Remember that old computer?

In 1989, I got my first computer - a 286 briefcase portable with a 1.2 mB 5 1/4 floppy, 512k (that's kilobytes) of ram, monochrome (amber) EGA video, and for the low-low price of around $200, I put in a 30 megabyte hard drive.

Fast-forward to today (pretty soon, nobody will understand what "fast-forward refers to), and transfer that entire 30mB of data from a laptop computer (more powerful than a supercomputer in '89) to a handheld computer/telephone hybrid (a droid X) in only 10 seconds.

Tech sure has changed, hasn't it? Remember taking typing class on the old IBM Selectric?

E-cigs. Worth the Hype?

In a word? Yes.

I recently purchased my first electronic cigarette - Crown Seven Hydro Imperial.

The starter pack I purchased contained 2 atomizer cartridges (what would be the filter part of a normal cigarette), one battery (the tobacco portion of a normal cigarette), and a charger (USB charger - plug it into any computer or car charger with a USB port on it). Each cartridge is supposed to be equal to two full packs of cigarettes, and I've found that on my basic cig needs, it will last for about 3 days, if not longer.

The starter pack I got was the Crown Seven Hydro Imperial. The first cartridge was good, but the second was dry by the time I got to it - not so good. However, the normal refill packs have the cartridges not only capped at each end, but also sealed inside individual plastic baggies - much better!

I'm now on the second cartridge from the refill pack, and I went with the black cartridge as opposed to the white. Why? For basic aesthetics, is all - a filter should be different from the rest of the cig, right? The black, full strength cartridges, seem to work very well, lasting at least as long as any normal two packs of cigarettes might last for me. I do tend to do a "puff-puff-pull" to get a good, hot vapor, but I understand this is normal for e-cigs. On the other hand, I also tend to put the cig back in my shirt pocket after a few pulls, thus using less than I would from a real cigarette.

Price: The local cig/tobacco shop sells two brands of e-cigs: Crown Seven, and nJoy. The Crown Seven starter pack cost about a dollar more, but the replacement cartridges only cost about $10 for a pack of 5, as opposed to nearly double the price for the nJoy cartridge pack.

I feel that the choice I made for an e-cig was the right one for me. I enjoy a decent smoke, and if I decide I want to take a drag from my cigarette, I don't have to worry about where I am! After all, I'm not blowing smoke in the middle of a crowd of people, I'm just inhaling a little water vapor, and then exhaling it.

As for health, I haven't done any research, but I would guess that "smoking" an e-cig is much healthier than smoking my regular cigarettes. There won't be any tar - the byproduct that carries the majority of poisons and carcinogens of any cigarette. It's nearly as inexpensive as it is to purchase tobacco and tubes and make my own cigarettes as I want them. And, I no longer feel the compulsion to finish the cigarette once I pick it up - if I take one drag, and stick it back into my pocket, it's okay! I haven't "wasted" my cig!

To some, this may look like a glowing recommendation for the Crown Seven brand - and I suppose it is, in some part. However, I do admit to a total lack of experience with the other brands, so if you know someone who personally recommends a different brand, then perhaps they're the person you should be listening to. For me, though.... Crown Seven has hit a home run!

Japanese Relief Funds - Please, send help!

Help Japan
Donate to Japan earthquake relief efforts
103,353 people donated $6,411,585 so far


In about a week and half, there have been donations of just under 6 and a half million dollars to the various agencies helping Japan after the earthquake and tsunami crisis began. Of course, these numbers are as reported on the Yahoo! homepage, so it's entirely possible there are numbers elsewhere that I haven't seen. Such as, how much has been donated by residents in Second Life - I know that I made a small donation there, too.

Even so, we have to realize that $6.5 million is just a drop in the bucket, compared to the complete devestation they have suffered. $6.5 million won't feed all that many people, when you consider how much it costs for the aid organizations to actually transport so much equipment, get it in place and running, and keep it's own people fed. $6.5 million won't rebuild more than just a few blocks of homes - let alone rebuild the entire cities and villages that have been wiped away!

$6.5 million. It's not a sum of money that gives anyone the right to pat themselves on the back, for. We need 10 times that much money in the relief efforts, just to get started.

Please help. Donate. These are people much like yourself, who have lost their homes. People just like your neighbors, who are freezing in the winter's cold. People just like your family, who are going hungry, and unable to feed their own children. Just as you would help your friends, neighbors, and family members, give a little help to these people, too. Donate to the Red Cross, or another favorite aid organization, today.

$6.5 million is a wish for help. Let's boost that number much higher - let's hit $65 million, and accelerate up to $6.5 billion, because that's how much it'll cost to even get started on a real recovery for these people.

Let's really try to help.

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U.S. Citizens gather in Comments section to Display Racism

"What's that?" you may ask. It's simple - Yahoo has a news article about how the Chinese news service used footage that appears to have been stolen from the movie "Top Gun" in order to show supposed air force drills. Big deal - give it to the Copyright lawyers to deal with, right?

Well... just handing it over to the copyright lawyers won't make it "big news." You have to make a big deal about it, first. And so, a big deal has been made. A news service/propaganda machine has spouted it's infringing story, and we've made a big deal about it.

What bugs me the most isn't that they've taken a well-known movie and stolen a few seconds of footage. What bugs me is the way we've responded in open forums; responses that lack entirely in any level of intellect, but show only hatred, and blatant racism. I hope what you read in the comments section below the article makes you feel as disgusted as I feel... How can we make, or keep, friends in and of other nationalities/nations if we cannot stop saying such hurtful and hateful things? Knowing that it's our own citizens saying it just make me want to leave the country out of out and out embarrassment.

Here's the link to the page we're talking about: http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thecutline/20110131/ts_yblog_thecutline/chinese-air-force-drill-looks-awfully-similar-to-top-gun?mwp_success=NONJS_POST_SUCCESS#mwpphu-container

Suprise Swells vs Surfers; Photographer Breaks Law to Save Man

Along the Northern California coast, there is a place called Maverick's. This is where you'll find some of the biggest names in surfing, and some of the biggest waves to be tamed; each winter, Maverick's holds and invitational tournament - that's right, if they don't invite you, then you can't get in.

In past years, the staff, and photographers at the Maverick's invitational event were all part of the safety crew, all connected by radio, so that they could all direct whoever was closest to move in and rescue any surfers who were in trouble. However, in 2008, the NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) became a part of the picture, enforcing a ban on personal watercraft in the area, as part of the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary, one of the NOAA's pet projects.

Because of the NOAA ban, the entire system for making contact, and maintaining a safety crew at Maverick's was broken down. A large number of surfers opposed the ban in the first place, citing safety issues, but the NOAA passed it, anyway. This meant that, 2 years after the ban went into effect, there was no new safety apparatus in place to replace the highly efficient safety system from before.

On Saturday, the surfers were in closer to shore than usual, because of smaller than expected waves, when, suddenly, a set of 25 foot tall ocean swells were spotted moving in. The surfers frantically tried to paddle out to sea far enough to safely catch the waves without being caught in the froth, but a few didn't make it. Jacob Trette, age 30, was one of those.

Trette was sucked over the falls by the first wave, driving him underwater. When he finally surfaced, another wave was already crashing down on his position, forcing him back underwater, and driving his body through the rocky reefs.

One of the photographers, Russell Ord, saw that some of the surfers were in dire need of help, and took his jet ski out into the waters to aid those who needed it. he got one surfer, Alex Bottello, and pulled him out of the danger area. It was then that Ord saw Trette, floating face-up in the water. Ord zipped over, and jumped in to get Trette onto the rescue sled behind his jet ski, and rushed him in to the shore.

Jacob Trette was taken to the hospital, where he was placed in an induced coma. Trette has many injuries, not the least of is to his brain, due to lack of oxygen for too long a time. The hospital has reduced his body temperature, in an effort to keep his body from requiring as much oxygen, and hopefully saving him any additional injury.

Maverick's used to have a very efficient system in place to help prevent just this sort of incident from having such horrific consequences, but the NOAA decided to step in, and declare any and all personal watercraft illegal in the area. Personal watercraft, as many people already know, are far less damaging to the environment than larger vessels are. The "jet" propulsion method makes it nearly impossible to cause injury to a sea animal without crashing directly into them - which any halfway sane person would avoid doing, if only for their own survival. Larger watercraft normally use an exposed propeller for propulsion, which can easily injure or kill various kinds of sea life. The wake from personal watercraft is much smaller than that from larger vessels... not to mention, being nothing at all, compared to almost all of the waves that come through the area. The amount of sand pulled away, and pushed back onto the beaches when there are decent swells. The kelp ripped away from reefs, and cliff faces eroded into the ocean by the action of nature's waves. Compared to that, the personal watercraft are harmless toys.

If Maverick's had been permitted to keep personal watercraft on hand, if only for safety reasons, they could have kept, and maintained, the excellent safety system they already had. Unfortunately, the NOAA stepped in, just like a bunch of busybody bureaucrats with almost no real understanding of what they were doing, and took all of that away. If Trette never wakes, or wakes with brain damage, we can safely say that it's the NOAA's fault.

And if the NOAA decides to cite Ord and ticket him for taking out his personal watercraft to save a life, perhaps we should see what we can do to get the NOAA shut out of such decisions, and replaced by people who actually a)know what they're talking about, and b) have a real interest in the preservation of the seas, instead of a political interest. Let the NOAA have their weather systems and oceanography; let people who actually care take care of the rest.

Super Bowl Madness at All new Heights

I'm not saying that the fans have reached all new heights with "Super Bowl Madness." I'm saying that the NFL has reached new heights in it's madness!

Why?

I just read that the NFL will be charging $200 per ticket - to stand outside the stadium and watch the game on TV.

In text-speak, that reads "O - M - G."

Does the NFL even consider what sort of can of worms they're opening? By putting fans outside the stadium, standing in the weather, they may find themselves liable for every runny nose belonging to one of those poor, ripped off fans.

Here's my suggestion, and this is just if you really do feel the need to be on the stadium's grounds during the game. Load up a pickup truck. Include these items: A small generator, 52 inch TV, and antenna. Also a grill, cooler full of iced beers, plenty of brats and buns with relish, ketchup, mustard, etc. A number of cheap, folding lawn chairs. Drive to the game, park in one of the incredibly oversized parking lots - you should be able to see the stadium just about at the horizon - and set everything up. TV just under the topper, protected from the weather, so you can watch the game. Generator up by the front of the truck, so it's not too loud. Grill, nice and hot, brats, turning golden over the heat, with the buns optionally toasting on the top rack. Wearing a warm coat, a cold beer in hand, enjoy the tailgate party with any friends who were willing to come along and also spend cash on the overpriced parking. After all, this is the exact same experience the NFL is offering for 200 bucks a head, but you can get it all for the price of... what? A $50 parking fee?