Not microwave safe (6) Aug 9, 2006
The biggest mistake of my life up to this point was getting dinner plates that aren't microwave safe.  What a stupid thing.  Why on earth would a company make plates that aren't microwave safe?  What's the benefit?  Was there a thought process behind that decision, and did someone make the call to go with a non-microwave safe material?  If so, that person is a jerk.  And an idiot.  A jerkiot. 

But when something isn't microwave safe, it doesn't mean it can't go in the microwave.  It just means the object will heat up faster than the food that's likely to be placed on it.  And if it's in the microwave for too long, it'll heat up past its "comfort level" and basically crack or burn.  So the "solution" (I haven't perfected it yet) is to use the power control settings.  Oddly enough, "power control" doesn't mean the microwave is producing any more or less power.  It means it's turning the magnetron (the thing that makes a microwave work) on and off in cycles.  Things with water molecules (and fats and sugars) in them are affected by a microwave's radiation, and this "effect" causes them to heat up.  So by cycling the power, the non-microwaveable plate is allowed to cool off (by not continually injecting it with radiation), while the food stores its heat until the next power cycle. #technology
Hour-long TV shows Aug 8, 2006
I don't watch much TV, but when I do watch, I tend to watch hour-long shows.  I like things like CSI and Numb3rs, but I'm also a fan of half-hour shows like the Simpsons and Seinfeld.  But I've noticed that watching TV after 9pm is kind of a problem.  If I start watching in the middle of an hour, chances are that I'll be missing half of an hour-long show because nighttime seems to be a great time to have hour-long shows.  If I miss a significant part of an hour-long show, it's not even worth watching the rest.  So I sometimes end up turning off the TV.  Why watch a part of a show I'll never see the beginning of?  By creating these hour-long shows, the TV gods are driving important people (namely, me) away.  That's my spiel. #entertainment
Hoboken parking garage Aug 8, 2006
The Garden Street Garage, a robotic parking garage in Hoboken NJ, had a bit of a snafu last week:  The city fired the parking garage employees, who took with them the intellectual property rights and manuals that went along with the software that controlled the robotics.  For several days, hundreds of cars were trapped in the belly of the robotic beast because the system was incapable of functioning without a working software license.  Nice job, Hoboken.  (via Boing Boing) #entertainment
Sticky price tags Aug 8, 2006
Today's Dilbert talked about something I was planning on writing about: 
[Image: dilbert20060808.gif]
Sticky price tags are the stupidest thing human beings have ever created.  Just the other day, I was attempting to take the sticky price tag off a gift from my sister from Latvia (yes, the country).  It utterly failed.  And not because I'm stupid.  Granted, I'm not the smartest kid on the block (I always spell "genius" wrong), but I think I'm smart enough to remove a sticker from a solid object.  Instead, the sticker came apart into a million pieces and left a permanent sticky residue.  If Wendy was there, she would have said to use rubbing alcohol or nail polish remover, both of which I've already proven do NOT work on sticky things (sorry, Wendy ... good idea though). 

Just like the comic points out, sticky-price-tag-sticker-makers don't quite get it.  Their purpose is to come up with a great product that works flawlessly.  The thing they forget is that price tag stickers aren't supposed to be permanent.  They always need to be taken off.  And while I could use harsh chemicals and sharp objects to remove these things, I shouldn't need to.  Buncha idiots. #entertainment
Air rage Aug 7, 2006
Traveling is almost never a routine event.  Air travel is certainly no exception.  And I've noticed something that happens quite a bit on planes:  Air rage.  For a variety of reasons, people get really mad at things that are completely out of anyone's control.  For example, the word "delay" is about as common as the word "the".  So when there's a delay, it should be a routine thing.  But it's not.  The pilot comes on the overly-loud intercom:  "Hello, this is your captain speaking.  We're experiencing a bit of a delay as a result of a low pressure front coming out of the northeast.  Air traffic control has halted all takeoffs for the remainder of the hour, so we'll be sitting on the runaway in our taxiing position.  Just sit back and enjoy some in-flight entertainment."  Immediately, people groan and look outside.  At least 95% of the people take out their cell phone and call someone.  Some smart guy [angrily] says to one of the flight attendants, "It looks fine out there!  How long is it gonna be?"  (Isn't it funny how the anger is directed at the person who is completely incapable of doing anything to fix any type of problem?)  The flight attendant calmly gives some sort of canned reply:  "I'm sorry sir, but I don't have any more information at this time.  If you'd like, feel free to move about the cabin and use the rest rooms at this time."  (In a very rare moment, I develop a higher amount of respect for these loud-talking, elbow-crushing, sleep-ruining waiters and waitresses and their ability to handle and defuse a tense situation.)  No less than 20 more people ask this same exact question, each one more angry than the one before. 

Air rage is a bit different from road rage (or traffic rage) in that people are completely helpless to do anything but sit around and wait for something to happen.  At least road rage is proactive:  Angry drivers weave in and out of traffic trying to figure out what the problem is or to find the quickest way out of traffic.  Or they turn on the radio to see what the problem is.  Air rage is based on second hand information.  The passenger is angry at the flight attendant because the pilot said that the air traffic control person said that the weather person said that there will eventually be a storm passing through. #travel
Human fat Aug 7, 2006
Pictured below (pile of yellow stuff, second from left) is an anatomically correct replica of a pound of human fat.  You can use it to teach your biology class about human anatomy, or you can take kk.org's advice and "keep it on your dinner table and watch everybody lose their appetite".  Also pictured are a liver (I think), a kidney (I think), and a five-pound wad of fat.  (via Cool Tools)
#products
Hic Cup (2) Aug 7, 2006
The Hic Cup is a stainless steel cup with a brass rod attached to it that "instantly and reliably relieves your problem hiccups".  When drinking from the cup, the metal bar rests on the outside of your cheek, forming an electrical circuit that sends a jolt (less than static electricity) into your body and interrupts the hiccup reflex.  A cure for hiccups for $25?  Not really worth it unless you have a major problem.  (via Neatorama) #products
Baggage claim (2) Aug 2, 2006
Airline travel is like a game.  A pitiful, humiliating, hurtful game.  Not only are certain people shown preference over others, everyone must experience a number of uncomfortable annoyances:  Security checks, pilot lingo, and the baggage claim (unless you're smart enough to not check your bags). 

The baggage claim has to be the least efficient, most uncomfortable way of distributing anything to a group of people.  Bags magically come out of a hole in the wall or the floor and travel around a conveyor.  Logic states that people want to get their bags as soon as possible, so they predictably stand around the "magic hole".  Everybody has the exact same bag, and everybody thinks their bag will come out first.  People treat the bag pickup with such ridiculous urgency that it shows their unfounded fear that their bags might go back into the magic hole and never come out again.  All in all, it's a horrendous event, and it's just so fitting after a 5-hour plane ride sitting between a fat person and a baby. 

So to make things interesting, I have a few recommendations: 
1.  Make it a contest.  Whoever gets their bag first wins a prize. 
2.  Double or triple the speed of the baggage carousel.  Trying to grab your bag that's traveling at 30 mph would just be awesome. 
3.  Double or triple the number of magic holes.  The question of the day:  Which hole will it come out of?  That would definitely help make number (1) more interesting. 
4.  Turn the lights off.  Nothing says "challenge" like running around in a dark room full of angry people on movable floors. 
5.  Set up obstacles.  I would pay money to watch a grandma trying to get to her overweight bag on the conveyor belt while trying to jump over cones, duck under fences, and dodge projectiles. 
#travel
Washington trip Jul 30, 2006
Wendy and I took a trip to Washington state to visit my sister and her husband.  We went to Mount Rainier, Olympic National Park, Seattle, and Mount St. Helens. 

Pictures:

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#travel
Web-based SSH (1) Jul 27, 2006
I'm new to this whole SSH thing.  SSH is basically a secure way to logon to your website.  It's more secure than things like FTP or TELNET because it uses lots of encryption and authentication.  It's very un-graphical, meaning that it's text-based like the command prompt in windows. 

I needed to use SSH for something on my website, so I looked for ways to do it.  The most useful thing I found was MindTerm, which is a web-based SSH client.  Instead of downloading some stupid text entry SSH client, I wanted to keep my website web-based (following my pattern of web-based FTP, RSS, and email).  This single java file makes it possible.  It's pretty simple:  Put the file in a directory on your webserver and call it in an applet.  Now you can do all those fancy (archaic) command line things like gzip, ls, and chmod.  (I'm sure this has something to do with Linux.) #technology