Here is a little fun-fact. As of a few months ago, there were more cellphones than people in the United States. Millions more, in fact. The trend is the same for all Western countries, but let’s take a look at the US numbers specifically…roughly 311,000,000 people and 328,000,000 cell phones (per wikipedia…take that for what it is.) Guess what they all have in common? The ability to tell time. Sorry watchmakers…you are fighting a battle of epic proportions. Fortunately for the watch guys, they have style on their side…like this good-looking piece: Seiko watches provide a great example, or counterpoint per se, of why watches are still as relevant as ever. A watch of this quality both works great and looks awesome. Win / Win. Another great thing for the watchmakers’ collective arsenal is the fact that the consumer now has purchasing power on their sides. Online watch shops like BlueDial beat the brick and mortar shops on price… embarrassingly so for the most part. Case in point: Free shipping to boot…free two day shipping in fact. Unless you decide to go with a very fancy cell phone holster…thinking something colored with some bedazzled beads…you are likely to get better style points by going with the watch route. You’ll thank me later.

A while back, I put together a project that added remote control via an Android. I broke out the leads to the DC motors that were existent, and left the structure largely intact…resulting in a monster of a build. I would like to clean the build up a bit, but to do so will need to go with a different approach. I am looking into gutting the existing components entirely, and implementing continuous drive servos as my powertrain. This will likely get messy. Servo motors will add big gains in the power consumption realm, and provide added control. I am not looking for speed, so I think this option might work out well. Stay tuned…

New hobby: applied chemistry Alright Mr. Beer…it is you and I. Game on.

PDF files have all sorts of great implementations. When security is a concern, it is pretty much a standard in the software industry to go with PDF…as much as I love a plain text file, sometimes they just don’t cut it. External facing documentations? Think PDF. The downside of the standard comes in the conversion factor. Doing business on different levels undoubtedly will end up with different departments using different file types. Standardizing via pdf will end up involving pulling a full gambit of extensions into the desired form. It can get messy. I recently stumbled across a solution that I am glad to see exists…namely, a pdf to word converter. No joke…it took me by surprise to see that it is easily handled. Quick-PDF (as the name implies) provides a solution that can do PDF to Word Converter easily. I have struggled in the past to find a way to drop PDFs into .doc files, .rtf files, etc. on Windows machines. Not anymore. They have even worked in a command line mode…which, needless to say, really pleases a *nix guy like me. High quality to boot. I’m a big fan. I’m glad to report that I will no longer be maintaining my docs in multiple formats. +1 efficient.

1) Reduced overhead expenses 2) Environmentally friendly 3) Ample pretzel storage

Now with more baby…

Mr. Beer. That name again is Mr. Beer I bit on the Mr. Beer home-brewing kit last woot-off. Much to my dismay, the kit arrived in a giant brown cardboard box, with a sizable puncture would in the side. Opening it verified the damage: The brewing container was smashed inward, and the plastic was too thick to pop back into shape. I tried contacting FedEx, as the damage was definitely done in shipping. As it turns out, after creating an account with FedEx | submitting a claim ticket | waiting | waiting, FedEx has you contact the sender when the item is shipped via “Smartpost.” Whatever that entails. Not very helpful…just a reply email sending me back at woot. I was sort of pissy, and ended up forwarding the email from Fedex to the primary woot returns email. Details are as follow:

I’m very sorry about that. We’ll get a replacement sent to you and have our crack team of commandos that make the Expendables look like babies go after them. No need to return the damaged one to us. Riley ——————- Original Message ——————- From: SWANIACHI Sent: 02/01/2012 To: RMA; RMA Woot; RMA@woot.com Subject: damaged shipment from woot (MRS), case # W-1030992-R925 Passing the buck… ———- Forwarded message ———- From: SPCustomerSupport Date: Wed, Feb 1, 2012 at 7:45 AM Subject: Re: damaged shipment from woot (MRS) To: Joseph Swanson Good Morning, Thank you for your recent inquiry. We have received your request, however when packages are lost or damaged, only the party directly paying the shipping charges to FedEx SmartPost may file a claim. Please contact the Shipper with your information so they may file a claim. We apologize for any inconvenience. Thank you, FedEx SmartPost Customer Support —– Original Message —– From: Joseph Swanson Date: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 9:02 pm Subject: damaged shipment from woot To: SPCustomerSupport@fedex.com > In regards to Smartpost tracking #02927009713120839115… > > I received a package from woot.com today (1/31) that was damaged by > something en route to my front stairs, likely a forklift tine. > > I recognize that mistakes are made, accidents happen, etc., but it so > happens that the damaged item is a Mr. Beer home-brew kit. The (assumed > forklift) did quite a number on the brewing vessel in particular, and > the > plastic used is not well-suited for popping back into shape. The reduced > volume caused by the damage render the vat unable to accommodate a full > batch of beer, which is the end goal. It turns out that our baby daughter > is angrier that first assumed…half batches may not cut it. > > Kind regards, > > J. Swanson > Awesome support, Woot. FedEx should take note. FedEx should also teach their forklift drivers how to drive forklifts, but that is another topic entirely. You will continue to receive my business…well done. I owe you a (Mr.) beer.

Consider the following set: S = [ outsourcing, crowdsourcing, trialsourcing ] You probably have heard of the first two elements of set S. Each of the first has merit, and each has its drawbacks. Whereas one gives you a desired quality at the cost of time, the other gives you a desired timeline, at the cost of quality control. The third item, trialsourcing, bridges the gap. I stumbled across a company called vWorker that has come up with a truly novel idea. Their solution is On the job trial: crowdsourcing, trialsourcing. The principle idea at the heart of the approach a project by letting potential employees provide actual code, for both small (crowdsourcing) efforts and larger (trialsourceing) implementations. It effectively takes the guessing game out of the equations, allowing the person issuing the contract to have confidence in the quality of the contractor’s work. Hit one of the links to take a look. It is very novel.

Samsung kills it when it comes to hardware…Galaxy S 2 is high on my list, and I’m fairly certain I will end up snagging a Galaxy Tab at some point. Turns out Samsung makes one hell of a baby monitor too… Only the best for the nerd princess…

Cranky baby. Not a whole bunch of sleep. Shifted sense of humor, or some sort of tiredness induced insanity. Either I have completely blasted past any sort of touch with reality, or this is really funny… A bit of a side note. I was poking around for some new frames, started looking at some online prescription frames, and got fully side tracked. Somehow looking at basic options found me checking out [link removed], and ultimately dropping a pair of V-Day glasses on top of a sweet robot jpeg. One must admit, the frames are both completely conducive towards Valentine’s day cheer, and for robotic…oh I don’t know…something. Zenni kills it, regardless of the style. Take a quick look at the source of the image… I think they would look equally amazing on a human. Preferably a female human. Tired stupor aside, it is very amazing how far the internet has brought certain industries into the hands of the consumer. Glasses provide a terrific point. I have purchased three sets of frames from Zenni, and can say with a great deal of certainty, that my time in a brick and mortar spectacle shop are done. Have prescription, will go. Anyhow…sorry about the tired ramble post. It still cracks me up though…