OK, someone has way too much time on their hands… (read this is dumb).
Most barcodes are 12-digit UPC barcodes, with ten digits at the bottom of the code and one small number to each side. Impress your friends by asking them to select a random item from the kitchen with a removable label and cut the numbers off of the UPC barcode; you can then proceed to read the numbers encoded in the lines.
I ran across this blog today.
While I wouldn’t go as far as saying it’s the worst ever, it’s definitely a piece of work. ColdHeat works by using electricity only as needed. It’s only HOT when it needs to be, when it’s touching the part to be soldered. It does so by using a couple AA batteries and a fancy ‘revolutionary’ product for the tip called Athaliteâ„¢.
Athaliteâ„¢ this stuff is FRAGILE.
I needed a soldering iron to make some quick connections on my motorcycle more stable and reliable than wire nuts. I also wanted them to be permanent. I have a nice butane powered portable soldering iron but it was out of butane. I should have just picked up a $2.50 bottle of that instead. But no, I shelled out $20 for this.
On my 3rd connection I pressed just a little too hard and the Athaliteâ„¢ crumbled before my very eyes.
Does the product work? Well yeah kind of, but it was way too hard to use, even tinning wires was difficult with it.
So now I romp back to the Shack and the dang replacement tips for ColdHeat are dang near as expensive as the unit itself. They are clearly going for the Polaroid model here. Give away the unit and zap you with consumables.
My advice, buy a better product, give this as a stocking stuffer to people you don’t like.
Their FAQ says: ColdHeat™ will become a ubiquitous household name synonymous with quality and performance much like Teflon®, Gortex® or Intel®.
It seems there are a few things they left out like: Cheep, frustrating, and more expensive in the long run. More like a Ronco product than any of the things mentioned above.
November 15th, (Today) transmedia was supposed to release glide effortless the ALL encompassing web wonder that would save the world from Google and Microsoft.
Well it seems they have effortlessly breezed past the release date without a lot of fan fair or mention. Today’s the day and now the website reads “to be released on the 30th”.
Is this just vapor ware? Where’s the beef? The Poohbah wants to know!
By day I’m a geek, after hours I’m still a geek.
The difference is, after hours, I’m a geek on my terms. I paid my dues long ago, and I should know better. I no longer do after hours consulting, unless the pay is real, real good, and it really, really interests me. I used to want to help others just because it was the right thing to do. But I learned long ago that at least when computers and networks are concerned, it doesn’t usually pay off.
I’ve pulled the all niters helping another company resurrect their one an only Exchange server that they didn’t have a backup of, on a failed raid array, and made good money doing it. That is rewarding, and usually appreciated because companies and organizations know the value of their data.
I’ve also been in ‘windows .dll hell’ and ‘look what I clicked on and downloaded hell’ from users who shouldn’t have computers in the first place.
My latest experience is certainly more of the latter.
Of course they did…
But who cares? Look at the phone would ya? just look at it? It’s butt ugly. Sure it works with iTunes, up to 100 of them. Whoopee…
The bottom line is if you have a phone, a cool phone, say a Razor, with good battery life, and removable storage that you can bump up-to say 2 gigs reasonably, maybe more. Perhaps even room for a micro drive, then you have absolutely NO need to purchase an iPod what-so-ever.
Steve knows this.
Phones are a commodity these days, it’s getting harder for providers to extract the extra buck from consumers for even wizbang featured phones because the basic phones offer so much.
People are catching on to the add-on services. Playing games on the phones for example, what a joke that turned out to be. But music/audio, that’s actually useful. Nearly everyone has a phone, and if you work out, having your phone be a decent mp3 player, that has value.
iTunes is still the premier infrastructure, and carriers don’t like it because they can’t make a buck selling you tunes over the air (yet). Give uncle Steve time to work his magic. When and if the phones make a big enough dent he’ll bend that direction.
He knows a capable phone is a serious threat to his iPod kingdom. Thus the artificial limit of 100 songs. There no other reason than that.
So in a nutshell, yes Apple put the screws to the Rokr. But moto ruined the product by making it about as desirable as a pet rock in terms of looks. Who wants that thing compared to a Razor?
the Mail Guy statue
Beneath this statute is a plaque that reads:
“Presented to the Yahoo! Mail Team by the good people of Yahoo! in recognition of tremendous intellectual effort put forth in order to defeat Gmail.
Not since the code breakers in Britain’s Bletchley Park deciphered Germany’s Enigma code during World War II has so much brainpower been focused on kicking an enemy’s ass.”
And in the cafeteria on chairs were these stickers:
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OK, now personally, I love it when companies do stuff like this. When they get in each others faces, and call em out.