There’s no sound , feel free to whistle along.

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I’m selling a car,trying to,presently on Craigslist which leads to the kind of interactions with people I’d rather not have. People that are possibly worse to deal with than car sales types.

Apart from the usual people that want to buy the car for $1000 less than posted without even looking it over, those that want to come tell you why it’s crap and that they don’t like the brand, those that want to buy it for a college student and expect a six year old car to carry the kind of guarantee that a new one would etc  and  the most interesting?  A ,can I politely say, less than  mentally capable person that doesn’t –even- have a driving license showing up at the door at 2130 ( 9 30  at night for those of you that can’t add twelve) unannounced that we didn’t give the address out to which is kind of spooky. Not a fan of this guy to say the least.

I still have the car and some information on a new scheme/scam.  Person mails me, asks some info and to arrange to see car.I send it. They then say oh prior to me coming out can I get some idea of the auto insurance via this site.  Auto insurance tips dot com,but the link went to tamiesunshine144 .blogspot . com and then redirected with the affiliate ID to the insurance site.  E.G., trolling for affiliate commissions.

CL is turning in Ebay and it’s usefulness is only possible when using a third party to search it when you are looking for something specific though as a means of exposing yourself to jerks it’s first class.

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Owle, not a Pixar sequel, is an acronym for Optical Widgets for Life Enhancement  housing that allows you to add additional lenses, an inbuilt mic,add lighting and stability to your iPhone 3gs which markedly improves real time video gathering  while remaining hand held portable. Why write what you can see

It’s pretty obvious  how much the viewer stands to benefit from this platform ,YEP  that’s the viewer. Local company too   : )

I’ve often thought of the iPhone as being a glorified controller that just happens to make phone calls.

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Akamai Technologies is extending its content delivery network to the Apple iPhone as it introduces the Akamai HD Network, a system for streaming high-definition live and on-demand video to a variety of devices. Source.

It’s been said twice in the comments over at Mashable that HD streaming to a device that cannot render HD is a bit of a non starter. It’s not been said with a Douglas Adams line from Dr Who.   May as well get started then.

“The concept is simply staggering. Pointless, but staggering” 

Actually it’s not that staggering. While there’s a case for streaming HD it’s maybe better if the end device could actually  utilize it.The  iPhone’s can not and is  likely been mentioned just to fulfill the buzzworthy compliant criteria of the release.

The iPhone’s max output currently is 640 x480,the screen resolution of the device itself is  is 480 x 320.  HD is usually considered to be 720 or above but realistically anything under x2 ( 960) the resolution is really stretching the term and  even the mighty 3GS currently falls far short of either mark without an external screen and short of the mark with one.

Thankfully a better post than I can justify the time in writing,without need to claim lack-of-talent, appears over on the streaming media blog. with the main thrust of the argument coming from the Workflowed blog.

Akamai…..as long as it’s above 700 kbps and starts as an HD source, it can be considered HD. So the house of cards of the iPhone claims in the rollout of the Akamai HD Network rests on HD ‘quality’ that’s below that of today’s average standard-definition stream

And in my unrefined language.

 Just because you start out with a HD source doesn’t make that which you receive HD. If I were to hold my cell phone to the speaker for you to hear the song would you be happy with the term CD quality being used to describe it? If I have ATT iPhone it’s unlikely the call would last long enough to finish this experiment. That’s the second part. Even running at 640×480 with 2.5Mbps , back to those iPhone specs again, you are still not HD and are still exceeding what you could likely extract from ATT on your iPhone. 

In short Penn and Teller don’t need to do a show about this claim because it’s prima fascia  Bullshit!

Want HD Video on the iPhone? Akamai Is Making it Possible

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I still think that Disney should  let us make copies that doesn’t rely on a separate item being within the package or better yet, just forget about the codes. It’s way easier for anyone to get the illegal version to their player than begging permission. Sad but unavoidably true.

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Cash or Credit.

Since I left it appears that most debit / credit transactions occur with a chip embedded in the card. This means that the US cards don’t work unless the operator is smart enough to swipe it. Even when told to we had a huge failure rate with various store staff looking bewildered and more than one calling their supervisor. This is a colossal pain in the ass and I usually used cash whenever possible ( Saves on the stupid conversion rates too, seriously banks you should be dead, act like it. )

BAGS

If you need to do grocery shopping there are many  “”bag free”  towns, sadly that doesn’t apply to the women;), and you have to purchase each bag. That’s fair enough except some people take it as an affront that you haven’t had the foresight to know just when you would be going shopping and how many you would need.  The religion of environmentalism allows the masses to spot the sinners and then stone them with glances.

SERVICE

Service, is lame. Slow, and I don’t mean respectfully slow. The drinks always go dry, the check isn’t often an automatic consequence of

SODA

These people have soda coolers, sorry they appearance of soda coolers as they chill the contents to about 3 degrees below the ambient room temperature.

IKEA

This is weird but in a prior post I identified Ikea’s customers as being the rudest, least respectful of children and  possessing abominable car parking manners. E.G, When they have any event on to get a free breakfast,cheap pan or the like it’s knock the kid out the way time.( that’s why they wont let you carry guns I bet;) )

Ikea in Scotland. Same fucking behavior what in the name of flat-packed hell is going on here?  Interestingly they have vodka for sale and I was able to have a pear cider with my tray meal.

More in a bit.

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Sky TV built the market for satellite TV in the UK, ass punched the woefully lacking BSB and merged with them. Then they made a mistake, getting big. See the UK spirit isn’t that of Dunkirk and stoicism under pressure  any more than the majority of the US is of freedom loving  don’t tread on me types.  It’s wanting other people to give you things for free and acting like a mob the moment it doesn’t go your way.

BBC NEWS | Business | Sky may have to share TV channels

The proposal to force Sky to wholesale its content is welcome, but we now need Ofcom to step up the pace and to enforce this rigorously,” said Gavin Patterson, chief executive of BT Retail.

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That people like to help people and will give out all kinds of information that they shouldn’t is fairly well established. What’s not so well established, at least by the common usage of marketing and SMD types is the term “viral meme” which has been denigrated to include just about any tell a friend promotion or user generated content that’s been slapped together.

For once the term viral meme may be appropriate in the case of the porn star name meme that’s going the rounds on Twitter.

Security Alert: Twitter Porn Names Scam – PC World

It could be simple human error, but it’s also possible that this security hole is an example of truly sneaky social engineering.

In short people are being asked to provide  biographical data such as the name of the street they grew up on,your mother’s maiden name, place of birth or your favorite pet for the grand payoff of concatenating your porn star name for you to post proudly to Twitter, Facebook and anywhere else you think this ephemera will soon be forgotten. Except that it wont be.

A virus, ( let’s leave Mimi out of this for now) can’t reproduce itself and to survive it transmits it’s message  using the resources of the host cell or in this case the message that wraps it up.   Seriously would you just send that out onto the web if you had no payoff? 

Memes are ideas, concepts, beliefs and thoughts that are transmitted verbally or by repeated action and can move through a ‘culture’ in a manner similar to a virus.

Do you see why most items masquerading as “viral marketing” are bullshit?  You know what the marketer wants and are often better able to identify it than they are:) That’s not viral it’s an ugly bug that needs to be squashed once and for all.

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For the entrance charge of $20 we got a ceramic bowl, filled with our choice of chili or minestrone , a Marian Call CD and the concert itself. This is what’s known as a bargain.

I would like to be the first to say that objectivity is hard for me with regards to talented women with red hair. ( Don’t worry Tori you’re safe I just expanded the category to living in USA, not living in USA)

Hearing “100 easy ways to lose a man” live was an unexpected treat as it’s probably the best use of her voice when not singing her own work.

I rather cheekily , I hope not dickishly, suggested about her new song “Karaoke” that “Jonathan Coulton called and would like the song back” but it’s really good  and had the kind of comedic build up that I love within some of his songs. A duet would rock because I think the voices would mix really well  without someone needing to  fit paul and storm with tighter underwear:)

The new road song was really good and I am totally spacing on the name of the guitarist that accompanies her but damn he’s good.  This was an awesome evening that even I’m not going to take the time to poke fun at the more surreal aspects of the evening at least tonight;)

The Cheeseman he cometh

Creddy and myself are big fans of the work of Mark Jonathan Davis  and his best known creation Richard Cheese  “Tomorrow’s standards today”  While I’m not a fan of the venue or the way the VIP tickets were handled it was like every other Cheese show we’ve been to. Musically awesome ( I could watch “Bobby Ricotta” goof around all night) with the real show being the audience participation between a set we’ve seen 2.5 times prior.

Guess what when he comes back later in the year we’ll be there too.

Given the star wars geekery from  his other works and the pseudonymous singer I’m still surprised that the audience has yet to be invited out for milk and wookies.

An idea : Would the correct term for an older cougar be sabre-toothed tiger?

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Swine flu creates controversy on Twitter – CNN.com

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By now you will know if you want to go buy his new stuff:)

Stephen Lynch 3 Ballons

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I’m a contrarian by nature so it comes as no shock that while I make no secret that I enjoyed the Cramer train wreck as entertainment I wasn’t a huge fan of the message that was sent.I’ve heard this message echoed back in the office that the Daily Show is about the only place to get real news. Really   Here’s a more realistic evaluation from “Better living through software“  blog.

If it took a Jon Stewart show for you to realize that Cramer is a clown, you are not the sharpest pencil in the box, and you have no right to feel smug.

You can see it in the comments on the original post,that people seriously believe that this is a credible venue for news/analysis. Throughout this mess no one seriously has questioned why 401k’s  exist in the first place.Talk about benefits, entitlements are a real distraction from the main issue. We were forced into 401k’s, to use professional money managers , hah! and to pay for the retirement of others or pay a penalty for arranging our own security.  Until we get back to basics on why we need an intercessionary relationship between our labor and future security it doesn’t matter who plays piggy in the middle.

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Simon Pegg on why the undead should never be allowed to run | Media | The Guardian

I know it is absurd to debate the rules of a reality that does not exist, but this genuinely irks me. You cannot kill a vampire with an MDF stake; werewolves can’t fly; zombies do not run. It’s a misconception, a bastardisation that diminishes a classic movie monster.

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In short it’s a set of rules for the relationship between creators, promoters and fans around Sci Fi / Fantasy conventions which can be extrapolated to most commercial interactions.

E.G Are we customers, consumers, data points or people that want to get things done?When you have a “voice” for a corporation engaged in social media maybe it’s a good idea to think about the above because the mode of address you choose in 3/4 cases is going to be wrong.

Can a corporation really be your friend? Does this construct sound real? X is out buying yummy things his company make , Y is out watching their Movie etc Does this sound remotely like a relationship your engaged in? If it doesn’t it’s for the obvious reason that it ISN’T.

I love dealing with people from companies, hate dealing with company names that have a rotating cast of interchangeable responses that would make Turing dance with glee. I can’t tell them apart from a machine or human either.

Wer in ur boahdroomz wutchin yu wit intrst

*invisible pink unicorn peace be unto her hooves.

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America the Banana Republic: Politics & Power: vanityfair.com

Now ask yourself another question. Has anybody resigned, from either the public or the private sectors (overlapping so lavishly as they now do)? Has anybody even offered to resign? Have you heard anybody in authority apologize, as in: “So very sorry about your savings and pensions and homes and college funds, and I feel personally rotten about it”? Have you even heard the question being posed? O.K., then, has anybody been fired? Any regulator, any supervisor, any runaway would-be golden-parachute artist? Anyone responsible for smugly putting the word “derivative” like a virus into the system? To ask the question is to answer it

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Anyway.  Let’s get back to the portable nuclear generators and how fricking handy these will be if we can  avoid the people that work at Jiffy Lube ever getting these in for service..

Answer to an Amory Lovins Disciple Who Believes in Conservation, Solar, Wind and Micropower : CleanTechnica

Hyperion Power Generation, for example, is focusing on a heating unit that is small enough to fit on the back of an over-the-road truck that can produce 70 MW of thermal energy constantly for several years. I spoke to the company founder for The Atomic Show Podcast and he explained how his company is establishing the supply chain needed to build 4,000 units that will be able to provide heat for about $3 per million BTU. By comparison, liquified natural gas sold in Japan last week for $20 per million BTU.

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Nearly
everything I’m seeing from the Pax08 concert has such poor sound /
video that it’s a complete waste of time and energy yet this crap is
getting 4 and 5 stars. Here’s where it bugs me. The crappy sound
and video in a sane world would be “mediated” by the crowd and given
an appropriate rating but it seems that it’s totally broken in the
cases of geek centric clips. Self recognition doesn’t = ****/*****
stars dumb ******/*******

You are today’s equivalent of the
idiots in sports stadiums with their GN14 flashes trying to reach out
all the way to center field. Either drop the money on a reasonable
recorder or just leave it in your pocket.

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Out of interest the only pop science book that I have lost is called ” Chaos” by James Gleick

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Will an adult otter eat 10 week old kittens.?

It’s not someone looking for a cheap, but adorable,way to feed otters but the replies are great. So if the idea of kitten consumption offends I’d steer clear of this.

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A real case of the cure being worse than the disease. 

Such a case is Ebay’s recent decision to remove the ability for sellers to rate buyers.Couple this  with a new fee schedule that is  argued by Ebay to mean a reduction of charges for “most” people which seems counter to my experience.  If they mean per 1000 items listed it’s cheaper for mass sellers there’s a case for that.  For the  occasional seller  all I see are increases

It’s an election year after all and   I think they’ve been nicking plays from the politician’s play book.  Reducing an insertion fee by 5c while adding on the

From the Auction Bytes blog.

If
you list 100 items with a starting and ending price of $9 with a 50
percent sell-through rate (50 items out of 100 actually sell), it would
cost you a total of $63.63 in fees under the old structure and a total
of $74.38 under the new structure. This is a fee increase of 17 percent.This
is based on the old insertion fee of 40 cents plus commission fee of
5.25%, and the new insertion fee of 35 cents plus 8.75% FVF. If
you list 100 items with a starting price of $9 and sell 50 percent of
them at a selling price of $35, you would have paid $121.75 in total
fees under the old pricing structure. Under the new pricing, you would
pay $162. That is a 33 percent fee increase.

Which is in most of the cases for my personal use  + paypal fees =  usuary?    I really liked Ebay and  apart from rare items now  I’ve abandoned it. Two reasons.  One  the curse of “perfect information”  There’s just too many people using it with an appreciation for the value of items that  there’s little deviation in the  price of gear.   Secondly I’m   painfully aware that additional fees  are passed straight on to me.  It’s bad for me on both counts. 

 I found the presence of  neg feedback generated by a seller VERY instructive  with regards to demeanor and professionalism of the seller .e.g  “loser didn’t read ad properly  , get a life”     killed my  desire  straight away to deal with them.   Mistakes happen,  it’s the only way you see  where customer service promises transform into action.

 No longer  having that insight is a disservice to buyers as well as sellers and   I swear I  looked up Ebay’s new management to see if they’d used a “buy it now” option to bring in  Fema’s ex director. Yer doing a hell of a job Ebay.

eBay’s new feedback policy: no real feedback

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A real case of the cure being worse than the disease. 

Such a case is Ebay’s recent decision to remove the ability for sellers to rate buyers.Couple this  with a new fee schedule that is  argued by Ebay to mean a reduction of charges for “most” people which seems counter to my experience.  If they mean per 1000 items listed it’s cheaper for mass sellers there’s a case for that.  For the  occasional seller  all I see are increases

It’s an election year after all and   I think they’ve been nicking plays from the politician’s play book.  Reducing an insertion fee by 5c while adding on the

From the Auction Bytes blog.

If
you list 100 items with a starting and ending price of $9 with a 50
percent sell-through rate (50 items out of 100 actually sell), it would
cost you a total of $63.63 in fees under the old structure and a total
of $74.38 under the new structure. This is a fee increase of 17 percent.This
is based on the old insertion fee of 40 cents plus commission fee of
5.25%, and the new insertion fee of 35 cents plus 8.75% FVF. If
you list 100 items with a starting price of $9 and sell 50 percent of
them at a selling price of $35, you would have paid $121.75 in total
fees under the old pricing structure. Under the new pricing, you would
pay $162. That is a 33 percent fee increase.

Which is in most of the cases for my personal use  + paypal fees =  usuary?    I really liked Ebay and  apart from rare items now  I’ve abandoned it. Two reasons.  One  the curse of “perfect information”  There’s just too many people using it with an appreciation for the value of items that  there’s little deviation in the  price of gear.   Secondly I’m   painfully aware that additional fees  are passed straight on to me.  It’s bad for me on both counts. 

 I found the presence of  neg feedback generated by a seller VERY instructive  with regards to demeanor and professionalism of the seller .e.g  “loser didn’t read ad properly  , get a life”     killed my  desire  straight away to deal with them.   Mistakes happen,  it’s the only way you see  where customer service promises transform into action.

 No longer  having that insight is a disservice to buyers as well as sellers and   I swear I  looked up Ebay’s new management to see if they’d used a “buy it now” option to bring in  Fema’s ex director. Yer doing a hell of a job Ebay.

eBay’s new feedback policy: no real feedback

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Here’s a view that may seem over simplistic but seems to fit most of my experiences with groups .Welcome to the monkey sphere.

Onto something happy.   Today was a matinée  ice hockey game.   Dobh was in attendance and was  being wickedly cute, and  while a bit difficult he took a three hour trip pretty well. He howls  along to each score for the home team. He had a lot of opportunity today     This is the first time in  over a decade  I’ve made a point of watching a sport that wasn’t a national event such as Wimbledon or the Super bowl. The fan attire fits me nicely, there’s a level of skill immediately apparent that I can’t discern in baseball and I don’t even want to get into professional  football. I live in Phoenix for fucks sake    Even though I never had a sporting background. I still had to play  rugby, soccer and hockey at school , I lived in the country with one non driving parent. It wasn’t that big a deal we could only afford one car.( you tell the kid’s that today and they won’t believe you </python>
 so it wasn’t really an option. 

Next post:
Boy do the American’s know how to put on a show,
 

Phoenix Coyotes – The Official Web Site

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