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You may have heard through the grapevine that Megan and I are getting married!

Now we’re looking for engagement and wedding jewelry! It’s quite appropriate for us to either make it ourselves or have it made custom by a local jeweler. If you or someone you know can help with either of these ventures, we’d love to hear from you!

She said yes!

I’ve received so many comments from people about how to beat a speeding ticket in New Jersey in my first post and my followup post that I opened up this third post for comments. Note that everything you need to know is in my first post on the subject. You don’t really need to read this third post.

That said, feel free to add your own comments. Do not ask a question like the following, those issues have already been covered many times. Read the post!

I got a speeding ticket in xxx. I was going xx in a xx zone. I shouldn’t have gotten the ticket because xxx and xxx and xxx. How do I get out of the ticket? What should I do?

If this information saves you $500, I would appreciate a $5 donation. Don’t send me anything until AFTER you have been to the courthouse and saved money! Here is a Paypal donation link:

I’m trying out a new nail fungus treatment tentatively called Coco Nail. It is from Biotectics. I’ve got nothing to say about it yet. We’ll see how it goes!

Update: After this blog post General Electric removed the video from the web on 3-21-13! see the comments below.

I was browsing the GE LED lighting website and they were talking all about how when you buy GE lighting, you are buying into the GE Six Sigma  methodology and trust and confidence and people in labcoats and testing and history and blah di blah di blah… And then I saw this video (via) and got just a little pissed off. Starting at 1:15, compared compared an old street lamp system to a shiny new GE Evolve LED Roadway Lighting system with photos.

Can you see what’s wrong with this comparison?

Wow, that’s amazing! Look how bright the LEDs are compared to the old lights! You’re so right! I couldn’t see the sign before beca… wait a second. In the “after” picture I can see the tree in the foreground.. and where is the light in the foreground splashing on the road coming from? Wait. They just fixed a light in the foreground!

And wait a minute more. In the upper right corner of each photo, there’s a light on someone’s property… and in the “before” photo, that light is much dimmer!  GE tweaked the brightness and contrast in the photo to fake how their lighting compares!

Let’s see. I did my best at fixing the the brightness, contrast and color temperature of the “before” photo:

Yes, I am calling the people at GE Lighting Solutions liars.

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I should note that the yellow cast of the “before” image is probably due to high pressure sodium lamps. It is hard to believe that it actually is as yellow as was depicted in the image, nevertheless, it should still be said that LEDs have better color rendition than high pressure sodium lamps.

Last week I went in to Cole Hardware looking for discounted compact fluorescent light bulbs. You see, PG&E has this CFL subsidy program where you can get a CFL for $1 instead of the market value of $6-15. They were out and the guy said, “Hmm, we had them for a long while but I think PG&E stopped doing it.”

(update, I just checked the PG&E website and I see a lot of retailers are in the program, and some of the large chains (Lowes, OSH, Home Depot) have LED bulbs in the program too. Cool)

This got me thinking…

My initial thoughts are that it’s kind of OK that this program is winding down. Now everyone is familiar with CFL bulbs, the price of CFL bulbs has come down (they used to be $20+),  and just as importantly, CFL bulbs now have real competition on store shelves from the new LED bulbs.

This got me thinking…

LED lighting has really taken off. Last month I noticed that Sausalito’s streetlamps are all LED (if you squint when looking at the fixtures, you can see that it’s like 50 tiny LED bulbs instead of one big sodium bulb. I saw that a good portion of the Westfield Mall in San Francisco is lit with LEDs. At the same time, the LED lighting industry is a bit like the wild west. For instance, when I was chatting with the guy at Cole Hardware, he walked me over to a cabinet that was lit in LEDs. They had all gotten very dim just two years after installation (update: I think it’s the power supply and not the LEDs, the LEDs wouldn’t have all dimmed so evenly together). Big companies like GE are touting their LED lighting systems.

It’s interesting to compare the lighting side-by-side

type          lumens per watt
Incandescent    14
Halogen         18
CFL             60
LED             70
Hi pres sodium  90
T5 fluorescent  100

CFL vs LED… that’s a surprisingly meh-worthy difference. And regular fluorescent tubes are more efficient than LEDs! LEDs are getting better… they have 200 lumen per watt LED bulbs in the laboratory.

But right now it’s kind of a wash.

I did not expect to see that!

Read the whole thing (and watch the video!) on TheVerge.com

We asked Pauline how he managed to get an invite, and he gave us the following response:

“Easy, my mother in law was in Congress for 20 years and I passed the background check due to my spotless record!”

(Previously)

If you own your own home, read about this important maintenance tip!

This week, the water heater in Megan’s house burst after 12 years of service. This reminded me of something I had mentioned a few years ago: periodically changing the anode in the hot water heater.

This is an important, inexpensive, a DIY project (if you’re into small home projects) that can save you a thousand bucks by dramatically extending the life of your water heater, and any plumber that’s never heard of it is either dumb or has a hidden agenda (IE: making more money when your system fails).

A new anode costs about $30 so having someone come in and replace it should cost less than $150. It’s way cheaper than replacing the hot water tank… or worse, the giant mess a burst tank can cause.

Watch this video from This Old House where they inspect and change two different anodes. In one case, the anode was covered in calcium deposits from hard water (do you have hard water??). In the other, the anode was completely eaten away… and the tank had burst!

While I’m sad my old laptop was stolen (go on dirtbag, I dare you to boot it up, I’ll track you down!) my new laptop is sweet.

It’s a Lenovo T530, 15.6″ widescreen custom ordered from Lenovo.com. Here’s what I like:

Keyboard: feels great, solid, slightly clicky, backlit keys and a “thinklight” that shines on the keyboard. I like the backlit keys more than the thinklight but I’m sure they will both come in handy.

Responsiveness: frickin fast! 180 gig SSD drive, i5 processor, 4 gig RAM. All the Lenovo quick boot technologies seem to work great, for example: it takes only 4 seconds to go from sleep to the password prompt!! Internet powers up nearly instantly. Just 15 seconds to wake up from hibernate mode, but I might stop using it because the sleep mode uses so little juice.

Audio: sounds great, loud, stereo, crisp.

Screen: nice, bright, good color, good off-angle viewing. I’m thinking maybe just maybe I should have gotten the 1920xwhatever screen instead of the 1366×768, but that might have made the text a little tiny for my eyes.

Trackpad: They nailed it. Excellent feel, performance. It also has a trackpoint nipple thing that I might start using.

Extra Buttons: There’s a mute speaker, volume buttons and mute microphone in easy reach. They work great.

Battery control: There are Lenovo battery settings that allow me to specify that the battery should only charge so much and then stop (it’s said that leaving a lithium battery fully charged makes it die quicker)

5 hour battery life. Plenty of battery.

It’s a tiny bit heavy at 5 lbs 6oz, but I paid $880 all inclusive. A lighter one might cost twice as much and I’m a poor student! (and I’ve got a great backpack to carry it in). It took 2 weeks longer to arrive than they originally promised which was a bother, but that’s forgotten.

It’s kinda weird to say this but the Lenovo extras and the operating system seem to be configured very well. I’m used to battling crapware at every turn but I’m not with this computer.

I got PDAnet working on it (it was a snap!) so I have data wherever I have 3G service on my phone. And darn if I can’t surf just as fast on 3G as on wifi!! Really!

Full specs:
Processor: Intel Core i5-3210M Processor (3M Cache, up to 3.10 GHz)
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
Display Type: 15.6″ HD (1366 x 768) LED Backlit AntiGlare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready
System Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000
Total Memory: 4 GB DDR3 – 1600MHz (1 DIMM)
Keyboard: Keyboard Backlit – US English
Pointing Device: UltraNav without Fingerprint Reader
Camera: 720p HD Camera with Microphone
Hard Drive: 180GB Solid State Drive, SATA3
Optical Device: DVD Recordable
System Expansion Slots: Express Card Slot & 4-in-1 Card Reader & Bezel
Battery: 6 Cell Li-Ion TWL 70+
Power Cord: 90W AC Adapter – US (2pin)
Integrated WiFi Wireless LAN Adapters: ThinkPad 1×1 b/g/n

“Witness the birth of the largest LED light sculpture in existence”

Let’s go see the Bay Lights Grand Opening tonight. I won’t make it til 8:30 or 9:30 depending on when my class gets out. I’ll be near the Ferry Building.

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