Klaatu barada nikto

I am living without critical technology. Just like in The Day the Earth Stood Still, minus Gort the big robot. Obviously, it is not my computer or an internet connection.

No, it is my garage door opener, which mysteriously stopped working yesterday. Now, when returning home, I need to stop, get out of my car, bend over to reach the handle, and lift the door (preferably with my legs so as not to hurt my back).

It is amazing to me how much I have taken for granted this masterpiece of engineering. For most of my life, I never gave a second thought to how the garage door would open. According to this link, the electric garage door opener was invented in 1926 by one C.G. Johnson by what is now Overhead Door Corporation. I do not know why he was overlooked for a Nobel Prize of some kind. Same goes for the guy who invented air conditioning (which is another story of technology on the fritz in my house).

This event has caused me to take stock of my tech-dependent life. Suddenly, with a manual garage door and inadequate A/C, I feel like a contestant (or is it "guinea pig") on one of those PBS series where they drop modern people into a replica of the tech-deprived past. Perhaps I am in 1900 House or the impossibly fussy Manor House. Either way, one thing has not changed: I still do not have cable television. Which is bad because, at the moment, I am not getting UHF.

I don't watch a lot of UHF except the Simpsons and the occasional episode of House. But, the fact that my garage door, A/C, and UHF are not in perfect working order is making me a bit nuts.

Oh, and my Treo keyboard never got fixed.

I do love my new MP3 player. It is a Samsung Z5, which is a very close replica of an Apple Nano but it plays nicely with a number of online music stores. It has a really nice screen and a cool feature of displaying the album art related to the track currently playing. Only . . . that doesn't seem to work.

Oy. Maybe I would be better off volunteering to be in the next version of Colonial House.

Comments

Anonymous said…
In some ways, I can sympathize since you called me a Luddite once. This is being sent from my new whizbang computer. Almost finished customizing!
Dad
May 30, 2006, 10:02:00 PM
Larry said…
This from a man who used me as his own personal garage door opener for about 17 years!
May 30, 2006, 10:06:00 PM
Anonymous said…
House and The Simpsons? Whom are you trying to kid?!? You also watch Smallville and whatever Trek spinoff happens to be available. I have it on good authority that you're quite a fan of the Gilmore Girls, too.
Jun 6, 2006, 8:24:00 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ruling of the Week 2015.8: Old Jersey and Pitcairn Island

Image
For today's ROTW, I set out looking for a ruling dealing with some far off and preferably warm location. Turns out that, with the exception of coastwise transit issues, there are no Customs and Border Protection rulings involving Pitcairn Island or any of several Pacific Ocean microstates including Tuvalu , Niue , and Kiribati . Pitcairn Island What I did find is an interesting question about the country of origin marking for products of the Bailiwick of Jersey Island, Channel Islands. The ruling is HQ 561938 (Mar. 18, 2002). For those of you who may not know, Jersey is an island off the coast of Normandy, France. It is an independent international actor and not part of the U.K. although the U.K. is responsible for its defense and external relations. Also, the Queen is the Head of State in her capacity as "the Crown in Right of Jersey." It is, according to the U.S. Department of State, a " Crown Dependency " along with the Isle of Man and the Bailiwick o...
Read more

CAFC Decision in Double Invoicing Case

The Federal Circuit has issued a decision on the merits in United States v. Inn Foods, Inc.  There had been a previous decision on jurisdiction, which was followed by a trial at the Court of International Trade and then this appeal on the substance. The initial issue is whether Inn Foods' invoicing practice amounts to fraud.  Inn Foods had been receiving an invoice from growers in Mexico that had a relatively low sales prices on it.  Subsequent to entry, Inn Foods created a second invoice at something more similar to market value, retaining the original invoice number, and paid at that higher amount.   Superficially, this looks like a standard-issue double-invoicing scheme.  But, in the age of reconciliation, is it really more like a provisional pricing mechanism?  It might have been possible to make that argument had Inn Foods adjusted its entries accordingly.  It didn't and the loss of revenue was approximately $624,000.  Based on testimony and evidence indicating both knowl...
Read more

Ninestar and UFLPA Exhaustion

Image
Exhaustion is a key doctrine in administrative law. When applicable, it requires that a party unhappy with an agency’s determination complete the administrative appeal process before turning to the courts for judicial review. Requiring exhaustion typically promotes judicial efficiency by ensuring that disputes are resolved at the agency and, if they are not, that there is a complete record of the agency process. Exhaustion also ensures that the judiciary respects the executive agencies and their expertise.  There are, on the other hand, times when the courts will find that exhaustion is not necessary or appropriate. Such is the case in  Ninestar Corporation et al. v. United States  et al., a decision of the U.S. Court of International Trade.  Ninestar is also interesting because it is one of the first cases in the CIT involving the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, known as UFLPA. In my hiatus from active blogging, I missed the rise of UFLPA as a major compliance t...
Read more