Miklb's Mindless Ramblings

Saw this idea over at Jason Kottke’s site, and thought it was a fun idea. Sorta a meme, but not really. At least there’s no tagging, yet.
So here goes:

5 Quotes

• You cannot acquire experience by making experiments. You cannot create experience. You must undergo it. Albert Camus (1913 - 1960)
• The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself. Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)
• We only do well the things we like doing. Colette (1873 - 1954)
• It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one’s dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent. W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965)
• Only he is free who cultivates his own thoughts, and strives without fear to do justice to them. Berthold Auerbach (1812 - 1882)

Sort of tongue in cheek title, but while pumping gas this week, the thought crossed my mind, do gas stations “fix” the pump so it’s impossible to stop on a round number? Obviously this only applies to those who pay at the pump with some sort of plastic, but I’d guess that’s a majority of Americans.
Think about it, a lot of people have some form of OCD weirdness with numbers, and round things to the dollar. With many years of restaurant experience, I’ve seen it time and time again, people rounding the bill to the nearest dollar when adding a tip, even if that means shorting the server. I mean, what really does it matter if your bill is $43.61 instead of $43?
So back to the pump. Could it be a trick to get people to spend more money at their pump by making it nearly impossible to stop on the dollar? Think about it. You go to the pump, intending on putting $15 in the tank. As the pump nears $15, you slow down, and do the little shuffle of squeeze, stop, look, squeeze stop, look, “damn, $15.01”, and the proceed to go to the next dollar. That could easily happen again at $16, and now you’re at $17. Say it stops. You put the pump away, go about your business, not thinking about the extra $2 you spent that you didn’t intend to. If that occurs with 60% of the customers, that could be an extra $1000 or more a day. That’s a third of a million dollars a year, easily at the minimum, that they take in that we never intended to spend at that gas station. So do you think they are doing it?

Washington Post
Trying to catch up on the news after working 35+ hours in 3 days is tough, but this article caught my interest. Seems the Bush administration has appointed someone who is actually listening, and taking action in preserving our national parks. I strongly believe the parks should be restricted in the use of motorized vehicles, for many reasons. I can only hope the draft is taken as it stands, and I intend on adding my comments formally, as there’s a 90 day window to do so. I’ll update after I make my voice heard.

Lakeland Ledger, Tallahasse Democrat, Corruption Chronicles
So a supervisor of elections uncovers more security issues with electronic voting machines, and our elected leader’s answer is to pass a bill preventing independent testing of the equipment. Real bloody smart. I’m all for technological advancements in all areas of government, but I also want to know that the technology is secure. Which means testing, and more testing. Rather than a knee jerk reaction and getting into bed with a company because of questionable lobbying practices, or the like. I really hope this bill has limited support, and state reps shoot this down quickly.

9rules Network has announced 111 new sites for the network. 111!? Before I go any further, let me say, that I’m not some bitter blogger that was part of the 589 bloggers that were rejected. I would never consider this blog something for a network. I don’t have a niche, I don’t post enough, I simply rant out loud, and a few people actually read it. Period.
But as someone who reads a lot of sites, I once took a site’s acceptance into 9rules as some sort of validation, that perhaps before reading a post, there was a strong chance that the author was going to know what they were talking about, or that the information would indeed be valid. But to water down the network, IMO, with that many blogs in one fell swoop, I can’t help but believe it was a publicity stunt for a group that had recently fallen off the radar, so to speak.
I mean, what better way to get the blogosphere to chatter about you than to “accept” 111 sites into the network. How much traffic directly from those sites is generated alone? Plus those, (I guess I’m buying into the hype by posting this) who comment on the recent events. I must say, I really have a hard time buying any of this, and will now take the 9rules logo on a site with a grain of salt, and that is an injustice to those who have been longer termed members of the network.
I’d like to say I haven’t looked at all 111 sites, and I’m sure they are all fine bloggers in their own right. I simply have a hard time understanding how that many are brought in at once.
I think I might create a snazzy little logo and start my own network. I’m sure at least 100 of those 589 that were not admitted are as good in their own right as the 111 picked. It could be called the Odd Man Out Network. Wonder how much ad revenue that would generate? Anyone interested in joining?