Category: Ramblings

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Life Ramblings Random

Minnesota Smoking Ban Loophole: Theatrical Performances

Last weekend, I was up in Chisholm, Minnesota for my Grandfather’s 80th birthday. After the party, we headed downtown Chisholm to check out my step sisters boyfriend play in his band, at Sabin’s bar.

Now, Minnesota passed a smoking ban (Freedom to Breathe Act) in bars and restaurants in October 2007. This means NO SMOKING. Well, they have found some loopholes in the law, that says to some effect “actors and actresses are allowed to smoke while performing, like in a play”. Well, bars are starting to take this loophole and use it, as Sabin’s did that night, and there were many people smoking in the bar.

I happen to see the “Playbill” on the bar, and snapped a photo (which I retyped below as it might be hard to read)

Smoking Ban Loophole

*****PLAYBILL*****

The Tobacco Monologues

Live at Sabin’s Bar!

TODAY

A Theatrical Performance and Satire Regarding the Minnesota Legislature and the Freedom to Breathe Act

Note: There will be some smoking during the performance.

Friends, tonight YOU get to participate in the first of many amateur theater nights at Sabin’s bar. You will get a chance to perform in our play. The bar is the stage. If you want to be a part of the play tonight see one of the bartenders. They are in charge of the casting call. If you make the cut you will be given a sticker to wear which identifies you as one of the performers. As a performer you will be allowed to smoke. That’s right smoke indoors! You are already on state, and in the play. Have fun!!!

Special thanks to our friends Mark Benjamin & Sheila Kromer

***************************

What a joke. First off, I was pissed because there was smoking. I hate smoking, I hate smoking in the bar. I hate coming home smelling like smoke, my clothes, hair and whatever. I hate having to breathe it, and feel like I am about to gag. It is good there is a smoking ban, there is no reason smokers should be able to smoke indoors and pollute the air everyone has to breathe. They can go outside. Plain and simple.

The next day in the Duluth News Tribune, I read a bar in Babbitt MN got cited for doing a Theater Night. Good! But they got fined $300. WTF? They could just collect 2 dollars from every smoker and pay the fine every night. They need to get fined $10,000, or be shut down for a night, to feel the pain.

I am not sure, but I hope Sabin’s gets busted too. Loophole or not. It looks like they are going to start busting more bars for this. Leave your opinions in the comments.

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Ramblings Random

Windows Vista Customer Experience Program – Why Do I have To Click "On" Then "Off" Again?

image

After installing Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 – This pops up, just like when you install Vista fresh.

What gets me, is that the OK button is grayed out by default. I have to first click on the “Join the Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program” radio button and then back on “I Don’t want to join the program at this time” . Why is this? I want to just hit OK with the default choice. Just irks me I guess 🙂

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Geeky/Programming Ramblings

Homebrew Mobile Phone?

I have been doing some thinking lately, and more about a "Homebrew Mobile Phone". I look at the iPhone and Windows Mobile Devices, and I wonder how much it would take to get all the parts needed to make a mobile phone and load some software on it. Basically I think the hardest part is getting the Wireless Antenna to work with the Carrier Towers. It would be nice to have a SIM card reader or something for a laptop, or a small USB device that you could plug into your laptop (with SIM card in the USB) and turn your laptop into a cell phone. Or even just build your own cell phone like you can build your own computer right now, load whatever software you want, and have it work with the carriers you choose.

I know Google has Android that they are working on, open source OS for mobiles, but what about hardware. Some quick Google searches brings up a few results, but after digging into it some, it doesn’t look like the projects are actively getting worked on. The one problem is, when you try to get some open homebrew mobile, all the hardcores just want to use Linux. Well, I want to put whatever I want on it, not just Linux.

A cell phone is just hardware, software, and some extra stuff to get it to communicate with the towers, I wonder why it isn’t more widespread that there are homebrew projects going on. If you listen to Walt Mossbergs video on how we should have a more open phone hardware to carrier relationship, it is spot on. I do wish I had more hardware experience, beyond basic soldering, maybe I would go ahead and start this project.

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Geeky/Programming Ramblings

Temporary Vacancy at the "Roach Motel"? – Facebook + iPhone (useragent) = Your Contacts

I have read Dare O’s blog for a while now (years?), and recently it seems recently once every few weeks he mentions how Facebook keeps all your data so you can’t export it easily. Yes , it’s true. The email addresses are graphics, and they expire every so often, which sucks.

I was tooling around on my iPhone the other day, on http://iphone.facebook.com, and noticed that I could click on email addresses, they were links. This means you could write an app to get to them and scrape them.

Looks like that fun has ended as now Facebook has them as images as well on the iPhone, which stinks. They are my friends, my data, why can’t I get to it? Getting their email address would be more useful than getting their latest mood or their latest drink someone bought them on one of the Facebook apps.

Let my data be free!

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Ramblings

Dumb, dumb Vista…

dumb_vista

Almost as bad as this…

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Ramblings

iPhone then iTouch…iWaaaaa = iCoupon

Yesterday and today you could almost hear the collective “waaaaaaa” from the suckers who bought iPhones in the past 67 days. “Mommy I bought a new toy but now it’s cheaper! Do something!!”

Well the whining got them a $100 iCoupon, but still, come on. Apple, open up the phone to all carriers, add 3G, add a real SDK, then, maybe I will consider buying one. Oh, and let me activate it without iTunes too..

By the way, I am writing this from my T-Mobile dash…oh….snap!  (emailed to myself, and transferred to WLW later so I could add some tags!)

 

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Geeky/Programming Life Ramblings

IT Disaster Recovery, what the I-35W Bridge Collapse shows us

Now, I am from Minnesota originally. I drove over that bridge 3 days before it collapsed. It sucks, its a bad thing for the state, for the people involved, and for everyone who passed or is injured. It is a very sad situation that no one should have to go through.

What does the bridge collapsing have to do with IT? Well. It is a disaster. And like IT disaster scenarios, it gets the same “Oh my god we need to fix this” after the fact treatment.

MN Gov. Pawlenty announced an immediate emergency round of inspections of all of the state’s bridges, starting with the three that have the same structure as the crumbled Minneapolis span. Other Gov’s are having their bridges inspected in their states. People are running around going crazy about inspecting bridges that 3 days ago they could care less about. – What gives?

Really? Lets do something after the fact. The bottom line is that these kind of action plans should have been set up beforehand. Just like in IT. Backups is a good example. No one says or does anything or wants to spend any money on backups. Then one day, the server crashes and everyone loses their files and email. I will bet money the next day there is a huge budget and people running around like idiots getting a backup plan in action.

Where were those people before hand? We know that stuff needs to be backed up. We know that bridges need to be inspected. WTF are we doing? If we know the possible problems, and we know how we can prevent them, then why do we let things slide. Where is the accountability?

The government needs to step up. People that are leaders/decision makers need to step up. And if something does go awry, they need to take responsibility for what happened. Wether it is a bridge that fell, or a server that crashed, or any other disaster scenario.

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Ramblings

When Is and Idea more than a Idea?

When it makes sense. Everyone has ideas. Everyone has the way they think it should be, but there are many factors
that can contribute to how an idea come become more than an idea.
Does it make sense?

Feasible? (financially and resource wise)

Does it fit our goals?

Is there more to it that we aren’t seeing?

Is there an easier way?

What are we going to gain?

How long will it take?

Does anyone else agree?

Do you actually know what you are talking about?
I could probably keep going for another 100 questions. This series of question applies to everything you do
where someone has an idea. Your job is the thing most people thing of, but it applies to more: You and your friends
going out on a Friday night, you and your bandmates writing songs, just apply it to pretty much any situation.

You should try to make sure you “pre-qualify” your idea, so, #1, you don’t look like a total goof when you
bring it up, but then also when you get asked follow up questions, you know what you are talking about.

If you think you won’t know what you are talking about when someone tries to poke holes in your idea,
then it probably means you need to do some more research, or probably that your idea isn’t very good
in the first place.

Many people have ideas, but then have no follow up on how to follow through with them. Usually
that is where ideas that are bogus will get filtered out. Once you get other people to buy
into your idea and they actually thing its a viable thing to do, then it is easier to
get things pushed into an “action”

Sometimes too, your idea might be good, and in some given situations, if you can, just do it,
and if you are sure that it is a winner, and then it turns out to be, apoligize later. 🙂

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Ramblings

Funny Fake Textbook Stickers

Saw this, got a kick out of it.

Here is a good one:

“This book suggests that the earth is spherical. The shape of the earth is a controversial topic, and not all people accept the theory.
This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered”

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Ramblings

Do you have wristband?

So, last night, two of my step sisters and their cousin were in town, and we headed out downtown. Funny thing, at the Red Carpet, they had Johnny Holm in the band room, but it was like a night where it was a benefit concert and the cover was 10$. Earlier in the evening, we were at DB Searles, and there was a 3$ cover. When we paid at DB’s, we got bright green wristbands. At the Carpet, the wristbands were white and orange. The thing is, people working the door didn’t seem to know the colors. All they cared was “Do you have a wristband?”. If you did, boom – you were in, no questions asked. I was in there for a while, and kind of felt bad, so I wanted to just go to one of the ladies working the benefit and just give her 20$ for the charity or whatever, so I went to the ATM, and what do you know – it was out of order.

I guess the thing is, which baffles me, is that the people working the door, just had to add one qualifier to their question, and the benefit would have probably made more money. “Hey – do you have a orange wristband?” 🙂