Jeff Milner

I spent Wednesday evening with a really nice couple, the McNabb’s, talking about everything from webpage advice to antique reading lamps.

One of the things I really liked learning about was the husband’s experience with the banking industry. He is a banking consultant and even wrote a book on how to deal with banks, “The Bank and You … A Survival Manual“. It was published in 1986 and became a best-seller. Though it might seem to be getting a little old now, he explained that most of the information is still relevant.

He shared his reasons for writing the book, which are summarized nicely in the preface,

“The Banks and You…A Survival Manual has been written to assist the reader in knowing what banking today is all about. A concern I do have at this time is that banks appear to be leaning on their own staff, and if they do this and get away with it, what in the world is going to stop them from leaning on their customers?”

He goes on to say that the book was started at a time when they were “locked out of [their] business”.

“The book was originally started as a hate book and entitled How to Screw Your Banker before He Screws You! After we won the war with our bankers, I decided this book was very much needed, and the hate tones were immediately dispensed with.”

I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but the book delves into topics like:

• banker intimidation
• how bankers treat women
• the lies that bankers tell and how to protect yourself
• cultivating a relationship with your banker
• whether on not to take the loan
• signs of a pending banker – client breakdown
• what to do if you go out of business
• handling bankruptcy

The book also shares his own story of how he and his wife were able to turn things around pay back their loans for less than $.05 on the dollar.

He gave me a copy and I’m looking forward to reading it; I think it could be very insightful.

I also liked chatting with him about the process of publishing a book because I’ve got a little idea for a book that I’ve been sitting on for the last few years. Some of the things he told me were the names of people in the publishing industry, how to get an ISBN number and how to promote a book. Perhaps this new information will get me going on it again.

Oh and one last thing, the photo on the back made me smile because he no longer looks like that at all.

A couple of frogs doing reviews on websites.

So far they’ve only reviewed one site, Ticketmaster, but I’ve found their complaints to be very relevant. It’s been years since I’ve bought tickets online, but I would have thought that they would have figured things out by now.

Frog Review.

In the 1951 movie, “Distant Drums” a stock sound effect now known as the Wilhelm scream was first used. It has since been featured in dozens of movies. It is one of the most well-known cinematic sound clichés.

From the Wikipedia:

The Wilhelm’s revival came from Star Wars-series sound designer Ben Burtt, who tracked down the original recording (which he found as a studio reel labeled “Man being eaten by alligator“). He named it after Wilhelm, a minor character who emitted the scream in the 1953 movie The Charge at Feather River. Its use in Star Wars was the beginning of something of an in-joke amongst some sound designers of the film industry, especially at Skywalker Sound. They continue to try to incorporate it into movies wherever feasible; action movies are naturals, but film sound cognoscenti are particularly impressed when it is used naturally in films such as A Star Is Born (with Judy Garland) and A Goofy Movie. In a tribute to its origins, the clip was used in the film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom when the villain Mola Ram was, in fact, eaten by alligators.

Some people, once aware of it, recognize it immediately. Some feel that it distracts the viewer and interrupts the flow of the film.

See the Wilhelm scream compilation. (47 mb QT)

There are many movies featured in this compilation that incorporate the wilhelm scream, for example Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Howard the Duck, The Goofy Movie, and Batman just to name a few. After having watched the clip I’m sure it’s going to stick out everytime I watch another movie where it is used.

Boing Boing’s roundup and time-line of Sony’s horrible anti-customer technology. I enjoyed listening to the NPR’s report on the same topic.

Sony BMG’s Global Digital Business President Thomas Hesse downplayed the recent DRM fiasco saying he objected to terms such as malware, spyware and rootkit. “Most people, I think, don’t even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?” he said.

The other day cartoonist Scott Adams wrote his thoughts about the Intelligent Design / Evolution debate (part 1).

Apparently it caused quite the stir. His response:

Wow. A lot of people read my blog entry on Intelligent Design and interpreted it to mean I believe it. I guess the part where I say I don’t believe it wasn’t sufficiently clear.

That’s why I don’t like to leave my office.

Here is the entertaining follow-up where Adams goes after an “evidently highly educated scientist”: Intelligent Design / Evolution debate (part 2).

I found this helpful site full of tips on how to clean anything. At first I was skeptical, but after reading a few, I’ve discovered there are some really good tips there. For example the site explains how to clean:

• Adhesive Tags off Plasticware
• Grease in the oven
• Smoke smell from a microwave
• Light Fixtures in Kitchen

That’s just a few of the many entries in the interior category!

An inventor by the name of Howard Stapleton has developed a high pitched audio device called The Mosquito designed to deter teens from loitering outside shops.

From the Times Online article, “Can a shriek in a box see off troublesome teenagers?”:

It emits a piercing, high frequency sound that is audible only, in 90 per cent of cases, to people under the age of 20. While teenagers are forced to run for cover, most adults remain oblivious.

Stapleton said he came up with the idea after reading how hearing levels changed with age.

I wonder if the device will have the unintended consequence of making the stores that use it a target for vandalism or theft. Whereas before the stores only had trouble with loitering teens but after installing these devices, it seems to me anyway, they are only asking for real trouble.

Update: The New York Times has an article about The Mosquito.

Check out the opening title animation (18MB QT) from the live action film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

The images have a very flat graphics art feel but the animation brings them to life; It’s almost eerie the way abstract shapes, their textures, and the motion are blended together.