Zeroization What it is

July 31, 2007

Reconsidering the Cell Phone

Filed under: Cell Phones,Top 10 — Mr. Zero @ 10:59 pm

Wired has a bunch of reasons you might reconsider having a cell phone. I just got rid of mine a few months ago. My top reasons from the article:

It’s horribly expensive
Total Cost of Ownership. Apply that idea to everything, not just cars and mortgages. The fact is that most cellphones will cost you thousands over the life of the contract. Short of paying-as-you-go with a Wal-Mart crapdybar, you’re in it for a good $1,000, and about $2,000 or so with a smartphone.

And if you get a new cell phone, locking you into a new contract, you just perpetuate it even longer.

It enslaves you to a one-sided contract
This is the magic that allows the previous item to happen, but is sufficiently vile to warrant an entry of its own. Everyone is at it, but the most iconic example of how times have changed is AT&T: Ma Bell has reglued itself together with almost Marxian inevitability, but now has the advantage of having countless customers under astonishingly abusive contract terms. Take that, deregulation.

Market power anyone?

It makes you perpetually available
If it’s on, they can get you. If it’s off, they wonder why they can’t get you. It’s a lose-lose situation for your Zen.

This is perhaps the top reason. If you have one, it simply becomes an expectation that your are always available by phone. There’s no room for uninterupted serenity or leisure.

July 30, 2007

Types of Visas

Filed under: Immigration,Visas — Mr. Zero @ 4:15 am

I wasn’t aware that the US had so many types of visas. The only kind I’ve run into are the (controversial) H-1Bs, which are for people with ‘special skills.’

July 29, 2007

It takes a firm man…

Filed under: Cooking,Food — Mr. Zero @ 6:40 pm

Christopher Walken makes a chicken. (looks pretty tasty) Christopher Walken has a reputation for being something of a cook and apparently does quite a bit of cooking himself, since restaurants sketch him out.

Ghost Bikes

Filed under: Cycling,New York — Mr. Zero @ 6:34 pm

I’ve seen a few of these “Ghost Bikes” around the city. They’re white bicycles placed at the site of fatal bicycle accidents. It looks like this new site will be putting something up on the phenomenon soon.

July 28, 2007

Alli

Filed under: Food,Health — Mr. Zero @ 6:08 am

I’ve been very curious about the drug Alli, the weight loss drug that is now available over the counter. The marketing claims that you can expect some modest increases in the amount of weight loss, provided you follow a fairly low fat diet. But we’re we’re talking – 15 grams per meal. That’s really a rather small amount of fat, the amount you would find in your average sandwich. If you go over the 15 grams in a single meal, Alli sees to it that you are punished with ‘treatment effects,’ essentially foul-smelling oil leaking out of your anus. After reading vile personal experiences such as “My body won’t stop leaking” and “Stinky treatment effects and you, a yucky story” I’m not entirely sure that I need to take the drug itself to lose weight. I just goes to show what people will put themselves through to lose weight. For my part, I’m sticking with exercise.

July 27, 2007

New Soul Food

Filed under: Food — Mr. Zero @ 2:08 am

Hungry in Hogtown, the excellent food blog, has a kool entry on a kool subject, kool-aid pickles. Don’t laugh, kids apparently love them.

July 24, 2007

Free Energy

Filed under: Energy,Environment,Science — Mr. Zero @ 7:27 pm

I remember throughout my youth hearing how solar energy would someday take over if only they could improve the efficiency of the panels. Turns out they are getting very efficient, very quickly.

Ugly Outfits NYC

Filed under: Fashion,New York — Mr. Zero @ 2:35 am

Ugly Outfits NYC is sort of like Overheard in NY in that it captures the some of the street theater I live for – spotting outrageously bad outfits.He blinded me with science

July 23, 2007

iTunes Bloatware Blues

Filed under: Apple,iTunes,Software — Mr. Zero @ 3:11 am

After finding that iTunes 7.3 pinned my processor to 99% utilization for no explicable reason, I decided to download 7.3.1. What a nightmare this once useful software has turned into. It’s bad enough that I have to endure a complete Quicktime reinstall that is slipgraded with every new version of iTunes (and having to delete the unwanted qttask.exe every fucking time), now I have to deal with iPhone bullshit as well. I don’t have an iPhone, so I don’t need any special software or services associated with it. iTunes has become bloated and irritating load of crap.

July 21, 2007

Cold Brew Iced Coffee

Filed under: Coffee — Mr. Zero @ 3:18 am

So, I tried the cold-brew iced coffee technique. To pull it off, I simply took a french press coffee maker, put the usual amount of coffee in, added water and allowed it to brew overnight. By morning (when I do most of my coffee consumption) the coffee was ready. A french press is particularly well-suited to this technique as it has a built in filter.

There is definitely something of a difference between the hot brewing and cold brewing processes. In particular, I did find that the acidity was much lower. This method of brewing emphasizes the sweetness and the richer chocolate flavors that many coffees exhibit under the right circumstances. So, it’s definitely worth a try.

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