I really like Finger Ease guitar string lubricant. While I doubt the spray does a thing for the sound of my strings, I find it allows me to play for quite a bit longer.
Simply spraying this aerosol on the strings, and fretboard, of my guitars instantly makes them feel cleaner and faster. Finger Ease eliminates any squeakiness or scrapping sounds from my callouses moving over the strings. The lube also makes almost any room smell instantly nice, it reminds me of McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, CA for some reason.
I used to doubt this could be good for my guitars but after what seems like far more than a decade, everything is great. I doubt it cleans or protects, but it certainly lubricates. I do I do clean my fretboards between sets of strings, however I never notice any residue I'd attribute to Finger Ease. I also have bene taught to wash my hands before playing guitar so they are never a mess.
Lately I use coated Cleartone strings, and the Finger Ease creates no issues with the coating. I simply spray it very lightly on once every few times I play a guitar. A single can lasts me several years. Sadly, it is an aerosol.
Fingerease Guitar String Lubricant via Amazon
Previously on Boing Boing:
Cleartone Coated Extra Light Acoustic Guitar Strings Read the rest
"Tay," Microsoft's attempt at creating an artificial millennial, returned to twitter. Nothing that chatbot said helped Microsoft's situation, and the world should question if this technology giant is allowed to continue mucking around with artificial life.
Via Ars Technica:
Microsoft today accidentally re-activated "Tay," its Hitler-loving Twitter chatbot, only to be forced to kill her off for the second time in a week.
Tay "went on a spam tirade and then quickly fell silent again," TechCrunch reported this morning. "Most of the new messages from the millennial-mimicking character simply read 'you are too fast, please take a rest,'" according to the The Financial Times. "But other tweets included swear words and apparently apologetic phrases such as 'I blame it on the alcohol.'"
The new tirade reportedly began around 3 a.m. ET. Tay's account, with 95,100 tweets and 213,000 followers, is now marked private. "Tay remains offline while we make adjustments," Microsoft told several media outlets today. "As part of testing, she was inadvertently activated on Twitter for a brief period of time."
Microsoft has apologized. Read the rest
Designer Cornelius Commans gives us this amazing twist on the Piaggio Ape, a camper scooter. You can't buy it yet. It's just a concept--for now.
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If you love and collect minifigs, May will be a big month for you! This via LEGO's twitter feed.
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I used to think Star Wars was the story of C3P0 and R2D2, but The Force Awakens suggests Anakin's lightsaber may be the talisman that ties the room together. This fantastic video by youtuber Christopher Sherwood shows us that iconic weapon from inspiration up to its place in the current story.
Video Link Read the rest
The FCC is considering expanding the Lifeline program, which currently subsidizes home phone service for Americans who can not afford it, to include internet connectivity.
They absolutely should.
From the SF Chronicle:
This week, the Federal Communications Commission will debate whether to expand the agency’s Lifeline program, which was created in 1985 to offer low-income Americans with subsidies for telephone service. If approved, the expansion would allow low-income people to use Lifeline subsidies for Internet service.
Qualifying Americans would receive a $9.25 monthly subsidy for broadband Internet — which, advocates hope, would cut the cost to consumers to about $10 to $20 per month.
More than 60 million Americans, like Smith, don’t have Internet at home. About half say they can’t afford it, according to the Pew Research Center. About 6 percent of California households have no Internet access whatsoever, according to the California Emerging Technology Fund. That’s about 780,000 homes.
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I love fountain pens, but handing one to a kid seemed like a bad idea. These simple, disposable Pilot Varsity pens are a pleasure.
I bought this pack of five Pilot pens to let my kid see what writing with a fountain pen was like. I was surprised with how nice they write, and have ended up carrying them around as a daily use pen I won't mind losing. Losing an expensive fountain pen is a nightmare. The time spent searching in the car, under seats, in my pockets, and backpacks for a missing pen drives me batty.
The line is very fine, and there is little to no flex in the nib. The ink flows well, and dries fast. Neither I nor my daughter have ink all over our hands.
I still write with pens from my "permanent collection," but these disposables make life a bit easier.
Pack of 5 Pilot Varsity Fountain pens via Amazon Read the rest
Pumping all that waste water into the ground has really helped Oklahoma and Texas catch up to California! Man-made earthquakes in those regions are now as likely as the real ones in some of California's riskiest zones. These new maps from the USGS tell the tale pretty well.
Via NPR:
USGS scientists have now published the first maps of these new quake zones, and they're an eye-opener. An eye-opener because 7 million people are now, suddenly, living in quake zones. There are 21 hot spots where the quakes are concentrated. They're in places where, historically, noticeable earthquakes were rare: Texas, Colorado, Arkansas, Kansas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. Ohio and Alabama have also experienced some induced quakes.
A decade ago, an Oklahoman could count the number of noticeable quakes on her fingers. "In this past year, we had over 900," says USGS seismic hazard expert Mark Petersen. "So the rates have surged."
Petersen says induced quakes have become more frequent because there's more wastewater from oil and gas operations around the country that has to be disposed of. Companies pump it down into underground wells, and sometimes that water raises pressure on underground faults that then slip and cause small quakes.
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Monosodium Glutamate. I grew up in an era of terrifying tales about how MSG was a horrible scientifically engineered food additive that was killing me. Now I know the truth: this magic sodium salt of glutamic acid simply makes food taste better, and it doesn't hurt me.
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Teen hacker
Gibson Vaughn embarrasses a US Senator, and is made an example of. Now, ten years later, the same folks who turned him into a pariah need his help solving one of the greatest abduction stories in US history. Part political thriller, part who done it,
The Short Drop is a fantastic read.
This novel has it all. A teen hacker unfairly made an example of by the government and struggling to make his way, the establishment's front-running presidential candidate being overtaken by an upstart US Senator, and a 10 year old missing persons case to tie them together. This is one heck of a fun novel to read this primary season!
While some of the plot twists and turns may be a little more obvious to the reader than the characters in the novel, the pacing and story line are a lot of fun. I really enjoy the small details FitzSimmons colors his story with, and his representation of the Internet as a personality. I think he gets is right.
The Short Drop by Matthew FitzSimmons via Amazon Read the rest
There are rubber bouncy balls in between my couch cushions, under ever piece of furniture, and filling my desk tray. I feel like someone re-wrote the Trouble with Tribbles, starring bouncy balls.
It started out innocently, I have a gumball machine. I noticed that my daughter ALWAYS wants the bouncy ball at a local pizza parlor, and never candy from their machines, so guess what I did? This bag of 250 more than filled the tank, and there were quite a few left over. I say were.
Throwing handfuls of bouncy balls in a small room never gets old. Bouncy balls loose in the car on a windy road can be kind of scary.
While rubber bouncy balls can be a lot of fun, they are a real choking hazard around small kids and pets. Like my dog Pretzel. I was constantly removing them from her mouth for a while, lucky she wants to chew them up and not swallow them hole. We've gotten more careful. The cat wants to chase them, and bat them around too.
You can also make your own. DIY cornstarch and borax balls are not as long lived as rubber ones, which may be good. They also will destroy a gumball machine, don't use them for that.
250 Rubber Bouncy Balls via Amazon
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Comedy legend Garry Shandling passed away in Los Angeles, today, according to the Los Angeles Police.
Shandling was well respected and loved. E! Online shares a long collection of goodbyes from his colleagues.
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A group of NOAA scientists stumbled upon an interesting find while cataloging wrecks near the Farallon Islands, off the coast of Northern California near San Francisco. Reading Julie Prodis Sulek's Mercury News story I'd hoped for more science and excitement, but what an incredible story. The USS Conestoga went missing in 1921, and a massive search operation followed but turned up nothing. The boat was presumed to be lost thousands of miles away from San Francisco, where its trip began. But the boat just turned up just a few miles outside the Golden Gate. The scientists did a wonderful job respectfully informing the families of the lost officers and crew.
From the Mercury News:
He recognized it as a tug, complete with its riveted steel hull, steam steering apparatus, marine steam engine and big winch for towing. It was extra long at 170 feet.
"As we looked, one thing became very clear," Delgado said. "This isn't something that had been used to the end of its life and was scuttled. Everything suggested this is a ship that had fought and had died in service, but what ship it was we didn't know."
Schwemmer's research found a list of 400 wrecks in the area, "but no wreck showed up in the books that matched what we were seeing."
The wreck was covered with vegetation and sea life, so no name clearly emerged through the murky waters. The scientists took the images back east and studied them.
"In detective stories, you always look for the smoking gun," Delgado said.
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How hot is that steak? How hot is the grill it is sitting on? Is my bedroom heater vent actually warmer than the bathroom, just one a few feet away? These and many, many more mundane questions are being answered by this $12 IR thermometer.
What started out as an easy way to deal with a stuck thermometer on my grill has become an addiction. How warm is Nemo's nose? Is that mug of tea across the room still warm enough to drink? Does my Kindle get warm if left on? Does raccoon in the driveway have a fever?
Point the red dot at something, the read out on the back of this AAA powered, pistol inspired thermometer tells you how hot, or not, something is. You can turn that laser pointer on or off. You can also switch the readout from Fahrenheit to Celsius, and back, with the touch of a button. It does exactly what I needed, and has become a fun toy.
My cat, Heart, also enjoys the laser pointer. Thermometer says the spot he just vacated, seconds ago, on my chair is around 101F.
FOSHAN MINGZE Digital IR Infrared Thermometer,Non-contact LCD Instant Read Thermometer via Amazon Read the rest
A new report says anti-vaxxers are responsible for the rise in two infectious diseases we'd nearly eliminated from the United States.
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Jaime Gilt, an obviously Floridian, gun-regulation-hating, 31-year-old mother, was shot in the back while driving. Her 4-year-old son whom she'd been training as a child marksman is reported to have shot her. Ms. Gilt's pistol--which was apparently ready to fire live ammunition--slid out of her purse and into her son's hands, where he put it to immediate use.
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