Attribution: DuelingAnalogs.Com

This cartoon is clever on many levels, but I truly love the PC/Mac analog as those “holy wars” have been raging in recent decades. Between this sort of thing and the new Anonymous movement aimed at eradicating scientology, they’re in for some interesting times. Recently, we watched the movie Bowfinger where Kit Ramsey, the celebrity character played by Eddie Murphy, found refuge in a place called Mind Head – it was a very thinly veiled scientology play and it was hilarious.

When we started looking at business opportunities in the clean tech space, one of our original concepts was that of the “smart plug.” Given the heavy tech background of the team, a tech device made a huge amount of sense. We obviously decided to go another way, however, we still believe the idea has merit. That’s where Green Plug comes in.

Image Credit: Green Plug
Green Plug has taken the approach of creating a small bit of silicon enabled by smart software to allow for the efficient charging of any DC device from their hub. When the device charge is complete, the power to that charging port is terminated. The net is, it delivers just the right amount of juice to the right device a the right time and not a watt more.

Ultimately, we didn’t choose to pursue a similar idea as we believed it would take substantial government regulation to force device manufacturers to include such silicon and software in their products. While we still hold this view, it’s great to see that Green Plug has provided a viable alternative and as the regulators step up to the challenge there won’t be technology lag. In the meantime, we do believe Green Plug will have an uphill climb, good luck!

My original title for this was “Only in Ohio”… From the Akron Beacon-Journal:

HT: Oz

What can you say? It’s not every day a victim provides as much detail as this one chose to share. Robbery, sex, drugs, video tape; that’s an epic tragedy. Poor dog.

People are constantly bombarding us with pleas for help, money, attention, etc. If you’d like to do something that is very helpful, personally satisfying, and definitely beneficial, donate blood. Each pint you contribute can save up to three lives. What else can you do to save three lives in 45 minutes or less?

Presently, only 37% of the US population is eligible to donate blood and less than 10% do so annually. The demand for blood is increasing however, 1 in 7 patients admitted to the hospital will require blood as part of their treatment, this adds up to 43,000 pints of blood being used each day in treatment of our population.

Donating blood is easy, safe, and fast. Make an appointment (some centers allow you to do this online and many companies have a visiting blood center onsite periodically,) eat well and drink lots of fluids the day of your donation, come in, answer a few short questions, get a quick blood pressure, iron, and temperature check, sit back in the comfy chairs while your arm is cleaned, get punctured (it doesn’t hurt – a sibling’s pinch is much worse,) let the blood flow for 10 minutes, get a bandage on your arm, sit for 15 minutes in the post-donation area to drink some fluid and have a snack while reading the paper, and you’re done. Nothing to it. The entire process with an appointment is a 45 minute time commitment.

So, if you’re a healthy adult who is at least 17 years old, and at least 110 pounds, you may donate about a pint of blood—the most common form of donation—every 56 days, or every two months. Find your local blood center online, make an appointment, and give the gift of life. What gift could be more meaningful?

In the Bay Area, I recommend Blood Centers of the Pacific.

No, I have no need of a podiatrist. And while, yes, it is embarrassing, frustrating, and inconvenient that the unit of measure for length in the US remains the foot, this entry isn’t about adoption of the metric system either. No, my daughter has decided to play soccer (football to the rest of the world.)

Curiously, one of the things a person needs to play soccer are cleats (boots in UK parlance) and the place that one would logically go to procure such foot ware is a shoe store featuring sporting shoes. Now, if your foot isn’t standard, perhaps it’s a little wider than the norm, look out!

Last night the family and I traipsed over the hill to our closest local shopping area with shoe stores featuring sporting shoes, the Serramonte District. Inside this poorly planned and executed mall-like structure, there are no fewer than four sporting shoe stores, The Finish Line, Foot Locker, Foot Action USA, and of course, Kids Foot Locker. In addition, there is a PayLess Shoe Store, Mervyn’s, Macy’s, and Target who might reasonably be expected to carry athletic shoes, well for sports.

Well sports fans, I’m here to tell you that the only store in the mall that had cleats was, drumroll please, PayLess Shoe Store. And they had one pair in the close approximate size, but nothing else. Now, why would you bother to have a store specializing in children’s athletic shoes like Kids Foot Locker and not have cleats on-hand? It’s even worse, they NEVER have stocked them according to the store manager. What they do stock are athletic-like shoes in every size and shape that are not intended for sports!

Fortunately, there are two “big box” sporting goods stores in close proximity to this mall-like structure, Sports Authority and Big 5 Sports. Sure enough, Sports Authority has 4 different lines of cleats for kids. But, they do not have a competent staff capable of finding the right cleats in the right size. No, they don’t even have the boxes organized such that a person with reading skills can stand a chance to find the right shoes, they’re all mixed together without regard to brand, size, shape, or style. When you’re looking for a size 11C with EE width, this is not helpful.

Big 5 Sports is a smaller store and at least there are staff there. At least I think they were staff and not just some form of vegetable masquerading as humans. Two lines of children’s cleats are available there and of course, none of them in the right size. It only took 30 minutes for the guy to go watch a porno in the back room while allegedly looking for the right shoes to confirm that Big 5 is no more useful than the other shoes stores in the area. (OK, I made the point up about watching the porno, but, hey, he did disappear for an inordinately long period of time.)

So, suffice to say, my daughter will be slipping and sliding across the football pitch today because there are no freakin’ cleats available that fit her feet. That shopping experience consumed a few hours of my life I’d like back. So, retail shop owners, do us all a favor. Don’t make the name of your store indicate your carry a product you do not, it wastes time. Big box guys, how about employing someone with a clue? Or maybe just someone with an IQ higher than room temperature? Presumably, somewhere in the Bay Area (Palo Alto,) there exists a specialty store where my daughter’s athletic foot ware needs will be satisfied. In the meantime, she’ll be slip-slidin’ away.

This has been a community service announcement. We now return you to your regular broadcast.