I've been seeing a lot of these stickers lately.

Labels: motorcycles, Safety, Stickers

I have a perfectly good 1st generation iPhone, the plain ole 2G unit with 8GB of memory - can't get more basic than that. (Okay, so there was briefly a 4GB version.)

As you may know, the iPhone 3GS is available now, and it does fancy things like shoot video, automatically iron your shirts, and yes, even get you laid.

Unfortunately, my 2G 8GB iPhone is working perfectly. The metal case is a bit dinged up, but I don't even have any screen scratches to complain about.

The closest thing to a complaint is, we have pretty crummy AT&T coverage at work (the block our building is on basically dwells in a giant, ancient sinkhole) and there's a possibility that 3G coverage might improve that. I suppose I could beg to borrow Cindy's 3G iPhone on her next mid-week day off and check the 3G coverage and how big a difference it makes...

Since I only use my phone at work during my lunch hour, this isn't a big enough deal to justify buying a new phone. One good thing is, I have no AT&T contract to worry about, since I bought my phone outright and now could get a new iPhone for about $200 - depends on the memory capacity I decide on.

I'm sure there are a lot of people like me who want the new features, but are having trouble justifying the expense of replacing something that's working perfectly well as it is.

Here are a few suggestions:

1) Take up heavy drinking in seedy bars - you could get drunk and lose it, or you could get embroiled in a bar fight and damage it. Possible bonus - might get laid.

2) Begin the 'Strange Pictures of Me' project, where you hand your phone to random strangers on the street and ask them to take pictures of you - one of them will eventually say "give what back?".

3) Take up Parkour. You will fall on your ass a lot in the beginning - keep your iPhone in your back pocket. Definite bonus - All Traceurs get laid.

4) Become the first Bathroom iPhone Juggling Expert. You'll juggle an iPhone, a bottle of water, and a bowling ball. This method will likely get you a new iPhone soonest.

Labels: iPhone, Laid, Need

I've been hearing a lot about photography bans, with security and police harassing folks for taking pictures.

Here's an example article, which shows this is has been a growing problem for years now.

It seems silly to worry about photos as a planning aid for terrorism - tools like Google Maps, Google Street View and Google Earth give you an easy overview of most public areas.

The most foolish part of trying to ban photography is how unenforceable such laws are. As cameras get smaller, it's going to be impossible to tell who has a camera, who's clicking away.

It won't just be spies who have hidden cameras - they can be built into your sunglasses, which Bluetooth syncs the pics to your phone, which then automatically uploads them to your online account or distributes them on a public sharing space. Law Enforcement might confiscate your glasses, but there is no film or memory card for them to take.

I can foresee pics coming to be used something like Twitter - I could clip a small wearable camera on my collar in the morning, and it would take pics at regular intervals all day, posting to a private or public web page - an automatic photo collage of your day. I'm sure there are already folks doing this.

Labels: Bullshit, Internet, Photography, Photography Bans, Twitter

I read some scuttlebutt online recently - can't recall the site - but the gal who wrote the article had some pretty good evidence that there's something suspicious about iTunes programming and her iPod - namely, her iPod "is playing songs it wants me to buy more of".

With her 'all songs' playlist running on random shuffle, more than a random amount of the band Paramore was playing. Next, she opens iTunes to discover on the main page that the new Paramore album is now available for pre-order.

Only 50 out of 1,136 songs on the iPod were Paramore, yet the band came up one-in-ten times across 100 attempts when skipping to the next song. Hmm.

It certainly seems do-able that a 'random' function could be easily tweaked based on marketing decisions. Would that be underhanded on Apple's part? Or just another way advertizing has infiltrated our lives?

Labels: Advertising, apple, ipod, iTunes, Scuttlebleep, Subliminal

"Are you eating cereal, or calling the parish to Mass?"

Labels: breakfast, noise level

There you are! What took you so long? I was yelling for you while you were in the bathroom!

I heard you. I was in mid-stream, all right?

Labels: Potty, Real Life Conversations

(When text messages go awry)


Mike: Safe at work, love you! Jugs!

Cindy: ?

Mike: That should have said 'Hugs!'

Cindy: By all means, let's celebrate the bosom - just not at work, k?

Labels: bosom, Hexed Text, Hugs, Work

You can convert a typical bicycle into a stationary / exercise bike with one of these:

Labels: EtchCo Inventions, Exercise Equipment, Stationary Bike, Unicycle

This trailer showed up one weekend, and I figured it was like one of those inflatable-jumpy-ball-playzone rentals for some kid's birthday party. But it's been living at the apartment complex for about a month now, so I guess it moved in. Odd. It's not just loitering either - it's doing business.

Maybe I should start an apartment-complex-based business of my own... I've always wondered how profitable a convenience store run out of a truck would be. 800-1000 people live in our complex, and it's about three or four miles to the nearest gas station, so I bet I could make a lot of dough on diapers, cigarettes, beer, chips and etc.

Labels: convenience store, new neighbor, The Frigid Frog

Labels: creepy, Maybe it's just me, nether regions

So is it tacky to have a treadmill in your living room?

Or does it show dedication?

Labels: living room, treadmill

Somehow, all of the text except for the newest post is all lower-case. Weird.

Must be something I did in the new template.

Labels: blog template, Blogger

I don't think anyone believes me!

Huh?

There was a zebra! He was just hanging out with the horses.

Well, this is a horse-breeding area after all.

So you believe me?

I believe you saw a zebra, sure.

Saw? How about, 'I believe there IS a zebra' ?

Wow. No, I'm not going to say that... I don't want to encourage your tenuous grip on reality.

Labels: Real Life Conversations, sanity, zebra

Have you ever noticed how many random trees grow everywhere, such as along the freeway, in industrial parks, on the outskirts of suburbs?

All it would take is a pickup truck, a chain saw and a wood-chipper and you've got yourself a tree poaching business.

If your team dressed like normal road work crews with safety gear and fluorescent vests, no one would suspect a thing. You could sell firewood and discount mulch to all the mom & pop hardware stores.

Labels: Scams, trees

For a few years, I was very good about blogging 5 times a week, even if the day to day stuff was short, I wanted to post something. It helped that I was allowed to blog at work, I have to admit. And by 'allowed' I mean, no one was paying attention to anything I did as long as my work was done. These carefree days are over, unfortunately.

As is likely obvious from the clunky, amateur design, I made this new template from scratch - using the book "HTML, XHTML, and CSS for Dummies". It was a fun and frustrating process that took months of work, with moments stolen here and there. I just now pasted the template code into the 'W3C Markup Validation Service' and it spit out 292 errors and 46 warnings, so apparently I still have some work to do cleaning up the code.

For the most part, it seems to work correctly - for Internet Explorer. My PC had three different browsers installed and a variety of screen resolutions to choose from - but my PC died recently.

I've been using Cindy's PC for a few months now, and all I have to work with is IE in 1024 x 768 -- and Safari on my iPhone. It looks decent on both of these, though I'm sure I'll be doing some tweaking for the next few weeks. Let me know if there's anything especially wacky happening with the blog from your point of view.

Looking at the 'Etcher Approves' links at the left, it looks as if all I do is watch TV... I need to add music and books as well.

I'm hoping the new template will get me back into blogging more often. We'll see.

Labels: blog template, Blogger

Welcome the EtchCo iPhone UberMatt into your soul!

This 2.5x5 inch high-tech rubberized polymer meshform ubermatt is the perfect gift for any iPhone owner!

No more will your iPhone slip and slide on the desk or lunchroom table! No more will your iPhone slip out of your well-moisturized hands and into the toilet!

Available in 20 Fashion Colors! Order today! Only $19.99 plus shipping!

Labels: EtchCo Inventions, iPhone

Honey?

Yeah?

Just read your latest tweet - it's funny!

Thanks!

Says here it was posted an hour ago - weren't you on the freeway then?

Um... I was. That's weird, maybe it was pre-cache server delay in the upload buffer.

Uh-huh - it took a wrong turn at Albequerque. Were you typing at 70 miles an hour?

No! (80)

(Displeased) Hmm...

Labels: trouble, Twitter

Labels: freeway snaps

Slings?? Certified? Must be something construction related...

Labels: freeway snaps

I bought an iPhone app called 'photogene'.

It lets you edit pics, crop, color, contrast, etc. I like it! It's worth the $2.99 I paid.

Labels: altoids, iPhone, iphone apps