Inverse Paradigm

This was the most asinine statement I have heard in a long time.

The discussion had to do with these bailouts and whether the car manufacturers were really willing to do whatever it takes to stay in business. Then someone brought up the Japanese economy and said that he expected them to fare better since their economy isn’t in the same state as ours. Then someone butted in with “…but we won that war against them.”

So let me get this straight.

The Japanese economy should be in shambles just like ours, and in fact in worse condition than ours, simply because we defeated them in WWII. That they might be better at managing money and not have poiticians who treat the finances of a nation with all of the self control of a mechanical bull set on high and not bolted down very well.

I guess we should expect the same of Germany since we defeated them and Spain and going all the way back to 1812 and 1776, England. So by this dubious logic we should be the financial masters of the world, sitting atop a sinking, crumbling mud-brick and quicksand structure made up of the crashing economies of former enemies.

Yep. Makes sense to me.

My watch was set to the wrong date. Today is Sunday 3/2. My watch said Sunday 3/3. This is because it did not count the leap day 29 Feb. I think it has to do with not counting years. The few watches I have had where I set a year didn’t have a problem with Leap Year. Oh well. It’s fixed now. I just wanted to post that for anyone who sees it and has one of these watches. This isn’t an unknown brand watch. It’s a Timex. One might expect a popular brand to have that factored in as opposed to a “knock off” brand.  So take a look.

I was at Fry’s Electronics Sunday in the camera area. A guy came through with his wife and daughter with the sales guy tagging along. They were looking at camera cases for his daughter’s fuchsia colored digital camera. The kid is like 9. Maybe she’s 12 and just little. Anyway he asks the sales guy for a case that will protect the camera in case his daughter, “…you know drops it…hurls it across the room…that sort of thing…” And instead of taking him down the street where he can purchase such a case along with other MIL-SPEC/TACTICAL gear the sales guy fixes him up with a case that will protect the camera if it falls about a foot.

Okay for the record. DO NOT drop cameras of ANY kind. I don’t care if it says something like “shock resistant” or whatever. I’ve done it. You won’t like it. Cameras have lots of moving parts. And those parts need to be free to do exactly what they were designed to do. So for anyone who is looking for such a protective case, just get the whole entire idea of dropping the camera as something to do and expect it to just keep ticking OUT. OF. YOUR. HEAD.

Thank you. This PSA is posted on behalf of all cameras out there, both digital and analog who don’t want to be in the shop.

For a while now I had been using a pair of Sony clip style headphones…the kind with the little colored face plates. Well interchangeable face plates are out of style these days. So I was in the headphone section and I saw these Panasonic RP-HV21Portable EarDrops Earbud Headphones (Black) and noticed from the packaging that they had a better range for frequency response (10hz – 25,000hz) than other more expensive headphones of the same class, including the iPod earbuds. Check the numbers yourself if you don’t believe me. I don’t like the earbuds that have the little interchangeable rubber tips. They aren’t comfortable and they work their way out of my ears eventually. Some brands have a tendency to fall out of my ears when I turn my head. These don’t do that. And at $9.99, I think they offer superior quality at a good price.

What I guess I have not posted here is that for the last week I have been dealing with a squeak. A short-burst high pitched sound that could either be a mouse or some low-battery chirp in some electronic device I have yet to uncover. The problem is that it is infrequent and I cannot figure out which thing is making the noise. So I spent Saturday cleaning, since we were under rains again, and I have not heard any scratching and have not found any droppings and there is no pissy odor that would indicate a mouse. I figure even if it is eating paper it has to take a crap at some point. I have a glue trap in one spot. I may need to set some more. The one bit of “evidence” that made me think it was a rodent was the fact that I set a normal trap, but put too much bait on it and in less than five minutes it tripped but nothing was caught. I thought at that point that I was dealing with a mouse pup that had wandered in here from somewhere. So the hunt continues. Maybe it’s a ghost rodent manifesting. Now to get a catnip seance going and a find a ghost kitty to chase it off. On another note there is a cute baby possum hanging around outside the house.

Whizbangblog.com is reporting the first stolen iPhone (H/T: belowthebeltway.com)

On a daily basis I carry a camera, an MP3 player, and a phone. That way if one goes down I still have the other two. I recently experienced this when my iPod got magnetized.

I figure the same goes for theft. If I happen to have a lapse in judgment and leave my cell out on the table at the restaurant, my camera and MP3 player should still be on my belt or in my bag or wherever.

Maybe it’s cool or sexy to have one mobile device that does everything. But if one of the components fails and stops the rest of the thing from working, you’re pretty much out of commission. So now your stuff’s in the shop and you’re trying to restore backups of contact and action lists and such to something else in the meantime.

Two years ago, there were reports of runners getting mugged for their iPods. Maybe that lessened after people started using earphones of other colors and doing a better job of concealing their stuff. But now Apple has a hot new expensive gadget in people’s hands, and the muggers are still out there.