“Smoking or non?” was our unexpected welcome to dining away from California’s strict no smoking laws. Today Connecticut joins California as a new law banning smoking in restaurants goes into effect.

As a good little former GRiD employee (a Tandy subsidiary), I knew that Radio Shack’s parent company had its origins as Tandy Leather Company, but as a lapsed Connecticut resident I had forgotten that Coleco started out as the Connecticut Leather Company. (via leuschke)

There’s a new alternative for quickly saving waterlogged books with Super Slurper, the same polymer that has been used in diapers. It could replace tedious, time-consuming air drying and vacuum freeze-drying processes. The actual methods for the book drying have patents pending, so the only information given by the company creating this technique is that the powder never touches the book. A chemical engineer theorized that the powder could be embedded in sheets applied to the book pages. A finished product is a year away.

Video Learning via Reader Mail

Seth sent in the very nice “How Everyday Things are Made” videos from Stanford’s Alliance for Innovative Manufacturing. Chocolate, denim, airplanes, and bottles are among the items created before your eyes in Flash.

Prompted by my link to the online SICP, Jack sent in a link to Hewlett Packard’s professionally produced videos of Hal Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman’s Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs lectures. These are from 1986 and thus differ from the evolved current course, but the general principles will never change.

I purchased David Bowie’s new album, “Reality,” in Vancouver over the weekend (more on that trip at a later date), and was considering also buying the 30th Anniversary Edition of “Aladdin Sane” when I noticed that it was “copy controlled.” Bowie has stated in interviews that he is against copy protection, but EMI, who is releasing his back catalogue, decided to put their “Copy Control” feature on all the Aladdin Sane CDs released in Canada (at least, I’m not certain of the extent of their distribution). Information in an Amazon.com user review claims that only the Canadian versions are copy protected and the American ones are not. At least EMI is clearly labeling the ones that are, which is some small solace. I can only hope that their sales figures will reveal that this scheme is not going to help them sell more CDs.

I always buy Pearl River Bridge Soy Sauce, because that’s the brand my parents buy. Thinking I would save a few pennies, I reached for the large plastic jug version at Uwajimaya, which sat right underneath the Pearl River Bridge glass bottles. I hesitated, however, when I noticed that the jug labels did not actually say “Pearl River Bridge” although they were of very similar design and coloring. I wasn’t surprised to find brand identity issues with products imported from China, but Google turned up a scary side note to this problem. In 2000 the U.K.’s Food Standard’s Agency found certain soy sauce brands contained unacceptable levels of a suspected carcinogen, 3-MCPD. Pearl River Bridge was one of the brands. The manufacturer refuted the claims, stating that counterfeit versions of their product had been used. The FSA released an update in 2001 stating that the products now were within acceptable limits. A study in 2002 showed even better results. The news also spawned a misleading email that was circulated. Pearl River Bridge has taken steps to protect their brand and reputation by implementing strict labeling policies. Since the new label description seems specific to their U.K. importer, I’m uncertain about how to correctly identify the product in the U.S., but I will continue to be on the lookout for obvious imitations. And I’m certain we’ll never know if the FSA actually tested counterfeit product or if Pearl River Bridge adjusted their formula.

On Online Shopping

The beauty of shopping is in the hunt. Stalking shoes on clearance racks and flushing out a purse from the bargain bin is an occupation that many saner individuals can’t appreciate. For them, the perfect shopping experience consists of finding the sought after item immediately, and returning home before the ink dries on the charge slip. Those who hate to shop must surely love the Internet. Stick a few words into a search box, and bingo, the item you need is right in front of you, no trolling necessary. Those who love to shop must love the Internet too. It brings you riches you could never unearth at the mall. But one of my favorite live shopping activities has no comparison online, and that is the experience of used book shopping.

The library system of my new habitat has announced that they will no longer be holding their twice yearly used booksales. Instead, they have been shipping those same books to Boulder, Colorado where they are sorted, priced, and entered into a database. That database sits underneath the shopping facade of none other than amazon.com. As we had just missed the large Seattle public library sale, the revelation that we would also miss out on our own library’s sale was heart-breaking. How does one duplicate the experience of a used booksale through the Internet? If it were even possible to scan all the pages would that make up for any of it?

It seems hopeless. The beauty of the used booksale is that you never know what you are looking for. But you know you’ll find it. No search term delivers that to you, and no browser matches the tactile experience.

Clever people at the University of Rochester have flipped the typical use of RFID around and created a navigational aid for the visually impaired. Radio tags are placed at key locations and a handheld receiver is triggered to play an audio CD track when a tag is nearby. The setup could also be used for self-guided tours. No more punching numbers into museum Acoustiguides. The researchers have applied for a patent.

Speaking of Acoustiguide, their product information does list “Remote triggering:
Optional Radio frequency systems” as an available feature. Other interesting tidbits from their site: Museums can purchase a data collection feature which allows them to download information from the units about what the user listened to (which translates to the route they took) and the related timing. “In general, men and younger visitors prefer headsets, and women prefer wands.” And if you’ve noticed that more museums are offering their audio tours for free, note that “Under this arrangement, all visitors are offered an audio program with a highly perceived value at a minimal cost to the client. The institution may raise the admission price marginally, and Acoustiguide is paid a per visitor fee.”

brandchannel.com steps through the history of the Teva sandal. Rafters appreciated the functionality of the strappy footwear enough to overcome any aversion to the odd look. Now sporty sandals are everywhere. Join in my unsuccessful campaign to promote the correct pronounciation of “teh’-vah” (not “tee-vah”).