Thinkcorps

Since we live near Forest Park here in Portland, we have a lot of ants (I think they’re water ants, but they could be sugar. I don’t really know the difference). Sometimes I think they’re more resident than we are. Now, Portland being what it is, there seems to be a dearth of your typical hyper-toxic pest sprays for sale, not that my girlfriend would really let me use that stuff anyway. Besides the fact that our main problem is around the kitchen counters—pretty much exactly where you don’t want to be spraying stuff.

I have tried just about every non-toxic solution offered, and most of them don’t really work all that well. The problem is that we have ants everywhere, so there’s really no telling where they’re going to show up next.

There are two strategies I found that do seem to work pretty well. First, a mixture of boric acid and sugar in water, poured on a cotton ball. I did this inside a small plastic cup (a spray can top where I cut down the edge to about a half inch) and placed it outside along an art path. It’s important to place it outside if you can, since it will attract a lot of ants. You don’t want to teach them to come inside. I covered this cup with an upside-down salsa container with areas cut from the lip to allow the ants in, but keep leaves and other stuff out.

The ants eat the poisoned sugar water and take it back to the nest, hopefully killing the queen. I don’t think I succeeded in killing the colony, but I sure slowed ‘em down for a while. I kept extra boric acid suare water in another container to refresh my little trap when it got dry.

The strategy I just put into place I think is going to work really well. I took a few tablespoons of petroleum jelly, scooped it into a ziploc bag, cut off the tiniest corner, and piped the jelly around the edges of my counter like icing. I piped along the inner underside of the counter and on the ege of the backsplash. I now have a thin almost invisible line of jelly around my entire counter. I also piped around the outlets, running my fingers around the edge to smooth out the jelly. The jelly is non-toxic and since it doesn’t dry out, the ants won’t cross the sticky stuff.

It’s only been a day, but I haven’t seen any ants on the counter, even though I’ve seen them wandering around underneath.

Portland, Oregon—home of the bike move. And yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like. This guy made an excellent movie of a recent cross-town bike move. Watch it here.

How can you not live this city?

I think it’s pretty clear that Steve Jobs wanted it to suck.

Everyone’s criticisms of the video aspects of the iPod are valid and all of them with the exception of battery life (which they’ll clearly improve over time) are most likely management decisions. Steve is clearly biding his time. He owns digital music right now, and the next logical step is video. If you look at what the company’s done in the last year or so, they’ve got their ducks so accurately in line, everyone else in the industry, including Microsoft and Tivo had better watch out.

See Steve knows that you have to combine a great device with great content. And there is no digital video available for legal download right now. Why? Because the studios are scared shitless. So what does Steve do? He compells them to take a baby step that in no way could possibly be threatening to them (320×240 is a ridiculous resolution, after all). And he adds them into the iTunes Store so he can arm himself with some sales data.

Eventually (meaning probably every day going forward), Apple is going to pitch these studios to death, and eventually pressure them into releasing more content and in higher-def. The video iPod is convenient for Steve, and I really don’t think he gives a shit about portable video. Most people commute to work. They’ll do podcasts, sure, but watch video? I doubt it’d really take hold in the kids market either, for cost and repetition reasons (kids watch the same title over and over). DVD has really got the kid’s market cornered for now.

See, Steve’s got everyone excited because he made a video iPod—except he really didn’t.

What he did was add a couple ducks to his media PC. Look at what Steve’s holding. He’s got a video-enabled iTunes Store; a Mac Mini perfect for home entertainment; a new remote; media center software in Front Row. Content? Check. Hardware? Check. Software? Check.

He’s ready. So what’s he waiting for? Well, the content, for one thing. Without enough popular content in the store, he doesn’t have a business model. And I think because of that, he’s probably content to wait for higher HDTV penetration, which you really really need to do anything with a media PC.

The best part? I’m excited to see what happens if Apple opens up the iTunes Store so anyone can add video content. That would be pretty amazing. Plus, maybe Steve will relent on the a la carte pricing and we’ll start to see all-you-can-eat subscription plans (non-portable video only, perhaps?).

This movie was way funnier than I expected. I don’t think you can really begin to understand it without first understanding the joke, which the reviews I originally read passed over. I guess revealing the joke is considered a spoiler, but in this case, it’s the way the joke is told that’s really the point. The joke itself isn’t even that funny—but get the right comedian to tell it and watch out.

Described in the film as the “perfect” joke, The Aristocrats (or Sophisticates) starts with a simple line, “A guy walks into a talent agent’s office”. He then describes his act, which is disgusting. The agent, taken aback, says, “What do you call it?” The guys says, “The Aristocrats!”

What’s brilliant about the joke is that the middle, the disgusting description of the act, is completely open-ended and has evolved within the culture of comedians into a contest of one-upsmanship, where comedians put their own stamp on the joke, trying to outdo one another.

Since the joke is such a reflection of the individual comedian, it’s also become a kind of barometer of comedy over the years and between the sexes. Female comedians tend to tell the joke very differently (and more creatively) than the men, who focus on the gross-out factor. Sara Silverman’s take took the form of a bizarre reminiscence/confessional and was hilarious.

Robin Williams did have one great quote about the vulgarity of the joke: “Vulgarity is a very comedian-centered thing. You don’t see a lot of physicists saying ‘It’s a muon, you cunt.’” Which made me think of the New Yorker cartoons, and I couldn’t help myself.

We are loving what I’ve dubbed the Africam. It’s a NatGeo webcam of a watering hole in Botswana.

Sometimes, the net can really open your eyes.

I think I’ve mentioned my frustration with HDTV in the past. It’s too confusing with all the jargon and whatnot. I don’t want another complicated computing device, I just want a TV that works. Unfortunately, right now that’s probably a PC —or an Xbox. But there’s a couple content-related sticking points that I think are interesting.

First are TV torrents . They’re usually recorded off HDTV and distributed as almost DVD-quality files only hours after the show airs. If you’re on the West Coast, you can actually get East Coast recordings before your local show airs (or finishes airing). Torrents go up fast and populate even faster. Better quality, no commercials, archivable and you only have to wait a few hours (maybe a day) longer.

Second—and this is the ironical part—are HD programs downsampled to be broadcast over regular TV. These shows suddenly look just like DVD content. Watch Monday Night Football, for example. Sure it looks fantastic on an HDTV, but it looks really good on regular TV too.

As network executives air more HD content, they’re going to push us consumers to buy new expensive HDTVs. But simultaneously, us average Joe’s are going to find that these HD shows on our aging analog TVs look better than ever. And we may find ourselves putting off that new TV purchase for a few months more, flirting with that HDTV switchover deadline.

So, the more digital and HD programs that are available, the more life you can expect to get from your old analog TV set.

I have to admit, I didn’t expect that at all.