Aimless Wandering

Sit back, relax and check out this old video of the PBA skills challenge. It’s got some amazing shots - and of course some good trash talking too!

What I want to know is how you convince a bowling alley to practice these shots?

I’ve seen lots of people GET a 7-10 split, hell I’ve gotten lots of them myself. Picking one up, well that’s a different story. It can be done, check out this video of Mark Roth picking one up. It’s the first time it was ever done on television:

No less amazing - Walter Ray Williams picking up the 4-6-7-10 - again a first time on television.

Are they saying that I’m ugly?

There’s been a spate of weird cell phone stories passing through the tubes this past week.

Originally I thought this one in The Register about the dead Malayan man who managed to rack up $218 TRILLION US in cell phone charges - at least according to his cell phone company that is…  His surviving son who received the bill and a note insisting that he pay the bill in 10 days or “get a laywer” says he can’t wait to face the legal action that Telekom Malaysia is threatening.  BTW that phone bill is about 17 times the GDP of the United States!

Now, I hate Verizon Wireless.  No, I’m not a subscriber and never have been.  But I’ve researched the plans, read the reviews and heard the horror stories and long ago was convinced that I didn’t want them for a cell carrier.  Well Pocket-Lint is running the story of Corey Taylor who realized that Verizon Wireless was evil after signing the contract to give up his first born as well as three pints of blood a month for the next 3 years (ok maybe it wasn’t that stiff a contract) and went looking for a way out.

His solution…  Death.

He didn’t kill himself - although he did create a fake death certificate and convince a friend to fax it to Verizon on his behalf…  Verizon however caught wind of the scheme and forced him to pay the $175 early termination fee.  My guess as to what gave it away- Mr Taylor probably called Verizon to confirm they received his fax!

So I took The Boy over to the annual airshow today.  We only spent two and a half hours there but considering that the trip cost me all of $3 for parking, $5 for drinks for the two of us and another $5 at the end for a toy plane as  a reward for good behavior, I think it was a decent way to spend the morning.

There were a lot of planes on display, and The Boy did a really good job waiting in line to check out the planes we could climb in to - he did much better than I would have expected a four year old to do…

I don’t have any pictures because The Wife took my camera with her to Alaska, and well she conveniently couldn’t find her camera before she left…

But while we were waiting to board an old Soviet built passenger plane there was a model airplane demonstration going on that was fascinating.  One guy was flying an electric powered model of the Boeing 777 airliner, that was all well and good, except I’ve never seen (and don’t expect to ever see) a 777 flying upside down!  Or for that matter doing barrel rolls!

There were several models of WWII vintage fighter jets that were just stunning in their detail - and sound.  There was also a rather large - 5 and a half to 6 feet long- model of a stunt plane that was flying in circles balanced on it’s tail!

There other flying models that caught my eye were the helicopters.  They didn’t appear to be detailed in any special way although they spent most of their flight time - upside down!  The announcer was talking about how maneuverable the helicopters were, and that they were built so well that they could do maneuvers that real helicopters couldn’t…  Actually I think the reason why real helicopters don’t do some of the stunts these models were doing is because a real pilot would have been smeared across the windscreen from the G forces being imparted on them.  Besides the loops and rolls, these helicopters were flying balanced on their tails snapping back and forth as if on a rubber band.  It’s impossible to describe how these things were flying, as I was standing there and couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

Model aircraft has always been something that has fascinated me.  But the price and stress of owning and flying such impressive aircraft as these has always kept me out of the hobby.  Some of these aircraft cost well over $1,000 and several hours to build - and the thought of trashing something like that thanks to a botched landing is just too much for me to handle….

Ok, I understand that toy and electronics manufacturers have a bit a conundrum.  They want to make their products as attractive and compelling as possible while on the store shelf, while at the same time making them difficult to shoplift.

It’s that desire which has led to the vast wealth of toys encased in plastic with the exception of a button or two to allow children and parents alike to sample some of the functionality of the toy prior to purchase.

I’m starting to be amazed at just what manufacturers will do to lock their products in to place.

Take for example the remote control dump truck that one of The Boy’s friends gave him for his birthday.  The truck was encased in a veritable cocoon of plastic and cardboard that allowed for the buttons on the remote control to be pressed and for parts of the truck to move about in the box.  Great right?

So then you start to undo the origami like folding of the box to remove the truck, fold after fold until the bottom piece of cardboard that the truck is secured to is exposed.  Now it would seem reasonable to me for the truck and controller to be held in place with some plastic glued to cardboard base and maybe a twist tie or two for extra re-inforcement.

But this truck, the plastic shell surrounding the truck and controller was glued to the cardboard, then there were not two, but FOUR twist ties wrapped around the axel holding the truck to the cardboard.  The controller had it’s own two twist ties securing it to the cardboard, these twist ties went through the controller and to remove them needed to be fished out of the controller.

Oh but that wasn’t all.  The truck was also screwed in to the bottom of the box, but just unscrewing the brace plate and removing from the cardboard wasn’t enough.  Oh, no but the bracket on the truck that the brace plate screws in to also needed to be removed.  If it wasn’t the back wheels sat too far up and the truck wouldn’t go anywhere.

Why does this packaging need to be this complicated?   I could understand the twist ties and plastic to secure the truck in the packaging, by why the plate to screw it in to the box?  Not just that, but also the special bracket on the bottom of the truck that needs to be unscrewed too before the truck could be used?

Really I understand the need to showcase the product yet still make it difficult to steal-  But come on!

So I ran in to this over on Crave.  As part of a massive ad campaign that Westin has installed in Grand Central Station in New York, there is a billboard offering up a free ringtone to passersby via Bluetooth.

For years tech folks have been talking about a similar type of service that would allow merchants to beam coupons to the phones of passing folks, but for a variety of reasons it hasn’t happened in the US.

I think what Westin is trying to do is a pretty good idea, but I don’t think it will work.  In the Crave article it talks about how the billboard is located someplace that people don’t linger…  But I think there’s even more to it than that.  This billboard like most billboards is located someplace noisy, which reduces the possibility that the intended recipient will notice that they have received a Bluetooth file transfer request.  Ideally this billboard needs to be placed in a waiting area, as the longer folks are in range of the billboard, the greater the chances that they’ll notice it’s there and trying to send them a file.

But there’s also the fact that most people (especially those over 25 and outside the Crackberry set) don’t know how to do much more with their phone other than send and receive calls.  How many of the folks likely to stay at a Westin (even those with Crackberrys) would know how to respond to a Bluetooth file transfer request on their phone if they got one?

For those who are savy enough to know what a Bluetooth file transfer request is and how to handle one on their phone, how likely are they to accept such a transfer from a source that they don’t know?  What about you?  Would you accept a file being sent to you randomly by a stranger in a train station?

So The Wife and I are eagerly preparing for a trip to Europe in a few months. In light of the risk of terrorist attacks around the world, my office has required me to do some research on the threat levels in the countries we’ll be visiting. Of course, the definitive sites that I need information from are down, instead I found this, it’s apparently from an e-mail that’s going around but I found it here -

“The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have raised their security level from “Miffed” to “Peeved”.

Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to “Irritated” or even “A Bit Cross”.

Londoners have not been “A Bit Cross” since the blitz began in 1940 and tea supplies all but ran out.

Terrorists have been re-categorized from “Tiresome” to “A Bloody Nuisance”.

The last time the British issued “A Bloody Nuisance” warning level was during the great fire of 1666.

Also, the French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from “Run” to “Hide”.

The only two higher levels in France are “Collaborate” and “Surrender.”

The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France’s white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country’s military capability.

It is not only the English and French who are on a heightened level of alert.

Italy has increased the alert It’s level from “Shout Loudly and Excitedly” to “Elaborate Military Posturing.”

Two more levels remain: “Ineffective Combat Operations” and “Change Sides.”

The Germans also increased their alert state from “Disdainful Arrogance” to”Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs.”

They also have two higher levels: “Invade a Neighbour” and “Lose”.

Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual, and the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels.

The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy.

These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish Navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish Navy. “