OH! Did you guys hear there is going to be a First Bunny in the white house?! Well, technically it's the second bunny and won't live in the White house but with the Vice President. But still. Screw all that V card stuff. We've made the B card!

The weird thing about CES this year.

Normally you go to CES to see what is going to be on the shelves within the next six months. In previous years you knew there were going to be T.V.s, but you'd get there and see they'd made curved T'V's. For example.

This year most of the stuff they were showing is already on the shelves. It's the first year I've seen that.

Lacy's first CES.

When we first started going to CES we'd fly in to Vegas in the morning and take the last flight out. Normally the weather is always clear. Always. But you knew there would be a year that rain would make that not happen. Like this year for example. And CES got too big to do in one day anyway. So it made getting rid of that stress a lot easier. Plus, over the years hotels have gotten crazy pet friendly. Although sometimes we have to sneak her in as a dog. For some reason some hotels are only dog friendly. Which is why she has a nondescript pet bag that doesn't draw attention.

Our last bun Jasmine logged the most miles. We took her to Ohio and Illinois and back. Which is pretty much how we came up with this set up. She has her litter box in a medium sized dog carrier and then we hook a medium sized dog crate to it so she can stretch out and not have to lie in her litter box.

Lacy is a crazy good travel bunny. Usually the first day they are off their kibble. But not Lacy. She is a trooper. Maybe it's because she started out traveling. We drove down to almost L.A. to get her when she was a baby. Then we took her to San Diego and back. Now Vegas and back. And she's only six months old.

We put down a drop cloth in the hotel to make sure everything stays clean from hay and cocopuffs.(poops) For some reason the first day or two she pees in her littler box but she won't poop there.  After a couple of days she goes back to getting the routine.



This is her in the truck.

Robots are STILL not coming to take your jobs.

Last year I think the fear of automation reached a fever pitch. Every week someone writes an article about how robots are going to take your jobs. And to be sure - automation will take ~some~ jobs. But not as many as people think. Most people have no understanding of how complicated robots are and what their limitations are.

I think I'm uniquely qualified to talk about this topic because this blog was literally created during the beginning of the consumer robotics trend in 2006-ish. I've been to countless conferences on robotics and have watched this trend since the beginning. I have watched the whole evolution of robotics. Way back then, I was super excited, but over time I realized this was going to take a lot longer than I thought.



Anyway....Lets bring this story current. Mr S. and I hadn't been in the robotics section of CES very long at all before he become super surly. He kept saying - I don't know what is up with all these robots with useless arms.

My soul died a long time ago in regards to how helpful robots would really be. But I always keep a little optimism because you never know where the break through will come. I thought that would be when the sensors became much cheaper. And they have. But there is still an achingly long way to go. It's taken them 10 YEARS to get here! Frankly I was just happy they have started to make them to look pleasing. So I turned to Mr S. and said - but they have cute faces and can dance - so shut up.



The more robots we saw, the surlier he became, It was about this time we peeled out for lunch. I was in a full hangry meltdown. It was 2.00 and I hadn't eaten anything. And to get into any restaurant in Vegas during CES takes a lot of effort. Mr S. was just trying not to upset the rattlesnake den (me) so he started talking about how robots were following the evolutionary equivalent of vestigial arms because they were so useless. At first I was like.... what? But after my blood sugar returned to normal and we got back on the floor he started pointing more robots out, I had to admit - he was onto something there.



With these robots the arms become shorter and stumpier.



Then they became sort of flappy fins.



This robot has been on the blog a couple of times (I think), because the entertaining part about it is that it will follow you around trying to get you to take literature. When you don't the face becomes neutral then frowny. And that's kinda funny.



As you can see though - the arms are almost useless.



Then some companies were like - screw the arms.



The pepper robot I have a slight affinity for because I've seen how it interacts with children. And for them it's pretty cute. But still highly limited. It dances so that's kinda cute.



By far this was the most useful robot I saw at CES. It basically rolled up to you and started opening all it's doors to reveal candy for you to take. And it has a clever name.





This robot below from Ewaybot was literally the only bot we saw that the arms were useful enough to grasp a water bottle.



Then - no arms at all. I wasn't even sure what this bot did. But it is a pleasing shape.



It's sort of frustrating because consumer robots started out as rolling robots. Then they tried to get them to walk. After that they put a ton of money into trying to make their arms useful. Here. Now they are kinda back to where they started. Rolling robots.

So honestly, all the hype about robots taking peoples jobs is by large - just hype. Robots do single tasks well. Other tasks... not as much.

I'm working on getting posts out to you, but between stormagedon and the CES ick, I'm going a bit slow. I hadn't even left Vegas yesterday before a had that burning feeling deep down in my lungs. By the time I got home I was fully sick. Antibiotic sick.

I have a post on how robots are not taking your jobs about half done, and I think I have to run down to the Valley. So you might not get it until tomorrow.

Still at CES. Keep watching my twitter feed. Just saw Shaq!

If you aren't following my twitter feed today you are missing out on some cool concept cars. Link below.

@snarkolepsy The madness begins.

That's one way to get buzz

Apparently Intel gave out barf bags for their VR keynote address.  When I get into my hotel I will link it up for you. Or you can just search - Intel barf bag on twitter. Here.

I talked a lot about motion sickness with VR about a year ago because I experienced it. From that day on I asked everyone how much of the population is affected by that. 

Most people tell me it's only 10%. But honestly I kinda think that is what killed 3D. I wasn't affected by the 3D but Mr s. Was. So far he hasn't been affected by VR.

See u on the other side.

Fun starts tomorrow. It's always super tough to blog at CES. So watch my twitter feed. I heard 20% of the show is cars. So......

@snarkolepsy

So you are saying there is a chance...

I don't know why I'm writing about this. Probably because after it happens Mr S. will tell me a bunch of stuff I'm not allowed to write about and kill the whole story. Right now I'm more excited about it than CES. You see... MR S. used to work in video game development. And every few years one of the groups he worked with tries to get together and "get the band back together".

The last time was about two years ago, and I was like - there is no way you are getting the band back together.  The economy still wasn't looking great, and the game segment is a really hard industry. It takes about two years to develop a game and then maybe people won't like it. And game development is a real grind. Fun - but a grind nevertheless. Electronic Arts gave him an ulcer. There are huge deadline pressures. And kiss all your spare time goodbye.

Anyway - after CES he's getting together for dinner with some of the guys he worked with from one of the game companies. It will be really interesting because this group was taken out in the recession. Everyone was spread to the four corners of the world like dandelion seeds. Some people went to Southern California, some went North. It will be interesting to see what they did when they had to get real jobs to survive. Video game jobs are real jobs(obviously), but you could just as easily wind up on unemployment is all I"m say'in.

I guess they are all back in the Valley now. Because that is where the jobs have always been.

It's kinda funny because we were looking at games over Christmas and I was funked out beyond belief. I'm like - this is the sad state of the video game industry!? I felt like it was just dieing off. But after talking about the guys I'd forgotten that the game industry just really hasn't recovered from the recession. And I think VR is amazing - but I still feel the same was as I did with 3D glasses or google glass. People just don't like to wear glasses. Even if you make it like a helmet. And so far I've been right!

Haven't seen that in a while.

If I wasn't driving to Las Vegas I'd probably have driven to Mt Hamilton today. It's been about four years since I've gotten up and seen snow from my deck. But I'm guessing this won't be the first snow I see before the week is over. So I'm sitting it out.

The last four years we've been in a crazy drought. And I had to use filters to get the snow to come out very well. The first shot below is unfiltered. The second just looked moody.

I haven't really reached the exited phase of CES yet. If you knew how much I hated staying in hotels you'd understand why. I can't sleep well. And just sort of a million other hotel-ey things. I pretty much hate them all. Once when Mr S. and I went to see his family - the hotel we stayed in made me get up every hour because the heat wouldn't stay on. And you are not going to change rooms in the middle of the night. I bring my own comforter just in case now. Hotels just aren't built for insomniacs.

Nothing interesting, but it's ~something~.

I had to get all my outside stuff done today before the rain. Pre, pre, prepping the garden. It's been rainy so I had to knock down some weeds. I didn't do a garden the last two years because we were in a savage drought. Even last year I started to get worried we might all die.  The ground was just too deep down dry to plant anything. So this year I'm having a freaking garden.

Then next week I guess it's going to get crazy cold.  Thursday the high is only suppose to be 44 degrees! I wish I though that being in Vegas I'd escape that but I think that takes me closer to the polar plunge.

The end

Is the madness beginning to end?

I've been trying to stay out of the news cycle, but I did hear that Sprint is bringing jobs back to the USA. Which I had to laugh about. You see, a few months ago I starting posting about how Trump knew he didn't really have to threaten companies to stay in the US. It was my firm belief that companies were already dieing to come back before Trump was even on the radar.

If an administration stopped being so rough on them they would come back in a heart beat. Trump could act like he was a tough guy, but these guys wanted to come back more than anything in the world anyway. Outsourcing was killing them. Trump would win without having to do almost anything. Can you imagine how bad you have to make conditions that it's less expensive to ship your products from another country into your own country? I was talking to a guy a few months ago who made radio controlled Caterpillar.  You know - the earth movers. Not the tiny bugs. Which I thought was sort of meh at first. But when he started talking to me about all the regulations companies have to go through - it's no wonder why all of a sudden you don't want a guy getting his insides jigged every day. Your going to make it so a guy holds a video game controller instead. He told me that just to turn on one of those machines you need a 10,000 dollar permit for clean air rules. For each machine!

I mean this outsourcing experiment has reached it's natural end. I don't believe outsourcing saved companies that much money. Customer support outsourcing basically killed Dell. They were one of the top computer makers and then they outsourced tech support.  They soon fell of a cliff. They never ever recovered from that and then the recession hit.

For a little while at Comcast the Indian tech support dudes figured out they could just drop calls and their numbers would look good, but I'm sure Comcast call volume went through the roof. I bet there are tons of these stories. I mean, everyone used to have an Indian tech support story. Right? And then on the manufacturing side if you aren't big that is just lunacy. The stories I hear out of startups.

All Trump needed to do was to act sorta tough on a couple of people and all the sheep come prancing home. Google it. It is funny to watch though.

Yes - this was someone's job.

I'm gonna be honest - I was going to handicap shame this Audi. Not post his licence plate or anything, but a handicap placard on your Ferrari seems to be the latest status symbol at Santana Row and I think it's kinda funny.

It's the weirdest mall. It's not in a swank part of San Jose or anything. It's in a completely average part of San Jose. But the mall is hugely upscale. It's the kind of place that you often run across a car like this (Audi R8) and people don't even really notice.

So anyway. I saw this guy pull into the spot and wanted to see if he really did look like he needed the special parking. I don't really care that much, but I do think it's a weird trend right now. He initially pulled into a different handicapped spot that was decidedly less well lit. I was taking pictures of the car when he came back and decided to move it into a more protected spot. It is an R8 after all. As he opened the door - I noticed that it projected the word quattro onto the ground. For no apparent reason at all! And that is completely bad ass.

I think this mall could stop all this fake handicap parking shit by just making a Ferrari zone. It seriously is the only mall I've seen that pulls in crazy cars like that. Not even Walnut Creek has so many consistently fancy cars. . Tesla has a whole area for their cars at this mall. All the rich people want is not not get dinged by us average cars. And close up parking - I guess. Cause they're rich. And I don't really care one way or the other because his effing door lights up the ground with the word quattro. Let him park right up front for effs sakes.

Okay, I think I'm going to start unthawing this blog.

I think I lost my way in 2016. The whole year just felt like sandpaper. So I just needed some time to regroup. A lot of time. People don't understand how much pressure blogging puts on you. It's super hard to find something interesting to blog about every single day.

I don't know what you will get for the next few days - but at the very least, CES starts next week and this blog will come alive. I predict it's going to be packed with a ton of unnecessary AI.

Christmas Stories.

My city has one of those light shows that draws the whole town. The closer it gets to Christmas the crazier that neighborhood gets. It's just a crush of people. In previous years when I've talked about it, I've always laughed that the lights had to be a disclosure item when you buy a house in that neighborhood.

This year when we were leaving one of the neighbors had their garage open and was watching the forming crowds and I shouted - how do you like living here this time of year? He started to walk towards me. I continued - I always laugh because that has to be a disclosure item. Right? He laughs and says - the number 1 disclosure item. I'm like - really!

We talked to him for a little while because that neighborhood has funny stories to tell. I guess the city actually accommodated him with two power lines to his house to power all that stuff. He said sometimes you can hear the lines vibrating. The other funny thing he said was that if you come the day after Christmas you can get all the photos you want because on the 26th no ones comes. People are OVER it.

I just think the thought of someone getting a real estate contract and seeing that as your number one disclosure item is really funny. On one hand you are like - what the hell. I mean, if your signing in June maybe you don't notice. But by Christmas you can see this from 10 blocks away. But honestly if I light show is the worst of your problems......

I guess the market only goes up.

If you thought Trump was going to lower capital gains rates - why would you sell this year?

I bet they get the best presents.

This way Santa knows what he's going to get with his cookies instead of milk. I think the champagne glass is a new addition. I'm kinda excited to see how far they take this. Santa might spend all night in that one block of houses. Just say'in.

Boy, the whole Obama administration is a mad that doesn't wash off very quickly. Right?  But I'm sure we will get to enjoy it for years to come. Said in the most sarcastic way. Obama has left us a million turds to uncover.

Down, but not out.

December is when the grind that is blogging comes to a head. Blogging is hard enough to be entertaining, but add in a stagnating economy and well - when December gets here I just want to say eff it and take all my weekends back.

It's a lot easier in January to be a clown for your entertainment is all I'm saying. December is definitely funky town though.

I don't care. I'm posting them anyway.

Normally I try to only give you stuff in focus, but I'm suffering from a lack in moral. Normal winter is really getting to me. I can't remember when I last saw the sun.  Californians are allowed to bitch about the rain again right?  The last few years it was kinda sacrilege to complain about rain. But I'm here to cry uncle. Anyway.....

Lacy started doing this about a week ago. But she only does it in the morning and she's pretty squirmy and I usually haven't had any coffee yet. So that basically means you get not completely in focus shots. It is super funny though because she has the whole door. But she's just decided to poke her head out. I'll probably post better shots if the sun comes out. Which is definitely not next week. We get a whole new storm system.

This blog always falls off the rails in December. I'm solar powered.

Today I give you cyborgs.

I haven't been staying for any of the talks at my shows lately. I've pretty much been in a "get out of my way and show me your toys" sort of mood. But when I saw that Niel Harbisson was going to talk today I decided to make sure I could listen to him talk. I was super curious why someone would want to put an antennae in their brain if they didn't medically need to. I'm sure he' can't go anywhere without people looking at him. That would drive me crazy.

Apparently he was born color blind and set out to find a way he could experience color. He chose sound as a medium. So - basically he sees color through sound. Which I can't say would be my favorite way. The whole thing definitely brings new meaning to the term "that color is loud". He also can see UV and IR spectrum via sound too. I'm not actually sure how it works because my brain was filled with other things. Like it didn't seem as odd in real life as the impression I'd gotten from the internet. Not one person asked how it worked because - sometimes you just don't think of the right questions because something is so unusual. You are trying to resolve a lot of other stuff in your head first.

Few cars make me more miserable.

I don't get why guys love these cars. But things around the Valley are really slow in December because everyone has their heads down trying to get ready for CES. So this is what you get.

This is all everyone else's fault and not my own.

Buyers Remorse? Trump Supporter Was Foreclosed On By Treasury Pick Steve Mnuchin.

I noticed everyone was crying over this woman today. How mistreated she was. People are cutting and pasting the original article to fit their agenda of how she was robbed. This wasn't some old lady how lost her house. This woman was fully surfing in the property bubble. And I know people only read half of any article, but if they had -

"In 1998, she bought a triplex for $248,000 in Hawthorne, California, not too far from Los Angeles International Airport.

She rented out two of the units and lived in the third. Colebrook refinanced her mortgage in order to renovate the property and help buy additional homes to generate rental income. (And how much you want to bet she refi'd it with a no interest loan? Oh wait read the next paragraph)

By the time the financial crisis struck in 2008, she had an interest-only mortgage on the triplex known as a "pick-a-payment" loan. Her monthly payments ran as high as $2,000 and only covered the interest on the debt. Then she got ensnarled in the economic downturn.

"All my tenants lost their jobs in the crash," Colebrook said. "They couldn't pay. It was a knock-on effect.""

Empahsis mine. This woman was flying too close to the sun and messed up. She has no one but herself to blame. She took extreme risk and lost.

Obama tried so hard to make us CUBA.

As I tried to get my antibiotic prescription filled today I am totally dumbfounded how this administration makes things that used to be "no big deal" into a major effing production.

So, I drove the 17 miles to the pharmacy. In traffic that is almost 40 minutes. It then takes them 40 minutes to compound the medicine. I.e. add flavoring. Why? I'm not sure. So I either need to wait the 40 minutes to let them do whatever it is they have to do. Or come back. Luckily they had a drug shuttle to the store that is near me which will not put flavoring in antibiotics apparently. But at least I only need to go one town over now to pick it up. All this crap toasted my afternoon. And I still don't have my prescription. If my girl was really sick I would be flaming out right now.

I used to just walk into the vet and boom- antibiotics. Now.... pound sand. The rest of your day is toast.

It's so frustrating how far the grubby hands of government reaches into your life.

So - I took my girl Lacy to the vet today because she has the sniffles a little bit. Normally you go to the vet and you walk out with antibiotics and you get on with your life.

Now apparently the government doesn't let vets compound their own medicine which they have been doing since the dawn of vet time. The compounding basically is just adding flavoring to the antibiotics to make it so your pet doesn't freak out by the taste.

Now I have to go four cities over to get my effin medicine. There is only once place in my area that does it. I could have it sent by mail apparently, and while this bout of sniffles is not an emergency - usually when a rabbit needs antibiotics - it is a full out emergency. You need to get them on it right away.

If they are sick they could die in a day or two. No exaggeration. Now I have to be anxious about real emergencies and I need to start making some kind of plans to work around that. Vets can be open late. Pharmacies not always so much.

The government could have just made it so the tech who was compounding had a special certification. But no. You just aren't allowed. So Obama.