bullet-resistant clothing, but is it dry clean only

During the presidential inauguration, I wondered (out loud, too) if Obama was wearing a bulletproof vest. The next day, Wired posted a story suggesting he was indeed wearing bullet-resistant clothing.

Here are two videos posted on VBS.tv in which host Ryan Duffy of The Vice Guide to Travel visits Bogota, Colombia to see how clothes like this work. While there and filming at Protección Personal Especializada, Miguel Caballero (aka the Armani of Armor) has him try on a jacket - and then shoots him from less than two feet away. Through the adrenalin overload, Ryan manages to laugh it off, then pockets the flattened bullet as a souvenir.

I am SO behind on this technology. Until as recently as today I thought my Scott eVest was cool!

 

Note to self, add a jacket to my birthday wishlist!

filed under: innovations, politics

legislative wish list for 2009

Wednesday, January 7, 2009 marked the first time since 1981 when all the living presidents convened at the White House. It was history in the making to see the POTUSes gather for something un-funeral and un-disaster related. And it was extra special because it included the President-elect. We live in an amazing country which can transition leadership peacefully and in an organized manner.

After the photo opportunity, the who’s who of the Executive Branch met for lunch. Although I’m a self-proclaimed food expert, Industrial Margineer by day (though officially designated a Product Manager by my company) and Dad, blogger, and plausibly deniable undercover super secret presidential confidant the rest of the time, I can't say or not say what was served for lunch.

I can say, if I was asked, you know, "hypothetically," by our new president, what lesser explored issues are on my mind to address in 2009, I have a quick list off the top of my head.

• Breathalyzer/alcohol/inebriation testing tools should be standard equipment for every mode of public transportation. How many more times do we need to hear about alcohol-scented pilots turned away by TSA before something is done? Who's watching ferry boat captains or bus drivers or taxi drivers or train engineers? Ummm, nobody, huh? So let's protect the passengers (who may be crossing state lines) with a federal program to simply not allow the engine to start unless the person responsible is really ready to go.
• We should pay taxes by the mile, not the gallon. As the US does more in the coming years to mandate increases to vehicle fuel efficiency and alternative energies, state tax coffers will begin to take a hit as we buy less fuel. Since 2004, Oregon has been leading the idea to charge by the mile instead of the gallon to ensure their state doesn't miss the boat and find itself out of revenue for state-provided services. Most states are set up to check emissions, so the framework exists for an annual mileage reporting system. Even states (or counties) without emissions testing require vehicle insurance; insurance companies could easy be proxied to check odometers. To keep states happy in this Federal system, they could decide how much they wish to charge per mile. There's probably a number of technology ideas which could help with this, too.
• Collegiate athletes shouldn't be permitted to go pro unless they finish their degree or sit out two years. We're talking about big money, big business, and big egos. Athletes use publicly funded universities as a stage for their future. There's no problem with that, because the same thing is happening through interning and scientific research at the same universities. Competition is fierce on the playing field and just as much as in business. But we never hear about someone being permitted to sit for the Bar Exam or being invited to medical residency before finishing school.
  Q. Would you like a federal license to go pro (which requires drug testing, by the way)?
  A. Finish school.

I doubt these will ever be popular ideas. But I think they'd make our country better.

filed under: innovations, parody, politics

beautiful meatball

I remember a Cosby Show episode from years ago in which Dr. Cliff Huxtable (Bill Cosby) and his son Theo (Malcolm-Jamal Warner) were watching MTV together. The good doctor pronounced the music videos he'd seen were nothing short than the realization of someone's nightmare.

This week, my wife was shuttling our kids around and as she typically does, was listening to music on the radio. Marilyn Manson's Beautiful People began to play. My daughter, who just turned 5 this week, really likes music with a harder edge. She picked up the song pretty quick and began to sing out loud to my wife. But she didn’t quite understand the lyrics. The squeaky voice from the back of the minivan chanted her version, "the beautiful meatball, the beautiful meatball ...” It seems she’s not the only one to misinterpret the lyrics.

Yes, Bill, Kids Say the Darndest Things. And you were also spot on about the nightmare comment. I found the video for this song.

Take a look, and at two minutes and fifty seconds in, is he screaming about people, or meatballs?

 

filed under: bill cosby, kids, malcolm-jamal warner, marilyn manson

innovation wish list for 2009

Today was my first day back at work in over a week. Now it really feels like a new year, and work is cranking right along. But hang on a moment! I've been waiting, patiently, for many things, and for a long time. Another year has ticked by and I never expected 2008 to bring flying cars or jetpacks or anything like that, but seriously, where are the following innovations?

• Where’s my refrigerator with a barcode/RFID reader for inventory management? When I pass food items through the fridge door, the system should make note. Why can’t the LCD screen outside on the door warn me when the milk is about to expire, or the leftover Chinese food I tagged myself with disposable self-stick barcodes two weeks ago is toxic now? How else can I check to see if I’m low or out of something if the big box commanding my kitchen can’t tell me? Opening the door and rooting around inside is so, well, 1950s.
• While we’re at, where’s my microwave with the same barcode/RFID reader? Why can’t I just wave the little package in front of the microwave and have it program itself? I didn’t make this up, I know these things are out there. I assumed I’d need an Ethernet connection to download the latest barcodes and RFID signatures, so I built my house in 2000 with an Ethernet jack just below the microwave (and one behind the refrigerator, too). But all seems quiet on the connected appliance front. Come on now, it’s not like I’m trying to get a self-unloading dishwasher.
• Why can’t Tivo offer a one hour buffer instead of just 30 minutes? I could hack my DirecTivo HR10-250 to do it. I can probably use the same code to hack my Tivo HD, too. Come on, Tivo, storage is the least expensive it’s been in years and I’ll happily give up space for the gigabytes of kid shows occupying that buffer space now.
• Why can’t I pay for things with my mobile phone yet? Everyone in Japan has done this for years. In fact, they can buy Jack Black (see photo above) right out of a vending machine with their phones, so if the technology is secure, inexpensive, and scalable, where is it in the US?
• Why do children still die in cars when they’re left alone in the vehicles in the heat? Google, you seem to solve everyone’s problems, how about this one? How hard is it to put something into a car to detect movement, a heartbeat, weight in a carseat – and set off an alarm or automatically roll down the windows when the temperature exceeds a dangerous level? If Ford can make a car which can park itself (never mind BMW has offered this for a few years already), why don’t we have methods to protect passengers who can’t speak for themselves?
• And where are U-Turn signals for cars? This idea may be older than me!
• I really want the new house I’m building to be as green as can be. Australia has dual flush toilets everywhere. Why doesn’t Home Depot carry ANY (not even one model)? Sure, they have one posted right now on their web site (it’s perpetually out of stock). Try to buy one in a local store. Take a tape measure to see how far the plumbing department’s representative shoots their eyebrows into the air when you ask for this. My favorite is how they advise you to just jiggle the handle to simulate a lesser flush. I thought Orange was going Green?
• And this last one is reaching because it’s new, but wow, I sure would like some photovoltaic solar window tinting. I’ll have East/West facing windows in Florida primed to capture electricity to help power my home (or feedback onto the grid). I’m already going to have to tint the windows anyway, why not juice ‘em from the outside?

I’m not asking for anything weird here. All of these are possible. Will 2009 be the year?

filed under: innovations,tivo,rfid

a new howto section at edvoidswarranties

One of the original reasons I had for starting to blog was I wanted a place to document and post details about the modifications I’ve made to Tivos, Windows-based cell phones, my home network, etc. I thought others might find some of it interesting. For one reason or another, I haven’t posted anything like this at all.

Today, I started a subsection of my site dedicated specifically for this. I don’t plan to post tutorials frequently, but when I do, I want them to be easy to find. I created a new subdomain for this. The how-to guides I’ll post to http://howto.edvoidswarranties.com/ won’t be included in the same RSS feed as http://edvoidswarranties.com/; they’ll be syndicated on their own.

But at least now when I tell tall tales of how I can watch live TV via my mobile phone or how I’ve made it possible to watch my High Definition home movies on my HD Tivos (via network attached storage) - just as if they’d been broadcast in HD – I’ll finally have a dedicated place to post instructions you can follow to do the same, should you choose to want to geek out, too.

My first post in the howto section is how to set up two blogger feeds into the same domain, in this case, edvoidswarranties.com.

filed under: blog,howto