Author Archives: Jeff Porten

On The Media @onthemedia:
OTM producer Alex Goldman just wondered aloud: “If there was more than one Lady Gaga, would they be ‘Lady Gagas’ or ‘Ladies Gaga’?”

@onthemedia They would be “meat shortage.”

On The Media @onthemedia:
Related, via @metafilter – What is the plural of Batman? ‘Batmen’ or ‘Batmans’? bit.ly/QxFK4R

@onthemedia Give us a hard one. Always been “Batmen” in numerous comics where it’s relevant.

HeatherHenderson @HeatherHenderso:
NEXT WEDNESDAY!

Join Heather and Emery for Coffee, Tea and/or Hookah and Conversation!

Wednesday, October 3,… fb.me/1Vp9UZs1Y

@HeatherHenderso I assume the hookers impede the conversation. Oh, wait….

ThinkProgress @thinkprogress:
On this day in 1960: Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy argued policy in the first ever televised presidential debate.

@thinkprogress Mitt Romney currently watching Nixon for debate tips.

Brett Kelly @inkedmn:
Just settled in at a coffee shop… where the wifi isn’t working. Awesome. Walking home now.

@inkedmn This is why I’m still Android phone—tethering is my friend. And faster than the hotel wifi I’d be using otherwise.

Susanna Calkins @scalkins3:
@jeffporten are you smarter than a 17thc youth? susannacalkins.com/2/post/2012/09…

@scalkins3 I suck at these things even when they’re from *my* century.

The samaritan thief? bit.ly/P2wfXm

Alex Kudera @kudera:
@jeffporten perplexing story, not the usual in lost or stolen. be safe.

@kudera It’s just Atlantic City. Nothing to worry about, although definitely odd.

Merlin Mann @hotdogsladies:
Went ahead and starred all the *most important* unread emails in my “Important” Gmail Inbox.

So, yeah, now THAT’s done.

#ProductivityGuru

@hotdogsladies That’ll be a tasty sandwich when it’s done.

Kirk McElhearn @mcelhearn:
If you’ve never read the extraordinary A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving, it’s only $3 from the iBookstore: itunes.apple.com/us/book/a-pray…

@mcelhearn I’m *really* trying to keep from having my ebooks in two different silos. But tempting nonetheless.

Tonight, in solemn remembrance of my parents, I’m off to a casino buffet, followed by penance with a minyon around a deck of cards.

Susanna Calkins @scalkins3:
@jeffporten nice! Red 19!

@scalkins3 Pretty sure that’s black. But i’ll check into it.

The samaritan thief?

Posted on

One downside of spending a lot of time gambling is that you spend a lot of time around gamblers. I don’t know why, but casinos turn perfectly normal people into the kind of folks you’d run into at the Mos Eisley Cantina.

So perhaps this story is about how I don’t trust people in Atlantic City.

I arrived in AC on a casino bus that dropped me off at Bally’s with a play voucher, so I camped out at a full pay Jacks or Better machine before heading off to my actual hotel. I was leaving $40 to the good an hour later, riding the PeopleMover to Pacific Avenue, when this happened. My thoughts in italics.

Guy behind me, in a thick East African accent: “Hey, were you just playing slots?”

Me, taking out headphones: “No, video poker.”

Guy: “<incomprehensible> leave phone?”

Me: “No.” The last time I saw my phone, it was sitting on my luggage, I might have dropped it….

Guy: “Someone said they found a phone. <I think, it’s still hard to tell the exact words>”

Me: “Shit.” Patting pockets—wallet, smokes, is that my iPod? The phone is lumpier. “Yeah, that was mine. Thanks.” <I start to board the walkway in the other direction.>

Guy: “No, man, here.” <reaches into back pocket, hands me my phone>

Me: “Hey, thanks. Can I give you something?” <big smile in reply>

I hand him twenty bucks. Phone still locked, no data exposed, I’m all good.

Then my brain turns on after he’s gone.

You find something in a casino, and you’re a decent human being, you turn it in at Security. Then the schlemiel who lost it can retrace his steps later.

How’d he know I lost a cell phone?

Scenario 1: guy sees me leave my phone, follows me out, maybe waiting just long enough so I offer him a reward. That’s a little scruffy, but hey, can’t blame him.

Scenario 2: guy sees me leave my phone, takes it, intends to leave with it, runs into me on the way out, and decides it’s faster to fence it back to me than to put it up on eBay. This is kinda seeming more likely.

I’m happy to have the phone back—I’m using it now to get online, and it’d cost me $40 this week just to get net access if I didn’t have it. Phone’s worth maybe $50-$100 (plus the chance to make free calls if you can break my code), and the replacement phone I’m looking at is $300. So at twenty bucks I got off cheap, and it was even Bally’s money.

But still, did I just hand twenty bucks to the guy who stole my phone? That bugs me.

I’m probably going to be noodling on this for a while.

Rob Griffiths @rgriff:
One downside to golfing with a no-service iPhone: GPS acquisition takes a _long_ time. If phone powers down, you wait and wait and wait…

@rgriff Supposed to take 1-2 minutes. Are you sure you’re under low Earth orbit?

Rob Griffiths @rgriff:
@jeffporten 1-2 minutes is a lot—especially as it seems to take that long every time the phone powers down. With cell, it’s a few seconds.

@rgriff There’s a hardware mechanism to make subsequent locations faster, but I have no idea how that interacts with iOS power saving.

Kirk McElhearn @mcelhearn:
The excellent TuneSpan is on sale today for only $2. See my Tech Hive article: techhive.com/article/116772…

@mcelhearn Can I use TuneSpan to make them all available? What happens when ext. drive not attached?

Kirk McElhearn @mcelhearn:
@jeffporten It puts them on other disk, and iTunes can find them. No need for symlinks. If drive not on, of course they’re not found.

@mcelhearn 30+ gigs on external, 10 gigs on internal. End up with 40 gigs in iTunes, and 30 gigs of “!”s when drive unattached?

Kirk McElhearn @mcelhearn:
@jeffporten Yes, but just quit iTunes, mount the drive, and relaunch, and it’s fine.

Pamela L. Gay @starstryder:
New geo term: dehydrated hydrous rock. This is rock that formed of minerals that request water, but the water was later baked out.

@starstryder I vote we just call that “ous rock”.