Chalker Arrested

Apparently you can be arrested for drawing on the sidewalk in chalk in New York [brooklynpaper.com]. That sounds completely ridiculous to me.

<sarcasm>I suppose that since there is no real crime in New York City anymore, the police have nothing better to do than to harass people with chalk.</sarcasm> Note that one of the charges was possession of graffiti-making materials.

I am sure that they are not arresting any children who are participating in the same activity. So, there is a bit of double-standard there.

This reminds me of a time when I was 18, and I was not allowed in a bar/restaurant WITH MY PARENTS, because I wasn't 21. Meanwhile, I noticed there were plenty of 12 and under children that had been allowed in.

Near Space Ballooning

On boingboing [boingboing.net], I saw a link to a near space balloon project, in which a helium balloon was sent up to a 30km altitude with GPS, a camera, etc.


The pictures are quite amazing.

A parachute system was devised in order to recover the equipment. The flight time was a little over two hours, and some simple tools were used to determine the flight trajectory (and to make sure the equipment was not going to land in a body of water).

I love seeing technical challenges like this, and how people choose to solve them.

Michelin Lawsuit

Disclaimer: I work for a tire manufacturer.

I recently saw a link to this article [greenvilleonline.com] about a woman who sued Michelin and won. Apparently, she only bought two new tires and they were put on the front axle of her vehicle by the shop. She later lost control of the vehicle, and claimed that had the shop been informed that new tires should go on the rear axle, she would not have lost control of the vehicle.

"The jury found Michelin 100 percent responsible for the negligence that caused the accident, granting $32.4 million in damages to Boudreaux and her sons, according to court documents.

"Michelin officials were 'a little surprised and a little disappointed' by the verdict, Mann said."

It kind of makes you wonder whether we're going to get to the point where tire shops will only replace all 4 tires at a time, to protect themselves against litigation.

The article says that the accident happened on a wet road, but it would be interesting to know the other details of the accident: was driver error involved, did the car have ESC, etc.

It would also be interesting to know why the new tires were put on the front of the car, as I'm sure the shop knew the rule of thumb about always putting new tires on the rear axle.

Keurig Coffee Machine

Ugh. Having problems posting...

--

I recently added a new ridiculous item to my Amazon wishlist. It's a Keurig single-cup coffee machine [amazon.com].


I fell in love with those coffee machines after I had to take my car into a dealer to fix a weird problem years ago. And they had one of those machines in their waiting room. I remember thinking that I would actually drink coffee if I could get cups that tasted that good whenever I wanted.

We have a "normal" coffee machine right now, but it is impractical for many reasons. First off, we each usually only drink one cup at a time (as in, per month). I almost never drink coffee, and when I want a cup, it never coincides when Heimlich also wants one. So, making an entire pot is pointless.

I also think that it is far easier to get a good tasting cup of coffee with our machine when you make an entire pot. So, the only time we use it is when we have guests over, and then we embarrass ourselves by looking like we don't know how to use our own coffee machine.

Roundcube

The provider for one of my numerous email accounts is trying to transition people over to a new webmail client - Roundcube [roundcube.net].


In general, I don't have a problem with it, and it is an improvement over whatever was available before. But there are some peculiarities. One is that the search field looks suspiciously like Spotlight in Apple's OS X:


That is obviously a total ripoff. At least Firefox makes an attempt to cover up that they are ripping the idea off.

One of the major dealbreakers for other people is that you can't highlight and select text if you are using Internet Explorer. I have no idea why that is, but I have tried it using two different versions of IE, and when I try to select text, all of the text on the page ends up getting selected. Selecting text is no problem when using Firefox -- but there are some places, like work, where I have no choice but to use IE.

You have no idea how much you copy and paste text into and out of email until you can't do it anymore.

GE Packaging

I have a bone to pick with the people who designed the packaging for these GE compact florescent light bulbs.


I was looking for a bulb for an exterior light fixture, in which the bulb is partially exposed. So, I picked up some bulbs at the store, and started to read the packaging.

Some of them specifically said that they were for indoor use only, but the one above (which I bought) did not. After I opened the packaging, I read the fine print on the base of the bulb itself, where I found that this one shouldn't be used outside, either.

The thing is that the stupid packaging covers up the fine print on the bulb itself (this is the portion outlined in the red square in the picture). So, even though I probably should have known better, there would have been no way for me to determine from the outside, whether this bulb was appropriate or not.

Remaindered

• A manners expert on the Slate answers what to do when your religious child thinks that you're going to hell [slate.com]:

  "I get a disturbing number of letters from nonreligious relatives of religiously raised children saying that the kids have been warning them of eternal damnation, and even threatening to stop seeing them, unless the relatives repent their Godless ways."



• On rodcorp [typepad.com], I saw an update on the De Menezes shooting [guardian.co.uk] (who was mistakenly shot by British police for being a suspected terrorist), which is in court:

  "The public had been put at risk by the fact that police had allowed a suspected suicide bomber to board a packed bus and then a busy underground train, she told the court. 'If Jean Charles had been a bomber, any bomb he was carrying would have been detonated well before the firearms officers entered his carriage.' The failure to stop him in a 'controlled and considered manner' above ground had also made it far more likely he would be shot when confronted. It was a 'matter of luck' that others were not killed or injured, the court heard."

  I think that these sorts of things are inevitable as the burden of justice is shifted from the courts onto the police -- which is why the burden should not be on the police.

Rob Rife

When Heimlich and I got married 2 years ago, we hired Rob Rife [rifephoto.com] to be our photographer, based on the reviews that he got on TheKnot.com [theknot.com] (which we used heavily for all of our wedding planning).

We ended up being so glad that we hired him, because he was perfect for us. He used to be a photo-journalist, so he was perfect for capturing all of the candid moments that we wanted. At our reception, he uses these long zoom lenses to take pictures of everyone, and no one even realized he was there taking pictures of them.

He was also very knowledgeable about weddings, as you can imagine. There were several moments where we realized we didn't know what we were supposed to do. For instance, when it came time to cut the cake, we realized that we didn't really know exactly how to do it. And he was able to tell us exactly how we should cut the cake, and it turned out great. Here's one of the pictures he took:


He was so easy to work with, and very patient. Our friends have recently hired him for their wedding, which we were happy to see. If anyone else is getting married in the Cleveland area and wants a photographer, we recommend him.

Capital One Auto Finance

One of our friends kind of owns a car dealership. The kind that he owns looks like a lot of fun, because he has a lot of turnover in the types of cars that I could never afford -- classic Mustangs and GTOs that look pristine, along with almost new Porsches and Land Rovers.

Recently, he gave us an interesting bit of information. Capital One Bank has Auto Financing [capitalone.com] now. They typically have the best rates. And you can apply for auto financing on-line and find out if you are approved within minutes. If you are approved, they next-day air you a blank check (authorized for a reasonable range, based on what you asked for) that you can then use to buy the car with.

Apparently, Capital One has been getting very aggressive at getting people to take out loans with them, and have a great system for doing so. The last time we bought a car, we had to make a million phone calls to find out who had the best rates... Capital One's system sounds so much easier, and we'll have to keep them in mind the next time we are ready to buy a car.

Congrats to Andrew and Momo!

Congratulations to Andrew and Momo, who got married this weekend!


Their wedding was definitely a fun and memorable occasion. There were definitely a lot of firsts for me during the celebration. I don't even know where I should start...

• I have never been to a wedding before where one of the musical selections during the ceremony was played on Guitar Hero.
  
  
  
• I also have never been to a wedding where the first line of the groom's vows was: "[Bride's name], it's been great having you as a sister..."

All of that just added to the fun. There is no question that we had a blast with them this weekend. More pictures here [flickr.com].

Bitching About Google Maps

Has anyone else tried to use the traffic monitor in Google Maps? It took
me a while to figure out that grey roadways are sections with no data,
and not roadways with mostly free-flowing traffic.

It is a good first effort, but is mostly useless without being real-time.
It would be far more useful if you could click on a section of roadway,
and it would bring up a traffic webcam of that area.



Just having the map itself isn't very useful. Above is a map of Cleveland
during morning rush hour. And shockingly -- SHOCKINGLY -- there is a lot
of traffic and congestion going into downtown. I never would have
guessed. It's a good thing that Google is on top of it.

As the data evolves into a real-time traffic and congestion map, it would
be amazing to be able to see that screen in a car. An accident occurs?
That section starts blinking red, catches your eye, and you know to
re-route.

But right now, it really doesn't tell me anything I don't already know,
and is far worse than the traffic report on local radio.

Even in my Dreams, I'm an Asshole

The other night, I had a dream that I ran into an old friend that I haven't seen in a while. And in the course of catching up, I asked about work in a joking manner. Something to the effect of:

"Hey, how has your job been going? Have you gotten your ass fired yet?"

And as luck would have it, she had just gotten fired, so she started bawling. Of course, I felt like a complete ass.

To add insult to injury, instead of my sub-conscious just switching to a new dream, I woke up. And I felt like the biggest asshole in the world, even though I hadn't ACTUALLY done anything. And that kept me up for hours.

So, am I just paranoid about sounding like an asshole, or do I sub-consciously just really enjoy making myself feel badly? I got pants in my next dream, so I'm pretty sure that it's the latter...

Laptop Dilemma

Way back in 2003, I bought a Sony PCG-V505AX laptop [pcworld.com]. It's been great -- it's small, light, and is fast enough when booted into Linux.

On the other hand, it's ridiculously slow in comparison to anything on the market now. When I try to run a simulation, I almost can't tell whether it is running reeeeally, really slowly, or whether it has locked up. The video card is so slow that I can't run any games, basically. I used to play Neverwinter Nights [wikipedia.org] on it, and it was a little choppy... as long as there weren't too many other people in the game at the time (at which point the machine was just wholly inadequate).

The battery has aged to the point where I can only run for 10 minutes without having it plugged in. And my wireless card just died (at least, I hope that is what happened, and that it is not a larger problem). Not surprisingly, the lack of wireless isn't a huge deal, since I can't run off of batteries anyway.

So, I'm faced with a dilemma now. I could buy a new one, or I could buy a new battery and wireless adapter for my current machine, and limp it along for another year or two.

The decision is made even more difficult by current laptop prices. If they were any cheaper, I would definitely buy a new one. If they were any more expensive, I would definitely wait. Maybe I'll wait to see if I can score a deal right after Christmas...

Berlin

Heimlich and I are in the beginning stages of planning a European vacation for next year. The primary destination will be Berlin (which we have both been to, but neither of us have been there long enough to see everything that we wanted to see). We are also thinking about hitting other cities on the trip as well, such as Prague. We've already picked up a copy of Let's Go Western Europe [amazon.com].

What we just realized is that there are also podtours that we can download (like these of Berlin [letsgo.com]). They are audio tours that you can download to your MP3 player, and listen as you are wandering around historic sites. Many museums make audio tour headsets available, but those usually aren't available for outdoor sites.

We're definitely going to download those, since we were going to be bringing at least one MP3 player anyway.

I'll Be Back

I'll be back Tuesday-ish.

A Tale of Two Razors

For the past 10 or so years, I have been using a Gillette Trac II Plus razor, which is the one on the left:


It has two straight blades, with a fixed head. I am, perhaps, the only person left on the planet using one of these on my face. Any guy who shaves with a razor who is reading this is probably cringing right now. Although, a month ago, I would not have anticipated that reaction.

Gillette recently sent me a free Fusion, which is the one on the right in the picture. It has 5 blades and a swiveling head. And I have just discovered what I am sure that every guy has known for years -- despite the exorbitant cost of the refill cartridges, the five blades and swiveling head is an enormous leap forward.

I liken the invention of this razor type to the invention of turbo-charging in cars, or the invention of double- or quad-pumping of a computer bus, or Krispy Kreme Donuts.

My face no longer gets ripped up. I don't show up for work in the morning, looking like I have a case of poison ivy on my face. I have been shown the light.

Non-Partisan Primary Election Day

Today there are non-partisan primary elections, in my neck of the woods. The most important race on the ballot is the mayoral race between incumbent Mayor George, Councilman Ryan Patrick Demro, and Councilman Edward Fitzgerald.

The US Representative for my city (Lakewood) is Dennis Kucinich, so you might imagine what the political leanings are of the majority of the residents. The city is so urban that there are no school buses -- students either walk to school, or take public transportation.

The incumbent mayor is much maligned due to the frequent tax increases. The other candidates are stressing that the major issues that voters should be concerned about are with increased crime, neglect of foreclosed houses, urban planning, and the allocation of the city's budgets.

The most visible issues are the state of the city streets (which are in far worse shape than the mean in the Cleveland area), and all of the new schools. Several schools have been completely torn down, so that new ones can be built in their place.

That being said, I am having a really difficult time telling the difference between the two challengers (Fitzgerald and Demro). There are several articles about the candidates in the local paper (like this article in the Lakewood Observer).

Is it a positive that one of the candidates has profiles on MySpace and Facebook?

High-Efficiency Laundry Detergent

A little while ago, I wrote about how we were going to buy a new washing machine. Well, we bought it (having gotten a great deal, because fewer people are buying appliances right now), and we took delivery of it recently. The one we bought is a Whirlpool Duet Sport.

One of the things that I wrote about in my previous post was the increased cost of the special high-efficiency (HE) laundry detergent. Now that we are actually using our new washing machine, I can see that I was wrong.

The cost of Tide HE is around twice as much as for regular Tide detergent, but it turns out that you get twice the number of laundry loads out of the same volume. So, the cost of detergent per load is almost exactly the same. On top of that, we have discovered that we can put around twice the number of clothes into a load in our new front-load washer, as compared to our 20+ year old top-loader.

Time will tell, but preliminary numbers suggest that we will only have half of the number of laundry loads to do per week, and therefore the detergent costs will be way, way down. It looks like our electricity bills will be down also, due to the sharply reduced time needed in the dryer -- the spin cycle of this washing machine results in clothes coming out of the washer half-way dry.

We are currently in a laundry frenzy, washing everything that we couldn't fit into our old washer.