Here’s hoping everybody had a good Thanksgiving and stuffed themselves silly. And if you’re one of those nut jobs that is going to get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to get the great deals on Black Friday, good luck (I’m sleeping in, myself). If you’re looking to by one of those dirt-cheap laptops that they’re selling at Wal-Mart, Staples, and Best Buy locally, read up here on the skinny on all of them and which is the best deal (I’d buy one, but don’t have any money nor motivation to get up at 4:00 to get there at 4:45 before they go on sale at 5:00AM). I really wanted to get in on the 200GB Hard Drive they have for roughly $30 bucks at Staples, but again, no money, no motivation to get up that early (but if anybody wants to buy one and contribute to my “I’m dead broke but need a less crappy computer” fund, feel free).
Month: November 2005
Why You Shouldn’t Steal People’s Images
I at one point (and still do, to some extent) had to block external linking to images on my site because it was sucking up a pile of my bandwidth. At least when I saw people stealing the images, I was nice enough to not replace them with gay porn. The story (from b3ta) behind the images? “Someone bought a CD from me, and has been making copies of it to sell on eBay. Unlucky thing is, he stole my ENTIRE listing and HOTLINKED the images… what else could I do?” As Yoda might say, sweet revenge, that is.
That’s Going To Sting A Bit
But I have to say, if you’re going to run around showing your johnson in public and then ignore police officers request to stop, you had it coming, and if this sterilizes you, all the better.
A naked man was accidentally shocked in the genitals by a Taser after he was found breaking windows and asking women to touch him inappropriately, police said.
[…]
One of the Taser prongs accidentally hit Miljour’s genitals and got stuck, said Cpl. Matt Chitwood.
Thanks Barn for the link.
The World’s Ugliest Dog is Dead
That nasty dog that I linked to a while back has died and Right Wing Conspirator has a picture of the runner-up who now leads the way.
Mt. Bachelor Uses RFID For Lift Tickets (Updated)
While RFID is stupid, there’s been so much money invested into it that it’s really too late to switch to better technology. And while adoption of the technology hasn’t been speedy by any means, Mt. Bachelor is apparently using it in their new lift tickets.
The company I work for is a lodging partner with Mt. Bachelor, so we are allowed to sell tickets to our guests. I went to their office today to pick up our first order of the season for this long weekend, and noticed the tickets look different than last year (and the few years prior). They’re smaller, and have just a single smaller bar code. I asked the sales rep there about the new tickets, as it just seemed that the small barcodes would be hard to scan at the base of each lift. He told me there is a small radio antenna inside each card that gets picked up at the base of the lifts. I asked him if it were RFID, and he said that that sounded right.
The tickets that Mt. Bachelor uses are produced by RTP which talks right on their tickets page about the tickets that use RFID. I can only assume that they are Passive RFID tags that can only be read by an external antenna, as the tickets are small and thin and flexible so there’s no way to have a power source in the ticket. That also means that people with these RFID-enabled tickets won’t be broadcasting a radio signal unless activated by an antenna, so skiers don’t have to worry about getting tracked around the mountain unless there are high-power antennas all over the mountain that I don’t know about.
I’ve also been told that the area where the hole is in the ticket cannot be enlarged or modified — I’m guessing because some of the RFID components are in that area around the hole.
If I didn’t have to sell these tickets to guests, I’d dismantle one and post it here (but if I get a used one, I’ll post it up). Anybody been skiing up there yet that has an old ticket that can verify this for me?
Update on 11/27/05: According to Mt. Bachelor (and thanks to Barney), the regular tickets are not RFID-enabled, but the Season Passes are. Makes sense, as the daily passes are a bit twinky while the season passes are a bit heavier-duty.
Flash Game For The Day
This one will piss you off. The premise is simple: Move a ball to hit some numbered blocks in numerical order. It’s far harder than it looks. Fail, and those cuddly bears are doomed (read the plot — it’s hilarious).
This Means Nothing
BitTorrent’s creator strikes a deal with the MPAA, but it doesn’t matter when other torrent search engines are out of Hollywood’s jurisdiction.
Did You Need Another Cheeseburger, Fatty?
That was just one suggestion for a well done (but short lived) prank on a not-so-well guarded McDonalds sign.
On a sort of related note, dinking around on this same site you’ll find an interesting section (that isn’t actually safe for work unless you have a fairly liberal boss) on a lady that used to spend a lot of time on the Bend.com forums. Let’s just say they’re not all that happy with each other, but it is an entertaining read.
Dang It
Women have yet another excuse. Thanks Rob for the link.
History’s Worst Software Bugs
The Y2K “bug” had nothing on these screw ups.