Electric Humans, EMI, SLIders

May 11th's coast to coast, electric humans... (first hour) http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2014/05/11

William Beaty was the guest, his site is at http://amasci.com/

So when I drive by street lamps they frequently turn off, kill battery powered watches, cause frequent static shocks to people I touch... turns out I'm not alone. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_light_interference_phenomenon

My reports are false, self-noticed, a former co-worker would usually be behind me on the way to work and would see the lights going out as I came close and would comment on it. Funny thing is, when lights go out near me I usually touch the center of my forehead and say 'you honor me'. Interesting.

I don't have issues working on/with computers (I've been an electronics hobbyist since I was about 5) or using smartphones etc.

I do have issues with ATM's, self-checkout registers, self-service ticket purchasing kiosks, faucet sensors, the motion sensors at work that unlock the doors when exiting, incandescent and CFL lightbulbs in close proximity to me for extend periods have far shorter lifespans (weeks not months), etc.

I regularly shock myself getting in vehicles, I regularly shock people when I go to shake their hand or come in close contact, I had a pinbal machine in highschool I could generate painful large blue sparks between me and the metal on the front of the machine but my friends could not reproduce the same effect, I usually generate sparks in mechanical switches...

One incident that really sticks out in my mind was about 9 years ago, I'd come home from work feeling asolutely awful. I got in bed around 7am and started watching Murphy Brown on a tube television that was only a year or so old. I'm running a fever drifting in and out and dream that a bright white light flooded my room initiating ont he wall the tv was on, I wake up and have a drink of water and start watching tv again, before I've been a wake a full minute the tube in my tv decompresses (classic crack sound with the hiss of the vacuum filling) and a bright white flash goes across the screen.

Sev Zero on the Amazon Fire TV

So as you know I bought the Amazon Fire TV when it first came out (had it day of launch), but this past Sunday I finally bought the Amazon Fire Game Controller and played the game that comes free with it Sev Zero, mind you the newest console I've used is the Wii, before that the most recent being the Gamecube... it's pretty fun, I wish the Amazon Fire TV controller was a little longer as my pinkies hang off completely and my ring fingers a bit, but I've large hands. Wasted 3 hours of my life on that damn Sev Zero game, tower based defense game where you teleport around mopping up what aliens get by as a 3rd person shooter. Fun stuff! Need to throw the controller away though as I see this as a gateway game that might swiftly lead to a modern console.

I'll probably pick up Sev Zero: Air Support in a week or two and check it out too.

My Amazon Fire TV Review

This is my review of the Amazon Fire TV

Wow, I love this thing. Having used a few generations of Roku, 2 Apple TV's and other solutions... I was always left wanting. When I'd first heard rumors of Amazon doing a set top box I got excited, when I saw it was available for sale it took me all of 3 seconds to go "yup I'm going to order and pay for local delivery"

Pros:
1080p
Optical Audio
Voice search (which works better than Siri on my iPhone) instead of a painful searching with the remote
Allows for gaming (I most likely won't use but still neat)
4x the RAM of competitors
Faster processor

Major Cons:
I wish the remote would have a lion battery, if using voice search often I can see it draining AAA's fast.

Minor Cons:
No HDMI cable, I don't get why manufacturers want us to buy them seperate, slap one in the box and markup the price the cost of the cable.

While I've only played with it for an hour or so, my first impressions are it's well worth the price. It's snappy, I actually have a reliable way to watch prime videos on my television now (which means I'll actually watch them, I've watched 1 episode of Red Dwarf on my kindle fire and an episode or two of stuff on my iPhone... in 3 years of being a prime member). As far as looks, I love that it's black (all of my home theater stuff is) and the finish is nice (doesn't reflect the LED from my tv's name badge or the power LED on my subwoofer).

And the thing I'm most happy about, I can now be a cord cutter! Some of my shows I watch I can get over the hair with an HD antenna, the rest are all available either for purchase or for Amazon Instant Prime streaming!

Over it all

O Lord, my God! is there no help for the widow's son?

Google bitcoin...

Everyone throughout the day for a few weeks randomly google the following

"bitcoin it really whip's the lama's ass"
"bitcoin it's better than bad it's good"
"bitcoin is the future"
"bitcoin, I'd buy that for a dollar!"
"bitcoin did I do that?"
"Bitcoin have mercy!"
"bitcoin Howwww ruuuuudddee"
"bitcoin NOT the momma!"
"bitcoin, how you doin'?"
"bitcoin, oh my God they killed Kenny"
"bitcoin, is that your final answer?"
"bitcoin yadda yadda yadda"
"bitcoin, there can be only one"

Let's see if we can't get google to start including them in the Google suggestion box heh.

Made my first purchase with bitcoin!

Made my first purchase with bitcoin earlier. Went smooth and was a transaction I normally would have paid cash for. I'll likely use bitcoin again in the next week or so for a purchase as I'm eyeballing a few things I need over on Tiger Direct!

An idea for business owners, introducing bitcoin to customers

I have a small business, when I ship out orders I always include a business card with company info on the front and a QR code on the back linking to the store as well as a coupon code for anyone referred via the card (which, after sending out about 100 in orders I actually had someone finally use that special coupon code today which recovered the costs for about 900 cards... I'll call that a marketing win!) and now that I've been accepting bitcoin a week over at Genco Peptides (I have even had my first order with bitcoin exactly 1 week after accepting it) I decided to make another card to include in every order that will help raise awareness for bitcoin!

Front:

Back:

Hopefully people look at the card, find themselves curious, and go read about bitcoin... or perhaps they already have some awareness of bitcoin and this gives them a good resource to go learn more about it!

If anyone else has been doing something similar, please let me know in the comments! I'd love to hear from you.

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Patrick Byrne CEO of Overstock replied!

So over on reddit we have been seeing a lot of good stuff from Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne involving bitcoin... in this thread a user asked us to encourage Patrick to do an AMA. So, being the kind of guy I am. I contacted the man directly.

NOTE TO OVERSTOCK:  please don't get mad I post this. I made sure his contact info isn't present and it doesn't divulge any personal or business information. If you aren't happy about me sharing this please contact me directly and I'll, unhappilly, remove it. I read your signature disclaimer but I made a judgement call that Mr. Byrne and Overstock would both be fine with "How do I do that?" being post online as it damages no one and reveals no trade secrets.

I'm excited, I hope he an AMA soon!

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Letter to dad 2014

Well dad, tomorrow marks another year that you've been gone and I still miss you. This past year I suppose I've done a fair amount of things... where to start...

Well I've met mom's oldest son a few times, he seems alright. I started an LLC late last summer, I sell peptides online like melanotan and PT-141 and it's been doing alright, I also link to some products on amazon.com with my affiliate link in my various blog posts.

I had to part ways with your truck last year, it served well for 18 years before something in the transmission finally went leaving it stuck in no, or every, gear. It was a hard thing to do, I went out and bought a slightly used 2013 Chevy Impala and it's been treating me well but I really miss the truck. The last day she was in my possession I cried like a baby just sitting in her, cleaning her out, and walking around her to get one last look at her. The truck was one of my last major ties to you and memories of things we did. If my business had been doing better I would have kept it and fixed it with the intent of restoring it but alas I just didn't have the resources (and really still don't).

That's really all that comes to mind. Write to you next year!

Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am in a thousand winds that blow,
I am the softly falling snow.
I am the gentle showers of rain,
I am the fields of ripening grain.
I am in the morning hush,
I am in the graceful rush
Of beautiful birds in circling flight,
I am the starshine of the night.
I am in the flowers that bloom,
I am in a quiet room.
I am in the birds that sing,
I am in each lovely thing.
Do not stand at my grave bereft
I am not there. I have not left.