PEBCAC

Updates in the usual places.
Enemies List
Friends List.
Gallery
Media list.

From the fabled Akihabara tech district in Japan is the Sanyo Virus Cleaner . Until I get my own cleanroom, this will have to do. As for the actual effectiveness of the product, well, it just doesn’t seem too scientifically sound, still worthy of research. It might be useful in the bombshelter during the coming pandemic. Although I’m more concerned about the virus that causes zombie-ism.

since people have asked, these aren’t excerpts so much as summaries. anyone wanting the full text can e-mail me. i’m looking for editors as I’m about 50% done. I need help

We all know the dog. He/She is running a fence line growling, snapping and barking at whatever comes by. Sometimes it’s a junkyark dog, a hulking pittbull, shepherd or rott; running the razor wire, throwing spit and teeth like rain. Other times it’s an old ladies 3lb yorkie who patrols the foyer like a crack addicted rat, trained to kill and armed with tiny razors.

These beasties can be intimidating. I had a 90lb+ doberman, Shadow, that barked at everything outside the house. He barked at people, leaves going by, birds in the sky… and he was frightening. A large, cropped/docked blue doberman barking from what seems like the depths of the earth is enough to make your stomach sink.

What no one realized, and I didn’t tell them, was it was all show. Sure, Shadow was trained by an ex police dog trainer/helper, but this dog didn’t have an aggressive bone in his body. He was barking at everything because he didn’t know what it was, and it made him nervous…fearful. Not being a stupid dog, he learned that these ‘aggressive’ behaviors usually caused the thing he was afraid of to leave, quickly! However, if someone broke in the house I’m pretty sure he would have barked a couple of times, then shown the intruder the wall safe.

I’ve noticed the same behavior in people. When your parents preached to you that bullies weren’t really that tough, they were right. Although, I personally received many bruises that attested to the influence bullies could have. The fact is, I didn’t realize that people, like dogs, really do strike out at what they don’t understand.

While working for a Fortune 200 company, I was introduced to a new HR manager. He was a large, ex college basketball player, loud, stark white and prone to public outbursts. When he first came to the office, I was a midlevel manager and hadn’t had too much experience with this sort of creature.

He lurked around his cubicle farm and waited for his serfs to err in someway he deemed unfit. When the offender was picked, seemingly at random, he would unleash a verbal attack that would make a marine cry and usually involved him ending red faced and sweating.

The first week I tiptoed around and delivered a couple of reports to the guy and didn’t think much of it. Well, a couple of days later he fired off an angry e-mail to my supervisor and the president of the plant. He ranted at the inaccuracies in the report and did everything but physically assault my staff and department.

At first we all recoiled. However, we looked closer and found out the inaccuracies were nothing of the sort, the data was valid. He didn’t know what he was reading or how to read it. When I sat down and explained it to him, he looked slightly disheveled, but then spat out ‘if the format wasn’t so ******’ed up someone could understand it’.

I went back to my office with a smile on my face. This guy was a classic overgrown, jock, oaf of the Animal House variety, almost a cliche of himself. When we knew this, it was over. We messed with his reports, his e-mail and anything that wasn’t tied down. In meetings we would purposefully bring up subjects we knew he was particularly inept at. This was the real beauty, because, being a fear biter… he would explode in front of his peers and superiors. Want to look incompetent? Start screaming at people, acting self-righteous, without a clue as to what your talking about. You’ll get more reassuring looks standing on the sidewalk preaching to strangers.

This man was terrified! He didn’t know a damn thing about his enviornment and he struck out at others when he didn’t. He struck out to keep peoptle at bay when he didn’t understand something…or have anything else to do.

Needless to say, several months of us setting him up to ‘bark’ in public and he was quietly offered an exit package and moved out the back door. He was looking more and more unstable everyday, much like the aforementioned junkyark dog. It was time for him to leave and he did.

I wish I could say the same for the yorkie. That little one is crazy.

Well, as though bee-dogs (yeah, I have a bee-dog picture too), tiaras, and matching ‘people clothes’, weren’t enough…now we have SnackShotz with which to torture our best friends.

SnackShotz, is a dog treat launching gun. It reports to fire dog treats up to 12ft away. At first this sounded pretty cool. But upon further reflection, I could throw 12ft with my girlie arms and minimal effort. For a dog that likes to run, spend a couple of bucks for a tennis ball sling.

However, this SnackShotz might be useful for humiliating human beings. Imagine throwing dog treats at people that annoy you. Now, imagine having a gun to do it for you. Yep, my other hand is pulling out the credit card. I’ve got a couple of hairstylists and bank tellers that could use a faceful of chicken jerky.

Posted a new section, an Enemies List and a Friends List. Updated the gallery with pictures of our new rescue, a mini/toy bull terrier named Q-Bert, wrote a few postings and updated my media list. .

Oh yeah. In an effort to improve Riot’s house manners, so he can roam the full hacienda at night, he’s spending the week locked in the bedroom with Steph and I every night. He has a new bed, I’m taking twice the allergy meds, and he’s wearing the wireless collar. We’re really hoping this helps…however, if our trainer(s) is reading this and disagrees, please call me! We will be posting results soon.

It’s been a while since I talked to anyone about Marshall McLuhan, although a day doesn’t go by when I haven’t thought about his theories.

Since I’ve been messing with portable and distributed media alot. I’ve realized the amount of Rear View Mirrorisms in the lexicon. Here are three examples that come to mind:

Well, enough. If you haven’t read McLuhan. I encourage you to do so. He’s probably the most important philosopher of the TV/Digital Age.

The Medium is the Message.

I’m starting to finally get accustomed to life with my iPod. Still not happy about the availability of accessories at retail outlets, but nonetheless… I won’t be walking around with the white headphones dangling from my ears. Not practical. I don’t listen to music with headphones in social situations.

One of my major complaints though has been getting the iPod to play reasonably clear over my stock Hyundai stereo. Without pulling out the head unit, the only option is an FM transmitter, like Mr. Microphone.

The Belkin line, power/unpowered, digital/analog is popular and we’ve tried them ALL. While the powered by DC digital units are pretty decent. It’s not suitable for changing between city and highway driving. Over six months with one, I used the Belkin and had to change stations 4-6 times on the average 40 minute drive. And when it was changed, the static was already getting bad. Not acceptable.

Next was the griffin Itrip. The iTrip is super tiny, sleek and is powered by the iPod dock connector. Very sleek. Much better power and clarity then the Belkin units (I’ve also used the Monster transmitters). Using ‘LX/DX’ technolgy, like they have on decent radios, it enables the user to transmit in a higher power DX mode..but only in Mono. It doesn’t really matter though, it does a pretty good job. Still, it wasn’t suitable for long car trips. I still was changing frequencies too much.

Today, using the last holiday gift card, I picked up the DLO transpod and returned the Griffin. It’s AMAZING. It has a well built armature and holds the iPod above the gear shift, the tuner is backlit, and the sound rules. This beauty punched through 88.1 while I ran around the neighboorhood, which includes a diverse terrain and an airport, and millitary reserve base and police station…. YES! Finally, a product designed to work as advertised. My only real complaint is the cradle is not very secure and allows to much ‘play’ for backroad ‘Dukes of Hazzard’ driving techniques.
Guess I can just slow down.

This Weeks Question comes from an anonymous reader
Dear BobX,

PS This is not so much a question as a cry for help. I realize this now.

Well, Me thinks though dost protest too much. First this is not so much an answer as a rambling discourse.

Second. Gilligans Island is a fine show, and worthy of the idolatry. It teaches us the importance of class structure, science, community and bringing two cute chicks and a sexually ambiguous professor when you become stranded on a desert island.

Third. You, and the freak on the train are right to covet your media. Licking seems to be an excellent form of worship. Wes Anderson is a damn fine director (although I enjoy Rushmore more myself) and so is Sherwood Schwartz.

Finally, be careful with the obsessive licking thing. I had a wacky buddy who sniffed everything…shoes, his armpits, silverware, dogs, friends, cellphones. He, rather recentlty, had a psychotic breakdown and hasn’t been right since.

Well, the arguments wage on… is you cell phone dangerous or harmless. Will it cause brain cancer?The latest scoop is , oddly, from the Drudge Report. Then again, the above link is to AskMen.com, so, what the hell do I know?

Well, I know my cell phone ranks very low on the ‘radiation/rf output’…but I also know I spend about 1500minutes a month on the phone. I also know that my head gets numb and hot, sometimes for hours, after using the phone.

I know my tv jumps before my cellphone rings, it interferes with my radio, my ipod and even managed to scramble a reasonably high-end dog collar and ‘correct’ him with a simple ring.

I also know I’ve had a growth blasted, sucked and removed from my brain. I know that I’ve looked at bluetooth headsets. When I decide on a phone, the lead lined one, I’ll be getting a headset too. I know I should already have it.

Simple physics.

Okay, I’m on a kick, but here are some of my favorite preliminary searches from google video.

This is kinda addicting.

Google keeps coming out with new services and functionality the way most software companies come out with bugs. Google uses the same search technology that delivers relevant searches and applies it to such features as Google Images. Well, this week they premiered Google video, a promising (both functionally and to compete with iTunes et al.) search engine for online video.

So, for those of you that don’t go past the main google page, here are some of my favorite google tools:

More importantly I’m waiting for Google Long Term Memory, because as I work more with this search engine, my long-term memory becomes almost a luxury.

I really love lasers. I built my first one in middle school after having a childhood friend who’s father worked in laser holography.

Steph got me a 5MW green laser last Christmas, but this year I need to move up to something from Wicked Lasers. This are total StarWars badass dangerous. I will get one, and no doubt, I will cause serious harm to myself. Oh well, check out the videos of them in action.

If someone wants me hurt, please purchase one and send it to me. They’re expensive and I won’t be buying one for awhile. But I promise to burn at least one vital body part severely…and post pictures.

I first saw mention of this in Discover (science lite).

Basically, the premise is that artistic types have more sex with a more varied group of partners. Numerous studies back this up.

Additionally, there is much evidence pointing to the link between creativity and mental illness. I did research on this at Pitt.

So, the conclusion drawn by many researchers is that the continued existence of schizophrenia in the human species can be linked/blamed on horny poets and prolific musicians.

This makes me laugh. Makes me happy as well.

Here’s a decent opinion piece that describes it better than I’m willing, and probably able.

Enjoy

Well, the rumour mill about the Intel/Mac partnership is growing everyday. But the newest rumour has the Intel chipset designed for the new Mac’s able to load XP. The technical evidence on Intel’s Website points to ‘yes’. But DRM could rear it’s ugly head via the CPU or chipset. We’ll see.

A few new postings, new info in the bio data, mostly just stuff I’m reading/listening to/viewing. And more pics in the gallery. Playing with Steph’s new camera.

BTW, Thanks everyone for the wonderful holiday Shtuff. Thx

I took me awhile to do the research, but I’ve taken my stance…and this Alito is no good. Please sign one of the petitions below. We need balance and reason in the Supreme Court, not dictitorial facism. We have enough of the in the Executive Branch…

Well, another year has come and gone when I don’t get to go to CES.
CES is the consumer electronics show where everyone debuts upcoming products and new prototypes; like the now defunct Comdex, is a great way to see the future and failures of the technolgy world. For many years I attended the conferences with regularity. No more. So, here’s my favorite of what OTHER people are seeing firsthand this year:

…to be updated…