Category: Miscellany

Just got back from taking Son#2 out for his first driving lesson — he got his Learner’s Permit yesterday.  We spent quite a bit of time in an empty school parking lot, driving around the rows as if they were roads, learning to turn and to stop.  We’ll be back at it again tomorrow and just about every day after that.  Practice, practice, practice.

Things happen in our yard and on our porch.  We’re aware of some of it … some of it may be aware of us.  Here is Angela’s Porch Cam, Episode #1:

Everything but the content has been restored … hopefully we’ll be able to get that done soon … otherwise, I’ll have^H^H^H^Hget to start with a clean slate.

I realize that I’m occasional guilty of it myself, but I’m constantly telling the boys they should not go into the garage barefoot. They pay me lip service and go get shoes, but I know they’re not convinced because we go through it again the next time.

But today, I found this little critter while moving things around out there and took the opportunity to show him off to both of them, as well as to explain that at only two inches long, it would have been rather toxic to get stung by it.

This is not the first time we’ve found a scorpion. Shortly after we moved in, one of the cats cornered and killed one in our bedroom and, another time, one near the back door. But we haven’t seen any since.

When I showed this scorpion to the boys, they each made brief sounds of acknowledgment and understanding. But, somehow, I don’t think it really sunk it. I’m fairly certain that finding it had a far greater impact on their mother and I. But I’ll remind them about it every time they head out to the garage in bare feet.

For some time now, I’ve been in the habit of using a sticky-note pad for keeping notes at my desk.  When I get a call or need to jot down an idea, I just write it on the sticky-note.  Once the note was full, I’d peal it off and stick it to a growing stack of sticky-notes on the corner of my desk where it could be referred to later.  Unfortunately, this methodology has gotten rather unwieldy; the pile of notes were slowly taking over my desk and I couldn’t have them with me if I was working anywhere else.  So I decided to get a notebook.

Although I could have used just about any kind of notebook, I felt this would be an ideal excuse to get a Moleskine notebook.  I’ve been looking at them for years.  Every time we’d go to a book store, I would inevitably find myself in front of the Moleskine display, carefully selecting and looking through them, but never purchasing one.  Not only are they a bit on the pricey side, but I never really had a need for one and it would have been a shameful waste of a high quality notebook.  So, having finally found a need, I ordered a couple from a popular online retailer.

They arrived last week, but spent the rest of the week sitting on my desk.  They came individually wrapped in cellophane and I just couldn’t bring myself to tear one open.  On Monday, I finally talked myself into unwrapping one and carefully explored it — my Moleskines have an oilcloth cover, an elastic closure, a ribbon place-holder, and a small expandable pocket inside the back cover.  All of it’s lightly ruled pages were pristine and empty.

It was Wednesday afternoon before I could finally bring myself to soil the first page with my hand-writing.

Now, however, I’ve sorted through the stack of sticky notes, recording those that still have value in my notebook, and have disposed of them all.  Sticky-note Corner is gone — it’s place is now reserved for my notebook while I’m at my desk.

I’m still using sticky-notes, but only to jot a quick note while on the phone.  Anything important is now immediately transcribed into my notebook and scratched off the sticky-note which, when finally filled up, is now simply tossed out.

I was asked to ship a large piece of equipment from Phoenix to an office located in another city and state.  No problem — it was decommissioned months ago and has just been sitting there, waiting for someone to decide its fate, and in a rare moment of brilliance, I had saved the custom shipping crate its replacement had arrived in.  Just roll it into the crate, seal it up, and have Shipping call someone to come get it.  Easy — Not!

Months ago, when the replacement system arrived, it was contained in a custom built shipping crate more than 7 feet tall.  Although it fit through the doors on the receiving dock, it was several inches taller than the door of the freight elevator.  Out of its crate, the system easily fit in the elevator.  So the crate was left down stairs and the system was installed next to its predecessor.  Eventually the older system was shutdown and turned off, but left in the machine room until we decided what to do with it.

Fast forward to today, when I received the shipping address of the office that could use the old system.  I discovered that the empty crate, which had been clearly labeled and left in a corner of the dock reserved for such things, was missing.  Eventually, I learned that had been moved to authorized-access only cage.  Apparently this was part of a ‘clean up’ measure due to a visit of an off-site VP.

The cage is a chain-link enclosure where unused equipment that is still on the books gets stored until being reassigned.  The cage is locked and requires the approval of a manager in order to gain access.  Fortunately, it only took several phone calls to locate someone with the authority to approve my removal of the empty crate.

Once the crate was returned to the dock area, I rolled the old system out of the machine room and into the freight elevator to take it down.  Unfortunately, taking it out of the elevator proved more challenging than expected.  One of the cabinet’s wheels had turned sideways as it rolled across the elevator’s threshold and wedged itself in the small crack between the floor of the elevator and the floor of the dock.  This equipment is not light.  It took a while to find a couple of people who could help lift, push, and pull the cabinet the rest of the way out of the elevator — all while the elevator doors continuously closed, reopening after they contacted the cabinet, only to try closing again a few seconds later.  Unwedged from the elevator, I was able to get the machine safely stowed in it’s crate.

The Shipping department is separate from Receiving, in separate buildings.  They have a truck that regularly runs between the buildings and I had fortunately been able to get the crate sealed and ready to go just before it was scheduled to arrive.  The cargo door of the truck, however, was exactly the same height as the crate — using a pallet-jack was out of the question.  So more bodies were located and we manually slid the heavy thing the last several feet into the truck — in 106 (F) degree weather with 30% humidity.  We had to do it all over again when the truck got over to the Shipping dock.

I was so happy to finally turn over the shipping instructions and to wash my hands of the damn thing.

Just roll it into the crate, seal it up, and have Shipping call someone to come get it … my foot!

For those of you who have laid awake at night wondering what Flyball is — you know who you are — here’s a short film that gives you a feel for the sport.

Flyball is a fast paced agility sport for dogs that combines hurdles, fetching, timing, and sometimes a little bit of luck.  My Sister-in-law is a member of the Sedona Red Rockets Flyball team.  Son#2 is the team Box Loader.  The short film below, shot and produced by my wife, is of the Flyball Tournament held in Blythe, CA, this past February.

What do you do when you’re town is located in such a steep-sided valley that the sun disappears for more than 80 days each winter? This is exactly the problem that has plagued Viganella, a small town in the Alps long Italy’s northern border, for nearly 800 years!

Their solution? Put a large mirror on an adjacent mountain top to reflect sunlight into the town square.

viganella_mirror.jpg

Viganella was founded in 1217 in the narrow Antrona Valley of northern Italy. The valley is so narrow that each year, the sun disappears behind the 2000 foot mountain on the south side of town on November 11th, leaving the town in darkness until it reappears on February 2nd. No sunlight falls on the town for 83 days.

When the sundial was commissioned for the parish church, the section for November 11th through February 2nd was left unfinished — there is no light then.

However, several hundred feet up, the southern slopes of the mountain to the north does get sunlight.

The mayor, Pierfranco Midali, worked with architect Giacomo Bonzani, to come up with a plan to bring the sun to Viganella: place a mirror high up on the northern slope to reflect sunlight down onto the town.

The mirror would be about 5 meters (16 feet) in diameter and have a computer to track the sun and reflect sunlight onto the village square.

Although many village residents were doubtful of Midali’s plan, he has spent the last seven years working tirelessly to raise the £67,500 ($133,000 USD) needed to build the mirror.

Early this November, all of Midali’s hard work finally paid off. A mirror 8 meters (26 feet) wide and 5 meters tall was installed along with an “altazimuth” computer to control it, reflecting sunlight onto the village square a half mile away and lighting up an area of 1800 square feet for about 6 hours a day.

“I can already see my little old ladies coming out of the church after mass and just standing there, enjoying a bit of sun,†Midali said.

We’ve all had the experience: Glanced in the rear-view mirror and realized that the car behind you is so close, all you can see is the middle of their hood and windshield. Or, worse yet, that your entire back window is filled with a Semi’s grille. Very nerve-wracking and dangerous. Fortunately, the Police and Highway Patrol have a new weapon to catch tailgaters and enforce safe following distances.

Laser Technologies, a Colorado based laser “radar” gun manufacture, has devised a way to use their laser-guns to identify tailgaters by measuring the exact distance between vehicles’ bumpers.

Many citations for tailgating get overturned in court because the observed distance between a suspected tailgater and the lead vehicle is deemed subjective. Measuring the vehicles’ speed and actual distance between bumpers can now provide real evidence for a tailgating citation.

Oregon was the first state to use this tool, beginning with a trail last year. Arizona, New Mexico, and Tennessee have also begun their trails of their own.

Thus far, results from using the laser have been contested only once, in Arizona, and the technology was upheld.

Laser Technologies says that if the courts continue to accept the results of these devices, they may roll them out more aggressively in the future.

Frankly, I hope so. Tailgating has become the #1 stress to driving anywhere.

On July 12, 2005, Kyle MacDonald offered up a single red paperclip for trade. Through a series of trade-ups, he will reach his goal of trading for a house next Wednesday. On July 12. Exactly one year later.

Last July, Kyle posted on his website that he wanted to trade a red paperclip for a house. As you would expect, the initial trades were rather humble. He traded his red paperclip for a wooden fish pen, which, in turn, was traded for a hand-sculpted ceramic doorknob.

So it went for 11 more trades: The doorknob for a Coleman stove, then for an electric generator, for an “Instant Party,” for snowmobile, for a trip to Yahk, for a box truck, for a recording contract, for a year’s free rent in Phoenix, for an afternoon with Alice Cooper, then for a KISS snowglobe, which was recently traded for a role in an up-coming move entitled Donna on Demand.

This morning, Kyle describes an offer he received from the town of Kipling, Saskatchewan. They would like to trade him a house for the Donna on Demand role. They plan on completing the trade on July 12. Exactly one year from when the red paperclip was offered.

I find it truly amazing that Kyle was able to reach his goal—from red paperclip to a house—in just a single year. But, to me, the most interesting part of this whole story is that he was able to accomplish it with only 14 trades!

Study indicates that cities in arid climates, such as Phoenix, may be creating an artificial environment that is affecting rainfall patterns in the surrounding desert.

A recent article on LiveScience explains how a new study is investigating how lawns, irrigation, man-made lakes, and thousands of pools have increased the annual rainfall by as much as 12-14% in the Northeast suburbs and rural areas of Phoenix.

The study was published in the online journal Journal of Arid Environments.
An abstract is available here.

It was bound to happen. Technology originally designed to discourage teens from loitering in certain locations is now being used by teens to hide incoming phone calls and text messages on their cellphones.

In November I wrote about the Mosquito, a device invented by Howard Stapleton, managing director of Compound Security Systems (CSS), that was intended to help reduce the number of teens “hanging out” at locations where they tend gather and become disruptive. The Mosquito works by generating a loud, pulsating ultra-sonic tone that can generally only be heard by those under 20 years old.

Although the Mosquito has been successful, teens have adopted this technology for their own use: ring tones that cannot be heard by adults. Using a recording of the Mosquito as a ring tone, teens have found a way to send and receive text messages from their cellphones while in places where phones are forbidden, such as a class room.

“Our high-frequency buzzer was copied. It is not exactly what we developed, but it’s a pretty good imitation,” said Simon Morris, marketing director for CSS. “You’ve got to give the kids credit for ingenuity.” About a month ago, CSS’s website traffic spiked, as more than 100,000 kids tried to download the sound.

Today, a visit to Compound Security’s website finds an advertisement hawking the new ring-tone. An interesting development for a company that initially developed the sound to drive teens away.

Having grown up in Phoenix, I’ve heard it all my life: Phoenix may be hot, but it’s a dry heat. It’s a phrase that’s been the butt of many jokes and much laughter. Life, however, will have it’s own little jokes and teaches us that there is, perhaps, some real meaning to these words.

We recently spent a week in San Diego doing the tourist thing — visiting SeaWorld, the San Diego Zoo, and the San Diego Wild Animal Park. The temperature, in the mid 80’s to high 90’s, was a welcome change from Phoenix’s 110-115 degree days — or so we thought at first. Although the temperature was a lower, the humidity was much much higher. I found myself sweating profusely to no affect. Everything we wore became soggy and sticky. In short, we were miserable.

In Phoenix, the temperature climbed to 114 our first day back. This being our Monsoon season, the humidity was also high … for Phoenix. Relative to San Diego, our humidity is practically non-existent. Something we’re used to and can deal with.

Yeah, it may be hot in Phoenix, but it’s a dry heat!

A new technology being offered by Pay by Touch allows retail customers to pay for products at the register by simply giving them the finger — or, more precisely, simply placing their finger on a scanner.

The new finger payment systems are beginning to show up in stores all across the country: at Piggly Wiggly grocery stores, Albertsons, Thriftway, Pick ‘n Save, and others.

Pay by Touch claims the scanners are actually safer than other common forms of payment, that customer information is kept encrypted and secured. Pay by Touch guarantees that customers are correctly identified by the unique biometric qualities of their finger.

Although many customers are quite happy with the new system, WTOC (Savannah, GA), reports that some customers are a bit leery of it due to concerns of identity fraud.

On the surface, this seems very similar to the key fob systems used at many gas pumps and convenient stores, where the customers simply waive their key fobs at the sensor to pay for goods and services. But by not requiring consumers to actually carry anything on them — just using their finger-prints — the system may appeal to a much larger group of consumers and gain a larger share of check-out transactions.

Migration of all services, such as web and email, from our old Internet server to the new one has completed. The new server is faster, has more memory, and much more disk-space as well as faster Internet connectivity. Those of you who use the WebMail interface should notice a vast speed improvement over it’s past performance.

The server has been successfully moved, but DNS (hostname resolution) is lagging some what. It should all sort itself out in the next 48 hours.

Although deserts of the Southwest aren’t known, in particular, for their rain, we do get some spectacular rainstorms.

We only received a few light sprinkles from Thursday night’s storm.  It passed several miles to the East of us, allowing me to capture this picture.

Last night’s storm, however, was of a different nature.  Not only did it pass directly over us, but it was accompanied by intensely brilliant flashes of lighting and violent explosions of thunder which continued to roll and rumble for minutes at a time.

This morning, the Eastern sky was covered in dark, heavy clouds, totally blocking out the morning sun. But while driving to work, I noticed a large clear hole open up allowing a powerful beam of sunlight to shine through. I had a camera with me and was able to quickly snap a picture just before the hole closed up again moments later.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t realized the camera’s distance switch was set to “near.” This provided an excellent view of each speck and streak on my not-so-clean windshield while obscuring the gloriously dramatic sun-beam in a hazy blur.