I love the internet and I’ve always hated internet filters because they block stuff erroneously. However, I do try to avoid certain types of material online and so I’ve done a little work to make sure that I don’t see anything I don’t want to see. Here’s what I do along with some other options.
As a side note, anyone that knows me knows that I hate censorship in a government. What I’m trying to help people do is filter out the content that they personally don’t want to see. I would never impose censorship on anyone. Read the rest of this entry »
On October 11, 2009 I rushed to get the HTC Hero on the first day it was sold. Eight months later that phone is now considered obsolete. Especially by HTC. First they took nearly seven months to update that phone from Android 1.5 to Android 2.1 now they’ve promised to never update it again.
One update is all they could give us? I really like my phone but when I bought it I thought that it would be updated for a long time to come. I had just come from the iphone where we got all the updates we wanted and when an update was released there was no waiting.
Let me cut to the chase,
Dear HTC,
You have abandoned Hero users. When we buy a phone we don’t just buy it for what it can do, we buy it for all that it will be able to do. Maybe you’ll be better in the future about keeping products updated (and updated in a timely manner) but for now you need to remember the people that made you money just eight short months ago. Here’s what you must do.
Opensource all the drivers for the Hero.
You make a lot of phones, I understand thats a big strain on your dev team to try to keep everything updated. That’s fine I guess. I’m disappointed but the least you could do is release the code for all the drivers. Be honest, there’s not a lot of proprietary value in keeping your drivers secret, especially for what is now considered an “ancient” phone.
Please do this, then I can compile from source myself with a 2.2 rom or a 2.3 rom or whatever rolls down the pipe. You want to abandon us? Fine, at least leave us with the tools to pick up the slack.
Signed,
Dan a, until recently, loyal HTC fan.
BTW, this isn’t a suggestion really, HTC required by law to opensource their kernel. I’m asking nicely but really they’re obligated to.
My numerous (and very vocal fans) will remember that I already wrote a post on how much solar panels suck. But someone who “works in the industry” told me how totally wrong I was. That post was from 2008 so technology should be totally different now right? Almost everyday there’s a story about solar panels reaching new and incredible limits in efficiency.
Please Solar, PLEASE!
I want it to work so bad. I would love to get rid of my electricity bill. Understand, I have a vested interest in solar power being awesome, if it were awesome then I could just throw some panels up and free myself of the utility company. Maybe one day that will be possible, please I wish it were. Even if I could cut it in half I would be thrilled.
So, let’s figure out what that would take. Because if it’s cost efficient, I will do it right now. Luckily for me there’s an organization that has done all the work for me and created a calculator using the latest in technology and current industry costs. Great.
Right now I use an average of 37 kwh per day. That’s slightly above average in the US (don’t ask me how my 1800 sq/ft home does that). Now to get half of that, now remember I’m using this calculator, I need about a 4.1 kW array. So how much does that cost? Luckily they have a calculator for that too.
It’s Totally Cost-Effective
So you're an investment banker huh?
So, the grand total is $32,800 to get rid of half my electric bill. But don’t worry, there are tax breaks for this, the federal government will give me almost 10,000 dollars so it ends up being 22,960.00 (I said almost 10,000).
Great, so now if I spend $22,960 to save $35 dollars a month I will recoupe my investment in about 60 years. That doesn’t include stuff breaking, or what happens if we get less than the optimal amount of sun. In reality it’s probably twice as much.
Sorry solar, until the cost is low enough that the investment can be recouped in a year, maybe two, you’re just not worth it.
Actually, I’ll go one step further and say that the government should stop paying people to throw their money away on a technology that isn’t ready. I’m all for more efficient panels and more research but right now it’s just burning money on a technology which probably is way worse for the environment to make than just burning the coal for the electricity.
Prove me wrong and I will love you. Until then, sorry solar, you suck.
I have sent the following letter to Timbuk2.
Dearest Timbuk2,
About 3 months ago I achieved my life long dream of owning a timbuk2 bag. I had long watched, and planned for the day when my computer would be protected by the best bags in the industry. Pining away, I began to dream of the quality, the unparalleled craftsmanship and the utmost attention to detail and style. Surely, with this bag I could be successful, my wife would love me more, my coworkers offering me more respect. Even my community would finally recognize my achievements.
After I got my bag, I rejoiced. These were the halcyon days. The sun shone through the darkness of winter, piercing and warming my heart with epic success. With my timbuk2 bag in hand there was no stopping me. And then the darkness fell.
I still remember that day, I went to pick up my bag by it’s handle and in horrific slow motion it snapped. I looked on in horror, disbelieving that my golden fleece would be so taken from me. It is with a somber heart and forlorn eyes that I look to you, harbinger of hope. May my bag be repaired? Is it covered by warranty? It is the answers to these questions that brings me humbly before you.
Or in Haiku:
I love my great bag
One day the handle broken
Please fix my black bag
Respectfully yours,
Dan Garfield
I’m diverting from my normal fare to work on a study guide for my History 1700 Midterm.
The book used is “The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People Concise 6th Edition”
Guide after the bump
Read the rest of this entry »
For those that have already seen this, I apologize, I posted it in Reader a few minutes ago.
Today was the first day non-latin tlds have gone live. TLD = top level domain eg: .com .net .org .us .whatever
The first one to go live is .egypt, which is in arabic مصر
I wanted to find the domain and see how it wokred in my browser so I did a search but apparently if you remove the last character (the one furthest to the left) it means something else entirely
مص = sucking
مصر = egypt
so all this porn came up in the search results because I copied and pasted it slightly wrong.
I thought for a minute that the BBC got punked and was provided dirty words in arabic for their news story.
The moral of the story? Egypt is only one character off from “sucking”
People are always coming up to me and asking “How is it that you never get tricked on April Fools day?” The answer is simple! I make a desktop background that reminds me that nothing I see or hear is real, sort of a one day mind bend to solipsism!
Anyway, you can download the background below!
Or check out last years.
The last Question is, in my estimation, one of the greatest short sci-fi stories ever written. I’ve been pestering people around me to read it for a while without much luck. So, I’m publishing it here so that those that follow my blog can, at least, get some exposure to it. It should only take about 10-15 minutes to read. Enjoy! Read the rest of this entry »
I know a lot of people have have had problems commenting on reader because people haven’t setup commenting correctly. But don’t worry, its easy! First of all, if you can’t comment on someone’s shares, they have to fix it. So this guide is written to allow people to comment on your shared items.
Step 1: Click on Sharing Settings
From Google Reader, click on “sharing settings”
Step 2: Select Groups
Google reader uses your contact list and groups from gmail to manage contacts in reader. In order to enable commenting you have to add someone to a group that has commenting enabled. Before we move people into the right group we have to enabled group commenting.
Enable Commenting By Group
Add People to Groups
You can manage groups through your gmail contact list, or from that same screen click on the people that you’re following and by each of their names will be a groups setting link. That same link is available from the shared page of each person. Add them to a group that has commenting enabled and you’re done!
Click Edit Groups
I always thought Kanye was a jerk and now everyone agrees!
I love the internet and I’ve always hated internet filters because they block stuff erroneously. However, I do try to avoid certain types of material online and so I’ve done a little work to make sure that I don’t see anything I don’t want to see. Here’s what I do along with some other options.
Unable to Comment on Google Reader -fix it!
TodayWasAwesome – Best Of