These Laser Pointers Are Too Wicked

Earlier this week, I began running an ad purchased by a company that sells 15 to 300 milliwatt laser pointers with some pretty grandiose claims:

Used by the US Army! Slash, Cut Tape, Pop Balloons, Ignite Matches, Light Cigarettes, Sizzle Plastic, and Start Fires. Powered by a Sony diode.

Another blogger who runs their ads bought a laser and calls them insanely powerful:

Most laser pointers commercially available today top out at 5mW. The "Extreme Nexus" model that was sent to me rates at 95mW (they got some 300mW models, by the way). And let me tell you something, that's a difference that's really hard to miss. The laser is green, and is plainly visible without smoke, fog or dust, especially in dimmer settings. Not only that, but it actually burns. Yeah, the kind of burning that you can feel on your skin. And yes, it does light matches, it burns through dark plastic things and pretty much looks like a freaking light saber that extends for miles and miles into the sky.

I pulled the ad this morning after finding out more about the capabilities of these lasers, which I wrongly believed were comparable to toys, and their legal status for sale in the U.S.

A laser pointers guide published by the Food and Drug Administration states that pointers above 5 milliwatts only can be sold in the U.S. for commercial uses such as land surveying. They cannot be sold as amusement or pointing devices and are subject to seizure when imported into the country:

Irresponsible use of more powerful laser pointers poses a significant risk of injury to the people exposed. Persons who misuse or irresponsibly use lasers are open to personal liability and prosecution.

The company, which is based in China, has been warned by the FDA to follow product warning and compliance laws.

Though it does not appear illegal to run the ads, I don't accept ads for products that could get their American customers in legal trouble. I've rejected ads for absinthe and Cuban cigars on the same grounds.

· 2006/05/19 · 43 COMMENTS · Link

Texas Lottery Winner's Identity Kept Secret

The state of Texas is hiding a lottery winner's identity, refusing to release the name of the winner of a $64 million drawing Feb. 8.

A press release published by the Texas Lottery Commission calls the winner "The AB Revocable Living Trust" as if that were the name of a corporate entity, but an A-B revocable living trust is a form of estate that minimizes estate taxes by splitting marital assets into separate shares for each partner.

I've never heard of a state lottery that would keep a winner's identity private. Releasing the names is the only way the public can be assured that the state isn't keeping the money, as I was told years ago by a Texas Lottery Commission spokesperson when I wrote a question-and-answer column for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

2006/05/19 · 187 COMMENTS · Link

Six Minute Preview of Sorkin's Studio 60

Before NBC gets it pulled as a copyright violation, check out the six-minute preview of Studio 60, Aaron Sorkin's new fall series about a legendary but washed-up late-night comedy show.

I haven't been interested in the series, because television shows about television are like blogs about blogging -- they should be opposed on principle. But the promo, which NBC showed to the press during its upfront event, looks as great as West Wing did when it began.

Does anyone know what series it could possibly be based on?

Television · 2006/05/18 · 2 COMMENTS · Link

Dick Cheney's No Dick Nixon

In his famous Checkers speech in 1952, Richard Nixon was so aggrieved by allegations he misused $18,000 in political funds that he ran down an itemized list of his personal finances, showing the world that he hadn't grown rich in public life:

I have made an average of approximately $1,500 a year from nonpolitical speaking engagements and lectures. And then, fortunately, we've inherited a little money. Pat sold her interest in her father's estate for $3,000 and I inherited $l,500 from my grandfather.

We live rather modestly. For four years we lived in an apartment in Park Fairfax, in Alexandria, Va. The rent was $80 a month. And we saved for the time that we could buy a house.

Now, that was what we took in. What did we do with this money? What do we have today to show for it? This will surprise you, Because it is so little, I suppose, as standards generally go, of people in public life. First of all, we've got a house in Washington which cost $41,000 and on which we owe $20,000. We have a house in Whittier, California, which cost $13,000 and on which we owe $3,000. My folks are living there at the present time.

I have just $4,000 in life insurance, plus my G.I. policy which I've never been able to convert and which will run out in two years. I have no insurance whatever on Pat. I have no life insurance on our our youngsters, Patricia and Julie. I own a 1950 Oldsmobile car. We have our furniture. We have no stocks and bonds of any type. We have no interest of any kind, direct or indirect, in any business.

Now, that's what we have. What do we owe? Well, in addition to the mortgage, the $20,000 mortgage on the house in Washington, the $10,000 one on the house in Whittier, I owe $4,500 to the Riggs Bank in Washington, D.C. with interest 4 1/2 per cent.

I owe $3,500 to my parents and the interest on that loan which I pay regularly, because it's the part of the savings they made through the years they were working so hard, I pay regularly 4 per cent interest. And then I have a $500 loan which I have on my life insurance.

Well, that's about it. That's what we have and that's what we owe. It isn't very much but Pat and I have the satisfaction that every dime that we've got is honestly ours. I should say this -- that Pat doesn't have a mink coat. But she does have a respectable Republican cloth coat. And I always tell her that she'd look good in anything.

Vice President Cheney, who has spent all but five of the last 35 years as a public servant, has amassed a net worth of $94 million during that time.

That would buy a lot of Republican coats.

Politics · 2006/05/16 · 15 COMMENTS · Link

Jake Savin Has Been Assimilated

Jake Savin recently left UserLand Software for a move to Microsoft:

I've accepted a new job as technical program manager at Microsoft, working on the MSN/Windows Live team, and Monday morning I begin my first day of work.

It's been a very productive six years at UserLand, which has seen blogging go from obscurity to commonplace, RSS and XML-based syndication go from experimental to mainstream (even required), web services go from dream to business model, and podcasting go from non-existent to the big time.

I've relied on Savin often over the years for help with UserLand's publishing and programming tools, especially when I was writing Radio UserLand Kick Start. I didn't know he was also a music mogul in Dallas until he joined the RSS Advisory Board and I had to write his bio.

Rock on, Jake!

2006/05/16 · Comment · Link

Outsourcing My Weblog to India

Vivek Seal, a technology journalist in India who writes for Global Services Media, has posted a comment on Workbench addressing American critics of outsourcing:

I am a reporter from India and cover outsourcing scenario. I have few points for you people to get the exact picture and then make your conclusions about sourcing McDonalds customer care business to India:

1. We do not have call centers using Skype to interact with the US or European customers. There are dedicated fiber optical lines with the apt bandwith for the communication purpose
2. If it wasnt for India, many IT companies would have been making less money (IBM, Microsoft, HP, Dell. So eventually your companies are gaining a lot as well we are gaining a lot.
3. Even if the order taking business is outsourced to India, there would be a proper training program (2/3 months) to cater to different accents and the process.
4. If a person from Bangalore is able to do a job in less than half the cost and with more efficiency then that rationally a best thing for all the parties around it. No matter what.

All I wanna say is give India a chance to improve this world.

I'm concerned about outsourcing, though I try not to get all Lou Dobbs about it. I feel like it puts huge downward pressure on American jobs and wages, both white collar and service industry, because so much of our work is capable of being performed overseas. To me, the only winners will be the corporations and enterpreneurs who figure out how to exploit the cheap, well-educated labor for as long as they can, but even those folks will eventually suffer when Americans can no longer afford our extravagant standard of living.

But I want to give Seal a chance to convince me otherwise, so I'd like to outsource this weblog to him for a week.

Workbench receives around 11,000 hits a day over the web and syndication, and many of the readers are fellow technologists who've been in the first wave of Americans affected by outsourcing. He'd have seven days to show us how outsourcing improves the world.

He also could blog on politics, the pope or anything else he likes, since this is a personal weblog written by an author with poor focusing skills.

I'll let you know if Seal accepts the offer.

Programming · Politics · 2006/05/10 · 21 COMMENTS · Link

Don Park wants to fire the RSS Advisory Board:

I don't know what the hell is going on over at the RSS Advisory Board but it is starting to make my skin crawl. Who is behind all the recent activities? Whoever it is, let me say this to that person: RSS is not your milk cow.

I know many of the newly appointed members and, although I think they are wonderful people, I suspect they are being taken advantage of because I don't see why they are needed.

Rss · 2006/05/09 · 5 COMMENTS · Link

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