w00t!

I'm not sure where 'w00t' came from or what it means. However, woot.com rocks my world. (wikipedia entry)

I just picked up a Hammock Chair of Death - Two Pack for $34.99. (including shipping) I used it a whole bunch yesterday and am only mostly dead.

I've gotta admit, I've wooted once, and I want to woot again.

The idea is simple, only one product is sold each day, starting at midnight central time. When it sells out, tough luck.

They have some kind of weird/funny blog entry about it, and funny musical podcast. They summarize the sale through some simple statistics, and members put up links to comparisons and reviews.

Tuesdays are Two-fers... whatever you get, you get two off. Hence the two hammock chairs of death.

Sometimes they have "woot offs" where they sell something until it sells out, and then move on to the next thing with out waiting for the next day. I haven't seen one of these yet.

And sometimes they sell a "bag of crap" - which is whatever they have laying around at the time. Anything could be in there. Once somebody got a huge TV. That sounds cool. but a whole bunch of random stuff for a buck plus the $5 shipping?.. a truly beguiling offer.

Identity Theft Writ Large

Think having your indentity stolen would suck?.. You're just one person. Take the case of NEC which thought it was dealing with a common case intellectual property theft/infringement, but uncovered a large widespread case of brand hijacking.

Here's a shortened version of this article

Next step in pirating: Faking a company
By David Lague
International Herald Tribune FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 2006

After two years and thousands of hours of investigation in conjunction with law enforcement agencies in China, Taiwan and Japan, the [NEC] said it had uncovered something far more ambitious than clandestine workshops turning out inferior copies of NEC products. The pirates were faking the entire company.

In the name of NEC, the pirates copied NEC products, and went as far as developing their own range of consumer electronic products - everything from home entertainment centers to MP3 players. They also coordinated manufacturing and distribution, collecting all the proceeds.

The Japanese company even received complaints about products - which were of generally good quality - that they did not make or provide with warranties.

The investigation also revealed that fake goods from these factories were on sale in Taiwan, mainland China, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, North Africa, the Middle East and Europe. In some cases, they were being sold alongside legitimate NEC products in retail outlets.

Vickers, a former senior Hong Kong police officer, said he believed that the NEC case demonstrated how piracy is evolving from opportunistic and often shoddy copying of branded goods to highly coordinated operations. "On the surface, it looked like a series of intellectual property infringements, but in reality a highly organized group has attempted to hijack the entire brand," he said. "It is not a simple case of a factory knocking off a branded product. Many of them have been given bogus paperwork that they say gives them the right to do it."

Senior Chinese officials acknowledge that trademark violations occur, but they argue that local manufacturers were sometimes duped into producing pirated goods. At a media briefing in March, the Chinese deputy minister for customs, Gong Zheng, said many factories produced goods under license to be exported and sold under a company's brand. "Its easy for them to be deceived or lured by foreign traders to manufacture and export infringing goods," he said.

"The reality is that factories in China will produce what they are asked to produce," Vickers said. "The challenge is finding out who placed the orders and who funded it."

The article is fairly long and covers the troubles technology companies are having with Chinese knock-offs. It covers some of the pressure the US and Japan is trying to put on China to enforce the laws that they have.

My question is why is the piracy in China so rampant? Is it a lack of laws? Or an entreprenurial spirit so strong it doesn't recognize the theft of ideas? Is China a wild west of technology and manufacturing?

Classy

Off to see Wicked in downtown Chicago. Last minute tickets for free are sweet.

--

Mobile Email from a Cingular Wireless Customer http://www.cingular.com

Interview

Interview went really well. Felt great too, once I got started it was quite comfortable and kinda fun. It was a little less than two hours total with three different people.

What's the current curtesy? An email to each person I interviewed with?.. Or a card?.. Or something for just the most important person?

Summer Internship

I survived a preliminary telephone interview yesterday and have been asked to come in for a face to face interview on Friday. It's a conference planning position with the old arthur anderson training complex. As far as convention complexes go... it's amazing. It may even be worth the hour long commute (one way).

Mental

I'm telling you, women are crazy. My two cases in point:

1.) I ran into a guy I used to work for. His divorce was to be finalized later that week. I wouldn't doubt that the divorce is well deserved. But here's the crazy part... The soon be ex-wife wants to start going on dates shortly after the divorce is finalized. with her (then) ex-husband. it's something about getting re-aquainted or something like that.

2.) Heather's sister anne bought a gift for her boyfriend chris to celebrate three years of dating or something like that... it's a beautiful 23" lcd tv and dvd player which cost something on the order of $1200... here's the rub. He won't get to open it, or use it. She bought it for their bedroom when they get married. and it won't get used until then. they're not engaged yet, and they don't have the money for a downpayment on a house yet.

HUH?!

it's not that i don't like you... i'm allergic

I started having some eye trouble after my day in the park. I thought that maybe I had scratched my eye when changing contacts or possibly they were irratated because i had gotten some crud in my eye. I learned today that my eyes are now allergic to the brand of contacts i was using.

I haven't worn (or owned) glasses in years and had to get a new pair today. But obviously they're required until my eye recovers and I can get a brand of contacts that i'm not allergic to.

The new glasses feel really weird... like things at the outside of my corrected vision are moving faster than the center and everything outside of the rim of the glasses is blurred enough to be disorienting. I nearly fell twice walking out of the store.

Adults have more fun than kids...

this looks waaay too fun.

http://www.jonbrumit.com/byobw.html

Bring Your Own Big Wheel - it's a race down the curviest street in the world.

Spring has sprung

It was just too beautiful to waste the day in class. So I spent the day at a local park. I watched fish swim upstream... Napped in a hammock and stopped to enjoy the flowers...

Look at the pictures below, I think it was a day well spent.

the "aye"-s have it

looks like we've got some interest in a rowdie region reunion on the weekend of the 19th in may.
it works well for me, it's the first weekend after my semester is over.

nominations for activities and locations?..

I took a look at that weekend for interesting events for both chicago, and the suburbs around me... and there's not really anything special. Just the usual assortment of tours (walking, biking or boat), several different improv comedy places, museums, theatre and the large collection of bars everywhere.
The kane county cougars (minor league baseball) play a wisconsin team on friday: $8 - $10, with a fireworks show. There are fireworks at Navy Pier downtown on saturday (7-8 minute show, but it's free). There's a crawfish boil in one suburb.

Conversations I'm Glad I Haven't Had

RIAA: You stole music! Give us money!
College Student: But I'm broke... I have no money.
RIAA: Drop out of college, with the money you save, you can pay us.

I remember warm days...

I remember warm days...
Originally uploaded by McBLG97.

Sun soaked corn on a warm Indiana day.

It's my suspicion

That diet coke mixed with early times has more fizz than diet coke without.

 

But that could just be my impatience.