Thursday, August 27, 2009

So THATS how a sewing machine works!

Now I can die happy! I had no idea how sewing machines worked, until now.

imagesLockstitch

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Glenn Beck, at it again.

Seriously Glenn Beck can’t be that stupid. Does he think that by writing a terms of service that automatically software is coded by the underwear gnomes? Yes, it is a completely overbearing, stupid terms of service, but the government is not taking over your computer. Shit, even the EFF isn’t frothing at the mouth (http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/08/cars-gov-terms-service). From the EFF article
“Clicking "continue" on a poorly worded Terms of Service on a government site will not give the government the ability to "tap into your system... any time they want."”

What a dorkus malorkus.

Should you trust ANYONE with your computer or your electronic data? NO! Should you be sending your passwords and other private data around via standard email? NO! A thousand times NO! THATS where the government gets your data, not from a poorly worded terms of service.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Storm 2 video

Ok, FINALLY a video of the RIM Blackberry Storm 2 that explains the new screen! First, is it Surepress? Yes, and no. :) NO, its now apparently going to be called “TruePress”, but “yes” it has the same philosophy, only better.

Surepress uses a standard touch screen with a single switch under it. This allows you to select an icon, then push slightly harder and the screen will press the button and now you have activated the icon. So touching the screen is like a single click and pressing down a bit is like double clicking. Very nice, but there is a problem. There is only on button under the screen, so if you try to type fast, you get screwed waiting for the button to bounce back. No big deal, but still… Also, that button under the middle of the touchscreen means that sometimes the presses in the corners of the screen don’t register.

Enter “TruePress”. TruePress is the same concept. You touch an icon to select, and press it to activate. BUT, there is no switch under the screen! Instead TruePress uses piezo technology. So a touch screen senses you touching it and sends the coordinates to the operating system, but with TruePress there is ANOTHER layer (under? over?) that you have to push a bit harder to activate, and when you do, those coordinates are also sent. One cool thing about TruePress using piezo means that you still get the feedback! The feedback is not as aggressive as SurePress, but near the end of the video he types on the Storm2 and you can hear it when he presses down harder. AND… (drum roll please) TruePress is multitouch! (“did he say multitouch?”, “you know Gladys, I think he did!”) That's right, multi touch! So now when you get really flying on the typing it wont get all wonky, and of course this means all sorts of cool possibilities for new user interfaces.

When I got my Storm with SurePress I fell in love with it, I thought “THIS is how a touch screen should work.” I was wrong, based on what I know about the Storm2, TruePress is how a touch screen should work.

 

p.s. Don’t be thrown by the CDMA vs GSM crap, the Storm2 on Verizon will still be a world phone.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Jalapeno Stuffed Olives

To the person who first said “HEY! Lets stuff jalapenos into pitted olives!” I would like to offer you my first born. He’s a good kid, and I am sure that you will love him as much as I do. Hanson, pack your shit, you have a new daddy.

WHAT
THE
FRACK?

While I really do love jalapeno stuffed olives and assume that they were created in heaven by frolicking, kittens, in truth, I imagine that the story of their creation was probably a bit more mundane. More like: “Hey Jimmy! Lets stuff hot peppers into this pitted olive and make your little brother eat it!” But what (possibly) started out as a kids torture, blossomed into a gastronomic wonder. Of course if you have bad olives and you stuff them with bad or too hot jalapenos and then add hot oil, you get bad stuffed olives. But if you start with a good green olive, and stuff it with a nice hot (but not TOO hot) jalapeno, and then pack it in olive oil with no other additives, you end up with an orally orgasmic wonder.

Seriously, stop saying “I don’t like hot food” and step outside of your little box and try something new. You're going to die someday.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

TruFocal

Well, I don’t wear glasses (yet), but someday I may need them, and when I do, THESE are the glasses that I will wear!

trufocals-left-hand-image_2

They are glasses that are focusable. (turns out that “focusable is a word) There is a little slider on the bridge between the lenses that changes the focus, this means that a bi-focal user could use them and just focus them for reading, but if they then need to see far away, they can simply refocus!

These wonder glasses are made by TruFocals. They will cost you a pretty penny at ~$800, but they sure are cool!

Stop doing those surveys!

Everything is done for a reason. Not necessarily an evil reason, but still a reason.

For example, those surveys on social sites like FaceBook and in email chain letters. Why would anyone even start the chain? Its not because they are an at home mom or dad looking to waste time, its because they are a marketer trying to get marketing information, or a hacker trying to get social information for hacking your life. Now, if its a marketer, I don’t really care, but if its a hacker…

How does the hacker use these surveys to hack your accounts, you never give your password! Right, but you DO give all of the information that security systems use to verify you. For example the surveys will ask you things like
What was your first phone number?
What was your first pets name?
Who was your first love?

Who cares right? Well, then the hacker goes to www.yourbank.com and clicks on “lost password”, the bank asks them to answer a few questions like “What was your first phone number” or “Who was your first love?” The hacker just uses your answers and now they have reset your password so that they can get in.

Really, don’t fall prey to this social hacking technique.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Panini

When I moved TeamPaulC to blogger last year, I did not import all of the old posts, I guess that I should. Anyway, one of the posts introduced theMom’s blog “Musings from the Countess of Cuisine” and lamented that theMom having a blog is in fact a sign of the coming apocalypse. From the original post on TeamPaulC, quoting Nostradamus:
“And the mighty power will be owned by the people, and the people will rejoice in the stock that they hold. … A time will come when a man of slightly tall physical stature and short blond hair shall frolic and revel in this new power, and his mother shall see his happiness and she will purchase stock in the power and start her own blog.”
We are doomed.

So recently theMom has been posting, and I went back and reread her old blog posts, and one of them triggered a memory of living in Southern Italy. First of all, a nod to Andy: “panini” is eye-talian for “sandwich”, so please, for the love of all that is savory, never say “panini sandwich”. That's like saying “for your FYI”, it makes you sound like a nitwit, and maybe you are a nitwit, but at least try to sound like you have some sort of clue, even if you don’t. When you say “panini sandwich” somewhere a baby gets punched in the face, so don’t say it.

Anyway, when we lived in Italy we lived in a small fishing village about 10 miles from the San Vito Air Base. There were maybe 10-ish (anyone?) other American families with school aged children that lived in the village, and on school days we would all walk down to the piazza (but we just called it “the circle") to catch the school bus to the air base. There are many stories related to catching the morning school bus, “kid jumped from tree and almost died”, “uncle Pat gets drenched (or “its a blow-hole stupid!”), “its raining! how many kids can we cram into the phone booth?” etc.

Well the local alamentari was maybe 200 yards from the bus stop, and predictably we would stop in and get some supplies for the day; you know, candy, gum, and sometimes lunch. If we were running late, theMom would toss us a couple mille, and say “grab a sandwich at the alamentari for lunch”. So as a respectful 9 year old, I would dutifully go to the alamentari and get my sandwich and a Coke in a glass bottle. Well, the first time was the toughest as I spoke no Italian, and the women at the alamentari spoke very little English, but somehow she managed to understand that I wanted a ham and cheese sandwich. The alamentari was a small deli, so the woman would slice the ham and the cheese and put it on a nice fresh half loaf of bread sliced down the middle. What ever, it was edible, I ate half of it on the bus to school and the other half at lunch.

Fast forward three (ish) years. The setting, a small deli in Colorado Springs. The scene, a 12 year old boy and his mother ordering sandwiches.
theMom: What would you like Paulie?
Paulie: Hmmm, ham and cheese please. (I wonder if I really said “please”? I must have.)
DeliClerk: Mayo?
Paulie: Of course, jackass, mayonnaise is what separates us from the beasts of the forest. (Was never said, added for levity.)
DeliClerk: You sure are smart. Here is your sandwich. (that was almost certainly said)

theMom and Paulie take their sandwiches home, we join them at the kitchen bar (it was the late 70’s), sitting on stools, getting ready to tuck into a nice fresh panini!

Paulie takes big bite of sandwich as only a 12 year old can.
Paulie: (removing bite of sandwich from his mouth, clearly disgusted. Holding said bite in his hand, pointing it at theMom, young Paulie addresses her in accusatory manner.) WHAT THE FRACK IS THIS!? (vernacular updated to appeal to BSG fans.) This is NOT a ham and cheese sandwich! What foul, bastardized form of swine has thy deli man tried to poison me with!? For the love of all that is derived from the noble and gentle swine, I shall devote my life’s energy to hunting down that foul meat slicer and make him pay dearly for his sacrilege!

At this point, theMom takes 15 minutes to explain to Paulie the difference between prosciutto crudo and black forest ham, the upshot of which is this: there is no dam comparison. Prosciutto is an Italian delight that elevates the lowly swine to the near God like status that it so richly deserves by curing its flesh in such a way that it will actually make mere mortals worship said pig. While black forest ham takes the same flesh and smokes it and makes it palatable. Don’t get me wrong, I loves me some black forest ham, I am just saying, it aint prosciutto.

So during those three years, we were asking for a “ham and cheese sandwiches” and getting a prosciutto and mozzarella panini. We were eating like kings for < $2 and had no idea.

True story. Best time ever.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Snow day, the best day ever.

9 year old Emma wrote and sang “Snow day” at the 2009 Spring Coffe Shop Jam and, well, check it out for yourself.

So dam cool.

Original blog post.

The same school produced a 6 year old that performed “Folsom Pwizon Blues”. He clearly has no idea what he is singing, but really, doesn't that just make it cuter?

Original blog post.

via Boing Boing