Welcome to the Wilcox Family weB LOG, your source for the latest Wilcox news, anecdotes, and rants; and, as Jack Benny quipped on his first radio show (March 29, 1932), “There will be a slight pause while you say, ‘Who cares?’â€â€
There aren’t very many digital cinemas, nationwide. There were 83, if memory serves, when Star Wars Episode I opened. We were fortunate enough to live near one.
Try this digital cinema finder, from Texas Instruments, the folks who bring you DLP, to see if there is one near you.
DLP is, quite frankly, an amazing improvement over film. I have heard that there are some theaters with a newer DLP projector that has even higher resolution.
According to Reuters News, the Toyota Prius hybrid may have a software glitch that causes it to stall out.
Because Reuters does not make their articles available after 30 days, here is the text of the article:
Toyota investigating Prius stalling complaints
DETROIT (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp. said on Monday it is looking into complaints in the United States that its popular Prius hybrid car suddenly stalled or shut down, often at high speeds on highways.“We have been alerted to the fact that some owners might have a problem,” Toyota spokesman John Hansen told Reuters. “We are going to go back to our service records to find out what owners have had a problem like this and how many.”
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it has received 13 complaints so far of the gas-electric hybrid vehicles stalling or stopping unexpectedly.
Toyota dealers attributed the problems to a software glitch in the car’s complex computer system, according to some complaints.
NHTSA spokesman Rae Tyson said the agency is monitoring the complaints but that no formal investigation has been launched.
Toyota has sold 34,225 Prius cars so far this year. There is usually a waiting list to buy the vehicle, which has a gasoline engine with an electric motor to increase fuel efficiency. The Prius gets as much 60 miles per gallon of gasoline.
Thanks to Christine Bennett for this Roomba-inspired entry.
There are few things in life cooler than exploring other parts of our Solar System. Along those lines, here are a couple of great links recommended by Brian Cortez:
Apollo 13, We Have a Solution—An accurate and fascinating account of the engineering and preparation that allowed Apollo 13’s crew to return safely to earth. If you have seen the film, you definitely want to read the real story.
Doug “JavaDoug” Ross contributing this link to the MSNBC Tech/Science Slide Show Archive, which contains more wonder.
Artist Lynette Cook is achieving fame via her amazing work on extrasolar planets. Be sure to look at her other work as well.
You may have received an e-mail encouraging you to boycott, for the next year, two major gasoline vendors (click for a sample), to help achieve lower gasoline prices.
It is an interesting idea—certainly better than the “don’t buy gas for one day†e-mails that have gone out—but it can't work, from an economics perspective.
There are two major factors affecting gasoline prices. The first is the price of crude oil. The second is demand on gasoline itself.
Currently, crude oil production worldwide is at or near a maximum, reserves are shrinking, and much of the oil obtained is less desirable (and more expensive) for use in gasoline production. In addition to decreasing supply, the rapid growth of industry and the middle class in China is rapidly increasing demand on crude oil worldwide. Crude oil prices are going to continue to increase until production increases significantly or demand decreases.
Then there is supply-and-demand for gasoline itself. Worldwide, refineries, which convert crude oil into gasoline and other petroleum products are typically operating 24/7. This means that gasoline production is at its maximum. Due to environmental and security issues, few, if any, communities are willing to allow refineries to be built in their areas, and refinery construction can't happen overnight in any case.
Do we really think that gasoline companies are inflating prices by 100%? They are making a profit, to be sure, but certainly not at that margin. (Ironically, considering the e-mail I received, our local Hess station—one company targeted by the boycott—is typically charges 10¢ per gallon less than its competition.)
If we are to reduce the price of gasoline, we must decrease the demand. This can be done via carpooling, using public transportation, and buying hybrid or elecric vehicles. (Another topic is why the hydrogen fuel-cell powered car is a bad idea, but I'll save that for another time.)
It is estimated that gasoline will have to stay consistently over $3.00/gallon before people will stop buying the worst offending SUVs (some of which get as few as 7–8 MPG) and get something more fuel-efficient. (Many SUVs do much better, and the average MPG for an SUV appears to be over 20 MPG. My thanks to Robert Hardman for correcting my original misstatement.) I'm ashamed that our minivan only gets 20 MPG around the city, but our choices were limited by the need for space for our 4 children and personal economics. If we did not have a daily need for a larger vehicle, we would not have bought one.
What we ought to be doing is forcing the government to make its fleet vehicle purchases electric-gasoline hybrids or straight electric, demanding increases in public transportation allocation, subsidizing hybrid vehicle purchases (and other energy-saving projects) through tax breaks, and building more nuclear plants—which the US has a near-perfect safety record in operating, and which do not contribute to global warming or other air pollution—to supplement or replace natural gas-, coal- and oil-fired plants.
Anyway, that's my typical more-than-2¢.
(Thanks to Maryjane Case for the topic suggestion.)
So, amid the two-to-three Phishing schemes I receive every day (those that make it past my K9 Spam filter), and the insistence of credit card companies that they are doing everything within their power to prevent credit card fraud, I was fascinated by this very amusing attempt, described at www.ZUG.com, to determine “How far could I go before they would check my credit card signature?â€
Thanks to Mark Sohmer for the link.
The following is an excerpt from a Reuters Article (which probably won’t be available a month from now). I say, anything that gets kids to stop watching television is probably a good idea.
Commercial Leaves Kids Too Scared to Watch TV
LONDON (Reuters) – A Marmite commercial that parodied 1950's science fiction film “The Blob” has been banned from all children's' programs in Britain after leaving kids too scared to watch television, the advertising watchdog said.
…
Six people complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that their toddlers had been terrified by the adverts, with four refusing to watch television after seeing them and two suffering nightmares.
I am amazed at how early children can identify with what is on television. One evening Naomi, at age 16 months, picked up her paper “Zoo Pals†plate, held it vertically in front of her face, and hummed a little song as she rotated it back and forth slightly. Nichelle told me that Naomi was mimicking the commercial.
Naomi is also enthralled with “Blue’s Clues,†and David, somewhat reluctantly, had to share his stuffed Blue dog with Naomi until Nichelle was fortunate enough to find one costing only a few dollars for Naomi. We have some old episodes on tape, and Naomi loves the program. Singing the theme song (which I do very poorly) is enough to get her dancing. I find this impact of television both fascinating and a bit frightening. (By the way, if you have heard a rumor that Steve Burns, the original (and best) host of “Blue’s Clues,†is dead, then you have been misled.)
We, like many Americans, are waiting for our tax refund from the Treasury Department. I was poking about the IRS Web site, and discovered an online tool that will tell you when the IRS received your return, and when your refund check will be mailed. Give it a try!
Of course, I lean Libertarian (although I understand the needs of a Federalist system), so I want much more of my tax money back, but that’s a different topic.
Check out Nathan Sawaya’s amazing full-size Han Solo in Carbonite sculpture, as well as his other work.
This makes me want to throw my Lego out the window, especially when I consider all the trouble I have had putting together a decent-looking Thunderbid 2 model. ::: sigh :::
(Thanks to Christine Bennett for the link to Nathan Sawaya’s site.)
[doug]Nichelle is making me post this, because I used it as leverage to get her to finally post an update on all the cute things Naomi is doing.
As you know, we had some computer problems, which seem to have all been solved. However, after upgrading to Trillian 3.0, Nichelle complained that she was not hearing any sound from Trillian.
We tested sound from other sources, Media Player, Flash animations, etc., and everything was fine, so I logged on to her screen and checked the Trillian preferences. Sound was enabled, and I looked everywhere trying to see what was wrong.
A few minutes later, she looked through the sound preferences for Trillian, and discovered that, despite the fact I had looked at the setting three or four times, I completely overlooked the checkbox marked, “Do not play sounds when I’m away.†Nichelle was, of course, as usual, in “away†mode all the time, because she tends to just be at the computer for a few minutes.
So, I get an “F†in troubleshooting for that day. ::: sigh :::