Internet Withdrawal

It’s been almost 2 weeks since my last post. I was planning to spend last night playing catch up on my backlog of interesting links I’ve collected for the past 2 weeks, but my internet went out at around 10pm. I was in the middle of working on my “secret” site, when time stopped moving.

While still brushing up on my php, I found myself switching back to Firefox a lot and searching for php functions, only realizing afterwards that I still don’t have internet. I’ve always known I was very dependent on the internet, but not to this extent. I would constantly hit F5 (refresh) on my router status page waiting for it to get an IP. Once in awhile, I would get a valid IP, but no site would load. I was actually able to ping google.com with the valid IP, but wasn’t able to load their webpage.

I’ve tried rebooting my router and my modem. All the green lights would come on, but I wouldn’t get a real IP (only my cable modem IP). I decided to wait it out, but when I started to lay down in my fetal position and sucking my thumb, I knew something was horribly wrong.

For the first time in months, I started watching cable TV. Watched some MadTV, some SNL, and then some Dirty Jobs (Discovery Channel – in case you were thinking of something else). During every commercial break, I would walk back to my computer, checking to see if my connection was back.

I finally gave in and called Comcast. Good thing I remembered their tech support number (1-888-COMCAST), and they confirmed there was an outage in my area and said since it was this late already (2am), it probably won’t be fixed till Sunday morning. At this point, my internet withdrawal was going to make me ask when it was going to be restored, but he had already answered it. I thanked him and hung up.

I finally decided there really wasn’t much I could do, so I went ahead and did my daily exercise and ended up watching 2 movies in my queue.

Finally, at 7am, my internet has been restored!

New Projects and Blogs

Wow… It’s been awhile since my last post, but I’ve been working on a new project which isn’t quite ready to be revealed yet. It will be in due time. I’ve also started 3 separate blogs:

  • HD Trailers – A blog about HD (High Definition) Trailers and how to download them
  • Modern Evolution – Evolution is happening everywhere around us today.
  • Sue Happy – Just how “Sue Happy” is America?

The latter 2 are just collections of articles which I find particularly interesting, while also giving my opinion on them. The 1st one (HD Trailers) might be retired once my “project” gets completed.

Random Crap:

Perfect Petzzz (from Cari) – These sleeping puppies and kittens plush / stuffed animals are so cute!!!

Yahoo! Be a Better Planet (from SD) – Yahoo! is on a mission to find and reward America’s most eco-friendly city. Can your hometown claim that title? Join in now to help your city win a fleet of hybrid taxis, and get free compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) for your efforts. I’ve also been a big fan for fluorescent light. Not only because it saves me a bunch on my electricity bill, but also the fact that it’s white light compared to the yellowish light most regular light bulbs emit. Also, you never burn yourself trying to touch one, because it just never gets that hot.

Prosthetics (from Digg) – Robert Barron is a master of disguises. He uses his artistry to create realistic body parts for those who are missing them.

The man who owns the InternetKevin Ham is the most powerful dotcom mogul you’ve never heard of, reports Business 2.0 Magazine. Here’s how the master of Web domains built a $300 million empire.

Online Savings from Washington Mutual (from SD) – Wamu apparently has joined the rank of the online high interest savings account game. Although 5% isn’t shocking to many, the good thing about Wamu is the fact they have branches everywhere. You can easily link up your checking account and online savings account. When you use your Wamu ATM card at any ATM, they won’t charge you any fee. I’m not certain if they’ll refund the fees that the ATM itself charges, but Wamu has always been customer friendly in my opinion.

Robot Arm Pours Beer Into Glass (from MS newsgroup) – You’ve probably seen the Kuka Robotic Arm in other videos before (one even had it swinging samurai swords around), but this one is program to perfect beer pouring from a bottle into a glass.

Hjo3 posted this awhile back about how the opening song of BPS (Battle Programmer Shirase) is actually using the melody of Rick Astley – Never Gonna Give You Up. I never knew this, then again I’m not that familiar with songs from the 80’s and 70’s, but this was interesting trivia knowledge. I do have to say, Rick Astley’s voice doesn’t quite match his face.

Ant Buster (from Digg) – Another Tower Defense type of game, where this time, there’s actually more freedom for the attackers, and the attackers (ants) are actually stealing pieces of pizza from you.

Xbox LIVE Brings You Even More Matrix Content (from Ars) – I got my copy a few days ago. Circuit City had it on sale for $20 (price mistake) and they actually decided to ship 1 copy per customer, which was pretty cool. Then again, I don’t have a HD DVD player yet, but Matrix being my favorite movie of all time, I have a hard time deciding if I should sell this or not. Plus the fact, I can download the Animatrix in HD via Xbox Live makes it even tougher. When you purchase The Complete Matrix Trilogy, you will also receive a token in the box to download the entire Animatrix series from Xbox LIVE® Marketplace. Unfortunately, I posted this a bit too late, but you were also able to download HD trailers and clips of the Matrix via Xbox Live: From May 15 through May 25, download free content like HD trailers from all three Matrix movies and some of your favorite scenes in HD like “Bullet Time in the Subway” and “Morpheus fighting Agent Smith.” You can also purchase and download themes for all three films plus Animatrix.

Captive shark had ‘virgin birth’ (from Digg) – Female hammerhead sharks can reproduce without having sex, scientists confirm. Story was somewhat interesting, but the funniest was when commented: Jesus Shark?

Top 4 Ways You’re Wasting Gas When You Think You’re Saving It (from Digg) –

  1. Driving across town to save a nickel on a gallon of gas.
  2. Driving on the highway with their windows down to avoid using the air conditioner.
  3. Driving with their truck’s tailgate down.
  4. Accelerating extremely slowly.

#1 is a toughie. I agree that it’s rather stupid to drive across tow to save a nickel per gallon, but what about driving 3 blocks or planning a trip across town so you can stop by the cheap gas station? CDMCC and I had an argument about this awhile back. It wasn’t really about saving on gas, but the time you spent driving 3 extra blocks to save a dime per gallon. If you have a 15 gallon tank, that equates to a saving of $1.50. To drive those 3 extra blocks, you’ve wasted more than 5 minutes already. Is 5 minutes of time really worth the $1.50 savings? I dunno, but coming from a family that squeezes the most out of a penny, I’m always willing to drive the 3 extra blocks, and with tools like Seattle Gas Prices (or the corresponding gas price searching tool for your area), it makes it easy to find the gas stations that is cheap and not too far out of your way.

#2 is also something I’ve known for awhile, since Mechy often talked about aerodynamics of car. Opening windows just breaks that efficiency.

15 (Painfully) Unforgettable Cartoon Theme Songs (from Digg) – It’s tragic, really. For every math formula forgotten, every anniversary that passes unremembered, and every pet ferret dead from starvation, there’s a cartoon theme song from our youth, tenaciously hogging our limited mental hard drive space. In what is perhaps some sort of small attempt to exorcise these demonically persistent tunes from the depths of our consciousness, we’ve ranked 15 of them through the highly technical and thoroughly researched process of writing down whichever ones we could remember/find on YouTube first. Enjoy. Haha! Ungsunghero and I enjoyed this post as it sure brought back a bunch of memories. We even pointed out a few that they forgot to include: Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers and Darkwing Duck. What happened to cartoons? They use to be awesome and now, they’re just the same stupid crap over and over again.

StarCraft 2

OMG! StarCraft 2 is coming out! *drools*

Check out the trailer and gameplay videos: Starcraft 2 Gameplay Videos & Cinematic Trailer. You can also download them directly off Blizzard or GameTrailers. I just realized that if you download via Blizzard, you’re actually downloading via Bittorrent. They download is an exe file that is a bittorrent client + the hash and tracker information. Interesting idea.

*drools* some more.

Random Crap:

Colbert Knows Why Pro-Torture Responses Got Loud Applause at GOP Debate (from Digg) – Colbert adds his two cents in as to why the GOP candidates’ answers on torture were so warmly received and slams McCain for being soft on torture “enhanced interrogation techniques.” My favorite part of this clip was when one mentioned of them mentioned, “I’m looking for Jack Bauer at that time.”

Speaking of Jack Bauer. 2 of the TV series I’m watching this season has aired their finale: Heroes and 24. 24 didn’t have much of a surprise, but you know his father’s still alive. What scary is the thought that he might still have the Russian component, and you know that’s going to come back to haunt them later. Why the heck didn’t Jack Bauer get the component back before leaving his father to die. It’s as if he was allowing him to escape WITH the component. But Keith Sutherland’s signed up for 2 more seasons of 24. We’ll see how that goes.

As for Hero’s finale, I thought it was okay. The final fight was disappointing, but I’ll let my comment on Ungsunghero’s blog described what I felt:

To be honest, “Save the cheerleader, save the world” came out of future Hiro’s mouth. After the episodes where Hiro meets future Hiro, those words really didn’t have any meaning anymore.

As you said, that phrase was meant to mean to keep Sylar from taking the healing ability. I wouldn’t think that Hiro had any underlying meaning to it. If Hiro was an oracle and offer tellings with ambiguous meanings, I may believe, but future Hiro himself was confused when Sylar was still alive.

Another interesting thing was the introduction of Simone’s father. Obviously he has some powers. Linderman mentioned about an old group of friends (himself, Mama Petrelli, Hiro’s father, and Simone’s father so far).

We know what Linderman’s power is, but the other 3 are still up for grabs. We know that either Mama Petrelli or Simone’s father has the power to dream the future and past (you might remember Peter’s dreams about him blowing up, or how he saw Nathan get into a car accident). I’m leaning towards Simone’s father, but I thought that was an interesting twist in the end by bringing him back.

RayAlome tells me that both Nathan and Peter got their contracts renewed for season 2. That doesn’t mean they don’t die (maybe one has only an episode or 2, or maybe only shows up in flashbacks), but we’ll see.

If heroes were going to die, I would think Parkman with 4 bullet wounds has a higher chance of dying than D.L., but maybe both will.

Speaking of Sylar, if 4 bullets doesn’t kill Parkman immediately, I don’t see how 1 stab would cause more damage. Honestly, I was mad at Hiro for celebrating that too early. I was expecting him to stab, then chop off Sylar’s head.

I was totally expecting dinosaurs too. Awhile back, a preview showed a painting of a guy with a sword fighting a dinosaur. My guess was that Hiro would be the one to transport the bomb out of New York back into the Jurassic age and kill off all the dinosaurs.

However, I guess they needed a way for Nathan to redeem himself.

And like you, I honestly thought the fight was weak and too few powers were used during their fight. I was totally expecting a fight like the future one that was about to happen when future Hiro got killed.

I’ll end this with a comic strip from Real Life.

15 Useless or Even Dangerous Eyesight Myths (from Digg) – It’s important to separate fact from fiction, especially when the topic is eyesight. And old wives’ tales abound about the eyes. Many of these have no basis in fact and, for that matter, can be dangerous if you followed the advice put forth. An interesting list and I’ve heard of quite a few on the list. I wonder if the masturbation would make you blind has ever deterred anyone away from *cough*.

Family Guy vs. Capcom (from Ungsunghero) – What button makes a random pop culture reference again? What if you had a fighting game which involved Family Guy and Capcom. This video shows a fight between Peter and Sakura. Really hilarious.

Hershey sues man who made pot candyThe Hershey Co. has sued Affolter, 40, for giving his marijuana goodies names like Stoney Rancher, Rasta Reese’s and Keef Kat. Each came in packaging similar to Hershey’s Jolly Rancher, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Kit Kat candies, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

I saw this video awhile back: oc spoof-dear sister, however the title was a bit different before. It just said something along the lines of SNL Short – Dear Sister. I had no idea what it was spoofing and although I found it a bit amusing, I didn’t find it exactly funny. I finally found the origin: The source for the “Dear Sister” SNL spoof. Apparently it’s spoofing the season 2 finale of O.C.

Pac-Man’s skeleton (from Digg) – Ever wonder what Pac-Man’s skeleton would look like? Well apparently so did the artist that created this. What do you think, did he capture the spirit of the true Pac-Man or is it just a circle with teeth?

10 Reasons It Doesn’t Pay To Be “The Computer Guy” (from Ungsunghero) – I tried to for seven years. I’ve worked in the computer industry in various ways — help desk support, web design, consulting and sales, field technician, freelance computer specialist, and whatever other fancy name you want to give “the computer guy.” I stopped enjoying it. There were certainly times when I enjoyed myself, but most of those times were when my computer talents were still developing. Once I stopped learning new things on the job, I would become fidgety and want to move on to something else. My favorite reasons include: Reason #7 – Your Talents Are Forcibly Undervalued and Reason #5 – People Ask You To Perform Miracles. For #7, it’s not so much as monetary value as they take what I do for granted. You’ve probably heard similar phrases as, “Aw, come on. It shouldn’t take you too much time. You probably can do it with a hand tied behind your back.” Of course I may have exaggerated here, but helping people like that always gets on my nerve and I usually don’t repeat the mistake of ever helping them again. As for miracles, I’m guessing it’s because people don’t have an understanding of how computer works and assume everything is fixable and everything can be recovered.

Software Notebook: How does Gates shape up as a seer? (from Digg) – Interesting statements made by Bill Gates, but what really made it interesting was this:

What Gates didn’t predict: One quote frequently attributed to the Microsoft chairman is that “640K of memory should be enough for anybody.”

However, Gates has long denied ever saying it, and no evidence has ever surfaced to show that he did. In 1996, when Gates was writing a syndicated newspaper column, a reader asked about the quote, and he replied, “No one involved in computers would ever say that a certain amount of memory is enough for all time.”

“I’ve said some stupid things and some wrong things,” he wrote, “but not that.”

I had always thought he DID say that. Interesting…

Girl calls for police help over messy roomA nine-year-old German girl was so upset about having to tidy her room she put up a sign in her window urging passers-by to call police for help. Pedestrians in the central city of Braunschweig saw the girl crying in the window, holding up a sign up saying “Help! Please call the police!” Next to her sat a small boy.

Start school later in the morning, say sleepy teens (from Digg) – A survey of sleep-deprived teens finds they think that a later start time for school and tests given later in the school day would result in better grades. The survey was presented at the American Thoracic Society 2007 International Conference, on Sunday, May 20. The survey of 280 high school students confirmed what most parents with a teenager know: they are not getting enough sleep. More sleep would translate into improved academic performance, according to the teens questioned. They all attended Harriton High School in suburban Philadelphia, where the school day begins at 7:30 a.m. and ends at 2:25 p.m. Does starting the day later really change things? Assuming you still have the same amount of homework and allocate the time you spend playing and working, you’d still end up with the same amount of time to sleep. However, it is true, some people work better at night (i.e. me).

The Top of the Class – The complete list of the 1,200 top U.S. schools (from Digg) – Public schools are ranked according to a ratio devised by Jay Mathews: the number of Advanced Placement, Intl. Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken by all students at a school in 2006 divided by the number of graduating seniors. All of the schools on the list have an index of at least 1.000; they are in the top 5 percent of public schools measured this way. If you have 2006 data showing that your school should be on this list, please contact Mathews at challenge@washpost.com. For complete coverage, visit NEWSWEEK’s Top High Schools section. Another year, another list. Mark Keppel ranked 570 this year. What’s interesting is now they have a search function you can use to search the city, state, or school name. A lot easier than going through the entire list looking for your school.

“I Think We’re Dead.” (from Digg) – I like when news anchors break character. And snort. A recorded telephone call about a police officer and his wife getting high off eating brownies with marijuana. They reportedly claim that time was going really slow and he thinks they’re dying or dead.

‘He Looks Like A ‘Bob” Is True (from Digg) – For example, when people hear the name “Bob” they have in mind a larger, round face than when they hear a name such as “Tim” or “Andy.” Robin Thomas, associate professor of psychology, and colleagues not only show that this link exists, but they also show that if people try to learn face-name pairs that go against their expectations, they have a hard time doing it. I knew you always looked like a Robert!

Highlander – The Search For Vengeance

The animation was really good, however the storyline seemed a bit rushed. It was great that they mixed real history into it, but there wasn’t really much time to develop the characters and explain the back story. I’m guessing they were assuming that everyone’s watched the original Highlander and knew what quickening is, but the animated movie was basically fight after fight, which may be a good thing for some. The fight scenes were indeed really cool.

Official Site
IMDb: User Rating: 7.4/10
Anime News Network
Amazon.com DVD
MY RATING: 7/10

You can watch the trailer on the official site.

highlander - the search for vengeance poster dvd cover

Spoilers: (Show)

One Dead Roomba Later…

So one of my Roomba Schedulers died a week or 2 ago. Yes, I owned more than 1 Roomba Scheduler. Yes, carrying the Roomba one flight of stairs is more work than I would like to do.

My Roomba was making a quacking sound (like a duck’s quack) when I would tell it to go clean. It actually sounded more like a short ‘meh’. Going through iRobot’s FAQ, I found this article: What is Roomba saying to me? The 2nd row appeared to be my problem: “Ehh” (Play Sound)

It suggested: The cliff sensors are dirty or malfunctioning, or the battery is need recharging

The battery definitely doesn’t need recharging as it’s been charging for a week and the color is green. I took a can of compressed air and started squirting at the cliff sensors. At first I had no idea what cliff sensors were, but apparently there’s 4 of them around the front bumper which helps detects stairs and drops so they don’t go charging downhill. If you still can’t spot them, you can take a look at their diagram here: What are Cliff Sensors?

That didn’t help along with their other suggestions. I submitted a support ticket and their reply was basically the same. They said if that didn’t fix it, I should provide them with the serial number of my Roomba and they can escalate this, which I’m assuming they’ll send a replacement part or even a whole new Roomba. Interestingly enough, after a night of having the Roomba sit on my desk, it started working, but failed about 5 minutes later making the “ehh” sound.

Their customer support has been great. I believed I mentioned this already. Last time the plastic thing on my Roomba’s trash bin was starting to rip and they said they’d ship me a new one immediately. However, the trash bin was out of stock, and instead they shipped me a compatible trash bin (which was of a different color) and said after the correct color trash bin was in stock, they’d ship that one to me too.

However, I decided to take the easy way out. Given the fact I purchased this from Costco last July, I brought it back and got a refund and purchased a new one. The guy asked me if there was a problem and I was honest and told him it stopped working and would make a beeping sound. I asked if they had anymore in stock and if there was, can I do an exchange. He goes (as I expected him to say), that he would have to refund me the money and I could go and purchase the new one and there were indeed 23 in stock.

Interestingly enough, the Roomba was currently on sale. Online, it shows ($269.99 – $50) $219.99 shipped, but in store, the actual price was $209.99 ($259.99 – $50). So I made off with $50 + tax difference. Sweet!

While I was at Costco, I also got my tires rotated and rebalanced. I’m always skeptical about their system as they never needed me to verify my identity when I picked up my keys. I guess people here are just that honest. I told them my car was the silver Honda Civic and they told me it would be ready in 2 minutes. They handed me my invoice of $0 and told me to bring it over to the garage. After showing them the invoice, they handed the keys over to me.

Another funny coincidence happened today. Since I had plenty of food at home, my only damage today was a Roomba Scheduler, which couldn’t really be considered damage as I walked out of Costco with more money than I came in with. Take that for a change. Anyway, while I was waiting for my car to be ready, I was enjoying the nice warm weather eating a churro. There was another man who’s only purchase was also a Roomba Scheduler. I thought interesting…

Then I walked into the Tire Center and there he was. He was also getting his tires rotated. Another coincidence. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the same car as me. Oh well, I thought those 2 coincidences were interestingly enough to share.

A Mom’s Touch

As many of you might’ve heard, my mom came to visit me this past month. As ChemChampion corrected me, this shouldn’t be considered a “visit”, but rather a “stay”, maybe “long stay”. Anyway, I had imagined the worst, where my mom would nag me to wake up, nag me to go to sleep, nag me to go take a shower, but it was completely opposite and I was somewhat surprised and actually enjoyed her company. The morning after she left (I dropped her at the airport last Sunday), I felt somewhat empty, somewhat lonely, as I had started to get accustomed to waking up in the morning and seeing her.

Her stay lasted 4 weeks (a little short of a month), and during that time, I’ve had plenty of good home cooked food to eat. She’s also help tidy up my place quite a bit. Remember those boxes that I haven’t touched since I moved in? Welp, she’s made the storage room quite roomy instead of having boxes everywhere. There are still stuff that’s unopened, but they’re stacked nicely at least instead of thrown around everywhere. She’s also helped clear my breakfast table which I’ve been using to store junk and we’ve actually used it to eat dinner on.

breakfast table

Knowing that I have a brown thumb maybe even black thumb (in contrast to green thumb – An expression used to describe someone’s affinity/skill at gardening or growing plants.) and every plant I touched dies, in order to make my place more homey and lively, she got me some fake plants.

dining table

Notice how both tables now have table cloths? Yep, those weren’t there before.

I even have plants in my bathroom now!

bathroom

The best part of course was the food. I actually went to supermarkets to buy real food for once. She cooked so much food before she left and put it into little plastic containers, I’m not even half way through yet. My fridge finally has stuff other than Gatorade, water bottles, soda cans, and microwave food.

refrigeratorrefrigerator

Interestingly, while my mom was here, my Costco supplies diminished quite quickly. My gallon of Kikkoman soy sauce which I bought at Costco at least a year ago was still half full when she arrived. By the time she left, we had needed to get a new gallon. Paper towels and toilet paper also disappeared quite quickly. I understand women need more toilet paper and since I’m at work half the time, I use their toilets there half the time. A roll usually takes me about a month to use up. Lets just say we’ve almost depleted my 40-something pack of Kirkland Signature toilet paper.

Another great thing was she did all my laundry. She did it a lot more frequently then me. I usually do laundry every 3 weeks. She does it every 3 days. My laundry reminder is when I run out of underwear. Her laundry reminder is when there’s enough for 1 load.

Why Consumerist Is Evil

I’m a big fan of Consumerist, well, at least used to be. I still read their blog posts, but they have a very different agenda than what I’d expect. I thought their main goal was to educate and help protect consumers, but through misinformation, I often question if the good they do offset the damage they cause. Along the way, they might protect consumers, but when you spread both truth and lies, it becomes hard to as a reader to distinguish making me cautious in trusting anything they put out.

Of course it could be due to the different authors they have. Some may be genuinely good, while others I can only describe as having a questionable agenda.

Take for example this recent post: Forever Stamps Are A Scam, I would like you to share my comment:

Actually, Consumerist were the ones that decided to spin what Slate said. Just look at the title and the 1st sentence:

Forever Stamps Are A Scam

By law, “Forever Stamps” won’t save you any money, says Slate.

First of all, the word “scam” and the phrase “save money” never appear in the article. All the article talks about is the absurdity of some people wanting to invest in “forever stamps”, which to be honest, did cross my mind, however after simple calculations and later on this article further solidified, was in fact a bad investment choice.

Consumerist decided to take this article and spin it to make you believe that Slate said these stamps are a scam and won’t save you money.

I honestly question if the author of this Consumerist piece actually read the article…

This is one in many many questionable posts that I’ve replied to and it angers me that the authors take these things lightly and won’t come out and correct their mistake, even when I tell them about it. I’ve submitted fewer and fewer stories to them as I don’t think they deserve my support anymore. They take a story and try to make the most absurd headline to attract readers. Their main agenda appears to be attract readers in hopes to generate ad revenue.

Other questionable posts include advertisement of a sandwich shop (twice) as a main story. What does that even have to do with Consumerist. If it was a restaurant review blog, I wouldn’t have cared. But the story has in no way a helpful consumer story. Then there’s the garage sale post awhile back where they talk about getting rid of junk (good thing) and goes on to list all their stuff on sale on eBay. They welcomed others to post their eBay listings on that page, but you know the sole purpose of that post was to get more eyes on their eBay auctions. Then there was an rather useless article about how Chase is spending money putting up posters around New York. What the *beep* was that about!?!? This is just simple marketing. Why pick on Chase? This list can go on and on…

I really want the old Consumerist back, but that’s like asking for the old Slashdot back, probably something that won’t happen.

Kohl’s Care for Kids Plush

I got some new plushies! These were on sale at Kohl’s for $2.50 each, plus all profits are donated to Children’s hospitals: 100% of net profits are donated to designated children’s hospitals across the country. Visit our corporate site to learn more about Kohl’s Cares for Kids.
kohl's cares for kids plush

I got a rhino, a pig, and a dog. They also had a chicken, but that went out of stock before I could get it. They’re extremely soft and bigger than what I thought they would be. Since my sister’s a big fan of piggies, she’s going to get the pig. The rhino’s awfully cute! They’re still on sale at Kohl’s for $2.50, but the 99¢ shipping is no longer available. People over at SD claimed that you might have some luck finding it in-store. The chicken is now back in-stock, but the pig is gone.

Random Crap:

“Try Sperm” Exhorts Vitamin Water Commercial – Someone captured this ad of vitamin waters suggesting you to “try sperm”: vitamin spermwhat’s in the water. I believe they mentioned something about sperm whales, but subliminal message?

vitaminwater - try sperm

Cat with Bow Golf (from Digg) – ねこゆめごるふ (neko yume golf) which translates to cat dream golf. This was actually a rather fun game once I got the hang of it. There’s no need to understand Japanese here. The games pretty simple. There’s 18 holes. You control a cat with a bow. Click on the cat to load next arrow. Pull back to choose power and direction. Your goal is to lead the cat to the bullseye target. Don’t fall off the map. However, your arrows can hit the board, but the cat will start falling immediately after you load your next arrow. The cool thing is you can fire your next arrow mid-air, which is needed in some of these levels. My best score so far is -41, though I did still make some mistakes.

Mod a $5 flashlight into a $95 light (from Digg) – Reader Kip modded a cheap $5 throwaway flashlight into a blinding torch that’s brighter than a $95 fancy pants flashlight. Hit the play button to see how.

Pub told to change tricky bathroom signsConfusing signs on the bathroom doors at McGuire’s Irish Pub have played jokes on customers for years, sending women to the men’s room and vice versa. Check out the actual sign below:
mcguire's irish pub - toilet signs

Dell’s ultra-thin LCD concept with DisplayPort going retail? (from Digg) – Remember that super swanky Dell monitor concept we went ga ga over back at January’s CES? Yeah, we still find it hard to believe it’s a Dell design. Well, it’ll apparently be up for sale later in the year. What’s more, it features the new VESA approved DisplayPort 1.1 interface which allows Dell to keep the panel depth to a crazy thin 0.5-inches. Although DisplayPort is said to support a resolution 4x that of today’s HDTV resolutions, the panel on this pup was only pumping an estimated 1920 x 1200 when we saw it. No specs or price but we expect good things given Dell’s past performance in delivering top-notch displays on the cheap. I agree… I find it hard to believe that Dell actually hires designers.

Meatballs made from human fat, anyone?Last year, Chilean-born artist Marco Evaristti mixed fat removed from his body by liposuction with ground beef to make meatballs, which he fried in olive oil and displayed in a public gallery. This year, he plans to climb Western Europe’s highest mountain, Mont Blanc on the French-Italian border, colour the summit pink and declare it an independent state, with himself as president. Something about this just wants to make me throw up.

soccer field (from Digg) – how does one play on a slanted soccer field with about a 45 degree slope.

Psych meds drove my son crazy (from Digg) – At 17, my son was a funny, odd autistic boy. But a misdiagnosis turned him into a violent, unpredictable man, and drove our family to the brink. Thank god this story had a happy ending. It was a bit painful to read, but I’m happy their kid is returning back to normal.

An easy guide to protecting your identity

Speak of the devil. Just a few days ago I mentioned check fraud and secure ink. Today in the mail, I received from Staples SpeakEasy, a program where they send you new products for free before they launch in hopes to get some feedback. I’ve gotten cd wallets, staplers, mousepad, etc. This month they’re featuring an identity protection theme which included 2 Uni-ball 207 Retractable Gel-Ink Pens and an “An easy guide to protecting your identity.” booklet.

The gel pens feature a “specially formulated ink – helps prevent check fraud”. I had mentioned about “secure” ink a few days ago.

I was about to throw the booklet away when I noticed it was endorsed if not partially written by Frank Abagnale. If that doesn’t ring the bell, it’s the character that Leonardo DiCaprio played in Catch Me If You Can. He’s also the real guy that cashed $2.5 million in fraudulent checks.

Flipping through the book, I was shocked to find it would be extremely useful to someone who’s not familiar with identity theft and how to protect oneself. The booklet has about 40 pages and if I wasn’t lazy, I’d scan the booklet for you to check it out.

The main topics he brings up is:

  • Checking your credit report three times a year
  • Shredding outdated personal information
  • Using tricky passwords
  • Installing firewalls and antivirus software
  • Taking in your mail as soon as it’s delivered

Of course Staples takes this opportunity to introduce you to their secure ink pens, their microcut shredder, and even their security software bundle.

Another interesting section is how to detect when your identity has been compromised. He gives examples of how to go through a credit report, how to only use 1 standard name for everything you apply for, and question why a certain individual/company would want your your social security number, etc.

Forever Stamp

So as you’ve probably heard with the recent postage prices being raised, USPS (United States Postal Service) has introduce the Forever Stamp. I actually picked up a pack of 20 when I was at Safeway earlier this week. Nothing too fancy. Has a picture of a bell and on the said it says: USA FIRST-CLASS FOREVER. Ungsunghero and I jokingly discussed about “investing” in forever stamps and wait a number of years and sell them back out. However, we’ve decided the return would be less than ideal, probably worst than the 5% interest rate we get at an online savings account.

Then I read this article: Should I Invest in “Forever” Stamps? (from Digg) – Absolutely not.:

The postal rate climbed 2 cents on Monday, about a month after the United States Postal Service introduced its new “forever” stamp. As of last week, the USPS had sold more than $82 million worth of the forever stamps, which lock in the 41-cent rate for eternity. One man in Pennsylvania walked into a post office and made an $8,000 investment on his own. Should we all be stocking up?

Absolutely not. Since 1971, postal rates have increased more slowly than the actual inflation rate, as measured by the U.S. Consumer Price Index. So, despite the numerous rate hikes over the last 36 years, stamps have actually been getting cheaper. The 20-cent stamp from 1981, for instance, would be equivalent to 45 cents in today’s dollars—which makes today’s rate 10 percent cheaper than it was 26 years ago. Should this historical pattern hold, you’d be paying more for today’s forever stamps than you would for any stamp in the future, no matter how high the rate goes.

However, the forever stamp is an excellent idea and although it may be a less than ideal investment plan, the idea behind it has been long due. It would certainly make life easier as you wouldn’t have to go to the post office and purchase 2¢ stamps immediately after a raise. It’s definitely a lot more convenient to the consumer. Like right now, I have 3 39¢ stamps left which probably won’t be used until I have to mail a letter that’s more than 1oz, or the next time I drop by the post office to purchase some more 2¢ stamps, which hardly ever happens as the post office is a crazy place I tried to avoid at all costs.

However, lets take a step back and look at the investment plan. The plan may actually work if you’re precise. If you were to purchase a whole bunch of forever stamps right before the next raise (let’s assume 41¢ to 43¢), meaning to purchase it at 41¢ and sell them at 43¢. If you could sell them all off in 3 months, that’s a 19.5% APR. So an $8,000 investment in 3 short months have become $8390.24. Of course this is assuming you can sell it at face value and so on.

But let’s take the most ideal situation. Currently you get 5% back on certain credit cards when you make purchases at supermarkets, making a 41¢ stamp closer a little less than 39¢. Lets say you offer a 1¢ discount to those who purchase from you (selling it for 42¢ instead of 43¢), basically giving them a 2.3% discount from the post office rates. If you can sell off all your stamps in 3 months, that’s a 7.8% gain in 3 months, or 31.3% APR. However, as noted, these are the ideal conditions and you can only do it every time USPS decides to bump fees, however those are usually announced far in ahead and you can prepare yourself if you’re planning to do this.

Another interesting topic was brought up while talking to Ungsunghero and somehow the topic of working at the post office came up. I divulged my ideas of how the post office should change and become extremely competitive. Today UPS, FedEx, and DHL, offer online postage printing with no extra fees. You get the same rates online as you would at your local shipping outlet. However, the inconvenient part of UPS, FedEx, and DHL is that you actually have to drop it off at a shipping counter, either that be Kinkos or Office Depot, it’s not as convenient as just dropping it into your mail box or giving it to your postman, which you know comes every day around a certain time.

USPS already offers free postage printing for Priority Mail and Express Mail, but for first class, media mail, and parcel mail, they are only offering it through other services like Pitney Bowes, which charges a fee every time you use them. Just like I find the fact that E-file for taxes charges you a fee to save them time is ridiculous, it’s the same with USPS charging a fee for you to print postage. With online postage printing, you don’t have to hire as many clerks to man the post office, save the cost of printing stamps as the customer will print their own, and every letter will have a verified address and maybe even a barcode to help sorting.

However, to print USPS postage without any fees today, you have to go through a hack via PayPal: Print USPS First Class, Media Mail, Parcel Mail Postage for FREE!

If only I could knock some sense into USPS and the IRS.