Category: General

Sometimes you use software all the time and never know what it can do.

I see that Ecto, which is my blog editor of choice, can insert the current track I’m listening to in iTunes right into my blog.

Why?

A Shot in the Dark by Henry Mancini

Technorati Tags: Blog, Music

Doctor Who => BBC – Doctor Who – News – Who Needs Another Doctor?

avid Tennant’s Tenth Doctor is set to meet Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor in a special scene commissioned for BBC One’s Children in Need.

The scene, entitled Time Crash, was written by award winning Doctor Who writer Steven Moffatt, and will transmit as part of the Children in Need fundraising evening on Friday 16 November 2007.

Hmmmm, interesting that it was written by Steven Moffatt instead of RTD. Perhaps they really are grooming a new producer after all.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Doctor Who, Dr Who

Here’s something I don’t see too often in Phoenix.

Usually it’s just flies, bees and the occasional West Nile carrying mosquito.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Natural Sciences, Insects

I’m not sure what the logic is behind it, but Tesco has decided to try to crack the US market. They bombed miserably in Taiwan and sold out to Carrefour, a French equivalent.

Now, I suppose I could understand wanting to move into the US market. There’s money to be made, but why oh why did they decide the Phoenix was just the right demographic for their opening salvo? Phoenix is not the right demographic for anything.

Tesco is not actually opening stores in the US, they’re pioneering a new kind of market, under the name Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market. These stores will be smaller than a standard supermarket, but larger than a convenience store. They’ll stock fresh, organic foods, and they’ve picked locations all around town in every kind of neighborhood – from the rich snobsville sections of town right down to the deadly gang-infested meth-house areas.

I’m sure the meth makers will appreciate being able to walk down to a nearby store and pick up some nice arugula that hasn’t been treated with nasty chemicals.

It remains to be seen how successful this will be, but the first stores open Nov 8.

The one near my house is behind the others and has just started construction with the demolition of a long-lived bar and a really seedy business complex – good bye and good riddance. Who knows? They’re on my way to work, perhaps they’ll fill an important part of my breakfast routine in the future.

One interesting thing about these stores is that they are supposedly using the latest in energy-efficient buildings. According to the Fresh & Easy website, every employee is given a postcard with a polar bear on it, to remind them that all the polar bears will drown if we don’t all make a difference.

I think the polar bear thing might be a little bit heavy-handed, but energy-efficient building is an area that I’m 250% in favor of.

Many years ago, while paying for college, I used to work in construction, and I know how miserably and inefficiently constructed homes and businesses are – at least in this part of the world. There are loads of technologies and building techniques that could drastically improve energy efficiency and they should be standard in every new building. I’ll go a step further, they should be mandatory in the building code.

Inefficient building is just throwing money away, wasting energy and needlessly increasing greenhouse gases month after month for years or decades to come.

We’re still enormously happy with just the radiant heat barrier we had installed in the attic. Energy usage has been down significantly every month since installation compared to last year (even before adjusting for the hotter and longer summer this year.) My calculations put the energy savings at over 20% each month.

I’m just waiting to see the new stores, I’m sure they’ll be flaunting their energy efficiency and maybe there will be some more ideas to be adopted.

I’ve been looking forward to the Tesco invasion for some time now. Not because I’m any particular fan of Tesco, or because I’m looking for a bold new vision of the market of the future. I’ve been looking forward to it because it really pisses off the grocery-baggers union.

I first found out about the Tesco when a little color flyer was pasted to my door. It told about how the kids in my neighborhood were at risk because because Tesco sells alcohol to minors, and that a group of concerned citizens had gotten together and were urging their neighbors to contact the liquor board and tell them we don’t need their business in our neighborhood.

In fact, one Tesco in Yorkshire even had their liquor license suspended for 90 days for selling alcohol to minors.

If it’s against the law in Yorkshire then Tesco shouldn’t do that. But somehow, trying to get a new business closed down before it opens because a completely different store, half a planet away, with a (no doubt) completely different management hierarchy, completely different staff and subject to completely different laws and enforcement and in a country that drinks a lot more than we do just doesn’t seem like a reasoned, rationale response to me. In fact, it smacked of deception.

So I did a little checking. Was it really concerned neighbors trying to protect our youth? Of course not, it was the local trade unions trying to squash competition by whiping people up with unfounded ad hominem attacks on the company.

So, of course, I sent in a letter of support to the liquor board instead, and I plan to give Fresh & easy at least some business just to spite the local unions. I don’t mind the unions, but I don’t abide hypocrites (like minors don’t buy beer at local grocery stores already) and I don’t like dirty pool.

Technorati Tags: Arizona, Blog

BBC NEWS => Star Trek film names Kirk actor

Well, they’ve finally named the actor to play Captain Kirk in the upcoming Star Trek: The Wonder Years movie.

• Captain Kirk – Chris Pine
• Older Mr Spock – Leonard Nimoy
• Young Mr Spock – Zachary Quinto
• Scotty – Simon Pegg
• Nero – Eric Bana
• Uhura – Zoe Saldana
• Chekov – Anton Yelchin
• Sulu – John Cho
• Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy – Karl Urban

I really have strong misgivings about this concept. (That concept being “The movie will show the crew meeting at the Starfleet Academy and embarking on their first mission.”)

I have no problem with recasting the show with new actors. They’re just actors, after all, they aren’t actually the characters themselves. (Somewhere a get-a-lifer just committed suicide.) How many times has the Saint been recast? Or 007? Or Charlie Chan? Or Robin Hood? Or Hamlet for that matter? The play’s the thing, not the actors. Not that actors don’t make their own contributions, they do, but it is largely a phenomena of the “television character” that has created this perception that the actor and the role are inseparable.

What does bother me is why bother making this an “origins” story? Why not just recast and set the movie during the run of the original 5 year mission? By setting this at a specific time, they screw up continuity.

Why is Chekov here? Chekov was obviously fresh out of the academy later in the series. It’s like redoing Doctor Who to say that the Doctor and Romana both left Gallifrey together at the same time. They don’t need Chekov here. The cast of the show was unwieldily large to begin with. Why not just jettison an unnecessary character with the perfectly sound justification that he wouldn’t have been there at all. They actually have to go out of their way to bring him into the movie.

Second, do you really think that Kirk and all his junior officers were at the academy together. That’s not the way it works. Yes, some people get promoted faster than others, as presumably Kirk was, but generally, the lower ranking officers are younger officers also.

It’s doubtful that McCoy would have ever been at the academy at all. Star Fleet might be different, but military academies are rarely medical schools, and, he wasn’t even the ship’s doctor in the first episode.

Spock, of course, was already serving aboard the Enterprise before Kirk took command, and, based on the longevity of Vulcans and the length of time quoted between the events of Talos IV (Spock served under Pike for 11 years, the events of Talos IV occurred 13 years prior to the first season of Trek) and Obsession, in which Kirk’s first posting after leaving the academy was 11 years prior to the second season of Trek, would indicate that Spock was likely already aboard the Enterprise before Kirk left the academy.

No, the established history of Trek – not that the current producers really give a rat’s ass about continuity, nor ever have – precludes this premise from the start.

Simon Pegg as Mr. Scott? I’m really not sure about that casting. Couldn’t they have gotten Gary Oldman?

Technorati Tags: Blog, Movies, Star Trek

I don’t normally get to pass on local news!

From ABC15.com => Scottsdale woman claims cyanide cloud in Sedona

A Scottsdale woman is behind bars for making a bizarre claim up in Sedona.

Christine Ann Long told people at two gas stations and two hotels that a giant cloud of cyanide was coming up from Phoenix.

…

The woman apparently told officials she had received her information about the cloud from a radio transmission using her soda can.

You can bet it must have been a Coca-Cola can rather than Dr. Pepper.

Technorati Tags: Arizona, Blog, Loonies, News

With all the bombastic rhetoric about militant “new” atheism that’s being shoveled around like so much fresh fertilizer, I found this (somewhat old) blog post to be about the most succinct answer to those claims I’ve read, and more than worthy of being spread as far and wide as possible.

Cheers to the The Secular Backlash for this…

Balancing precariously back on the point again, I might add that I was inspired in my choice of theme by Tobias Jones, whose piece in the Guardian a while back can be read here. He writes that us secular types are a new form of fundamentalist, and that what we want is the “eradication of religion, and all believers, from the face of the earth”.

He’s right about our goals, of course. What he doesn’t get is that, uniquely in the history of humanity’s grand metaphysical projects, we plan to do this by consent. Our strategy is partly to persuade one believer after another, but much more importantly to speak to the waverers, and to catch the young before the faithful can indoctrinate them. We understand that it will be necessary to wait for the recalcitrant remnants to pass away in the fullness of time. As long as we leave the Earth with less true believers that we found it with, we will be content to hand the torch on to the next generation, and the next after that, until religion is as historical an idea as human sacrifice or the divine right of kings.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Commentary, Atheism

It’s a good thing that (to my knowledge) no sitcom writing teams live and work in Arizona, because if they did, AZ 511 would be airing right after America’s Most Asinine Idol – or whatever that puss-bucket of a show is called.

For those not in the know, AZ 511 is Arizona’s state-of-the-art information system about roadways and such. There’s a website, that’s actually useful, and then there’s the automatic phone response system that can keep you up-to-date on the latest roadway conditions.

Everybody knows how frustrating those automated phone attendants are, but I don’t find them all that difficult, but I met my match with AZ 511 today.

When the system first came out, Irene tried calling them once while I was driving and the results were hilarious – for me, that is. She found it incredibly frustrating. The system is designed to work on voice response, and despite the fact that Irene’s English is excellent for a non-English speaking immigrant, she does have a bit of an accent. She could not navigate the voice response system without the system misunderstanding and putting her on the wrong track. At the time we decided that it was technology whose time had not yet come.

About 2 weeks ago, someone was bragging to me how wonderful the system was. This person is easily impressed, so I challenged them on their opinion, and after just a few moments of discussion they admitted that the system was only useful if you used the touch tone system.

Today, many months after our first and only experiences with AZ 511, I was the passenger, and we were concerned about what appeared to be an accident on the I-17 that might delay our return home.

I dialed in. It went like this

“Touch tone mode. For roads, press 1, for transit press 2, for airports press 3, for tourism press 4, for quick reports press 5. You can leave a comment at any time by pressing 8. Press * at any time to return to speech mode.”

I press “1”

It says, “OK, enter roadway #”

I think… umm, I have an alphanumeric road number (I-17), well, I’ll try 17.

It says, “One Seven, I’m sorry, that’s not a valid road selection.”

I try 4-1-7 (4 being the numeric key that hosts “i” on the keypad“)

It says, ”Four One Seven, I’m sorry, that’s not a valid road selection.“

Pissed off already, I hit ”8“ to leave a comment.

It says, ”Eight, I’m sorry, that’s not a valid road selection.“

Even more irritated, I try something like 3-5-6-3-5

It says, ”Three Five Six Three Five, I’m sorry, that’s not a valid road selection.“

I hit 6-0

and it starts to ramble on about highway 60, and it won’t stop. On and on it drones, ending with a weather report that I don’t want to hear, but at least when it is done, it returns me to the menu. I choose ”8“ to leave a comment.

After a couple ”please-wait-while-I-transfer-you-to-leave-a-comments it tells me that’s not available and I hang up in anger.

That should have been enough for me, but it wasn’t. I called back to try the voice response system.

It goes something like this:

“Please say the word you want at any time. The menu choices are ROADS, TRANSIT, AIRPORTS, TOURISM, QUICK REPORTS and COMMENTS.”

“Roads”

“Say the name of the road you want. For a list, say LIST”

“LIST”

“Here is a list of roads. BLACK CANYON HIGHWAY” (For non-AZ folk, Black Canyon Highway is I-17).

I say, “Black canyon highway”, it says, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand you.”

I say, “Black Canyon highway”

It starts reading me the same report on highway 60.

“Stop! Menu! Exit! Roads!” But it won’t stop that damn report, so I hang up – again.

Once more. This time I’m ready. At the first menu I say, “roads”…

…and it says, “OK, Tourism. Do you want information from the Arizona Department of Tourism or the Grand Canyon National Monument?”

“Menu”

And it returns me to the main menu. I say “Roads”, it says “OK, Tourism”

and round and round we go. My first idea was, the woman recording the message has a bit of down-in-the-swamp states accent, so I try a southern drawl. No luck. I try BBC standard english. I try talking like a pirate. I try slow, fast, loud, soft, Russian, Australian, Bostonian. All I get is “Tourism” or “Airports.” No matter how you slice it, nobody could misunderstand the word “roads” as tourism or airports. Was this system even tested?!

Finally, finally I get the right response by using a hybrid combination Alabama drawl with just a hint of Scottish Highland lilt.

I am overjoyed! Can you imagine my feeling of triumph?! Can you guess how long it lasted? Exactly 15 seconds – because then I had to say, “Black Canyon Highway.”

To which the satanic mechanical monster from the seventh ring of hell at the other end said, “OK, Grand Canyon”.

“Menu” “Stop”

“I think you said ‘end call’ is that right?”

“No”

“Returning to main menu”

“Roads”

“OK, tourism”

“No”

“I think you just said ‘Grand Canyon’, is that right?”

“No”

“OK, transferring your call to the Grand Canyon.” And the call started to ring through.

I hung up, tried once more and got transferred to the Arizona Tourism Board, but finally, I got my road condition report. Of course, we were no longer driving by this time and didn’t need the report anymore.

Clearly a folly with taxpayers’ money.

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While I was writing this up, I called the 511 number a few times from my home phone to get the wording “just right” on some of the inane voice prompts and, from my home phone, it worked almost, but not quite flawlessly. Now, they do say that you should try to minimize background noise, but I ask you: Under what conditions is someone most likely to be calling a road condition information line?

Answer: On a cellphone, in a car, on the road. If the system doesn’t work reliably under those conditions, it’s complete waste of money and a total failure.

Technorati Tags: Arizona, Blog, Comedy, Technology

Apparently, today is “Blog Action Day”, where bloggers are supposed to write about “green” issues.

Never one to buck a vapid meme, I’ve decided to write about Shaun The Sheep.

I’m really pleased to see a program, such as Shaun The Sheep, set on a smallholding farm. It’s been too long on our TV screens since farming was seen as a glamorous or positive profession. Even if it is only a plasticine farm.

Technorati Tags: Blog

I’m sure these would run afoul of some country’s “truth in advertising” laws – but not here.

Link from Eatnineghost.com

Technorati Tags: Blog, Japan, Japanese, Video