10 thoughts for December 11, 2013

It's official: I'm a lazy bum who prefers to jot down these 10 daily thoughts than write long form.

1. True story.  A contractor on Tuesday explained that his iPhone 5 has failed him multiple times now, with ear audio not working, forcing him to use speakerphone only.  He waited for over and hour while Apple Care tried to fix the problem, only to fail to fix it, relenting finally, and giving him a new replacement phone.  In my 5 years of owning Android phones, I've never experienced a fatal flaw like that.  I've gone through some buggy software, but never bad hardware.  In that same period, people that I personally know, who've owned iPhones, have experienced all sorts of hardware flaws, including the infamous You're Holding it Wrong issue.
2. You know, it's okay to admit that your iPhone isn't the perfect device that Apple sold you on.
3. I've watched a few Auburn games this year, and they are not some fluke.  They have a lot of really good athletes on that team, particularly their starting running back...the fella who's headed to NY for the Heisman award ceremony as part of the top-6 voted.
4. Speaking of the Heisman, the media has a tendency to build up players with questionable character, only to tear them down afterwards. It's more convenient for Heisman voters to claim ignorance after the fact, without repercussions, I guess.
5. I'm starting to become a huge fan of Vevo supporting Chromecast, because it automatically streams content based on my search for a particular artist and song, which is not unlike Google Music, except for one big difference: Vevo streams video music while Google Music just streams music with cover art display, and cover art on a big screen is rather useless.  Further, when one is working, the video oddly serves as a means to remain focused on the current task at hand.  As I'm editing this point, Vevo's been serving me up 80's to mid-90's music after searching and playing George Michael's Fastlove.  Rick Astley just finished up Cry for Help, and now Michael Jackson's Billy Jean is on.  Smiles all around, baby.  Well okay, they need to spruce up their catalog a bit, but that's okay because I'm getting great quality videos streaming.
6. Eddie Bauer's Relaxed Fit Eddie's Favorite Flannel Shirt (Plaid) was on sale the other day, for $35.  Today it was moved to the Clearance section, for a bargain price of $40.  FWIW, if you wait until February, that same flannel shirt will be reduced to about $16~$20, or less at their physical outlet stores on weekends.  At $20, it is a huge bargain as the EB flannel shirts are much thicker and better quality than those that you can get at Old Navy for the same price.
7. FINALLY!  It only took several years, but Google Sheets has pushed out a major update (that you have to enable, and only applies to new sheets), which allows you to create custom date and number formats, and color code your tabs, and do offline edits!  This is a major step towards making Chrome OS a truly functional alternative to even Open Office.
8. FINALLY! Part 2.  Google updated their web version of Keep and fixed the biggest problem I had with it: while the mobile app allowed you to move items up and down a list, the web version was fixed.  Also, they made it a lot clearer and easier to find archived notes.  Still, it's quite a bit short of Evernote.
9. Google brought out its Santa Tracker once again.  It has some of the stuff from last year, but expanded with a lot more content.  Love, love, love the interactive features!  Here's a video that's embedded in their site.  Enjoy.  Laugh.  Have fun!
10. On an amusing note of sorts, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) pulled together a compromise budget deal, where no one got what they really wanted, but they weren't being forced to accept things they absolutely hated.  In other words, the perfect solution for divided government!  I mean hey, that's much better than a small group of people stopping government from functioning altogether.