Category found things

I think that most of my clocks, and most assuredly all the clocks that matter (car, computer, phone, etc) will automatically compensate for the leap second tomorrow.

This is a good thing.

The other clocks (microwave, stove, bathrooms, etc) aren’t accurate enough to matter.

I like the whole clock-set-via-GPS-and-WWVB thing. Now, if only the VCR in my office would actually automatically be set correctly. Today it is three minutes off. Last week it was hours off. I think Comcast can’t send a proper time signal.

Oh wow… Check out the Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro Photo lens. It’s a 1x – 5x of which examples of photos of ants and other tiny beings are shown. Photos like this. Mmm… Pair it with a ring flash and one could look at all sorts of interesting things which the human eye normally never sees.

There are some nifty reviews of it here.

Well, this is quite nice… One can now request that a hold be placed on their mail delivery online. No more having to dig up a form, fill it out, and mail it in a few days ahead of time.

Here’s something I find extremely interesting. Someone has been acquiring antique cameras, finding the film in them, and developing the film. Clicky Clicky. It’s too bad the assigned captions are dumb.

Systems like this (warning, PDF) are why I find systems like AT&T Alascom impressive. Hell, I remember some of the events on this timeline, especially the 1996 install of the 4ESS, which I noticed when phone calls to Alaska stopped having the CHIRP-CHIRP sound before and after connecting. This is the same sound heard during Pink’s phone call home in Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Also, before then it was possible to leave one of the phones off the hook for hours and the phone on the other end would be completely unavailable and remain connected. I remember this being a problem when I’d fall asleep while on the phone and leave my end open for a few hours… Whoops…

Man, and with the US$400 – US$500 phone bills I was racking up in 1996, that’s more than my current house payment when adjusted for increased wages and inflation.

Anyway, yeah, I find AT&T Alascom damn impressive. I mean, hell, look at all those interconnected points across the state.

Oh, in this photo one can just barely see an AT&T Alascom microwave repeater on top of the mountain. This is very likely the Tern Lake repeater, or possibly the Cooper Landing one.

So back in early April while at a theater in Ann Arbor I happened to come across an absolutely completely full bottle of urine. I found it to be a curiosity, so I snapped a picture of it and uploaded it to my moblog.

Fast forward to today, and while watching the log files for nuxx.net I happened to see a referrer from this site, which is the first actual use I’ve seen for that picture. (Scroll down about 4/5 of the way…)

The writer is talking about how to determine bad traffic areas, and they write:

You see, as we were driving the early part of the CBE, we began to see bottles of refreshing Aquafina and Poland Springs and Dasani and other popular brands of water lying by the side of the road filled with a suspicious liquid of different shades of yellow and gold. What I now know is that when there are multiple water bottles full of urine lying on the side of a road – thrown there from car windows – this is NOT the road you want to take if you need to get anywhere in a hurry.

So, Mr. Dave Nalle, thank you for finding an actual use for my silly, silly photo of a bottle of urine. While I don’t completely agree with his analysis (I tend to see these bottles in more rural area where there often isn’t bad traffic) I do think he’s got a valid point. If there are lots of these bottles along the side of a highway, there’s a good chance it’s often backed up.

On a side note, maybe it’s just that I’ve been noticing it more often, but I’ve been seeing similarly full bottles all too often. There was one just outside of the driveway at my condo, one on a random corner I noticed en route to work, and I saw one along the side of I-75 last time I drove it as part of heading to Ann Arbor.

It’s just really an interesting thing… I guess urinating while driving isn’t something I’d thought of. I’d rather just pull over, stand in a somewhat sheltered area, and go.