When an international treaty is wrong - Criminals should not be treated the same as non-criminals

An ACLU lawyer blasted Arizona Governor Jan Brewer again.  She had written a letter to the state department complaining about them reporting the Arizona law on immigration enforcement to the UN Human Rights Commission.

Reporting Arizona law to UN was correct - CNN.com: "What the U.S. report does not say, and what Brewer should be concerned about, is the fact that SB 1070 violates U.S. human rights obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which is binding on all levels of federal, state and local governments."

His complaint (and that of many others) is that the law will discriminate against Latinos.

Well, No shit Sherlock!

SB 1070 requires that when the police stop someone for a crime, if there is any doubt to their immigration status, the police have to check.  Most of the time, folks are stopped for misdemeanor crimes like speeding or expired license plates.  Yes, those are crimes.  Anything that violates a law is a crime and those who violate the law are criminals.  You may not like it, but if you have ever willing exceeded the speed limit, then cupcake, you too are a criminal.  You violated a law.

Ok, so first off, only those suspected of committing a crime are subject to the law.  For this to be discriminatory against Latinos, then it means that Latinos must at least be suspected of committing crimes more often than any other race.  Not likely.

The second part requires the police to check the immigration status of anyone in doubt.

That's a bit more discriminatory.  I doubt that Arizona gets many illegals from Canada, Asia, Europe, etc.  so I'm pretty sure that any Caucasians, Asians or blacks stopped will be here legally.

What Arizona DOES have a problem with are those illegally crossing the border from Mexico.  Guess what race most of them are?

So yes, if you are a Latino and are stopped for committing a crime in Arizona, I'd expect you to have your immigration status confirmed.  And yes, it is solely because the color of your skin matches that of the criminals in Arizona illegally.

If I have a problem with groundhogs in my garden, I don't go looking for birds.  Only our Federal government is that stupid, excuse me, politically correct.  They are the ones who ignore young to middle aged Muslim men at the airport and choose to "randomly" strip search grandmothers in wheelchairs and returning Iraqi vets in U.S. Military uniform.  They are the ones who don't want Latinos stopped when trying to stop Latinos from illegally entering our country.

If you are Latino and here legally, wonderful!  If you wish to stop the immigration problem and "discriminatory laws", then tell your cousins, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters who are here illegally or thinking of becoming illegals to go home and stay there.

Disclaimer: This blog post was created using MarsEdit on my MacBook Pro. I love the combination of quality hardware and software that is stable and functional while making it easy to get things done. All original content is copyright ©2008-2010 by Rick Cross, all rights reserved.

Who Paid For this *DUH* Moment Study?

Study: Breast, ovary removal cuts cancer risk in high-risk women - CNN.com:

Someone spent a ton of money on a four-year study that shows that women who have mastectomy's don't get breast cancer.  I mean, come on, how can someone actually fund a study that is so damn obvious from the outset?  Gee, I wonder if I can get funding to see how wearing full dentures affects getting tooth cavities?

In the hope of saving us taxpayers a ton of money, here are some other amazing results, we can just pretend that we did the studies:

• Foot amputees get fewer ingrown nails and fewer cases of athlete's foot
• Bald people don't get split ends
• The lack of the Y chromosome prevents prostate cancer (males have XY pairs, females, XX pairs)
• Those who die at a young age suffer fewer cases of senior dementia

If someone REALLY was hoping to fund those studies, you can just send me the checks.

Thank you.

Disclaimer: This blog post was created using MarsEdit on my MacBook Pro. I love the combination of quality hardware and software that is stable and functional while making it easy to get things done. All original content is copyright ©2008-2010 by Rick Cross, all rights reserved.

Netflix - Streaming Movies for Windows, Mac and anyone who pays Netflix for a solution.

I've mentioned before in here about streaming video on demand from Netflix.  While it isn't top of the line quality video, it is a great service for a good price.  Even the least expensive Netflix DVD rental plan supports unlimited streaming for just under US$9.00 per month.  It is a service that my wife uses a lot.

For those who don't know, Netflix uses someone else's streaming video service.  They didn't set up their own servers or write their own software.  Nothing wrong with that after all, why reinvent the wheel if someone else is willing to do it for you?

The service used, uses Microsoft Silverlight.  Silverlight is Microsoft's version of Adobe Flash (literally), with proprietary DRM added.  Flash supports DRM of course, that's how Hulu.com is able to stream tv shows and movies while keeping the intellectual property rights holders happy.  But you know Microsoft, they need their own.  Anyway, Silverlight works very well for this.  As long as you're running Windows or Apple's OS X.

Linux and Android mobiles can run Flash, with Adobe's DRM.  Linux runs Hulu.com video perfectly.  My HTC EVO smartphone using Android 2.2 (Froyo) ran Hulu video perfectly, until Hulu blocked it.

Android can't run Hulu video as Hulu doesn't have streaming video distribution rights for mobiles.

iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad can't run Flash of any type because that's the way that Steve Jobs wants it.  (Some wags insist that the reason the iPhone didn't have a flash for the camera until recently was that Steve thought they meant Adobe's Flash)

Linux can run Silverlight via an open-source version called Moonlight.  But no DRM as Microsoft won't license it for Linux.

Android can't run it either, but then again neither can anything from Apple that starts with the letters iP. (Because that's the way that Steve wants it.)

Funny thing, Steve Jobs keeps pitching iPxx's support for HTML5, that with it there is zero need for Flash or Silverlight.  But even the head honcho at Netflix points out that HTML5 doesn't support any kind of DRM, therefore can't be used to legally distribute video from most intellectual property holders.

The bottom line is that you can only watch Hulu.com using Windows, a Mac running OS X, or Linux.

You can only watch Netflix if you are running Windows, a Mac running OS X or (later this year) an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.

Netflix says that there isn't enough Linux market to justify the expense of creating a Linux non-Silverlight application.

Yet, Netflix decided to write a free native application for a device with half of the market size of Linux?

There alone is proof that Apple (or someone with a vested interest in Apple) has paid Netflix to write a streaming video app for the iPxx devices.

Sadly, the app may not run on the new iTV from Apple.  The $99 Apple TV replacement is an iPad in a box sans display.  Apple has disabled HD output from the iTV.  Apple sources have revealed that the A4 chip (same one used in the iPad and iPhone 4) doesn't have enough horse power to render HD video.  Actually it could, but on only on a tiny screen where you're not likely to notice artifacting and other errors.

So, if you want to watch streaming video over the internet, here are your options:

• Amazon Video on Demand - Windows, Apple OS X, Linux, Android 2.2 smartphone (change settings to turn off the request for mobile version), Tivo.
• Hulu.com - Windows, Apple OS X, Linux, Android 2.2 is capable but blocked by Hulu, perhaps other TV type boxes.
• Netflix - Windows, Apple OS X, Apple iPxx devices (soon), numerous large screen TVs, DVRs and other closed boxes.

Futurama Is Back and Blasts Apple

The Futurama gang blast Apple, the iPhone, Twitter and more in the first NEW episode on Comedy Central.

Yes, I know this is bit old to be news... but Futurama fans can rejoice because Comedy Central is now airing all new episodes of the Fox Network hit TV show, Futurama.  The first of the new episodes manages to make a social commentary on consumerism and electronic waste while really giving the piss to Apple, Steve Jobs, the iPhone, Twitter and YouTube.

Even Apple Fanbois who have a sense of humor, love this episode, just as they loved the iPhone 4 vs HTC Evo video on YouTube.

Sadly, if you missed the original airing of the new Apple-Blasting Futurama episode, Your only legal choice is to pay to watch it on Apple's iTunes Music Store.  Now THAT is ironic.

Futurama Official Site - New Episodes Thursdays at 10pm / 9c | Comedy Central

Disclaimer: This blog post was created using MarsEdit on my MacBook Pro. I love the combination of quality hardware and software that is stable and functional while making it easy to get things done. All original content is copyright ©2008-2010 by Rick Cross, all rights reserved.

Study Shows iPad, Kindle and Printed Books are Good, PC's Bad

"A study of people reading long-form text on tablets finds higher reading speeds than in the past, but they're still slower than reading print."

24 people were tested using the iBook application (indistinguishable from Stanza and other eBook readers) on an iPad, an Amazon Kindle, an eBook reader on a PC and a bound and printed book.

Reading speeds suffered on the electronic devices by as much as almost 11% slower than the printed book, with the Kindle results the slowest, though not statistically significant from the iPad.

The largest surprise to me though, was the user satisfaction levels. The readers were rather happy with the iPad, Kindle and printed book, hated the PC.  The readers didn't care for the weight of the iPad, didn't like the low contrast of the Kindle and the PC reminded them of work.

My wife and I are avid readers with almost 1,000 printed books on our shelves.  We also read eBooks on our computers and handheld devices (current iPod Touch and HTC EVO) having retired our Rocket eBook readers (REB1100s and REB1200s) to a box in the closet.  We too prefer the printed and bound "TreeBook" format but do most of our reading on the computer screen.  At our ages, a 24" screen beats even a 10" screen.

eBooks, no matter the reading device have a lot of advantages such as not needing walls of bookshelves, they don't collect dust, aren't a fire hazard and are a heck of a lot easier to handle when house moving.

TreeBooks though, may be read anywhere, any time, don't need electricity and ten years from now, you won't have a problem finding the right program or device to read them.  After TSHTF, society collapses and little is left except for mutant cockroaches driving old Buicks, a printed book can still be read.

 

 

You can read the full article on the study at: iPad and Kindle Reading Speeds (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox)

 

Disclaimer: This blog post was created using MarsEdit on my MacBook Pro. I love the combination of quality hardware and software that is stable and functional while making things easy to get things done. All original content is copyright ©2008-2010 by Rick Cross, all rights reserved.

iPhone Sales Rise To 16% Market Share!

Smartphone shipments show dynamic growth - Business - Macworld UK: "More than 55 million smartphones shipped globally in the first quarter, with iPhone shipments rising slightly from the previous quarter, from 8.7 million to 8.8 million, according to ABI Research."

 

Was G.W. Bush the President 50 Years Ago?

(Via xkcd.com.)

Apple's Fix For iPhone 4 To Show AT&T Network Weakness

Lending new meaning to "more bars, more places", Today Apple announced that they've been lying about signal strength since the original iPhone.  They admitted that the formula used to display signal strength, shows two or more bars too many.

This flaw is where Apple puts the blame for the iPhone 4 reception problem.  The one where the signal goes away when you hold the phone.  That instead of 3 or 4 bars... when this problem happens you really have a very weak signal and by grounding the antenna by touching it, you lose service.

So, they will be releasing a patch for all iPhones (except perhaps the original) which will display the "true" signal strength.  Except that now iPhone users will find out just how crappy the AT&T signal may be in their area.

BTW, I don't buy this excuse... they say that the iPhone 3GS had the same bad formula.  But they don't drop calls near as much as the new iPhone 4.  Apple's designers had a victory against the Apple engineers as no engineer would make a phone where you held the antenna.  By showing fewer bars, Apple can blamed the problem on AT&T.  By making the first few bars taller (to make them "easier to see"), Apple hopes that their fans will be lulled into a sense of having a good signal.

Apple admits iPhone 4 reception issues, says fix is coming - CNN.com

 

iPhone 4 gets a $1 alternative to pricey Bumpers - No $30 Rubber Bands

I thought that those bumpers look familiar!

iPhone 4 gets a $1 alternative to pricey Bumpers -- Engadget:

Motorola Droid X -- EVO For Verizon Customers

Finding that the camera is a bit sharper than the EVO, Engadget did a great hands on review of Motorola's new Droid X.

I'll let you read the review but in a nutshell, the Droid X is a good phone that for the most part matches the HTC Evo, just bringing parity to Verizon in the App Phone/Super Phone market.

Based on what I've read as well as my hands on experiences, when you combine hardware, software and service provider, the App Phone rankings are:

1. Sprint - HTC EVO
2. Verizon - Droid X
3. T-Mobile - Nexus One
4. AT&T - iPhone

*Note: I place the EVO in #1 because of the 4G bandwidth where available, the 2nd camera and the HTC Sense UI.  For those not in a 4G service area, it is pretty much a toss-up between the EVO and Droid X.

Motorola Droid X review -- Engadget:

iPhone 4 In My Hand: Suffers By Comparison

I  had the opportunity to very briefly use an iPhone 4 yesterday.  The screen is very impressive and I was unable to lower the signal strength by holding it.

However, as impressive as the screen is, I could barely see it.  My eyes are no longer used to such a small display.  While the phone has a better resolution than my EVO, that missing .8 diagonal inches makes a BIG difference.  It is hard to believe that I've gotten so used to the EVO's 4.3 inch display in just 12 days.  Note:  Those who haven't experienced daily use of a larger screen will never notice the difference and that situation probably applies to most all iPhone 4 buyers.

With last year's HTC Touch HD2, this month's EVO and next month's Motorola Droid X's all having 4.3 inch screens, it seems like Apple is still behind the curve.

I also predict that silicon cases or bumpers as Apple calls them are going to be very popular.  The edges of the iPhone 4 are too sharp to hold comfortably in my hand.  I don't mean at the corners, but the long edges on the front and back faces of the phone.  Out of the box, the iPhone 4 no longer fits comfortably in my hand.  The old style, including that of the iPod Touch, nestles easily into the palm of my hand, able to be held for hours in comfort.

I could see changing the form factor if it was needed for a larger display.  All I see coming from this change is change for change's sake and a boost of the sales of 3rd party cases and accessories.

My bottom line:  Between still being hampered by AT&T, the sharp edges and relatively tiny display would put this phone at the bottom of my app phone wish list.  A shame really, as it is a good phone.

Sprint HTC EVO - 17+ Hours on Standard Battery

Here's how I avoid the biggest gripe I hear about the EVO, short battery life.

You probably know by now that the new EVO is THE super phone.  Only the Motorola Droid X (unreleased) and the iPhone 4 (poor connectivity and orange splotches on screen) are in the same league.  You've probably also heard the stories about really bad battery life on the EVO.

Well, I was getting no more than about four hours out of mine the first few days.  Now though, I get at least twelve and as long as 27 hours out of a charge!  And I did with without hacking the phone or buying anything extra.  You can too.

The biggest change is that I turned ON the WiFi radio.  Yes, I turned it on.  This goes against all "common sense" about cell phones.

I have a WiFi network at home and one at work.  The one at work is a bit dodgy due to the many networks in use in the area meaning that only our Android and Windows based equipment can stay connected.  Anything with an Apple logo on it rolls over and dies.  (Note,  my iPod Touch upgraded to IOS 4 deals with it almost as well as Android.)

By using WiFi instead of 3G/4G I get tremendous battery life.  The EVO is smart enough to switch back and forth between radios as needed so the only time I'm on Sprint's network for network use is when commuting.

I leave GPS and everything else but 4G enabled.  Today I'm leaving 4G enabled as a test.  I don't use Live wallpaper, but I have a scene that does.  I use than scene when showing off the capabilities of the EVO.  And I use System Panel to make sure that apps I don't use aren't running.  All of this helps a little, but it was the WiFi that made the big difference.

The guys at my local Sprint store didn't believe me.  They don't have their EVOs yet as Sprint made employees wait til July 1st before getting theirs, and with demand exceeding supply, they'll have to wait even longer.

Show I showed them my battery history screens on System Panel.  You can see that the phone was down to just below 25% charge when I put it on chart about 12:30AM.  I charged it until about 7AM.  At 4:41PM, over 9 hours later, it still had about a 60% charge.  The other graphs show that I was indeed using the phone during this time.

Want To Call with iPhone 4? Don't hold it! Retina Display Jaundiced.

Oopsie!  Out of the box, the new iPhones have big problems. Apple is silent on the subject.

All those folks anxious to get their hands on their new iPhone 4 seem to have to hold their phone at the top and bottom as holding it by the sides cause problems connecting.  Sources say putting the new iPhone in a ziplock bag or a $29 case helps.  That doesn't however help with the yellow lines and blotches on the "Retina Display".

It looks like the problems Steve Jobs had at the WWDC launch of the iPhone 4 made it into the production models.

iPhone 4 Antenna Problems and Screen Discoloration Mar Launch - PCWorld:

Verizon Adds EVO-Like Phone!

Competition is a great thing.  By the end of Summer you can have a killer "App Phone" from your choice of carriers.

Sprint of course currently offers the EVO with its 4.3" display, dual cameras and 4G connectivity.

AT&T offers the iPhone 4 with its smaller display, dual cameras and the AT&T ball and chain for connectivity

Verizon will be offering the Droid X, a slightly stripped down version of the EVO.

Well, it appears to be an EVO, sans the front facing camera, FM radio and 4G connectivity.  It does include a dual noise cancelling dual microphone ala iPhone 4.  I honestly don't know of the EVO has the dual mic feature or not.

The Droid X also offers an additional hardware button for the camera.  It ships with a 16GB flash card rather than the 8GB provided by Sprint with the EVO.

The rest of the specs are identical to the EVO and stock Android 2.1.

Two interesting features I see in the video are that the microUSB and HDMI ports are on the side rather than the bottom as in the EVO.  This makes more sense for docking solutions and that it uses a mechanical shutter for the camera.  Again, I don't know of the EVO uses a mechanical shutter.

Motorola has certainly done a great job in cloning the HTC EVO and Verizon customers will be happy to not be left behind.

DROID X by Motorola - Android phone - HD phone - Motorola USA

 

Network Card Priority Tip (Warning Geek Alert)

You might need this.  Geeky, but easy to do.  I'll give instructions for Windows and Mac.

Most of us have one network connection on our computer, either a WiFi connection or a cabled ethernet connection.  But sometimes we have or need a connection to an additional network at the same time.

For instance... a coworker running Windows 7 wanted to use his Clear WiMax 4G in the office.  It plugs in a USB port and gives broadband speeds wirelessly and much faster than our T1 line.  But... this meant that he couldn't get on our local network.

What we had to do was to tell Windows the order to try the network devices.  This is much like saying "If you can't find it at Walmart, try K-Mart".

Windows 7 made it rather easy.

Click:

• Start
• Control Panel
• Network and Internet
• View Network Status and Tasks
• Change Adaptor Settings

Now find the local ethernet connection.  In my case it is called "Local Area Connection", the name of the network below that, and below that the name of the device, "Intel (R) PRO/1000 CT Network Connection".

• Right click on the network device
• Click on "Properties"
• Find "Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IP{v4)" in the list and click on it to highlight it
• Click the "Properties" button at the bottom right of the list
• Click the "Advanced Button" near the bottom right of the new window
• Uncheck "Automatic metric" which is the last item on the IP Settings tab.
• Change the "Interface metric" to 2
• Click OK
• Click OK
• Click Close
• Repeat for the Clear WiMax USB device, making sure that the interface metric is set to "1".
• Close the Control Panel Window

On my Mac it is even easier.

Click:

• Apple Menu
• System Preferences
• Network
• The gear at the bottom of the device list
• Set Service Order

Now drag the devices/connections to your desired order.  When done, click OK, Apply and then close the window.

Both Windows and OS X make it pretty easy to do this, of course it IS easier on the Mac.

Fanbois Rejoice: iPhone 4 has almost caught up!

I just read David Pogue's NY Times review of the iPhone 4 at State of the Art - New iPhone Arrives, Rivals Beware - NYTimes.com.  The review wasn't as I expected, as the Mr. Pogue actually point out a few minor shortcomings in the new iPhone!  The departure from cheerleading was a big surprise, though to be honest he managed to sound excited about minor improvements.

I'm a geek.  I love technical things.  I really, really like Apple's products.  However, Apple "Fanboy" is a not a term that would ever be used in conjunction with my name. (note:  This blog is written using MarsEdit on my MacBook Pro 17")

You may have noticed in my blog that I've never fallen under the spell of the iPhone.  I've never stood, zombie-like, for four to twelve hours to buy an iPhone on day of release.  Now, if the iPhone had been available from a good cellular carrier, I'd have bought an iPhone 3GS by now, especially with Walmart dumping them at $97 each for the past few months.

The 3GS, or at least the 3G, was the phone that Apple should have released three years ago.  The original iPhone was so lacking and behind the technology curve that it was perfect for AT&T.  It only supported the Edge GSM network meaning that even the cheapest competition left it in the dust for data speeds.  That matched AT&T's network though as AT&T was just rolling out their 3G network trying to catch up to Verizon, Sprint and even T-Mobile.

Talk time was claimed to be 8 hours.  Later models sliced that almost in half, the new iPhone 4 improves talk time, perhaps to where Apple had it three years ago.

Even two years ago, the release of the iPhone 3G still only had a 2 megapixel camera and no video recording capability, still far behind the competition.  Last year, Apple gave the 3GS a 50% resolution boost to 3 megapixels, added a digital compass.

This year, the iPhone 4 gets a camera boost to 5 megapixels, a new shape, faster CPU, bigger battery, an improved antenna (still not enough to overcome AT&T's deficiencies as proved by Steve Jobs' failure to get a connection at the keynote address announcing the iPhone 4), a second camera, improved microphone and an LED flash.

Hardware-wise, this is an evolutionary upgrade rather than revolutionary, that brings the latest iPhone closer to parity with Android phones released 6 months to a year ago.

The biggest improvement is in the software.  IOS 4 (the renamed Iphone Operating System because it runs on both iPhones and iPods) finally offers limited multitasking for applications that are rewritten from scratch, the ability to use folders to hold up to twelve whole icons, and the ability to switch back to a recently used application without having to first return to the home screen.

Additionally, customers can now increase the size of the font used in some applications, sorts mail messages into threads, provides a unified inbox (all your accounts are stuffed into one folder) and a spelling checker.

I.E. hardware and software combined, roughly somewhere between last year's HTC Hero Android phone from Sprint and this year's HTC Evo phone from Sprint.

But the iPhone 4 is still crippled by the AT&T cellular network.

Back to David Pogue's review.  One of the first things he points out is that no matter how many improvements are in the new iPhone, the "Cantankerous Committee" won't like it.  My point is that no matter how lacking it is, the Fanbois will love it.  As proven by the 600,000 preorders before AT&T's network had a melt-down on the first day one could preorder.

He then goes on to admit (GASP) that the iPhone actually has competition! Then goes on to describe the iPhone 4's "amazing" new features.

I love the way he ended his review:

"Now, the iPhone is no longer the undisputed king of app phones. In particular, the technically inclined may find greater flexibility and choice among its Android rivals, like the HTC Incredible and Evo. They’re more complicated, and their app store not as good, but they’re loaded with droolworthy features like turn-by-turn GPS instructions, speech recognition that saves you typing, removable batteries and a choice of cell networks.

If what you care about, however, is size and shape, beauty and battery life, polish and pleasure, then the iPhone 4 is calling your name."

In other words... if you're into looks, then the iPhone is for you.  If you're into the best features...

Oh, to make a point... my stock EVO battery is now averaging 17 hours per charge with normal use, over 24 hours with minimal use and only 12 hours with heavy use.  He says that the iPhone 4's larger battery gives you a 16% better chance of making through the day.  That is important for iPhone users as you still can't change the battery.

The Odds Are Increasing That Microsoft's Business Will Collapse - Who'da Thunk It?

Great analysis about the growing attacks on Office and Windows over at The Odds Are Increasing That Microsoft's Business Will Collapse on Businessinsider.com.

Because of their control, Apple does offer a better combination of hardware and software than anyone else in the business. Since Microsoft doesn't offer hardware (other than the Zune, keyboards and mice LOL) Apple's main competition is from the likes of Dell, HP, Gateway, Toshiba and eMachines.  Until you get to the mobile market.

There, Apple's competition is Android.  To me, this is the most important and impressive competition.

Before the iPhone, we had some smartphones running Palm OS and Windows Mobile.  They were expensive and clumsy to use, but put a lot of power in your palm.  The iPhone offered no features that I hadn't had on my Windows Mobile smartphones for several years.

Nevertheless, Apple put it in a sexy package, with a pretty much uniform and good user interface.  Yes, it lacked basic features such as "cut and paste".  However, it put a nice window dressing on commodity features.  Combine that with a rabid fan base and success is almost guaranteed.HTC has managed to provide a similar interface in their touch screen Windows phones, but the non-HTC provided Windows Mobile applications still have a crappy interface.When Apple released the first iPhone just three years ago, the only quality smart phones were the RIM Blackberry and a few Nokia (Symbian) models.  The slick interface and installed massive fan base caused the iPhone to become one of the most desired phones on the planet (despite lacking some basic features like cut and paste, a camera that shoots video and the ability to use bluetooth stereo headsets.)  Of course in 36 months, Apple fixed those deficiencies.Bottom line, the iPhone shoved Microsoft Windows Mobile based smartphones into last place. 

Android though is the big surprise.  The first Android mobile phone, the HTC Dream (G1 in the U.S.) was approved by the FCC about one and a half years ago and was released on the fourth place (out of four) U.S. Cellular network,  T-Mobile. Today, there are over 60 models of Android phones from over 20 manufacturers and every major carrier offers several models.  Multiple sources have shown that Android phones rank 3rd place in market share, behind Nokia (Symbian) and RIM (Blackberry) and will surpass RIM this year.

So Google's Android has done the same thing to Apple's iPhone that Apple did to Microsoft, but in half of the time.

While surprising, it does make some sense.

As I pointed out, over 20 companies make Android phones, having an average of 3 models each.  You can go to any carrier and get an Android phone and again, have a choice from several models.

The iPhone is available from just one US carrier, and they only offer two models.  One that is up to a year old, and one that is up to two years old.  I don't count the choices of 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, etc. as model choices since the competition allow the customer to decide by simply changing out memory cards.  The monopoly US carrier is credited with having the second worst network in the country, some of the worstcustomer service and some of the highest prices.  Nevertheless, the iPhone is a success.

So we have a "pick your carrier, pick your manufacturer and pick your model" vs a "one carrier-two models, take it or leave it" situation.  Who do you think is going to win?

On the Microsoft Office front, it IS the standard office suite for business, managing to kill off Ami Pro, Lotus 1-2-3, Wordperfect, etc.  However, It's been over ten years since Microsoft ran out of useful things to add to Office making it worth giving upgrade money to Microsoft.

• Deeply discounted, it costs $100 or more to get a current version of Microsoft Office with a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation program.
• Apple users can get iWork '09 (the current version) for almost $40 and get a very good word processor, spreadsheet and presentation program.  In fact, I find them better than anything Microsoft offers.
• Anyone running Windows, Mac or Linux can run OpenOffice for free and get a good word processor, spreadsheet, presentation program as well as a database.
• Anyone running a web browser can run Google Documents and get a basic word processor and spreadsheet for free. 

Office is one of Microsoft's two cash cows, the Windows operating system being the other.  However, there are three major alternatives, two of which can run on Windows and both of those are free.  How long do you think people will continue to give Microsoft money for Office?  Oh and by the way, all the alternatives handle Microsoft Office documents just fine.The article points out that Google ChromeOS, Android OS and "the cloud" will eventually make the desktop computer redundant.  I believe this will take longer than the author believes, but yes, I can see it happening.  In the meantime, a Mac runningOS X is a great (and I believe better) alternative to Microsoft Windows.  For about the same cost as a Windows license plus hardware, you can buy commodity hardware and build (or have built) a desktop PC running Apple OS X.  Perhaps not legally, but it works.Then there's Linux.  I like Linux.  When it comes to getting the job done and stability, Linux is right up there with Apple's OS X.  When it comes to cost, nothing beats Linux.  But... Linux isn't near as polished as OS X or even Windows.  Ubuntu Linux is almost there... Where you could give the average grandmother a computer loaded with Ubuntu and she'd be able to use it easily.

Yes, Microsoft is under pressure.  Microsoft is under a lot of pressure.  The corporate world will probably keep Microsoft alive in decades to come.  But I also remember when IBM was expected to continue to dominate the corporate desktop world as well. 

 

 

Obama has strong words as Gulf spill spreads

'I don't sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar. We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answer so I know whose ass to kick,' Obama said in an interview with NBC News' 'Today' to air on Tuesday."

When you have a disaster spreading, threatening the economy of large areas and getting worse no matter what you try to do to contain it... then asses need to be kicked.

Obama should know... our oil slick of a depression still hasn't been contained despite the trillions of dollars of that he and the Democrat controlled Congress have dumped on it.  Of course, from what I hear of public sentiment, it'll be Obama's ass getting kicked in November of 2012.

(Via Reuters)

Safari 5 is out. Slower startup, still slower than Chrome.

Yup... Apple snuck in a major update to their Safari Web Browser today.  It was pretty much a "silent" upgrade and for good reason.  Not much has changed. Certainly not enough to justify a major version change (4.x to 5.x).

While Apple claims that it runs javascript 30% faster than Safari 4, on my MacBook Pro it takes longer to load web pages than Safari 4.  Chrome is still the speed demon of web browsers for either HTML or Javascript.  Independent benchmarks show that Safari 5 is still running javascript at 2/3 the speed of Chrome 5 or Chrome 6.

Why do I care about javascript speed?  Well for one, I play three games on Facebook and two of them use HTML5.  Ok, HTML and javascript which are two of the three big deal features of current proposed specifications for the proposed HTML5 standard, the third being H.264 video.

If Mr. Jobs gets his way and the world+dog drops Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight and Java for the year 2022 W3C HTML5 standard, then javascript speed will be THE yardstick for web browsers.  (Current Safari 5 runs in 3rd place behind Opera 10.6 and Google Chrome from what I've read on the net.)  Keep on those Apple developers Steve... you only have 12 years to catch up.

There are a few tweaks to tabs and the like... the biggest feature is actually a thing called Safari Reader.  In a nutshell, after a page is loaded and Safari detects a large block of text down the middle and smaller blocks on the side, it offers a "reader" button up in the address bar.

Clicking this button blacks out everything but the central column of text and formats that text for easy reading.  While this cuts down on distractions and may make it easier for the vision impaired to read, it also hides all sidebar information and more importantly, things like Google Ads.  Yup another shot across the bows in Steve's ongoing battle with Google.

Oh yes, any artistic design choices made by the author of the site are wiped out at the same time, leaving a black on white screen using one standard font.

As far as I'm concerned the biggest improvement in Safari 5 is that it finally remembers the windows and tabs you had open last time, thus bringing them into parity with Chrome, Opera and Firefox on this feature.

So far though, I see nothing worth the 5.x moniker, nor the upgrade.  Apple being Apple though and wanting to ensure "the best possible user experience" they make it extremely difficult, if not impossible to revert back to Safari 4.

Then again, that is what backups are all about. ;-)

 

WWDC: iPad/iPhone 12 years too early! Apple Paying Companies to Leave Flash/Silverlight?

For those who have a life or a job and didn't watch Steve Jobs drone on for two hours at the WWDC Keynote this morning, there are summaries all around the net.  I've prepared a synopsis of them and all the "magical" new features along with my comments.

Please remember that I love my Apple products, but I'm not in love with Apple, Inc nor with Steve Jobs.  I've yet to drink the kool-aid.  I believe that this allows me to still keep an open mind and to think for myself.

Early on in the keynote, Mr. Jobs said that the iPad is changing the web. "A whole new way to interact with the internet, apps..."

Yes... screens smaller than 12", no flash, no java, no silverlight, just HTML.  Umm Steve, the 1990's called and want their internet back.

Later he says that Apple browsers lead in HTML5 support and that Apple is behind HTML5 100%.  Great... and in another 12 years, W3C (the governing body for web standards) is expected to actually finalize and approve HTML5.  Meanwhile, HTML5 is a moving target, changing and being developed right now and for the next 10-12 years.

Mr. Jobs then made a big deal over Apple selling an iPad every three seconds since launch.  Impressive numbers.  Using later figures of his, they've sold about 2 million iPads.  Nice, but doesn't sound as impressive does it?  By comparison, Amazon's Kindle has sold "in the millions" (tracking of various non-Amazon sources reveals about 3 million Kindles in use), Barnes and Noble's Nook e-reader has outsold the Kindle.  Just to compare some numbers.  On the wow side, Apple has done this in just a few months while the other products I mentioned have been out for months or years.  It helps to have a cult following and have people believing that they are buying something other than a large screen iPod Touch.

For some reason a lot of people are going nuts over a new "feature" on the iPad... the ability to read a PDF file embedded in an eBook.  I've no idea why that is a good, bad or even neutral thing.  Sounds to me like being able to listen to a .wav file embedded in an .mp3 file.

Now some REALLY  big news... Netflix is on the iPad and soon the iPhone.  Why is this big news?  Netflix offers streaming movies and TV shows as a benefit of your Netflix DVD subscription.  However, to comply with copyright holder's DRM and reporting requirements, Netflix using Silverlight (Microsoft's version of Adobe Flash.)  And remember, Mr. Jobs hates everything Adobe and doesn't allow things like Flash or Silverlight on his appliances.  So far Netflix to be able to stream movies to the iPad and soon iPhone, it means that Apple has likely funded a Netflix project to find a way to do that in HTML5 and still keep the copyright holders happy.  Otherwise, the combination of HTML5 and H.264 video is incapable of replacing Flash or Silverlight.

Of course I'm sure that AT&T is thrilled at the prospect of iPhone users further bringing the network to its knees streaming movies.  Unless that'll be a WiFi only (i.e. limited use) option.

Speaking of conversion, the mostly popular game on Facebook is Farmville by Zynga.  It is a social game with 70 million playing each month, that runs in your web browser, using Adobe Flash.  Zynga CEO, Mark Pincus, demonstrated Farmville for iPhone at the keynote.  Either Zynga developers wrote a native iPhone version (which they have for their non-flash based facebook games) or they used the new Adobe Flash product that produces Objective-C native iPhone code.  Nah... couldn't be the later as Steve has already banned those products from the iPhone/iPad.

Another "This is how great we're doing" fact from Mr. Jobs.  Last May, 58% of people browsing the web using mobiles were using an iPhone and that this is 2.5X the number of Android users.

That's very good for an OS (iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad) that is in 4th place out of 5 for Smartphones.  The current rank seems to be Nokia (Symbian) in 1st place, RIM (Blackberry) in 2nd, closely followed by Android, then iPhoneOS and finally Windows Mobile.

Of course Apple's interpretation of the figures is just a little bit different.  Mr. Jobs claims that the experts are wrong and that Apple has 28% of the U.S. smartphone market and is in first place with Android in 2nd with 9% of the share.  Plus Apple only has 2 models at a time (this year's model and last year's model) and only 3 dealers: Apple, AT&T and recently Walmart (used to dump the old models at $97 each) while Android is on over 60 current models of phones from 23 different manufacturers and hundreds of different dealers.  So yeah, Steve, of course Android would be in second place to you.

Now... everyone paying attention to the keynote wasn't doing so to hear Steve tell everyone how great he is... they wanted to know what Apple was doing to get the iPhone to catch up with technology.

The new phone sounds wonderful!  25% thinner but with 40% more battery life.  Switching to Apple's A4 chip and from a sim card to a microsim card allowed them to stick a larger battery inside.  A good thing as you still can't change the battery on the new iPhone.

Sadly, Steve couldn't really demonstrate network connectivity of the new iPhone as the new stainless steel external antennas didn't seem to help the inherently weak WiFi radios in the iPod/iPhone/iPad products.   After blaming the problems on the attendees using all the WiFi channels, the new iPhone again reached massive FAIL when he couldn't get an AT&T 3G connection.  One wag in the audience gave Steve great advice... "Try Verizon"

Then he goes on to say that the new iPhone will support 7.2 mbps download speeds. "once a carrier supports it."  Hmm my carrier, Sprint supports it right now.  In fact my phone (HTC Evo) supports it right now.  Much like his HTML5... once everyone supports it...

Other new features of the phone sound like cribbed right off the Evo spec sheet, dual cameras, tap to focus, LED Flash, 720p camcorder, two way video calls... (Note, two way video calling only works over WiFi, not over the cellular network though Apple is trying to get "FaceTime" designated as THE standard for two way video calls.)

So in a nutshell, the two hour keynote was spent showing how great Apple is, how much AT&T sucks, how much the iPxx devices suck at WiFi, justifying Steve's fear of using other people's standards and pretending that 90% of the new features of the iPhone aren't in our hands already in Android phones.

The new iPhone 4 Screen sounds really cool though.

Prediction:  There will be thousands of people standing in line for hours and hours on June 24th, happy to pay Apple another $200-$300 for this year's iPhone and paying AT&T another ~$1,100 for a year of crappy service.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is Hotmail Still Broken?

It certainly looks like they are still censoring incoming email.

My day job is for a company that provides data on thoroughbred horses and thoroughbred horse racing.  Microsoft, through their MSN, Live and Hotmail mail services refuse to deliver replies we've written to their customers.  Note that we aren't sending unsolicited email, but rather REPLIES that have been sent from hotmail.com and live.com addresses.

Hotmail tells us that we're a gambling site.  We are?  That's news to us and would be to the Nevada Gaming Commission as well.  Anyway, to "ensure that our email is not blocked", they are more than willing to put us on a whitelist if we pay them protection money/tribute/Whitelist/Spammer fees.

That's right... as a Hotmail user, you are protected from pr0n, gambling and v1agra spam unless the spammer pays Microsoft first.

As an example, a Hotmail user emailed with a complaint that we hadn't been answering his email.  Of course we HAD been replying but Hotmail was silently blocking our replies.

So I created a new Hotmail account just to reply to this fine gentleman.  After filling in the normal stuff, including a captcha (type in the screwed up letters in this graphic so we know that you're a human), I copied and pasted my reply to him.  When i hit send, I was told I had to verify the account before sending an email.  The verification?  Yet another captcha.

Sheesh.  Now I've had a Hotmail account since long before Microsoft bought them.  Just FYI, Hotmail ran on Linux and MySQL in those days and never went down.  Not long after the Microsoft buyout, my Hotmail inbox filled with spam.  Just as a test, I created a new account using random letters and numbers for the name, and sent just one email from it (to an email address on one of my domains.)  A month later, I logged into find that my "new" account wasn't accepting any more mail due to the inbox being full... of Spam.

Now, since only Microsoft and I had that email address....  who do you think sold my address to the spammers?

It was either that, or Microsoft Hotmail security is just as secure as Microsoft Windows.

While writing this, I got curious.  I only give out my hotmail address as a throw-away.  I don't think I've logged into it for years.  So I decided to look at it just now.

First, I find that I'm now part of some sort of social network, an anemic copy of Facebook I think.  I was sent there after logging into Hotmail.com.  I finally made it to Windows Live Hotmail where I have 356 new messages in my inbox and 39 in my junk folder.  Of the 35 messages on the first page, 16 of them are spam, most with the subject "RE: Hello".  Of course there're some in other languages, my lucky numbers from winning a Lotto I didn't enter and an email from a barrister regarding a $45,000.00 bank draft he's holding for me.

The rest of the page consists of advertisements from Microsoft "Partners" and email from Microsoft entities tell me how great they are.

Yup, Hotmail is still broken.  Looks like a lot of spammers have paid to be on the whitelist.

Whitesmoke Writer Now For MAC!!!

My favorite grammar and spelling checker is now a native OS X application. This was a nice Memorial Day surprise.

While I've owned the Windows version for several years, to use it on my Mac required me to log into the web based version on Whitesmoke's website, paste in the text, copy and paste it back when done. While it worked, it certainly wasn't an optimal experience. This is especially true since the Windows version pops up and checks automatically every time you enter a period.

With the native application, I highlight and copy the test, hit fn-F2 on my MacBook Pro and get a window with marked up text, suggestions and an analysis of my writing. Once I've made my corrections, I click "Apply" and the original text is modified. Still not perfect but much better than the web-based method.

The only problem I see so far, at least in MarsEdit (the blogging software that I use) is that once I've applied, pressing return drops the cursor about ten lines down. This isn't shown in the preview window, just in the editor.

Note that while OSX has a built-in spelling and grammar checker that works as you type in most applications. This is just one out of the many benefits of OSX vs a more widely used operating system. WhiteSmoke kicks this up a notch or three and for a very reasonable price. Since I'm already a licensed user, the "upgrade" to Whitesmoke 2010+ (which also covers me for Windows) was only $30. And yes, all the confirmation emails gave me the link to the full Windows version as well.

My only problem with WhiteSmoke is that they continually email me with offers to upgrade, or pop up windows to upgrade when I fire up my Windows XP virtual machine in Parallels. The last time I upgraded, the "upgrade" had fewer features than my old one as I'd originally purchased a bundle with addons for technical, novel, medical, legal, etc. documents. The upgrade didn't have them and wanted me to buy them again.

All in all, however, I'm a fan of WhiteSmoke and find it to be a great addition to my workflow. 

Detroit Stops Auto Crashes by Disabling Ignition

Imagine that headline with the story: "To make our customers safer and help to prevent collisions, we've disabled the ignition system in all 2011 models of our cars.  If they can't start them, they can't wreck them."

Silly isn't it?

Except that Microsoft has applied this "logic" to Windows 7.

Years ago, Microsoft introduced a feature called autorun.inf.  Being a simple little text file, Windows would look at it when a CD, DVD or USB drive was connected, and would then start the program specified in the file.  Think of it as an autoexec.bat file for removable media.

That little file is what enables a menu to pop up when you insert a software CD into your computer.  In the case of one of my USB "thumb" drives, it starts up a menu from portableapps.com giving me access to portable versions of Firefox, Thunderbird, TotalCommander, LogMeIn Ignition and more.

Except that I couldn't get it to work in Windows 7.

According to the Microsoft Developer web site, it is disabled for USB drives in Windows 7.  After some Googling, I found that their reasoning is as follows:

Autorun.inf may be set to start a program infected by a virus.  So if your USB stick is used in an infected machine, automatically starting a program when inserted into another machine will spread the virus.  So by preventing Windows from using the autorun.inf file, they've slowed the spread of viruses.

Of course, they've also at the same time removed a major portion of the functionality of USB drives at the same time.

Note: optical drives (CD-ROM and DVD-ROM) don't have this limitation.

This isn't a BIG hassle for me, I insert the drive, tell the Windows popup to browse the drive, then double click on the startportableapps.exe icon.  It is just an example of making life more difficult as one of the penalties for using Windows.

 

 

Ubuntu Lucid Lynx Linux Looking Good

Those who know me well, know that I like OS X, Windows and Linux depending on the situation. I've used Linux off and on since the day of Yggdrasil Linux back around 1993. At the time I was also running MS-DOS, Amiga Workbench, MacOS 6 and OS/2. While my main OS is OS X, I still use Linux from time to time. Today I installed Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on my Windows 7 machine at the office. All I can say is WOW.

The machine is an older 3.0 GHz Pentium 4. Hyper-threaded but no dual core. It has 2 GB of DDR memory, two 250GB SATA hard drives and a DVD burner. Video is provided by an nVidia 6800GT AGP video card. Yes, kinda outdated by it runs Windows 7 Home Premium pretty dang well.

I downloaded the burned the ISO, then booted off it on the machine. That pretty much let me see what all the fuss is about. It identified my PCI based wireless card and connected to the office network once i entered the password. It saw my nVidia graphics card and let me know there were non-open source drivers available for it. Everything seemed to work so I went ahead and told it to install to the hard drive. Yeah, I was brave, my system was backed up and I wanted to see how it handled being installed with Windows 7.

After examining my computer, it only offered me the main drive (C:) and with a click or two, had resized the drive to free up space for a 40GB partition and installed itself. Seven steps later, I'd rebooted and the GRUB loader offered me Ubuntu or Windows 7. The steps were things like language, time zone and keyboard country. It got the time zone wrong thinking Denver. My guess is because that's the main location of our T1 provider.

This time I let it install the video driver. I then set up Empathy chat client that's supplied and embedded into the OS. It handles most every chat system out there as well as broadcast services like Twitter, Flickr and Facebook. The mail link on it ties into Evolution, the pervasive mail, todo and calendar app on every Linux box.

All the usual suspects are present: Firefox, a few games, OpenOffice, F-Spot Photo Manager, Rhythmbox Music Player and even basic scanning software. In other words, out of the "box" Ubuntu is a brain-dead easy install that provides the basic software everyone needs for a desktop computer.

Going to Facebook, I fired up Farmville, a flash based game from Zynga. The page said that I needed to upgrade my version of Flash (since it isn't open source, I doubt it was installed in the first place) which I did by clicking the provided link. Massive Fail! None of the links on Adobe's site would actually let me download Flash until I chose to open the link in a new window. I don't know of this was Firefox or the website. Once I did that, I was offered Adobe Flash Player 10.0.45.2 and had to choose between YUM, .tar.gz, .rpm, .deb for Ubuntu 8.04+ and APT for Ubuntu 9.04+. Pretending to be a newbie, I chose YUM instead of APT. Surprisingly, it worked oerfectly, opening in Archive Manager. However, being a Newbie (for this) I didn't know the folder to pick for extraction. When I went back and chose APT, Firfox didn't know what to use for opening the file. Ok, three strikes.

So it's up to the Application menu and the Ubuntu Software Center. I clicked on "Get Software", entered Flash in the search box and was offered 100 items with Adobe Flash plugin being the 4th choice. I clicked it, clicked install, entered my computer password in about 30 seconds later, had Flash installed. Well, so I thought. Neither Farmville nor certain parts of Mafia Wars would load, even after restarting Firefox.

So on Flash install... major fail.

Next stop, Pogo.com to test Java. When I went to play Jungle Gin, Pogo informed me that I needed the Java plugin, then gave me four options... RPM, self-extracting and the same two but for x64 based Linux boxes. They provided instructions that require going to terminal and becoming root. Easy enough but not for the newbie. So back to the Ubuntu Software Center.

Needless to say, there are a number of java apps in the repository. Enough to scare off newbies. Here to gave up on the newbie aspect, and installed Ubuntu Restricted Extras. This provides in one go, MP3 playback, Microsoft Fonts, Java, Flash, etc.

This package too a lot longer to download and install. But it did so automatically. Flash apps on Facebook now worked properly and Pogo's Jungle Gin started to load the room, but just sat there. Not a good sign. Going to java.com and clicking "Do I have Java" it ook me to Pogo which said "you have the plugin installed and are ready to play." Except nothing came up.

Finally it was off to Second Life. I'm not on there much these days, but wanted to test the system. Now I don't care for the new 2.x Official Linden Labs client, so I downloaded the latest version of the Emerald Viewer. It opened in Archive Manager and I extracted it to a bin folder on my home folder. No, a newbie wouldn't know to do that. Worked perfectly.

Ok, one final test before going home for the day... I went to the places menu, clicked on 210GB file System (my old C: drive) and sure enough, it showed me the contents of the NTFS Windows 7 drive and let me create files there. Nice!

In summary... Ubuntu 10.04 is easily the most blonde/newbie friendly install I've ever done. Anyone would be able to install Linux on their computer with this. With a little help from someone for things like Flash and Java installs, a Lucid Lynx computer would do for the average computer user. However, we're not there quite there yet.

Sprint - HTC EVO™ 4G YES!!!!

And to think I almost went iPhone after all.

Yes, I bought an iPod Touch. There are some great apps and the Touch gives me the best mobile web experience I've had. The iPhone OS sets the bar high for usability.

All the other stuff I didn't like about the iPhone and AT&T still holds true. I jailbroke my touch (easy and quick) and got around many of the problems. Since I got the Touch, I don't deal with AT&T at all, and use my Clear 4G ClearSpot device to give me internet on the go.

My experience with the Touch was good enough that I almost bit the bullet and considered going with AT&T anyway, or least going with the rumored Verizon iPhone due this summer.

Meanwhile I've played with the HTC Hero on Sprint and drooled over Google's Nexus One on T-Mobile. Then I heard rumors about the HTC SuperSonic... the first 4G cellphone. Rumor had it as a 1Ghz Snapdragon CPU, 4.3" screen (huge for a smartphone) and of course 4G. I.e., the Nexus One with a bigger screen.

Sprint finally announced it today. The rumors were all true. Then add in TWO cameras instead of one. One is an 8 Megapixel instead of the normal 5 MP and even shoots HD video (720P probably), plus a second 1.3 megapixel cam that faces the user for video conferencing. So OK, even better.

The part that tickles me is that out of the box it officially has and supports a WiFi hotspot application so you can wirelessly tether up to eight other devices (like my Touch) to use the Evo's 4G internet connection. That right there replaces my Clear 4G USB Dongle + MySpot pocket wifi hotspot. It also replaces my old MiFi 2200 3G pocket hotspot.

I've already signed up to have Sprint notify when the Evo is released. My contract is up in a week... Looks like I'll be staying with Sprint!

Sprint - HTC EVO™ 4G\

Another Brick in the Socialist Wall as Medical Stocks Rise!

Landmark health care overhaul bill heads to Obama's desk - CNN.com

A smaller headline from the finance section noted that healthcare stocks rose across the board today.

Yup, unless you've had your head in the sand, you know that the U.S. Congress has been involved for a year in a bitter battle to "reform" health care as requested by Barack Obama. After a lot of back-room dealing and with support from health insurance providers, hospitals and the American Medical Association, the House finally passed the bill previously passed by the Senate and which Obama will sign into law on Tuesday.

Why did the health stocks go up? Because those in the know realize that with the new "reform", the healthcare companies are only going to be even more profitable.

Obama, the Democrat Party Leaders and other Euro-Socialist puppets really wanted National Health, much like that which has failed in most European industrialized nations. (Why is it that our Federal government always thinks it can succeed doing something everyone else has failed to do?) When it became obvious that the citizens of the United States vehemently opposed National Health, the goal became "healthcare reform"... to "throttle" the insurance companies, lower costs and provide coverage for everyone.

So why did the stocks go up? Why did our healthcare industry back this legislation?

Because it does the opposite of what Congress claims.

First, the insurance industry has been jacking up rates for the past year, all in case this bill passed but was worse for them. Our own rates at my day job rose an average of 40% this year. We've checked and there is no lower rate from anyone. Well, yes... for the first six months or so from some companies. The premiums for my wife and I are now over $1,200 a month. No, we don't have a "Cadillac" plan. Add in my prescription costs with my $30 copays and half of my paycheck goes to healthcare... without seeing a doctor. Yes, our plan is so good that the copays from six days in Cardiac Care last fall are almost enough to put me into bankruptcy.

Secondly, a key provision of the "reform" is that everyone must have insurance. In four more years, most employers have to provide it (not pay for it) and if a private citizen doesn't have it through their employer, they have to buy it themselves or face the wrath of the Internal Revenue Service.

That second fact folks, is the reason for the expectation that healthcare companies are going to be even more profitable. When buying a service is mandatory, you have a captive market with no incentive to provide service. Want a prime example? Auto insurance.

Most states now require anyone driving to carry liability insurance on the vehicle. By itself, that sounds good. If it worked, then if someone else hurt you or your vehicle, you'd be compensated, even if they were an illegal alien with zero paperwork for anything. However, with "everyone" having insurance, the cost of auto body repairs has skyrocketed, the deep pockets of the insurance companies have led to larger and larger settlements for victims. In return, the insurance companies who love premiums but hate to pay out, keep on raising the rates. A vicious circle. (BTW, go to a body shop and get a quote on fixing your car... once they do it, ask them the price if you pay cash. You're in for a shock. I've seen a $1,500 bumper insurance claim become a $150 part.)

So now the Feds are going to require that we buy health insurance. Healthcare is already too damn expensive, now it is going to cost more. And the insurance companies? They're limited in some things that they can do now... but overall, their revenue stream is posed to become a raging torrent. And yes, partly due to them gleefully raising the premiums. After all, the Democrats some of you were so proud of have ensured that no matter how high everyone raises health insurance premiums, you or your boss have to pay them.

Folks, just remember to ask yourself one question when watching the news.

The question? "Cui bono?" Which is Latin for "To whose benefit?"

In other words, don't just take the word of a talking head. Try to find out who really benefits from something that it happening. Chances are, you'll find the power behind the action.

Mississippi school sued for canceling prom over lesbian student - Good For Them!

Mississippi school sued for canceling prom over lesbian student - CNN.com: ""

The gist of the story is that an 18-year-old high school student wanted to wear a tux to her prom and bring her girlfriend as her date. Ok, not so bad and common in places like California. From the reaction, it probably isn't too common in Mississippi.

First, why did the girl in question go to the superintendent to ask permission to wear a tux and bring a same-sex date? Did she expect trouble? Did she want to cause trouble? I suspect both. If she wanted to do the same sex thing and didn't think it was such a big deal, she and her girlfriend would have just shown up. IF they weren't let in, or were kicked out, then she'd have a legitimate beef.

The superintendent told her that only males were to wear tuxes. Makes sense to me. I remember my proms had a dress code that required a tux for males and evening gown for females. She admits to being a female.

Then she pushed the same-sex issue and was told "you can be ejected if the other students complain". Which would also apply if someone was disturbing the prom in other manners, like making a scene. Which I believe this girl was fully intending to do. Her attitude is such that she likely was going to "get in their faces" with her lesbianism.

The self-inflicted battle continues... resulting in the school district being forced to take a stance one way or the other. They chose to specify male-female as being normal. (Guess what, it is.)

So then the girl gets the ACLU involved, I'm sure she'd already consulted with them on the proper order of things. (I AM a card carrying member of the ACLU, just FYI, though like any other group, I don't believe in nor support everything they do.)

Facing a battle they couldn't win no matter which way they turned, the district chose what I felt was the wisest option. Just cancel the whole prom. That would let the district get back to the job it was meant to do... educate the students. They'd let someone else be the target.

Nope, not good enough. With her moment in fame taken from her and the situation defused, she and the ACLU now fight the school as being unfair to the rest of the students.

Unfair? Equal treatment is what I call it. That is what the ACLU is supposed to be all about.

But no, this keeps the girl in the limelight, may make the other students look a bit kinder on her and wastes the time and money of the school district.

I say, keep the prom cancelled for this year and let the girl go stirring up trouble someplace else. Maybe someone will give her a one way ticket to California for a graduation present.

After 41 Years, My New Orleans Saints win Super Bowl

Oh hell! I'm blogging about professional sports! They're probably selling snow cones in hell too!

I don't dislike professional sports, I just have very little interest in them. Yes, as a kid I had "my" teams... the Los Angeles Dodgers, The LA Rams, USC Trojans, UCLA Bruins (can you guess where I grew up?) But I really didn't follow the sports. Many an an evening was spent with my father listening to Vin Scully call the Dodger games on KFI AM. But when we drove the 100 miles or so to Dodger or Anaheim Stadium for a game, I pretty much had to learn the rules all over again. After he died, I had no interest in the game until Fernando Valenzuela came along. And later I again lost interest.

However, one sports team has been #1 in my heart since the late 1960s. The New Orleans Saints. I can understand my preferences... I'll get to that in a bit, but for a perpetual underdog, the Saints filled the Superdome every home game and the fans were rabid. Then again, they take their football seriously in the South. Whole towns will show up at a high school football game.

Here's why the Saints are my team:

Back around 1969, my father had been stationed at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi and had been reassigned to a remote radar station in Iceland. It was so remote that they only had 60 people on the "base". You can't take your family on those remote assignments, so we were headed to Galesburg, Illinois to stay with my grandparents for the nine months of his assignment. I was all of 11 years old.

I don't remember the date or anything but it was just a month or two before Hurricane Camille hit Biloxi and wiped out most of what I knew of the area. For those who don't know, Wikipedia has a very good article on her. In a nutshell, Camille was the strongest tropical hurricane to ever hit land in the world and one of only four worldwide to hit with winds of 190 miles per hour. She killed 259 people and in 2005 US Dollars, caused $9.14 billion in damages. It took 36 years for a hurricane matching Camille's devastation and strength to hit Mississippi. That was Katrina who because of her larger size, damaged a larger area to the tune of over $100 billion US Dollars. Even then, Katrina's winds only reached 175 mph vs Camille's 190.

Sorry for wandering.

So here we were in New Orleans airport catching a flight to Chicago's O'Hare. Walking towards us, was a group of giants. Well, to a 11-year-old they were. Big and scary, they were decked out in flat top haircuts and green blazers. I asked my father who they were and he said, "Son, THOSE boys are THE New Orleans Saints football team!". I swear I remember his drawling it out and sounding like a sportscaster announcing the home team. I could hear the pride and awe in his voice.

The players proceeded to introduce themselves and shook hands with me, smiling all the time. Funny, but I remember how clean they seemed and how their teeth were so white and perfect.

To this day, I've had a soft spot in my heart for that team. Every time I hear that they are doing well, I get very glad inside. My heart was in my throat when they were still undefeated earlier this season. I still don't follow the game, and sadly, didn't even realize that they'd actually made it to the Super Bowl until today at halftime. I might have watched the game, but don't even have a TV hooked up at the moment. However, fans on Facebook, Second Life and Twitter certainly kept me updated.

And now... some 41 years after I found "my" team... my team was won a Super Bowl!

Go Saints!

New Orleans win Super Bowl for first time - CNN.com: ""

Steve Job's Last Hurrah or His Last Fail?

For over years, I (amongst many) have dreamt of a do-everything tablet pc; A data pad right out of Sci-Fi movies and books. Something I could use to surf the net, read books, run programs and easily carry with me. I had visions of whipping out a wafer thin "clipboard" that was my computer. The so-called tablet PCs that Bill Gates pushed were close but clunky and under powered.

So when the rumors of an Apple Tablet started, some of us got excited. One of the journalists nicknamed it the iPad and I loved it. Though when the rumors of the name being iSlate came out, it made more sense. "Mom, Dad, I need an iPad for College" and the kid gets an iPod by mistake. So yeah, the iSlate is a better name.

Just a day or two before the big announcement, I was asked several times what I expected. Here were my guesses:

iPod Touch looking device, 7-10" screen size, flash storage, iphone OS.

The iPhone OS was almost a given as Apple loves the profits and control of the AppStore.

Now... here is what I really expected Apple to do:

1. Come out with a 7" model running iPhone OS. I.E. a big iPod Touch.

2. Later, bring out a 10-12" model running OS X. A REAL Tablet PC.

I'd be likely to buy one of each. Different tools for different tasks.

What we got was a 10" iPod Touch.

I'm Ok with that. I can even think of several legitimate uses for it. For what I do with my notebook in bed, it'd work fine. It'd be great for the kids in the back seat on trips. It'd be easier on my eyes than my iPod Touch.

But to hear Steve Jobs call it the best work he's ever done; To hear him call it the best browsing experience...; To see Apple.com call it "Our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price." are all pure bullshit.

Steve, this isn't a new category of a device... it is just a big iPod Touch! That's it. Period. End of Story. If this is the best you can do and what you're most proud of, I think they removed more than just a kidney.

There is NOTHING innovative or revolutionary about the iPod. It IS just an iPod with a bigger screen. At least with your innovative and revolutionary iPhone, you took the features of the typical smartphone and put them in a really slim design with a nice user interface. (And to think I bad mouthed it!) The iPad is too big to be a portable device, and too crippled to be even a netbook, much less a full blown computer. How can it be a superior browsing experience when you won't let it run anything that requires Java, Silverlight, Flash or any number of other web technologies? Isn't that like pitching me a black and white HD television with a tinny single speaker (and no extra connections) and telling me that it's the best TV viewing experience I could ever have?

By default, a PC has extra I/O connections. The iPad has none. Every PC operating system released in the past 10 years is designed to run more than one app at a time. The iPad can't. An estimated 60-70% of websites will leave little "you need a plugin for this" icon all over their pages when you view them with the iPad.

Heck, Archos and others have similar products marketed as "media pads". They don't pretend that they're PCs, they don't claim that they're revolutionary... They are what they claim: Tablet devices for watching movies, playing music and doing minor web surfing.

I'm not the only one who sees these faults. Even some rabid Fanbois are backing away from the iPad. That's REALLY scary, as Steve's previous flop, the Macbook Air, didn't get the kind of negative publicity already generated by the iPad.

Yeah, Remember the Air? That was Apple's first attempt at a netbook. Underpowered, under-featured and overpriced, even for Apple. They killed the 12" Powerbook/MacBook Pro for that turkey. When was the last time you heard anyone praising it much less saw someone using one? I still see folks running 12" Powerbooks. They beg the Genius Bar employees to get them back working when they break. The Air isn't gone, it is still there on the Apple site for $1,499 and up.

Compared to the iPad, the Air is starting to look like a real bargain.

So What's So Special About Marital Infidelity?

I've kept quiet on this issue. But the media won't let it die. Tiger Woods screwed around on his wife.

Big F'ing Deal!

Gee, he's male, handsome, got bucks and he's famous. He's a prime target for celebrity hungry women and major ammo during (pardon my French) hunting during split-tail season.

Other than the above advantage, what is so special about his affairs that the media needs to blast us with them in the "news"? Married people cheat on their spouses each and every day. This is nothing new folks!

And AT&T and other sponsors have now distanced themselves from him. But did they do the same for the philandering politicians they support? Can you say double standard?