Fall-Line

Our last water bill came a couple of weeks ago. We where charged $341.62 for December and January. This, apparently, is what it costs to use an average of 311 gallons of water every day - ouch. Not only does this hurt financially, it’s also a tremendous waste of natural resources.

This was Friday evening, and I immediately phoned up a few plumbers looking for some help fast. Of the plumbers that I spoke to however, most couldn’t help me on the weekend. The one that could required me to first have a professional underground leek finder service out to pinpoint the leak - who couldn’t come out on the weekend. I suspected that the leak was in the front of the house near the old shutoff valve, which would explain the moisture I noticed a couple of months ago in the crawl space. With nothing else to do, I started to dig…

It turns out the hunch was right on. After about an hour of digging and clearing roots, I was still a ways away from clearing the pipe itself. I had however confirmed my suspicion that the leak was coming from the area around the valve. At this point, there still wasn’t much that I could do since the leak was coming from the shutoff valve itself. If I cut the pipe, I’ve got hundreds of gallons of water flowing out every few minutes.

I called up the surprisingly helpful folks at the Seattle Public Utilities looking for help. For a small fee they sent someone out to shutoff the water 6 feet underneath my sidewalk, down at the main line. Fortunately this was accomplished fairly easily and he was able to cut in a permanent and easy to operate shutoff valve just upstream of my water meter. Whit this in place I was able to shutoff the water to the house and stop the hemorrhaging for the night. The next day, I got to work.

Technorati Tags: Home Ownerhsip, plumbing

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There have been many blockbuster prizes offered recently to spur scientific ingenuity. Some of them like the tremendously successful X prize have helped the world realize that we as a people are capable of much more than public funding can pay for and standard motivation would suggest. Today came word that Sir Richard Branson has once again raised the bar, challenging the worlds top minds to address the very real problem of climate change.

LONDON (AP) — British tycoon Richard Branson dangled a $25 million prize before the world’s top scientists Friday seeking to spur research into devising ways to suck greenhouse gases out of the air.

Former Vice President Al Gore lent his support to the challenge, which came a week after a landmark report by the world’s leading climate scientists and government officials warned that global warming will continue, creating a far different planet in 100 years

This is only one small step in the overall battle to put right what we have for so long been making wrong. That’s saying something considering the twenty five million dollar sum. Still, it represents a much needed and, at least from me, appreciated effort.

Technorati Tags: Global warming, Richard Branson, Virgin Earth Prize

Charlie Brooker writes:

I hate Macs. I have always hated Macs. I hate people who use Macs. I even hate people who don’t use Macs but sometimes wish they did. Macs are glorified Fisher-Price activity centres for adults; computers for scaredy cats too nervous to learn how proper computers work; computers for people who earnestly believe in feng shui.

I completely disagree, but this made me laugh.

Rather than writing on and on about all the reasons I feel that Charlie is wrong, I enjoy sitting back and watching the Mac vs PC dirt fly. With the help of my macs, I’m a very satisfied computer user these days which is something I’ve never truly been able to say before.

I know very well that I’m not going to convince anyone of anything by adding to the fight, so I’m happy to just ignore most of it, and enjoy some of it.

Tags: Apple, Mac, Mac vs PC

After watching the fluctuations in airfare for the past few months and being repeatedly disappointed, I finally bought our tickets. Next month, Mrs. fall-line and I will be whisked away to London from Seattle where we will briefly explore before taking a fast train to Scotland.

I’ve been eagerly awaiting an opportunity to visit the land from which so much of my family history (and hair color) comes. This year we decided that enough is enough - we’re going!

Before buying the tickets this evening I was feeling kind of stressed out about the expense of airfare, hotel, car rental, train tickets, whisky and the like.. Now that the purchase has been made I can’t help but being somewhat overwhelmed with excitement.

Sure, it’s going to be expensive. After all, it’s been years since I’ve taken a trip overseas which was completely unsubsidized. Weather that subsidy came in the form of a fully expensed business trip or, as with our recent trip to Russia, we were provided with lodging, food and gifts by family members, it significantly reduced the out of pocket expense. This one will be entirely on our dime, but now that the ball is in motion, I’m totally OK with that. In fact, I wouldn’t want it any other way. While there, we will be completely on our own, free to do as we please.

As of now, we have very little idea what our itinerary will look like, outside of a basic skeleton. After visiting London, and the quick train ride to Edinburgh, we will rent hire a car and explore the Western Highlands. I’ll no doubt be spending a lot of time playing with the amazing google earth in the coming weeks plotting possible destinations. Distillery tours are a must, as are a few of the historical sites including those that I’ve got a family tie to. Other than that, we are just going to go with the opportunities that present themselves to us. Whatever we end up settling on, I’ll just be happy to be there.

Technorati Tags: Scotland, travel

Seth Godin has shared some very good insights on how to use Powerpoint (or Keynote) to deliver an effective and powerful presentation. I feel that his suggestions could have improved nearly every presentation I’ve witnessed or delivered in recent memory. I’ll certainly be rereading this article when it comes time for me to prepare my next deck.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/01/really_bad_powe.html

Technorati Tags: powerpoint, public speaking

Like many long time flickr users, I was upset yesterday afternoon when I received a mail from flickr saying my old login is gone (though to be fair, the accounts themselves are untouched) , and I now have to use a Yahoo account to login to the site. I’ve used Yahoo in the past (1998-1999) for e-mail, and I still use their Yahoo Groups services for managing a softball team. The truth is, I dislike their service immensely and would prefer to lead an entirely Yahoo free life.

I’ve had a great time using flickr these last couple of years. They began offering an extremely valuable service to their members when nobody else in the market could compete on features or ease of use. Meanwhile, the climate has changed and this forced account migration has really upset a large chunk of their old school user base. With this in mind, I’m considering switching online photo sharing services….but to what?

The biggest advantage of flickr as I see it, is the established community. I have 8 or 10 contacts on my account, all of which are people I know in the real world, and I’ve never even attempted to search for others. It’s been so easy to share photos with friends and family because of this, and I worry if I’ll be as successful at this with a lesser known alternative. I hate having to explain how to access a new site or service to someone, or worse yet, ask them to sign up for an account just to view something I’ve posted.

Here are the services that I’ll be evaluating in the coming weeks:

• flickr (I know it well, and except for the Yahoo meddling, love it)
• 23
• fotki
• zoomr (this one seems to have the largest and most supportive user base of the flickr alternatives)
• smugmug

I may very well decide that after all this to just suck it up, the Yahoo login isn’t as painful as I thought it would be, or that the other services just don’t offer what I need in a way that I’m comfortable with. I will certainly be paying for at least one of these services in the coming months to support my photo addiction hobby, I just don’t know which.

Of course, I welcome any suggestions based on your experiences with these or other services.

Technorati Tags: flickr, photo sharing

One of my favorite TV shows ever to come out of Great Britain was called the “Peep Show“. It featured a hilariously painful (you know, in that British TV way) dynamic between two bachelors living together, but leading completely separate lives.

It seems that others have paid attention to the brilliant pairing these two make while in character. Apple have recruited them to be the PC and Mac (as in, “Hi, I’m a PC..and I’m a Mac”) on televisions across the U.K.

Watch them here:
http://www.apple.com/uk/getamac/ads/

Technorati Tags: advertising, Apple, mac

This evening, Microsoft and vanishingpointgame.com appear to have thrown a party to celebrate the launch of the Vista operating system complete with fireworks over Lake Union in Seattle. Aparently there was also some text revealed in the firework display which served as the final clue in the vanishing point game. Microsoft and their partners are really getting creative with advertising and media exposure these days, sometimes with better results than others. As far as I can tell, it was a complete surprise to the city and people around Lake Union. Just after dusk I started hearing rumbling noises from outside the house in North Seattle but just thought it was a neighbor with is movie turned up too loud or something along those lines. When I got in the car to go pickup some food, I saw what was really going on.

Unfortunately for me, thousands of other people all over Seattle saw this display and where equally surprised. For an hour or so, the freeway and major streets with a view of the Lake Union area where clogged with gawkers staring skyward. It wasn’t until I got home and started searching that I finally figured out what it was all about. I found some indication of the true meaning of the shock and awe campaign through the flickr community, but still haven’t seen any news or other official reports of the event.

The photo seen here is credit of flickr user veo_.



From the little I got to see if it, it was a pretty nice display.

Technorati Tags: fireworks, Microsoft, Vista launch

The beer can is in for a technology makeover that will shake-up the beverage industry, and it’s being brought to you by a company called Tempra Technology, which has ambitious plans for their cold can technology.

The specially modified cans use proprietary engineering to create a temperature drop that will reduce the I.C. Can contents by a minimum of 30° Fahrenheit in just three minutes. When activated, the all natural desiccant contained within a vacuum draws the heat from the beverage through the evaporator into an insulated heat-sink container. It is this patented vacuum-power which lowers the temperature so dramatically and quickly, leaving the beverage inside cold.

The I.C. Technology is 100% safe non-toxic and environmentally benign (in otherwords, no CFCs or harsh chemicals), because the whole process is the driven by the simple physics of water evaporation. You twist the base which cracks a seal to a vacuum in the can’s base. This sucks creates condensation on the inside liner which is then sucked down into some silica (you know, the stuff in your camera bag) in the base, taking the heat with it.

The average American drinks 22 Gallons of beer annually, and even though this product would demand a large price premium over a traditional can, the convenience factor and bragging rights would make this a must have item. Camping and fishing will drive the initial sales, and as volumes increase more and more uses will be found.

Expect the first cans to show up on store shelves in mid-2007 under the Miller Genuine Draft and Miller Lite labels. These are two beers that I wouldn’t ordinarily purchase for a summer afternoon at home where I have one of those new fanged electric iceboxes. All that asside though, I would LOVE to have a non-toxic, self chilling can (or 6) for those hot summer afternoons at the lake, beach, golf course.. or wherever.

Found via NewTechSpy

Technorati Tags: beer, technology

This is one from the what the hell category. After reading this article, I imagine that anyone who has worked in a grocery store, food supplier or restaurant wouldn’t be terribly shocked to learn about this pilfering of animal flesh. To someone like myself though who has not had the privilege of such employment, this is a humorous surprise.
From Slate.com –

Every supermarket detective—or “loss-prevention specialist,” as many prefer to be called—has an offbeat meatlifting story to share. There’s the one about the lady who seemingly defied the laws of physics by stuffing an entire HoneyBaked Ham in her purse, the man discovered with a trove of filet mignons in his Jockey shorts, or the meth addict who explained that his dealer, exhibiting an atypical benevolent streak, had agreed to accept prime rib in lieu of cash.

Yet most shoppers who use the five-finger discount in the meat aisle are neither so brazen nor so desperate. Carts brimming with groceries, they’ll stealthily slide a single tenderloin or T-bone into a coat pocket, then hit the checkout line alongside their nonlarcenous peers. In this way, millions of pounds of beef, pork, and veal disappear from supermarket shelves each year. Meatlifting is a grave problem for food retailers: According to the Food Marketing Institute, meat was the most shoplifted item in America’s grocery stores in 2005. (It barely edged out analgesics and was a few percentage points ahead of razor blades and baby formula.)

…Story continues at Slate.com

Tags: crime, food