Dark Side of the Carton

Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on in Florida right now? 2 stories today that make me want to never visit that state ever again. First, a Woman Becomes Quadruple Amputee After Giving Birth, and then a College Student is Jailed for 2 days after reporting a rape.

Earth to Florida, Doctors and Police are supposed to help people, not make their lives a living hell.

Masaaki Nagumo, an engineer at Japan’s machinery maker Sakakibara Kikai, has built an 11 foot tall 2 legged robot that he has named “Land Walker. The mech shuffles on feet with wheels as opposed to truly walking, but what it lacks in that department it makes up for with its side mounted guns. You can see a picture of it here or check out an older video on YouTube.

Source: Gizmodo

I saw this on Digg this morning and it was too funny to not post.

I don’t have a lot to say on each of these individually so I’m rolling them into a giant post-smorgisborg.

Challenging the First Amendment - I am appalled that any lawmaker would try to squeeze something like this through without considering the ramifications. Freedom of speech is what makes this country great. I don’t have to like what you are saying, but I fully support your right to say it. Limiting free speech in any capacity is a dangerous thing and should be halted at all costs.

The English Samurai - Props go out to the English Samurai who worked over a few armed thugs.

The Gift-Card Economy - My new favorite pair, Levitt and Dubner, posted a new article in the NYT talking about gift giving and the economics of giving gift cards. A very interesting read that will make you think twice about giving a gift card to your loved ones in the future.

Let’s face it, buying tires sucks. They are expensive and you get little to no benefit out of them. It’s not like you are going to go out and stare at them and think how awesome they are. You aren’t going to go around to your friends and say “Man, check out my awesome new tires”. Tires are an occasionally replaced item on your vehicle, which for most people gets you from point A to B and is not a source of pride.

My tires had to be replaced back in the spring of 2006 on my daily driver, as if I have some other car that is for special occasions, due to a nail or some other road debris. Sometime in the last 2 weeks I managed to run over a nice silver screw, often times the result of living in a neighborhood with new construction. The massive cold front and loads of sleet and ice must have altered the tire and pressure as the screw that was currently acting as a seal let all the air out of my tire. Knowing I didn’t have road hazard on these tires I tried to find a way to not have to shell out $60-80 for a new tire. Alas, it couldn’t be repaired and I had to purchase a new one.

Here’s where it gets tricky. I recently finished reading Freakonomics, which is a great book by the way, and so I’ve been doing a little lateral thinking and keeping my eye out for the incentive that drives people and businesses to do things. There are a few obvious incentives at play when purchasing when you find yourself in my situation. Discount Tire fixes flat tires for free. This is an obvious incentive for me to take my car/tire to them when it goes flat right? $0 to fix something sounds like I’m the one coming out ahead. The advantage shifts when that tire is unable to be fixed, as was the case for me.

Consider for a moment the decision for the tire tech to declare my tire “irreparable”. One one hand, if he fixes the tire I may come back when it’s time to buy tires again and he’s made a potential customer happy. On the other hand, if he doesn’t fix the tire he gets a sure fire sale today, not somewhere down the line. The latter choice may be good for him, but I may not be so happy and furthermore if I suspect the tire might possibly be able to be repaired I won’t just be unhappy I could downright be angry.

In my case, I knew the tire couldn’t be fixed, but I really had no other choice in the matter so I wasn’t angry when I was informed about the fate of the tire. My total cost? $25 for a $64 tire. How can that be? There was a wildcard that I hadn’t considered: Warranty. The tires, while not carrying roadhazard protection, were still under a manufacturer’s warranty that allowed me a prorated refund of the bad tire that covered all but $10 of the new tire with installation/rotation/stem costing extra of course. This of course turns into a win/win situation. Discount Tire got the sale immediately and I was happy that it only cost me $25 (ignoring the fact that it could have been $0 if it was able to be repaired since that magically slipped from my mind when I heard the savings I was getting).

So there you have it, my over-analysis of buying a new tire and how that will keep me as a Discount Tire customer for life. I guess in the end, the title of this post is a little misleading since the body almost seems to imply that I am being tricked into thinking I got a good deal when the reality is that the entire experience was downright pleasant and I’ve always been a Discount Tire customer. At any rate, I have $54 more in my pocket than I would have if the warranty didn’t exist, but $25 poorer than if the tire could be repaired. It’s a double edged sword I suppose.

An old coworker from Rackspace re-invited me to LinkedIn yesterday. I had signed up a long time ago, but didn’t realize the full potential of LI as a professional networking tool. I went a little hog wild building my network, but it is coming along nicely. I am networking with people I hadn’t previously known and building lots of contacts in the gaming world which is a great thing.

At the risk of giving away too much info about myself, you can check out my profile here. If you join, be sure to drop me an invite.

So Apple announced the iPhone yesterday and I have to admit that it is a very tempting device. It’s on the high side in the price department weighing in at $500, but what you get for that $500 should instigate a huge market shift. Previously $500 would get you part PDA, part crappy phone, and that’s about it. With this device Apple is raising the bar. $500 now gets you a top notch MP3 player in the form of a video iPod, a web browser, email client, an untested phone, and a portable OS X platform. I can’t wait to see how this thing performs as it could really force phone manufacturers back to the drawing board.

Everyone knows that Apple sells sleek, sexy, and ultra hip devices. Up until know, the sleek phone market has belonged to Motorola with their RAZR and SLVR devices. I’m not shelling out for one of these, but maybe someone will give one to me. Hey, we can dream can’t we?

Apple - iPhone - High Technology - Tech Specs

I live near Helotes, TX which just happens to have, correction had, a very large pile of mulch sitting off a back farm road for years. This pile of mulch is massive as seen here on Google Maps. At any rate, it caught fire on Christmas Day and has been burning since. On the 26th it was a glorious bonfire of epic size. Now it has been reduced to a smoldering pile of firewood that is generating large quantities of smoke that tend to blow straight at my house about a mile away. Last night it was so bad that we had to stay with my in-laws. The state has just stepped in to put out this massive fire as the town of Helotes only has a Volunteer FD.

Here’s a few pics and videos (video 1, video 2) of it taken by a few locals.

Here are a few more links about the fire:
Statesman.com
MySA.com

They announced on Monday that a plan to put it out was in motion but could take until Jan 24th to fully extinguish the fire. That would put it at a full month from start to end. I wonder what the long term health ramifications will be for people living in the area? Breathing smoke from a fire everyday for a month? This can’t be good.

After a long wait, I finally got my first email confirming that I am eligible for the free copy of Vista Business from the Power Together campaign that everyone claimed was not real. Here is a screenshot of the proof:

Edit: I just got an email confirming my Office 2007 eligibility too:

Previously known as iTV, Apple has launched Apple TV. This little wonder box is Apple’s attempt at competing for the all important living room media center role. Much like the Xbox 360, this little device will stream music, movies, and podcasts from any iTunes 7 equipped computer, Mac or PC.

The device is priced at $299 for the 40GB equipped version and it’s got a plethora of plugs in the back including: USB 2.0, Ethernet, HDMI, Component video, and analog and optical digital audio. Take note at the lack of composite/rca video outputs for those of you with older tv sets. At 7.7″ square and just 1.1″ tall, this is surely to disappear in any living room, but the sleek silver finish will make you want to show it off. Wireless geeks will also love the inclusion of 802.11 n/g for wireless streaming.

The price isn’t all that horrible all things considered, but a larger hard drive would have been nice as 40GB won’t store much video. The unit is slated for a February ship date so we’ll see how it performs once units are available. I’d personally love to have one in my home, but $299 is a little steep for me. You can see the unit and order your own here.