Category: Technology

Yikes! Sexting may sound harmless but it is far from it! Sexting can land the sender in prison for a felony and can cause that person to have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his or her natural life! This is no laughing matter and the powers-that-be (i.e. police and prosecutors) take sexting very, very seriously. What, exactly, is sexting? Well, according to Wikipedia, “Sexting is the act of sending sexually explicit messages or photographs, primarily between mobile phones.” In California, Sexting is made a crime by Penal Code Section 288.2 which basically says that it’s a crime to send a message to a minor if the message is intended to arouse or seduce the minor. This crime applies even… Read More

What is ChatRoulette?  Sam Anderson describes it perfectly as “a new website that brings you face-to-face, via webcam, with an endless stream of random strangers all over the world” in his New York Magazine article The Human Shuffle.  I stumbled upon www.chatroulette.com quite by accident when perusing www.oddee.com and found 18 Funny ChatRoulette Screenshots. While I don’t think they were necessarily funny, they were quite interesting. Screenshots ranged from a justifiably angry African-American fellow being linked up with a young Arian whose room was adorned with a Nazi Swastika flag (not funny) to a young woman screaming in horror when her chat partner donned a humorously terrifying mask. What is this… Read More

The unthinkable has finally happened – Susan Henwood appeared in court for a debtor’s hearing in an effort to ask the judge to continue the hearing because her husband was sick and could not attend and she was sentenced for 30 days in jail for texting him the updates of the hearing!!! According to an article in the Journal of the American Bar Association Susan Henwood, a mother of four, started serving the sentence in the Tooele County Jail on Monday, according to KSL.com. Henwood’s husband, Joshua Henwood, told KSL that his wife went to court to ask for a continuance in his case because… Read More

As you know by now, I’m a great proponent of the new California hands-free law which goes into effect on July 1, 2008. I blogged about it in May: Click Here. A corollary, of course, are my rants and raves about texting while driving: Click here, here, here and here. So, I’ve decided to post (yet again) on this subject and provide several useful links to articles, videos and hands-free equipment vendors below. What to Expect from California’s New Hands-Free Law: The Public Policy Institute of California writes the following press release: Update: 2009 Law Bans Text Messaging while Driving – See Video As of July 1, 2008,… Read More

It’s no secret that gas prices are climbing up, up and away! So I’ve done a little research and have found some links and a video with gas saving tips — the most common sense tip, of course, is slow down! Yahoo! published a report from Kiplinger which lists 5 gas saving tips: Find the Lowest Gas Prices by searching GasBuddy.com or GasPriceWatch.com by zip code or city and state to get the lowest prices in your area. Target the Best Time of Day to Buy Gas: The best time of day to fill up your tank is before dawn or late at night, when the sun… Read More

Thank you to safety engineer/expert Charles Samo for contributing this fascinating and informative article. Mr. Samo has been an expert witness in a multitude of litigation matters and can be reached at samoengr@sbcglobal.net. INTERESTING TIMES Have you ever wondered why birds resting on high and bare electric conductors do not get electrocuted? It is because the birds are not grounded or rather in contact with the ground. This is an interesting phenomenon. Whenever a person comes in contact with an overhead power line, if not in contact with ground, he or she is perfectly safe but as soon as a part of… Read More

Please view the photo album with caution. The photos in this posting are not for the faint-at-heart. For that reason, I am posting only one picture here and you’ll have to click here to see the rest. Please show these pictures to your kids and tell them in simple, emphatic words, don’t text while driving. Texting while driving could lead to death, or worse.

With gas prices hitting over $4.00 per gallon in some spots around the U.S., we’re all searching for ways to save money on that which fuels our country: Fuel!!! ABC News did an interesting story — click here to watch video –on alternative means to power your car. Fred Crane invented the Mileage Master which appears to significantly increase gas mileage. You flip a switch when you reach a certain speed thereby cutting off gas flow to half of the cylinders. Crane says that a person getting 20 miles per gallon spending $100 per month could reduce that bill to $35 per… Read More

Last September I posted a blog piece which focused heavily on texting while driving. The situation continues to escalate. Living and driving in Los Angeles really brings to light the flagrant disregard that so many drivers have for their fellow motorists, not to mention pedestrians and bicyclists, whom they do not see when their focus is on texting or dialing on their cell phone. I truly believe that talking on the phone is not so much a distraction as the focus that it requires to text and/or dial while driving. Update: 2009 Law Bans Text Messaging while Driving – See Video… Read More

Well, 1984 has come, gone and returned! Reuters is reporting that the Japanese have invented a digital camera that can identify the gender and age of its subject! Once in production, this camera will make it easier for police to identify criminal suspects. Click here to watch the full report. The camera, which debuted at the Tokyo Securities Show, has a margin of error of plus or minus 10 years. Apparently, the inventors have uploaded over 1 million mug shots to their database. The camera’s software will be able to take the image and match it with those mug shots, thereby… Read More