Category: Uncategorized

I’ve seen some pretty strange ideas for computers, but this one takes the cake: scented laptops. Yes, Asus now offers “A Computer for All Your Senses”, available in four models with four fragrances. The fragrances are Grass, Floral, Perfume, and Ocean. Yes, Ocean. I grew up in Oregon so when I think of the smell of the ocean, I think of brine, seaweed, and perhaps a hint of dead seagull. I have to assume that that’s not what an Ocean-scented laptop actually smells like, but all things considered, I’d probably rather smell the ocean. read more

Since I managed to get a bunch of people all worked up awhile ago by suggesting that musicians boycott software companies that use PACE’s invasive copy-protection system, it seems worth mentioning that the issue of copy protection and whether consumers should put up with it is now being debated in a much wider field: the gaming community. [I guess it’s called Digital Rights Management, or DRM, these days so I’ll start using that acronym for brevity.]

There’s a new game called Spore. There’s a good chance that you’ve heard of it. Its makers have been hyping it for a couple of years, it was created by the same people that did the original Sim games, Brian Eno did the music for it, etc. It doesn’t really look like something I’d get into but I was considering picking it up eventually if it turned out to live up to some of its pre-release hooplah. It was released a few days ago, and it crossed my mind to see what the user reviews on Amazon were saying about it. So I took a look here at its product page. read more

It seems like there is an unusual number of dragonflies around this year. I see several of them each time I’m watering the flowers in the back yard. Recently I noticed that they aren’t particularly skittish. If I move slowly I can stand fairly close to them, and with a little patience I managed to take a few photos of them. If you click this photo, you’ll be taken to my flickr site where there’s another one.

It seems to be September, somewhat to my surprise. Last night we had some rain and a brief pelting of marble-sized hail. Today it looks like the temperature isn’t going to go above 63F; yesterday’s high was 85. I think autumn is not far away. It won’t arrive too soon for us, though. It’s been a hot summer and we’re looking forward to lower temperatures.

Our hibiscus is blooming gloriously, and our dahlias are doing well despite having been planted later in the year than was ideal. I just posted some photos of the flowers in my flickr site, in a new category just for flowers, which you can reach by clicking here.

Since I’m intimately involved with two different online businesses, I occasionally encounter some well-meaning person who is reluctant–or refuses–to use their credit card to make purchases online. Apparently they’re concerned that their card information will somehow be hijacked and don’t quite understand the implications of SSL and the other measures that online businesses use to dramatically reduce the odds of such theft occurring. I’ve always wondered whether these same people are comfortable disclosing their credit-card information in other ways, such as handing it to an underpaid waitperson in some restaurant and letting the card (complete with the cardholder’s signature and the security code from the signature panel) disappear entirely from their sight for a number of minutes. Who do you think is really concerned more about the security of your card data: an online retailer whose entire business is at stake if their operation isn’t secure, or some employee in some physical establishment who can easily disavow any responsibility? After all, it’s the owner of the establishment who’s responsible for the data security, not the employee. read more

I inadvertently saved the best for last, it seems. Sakura Mist is really good.

It’s lightly carbonated and not terribly sweet. (If I’m deciphering the label correctly, it has less than half of the sugar of most American sodas.) It has a very subtle flavor. I think it’s cherry flavored in that nebulous way that artificial cherry has a flavor that doesn’t really taste like cherries. I could drink a lot of the stuff if I had a ready supply of it.

The strangest thing about it is its scent. When I opened the bottle and sniffed it, I immediately thought “oh, it smells just like–” and then couldn’t think of what it smells just like. I handed the bottle to Tracie and she had the same reaction: it smells exactly like something we can’t place. It’s an odd experience. read more

One has to laugh at some of the juxtapositions that the Google AdWords AI creates sometimes. There’s an article here in today’s online New York Times about the scientist who was apparently behind the letters laden with a toxic substance whose name I’d rather not let search engines find in my blog. In a sidebar on the same page appeared these ads:

Nice, eh? The link for the last one goes to this page, which offers products in the “Mass Fatality” category. The EveryBody Coffin (the name is trademarked, by the way) is described as “[a]n affordable wooden coffin for dignified disaster response.” On the same page you can find body bags and “Post-Mortem Shroud Kits”. Minimum order on the coffins is 10 units, by the way. read more

There’s a video at a site called The Story of Stuff which everyone should watch. It’ll consume 20 minutes of your precious time but do it anyway. To quote the introductory paragraph on the site, “It’ll teach you something, it’ll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.”

It’s hot today (which is not news–it’s been hot for weeks) so I thought I’d crack open a nice blue Pepsi.

I assume the name is a reference to the mixed drink, but there’s no alcohol in it. It’s quite good. It tastes like pineapple, mostly; I don’t really notice the lemon. It doesn’t take like standard Pepsi cola at all, and is somewhat less carbonated than usual.

I assume that this is one of the series of limited-edition Pepsi flavors and hence will vanish by the end of the summer. I’ll savor my three bottles. read more