Scott Duffy's Weblog

Hoarding vs Extreme Clutter vs Extreme Couponing

2012-01-29T22:15:00.004-05:00

There are a number of "reality-type" shows on TV these days, that focus on what I think are many sides of the same coin:

Hoarding: Buried Alive (on TLC)
Extreme Clutter (on OWN)
Extreme Couponing (on TLC)

If you watch Hoarding, the TV show focuses on people who are literally "drowning" in their stuff (usually garbage). Those people are treated as having a mental disorder, and are shown literally breaking down on camera when the clean up crews try to throw away their 10-year old oranges.

Extreme Clutter is a less extreme version of the show hoarding. It's happier, the host is always smiling. (No surprise it's on the Oprah network.) People may have rooms and rooms of boxes, furniture, suitcases, and stuff. But it's generally not garbage. These people call themselves "collectors" not hoarders.

Yes, some of them have issues to deal with. Family members have been lost, and other personal tragedies that have them hiding their emotions in things.

And in Extreme Couponing, people are shown purchasing hundreds of products that they can't ever possibly use. Their houses and garages are literally overrun with bottles of laundry detergent and packages of Jello. But they are not considered hoarders - they are celebrated as being the smartest shoppers, able to buy $1,300 in products for $100.

Frankly, I don't see the difference between couponers and hoarders. It's a bit of a mental disorder either way. If you feel the need to purchase 80 underarm deodorants, how many years will it take you to use them? 30? 40? Would you even use a 30 year old underarm deodorant? And the next time it goes on sale, do you buy 80 more?

Yes, I get that you paid 25 cents for it, or got it for free. But when are you going to ever use that? It seems wasteful to the planet. When will it all stop. When do you say, even though it's on sale, I don't NEED it?

Couponers also use the term "stockpile". Like they are preparing for nuclear war or something. "I need to build up my stockpile since I'm having a baby next year."

I'd like TLC to create a show Extreme Couponing: Buried Alive. And focus on these people who are exchanging time with their family, money, and their personal space for hundreds of bars of soap. Seems like the psychiatrists would need to be called in for that.

Update: I'm not the only person who thought Extreme Couponing: Buried Alive. Great post from a former coupon addict.

How Can eBay Still Amaze?

2012-01-19T17:33:00.002-05:00

So over the holidays, I dropped my iPad. This resulted in shattered glass for the iPad, a broken heart for its owner, and a missing $300 for the owners' bank account. An expensive lesson in not properly protecting it.

So, after getting a new one, I decided to get a good case for it. Not the cheap slipcover that I was using before, but an actual wrap around case that will (presumably) protect it from falls.

After a trip to the Apple store, I discovered there were no good cases for the iPad there. Oh sure, the iPhone 4 cases were in the hundreds. But Apple just sells either its own $79 overpriced magnetic cover which doesn't actually protect the device from falls. I also wanted the ability to "prop up" my ipad for reading and watching videos instead of having to hold it.

Looking on ebay for "ipad cases", the very first link was an interesting and nice looking black leather case that appeared to protect all the corners and sides, and prop it up. It's only $20, and also has the nifty magnetic cover trick that Apple sells for $75. And did I mention free shipping? So on Monday late afternoon (this week), I hit the buy button.

Today (Thursday), before noon, I had the cover in hand (actually wrapped around my iPad), and I have to say - I love this cover. It's padded, and makes me super confident it's protecting my device. It's excellent quality and built to last me many years. And it just works.

More than that, I love the seller who shipped it to me on Tuesday (and sent me 3 emails to tell me it was shipped). And I love our postal system. And most of all, despite how bad a reputation eBay gets (and their Paypal extortion arm), I am still amazed that I can order a product from my home, for 1/4 the cost of buying it in a store if I can find it, and have it in my hands basically 2 days later.

Fake Reality

2012-01-18T23:09:00.002-05:00

We all know reality shows are largely faked. Producers seek to add drama when there normally is none, and interfere (but not on camera) with the natural flow of events.

It's kind of disheartening to see Jeff Probst on the TV Show Survivor ask contestants about their alliances and strategies, and call them out on their lies, forcing them to reveal secrets to the tribe which changes the game dynamics. It's sad to see them change the rules (Exciting! Plot! Twist!) without any prior precedent or announcement to break up a strong alliance and reset the game. And I am inclined to believe they have planted food and fire-making items near the contestants in the past when it looked like a tribe was going to starve to death.

The show The Amazing Race, which I used to love, has also similarly tampered with the rules in order to enhance the drama. In the first season or two, teams could amass large 1-day leads on other teams in their race around the world. Now, they are spoon-fed flights (take one of these two flights) and contestants have large delays that eliminate any lead at all (arriving at a place at 7pm that doesn't open til 8am). They run marathons in Africa, only for the flight out of there to be not until the following day. What's the point of running at all? Just walk it!

There's a show called "Operation Repo" that doesn't even pretend to be real. The show uses actors to "recreate" events, but of course the acting is terrible and the repo men do things they're not even legally allowed to do in real life. Most repo men work in the dead of night, while these guys walk up to a guy sleeping in his car and knock on the window to kick him out. Yeah right.

The most recent fake reality show is one I (used to) really enjoy - Storage Wars. I happened to notice one guy, Darrell Sheets, who would look through a pile of crap and say "That's a $100 bill. That's a $50 bill. That's another $100 bill." and I would say "Bull----. There's no WAY you can sell that for $100, you'd be lucky to get $30". Really, I sell things on Craigslist, you're not going to get $100 for some used 10-year-old drill. So I went online to see if anyone else was noticing these bidders being "overly optimistic" in their profit projections.

And that's when I see the fake reality for what it is. People are complaining about valuable items in lockers that have NO business being there. Someone buys a storage locker for $1,000 and its nothing but boxes and junk furniture. Opening random boxes reveals old clothes, more clothes, broken furniture, and more crap. Obviously the person who abandoned the locker had NO interest in it's contents, and I can see why.

And THEN they discover a 100-year-old Teddy Bear or something. Yeah right. The Teddy Bear has NO BUSINESS being there. It doesn't fit in with anything else in the room. It's not like the room was full of dolls and they found this among the pile. Everything else in the room is clothes and broken furniture, and then there is this antique that pays for the whole room. Online there are reports of the series producers sneaking into the lockers (not on camera obviously) and planting valuable items for the buyers to find. I'm so disappointed. Now when I see that show, I see the obvious manipulation of the outcomes. Without these planted items, obviously the show would be about people who lose a lot of money and would be less interesting.

I'm tired of being lied to by reality TV. There should be large disclaimers at the beginning (or hide it in the credits even) that say the outcome is manipulated. That is all.

Dec 21 Already

2009-12-21T01:36:00.002-05:00

Can't believe it's the 21st of December. Christmas is only days away. Ah, what a crazy month it's been.

Plaza de Toros

2009-10-13T02:39:00.000-04:00

Me standing in front of the great doors of the bull fighting ring (Plaza De Toros) in Seville, Spain. May 2009.

The End of Credit Card Consumerism May Be Near

2008-08-11T12:44:00.001-04:00

For more than four decades, the shopaholic America has shown an insatiable desire to spend until our credit cards melt. Yet today, a sharp slowdown, record-high gas prices, high consumer debt levels, a plunging real estate market, and the growing green movement all seem to be conspiring to dethrone the credit card way of life.

read more | digg story

The Culture of Friends

2008-05-20T13:55:00.001-04:00

With digg, myspace, facebook, and twitter, it is easy to track who your friends are. But these tools not only track friends gained, but also friends lost. It's sometimes surprising to look at your friends list and realize who is not on there any more...

read more | digg story

Give Up, Go Home: All The Good Keywords Are Taken (Or Will Be)

2007-11-20T20:45:00.001-05:00

When starting a new business, entrepreneurs have a dream. They dream that there is a great untapped demand out there, who are looking for something and not finding it. It's just not true. We're looking at a future (very soon) where every good keyword is marketed to agressively. And they're unbeatable.

read more | digg story

Hilarious Indian Music Video

2007-11-03T01:09:00.000-04:00

I don't want to offend anyone, but I couldn't stop laughing when I watched this.

http://www.break.com/index/absolutely-hilarious-indian-music-video.html

Maybe it's better to recommend you watch it and let you figure out for yourself why it's so funny. But let me just say that it's the translations that I can't get enough of. "Do you want that sign Benny Lava?" It really does sound like they're speaking English yet it makes absolutely no sense!

Business Development for Busy Freelancers

2007-09-25T17:05:00.001-04:00

Sometimes as a freelancer, you may find that you get so wound up working on your trade that you forget about running your business. Business development is vital because it involves creating a pipeline of assignments so you don’t run dry. Here are some of the strategies I use to ensure that business keeps coming in.

read more | digg story

Freelancing: How To Create Multiple Income Streams

2007-09-25T17:01:00.001-04:00

What do you do if you have one main client and for some reason the work from that client dries up? Perhaps the client goes out of business or goes in a different direction or just has a lull in business?

read more | digg story

Want To Be An Astronaut? NASA Accepts Applications Online

2007-09-25T13:17:00.001-04:00

NASA is hiring a handful of people over the next year to join its astronaut training program. The requirements? Must be willing to travel.

read more | digg story

Apple: Unlocked iPhones Might Become Bricks In A Future Update

2007-09-24T17:32:00.001-04:00

Apple has issued a statement after the stock market closed today saying that using unlocking software "will likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable" once a future Apple patch is applied.Is this just half-hearted talk from Apple, or have they got an update ready to go already?

read more | digg story

CNN.com: Seven Soldiers Died in Iraq Today; Now Buy Life Insurance

2007-09-12T19:58:00.001-04:00

We're all used to contextual ads by now. You're visiting digg, and you see advertisements for iPods. But is there any limits in online advertising? CNN.com is running a story about how 7 American soldiers died in Iraq today. And the ad banner reads, "What if you died today..."? Should life insurance be sold alongside obituaries?

read more | digg story

$2 million yacht plunges to its doom (PHOTOS)

2007-08-14T19:39:00.001-04:00

In March, a 55-Foot, 62,000-Pound Carver Marquis Plummeted From its Sling With Two Men Aboard. Here's What Happened.

read more | digg story

Nerds on Site From The Nerd's Perspective

2007-07-03T18:26:00.001-04:00

I applied to Nerds on Site back in May, because I thought being an independent consultant as part of a larger company would push my current consulting business to a higher level. Well, after 5 weeks of trying to set up my first appointment with them to talk, I give up. If this is how they recruit, how do they treat their employees?

read more | digg story

Why Do Consumers Put Up With Apple?

2007-05-24T14:02:00.001-04:00

From the iMac, to the Mac Mini, to Apple TV - Apple has a history of releasing products that lock consumers into limited choice, and almost no ability to upgrade later. So why do consumers love this company so much?

read more | digg story

NASA Opens Zero-G Parabolic Flights To The Public!

2007-05-22T20:00:00.001-04:00

Want to experience weightlessness, but don't want to pay the Russian government $20 million? For a mere $3,500 you can take a flight in the famous NASA "vomit comit". The flight includes 15 parabolic maneuvers, each one making you feel weightless for about 25 seconds. An absolute bargain if you ask me!

read more | digg story

Outsource Your Homework to India

2007-05-22T19:53:00.001-04:00

TutorVista is an Indian company offering round-the-clock tutoring, homework help and test preparation services to students. For $100 a month, students get unlimited help with various subjects. Over 2,000 American families have signed up for this service.

read more | digg story

Google Invests in Sergey Brin's Wife's Company...

2007-05-22T19:46:00.001-04:00

$3.9 Million doesn't seem like a lot of money to Google. But it makes a decent wedding present to Sergey Brin and his new wife Anne Wojcicki, who were married a couple of weeks ago. Google invested the money in Anne's company, 23andme, "an early stage biotech company focused on helping consumers understand and browse their genome".

read more | digg story

Domino Day

2007-05-08T19:00:00.001-04:00

No idea if any CGI was used in the making of this commercial, but if there wasn't, this idea was brilliantly executed.

read more | digg story

FlexWiki 2.0 Beta 1 Released

2007-05-07T15:46:00.001-04:00

FlexWiki, the most popular .NET based wiki framework, just released the first v2.0 Beta. This is a major release, with tons of enhancements over v1.8. This release features .NET 2.0 support, enhanced security allowing pages to be secured at the wiki, namespace and topic level, and many more features. Give it a try.

read more | digg story

Freebase: The Free Internet Database Hits Alpha Stage

2007-05-02T21:48:00.001-04:00

I just received my signup code for alpha testing Freebase. The possibilities are endless for this: it's like Wikipedia, in a relational database form. Imagine you could simply run an SQL query to retrieve a list of all beers consumed on Diggnation along with the episode number? Its now possible!

read more | digg story

Into WOW? This Video Is Hiliarious

2007-05-01T23:36:00.001-04:00

I don't play World of Warcraft, but Oh My God this is hilarious. Some guy is leading a group in an attack. But someone had the brilliant idea to stick-figure ANIMATE what hes saying. Really really funny. Old maybe, but still great. "Hit it like you mean it."

read more | digg story

5 Things To Know About Harems Before You Get One

2007-05-01T21:51:00.001-04:00

You’ve heard about them. You’ve fantasized about them. You’ve dreamed about one day owning your own. But are you really mature enough to have your own harem yet? With great harem comes great responsibility. You might want to read the following five facts before you decide to invest in one.

read more | digg story

Second Life Releases the source code

2007-01-08T12:51:00.000-05:00

I'm very much into Second Life at the moment, so the idea that the source code for the client is now available is an exciting development. I expect some really obscure but annoying bugs will be fixed in short order, and some of the top user requested enhancements will come quickly too.

read more | digg story

Oops sorry! Man Ties Up His Neighbor and Lights Him on Fire... By Mistake!

2006-09-18T19:08:00.000-04:00

A 55-year-old man in Austria believed his neighbor kidnapped his teenage daughter, so he tied the man up. When the neighbor denied kidnapping the daughter, he poured gasoline on him and set him on fire. One hour later, his daughter comes home from a secret holiday she took with her boyfriend. Whoops, sorry about that neighbor!

read more | digg story

Microsoft To Enable User-Created Xbox 360 Games!

2006-08-14T14:30:00.000-04:00

Great! I was just thinking about this the other day! I want to be able to create my own XBox 360 games...
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Talking on the eve of its Gamefest event in Seattle, Microsoft has revealed XNA Game Studio Express, a new product which will allow indie developers and students to develop simultaneously on Xbox 360 and PC, and share their games to others in a new Xbox 360 'Creators Club'.

read more | digg story

You Heard It Here First: The End of Web 2.0

2006-08-05T02:34:00.000-04:00

Has anyone seen the BusinessWeek cover story on Kevin Rose from Digg.com? Well, first of all, the cover is outrageous. Maybe preposterous is a better word. Kevin's wearing a dorky hat, cheesy headphones, and giving a two-thumbs up pose. And the words across his chest say he's worth $60 million. Which he isn't. He owns 30% of a company with $3 million in revenues and no profits.

The picture scares me. The hype on the cover scares me. It's Internet Bubble mania all over again. It might be time to sell your tech shares, we're headed for another 2001.

More signs? Many of the premier "Web 2.0" companies are starting to fall out of favor. There is a lot of MySpace backlash. Del.icio.us's traffic is apparently in freefall. Netscape is offering to pay people $1000 a month to post links to their site instead of digg. It's madness.

Mark my words. The party is almost over. Who's going to have the worst hangover after this one?

read more | digg story

Truly Amazing! Motorcyclist Hit By Speeding Car - Lands on Feet!

2006-08-01T00:11:00.000-04:00

One of the most amazing things I've seen in a while. A guy on a motorcycle is hit by a car that runs a red light at high speed, and lands on his feet. Like a cat. Or a ninja!

read more | digg story

Crack Windows Passwords in Minutes!

2006-08-01T00:10:00.000-04:00

Ophcrack is a brute-force cracker of pre-computed hashes called rainbow tables. Simply burn the CD, pop it into the victim's computer, Ophcrack will boot into a Linux shell, extract the password file, and find a match. For more information on rainbow tables, see Rainbow table - Wikipedia

read more | digg story

Using the Emergency Brake to Steal a car?

2006-08-01T00:09:00.000-04:00

Ignition keys equipped with signal-emitting chips were supposed to put car thieves out of business. No such luck â?? but try telling that to your insurance company.

read more | digg story

Ignore this Post

2006-07-07T20:38:00.000-04:00

My main blog actually has a lower search engine ranking than this one! That's odd.

Here's a little link love to my other blog.

The Polyphasic Sleep Experiment is Over

2006-06-28T00:22:00.000-04:00

Steve Palina tried switching to a polyphasic sleep cycle 5 1/2 months ago. This involved taking six 30-minute naps per day, instead of one 7 hour sleep at night. He has now switched back to the "regular" way, and he explains why it didn't work for him.
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Whoo hoo! One of my submissions made it to the Digg home page. And I didn't even know it!

read more | digg story

Own a piece of Australia

2006-06-04T23:13:00.000-04:00

Get a small piece of land in Australia for $40. You can't do anything with it, but it's still pretty cool I think. Better than buying a couple of pixels :-)

---

Note, you don't actually own the land - just a unit in a trust that owns the land. Similar to sponsoring a child with World Vision - the money does not go to the child, but the child is a symbol of who the money helps.

read more | digg story

Save 3 Cents

2006-05-24T00:46:00.000-04:00

Now from Amazon.ca. Incredible Savings!

Norton Antivirus
Regular Price, $49.99. But if you act right now. Right this second, amazon.ca will sell it to you for $49.96. Enjoy the three pennies.

Europe 2006: Sepia Edition

2006-05-16T13:59:00.000-04:00

I'm addicted to Sepia.

No actually, I have decided to print and frame some prints from our trip in sepia tone. It will make a good wall display.

More of Paris

2006-05-14T23:06:00.000-04:00

Someone told me this picture would look good sepia. I agree. I love this photo - it's my favorite of this trip.

Spore

2006-05-14T01:17:00.000-04:00

People are calling Spore possibly the greatest game ever conceived, and it might not be an exaggeration. Having seen a couple of video demos of it (one at the Game Developer's Conference in March 2005, and one at E3 2006 just last week) I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Basically, as Will Wright explains it, it is a combination of Pac Man (bacteria level), Diablo (creature level), and Sim City (tribe level). You take a creature from single-celled organism, and have an active hand in it's evolution to sentient being. All the while, the computer controls the environment - pulling in more and less advanced creatures so that you are always somewhere in the middle of the food chain... Cool.

read more | digg story

Defeated at Musee d'Orsay

2006-05-10T00:28:00.000-04:00

I visited the Musee d’Orsay last week, and could not get in. The line up outside was very long – looked like at least 2 hours – maybe more.

My wife and I headed to the Louvre instead (across the street) and there was NO line. Not even 1 minute.

So as much as I wanted to see d’Orsay and the impressionists inside, there was no way I was wasting an entire afternoon waiting outside.

See more progress on: Musée d'Orsay

Falling In Love With Paris (no, not Hilton)

2006-05-07T23:18:00.000-04:00

And after a semi-horrific train ride from the ugly airport, we find ourselves in the Latin Quarter. Near our hotel. This is the first big gasp of our vacation - wow. Shops and restaurants as far as the eye can see - and much farther than the legs can walk...

Paris: City of Graffiti

2006-05-07T22:55:00.000-04:00

Paris does not offer a good first impression. The airport (Charles DeGalle) was not that great (a bit old) and the train between the airport and the city takes you through the worst parts of town. This was not a good start to our trip.

The last time I went to Venezia

2006-05-07T19:54:00.000-04:00

Venice is a “once in a lifetime” city. I can’t imagine ever coming back here, but it was worth visiting once.

When we first got off the boat from the airport, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I don’t think the city could hold one more person – it was elbow to elbow from the boat dock, all across St Marks Square. At that moment, I lost a bit of hope. “Three days of this?” I thought. Ugh.

The city has some redeeming qualities. Taking a private gondola ride was a must-do, even at 100 Euro. Shopping was plentiful and convenient. And the hotel staff and residents were always friendly.

The down sides were the number of visitors (it was PACKED). Restaurant food wasn’t that good. Can you believe that most restaurants charge a cover, even if you order plenty of food and drink? It’s ridiculous actually.

Anyways, grazie Venizia. But it was not my type of vacation.

See more progress on: Venezia

Focus on the Kettle

2006-04-20T01:01:00.000-04:00

Long exposure (5 seconds) and a flashlight.

My Condo

2006-04-20T00:53:00.000-04:00

I've been experimenting with long shutter speeds with my digital camera. This is 15 seconds looking from my kitchen out the side window.

One Red Paper Clip guy now has a year in Phoenix

2006-04-13T16:58:00.000-04:00

A brilliant idea! This guy started with one red paper clip, and has been slowing "bartering" his way to get a house. He traded the paper clip for a pen, the pen for doorknob, the doorknob for a coleman stove, the stove for a generator, the generator for beer, the beer for a snowmobile, the snowmobile for a trip to Yahk BC, the trip for a cube van, the cube van for a record contract, the record contract for a 1 year rent-free house in Pheonix....

And he's looking for his next trade!

read more | digg story

Is the Airplane A Simple Machine?

2006-04-12T16:47:00.000-04:00

We just recently celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers “first flight”. So on the surface, in 2006, you’d think that someone should be able to build their own plane pretty easy.

We understand the physics of lift and why planes go up in the air and why they stay up there. And why they don’t crash so easily.

But the problem with flight is that it’s a “no failure allowed” type deal. If you build your own car, and drive it around for a test drive, and the engine fails…. well, ooops. Call the tow truck. But if you build your own plane and the engine dies, well… who are you going to call?

Now mind you, gliders are engine-less planes, and even a full-size Boeing 737 with no engines can be safely glided for miles and landed safely. So not all “failures” are fatal. But still, it’s a scary proposition.

I mean, John Denver built his own planes. And look what happened to him.

See more progress on: build a plane

Saw the Russian Bolshoi perform Swan Lake

2006-03-25T23:48:00.000-05:00

Last night I saw the famous Russian Bolshoi ballet perform Swan Lake. It was an unexpected event, because I was asked to go only a few hours before the performance. (Free dinner, free tickets to the ballet – can’t say no, can you?)

Anyways, it was wonderful. I have always wanted to see a ballet, and the Bolshoi performance of Swan Lake was a beautiful “first ballet” for me. Highly recommend it.

See more progress on: see Swan Lake

Wild Horses

2006-02-27T22:10:00.000-05:00

Ahhh... a boy can dream, can't he?

Ruff Ruff!

2006-02-27T22:01:00.000-05:00

See?

Maybe I Was a Dog in a Previous Life?

2006-02-27T21:57:00.000-05:00

I have always had a thing for car tires. I don't know what it is, but when I see a nice emblem, a nice rim, and an exposed brake assembly, I have to take a picture of it. I have 20 pictures like this in my camera from yesterday's car show.

Me and My Car

2006-02-27T21:51:00.000-05:00

I swear, it's only a coincidence that I live 1.5 blocks from the only Lambourghini dealership in Canada.

Toronto Auto Show 2006

2006-02-27T21:44:00.000-05:00

I want to own a car that comes with a big red button on the dashboard. When I pick up a friend for the first time, they will ask "What does this button do?" And I will enjoy very much thinking up something outrageous to tell them.

How Do You Spend $87 Million in Stolen Cash?

2006-02-24T19:46:00.000-05:00

Thieves in London stole 50 million pounds this week ($87 million), but experts say the money is worthless until they can figure out how to get it into a bank. You can't buy a Ferrari with cash, apparently.

read more | digg story

Sony wary on PlayStation 3 launch

2006-02-21T09:53:00.000-05:00

Sony finally admits the PS3 will be late. Like everyone already didn't know that.

I like how they are blaming it on the lack of agreement by the standards committee. Like the delays are in know way their own fault. I'm going to try that at work one day --- "Hey boss, sorry I'm late. Microsoft IE doesn't fully support CSS."

Like, huh? Sony is late because they suck. In an attempt to get an edge on Microsoft, they chose technologies that are more expensive. Now they have to live with the consequences.

If anyone believes the PS3 will be out before 2007, I have a bridge to sell you near Brooklyn.

read more | digg story

Digg Starting to Lose It's Mojo

2006-02-15T16:57:00.000-05:00

I like digg. I like how the community gets to find stories to submit, the community votes them to the home page, and the community kills the ones that are no good. It's definitely got some advantages over the old-standard of tech news, Slashdot.

But sometimes I miss having objective editors. It seems that many stories that get promoted to the home page have little or no newsworthiness. For instance, a story that says "Top 10 Linux Commands" will sometimes make it to the front page. Is this news? No. Is this useful? Marginally. Would this appear on Slashdot? No.

Also there is the problem of duplicate stories. I did a search for "Nissan xbox" on digg, and no less than 21 stories came back matching that query. Now there may have only been two legitimate stories to submit: "Rumor has it Nissan is planning to announce a car with built-in XBox 360" and "Nissan announces a car with built-in XBox 360". Every other person who submitted a story had to have known they were submitting a duplicate but they submitted anyways. This may be spurred by the quest for glory - reputation is built in digg by the number of people who digg a story, so it is more advantageous to submit a duplicate story than to submit someone else's story. That is counter productive.

And the other problem seems to be a universal obsession with Google and Apple, and a hatred of Microsoft. How many times has a Google OS been reported there? Or a Google PC? Or a Google car? Every time some web site on the web somewhere mentions Google or Apple (which is every day, by the way) the story gets submitted to digg and gets dugg to the home page. Give it a freaking rest already.

"Google introduces new application"? News. "The original Google logo"? Not news.

And a story that says "Microsoft will harm your cat" will receive 20000 diggs.

So the three main problems with digg are:
* Stuff that's not news, old news, lame making it to the home page ("Top 10 Linux Commands")
* Stuff that was on the home page two weeks ago resurfacing
* Anything with Apple or Google in the title automatically being dugg

It may be a sign of the tech industry. Apple (iPods and Intel-Macs) are headline makers. Anything Google does will be watched closely as well. But honestly, those two topics need a moderator or something as they are out of control.

Need For Speed to blame for fatal crash?

2006-01-26T14:54:00.000-05:00

Toronto - Two teens accused of racing luxury cars on city streets before crashing into a taxi and killing its immigrant driver may have been influenced by a popular video game, police said today.

read more | digg story

How I met Heather Locklear

2006-01-19T00:54:00.000-05:00

I met Heather Locklear at the Toronto Motorcycle Show in 1983 or so. Got her autograph – one of my most cherished possessions.

Learn more about Heather Locklear

Boracay is Beautiful

2006-01-19T00:18:00.000-05:00

One of the most beautiful places on Earth.

See more progress on: Boracay

Disappointing

2006-01-19T00:08:00.000-05:00

Gastown is a restored area of town. The major problem I had with it was its proximity to a drug users safe haven.

Gastown is one street. So my wife and I walked from one end to the other. We decided instead of walking back along the same street to move one street over and walk back. Big mistake.

Guys lying on the sidewalk passed out. Shady drug users standing around. Its odd to have a tourist area right next to a street populated by a bunch of druggies, but there you have it.

There’s not much to it, so if you skip this you won’t miss anything.

See more progress on: Gastown

This is difficult

2006-01-17T14:15:00.000-05:00

Writing a book for a publisher is tough. You have to set deadlines for each chapter in advance and meet them. I found myself staying up all night at least once per week, just to meet my deadlines.

People have a romanticized notion of what it is like write a book. It’s not as fun as you’d think during the process. Writing, editing, reading proofs – ugh, a log of work.

But it’s definitely cool seeing your book in stores, on Amazon.com. I even saw my book in a book store in the Philippines once! That was cool.

See more progress on: write a book

Hubble Ultra Deep Field (6200x6200 JPEG)

2006-01-05T02:53:00.000-05:00

This is a link to one of the most spectacular photographs ever taken - the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Save for five foreground stars, every point of light in the photograph is a galaxy. This 1 million second exposure was taken over the course of 400 hubble orbits of the Earth, and is the farthest into space we have ever seen!

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Making Money

2006-01-05T00:32:00.000-05:00

Whohoo! I'm diving head first into the world of podcasting. Please come hear the first episode of my new series, “Making Money Podcast”.

Don't worry. This show is not about get rich quick schemes. You won't hear me talking about domain name squatting, setting up link farms, or how to make a killing in the growing Internet pharmacy business.

It's about ideas. Business ideas, investing ideas, and marketing ideas. I hope you come away from each show with one or two things that make you think, and perhaps lead to you to something big.

This show can be downloaded through iTunes. And you can subscribe to the RSS feed in your reader of choice.

Blogger gets a Cease and Desist for having top results

2006-01-03T22:58:00.000-05:00

Bjoern Harste is a well-known German blogger â?? he owns a supermarket and writes about his daily experiences at work in his Shopblogger blog. Now, he received a Cease & Desist by the Sozialgericht Bremen. Why? For having one of his blog posts appear in the Google results top ten for â??Sozialgericht Bremenâ??

read more | digg story

Unreal stabilized JFK assassination video

2006-01-03T13:31:00.000-05:00

When I visited a year ago, I specifically went to see the place where JFK was shot, and some of the museums and memorials around the area. Very interesting stuff.

It's fascinating to me that today, 42 years after the assassination, people still argue over "magic bullets", doctored film, and the alleged grassy knoll shooter.

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Incredibly high quality Quicktime stabilized version of the infamous Zapruder assassination footage. Hoax or no? Either way the video is absolutely unreal and a must see. Caution: Extremely graphic.

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Do you get less wet if you run in the rain?

2005-12-28T12:45:00.000-05:00

I've always wondered this question - do you get less wet if you run in the rain?

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Star Wars Fans Flee Net Galaxy

2005-12-22T15:53:00.000-05:00

This is interesting - I actually used to be a SWG member, but cancelled my subscription. Once I learned the new combat system was being rolled out, I resubscribed to give it a try. Apparently I was the only one. Everyone else is leaving...

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"Radical alterations to the Star Wars Galaxies universe are aimed at attracting new players -- but so far have simply caused longtime fans to abandon the game en masse."

read more | digg story

TiVo adds Apple iPod support to TiVoToGo

2005-11-24T19:45:00.000-05:00

TiVo Inc. is expanding its video recording service so users will be able to transfer recorded TV shows onto Apple Computer's iPods, according to an Associated Press report. By adding support for the MPEG-4 video format, TiVo hopes to capitalize on the immense popularity of Apple iPods.

read more | digg story

Every Playboy Centerfold, 1988-1997 (Mathematically Averaged)

2005-11-24T19:43:00.000-05:00

A mathematically average picture of every Playboy Centerfold from January 1988 to December 1997. An interesting artwork by artist Jason Salavon who uses bespoke software to transform data into patterns and artwork.

read more | digg story

It's true! Drinking cold ice water burns calories!

2005-11-19T02:57:00.000-05:00

Of course anyone with the slightest knowledge of thermodynamics could have figured that one out. 70 calories a day may not sound like much but its like adding an extra mile onto your run. Over the course of a year it adds up to about 27,000 calories burned. The best part is cold water just tastes better!

read more | digg story

"Wi-Fi" stands for... nothing

2005-11-08T16:23:00.000-05:00

I love posts like this!
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Phil Belanger, a founding member of the Wi-Fi Alliance who presided over the selection of the name "Wi-Fi" writes: "Wi-Fi doesn't stand for anything. It is not an acronym. There is no meaning."

An interesting letter about how "Wi-Fi" came to be, and what you should be telling people that ask you what it stands for.

read more | digg story

Child born from sperm donation traces father on Internet

2005-11-02T18:40:00.000-05:00

A 15-year-old boy born from anonymously-donated sperm used an online DNA-testing service and the Internet to track down his genetic father, a feat which suggests that promises of donor secrecy are worthless.

read more | digg story

Procrastination Hack: "(10+2) * 5"

2005-10-11T19:15:00.000-04:00

A great system for tricking your mind into actually working. Great for all the bored cubicle workers out there.

read more | digg story

World of Warcraft Spyware

2005-10-11T09:46:00.000-04:00

I have never played WoW, but I used to play Star Wars Galaxies. This blog reports how a software application associated with World of Warcraft checks every program running on your computer to see if it is a known cheat program. Interesting if true.

read more | digg story

Futurama is Coming Back on a Straight to DVD Release

2005-09-27T14:32:00.000-04:00

The past rumors have now come true, Futurama is back. An interview with Billy West confirms everything.

read more | digg story

Amazing MMORPG tale.

2005-09-17T23:18:00.000-04:00

Players in MMORPG 'EVE online' recently spent 12 months infiltrating a guild in order to assassinate it's leader and take it's assets. Read the original article here.

read more | digg story

Be In The Wedding Crashers!

2005-09-17T01:49:00.000-04:00

This is cool. Insert your own pic into the trailer of The Wedding Crashers.

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Google Blog Search Launched!!!

2005-09-16T16:54:00.000-04:00

Google's latest service "Blog Search" has been launched!

read more | digg story

Multiple Linksys WRT54G Vulnerabilities

2005-09-16T16:25:00.000-04:00

Several severe flaws have been recently discovered with Linksys WRT54G wireless routers. If you have one, patch it up now.

read more | digg story

How Michael Larsen Hacked "Press Your Luck"

2005-09-08T23:09:00.000-04:00

A fascinating story of the guy who took the TV game show "Press Your Luck" for $110,237. Big Money, No Whammies!

read more | digg story

Apple iPod Nano

2005-09-07T17:38:00.000-04:00

Take everything you love about iPod and shrink it. Now shrink it again. With 2GB (500 songs) and 4GB (1,000 songs) models starting at $199, the pencil-thin iPod nano packs the entire iPod experience into an impossibly small design. So small, it will take your music places you never dreamed of.

read more | digg story

Microsoft Delays Team Foundation

2005-08-30T21:46:00.000-04:00

Some of the most anticipated components of Visual Studio 2005, the tools known as Team Foundation, are being delayed from their initial launch date of Nov 7 to Q1 2006. Microsoft will instead offer one more beta to developers. Team Foundation includes tools such as integrated bug tracking, version control, reporting, and automated builds.

read more | digg story

kFreeBSD Live CD

2005-08-30T21:32:00.000-04:00

GING

Run a Debian system with a FreeBSD kernel from a CD -- just like Knoppix.

read more | digg story

Modding the Xbox in 10 Minutes

2005-08-30T00:50:00.000-04:00

In-depth, specific and, most imporantantly, easy to follow guide to modding your Xbox in under ten minutes without even opening it up.

(Particularly timely for me, since I just bought an xbox on ebay this evening...)

read more | digg story

the world's first photograph.

2005-08-30T00:39:00.000-04:00

One summer day in France in 1826, Joseph Niepce took the world's first photograph. It's a photo of some farm buildings and the sky. It took an exposure time of 8 hours. Voila! It had to feel pretty incredible, like magic.

read more | digg story

Watch Star Wars Episode IV... via Telnet

2005-08-16T15:32:00.000-04:00

This is really cool.

Type 'telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl' from a Windows command prompt or using Start > Run.

read more | digg story

Build a Mac OS X x86 machine to run OS X natively

2005-08-16T15:14:00.000-04:00

Hackers have now figured out how to get OSX running on almost any Intel based system. It might be worth a try. I've never been able to justify a Mac hardware purchase, but if I ever figure out what OSX is good for, I might just be tempted to get one.

read more | digg story

Mad rush for $50 computers

2005-08-16T14:41:00.000-04:00

Put some $50 iBooks up for sale, and get people peeing all over themselves in a mad rush to buy one.

read more | digg story

The Truman Show

2005-03-06T00:39:00.000-05:00

I saw the movie The Truman Show tonight for the first time in ages. It really is one of my favorite movies of all time. (I kind of wished they show Truman and Sylvia getting together at the end though. Actually, I just want to see more of Natascha McElhone.)

My New Photo Blog

2005-03-01T15:36:00.000-05:00

I enjoy taking pictures, and I strive to improve my skills in this area. With the advent of the digital camera, it's getting easier than ever to make good pictures.

So, with that I launch my photo blog, here:
http://scottspictures.blogspot.com/

I'm not saying I am any good, but I have some pictures I am particularly proud of, and so I will upload them there instead of here.

US Supreme Court Overturns Death Penalty for Minors

2005-03-01T15:14:00.000-05:00

From the New York Times, the SCOTUS has ruled that 16- and 17-year olds who commit crimes do not have the capacity to fully understand their crimes, and thus should not face execution if convicted. This is similar to a recent ruling that bans executions of people who are mentally handicapped.

Up until today, the United States and Somalia were the only two countries in the world that allowed executions of teenagers. Somalia is not exactly a country you ever want to share a "only countries in the world that do something" title with.

Hopefully, in time, the U.S. will realize that executions do not deter crime, and unfairly punish the poor and/or non-whites. Also, the court system is not perfect, sometimes convicting the innocent. We all know of cases where, due to DNA testing and other advances in technology, people are acquitted of crimes after 18 years in jail. The only thing worse than spending 18 years in jail for a crime you didn't commit, is being executed for a crime you didn't commit.

If the U.S. wants to impose harsher sentences for repeat offenders, I am all for it. Three strikes, however, may be a bit too strict. Then you end up with people who are given a life sentence for stealing a pack of gum.

According to the California Department of Corrections, over 65 percent of inmates serving second and third strike sentences were convicted because of non-violent, petty offenses such as stealing a pack of gum or writing a bad check. At present, those who bear the brunt of the punishment are not the violent criminals that the law originally sought to target.

But today's SCOTUS is a landmark ruling in the right direction. Go USA!

2005-02-28T02:44:00.000-05:00

I have an unhealthy obsession with cool car headlights. A red Lamboughini. I bet they don't sell these bulbs at Canadian Tire...

2005-02-28T02:42:00.000-05:00

The most beautiful piece of machinery man has ever made.

2005-02-28T02:40:00.000-05:00

Porsche Carrera - Someone told me this car costs $300,000. I'm not sure I believe it, but it's a nice car. At least 5 times as nice as a $60,000 car...

Undersize Me

2005-02-18T19:12:00.000-05:00

The crappy documentary Supersize Me just won some kind of award. Of course, it's been well-documented that it contains a number of falsehoods and exaggerations, so once again the documentary genre has been distorted to become propaganda and people are more than willing to believe what they see on film.

There is a high-school teacher who is doing the same diet "nothing but McDonald's for 30 days" and is going to lose weight. He's already lost 13 pounds - so what does this say about the premise of Supersize Me? Basically flawed.

Other people have also taken up the challenge and lost weight. So why is Super Size Me claiming the filmmaker suffered all these ill effects? Oh yeah, because controversy sells. And doing a film that basically says eating fast food is bad for you is an easy sale.

2005-02-17T21:35:00.000-05:00

2005 Nissan X-Terra at the 2005 Toronto Auto Show

2005-02-17T21:32:00.000-05:00

3 pretty Lambo's at the 2005 Toronto Auto Show.

More on Salaries

2005-01-22T06:26:00.000-05:00

I skimmed a magazine article today talking about various business opportunities in the Philippines. One of the ones they were focusing on was opening a call centre. This is something I know a bit about, as my current job is writing software to support a call centre.

The article gave the example of someone who was able to start a call centre with a 50,000 Peso investment (about $1,000 US). They keep good workers, the article claims, by paying a good salary of 20,000 to 25,000 Pesos ($400 - $500).

The article neglected to mention over what period this salary was? Is it per week? Or per month? Or, gasp, per year? I already knew that minimum wage is 180 pesos per day. Spread over a year, that's about 36,000 pesos. So obviously this cannot be a yearly wage - more likely a monthly figure.

The disparity between North American and Asian salaries is an interesting topic to me.

Mabuhay, and Greetings from the Philippines

2005-01-21T01:50:00.000-05:00

So, my wife and I took a little vacation for the past two weeks to visit her family in the Philippines. This was my fourth time there, and I thought it was about time I blogged about the various experiences I had. Some of the differences between North America and Asia are quite striking, while others are a bit subtle.

While here, one of the first differences you will notice is the prices. Of course, everything here is priced in Philippine Pesos, which is currently about 40 Pesos to one Canadian dollar (or 50 Pesos = 1 U.S. Dollar).

For instance, I took a taxi today from my hotel to a shopping mall, about a 20 minute cab ride. The total fare came to 75 Pesos, or about $1.75 Canadian. In Toronto, the taxi meter reads $3.00 the moment you get into the car. I can recall taking a taxi ride here on a previous trip that must have lasted more than 1 hour, but which cost less than $5.

Of course, almost everything is on a similar scale of cheapness. I took my wife's family out to dinner (17 people in total), and the bill came to $70 including drinks. A bottle of the local beer costs about $0.50 retail.

Even imported products are cheaper. A VCD of Lord of the Rings (Return of the King) cost about 200 pesos ($5), while the DVD in Canada retails for more than $30. I asked if this VCD was "legal", and was assured it was. Since it had official packaging and was being sold in a proper retail department store, it had to be. I can only conclude that things such as music, movies, and books are more expensive in Canada because people there expect (and can afford) to pay more. It's cheaper here simply because it wouldn't sell for any more.

Anyways, it's a shame Asia (and particularly the Philippines) isn't closer to Canada. It's definitely a shoppers paradise. Our money goes so much farther here. I am sure more people would come if it were closer. A 24 hour plane ride is enough to scare most people off. ;)

The last thing I will mention about pricing here is the cost of labor. Minimum wage here is about $3 per day. Many retail stores and fast food chains have more employees than customers. I once walked into a fast food place that had about 15 people behind the counter, with only a couple of customers. Shoe Mart, the largest and most popular department store here, has hundreds of employees working on every floor. In fact, it looks like there is one person for each clothing rack. If you move from one clothing rack to another, a different employee comes over to help you...

In Canada, if you go to The Bay, you'd be lucky to find 20 people working on an entire floor (none of which willing to help.)

Anyways, I will definitely write more about my experiences here.

The BitTorrent Revolution

2005-01-10T01:42:00.000-05:00

Remember when Napster first came out? Man, oh, man. In the early days, it was fun. Pick a song, download it, and it was yours. After a while, Napster became unreliable. Many songs, although listed, could not be downloaded. You often had to try to download 4 or 5 different files before you found one that worked.

And then someone invented Kazaa. The nice thing about Kazaa was that you could download from 2 or 3 other computers at once. And Kazaa supported other file formats besides MP3, so you could find movies and sometimes (but rarely) applications. Still, using Kazaa was sometimes an exercise in patience. You would start a download, and then half way through the other person's computer would go offline. Most people only allowed 2 downloads at a time, so if you found one person with a lot of songs that you liked, chances were poor that they would stay connected long enough for you to get many of them.

Downloading a complete collection of something was next to impossible. I remember spending more than a month trying to get a copy of some business guru's training CD. I spent dozens of hours looking for track 6 of some CD where I had all the other tracks. It was frustrating.

And now we have BitTorrent. BT is a good improvement over Kazaa, in that you can download parts of a file from others who are still in the process of downloading the file themselves. That is, I could have 50% of a file, and you 25%, but I will be downloading some bits of it from you and you will be downloading bits from me as well. It's mutual sharing, which is nice. No leeches on BT.

BT is also much better at letting you download from multiple computers at once (10-15), so you are less dependent on a single individual. For this reason, BT is great at downloading large files.

BT could damage the movie and software development businesses. They're probably already feeling the effects. Imagine being able to download 10GB of files in a couple of days. That's what I have been doing for the last week or so. I almost have a copy of the entire 7 seasons of one of my favorite TV shows. That's 182 hours of TV. downloaded without much effort. Someone else was nice enough to package each of the seasons into a separate torrent file, and enough people are sharing that I can get each season in 24-36 hours.

What could be next? I am able to get 10GB of data like it was a Napster MP3 file of a few years ago. Are we going to be sharing terabyytes in a few years? I can't imagine why people would need so much data, but I'm sure it's on the horizon...