/dev/null/kevin

I found this in my "save for later" folder:  It's the solar powered mouse.

Is there a big market for this?  Do a lot of people need a wireless mouse - outside?  It's not like you can just use it all day and then leave it outside - at night - to recharge.  You would actually need to use this outside to get any benefit.  Also, wouldn't your hand cover the solar panel?  Maybe this is just for people with desks by windows that face the equator.

But this leads to a bigger question:

Why use wireless mice at all?

I've seen plenty of people sit at their laptop, plug in a wireless mouse dongle into the USB port, and the use their wireless mouse all of three inches away from it.  To me this just seems like extra trouble for no gain.  You need to keep the mouse recharged (solar or not) and now you have two things to lose instead of just one.

I travel with a simple mouse with a retractable cord.  It's small, works, and doesn't need batteries of any kind.  Mine also has cool LEDs to make it flash colors.  I got mine on sale for $5, but even at the full retail price of $25 it's still cheaper than any wireless mouse out there.

Yes, I can see a need for a wireless device if you give presentations and like to be away from the laptop.  I'm not talking to you.  But I'm pretty sure you're not giving your presentations outside in the sun.

Telemarketer called.  I put the phone in front of the TV playing Sesame Street.  I checked on the phone a few minutes later and he had put me on hold (spewing more of their spiel).   Fine, it's your dime, dumbass!  I'm not paying for this, you are.

Twenty minutes later (Sesame Street ends), I'm still on hold.  Put phone on mute since TV is going off.  Toss phone under couch cushion so I don't have to hear it.

40 minutes now and I hear the faint beeping of the "off the hook" noise.

I win!

Attention Please!

This is a slash: /

This is a backslash: \

Don't say one when you mean the other.

Also, it is unnecessary to say "forward slash."  Just say "slash."

Thank you.

P.S.  This is also Slash:

I haven't traveled for business in a while.  I made the following mental notes:

• Cat on a leash - always an omen of a good flight.
• Excuse me, can you not hold your coffee over my computer?  kthxbai.
• You don't need to pre-board, punk.
• Noticed computer-to-computer WiFi network called "Free Public WiFi".  Riiight.
  

On the plus side, my room is sweet, or should I say "suite."  Score one for the Bradford Homesuites in Colorado Springs.

My daughter doesn't like to eat bread crust.  I know she's not alone.  Yet we tell our kids to eat is because it's supposedly healthier.  My initial reaction was that it's probably not since both the crust and the inside from from the same dough.  The only difference would be that that the crust is more cooked and has whatever topping you might put on it.

It turns out that I'm wrong.  The crust really is healthier than the rest of the bread.  A 2002 German study found that the crust contains an antioxidant called pronyl-lysine.

So, until we can get her to eat crusts I will now be eating them instead of throwing them away, or feeding them to the dog.  Sorry, Bruiser. 

As a Star Wars fan, I've been waiting for this moment for a long time.  I got to sit down and watch Star Wars with my daughter on my lap.  She loved it.  I loved watching it with her and answering her questions (she had many).  Afterwards she wanted to play with my Star Wars toys vintage collectables.  And, yes, I did show her Daddy in the movie.  She wants me to wear that costume for Halloween.

She cannot escape her destiny:

She's four years old and is really into characters and plots now.  No more Dora, Blue's Clues and Wiggles.  Now it's High School Musical (1 & 2) and many new books.  She can handle the idea of death without getting scared and she also knows that everything on TV is "pretend."  It helps that I tell her what's going to happen so she's prepared.  Still, some concepts were hard to explain.  The Force, Obi-Wan dead, but not really.  I didn't want to call him a ghost so he's just "living inside the Force" now.  She also didn't like Alderaan betting blown up.  I had to compare that to the Big Bad Wolf blowing down the pigs' houses.

She liked Princess Leia because she's into the whole Princess thing (thanks, Disney), but that's also got her interested in the first place.  I think her only disappointment in Star Wars was that Princess Leia didn't do anything during the final battle.  Where is she?  What's she looking at?  Where's her spaceship?  Time for some Nancy Drew books now and some Buffy videos in a few years.  Maybe some Xena. 

She wants to watch "the second movie" but I may wait a bit.  It's a bit darker.

Lest you think the US government is completely full of idiots, at least one person had a good idea.

Don't let the men with guns, whom you are investigating for murder, guard you.

Recent research shows that as you get older you lose your sense of humor.  Quoting the article:

If you need more proof, look no further than this blog.  Aging Led Zeppelin fans are still trying to lynch me with a cactus for that posting.  They would have caught me, too, but the tennis balls kept falling off their walkers.

I think the real issue isn't how good Zeppelin is or was, but that by recognizing that the band is now old, then they, the fans, are also old.  No one wants to face that.

Of course they are not that old, but if people can give me Depends for my 30th birthday then I can make fun of Zeppelin 30 years after they last toured in the US.  It's the law - look it up.