throwstuffintoilets

Udder Bounce Test

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 21:48:07 -0700

This was a test of the rubber material function in 3DS. I didn't try very hard on animating the actual cow structure. I just wanted to watch that rubber bounce!

Index Card Animation

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 21:40:30 -0700

Did it for an animation class. Some of the sound isn't quite timed right. Oh well. I was young.

I'm not fat.

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 18:24:27 -0800

This photo makes me look fat. But it's fun, so I'm using it anyhow.

A Custom Askville Avatar

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 22:37:54 -0700

I made it, it's animated, but I haven't posted the animated one yet here, it's on my Askville profile.

Final Post HERE

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 02:09:26 -0700

That's it, I'm done with this blog. This is my final entry here. If you would like (and I hope you would!) to continue keeping up with what I write, please visit my official *thing* (I really DON'T like the word blog) here: http://mereman.wordpress.com/ Please do me the favor of checking it out, reading at least ONE post in its entirety and leaving me a comment. You'll do it if you care. I know I would do it for you if you asked me to! With love, Brian

Hesitation - a short story

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 02:27:49 -0700

It was at this moment that Kevin always found himself hesitating. "Why?" he would sometimes ask himself. "What is there to be afraid of?" Asking himself didn't do any good though, because he knew the answer. He knew exactly what he was afraid of. It really wasn't fear, either, that caused the hesitation. It was worry, anxiousness, nervousness and other similar, familiar feelings that would all creep in on him at the same time, making him hesitate. Memories of the previous times he had been through this only served to make him hesitate longer. For as long as he could remember, this had been a difficult thing for him. He knew it was unique, he knew that most people did this every day, sometimes two or three times a day, and it wasn't this difficult. In fact, it wasn't like this at all for them. He stared down at his reflection in the faucet and other chrome surfaces. Since he always hesitated, he had spent a long time staring down into the chrome. Every day. He always loved the way his face would distort, squashing and stretching. Past the faucet was his canvas, his enemy. The white of the porcelain glistened with a light coating of water. Water. Yes, perhaps a little more water. He reached, toothbrush still in hand, to turn on the cold water. A little more. He opened the valve all the way. Maybe with enough water it would all wash away quickly. Maybe he wouldn't even get a glimpse. If he didn't see, he wouldn't have to be worried. He wouldn't have to hesitate any more if he could simply wash away the problem. Before continuing, though, he rinsed the toothbrush. Washed away all the suds and germs that seemed to hate him so much. Why? Why not anybody else? Useless inquiries, just like the useless hesitation. At least he wouldn't waste water in the mean time, he would rinse the toothbrush. Hopefully, this time, there won't be blood. He shuddered upon remembering the last time there was blood. Bits of food, the suds, anything else is fine. Blood doesn't represent good things. It always means trouble. Bad trouble. Keven put his hand back on the cold water handle, locking his arm out so he could lean against the sink. He contemplated turning the water back off, but did nothing. Hesitating. He looked straight down, trying not to look at anything, but instead watching the water pour from the faucet. He watched intently. Waiting. The texture of the oxygen charged water flowing from above, quickly shooting down, a white-water rapids going straight down, crashing into the smooth, white surface of the bottom of the sink. He followed the stream down a little further, into the drain, wishing he could go there too. The whole sink should be a drain, he thought, because that way there wouldn't be any way to see what he knew he was about to see. "My teeth are healthy enough," he told himself out loud. "How bad would it really be if I only brushed once a week?" Going through this mess once a week would be a lot better than every day. He remembered one of his earlier visits to the dentist, as a small boy. The dentist had advised him to brush his teeth at least twice a day, maybe three times. Little Kevin had laughed, thinking it was a joke. When he saw that the dentist was serious, Kevin became frightened. He recalled the ride home in the car, still crying. His mother assuring him that the dentist couldn't really make him brush three times a day, it was just a suggestion. The thought still gave Kevin chills. Twenty years later, it still made his skin crawl. Another rhetorical question crossed his mind. "Why is it so much easier to start brushing than to finish?" Of course, it is true. If he knew so well how much trouble it was to finish the job of brushing, why would he not hesitate to begin? As a very small child, the habit had been instilled before the experience of finishing really got bad. Then, things weren't so heavy, so intense. Now, it wasn't so light and easy. He would begin brushing each day simply because he knew he had to, but once he began he would have to finish. There he stood, hand on handle, leaning on the sink, mouth full of suds, hesitating. He focused his vision again, watching the white water crash down onto the white surface, with the little white bubbles dancing into the drain. The dark drain. Nervousness set in heavily as he prepared to spit into the sink. He would aim for the drain, as he always did, but he knew something would splatter onto the porcelain. It always did. He would try to look away, like he always did, but he would see it anyhow. He wasn't ready yet. He pulled his face away and looked up at the ceiling. Ah yes, the ceiling, another of many all too familiar features in the bathroom. How many times had the hesitating led to this, looking up, away from the dark, white porcelain. Looking up always made him think, "I should just swallow the suds, that way I don't have to spit them out." He knew how well that would go over though, he had done it a few times before. Every time it led to very bad things. Sickness, vomiting, tense muscles. All of that, and the next day's spit would always be a thousand times worse. No, he knew it was far better not to swallow. Spitting was, in fact, the lesser of two evils. Two dark, sinister evils. Spitting and swallowing. In any other context it would be humorous. Kevin had very little to laugh about though. There was one time, a long time ago, that the spitting brought something to laugh about. Among a lifetime of darkness, that one day shone like a candle, a bright light that Kevin always hoped would return. It never had, though, and what that told Kevin was that he was destined to a life full of sadness, darkness and horrors. His hope of another something to laugh at had disappeared forever. He let his head fall back down, looking down at the water. Watching and listening to the running water was soothing, but he was beginning to feel bad about wasting water. He remembered television ads he saw as a child. They always had suggestions for conserving water. He never left the water running while shaving or brushing his teeth. Just like the commercials said. Now he stood there, leaning on the sink, watching the water. What did it mean? He stared more intently at the water. The water didn't seem to be saying anything. It doesn't mean anything. It had nothing to say. No, he wasn't ready yet. He could carry it around all day, in his mouth. That way, he wouldn't have to spit it out, and he could just leave it in there and brush his teeth again the next morning with the same... No, that made his stomach sick just thinking about it. Plus, he had to talk to people. That's hard to do with a mouth full of toothpaste suds and bits of food. Time to spit. He just had to get it over with. He took a long, deep breath in through his nostrils. He held it. Drums beat somewhere inside, and things shifted. His heart moved up, a void was created near his stomach making that strange feeling you get before doing something that you know will frighten you. He felt his pores widening, he felt his forehead and arms cool down rapidly from the sweat. He put his other hand out to steady himself on the sink. "It doesn't take that long," he said to himself. Of course, not really. He couldn't speak with all of the suds in his mouth. He hadn't had breakfast yet, so he wasn't sure if the rumblings in his stomach were from hunger or nerves. Another good reason to spit though, it's difficult to eat with a mouth full of suds. He could simply close his eyes, to prevent himself from seeing the suds, but that hadn't worked in the past. For Kevin, spitting the suds was like sneezing, except backward. When you sneeze, you have to close your eyes. When Kevin spits the suds, he has to have them opened. If they're closed, he'll miss it, and that's not the way it's supposed to go. He spit. He did it quickly, but for him time seemed to slow. He watched the stream of liquid flow down to the sink. Some of it went straight into the drain, but the rest splashed and sloshed around the drain, speaking to him. Patterns formed, arrangements of bubbles, colors and textures showed him signs. His heart fluttered when he saw swirls and streaks of red. Blood always means bad things. Wait though, over there. Is that a bit of carrot? What does it mean? What about that pair of little bubbles sliding into the drain? Oh, and over there... What is that? A will, that's what it is. The white noise of the water pouring ferociously into the sink had vanished into the background, but the water itself swirled into the scene before Kevin's cursed eyes. It's true, the running water had washed the spit away three times as fast as the usual drainage, but this time, when it was all over and the last bit of suds had gone, something curios happened. Something that hadn't happened in a very long time. Kevin began to laugh. There had been blood, but Kevin raised his hand from the cold water handle and put his palm on his forehead, laughing. The laughter soon turned into a fit of laughter that could be heard throughout most of Kevin's apartment complex. For a moment he felt bad about laughing, because of the blood. "It's alright," he assured himself. "Nobody really likes her that much anyhow." He called his mother to find out how his grandmother was doing, it had been a long time since he had heard about her. It seemed she was fine at the moment. "Not for long," he told himself. An hour later, another phone call. It was mom. "Interesting that you should call earlier and ask about your grandmother," she said. "Oh? Why is that?" he replied, trying to sound casual. "Did you know something I didn't know about her? About her health?" "Mom, I'm a thousand miles away and I haven't talked to her in years. How could I know anything you didn't know?" "You're right. Well, I just got a phone call from my sister. Your grandmother passed away just fifteen minutes ago. She had been healthy and was doing fine yesterday, but this morning she wasn't doing too well, and she just passed away." Kevin felt bad. He heard his mother's voice trembling a little. He knew she was trying not to sound too upset, but he also knew how bad he would feel if it was his mother that had passed on. "I'm sorry to hear that. Keep me updated with the funeral plans and everything, and I'll try to see if I can fly out for the funeral. Work's been pretty tough on me lately though, and I might not be able to get the time off." "I understand. I'll let you know as soon as I know anything." "Thanks. Hey, let me know if I can do anything for you. I love you." "Thank you. I love you too, I'll talk to you again soon." She hung up. Kevin closed his cell phone and put it back in his pocket. A little grin came. The spit was never wrong. He walked over to his window and looked outside. He pondered the rest of this morning's experience. Grandma had indeed died. What was the rest of it? Oh, right. Later that evening he got another phone call from his mother. It was about the funeral, which would be in a week, and the will. Just like the spit had said. Grandmother had left everything, her entire estate, to Kevin's mother. Several bank accounts with close to the limit of what the bank would insure, no mortgages, four homes, each on a good amount of land... Mother was still in shock at becoming so wealthy so quickly. Kevin's mother had always been very poor, and nobody in the family knew that grandmother was sitting on so much money. This morning, mother's reaction had made Kevin chuckle. The next morning, Kevin was curious to see what the spit had to say, and he hesitated only a little. Thankfully, there was no blood. There was a curious little episode about a friend of his calling with some interesting news, his job asking him to stay late, and the neighbor playing his music loudly in the evening, making it difficult for Kevin to fall asleep. Harmless. For Kevin, this was a terrific day. In fact, close to a week passed with similar, uneventful spits and days. Kevin was beginning to wonder if his luck had changed, if perhaps he was no longer destined to live a life of anticipating horror and sadness. Then, the day of the funeral came around. He knew that his mother would be traveling almost two hours by car to get to the funeral, but there was no way he could have prepared himself for what the suds would tell him next. In fact, he had gotten so used to uneventful days, that this morning sent his system into quite a shock. Plus, there was blood. Lots of blood. So much blood that he very nearly passed out. When he recovered from the shock, he knew exactly what he had to do. This time, the idea frightened him more than spitting, more than the blood. No thinking about it though, no time for hesitation. Twenty minutes later, the bus that took Kevin to work every day lost control on a curvy mountain road and fell four hundred feet. Everyone on board died. Keven, who had seen the whole thing in his spit and suds that morning, was not on the bus. He had been in his apartment when a gas pipe and open flame caused an explosion in the room next to his, blowing a hole two hundred feet wide in the side of the building. It wasn't the explosion that took his life though. He had hung himself just moments before the explosion. What had he seen that was horrible enough for him to take his own life? Later that afternoon, at the shop where Kevin worked, two police officers showed up with a warrant to arrest Kevin for the murder of his grandmother. Eventually they found his burnt remains among the rubble of his apartment complex. His mother was on the road when they called to tell her about her son's death. When she bent over to get the call, she took her eyes off the road and didn't notice the other car swerving into her lane. Blood always means bad things.

What I Want

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 19:57:26 -0700

Where is the Kindle's sister product? Despite valid criticism of the Kindle's obtrusive page flipping buttons and other seemingly thrown-together hardware features, the Kindle is a great product for avid readers, and I am looking forward to purchasing the next generation Kindle (if there are sufficient improvements and a good drop in price). What I want to know is, where is the Kindle for authors, not just readers? I have been an aspiring author for quite some time now, and one of the challenges I struggle with is the hardware I use for writing my material. I tried an old typewriter, but most of the writing I was doing needed to be prepared to go digital, so paper was out. Then I tried using my laptop, but that is far too expensive and heavy a tool to be practical on the run, with strict requirements for ventilation and a heavy drain on the battery while the screen is lit up. I looked far and wide on the internet, and found that NOBODY is producing an inexpensive, digitally oriented word processor for authors who need a portable, digital writing tool. There is a new generation of UMPCs and Linux laptops that range in price from $200 to $400, and I am thinking of going with one of them, but their battery life is still only three hours or so, they still require a back light for the LCD screen, and they are so compact that the keyboard is useless for long periods of typing. Part of my specialty is my familiarity with current technologies. I learned of digital e-ink long before the first products began popping up with the technology. I am familiar with its numerous benefits (especially for products like the Kindle) as well as some of its drawbacks (like a frustratingly slow refresh rate). It's main strength, though, is the fact that it only requires a charge to change the display, not to display content. I have also been an avid follower of OLED technology, which will one day replace all portable device screens because it offers all of the advantages of our current LCD screen technology, without the need for a back light, so it draws considerably less power, and displays crisper, more vibrant images. I bring this up because I think bloggers and authors of all kinds in our digital world would benefit from a power-sipping device like the Kindle for use in a variety of environments and situations without fear of having to quit writing in three hours because the batteries will die, or fear of overheating the processor because it's sitting in their lap. The main features an author would look for in such a product would be: * battery life (the screen technology would play the largest role in such a product) * portability (full sized keyboard, but smaller than an average laptop, and well built) * simplicity of use (no 30 second boot up time, not too many complicated features) * cost (less than a full laptop - the cost of the Kindle, $400, would be permissible) Obviously, the product would need to have a well developed word processor on board (check with the folks at www.openoffice.org for a free, Microsoft Office compatible office suite with a very good word processor and other tools, or a partnership with GoogleDocs could be considered), with a built in and extensive dictionary and thesaurus. Some additional features could include: * access to and compatibility with Amazon's CreateSpace and Digital Text Platform for formatting and publishing completed works directly * access to Wikipedia.org and other research sites * access to popular blogging sites to post to the users' blogs directly * ability to receive images/text from an e-mail account and/or SD card for inclusion in the document * ability to send to an e-mail account or save to SD cards for transfer to another computer for further editing/formatting * Whispernet AND WiFi compatibility, for ensured connectivity and enhanced features in WiFi hotspots (like connecting directly to another WiFi device to transfer documents) * ability to run on battery for extended use or run while charging, plugged in * USB connection to computer for file transfers, charging, and perhaps even to become a peripheral component (it could become an external keyboard with an external display to search dictionaries and other resources thus freeing up screen real estate on the computer) I understand that these are lofty expectations, but even at its most basic form, the digital, portable, simple word processor is an untapped market. There is no product currently meeting the unique needs of those of us who simply want to type on the go, anywhere anytime. Amazon embodies everything there is about books and media. The CreateSpace service is a wonderful tool for authors, just as digital books are a wonderful feature of the digital, internet world for readers. Amazon stepped up and brought readers a simple, direct, unique and innovative product for taking their hobby on the road in an "anywhere anytime" kind of way. If Amazon were to deliver a similar tool for authors, both the reader and the author could rejoice. There would be a surge in content for the readers, and increased sales for Amazon. If such a product were to become available, you can bet that I would buy it. I might even buy two. And I'd probably give them as Christmas gifts to my writing friends and family. Just an idea.

The Future of Social Networking, Cellphones and Your Credit Card

Sat, 03 Nov 2007 13:40:20 -0700

I love future technology, and I try to follow current trends in the tech world. I follow what is happening, and (to the best of my ability) what is about to happen. Sometimes, I get good ideas; and this is one of them. Though I see this as simply a "good idea," I'd like to think that it is also the inevitable outcome and product of current activities, trends and technological advancements. I'm unsure how it will be implemented, but we'll talk about that later. There are several options, all of which are viable and possible; but it won't make much sense to talk about implementation before describing WHAT we'd be implementing. So, how to describe this... This is the blending of cellular phones, the internet, commerce, personal data assistants, data management and social networking - all in one, easy-to-use, neat, customizable and (hopefully) open source web application. So, now that we have it outlined (details will follow), let's talk about implementation. The thing is this: It is an internet suit, dependent on internet functionality; but I think it would be all you should need on a cellphone handset. So, most likely the cellphone would not be a "cellphone" but rather an internet access device, about the size of a cellphone, and with the main purpose of accessing and interacting with the features of the site I will describe below. Because of this, you would also be able to access the site and do everything you can do with your "cellphone" (that little internet device I described above) from any computer (preferably equipped with speakers and a microphone). On to the site. What will it be like? The features I am about to describe are all existent today in one form or another, but many of them have not been successfully married together by anyone. And NOWHERE (that I am aware of) are all of these features found in one place, especially not with a cell-like device as I expect it will be some day. Yes, even though I describe this as a future idea, the fact is somebody else has probably already begun creating something like it. I know European cellphone services are beginning to resemble some of this, but NOBODY has it all... yet. I believe it will happen soon though, perhaps in five or ten years. Here it is! The site would at first resemble a social networking site (much like Facebook). You would have a profile, along with everyone else who wants to sign up (I think it should be free to have a profile, while some of the features would probably require a monthly subscription). The main difference is that businesses and organizations would have profiles (like Virb and MySpace), and you would actually add them to your contacts. ;) Basically, from here it becomes a little like an address/contact list/book. In stead of having all of the profiles you want linked to you as "friends," you could put them in "circles," or categories. Depending on the category, the group/individual will have more or less access to your personal information. Some sample "circles" could be as follows: Friends, close friends, family, coworkers, schoolmates, church/club members, neighbors, services, businesses, etc. So, you would search for a listing (your friend's name or the business name/phone number/address) and then drag them into a circle or into several circles (or, in a less "touchy" interface, you would check boxes by the "circle" names) and they would be saved in those circles. Maybe you look up a close classmate, who also happens to live by you, and you are good friends with him/her. So, you look up their name, let's say "John Doe." (I know, cliché, right?) John Doe's EXTREMELY basic profile would appear showing his name, maybe a photo, and any other information he chooses to show everybody at his discretion. Then you would check boxes by the circle name(s) you want him to be a part of (or, in our ultra-cool iPhone-esque scenario, you would drag his photo onto each label, one at a time). Each circle would have a different level of security associated with it, and thus you would only be able to add him to some categories with his approval (like doing a friend add in Facebook). Each circle represents the relationship you have with this person. Some relationships are very simple, and thus you do not need access too much of the individual's personal information, but you still might need to have them in your contact list. So, you add John Doe to each circle. Let's start with classmate and neighbor, which are similar relationships. For this, each individual sets preferences for how they want them handled (depending on how secretive, paranoid and/or protective of personal information they are). Let's say John allows people to add him as a neighbor and/or classmate without him having to approve it, but the only privileges associated with this relationship with John are the ability to send text messages and make phone calls. Or maybe classmates are only allowed to send text messages to John through the service, but neighbors are permitted to make phone calls and send text messages. As for the "friend" relationship, John has set his security preferences to prevent people from adding him as a friend without his permission, so after adding him to these three categories, he will only show up with basic contact capabilities in your address book in the classmate and neighbor circles until he approves your request to add him as a friend, at which time you will have as much access as he deems necessary for his friends, and you will be able to see his full profile. Don't worry though, you don't have to wait until he logs into the internet - a text message is sent to him immediately, notifying him that you are waiting. Now, remember that this service is married to your cellphone? Because it's an internet service, the phone calls are handled as voice over IP (VoIP), and thus video conferencing will be possible too (though the handsets might be a little awkward for this, it's not unfathomable). The text messages would not be limited in size, thus they could be considered full messages or even e-mails and would be received into an "inbox". As for the text message you sent him... Social networks are difficult and slightly annoying for some people. They can't be scheduled, they can get very involved and if you're always carrying it around with you, you'd probably get interrupted a lot unless you just turn it on and off throughout the day, right? Check this out - like an instant messenger (oh, did I mention the service includes IM? It does) you can set your status. And in case you're worried you might forget to set your status to busy or unavailable, this service is combined with your schedule. You tell it when you're in class, at work, in meetings, in church, etc., and it keeps silent during those times - you can even tell it to stay quiet for another ten minutes or so (you set the time) after the scheduled event, just in case the meeting goes a little late, or class lets out late. And if the future is as cool as I hope it will be, you won't even have to worry about inputting your own schedule. When you get a new job, register for school classes or even arrive at church or the movie theater, the local computer system will automatically connect with your profile and either input the new scheduling information (work will send your weekly schedule to your cell service, which you will be able to view online and on your phone, AND the schedule work sends you will include phone quiet times and break times so you don't have to set your status - it's in the schedule), or the church or movie theater will detect that you've entered their facilities, and change your status to quiet mode (busy, unavailable, etc.). If you have some kind of urgent, pending business, you can make that known on your profile and even the museum's computers will understand that certain contacts (which you associate with the emergency situation, like your spouse or the police) will still need to be able to get through to you. OK, just two more main features before I wrap up by quickly describing the interface. Part of the aforementioned functions are facilitated by the actual device's global positioning system capabilities. The system learns the device's physical location by way of GPS, and this information becomes part of your profile, and is updated in real time while you are logged in with a GPS enabled device. The main service includes mapping capabilities, to display this information. It shows the locations of everything in your contact list on that map. Some relationships or circles will limit the ability to see the location of particular profiles (based on security preferences), but any business you have listed will show up, and the map will provide directions to anything you see on the map. Finally, the service will include a function similar to that of PayPal. You can transfer money to anyone in your contacts, from any circle, without exchanging banking information. The hand held device will function like a credit card or bank card allowing you to make purchases at stores, and the online service will allow you to transfer money to businesses with which you conduct online transactions. Even donations will be handled in this fashion. Basically, just imagine if Facebook, Skype, PayPal, Google (Gmail, Google Maps, Google Docs, Google Calendar, etc.), and a high speed wireless internet service provider (like WiMax) all merged together and started a cellphone service. This is what you'd end up with, and I think that the popularity, functionality and practicality of these services point to one thing - they'll all be the same thing in the near future. The service's main page when you log in will be very customizable. I am hoping that this will be an open source project, and third party applications will be a large part of it (like here, at Facebook), allowing users to add widgets, gizmos and applications to their profile and homepage as well as adding additional functionality to the phone. Similar to Facebook's home page, there will be news feeds, that you can customize, from your family, friends and business contacts, as well as actual news items, weather, etc. Businesses you save in your business circle will display small ads and special offers for you for items and services you would be interested in. You can customize the look of the page with colors and images or even your own coded formatting through CSS, HTML, or whatever else you like. At the top of the page there will be tabs. You can create your own to hold content you chose, and there will be tabs for your favorite circles. Each one will have specialized news feeds from the contacts in them, and you will be able to view these contacts and their profile pages through the navigation tools. Contacts can be ordered by time you've known them, distance from you, alphabetical order, how often you have contact (phone calls, text messages, etc.) with them, and even preference (who you like the most, which business/restaurant you like more, etc.). Placing a call would be as simple as selecting the contact and pushing the "call" button. There would be a video call button, a send message button, a send photos or files button and perhaps (though third party applications) other buttons could be added as well for interaction with your contacts (anyone up for a good poke fight?). The actual hardware would HAVE to use OLEDs to save battery power and provide richer images. There would be a speaker, microphone, jack for external components (maybe), bluetooth and other wireless connectivity, USB (or whatever else we're using then) for a keyboard or something, a multi-touch screen big enough to actually read all that stuff people write on their profiles but not so big you can't carry it around with you, a camera hidden behind the screen for natural face to face video conferencing, and a couple other things like battery charging accommodations (though that might be wireless too by then) and an on/off mechanism (though you probably won't use it all that often). It would need to be small enough to fit in a pocket, but not too small. Data entry could be through a slide-out keyboard, on-screen keyboard or even through speech-to-text technology (which is getting better every day). The internet site that runs your phone might be reformatted to fit the smaller screen, ditching some things to save space and make it fit. When viewed online from a larger screen, this would not be an issue, and the site would have no limitations. The free account would include a profile and all networking functionality. If anything were to be charged, it would be a monthly fee to have high quality VoIP calls with video, though I don't know why a free subscription couldn't offer the same VoIP that Google Talk offers today for free. If all goes well, when you sign up for this service, you should be able to tell it the URL and login information of a social networking site you've already been using (such as MySpace or Facebook), and it will go in and import all of that hard work you've already done there into this new service. That way you won't have to enter all that personal information AGAIN! After all, who wants to type out all of their favorite music and interests for ANOTHER social networking site? Not me! One of the coolest features of a service like this would have to be the ability to share your handset. Say you have a friend who signed up and got a profile, but didn't buy the phone, and he wants to call his mother. You can hand him your phone and he can log on to the site through password verification just like we do on any other social networking or banking site today. He uses your phone as though it were his own, then logs off and you log back on. It's that easy. Finally, and I know you're about to give me the"run-on sentence-king" award and "diarrhea-of-the-mouth" award, I truly do believe that this is all just a couple years away, once someone decides to do it. There are patents to be considered, as well as the availability of high speed wireless internet connections, but overcoming those hurdles, this service is already available, you just have to piece it together and make them talk to each other. If anyone out there is interested in actually doing this, and they have the ability to get things done (find programmers, designers, engineers, manufacturers, web hosts, etc.), I don't mind if you steal my ideas. First of all, they probably aren't unique, and second of all, I think it's going to happen whether I do it or not. The only thing I ask in return for taking my idea isn't credit, but a piece of the pie. Not a percentage of the earnings, but a handset! I just want to be able to use the service I've dreamed up without having to pay for it. Is that too much to ask? I think not! Happy dreaming, and until next time.