Is it really a USB 3.0 flash drive?

According to the USB 3.0 / USB SuperSpeed specification, USB 3.0 has a target read-data transfer rate of 5 gigabits per second (Gbps) -- that's equivalent to 640 megabytes per second (MBps).  By contrast, USB 2.0 has three target read-data transfer rates, the upper limit being 480 megabits per second (Mbps) -- 60 MBps.

Roughly speaking, you'd expect a USB 3.0 drive to perform at about 10x that of a USB 3.0 drive.  Well, at least in the specs, you would; everyone knows that in the real world, specs never match actual performance, and the USB 3.0 specifications infer a throughput maximum of 400 MBps, instead of the 640 MBps -- still pretty fast.

So what should one think, when manufacturers list the speeds of their USB 3.0 flash drives at or below the 60 MBps speed?  Is it really a USB 3.0 flash drive, if its speed is less than the target specification for a USB 2.0 flash drive?

To demonstrate this point, here's a sample of some 8GB / 16GB USB 3.0 flash drives on Newegg:

• Team SR1 8GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive (Red) Model TG008GSR1R3 / up to 55 MBps
• Team Color Turn 8GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive (Purple) Model TG008GE902V3 /  up to 54 MBps
• Patriot Supersonic Xpress 8GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Model PSF8GXPUSB / up to 50 MBps
• Mushkin Enhanced Ventura 8GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Model MKNUFDVT8GB / up to 50 MBps
• Wintec FileMate 16GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Model 3FMSP02U3SL-16G-R / up to 45 MBps

Embarrassing, no?  Maybe even deceptive, or false advertising, to call these drives USB 3.0.  Sure, they have the right port hardware, but they sure don't look that fast.

When you move up to the very large flash drives - 64GB - things dramatically change:

• Mushkin Enhanced Ventura Pro 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Model MKNUFDVP64GB / up to 120 MBps
• CORSAIR Flash Voyager GT 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Model CMFVYGT3-64GB / up to 135 MBps
• Patriot Supersonic Magnum 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Model PEF64GSMNUSB / up to 200 MBps
• Kingston HyperX DataTraveler HyperX 3.0 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Model DTHX30/64GB / up to 255 MBps

Big difference in performance.  The Kingston HyperX DataTraveler and the Patriot Supersonic Magnum are respectable, with write-data speeds faster than the Mushkin Enhanced Ventura Pro's read-data speed, and read-data speeds that are double.   But it'll cost ya.

So the moral of the story is: buy a big flash drive if you want speedy performance (even if you're not using a whole lot of data) and never rely on the USB 3.0 moniker to discern the true speed of a device.

comScore's November 2011 numbers out: same old.

ComScore released its November US mobile smartphone market share numbers, and Google's growth slowed down, matching the same percentage point increase (0.6) as Apple, even while - surprise, surprise! - Microsoft shrank by the same 0.2 percentage point as the previous month. In other words, the Mango update made no difference.

As I've oft repeated: Android's fragmentation isn't hurting the platform, because everyone likes different flavors and people upgrade their phones anyway.

Top Smartphone Platforms 3 Month Avg. Ending Nov. 2011 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Aug. 2011 Total U.S. Smartphone Subscribers Ages 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens
	Share (%) of Smartphone Subscribers
	Aug-11	Nov-11	Point Change
Total Smartphone Subscribers	100.0%	100.0%	N/A
Google	43.8%	46.9%	3.1
Apple	27.3%	28.7%	1.4
RIM	19.7%	16.6%	-3.1
Microsoft	5.7%	5.2%	-0.5
Symbian	1.8%	1.5%	-0.3

Google still going up, Microsoft still going down.

Mora Football? No Mora Excuses!

UCLA Bruins are off to their silly mottos and posters once again...and once again, I thought they needed some editorial changes.

What do you think?  Looks more realistic to me.

Fragmentation is a dumb argument.

Tiramisu.

I looked at Epicurious, and there were 31 recipes for Tiramisu.  They're not all like traditional Tiramisu, and some recipes are merely incorporating flavors of Tiramisu into something else.

Each person who produces their own recipe of Tiramisu (or a derivative of), wants you to use their recipe.  Each bakery thinks their Tiramisu is best, and wants you to settle for their Tiramisu.

Then there's the person who hates Tiramisu, and thinks it's stupid that there are so many different versions of Tiramisu.  To that person, having 31 recipes of Tiramisu means that you will be disappointed if you like one, but for whatever reason, can't replicate it, or the bakery you bought it from, went out of business.

It's a poor logical argument.  If you don't like a particular version of Tiramisu, you avoid it; there is no law that says you have to buy that Tiramisu at Bakery X, or use that recipe Y.

Yet there's a lot of media folks who are being suckered into thinking that fragmentation is bad.

Back to mobile platforms.

Sure, for those developers who want to sell  / make money on apps, having fragmentation can be somewhat of an inconvenience.  But you're a consumer, and you enjoy having your choice of devices, features and user interface.  Nook Color running Android 2.1 was popular enough to get Barnes and Noble to produce a successor, the Nook Tablet running Android 2.3.  Neither looked anything close to a stock Android; same thing goes for the Kindle Fire.

So what's wrong with having different flavors?  The truth is, there is nothing behind the argument that fragmentation is bad.

Toyota Aqua (Prius C) launches in Japan.

Image via Road and Track

According to Inside Line, Toyota has just launched their smallest hybrid -- the Aqua (in Japan) / Prius C (in the US) -- priced at ¥1.69M / $21,703 USD.  And then there's the fuel efficiency rating.

With a 75 hp gas engine and 45kW electric motor, the Aqua reportedly gets 83 mpg on the Japanese JC08 fuel economy test.  In the US, according to the ICCT's online fuel calculator, this would translate to a CAFE-rated 86 mpg fuel efficiency, but that's not quite right.  The fuel economy will probably come in between 54 and 62 mpg.  (According to one blog, the current Prius is rated at 76.7mpg on the JC08, but 51 mpg EPA-city.)

It's entirely plausible that when the Prius C hits the US, it will be much lower than the $21,703 price, as the US dollar remains near historic lows against the Yen, and it should eventually increase.  If they price it at $19,703, that's a 10% discount, but if the Yen rises to pre-recession levels, Toyota's profit margin will match that of its Japanese market price.

Chart via Trading Economics

If the price is below $20,000 AND gets 55 mpg, this may end up being the hottest-selling Prius.  I know I'd like to get one!  At my current annual mileage, that would equate to just 6 trips to the gas station a year.  I'd break even in year 4, compared to my current vehicle.  :D

The week of 2005.03.20: Interest in Google surpasses Microsoft.

Or at least, by way of online searches on Google.  In Google Trends, a comparison of the usage of search terms "Google" and "Microsoft" show some clear trends.  On the week of March 20th, in 2005, more people searched for "Google" than "Microsoft" in Google's search engine.

Significant?  Maybe not a whole lot, eh?

Funny?  Absolutely.

Another day, another ex-Microserf complaint.

Apparently up in Redmond Washington, the Microsoft castle only serves one type of everything, in the cafeteria, and it's the same thing that is served at the restaurants in the neighborhood, too.  What am I talking about?  Ex-Microsoft employee and Windows Phone evangelist / general manager Charlie Kindel complains that Google's UI is nowhere as smooth as WP7, and that Google will eventually lose out, because of F-R-A-G-M-E-N-T-A-T-I-O-N.

Hmm.  So let's line up the current and former Microsoft employees who have complained about F-R-A-G-M-E-N-T-A-T-I-O-N, shall we?

• To reiterate, we have Charlie Kindel proselytizing for the WP platform by talking about problems of fragmentation.
• We have Chris Weber saying, "Fragmentation in Android is going to end in a poor consumer experience."
• Then there's the bizarre oxymoron that Stephen Elop asserted, when he suggested that Android looked all the same, and therefore, "if it’s too hard to differentiate on a platform, commoditization steps in. But then differentiation starts to creep back in through fragmentation."
• Current WP lead, Andy Lees says that, "we have much more coherency in the totality of what somebody gets when they buy our phone."
• And finally, we have Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer suggesting that Android phones are "pretty inconsistent, don't look alike, don't work..."

So let me say this about all this fuss:

BULL.

First, Microsoft is being hypocritical on the issue of fragmentation, when it has three different browsers with at least 10% market share mixed with three different desktop OS versions with at least 10% market share.  If that's not convoluted, then I don't know what is.

And what about the iPhone, with four different models available for sale - they sell refurbished 3G, 3G-S, 4 and new 4S phones - with three iOS platforms?

Really though, Elop must be an idiot. If he thought that Android hardware "looked all the same", then it must be embarrassing to know that a third of the WP7 phones share the same hardware underpinnings with other platforms: his own company's Lumia 800 was actually the N9 running Meego; the HTC HD7 is a revised Desire HD; the Samsung Focus S is nearly a copy of the Galaxy S-II Skyrocket; the HTC Titan and HTC Sensation XL are based off the same form factor and hardware.

If fragmentation were an issue, it is curious how Android has been able to maintain its growth for over three years, now, don't you think?  If anything, Android's growth has accelerated since Microsoft introduced its WP7 platform, and October 2010 marked the first wave of 2-year contract renewals from first-adopters of G1.

Spot the fragmentation effect on Android

In short, Microsoft's current and former employees are ALL BULL.

Corporate logos in transition (amusing)

On the list of funny things, comes stocklogo's look at some corporate logos -- their original design, changes over the years, and future predictions. A few of them were downright hilarious:

Comment: People believe that the Mayan calendar predicts the end of the world in 2012.

Comment: Gap infamously changed its logo, then caved into uniform criticism that its new logo was ugly and made no sense. People often do not learn from their mistakes, however.

Comment: This one's the funniest, although I'm sure the folks in Finland aren't too happy about Nokia's future prospects -- Stephen Elop's decision in 2011 will become a case study in "what to do if you want to sink a company".


source: stocklogos, via 1designperday

Merry Christmas, 2011.

---

NOTE:
The best Mass, is the early morning one that much fewer people are willing to wake up and attend!

Father Patrick Brennan's homily: Christ was born as a baby, so that we wouldn't be afraid (as a second-grader once told him). Or as it says in Luke 10:2:

"Do not be afraid. Look, I bring you news of great joy, a joy to be shared by the whole people."

---

On a slightly different note, this morning on Fox News - it was the only news on at 6:00 am - the Archbishop of Washington DC, Father / Cardinal Donald Wuerl, made a notable response to a question from host Chris Wallace.  Wallace asked the Cardinal on his thoughts about whether President Obama was conducting a war on religion, as Governor Rick Perry has asserted.  Cardinal Wuerl responded:

"Our hope is that just as in the history of the church, and the history of our country. The church has been a part of the public effort to meet issues like feeding the hungry and providing care for people in need, the homeless, that we would always be a part of that. And to do that today, we need to be all the more respectful of the freedom of conscience, the freedom of religious expression of every one of us."

Did you catch that whopper?

Freedom of conscience.

Wherever you look, history is replete with examples of others judging - with righteousness - the quality of one's conscience, without the qualifications of being Perfect. I have tried to emphasize this point to others, with little progress, that no human is infallible, and therefore, no human may judge another's conscience.

It would be nice, on this Christmas day, if all people throughout the world could recognize this freedom of conscience -- a great gift given upon us.

GoDaddy relents to anti-SOPA boycott pressure...next up?

The internet outrage was palpable, when GoDaddy announced its public support for SOPA. Immediately, others took to moving their domain name registrations and hosting to other companies who were offering anti-SOPA/GoDaddy deals, and every tech blog pounced on GoDaddy.

 So GoDaddy threw the towel in, realizing that the internet IS their business, and the internet community was in full backlash mode.

So I wondered, who's next to be boycotted? From the House's list, I thought these groups to be odd bedfellows:

• ATR - Americans for Tax Reform (Grover Norquist)
• Tiffany & Co.
• Beachbody
• CBBB - the Council of Better Business Bureaus

Now, don't get me wrong.  I know that counterfeiting is costing Americans manufacturing livelihood, but these people seem to simplistically gloss over SOPA's threats to the 1st, 5th and 14th Amendments of the US Constitution, namely free speech and due process.

Further, it's not as if the US doesn't already have anti-counterfeiting laws on the books; it's just that SOPA bypasses a lot of constitutional protections.  Here's a hint: increase import inspections of goods, to catch the counterfeit products making their way into the US, and hire full-time staff to search for Chinese sites that offer fake products openly -- that can't be too difficult, since they've been advertising ad links all over comment sections on the internet.

This isn't that hard to figure out.

It's Chow Time!

It seems that there is a lot of excitement that Norm Chow has *finally* gotten a head coaching job -- at Hawai'i no less.  Watching the video and looking at his face, you can pick up on the hints of his excitement of the idea of getting to go home.

Heck, I'd like to go home too...someone, give me a free house (or condo) on O'ahu, please?  Heck, I'll even live on the neighbor islands, preferably Maui which would make the commute relatively short.  :D


Shaka brah!

Matt Barkley: I'm coming back!!!!!!!!!!!!

USC Trojan junior quarterback Matt Barkley announced that he was coming back for his senior season!

Some things that may have given it away:

• Christmas tree, front and center;
• Heritage Hall with Heisman trophies at the edges;
• The presser coming a day after USC signs two quality juco guys (including stealing a prior commit to UCLA) to make for four early enrollees, and defensive captain TJ McDonald's announcement that he's coming back;
• His prior talk about how he enjoys playing at USC;
• His previous comments that money is not the driver of his decision.

The NCAA taught me a valuable lesson yesterday.

Justice is nothing but an illusion, to cover up egos.

After last Summer's dog and pony show, it seemed the NCAA fooled many sportswriters.  Then the NCAA announced its decision on the Ohio State case, that amounts to a slap on the hand, when compared to what they did to USC.  We're talking about a case which involved boosters, a lying head coach, a confused athletic director who publicly made presumptuous statements that were later contradicted, and 400+ secondary violations over the last decade.

All that at Ohio State, versus one football player at USC whose family received benefits - by way of free rent - from an agent - not a booster - and an athletic director who was combative with the NCAA.

The complaint here, is that if they threw a 200 page book at USC, they should have leveled Ohio State with a 300 page book, at least.  Instead, tOSU received a 100 page book thrown towards them, but mostly missed the target.

So I give you this, as a tribute to the NCAA's ripe hypocrisy:

Yay! AT&T drops bid for T-Mobile.

It started this morning with rumors of AT&T abandoning its bid, leading to this afternoon's announcement after the closing of the US stock markets, that AT&T was abandoning its bid for T-Mobile.

Once the FCC filed notice of its intent to oppose the merger, combined with the upcoming trial with the DOJ's lawsuit, I think the writing was already on the wall.  Which is why I didn't hold back when I signed up for another 2-year contract with T-Mobile, last month, when I bought my GS-II.

AT&T needed more spectrum, but it didn't need to buy out T-Mobile to gain that spectrum.  This was a point made quite clear when Verizon purchased extra spectrum from cable companies for 1/10th the value of AT&T's valuation of its attempted buyout of T-Mobile.  Verizon's actions made AT&T look flat out stupid.

Here's to hoping that T-Mobile will be able to stabilize, now that it will get some cash and spectrum from AT&T.

Smartphone winners and losers - Loser edition.

Nokia

Reuters UK reports that Exane BNP Paribas' survey whose sample (n=) of 456 potential smartphone buyers in five European markets where the Lumia 800 is currently available, suggested that only 2.2% intended to buy the new Nokia WP phone.  As a result, they downgraded Nokia's stock and sliced sales projections from 2M units to 800K -- that despite Nokia's multi-million dollar marketing ad blitz, worth as much as $31M.

And here we thought they got their strategy ironed out some time earlier this year, but it turns out they're going to unveil their plans for Operation Rolling Thunder - Nokia's WP7 plans in the US - at CES, a day after they start selling the underwhelming Lumia 710 on T-Mobile.  Never mind that at CES, one can expect a gazillion Ice Cream Sandwich tablets, phones and doodads, each sporting more impressive specs and 4G support -- something that Windows Phone does not yet do (no LTE or WiMax).  And never mind that it's been 11 months since Nokia's CEO Stephen Elop revealed his plans to switch to the WP platform.

So either we've reached Elop's planned nadir of Nokia's two-year transition (and a 14-year stock price low) and things are about to turn upward, or Nokia remains in a death spiral on its way to acquisition.

Microsoft
If Nokia's future looks cloudy, then surely Microsoft's mobile dreams are looking more like a nightmare, having spent nearly all of 2011 (since Nokia's February announcement to move to WP7) talking up the partnership and how the Mango update would dramatically improve Microsoft's competitiveness.

But WP7's global market share, as tracked by Gartner (see chart below) continues to shrink.

And according to Nielsen's US market report, WP7 now has less smartphone market share than the ill-fated WebOS.

That $31M ad spending on Nokia WP7 phones came from Microsoft.  No one can make any more excuses about Microsoft's poor showing, if Q4-2011 doesn't show much of an improvement.  When that happens, I think it's safe to assume, WP7's failure really does have to do with those live tiles -- something I have been harping on, for forever.  Microsoft's insistence on migrating the Windows platform to live tiles in the Metro UI in Windows8, could spell disaster for Microsoft.

RIM

By coincidence, RIM seems to be following a similar playbook as the other market losers: slow to respond to changing markets, and having to promise a good comeback at some nebulous point in the future.  For some reason, RIM, Microsoft and Nokia all point to 2012 when their fortunes are supposed to change.

As if.

Earlier this week, RIM announced that its fortunes continue to decline (accompanied by its plunging stock price), and that:

1. Its next platform upgrade (QNX, aka Blackberry 10) will be delayed until the latter half of 2012;
2. It expects 2~3M fewer shipped Blackberries in the current quarter.

That alone would spell doom, but the worst part about it all, is that no one is developing for Blackberry.  Reuters reports that while EBay assigned about 100 engineers to develop apps for the iOS and Android platforms, and 50 for WP7, EBay only has about "one or two" engineers assigned to Blackberry.

If you need any more proof of RIM's dismal position, CanadianTV's report on RIM, quotes one of RIM's own employees asking management openly at a company meeting, "Why should we be excited to work for this company?"

In the last twelve months, RIM's US market share has been more than halved from 35.2% in October 2010, to 17.2% in October 2011 (see bottom chart).  If buyers have to wait until the second half of 2012 to get their hands on a fresh Blackberry OS, I think it's plausible that RIM's US market share will be close to 8% come October 2012.

Is it harsh to call these three companies losers?  I don't think so.  They appear clueless as to what the market is telling them.  They all make crazy predictions about what the future holds for their respective companies, and in the case of Nokia and Microsoft, go so far as to hurl insults at other platforms, even as their own fortunes continue to decline.

That's boneheaded.

Google's a Trekkie.

First it was Project Majel, and now it's Chrome's kill page notification.  It used to say, "Aw snap!"  But with the current beta version (16.0.912.63) the message changed.  And if you need help figuring it out...you are no Trekkie.

Open Letter to Building Construction Industry.

STOP ASSUMING PEOPLE WANT TO USE REVIT BIM OBJECTS.

Not everyone wants to spend thousands of dollars every other year to keep up with Autodesk Revit!  That some of you idiots are only producing Revit models means one thing:

I WILL NOT SPEC YOUR PRODUCTS.

Economic recovery. Not.

Everyone's carrying the story today of the latest US Census data release (from the 2010 Census), showing that nearly 1 in 2 Americans in 2010 were classified at or below low-income status.  Low-income is defined up to 199% of the national poverty rate, set by the OMB, not the HHS (they're similar, except that the OMB's defined levels are a few hundred dollars higher than HHS).  For a single person under 65, the poverty level is $11,344.

Scary thought.

But I don't think most people can comprehend why, or how this occurred, and why distribution of income is necessary.  I realize Libertarian-stylized Conservatives will cite economic opportunity over economic equity, but that's fool's gold.

On a slightly different topic (but related to the previous paragraph), the Census data also shows that 28.2% of all Americans older than 25 have graduated from college.  The standard statistical curve of intelligence places 2% of all people within genius levels of IQ.

My point being, that just because someone graduates from university, does not mean they're smart.  And think tanks employ bunches of them.

Ha ha...GIF wrap.

via Core77

Current design project.

Cross-posted on my other blog.  Current design work for another retail project.  This computer-generated rendering, completed just this morning, is taken from a furniture piece.  It sets the design theme for the space.

No stopping: Banksy's got it spot on.

Banksy's got new images, sure to offend most -- one can only hope, right?

I don't think this one needs words...it's too obvious, and too funny.

via Wooster Collective

Is Florian Mueller biased?

Tech sites left and right cite Florian Mueller's FOSS Patents blog (ironically a Blogger blog) on a frequent basis, because of Mueller's legal and technical knowledge of intellectual properties and legalese.  But of late, I had been wondering whether Mueller's work was being colored with bias against Google.  And now I've just stumbled upon this nugget from Seattle Times' reporter Janet Tu's post from three days ago:

"Mueller has been commissioned by Microsoft to conduct a study on the worldwide use of FRAND-committed patents, which might be seen as a conflict of interest with his blog analyses."

That in itself is not proof that Mueller's work is colored by money flowing from Microsoft's piggy bank, even if Microsoft's Steve Ballmer infamously said, "I'm going to fucking kill Google," and in referencing Google's chairman of the board Eric Schmidt, "I'm going to fucking bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again."

No, one should not automatically assume, by taking Microsoft's money to do a research on the usage of free, reasonable and non-discriminatory patents (FRAND), particularly at a time when IP lawsuits are flying all around the world over FRAND patents, that Mueller has been tainted.

But it does feels slimy, as in green slime.

Google Street View project: before/after Japan's Tsunami

In very much the fashion that I had written in an open blog post last March, Google has preserved and documented the Great Tohoku Earthquake in all sorts of ways.  Today, the latest effort has been made public in a Google blog post.

Google had sent StreetView vehicles throughout areas that were devastated by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and resulting massive tsunami.  With it, they have created a website that documents, in StreetView, before and after.

The project is called "Memories for the future."

Some areas seem to have recovered well or weren't affected much, while others clearly have been wiped off the face of the Earth and remain that way.  Miyagi prefecture was one of those places that was heavily affected.

Before

After

Before

After

---

With great thanks and gratitude, to Google.

Growing CarrierIQ controversy: Why did the FBI turn down FOIA request?

Well, well, it looks like someone's hiding some truth behind the curtains.  According to ComputerWorld, the FBI has turned down MuckRock's / Michael Morisy's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests regarding its use of CarrierIQ software, specifically:

Any manuals, documents or other written guidance used to access or analyze data gathered by programs developed or deployed by Carrier IQ. Please query any departments or groups that routinely work with mobile and wireless carriers in monitoring, deciphering, intercepting or otherwise accessing electronic communications.

 In response, an FBI section chief replied that Morisy's request was denied:

I have determined that the records responsive to your request are law enforcement records; that there is a pending or prospective law enforcement proceeding relevant to these responsive records; and that release of the information contained in these responsive records could reasonably be expected to interfere with the enforcement proceedings.

Well that's downright scary, and it appears to be potential proof that CarrierIQ has not been entirely truthful about what its software is capable of.  And what coincidence that CarrierIQ has just put out a pdf report on what it is and isn't doing.

So who are you going to trust: the company that denies collecting private information, or the FBI that is citing private information being collected in ongoing criminal investigations, via CarrierIQ software?

Just two months ago, we were facing the possibility of our government allowing itself to lie about FOIA requests.  Fortunately they abandoned that idea a week later.  So if it comes down to truth-telling, I'm more likely to believe the FBI with its mucky prosecution shield, than CarrierIQ who is currently being sued by individuals and investigated by the FTC.

The Vatican has picked sides: It's Android FTW.

According to the official Catholic News Service, the Pope used a Sony S Tablet -- an Android -- to light up an electronic Christmas tree in the Italian town of Gubbio, remotely from Vatican City.

Tom's Hardware, citing MSNBC, says that the Pope was originally supposed to use an iPad to light up the Christmas tree.  Tom's Hardware asks whether it was a case of miscommunication or a last minute switch, but that does not make sense, because such things as changing ecosystems at the last moment is not quite that easy.

Others, including the Daily Mail UK, have speculated that the reason for choosing an Android tablet over the iPad, is because it's easy to create an Android app and use it without having to "wait while Apple approved his custom app, as would have to happen on iPad."

This could make some sense, since you don't need to publish the app in the Android ecosystem -- all you need to do is create your app via App Inventor, then download it onto your Android device.  Doing so on the iOS ecosystem would require hurdles that perhaps the Vatican didn't want to jump through, particularly avoiding having to register (and pay) to get access to a digital signature so that you could download an application to your device.

But this illustrates the point: Even the Pope doesn't have the authority to overrule the House of Jobs!

Un-f'ing-believable...NCAA gives Ohio State extra benefit.

Hypocrisy knows no bounds with the NCAA.

The NCAA had punished USC and Pete Carroll for having a consultant participate in reviewing special teams, by calling the consultant an impermissible extra coach, and was cited as part of their lack of institutional control charge against the Trojans.  Today, the NCAA has granted Ohio State (excuse me, The Ohio State) an extra coach -- Urban Meyer -- the right to work as a recruiter, while the Ohio State transitions into a new coaching staff.  The current staff will be coaching The Ohio State for its bowl game, while the new hire gets to work on recruiting separately.  No having to wait after the bowl game -- as the case is with all other teams.

Utterly ridiculous.

The Ohio State had previously been charged by the NCAA with the infamous "failure to monitor" allegation, just last month.  Four months ago, they met with the NCAA COI over allegations of improper benefits within the football program involving a booster.  The improper benefits first stemmed from an investigation last year, that resulted in a number of players sanctioned, most notably Terrelle Pryor.  However, at the time The Ohio State had appealed to the NCAA to put off player suspensions until the 2011 season.  It turned out the scandal was much worse than originally thought, and Terrelle Pryor left college to play in the NFL, without having to serve any penalties -- it made the NCAA look like fools.

During the last decade, The Ohio State has recorded over 400 (mostly) secondary violations, with a handful of major violations.  Despite all that, they had never been charged with a lack of institutional control or alleged to have failed to monitor enforcement of NCAA rules...until now.  Which makes it more perplexing why they're granting The Ohio State an extra benefit -- a situation completely of their own making by their own hiring / firing decisions.

So what does this tell us?  The NCAA plays favorites, even when it's contemplating handing down sanctions against their favorite teams, and made out to look like idiots.

Someone needs to investigate the NCAA's corruption -- it is so blatantly biased, it is nothing but a fat joke.

12.9.2011 Daily Steal: RC flying fish.

This flying fish is pretty cool, and just $21.99 with free shipping.

I'd get this, except that I don't have the storage room for all the toys I'd like to own, so I've basically stopped buying all the toys I'd like to own.

I guess the question is, is this a knockoff of the Air Swimmers or are they rebadged Air Swimmers?

Dec 8th 2011 -- 1saleaday offer: HTC Evo View.

Today (Dec. 8, 2011) 1saleaday has the HTC Evo View 4G (Sprint's WiMax) for $230.

That's pretty good if you're looking for a 7" tablet, in comparison to either the Kindle Fire or the Barnes and Noble Nook Tablet.  Look at what it has:

• 32GB built in;
• access to the Android Market;
• front and rear cameras;
• 1.5Ghz dual core Snapdragon CPU;
• microUSB and 3.5mm headphone jack;
• bluetooth 3.0;
• Android 2.3 with HTC's Sense UI (bleh, I know);
• 7.69" (H) x 4.42" (W) x 0.52" (D).

For $230, that's not a bad price.

I'm pulling for a 10" tablet, though.  Once I find a good one, I'll ditch the netbook.  I'd love to get a large enough tablet to use for drawing with a stylus...something I've wanted for the last decade, ever since I was using my Palm Tungsten handheld.

Dictum meum pactum, except at ASU and UCLA.

Earlier this year, UCLA had all but sealed the deal for Rocky Seto to become the Bruin's next defensive coordinator with a verbal acceptance.  Overnight however, the offer was rescinded, and it may have been because fans were upset that another former Trojan may yet join the Bruin coaching staff.

Today, a very similar series of events unfolded at Arizona State, where negotiations were almost completed to make June Jones its next head coach.  Jones had even called back assistant coaches from recruiting trips to tell them that he was about to accept the job at ASU.  But like Bruin fans, Sun Devil fans stepped in throughout the day, and by late afternoon, the offer was rescinded.

It is unsurprising, that these two schools are having difficulty finding coaches who are eagerly wanting to jump ship and coach there -- my word is my bond, except at ASU and UCLA.

I ran into that same situation once, after a job offer from a Bellevue Washington firm that was ideally situated in downtown (location, location, location).  I was even searching for places to buy or rent.  And then silence and no return emails or phone calls.

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me, right?  ASU and UCLA have set their reputations into stone, and people do not forget.

Going Postal...now a day later?

No overnight delivery of first class mail, seems like a recipe for disaster for Netflix, don't you think?  Those with kiosks would end up the benefactors of the Postal Service's decision, I suspect, particularly after Netflix flubbed a series of decisions this year.

Another flub -- Reed Hastings' failure to speak out about the possible elimination of overnight delivery of first class mail.  If he's negotiating with the Postmaster, he should say so.  If he's concerned, he should say so.  But his silence is disconcerting, when you consider just how much physical media makes up his business.

Oh well.

Oh noes...the scary mannequin lives!

Why, oh why do they continue to use this female head?  Evil mannequin!

Mars exploration, a contamination?

What if someone either intentionally or unintentionally seeded Mars with life from Earth?  Does it matter, if the intention is to eventually colonize Mars?  Understandably, researchers would like to discover life, not seed it.  But at some point in the future, as China, Russia and others get into the business of exploring Mars, opportunities for slip ups will increase.

This brings us to Space.com's article informing us that the recently launched Mars Rover - Curiosity - may have been contaminated, though the risk was minimal.  According to Space.com writer Leonard David, a set of drill bits were tested outside of previously set protocols.  Because the work was done in a clean room, it is unlikely that any contamination occurred.  However, because the drill bits had not been re-sterilized after the fact, there is no guarantee that contamination did not occur.

Mistakes occur; it may not be possible to stop Earth from contaminating Mars with hitchhikers.

Google graph in search bar.

Google's just introduced graphing functionality from within a Google search.  Unfortunately for me, it's been years since I've done graphing, so it was a bit of trial and error -- hey I'm only HUMAN.

Tired of UCLA excuses...or rather, UCLA BS.

Of late, the excuses have been flowing out of Westwood, trying to explain why the UCLA football program hasn't been more competitive.  The worst of them is that somehow UCLA's academic tradition has prevented the Bruins from admitting top athletes whose grades were otherwise poor.

ESPN's UCLA beat writer Peter Yoon: "Anyone can compete at that level if it commits to it. UCLA needs to pay a top-tier coach and top-tier assistants, upgrade the practice facilities and reduce the academic restrictions on admitting athletes. Basically, UCLA needs to start playing by the same rules as those programs."

Former UCLA coach and current sports commentator Terry Donahue: "When you coach at UCLA, you just can't get any NCAA qualifier. That's not part of the deal. UCLA admits athletes who'll be successful in the university and move to a degree. The UCLA coach has different challenges than other schools. So you need to create a big pool of athletes to win."

This is nothing but pure BULL.

UCLA's own fans are quick to point out that it was the first NCAA school to reach 100 national championships across its athletic program.  Clearly there is no problem recruiting talent.  As if to reiterate this, just look at some of UCLA's recent football recruiting seasons, as ranked by ESPN:

• 2010: 10th best class
• 2008: 14th best class
• 2009: 17th best class

Obviously none of these UCLA recruiting classes were better than USC's, but these three classes were second-best in the PAC-10 / PAC-12.  You simply cannot have the second best recruiting class for three straight years and still complain about not having the talent to compete.

But more to the issue of having exceedingly stringent academic standards.

UC Berkeley and UC Los Angeles are cut from the same cloth (matching admissions requirements), yet Cal's gotten better outcomes year over year than UCLA.  Stanford and USC also have stringent academic programs.  According to US News and World Report's 2012 academic rankings:

• #5 Stanford
• #21 UC Berkeley
• #23 USC
• #25 UCLA

If Stanford, Cal and USC can win in the PAC-12, UCLA has no excuses.

And to close the book on this BS, it's no small secret that all schools have what are called academic committees that were created to allow coaches to push recruits through admissions.  Though recruits may meet the NCAA clearinghouse minimum qualifications, they may not meet any given university's own admissions requirements.  That's where academic committees come into the picture.  UCLA is no exception, and here's an excerpt from their own guidelines:

"UCLA is committed to fielding competitive teams in Division IA and the Pacific 10 conference.  This means that outstanding, prospective student athletes will be recruited and admitted from time to time even in cases where academic preparation is not ideal, including a small number of athletes who are likely to be at risk academically, though still deemed capable of succeeding with proper effort and support.

The Committee’s primary focus in arriving at an admission decision is the academic preparation and likely success of the student being considered.  However, the Committee may be informed concerning the athletic capabilities of the student, and the likely athletic contributions of a student, as it considers a specific admission case."

In other words, UCLA DOES allow for (football players) prospective students who otherwise wouldn't have qualified, to be admitted into school.

So when some Bruin tells you this sob story about how UCLA is at a disadvantage due to its high academic standards, you can now tell them that they're full of crap, and that they deserve what they have.

Or as we Trojans like to say...U - C - L - A   SUCKS.

USC fifth in latest AP poll (week 15, 2011)

It seems USC benefited from the PAC-12 championship, without playing in it.  After seeing Oregon win in a somewhat lackluster effort on the defensive side and noting how USC won a blowout shutout against UCLA the week before, voters appear to have revisited their reactions to USC's victory over Oregon.  Now, USC is 5th with Oregon 6th in the AP Poll.

The week after USC's win at Autzen, USC's average poll rating was 9.72 while Oregon's was 9.42.  Two weeks later, after the PAC-12 championship game, USC is now rated higher, at an average of 6.32 compared to Oregon at 6.53.

And much of the poll voting disparities have disappeared.

This was the disparity spread of AP voters' ballots between Oregon and USC, immediately after USC beat Oregon.

And this is the disparity spread this week, after the championship game.  Most voters have settle down to within +/- 2 poll spots between USC and Oregon, with the tail ends compressed.

Looks like USC's giving the middle finger, don't you think?

Oh, and Houston's disastrous 28-49 loss to Southern Miss in the C-USA championship game was highlighted by Case Keenum's 2 interceptions to go along with his 2 touchdowns.  You'll have to forgive me if I yell bloody murder, were Matt Barkley not to end up in the top-4 in Heisman voting and a trip to NYC.

Bonehead Bishop from Phoenix.

Yet one more reason not to visit Phoenix: a presiding, dimwitted Catholic Bishop.

Via CBS News, two years ago, a Catholic hospital endured a moral dilemma: save a woman's life by terminating her pregnancy, or have them both die.  After consulting its ethics committee (which included a nun), the pregnancy was terminated and the life of the woman was saved.

Seems sensible, right?  If two lives are at stake, better to save at least one.  But here's where it all goes wrong.

The local bishop, father Thomas Olmsted stepped in, and determined that the nun participating in the hospital's ethics committee erred by not equally treating the fetus and mother, saying that  "while medical professionals should certainly try to save a pregnant mother's life, the means by which they do it can never be by directly killing her unborn child. The end does not justify the means."

He also ruled that the hospital "had not addressed in an adequate manner the scandal caused by the abortion."

He excommunicated Sister Margaret, then removed the hospital from its Catholic association.

Since then Sister Margaret Mary McBride's excommunication has been lifted, but the hospital has refused to agree to the bishop's requirement that it not terminate pregnancies that would otherwise cause the death of both mother and child.

I don't think it is required to delve into the failure of his logic, is it?  Two lives are in jeopardy, but rather than save one, the Catholic Church (which has continued to stand behind Bishop Olmsted's decisions) feels necessary to let both die out of perverted dogma.  It is perverted, obviously, because life is supposed to be precious, so forgoing both lives (mother and child) would be a profane act of passive murder.

He excused himself, by referencing canon law (1398).  Seems however, he's decided to forgo Canon 619, where superiors "are to give the members opportune assistance in their personal needs. They are to be solicitous in caring for and visiting the sick."  After all, if the Bishop had not been lax in his responsibilities, the issue may have been dealt with properly, and an understanding agreed upon -- such as this woman leaving the care of the hospital to find an appropriate alternative, if it had to come to this.  If the rock won't move out of your way, you surely go around it.

And then there's the ridiculous assertion that a hospital is supposed to address a manufactured scandal.  If God asks you to explain your actions, are you really going to tell Him, that you wanted to avoid a scandal?  That's utterly ridiculous, and inane.

This man is leading the charge back to Medieval times.

Via USCatholic.org, earlier this month, he issued a directive that would have parched parishioners' throats for the blood of Christ, except for "Chrism Mass and feast of Corpus Christi. Additionally it may be offered to a Catholic couple at their wedding Mass, to first communicants and their family members, confirmation candidates and their sponsors, as well as deacons, non-concelebrating priests, servers, and seminarians at any Mass."

After a widespread uproar, the decision was rescinded.  Nevertheless, the point seems to be: Bishop Olmsted wants to remake the Church in America by separating the laity from the clergy.  What next, removal of the Bible from print?  A reinstatement of Axis Mundi?

I use a lot of bandwidth...and Clearwire sucks.

I don't download torrents, yet I was somewhat surprised at just how much data I consumed.  So what do I use my bandwidth for?

• Since I work from home, I tend to upload / download a few large files.
• Also because as a result of working from home, I need to do a lot of research which means trial and error downloading graphics / CAD files and so on.
• Of course, I read a LOT of news from the internet anyway.
• Because I'm at home all the time, I stream lots of music from my Google Music account and online radio stations, primarily SOMA-FM, classical music and 80s, because sometimes even one's own music collection can be severely lacking.
• But I think the whopper of all my bandwidth usage, must be the current love affair I have with Hulu.
• I don't watch too many TV show episodes from my 42" plasma screen, except for sports.  Instead, I stream them from Hulu, because I get to choose when I want to watch them, as opposed to having to adjust my schedule to meet the show's schedule.
• I also have been scouring Hulu for the tons of anime content, and getting my fill of entire seasons of shows that I'd never heard of, to supplement my Netflix viewing.
• And of course, there are other videos I stream from the internet, particularly with Youtube's Disco function, and all the videocasting people are doing these days.

So how much bandwidth do I use, per month?  Anywhere between 35 and 40 gigabytes.

In terms of current data caps of the big ISPs, that's not even close to their limits.

• Comcast – 250 GB
• AT&T DSL – 150GB
• AT&T Uverse – 250GB
• Charter Lite & Express – 100GB
• Charter Plus & Max – 250GB

Still, I was surprised at how much data I used up, considering Clearwire's WiMax is pretty darn slow by comparison to fixed line DSL, cable and FTTH, and having a slow connection (most of the time about 1.5Mbps) means I usually pick the lower video bandwidth.  I think that if I had fixed line broadband, my usage would go up at least 50% though, because I would stream a lot more sports (most fixed broadband companies offer ESPN3 streaming).  I'd probably switch my Netflix to streaming and just go with the occasional Redbox rental, as well.

Which by the way, Clearwire really pissed me off this past month, as all of us legacy original subscribers from its early days, have seen our rates go up 29% in the current billing period because Clearwire's losing money.  Don't blame us for your mistakes!

So anyway, as a result of this big increase in subscription fees (and seeing as their speeds remain dismally slower than advertised) I'm likely to switch sometime in the next few months.

---

P.S. By the way, I've been using my smartphone to stream video from Youtube and other places lately -- especially for short videocasts -- because my T-Mobile HPSA+ is ALWAYS faster than Clearwire's WiMax, and the ping times are like night and day...I don''t know of any other broadband that has slower ping times than Clearwire.

PAC-12 Championship -- Oregon 49 - UCLA competitive, sorta.

Well I didn't see that coming.  If you told me that UCLA had 342 yards and four turnovers while Oregon had two turnovers with 571 yards including 352 on the ground, I would have told you it was a recipe for a blowout larger than USC-UCLA.

But that's not what happened.

UCLA was nearly run out of Autzen, down 35-17 at the half, but they refused to be humiliated like they were by the Trojans.  Oregon left some points on the field, having missed scoring opportunities to score two other touchdowns.

But I think it comes down to one simple thing: fouls.  Oregon was horrendous, committing silly personal fouls and overly-aggressive offside penalties at critical downs, with 10 penalties for 115 yards.  Meanwhile UCLA committed just 3 fouls for 20 yards.  By comparison against USC, Oregon had just 3 penalties for 25 yards.

If Oregon hadn't committed so many fouls, I think UCLA might not have scored and this game would have been a major blowout.

Ducks can't be that sloppy against better opponents whether it's fouls or turnovers -- if they need a reminder, the last time they committed so many fouls (12 penalties for 95 yards), they lost big to LSU.

Good luck to the Ducks and towards winning their first Rose Bowl in nearly a century (1917).

Congress, horse meat, slaughter houses, PETA and a meaningless ban.

This is crazy weird.  Republicans in the House, introduced and voted to pass HR 2112 several months ago; a similar bill was passed by the Senate earlier this month.  It then made its way through committee conference on to getting signed by President Obama on November 18th.  It was a general agricultural funding bill, but included in the bill, was appropriations for horse meat inspections, which basically legalizes horse meat processing in the US.

That set off a firestorm of criticism, two weeks after the fact.

And well, it reeks of hypocrisy that Republicans would find funding for horse meat inspectors, no?  Obviously you'll read around the internet about how Obama is responsible for legalizing horse meat consumption, but you know better than that.

So some background might be required.

A large majority of Americans have long detested the idea of horse meat used as food.

Two decades ago, Jack in the Box suffered a major public relations meltdown when it was discovered that some of its burgers had included horse and kangaroo meat from an Australian supplier.

Five years ago, the Republican Congress essentially banned the consumption of horse meat by cutting the appropriations of the meat inspectors for horse meat.  If you don't have people inspecting certain types of meat, it can't enter the food chain.

Back to 2011, and the issue rose again, and things are truly upside-down.

PETA, of all the groups you could think of, was quietly supporting HR 2112.  The logic is somewhat twisted (then again, what from PETA isn't?) because, although they want a complete ban on all meat processing and consumption, they felt that allowing the US processing of horse meat would make horse slaughtering more humane.  Twisted, no?

Within days after HR 2112 was introduced into the House, the Senate introduced a bill (S1176) to outright ban horse slaughter for the purpose of human consumption.  It seems likely that, because the Democratically controlled Senate could not extricate the funding from the House bill on the issue of horse meat inspections (and in keeping with Obama's wishes), it chose to separately introduced S1176 just days after HR2112.

In September, the House introduced HR2966 to match the Senate bill banning the slaughter of horse meat for the purpose of human consumption.

But get this: even if both bills were passed, consolidated and signed, in effect, it would still be legal to eat horse meat.  Technically speaking, Congress has allowed the inspection of imported horse meat, just not the slaughter of horse meat in the US.

So like I said, weird right?  PETA's for US slaughter houses of horses, and Congress is set to pass a ban which is rendered meaningless with its big loopholes.

comScore Oct 2011 -- Android still growing, Microsoft not.

It's an odd thing really...but Microsoft has apparently resumed its decline in US market share of smartphones, according to comScore's October 2011 report.

Top Smartphone Platforms 3 Month Avg. Ending Oct. 2011 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending Jul. 2011 Total U.S. Smartphone Subscribers Ages 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens
	Share (%) of Smartphone Subscribers
	Jul-11	Oct-11	Point Change
Total Smartphone Subscribers	100.0%	100.0%	N/A
Google	41.9%	46.3%	4.4
Apple	27.1%	28.1%	1.0
RIM	21.7%	17.2%	-4.5
Microsoft	5.7%	5.4%	-0.3
Symbian	1.9%	1.6%	-0.3

You can't help but also notice that RIM's loss is Android's gain.

But more on Microsoft.

Microsoft's been on an advertising binge over Windows Phone, so it'll be interesting to see how it does through the end of the year.  This continued drop despite the Mango update, seems to reinforce the suspicion that it really IS about the live tiles.  Bleh.  You can go into the store and try it out for yourself, or get a demo of it online via your phone, by directing your smartphone HERE.  Warning: it's not an actual running process, but a directed demonstration.  If you really want to know how it works, go in to the store and play with a WP7 phone.

A thought on creativity and sleep and creative process.

Thank goodness I don't work in an office.  I've been sleeping a lot, lately -- 10+ hours a day, though typically non-contiguous, for the last four days.  And in doing so, I'm getting a rush of ideas in my head, as in, a torrent.  Let me explain.

When I get stuck on a problem where it starts to swirl around in my head, or when I reach a stopping point in which I know enough to put the pencil down and evaluate the solution, I tend to get sleepy.  So I take a nap, or just fall asleep.

I'm one of those who dreams in color, and can partially recall my dreams to know that it was in color.  I also have this habit of not waking up immediately, because it turns out, when I'm halfway between awake and sleep, I am conscious enough to be able to control my dreams.  I sometimes bring in designs that I had been working on, into my dreams, and obviously, they are in 3D, as opposed to a 3D rendering that is shown on a 2D sheet. Sometimes I just let my mind wander, as if I were a third person observer to my dreams.  Whichever the case, in this partial awake-sleep mode, I end up burning the thoughts into my memory if they seem particularly visually attractive or otherwise unusual.  When I wake up, I have on odd occasions either written about them (as in this blog) or drawn up the ideas that came from my dreams.

Now, regardless of whether or not I've solved some problem or just merely enjoyed a colorful dream, I end up with a creative spurt.  It's probably part of the package of my recent process of saving ideas on a near-daily basis in a sketch book, as well as photographs of ideas into Evernote.

Along with thinking about designs during long walks (I must look like a zombie, staring out into open space while walking), these dreams, and my written / photographed notes, I think I've found my process.

NCAA is a joke: grants UCLA a waiver.

The NCAA is just brimming with hypocrisy.

First it granted Ohio State players last year, the opportunity to play in the Sugar Bowl, despite ruling them ineligible, in part, because those players pledged to return the next year to serve out their suspensions.  And then Pryor left, without any penalties served.

Now it has granted UCLA -- which is expected to lose to Oregon in the inaugural PAC-12 championship game and end up with a 6-7 record -- a waiver to play in a bowl game.

A side joke: UCLA is so proud of its team, that they fired their coach, immediately enforced after the championship game.  A second side joke: in UCLA's waiver, their primary excuse ran along the lines that it was USC's fault (USC, by virtue of being ineligible, forced UCLA to play for the championship, thereby making them ineligible for a bowl game, were they to lose, as expected, to Oregon).

Talk about zero self-pride at UCLA -- and the NCAA rewarded them for it!

So we come to USC.  None of the players have anything to do with Reggie Bush.  None of them have committed violations.  But they don't get a waiver from the penalties inflicted by a conflicted Paul Dee, whose own problems at Miami led the Hurricanes to disqualify themselves (having a 6-6 season made it easier to swallow) this year for a bowl game.

It just doesn't make any sense.  But as the NCAA is wont to do, they excuse their actions by simply explaining that every case is different.

Or as I like to say: the NCAA granted a waiver from itself.

The first signs of a dystopian society?

Via the Guardian -- a Scottsdale Arizona gun club offering families to pose with Santa and guns.

When members of society are popularly and broadly accepting incoherent and widely disparate ideas as functionally logical and moral, I think we're headed towards dystopia.

In this particular case, safety (by way of violence) is aligned and given parity to peace on Earth and goodwill to men.  The case can also be made that these people have no idea what peace and goodwill to men, actually means.  To them, it might be more of a case of shoot first, ask questions later.

Breaking News: SANTA DEAD.
December 25th, 2011 Scottsdale AZ

Santa was shot and killed while delivering presents to a family of five in Scottsdale, near Phoenix Arizona. Bob Roberts, father of three and owner of a dozen automatic guns, insisted he was legally protecting his presents, when he shot Santa.  Roberts was awakened in the middle of the night, by sounds of an intruder.  Fearful of his presents being stolen, he immediately grabbed his AK-47 replica, and shot at a shadow of a fat man, "It was breaking and entering.  I have a right to defend my presents.  He (Santa) never told us that he was coming."

Police and paramedics were called to the scene by neighbors who heard gunshots followed by screams from children.  Santa was declared dead on the scene, with at least a dozen gun shells lying around the floor of the Roberts home.  Police say that a full investigation will be conducted, but that they believe Roberts was legally in his right to shoot Santa for breaking and entering while leaving a wrapped iPad and other gifts.

Santa Claus is survived by a wife and a team of elves and flying reindeer.