Youllbehappy

Screaming.  Meanness.  I don't like either of these things.  So it's a tad poetic that the solution to a now year+ old problem would be something called the Screaming Meanie. 

After over a year of complete inability to wake up unless physically shaken by someone (and even then—and I'm not joking—it got to the point where I had to pre-authorize the use of ice-water dousing as a threat … and in many cases, actual device … for getting me out of bed once semi-lucid), despite trying what I thought was everything (a VERY LOUD alarm clock, as advertised, and as experienced by me while awake), a computer-based alarm that would play a sound file I had recorded saying "WAKE UP, GET OUT OF BED NOW. YOU NEED TO WAKE UP, GET OUT OF BED …" peppered with sounds from the "Annoying Ringtones" and also "Alarms" sections of Ringtone Feeder (I had one with a little girl saying "Wake up.  If you don't wake up right now I'm going to scream. One, two, three, [little girl screaming]".  None of this worked.  Recently I was facing a period of time when I would not have anyone around to physically wake me (no, wake-up call services, even when set to ring several phones, even when those phones are right by the bed, didn't work), so I set out to find something to save me from days of waking up at some variable time between 2 and 6PM. 

Luckily, I found the Screaming Meanie 220.  (And I'm glad I got the 220, which stands for 220dB, the loudest setting on the clock. The 220 model allows you to select between low, medium, and loud, with loud being 220dB, and medium being 110dB, with 110dB being the maximum setting of the "standard" Screaming Meanie.  More on why I'm glad I got the 220 in a moment).  

It worked!

With one hitch:  when I had it next to my bed, I heard it, clumsily turned it off without opening my eyes, and fell back asleep.  I was now concerned:  If I moved it away from me, so that I'd have to get out of bed to turn it off, would it still be loud enough to wake me? Yes! Yes it was. Even this morning, when I had fallen asleep with closed-end headphones on; the alarm was audible through the headphones and woke me up.  Quite a miracle.  I'm not sure if my cohabitants enjoy the shrill 220dB alarm, so maybe this will be reserved for special occasions.  

I'm particularly glad that even though I was initially on the fence, I went for the 220 instead of the 110, because testing the alarm on 110dB mode proved that it was not loud enough for me.

Maybe, even if you're usually ok but sometimes sleep through the alarm, the $35 the alarm costs would be worth it. Even if only for the peace of mind that comes with knowing that you'll be awake when you need to be, if there's something important to be awake for. :D  

I am not fond of hippies, long-hairs, dopie fiends or alcoholics.  I suggest each and every person in a supervisory category (from driller up to me) eliminate these people.

Not sure I've ever seen "long-hairs" used non-sarcastically before, but there you go.  From the many, hilarious, "Texas Oil Memos", courtesy of the wonderfully horrible boss Mr. — excuse me, OWNER — Edward Mike Davis. 

The first one's free.  The rest are over at Letters of Note. (found at BoingBoing via Fever [which will also make you happy]).

There's Gdgt for gadgets, Google stalking for general information, but where are your stalkers to go if they want to know what books you like, what topics you ponder, and (ahem) what site you might spend too much time using to tell people what books you like and what topics you ponder?  As I found out recently, it's GetGlue (that link will take you to my profile).  You can integrate your profile with Twitter and Facebook (though I found out the hard way that if you're not careful, you can tweet some seemingly random stuff, way too frequently); there's a "sticker" / badge reward system to keep you coming back for your pats on the back, and a "Guru" feature that leaves you clamoring to be the annointed expert on your area of choice (or sometimes, not your area of choice.  I found out that since I was the first person to write a more-than-a-few-sentences review of the Long Trail in Vermont, GetGlue automatically made me the Guru, even though I hadn't asked.  With the topic of Monopoly Pricing, a simple one-sentence post on the topic was enough to qualify me as a Guru.  I can assure you I'm a guru on neither of these topics).  

In addition to the badge/sticker system, this GetGlue shares even more with Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt Star:  you can "check in" to tell people that you're reading a particular book, watching a TV show, pondering a topic, watching a movie, etc.  In the vein of Gdgt, there's also a big component where you tell GetGlue what you do or don't like in a particular subject area (for instance, "Topics / Web Apps").  And in addition to "liking" and "disliking" things like TV shows, you can vote on the usefulness of other users' reviews or comments.

One interesting hitch to the auto-Guru feature is that it will only make you a Guru when you "like" a particular item.  I "disliked" Google Checkout, wrote a lengthy, fact-based review and history of the service, and then asked Glue to put me up for a manual vote of users to appoint me as a Guru.  Then on a lark, sensing it might work, I changed my "dislike" to "like," and bingo: I was the new Guru.

I found GetGlue through the iPhone app, but the web platform is much more robust and gives you a lot more flexibility.

A cute feature is that once you've accumulated 7 stickers, you can order meatspace stickers to be sent to you via mail.  I did so.  And in the process, gave them my address.  And they have a ton of my personal taste info.  A marketer's dream.  They *did* promise to only use my address to send me the stickers, and I put an identifying variable in the address I provided them, so it'll be very clear if I ever receive mail as a result of having given them my info.

GetGlue is fun.  The Suggestion engine, which attempts to tell you what you might like based on what you've already told it, doesn't work very well, and is lightyears from Netflixs', for example.  And since there's such a broad array of topics, and since users easily wander from one area to another, rating items, you don't get the "expertise" that you do on a more focused site like Gdgt.  But, GetGlue is fun.  And that might be enough to keep it churning for quite some time.

My GetGlue home screen:

I took a course in college on Microfinance (the practice of giving relatively--in the terms of the lender--small loans to poverty-stricken people, with the understanding that the money will be used directly to finance a revenue-generating activity).  A microloan might, for example, go to a poor person who has the ability to make trade-worthy clothing, but does not have any capital to purchase textiles or a loom.

For years, microlending was the stuff of academia, or at best, practised directly by NGOs with presences in local impoverished areas.

But much as sites like Prosper.com changed personal lending in the U.S., the web has led to the flourishing of microlending sites that work with regional NGOs to distribute loans to capital-starved entrepreneurs. 

The first site that gained signficiant press was Kiva.com.  It works with dozens if not hundreds of local NGOs to allow individual lenders like you and me to make loans to specific entrepreneurs or groups of entrepreneurs all over the world.  One catch with Kiva is that the lender earns no interest (interest is paid by the borrower to the NGO, but the NGO keeps it for future operating budgeting), yet bears risk of default.  Think of it as a donation, with the possibility of zero out of pocket expense.  (click on image for larger, readable version)

As you see, I lost 13.05% of my "investment," but this is a far from typical experience.  A glance oer to the "Average" column shows that the typical loss rate is 1.73%.  The entirety of my loss was from a basket of loans that were sent through BRAC Tanzania, an NGO that apparently ran into problems sending money back to Kiva. 

Lenders do see the NGO rating, and at the time I lent, BRAC Tanzania was 4/5 stars.  This goes to show that you should treat a healthy percentage of your microloans as donations, and not expect to get them back.  I would certainly not lend any money that I couldn't afford to lose. 

By the way, notice that "Donations" tab" underrneath "My Portfolio"?  That's a way for you to donate money directly to Kiva itself, so it can continue its operation of running the site, and coordinating with NGOs.  Kiva will hit you up for donations at numerous points in the cycle, including the time at which you make a loan, and the time when you withdraw any repaid money to PayPal. 

At some point (I'm sure the information is out there and easy to find), another Microfinance site Microplace (that does pay a bit of interest back to lenders) was acquired by eBay.  With eBay's capital and savvy, they have room to really get off the ground.  At some point a number of months ago, I made a $20 loan through Microplace, and was astounded when I saw the following statistics when I checked the site yesterday:

(click on image for larger, readable version)

As you see, Microplace is claiming an average amount of $843 invested per user.  I'm not sure if they have a small user base and a few gigantic benefactos (eBay, for instance?) who have humungous portfolios and that's scewing the mean amount invested, but $843 per lender is quite remarkable compared to Kiva's $200 per lender.  One factor might be that Kiva users can very easily give gift certificates (I've done this myself a numer of times), and the recipients of these gift certificates can visit the site and use the amonut of the certificate to choose a borrower, and make a loan.  Maybe those kinds of users only loan the amount gifted through the certificate, and aren't as deeply invested in the process (no pun intended).

In any case, I can, with enthusiasm, say that if you have some money to spend, and you get a warm and fuzzy feeling from helping a specific person that you can choose from among dozens, take a look at Kiva and Microplace, and consider making a loan. youllbehappy you did. 

Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) is a company I hadn't heard of until I saw their Zeppelin in an Apple store one day.  I dug a bit and found out that they make cream of the crop, audiophile-appeasing equipment of all types.  The Zeppelin is an iPod dock that also takes USB-in, and will fill a huge room with beautiful sound.  As with all B&W products, you don't want to play MP3's through the Zeppelin, though, as the Zeppelin produces music so true to the recording that you will hear and be distracted by the MP3's inherent compression-related imperfections.  Instead, use HD-AAC or other lossless formats like FLAC or ALAC.  

B&W just released their P-5 headphones, as well as their MM-1 near-field computer speakers.  When Wired magazine reviewed the P-5s, they for the first time ever said that their $200 rule should be broken (i.e., that even though these headphones cost more than $200, they were an excellent buy).  Both the P-5 and MM-1 are works of art as well as the best headphones and computer speakers I've ever used, respectively.  The same warning applies about playing MP3s through these beauties.  B&W has a "Society of Sound" through which you can download lossless (24-bit FLAC or 16-bit ALAC) versions of a wide variety of interesting music, and you get a complimentary 3 months of membership with each B&W device you purchase. After you hear 24-bit music through the P-5s, it'll be hard to go back.  You will probably want to go back through your old CD collection and re-encode all of your music in lossless (instead of MP3) format.  

The Withings scale looks like a normal, albeit modern bathroom scale.  It measures body fat percentage, displays BMI, and accommodates multiple users.  What sets it apart is that it connects to your wireless network, and tweets your weight every time you weigh yourself, and sends all of the details (weight, BMI, body fat %) to the Withings servers, which you can log into directly to track things like your lean mass, fat mass, etc., or you can access this information through the Withings iPhone app (free).  The Weightbot iPhone app can also grab data from your Withings account, if you prefer that app over Withings' own.

I gave my Withings-linked Twitter account out to a few friends and a co-worker, and I have to say that I am tremendously pleased with the results.  Not only have I lost 20+ lbs in 1 month with ONLY a diet change (no extra exercise), but now every time I think about eating, I think about that scale and the fact that tomorrow, my weight will be broadcasted to those who'll hold me accountable.

The scale costs $159 from Withings directly, and you might be able to find a better price somewhere else. HIGHLY worth it for anyone trying to lose weight.

For Mac users only (although inroads are being made for PCs; see, e.g., Mozilla's Prism):  Fluid.  This nifty little app lets you turn web sites into "apps" that reside in your applications folder (or any folder, really), and most helpfully, on the OS X dock.  

So you can have instant access to your favorite services, in fully-functional browser windows that you customize to be as large (and only as large) as the site requires.

Another neat option is to have a Fluid "stack", which method keeps your dock uncluttered, but does cost an extra click.

Here I've created a stack right next to my general Applications folder, and in this stack live all of my Fluid apps.  Let's face it:  The line between system-resident apps and web apps is largely one-dimensional these days, and it makes sense to have persistent, dedicated access to web apps in the same way we do for system apps.  Fluid rocks.

The Perfect Host, a dark comedy / thriller starring David Hyde Pierce and John Cayne, written and directed by Nick Tomnay, is up there with my three or four favorite movies of all time.  DHP is masterful, the story is engrossing, and it really hit my sense of humor right on the sweet spot.  Thanks to some friends, I was able to catch a screening at Sundance.  I am hoping for a theatrical release so I can see it again — as Tomnay said during the Q&A after the screening, it's an entirely different ride the second time you see it, and I'm certain that's true.  This won't be for everyone.  I'd say that fans of Dexter are likely to enjoy, as well as The Usual Suspects devotees.  

P.S. Do yourself a big favor and stay as far away from synopses and spoilers before you see this one. 

   An old high-school buddy works for 23&me, and when I saw their blimp at Long Beach airport my interest in the service was rekindled and I got in touch with him.  I trust him completely, so when he told me that they are really doing great work, I got one of the company's kits.

A few weeks after sending in a moderate amount of saliva, and I was presented with all sorts of information about my genome and the implications for my health and ancestry.  I was also given access to my raw genetic data, meaning that if I decide to go search pubmed and find something interesting about a particular gene, I can check to see whether I have a particular variation.  This means that I am not held back by 23&me's own analysis, which is nice even though they have a good pool of research and have been doing a good job of adding to it.  The entire endeavor of confronting your genes is a bit scary, but it's also thrilling and fascinating.  23&me does a great job delivering on the entire experience, from collection to analysis to presentation (very spiffy web interface).

  I don't think anyone really knows exactly what our genes say about us or our futures or pasts (I read recently about a 'ghost genome' that seems to determine the experssion of genes, so clearly the genes themselves are at most just part of the story), but I am really enjoying the experience of this perhaps narcissistic endeavor.  My mom & sister also used the service, and thanks to 23&me's sharing feature, we're able to compare genes.  If you're on the fence about 23&me, I say go for it.  If you do, send me a sharing request when you have your results -- it's always fun to peruse and compare with new people.

Virginia Hoffmann is a wonderful person to call for help when you have a new puppy that you want to get started on the right track, when you have an older dog with years'-old agression or other problems, or anything in between.  Virginia uses all positive-reinforcement techniques, and these end up being not only the most effective for producing the desired behavior in your dog, but also foster a loving relationship between your dog and you.  I have looked forward to every session with her, as not only do we have fun even when handling difficult problems, but she is a delightful person to be around.  If you have a dog and want a quick tune-up or some serious repairs, I highly recommend that you contact Virginia at vhk9ed@earthlink.net, so long as you're in the New York City metro area.