Month: February 2007

Make money off telemarketers

Most people don’t realize the restrictions placed on telemarketers and how they can benefit from the fact that many telemarketers don’t follow the rules. Instead of just hanging up or being nice and requesting that your name and number be removed from their call list, you can bring suit against them in small claims court and often win a small sum payout.

When André-Tascha Lammé was granted a judgment of $3,500 last month in a Sacramento, Calif., small claims court, he heard gasps.

“You could hear people in the courtroom saying, ‘You can sue telemarketers?'” he said. You can. In fact, you can make some decent cash for your trouble.

Lammé started getting pelted with calls from mortgage brokers last year, just as his adjustable rate mortgage was about to reset. Like many consumers, he quickly reached the boiling point over the frequent interruptions. But unlike many consumers, the computer programmer took the time to educate himself – perhaps owing to the spirit of his grandmother, a lawyer for several decades – and quickly discovered the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

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Stupid criminal news

Reuters has this tale of a criminal who didn’t practice due diligence in choosing a target or escape plan.

A would-be thief proved himself lacking in key skills like reconnaissance and driving after he tried to pull a heist beside a police-dog training site and then got stuck in the snow trying to flee.

Police in Edmonton, Alberta, said officers were training with a dog at a business late Tuesday when they heard an alarm sound from the building next door.

Yeah, that was bright.

[tags]Stupid criminal news, Choosing a better target[/tags]

And it shall be called “Mr. Fusion”

Take garbage. Dump it in a big, scary-looking contraption. Ignite it with a high-powered arc of electricity. ???? Profit!!!

Shades of Dr. Emmett Brown’s Mr. Fusion only larger, this plasma convertor created by work done over 2 decades by Joseph Longo promises to turn garbage into plasma. It also generates more power output than it takes in from the power grid. This is no perpetual motion machine – it doesn’t generate greater power from nothing. It burns trash via very high power electrical zaps (that’s a technical term), firing up to around 30,000 degrees fahrenheit, using the heat from burning trash to generate more energy than it takes to burn the trash.

popsci-longo_main_485.jpg It sounds as if someone just dropped a tricycle into a meat grinder. I’m sitting inside a narrow conference room at a research facility in Bristol, Connecticut, chatting with Joseph Longo, the founder and CEO of Startech Environmental Corporation. As we munch on takeout Subway sandwiches, a plate-glass window is the only thing separating us from the adjacent lab, which contains a glowing caldera of plasma three times as hot as the surface of the sun. Every few minutes there��s a horrific clanking noise-grinding followed by a thunderous voomp, like the sound a gas barbecue makes when it first ignites.

“Is it supposed to do that”� I ask Longo nervously. “Yup,” he says. “That’s normal.��

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Give your Mrs. some games

I’m sure the cause and effect tie in won’t actually work out to reward you for getting that special someone in your life into gaming if she isn’t already, but there is a good reason to seek out the gamer chixx0rz if you are currently unattached.

According to a survey conducted by Gametart, a game rental service in the UK, chicks who game get more lovin’ than those who don’t. Out of a sample of 200 ladies (or should that be “laid-ees”?), the ones who gamed got, erm, fragged 1.1 more times a week than those who didn’t.

. . .

Of our sample of 200 women, those who played video games on average had sex 4.3 times a week while those who didn’t play games only had sex just 3.2 times a week.

Although I have to go on record here as saying I’d be happy with even the 3.2 times a week model. I can wait to upgrade to the 4.3 times a week later. I’m not as young as I used to be. Although I’ll try if I can sample 200 women…

[tags]Gamer chicks get the goods more often, Get a gamer-babe in your life to get more in bed[/tags]

“How many legislators does it take to change a light bulb?”

By the way, that’s the name of the act: The “How many legislators does it take to change a light bulb?” Act. Where else, but California?

“How many legislators does it take to change a light bulb?” It may sound like one of those “How many…” jokes, but it’s actually a proposed title for an act. The “How Many Legislators Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb” Act is focused on attempting to lower greenhouse gas emissions and combat global warming. But perhaps the real question should be: how many legislators will change a light bulb? One will, for sure: California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine is aiming to ban incandescent light bulbs by 2012. Probably because Uh-nold says so.

Look – I get it. Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs) are significantly more efficient. Comparable light for less energy consumption. Lower power usage. But do we really need MORE government dictating what we can’t do? No. No we don’t. I use CFLs everywhere it makes sense to in my house, but I chose that because it makes sense for me. Educate the masses and let them decide if they want to save money and reduce power consumption. Give tax breaks for CFL purchases. Subsidize CFL costs some other way. But don’t mandate. That’s just more government we don’t need.

[tags]The “How many legislators does it take to change a light bulb?” act, California bill to ban incandescent lights under consideration[/tags]

You really can do almost anything online

Catching up on so much techie news makes me almost sad at how little time I have to stay current on everything any more. To give you an idea how ancient I am, I used to buy things off eBay when you could actually read every single new auction for the whole site. I scanned every new listing every morning for a while. I quit doing that when it took 2 hours for me to get through everything. Luckily I had a job that only required about 2 hours of work a day, so I still had plenty of time to do my job.

What does that have to do with anything? Nothing at all. I tend to ramble. I blame the ADD.

The real point of this post is to point out the awesome online tool formatpixel I just read about today. Using formatpixel, you can create, well, stuff you probably would have used PowerPoint for in the past:

Create your own online magazines, fanzines, brochures, catalogues, portfolios and more. Using the formatpixel online editor you too can design page based projects, layout text, upload your own images, add interactivity and customise their appearance.

Edit the order of pages in your projects by moving, inserting or deleting pages to create multi-page presentations.

There are some really cool demonstrations of the power of the tools at formatpixel (w00t for me – 3 time repetition for increased brain implantationility (Yes, I made that word up) to help you remember the name). If I had any creative talent, I’d put something together to show off the site. Instead, I’ll point you to the article on TechCrunch where I first read about formatpixel (and a 4th time!).

[tags]Online flash-based presentation/layout creation site formatpixel, Online Powerpoint substitute tool[/tags]