Automatic door

Gizmodo Japan: Auto door

maybe not what you would think, right out of a science fiction movie, but this may be useful.

This Fukuda’s Automatic Door , opening to fit the person or object's shape coming through.

Its motion-detecting portal saves energy by keeping a door from having to open and close all the way, which helps to maintain a stable temperature in a room, and can prevent dirt or other materials from entering.

check out this video of the prototype (Real Audio Video stream)

FierceWiFi - Israel

Wifi, WiMAX and wireless broadband news in FierceWiFi

Their announcement of the winners of this year's annual Fierce 15, a list of the hottest, "fiercest" companies in the WiFi world for 2006.

4 of the 15 are in Israel, 5 are in Europe, only 4 are in the U.S.

Driving Drunk

Today, while taking a little trip to Half Moon Bay to see friends, we happened to get behind some guy in a Mazda sort of SUV. After a minute it became evident that he was drunk. He was weaving back and for in the lane and after another minute, Eunice and I decided we needed to call the police. E-911 on a cell is no picnic, and after about 5 minutes of on hold and press 1 for English, well a lot had happened. He decided the stop and go traffic on Hwy 92 wasn't going fast enough for him, so he passed about 5 cars by going into the opposing traffic lane. By the time he actually was staring at some opposing traffic, he swerved back into the stop and go lane, screeching tires all the way to fit into a spot behind some poor dude. Rear ending him in the process and just about putting his own SUV into the ditch. The guy that got hit was ok, but had a good scrape on his bumper. The drunk dude, takes off again, this time, passing about 4-5 more cars, and by then he's out of sight. CHP, when they finally came on the line, said avoid the guy if you can, and of course, we explained the situation fully and gave what particulars we had. We never saw him again, nor any other accidents. Say a prayer, hopefully he didn't meet up with anyone else. The lesson here is obvious, jeez, Don't Drive Drunk (period).

New Apple Notebook feedback

... heard at the coffee shop, comparison's regarding Apples new notebook

Question from the 250 lb guy in line, in front of me, talking to the woman beside him:

Five pounds? Isn't that a lot for a notebook?

I'm thinking:

If you're incapable of carrying around a 5 lb object, perhaps you should consider moving to a planet with lower gravity.

Missy - a very important lesson

Thanks to Dana Blankenhorn regarding this post as I too, have had a similar experience in my life. Dana hit all of the points, great post.

Tracking Plane Flight on Internet

Renesys Blog: Tracking Plane Flight on Internet:
Todd Underwood, who works for Renesys, writes about his experience of monitoring his Germany/US flight via the wifi connection onboard that very flight. It's kind of geeky, but an interesting read.

What I found rather freaky was this comment a little later after Todd's post, where someone supposedly used the IP address for the plane and... well you can read for yourself...

"Oh this is so cool. I just tried to telnet to 83.210.35.2 and I get a prompt like this:

RR Port Engine 2 - NCC Rev 2.4
==============================
(S)tatus
(P)urge fuel
(R)eset
(U)pgrade firmware*
Option: _
* FAA Warning: Plane must be grounded, electronic devices switched off and seatbacks upright before this option is used.

Anybody knows what this is?
Posted by: lostgweilo April 28, 2006 10:35 PM "

Someone crank up the security a bit, please...

World's Slimmest Mobile Phone Unveiled

World's Slimmest Cell Unveiled to be marketed first in Russia?

Why Priceline is Doomed

Last weekend, I tried to book some tickets for August travel for my wife and daughter via Priceline - what a bummer...

The travel I requested was supposed to be SFO-JMS (probably connecting in Minneapolis). JMS is a small regional airport in North Dakota. Well, the counter "offer" was not for more money, but for SFO-DFW. I don't think Dallas is in North Dakota.



I pointed this out in two separate emails to Priceline's customer support staff. These two separate people, Pooja B. and Neeraj S. The response is both cases was identical:

"Thank you for taking the time to send us an e-mail. We understand that the counter offer we provided was for a trip to Fort Worth, Dallas, whereas you would like to travel to Jamestown, North Dakota.

As explained earlier, if you do not want to accept the offer we provided, simply disregard it and do nothing..."

Ignoring the fact that Dallas is not a state, perhaps we really have a much more basic failure here, a

failure to communicate

I think I will take them up on the offer and "do nothing" - at least with them.

Just added a link to the right, podio books

I just added a link in my profile to the right that allows you to see what books I'm listening to. This is a great service, provided free, by Mike and Evo (and others). However, if you listen and you like a book, you should, please, donate if you can, 1/2 is given to the author.

The Turd Burglar

The Turd Burglar

So much fun you will want to steal your neighbor's dog poop?

Excuuuuse me???

Saving a Single Life

Saving a single Life costs:

$200, in third world countries (usually due to malnutrition)
$75,000, in advanced nations (cancer screening)
$120,000, in USA (highway safety agencies, better highway dividers, easier on-ramps, etc.)
$1,000,000, in USA (to avoid one case of deadly lung disease by having better air pollution controls)
$5,000,000, in USA (to eliminate natural radioactivity in drinking water, which is why we don't do it)
$2,500,000,000, in USA (for nuclear plant safety)


For about 600 times the cancer screening rate, or $50,000,000 per year, killer asteroids could be identified and eliminated from threatening the earth.

Gregory Benford, F&SF, March, 1995


Does anyone have updated figures for the mid-2000’s???    

Allergies and stuff

The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology maintaines a website, and among other things, you can get email's from nearby members that are taking measurements on pollen and mold.

Station: San Jose (Station No 1), CA
Theodore J. Chu, M.D.
Station
Head(s): Theodore J. Chu, M.D.
Date of Pollen and Mold Count:
04/09/2006
*********************************
Pollen & Mold Count
Summary
*********************************
Trees: 365 - High
Severity
Weeds: 0 - Absent
Grass: 0 - Absent
Mold:
2719 - Low Severity

Tomorrow - special event

On Wednesday of this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be

01:02:03 04/05/06

This will never happen again.





This leads me to believe that not everyone in this world is "too busy", or, perhaps they were paid to be this observant.

Eunice Moyer

Perspective

WWdN: In Exile: abe vigoda still alive, wheaton still waits

As Wil Wheaton indicates, all things in perspective.

New Acronym

I have heard a new acronym :

DIY - Do It Yourself.








DYI - Do Yourself In.

James Randi Educational Foundation � Home Page

James Randi Educational Foundation � Home Page

I've been introduced to this website (and it's RSS feed) through the Skepticality podcast. I heartily recommend you include the feed in your reader or put the website in your "favorites".

IBM's zNextGen Kaiku

IBM has launched a contest to write haiku poetry about the refrigerator-sized, reliable but expensive System z line. A *GOSH* mainframe, of all things...

Van Landrum

The wind blows softly
Through the leaves of autumn. Wait,
That's just the mainframe

Frank Migacz

EBCDIC, ASCII
Which of the two is preferred?
Either way, convert

Jason Arnold

SCA, RB
IOB and TCB
Control blocks are fun

Aaron McMahan

Mainframe, desire
But not too much, or it will
Surely overheat

Origami

After a week of frantic web rumours and tedious viral marketing, Intel and Microsoft showed off Project Origami at CeBIT. Guess what? It’s just a tablet PC, with a slightly different user interface and some really ugly features. As my son would say, "Meh".

nytimes.com article

Wildlife at the Posz's

What should happen this week, but we get a visitor, during a break in the rain .

Later, a grey stray cat scared him away, but when Julia and I were delivering Girl Scout cookies, we talked about him with the neighbors, and it turns out he's been visiting 2 of them as well.

One neighbor had put out some corn for him, but nothing was eaten.








Have I mentioned, that we also have had bees in a tree?

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Crime (Security Guard)

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Crime (Security Guard)

Careful!, there is a new way for these crooks to charge your credit card, and the beauty of this sceme is that you help them!

Read above at the reference link