collisionbend.com

If you’re not seeing little tiny lines differentiating the columns on this site, then you are seeing the (not so) old version of collisionbend.com.

A new version is coming, and soon: the current version, by a stoke of misgenius, is not rendering correctly in (OMFG, no!) Internet Explorer 6 and 7.

IE 6 I can live with; IE 7 I can’t.

The delay comes from other projects in the fire: another site that I am about to launch (given mediatemple’s current status), and a little more testing; and a static client site just received this morning.

Adjustments will happen by Friday, as will the new site, which will be announced at the same time.

Further, I am going to change the focus here, and develop a more historic, positive, Cleveland-centric orientation, with the mind of helping those who want to make Cleveland a more attractive place to center their business (or to travel to).

Details to follow soon… well, as soon as the blogging trip to Washington DC is finalized… please stay tuned…

Tags: change, redesign

First, Time-Warner Internet service to the ‘Bend dropped like a rock on Sunday.

Besides the frustration of not being able to go anywhere on the Net, check the weather to see if it would rain when I went to the golf course (it did), or catch up on my email, I was unable ot do any serious work. Oddly enough, I still had VPN, SSH, and FTP access, just no SMTP or HTTP — which hardly works when you’re developing on an online development site. TW’s EPIC FAIL also delayed the relaunch of this site.

Yes, I’m about to relaunch. The delays have prevented me from completing the alternative style sheet, and I will hopefully be able to add it to the site and make it active in the next week. My schedule, however, will force me to launch this week without the style switcher.

No big deal, you might say, and I agree — to a point: the primary style will irk some folks (hint: it’s a reverse), so the traffic might suffer for a couple of days. For this, there is nothing I can do, unless I want to wait another 10 days to upgrade — which I don’t. You’ll see why during the next week.

Stay tuned.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The ISP issues forced me to spend time with the folks at the Time-Warner/Roadrunner help desk — which forced me to disencumber my network, killing my laser printer in the process.

In getting the printer back online, I ran a diagnostic (it’s an older HP LaserJet 1200 that I got used — for free), and it gave me an interesting statistic:

Total pages printed: 41,736
Pages jammed in printer: 24
Pages mispicked in printer: 24

One in 1,739 pages printed have jammed. Not sure if this is a good ratio or not, but since only about 3 or 4 have jammed since I have had the printer, and I’ve printed a good 20,000 pages (giving me a ratio of between 5,000 or 6,600 to 1), I’d say it’s more likely that the previous owner had no idea how to operate the printer in the first place.

It’s been a great printer for me, with service even better than the old HP LaserJet IIIs and IVs from 10 years ago… you might remember: some of them are still around, in service today. As long as I can get toner and a current OS X driver for my 1200, it’ll stay right where it is: in my office, hooked to my network, where it gets used almost every day.

Now all I need is a photo-quality, multi-function (scanner, printer, fax is unnecessary), ink jet printer that will print from a roll to a long length (i.e., for hi-res panoramic photos) that will work on a network — and not lose Photoshop functionality — and I’ll be all set.

Any suggestions?

Found in an interesting site for all you golf lovers out there: www.golfflyover.com.

Now before you head over there to be amazed, be advised: don’t bother. One silly fact: these guys are so paranoid about people stealing their stuff that you can only view one or two courses at a time!

Beyond that, don’t go to one course and then another and then back to the first one, because they won’t let you. I had to email them to let them know that I was having difficulty, and their response was polite enough, but I can’t recommend that anyone actually use their site until they get real.

Their reply:

…Several people have tried unsuccessfully to scan our website and download all our data.

OK, so if they tried, then you’ve looked at your server logs, no? Why not just ban the IP? It’s not all that hard… Beyond that, there’s all sorts of tricks you can play with the .htaccess file to prevent mass downloads as well — and they all work for the most part.

No, they want to make it hard on the end user — and that is what borks this site, not the application itself. Yeah, I could say a lot about inaccessible HTML, invalid markup & CSS and all, but it’s not worth it.

Then he gave me a link — and it didn’t work. I had to manipulate Google Earth to get me there (I was looking at Powderhorn in Madison; I wanted to look at Thunder Hill as well, but no dice), and it took some wrangling.

Seriously: if you and a friend are perusing courses, trying to decide what course you’d like to play, see the challenges that each course provides, then make a decision, you’re strictly S.O.L. — in the sincerest form of that term. And that’s too bad: this site has a nice potential.

There’s reasonable fear, then there’s unreasonable paranoia, and these guys crossed that line years ago.

But for the way it is right now, you’re better off with the golf course’s brochure — this site isn’t ready for prime time yet.

Spurred by a Twitter post by Dave Shea, I found out tonight that whole milk contains 98mg of sodium.

The serving size is listed at 245 grams, or little more than 8 ounces.

Also in that nutritional data: 146 calories (71 from fat), 24mg cholesterol, 13g carbohydrates, and 13g of sugar.

Non-fat milk, on the other hand, weighs in at 86 calories (only 4 from fat), 5mg cholesterol, 12g sugar, and a whopping 127mg of sodium — also for an 8-ounce serving.

WeightWatchers will tell you that non-fat milk is better for you — and from a fat and calorie standpoint it is. All else being equal, this is not a surprise.

But sodium? I know that 127mg of sodium is not going to give someone on a low-sodium diet (2,000mg/day) an instant blood pressure spike, and over the course of a day, that 127mg of sodium really won’t make that much of a difference — as long as you’re watching everything else: which means take it easy on those low-fat frozen foods, which are generally really high in sodium; I’ve seen some of these entrees come in at 1,300mg of sodium — or more.

And that much sodium per meal will spike your blood pressure — guaranteed.

I have to admit that I am just as surprised at the amount of sodium in milk as Mr. Shea is. My bet is that the increased sodium in the low-fat variety is to make it taste better — God knows it needs something. ;-)

All day Tuesday, April 22nd, the good folks over at TCP in Aurora, Ohio will be celebrating Earth Day with IllumiNation, a special Earth Day webcast about conservation, recycling, and ways you can help conserve our planet’s environment and natural resources.

Tune your browser to www.tcpi.com/earthday for more information.

While you’re at it, check out Help Our World to learn more ways to help the environment.

Ed Hammer, known as the “Father of Fluorescent Signature Analysis,” invented the Compact Fluorescent Light bulb (CFL) for General Electric in 1976. Ed eventually won the IEEE Edison Medal for his pioneering work in the lighting industry.

Ed currently serves up podcasts about his experiences in the business, and (pardon the pun) sheds some light on the true nature of fluorescent lighting from the first days to recent developments in the industry — including advances that help eliminate the introduction of mercury into the environment.

You can check out his weekly podcasts at www.drop-the-hammer.com.

I can tell you that we here at the Bend have changed about 3/4 of our light bulbs over to nVision CFLs in the last year, and we’re seeing a significant savings in our electric bill.

Check it out — and save a few trees.

UPDATE — You can also digg this at:
http://digg.com/environment/illumiNation_An_Earth_Day_Event_Brought_To_You_By_TCP

…and it has been rough, let me tell you. I got a lot done, though, but if you look at the SPAM emails I received in the last 24 hours, you’d think I haven’t done enough.

To wit:

“Tracey Teague” thinks I am in search of a university diploma. I am not, thank you very much. I have more of a college education that she’ll ever have — and probably more than most people. Try me on this one…

“Monty Shaffer” says I can increase my… erm… you-know-what size by 3″ by using his patented technique. You really sure I’m that self-conscious about how big I am down there? In a day and age where people use plastic surgery, pills, and just about anything else to enhance their looks, you might think I might be interested. But I’m afraid not, pally: I’m fine just as I am, no more, no less. In fact, I’m probably better endowed than you are.

That’s not saying much, I know, as I’m not all that big (it’s pretty dinky, if you ask me — with the emphasis on “pretty”), but when you get into the territory that these guys are talking about, there’s only one way a guy goes, and I don’t go that route: uh uh, sorry Jack. Even a less-experienced woman knows that it ain’t the size of the gun, it’s the motion of the ocean. The only people who care about the size of that body part are guys that are… well… “a wee bit lavender,” (not that there’s anything wrong with that!) if you know what I mean…

“Euro Software” thinks I can speak German… ‘fraid not, pal, sorry.

“Stuart Page” wants to sell me a watch. Well, maybe not a real watch, but a “repl1ca w4tch.” I guess it’s a real replica of a replica watch. Something. I really don’t know, but I really don’t care, either; I no longer wear a watch: I can’t, as it prevents me from reaching all of the keys on my computer keyboard, which is essential to any Web-based job…

So, now, “Stuart” didn’t get the gist of my non-reply, so “Howie” thought he’d try as well. Sorry, still not biting…

Now here’s something I can really use: “Sylvester Walden” wants to sell me Viagra for US$1.41/pill, or Cialis for US$2.22/pill. Hmmm… that’s only slightly more expensive than my insurance company can get me those same pills, and I can get that prescription from my doctor with a simple phone call and have that prescription filled within an hour — let’s face it: at my “advanced” age, we’ve discussed it. I’m OK so far, so I think I’ll pass… for now…

“Hazel Dernovsek” wants to sell me bling. Not just any bling, mind you, but “fantastic bling of all sorts.” God knows I haven’t enough bling, so I gotta buy more, right? It’s really too bad I’m not into bling of any sort, let alone fantastic bling…

“Lori Hunter” just wants to say ‘Hi!’ I wonder what she wants… maybe I could take my accounts offline and open the email just to take a peek. It’s probably a call to another Web site that is going to either fill my screen with porn, or try to reset my Internet Explorer settings so that all I can ever see is their porn site.

It’s really too bad I use a Mac, isn’t it? Assholes.

Now “Lavern Guy” wants to sell me “waterproof replica watches,” as if I still hadn’t quite made up my mind. Hate to tell him (maybe it’s a “her”?) what I didn’t tell the other guy…

And then there are those idiots that send email in foreign languages, using Cyrillic or Asian typefaces. Sorry, but I am at a loss with this one. I’m an American. My family has been in this country for almost 400 years. REPEAT: 400 YEARS. English is my primary language, even though I have a German last name.

I sport the “Standard Midwestern American English Accent” so treasured by US broadcasters that in college I was trained in public speaking without my consent (I have a good speaking voice, so they made it an educational requirement by decree — they could do those things back in the 70s), so that I might have a future as a broadcaster one day. Little did they (or I) know at the time… ;-)

But, I digress.

So why send me a sales message in a language I can neither understand nor comprehend, let alone read? Cheap broadcast is one thing, but Common Sense is another.

But… wait a minute… we’re talking about spammers here… Common Sense is certainly NOT one of a spammer’s essential core qualities…

Silly me.

By now, I can assume that you have been able to dig yourselves out of the snow and actually get around our fair city.

For some of us, that process took longer than others.

I got home Friday night around 7:30, and it was just in time: I took my lunch leftovers and the daily mail inside, dropped it on the kitchen counter, then slid into the bathroom to do something… well, if you can imagine that it took me almost 90 minutes to drive home, you can imagine what I had to do in there.

Afterward, I went outside to have a cigarette, and I saw the first of what was to become a long list of cars to get stuck in front of my home over the weekend. I lost count around 18 or 20, most of which were 4-wheel drive trucks with snow plows, or Jeeps, but there were a couple of cars and minivans — and one of the latter got stuck right at the end of my driveway sometime late Saturday morning.

By that time, we had at least 16 inches of snow in the street, and it was still coming down — hard. (When all was said and done, we ended up with 28 - 30 inches of snow in the street, drifting to 4 or 5 feet in some places just off-road.)

The lady who owned the minivan abandoned her vehicle with the intent of returning to get it out. She tried later, only to get her Jeep stuck before she arrived at her minivan.

What really got to me was what happened Sunday morning: a city snow plow, trying to get around Ms. Had-no-business-being-out-in-the-worst-snowstorm-in-Cleveland-history’s minivan, got stuck in the very same place many other vehicles found them selves in the hours earlier.

I woke up just in time to take these videos (I apologize for the sharpness — I woke up just seconds before, grabbed the camera, and began shooting; the fuzziness is the window screen):

Turn the volume up and you can hear my bride and I talking about what a good job these guys were (and have been) doing — and they have.

I mean, let’s face it: the heavy snow wasn’t hardly their fault. Nor was the fact that their jobs were made infinitely more difficult by the bozos who felt that they were such good drivers, and their cars were so great in the snow, that they could get through anything.

For that, the proof is in the pudding, as they say:

In this second video, you can hear me say, “oh, please hit that minivan — please hit that minivan!” I was saying this because the person that left their minivan there had absolutely no business being on the road on Saturday — for whatever reason. And their lack of consideration for themselves or others resulted in many more individuals getting stuck in the same place — and to preventing the plows from cleaning our street when all of the others in the neighborhood had been cleared at least twice.

We were stuck in our house until 5:00 p.m. Sunday, unable to go for groceries or other goods when others had been out for hours — thanks to this person’s stupidity.

I took the video because you never see snow plows getting stuck — or pulled out of such a situation; I posted the videos because people need to see what a lack of thought and consideration can do to inconvenience others (and I’m not just talking about me).

Next time they say to stay off the roads unless it’s an absolute emergency — stay off the roads.

UPDATE — My video has been picked up by The News-Herald.

Here’s a second interesting piece of trivia: what do all of the following actors and actresses have in common (hint: read the title of this post):

• Martin Landau
• Ida Lupino
• Martin Balsam
• Gig Young
• Joe Flynn
• Jack Warden
• Ted Knight
• Jean Marsh
• Burgess Meredith
• James Franciscus
• Ross Martin
• Inger Stevens
• Dick York
• Jeff Morrow
• Vera Miles
• Martin Milner
• Roddy McDowell
• Ivan Dixon
• Sebastian Cabot
• Jack Klugman
• Orson Bean
• Anne Francis
• Keenan Wynn
• Donna Douglas
• William Shatner
• Patricia Breslin
• Art Carney
• Arte Johnson
• Agnes Moorehead
• Jonathan Harris
• Don Rickles
• Buddy Ebsen
• Bill Mumy
• Cliff Robertson
• Dennis Weaver
• Charles Bronson
• Elizabeth Montgomery
• Jonathan Winters
• Peter Falk
• Lee Marvin
• Lee Van Cleef
• Cloris Leachman
• Buster Keaton
• William Windom
• Dean Stockwell
• Leonard Nimoy
• Robert Redford
• Frank Sutton
• Carol Burnett
• Donald Pleasence
• Bill Bixby
• James Doohan
• Ann Jillian
• Robert Duvall
• William Sargent
• Julie Newmar
• James Broderick
• Joyce Van Patten
• Burt Reynolds
• Mickey Rooney
• Telly Savalas
• James Coburn
• Sir Cedric Hardwicke
• Richard Basehart
• Greg Morris
• Robert Lansing
• Mariette Hartley
• Wally Cox
• William Demarest
• Alan Sues
• Jackie Cooper
• George Takei

All of the actors and actresses listed above starred in the original run of the TV series The Twilight Zone in the early-1960s.

While writing about the Outer Limits TV show, and after Joel Libava’s comment, I thought I’d do the other show.

Remember this?

“There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space… and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition… and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call… The Twilight Zone.”

You couldn’t make a TV show today with all of those people in it — there’s too many of them.

From this morning’s Plain Dealer Monday Moaning (the fourth paragraph after the ad dead-center in the article). Euclid Police, please take note:

“My moan is about idiotic drivers who do not know how to use a ‘left-turn-only’ lane. They either sit in the through lane holding up traffic, or they angle the front end of their car into the turn-lane leaving the rest of the car in the through lane still blocking traffic. If you’re too stupid to drive it, then park it.” — Euclid

I would have taken my neighbor’s argument a bit further (no, I didn’t call this in, but wish I had; it was a fellow Euclidian): I think these people should lose their drivers’ licenses.

Seriously. They congest traffic, cause accidents, and angrify other drivers — as if we didn’t have enough “road rage.” To make matters worse, they don’t care.

It’s part of what I’ve said before: we’re becoming more rude and inconsiderate of others every day.

Now, there’s one intersection in Euclid where I can predict with absolute certainty that this will happen: Westbound Lake Shore Boulevard at East 260th Street. No one — absolutely no one — who enters the left turn lane, preparing to turn Southbound on E. 260th, ever lines up in the turning lane properly.

And if they somehow do, by some shadow of luck, pull fully into the left turn lane, I guarantee you that they will fade severely to the right — well into the next lane of traffic — before actually making the turn.

Along the north side of Lake Shore Boulevard at the intersection are three driveways, four telephone poles and a fire hydrant. Someday, someone is quite unexpectantly going to forcibly meet one of those poles, the hydrant, or a car in one of those driveways after being forced over to the right by some idiot who can’t drive.

And someone — perhaps a pedestrian on the sidewalk a mere two feet from the street — will get hurt.

It’s one of the most dangerous intersections in Cuyahoga County, even if it hasn’t been identified as such by any planning commission or traffic survey. It scares the crap out of me every time I drive through it — in either direction — sometimes four times a day, sometimes many more.

Euclid Police should pay closer attention to this intersection — before someone dies.

Here’s an interesting piece of trivia: what do all of the following actors and actresses have in common?

Their better-known roles are listed to jog your memory. (If nothing is listed, they’ve been in more roles than Jimmy Carter has peanuts, so you should know who they are.)

• Cliff Robertson (Ben Parker in Spiderman, the movie)
• Burt Metcalfe (producer for M*A*S*H - produced 77 episodes after acting career)
• Donald Pleasence
• Edward C. Platt (”Chief” on Get Smart)
• Robert Culp (I Spy)
• David McCallum (N.C.I.S./The Man from U.N.C.L.E)
• Edward Mulhare (Devon Miles on Knight Rider)
• Martin Landau (Space 1999, The X-Files Movie)
• Martin Sheen (The West Wing, Apocalypse Now)
• Sally Kellerman (M*A*S*H, the movie)
• James V. Sikking (Doogie Howser - Doogie’s father)
• Ivan Dixon (James “Kinch” Kinchloe in Hogan’s Heroes)
• Edward Asner (Mary Tyler Moore Show)
• Ted Knight (Mary Tyler Moore Show)
• Bruce Dern
• Dabney Coleman (Mr. Drysdale on the Beverly Hillbillies)
• Carrol O’Connor (All in the Family)
• Chita Rivera (Chicago, the movie & a zillion other roles)
• Robert Duvall
• Vera Miles
• Sir Cedrick Hardwicke
• Malachi Throne (It Takes a Thief)
• William Shatner
• James Doohan
• Grace Lee Whitney (Star Trek TOS/STNG)
• Michael Ansara (Kang from Star Trek - TOS/STNG/Voyager)
• Eddie Albert
• James Frawley (The Honeymooners)

This list reads like a veritable “Who’s Who of Hollywood,” doesn’t it?

Answer: All of the actors and actresses listed above starred in the original run of the TV series The Outer Limits in the mid-1960s.

While thinking about a blog post for a web site under development, I started thinking about the original Outer Limits TV show and how much I liked both it and the remake from the last decade or so, and thought I’d look it up online.

You couldn’t afford to make a TV show today with all of those people in it (those that are alive, at least).