Boy Bands

It was revealed today that Lance Bass, of the boy band ‘N Sync, is gay. Is this news to anyone?

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Add comment July 26th, 2006

Blow-up Man for Lonely Female…Drivers

A new product is a blow-up man for female motorists to feel more safe when driving alone at night. (Perhaps if you are driving alone, you already own such a product). The “Buddy on Demand” is designed specifically for the car, inflates and deflates easily, and fits inside the glove compartment. I’m not sure how it would make anyone feel safer as most thugs and carjackers are probably not too fearful of inflatable men.

I got a bit concerned when I first saw this photo, thinking the buddy was driving the car, but realized that this new product was announced in London.

There are nearly too many questions/jokes in my head about this, and all I can think about is the autopilot from the movie Airplane!

• Is there a backseat version?
• Where is the inflation nozzle?
• Does he count as an occupant in an HOV lane?
• Must he wear his seat belt?
• Does he need an airbag since he is an airbag?

The “Buddy on Demand” does behave, in many ways, the same as a real man–
He will not ask for directions or turn around. He will not stop to use the bathroom, nor will he talk to you about “the relationship” or anything else for that matter.

Please keep both hands on the wheel, and drive safely.

Add comment July 25th, 2006

Leading by Example

What was the President thinking when he gave a surprise backrub to German Chancellor Angela Merkel? You can watch the video clip here, and it is quite creepy.

He walks up behind her, and it appears that they exchange a look. As he passes he gives her shoulders a quick squeeze. It seems mostly harmless, but Merkel is quite surprised by this sneak attack, and her arms go up in response. Bush keeps walking.

There are two things that are making this incident a big deal:

1. The access and propagation of information on the Internet has become huge, and sites like YouTube have made it as easy to share video as it has to share text and images. Heck, even I’m jumping in.
2. Anyone that has ever watched an HR video on sexual harrasment in the workplace knows that the old back rub seems to be the first steps in a full-scale lawsuit.

I actually cringe whenever I see a man walk up behind a woman and start rubbing their shoulders. It has become so cliche to this situation, and I think I have been properly conditioned to avoid such situations at all cost.

Everybody keep their hands to themselves!

Add comment July 21st, 2006

Keeping the Junk in Junk Food

I’m not very label conscious, but someone has told me that partially hydrogenated vegetable oil is bad. What is this stuff, and why don’t they hydrongenate all of it? And High fructose corn syrup seems to have replaced sugar as a sweetener. What does it all mean? I don’t know, but if you try to make my snacks healthier I certainly won’t appreciate it–and neither will anyone else.

It seems a potato chip manufacturer was trying to “do the right thing” by using cottonseed oil which does not contain any trans fat, and their customers complained. The taste, color, and greasiness were different and the company was forced to switch back to the old soybean oil recipe.

What were they thinking? If people are eating potato chips, they have already made the choice to indulge in something less healthy than say, fruit. Plus, you don’t just change a product on your existing customers. Remember New Coke?

Add comment July 20th, 2006

Unnaturally Delicious

I started to think about how many food items there are for consumers that just aren’t the real thing, yet we seem to accept them as such. According to the Discovery Channel, Alaskan crabs really do exist, but every where I go I see something called “Sea Legs” or artificial crab. It turns out that this alternative is just some other white fish sweetened, painted, and shaped.

Despite the fact that Sea Legs is not crab, we seem to accept it as such. Sushi, Chinese food, seafood salads– these all seem to thrive on this alternative. I actually find it pretty tasty, but it bothers me that we call it crab meat when it isn’t. At what point do we actually forget what real crab meat is?

Another product that bothers me is pancake syrup. Waffles and pancakes are a big breakfast item in our house. We like to put butter (not margarine) and syrup on them. We say syrup, but we are assuming we are putting maple syrup on them, because that is what you put on pancakes–a sticky-sweet, brown viscous liquid. However, most of these don’t contain a drop of maple syrup. We have grown so accustomed to this non-maple syrup, that when we did get some from a friend who lives in Vermont, we really didn’t like it as much.

From the book Fast Food Nation, I learned how artificial flavorings are a huge business. It seems that most fast food burgers are so processed that they are left without any color or flavor, so this is just added back in chemically. We are getting very close to a futuristic sci-fi world where we eat generic tablets flavored in a variety of ways. It makes me what to shout, “Soylent Green is people!“

Fruit flavoring is perhaps the most often exploited. How many fruit “drinks” are there with big picture of fruit on the label yet state “contains no fruit juice“? I even saw a TV commercial with people running around gargantuan fruit advertising yet another drink that contains no fruit juice. What’s wrong with fruit juice, or actual fruit itself? It’s getting to the point that if we eat a red ice pop, we feel as if we had our daily allowance of fruit. Little kids don’t even refer to most foods by their artificial flavors–instead of asking for cherry or lemon ice, now we ask for them by color. “I want red!“

I actually gravitate to blue colored items, perhaps because it is so unnatural. Red is usually cherry or strawberry. Orange is orange, Yellow is lemon, etc. So what is blue? It’s nevery blueberry, and blueberries, despite their name, are more purple (which is always grape).

I am cynical enough to know that the answer to most “why?” questions is money. It’s cheaper to use these artificial flavorings, either in the production or even just the preservation and shelf-life of products.

Look around and recognize all of the substitutes there are for sugar, salt, butter, and everything else we eat.

Yummy!

Add comment July 14th, 2006

Scorched Lap

If you actual work with a laptop computer on your lap, there is no doubt you have felt the heat it produces. More and more powerful electronics packed into smaller cases seems to generate more heat–and some serious safety issues.

I have owned Dell, Toshiba, and IBM laptops, and all can get very hot to the touch. The internal fans are supposed to keep them cool enough, but depending upon the surface you have them resting, it might not be enough.

I am still amazed that what you are doing with your computer can cause it to run hotter. I consider myself an experienced technologist, but I never really thought of a computer as a mechanical device that “works harder” on certain processes than others. I accept that a car carrying more weight up hill would work hard and hotter, but a computer is just pushing 1’s and 0’s around as electrons. Doesn’t it always work with the same amount of effort? Apparently not.

The fans in many laptops seem to be thermostatically controlled. When the computer gets hotter, the fan either turns on or runs faster. One of the laptops I used to have one that would actually shut down if it got too hot. I had only a few seconds to respond–the fan would start revving really fast, and I would need to pick the laptop up and wave it in the air a bit to cool it off enough to stay on. It reminded me of a Dilbert comic where the boss is given an Etch-a-Sketch as a laptop and his is told to shake it over his head to reboot. My current laptop doesn’t shut down, but I do hear the fan kick on faster when working on complex graphics or sophisticated games.

There have been many publicized cases of laptops starting on fire either do to extreme temperatures on flammable surfaces, or defective batteries and other components. So now I am very careful not to leave my laptop on and unattended, unless I know it is properly ventilated. I also where asbestos underwear.

Add comment July 11th, 2006

The Power of Notepad

I have always told people that Notepad, the free Windows accessory that has been around since at least Windows 3.1, is my favorite word processing program. It’s great for jotting down ideas or using it as a basic ASCII text editor. Here are some tips on how to make it work for you.

First of all, if you have never used Notepad, it should be found in your Programs - Accessories Folder from your Start menu. However, I prefer to set a shortcut key so that I can open it in a moment from anywhere.

To set a shortcut key for Notepad (or any application), right-click on its icon and choose Properties. In the Shortcut key field, press any key you wish to use. I use N so that whenever I press Ctrl+Alt+N, my friend Notepad opens. Make sure you don’t use a keystroke combination that may use in some other program to prevent conflicts.

(Click to enlarge)

There is not much to the actual using of Notepad. There is no formatting and no spell check, so you are basically typing. There is a Find/Replace tool which can be handy though. You will most likely want to enable the Word Wrap feature found in the Format menu. This allows text to wrap within the window instead of the default option of extending infinitely off your screen.

Your basic shortcut keys work as expected, as shown next to their functions in the menus. One that is kind of unique to Notepad is the Time/Date stamp function. Using this from the Edit menu, or pressing the <F5> key, will insert the current date and time at the cursor position. This is a good feature if you are using a Notepad file as a diary, log, or place to quickly jot down ideas and you want to record when you do so.

There is actually an interesting way to enable a Notepad text file to insert a Time/Date stamp automatically at the end of your file whenever it is opened:

1. In your .TXT file, type .LOG on the first line and press <Enter> so that it is by itself. This must be typed in UPPERCASE letters to work.
2. Save your file.
3. The next time your file is opened, the current time and date will be place at the end of the file and you are ready to append your log.

I also like to add Notepad as a utility to easily open files that I am browsing. There are many ASCII files without a .TXT extension that could be edited using Notepad but are not associated with it. Instead of making many associations, I add Notepad to the “Send To” menu available when you right-click on a file. Then I can right-click on any file and choose Send To - Notepad to edit it.

1. Right-click on the Notepad icon in your Programs - Accessories folder and select Copy.
2. Open the Send To folder in your personal settings. It should be something like: C:\Documents and Settings\YourProfile\SendTo
   (You may need to “Show hidden files and folders” in your Folder Options settings to do this)
3. Edit - Paste to add the shortcut.

Now you can right-click on a file and send it to Notepad to be edited.

Add comment July 7th, 2006

Don’t Blow Your Top

How could you miss a headline like Piece of man’s skull falls off, draws crowds?

Indian electrician, Sambhu Roy’s was electrocuted and his scalp and skull were burned. Being blood starved, it slowly died and came off. (Yuck!) All is well though, as new skull is actually growing in its place.

Click here to better understand the dangers of being an Indian electrician.

Add comment July 5th, 2006