Cats

iPhone diagnostic information

July 2, 2007

My iPhone crashed. Or so it says. I never noticed the problem and couldn't tell you when it happened. But upon plugging it in to the computer tonight I saw the screen below.

While it appears true that there is not personal information in the log files there is a treasure trove of information that I'm equally certain that there will soon be folks figuring out how to mine and use that information. In the meantime it is another great example of a good user interface that makes it easy to provide feedback that will hopefully make iPhone 2.0 even better.

On a related note since Apple names its computer operating systems after big cats one wonders if the next version of the iPhone operating system will be Siamese or Manx. Personally I vote for Abyssinian.

More pet food recalls

March 31, 2007

Nestlé Purina PetCare Company announced Friday it is recalling some of it's ALPO Prime Cuts wet dog food. The food is contaminated with melanine, a plastic substance, that contaminated many recalled foods made by Menu Foods in Canada. Hills Pet Nutrition also recalled m/d Feline dry food on Friday over concerns of contaminated wheat gluten. The Hills recall marks the first recall of dry pet food. Hills did previously recall canned cat food.

Before switching to human food for pets, pet owners would be well advised to see the list of recalled foods.

Oxymoron

March 28, 2007

It never ceases to amaze that there are people who are vegetarian because they feel or at least in part because they feel animals are treated poorly in our modern food chain. The closer one looks the more frequently it is uncovered that these people are cat owners. Not cat owners on the big ranch who let the critters loose on the natural fauna of the farm, but cat lovers in suburbia or the urban core who are responsible and keep their pets indoors and take great care of them.

Here's the rub. Cats are obligate carnivores. This means they must eat meat protein. Dogs can get away with more grain or carbohydrates in their diets but Cats don't get anything from them. And the ultimate irony that whether one feeds human grade food or pet food the animal protein comes from the very same supply chain, the very same slaughter houses, the very same farms.

Rational pet food diets

March 26, 2007

Recent deaths caused by contaminated pet food at from Menu Foods have pet owners wondering what to do to best care for their pets. There are some who would suggest throwing out the whole pet food industry and going with human quality food or the B.A.R.F. diet. Fortunately Newsweek has an article on it's website discussing the sitution with Dr. Tony Buffington a professor of veterinary medicine at Ohio State University. He concludes it would make as much sense to stop using pet food as to condem the entire human food chain because of the E. Coli problem.

We should call upon the FDA to step up their work on both the human and the pet food supply chains, but we also must resist the temptation to run to the rumor mongers at the expense of our pet's health.

Tool or cat toy?

January 4, 2005

Chris Pirillo seems to think that laser levels are designed to be used as tools to do productive work. After a day of rain and a night of more rain to follow, it seems there is an alternate use for them (maybe the primary use, who knows). Simply point it at the floor and move in circles. Within moments the cat will be neurotically chasing the red spot around on the floor. It is better than the old "chase your tail" game that was en vogue last week.

As alluded to above the rain is still coming. We just closed out a year of nearly twice the annual rainfall. We're very near the average monthly rainfall for January and there is plenty of this storm to go, not to mention a few more weeks of January. In the desert you never wish for less rain, at the same time it is rare you think that it has been a long time since things were dry.

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