Big Little Lies
Channel: HBO
Day watched: 4/2/2017

Fun mini series


Title: The Walking dead Season VII
Channel: AMC
Day watched: 4/2/2017

The best character for me is Negan, he makes the new season

Title: Shameless Season V
Channel: Showtime
Day watched: 4/7/2017



Title: Homeland Season VI
Channel: Showtime
Day watched: 4/10/2017

Was better in the earlier seasons but still worth watching


Title: The Expanse Season II
Channel: SyFy
Day watched: 4/22/2017

This is a good SyFy I mean SciFi series. Because of this show I also read the Leviathan books


Title: Billions Season II
Channel: Showtime
Day watched: 5/7/2017

This was a good season especially the big twist at the end.

Title: Shameless Season VI
Channel: Showtime
Day watched: 5/9/2017



Title: 12 Monkeys Season III
Channel: SyFy
Day watched: 5/27/2017

I am not impressed with this season. I will not watch the enxt season if they create it

Title: Shameless Season VII
Channel: Showtime
Day watched: 8/5/2017



Title: Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey
Channel: Nat Geographic
Day watched: 8/12/2017

Watched this with my season, it was good and entertaining

Title: Game Of Thrones Season 7
Channel: HBO
Day watched: 8/28/2017

What can you say about this show that has not been said already. One more season and can't wait for it to arrive...would also be nice if the books would come out as well

Title: American Gods
Channel: Starz
Day watched: 9/3/2017

I like this show a lot, right after I finished the show I picked up the book and read that as well


Title: Twin Peaks Season 3
Channel: Showtime
Day watched: 9/5/2017

You want weird? Then watch this... soo many WTF did I just watch moments. Some great episodes


Title: Preacher
Channel: AMC
Day watched: 9/11/2017

It's ok, more or less the same as season 1, not sure that I will watch season 3.


Title: The Strain Season IV
Channel: FX
Day watched: 9/18/2017

I never watched the first 3 seasons but this was interesting. I like how the vampires are fast and they have this crazy mouth (almost like in Blade 2 but better) The most annoying part of the show is that kid Zach.



Title: Ballers Season III
Channel: HBO
Day watched: 9/27/2017

Fun 30 minute show with The Rock


Title: The Leftovers Season I
Channel: HBO
Day watched: 9/28/2017

Great show.. you must watch this

Title: Battlestar Galactica Season 1
Channel: SyFy
Day watched: 10/4/2017

Having watched the original series in the 80s it was excited to watch this. I still like the mettalic Cylons better and wished they left them like that


Title: The Leftovers Season II
Channel: HBO
Day watched: 10/11/2017

Probably the best show I have watch on tv this year, great drama, great characters and great music, everything is perfect


Title: The Leftovers Season III
Channel: HBO
Day watched: 10/16/2017

Perfect ending to a perfect show


Title: Fear Of The Walking Dead III
Channel: AMC
Day watched: 10/16/2017

Much better season than the first 2 seasons


Title: Ray Donovan Season 5
Channel: Showtime
Day watched: 10/30/2017

I can watch this just to see what Mickey is up to, what a great character


Title: Black Mirror Season 1
Channel: Netflix
Day watched: 11/5/2017

Some good episodes, make sure to check out episode The Entire History of You it's a must see


Title: Black Mirror Season 2
Channel: Netflix
Day watched: 11/11/2017

Very good episodes in this season as well


Title: Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 9
Channel: HBO
Day watched: 12/6/2017

Whenever I see and hear Larry I want to punch him in the face, how can he get so annoying, it's incredible. Great season


Title: Mr Robot Season 3
Channel: USA
Day watched: 12/15/2017

I started watching this show with season 2. The finale was fantastic. You should check this show out