Do not want

WebWorker Daily, in OfficePOD: Shed Worker Daily?, describes a self-contained lockable cubicle for the at-home worker. You get one of these units and put it in your back yard, bringing the cubicle experience to your garden.

	From the OfficePOD web site: “The garden based POD is of the highest quality design and provides a work environment that is separate from the disruptions of home life.
It’s probably cheaper to get one of these.

Dilbert often seems to have the last word:

IBM patent application diagrams method for offshoring employees

(via /.)
I guess that if you’re lay off American workers and move the jobs to India, you want to make sure that you do so in an innovative way: IBM patent application diagrams method for offshoring employees.
The patent application, #20090083107, identifies a specific methodology for determining when outsourcing makes sense and to go about it. Other companies, IMO, can and will find other algorithms for outsourcing.

(You will need a TIFF plug-in to view the original diagrams on the USPTO web site.)

By the way, Figure 1 reminds me of a DEC classic “See figure 1.”

I wonder if they’re hiring

Consumer Reports is testing toilet tissue. Results will be published in the May issue of their magazine.

Millions of test-takers are in his debt

On this day, in 1958, Hymen Lipman of Philadelphia received a patent for attaching an eraser to one end of a pencil.
The patent was, ahem, erased by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1875, which ruled that a pencil with an eraser is just a pencil with an eraser and not something new and patentable.

From – Today in History | History & Archaeology | Smithsonian Magazine
via Boing Boing

Dept. of Bluetooth Fail

I’ve worked professionally with computers for nearly 30 years, long enough to be surprised and delighted by each little bit of engineering mayhem that I encounter.
Today’s gem comes from my Windows Vista system. The batteries ran out on my Bluetooth (wireless) keyboard. I replaced the batteries. Now, Vista’s  Add Bluetooth Device Wizard offers to connect my keyboard, but only after I type my passkey. Which I can’t. Because my keyboard isn’t connected, until I type the passkey.

Friend Liz ran into a similar problem last summer when she tried to order ink for her printer. She was supposed to print a form and leave it for the delivery guy.

Walking, talking, taking pictures

I got a new cellphone last week. It’s an LG enV with a good camera and a QWERTY keyboard. (Tess, age almost-11, recognized it immediately as the enV² ™.)
I’ve given up my BlackBerry, which I enjoyed, but it was old and the data plan was expensive. Now, with a camera in the phone, I have one less gadget carry when I go for a walk. I’m giving up on mobile email for now, but still want to be able to send text and Twitter messages easily.)

I like the phone, but it does bring forward a few thoughts:

• There’s a special place in hell waiting for the engineers who design custom USB connectors. I have a bag full of 10-year’s worth of USB cables, none of which fit this phone. I understand that Universal Serial Bus (USB) refers to a standardized way in which gadgets such as mice, keyboards, speakers, headsets, storage devices, and, yes, phones, connect to computers. The standardization is on the computer end of the cable. On the device end, there is a dizzying array of incompatible connectors.
• Related to the USB problem is the incompatibility of power supplies. I have another bag full of power adapters for home and car.
• Because I was changing from a Blackberry to a more conventional phone, we needed to change our calling plan. VerizonWireless presents a dizzying array of plans and options from relatively modest $70/month for two phones up to $200 (and maybe beyond) for all-you-can-eat.
  The New York Times recently ran an article about the complexity of cellphone plans and bills: What Do Your Minutes Cost? You Can’t Tell by the Cellphone Bill. Smart people studied their own and other people’s cell phone bills and couldn’t figure out how much they were paying per minute.
  In brief, the cell phone industry could make billing clearer, but a) they don’t want to because b) they think that they won’t like what we’ll see.

  “There are a lot of things we can do better, for sure,” said John Walls, a spokesman for CTIA, the wireless industry’s trade association. “But I really think this is not one of them.”

  “It’d be extremely costly to put in the administrative procedures to break it down to that degree,” Mr. Walls said. “And most customers would find the necessary increase in price to be objectionable.”

  And because many customers now incur data charges on their monthly phone bills, Mr. Walls said it would be “virtually impossible” to separate a customer’s voice and data charges in a bucket billing plan, and account for those charges on a per-minute basis.

  A company named Validas will analyze your cell phone bill for you and tell you if you’re paying too much for the plan or carrier you have. (A lot of folks would be better off with a pre-paid phone, for example.)

For the time being, I’ll ignore the evil complexity that emanates from the pores of the cell phone industry. It’s springtime here in New England and nice to be able put away our winter gear and go for a walk.

Springtime on Prince Edward Island

Sandra’s parents are here in Massachusetts for what is usually mud season on the Island. Someone forgot to tell Mother Nature.
(St. Peters Bay is about a half hour north of Cardigan.)

Dept. of “I don’t know what to say.”

The WorldWideWeb brings us lots of good and interesting resources. I don’t know if this one of them:
PersonRatings.com – Rate & Review Any Person
In brief, you can post a review of a person just like on others sites where you can review a restaurant, toaster, or book.