Monday: Putting Off, and Screwing On

I've just finished fixing several light fixtures around the apartment (yes, I am THE great procrastinator) and as I am typing my bedroom is filled with a warm, subdued orange light. Having relied on the lone fluorescent for the better part of a year (or was it more) the room feels different, somehow cozier. I can also stop sleeping with that blasted fluorescent on now (don't ask, it's a habit I picked up last year and never really outgrew).

It's wonderful the things we can do when we put our minds (and lazy arses) to them. Hovering between near consciousness and sleep later this afternoon I managed to catch Mythbusters, one of the newer programmes on Astro's Discovery Channel. It's about these two special effects-pros who decide to debunk urban legends and e-mail myths, and I do mean really debunk. Today's episode saw them destroying the myth that mobile phones cause petrol station fires and silicone breast implants explode when at altitude (I forget the third). What's intriguing is the fact that they found the real cause of these explosions are static discharges that occur when a person enters and exits his/her vehicle during the course of filling petrol, not mobile phones ringing. Apparently by doing so we accrue a static discharge that, if ungrounded will cause a fatal spark that will ignite the petrol. Something I know will rile up a lot of people out there is the fact that out of research done in the States, 78% of these accidents occur with female drivers, as they seem to pop in and out of the vehicle more often.

I'll not comment on that, since I'm sure there's a whole bees' nest somewhere in there. However, I have now learned enough to know that one should always try to discharge static buildup, regardless. PC-repairing geeks know this as canon. I guess that's one more good thing I got out of the Astro subscription.

In other news, BoingBoing served up some interesting dishes for today. For starters, it seems that our favourite Nigerian friends (read: scammers) have resorted to using some fresh tactics in order to yoke in an unsuspecting suc- er I mean victim. Barely a few weeks ago I remember at least one of them using popular roomie classifieds service roomates.com to trawl for and ensnare new fodder for complicity in grand larceny. Today it's a date site -webdate.com. Interesting read, and one can only guess where our resourceful friends will surface next.

Next is a sure-to-spark-controversy piece of news. Yesterday Apple announced an upgrade to iTunes 4.7 (which will be downloaded by most if not all iPod users) which in essence removes the capability for users who use the iPod Download app to move music on and off the device easily. I don't have one myself, but I've heard it facilitates getting music off the iPod and into their Macs. Does this affect PC users? I have no idea, and would appreciate if anyone could help clear this up for me. In the meantime, this little "reverse engineering" by Apple has sparked an interesting rant on BoingBoing, and I quote:

" Imagine if your mobile phone manufacturer enlisted your car maker into ensuring that you didn't use a third-party charger with your cigarette lighter, but instead bought the official, expensive licensed charger. Every time you take your car in for warranty-mandated service, the manufacturer's representative rips out your lighter and puts a new one in that locks out your charger. And when the agent is done, he smiles and tells you he's "updated" your car."

Interesting, nonetheless. Well, it'll be a shorter week for the Ox this week, as he gears up to join the exodus back home for the Eid, so the rest of you have a good week, and take it easy.