Author Archives: feeling entropy

There comes a time in a grown man’s life when he realizes that it’s time to throw away the 8-track player and move on to something a bit more up to date. That time has come for most adults if we’re talking phone lines. Mobile phones seem to be the way to go (duh). As a young adult, I ditched my landline in the year 2000. IM’s, emails, and night/weekend minutes were the only means of communication I needed. Fast-forward 5 years and it’s only gotten easier to rely on just one phone. With $50.00/month, with any carrier, you are going to have enough minutes to do all of your necessary calling. If you have a significant other that like to chat all the time, unlimited in-network calling is you way to go. It’s not rocket science that land lines are becoming obsolete. Heck I’d cancel mine if the DSL didn’t need it.

I’m a self proclaimed uber geek. Carrying 3-4 battery operated devices at a time is not unusual. Getting goose bumps on the way to Fry’s, Best Buy, or the local computer show is a normality. But Star Trek is where I draw the line. I’ve never been a “Trekkie” if that’s even how it’s spelled. All I know of the 55 season long television series is as follows: Starship Enterprise, Captain Kirk, Spock –pointy ears, and “Beam me up Scotty”!

Scotty, James Doohan, passed away at the age of 85. Leaving behind a 53 year old wife and a 5-year-old daughter. His ashes are headed out to space along with the other Star Trek stars. I would have pictured their ashes been spread over a television studio, as I don’t imagine these actors ever went to the real outer space.

What happens when you mix a tax attorney with a Dutch composer? Give up? A website devoted to Beethoven’s b-sides and bootlegs. The duo of Mark Zimmer and Willem Holsbergen came up with the idea to kick start a classical revolution, of classical music. They have scoured the earth in search of anything written or played by the mastermind composer, and posted it on their site. Even some of the crudest works are put up. I don’t know how excited I am to listen to some MIDI produced Beethoven reject song. He’s good, just as all famous composers are, but all famous composers also have crappy songs and these maybe shouldn’t be resurfaced? I guess real loyal fans want the good, bad, ugly, and MIDI produced of their favorite artist.

Back in the 90’s Netscape Navigator was the browser king of the hill. I used to watch those stars fly by the blue ‘N’ for hours while waiting for web pages to load on my mom’s dial up connection. Then our buddies at Microsoft bundled Internet Explorer with Windows and blew Netscape to pieces. Today, Firefox is making a steady gain on Internet Explorer’s given ground. I read somewhere in a forum that browsing the web with IE is like having sex with a third world ‘sex worker’ with no condom, you’re going to get a virus. This person was pro-Firefox. I don’t know if I’d take it that far, but then again, I think I just did.

One of my personal favorite blogs of all time, Gizmodo, of the Gawker network has been going thru a couple of changes. First of all Joel’s last day was a few days ago, we’ll miss his 12 minimum daily posts. Second of all, which is all of the all, the site has had a facelift. Don’t worry boys and girls, the same fun and exciting gadget news and insight will still be force fed to you the way you like. Things can and always do end up changing, I’m calling these changes good and look forward to more Gizmodo goodness.

Google is a second nature reaction for anyone who knows what a mouse and keyboard are. What’s the Burmese Capital? Google it. But google isn’t just search anymore. They provide email, blogs, and a few soon to be features like a digital library and payment service. With all of this information stored up under one company’s roof, the potential for massive information theft is a ready concern. Google has been infiltrated before, but nothing catastrophic has happened as of yet (at least not to me and my precious gmail account).

Here’s just some of the ways Google can collect data on its users:
-One of Gmail’s selling points is its ability to retain e-mail messages “forever.”
-Google’s program for scanning library books sometimes requires usernames to protect copyrights.
-The company is testing software for making Web pages load more quickly; the application routes all Web requests through its servers.
-Google also provides driving directions, photo sharing and instant messaging, and it is developing a payments service that critics say could add billing information to user profiles.

I am a fan of logos. I love logos. I go to certain stores and restaurants simply because of their attractive logos. Palm’s old shiny metallic looking logo has been scrapped for a new young vibrant orange logo. I’m happy with the change, but there sure are other people are not. You can analyze, scrutinize, and ostracize the new orange Palm logo. But in my observations of logos there are only two things you can ultimately do with the logo: A.) like it or B.)dislike it.

Imagine playing an online video game where you’re kicking some major tail, and then all of a sudden find yourself in a similar situation, in reality. Chang Hsi-ming experienced just that not too long ago. You know Chang, Evil Dragon, Hsi-ming. He loved playing his video games, and ended up being caught via 130 policemen and two armored vehicles, who tracked his location using the IP address he was using. He went down with a gun fight however, and is in the hospital expected to make a full recovery.

(this image was the first google image search result for “evil dragon”)

I’ve always wanted to go to New Zealand. The climate, the people, the scenery, and the fishing (yes, I like fishing) make the country an ideal place to hang out at for a while. The biggest problem is that umpteen hour flight to get there. Sure there’s a few poorly chosen in-flight movies, seven or eight in flight radio stations, and even an AC power socket so that I can plug in the trusty old laptop and type away. But a computer with no internet is like a flashlight with no batteries, a dance club with no music, a car with no stereo, a house with no maid!

Up until this point, I was just waiting out until Verizon or Boeing put broadband in flights, and that way I could easily spend 18 hrs connected and typing away with 4 minute lunch/dinner breaks at random times. Now there’s a twist on this not-yet-available service. The Feds want in, and they want total control. If they have their way they will track our mobile phone calls and online activity. This isn’t a concern of mine because I don’t plan on carrying out any terrorist attacks, I have a huge fear of heights. But I do fear that one friend of mine who will email me something along the lines of “hey, you’re on a flight right now? Dude, how are you going to detonate that bomb in your shoe? Haha.” Right after I get that email I can just see it: “sir, can you please come with us”.

My PIII 800 Mhz computer is just too slow for me, I never use it. If I don’t have multiple gigahertz in my metal box then that’s all it is to me, a metal box. That trusty old PIII still runs solid, and can perform 90% of my daily functions with no real issues (email, web browsing, chatting, MS office, etc.). Which is why these out dated machines are moving to a place where they aren’t out dated, Africa. Thousands of computers that would end up collecting dust in dark closets and garages are being sent to Africa for a new beginning. Schools and organizations that are too poor to purchase new computers have been given these facelifted computers. Could this be a corporate scheme to start outsourcing computer jobs to Africa?