micromux

Adaptive Thickness Dental Floss Kits

There are only a few things we can do to really make ourselves feel healthy. Regular trips to the gym certainly play a significant factor. Of course, eating the right foods is always important, and when you’re done eating it’ always good to brush your teeth.
You would think that this relatively medial task of oral hygienics would be straightforward. In fact, it’s even possible to imagine this could almost be fun.
A variety of mouthwash products can add sparkle to that smile. These are simple to use, and tend to come in a variety of flavors and colors. This trend has started to affect even dental floss, which comes in a variety of strengths, thicknesses, flavors and even colors too.
Of course toothpaste is the ultimate mouth medley, you can pick from a cornucopia of bizarre flavors and capabilities. Imagine brushing with strawberry bubble flavor toothpaste that includes a whitening agent to make your teeth sparkle when you’re done.
Obviously with the significance of toothpaste, the toothbrush has started to take on even greater importance. It’s not enough to have bristles on the end of a stick, the stick has to flex in various directions. To ensure a fitful battle with your teeth, these brush sticks are covered with rubber grips and are contoured to meet the needs of a clenched fist. It seems with all the plaque building around our teeth, toothbrush vendors want is to scrub our teeth vigorously.
Unfortunately, like many other great technological advances, the toothbrush vendors have neglected to inform the toothbrush cup holder manufacturers that the overall thickness of the toothbrush is increasing. This makes it virtually impossible to buy a toothbrush and find an appropriate toothbrush holder for it. If you’re one of the millions who happen to have toothbrush holders mounted in your bathroom, then it’s probably wasted space for you.
It’s been a few years since a regular toothbrush was available to consumers. Since then, monolithic rubberized flexible aesthetic designs have obsoleted any toothbrush storage mechanisms you might have had. The state of toothbrush storage wouldn’t be so atrocious if the toothbrush vendors could at least coordinate bush metric modifications with the toothbrush holder vendors.
So don’t stop getting the latest mouthwash colors, or some of the new adaptive thickness dental floss kits, but think twice before picking up one of those newfangled toothbrushes.

Queuing Protocol

It’s surprising the number of people who do not understand queuing protocol. This is the relatively standard technique for waiting at a commercial establishment to order or purchase something.
For example, waiting in a line at a famous fast food restaraunt you would expect the majority of people would stand behind others who were waiting before they arrived. Imagine my surprise when a supermom in a mini-van arrives and decides that the current line formation is insufficient for her requirements. In this case, it was going to be easier if she could stand to my immediate left with her gaggle and occupy a large percentage of my peripheral vision. In fact at various intervals it became clear that my position in line was in jeopardy.
In fact, her attempt at line process reengineering was almost successful. Customers arriving subsequent to supermom had some confusion in terms of where the line should begin. In most cases they ended up immediately behind me, which ultimately served to obfuscate the precense of supermom in the line.
Then there was the retired couple at a local pharmacy who decided that it would be faster to approach the cash register if they stepped on my feet. Granted, this particular line was executed in parallel with the checkout counter, but that’s no excuse for encroaching onto your neighbors feet.
The ultimate line breach had to be when an amorous couple at a local ice cream stand decided they would abort their order. They were immediately in front of me when they resolved to abruptly leave the line. Rather than start waiting at the end, or even leave the ice cream stand altogether, they decide to hold each other at the front of this line. What am I suppose to do at this point?
Maybe a few sessions with a therapist on commitment would be good for them. The older couple need to learn that they have as much time as everyone else, and supermom is lacking her organizational skills altogether.
It seems evident that lines are a reflection of our conformity, but they also describe our ability to manage pressure when confronted with circumstances beyond our control.

Microsoft Persecution

The Microsoft persecution continues. Our legal system has systematically misjudged the nature of these transgressions, and consequently continues to lose credibility in the technology community. At one point Microsoft was purportedly guilty of giving away a web browser (the virtual equivalent of dumping on an open market), and has since graduated to total disobedience by including some software with the operating system.

It’s unfortunate that Microsoft rendered the browser market insolvent, and in fact it has been unfortunate for them as much as it has been for Netscape, Spyglass, Opera, and a litany of competitor software. If they had not been so quick to give away IE, browser applications could have emerged as a lucrative marketplace for everyone.

Is it illegal that Microsoft gave away Internet Explorer? Then one would have to assume it was illegal for NCSA to give away Mosaic or for Apache to provide a free web server. Perhaps a more corporately sensitive answer would be that we would have to assume it’s illegal for IBM to provide a wealth of a downloadable software from IBM Research.

The other facet of Microsoft’s wrongdoing is the inclusion of new software in the release of Windows XP. Obviously, it’s impossible to imagine the new release of any operating systems software without at least some new programmatic capability. In fact, it’s hardly conceivable that consumers would even consider purchasing Windows XP if it failed to deliver any new capability.

There are legal issues with Microsoft, but they are not related to any of the aforementioned politically contrived indiscretions. It’s almost as if Congressional America is mendaciously seeking to appease Bill Gates rather than confront the fundamental problem.

Imagine if every box of cereal came bundled with a quart of ACME Milk. Although the cereals are all very similar, the milk that ships with each brand is exactly the same.

This model fails to accommodate a variety of consumer scenarios. A shopper might already have milk at home, in which case this extra quart will likely go to waste. Maybe they are lactose intolerant, in which case they would prefer a soy milk product. Some people even like to eat cereal without milk, which would definitely make the ACME product somewhat irrelevant. Then there are some customers buying an oatmeal cereal that can be mixed with water in a microwave to produce a satisfactory result, which means the bundled milk product doesn’t work very well for these cereals.

There are quite a few other examples, but the premise is the same. While it’s commendable that ACME Milk will always be included with your cereal purchase, not every consumer requires that milk.
The analogy is the same with Microsoft Windows products. Virtually every PC purchase includes a copy of Microsoft Windows, but not every customer requires that product.

It should be required to buy a computer without an operating system. If you choose to purchase an operating system, the covenant of OEM should not be an option.

This will help in many regards. Consumers are currently unaware of the licensing significance of software products. When a windfall of applications are included in a PC purchase, users conclude that these products are just things that you run on your computer and soon after they begin circulating CDROM’s with their friends. It will also establish a direct relationship with the software vendor and the user, which is significant considering the longevity of computer technology in terms of both hardware and software.
Unfortunately, the American legal system has cried wolf too many times. It is unlikely that the real problems with OEM software solutions is going to be solved and it seems more likely that Microsoft will continue to sell product in bundled configurations. This perpetuates the true Microsoft monopoly, and for that our legal system should be ashamed.

How To Buy Hotdog Buns

Grocery shopping should be a relatively straightforward task. One can imagine picking up fruits and vegitables, followed closely thereafter with some dairy products and a cold farm-grown chicken.
Unfortunately, arriving at the bread isle is a recipe for disaster. This is the age old quandry of getting enough hotdog buns to support the hots dogs available in another isle. Amazingly enough, the American plastics industry is now in cahoots with the soda manufacturers.
A relatively obscure company called America Cooks manufacures a wonderful gadget called the Soda Shoot. This plastic creation can be positioned in your refrigerator and allows you to store soda cans. While the front purports to sequester only the most popular cans on the market, the fine print reminds us that it “dispenses ten 12 ounce cans”.
What exactly am I suppose to do with the other two? Or should I beligerantly ignore these storage capabilities and buy six packs of soda while sacrificing storage capability.
This is yet another example of the consumer getting a great idea that altogether misses the mark. A lack of requirements analysis has produced this gem, and as I proceed to shotgun my first diet softdrink of the evening, I wonder if there is any way I could possible fit another can in the Soda Shoot.