About 28 feet. At least, that’s my best attempt so far. As you can probably already tell, this post has nothing to do with the similarly named stock market phenomenon.

So now you’re thinking, “Steve, what the hell are you talking about?”

Earlier this evening, Victoria was playing on her computer and I heard this hysterical laughter coming from her room. I figured she was just amusing herself with something silly. When I went to check, she was playing a game called Kitten Cannon. (It’s also available from a bunch of other places; just search for it.) It’s a very silly and addictive variation of the ancient Human Cannonball game, but with an Itchy and Scratchy twist: you can hit objects along the way (i.e., explosives) to keep your journey going or objects (like spikes or a Venus Flytrap) that will end your trip.

My longest shot so far is 1,018 feet. I’ve reached a maximum height of 68 feet (after a balloon bomb burst) and a ground bounce of 28 feet. Though the latter two statistics are not kept by the game.

7,222,310 Graphical user interface(GUI), a synthesiser and a computer system including a GUI (6 pages)
A GUI for displaying three or more input signals. Used in audio and video editing. Uses the GUI to simulate a hardware audio/video editing board.

7,221,570 Heat dissipating device for an integrated circuit chip (14 pages)
Heat dissipation for a chip. Order of stacked components, starting from the bottom: support board, chip, thermal gap filler pad, support structure, heat dissipating device.

20070112743 Methods and systems for managing data (81 pages)
This is the sixth Spotlight-related application published on May 17, 2007. The claims of this application are directed to searching metadata based on a user’s search query, determining the user’s permissions to be able to view certain search results, and displaying the search results based on the user’s permissions.

20070110074 System and method for synchronizing media presentation at multiple recipients (29 pages)
Using iTunes (or similar software) to wirelessly play a media file to multiple locations from a central host. For example, you could play a song in multiple locations around your house, all controlled by software on your computer which is located elsewhere in the house. Each client device has a network interface through which it communicates with the host (just like regular networking). The host uses a reference clock to sync with local clocks in each of the client devices, so that playback is synchronized among all the clients.

20070109737 Computer enclosure (25 pages)
A laptop having a singular composite structure. This application describes how the case is assembled. The assembly includes structurally bonding (with adhesive) the parts together and electrically sealing the interface between the parts to provide electrical shielding.

20070109326 Intelligent scrolling (23 pages)
This is a latest in a long chain of continuation applications, with priority all the way back to December 28, 1990. This application relates to clicking and dragging an object in a GUI window, permitting scrolling within the window based on the dragging. Remember that this application dates back to 1990, so you need to consider the state of the art at that time when reading this patent.

20070112844 Method and apparatus for processing metadata (82 pages)
This application relates to Spotlight searching. The claims are directed to generating a first set of metadata (by extracting content or metadata from a file) and analyzing the first set of metadata to generate a second set of metadata, the second set of metadata containing different metadata than the first set. The second set of metadata can be searched to identify the file it is based on.

20070112814 Methods and systems for providing improved security when using a uniform resource locator (URL) or other address or identifier (29 pages)
URL security methods, including warning a user before clicking a link from an application other than a Web browser whether the user has visited that site or similar sites before. Can be used to prevent phishing or other e-mail spoofing type of attacks. The desired URL can be compared against a history list (based on bookmarks) to determine whether it is a legitimate URL.

20070112809 Methods and systems for managing data (79 pages)
Another Spotlight searching related application. The claims of this application are directed to combining notifications for a metadata database update and updating the database upon receipt of the combined notification.

20070112774 Methods and systems for providing improved security when using a uniform resource locator (URL) or other address or identifier (25 pages)
Another URL security related application. The claims of this application are directed to automatically determining whether a URL is a trusted URL and adding the URL to a trusted list.

20070112744 Methods and systems for managing data (73 pages)
One more Spotlight searching related application. The claims of this application are directed to searching a metadata database using at least some metadata relating to a selected file.