Looking for a Bluetooth Headphone for Your iPhone? Check THIS Out

I got the Sony Ericsson HBH-DS205 Bluetooth Stereo Headset dongle earlier today. I've been using it all afternoon with my iPhone and I've been quite impressed. This is one of those Bluetooth dongles where I can plug in my own headphones. For me, I'm using the Sony MDREX55LP in-ear earbuds. They have great sound, lots of bass, and isolate outside noise pretty well (important when riding on the cacophonous subway).

In this picture, here's my car key and a quarter, then the HTC Bluetooth dongle, the Sony, and the Tritton.

So far, here's what I've found it will do:

- Play music without stuttering. I can't tell you how many reviews I've read where the Bluetooth headphones will stutter every few seconds. This stuttering happened with my HTC Bluetooth dongle connected with iPhone. The HTC dongle, used with either the HTC Fuze or the Advantage, would not stutter. Same manufacturer, I guess, for all the pieces means good connectivity.

- It will automatically connect to iPhone when turning it on. The Tritton I had before would not autoconnect. I had to use iPhone's Settings app and force the connection.

- The Sony Ericsson will answer incoming calls by pressing the Action button. I can also hold down the Action button on an incoming call and it will be rejected and sent to voicemail.

- The Action button will let me transfer the call from iPhone to the headphone so I can go private if I've been using iPhone's speaker for group calls.

- The Volume controls are *very* easy to use. Slide the button up to raise the volume and down to lower it.

- The Action button will pause/play music. I've used this with iPhone's iPod, and with Pandora and ooTunes.

- Double-clicking the Action button will redial my last outgoing number.

- When charging, the dongle doesn't turn off (unlike with my HTC dongle). The Tritton dongle would also stay on when charging.

- The distance is great. I can get across the room from iPhone before I lose the connection. This is convenient when working around the office or the den because I can leave iPhone connected to power, yet still listen through headphones.

- The Tritton shorted out from sweating during my workouts, I think, because of the way it's made. When clipped onto a t-shirt collar, one side will be next to the skin. On one side there's the on/off switch and on the other is the control buttons, so some part of the electronics was being sweated upon. I always wore it with the on/off switch against my skin so that I could easily access the volume and action buttons. With the Sony Ericsson clip, sweating won't be a problem because the part that clips to my t-shirt collar and touching my skin is just a piece of plastic, and not actually any electronic part of the dongle.

There's one caveat with these Bluetooth dongles. I have the problem with this new one, and also had the problem with the other two. When watching a movie, I find that the audio and video aren't in sync -- especially annoying when a person in close-up is speaking. To get around the problem on WinMo, I used a program called CorePlayer because it allowed me to adjust the sound so that it was sent to the dongle about .75 seconds before the movie was displayed on-screen. This made the audio and video sync perfectly. Unfortunately, until Apple adds some similar adjustment to iPhone, I'll have to directly connect my headphones to the audio jack.

All in all, this dongle is highly recommended just after one day of use. I'll update this entry if I find out anything different from what's gone on today.

By the way, don't get it from the Sony Style stores or their on-line because it's $150. I got mine from Amazon for $79 plus $20 for overnight shipping. Other places may have similar or better prices so shop around!

Update: I've been having some problems when answering the phone while in ooTunes or Pandora. Something happens and I almost always have to tell iPhone to route the music back to the headset after the call is complete. Otherwise, it's been a great setup!

Update: As I'm reading about other headphones like the Motorola, it seems this is common on the iPhone. It isn't a problem now that I'm used to it -- I was just not expecting it to act this way because I never had this issue with Windows Mobile. I guess Apple will fix this as their Bluetooth software matures.

Prepping for My Next Graduate Course (More iPhone Goodness)

Got an e-mail from my prof regarding my upcoming class. Naturally, I opened it on my iPhone (funny how I haven't used my tablet that much anymore except for syncing music and movies -- but do I miss it? No, not really.) Anyway, the e-mail says that the syllabus is ready to go and the class members should review it and ask the professor any questions that come to mind. The first class is July 7 (right around the corner timewise) so I took a gander at the syllabus.

This is where it gets interesting. I didn't go to my computer to get the syllabus. Nope, I opened it right on my iPhone from Hopkins' BlackBoard. Now, before, when I tried this with Windows Mobile, I couldn't get it to work. I tried Internet Explorer, then tried Opera after IE failed me, but I got no love from BlackBoard. I feared the same thing on the iPhone, but lo and behold, BlackBoard opened up, let me log in, and took me to my class list. Cool so far. Then I went into the specific class links, and was able to open and review the Syllabus link, took a look in the Course Documents link, and even got into the Discussion Boards! Now I'm impressed even more.....

I'm going to see how much I can use the iPhone for this class. I already know that the PowerPoint presentations required in the syllabus will have to be on my tablet since there's no app for that yet, but the reading and research (in Safari) and note taking (in DocsToGo's Word app) most likely can be done in Safari. This is kinda like jkOnTheRun's experiment of mid-last year with using the cloud exclusively for a couple of months to do work. Thanks for the inspiration guys! We'll see how far I get.

Some iPhone Goodness

Here are some cool things I have noticed over the last few days of using my iPhone. I can't believe I've had it a week already!

- Undocking and using headphones are seamless (there's that word again!). When I have my phone docked into my new clock radio, everything will play through the radio speakers. When I remove it from the dock, the sound transfers over to my Tritton headphone dongle. Even better, when a phone all comes in, a screen pops up asking me to use the phone, the speaker, or the headphones. Excellent!

- In looking at the app store, I found many apps. One in particular caught my eye because of our WalkingWorks.com competition in the office. This app is called iTreadmill and I've been using it to capture my steps during the day. It has a lot of bells and whistles, lets me keep a log of what I'm doing, and even let's me email the info myself (which means I can send the results straight into my health blog).

- I also am using the standard Pandora. People are right: The app is *very* good at playing music based on the 5 artists that I initially put in. I've already found quite a few other artists that I consider great, and have gone straight to Rhapsody to get their music.

Seen on a bumper sticker

The well-behaved rarely make history.

 

Just Got Our First JungleDisk Bill

And the costs were in line with what I thought. Here's the breakdown:

• The first two lines are a monthly recurring charge for Jungledisk's special web access service (so we can get to our files from any browser, anywhere with an Internet connection).
• The GETs and PUTs are the upload and download commands. They are about one penny for each 10,000 requests. We had a lot of PUTs this billing period because we were uploading each of our computers' data to JungleDisk's servers. The next bill will probably be one penny for PUTs and another penny for GETs.
• The next line shows the amount of data we uploaded during the month (21.7GB) . This cost will only be for this month to upload all our files.
• The next line shows the amount we (actually I) downloaded. I accidentally deleted a folder and had to restore. (This is cool: I opened the JungleDisk disk drive icon in Windows Explorer, navigated to the deleted folder, then dragged-n-dropped from the JungleDisk list down to my system. The folder was back in a few seconds. No muss, no fuss! It's like we have local storage, but without the worry of our backup drives crashing yet again.....)
• The final line shows the actual storage costs. I guess it's the average over the month because we have over 21GB stored there now, yet the bill is for only 17.9GB. The next bill will probably show the full 21GB stored.

I had originally estimated $6 for the month. The first month, though, I figured would be a bit higher because of all the uploading, then the cost would go back down to normal. Now, I'm thinking that subsequent bills will be even lower, because:

$1 for the web access service

$0.02 for the GETs and PUTs

$0.10 for uploaded data

$0.02 for downloaded data (let's say this amount -- hopefully we won't have to use part this very often!!)

$3.00 for data storage

$4.14 for the month -- NICE!

We're really digging this JungleDisk/Amazon S3 service, and hope to have a long relationship with both of them.

Keep in mind this is just one front-end service using Amazon's backend. There are more out there (listed on the Amazon S3 website) and they offer different services. Be sure to do your research if this encrypted, always available from anywhere, don't have to worry about local hard drive crashes service interests you, so that you can get the best fit for your goals.

UPDATE: Just got our second bill and it's also in line with what we expected.

iPhone Gets Better and Better

So today is the first day back at work.

I'm finding all sorts of stuff to like about the iPhone that Windows Mobile just doesn't do (or maybe it does, but requires some sort of add-on, or maybe it doesn't). Examples include:

- The automatic switch between my home network then AT&T's 3G then the Starbucks network down the street then back to AT&T's 3G is just, well, I don't have words for it. It's been totally seamless and the only way I know of the switch is the change of the icons in the upper left-hand corner. It's very well implemented, and gets me to my goal of always being connected somehow. The radio station I was listening to with ooTunes didn't miss a beat the whole time. Impressive.

- The ease of getting my e-mail from gmail and from the office in one place is just exemplary. (Oh, geez, am I sounding like a fanboi? Eh, not yet.....) I don't think this is the "universal mailbox" because messages from my two accounts are not co-mingled -- each has its own mailbox. And the display of the mail messages is just like looking at my laptop or desktop. I never had this functionality in the few WinMo mail apps I could find. Gmail is set to IMAP (and the office Exchange account defaults this way too). I find that I can quickly go through these two accounts, deleting what I don't need, reading the rest, and allowing them to sit until the evening when I fire up my tablet and download the messages to my "just in case my gmail account or Exchange account disappears I have a local backup" Outlook client. When the download happens, the mailbox on my iPhone is cleaned out, ready for the next day. OH, and the folders from Outlook is duplicated on the iPhone. DONT'T KNOW HOW that happened, it just did, and is incredible.

- The Tritton bluetooth dongle is working well. When a call comes in, the caller name (or phone number if the caller is not in my contacts) shows up on the screen. I can accept the call by pressing the action button once, or reject it by pressing and holding for a few seconds. Sweet! I also found that if I'm not on a call, I can double-click the action button and initiate a call to the most recent phone number I dialed. Hmmmm... I wonder if I'm in a call that I received, and I double-click the button, can I initiate a call to the most recent phone number I dialed and have that call automatically added to the conversation? I'll have to try it out!

- I just can't believe how fast the iPhone 3GS runs when rendering webpages in Safari, even using my AT&T 3G connection. I can't think of any site that I've been to yet where the page didn't render VERY quickly and VERY well. I'm just amazed.

Do I sound like I'm gushing? Oh, well, I guess I am. My friends were telling me that I wouldn't understand the experience until I actually owned an iPhone and actually used it for more than a few hours or even a couple of days. I can't believe I'm already on my 4th day -- and unbelievably, I can't imagine going back to WinMo. I also have found that yesterday and today (other than to type up these long-ass blog entries and to fire up my Outlook client for a few minutes to collect e-mail), I've not even used my computers at home. That's HIGHLY ODD for me; maybe it's the newness of the iPhone, maybe I'm just trying to push the boundaries of what the iPhone will do for me, who knows..... More later.

I'm gonna be iPhone app $ broke pretty soon

Well, I did it. I stood in line at the AT&T store on Friday morning and jumped to The Apple Side (TM).

It all started when my best friend, other friends, and coworkers showed me the apps on their iPhone 3G's and bragged about what the apps could do. They would let me hold and fondle and play with it to seduce me, then they'd take it away, leaving me salivating for more. Once, and only once, I got to play with one for awhile, a couple of hours actually -- I was supposed to be helping with the writing of a Master's thesis paper and I would occasionally grunt in the writer's direction when he asked questions and wanted feedback. But I digress. Anyway, time seemed to stop as I tapped, slid, pinched, and lovingly rubbed that screen; in reality, I found that over 2 hours had passed in a flash. The iPhone was like a Succubus in disguise.

That time with the iPhone showed me just how stale the Windows Mobile experience had become. My beloved HTC Advantage, my previous XV6700, my new HTC Fuze, all were stuck in the 1990's. Oh, understand that the Fuze's TouchFlo helped tremendously, but the touch experience was still quite lacking when the interface had to drop back into the native Windows environment. On the WinMo phones, I found myself pressing multiple times to select something, pressing hard(er) to have the screen register, having to use a fingernail or a stylus to select too-small icons and menus. On the iPhone, I touched and it responded. Simple and uncomplicated.

That time alone with the iPhone baited me and I bit the hook. I told my boss that I'd be out of the office on Friday (but I didn't tell him WHY) since I didn't know how long the lines would be or how long the whole process of upgrading my account would take. When I arrived at the local AT&T store around 6:45a or so, much to my surprise, there were only about 40 people in line (it's a little bitty AT&T store in one of those trendy boutique strip malls). I had read that the AT&T stores would open at 10am like normal, at 9am because of the iPhone launch, and also at 7am for the pre-registrations. I hadn't pre-registered, but figured if I went at 7am, at the most I'd get a new phone, at the least they'd say "Sorry, you didn't pre-register, go away." We waited in line, neighbors talking with each other, excitement in the air, people lining up behind me.

The doors opened at a few minutes after 7am. They let us in one at a time at first, and I figured they were getting used to the system for registering the iPhones. After 8 or 10 people were finished (a little over an hour or so), they started letting in 2 or 3 people at a time. My turn came up, and in I went. The sales rep, Ali, seemed very knowledgeable about the iPhone and the activation process. My case was special (hence no pre-registration for me) since I was using a second phone on my account to get the lowest pricing, then moving my main number to the iPhone. He asked me which one I wanted (the black one with 32G, of course!). The process took about 15 minutes, and while the phone was activating, Ali showed me the accessories. I picked up one of the slim leather DLO cases for my belt and a couple of extra power supplies. When I was done shopping, the phone had registered and was ready to go. Just as I was finishing paying, I heard one of the clerks say that the lady behind me had gotten the last phone, then heard them telling people still in line that there were no more 32G iPhones to be had. Whew -- that was close!

It's been a little over two days of playing and tweaking and syncing and downloading apps (geez, I've already filled up over two screens). I've gotten quite good at the on-screen keyboard and it feels like I'm typing faster than I was using the physical keyboard on my Fuze. The trick (from someone in the AT&T store line who had the iPhone 3G) was to use my forefinger, not my thumbs, and to use portrait, not landscape. I do find it much easier and more accurate to just let my finger dance across the narrow, portrait-oriented keyboard. The autocorrect helps for the occasional mistype, and has been amazingly accurate.

Knowing how Windows-centric I am, my friends have welcomed me to The Apple Side, probably wondering when I'm gonna get my first Mac (Tablet, of course!). Since I didn't tell anyone in the office what I was doing with my day off on Friday, my officemates will be HIGHLY shocked on Monday when I walk in with a new iPhone on my hip.....

Western Digital Drives Suck, For Us Anyway

I figured out the failing backup situation. Turns out that the WD MyBook drive (500GB) crashed. It's only a few months old, so I'm pissed. I don't think we lost anything (unlike the previous WD 250GB MyBook drive that we had, which was a holder of our stuff, but we didn't have a backup of it). Turns out we're not alone. The drives are (were) hooked up to a desktop system in the basement that's only used to hold backups from the laptops around the house and for TivoToGo. Screw having local drives to back everything up. We'll just start using the Internet.

Based on a mention from jkOnTheRun, I looked up JungleDisk. It's an interesting product that leverages Amazon's amazing backup offerings. As I researched, I found that Amazon has this incredible set of infrastructure solutions, one of which is the "Amazon Simple Storage Solution" aka "Amazon S3." The S3 solution provides an unlimited storage area (they say that some of their accounts have terabytes of information stored there) that is fully encrypted and uses redundant storage so no data would be lost. (They're serious about the encryption: During the setup process, they caution that if the user loses the encryption password, the data will be readable by no one.)

The costs are beyond reasonable. It only costs 17 cents per GB stored, plus a few pennies for each GB uploaded or downloaded. We figure that the bill will be about $6 per month -- to back up our computers -- ALL the computers in the house. This is great for us because we don't have to worry about setting up some sort of redundancy for these drives that keep crashing, and we don't have to fret when a drive crashes and we have to figure out what we've lost. We can even shutdown the basement computer and put TivoToGo on our laptops.

The front end is where JungleDisk comes into play. They provide a piece of software that sits in the system tray (like SecondCopy does, which is the software we use to back up the laptops to the basement computer) and kicks off a backup on a schedule that we set up for each computer. The best part of all this is that we only need one account to back up all the computers; each computer doesn't need its own account. Nice!

I opened an account with JungleDisk and started using this solution the other day. It's been easy to use and works very much like SecondCopy. We get a daily e-mail report of which computer backed up which files, how long it took, and how much was uploaded to the server. Even better, we can access our files from anywhere using JungleDisk's web interface, an option we didn't have before!

Thanks James and Kevin for pointing this out!

Four New iPhones Coming Soon? GeekDotCom Says So

I'm drooling! And bored with the *very* tired Windows Mobile. I have an HTC Fuze (and an HTC Advantage and an XV6700 before that and a Dell something or other before that). All run Windows Mobile, and need a reboot every few days to keep going -- hey! just like my Windows desktop and laptop.

My best friend's iPhone, he says, has never needed a reboot (except for when upgrading or adding software). I believe him, and he's been trying to woo me to the Apple side. The current iPhones lack two things that I won't do without: Bluetooth stereo and tethering. I've been reading that these are available in the new iPhones.

Plus there are tons of rumors about an impending Mac Tablet PC. Remembering the days with my Newton, I'm drooling again. I currently have an IBM Lenovo X60 Tablet, which I use all the time for e-mail and magazines and school books. (My Acer Aspire One, while nice to carry, does no justice to a Zinio'd Motor Trend or Science magazine!) The Lenovo's cool and all, but something seems not-as-good when I compare it to my Compaq TC1100 Tablet. I think it's the rounded corners (Compaq) versus the squared off corners (Lenovo), but I'm not totally sure.

I'm probably definitely surely most likely getting the 32GB version of the iPhone -- I can never have enough entertainment (music and movies) with me!

Guess I'll start looking in the couch, chair, car seats, old bags, wherever I think I can collect some money to put toward this new beastie.....

Interesting artist named Hikaru Utada

has an album out. Her voice doesn't match her look but she sounds very current pop. Check out samples at http://utada-thisistheone.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=guptamedia

There are a few different styles in there, and some good piano work (wonder if it's her?) throughout.

Finished reading Taking of Pelham One Two Three

Now I’m gonna watch the original movie (I TiVo’d it the other day) before I go see the new one. If the reviews of the new one aren’t good, of course, I’ll pass.

Using my Sony eReader, I found it easy to keep track of all the players while reading the book (and there are QUITE A FEW, but not as many as in the Red Mars series) using the notes function. I mention this because I’ve read a couple of folks saying they’re unsure of what the notes could be used for. Here’s an example screen shot on the right.

I can highlight names and phrases throughout the book, and the on-screen keyboard makes it easy to add my own thoughts to remind myself who the players are while reading. It's easy to tap the screen and switch between the notes and the reading. The notes stay with the book and get uploaded to the PC’s Sony software when I sync. Good stuff!

This picture also gives you a good indication of the "glare" that people have mentioned. It's more of an unfocused fuzzy soft reflection than a glare. You should see the glare/ reflection from my HTC Fuze cellphone as well as the HP Pavilion Entertainment PC in the den -- talk about having a mirror available all the time!!

UPDATE: Oh, look, I'm famous: I'm published on one of my favorite blogs!

The people they put on the "news" these days

There are actually Hispanic people on TV complaining about Obama and his pick of Judge Sotomayor, saying that "he's just doing it because he's ignored the Hispanic community until now." Of course, these are the same idiots that would be complaining if he DIDN'T pick a Hispanic person. I really can't tell you how stupid these people look -- just shut the hell up already.....

This is just another reason that I don't watch the evening news as a general rule (my housemate was watching it and, as I was passing through to the basement to start my workout, the Sotomayor story was on). I like to get my news from the Sunday "pundits" like McLaughlin Group and George Stephanopoulos' show. I know that a lot of people don't like these shows because they are full of the participants' personal views. HOWEVER, I think it's the easiest and fastest way (in less than a couple of hours) to get the most important issues from the week, and many of the different viewpoints that can impact those issues. Highly recommended for the busy person!

Candidate Sotomayor says she was influenced by Perry Mason

She doesn't say that her verdicts were based on the TV show, but she says that she was inspired to become an attorney because of the show.

I've always liked this series. Something very home spun about it, like Andy Griffith's different series. Hopefully that will carry over into her deliberations on The Big Bench. That she has already been approved a couple of times bipartisanly speaks volumes for her character and attitude. Maybe this will help the gay causes as well (you do know Raymond Burr was gay and had a partner/boyfriend for many many years, right??)

More at Anderson Cooper 360: http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/05/26/video-perry-mason-influenced-judge-sotomayor/

Interesting article on the Hyundai Genesis Coupe

I've seen this car on the Leverage TV show. It's quite nice! Now Gearlog talks about how much technology is stuffed in this car. Plus they talk about how well it competes with the Mustang, Camaro, and Challenger. They also wonder why this level of technology costs so much in the "luxury" sports cars.

Interesting as it is, I think I'll keep my TT for now.....

http://www.gearlog.com/2009/05/car_review_hyundai_genesis_cou.php

Finally finished reading "Red Mars" (1,770 pages long in my Sony eReader)

Went ahead and downloaded the sequels "Green Mars" (almost 2,000 pages) and "Blue Mars" (about 3,500 pages). I'm putting these aside for now though since they'll take me practically forever and right now I'm all Mars'ed-out. I've just started reading "Taking of Pelham 123" in honor of the upcoming movie. I had never read the book, but I've seen the original movie, so I hope the new one is just as exciting (but not as cheesy as the 1970's movies went). For those that don't know, the movie is about the hijacking of a subway train in NYC. Lots of twists and turns, and pretty exciting once it gets started.

The future is here, and it's starting in Japan

The Aoyama Gakuin University is giving students iPhones for free. The catch: The device will be used to monitor students via GPS so that professors can take role electronically (Prof: Were you in class? Student: Yes! Prof: No, you were in the kirin garden, your GPS says so!). Profs can also send tests, send out videos, and even accept homework from students.

Guess the "dog ate my paper" stories will now be the "dog swallowed my iPhone and was running amok while I was sitting in class so don't use the GPS to take my attendance.....oh and I couldn't print out my homework because it's on the iPhone in my dog's belly" stories.

(Source: The Mainichi Daily News, Japan)

And here's another Google Doodle today

What's this, like the 3rd or 4th day in a row of Doodles? I like 'em so no problem! Today's is for the birthday of Mary Cassatt from Pennsylvania, an American painter and print maker of the mid-late 1800's into the early 1900's. Her art's nice, very laid back and reminds me of Norman Rockwell sometimes, but not my style (which is more like Kandinsky).

Created an Excel macro that 'freezes' information on all worksheets of a workbook

Our 25-worksheet monthly report workbook has gobs of calculations throughout. Information is even pulled from another workbook to complete the calculations. Problem has occurred when sending the final monthly report workbook to the customer - I would have to manually open each worksheet, highlight it, copy it, and use Edit / Paste / Special to paste only the Values. Too time-consuming, so I worked up the following macro:
_______________________________________

Sub EditPasteValues()

' I'll want to return to the current worksheet
' when this is done, so I'll save its info for
' future reference:

Dim CurrentSheet As Excel.Worksheet
Set CurrentSheet = ActiveSheet

Dim Sheet As Excel.Worksheet
Dim CurrentWindow As Window

' Here, I'll cycle through each of the worksheets,
' performing the select all cells, copy all cells,
' Edit / Paste Special / Values so that any formulas
' are wiped out and only the final values remain

For Each Sheet In Excel.Worksheets
If TypeName(Sheet) = "Worksheet" Then
Sheet.Activate
Set CurrentWindow = ActiveWindow
Application.Goto Reference:="R1C1"
Cells.Select
Selection.Copy
Range("A1").Select
Selection.PasteSpecial Paste:=xlPasteValues, Operation:=xlNone, SkipBlanks _
:=False, Transpose:=False
Application.CutCopyMode = False
Range("A1").Select
End If
Next Sheet

' Here I'm returning to the original worksheet
' that I saved above

CurrentSheet.Activate

End Sub
_______________________________________

Have you seen google's homepage today? -

There are entries (some from Kindergartners!!) from the recent contest for the best doodle. The winner is a sixth grader from Texas. I'm trying to think back to what I was doing in the sixth grade: homework, playing outside, running around with my bestest friend in the whole world.

Back when I was 13 or so, there was no computer or Internet or cable TV or DVDs, or VHS even. We went to a theater to see movies, and they cost probably $2 to get in. And TV was just three mostly clear channels (NBC, CBS, ABC), and one channel that was pretty bad but still watchable (WDCA in Wash. DC) and we liked it. We sometimes had to adjust the rabbit ears, though (oh the horror of it all!!) and without a remote control, we had to get up off the couch to change channels or adjust the volume or turn the TV on and off (yikes!). Oh, and for the smartasses, yes we did have color (smirk). This was particularly troublesome when we had to answer the phone which was totally wired to the wall; we had to answer, tell the caller to hold on, walk over to the TV and turn it down, come back to the phone, and talk (or in our parent's case, they'd yell to me or my brother to turn down the TV without having to leave the phone, sorta like their very own living remote controls).

Ah, the memories. . . . In 10 years time, when these kindergartners are teens, I wonder how the world will be different for them? I'm looking forward to finding out, that's for sure!!

The NYT says today that by paying off my credit card bills every month I'm considered a deadbeat -

The NYT fronts a look at how banks will now be looking at ways they can make more money from some of their best customers. Well, "best customers" might be how you commonly think of the people who pay their bills in full and on time every month, but they're actually called "deadbeats" in the industry because they don't generate much revenue for the companies. These customers have not only failed to give much revenue to the poor credit card companies, but they dared to demand things like cash-back rewards and frequent-flier miles. That may soon be a thing of the past. Now that Congress wants to impose limits on how much the companies can charge riskier borrowers, they're looking at how they can increase revenue from those with good credit. Banks are likely to bring back annual fees, cut back reward programs, and charge interest immediately upon a purchase. Or at least that's what banks want people to believe as they furiously lobby lawmakers, who are discussing a wide variety of rules that could soon be imposed on card companies. "Those that manage their credit well will in some degree subsidize those that have credit problems," said the head of the American Bankers Association.

(Source: Slate Magazine)

Reading a Book Called "Red Mars" by Kim Stanley Robinson -

Interesting reading re Gov't power as @PeterSantilli tweet implies. This one is 1,770 pages on my Sony eReader. There are two followup books, "Green Mars" and "Blue Mars" that I'll probably get and read. This first one has taken up about 2 weeks of my reading time so far (I'm on page 1,246). Don't know how long the other two are.....

The Bullpen at DC's National's Park Is Now Open

http://www.thebullpendc.com/www/ - Gotta check it out!

Society for Competitive Intelligence in Wash DC

has an interesting blog: http://scipdc.wordpress.com/

They have an upcoming event re using media analysis for scenario projections.

Twitter has lost most of my feeds

so I'm gonna blog my tweets (sounds groovy, don't it?!!) from now on!

This first one is a test to see if Twitterfeed does what I think it will.

I was using Twitter as a sort of history timeline diary, but I should've stuck with Blogger. Sorry Google, that I strayed!

PDF Annotator

Just downloaded and installed the newest PDF Annotator (version 2) from Grahl Software. It's got a LOT of new stuff. Highly recommended!! (I don't work for Grahl, I'm just a very satisfied customer.)

Greatest . . . Purchase . . . Ever!

Well, it's maybe not the greatest purchase ever, but it ranks right up there!

Picture it: We usually put off until Sunday evening (don't we all??) to wash, and there's sometimes a mad scramble to get there first. We bought one of these Whirlpool portable washers and it's really working great for us.

It's quick, too -- even the longest cycle takes less than 45 minutes or so. Plus, we can pause it mid-cycle and let stuff soak for as long as we want. We keep it in the little closet under the stairs that's in the laundry room. When needed, we roll it out and hook it up. When done, we roll it back out of the way.

Highly recommended!

Where ARE we headed??!!

So here's an entirely scary concept: Kevin Phillips, in his article The Old Titans All Collapsed. Is the U.S. Next? presents startling evidence that we're gonna have a MAJOR headache a few years from now. Interesting reading.

Landscaping Hardscape

Been thinking about redoing the landscaping at home. The little gardens to the left and right of the front door have gotten NASTY over the years. Weeds everywhere, plants dead or dying, geez. I've taken care of the trees in the front and back yards, replacing the mulch. Looks GOOD! So now it's on to the gardens. I just ADORE this look.....

Trend for Old Folks and Insurance

Mom's trying to figure out which insurance plan to go with for her Medicare/Medicaid/retirement.

She's gotten information from several companies (Humana, BlueCross/BlueShield which she uses now, AARP, and so on). Turns out that all the plans are 95% the same!! She says the presentations and documentation that she's been reading is mostly repetitive, with just a few tweaks here and there between the different companies, and slightly different costs.

I think she's going to stay with the BC/BS plan 'cause none of the others are way different.....

Showing Google Earth in a Browser

Well, they finally did it! You can now use Google Earth in a browser plug-in instead of loading the software application. Go to code.google.com/apis/earth to download. Sweet!!

The Japan Shop

Learning Japanese like I am? Check out The Japan Shop. Very nice folks (Clay and Yumi are their names), very good prices.

They've started doing these little $5 "Instant Downloads" which are quite interesting. It may be a Japanese story (in Japanese, of course!) with flash cards, a PDF of the readings, an audio recording at full speed and a recording where the speaker speaks the words slowly for studying, etc. Or it could be a study guide for Japanese sayings with flash cards, PDF, audio recordings, and so on. I've picked up the ones published so far. They're great, and have helped me learn a lot of Japanese, plus at only $5 per download, it's an economical way to study.

They also sell regular books and dictionaries, electronic dictionary devices, study guides, the JLPT study series, and on and on. They EVEN have free stuff for download!

Check 'em out! (By the way, I'm not affiliated with them in any way, except as a very satisfied customer.)

What's on my playlist now?

Ida Corr's new album, Streetdiva. Be sure to check out the "Let Me Think About It" Club Mix with Fedde Le Grand

Brother's Wedding Anniversary

Today is Rob and Lindy's 24th anniversary. According to about.com, the 24th anniversary is for musical instruments. Hmmmm.....

Spacecraft spies probe parachuting to Martian surface

Very Cool! You can actually see the Phoenix parachuting to the Mars surface!



http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13981-spacecraft-spies-probe-parachuting-to-martian-surface.html?feedId=online-news_rss20

The Republicans Have Ruined Us

The war, now absurd gas prices? What next -- or should I tempt fate by asking??

Yee ha!

From Joke of the Day

M&M's

An old man and a young man work together in an office. The old man always has a jar of peanuts on his desk, and the young man really loves peanuts.

One day, while the old man is away from his desk, the young man yields to temptation and scarfs down over half of the contents of the jar. When the old man returns, the young man feels guilty and confesses to his crime.

"Don't worry, son. I never eat the peanuts anyway," the old man replies. "Since I lost my teeth, all I can do is gum chocolate off the M&M's."

Need a reason for an HDTV?

Well, you have a few hours to go get one before Discovery HD channel starts its 5-week run of the series 'Planet Earth' tonight at 8pm.

The whole series is done in HD, and as USA Today says, 'it could be that only an IMAX will be enough' to show how great the picture is.

My TiVo is ready and waiting.....

Source: Engadget HD

New "Floating Towers" Project in Singapore

This is insane!! Would YOU live here??





Source: World Architecture News

Vista 90-Day Report

Jeff Jones has published a review of several operating systems during their first 90 days of existence, including Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems.

Here's his chart:



And here's the link to the full report: http://www.csoonline.com/pdf/Vista_Vuln_Report.pdf

Source: CSO OnLine

Ergonomics?

A theory called the "Healthy Worker Effect" supposes that when someone performs a repetitive task for a long time, like lifting heavy boxes or surfing the Web, the person can develop a resistance to problems associated with the activity. The effect may be developmental, according to Harwood, in that children could develop a body structure to handle more ergonomic stress than they would have if they started the task as an adult.

Kids nowadays can spend hours cradling a cell phone with a crooked neck, slumping over a computer game, slouching in front of a PC while text messaging friends and listening to music. And that's on top of time they might spend in school on a PC surfing the Web to research topics and do homework.

Source: News.com

What a Difference 50 Years Makes

Here's the opening quote of the article:

The chief obstacle to the progress of the human race is the human race. - Don Marquis, poet, artist, newspaper columnist, humorist, playwright and author (1878 -1937)

Some of the listed scenarios:

- Mark gets a headache and takes some headache medicine to school
- Mary turns up pregnant
- Pedro fails high school English

Harmless back then, but boy, do they get it now!!

Check it out!

Source: Wikipedia

Bumper sticker

If you aren't completely appalled then you aren't paying attention.

Man dies from crab he was about to cook

Didn't know THIS could happen:

A man died after getting cut by a live crab he was about to cook up for dinner. Apparently, he was infected by a flesh-eating bacteria that the crab was carrying. The bacteria, Vibrio, can also turn up on fish and prawns. From the German Press Agency:

Cooking destroys the bacteria, making the seafood safe for consumption. Doctors advised people preparing meals to use tongs or gloves when handling the live crabs. The claws should be brushed and washed with water before cooking, they added.

Source: rawstory.com

Oh, Get This Kid Some Prozac!

Ever been in the store, and some kid is acting up? You ain't seen nothin' yet!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkWcwJyagW4

Source: YouTube

A Halloween Costume Microsoft Would Be Ashamed Of!

Analog is dead - Long live analog!

Starting February 17, 2007, analog TV only has 2 years to live. After that, unless you buy some sort of set top box or a new TV, you won't be able to see anything or get signals from the air like now. If you buy a new TV after March 1, 2007, you should have the ATSC tuner (the one that gets digital signals) in addition to the NTSC signal we've used for years and years.

If you're planning on buying a TV, I'd wait until April to make sure that an ATSC is included in the TV.

Robert Adler, co-inventor of the TV remote, passes away

In his lifetime, Mr. Adler secured over 180 patents, one of which we in modern times couldn't live without.

He won an Emmy in 1997, for his contribution to the invention of the TV remote control in the 1950's. Wireless remote control, that is -- remember that the first remote controls were hardwired directly to the TV.

Unlike today's remotes, though, his device didn't need its batteries replaced every few months because it used a strip of metal and a hammer (think of a xylophone) to send signals to the TV.

The name of this device? The Zenith Space Command remote control. Sooo 1950's.....

Source: CNN

Gay Marriage: The Arguments and the Motives

Check it out. Pretty interesting stuff, and the article's been around for awhile.

Topics:

The Arguments Against Gay Marriage
The Real Reasons People Oppose Gay Marriage
Why This Is a Serious Civil Rights Issue
Why Does Conservative Politics Find Gay Marriage So Deeply Threatening?

Source: Scott Bidstrup, a free-lance writer and political activist with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications, with a concentration in broadcasting from Brigham Young University (1971).

Enough Said

New Album: Democustico

Got an e-mail from DanceTracks Digital, which included a link to an album from Far Out Recordings called Democustico. Gave it a listen for a few minutes from their website and liked it. Went to Napster and there it was. I'm streaming it now, a nice fusion of Brazilian samba, folk, Indian vibes, London beats, and global breaks and noise. Highly recommended!

Can I Get That Squirrel Made into a Gravy?

As we gear up for another season of holiday shopping, we grit our
teeth, head to the mall ...and take our lives into our hands dealing with
traffic, parking, crowds, harried salesclerks ...and killer squirrels.

At least, that's what Marcy Meckler had to deal with at the Old
Orchard Mall in Skokie, Ill., one Friday morning in December 2004. (A
tough punk squirrel, that is.) She says she stepped out of the Tiffany &
Co. jewelry store at the open-air mall and was making her way toward
Nordstrom's when, she says, she "had a squirrel jump up and attach itself
to her leg." Startling, to be sure, but "while frantically attempting to
escape from the squirrel and detach it from her leg, [Meckler] fell and
suffered severe injuries."

The injuries were not described but Meckler's lawsuit, filed in Cook
County Circuit Court with the help of attorney Glenn Guth, says they will
cause her to "in the future endure pain and suffering in body and mind."
The suit demands damages in excess of $50,000.

So how in the world is that the mall's fault? Mall owner Westfield
Corp., "by and through its agents, employees, servants and security
personnel, was aware of the longtime presence of the said squirrel on the
premises and allowed the squirrel to remain on the premises, despite the
fact that the squirrel had previously attacked and harassed other
customers, a fact known to Westfield," the suit says. Worse, the suit
alleges mall employees "encouraged the squirrel to remain on the premises
by feeding and caring for the squirrel, despite the dangerous conditions
that arose from allowing said animal to remain on the premises." Even
that may have been OK, except, the suit complains, the mall failed "to
warn the plaintiff of the squirrel's presence."

Yep, Westfield surely knew there were squirrels in the open air mall
area. And I'll bet they even know for a fact that birds fly by overhead.
Heck: even bees, which some people are deathly afraid of, probably visit
the flowers planted around the stores. Some of those people have severe
allergic reactions to bee stings, too, and could literally die from it.
AND YET THEY DIDN'T WARN anyone of these things. Bah. All wildlife "could
be" dangerous sometimes, but most of it is fine if we just leave it the
hell alone and admire it, rather than harass it. Yet Meckler's suit
demands that they must harass it.

We share this planet with other living things. If we killed everything
else to keep from inconveniencing petty, spoiled brats who spend their
days buying bling, the planet would wither and die. So we deal with it if
we want to go out in the world. Malls can't -- and shouldn't -- control
scurrying wild animals any more than they can stop birds from crapping on
windshields as shoppers' cars sit in the valet parking lot. But maybe we
can do something about why-me crybabies who expect someone else to pay
for overreacting to normal situations, even when they fall down and go
boom. Significant monetary fines for filing frivolous actions comes to
mind....


SOURCES:
1) "Mall Sued over Squirrel Attack", Chicago Sun-Times, 15 August 2006
(no longer available online)

2) "Lawsuit: Shopping Center Aided Attacking Squirrel", Sun-Times News
Group Wire, 14 August 2006
http://StellaAwards.com/cgi-bin/redirect5.pl?77a

Amen to That!

From a bumper sticker:

"Yee-Hah" is NOT a valid foreign relations policy.

Crazy Bumper Sticker

"Some people are like Slinkies... not really good for anything, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs!"

What's on my playlist now?

Basment Jaxx's Crazy Itch Radio

What's on my playlist now?

Randy Crawford 's Feeling Good with Joe Sample.

Very nice.

50K

Well, I just broke 50K miles on my li'l red TT.

If mom moves to one state over next year like she wants, I'll be putting *a lot* more on it.....

New Intel Corehowmanyaretherenow Commercial

If you've seen the commercials, the hotties are um, hot, the dancing is great, and the music is, well, wow. Reminds me of my joy at first hearing "Days Go By" by Dirty Vegas for the Mitsubishi Eclipse.

The first one is Mr. Dabada -- Carlos Jean is the hep cat with this jam -- and did I say the dancers are hot?

The second is Ice Cream by New Young Pony Club -- more laid back, more suggestive.

Check 'em out!

What a Mess This Foley Scandal Is!

So, Foley is suggestive with an underage page. At least he didn't have sex with the kid, unlike a certain Republican back in the 80's who actually *had* sex with an underage girl page. And a Democrat who around the same time had sex with an underage boy. Both were censured by the Congress.

Ah, mores back then were quite different from today. A teacher who had sex with a male student went practically unpunished, while today they'd be calling for her head.

Oh, and for those that keep comparing the Clinton/Lewinski scandal to this -- remember, Miss Monica was well into her twenties, and had done that before. It's a TOTALLY different animal from a child who may/may not know any better.

Music Subscriptions? Great Idea Explained!

Been using the Napster service for several months now.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/edwardbaig/2005-05-25-subscriptions_x.htm

Seen on a bumper sticker

It's 95% of the lawyers making the other 5% look bad.

But I used to have good eyes, REALLY!

So, you watched movies on a 13" portable TV. Too big.

Then you watched movies on a 7" portable DVD player. Too big.

Then you watched movies on a 4" PMP. Too big.

Then you watched movies on an iPod. Too big.

Not blind enough yet?

Well, now you can watch movies on demand on your 2" cellphone screen. Yep, you can. Really.

Check it out.

Digitally Imported and Groovin'

http://www.di.fm

If you've not been here to see the streaming radio music they provide, you're truly missing out on a good thing. They offer free streaming at lower quality in 3 formats, but for only about $5/month, you can be a premium member, support their great stations, and get streaming music at like 128k and 192k quality!

There are over 30 stations to listen to, and they all work (unlike some other radio portals where a good number of the links don't respond). My favorites are Deep House, Smooth Jazz, Country, Hit 70s, and Classic Electronica.

Even better, they've optimized their webpage for mobile devices so it's extremely easy to select a station. I'm connected most of the time to their stations either with my tablet or my cellphone. (Of course, I'm also connected to XM64--The Groove when I'm not connected to di.fm.)

Definitely recommended as a site to keep your good eye on! Try it out!

Well this is messed up!

Today, we have a $9.2 trillion budget deficit.

To break down the national debt into comprehensible numbers means that every American carries a “birth tax” of $30,000.....

Some 40% of the deficit is owed to China.

(from OMB)

West Texas Cowboy - Joke

A West Texas cowboy was herding his cows in a remote pasture when suddenly a

brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him. The driver, a
young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL
tie,
leans out the window and asks the cowboy, "If I tell you exactly how
many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?"

The cowboy looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his
peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, "Sure, Why not?"

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer,
connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA
page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation
system to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to
another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.

The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and
exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany. Within
seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has
been processed and the data stored. He then accesses a MS-SQL database
through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his
Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech,
miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the cowboy and
says, "You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves."

"That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves,"
says the cowboy. He watches the young man select one of the animals and
looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then the cowboy says to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly
what your business is, will you give me back my calf?"

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says,
"Okay, why not?"

You're a Congressman for the U.S. Government", says the cowboy.

"Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?"

"No guessing required." answered the cowboy. "You showed up here even
though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already
knew, to a question I never asked. You tried to show me how much
smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing
about cows........

Now give me back my dog."

Suing over iPods? 14 year olds!?

So I don't know whether to file this under stupidity or lack of personal responsibility or poor parenting. Maybe I should file it under all three!

Seems an iPod was loaned, the iPod was returned, but the unsupervised iPod was stolen, and now we get to see the whole thing play out in court. Too sad (if it weren't sooo funny).....

Need a new way to remember the 8 planets in the solar system?

Use this mnemonic of the first letters to remember the order of the planets in their new configuration (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune):

My very exotic mistress just showed up naked.

(Could've been said by Prez Clinton, eh?! )

Definition of OCD

A Stanford Medical research group advertised for participants in a study of obsessive-compulsive disorder. They were looking for therapy clients who had been diagnosed with this disorder.

The response was gratifying; they got 300 responses the day after the ad came out.

All from the same person.

Who Are YOU A Fan Of?

Two boys in Boston were playing basketball when one of them was attacked by a rabid Rottweiler. Thinking quickly, the other boy ripped a board off a nearby fence, wedged it into the dog's collar and twisted it, breaking the dog's neck. A newspaper reporter from the Boston Globe witnessed the incident and rushed over to interview the boy.

The reporter began entering data into his laptop, beginning with the headline: "Brave Young Celtics Fan Saves Friend from Jaws Of Vicious Animal." "But I'm not a Celtics fan," the little hero interjected. "Sorry," replied the reporter. "But since we're in Boston, I just assumed you were."

Hitting the delete key, the reporter began "John Kerry Fan Rescues Friend From Horrific Dog Attack." "But I'm not a Kerry fan either," the boy responds. The reporter says, "I assumed everybody in this state was either for the Celtics or Kerry or Kennedy. What team or person do you like?"

"I'm a Houston Rockets fan and I really like George W. Bush", the boy says.

Hitting the delete key, the reporter begins again: "Arrogant Little Conservative Bastard Kills Beloved Family Pet."

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, um, uh, what's next??

The number of planets around the Sun could rise from
nine to 12 - with more on the way - if experts approve a radical new
vision of our Solar System.

Nice!!

Batteries Exploding All Around You? Try Aluminum!!

Found some articles about using aluminum (or aluminium for you Europeans) combined with air to support fuel cells. Most are old (early 2000's), but here's a fairly technical, more current article about using this process.

"Creative Evolution"? Protect the Kids' Futures Instead!

The people determining the curriculum of our children in many states
remain scientifically illiterate. And Kansas is a good case in point.

(Need a NYTimes login? Check here.)

New Writings from Archimedes Revealed

Check out the scanning of the Palimpsest. Be sure to check out the video of the scanning and of the project's background.

Quite fascinating, especially if it reveals new mathematical theories and formulae!

Coolness: NASA Shuttle Wing Video

Have you seen this?

http://mfile.akamai.com/18566/wmv/etouchsyst2.download.akamai.com/18355/wm.nasa-global/sts-121/right_forward_srb_camera.asx

Most interesting, about 3 minutes into it.

Enjoy!

XM 64 - The Groove . . . Is Groovy!

Hadn't listened to this station before. GEE! Listen to what I've been missing. Right now, my favorite song You're Gonna Make Me Love Somebody Else by The Jones Girls has just come on. Plus they've been playing some disco from back in the day!! It bills itself as old school R&B. Definitely highly recommended as a new favorite station.

XM 64 - The Groove

73.5% Increase in Fat Babies?!

And medical folks say it's raising alarms. I WOULD HOPE SO!!

Guys: Middle Age? No Degree? No Wifey? Well, You're In for It...

Seems social norms are achangin' faster than they used to.....

Read all about it.....

Why Can't They Just Increase the Minimum Wage?!?

Geez, all this jockeying for position. Give the people a break. Damn Republicans. Bring back the Dems.

Great Quote!

I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.
Fred Allen

Monopoly ditches cash, goes plastic

Can you believe it? A Visa card for Monopoly. Go figure!

See more about this.

Lance Bass of `N Sync -- Who Knew!?!

Lance Bass, band member of 'N Sync, says he's gay and in a "very stable" relationship with a reality show star. Bass, who formed 'N Sync with Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Joey Fatone and Chris Kirkpatrick, tells People magazine that he didn't earlier disclose his sexuality because he didn't want to affect the group's popularity.

More at Yahoo! News.

Seen on a bumper sticker

Modern aircraft have heaps of redundancy built
into their design. Why do you think they have TWO wings for example?

Should the US Go Penniless?

Read the article and cast your vote here.

More Bumper Stickers

Now that food has replaced sex in my life, I can't even get into my own pants.

Marriage changes passion. Suddenly you're in bed with a relative.

I saw a woman wearing a sweat shirt with "Guess" on it. So I said "Implants?" She hit me.

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and over fifty for Miss America?

A good friend will come and bail you out of jail...but, a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "Wow...that was fun!"

I signed up for an exercise class and was told to wear loose-fitting clothing. If I HAD any loose-fitting clothing, I wouldn't have signed up in the first place!

When I was young we used to go "skinny dipping," now I just "chunky dunk."

Don't argue with an idiot; people watching may not be able to tell the difference.

Wouldn't it be nice if whenever we messed up our life we could simply press 'Ctrl Alt Delete' and start all over? AMEN, AMEN !!

Wouldn't you know it... Brain cells come and brain cells go, but FATcells live forever.

Starr Jones - House Hunter?!?

It appears that Starr Jones is hosting House Hunters on HGTV tonight.

Ah, wee, now we're cookin'!!

Google Wants All Your Data? Cool!

So, Google is working on a project called Platypus that seems to be the same as GDrive. The idea is that any work you do on a computer gets synced to your Google storage, any work that you do on the web gets synced to your computer, and if a computer crashes, the data can be downloaded from Google in a heartbeat. This is great if you work on many different computers and want the data to be the same on all of them.

This is future, and for now, Orb is doing fine for me, to allow me to get my files from home whereever I'm at.....

Joke

A visitor to a mental hospital asked a doctor how they decide whether to admit a new patient. "We fill up a bathtub and offer them a spoon, a teacup, or a bucket to empty the tub." The visitor nodded. "And a sane person chooses the bucket?"

"No," said the doctor. "A sane person pulls the drain plug. Would you like a bed near the window?

Ted Stevens, Alaska Republican . . . and Moron

Here's an interesting post from John Dvorak of PCMagazine fame re Net Neutrality. If you don't know what this is, or how important it will be to your Internet access, read on:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1985071,00.asp

CNN Expose on North Korea

Did you see the report? Hidden camera, journalist talking, recordings of beatings, and all..... The conditions are horrible, yet NK leadership keeps telling the world how utopian life is there.

CNN sent a query about the conditions shown on the film to the government. Their reply: How can anyone be sure that the filmed footage was of North Korea?

This from a government out of touch with reality, IMO. Remember that satellite they tried to send up a few years ago, but it didn't even get into orbit? Well, to this day, they claim it is in space and broadcasting speeches from government leaders.

Too sad.

Gordon Biersch Brewery -- Beer Sampler! WooHoo!

If you're ever in Tyson's Corner, check out this restaurant in the mall. Really good food, sure.

But the beer sampler was my favorite. I tried it and found several really good beers that they make on the premises. What they do is bring a booklet with 6 beers listed, and along side the booklet, they present the beers in individual shot glasses. Gave me a chance to sample their wares, and also to order one that I really liked. One was a "coffee" beer that's really good.....

Check it out at http://www.gordonbiersch.com/restaurants/ -- or better yet, get up from behind the computer and check it out in person.

Dump the Don't Ask Loophole

Seems that hetero guys and gals are using the Don't Ask, Don't Tell loophole to get outta the armed forces. Many are stationed in warzones such as Iraq.

Yet another reason to get rid of the stupid rule.....

High Pitched Tone

Hear that?

No?

Well, your kids can. The newest craze is to use ringtones with really high-pitched tones that young ears can hear, but that us older folks can't.

Ingenious, if you ask me.....

Bush Bounce?

CNN is saying that the Rove issue resolution (not even something under Bush's control) and Zarqawi's death could help his poll numbers. Hopefully the American
public isn't THAT gullible.

Bush policy still sucks.....

An Extra Special Crackberry!!

Seen in Las Vegas, USA, at the Nextel store:



(Source: engadgetmobile.com)

The Country's in Worse Shape Than It Was When He Became President Six Years Ago

Poll Gives Bush His Worst Marks Yet

Unhappiness about gasoline prices and Iraq have created a grim political environment for the president, according to the latest Times poll.

Tossing Out the Election-Year Bones!

Interesting article on Slate: The Gay Panic Button - Why pressing it won't work this time.

http://www.slate.com/id/2143208?nav=wp

We Are Small and Insignificant

Wow.

How humbling.

The Joshua Tree National Park is huge, the boulders are huge, the vistas are huge, and the trees are ancient.

Me with one of the Joshua Trees:



The size of the boulders that push up out of the Earth during seismic events are indescribable. Look closely and you'll see a person (in a white shirt) on the boulders in the lower right-hand corner:



We were about a mile high at the Keys Point, and when we looked out over the edge:



The plants were diverse, bushes were green, and some plants had yellow and purple flowers. They didn't seem to care that we were about a mile up and in the middle of the desert:



I have videos of the Joshua Trees. There are literally thousands of them in fields around the park. Like the 4,000 windmills we saw the other day, the view of them just goes on and on.....

Princess of Monaco HERE?

So the latest news in Palm Desert (just down the street) is that Monaco's Prince Albert has a daughter here. The kid's poor school has been swamped all day with the press, tying up traffic, and making a nuisance of themselves. Seems they were trying to get a picture of the kid, but they didn't - she left the school in a heavily window-tinted SUV under the protection of the Sheriff's office.....

The Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum, Part 2?

Oh, and another quick detour:

The NYT reports on deep core samples from the Arctic Ocean showing that 55 million years ago—during a big global warming period—the sea was downright toasty and much warmer than scientists have long estimated. That suggests current simulations aren't accounting for some mechanism in global warming. "Something extra happens when you push the world into a warmer world," said a researcher from the Arctic study, "and we just don't understand what it is."

(Source: Slate)

The desert here in Palm Springs is hot enough now! It doesn't need any further help, especially from the Arctic - well, no, wait, maybe if we could bring some of the arctic coolness here.....

Profile in Fairly Steady Disillusionment

Taking a momentary detour from vacation:

In a recent Rolling Stone profile, one of America's leading historians sizes up the Dubya. It's kinda long, but has lots of info.

Seems that a friend's Iraq stay has been extended by several months. Also seems that Bush has moved about 1500 troops "temporarily" from one place to another. I'm sure THEY've been extended, too. Lie after lie after lie.....

Get Out and Vote 2006 and 2008

The San Andreas Fault

Live from Palm Springs:

We toured the Fault today for a few hours with a tour company. It was very interesting to see all the different rock formations, actually see where the Japan tectonic plate and the North American plate are pushing past each other, and see some wildlife.

Getting out of the Jeep to walk around:



Our tour guide:



Me in my gear:



Hanging out in a crack:



Here's a great shot through the Fault to another mountain range in the back:



Ending the tour, the sun sets over a ridge:



There are hundreds of photos that I took, but these are just a sample.