RC Helicopters...those mini-Styrofoam ones

Around Christmas I researched buying one of those little radio controlled helicopters that one can fly indoors.  The going price, at The Discovery Channel Store, Radio Shack, and other brick and mortar stores ranged from about $59-$79, so I went online, and I found a couple in the $25-$35 range that looked exactly the same.  Now, well after Christmas, I cannot remember where I found the links, so I will re-discover them and let you know what I find.  From the discussions I've read, one is just about the same as the other, so a) why spend money needlessly when a cheapie is available, and b) I'll probably fly the thing into a brick wall and bust up the "indestructible" little fellah anyway, so I might as well waste less money.

 

Understand here that I am talking about the little foam bodied dual propeller dealies, not a "true" RC helicopter that a hobbyist would have.  If anyone has any suggestions about which one(s) to buy, please post a reply here.  Otherwise watch this thread for an update.

Woke up this morning to write a review...RoboForm

...and I can't remember what I was going to write about.  That's what I get for having put off running vinegar through my drip coffee maker for the past month.  It's running through now, so I'm stuck with a Diet Pepsi instead of what Natural Selection intended -- fresh ground coffee.  I'm destined to surf the web for an hour, then shower and head into work.

 

Oh.  Now I remember.

 

RoboForm.  It's great.  Yeah.  I'm one who has a thing about having a totally unique password for every site.  I know people who have one password, or at least one main one, for everywhere they go.  Uh uh.  That's just asking for trouble.  Yet, I've had an Internet connection since 1993, and was online in local BBS's since 1986...so suffice it to say I have a few online accounts racked up out here.  RoboForm handles the problem of remembering them all very nicely.  It installs a toolbar (eeek, not another toolbar...yeah) in your browser of choice, then it remembers all your login information for you.  You set one password to remember, and RoboForm fills all the others in for you, including login names, wherever you go.  It'll also remember all the form-filling information you want it to, such as your phone number, email address, street address, name, age...whatever, then you can use it when you visit a "sign up" page.  Very handy for entering those online sweepstakes, opening up yet another web account, etc.  It also allows one to save multiple identities, and it allows for multiple users on the same machine.  And one can look at one's login information, for any site, at any time (just make sure no one is standing behind you when you do, as all the passwords show up in all their textual glory).

 

Of course, they hooked me with their free trial, then it disabled itself.  At that point I usually say to myself, "That was fun," then uninstall whatever it is.  Not this time.  I bought three licenses, for three PC's in my house.  I use their nifty little GoodSync tool to keep the encrypted files sync'd up among my PC's via a secure USB flash drive.

 

Check it out at http://www.roboform.com/.

 

 Local Waukesha and Neighboring Area Coffee Shops: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/coffeejoints/

 

The Latest

Current items that trip my e-trigger:

 

Firefox 2.0 – Oh yeah.  Brilliant.  Sure, I upgraded my IE to version 7, and Microsoft did a decent upgrade.  A wizard would have been nice though, to warn me about the security changes and offer to adjust them based on my criteria.  With Firefox 2.0, none of that was necessary.  Everything simply worked, out of the gate.  And incompatible Firefox 1.5.x extensions were pointed out, and updates were offered where available, etc.  Very mature product.

 

Escape Pod – SF Podcast.  You’ll be mesmerized.

 

1080i LCD HDTV’s – LCD has finally come into its own, rendering plasma irrelevant.  Now if the prices can get near DLP, we’ll be smokin’.

 

SharePoint in the workplace – Goodbye public folders.  So long wonderful emails that get lost.  The BBS concept on the intranet.

 

TigerDirect.com, Buy.com, and Computer Shopper – Among these three, who needs to leave the house to shop, Geek?

 

Voting – It’s come back into vogue.

 

3,300,000 year old human skull --  Check out Scientific American for more information.

 

$50 Starbucks card from my in-laws --  I’m more jittery and crazed then ever, and at someone else’s expense.

 

Porn Music Ringtone – I googled ringtones and found this one.  Associate it with someone you love (or want to love), and get that vibe when they call.

 

1GB MicroSD Flash Card for my phone – My original PC was an Apple ][+ with 48K of memory.  My phone has a 1GB card.  Sign me up for the old folks home.  I can take movies of my kids, all the pictures I want, house MP3’s on it…and it just keeps lettin’ me.

 

Ghost Recon, the original – I bought this game back in 2001 and recently re-discovered it, and my peeps and I have been playing it online against each other now and then.  It stands the test of time.  Can’t see our weapons hanging out in front of us, but otherwise it still rocks.  Plus we can use our crappy old sloppy-seconds PC’s if we want to.

 

Smallville – It’s gotten more interesting now that Pa Kent bit it and the Green Arrow joined up.  I just wish I could remember to whom I lent some of the prior seasons’ DVD’s so I can get them back.

 

David Brin’s Uplift Novels – Folks have suggested I read these for years, and I finally started.  Fun.

 

Secure Flash Drives – Come on!  The ability to transport one’s files around, securely…on the cheap?  Buck Rogers, Baby?  Who?

 

 

Accessing Yahoo! Email via one's POP email application

At http://ypops.sourceforge.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=listarticles&secid=1 you can find a handy application that will allow your email application to upload and download Yahoo! email.  I use Outlook 2003, but there are instructions there for many different apps and platforms.

 

I haven't tried it yet; I just found it, and I'm not on my primary Outlook-bearing PC, but I'll give it a try and post the resutls.

---

How low will we go? Check out Yahoo! Messenger’s low PC-to-Phone call rates.

Pluto - Planet or not...irrelevent

Uh oh! I was actually serious in an email response to my old buddy Joel. Mostly, anyway. I had to go off on him a bit for forwarding the link (bottom of this email) to me that he did.

---

From: ebaleytherogue
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2006 9:27 PM
To: my peeps
Subject: RE: Fight On! Save our System!

I know you’re being tongue-in-cheek, but I’ve been following this debate for years, and I agree with ole Clyde Tombaugh himself, who when asked about Pluto’s nebulous (no pun intended) planetary status would usually sigh and say, “It is what it is.” The question of the rock’s designation was the least interesting to Tombaugh, and indeed, to most scientists who actually study the things. Dwellers in semantics give a rat’s ass for something to do, but those who analyze extra-terrestrial bodies’ compositions, looking for gases and metals, just care about what is there and how it got there, and not what arbitrary designations the composite globs themselves bear. I can mix a bunch of ingredients in a bowl, pour it onto a griddle, and someone will call it a flapjack and someone else will call it a pancake. Me, I’ll just eat the damn thing and know what I put in it.

Although I think the IAU’s definition of a planet is about as useful as trying to separate bad erotica from high class porn, I do tend to agree with them that classifying three or more dozen – to several hundred – more objects as Solar planets would be way too confusing…and would produce no positive or useful outcome, excepting the fun it would be to DVR The Today Show and watch them stumble through the topic. Thus, I propose the following alternative, by my alter ego, Dan Reams:

Definition of a Planet

By Dan Reams

A Solar Planet shall be:

• One of these: Mercury, Earth, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus or Neptune, or
• Of equal or greater mass than Mercury, with an orbit of primary slavishness to Sol (versus to another object)

Every other floating thing out there shall be considered one of the following:

• Planetary Satellites (which would or would not qualify to be planets if the poor bastards had not been captured by one of the “true” planets at some point, or they might also qualify as one of the below…)
• Asteroid
• Comet
• Dust
• Ice Chunk
• Meteor
• Black Hole
• Mini-Black Hole
• Light
• Heat
• Gas
• Plasma
• Black Matter
• Black Energy
• Star (of which there are also many varieties)
• Human-made artifacts
• Alien artifacts
• Weird “Other” shit

Now then, since that is done, it’s time to get back to the science. Let’s just admit we’re all circling the drain pipe, flotsam arguing over our names…as we all go down one by one.

Oh, and sure, I no doubt left out as many or more bullet points as I included. Feel free to pummel me about it.

---

From: Joel Ward
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2006 4:03 PM
Subject: Fight On! Save our System!

Give 'em hell, sciencey guys, give 'em hell! I'll buy the bullets!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2006/09/01/plutosave_spa.html?category=space&guid=20060901113030

Current Podcasts on my MP3 Player

            My current podcast subscriptions focus on science, IT, and writing topics, with a little local and world news thrown in.

 

http://radio.weblogs.com/0001014/categories/ipodderTestChannel/rss.xml "Juice News" title="Juice News" type="rss"

http://juicereceiver.sf.net/podcasts/juice-users.xml "Free Talk Live : Podcast" title="Free Talk Live : Podcast" type="rss"

http://freetalklive.com/files/dircaster.php "Buffy BuffCast" title="Buffy BuffCast" type="rss"

http://www.geekshow.us/buffy.xml "Best of VH1 (Video)" title="Best of VH1 (Video)" type="rss"

http://www.eonline.com/Podcasts/Daily10/index.xml?rss_daily10 "Midwest Today Radio" title="Midwest Today Radio" type="rss"

http://midwesttoday.podblaze.com/skin_midwesttoday.xml "On The Media from NPR/WNYC" title="On The Media from NPR/WNYC" type="rss"

http://www.kutvfreshair.com/podcast/rss/KUTVBloopers.xml "this WEEK in TECH - MP3 Edition" title="this WEEK in TECH - MP3 Edition" type="rss"

http://leo.am/podcasts/twit "WUWM News" title="WUWM News" type="rss"

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wuwm/news.newsmain?action=podcast&section=1 "WUWM: At 10" title="WUWM: At 10" type="rss"

http://www.wuwm.com/podcast.php?program=at10 "NPR: Technology" title="NPR: Technology" type="rss"

http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=1019&uid=a2a2d837f6845ca5cbb01619e202d695 "APM: Future Tense" title="APM: Future Tense" type="rss"

http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=510014&uid=a2a2d837f6845ca5cbb01619e202d695 "Science @ NASA Feature Stories Podcast" title="Science @ NASA Feature Stories Podcast" type="rss"

http://science.nasa.gov/podcast.xml "APM: Weekend America" title="APM: Weekend America" type="rss"

http://feeds.feedburner.com/beerdotcom "Escape Pod" title="Escape Pod" type="rss"

http://feeds.feedburner.com/escapepod "science friday podcast" title="science friday podcast" type="rss"

http://feeds.feedburner.com/SoulAmp "AP CelebrityFocus" title="AP CelebrityFocus" type="rss"

http://podcast.ap.org/podcasts/AP_CelebrityFocus.xml?SITE=WIMIL&TYPE=podcast&NAME=CelebrityFocus "The Naked Novelist" title="The Naked Novelist" type="rss"

http://thenakednovelist.libsyn.com/rss "The Publishing Coach" title="The Publishing Coach" type="rss"

http://possibill.audioblog.com/rss/publishingcoach.xml "The Writing Show" title="The Writing Show" type="rss"

http://www.writingshow.com/Feeds/feed.mrss.xml "ZDNet: IT Matters" title="ZDNet: IT Matters" type="rss"

http://news.com.com/av/z/pod/zdnet_itmatters.xml "Dragon Page Cover to Cover - Science fiction books & author interviews with Michael & Evo" title="Dragon Page Cover to Cover - Science fiction books & author interviews with Michael & Evo" type="rss"

http://dragonpage.com/podcastC2C.xml </outline></body></opml>

Summer TV for the Sci-Fi Set

            Been watching or almost-watching (queued up ready to be viewed on the DVR) the following this summer, in between camping trips, trying to keep my lawn alive, and trying to figure out how to do more with less (the mantra of the 2000’s) at work.

 

• Blade: The Series – Not since Highlander: The Series has a syndicated low-tech (no space ships, but vampires) SF/Fantasy show appeared with the style so well done.  SPIKETV
• The 4400 – Now in season III, it’s rolling along finally with more new episodes.  I have five of them on the DVR, but finding time when the wife and I can watch them together is tough, so they continue to accumulate.  I’ve never missed an episode.  USA NETWORK
• Eureka – Recorded the series premiere but have not yet watched it.
• Dead Like Me – Again, recorded the premiere….
• Nightmares & Dreamscapes: (Anthology series, Stephen King) – I watched the first one, cuz I like William Hurt.  It was fun because Hurt never uttered a single word.  Seen the Toy Soldiers thing in other movies though (Toy Story, Toy Soldiers), so not very original, but nice production values.
• Stargate: SG1 and Stargate: Atlantis – both series new seasons have begun.  SG1, I still miss Richard Dean Anderson, but it’s a solid show.  Atlantis, Dr. McKay is worth the price of admission; I strive to be that level of asshole every day.  I wish.