When I was in first grade, I was skinny and not all that coordinated. One day, my mom picked me up from school, and I barely shut the heavy car door. For some reason, that day, the seatbelt was also stuck, so I held it to me as if it were closed, but it wasn't. I was faking it.
- Louis Gray
So we were driving to get my little brother from the babysitters and went around a right hand turn. The car door swung open. I reached out to close it. But I couldn't reach it unless I let go of the seatbelt. I fell out of the car and hit the curb, as the car was still moving (about 5 mph or less?).
- Louis Gray
I remember hitting the sidewalk and seeing the back tires go by. I was scraped up but got up and walked to the open car door, where my mom asked if I was okay and if I should get back in. I said I didn't want to and walked alongside the car for half a block to the babysitters as she rolled along slowly in parallel.
- Louis Gray
When I retell this story, my mom says she did it on purpose to teach me a lesson. But I doubt it. I don't know how you can drive intentionally to have a loose door swing open, and no parent wants to accidentally run over their kid. :)
- Louis Gray
Today I bought a new TiVo (the base model Premiere), our fourth TiVo overall. It replaces the TiVo HD model we bought in October of 2007, after that one suffered a hard drive crash and diagnostic codes went nowhere. The HD lasted just over 5 years, and the TiVo HD XL I use in the office is almost 4 years old. Pretty good if you ask me.
Of note, we now have 2 active TiVos, not 4, if I made that unclear. The first ever, a series one, was donated to my little brother years ago.
- Louis Gray
Louis, we could have got you a "Friends & Family" deal on that. $399 for the base Premiere w/lifetime service. :(
- Ken Gidley
from iPhone
Nobody offered up on Tuesday, Ken. :)
- Louis Gray
On Tuesday you were trying to fix it, I don't recall hearing you wanted to replace it. Sorry I didn't make the offer in case the repair didn't work.
- Ken Gidley
from iPhone
Cristo, if it's always on, it doesn't need a screensaver. :)
- Louis Gray
@Ken, I was trying to get it to work and didn't get there. I don't expect special treatment, but if I upgrade the other box, I'll ping you guys.
- Louis Gray
Louis: always on? Is that because sleep is unproductive and a waste of time, even for TVs?
- Tinfoil 2.0
That does it. I'm buying myself a Fitbit for Christmas. All these people I know with Fitbits seem to be dropping weight and I am sick of reading their "I am down another dress size" posts. I WANT to write a "look at my skinny ass, bitches" post, dammit!
- Corinne L
Corinne, I am down another dress size.
- Louis Gray
Wouldn't it really be the Fitbit Lifestyle?
- c.a.j.
Louis, don't forget to get new undergarments with this weight loss or forever be called droopy drawers.
- Janet:#TeamMonique
from FFHound!
After checking out the Fitbit website now I'm seeing their ads everywhere I go online. It's the Internet equivalent of the phone call coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE!
- Corinne L
Remarketing FTW. I get the same from TiVo.
- Louis Gray
I think I have to stop Tweeting. I mean, can it get any better than 11,111 tweets?
"He could be a great-great-grandfather. But at 96, an Indian man is the world's oldest new dad. Ramjeet Raghav and his 52-year-old wife, Shakuntala Devi, gave birth to their second son on Oct. 5, according to the Times of India. He met Devi 10 years ago after practicing a life of celibacy. "My neighbors are jealous and they keep asking me for my secret, but all I tell them is that it is God's will," Raghav is quoted as saying, according to ninemsn. "I think it's very important for a husband and a wife to have sex regularly and when she asks I will go on all night, but for the sake of my child I've put our needs aside for now."
- Louis Gray
from Bookmarklet
I love the photo because of the colors. It looks like a pastel or watercolor or something painting.
- Betsy #TeamMonique
When I was in 1st grade, a 3 year old girl was kidnapped in Denver (our neighborhood). She was missing for a week, and was found, sexually assaulted, left behind in the pit of an outhouse at a state park, with chemical burns on her legs. Last night, I looked up the story and the case. A man was arrested, pled out to 10 yrs on lesser charges...
and was released after 6 years. Turns out he moved to California and is a registered sex offender. His record doesn't say what he did... except for lascivious acts with a minor under 14. This event shook us enough that I'm thinking about it almost 30 years later. Should he be free? Should neighbors know exactly what he did? What do you think?
- Louis Gray
I don't know the statistics but I believe pedophilia is not high on the rehabilitation success rate. I am torn as I value life but just this exception. These child destroyers should be redeemed by becoming automatic organ donors.
- Janet:#TeamMonique
from FFHound!
Recidivism seems to be pretty high with sex crimes, especially pedophilia, so I think this is someone who shouldn't be out among the general public, at least not without close supervision. Also, I might be wrong, but I imagine the standard sentence in a case like this is probably longer now than it was 30 years ago.
- John (bird whisperer)
I think you'd see a push towards a harsher sentence today. The one thing that I have an issue with is the lack of specificity on what a sex offender has done. Some 18 year old with a 15 year old girlfriend gets on the list the same way someone who acts out violently as you described. The system was a good first step, but if you do a search on those Google Maps mash-ups that show you sex...
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- Eric - seven eleven
Yesterday I was looking for a link I know I shared here, facebook, and on the DonationCoder forum. Search was down here, Google failed to find it here or on the web, facebook search has always been a joke, DonationCoder search, powered by ZillaRank, won. It's a sad day when an amateur modification to the world's worst forum search (SMF) can kick the asses of both Google and Friendfeed.
- April Russo
"In the thousands of blog posts I've added to this site, I've covered hundreds and hundreds of unique services. There are the rare ones which are so clearly innovative and inspire real community that demand loyalty as FriendFeed did. For those who opted out of the FriendFeed experience, you missed out. For those still hanging on, it's maybe time for a group hug. The small team accomplished incredible stuff, and surprisingly... it's still here. I wonder if it will stay on another five years."
- Surprisingly Monstrous
Happy Birthday, FriendFeed! Louis, I like your word choice. In many ways FriendFeed reminds me of the Pioneer (and Voyager) probes. Primary mission accomplished, they continue on with a skeleton crew, without a new mission or upgrades, built to last, to persevere.
- Kevin Fox
Great explanation of what's special about FriendFeed's technology.
- Bruce Lewis
I think there's a link in there that needs fixing: "The initial gut-wrenching response to the acquisition" links to a post about real-time, not about the acquisition.
- Laura Norvig
Correct. The headline should more accurately read "local", which it does on the blog.
- Louis Gray
Yeah, I got caught with an old password.txt getting uploaded to a public dropbox. That's when I stopped using Dropbox. Was syncing something else, that I thought was static, but actually synced back to the version in Dropbox's directory. Didn't realize it for about 3 months.
- Jimminy IS Everybody
Am I the only one who routinely does not have internet access, and therefore highly values local storage?
- Amit Patel
Amit: Let's rephrase that: Are you the only one who doesn't have very wide broadband with no data caps and no interruptions? Not even close. Are you the only one who values local storage? Nah.
- Walt Crawford
Amit: Nope. Hence the concluding few paragraphs about where this isn't ready. Not written blind.
- Louis Gray
Cloud storage is fine for low-security convenience items But you can wake me up when very fast broadband with no caps is ubiquitous, and when company data policies and government laws actually protect users' privacy and have serious consequences when they don't. Oh, and when all personal data is encrypted and decrypted only on the users' devices, with no backdoor access by the hosting companies or by government. As it is today, the data-mining-oriented architecture is heavily stacked against users.
- Tinfoil 2.0
We need to stop fighting the fact that storage is just cheaper and easier to access in the cloud. How it's implemented and the security concerns around it are still being addressed.
- Eric - seven eleven
I use both - local and cloud. Before there was cloud I used off site (leave a drive at mum's, rotate). Can't rely on just the one. And there are services that are more secure than others, my default online backup is spideroak
- Iphigenie
"storage is just cheaper and easier to access in the cloud." I'm not sure that's a fact or provable. How many months of use (cloud storage and broadband) does it take to spend the $130 a 2TB external drive costs? "easier to access" depends on WAY too many factors.
- Walt Crawford
One key element to consider is the word "future". Part of what I do with tech is try things before they are completely ready. I see this trend and I believe in it. With time, it's likely this becomes a reality for more people.
- Louis Gray
if we define consumers as "consumerism vs citizenship http://bit.ly/UueKEs " then you're right - sheeple needs only cloud. whether everybody are consumers aka sheeple is a good question.
- A. T.
Nicely done, Louis. Increasingly, I'm less worried about "where my stuff is" than "can I get to my stuff". That's really the final frontier for me. Well that and speed. I'm usually an early adopter. But for me, hardware updates take time. Mainly because I'm resistant to tossing stuff out. I feel personally responsible every time I pass a landfill.
- MoTO #TeamMonique
I'm with you, Barry. My personal laptop is a Thinkpad T43. The cloud makes it more realistic to use an old machine like that, since limited local storage is less of an issue.
- Bruce Lewis
Mocking Romney for being Mormon makes as much sense as mocking Obama for being black. I've never been black, but I've been Mormon my whole life, and so is my whole family. I've seen people say ridiculous things based on ignorance for years. I'm used to it. But that doesn't make it acceptable.
I'm voting in favor of Obama and against Romney due to their positions and their records. Romney and I share a religion, but not a mindset. That said, we can have differing views on politics without going down a rabbit hole of ridiculousness.
- Louis Gray
Making fun of a candidate's race, faith, looks, those are low blows that have nothing to do with anything and it's ugly from any side.
- Starmama
from FFHound(roid)!
I disagree on that. You can select being mormon or not but you can not select your race.
- Oğuz Demirkapı ☮
I always find it ironic that here in the UK, where we have an 'official' church - i.e The Church of England - we put much less importance into the religious beliefs (or lack of) in our political leaders.
- Ian May
@demirkapi But many in the Muslim world believe that you cannot change to being a non-Muslim, you are that faith forever.
- Nils Sandin
It can be of interest to know what the candidates think their god wants them to do, though.
- Eivind
Nope. There are lots of atheist who were once a Muslim. I was a Muslim too but not anymore. But the point is that I can not change being a Turkish/Caucasian. That is the difference.
- Oğuz Demirkapı ☮
Eivind, the LDS (Mormon) church is politically neutral. Note that Harry Reid, House Minority Leader, is also Mormon. Religion can help guide beliefs and principles, but an elected office does not report to the religious leadership.
- Louis Gray
I don't suspect Romney is the type who's guided from above in any case, Louis :) My reaction was more in response to Ian (I see a comment snuck in between the two). I don't think it's given that you should ignore a candidate's religious belief. It can turn out to be dangerous.
- Eivind
I don't think it's ever okay to make fun of anyone's faith. Whether they were born to it or not. What they the individual do in the name of their faith, that's a different story...
- Starmama
from FFHound(roid)!
Do not dramatize. Of course we would talk about someones faith if this 'someone' would decide our future. Of course we would have interest on someone who is capable enough to achieve what we are looking for and the philosophical approaches and ideological point of view are important parts for those. I would never prefer a religious leader who is for me not the right candidate for a secular world.
- Oğuz Demirkapı ☮
As an American who claims no religion I would never want a president who cannot separate their religious beliefs from their political aims. I would not want a Baptist preacher for my president but I would not make fun of Baptists. Replace ”Baptist” with any other faith & I will feel the same. My mother is a fanatic democrat who posts clever little tweets about Romney but when she...
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- Starmama
from FFHound(roid)!
Referencing underwear etc. is extreme and you have right. But mentioning as he is a Mormon would be acceptable for me since the person is also using being Mormon as a political argument somehow.
- Oğuz Demirkapı ☮
LDS dropped $8M to support a discriminatory ballot option. Just like the Catholic Church, they are far from "politically neutral".
- Anika
from FFHound!
Anika, I was about to post that. I do think Romney has a lot more troubling things about him than his religion, and think that a lot of people have a lot of weird misconceptions about LDS. Even if the Church isn't officially politically active, they do have a lot of influence of politics in a lot of areas and use it. As a resident of California, I'll admit some bitterness about their very strong support for Prop 8. That's pretty political, isn't it?
- kendrak
Romney is marketing his Mormonism as a part of his campaign. Full stop.
- Burcu Dogan
Having lived and worked with many many Mormons while in Seattle and in the Twin Cities, I can assure everyone that they are just like regular people! ;) If pressed to do so, there is one sweeping generalization I would make about members of the Mormon faith: the level of commitment they demonstrate to families within their faith community (families, and individuals, that are dealing...
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- Jkram|ɯɐɹʞſ
This sort of criticism bothers me as well, not because I think that the Mormon church is non-political, but because I think it is unfair to hold any one person of a particular religion as responsible for the actions of the entire religion. Criticizing the actions of the man is appropriate and fair, and applying that criticism if he claims to be acting /on behalf of/ his religion is also fair.
- Jennifer Dittrich
Like any politician, his religion is only relevant if he tries to impose his religious views on others. Other than a generic nod to the fundamentalist base of the GOP, I don't see Romney doing that. Personally, I could care less what his religion is. It matters a lot more to me that he's an asshat.
- Kevin (aka ThreadKilla)
Kevin, I agree on that. He has already some BIG BIG troubles before any discussion on his religion. Loser.
- Oğuz Demirkapı ☮
"Other than a generic nod to the fundamentalist base of the GOP" needs a question mark. Examine Ron Paul's case.
- Burcu Dogan
Burcu, I just meant that every GOP nominee has to offer their fealty to the fundamentalist Christian base. I'm not sure Romney believes it, but he does it because he's got to. And because he'll say and do anything to become president.
- Kevin (aka ThreadKilla)
The only comment I have on this thread is to dispute the assertion that the LDS is politically neutral. Freedom to marry is a political issue and the LDS has devoted significant resources and asked its followers to contribute significant resources to promote the creation of laws forbidding same-sex marriage. That's as political as it gets in my book.
- Kevin Fox
Not a disagreement with Louis but just an observation: Religion obviously matters in politics. If it didn't then a lot of conservatives wouldn't have bothered trying to make hay out of the fantastical suggestion that Obama is a muslim. The clear implication there being that people of the Muslim faith are to be feared and not to be trusted.
- Kevin (aka ThreadKilla)
This video perfectly describes what my life is like.
- Akiva
Yeah, I think the key is to just sit back and let it wash over you.
- Kelli H.
"The album's weighty title song 'Gangnam Style' is composed solely by PSY himself from lyrics to choreography. The song is characterized by its strongly addictive beats and lyrics, and is thus certain to penetrate the foundations of modern philosophy."
- Stephen Mack #TeamMomo
I think Eric was right - Feels like an Asian LMFAO cover song.
- Brian Johns
Dude went to Berklee College of Music. Love.
- Meg V. Meg
@Eric @Brian That's what I originally thought as well since the beat on this song is so similar to "Sexy and I Know It" but PSY's been around since 2001 with this being his 6th album. Not saying that he doesn't "borrow" tracks from other performers though.
- ronin
You have sex with someone you really like. It was fantastic sex. You settle back, still catching your breath, when your partner says, 'You know, Hitler had some good ideas.'
- Akiva
Hrrrmmmm. Is this supposed to be words you don't want to hear after?
- Yolanda
Or that the sex was so good, you might agree?
- Meg V. Meg
Not sure, really. I've only seen a few of that bit come up today. The first one (and my personal favorite) was: 'WHO'S GAY NOW, DAD????'
- Akiva
What in the world? Looks like you're about to make a movie... Pulp Feedition
- Wayne Sutton
from iPhone
oh God help us yes u look like Hugh Grant...em shades er are they D& G...l like
- Pam Gwenzi
This is still making me laugh. What were you drinking last night, Mr. Gray?
- Martha
Martha, I don't drink anything more toxic than Diet Coke. This was the Jon half of the Jon and Kate costume pair. I didn't have much opportunity to look Korean, however.
- Louis Gray
It is a most excellent costume and you pull off the lips beautifully. I like the pair pose as well.
- Martha