Nathan's Occasional Blog

This is why, when I was a kid, I was always scared to do do flips off of a spring board.

AP – Fri Jul 22,12:18 PM ET via Yahoo! News – USA’s Chelsea Davis hits her head on the board during a preliminary round in the women’s three-meter springboard diving competition at the World Aquatics Championships Friday, July 22, 2005 in Montreal. Davis required stitches after hitting her head. (AP Photo/Ryan Remiorz)

I’m pretty certain Alicea would count herself amonst the 55%.  My excuse?  I refuse to really learn how to use a piece of crap device that loves to spontaneously reboot.  I’ve got the basics down, but Alicea figured out the ins and outs before I did.  Then again, she’s at home with Kaitlyn all day so she has a slightly higher potential of using the thing.  Still, I wouldn’t want to go back to not having a DVR.  Can’t wait until my MCE box from Shuttle shows up this weekend (hopefully)!

Survey says: women control the DVR 

Engadget —
After being derided as less technically adept by their geekier-than-thou male cohorts for years, it turns out there’s at least one home entertainment device that women can call their own: the DVR. According to a new survey from cable network Lifetime, 55% of married women say they understand their DVR’s functions better than their husbands. Of course, the survey only questioned women, so we assume that if husbands were asked the same queries, somewhere in the excess of 100% would say they’re the DVR pros — and that they control what shows are recorded as well (when they can find the remote, that is; since apparently men don’t ask where to find things, their wives may just end up taking charge after all).

Read

This would really help get through the Issaquah slowdown when commuting to work in the mornings. 🙂

Rocket powered car:

The description for this eBay auction reads “everybody needs one of these” — indeed. If only we hadn’t just plunked down all our cash for that solid-fuel booster propelled BMX bike, we’d be all over this Toyota MR2 powered by twin GE t-58 turbines.

You realize you’re blaming Mastercard for the sins of the card issuer? Two different entities.
[-annonymous commenter]

I totally understand that.  BUT, this being part humor and part serious, and being written by a newspaper columnist I can forgive that oversite.  I mean for one thing, I’d imagine the newspaper’s advertisers (there has to be credit issuers amongst the list) would be pissed for getting singled out more than they already are in the article.  Check out the middle of the article:

Just a few weeks ago, Citigroup revealed that it lost data on 4 million customers at its CitiFinancial unit.

Bank of America lost records on 1.2 million customers. Then there’s the security breaches at the credit bureau ChoicePoint and the theft of customer credit card and purchase data at more than 100 of Retail Ventures’ DSW Shoe Warehouse stores.

As for you, MasterCard, you said that working with law enforcement you identified breaches at CardSystems Solutions in Tucson, Ariz.

Besides, I liked the general message being sent.  Do you realize that by using credit cards we all agree to a contract that can be ammended by the OTHER party at any time and in any way?  If that went under a legal review at my office they’d have a cow.  Sure would be nice to have all these companies we “entrust” with our private information be held to some sort of liability for leaking all our personal information.  I’d love to limit our exposure to this stupit stuff as much as possible … who knows if this will ever happen though.

I couldn’t resist posting some tasty bits from an article in the Houston Chronicle…

Dear MasterCard,
This is to inform you of a change in our credit agreement. It has come to my attention that you are unable to keep my credit and debit card information safe.
…
Effective May 1, 2005, any compromise of my data will result in a $50 liability for you, the card issuer, owed to me, the card holder.
…
Cashing the payment check I sent you last month (which you did) shall constitute your acceptance of this agreement. Subsequent security breaches will compound the fee. I will spell out the terms of just how much these fees and related costs will escalate as soon as I find a typeface that is small enough.
…
By the way, I recently incorporated myself in South Dakota, which means I can now engage in usury as much as you can. Therefore, I have selected an annual percentage rate of 28.7 percent. However, failure to make payments will force me to raise this rate to 73.9 percent, just because I can.
…
And one more thing. I expect my payment to be on my desk by 12:37 p.m. on the day it’s due. I’m usually at lunch at that time, so I will consider it late if it’s not there by 11:24 a.m. After that, all the previously listed finance charges will apply. The date the payment is mailed is irrelevant.
…
Also, given the widespread nature of the security problems, I am going to share information with my fellow consumers. If I determine you failed to secure their private account information, I may be forced to enact the terms specified in this agreement even though you did not violate the agreement with me. Call it universal default in reverse.

BUSY AS ALL GET OUT.

I launched a project at work to completely replace our existing phone system with a new Cisco VoIP platform, and at the same time launch our first offsite datacenter down in Sunnyvale, CA.  I’ve got to manage 6 different vendors across two states.  But as BNL likes to say, “who needs sleep?”

On Friday, though, I did get a small respite.  One of said vendors had an extra seat to that night’s Mariner’s game.  Since they completely suck this year, and we’ve been busy with Kaitlyn, Alicea and I haven’t keept up with much in sports for a while.  Oh we’ll watch games here or there, or stages of the Tour de France, but we’re not like we once were: religous M’s watching fools.

Anyway, I digress.  So I had a sweet seat to the game.  1st row of the Terrace Club level (first balcony) right between home and first on an aisle.  It was an okay game, but I wasn’t expecting to witness history.  I think it was the first inning and someone comes up to bat and the crowd goes nuts.  Huh?  Baltimore is up.  Ah – Rafael Palmerio is up.  I know he’s old, maybe he’s retiring.  Then all the flashes go off during the pitch – wow that was cool to see.  Then I found out he had 2,999 hits.  NIFTY!  He got walked though … and the M’s fans BOOED Joel Pineiro.  HA!

Anyway, on his 3rd at bat he got the hit.  HUGE ovation from the crowd.  Pretty cool to see.

What could be better?  I caught a foul ball in the 9th, hit my way by some kid on the M’s that I’d never heard of (again, we’re out of the loop this year) – Mike Morse.  Do I care that ESPN doesn’t even have his picture on his player stats page?  Nah – cause I GOT A FOUL BALL!  First ever.  Sweetness.

While at the game I also “won” the hydro race on the big screen in the outfield (the green boat won on the back of an orca whale) and the hat-trick game (number 2 … and I wasn’t even watching).  Should have bought a Lotto ticket on the way home.  🙂

Saturday was a maintenance day at work on our servers, and Sunday I played at church (drummer for our 9:45a and 6p contemporary services).  Had a blast playing.  I finally feel like “I’m back” after taking about 7 years away from playing drum set after high school.

But like I said – who needs sleep?

I have to say that after reading the first post (scroll to the bottom) I agree.  Bring back the couch indeed.  Less “Crossfire-a-fication” is a good thing.  🙂

Bring Back the Couch

I’d like to live in Texas.

Autoblog —

Apparently a few speed limits around the U.S. have been quietly elevated in the past few months. In May the Governor of Indiana signed into a law a raise from 65 to 70 mph in areas with a population less than 50,000. At the end of June Texas declared that the maximum speed limit in that state would now be 80 mph. (Everything’s big in Texas.) Finally, earlier this month Iowa decided to raise the speed limit on its rural highways from 65 to 70 mph. The state embedded sensors in some of these highways and learned that drivers’ speeds were averaging 69.8 mph. Some Iowans may believe that by raising the speed limit to meet the velocity of speeders, the state is stepping out onto a slippery slope. We can dream, can’t we?

Read | © 2005 Weblogs, Inc.

This looks pretty sweet. Wish I’d known about this a couple years ago when we were finding fixtures for our new house. 🙂

Glowing temperature-sensitive sink-fixtures:

Cory Doctorow: These sink-fixtures from Germany’s Hansa have temperature-sensors that light up different LEDs to indicate the water temp, and replace the traditional tube-shaped spout with a trough that exposes the water as it courses out. Link (via Futurismic)

Heh … where’s the diving board?  Even better, note it’s still full of water.  How do you tackle this problem?  I mean the environmentalists would have a cow if you just knocked that down and let all the chlorine into the ocean.  Let’s raise a toast to whatever poor sap gets tasked with figuring this one out.

A swimming pool stands alone on the beach near Destin, Fla., Monday, July 11, 2005, after having been separated from the building complex by the effects of Hurricane Dennis passing through the area on Sunday. (AP Photo/Phil Coale) [link]