Every Monday I like to post some music to start the week off on the right foot.
This week….
Desperate Union – Don’t Forget Me (Angel)
Mike Posner – Cooler Than Me
Eurythmics – Would I Lie To You?
John Mellencamp – Authority Song
and finally, Aerosmith – Rag Doll
Here are some news stories from this week that I think the mainstream media completely missed out on. All links are from legitimate news sources and not the fringe / wacko sites.
* The triceratops never existed? What? WHAT?! Dammit! So now who is gonna’ pimp slap around the T-Rex? What are little kids gonna’ pretend to have the big Jurassic smackdown with? [GIZMODO]
* File this under “highly suspicious.” Remember back in 2009 there was a woman who was shot and killed by the Iranian military for having the balls to protest against them? And it was caught on video and put all over the internet? Weeeellll as it turns out Neda Agha-Soltan is really alive. Except her name is Zahra Soltani. She fled Iran, but she wants the world to know she’s not really dead. Uh huh. [NEW YORK TIMES]
* Jailbreaking and ripping DVDs are now legal!! Now somebody needs tell the MPAA to stop putting those STUPID commercials before every movie because the answer is YES WE CAN! [NEOWIN]
* A ginormous asteroid might collide with earth in…. 2182. That’s only, what, 172 years left to go?! Everybody panic! [TECHVERT]
* Your kindergarten teacher affects your whole life? Dude! So howcome I can’t remember who it was? Then again, not remembering who it was might explain a few things. [NEW YORK TIMES]
* Now for a bit of grim news… Sabreen Haq, a dying 12 year old girl, had one wish. To have a home, not an apartment, to live in before she died. The community and local schools all got together and raised $120,000 for her to buy a home with. Awesome! So Sabreen’s mother, Maysoon Haq, gave her own cousin, Hamza Abuhamdeh, every penny to go buy a home for them. Abuhamdeh bought a home alright, but he never let anyone move in. “Instead, he rented out the house to another family. Police said he also put the home in his name and not Maysoon’s. Police said they tried to get him to either give the money back or let Maysoon’s family move into the home, but Abuhamdeh only came up with $30,000.” Make a Wish foundation did the best they could and sent Sabreen to Disnayland, but the little girl died right after the trip. Abuhamdeh? He’s “currently out of jail on bond.” Seriously, I wonder how long it took Abuhamdeh to file down his horns and paint them over. [NEWSNET5]
* Things in Iraq? Still war-a-riffic, thanks! [BOSTON.COM]
* Want to see some bling bling on the bang bang? Here’s some photos of some Mexican cartel pistols that have been waaaay over accessorized. [TELEGRAPH.CO.UK]
* Finally, lots of serious food allergies are on the rise, and the doctors have no idea why. I think I do. <1989 Batman voice on> The doctors have it wrong. They’re looking for one product. The Joker has tainted hundreds of chemicals at the source. The poison only works when the components are mixed. Hairspray won’t do it alone, but hairspray mixed with lipstick and perfume would be toxic. And untraceable. Take that to the press. </1989 Batman voice off> [CNN]
That’s all I got this week! Back Monday.
** Actually posted late late Sunday because my internet connection was all Smurfed up this weekend.
I haven’t posted anything this week because I’ve had an insane deluge of “urgent” projects at work. From Monday afternoon all the way through to this morning was chankla-riffic.
Fortunately, it wasn’t nothin’ a ton of coffee and some good music couldn’t help with.
Back soon.
The FDA issued a warning late Friday for everyone “…not to take Miracle Mineral Solution, an oral liquid also known as “Miracle Mineral Supplement” or “MMS.””
The good news is that, for once, an FDA “warning” item isn’t about a product that’s trying to sneak some Viagra through the retail channel! The bad news? “The product, when used as directed, produces an industrial bleach that can cause serious harm to health.”
Not just regular bleach. Industrial bleach. For people to drink.
Damn.
The loophole appears to be that it’s not bleachy as it shipps in the Miracle Mineral Solution bottle, but only becomes bleachified when you follow the Solution’s directions on how to mix it at home.
The FDA says… “the product instructs consumers to mix the 28 percent sodium chlorite solution with an acid such as citrus juice. This mixture produces chlorine dioxide, a potent bleach used for stripping textiles and industrial water treatment. High oral doses of this bleach, such as those recommended in the labeling, can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and symptoms of severe dehydration.”
Damn damn.
But wait! It gets better! This “Miracle Solution” does all this bleachicanification because it claims it will treat “…HIV, hepatitis, the H1N1 flu virus, common colds, acne, cancer, and other conditions.”
Damn damn damn.
Every Monday I like to post some music to start the week off on the right foot.
This week….
Dancing Pigeons – Ritalin
Dancing Pigeons – Ritalin from Blink on Vimeo.
Van Halen – Panama
Foo Fighters – Monkey Wrench
…and finally, Johnny Cash – God’s Gonna Cut You Down (NOTE: This is not the actual music video, but a custom video on YouTube.)
Here are some news stories from this week that I think the mainstream media completely missed out on. All links are from legitimate news sources and not the fringe / wacko sites.
* The UK is being all twirly-mustache evil this week, as “U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron announced plans to use “hundreds of millions of pounds” from dormant bank accounts to fund community projects”. OK, first of all, “dormant” bank accounts? Also known as savings and checking accounts that belong to someone or someone’s heirs? And since when does government do anything “to fund community projects”? [BLOOMBERG]
* A UK website called “The Times” got tired of giving away all their high-quality hard-hitting reporting for free, so they started charging users to read their website online. About three weeks later, their readership fell 90%. Causation? Correlation? Karma? Who? What? When? Where? Why? What? Somebody get on this story! And Olsen, stop calling me chief! [GUARDIAN.CO.UK]
* The federal government is seizing high-end shower heads? And fining companies that make them? Get outta’ here! Apparently, “a 1992 federal law says a showerhead can deliver no more than 2.5 gallons per minute at a flowing water pressure of 80 pounds per square inch”, so now the Feds are going around to companies that make “illegal” shower heads and delivering the pain. Why the hell does the federal government get to say what I put in my own shower in my own home when I pay for the water I use? If I want to be so stupid as to bathe with a firehose, it’s my right to do so! [WALL STREET JOURNAL]
* BP is doctoring photos and people are shocked? This is the same company that nuked the Gulf of Mexico! A little photo manipulation and forgery is what their interns do after they get the morning coffee and donuts! [CNN]
* The pentagon has nooooo idea where $9.1 billion in Iraq reconstruction money went in Iraq. Let me put that in a “real” perspective… based on the July 2009 US population, that’s $30 cash money they could have given every single individual that lives in the United States. That’s a lot of money. [YAHOO]
* I saw something by the AP I wanted to post here, but I gotta’ be careful about using quotes from their articles as they apparently have lawyers that donkey punch great white sharks for breakfast just to get in the right mood for the day. So all I’m going to do is post the headline : “Obama’s message to voters: Things could be worse.” Yowza! [AP]
* This story wins the “No way! Can they do that?” award for the week. A man swallowed a USB drive as he was getting arrested that apparently contained “credit and debit card numbers from ATMs” he stole. He thought destroying the evidence would get him off the hook. But the authorities got a warrant to have a surgeon go in and get the USB drive out from his intestines. Dude! You can warrant a surgery? Yes he was a bad guy and yes he was trying to destroy evidence, but you can warrant a surgery? [UPI]
* So this guy robs a bank, and all anyone can remember is that he wore “a woman’s blond wig, fake breasts under a sweater and clown pants.” I just can’t add anything funnier to that. [MSNBC]
That’s all I got. Back Monday!!
I was checking NOAA just now (Insomnia!!! Whoo Hoo!!!) and saw there’s a giant bohonkus storm that’s rolling across the Atlantic. It’s the one on the lower right in the next photo.
It doesn’t look too bad over the ocean, but using my Photoshop ninja skills, I put it over the Gulf of Mexico…
… and, as it is right now, the storm would take up the entire Gulf of Mexico. So how big is it over land?
Offhand, it looks like the storm would completely cover Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi. Five states underneath one storm.
That’s a big damn storm.
And don’t storms gather strength and cohesion as they travel across the ocean during this time of year?
I’ve had some iPads for two weeks now, and after some serious daily use, I wanted to write a “initial impression” post about how I see the iPad in the corporate world.
First off, I had a fairly clear definition of what I wanted the iPad for in the company : to enable all of our “first contact” employees access to our network through a secure VPN. A touch screen interface was preferred, and this tablet would work “on site” only. The initial test run would be 1 iPad per store location with a few additional iPads reserved for executive use.
Unless you go through Apple corporate sales, you’re restricted to two iPad purchases total. Even though I ordered all of the 21 iPads through the corporate channel, it took about a week for the initial batch to arrive since demand for iPads is still very high. Once the iPads were unboxed, the rollout was fairly straightforward.
Setting up profiles for the iPad is done with a free application from Apple called “iPhone Configuration Utility”. With that application, I just clicked to “activate” the policy areas I wanted to modify, made the changes to each section, and then saved the config file to the local Mac. Then I attached each iPad to the Mac, uploaded the config file to the iPad, and the changes were locked in. Easy and done.
The only catch is that I found it easier to use a utility called “Libra” to set up an iTunes library for each iPad. That way I could customize which apps go to each location/end user by choosing a specific iTunes profile to attach each iPad to. (I’ve got some more thoughts on how Apple could make a iPad rollout easier in a few paragraphs.)
Anyhow, the VPN integration looks like it would be great with the 3g iPads, but since I just needed the local wi-fi versions for my purposes, it wasn’t any trouble to tweak the company network to allow secure access through the iPad’s built-in ability to connect via WPA2-PSK.
MobileME is also a good idea to put on the iPads. The ability to remotely track and wipe the iPad makes the $99 price tag a fantastic insurance policy, and I think Apple messed up by not making MobileME part of the “iPhone Configuration Utility”.
Setting up MobileME was a bit tedious. I had to go to me.com and sign up for the demo, then login with each iPad identity. Then, going back to each iPad, I had to go to the SETTINGS app, choose MAIL, then MAIL, CONTACTS, CALENDARS, then go to the ADD ACCOUNT area, then choose MOBILE ME, and then key in all the information I entered on the mobile.me website.
Ugh.
Also setting up the address book was a bit of a pain as well. I had to define a sub-set group in the address book on the Mac that I wanted the iPads to access, and then only SYNC those group’s addresses to the iPads as they were being configured.
Setting up the initial iPad was a little bit of trial and error, but once the “master” was complete, the remaining 20 iPads in the initial rollout were a snap to configure and deliver. With just slight changes to duplicate copies of the original config file, more iPads can be added to each store location in the future, and far more easily than the initial batch was.
I highly recommend adding a iPad keyboard dock if you’re going to be configuring multiple iPads. A physical keyboard saved me tons of time on the prep and release, and the keyboard works just like any other Apple dock. Drop it in, and it works. You can even pass-through the iPad’s connection to the Mac on the back of the dock with another dock/usb connector cable.
Apple’s “iPhone Configuration Utility” is nice, but it needs a lot more teeth. And calling it the “iPhone Configuration Utility” just confirms the iPad is just a giant iPhone without the “phone” part. Come on Apple. At least call it a “mobile i-device configuration” utility!
Now for the bit giant “dammit!” bits…
Once again, Cydia and the other online “jailbreak” sites are years ahead of Apple on creating applications and utilities that should have been bindingly obvious and that should have been part of the iPad on launch day. I know of five key Cydia utilities that would tweak the iPad to do exactly what I want it to do, but I would have to jailbreak the iPads to install these “extras”. Since this is just the beta phase of the rollout, I’ll wait to see how the iPads perform before moving any further.
Overall, I would easily recommend the iPad if certain network and needs conditions were met for company access. An iPad that costs $499 beats a PC tablet that run $900 and above. And even though you do lose a PC’s “under the hood” tweaking and functionality, you do have to ask who these tablets are meant for. Customer service and initial contact personnel are a perfect match for the iPad, plus these personnel are genuinely happy to receive them and do take much better care of them than they do a PC laptop (in my experience, anyhow).
Plus, like it or not, the iPad itself does impress the hell out of clients and prospective business partners.
One final plus is that the iPad is an exponentially more closed system than a “regular” PC. I’ve received far fewer support calls from these “first contact” individuals during this rollout since they really can’t tweak their devices too much.
Overall I would rate the iPad corporate experience a (barely) 4 out of 5 star experience. Having said that, with a few tweaks, it could easily be 5 stars.
Now, as for personal use, and based on my initial experience with the iPad, I would rate the iPad a solid 5 out of 5 stars.
I went ahead and bought my own iPad two weeks ago as well, and have installed a few applications and utilities. After my initial “meh” reaction, I have to admit Apple really does have something here. The touchscreen is fluid and amazing. A few hours working on the iPad and you’ll want a similar touchscreen on all your PCs and Macs.
Reading on the iPad with the free “books” application has absolutely killed every other ebook reader. I can finally read all my technical PDFs, pinch-zoom and expand the schematics, and see everything in color. That alone is worth the iPad purchase price for me. Extended reading on the iPad is slightly more wearing on my eyes than the Sony 505 I have is, but the tradeoff is worth it.
The gaming experience on the iPad has also been top notch. It’s graphically around the PS2 era, but some games are almost Wii caliber. That’s pretty good for a portable device! The iPad has definitely shelved my PSP and NDS for the foreseeable future. It’s not any Xbox360, but it’s large screen makes playing games on anything aside from a HDTV screen seem absolutely puny in comparison. And the games the iPad has are unlike anything else I’ve played on any platform. Apple needs to run hard with this feature, and pull in the “arcade” developers from the Xbox360 and PS3 platforms to make this a prominent selling point of these devices.
Oh, and my wife loooooves the iPad. Absolutely loves it. It’s a pick-up-and-do-whatever device. Read. Play games. Surf. Email. Remote Control. It’s ridiculous all the uses we’re coming up for with this thing. And this is only the wi-fi version. Maybe our second iPad will have to have the 3g connection… strictly for testing purposes, of course.
The only complaint I have personally is the “hold” of the iPad. You do need a case so the darn thing doesn’t slide down your hands. I prefer Apple’s iPad case for home use but InCases’ iPad case for corporate use or high-contact personal use. (I’ll put up some photos and compare the two cases in a future post).
That’s all I have for now. For the most part, I highly recommend the iPad in both the corporate and personal world.
Oh, and for the record, everything that has “Mac” mentioned in the above review also works with a PC or has a PC version as well.
I was out and around with my wife when we saw this ropas (used clothing) store about 30 seconds from the Mexico border on the US side. Check out the name brands they carry!
Searz? Masys? USADA approved clothing? Seriously?
Yep. It’s a real store alright.
Crazy.
Yesterday me and my wife had a chance to drive over the same Rio Grande floodway/spillway that I mentioned in a previous post. She took all of the photos for me, and I think they came out great.
First up is the westward facing view as we were traveling south over the spillway. You can see in the first photo there was some overflow outside the floodway already. That little outcropping/peninsula was supposed to be the outer perimeter for this side with a straight line running West to the bridge.
In this next photo, you can see more of where the overflow happened, as well as a the top of a STOP sign for a street that was running parallel to the floodway before it broke through.
This next photo is about 1/4 of the way over the bridge. If you click to enlarge, you can see that’s a house on top of a hill on the right side that’s just barely above the water!
Here is about the halfway point…
This next photo caught a few people who were lining up on the access roads to fish off the overflow. People are still lining up despite the fact that local health departments have been running radio and TV ads telling people not to eat or fish out of the overflow because it is tainted with sewage from Mexico. This ain’t the Rio Grande, folks! It’s overflow water from Mexico and Falcon Dam!
This next set is the “return”, heading north and facing eastward. The first photo shows part of the buildup along the side of the floodway/spillway…
This next photo shows how close to the edge the water is. That “access road” on the side was once a vantage point to look down into the empty valley with.
Starting across…
Here you can see one tree that is still managing to keep it’s top above water. There were tall trees all along this area, and it will be interesting to see if any survived.
Same tree, but a little further along.
Two more trees that were keeping their tops dry.
A closer photo of the trees above water.
Further along heading North. Fortunately the power lines were set high enough so that even if the floodway overflowed, they would be undisturbed.
Nearing the end of the floodway/spillway.
And finally looking back over the spillway.
The water is still pretty near the spillway’s peak, but today was the last day we are expecting rain down here, so hopefully this monster will start to drain soon. The best photos will be the “after” so everyone can see what it looked like originally.
Thanks again to my beautiful wife (who always takes better photos than I do)!