Swimming In Thought

I’m a gadget geek.  More of a power-user who’s only interest in a device is the utilitarian value it provides me in my day to day life. This means I need a device that works well, is easy to use, and can survive the day-to-day rigors of a road warrior.

I’d like to point out that I **never** “baby” my phones.  They should be built tough and if they break, I normally couldn’t be bothered to get them fixed.  I just throw them out and get new ones.  With that being said, One can be assured that if a device survives me, then it’s a good device. (hah).

The three devices I’ve looked at are the Nexus One (ATT edition), the iPhone 3GS, The Blackberry Bold 9000, and the Motorola Backflip.  Why do I own all these phones?  I just can’t seem to find the one “ideal” device for all my use.  In other words, it doesn’t exist… yet.

The requirements I’m looking for in a phone are simple.

1. Ease of Use (If it has a crappy User Interface, it’s useless)

2. Access to Email (as it comes in)

3. Keyboard… Qwerty please.

4. Battery life.

5. A plus would be a browser that works well.

So let’s talk phones.

Nexus One

Google and HTC  have outdone themselves with the phone.  It’s just an amazing little device.  Downside?  Battery life.  I love the fact that I can just sync it with my gmail account and get all my contacts in one place.  Browser?  As far as phone browsers go, it’s the best i’ve ever used.  I love the app functionality of having access to the marketplace.  My only other quirk is that it’s a bit on the silent side and it crashes, although, i would be more than happy to put up with it.  This is the quintessential Geek Phone.

iPhone 3GS

As far as phones go, it works.  Apple did a good job, although, the limitations of the phone that bring it down are all Apple centric.  What do i mean?  They censor what I can do with the phone.  I mean, c’mon!  If I want another browser on the phone, I shouldn’t be limited to what Jobs deems as appropriate.  If they only lifted the limitations on the phone, I would consider it as a primary phone.  It currently sits in my bag as a backup unit and nothing more.

Blackberry Bold 9000 and 9700 (yup.. I own one)

Blackberry knows business and these phones serve as my primary phones.  The only problem?  RIM needs to get their SDK working.  Email, text,  etc.  It serves as my primary phone, although, the headset jacks break all too easily.

Backflip

Motorola just completely missed the boat on this one.  Great OS (Android), but Moto just needs to get their shit in order and make the phone more “open”.  Good hardware, good battery life, good phone overall.  Just missed the boat for reasons stated above.

So the final conclusion.

I’ll continue to buy phones in search of the perfect device.  I run around with an iPad for movies while traveling, but my primary phone will continue to be a blackberry until they get it right.  It’s a shame though.. I love the Nexus One.  If it only had a louder ringer and better battery life.. it would be my phone of choice.

Tags: General Observations by admin
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I don’t like Adobe Flash.  I think it’s one of those technologies that should have been relegated to the bottom of the ocean 10 years ago.  It has caused nothing but pain to so many technology projects I’ve been on.  People think a Flash Website is SEO friendly and compliant with all standards out there.  The problem?  It’s about as proprietary as Apple’s iPhone.  Go figure, we have two companies who want to push their proprietary bullshit into the public eye by using public funds (our tax dollars) to fight it out.

Don’t get me wrong, I like [some] Adobe products (Photoshop and Illustrator) and I like some Apple products (their hardware).   The reality is Apple likes to impose their moral BS on all of us (by deciding what content we can and can’t watch) and Adobe prefers to make that content as obfuscated as possible.  Personally, these two companies deserve each other.

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Maybe I’m just pointing out the obvious, but the way to solve a problem isn’t just brushing it under the rug and making believe it’s not there anymore.  This seems to be what scientists want to do to help mitigate global warming.  Let’s just inject it into rocks and seal it underground!

Uhm.. What nimrod came up with that idea?  There are ways to deal with CO2 that are a helluva lot better!

1. Plant more green plants maybe?  Let them chemically convert the CO2 to uhm.. O2?  Wow.  What a concept.

Just pointing out the obvious.

Tags: Energy Efficiency, General Observations, Politics by admin
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Tags: Finance, General Observations, Personal, Politics by admin
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It’s funny when installing Exchange 2010 is infinitely more retarded and complex than installing Postfix, MySql, Courier, Spam Assassin, SquirrelMail, ClamAV and CentOS 5.3 with all the security and VPN goodies.

I just did an Exchange 2010 install and it only crashed the server and mucked things up for no apparent reason 3 times!  Kept track of my hours on this job.. 32 hours and most of it was waiting for Microsloth Retard Server oops.. I mean Exchange Server 2010 to do god knows whatever it’s doing.

If this were Linux Land, It would have taken me uhm..  2 hours!?!!

And how does deploying MS save money on the enterprise?  Someone please explain this one to me.. Oh wait.. It’s the next logical evolution of Cobol.  Right… I got it.

Tags: General Observations by admin
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Tags: General Observations, Politics by admin
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Well, it finally happened and I didn’t even see it coming.  Just going about my daily business when all of a sudden, BAM! and wow.. I’m still seeing stars!  Cupid came along and took one big swing with a louisville slugger.  I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve felt this way. That feeling of pending excitement when you know you’re going to see that person later on that day. The ridiculous Kool-Aid smile you have on your face for no apparent reason.  Yup, that’s me right about now.

Tags: General Observations, Personal by admin
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We all decompress in different ways.  Some jog, others cook, there’s the veritable “walker”.  Me?  Well.. I like to do things that may seem unnatural.  I’m an adrenalin junkie.  I don’t do it so much for the “thrill” of doing it, but for the one moment of clarity I get during the act of whatever it is I’m doing.  Whether it’s skydiving, bungie jumping, or propelling myself down the road at some insane speed.  There’s that quick thought that I could die at any moment and it’s at that moment I gain true perspective of everything.  It makes me realize things like work stress, P&Ls, money.. you know.. things that are major stress-points for people.. well, they just don’t matter.

Just remember boys and girls.. wear a helmet and always put on your safety belt. bah!

Tags: General Observations, Personal by admin
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Warning: The following post is a complete rant.  I’ll probably piss off quite a few people, but seriously.. The level of stupidity involved in this little exercise rivals even that of the TSA.

It just fucking amazes me how someone at the White House thought it would be a good idea to fly Airforce One over New York City. Seriously, what the fuck were they thinking?  I wish I could just write this off as a mild fuck-up, but clearly this required lots of thought and coordination by individuals at every level of government; Federal, State, and City.

Here’s the reality:

Federal: First, someone at the Executive Level decided, “Hey, let’s update our photos of AF-1, wouldn’t it be cool if we could fly it over New York City?”  Sadly, there were enough dumb shits in office that agreed this would be a great photo-op.  Uhm.. OK.. Maybe they didn’t hear of Sept. 11, 2001.  You would think that they would need to notify the FAA for this (and they did), because they needed to clear air traffic (in / around) Manhattan to do this.  The geniuses at the FAA (including those wonderful Flight Controllers who get paid 180K per year) didn’t bother to *possibly* raise a flag that New Yorkers might be sensitive to a large commercial jet flying low over NYC.  Just fucking brilliant.

State: Well.. They’re just dumb as fuck so there’s really no discussing how stupid NY state politicians are.  Let’s just make believe they just thought, “Oh wow! What a great idea!”

City: Bloomberg; The fucker that decided it would be a good idea to change term limits so he could stay in office longer.  (Doesn’t this sound like a third world dictatorship?).  You’d think he would have enough intelligence to just say, “Hey.. Maybe this isn’t that good an idea.”  It’s ok, because Bloomberg’s a fucking hypocrite.  The “ordinary guy” who happens to be mayor that “takes the subway” to work.  Uhm.. The idiot takes a private car to the subway station.  Almost makes you want Giuliani back.. well, maybe not that bad.  Any diehard New Yorker would have enough common sense to just recognize that this wouldn’t be a good idea.  So either Bloomberg is just incredibly stupid or he’s just kissing the ass of the new administration.

I guess what blows my mind about the whole thing is the simple fact that out of all the people who were involved or notified of this little stunt, not one person decided that maybe flying a very large commercial jet at low altitude over New York City on a Monday morning prompting multiple building evacuations would be a bad idea?

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything this blatantly stupid executed by any other government.  Seriously.

Tags: General Observations by admin
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There are times when I just feel like spouting whatever comes to mind. This is one of those times. The thoughts contained here are just a download of whatever is on my mind at the moment. It’s kind of a release valve of sorts. I guess that’s why I blog; it’s therapeutic.

Don’t mind the grammar, as I am not paying attention to form and aesthetics. Meh.

My thoughts about:

Online Dating: I have no idea why people feel the overwhelming need to misrepresent themselves. I have a friend who is currently trying the online dating thing and she tells me about how people just tend to post old pictures, completely inaccurate pictures, etc. They compound the problem with being completely false within their profiles. Personally, if you’re looking for a partner / girlfriend / boyfriend, wouldn’t you want to just be honest? You’d think there’s something good about letting people know who you really are rather than who you’d like people to think you are.

Hope: People are really hoping the economy is going to get better. You hear people talk about how the economy is going to turn around in the next six months, etc. Let’s be real people. We’re in a huge mess and the world economy is going to hell in a handbasket. Oil prices are down, the markets are looking for any reason to rally [e.g. - The weather's good! Let's rally]. The sense of impending doom and the dark cloud has been cast. It’s not going anywhere. Anyone with even a basic knowledge of economics will realize that it will take 5-6 years to recover. If we really want a stable economy, we’re going to have to reset expectations, prices, and import / export levels. If you take a look at how the world is faring, it’s not doing well. Even in China (the panacea customer base for the corporations) is hurting.

People. Here’s a hint… Stimulus packages don’t work. You can’t just inject money into a market through the banks and expect everything to just be ok. It doesn’t work that way. You’re just adding to the problem. More debt does not equal a stronger long term economy. People need to save, artificially inflated real-estate values aren’t helping. I understand there are tons of people who are upside down on their mortgages, but the reality is, you never should have committed to putting yourself in that much debt to begin with. Here’s a hint people. If you make 50K per year, you can’t afford a 50K car. N’est pas?

More to come in a bit.. I’m gonna go lay down. I’m just mentally exhausted.

Tags: General Observations by admin
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