hmc sends this to me today in email:
the baby showers are (finally) over (ramones onesie!), and now it’s time to figure out the big question: what to do about the car?
ok, yes, i agree that the miata is not exactly by any stretch of the imagination kid-friendly, much less baby-friendly, much much less baby and mommy as passengers-friendly. however, now my long-dreamed plans of getting a mini are now being “gently kiboshed” by hmc, who is claiming that mini’s may not be safe enough for infants. just because nhtsa didn’t have side impact ratings for the rear seat. it turns out the rear seat is, uh, too small to get that crash test dummy in there, thus no ratings. which doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s unsafe, it just means that the back seat is perfectly kid sized! (ah, as it turns out, the iihs has tested the mini for side impacts, and it turns out good for rear seats! although less so for me. hmmm.)
but now the complaint i’m also hearing from other nosy parents is that the two-door entry will make getting snapper jones in and out of the car a real bitch. who asked them, anyway?
great, now hmc is suggesting that we take caitlin’s old CORROLA instead. so instead of driving my miata, or finally getting my mini, i’m now driving a corrola. in the burbs. what’s next, dockers? cargo pants? golf visors?
at least ezra’s helpfully suggested some alternatives. aside from what i think of as the family-friendly audi a3, he chipped in with the mazdaspeed3, the rx8, and the subaru wrx. it looks like i’ve got some test driving to do.
and then, perhaps the answer to all my woes was unveiled today: the 2008 mini cooper s clubman!
the new Clubman features side-opening “barn style” cargo doors instead of the hatch found on regular-length Minis. Each door gets its own external handle and wiper, and the hinges are concealed by the doors when closed to keep the bodywork clean. Unlike the Clubman of yore, the new car will boast a third door.
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Just 3.2 of the Clubman’s additional inches go into the wheelbase, meaning bouncers and other big folks still won’t want to be crammed into the back seat, but now adults—instead of just grocery bags, briefcases, and children—might actually fit behind the front seats. Judging from the size of the rear door opening, though, we imagine it won’t be easy to get into and out of the rear seat.
The rest of the extra inches end up in the cargo area, where capacity swells by 3.4 cubic feet, a nearly 60-percent increase to 9.1 cubes. With the seats folded, 33 cubic feet of storage are available…
Mechanically, the Clubman is identical to the freshened Cooper that was launched in 2007, with a choice of 1.6-liter inline fours providing 118 naturally aspirated or 172 turbocharged horsepower hooked to a do-it-yourself or automatic six-speed transaxle. With 200 or so extra pounds to haul depending on trim and options, Mini figures the Clubman will take about a second longer to scramble to 60 mph, or 7.2 seconds for the S and 8.7 for the base model.
The Mini Cooper Clubman will launch in Europe mid-November this year, with a diesel option and some cool fuel-saving technologies—an idle shut-off feature like that found on mild hybrids and BMW’s clutched alternator that only engages when necessary—that we won’t see in the U.S. But we will see the Clubman itself early in 2008, likely starting in the low $20,000s. So, Mini fans torn between a growing family and a Mini: Now you can have both. Hope you like the silver trim.
check out this polish poster for the terror of mechagodzilla:
guess what i’m getting mika for her birthday?
from a wired news slideshow on birthing simulators:
in our continuing quest for better usability in our kitchen, i stumbled upon the holy grail: the muji kitchen cart:
i literally had my finger on the button to click “buy” when hmc asks, “how high is it?”
how high? what are you talking about? it’s kitchen island high, of course, what a silly question. but i perfunctorily check, and much to my horror: it’s only 27” high.
uh, what? how am i supposed to chop vegetables on something two feet high? i understand the need for compact living in small spaces in japan, but this is ridiculous.
crap.
we’ve been seeing a lot of movies this week, suddenly realizing that our window of opportunity to go out is quickly coming to an end. just this week we caught a couple of barbara stanwyck films at the pfa, paprika, and werner herzog’s new flick (infamously produced by la clipper elton brand) rescue dawn.
which one was my favorite? surprisingly enough it wasn’t the restored version of baby face, although it was was the best film, replacing the do-good morality schlock with the film’s original directives from Nietzsche: “woman is most powerful of all! she has the power to get whatever she wants! you must take it!” really, who can beat a young barbara stanwyck as she lays waste to men left and right as she sleeps her way up to infamy and fortune?
it was actually paprika, believe it or not. i hardly could, as i’m not really a big satoshi kon fan. i didn’t really dig any of his other movies (perfect blue, millenium actress, tokyo godfathers), although i did enjoy the paranoia agent tv series. what made this movie for me was twofold: 1. it was actually pretty interesting, almost what ghost in the shell 2 should have been, and 2. snapper jones was squiggling and wiggling throughout the whole movie. i spent an entire hour of it feeling her bop around.
that’s the best special effect i’ve ever seen.
enabling plants to cry out for help:
A small group of plants in a building in New York City is quietly exchanging information. Botanicalls opens a new channel of communication between plants and humans, in an effort to promote successful inter-species understanding.
Botanicalls allows plants to place phone calls for human help. When a plant on the Botanicalls network needs water, it can call a person and ask for exactly what it needs. When people phone the plants, the plants orient callers to their habits and characteristics.
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A soil moisture sensor in each plant sends information to an Arduino board which then passes the information to a ZigBee network. An XPort is used to send data via PHP to a mySQL database and to Asterisk, which drives the phone calls.
The code on the chip averages the data and makes decisions about when a phone call request should be sent. There are set thresholds, unique to each plant, for minimum and maximum soil moisture.
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Based on sensor information, plants are able to place outgoing phone
calls to a nearby telephone and express their needs. All phone calls
are coordinated by Asterisk, an open-source telephone system. When a
plant’s microcontroller determines that the plant needs to make a
phone call, it contacts a PHP script with the plant’s ID number and
type of need. PHP then packages this information and passes it on to
Asterisk which generates the call. When the call is placed, an audio
file in played in the voice of the plant expressing its need.
Current call types are as follows:
-a request for water
-a confirmation of & thanks for watering
-a request for more water if initial watering was not sufficient
-a notification of unnecessary watering
-a notification of extreme need for watering when plant is excessively dry
In addition to the outgoing call system, you can call in and be
connected to the plants to learn more about them.
interesting article in the nytimes about how taiwan is deftly moving to the top of the communications market:
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Etched into the back of every iPhone are the words “Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China.” Apple might as well have added “Made in Taiwan.”
With little fanfare, Taiwan companies are playing a big role not only in the production of Apple’s latest device but in a wide array of other communications equipment, including the broadband modems in homes across the United States and the next generation of high-speed wireless gear.
Apple does not discuss which vendors it uses, but news reports in Taiwan said that Hon Hai and Quanta received orders to produce millions of iPhone handsets, reports that those companies declined to confirm. Other manufacturers there were almost certainly involved because they provide components used in advanced phones, industry analysts said.
Taiwan companies also have a hand in making iPods and iMacs, they said, as well as game machines for Sony and Microsoft.
Taiwan’s rise as a communications workhorse is part of a decade-long transformation under way on this island. Already the world’s biggest producers of computer components, Taiwan companies like Compal Electronics, in addition to Hon Hai and Quanta, have used their expertise to branch out into new markets that use many of the same products.
By harnessing the ability to cut costs, churn out products quickly and work flexibly with customers, the Taiwan companies have become top makers of cellphones, smartphones, broadband modems, wireless routers, global positioning devices, networking equipment and other gear. They, like companies elsewhere, have also made deep inroads into China, where many of their factories are.
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Taiwan’s evolution from computer-making giant to telecommunications Goliath has gone largely unnoticed in the United States because companies here make most of their money as made-to-order manufacturers, not sellers of their own brand products. But Taiwan’s industrial makeover has helped its companies remain competitive in a world increasingly dominated by low-cost Chinese assemblers and by Japanese and South Korean companies with strong footholds in high-end components like flash memory chips.
The strategy of repackaging — finding new uses for computer components — has paid dividends. Companies on the island have captured 87 percent of the global market for wireless modems, 84 percent of the D.S.L. modem market and 70 percent of the market for personal digital assistants.
In the competitive cellphone business, Taiwan companies made 12.4 percent of the world’s handsets last year, up from 9.8 percent in 2005, according to the Institute for Information Industry, a government-affiliated research center. That share is expected to grow as brand-name companies like Sony Ericsson outsource more of their production to companies here.
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“The iPhone is a great example of where Taiwan is still strong: reliable sourcing, leading technology and complex integration,” said Allen J. Delattre, chief of the electronics and high-technology practice at the consulting firm Accenture. “Does the average person who buys an iPhone know it’s from Taiwan? Maybe. Do they care? Probably not. But if you look at the companies in Taiwan, they are behind the scenes, and that’s a good place to be because that’s where the value is.”
we went to our summer outdoor dance celebration at willits this weekend. which has gone from one of my most favorite things to do every year to one of my most conflicted events every year. while i love being out there in the sun with my friends and lots of nekkid frolickers, the last two or three willits haven’t been that fun for me. it doesn’t help that it’s often on hmc’s birthday weekend, as it was this year. three years ago i didn’t enjoy it because hmc wasn’t there. two years ago hmc was there, but we were filming secret projects and it was work and not so much play. and then last year we didn’t even go because of that fake mormon wedding.
the quick summary: it was actually really nice this year, and we had a great time. hmc enjoyed herself, and i was able to take good care of her without any fuss. plus, my saturday dj set made lots of people happy. who knew that people would like a jazz/french/latin/country/yodel/hip-hop set so much? there were all the people who were surprised by manu chao, there was the girl who was delighted that i was playing serge gainsbourg on bastille day, and then there was the couple who wanted to know what that lhasa de sela song was so they could play it at their wedding (good thing i didn’t drop it from my set, because i was that close). and of course, who doesn’t love the brass band version of 808 state’s pacific 202?
saturday night was unexpectedly trying, but at least there was a reason for that. you can’t fault the crazy for being crazy. can you?
things that i have learned:
fully functioning miniature hello kitty grand piano:
um, for your tiny mouse grand pianist, of course.
according to the sf chronicle, i drive through two of the top 4 traffic bottlenecks in the bay area every time i go to work:
Trucks, barred from I-580, jam onto this two-lane connector road, overflowing onto I-580 and I-880. The latest round of improvement is under way.
this one isn’t so bad, athough it’s the one i feared the most when moving to oakland. but it’s really really short, and it’s surprisingly easy for swooping.
Work under way to widen a highway that drops down to three lanes. Things should improve when work is finished in 2009.
this is the one that sucks eggs. every time i drive by, i see wide expanses of shoulder where there could be two more lanes, but then just aren’t. instead they squeeze five lanes into three, to accommodate huge girders left by the side of the road for the 680/880 connector they’re building. yet no progress seems to be made at all. 2009? are you f’ing KIDDING ME? where’s c.c. myers when you need them?
so yeah live earth concerts are going on around the world right now, but the question i have is this:
i suppose i could have just replaced them as they failed, but i don’t roll like that. plus, i have to secretly do it when hmc’s out of town so she’ll never notice. it’s like that folgers test, except nothing as LIFE THREATENING as switching a woman’s coffee. now that’s crazy talk.
alas, the question remains: what do i do with all these used (yet good) bulbs? can i give them to some homeless people? because i tried that and it didn’t seem to help.
just when you thought i was done splurging on appliances…
i found myself at the sears appliance outlet in san leandro. perhaps months, even years sooner than i thought, but hmc threatening to go to the laundromat to wash clothes is a good kick in the pants. anyway, i was prepared with my reviews from consumer reports, as well as the list of pg&e and ebmud rebate-qualifying models.
but i was only there to see what they had, right? just to survey so i could make my informed decision later.
and then i saw it…
the fabled steam washer:
SteamFresh™
LG’s innovative SteamFresh™ cycle makes it possible for you to refresh and reduce wrinkles in up to 5 garments at one time. Running late for work with no time to iron? Load a cotton blend shirt into the SteamWasher™ and select the SteamFresh™ cycle. You’ll be ready to go in just 20 minutes.
i have to admit, i was all tingley with appliance lust. sitting there amongst the rows of outlet washers and dryers, i calculated that at outlet prices, plus the ever revolving sales, minus the hefty $225 in energy rebates, that it wasn’t really that much more than most of the other front-load washers that i was looking at. ok, maybe a little more, but i might actually eventually make it back on water and power savings. (although by then i’d have already paid off my house and we’d be cleaning clothes with gamma radiation or recycled jet pack exhaust.)
they delivered it on the fourth of july. god bless america. it’s amazing. you turn it on and it chimes like a video game. and then it cleans your clothes like there’s no tomorrow. a tomorrow that only uses STEAM.
(again, let this be a warning to you. this is what happens when you buy a house. your cool gadget lust becomes crazy home appliance lust. while i was making chit-chat during the independence day bbq, all i wanted to do was to go home and do laundry.)
if it makes you feel better, china doesn’t value their own health any more than ours as opposed to a quick buck. health from the nytimes:
SHANGHAI, July 4 — China said on Wednesday that nearly a fifth of the food and consumer products that it checked in a nationwide survey this year were found to be substandard or tainted, underscoring the risk faced by its own consumers even as the country’s exports come under greater scrutiny overseas.
Regulators said the broad survey of foods, agricultural tools, clothing, women and children’s products and other types of goods turned up sizable quality and safety failure rates for products that are sold domestically.
The government said, for instance, that canned and preserved fruit and dried fish contained excessive bacteria; that 20 percent of the fruit and vegetable juice surveyed was deemed substandard, and that some children’s products were defective or laced with harmful chemicals.
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Regulators said, in effect, that goods sold in China were far more hazardous than the exports that were driving the country’s economic growth and now partly the subject of safety and quality debates.
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During the last month, regulators and quality inspectors say they have discovered candied fruit with 63 times the permitted amount of sweetener; excessive additives and preservatives in nearly 40 percent of the children’s snacks surveyed in western Guangxi province; fake human blood protein at hospitals; and food tainted with formaldehyde, illegal dyes and industrial wax.
no, i don’t have an iphone yet.
people keep asking me if i’ve got one, if i’m going to get one, when am i going to get one? the answer: “no, maybe, i don’t know.”
initially i wasn’t that interested, but as the days lead up to the release, i watched more of the videos apple put out on all the cool things it does. the best one was the one that explained the virtual keyboard and all the clever things they do with it to make it more usable. for example, using the built-in dictionary not only to suggest words, but to actually then virtually make the next letter in your word bigger on the keyboard, ensuring less typing mistakes from a tactile-less interface. fucking brilliant.
so honestly, sure, i’d love one. i haven’t even gone to see one in person (now living on the entire OTHER SIDE OF THE BAY from the apple store now) yet, but sure i’m tempted, especially since i’m getting tired of this nokia n80 brick i’ve been lugging around. plus now that i’m hooked on mobile internet + gmail + google maps, the whizzy iphone browser makes me all atwitter.
but do i have one yet?
no. why not?
because i spent my iphone money on a dishwasher.
cheryl’s stolen car finally turned up! it’s (mostly) intact! hooray!
next up: i get cheryl a club and give her a lecture on comprehensive insurance.
excellent and horrifying article in fastcompany (are they actually still around?) about the brilliance in marketing as well as the environmental cost of bottled water:
Every bottle of Fiji Water goes on its own version of this trip, in reverse, although by truck and ship. In fact, since the plastic for the bottles is shipped to Fiji first, the bottles’ journey is even longer. Half the wholesale cost of Fiji Water is transportation—which is to say, it costs as much to ship Fiji Water across the oceans and truck it to warehouses in the United States than it does to extract the water and bottle it.
The bubbles in San Pellegrino are extracted from volcanic springs in Tuscany, then trucked north and injected into the water from the source.
That is not the only environmental cost embedded in each bottle of Fiji Water. The Fiji Water plant is a state-of-the-art facility that runs 24 hours a day. That means it requires an uninterrupted supply of electricity—something the local utility structure cannot support. So the factory supplies its own electricity, with three big generators running on diesel fuel. The water may come from “one of the last pristine ecosystems on earth,” as some of the labels say, but out back of the bottling plant is a less pristine ecosystem veiled with a diesel haze.
Each water bottler has its own version of this oxymoron: that something as pure and clean as water leaves a contrail.
San Pellegrino’s 1-liter glass bottles—so much a part of the mystique of the water itself—weigh five times what plastic bottles weigh, dramatically adding to freight costs and energy consumption. The bottles are washed and rinsed, with mineral water, before being filled with sparkling Pellegrino—it uses up 2 liters of water to prepare the bottle for the liter we buy. The bubbles in San Pellegrino come naturally from the ground, as the label says, but not at the San Pellegrino source. Pellegrino chooses its CO2 carefully—it is extracted from supercarbonated volcanic springwaters in Tuscany, then trucked north and bubbled into Pellegrino.
