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The New Mace?

I remember seeing a demo of Surefire flashlights on TechTv 2-3 years ago and have wanted one ever since. Their LED lights are incredibly bright, efficient, durable, and just plain cool...or geeky. It depends who you ask.

I started looking around the Surefire site, comparing the different lights and trying to find a perfect fit. I want something small, bright, and black. I stumbled upon the Executive Defender. Holy crap! It looks like the Glock of personal flashlights. It's even described as "a personal safety device that packs a powerful defensive punch into a very small package."

Wait a minute, a flashlight as a personal safety device? Their logic is that the light is so bright that it could temporarily blind someone. That makes sense, but only if you're carrying it around in the ready position. It's also got what they call a "Strike Bezel" for that super smart move of attacking your attacker.

Are flashlights the new mace? I hope not. If I'm ever mugged (again), all I want is something to light the way as I run away screaming.

Next up, the story of my morning mugging. Stay tuned.

The Mugging of 2000

Here's the story I promised to tell in my previous post:

It was a crisp and sunny Saturday morning in the summer of 2000. Before heading to work, I stopped at a gas station near my house to get some soda. As I pulled in, I made eye contact with a guy who happened to be pulling in at the same time. He was in a black, late 70's or early 80's, Chevy four door.

I was waiting at the register and the guy from the black Chevy came inside, grabbed a pack of gum, and got in line behind me. I pulled out my wallet to pay. Within a second or two I saw a hand snatch it out of my hand. It was the guy that was behind me in line!

He made a break for it and ran into the "entrance only" door pretty hard. As he was making a move for the exit door, I grabbed him around the waist and we wrestled for what seemed like a minute.

"Get the f#ck off me!"

I did.

He ran outside. I ran after him. "Keep the cash, just give me back my sh!t." We made eye contact and he pulled away. I saw his girlfriend in the passenger's seat, who seemed unaffected by the whole ordeal. I wrote down the license plate number, called the police, filed a report, and went home. I was pretty freaked out.

A few weeks later I got a call from an officer who told me that they caught the guy after doing the same thing at a grocery store. My brother and I went down to the station to look at a photo lineup. I picked him out immediately and was also able to identify the woman that was in the car. The cop then let me watch the surveillance video, which was so grainy I could hardly recognize myself, and even let me read the guy's rap sheet. It was pretty long with lots of weapons and violence charges. I guess I'm lucky that he just took my stuff and ran off.

Basecamp Adds Time Tracking

Good news! Basecamp finally has a time tracking feature. The bad news is that it's only available on the $49 and $99 plans. Grrrrrr.

30x2

I'll get back to posting next week...I promise! Work is insane right now. I think I've put in 30 hours of the last two days and am looking forward to a full weekend of work. It's not too bad. I work with cool people and after the rollout on Monday a lot of stress will (hopefully) be gone.

Oh! Earlier this week I submitted photos for a scooter magazine AND a new graffiti book that's coming out this winter. There's no guarantee that my photos will get published, but in both cases I was asked to submit photos, so I think that's a good sign and I'm pretty excited.

Podcasts: The Hot Sixteen

Here's a list (in order) of the sixteen podcasts I listen to regularly.

1. This Week in Tech
2. Diggnation
3. Digital Photography Tips From The Top Floor
4. Cocoa Radio
5. Security Now!
6. LensWork
7. Martin Bailey Photography
8. Media Artist Secrets
9. Rick's Camera Review
10. Ruby on Rails
11. Ebert and Roeper
12. Engadget
13. Photoshop Radio
14. ProPHP
15. Slate Magazine
16. Chinese Survival Guide

What are you listening to?

IEView Plugin for Firefox

At work we develop for users in a controlled environment that use Internet Explorer. As coders, we like to develop in Firefox, taking advantage of the advanced Javascript debugging, the web developer toolbar, advanced page properties, etc.

Once in awhile we get bit by waiting too long before testing in IE. No longer! Last night I found the IE View extension, which allows you to right-click a link to launch it in IE. Check it out.

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