Totally hands free Cell phone.

If this isn't the coolest technology I've seen, I don't know what is.

http://www.core77.com/competitions/GreenerGadgets/projects/4673/

It's still vaporware, thought the writeup says they demo'd it at the hippie trade show, So I'm not real sure what they mean. My guess is that the blood powered fuel cell doesn't yet exist, but the rest of it is ready for prime time.

In any case, if it's configurable (IE it can be a display for my "hands free cell phone" then configured to be an interface for my MP3 player), durable, and won't leave a 2"x4" patch of dead skin on my arm, sign me up.

Dare I ask though, where to plug in my headphones?

The reality of Surrealism

I recall seeing a picture of this painting in highschool. I enjoy looking at a well done piece of art as much as anyone I guess, but I'm not sure I understand this one. Whether it's the duck-horse thing sleeping on the ground, or the UFO landing pad in the background, I"m not sure. In any case every time I see this painting, I wind up asking myself two questions:

What was going through his mind? And...

What was he on?

Well, I think I have a pretty good idea.

Wednesday night, I had just drifted off to sleep when my wife wakes me asking "what was that sound?" I don't know, I had been asleep.

I didn't think much about it because we have neighbors. Now, our neighbors aren't loud or disruptive by any means. To our left we have a couple younger guys that have a welding business, and on occasion they have what I would guess is a pretty typical Mexican style party. Granted, having never been to a party in Mexico, I really have no frame of reference, but before you brand me a racist understand that the party format pretty much fits the "Mexican" stereotype as seen on TV. Bunch of people sitting in lawn chairs or wandering about in the back yard, drinking beer, yelling in Spanish, and listening to Mariachi music. I'm not a cross cultural party expert by any means, but in my brain, that gets filed under "Mexican style party."

Across the street we have a couple houses with kids, and behind us around the corner there is a garage band of indeterminate ability. Noise is not uncommon in our neighborhood.

Well, my wife had ventured into the living room, to check out whatever she had heard and I settled in to go back to sleep when she yells "Come here!"

Well, I'm awake now. Should I grab the pistol first? I didn't. My flashlight isn't where it's supposed to be next to the bed. I'll have to go look for it.

I wander into the living room and look out the blinds where my wife is also looking, and it takes a couple seconds to register. There is a car in my front yard, with a guy trying to push it backwards over the berm, yelling something at the driver. I don't know if it's because I just woke up, or what, but I just didn't get it on first glance.

I went to the bedroom, put on pants, looked at the gun case again... no, I don't think they're here to hurt anyone, and walked to the front door. I opened the front door, and was told: "Dude, help us."

This guy just put his car in my yard not 8 feet from where my 3 year old daughter is still sleeping, and he wants me to help him get unstuck? Whatever Dali had been taking, this guy had consumed plenty of. I couldn't say anything. What do you say to that?

Well, amidst pleas for help, the driver seemed to have started the car, though it didn't sound like it would run for long. He got it in gear, stepped on the gas, and got about 3 feet closer to the wall where my little girl lives. Well, that was enough for me. I went into her room and picked her up out of her bed to keep anything from happening to her, and took her out to the living room. By the time I got back they had got the car moving in the right direction, and were working it up and over my landscaping. The glare of the headlights prevented me from getting more from the license plate than 1A, and my wife had finally located the phone to call 911.

I turned to take the phone from her, and they made it out into the road, and sped off down the street. The lights on the rear plate were completely out, so I couldn't get the tag number there either.

As a witness I was pretty worthless.

Well, we called 911, gave them the best description we had, and during that conversation, a neighbor across the street had heard the commotion, come out to see what was going on, and jumped in his truck to follow them.

They didn't make it far, the car broke down (or they abandoned it) a block or so away, and they tried to hide. My neighbor led the Police right to them. They were taken into custody, and an officer came down to get statements and took my wife over to identify them if she could. I don't' know if she made a good ID or not, but they had enough of my yard on the underside of their car that it's pretty obvious that they weren't sticking to city streets.

Needless to say, it was a couple more hours before we were able to get to sleep. None of the children woke up, and we're recovering from our short bout of adrenaline caused sleep deprivation.

Of course, now I need to figure out what kind of bushes I want to put in my yard.

So I'm unreliable...

...So what. I have my key to Karazan.

Ok, there are many of you that don't know what that means... Wait. what am I saying. I have 2 readers and they both know where Kara is.

I guess I better figure out how to make this blog more compelling. Now if only I could find a good tech news story to blog about and submit it to slashdot. Then I'd hit the big time.

But, until i find that great article, I'm going to have to go with what I know.

That's video games, music, and my awesome family.

Yeah, these guys suck at guitar hero. I'm not worried about it though, one's 4 and the other is 6 (the 4 year old isn't mine). They have plenty of time to figure out how to play and get better than me. I'm old, I'm slowing down, and I have that oh, so inconvenient responsibility called a job. Oh, did I mention I suck too. Yeah, actually playing guitar has almost nothing to do with this game. Maybe for the intense rhythm sections, but that's about it. It's an absolute blast!

I don't suppose it allows me to say I've played with the Stones or the Police though... We'll have to see how that one turns out.

Death is heavier than a mountain...

Slashdot sucks rocks. Well, I should say the people on Slashdot suck rocks...

First thing this morning I startup Firefox and open a tab for Slashdot. I'm checking the status on a handful of backups that continue failing, so I scan the headlines while servers are loading/logging-in. The first one that grabs my attention is Fantasy Author Robert Jordan Dies. What the crap! Talk about a way to make a Monday more Monday.

For those that know me, RJ is in the top 3 of my favorite authors list, so this is difficult news. (well, I put him at number 3, but based on how many times I've re-read his work, compared to the work of authors 1 (Stephen Lawhead) and 2 (J.R.R. Tolkien), he is most likely 1 in reality.)

In any event, I suppose the comments were just about what one should expect from Slashdot posers. It amazes me that people will make comments about happiness of the passing of an author because they think his work sucked. Some people never grow up.

He finally lost his fight to cardiac amyloidosis at 2:45 on Sunday. And I know that he had been scrambling in these last few months of his life to finish his epic fantasy series The Wheel of Time. The sadness is not the result of leaving this world without finishing his series, for as we know, Tolkien was unable to finish, (and we're all aware of what kind of influence he failed to have on the world as we know it) but on the loss of a great man and author. I adore the world he created, and will miss looking forward to the next installment.

My condolences and prayers go out to his family. He was dear to many of us and will be missed. You have every right to be proud of his work and accomplishments.

May you shelter in the palm of the Creator’s hand, and may the Mother’s last embrace welcome you home.

Free College Degree in Crackerjacks!

http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/08/20/news/state/24-tuition.txt

Ok, so the link is out of the way. Go read the article. I'll wait.


All done? So here goes.

I'm outraged 7 ways from Sunday. Talk about political posturing and campaigning.

Max, here's the problem.

First, I don't want to pay for the education of someone that will be competing with me for jobs. I think offshoring jobs is a bad idea because it puts Americans out of work. Why would I think handing someone a free diploma is going to insure that I have a job? We all know that he's not going to be making as much as someone who's been in the field for some time, and with the current trend of employment, that makes the graduate with the crackerjack degree a prime target to replace the more expensive asset.

Second, there won't be any jobs for them in short order. If you give free degrees to everyone who wants to go into the math and science fields the nation will be saturated with math and science graduates that work at TGI Fridays and McDonalds. I worked at McD's while in high school and college. I worked with a very bright guy that graduated with a degree in Political Science. When I asked him what kind of job that degree prepared him for, he answered "fast food and gas stations." Churning out more college graduates isn't going to "make the United States more globally competitive, particularly with countries like China and India" when we are shipping all those math and science related jobs to countries like China and India. Talk about cutting off your arm because your finger won't stop bleeding.

Third, welfare sucks because it's not enough to actually live off of. Welfare sucks for so many more reasons that this, but if you give away college degrees, you devalue their worth. It's the same kind of stuff you see when they raise minimum wage, or the base welfare handout. since MW goes up, grocery stores, restaurants, and other industries that depend on MW workers, have to raise their prices. Generally the people that make more than MW don't get raises as well, so the result is a net 0 change in the standard of living for the MW workers, and a decrease in SoL for those above MW.

I guess that won't matter anyway, because the Math and science grads will be moving to India to work at the outsource location.

Fourth, Socialism is a bad idea! Anytime you tell the masses that all the blood sweat and tears they have shed is going to pay for the expenses of someone who hasn't lifted a finger in his/her life you are asking for trouble. If they won't be a productive member of society, let them starve. A college degree does not make them productive. A job does. Get one to pay for school.

And to the idea that rural teachers need help, here's an idea. Pay the teachers in the cities less, and give it to the rural teachers. Better yet, cut the salaries of all the teachers and put the money into the coffers for supplies. Why is it that I'm required to buy dry erase markers and a ream of copier paper for my son's school supplies? The guy in charge of budgeting is putting dollar signs in the wrong columns. If you need paper to teach, and can't afford to buy it with the huge budget you already have, the principal can take a 100 dollar pay cut to buy a box or two of paper.

Max, making me spend more in taxes to put some kids through college for jobs that aren't here is stupid.

The Almighty Yuan?

OK, now this is a slight departure from my usual blog. It probably fits better in the Paxman's rants than here on my page. But as I was skimming this article that had been linked from a relatively unrelated article on Slashdot, I paused ELR and payed closer attention.

So there's a whole bunch of doomsday speak in there, and at the risk of sounding like a wacko conspiracy theorist I am not planning on delving in too deep.

A couple choice quotes:

...Beijing's foreign reserves should be used as a "bargaining chip" in talks with the US.

...Beijing had the power to set off a dollar collapse if it choose to do so.

Though, when Mrs. Clinton's stance was made plain, I was ready to discard the entire article out of hand.

foreign control over 44pc of the US national debt had left America acutely vulnerable.

has called for restrictive legislation to prevent America being "held hostage to economic decicions being made in Beijing, Shanghai, or Tokyo".

Ok, so the brains behind the campaign let her know there is an issue, and in perfect leftie form, her first reaction is to pass more laws. There's a good idea, let's remove more freedom from the American people, and legislate the ability of people to profit off of the American economy.

Hey stupid! Rather than making it illegal for foreigners to own that much American capital, why don't you come up with a solution that makes it possible for Americans to benefit from foreign holdings of American dollars? Why don't you make it possible for Americans to create new businesses and move into a position that would make it a ridiculous notion for China to even try something like this. I mean what is wrong with economic prosperity? What is wrong with America being wealthy enough to tell China to stuff it?

Stop passing laws and let us earn some money!

Innocence and the price of adulthood.

I have this thing for old movies. Not just any old movie mind you. I'm not about to sit through some old chick flick just cause it was made in 1972, no (though I did get through Funny Face a while back). My thing is old WWII and cold war movies.

I don't know. Maybe because I'm a product of the 80's, and grew up when the evil empire was the enemy, and "The Bomb" was a reality we were all waiting to see drop. I remember drills in grade school where we hid under our desks for safety. I remember them called earthquake drills. I grew up in the Willamette Valley, and I imagine we had a couple quakes when I was growing up. We even lived in the shadow of Mt. St. Helens (I remember the drive to church the morning of May 18, 1980), but the only one I can actually remember was after I was married. You might recall the video of the meeting at Microsoft with ceiling tiles falling and lights swaying. No, I'm pretty sure "earthquake drill" was the euphemism for "we're not going to survive the blast wave anyway."

I think though, that most of us that grew up so near the end of the cold war either tiring of the eternal paranoia, or began to see through it all. I distinctly remember having quite a fascination with the USSR and Russian culture. Not a "know your enemy" fascination, but a very real curiosity about the people, the history, and basic culture. I seem to remember a difference in the Russia we were taught about, when compared to the "Evil Empire" portrayed in a lot of the movies and stories that came out of the 50's and 60's. Maybe it was the gradual liberalization of the universities; the shift toward the socialist agenda that seems to permeate secondary education. I don't know. And honestly I was far to young to care at the time. I do know that I still enjoy a good cold war spy drama, or some post-apocalyptic nuclear fallout mutant flick.

So when The Day After was on some cable movie channel, I had to set the DVR and catch it again. Steve Gutenberg in a non-Police Academy 17 role. Jason Robards, John Cullum, John Lithgow. What a great cast! Amy Madigan, whom I remember from her Oscar level performance opposite John Candy in Uncle Buck.

As I was watching this movie over a span of about 3 days (I have 3 small children and a wife, I don't' get uninterrupted time), I marveled at the story telling. Rather than starting the movie out with a car chase and an automatic weapons fight (don't get me wrong, there's always room for more machine gun fights in movies) they spent the first hour or so introducing the characters.

I think I fell asleep the last time I saw a "modern" movie that tried this tactic. "7 years to fall asleep on the couch" is the title in my circle of friends. You figure it out. There might have been a story there. All I saw were 3 hours of mountains, and the insides of my eyelids. I grew up in the Willamette Valley, I know what mountains look like. I suppose if I had spent my entire life in New York City I'd call a 45 minute helicopter pan of some mountain range "brilliant film making." Really it was a director that was far to lazy to use the cutting machine for the purpose it was designed for, and a producer that should have just slapped the director in the face. That movie needed some nuclear detonations in a bad way!

Again, you have me on a tangent. I'm reminded of a humanities professor I had at Milligan College, but that's a blog for another day.

Back to The Day After.

So I sat down this evening to finally finish the movie, and my 3 year old wanted to sit with me, so she eventually started paying a bit of attention. She began to get excited when the missles started launching.

"Two rockets."

"Those are rockets!"

"Rockets fly up in the sky!"

"Rockets are fireworks! They're pretty!"

When you look at that beautiful face so filled with joy over a couple dozen ICBM's you just want to protect her from "the end of the world as we know it" just a little while longer.