The Lost Rings of Sanibel

It was January 1st, 2014 and we were visiting my mother in Florida. We only had a few days left of our vacation and decided to go to the beach. It was me (George), my wife Andrea, our children, and a niece.

We drove to Bonita Beach but there was no place to park, even after driving around for an hour. Apparently we weren’t the only people wanting to go to the beach that day.

 

So, we decided to go to a beach on Sanibel Island because we didn’t think there would be too many people that would want to not only pay $6.00 to cross the bridge but also $2.00 per hour to park.

We drove almost an hour to get to Sanibel Island and the first beach we went to (Sanibel Lighthouse) was completely full, no place to park. We even saw a fight almost break out between two women over a parking spot. So our next big decision was to go Bowman’s Beach, it ended up being about another 40 minute drive (due to traffic) from where we were.

Bowman’s Beach

Arriving there was uneventful and we even found a parking spot, although it was still quite crowded.

It was almost a quarter mile walk to get to the beach from the parking lot, so we walked, carrying all of the beach stuff we brought with us. We went about 150 feet up the beach to find a spot, and we got set up.

Let The Fun Commence

We had all the normal fun at the beach for a couple of hours, yay.

Back To My Mom’s

After the more than an hour drive back to my mom’s we pulled into her driveway and Andrea said, “I don’t have my rings!” Instantly she was in tears, her wedding ring, engagement ring, and anniversary wrap were not on her hand! She took them off to apply sunscreen and forgot to put them back on.

There was no way that I wouldn't be going back to the beach to look for the rings, so I got the kids out of the car and we told my mom what happened. She also came back to the beach with us.

Back To The Beach

We started driving to get back to the beach. Andrea called the police on Sanibel to let them know and they offered to have a police officer meet us there if we needed one, we decided to wait before we would have an officer meet us. On the way up there I stopped at Walmart, Big Lots , and Target looking for a metal detector—we didn’t find one but we did get a couple of flashlights.

Driving all the way back up to the beach I was losing hope, it was seeming more and more like a huge undertaking and daylight had long since left us, it was pitch black.

We made it back to the beach parking lot and got out, I think from the expression on my mother’s face showed that she didn’t think we would have any luck either. I got my wife’s bear pepper spray (in case we ran into any wild animals … we didn’t). We had to use the flashlights and the light from my phone for the rest of the time or we wouldn’t have even been able to see our hands in front of our faces.

The Beach

When we got back on the beach, it seemed even more hopeless. It was dark and there didn’t seem to be any reference points.

We started walking up the beach and I noticed a big hole that was dug into the beach close to the waterline, I remembered a couple of girls digging it when we were there earlier. From there we got an approximate direction to where we set up our spot on the beach, but every step closer just seemed to be more hopeless to me.

Litter

Then Andrea said, “We were sitting there! That’s my Jolly Rancher wrapper!” It must have fallen out of her beach bag. By some miracle it was still in the exact spot we were set up, it didn’t get blown away or trampled by other beach goers.

Let The Digging Commence

So we had a starting point to begin digging.

We started digging in front of where Andrea’s seat was, Andrea and my mom were digging machines! As we started digging and shifting the sand around, we almost lost our starting point, so Andrea marked it with a stick she found on the beach.

About 15 minutes passed, and I thought we needed to dig a little smarter. I tried to picture what might have happened when Andrea got out of her seat and stood up on the beach, and where the ring might have gone.

And Then…

I moved a few feet on the other side of where Andrea was digging, and I started digging. About 15 seconds later I said, “Wait, stop, is this it?” (or something like that) I had uncovered the edge of the wedding ring about 6 inches down in the sand, I let Andrea take it out. She dusted it off and handed it to me for me to hold. Andrea began digging from the spot she took the ring from and 10 seconds later she had her engagement ring with the anniversary wrap in her hand! Once again the tears started flowing from Andrea, but this time for a different reason.

Andrea called the police on Sanibel Island to let them know we found it, the woman she was talking to said she worked there 35 years and women were always losing their rings on the beach, and this is the first time anyone had found their rings!

Lola's Dead?

Lola is our newest dog and Remy (Remington) is only 2 years old.

Remy:  Mommy.  Mommy!  Lola died.
Andrea:  Lola died?
George:  She's just sleeping.
Remy:  :-)
Andrea:  :-)

The Netfilx (non-)apology Email

The Netfilx (non-)apology Email

I think the email that Reed Hasitngs (from Netflix) sent today may have the opposite reaction than what he is hoping for.

I, for one, got mad when I read it.  Hastings is insulting our intelligence, it seems that making millions (billions?) off of us has made him lose touch with us.

So here is my personal reading-between-the-lines interpretation of Reed's email:

Dear George ('Dear [insert first name here]'),

I messed up (you caught me). I owe you an explanation (we are hemorrhaging so many customers and stock holders that I need to try to plug the leak).

It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming and the price changes (how the heck did you all see through our scheme to try to double our already sizable profits while not give you any more value for your dollar?!?). That was certainly not our intent (that you realize what we were doing), and I offer my sincere apology (I'm sorry that you weren't stupid enough to swallow our B.S.). Let me explain what we are doing (let me see if I can try to trick you a different way).

For the past five years, my greatest fear at Netflix has been that we wouldn't make the leap from success in DVDs to success in streaming (we dominated DVDs and streaming to the extent that we put most of our competition out of business, but I want you to feel sorry for us). Most companies that are great at something – like AOL dialup or Borders bookstores – do not become great at new things people want (streaming for us) (if I compare us to failed companies, maybe you'll feel sorry for us, even though there is no real comparison since we are dominating the area I am trying to make you think we are failing at). So we moved quickly into streaming, but I should have personally given you a full explanation of why we are splitting the services and thereby increasing prices (even though we have been streaming for years and still making huge profits, I want you to think it's a new venture on our part). It wouldn’t have changed the price increase (I still don't feel bad about putting the screws to you), but it would have been the right thing to do (maybe I could have staved off losing some of our victims, er... I mean 'customers').

So here is what we are doing and why (at least I hope you'll buy into this).

Many members love our DVD service, as I do, because nearly every movie ever made is published on DVD. DVD is a great option for those who want the huge and comprehensive selection of movies (we are great, worship us).

I also love our streaming service because it is integrated into my TV (oh, you don't have one of those TVs yet, too bad, they are quite nice), and I can watch anytime I want (BUHAHAHAH, oops, ignore the maniacal laugh). The benefits of our streaming service are really quite different from the benefits of DVD by mail (even though we have already been able to bundle the services and still make huge profits, I want to make you think it's a hardship for us). We need to focus on rapid improvement as streaming technology and the market evolves (we have already got all the technology in place, but I think we can double our profits), without maintaining compatibility with our DVD by mail service (I want you to think that it is a burden to do two things while still making amazing profits).

So we realized that streaming and DVD by mail are really becoming two different businesses, with very different cost structures, that need to be marketed differently, and we need to let each grow and operate independently (Hahahaha, I can't even say that with a straight face).

It’s hard to write this after over 10 years of mailing DVDs with pride, but we think it is necessary (how dare you make me pretend to grovel): In a few weeks, we will rename our DVD by mail service to “Qwikster”. We chose the name Qwikster because it refers to quick delivery. We will keep the name “Netflix” for streaming (maybe if we try to confuse you simpletons by making up a stupid name for the DVD service we can still get away with this).

Qwikster will be the same website and DVD service that everyone is used to. It is just a new name, and DVD members will go to qwikster.com to access their DVD queues and choose movies (even though we are trying to confuse you, we need to try to make it simple enough for you to still give us your money). One improvement we will make at launch is to add a video games upgrade option, similar to our upgrade option for Blu-ray, for those who want to rent Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 games (we got games now, is that enough to get you back?). Members have been asking for video games for many years, but now that DVD by mail has its own team, we are finally getting it done (maybe you dummies will believe we couldn't figure out that we can send DVDs and game disks unless we split DVDs and streaming apart). Other improvements will follow (Hahaha, yeah, right). A negative of the renaming and separation is that the Qwikster.com and Netflix.com websites will not be integrated (we could have integrated the sites, but we didn't want you to think it was easy to do two things on the same site, like we used to do).

There are no pricing changes (we’re done with that!) (the stockholders already want my head on a platter). If you subscribe to both services you will have two entries on your credit card statement, one for Qwikster and one for Netflix (haven't I gotten you to believe we can't do two things for one price yet?). The total will be the same as your current charges (even though it's more than twice as much as it was a few months ago, I want you to think it's not that much more). We will let you know in a few weeks when the Qwikster.com website is up and ready (those idiot coders haven't gotten the site working yet, I'll have them disemboweled when they are finished).

For me the Netflix red envelope has always been a source of joy (money, money, money). The new envelope is still that lovely red, but now it will have a Qwikster logo (you morons need to feel like it is the same, even though we want you to think it's completely different). I know that logo will grow on me over time, but still, it is hard. I imagine it will be similar for many of you (I imagine you are all like Rain Man having to watch Wapner at the same time every day, you idiots).

I want to acknowledge and thank you for sticking with us (thanks for still giving us some of your money, but I want more), and to apologize again to those members, both current and former, who felt we treated them thoughtlessly (I still don't know how did those idiots could figure out we were just being greedy).

Both the Qwikster and Netflix teams will work hard to regain your trust (Jedi Mind Trick: "believe our lies"). We know it will not be overnight (hurry up). Actions speak louder than words (just don't pay attention to our actions). But words help people to understand actions (maybe you will believe me if I say you are stupid unless you believe me).

Respectfully yours (yeah, right),

-Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and CEO, Netflix (worship me by sending me your money)

p.s. I have a slightly longer explanation along with a video posted on our blog, where you can also post comments (if you still don't buy this B.S., I want to try again on our blog).

The comments above (in red) are just my opinion of what I imagine was really going through Reed's mind as he was writing this email.

I dumped the DVD option on Netflix (I can get more DVD value for my money from Redbox now), as soon as I can find a streaming service that is at least comparable to Netflix then I will use it instead.

Where Was I

Here's a map of the states that I have been to, and would like to go to.


visited 31 states (61%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

I'll try to remember to update it if it changes.

Updated May 6, 2024.

Pancakes

Description:
Make great pancakes from scratch!

Ingredients:
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 beaten egg
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon cooking oil
½ teaspoon salt

Directions:
Stir together flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt. Combine egg, milk, and oil; add all at once to flour mixture, stirring till blended but still slightly lumpy. Pour about ¼ cup batter onto a hot, lightly greased griddle or heavy skillet. Cook till golden brown, turning to cook other side when pancakes have a bubbly surface and slightly dry edges.

Heat Index and Wind Chill Formulas

I'm writing this because nobody seems to have an easy to copy and paste formula out there for coders or even for spread sheets.

It's all fine-and-dandy that somebody understands all the ins-and-outs of weather and the math behind it, but sometimes we just want to display the Wind Chill or Heat Index, and that's it. I don't need to know all about the weather … some of us have deadlines to meet. These formulas are for those of you who are of a similar mind set.

Here are the formulas to calculate the Heat Index and the Wind Chill in Spreadsheet formulas and for PHP scripts (programs).

Heat Index

The Heat Index should only be calculated when air temperatures are greater than 80°F (27°C), dew point temperatures are greater than 60°F (16°C), and relative humidities are higher than 40%.

Spreadsheet:

 =ROUND(16.923 + (1.85212 * 10^-1 * A1) + (5.37941 * B1) - (1.00254 * 10^-1 * A1 * B1) + (9.41695 * 10^-3 * A1^2) + (7.28898 * 10^-3 * B1^2) + (3.45372 * 10^-4 * A1^2 * B1) - (8.14971 * 10^-4 * A1 * B1^2) + (1.02102 * 10^-5 * A1^2 * B1^2) - (3.8646 * 10^-5 * A1^3) + (2.91583 * 10^-5 * B1^3) + (1.42721 * 10^-6 * A1^3 * B1) + (1.97483 * 10^-7 * A1 * B1^3) - (2.18429 * 10^-8 * A1^3 * B1^2) + (8.43296 * 10^-10 * A1^2 * B1^3) - (4.81975 * 10^-11 * A1^3 * B1^3)) 

Where A1 holds the TEMPERATURE, and B1 holds the HUMIDITY.

PHP:

$heat_index_f = round(16.923 + (1.85212 * pow(10, -1) * $temp_f) + (5.37941 * $humidity) - (1.00254 * pow(10, -1) * $temp_f * $humidity) + (9.41695 * pow(10, -3) * pow($temp_f, 2)) + (7.28898 * pow(10, -3) * pow($humidity, 2)) + (3.45372 * pow(10, -4) * pow($temp_f, 2) * $humidity) - (8.14971 * pow(10, -4) * $temp_f * pow($humidity, 2)) + (1.02102 * pow(10, -5) * pow($temp_f, 2) * pow($humidity, 2)) - (3.8646 * pow(10, -5) * pow($temp_f, 3)) + (2.91583 * pow(10, -5) * pow($humidity, 3)) + (1.42721 * pow(10, -6) * pow($temp_f, 3) * $humidity) + (1.97483 * pow(10, -7) * $temp_f * pow($humidity, 3)) - (2.18429 * pow(10, -8) * pow($temp_f, 3) * pow($humidity, 2)) + (8.43296 * pow(10, -10) * pow($temp_f, 2) * pow($humidity, 3)) - (4.81975 * pow(10, -11) * pow($temp_f, 3) * pow($humidity, 3))); 

Where $temp_f is the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit, and $humidity holds the humidity.

Wind Chill

The Wind Chill should only be calculated when temperatures are at or below 50°F and wind speeds are above 3 MPH. Bright sunshine may increase the wind chill temperature by 10°F to 18°F.

Spreadsheet:

=ROUND(35.74 + (0.6215 * A1) - 35.75 * (B1^0.16) + 0.4275 * A1 * (B1^0.16)) 

Where A1 holds the TEMPERATURE, and B1 holds the WIND VELOCITY (SPEED).

PHP:

$temp_chill_f = round(35.74 + (0.6215 * $temp_f) - (35.75 * (pow($wind_speed, 0.16))) + (0.4275 * $temp_f * (pow($wind_speed, 0.16)))); 

Where $temp_f is the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit, and $wind_speed holds the wind speed in Miles Per Hour (MPH).

I hope this helps to keep someone from spending an hour debugging their code when it was a simple typo that may have messed them up.

My Web Site
I have had a Web Site since 1996, it currently resides at LAZARIDES.us.

Unfortunately, since the birth of my children, I have not had time to keep up the computer tips on that site the way I used to. It has become a repository for links more than a site for getting current tips.

I see so many people now using their blogs to post tips and tricks, but it is just something that I have not tried yet.

I may start to transfer some of my old tips to my blog, then start adding new tips also. I will probably do it on both sites for a while to see which way I like it better. The only thing is that I have precious little time to do it.

Digital Rights Media (DRM)

WMA and DRM ... What a crock! Just Give Me MP3s!

Last night my wife and I decided it was time to finally dive into the digital music download world. I'm quite "techie" and I think even borderline "Techno-Geek", so this should be a walk-in-the-park.

We bought a MP3 player and we have been busy extracting songs from most of our CD collection (which is pretty extensive).

But there were a few songs that Andrea wanted that we didn't have on our CDs , so after much searching on-line for the best deal we decided on buying WMAs (Microsoft's Windows Media Audio format) from WalMart.com, these files have embedded DRM (Digital Rights Media) and gave us the right to:

• Download the music to 1 computer and back up music to 2 additional computers
  
• Make 10 burns to a CD
  
• Make unlimited transfers to a portable device
  

It is a little restrictive, but tolerable.

The actual purchasing of the five (5) songs and the subsequent downloading was painless, almost even a pleasure. Kudos to Wal-Mart.

Then Came The DRM Monster!

After the music was on the PC that we had executed this entire transaction on we tried to play them in the latest Windows Media Player (WMP), they all played correctly.

Then we tried to burn them to a CD, three (3) of them burned fine, the other two (2) files said we didn't have rights to burn them...

WHAT! We just legally paid for the right to burn these files, and it says we don't have that right! ARGHHH!

OK, so we decided to copy the files to a different PC over our network. They copied fine, we tried to play the five (5) files in the 'new' computer using the latest WMP, the three (3) files that the first computer was able to burn would not play on the new computer, again it said we didn't have the right to do it (GRRRRRR!).

But the weird part was that the two (2) files that wouldn't burn on the first computer, would play on the 2nd computer (what's going on here?). But ,like the first computer, it would not burn them to CD.

I can understand that the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) doesn't want people to steal music, but the restrictions and enforcement of DRM is flawed, and people are not getting what they are expecting when they lay down good money.

Having the software that is on your computer act as judge, jury, and executioner is like having your car shut down if you were going 36 MPH in a 35 MPH zone. In my case it is like the car shutting down when I was going 5 MPH because it thought I was going too fast.

To The Rescue

I'm sure there are a number of ways around the DRM problem, I found one that is simple and elegant.

I found a program called tunebite that allows you to record anything that your sound card in your PC plays, you have the option of a few different formats, including MP3 ( yea!). This saved us and our investment, we will still voluntarily abide by the restrictions listed above that we agreed to when we bought the music, but I think I can do it myself better than software from Microsoft.

Problem Solved (?)

My wife has since called me to let me know that Wal-Mart has fixed the problem, it seems that the version of WMP we were using was too up-to-date , Wal-Mart sent us a new license and she says everything seems to be working fine.
To Microsoft: <heavy sarcasim> Great job making your software backwards compatible .

Future Purchases

Will we purchase music on-line in the future? Without a doubt.

Will we purchase that music from WalMart.com or other stores that only sell DRM embedded music? Maybe ... it would help if they change to selling a format of audio file that does not contain DRM.

What will we do? Right now I think we will use a prepaid MasterCard, filled with $100-$200, on sites that do not have such restrictions on the music you download.

What sites will we use? Right now ALLOFMP3, Audio Find, and MP3 Spy are at the top of the list. They are Russian, and I do not feel comfortable enough to use a real credit card at these sites (with rumors of credit card fraud, who could blame us). Although I feel good enough about them to use prepaid credit cards to limit or eliminate any financial damage that could be done.

Wal-Mart, RIAA, et al: Please take note of this incident (put on my Mr. Potato Head 'Angry Eyes' [Toy Story reference]), and try to come up with a better plan to sell music. Look at the Russian sites I mentioned above to get a clue about what people want, and are willing pay for.

Gas Prices ... WOW!
Gas prices in my area just went over $3.00 a gallon, I'm sure it is a similar story around the US. And it is just going to get worse.

What is going on?

In an age of record profits for Oil Companies, this can't be justified by some damage from the hurricane.

Why isn't there some kind of investigation?

Alternatives
There are other ways to produce oil right now without taking it from the ground (National Geographic article). It would only cost a fraction of what the war in Iraq is costing, plus there wouldn't be the loss of life.

There is even Bio Diesel Fuel that allows us to make diesel fuel from crops such as corn.

Vehicles
There are always the different gas/electric hybrid vehicles that are available. Even if they are a little more expensive.

There is even a car that doesn't require any gas. I would love to see The Air Car come to the US, I would be one of the first people in line to buy it.

TiVo-licious

We finely got TiVo last week and all I can say is that I am very disappointed ... that I did not get it sooner!

TiVo is GREAT!!!
I especially like changing the "Advance" (the button you press to catch you up to real time) to a "30 Second Skip" button (which I use a lot). On your remote, just hit:
Select-Play-Select-3-0(zero)-Select

I have DirecTV, and the TiVo unit that they installed is a 70 hour Series 2 R10, I'm looking forward to getting it on my home network so that I can view JPEGs on my TV and also listen to my MP3s on my TV too. I plan on using JavaHMO, a free and open source alternative to TiVo's Home Media Option (HMO), as the media server on my PCs that my TiVo box will connect to.

"Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of." - Benjamin Franklin

My 3 year old daughter has been saying something for about the past month that isn't wrong, but it is different.

Instead of saying "I am not" or "I'm not" she says "I amn't".

We can't figure out where she got that from, but I thought it was cute enough to post.

"Time you enjoy waisting is not waisted time." - Unknown

"Remember: No matter where you go, there you are." - Buckaroo Banzai

Interesting Facts

Current Terror Alert Level Internet Traffic Report Higher numbers are faster. 0-34=Red (bad) 35-65=Yellow (slow) 66+=Green (normal) Current Moon Phase	U.S. National Debt Clock Another U.S. National Debt Clock from zFacts National Debt Clock World Population U.S. Population
Global time/sun position map World Sunlight Map

Bad Weather

Tornado
A little over a year ago a category F1 tornado went about a block and a half North of my house.

We heard the tornado sirens and got in our basement.

The rain and wind was getting stronger, then (as if someone flipped a switch) it just stopped. After a minute or so I went up stairs and everything seemed OK.

My wife went and sat in the living room looking out the window and asked, "where are all those people going?" I went out and saw some trees down a little over a block to the North, that's when we knew something had really happened.

Not the only incident
A few years before that a Micro Burst (which is almost a tornado, but the wind goes in a straight line) came right through our block. The worst of it hit about 150 feet north of us. It came out of nowhere, the weather was very nice otherwise. The tornado sirens sounded less than a minute or two before it hit.

Both of those left a very visible trail of destruction, neither of them sounded like a train.

It's about time to give Koko (our Bichon Frise) a bath.

They say that the Bichons do not smell, like other dogs. They also say not to give them baths more than once a month.

I'm here to tell you that those two statements are wrong. They do smell like other dogs, and you need to give them more regular baths to prevent it. It does take longer for them to get that dog smell, but it comes.

Since Koko likes to be outside, he smells like a dog sooner than most other Bichons. I think we need to get on a weekly bathing schedule for Koko.

Our silly dog (Koko, a male Bichon Frise) loves to stay outside, we sometimes have to trick him to get him to come back inside.

He also loves to dig, our back yard looks like a mine field with several craters.

Today he found a way out of the back yard I think he dug under the fence.

When I get home today I have to look around the yard to see where he gets out, then I have to fix it so he can't get out that way anymore.

I already have the perimeter of the fence lined with landscaping timbers, bricks and other items. That seemed to do the job for several months.

Ah, the joys of pet ownership! :-/

Hello World!

Hello world!

This is my 1st blog, I'm trying to see what all the hype is about and also trying to see if I can somehow get this to be helpful at work.