I Couldn't Find A Men's Space.

I let handicapped spots slide, based on those few times I've actually seen someone that needed a closer parking space use them.  (WTF is up with all these people that get handicapped tags but are not hobbling into the store?)  And I occasionally feel bad when I think of parking in one of those "mothers to be" reserved parking spaces.  (Lets face it, its their own damn fault that they're in that condition to begin with.)

But I'm pretty sure my head will explode if I ever see a "women only" parking space.  I mean, no I don't feel unsafe in parking lots (except that one by the Food Lion and Radioshack, you know which one I'm talking about) and don't think I need to be under video surveillance to help protect me.  But if you can make some spots safer, why not make them all safer?  If you paint a bunch of spaces pink, you're basically highlighting the places where the criminals should assault their victims.

So obviously I don't fault the men of Bern for parking in these suggested chivalry zones.  But I do wonder what creative steps garages might take to shame them out of the habit.

• Jalopnik: No Men Allowed! Swiss Create Pink Parking Spaces

Thank You, Comeagain.

Alright, I'll have to admit when I first heard about the Simpsons' movie I thought it was a joke.  I'm not sure why; plenty of other shows have gone on to the big screen.  South Park, X-files, Firefly, The Brady Bunch... wait there must be a site about this.  Anyway I'm coming to grips with the fact that its going down, and I think this will help: they're changing several 7-11s into Kwik-E-Marts as a promotion.  I hope they go all out and don't just drape a lame banner over the sign.  That's right, I want fine hand ticking on the Apu name tag, an expired meat bin, and a Ganesh statue in the "employee lounge".

• Best Week Ever: Kwik-E-Mart, Coming To A 7-Eleven Near You!

Did You Read The Whole Thing?

Right on the heels of that multitasking article where I basically accuse you of having ADHD, I also applaud you for reading news on the net.  Cause while, some aspects of computers seem to reduce users' attention spans, online news readers actually tend to finish articles they start.  At least moreso compared to their inky handed counterparts.

A study tracked readers' eye movements for 30 days as they read news for 15 minutes from online periodicals, print newspapers, or print tabloids.  They found that online readers tended to read 15% more than print readers.  And a full 2/3 of online readers actually finished the whole article.

Techdirt lays this all on the "continued on page 14" truncation that tends to happen in print, and while I think that's a part of it I can't help but ponder other reasons for the disparity.  It might be that online articles are shorter, or aren't written at that insulting 10th grade level (mine are usually just insulting), or there's maybe more information.  But I'd like to attribute it to targeted content; at least that's what I glean from "Just 25% of print readers are scanners, who scan the entire page first, then choose a story to read."  If you just started reading things as they are presented to you (by an editor or general aggregator  that tries to meet the need of every reader) you'll naturally run across quite a few articles that you, quite honestly, don't give a rat's ass about.  So I think its our learned behavior of actively searching for information on the Internet that accounts for the difference.  Its a naturally interactive experience, rather than having something (literally) brought to you in print.

Take that one step further and don't just read through the pages of a single online periodical.  RSS that noise.  If you're scanning an RSS reader, you've personally selected the sources that contribute to it because they tend to post things that interest you.  If you get through scanning the headline and want more, chances are you'll want to finish the article.  Targeted content baby, its like a rodeo clown with a pooper-scooper; without it there's just a bunch of bullshit.

• TechDirt: Shocking News: Online Readers Actually Have An Attention Span

Ribbon Snipped In Valencia.

With racing just under a week away, things are gearing up in Spain.  When the Swiss team announced that Valencia would be the locale for defending the America's Cup in 2007 the city sprang into action to develop a world class facility to host the event.  Billed as the greatest sailing stadium in the world, Port America's Cup (I'm still not sold on the name) boasts three marinas, 12 team bases, an International Broadcast Center, a Media Center, along with the AC Park, and a landmark building.  Add in public entertainment areas, restaurants, bars, café, exhibitions and Marina offering 636 berths and you've got a a pretty rocking party.  Lets hope we can get ample coverage from my side of the pond.

• Yachting World: Port America's Cup Handed Over

Photo Amble.

I wonder if I'll eventually feel less skeezy about walking around with no particular goal just taking pictures of random stuff.

Whiners.

I warned you guys that I was gonna spread the word about how you deliver poorly designed, costly, and ultimately unusable equipment.  And now, all because of me, Massachusetts has chosen AutoMark over Diebold as their evoting supplier.  Nice work guys, stick it to those son-of-bitches.

But don't break out the party hats and vodka-redbulls yet, cause Diebold thinks they have one more trick up their sleeve.  They're suing Massachusetts over the Secretary Of State's decision.  Its a little confusing to me, because they don't seem to be running with any accusations of kickbacks or wrongdoing, just that they think the state made the wrong decision.  Their "proof" lies in the contracts that they've bested AutoMark for in various other states.  You know, all those places that basically got screwed by faulty hardware, shoddy code, inadequate security, reprehensible customer support that refuses to fix or acknowledge problems, and obstructed investigations under the guise of protecting trade secrets.

And even putting all those customer relations fiascos aside, Massachusetts actually did user testing with the disabled population that would be employing the machines.  And they liked AutoMark better, straight up.  The only claim I can possibly see Diebold having is if Masachusetts took the surveys on Diebold machines, then they might have a case for voter fraud or machine error.

Watch out Diebold or you're going to make the list, whoops, too late.

• Engadget: Diebold cries "Do-over"
• TechDirt: Diebold insists its machines are so good, It must be illegal to use another
  

Devious.

Whew, hang on to your socks for some late Cold War subdued aggression goodness.  Unless you're not into huge nations squabbling to the detriment of the overall human achievement...

The year is 1982 and the CIA has been receiving reports about the KGB's vast network of industrial spies that have been siphoning information from America's technical achievements.  The agency has taken measures to falsify development of fictitious programs and imaginary inventions in hopes of poisoning the Russian's stolen information stream.  And it is working; there are numerous CCR industries that just couldn't get American technology off the ground, from aircraft to machine parts to chemical tech.

But word filters through about a Russian desire for pipeline automation software that the US government has officially denied them access to.  So when KGB agents pilfer the code from a firm in Canada, they are blissfully unaware of the CIA trojan sleeping deep in the lines.  The pipeline is built and is operational for a few months when the subroutine springs into action.

The controls are set to over-capacity pressure and after enough joints and welds are compromised, the pipeline ruptures in a three kiloton blast.  Sensors at NORAD spike indicating a nuclear test, but no launch trajectory is conformed.  The CIA calmly tells various arms of the defense department not to worry about it, but the records remain classified, and the explosion a mystery, for 14 years until 1996.

More details:

• Damn Interesting: The Farewell Dossier

Fakers.

Well, well.  Looks like all those kids with their "multi-tasking" were just blowing smoke up your ass.  Turns out they're just easily distracted.  I know that shifting focus quickly between a couple tasks can be helpful, but there comes a point where it can become a problem.  And of course there are different definitions of multitasking, be it just thinking about a problem while completing a less demanding task like tying you shoes, talking on the phone while driving, or watching TV and holding a conversation.  In each of these cases there's a debate over whether you're actually splitting your attention or applying your full consciousness for short intervals.

We've gotten this stigma where multitasking has somehow become automatically attractive or efficient, but that's not always the case.  Are all these tasks really so trivial that they couldn't be done better or faster with your full attention?  In the age of diagnosing and treating kids with ADD at the drop of a hat, why not de-incentivise promiscuous attention?  We should teach kids how to prioritize and complete something before encouraging them to throw their already limited attention to the winds.

• TechDirt: Kids Don't Multitask as Well As They'd Like You to Think

Place Your Bets.

With the Louis Vuitton Cup only about a week away, its getting awful wagery in here. The betting started against Alinghi at the outset, silly punters, but the odds swung around as Alinghi laid out the smack on Team NZ. I'm pretty sure I already blew any gambling money I had on that $80 shirt a while ago.

• Sailworld: Team NZ Bookies Favourite

Lady Killer Invasion.

Well, I saw my first ladybug of the year, folks. You know what that means. Its time to begin the vigil again and save the world from coccinellidae revolution. Sure you laugh now, but lets see you laugh when you have 7 ladybug assassins sent to dispatch you while you sleep.

And just cause I know you're wondering, yes it was very nerve wracking to get close enough to take this picture. I don't have a telephoto lens yet.

Walkin On Liquor.

.
6oz of whatever you want in the soles of your sandals.  Its gonna be a good week.

• Thrillist: Sip Flops

Normal Is As Normal Does.

This cute little son-of-a-bitch is called a bilby.  No, its not a photoshop or a rat on his way to a costume party.  They don't have rabbits in Australia, so this is what comes hopping around on Easter morning with a basket full of candy to bribe the kiddos.  I'm not really sure how I got subverted into thinking that chocolate rabbits are somehow normal or acceptable, but this thing looks weird.

• Wikipedia: Bilby
• TreeHugger: Get Hopping
  

Still Good, Thanks.

Remember that article about the creepy glass walkway that was being built over the Grand Canyon?  Well its been inaugurated and is all set for public consumption on March 28th.  Only six days!  What a perfect number.  I'm not booking plane tickets or anything but if you do decide to blow 25 bucks on this make sure you go early, before years of poor maintenance and unexpected harmonics compromise the structure.  Lets start the "something terrible's bound to happen" clock.  And take some nice pictures.  The BBC isn't planning on going either:

Are you planning to visit the platform? Send us your comments. If you take any pictures of the view you can send them to yourpics@bbc.co.uk.

 

• BBC: Grand Canyon Glass Skywalk Opens

Those Pants Are Painted On.

NewScientist has a bit about upcoming technologies and one from the 19th was "auto-snug" clothing.  The idea is that clothes would be made of tiny muscle wires that can change length when a current is passed through them.  Think Back To The Future 2 when Marty impersonates his son and the jacket auto sizes for him.  So you'd have clothes that, while they weren't made just for you, fit like they were.  Kinda interesting, but I can see several problems with this. 

1) I have no issue with the way pretty much all pants with my numbers fit.  I don't need them any snugger.

2) Lets assume we're talking more fitted than the length by width size scheme that's already in place.  We're talking about a suit or basically any article of women's clothing. (I love not having to buy women's clothes)  How do the pants, or whatever sizing mechanism they use know what size to make the clothes?  Do bring your size on a data card from store to store?  Would you have someone encode your measurements on said card?  What if they change?

3) You've got to figure out how to make this less expensive than taking traditional clothes to be altered.  I'm gonna guess right now its not close.

4) Can someone figure out how to unsnug clothes once you're out of the store?  I dunno, some kind of microwave or other wireless signal to freak out the muscle fibers.  And before you say no one would do that, stop.  I would.

• NewScientistTech: Auto-snug clothing

Where'd You Get That?

Here's an interesting concept.  Marking products to identify how they got to the store.  I feel like "air freighted" would have been a plus a few years ago, a mark of distinction and rarity.  That's not the purpose of this exercise though.  Its meant to make consumers aware of the efforts, expenditures and waste that goes into just getting stuff to you.  In this case its just marking food, cause I'm pretty sure every non-perishable item for sale in the US has had some percent flown somewhere.  And while keeping this in mind for those kinds of merchandise is good too, buying local food makes sense on lots of levels.  Supporting local industry, reducing transportation costs and emissions, eliminating packaging.  Oh, and its better food too.

• Treehugger: Can't see the Goods For all the labels

Perfect Guess.

I forget why but I told this story at a family gathering recently.

It was during the first few weeks of my time at a new school.  I'd transfered in the middle of spring, 7th grade.  I was sitting in the back of math class not paying attention for some reason.  Maybe Tom and I were stabbing each other with mechanical pencils to see who would make a noise first and get caught.  Or maybe Joe was farting and blaming it on me, and I was busy giving him a "what the fuck is wrong with you" look.  Doesn't really matter, point is there was that background dim of a 7th grade math teacher droning on about something or other.  Its amazing how your name cuts through a room, slices your brain and pulls your attention out.  Yes, the teacher had called on me.  "Give me an example of a perfect number".  She knew I hadn't been listening and she was about to make an example out of me.  I immediately responded "Six." with a conviction that surprised even myself.  I had no idea what constituted a perfect number, or even heard of the concept before, but I'd always liked six.  So concise, so streamlined, so obviously perfect.  She looked at me for a second and said "very good" and turned back to the board to continue with the lesson.

Well, hell, that was lucky.  It peaked my interest enough to listen and try to figure out why my answer was right before going back to my fart denials, or whatever.  But it wasn't really that easy to figure out cause she was on to the next topic and I could only glean so much before she erased the board to make more space.  I surmised that a perfect number is an integer that is divisible by both even and odd numbers.

Wrong.

My Sister-in-law sent me this yesterday:

A perfect number is defined as an integer which is the sum of its proper positive divisors, that is, the sum of the positive divisors not including the number. Equivalently, a perfect number is a number that is half the sum of all of its positive divisors, or σ(n) = 2 n. The first perfect number is 6, because 1, 2 and 3 are its proper positive divisors and 1 + 2 + 3 = 6. The next perfect number is 28 = 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14. The next perfect numbers are 496 and 8128.

• Wikipedia: perfect number

Suck on that Ms. Weinberger.  I didn't know then and I apparently still don't know what a perfect number is.  And apparently I got much luckier than I thought, cause perfect numbers by my definition are way more common.  There's no way I'd pull 496 or 8128 out of my ass.

Toyger?

Hmm...  Yes I spose if I were to own a cat it would be cool to have a tiny tiger running around my house.  But the name 'toyger' is just unpalatable to me.  People would assume either that I have a speech impediment, or that I'm from Holland.  I mean, even if labradoodles weren't stupid I couldn't get one.  Cause then I'd have to admit to people that "yes, he's a labradoodle" and that's just not something I think I could do. 

Oh, also, there's an International Cat Association?  (TICA, because they include The in their acronym, which I'm just going to leave at that)  I can only imagine what those specimens look like at their annual meeting...

• NGS: "Toygers" vs Tigers

Wash Label Cipher.

My dad sent me this one. There's a small clothing company in Washington state that produces apparel that's sold in France. As a result the care instructions appear in English and French. But the French readers out there get a little bonus, the last two lines aren't included in the English section:
Nous sommes desoles que notre president soit un idiot.
Nous n'avons pas vote pour lui.

Translates to:
We are sorry that our president is an idiot.
We didn't vote for him.

• About.com: Anti-bush Clothing

Snap.

Well, I pulled the trigger (or maybe I should say shutter release) on a new camera.  I've been thinking about it for a while now.  You may recall that I was debating buying a camera or a TV the year before I bought my TV.  Anyway, I did my taxes this week and decided it was time to get all up ons with a DSLR.  For those of you who don't know, that means 'fancy camera box'.  I went into the project thinking that I'd just spend my tax refund on it, but that's not gonna cut it.  Although it is cheaper than my TV was.  So far.  See, I went for the XTi kit which is the body with a 18-55mm lens included (so I don't have to shop around right away) for about a benjamin more.  All the reviews said it was an ok lens, worth about the hundred, but you get what you pay for.  So I will eventually want to get another lens, which at 300-500 for a reasonable one will boost me up beyond flat TV range.  But I figure I'll feel better about myself going out and taking pictures than sitting around watching movies.

Anyway, I hope to share a few nicer shots here once in a while, but don't worry, I'll still thrown down the angry diatribe now and then too.  It won't be a camera blag.  (Oh btw if you're lookin for a camera blag, DPS seems pretty cool.  I'm gonna look to do their weekly assignments if I can.  The first rule of photography club is 'don't talk about photography club')

Speaking of angry... I checked out my Picasa Web Albums the other day (clearing out space for all the great pictures I'm gonna have) and I noticed a new unlisted album called Daily Placebo.  It was a listing of all the images I'd uploaded to Blogger's servers since December.  There weren't an excessive amount cause I've been slacking a bit in the visual aid department, but there were about 50.  I did a little checking around and found this entry over at Blogger explaining what's up. They're commingling services so its easier to keep track of images you have hosted online.  Which is true, it was always tricky keeping track or managing uploaded content.  But I also see that they detract from the (granted, recently expanded) free space your account is allowed at Picasa Web.  And they're working to transfer all the images I've ever uploaded to Blogger into that account.  Whoa there boys.  I always liked that you could upload whatever to Blogger and have it hosted in perpetuity with no discernible limits.  I'm not really chomping at the bit to pay 25 bucks a year to host the trivial pictures that sometimes accompany posts on DP.  And I'm pretty afraid I'll fill up that 1 Gig of free space right quick.  I mean, I just bough a 2 Gig card and I think I may need another.

So I guess I'm not really angry, just surprised.  It would have been nice if they'd provided this as an opt-in kinda program.  I know that it'll take a while for 2k images to overtake my gig of free storage, but I'm a disk space scrooge.  ( Just picture me diving into a money vault of free disk space.  Oh man, I need to buy some Duck Tales)  I think its also a little off putting that I have three times the space for email as I do for pictures and I know for a fact I can shoot a gig of pictures in about three hours.

Did You Know That Amazon.com Sells Bats?

I did not. Did you? More importantly, do I care that Amazon sells bats? No. No I don't.

Can't Keep A Good Liver Down.

The liver is the earthworm of human organs.  Slice it in two and it'll grow into two livers that work as well as the first.  Well, you've got to start off with a very healthy liver in the first place, and you've gotta make a transplant to give the thing somewhere to live, but its still pretty cool.  I'd never heard of split liver transplants till I read this story from the AP.  A 21 year-old in dire need of a liver transplant allowed surgeons to carve off a chunk of the liver she'd waited months for so they could give it to an ailing baby girl.  Its not very common, only 2 or 3 percent of the 6,000 liver transplants are split each year.  While it does take an act of selflessness on the sharer's part, surgeons could be splitting up to 1,000 healthy donated livers, giving more people a chance at making it and reducing the waiting list.  The trouble is coordinating efforts, proximity of patients, and of course broaching the subject of implanting partial organs.  I'd like to think my liver would be fit for splitting, I mean I've been exercising it pretty rigorously since I was 21, so he's gotta be in great shape.

• AP: 2-for-1 liver transplant saves two

Renting movies? What is this, 1989?

Alright, so I finally got my Amazon Unbox and TiVo speaking.  I'm not really sure what the issue was (I have a hunch it was because I changed the email address of my TiVo account and some setting didn't transfer) anyway I unlinked at Amazon an left it a couple days.  When I came back it showed Boothroyd in my Amazon download options.  (yes, I named my TiVo after Major Boothroyd, big whoop, wanna fight about it?)  Great, now I just had to find a movie to download.  It should be one that I kinda want to see but probably don't want to buy.

I did not read any reviews of Idiocracy.  I did not read any plot summaries or tag lines or any anything about this movie.  I just saw the name and assumed it was a commentary of the current state of our government and a social commentary on idiots controlling the most powerful country in the world.  I was mistaken.  Sorely mistaken.  If you haven't seen it, don't.  Let me just say this "Reverse Encinoman without the added bonus of Polly Shore."  Yes, having Polly Shore would have made this movie better.

So its guess its good I didn't buy the DVD, and I technically didn't pay to see it since amazon gave me 15 bucks to mess around with on Unbox.  But still, I'd like to try and do a little better next time.  I didn't.  I rented Scoop.  Yeah, I know, but its tough picking a movie that I don't already own or plan on buying.  And I figure Scarlet Johansen is pretty hot, and I like to laugh a Hugh Jackman's name, so what the hell. 

Goodness, that was bad.  I mean, no, not as bad as Idiocracy, but that's really not saying anything.  Woody Allen's character was just painful and Scarlett's character made the back of my hand itchy, if you get my meaning.  Aristocrat philanderer and murderer Peter Lyman was ably played by Hugh Jackman.  Hehe, Hugh Jackman.

Well strike two, its beginning to look like renting movies is not for me.  Not because the downloading doesn't work, and not because of the file restrictions and not because of the film quality.  That's all fine, but it seems that if I don't want to own a movie, I don't even want to watch it once.

Alright, last try, I pick the Devil Wears Prada.  Which was fine.  What's-her-face is cute, and the acting was fine.  Yeah, I don't need to own this, but I'm fine with seeing it.  Whew saved the strikeout, but I don't know if I'm willing to drop 4 bones to download a movie.  I guess it depends on the library the choose to stock on the Unbox TiVo section.  Hear that Amazon?  You're on shaky ground because you need more slightly mediocre but entertaining movies.  Not too good, but not too Idiocracy.

Tips For Life

Before you decide to run from the cops, make sure they're chasing you.

A drunk driver in Texas incited cops to give chase by speeding away from patrol cars that were involved in an unrelated robbery pursuit.  I'm not really sure if this counts as paranoia, but it sure smacks of self-fulfilling DWI.

• Jalopnik: Ft Worth Guilty Drivers

Boobies And Cars.

Alright, I'm all signed up.  I have a z4 roadster and a 328Ci reserved for an afternoon next month during which I'm going to drive for charity.  BMW has a partnership with the Susan G. Komen foundation to help fight breast cancer and test drive cars.  BMW will donate a buck to the foundation for every mile you drive.  The cars are painted up with pink ribbons so everyone will know what you're about.  I guess I should start mapping the route I'll follow, taking into account the fastest path to highways and locations of planned speed traps.  Wonder if they'll be suspicious if I come back in an hour with 90 miles under my belt.

• BMW USA: Ultimate Drive Events and Programs

More Anonymous?

Google has announced that they'll start making old data about your searches more anonymous after 18 months...

Uh, the TLF (vis techdirt) makes a good point about anonymity being a bit of a binary descriptor.  Although in practice there are varying levels of anonymity, data that houses the capability to identify an individual does not meet the requirements of anonymity.  As in the varying levels of reasonable security, you may have to do a bit of work to extract the information, but a truly secure location cannot be breached and truly anonymous data cannot be used to identify persons.  So the modifier "more" in this case seems like a bit of a PR move, rather than actual technical specifications about the data they house.  They don't want to give the impression that they're keeping identifiable information about you for two years, but they are.  Just ask anyone who's Googled how to kill your spouse and then actually done it.

• Google Blog: Taking Steps

Tips For Life

Don't eat a can of cake frosting.  It seems like a good idea at the outset, but just trust me.  It is not.

DP Wiki: Tips for life

Bloggers' Dozen.

Its that time again, yes, time to clean out the inbox of all the week-old noteworthy/interesting/sophomoric things that I meant to blag about but didn't find the time. And just like your local bakery, we're charging half price for these week-olds. What's half of nothing again? Lemme get my calculator out...

Jump over to the Seitch and marvel at the mobile disaster unit they've got. Its a trailer that uses solar and wind collectors to treat contaminated water, provide 16Kw of emergency electricity and 30 miles of wireless connectivity. No mention of cost as the company is still lining up investors but this looks like a pretty sweet solution for the variable anarchy disasters cause by knocking out utilities.

• The Seitch: Portable Wind and Solar Utilities

France and Spain turned off their lights at 7:55 on February 1st this year as a message to leaders about global warming. The electric system in France saw an 800 MW dip while Spain saw a 1,000 change. Wow. From residential lighting. For reference a 2005 vintage Nuclear power plant will produce 600-1200 MW. Everyone go buy CFLs.

• Clean Break:The Lights Did Go Off

I would love to look out my window and see giant wind turbines slowly fueling the electric grid dotting the horizon. All those freaking NIMBY groups need to shut the feck up. Or maybe I should start a STFUAYBY group and we can go egg whiners' houses in our spare time. Anyway, the Seitch has a look at some beautiful and large renewable resource power plants that I would love to see more of. Sweet mother of pearl, that's a big turbine.

• The Seitch: Big Beatiful Renewable Energy

Beer. Tossing. Fridge. I know I don't need to say any more, but I will anyway. This recent MIT grad decided to put some of his robotics skills to actual use and converted his mini-fridge into a remote controlled beer whipping bar caddy. This is the kinda thing Rodney Dangerfield would have in his golf bag. Watch the video for more. Yes, CNN has video of this. Although, only a six-pack in the magazine? Please, that's not gonna get any work done.

• CNN: Man Relives College

Wish you had to chew energy drinks more? Like that whole spitting culture, but don't want mouth cancer? Tired of worshiping at the alter of the office coffee maker? Well, have we got an update for you. SumSeeds are sunflower seeds coated in all the goodness you'll find in redbull or amp or juced or whatever the newest disgusting drink you dirtballs are drinking now instead of actually going to bed. Its amazing that the human race of antiquity got anything done without being fueled by guarana and taurine.

• Strange New Products: Caffeinated Sunflower Seeds

Amazon and TiVo sitting in a tree... D-O-W-N-L-O-A-D-I-N-G. Alright maybe that breaks the meter, but they're certainly hooking up. For some people. I tried to link my Amazon account and my TiVo account and got a generic error. The help support gave me the canned response of basically "Did you try what you already tried?" which they would have realized if they'd actually read my email. Super support guys, that's the way to start a new service. Not that I'm actually gonna pay to rent or buy movies on Amazon Unboxed but it would be nice to try it out.

• Zatz Not Funny: Amazon Unboxed on TiVo is Live

Well, someone has to do it and the SKers think they've got enough of a jump on the rest of us that is might as well be them. They expect to have a robot in every home by 2020 and are working to develop rules for robot human interaction. Some people expect the rules to closely model Isaac Asimov's 3 rules, while others want their robots to be able to pistol whip or kill if needed. Didn't you guys actually read any of Isaac's books? They're mostly about how the three laws are not impervious to complicated logic and will be circumvented as AI progresses. Hell, they even dipped into it in the Will Smith movie, so you really don't have an excuse.

• The Register: South Korea to Detail Robot Etiquette

Speaking of robots pistol whipping and killing (those are decision making tasks at heart, which is the only reason your PC isn't pistol whipping you right now), scientists are working on machines that will make medical decisions that closely approximate a patient's wishes. Its to be used in cases where someone hasn't created an advanced directive and is unable to make decisions themselves. Studies have resulted in surrogate decision makers only getting the call right 68% of the time, so these machines don't really have a very high bar to get over. Researchers hope to eventually hit a target of 90% accuracy. Of course there'll be quite the debate over letting machines assume this responsibility before the first machine gets to pull the plug.

• New Scientist: Can Computers make Life or Death medical Decisions?

No, not the Queen or Prince Philip, royalties. The small dividend that is paid for a commercial use of someone's copyrighted work. The Copyright Royalties Board is looking to double the amount paid per track by Internet radio stations. Now, its beyond me why there's a central committee in charge of pricing this stuff or why they're trying to jack the actual legitimate services out of business, but this seems like an odd move. Its just going to drive traffic to sites that don't pay any royalties and haven't been caught yet. We had a nice equilibrium of payment and service going but somehow consumers getting product, companies getting paid, and artists getting publicity just wasn't hacking it.

• BBC: Royalties Threaten Internet Radio

Microsoft has been going off on piracy lately with their WGA near spyware and government sponsored witch hunts in Russia. But at the end of the day, they really hope that you pirate their software and not their competitors. Its almost as if they realize that scarcity economics don't really apply to their industry. If someone isn't going to buy the software you haven't lost money. But if they get to like your product then they're more likely to get a new version which means increased sales over driving them to a freeware or open source competitor. Sound reasoning, how will you put it into action?

• TechDirt: Microsoft Exec Admits That Company Benefits From Piracy

Wow, I'd have thought Blues Traveler was a really chill guy. But checkout the plethora of assault rifles he had in his trunk "in case of a natural disaster." I don't know if I can listen to his songs anymore without wondering if he's got a machine gun guitar like el Mariachi.

• Jalopnik: Popper popped for 111mph

Things Should Work.

Well, Casino Royale came out on DVD yesterday. Its not so much a question of whether I'll get it, but how soon I'll get it. So I was about to watch it last night and I popped it into the DVD player. Nothing happened. Weird. I took it out and put it back in. Nothing. Did I buy the blueray version somehow? No... I try the special features disc and it works. I put the feature disc back in and again, nothing. Now At this point I'm pretty sure that I got a bum disc and I'll have to go back to the store to get a new one. Which also means that I won't be watching it now and I was kinda excited cause I don't remember everything that happened when I saw it in the theatre.

But I have access to a few other DVD players, so I pop it into my computer and it starts up a little flash intro that lets me click to visit the website or play the movie or some other option I don't really care about. Huh, so the disc is readable. I try to play the movie and Media Player comes back with an error about needing enhanced drivers for the device. And my thoughts immediately jump to DRM. Have they come up with a new scheme to disenfranchise actual paying customers? Is this a new rootkit that's gonna screw my computer to bejezus and back? Will I seriously not be able to watch this movie on my home theatre because movie executives assume I'm trying to steal a movie I've already bought?

All of these seem like reasonable assumptions as I head to the next DVD device in my line of sight, the good old PS2. He's set up with his own 19" tv behind my bedroom door and hardly gets any play anymore since that playboy of a Wii moved in. Pop it in. Loading... Loading... Loading... The PS2 didn't come equipped with the best DVD software invented so I imagine if it doesn't play in the normal DVD player its not likely here. But it does! The menu comes up and I pick a scene, the little black box dives right in! Huh, who woulda thunk it?

Back to the living room, I try it in the 1st DVD player again. Maybe the disc is warmed up now or something, I dunno. Same thing, it reads for way too long and then displays all 0's on the disc clock. The play, pause, stop, FF, RW and skip buttons all result in the annoying "this operation is not currently supported" symbol on screen. I'm a little pissed off, one or two stages from whacking the crap out of the DVD player. But before I proceed to that step of the device repair manual I decide to press every button on the thing. I start with the menu button. And it goes to the menu. What? You must be kidding. The disc just doesn't have an auto-run file? I just spend the last ten minutes inspecting the bottom of the disc and cursing the MPAA because you suck at designing DVDs? I've never, ever, ever seen this before and I've seen over 240 movies.

Well, lesson learned, if your disc doesn't work, press menu. Now you know. And knowing is half... good.

For A Good Time, Call.

Hmmm... who gets paid for talking on the phone?  Tech support guys...  video game tipsters...  Uh, can you think of any more clean examples?

Skype is adding a feature where one party can request to be paid (either an upfront fee or by the minute) for carrying on a conversation.  So now you can start whatever kind of phone based moneymaking scheme you've been dreaming of, without having to be completely legit.  Of course Skype reserves 30% of the fee for themselves, but passes the rest directly into your Paypal account.  (Is 30% a pretty standard pimping fee, or are they way off base here?)

• Lifehacker: Get paid to talk with SkypePrime