Amazon Kindle

I honestly don't understand why I keep seeing reviews [justinblanton.com] and articles [cnn.com] about the Amazon Kindle, which is a wireless electronic reader (think e-books).

I just don't get it. With the current generation of screens, you just can't stare at them for hours and hours on end (comfortably) like you can with a physical book. You just can't (believe me, I try every day at work). With a physical book, you never have a problem with glare or having a problem with contrast in bright sunlight. With a physical book, you can always flip through a chunk of pages and quickly scan as the pages fly by to re-find a section you want to find -- even with searchable text, an e-book just isn't going to be as convenient (every time I search a big PDF, I want to shoot myself with all of the results that get returned). I could go on and on, but I just don't think that anything today can rival physical books for pleasure reading (although I do think that they will, someday).

There are plenty of other reasons why these types of devices don't appeal to me, though. When I go on trips, I don't mind throwing a book or two in my carryon (or checked luggage). For one thing, I never have to worry about them being shaken or tossed around. I don't have to worry about forgetting the charger. I don't have to worry about it crashing, and leaving me with 5lbs of dead weight to carry around until I get back. And I don't have to worry about anyone trying to steal a physical book from me.

To me, the Amazon Kindle is the digital picture frame [amazon.com] of this year -- despite the hype, I have yet to see anyone buy one, and probably won't for a long time.

Remaindered

Latest linkdump:

• I think that we all know that portion sizes at restaurants have dramatically increased over the past few decades, but until now, I haven't seen anything except for anecdotal evidence. Portion Size, Then and Now [divinecaroline.com] is an article that show a few examples, with pictures and calorie counts. The pictures are what make the story, and it is pretty astounding at the differences between now and then. (via rebecca's pocket [rebeccablood.net])


• Apparently, we're starting to see the beginning of the next crime wave: thieves are drilling holes into vehicle gas tanks [yahoo.com], and catching the gas that leaks out. Quote from the article:

  "Given their height... pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles are more vulnerable to the thieves who puncture the tanks and use a container to catch the fuel."
  
  "Plastic tanks are typically the target, he said, since there is less chance of a catastrophic spark, and they are easier to drill into."
  
  "The cost of replacing a metal tank on passenger vehicles is between $300 and $400, and the plastic tank common on newer vehicles would be at least $500."

• I stumbled upon a collection of really beautiful pictures of shipwrecks [darkroastedblend.com]. Amazing.

Over-Sharing on hte Intarweb

This is an interesting article [nytimes.com] on the New York times about Emily Gould thoughts on over-sharing and being a micro-celebrity in the blogosphere. Well, it will be interesting to anyone who is interested in weblogging, anyway.

Basically, it boils down to a question of how much of your life to share on your weblog, and interesting effects that sharing too much may have on your life.

This is a subject that I frequently think about, even without realizing it. My weblog has had a few distinct phases over the years. Back in the beginning, when I was weblogging before everyone had a weblog, I probably shared too much. And now, it seems that I share so little that this weblog has become boring.

Part of the problem is that my life is a lot more boring now. Before I was married and owned a house, I spent a lot more time tinkering with computers and electronics, and doing all kinds of random crazy shit that made for good weblog fodder (how many people do you know that have actually caused their computer to burst into flames?). Now I spend most of my time working on my lawn (and who really wants to hear about that?).

Another part of the problem is that it is difficult to compartmentalize parts of my life with a weblog. For instance, I might not want my coworkers to be able to easily find drunken pictures of me, wearing panties on my head, while getting a tattoo (uh, not that those pictures exist...).

There are times when I think that it would be a lot easier to maintain an anonymous weblog instead of the one that I post to now. It would be easier to control who was reading it, because there would be no easy way to link the page to me. On the other hand, what would my web presence become? Fluggart.com would end up just being a domain name containing dead links. And vanity searches on my name would only come up with links to The Replacement Killers [imdb.com], and results from Table Tennis tournaments from the early 90's.

Archive Quality DVDs

I am always surprised when other people are surprised to hear that burned CDs and DVDs don't last very long [computerworld.com]. I mean, people have been burning CDs for a long time, so you would think that this problem would be more well-known. I have several disks that I burned only a few years ago that are now unreadable (which thankfully, contained nothing important).

I am on the paranoid end of the spectrum, as far as data backups. Anything that I have that is important is copied everywhere. I even go as far as to burn two copies of critical data onto archival-quality DVD-Rs -- one copy to keep at home, and another to keep in a safe-deposit box.

For the past few years, I have been using mam-a archival-quality DVDs [mam-a.com]. However, they have changed their product line around since I have bought media last, and I wasn't that happy with the past batch that I bought. So, I began looking for another brand.

I recently saw this weblog post [adterrasperaspera.com], which has a frighteningly long description of how CD-Rs and DVD-Rs are produced, and how archival-quality media differs. The post recommends a Japanese brand called Taiyo Yuden, which can be purchased at supermediastore.com. So, I'm going to give them a shot.

Back up your data properly, people!

Lifelock

For the past few months, I have been hearing commercials for Lifelock [lifelock.com], which claim that they can protect you from identity theft. These are the commercials in which the CEO of the company gives out his SSN and essentially dares people to try to steal his ID. I have always wondered how that worked.

Well, now I know: ID Security Firm LifeLock Sued For Misleading Marketing [informationweek.com]. Here's a quote:

"The company allegedly fails to make clear that it charges subscribers for an annual credit report that's available to them for free when placing a fraud alert. And it allegedly fails to adequately disclose that its $1 million service guarantee 'is essentially futile' given the way the guarantee is worded..."

"'LifeLock does not necessarily protect its subscribers' identities as advertised,' the lawsuit claims. 'Indeed, the statements by LifeLock's CEO regarding the ability of LifeLock to protect his own identity are deceptive because his identity was stolen while he was a customer and is, upon information and belief, presently being misappropriated by at least 20 identity thieves.'"

Taser Parties

Here is an interesting article: Taser parties a growing US trend [bbc.co.uk]. Apparently, people are having parties similar to the tupperware or Pampered Chef parties of old, but are selecting tasers instead.

People are getting together, discussing disturbing statistics, and expounding upon the virtues of self-defense devices.

In general, I think that this is a great idea. But then I think of my group of friends, and what would happen if we had one of these parties. You just know (with a lot of certainty) that someone would show up that had too much to drink, and pretty soon, the whole party would end up as some snarky Fark headline.

Stupid Trains

Lately, I have been seeing a lot of news articles devoted to the virtues of traveling by train [highlandstoday.com].

With the inevitable delays of air travel, and having to get to the airport so early, means that for many medium-distance trips, taking a train, driving, or flying will take around the same amount of time to arrive at a destination. So, on paper, taking a train doesn't sound like too bad of an option.

Except that it's so ridiculously inconvenient.

Passenger trains should stop at airports. It's really the only practical solution in the US. Right now, in most midwest cities, the train stations are in horrible locations. It's not easy to park nearby. When you arrive at your destination, it is not easy to get to a rental car agency.

In Cleveland, it is not even easy to go from an Amtrak train to the local light rail system to get around. The airport is twice as far away as the Amtrak station. And I almost always use the light rail system to go from home to the airport. And I can guarantee that it would be much larger of a hassle to try to use light rail to get to the Amtrak station.

Even if the frequency of passenger trains increased, I just don't see them ever really challenging air travel. Even if it is significantly cheaper.

Social Sports Fan

I'm what I would call a social sports fan -- I watch most sports simply so that I can keep up with social conversations in the days afterward. I'm already so socially awkward that it would be completely impossible to relate to anyone if I didn't know what they were talking about.

For example, I don't really like basketball. And I almost never watch it. But I watched Game 7 of the Cavaliers-Celtics series yesterday, because that's all anyone would be talking about for the next day or so. And I didn't want to be that guy who was the only person that missed it.

I started this behavior in grad school, when I used to take spinning classes at a nearby gym. The class was at 6AM, which was perfect for the schedule that I was on at the time. And it was being run by an instructor who geared the classes towards serious cyclists (unlike most spinning classes, which are geared toward the general population that just wants some sort of aerobic exercise). I loved the classes, because I got an incredibly intense workout. I carried two water bottles, my heart rate monitor, clipless pedal shoes and an insane amount of towels with me to those classes, and was never disappointed. But it seemed like all we ever talked about in those classes was football. So, I started watching NFL games fairly regularly just so that I could keep up with the conversations.

Now I watch all kinds of crap that I wouldn't watch if I didn't have to do such cumbersome things as actually talk to other people. Considering that I watch almost no TV these days, watching all of this crap is kind of a burden.

Travel and Stupidity

On Bruce Schneier's weblog [schneier.com], I saw a link to an interesting article: Here's How America Looks to the World [washingtonpost.com]. It uses actual data to show the ridiculousness of the current airport security procedures in a different way. I think that we've all seen articles about this topic before -- how much of a headache it is to fly, how the new procedures have actually made flying less secure, etc. But here's an article that takes a different tack. Here's a quote:

"Last November, the Commerce Department reported a 17 percent decline in overseas travel to the United States between Sept. 11, 2001, and 2006."

"Two-thirds of survey respondents worried about being detained for hours because of a misstatement to immigration officials. And... 'More respondents were worried about U.S. immigration officials (70 percent) than about crime or terrorism (54 percent) when considering a trip to the country.'"

Great points. It's about time that we stop the neo-McCarthyism and start using some common sense.

Remaindered

Latest linkdump:

• Here's a link to a video of a Honda Civic with a Corvette engine [streetfire.net] dropped into it. It looks like it would be incredible to drive, albeit really scary. And at the same time, I can't help but think how much work that would that have been, for something so pointless...


• PostSecret [blogspot.com] has a bunch of postcards on display from people who have sent in their Mother's Day secrets. After reading them all, it is clear that there are a lot of disfunctional family relationships out there, some of which are caused by issues that seem so simple to solve. It is yet another reminder of how easy it is to take loved ones for granted.


• On kottke.org [kottke.org], I saw a link to an interesting article about Niagara Falls [newsweek.com]. Did you know that they adjust the flow of water over the falls to make them more dramatic during the tourist season? Here's a quote:

  "...of all the world's natural wonders, Niagara Falls may be the most artificial. Upriver, technicians turn up the falls for the tourist season, by diverting less water for hydropower. From April through mid-September, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., they let 100,000 cubic feet per second go over the falls—double the usual 50,000, but still only half the natural volume. Starting as early as the 1830s, the topography has been tweaked, even rebuilt... The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has blasted and excavated, filled and graded; it has added eight acres to Goat Island, between the Bridal Veil and Horseshoe Falls, implanted sensors to detect rocks coming loose and reshaped the Horseshoe's American edge; the Canadian falls is now 400 feet narrower than it used to be.

Bed Bugs in NYC

Apparently, there is a bed bug epidemic [nydailynews.com] in New York City right now. They are infesting everything, including upscale, luxury apartment buildings. Here's a quote from the article:

"'The female hatches as many as 500 eggs a year, and they can survive for a year and a half without a blood meal,' he said. 'They're at home in every neighborhood in the city, including Park Ave. and Fifth Ave.'"

Gross.

Anyway, this is of interest to us, because we are going to be visiting New York City sometime this summer to see one of our friends perform in a musical. And we are worried that even the hotels will be infested.

Apparently, we're going to have to take everything that we took on the trip, and seal them in bags after we get back, to make sure that we don't inadvertently take any hitch-hikers back with us. Ick.

On a related note, here is a completely disgusting (but at the same time, morbidly fascinating) article on bedbugs in refurbished mattresses [msn.com].

US Incarceration Rate

Recently, I saw a link to a NY Times article called Inmate Count in U.S. Dwarfs Other Nations' [nytimes.com].


The article features a list of statistics and a guess as to reasons why the incarceration rate is so much higher in the US than other developed nations. Here's a quote:

"The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners."

"...it is the length of sentences that truly distinguishes American prison policy. Indeed, the mere number of sentences imposed here would not place the United States at the top of the incarceration lists. If lists were compiled based on annual admissions to prison per capita, several European countries would outpace the United States. But American prison stays are much longer, so the total incarceration rate is higher."

I thought that it was an interesting article. Especially because I (and probably most other Americans) feel that prison sentences (particularly for violent crime) are too short.

If you ask me, if you are convicted of 1st degree murder, rape, or child molestation, you should never be allowed back into society ever again. You can't be reformed or rehabilitated, and you're a danger to society. I don't understand how people who commit these crimes get off with only a few years in jail. And I'm more outraged by people in the Catholic church getting no punishment for harboring child molesters than I am with people getting jail sentences that seem too long.

Image from Gipic's Flickr photostream [flickr.com].

Random Thoughts

Two random thoughts for the day:

• Why is it easier to hold your bladder while doing the potty dance?
  
  Or is it? Someone has probably done a study by now: 100 volunteers drank 2 liters of water, and were not allowed to go to the bathroom for an hour. Half had to sit or stand still (the control), while the other half were allowed to do "the potty dance." Then the number of people who lost bladder control were compared between the two groups...


• Am I becoming too cynical? A couple of people have hinted as much, lately.
  
  For instance, someone was telling me that they always check the weather on The Weather Channel (as in the TV station, not the website). They argued that it was convenient, because the forecast is always shown on the 8's. And I asked (having not watched The Weather Channel in at least a decade), "Do they really do that? Or do they actually put the forecast on the 9's to trick you into watching a commercial?

The Sword of Shannara

Last weekend, I tried reading The Sword of Shannara [amazon.com] by Terry Brooks. I have never read any of his books before, so I really have no idea whether this book is a good representative of his writing or not.


Anyway, I got about 100 pages in and bailed. My feeling is that it was too much like Lord of the Rings, crossed with Harry Potter. I didn't feel as though there was a lot of originality.

The main plot arc involves an evil guy that hears of a prophecy, and goes out to kill any boys fit the description of someone that will grow up to fulfill the prophecy (as in Harry Potter and Oedipus).

A tall, ridiculously-wise man (some would say Gandalf-like) comes to an out-of-the-way village (like the Shire) to find one of the boys who could fulfill the prophecy, and convinces him he has to leave to save his life and the lives of his family. So, he and his most trusted friend (his adoptive brother) leave the only town they have ever known (like when Frodo and Sam left the Shire) and have a bunch of near death experiences as they make their way through a forest, etc.

Intelligent Highways

I was talking with some friends about the future of highways. Are we really going to be able to just keep adding lanes to highways as the required capacity increases? Arguably in most major cities, we have already hit the point where adding more lanes wouldn't help much, because highway width doesn't scale well.

Most American cities are now so decentralized that there is no hope for conventional mass transportation to ever work efficiently. What we can do is make our vehicles and roadways more efficient, although I am not claiming that I have the solution.


What if vehicles could communicate with one another? What if we could automate the task of driving (at least on the highway, and switch to manual control on surface streets). Maybe one day, if you wanted to drive from Cleveland to New York, you could put your car on the highway, switch to auto-pilot and sleep. Then you'd get awoken near your destination.

Although there are several technological challenges that lie in the way of automated driving, the most difficult one, IMHO, is the collision avoidance problem. I think that in order to reduce the collision avoidance opportunities, you'd want to have a system where vehicles on auto-pilot link up to form a train. The aerodynamic drag and cost of propulsion could be divided to make them each more efficient. Once they are mechanically linked together, there is no collision avoidance that has to be performed in between those vehicles.

Another reason why collision avoidance is such an important problem is because people will probably be unwilling to adopt an auto-pilot unless it offers a dramatically reduced chance of getting into an accident, compared to a human driver. I think that if an auto-pilot reduced the chance of getting into an accident by half, people would still want to drive themselves, because they would rather have their fate in their own hands.

The left-most lane could be reserved for these vehicles, and the speed limit for linked up vehicles could be higher, which would encourage their adoption.

Picture of highway at night from Nrbelex's Flickr photostream [flickr.com].