I have seen a bunch of internet postings sharing a “NASA” satellite image of India “on the night of Diwali”. As nice as it looks, and as viral as it has gotten, this isn’t a picture of India on Diwali night like most people claim it is. As I understand it, this imagery represents the population growth in India via the change in nighttime lights…the different colors you see are showing change in population for images taken in different years (1992 is blue, 1998 is green, 2003 is red, and white lights show nighttime lights that existed during all 3 sampling times).

Following is the link to the NOAA page of the original image:

http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/dmsp/interest/india.html

Part of the glory of this image is that neighboring countries appear to be “dark” compared to India, but as you look at more of NOAA’s nighttime images, you notice other countries, even the United States (as shown below), have similar nighttime lighting imagery.

PS: I was torn about exposing this as I find it truly enamoring that Indians, Americans, and everyone around the world seems to be amazed by this. So let me request that, if you wish, continue to be amazed, even feel free to doubt what I have shown here and continue to believe that this nighttime light satellite imagery is unique only to India and only on the night of Diwali. And all the colors in different regions show how different parts of the country lights their communities with specific colors. Really, I do enjoy the innocence of people enjoying this picture at face value. Sometimes I wish I didn’t research it myself.

The number is: (866) 210-2157

I then used option 3 to test how I sound and get the playback. I just ignore the Plantronic headset adjustment instructions.

I didn’t shop long, but was generally amazed at how little this technology has advanced. I would have thought that phones would come standard with simple contact synchronization (with Outlook through cords if not with Google or other services over the internet). I also thought a standard feature might be some level of bluetooth integration with my cell phone so I could switch to the handset easily. I dare not expect any sort of rudimentary phone number lookup capabilities with internet services. I don’t even need a map UI — just simple scrolling of the first few numbers it finds — and let me lookup either residential or businesses. But nope, I will expect the exact same features I have had for 15 or more years.

But all those possible capabilities seem way too complicated to even dream of compared to the experience I just encountered while trying to setup the meager number of configurable settings on my phone system (if I can even call it a “system”) tonight. I went through to set up the voicemail access number for my phone provider —– no, I was past wondering why these phones don’t have visual voicemail built-in. After testing the setup, I realized I typo’d one of the numbers. ‘No big deal, I will just change the number,’ I thought to myself. However, though I could initially set the access number through the normal menus, I realized there was simply no way to change it. I had to dig up the manual online and was amused enough by the cryptic steps that I just had to share them (below).

Can someone PLEASE build some interesting land-line phone systems – many of us do still use them for a number of reasons, and I bet many more would if they had any decent functionality (especially with all this research coming out about the possibly negative health implications of cellphone use).

Steps for Changing Your Cordless Phone’s Voicemail Access Number
In order to change your voicemail access number, you must first erase it.
However, there are no textual menus providing any workflow for you to delete the number, let alone change it.
Instead, press {MENU}
Then dial {#}{3}{3}{1} ------ How on earth could I have guessed that???
Then, press and hold {CLEAR} until all digits are erased.
Then select {SAVE}
Then press {OFF}


I would not have been surprised if they next asked me to unplug the device for 20 seconds and plug it back in, followed by spinning around 4 times before attempting to setting the voice mail access code again.

1. Rounder bodies fill the lanes on defense, forcing the outside shot more (see #4).
2. Lack of conditioning means that the one or two guys that actually run “fast break” on offense are always outnumbered with an opposing team that is still on defense from their own lack of running the court…once again, forcing the outside shot (see #4).
3. Even without a fast break, when one or two people run the court on offense, they get sick of waiting for their teammates to catch up, and nobody gets under the rim for a solid 45 seconds……so…..they take the outside shot (see #4).
4. Nobody plays enough anymore to consistently make outside shots.
5. For the one guy that gives it everything he has to drive the daggum lane, you better believe he’s going to take the Michael-Jordan-tongue-hanging-out-the-mouth-off-balance-yelling-as-if-fouled-rather-than-passing-to-the-open-guy-with-a-well-known-no-chance-in-he** shot to reward himself for his effort.

You’ve been good to me ol’ pal. Let’s ride this thing out with some hardcore, chatter-heavy database transactions. Maybe we’ll throw in some video streaming as well — maybe a nice Netflix movie in commemoration.

Anyone have an apropos movie suggestion(s)?