The Family Blog

Who said representative democracy doesn’t work in the US? No, I know we don’t have a direct democracy and that the presidential voting we do is largely symbolic, I wasn’t talking about that. I’m talking about a Bill introduced by some representatives that seeks to balance out the heavily industry-weighted Digital Millenium Copyright Act, or the DCMA as it has come be known/hated.

There used to be the concept of ‘Fair Use’, meaning, if I buy it, I basically own it. I might not be able, for example, to buy a VHS and sell it to my friends, but I could buy a VHS and make a copy for my own use. I say used to be, because with the introduction of the DCMA, this basically doesn’t exist. You might buy software, buy you’re extremely limited in how you can use it. And if you want to use it in a way that breaks someone’s copy protection (like making a backup of a DVD), you’re in violation of the DCMA and can be fined.

Anyway, it’s mostly bad, trust me. So some representatives have introduced a bill that would ‘correct’ some of the problems with the DCMA, and I hope you’ll show your support by going to this site and sending a message to your representative:

http://action.eff.org/site/Advocacy?id=271

I just happened upon a scary article at Daddy Types that warns about the dangers of using plastics for food storage and consumption. Apparently the plastic can leach certain chemicals into whatever is being contained. Once consumed, even in very small amounts, the checmials can do ‘Bad Things’(tm) to you and yours.

Read the article for details (link below), but some general advice they give-

• Use PVC-free plastics
• Don’t store foods and liquids in plastic
• Use metal or glass containers when you can
• Use metal utensils (not glass ones)
• Throw away bottles when they become cloudy (like all of ours immediately following their initial boiling to sanitize them)

Here’s the link to TFA:
Daddy Types Article

Now this is thinking! This Baby Rocker is driven by a microwave turntable motor. Simple and sweet!

Another entertaining YouTube post about Pachelbel’s Canon in D and the Cello. Sounds like tons-o-fun eh? Well it is!

For those of you not in the know, free/stolen video clips are all the rage on the interweb. Several sites have popped up to help users provide their own content. Recently, Google bought one of the leaders (YouTube) for like 5 Billion Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers. Anyway, here is an example YouTube video that is a Parody of the Mac vs. PC commercials. I’m not sure I enjoy the whole rubber glove aspect, and I have to say it is rather ironic since Mac basically has Linux under the hood now, but it is funny none the less:

Update:Let me just say- I’m so clearly the linux guy, that it cracks me up to no end.

I read about 4 blogs on a regular basis- Gizmodo, Engadget, Make, and more recently Toolmonger. I saw a great quote in a Toolmonger post on how owning any tools outside of a certain set qualifies as a toy (obviously, rubbish). Here’s the quote:

So ladies, don’t buy your man a tie or a belt that he’ll never wear. Buy him a tool for Christmas, after all Jesus Christ was a carpenter!

So maybe I wanna go somewhere where we know someone who can plug us into the Cloud Appreciation Society! Er, wait. Yeah, there actually is a Cloud Appreciation Society, and they have a gallery of cloud photos. Some cool, some boring, some silly, and some spectacular. The thing about this website, though, isnt so much the clouds, but the variety of places they’ve been taken. It really, really, makes me want to travel more. Such a big world, so little traveling.

Here’s the link: http://www.cloudappreciationsociety.org/gallery/

Maybe you didn’t know this, but there is a Ninja vs. Pirate war going on right now (primarily on the internet, I’ll grant you), and my money is on the Ninja. Here is one helpful ninja (oxymoron?) that distributes video advice and a good dose of tom-ninja-foolery. check it out:

AskANinja.com

Let me just say, I really like Mythbusters. Entertaining, informative, and they blow sh!t up. I was browsing my normal gadget websites, and I saw a you-tube (or something similar) with Adam and Jamie on it, so I had to investigate. Check out this video of Adam and Jamie defeating a fingerprint lock three different ways:

http://www.redferret.net/?p=7537

I’ve never personally assumed fingerprints to be very secure, and I’ve always refused to give Jewel my fingerprint because I don’t need big brother all up in my grill, but now that I’ve seen this, this is perhaps a better reason not to use it. True, someone could snatch my wallet and use my credit card, but I don’t leave my wallet everywhere. My fingerprint on the otherhand is probably all over the damn place.

Anyway, even if you don’t buy into the whole personal security/big brother thing, it is still pretty cool to see locks broken, eh?

Ok, not really _proud_, but you have to admire it when a nation of fatties manages to influence an international imaging company to release a ’slimming’ feature on their digital cameras. I’m not kidding, HP actually has a set of ‘artistic effects’ on their cameras, and some of them include an option to make your subjects look skinnier than they are.

You should check out this demonstration link while I go off to eat an entire pizza before 10am (I probably won’t finish it before 10, but still):

http://www.hp.com/united-states/consumer/digital_photography/tours/slimming/index_f.html