Google Phone / Nexus One pricing details leaked.

And it's not good.


If these details are true, I'm not even sure why Google bothered. It's priced too high (unsubsidized) for most people to tolerate, and while the subsidized price is very nice, the requirement that you sign up for a specific plan from T-Mobile is just wrong. For someone like me, I'd be paying MORE to get less, and that's just wrong.


Man, I don't know what they were thinking, but even with a really nice phone, you can still get it wrong with the pricing and set yourself back by the negative press, as such is making the rounds of the blogosphere. Google really dropped the ball on this one, if those details prove to be true.

In 7 hours, the weather can change dramatically.

In 7 hours, we went from this:

To this:

Started with a beautiful sunrise with clouds glowing in the sky this morning, to just crazy snow coming down right now. And just like most of the snow events in Portland, it caught the city by surprise. No one expected snow fall below 1000 feet.

Crazy day.

Barry Obama, 3rd grade.

Just came across this article today about a portion of Barack Obama's childhood in Hawaii. It's impossible to convey the difficulty of someone that wasn't Asian, living in Hawaii in 1969; 3/4 of all residents were Asian at that time. But just for a moment, this black and white photo captures the essence of a happy moment. It would have been interesting to be in the room when Obama first laid his eyes on this photo.

via Star Bulletin

AT&T has finally found the solution to their network problems...

Stop selling the iPhone in areas where the network is congested!

Here's an excerpt:

Q: Are iPhones no longer available in New York City?
A: Yes, this is correct; the phone is not offered to you because New York is not ready for the iPhone.

Genius! LOL!

Consumerist via BoingBoing

How do you define hypocrisy?

Six years ago, "it was standard practice not to pay for things," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

That's how the Republicans in the Senate are framing their vote for the expansion of Medicare in 2003, and why they oppose the current health care plan. You see, according to Republican senators, it's okay to flip flop if you're Republican.

But to be sure, there are some serious Conservatives outside of the beltway, that know exactly what's at stake:

"As far as I am concerned, any Republican who voted for the Medicare drug benefit has no right to criticize anything the Democrats have done in terms of adding to the national debt," said Bruce Bartlett, an official in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He made his comments in a Forbes article titled "Republican Deficit Hypocrisy."

Bartlett said the 2003 Medicare expansion was "a pure giveaway" that cost more than this year's Senate or House health bills will cost. More important, he said, "the drug benefit had no dedicated financing, no offsets and no revenue-raisers. One hundred% of the cost simply added to the federal budget deficit."

The pending health care bills in Congress, he noted, are projected to add nothing to the deficit over 10 years.

Oh, the hypocrisy.

(via USA Today)

The arctic ice is melting...

Does this mean Santa will have to seasonally migrate in 25 years, and if so, where? Will he instead choose to permanently migrate to the South Pole on the Antarctic land mass? Will he switch out his reindeer for emperor penguins?

So many questions, so few answers.

Why America's manufacturing ability is dysfunctional...?

I skimmed through this article from the New Republic, which argues that most managerial positions in the US are filled with finance grads and not people skilled or knowledgeable in the production side of manufacturing. Because of the tendency to focus on numbers, the business schools have diminished American companies' abilities to compete globally where innovation and creativity reign over mere asset allocation.

I guess you could say, that Wall Street is in the business to make money, and the people who manage the companies that make products know how to make money for Wall Street, but don't have a clue how products are made. This is illustrated by the endless series of quarterly calls, where money managers discuss how their company is reallocating capital to address shortfalls in one sector, or how the bottom line is affected by the cost of borrowing money.

In my opinion, this explains why we got the Pontiac Aztek. No designer worth their reputation would have placed their name on that beast. You just KNOW the managers sat around and said, "Hey, this part is too expensive, replace it with this cheaper substitute."

via BoingBoing

Before anyone gets any crazy idea that global warming isn't real...

I present you the simplest presentation to explain it:

You see, Congress loves money.

" In 2006, the year before (senior competition counsel, Dana) Wagner was hired, Google spent just $750,000 on political lobbying in Washington. Its current foes on the antitrust front--AT&T and Microsoft--spent a combined $35 million that year in political contributions." - via CNET

It's clear that the discrepancy between lobbying has made a huge difference in how DC views Google, and why we're seeing Washington tackling Google head on, even while Microsoft owns 90% of the world's desktop OS market and as much as 95% of the world's desktop productivity suite market.

As expected, the Democrats begin to split.

As sure as the sun rises from the East, the Democrats are beginning to fracture. The coalition of disparate groups within a big umbrella is finding it impossible to co-exist and agree to the same agenda, allowing individuals to hold up the majority. In time, animosity will grow until the fracture is complete and the Democrats once again lose power. Of course, at that point they will express remorse for what happened, and try to build their coalition once again. Like this never happened...how coincidental that the last time the Democrats lost power, they were dealing with...health care.

Rise, fall. Repeat, ad nauseam.

Why Chrome is good, and other stuff.

In addition to being able to install script extensions (to block ads, flash, save passwords, etc) you also get one more layer of protection from visiting some sites that have been compromised by malware (see image below).

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Read about how Google gave their employees around the world free Android phones, dubbed Nexus One. Looks quite pretty, and is about the width of the iPhone. Difference is, it's packing Android 2.1, which is ahead of the Android 2.0.1 on the Verizon Droid, and ahead of the Android 1.6 for most of the rest of us. Hope they make this available through T-Mobile...'cause I'm gonna git me one of them phones.
- via Gizmodo and BGR

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Talk about aweseome. Verizon is offering a buy-one-get-one-free with the Droid phone. You buy a Droid, you get a free Droid Eris. Save yourself $100. - via BGR and Verizon Wireless.

Chevy Volt will surely fail.

All I can say is, that someone really screwed up in marketing. No way would you commission a song that would make everyone laugh about your car?!#!

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Doesn't it remind you of when you were young and watched Sesame Street or the Electric Company?

Yep, it's still cold outside.

Single digits in Portland, are you kidding me? Brrr!

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Early morning weather update.

Holy Cow, it's freaking frigid!!! - Forgive the Einstein on the Beach moment of multiple thoughts at the same time.

Google Chrome browser, now with extensions.

It's about time, that Google's Chrome browser finally got extensions. I don't like Firefox nearly as much, because it's nowhere near as fast as Chrome.

However, a huge annoyance - that up until now was inescapable in Chrome - has been these really intrusive Flash adverts, which have music/jingles that automatically play, particularly from certain companies and on certain websites. With extensions, I can now use the AdThwart extension that prevents Flash objects from automatically starting. Works great!

Another awesome extension is Feedly, which aggregates your rss feeds into a very beautiful layout that makes it fun to review the highlights of your feeds. As much as I love my Google Reader - which by the way is the only way to read your rss feeds on a smart phone - Feedly is a better interface for viewing rss feeds on a laptop or desktop, IMO.

In other news...it's damn cold in Portland, Oregon!

Who's gonna win the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, 2010?

I'm gonna take a wild guess, and suggest that most people will take Oregon. What do you think?

Looks like ESPN fans generally agree...Ducks will beat the Buckeyes.
Go Ducks...the Trojans already beat the Buckeyes up in the Horseshoe, it's your turn to whip them in Pasadena.

Can you tell which of these are rogue antivirus?

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In fact, all of the examples shown above are images of Fast Flux Rogue Antivirus malware that will pop up in your browser. A whole host of servers and people's computers have been infected with what are called "Fast Flux Rogue Antivirus" malware. I decided to write this blog post, because Accuweather is one of those very popular websites that is currently hosting this malware without their knowledge. These viruses are cleverly disguised to look just like your own antivirus software, which makes them difficult for most people to catch.

If you have something like this pop up, do not hit "close" or "cancel" buttons that are within the screen, as these are javascript buttons that are easily written to do a whole host of actions, not merely closing or cancelling the window that's open. Instead, you have to hit the 'X' on the little button on your browser's chrome (upper right corner) or hit control-alt-delete to access the processes tab, and close down the specific browser window process (or browser completely).

Here's one part of the solution: Use Google Public DNS or OpenDNS. DNS, if you didn't already know, is a domain name server. You type a name (www.yahoo.com) and the DNS fetches the actual IP address (69.147.76.15) and sends you to the correct address. With Google Public DNS or OpenDNS, you are bypassing your ISP's or someone else's DNS that may direct you to a site other than the one you were looking for...preventing some of the phishing attacks you will come across throughout the internet.

Reminds me of Jay Leno's Jaywalk All Stars...

But worse.

Don't hit the play button.

If you're the squeamish type, you don't want to hit the play button. This video was taken from Chinatown in Honolulu, looking in on a particular indoor marketplace where there are several vendors. I know the general market well enough to be able to visualize this scene. Now, I'm sure that when it's hustling and bustling, there is no problem, but when the people inside are gone, the place gets a-hopping...who knew they could jump over 2 feet?!?

Third warning: Don't watch if you've got a weak stomach.

Hilarious movie!

I had to share "Big Man Japan" with everyone. The acting is top notch, and the story is absolutely funny. A mockumentary on a super hero, you can read a synopsis at Rotten Tomatoes. I just finished streaming it from Netflix, so if you have the time, go watch this movie!

The clip below gives you a taste of the action and laughs.

How to rescue the economy, in my opinion.

It's all about jobs, and since the vast majority of jobs are either small business or self-employed, I would - if President of the USA - focus on microeconomic policies rather than macroeconomic ideas. My 6 point plan (again, if I were President of the USA):

1. Restructure the SE Tax. Instead of having self-employed pay forward the following quarter's taxes, have self-employed pay taxes on what they actually earned the last quarter. As a matter of fact, self-employed persons have extremely volatile earnings from one month to another, and one quarter to another. By forcing them to pre-pay their taxes, the IRS creates an environment of punishing those who over-estimate their earnings by over-paying their taxes.


2. Require the coordination between federal, state and local taxing jurisdictions, to bring together all of the separate taxes, into a simple, single structure, to which the self-employed and businesses are able to pay out to a single entity (local jurisdiction) which then distributes the share of taxes to the other jurisdictions (city, county, state, federal, etc). In the case of sales taxes, again, one agency to send taxes to, and that agency distributes the revenue. Simplifying the process of paying taxes would greatly improve the response rate, and encourage people to become legitimate businesses.


3. Ban the Business Personal Property Tax, or at least provide a 5 year window where start ups don't have to pay this tax. This is double-taxation of the worst kind, which only eats away at the ability of small businesses and the self-employed to compete as a start up, when you often have high initial investment costs but few - if any - clients.


4. Give the self-employed and the unemployed the right to fully deduct all medical expenses from the first dollar (as opposed to the IRS 2% rule). In addition to this, allow the self-employed and the unemployed to participate in a federally supported healthcare program at a reduced rate, for anyone earning less than 350% of the poverty level (2009 single person $10,830 x 350% = $37,950), to those who do not qualify for Medicaid.


5. Provide a one time 200% deduction rate for start up expenses, for the first year, usable once per company/person, a minimum of five years between your next eligibility for this start up deduction (for another new business). If you cut the cost of starting up a business, you'll increase the number of people willing to work for themselves, but start up costs are huge, and banks are deaf to the plight of the laid off people who wish to start their own businesses.


6. Provide for continued unemployment compensation while people move to self-employment. To provide an incentive for people to become self-employed, federal and state unemployment compensation would provide up to 150% of an individual's maximum weekly unemployment benefit compensation level. If you were eligible for $300/wk of unemployment compensation and you earned a weekly average over one month of $200, you would be eligible to receive an extra $250 a week from the state/feds, to meet that 150% benefit (($300 x 150%) - $200 = $250).

Tax cuts are nice, and spending programs are swell, but in both cases, generally money has to trickle down to the unemployed via several levels of individuals and require the assumption that these people will spend the money they've just earned, in order to spur job growth. If Congress gives direct assistance to the unemployed, small businesses and the self-employed, they will be empowering job growth where it typically starts from, and with immediate results.

Comcast's bid to control NBC/Universal

"My conservative economic religion is founded on the rock of competition, which since Teddy Roosevelt's day has protected small business and consumers against predatory pricing leading to market monopolization." - William Safire, NY Times, Jan. 20, 2003.

Quite apropos, don't you think? Free market advocates like to give the markets the ability to determine winners and losers, but as these media giants continue to consolidate and grow, they jeopardize the spirit of competition, and in fact use their monopolized positions to increase costs to the consumer.

Comcast isn't being generous of spirit and heart by buying out NBC/Universal; to the contrary everyone knows they're doing this to increase their profit potential, not diminish it. However, part of the equation is getting a return on their investment, which has always included increasing fees or finding ways to get consumers to pay for goods that were previously given away for free.

Bill Safire was correct 6 years ago - may he rest in peace - and he's still correct today. Media gigantism is an epidemic of a runaway market that has been effectively deregulated by those free market advocates like Alan Greenspan, Larry Summers and others. Through 26 years of deregulation we have had 4 asset bubbles: S&L, Dot-Com, Energy and Mortgage.

It's time to say, "NO" to this laissez faire approach to regulation.

Supply side economics test.

According to an LA Times story:

"Steve Pierce(R), majority (Arizona) Senate whip, said the state may be able to come up with ways to raise money -- by cutting taxes. He said that cuts in business taxes may raise tax revenues, an argument made by believers in supply-side economics, a theory that most economists say is flawed."

I think this is swell; we might finally get to test the idea of whether or not supply-side economics work. Of course, I'm quite sure it doesn't work, in so far that it takes a very long time for the money to trickle down, and for value to be added to goods that are created by these new jobs, if at all. In reality, what would happen is that small businesses would either use that money to pay down debt that they've been accumulating to maintain payrolls or invest in hardware to increase efficiency of their existing workforce, or maybe post a profit. Who really knows what these people will do with the tax return they'd get, but I do know that they won't hire new people until they're sure that the economy is on a solid growth path.

Of course, news broke on Thanksgiving - belated happy thanksgiving - that Dubai World requested a 6 month hold on repayment of a $60B debt, which has triggered shock throughout the entire global financial system, as investors are worried about their money. Because of the terse request by Dubai World, investors are left to guess as to how serious of an issue this could be, and people are fleeing stocks for the good ol' USofA Treasury Bonds. Point is, if this situation is as dire as indicated by the request for a 6 month reprieve (hey, can I stop paying my mortgage for 6 months?), banks are about to be steamrolled once again, and we could see the collapse of many large investment firms.

I mention this Dubai World problem, because if the worst case scenario comes true, the supply-side test could spell complete disaster for Arizona, and a quick double-dip of the world and US economies. Look for the ensuing Conservative criticism, even though it was their lack of market controls that would have triggered this second dip.

Street view in Hawaii.

Was reading a story about a house fire in Honolulu, and was curious to see where it was, since the story published the address. You can see the house in the lower left corner of the picture...brought to you by Google's Street View. Lovely view of Diamond Head. I can imagine how nice it must be to have that view every day. Wish I had that.

Too bad for the house, obviously...but the house itself seems halfway to being reclaimed by nature, being so dilapidated. Unfortunate that the occupants were injured, but at least no one died, and they rescued the dog.

T-Mobile running 7.2Mbps HSDPA

I noticed this morning, a big speed bump when using my G1 to read emails and look through rss feeds, so I checked my speed. It turns out, in the Portland area, T-Mobile has bumped up speeds - as was expected - to 7.2 megabits per second, which in real world observations, is closer to 3 megabits per second actual download.

And late next year, T-Mobile is said to be updating to 21Mbps HSPA+, which will give even more bang for the buck.

Make your own QR Code.

See below.

So what do you do with a QR code? Well, for one, you can create URL links or other things. And I found a cool site that generates a png image file of whatever corresponding info you want.

Isn't that the neatest? Put it on your business card, and the people can merely use their smart phone to scan the barcode and follow the link...no more typing in text into your browser, right? Heck, your business card can be completely minimalist, and just have a series of these QR codes filled with your phone number, business address and website. Crazy, eh?

Excessive or appropriate use of force?

What do you think? A 12 year old girl is seen striking an officer in the process of resisting arrest.

I see a police officer, instead of helping his fellow officer wrestle this girl down, lets him handle her while he searches for an opportunity to shoot her. At the point that she's on the ground and still struggling, he shoots her close range - you can see the beanbag bounce off her and travel 7 feet towards the Max car.

It so happens, the officer firing the beanbag at this girl, was also involved in the arrest and subsequently resulting death of a homeless man.

Once you strike an officer, all bets are off; you've allowed the officer to escalate force. But, the question remains, is it appropriate to use a beanbag up close on a 12 year old girl, even if she strikes an officer? Of course, he doesn't know that she's 12 years old, but it bothers me that he walks around after she's on the ground, looking for the right opportunity to shoot her. I'm not sure he needed to use the beanbag shot to subdue her, especially since she was already on the ground. But at least he didn't shoot her in the chest or abdomen.

Working on a table design.

I wish I had a shop to build stuff; I don't, and it sucks balls. Instead, I design and render, instead of build. I suppose I could build test models from foam core, but it's quite nice to be able to quickly switch colors and re-render, and so on. Ah...whatever. I need to translate this to a 2D layout and itemize to see how much it'll cost to have cut (the wood) at Ponoko, and so on...I fear it'll cost $350 to build. :O

If I could build it myself, it wouldn't cost me anything but the cost of materials, and I could do my own sheet metal bending and trimming, drilling, etc. Only thing I'm not gonna do...cutting, laminating and sanding glass; that's nasty stuff.

Even more Fall images and an old girlfriend.

This one this past weekend on Front Ave near the Fremont Bridge. London Plane Tree, if you're curious.

Monday, ventured out to Smith & Bybee Lakes to do a short exploration. Willows all around.

Photo of Smith Lake, looking towards the West Hills.

I couldn't help but get these colors together...green lamp post with Fall color trees and a clear blue sky; it just seemed to fit.

Found an old girlfriend (over 15 years) online. Married with two kids. Strange isn't it? People end up posting all sort of information about themselves online, and with Google, everything is discoverable...even me. Of course, she being married, it took a little digging to find her, but she's alive and well in the ether...we all are in the ether - cue to Lain. I love Lain; I have the entire DVD collection.

She looks happy, which makes me happy (really). I'm certain that I would have never provided her that sort of support and family that she wanted (even if at the time I thought that I could), and I doubt she would have been nearly as happy as she looks in her photos. I wouldn't ever want to affect her current happy life, so I'm just never going to visit her...I wouldn't know what to say anyway..."Sorry I screwed up, glad you're happy?" Just seems like a selfish act to disrupt someone's life, when the last time you saw them life was falling apart and happiness escaped this existence. And it would be unfair to her husband too, I'm sure.

Michael Steele, Populist.

"It's not about the change we need; it's about the change we want." - Michael Steele.

The head Republican is suggesting that the GOP is populist and has no backbone to do what is necessary to make the nation stronger. Imagine that; he just conceded that the GOP doesn't care about the future at all.

Just last week, FOX News offered an opinion piece, "Obamanomics Is Not the 'Change' We Need."

Can it be that the Republican Party is selling their soul for the sake of political gain? This is nothing close to the Gingrich Revolution that promised a series of reform-minded goals; this is just a sell out of getting solutions passed, just to regain power.

This is awesome!

As the economy recovers and bills get passed without their help, the Republicans will have given Democrats and moderates the opportunity to attack the GOP for a lack of substance.

Can I call the Palm Pre / WebOS a failure yet?

It's perhaps premature, but I couldn't help but notice that ComScore reported that the Treo represented 6.5% of the mobile touchscreen market, but the Pre was nonexistent for the 3 months ending August 2009. At the same time, Palm's last quarter statement showed that they shipped under 850K handsets. We already know the priced dropped by 25% less than 4 months into sales, which leads me to believe that the Pre is underwhelming. Mind you, the G1 had a 7.5 month head start on the Pre, but the Android G1 phone alone has already captured 3.6% of the mobile touchscreen market share.

More proof of Pre's failures can be seen at Sprint's own website, where CNET editor ratings are shown alongside customer's ratings:

Palm Pre
CNET Editor rating: 3.5 stars
Customer rating: 3.8 stars

Samsung Moment (Android)

CNET Editor rating: 3.5 stars
Customer rating: 4.5 stars

HTC Hero (Android)

CNET Editor rating: 4.0 stars
Customer rating: 4.6 stars

It's like I've been saying all along: Motorola made the right choice to go with Android and Palm made a bad choice to go proprietary with WebOS. With Motorola's Droid going on retail on Verizon this week, the Android platform is about to get a huge boost, and Motorola appears to be on the winning side.

Yes, even MORE Fall colors!

Baby elephant scared of its own sneeze.

Via the LA Times, this awesome video!

A real game-changer in mobile / wireless: Droid on Android 2.0

Google / Verizon / Motorola has just announced the Motorola Droid for Verizon on Nov. 6, which will be the first Android phone with Android 2.0 OS - presumably 2.0 will be pushed out to the rest of us shortly after this phone is available in person.

What makes this joint announcement interesting, of course, is Android 2.0. Within 2.0, Google has bundled navigation with Maps. How big is this? Garmin closed yesterday at 37.78, and overnight, lost $1.90, and is currently trading at $32 (-15%), off the floor from today's low of $30.85. TomTom opened at $10.60, and is currently trading at $8.11 (-20%), off the floor of $8.06.

This is a game changer in the world of both mobile phones and stand alone navigation devices, with the proviso that, you must be on a widely distributed wireless network for this to work effectively. Google Maps - while it can cache your data onto your phone - does not store all the maps and POI data you would need on your phone, to effectively navigate and find things if you're not within wireless coverage.

Still, this is pretty big in tech, especially now that Google Maps has Street View, you can actually see what your turns will be like, from an actual photo.

Video of Google Maps with Navigation

Video of Verizon/Motorola's Droid

More Fall colors from my phone's camera

Outside my condo.

In my neighborhood.

Still in the hood.

In Beaverton, near the backside of Cedar Hills Crossing Shopping Mall.

Designing a light pendant (shade)

These renderings take way too long to do - especially the room. That one took 12 hours to get to this point. The smaller the image the faster they are to do, but you can't print small images in big sizes. Am trying to design a cheap - relatively speaking - design that can be easily cut by computer-guided laser. Just one of a handful of ideas right now. Maybe I'll do all of them?!? They take so long to work out...every one. Sigh...

Some Fall color shots from my phone's camera.

Praise be to Google?

I kinda feel this way actually...seeing as I use google for my searches, email, phone, calendar...I even use sketchup. May the Google be with you!

Some Fall colors.

Went out late this afternoon (5 pm) and took some shots before the sun disappeared.

Interesting insight into car buyers.

Strategic Vision puts out research into the demographics of auto buyers which is quite striking when you look at it.

According to this 2007 report, Asians have a strong affinity for buying Toyotas (27%) and Hondas (22%) over the next highest brand, Nissan (6%), whereas African Americans and Hispanics tend to have broad buying habits.

But even more striking, is their 2009 New Vehicle Experience Study that breaks down buyers based upon their college education, among other things:

Percentage of buyers with a college education:

Lexus - 71%
Honda - 70%
Toyota - 60%
Ford - 45%
Chevrolet - 35%

Dramatic differentiation between the brands, eh?

Bill Kristol, proud to be American?

On Fox News Sunday, Bill Kristol - the idiot - critiqued the Nobel Prize Committee, "This is an anti-American committee."

That on face value alone is an oxymoron. Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, Elie Wiesel, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Henry Kissinger, Martin Luther King, Jr., George C. Marshall, American Friends Service Committee (The Quakers), Ralph Bunche, Emily Greene Balch, John Raleigh Mott, Cordell Hull, Frank Billings Kellogg, Jane Addams, Nicholas Murray Butler, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, Elihu Root, Theodore Roosevelt. That long tradition of Americans winning the Peace Prize hardly seems anti-American.

Why, the thought of yet another American winning the Peace Prize should give Kristol - the idiot - great joy!

I'm sure of course that what Kristol - the idiot - meant to say is that the Nobel Peace Prize Committee is anti-Conservative. Remember the proclamation issued by GWB: Either you're with us (Conservatives) or you're against us (anyone else).

Let's face it, it's a lonely time to be a Conservative...the world really IS against them and their war-mongering, fear-based religion of kill or be killed.

Random images this month.

Image 1: Patterns/Water - lights reflecting off river.

Image 2: Patterns/Water - boat wake on still water.

Image 3: Patterns/Water - wood piling remains in low tide.

Image 4: Fall is here.

Image 5: Ready to play.