Isaac.Eiland-Hall.com

Private Screening

Quote: Because we’re Web-based, our warehouse employees never interact with the customer. So what we focus instead on is to have the Web site be the most personalized in the world.

I really like the NetFlix site. For that matter, I really like NetFlix… Awesome concept, fantastic implementation…

We have a great customer support group. The miraculous thing about it is it’s smaller now than in 2000 when we had only 100,000 customers instead of today’s 3.2 million. It’s not because people are on hold longer—we still have great response times. It’s because we’ve learned how to avoid so many problems.

Wow. What else can I say?

PCWorld.com – Vending Machines Sell IPods to Go

o.O

...On the other hand, I’ve heard that the Japanese are well ahead of us on the things they sell via vending machine, and it always sounded cool to me…...

...but still… o.O

Poor nations littered with old PCs, report says | CNET News.com

Quote: Much of the used computer equipment sent from the United States to developing countries for use in homes, schools and businesses is often neither usable nor repairable, creating enormous environmental problems in some of the world’s poorest places, according to a report to be issued Monday by an environmental organization.

I have a feeling this problem will get MUCH worse before it gets better, too.

Companies urged to switch PCs off | CNET News.com

Quote: In a report released on Monday, the PC maker claimed that about 217 million (123 million pounds) is wasted every year in the U.K. alone powering PCs that could have been shut down or left in hibernation mode. The report also pointed out the environmental impact of all the wasted energy.

I’m guilty on this one… But there are plenty of times when I have reasons I don’t want to shut down. OTOH, I haven’t gotten used to using “suspend”, which is what I should do…

Separating myth from reality in ID theft | CNET News.com

Quote: “The online environment is really pretty safe. Most identity fraud tends to occur in the paper environment,” she said.

I’ve said this time and time again, because I’ve heard it from source after source: You’re probably more secure online than offline…

Entire article is an interesting read – both encouraging and scary at the same time…

Cisco targets emergency staff with IP radio | The Register

Quote: Cisco is offering emergency services and big enterprises which use push-to-talk radios a way to integrate the devices with the rest of their communication systems.

I really hope that goes mainstream—I cannot wait for the day we have most areas covered by broadband wireless so I can carry a cordless VOIP phone with me everywhere I go…

Rock.

CNN.com – Cunning rat outsmarts scientists – Oct 21, 2005

Quote: “Our findings confirm that eliminating a single invading rat is disproportionately difficult,” James Russell and his colleagues said in a report in the science journal Nature.

Yeesh!

In addition to the article, which is interesting/funny/strange enough, also check out this news.com blog where I found the link to the original—it has some amusing comments on there…

Intel chip glut may bring holiday cheer to PC buyers | CNET News.com

Quote: Potentially, the situation could lead to promotional prices of $199 for entry-level desktops with an Intel Celeron or AMD Sempron processor, 256MB of RAM, a hard drive with at least 40GB, and Windows Home Edition in the package. The PC would also be bundled with a 17-inch CRT display and, possibly, a printer

Good grief!

I wish I had the disposable income to pick up a couple for testing… I could have a Linux box, and a general testbox for random projects…

On the other hand, our timing may be very lucky – Rachel and I are talking about getting her a laptop and me a new desktop for the holidays…

Wired News: Antioxidants to the Rescue

Quote: But now conservationists are buzzing about a new technique developed by Ink Cor, a research group concerned with neutralizing the wasting effect of corrosive inks without damaging the underlying paper.

We’re losing historical documents—this is nothing new, it’s a historical problem (pun intended)...

Finally, there is hope that we can stop the damage that time is doing in a way that doesn’t itself obscure and damage the documents in question…

Wired News: The End of the Affair

Quote: “You kind of see through the game to its underlying mechanics,” Hayes says, “and it suddenly seems no longer worth the investment of time.”

The basic premise is an examination of what causes us to go hog wild and be addicted to a new game, then all of a sudden, become disinterested…

Well, a lot of modern games give the initial sensation of being immersed into a working world, which is fresh and exciting… But as we learn to interface with that new world, we learn all its tricks and secrets – we see behing the illusion, and realize it’s not really as big as we thought…

Big surprise? Not really…

Wired News: No Longer Safe for Work: Blogs

Quote: Filtering out every blog isn’t a completely feasible project (and, in fact, Mason says his company’s filter doesn’t catch everything), but the technology to censor the lion’s share of blogs is fairly commonplace.

This is a problem that’s really beginning to get out of hand, in my humble opinion…

Granted, employees are abusing worktime—and worse, as this article mentions, leaking company details and inadvertantly breaking laws—I really don’t think filtering is a good answer. It’s like spam filtering by ISPs—it’s not 100% reliable, so people end up missing emails… Similarly, trying to filter out adult content prevents access to legit sites and doesn’t filter out all of the content…

These solutions are really not very good…

Local News – The Idaho Statesman – Always Idaho

Quote: Boise police are looking for two men who robbed a 7-Eleven while dressed as ninjas.

...

...Yeah.

8$$313$$312$$31$$4”>www.wisinfo.com

PSA: Always point the gun AWAY from yourself when using a screwdriver to dislodge a bullet…

CEN News : Huntingdon and St Ives Edition : Nurse who flashed her breasts is struck off

Quote: After boasting she had been lounging in her garden sunbathing Keane pulled up her T-shirt and yanked down her bra to expose her breasts to stunned colleagues and an elderly male resident.

Although the most striking example, not the most amazing example of disregard this idiot had for her job…

Wow.

ThePittsburghChannel.com – Irresistible Headlines – Police: Pair Arrested For Trying To Buy Drugs With Grenade

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: People, but especially criminals, are stupid.

WOAI: San Antonio News – Hummer Limo Carjacked

Quote: A Hummer limo filled with people celebrating a birthday party turned into a wild ride early Sunday after a man attempted to steal it, San Antonio Police said. What the suspect did not realize was there were 15 people in the back of the limo.

End result: Stupid carjacker (limojacker?) gets beat down and jailarity ensues¹. The limo driver deserved special mention for takin’ him down…

Footnotes:
1. Common Farkism…

The City

It’s San Francisco, made out of Jello.

Holy ****, that’s a lot of work.

Make sure to click the “next” button to see all 6-7 pictures…

That’s just disturbing… It’s like Dr. Seuss meets the Matrix or something…

mcall.com – Pentagon’s ‘prime vendors’ a costly lot

Quote: The Pentagon paid $20 apiece for plastic ice cube trays that once cost it 85 cents. It paid a supplier more than $81 apiece for coffeemakers that it bought for years for just $29 from the manufacturer.

That’s because instead of getting competitive bids or buying directly from manufacturers like it used to, the Pentagon is using middlemen who set their own prices. It’s the equivalent of shopping for weekly groceries at a convenience store.

So we’re talking about Katrina recovery or something like that, right?

No, this is everyday supplies for the military…

Yeah…

There’s a problem here, people.

Milk like steroids? MLB not amused by ad – Baseball – MSNBC.com

Quote: “There is nothing humorous about steroid abuse,” said Tim Brosnan, executive vice president for business for baseball. “I would think that the California Milk Processor Board and their advertising agency would know better regarding an issue that threatens America’s youth.”

Mr. Brosnan, if you’d calmly remove the stick from your ass for a moment, you might realize that the ad encourages the drinking of milk, not the abuse of steroids.

I think the concept for the ad (haven’t seen it) is quite good and funny.

I agree with the creators of the ad:

“It’s just milk,” Goodby said. “Believe me, we know parody is based on a serious topic. So we wanted to make sure that it was goofy enough so that people didn’t get upset.”

So here I am, watching Hurricane Wilma coverage… CNN had an ad up, so I went over to FOX and watched the idiot anchor being “blown around”... I use quotes, because when a vehicle pulled up behind them, and somebody went over to it, they were walking quite normally…

So after a bit, I got tired of that, so I switched over to CNN - which initially looked better as they weren’t showing any reporters, but rather six shots of cameras placed at various places…

But, unfortunately, they went to an anchor in Key West who was being blown around in the middle of a street… Two kids/teens/youngadults across the street, where it was dark but bright enough to make them out, came calmly walking up the street… When they were around the middle of the camera frame, just past the reporter, one of them started “being blown around by the wind” – again, quotes, because for a couple of seconds, the other one just stood there before joining in. It was obvious they were faking it.

I suspect they were a romantic pair, as although I couldn’t see well enough to see which was which, they were obviously hugging/kissing, leaned up against the wall.

And here again, Mr. Being Blown Around (because of those loose windbreakers) just interviewed a firefighter who was walking quite normally….

Buncha morons…

I have extremely little remaining respect for the television/cable media…

Pocket-lint.co.uk OpenOffice.org makes it to version 2.0 news story

Quote: Only a month after Sun Microsystems and Google teamed up to promote Sun’s Open Office application, the company has announced that OpenOffice.org has made it to version 2.0.

I’ve been using it for a couple of days now, and I must say—it looks pretty spiff.

The first version I played with (StarOffice flavour, IIRC) was neat, but not really an Office-killer app.

So far, this version appears to be a full-out Microsoft Office replacement (sans Outlook – and really, so far I’ve played with Writer (Word replacement) and Calc (Excel replacement)—still, looks spiff).

I’ve opened several Office-based .doc and .xls files with no apparent loss of functionality – and in fact, a couple of things I already prefer about Open Office.

So kudos on another great open/free project—I’m a Firefox user, and looks like I may become an Open Office user… Now if someone would duplicate the great setup and features of Outlook 2k3…

Top News Article | Reuters.com

Quote: Americans scorned lobster until the 1880s while the ancient Romans loved fish so much that their catches depleted the Mediterranean, according to a study that may give clues about how to restore damaged world fish stocks.

Interesting read…

A fugitive turns herself in after 12 years – Dateline NBC - MSNBC.com

Quote: Back in the early 90s, Las Vegas was going through a kind of identity crisis. It was the “family friendly” phase.

It was over before most gamblers there were even awake: It was a perfect crime in broad daylight, pulled off by a mysterious woman.

A very interesting read about a story I don’t remember…

Tech firm accused of overbilling after 9/11 – U.S. Security – MSNBC.com

Quote: For example, Unisys billed taxpayers $131.12 an hour for a technical writer who should have made no more than $46.43 an hour. The extra money was generally not passed along to the employees but was kept by the company.

Yeah, but that’s normal BS. When I did a lot of tech contracts a few years ago, I was aware of one specific case where the agency was being paid ~$35/hr for my services, while I was getting $12/hr.

So it’s stupid, but normal stupidity.

Did I mention I dislike temp and contract agencies? Maybe I just had bad luck…

Next storm for Katrina victims: Bad credit score – The Red Tape Chronicles – MSNBC.com

Quote: Consumers who can’t make their house payments any more – even if that house has been completely swept away by the storm – may face the ultimate penalty in America’s credit-driven society: A credit score so low they won’t qualify for the loans they need to start rebuilding.

How stupid is this?

I have very little love for the current method of scoring… It’s better than nothing in many cases, but worse than nothing in many more…

Ugh.

Thank you, stupid methods of doing things.