Because the ear naturally ages and generally can’t hear higher frequencies as you get older, kids are taking advantage of that and getting ringtones out of their hearing range.
Month: June 2006
I’m Not *That* Old
But apparently if you’re over 25, you’re the demographic for this well-done gaming publication 2O2P (Too Old To Play) Magazine. You can download the ad-free (unless you count the old-school Intellivision and Atair ads, which are a nice touch) 80-page PDF version of the magazine here.
Don’t Print Good Photography to Target
I mentioned before that Wal-Mart won’t print your digital photos if they think a professional took them. Now apparently Target is doing the same thing.
Buying Friends On My Space
Aaron Nimocks apparently doesn’t feel loved and is wanted some more friends in his MySpace account (undoubtedly so he can send them spam mail later). So he’s buying friends in an attempt to have a million friends listed in his account. Right now he’s at 70 or so, and since he has to manually approve friend requests, he’s probably going to get deluged by e-mail.
Thanks Barn for the link.
Finally I Can Take A Deep Breath
I’ve been busting my butt recently on a few huge projects (if you’ve noticed, my post quantity has gone done considerably the last several months), and finally have a major part of one of them done, and I can breathe a sigh of relief.
I’m working on the back-end for a site that is going to serve as a central Web site for the rental homes from four different companies here in Sunriver. It’s been a nightmare trying to get the inventory and availability data from four different companies, all of whom have different software systems, servers, and ways they do things. Today was the final phase of it, trying to figure out an automated way to pull availability data on an automated fashion from an Excel spreadsheet accessible via a URL. To complicate matters, the Excel file was behind non-standard password protections that checked if you were using MSIE before it even allowed you to login (it’s a very stupid system, but it’s what they have an it works for them). I gave up trying to figure it out myself, so I got a programmer off ScriptLance and had him deal with the mess (and a mess it was — cripes, I can’t translate what that code is doing for the life of me, thanks to Excel’s complicated file format).
But it works, and I have the home and availability data for all the companies loading and synchronizing properly. Now if the front-end guys will hurry up and do their thing (I was just in charge of the back end), I can sleep much better. But it’ll be by far the best vacation rental site out here (it’ll be fully AJAX-powered — it’ll be really sweet).
Meanwhile, I’ve got a busy weekend with the aforementioned concerts (with several rehearsals), appointments on Friday, my sister-in-law’s high school graduation, my niece’s ballet recital, and so much more. We’ll just have to see how it goes.
The Big Box Stores Are Going To The Birds…
Not all birds fly south for the winter; some head for Home Depot and other big-box stores.
While consumers flock to home improvement centers for appliances and tools, wild birds aspire to something higher: the rafters.
They get in through automatic doors, loading docks and attached garden centers.
I’ve seen birds flying around Costco, Home Depot, and Lowes in Bend, and wondered if this was a problem elsewhere. Apparently so.
Suffering From Menopause?
Czech scientists say they have created a new non-alcoholic beer that contains 10 times the normal amount of phytoestrogen, intended to help women suffering from the menopause.
The beer, developed by the Czech Republic’s Research Institute for Brewing and Malting, is intended to relieve menopausal symptoms and maintain bone density by tackling a lack of the oestrogen hormone in many Czech women.
Thanks Cheryl, who’s hoping they’ll come up with a similar wine, for this.
Best Use Of Google Maps, EVER!
An interactive map showing the details and location of every strip club in the US.
Welcome Bend Bulletin Readers
Apparently, despite only having a two minute conversation and making clear that my opinion wasn’t very well informed, I was quoted in today’s Bulletin in a Net Neutrality story (which, since it’s the Bulletin, you have to pay to view and BugMeNot won’t be able to help you). Peter Sach, the reporter who wrote the story, is a nice guy, and I know he was on deadline, I was just hoping that he’d be able to find somebody with a more well-informed opinion (it’s just not something I’ve really had a chance to read up on). Since I can’t copy/paste the story (which somebody was kind enough to e-mail me) without getting sued, here’s my quote:
Jake Ortman, a Bend resident who runs the blog UtterlyBoring.com, sees both sides of the issue. Noting that consumers must pay more for faster Internet service, he doesn’t think requiring the same of companies is so unreasonable.
“Somebody’s got to pay for it,” he said.
<sarcasm>Bure brilliance, ‘eh?</sarcasm> You’ll just have to find a copy of the paper to read that in context.
The Death Star Has Been Blown Up…
…and Vader has to make that dreaded phone call (hilarious video whether you’re a Star Wars geek or not).