Nuon batteries = Junk

I've blogged before about the poor quality of rechargeable batteries; much of what's available for sale is just So Much Junk. I have another to add to the list: the Nuon brand sold by Batteries Plus.

In late September, I took a chance and bought four (4) 4-packs of Nuon Rechargeable NIMH batteries. By April, I found that at least four of the cells will no longer hold any charge. My BC-900 simply registers "Null" when I tried to charge those cells last week. It's not like these have been doing heavy duty, either .. this particular set was in a clock-weather gadget that communicates to a remote unit (outside) to provide correct ("atomic clock") time & temperature.

Yesterday, I stopped by the local Batteries+ outlet to see if they knew how bad these things really are (25% failure rate in 7 months!) and thinking maybe they'd even exchange them. Not only did they profess ignorance about the poor quality, but wouldn't exchange them without a receipt. This was particularly distressing since Batteries Plus is the exclusive North American distributor of Nuon batteries.

even our insects are bigger here, and there's a reason for that

I'm sure you've heard that "everything's bigger in Texas," but did you know there are special stores where we buy food for our cockroaches?

Full disclosure: 409 Main Street, Garland Texas

so many choices ...

I was looking up a local store and it asked for my city. I filled in [Dallas] but left the state blank. It then asked me to be more specific, offering the list below. Hmmm.

I decided to amuse myself and sort these Dallases by population (2000 Census):

Dallas, Texas (1,188,580)
Dallas, Oregon (12,459)
Dallas, Georgia (5,056)
Dallas, North Carolina (3,402)
Dallas, Pennsylvania (2,557)
Dallas, Iowa (1,298)
Dallas, West Virginia (464)
Dallas, Wisconsin (356)
Dallas, South Dakota (144)

Sherman Day Trip

Over the weekend, Judy-Bob and Janice-Bob and I moseyed up to Sherman, Texas. It seems that there's a chance that Judy-Bob may relocate in that direction, so .. after a sumptuous breakfast at the Driver's Travel Mart (Anna, Texas) we kept on going, almost (but not quite) reaching the Oklahoma state line.

Sherman residents are probably proud of their town (in Grayson County), but it's not a place I could live in without going blind .. it's just too far off the beaten track for my taste.

One of my theories about Texas (and Dallas) is that Dallas isn't really in Texas - it's a bubble of pseudo-civilization surrounding by thousands of miles of nothing.

While in Sherman, Janice-Bob and I wandered through the "Touch of Class Antique Mall" (former 3-story furniture store) on the downtown city square, across from the county courthouse. Antique malls are not among the places I frequent: the sellers all seem to think their possessions are worth a whole heckuva lot more than I do (although who doesn't have enough Elvis lamps in their double-wide?).

On the way back to civilization, we stopped in McKinney to sample a QSR that's rare in Texas: Culver's (there are now nine locations of this Wisconsin chain in Texas, three of which are within a half-hour drive). Their specialties are frozen custard and "ButterBurgers" .. I stuck with the Beef Pot Roast Sandwich, same as last time. Not half bad.

Revenge of the Gregorians

I don't recall ever meeting a Gregorian in person.

Many of us have spent our entire lives assuming that everyone in the world uses the same calendar -- not so. Turns out there are a LOT of calendars used worldwide. I probably learned about The Gregorian Calendar in first grade history class (!). The Jews use the Hebrew Calendar; Muslims use the Islamic (Hijri) Calendar; Iranians use the (modern) Persian calendar, and the Chinese use the Chinese Yin Calendar (not to be confused with the Chinese Yang Calendar).

our New Year's Day

	day	month	year	calendar adopted in
Chinese	23	Eleventh	4705 (rat)
Gregorian	1	January	2008 C.E.	1752 CE
Hebrew	23	Tevet	5768 A.M.
Hindu				78 CE
Islam	22	Dhu al-Hijjah	1428 A.H.
Persian	11	Dey	1386	1925 CE

For simplicity sake, I'm avoiding an explanation of the Chinese Lunar and Solar calendars, which are based on the ruling dynasty, among other things.

their New Year's Day (sorted chronologically)

	Gregorian
Christian Era 2008	1 January 2008
Islam 1429 (Muharram)	10 January 2008
Chinese 4705	7 February 2008
Persian 1386 (Norouz)	21 March 2008
Hindu 1929 (Ugadi)	6 April 2008
Hebrew 5769 (Rosh Hashanah)	29 September 2008

I like using the ISO-8601 calendar for embedding into filenames, so that Untitled.txt becomes 2008-01-01-Untitled.txt -- that way, it's always obvious when the file was created, even if it's been emailed or copied. There's a nice Calendar Converter on Fourmilab which I used to generate this data.

Example: using this converter, I can see that Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 took place on Day 1, Fifth Month, Ji Si Year (Republic Dynasty). To me, it's still 4 June 1989.

cascading ...

Last Friday, Trish-Bob sent me to Benbrook to deliver Rambo to a foster family (long story, don't ask). Naturally, I couldn't leave until 4pm because Justin-Bob -- Tim-Bob's son -- had to go back to Lowe's for more stain (he was supposed to be there 10 days earlier but it turns out solid-core 1-3/8" doors are a special order item).

If I haven't lost you yet, I will ...

While I was waiting for Justin-Bob, I noticed the pop-up message on my PDA saying that it was Daniel-Bob's 50th birthday. Hmmm. I phoned Judy-Bob to inform her of the fact and she suggested we all meet at Ed's Deli on Sunday for a Breakfast Birthday Event [BBE]. Since I'd never been to a BBE before, I agreed (5 of us would eventually be there, including Mark and Joe-Bob).

The nicely-wrapped gift of Faux Spam wasn't the highlight; that honor goes to the plain-white-cover on the Sexaholics Anonymous book (lest I digress)

As I was leaving (did I mention it was Cold & Rainy?) I spotted a pour soul with an EVENT jacket standing in the intersection at Preston/LBJ-635 with a "sandwich sign" saying that Petco was having a G.O.O.B. sale -- not to be confused with a GOOB(er). "Whaaat?" (I shouted to myself as I clamped on the brakes). "Petco's going out of business?" (turns out it's limited to the location at Preston Royal, where the Mean Old Landlord has raised the rent to the point it was unprofitable to remain open .. now Tom Thumb -- owned by Safeway -- will expand into their space starting in January).

I can no longer pass up a CLEARANCE sale (thank you, Judy-Bob), so JACK (Just Another Car) ferried me there post haste. I was checking out the "ALL SALES ARE FINAL" merchandise (did I mention this is where Jill Wazabob found Marvin?) -- I've learned that while the (currently 20%) discounts certainly will increase, the only thing left at The End of the Going Out Of Business sale will be those poor orphan items that Only A Mother Could Love -- I ran into an Australian with dreadlocks, shopping (with his Dallas-originated girlfriend) for one of those multi-level cat houses. I noticed his Aussie accent and asked if he was from Melbourne. "No," he said, "The Great Barrier Reef". Since I didn't know that any humans actually lived in The Reef (I strongly suspect he lived nearby) I asked him if a news report I'd read about the coral being bleached due to Global Warming was true. He said "yes, it's true .. it's still not widespread but the early effects are obvious and it may all be gone in our lifetime - the next 50 years or so".

So there you have it. If Trish-Bob hadn't done The Intervention (again, don't ask) I wouldn't have confirmation from an Aussie-with-dreadlocks that our American excesses WRT power are bleaching/killing the coral halfway across the globe. I silently wondered if Jill - who dived there years ago and met Paul The Divemaster - knew about that Catastrophe In The Making, and the cascade effect it will have.

Now can I go back to reading the prose on my breakfast cereal box?

rechargeable AA and AAA batteries

I've had mixed success with rechargeable batteries, but that's due to my early use (and ignorance) of low-capacity cells. I assumed that all 1.5V batteries were the same - not even.

I've been trying to use rechargeable batteries whenever possible and am experimenting with different brands. AAAs max out at ~900 mAh .. some are only rated at 500 mAh and drain at 2%/day! I have some (Sanyo) Eneloops en route and have higher hopes for their shelf life, although they're only rated at 800 mAh - Rayovac's Hybrid brand also promise better shelf life, too.

AA rechargeables can be had in 2500+ mAh flavors but they're not yet commonly available that way in retail - I spotted mostly low capacities when visiting the nearby MicroCenter and had much better luck (2500 mAh Nuon brand) at the (chain) Batteries+ location.

I took my Digital Audio Recorder (an Olympus DS-2300) out for a single 5 hour session a few weeks ago, and the batteries held up nicely. Odds are I'll always keep a spare set handy, though -- lesson learned with digicams, which tend to powerfail on me at The Most Inopportune Moment.

I'm using LaCrosse Technology's BC-900 (AA/AAA charger, NiCd/NiMH) which provides real insight into the charging process, although there are web reports of overheating (to the point of melting!) so I won't leave it unattended (those reports are dated early 2006 -- so it's possible mine has better firmware).

My preferred travel charger is the Energizer (NiMH) CHDC-CA although I'm not thrilled with its performance .. only the size (not all chargers can charge both AA and AAA). They have a new USB model which has onscreen monitoring, and hence shows promise (assuming I'm packing my laptop).

History lesson: my first battery charger was the (Radio Shack) Archer 23-122, which belongs in a museum somewhere. It charged NiCad AA, C and D cells. Years later, I favored Olympus' BU-100 which charged Ni-MH AA cells, but the required power cord is unwieldy for travel (it's since been upgraded - the latest model appears to be the BU-500 and there's no cord).

If you travel internationally, you'll need a power converter for the models with integrated US power prongs (115 VAC), but .. that goes without saying.

Mmm .. doughnut !

Although it was a Dark And Stormy Day yesterday, I moseyed about 6 miles south to take in the conversion of a local 7-Eleven to a Kwik-E-Mart. This is proving to be quite a marketing coup, as even the rain couldn't keep the crowd away from the Squishees; Krusty-O cereal; Buzz Cola and (of course!) the pink Sprinklicious doughnuts.

Outside, a local radio station (Mix 102.9) has setup a Simpsons couch complete with the main characters, where you could have your own photo taken, provided you had a camera of your own handy.

Inside, the clerks were wearing green uniforms and one of them had an [Apu] nametag. Sadly, they were completely SOLD OUT of Krusty-O's and Buzz Cola, although Squishees and Pink Doughnuts were still available. But not for long.

Only 12 locations across the country were converted, and apparently only for the month of July (when The Simpsons Movie debuts). I suspect one of their competitors (Circle K, etc) could have come up with this idea first, but they didn't. Kudos, 7-Eleven.

my first YouTube

After being mesmerized by Jill's videos of the snow in Hoosierville, Indiana; her cats; and American music playing on the car radio while driving the Autobahn, I decided to upload a few videos from my own collection to YouTube. Indeed, this was mostly uneventful since the files were already in an acceptable format (my Pentax digicam produces 640x320 AVI files .. some of my earlier videos were saved as 320x160 MOV files).

First impression: it takes a lot longer to upload the files than it does to view them (yes, I know DSL download speed is usually much higher than upload).



It'll be a bit harder to upload stuff from my [Sony CCD-TRV75] camcorder, which is (probably) one of the last analog camcorders. I bought it in 1999 and still haven't used it enough to get my money's worth! ($835)

A few months ago, I bought the Pyro A/V Link but haven't had the time to use it yet (it works on either Mac or PC - the input is a Firewire cable).

Update: I finally went to sleep around 1am, after uploading 24 videos. That should do for now; others will probably be added on an ad hoc basis.

meme-o to Geoff

A few weeks (!) ago, Geoff invited me to Play Along with the Yes, it’s the “Five Things You (Probably) Didn’t Know About Me, But Were Afraid To Ask” meme. So, I added it my drafts and skillfully shuffled it from one draft folder to another, figuring I'd finish it during one of my nights battling insomnia. That time has now arrived: huzzah.

---

1. the shortest job I ever had was at Northup in Torrance, California - I lasted all of six weeks. I found myself in a tightly-knit group who hadn't had a new member in many years. It was obvious that I would forever be considered The Outsider .. so (after two weeks) I phoned the headhunter recruiter and advised him to Keep Looking. A few days later, I scored an interview with a better fit, so after the workday was over, I went to see my boss to say goodbye. He had left early; I left him a note atop his desk, offering my resignation. Apparently he Never Got The Memo as I received an official letter from the company a month later, saying that I'd been terminated for failing to come to work. Indeed.


2. I was sacked as a disc jockey at a country music station in 1978. While working the evening shift one night, I accidentally left the microphone open while I took a phone call. When the second line began ringing, I ignored it .. turns out it was my boss who happened to be listening to what I thought was a private conversation (not that it wasn't tame .. it just wasn't meant for broadcast). Alas, I didn't enjoy the job anyway, and it led to a better gig a few miles away (being a news reporter for a radio station just off a major US military base, where the young soldiers frequently got into trouble with the civilians and made for entertaining local news).


3. I was a late-in-life child, my mother giving birth at age 43. Always assuming I was an only child, I was a bit stunned years later, whilst doing some genealogy, to discover that I would have had a brother, had he not been stillborn (full term). He's buried somewhere in my hometown - I have no idea what cemetary.


4. I have some mini-collections of obscure things. One is a Spam collection which began with a 7 ounce container sporting an "Intel Inside" sticker .. up to an 11.5 ounce container of what I call "Hindu spam" (several friends have located obscure cans of "Spam-like potted meat" to add to my collection). Another collection is a set of Betty Boop figurines.


5. My father liked to name our family dogs "Butch". Although we never had more than one dog at a time, we had at least three different dogs, each a different breed (beagle, cocker spaniel, mutt) named Butch. Each of them ran away, until we got a miniature English brindel bull terrier (pre-)named Willie, which broke the Butch cycle. My father also built a fence around the backyard, which Willie eventually learned to climb. At those locations where he'd learned to escape, my father installed fence extensions which canted inward. I suspect it was a challenge between the two of them. Eventually, the dog outlived my father, who died at age 68.

Okay, my job is now done. In theory, I am now to "tag" others to Play Along, but I can't even imagine Who Will Be Next (the bulk of my blogging friends fall into two categories - tell all, or tell none), so I've leave that casting call open.

when the lights go out ...

I was reading Pat-Bob's blog, and spotted an interesting exercise: how many machines/electronics did you use today?. Weekday or weekend? Do AA batteries count? Hmmm.

Should I attempt this from midnight-midnight?
6am-6am?
Will that matter?

Should I keep the list on a piece of paper, so that my PDA doesn't become part of the mix? Do I include light switches? Should I include my home alarm if I merely go outside to fetch the mail (and hear the alarm sound as the door opens/closes)?

I suppose I could go into the "would this device fail if the electricity were out?" mode but then that would include my home furnace (sparked by a thermostat) ...

His next day's post was slightly different .. the number of times he had to identify himself as he went through The Daily Routine. Perhaps I could start there, then progress to the much larger list. Hmmm.

the end of an era

Just about now, Jill-Bob is losing her -Bob status, crossing from Texas into The Great Abyss. Part of this is due to global warming, you see, as the Texas summers just got to be Too Much To Bear. You see, she discovered that it's far more pleasant to run in 40F weather, than 80F. So, she packed up her duds and critters and moved north, perhaps a few miles closer to Medicine Hat.

I've known Jill since, uh .. 1993, when I moved here from Los Angeles. It'll be weird knowing that she ain't within (easy) driving distance. Will The Saucer Crowd fade into extinction without her Maternal Guidance? Time will tell.

I suspect Jill's a pioneer of sorts, as past mass-migrations from the cold northern climes to the sunny beaches begin to reverse. Within our lifetime, we may see the extinction of the polar bear from the wild parts of the world, relegated only to zoos where they may be supplied an uninterrupted food supply. I also heard that the European ski resorts are having a tough time, given both a shorter season and less of their product (snow) to go around.

Politically, I have to wonder if the red-blue divide will turn into a north-south pattern, versus the current coastline-interior split. Those who remain in denial about global warming will stay in the south, sprinting from air-conditioned vehicles to air-conditioned buildings, while scarce energy continues to influence an upward price spiral. Eventually they may realize that there's a price to pay for those lofted ceilings and entryways, in the form of the BTUs needed to keep the human occupants comfortable. Eventually, but not yet. For now, the typically red-voting southerner will be happy to buy another Hummer (or F250 clone) to haul around whatever it is they haul around. Naturally, the elevation of those vehicles provides them ample opportunity to (literally) look down upon The Little People.

And the divide widens.

Back to present day reality: I suspect Jill will be rolling into her new digs around midnight* with Marvin, Simone and the others seeking a warm place to whiz. Good luck with The Grand Adventure, Jill-Bob.

* not being a classic Morning Person, it didn't surprise me that her 7am start time came and went.

Today, it's already 71F and aiming for a high of 81F. In mid-December. Go figure. Meanwhile, I programmed my TiVo to record the 8pm (24 Dec) [Spotlight] on LinkTV (DirecTV 375), titled "Global Warming: Bush's Climate of Fear". Sounds like a cheery way to celebrate The Holidays, eh?

the anti-shopping list

I've been spending more time with my Mac (PowerBook-G4) lately, partly due to the convenience offered by its built-in WiFi. One of my long-overdue projects at home has been to slap my DVDs, videotapes and (gasp!) books into a database, and it's much easier schlepping my laptop from room to room, than any of the 3 alternatives:

1. writing stuff down on paper, then transcribing;
2. entering stuff directly into my PDA, which lacks a fullsize keyboard;
3. bringing the stuff-to-be-catalogued to the PC, then taking them back

Once everything's online, I'll be able to move them to MobileDB (on my Palm) and then use it as an anti-shopping list*. Keeping it updated will be easier, too, since I can update the database on the Palm, and it'll be HotSync'd the next time I charge it.

* anti-shopping list [ASL] -- a list of stuff I already own. If something's on that list, it means I shouldn't buy it again.

An ASL would've saved me several times over the years, when I spotted something in the store which intrigued me, and I didn't remember if I'd already ordered it online (hence, in transit) or if I'd simply added it to an online Wish List somewhere.

I expect my ASL to become more handy as I continue to age, and can no longer distinguish between the things I want and the things I already have.

---

I've been a fan of Instant Messaging for eons, but never liked needing client software for each protocol (AIM, YIM, ICQ, etc.) .. I've used Trillian on my Windows box for years, and now found a Quite Good One for my Mac: Adium. The interface is clean, flexible and works while I'm WiFi'ing my way around the globe. I tried one called [Fire] but it had a nasty habit of locking up, needed a [Force Quit] to return the system to normal. YMMV.

vacancy

Today was a good day not to travel. For once, I found myself being The Local Guy while everyone else was sweating the Joy which is Travel during a Texas Weather Event.

By 10am today, everything looked normal outside, but the weather radar painted a bleak picture .. freezing rain turning to snow. Several of them were watching the various airline websites, and watching their flights switch from [ON TIME] to [DELAYED] to [CANCELED]. It's no fun spending the night at an airport, so I advised anyone who couldn't get out of town to call me, and I'd supply lodging for the evening. By the time the evening arrived, there were no calls so the Gene Bob Motel went unused. Too bad - Beta was looking forward to someone to play with.

It could've been worse .. looks like this storm's gonna dump a load on Chicago, Detroit, and places northeast. At least they'll get it in the form of snow, and not our local delicacy: ice.

---

Speaking of delicacies, I discovered Cracker Nuts at a local Asian grocery, and fear I may be hooked. Nagaraya makes several flavors of this "crispy peanut" treat; I've already sampled the garlic and plan to fetch a pack of butter flavored next. Yumm.

They also have a flavor called "Adobo" but I'm not sure what that is - probably different than its mud-inspired namesake "Adobe".

either way, it's still $20

I typically use a tire (tyre, to you Brits) pressure gauge in the car, when I remember to check the air. Often that's about once a month, unless I notice the car's a bit sluggish taking a corner.

So, when it came time to replace a front floor mat, I spotted (nearby) an acceptable price on a set of Indicator Valve Caps for the tires (Tire Check, by Kleen Wheels). Now, as I'm approaching my parked car, I can glance down and see when one/more of my tires has lost enough air to merit a stop at the air pump. The indicator is difficult to master: green=good and red=bad. Golly, I hope I can remember this. The set of four was $20.

Speaking of air, I recently asked the "experts" about the trend of some car service places to fill tires with nitrogen instead of "plain air". The merchants claim that the nitrogen molecules are larger, and hence won't leak as fast. For $20 (i.e. $5/tyre) that should be true, but my local experts say it's basically a marketing ploy (i.e. "crap"). Maybe if I was driving a racecar around Texas Motor Speedway, but not on the way to the market.

ISBN-13

I have to wonder if the transition to ISBN-13 will cause the crumbling of western civilization.

Recently, I noticed my newest books now sport TWO (2!) ISBNs: ISBN-10 and ISBN-13. The new ones are needed in much the same way the phone companies had to adapt new area codes to deal with the plethora of cellphones and other communication devices (does anyone remember the pager? - now we just use Text Messaging instead). Since I keep an online list of all my books (so I don't buy duplicates) I'll have to adapt them to ISBN-13 which arrives 1/1/2007. I guess this is good; that means that more books are being published, and the demise of The Paper Book (to make way for e-Books) is still A Future Event.

I haven't been this excited since I started getting 5 different phone directories every year.

What makes this a sad event is that I was just getting the hang of the ISBN-10 system. I figured out that the first digit always seemed to be a 0 or 1; followed by a hyphen; followed by a code (of semi-random length) indicating the publisher; followed by a number for the book itself; followed by a final hyphen and what I assumed was an edition number (which sometimes became -X). Turns out the last digit was a "check digit" and had nothing to do with the edition: wow.

Yes, I could read the ISBN FAQ but that would suck all the joy out of deciphering the scheme. I suppose by the time They transition to ISBN-next (inevitable) I'll have it all figured out.

The ISBN-10 scheme would conceivably produce duplicates when the hyphens were removed (0-13-123456-4 is the same as 0-1312-3456-4, right?) but the online bookstores seem to remove them (for URLs, etc.) without consequence. The new ISBN-13 appeared to be an ISBN-10 with a prefix "978", but there's more to it than that (which I discovered after reading another ISBN explanation). It turns out the conversion of ISBN-10 to ISBN-13 digits requires a re-calculation of the check digit, which is done programmatically. Bummer.

Worth noting: my oldest books don't have ISBNs : only Library of Congress book numbers. I suspect there was a transition back in those days, too, although I don't remember civilization collapsing. I may have been in class that day.

Ref: International Standard Book Number = ISBN. This has nothing to do with the DDC (Dewey Decimal System), for which I am eternally grateful.

in search of L-tryptophan

There's a new QSR chain in town called Raising Cane’s that's not far from me (NW corner of Campbell/Coit). Their specialty? Chicken Fingers. Yes, you heard right. Every time I've driven by, there's been a long line at the drive-thru, so I tried it at 3pm today and was only 3rd in line (tolerable).

My verdict: not half bad. The "fingers" seemed larger than most, and the fact that they were made from fresh chicken left them juicier than expected. Also noteworthy: they have the old-style "crinkle cut" French fries. I'm sure I'll return, but have to wonder how well they'll do with such a limited menu. Reminds me of the original McDonald's, or White Castle, or In-N-Out Burger (all of whose menus experienced creeping featurism as the years passed).

Anyhoo, Turkey Day's coming soon, so I'll have to stop by the grocery and fetch some turkey hotdogs or turkey bologna, to get my dose of L-tryptophan. Cane's ain't got no turkey on the menu.

176 minutes late

(de-icers at ORD as seen from my seat on AA 2325)

Travel is glamorous.
Travel is glamorous.
Travel is glamorous.

If I repeat that to myself another 436 times, maybe I'll believe it.

The conference at the Q Center (about 45 minutes west of Chicago O'Hare Airport) ended at 10am yesterday, but I didn't get home until after 7pm. Even then, yesterday's travel could've been much worse.

When I boarded the bus, one of my colleagues said that some of the flights to Dallas had been canceled due to the high winds (25-40mph, with 50 mph gusts) .. great. So I quickly called the airline and they confirmed that mine had been canceled, but offered to put me on an earlier flight; I agreed. Once at the airport (after checking in and navigating security) I spotted 3 colleagues and grabbed a bite with them (Chili's Too). Three of us were en route Dallas, and one had to go through Austin* because all the Dallas flights were overbooked.

* Although his flight left Chicago on time, he was still in Austin waiting for a flight to Dallas, after we landed at DFW, nearly 3 hours late.

When it came time to board the flight, Brad-Bob and I wandered over to the monitors and saw our flight was now showing a 3-hour delay: splendid. So, we proceeded to try to find a WiFi hotspot and get some work done while we waited.

Although several networks appeared, only the SSID named [concourse] worked for me (banners confirmed that this was "official"). After too many (40?) minutes experimenting, I found a working signal next to gate H4 and was able to access email and a web browser (to keep an eye on my flight status). Maybe I should get a new WiFi detector which shows where the signal's originating. Mine can tell signal strength, but no more (even so, it was better than the guy walking around the K concourse with his laptop, searching for a usable signal). I've seen some detectors that claim to detect open WiFi networks, as well as cameras (which use a signal for their auto-focus).

Boingo AsYouGo is $7 at ORD (and Midway). It's cheaper ($5) at ATL and higher ($8) elsewhere. They also have a monthly plan ("Boingo Monthly Unlimited Subscription") for $22, but I'm not travelling enough to justify that.

I suspect the other SSIDs were there just to taunt me. Names like "Free WiFi" and "Public Access" were appealing, but I couldn't make a connection. There were also numerous other SSIDs being broadcast, which appeared to be individual laptops. Oh well .. there will be other flights, and more glamorous travel.

fish tacos

I finally got around to trying Taco del Mar in Addison (at the corner of Beltline and Quorum) and was pleasantly surprised with all the choices. I opted for a couple fish tacos with corn tortillas with shredded cabbage (think cole slaw) and pico de gallo. And oh yes, a side of black beans and rice. All for about $6. Verdict: yummm.

Since they are directly below Addison Improv, they have challenges with parking, especially on Friday and Saturday night. Fortunately, they have two reserved spaces that make it easy to slip in and out even when the nearby valets are charging $4 to put your car most anywhere - including violating the "no parking in fire lane". I guess the Addison Fire Department is just looking the other way.

the butt stops here

Yesterday, I spotted A Texas Idiot throwing a cigarette butt out his window. I guess it was too much trouble to put it in his SUV's ashtray. I made a note of the details, then went online today (Don't Mess with Texas) and reported him. It asked for:

1. time/date
2. location
3. license plate
4. vehicle make
5. what was tossed (cigarette butt/cup-can-bottle/fast food trash/other)
6. who tossed it (driver, passenger or truck bed)

According to the website, here's what happens next:

"When TxDOT receives the information it is compared to our vehicle registration database and an exact match is located. A letter is mailed to the litterer along with a Don't Mess with Texas litterbag to remind them to put their trash where it belongs!"

I'd be happier if TxDOT assigned them to a road crew - 4 hours for the first violation, and an additional 8 hours for every violation after that. Odds are they can't do that, since those who would abuse the system (think: disgruntled teenagers) could make innocent peoples' lives miserable.

I also heard that you can dial #SMOKE (#76653) from your wireless phone and report a polluting (oil smoke) vehicle. I'll have to add that to my cellphone directory and try it sometime.