Chrysler, Ford Exercise Nuclear Option

Having not secured any bail out money from congress just yet, Chrysler and Ford have exercised the nuclear option of shutting down production in ALL plants for at least a month (Or perhaps until the government coughs up some dough). Although the manufacturers normally shut down production for 2 weeks around this time, the extra time is not normal.

Expect the stock market to dive off a cliff tomorrow or the day after.

update:

It would seem that many automakers around the globe are doing the same thing. Auto sales seem to be cratering world wide. So has the Mortgage Ponzi scheme along with the Spike in gas prices over the summer killing the auto industry? I know for myself I have went a purchased a 4 cylinder high MPG (and mileage) car for "daily" driving and letting the higher consumption (and far more fun to drive) vehicle to sit more often. Gas prices might be low now but I'm not getting caught out there when they spike again. It's bad enough I have to use premium fuel.

It's Not Walmart's Fault

I'm not one to defend Wal-Mart. I don't even shop at the store because of issues I have with their employment practices. However I must object strenuously to the multi-million dollar lawsuit that has brought against them by the family of Jdimytai Damour.

The responsible parties are those that trampled Jdimytai to death and they are the only responsible parties. Could Walmart foresee that it would be possible for people to act like they have absolutely no self-respect, self-restraint and total lack of home training? Sure. Is it Wal-Mart's responsibility for that? No? Could Wal-Mart foresee that some idiot in the parking lot of it's property could break into peoples vehicles? Sure? Is Wal-Mart responsible for the break in? No. Could Wal-Mart foresee that one could be run over in their parking lot when it is packed with customers going to a fro? Of course. Would Wal-Mart be liable if a person got run over in the parking lot? Absolutely not. Corporate entities as legal persons (an unfortunate circumstance) are no more responsible for the behavior of other people than is the citizen standing in line who was pushed along by the unruly crowd.

But Walmart is an easy, deep pocketed, fearful of bad publicity company. Little, broke, looking to save 5 bucks off a computer, ordinary citizens don't have much to offer. Hopefully the police will be able to ID the people who stepped on Jdimytai and will have them arrested. The best crowd control is the threat of prosecution. I can guarantee you that if a high profile example is made of those who stepped on Jdimytai, who I understand was trying to protect a pregnant shopper, the next Black Friday at Wal-Mart will not have anything like what transpired.

The Case for a 12" MacBook

This photo clearly shows why those of us who have the 12 incher want another one.

No it doesn't mean 'cheap' Mr. Jobs. It means portable power in a form that is most portable.

Why There's No Firewire on the new MacBooks.

And so my dreams of a new black MacBook with firewire have been dashed along with my hope of a return of the 12" laptop from Apple. I'll get on the latter issue at another post. There's much to be bothered about the lack of Firewire on the MacBook but thinking about Apple and how Apple has moved in the past, the removal of FW from the consumer line of the laptop is completely understandable, if annoying.

Think about what has happened in the consumer camera space in the past couple of years. We have DV cameras that record directly to hard disk. We have flip cameras that record directly to SD disk (I have an older one with horrible compression). And of course we have the regular still cameras that save internally and externally to a number of removable media. What do all of these cameras have in common? They can transfer files directly over USB/USB2 to any computer or can have their removable media inserted into a card reader that also connects over USB.

Therefore the need for FW in the consumer space going forward does not need Firewire. it only needs USB. I have no doubt that the monstrosity that is iMovie 7.1 will be made to recognize these kinds of cameras and media (assuming it does not currently do so). I have long ago created a DVD through iMovie with my flip camera and files imported from an SD card. it's not hard.

What Apple has done is said that it won't allow it's more pro customers get away with buying the low end Mac to do work with "higher end" cameras. At least that's my read. If you want to hook up a Camera that *requires* firewire to move data then you probably have the resources to ante up for a MacBook Pro and Apple will be glad to take your money. of course that annoys people like myself who wanted a smaller machine but still wanted the pro features a-la the long dead 12" PB which had everything except the expansion slot.

Now some people are moaning about the supposed loss of FW target disk mode. If you have a techie who complains about this, please reconsider paying for his or her service. All intel Macs can be accessed in target disk mode via USB. No it's not firewire, but it does the same thing. they can still diagnose the HD with utilities over USB.

The Bad Thing About Cell Phones

And so I had a very busy weekend. Such a busy weekend in fact that I didn't place any phone calls or txt messages for 2 days. Well 1, but let me finish. In my apartment I have what we shall refer to as 'spotty" service. That is I get reception in one spot and not another. Oddly, on Friday night I happened to notice two odd things:

1) The battery had gone down to 1/2 charge.
2) I had 4 bars where I previously have none.

So I thought: "great my battery is going." and "Great! ATT must have thrown up a tower somewhere!"

Sadly neither was the case. After spending all day Saturday working on my Car and a DVD for a client, I settled down to enjoy the evening. I happened to look at my phone and lo and behold the battery was again at 1/2 charge. Now I'm thinking that I hadn't used the phone all day except to look at the time. But I also had 4 bars.I suppose I was so enraptured by having service in my apt. that it didn't dawn on me that something was not quite right.

So next day I head out to visit moms. While we're at Home Depot I decide to let somebody know I was alive ( I have a habit of not answering phones and people have habits of not leaving messages, bad combo). Oddly the message took forever to send and I never quite saw that it went since the screen blanked out to save the battery. But I had 4 bars!

Then I got annoyed that the lucky person to have received a txt message from me didn't even respond. I mean, a text message from me is a special thing y'all. Still I'm distracted by this 4 bars everywhere thing.

It didn't even occur to me that I had not received a single phone call in the past 36 hours which is odd. So anyway, this afternoon I'm at work, sitting in a room that is a known cellular dead zone. I check the phone. 4 bars. No way. so some 72 hours later I realize that the cell phone had in fact been partially locked up. It would show the time, play music and all that jazz, but it would not be receiving or sending calls or txt. Reboot.

As I exit the dead zone, the phone lets me know I have a message. From 2 days ago. just imagining if I only had the cell phone as a means of contact. That would have sucked. Worst is to have no clue that your phone is locked up.

WAMU falls

So I suppose that the WAMU guy was wrong after all.

The DOW

Lets see how low the Dow goes today shall we.

MaemoMapper Update for Nokia IT

MaemoMapper, by far my favorite app on my N800 has just gotten an update that overlays Google Traffic data on maps. Often when I have to go somewhere I check the google traffic to see if the GWB is backed up or the GCP. But that required either starting up the browser or using the Garnet VM for the google maps app in the Palm emulation. Now I can just fire up my mapper program and be done with it.

Now if I could get a bluetooth DUN profile having phone to tether too.

Follow the discussion here:

http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22704&goto=newpost

Older Athletes kicking tail

Count me in the contingent of "older" people who are not allowing our relatively advanced age slow us down. We have the 40 year old mother, Dara Torres who beats most swimmers half her age. We have yesterday that victory of the 32 year old swimmer, Lezak, who overcame a deficit to win gold in the 400 relay. What's the secret?

I'll tell you. We eat well. We understand that technique will help us overcome what we may be losing in sheer muscle power. We are more mature and therefore we can keep those emotions in check so that we don't break form. It's about understanding and working with your limits.

Scared by Cyclists

So the NY Times has an article on the rise of Cycling and the mental problems that have arisen. Here's one paragraph that defies logic:

“Mention the noon riders to anyone in town and you’ll see the blood pressure go up,” said Susan George, Woodside’s town manager. One day, she said, she rounded a bend and came upon them: “I slammed on the brakes and they swarmed around me, screaming and yelling obscenities. My heart was pounding. It was very scary.”

Scared by cyclists? Is she serious? Exactly WHAT threat did the bikes pose to her? No, seriously. She and her 2 ton vehicle was the threat.

Edwards

I'm just going to say that Edwards is lying about the baby not being his. Seriously folks, why was he at a hotel at 2 AM?

Farewell iTunes Store

And so after a few years I bid the iTunes store farewell. Well not really. I've just backburnered iTunes for the Amazon Store or anywhere else that I can get non-DRM'd music. Yes I'm late to the rabid anti-DRM party, but hey at least I'm here. When the iTunes store came out I was happy I could get high quality music for a decent price without theft or the possibility of downloading trojans. I didn't mind the DRM because at the time I was a full Apple home. iPod and Mac. I didn't feel that I needed to have other formats and I could still play my mp3's.

The one huge gripe I had with the iPod was that it would not cross-fade music. Apparently most people could care less about that feature but I like my music mixed. No gaps. Not stop and start. I want continuous music and when two songs meld together, all is good with the universe. I didn't care about video, super capacity, color screens or phones. I simply wanted to have my portable music player mix my music.

iTunes mixed music so when I was at the computer that particular need was met. Then I got a Nokia N800. It has a music player. Well actually quite a few music players. I installed XMMS on it. It's a pretty powerful music player which reminded me of MacAmp/WinAmp. I figured I could use it for music, since I take it everywhere my iPod goes. Well the problem was that the AAC files from the iTunes store don't play on that program. Not a big problem. I still have my iPod(s) and besides XMMS is somewhat of a CPU hog, especially if the EQ and sound processors were being used. I prefer for my N800 to have juice for GPS or other tasks.

Then in June I was planning a trip to Philly for the Odunde Festival. I wanted a mix. So I went online and settled on FutureDecks lite. It's a decent program that unfortunately does not allow you to pick a secondary output for monitoring so cueing up music can be hard. Anyway, this program, and others, will allow you to record your mixes live. Perfect. So I load up the music library and notice that It's a bit light. It was then that I discovered that I cannot use DRM'd iTunes files.

Say what?

SO let me get this straight. I paid for the music. I'm going to mix it so I can listen to it the way I want to but some record company has decided that I can't. because of this little problem I had to plan out what music I wanted to include in the mix, make a playlist, burn the playlist to CD(s). and then copy back the huge AIFF files to the system. Oh and since the names of the tracks on the second CD turned into "Track 1", etc. I had to rename them. Oh that was fun. So about 3 hours after setting about to make the mix, I was starting the mix. Subsequent mixes didn't take as long to set up but I had been soured on the experience.

The last straw for me though was when I downloaded "Must Be the Music" a Hip Hop classic. At some point in the download iTunes got stuck processing the file. I'm not sure what that entails but I had to force quit iTunes which resulted in a file that refused to play in iTunes. I managed to get it to play in QT and captured the audio with Audio Hijack. I had had enough. The funniest thing about this is that the news of the Yahoo music store going away came out soon after this debacle. It was a sick joke that people who had purchased music from Yahoo were being told that they wouldn't be able to listen to said music on any new systems they might get, cause you know, computers never die. They were told to burn the music to CD, which clearly causes a loss in quality.

So enough of the DRM. Enough of the artificial lock in. Enough of the "you purchased the right to listen to music, the file doesn't belong to you" attitude that these businesses have managed to foist on society. If I paid for it, and it wasn't a rental, then it's mine. So it's off to the Amazon store from now on for my music purchases. Oh, I'll look it up in iTunes. I'll play it in iTunes, but Apple won't be getting my money. And it's sad, because the record company that allegedly forced Apples hand on the DRM front will still get my cash.

Technorati Tags: DRM, N800, iTunes

Nanostray 2

Got Nanostray 2 for my DS. Haven't had this much fun since Raiden II !! I hate when I get time killing games.

Looking at the rankings, I suck.

Your Personal e-mail is Personal

I work in IT. I tell people all the time that IT can, though it does not currently, intercept your "private" communications. A private corporation is not the government and therefore you have no expectation of privacy other than that which the company gives you. Personally, I keep a laptop and an N800 for most of my personal correspondence. The reason for this is perfectly illustrated in the following case:

According to the suit, Sidell has concluded that, when hustled out of his office after his termination, he left his work computer logged into his personal Yahoo account. The login credentials are typically retained for two weeks, and Siedel claims that, during that time, his former employees accessed his account repeatedly. Their access netted them over 10,000 e-mails archived in the account, as well as providing privileged communications between Sidell and his attorneys regarding his plans to pursue legal action regarding his firing. Those actions prompted the suit, which was filed in May and alleges various violations of the Stored Communications Act, Electronic Communications Protection Act, and a Connecticut wiretapping law.

According to a story about the case in The New York Times, however, the situation may not be that straightforward. His former employers allege that Sidell did not log into his Yahoo account from his own computer, but instead accessed it from a different employee's machine, and left the window open when he departed. An examination of that window suggested that Sidell used this access to send confidential company documents to his Yahoo account, justifying the company's full investigation of the account's contents.

The company will lose this case. Why? Lets look at some interesting developments in IT law. We have a case of a man who would daily, sit outside a store and use the free wifi. He was charged with WIFI theft because he did not have permission to use the WIFI. Permission would have been gained by actually purchasing something in the store or getting the store owner's permission. Lesson: If the account/network is not yours you are not entitled to use it.

Siedell's employer had every right to look on the computer for any stored files on their property (computer). Any mail left on the employers servers or in the disk cache, is also fair game. What the employer, or any other legal person cannot do is misrepresent themselves as the rightful owner of an account.

For example we have the HP fiasco where they were seeking a leak and misrepresented themselves to a phone company in order to gain access to phone records. Illegal.

Another nice example is if I were to get access to your debit card and pin. That does not mean that I can go to the bank and access your account unless you gave me permission to do so. If I have not then you have committed a crime.

Therefore I fully expect Siedel's employers to be on the losing end of this lawsuit, just as the telcos who went along with Bush and co. ought to have been.

The fact that the account was accessed on another employees machine means nothing at all. The allegation that Siedel was forwarding company info to his personal account is one that a warrant is needed to discover. Or the company should have checked the logs of their network security appliances for transfers of files.

Anyway going back to the personal computer thing. Clearly Siedel wouldn't be in this boat had he used his own personal laptop.

Oil up $5.09 today

5 bucks folks. Anything happen today to cause that? Some refinery blow up? Did Israel blow up something? Did the Iranian president fart? Did an oil tanker sink? Was there a riot in Nigeria? Did Hugo Chavez call Bush names again? Did the Chinese double their order? India?

What exactly happened to justify that kind of increase? A Brokerage is having problems? What's that got to do with oil discovery, pumping, refining or delivery? Pure speculation folks. Did the US Dollar drop in value by 50 cents? 25 cents? 10 cents? Demand is down and Supplies are adequate so what's the deal?

Speculation and profiteering.

That Pinging noise...?

And so the NY Times reports that people with engines recommending premium are putting in regular instead.

Even though the car’s manual says he should use premium, Mr. Alterio, 59, said the occasional pinging from his engine, caused by using the lower-octane gas, is worth the savings.

Yeah that pinging noise? Well let me explain what that is. See your computer AKA ECU, determines when the spark plug ought to ignite the air fuel mixture in your engine for optimal power and lowest emissions. The detonation of this mixture happens somewhere around TDC (top dead center) and usually somewhere after the piston has reached TDC.

That pinging noise is the fuel igniting beforeq the ECU sends the spark. That is called pre-ignition. It is happening before the piston reaches TDC and it puts HUGE pressure on the piston. It is akin to hitting the piston with a hammer while it is trying to travel in an upwards direction.

Fuel economy suffers. Pollutants, especially the deadly NOx gasses, go through the roof and you cna destroy your pistons and piston rings. You don't want to know what that will cost you. So if you have plans on keeping that vehicle for any amount of time, I would strongly, strongly suggest that if your engine is pinging on regular, that you pump it up a notch or you will spend that "savings" either on rebuilding the engine or putting a downpayment on another vehicle.

Automotive experts say that following the manufacturer’s instructions is advisable, and that some high-performance cars can experience knocking and hesitation when accelerating, and possibly some engine damage, if regular gas is used when a higher grade is recommended.

“The only thing I’ve noticed is more money in my wallet,” said Steve Altman, standing alongside a black 2007 Mercedes on Lee Highway in Arlington, across the Potomac River from Washington. He made the switch from premium gas two weeks ago, he said, and his car runs no differently than before. Still, he plans to add a fuel injection cleaner at the end of the month, just in case.

Oh yeah, most of those injector cleaners are shyt. Unless one is popping Chevron Techron (which I recommend) you're guaranteed to be wasting your money. Of course that stuff isn't exactly cheap.

AT&T Must be tickled pink to have the iPhone give free advertising to their rival Verizon Wireless.

Steve Jobs at WWDC2008

Isn't he looking a bit gaunt? Seriously, I don't think I've ever seen him so slim.
And I recall that Mr. Jobs was discussing the security issues with RIM, including a little comment about how RIM's servers were a point of failure, yet now mobile Me uses, well, Apple Servers. Of course Apple is not going to be between a corporation and it's phones, but still, given the numerous times .Mac has gone down....

Edit: Some people are claiming that Steve Jobs looked no less "slim" than he did last year or before. BS. There have been numerous photos of the man around in the last year, and he clearly has less hair now and far less body fat. if he was sick with some "bug" it must be some bug that's been inhabiting his stomach for quite a while. I think a lot of people are plain scared to discuss it, but Steve was not looking all that good Monday. Sounded cool, but did not look right at all.

I don't know if he's been on chemo or on some low calorie diet where you purposely under eat, it's really not my business. But folks who say Steve is looking "normal" are either in denial or need there eyes checked.

Bike To Work Week 2

So week two of the Bike to work program is here. Today's trip went about 5 min faster than the last one. This was due to a couple of things. Firstly since I left 30 min earlier than before, some of the traffic was less than before, so I didn't have to wait at some unlighted intersections as long as I had to last week.

Secondly, I did a better job of pacing myself and recovering from hill climbs. I cannot stress enough the importance of pacing. So fo example, I did not pedal down hills this time. This conserved energy for the final hill. I'm not going faster than 30 MPH so, it make little sense to pedal when I'm already moving at 26 or so MPH.

lastly is proper cadence control. a lot of people, including myself often use too hard a gear for going uphill. They put a lot of stress on their knees and legs pushing a hard gear. Instead i is better to get a good cadence going that allows you to maintain a decent speed with decent turnover where you're not fighting the bike and gravity.

On a closing noteI have to say that there are some really rude people on the road. It's not cool to put the nose of your car into an intersection when a bike is approaching. It's scary and it pisses me off. Also, check your mirrors when pulling out of parking spots. You should assume that the bike is moving faster than you think it it's moving. In most unrban settngs we can hit the posted speed limits.

I think next week I will start doing this twice weekly. I will need to get a portable fridge for my office because sports drinks from vending machines are pricey.

Running on Empty? Repair Bill Soon Come

So we find that some people are allowing their cars to run out of gas in their efforts to not go broke filling up their tanks. However; should the continue to do so, they may soon find themselves at the receiving end of a bill for a fuel pump replacement. Many cars have fuel pumps that reside in the gas tank of the vehicle. These electric pumps are cooled by the fuel in the tank. As you run out of fuel there is less liquid actually splashing the little motor and it can get hot and burn out. Added to the potential problems is that many older vehicles have some sediment at the bottom of the tank. Each time you let the fuel tank go bone dry, you increase the chances of that sediment collecting on the strainer and impeding the fuel flow and increasing the load on the electric motor. Hence, the practice of allowing the tank to go dry may lead to premature fuel pump failure and a decent sized bill. I recently replaced my fuel pump (for other reasons) and the pump alone ran about $150 retail. I did the work myself so I didn't have to pay to have it installed, but such a job would cost you between one half hour to an hour of billing. So it is entirely possible that a consumer, in an attempt to save money, could end up with a $200 fuel pump bill, which at $4.00/gallon works out to 50 gallons of gasoline. Worth it?

Bike To Work

And so today marks day one of my summer bike to work saga.

Last year I wanted to bike to work, but two thinigs stopped that. First and foremost my office was, at the time far away from any lockerroom with a shower. There was no way I was going to stop at the gym, change and shower and hen get back on the bike and bike anther mile or so to my office and get sweaty again. Nor was I going to go to my office and be smelly all day. Now my office is within walking distance of the gym so it's on.

The trip is 12.5 miles (half my usual weekend ride). It is mostly up hill. with the last portion being entirely up hill. That portion is about .5 miles but it is not good for someone who really doesn't do too much hills. I expect that within the next 3 weeks or so I will be able yo get up the hill without a drink break. The problem is that it is about a half mile from another longer but less steep hill. So all that back to back hill climbing is not good riht now.

We had a little incident this morning though. I went off course to attempt not having to cross a road, when I rn outof road. Apparently some overgrown bushes had cut into the shoulder and rigt beside me was a NJ transit bus. Needless to say I will not be going that way again.

Overall it took me abot 1 hour to make the trip. That is slow by my nomal standards, but then again my normal standards do not include these kinds of hills. I expect to drop these times by end of summer.

Anyway, big props to Maemomapper, GPSlim and a Nokia N800 which I used to map out the route. I will ge the elevation changes a-la-Tour de France.

And for those wondering, this is not an attempt to save on gasoline though by calculations I save at least $4.04 (current price of premium unleaded) per day of biking to work. The plan is for twice weekly trips so the savings on gas work out to bout $10 bucks a week. However, the purchasing of energy food and drink serves to offset some of that savings.

the $80 oil change

You know, up until Feb, I had two 20 year old cars. I do most of the maintenance myself. I do the regular oil changes, fuel filter, spark plugs, distributor, etc. I haven't paid for an oil change in many many years. So yesteday I go to Speedly lube No. 99 to change the oil on a recently aquired Z3. The manufacturer apparently specifies synthetic oil. That joint ran my $80 bucks.

On top of being charged for the oil, they tacked on some 10 buck extra for doing a synth change. Oh did I mention that one jackass there broke my interior door handle and didn't even have the decency to say so? Last time Speedy Lube No. 99 get's my car, either one. Oh and then there was the unasked for car wash. I hand wash my car because I don't think putting a convertible through a car wash is a good idea but there it was on it's way down before I could stop them. Oh and the final straw being they reset the service interval light. Did anyone ask to have the service interval light reset? No. Apparently no one at this place has been told about how the service interval light on BMW's are for things other than oil changes. All I wanted was the oil change and I said so.

Now I'm not sure whether the previous owner had done synth changes before, but given that I'm going to need to change out the oil when the temperatures stay above 60 degrees (in the next month). I'm not happy to think I'll be tossing this oil I just paid for, for a heavier mix and I think I'm going to forgo the synth since as stated I have a 20 year old that has never seen synth oil and runs just fine thank you.

$80 oil change indeed.

About That Webcam on your iMac

According to the Sûreté du Québec, Lesiewicz made friends with teenage girls in internet chatrooms, sent them emails which infected their computers with malware, and then persuaded them to pose naked online.

The victims are then said to have been contacted by another internet user called "Dave", who told the women that nude photos of them would be posted on the net unless they posed again in front of their webcams.

So..running Windows on that iMac or MacBook or Mac Book Pro?

http://www.net-security.org/malware_news.php?id=936

Cities Busted for illegal Yellow Light Lengths

And ao we find that the governments of certain states and cities have been busted for illeglly shortening the yellow lights in an effort to give out citations via red light cameras. Just so you understand: it is a knnown fact that a relatively long yellow light results in fewer accidents and fewer run red lights. Municipalities that purposefully shorten the lights and directly responsible for creating a hazardous situation for motorists in a clear case of money grubbing. Zthe quesion I have is why haven't these towns been sued?

The Wendy Williams Experience

Where do we start on Wendy Williams? Read for yourself.

Tupac Story a Fraud

It made for a fun read, but apparently the LA Times story about the Tupac shooting and robbery was based on forged documents. Like I said before, Puff didn't have anythinig to fear from the report.

Now the question is whether the Times will have to pay.

More Infidelity

After Spitzer gets busted for the "High Class Ho" and in comes out the Matos-McGreevy was having threesomes,David Paterson's wife admits to having affairs "with men"
Men?

Well they worked it out so if Paterson is cool with it, then I can't complain.

Men?

[update]

Oh damn! they both got multiple parties!!

Now I Aint Sayin' She's a Gold Digger

But

Man is rich already.
4 years and she asks for a quarter mil?

McCartney ought to have gotten custody of his child and avoided the $70,000/year and gotten his own nanny and put her in school himself.

Heather Mills: She can go get a job.

Bear Market for Bear Stearns.

Bear Stearns purchased for $250 Million by JP Morgan Chase. Bear Stearns specialized in Mortgages, has been around forever and is sold for a quarter bil? I predicted that the market would drop into the 11,000'a but with this news I expect the market to freee fall this week and maybe we'll see 10,000 range.

Sale happening on a Sunday? With Fed oversight? Trying to beat the Asian stock market opening? Not goo at all.

USB Control and Adesso Flexible KB

Although I will probably be looking hard at the iPhone in June depending on th availablilty of a demoed navigation app, I have decided to test out one of those rollable keyboards with my800 in Hoat mode.

The USB control app is pretty straight forward but the keyboard while way more convenient than the onscreen board for longer form writing, is pretty error prone especially the space key.

The USB Control app is very picky about what kind of kwyboard is attached to. It is probably due to pickiness of the ITOS2008 software.

Overall thought I would not have even attempted a post of this length with the thumbboard but I won't be attempting monster posts as is standard on my other blog.

Don't Use 3rd Party Fonts

From Xlr8yourmac.com

Upon calling Redmond for help, Microsoft's Mac Tech Support laughably told me after emailing them a bunch of sample files and enduring several long periods on hold that "the engineers writing the program decided no 3rd-party fonts were being supported in Office 2008 and that I could only use Microsoft fonts."

Can you believe that? I have an old version of Office here (V.x) and I have no intentions of upgrading unless I'm forced to. I use Neo-Office and thus far it does everything I need.

Speed Cameras for I-95

And so CT wants to put speed cameras on I-95 supposedly to protect motorists from speeders. Never mind that speed is never the actual cause of any accident on any road. Of course the real deal here is revenue since if speeding were actually all that dangerous people would actually be arrested for some crime and thrown in jail for doing it. But no, cameras, like Modified Ford Mustangs are the signs of a state going after revenues. I suppose that CT has to do something since it doesn't have the network of tolls that other states have imposed on drivers.

However; in keeping with the "safety" angle, we should look at where motorhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifists have been suffering under the big brother state for some time now:

We drive along at what we judge to be a safe speed. Then we catch sight of one of those menacing yellow boxes on their grey stalks, take our eyes off the road and the rear-view mirror to check the speedometer, and slam on the anchors. Before we know it - wham! - the bonnet of the car behind has thumped us up the backside.

This hasn't happened to me yet, touch wood, but you have only to approach a speed camera on a free-flowing road to realise that it must happen fairly often. Suddenly, every driver in front applies the brakes, and slows to precisely 40mph, or whatever the limit may be...


That is what is so unjust about speed cameras. These lumps of metal and wire cannot distinguish between somebody driving safely at 80mph, on a clear dry road, and a maniac tail-gating at the same speed in a blizzard.

The penalty for both - the careful driver and the potential killer - is almost always the same: a fine and three penalty points on their licences. Four strikes and the offender is off the road for a year, which for many can mean losing their livelihood...

Yes, we all agreed that we hated speed cameras. We all agreed, too, that some of them caused accidents rather than simply failed to prevent them (the figures for the Thames Valley police area, where serious accidents had increased in very nearly half of the places where speed cameras had been installed, made that point powerfully).

There you go. Cameras don't do squat for safety but do much for taxes.. I mean revenue.

Yet day by day I see people yammering on their cell phones, texting on their cell phones and reading newspapers while driving. But at least they're observing the speed limit right?

Whither X-Serve RAID

So Apple Announces a new version of the X-SAN product and lo and behold in their diagram the X-Serve RAID is nowhere to be found. Instead we see this Promise RAID. if you search for the X-Serve RAID you are redirected to the Promise RAID. Apple is out of the RAID business.

Snitches in the infield

I'm not one for the whole "Stop snitchin'" thing but how is it your "very good friend" is giving you up? Makes you wonder if baseball players have real friends. I'm just saying, why not say "I don't recall"?

McNamee

So let me get this straight. This guy injects his clients with steroids and keeps the needles, gauze and vials he used, with their blood on it for 7-8 years?
What? Was this bribe material? Or can we say "set up."

Money Matters

I've been called all kinds of cheap because I had, until recently, 2 20 year old cars. I now have one 20 year old car and one 11 year old car. I live well below my means and insist on paying credit card balances at the end of the month. I religiously save my spare change and all singles accrued at the end of the week.

I take my money very seriously. Which probably explains my current singlehood. But that's another story all together.

In any event the NY Times has a shocking article on just how badly some people are managing their money. Shocking to me at least because I cannot imagine even having $200,000 in debt or having a personal savings rate of -7% or -14%.

For the 34 million households who took money out of their homes over the last four years by refinancing or borrowing against their equity — roughly one-third of the nation — the savings rate was running at a negative 13 percent in the middle of 2006, according to Moody’s Economy.com. That means they were borrowing heavily against their assets to finance their day-to-day lives.

By late last year, the savings rate for this group had improved, but just to negative 7 percent and mostly because tightened standards made loans harder to get.

“For them, that game is over,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Economy.com. “They have been spending well beyond their incomes, and now they are seeing the limits of credit.”

No 12" Mac Book. Ever.

Well if you watched the Macworld Keynote you know that there will be no 12" MacBook. Why? Because Steve Jobs said so. When he was leading into his intro of the "Air" he stated that other manufacturers compromise their sub-notebooks by giving them 11" and 12" screens. So Mr. Jobs thinks that the 12" form factor is a bad thing and would "compromise" the MacBook. Regardless to the fact that many people who have 12" Powerbooks have them because we WANT the "compromised" space and many of us have in fact gone from larger PowerBooks to the 12", Steve doesn't like it and what Steve doesn't like doesn't get made.

Steve also knows that all of us holdouts will eventually have to fold as batteries die, and new "gotta have" apps come out as Intel Only apps and of course we get tired of the 1.5 Ghz processor that the last iteration had.

Yes, the 12" Powerbok is dead and the prospects of a new 12" model has just been buried. Enjoy yours while it works.

Time Capsule

So is there some hidden "feature" in Time Machine to recognize a Time Capsule, are we to expect an OS update to enable this on other Macs, or will this work with any AFP network drive with a supposed update? Or maybe there's some key combination I need to use with Leopard (or a file to hack).

MacBook Air..

Gives the Kiss of Death to FireWire. The first Mac model I know of, since the clamshell iBooks and original iMac to not have a FireWire port. Though come to think of it I rarely use it on my 12 incher and then only for a webcam.

Proposed NJ Turnpike Tolls

On my other blog I complained about how much it cost me to drive to Miami (or was that Baltimore?). Anyway the crux of my complaint was the ridiculous numbers of tolls that one has to pay between NJ and Washington DC. For the privilege of traveling over a bridge in Delaware one pays a toll. I mean a toll to go all of maybe 5 miles. Then another and another and another. In the space of say 50 miles, one can pay at least 3 tolls. Why? Road, like speeding tickets are all about revenue. just as speeding tickets are about fattening county coffers so are toll roads. they go to pay for things unrelated to roads. I would prefer to pay a federal 'road tax" and a state "road tax" once and be done with all tolls from border to border. Tolls add to and cause traffic. When I made that trip last summer, whenever I came to a congested area I bet myself that there was a toll coming up. 90% of the time I was right. Cars emit more pollution when they are crawling and gas mileage suffers, unless you're in a hybrid or electric car So not only do tolls cause traffic problems, it also contributes to pollution. But what is worse is that one ought to be able to drive from one end of the country to the other without:

a) being surveilled (EasyPass)
b) being pick pocketed (tolled).

Now I understand how states may want to charge commercial entities for using the roads to make money. Fine. Federal Road tax and State road tax on businesses that make travel exemptions or who are in the business of deliveries. In fact I think if New Jersey, and the rest of the states, were to stop giving out Corporate welfare cheques (called tax breaks and tax incentives) there'd be all kinds of money in the state coffers.

Another Reason to not use Bluetooth headsets

"All that is necessary is knowing the device address, which can be easily sniffed, and the secret pin, which defaults to 0000. The headset audio is tapped while not in a call, so any room conversation the headset's mic can pick up can potentially be listened to remotely."


http://www.hackinthebox.org/url.php?url=25340