General Delivery

General Delivery - from the 1830 - 40's Americanism, although there is the international term Poste restante.

In the old days you could send a letter or parcel to a post office near where someone would be traveling and they could pick it up. No need for a home address.

Before greed and bean counters took over, regular postal service would deliver letters and the occasional small parcel right to your door.

This had its pros and cons

Pros: You didn't have to leave your house to get junk mail, or as I call it, kindling for the wood stove.

You local mailman might know you, so even if the address on the letter was not quite right, the letter would still be delivered to you.

Also if they peeked in your windows and saw you lying unconscious on the floor they could go for help.

Cons: Your local mailman knew all your magazines came in plain brown wrappers.

He would trespass on your property, peek in your windows and shove junk mail through the mail slot.

Well, Canada Post being forward thinking and ever mindful of the bottom line thought that it was costing a heck of a lot of money to have people bring the mail to every home so in addition to having P.O. boxes that you could pay for, they would just start leaving your mail in community mailboxes, or super mailboxes as they were commonly called, at the end of your road. Or in some other neighbourhood entirely.

Not that handy for the elderly or handicapped or anyone actually but more cost effective.

But now people can be in touch with whomever, wherever in seconds thanks to the Internet.

No need to buy a pricey card and apply extra postage.

But you can buy cards and postage if you really want.

http://www.zazzle.com/ladybuglane/cards

http://www.zazzle.ca/octor_arts?qs=cards

http://www.zazzle.com/damccaskill?qs=cards

No more trundling down to a postal outlet with cards, letters or packages. A quick e card, photo or even a video and it is there almost as soon as you hit send.

And drop shipping to the recipient's home, P.O. Box or community mailbox from an on-line retailer is just a credit card and a mouse click away. Just order on-line and you never have to see the inside of a postal outlet ever again.
Unless someone sends you a parcel.

Do not worry that the post office is going to go the way of the Pony Express (they'd deliver your stuff on a horse, how cool was that?).
In an effort to firmly establish them self as a major player in the 21st Century, Canada Post is running an advertising campaign on TV about a service,  FlexDelivery™, whereby you can have your post delivered to any one of their post offices for you to pick up.

Sounds a lot like general delivery to me.

And if a western poster reminiscent of the Pony Express is more your thing -

Western Riders, U.S.A. Poster by dequilla
See additional Posters & Art online at Zazzle

Allen 2.0 Too

Continued from Allen 2.0

When we last left our intrepid entrepreneur he had arrived in India from Nepal by way of China.

The Big City

Because he had no idea what the sign at the city limits said (ed. No Solicitors) he was not sure which city he was in but there were thousands and thousands of people and few snakes.

It didn’t take many sales calls for Allen to realize that while India did indeed have electricity and curry and Pepto Bismol, it didn’t have a lot of phone lines.

This was a setback for the sales of home facsimile machines.

Time and Technology marches on

Allen had seen a cell phone before his sojourn in the Himalayas, but as they were expensive and heavy enough to defend yourself against grizzly bear attack, he never thought they’d catch on.

Everyone had one

At least everyone in this city and certainly everyone in this bar.

They were all technology mad. 

They would discard their old cellphone for the latest model, or that was what he would tell the IPS (Indian Police Service) officer when questioned about his recent acquisition.

Exploring the device he found you could talk, text or txt, play pointless games and it seemed to have that damned Internet on it.

He also found that online payments had caught on big time. Specifically, mobile payments.

This development called for extensive research and an hour later Allen knew he was on to something big.

It seemed that many companies in India were considering a move away from the current mix of desktop online and mobile payments to mobile payments only.

Possibly a brilliant move

No longer do you have to stand in line for the cashier, to make an impulse purchase, you can be mediating an international dispute, going to couples therapy or contemplating in the throne room.

If you have a free thumb, you can purchase the object of your heart’s desire. O.A.C.

Sure those who are used to desktops and even (shudder) catalogs where you get a decent picture and legible text might be reticent, and so what if the largest group with the most disposable income (or at least savings) with potentially fading sight…

Allen had read enough. He would target service the mobile market.

He reasoned that younger people did not have the experience of their elders.

The lack of a product was not the problem. 

The problem was how to get the product in front of the largest number of marks customers at the cheapest cost.

This was also the question on the minds of a group that Fate was toying with.

The start-up woman’s clothing designers became convinced that Allen’s entrepreneurial prowess and Mobile Application Development skills could translate their Plus size clothing line to a plus size bank balance.

Later they were to agree that they should not hold their board meetings in a bar. At least not one that was home to Allen.

Not one to say no to an opportunity, or temptation for that matter, Allen had one job in front of him; Find out what Mobile Application Development was.
That and how to make a compelling presentation. Compelling enough to get a cheque.

They agreed to reconvene in the same location during a popular local time. Happy hour.

He then applied himself to understanding Mobile Application Development, or MAD for short, and 30 minutes later he was talking a local artist into drawing his ideas out on Bristol board for future consideration in his newly formed company.

Presentation day dawned and quite a bit later than dawn, the designers, Allen and his artist were situated around the boardroom table. The waitress took their orders and commerce was commenced.

With the artist holding up the presentation and Allen pointing out the main selling points with an umbrella from one of the drinks, things were going well until one of the up-starts from the start-up asked why he was not using PowerPoint.

Viewing questions as an opportunity, he took the opportunity to excuse himself and get another round. On the tab.

After several rounds of negotiations, Allen felt more sure of a sale ‘tho less sure of his ability to read the room, and he decided to offer the ladies some sage business advice.

He suggested that the group abandon their hopes for a mobile application in favour of a website aimed at desktop users ‘cause “Those little mobiles can’t accommodate your product even in landscape mode”.

From there, talks headed south and so did Allen, leaving the group with the bar tab and the artist.

Watch for further adventures of our budding billionaire as records are released.

All products trademark of their respective companies.

This might be wine Two-Tone coffee mug by ladybuglane
Check out Rose Mugs online at zazzle

Allen 2.0

Some of you may be wondering what direction Allen’s life took after the inaugural Tales of a Dissatisfied Squid Salesman 
and the popular (well it was popular in Asia) Humourous Lessons in Business, Tales of a Dissatisfied Squid Salesman II

The direction was east. It could have been west, the world being a sphere and all, but the first plane out of town was going east.

David’s now estranged twin brother Allen had financed his trip through the sale of David’s car and was looking forward to a bright new future (as well as backward at not a few creditors). 
Unaware that Allen still had a set of his car keys; David wandered the parking lot before realizing that he really missed Allen and wanted to see him again. Preferably in a dark alley.

After a series of plane and train rides on borrowed tickets and documents, Allen arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal.

His first thoughts were, “They’ll never find me here”.
His second thoughts were, “Where the heck is here”?
His third thoughts were, “Seems like a good place for some meditation. Some reflection, introspection and any other ‘ection’”.

Having heard the villagers speak of a remote monastery, Allen determined that he should take up meditation in a local bar. Allen recalls, “A lot of time passed, much of which was, quite frankly, a blur, before I was awakened to the desire to get back into the world of commerce”.

The thing that awoke him was the squawking of the bar’s fax machine.
After buying a few more drinks and listening to the bartender explain how the fax worked, Allen decided to re-launch his career by selling facsimile machines to the masses. After all, who wouldn’t want badly pixilated pictures and text sent right to their own home?

Unfortunately the masses did not live in Nepal. 
Fortunately China with its masses was right next door.

After a month or so, riding in carts pulled by various animals, he arrived at The Bamboo Curtain.

Unfortunately it was closed.

Undaunted, but quite miffed, Allen returned to Kathmandu where he lingered a few weeks or maybe months until he left his bar stool and set his sights on India, a land teeming with masses and hardly any bamboo.

After a month or so, riding in carts pulled by various animals, he arrived in India.
Allen had seen a map of the world but up until recently had no idea what the scale on a map represented.

After another month or so, riding in carts pulled by various animals, he arrived in an area large enough to be considered to be teeming.

The trip had been long and fraught with perils and snakes but the people of the area were a friendly lot and he was soon having a drink with someone who was willing to share his whiskey. Someone’s whiskey.

That someone had left a truck full of the stuff with the keys in the ignition and his new friend had decided to move the truck to a safer, not overlooked location. 

They were well into the bottle, all the time looking over their shoulders for any sign of the owner of the truck so they could flag him down.
They should have been looking in the vicinity of their ankles as suddenly karma (a concept Allen had never heard of) reared its ugly head in the form of a venom spitting cobra. 
Cobras are actually quite beautiful if you ignore their tendency to spit venom in your eyes with great accuracy even from a great distance.

His drinking partner froze with fear but Allen, startled out of his wits, sprayed his mouth full of whiskey right into the cobra’s face. (Don’t try this at home kids)

You have never seen a more affronted looking cobra in your life.

As the cobra slithered off to wherever snakes go, Allen became aware of the owner of the truck coming Right down the alley. Exit stage Left.

To be continued…

 

Tea Pee Spiral Note Book by shiomi
Design a journal cover online at Zazzle

Closer to Home

In my previous post, Pluto vs. Science,  I ranted a little about groups redefining things for us whether we knew we needed them redefined or not.

I kept it short because Pluto has had some more recent Press and new selfies, I mean photos.

I did keep reading stuff about the definition of planets. 

Phil Metzger, a planetary physicist retired from NASA, said the problem was today's definition of "planet" doesn't work when comparing this solar system to ones light-years away. 

Why? Has he been getting input from the locals?
They are light-years away. Light-years. Google it.
To give you some perspective, if you headed there on a road trip, beginning at the dawn of humanity, we wouldn’t be anywhere close to being finished saying “Are we there yet?”

I am all for broadening my horizons but the news that winds on a planet three light-years away are 20x stronger than the strongest winds here, will probably never be germane to me.
Not even on trivia night.

I guess I would like to see more focus on solving problems a bit closer to home. Maybe tackle world hunger or cure diseases or battle global warming.

Why global warming? Coconut crabs.

Coconut crabs are the world’s largest land-living arthropod weighing up to 9 pounds and stretching to over 3 feet. 

They are hideous looking so I will not include a picture or video but I’ve put in some links.

Following the migration pattern of the coconut palm, the beast is found through-out the lands around the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Nice warm places. Far away places.

So what’s the problem?

Well if the video did not alarm you, how about the fact that there is irrefutable evidence of global warming, coconut palms are growing in places they never grew before and these buggers climb coconut trees and drop coconuts.

And we all know coconuts kill more people each year than sharks.

Imagine a swarm of 3 foot wide 9 pound exoskeleton monsters making their way across your lawn. Sure you could set your riding mower to mulch and wade in, but I prefer to be a little more proactive.

You can find me out in my yard with a book on how to spot coconut trees, and a chainsaw.

Bluejay Spiral Note Book by ladybuglane
See more Bluejay Notebooks at zazzle.com

Bad Gmail…Bad - A good natured ribbing of Gmail

Gmail was not working on my phone today. It worked yesterday, but not today.

When I got home, I tried logging in from my computer and got the message that my account was disabled due to suspicious activity. I thought about it and the only suspicious activity I had noticed recently was Gmail prompting me to give them my mobile phone number (I didn’t) as an account recovery tool, and my browser of choice, Chrome, prompting me to install a plug-in every few emails I read in spite of my repeatedly trying to install it. I’m thinking this may have been the problem.

When I finally got access to my account, yes, I did have to give them my mobile number despite the fact they had a separate email by which to contact me, I was alerted that there was activity on my account from an IP address they believed to be in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 17 hours ago. 5000 miles away. It wasn’t me. Not even if the Concord was still flying. It is about 10 hours by air one way.

I’m still miffed about having to give them my mobile number. They obviously did not need it prior to this incident. I’m not paranoid or worried about Big Brother. They already know, so get over it.

Do I feel embarrassed having my email hacked? Nope. Very large agencies including government, credit, international monetary and scientific groups have reported being hacked. Go ahead and Google a government agency or company plus the word hacked just for fun. You can imagine who hasn’t reported. So I am in good company despite having a smaller IT security budget.

This incident prompted me to read some of the Gmail forums. Some genius said that it was a shame no one read the forums (i.e. I am not having any trouble so therefore I will look for a solution?) until they were hacked. This would be good advice for some but not the majority who are happy just to be able to check their email and have the right things happen when they click something in Facebook.

One forum post listed browser plug-ins as a potential problem. No info on how to spot a bad one so, never install any plug-ins?

In a FAQ the question was posed, if Gmail sends me a warning, will that not tip off the bad guys? The answer was that Gmail sent the warning to the real account owner not the bad guys. My question is, “If Gmail can differentiate between the good guys and the bad guys, why make the good guys jump through hoops”? Make the bad guys verify themselves. The bad guys will move on. Send a note to the account owner to change their password.

For the record, when I set up my account on Gmail, my password registered as Strong on their Password-Strength-O-Meter (not the real name).

Why did I write this? I had a feeling it would not fit in the “Tell us how we are doing” form. Besides, it’s fun to let off a little steam.

Voyeur to Vandal?

An interesting quote from Stephen Fry No Comment “The fact that I will have turned off my website’s comments facility or moderated it into effective silence is even now driving some of my readers (a tiny minority I’m happy to think) insane.”

"Peeping" through the window of your computer is expected, even encouraged.
Some hosts invite you to comment or criticize (whether they read your input is another thing). Some sites let anyone with half a mind to post, post.
But what if you feel compelled to offer your opinion and the inconsiderate designers have not included a soapbox for you. What indeed.
Stephen Fry of Jeeves and Wooster, Last Chance to See, and followed by over 2 million tweeters, http://twitter.com/stephenfry is now pushing Pushnote beta.
I read the PCWorld article about Pushnote beta, which on first read might lead some to believe that those with half a mind to post could salute or slam the person/product/website on the website whether or not the site allows comments. It was obvious, from the comments by the readers, that they believed this was the point of the software. Say it ain’t so.
It ain’t so. Ya can’t just graffiti on someone’s site, unless you’re a cracker/hacker.
Pushnote beta, not to be confused with the PushNote app for the iPhone, is a browser plug-in that allows people to comment on what is on a site. The comments are available to other users of the plug-in. They are not posted on the site. Reminds me of StumbleUpon where you can comment and recommend sites and randomly Stumble across sites based on your interests and the recommendation of others.
Pushnote does let you cross post to Facebook and Twitter but does not rank or recommend sites so you are on your own there. It does have links to The Web and Hot Pages which are pages that have been commented on.
If you have a site you could join Pushnote and see what people are saying and posting on social media, assuming it catches on with the masses. The downside: You can’t edit or delete comments, your own or other’s. The upside: At least you know what is being said and maybe address any valid concerns.
You say you neither read nor write comments as a rule. Hmm.
Is the average Joe going to sign up for an account, download and install the plug-in (which gave me some little trouble in Firefox but worked after updating the browser) so he/she can praise web content or will the majority just be slamming sites and other users?
So far the comments on StephenFry.com have been mostly positive with 3 4 votes for Stephen for Prime Minister or Pope.

For people who still use the Post Office Lake Nipissing postcard

Snowy Lake View by damccaskill

Old School Computer Interface

I didn’t think I’d have anything to say about tablets for a while but I was wrong.
That is to say I do and I was right.
In my recent post I postulate that people will revert to a physical interface e.g. keyboard and mouse over the virtual keyboard and touch screen. Yes, I know that a touch screen is physical but sliding a finger over or lightly tapping a screen does not provide the satisfaction one gets by pounding on the keys or gripping a mouse.
But I did not see this coming.
The iCADE by ION “brings arcade gaming to life by integrating your iPad into an authentic, arcade-style cabinet complete with joystick and buttons! Impress your friends, family and co-workers with iCADE's great-looking retro design, and then challenge them for high-scores on the most entertaining iPad accessory imaginable!”
That’s right. A full sized joystick and big fat buttons for playing Asteroids^TM and more from Atari’s library along with new titles.
As if you needed another reason to buy an iPad.
I can see it now in cubicles and boardrooms around the world.
Maybe not, but it would definitely be fun.

All products trademark of their respective companies.

Fantasy Sword iPad Case

FANTASY SWORD by dequilla

No Threat to Mankind

I was going to write about my lack of concern over the firing up of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, the world's largest particle physics laboratory but a press release by CERN issued on Sept 5, 08 sums it up quite well. From what I understand CERN is going to accelerate particles in a 27 kilometer loop of super-cooled magnets, smacking them together and “popping” into existence really heavy particles that we have never seen and probably never will. The heavy particle called Higgs bosun or God particle won’t stick around long enough to be photographed or sign autographs so how will we know that the LHC worked? By the evidence left behind. Kind of like the mess in the Family room. No one did it or saw it happen but it’s there all the same. Some groups are concerned that this particle smacking will cause the end of the world or worse, the universe. I’m with Steven Hawking and those who don’t think this will happen. “Professor Hawking is not convinced that the so-called “God particle”, which theory suggests gives matter its mass, actually exists, and in 2000 he backed his judgement by making a $100 (£50) wager with Professor Kane, who thinks it will soon be found.” Considering that all we have done on and to the planet hasn’t ended it yet, I’m not going to dig out my “The End Is Near” sign over spinning some miniscule bits around and whacking them together. But in case I’m wrong “So long, and Thanks for All the Fish”.

DAVINCI HELO by dequilla

Shot in the Foot Again

Who would have thought that at this early stage of the game or late stage if you are an environmentalist, that we would have too much wind power? That’s right. According to an article in the International Herald Tribune by Matthew L. Wald, nearly 200 windmills in New York have been forced to shut down due to congestion in the power transmission lines. This lack of infrastructure sounds a lot like the North American oil supply problem. In recent U.S. political campaigning one presidential hopeful suggests that his opponent’s stand against offshore drilling would be damaging to the U.S. economy. This is contrary to the opinion of many experts who say that the bottleneck is not the supply of oil but the capacity to refine the stuff. There doesn’t seem to be any incentive to build new refineries for an energy source that is going the way of the endangered species that helped create it, albeit kicking and screaming all the way. So we have two energy sources with inadequate infrastructure. Gas may be on the way out but the need for electricity is not going to go away in the foreseeable future so why not just start the process of building the estimated $60 billion cross-country backbone needed for the increased energy production from solar and wind powered sources? Fear and Greed would be my guess. Getting any sort of an agreement between the 500 groups that own the power lines and the multiple levels of government may call for federal intervention, something the U.S. Energy Department is considering. Augmenting the electrical power grid will take years and billions of dollars. It will happen because it has to happen. During that time coal fired power plants will be built (there’s always room for coal) and will contribute to the already too high levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. Wind farms have to be built where there is wind and it seems that most of the wind is in out of the way places. It makes me wonder what the cost of running transmission lines is compared to building new coal fired plants. Here’s a thought. If coal fired plants pollute the environment and wind farms are environmentally clean, why not scale back the electrical output of the coal burning utilities to make room on the existing transmission lines for the power from the wind farms. The result will be the same amount of energy only cleaner. Using green energy will bring down the price of producing it (economies of scale) and might just help save the planet. Reference: International Herald Tribune, Matthew L. Wald Published: August 27, 2008

DAVINCI HELO by dequilla

Solar Energy for Peace

If halting climate change isn’t reason enough to push for the advancement and adoption of solar and wind power over nuclear and carbon producing processes, how about peace? Solar energy is limitless, at least in the foreseeable future; say 5 or 6 billion years. That’s a lot longer than the projection for oil reserves for the entire planet by, oh, about 5 or 6 billion years. And wind power. As long as there is a sun, there will be wind. Develop and distribute solar capabilities to all countries. Sounds counter-intuitive giving technology away but due to economies of scale, mass production of solar capturing devices would lower the component costs. Thus, giving it away to countries that had fewer resources would cost less. If all countries had sufficient solar energy there would be no need to continue developing nuclear based power sources or coal and bio-fuel for that matter. How does this pave the way for peace? Recently, Iran test fired missiles. This caused political tension and oil prices to rise around the world. The missiles by themselves are not the main cause for concern; it is the uranium enrichment process Iran says it is pursuing for energy production that has got everyone’s attention. If all countries had an adequate supply of reasonably priced solar energy, they would not need to buy large quantities of oil from potentially aggressive countries and thereby fund military “defense” systems in those countries. Less oil, more peace. The loss of economic value caused by the disuse of oil as a power source would be offset by the growing solar economy. Heat and light for your home, industry and solar powered transportation. If you wonder about the feasibility of solar energy, check out Germany. Germany is leading the way and does not seem to be suffering for it. What about the disused oil refineries? Turn them into museums as reminders of how not to treat our only planet.

GAIA THE LIVING PLANET Earth Design iPhone case

GAIA THE LIVING PLANET Earth Design by dequilla

Word

I was talking to my daughter in Germany. She is there, I’m not. We were using MSN and I remarked it was as if she were downstairs. Instant messaging is really fast, even though there is a six hour time difference between here and there. But this is not about the speed of the Internet. It is about language. I’ve always thought that it would be handy if there was a universal language. It would be really, really handy if that language were English as that is the only one I’ve been able to master (well I’m working on it). Millions may disagree but it’s my blog, get your own. From what I understand European children have the advantage of being forced to learn more than one language. This is handy as those countries are cheek-by-jowl with a lot of foreign countries that speak something else. I am jealous. When I went to school, more than a few years ago, the educational system arranged that we would get 15 minutes of French. Canadian French. The classes were forty minutes long but we got 15 minutes whether we wanted it or not. I’m sure the teachers were more than competent ‘tho I wonder who wrote the curriculum. Through grades 6 to 12, to the best of my knowledge, few of my unilingual peers rose to the aggrandized state of truly bilingual. For those who did, felicitations. Myself, I can tell you there is an autobus dans la rue, ask for a beer and ask where the washroom is. Two of these have stood me in good stead. The reason for language is to communicate. To everyone. Otherwise, have a code. Back in the old days, Esperanto, a language, was developed in 1887 by Ludwik Zamenhof with the specific intent of creating an international second language. There are an estimated 2 million speakers of Esperanto. There are nearly 7 billion people on earth. Language itself, let alone second languages may be doomed to fail. As early as 1965, The Who said “And don’t try to dig what we all s-s-say”. Prophecy or warning. Need proof of the demise of language? Check out your kids on Messenger or texting on their mobile. Leetspeak short for elite speak as defined by Mopo.ca Leet (most commonly 1337 but often also leetspeak, leetspeek, or l33t) from the phonetic form of the word "elite", is a cipher, or novel form of English spelling. It is characterized by the use of non-alphabetic characters to stand for letters bearing a superficial resemblance, and by a number of spelling changes such as the substitution of "z" for final "s" and "x" for "(c)ks". Leetspeak is traditionally used on the Internet and other online communities, such as bulletin board systems. Leetspeak is commonly used by hackers, crackers, script kiddies, and gamers. (English teachers everywhere are turning in their graves) (well, the dead ones anyway). Imagine this type of communication during the Cold War, think Dr. Strangelove or: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb But who can blame the younger generations for trying to eliminate extraneous parts of language such as vowels and consonents. Try writing anything of any length on a crackberry. So while today’s languages may join the ranks of Latin and Greek, we will still be able to communicate on some level. So for now I will bid you adieu or say caio which is short for bye.

Protect your communicator with

FIREWORKS Display by dequilla