aubreyturner.org

It’s this sort of thing that tells me that John McCain is unsuitable to be President of the United States.  It’s something I’d expect from Clinton or Obama, but not from a supposed Republican. 

Perhaps the LawDog has the right idea.  Forget the “lesser” evil and go for broke:

In the post below I mentioned a previous encounter that I had with some people who vandalized the football field in Pilot Point.  This quickly brought a comment from one of the people in question.  In light of the subject matter of the post below, I have decided to move the comments out of the comment section and into a post of their own.

Here’s the comment:

You just don’t get the message we were trying to get across. We didn’t have a problem with teachers, coaches, cops, football, basketball, Pilot Point, or even Celina. Our beef was with parents. Our high school experience was ruined by the parents of the town quarreling over irrelevant things. We acted out against parents in general because all the attention was on them, it is the same stuff you hear about everyday where parents get too involved in their child’s sports and sometimes they take it a step further and try to live vicariously not only through sports, but through friends, classes, dates, parties, and so on and so on.

We chose that prank because it was a clean prank, no one got hurt and all damages could be fixed with relative ease. Most importantly, well to us anyways, it put the proverbial cherry on top of the cake because the town and school was going down hill with e-mail controversies, recruiting allegations, teaching scandals, and parents fighting. Our parents got so wrapped up trying to be us that they forgot who they were, I mean it was like “Hey mom, dad, get out of my school, you can squash your beef with Johnny’s parents at the flag pole after school at 4, but for now go home and let me go to class.”

And as far as us being whiney and not wanting to accept responsibility for our actions, it was a perfect prank, no witnesses, no fingerprints, no evidence. The cops blatantly ignored our Miranda Rights, we were removed from the school which doesn’t constitute a stop, but we were not arrested or read rights, instead the police said that we didn’t have time to contact an attorney or our parents, we could turn ourselves in right then and there or go to jail. If we gave our statements admitting guilt then they said they would not arrest us, but before we gave our statements we had to sign off on our Miranda Rights and the last right on the paper was “I was not coerced into an admission of guilt by the threat of jail time” we didn’t sign that right or the right to remain silent and the rights to attorneys. Anyways the police will do what the police want to do. And don’t come back on me with any guff saying that police are fair, good people. Those same police were later arrested for soliciting sex from a minor.

We accepted our consequences with the school. We missed prom, received three days suspension, paid full restitution, and volunteered our time to repaint the entire football stadium during our suspension. In restitution we paid the school for seven people to repaint at $8 an hour for 24 hours, five of those seven were us and the other two were school maintenance men who brought us paint in the morning. So that is $1340 that we paid the school to have us come volunteer our services while we were not allowed on school grounds by law because we were suspended. And even though we were volunteers we were told when we had to be there, when and where we could go for lunch, and when we could leave.

All of that was shady, but we did it because the superintendent promised a letter promising that the ISD would not press criminal charges. Now I’m assuming that you think that we are whiny brats because of the Steve Stoler interview where we said that there was double jeopardy, and while I don’t so much agree with the double jeopardy statement I do think that what led to us going to jail was fubar. To this day no one can tell us who called for us to be sent to jail, all we know was it was a school board member. What we do know is that there was one board member that doesn’t favor two of us who have parents on the board or running for the board, her position on the board to be more precise. She was very vocal about her dislike for us, and right after our suspension was up and we were back in school her freshman kid was caught with a water bottle full of vodka. Her response to the school is that if here kid is getting expelled for a little alcohol then we needed to go to jail.

In the PPISD code of conduct books it states that PPISD has zero tolerance for drugs and alcohol they are a level 4 offence that merit immediate expulsion, our infringement, vandalism is a level 2 offence that will result in a maximum of 3 days in ISS or in school suspension. We had already gone far past what the school district itself called for because we were promised no jail. At the end of the day an anonymous school board member pressed criminal charges on the five of us and we went to jail.

In conclusion, we are not whiny, were pissed because after all the smoke cleared parents still acted like children but realized that they were children with more authority.

Posted by VandalFromPilotPoint on 01/29/2008 at 01:17 PM

I had one interim comment, with my reaction to the speed of the first comment, but here is my second comment with the “meat” of my response:

Our high school experience was ruined by the parents of the town quarreling over irrelevant things. We acted out against parents in general because all the attention was on them, it is the same stuff you hear about everyday where parents get too involved in their child’s sports and sometimes they take it a step further and try to live vicariously not only through sports, but through friends, classes, dates, parties, and so on and so on.

Somehow, this message fails to move me.  It also does *not* justify pulling this “prank” (as you call it).

And don’t come back on me with any guff saying that police are fair, good people. Those same police were later arrested for soliciting sex from a minor.

Guff?  Interesting tone to take with me if you’re trying to persuade me that you were railroaded.  Anyhow, the police that I know *personally* are generally fair, good people.  Not to say that there aren’t some bad ones I’ve encountered.  But it’s a bit far-fetched to judge them all based on your small sample.

At the end of the day an anonymous school board member pressed criminal charges on the five of us and we went to jail.

That’s an interesting statement, and I don’t see how it can be true.  You have the right to confront your accuser in court, so I suspect what really happened here is that the DA decided to pursue the charges, which is within his purview.  It matters not whether the ISD wants to press charges (although in some cases this could be a mitigating circumstance).

As for double-jeopardy, it doesn’t seem to apply (as you noted), as the criminal justice system didn’t attempt to try you twice.

Anyhow, after reading your statement, I remain unmoved with regards to any justification for your actions or the punishments you received.  The simple solution to the whole thing would have been not pulling the prank.  It’s amazing that this escapes you, but perhaps someday when you’re older you’ll understand.

I’m probably going to piss off somebody (more on this below) with this post, but so be it.  Here’s the background:

ROANOKE—A man and a 2-year-old girl were killed late Sunday when their vehicle was hit head-on by a car trying to pass in a no-passing zone, police said. The driver of the car was also killed, officials said.

The man’s wife was critically injured in the crash and remained in intensive care Monday, officials said.

The accident was reported about 9 p.m. in the 2200 block of U.S. 377, near Schooling Road on the north side of the city, police said.

The toddler’s name was not released, Roanoke police Capt. Robert Crawford said.

Joshua Adkison, 24, of Virginia Beach, Va., who was traveling with the girl, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

Kristina Adkison, 24, also of Virginia Beach, was taken by helicopter to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Crawford said.

Police did not release the relationship between the Adkisons and the toddler.

The driver of the other car was Rachele Mahanna Bowman, 29, of Southlake, who was traveling alone, Crawford said.

She was also pronounced dead at the scene, he said.

The accident

Police said the collision occurred as Bowman was driving south on U.S. 377 trying to pass a vehicle driven by Jolene Owen, 47, of Haslet.

Bowman’s car collided head-on with the Adkisons’ northbound vehicle, police said.

The two cars also struck Owen’s sport utility vehicle, police said.

Owen, who was alone in her car, was taken to Presbyterian Hospital of Denton, where she was treated and released, Crawford said.

For some reason, this one bothered me more than most accidents I hear about.  Mostly I just ignore them, but maybe because I still drive this road from time to time, and I used to drive it on a daily basis, it hit closer to home for me.  It happened on the north side of Roanoke, near the side-road that leads to the sand pit (or whatever it is back there; there’s also an old sign for some kind of subdivision there).  This is just after the point where the speed limit drops from 65 down to 50 and as you enter the Roanoke city limits. 

I don’t know if anyone else experiences the same thing, but each road (or section of road) has a specific “feel” to me, based on my perceived sense of safety (which is the result of a complex mental calculation that takes into account the condition of the road, the number and type of side-streets and entrances / exits, sight lines, and number of idiots per linear mile).  This road (highway 377) gives me a strong sense of danger from 1171 (Flower Mound) all the way down to Keller.  As I mentioned, the speed limit slows as you enter Roanoke, so you have to deal with a combination of impatient idiots who tailgate along with fairly strict enforcement by Roanoke (they like to hang out in the vicinity of this accident site and nail speeders who aren’t obeying the new speed limit).  You have a (newish) subdivision that has lots of people pulling out into the road, then, just after it widens to two lanes each way, there’s the Wal-Mart—Home Depot complex (thank goodness they finally got a light at Marshall Creek, although this only seems to make it marginally safer, as idiots still dart out of Wal-Mart across both lanes of traffic).  As if this wasn’t enough, then you have the intersection with 114.  Finally, if you manage to make it through all of this, the road narrows again down to two lanes as you cross the bridge over the “old” 114 (there is no room for last-minute merging idiots here).

So, given all the above, what it appears we have here is an impatient (and now dead) idiot attempting to pass a driver who was obeying the speed limit in a no-passing zone and who has managed to kill a man and his child, along with severely injuring his wife. 

As someone who tries very hard to drive defensively and carefully, this sort of behavior bothers me on an almost visceral level.  I think perhaps this is because it represents a criminal selfishness on the part of these idiots.  They are so wrapped up in their own desires that they forget that their actions have effects on others.  I think that in general, people just don’t take driving seriously enough.  I see people yakking on cell phones (generally indicated by a failure to control speed or failure to maintain a single lane), doing makeup, reading, tailgating, etc and it makes it obvious to me that they don’t understand that they’re at the controls of a potential death machine.  The amount of energy involved in even a slow-speed crash is enormous, and it’s amazingly easy to get someone killed through a half-second of carelessness. 

Anyhow, I learned a long time ago that making things personal while driving, or being in a hurry, don’t do any good other than to raise my blood pressure.  I used to be the type to weave in and out of traffic, always seeking to get ahead.  But after I calmed down and slowed down a bit, I learned that it wasn’t really worth it.  The only place where that sort of driving makes any difference is on long Interstate trips.  Anywhere else it just aggravates everyone.  I now take pleasure in pulling up next to a speeding jackass at the next light, knowing that I’ve only arrived two or three seconds later, but much more safely and with much less hassle.

Finally, as I mentioned above, I’m probably going to piss someone off with this post.  I’ve seen it in the past where someone related to the subject of my post starts Googling and finds what I’ve written.  In the heat of the moment they fire off an angry missive to defend their relative’s honor and to hopefully get me to retract or take down my post (and get the incriminating evidence out of Google).  My response to these situations is to break out the popcorn and post their missives, along with my response, because this just increases the relevance in Google and makes them look even worse.  For example, this happened in the Lindsey Crumpton case, and with some vandals from Pilot Point.  In this instance, unless someone can show me evidence that this driver did not pass in a no-passing zone, the I will stand by my assessment that Rachele Mahanna Bowman, 29, of Southlake, was a deadly idiot.

Update:  Here’s a link to a video on WFAA that shows the situation in a fair amount of detail:  link to video .  Also of interest in that clip is an interview with the City Manager, who acknowledged that some of the intersections in Roanoke feel like “death traps.”  I’m glad to see someone else feels the same as I do…

This situation is why I don’t like to let anyone auto-renew or auto-bill to my bank account.  In this instance I’m using a credit card, which offers more protection.

We are currently aware of some billing inaccuracies which we will be resolving later today. All of these issues will be resolved, and any billing errors corrected. We sincerely apologize for any hassle this has created.

– UPDATE Tue Jan 15 04:13:17 PST 2008 –

The problem has been found and corrected. We are currently going through all erroneously charged accounts and refunding money. Stay tuned for further updates.

– UPDATE Tue Jan 15 07:25:16 PST 2008 –

Scripts are still running to correct the original problem. Last night, this guy ran a standard billing cycle to clean up stragglers from 2007. Unfortunately, the biller was run for 2008 (December 31st, 2008 to be exact). This caused everyone to be billed as if today was 2008-12-31, wreaking the havoc that we are so sorry you had to be put through.
…

The reason I noticed was that I got an “automatic rebill” notice this morning for my hosting account, which was weird, since the account normally renews in April.  But what really caught my eye was that it billed me TWICE:


We have the last payment on this account to be $1.99 on 2008-01-15 04:40:27.  (Ed: I think this is a dividend payment, as I didn’t pay them anything myself.)
Since then the following charges have been made to the account, which you have just paid for:

      2008-05-01 - $287.40 for “Code Warrior” through 2009-04-30.
             
      2008-05-01 - $287.40 for “Code Warrior” through 2009-04-30.
             

For full information on your previous balance please visit:
< Panel Invoice subtab >

SUMMARY OF PAYMENT

Amount: $534.54
Credit card: *XXXX (ex XX/YY)
Payment code: #######

 

Charges on your credit card bill will be from “DreamHost.com”.


It was only after I tried to contact billing that I realized that there must have been a site-wide screwup.  The email got bounced as undeliverable due to “too many connections.”  Which is understandable, considering that a lot of people were using debit cards linked to their checking accounts, and a lot of these people woke up to overdraft fees and bounced checks this morning because of the unexpected charges; others had their hosting accounts suspended for “past due” balances if they didn’t have any automatic form of payment on file.  As of this moment, there are 576 angry comments on the above post, and the number keeps growing. 

This comment shows some of the pain that can come from unexpected charges of this sort:

As a (until now) happy customer of dreamhost this mistake is extreme anger inducing. I have been charged for a full year right before my mortgage payment for the month cleared… making my mortgage payment check bounce.

lets see:
$119.40 yearly hosting fee
$50 bounced check fee
$100 missed mortgage payment fee
30 day late on my credit record (which kills my refinancing hopes for this year)

WAY TO GO DREAMHOST!

Ouch!

While I’ve been fairly indulgent of Dreamhost’s failures over the years because they offer inexpensive hosting with lots of features, this sort of billing screwup isn’t something that I can so easily overlook.  It either reflects a lack of appropriate financial controls, or an overly cavalier attitude towards the billing process.  Either way, I am strongly considering removing my credit card information from their system and doing all renewals manually. 

If it’s this easy to screw something up by accident, imagine what someone with ill-intent could accomplish.  So I would suggest to Dreamhost that they not only need to fix the problem, but they will need to go above and beyond a simple fix to reassure customers and to regain lost trust.  That would include:

• Compensation for any and all fees or costs incurred due to the erroneous billing (i.e. returned check fees, overdraft fees, etc)
• A public audit of their billing processes, with a published report to all customers of the outcome.
• A published plan that lists, item-for-item, fixes for all issues identified in the audit.

Updated after first publish to add quote from comment thread on DreamHost Status.

Spring is approaching again here in North Texas, and with spring comes the threat of severe weather.  The National Weather Service Forecast Office in Ft. Worth has begun its spring Skywarn training series, with 49 sessions available throughout the area between now and April 8th (10 of which also include advanced spotter training).

The full schedule is available from the NWS website: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/fwd/sptrsch.html 

For those that may not be familiar with Skywarn, here’s how I described it the last time:

So just what is SKYWARN and why would you be interested?

SKYWARN is a volunteer program established by NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS) in partnership with other organizations.  According to NOAA, “SKYWARN has nearly 280,000 trained severe weather spotters,” and “these volunteers help keep their local communities safe by providing timely and accurate reports of severe weather to the National Weather Service.”

While that might sound kind of intimidating, SKYWARN training is valuable for anyone who lives in North Texas whether they wish to participate in storm spotting activities or not.  The basic SKYWARN class covers:

• Basics of thunderstorm development
• Fundamentals of storm structure
• Identifying potential severe weather features
• Information to report
• How to report information
• Basic severe weather safety

I’ve been to both the basic and advanced SKYWARN training, and while I don’t go chase storms, it’s helped me quite a bit in understanding when I should worry about a particular storm and which areas are most dangerous in such a storm.

If you’ve read my site for a while, you might know that I’m a member of (and training director for) the Keller Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).  The CERT core mission is to provide people with the skills to know how to prepare for emergency situations and how to react if an emergency occurs.  But beyond that, the mission extends to performing community outreach, education, and service.  In Keller, we have taken on the task of providing firefighter rehab service (we also do fire extinguisher training and can provide preparedness education for anyone who wants it)

Firefighter rehab is a process for providing firefighters with nourishment, hydration, and relaxation during an incident.  Generally, the guidelines call for a firefighter to go to rehab after every second air bottle (IIRC the ones Keller uses are rated for 45 minutes, although they generally only get about 30 minutes out of them, which means firefighters get about an hour of work time on two bottles).  The FD establishes someone on their end who is in charge of tracking firefighter time and is accountable for rehabbing them.  Once that officer decides it’s time, he/she directs the firefighters (usually as a company/group) to the rehab area.  We are responsible for setting up and maintaining the rehab area.

To support our mission, the city has provided us with a truck and the necessary equipment (misters, chairs, tents, coolers, portable “facilities,” etc) .  Several of us (including me) have been through CEVO-II training (the basic course given to ambulance drivers) and carry pagers so that we can respond when called (although they don’t let us use the lights and sirens   ).

Up until this weekend, our truck was the old NEFDA bomb squad truck, which is an old Chevy delivery truck:

As far as I know, the city got the truck for free when NEFDA got a new bomb truck.  So the city has been paying for fuel, maintenance, and insurance (which is why they wanted us to take the CEVO class as it helps reduce everyone’s liability).  Some of you who have come to Keller FEST over the past few years may have noticed this black behemoth over by Town Hall.  We generally set up the truck there to provide information and basic first aid.  And we usually set up the misters to help with the heat:

But now that the city has purchased a new ambulance, we have been given the old ambulance to use for rehab and other CERT activities.  The old ambulance is built on a 1999 Freightliner FL50 (I think) chassis (more on this later).  Late last week a number of members met and transferred the equipment to the “new” truck from the old.  Unfortunately, the next day the new truck wouldn’t start.    Murphy will not be denied, though, so of course we had a callout on Saturday for a structure fire.  We had to scramble to transfer the equipment to the old truck and haul ass over to the fire location. 

The firefighters seemed glad to have us there, even if we were delayed, but I was a bit annoyed with the equipment issue. 

After we got back from the fire, we went back to work on the new truck to get it started (it took about an hour of charging to get it back to life), and then drove it around town a bit to charge up the battery (the truck is now on an electrical tether to keep the batteries topped off and to run the systems in the “box”, just like it would have been at the station).  While driving it around we discovered the stories about the old Freightliner ambulance having a really bumpy ride were more than true.  It rides like a bucking bronco, which is probably not good for patients in the back.  And going over a bump or making a turn causes the whole truck to roll in a rather disconcerting fashion. 

The problem the city has faced is finding the right truck chassis to marry to the ambulance “box.”  There are some pretty stringent requirements from the state about what is required to go into an MICU, which drives the size and weight of the box.  So in 1998 when they spec’d the the ambulance they went with the larger truck chassis to handle the weight and for longevity.  The downside is that no matter how they tried tuning the suspension they never could get a smooth ride.  For the new ambulance they’re using a smaller truck chassis (I think it’s an F-450, but haven’t looked closely) for a better ride.

The other thing we learned during our check ride is that while the FD removed the majority of the equipment (radios, etc) they left the driver and passenger air horn foot-pedal switches in place.  If you’ve ever heard a big-rig air horn, you know how loud these things are.  While climbing up into the passenger seat, I accidentally activated the thing (didn’t realize where my foot was) and was wondering why the guy standing next to the truck on the ground was looking at me funny until I figured it out (the horn is surprisingly quiet from inside the truck). 

Do you consistently carry a flashlight on or about your person?  If not, why not?

Like most people, I hadn’t given much thought to being prepared for unexpected situations until 9/11.  At the time I was still working in an office building (albeit only a 5-story one), but I started giving some thought to what I’d do if I had to evacuate from a damaged building. One of the first things to occur to me was that it’d probably be dark, since the power would probably be out and most stairwells are on the inside of the building.  So I made it a priority to keep a flashlight on my person.

Since late 2001, I haven’t gone anywhere without my trusty old SureFire E2E Executive in my pocket:

Back when I bought it the HA E2E cost around $85.00 (current price is $96.00), and people looked at me like I was nuts for buying such an expensive light.  Some even thought I was nuts for just having a flashlight at all.  But regardless of a little wear-and-tear (which you can see in the picture), this thing is still going strong after six years despite having been dropped on concrete, dunked in water, soaked in (acid) rain storms, banged into doorways, and stepped on a few times.

And aside from being prepared for something big, you don’t realize how many times on a day-to-day basis you can use a flashlight until you’ve got one.  I’ve used it to open locks in the dark, when walking the dog, and when crawling around under desks fiddling with computer wires.  Also, a light as bright as the SureFire can be used for defensive purposes.  If someone approaches you unexpectedly at night, the light can momentarily disorient the other person.  I suspect that in at least one case, flashing the light at someone skulking near my truck in a dark parking lot discouraged him from staying and hassling me.

LED technology has advanced enough in recent years that there are some stunningly bright LED lights available at very decent prices.  I’ve got a $22 CREE-based LED light that is twice as bright as the SureFire.  Although to be perfectly fair, I wouldn’t expect the cheaper LED light to survive half of what my SureFire has been through (there’s more to a light than its brightness).  The other advantage to LEDs is that they give more light, run longer, and generate less heat (I’ve burned myself with the E2E because it gets mega hot after 10-15 minutes).  This has all got me contemplating an upgrade.  If I retire the E2E, it’ll probably be for another SureFire, perhaps the L4 LumaMax.  It is similar in size to the E2E, is available in Hard Anodized finish, has a pocket clip, and uses the same batteries (123A’s).  But the LED lamp gives 100 lumens for 2.5 hours compared to 60 lumens for 1.25 hours with the E2E.

But regardless of my choice of light, you don’t have to spend a ton of money to be prepared.  Just having a light on your key chain or in your pocket is half the battle.  I even keep a few of these little key chain lights around to hand out to the “unenlightened.”    I get them in packs of 10 for $4.68 (shipped) and they’re surprisingly bright (enough to light up a small room or to navigate down stairs).  I also keep some hooked to the zipper pulls of backpacks and bags to make it easier to find things in them in the dark (and just generally to have them around).

Anyhow, I’m putting all this out there for your consideration.  If you already carry a light, you’re probably nodding violently in agreement to this post.  If you don’t, then what are you waiting for?

I don’t know what percentage of people get their TV programming OTA (Over The Air; i.e. direct via antenna), rather than via cable or satellite.  But I suspect that in terms of absolute numbers the number of TV’s out there that are hooked up to rabbit-ears or external antennas is fairly sizable. 

While most of my viewing is done on one of the TVs that are connected via FiOS, I also have a small one mounted on the wall in the kitchen that I use to watch the morning news (and sometimes the noon news).  I never bothered to have it hooked up to cable, but instead just use rabbit ears.  The only stations that come in very well are the local Fox and ABC channels (4 and 8), but that’s generally sufficient for my news fix.

Unfortunately, this TV is not going to be able to receive any OTA broadcasts after 2/17/09 because of the transition from analog to digital.  The options appear to be to get a digital converter box or to get a new TV with an ATSC tuner.  There is a government program to offer each household up to two $40-off coupons good towards the purchase of converter boxes.  However, there are not many converter boxes available yet, and ones eligible for the program won’t be available until February or early March, so I don’t know whether this coupon will be worth the trouble or not.  Heck, the TV itself only cost me $59, so it seems silly to spend very much on a converter for it.

On the other hand, searching for small TVs with ATSC tuners turns out to be an expensive proposition.  All of the small digital TVs appear to be flat-screen (generally LCD), and these tend to start around $200, which is more than I want to spend for a TV in the kitchen. 

There is one other alternative I’m considering: a wireless audio/video remote “extender”, connected to the FiOS box in the living room.  This would allow me to view all of the cable channels on the existing TV as long as I didn’t try to tune to any HD channels.  In addition to skipping the converter box, it would also improve the picture quality over the rabbit ears (or it should).  There are even units that include a remote-control IR channel (the receiver at the TV end includes an IR receiver/transmitter that sends the signal back to the “sender” at the converter box end, so you can control the remote converter box from the local TV).  The big problem, though, is that most of these are 2.4GHz, so it will be difficult to find one that won’t step on my wireless network.

Hmm…  here’s a unit that operates at 5.8GHz.  Unfortunately, it’s $250.  For that kind of money I could get an LCD TV.

Anyhow, this also brings up some interesting political/philosophical issues.  From a libertarian standpoint, the government shouldn’t be handing out “our” money for these sorts of things.  Actually, if you follow the logic, the government shouldn’t be mandating the digital transition.  If it was a good idea, and profitable, the market would sort it out. 

Also from a libertarian standpoint, if you realize that the program exists and there isn’t anything you can do to stop it, do you then try to take advantage of it?  Do you rationalize it as trying to get a small refund on the thousands of dollars of taxes you’ve already paid?  Or is the principled stand to refuse to participate?

Being a gadget junkie, I love hearing about these kinds of things.

Just 12 months after demonstrating a working prototype of the world’s smallest projector, Redmond, Wash.-based Microvision is unveiling a full functioning, self-contained prototype that should be available as a real product—possibly from Motorola—later this year.

Dubbed SHOW, the lensless PicoP projector is designed for the home and business use, and uses tiny lasers to shoot a WVGA (848 by 480, roughly DVD resolution) image on virtually any surface that isn’t a dark color or textured. It can even project onto curved and uneven surfaces. So, from a distance of two feet, it could project a two foot diagonal, full-color image on a white T-shirt. From five feet away, it could show a five-foot image on, say, a white wall or ceiling.

This thing isn’t much bigger than a deck of cards:

It would be great for people who travel for business, since it means not having to lug a projector around (even the travel ones are quite a bit bigger than this).  But beyond that, I could see some additional uses.  Take an ultraportable PC (an oQo or perhaps even something like the Nokia 880) and hook one of these up along with a fold-up bluetooth keyboard, and you could have a portable desktop-like system without all the bulk (you could probably carry it in your pocket; if you had a fairly large pocket).  Or, since the projection engine is so small, it could even be embedded in laptops or ultraportables to begin with. 

It accepts input from any video-capable device, so (as shown in the picture), you could take your movies or pictures along on an iPod and show them without having to use a TV or carry a large projector.  The projected price is given in the article as $200 to $300 (which is a steal compared to the prices of current projectors; although to be fair the other projectors have better resolution).

Linked via Slashdot.

In my last entry I mentioned having to take the dogs out while visting my mother because her land isn’t fenced.  I had to go out there several times between midnight and 1:00am (the dogs always seem to want to go out during this hour for some reason) and on one occasion I caught some sort of odd black “mass” (for want of a better term) that appeared to move across the field and disappear behind a mound of dirt (which was about four to five feet high).  I quickly pointed my flashlight in that direction, but didn’t see anything.  I then moved in that direction to see if anything had run behind the mound, but still didn’t find anything.

Upon inspection the next morning, I discovered a couple of darker colored weeds in the vicinity, although they should not have been visible at the angle I was at in relation to the dirt mound.  There’s also the possibility that it could have been some kind of animal (this is in the same vicinity of last year’s skunk encounter ).  However, if it was an animal, I should have seen it when I went around the mound to investigate (and I know my light¹ is bright enough to find any such animals, because I managed to track a rabbit from about 50 yards the first night we were there; much to Boots’ chagrin, since she wasn’t allowed to go chase it).

While I know what I saw, a skeptic will just say that I saw those weeds and my imagination filled in the movement, or that it was an animal of some kind.  There was definitely something there.  I just don’t have any way of knowing for sure what it was.  But I’m fairly certain it wasn’t a plant or an animal.  Maybe next time I’m out there I’ll take my night-vision video camera…

¹ The light in question is a SmartFire M-504C, which is a relatively inexpensive Chinese-made Cree XR-E LED-based 4-C light that produces about 85 lumens on high (roughly comparable to my 3D Mag w/drop-in LED upgrade).  It’s not the brightest light I have, but it definitely reaches out and touches things.