All The News Thats Fit But Skipped
Google earth has taken an image from Nasa and put it into google earth format so you can view it inside the application. This image pretty much describes why the sky has been orange for the last month or so.
Here is a great page from Nasa that has a compilation of photos of the 2007 fires from space:
The Dollar Tree really sucks. The old saying “you get what you pay for” really applies even more so here than anywhere else. I’m not going to go into a huge rant here because Im sure everyone already knows that shopping at this store for anything other than coat hangers (and even those are crappy) is a waste of a dollar. At first you walk in the store and you think 
“Wow! How can they afford to sell all this great stuff for only a dollar?” But then you start to realize that the stuff that is on sale is not the same stuff that you buy in other stores but cheaper, its actually not the same stuff at all. In fact, the merchandise at the Dollar Tree is purposely deceiving - it is made to look like popular brands that are sold in other stores. In fact the merchandise is almost exclusively made in Vietnam, and is of extremely poor quality.
As a poor college students that happens to live right across the street from the local Dollar Tree, I have been seduced into buying several products from the place. Here are a few of my real experiences:
First of all, NEVER buy food products from the Dollar Tree. Although it may look safe, you really don’t know whats in that stuff. Its my personal experience that any kind of chocolate purchased is at least 50% wax. My roomate and I once bought a bag of 100 individually wrapped bubble gums for $1. 1 cent bubble gum? Unheard of since my grandfather’s day. Well we quickly found out after reading the ingredient list that one of the chemicals used was banned in several countries including Japan and Sweden. I can’t recall the exact name of the substance right now, but if I remember I will post. All food products in the Dollar Tree are so heavily preserved I dont think they even have expiration dates, and if they do, I doubt they are ever checked.
I bought some razors. When I tried shaving with them, it hurt a lot and left a big read streak on my face. I opted instead for a rusty used Gillete that had been sitting in my toiletry kit for months instead because it was more comfortable.
My girlfriend picked up some mouthwash once. It looked almost exactly like Listerine, except it was called Listerclean or some shit. I tried it and it was tasted like sugar water. There was absolutely no alcohol in it. In fact, I wouldnt be surprised if it did more harm to my teeth than good.
Think my ideas on the dollar tree are unfair and unfounded? A quick google search comes up with loads of stories that condemn the Dollar Tree of its crappiness:
Glue Guns Recalled by Dollar Tree Stores Due to Fire, Burn and Shock Hazards
Incidents/Injuries: Dollar Tree is aware of seven incidents in which these glue guns short circuited resulting in two injuries, including electrical shock and burns.
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml08/08175.html
I guess thats one way to make arts and crafts a little exciting.
Dollar Tree Plush Insect Toys Recalled
Dollar Tree is recalling about 300,000 plush insect toys.They contain small parts, posing a choking hazard to small children.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/recalls04/2008/dollartree_insect.html
Choking hazard to children? Thats too far.
“…Consumer Reports’ Shop Smart magazine found that certain brands of multivitamins it tested didn’t contain nutrients listed on the label.”
False information is ok if it only costs $1 right???
Dollar Tree to remove toys with magnets from stores
“…rare-earth magnets — which are made of strong natural materials, as a “banned hazardous product” when used in children’s toys.”
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-thu_magnet_0816aug16,0,1950083.story
Looks like Dollar Tree really has it out for the kids.
Colgate finds fake (poisonous) toothpaste in 4 states.
“Colgate said the fake toothpaste may contain diethylene glycol, which the company never uses in its toothpaste… The fake toothpaste has been found in discount stores in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland, the company said.” “The chemical, also known as DEG and sometimes illegally used as an inexpensive sweetener and thickening agent, is commonly found in solvents and antifreeze.”
http://money.cnn.com/2007/06/14/news/companies/colgate_poison/index.htm?postversion=2007061407
Greeeaattt.
Dollar Tree Jewelry Recalled for Lead Poisoning Hazard
“The recalled jewelry contains high levels of lead, posing a serious risk of lead poisoning and adverse health effects to young children.”
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/recalls04/2006/dollar_tree_jewelry.html
Maybe its better to keep your kids out of the Dollar Tree period.
If you think your health and well being is worth more than a dollar, don’t shop at the dollar tree. If you love buying crap you dont need just because its cheap, go right ahead.
This has been floating around the web for years. I brought it up in #linuxcult, and to my surprise, some people have never heard of it. Props to anyone whop can watch the whole thing.
If the above link does not work for you,
1) press windows key + r
2) type “cmd.exe”
3) in the terminal, type “telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl”
4) enjoy
El Granada, California always had the best mix of suburban housing mixed in with empty lots and huge groves of Eucalyptus trees. This created a great enviroment for kids to built tree houses, forts and neighborhood jumps. The town is much more devleloped now, so most of the places I remember from my youth have become new houses. Other tree forts and jumps have been destroyed purposedly in this new age of liability. However, a few of these old masterpieces survive, and a couple are still built and manage to stay alive for a while before being torn down by scared property owners and uptight dog walkers. Here are two I viseted today:
A smaller, closer to the ground fort with the big one just visible in the background.
The big house up in the trees.
Climbing Up. Much higher than it appears in the picture.
View from inside.
Ground fort, view from above. It has a rain cover and camo.
Nice place to chill.
One of the exits/entrances to the ground fort.
Just like any other good nerd, I started on a new project a few days ago. I wanted to put an old computer in with the house’s stereo equipment to act as a jukebox. I’ve mentioned the idea before in an earlier post. Now I actually wanted to put it to practice. I set up all the software easy enough - I installed Linux, MPD plus a webclient and a samba share. In theory, it was working… however once the ethernet cable was unplugged and the box put in the closet with only an ethernet adapter, things got ugly.
I plugged in the power and booted up the computer. To my dismay, the box did not pick up any wifi signal. Not even a trace. The computer was sitting in a complete dead zone. To be honest, I was not surprised. The signal had to travel up a floor, to the opposite side of the house, through a kitchen. Kitchens are notoriously bad for wifi, all the equipment tends to block the RF waves.
So I did some research on the net. What could I do to increase my routers power and thus give life to my new jukebox? Thats when this link, like an angel out of heaven, found its way to my eyes.
The EZ 12 from freeantennas.com
Its a template for a parabola you can attach to your wireless rotuer’s antennas. All you have to do is cut out the template, resize it to your liking, glue on some tinfoil and attach it. I made one for each antenna and it only took me about 10 minutes.
The thing worked much better than I would have ever thought! All of a sudden my jukebox could pick up signal, not that great, but better than nothing. I also noticed that the signal strength in my room with my laptop went from 80% to 95% +.
My D-Link router with the windsurfers attached.
The windsurfers work by focusing all of the RF waves in one direction, instead of all directions like the antennas without them. If you are anywhere in front of the direction of the router, you will see a significant increase in signal. From behind, not so much.
The directions on the site say that you need to use thick paper, but I found that regular printer paper works just fine. After you insert the tabs into the reflector, just bend the tabs up and use a piece of scotch tape to hold them there.
Bigger is better, so I edited the image to a size thats big enough to just barely fit on a piece of printer paper:
The Windsurfer Template (click for fullsize)
Enjoy the increased signal! I know I am.
People Are Saying: