You Might Expect This In Eugene

But not in Milwaukie (of course, I’ve never lived there like I have in Eugene).

MILWAUKIE, Ore. — A naked man who had allegedly robbed the US Bank in Milwaukie and hid in an nearby gazebo was arrested Friday afternoon by sheriff’s deputies.

…

Witnesses said Jarvis was wearing clothes when he allegedly robbed the bank.

So he decided to strip down after robbing the place? I can understand you not wanting to be seen in the clothes you robbed a bank in, but stripping down is not the way to blend in.

But at least he wasn’t dressed like a clown like this guy.

Thanks Barn for the link.

July 16, 2006

Dang Cool Invention Of The Day

A SD card (those little memory cards that go into many digital cameras) with a built in USB connector so it’ll work without a media reader on any PC with a USB port. Dang cool.

July 13, 2006

Has the guy ever heard of using the <br> tag?

Apparently not.

And if you’ve ever done any sort of programming you’ll appreciate this idiot product manager, too.

July 13, 2006

Interesting Use For RFID

Despite all the hype about RFID, it hasn’t really caught on in anything other than specialized uses — like this one, for example:

On a busy Saturday night, a good bartender makes a lot of money for the bar’s owner, but an overly generous bartender—or one fond of pouring free drinks for friends—can cost the owner even more.

A Miami-based 7-year-old beverage-monitoring software company is drinking from the keg of RFID and is selling a tilt switch that attaches to bottles and updates an Internet database every time the bottle is poured. Hilton, Hyatt, Outback Steakhouse, TGI Fridays and others are reportedly testing the system.

It’s not merely recording how many times the bottle is poured, but it factors in the tilt of the bottle, the duration of the pour and the bartender’s pouring style to calculate how much liquid is leaving the bottle.

Thanks Barn for the link.

July 13, 2006

Why Take A Gadget-Filled Road Trip?

I’m not sure why you would take nearly a dozen gadgets on a trip in the Mt. Hood Wilderness, but this guy did (including a video iPod, a MacBook Pro, and Sony PlayStation Portable). Out of all the gadgets of his I might have brought, it’d probably only be the satelite phone, in case of emergencies. Otherwise, you can’t really enjoy the trip because you’re constantly playing with your gadgets.

Thanks Mrs. H for the link.

July 12, 2006

What If Women Were Dolls?

Then these are the women you want to avoid.

July 12, 2006

U3 Uninstaller and Remover

I recently bought a new USB key as my job commandeered my old 256mb one (I am using it instead of a floppy for the configuration media for the ZoneCD for the hot spot I setup). So I bought a new 512mb SanDisk Micro, and was going to start following some of the suggestions on these various sites and fill the thing up. I plug it in and this stupid U3 service installed and popped up (which is a service far more annoying than useful). Despite deleting the U3 files off the key, they still came back. It was slowing down loading of the key, too, and it was really annoying.

After a Google search, I realized I wasn’t the only one with the problem, and found that U3 has an uninstall application. Apparently there’s a hidden partition that it clears out, which would explain my inability to remove it.

So if anybody ends up with a U3-enabled USB key, there is hope if you value your sanity.

July 12, 2006

Another WYSIWYG Editor For MovableType

This is mostly a note for me, so move on if you’re not interested. But I’ve used Arvind’s great EnhanceEntryEditing plugin on the Cascade Winds site for quite a while and it’s really simple and has a super clean install, but I’ve wanted something more for quite a while. I’ve always liked FCKeditor, and there’s a plugin for MT that uses it. It looks a bit more complicated to install, but for a fully featured FCKeditor, it’s probably be worth it.

One of these days I’m going to get this site redesigned to use the default styles so I can use one of these great styles as a starting point (entirely CSS) and some of the handy plugins here that would require me to hack this current template to pieces.

July 11, 2006

Anybody Want An Old Mac?

I’ve inherited an old Macintosh Performa 6400/180 from a homeowner that I work with, and I have no idea what to do with it. It’s not even remotely new enough to give me an excuse to learn OS X (some folks have gotten it to run, but I doubt it would run well). I don’t know if it’s even worth installing Debian’s PowerPC Linux port to just tinker with it (I don’t have room in my house or time for it and I don’t need the frustration of trying to install it on this thing). I haven’t bothered to boot the thing up to see what’s even on it, software and OS-wise.

Generally, if I had an old PC, I know I could at least part it out and use some of it, but I don’t know Mac hardware at all (it’s been many years since I’ve opened one up). And I don’t know if there are local charities that would take it (I’d like to see the thing put to use instead of just dumping it). Heck, if it were even possible, I could make a PC with off-the-shelf parts, but I’m not really thinking I want to tinker with it that much.

Any Mac geeks locally want the thing? I have a monitor and keyboard and mouse to go along with it. It’s yours if you want it and can come get it (I live in Northeast Bend). Just email me at jake [at] this site’s domain or comment here if you have any suggestions as to what I should do with it (and taking it out to the desert and shooting it full of holes is not an option).

July 10, 2006

Photoshop 1.0

Creative Bits has some screen shots of the original Photoshop version 1.0.7, running on a Mac. For those of us who do a lot of work in Photoshop’s modern incarnations, it’s great to look back to see how far we’ve come. I think I remember using this version on an old Mac when I was in high school. It was a Mac in the chemistry lab that was mostly used for some chem calculations, but it actually did have Photoshop installed on it, if I remember correctly.

July 10, 2006