SCN http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/ en-us Copyright 2008 Fri, 06 Jul 2007 11:29:04 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification Virgin Mobile kicked me in the ass on my way out the door I've always been really happy with Virgin Mobile's cool pre-paid cell service, but check this out: if you transfer your number (like I did, so I could switch to iPhone), they steal the money left on the account! You can't transfer it to anyone or get it refunded or anything. WTF! I could have at least made expensive international calls to burn up the remaining balance, had I known. Bad form, guys. Show some respect for your customers' dollars. http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2007/07/virgin-mobile-kicked-me-in-the.html http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2007/07/virgin-mobile-kicked-me-in-the.html Fri, 06 Jul 2007 11:29:04 -0800 Is Portland MetroFi broken? doesn't work indoors. Today, I thought I'd get some work done in the park, and situated myself at the park bench in the northeast corner of Colonel Summers Park. The intersection there, 20th & Belmont, has a wifi node. My laptop sees it, and tries to log on, but it fails. So I gave up and went home. Is anyone having a better experience with this service than I am? I would be curious to hear.]]> http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2007/06/is-portland-metrofi-broken.html http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2007/06/is-portland-metrofi-broken.html Mon, 04 Jun 2007 18:07:00 -0800 Is it time yet Coors' new bottle has graphics (the mountains) that turn from white to blue when it's cold. I find this to be a cute but useless innovation. http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2007/05/is-it-time-yet.html http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2007/05/is-it-time-yet.html Thu, 10 May 2007 10:41:59 -0800 Zypsy is all about shopping. I decided to test Zypsy ("We search the web for you when you are away from the computer") and have them search the web for 2006 election results. I asked them, "In the 2006 election, what percentage of the vote did Democrat Ted Kulongoski receive in the election for Governor of Oregon?" An hour passed. Then my phone buzzed. The text message read: "698,562; 50.8%. In future, please use our service for shopping questions. thanks." I'm not sure I can find a way to pose every question as shopping-related. Is there an alternative? Who else will search the web for me when I am away from the computer? http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2007/04/zypsy-is-all-about-shopping.html http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2007/04/zypsy-is-all-about-shopping.html Mon, 23 Apr 2007 15:18:33 -0800 Your voice is powerful.
  • Send an email or text message.
  • Do research.
  • Get free 411.
    • Jott: You call 877-568-8486 and leave a message. It is transcribed and sent to the person of your choice. I think the transcription happens in India. Sometimes the transcriptions are a little shaky. It's a good idea to speak slowly and clearly, and spell names. To get started, go the site, create an account, and upload contact info for the people you might want to Jott. After that, it's all from your phone. Free. Zypsy: You call 650-669-2229, and leave a voice mail, asking a question. Zypsy's wordy but descriptive tag line is, "We search the web for you when you are away from the computer." So, ask them the kind of question that can be answered on the web. Five or ten minutes later, you receive a text message with their response. No setup required. Free. 1-800-GOOG-411: You call and say what business or type of business you're searching for. Google searches for your answer, and will directly connect you for free, or text you the info. No setup required. Free. I feel like I've only barely scratched the surface in using these. Especially Zypsy. It has the potential to be useful in such a huge range of situations. Anyone got good ideas of how to put these to use?]]>     http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2007/04/your-voice-is-powerful.html http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2007/04/your-voice-is-powerful.html Sun, 22 Apr 2007 12:06:39 -0800     Atheists are very unpopular. poll asking Americans the following question: If your party nominated a generally well-qualified candidate for President who was _____, would you vote for that person? Catholic? Sure. 95% yes. Black? Not a problem -- 94%. A woman? 88%, a number high enough to keep us from despairing too deeply about the possibility of a Clinton nomination. Even being Mormon, like Republican hopeful Mitt Romney, doesn't disqualify you from the job, as 72% of respondents said they'd give a Mormon their vote. Here, it starts to get interesting. Rudy Giuliani, current Republican frontrunner for the nomination, has been married 3 times. But only 67% said they'd vote for someone on their 3rd marriage. John McCain, the other Republican frontrunner, was born in 1936. He'd be 72 years old at inauguration if he were to win. But being 72 years old was a barrier to all but 57% of respondents. To me, that's a shocking number, and it says a lot about how Democrats should talk about these guys. And if you're homosexual, the nation is not ready for you to be President yet. You only get 55% yes in this poll. And atheists, apparently, are even more hated than gays, which blows my mind. An atheist gets 45%. Only 45% of people would vote for a well-qualified atheist that earned their party's nomination. I know that my liberal Portland enclave, plenty of people would vote for an atheist, and maybe that skews my perception. But what, in Americans' minds is the connection between God and President, exactly? Is God on "our side"? Would he turn against us, strike us down, if we entrusted our nation to a heathen? I guess we won't find out for quite a few years.]]> http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2007/02/atheists-are-very-unpopular.html http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2007/02/atheists-are-very-unpopular.html Sun, 18 Feb 2007 15:42:10 -0800 We're warming the world. This is a letter I wrote to the President of the United States of America last week. -- From: joshb@well.com Subject: We're warming the world. Date: February 2, 2007 12:41:34 AM PST To: president@whitehouse.gov Do you believe this yet? Your last two opponents, Vice President Gore and Senator Kerry, they both would have committed enormous national resources to alternative energy research. You had that chance. You could have been a visionary. It's one of your goals, isn't it? To demonstrate that you're not just "one of the guys," you're a leader who truly knows what's best for America. Really, even if Iraq had gone perfectly, and the peaceniks would be forced to eat their hats, would it have been truly visionary policy? Freeing the oppressed people of an Arab nation would have been impressive, sure, but not world-changing. Figuring out how to keep the American economic engine running without filling the atmosphere with greenhouse gases? That would have been visionary. Even starting us down that road would prove you understood the capacity of America's leadership. Instead, you've shown us you can barely see to the end of your nose, much less 10, 20, 50 years into the future. Fifty years into the future? It's going to be warm. Please help. You can have a greater impact on this impending global catastrophe than any other man on the planet. Josh Berezin Portland, OR http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2007/02/were-warming-the-world.html http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2007/02/were-warming-the-world.html Tue, 06 Feb 2007 20:36:39 -0800 Distributed Search Party Amazon has acquired satellite images of the ocean in the area around his last known location. They look like this: clouds.jpg You can help look for him. Maybe we can find him. I don't know the guy, but I like to think he would do the same for me. Update 2/6: During the last 5 days, Mechanical Turk workers looked at more than 560,000 images from 3 satellites, covering nearly 3,500 square miles of ocean. A group of experts is currently reviewing the images that workers identified, and sending their results to the appropriate authorities. More information about the search is available at: http://helpfindjim.com]]> http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2007/02/distributed-search-party.html http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2007/02/distributed-search-party.html Mon, 05 Feb 2007 12:02:15 -0800 Googlebomb the Election this post into a blog entry. Read more about this project here. --AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl
    --AZ-01: Rick Renzi
    --AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth
    --CA-04: John Doolittle
    --CA-11: Richard Pombo
    --CA-50: Brian Bilbray
    --CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave
    --CO-05: Doug Lamborn
    --CO-07: Rick O'Donnell
    --CT-04: Christopher Shays
    --FL-13: Vernon Buchanan
    --FL-16: Joe Negron
    --FL-22: Clay Shaw
    --ID-01: Bill Sali
    --IL-06: Peter Roskam
    --IL-10: Mark Kirk
    --IL-14: Dennis Hastert
    --IN-02: Chris Chocola
    --IN-08: John Hostettler
    --IA-01: Mike Whalen
    --KS-02: Jim Ryun
    --KY-03: Anne Northup
    --KY-04: Geoff Davis
    --MD-Sen: Michael Steele
    --MN-01: Gil Gutknecht
    --MN-06: Michele Bachmann
    --MO-Sen: Jim Talent
    --MT-Sen: Conrad Burns
    --NV-03: Jon Porter
    --NH-02: Charlie Bass
    --NJ-07: Mike Ferguson
    --NM-01: Heather Wilson
    --NY-03: Peter King
    --NY-20: John Sweeney
    --NY-26: Tom Reynolds
    --NY-29: Randy Kuhl
    --NC-08: Robin Hayes
    --NC-11: Charles Taylor
    --OH-01: Steve Chabot
    --OH-02: Jean Schmidt
    --OH-15: Deborah Pryce
    --OH-18: Joy Padgett
    --PA-04: Melissa Hart
    --PA-07: Curt Weldon
    --PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick
    --PA-10: Don Sherwood
    --RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee
    --TN-Sen: Bob Corker
    --VA-Sen: George Allen
    --VA-10: Frank Wolf
    --WA-Sen: Mike McGavick
    --WA-08: Dave Reichert

    ]]>     http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2006/10/googlebomb-the-election.html http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2006/10/googlebomb-the-election.html Tue, 24 Oct 2006 12:20:47 -0800     Revelations on the Tyranny of the Annoying essay he's currently in the midst of writing, perfectly identified the phenomenon that drives the leadership of small-time local political groups. He calls it "the Tyranny of the Annoying," and while he thinks it can be overthrown by internet organizing, I am skeptical.
    [T]he new patterns of grassroots organizing that have emerged over the last several years have overthrown the "Tyranny of the Annoying" that's reigned over local politics since perhaps the beginning of time. (Unfortunately there are no signs of weakness of said tyranny at the national level.) The Tyranny of the Annoying stems from the fact that, except in times of extreme crisis, it is just not worth it for mature, serious people to put up with all the indignities that go along with taking and maintaining leadership of any political entity. This principle guarantees that every Elks Club, Union Local, DAR Chapter or Democratic town committee will tend toward being controlled by annoying people -- they are the ones with egos desperate to be fed by winning petty little power plays and plenty of time on their hands to play them.
    Brilliant observation!]]>     http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2006/08/revelations-on-the-tyranny-of.html http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2006/08/revelations-on-the-tyranny-of.html Wed, 23 Aug 2006 16:06:45 -0800     WTF year are we in! jesus christ the itunes top ten has pearl jam, goo goo dolls, and jewel in it??!?? AM I RIGHT?! hell]]> http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2006/05/wtf-year-are-we-in.html http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2006/05/wtf-year-are-we-in.html Tue, 02 May 2006 16:07:05 -0800 Happy Birthday Greetings from the NBA NBA gave me some love on my birthday! via email:
    Happy Birthday Josh! May all your wishes and hoop dreams come true. To help you celebrate, click below to get a special video birthday greeting from your favorite NBA stars and a coupon code for you to save 10% on any order of $75 or more from NBAStore.com in February.
    Totally awesome! The video birthday gretting didn't work, but I did learn that Andrei Kirilenko, Alonzo Mourning, and Steve Nash all have birthdays in February, too.]]>     http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2006/02/happy-birthday-greetings-from.html http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2006/02/happy-birthday-greetings-from.html Mon, 27 Feb 2006 17:58:07 -0800     Republicans are funny sometimes Myrick Letter Yeah! Everyone's getting into the game! Let's all pile on Bush!]]> http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2006/02/republicans-are-funny-sometime.html http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2006/02/republicans-are-funny-sometime.html Wed, 22 Feb 2006 11:01:02 -0800 The return of UrHo This is a test. This is only a test. If this test is successful, it will soon be followed by Actual Blog Entries on Urban Honking Dot Com. http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2006/02/the-return-of-urho.html http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2006/02/the-return-of-urho.html Tue, 14 Feb 2006 08:51:37 -0800 Robot Coach Visual i|o has created a decision-making application designed to answer the question on baseball coach's minds: Should I pull the pitcher? As you set up the game situation (runners on base, strikes and balls, innings pitched, pitcher confidence, et cetera), the application fills up pieces of a pie chart. The fuller the pie, the better idea it is to put in a reliever. It looks very whiz-bang, as you can see. Is it actually useful? That remains to be seen. It could be all Minority-Report-style smoke and mirrors. Nevertheless, I want one. For all my decisions. "Should I take out the garbage?" with parameters for how full it is, the weather outside, if anything smelly is in it, my current girlfriend favorability rating...]]> http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2006/01/robot-coach.html http://www.urbanhonking.com/scn/2006/01/robot-coach.html Thu, 19 Jan 2006 13:47:04 -0800