Nathan's Occasional Blog

USA National Gas Temperature Map

This is officially a HORRIBLE idea.  It will be the first device where it can literally hurt if the thing crashes.  That being said, I can see their point I don’t always feel the vibrate feature of my Blackberry.  [Note: I nearly wrote “I don’t always feel the vibrator…” – too risky.]  🙂

Of course this opens up new opportunities for message alerts on your mobile device.  The only question is will the helpdesk notification be more painful or less painful?

Motorola patents cellphone shock BUZR

If you need to turn that ringer off in a movie theater or meeting, but find that the ol’ vibrate mode just isn’t doing it for you anymore (or if you need a surefire way to wake yourself up in the AM), Moto has the answer: shock mode.  [continues @ Engadget…]

I mowed our lawn this evening for the first time this season.  About a year ago I bought a pretty basic Honda lawn mower after getting tired of our Black and Decker cordless not having enough torque (clogged all the time).  It ran great throughout the year and sometime mid-October I “winterized” it by simply running it completely out of gas (thanks for the tip dad!).

Disclaimer: I have NO idea what makes an engine work or how to take care of it.  I barely remember to get the oil changed in our cars (which are both due right now), and don’t even ask if I do that myself.  🙂

So this evening I went out and filled up our gas can and came home to do my assigned duty (Alicea has trouble getting the mower up our hill in front).  A thought went through my head to check the oil, so I found the dipstick on the side of the engine and took a peak.  I don’t think this thing has gone through any oil since I bought it and the guys at the store put oil in it.  Sweet!  It was perfectly clean oil too – hurray!

I filled up the gas tank, remembered to set the choke on the throttle, and gave a little tug on the starter cord.  The engine turned right over before I was even done pulling the cord … WOW!  It took a minute to warm up (it’s been cold lately – heck we were a few hundred feet under the snow line this past weekend) but it ran great.

If you are in the market for power equipment, get a Honda.  Even I can’t screw it up!

Kyle MacDonald had a red paper clip and a dream: Could he use the community power of the Internet to barter that paper clip for something better, and trade that thing for something else — and so on and so on until he had a house?
Man Using Paper Clip to Barter for House – Yahoo! News

One of those feel-good stories you just need to read.

Late tonight — specifically, 123 seconds after 1:00 a.m. — the time and date, for the first time in all of humanity, will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.
Wired News: The Time Is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Interesting … of course highly arguable.  This isn’t the “first time in all of humanity” – it’s the first time in a 100 years.  If you’re using two digit years then the last time this happened was 1906, with previous instances in 1806, 1706, etc.  And it will happen again in 2106, and so on.

That being said, probably very few people around today got to witness the last happening, and few are going to see the next one either.

I remember about 16 years ago my folks and I were on our way back home from picking up some paintings at a gallery in Connecticut that my dad no longer was going to show with.  We were just getting on the highway (taking one of those clover-leaf 270–degree turns) and the mid-day announcer on WNPR announced it was another special time.  It was 12:34:56 on 7/8/90.

Funny how those things stick with you.  I doubt I’ll be away for this one though.  🙂

Because technology is constantly changing, one of the greatest tools to the do-it-yourselfer is the extension cord. Now you can put anything in any room you want – even outside. Every once in a while, though, a long cord across the floor can be more dangerous than helpful. Sure you could just put a carpet or tape over the cord, but why bother? Let technology solve its own problems. Grab some Wireless Extension Cords, and leave the wires where they belong – somewhere else!
ThinkGeek :: Wireless Extension Cords

 Yeah – I totally need a set of these.  Now if only I could figure a way to extend my home network via some sort of wireless technology.  That would be totally rad!

NASA – Total Solar Eclipse.

I’ve always wondered what a solar eclipse would look like from space.  Now I know!

I am proud to say that I have a new gadget on the way, and I guarantee I’ll use it every day.  Just ordered through our corporate Dell account is the brand-spaking-new Dell Latitude D620 (pictured).  This is Dell’s latest notebook generation, complete with features like integrated WiFi and cellular data support, fingerprint reader, SATA hard drive, and a 9–cell battery that Laptop Magazine purports to last up to 7 hours (no doubt with the screen dimed and not doing anything).

The current theory is that I’ll have this new puppy in 3–4 weeks, but hopefully this is another example of Dell overstating lead times so they can beat them.  🙂

The most suprising thing about the system I ordered was the price … a tad over $2000 with our corporate pricing.  Here’s are the hilights of what I got…

• Intel Core Duo T2500 processor @ 2.0GHz with a 667MHz bus and 2MB L2 Cache
• 14.1 inch 16:10 WXGA+ LCD capable of 1440×900 resolution
• 2.0GB DDR2 667MHz SDRAMM; system can hold 4GB (2x2GB) if you can afford $1000 per memory stick
• 256MB nVidia Quadro NVS 110M video card
• 100GB 7200rpm SATA laptop hard drive
• 8X DVD+/-RW optical drive
• Gigabit wired NIC
• Intel 3945 WiFi card
• Verizon CDMA/EVDO cellular card
• Dell 350 Bluetooth 2.0 card
• Integrated fingerprint and smart card readers

This is going to be great!  One of the first things I want to do is connect to a wired network, a WiFi network, Verizon’s EVDO network (will transfer service from my existing PCMCIA card), and Bluetooth all at the same time.  Hopefully that will be enough radiation! 🙂

ESPN.com: SPORTSNATION – Tourney challenge: By the numbers.

Ha … there were four brackets submitted on ESPN that got the Final Four right.  That’s four out of more than [give me your best Dr. Evil here…] 3 million people!  WOW.  As Adam Barr surmised, “They must have all grown up in Louisiana, gone to GMU, done graduate work in Florida, and now work in L.A. Or something.”

I was just telling Alicea this weekend that I remember being in college when ESPN did their first online bracket challenge (I forget the year … ‘96 or ‘97 probably).  I played along and got completely hammered by a weird year like we’ve been having this year.  In the end, though, there was 1 guy who got every single game right.  Now THAT is skill!  Either that or it was Marty McFly….

Oh, and before you ask how my brackets did I have to state that I didn’t fill any out this year … I haven’t for years now.  While growing up we religiously cut out the bracket from the newspaper and stuck it on the fridge for March … updating it by hand after each game ended.  And yes, we did learn to use pencil and not rule a game over until the final buzzer.  A few years back (before we moved to Seattle) I went in on a pool AND WON!  I never saw the reward though, and that’s spoiled me.  Just hasn’t been the same since.

Maybe next year…

I just saw a commercial on CBS (just turned on the NCAA tourney Sweet 16 game between Gonzaga and UCLA) for th US Navy.  Bunch of action shots of … well shots.  Rockets being fired from jets, submarines, ships, etc.  Here’s the tag line…

“The US Navy – because rocket science is more fun when you actually have rockets.”

At least they’re honest.  🙂