H20 Power

Charge your cell phone with water.

Next I want my car to be re-fueled while it rains...

Support Israel

I received an email from the JCF of Cleveland soliciting donations to a fund that will move children away from the Northern regions of Israel to "youth villages" in central Israel, out of reach from Hezbollah's missiles. I donated to the campaign and decided to post here in case anyone else would like to contribute.

For more details, click here

Dropping the Bomb

Add the EuroCom F-Bomb computer to the list of poorly named products. Apparently there's a marketing director somewhere in Europe who's about to lose their job (although they have suceeded in generating a good amount of internet buzz...)

AOL = Evil; Reuters = Stupid

Headline: AOL may offer free high-speed Internet != Story

You've got to love a headline that has absolutely nothing to do with the story:
"Time Warner Inc.'s AOL unit may offer its full menu of services, including e-mail, free of charge to anyone with a high-speed Internet connection, The Wall Street Journal said on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter."

At least AOL may finally stop charging gullible people for things that they already give away for free on their website

New RAZR a stretched version of the old RAZR?

This site has some photos of the new Moto Canary (RAZR 2). Is it just me or is this think waaaay too tall/long?

Car Similarities

Someone recently posted a thread to one of my Jaguar forums commenting on the similarities between the tail lights of the Jaguar XJ and the Ford Taurus.

I decided to take a look at the rear-ends of both of these cars (made very easy by the rear-view photos provided by Autobytel.com):

 


While the general shape is the same, I don't think the tail lights are all that similar.

While I was doing this comparison, I decided to do a couple other comparisons.

The most egregious copying of the Jaguar styling, in my opinion, is the Kia Amanti.

See the following side-by-side comparison of the Jaguar S-Type and the 2006 Kia:





While I'm on the topic of Korean car manufacturer's blatantly stealing designs from other car companies, here is one more (Honda Accord and Hyundai Sonata):


 


Lastly, I decided to compare the profile views of my current car (the Jaguar X-Type) and my old car (the Ford Contour):


 


You can definately tell that both cars share the Ford Mondeo platform...but the Jag is so much more fun to drive :-)

Note: I appologize for the tiny pictures...for some reason Picasa is not correctly uploading the full-sized images.

One Expensive Picture

I'm now the proud owner of the following digital image, courtesy of Cleveland's Operation Safe Streets (aka Operation Oh-Sh*t-we're-broke-how-can-we-make-some-money?).

I figure as long as I'm paying $100 for this picture, I might as well get some use out of it.

So...In case you were wondering what my car looks like as I drive back from my lunch break someone drives it down the street, here you go:

 

(Note the proper use of the directional during lane changes)

And in case any of you were wondering...I was doing 38 on a 5-lane (2 each direction with turn lane) road. You would think that the road would be 35 mph...but apparently I was wrong. 

City Vision

The final class in the CSU MBA program is a class on contemporary business strategy. The final project for this class has traditionally been to create a strategy for a particular business. However, since my professor is from Washington state and has a severe disdain for the City of Cleveland, my class was tasked with creating a strategy for the City of Cleveland.

My group was supposed to be professional consultants presenting a strategy to the City so we created a website on which to distribute our strategy. It really isn't a very good paper...however, since it has consumed most of my time for the last month, I figured I'd post the link to my group (City Vision) website.

Increase the value of the paper hanging on the wall

Congrats to Miami U's Richard T Farmer School of Business for ranking in the top 20 undergrad b-schools in the nation according to Business Week magazine.

I'm all for things that will make my undergrad degree more valuable. Come on Miami, how about moving into the top 10 next year, ok?

Now I just need CSU's MBA program to receive some sort of accolade besides being the least-expensive MBA program in the state of Ohio.

Another odd accident scene

Ever since I started commuting across town due to my new job, I've seen quite a few impressive accidents. You may remember this one from a while back. This morning I passed another one.




It's a little bit tough to tell...but that's a minivan, completely flipped upside down on I-90 E.

Too bad they don't have video of the car actually flipping over...I'm curious how it's physically possible for a vehicle to end up like that.

You've got to be kidding me!

Another example of Conservatives Gone Wild.

(Link will be valid for non-WSJ subscribers for 7-days, then it will require a login and password)

Humorous results of another frivolous lawsuit

A while back, Apple got sued by someone who claimed that their iPod caused hearing loss due to the loud music being piped into their ears through the iPod.

This was pretty rediculous...to imply that it's Apple's fault that the user is dumb enough to blast loud music. However, Apple today announced a software update for their iPods to allow parents to lock in a
maximum volume so that their stupid children don't deafen themselves by turning up their Kelly Clarkson too loudly.

Will we now see this change occuring in other "dangerous" products?

Cars will have lockable maximum speeds so that that kids can't take turns too fast.

TVs will have a timer on the power button so that kids can't stay up too late watching the Amazing Race and miss school.

Computers will have locks so that kids can't surf...oh wait...that already exists...

A Client in the News

One of Vizion Solution's clients made the news yesterday.

TCP makes compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs)...those spring shaped lightbulbs.

As if I needed another reason to dislike "Amazing Race"...

As long as people continue to watch awful reality shows like Amazing Race, well written and acted television shows will continue to be yanked off the air.

Conspiracy Theory

I'm convinced that there is some sinister conspiracy going on to prevent me from listening to my favorite CD.

As some of you may know, my car was broken into in 2003 while I was still living in the Elyria "ghetto". The thieves / operatives took my car stereo and the 10 cds that were in the car at the time. 9 of the 10 stolen cds were just burned copies that were easily replaced. However, one of my favorite cds of all time, Vertical Horizon's Live Stages was also taken. This was my original disc, not a burned copy like the others.

I thought the car stereo was the original target of the thieves, but recent events have convinced me that the stolen stereo was just a diversion for the true target: my Live Stages cd.

I ended up purchasing a second copy of the Live Stages cd and life returned to normal for about 3 more years.

During that time, I went through the exercise of ripping my entire music collection to mp3s so that I would, never again, lose one of my original cds.

Fast forward a few years to 2006. My Live Stages cd almost never left my car's cd changer...for when it did, it was put back in rotation within a matter of days. You can imagine my surprise, then, when I discovered that my Live Stages cd was not in my cd changer, was not in my car at all, and was not in my apartment either!

The thieves had struck again! They must have been watching me for 3 years, waiting for that perfect moment to swoop in and take my replacement copy of Live Stages! At least this time they left the cd player intact (no...my new car was not broken into).

I was pretty upset that my Live Stages disc was gone. However, I was comfortable in the fact that I had a digital copy of all of my cds on my computer. But, like the sneaky Secret Service Agent Cummings on 24, the digital archive was tampered with and all traces of the recording erased!

(There's a small possibility that I never ripped Live Stages to mp3 because it never left my car...but I'm still convinced that it was a stealthy ninja garden gnome)

Now they had taken TWO copies of my favorite cd and erased all digital copies of it as well!

I have now purchased a third copy of Live Stages and made sure that the first thing I did when I got it home was rip it to mp3.

So if the conspirators/thieves/garden gnomes who have been infiltrating my cd collection are reading this...be aware that I have made a copy of Live Stages and gave it to Dick Cheney to be held securely in an undisclosed location.

Who needs an mp3 player?

Some people with too much time on their hands figured out how to make a HP ScanJet scanner play music. Even a video clip for your listening pleasure.

Home videos

Year	Description	Length
1982	Eric & Dinah	00:29	View
1982	Evan sings ABCs	01:16	View
1982	Eric's 1st Birthday	04:51	View	NEW!
1982	Eating breakfast with parakeet	03:37	View
1982	Thanksgiving - Cooking dinner	01:37	View
1982	Thanksgiving - With the Bublicks	08:08	View
1982	Thansgiving - Wrap Up	01:45	View
1982	Evan's bank, Eric's diaper	05:24	View
1982	Bathtime	06:52	View
1982	Hanukkah - Intro	02:03	View	NEW!
1982	Hanukkah - Blessing the Candles	01:39	View	NEW!
1982	Hanukkah - Opening presents	08:03	View	NEW!
1983	Evan's 3rd Birthday - Intro	01:14	View	NEW!
1983	Evan's 3rd Birthday - Evan with balloons	00:38	View	NEW!
1983	Evan's 3rd Birthday - Party	08:24	View	NEW!
1985	Grandpa Ben poses Eric and Evan for picture	00:58	View	NEW!
1985	Evan/Eric Birthday - Before the party	02:44	View	NEW!
1985	Evan/Eric Birthday - Party	03:46	View	NEW!
1985	Evan/Eric Birthday - Quacky the Clown performs	13:13	View	NEW!
1985	Family playing in backyard - Buffalo - Version 1	08:20	View
1985	Family playing in backyard - Buffalo - Version 2	11:00	View
1985	Whole family playing in backyard - Buffalo - Extended version	26:14	View
1986	Eric & Ross on bed	00:59	View
1986	Kids in PJs	03:40	View
1986	Eric & Ross - Storytime	06:20	View
1986	Eric & Ross story time - Extended version	08:50	View
1986	Eric Reading	05:40	View
1986	Party with Marcus, Silver, & Baraskys	01:59	View
1986	Eric's dream	03:38	View
1986	Jakki eating breakfast	01:01	View
1986	Reading on the couch	02:05	View
1986	Buffalo Trip - Playing in front yard	15:46	View	NEW!
1986	Murder Mystery Party	21:32	View	NEW!
1989	Buffalo Trip	19:52	View
1989	Buffalo - Naval Park		View
1989	Boatwright Van		View
1989	Evan's lob ball game		View
1989	Ross' Soccer game		View
1990	Eric's 8th Birthday		View
1990	Ross' Letter People (M)		View
1990	Ross' Paper Chain / House tour		View
1991	Eric's Magic Show		View
1991	Ross fooling around		View
1991	Piper playing with ball		View
1991	Eric's 9th Birthday		View
1991	Playing with Toys		View
1991	Ross Reading		View
1991	Ross' 7th Birthday party		View

Its me....Mario!!!

Those smart kids have way too much time on their hands

Quiz Time

Study break time:

Bonus points if you can tell me what the differences are between the following:
- International Business Strategy
- Multidomestic Business Strategy
- Global Business Strategy
- Transnational Business Strategy

Early holiday in Toledo

What's wrong with this picture?

Ross and I plotting to destroy my mother's computer

Ross, Me, and Mom