tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3754542007-12-08T07:12:36.584-05:00JoeBlogger378125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-375454.post-1142517685764425552006-03-16T09:00:00.000-05:002006-11-12T00:20:54.906-05:00

I recently had a problem with my Uniden TRU8866 cordless phone that I was only able to resolve through Uniden support, so I thought I'd post it here for others who might have the same problem. The issue was that the voicemail indicator came on and stayed on, and I don't have voicemail service. You can clear this indicator by holding the "page handset" button down for 5 seconds.

Joetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-375454.post-1129834795273207122005-10-20T14:57:00.000-04:002006-09-21T18:19:12.086-04:00

Discover has a very accessible article about the Clock of the Long Now. This project appeals to me on many levels: (1) The Long Now Foundation is my cause of choice, philosophically speaking, (2) I love complicated all-mechanical devices, and I have a bit of a thing for clocks, and (3) While I'm not one for hero worship, if I had to choose one person I admire most, Danny Hillis might well be

Joetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-375454.post-1124579427211094962005-08-20T19:01:00.000-04:002006-07-27T01:10:28.013-04:00

I am not Jewish, but look quite a bit like I am. Once, in 1993 or so, I was on a flight to Chicago. I was in that pair of rows that face each other on certain Southwest flights, and the other five guys in those seats were all friends, and frankly were all obnoxious assholes. I spent the flight reading, but I heard with the small portion of my attention that was listening a variety of off-color

Joetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-375454.post-1123770449364623012005-08-11T10:21:00.000-04:002006-09-16T09:44:11.456-04:00

A while back, my wife and I went to the gym and entered what we believed was a cardio-weight-training class. We started with some aerobics that I assumed were for warmup purposes, but after about ten minutes it became clear that we had gotten the calendar confused or something, because this was an aerobics class. The fact that I was the only man in the room should have been a clue. However, by

Joetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-375454.post-1121799639097829102005-07-19T14:53:00.000-04:002006-09-18T15:48:30.916-04:00

Here's the product I want to see: A unit, perhaps roughly the form factor of a 'boom box.' It connects to the internet via your home wi-fi network, and downloads music from iTunes (or wherever). The unit, and its remote, has thumbs-up and thumbs-down buttons on it, and it uses Tivo-like recommendation technology to choose what to play in the future based on what you've liked (and disliked) in

Joetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-375454.post-1121700478017439952005-07-18T11:22:00.000-04:002006-11-02T00:06:34.186-05:00

Marginal Revolution has an interesting meme, tracking his favorite film over time. Here are mine, as best I remember: 1968 - Who knows? I don't remember seeing any movies before about age 4. 1972 - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. 1979 - The Black Hole. 1984 - The Terminator. 1986 - Brazil. 1989 - Sex, Lies, and Videotape. 1994 - Pulp Fiction. 1999 - The Matrix. I suspect there might be more between

Joetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-375454.post-1121347800839539052005-07-14T09:26:00.000-04:002006-09-10T12:38:59.946-04:00

A few that I'd add to Life's Little Instruction Book: Never pass up a chance to use the bathroom (from my childhood friend Jerry). Always keep your helmet with your motorcycle, and your carseat with your child (from my brother Mark). Never leave the house without your housekey.

Joetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-375454.post-1121272987270814192005-07-13T12:36:00.000-04:002006-10-15T07:40:39.200-04:00

I've read a few books on (more or less) getting organized lately: Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House. I'm only about a quarter of the way into this, and it's fantastic. It appears to cover just about every aspect you could want of "keeping house" (I hate how that phrase has been stigmatized as both derogatory and feminine). It also accomplishes the difficult feat of

Joetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-375454.post-1118166138422813082005-06-07T13:34:00.000-04:002005-11-15T10:34:18.026-05:00

One of the things on my "life list" is to learn how to bind books. Toby Craig writes an excellent photojournal on his bookbinding techniques. I believe this is standard "perfect binding," and in any event it's just the kind I want to be able to do. Chasing past this, I found a few other relevant resources: Brian Sawyer has a Flickr photo set showing the handbinding of a hardback book. Douglas

Joetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-375454.post-1113399428722619892005-04-13T09:31:00.000-04:002005-04-13T09:37:08.723-04:00

Sunday morning we packed a picnic breakfast and headed downtown to see the cherry blossoms. We figured that by arriving at 8am, we would beat the crowds. Wrong. The tidal basin was already completely jammed, and unfortunately it is structured in such a way that the only way out is through, so we had to spend a half-hour in traffic just to bail. We then made a bunch of blind turns, each time

Joetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-375454.post-1112881843916438742005-04-07T09:43:00.000-04:002005-04-07T09:50:43.916-04:00

Something I've long wondered about is whether it would make sense for a car manufacturer to make a car with the philosophy of the original Volkswagen: Simple, cheap to buy, reliable, and easy to repair. Every system would be as simple and reliable as possible; this probably means no electric locks or windows, perhaps a carburetor instead of electronic fuel injection, electronics only where they

Joetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-375454.post-1111858845984923942005-03-26T12:35:00.000-05:002005-03-26T12:40:45.986-05:00

The show Crossing Jordan has a clever plot device currently: The character Nigel has a blog, which he discusses on the show, and which really exists, running a separate subplot of its own. That's about the only good thing I have to say about Crossing Jordan these days, though; the last couple of episodes feel like the plot writing has been given over to a computerized random plot generator.

Joetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-375454.post-1111778980175512352005-03-25T14:26:00.000-05:002005-03-25T14:29:40.176-05:00

Like so many, I am somewhat enamored with the life of the bike courier (well, except for the pay). So, I found this story of a programmer turned bike courier quite interesting. If you enjoy it, go read The Immortal Class right now.

Joetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-375454.post-1111692704095686302005-03-24T14:28:00.000-05:002005-03-24T14:31:44.096-05:00

We pass this fence every time we go to the zoo, and I've always liked its design: Unlikely to injure (e.g. no points), yet very difficult to climb.

Joetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-375454.post-1110980357668163862005-03-16T08:37:00.000-05:002005-03-16T08:39:17.670-05:00

My wife and daughter watch American Idol, and I typically sit with them and work at my laptop. Last night, as soon as they announced that the theme was the 60's, I predicted that Bo would do "Spinning Wheel." My wife was quite shocked when he did just that. As an added bonus, Constantine (the other "rocker") did "You've Made Me So Very Happy."

Joetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-375454.post-1110241525194306642005-03-07T19:23:00.000-05:002005-03-07T19:25:25.196-05:00

This guy built an LED clock by sticking LEDs through the holes in the grille of his PowerMac. I'd want to stick LEDs in every hole in that grille, and then make them blink and throb like the WOPR.

Joetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-375454.post-1109985948425417042005-03-04T20:23:00.000-05:002005-03-04T20:25:48.426-05:00

The other day it struck me that the word mighty can be both an adverb and an adjective, i.e. "my hunger is mighty mighty," in which the second mighty is an adjective and the first is an adverb that modifies the second. I can't think of many other examples of words like this; the only other one that comes to mind is super, and even that one doesn't seem to work as well.

Joetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-375454.post-1109860958107481462005-03-03T09:41:00.000-05:002005-03-03T09:42:38.106-05:00

Last week's CSI was, in part, about sports bookmaking. I've always wanted to understand this, and this page explains it quite well. (Note that this is utter abstract learning for me, as I don't gamble and I don't follow sports.)

Joetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-375454.post-1109769298907859212005-03-02T08:12:00.000-05:002005-03-02T08:14:58.906-05:00

We have two friends who live in a particular city, both of whom moved there relatively recently. They didn't know each other, so we gave them one another's phone numbers, thinking they seemed similar enough to get along well. When they got around to calling one another, they discovered that not only did they both go to the same gym, but in the gym's daycare the previous day, one of them's

Joetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-375454.post-1107611959687648812005-02-05T08:57:00.000-05:002005-02-05T08:59:19.686-05:00

Like most people, I love unlikely-seeming coincidences. When we were at the beach last summer, among our sand toys was a green sand shovel with a name (not ours) written on the handle. At some point in the trip we lost it. Several days later, my wife and I were taking an evening walk along the shoreline. A wave washed in and deposited, literally at our feet, that same shovel.

Joetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-375454.post-1107368039356960852005-02-02T13:12:00.000-05:002006-11-14T21:14:38.130-05:00

This is incredibly cool: A working paper version of the Enigma machine. (via Journalisimo.)

Joetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-375454.post-1106606714190290512005-01-24T17:43:00.000-05:002005-01-24T17:45:48.103-05:00

Some excellent advice on things that grown-ups (there defined as 25 and older) should do. Sadly, a decade later, I know many people who still need to work on some of these (particularly "Be on time" and "Do as invitations ask you"). (Via Mike Pope.)

Joetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-375454.post-1106099178214482962005-01-18T20:41:00.000-05:002005-01-18T20:46:18.213-05:00

One of my favorite topics on which to ruminate is the dramatic ways in which the choices we make, or the things that happen to us, direct the paths that our lives take. Thus, I enjoyed this diagram very much. (Via Kottke.) See also Sliding Doors, Frequency, or if you must, It's a Wonderful Life.

Joetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-375454.post-1105713628976063162005-01-14T09:36:00.000-05:002005-01-14T09:40:28.976-05:00

My recent attention to music has me again wondering exactly how copyright laws and ownership interact. Clearly if I own a CD, I can rip its tracks onto my own computer. If I own a CD, can I legally download tracks from that CD from (say) Kazaa? What if I own the album on vinyl? What if I owned it on CD but the CD was destroyed (thus I cannot prove that I ever owned it)? What if I owned it on

Joetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-375454.post-1105713349316294532005-01-14T09:31:00.000-05:002005-01-14T09:35:49.316-05:00

1. My daughter and I really enjoy all of ThinkFun's puzzles. A friend tells me that his favorite of theirs is Lunar Lockout; unfortunately, this does not seem to be made any more, and I can't find it anywhere (not even eBay). However, a quick web search turns up a handy online version! 2. My wife and I are watching The Andy Griffith Show the other day (don't ask), and wonder whether James Best

Joe