For a decade I suffered this piece of junk -- or a different but essentially identical one.

(Hat tip; Flickr pool; my comparison album)

Now playing:

Album: A Lesson in Romantics (buy)

Track: Jamie All Over (listen)

These guys are great.  They’re like a cross between Seville and Cartel.  The whole album is super catchy.

Quoting Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman:

"This is the CNN’s schedule.  They officially trained the people to come and hack Iran’s government Web sites.  This is the English text, I can give it to you.  This is a cyber war.  This, with, isn’t it a cyber war of the media with an independent government?  They asked people to use the DOS system to hack our Web sites," Qashqavi said.

I hear what you’re saying, but honestly, if they’re trying to use the DOS system to hack your Web sites, you’re probably OK.

Sweet video here.  The hangtime on that jello is amazing.

I would download the 720p or 1080p version, rather than playing it in your browser, to avoid skipping and stuff.

These chips are good.  But it used to be the case that, about half the time I bought them, the bag would be full of dark chips -- and those chips were great.  Lately though, for the past 6-12 months I’d say, it’s extremely rare to get a bag of the dark ones.

The problem is it’s the same bag and the same variety and everything; sometimes they’re regular, and sometimes they’re dark.  And for some reason the people at the store frown upon customers opening all the bags in the middle of the store.  Or so I’ve heard.

Yesterday Kim went to Redner’s and got 4 bags: 2 of this kind and 2 of the same brand in the "Sea Salt and Vinegar" variety, which also exhibit this inconsistent character.  I opened them all right away, and the first 3 were plain old chips.  But the 4th bag was dark!  I was so excited; naturally I ate half the bag right then and there.

Anyway, I decided to document this irregularity with the hopes that I can bring it to the attention of the company (Kettle Foods, Inc.) and convince them to simply release a second line of dark chips in the same varieties.

These 2 bags of chips came from the same store on the same day, but they do have very different production codes.

Side-by-side:

Light:

Dark:

Light production code:

Dark production code:

The bags themselves including the SKU/UPC are identical:

About 18 months ago, I was sitting at my desk minding my own business, when suddenly my chair made a terrible cracking noise, dropped down an inch or two, and tilted off to one side.  The end of a bolt apparently snapped off -- an important bolt.  After that it was really squeaky, but the actual sitting experience wasn’t so degraded that I felt the need to get a new chair right away.

I finally did get a new chair last week.  The previous one with the defective bolt was from Staples so naturally that’s where I went to get the new one.

I spent about half an hour in the store trying a few of their couple dozen chairs, and finally settled on this one:

I knew I liked it when I opened the box and found the parts packaged like this:

That’s such an obvious idea, but nothing else I’ve ever bought has used it.  Normally the parts are all together on one piece of cardboard with a key that you have to match up to the instructions.  This way is much better.  Of course it’s randomly missing letters (as in "Part B" in the photo), but I guess you can’t have everything.

But then I actually opened the instructions and saw this:

...which obviously makes these the best instructions ever.

Apple will be releasing the "iPhone 3G S" on Friday, an upgraded version of the 3G whose main differences are that it’s faster, has more storage space, and has a better camera.

But they also dropped the price on the iPhone 3G to just $99.  So if the upfront cost of a few hundred bucks was your main barrier to getting an iPhone, it looks like today’s your lucky day.  This appears to be a while-supplies-last kind of thing, though, so I wouldn’t wait too long.

Unfortunately, AT&T is not giving existing customers the same sweet deal that we got when the 3G first came out.  At that time you could upgrade from the original iPhone to the 3G and get the new customer discount by re-upping your 2-year contract.  This time, though, instead of getting that same deal where the 3G S would cost $199 (16GB) or $299 (32GB) as it does for new customers, us existing customers have to pay $399 or $499.

That makes perfect sense since, as with virtually every phone in the US cell phone market, the cost of the iPhone isn’t really $199 or $299; it’s that plus the cost of the 2-year contract.  Still, it sucks.  I’ve been wanting a 32GB iPhone for a long time, and was absolutely planning to get one at $299.  But $499?  I don’t think so.  And judging from the outcry around the interblag, lots of other current 3G owners feel the same way.

Quoting The New York Times:

President Obama ... said the tobacco legislation was "a bill that truly defines changes in Washington" and one that "changes the way Washington works and who it works for."

These kinds of comments are often just political BS, but this statement is somewhat true since, as I’ve said before, the only reason tobacco is legal while heroin is not is the rich & powerful lobbying force behind tobacco.

Quoting The New York Times:

The legislation will enable the Food and Drug Administration to impose potentially strict new controls on the making and marketing of products that eventually kill half their regular users.

Obviously the fact that heretofore the FDA could not regulate tobacco -- a horribly addictive and deadly drug -- is just absurd.

Quoting The Wall Street Journal:

"Allowing the FDA to regulate tobacco in any capacity would inevitably lead to the FDA regulating the family farm," Rep. Howard Coble, R-N.C., said during the House debate.  "This could create uncertainty for family farmers as they are already struggling."

Talk about BS.  "Family farm" is not synonymous with "tobacco farm."  And guess what, when the product that you sell kills millions of people annually while serving virtually no valid purpose, then you deserve to go out of business.