The future of rail could be this 75 year old steam locomotive

http://dvice.com/archives/2012/05/the-future-of-r-1.php

Ever since I was a small boy, I’ve loved steam engines.  While diesel engines sound like an off balance washing machine on spin cycle, steam engines huff, puff, chug, and drip with industrial sexiness.

Steam engines were historically powered by burning dirty coal, and lots of it, but The University of Minnesota and Sustainable Rail International plan on modernizing and converting old No. 3463 from the Sante Fe Railroad to burn biocoal.  Unlike regular coal, biocoal is clean-burning and carbon neutral.

I really hope these guys make a dent in bringing back steam.  When I was younger, growing up in the northeast, you could go 25 miles in any direction and find steam exhibition rides or even tourist railroads running steam, but nowadays finding a running steam engine is next to impossible.  The generation of folks that worked the railroads when these beasts ran freight and passenger service is almost gone, and younger generations just don’t care to get involved.  This could change that.

I rode the Reading 2102 when she ran exhibitions in the early 90’s in Pennsylvania.  If you’ve never seen a running steam engine, here’s video I shot with my dad’s camcorder wayyyy back in 1991:

I’ve gone down this road in the past, and not found anything free worth using in the app store, but that changed recently.

Remember MapQuest?. .  . you know, that site you went to for directions online before google maps existed?  Well, MapQuest has an iPhone app out called “MapQuest 4 Mobile”.  It’s 100% free, gives turn-by-turn directions both on screen and via voice, and recalculates when you miss a turn.

I tried it on my way home a few days ago, and it worked perfectly.  It *does* like to eat the battery, as any GPS app does.  I left work with ~45% battery, and got home with ~30%.   My drive is 35 miles and usually takes just under an hour, so 15% loss isn’t terrible I suppose.

If you have an iPhone, I strongly suggest you give it a try.

Get it here:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mapquest-4-mobile/id316126557?mt=8&ls=1

Wow!

http://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/lockdown.html

Go read this, now and tell all your friends as well.  This guy put into words what all of us geeks that understand the inner workings of the internet and PC’s have been saying for a long, long time in a way that’s fairly easy to understand and makes a whole pile of relevant points both technologically, politically, and practically.

Hats off to you Cory!

This is about real issues that as the prevalence of technology grows year after year mean more and more.  If we don’t figure out how to properly prevent regulation in areas it doesn’t belong, we’ll be paying the price in the future in ways we haven’t even thought of today due to stifling innovation, control, etc.

Nik Nowak, German electronic DJ, built his own “sound tank” with 4000 watts of power and 13 speakers onboard.

Nik, I salute you, that is awesome!

(more info and vids after the jump)

http://dvice.com/archives/2011/09/the-sound-tank.php

Beware that merchants (convenience stores, shops, etc.) *CAN* impose up to a $10.00 minimum for credit card transactions, but they *CANNOT* for debit cards.  You could use your debit card to pay for a single piece of penny candy if you so desired. Though, good luck finding penny candy anymore

Most debit cards can also be used as credit cards, but this doesn’t matter.  As long as you can use your card as debit, and enter a PIN for the transactions merchants cannot refuse to accept it for any purchase amount.

What can you do?

Strike back!  VISA has a form on their site to report merchants that impose minimums for debit transactions.  Even if your debit card is issued through another provider like MasterCard, you can *still* use the form on VISA’s site, as long as the merchant accepts VISA.

Here’s the link:

https://usa.visa.com/checkoutfees/contact.jsp

Tell your family, tell your friends.  Unless consumers report these merchants, their policies will never change.

I for one am TIRED of getting denied at checkout when all I want to do is pickup milk, and get home.

Want more info?

Here’s the bill that makes this federal law.  Page 698 has the relevant info:

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-111hr4173enr/pdf/BILLS-111hr4173enr.pdf

Barnes & Noble
CDW
Insight

*ALL* my orders ended up cancelled.  This is a bit surprising since my first order with Insight was placed within 1 minute of the price decrease.  I think they must have sold out BEFORE they decreased the price.  My guess is that all of the above retailers don’t deplete stock until a human verifies/releases each order, OR the system automatically POSTS the credit card transaction.  Given the ridiculous amount of transactions these companies were doing during the rush, what usually occurs automagically was probably stopped by safety checks on the number of transactions, or raw amt. of revenue etc.  Once humans are involved in moving things forward, minutes and seconds very easily turn into hours and days.

It looks like the best bet for getting one of these at this point is probably through HP Directly.  They currently show OUT OF STOCK, but based on their tweets and sign-up page, it seems they do expect to get more in.

So, do you trust their notify page?  Well, I honestly do believe when they get stock, and verify orders are able to be completed, they’ll notify everyone.  That said, you can’t just immediately send emails to hundreds of thousands of people, and even if you could, greylisting and other limiters can often prevent you from receiving the email for a while.

By the time you get your notification, stock may again be depleted, for good.

What I’ve done is put together a very simple shell script that checks HP’s site for changes, and notifies me via email.  The email address I’m using is a “pushed” Exchange email, so I get notified immediately.

I’m pasting the script below, but please understand I do so with ZERO warranty, etc.   I don’t claim to be an expert in bash or scripting, and I’m sure there’s a better way to accomplish the same task.  Feel free to share in the comments if you’ve got a better way, but for me, this script DOES WORK, so I’m happy with it

To use this, you will need a Linux box with a bash shell, curl, bc, and the ability to send outgoing messages with sendmail locally.  If you can’t send outgoing email, the script will still alert you via the terminal that something has changed.

Here it is:

#!/bin/bash

#The URL to check for change
URL_TO_CHECK=”http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/can.do?landing=rts_tablet&category=rts_tablet&catLevel=1&storeName=storefronts”

#Number of seconds to wait between checks
FREQUENCY=”20″

#The phrase to look for on the page
PHRASE=”outofstock”

#The number of times the phrase occurs on the page with no change
OCCURENCES=”4″

#The subject to use for the alert email
ALERT_SUBJECT=”HP TABLET PORTAL CHANGED STATUS”

#The email address to send alerts to
ALERT_ADDRESS=”youremail@yourdomain.com”

# DO NOT EDIT BELOW THIS POINT
stop=no
iteration=1

while [ $stop = no ]

do

status=$(curl -s $URL_TO_CHECK | grep “$PHRASE” | wc -l)

if [ $status = $OCCURENCES ]
then
echo Iteration $iteration: NO CHANGE
sleep $FREQUENCY
else
echo “POSSIBLE CHANGE DETECTED, RE-CHECKING IN 30 SECONDS”
sleep 30
status_verify=$(curl -s $URL_TO_CHECK | grep “$PHRASE” | wc -l)
echo $status_verify

if [ $status_verify = $OCCURENCES ]
then
echo “FALSE ALARM, RESUMING NORMAL CHECKS”
else

echo CHANGED STATUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
echo “Subject: $ALERT_SUBJECT
$URL_TO_CHECK” | sendmail $ALERT_ADDRESS
sleep 5

echo CHANGED STATUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
echo “Subject: $ALERT_SUBJECT
$URL_TO_CHECK” | sendmail $ALERT_ADDRESS
sleep 5

echo CHANGED STATUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
echo “Subject: $ALERT_SUBJECT
$URL_TO_CHECK” | sendmail $ALERT_ADDRESS
stop=yes
fi
fi
iteration=$(echo $iteration + 1 | bc)
done

The script goes to this URL:

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/can.do?landing=rts_tablet&category=rts_tablet&catLevel=1&storeName=storefronts

and looks for the gif image names for those “Out of stock” buttons

They occur (4) times in the page, and it expects to see them (4) times.  If that number changes, it re-checks in 30 seconds, and if it’s still something other than (4), the alert sequence begins.  You can easily change the variables at the top to check other phrases at other URL’s, and make sure you replace the “youremail@yourdomain.com” with YOUR email address.

Happy shopping!

So, I wrote a tool to do all the hard work for me by heading out to each of the popular sites, poll their price, find the best, and report back.

I just customized it into something I can share on the web that does one disc at a time, based on the UPC code.  The form submits are all custom injected with curl, sourced from RAW capture between my testing browser and the purchasing sites.  Enjoy the fruits of my labor

If you have a ton of discs you want a report on, contact me and I’ll see what we can work out.

The site for the tool is:

http://dvd.netmagi.com

and the sites it checks at the time of writing are:

EagleSaver, DVDPawn, SellDVDSOnline, SecondSpin, MightyBuyBack, and Abundatrade

They actually dropped the price Saturday, and I thought I missed out, but Barnes and Noble now shows in stock for the magical $99.99 price.  I ordered one last night, but now it shows:

Unable to process order. Please

call 1-877-379-0036, or

212-414-6024, if outside U.S.

I called in, and apparently they have 2,000 in stock and they’re trying to sort it out.  They could not tell me if I’d be receiving one or not.

Try your luck and order here:

http://gifts.barnesandnoble.com/HP-TouchPad-Tablet-with-16GB-Memory-WiFi-12GHz-Black/e/886111788637?itm=2&usri=hp%2Btouchpad

UPDATE:

A bunch of the larger online retailers are still showing the old price and presumably do still have them in stock.  Newegg.com, for example, shows “in stock”, but has it priced at $399.99.  It’s the same story at buy.com, CDW, etc.

I guess if you’re daring you could buy one, and hope they honor the new price with a partial refund

UPDATE #2:

Now show’s out of stock on B&N. .  @9:45am (eastern)

UPDATE #3:

Tried to get another (since I highly doubt B&N will really be shipping mine), and ordered through CDW when they dropped their price.  I waited on hold for over an hour to confirm the order I made online (thank-you cordless speakerphone) to find out they sold out within a MINUTE of the price drop.  HA!

So, if you thought you were getting one from CDW, think again.  Someone else posted on a deal site saying one company accepted nearly 65,000 orders for the 10, ten, yes TEN they had in stock.

As usual, I wish I hadn’t wasted time on this.

Check out Notch’s recent blog post to see for yourself:

http://notch.tumblr.com/post/9038258448/hey-bethesda-lets-settle-this

I suppose this in itself isn’t that exciting, but it got me wondering,  and I did a bit of digging.  Check out these excerpts from wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_by_combat#United_States

“Because the British did not abolish wager by battle until Parliament’s 1819 response to Ashford v Thornton(1818), and because no court in post-independence United States has addressed the issue, the question of whether trial by combat remains a valid American alternative to civil action remains open, at least in theory.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines#.22Just_Plane_Smart.22

“Shortly after Southwest started using the “Just Plane Smart” motto, Stevens Aviation, who had been using “Plane Smart” for their motto, threatened a trademark lawsuit.

Instead of a lawsuit, the CEOs for both companies staged an arm wrestling match. Held at the now demolished Dallas Sportatorium (the famed wrestling facility) and set for two out of three rounds, the loser of each round was to pay $5,000 to the charity of their choice, with the winner gaining the use of the trademarked phrase. A promotional video was created showing the CEOs “training” for the bout (with CEO Herb Kelleher being helped up during a sit up where a cigarette and glass of whiskey (Wild Turkey 101) was waiting) and distributed among the employees and as a video press release along with the video of the match itself. Herb Kelleher lost the match for Southwest, with Stevens Aviation winning the rights to the phrase. Kurt Herwald, CEO of Stevens Aviation, immediately granted the use of “Just Plane Smart” to Southwest Airlines. The net result was both companies having use of the trademark, $15,000 going to charity and good publicity for both companies.”

Imagine if this became more popular?

Episode 1 was entirely taken up by a challenge:

Each host was to buy a “car”  to replace the staple Texas pickup, and then compete in various challenges around the state.

Those that follow Top Gear UK know that the challenge episodes are some of the best.  In fact, I’ve seen several of them several times like the Bolivia special, the Polar challenge, etc.

This US challenge just didn’t stack up.  The chemistry between the hosts just isn’t there, and it shows even more in a challenge episode where all 3 are front and center the whole time.  Tanner is probably the best, followed by Rutledge and Adam just doesn’t fit.  It’s not that the antics and style Adam brings to the show are wrong, he’s just the wrong person to do it.  99% of the time he’s downright annoying, but I’ll admit the 1% of the time I do laugh, it’s hearty.

The challenge builds up through some cattle herding where somehow we’re expected to believe Tanner fixes a fuel line with some tape, a manure-hauling contest, and finally ends in a “monster-truck”  race where they face off on a course full of jumps and banked dirt turns in their cars after a few modifications.  The modifications look like they just sat each car atop a toyota truck chassis (90’s era?) and called it a day.   Adam’s car catches fire, and Tanner cleans up on Rutledge after he loses a wheel.  Whatever. . ZZZZzzzzzzzzzz

I’ll admit I’m a hardcore fan of the UK series, and their chemistry is established over MANY SEASONS, but the US show needs help to succeed.

C’mon History Channel, get it right.  I REALLY want to like this show.