What's wrong with Satellite Radio

Last fall we installed a new deck in the car with a USB hub
(I want to call it a "tape deck", but the installer guy
said "what's a tape?"). Not only do the CD and USB readers
both do MP3, but they also let me easily skip over folders.
And with the $15 8GB stick I bought at a Boxing Day sale
(that price will look laughingly high next year, won't it),
I can put the equivalent of two DVDs worth of songs on it.

How long is that? As an experiment I put the Rolling Stone's
500 top songs on it, and it took up about 2GB. At an average
of 3.5 minutes/song, that's close to 30 hours. So let's say
that stick can hold 120 hours of audio -- and unlike a CD,
when I get bored of something, I can delete it. Which I did
with the RS tunes -- turn on a classic rock station, and
chances are you'll hear one of those songs. I think I can
get plenty of satisfaction without hearing that tune again,
as earthshaking as it was in... 1964.

The net provides a wide source of interesting, freely available
audio. Chances are pretty good I'm not even going to have a
chance to listen to everything I put on that stick, especially
considering I do most of my traveling on my bike. But when
I first heard satellite radio in a rented car in San Diego
in 2004, I thought it was pretty cool. Now the concept strikes
me as obsolete.

Net-enabled car radio.... that's something else.

Go see Dream Science Circus this week!

If you're in Vancouver, that is. They're at the Waterfront Theater
through Sunday Sept. 28, 2008. Seeing how they're from Bellingham,
the home of kinetic and static human sculptures, there'll be
plenty of acrobatics. Any more and I'd be spoiling the surprise.
http://www.dreamsciencecircus.com/, of course.

There's a $2 discount for the weekday shows if you give the password
when you order them. Email me for the secret vord.

Finite Jest

I just found out David Foster Wallace offed himself last
Friday. I'm one of those people who actually enjoyed
Infinite Jest. I had to devour it when it came out, as
I had it on a one-week loan from the new books section
of the library. That ran to about 140 dense pages a day,
but I finished with two days to spare.

Wallace's genius was more readily available in a few
stretched out pieces he wrote for magazines like
Harper's -- a famous one called "Getting Away from
Getting Away from it All" on the Illinois State
Fair, an expose of 7-day Caribbean cruise ship
vacations ("A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never
Do Again"), and most recently, a hypertext-on-print
analysis of right-wing talk stations.

And now it's over, without so much as a footnote.
Crap.

Canadian Cash Cab Debuts Tonight

From Adam Growe:

Hi There,
 
I'm even going to watch it. and I was there!
 
The Discovery Channel (and every Wednesday)
8 p.m. ET/10 p.m. PT
 
Discovery HD (Fridays)
8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT
 
You'll like it too.  Thanks for watching.
Adam.

Don't miss it - support Canadian culture (or at least Canadian imports of American versions of British creations).

Because +it +is contains +a

Some people are better than me at presenting Google results. I don't have time to compete, so here are the raw results:

From http://www.wikihow.com/wikiHow:Templates/Talk:

Unfortunately, your current username is in violation of the username policy because it is: contains a bad word See our username policy for more information.

From http://www.northland-camping.co.nz/activities.htm:

Houhora Harbour is unique because it is contains a fast flowing deep water.

From http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/12/3/92459/6822:

Please be sure to have a clean pair of cleanex on hand, when reading because it is contains a slew of comedic responses. A Dkos classic.

And finally, from DEVELOPMENT OF ALTERNATIVE CRAB CLAW PROCESSING SYSTEMS
TO MINIMIZE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT:

The waste stream from this is of particular concern because it is contains a high five day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), ranging from 7,000 to 15,000 mg/L, and a chloride ion concentration of 135,000 to 150,000 mg/L (Harrison, 1993).

This all started with this Python error message:

SyntaxError: import * is not allowed in function 'yevtushenko' because it is contains a nested function with free variables

What other "because it is contains a"'s are out there hiding from Google's prying eyes? Share yours on the comments page.

Best use of the word "recently"

"We have recently changed our menus so please listen carefully".

Dealing with cat pee is no miracle

So we had a couple of families over for dinner on Friday, and then sure enough Sophie peed on our bed sometime after everyone left. This time the pee soaked through the mattress lining, so we sprayed it with this solution called "Nature's Miracle". Next morning it still stunk. I gave it another drenching, waited an hour, and it was still bad. So I hit the net and got some advice.

Cat pee is mostly ammonia, so a 50/50 solution of white vinegar took care of that, and then I applied a paste of baking soda and water to neutralize the vinegar. As soon as I vacuum up the residue we'll have a clean bed again for the neurotic cat (and us) to sleep in.

But I had a look at that "Nature's Miracle" label. For eight bucks, you get water, "Nature's Enzymes", isopropyl alcohol, and "citrus scent". Something smells here, and it's not lemon fresh. From what I recall from my bio-science courses, all enzymes are nature's, and isopropanol probably does a good job of denaturing them. But it is a good disinfectant.

So here's my plan. I'm going to pick up some isopropanol for a fraction of the price at the drug store, and mix it with 2 parts water in the spray bottle. Next time Sophie pees on the bed, I'll try the cheap miracle to disinfectant the area, followed by the vinegar and baking soda, and report back here.