Is Technology Reaching A Turning Point?

Growing up in the late 70's & 80's I was the generation to really experience the first Walkman, watch phones go mobile, and realize the personal computer. Our kids now live in a world where contstant conectivity is the norm. One thing that made the PC as common as a TV in todays homes, was the advent of the computer mouse, introduced by Apple on the Macintosh home computer. Now the mouse is soon to become extinct, and again Apple is leading the way. If you have not yet experienced the iPhone or the iPod Touch, you need to give it a test drive. Multi-Touch is going to fast become the way everyone will prefer to interact with machines, weather your home PC or your home entertainment system. Gone soon will be remotes controls, PC mice, and even buttons on your cell phone. The amazing thing is that the manufacturers for the first time I think I can recall, are well behind on delivering this technology to us. Typically as soon as a new idea could be delivered to market, somone was figuring out how to do so. Currently, all the buzz is about WHEN will multi-touch be available, not IF. So behind, and so delayed is the release of this new technology, home brewed do-it-youself systems are already being published online. The last time I can recall this grass roots desire to go-it alone was when satalite TV was born, and people began building home made dish systems. Public domain software is readily published and I have stumbled upon at least two step-by-step instructions on build your own, multi-touch interface systems. [HERE & HERE] Why this has not yet become a consumer ready product today I can't understand. Until it is, I am holding off on buying a new computer. I would suggest you do the same. Your mouse and standard display will be obsolete by 2009, mark my words. [VIDEO RESULTS HERE]

Flooding in Chehalis, WA

This eerie image was on the front page of today's Oregonian. About center is Washington Home Center, my biggest customer for the homes we build. They suffered flood damage to at least 7 display homes. One of our customer service techs also lost his home.

Paradox Of Our Age

Originally by Dr. Bob Moorehead (Pastor)

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways , but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete...

Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.

Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.

Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.

Remember, to say, "I love you" to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.

Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

The real paradox is that as true as these statements appear, they are unfortunatly written by a church pastor who inevitably had to resign due to allegations of sexual assault by church members.
See Snopes for the full scoop.

No Longer Undecided

Chuck Norris Picks A Candidate - Watch more free videos

Goosed

Enjoy these geese for no real reason.

2007 Octoberfest Weiner Races

Daisy, our weiner dog, raced this Sunday at the Mt. Angel, Octoberfest. Again, she failed to beat out the competition. Seen here as the 3rd dog to the right, in the white coat, she was looking like a close 2nd, when she decided to turn back and see who was behind, allowing the 3rd and 4th positions to overtake her. You can see the intensity in my face as I coach her to the finish. Dashound owners are strange folk, myself not excluded. You can find more photos from this years races on my Picasa web albums.

New Camera

My photography had been on hold as I struggled to replace my Canon digital camera. Two weeks ago my daughter dropped my pocket digital and jammed the lense mechanics. The camera had served me so well for both work and play, taking thousands of shots, and having it for about 3 years, I only recently bought a spare battery to extend it's use. For this reason I wanted to replace it with the same model, and used would do provided it was in good condition. Ebay delivered with a like new condition unit for 1/3 the price of a new one. I even upgraded from the SD300 model to the SD400 5MP version and can still use my old accessories. Amazingly the replacement used camera looks like it had never been touched, and was delivered over the weekend with my winning bid on Friday and delivery on Monday! If you are looking for a handy point & shoot digital camera look no further than the Canon digital Elph series.

Dorena

Long overdue for some fun on the water, we played until we were sore this weekend at Dorena Lake. I took this shot after our day on the lake Saturday. The sky was mostly cloudy with a chance of rain, we took our chances and they paid off.

 

Way too many photos can be found on my Picasa web albums if you know where to look.

Shameless Self Promotion

Go to Break.com and vote my barefoot video to the homepage, because I said, that's why.

Barefoot Ski Smash - Watch more free videos

Wakeboard Re-Creation

The brother of a friend of my x-brother-in-law (Got that?) produced a compilation of our summer water adventures and I compressed it down to just a few shots in this re-creation of our recreation. Credit to William La Ferriere.

Loaded to the Nuts

My dad used to always load up his truck or trailers
so full that the springs would sag and he would brag
how he had been "Loaded to the nuts!" in this case
I think this guy was loaded, and nuts.

Overdue for a Rant!

What is with stores seasonal wares? It seems every time I need something it is 'out of season'! Last fall I wanted some torch oil for my tiki torches and not a single store had a drop, yet today the stuff is at the end of every isle. Last week my daughter needed as swim suit and I lucked out, they were on clearance cause they were getting rid of the summer clothes... in early JULY. Good thing I didn't wait till August when it is much to cold out to swim. Then today I wanted some pool supplies for my hot tub. 3 stores had cleared out the stuff, one had only a few items left. Target was moving out all the lawn and garden stuff for back to school supplies!, in JULY? Retailers wonder why they are loosing out to online stores.. do you think it might be because you can get what you want, WHEN you need it online. I am not one to plan ahead, or wait for a package in the mail. I like instant gratification, I don't even like to wait till I get home to open my new products, I often have the packaging ripped off and in the garbage can on my way out the store.. that's why they put those there right?

More Geek Video

This clip was interesting to me because I never understood how computers made calculations in binary because I am a visual learner. This is also why I used to love America's Funniest Home Videos and why I skipped college.

Marble Based Calculator - Watch more free videos

Surface Computing

Apple is leading the release of this type of touch interface on the I-Phone, however before long your computer will be using the same technology. Pretty cool stuff.

Really Cool Microsoft Technology - Watch more free videos

Remember Me

Lizzy Palmer a 15 year old who made this video, it is very well done and says what needs to be said. God Bless Our Armed Forces.

OxyClinton

OXYCLINTON - Watch more free videos

Entertainment Value

Now that everyone post crap on YouTube the internet is bloated with garbage. At one time, only those with talent or creativity knew how to post video to the web. Once in a great while I do find a clip worth sharing, hope you enjoy this one.
Sweet Reverse Movie - Watch more free videos

Hugo Enacts 'Fairness Doctrine'

Good'ole Hugo Chavez has squelched opposition by shutting down the only remaining media outlet in Venezuela that has dared to broadcast any views in oppossion to his socialist agenda. While Hollywood usually prefers freedom of ideas, Actor/Director Danny Glover sees things differently, especially when he can play movie mogel with some of the oil money recenty prvided by Hugo to produce a film promoting Venezuela. Let me predict the next big actor turned producer/director will be Sean Penn as he films a movie for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about american agression in the middle east. This type of censorship is one step from the Fairness Doctrine current liberals are trying to re-enact in congress now that the 'progressive' liberal mouthpiece Air-America went bankrupt. Since nobody will listen to liberals they want to be sure conservatives can't be heard ither. Diversity of culture: GOOD, Diversity of political opinion: BAD

Real Cost of Uncontrolled Immigration

Go Away Paris

Go Away Paris

Join the movement!

Mickey Mustafa Jihad

Educational progamming in Palistine


Compared to this mouse, no wonder Paris Hilton is considered a roll model.

Saturday Traffic Jam

So I am driving home from Ranier, OR on a Saturday afternoon and just my luck I get stuck in a 3 mile back-up of bumper to bumper traffic. Although this is typical Portland, it is unusual for a weekend. What was the cause? This tipped over truck on the infamous Terwilliger curves. Notice it is not even in our lane?! Why the slow down? Rubberneckers gawking and taking photos!(Notice the gap I created while shooting this) Idiot drivers.

Egg Hunt

This year the kids had a backyard hunt for the infamous brown eggs carefully placed by Daisy the dashund.

The child with the heaviest bag won. Nathan just overtook Karmann by a few lengths and took the prize.

Big Fat Dee-Dee-Dee

Rosie here insists that for the first time in history, fire melted steel. Hmm, that is an interesting theory, what does exactly melt steel then Rosie? Any 7th grader with Google can resolve the reality between conspiracy theories and the fact. Rosie is our village idiot!

Rosie Odonnell Is A Big Fat Idiot - Click Here for more great videos and pictures!

Rosie has no formal education and she should be fired for spewing these ignorant rants as though they have some basis in fact. She could just as likely get the audience to cheer in agreement if she proclaimed the earth is flat and Condoleezza Rice is a witch.

Gore's Envornmental Empire Building

I was bored in a hotel room last week, and while flipping through the channels I came upon Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth, Biography/Documentary about Al's crusade against global warming. Having never seen it, but hearing lots of news both in support and in critique of the movie I felt compelled to watch and hear his side of the issue. First I was confused by the way it was directed as a movie as much about Al Gore and his biography, as it was about his so called truth. While the presentation was believable, the delivery made me more a sceptic than ever, like I was being over sold. It reminded me of a visit I was suckered into by an Amway sales person, without knowing I was about to be sold on the Amway scheme, I was led to believe I was going to be shown some great financial advise exclusive only to me. To the viewer you could get enveloped in the story of how Al now has devoted his life to saving the earth and he owes this to the planet for allowing his presidential bid to be taken or 'stolen' away from the populous by George Bush. Subtle hints of the 2000 election results almost even made my cynical self begin to feel sorry for this career politician who had to misfortune of being raised half on a tobacco plantation and half in a hotel in Washington DC.. Poor guy, what hard knocks to have to endure. A tear welled up in my eye while he flew over middle America in his private jet overlooking the vast earth he is about to save.

In other news, check out this interesting story on how Al's carbon offsets actually boost his investment portfolio, or this one, on all the Ethanol that we fuel up the farm combines and burn up the energy needed to create it at the distillery plant only to result in a net 0% reduction in carbon emissions at your tailpipe compared to straight gasoline. Your all being fooled into lining Al's pockets folks!

Gore home's energy use: 20 times average

Scientists slam Gore

Bush Haters Unite

Oregon is a great place to live, unfortunately I have to share it with a bunch of insane bastards. Victoria Taft, a local talk radio host, has the photos of these loosers making a psycho circus of the streets of Portland, as well as this image from San-Fran-Sicko

See the Enemy Within Click NOW.

Stonehenge

I stopped at sunrise to visit this replica of Stonehenge that sits as a WWII memorial along the scenic Columbia River Gorge. Sitting on the Washington Side it has a spectacular view both east and west of the Columbia River.
You can learn more about it HERE

Enforcing The Law?

A new stratagy, reports CNN, called "Enforcing the Law" shows positive results in Bagdad, Iraq. In related news, here in the United States, illegal immigration, illegal drug use, and identity theft experience dramatic increases as the American policy of "NOT Enforcing the Law" continues.

Things That Make You Go Hmmmmm

Shift Happens - Click Here for more great videos and pictures!

The Mud Photos Published

The photos Nathan and I took have been published on www.themud.com all 600+ of them! Usually once the public gets wind of them online the site gets pretty busy and at times will be off line. The club was kind enought to even give me a plug right on the home page for my efforts. Thanks!

Mud Photos

I spent the first half of today sorting, deleting, and adding stars to the best of the 800+ digital photos Nathan & I took on Saturday at this years Mud Fest. I put the top 96 on my Picasa Web Albums for your viewing pleasure. Don't forget to check out the video on the previous post.

From Mud 2007

Destruction at The Mud

Please rate it on Break.com!

Mud Time

I will be at the Mountain Mud Festival Saturday, look for mobile posts live from 'THE MUD'

Immigration by the Numbers

My uncle sent this to me, although long, well worth the time if you care to fully appreciate the serious nature of our country's current lack of immigration controls.

Slip Sliding Away

Below is another example of why I won't be moving back to MN, it appears the only entertainment at this college campus is taking video of students walking across a slippery sidewalk and eating it.

What's with that laughing girl at the end, it's not THAT funny!

Super Bowl Behind The Scenes

In honor of Super Bowl XLI

Where the Hell is Matt?

I stumbled upon this video on Break.com and then visited the creators website. Reading about how this was created I found out that Matt uses the same digital camera to make this video as the one I use. Matt is becoming another elebrity like the Star Wars kid, or Lonelygirl15 of YouTube fame. "elebrities" are more interesting than celebrities in my personal opinion.

Sub Zero

It is so frick'n cold in Minnesota even the snowmen want in!

Below ZERO ->?!

Snow Play 2007

My 3 plus dog and I went to Tombstone pass summet where we go to play in the snow.
Enjoy my photo web-album

Snow Play 2007

Hillary's Closet

Something tells me the Hillary for president supporters have forgotten about the internet factor. While most political figures can rise to a level that practically allows them to rewrite history, this will prove far too difficult in the blogosphere. As the next presidential election draws near, it will be interesting how hard the media will try to ignore what bloggers are digging up from the Clinton archives. Just look what I found with 5 minutes on Google:


Hearings on Clinton Pardons

Scooter Libby, Mark Rich, & Clinton Connection

Tony Rodham and Clinton's Pardons

And then there is the Whitewater Scandal

And I thought getting "Swiftboated"
was a bummer!

Health Care Up In Smoke

Days fly by so fast lately, it surprises me when I look and notice that the last post here is nearly a week old. My mind churns during my morning commute, listening to the daily news of all the crap I could rant on about yet I hold back purposely because before I realize it some of my coworkers or customers will be reading this stuff.

The usual political slant is now outpouring from the news media like Rosie & Trump on meth. The congress is going to speak for the people and pass a "resolution" to send a message to the white house. Spending bills will start rolling out of the capital dome like an lava flow of pig slop. Bureaucrats will be slurping up all the pork belly spending while we all sit at home and sign our stack of forms for the 2006 tax year.Here in Oregon we are going to provide health care for our underprivileged kids with monies collected by our over privilaged smokers via a $.85 a pack increase in the cigarette tax. Funny thing is, all the smokers I know, are the ones with 3-5 kids and no health insurance, so why don't we just provide 1 month of health care for every couple of cartons of smokes they buy and skip all the middle men. You know that with the price of smokes already around $4-$5 per pack smokers are going to either quit or get them on the black market to avoid the tax.

We already have a state tax of $1.18 per pack today, and ranked the 16th in the highest tax on cigarettes. Much of this goes to our state health care entitlement program and this is all depending on a market that declines each year. They claim to be raising the tax to pay for more services but it seems to me they must raise the tax to yield the same revenue with the fewer packs of smokes sold each year. This is the most near sighted policy I have ever seen.

Another way to fund heath care for those less fortunate would be with Marlboro miles, or Camel Bucks, you know those tags on the packs that usually are saved up for a free t-shirt or wind breaker. Chemo-therapy treatments for lung cancer could cost like 20,000 Marlboro miles, you have to figure by the time you get cancer from smoking you would have plenty of miles saved for your treatments.

Uncle Ben

Congratulations to my brother Jon and his wife Jennifer on their new baby girl Paige Roche who was born today in St. Cloud, MN. This my first niece (biologically speaking anyway)





Paige was born at St. Cloud Hospital, and I learned not only do they have an online nursery, they have an online gift shop! I didn't order them anything because I knew all the blog readers out there would be sending the "It's A Girl" bouquet and how many do you really need, honestly?

Sun King Hey Ya

It has been awhile since I vistied Grouchy Media's website. They post some really sweet military footage montages in the spirit of nationalism. There are links to various videos circulating around the web, as well as a collection of military photos. Most recently this one can be found on YouTube so check it out.

Portland Bumper Cars

video from the portland ice storm today.

Let's recap, when the road outside your appartment is a steep sheet of ice, before you go out you bring what?
(A) Kitty litter or rock-salt for traction
(B) Road flares or flashlight to warn drivers
(C) A broom or shovel clear some snow
(D) Your video recorder.

Dementia-Crats

How loony are our leaders already? I keep hearing the same rhetoric from the newly appointed majority in Washington, that we need to get help from the Iranians and Syrians to stabalize Iraq. Mostly based on the Iraqi study group findings. Baker (a rebulican?) surely must be suffering from Alzheimer's! Why would we seek help from the neighbors who supply our enemy with the weapons to kill us? It is suspected that majority of IED's that are killing our soldiers can be traced to ither Iran or Syria. Who in there right mind would expect anything but deciet, betrayl, and sabatoge from a long standing enemy of both Iraq and the United States. This is what we know to be true today, but less we forget that Iran has been attempting to develop nuclear weapons for decades, and any concessions we provide to help us defeat the insurgency in Iraq would certainly be tied to looking the other way when it comes to Iran's nuclear program. This thoughtless plan is the equivilant of allowing the local meth lab too keep cooking if they will kindly tell the tweakers to quit stealing our DVD players.

Kopimist [ Copy-Me ist ]

Although a devout conservative, when it comes to intellectual property I lean libertarian. If music and movies are an art form, I can't understand why an artist wouldn't want their works to be freely distributed. Artists should be afforded quite a luxurious lifestyle if there works demand the attention of the world. Public appearances, the sale of original works, or in the case of performance arts like music and drama, all can be profitable. Even street performers get paid. As an example, if you recorded a very entertaining street performer, then put them on YouTube, if they became a famous figure online overnight, don't you think that would benefit the performer? The music industry has been ripping of the public by paying promoters to shove lipsyncing artists down the ear canals of popular radio listeners for decades. I quit buying CD's when I thought I would enjoy an album based on the hit single only to find I payed $16 for one song, and 10 tracks of garbage. The music business is on it's ear with the advent of Ipods and file sharing networks like LimeWire and now Bitorrent sites like www.ThePirateBay.org so they are on the attack. With deep pockets and tough lawyers on the side of the recording and movie industry, you can expect the winners to be the media execs and the losers to be you, me, and the artists who actually have talent.

Portland Sunrise

We had a very early morning trip to Portland today to bring the girls to a cheerleading competion. This is the first time I can remember I have been in Porland at sunrise. Since the school we were visiting was in the west hills, Nate and I pulled to a veiwpoint to watch this spectacular sunrise appear behind Mt. Hood. Unfortunately, my pocket digital takes great pictures in the light but not so much at dusk or dawn. I took dozens of shots and this is the best of them.

Effects of Drugs

I watch way too much Discovery channel, this documentary on the effect drugs have on the webs of spiders was too interesting not to share.

House Cleaning

I cleaned up a bit, rearranged, and changed the look of Ben's Viewpoint to take adavantage of some new features Blogger has to offer. Mainly Labels. I even took the time to go back through all 208 (Now 209) posts and get most of them into my 5 main categories:
* Entertainment (32)
* Family (11)
* Photography (75)
* Politics (43)
* Tech (23)
Keep in mind you can also search (see header) to see if I have posted a photo or topic on a keyword, such as Sheep or Brad, both that happen to have two results.

If you find a link no longer works, please let me know so I can fix or remove the post. The web changes, and I must unfortunately adapt.

Bad Day

If you have wasted as much time on the internet as I have, you come across about every priceless photo out there. The montage below has been done before with the same theme song, but there were enough unique images on this one to start most of your Mondays off on a good foot. This is courtosy of my latest favorite time wasting website break.com

Seinfeld The Movie Trailer

My favorite TV series of all time will soon be in the theatres, but with a new twist thanks to Michael Richards. (If you just see a blank box, click it to play)

CAIR Open Season Remix

Firearm Death Rates

I've been suffering from bloggers block this new year as nothing new seems to be surfacing. Although I could bore all with posts on new tech toys, or keep up the political rhetoric, neither sounds all that appealing. This one email message I received was too humorous to pass up however. If you can validate or disprove the statistics below please let me know.

"If you consider that there has been an average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq theatre of operations during the last 32 months, and a total of 2,912 deaths, that gives a firearm death rate of 55 per 100,000 soldiers. The firearm death rate in Washington D.C. is 80.6 per 100,000 for the same period. That means that you are about 25% more likely to be shot and killed in the U.S. Capitol, which has the strictest gun control laws in the nation, than you are in Iraq. Conclusion: The U.S. should pull out of Washington."