Getting Ripped off by Siegel's

2014-01-24

I'm going to admit right off the bat it was stupid of me to order a suit from the USA to Japan. The thing is the suit I wanted is not a common style and it was for a costume−ish party so I thought "what the heck". In my defense I did look around Japan. I found only 3 places that might have a similar suit. 2 in Tokyo, one in Osaka. But I wrote the one in Osaka and they never got back to me. I visited the 2 in Tokyo and they didn't have my size and I thought it would take them longer to get my size than to just order it myself. I guess though I should have listened to my first instinct.

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Brainwash

2013-09-21

I watched this fascinating documentary

and the other 6 parts. PS: DON'T SHOOT THE MESSENGER. I'm reporting what the documentary said not what I said.

Apparently in Norway the government equality programs define success as equal outcomes. In other words, until 50% of computer programmers are women the government equality programs are failing. According to the program though it's possible that's an unrealistic goal because men and women, on average, may be *born* with different interests. It's possible the best you can hope for is maybe 20% women engineers or less. The point being they maybe they should strive for equal opportunities not equal outcomes.

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How much does your commute cost?

2013-09-11

Apparently there's an app that simulates a taxi meter to give you an idea how of how much your driving is costing. It's also apparently missing lots of data. For example are you in traffic or going 70. Are you driving recklessly or conservatively. But, it got me thinking it could I calculate my own costs.

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A World With No Privacy

2013-01-23

It annoys the crap out of me when someone tells me I can't take a picture. Examples: I go into a department store. I want to take a picture of some cool merchandise that I want to show some friends. The clerk comes up and says "no pictures". I'm at a festival. Someone is selling some cool art/t−shirts whatever. I want to take a picture but am told "no pictures". In Customs there are signs everywhere, "No photography".

Well, if you've seen Google's Project Glass or things like Looxcie you can see a glimpse of the future. Those devices are always recording and while that might be the next generation of gadget, the one after that is something actually embedded in your eye or head or maybe even just contact lens that have a camera in them.

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Looking for a Backpack

2012-11-11

Today's spoiled consumer rant ... I'm looking for a new backpack. My old one is around 10 years old and fraying. I got it at Uniqlo back when they used to carry backpacks (they don't anymore). It's been great and I still use it. But, I carry my notebook PC more and more and it's less than smooth getting the PC in. It's got an inside pocket for a notebook but if the bag is full or if the area is cramped, like when I'm on a bus, then it can by hard to get the PC back in. Sometimes I end up just carrying it outside the bus until I have room to force the bag straight to get the PC to fit the pocket.

So, I'm looking for a new one and it's surprising with just a few, I would think, common sense requirements it's hard to find a bag.

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Why don't those stupid people believe in the Science?

2012-05-28

To all you people who believe in climate change and who can't understand why those stupid deniers don't believe the facts let me ask you....

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How much longer will most unskilled jobs exist?

2012-04-16

This is totally off the wall but a link on Hacker News about leaving at 5pm and a response to that link got me wondering, just how much longer will most unskilled jobs continue to exist.

For example, how much longer is the job of convenience store clerk even going to exist? Already most major supermarkets have self−serve checkout lines. Could a convenience store just have self service checkout? Of course there is the issue of security. Who's to prevent people from just walking out with the goods. But let's go a little further.

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ArtRage

2006-05-09

I friend of mine recently pointed out this program, ArtRage which is a Painter like program with at least one major difference. It's only $20.

ArtRage, Painter and similar products are arguably a different category from programs like Photoshop, PaintShopPro and the Gimp in that the later are primarily designed for image manipulation where as the former are designed for drawing and painting on a computer.

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Maiyahi

2005-01-11

I'm not sure where this started but links are pooring in for parodies for this song which I think is called "Dragostea Din Tei". Check them out at your own risk.

link1 link2 link3 link4 link5 link6 link7 link8

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Random Links

2003-07-19

Checking out Japaneze I found this fun site, Geisha Asobi Blog which links to the most random stuff. For example this site with Fake Japanese Products. Actually most of them are not done that well but a few made me laugh. Of course it was done better in the book 101 Unuseless Japanese Inventions which is also a bunch of fake inventions most of which actually seem almost believable.

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