How about this: Put them all in a large group in a parking lot. Then put some simple barrier - maybe police line tape - around them. Then alert media, activist groups, and everyone else that they are there. I’m guessing you’ll end up with enough witnesses and video that any attempt at tampering will end up on tape from several angles. Problem solved. For free, and to everyone’s satisfaction.

Big surprise. It isn’t. Folks are screaming about the dropped calls, and that the solution to the dropped calls is to disable the very feature that makes the 3G phone valuable: The 3G service.

So, what do iPhone users use for a phone? The original iPhone was bad enough already, but if the 3G version is worse, how are people making calls? My solution was simpler and cheaper than getting a new phone - I just reactivated my old Blackberry 7130. It’s not as slick, it’s browser kinda sucks, but it doesn’t drop calls.

I think I’ll keep my old iPhone for a little while, but the prices these things fetch on ebay are pretty enticing. Enough to buy a pretty snazzy new Blackberry 8-)

I’ve long used www.mfasco.com to order medicines in single use packets - they offer generics at pretty good prices - because the packets are easier to open and easier to carry. It’s also a bit safer for the kids because we might leave a single packet laying around, but the box stays on a high shelf. MFASCO really works best for things like ibuprofen that we know we’ll use in large quantities because their main market is companies refilling first aid kits and they sell mainly in bulk quantities. I don’t need 25 doses of, say, Dramamine, but it’s nice to have a few in the first aid kit just in case, and that’s where Minimus works well. I could pick up a few doses of several medicines I don’t need often but desperately need once in a while on the road.

I like to travel and of course I like playing with travel gear. When traveling by car, there doesn’t seem to be much gear to play with. Space isn’t a concern, nor is weight. That’s what I’d thought but I can tell you it’s not really true. About the third time we unloaded the car I started thinking that traveling light is the way to go no matter how you get there. It’s not fun to haul three bags per person (yes, I got carried away!) in and out of the car each time you reach a new destination.

I digress. My electric shaver doesn’t take up an entire bag, but it does weigh a lot more that 3 disposable razors. Add a can of shaving cream, and it’s a wash. Besides, I’ve become an electric shaver over the years. Leaving the charging cord for my shaver at home changed the balance of power. While reading onebag.com, I ran across King of Shaves shaving oil, and decided to give it a try. One bottle of oil supposedly lasts 100 shaves, and is very small.

KOS products are not very easy to find, but CVS does carry a few kinds of their oil and I bought the Alpha mentholated. I also picked up a pack of Gillette Good News disposable razors. I know, I know, they only have two blades and new razors have 3, 4 or even 5 blades. I decided to stick to what I’d used before.

First try: I had about 3-days of beard, and I knew I was in for some pain, but it actually wasn’t too bad. We were in a hotel and the light above the mirror was very dim, but I made do. I came away from it feeling like the oil was very subtle, if it was doing anything. After I rubbed the oil on, it was hard to tell I’d done anything. No smell to speak of, no slippery or greasy feeling. Good News razor have a lubrication strip that leaves a trail of very slippery stuff on your skin, so it was very hard to tell if it was the razor or the oil that was doing the lubricating. The menthol was also very subtle - I did not feel cool nor did I even smell it. However, I did not nick myself, which is remarkable considering how many years it had been since my last shave with a blade. One of the selling points of the oil is that without the foam it’s easier to see where you’re going, and there’s also a lot less to clean up. Not having to rinse a bunch of foam off is definitely worth it. Just pat dry, and I was done.

Second try: It was the next day, and the oil still seems very subtle. Two drops (the amount the instructions recommend) just isn’t very much, but I had the same results as the last time albeit with much less pain due to shorter whiskers. Overall, it was really quite pleasant.

Third try: Time to see what the oil really is doing. I started to shave without oil, just the razor. I even ran the razor backward over my skin to get the lubrication going. Ouch. The oil really was making it comfortable to shave. I could have kept going, but I decided to use the oil. I didn’t nick myself at all or even feel any irritation until I started going back over areas against the grain (something the shaving experts do not recommend) trying to get a closer shave.

So, will I ditch my electric shaver for blades? I dunno. I’ve ordered a few King of Shaves products to try out, but it’s just so much faster to go electric. For travel, however, I will take blades and KOS oil. Much less space, and no charging required.

[UPDATE] I tried going back to Edge Advanced Sensitive Skin. It was slipperier, but I felt irritation. After trying the Edge again, I went back to the oil during the same shave, and it was much more comfortable. I’m a bit confused, as I always thought slippery = good when it came to shaving cream, but the oil is less slippery-feeling but seems to make things work better. A single test is not exactly conclusive, however.

Anyway, I took their survey, and the first signs this whole effort was underdone came when they asked what brands of bags I own & buy, and had only ONE place to add new brands. They didn’t list Red Oxx, Tom Bihn, Timbuk2, Chrome or anything else unusual. I haven’t bought a “popular” brand of luggage in years, mostly because they’ve all lost their way and have begun making luggage as a fashion accessory first and a functional item second.

So I took their survey and it was mostly incoherent because first they ask how many bags have been purchased, then they ask for the brands to be listed & ranked, but since they don’t have the brands I’ve bought the two sections don’t agree.

The rest of the survey was tired old buyer behavior questions on whether I prefer to buy brands I know and whether I’ll pay more for better quality. Sheesh! Can’t you buy that data from here?

Once I finished the survey I was directed to a site quickly cobbled together and asked to enter a profile, and then I was dumped into a set of polls (read: another survey). The link for the polls was actually “Forums”, but given that I can’t start a new thread, enter my own poll, or do anything else but respond to their questions I think they should rename the link to “Survey”.

Did I plan to continue checking bags with increased baggage fees? Do I think it’s important for my luggage supplier to be green? I entered my response along with the other 5 suckers respondents. Wow. I’ve known that Tumi has slipped further and further down the slope of fashion over function, as all gear suppliers eventually do once they get big (TNF, Eddie Bauer, countless others) but I thought their marketing was more together than this.

Not one question about why I wouldn’t buy from Tumi, or why I like other brands, or even what I want in luggage.

Jim & Tom seem to have this insight, and without asking me to join some bogus panel.

I guess it’s because Tumi’s really not in the luggage business anymore, but in the “pretty thing for sale at the mall I’ve got to convince people they need” business. Great.

I get this error box that says “We could not complete your iTunes Store request. An unknown error occurred (-9838).” This was no doubt the portion of the iTunes store code written by ex-Microsoft employees. It’s not good when you update the firmware in a product only to have it die in the middle, leaving you with an inoperable product. My iPhone is not configured at all now, and won’t until Apple gets its poo together and iTunes stops having unknown errors.

C’mon Apple, you can’t tell us you didn’t expect high traffic. You know darn well exactly how many iPhones are out there…why the problems?

So, until things calm down, I’ve bricked my phone by doing their update. Great.

[update] I’ve found that the folks in Germany are having similar problems with iBrick 2.0, if my German is still up to speed.

I am very impressed with both of you. My husband doesn’t want to purchase a crib. Everytime we go to the store he picks the poorly made (overly priced) cribs apart. He is set on making his own. I just don’t want to add to his stress. Any suggestions I could pass on to him as he begins his own project, would be greatly appreciated.

There’s always advice one could give on tools, techniques, or whatever, but there are a few items that always fit:

1. Woodworking requires practice like anything else, and it’s not easy to keep from getting rusty unless you move from one project to another with no breaks. So, before I begin a large project like the crib, I build something smaller and less critical. The process of making the smaller project brings me up to speed, and reminds me of a all kinds of little things I have to remember.
2. Never fix a mistake immediately. Most likely, you will just follow it up with another mistake. There’s a reason why you made the mistake - you were tired, hungry, stressed, whatever - and the reason is STILL THERE. Any time I make a mistake (or injure myself) I take a break and leave the room and do something else for a little while.
3. Quit when you’re ahead. We all know the feeling at the end of a very productive day, when we’re just a few steps from being done. We’re elated, tired, and ready to be finished. STOP! You’re not as close as you think you are. Go to bed, and pick it up again in the morning.
4. Think about finishing first. The finish you put on a project is more important than just about anything else. A bad finish means a bad project that WILL get tossed when it gets old and dirty. With modern wipe-on varnishes, there’s just no excuses any more for not putting a decent finish on.

I went on another long ride today - 41.35 miles - and am now basking in the afterglow, as it were. My last long ride was 8 days ago, and 26 miles. My average speed was a bit lower this time, but the ride was pleasant if a bit bumpy & scary on Drexel Ave. I also learned that the people who place the signs for Milwaukee’s famous Oak Leaf Trail (the trail I was riding for most of the ride) assume that if there’s a side loop, like to the botanical gardens (big hill) that you’d just as soon do it, so the mark the trail to take on the loop. Careful map reading is a good habit to get into if you don’t want these side trips.

I also tried out on of my new cycling shirts:

I’ve created several designs, and you can get these great cycling shirts here. Two people commented on the shirt. A guy riding a fixie and pulling a trailer said “If that doesn’t get the point across, nothing will!” A woman on 20th Street, who I passed while hobbling on my last leg home said “I LIKE that shirt!” If I’d had the energy, I would have turned around and tried to sell her one.

It’s been great time to decompress, and the lawn’s gotten better care than I’ve ever given a lawn before. Our kitchen and other home projects are seeing progress as well.

I’ve also had time to get some miles on the bicycle. Last November we moved, and our new house has a unexpected benefit: I can ride my bike for many errands, including groceries and a hardware store. If I’m a bit more adventuresome and ride on 27th Street, I can hit most discount & home improvement stores. So, I’ve been running errands on the bike and it’s really pretty nice. But I hadn’t gone for any really long rides.

Monday I did 26 miles. I headed toward downtown, then took a detour around the Port of Milwaukee, and then headed down the bike path along the lake on the south side. Mostly it was a bit tiring, but very satisfying with a few notable exceptions:

6th street isn’t a road, it’s a form of punishment. It is the most unpleasant riding surface I’ve ridden yet. Traffic is ok, as the cars mostly slow down either in amazement that someone’s actually enduring the torture or in empathy. Forget waterboarding - bring the folks here, strap ‘em to a bike and do 6th street between Grange and Bolivar.

The Port of Milwaukee is not a great place to bicycle. I love ships, and since my wife is always loath to drive around down there as soon as I saw it (I was on my way to South Shore Yacht Club) I decided to go have a look. Bumpy roads strewn with gravel and sand, railroad tracks everywhere crossing the road at angles that guarantee flipping your bike if you don’t swerve just right to cross them perpendicular, and if that wasn’t even to make it really unpleasant, trucks driving around everywhere. They were very polite and gave me tons of space, but still, having a 60k pound truck whizzing by while your dodging road hazards really takes the fun out of it.

The rest of the trip was very nice. I had no problems other than running out of water. I think riding downtown from home is very feasible, and my next goal is to get to Alterra Coffee by the lake front. I think I’ll wait until after Summerfest though ;-)

There is also no way to change your password on the site from the rather short one they supply by default.

I’ve contacted the company about these issues and received no response.