December 2007 Archives

Greg Galitzine forwarded me an interesting email claiming to be the "rumored" Google Android in action and Greg asked me to investigate. First, I should point to a funny parody of the supposed Google Android on Youtube, which takes the concept of Google Adsense (ads based on keywords on the webpage) and extends it to speech-recognition of words spoken on the phone to "speak" relevant ads.


Ok, now let me share the email Greg received:

Here's an interesting piece of tip. As you know, Google Android aka Dream Phone is a mobile phone platform based on the Linux operating system and developed by the Open Handset Alliance.

There have been many rumors about what it will ultimately look like, with several parodies of it circling YouTube, especially this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naUnXplUtrQ

Even though that's just a cute play on Google Ads, I've stumbled across something that might actually be a working demo of Google Android in action here:

http://69.57.168.29/asr/

I decided to check out the URL http://69.57.168.29/asr/. Sure enough it had two fields - one for entering in your phone number (From) and another field for the destination number (To). Further, the top of the page boldly claims "Google dream phone, android, gphone... whatever its called. Here's a live demo! demo1.0" I was skeptical to say the least, but figured I'd try this anyway.

I entered in my cell phone and another number and it first connected my cell phone and then connected the second leg of the call. Once connected, I was able to pretend to have a conversation and ask questions such as "what are we doing tonight?" and then the automated speech recognition would detect this and that say "How bout a movie. Google Presents National Treasure. Book of Secrets. Now playing at Century Cinema 16 located at 1500 North Shoreline Boulevard. Mountain View, California". (here's a WAV recording of that portion of the call)

This demo will only work with US telephone numbers only. I also noticed that some phone numbers worked and others did not - there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to which phone numbers worked. So if it doesn't work, try another phone numner. The only phrases recognized in this demo are:
- What are we doing tonight?
- Weather for Mountain View
- I'm very hungry!
- Want to have a drink?

The examples they gave for speech phrases the demo would recognize often were based in Mountain View, the headquarters of Google, such as "weather for Mountain View". Even asking "what are we doing tonight" was answered with movie times for Mountain View. Trying so hard to associate Google's HQ location made me even more skeptical this was legit. Speech recognition and the ability to conference in two legs of a call is nothing new. But just who was sending a fraudulent tip to Greg? Let us continue the investigation...

I tried a whois on 69.57.168.29/asr but the whois record revealved it simply as a web hoster - FortressITX. Why would Google need a hoster? The pages appear to be hosted on IIS, but that can be spoofed. I then tried 1 IP address higher in my browser ( 69.57.168.28 ) and the page went to a specific Facebook application. Could it be possible 69.57.168.29 was owned by Facebook? Nah. I used a tool to detect that 69.57.168.28 was actually using a Javascript redirect to send my browser to a Facebook application called OneCall by Arsenal Interactive, Inc. I checked out the link to Arsenal Interactive (http://www.arsenalinteract.com/) and landed on www.heycosmo.com, a site that talks about their beta Facebook app which adds games, webcam, and voice. The voice seemed apropos, but the rest of the description for this Facebook app didn't seem to apply to the demo.

Since this didn't seem like the speech-rec app I just tested, I then tried one IP address lower - 69.57.168.27 and the page did a quick meta refresh redirect to a site owned by LignUp. I landed at CodeLign, a ‘sandbox’ site that gives you access to some of LignUp’s call control and media control web services and which is essentially a SIP-based "telephony middleware" platform. You can make a call from a web page as well as voice-enable web applications. You can even conference two legs of a call using LignUp. Hmmm, sounds like we may have our mystery man!

CodeLign does give you up to 800 free minutes as part of their beta developer program. Still, there is no guarantee that this demo application was developed using LignUp's CodeLign. In fact, looking at the sign-up page, it says:

Pre-registered ‘from’ number: this is your designated phone number that will be used when you initiate calls from CodeLign’s web services. This number is used in conjunction with your User ID. It may differ from your profile ‘Phone’ number, which may be used to contact you by LignUp.

I read this to mean you have to use a single assigned pre-registered number for making calls, where as the http://69.57.168.29/asr/ URL let me pick the number used to initiate calls. Well, if it isn't LignUp, it's pretty amazing that with only a 1 IP address difference that the site redirects to LignUp, a company that CAN create speech-enabled web applications with telephony. I will say there are plenty of existing technologies that can do what this demo just did. Though perhaps this is a legit demo of Google Android. Perhaps Google and LignUp have teamed up? Who knows? If I had to make a prediction on this New Year's Eve, I'd say this is a hoax. But still pretty fascinating to be on a call and then have advertisements or information injected into the call depending on what you say. Be afraid... Be very afraid!

DirecTV, my satellite TV provider, recently changed the firmware on my two DirecTV Plus DVR boxes and totally hosed the ability to fast forward easily. I noticed this on my upstairs receiver about 2 weeks ago. Basically, with the DirecTV Plus DVD receiver you can press the Fast Forward button up to 3 times to fast forward (2x, 3x, 4x). The problem is the damn Fast Forward Correction. If I have it on high-speed fast forward 4x, and then click Play where I want it to stop, the Fast Forward Correction rewinds the video to where it "thinks" I wanted to stop. It winds up rewinding so far back, sometimes it even rewinds to a point in the video that is BEFORE where I initiated the fast forward. What the heck?

I try again, the same thing happens, and I wind up going BACKWARDS in time, not forward. I thought my receiver was on the fritz so I rebooted it, but no nice. A few days later I went downstairs to watch TV and the wacky fast forward bug was happening on that receiver as well. I pretty much have to use 2x or 3x fast-forward now since 4x is useless. I suppose I could use the 4x FFW, but I'd have to overshoot whatever TV program I am watching, which goes against every fiber of my fast forward finger. My finger - make that thumb - has years of training in the old method.

DirecTV "espouses" this feature on their website when they write, "Fast-forwarded too far? Fast Forward Correction takes you to where you really wanted to stop". Yeah, right. Can I sue for false advertising? Losing the ability to FFW is really starting to tick me off.

Now in theory, the Fast Forward Correction is a great idea. After all, with the video fast forwarding so fast, it is impossible to stop exactly at the point where you see a scene where you want to stop. However, since I've used DirecTV for awhile, so I'm pretty nimble at pressing the Play button at the right time. I might overshoot the video a little, but then I just press the Back button (left arrow) which rewinds a few seconds (8s I believe) at a time. Yes, I know I can press the Skip button (right arrow) which will FFW 30s at a time. But it doesn't instantly "skip" or jump 30s - it actually fasts forwards through the video at about 2x speed. So using the skip button isn't an option to quickly FFW through several commercials. Fast forwarding at high speed is the best option on DirecTV receivers.

Further, I'm pretty good at guessing exactly when I want to stop even before seeing the scene on the TV. For instance, say I'm watching The Biggest Loser and it cuts to commercial. I press the Fast Forward button quickly 3 times to reach warp 4x fast forward speed, I wait about 5.5s and hit Play and I'm usually right where the commercials end. If I undershoot I press the Skip button (30s forward) and if I overshoot, I press Back (8s rewind).

There was always a slight rewind auto-correction but DirecTV must have really cranked up the dial on the latest firmware download. Last time I checked, TiVo PVRs allow users to manually select the exact number of seconds for autocorrection, but unfortunately, DirecTV and TiVo parted ways in 2005 and DirecTV developed their own PVR. Alas, DirecTV has "locked" most of the customizable features, such as autocorrection in their DVR boxes.

There is a glimmer of hope however, with Ars Technica reporting that Liberty Media, the new owners of DirecTV, are big fans of TiVo and have been collaborating with TiVo. Maybe I'll be able to trade in my current DVR/PVR sometime in 2008 for a TiVo model. Then it will truly be a Happy New Year!

Phil Wolff over at Skype Journal has an interesting list of predictions for 2008. He didn't a nice even 10 or even an even dozen, not even 20. Nope, he did a whopping 37 predictions. Granted some are more humorous than actual predictions, but a good article worth a look.

I previously wrote today about my George Costanza wallet, which was replaced with a Men's Digital Photo Wallet from Brookstone. Even with my new gadgety wallet, I still had to do some pruning of various club cards to reduce the thickness of wallet. For instance, I took out my Mohegan Sun casino club card, Foxwoods, Viper Club of America card, Stop & Shop card, and various other cards.

Well, today, I happened to come across a website called Just One Club Card, which lets you combine your various club cards into a single small sheet of paper, thus saving you from having an overstuffed fat wallet or a backache/buttache from sitting on a fat wallet.

You simply enter in your club card account numbers online and it will generate the barcode images on the web page in a small condensed format that you can stick in your wallet. You can then print it out. Here's a sample one I created with some fictitious account numbers:

According to the website, you simply cut out the card along the dotted lines (except the middle line). Then fold together to get a two sided card. Use some clear tape to hold the card together or laminate if you want a really nice card that is also more durable.

You're probably wondering how the store barcode reader will know which barcode to read. Good question.

The simple solution is to cover all the barcodes but the store you're at with your fingers. That assumes of course that the cashier allows you to start waving your motley of printed barcodes over his/her scanner with your fingers obscuring the unimportant barcodes. A better solution is to print this Just One Club Card windowed-sleeve cutout (PDF), cut it out, and construct a sliding, windowed sleeve for your new just one club card. You still might get a few looks from cashiers when you hand this to them, but from users' feedback I've seen, no store has turned it down.

So far he has a database of over 120 club cards, including, A&P, Stop & Shop, Costco, BJs, BigY, Borders, CVS, Shaws, and more. Of course, an even better method would be to store your barcodes on your mobile phone and have them scan your mobile phone's display. It's already being discussed by the International Air Transport Association, which represents 94% of scheduled international travel on 240 airlines, and which has agreed to a global standard for mobile barcodes that can replace physical boarding passes.

Instead of a slip of paper, a barcode image is sent to your mobile phone, which can be scanned. Continental Airlines in Houston already has this running as part of a pilot program. They're the first airlines to offer cellphone boarding passes using barcodes. Here's a photo of it in action:

I got a couple of cool gadget gifts for Christmas, both of which were from my wife. The first gadget was a Men's Digital Photo Wallet from Brookstone featuring a built-in (yet removable) 1.4" color LCD screen for displaying up to 55 digital photos. The LCD unit is fairly thin, but will add some thickness to your wallet. I have to say, my old wallet was starting to rival George Costanza's overstuffed wallet which made him sit at a tilt with it in his back pocket, forcing him to even it out by stuffing his other back pocket with napkins. Later his wallet exceeds "maximum density" and explodes on the street with his cash, receipts, and other paperwork flying everywhere.

In any event, I hooked up the digital photo wallet to my computer via USB (mini-USB on the device) to both charge it and download some photos. Here's a picture of my wallet:


The resolution is decent, but not earth-shattering. But hey, you stuff 55 color photos in your wallet. Try that with traditional paper photos. Here's a photo further out so you can see the entire wallet:



My next gadget was even cooler and one that I played with all day on Christmas, the day after, and the day after that.

It's a mini remote controlled helicopter. If you went mall shopping this Christmas, you probably saw a kiosk in the main walkways selling these cool little flying gadgets - or at least I did when I went mall shopping. Crowds would gather around the kiosk to watch the mini-flying helicopters, including me. I oohed and ahhed and thought it would be cool to own one. I had no idea my wife was going to buy me one for Christmas.

Flying the mini-helicopter takes some practice. During my early flight time training, my 2 year old niece was hit in the head by the helicopter. It is so lightweight it didn't hurt her, but the tail rotor spun up some of her hair and the helicopter was stuck to her head. It looked pretty funny actually and fortunately she was laughing about it. I glanced around the room and no one saw what I had just done. I leaped over and gingerly pried the hair free, but had to break a few hairs off. Just when I thought I was going to get away with flying a helicopter into my niece, my wife walked in. Damn, almost got away with it too! She ribbed me for my flying error, but kept it hush-hush from the rest of the family.

I learned very quickly that you have to be very subtle in your joystick movements, both for turns and for ascending or descending. Before long I was flying the thing around the Christmas tree and around the room. It is extremely durable for such a small object. I bounced it off ceiling fans, walls, coffee tables, nieces , TVs and the thing just keeps on going. Part of the reason for its durability is that the helicopter is so light. It charges pretty quickly taking about 20 minutes to charge for about 5-7 minutes flying time. They go for about $35, so you might want to consider buying a couple so you can charge one while flying the other.

So those were my two cool gadgets. I also got some non-gadgety stuff for Christmas, including Call of Duty 4 for PC, big jar of pistachios, various chocolates, gift certificates, clothes, and a 3 month membership to my local gym.

So what are your favorite gadgets that you got for Christmas?

3D animated avatars using either "cartoonish" or even realistic photos are nothing new. Gizmoz was one of the first to allow you to animate avatars that were based on real photos of yourself. The software would automatically detect and add facial movement, mouth movement, eyebrow movement, etc. when you spoke or moves certain facial features. Of course, you have Klonies, which also work with Skype. Then there is IMVU, which offers cartoonish avatars and I'm sure there are many other 3D avatar making pieces of software out there.

Now word comes from another company PQ Computing Corporation offering you the ability to animate pictures of yourself, family members, pets, etc. using their PQ Talking Photo application. They're known for their DVD video conversion software PQ DVD, which can convert a DVD to iPod, Zune, PSP, or 3G format. How or why they decided to branch off into 3D avatars is beyond me. But apparently 3D avatars are popular amongst teenagers and they are willing to pay for avatars just like they pay for ringtones. Personally, I feel ringtones should be free, since you can easily install your own custom ringtones, but what do I know? Ringtones are a multi-billion dollar market, so either there are a lot of ringtone buying fools or I'm just too damn techy (or cheap) for my own good. Even if 3D avatars don't reach the billion dollar plateau, it sounds like it could be a lucrative business.

In any event, below is a sample. Oh and if you are a blogger, you will receive a copy of PQ Talking Photo just by blogging it ($59.90 value for free). It's a limited time offer: you must blog before Xmas. Your blog cannot be newly created and must have at least 10 previous posts.

 

 

Greg has an interesting post about Google where he thinks the Google developers need to be more patient. Specifically, developers are a little miffed over some bugs in Google Android SDK. I would have to disagree with Greg on this one. Google is the great aggregator of the universe's knowledge (hence the Google Universe). Developers shouldn't have to worry about bugs or syntax in their coding. You should be able to just tell Google what you want it to do and it'll do it for you.

After all, Google reached 'artificial intelligence' sentient status back in 2005. This enables Google to intelligently figure out exactly what you mean even if you didn't say what you meant. (i.e.: Did you mean: terminator)

Heck, I even wrote about how Google became the dreaded Skynet back in 2005.

Creative leaked the Creative InPerson Wi-Fi videophone via their FCC filing.


It features H.264 video with SIP support, high video quality (up to VGA resolution and 2 Mbps bit-rate) and claims to perform well under low light. It features a wide-angle lens, and dual microphones with acoustic echo cancellation and noise. It comes with a lithium-ion rechargeable battery that will power the 7-inch, 16.7 million color LCD for about 2 hours. Creative apparently has partnered with SightSpeed to provide the account login/authentication as well as the video functionality. I know SightSpeed quite well, as well as their PR rep Andy Abramson, who usually tips me off to interesting stuff like this. Apparently Andy didn't want to give me a Christmas gift (news tip) about this cool videophone gadget. Ah well. Andy did send me a Christmas card, so all is forgiven.

Hmmm. It's very interesting that Creative Labs partnered with SightSpeed and not Skype. I wonder if the device which is based on SIP is "locked" into using SightSpeed for termination? If so, maybe the firmware will be hacked to allow any 3rd party SIP provider.

Looking at the FCC filing, I see it uses the TI DaVinci processor/chipset which was designed for digital video processing applications, such as portable multimedia players (PMPs), digital video recorders (DVRs), and apparently videoconferencing devices such as this one. The DaVinci chip can perform encode/decode of H.264, MPEG4, H.263, WMV9, MPEG2, JPEG, AAC+, AAC, WMA9, MP3, G.711, G.728, G.723.1, and G.729ab.

Features include:
• Wi-Fi
• Rechargeable, removable Lithium-ion battery
• Auto Login
• Auto Answer
• Screen Saver
• Speed dial
• Call History
• Contact List
• Take Photo during video call

Usage Scenarios
• Built-in dual microphones, and audio output to external speakers (not included) with the bundled RCA cables.
• Built-in dual microphones and internal speaker.
• For privacy: bundled microphone and earphones.
• Viewing on a larger screen: video output to TV with the bundled RCA
cables.

I've tested SightSpeed in the past and was impressed with the video quality, so I'd be interested to test this product. Whether there is a market for portable WiFi videophones other than for gadget freaks like me remains to be seen. Maybe if this device played MP3 music, DivX, AVI, and allowed you to store ripped DVD files (external USB stick), then it might make for a good multi-purpose device for the road. I'd also like to see a full QWERTY keyboard for email access and Internet browsing. In any event, I'll put my feelers out to see if I can get a review unit. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, here are some leaked photos: (Note the word 'FatPipe' in the last photo. That's a copyrighted term by a company (FatPipe, Inc.) that provides bandwidth management. Unless FatPipe is involved somehow. Update - I looked at another one of the FCC photos (not posted here) and it says Fatpipe Lithium-Ion Battery 3.7V 3500mAh. Never heard of a company called Fatpipe that makes batteries. Tried googling as well but couldn't find them.)

According to ABI Research, Research In Motion (RIM) is likely to end 2007 with around 10% share of the smartphone market. In terms of device shipments, RIM will be the second largest smartphone vendor in 2007, after Nokia. RIM’s share in the smartphone market has steadily increased in the last five quarters — from 7.2% in 3Q 2006 to 9.5% in 3Q 2007.

The report points out that RIM’s business is still predominantly in North America and stresses that RIM needs to focus on bringing their smartphones to the emerging markets of Asia Pacific and other regions. RIM's Blackberry, Curve, Pearl, and other models have changed the email landscape forever, when they enabled 100% continuous anywhere email access with an easy to use interface (large screen + QWERTY keyboard).

With all the hype surrounding the Apple iPhone, I'd be curious what percentage of the smartphone market share it now holds. Due to its high price and its relative newness, my guess is the iPhone is <1% marketshare. Anyway, for the full report, go here:
Research In Motion Strategic Review

Digium, today announced the one millionth download of Asterisk in 2007. Digium's PR rep emailed me to say they have now completed its 24th consecutive quarter of growth and profitability this year. When I heard that number - 24 quarters, I couldn't believe it's been that long. That's 6 years! Wow, how time flies!

Digium has had a busy year. In July, Digium acquired Sokol & Associates and in September, Digium acquired Switchvox, a leading provider of IP PBX phone systems powered by Asterisk for SMBs.

A hearty congrats to the Digium team! Looking forward to your 2 million download mark!

Flashphone, which I reviewed here, has created a CallMe widget which allows you to put CallMe button on your site and then use your own SIP account to connect it to your PSTN number. It can also make a SIP call to SIP URI or make a call to the flashphone Flash-based VoIP client.

I'll include a screenshot of the Flash widget followed by the actually embedding of the Flash widget which looks similar to Youtube embedded code. (including both in case you can't view embedded Flash):



If you click the Call Me button, it will initiate a call to a Russian auto-attendant. This is just a demo that Flashphone setup for me, so don't abuse it please.

Mr Blog points out the privacy/security concerns over giving out your SIP credentials to a third party (Flashphone), when he says: I hate to be throwing wet blankets on this, but here we have another "anonymous" entity, this time in Russia - is it safe to give them the SIP credentials for our accounts. Point taken. Flashphone for its part responded in Mr. Blog's comments and also pointed to their privacy policy page.

Privacy and security concerns aside, I think it's pretty cool to be able to use your SIP credentials simply using your browser. Something like 99.1% of PCs and Macs have Flash installed, so basically you can take your SIP credentials to any PC without having to install a SIP softphone.

We all know iPod Touch Mods is hard at work to hack the iPod touch to enable SIP-based VoIP, right? Well, it'll be a Happy New Year with the official release on January 1st, 2008.



SIP-VoIP for the iPod touch is free, but they're accepting donations. Jailbreakers will enjoy the software, which I assume will be a relatively easy installation. Hopefully Apple doesn't "brick" the iPod touch's of the jailbreakers. Not only won't you be able to play music, but you won't be able to get your VoIP on either. And that my friends would suck twice as badly.

The website even has a cool countdown to the launch that looks very similar to the TV show 24's countdown clock. Speaking of which, when will the Writers Guild strike end? 24 was canceled and I'm none too happy about it.

Ribbit is a development platform launching today, which enables developers to integrate communications solutions into their web applications. A proprietary softswitch (the Ribbit SmartSwitch) mediates communication across protocols, networks and devices. That includes MSN Messenger, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger (soon) and Skype.

Essentially Ribbit is a back-end multi-protocol softswitch (called SmartSwitch) that allows communication between different networks, carriers and device types. The Ribbit SmartSwitch is their own proprietary Lucent-tested CLASS 5 softswitch. When combined with their open Flash/Flex-based API, they enable developers to quickly build innovative, rich voice applications and integrate them into web sites, communities and applications. The Ribbit VoIP client is Flash and since Flash is installed on 99.1% of PCs/Macs, this enables virtually anyone to use it with no installation necessary and with cross-platform support. Here's a diagram of the architecture:



"The world doesn't need another phone company," said Ted Griggs, co-founder and CEO at Ribbit. "What it needs is new kind of phone company, one that liberates voice from its current confines -- devices, plans and business models -- and more readily integrates into the workflow of our professional and personal lives. We've been working hard these first two years to put together the right team, technology, and business model to meet this opportunity, and we're finally ready to go to market."

Ribbit has an interesting business model. Ribbit makes money by charging developers a monthly fee for the access and support they receive. Ribbit will also make money through the direct sale of consumer and enterprise applications, as well as the merchandising of third party solutions.

Developers will find it very easy to integrate Ribbit into their applications using the Ribbit API. Functions available include call control, authentication, billing, messaging, and more. The Ribbit API abstracts the protocol inter-communication between MSN Messenger, Google Talk, and even Skype. Ribbit has reverse-engineered the Skype protocol to provide the ability for Skype users to receive calls from MSN Messenger users, Yahoo Messenger users and Google Talk users by leveraging the Ribbit SmartSwitch. Any of these VoIM clients can intercommunicate via the Ribbit SmartSwitch. The SmartSwitch handles the protocol conversions as well as the media stream transcoding. This is no small feat, and is part of Ribbit's "secret sauce".

One sample application you can build is a web-based click-to-call application that calls remote call center agents. These agents can use Google Talk, Skype, or whatever their favorite VoIM application is, in order to receive the call. Here's an overview of the Ribbit API:



Ribbit already has some interesting applications under its belt. One is integration with Salesforce.com, which integrates a salesperson's mobile phone with the Salesforce application. Ribbit can take voicemail messages, transcribe them (uses Simulscribe) and delivers them as voice and as text to the Ribbit for Salesforce user. The voicemail and transcribed voicemail text is stored in the database making it easily searched. Voicemail messages can be searched by the content of the messages as well as tagged with keywords for easier future retrieval. Ribbit demoed the Salesforce.com integration to me and I was pretty impressed. Here's a screenshot of it in action (click image for full view). You'll notice Voice Tags as well as a yellow 'tool tip' above the mouse cursor displaying the transcribed content of the voicemail message:


I should point out that the Ribbit interface is completely customizable and can be added to other applications. One popular application is Adobe AIR iPhone, an iPhone look-alike interface. The one thing it was missing was VoIP/PSTN calling. The developer added using Ribbit's API's was able to turn the device into a real phone, able to make and receive PSTN phone calls. Here's a shot of the Adobe AIR iPhone and another interface that looks like a chalkboard.


I'll be interesting to see how quickly developers jump on Ribbit. Certainly the Flash support and interoperability between the major IM clients is a huge advantage when trying to build Web 2.0/Voice 2.0 applications. The main driver behind VoIP adoption up till now has been cheap minutes. I hope Ribbit is able to succeed in having business processes integrated with telephony & VoIP drive interesting Web telephony applications.

Pal Dan Conner & big Vonage aficionado, who runs the Vonage Forums tipped me off to a major Vonage outage. Boy, Skype outages recently and now this. Hope this is just a minor outage. VoIP doesn't need a black eye these days. I'm looking into this outage right now, but in the meantime, go check out Dan's Vonage Forums posting/thread for more info.

Of course, this isn't the first Vonage outage. I experienced an outage first hand back when I was a Vonage customer.

South Korean scientists have cloned three Turkish Angora cats that have the ability to glow-in-the dark when exposed to ultraviolet light. They modified the gene by inserting a virus into the skin cells of a mother cat and placing those cells into the womb, thus proving that it was possible to clone an animal with a manipulated gene.

The stated goal is for a better understanding of human genetic diseases, but this is a very slippery slope if you ask me and for multiple reasons.

For instance, how long before the trendoids start asking their local breeders for glow-in-the-dark cats? "Can I get a orange kitty that glows blue and a white kitty that glows red?"

Well, that crazy ole cat lady down the street will certainly have the brightest house in the neighborhood.


[via NBC30]