KK Lifestream

The Scale of the Universe 2

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:40:47 -0800

Originally posted in Cool Tools

This is a cool tool for comprehending, appreciating, and demonstrating the scale of our universe. I used to recommend Charles and Ray Eames' classic film, Powers of Ten, as the best way to get a sense of our cosmos. It's still effective, but two bothers have made an on-line portal that blows Powers of Ten away.

Check out The Scale of the Universe 2. It takes a minute to load. Once ready, be prepared to have your horizons stretched. I like the way they pile in the expected and unexpected size examples, which anchor the scale in a refreshing way. The continuous zoom is what makes this device work, rather than the quantum powers of ten of the film. (In fact you can read off the powers of ten in this model as well.) And the fact that you drive the slider. And like anytime you drive, you get a better sense of the place than you do as a mere passenger.

For the first time, I really got a visceral sense of our place in the universe. As many have noted before (but none have explained) we -- our visible bodies -- are located approximately in the middle of the universe's size range. The largest things we know and the smallest things we know are roughly the same magnitude away from us.

And BTW, this app is what electronic "publishing" is really about.

-- KK

Chased By the Light

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:28:25 -0800

Originally posted in Cool Tools

Chased by the Light

This project is a zen masterpiece. It is also a behavior-modifiying challenge for all digital photographers: Look instead of click.

In the 1990s veteran magazine photographer Jim Brandenbrug gave himself an impossible assignment: "For 90 days between the autumn equinox and winter solstice I would make only one photograph a day. There would be no second exposure, no second chance." A single exposure, a single click per day! He was using film, and he was photographing wildlife, including elusive animals in the north woods in upper Minnesota. Film is unforgiving. For amateur and professional alike getting even an acceptable photo in these conditions with one shot requires relying on the Force. Yet Brandenburg found, or made, one beauty after another. Most mortals would need a hundred shots to get one like these. The 90 images stand strong each on their own, but the complete symphony is one of the most impressive acts of mindfulness I’ve seen.

(The full set of images were also published in a smaller format in the November 1997 issue of National Geographic.)

Besides the book, there is now an iPad app.

-- KK

Chased by the Light
Jim Brandenburg
1998, 104 pages
$35

Available from Amazon

App $10

Sample Excerpts

I sensed there would be lessons learned. There were, but not always those I had imagined. Some were merely lessons remembered, recapturing things I had forgotten, such as remaining open to chance, and that, in nature, not all beauty is giant in scale. One such lesson occurred on October 15th, the twenty-third day. It was late and I despaired of capturing anything of value. The day was dark and gloomy; my mood reflected the weather. I wandered through the dripping forest all day long. Tired, hungry , and wet, I was near tears. I was mentally beating myself for having passed up several deer portraits and the chance to photograph a playful otter. None of those scenes spoke to me at the time.

But perhaps because I was patient, and perhaps because, as natives do on a vision quest, I had reached my physical limits, I became open to the possibility revealed by a single red maple leaf floating on a dark-water pond. My spirits rose the instant I saw it, and although the day was very late and what little light there had been was fleeing rapidly, I studied the scene from every angle. Finally, unsure of my choice, I made the shot anyway, thankful at least that the long day had ended. Once more I was surprised by the result. The image seems to have a lyrical quality, with a rhythm in the long grass.

Big Bandwidth

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:13:51 -0800

Originally posted in Cool Tools

To get the most bandwidth these days use cable.

For my home/home office we switched from the fastest internet we could get over the telephone lines to best internet broadband we could afford on a cable modem. This was a big switch for us because we did not have cable. So we had cable hooked up to our house just for the internet. We signed up for Comcast's "Extreme" level of broadband since there can be 5 - 9 people using the line at any one time. The improvement was dramatic.

We now get about 60 Mb/s download and 17 Mb/s upload. This gives me and my assistant in the office and my family of five, plus the relatives downstairs, plus the Netflix and X-Box live connections, plenty of bandwidth to share. We pay about $120 per month for the connection.

It's been running at this level for about a year and we've had very little problems. Someone in the family can be streaming a movie on Netflix while my son plays Battlefield live on the XBox, while I download a software update, while my daughter watches YouTube -- all at the same time with no noticeable delay.

Not having to wait for downloads and being able to zip around on even image-dense web pages is pure joy. Since I spend so much time online, the monthly fee is well-worth it to me, the family, and our little office.

To test the speed of your internet connect use this free website, Speedtest. Here is our snapshot today.

Wind Chimes: Design and Construction

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:40:32 -0800

Originally posted in Cool Tools

Make your own. Not those tinny flea market varieties, but large striking sonorous chimes tuned in all manner of unusual styles. (Listen to samples on the book’s website or included CD). There are several dozen unusual ways to tune the chimes. All tunings are fairly mathematical, which is the core of this book, but not difficult to execute with hardware-store tubing. My son and I used this short but very explicit manual to create a large copper pipe one that emits a lovely melody in the breeze. The bigger the better. (The bigger the more wind they need, too.) This guide is a very practical way to experience the math of music and the beauty of alternative music systems.

Setting up the hanging strings at the correct spacing.

Our copper chime hanging in the cherry tree.

-- KK

Wind Chimes: Design and Construction
Bart Hopkin
2005, 68 pages
$15

Available from Amazon

Sample Excerpts:

Next Phase of Commercials

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 23:43:59 -0800

Originally posted in The Technium

Superbowl commercials often foreshadow the norm in everyday TV commercials later. I noticed several things about this year's crop of commercials.

1) They are definitely getting weirder, more whimsical, trying harder to catch your attention -- while you check your email. They are no longer competing against the possibility of you leaving for the bathroom; they are competing with you re-watching the previous commercial on your Tivo or your iPad.

2) They are also more self-reflective, self-parodying, and complex. They "quote" not only cultural references, but specific other commercials. They often work only if you've seen other commercials, usually predecessors in the same line. In this way, each commercial must be "read" as part of a larger, longer work. Those Bud commercials go way back. The more commercials you've seen, the more you get out of the new one.

3) These are not primarily advertising products or service. They are advertising the commercial itself.

4) The commercials run during this 46th Superbowl are only one stage in a multi-stage organism. A fair proportion of the commercials debuting on the Superbowl were released earlier in teasers on the internet. You can think of these early clips as trailers for the commercial. They were, per point #3 above, commercials for the commercial. Or think of them as eggs for the hatchling. Then after the Superbowl, the advertisers released the extended forms of the commercial, also on the internet. I am aware of at least three ads which did that this year: Chevrolet/OK Go, Ferris Bueller, The Avengers. Which means the early clips were commercials for the commercials of the commercials. Or these are three stages of ads: egg, larva, adult. But this year, it seemed a good quarter of the commercials shown were for movies, which are themselves often hours-long product placement vehicles. So that makes a fourth stage, a further extension of whatever story is trying to be told. Since movies are sequeled if successful, the idea can grow to a fifth size, dozens of hours long.

5) All this suggests that the "natural habitat" of a commercial is on the internet. That's where it is born, develops, matures and dies. Its brief, mayfly-length appearance on the Superbowl is primarily an ad to get you to watch it grow on the internet.

6) I predict that in a few years from now we'll start to see 4.5-minute length commercial shorts that come after the extended-play version. Or maybe even "directors' cut" versions. These outright unabashed commercials will run as long as a pop hit tune, and in format resemble a music video. We'll see YouTube-ish channels that will charge you to watch them. I make this forecast based on the fact that this prime attention-niche is just one adjacent-possible step away.

Fixity vs Fluidity

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:05:23 -0800

Originally posted in The Technium

On his blog Nick Carr spells out the typographic fixity of the classical paper book. It's a great exposition of all the attractive parts of the big fat heavy paper books. [The image below is of book tombstones.]

I summarize his list of Four Fixities:

Fixity of the page -- The page stays the same. Whenever you pick it up, its' the same. You can count on it, and refer and cite it with certainty.

Fixity of the edition -- No matter which copy of the book you pick up, anywhere, it will be the same, so the fixed content is shared, and within an edition, the same always.

Fixity of the object -- Paper books last a very long time, and their text doesn't change as they age.

Sense of completeness -- A sense of finality and closure that became part of the attraction of literature.

These are very real, and very attractive qualities. And Carr is absolutely correct that they are some of the qualities that will disappear in ebooks, at least in the versions of ebooks we can see now. He is correct to point out that we will miss them, and that we should be aware of this loss as we chose what kind of books we buy or write.

However, Carr did not list the corresponding downside/upside of ebooks, but there are Four Fluidities of the ebook:

Fluidity of the page — Can flow to fit any space, any where, any time.

Fluidity of the edition — Can be corrected or improved incrementally.

Fludity of the item — Can be kept in the cloud at such low cost that it is "free" to keep and constantly slipped to new "movage" platforms.

Sense of growth — The never-done-ness of an ebook (at least in the ideal) resembles a life more than a stone, animating us as creators and readers.

These are some of the things we gain. Will these fluidities be enough to outweigh the fixities we lose?

Finally, both of these character sets, of fixity and the fluidity, are driven by technology, of paper and electrons. Paper favors fixity, electrons favor fluidity. There is nothing to prevent us from inventing another technology of text, a third way, that might be "in-between" paper and electrons, or might have some of the qualities of the first set and some of the second. I am not convinced that these are binary qualities, nor do they have to only be extremes. It may be possible to invent fixed electronic books, or rigid ebooks, or sticky text in between.

"Don't solve problems; pursue opportunities."

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:00:00 -0800

Originally posted in New Rules

Seeking opportunities is no longer wisdom relevant only to the long cycles of economic progress. As the economy speeds up, so that an "internet year" seems to pass in one month, the principles of long-term growth begin to govern the day-to-day economy. The dynamics of growth become the dynamics of short-term competitive advantage.

In both the short and long term, our ability to solve social and economic problems will be limited primarily to our lack of imagination in seizing opportunities, rather than trying to optimize solutions.

The Next Transitions in the Technium

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:30:49 -0800

Originally posted in The Technium

What kinds of developmental thresholds would any planet of sentient beings pass through? The creation of writing would be a huge one. The unleashing of cheap non-biological energy is another. The invention of the scientific method is a giant leap. And the fine control of energy (as in electricity) for long-distant communications is significant as well, enabling all kinds of other achievements. Our civilization has passed through all these stages; what are some future transitions we can expect -- no matter the fashions and fads of the day? What are the emergent thresholds of information and energy organization that our civilization can look forward to? Most of these thresholds are gradual, so we can't assign dates, but each of these structures seem to be a natural transition that any civilization must reach sooner or later.

* AI - There are many varieties of artificial intelligence, and no formal definition for any of them. By whatever measure, a civilization capable of producing synthetic minds similar to its own, or superior in some facets, has reached an important threshold, not the least which is a great compounding acceleration of its progress.

* A-life -- Likewise there are many types of artificial life possible, from derivatives of natural biological life, to a-life running on an alternative chemical base-pairs, to self-reproducing dry life more akin to nano-bots. Sustainable self-reproducing, self-evolving creations enable huge innovations and bring huge problems. It is a major transition.

* Methuselarity - Health care and science keep extending the average longevity of humans, and increasing the rate at which it is improving. Right now science is extending the expected lifespan of humans in the developing world a few days per year. If this rate keeps accelerating, at some point scientific progress will increase expected longevity from one day per year, to one year per year. When longevity increases at one year per year, that effectively creates immortality, or Methuselarity, for anyone who reaches that threshold. They become like the biblical Methuselah and live for a thousand years, on average.

* GlobeNet -- Over time we keep adding sensors and monitors every few kilometers on land and on the sea until we form a dense grid of sensors covering the globe. There will be thermometers, wind speed jigs, rainfall meters, sunlight sensors, air pollution particle detectors, radiation meters, earthquake probes, climatic gas sensors, animal motion detectors, sea level and wave detectors, traffic sensors, DNA sensors, and little things that measure anything we can think of place on a regular basis on the surface (and deeper) of the planet. All of these form a blanket of sensitivity providing the planetary mind (us and machines) a real-time awareness. For the first time we'll have a quantifiable globe.

* Global Superorganism -- The stage at which several billion sentient beings spread over a planet and several quadrillion smart machines merge into a unified system that is always on. This global system of interacting smart agents exhibits emergent behavior and degrees of autonomy that is not present in its constituent parts. On some planets the global superorganism will reach artificial intelligence before a stand-alone AI does. It's not clear which way Earth is headed.

* Memorex -- Every bit of writing, music, photography, painting in civilization is digitized and recorded in a machine-readable way. All knowledge, in all languages, from all ages, in all media is stored in a way that is universally accessible to all people and machines. In other words, the universal library becomes real, but not just books, but everything created, past and present, and it is available anytime. This threshold of civilization-scale knowledge becomes both a global memory and a global awareness.

* Borg -- Another threshold is crossed when any individual can import the global Memorex onto their own minds. Civilization-scale memory available to, or within, all individuals.

* Mirror World -- A one-to-one mapping of both the natural and built worlds onto a full-scale simulation of those worlds. This huge global model runs in parallel to the observed worlds. At first the functions of large organizations are mirrored in a simulation, then entire cities will be reflected in a real-time city simulation. Eventually every major node, sensor-net, agent, or variable on Earth is simulated in real time in this global model. Sort of like Google Earth but with every process, and every ecosystem, as well as every building. The mirror world is used both as an experimental test bed for science and predictions, and as an entertainment medium, as in a second life.

* Class I Energy -- The Russian astronomer Nikolai Kardashev proposed three major levels of energy production for galactic civilizations, which he called Class I, II, and III. Class I was the maximization of energy from the entire planet, Class II was maximizing the available energy from its star, and Class III was exploiting energy from its galaxy. Humans have not yet reached Class I, so that threshold is still in front of us.

* Universal Family Tree -- Eventually we will sequence the full genomes of everyone living, and as many of the recent dead as we have access to. Together with genealogical records, this huge trove of data will give us our first universal family tree. Everyone living will have a place on it in relation to everyone else. We will clearly see exactly how I am related to you. We'll also see how everyone is related at some point to everyone else no matter where they were born. The big surprise will be the short hops between us. This common tree of descent will aid health care, medicine, and science, but will also aid peace. Greeks and Turks, Jews and Arabs, Koreans and Japanese will see they are far more related than not.

* Knowledge of All Species -- At some point a civilization wakes up and takes a comprehensive and systematic inventory of all the other living species on its planet. This step is similar to mapping all the elements of matter. It realizes that in order to model and manage its ecosystems it must know all the ingredients and all the interacting parts, just as it takes knowing all the elements in order to do chemistry. This threshold of the knowledge of all species includes sequencing the DNA of every species as well -- a huge asset that also enables it to recover and resurrect known extinct species.

* TransHumanity -- When beings gain control of their biological evolution they begin to mess with it. But not everyone will be eager to do so. At the point that humans begin to engineer their own genomes, there will be a significant number of individuals, families and groups who will refuse to do so. For every person who says "Over my dead body will I or my child be engineered," there will be someone else who says, "Bring on the mutants!" Thus there will inevitably be a forking of the gene line. The threshold is not engineering genes since we have been doing that slowly and ignorantly all along, but a clear splitting off of a subgroup. Whether or not each becomes a non-breeding separate species doesn't matter. Transhumanity means at least one fork of the species is deliberately self-engineered.

* Singularity -- As commonly defined, a singularity means an infinite pace of change. We don't know what that looks like because, as commonly defined, it is inherently unknowable. For this reason I don't find this transition useful in prospect, only in retrospect. We have been through one singularity so far -- the invention of language. A few of the above might be also initiate singularity but we'll only know after the fact.

There are a bunch of other transitions such as Downloadability, Time Travel, Telepathy, etc., -- well mined by science fiction -- that would qualify as important information/energy thresholds, but which do not seem inevitable to me at the moment.

Are there other near-future stages that you think any civilization on the galaxy must pass through if it survives long enough?

User Manual First

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:33:49 -0800

Originally posted in Cool Tools

In the old days (before the web) you could not read the operating manual or instructions for an appliance, device, or tool until you got it home and unpacked it. Getting the manual was considered one of the benefits of purchasing the product. In fact, you had to purchase extra copies if you lost the original, or wanted to check it out. It was often only later when you finally had the box opened that you discovered a) it did not permit the function you bought it for, or b) it was a quarter inch smaller than it looked and so didn't fit, or c) it was incompatible with the assessors set you already had, or d) it had no manual!

Those days are gone. You can find a PDF version of the manual for most products on the web if you search hard enough. It is not as easy as it should be, but the smarter manufacturers make it easy to download the specs of whatever they sell.

That leads to this new rule: get the manual first, before you buy.

For a large home remodel I had to purchase a pile of new appliances, lights, plumbing fixtures, hardware, materials, gadgets, and some tools. I instituted a "Manual First, Buy Later" policy, and it had immediate positive effects. Once I identified a possible candidate for purchase, I would google for its manual. Equally important as finding the operating instructions and basic specs, is to get hold of the installation instructions. There are few sites that aggregate manuals and specs of major lines, but often I would wind up at the manufacturer's site. There I would download the PDF and read it carefully. That's where you find out its precise dimensions, its actual power needs, its exact connections, its real compatibility. I lost count of the number of inappropriate bad purchases I avoided by studying the manual and specs first.

What baffles me are the clueless manufacturers who still don't put their installation and operating manuals online in 2012. (I'm thinking of you, LG.) The main result of this process is simply fewer surprises. Less returns, better integration.

I was heartened to see that even the professionals do this. Here is a snapshot of our plumber "at work" in the bathroom. He has his tablet opened to a installation PDF, and his phone is googling a help number for questions brought up by specs in the PDF.

Locating any particular item's installation and operating specs is still not as easy as it should be. Amazon could make it the norm to have the full spec PDF for every item they sell, or Google could try to algorithmically sort them out, or some clever aggregator could centralize them all. But for now it is worth seeking them out first, any purchase later.

-- KK

As the transmission of knowledge accelerates,...

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:00:00 -0800

Originally posted in New Rules

...as more possibilities are manufactured, the unabated push of incremental growth also speeds up. In the long run, creating and seizing opportunities is what drives the economy. A better benchmark than productivity would be to measure the number of possibilities generated by a company or innovation and use the total to evaluate progress.

In the short run, though, problems must be solved. Businesses are taught that they are in the business of solving problems. Put your finger on a customer's dissatisfaction, the MBAs say, and then deliver a solution. This bit of hoary advice inspires business to seek out problems. Problems, however, are entities that don't work. They are usually situations where the goal is clear but the execution falls short. As in, "We have a reliability problem," or "Customers complain about our late delivery." In the words of Peter Drucker, "Don't solve problems." George Gilder distills the essence further: "When you are solving problems, you are feeding your failures, starving your successes, and achieving costly mediocrity. In a competitive global arena, costly mediocrity goes out of business."

One Highly-Evolved Day Bag

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:33:40 -0800

Originally posted in Cool Tools

I asked Charles Platt, former editor of Cool Tools, what he is packing these days and he replied with this list. It's not your usual selection:

I like to be fully prepared when traveling, but I hate excess weight. This has led to a computer bag containing not just a computer but as many small items as possible, packaged in such a way that they don't fall to the bottom in an undifferentiated mess.

The key to the packaging is to use a modular system based on Darice Mini Storage Boxes (available with or without compartments--I prefer those without). These parts boxes measure about 3.5" x 5.7" x 1.2". They have durable metal hinges and can be stacked edge-to-edge. My computer bag holds five of them in its main compartment. Amazon sells an assortment, or you can buy individual styles from CraftAmerica.

Inside the storage boxes I keep:

* Retractable Rosewill ethernet connector, about 1.5" x 3".

* Mini-USB to full-USB wire adapter, 6", for uploads from camera to laptop.

* Mini-mouse. I don't like trackpads.

* Spare laptop battery.

* Medications. To save space, I transfer pills into little 3" x 4" zip-lock plastic bags. I peel the prescription labels from pill bottles and stick them to the bags. (but cheaper from eBay).

* One 50mm diameter concave mirror, so that I can examine my own eye if I get a foreign object in it and there's no one else to assist. The concavity allows very close-up focusing.

* Cell phone charger.

* Camera battery charger.

* Earbuds and wire-mounted microphone with USB plug, for Skype calls via laptop. Especially useful when traveling internationally.

* Miniature 3-foot measuring tape in 1" x 1.5" enclosure.

* Plastic lightweight miniature camera tripod, folds to 1.5" x 6" x 0.6", so that I can take time exposures almost anywhere.

* SD data card reader with USB connector. Just in case image transfer from camera to computer fails.

* Miniature LED flashlight.

* Aegis Padlock 500GB external USB drive, with 256-bit hardware encryption. The nice thing about this drive is that you enter your password on a numeric keypad built into the drive. Thus, no software drivers are necessary, and you can plug it into any computer. And if you leave it behind in a motel room, your data are secure (supposedly there is no backdoor to bypass the encryption). Can you plead the 5th Amendment if an inquisitive US immigration agent wants to see what's saved on it? The last I heard, that issue is being litigated in a couple of test cases.

All these items fit inside the five storage boxes. In addition of course the bag has its own set of storage pockets containing pens, blank sheets of paper, two pairs of eyeglasses, paper printout of all addresses and phone numbers, business cards, passport, a printout of all online passwords using a simple cipher that I can decode in my head, and a pocket digital camera, currently a Canon S100. And, of course, there's a computer (Sharp MP30, no longer made unfortunately).

The bag itself is quite small: 12" x 14" x 5". Even when it's fully loaded, I find the weight tolerable.

-- Charles Platt

Life at the Edge of Space

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:02:33 -0800

Originally posted in The Technium

Life is very pervasive. How high into space does earthly life exist? The Clotho Project aims to find out.

How far off the earth’s surface does life exist, and what is the nature of the organisms that live there? The Clotho Project is a collaboration between the Mavericks Foundation, civilian space explorers, and several of the worlds leading scientific, academic and research institutions. The main mission is to carry out the first general survey of life in the upper atmosphere, including the upper portions of the stratosphere and mesosphere, as well as exploring areas of particular interest such as the biology of clouds and the airborne extent of algal blooms.

Not stated is the fact that the Mavericks Foundation is a co-op of amateur rocketeers. Folks who very carefully and scientifically make huge homemade rockets and launch them to the edge of space. They do it for fun, for the challenge, and for science.

The quest for the limits to earthly life is a good one. So is furthering the catalog of life on Earth. The search for species at the edge of space aligns with the All Species Inventory, which I co-founded.

I will bet that there are far more species of life up there than any biologist would dare predict right now. Probably tens of thousands. Some of these stratospheric species probably have curious adaptions for living in near vacuum and drastic temperatures. Useful genes.

Extended Warranty Evaluation

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:15:25 -0800

Originally posted in Cool Tools

The sales pitch for an extended warranty is simple: pay some extra money now to extend the manufacture's 90-day warranty another 3 years to save on expensive repairs later. For most appliances an extended warranty is a rip-off. The cost of this insurance rarely pays for itself. Either the device keeps working till just after the warranty period, or the cost of the warranty extension exceeds the cost of replacing the unit. Either way, the money made by selling uneconomical extended warranties is a major source of profit for retailers. That is why they are selling it: because on average most devices don't break during this period. Therefore, the wisdom of the smart shopper: skip the extended warranty.

There are a few exceptions to this rule. At this particular moment in technology, there are 3 major devices that seem particularly repair-prone and problematic, with frequent failures within their first 3 years, and with high costs of repair. According to a study by the independent Consumer Reports (August 2011), those three are: personal computers, refrigerators and zero-turn-radius riding lawn mowers. And because of their frequent failure across brands the insurance of an extended warranty is justified in their cases.

But not all extended warranties (EW) are the same. You can purchase an EW from the manufacturer, from the retailer selling the device, from a third party, or from your credit card company. And different issuers have different selling points.

In the personal computer realm, the best deal is Apple's. As 25-year Apple fans we automatically figure in the cost of AppleCare's 3-year EW for any device we purchase from them. Sad to say, we frequently need it. Happy to say, their service is great. We take the ailing unit to a local Genius Bar, and they swap out what's broken and make it right. Over the years we'd had screens, keyboards, drives, motherboards, power supply, all repaired for no extra costs over the EW. And that is not to mention the great real-human phone support help for any kind of software related questions.

Refrigerators are a different matter. Almost everyone has one, and newer models (particular those with ice makers) can be very complex. In the past few months, we needed to purchase our first new refrigerator. Even our plumber told us that the EW was worth getting for a refrigerator. But what kind? Sears offered one plan. Home Depot another. Visa, our credit card company offered another if we used their card. Square Trade offered third-party service. With the help of Camille Cloutier, we researched all the plans to see which had the best deal using a new LG refrigerator as a test case. Her research is summed up in this table here.

The short answer is that like many other industries, when you get behind the curtain there are really only a few major players. Most retailers and card companies outsource their extended warranty programs to a few industry giants, who rebrand their service, and then outsource the actual repairs to local companies. But because there are so many brands involved in this transaction it is very hard to assign credit or blame when things don't work out. If you read the feedback in forums on refrigerator repairs most unhappy customers aren't making the distinction between the manufacturer of the appliance, or the retail seller of it, or the company selling the EW, or the actual company supplying the repair technicians who come to your house. Those are four different companies for one experience for the customer.

What I found in warranty repair is that the competency of the local service branch probably plays more of a difference in customer satisfaction than anything else, but was the least consistent. If the local agency did a poor job fixing a problem, customers would naturally blame LG, or Panasonic, or GE for crappy quality and service. It is hard to judge the service quality in an EW, but it is essentially the same as the quality of a regular warranty repair -- that is dependent on local crews -- and this is important -- who often service all the different manufacturers. The Maytag man is unusual because most of the others repair technicians are contracted out and work on all brands.

So the choice of EW providers comes down to price and plan. All the policies we examined include a "No Lemon" clause -- if three of the same repairs are made in a 12 month period and a fourth becomes necessary, they will replace the unit, and most of them share the same long list of exclusions. Of all the policies, Visa's was the shortest and least specific. Its instructions on claim processing seemed the most lengthy (to report a problem, they mail you a claims form, you get an estimate and return that claim form, once it's approve, the claim can proceed).

Most 4- to 5-year service plans cost about 20% of the purchase price. Except Home Depot; they charge a flat fee of $100 for a 4-year extended contract on refrigerators (on a large one that's only 4%). It begins when the 1-year manufacturer's warranty ends, so I went with them for our extended warranty on a new fridge. I now have 5 years of service for $100, which seems like reasonable insurance.

-- KK

VW Vagabond

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:12:03 -0800

Originally posted in Cool Tools

This couple penny-pinched their salaries for several years, bought a VW Van, and drove it around the world (US, South America and Africa). They share what they have learned on one of the most helpful websites I've seen for this sort of thing. I really like their sensibility and advice. Very reasonable and very wise. They also "review" the tools and stuff they found vital in their small traveling home on this page. Click on a tool to see more.

They give good advice about shipping vehicles (very complex) and even saving up enough to make the journey. They have a book, too.

While living in a VW Van for three years, they got the idea that even this lifestyle was too complex so they get simpler for the next stage. They are now bicycling across Asia, another adventure and great idea. They are riding recycled 1980 mountain bikes. As usual they have all kinds of great tool reviews (water filters and the like).

Part of the reason their advice and website is so useful is that they have no sponsors -- a rarity for ambitious trips like this these days. It keeps them honest and useful. Check 'em out.

Sample excerpts:

Rain gear has proven to be pretty
much useless here in Southeast
Asia. To wear even the thinnest,
most breathable layer in this heat
creates a sauna-like effect. We
have taken to simply riding in the
rain... it's refreshing, really! If it
pours too hard to see, then we
pull over in a bus stop and wait
for the drizzle to return.

This is Rich preparing to cycle out of the
Bangkok railway station at 4 a.m. Notice
the reflective vest and reflective tape stuck
all over the bike. Reflective vests are
available from almost any bicycle shop. The
3M tape is the stuff used on highway guard
rails in the U.S. We purchased strips of it on
eBay for a few dollars.

We purchased our down bags at the Veterans
Thrift Store. They are a few years old and
needed a good washing but are as functional
- albeit with less status - than their adventure
store counterparts. Rich paid $10 for his and Amanda's was only
$1.65. We washed them on the delicate
cycle then ran them through the dryer on low
heat for a few cycles. If you put a running
shoe (make sure it's clean) in the dryer with
the bag it will keep the down from clumping.
We hung them on the line for two sunny days
and now they look and smell brand new - or
close enough.

TechShop Membership

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:54:36 -0800

Originally posted in Cool Tools

TechShop (previously reviewed here) is a member-based workshop. They have one of every tool you could dream of -- laser cutters, plasma torches, computer-control sewing machines, welders, 3D printing machines, you name it -- plus piles of regular tools (drill presses, lathes, oscilloscopes, miter saws etc.), and once you are member and cleared for training, you can use them whenever you want. They have a big open tables, lots of room, and offer classes for various tool craft as well.

TechShop sells day passes, week passes, monthly passes, or yearly membership.

The big update is that they have expanded their locations from their original Silicon Valley station. They are currently in 5 US locations, with 3 more in progress, and are adding more each year.

The idea is brilliant. Why should you purchase, maintain, and upgrade expensive shop tools that you might need only once in a while? It's a whole lot better to join a co-op that buys, houses, and upkeeps the gear. You pay rent to use it -- a price that will be a lot less than the cost of purchase. The downside, of course, is that you need to travel to the TechShop, which can be inconvenient. I've found 3 types of folks using it: 1) Those who have tiny apartments and no tools, or tool space, of their own; this is their workshop. 2) Those who are working on a prototype, or a big art project, for a specific period of time; this is their lab and office. 3) Those who own a decent typical workshop but want occasional access to a laser cutter, or 3D printer; this is their luxury.

Here are some photos I took at the San Francisco location:

A cage of power tools.

Welding machines waiting to be used.

A work table with floating power cord, easily accessible from any side, but not in the way. The lockers are for members use.

A plywood bench made using tools on the premises.

Working at the laser cutter control station.