San Diego Johnny

Bye Bye Aibo: Sony Ditches the Robotic Dog

Sony announced on Friday that it will no longer produce it's robotic dog known as Aibo. Apparently many of the owners of what may seem like many to be a silly over-priced toy are upset that Sony has decided to concentrate on its core electronics business. Here is some information about Aibo taken from Sony's website.

AIBO’s personality develops by interacting with people and each AIBO grows in a different way, based on its individual experiences. AIBO becomes customized based on feedback and the software being used. AIBO MIND 3 autonomous software, you can immediately interact with a mature ERS-7/M3 or you can reset it to its puppy stage. AIBO’s mood changes with its environment, and its mood affects its behavior. AIBO also has instincts to move around, to look for its toys, to satisfy its curiosity, to play and communicate with its owner, to recharge when its battery is low, and to wake up when its done sleeping. AIBO is capable of six feelings - happiness, sadness, fear, dislike, surprise, and anger. Its unique personality is developed with a combination of these unique instincts and feelings. The more you interact with ERS-7/M3, the more it learns. AIBO’s skill level can improve through encouragement from its owner. By praising AIBO for kicking the ball well, it will continue to play with the ball. Repeated practice with the ball will improve its skill level and it will learn new tricks. If you scold AIBO for playing with its ball, it will stop showing as much interest in it. With AIBO's back sensors, it is possible to adjust AIBO's schedule to coincide with your daily routine. You can schedule your usual bed time and AIBO will go to sleep on its charging station until it's time to get up. AIBO can also use its alarm to wake you up in the morning. The more you interact with ERS-7/M3, the more it learns. AIBO uses "short and long range distance sensor" in its nose and chest to detect the edges and the wall. Illume-Face There are 28 LED lights on the Illume-face display, and by changing the pattern of lights, various expressions and feelings can be indicated, and complex animations can be displayed. Feelings, like joy, sorrow, anger can be displayed with vivid color and movement. When the sensor is touched, the light shines white. The back sensors can also be used to set AIBO’s functions and status with the audio guide. The back lamp is linked to the back touch sensor. When the sensor is touched, the light shines white. The back sensors can also be used to set AIBO’s functions and status with the audio guide. AIBO’s ears flap according to the movement of its head and body. Depending on its mood, AIBO can also flap it ears up and down, and wag its tail. AIBO makes 64-chord MIDI sounds to express its feelings. The sound is played through an internal speaker in its chest. Stereo microphones are equipped in the ears. When it hears something AIBO will analyze the sound and recognize words. The direction of the sound came from is also perceived and AIBO will turn his head toward the source. When AIBO is speaking to someone it will turn towards the person so the person can hear what AIBO is saying.

In reading about the Aibo's capabilities on Sony's website (pasted below, since much of the site is in Flash and may be soon taken down, so clck the link to the left of these parenhteses before it's too late), one finds an interesting and compelling product. I wish that I would have been able to welcome an AIBO into my home in the near future, even if not for anything else but to be a companion or curiosity for my cats.

Aibo Owners Message Boards http://www.aibo-life.org/ http://www.aiboworld.tv/

San Diego County Commissioners: No Marijuana for You!

Apparently the San Diego County Board of Supervisors has alot of time on their hands.  Remediation of traffic problems and addressing the lack of affordable housing, can take a back seat to going after ill people who rely on marijuana to ease their pain.   The Board of Supervisors have decided to sue the state to uphold a federal law that outlaws the possession and use of marijuana and runs counter to a state referendum and statute that allow's the possession and use of marijuana for medical purposes.  San Bernardino County has joined in suing California, ostensibly to resolve a federalism conflict between statutes.  One wonders if these actions have less to do with a conflict of laws and more to do with carrying on the "War on Drugs" even when it means causing more suffering amongst the ill.   

Cross the Border, Get a Mortgage: Wells Fargo Bank is Now Offering Loans to Illegal Aliens

Illegally cross the border, buy a home: file this one under corporate irresponsibility.  Wells Fargo Bank, the San Francisco based mega bank is offering home loans to illegal aliens.  Under something called the Celebrate Home program, the bank is set to offer mortgages to those who just have a federal tax identification number and not a social security number.    Wells Fargo and other companies have been encouraging illegal immigration and facilitating money transfers through their acceptance of the Mexican "Matricula Consular" identification card.   None of these companies feel any moral obligation to help uphold the immigration laws of the United States.  There are nationwide protests to illegal immigration planned. It's up to the people who are customers and shareholders of these institutions and citizens of the United States who came here legally to put pressure on these institutions to end these programs and be responsible corporate citizens.  Further, while states are doing their part, it's time that the federal government and both parties stop catering to business interests who want cheap illegal labor and stop the flow of illegal immigration. 

Coming Next from Apple: Mobile Me?

  What an interesting time for Apple Computer!  First the company unveils it's new Intel chip computers, amid record profits, and now Reuters is reporting that Apple Computer has file a trademark application for the term "MOBILE ME."  It's speculated that Apple is going to enter the cellular phone business with this trademark, coupling perhaps the iPod with a cellphone and doing it the right way, the Apple way, unlike the disastrous Motorola ROKR, which never worked well with iTunes and was revamped by Motorola, probably at the behest of the cell companies who want to sell the music themselves.  It's also speculated that Apple will become a cellular service reseller.  Millions of Apple and iPod users are waiting to sign up. 

Interview with a Cactus: Anne Rice is Leaving La Jolla

According to the Associated Press, author Anne Rice is leaving La Jolla for the desert: "Less than a year after buying a luxury home in the city's tony La Jolla neighborhood, author Anne Rice is selling the dwelling and moving to the desert for a warmer climate and simpler life, her real estate agent said." Source: Author Anne Rice Leaving San Diego For SoCal Desert

A simpler life?  What could be simpler than living in a "three-story, 10,089 square-foot La Jolla home for $8 million and replaced the deck with French limestone balustrades, said Adams, who represented her in the purchase. The 13-year-old home, which sits on a third of an acre of land, has six bedrooms, nine bathrooms, a gym with a sauna and steam room, an upgraded media room, wine cellar, elevator, four-car garage, pool, spa and ocean views..."?  Living in the lap of luxury near the ocean with near perfect weather in a place with fine dining and a plethora of cultural evemts and destinations is hectic?  Many of us wish to have the lack of simplicity that Anne apparently abhors!   

Perhaps Anne is entering her Georgia O'Keefe phase.  What next if Rancho Mirage is too busy?  Perhaps deeper into the Mojave?  Or maybe further south?  I hear some pueblos may be available. 

A scene from near La Jolla Cove, likely too hectic for Anne Rice

Howard Stern's First Day: A "Sirius" Amount of Profanity

Not that it was at all unexpected, but Howard Stern's first day being beamed from orbit saw many "f-bombs"get rained down into the atmosphere. FamilyMediaGuide.com, an LA based website, is tracking Howard Stern's new Sirius Satellite Radio Show for its members, as it had done with Stern's "terrestrial radio" program. Preliminary rerports show that there were " 68 F-words, 34 A-holes, 17 uses of the C-word that pertains to men and 10 uses of the C-word that pertains to women...." The report can be found here

The FamilyMediaGuide.com describe themselves as follows:

"FamilyMediaGuide.com presents over 3,000 movie, video game, television, and, now, selected radio programming summaries, along with independent ratings, as an alternative to traditional MPAA and ESRB systems. We support an uncensored media environment that allows consumers to decide for themselves whether content such as Stern's is of interest, based on their own standards of suitability."

I applaud this group for providing information for the listening public that they can then use to make their own listening choices. I prefer this model over the heavy handed FCC that we have seen the last few years.

L'Affair Walmart: The Education of a San Diego Blogger

What happens when a part time San Diego blogger discovers something anomalous on a large company website?  He writes about it, tells family and friends about it and evey places it on the newest hipster site digg.com where it is summarily flamed and stays at the bottom of the hierarchical site's pile.  What happens when a seeming devotee of a mega-blog stumbles accross said San Diego blogger's post and introduces it to the mega-blogs?  Well, simply it gets put in their blog without attribution of any sort and twisted as their own story.  What happens when original author writes to supposed mega-blog author asking for proper attribution?  Supposed mega-blog author ignores you because said author and others are usually busy spewing virulent anti-Bush bile filed rhetoric but now can draw their attention where they believe they can strike the iron while it is hot.  Mega-blog steals story, adds obligatory cute taglines and references and passes it off as it's own.  Meanwhile original post is dismissed by mega-blog readers as insignificant?  How could it possibly be that this guy in San Diego was the first to note the problem; he has so few posts on his site!  Impossible!  Washington Post reporter however, performing due diligence, properly credited San Diego blogger.  What has San Diego blogger learned from this experience?  Despite the rantings regarding copyright and how the system is so oppressive to them, when it suits them mega-blogs will steal material and pass it off as their own, especially when it suits their own political agenda.      

Kennedy Finally Admits Drinking Problem

Well at least he didn't crash his car again. It's been long thought that he has a drinking problem and finally Kennedy "resigned under heavy pressure from the party Saturday, days after he acknowledged battling a drinking problem..." Kennedy bowed to heavy pressure from his party to resign on Saturday. "Kennedy initially resisted stepping down despite calls from nearly half of the party's lawmakers for him to resign..." CNN.com article here.

Yes You Read it Here (Or Didn't) First - Walmart Continued

Although the problem became widely known only Thursday, John Pappas III, who runs the Web log San Diego Johnny, said he noticed the offensive grouping in October. The science-fiction fan said he came across it while looking to buy the "Planet of the Apes" series on Walmart.com and wrote about it on his blog.

source Wal-Mart Blames Web Site Incident on Employee's Error, By Ylan Q. Mui Washington Post Staff Writer, Saturday, January 7, 2006; Page D01 After several mega-bloggers declined to properly attribute the information they posted as their own and perhaps have gotten as arrogant as the "traditional media" that they ridicule on a regular basis, the Washington Post got it right and gave credit where credit is due. Thanks to Ylan Q. Mui of the Washington Post for acknowledging SanDiegoJohnny.com as the first place that information regarding the Walmart.com "mapping" problem as it has been previously categorized. The October 20, 2005 report was the blogosphere's first. In the Washington Post article, Walmart is now saying that an employee's error caused the problem. UPDATE: It appears that the flame artists at digg.com didn't quite get what I was trying to relate to them some 70 days ago. They sure didn't "digg" my posting.

Walmart Shuts Down Racist Website Product Suggestions

Welcome to those who have come to the site because of the Walmart story.  It was this blog that first broke the story. 

Update: Walmart has shut down a racist web suggestion part of their website, walmart.com. This "feature" was first reported here back in October and apparently my report has spread through the internet like wildfire, though apparently without attribution by being picked up on such sites as firedoglake and Crooks and Liars.

Latest update here.