Month: April 2005

We’ve been using the Starfrit Mightican for a while now. Mandy loves it. I don’t. Let me tell you why.

The MightiCan is a redesigned and less expensive version of the Magican. You’ve probably seen the ads on TV. The sales pitch usually goes something like this:

Safe and sanitary. Thanks to its side-cutting action, MagiCan leaves a lid with no sharp edges and no metal shavings. Since the lid is the same diameter as the opening, it can’t fall in. As the lid comes off, it is clamped firmly between the cutting blade and the can-turning mechanism, so it can be easily released into the trash can. You never have to touch it! MagiCan is precision–built from the highest quality metal and plastic for easy cleaning and maximum durability, so it will provide you with many years of safe and effective use.

All true, as far as I can tell. So what’s my beef?

For starters, though the MightiCan leaves no sharp edges on the lid, it leaves one around the top of the can. Mandy doesn’t care much about that. She dumps the contents of the can into whatever she’s cooking, rinses it out, and leaves it on the counter for me to take out the recycling bin.

Though I should be ashamed to admit it, I’m not the most diligent guy when it comes to taking out the recycling. I usually let the cans accumulate on the counter throughout the week and transfer them to the recycling bin on garbage day by grocery bag. Usually there are enough to fill a bag but last week there were only a few. To conserve bags, I threw them in a bag with some paper recyclables to transport them.

I’ll let you guess what happened to my finger when I reached into the bag to extract the can to put it in the blue box. It was only a minor cut. It didn’t even need a bandage, but it annoyed me tremendously. Products that are advertised as safe should not make you bleed!

Had the can been opened with a traditional top-cutting can opener, the I’d have stored the sharp lid safely in the can, out of harm’s way. The design of the MightiCan ensures that the sharp edge is always exposed.

And because the lid doesn’t fit in the can, you are forced to handle twice as many pieces when transferring them to a recycling station. This, combined with the exposed sharp edges makes for a danger surpassing anything you might achieve with a traditional can opener.

Gah! Starfrit MightiCan, I bite my thumb at you!

Update: My sister, Sandra writes:

Aside from the random sharp edges, which by the way, put a nasty little splinter in my left index finger a few weeks ago. I am annoyed by the way this can opener removes the top lid of the can along with the edge. This may sound trivial until you try to open and drain a can of tuna. In the old fashioned procedure, the can opener would allow you to squeeze the lid into the tuna to push the water out. But with this new can opener, it becomes quite awkward because the lid no longer fits in the can. Instead, it fits on top and I just can’t seem to get all the water out without making a mess and spilling tuna into the sink.

Have you realized this as well?

Definitely! Don’t bother even trying to open a can of tuna with one of these. It’s absolutely hopeless.

Fred Wilson writes of globalization:

I don’t believe in walls. I don’t believe in protectionism. I don’t believe in keeping others down. I believe in letting everyone play. And let the best man or woman win.

I couldn’t say it better myself. (via gapingvoid)

A team of three students from the University of Waterloo scored fourth in the 65th annual William Lowell Putnam Math Competition held in December:

Waterloo was represented by students Olena Bormashenko, Ralph Furmaniak and Michael Lipnowski. “All three team members had outstanding results,” said VanderBurgh. Bormashenko was ranked 13th among all the 3,733 students who wrote across North America.

Furmaniak and Lipnowski earned Honourable Mentions, both with ranks in the top 60. Several other Waterloo students, who were not on the team also did well. Xiannan Li was ranked 23rd. Also scoring well was Cory Fletcher, who earned an Honourable Mention.

Congratulations, Olena, Ralph, and Michael!

Idle Words criticizes Paul Graham’s Hackers and Painters in Dabblers and Blowhards:

It is true that both painters and programmers make things, just like a pastry chef makes a wedding cake, or a chicken makes an egg. But nothing about what they make, the purposes it serves, or how they go about doing it is in any way similar.

It’s an entertaining, though somewhat brutal, attack on Hackers and Painters. He points out several factual errors in the essay and, in effect, tells Graham to stick to the subjects that he knows, such as Lisp.

I, for one, enjoy Paul’s essays and hope he continues writing on whatever subjects catch his interest. His essays are always well-written and thought-provoking, whatever you might say about their factual accuracy. (via Zach Beane)

Good news for smokers according to this New Scientist article:

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a condition describing a range of severe inflammatory diseases of the lungs including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. More than 90% of cases are caused by cigarette smoking, and even when a smoker quits the habit, the disease continues, becoming progressively worse – often until the patient dies from respiratory failure.

COPD currently kills more than 30,000 people in the UK every year and is predicted to kill over six million worldwide by 2020, becoming the world’s third biggest killer.

To date, it has only been possible to ease the symptoms of COPD. Researchers have failed to understand why steroids – an effective treatment for asthma-related lung inflammation – have proved ineffective in treating COPD. Now, scientists at Imperial College London, UK, have taken the first step towards a cure for the fatal disease by discovering why it is resistant to steroid treatment.

Peter Barnes, professor of thoracic medicine, and colleagues examined the role of an enzyme in the lung cells called HDAC2, which “switches off” the genes responsible for causing inflammation. Usually, steroidal drugs are able to facilitate this process by providing a molecular pathway between HDAC2 and the appropriate genes. But Barnes discovered that levels of HDAC2 were very low in COPD patients, which was why steroids had little effect.

This is the kind of news that makes me wonder why I bother to take care of myself.

In Why Smart People Have Bad Ideas, Paul Graham writes about some of the mistakes he and Robert Morris made in their first venture:

Viaweb wasn’t the first startup Robert Morris and I started. In January 1995, we and a couple friends started a company called Artix. The plan was to put art galleries on the Web. In retrospect, I wonder how we could have wasted our time on anything so stupid.

He goes on to identify three main reasons Artix was a bad idea:

We did the first thing we thought of; we were ambivalent about being in business at all; and we deliberately chose an impoverished market to avoid competition.

It’s worth a read.

VentureBlog has some advice on giving demos in The Dos and Don’ts of Presenting at DEMO:

• It is all about the demo.
• Leave room for spontaneity (or at least appear like you have)
• Have fun
• Have a backup plan
• Don’t praise your own product
• Don’t use a tag line
• Don’t say what you’re looking for out of your DEMO
• Don’t list your partners unless they are great (and probably even not then)
• Don’t try to be funny if you aren’t funny
• Don’t sing

The article is directed to those who are presenting at the DEMO conference, but most of the advice seems generally useful for anybody who is demonstrating a technical product, be it to VCs or otherwise. (via Scobleizer)

Announcing Head First Scheme (via Lemonodor):

Once again, Tim O’Reilly has proved his savvy (and bravery) in allowing us to do the book we wanted — market size be damned.

An O’Reilly book on Scheme? I suppose that means that Scheme has moved into the mainstream. Time to switch to Mozart-Oz.

Speaking of Michael, he tipped me off to WaterlooTechJobs.ca in Looking for work in the Waterloo region?, writing:

Just came across the site WaterlooTechJobs.ca. They provide a list of hiring companies and a list of openings. There’s a link for logging in, so I’m guessing they’re offering notification for jobs that might appear (since I’m not looking, I’m not going to bother trying that out though). Looks like the site was helped out by Communitech and they have a few sponsors. Happy job hunting!

When I saw Michael Hiemstra’s comment on my Dinner at Bhima’s post I felt a strange mix of glee and dread: glee that somebody from Waterloo was actually reading my blog and dread for, well, the same reason. Anyway, Michael has an excellent blog going over at Bits of Life: nicely designed, articles on topics local and global, and writing so relaxed and conversational that you’ll just hate him. Highly recommended!