Wow! More "health" scams... Anti-bacterial soap is no more effective than regular soap

This isn't as eggregious as my earlier post (Echinacea doesn't do anything), but it turns out that there are many more "mainstream" scams out there. Here's one I found today:

Anti-Bacterial Soap is no more effective than plain soap, just more expensive

Sheesh. Y'know, when I was 5, I was pretty convinced that a quick soapless splash under the faucet was plenty. I'll bet I was right.

joel

Help Needed: Wireless NIC incorrectly reporting "Media Disconnected"

I hate to do this on my blog, but I'm desparate, so I've resorted to an open plea for help.

Two nights ago, I installed AdAware SE Personal (1.06) and ran it. After that, my Wireless NIC started misbehaving in really strange ways.

Using Windows XP SP2 Pro. Via the UI, I can see (refresh, etc.) all local WiFi networks. Even tells me signal strength. When I try to connect, it fails. Here's the strange part: IPCONFIG reports "Media Disconnected". How can that be, if I can see the networks??

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the driver. No dice.

I found a guy who said he had a similar problem and fixed it by installing a "WinsockFix" freeware app. I tried that, but it didn't help.

Any ideas?

joel

Why I'm not a Cat Person

I just don't trust them.

Now you can't blame me. Isn't Pinky such a Loving Cat?

joel

Echinacea doesn't actually do anything

Well, this is going to be one of the few arguments I've won with my girlfriend. It turns out that Echinacea really doesn't do anything.

Does this scare anyone else? Any idea how big the market for Echinacea is? I couldn't find it on the web--research firms wanted to charge me for that kind of data. But it's big. The best I could do was $7.1B for "nutraceuticals," of which Echinacea, I believe, is just one. Also, way back in 1997, the Echinacea market was $4M.

In the US, neither the FDA nor any other government body regulates Echinacea or any other dietary supplement for content, quality, or efficacy. That apparently means that I could go into my back yard, pick a few dandelions, grind them up and make a pill that I could claim cures Bad Job Doldrums. And I'd just need to buy an ad spot on TV and charge $25 per bottle and I'd have a great business.

Or, I could just sell Echinacea. Probably wouldn't even need to advertise, then.

It's ridiculous. As long as consumers will believe anything that they see on TV or read in an ad, the government has a responsibility to protect them. How many people will see this scientific study debunking Echinacea? Who has the motivation to publicize it (and where will the money come from)? Now who has the motivation to HIDE it?

One of these days, it will turn out that one of these dietary supplements is actually HARMFUL--something which would have been discovered if the FDA had done testing. Then we'll see some change. In the meantime, I'm going to go work on my own ripoff pills, I mean my "All Natural Anti-Doldrum Herbal Dandelion Supplement."

joel

Why My Cell Phone Reception sucked in Seattle

Apparently, there were no towers near me...

Cell Phone Towers on Google Maps (Seattle)
You can change the city to see how intensely you are being irradiated.

joel

A Vote for Pedro is a Wasted Vote

I was in Seattle a couple of weeks ago and during my three days there, I saw six different people wearing "Vote for Pedro" shirts. Now I love Napoleon Dynamite as much as the next guy (maybe a little less), and I'm a big fan of those types of pithy, smart, sarcastic shirts worn by San Francisco counterculture (a bigger fan than most--I own a few).

I had thought that I was so cool when I grabbed a couple of these types of shirts a while back thinking, for once, that I might be fashion forward. But then y'all go and kill my dream--all these damn shirts everywhere! We can't ALL be unique and funny and cool. So now i'm just back to being a tech nerd who wears jeans and buttondowns. Damn you all.

You can only imagine my delight when I saw this one out and about:
Pedro Lacks Political Experience

Take THAT! Counter-counterculture t-shirts. It's about time. Your whole smarmy t-shirt trend can go self-combust. See if I care.

joel

Finally, a great use for the Google Maps API

Am I Hot Or Not, Local.

Finally we can answer that age old question: which city has the most beautiful "average people"?

I'm disappointed that I can't rate the photos from the map--that's the most addictive part of Hot or Not. If they add that, I'd bet that this would put Hot or Not back on the map, so to speak.

I'm also a bit surprised that Hot Or Not is hosting this on their servers, and more surprised that Google hasn't taken it down yet (seeing as it's a commercial site that makes money off of the ads).

Nevertheless, I applaud the creativity!

joel

When you think you're having a bad day

Remember these poor guys... Their day was worse.

Holly and I were driving around San Francisco when we happened upon this moving truck, STUCK, on the crest of a hill. The 18-wheeler was too long and the middle of the truck bottomed out! They're stuck--you can see the front of the trailor coming off the hitch.

I laughed, then I cried when I saw these poor movers realizing that they were having the worst day on earth. Then I made Holly drive back so we could take a photo. It was so funny that I posted it to my Section Blog as well.

Hope everyone is doing well!

joel

Tom Cruise is so nuts that the site that documents it is down

Over the weekend, a couple of friends were bemoaning the fact that Tom Cruise has gone nuts. I don't follow pop culture all that much, so I didn't have much to contribute to the conversation (in my world, most of Hollywood is nuts).

So, I decided to ask the web if Tom was really nuts, or if my friends were just ranting.

Well, it's verified: http://www.tomcruiseisnuts.com
The site is apparently so popular that it can't keep up with the traffic. There are pages on "Freaky Tom Facts", "Tom on Scientology", "Tom on Women" and more...

Seattle Busmonster: Google Maps API now public

Google has officially blessed their Maps API (in classic Google style, as a Beta) for public use by any non-profit website. They also reserve the right to include advertising on the map at any point. I'll say it again: those are smart folks.
As soon as they can figure out how to sell it, Local text search + Adsense is going to be a huge revenue generator for Google. But wait until there are dozens of cool apps/sites out there built on the Google Maps API, all now serving up local ads on the maps! Cool app, relevant, and VERY valuable. Everyone wins--Google, the developers, the advertisers. Just brilliant from a business perspective. The hard part, methinks, is teaching the local plummer or mom-and-pop bakery shop to use AdSense.

And today I discovered a new killer local app built on Google maps: Bus Monster. This Seattle site will tell you the closest bus stop, all of the routes, and how far away (in minutes!) the bus is to that stop. Love it.

I may be late to the game, but I think I'm buying google stock.

This might be my last burrito post, ever

It might also be my first, i can't remember. It had been a goal of mine to review as many burrito shops as possible while I was living in San Francisco. I made good headway my first few weeks here, but have slowed down considerably. I was encouraged the other day, though, when I was walking through the mission and realizing that I had made impressive progress.

In fact, my friend Oliver (a former mission inhabitant), asked me to contribute/update his burrito reviews. I remembered that I owed him some contributions.

But today, I stood face to (cartoon) face with one who is much much much more devoted to this cause than I am. I therefore tip my hat to the Burrito Eater. I shall continue to enjoy my burritos, but without the added pressure of writing reviews.

The best hidden feature of GMail?

In great design, it's often the tiny features that count--the ones that make users really love the product.

Today, when I was replying to a GMail message I realized (while I was stilly typing my reply) that I had accidentally replied just to the sender instead of to everyone (as I had intended). I highlighted my reponse, copied it, and clicked on "Reply All" (instead of just "Reply").

But I didn't need to paste. The pane changed to Reply All and my reply text was all still there! (warning: don't try that in Hotmail). Seriously, go try it. Intead of making me feel dumb, GMail just does the right thing. Beautiful. Smart. Those Google folks are good.

I am delighted. Like I said, it's the little things.

joel

My Friend Maya Rocks!

I just picked up the WSJ and read a Walt Mossberg review that confirmed what Maya has been saying all along: MSN Spaces rocks. Rocks better than Blogger or the soon-to-be-released Yahoo service.

And, in case you didn't know, I'm pals with Maya, one of the smarties who works hard every day making MSN Spaces rock. Maya tells me that lots of other smart folks are working on it, too, but I don't know them. So I give all props to Maya.

Having been on the wrong end of a Walt Mossberg review, I know that securing his stamp of approval is no small feat--congrats to Maya and the MSN Spaces team!

joel

I wish I had Photoshop talent

I would have loved to participate in this contest, which challenged Photoshoppers to dress up animals in human clothing.

Personally, I would have dressed a fish in a raincoat.

Too bad I don't have Photoshop talent.

joel

What kind of service collects a tip before actually performing the service?

Answer: a crappy one. It probably should have raised a red flag for me last night when the Super Shuttle (apparently a nationwide conglomerate of local airport shuttle services) tricked me into including the tip when, online, I reserved (and pre-paid for) a shuttle to the airport. They even had a button that said "15% tip" that was the same size and shape as a "Done" button. Like a putz, I pressed it. There was no "undo" button.

I had a 6 AM flight. The magic Shuttle Express algorithm online told me that they'd be here between 3:30 and 3:45 AM. Sucks, but I guess they know best. After all, they're a nationwide conglomerate with a fancy online reservation system.

At 3:35 AM (yes, in the morning) this morning, I got a phone call from a nice woman telling me that the driver was rejiggering the order of pickups and he'd be at my place towards the end of my window or, at worst, maybe 3:50 AM. Not a huge deal, still in the window.

Now I have no idea what on earth their fancy algorithm missed that led the human driver to reroute his plans. But I'm annoyed because the guy didn't get to me until 4:15. That means that I was awake a good 45 minutes before I needed to be and, at 3 AM, that matters! Does the fancy algorithm not actually do anything "smart"? Or does it just not account for the fact that there is NO traffic at 3 AM? Most importantly, can I get my tip back??

And I haven't quite gone to sleep yet, so I'm tired now and feel fully justified in complaining.

Morale of the story: beware services that collect tips before rendering service. It screws with incentives and you're more likely to get screwed.

Good night, I'm going to sleep and not setting the alarm,
joel

The Apple Store. Wow.

I headed over to the flagship Apple store today on Market St., eager to catch a presentation of the Bay Area Photobloggers. After 5 minutes of confusion upon my arrival, I realized what you probably noticed if you followed any of these links--I was two weeks early.

The strange part was that I couldn't leave the store. It is brilliantly designed to tempt you to touch and play with all of their products (and people were--in some cases, lining up to try them!) There is no ugly inventory in view nor security gates and cash registers blocking the exits--just products (computers, laptops, iPods, iPod speakers, printers, etc) and Apple "geniuses" (in addition to those roaming the floor downstairs, upstairs is a "genius bar", where people line up to talk to a dozen or more friendly Apple experts, and a small open theater--complete with theater-style seats--where they were giving a free class).

And the products weren't just there in their stupid "fresh out of the box" (useless) state. They were neatly organized around activities (movies, music, work, etc.) and filled with content: the iPods had songs and pictures, the laptop address books had names, iMovie had video clips in it. I was editing movies, flipping through pictures, comparing the sound from iPod speaker docks. A friendly Apple Genius even set up a video chat for me with a laptop across the room so I could see if looked as good as it did when Jobs demo'ed it (it did, though it was just the local network).

It's really a minor miracle that I didn't walk out of there with anything. Truth be told, the only reason I didn't was because I had read earlier today a rumor that we would soon see 2GB iPod shuffles, so I decided to wait. I'm not sure that I'll last, though, if I stumble into that store again.

I hope other retailers are learning from Apple (I hear that Sony has a similar style store, too, so I'll have to check that out). The Apple stores have been a huge success where others (e.g. the Gateway stores) have failed. As with everything else they do, Apple really thought about the entire experience for "users" of the store and brilliantly designed every aspect of it. It's a toy store for yuppies (and I learned at an Apple presentation in Cupertino in January that the numbers verify that the stores have offered phenomenal ROI). I wonder how much better a Best Buy or Circuit City would perform if they were a bit smarter about their retail experience.

Kudos to Apple for this great business move.

joel

Who are 8 white guys who have more rhythm than I do?

GLC. aka Goldie Lookin' Chain. Check out their website here.

These guys are NOT a boy band. 8 white dudes, a little dorky for image, but they put on a great show tonight at the Independent in San Francisco. High energy in addidas jumpsuits, headbands, and the trademark gold chains, GLC got folks jumping around with their hip hop style original mixes (all on mics with pre-recorded soundtracks, they call it "kareoke"). Most of GLC reminded me of Sean Purcell, without the worm (though there were a number of times I thought they were going to bust it out).

The accents on these blokes made them difficult to understand (with the exception with some "clear as fuck" jabs at more renown pop stars) but my head was bobbing nonetheless. If you're in Chicago or NYC (their two remaining "state side" shows), do yourself a favor and check these guys out.

joel
(posted from my cell phone)

Dancing what?

Last week, a friend from Seattle (Oliver, who always seems to find the gems on the web) located this dancing trombone player (and somehow worked it into the same blog posting as a pointer to the 1986 Chicago Bears Superbowl Shuffle).
Once again, I was impressed with his find.

I think I might have one-upped him: check out this Body Builder doing The Robot.

Enjoy. I wonder if the good folks at DARPA had this in mind when they were inventing the internet...

joel

Group Blogs = "Personal" Newsgroups?

As the school year winds down and my sectionmates disperse for the summer, we're experimenting with a Section Blog. The idea is that it's a way for everyone to keep in touch with each other over the summer and after we graduate.

It will be interesting to see what becomes of this blog: it sort of flips the blog model on its head (in the blogs I read, one person has the conch and everyone else can only comment). This new model is more of a "blog as a newsgroup." We can still comment, but we might also just talk past each other.

We'll see.

joel

Microsoft Reverses Descision thanks to my blog

OK, I can't prove that it was because I blogged about it, but you can't prove that it didn't have to do with my blog...

Microsoft has officially reversed its decision and now publicly supports the WA state Gay Rights Bill.

Now I can wear all those morale t-shirts again. A small step forward for Microsoft, a giant leap backwards for my sense of fashion.

joel