Feb 26
They may make great products, but Netgear’s email tech support is probably the worst I’ve ever encountered in the tech industry.
They just told me to contact the HomePlug Powerline Alliance to obtain a firmware update for a Netgear product. Seriously!
They also seem to have problems remembering their own names over there. Eric had become Fred by the end of the most recent email.
Feb 25
The Symphony of Science series is up to five videos now. Every single one is inspiring and makes me wish that Carl Sagan were still alive.
Feb 24
The Chile Pepper Institute at New Mexico State University sells merchandise: shirts, books…and seeds. You can buy seeds for over 60 varieties of chile peppers, half of which have been created/designed by the university.
30 seeds for any of the peppers are just $3, but the Bhut Jolokia (the hottest in the world) will run you $5.
The Bhut Jolokia has a scoville rating of over 1 million. (Tabasco sauce tops out at 5,000.) YouTube proves that you won’t die if you eat one, but death may be preferable to the misery that follows.
My favorite line: “I feel like a bomb went off in my stomach.”
Feb 24
GM is shutting down Hummer.
What will rich white people use to take their kids to soccer practice now?
Feb 23
Comic-Con is outgrowing San Diego and Anaheim’s putting together a proposal that could make my fair city its new home. If this happens it would dwarf NAMM, currently the largest regular convention held at the Anaheim Convention Center.
The Staples Center is also vying for attention, but Anaheim has the “You definitely won’t get shanked around the convention center once the sun’s down” vibe in its favor.
Feb 23
Feb 22
Feb 20
I wish someone would make a charging station that’s big enough to hold a modem and router.
Oh wait, someone has. Unfortunately that someone was Ikea so it looks like butt.
I’m stuck using this plain white “prison chic” box until I find something better. Preferably something with a cherry finish and mitered rope detailing, but I don’t see Ikea going upscale anytime soon.
Feb 18
This spray bottle costs $169.
It electrically charges salt water and turns it into a magical household cleaner, potentially removing ammonia and bleach from your cleaning routine completely.
The spray that it produces will not only kill more bacteria than household bleach, but you can safely drink it too. That part hurts my brain.
It turns out that zapping salt water with low-voltage electricity creates a couple of powerful yet nontoxic cleaning agents. Sodium ions are converted into sodium hydroxide, an alkaline liquid that cleans and degreases like detergent, but without the scrubbing bubbles. Chloride ions become hypochlorous acid, a potent disinfectant known as acid water.
“It’s 10 times more effective than bleach in killing bacteria,” said Yen-Con Hung, a professor of food science at the University of Georgia-Griffin, who has been researching electrolyzed water for more than a decade. “And it’s safe.”
In an LA Times article housekeepers at the Santa Monica Sheraton call this ionized water “el liquido milagroso” – the miracle liquid.
Bill Nye endorses it…but I don’t know, man.
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