japadamus.com » 2009

Apr 17 2009

Japa gets a neti pot

Ever heard of nasal irrigation? It involves running salt water through one nostril and out the other with the help of a special pot called a neti pot.

For a long time I was convinced that this was just another one of those useless, pseudoscientific hippie rituals like Burning Man, or recycling. But yesterday I read this article in the NY Times that confirms that there are actually some benefits to using a neti pot.

Ever since I moved away from Hawaii my allergies have been a pain in the ass – especially as summer rolls around. But according to the Times, the use of a neti pot can help to reduce allergy symptoms, so tonite I decided to give it a try.

I picked up a small neti pot at walgreens. It’s nothing fancy, just a blue plastic tea pot-looking thing that comes with a bunch of salt packets. It cost only $15 or so, and once the salt packets run out you can refill it with just regular salt.

Using the neti pot is easy enough. You fill the pot with warm water and sprinkle in a salt packet. Then you put the spout of the neti pot in one nostril while tilting your head to the side. The water seeps through your top nostril and flows out the other. After a few minutes of that you switch nostrils, tilt your head the other way and start again.

The feeling of having water flowing in your nostril is disconcerting. It kind of gives you a feeling like drowning. Plus, the first time I used it my nostril was all backed up so it took a while for the water to seep through to the other nostril.

It feels nice, actually. And afterwards my nostrils did feel clearer. The only problem is that some of the neti salt solution seeps into you mouth, so you have this kind of salty taste in your mouth which is disgusting – especially because you know this water contains all the shit that was stuck in your nostril.

Below is a video that shows how the neti works. It looks pretty horrible to see someone use a neti pot – I mean, it seems like everyone just has a blank expression on their face while holding the pot with one hand while a stream of water flows from the other nostril.

In any case, I’ve only used it once, so I guess it will take some time to see how it works long term, but so far…not bad.

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Apr 16 2009

(IPO)

Published by japadamus under news

I didn’t really get eBay’s $2.6 billion acquisition of Skype in 2005. I mean, eBay even wrote off a billion of that acquisition when it became clear that Skype just wasn’t worth that much.

But over the past 3 years eBay hasn’t really be able to find any synergies between its business and Skype’s IM and VoIP functionality either. Last week there was speculation that eBay would sell Skype back to its founders for $2 billion. But eBay announced on Tuesday that it will instead spin off Skype in an IPO in early 2010.

Skype posed $551 million in revenue in 2008, so the company is generating some nice cash. But it’s not clear how welcoming the IPO market will be next year.

I would imagine that Skype is a hot commodity in the tech world. The company has a large installed based and has pretty advanced VoIP technology. Sure, it doesn’t have the hype of say, twitter, but the company actually is making some decent revenue. I would also expect that Skype can make some real moves once it emerges from eBay with a bunch of cash.

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Apr 14 2009

Crabble holds your iPhone, gets confiscated by TSA

Published by japadamus under iPhone 3G

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Apr 14 2009

The Stern Show tweets

Published by japadamus under best of the internet

I’ve noticed that people are very divided about Twitter. A lot of people can’t live without it, but other people just have an unexplainable hatred for the service and its users. Most people though have no idea what it is, or how it works, or why someone would use it.

I mean, I get people following celebrities. Judging by how many stalkers they are out there and how many of those mags sell at the supermarket checkout line, it makes sense that there would be a big contingent of celebrity tweet followers out there. One thing I don’t get though is normal people tweeting about normal things. Like, you can have access to these people all the time and they’re not famous or anything. Who really cares what they’re doing.

This week the Howard Stern show joined Twitter after what seems to be much debate among the show’s staff. Howard has been mentioning it here and there, mostly with detached amusement. But I guess the show’s executives have been really pushing Howard to embrace alternative forms of media, so on April 9 the show posted its first tweet.

I have to say, most of the tweets are pretty boring. ‘Playing the Gossip Game,’ and ‘Robin is doing the news’ is not something I’d go out of my way to read. But it was interesting how Howard posted a video of his dog at the park. I mean, it wasn’t really interesting except that it was Howard’s dog - and I guess that’s the celebrity aspect of twitter kicking in.

I think the most challenging part of twitter is keeping up with it. It’s helpful that there are so many applications for the iPhone and Blackberry for twitter, but really, if you’re doing something exciting do you really want to be fiddling around with your phone.

A better question for twitter is how are they going to make any money off of the service. Even though the posts are relatively small, the company still needs to store and maintain a massive volume of data which will just get bigger and bigger. They don’t really have ads so far, and they don’t charge for most users.

There have been rumors that Google was in talks to buy twitter for a $1 billion ballpark, but who knows if that’s accurate. True, today twitter is a valuable web commodity, but it’s not yet apparent if the service will burn out like Friendster, or keep growing like Facebook.

One thing twitter does have, though, is the unique ability to quickly understand trends and events as they happen. I’d imagine that this data is valuable to someone like Google, who really just wants to serve up better, more accurate ads. And, with more tweeting from mobile devices you can get data about the location of people - that’s golden for local ads.

In any case, you can follow Stern on twitter by adding the user ’sternshow.’ The show is on vacation this week so there are not a lot of tweets up there yet, but check back next week.

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Apr 10 2009

Shootout

Published by japadamus under hockey

The shootout after OT is probably the best improvements that could have come to the NHL. They’re way more exciting than leaving the game in a tie, and they fuel highlight reels.

Take Mike Ribeiro, who posterized Peter Budaj tonight with an incredible between-the-legs shootout goal. Check out the video below, along with what is perhaps an earlier, less refined, but still incredible version of this move. Hockey playoffs start next week.

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Apr 09 2009

The true cost of smoking to society

Published by japadamus under news, health

Smoking is unpopular. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on anti-smoking campaigns and smoking in almost universally banned in enclosed areas in the US (Vegas, thank god, is still an exception).

But a lot of the anti-smoking propaganda is based on false, or misleading evidence.

Take for example, the justification for the now dollar-per-pack taxes that are imposed on smokers. States and the fed justify this tax by citing the cost of health care for smokers. After all, it’s expensive to take care of lung cancer patients, and in many cases these medical expenses come out of the government’s coffers.

But lets take a step back here and consider what smoking really costs society. True, smokers that do get lung cancer get treatment, and this treatment costs the US government around $100 billion a year.

But how much of that $100 billion is uniquely attributable to smoking? The truth is not a lot.

Non-smokers live longer than smokers and actually cost the government more than smokers, because they require expensive healthcare for a longer period of time. Not only that, but eventually these people eventually do die, often from another form of cancer that also requires expensive treatment.

An article in the Huffington Post cites a study of health care costs for smokers and non-smokers. According to the study, health care costs of smokers from the age of 20 were about $326k. Healthy and thin non-smokers, however, had an average health care cost of $417k from age 20.

I think this is really an important study that exposes some of the myths associated with smoking. It provides an apples-to-apples comparison that shows healthy people that live a long time cost the government more, simply due to their longer lifespan.

Sure, a lot of this anti-smoking stuff is due to the admittedly underhanded tactics of cigarette companies. But at the end of the day non-smokers are really using the untruths told by the cig makers to justify more untruths.

It’s easy for the public to ignore this now, because most people don’t smoke. But what else can be taxed due to increased health care costs down the road?

Any food that is high and cholesterol and sodium should be taxed under this logic, not to mention soda and candy. How about taxing TVs that prevent people from going outdoors and exercising. Why not tax gays, who are at greater risk of acquiring HIV? AZT is expensive after all. Hell, why don’t we have a race-based tax? Blacks are at a higher risk of sickle cell, heart and liver disease – shouldn’t they pay for this added cost to society?

I mean, if we’re really attributing the cost of health care accurately, we should tax people that are healthy and will live longer.

People love to find a scapegoat for society’s problems, as long as it’s not themselves. People love to dictate how other people live their lives…and this occurs in many situations, from bans on gay marriage to cigarette taxes. It is ridiculous how many seemingly intelligent people have been brainwashed about the risks and costs of smoking. And unfortunately, the only people that have the money to support smokers are the cig companies themselves – and they’ve have been blacklisted from washington for years.

It’s annoying, and I hate it. And one day the US is going to wake up and realize that the country is filled with hummus and sprout eating fags, and by that time it will be too late.

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Apr 08 2009

The Bridge

Published by japadamus under review

The Bridge is a documentary about people jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge to commit suicide. Stern and Carolla mentioned the movie on their shows, and both recommended it. I’d have to agree as well.

The movie’s main, lets call it a gimmick, is that it shows people actually jumping off the golden gate to their death. In some cases, you see people walking back and forth along the bridge, then climbing over the rail and taking the leap.

Sure, it’s disturbing. I mean, it’s insane to think that some camera man is just watching these people jumping off the bridge without calling the cops or anything.

But what keeps this movie from being a snuff film is that it actually goes into the lives of the suicide victims with interviews with friends and family of the victims. That’s a key element that really personalizes the images of the people jumping off the bridge.

In a lot of cases, it seems like there was nothing that could really have been done for the victims. The deaths showed in The Bridge were not the first suicide attempts for most of the people featured. In some cases they had mental illnesses that caused them to be really depressed. In other cases the people were just really…well…bummed out.

It’s a tough movie to actually start watching, but once you see a few minutes you really get pulled in. Sure, you feel voyeuristic in a way, but hearing the friends and family of victims speak kind of validates the movie. It turns it from a dirty kind of snuff film into more of a tribute.

In any case, the movie is really well done, and I recommend it. I don’t know where it’s available for rent, but you can really just download it off of bittorrent. And keep in mind it’s not a date movie, or a movie to watch while eating…or while high for that matter. It’s really heavy, best watched on a sunny weekend afternoon.

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Apr 07 2009

Getting married

Published by japadamus under news

If you don’t already know, TJFKAK and El Jeffe are getting married. Congrats, by the way.

Now the two just have to plan the thing.

Well, today, TJFKAK picked a date: March 7, 2010…exactly 11 months away. My understanding is that the wedding ceremony will be in Idaho, El Jeffe’s home town, and a second reception will be held in Hawaii. I’m rooting for a reception at the Kahala Hilton with a bunch of different stations.

In any case, 11 months seems like an insanely long time to be planning. But, from what I’ve heard from TJFKAK, there’s a ton to plan. At least now she finally has the location picked out…and from what I’ve seen it’s real nice.

Another thing TJFKAK worked out was her maid of honor. She chose this occasion to not only get married, but to also completely dash my only chance of ever being a maid of honor. Sure, I’ve know her at least three more years than her actual maid of honor…and, for years in high school I chauffeured her and her various ‘here’s your change for a three dollar bill’ exes around, with the only reward to myself being the hope of one day playing a key role in the most important day of her life as her maid of honor…I mean, that’s not important.

What is important…at least according to TJFKAK…is preserving tradition. And you see, it would not be traditional to have a male maid of honor. Sure, I’m still going to be a bridesmaid…and a male bridesmaid is sooooo much more traditional than a male maid of honor. Not only that, but at the hawaii reception El Jeffe will be the one haole in a sea of old japs…yeah, that’s traditional. We should all hope the history channel isn’t playing a special on Iwo Jima that weekend.

In any case, despite my reservations about the pick for the maid of honor, you kind of gotta be excited for the two. Eleven months seems like a long way away, but it’s also crazy to think that this time next year TJFKAK will already be officially hitched.

I’ve replaced the Miley Cyrus turns 18 count down widget with a TJFKAK getting married widget. Check it out to your right.

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Apr 07 2009

Does Hawaii need rail transit?

Published by japadamus under Hawaii

So Hawaii is finally getting started on its rail transit project. It seems like every few years a mass transit program was proposed - only to be shot down when voters realized how ridiculously expensive rail in Hawaii would be.

That is until last year, when a 20 mile, $5 billion rail project was approved with 53% of the vote.

Now is it me, or is Hawaii the last place that needs more mass transit? I mean, there is already The Bus, which is a decent alternative to driving. Hell, I took The Bus everywhere before I got a car, and sure you have to deal with the mokes and homeless but overall it was not a bad experience.

The biggest question is whether the rail transit system will do anything to ease traffic congestion. My guess would be no. And this is what people are missing here - Hawaii’s roads are congested not because there are a lot of cars…Hawaii’s roads are congested because there are a lot of cars driven by horrible drivers.

Look, I love that in Hawaii you can put on your blinkers and people will let you in. That is a good thing for sure. But let’s be honest, the laid back, no worries hawaiian lifestyle, while good for sitting on the porch with a uke and bowl of poke, is a traffic nightmare.

I mean, think of the drivers in hawaii. Half are asian women - and we all know that stereotype. And there are still tons of old japs who do the peek over the dashboard thing and drive 20 mph on the freeway in the fast lane. And I get why that’s the case - Hawaii has a farming background and I can see these old folks barreling away on the dirt roads of del monte pineapple fields with no problem. But in Hawaii circa the 21st century, this is a problem.

Not only that, but Hawaii also has insanely narrow freeways that tend to be pretty curvy, along with random on and off ramps that were designed pretty poorly.

For example, think of the university onramp when you’re going east on H1. One of two things happens at that onramp - either you’re stuck behind a deer-in-headlights driver in an ‘85 corolla that must reach 50 mph in a few hundred yards or be driven off the road, or you’re behind someone on the freeway that sees the ‘85 corolla making a try at the merge, and then slams on their brakes even though they’re only going 30 mph on the freeway to begin with. That’s why you have traffic jams after most on ramps, off ramps, and any sort of curve greater than 10 degrees.

And this is what make’s Hawaii’s traffic situation completely a lost cause: take those old and/or female asian drivers and add in the occasional Mililani jerkoff in a dropped civic weaving in and out of traffic.

That’s a situation that rail won’t fix. People in Hawaii will not give up their cars, particularly to ride a train that’s going to take half an hour to get into town anyway. Even if they do, enough shitty drivers will still be on the road to maintain the nightmarish environment that is rush hour in Honolulu.

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Apr 06 2009

Make your own beer for $20

Published by japadamus under Bob Loblaw

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Apr 05 2009

More fun with Japa ads

Published by japadamus under Bob Loblaw

Now I’ve complained about the Gay Mature dating ads on this site already. Now we have another ad problem with Nancy’s Golf World.

Actually, when I think about it an ad for golf makes sense. I mean, I golf a bit and talk about it here and there on Japa.

Really, my problem is with Nancy’s Golf World itself.

Look, I don’t mean to be a snob, but Nancy’s Golf World, at http://www.nancysgolfworld.com, is perhaps the worst website I’ve seen ever. Viewing the site makes me think I’m back in the early 90’s. I’m convinced that Nancy means well and she’s trying hard to make a decent living…but really, this site is horrible.

I mean, the home page is just a series of pictures stretched out of proportion, with randomly colored oversized text that sometimes overlaps other text. It wouldn’t be fair to say the site is difficult to navigate. It’s much worse than that. The site is more like a link hunt and peck, with links lined up with no horizontal or vertical alignment whatsoever.

On this site Nancy sells access to instructional golf videos. But the videos are so, so, poorly done. They’re low resolution, and there are no controls for the videos at all. So, you have to watch the video all the way through, with no volume controls, and you can’t stop to replay anything.

The worst video, though, is the Kinetic video. This video consists of someone manipulating one of those artsy wood stick figure people to show examples of a good golf swing.

Not only is this not effective – I mean, who can really tell what it happening with this wood figure – it’s also kind of scary in a haunting stop-motion horror movie kind of way.

Look, I’m not doubting Nancy’s golf ability here. In fact, from what I can tell from her low res videos she’s actually pretty good. I’m just critiquing her choice of web designers. Golfers should not be expected to understand web design. I just hope Nancy just gets enough feedback to revamp her site with a real designer.

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Apr 05 2009

Are you infected with conficker?

Published by japadamus under tech

So April 1st hit and the Internet is still there. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re not infected with the conficker worm. In fact, April 1st proved that if you are infected with conficker, you could be in trouble. On the 1st, the worm phoned home to update itself. Sure, that’s not bad in itself, but the update showed that the worm is difficult to stop and incredibly versatile.

Luckily, the Conficker Working Group has an easy way to see if you’re infected or not. How? Do you see three logos below? One for F-Secure, one for SecureWorks, and one for Trend Micro?

If you do, you’re in good shape. If some or all of the logos are missing then you’re likely in trouble.

How does this test work? Well, Conficker is designed to block internet access to the websites of anti-virus companies like F-Secure, SecureWorks and Trend Micro, so if you’re infected these logos, which are linked to the AV company’s website, will be blocked. If you’re not infected you’ll see the logos like usual.

In any case, Conficker is turning out to be pretty scary. The worm is able to access thousands of infected computers worldwide and turn them into…well…whatever the worm authors want. Not only that, but Conficker is sneaky. It’s designed to disable anti-virus software and it will only accept secure connections from its creators.

Although nothing has happened to far, Conficker can be used to wreak havoc at the whim of its creators. Most likely the Conficker creators will sell use of the Conficker network to hackers for things like denial service attacks.

All indications are the worst is yet to come.

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Apr 04 2009

The future of Sirius XM

Published by japadamus under Bob Loblaw

The Motley Fool just released a pretty interesting article of the future of Sirius XM. Among other things, the article discusses Sirius’ options for 2010 when Howard Stern’s contract expires.

When Stern started on Sirius the company had 660,000 subscribers. Now the company has almost 20 million subscribers, 9.5 of which were from Sirius prior to the Sirius/XM merger. That growth was fueled to a large extent by fans of Stern. No one will really know how important Stern was to Sirius’ growth, but I’d guess that at least 3 in 4 subscribers subscribed because of him.

However, Stern’s current contract expires in 2010. He’s getting $100 million a year now (although I think much of this is in stock), and if he re-signs he will probably ask for a lot more.

The article also mentions Stern’s other options. For example, what if he released a podcast and charged $1 a month. That would bring in over $100 million a year if he got 9 million subscribers or so. If he only gets 1 million subscribers and charges them a still-reasonable $5 a month, he would still walk away with a nice $60 million annually.

Not only that, but Stern has always been good at attracting advertising. With a 9 million subscriber audience Stern could command millions more by selling spots on his podcast.

Adam Corolla started a podcast once he was fired from his radio gig. Some of his podcasts have been downloaded more than a million times. Sure, Corolla isn’t charging his subscribers, but I think he could.

All that, and Stern also has to think about the future of Sirius. I mean, even if he does sign a huge contract with Sirius it will likely include stock worth twenty-five cents a share, and no assurances that Sirius will actually stay afloat long enough to pay up.

The Fool is bullish on Sirius XM, but I’m not so sure. No one’s buying cars now. And with 3G iphones that can stream pandora I don’t even know if there is a need for satellite radio. I mean, satellite signals are finicky and you can’t receive a signal indoors. With wireless internet devices like the iPhone you can listen to internet radio in the car, in your house, in the office, wherever.

Sirius’ answer to this is an iPhone app. This will be cool when it’s released. If it works well I’d subscribe to Sirius just to listen on my iPhone.

Sirius will still need to maintain it’s satellites though. And that’s expensive. Wouldn’t it be ironic if the popularity of the iPhone shifts Sirius’ primary delivery mechanism to wireless internet, rather than satellites?

And that brings me back to the future of satellite radio. If more and more people listen to Sirius on their iPhones or on their computers then Sirius is really just an internet content provider with billion dollar satellites in the air. That’s a billion dollars stuck in the air that they can’t use to attract and maintain talent like Stern.

Not only that, but this year several cars are being offered with onboard internet connections that allow drivers to listen to internet radio while driving. I mean, anyone can do this now by plugging their iPhones into an aux jack.

I think things look bad for satellite radio.

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Apr 03 2009

Cutler is a bear

Published by japadamus under Football

Well, the Jay Cutler saga has finally ended. After an offseason full of back and forth, he said she said between Cutler and Broncos management, the Broncos finally dealt Cutler to the Bears for two first round picks and Kyle Orton.

Judging by how quickly the Broncos got this deal done after announcing that they would trade Cutler on Tuesday, Denver was clearly tired of this whole distraction.

So who got the better end of this deal?

Well, two first round picks is a lot for any team to give up. But if you consider how poorly the Bears have molded quarterbacks over the past decade or so, then the move for a proven, young QB doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. I mean, Cutler is a pro-bowl quarterback that has the potential to be a franchise player. He has proven that he is not a bust, and he has performed quite well over the past two seasons.

One thing that may be an issue for Cutler are the Bears’ receivers. This is kind of a chicken and egg problem. Have the Bears’ QBs been so bad because of a lack of any talent at WR, or have the Bears’ receivers performed so poorly because of horrible QBs?

Consider this – a Bears receiver has not broken 1,000 yards receiving since 2002 when Marty Booker caught 97 passes for 1,189 yards. Not only that, but a Bears QB hasn’t passed for over 3,000 yards since 2000, except for Rex Grossman’s one standout year in 2006.

The Broncos on the other hand still have problems at quarterback. Orton did pretty well as a starter last year, but it’s not really clear if he can really take the reins and lead a team to a championship. And the Broncos don’t have a first-rate defense to fall back upon after Orton’s three-and-outs. The rumor is that the Broncos will pick a QB in the first round this year. That’s possible, but rookie QBs are a big gamble…should I mention Alex Smith, Matt Leinart, Vince Young, Jamarcus Russel…the list goes on.

Still, you have to think the Bears got at least a decent deal here. I believe that Cutler will bring immediate improvements to Chicago’s offense, and that will help a #1 receiver to emerge. Devin Hester anyone?

The Broncos should just be happy to be over the clusterfuck that this whole drama has caused. Orton will at the very least get them through next year and help them to develop a rookie. That’s not a horrible situation considering that Denver has a couple of solid receivers with Royal and Marshall.

One last note, TJFKAK, a Chicago native, was ecstatic about this news. It’s been over a decade – maybe two decades – since Chicago fans have had a solid QB to cheer for. Next season will be exciting for Bears fans, no doubt.

By the way, if you google image search ‘Jay Cutler’ most of the results are for a weightlifter wearing speedos. I don’t know what kind of homo world we live in where a pro bowl QB can’t best some oiled-up weightlifter on google, but I have to say, this is just another example of how poorly the google algorithm works. Gay mature ads…give me a break.

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Apr 02 2009

Bye bye SGI

Published by japadamus under news

Silicon Graphics used to be the shit. Remember those impressive super servers that made Jurassic Park and Forrest Gump possible?

Well, after filing for bankruptcy again today, its second bankruptcy filing in only a few years, SGI sold itself for a paltry $25 million to Rackable Systems.

It’s another case of the bad economy coupled with bad management. I mean, there’s only a tiny market for the high end stuff that SGI offers. For the rest of us cheap servers from IBM, Dell and HP will do just fine.

Too bad for SGI, who had $500 million in debt when it filed for bankruptcy.

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Archive for April, 2009

Japa gets a neti pot

(IPO)

Crabble holds your iPhone, gets confiscated by TSA

The Stern Show tweets

Shootout

The true cost of smoking to society

The Bridge

Getting married

Does Hawaii need rail transit?

Make your own beer for $20

More fun with Japa ads

Are you infected with conficker?

The future of Sirius XM

Cutler is a bear

Bye bye SGI

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