The Richter Scale^®

Okay, so it’s really not that new - Amazon.com has been pushing A9 for a few months now, but I’ve been so happy with Google I’ve not felt a need to sniff around another search engine.

But then I started checking out web sites listed in an article in the April 2005 issue of entitled The Great Giveaway (subscription required) about how eBay, Amazon, and Google are letting companies use their data in remarkable new ways.

Well, A9 was one of the sites listed as using Google’s data, as well as that from Alexa Web Crawl, Guru.net, IMDB, and more, in order to to provide search resorts in a novel form.

In particular, there’s a neat feature where you can click on a Site Info button for a search result and get information about the popularity of the site, what other sites people have looked at when looking at that site, and the response time of the site (note that for lightly trafficked sites, this information is not available).

In parallel to text results, A9 also produces thumbnails of images related to the search term - that was a bit eerie though - I searched on my own name and found dozens of images of my art, a photo of me, some of my photography, and a photo of myself with my wife and our gallery partner Avy.

In any event, the result rankings are pretty good, and the additional site information might helpful in doing research on related topics - the images are an added bonus.

A9 is owned by Amazon.com, incidentally.

I give the A9 search engine a 9.0 out of 10.0 on The Richter Scale.

One of the things that all of the new game consoles I saw at E3 had in common were wireless controllers for game play.

Having had experience with far too many wireless control devices over the years (e.g. remote controls, cordless phones, and real wireless game controllers), and now witnessing the intersection of such devices with children, I am convinced there’s a feature missing from these controllers.

I should point out that in the last few months, the remote control for my large screen TV has been found in three different bathrooms in the house, three bedrooms, the kitchen, and on occasion in the living room where the TV is. All thanks to distracted children or adults who wander off with it.

The feature I speak of is the “controller finder” - a mechanism where you can tell the game console hardware to go and make each controller, or a specific controller, provide some sort of audible tone to help you locate it. Making the controller rumble isn’t loud enough however. It needs to be higher pitched and unique - perhaps even a different tone for each controller so you can distinguish each of the, for example, seven in the case of the PS3, wireless controllers from each other. Heck, maybe you could even use the new Microsoft Xbox Marketplace to sell controller “ring tones” so each player can customize their controller!

I smell a patent application here…

Back in our naive days before we discovered the island of Bonaire, my wife and I purchased a time share at the Plaza Las Glorias in Cozumel, Mexico. It wasn’t a bad deal - it included about 30 weeks of vacations there or in trade via RCI. We enjoyed our stays there the few times we went, but then got busy, and then discovered Bonaire. That’s when we started using our weeks via RCI.

The RCI vacation exchanges were great, and in fact, we enjoyed them enough to go and regularly prepay our maintenance fees for several years at a time to lock in the rates.

Well, earlier this year I get a letter from a company, Palace Resorts which claimed that it was the new owner of our time share, and I needed to pony up close to a thousand dollars in “extraordinary fees”, plus a doubling of our old maintenance fees, or they would unilaterally cancel our time share agreement. Basically, this was pure blackmail, at least as it was presented. I e-mailed the recommended contact about our prepaid maintenance fees and asking for verification of their ownership of our contract, and never got a response. Repeated that process a month later and still no response.

Since then I attempted to deposit the 2006 week I had already paid the maintenance fee for, only to get a letter today which said my deposit encountered problems and we should contact the resort. So I sent off another e-mail to try an establish contact.

We also started doing some research on this issue on the web and came across all sorts of interesting things. Maybe this will help others who are just now starting to look at this issue in detail.

First, there is a Yahoo! Group - Palace Resorts Predicament - where there are about 800 messages dealing with this mess (which applies to a number of former SunClub properties in Mexico).

Next, there’s the site of the Plaza Las Glorias Time Share Owners Association (PLG-TSOA) - but if you click on the Home link, you get a notice that the site owner, Jim Van Gorder, closed the site for legal reasons (which, according to a post on the Yahoo! group mentioned above) was a cease and desist letter from Palace Resorts’ lawyers. Not sure what Jim had on his site that raised their wrath, but I would love to have a copy. (The cached version of this site’s home page on Google is non-offensive, although there is mention of a discussion group, so that may have been what raised Palace Resort’s ire.)

I also found a summary of the Palace Resort blackmail at The Timeshare Beat which was pretty informative in a general way.

However, the most interesting site we stumbled across was the Palace Resorts spite site, which appears to do an excellent job describing the issues and the moral and business character of Palace Resorts, at least in my limited experience with their “responsiveness”. I’ve gone and grabbed a PDF copy of that entire site in case the Palace Resort lawyers intimidate the site owner into shutting down too.

Via the above sites we have learned that they have been offering “vacation certificates” to some people, but not others, but seeing as we can’t even get them to reply to our correspondence, I’m not sure what we’ll find out. At this point we are out at least one year’s maintenance fees - effectively stolen from us, so needless to say (but I’ll say it anyhow), we’re not impressed or thrilled by Palace Resorts.

In any event, considering their non-existant customer service (from my perspective anyhow), as well as the heaps of complaints about them on-line, I would strongly urge anyone looking to vacation in Mexico to steer well clear of Palace Resorts.

Palace Resorts gets a big fat raspberry and 0.0 out of 10.0 on The Richter Scale, the only goose egg I’ve ever awarded in my review and observation of things and places in this world.

I think I’ve gotten to the point where I want to step up to a digital SLR camera.

My conundrum is this - I have nearly a dozen lenses with a Nikon mount (mostly AF-D lenses) with a fair number of those being wide angle. Nikon doesn’t make a full frame sensor, which means my wide angle lenses (using the 1.5x multiplier for Nikon Digital SLR’s sensors) become non-wideangle.

So, if any of you are knowledgeable about Digital SLRs, here are my questions:

1) Does anyone make an optical converter from Nikon’s AF-D lenses to fill the frame of the new Nikon Digital SLRs?

2) Is there any reason to get a Nikon D100 over a D70? (I’m not ready to spend $5K on a Nikon D2x yet, but do like the 12MP resolution - the 6MP res of the Nikon SLRs seems a bit low, especially in contrast to my Sony F828’s 8MP)

3) Has anyone tried and gotten good results with a Canon full frame sensor and a Nikon->Canon mount converter?

4) Any idea if Nikon’s regular or Canon’s full frame sensors are better that one another, and if so, why?

5) What about Nikon vs. Canon digital SLR cameras in general? And if Canon is better, any model recommendations?

If anyone knows of another place where this all has been answered, please let me know!

When I was in Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago, I received a panic e-mail from Avy, one of my partners in the Cinnamon Art Gallery back on Bonaire - his power supply for his gargantuan Toshiba notebook had blown out and needed a replacement ASAP.

I contact Toshiba’s parts department, but they first did not have my billing zip code in their zip code database to take my order (the zip code was new about 4-5 years ago, but Toshiba had an older zip code database). Once they had worked around that, it turned out they don’t ship to hotels. Thirty minutes of aggravation for no result.

Because time was short until my departure back to Bonaire, I then searched on-line for a California based seller of such power supplies. I stumbled across one - L.A. Computer Center out of Inglewood, California - quite quickly. On CNET they seemed to have a pretty decent reputation, so I gave them a call (800-689-3933).

I ended up on the phone with Chad (x237), and he was great. He located the part I needed in Anaheim, so I agreed to ship the part UPS ground. He followed up with me by phone to indicate the order had gone through.

The next day, disaster struck - the part got shipped from the midwest, contrary to Chad’s request it be shipped from Anaheim, and there was no was it was going to make it to L.A. before I had to fly out.

I left a message for Chad about this, and within a couple of hours I received a call that the package had been upgraded to overnight service and I would have it the next day. Better yet, the next day I received it, along with another call from Chad to verify everything went okay.

With recent Internet shopping problems my wife and I had experienced with folks like Hallmark.com (they shipped a Mother’s Day present the Monday after Mother’s Day even though express shipping was paid for and they guaranteed it would arrive in time, and then had incredibly lousy service on top of all that - 2.0 out of 10.0 on The Richter Scale, and only because they did finally deliver) and Drugstore.com (they shipped a prescription via U.S. mail instead of the paid-for 2-day service, but at least they had better service - 4.5 out of 10.0 on The Richter Scale), dealing with Chad and LACC was great.

Sure, the order got screwed up, but Chad was extremely responsive, took responsibility, and remedied the problem - and all this for an $80 part.

L.A. Computer Center gets an 8.5 out of 10 on The Richter Scale. And if you order from them, make sure to ask for Chad - 800-689-3933 x237.

If you follow patent law at all you’re likely aware that Congress is looking to meddle with patent law and practices once again, theoretically to streamline the patent system and make it more “fair”. However, it’s not entirely clear how the proposed changes, which include reducing the ability to force injunctions upon infringers, stricter rules for determining willful infringement, changing to a first inventor to file precedence, and several more major modifications, will be more fair across the board.

Dennis Crouch, in his Patently-O: Patent Law Blog, yesterday summarized the three coalitions he sees supporting changes (or the lack thereof) in patent reform.

These three were large high-tech companies, other large patent holders like Big Pharma, and small inventors/start-ups. He had several comments from others, including some bloggers on his post, which Crouch summarized in another blog entry.

Some of the comments indicate that small inventors would be fine with the proposed patent reform if they simply understood it, but I question that. And this morning, I stumbled across the April 28th testimony of Nathan P. Myhrvold, CEO of Intellectual Ventures, which I think does a good job of explaining things from the perspective of a small inventor, in particular why injunctive relief should not be reduced, how defining a component for export to exclude software is unreasonable, and how the currently proposed reforms would actually increase the complexity and cost of patent litigation.

Mind you, Myhrvold was and is a wunderkind - entering college at 14, and graduating with a doctorate at age 23. Never mind he was the CTO of Microsoft at one point, and now runs a company which is snapping up patents left and right to build an unprecedented portfolio, presumably to license to those making inventions which infringe on that IP. No doubt his current business interest has some bearing on his stated position, but that makes him no different than Microsoft and Intel, for example, which are apparently in full support of any patent reform which might help them avoid liability and damages. From a business perspective, supporting such reform is only good business sense for large companies which frequently find themselves at the defendant’s end of patent litigation.

Stephen Nipper makes this same argument in The Invent Blog today, where he looks at patent reform from the perspective of small inventors.

One issue that seems to be rarely addressed, except by outspoken PTO critics like Greg Aharonian is patent quality. But this is something that Myhrvold does address, albeit in more calm and reasoned measures - he expressly makes the point that what the patent reform on the table does NOT do is improve patent quality, and in fact, due to greater strain on current resources, could even reduce patent quality. And what a tragedy that would be.

Links to various other positions on Patent Reform:

- NAPP (National Association of Patent Practitioners) Position
- IPO (Intellectual Property Owners Assocation) patent reform page
- Microsoft’s Call For Patent Reform

Wandering the depths of Kentia Hall at E3 last week, I came across a variety of odd products. Perhaps the most amusing while at the same time disturbing was Rude Tonz.

Rude Tonz are downloadable ring tones for one’s mobile phone. We’re all used to being serenaded by obnoxious melodies, alarms, whistles, vocals, and more when a nearby phone rings, but Rude Tonz escalate that to a whole new level.

The makers of Rude Tonz, Bonus Mobile, have come up with a descriptive tag line: “Ringtones Guaranteed to Offend” Living up to such a high standard, Rude Tonz consist of burps, fats, laughs, sneezes, gagging, and comic routines “from a wide range of stand-up comedy acts featured on the Comedy Time network”.

Looking at their web site, where you can sample these auditory delights, are ring tone names like “Dirty Fart”, “Gagging”, “Deep Burp”, and dozens more like these.

As a person who almost always keeps his phone on silent/vibrate mode, I don’t quite get the statement that folks seem to want to make with personalized ring tones. Unlike when a cell phone rings somewhere in a room or restaurant and a dozen people nearby clutch their cell phones to see if it was theirs (even if they personalized the ring, since one apparently nevers knows if the phone’s reverted back to its original ring I guess), I know when my phone rings because it can feel it on waist - or if I miss the call, at least I’m not bothering others with a song no one wants to hear.

That said, it might be fun to abscond with someone’s phone, download a Rude Tonz ring tone onto it, and return the phone without the owner knowing, and then calling them… Of course, this would only work once or twice (and cost the owner of the phone or you $1.99 for the pleasure of embarrassing them).

I’ve been on a low-carb diet now for three months, and the results are good. I’ve lost about 30 pounds, generally have quite a bit more energy, and am not having troublesome food cravings as I have had on other diets.

That’s not to say I don’t occasionally crave something sweet - I do, but there are lots of decent low carb options out there now.

Among them are peanut butter cups.

I’ve tried two different brands of peanut butter cups, with mixed results.

The brand leader in chocolate covered peanut butter cups is undoubtedly Reese’s (a division of Hershey). Their full carb peanut butter cups are great.

Not so the Reese’s 1 Gram Sugar Carb Peanut Butter Cups, which come two to a package and claim to have one gram of “sugar carbs”. (In the Atkin’s low carbohydrate diet, during the initial 2 week induction phase you should limit your carb intake to no more than 20 grams per day, and can scale up slowly from there).

I tried these both at room temperature and out of the fridge, and politely stated, they are gross. While the chocolate coating is just okay, the peanut butter filling is bland and has a disgustingly mealy texture. About the only thing with a worse mealy texture I have experienced is “uni” (raw sea urchin) or maybe an overdry nectarine.

Brand visibility only goes so far, and with this product, Reese’s has utterly failed in producing a palatable product.

I give Reese’s 1 Gram Sugar Carb Peanut Butter Cups a pitiful 1.0 out of 10.0 on The Richter Scale.

The other product I tried was from Atkins Nutrionals - the Atkins Endulge Peanut Butter Cups. These come three to a package (same weight for three as for two of the Reese’s cups - 1.2 ounces or 34 grams), and claim 2 grams of carbs for all three pieces total, double the number of carbs of the Reese’s product, but still very low.

These peanut butter cups are an amazing contrast from Reese’s. The peanut butter has flavor, and texture-wise, it feels a lot closer to a full carb peanut butter cup. The chocolate coating also tastes and melts like chocolate. While it’s still a far cry from real peanut butter, it’s still a pretty decent substitute.

You can get 5-packs of the Atkins Endulge Peanut Butter Cups for around $6.00 at CVS. I’ve got a fridge full of them for after dinner treats.

I rate the Atkins Endulge Peanut Butter Cups a respectable 7.0 out of 10.0 on The Richter Scale.

eBay has been interesting to explore this week as all sorts of goodies from
E3 are finding their way on-line.

E3 Show Directories and Show Daily publications are selling for $3.99 and up.

Paper bags, available at the LA Convention Center by the thousands are being offered for as little as 99 cents apiece. Xbox water bottles and buttons are going for a similar amount.

But what has really taken eBay by storm are the so-called Limited Edition Xbox 360 Face Plates. There are dozens of these being offered, and almost all have bids on them starting around $100 and going on up to well over $200.

This is what these face plates look like:

Part of the Xbox 360 design is the ability to customize the look of the box, and that’s done by replacing the face plates. To commemorate the press launch of the Xbox 360 this past Monday, Microsoft created a limited edition, 5000 piece, numbered, E3’05 face plate for the Xbox 360. Everyone who attended the press briefing on Monday the 16th of May, got a little
card which could be exchanged for a face plate upon exit. Extra cards were available to those who lost theirs.

I ultimately ended up with three of the face plates (and no, I have no intention of selling them), as a result of friends who didn’t care for theirs. But here’s the point - there are apparently quite a number of enterprising media event attendees who are looking to profit directly from their participation in the Xbox 360 launch by selling their free swag to the
highest bidder. I can only hope that none of the people doing the selling are members of the press, although based on what I saw during the week of media attendees, I have my doubts…

At the current valuations per eBay bids (and I assume they will go way up in value once the Xbox 360 ships), these face plates, the whole load of 5000 of them, could be worth at a half a million dollars or more on the open market. That’s staggering, especially for something that’s just so much vapor at the moment. On the flip side, limited editions are meant to
be special and collectible. It’s just that I would rather at least see some charity at least partially benefit from the desire of people to spend money on these face plates than seeing individuals lining just their pockets.

After the Nintendo Media Briefing last Tuesday, held above the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland, a trendy open-air mall with a great view of the HOLLYWOOD sign in the hills, I found myself rather hungry.

As I am low-carbing it, my options are occasionally limited, with sashimi (that’s sushi without the rice) usually a pretty safe bet.

So I wander into this place several floors up called Koji’s Japan, where the words Sushi and Shabu Shabu are boldly displayed next to the restaurant name.

Most folks know what Sushi is (although on Bonaire, where I live, that word, and a variant, “Shushi”, means trash, of all things), but Shabu Shabu, and its cousin, Sukiyaki, is less well known.

Modern Shabu Shabu involves boiling a meal in a pan of water, and then eating the cooked food dipped in sauce, with rice. The last time I had Shabu Shabu, it was a rather elaborate set-up for two, at the Osaka Tea Garden in Nashua, New Hampshire, about a decade ago. My wife and I greatly enjoyed it, so I was thrilled to see that Koji’s was set up for individual-size Shabu Shabu.

As you can see in the above pictures, Koji’s Shabu Shabu includes the pot of boiling water, a platter with meats (that’s that part you order), a platter of vegetables to add to the meat, two dipping sauces (a sesame based one and a soy/vinegar based one), and some additional sauce condiments (scallions, fresh minced garlic, and minced daikon radish for texture).

They also provide a bowl of edamame (boiled and salted soy bean pods) which you can eat whenever - you pop the soy beans out of the pod (the pod is too chewy to eat).

When the water starts boiling you add things to the pot, let them cook, then take them out, dip them in sauce, and eat them (I skipped the rice because it is decidedly carb laden).

I ordered the mixed meat and seafood Shabu-Shabu, with came with premium beef, chicken, salmon, and tiger shrimp.

All the meat and seafood was very fresh, as were the vegetables.

Made for a great meal. And with the hamachi (yellowtail) sashimi appetizer I had, it made for a most excellent lunch. The service was excellent too, and the prices were very reasonable - $39.00 for everything including a nice tip and some green tea.

I give Koji’s Japan at Hollywood & Highland a stunning 9.5 out of 10.0 on The Richter Scale (note that I have never given a 10.0, since that implies perfection, and I doubt there is such a thing).