Herculodge

Fossils Indicate Nightmarish Hybrid of a 57-Foot Sperm Whale and a Killer Shark

Wired reports on new fossil discovery that evidences your worst nightmare: an oversized 57-foot sperm whale combined with a killer shark, named, after Herman Melville, Leviathan melvillei. 

The World's Most Interesting Man Seems to be a Spiritual Cousin of J Peterman

Slate article discusses my favorite ad campaign (perhaps of all time), The World's Most Interesting Man, who seems related to Seinfeld's J Peterman. 

I'm so enthralled by the Dos Equis campaign that I'd love to buy a book about this mysterious personage and I would not be surprised if such a book was published. We're talking about a guy who has been the Best Man for several weddings and he was unknown by the grooms. 

Until such a book, if any, comes out, I'll have to refer the The Dos Equis Guy. 

Another site, Eat Me Daily, keeps all the video ads. 

Wired Reports Over Two Million People Used to Test Microsoft Word 2010

Microsoft Word 2010 had better be good. Read the mind-boggling efforts Microsoft employed to make Word 2010 a true upgrade. 

Office 2010 for Mac (which I own) won't be available until late 2010. 

Excellent Condition Panasonic RF-1170 Buy Now for $100 and Free Shipping

I've seen these sell for over $200, so this seems like a good deal on a Panasonic RF-1170. I couldn't drag photo so I used a stock image.

 

JVC PC-150C Boombox

This seems like a newer vintage, a JVC PC-150C Boombox. I wish the exact year of its release was given. 

 

Vintage JVC 3090-CQM Boombox for a Paltry $1,295 Plus $40 Shipping

I don't know if this JVC 3090-CQM will get the asking price, but I'm sure it will still be a lot. 

Here's another nice example of a JVC "Monster" SW Boombox. Current bid is $55. 

Comparison Test of the Tecsun PL-80, PL-310 and Kchibo D96L

Thanks, Gary: 

There is a comparison test of the PL-380, PL-310 and D96L on DXer.CA. 

Manly Ferrite Antenna Sighting

Hugo has apprised us of these Goliath-size ferrite antennas. 

Paul Says the Logitech Squeezebox Internet Radio Isn't Ready for Prime Time

(Re-post)

Some readers have praised the Logitech Squeezebox Boom, but Paul has a different story for the smaller model:

Last Monday amazon had the Logitech Squeezebox Radio on sale for a few hours for $129.99. I had gift certificates for that amount + tax, and so I bought it. It arrived a couple of days later. Here are my first impressions. 1. Very easy setup (wireless or wired). 2. No printed user manual; no user manual on CD. There is a PDF file of features which goes for a user manual on Logitech's web site, and a useless printed quick start guide, but that's it. 3. In terms of looks, this is one good looking radio. 4. While selection of Internet radio stations requires some repeated pushing of buttons, overall selection of stations is easy. The user interface could be better, but overall for a techie guy/gal there are no issues. 5. So far I've listened to KPCC on it for a few hours (I'm in Seattle) and the stream has been reliable. 6. However, I have been unable to have the radio lock on to and stream a number of foreign language broadcasts from Asia. I get a cryptic error message, which even Logitech support doesn't know much about. I can listen to these stations just fine on radiotime.com (Logitech's audio stream database provider), but I can't listen to them on the radio itself. 7. Logitech tech support was initially responsive on this problem, but after 5 or 6 emails back and forth they just gave up and the issue is unresolved. 

My last question to them has gone unanswered. They passed me over to Radiotime, and no amount of explaining did them any good (why should Radiotime care, when I can listen to these stations on their site just fine!?). 8. Looking around the web for a solution to my problem was not helpful either. The error I am getting is apparently among the rare ones! I came across the Squeezebox community forums:http://forums.slimdevices.com/forumdisplay.php?f=20 

And if you want to read about unbelievable headaches with this radio, especially after the latest firmware release (version 7.5), please be my guest and peruse the Squeezebox Radio forums there: http://forums.slimdevices.com/forumdisplay.php?f=32In summary, I am going to wait a few more days to see if I can find a solution or if Logitech comes through with an update that fixes this problem. Otherwise, it's going back. This radio does not appear to be ready for prime time, sorry.

Update:

The reason for the error I am getting has finally been pointed out by a good user on the Squeezebox Radio forums (and not by Logitech Tech Support!), namely, the Squeezebox radios do not support Microsoft's MMS streaming protocol. This is while a lot of radio stations, especially in Asia, use this protocol, and the Squeezebox Radio actually indexes them too (since Radiotime has the stations in its database and you can play them through Radiotime). But obviously nobody at Logitech wrote a simple script to go and automatically identify these stations and remove them from their radios' database! And Tech Support has no clue about the features (or lack thereof) of their product! Before I bought the radio I went to http://www.logitechsqueezebox.com/products/squeezebox-radio.html and used the service they provide ("Check for your favorite station") to make sure some of these MMS streamed stations worked. Sure enough that service checks Radiotime and told me YES, you can listen to these stations! The radio is going back today. Between poor tech support, lack of an important feature (at least for me), and so many reports of bugs and problems on the radio's forums, I will look elsewhere.

Some readers have praised the Logitech Squeezebox Boom, but Paul has a different story for the smaller model:

I Didn't Know Economic Progress Was Controversial: I Guess I Was Wrong

Ferraris for All, a treatise on the advantages of economic growth, by Daniel Ben-Ami, has been praised for its contrarian stand against those who rail against the evils of an expanding economy and its concomitant consumerism. I had always thought economic growth was a good thing. Has my head been in the sand?