Got My iPod Touch

I’ll post photos later, and a full review.

Initial thoughts? Well, it’s really fast, and really cool. I’ve received a bunch of compliments for it, so that’s cool. The screen is holding up well, and you can’t really see the smudges when there’s an image on the screen (when it’s off, you can definitely tell: but why would you care when the screen is off?).

Something I found weird, and I don’t know if anyone feels this way: does anyone else feel kinda weird when they’re listening to older music on an iPod? I was listening to early Dead Kennedys just now, and it’s strange, because it’s old music on new technology. Best of both worlds, I guess. I don’t want to carry around a record player.

UPS – “Your Call Is Important To Us… Please Hold”

So, in case you haven’t been following, an important parcel was supposed to arrive yesterday. UPS was (and still is) the shipper, and is ruddy incompetent.Today, I witnessed this raw uselessness.
My package had a scheduled delivery date of yesterday, but it didn’t happen. Apparently, it’s easy to find our house when my dad is getting something shipped, but when it’s my package, they get lost.Anyhow, today rolled around. I phoned at lunch to ensure that my package would be home today. The customer service person apologized for the lack of delivery the previous day and ensured I would get it by noon or just after today. I said “alright” and stupidly decided to go home. I went to my last class of the day, then I left school early (during my spare at 2:00 PM) and walked home in the bloody cold weather. I hate the cold. But that’s another blog story, for another day. I got home at around 2:30 PM, expecting a package. But, lo and behold, there was none to be found. I waited until 5:15, and there was still no parcel.
So I phoned the customer service line again to see if they could tell me where the hell my package was. They couldn’t but assured me that they would forward my concerns to the local distribution centre with a “high priority” rank. They also told me that someone would phone back to me within the next hour.
An hour passed.
Then an hour and a half.
Still, no phone call. I then telephoned UPS back and asked what was up. They said that there was nothing they could do at night, and they assured me that someone would phone me at noon tomorrow.
Isn’t that fantastic?
I don’t recall rescheduling my delivery for 2 days late.

UPS: Useless and Pathetic Service

 

I have a parcel coming that I’m rather excited about. The company I ordered it from usually ships by FedEx, but used UPS this time. UPS said that the package would be here, in my hands, by today. And their website confirmed that it was here! The package was placed on a truck, and driven around the city since 7:30 this morning. It is now 10:30 ish at night. I do not have my package. As of less than one hour ago, their website looked like the image in the top, left. Now, it looks like the image to the right. Notice anything missing? That’s right. It isn’t on time. 

No freaking way it isn’t on time? 

Apple Store Is Down

Probably nothing – might be something.  

Well, There’s Your Problem!

 

This is an adventure in hilarity…  

A classmate won tickets last night to a premiere screening (for tonight) of Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged, in its fully uncut and remastered glory. He asked me if I’d like to go, since I was one of the only Nirvana fans he knew, and so I accepted.

 We headed down tonight at around 6 PM. It was held downtown, at the Uptown (?) Theatre. If you’ve ever been to downtown Calgary, you know parking is a bit terrible. We finally found a parkade by the Sears building on 8th Avenue and parked there. We left his truck and went to go see the film.  After about 2 hours, we returned to the parkade. And that’s when things got interesting. 

We first noticed something wrong when we saw that the doors we came in were shut. This didn’t really bode well, since that’s kind of the only exit. We walked around to the back side of the building looking for any and all entrances, only to find that the ones that we found were locked. We finally (after 5 minutes of searching) found one that was open, and went down the staircase. Our hope had improved… for now.

 My friend’s truck was in front of us, and we got to the exit we came in. And then we realized that there was no person in the booth, and no automatic ticket reception thing. Which wasn’t good. We phoned the help number on the booth and asked about our situation. We didn’t know the lot number, however, and they told us to call them back when we found it out. So, we began looking around for the lot number, rather unsuccessfully. As we pondered what to do, we came up with a bit of a plan:

 

1.  Find the lot number
2. Phone back with or without the lot number (it can’t hurt, right?)
3. If (when) that doesn’t work, abandon the car overnight and call a parent to pick us up, or…
4. Sleep in the parkade all night. Pay the $25 to exit at 7 AM, and make a rush for school in a smelly sort of way.

Now, obviously, I had to confer with my mother at which option was best. She didn’t like number 4 (and who can blame her, but what a cool story that would have been), and suggested that we try anything else but that.Luckily, at that very moment, someone was coming down the ramp. “How did they get in?” we wondered. We approached her and asked if she knew what the lot number was. She said that it was “***” (the 3 stars being replaced with the actual lot number), and she said to let her know if it worked. She was a monthly subscriber, so she could come and go as she pleased. We phoned back with the lot number, and then the Impark people said that there was nothing they could do.

Super. 

After a little bit, the lady rolled up in her car, and she asked what the outcome was. We said that we were stuck here for the night. Then, she had a brainwave.

What if we could tailgate her out?

It was a brilliant plan. We got in the truck, and moved towards the exit right behind her. We sat right on her tail as the barrier and door opened.

It bloody worked.

Moral of the story: check the damn times that the parkade is open for. Or find some kind older lady with a monthly pass. Either way… 

I Don’t Even HAVE That Many Friends…

666 Hotel Room Number

One of my favourite blog posts ever: 

666: The Mark Of The Beast Is My Area Code 

Years ago, I was attending a computer convention, and I had schlepped along a lot of junk for the tradeshow booth: I was president of a small software company, Meridian. When I was checking in, a bellman had loaded on the boxes and computers onto a luggage cart, and was handed the key from the desk clerk.In the elevator, the bellman pressed a floor button, and then, as the elevator began to rise, turned to me and said (with some concern in his eyes and voice), “This is for room 666.”I slowly turned to him and replied, icily, “I always request that room.”He visibly gulped, and turned away. Later, at the room, he hurriedly pulled all the stuff off the cart, and without saying another word or even looking at me, fled the room.Of course, I was kidding, but some people have no sense of humor. And this story is offered in a spirit of fun, on 06/06/06.

 

From: Stowe Boyd

Porsche Panamera – Brand New Photos

Thanks to a FerrariChat member’s friend, here are some all new shots of the Panamera.     

Imploding A Hotel: Vegas Style

Implosion of the… who cares? It’s some hotel. Elvis performed there.  

The Devil Is Coming!

 Yeah, I don’t get many people visiting my blog. In fact, I get less in a year than Lifehacker gets on single posts. Whatever. The devil’s coming for me, and that’s all that matters. Right? Right? Heh… 

Update: Plans. Quashed. Version A Billion. Point Five.

So, that friend who was planning on ordering from the US Apple store and getting shipped to Canada… isn’t.

Dammit.

$450.

Again, I hate commerce.

My Plans Have Been Quashed

So, as you know, my plan to get a white iPod touch has been foiled. Grr. However, I thought I came up with a little bit of compensation last night, when I discovered something amazing.

See, the Canadian Apple online store currently prices the iTouch at $449 (16 GB, which is the one I’m getting). Hardly chump change. The US store has the same iPod for $399. $50 less, for the same product. And it gets worse. Have you see the Canadian dollar recently? That $399 USD price is actually just $382 CAD! Holy smoke! But, unfortunately, the US Apple store doesn’t ship to Canada.

Amazon to the rescue! They price the iTouch at just $394 USD. which is just $377 CAD. What a great deal! I can get the iTouch, plus a case for less than the best prices I’ve seen in Canada. Damn I’m good.

But I’m so not.

Amazon doesn’t ship the iTouch to Canada. They ship other stuff, accessories for it, CDs, DVDs and more to Canada, but not this.

So, it’s back to the $450 ish price. I hate commerce.

I’ve just gotten word, however, that a friend of mine has found a way to get the US Apple store to ship to Canada. I’ll have to wait and see…

Mix – Killer Chill

DOWNLOAD MUSIC:
CLICK ME
Tracklist:

1. “Chasing Cars (Topher Jones and Blake Jarrell Intro Mix)” – Snow Patrol
2. “Hide & Seek (Tiësto’s In Search Of Sunrise Mix)” – Imogen Heap
3. “The One (Club Mix)” – Sharam
4. “Silence (Guy Geva Original Club Mix)” – Sarah McLachlan and Delerium
5. “Amazing (Thin White Duke Mix)” – Seal
6. “Sysyphos” – D.I.M.
7. “California Dreaming (2004 Club Mix)” – Benny Benassi
8. “Proper Education (Club)” – Eric Prydz
9. “Destination Calabria (Nari & Milani Mix) – Alex Gaudino
10. “My My My (Stonebridge Mix)” – Armand Van Helden

Music copyright © the respective artists.
Mixed on November 11, 2007 in Calgary, Canada by DJ Snyper.
This is a shorter mix, but some of my favourite tracks are in here.

This mix doesn’t really introduce new tracks (well, it might if you haven’t been downloading my other mixes… how dare you?), but it’s got a bunch that I really like. So, there you have it. The first 5 tracks are pretty chill, the final 5 aren’t so much, but they’re not hardcore either. It’s a good balance, and I like this mix the best out of the ones I’ve done. I made a bit of a mistake in this one, though… Sisyphos into California Dreaming. Oh well.

DOWNLOAD ARTWORK:

DOWNLOAD MUSIC:
CLICK ME

There seems to be a bit of confusion about the 4shared site. Just wait until the file info loads (it’s about halfway down the page), then click the download link that appears there. I use 4shared now because it doesn’t have a billion popups, unlike zShared.

Demonoid User? You (Probably) Won’t Be Completely Screwed

It was reported by Slashdot that the RCMP probably won’t go after Demonoid users. “Piracy for personal use is no longer targeted,” said Noël St-Hilaire, head of copyright theft investigations of the RCMP. “It is too easy to copy these days and we do not know how to stop it.” Hoorah! At least one policing organization isn’t wasting valuable resources going after a woman who downloaded 23 songs.

Dividing By Zero: It’s Possible, Right?

Apparently, some British scientist has figured out a way to get up to double the energy out of a device compared to the energy put into it. Here’s a cross-section diagram of the device:

Basically, you put electricity and cold water into the bottom end, and then it goes through a bunch of filters and heaters and stuff, and you get hot water out of the end that has “up to twice the amount of energy” as the input.

Call me crazy, but this has to be bullshit.

Any first year Physics student will tell you that you can’t get more energy out of anything than the energy you put into it. The water and electricity both have potential energy. There’s a super secret catalyst in the device, as well, which probably has some quantity of energy. As this isn’t documented at all (because it’s secret), nobody really knows how much energy it contains.

Kai, I’m assuming you’ll read this. You can post a comment if you want, with your take on it.

Read more:
Part 1
Part 2

Awesome Sky

The sky tonight at sunset was incredible here! I’ve never seen anything like it. No real editing on these; just recrops and a few saturation tweaks. Check it out:

Lindsay Lohan’s SL65 Up On eBay – Free Big ‘Ol’ Bag O’ Coke Thrown In

Perhaps not. But it’s apparently Ms. Lohan’s real SL65. Which should be interesting.

eBay Link

UPDATE: So, apparently, this car wasn’t sold and bidding ended with 0 bids. Right after I posted this. Fantastic.

World’s Largest Swimming Pool Is 1 KM Long

What you’re looking at is the world’s largest swimming pool. It’s over 1 KM long, and it resides in Chile at the San Alfonso del Mar Resort.Click here to see it on Google Maps.I don’t know if there’s anything else to say, except the price tag: a cool $1.5 billion. Yup, with a b. So, if you’re a multibillionaire and you’d rather not have an Edo 599 GTB (you ought to be put into a padded room), well, you can have a kilometre long swimming pool.Thanks to SElectroClash for the (somewhat old) news.

Update: So, a commenter below has informed me that the pool only cost $3.5 million. That seems a bit on the low side, but whatever.

599GTB Fiorano – Edo Competition Version – Yummy – Not Literally – I Don’t Lick Cars

I don’t think it gets much better than this. Well, the Bugatti Veyron is, but that’s a different matter altogether.

Anyway…

Edo Competition drooled over the new Ferrari 599 as much as the rest of us did but, unlike us, they mopped up their own drool and started work on something even more amazing.

Edo started with the 599. Unlike some tuners (Novitec Rosso, et. al.), Edo chose not to modify the body. In fact, all they really changed were the wheels and the exhaust. To complete the package, Edo changed the ECU to provide a little more BHP and added high-flow catalytic converters. The end result is 650 bhp, up from 620 in the “normal” 599. But, hang on there, because Edo decided that that was still a little boring.

Edo thought that, yes, the new modifications were amazing, but they decided that they could do another version with a little more punch. Enter Stage 2.

The Stage 2 kit comes with everything the Stage 1 kit does, but with one additional extra. And, trust me on this one, it’s a big, fat cherry on top of an already amazing cake.

To satisfy Edo’s simply insane performance desires, they did just one thing. Throw away the engine.

They then filled that large gap in the front with the engine out of a Ferrari FXX. This means that the Stage 2 version of the Edo 599 has 750 bhp. That’s an increase of 130 bhp over the stock car, which is the same power output as a 1.9L Ford TDCi engine.

And to finish it off, Edo painted the car white, in the hope that it will be subtle. But it really isn’t.

Want to read more?

Hidden City of Calgary Website – City of Calgary Traffic Info System

So (if you live in Calgary and are prone to random searching of the CoC’s website), you may have found the traffic advisory system. It’s a system of about 15 cameras (or so) that are at major intersections, so you can see a live (updated every minute) picture of the intersection. Here are a few:

You get the idea. These ones are live, though, so you can update them as you wish. The full website can be found at this link.

However, the City of Calgary built a prototype version of this page, which I found due to some random URL hacking I did over the summer. The pictures are from March 6, and haven’t been updated since. Here’s what they look like:

They look a bit like old crime photos or something. Anyway… you can view the site at this link.

UPDATE (March… something… what day is it today? 2008)

A guy named Matthew left some comments below. Here’s a list of what each camera is for:

1. Peigan/Barlow 2. 50 Ave./Barlow
3. 162 Ave./Macleod Trail 4. Kensington/Crowchild
5. Louise Bridge 6. Glenmore/Elbow
7. Glenmore/Elbow 8. Heritage/Macleod
9. Bannister/Macleod 10. Bannister/Macleod
11. 149 Ave/Macleod 12. 149 Ave/Macleod
13. 16000 Blck. Macleod 14. 16000 Blck. Macleod
15. Glenmore/Crowchild 16. 24 Ave/Crowchild
17. Memorial/Deerfoot 18. 17 Ave/Deerfoot
19. 22 Ave/Deerfoot 20. 34 Ave/Deerfoot
21. (unknown) 22. Heritage/14 St.

23. Southland/14 St. 24. (unknown)
25. Glenmore/14 St. 26. Glenmore/14 St.
27. Glenmore/Macleod 28. Glenmore/1A St.
29. Nose Hill Dr./Crowchild 30. Memorial/Edmonton Tr.
31. 42 Ave/Macleod 32. 8 Ave/1 St.
33. 4 Ave/Macleod Tr 34. Glenmore/Macleod
35. (unused) 36. 5 Ave/1 St
37-50 (unused)

Thanks for posting these, Matthew!

News Articles And Other Miscellaneous Stuff

Oh man is it a nice day in Calgary. I’m currently blogging on my deck (thank you wireless internet). It’s November! There’s snow on the ground. But it’s 13 degrees. That may not sound like much (I think I have a couple of readers in the Southern US), but in the sun, it’s nice. Trust me on this one. And a wasp just flew by my head. What the hell? A wasp in November? Anyway…

Yeah, I look like an idiot. What’s it to you?

To be honest, I’m not sure how the photo above turned out. See, the sun is aiming straight for the display. And I have a bunch of fingerprints and dust on said display. The glossiness isn’t a problem (really!), but the dust and fingerprints are. Bummer.

Anyhow… news…

So, apparently, a training course for the iPhone surfaced on Apple Canada’s website. So, that might mean that the iPhone might (finally) be coming here. But I won’t be getting one. I can’t afford the monthly bills. I’ll stick with my iPod touch.

Oh, yeah. I emailed ColorWare (those people who do iPod painting) and they assured me that they actually can’t do the full white iPod touch I wanted. Here’s the mockup I did for reference:

Here’s the email they sent me in response to my email (which I apparently deleted from my sent items, because I can’t find it).

Nicholas,
Thank You for your inquiry. To answer your question, we do not offer the
touch with the chrome back option. You could go with the Smoke white all
over or if that is not giving you the desired effect you would like you
could choose the Custom Color for $99 and choose your own color. If you
have any other questions or would like to buy a 4″x6″ metal card sample
of the Smoke white please feel free to contact us.

Thank You,
Lisa Bloom
Customer Service Representative
Coloware Inc.

So, according to the response I wasn’t looking for (the bold bit), they can’t do it with a chrome back.

Why not?

That’s odd… don’t they just paint the face of it and reassemble the unit?

Oh well. I’ll be comfy (I guess) with a black one. Only a couple more paycheques until I place my order.

Also, with the rise of the Canadian dollar (it’s currently worth $1.08 USD), I was rather hoping for the price of a Canadian iTouch to be nearly equal to the US price (I know that duties can take up a bit of cash, so I wouldn’t mind paying $415 or so). But the Canadian iTouch is still $450 CAD, and only $400 USD. What the hell? I feel slightly gouged.

This blog issue article whateveryoucallit is starting to get rather long and random, but that’s OK. Sticking with the randomness…

I picked up Nine Inch Nails’ live DVD yesterday (“Beside You In Time”). I must say, it’s epic. I also picked up an AFI poster (finally…).

As of note, this blog article is starting to get over the 500 word mark. I had a really hard time writing a 500 word essay for the TD scholarship. How is this easier?

Anyway… I think that’s all. I will enjoy the sun.