Category: Humor

UPS and USPS Working Together? A Joke.

Update: Check the end for the latest

I ordered something from NewEgg. It was a very small item – 0.28 lbs. And they shipped it for free via UPS and USPS “Innovations”.

Here are the tracking pages both from NewEgg and  From UPS. I’m sure the NewEgg page is just an automatic digest from the UPS data, so NewEgg is not the issue here. But notice the route and expected delivery date reported by UPS. What a JOKE.

So the service that UPS is using here is called USPS Innovations, which is apparently a service where UPS gets to use USPS for the “Last Mile” delivery of the package to save the UPS driver from driving to my home. No problem. But there are two nonsense things with UPS reporting of the tracking and delivery times for this service.

  1. UPS sends the package from California to near FREAKING Seattle Washington, before sending it back to me in Oregon 1/3 of the way from California to Washington. In other words, a thousand miles out of it’s way.
  2. UPS reports that it’s only going to take USPS less than a day to get it almost 400 miles from Fife, WA, near Seattle to me in Coos Bay.

So either, UPS just made a mistake about how long it would take USPS to deliver on that last mile – eh hem last 400 miles.

Continue reading “UPS and USPS Working Together? A Joke.”

Well, Who Knew… Popeye was Right!

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Here’s the article.

But let’s not ban Spinach. Let’s just have everyone eat more of it. No Shots, just eat your veggies. Seriously though. On the continuum between “a Training Choice” and “Performance Doping” where do we think “Eating Spinach” is? I can get behind classifying shooting up a pharmacological extract of spinach as “Doping”. But choosing to add a common food stuff to your diet? That sounds like a “Training Choice”.

Maybe we need a study of expert athletes where half eat spinach and half don’t. Although I’m not clear on how we could make this one “Double Blind”. You pretty much know if you are eating Spinach and not Kale for example. Just look between your front teeth? Oh.. Cheap shot. And that leaves out the whole question about whether Kale shows an effect. I’m not clear where we could find a “Placebo”. Are we going to draw the line to the left or right of “Eating Red Meat” several times a week? Lots of questions.

From the ROFL department.
:ww

News from an Alternate Universe

<Crackle… crackle…>

Attention! Attention! A message is arriving from an Alternate Universe.

<Crackle… crackle…>
This is an announcement from Blizzard on the Azerite Radio Network.

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As we know, Azerite was discovered in Silithus some time ago. But there has been <crackle…. crackle> a new discovery by the Gnomes and Goblins about how to use this magical substance. Azerite can now be used to travel throughout the Worlds of Warcraft.

Continue reading “News from an Alternate Universe”

Engadget – Advertising to the Max

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Engadget with Ghostery

I use an Ad Blocker – Ghostery – in FireFox. There are several reasons for this:

  1. To keep down the tracking. I know that ad-blocking doesn’t really stop tracking. Of course I disable 3rd Party cookies and enable “Tracking Protection”. But I don’t expect that this really stops tracking since there are so many ways around Ad Blockers and Tracking Protection.
  2. To help prevent Malware infections. There have been many cases of malicious advertisers leaking their malware through ads into systems. Advertisers, including even Google, have been the source of malware attacks since they do not sufficiently vet their advertisers.
  3. To increase the performance of page loading, since all that Ad Ware and Tracking nonsense is often many times the size of the page itself.

Most of my web experience with Ghostery Enabled is just fine. I can purchase items online on Amazon, Newegg and many other sites. I can read most news sites just fine. Slashdot and many other sites show ads in a way that Ghostery does not block, but that is not intrusive or objectionable.

Continue reading “Engadget – Advertising to the Max”

WiFi Enabled Stuff – What a Crockpot

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WiFi Crockpot for $30

So Walmart had their WiFi crockpots on sale for $30. Seems like they are getting rid of them. Reviews on Walmart’s website shows that they have problems – mostly connecting.

But think about this. A Crockpot is a reasonable price at $30, so the WiFi stuff is all free. That means that WiFi control, and the little ARM SOC [System on a chip] that it takes to do this is pretty cheap too. And that’s probably right. After all, low end smart phones are $30. And this application has no battery and no large screen.

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Looks like some folks are selling this WiFi Crockpot for a lot more.

And here’s the App on the PlayStore.

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But what about my Pellet Stove, which costs about 100 TIMEs what this crockpot does. Yep, pellet stoves are about $3000. So doesn’t my Pellet Stove deserve a WiFi enabled computer controlling it. Ok, so my Pellet stove was designed about 10 years ago and it has a really dumb controller.

Continue reading “WiFi Enabled Stuff – What a Crockpot”

Loop – A Short Story

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Hello.
Hi there.
What’s up?
We are going to understand loops.
Loops?
Yes, loops. Did you see the recent movie on Netflix called “ARQ”?
No. What was that about?
It was about loops. A couple was in bed and kept waking up over and over right before some bad guys broke into the room.
So what happened?
Well that’s not important. No spoilers here, actually.
Well that’s hardly fair.
Actually, this is not just about the story of ARQ, it’s about these stories in general.
Oh?
Story ARCs with a “C” if you will.
Oh, I see the pun there. ARQ with a “Q” is a pun for ARC with a “C”.
Right.
So in ARQ there is a device called “The ARQ” in the guy’s basement.
I thought you said “No Spoilers”.
Well, right. No more spoilers.
Ok. So what about this ARQ thing?
Well it’s a plot device to loop space / time.
Loop space / time?
Yes. Send it around again and again to serve the storyline. For example, if I play this short Youtube video of a fireplace, we can cause a loop in space / time. Let me start one. Click.
Continue reading “Loop – A Short Story”

Dragon Wars

Cataclysm-deathwing-world-of-warcraft.jpgThe weakened and bloodied Red Oracle Dragon flew off after the latest battle and called cynically over it’s shoulder, “You won this battle, but your Open Sorcery is now tainted! I shall return!”.
The battle had been going on for decades. The Red Oracle Dragon and the Green Google Dragon fighting over the Sorcery of the Java. This magic had once been powerful, but now even this powerful magic was leaking away into the ether. Once it was seen as a saving force for good and a powerful influence that would consolidate the power of it’s creator, the Yellow Sun Dragon. At the time, the power of the Yellow dragon was fading. It’s Solaris and Server Magic was fading, as all magic powers do in time.

The world was moving on to the great Intel Blue Dragon and the Yellow force of the Solaris magic was no long powerful enough. But the Java Magic was seen as a force that might control this loss of influence, since the Java magic was Crystal Color Independent. The Java Magic would draw power from any color of magic chips, since it’s power was Interpreted by the color of crystal that was nearby. Using this multi-color magic was seen as the way to revitalize the magic of the Yellow Dragon. Continue reading “Dragon Wars”

Watch out for Bogus Chart Scales

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A Completely Bogus Chart

Here’s a completely bogus chart that was displayed on the Yahoo News site yesterday. Every line has a different scale. What can a chart mean where every line has a different scale? What does it tell you?

Probably not what you think it tells you. Be careful, news folks apparently are playing fast and loose with intelligence and logic in this election year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Chart with Corrected Bars Added

Update: Here is the chart corrected with bars with a constant scale added. Of course the Democratic and Republican scales are different because their “to win” numbers are different. But as you can see by looking at the bars I’ve added below each original bar, the original bars are drawn with different scales. The added bars are all scaled to the “to win” maximums.

Why would Clinton and Trump show at about 50% when they have than 80% of the delegates required? And why would Sanders, Cruz and Kasich be scaled lower than they should be?

It’s not clear what message the original chart was trying to get across, but it’s clearly misleading.

: ww

Introducing Google Phone 30.0

Introducing the GooglePhone 30.0 based on Android and featuring Meme Metal. The GP 30 not only “does” everything that you want it to, it “is” everything that you want it to be. Available for the 2030 Holiday season, the GP 30 is available from several manufacturers including HXS and LGY.

One of the Many Starbucks Memes

Meme metal allows the phone to take on shapes and behaviors based on the application that is currently running. In addition, the phone continues in any of its base capabilities – Phone, Music, Video, Credit and Game. Continue reading “Introducing Google Phone 30.0”