I found this scan of an article via Reddit in some newspaper where a crazy “computer expert” named Arnold Yobenson claims hackers can blow up computers with emails. Look out below!

Needless to say, I think it will be rather difficult to “alter the electrical current and molecular structure of the central processor” to turn your computer into a bomb that will “blow your family to smithereens!”.<

The Boston Red Sox opened their 2008 season at Fenway Park yesterday with a bang! Being 2007 World Series Champions, it was only fitting that we had the 2007 World Series banner unfurled and the players received their rings (or bling as owner John Henry calls it). It was a great day from what I could tell from the highlights on T.V. I wasn’t able to attend the game or watch it on T.V. since I was at work.

Daisuke Matsuzaka threw a gem and the Sox won the game over the (lifeless) Detroit Tigers. Manny provided the offense with a triple turned home run on an error from the Tigers, who had 2 on the day. Go Sox!

I think the most touching part of the day though was the arrival of Bill Buckner to throw out the first pitch. This guy has been dogged by a dumb play in the 1986 World Series for over 20 years. Driven out of the Boston area by Boston media and fans, I wasn’t sure this guy would ever be able to come back. But, the Red Sox ownership shows time and time again that anything is possible and had him throw out the first pitch yesterday in a roar of cheers from Boston fans. Buckner deserves this and more. It wasn’t his fault the Sox lost the 1986 World Series. Heck, there was a whole other game to play that they could have won. Yeah, it was a sucky play that he should have had, but hey, shit happens. You play the game and move on to the next one.

Anyway, great stuff that Buckner was able to bask in Boston Red Sox cheers in the sun one final time. Cheers to you Bill and I hope we’ll see you at Fenway park again in the future!

According to an article I found via the BBC, Astronomer’s found what could be a baby planet, just outside of our solar system a mere 520 light-years away. This is basically “across the city” as far as space is concerned. I find stuff like this to be really really cool. Definitely puts things in perspective as far as how you fit into the universe.

I guess the image above (via radio emissions from its nearby star), courtesy of the BBC article, shows the new planet in the top right. I’m no rocket scientist, so I can’t see much, but I’m sure its cool!

Anyway, apparently this will be a Jupiter like planet and may have started forming in the last 2,000 years. Take a look at the article here!

I’ve never enjoyed being a customer of Charter Communications for my cable provider. In fact, I’m drooling with anticipation for the day Verizon brings FiOS to my area. Anyway, it seems every time I have to deal with this company I want to scream. Several years ago, it was issues transferring service to someone else in my apartment. Long story made short, they wouldn’t do it and I had to return all of the equipment and my apartment mates would have to re-subscribe. I basically told them all it seemed they wanted was to get their $50 setup fee again. Talk about extortion.

This time, its my HD DVR receiver that wasn’t working properly. Shows don’t play back very smoothly and the HD service is sometimes pretty chopping. Not what you call a stellar T.V. viewing experience.

I call their customer support. The lady I talked to was pleasant and nicely explained that I should just take the receiver to my local Charter location and they’d swap it for a new one. Since one is down the road I said, no problem. Better than wasting 2-4 hours of my day waiting for a service guy, right? I head down there this afternoon to swap out my box. I walk up to the counter and explain my problem to the young lady. The conversation goes something like this:

One thought before I continue. Charter doesn’t want customer calling because they can’t handle the same question over and over again? Hmm…

So I begrudgingly schedule the appointment for Monday between 5pm and 7pm. Two hours I have to sit around waiting for the cable guy. To the young ladies credit, she apologized for the crappy customer service. So even their own customer service employees know that Charter isn’t the best when it comes to making and keeping their customers happy.

Update: So, I just came home and am having issues with live playback now being choppy and pausing on me. Doesn’t matter if its live programming or recorded. After spending an hour on the phone and getting passed to 4 customer service reps, I was hung up on.

Quick note to Charter here, being transfered rom people who are English speaking to obviously outsource people in India who you can hardly understand is annoying. Note to Charter, this infuriates annoyed customer even more. Perhaps you should improve your customer service and transfer people to where they can get their problems resolved, not to people who can’t help let alone not be understood.

Anyway, being the persistent bastard that I am, I called back and talked to two really pleasant people. Josh, who is a customer service rep, passed me on to his supervisor named Chris. She was able to basically just help me out by crediting me for my service for the weekend since I can’t use it (why should I pay for something I can’t use) until a technician can come out Monday and figure out what the issue is.

I just wanted to post this update to point out that not everyone in Charter’s customer service department is completely useless. There are genuine people who care about their product who want to help you. In the end, I’m getting a credit for 3-4 days of service I can’t use. Though its not perfect, its a decent gesture to at least keep me a happy customer. However, as soon as Verizon FiOS comes through the area, Charter is getting the boot!

I was finally lucky enough to get my hands on a Nintendo Wii. Some people at work had a line on some that they needed for a giveaway and I was able to get the last one at a local Walmart. I’m still stumped as to why on earth these things are still so hard to get, but they are. I ended up paying about $325 for the Wii Console and a second Wiimote and Nunchuck. The first night, I think I played Wii sports for about 6 hours. Man was I sore the next morning. Funny how you try to play the sports like you would in real life. Reminds me of Morpheus asking Neo, “Do you think that’s air you’re breathing?”

Now I have the new Zelda game, which is fun, but hard. It also takes a lot of time to play, which I don’t have a lot of. We’re also borrowing a copy of Mario Party 8, which is kind of silly but is fun to play with friends. I can imagine its hilarious as part of a party or something. I’d like to get a couple more “group” type games like Super Smash Brothers Brawl or Mario Galaxy. I think the game prices are fairly reasonable, but I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself.

Anyway, if you’re lucky enough to find one in a store, I’d definitely get one. Its worth the money!

I awoke this morning at 7am (I usually get up around 8:00 or 8:30 for work) to Shannan telling me she couldn’t get in her car (a 2005 Honda Accord). It wouldn’t unlock. I’m thinking, great, you left the lights on and the battery is dead. Time to call AAA. But, I decided to go out and take a look. Turns out, the lock was just frozen. We received about a foot of snow yesterday, so my guess is some of it got in there and shut her out.

The FOB wouldn’t unlock it. I couldn’t unlock it with the key either. I ended up gaining entry by opening the rear window and getting in that way.

This got me thinking. Why don’t cars have heated locks? We have heated seats. We have heated mirrors. I’m sure some car has some other “heated” feature I don’t know about. So why is it locks aren’t heated? I think this would be a great feature you could activate from the keychain FOB for your car. Can’t get in ’cause the lock is frozen? Heat ‘er up and you’re set!

Note to car manufacturers, if you do this, I want credit! You heard it here first!

By the way, something else I just noticed today. Newer cars seem to only have one key port and its on the drivers door? No more passenger door lock? That cut my chances of unlocking it the “traditional” way in half. Thanks guys.

I had to run some errands for work today and needed to stop for some gasoline. I pull up around the gas pump at a local Exxon/Mobile gas station and get ready to “fill ‘er up”. Typically I pay at the pump since I hardly ever need anything inside a convenience store, so I look at the screen on the pump and it says please pay inside. Arrgh, ok, no problem.

I walk up to the door to see a hand written sign that says “System is down. Registers too.”

Ok, I’ll go around the other side where I can see the attendant to see what’s up. He points at the sign.

I look back at him puzzled (the door is locked).

I pull my wallet out and flash some cash.

He shakes his head no.

No? No?!?! In this day and age of technology, we can no longer accept the almighty dollar bill in its original form? We’ve become so dependent on credit and computer driven register systems that we can’t accept a $20.00 bill? You’ve got to be kidding me. As I walked away, I felt bad for the guy as I heard some lady scream at him through the door. Lady, its not his fault. He’s probably under instructions from the proprietor to do what he did.

Anyway, my business went down the street to another, competing gas station station (where I did go in and buy a Coke, shame on me). I knew a lot of people can’t calculate change without a register, but actually take cash in hand? Come on now!

Scott Jangro wrote a nice piece today about how insanely wrong bottled water is. The most abundant resource on our lovely planet and we bottle it up to make a profit, burning fossil fuels along the way. Some of my friends would call me a Tree Hugger Scott, but I’m not that insane about it. I don’t even recycle much anymore (only because its too difficult in my condo and the building doesn’t have facilities for it. Yes I’m lazy too.).

But, what is the real cost of bottled water? Do a Google Search and you’ll find article after article about it. This article goes on to show how much impact bottled water has on the environment. I don’t know how accurate it is as I haven’t done my own research, but common sense tells me that bottled water does more harm than good, at least the way we Americans treat it. I’ll admit there are parts of the world where clean water is hard to come by, making bottled water a necessity. But we don’t (and shouldn’t) send them hundreds of cases of personal bottles. Five or ten gallon jugs please. You know, the reusable kind you send back to the company for reuse.

Bottom line. You pay $1.50 (sometimes more) for a bottle of something that you can find for free. Think about how much oil goes into the manufacturing of the bottle. Then how much to put the water in the bottle. Then to deliver it to you. Then to recycle it (if you recycle it). Starts to seem…insane?

Update: David Wilk from TurnToTap found this post and gave out some kudos for writing it (should thank Jangro since he got me thinking about it. I took a look at TurnToTap and there seems to be some good information there. Check it out!

I just wanted to wish anyone out there who reads my blog as well as all my friends and family a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Hopefully everyone is enjoying good food and good company on this great day!

If you haven’t noticed, my site has a new, fresh look to it. Not being a CSS designer by trade, this is something I have struggled with for a bit. I’ve always wanted a nice, clean site, but haven’t really had the skills to do it on my own. Having seen a few sites that I sites that I admire and poking around some How To articles on using CSS and DIV elements to lay out a site, I think I’ve figured it out. The site colors haven’t changed much, but the layout has. I’ve stretched things out a bit more, which gives me a little more space to separate the different page elements. This hopefully makes the site “easier” to look at.