Monday, January 31, 2011

What's going on with De'Anthony Thomas?

This is sort of obscure for most people, but Oregon Ducks have lit up the internets with the news that Black Mamba, De'Anthony Thomas made a secret visit to Oregon Ducks this weekend, the last weekend for recruits to visit, before the mandatory quiet period between Monday and Wednesday's National Letter of Intent signing day.  At the request of Oregon, everyone kept it all hush-hush, probably to fly under the radar and prevent USC from getting in a final word before the quiet period.

All I can say is, shit is about to hit the fan if Thomas signs with Oregon, as no one does this sort of stuff (and gets away with it) to Ed Orgeron, USC's director of recruiting and one of the nation's top recruiters.  If he does sign with Oregon, the animosity will be so huge, you will most certainly see fireworks next Fall.

The picture below -- of Thomas' visit in Oregon garb -- is raising the ire of many folks.  So naturally, I'm making sure EVEN MORE people have eyes on it and remember it.  :D

The GOP -- trying its darndest to waste money?

As I recall, the main Republican complaint in last year's election cycle was that the Democrats didn't spend enough time focused on the economy. Apparently the GOP have solved the economy without passing a single bill into law, and are now onto the witchhunt.

Via Paul Krugman's NYT Blog and Bloomberg, the GOP are planning to investigate and hold hearings on a commission that was created to investigate and report on the financial crisis of 2008, for which, their findings have now been published, and presumably their work completed.

So my question is, who investigates the investigators that investigate the investigators of problems created by the investigators who are doing the investigating of the investigators?

Intel's Sandy Bridge chipset requires physical replacement.

Yikes. This is NOT going to be a very happy time for people who bought the next generation core i5 and i7 series computers this month. Intel announced that it found a flaw in the chipsets used in their Sandy Bridge series, that requires replacing the chipset on the motherboard. The good news is that it's not a fatal flaw that will present itself immediately, and that Intel will replace it for free. The bad news is, that you will have to send your computer back to the manufacturer to get the chipset replaced. Then there's all that inventory at the stores which have the flawed chipset -- will stores recall the computers or will they sell out, and issue a recall later?

UPDATE: Engadget's just posted that according to Anandtech, the culprit is a single transistor in the 3Gbps SATA controller of the chipset. If you want a clear - to a techie - explanation, head over to that Anandtech link.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Pizza Hut.

Been seeing their ads on TV, they advertise it as their regular price menu in the weekly ads I get in the mail.

So, I was going to order a couple of large pizzas from Pizza Hut online for $10, until I discovered that I couldn't.  Turns out, they charge anywhere between $1 and $3 more than advertised.  Also, found out that it costs you an extra dollar if you order their "Hawaiian" pizza, as opposed to building one with the same ingredients.

Ended up going with Domino's, because the price total with delivery charge (which was also much lower than Pizza Hut's) was about $5 cheaper.

Hopefully Dominos improved their quality as they purport in their ads, but for sure, not buying from Pizza Hut, if they're using deceptive advertising.

UPDATE: Domino's "crunchy-thin" crust turned out to be pretty good. The crust was cracker-like and very thin, and won't fill you up like a traditional hand-tossed crust. 1/8th of a large pizza thin crust will save you 60 calories over hand-tossed. Worthy alternative to me, since I love the toppings more than the doughy crusts anyway.

A terrible mistake, indeed.

Graffiti fonts are pretty neat in the right context, but well, this one just seems like a terrible mistake.


Well, at least he didn't blink his eyes.

Albin Vidovic - via SI / (Hannah Johnston/Getty Images)

Friday, January 28, 2011

Rush Limbaugh catching heat for mocking Chinese President, Hu Jintao

That Rush Limbaugh is a Birther should be a red flag that he's just not quite sane, but after listening to this, I must say that something is very wrong with that man.

What raising the eligibility age for Social Security means.

If it was 2007, and the SS eligibility age had been increased by two years, an additional 69,883 Americans would die before becoming eligible to receive social security benefits.  But dead people don't complain and they most certainly can't vote (legally), so I can see why Republicans might want to raise the eligibility age.

(source: CDC Mortality tables)

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

A bunch of days in photos.

Want to play ball?  Saturday afternoon.

Tired.  But only for a minute.  Saturday afternoon.

Foggy Monday morning at the Japanese-American Memorial on the Waterfront.

Foggy Broadway Bridge on Monday morning..

All those storms have left a lot of debris!  Tuesday evening.

Commentary on Michele Bachman's response to the SOTU address.

"Two years ago, when Barack Obama became our president, unemployment was 7.8%, and our national debt stood at what seemed like a staggering $10.6 trillion. We wondered whether the president would cut spending, reduce the deficit and implement real job-creating policies."
Bachmann here, apparently thinks that spending cuts = job growth. Not sure on what planet that works, but so far, Ireland has only worsened, not improved, after a series of massive budget cuts to meet E.U. requirements. Considering that Obama's stimulus plan wasn't enacted for another month and that most of the spending did not occur until the Summer of 2009, it's curious why she would use January 2009 as a basis for her comparisons.
"Unfortunately, the president's strategy for recovery was to spend a trillion dollars on a failed stimulus program, fueled by borrowed money. The White House promised us that all the spending would keep unemployment under 8%. Not only did that plan fail to deliver, but within three months, the national jobless rate spiked to 9.4%. It hasn't been lower for 20 straight months. While the government grew, we lost more than 2 million jobs."
First off, the stimulus bill was under $800 billion. Secondly, if you combine with the latter Cash for Clunkers program and all other stimulative efforts, the price tag is still under $900 billion. Now obviously, it was using borrowed money: total GDP = total GDP. If you cut federal spending in one area so that you can spend it in another, you have zero impact on GDP. Yes, as she says, unemployment continued to go up, but a curious thing happened along the way: GDP grew. In fact, the GDP began to improve after bottoming out in Q4-2008, and we've had 6 straight quarters of GDP growth.  How'd that growth happen?  People started spending money earned from federal spending, and that money continued to circulate throughout the economy.
"After the $700 billion bailout, the trillion-dollar stimulus, and the massive budget bill with over 9,000 earmarks, many of you implored Washington to please stop spending money that we don't have. But instead of cutting, we saw an unprecedented explosion of government spending and debt. It was unlike anything we've ever seen before in the history of the country."
Of those 9,000 earmarks, mind you, about 40% were from Republicans themselves. Now, what she's not telling you, is that if you take the Army of Corps projects out of the numbers, these earmarks constituted less than 1%.  As they say, one person's pork is another person's constituency asking for help.  Curious though, that she doesn't mention that the total cost of earmarks for 2009, was less than it was in 1994.  In fact, under the Republican controlled Congress and White House, in 2006 there were about 10,000 earmarks worth over $29B!!!  Wait for it....in 2008, Michele Bachmann was partly responsible for sponsoring or co-sponsoring $3.8 million in earmarks.  She was for earmarks before she was against them.
"Well, deficits were unacceptably high under President Bush, but they exploded under President Obama's direction, growing the national debt by an astounding $3.1 trillion."
This is the same thing Paul Ryan said, and it's a misrepresentation of the truth.  If you took a straight line and assumed zero growth in federal receipts (normally this number would naturally grow as people earn more income), then the US lost over $406 billion alone, from taxes over the past 3 years, with the bulk of the loss occurring in 2009.  If you subtract the one-time costs of the stimulus and other related programs, your total budget increase was $1.8 trillion over two years.  If no other increases other than that biannual $1.8 trillion were to occur, it would still be on par with the 50% increase in 6 years under George Bush and a Republican-controlled Congress.  Of course, no one expects federal receipts to remain flat the next four years, so even if Congress increased spending, the federal debt would increase no faster than those years under complete Republican control.
"The president could stop the EPA from imposing a job-destroying cap-and-trade system."
 Cap and Trade requires Congressional approval to create this program.  The EPA itself can regulate greenhouse gases, not create a Cap and Trade program.  You would think a member of Congress would know this.
"For two years, President Obama made promises, just like the ones we heard him make this evening, yet still we have high unemployment, devalued housing prices, and the cost of gasoline is skyrocketing."
This cracks me up.  Free market advocates would instruct Michele that devalued housing prices and sky-rocketing gasoline prices are part of supply and demand.  By intervening, the President would upset free markets, and create bubbles.  Which side is Michele on, anyway?
"The president could support a balanced budget amendment. The president could agree to an energy policy that increases American energy production and reduces our dependence on foreign oil."
Okay, I guess we'll just ignore the fact that it was Republicans that killed PayGo rules, and that under George Bush, oil prices shot up to above $140/barrel, even while Republicans did nothing.
"The president could also turn back some of the 132 regulations put in place in the last two years, many of which will cost our economy $100 million or more."
Michele's on a roll now.  That $100 million is 0.00007% of annual US GDP.  If every one of those 132 regulations actually cost $100 million each, that's still just 0.09% of GDP.  That's a rounding error.
"We need to start making things again in this country, and we can do that by reducing the tax and regulatory burden on job-creators. America will have the highest corporate tax rate in the world. Think about that. Look no further to see why jobs are moving overseas."
I just feel sorry for her at this point.  No one moves jobs overseas because of taxes; they move jobs overseas because the cost of labor is much higher here than in China, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.  Corporate taxes make up an incredibly small amount of the total cost of business.  For example, Apple's last quarterly statement showed revenue costs to be $16.4 billion, while taxes were $1.96B.  Would you really move because you could cut your income tax by 50%, or because you could cut your revenue costs by 25%?  Michele apparently never took economics.

I don't know what to say, really.  Sad?

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Some notes on November 2010 S&P home price indices.

Most cities are still seeing prices falling.  Seattle tracks nearly parallel to Portland.  Some cities have already lost a decade of housing value, but Portland/Seattle has survived fairly well in terms of value losses, so far.  That second wave of mortgage resets peak later this year, so it seems like most cities will reach a full decade of lost value at some point this year.

Monday, January 24, 2011

The mixed message of quarterly profit earnings.

Paul Krugman is spot on with this comment in today's editorial:

A corporate leader who increases profits by slashing his work force is thought to be successful. Well, that’s more or less what has happened in America recently: employment is way down, but profits are hitting new records. Who, exactly, considers this economic success?
Many CEOs of late, have taken to following this through the end of the recession, to continue to post growing profits, namely Carol Bartz of Yahoo.  Last December, Yahoo announced it would cut 4% of its workforce.  As an AP article stated, "This marks the fourth time in three years that Yahoo has resorted to mass firings to boost its earnings."  Steve Ballmer of Microsoft is following the same line as well.

It is the destructive side of Capitalism, that says CEOs may reap the rewards of cutting back its workforce to hide its failures in leadership.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

A case of obfuscation and fear mongering by Apple Insider?

It's not unusual for Apple Insider to cover tech stories, but they decided to post a lengthy analysis - of which most of it was copy and paste from other sites (Ars Technica, ZD Net, Engadget) - of the hot news item of Florian Mueller's blog that suggested that Google's Android included code taken directly from Oracle's (formerly Sun Microsystem's) Java.

Not going to get into the whole shebang as it's been covered extensively by the various outlets cited by Apple Insider, but it doesn't take more than a quick peek to see that it's insidiously biased against Google. Why? In part, because it spends all of 3 sentences defending Google, while the rest of the article - some 17 paragraphs - attacking and insinuating that Google may have done this before:

While Google's Android case continues, the issues being raised also suggest similar potential problems for WebM, the VP8 codec Google acquired and released as royalty free software as an alternative to the open, but not free, H.264 specification backed by Apple, Nokia, and other hardware makers. 
The company delivered WebM almost immediately after obtaining it, raising questions about how thoroughly the company reviewed its new code for possible intellectual property issues.
If all you did was read Apple Insider's coverage, you would have nary an idea of what actually happened, but worse, you might be led to believe that Google's WebM could also be in trouble.  This is grand speculation with nothing to support it.

AI should be ashamed of trying to obfuscate facts.  How bad is AI's work?  This is directly from their graphic used in the article:

Google Android: from button phone to iPhone clone. 
Apple's Steve Jobs knew Google was entering the phone business.  He didn't realize his partner would also enter the iPhone clone business.
Why is this disturbing?  Because it has nothing to do with the article, except to falsely attack Android.  Andy Rubin - co-creator of Android - had a long history of involvement with mobile operating systems (Magic Cap) and smart phones (Danger Hiptop / T-Mobile Sidekick), and was in development of Android years before Apple began development of the iPhone.

Apple Insider = FAIL.

Friday, January 21, 2011

A temporary second Sun in 2012?

It makes one wonder, surely something like this must have happened in the distant past, and humans might have misunderstood what the heavens were saying.  In 2012, a red super giant star could completely collapse with a big explosion, unleashing so much light as to appear as bright as our own Sun.  Though it would last only a few weeks at most, it could provide Earth 24 hours of continuous light, assuming it is properly positioned opposite of the Sun at the time (think seasonal location of the Earth, in its orbit around the Sun).  Otherwise, it would simply look like two suns, much like Tatooine from Star Wars.

Cool, huh?

Oh, but don't bet the farm that it'll occur in 2012, or 2013, or even your lifetime.  Predicting when a star's going to go supernova is even tougher than predicting an earthquake.  No one could possibly know the time line for an exploding star -- it's not like astronomy has witnessed a series of exploding stars to understand the process.

And well, maybe it won't really be as bright as a second Sun.  More like a nice Jupiter.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

More on that communal concept.

I know...the first one's got the perspective wrong, but that's just because I limited my time to add/edit to 1.5 hrs, so the total for the conceptual renderings was under 4 hours max. Another 4 hours would be dedicated to getting a floor plan, making it a whole concept in a work day. :D


Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Been thinking about the post-boomer era.

Disintegration of the traditional nuclear family continues.  Having kids and your own home with cars and keeping up with the Joneses is passé.

The future going forward, is all about a world of small communities.
  • Instead of the McManions, people will end up choosing to love communally in homes designed to give a private/public separation, yet maintain that family atmosphere.
  • Instead of opening one's own business by renting your own office / retail space, one shares an office / retail space with others.
  • Rather than owning a car by yourself, one borrows a car that a group of people own.
  • Rather than buy your own set of tools, one participates in a group-owned tool network.
  • Shared farms.
  • Shared internet / cable access.
  • Shared library of music, books, magazines.
I believe this is the trend, because the future appears bleak for income growth for lower- and middle-income earners for possibly a decade or more, especially if we end up having Japan-style deflation.  And it could be especially true, if people focus on quality of life over income.

My 2.5 hr mental exercise for the day: a standard 50' x 100' lot (5000sf) with a 4 housing units (700 sf each), 3-car garage, 150 sf workshop area, rooftop garden and outdoor covered recreational area, communal concept.


The Lunchtime Clock - my God, why wasn't this invented earlier?


via Make

The 2010 NFL divisional title games.

Noticed an interesting trend in this year's divisional title games: good defenses matter a lot more than good offenses, in the category of points per game.  Of the four teams, this is where they stack up:

PPG on defense (regular season)

1. Pittsburgh (14.5 ppg)
2. Green Bay (15)
4. Chicago (17.9)
6. NY Jets (19)

PPG on offense (regular season)

10. Green Bay (24.2 ppg)
12. Pittsburgh (23.4)
13. NY Jets (22.9)
21. Chicago (20.9)

2008 did mirror this year's final four teams, but 2009 was a polar opposite, where the best scoring offenses were in the final four.  I'm not going to do a KC Joyner and analyze the history of the NFL, to see how this trends over the past 40+ years, but I'm sure someone else will.  All in fun, as an armchair quarterback.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Smoking is bad. Like you really needed someone to tell you that?

A study was just released in the American Chemical Society's publication, Chemical Research in Toxicology, funded by the National Cancer Institute.   With a study group of 12 individuals who smoked a cigarette with a modified polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), researchers found that within the first blood check (15-30 minute interval) the body had metabolized the PAH into chemicals that are mutagenic and carcinogenic.

In effect, as soon as you breath in smoke, your DNA is being altered (mutagenic), and the opportunity of cancer formation is immediate (carcinogen).

Secondhand smoke is also bad for you: it does not matter that the smoke has been breathed in by the smoker and then released -- it still contains mutagenic and carcinogenic compounds, even if in lesser levels than simply side smoke (smoke not inhaled by a smoker, but is instead released by a burning cigarette).

Yes, PAH is in our foods, whether charbroiled meats and fish, or coffee, tea and spinach, but not in the amounts taken in by a smoker.

Theory of quid pro quo in global economy.

GE has entered a quid pro quo joint venture with a Chinese state-owned company, that will allow GE to sell parts in China, but at the same time forced to give up its intellectual property of sorts.  I call it a Pyhrric victory, because it ultimately makes GE vulnerable in the long term, for short term gain.

So why not turn this whole Chinese-mandate around on its head, and require any foreign firm that wishes to sell products in the US, to manufacture 50% of its goods in the US?  I'm calling it the American Global Cooperation with Good Neighbors agreement.

Space expands faster than the speed of light.

A few things will hook my brain...this is one of them.  Einstein's biggest blunder was in fact, not a blunder at all, but it took 70+ years to show that Einstein's adjustment to his Theory of Relativity was correct.

Reading this separate piece in the NYT on the relevancy of recent observations, I am struck by the notion that, "nothing can move through space faster than the speed of light, there’s no limit on how fast space itself can expand."  And given this idea that space expands faster than the speed of light, "when future astronomers look to the sky, they will no longer witness the past. The past will have drifted beyond the cliffs of space. Observations will reveal nothing but an endless stretch of inky black stillness."

Of course, the sky will not be black to the casual observer, because the Milky Way galaxy's stars and solar systems are bound by gravity to it, and will - presumably - move along with it, outward as the universe expands at an increasing rate.

But still, let's say 2000 years into the future, wouldn't you be disappointed if civilization had not moved to the point of worm hole hopping (or some other means of travel) to other planets and galaxies?  It's not been 300 years since Isaac Newton's discovery of gravity, and we're on the verge of quantum computers.  By the year 4011, one would expect that these people wouldn't need to use glass lenses on an orbiting telescope, to discover the universe.

Friday, January 14, 2011

The long life of toxins in the environment.

Came across this SFGate article over a study, in which toxins long banned - even before these mothers were themselves born - were found in the urine and blood samples of pregnant women.  Many toxins were in fact, found in 100% of the 268 women in the study.  Link to the analysis report here.

That's just downright scary.  'Splains a lot.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Google Maps shows webcams and more.

Didn't really notice it until today, but the current iteration of Google Maps has publicly available webcams that will show up as small icons if you select it from the side panel.  Sure, you can get the same data from various places, but having it all in one spot is convenient.

This reminds me of....me.

Been there before, standing behind someone, while they're at the computer.



Video via CNET.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Freaky picture.

1saleaday has a deal on a Motorola MBP35I Digital Video Baby Monitor (gone in a few hours after this posting as it's only good for a day).  If you google the product and search for images, you won't find this one, but it was on 1saleaday's website, and it was just so freaky that I had to do a screen capture and post it.

I added the red arrow, just in case no one noticed the freaky head on the baby monitor screen.  If you saw this on your baby monitor at home, you can't tell me that a chill wouldn't go down your spine, while you freaked out and ran to your baby's crib.  It's a female Joker, for goodness sakes.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

I suspect...

The same people who think violent rhetoric in politics and within the echo chamber of the media didn't have any influence on Jared Loughner's actions, are the same people who think violent video games might have.

I suspect.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Ducks lose.

How sad.  The officiating was solid on the close calls, but completely blind on the fouls...horse collar tackling, phantom personal fouls.

And yet again, the Ducks lose on the big stage.  I fear the Ducks will soon be accused of being another Ohio State, unable to win the big games.

Mormon woman in your 30s and single?

I don't know too many Mormons personally nor am I Mormon (so I can't really relate to what are surely finer points of being Mormon), but this article in the NYT, "Single, Female, Mormon, Alone" is rather amusing.
"So why wasn’t I dating Mormon men? In a nutshell, the pool is small, and people marry young, for obvious reasons. The leftovers were left over: closeted gay men, porn-addicted virgins, along with the merely awkward, uncompromising and unlucky."
Heh.  That's pretty funny stuff, in my book.

The target audience of the article however, is not entirely limited to single, female, Mormon women.  And the article is not meant to be a humor piece in and of itself.  I think it was meant for a broader audience with a wide, meaningful message: Enjoy and explore this ephemeral life, lest you die never knowing or seeing or feeling all that can be felt or understood.

I can relate to that.  Who can't?

BCS NC Game in 3.5 hours.

GO DUCKS!  Beat Auburn!!!

Prius V and Prius C concept.

First off, the Prius V - a Prius station wagon of sorts.  Longer and slightly taller than the standard Prius.  Seems like it gained at most, a foot in length in rear storage with the rear seats up, and another foot with the rear seats down.

The Prius C concept appears to be an evolution of design of the Toyota FT-CH from last year. Practically everything is carried over from the FT-CH concept, which makes one believe that Toyota is testing out the ideas of a finalized design before going to manufacturing for a 2012 model.

I see a lot of influence from CALTY's designs of the Scion xD in the rear quarter, and I most definitely love the front end.  It looks a lot more refined than Honda's CR-Z, in my opinion.


More on the Uno III scooter.

Sure, the top speed might be limited to 30mph, but a transforming scooter is just about the closest thing to a Robotech MOSPEADA, and that's just way too neat.  It's an absolute must-have.


cropped with SnipSnip

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Arizona Democratic Representative shot in the head.

According to NPR, Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head and killed this morning.  May she rest in peace.

If the intent was to defeat liberalism, the killer instead created a liberal martyr that will be remembered long after people have forgotten the shooter's name.  Is Arizona the new Alabama?

/update/
Gabrielle Giffords had coincidentally / ironically tweeted just before she was shot:
"Dinner @ Char's Thai. Sadly learned that Toi, the wonderful waitress who loved to make collages, passed away. Mark & I will miss her."

/update 2/
LA Times via Reuters is reporting that Representative Giffords in alive but in surgery. [crossing fingers]

/update 3/
The surgeon said that he believes Representative Giffords has a good chance of survival.  Among the dead: a federal judge who was himself targeted by Conservatives previously, and a young child. The shooter has been identified as Jared Loughner.  If you google his name, you'll find his youtube postings, and right away you get the sense this is another Timothy McVeigh.  Note that, since Loughner killed a federal judge, he is going to end up eligible for the federal death penalty under 18 U.S.C. 1114.

/update 4/
Sunday morning and we now know that Representative Giffords was responsive immediately after the shooting, and that she was able to communicate using simple commands with doctors this morning after surgery.

Slain federal judge John Roll had been at Mass that morning as he does every morning, and decided to visit his friend Representative Giffords to say hi.  As USA Today noted, the suspect had previously proclaimed his lack of faith in God in his youtube videos.

The gun used in this violent act was purchased legally in Arizona at a sports show.  It is no coincidence that Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City Bomber, as well as David Koresh, the Waco cult leader, also had a preoccupation with gun shows.  We appear to have a nexus to much of the violence in America.

Friday, January 7, 2011

The absolute saddest day in my life (so far).

Was the day I thought I was bringing in my first sheltie to have a tumor removed.  At the vet's office, per usual, I gave him off to the vet's assistant and I will never forget his typical look back at me as he's being walked off. He turns around as if to say, "do I have to?"

Half an hour later, the vet comes out to talk to me, and informs me that after opening him up on the operating table, she discovered that his tumor was huge and attached all over his liver, making it impossible to remove.

I had to decide right there, what to do.  Do I have him stitched back up and returned to me, to live out the remainder of his life, no doubt under duress - he was not eating - just for my sake to get used to his dying?  Or do I let the vet euthanize him so that he won't have to suffer for my sake?  I've always been cognizant that I should never benefit at the suffering at another - chalk it up to growing up Buddhist.  I took some time to think it over, and then decided to have him brought out of surgery temporarily, so that I can say goodbye to him and hold him as the vet injected him with drugs to put him permanently to sleep.

It was the most difficult thing to do, to hold onto your pet as he's being euthanized.

But I can never forget that look as he looked back at me, headed into surgery.  I've carried that load of guilt, that we never got to exchange some sort of ritualistic remembrance of the good times we'd had together, and having a chance to say goodbye before being euthanized.  And all that guilt comes flooding back whenever I see pictures from his last days with me, including up to his being put to sleep.

In order to ritualize my sadness, I ended up creating a video of still images and recorded videos over the years, and created a logo for it.  Still, even after saying goodbye, it still hurts to remember that last day in his life.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Couple of Android tablets for T-Mobile. And speeds are going up...42Mbps this year. Yay!

Dell Streak 7 is officially headed to T-Mobile, running on the HSPA+ network.  But not with Honeycomb, 3.0 -- it'll be packing 2.2.  Comes with a dual-core processor, though.



Meanwhile, LG's G Slate is coming to T-Mobile as well.

10" Dell tablet to follow later.

And T-Mobile's HSPA+ network is speeding up to 42Mbps this year, utilizing MIMO.  HSPA+ has the potential to deliver 672Mbps, but obviously new hardware is required.

And no surcharges for the additional speed like Sprint.  Just the same plans that they currently have.

Global warming?

Could be.  Accumulated snow fall in Portland Oregon has been declining. One would assume the presence of Gorge winds from the east would preclude the ability of the urban heat island effect from increasing temperatures, by removing humidity and rapidly dissipating heat just prior to the onset of offshore moisture from the west.  Since cold, dry Gorge winds are a necessary part of the snow fall equation in Portland, it seems plausible that this is a case of global warming.


I have never ever seen either the Columbia or Willamette rivers come close to freezing up like these 1930 photos.  Anyone that's lived in Portland would probably be shocked to learn that both rivers would regularly freeze up!



Windows at CES? Where?

Reading the coverage, 2011 CES is the opposite of 2010's.  Last year, everyone focused on HP's Windows 7 Slate tablet and many were excited about the possibility of the Microsoft Courier dual screen tablet.  A year later, and the Slate tablet is barely visible having only released it for sale three months ago, and Courier was canceled -- in fact, no major manufacturer is producing a Windows 7 tablet.  Instead, everyone from LG and Samsung, Panasonic to Sony, Motorola, HTC and Acer are showing off tablets running Android.  And look at all the smart phones being intro'd at CES 2011, running Android..  Barely seen a Windows Phone 7 device.

If that isn't a sign that Windows is being squeezed out of the mobile future, I don't know what is.  Maybe Windows on mobile devices isn't dead - never count out the big guy - but so far their biggest announcement at CES 2011 has been the support for ARM chips in Windows8, which means another two years away.

The changing of the guard is palpable.  So I guess this means more lawsuits from Microsoft, trying to fend off competition like an aging oligarch.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Why you really should wait for Android 3.0 tablets later this year.

It's a pretty big deal, and when it hits, let's just say Windows 7 for tablets will look positively dull.

Android at CES 2011, aka the year Android went huge.

I think my brain just blew up. Android's gone on a wild explosion of devices at CES, and Engadget is posting like crazy, trying to keep up.  If there's any doubt as to the extent of Android's taking over CES 2011, just follow the search on Engadget for Android-related posts, here. Here's a brief list of today's Android-related posts from Engadget:













BPG Motors Uno III electric scooter.

Neat stuff, this electric scooter cum unicycle, as reported from CES by cnet's Martin LaMonica.  Looks like it could be a predecessor to the Robotech MOSPEADA.


Power outage in the Pearl.

For the first time in years, the power is out in the vicinity of my building, for blocks -- probably the result of someone slipping on black ice. Chumpz.

/update/

Power is *finally* back on at 10:30, which makes this the longest outage (5 hours) I've experienced in Portland.  I must be spoiled, because I remember the power being out in Honolulu for a lot longer and with greater frequency.  Portland General's website said t'is was an equipment failure.  Thank goodness it didn't happen last November when it got down to 12 degrees overnight and never reached above 25 for a few days.

One very good thing about Portland, is that the water is completely gravity-fed, so no need for electric pumps as is the case in Hawaii, where water is naturally stored in cisterns and pumped out.  When the power goes out, people fill everything they can with water.

I can have my coffee and hot shower now -- even though it's a gas water heater, it has an electronic ignition, so when the power is out, the hot water is, too.

Transition over at the House of Representatives isn't going smoothly.

Republican Eric Cantor is the next majority leader in the House, but majorityleader.gov still points to Steny Hoyer.  Can't help but think that the site was specifically redesigned for one last jab:

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Didya ever install a font in Windows, only to have it not appear in applications?

The other week, I realized that my Verdana font was there but not showing up...turns out when I copied it back over from a separate drive back to my windows folder, it got encrypted.  To get it to show up again, I had to decrypt the file.  At that point, I realized there were lots of other fonts that weren't decrypted, so I went through them all.

If you go to C:\Windows\Fonts and right-click on the font that isn't showing up and select Properties\Advanced\ deselect "Encrypt contents to secure data", the font should show up.

How to assign the budget cuts entirely to Republicans.

House Republicans are excitedly planning to cut spending 22% - domestic discretionary spending by 25% - to 2008 levels.  However, because the Senate and White House is still controlled by Democrats, most people expect a showdown and a watered-down bill to go forth.

But what if Democrats simply did not show up save the most liberal senators from liberal states, to make Senate quorum of 51 members, and allowed Republicans to vote to pass their budget cuts?  Then, if Obama were to simply allow the bill to become law without signing it, Republicans would completely own the consequences of their budget cuts and the economy, no?

What would moderate Republicans do -- would they vote with Tea Party Republicans, or would they vote against them?  The only time Republicans will actually have their "adult conversation", is if they're forced to own up to their votes, so why not let them?

Sunday, January 2, 2011

DId the NCAA preemptively make appeals more difficult, just to attack USC?

Dan Weber at USCfootball.com has written an in-depth piece on the push by USC alumni to bring the NCAA's lack of  truthfulness and transparency to Congress.  In a "Clemens moment", one of the NCAA COI's members might be facing an issue of perjury before Congress, on the question of just how much due process there is in the NCAA's system.  One possible query, is whether the NCAA unilaterally (without a vote by its membership) passed new rules that made it much more difficult to appeal infraction findings, just so that it could tackle USC's situation with flimsy evidence.

Extremely disturbing however, is a recent article that this same person from the COI, suggests that former student athletes who refuse to cooperate, should be considered guilty by silence.  Now that's an enormous bombshell, because in the US Constitution, the 5th Amendment allows you the specific right to remain silent in criminal cases, such that you're not incriminating yourself.  This is an important balance to the criminal justice system, underpinning such rules as Miranda Rights.  And it could be included as a point of contention, that the NCAA does not, in fact, support due process in its system of COI, as demonstrated in its treatment of USC and  Todd McNair.

How slanted has the NCAA become?  The NCAA President told a crowd last month, that he thought the NCAA's COI "got it right" on the USC case; this is just before USC goes before the appeals panel to present its case on January 22.  Do you think this was a preemptive attack on USC's appeal?  I think so; after all, he could have simply said that it was improper for him to speak to the case when it is was in the middle of an appeal.  So much for due process?

And as everyone can see, the NCAA hypocritically told USC that it should have known, but it has told others (Auburn and Ohio State) that it was okay if they didn't know.  This sort of hypocrisy is noted, by Ohio State's nearly 400 secondary violations over the last decade, and a lack of interest by the NCAA's COI to consider this repeated ignorance as a sign of insufficient education of its athletes, and inadequate proactive programs to prevent violations.  Everyone knows USC got screwed by a bunch of hypocrites.

If the NCAA fails to overturn the COI's ruling on USC, all hell will break loose, and deservedly so.