I've been having issues with my cable modem, decided to do some digging. First, from within my home network, most cable modems will respond to this url:

http://192.168.100.1/

Mine has basic info, but I want to see Power and Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), preferably both downstream and upstream. Quick Google showed me how to access the locked screens on my cable modem (WebSTAR DPC2100R2):

http://192.168.100.1/_aslvl.asp
set "Access Level 2"
login: admin
password: W2402

Then I could see Power and SNR numbers, for both downstream and upstream. If those numbers don't make sense to you, this is a good reference for cable modem signal levels.

I was curious about the sodium content of Jimmy Johns sandwiches, so I found their nutrition info online. Basically, everything on the menu is loaded with salt. To be fair, high-sodium content is not unique to Jimmy John's - most fast food / pre-packaged food has tons of salt in it - but I've only recently started paying attention to my sodium intake, and this is one of the first I noticed.

The small sandwiches (8") have between 1,053 and 1,658 mg of sodium. The average across all 7 varieties is 1,361 mg.

The large sandwiches (giant) range from 1,500 mg to 2,763 mg, with an average across all 11 options of 2,162 mg.

Even the "slims" are crusted with salt... ranging from 1,225 to 1,820 mg, the average of all 6 options is 1,457 mg.

The "gargantuan" (a co-worker orders this one all the time) has a staggering 3,782 mg!

A single pickle spear has 355 mg, and a whole pickle will set you back 1,420 mg.

Even the cookies... 427 mg sodium in chocolcate chip, or 470 mg for raisin oatmeal.

I didn't include chips or drinks, but they all have sodium, even the diet drinks and iced tea.

Food for thought: Sodium: Are you getting too much? from MayoClinic.com:

Your kidneys regulate the amount of sodium kept in your body. When sodium levels are low, your kidneys conserve sodium. When levels are high, they excrete the excess amount in urine.

If your kidneys can't eliminate enough sodium, the sodium starts to accumulate in your blood. Because sodium attracts and holds water, your blood volume increases. Increased blood volume, in turn, makes your heart work harder to move more blood through your blood vessels, increasing pressure in your arteries. Certain diseases such as congestive heart failure, cirrhosis and chronic kidney disease can lead to an inability to regulate sodium.

A few interesting bits from this article...

• recommended sodium per day is 2,300 mg or less for anyone over the age of -2-
  
• most Americans consume 3,500 mg of sodium per day - 50% more than recommended!
  
• cutting our sodium intake in half would prevent 150,000 deaths each year, according to estimates from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute
  

Click to enlarge

I just wrote a review of the Canon PowerShot SD1000 7.1MP on Amazon.com. I'm quite unhappy with the camera, and want to get this info out.

Here's the Reviews page at Amazon: Reviews for Canon PowerShot SD1000 7.1MP Digital Elph Camera

And here is my review:

I recently bought this camera as a replacement for an older 2.1mp Canon PowerShot S100. I own a great digital SLR, but my wife and I like to have a simple point shoot for short trips, easy carrying, etc. My older Canon was fine, this new SD1000 is not. I'm going to give it another few days (max), but I'm quite close to returning it.

Why? The *one thing* this camera is supposed to do well is take photos in automatic mode. I don't want to mess with camera settings - for that, I take my SLR and fiddle to my heart's content. With a point shoot, you're supposed to do just that: point and shoot.

The basic problem I've observed (after ~500 photos) is the auto-focus is *terrible*. I tried different lighting scenarios: indoor (flash), indoor (no flash), outdoor (daylight flash), outdoor (daylight, no flash). The results were the same: approximately half of the photos turned out poorly, and almost always it was due to the autofocus.

For example, I took a photo of a subject positioned directly in front of the camera, directly in the middle of the viewfinder, about 3 feet away. The subject took up approximately 40% of the view, and again, was positioned directly in front of the camera. Instead of doing what you think autofocus would do, the camera somehow decided to focus on the background scene, completely blurring the foreground. If I checked the photo on the camera, it looked fine but that's only because you cannot perceive focus problems on a 2" lcd screen. Once I transferred the photo to my computer, it was immediately evident that the focus was completely wrong and the photo was unusable.

This autofocus blurring happened repeatedly, in varying light conditions, and is flat out terrible. I still have my Canon S100, and despite being an older, slower, and much lower resolution camera (2.1 vs. 7.1 megapixels), I'm tempted to keep using it instead.

Most people have heard about the dog & cat food recall, and one of the most important questions is, "Which brands are affected?" In short, "most of them", including the fancy brands Iams, Eukanuba, and Science Diet.

The problem is that a large manufacturer of dog & cat food - Menu Foods - managed to produce millions of pet food products with rat poison. Actually, what they found was aminopterin, a chemical can cause kidney failure in animals and humans (reference). In addition to the ample news coverage, Menu Foods has posted information on their website: www.menufoods.com/recall.

After reading several stories that claimed different brands were affected, I decided to do a little digging. Here's what I found out...

Who the hell is Menu Foods? They're a contract manufacturer of wet pet food products sold under dozens of different brand names across the country. Menu Foods manufactures food for 17 of the top 20 North American retailers (PetSmart, Wal-Mart, Safeway, etc.) (reference).

Even though you think you're making choices as a consumer, you're basically being sold the same dog & cat food with different packaging and different prices. But inside, it's all the same stuff.

Here is a full list of cat food brand names that are actually made by Menu Foods and part of the cat food recall (reference):

Americas Choice, Preferred Pets	Nutro Natural Choice
Authority	Paws
Best Choice	Pet Pride
Companion	Presidents Choice
Compliments	Price Chopper
Demoulas Market Basket	Priority US
Eukanuba	Save-A-Lot Special Blend
Fine Feline Cat	Schnucks
Food Lion	Science Diet Feline Savory Cuts Cans
Foodtown	Sophistacat
Giant Companion	Special Kitty Canada
Hannaford	Special Kitty US
Hill Country Fare	Springfield Prize
Hy-Vee	Sprout
Iams	Stop & Shop Companion
Laura Lynn	Tops Companion
Li'l Red	Wegmans
Loving Meals	Weis Total Pet
Meijer's Main Choice	Western Family US
Nutriplan	White Rose
Nutro Max Gourmet Classics	Winn Dixie

Here is the full list of dog food brand names that are actually made by Menu Foods and part of the dog food recall (reference):

Americas Choice, Preferred Pets	Nutro
Authority	Ol'Roy Canada
Award	Ol'Roy US
Best Choice	Paws
Big Bet	Pet Essentials
Big Red	Pet Pride - Good n Meaty
Bloom	Presidents Choice
Cadillac	Price Chopper
Companion	Priority Canada
Demoulas Market Basket	Priority US
Eukanuba	Publix
Food Lion	Roche Brothers
Giant Companion	Save-A-Lot Choice Morsels
Great Choice	Schnucks
Hannaford	Shep Dog
Hill Country Fare	Springsfield Prize
Hy-Vee	Sprout
Iams	Stater Brothers
Laura Lynn	Stop & Shop Companion
Loving Meals	Tops Companion
Meijers Main Choice	Wegmans Bruiser
Mighty Dog Pouch	Weis Total Pet
Mixables	Western Family US
Nutriplan	White Rose
Nutro Max	Winn Dixie
Nutro Natural Choice	Your Pet
Nutro Ultra

My E36 M3 has recently had problems with the Climate Control system (intermittent shut down, settings get stuck, etc.). A little online research turned up this excellent page: BMW E36: Repairing the Climate Control Computer. The basic idea is that a capacitor fails inside and the computer has problems getting enough power, so it freaks out, doesn't respond, and generally annoys you.

If the Climate Control system in your E36 is having problems, you've got three options:

1. Get a dealer to fix it for you (probably $400 to $600)
   
2. Order a replacement Climate Control system and swap the old / new units yourself ($368 for new system, $221 rebuilt)
   
3. Try to fix the problem yourself (about $1)
   

I chose option #3, with option #2 as my backup plan.

After a little bit of struggling to get the CC computer removed my car, I took it over to the work bench. I found a replacement 0.47uF capacitor (tantalum) at Fry's for $1.29, and did a poor job of soldering it onto the board. It was so poor, in fact, that I was nervous I hadn't made the original problem any better, perhaps making things worse. Who knows? To my suprise, when I reassembled everything and re-installed inside the car, the Climate Control system worked beautifully! Total time spent: about 2 hours.

If you go with option #2 (either because you just want to swap the units, or you tried to repair it without success) you can order a replacement Climate Control system (OEM part made by BMW) from Pelican Parts for $368 (part # 64-11-8-378-466-M9) or a rebuilt unit (rebuilt by Programa) for $221 (part # 64-11-8-378-466-M250).

I have no idea what your dealer would charge for the 10-20 minutes it takes to remove the old unit and put a new one in, but my guess is "a lot", so it's probably a good idea to try to swap the units yourself. I've heard it's around $400 to $600, but who knows, your dealer might be higher or lower than that.

Note #1: From what I can see, the fix originated from "hoanboy" on bimmerforums. First here, and then later here. hoanboy, where- and whoever the hell you are, I owe ya one... :)

Note #2: If you decide to tackle the fix yourself, be aware that your car may turn the heater on automatically if you drive around without a Climate Control system installed (say, if you started working on it, but wanted to drive before you were finished). Once the engine warms up, you'd better hope you've reached your destination, because the heater will be HOT.

If you want to send email to a mobile phone, you can do so by inserting your phone number in front of the chunk below. For example, if your phone number is (555) 666-7777 and you were with T-Mobile, you could send a text message to 5556667777@tmomail.net and it would show up on your phone.

You should be aware that your carrier will almost certainly bill you a small amount ($0.05 or $0.10) per incoming message, so you probably don't want to share this address with the entire world.

If you've ever written a unix command line script, you know it has to start with #! followed by a path to an executable. For shell scripts, you'll specify the path to the shell in which you want your script to run, like: #!/bin/sh for Bourne shell, or #!/usr/bin/perl for Perl.

I used to use vi to help me out with :r!which sh. So when you type :r!which sh in your vi window, you'll see the evaluated result in your editor (namely, "/bin/sh"). Not bad, and makes it easy to handle updates when scripts move to different machines.

But here's a nice shortcut:

#!/usr/bin/env sh, or
#!/usr/bin/env ruby, or
#!/usr/bin/env perl

So now I only have to remember one path (/usr/bin/env), my scripts just got more portable across different machines, and are no longer tied to path constraints in my local shell.

Here are some bandwidth tests I use, and they usually produce reasonable-looking results.

• speakeasy.net
• dslreports.com

Here's a fairly thorough bandwidth speed test from DSL Reports, as well as a simpler one from Time Warner Austin.

Since I've started using screen again (something I haven't used since college), I'm posting my .screenrc and keyboard shortcuts, both as personal reference and possible use by others. When I invoke screen from a terminal window, it will automatically set up a few different locations for me so it's ready to go right away.

This is my .screenrc:

	# disable startup message when invoking screen
	startup_message off
	# automatically set up some custom screens
	screen -t one /path/to/your/bin/.screen_setupone
	screen -t two /path/to/your/bin/.screen_setuptwo
	# include screen info across bottom of window
	hardstatus alwayslastline
		"%{-b bw}%-w%{+b bw}%50>%n %t%{-b bw}%+w%<"

Here is .screen_setupone:

	(cd ~/path/to/somewhere/interesting/; tcsh)

and .screen_setuptwo:

	(cd ~/path/to/somewhere/else; tcsh)

And here are the most useful commands:

	screen			Invoke a new screen session
	ctrl-a c		Create a new window
	ctrl-a ctrl-a		Toggle between windows
	ctrl-a n		Switch to next window
	ctrl-a p		Switch to previous window
	ctrl-a "		List all windows
	ctrl-a A		Name the current window
	ctrl-a ctrl-\		Exit and kill all windows

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 19, 2006
Release #06-069
Firm's Recall Hotline: (800) 448-3876 Ext. 233
CPSC Recall Hotline: (800) 638-2772
CPSC Media Contact: (301) 504-7908

CPSC, Syntace USA Announce Recall of Bicycle Handlebar Stems

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of Product: F99 (Force 99) Bicycle Handlebar Stems

Units: About 2,300

Distributor: Syntace USA, of Olney, Ill.

Hazard: The recalled bicycle stems can crack or break under normal conditions, causing the rider to fall and suffer serious injury.

Incidents/Injuries: No incidents or injuries have been reported.

Description: The recalled bicycle handlebar stem is black. Stems with production codes 01 03 through 45 04, and stems with no production code are included in this recall. The production code is the bottom set of numbers located on the end of the stem.

Sold by: Bicycle dealers, mail order magazines and on the Internet from May 2003 through July 2005 for about $90.

Manufactured in: Taiwan

Remedy: Consumers should stop using bicycles equipped with the recalled handlebar stem immediately and contact Syntace for instructions to receive a free replacement stem and installation.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Crystal Trout at Syntace USA at (800) 448-3876, extension 233, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. CT Monday through Friday, or log onto www.syntaceusa.com - consumers also can e-mail the firm at syntaceusa@syntace.com or write to: Syntace USA, 1902 Miller Drive, Olney, Ill. 62450.

To view this recall online, please visit our website at: https://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml06/06069.html

I enjoy trying new restaurants, but I normally don't write reviews about the places I've eaten. However, if a restaurant is exceptional (good or bad), I feel I owe it to other Austinites to share my opinion. Masala Wok made it onto my "exceptional" list: exceptionally bad.

On the strong recommendation of a friend, my wife and I made the trek to Masala Wok for dinner. We enjoy good Indian and Chinese food (and I don't mean "good like white people eat there", but "good like Indian and Chinese people eat there").

And while Masala Wok had a lot of people inside, and many of them were not white, my wife and I both agreed that this was some of the worst food we had ever eaten. Anywhere. Indian or not. And just so it's clear, I will never, ever return to eat there. Not even if you paid me.

In all seriousness, I've had more enjoyable meals from the little egg roll carts around the UT Austin campus. I'm not saying that the cart food was good, but it's edible and at least you get what you pay for. At Masala Wok, everything was way more expensive than cart food, and the food was so bad we couldn't finish eating it.

I don't recall the exact items we ordered, but we tried several different things that night, including Veggie Manchuria. We spent more than $20 and were served overly-salted food that otherwise had little to no flavor. Not to mention that we had to drive halfway to Waco to get there (yes, I'm exaggerating about the distance, but it's definitely on the edge of Austin city limits, almost in Pflugerville). If we had spent $4 on the whole meal, I would have felt like it was a fair purchase, but I would still say the food was bad.

About the atmosphere: picture a school cafeteria, fill it with people, and then cram all of the tables and chairs so close together that you cannot walk to a table without rubbing against everyone else along the way. It was also as noisy as a school cafeteria, if not noisier. We had to practically shout at each other to have a conversation. I think the typical bowling alley is quieter than Masala Wok.

So in summary:

• flavorless food with an unbelievably huge amount of salt
  
• prices are way too high considering the quality of the food
  
• loud and annoying atmosphere
  

There are a lot of good places to eat in Austin but this is not one of them. So Instead of driving to Masala Wok, just point your car in any other direction and go. You can easily find half a dozen other restaurants that will serve you better food in a much more pleasant environment. Another option would be to buy a few cans of dog food from the grocery store, add 3 or 4 cups of salt, and enjoy (this will produce food comparable to what they'll serve you at Masala Wok, but without driving in your car or paying their ridiculous prices).

I keep meaning to post this. I've heard Rob Balon on 590 am several times, but always forget to check his site for new places to eat out. Dining Out with Rob Balon has reviews of restaurants all over the Austin area.

From any mobile phone in the United States or UK, you can use Google to do simple language translation, as well as currency conversion.

By sending a text message to 46645 in the US, or 64664 in the UK (GOOGL or 6GOOG, respectively), you can translate a word or simple phrase into French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish - to or from English.

Just enter 'translate' or 't' followed by a word or expression, and the languages to and from which you want it translated (e.g., 't gas station from english to german').

To convert from one currency to another, simply enter the conversion you'd like completed (e.g., '3.5 USD in GBP').

I just discovered BubbleShare, an online photo album sharing service. It is unbelievably simple to use, yet it includes great features. For Mac users, they've got an iPhoto plug-in that lets you click to export an album to BubbleShare. I spent about 4 seconds getting the export to work. They're still in beta, but it's immediately usable and extremely cool. This app is gonna spread like wildfire.

Things appear to be progressing with the Lance Armstrong life story movie. The rumor mill says Lance will be portrayed by Matt Damon and the film will be directed by Frank Marshall. Surely there must be some people here in Austin who can share their stories of inspiration. I've got a few, but they're just fun or gossipy, certainly not the kind of thing anyone would want to include in a movie.

From http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/lancearmstrongproject/:

Columbia Pictures and Lance Armstrong are teaming up to bring Lance's life-story of perseverance, courage, and survival to the screen. Lance Armstrong has inspired millions to push beyond physical barriers, fight against seemingly insurmountable obstacles, and face fear and suffering with determination and hard work.

Click here for full details.

Dell just announced a recall of laptop batteries for the following models:

• Latitude(tm) D410, D505, D510, D600, D610, D800, D810
• Inspiron(tm) 510M, 600M, 6000, 8600, 9200, 9300, XPS Gen 2
• Dell Precision(tm) M20 and M70 mobile workstations

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 16, 2005
Release #06-056
Firm's Recall Hotline: (866) 342-0011
CPSC Recall Hotline: (800) 638-2772
CPSC Media Contact: (301) 504-7908

CPSC, Dell Announce Recall of Notebook Computer Batteries

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of Product: Dell Notebook Computer Batteries

Units: About 22,000 in the U.S.

Manufacturer/Distributor: Dell Inc., of Round Rock, Texas

Hazard: These batteries can overheat, which could pose a fire risk.

Incidents/Injuries: Dell has received three reports of batteries overheating. The incidents involved damage to a tabletop, a desktop, and minor damage to personal effects. No injuries have been reported.

Description: The recalled batteries were sold with the following Dell notebook computers: Latitude(tm) D410, D505, D510, D600, D610, D800, D810; Inspiron(tm) 510M, 600M, 6000, 8600, 9200, 9300, XPS Gen 2; and Dell Precision(tm) M20 and M70 mobile workstations. The batteries were also sold separately, including as secondary batteries and in response to service calls. The batteries insert into the battery bay located on the underside of the notebook. "Dell" and "Made in Japan" or "Made in China" are stamped on the batteries. The identification number for each battery appears on a white sticker. Customers should have this number available when they contact Dell to determine if their battery is part of the recall.

Sold at: Dell sold these batteries with the notebook computers, as part of a service replacement, and as individual units on its Web site and catalogs from October 5, 2004 through October 13, 2005. The computers with these batteries sold for between $900 and $2,650, and individual batteries sold for between $99 and $179.

Manufactured in: Japan or China

Remedy: Customers should contact Dell to determine if their notebook computer battery is part of this recall. If it is, consumers should immediately stop using the battery as a power source for their notebook computer. Dell will provide a free replacement battery.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Dell toll-free at (866) 342-0011 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. CT Monday through Friday, go to the firm's Web site at www.dellbatteryprogram.com, or write to: Dell Inc., Attn: Battery Program, 9701 Metric Blvd., Suite 200 Austin, Texas 78758.

Firm's Media Contact: Tom Kehoe and Venancio Figueroa III, (512) 725-0281 and (512) 723-1726, tom_kehoe@dell.com and venancio_figueroa@dell.com

To view this release online, please visit our website at: https://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml06/06056.html

I'm probably in a very small minority, but I really dig watching C-SPAN. It is for this reason that I am excited to have discovered 24-hour live internet feeds for C-SPAN, C-SPAN 2, and C-SPAN 3. So nice.

Now, thanks to the internet, you can sit in the comfort of your home and see if you (or any of your friends!) have outstanding arrest warrants with the Austin Police Department.

It's easy! Just go to Austin Police Department Warrant List and type in 2 or more letters of the person's last name.

If you are considering taking Tamiflu, you might want to reconsider:

1. If you take Tamiflu after you have contracted the flu, it will shorten the period of symptoms by 1 to 2 days, so instead of being sick for 7 days you might be sick for 5 days
2. If you begin taking Tamiflu before you have contracted the flu, it might prevent you from getting the flu altogether, but it's not guaranteed and it might mean you take Tamiflu for up to 6 weeks
3. It has a number of side effects, many of them extremely serious
4. A number of deaths have been blamed on Tamiflu usage, although Roche denies any relationship
5. Young people (teens and earlier) should pretty much avoid Tamiflu altogether due to the high risk of problems and symptoms

My research process started when I heard an investigative reporter on the radio discussing Tamiflu. He said that it's really bad for most people, and doesn't offer much help anyway. At best, it might prevent you from getting the flu, but the company doesn't say how effective it is at flu prevention (leaving us to wonder if it does a good job at all...), and you'll probably have side effects (keep reading). At worst (and probably the most likely scenario), you'll get the flu first, and then you'll start taking Tamiflu, and by doing so you will risk serious side effects and - at best - shorten your flu exposure by 1 or 2 days. But the reporter also discussed the links to neurological problems, and said that there are a number of deaths blamed on Tamiflu. Of course, the company says it's safe, and so the FDA. So what do you do? Who do you trust?

I found the full product info on Tamiflu at Roche's website here: http://www.rocheusa.com/products/tamiflu/pi.pdf This seemed like a good place to start. No suprise, the product info is a boring, detailed document with a bunch of crap in it. Mostly uninteresting. But a few things really jumped out:

• When Tamiflu was administered to lab rats (1000 mg/kg dosage), they found that 14-day old rats did fine, but 7-day old rats died. When they looked at the brains of the dead, 7-day old rats, they found concentrations of the drug 1500 times higher than in adult rats (page 11).
• They did not do any testing on human children younger than 1 year of age, because it killed the young rats and they didn't know enough about the "blood-brain barrier" in humans (page 11).
• In a study of people without the flu, the known side-efffects that occurred in 1% or more of the study participants include: Nausea, Vomiting, Diarrhea, Abdominal pain, Dizziness, Headache, Cough, Insomnia, Fatigue. (page 12, Table 3 under "Prophylaxis")
• There are other side effects that occurred in less than 1.0% of the participants, but I didn't list them all here.
• Some of these side effects affected large numbers of people: 20.1% reported Headache, 7.9% reported Fatigue, 7.0% reported Nausea (page 12, Table 3 under "Prophylaxis")
• If 40,000,000 million people in the United States take Tamiflu, that would mean 8,040,000 people with Headache, 3,160,000 with Fatigue, and 2,800,000 with Nausea.
• In children aged 1 to 12 years, the side effects are different and occur in different numbers. 15.0% reported Vomiting, 9.5% reported Diarrhea, somewhere between 8.7% and 16.2 % (cannot determine the exact number from their data) reported problems with their ears or sinusus (8.7% Otitis media + 3.1% Epistaxis + 1.7% Ear disorder + 1.7% Sinusitis + 1.0% Tympanic membrane disorder; so if each child experiences only one of these symptoms, just add up all the numbers to get 16.2%, otherwise assume lower bound of 8.7% all children experienced Otitis and possibly one other symptom) (page 13)
• Other reactions that have been reported to Roche (but did not occur during any study) include seizure, arrhythmia (a serious problem that can lead to heart disease, stroke or heart attack), toxic epidermal necrolysis (a life-threatening skin disorder), hepatitis (page 14)
• In Japan, they are reporting that Tamiflu causes impaired consciousness and hallucinations in teenagers, sometimes resulting in death
• Bearing in mind the reported links between hallucinations and Tamiflu, the Tamiflu documentation says there are reports of "confusion" and "seizure" but they do not offer any more information (page 14). "Seizure" is pretty clear, but what does "confusion" mean? Should we be concerned? How many people reported this? They make no mention of the rates of occurrence (not too suprising, they barely say anything about this at all), but let's just make a wild guess that 0.01% of the population experiences "confusion or seizure". If 40,000,000 people in the United States take Tamiflu (this estimate is intentionlally low, the actual number of flu doses will be much higher), that would put 4,000 people in the "confusion or seizure" bucket. [Note: I realize this is conjecture, but I think it is highly likely that Roche has only provided as much information as is required by law, and nothing else. For serious reports such as seizure, arrythmia, and hepatitis, they should give us an indication of how many people are affected; without that information from Roche, I reserve the right to make guesses and discuss them here.]
• Those who stand to benefit the most are the pharmaceutical companies - it's not the people, because you can still contract the flu even if you're taking Tamiflu, and if you already caught it then you're still going to be sick even if you take Tamiflu. However, it is Roche itself who tells us that Tamiflu is good for us, that we should pay for and take their drug. Isn't that odd? We've got potentially 4,000 people who will have a seizure as a result of Tamiflu, but the company says to pay for it and take it.

This whole situation makes me wonder why people treat drug companies like trusted, unbiased, neutral information sources. They are none of these. They are in fact very biased and absolutely not neutral: they are in the business of selling drugs, and they'll do their best to convince you to buy them. All businesses work this way. Drive this car, it's the coolest! Eat this food, it's the tastiest! Wear these clothes so you can look your coolest! It's all marketing and advertising. The interesting thing is that people see the advertisements from drug companies and seem more willing to trust those than, say, ads from Wendy's telling you to eat their new Triple Double Cheeseburger. People obviously make their own choice about the burger, but they're totally fine to trust the pharmaceutical company. Isn't it clear that they're both advertisements?

Sources

• http://www.rocheusa.com/products/tamiflu/pi.pdf
  
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oseltamivir
  

I just renewed the vehicle registration for our cars in Travis County. Each registration cost $57.30 (the minimum registration amount, based on vehicle age), for a total of $114.60 . When I took a closer look at the specific fees, it occurred to me that I don't really know what they mean.

Here's the list:

According to this document, "there are approximately 15 million registered motor vehicles in Texas". So here's the above table, modified to account for the 15 million registered vehicles across the entire state:

Collectively, we're spending almost one billion dollars on stickers and hidden fees. Am I the only one who's curious about where the money goes?

About the individual fees...

• WINDSHIELD STICKER - this one's pretty obvious, it's the sticker itself. However, I can't imagine why one sticker would cost $40. Surely this amount conceals where the money is really going? But if so, it seems odd that they wouldn't list a more reasonable dollar amount for the sticker, say $2, and then add another item "DPS Operation Expenses" (or something like that) for $38.
  
• REG FEE-DPS - No idea what this is, but I guess it's going somewhere to cover something... all $15 million of it.
  
• REFLECTORZATION FEE - I could not find an answer for Texas, but I did find this for Washington State: "All vehicle license number plates [...] shall be treated with fully reflectorized materials designed to increase the visibility and legibility of such plates at night." Again, this is for Washington State, but I assume it's the same thing in Texas, as Texas license plates are indeed reflective. But why would we pay an annual fee for that? Didn't they receive their reflectorzation fee when we first got our license plates? Or maybe the sticker is reflectorized? If so, shouldn't this $0.30 be bundled into the "Windshield Sticker" item above?
  
• CNTY ROAD BRIDGE ADD-ON FEE - This is the one I really want to find out about - it's the 2nd-largest item at $150 million, or nearly 20% of your registration cost. What is this mystery "road bridge add-on fee"?
  
• CHILD SAFETY FUND - What does this mean? Where does this money go? How is $22.5 million being spent to help keep children safe? And what are they being kept safe from?
  
• AUTOMATION FEE (LARGE CNTY) - no idea.... Travis must be a large county? And we're automated... somehow...?
  
• MAIL IN FEE - I guess this covers the cost of mailing the sticker.
  
• SERVICE FEE (NON-REFUNDABLE) - This must cover their transaction fees for credit card processing. Hopefully, the state isn't paying the card processor $2.00 per transaction, because that would be a crummy deal.
  

According to this post by Tim, the city council sent out invites for the opening of Austin's first public skatepark. The opening will be at Mabel Davis park on Saturday, December 3rd at 1:30pm.

And austinpublicskatepark.org posted recent pictures of the continuing construction of the skatepark, and things look great. After much waiting, it looks like we're finally going to get our first public skatepark (and an awesome one, at that).

Fyi to the world... I know this is only one data point, but here it is.

My wife and I recently purchased an appliance through Home Depot, and did so because one of our purchase criteria was qualifying for two mail-in rebates in the amount of $100. We met all of the terms, sent in the paperwork on time, and included copies of everything they wanted. I've done rebates before, I know how this game works, I read all the fine print.

Three weeks after sending it all in, we received notification that we do not qualify for one of the rebates because "UPC codes do not match". No further explanation, so who knows what that means. I sent email to the address listed on the rebate form, and (big suprise) received no response. The bottom line is this: no rebate for us.

On the second rebate, an additional 10 weeks have passed (on top of the first 3 weeks) without receiving anything from Home Depot. I assume the rebate did not go through, just like the first rebate, but how long do you wait until you know for sure? Should I be glad that they sent me a letter for the first one so that I wouldn't have to wonder if it had been rejected?

All in all, Home Depot cheated us for $100 in rebates. After more than 3 months we've received nothing more than a letter explaining that one of the rebates was denied (with a cryptic explanation).

So if anybody out there is considering a purchase at Home Depot, I suggest that you do not put much value on any rebates. Some companies will honor rebates, others will not. This experience shows that Home Depot is one of the companies that does not follow through on rebates. I'm not saying they're bad people or anything, but it would be wise if you did not factor a rebate into your overall price, because you're never gonna get anything out of them.

For residents of Austin, Texas, you probably receive junk mail in your postal mailbox, and it's coming from several different companies. But you can make the junk mail stop with a few minutes of phone calls (one call per company). Legally, each company must honor your request to stop sending junk mail. By the way, if you have made a request and waited the required period of time, but the junk mail is still showing up from that particular company, you might be able to file harassment charges against them. Call 311 (the non-emergency number for the Austin Police Department) and ask if they can help.

• Junk mail company #1 - Austin Statesman

  About: the Statesman sends weekly bulk mailings containing local advertisements for things like what's on sale at HEB. It doesn't matter if you subscribe to the Statesman or not, they send their junk to every street address in the entire city, and they won't stop until you tell them to.

  To remove yourself from their list: Call (512) 445-3500 and ask to speak with Bill Ellis. Whether you get Bill, his voicemail, or somebody else, here's what you need to say: "I do not want to receive advertisements from the Statesman. Please remove my address from your list. My street address is ________ and my zip code is 787__. Thank you.". They say it will take 1-2 weeks for the junk mail to stop.

• Junk mail company #2 - ADVO

  About: these guys are based in Dallas, and they're responsible for another big pile of bulk junk mail, including the little flyers about missing children. You'll be able to identify any of their junk mail when you find the fine print saying "ADVO" and a 214 phone number.

  To remove yourself from their list: Call (888) 241-6760 and ask to be removed from their mailing list. They'll want your zip code, street number, and address, in that order. They say it will take 6-8 weeks for the junk mail to stop.

• "Complimentary" newspapers from Austin Statesman

  About: you don't read the Statesman, you don't subscribe to it, and you don't want it delivered to your house (free or not). Unfortunately for you, the Austin Statesman doesn't care whether you want their newspaper or not, and they'll deliver them to your house several times a week. Thanks for the trash, guys.

  To remove yourself from their list: this might not be the best solution, bit I sent email to editor@statesman.com and asked to be removed from their complimentary newspaper delivery list. They'll want your name and street address, and the changes should take effect pretty much immediately.

  What to do if they keep delivering newspapers: speaking from experience, the Statesman is liable to start delivering newspapers again, even after you've requested they stop (for me, there was a 2 week break before the newspapers started showing up again). So what do you do? This is where your friendly Austin Police Department comes in: call 311, explain that you've requested to be removed from the list yet they continue throwing unwanted garbage on your private property, then ask to open a harassment case against the Statesman. Perhaps it seems a bit over-the-top, but come on, after you've asked them to stop throwing newspapers on your lawn, what the hell else can you do?
  

The main principle of junk mail is to flood the population, because only a very small percentage of you will respond to the ads. I'm kinda guessing, but it's probably on the order of 2-4% who respond. The rest of you put the ads straight in the trash.

This post is for the rest of you.

Here's a quick quiz:

• True or False: Your mailbox is constantly packed with advertisements, flyers and other junk mail, and this happens weekly if not daily.
• True or False: You do not like receiving advertisements and junk in your mailbox.
• True or False: You do not know what to do, or who to call, to make it stop.

If you answered True to the above 3 questions, and you live in Austin, Texas, you probably did not know that the local newspaper, the Austin Statesman, generates much of the junk mail that makes its way into your mailbox each week. (If you do not live in Austin, Texas, find the website for your local newspaper and contact them about advertisements, because odds are your local paper is doing the same thing that the Statesman does to residents here in Austin.)

To get yourself off the Statesman junk mail recipient list, all you have to do is make a 60-second phone call and ask to be removed from their advertisement list. They are required by law to remove you from their list. Within a week or two, the junk mail will stop.

Here's a step-by-step guide to make the junk mail stop:

• Call (512) 445-3500 Monday through Friday between 7:30 am and 5:00 pm. This info is also available on the Statesman's contact page.
• Ask to speak with Bill Ellis about advertisement mailings. If Bill is unavailable, ask to leave a message or speak with somebody else who can assist you.
• Whether you talk to Bill, his voice mail, or another person, say the following: "I do not want to receive advertisements from the Statesman. Please remove my address from your list. My street address is ________ and my zip code is 787__. Thank you."

Note: please, please, please make an effort to be courteous to anybody you speak with. I know as well as any of you that it sucks to receive junk mail every week, and you might find it tempting to vent your frustrations with the people you talk to. But be nice to them, because they're the only people who can help you out! Yelling, swearing, or insulting Bill or anybody else at the Statesman won't help you out, and might make it harder for other Austin residents to get off the junk mail list.

How do I know the Statesman is behind this?

Simple: it's printed on the advertisements themselves.

You don't have to take my word for it though. The next time you find advertisements in your mailbox, get out your magnifying glass and look at the fine print on the outer-most advertisement. It might change locations on the page, so be prepared to look around for it. The print will definitely be small, but it will clearly read "Austin Statesman" in at least one location. You'll also notice there is no other contact information printed anywhere on any of the advertisements (I know, I spent 10 minutes reading through all of it). To be sure, they don't make it easy for you to get yourself off the junk list.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 13, 2005
Release #05-267
Firm's Recall Hotline: (888) 780-7690
CPSC Consumer Hotline: (800) 638-2772
CPSC Media Contact: (301) 504-7908
Firm's Media Contact: Rick Heineman, (310) 854-4812, Rheineman@bncpr.com

CPSC, Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. Announce Recall of Certain AC Adaptors Sold with Slim Version PlayStation(r) 2 Systems

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of Product: Certain AC Adaptors sold with slim version PlayStation(r) 2 Systems

Units: About 843,000

Importer: Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., of Foster City, Calif.

Hazard: The recalled AC adaptors can overheat and melt. This poses the risk of fire, burn and shock injuries to consumers.

Incidents/Injuries: Sony Computer Entertainment America has received 38 reports of adaptors overheating, including 19 reports of melting. There have been four reports of minor property damage, two reports of minor burns and one report of a minor shock.

Description: The recall involves AC adaptors with the following date codes: 2004.08, 2004.09, 2004.10, 2004.11 and 2004.12 and serial numbers beginning with "F3". The date code is located in a white box on the lower right hand portion of the adaptor's label. Just below the date code box is a serial number beginning with "F3" followed by a series of digits. Adaptors with other date codes and without the "F3" serial numbers are not included in this recall. The AC adaptors were sold with slim version PlayStation(r) 2 consoles with model number SCPH-70011 or SCPH-70012. The PlayStation(r) 2 model number is located on a label at the base of the slim console.

Sold at: Electronics, toy and computer game stores nationwide, as well as Web retailers, from October 2004 through August 2005 for about $150 for the complete system.

Manufactured in: China

Remedy: Consumers should stop using the recalled AC adaptors immediately and contact Sony Computer Entertainment America to receive a free replacement adaptor. Consumers should carefully unplug the recalled adaptors from the wall outlet and allow to cool before handling.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, call Sony Computer Entertainment America toll-free at (888) 780-7690 between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. PT Monday through Saturday, and between 7 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. PT Sunday, or visit the firm's Web site at www.us.playstation.com

To view this recall online, please visit our website at: https://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml05/05267.html

Sweet, all of the speculation about Google unveiling their own chat service appears to be true - I'm signed onto Google Talk right now. It's basically a Jabber server, and you can sign in with your Gmail account info.

If you've got a Gmail account already and a Jabber client (Adium, Fire, Trillian, etc.), here's the connection info you'll need:

Server: talk.google.com
Port: 5222
Username: (like: "foo@gmail.com")
Password:

More details here: smash's world.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 23, 2005
Release #05-250
Firm's Recall Hotline: (888) 285-0044
CPSC Recall Hotline: (800) 638-2772
CPSC Media Contact: (301) 504-7908

CPSC, ZoloWear Announce Recall of Infant Carriers/Slings

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed. Name of Product: ZoloWear Infant Carriers/Slings

Units: About 177

Manufacturer: ZoloWear Inc., of Austin, Texas

Hazard: The stitching that attaches the webbing to the carrier/sling can break, posing a fall hazard to young children.

Incidents/Injuries: ZoloWear has received one report of the webbing coming apart from the sling, but the baby was not in the sling at the time. The company has not received any reports of falls or injuries.

Description: The recalled slings are made of 100-percent cotton fabric or 97 percent cotton/ 3 percent Lycra with two pieces of webbing holding the rings to the fabric. Solid natural color and five prints (Splash, Pink and Black Stripe, Pink and Brown Stripe, Pink Punch and The Hamptons) make up the lots included in the recall. A large white label sewn on the pocket of the slings reads "Zolo." ZoloWear slings should have three rows of stitching securing the webbing and fabric together. Some of the slings in these lots have short webbing, so only one row of stitching holds the webbing in place.

Sold at: The ZoloWear.com Web site, individual distributors, and five children's boutiques in California, Hawaii and Texas sold these slings from May 2005 through August 2005 for between $70 and $90.

Manufactured in: U.S.

Remedy: Consumers should stop using these carriers/slings immediately and call ZoloWear for instructions on having the carriers/slings repaired.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact ZoloWear, Inc. at (888) 285-0044 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. CT Monday through Friday, or e-mail the firm at recall@zolowear.com, or go to the firm's Web site at http://www.zolowear.com/recall

To view this recall online, please visit our website at: https://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml05/05250.html

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Office of Information and Public Affairs Washington, DC 20207
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 8, 2005 Release #05-239
American Classic's Recall Hotline: (800) 345-8356
CPSC Recall Hotline: (800) 638-2772

CPSC, American Classic Announce Recall of Bicycle Wheels

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firms named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of Product: American Classic road and mountain bike wheels

Units: About 2,850

Importer: American Classic, of Tampa, Fla.

Hazard: The hub in the bicycle's rear wheel can fail to engage properly, causing no resistance when pedaling. The bicycle rider could lose balance, fall and suffer injuries.

Incidents/Injuries: No injuries reported.

Description: The recall includes all American Classic aftermarket rear wheels and hubs, as well as the following 2005 bike models which use American Classic rear wheels or hubs: Fuji Team Super Lite (Team SL); Orbea Aletta, Onix, Lobular 50, Dama Race, Mitis and Mitis Dama models; Felt F55 and F2C; Fetish Cycles Road and Mountain Bikes; Argon 18; and Motobecane LeChampion SL. The recalled models were made at the start of January 2005 and the outside of the rear hub shell has a serial number that starts with the letter "S." The serial number is printed on the center of the hub shell opposite to the American Classic logo. Front wheels and front hubs are not included in this recall. Sold at: Bicycle specialty stores nationwide from January 2005 through June 2005 for about $240 (per rear hub).

Manufactured in: Taiwan

Remedy: Consumers should stop using the bike wheels with the recalled hubs and contact your local bicycle retailer to receive a free inspection. If you have a recalled wheel, the dealer will provide a free repair.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact American Classic at (800) 345-8356 or log on to the firm's Web site at www.amclassic.com

To see this press release on CPSC's web site, including a picture of the recalled product, please go to http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml05/05239.html

I just read about Netezza, a company that is rocking the large-scale data storage world. They've got a very cool idea, and it seems to work.

The new search feature from Google, Google Suggest, is pretty neato. Christ Justus did some investigation into how it works, and posted his findings here.

brief excerpt: "A new spoofing flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser allows an improperly coded web link to send users to a diffferent URL than the one displayed in the status bar." more info at netcraft.

Step one: buy a usb data cable for my v300 phone. Step two: get info on how to customize/modify the phone and it's behavior, which is where this page("Customizing the Motorola Vxxx") came in handy. This page is pretty good, too.

T-mobile shipped the phone with a bunch of pictures and ringtones already installed, many of which are dumb and waste space. So they're now gone, and my phone is 1mb lighter, freeing me up to take more pictures with the built-in camera. Yee-haw!

Google SMS (Short Message Service) enables you to easily get precise answers to specialized queries from your mobile phone or device. Send your query as a text message and get phone book listings, dictionary definitions, product prices and more. Just text. No links. No web pages. Simply the answers you're looking to find.

So apparently it is fast becoming general knowledge that Kryptonite bike locks, formerly known for being uber-secure, can be opened in 20 seconds with a ball point pen. Don't get me wrong, I don't think people should use this info to start stealing bikes - having your bike stolen sucks hard (I've had several thieves steal bikes of mine over the years, using all manner of theft techniques, which is why I no longer lock my bike up in public). But Kryptonite lock owners beware - your bike is not as safe as you once thought, so you might do well to take other security precautions. Here's a video of some dude opening a $90 Kryptonite EV lock using a Bic pallpoint pen.

I tried opening two different models of Kryptonite U-locks with cylindrical keys, but could not open either one. But for any nonbelievers out there... REI (big outdoors store, all over the U.S.) has officially stopped carrying all Kryptonite products that use cylindrical keys (I saw the notice myself).

Whether you surf the web using Windows, Linux, or OS X, you can do so in style with the latest release of Firefox. I'd say it's especially worth using if you're on a Windows machine, since Internet Explorer seems filled with an endless supply of security holes. The only Windows-based computer I use these days is for work, and I've had nothing but good experiences using Firefox as my primary web browser. But I still need to use Internet Explorer once in a while, like when I have to go to windowsupdate.com to install the latest round of security patches for Windows, and the only browser that "works" is IE...

Amazon.com just announced a9 ("a9.com"), a new search engine. The idea is that they took the best aspects of Google, and added more stuff. They got a really cool one right off the bat - say you want to searh for:

"prince lyrics let's go crazy"

just open a web browser and point to:

"http://a9.com/prince lyrics let's go crazy"

and the first thing you'll see is the search results page. In general, just stick your search string after the a9.com. Pretty clever. If you need more coaxing, they've got a list of reasons explaining why a9 should be your search engine of choice.

A nerd at Carnegie Mellon University devised a way to build a $14 Steadycam rig. With it, you can use your handheld video camera to shoot video of moving targets without all of the jittery behavior you'd see when using a camera by itself. He's got some sample videos posted, and they look pretty darn good, especially considering that he's an amateur and his equipment cost nearly nothing.

I found a site (www.regionfreedvd.net) that provides instructions for unlocking the region encoding on various home DVD players. No guarantees that your specific player is supported, but it's worth looking. Once unlocked, your player will be able to play DVDs from anywhere in world (something that's currently not possible, thanks to region encoding).

I looked up our home DVD player (CyberHome CH-DVD 300) and followed their instructions. As far as I can tell, it seems to have to worked - I was able to set the encoding to 0, which denotes "all regions" - but I won't be 100% convinced until I can watch an out-of-region DVD.

Click for calorie info

If you've ever looked for calorie information from Chipotle, you've probably run into the same thing I did - nothing is available, not even on their company website.

So I sent email to Chipotle, and they sent me calorie info for all Chipotle ingredients. You have to add the totals up yourself (each ingredient is listed separately), but you can use it to build a calorie total for anything they make.

I was pretty shocked to discover that the veggie burrito I normally order totaled out at 1150 calories (that's just the burrito - no chips or drink). I have since dropped sour cream and switched salsas (saving 200 calories), bringing my burrito down to 950 calories.

If you use Yahoo Messenger on Windows, here are some hidden emoticons. Some of them are animated, too.

I heard about Spin Sisters on talk radio recently, and it sounded interesting. The full title is Spin Sisters : How the Women of the Media Sell Unhappiness -- and Liberalism -- to the Women of America, and that ought to give you some idea of what it's about. Here's the description from Amazon.com:

"Blowing the whistle on a job she herself did for over ten years at Ladies Home Journal as editor-in-chief, Blyth reveals the almost institutionalized selling of a liberal/do-gooders message to women through chararacterizing women themselves as victims. Playing on women's compassion and ability to be hooked into "uplifting" stories with a moral or happy ending, American media has convinced the most well-educated, rich and healthy audience in history that they are miserable."

I'm curious to read this, since I'm already against mainstream TV and mega corp radio stations.

I found this recipe for home-made energy bars. I used to have a similar recipe, basically the same thing, only you had to run everything through a food processor.

• 1 cup rolled oats
  
• 1/2 cup wheat germ
  
• 1/2 cup oat bran
  
• 1/2 cup vanilla protein power
  
• 1 cup crunchy peanut butter
  
• 1 cup raisins or dried fruit of your choice/chopped
  
• 1 cup chocolate chips
  
• 1 cup light Karo syrup
  

Mix all ingredients well. Pat out on wax paper into a large rectangle. Take a large knife and divide into bar shaped rectangles. Put these in Ziploc bags and freeze ‘til you need them. Simple. Easy.

I learn somethin' new every day. Today I learned that the new $20 bills have RFID (radio-frequency identification) chips embedded within them. I also learned that if you put a $20 bill in the microwave, that chip is gonna explode. these guys put $1,000 (all in $20 bills) in a microwave and each bill exploded right in the middle. They've got pictures, too.

Attention users of Internet Explorer 5 - do not browse web pages that have bmp graphics on them, or you might be affected by this recently-discovered security hole. It's not that big of a deal though I guess, because it only lets a remote user run any piece of code they like, and thus take full control of your computer. No biggie at all.

I was just doing some site updates, cleaning a few things up, and needed to disable the default warning messages if a php page has problems. I had to look for it, but found this simple solution - put the '@' symbol in front of the function call, like so:

$handle = @ fopen("somefile", "r");

Digging around through somebody's vim book today at work, gleaned a few tips that I didn't know or have forgotten over the years.

g?? do rot13 encryption on the current line

after :split do <count>CTRL-w- to shrink the window by <count> lines

:set scrollbind with two windows open, the other one scrolls too
:set noscrollbind turn binding off

:set showmatch turns on parentheses/brace matching
:set matchtime=15

<count>[[ move backward to the preceding {
<count>[] move backward to the preceding }
<count>][ move forward to the next }

!<command> run the external command on the current line/range
!fmt format the current line, or current selected range
!sort sort the current line or range

!!<command> run the external command, put the output in the current location
!!date run the date command externally, and put the output at the cursor
!!ls list the files in the current directory, put the output at cursor

Some good tools at Swipe Toolkit about your personal information, what it's worth in the business world, and how you can learn more about what's out there.

I use a text file to keep track of my todo list, so I wrote a short syntax file for vim to display items in different ways. Posting here in case anyone else might benefit.

1. Create "todo.vim" in your vim syntax directory, and add the following to it:

   syntax region todoDone start=/DONE\|^\s*:/ end=/$/
hi def todoDoneDefinition gui=italic guifg=#0020A0
hi link todoDone todoDoneDefinition
syntax region todoTodo start=/____/ end=/:/
hi def todoTodoDefinition guifg=DarkRed guibg=LightGray
hi link todoTodo todoTodoDefinition

2. Edit "filetype.vim" in the main vim directory, adding a rule for .todo files, like this:

   " TODO
au BufNewFile,BufRead *.todo setf todo

3. Add some keyboard mappings to quickly create new todo items, or mark existing ones as complete.
   

   " set up some mappings for todo list
map <F3> o____:
map! <F3> ____:
map <F4> 4sDONE^[b
map! <F4> DONE:


4. Now you can edit a .todo file with syntax enhancements using F3 and F4 function keys to create and edit todo items. Your text file should be named something like "mylist.todo" (just end use .todo as the filename extension), and have this kind of structure:

   ____: need to update something
   ____: write email
   DONE: fix broken thingy
   DONE: eat food
   ____: re-arrange furniture

Symantec has a page about the the W32.Novarg.A@mm virus (the one responsible for all of those "hello" email messages you've been receiving from random people). If you're on an infected machine, Symantec's page includes instructions for virus removal.

I wish I had thought of this service - you send your stack of audio CDs, a few days later we send your CDs back along with a hard drive containing MP3 versions of your entire music collection.

At work, I had an 11,434 line data file that needed to be fixed, and it needed to be fixed right now. So I opened the file with vi and used the following regular expression to make the required change to every line that was incorrect:

s/\(^.\{199\}\)1\(.\{27\}\)/\10\2/

Regular expressions are cool.

I had some questions about the DVD format, so I hunted around for answers. I found the DVD FAQ to be extremely helpful and informative. Give it a look if you want to learn something new about DVDs.

Today is Personal Firewall Day. It's a public service website that hopes to educate consumers on what a firewall is, why they should use one, and where they find tools that will help protect their computers.

Really, the hidden message is that only Windows users need to worry about this, because many *nix operating systems (including OS X) have a firewall installed and configured from the start. Contrast that with Windows where you have no firewall running, and several dozen services actively listening for traffic from the outside world (which is one of the big reasons why Windows is constantly plagued by security problems).

Here's a Microsoft utility that lets you mount an ISO image as a virtual CD in Windows XP. I've used it only one time (with XP Professional), but it seemed to work and beats burning a CD.

Of course, if this were OS X I wouldn't have to hunt for and download some hidden utility to mount a virtual disk from a disk image, because it's one of the many cool things built into the operating system.

If you ever need to call Amazon, here's the number for their Customer Service department:

(800) 201-7575

This was found by an NPR reporter while looking through Amazon's SEC filing.

Found this randomly. Here's what you do:

1. Click this link
2. Pick a football team (click on one of the helmets)
3. Campbell's will donate one can of soup on behalf of the NFL team you selected

There's nothing more to it, they don't ask for your name, they don't ask for an email address, there's no sign-up - nothing. Just go to their site and pick a team. Their goal is to donate 5,000,000 cans, right now they're at 4,331,024.

Have you ever wanted to extract, view and map your own DNA? Just buy this fabulous kit to analyze DNA from the comfort of your own home! Sadly, I am not kidding, this is actually available for people who, like, want one. Check it out.

This utility lets you quickly find a color palette for your website (or anything else really).

The search is on for the 41^st Mersenne prime number. The 40^th, written as 2^20,996,011 - 1, was found on November 17, 2003, two years after finding the 39^th. The actual value of the 40^th Mersenne prime contains 6,320,430 digits, officially making it a gigantic number. The 35^th through 40^th numbers were found after more than 7 years of effort by the distributed computing project that's open to all. And their search seems a bit more useful than (though possibly not as cool as) hunting for aliens.

Have you ever wanted to convert from one number to another? Google's calculator can help. It can tell you how many miles are in a kilometer, or the number of kilometers in 372 miles. You could even find the conversion from stones to pounds, or square feet to hectares. Wanna do obscure conversions? How about converting acceleration from meters per second per second to fathoms per fortnight per month. And it will also do all kinds of math functions, like 1 + 1, 200 mod 7, or 15!. More details here.

This would be neat if you wanted to record some music from your band, but you didn't have enough backup singers. Using Vocaloid, you could create synthesized vocal tracks by simply typing in the text of the lyrics and marking the notes that the voices should sing. Samples available for download here; here's a good one. They don't sound that bad, and you can barely tell that they were generated by a computer.

Before you dismiss any of this, just read it through. I'm not convinced myself, and I don't intend to convince anyone of anything that I myself do not believe. Having said that, I think there are some interesting findings about the health and safety of plastics, some of which seem rather compelling, others not. What's right? I don't know. What's the bottom line? I don't know that either, but I'd like to find out.

There are many different forms of plastic, and they have different properties and behaviors. Plastics are divided into numbered groups (1 through 7) and should be marked somewhere. It's pretty likely that you could walk into your kitchen right now and find a dozen items that are stored in plastic containers, and each should be marked. Right this minute, I'm drinking a bottle of Ozarka water stored in a #1 plastic container. In general, the consensus is that #5 is considered safest, and #2 and #4 are ok. Group #7 is kinda sketchy, because it consists of plastics that are composites of multiple materials. Within that group you'll find polycarbonate plastics, a great example being a material called Lexan. Lexan is used for all kinds of things, including the molded panels on a Segway scooter, compact discs and DVDs, and Nalgene water bottles.

There's a growing rumble about the safety of using certain plastics to store food and drinks. The health risk is that some plastics slowly leach chemicals into the food or drinks stored within, and those chemicals should not be ingested by humans without risking health issues. What kind of health issues? Good question.

In the past few months I've heard more and more rumblings about the safety hazards of plastics (again, related to food consumption). Do a Google search and look through some of the results yourself. I read through several articles and repeatedly found referenes to this research paper published in the April 2003 issue of Current Biology.

There is increasing concern that exposure to man-made substances that mimic endogenous hormones may adversely affect mammalian reproduction. Although a variety of reproductive complications have been ascribed to compounds with androgenic or estrogenic properties, little attention has been directed at the potential consequences of such exposures to the genetic quality of the gamete. [excerpt from Bisphenol A Exposure Causes Meiotic Aneuploidy in the Female Mouse]

Summary: the lab crew accidentally discovered the relationship bewteen BPA and genetic abnormalities in mice. One of the lab workers washed the mouse cages using a harsh detergent, and suddenly the number of chromosomal abnormalities jumped from 1 or 2 percent up to 40 percent. Eventually, the researchers tracked the cause to the polycarbonate plastic cages, and they were able to replicate the same kinds of genetic effects (and with similar rates) by administering BPA directly.

So who's at risk?

A friend of mine developed a particular form of brain cancer that's linked to high estrogen levels. Again, one of the chemicals that is known to leach out of some forms of plastic is Bisphenol-A, which mimics the hormone estrogen. Consequently, plastic is one of the things he's added to his health watch list. Is he just being a health quack? You could probably answer that question yourself. First, we have to insert a tumor into your brain, then show you a good amount of credible evidence showing that estrogen is influencing the growth of that tumor and that plastics leach BPA (which mimics estrogen), and finally we wait and see whether you would take more notice of whether your food is stored in plastic containers.

Theo Colborn, author of Our Stolen Future, says pregnant women and newborns are most at risk for developmental problems from plastics because they have developing endocrine systems. Next in line would be young children, and then women who might get pregnant.

Like many things in modern life, it's difficult to distinguish valid health threats from nonsense. It's an established fact that Americans experience different (and sometimes significantly higher) rates of disease and health problems compared to people in other countries. While it's extremely difficult to produce an explanation for something like high rates of cancer in this country, it seems pretty reasonable to be suspicious of our environment and our way of life. Are plastics to be blamed? Who knows. Could you avoid plastics entirely if you wanted? Probably not - since they're everywhere, in case you haven't already looked. So what then? Keep reading, be aware, and make your own decisions rather than have them made for you.

While this blog has been pretty much ignored by any spambots, the latest craze in junk propagation is the auto-spamming of comments in public blogs. This article, seven quick tips for a spam-free blog, describes some interesting tactics for minimizing unwanted spambot blog posts. The tips are Movable Type-centric, and you can safely ignore tip #7 unless you work for Six Apart (the company that produces Movable Type).

Here's my summary:

1. Rename your comment script from "mt-comments.cgi" to something else
   
2. Don't link to the comments script from your front page
   
3. Include multiple decoy html forms and make them hidden so they won't distract web users but might confuse a spambot
   
4. Require a hidden variable for the comment script
   
5. Require the user to "Preview" each comment before posting, that way a spambot will be less likely to succeed
   
6. Include a "Delete this link" in your notification email, so that you can quickly eradicate any slime that slips past your defenses
   

My own solution? Disable comments altogether. Let's see you spamming bastards get past that one!

They've been around for several years, but they are no more. Groovetech didn't make any announcement or attempt to communicate what was about to happen, they just pulled the plug on everything - no more website, no answering the phone, no orders shipped for customers (or refunds). From various posts I've read it seems they went out of business sometime in the month of September. And I only found that out after Google told me what happened to groovetech. I guess the streams of Jesse Rose, Mark Shade, and Colin Dale that I ripped are keepers now.