Sooo Twentieth Century

My old cell phone is beginning to be a source of embarrassment. It works alright as a device used for communicating audibly (the classic definition of a phone) but is handicapped when it comes to typical modern expectations. Technically, it has texting capabilities, but really, that feature was always questionable, and here lately it not only truncates messages, it also truncates the sender's phone number... so not only can I not read the message, I can't even tell who even sent it!

I got a text stating "[my name]: appointment w" and the phone number was chopped off at 5 numbers as shown in the pic. I have a dentist appt. next week, so I called them to ask if they texted me (which I do not remember OK-ing - I was set up for email notifications, not texting, or so I thought), and unaware that I also had an email from them (as this is not a smartphone), I told them not to text me anymore, as it only confuses me and also gets charged to my phone bill. grrrr. If I were to compose a text, it would require using the old-style alpha-numeric keypad (so to type an "S" I have press the "7" four times), and this is a real disincentive to use it.

Recently I had to explain to friends that I was sending them links via email (suggestions for places to meet), but when I left the house to meet them later I would not be able to communicate via email as I do not have a smartphone... oh yeah... and I would prefer that they don't text me either. {sigh}

Pain in the ass.

This is that same old story where technology comes along, something that's a total luxury, and then becomes so commonly used as to be a standard. When it becomes standard, then you "need" it because that's the way people communicate. I guess the time has come for a dataplan... and an iPhone.

Next year. Must have.

Holidays in Austin - Part 2

Continuing on...
MrB has been salivating over the idea of getting an all-electric car. I admire him for this, and I don't hate the idea, in fact I like it. I'm am just not an early adopter and feel like a hybrid might be more for me. I like for a lot of the kinks to be worked out by other poor souls before I add something that pricey and important to my toy box. Yes, I know... electric cars are not a brand-new invention, but we have not had a variety of choices of non-prototypes before. The Nissan LEAF has been on a 23 city debut tour of test-drives, and we got to drive it on Saturday. It's a perfectly nice little car. I like the size of it. It doesn't go real fast, but it's designed for the commuter (people like us) who drive less than 100 miles a day. Actually, the deal-breaker for me personally with the LEAF was my own fault. Part of the display panel that's behind the steering wheel was too close to my eyes. I wear glasses for distance vision (like for driving) but don't need them at all up close - so I couldn't really focus on that panel with getting bifocals. So GO LEAF but I will wait for a Honda or something else.

Saturday evening we decided to go and see The Tourist, despite a whole lot of bad reviews. My four word film review for it would be "safe for movie date" or maybe "she's pretty, he's pretty." We didn't hate it but thought it missed the opportunity to be funny. It's been nominated for a Golden Globe as a comedy, but believe me, it isn't funny, and it looks like the GG noms might be more than a little tainted this time.

I will end this post here because I need to rest my eyes a little before the big eclipse happens! Something tells me I am going to snooze through it... it's highly likely.

The perfect laptop bottom

This is MrB's new accessory for his MacBook. A simple platform with a pull-out mousepad. No electronics involved. A perfect little device.
The funny part of it is that it's got System Requirements listed on the box, and they felt it was helpful to state that it works with both Mac and PC.
They really should have added that it's equally functional for both right- and left-handed setup, all you need to do is turn it around...
... plus it's unisex, and conceivably could be used by any species as well.

Big Brother in your jeans

I felt something scratchy digging into my skin inside the jeans I had on, and discovered it was this (below). It was made of thin metal strips and was a little sticky. It was sewn in, with a little cloth patch barrier sewn on top, and I guess the cloth patch kept me from feeling this bugger before.



I got these Old Navy jeans at Goodwill, so they've been worn and washed who knows how many times before I got them, and I've worn/washed them quite a bit too.

Here is an excellent rant about these things, which are radio-frequency ID (RFID) chips. Attaching something like that to clothing in the store is not unusual, but apparently Old Navy is not willing to remove it for you as a store normally would for those thumb-tack gizmos.

At least I didn't go through the embarrassment of getting stopped for suspected shoplifting like the guy at the linked post, but I can't remember the last time I was in an Old Navy store. It's been a few years.

Weird Spam

Subj: Hi.........
Mrs.Tina.K.Nayak [saketsharp@gmail.com]

I DONT KNOW WHO ARE YOU ?
If you Know me then Please give me a Call

Thanks & Regards

Tina.K.Nayak
Public Communications Dept
WHO

No Viagra or offerings of a larger penis? Sheeesh.

A product whose time has come?

Had to laugh when I saw this... still didn't buy it though. It's big (it's silly big like a clown remote), and that would make it easier, but something tells there would still be multiple remotes needed. Skeptical...

I. P. Freely

Go Girl female urination device claims to be mess free. Is that possible?

Maybe you should consider the paper urine trousers instead.

Scamalot

We’ve always had really great luck selling (and buying) on craigslist. I’ve really never dealt with attempted fraud on there, although I know it’s rampant. As a “buy local” marketplace, it works very, very well – but when the buyers are not local it must be a free-for-all for scammers. Craigslist just cautions BUYER BEWARE/SELLER BEWARE and BUY LOCAL. It doesn’t have tools in place to help keep buyers and sellers safer like eBay does. I put this oil painting up for sale, something I painted in the 1970s, based on this old 1951 cigarette ad on the right with Joan Crawford. Got interested responses right off the bat, making me really happy, so I sent them my phone number. Nobody called, but I got these emails from the same people the next day:

Hello I really appreciate your response to my email.I want you to consider it sold, pls do withdraw the advert from craigslist to avoid disturbance from another buyer.I want you to know that i will be paying via bank certified check .I will like you to provide me with the following.information to facilitate the mailing of the check to you .

1.....Full name to write on the check
2.....Full Physical address to post the check (NOT P.O BOX)
3.....City, State and Zip Code
4.....Home & Cell Phone to contact you

*** Note that the payment will be shipped to your address via UPS NEXT DAY SERVICE and I will like you to know that you will not be responsible for shipping i will have my mover come over as soon as you have cashed the check** Thanks i can trust you on this so we can move forward from here. Regards

Thanks for getting back to me. I'm currently in UK and want to ship the item down here. There won't be any problem with the shipment 'cos my shipping broker will handle all necessary things,I will like to know the current condition and will appreciate it if you can send me some recent pictures Let me know.

Regards,

Hi are you having any troubles?

I did some research using teh google. The first response is the same as one I saw someone reporting on a forum somewhere, discussing this type of scam - verbatim! Well, it seemed pretty much like a form letter. The second one is more chit-chatty, and I was tempted to pursue it maybe as long as the buyer would use Paypal. The wise MrB counseled against going to step 2 even with that one, mainly because it (like the first response) mentions a shipping broker/mover.

Now, apparently what happens is that the buyer sends a (fake) cashier's check - a very trusted form of exchange - but a couple of weeks later in this case, the bank wants you to make the check good. When the buyer offers to use PayPal, they send you a fake PayPal email receipt (at least in this case you can check your PayPal account to see if the money is there or if a transaction has happened, but apparently many people don't go that extra step of checking it), and if you click through the receipt and enter your login info, then you've been scammed that way.

The shipping broker fraud kicks in when the seller pays you x-amount over the cost of the item for shipping, then you pay the shipper that amount when they come and pick it up. Since they have paid you with bogus money and you have paid the shipping with real money, you've lost that money AND your item.

That third response I got was just weird. I'm not touching it. I edited my ad to say that I would only sell local for cash - but am about to pull the thing off there and go with eBay... maybe eBay sell local. I'd hate to package up a 3-ft oil painting. What a pain in the butt.

Project Rant

This video rant features a friend of mine, Lana Dieterich. It's the top-rated rant on Project Rant right now. It's an Austin-based video production company that makes dramatizations of the stuff you love to hate - real rants fleshed out by actors. Check 'em out, and submit a rant if you feel the need.

Some stuff to make your head spin

How much more black can it be?

Scientists have created the blackest material ever made [LINK]:

Scientists have fashioned what may be the blackest material in the universe: a sheet of carbon nanotubes that captures nearly every last photon of every wavelength of light.

The substance absorbs between 97 percent and 99 percent of wavelengths that can be directly measured or extrapolated. It's the closest that scientists have yet come to a black body, a theorized state of perfect absorption whose closest analogue is believed to be the opening of a deep hole.

"How much more black can it be?" - to quote Spinal Tap when first seeing their new album cover, which looks like the image above. The answer, by the way, is "None. None more black."

Waiting for the Cable Guy

(posting this remotely) Our cable went out yesterday afternoon, which also means no internet or email. I am so tied to those things, it's amazing - not to mention that I can't get any freelance work done, or even know that something has hit the InBox. I have been reduced to scrapbooking - looking through the trunks, sorting and scanning moldy old things. If I don't respond to something, it's because I probably didn't see it. It's times like these that I wish I had an iPhone.

{sigh}

Still not allowed to Twitter

Obama's Blackberry - Yes, I thought about that as a better name for Ben & Jerry's new flavor instead of "Yes, Pecan."

They have taken pity on this poor, hopelessly email-addicted President-Elect and decided to let him have a PDA/phone. [source] It's likely to be a General Dynamics Sectera Edge, which is a secure mobile environment portable electronic device (SME-PED) [product overview including a movie showing the thing in action - so check it out if you want to see what a $3,300 phone is like]. I couldn't help but think of Jack Bauer's phone, which is a character all its own on the show 24. That phone that never needs recharging, works in tunnels and elevators, works after being in an explosion... here's a fantasy version of Jack Bauer's phone whipped up by blogs4bauer:


Even without this new toy, I think that Obama's a pretty smart guy, and would never let himself get caught using Yahoo or Gmail for government business like Sarah Palin did. If he had been, The Onion speculated on how his InBox might have looked here.

That Onion is pretty danged funny.

Smells like... a big hit to the credit card

We are getting a nice whiff of that wonderful new car smell. No. We didn't get a new car, can't afford that. MrB's 2000 Acura Integra went into the shop yesterday with some kind of major problem. I forgot what it was, but it's going to cost around $1400 to repair. {sigh} It's always something...

This 2009 Acura TSX is a loaner car, and is it both Beauty and Beast. First of all, it's a LOT bigger than the Integra, and that's a big disappointment for us since we really like our Integras (yes, plural. We both have a 2000 Acura Integra. We need bumper stickers that say "my other car is just like this one."), and would love to replace them when they die with another Acura - but that's out of the question now since this model is now the smallest one they sell and it's too damned big - not what we want. Their smallest car barely fits in the garage with another (smaller) car, and the same can be said for the average parking space. Boo hiss on Acura for supersizing. On the up side, it's got some very fancy stuff on the console. The feature shown upper right is a camera that shows what's behind you when you are backing up. It's a brilliant feature that all cars should have.

The navigation system, CD disk changer and all that stuff require a little training, and it talks to you constantly. Annoying! Like telling you that you've unfastened your seat belt. I wish I could find a video of that old SNL routine where instead of a Navigator, the car has a NAGigator - something to not only tell you to fasten your seat belt but nags you about all your failings in general. If this video is any indication, it looks like the voice-activated nagitator can be very helpful - maybe a little too helpful depending on your perspective.

Space Station zoom zoom

We watched the International Space Station (ISS) fly over last night. It looked like a bright star or planet, and it took approximately 5 minutes to travel completely across the sky and disappear. Movin'!!

We did not catch a glimpse of any floating toolbag though. (The $100,000-valued tools still not as pricey as the Palin shopping spree)

NASA Space Station page, which includes this link where you can find out where it is right now, and when it might be flying over your house.

Alarmed!

One day last week when I got home in the middle of the day, there was that awful telltale beeping of a smoke alarm with a dying battery. About once a minute there's a shrill BEEEEEEEEP that is intended to hasten you to fix the situation pronto.

BEEEEEEP

Jax, who is usually catching some ZZZs is scurrying around and giving me a look that says, "Pleeease make it stop!" I run for the earplugs first, then get the ladder from the garage and carry it upstairs as it is apparent it's one of those.

BEEEEEEP

Call MrB at his office, since he's the smoke alarm installer guy and I don't really know how to take this thing down without breaking it. I am getting frantic. I am pulling and twisting on it.

BEEEEEEP

Now I see a hole in the ceiling and the wiring. Plaster is falling in my face. I'm trying to follow the instructions I'm talking on the phone, but NOT calmly. If this doesn't work, I am trying to imagine putting up with a shrill beep going off once a minute for the next 4 hours.

BEEEEEEP

I am yelling now. HOW MUCH WILL THIS COST TO REPLACE IF I BREAK IT? I'M GETTING THE HAMMER IN ABOUT 2 MORE SECONDS!

BEEEEEEP

OK. I got it down. Now where's the danged battery? I can't find it!! He says just twist it open. It's not working!! He's says just put it outside for now. [sigh] Now why didn't I think of that? I stick it out on the front porch. I won't hear it out there, and it may discourage Jehovah's Witnesses. Relieved, I come back inside.

BEEEEEEP

Wha? Something up there is still beeping? I run back upstairs. Have to wait until the minute rolls around. Must be the one in the bedroom.

BEEEEEEP

It's not! It's coming from upstairs... in the bathroom... just a few feet from the smoke alarm on the landing that I just yanked down there's a CO detector in the bathroom. It says "Err" on the front panel. I unplug it from the wall socket. No more beep.

MrB says that the whole scene would have hilarious to watch. I say it would have been a lot funnier if I had smashed the smoke alarm with a hammer.

Depp's star power

The star in this case being our Sun. My adopted actor, Johnny Depp, made the eco-news by deciding to purchase a solar-hydrogen energy system for his house on the island that he purchased a few years back. [LINK ecorazzi] He was inspired to buy a Caribbean island after his friend Marlon Brando bought a Tahitian one. Inventor Mike Strizki created the nation’s first solar-hydrogen house in New Jersey, and expects Depp's costs to run between $250,000-$500,000. More on Strizki here.

Depp calls his piece of land "Fuck Off Island*," and it looks like the sentiment applies not only to the papparazzi who want to snap pictures of his kids, but to the electrical power grid as well. Shine on, Johnny Depp.


*and might refer to just doing pretty much whatever the hell you want to do on your own damn island.

Not Mac Same at all

We have a new guy in the house. Nooo, it's not another cat, it's a new iMac! My PowerBook G4 that's going on 6 years old is still working, except that the USB port I use for the mouse has been dying, and I am very mouse-centric. Yes, it does make me sad to pass this machine along to MrB, whose iMac is nearly 9 years old. Dubya's stimulus check should be on the way soon, and I truly hope it gets here before the credit card bill does! No new CDs for me this month, somethin's gotta give.

Now, I am not an early adopter, and although I loooove my Macs, back when I first got the PB it took me quite a while to get used to OSX. It was radically different from the previous OS, and it left no doubt that my days as a Mac whiz (I was a Mac network manager back in ancient days) were O-V-E-R. So I've gotten really used to Panther, let Tiger go right past (based on the advice of Happy Mac*), here I am with Leopard (so I guess this really IS another cat).

After the hectic ordeal of getting it home yesterday (long story) I finally got it out of the box today. First impression... it smells good... aaaaah... brand new. Second impression, it's gorgeous. Third, I am again completely overwhelmed with technology stuff I am not familiar with. It is comical. I am in full "hillbilly gol-dang, looka here whut this dang thing just did" mode.

When I was setting it up, it took my picture! I'm not used to having a camera pointed at me, and then there are just so many widgets and gadgets, some new and some just options I didn't have before. I am techno-stressed. I really like to have minimum gadgets, and only very useful ones, so when it asks me if I want to set up such and such, I am looking for the "I don't know, I have to do some more reading, where's the manual?" button.

To make my techno-shame even worse, the new guy came with a free iPod and a printer! Now, I am going to make a very surprising secret confession, but I've never had an iPod. Yes, that's right, the music nut had no iPod. I am just an old fuddy-duddy CD lover who downloads almost nothing and I hardly ever do headphones. I either need to hear what's around me, or I need to be asleep (preferably with ear plugs). Plus it's kinda hard to get someone to autograph your download -- I like to buy from the artist and get them to sign it. Old fashioned. And I am writing this on the old machine. It's now the comfy old chair with the stuffing coming out, but the new guy is waiting for some attention. Macs have always been kind of personal, there's a relationship there, nearly like it's a person. Now, someone tell me why my computers are all males? Even though this is decidedly showing his feminine side with that big X.


*they had nothing against Tiger, just didn't see any real good reason to upgrade our particular machines.

Leader of the pack, the BigDog

This is a very weird-looking critter. Is critter a proper term for a robot? I think it might be, especially for this one. It almost looks like a 2-person horse costume where the 2 ends are facing each other and the one in the "front" runs backwards. This creature is the creation of Boston Dynamics. What do you think of it? Cool? Scary? When they make a BigDog that "bites", then I'd have to say scary for sure.

Found via Plausible Futures.

His name is Higgs, not God

[LINK] When the particle collider at CERN begins operating next year, Peter Higgs is hoping that it will find a particle (the "Higgs boson") that originates from a force (the "Higgs field") that gives mass to the universe and makes life possible. Many scientists believe that it exists, and that it came into being milliseconds after the Big Bang.

Higgs is an atheist, and it bugs him that they like calling it "the God particle". He is 78 years old and has been hoping to be able to prove the existence of this particle for over 40 years, so I hope that if it does exist that he will live to see the evidence, and know that they did name it after him, not Him (not to mention being able to collect his Nobel Prize).