Are we all gerbils?

Okay, I just now saw a TV commercial for the Oral-B® Triumph™ with SmartGuide™ ProfessionalCare™ 9900. This is a toothbrush that communicates via radio frequency with the base station that sits on your counter while you're brushing. The base station has a display to tell you how long to brush in each quadrant of your mouth. It also displays a warning if you're brushing too hard, and at the end of brushing, it rewards you with a cute little digital smiley face to enjoy with your freshly brushed teeth.

Ummm... people? Have we really, seriously, actually gotten so uselessly stupid that we can't figure out how long we need to brush our teeth without an electronic nanny?

I'm waiting for the shoe tying assistant, the nose-blowing robotic arm, and a little electronic diagram that shows you how long to chew your food at each meal.

More RIAA antics

Radio stations want Congress to look into major label recording contracts

It appears the RIAA might have awakened a sleeping giant. Hopefully they get soundly pummeled, as they so richly deserve.

More coverage at Slashdot.

Scorched 3D

For anyone who remembers the old DOS game Scorched Earth, now there's Scorched 3D - A 3D Remake Of Scorched Earth. Brings back memories of Cirque. I don't even want to know how much of their time we wasted on that game. I'm trying very, very, very hard to resist the temptation to waste all my free time on the new version.

(No) Thanks to Matt for pointing it out. :-)

Microsoft Giving Away Vista Ultimate, With a Catch

Slashdot | Microsoft Giving Away Vista Ultimate, With a Catch

Desperation, or just experimentation with a new and exciting method of spyware distribution? Possibly both.

No.
Thank.
You.

ThinkGeek :: Horntones MP3 Automod

ThinkGeek :: Horntones MP3 Automod

Trouble ensues...

The only thing funnier than cats: more cats

YouTube - Re: Cat Talking, Translation

And here I am

Made it to Newfoundland without any drama. The plane was an Embrarer 190. I had never been on one of these before. Actually, I think they're fairly new. I think I saw one at one of the airports on our September trip, and couldn't figure out what it was. They're only slightly larger than a Canadair regional jet, but the engine configuration is more like a 737. The Embrarer is fine. It's two seats on each side like a CRJ, but it does have more space inside. Feels more like a 737, except there's no middle seat.

The approach to St. John's is interesting. Base leg was out over the Atlantic, and we got a nice view of the city at dusk. It's much nicer to look at from the air than Toronto is, although I still prefer being up in the mountains.

It's pretty well dark here already, the time is an hour and a half ahead of Toronto. I get a view of the harbor from my room, the hotel is almost right on the water. It's not the greatest view, as it's a working shipping port, but it could certainly be worse.

I don't know how much time we're going to have for sightseeing. Probably next to none. The cab driver gave us a virtual tour of the area, as much as he could in the 10 minute drive from the airport. It'll remain to be seen whether or not we'll have a chance to actually check out any of his recommendations or not.

More as I get a chance to post.

Don't like the forecast? Check again tomorrow

I'm headed out to St. John's, Newfoundland next week for business. I've never been east of Montreal, so it should be an interesting experience. In preparation, I've been watching the weather forecast. The Weather Network has a graph of the upcoming 14 Day Trend. Normally I'm used to the forecast being somewhat accurate for the next three days or so, then less so every day in the future. But if I watch the 14 day trend for Toronto, it looks somewhat similar as the dates march across the calendar.

I've been warned by others in the office that the weather out there is significantly less predictable than it is here. Honestly, I don't know why they even bother putting together a forecast for St. John's. This graph looks completely different every time I check it. I think their "computer model" is a simple random number generator.

The bottom line is to be prepared for anything and everything, whether it's sun, rain, snow, slush, freezing rain, wind, hurricane, or sea monster attack. From what I've been able to gather, these are all equally likely. Watch this space for sea monster pictures.

Just when you thought you'd seen everything...

ICanHasForce Image Macro Blog

As if the LOLcats weren't stupid enough.

Our Anniversary!

moar funny pictures

As if I needed another way to waste time

I've seen several of the pictures, of course. However, I had no idea that LOLcats were such a prevalent phenomenon. It's way too easy to spend way too much time looking at pictures and more pictures. They even have a history.

I don't know why I like these so much. Yes, they're cute and yes, they're also stupid. Honestly, so are cats most of the time. Really. I have five. They're just as stupid as they are cute, which is why they're so entertaining.

'Reverse Graffiti' Artist Creates Tunnel of Skulls on The Underwire

Cops say: "Don't clean our city!"

'Reverse Graffiti' Artist Creates Tunnel of Skulls on The Underwire

Cell phones

Our current cell phone contract is ending next month, so I've been thinking about what we might want to do with them next. Of course, one option is to just leave things as they are, but where's the fun in that?

I've figured out that for the amount we use our phones (i.e. not very much) we'd be better off to go with a pre-paid plan. We're probably going to get unlocked GSM phones on eBay and go with Rogers for the plan. I like the idea of having an unlocked phone, that way we can just get a SIM card with a local Utah number for when we're there. Swap cards, and it becomes a local phone.

The next question is what kind of phone to get. There are advantages to both of us having the same model. We can use the same charger and other accessories, and we're familiar with how they work in case we need to borrow the other phone. However, Norah wants a PDA phone to replace her aging iPaq. It makes sense to combine two devices in to one. Personally, I don't want anything that large. I'm planning on getting rid of my Palm Pilot (circa 2000) as well, but I prefer to move to more of a web-based groupware solution. Google Calendar for now until I can figure out a groupware server to run on our own machine. I've figured out that virtually every phone currently on the market can actually sync up with Google Calendar. Even my current phone has a little calendar on it that's sufficient for mobile use. I do, however, want a quad band phone, so I'll be getting a new phone eventually. I just don't know what or when yet.

The ironic thing is that I spend a lot more time thinking about my cell phone than I do actually talking on the silly thing. I do love my gadgets.

My truck has a bug

I was driving along yesterday morning, and looked over my right shoulder to check the blind spot before changing lanes. This guy was sitting there on the passenger side head rest looking at me, about a foot or so from my face. Once I got over my Temple of Doom flashback, I realized that he was harmless, but he still got my attention.

He sat through the whole ride up there. Once I got stopped, I grabbed this pic with the cell phone, then evicted him to the parking lot.

We're back

We actually got back on Saturday evening. Landed in Buffalo a bit late, around 4:30. By the time we fooled around with baggage claim (which took ages), grabbed a snack, filled up the truck with cheap New York gasoline ($3.15 / gallon is much cheaper than it is in Ontario) and drove back home, it was about 7:30.

I posted earlier about the number of children on flights in to and out of Utah. That's still true. From Salt Lake to Chicago we had a family of 8 (6 kids plus parents) behind us. The kids weren't too terrible. A few unwelcome kicks to the back of our seats, but not much in the way of noise.

There weren't as many kids from Chicago to Buffalo, but one boy on that flight made up for a small army of other children. His name was Anthony. Anthony is about two years old. Anthony didn't want to sit down, fasten his seat belt, sit in his seat, or do anything that his mother asked him to. Notice that the operative term is ask. As in "Anthony, pleeeeease sit down and be a good boy for Mommy, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease???" And of course, Anthony's reply was "I DON'T WANNA!!!!!!!!!" And then he would proceed to pound on the back of Norah's seat.

Not wanting to spend time in a jail in Buffalo, I controlled the urge to forcefully place Anthony back in his seat against his will. Granted that Norah and I have a very low tolerance threshold for bratty children. We don't have any kids, and we don't feel that we should have to put up with anyone else's. I knew that Anthony was particularly bad when other parents on the plane started complaining about him. His mother finally managed to get him to be quiet by holding him on her lap, which elicited a round of applause from the other passengers. The stewardess informed Anthony's mother that Anthony would need to be in his own seat for landing, according to federal law. Anthony was nowhere near his own seat at the time of landing. I think he had managed to crawl under our seats by that point, in the space reserved for carry-on bags.

Let it be known that I am now a strong advocate for adults-only flights. Or at least sections. Like what they used to do for smokers, once upon a time.

"Will you be sitting in bratty offspring, or no bratty offspring?"

Flight to Utah

We flew from Buffalo to Salt Lake today, with stops in Chicago and Denver. Why Buffalo? Well, Southwest doesn't fly in to Canada, for one thing. Flying from Buffalo was less than half the price of flying from Toronto. Plus, since it's a domestic flight, the amount of security nonsense was about a third of what it is when flying from Pearson. Crossing the border on the ground is much easier. The real question is why we didn't figure this out sooner. I guess when we were living in Scarborough we didn't feel like driving 2.5 hours to get to the airport. From Burlington it's only about 90 minutes. Plus, I have to be honest, Buffalo is not one of my favorite places. We took my truck because it doesn't really matter if that one gets stolen, I'll just collect the insurance money and get some POS car to drive to work in.

I did figure out how to tell that you're on a flight to Utah: the number of children under the age of six on the aircraft increases from 2 to 35.

I got a very good laugh out of the packets of honey roasted peanuts that Southwest gave us. They're clearly labeled "Honey Roasted Peanuts." The first ingredient is Peanuts. Then below that in the smaller print is this warning: "Produced in a facility that processes peanuts and other nuts." I, for one, am certainly very glad that the peanuts were processed in a facility that processes peanuts. I wouldn't have wanted my peanuts to have been processed in a gasoline refinery, or textile mill, or anything like that.

Interesting

AutoChoice.org

Yes, it's industry propaganda, but interesting nonetheless.

Consumer Reports says "keep that car"

Normally, I'm of the opinion that Consumer Reports are a bunch of complete idiots, especially when it comes to anything automotive. They test cars under the same criteria one uses to select a blender, and completely refuse to acknowledge that driving can actually be fun. However, this time they do have a good point. Keeping a vehicle as long as possible is cheaper than buying a new one every few years. Strange but true. I finally figured out how much money we were losing by being on the 3-year lease cycle with Norah's Dakotas ('95, '98 and '01). It was nice to always have warranty coverage, and getting a new truck is always fun, but it's just not worth the cost. My '95 is coming up on 13 years old, but only 140,000 miles. I guess I drive less than their estimates of 15 years and 225,000 miles. I'm still debating between replacing my truck in a couple of years, or hanging on to it out of curiosity to see how long I can keep it running. It does have its fair share of annoying problems, recently something went wonky with the electrical system that I haven't gotten around to fixing yet. I just drive without the radio. Or interior lights. But it gets me where I need to go, which is the most important thing.

Naturally, Consumer Reports' list of recommended models is their standard Honda/Toyota love-fest. Yes, I know, statistics prove that Honda and Toyota really do have fewer unscheduled problems than other makes. The problem is that everyone knows this, which drives up demand (and prices) for those two makes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know all about "OMG teh awesome resale value!!!" If you're planning on keeping a car for 15 years, then the resale value doesn't matter all that much, it's more the purchase price and cost of operation.

Besides, my opinion is that the reason Honda and Toyota look so awesome on the surveys of unscheduled problems is that their maintenance schedules tell people to replace everything early whether it needs it or not. Remember that cost of operation includes scheduled maintenance too. Replacing things unnecessarily is a huge waste of money, but at least it gives their customers warm fuzzy feelings about not being stranded somewhere in the middle of the night by an unscheduled problem. Warm fuzzies translate to higher demand, higher prices and (most importantly) more profit. Smart.

Judge Says, Record DNA of Everyone In the UK

Slashdot | Judge Says, Record DNA of Everyone In the UK

Ummm... "including visitors"??? There go my plans to visit the UK.

Transit madness

I read this article in the local community newspaper over the weekend about changes taking place to the transit system. Normally, I wouldn't care. However, my boss has been talking about sending me out to a new project, which would be located right in the downtown core of Toronto. This is just about my least favorite place to drive, not to mention the extortion charge for parking.

So I've been looking in to the transit system. From Burlington where I live, the best option is Go Transit, a regional rail system. Unfortunately, the Toronto Transit system doesn't have any sort of combination pass with Go Transit. Every other transit system in the area integrates with Go Transit, but apparently this would make far too much sense for the TTC. This is typical of the 800lb gorilla mentality that the City of Toronto has... "we're the biggest, so you have to do whatever we say, and we don't have to do anything to help you out."

Enter the Presto card. This aims to fix this problem by offering one monthly pass that can be used for transit anywhere in the Greater Toronto Area. Brilliant plan. Years overdue. From the Presto website, they're planning on additional areas (including Burlington) some time in "late 2008," which probably means about May of 2009. Unfortunately, this is too late to help me.

In light of this new card being announced, what do the geniuses at Burlington Transit decide to do? That's right, cancel their own pass system in anticipation of the fact that it's going to be replaced in at least a year from now, probably more. Which means that anyone living in Burlington and depending on public transit has now officially been left without a monthly pass system, and they'll have to go back to the old-fashioned system of buying tickets. If you ride it every day, the tickets are significantly more expensive.

We're from the government, and we're here to help.
Ourselves.
To your money.

Camping

We're off to spend a couple of days at Milton Heights over the long weekend. It's our standard last trip of the year, where we get the trailer cleaned out and ready for winterizing. Even though we have work to do, it'll be nice to get away for a couple of days.

Nissan

Nissan Motor vs. Nissan Computer

I didn't realize this, but going to Nissan.com does not open up the web site of Nissan Motors.

This sort of thing used to happen a lot more often than it does now. Some companies were slower than others in getting around to figuring out that this whole Internet thing was more than just a fad. Typically if they wanted a domain name and it had already been taken, they would make some sort of business arrangement with the current owners.

Now, this is only one side of the story, but reading through the account of the lawsuits that Nissan Motors brought against Nissan Computer is pretty sickening. They tried to take it all the way to the US Supreme Court, who were not interested in hearing the case. There's no law governing domain names, the registrar allocates them on a first-come-first-serve basis. That's the way it's always been. I gather that Nissan Motors was trying to sue this guy based on trademark infringement. Guess what? The guy's last name happens to be Nissan, I think he can use it.

Trucks from India

GV-USA | Global Vehicles USA

Apparently, they're planning on bringing trucks to North America from the Mahindra company in India. I've never heard of them before today, but if you read up on the company history, they used to build Willys Jeeps for the Indian market. First using the Radar O'Reilly method of shipping parts and assembling them locally, then later they started making their own parts. They were making CJs through the 1990's.

So, why do I care? Well, the Mahindra truck is going to use a small, fuel-efficient diesel for one thing. For another, it's apparently going to be the lowest-priced truck on the market. Might be a good alternative for a low-cost basic workhorse. Yeah, they're kind of ugly, but for a work truck who cares?

Now that's engineering

NASA - Mars Exploration Rover Status Report: Rovers Resume Driving

These rovers have already far surpassed their original design lifetime, and now they've survived a dust storm nobody expected them to. They'll probably still be cruising around on the surface of Mars when the Energizer bunny checks in to the retirement home.

Are you going to wear that in pubic?

I was wearing my Human Descent shirt today with the cat penguin (or is it penguin cat? Whatever). The girls working behind the sandwich grill counter at Fortino's got a really good laugh out of it. What's weird is that most people are completely oblivious to it. I like the subtlety of this picture. It's bizarre without being loud. I was just going to link to the image on the original site rather than copy it here, but couldn't find it in his gallery.

BTW, this guy clearly has way too much time on his hands, not to mention a disturbingly twisted imagination.

Yawn...

Dodge's new vehicle.

2009 Dodge Journey: Minivan For The Worldwide Masses - Jalopnik

I'm already tired of the crossover trend. It's just a cross between a minivan and an SUV. I can see the motivation for something in the in-between space, but this just strikes me as an uninspired box on wheels. A transportation appliance. I like the navigation screen and the storage spaces, but just about everything coming out these days has all of that. I seem to be really liking Mitsubishi these days for some reason, I keep thinking I'd rather have an Outlander than a Dodge Journey. Mazda has some pretty interesting vehicles as well. Toyota apparently makes nice vehicles, but I find them overpriced due to their reputation. Plus, I hate having the same car as everyone else.

Of course, I still haven't figured out what kind of vehicle I'm going to get to replace my '95 Dakota. I have a couple of years to worry about it, though. I don't know if I want to get something new and keep it a good long time, or go cheap by getting a used car with the caveat that it'll probably need replacing before too many years. There's also the question of body style. SUV, crossover, small wagon, sedan, coupe... the mind boggles.

I was thinking that I should decide on a body style first before comparing models. In order to figure that out, I need to figure out what I'll be using it for. Currently we use the '01 Dakota for virtually everything other than my daily commute to work. If the new vehicle will be used for errands and road trips that will make a big difference over just a commuter vehicle.

It occurred to me the other day that I'm thinking about this in a software design methodology. Typically you sit down and figure out your use cases, then use that to derive the requirements, and then from there come up with a design that meets the requirements. Works for cars too... figure out how you're going to use it, then what you need in order to fill those uses.

Car geek meets computer geek.

Mopar or what car?

I saw a 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer in the parking lot of the grocery store today. I actually like it quite a bit. Chrysler had better get their act together in the next couple of years if they want to keep my business.

Dust, dust, dust...

Hey look! A blog!

I'd almost forgotten all about this.