Wireless Charging

Dell has introduced a new laptop that supposedly has a wireless charging mechanism. This is great. Finally, a solution where I don't have to carry around a heavy, bulky AC adapter.

Or so I thought.

See, when I saw the headline, "New Dell Laptop Introduces Wireless Charging," I thought it was going to utilize radio waves or some innovative method where you plug something very small into an outlet and it magically charges the laptop across the room. However, this does not appear to be the case.

Instead, you get a dock on which you mount your shiny new laptop, and it charges via some coils. True, you're not plugging in a wire, so I suppose it could technically be called "wireless." Seriously, though? Seriously?

That's almost like buying a product that touts itself to be lead-free only to find it contains mercury. Practically speaking, it doesn't matter.

Moreover, what's the point if you have to carry around the dock anyway? Wouldn't a dock be more cumbersome than an AC adapter? I know that to be true for cameras, having sold many Kodaks and Casios some years back when they thought a charging cradle was a good idea.

But then I read on, and found this line: "a standard plug is also available when you're on the road and away from the dock." Uhh... Right, the dock isn't intended to be carried around. Perhaps I am missing the point, but I am utterly baffled. Looks like I have to carry the heavy, bulky AC adapter after all.

I use a laptop at work. It's pretty much always plugged in, unless I have to take the computer to another room. As a result, my AC adapter sits in a corner of my desk, plugged into a surge protector. If I need to move my computer, I just unplug the connector that is plugged into the laptop itself. The AC adapter does not move unless I'm going to be in the other room for more than the life of the battery charge.

Now, I can see how this can all be replaced by a dock. I don't see why I'd want to do it, but yes, it can be done. If I want to go to the other room, however, I have to find my AC adapter.

Furthermore, how does the dock receive power from the outlet? Do I dare say that it might be plugged in? Maybe with something like, a wire?

The bottom of the article mentions a completely separate dock that can be used to connect to USB devices and an external monitor without using cables. This means the laptop doesn't need to be plugged into the projector, printer, etc. This is very useful because it means there are fewer cables I need to remove when I want to move the computer. Also, if I'm giving a presentation, I don't need to be within 12 inches of the projector, being blasted by heat waves coming from the fan on the side

However, according to the author of this article, "It's probably less useful than some of the machine's other innovations (the range of the wireless dock is only 12 feet)."

At this point I have to dismiss any sort of credibility this man had remaining. This is the sort of person that is convinced into buying something for its cool new features that are actually worthless. This is a salesman's favorite customer. For him, novelty is more important than practicality. I mean, if the charging dock had a range of 12 feet, that would be excellent. Instead, "Getting the laptop situated just-so on the dock so that the two coils are in contact didn't seem as easy as it should be, but overall I found the innovation to be decisively cool." So this is not 12 feet we're talking for the wireless charging. We're looking at under 12mm here.

Rubbish.

On Aliens

Last night, the new Prime Minister of Japan became drunk and stuck his head out a second-floor window and yelled to the news reporters below, "I am an alien." Incidentally, his wife also claims she has been abducted by a UFO and taken to Venus.

As far as I am aware, aliens are not allowed to become prime minister in Japan, although that may soon change under DPJ rule. Anyway, the mass media in Japan, in reporting this, have portrayed him as a charming fellow, despite all the bashing they caused when the previous prime minister was drinking at an expensive bar.

I honestly don't know where this country is headed.

On Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh is full of communists, anarchists, and lunatics.

And I'm not talking about Penguins fans either. Pittsburgh is hosting a G-20 summit this week, and there has been a massive protest. I have no problem with this. It is a constitutional right.
However, it must be done in an orderly manner. If they had bothered applying for a permit, they would have been able to protest peacefully for a longer period of time, and they wouldn't have wasted tax dollars as police tried to contain them.

I guess this sort of stuff happens. The resulting "violence" consisted of some rock throwing and rolling of trash bins, which I suppose is mild compared to shooting, assaulting, running over with a car, or setting on fire.

One man proclaimed in a speech, "To love democracy and to love the earth is to be a radical now." Now, I'm sorry, but if I'm not mistaken, anarchy is not democracy.

However, the best part of the article by a mile is the following: "Officers fired pepper spray and smoke at the protesters. Some of those exposed to the pepper spray coughed and complained that their eyes were watering and stinging." I can only wonder if they were expecting pepper spray to be a soothing experience filled with fairies and bunnies.

Anyway, this being Pittsburgh, they're probably all fair-weather bandwagon anarchists.

On Sportsmanship

Recently, I've read several stories about high school sports matches that ended up in lopsided scores. Oh well, it happens. During my sophomore or junior year, our school's football team lost 55-2 so we laughed about it from the stands.

It bothers me, then, that there are people that feel the need to complain on behalf of the losing team, that routing an opponent is unsportsmanlike, and that players and coaches of the winning team should burn in hell. Typically, in these cases, the losing team issues a comment defending the winning team's actions.

Now, my high school didn't exactly have a reputation for strong athletic performance. As a former high school athlete, I was involved in many games that involved blowout scores. Being on the losing end of this was pretty disappointing, but what I hated most about it was that there would be a "mercy rule" where the game would automatically end when there was a certain score difference. I didn't care if I was losing by one point or a hundred points, I just wanted to play.

When high school students lose a sports match, they don't need to be pampered and hugged and given some brownies. This is particularly true when the opponent is known to be a significantly better team. You were expecting a loss in the first place, so you just get on with it. Look at what (if anything) went well and learn from what the opponent did better. Going home crying because the other team beat you by a lot is unacceptable past age five.

In fact the only thing more humiliating than a resounding defeat would be to learn that your opponent played easy because they thought your feelings would be hurt if they didn't. In fact that would be quite the opposite of sportsmanship, which I think is playing fair but as hard as possible. To not do so would be disrespectful. Stop bickering.

On Diesels

I was driving to work this morning when I was cut off by an enormous Ford F-something or other with a Harley-Davidson badge on it.

Now, I know this whole deal has been going on for quite a few years but I've never understood why they put a motorcycle badge on a pickup truck. Yamaha, for instance, has made some engines for Toyota, but you don't see a big Yamaha badge on the back of a Celica. Just a logo on the engine block, if that.

And as far as I'm aware, Harley-Davidson had nothing to do with the engine manufacturing process on the Ford pickups. Somehow I doubt that they're experts on cabin design, given that a motorcycle, by definition, does not have such a thing. In fact the only thing I can think of that is in common between a Harley motorcycle and a Harley-badged truck is how obnoxiously loud they both are.

Anyway, that is not what I intended on writing about today. After the truck had cut me off, it sped off with black smoke billowing from its exhaust pipe. The resulting cloud was so thick that I lost sight of the road, and when it all cleared up I found myself just outside of London, circa 1825.

It baffles me that cars are allowed to do this. The truck appeared to be no more than five years old, meaning here, in the 21st century, Ford is still producing steam locomotives. My 32-year-old Datsun 280Z doesn't spew out black smoke.

I don't know if this particular model employs a regular petrol engine or a diesel engine, but unless it's a diesel and therefore exempt, there is no way it would pass a smog check. I went on Wikipedia to find out, and was unable to find out. What I can say, though, is that the article should be flagged with the line, "This article is written like an advertisement."

But I digress. Perhaps the particular truck I saw is a diesel, and perhaps it is not. Regardless, I have seen many diesel pickup trucks followed by category-five size black cloud of chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. This, apparently, is legal. Diesels sold in Europe that get 60 miles per gallon, however, do not meet emissions regulations in California.

It is said that diesels wouldn't sell in California anyway, because people have embraced the hybrid. Incidentally, manufacturing a hybrid vehicle is more polluting that manufacturing a conventional vehicle. It has also been said that "eco" versions of existing models don't sell as well as hybrid-only models such as the Prius because they are not immediately obvious to be hybrids. The commoditization of hybrid as a social status, then, is why everyone wants one.

This, I believe, is precisely the reason why no one has made a hybrid minivan available in the United States. You would think that a people-carrier would be perfect for turning into a hybrid. It would allow more people to be transported, and they aren't driven fast or off-road (not that people take their Escalades off-roading either, or that they are even capable of being taken off-road). People don't get excited over the prospect of a minivan as they do with a sports car. It is a utilitarian vehicle.

Toyota makes an Estima Hybrid in Japan, so it's not like it can't be done for some reason. However, in the United States, the minivan has been long eclipsed by the SUV as the vehicle of choice for soccer moms and camping dads, so no one will buy them. And a diesel van? That would be doubly unattractive here.

Unsolicited Advice

Yahoo! is offering not five, not ten, but a hundred "tips" to save money. It seems they're really on a stretch though. Most are common sense and some are rather ridiculous. A couple of my favorites:

63. If you're knee-deep in credit card debt, get rid of all of the credit cards but one. Take that one and make it hard to impulse shop with — freeze it in a bowl of water in your freezer.
-The idea of a credit card sitting in the freezer is not one that I've considered before. I have a feeling, however, that a plastic credit card would float so it would do no good to freeze it. If you have a Centurion Card from American Express, though, it would sink to the bottom of the bowl so the idea could work. However I don't think you'd be knee-deep in credit card debt if you have a Centurion Card.

87. You can save money on car insurance by changing your profile. Improving your credit, getting married, moving to a better neighborhood, taking a defensive driving course or joining the right national and local organizations can lower your insurance.
-Why yes, which button can I press to improve my credit right away? While I'm at it I'm going to move to a better (read: more expensive) neighborhood. I need to save money though so all of you have to come help me move. First, though, I need to find someone so I can get married. Your sister is not doing anything this weekend right? Oh, and there will be no ceremony because money is tight.

Bank Error in Your Favor: Collect $29,000

In Monopoly, if you land on a "Chance" square and draw the card mentioned in the post title, you get $200, which is enough money to buy up New York Avenue.

These days, $200 won't buy you a whole street, in Atlantic City or otherwise. Nor, as it turns out, will $29,000. These days, someone is bound to notice the bank error and come after you to get the money back.

Which is exactly what has happened to someone in Indiana.

It would appear that someone typed a "3" instead of a decimal point, resulting in the worker being paid $29,387 instead of $29.87.

Notre Dame, the employer, claims the worker did not contact them about the money, and spent it knowing it did not lawfully belong to her. Fair enough. It is either true that
a) The worker did not contact them or
b) The worker did contact them, but the message did not get through.
It is most definitely inconceivable that
c) The message got through to the relevant department and was promptly ignored.

According to the school, the school demanded its money back in May after discovering the mistake, and the employee refused.
The defendant in the case claims that she contacted the school in April but did not hear back until June. Regardless of the cirucmstances, it is clear that one side is not telling the truth. Did the school contact the employee in May, or in June?

This is a rather important factor in assessing whether one side is being honest or not. However, it is irrelevant to the underlying problem behind this issue.

Let's get things straight, from the perspective of the worker.

In April, she receives $29,000 extra on her paycheck. She then allegedly called the catering department (which I imagine doesn't handle payroll, but it's where she worked so I guess it's reasonable) three times with no response. Let us, for a moment, disregard that at this point she should have tried contacting the accounting department. In June, she allegedly gets a threatening phone call from the school, demanding the money back. At this point, the worker had spent all of the money on a new car and some bills.

So let me get this clear, she notified the school saying, "you gave me $29,000 by mistake" three times, and then figured no one would ever find out about it?

Erm, right. That's a bit like sending a death threat to a police station with all of the personal information necessary to identify you as a potential murderer and not expecting them to be at your door in a couple of days.

It gets worse. According to court papers, the defendant says, "If this was a mistake it was their mistake... Now I am paying for their mistake."

Well, that's a bit... unapologetic, to say the least. Yes, the school made a mistake. However, unlawfully obtaining something does not make the item yours, regardless of whose fault it may be. I mean, the least she could say is, "I'm really sorry, can I sell the new car I bought with your money and pay you back whatever I can?" Catholics are supposed to be understanding people right? I'm sure Notre Dame would have had a more positive view of this worker if she had said that instead of "No, it's all your fault and I'm going to be the victim in this case and I'm not going to give you your money back."

I don't like the sue-happy culture of America, but some people...

Financial Advice

Have any Yen? Sell it very quickly. The new Minister of Banking and Postal Services in Japan is a blithering idiot.

---Edit 9/29/09---
I said this, but then the new Minister of Finance, who is another, different blithering idiot, said, "the government won't do anything to stop the Yen from trading higher." So everyone bought more Yen, and stocks plummeted.
He then said, a few hours later, "I changed my mind," and the Yen went back down a bit, but stocks stayed low.

Clinically Insane

Pentax has officially gone bonkers. While I applaud them for being insane enough to avoid the half-assed red camera that Panasonic did with the G1, this is the wrong hue of red and way too obnoxious.

Also available in a variety of other colors.

In God We Trust

I think bumper stickers in general serve little purpose other than to attract scorn and contempt from those that do not agree. Or crashes into the rear bumper from those that do not have good eyesight.

On this occasion, I was stopped at a traffic light when I came across the following:

"Everyone of the 50 states constitutions mention God"

Now, I'm sorry, but the only argument I can deduce from the above statement is that which mourns the failure of the American education system.

I mean, seriously, I wasn't even aware that one could possibly pack in so many grammatical mistakes in a single sentence, per word. With three mistakes in eight words, that would mean 37.5% of the sentence is incorrect. This, then, can hardly be considered English at all.

The sentence can be made gramatically correct as follows:

"Every one of the 50 states, 'constitutions mention God'"

In other words, there is a group of fifty people, and all of its members agree that in general, constitutions mention God. However, I have a feeling that this is not the intended message.

What the author intended to say, I imagine, is "Each of the 50 states' constitutions mentions God." The message, though, is still unclear.

Is this bumper sticker saying God exists because the state constitutions mention God? Or is it making a point that the word should be removed from all of the constitutions in order to achieve separation of church and state? Perhaps it is an observation with no intent of advocating anything. Like, "each of the 50 states' constitutions is a constitution" or "the wheels on the bus go round and round."

Ceci n'est pas un bumpre-stickre.

On Universal Healthcare

The General Healthcare and Pensions company, of which I am part-owner, makes some cars during its lunch breaks. Perhaps as part of Mr. Obama's push for universal health care, GHP is going to be offering its products for free for sixty days.

If you're an American taxpayer and you feel obligated to buy a GHP product, now is your chance to try one risk-free for sixty days! This way, you can get a feel for how lovely the current lineup is, and if you don't like it, you can bring it back for a refund. Support the country AND get a new car! What a great idea!

Or is it?

Sixty days is more than enough time for buyer's remorse. It's also enough time for the buyer to realize there are better options available, and certainly enough time for something to go wrong with the car.

In a recent episode of Top Gear, James May said of the Chevrolet Aveo, "the only reason you would buy this is because you haven't tried any others."

However, aesthetics and quality aside, there is a bigger issue that needs to be addressed. While this may seem like a free two-month car rental, it's a bit more complicated.

First, let's take a look at some of the restrictions that apply. The full purchase price plus sales tax will be refunded, but "the buyback price does not include any other taxes, licensing, titling or registration fees, insurance, accessories, dealer fees, extended warranties, finance charges, negative equity or any other expenses incurred by the customer at the time of taking delivery of the new vehicle." Fair enough, if they were to refund everything, then, well, everyone would be in line to rent a vehicle.

Presumably, the 4,000-mile limit is not important either. Simply return the car before it hits the mark.

However, the tricky bit follows. You obviously can't return a car if it has been in an accident. Nor is the customer responsible for "normal wear and tear." BUT, the vehicle becomes automatically ineligible if it has $200 or more worth of damage. A dealer's assessment of what constitutes $200 of damage would be something like a paint chip on the bumper from a small stone that hit the car while driving on the highway. Shopping cart hit you in the parking lot? You're out, regardless of how much you hate the car. I wonder if a flat tire constitutes "normal wear and tear." It would be tragic if any of this were to happen after the buyer decides to return the car for a refund.

What if the car acts typically GM-ish and the power seats stop working? Or the transmission decides to pack up? Certainly, such issues would be covered under warranty. But would that be $200+ in damages? That is to say, if you buy a lemon, can you return it? Or is this a clever plan to get rid of all the lemons?

Let us suppose that, for some extraordinary reason, you end up liking the Chevrolet Malibu that you've bought to try. Do you keep your car? Well, chances are, there will be quite a few people that didn't like the car, and returned them. It therefore follows that you should return yours too. Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't like it if no one else did, it's a simple matter of economics. The used car market is now saturated with the very car that you bought at the new price, only with about the same miles you've already put on it (i.e. no more than 4,000) and guaranteed to have less than $200 in damages.

I have a feeling the plan will either a) backfire badly or b) generate very little additional business because no one wants to take the risk of having to pay for registration and other fees. In fact, most of these promotion gimmicks fail to look at the long-term and they just result in bigger slumps when the promotion period ends. Either way, a waste of advertising costs.

Dear Mr. Obama, please use my tax dollars wisely.

Dream Car

I have a bad habit of purchasing things on a whim. This is why I have seven cameras at the moment and have had nineteen others in the past. I tell myself, "wow, the Leica M3 looks amazing. It's also an iconic camera, and they're not that expensive." And then I head over to eBay or KEH or whatever. Likewise, with the Canon F-1 or the Graflex Speed Graphic. I think I've run one or two rolls through the F-1. Mind you, all of them are amazing cameras. It's a shame that they sit on the bookshelf most of the time.

It's particularly bad when something is just within reach, because I'll think of eleventy twelve different reasons why I must buy the item in question. It's worse when something is just out of reach, because I'll tell myself, "I'll buy that when the price drops below $xxxx." And inevitably, it does, usually very quickly. This is how I ended up with a 1D Mark III ("I'll buy it when it drops under $3,000 for a good used one") and later a 5D Mark II ("I'll buy it when it drops under $2,500"). This is worse because it only necessitates one excuse.

This makes me sound terribly irresponsible, but in fact, I don't buy anything I can't afford, I've never been in debt, and while photography is an expensive hobby, if I were to sell my gear I could do so at minimal loss. Actually, that last bit doesn't help because I have a habit of buying things just to "try it out" and then "sell it if I don't like it." This is part of the reason why I have over twenty lenses that I "previously owned." Some were sold after legitimate upgrades and others because I bought them and ended up not using them, or bought them just to see what the fuss is.

When I said "things" in the first sentence, I meant "photography-related things." I've never decided that I "need" to have a fancy pair of shoes or a PlayStation or whatever it is that normal people claim a need to own. In fact the only time I buy new shoes are then the old ones fall apart and I've never owned a gaming console.

That is, until I convinced myself I need to buy a particular car. There is a Japanese comic called Wangan Midnight in which the protagonist is at a junkyard and comes across an S30 Fairlady Z with an L28 engine. As the story progresses, the car consumes much of his time and money as he works to restore, then to tune the car for street racing.

As it happens, I've found, in what is essentially a junkyard, a 1978 Datsun 280Z. Indeed, this is an S30 with an L28 2.8-liter straight-six engine. The same car appearing in abovementioned comic, although the exterior is not midnight blue.

There was much cajoling. "It runs, you see? And because it's Japanese it won't put up a fuss every time you start it up," said my inner voice. "Nor will it put up a fuss if you don't start it up for a while. Plus it's rear-wheel drive and it's got a proper manual gearbox. A perfect second car, and a damn cheap one too." But rational me thought, "yeah, but I'll have to pay a hefty sum to insure it, and it will need to be registered and pass smog inspections..." "Besides, parts are really cheap and there are very few parts that can go wrong, and they're mostly easy fixes anyway." So, a triumph of heart over brain. This doesn't happen very often, which is why I didn't talk to that girl over there.

So, a dream come true or my worst nightmare? We shall soon find out. Watch this space for updates.

iPwnd

I would like to start out by saying my iPod Touch has the short-term memory of a hamster.

That is not to say anything about its long-term memory; in fact it has yet to forget a song that I loaded on it. As far as mp3 players go, this is not particularly remarkable.

However, the demonic workings of Steve Jobs have ensured that it will not remember what it had previously been playing if I decide to make use of any of its other functionalities, such as web browsing, e-mail, or any of the applications. What is particularly odd is that the first-generation one, which I used to have, did not suffer from this issue. Instead it just crashed all the time, and then it would forget what it had been playing.

I like to shuffle through songs so I'm not listening to the same tracks every time the iPod decides to forget what it had been playing. The iPod will not have any of that, though. It plays the songs in a random order, but in the same random order. Every time.

This necessitates a press of the "Shuffle All" button on my car stereo. This action brings peace to the world.

That is, until the iPod decides it wants to play the same tracks as yesterday and the day before, just in a different order.

It also has a tendency to forget that it was playing in shuffle mode. This means it starts playing in order by artist.

I recently got a new computer, and because iTunes is designed to make humankind a more miserable species, importing the library from the old computer is more difficult than importing nuclear weapons from North Korea. In fact it is so difficult that I ended up resorting to third-party freeware, which easily accomplished the task Apple wants you to think is impossible.

In the import process, however, all of my play counts were lost. This, however, enabled me to find out just how much more frequently some songs were being played. It has been revealed that out of the 3,170 or so songs in my library,about half are yet unplayed since the migration. Of those that have been played, over 130 have been played at least three times, with a handful having been played as many as six times. I can't be bothered to find out if this is statistically significant, but it does seem rather high.

Sure, the screen is nice and because it's an iPod, it's compatible with all the accessories and aftermarket products out there.

Or is it? I have a USB cable that worked with the first generation model I had, but doesn't work with the second generation model because Apple changed some of the pins around.

I also have Bluetooth functionality, which magically became available when I upgraded the firmware. Imagine, a software upgrade that enables a new hardware feature. If Microsoft pulled that stunt, people would be up in arms crying foul. But because this is Apple, such gestures are welcomed with glee and celebration.

You can be sure my next mp3 player will not be an iPod. And it may not be long before I get a new one, because the iPod Touch has been terribly unreliable in my experience. On the first one I had, one of the two moving parts in the entire assembly (read: button) failed.

Irony

On Asian Girls

Today, I have an essay to share. I got this in a class back in college, during which we were randomly given papers written by other members in the class, and then told to edit them. I think the topic must have been open, although I can't recall what I chose as my subject. Anyway, in the paper, the (somewhat illegible) red writing is mine.

Also, never mind the factual accuracy of the "studies" mentioned in the first paragraph. As Wikipedia would say, ^{[citation needed]}.

I respect copyright but the author of this paper shall remain unknown, and would probably prefer it that way. However, if by chance you happen to be the person that wrote this paper, and you would like to see it credited to your name, by all means let me know. Your student ID number is on the paper, so just tell me what it is and I'll put your name on this.

It should be said, though, that better grammar is expected in an upper-division writing class at what is considered to be one of the "best" public universities in the United States.

Growth

Either all of my trousers have shrunk in the past week, or my legs have suddenly grown two inches. I'm going to pretend it's the latter.