Packaging, Arrgh

Stopped in at Staples to buy a USB wireless modem for elderly laptop. It takes a while to find the networking section and even longer to find the needed device on the shelf. Three shelves of boxes marked "Netgear". Teeny tiny little letters, much smaller that "Netgear", said "N150 Wireless USB Adapter". Gotta get down on hand and knees to read it. Same shelf is piled high with Netgear routers, octopus cables, PCI modems, power supplies, and other stuff, all in the same colored boxes, all with vague names. How is a customer, even a savvy customer, supposed to find the device he needs?
The same trend toward vague labels continued on the blank DVD shelf. Square packs marked "DVD-R" full of jewel cases. Are these packs of DVDs with jewel cases or just empty jewel cases? Who knows? Certainly not the Staples staff. Packs of DVD's labeled "printable", what ever that means. The packaging didn't say.
Looks like we have a bunch of clueless marketing droids on the loose.

Gonna try 'em at Guantanamo

The TV news is full of talk about the administration's decision to try 'em at Guantanamo, by military commission. Lots of talk from Atty Gen. Eric Holder about how this is wrong, they oughta be tried in Federal court in NYC, and it's all Congress's fault for cutting off funding for a new clink, and various commentators gloating over the administration's about face on the issue. In short a lot of political point scoring. Nothing said about the real problem.
9-11 happened ten years ago. We should have tried 'em ten years ago when the crime was fresh and tempers were hot. The purpose of a public trial is to convince the public that these are really bad guys and they deserve every bit of what we are gonna give 'em. Plus deter anyone contemplating doing the same. Now its ten years too late, everyone's mind is made up, and the trial won't change anything. We aren't gonna deter anyone either, we have shown the world that you can kill 3000 Americans and get away with it.
Justice delayed is justice denied. Even terrorist scum deserve a speedy trial. Which they didn't get.

Obscure Nut burns a Koran. MSM covers it

And, the MSM coverage goes world wide and sparks riots in Afghanistan. Thanks, MSM, for your balanced and patriotic coverage. Couldn't do it without you.
Last time it was Newsweek's story about a Guantanamo guard flushing a Koran. Wasn't even a true story and Newsweek retracted it later. It still caused riots in the Middle East.
Just what was it that made the actions of a lone screwball so newsworthy?

Walnut makes the grade.

I'm upgrading my DVD storage. I use an ordinary bookcase to store my VHS tapes. Still have a lot of 'em, and I even play them now and again. So up until now, I just stuffed the DVD's on the same bookcase in between the VHS tapes.
Trouble is, DVD's in jewel box cases are too thin to carry a label on the spine, so when looking for a DVD I gotta pull each one out to see what it is.
Here is the DVD solution.



This home made box fits onto the shelves of the tape book case but holds the DVD's face outward so you can riffle thru them easily. It's walnut. I had a piece, purchased for I cannot remember what, in the lumber rack. Good looking wood, harder than hell. I had to sharpen the blades on the jointer before they would cut it. My well worn carbide saw blade would not rip it with out leaving black burn marks on the cut.
I need to make three or four more to hold all my DVDs.

"We need high priced oil" Meet the Press

One of the pundits seated around the table said that, just a few minutes ago. On NBC TV no less. Where does David Gregory find idiots like this?

Some thoughts on improved pills

I have reached that state in life where I am faced with a battery of seven prescription drugs, to be taken daily.
They ought to find an ink for the labels that will last as long as the pills in the bottle do. About halfway thru the life of a bottle, the ink has rubbed off the label so badly that I can't read it. This could be a real safety hazard.
Then the damn pills all look alike, round, and pink. Drop one and then try and figure out which one it was. Surely they could make different shapes (square, oval, triangular) and more colors than just pink. It would be nice to look in my hand and be sure that I had seven different pills in it rather than two pills of the same kind.

April Fools. Six inches of snow on my deck.

I think they must have repealed spring. The April Fool's day snow storm laid down as much snow as we get from a January storm.



Note shiny new town plow truck. We voted for this truck at town meeting last year. It missed hitting my mailbox yet again. Be thankful for small favors.