My Galaxy S-II is better than your iPhone 4S. :D

Well, at least definitely in the drop test.

It looks like the Gorilla Glass in the Galaxy S-II really does work after all, huh?

Via Ubergizmo

The Nokia WP7 phones...a bad joke?

I think investors should be exasperated.

Microsoft's top argument (to get Nokia to use WP7) last February, was that Nokia produced great hardware that would perfectly wed with Microsoft's mobile operating system.  And then Nokia World came around last week, and all I saw was over-promise met with underachievement.

Neither of their phones (Lumia 800 and Lumia 710) has a front-facing camera, a staple of the modern smartphone.  That has to be a glaring omission and/or strategic error in light of Microsoft's purchase of Skype, that would have provided a captive market for Microsoft in future video chatting / calls.

Then there's the disparity between the iPhone 4S and all mid- and top-level Androids that carry dual-core CPUs, compared to the single core CPU in both Lumia phones from Nokia.  In fact, the Galaxy S-II (as well as the HTC EVO 3D, HTC Sensation, HTC Amaze 4G and the T-Mobile MyTouch 4G Slide)  has a CPU that is one full year ahead of the S2 Qualcomm CPUs that both Lumia phones use.

So let's say Nokia finally brings the Lumia 800 and 710 over to the US in 2012, virtually unchanged.  This means that both phones will be running off processors that are 2 years old.  If you're a current Android phone owner and are interested in a new Nokia smart phone, you're looking at buying a phone with virtually the same specs as the Android you bought in 2010!

Consider the thickness of their phones.  The Lumia 800 is 12.1mm thick, while the Lumia 710 is 12.5mm thick.  That's nearly an 1/8th inch thicker than the iPhone 4S and the Galaxy S-II.

The Lumia 800 even weighs more than the iPhone 4S, the Galaxy S-II and the Galaxy Nexus.

So it's no wonder then, that Nokia USA's chief went on record with the WSJ, saying that their tactic for the US market will be to go after first-time smart phone users, rather than convert existing iPhone and Android users.

That should really shake you up a bit.

In essence, Microsoft's mobile OS is not strong enough to convert any significant number of current smartphone users over to their platform.  Given that newbies (aka late adopters) are the least knowledgeable in the differentiation between the mobile OS platforms, it is understandable.

After all, if you didn't know that your smart phone could video conference with other smart phones that were also equipped with a front-facing camera, then you wouldn't care if your Lumia 800 / 710 didn't have one, right?  And if you didn't know that Android gadgets were remarkably like Live Tiles, but modifiable / scalable in Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 (some gadgets already are scalable in 2.3.5 Gingerbread), then you would easily be led to believe that Live Tiles was an unique feature that no one else came close to matching, right?

This feels a lot like the path that Palm followed.  Two smart phone models, lesser in specs than any top line, current generation smart phone, with limited apps, being driven early on by lots of smack talk from leadership, only to see market share plummet.  At some point, Elop and Ballmer will have to answer to their respective shareholders, no?

A double satellite fly-by.

Via Spaceweather, originally from YouTube user astrobrock (Canadian Kevin Fetter), this cool video (below) of a double fly-by of satellites.  FYI, you can plan your own viewing of satellite fly-bys, by tracking them at Heavens Above.

Occupy Portland's 12:00 am occupation in the Pearl.

It's past 12:45 am.  Despite the midnight time limit for using Jamison Square in the Pearl, coupled with the threat by the major to block anyone from occupying the Pearl's main family-oriented park, things were at a standoff.  Protesters were closely positioned in a circle of about 80 people, chanting and yelling their opposition to the anti-camping rules, while a light mist fell in the chilled 54 degree Autumn morning.

Quite the scene it was, as there were more bystanders hanging out along the perimeter sidewalks on all four sides.  The bystanders appeared to be made up from - no doubt - part residents of the three condo buildings and a low-income rental building that surround the park, part curious onlookers from outside of the neighborhood, mixed in with the police and the news trucks and their cameras.  A little smoky, but mostly misty, surely all these people were waiting to see what sort of confrontation would take place.

Because of the way the buildings surrounding the park are built, if you're two blocks away as I am, they are barely audible, so it's not very easy to tell that something was going on, there.  I've heard concerts louder than the protesters, at Jamison, from my building, to be frank.

One condo owner was blasting some club-trance music.  I'm not sure what that was about, but it contributed to the weird circus environment that was the Occupy Portland's Pearl sleepover.

For the record, a LOT of homeless folks are freely occupying Portland public parks, sidewalks and empty lots -- I should know, because I walk past most of them at night and know where all the popular spots are, since they're almost all within 3/4 of a mile from me.  The police won't bother them unless they're disturbing others, are intoxicated and causing a ruckus, or someone complains.  For this breakaway group to protest anti-camping regulations in Portland, is somewhat insulting, destructive and highly irrelevant to the concerns of the disparity between the 1% and the 99%.

Occupy Portland -- the Pearl District expansion.

I wasn't there at the 4:00 hour when they were supposed to start, but at 5:00, there wasn't much going on at Jamison Square, which is quite the disparate anomaly of Occupy Portland's standard crowd of thousands.

The media expectation far exceeded the actual turnout, as witnessed by the satellite poles, sitting amid Kenny Scharf's totem poles.

The problem for Occupy Portland's attempts to move into the Pearl District, is that they misunderstood what the Pearl District represents: mixed use, including several buildings dedicated to low-income renters. And it also hurt their image, that they were going to occupy a park that is well known in the City of Portland, as a family-centric park, all year-round.

The people using the park aren't 1% people, but 99% folks.  It was a bad miscalculation on the Occupy Portland movement, and part of the reason for this mistake is due to its lack of central message.  In this case, a splinter group wanted to make a case for legal camping in public parks.  This has more to do with homelessness and less about the 1%, but because the movement is directionless, it has given way to these splinter groups.

What they need to do, is focus on how to decrease the disparity between the 1% and the 99%, by legal, public coercion of corporate officers and their companies, and the first target should be, obviously, banks.

To start, march daily to local branches of banks and protest in front of them for a couple of hours (before moving on to the next spot), whose corporate officers earn over 100x the average bank worker's salary.  The goal is to get those banks (and their corporate officers) to agree to capping their total compensation at 100x.

That is what I would do.

A "Netflix moment".

Poor Netflix...their namesake has been turned into an uncomplimentary noun.

MSNBC's coverage of the bank pullback (except BofA that is) on debit card usage fees, has included the reference of banks finding their "Netflix moment", in written news and video news (below).

Netflix, -ed, -ing

v. To anger your customers by raising fees, then in an opportunity to respond appropriately, alienate them by ignoring the reason behind the complaint.

Netflix moment

n. A turning point where you fuck up and, rather than apologize, you continue down the same path of fucking up, then watch in horror as people abandon you in droves.

My frightfully ghoulish Halloween classical music list.

I have two lists -- one where every piece is relatively known, and the alternative that is rarely heard.

In my opinion, the popular list is not so scary or goose-bump-creating, but you will hear these tunes during Halloween.  I strongly suggest you go with the obscure list, which will truly send chills down your spine.

This is your chore for Halloween night: find as best as you can (or use a youtube to mp3 download service online) all the music on this short list, then play them in rotation, while you read ghost stories in the dark, with just candle light or a small lantern.  This is especially worthy of a group activity.

The popular classical Halloween music list:

1. Toccata and Fugue in D-minor, JS Bach
2. O Fortuna - from Carmina Burana, Carl Orff
3. Night on Bald Mountain, Modest Mussorgsky
4. Dies Irae - Requiem, Giuseppe Verdi
5. Mars, The Bringer of War - The Planets, Gustav Holst

The obscure classical Halloween music list:

1. Apparitions, Gyorgy Ligeti
2. Quatrieme Tableau * - from the 3rd Act of Les Dialogues des Carmelites, Francis Poulenc
3. Black Angels **, George Crumb
4. Doom, A Sigh, István Mártha
5. The Rite of Spring ***, Igor Stravinsky

* - A caution on the finale (Quatrieme Tableau) from Les Dialogues des Carmelites...if you don't watch the video and just let the music play, you will be freaked out to know that sound of chopping, is supposed to be heads being cut off.  Heck, that should freak most anyone out.

However, if you learn the story of the Carmelite nuns then watch the video, you may come away sobbing with a profound sadness.  I know of no other opera with an exceedingly sad ending, that you will find most people red-eyed (and eye liner smeared), upon exiting the opera.

** - Black Angels is a 3-part piece: I. Departure; II. Absence; III. Return.  I bought this very Kronos Quartet CD, 20 years ago, and I strongly recommend it if you're the adventurous type who enjoys all sorts of classical music.

*** - Sure, I realize The Rite of Spring is somewhat popularly known, but you hardly ever hear it used in the context of Halloween, and the scene of The Sacrifice is gruesome to imagine.

Cavalia sets up in Portland Oregon.

I'd been watching over the last week as someone began clearing out the empty grounds in the Pearl District, (whence once stood a bunch of rail lines, but had since been pulled out and used as a dirt dumping ground to aerate polluted soils).

Then one night I saw towering pole structures set up and bright nighttime construction lights up, and wondered, what sort of circus was coming to town?  Walking up close, they had a truck with their name on its side -- Cavalia.

A few days later, they popped up the tent fabric and placed a giant, lit sign.

What's Cavalia?  A combination of Cirque du Soleil and trick horse work.  You can watch more of their videos on their official YouTube channel.

The show goes from Nov. 11 through Dec. 4.  And all I'd need to do is walk 8 blocks down.  But the costs are bit steep -- see below.  In addition to those prices, you have to pay $11.50 for service charges if you order via phone or the internet, or $4.50 if you purchase via the box office (not yet set up).  If you buy online or via phone, you then have to pay for $7.00 shipping fees.

I haven't yet made up my mind about it, knowing that a show like this doesn't come often.

Note that the cheapest seats are obscured (the green level), so the choice really is paying $54.50 for the yellow section.  Here's the sample seating chart they have on their website.

ADULTS		JUNIORS (13 - 17) SENIORS (65+)	CHILDREN (2 - 12)
	Tues-Thurs	Fri-Sun	Tues-Thurs	Tues-Thurs	Fri-Sun
RENDEZ-VOUS VIP	$179.50	$189.50	$159.50	$129.50	$139.50
HORSE LOVER	$129.50	$139.50	$114.50	$89.50	$99.50
ORANGE	$ 89.50	$ 99.50	$ 79.50	$ 59.50	$ 69.50
BLUE	$ 79.50	$ 89.50	$ 69.50	$ 49.50	$ 59.50
YELLOW	$ 54.50	$ 64.50	$ 49.50	$ 34.50	$ 44.50
GREEN*	$ 34.50	$ 44.50	$ 29.50	$ 24.50	$ 34.50

Paul Ryan -- evil doublespeak or profound idiot?

Watch the video.

Did you hear it? He says that President Obama has committed the US down the same path as that of European nations: painful austerity.

Whaaaaaaat???

It was no mere slip of the tongue -- he was reading from a prepared speech, and misappropriates the anger in Greece as the result of kicking the can down the road.

The Republican Party has just changed its message, and now stands for the unpainful austerity -- the one where unicorns and rainbows, leprechauns and mermaids exist -- where government spending cuts produce budget surpluses.  As opposed to the painful austerity -- the real world we're seeing in Europe -- where government cuts spending, discovers that fewer people are now employed (resulting in even fewer people spending money, lowering demand), further reducing government receipts, leading to more cuts in government spending.

I'm just dumbfounded on this one: I can't decide if Republicans are purely evil in their doublespeak, in an attempt to fool the common American, or just plain stupid.  Maybe a combination of doublespeak idiocy?

It really sickens me that these Republicans could be so profoundly stupid or blatantly, politically driven as to commit evil acts against their own, fellow man, for the sake of power.

Paul Ryan is the spokesperson for the 1%, as I have pointed out before.

sources: Media Matters, Paul Krugman blog

Netflix: Overpromised, underperformed.

Netflix is falling getting hammered in after-hour trading, down over 1/4 of its closing day price.   Why?  Because they released their Q3-2011 results.

All this points to one and only one reason: Netflix issued revised projections just last month, but it still got it wrong by overpromising and underperforming...turns out, they lost 200K more subscribers than they projected just last month.

In retrospect, it seems that their change of heart earlier this month over Qwikster was a sign that they knew things were getting worse.  The nixing of Qwikster was a means for stemming the blood letting that would have gotten a lot worse if they went through with the separate subscription sites.

The real test will be the next quarter...does it resume growth, or has it flattened out somewhat, with pricing having overreached people's expectations / willingness?

Global warming. Changing one mind at a time.

Richard Mueller, a prominent global warming skeptic and a member of the academia, has published his group's findings (Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project -- BEST).  It turns out, the Earth really is warming up....and faster than the UN IPCC reported.

And the study was 1/4 funded by the conservative Koch brothers.

So when Republicans called Mueller in to testify on global warming last March, they were embarrassed.  This global warming skeptic, reported that his group's review of the data, validated what those other people had been saying...that the Earth's surface had been warming, according to AAAS' ScienceMag.

It is making the news rounds now, because BEST published multiple papers for peer review, and Richard Mueller followed up with an op-ed piece in the WSJ last Friday.

Changing one mind at a time.  Let's hope the process doesn't take too much longer, before it is too late and we've past Rubicon.

Trojans beat the golden dome heads.

USC's running game was impressive, gaining the most yards in a game this season (219 yards).  The two back tandem of Tyler and McNeal sure looked like thunder and lightning 2.0, didn't they?  Tyler pounded the ball, McNeal would zip through the gaps.

USC's offense had a nice game, controlling the ball for nearly 40 minutes and a near-balanced spread between the running game and the passing game that forced ND to pay attention to the play-action pass.   That in turn, helped the defense, by letting it stay fresh for the whole game.

It's quite the statement, considering most of ESPN LA's experts picked Notre Dame to win big (by as much as 10 points)...only Steve Mason picked USC to win.

ND had two weeks to prepare -- they came out with those shiny new helmets to show off just how much they prepared for USC.  Their first drive ended with a 3-and-out (so was their next drive).  But at least they had shiny new helmets.

Side notes:

• Syracuse, a team that USC beat to a pulp but was considered a weak AQ team by sports pundits, dispatched #15 South Carolina in dominating fashion.
•  You can also see the next tandem in USC's future: Amir Carlisle and George Farmer.
• I'm guessing Dillon Baxter is not in USC's future...but if he's going to blame anyone, he needs to blame himself for dancing around in the back field instead of hitting the hole like McNeal does.
• There was supposed to be somewhere between 20 and 30 recruits on hand, brought in by Notre Dame, to watch the game, including Arik Armstead who decommitted from USC.
• I wonder if USC players reminded the recruits that ND has only beaten USC once in the last decade?
• Manti Te'o has lost twice to USC...the team that he would have played for and probably challenged Galippo at the middle linebacker spot.

Herman Cain's new plan: "Me-Me-Me"

TPC did an analysis, Jared Bernstein covers the graph (below) that shows that Herman Cain's "9-9-9" plan is really a "Me-Me-Me" plan.  If passed, Herman Cain would be getting a big tax return (somewhere over half a million dollars) while most people would end up paying more.

No wonder Cain's pushing his "9-9-9" plan...fool a majority of people, get a cool half-million back, every year.

Oh hey, most seniors are in the lowest two quintiles (lowest 40%), with the median income for men over 65 at $26K and women at $15K.  If you're a senior citizen, under the "9-9-9" plan, you'd be paying MORE TAXES!

Is Nikon violating US antitrust laws?

According to Nikon Rumors, as of October 16, Nikon has installed a new (worldwide) pricing policy that requires all authorized outlets stick with base prices that are set by Nikon.

Sure enough, prices jumped at all major photo retailers. For example, you could previously find the D5100 body only kit for under $600.  Now, officially the minimum advertised price is fixed at $649 ($749 - $100 instant rebate).

So does this violate US (and EU) antitrust laws?  It could be.  The Department of Justice has established guidelines to determine unlawful conditions of price-fixing:

• Agreements to establish or adhere to uniform price discounts;
• Agreements to eliminate discounts to all customers or certain types of customers;
• Agreements to adopt a specific formula for the computation of selling prices;
• Agreements on terms and conditions of sale, including uniform freight charges, quantity discounts, or other differentials that affect the actual price of the product;
• Agreements not to advertise prices or to refuse to sell the product through any bidding process.

Unfortunately, until the DOJ receives a complaint, we won't know if there is a per se violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act...stay tuned.

Having fun with my Bamboo Connect and Photoshop.

It's been fun, playing with the tablet, practicing and getting used to the interface.

Spaceport America -- completed.

This is an FYI for design-enthusiasts, the Foster + Partners Spaceport America project is completed, and Dezeen's got a full spread of the completed project.....exterior only.

Ballmer is winning...and nuts.

Straight outta Ballmer's mouth, "We’re winning, winning, winning, winning!"  Which leads to the question, is Ballmer nuts, nuts, nuts, nuts?

NUTS#1: Okay, so Ballmer believes Microsoft is beating Google in the cloud. At the very least, this is an admission that Microsoft was LATE to the cloud and coming from the rear position. But I'm not convinced they're winning -- I've seen younger and smaller businesses adopting Google Apps, tossing Microsoft's costly solution to the bins of yesteryear.  The only companies that are not doing this, are those stodgy old firms that have old men in control, and like their Office 2003 running on XP.  And Google updates its Apps and other cloud-based services regularly, while Microsoft waits for annual milestones (case in point: Android vs WP7, see NUTS#2).

NUTS#2: Then Ballmer goes off on more crazy talk, saying "You don't need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone. I think you do to use an Android phone."  Apparently the US (and the world) is filled with really smart people, considering the growing market share of Android, and shrinking market of WP7.  And anyway, selling down to idiots is never going to win, considering most people want to believe they're smarter than they actually are.  In other words, buying a WP7 phone is an admission that you're an idiot, and no one wants to make that admission.  He could have sold WP7 on the basis of making your already complex life easier, but that's not what he said, right?

NUTS#3: But here's where Ballmer gets downright weird.  According to Search Engine Land, Ballmer suggested that between Bing and Google, "70% of the time, there won’t be any difference in the results, that 15% of the time, Bing will be better and 15% of the time, Google will be better."  So, exactly WHY would a Google user want to use Bing, if you're getting the same results with Google AND a lot of freebies to boot?

NUTS#4: And to top it all off, Ballmer has decided to leave no friend unscathed. Given the opportunity (an audience question) he trashed Yahoo.  On the issue of the failed buyout of Yahoo, Ballmer said, "Hallelujah...You know times change...sometimes you're lucky."  Yahoo's so lucky to have a friend like Microsoft, serving up its search results that has only ended up eroding its own market share in the US, then to have Microsoft trash-talk about them.

I rest my case nuts.

The economy is better than it was in 2009.

I use three informal means of measuring the economy:

• Craigslist postings for architectural- and engineering-related jobs.  For a very long time - close to around 8 years now - I've informally tracked the job postings on Craigslist.  In 2009, there was barely a single post a day (if at all) in the Arch / Engineering sections of various cities.  For most of this year, it's been a tale of night and day, where most days, there are at least 3 or 4, sometimes going above 10.
• The number of viable jobs that I turn away from.  I'm a picky bastard, not in the firms that I want to work for, but in the sort of job roles / tasks that I'd be willing to do.  Of late, there have been far more interesting jobs that I've strongly considered going after, but have turned away from, because of the greater specificity of what I want in a job.
• Guru.com listings.  The more people are willing to build / create products, the more listings for cheap labor on Guru.com.  While I haven't ever tried to bid for a job via Guru (I'm not taking the bait for lowest wage), I do keep a track of professionally related job postings.  Whereas in 2009 I'd get maybe an email a day with one or two job listings, nowadays it's not uncommon to receive multiple emails in a day with several jobs listed.

All three of my informal means of measuring economic activity suggests to me that there is decent hiring growth going on right now, though by no means the sort of outright boom that 2004-2006 was.  I do not see a slowdown in construction.  If there is a slowdown, it will be due to consumer spending...IMO.

Yes, I could always go through the GDP data and the unemployment rate to illustrate that there are more people working this year than in 2009.  I'm just saying, if you want to know how the local economy is doing, all you need to do is informally track the number and quality of CL postings.  If you want to see how the US economic outlook is, track the number of jobs on Guru.com or other job bid websites.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus -- Motorola Droid RAZR

On Verizon (or NTT Docomo or Three UK, and maybe even AT&T and T-Mobile)?  You know you want the Galaxy Nexus.  According to Engadget, it'll come out on Nov. 10th (a long wait) and it'll cost $300 (ouch...maybe it'll have a mail-in rebate).

A huge screen and resolution at 4.65" / 1280x720 super AMOLED.

Note: Samsung previously (as in last month at IFA) showed off the Samsung Galaxy Note, which has a massive 5.3" 1280x800 super AMOLED screen, but it runs on Android Ginger Bread 2.3, but it has not made an appearance in the US.

And Ice Cream Sandwich.

And poor Verizon folks...they have their choice of Motorola's Droid RAZR, sporting LTE, a Kevlar rear cover, and 4.3" super AMOLED screen.  Oh, and it's 7.1mm thin and has 16GB internally with a 16GB MicroSDHC card included.

Sure, it only sports Android Ginger Bread 2.3.5, but you know it'll get an ICS upgrade sooner than later.  And well, if you can't wait for Galaxy Nexus, this one will be available October 27 for $300.

Verizon folks have it tough, don't they?

Oh, and it's easy to see, Ice Cream Sandwich leaps ahead of Microsoft's Mango update to its WP7 platform, and includes all sorts of things iOS5 does not have.  Looks like Ballmer's behind again.

Android Ice Cream Sandwich and Nexus Prime.

via PC Mag, Ice Cream Sandwich gets installed at the Googleplex over the weekend.  I couldn't resist photoshopping a screen grab from the video of the installation, because it slightly reminded me of the famous image of the Iwo Jima flag raising...not as serious and important, but still, the intention is similar (to collaboratively put up a symbol of a shared achievement.)

Speaking of which...it'll be here this week, officially, after being postponed for a week, in deference to Jobs' death.

A guide to Google - Facebook competition.

Via C Section Comics.  They say, for something to be funny, it has to have a tinge of truth to it.

How fast is T-Mobile's network using Galaxy S-II?

With a 42Mbps (HSPA+)  Galaxy S-II phone, real speeds are going to be much lower, depending upon how much bandwidth used on the local network (i.e. space to accommodate congestion).  Still, one expects that the Galaxy S-II would perform pretty good....and it does.  It keeps up, for the most part, with Verizon's LTE.

So there you go...14.38Mbps download.  That's more than twice as fast as WiMax on Sprint, and 6x faster than my home WiMax from Clearwire.  I can live with 14Mbps for a couple of years.

US Spotify broken. Time to quit?

They surreptitiously downloaded some update to the software that is supposed to require me to opt in to the new changes of ad-supported, free subscription that limits monthly listening to 10 hours...

BUT IT CRASHES.

I can't get Spotify to work at all, because it won't let me proceed without crashing.  So I guess this is it.  It was nice while it lasted, but I guess it's time to move on.

Good news though...there are many other services to try: Grooveshark, MOG and Rdio.  Grooveshark is pretty good, by the way, because it has a lot of foreign and otherwise ethnic music that Spotify simply doesn't have (I've been playing around with Grooveshark for a bit, ever since I heard this change to terms of service was coming).

Oh, and now that I have a new Android phone that I can install Google Music on, I'm finding this quite useful for streaming music I've uploaded from my collection.  If only they'd strike deals with major labels to allow for accessing music you don't already own.

More on my Samsung Galaxy S-II: the screen.

The AMOLED screen is amazing.

A lot of people that know nothing about it other than screen resolution numbers, will comment about...the resolution.  But the AMOLED screen makes you forget about resolution, because it looks like a printed graphic that is backlit...in other words, you can't even see pixelation.

On my old G1, even though the dots were small, you could still notice the dots if you looked closely at it.  It reminds me of the difference between plasma and LED-backlit LCD screens -- the plasma is so smooth and brilliant, a 720p plasma screen actually looks better than a 1080p LED-backlit LCD screen.

This really is a gorgeous phone.

The Samsung Galaxy S-II on T-Mobile

Briefly - I got into the store today (after all the planning last night with customer service on the phone) and picked it up.  First off, it's VERY light in the hands, and thin.  It does not feel like a solid device, but a lithe object that you could slip in your pocket and not notice the weight.

Oh yeah, and it's F A S T!  Humongous screen, and easy to navigate after getting some used to Samsung's TouchWiz UI.

If you're even thinking about it, consider this: I met a person waiting for the Portland Streetcar, who was planning to wait in line on Friday, to buy an iPhone4S, and she was wowed by the size and weight of my phone.  It's truly an impressive piece of hardware.

On a separate note, I'm sitting in the Pearl District's newest Starbucks - one of just a handful of locations that sells liquor (think beer and wine) - while writing this up, and everyone and their monkey is using their free WiFi, making it a slooooow experience for me, that I've switched to my stored music on my netbook.

Guru.com posting -- I'm definitely not touching this one.

I came across this listing, saw all the spelling / grammatical errors, had a brief laugh over its content, and figured I couldn't pass up re-posting it.  Do you suppose this person's been caught by police before?


Guru.com: New Projects Match Your Profile


Title: Stop Police Chases
Project ID: 764542
Budget: Under $250
Category: Engineering & CAD
Description: Electrial Breaker/ Lazer to be placed on police cars to cut the curent from cars chases. Sketch/ Drawing of This

I nearly dropped T-Mobile tonight.

Today was the first day that the Samsung Galaxy S-II was available in-store, so I went out to see if I could check it out, ready with cash in hand to upgrade.  I got a few surprises.

First, the store didn't have a unit on display, and they wouldn't open up a phone to use for display purposes.

Second - and this one was critical - they wouldn't allow me to grandfather my old plan's rate with a new discounted phone.  Worse, apparently at some point between the day I signed onto unlimited data and today, T-Mobile changed the terms of my plan to cap 3G speed to 5GB.  The only option is to buy a full price phone and stay off contract.

So I started looking around, and this is what I'm leaning towards: Boost Mobile.  The drawback was, that it operates on Sprint's CDMA 3G network, but the upside was, that it was truly unlimited.  Well, at least I'd be saving a bit of money -- at least $120 a year.

So with T-Mobile practically in the rear view mirror, I thought maybe I should call one more time, and see what options there were besides what the previous customer service person had given me.  Turns out that call made all the difference.

This customer service rep agreed that I didn't have to sign on to a brand new plan, so I could keep my 1500 anytime minutes plan, but then he escalated it to the customer specialist.  In talking to Theresa - the customer service specialist - I was frustrated but courteous and calm about the possibility of having to leave T-Mobile after nearly 6 years with them.  She rewarded me with a 2 year plan at my old price with the old terms (unlimited data + 400 text messages).

She talked me into staying with T-Mobile, by giving me exactly what I wanted.  And that's my story about how I nearly dropped T-Mobile tonight.

Topeka legalizes domestic abuse -- time for Google Fiber to pull out.

In what is literally a game of politics, Topeka Kansas eliminated domestic battery as a misdemeanor, in order to force the state to prosecute such crimes, all over a matter of money.  It boils down to this: people dump their responsibilities on others, and pretend to hold the high ground.

So if that's how the city of Topeka is going to deal with the problem of domestic battery - by making it legal - then Google should stop building its high speed fiber network for them, don't you think?

Anthony J. Lumsden, 1928 - 2011

Anthony J. Lumsden passed away last month, and the Architect's Newspaper covers his obituary in fine fashion.  By coincidence, he too, died from pancreatic cancer, although he was 83 when he passed away, as opposed to Steve Jobs.

I'm mentioning Mr. Lumsden's passing for two reasons:

• First, I briefly got to experience up close, how he worked, when I had spent a Summer working at DMJM Hawaii.  (There is also some irony here: the previous Summer I worked as an architectural model builder, and worked on the model for one of DMJM / Mr. Lumsden's projects, the Imperial Plaza.)  He had come down from Los Angeles to work on a design for a condo building, one that unfortunately never got built.  What I realized during that time, is that I'm not particularly skilled at speedy production whether sketching or model building -- I'm too methodical and cautious, but most of all, impatient.  Whereas I can entertain ideas from modest, primitive sketches, others are willing to invest time into the craft of building and sketching.  Mr. Lumsden was quite fast at cutting and drawing, though most of that labor was done by his assistant.  His process worked a lot like Frank Gehry's, actually.  He worked like a composer, directing others to create appendages that he would then add and subtract as needed.  I learned a lot about short cuts in sketching and building study models, but in the process of going digital, I gave up most of that knowledge, again because I'm impatient.
• Second, I've always admired his work, particularly the Sepulveda Water Reclamation Facility in Los Angeles.  Both he and Cesar Pelli were former designers in charge at DMJM, and their designs were at the core of why I wanted to work a Summer at DMJM in the first place.

comScore US search, Sept 2011: Google still winning.

comScore's September US search engine report is out, and Google took back some of what it lost previously. In the long run though, it's fairly clear that Google hasn't really budged a whole lot over the past year.  Except for a temporary dip last Summer (2010), Google's US market share in search has been relatively stable, despite Microsoft's big bucks spent promoting its Bing search engine (end of May, 2009).

comScore Total Core Search Share Report* September 2011 vs. August 2011  Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore qSearch
Core Search Entity	Total Core Search Share (%)
	Aug-11	Sep-11	Point Change
Total Core Search	100.0%	100.0%	N/A
Google Sites	64.4%	65.4%	1.0
Yahoo! Sites	18.5%	17.2%	-1.3
Microsoft Sites	13.3%	13.4%	0.1
Ask Network	2.6%	2.6%	0.0
AOL, Inc.	1.2%	1.4%	0.2

Photoshop CS4 vs. SketchBook Express

I've been playing around with SBX and my new Wacom Bamboo Connect graphics tablet since it arrived last Friday.  Some impressions:

• Photoshop is better.  I know the comparison isn't fair, considering the costs.  Still, the point is, it's worth paying for Adobe's CS software suite.
• SBX could be useful, but it needs better pressure-sensitive settings and the ability to import / create brushes, preferably Photoshop brushes.
• SBX does support the saving of a file as a native Photoshop format (.psd), including saving layers, but it won't re-import that same Photoshop file with layers intact, unless you have SketchBook Pro.  I don't quite understand this one...it's not like I'm going to waste $51 on SketchBook Pro, when it doesn't actually have any particular tool or use that exceeds Photoshop's.

A 15 minute play-around sketch with Photoshop, that utilizes pressure sensitive settings, below.  With the variety of settings that can be altered in brushes, as well as the enormous set of free brushes online, there isn't much point to paying for SketchBook Pro.

The best tool for comparing CPUs.

I've mentioned this before, but in my opinion, this is the easiest, best site for comparing CPUs: PassMark's CPU Benchmark. If you want comprehensive tests, then I suggest Notebookcheck.net's list of (mostly) mobile processors.

Below, is an abridged portion from Passmark's ranking of the best CPUs.  Highlighted in red are two of the least expensive desktop options: Intel's $315 Core i7-2600K, a 4-core Sandy Bridge CPU at 3.4Ghz (boost speed at 3.8Ghz) for desktops, and AMD's $267 Bulldozer FX-8150, an 8-core CPU running at 3.6Ghz.  Notice how the 4-core / 8 thread CPU outperforms the 8-core / 4 module CPU.

Some other things worth noting: the Core i7-995X and Xeon W3690 are both 6-core CPUs (and are actually very similar inside); the Core i7-2960XM is a second generation mobile CPU, the top of the line mobile.

I have a laptop running an i7-2720QM; by comparison, 2010's top mainstream mobile processor, i7-820QM is much slower, and much more expensive than the second generation i7 CPUs.  You can see why I jumped on a refurbished Dell 17.3" laptop running i7-2720QM, for $825.

Core i7-995X	10945
Xeon-W3690	10227
Core i7-2600K	9971
Core i7-2960XM	9084
AMD FX-8150	8681
Core i7-2720QM	7,123
Core i7-820QM	3,557

Ping pong ball floating orchestra.

Floating Orchestra from Poietic Studio on Vimeo.

via Make Magazine online.

Netflix axes Qwikster, no apologies.

This morning, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings made a - relatively - short blog post, acknowledging that people would be inconvenienced by separate websites and billings, by splitting up Netflix and Qwikster, thus they've reversed their decision and have killed Qwikster.

It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs. 

This means no change: one website, one account, one password… in other words, no Qwikster.

He goes on to repeat that they are done with price increases (I'm thinking *maybe* two or three years?) and that they've "recently added hundreds of movies" to their streaming selection (not exactly huge).

But no actual contrition for the whole ordeal.  No messages of "I really messed up this time," or "we lacked respect and humility."  In other words, no apology for backtracking, because that's not where Netflix really wanted to go.

Oh well, at least Netflix has FINALLY bothered to listen and respond to the actual concerns of its subscribers, eh?

Occupy Portland Marathon

It was the Portland Marathon.  It was Occupy Portland.  It was the Occupy Portland Marathon!

Sitting outside, after playing with the dog on a severely overcast and cool Fall afternoon, on what was supposed to be a lazy Sunday, turned out to be an interesting scene.

The first sign was the ruckus I could hear and see, a quarter mile away on the Broadway Bridge.  The second sign was the helicopter overhead - the local media - going around in circles.  The third sign was...a small cardboard sign with small writing on it, carried by a woman with a camera in tow.

Apparently the Occupy Portland crew made a pact with police and Portland Marathon officials to allow them to take over a portion of the marathon route.  In short order walking home, I could see the marchers coming around the corner of the Broadway Bridge.  Assuredly, the message is unfocused, but there is a lot of anger out there, and this being a liberal town, the crowd of protesters numbered somewhere between 1500 and 2000.

Fight the power!

The solution to BofA debit card fees.

QUIT.

If your bank is going to charge you fees to access your own money, stop complaining and just pick up and leave.  Don't wait around for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to act - especially since Republicans have tried to block money and have vowed to block all votes on the CGPB director nomination.  If you think public pressure is going to force BofA to change, think again -- Netflix hasn't changed its pricing has it?

What's wrong with credit unions?  You get better rates across the board, you can access your money across the nation and the world via the Co-op Network with no ATM charges.

Eric Cantor: the People's antagonist.

I didn't actually think he'd do it, but I did state online in forums, that he would make for the perfect antagonist for the Occupy Wall Street movement...who knew this guy was actually that dumb?

In the video, he specifically calls out the grassroots protests as mobs.  I don't recall him calling Tea Party rallies that, do you?

Yay, the not-so-bright politician has stepped up to the podium to accept the mantle of antagonist!

Steve Jobs tribute.

via Wooster, a tribute to Steve Jobs...street art style.

I'm Feeling Lucky.

I just finished reading I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 .  To distill Douglas Edwards' - aka employee 59 - part-autobiography / part-historical accounting of Google's early years, there are six points that I considered worthy of pointing out:

1. Many brilliant employees, as smart as they are, are insecure in the thought that others around them are smarter.  As such, they are willing to work to the bone to get their work done, on time, and exceeding expectations.  This is part of the culture that has been cultivated at Google.  It is also true that, if you work hard, you may also play hard.
2. The media will almost always misinterpret the personalities of people, because like most, they are unable to correctly judge others that which they only know superficially.  Likewise, many journalists are not technically savvy or otherwise inclined, and are exceedingly gullible to repeating lies or misappropriating facts with opinions.
3. "Don't be Evil" wasn't an immediate, obvious guiding principle, but it became the measure by which all things - products, changes to code - were measured by.  Often, the line was not so clear, and mistakes were made, but never intentionally.  It wasn't always obvious to Google, that rumors had to be quashed or dealt with directly - the presumption had been that, good and evil didn't need to be explained, because it was obvious.
4. A core emphasis by its founders from the start, was to move nimbly and efficiently, to be good enough to get out the door on time.  The emphasis on speed over quality would come back to bite them back sometimes, but getting a product out the door usually meant allowing real-world testing to go on, then fixing the breaks on the fly, rather than letting a product sit in stasis, tested ad infinitum.  In fact, it's okay to be wrong, just move on already...you're wasting time dwelling on your mistake.
5. Collectivism works well; it requires guidance.  Building complex systems requires a collective group of people offering their expertise and labor.  In working together, consensus is not as important as hearing out differing opinions, then coming to a decision in a relatively fast manner, and everyone working towards that goal.
6. Google's founders, as well as most of its engineers, felt that marketing - branding in particular - was unnecessary and possibly evil.  The common belief that you could turn a product around if only it were branded correctly, was understood by engineers that branding only lied to people about the flaws of a product.  Come to think of it, movie studios seem to spend millions of dollars promoting bad movies, more often than they do the really good movies.

The phrase, "I'm feeling lucky" extends beyond its original meaning, relating to a Google search - it relates the irrepressible optimism and ambition of Google's founders (Larry Page and Sergey Brin).

It will surprise you to learn, exactly how precarious Google's position was, through its early years prior to its IPO, battling with tech giants whose valuation and sheer size greatly overshadowed Google.  It also makes you aware at just how easily and rapidly its markets in search and online ads could disappear by an upstart that nimbly navigated the waters while being overlooked and ignored.  

A little scattered, but otherwise, a great book.

Goodbye Steve Jobs.

Nearly thirty years ago, I used an Apple IIe, programming with Fortran...yes I too was geek and still am.  I will never forget, that from the very beginning, Apple set a different standard for computing.

Though I am now a Google fan, long before Apple was a household name, I was an original Apple fan, back in 1983.  I still have the original Apple logo sticker, from 1983, on my French Horn case, also from 1983.

RIP Steve Jobs, 1955 - 2011.

comScore August 2011 report is out -- Android keeps growing.

comScore's August 3-month US smartphone report shows Android continues to grow rapidly (14.7% over 3 months), mostly at the expense of RIM. Apple grew, too, but not by much (2.6%), and Microsoft seems to have stabilized, shrinking just one 0.1 percentage point (= -1.7%).

Top Smartphone Platforms 3 Month Avg. Ending Aug. 2011 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending May 2011 Total U.S. Smartphone Subscribers Ages 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens
	Share (%) of Smartphone Subscribers
	May-11	Aug-11	Point Change
Total Smartphone Subscribers	100.0%	100.0%	N/A
Google	38.1%	43.7%	5.6
Apple	26.6%	27.3%	0.7
RIM	24.7%	19.7%	-5.0
Microsoft	5.8%	5.7%	-0.1
Symbian	2.1%	1.8%	-0.3

via comScore

For some perspective.  Obviously, the big loser here is RIM.  At some point in 2012, will RIM become the 4th platform behind Google, Apple and Microsoft?

The dog likes garbanzos.

Dogs - mine at least - are notoriously picky eaters.  They will pick through the scrum to find the stuff they like, and leave the remains by the wayside, scattered like tumbleweeds at the OK Corral.

The other week, I diverted some black beans and dime-sized torn pieces of flour tortilla from my burritos to his bowl of wet lamb and rice dog food.  When I came back, everything was gone except the black beans.

Today, I added some garbanzo beans, excesses from yesterday's 5-star minestrone soup, along with some canned salmon with his wet dog food.  When I finished up my oatmeal, I came back and everything - garbanzo beans included - was gone.

Garbanzo beans good; cooked broccoli tasty; anything baked from flour yummy; any fleshy meat excellent; black beans a no go; fruits no way; carrots nope.  And if you think that by watching another dog relish some disagreeable food would change his mind, you'd be wrong.

Invisibility cloak.

It really does remind me of Predator, where the alien's invisibility was partially given away by ripples of light, and not so much Harry Potter's.  Neat stuff...that will make its way to a defense contractor no doubt.

via SmartPlanet

Austerity, metaphorically speaking.

Doctor: This man is extremely anemic.

Politician: I am directing you to cut off his legs and arms, so that his body will need less blood to survive.

Doctor: Why don't we pop an IV and give him a pint of blood, instead?

Politician: We tried a half-pint of blood, but he only got slightly better, so I've decided the only option is to cut off his arms and legs.

Doctor: That's stupid.

Politician: Elections have consequences.

BIG NEWS!!! It's the iPhone Fiiii...oh wait, it's just a 4S.

Well, it looks like Gene Munster is a tool, after all.  In fact, all those analysts who pretended to know what was coming down the pike, were all wrong.

Sorry folks, no iPhone 5, today, or tomorrow, or this year (the iPhone 4S will be incrementally released worldwide through December).

Oh, and no LTE or WiMax iPhone either.

---

UPDATE: Looked around, and discovered that Business Insider's Jay Yarrow revealed that there is only going to be an iPhone 4S at 1:00 EDT. Look at Apple's stock price...the world is severely underwhelmed, coinciding with TBI's story.

It's floating downwards, some 4.5%.  Easily, the biggest non-story of 2011.

I bought a tablet today...

Graphics tablet, that is. :D

Wacom's Bamboo Connect, CTL470, comes with Autodesk's Sketchbook Express.

It was a bargain I couldn't refuse...$69.95 + free 7-10 day UPS shipping, or 3-day UPS for just $0.60, from B&H.  I took it with the 3-day UPS shipping, so that I would get it by Friday.

Most places sell it for full retail at $79.95, or have it discounted, only to add on shipping fees that bring it back up to nearly $75+.

As for an Android tablet - and to be honest, no way am I getting an iPad or some future Windows8 tablet - I'm in the wait-and-see mode.  As much as the Kindle Fire is attractive at $199, it's heavily limited by the fixed 8GB with no expansion and without access to Android Market.

I was heavily considering the $79 Kindle, but after watching the UI in action, decided that the only version worth getting would be the $99 Kindle Touch WiFi, but since it's not coming out until November, I might as well wait to see what Barnes and Noble has for the holidays.

Rates so low, it'll make your eyes pop out.

US bond rates, that is. This'll bring some weird perspective:

2.72% -- 30 year bond rate, today.
2.77% -- 10 year bond rate, 8/1/2011.
3.07% -- 1 month bond rate, 1/17/2008.

1.76% -- 10 year bond rate, today.
1.80% -- 5 year bond rate, 7/1/2011.
1.76% -- 1 month bond rate, 8/14/2008.

The last time we saw rates this low, it was December 2008, the depths of a rapidly unraveling economy.  What are we supposed to make of today's market signals...?

Sprint betting the company on iPhone?

So says the WSJ.  Sprint has committed to buying at least 30.5M iPhones over four years.

Let's look at the numbers, shall we?

As of Q2 2011, Sprint had 52M+/- post-paid users.

Based on two-year plans that would otherwise restrict people from buying more than two iPhones over a four-year span, Sprint would need 15.25M customers every two years to buy an iPhone.  (You could split the figure into four years, but you're still restricted by two-year plans, so your total would still be the same.)

According to Sprint's app development program site, 35% of its users own smart phones -- that's roughly 18M users.

iOS (iPhone only) market share according to Nielsen (May - July 2011) stood at 28%.  Except for misguided analysts who use unscientific polls to make outlandish predictions, the actual performance of iOS in the US has relatively flat, at between 27~28% for the last seven quarters, including Q2-2011 (also from Nielsen).

Let's say, in four years' time, 60% of Sprint's users move to smart phones, and 50% of them choose the iPhone over Android, WP7 and RIM...that's the sort of rosy projections we're talking about.

Frankly, I don't see the reason why people are going to suddenly flood Sprint and push their ratio of iPhone users remarkably higher than the national average...they don't have a particular advantage over other networks that already have the iPhone.

It looks like Sprint is falling for the same trap that led it down the face Palm, two years ago when it signed an exclusive deal to get the WebOS-based Pre exclusively for 6 months before anyone else.

---

A belated update: Sprint's getting the iPhone 4S, but it's not going to have either WiMax or LTE.

You might have to wait until the traditional Apple love-fest in June, known as WWDC, which seems like a set up for poor short-term numbers.  The biggest benefit, it appears, is for AT&T users, who will get HSPA+ 14Mbps on iPhone 4S.

USC-Arizona: post game thoughts.

USC's defense sucks.  The whole scheme sucks.   They line up the corners 6 yards off the line, then drop back into a matchup zone; the linebackers, if they read pass, they all drop back into pass coverage leaving the outlet receiver wide open.  You never see them man up and bump the receivers off the line of scrimmage, and it's almost as rare to see the defense blitz on passes.

The only way TJ McDonald gets two picks early on, is that Nick Foles is trying to probe deep and throws into coverage.  USC's first three series on defense ended with two interceptions and a punt.  Corrected in the second half, Foles throws between the layers of defense, including slants up the middle and short curls at the edges. USC made just one stop in the second half.

Arizona took what USC gave - the short game - which is noted in the stats.  39 first downs for Arizona compared to USC's 27; 86 plays for Arizona compared to USC's 64; 8.0 yards per attempt on 53 attempted passes for Arizona to USC's 11.9 yards per attempt on 39 attempts; Arizona's 33:50 time of possession compared to USC's 26:10.

What's the point of keeping the safeties 20 yards off the line, if the opposing quarterback is simply going to throw under your coverage, on his way towards a gazillion throws and another gazillion first downs?  Arizona scored anyway, which was supposed to be the point of keeping the safeties deep, right?

Now, I'm not saying that the zone match up defense is a lousy plan, but if you're going to run it, you have to use blitzes to bring pressure, but Monte Kiffin barely ever uses a pass blitz.   So what we get is a porous defense on a max-protect line, giving Foles the time he needs to spot the open receiver.

Why bother playing defense, if you're predictable?  Just find a bunch of drunk frat guys and tell them to go have some fun.

Google Flights search...this is what others were afraid of.

Have you tried searching for flights on Google?  It is going to make travel agents and all other sites (except discounters) obsolete, with one notable exception: it's limited to US domestic flights only, no travel to outside the US.

It's so good, there is no easier method for finding the cheapest fare at any point, six months in the future.  It's very intuitive to use, making you the best travel agent out there.

Place your mouse over the right-side chart, and it'll show you, based upon the time of length selected, the price, depending upon the date, during the next six months.  As you move your mouse up or down, you'll see it shaded in the calendar, indicating the days of the trip.  Just a brief glance at it, and you can easily see the times of the month and season, when it's cheapest and most expensive to travel.  How cool is that?

If you find a flight you like, when you select it, it'll automatically send you to that airline's website with the dates and options selected, ready to pay for, online.  That's hard to beat.

Google Maps: Helicopter view.

If you create a map with directions, you can now watch a fly-through of your path, by clicking on the "3D" button.

If you have a fast connection, no worries, but if you don't, you might want to hit the pause button and let Google Maps draw its 3D buildings in, to give a more-realistic view.

It'll be a great tool for letting you preview your travel plans in unfamiliar locations.

Via PCWorld, original source Google LatLong Blog