fell asleep on tuesday woke up monday afternoon

Sadly I'm not done ranting about alarm clocks. I found a model that looked like it was almost done properly so I decided to get it. You care to guess what store it was at? Best Buy? Target? Nope. Toys 'R Us. I could see going there if I wanted a pirate alarm clock, but why are they the only ones who sell decent normal ones as well?

So I get this thing home and plug it in. It says it has Indiglo. But of course it hasn't been done properly. Instead of lighting up when you hit the button, like in a proper alarm clock, it does an always-on and the button just sets the brightness. Fortunately one of the settings is off. But now if I want to check the time during the night, I have to hit the button four times instead of one. Outstanding work.

I then went to set the time. Pretty standard stuff. Except that it asks for the year as well. I don't need to know what year it is! I just need to know when to get my ass out of bed!!

Fortunately the new alarm clock doesn't seem to have any other stupid functions built in - no temperature or atomics - so I may be able to get some use out of it yet. For the record this is like the fourth time I've tried to replace my old one.

(I can just imagine an Apple alarm clock. Requires AT&T service and WiFi connection, charges you for a $10 firmware update to tell hours in addition to minutes, daily alarm downloads from iTunes store are DRM-enabled.)

While we're on the subject of badly designed things, it turns out that under New Facebook the posted items app won't actually let you post items. It's just for sorting things already posted. Way to put functions where nobody will find them, New Facebook.

The one bright spot in my badly designed day was that more Genesis Coupe news has come to light. It has gone on sale in SK, where the first review sounded pretty good, and a very well put together ad appeared on YouTube. Which is what I was trying to post.

october moon and rusty skies

I am trying to buy a new alarm clock, as my current one is in a bad way and I slept through it on Friday. The difficulty is that I absolutely require Indiglo, and that is exactly what you can't find. I saw all of two Indiglo clocks in stores, one with a ridiculous four-minute snooze and one billed as 'All-Night' Indiglo that never turns off. Which completely defeats the purpose. It's not much better online, where Amazon's results for 'Indiglo alarm clock' are three travel clocks, an iPod dock and a Tom Clancy book. Google chips in with an Indiglo thermometer.

It's also hard to find one that is just an alarm clock. I've ranted before about "atomic clocks." And telling the temperature just clutters up the display for the purpose of telling me what I already knew, that it's warmer in bed than out.

the stone gods did not make a sound

I randomly pulled up Top Gear's Africa special. Apart from the scenery I am amazed at how they were able to keep their heaps of junk moving every time they broke down. I know the presenters probably had car people with them but someone there was able to get them working again, and I admire that. It's also interesting how the cars evolve over time to adapt to whatever challenge they are taking on...at least two of them do.

I've been playing with the iPod touch for a few days, and unfortunately it doesn't work at work. There isn't a suitable WiFi network. Which I suppose makes sense, but it's no fun. So it's a funny thing. A cell phone, for example, is a cell phone 99% of the time because you can get a signal pretty much anywhere in the area. But with the iPod I am dependent on whatever WiFi signal I can get so half the time it's an amazing WiFi gadget and half the time it's just an over-designed iPod.

pirate watch: day 8

The thing with the Somalian pirates hijacking the Ukrainian ship full of tanks has been in the paper every day for a week, and a group of us have started following it at lunch. Lunchs haven't really had a story arc until now.

Today's news:

"Somali pirates on a hijacked cargo ship holding battle tanks and hostages said Thursday that they were ready to battle any commando-style rescue attempt."

where you'll be i'll know

Boss squared wants to change my role at work. I like my role at work.

We also have some pilot builds of a new pacemaker at work and we can't get rid of the damned things. We have tried four times to ship them and failed. There is nothing wrong with the parts - it's all paperwork.

I am still playing Spore but I have pretty much played the crap out of it. I have been rereading some books but I only have relatively few books with me so I'm kind of sick of them. Prodrive is weeks away and there are no good Firebirds online.

it was over before it started

Had another near miss on a Firebird - found an '87 Firebird Formula on CL that had the right color, wheels, transmission, engine...unfortunately when I called to see the car later that day it was in the process of being sold.

Finished rereading the Caves of Steel quartet - don't know what to read next. Maybe Catch-22 again.

I took the day off of work tomorrow, but I don't know what to do. At least I won't be at work.

you tell me i can't slow down

Diesel power has emerged as the dominating fuel in Le Mans series endurance racing, with Audi and Peugeot competing neck-and-neck for top honors. But that's about to change, if the Automobile Club de l'Ouest
(ACO) has anything to say about it. ACO, the body that organizes the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the LMS championships in Europe and North America, has announced new rules aimed at reducing the performance of the diesel racers to level the playing field with the gasoline-fueled competitors.

The new regulations would include air restrictors reduced in diameter by 10% and a decrease in allowable turbo boost on the oil-burners. The move is also aimed at impeding laps times in the name of safety, with a 3 minute 30 second La Sarthe lap time as the target, where the Peugeot 908s lapped the circuit in the low 3:08s this year.

Additional rule-book amendments include the banning of tire warmers, a reduction in the permissible size of rear wings and the allowance of only one wheel gun for each pit crew, all in an effort to reduce costs and raise lap times.

This is another reason I don't care for racing. You would think they objective would be to get around the track as fast as possible, but it's actually just to put on a good show. The only reason the C6.R and DBR9 battles at Le Mans were close was because the Corvette had to carry ballast.

Also, how can they argue these latest changes are for safety if they are banning tire warmers and reducing wing sizes? That's like saying my car is safer if you cut the brakes lines.

You could argue that by making the cars all the same you focus everything on the driver. But people-only sports don't put up with this. If one runner is faster than all the others they don't make him wear lead weights and a parachute. If someone is different that's just how they are.

I think racing cars should either be allowed to be as specialized as possible or left completely stock.

it's easier to be broken

I had a bit of a surprise at work today when I check my calendar and found I'd been signed up for a reliability statistics class. This was set up weeks ago but I will forget anything set up more than a week in advance. The instructor is a physics Ph.D. who retired and teaches physics, with this on the side.

He gave us homework.

I was amused and procrastinated so I could finish the last main objectives in Spore and do my laundry. So I waited to the last minute as usual. I finally got it done but it was a pain. This is why I LEFT school.

At least I have Monday off as a personal day. And the only person who knows (my boss) probably forgot.

drive until you lose the road

I signed up for an advanced driver's ed class at PIR. I was not able to swing it so I could take a day off and do that instead of work, but it should still be good. We'll see if they kick me out.

Since I finished that Brian Greene book I went back to my limited book collection and dug out an Asimov, one of my favorite authors.

LHC is finally being ramped to full power on Wednesday, although that is only for one beam - collisions won't take place for another two months, and then it will take six months just for them to figure out the first data. I have mixed feelings about HEP but I'm interested to see what they can find.

the weight of storm on memories

I finally finished reading The Fabric of the Cosmos. I got the book when it came out several years ago, but it came at as bad time as I was working out how to exit physics at that point. The first time I didn't even make it through the first chapter before I got fed up with the theories Greene brought up; fortunately after forcing myself through they turned out to be crap in the end. The book is OK - the first section is kind of annoying because Greene has to build up the current picture through history. The middle section is pretty good and has some interesting ideas. The last section of the book is pretty much just a rehashing of The Elegant Universe. The book is now four years old but I don't know how much further the new theories have gotten since they've just been finishing LHC in that time.

It's the time of year when a bunch of new games come out and I have been occupied with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 and Mercenaries 2. Which are pretty much exact opposites. My 360 was in a bad way the day I got Tiger Woods, but it somehow got over it and hasn't had any troubles since.

As for the games themselves, they are both sequels and don't seem quite as good as the previous incarnations. Tiger Woods 09 is just an evolution of last year's game. It does feature a new dynamic attribute system, but since I don't play like a normal person at least one of my attributes will take a whack after each round. Mercenaries 2 is more of a letdown - the original game was more organized and focused with the 'deck of cards' and the story was deeper. Mercs 2 also seems easier and shorter than the original. It's still pretty fun but won't be something I play over and over.