K-Squared Ramblings

Mumble

Approached in parking lot by someone who I thought at first said “Can I borrow mobile” [as in phone] but turned out to be “car wash something.” No, thanks. #

Why Las Vegas is a BAD idea for Comic-Con

It seems as though every year, around the time of hotel registration for Comic-Con International, people start clamoring for the con to move from San Diego to Las Vegas. More hotel rooms! A bigger convention center! Gambling! Strippers!

It makes me want to headdesk.

Now, I don’t hate Vegas. I’m not ZOMG in love with it, but I’ve been there more than once and I don’t think it should be removed from the face of the earth. What I believe about Vegas is that it is a law and a destination unto itself, and that everyone should be able to choose whether they go based on the merits of the place, not on the merits of what else might be going on there that isn’t a usual part of the location. Please keep this in mind as I present my list of Reasons Not to Move CCI to Las Vegas:

1. Weather. San Diego may be incredibly hot some years, but it’s coastal. There are breezes a lot of the time, and it’s often quite bearable. Vegas is inland desert and is 99% guaranteed to be nasty hot in July/August. Part of the crazy fun of CCI is seeing costumes on the street, which would become darn near impossible for a lot of people given the temperature.

2. Distance. I’m not talking about the distance for people to get there (though I will in a bit), but the distance between things. It can take over half an hour to get from the front door of one hotel to the front door of the next one over. In San Diego, it’s pretty easy to leave the convention center, go find food that’s not jacked up in price for an inferior product, and come back. In Vegas, unless you take the monorail, that’s a pipe dream, especially given that the convention center is off the Strip and not really near a lot of hotels. Keep reading for more. Read the rest of this entry »

B5, Kean Coffee, Flu and Chess

• Went to Kean Coffee (new place by founder of Diedrich). Very good. The place was packed. Starbucks never knew what to do w/that location. #
• Single-shot flu vaccines (instead of yearly) may be coming if this discovery pans out. (via @BadAstronomer) #
• JMS’s original notes for what became Babylon 5. #
• Listening to Chess. Only 1 year before Les Miserables, but sounds so much more dated because it was done in a 1980s pop rock style. #

iPod Thoughts

I accidentally left my iPod in my car a few days ago, in plain view, not realizing until shortly before lunch. I found myself considering what my options would be for replacing it if someone had stolen it (fortunately, it was sitting right where I left it), and thought of a couple of options:

iPod Classic. In essence, just upgrading to the current version of the same player. From what I can tell, Apple only sells one size these days, the 120GB model, for $250 — more or less what I paid for my 30 GB model two years ago.

iPod Touch. This would also give me web at wifi hotspots and all the apps from the iPhone marketplace. Downside: I’d have to spend $400 to get the 32GB model. And I already have a G1 with web and all the apps from the Android marketplace — and it works in wifi hotspots and on the cellular network. Also, I use my iPod a lot in the car, and a touchscreen isn’t the best interface if you can’t actually look at the controls.

Just use the G1 and get a bigger memory card for it. The G1 has a decent music player built in. The downsides: I’d need to remember to carry around the USB-to-headphone adapter. I’m not sure they make 32 GB micro-sd cards yet (and even the 16GB ones are expensive, plus they’d have to share with photos, app data, digital comics, etc.), so I’d have to pick and choose music. Also, I don’t think it reads AAC files, so I’d have to re-rip any CDs that I imported into iTunes. And of course re-purchase anything that was bought through iTunes. Then there’s the matter of rebuilding all the playlists… Never let it be said that Apple doesn’t take advantage of vendor lock-in.

Get a second-hand iPod. I can find a 30GB or bigger iPod Classic for close to $50 on eBay — comparable to a 16 GB microSD card.

If it came down to it, I’d probably end up going for the second-hand iPod. While the brand-new iPod Classic has its appeal, it would be hard to justify spending 5x the money when I’m not likely to use the extra capacity.

R.E. Sourceful

But what kind of resources do they manage?

Walking

• Today’s Amazon MP3 deal: 99 “relaxing” (classical) songs for $0.99. I figure if even 10 of them are good, it’s worth it #
• Trying to get back into habit of walking to lunch once/week. Of course, the weather picks today to heat up. I’m thinking maybe Jamba Juice. #
• Breeze really helps – when it’s not blowing past fields of mulch. #

Vote Earth?

Tomorrow night (March 28) is “Earth Hour” — a campaign to raise awareness of global warming by turning off your lights for one hour, from 8:30-9:00 PM local time.

It’s an interesting idea, but a weird one. For one thing, global warming seems an odd fit. Yeah, there’s a connection, but it seems more directly tied to pollution and simple conservation of finite resources. For another, it really reminds me of those campaigns to protest gasoline prices by not buying gas on a particular day, without changing your driving habits.

Then there’s the fact that it’s presented as a “global election between Earth and global warming.” Not only is this silly, it’s also the kind of black-and-white with-us-or-against us thinking that just polarizes people — and indeed there are a bunch of jackasses running around shouting about how they’re going to turn on every single light in their house during that hour just to piss off the “treehuggers.” (Apparently these people have money to burn even in this economy, and enjoy breathing smog.)

And of course, there’s the question of what to do with that hour.

Does it count if you leave the house? Chances are you’d be turning the lights off anyway.

How about non-electric lighting? A candlelit dinner, perhaps? You’re still consuming resources to produce light. A flashlight would have the same problem: you’re using power that was put into a battery.

So that cuts out things like reading, or playing cards, or board games.

TVs and computer monitors produce light. Music players use electricity. A stove uses either electricity or gas. If you turn off the lights and turn on the TV, that’s not really much of a savings, is it?

So really, you have one hour at home in the dark, at an hour earlier than you’re likely to sleep, and you can’t use anything with light or electricity. That really cuts back on available activities. You’re pretty much down to conversation. Maybe stargazing. A few other things that don’t require light.

Actually, I guess it would be an interesting experiment/reminder of what night is like without artificial lighting — sort of a voluntary power outage without candles and flashlights.

The more lasting impact will be to simply not waste energy. Turn off lights when you’re not using them. Turn off your computer when you’re not using it (or at least put it to sleep). Unplug appliances that have standby modes when you’re out of town. Don’t run your heater or air conditioner when you’re not home, unless you’ve got it on a timer to get the place ready for when you arrive.

You’ll save money on your electric bill. The power company will use less fuel. They’ll pump out less pollution, and reserves will last longer. Everyone wins.

(Found while surfing Blogexplosion.)

San Diego: Enlarge Your Convention Center

San Diego is getting worried about the size of their convention center #

Teriyaki Hamburger Sandwiches!

All right! I love teriyaki hamburger sandwiches! (No, seriously, I do. Red Robin’s teriyaki burger, Ruby’s Aloha Burger, and so forth are standbys for me.)

Sadly, I don’t think that’s what they’ll actually serve here.

Line Items for 2009-03-25

• Getting really tired of Firefox 3.1 beta 3 crashing constantly. Beta 2 was rock solid. #
• Impressed w/ updated WordPress Mobile Edition. Handles both low-end and high-end (iPhone, Android) devices. Dropped WPTouch for now. #
• RT @neilhimself: The 3D screens CORALINE got back after the Jonas Bros 3D movie tanked all go to Monsters V Aliens on Friday. 2 days left. #

Shop Savvier

Android Community reports that ShopSavvy will soon be getting real-time inventory data from local stores. This will be very nice, as I’ve run into the occasional issue where things didn’t quite line up.

ShopSavvy is an app for Android phones that uses the camera to scan product barcodes, then looks up pricing from local and online stores. You can also do a text search if you don’t have a package handy.

Two failures I can think of were:

Outdated Sale Price. I wanted to pick up the Pushing Daisies DVD set. ShopSavvy told me that Circuit City (this was before the liquidation) had it for something like $18. I got there and they wanted something closer to $30. I forget whether it was a sale price that had just ended or whether it was only some locations that had the cheaper price.

Web/In-Store Discrepancies. After dithering for a year, I finally decided to get a new printer this weekend. (Okay, the old one stopped working.) I found a decent price/feature combo on TigerDirect, then found a much better price for the same printer on Amazon, but I didn’t want to wait two weeks for delivery or spend an extra $20+ for faster shipping. So I looked it up on ShopSavvy, which told me that MicroCenter and Costco both had it for just eight dollars more than Amazon.

I looked up the printer on MicroCenter’s website, which claimed it was in stock at the local store. But it also claimed it was refurbished. I went to the store, found the display model on the shelp, saw the price I expected (with an “As advertised!” note), and no mention of it being a price for a refurbished model. Then it turned out that they didn’t have any in stock.

So I hit Costco. As near as I can tell, they only sell the printer through their website, but ShopSavvy listed it under local. As long as I was there I looked at the printers they did have, but nothing matched the specs I was looking for. (Small mono laserjet with built-in network, preferably wifi, for less than $150.) Finally I just ordered it through Amazon, who in a fit of amazingness shipped it immediately, and say it should arrive tomorrow.

In this case it would probably still have failed with MicroCenter, since their website had the wrong info (or else someone bought the last one in the time it took me to drive there), but I would at least have known there was no point in looking at Costco.

G1 photo by spdorsey

Obsolete

Obsolete, originally uploaded by Kelson.

Found this 3.5″ floppy disk on the ground while exploring a section of disused railroad track running through an industrial park.

Fluttered By

Just discovered Butterfly Boucher is doing a show in LA at the Troubador tonight (with Ten Out of Tenn). Sadly, it’s too late to plan on going. #

I Read it for the Articles!

There’s something odd about this offer for magazine subscriptions.

They just don’t seem like a good fit for a student and teacher discount. Newsweek maybe, but…Maxim? Cosmo? Playboy?

Line Items for 2009-03-23

• Stopped @ Costco to look for printer. Didn’t have what I wanted. Looked for other stuff, came up w/ a box of gum. Not worth standing in line #
• In the spamtrap I found a message from “Elvira” is telling me “It’s awful.” Now waiting for “Tom” and “Crow” to tell me “It’s terrible.” #