Picopad ftw

A while ago I saw a post about Picopad on the Lifehacker site. I often run into situations where I want to write something down and don’t have anything to use. Sometimes at lunch I end up writing notes on scraps of magazines and any other paper I can find.
The Picopad promised to give me a pen and a pad that fit in my wallet. I had to give it a try.


The Picopad arrives in a nice little package with instruction and everything. The package holds multiple picopads. Michele had already taken hers before I took the photo.

Closed it has a clean design, using the pen to help be the spine of the fold.

Inside you can see the pen and the pad. The pad is like a mini-post-it note with 15 sheets. The pen has a little flap on it. I wasn’t sure what that was for until I picked up the pen.

Once you you pick up the pen it all makes sense. The little flap gives your thumb and forefinger something to hold onto comfortably. If it was just the pen, you’d have to squeeze hard to hold the tiny pen. The flap is just rough enough to allow for an easy grip.
Taking a quick note is simple and straightforward. The mini-ballpoint writes well and cleanly. I wouldn’t want to take notes for an hour long meeting on it, but an impromptu message or note, it’s perfect.

The real test was seeing if the Picopad would fit into my wallet. At first glance I was a bit skeptical. It’s thicker than a credit card by a bit. But when I slide it into my wallet, it fit perfectly. It really is designed well to fit so well into the credit card slot. My wallet is made of Rawlings Baseball leather and can be a bit thick, but the Picopad didn’t cause any issues.

You can see from the side view that the Picopad doesn’t add any real thickness to my wallet. That little silvery bar is the pen.

My only minor complaint is with the Picopad web site. They have a ten dollar minimum order but each Picopad only costs $3.79 and refills are $1.99. That means you need to add items until you get to $10. It would be better for them to have packages that were $10 right off the bat to let someone buy a get started pack and get to the checkout immediately.
Other than that, the Picopad get the Cruft Labs seal of approval.

McDonald’s Coffee

On my way to work, I recently noticed that McDonald’s was advertising that they had a full coffee bar going. I’m not a coffee snob, so I decided to check it out one morning.


Outside was a poster of what I was to expect from McCoffee. Didn’t look half bad, but the proof would be in the drinking, not the photography.

At the left of the counter was a little display of coffeeness. They even had a jar of biscotti, just like Starbucks. Behind the counter was a full coffee bar. They had special machines to make the various drinks. It was halfway between what you see at other coffee shops and a soda dispenser. The woman that was making the coffee had a special shirt on that said ‘barista’ on it. McDonalds has made serious commitment to getting into the coffee business.

A close-up of the sign that descibes for the customer what McDonalds says goes into the various coffee drinks. I found this more helpful than the signs at any other coffee shop I’ve been to before.

I decided to get a cappuccino, a mocha, and a cup of regular coffee. I also decided to try the biscotti. I watched the barista make the coffee and she bascially did the same things they do at every coffee place. It took a bit for her to walk to the back of the store to get the can of spray whipped cream for the mocha.
The packaging didn’t look half bad. The store didn’t have the same kind of little area to mix up your coffee with creamer and sugar but I was able to grab a few packets of sugar.

When I got the coffees home, I opened up the lids and took a look. I was suprised to see that all the whipped cream and sprinkleshad melted away completely. The froth on the cappuccino was still there.
I tried the straight coffee first. Just like traditional McCoffee, way to hot and just a little bitter. With a packet of sugar and a dollop of creme, the coffee was fine.
I tried the mocha next and it was pretty good. It’s kind of hard mess up basically coffee and chocolate milk. The whipped cream whould have been nice, but it was still good without it.
The cappuccino was OK. I’m not a big cappuccino fan, but I guess it was fine. Nothing spectacular to be sure. I’m not really down with the frothy foam thing, so it was a bit distracting to me.
Lastly, the biscotti was exactly the same as the other factory mass produced cookies that you get everywhere else. Not that it tasted bad, but I’d rather get a hash browns from MickeyDs than have a cheap cookie. A warm hash browns and cup of coffee on a winter morning is a good way to start the day.

Overall, the McCoffee experience is firmly mediocre. If you are a coffee connoisseur, you probably won’t be happy. If you are a regular coffee drinker like me, and you want a quick cup, McDonalds is just fine.

Halloween 2005

We had a little Halloween get-together at Cruft Manor tonight. Besides the normal events, I tried a few new things.


Mira, Kate and Zoe carved up pumpkins while waiting for the sun to go down.

This year I decided to buy full size Hershey bars to give out rather than deal with the handfuls of cheap candy. My brother Matt was first to try this a few years ago and I wanted to give it a try.

The kids were impressed with the full size candy bars and I think it can be counted as a success. I also wanted to keep track of the various costumes that came to the house. Our friend Monique did a great job of keeping track while I was out trick or treating with the kids. When I got home I took over. We went through over 180 Hershey Bars (5 boxes of 36 each) and had to resort to the back up candy.
# Kids Costume
8 Darth Vader
7 Pirate
5 Jason Voorhees
5 Monster Mask
5 Spiderman
5 Vampire
4 Batman
4 Butterfly
4 Cinderella
4 Scream
3 Black Ninja
3 Detective
3 Leopard
3 Princess
3 Red Power Ranger
3 Snow White
3 Tinkerbell
2 50’s Girl
2 Angel
2 Belle
2 Doctor
2 Grim Reaper
2 Red Ninja
2 Solider
2 Stormtrooper
2 Teenager
2 Tiger
2 Wicked Girl
2 Witch
2 Zombie
1 70’s Girl
1 80’s Girl
1 Alien
1 Anne of Green Gables
1 baby is home sick’
1 Baby Pig
1 Bank Robber
1 Barbie Swan Lake
1 Beautiful Angel
1 Being eaten by shark
1 Big Kahuna
1 Boogieman
1 Bunny
1 Camo Girl
1 Cat
1 Cheerleader
1 Daphne
1 Death
1 Dentist
1 Dinosaur
1 Dorothy Gale
1 Duck
1 Dumb Blonde
1 Evil Jester
1 Fairy
1 Farmer
1 Flower
1 Freddie Kruger
1 Ghost
1 Gothic Fairy
1 Grave Robber
1 Guy w/mask
1 Happy Gilmore
1 Hello Kitty
1 House Burglar
1 Jack Skeleton
1 Japanese Girl
1 Ladybug
1 Little Boy
1 Minnie Mouse
1 Monk
1 Monkey
1 Mouse
1 Mr. Darkness
1 Mulan
1 Neo (Matrix)
1 Padme Amidala
1 Pagan
1 Phantom
1 Pimp
1 Pink Princess
1 Pocahontas
1 Pregnant Boy
1 Robin
1 Spider Witch
1 Sugar Plum Fairy
1 Superman
1 SWAT Girl
1 Sylvester
1 The Only Princess
1 Unicorn
1 Vampire Girl
1 Victim
1 Woody
1 Zorro
That list totals up to 163. We had more than that, but the list is reasonable accurate as to what we saw. Darth Vader is obviously the most popular costume this year. When the kids woudl come to the door, if the costume wasn’t clear to me, I’d ask them what they were. I think it was much more interesting to hear the kids explain who they are than simply guess at it.

Podcast is a word

Exactly one year ago, I bet Phil Torrone, one of the Make guys, that the term ‘podcast’ woudl be gone in a year.
This morning I opened the local paper and this is what I saw.


When traditional newspaper headline writers are incorporating a term like this, I must admit that Phil has won our bet.
I’ll be sending out his ten bucks today.
I still think the term is stupid, but it is being surpassed by the stupidity of the recent term, ‘vodcast‘.

Crossing the Rubicon

At work, I’ve been describing the recent Apple/Disney deal on providing TV content for the iPod as “crossing the Rubicon” because of how I feel that it changes everything to television not just for Disney, but for the entire industry.
Most bloggers about the deal say ‘meh’ about the Apple/Disney combo deriding the fact that it doesn’t address every single concern about downloadable media.
However, Mark Cuban gets it. In a clear way, he describes how this is truly a turning point in the business of entertainment.
My job just got a lot more interesting.

Spoiler Rules

Today at lunch we had a big crowd, nine of us, so the discussion topics were broad and we ended up talking about spoilers. A spoiler is a key bit of plot information that can ruin a movie or book if it is learned in advance.
The discussion was about how long should someone expect others to avoid mentioning spoilers around them. Several of us had seen Serenity and were being careful not to reveal the spoiler. (BTW, you shoudl go and see Serenity. It’s a great movie and you won’t be disappointed.)
None of us could find the heart to support spoiler queens, but a variety of opinions abound.
Several different viewpoints were mentioned:
No Spoiler Freedom – This silly notion was only supported by one truly strange lunch participant. He believes that spoilers shoudl flow freely and makes no effort to conceal spoilers form others. Obviously a fringe belief.
Once a film is out of theaters – Also mentioned as a ‘three month rule’. The concept that people be given a chance to see the movie without worry of spoilers. Once it’s no longer in theaters, it’s open game for discussion. ” I mean, you had your chance, right?” Two people held this as correct.
One month after DVD release – A variation on the out of theater viewpoint. The idea here is that it s understandable to miss a film in the theater, but once it’s on DVD, you have a month to buy/rent it before the spoilers rain down upon you. Two people thought this true.
No blanket policy – The idea here is that each situation warrants it own spoiler rules. An action film and a who-done-it need different spoiler policies. Three people (including me) felt this to be most reasonable.
That left one person undecided. Our co-worker Jasmin is from Germany and many of our idioms (like spoilers) don’t make sense to her. I tried to explain. Here is the rough transcript.
Jasmin: What is the spoiler?
Michael: Well, it’s like revealing the secret of a movie before it’s time.
Jasmin: Huh?
Michael: It’s like finding out that Darth Vader is Luke’s father before seeing Empire Strikes back…
Jasmin: Darth Vader is Luke’s father?
Michael: You didn’t know that?
Jasmin: No…
Others at the table: *gasp*
Michael: But, umm, err. See I just spoiled that for you.
As you can tell, spoilers are a tough thing to deal with in groups. Jasmin’s lucky I didn’t reveal something important like the fact that soylent green is people…
So loyal Cruft readers, what are the proper spoiler rules in your humble opinon?

iPod Cult

Just another sign that Apple puts some sort of addictive, reason-sapping chemical into their products.
People are actually buying iPod Nanos, which evidently scratch when exposed to a summer breeze, and then dunking them in soapy water to slide a protective case over them.
Why are people accepting Apple’s selling of such an obviously defective product?
Apple’s iPods appear to be so fragile that an entire industry has developed to protect them.
Top it off with the fact that if you lose the files you bought from iTunes, Apple won’t replace them, because… Well, there’s no good reason for them not to replace them since it’s bits not atoms, but people accept Apple’s answer anyways.
If Microsoft pulled half the crap that Apple did, such as suing bloggers and trying to shutdown sites, the blogosphere would be outraged.
By some nefarious means, Apple has convinced their cultists in the Wisdom of Steve in which they obediently type in their credit card number for whatever new item or upgrade that is foisted upon them.

Turntable & Fiddle

In the mail, I recieved I small package that contained a CD. When I opened it I was surprised to see the a EP from Battlestar America. I wrote about their album last year. For whatever reason, they sent me a free CD with six new songs on it.
Battlestar America is a mix of honky-tonk and rap, mixing turntables with fiddles. When you read about it, it sounds weird. When you hear it, it sounds great. They seem to be calling themselves B Star now. Their old site is still up at Battlestar America, so I’m a little confused as to what exactly is going on.
Give it a listen. I’d recommend Bootleg Dreams, Someone Like Me, and Yellowbelly. You can listen to the whole album on their site.
Trust me, once your hear a few songs, you’ll be hooked.