Tim’s Opinion

Coffee may be ok, but coffee drinkers not living longer – wait, what?

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May 182012

Coffee may be ok, but coffee drinkers not living longer | Ars Technica.

Just another article to point out that you should eat and drink what you like. Workout as little or as much as you want. Everyone dies and everything you do hastens that demise. You are not built to last and you live in a hostile environment even if you are surrounded by the kindest, gentle people imaginable. Tons of perfectly natural items you breathe and ingest are slowly deteriorating your cell’s ability to reproduce themselves and absent anything getting you even more quickly your body will just fail around age 120 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longevity#Long-lived_individuals).

Good news is that Americans on average are living longer and longer. Then why all the angst about special diets, organic foods (as opposed to inorganic foods?) and the “obesity epidemic”? Hmmm… scams anyone? The source and the purpose vary starting with the simplest and oldest, fear-marketing. And of course, most anything the government wants to do “for” you means “to” you which means give up your rights, depend on us and do what we say in little things now and bigger things tomorrow.

Box Office: Avengers Makes Billion Dollars Worldwide

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May 142012

Box Office: Avengers Makes Billion Dollars Worldwide.

Yeah, its that good. I broke down and went to see this in an actual theater and am glad I did, so now I don’t have to worry about guarding against spoilers till the Bluray release. If you haven’t gone, go now.

I would also be curious if there was an uptick in the sales of the lead-up DVDs / BDs as folks prepared to see the Avengers. I know a couple families that definitely went and got the other movies to get up to speed.

Tip of the hat to the geniuses at Marvel for a fantastic idea well executed!

Transformer Pad TF300 Review

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May 082012

Wolverton: Transformer Pad TF300 a weak replacement for laptop – SiliconValley.com.

Good information on this model, though I’ll go do my own hands on as well before deciding as I find there’s a fair amount of Android disdain in the tech press. Yes, a generalization, but one worth noting. See my previous posts on the pros and cons of Android vs. iPad. Just depends on what you want and are willing to put up with as cons in both ecosystems. For me the Android pros have a bigger delta over its cons than iPad.

I suspect I’d use the Transformer as a tablet 85% of the time and use the dock for:

Those times I need to type something substantial and don’t have a laptop nearby.
For travel to facilitate having a longer battery availability as the base provides battery life to the docked tablet.
For protecting the screen when travelling and holding the screen upright as I used it in planes or hotel rooms for video watching.

American Islamic Forum for Democracy

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Apr 202012

Given that I post quite a bit trying to raise awareness of the true nature of Islam, I know it may appear that I’m unduly negative toward every muslim I run across. I’m not. Certainly, given what I know of the teachings of Islam, I am wary, but want to give every person a chance to prove their own character regardless of whatever obvious category they appear or profess to belong to. I have also posted about my curiosity as to whether there is any reform-type movement in Islam to throw off the particularly onerous portions of Mohammed’s / Islam’s pronouncements to then become something other than the repressive, religion-state that it historically has been and currently is.

So I was happy to be introduced to the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AFID) in an interview that Frank Gaffney had with M. Zuhdi Jasser. As you can see from AFID’s statement below, they are working to reform Islam to pull back to being only a religion so it can exist in the context of free, democratic states.

This is an encouraging sign and something I’ll be following with interest. The best early signs that this group is serious and headed in the right direction is by the enemies they have. Top of the list is the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations). Anyone that makes those folks unhappy is at the least a friend of the “enemy-of-my-enemies” kind and headed toward true friendship at a rapid clip.

Best of luck to AFID and Zuhdi Jasser in your efforts.

================================

“Help us build capacity in AIFD’s programs that help to reform those ideologies in Islam that create radicalization which in turn threaten our liberty, freedom, and democracy. Please take action and donate today.”

via American Islamic Forum for Democracy.

Here is why Facebook bought Instagram — GigaOm

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Apr 102012

Here is why Facebook bought Instagram — Tech News and Analysis.

I found this interesting as someone who has never used Instagram nor ever intends to use it. Do I take photos? Yes. Do I take them on my mobile phone? Yes. Do I share those photos? Yes. Why don’t I care about Instagram? I share those photos where my family and friends already are and via something already automated to do so… Google Plus.

From this article and other buzz around Instagram, this certainly doesn’t make Google Plus a better mobile photo platform for photos, but for my personal use, that’s the point. I don’t need a better mobile photo platform for photos. I take photos, they show up for certain of my circles to see… the end. I’m not looking to spend an hour a day (really?!) as the author does looking at pictures. Seriously, this is like trolling YouTube! Anyone over the age of 12 should be over that in about a week, max. But I digress cuz…

Apparently, a lot of people eat this stuff up. I definitely agree with the author’s analysis of why FB bought Instagram. FB really doesn’t get mobile yet and I’ll take the author’s word for it that pictures are core to FB. I don’t see how as it is a hideous platform for pictures compared to Google’s various photo supporting options. Instagram should get FB a big leg up on updating their functionality after they figure out how to integrate it to the mess that is FB. I mean a literal, eye-straining mess, not a figurative corporate mess as FB is doing amazingly well, but I never liked it and increasingly avoid it except to see what the last couple of my hold-out friends over there are up to and mostly I can do that through email notifications.

More digression, sorry.

Anyway, perhaps the Instagram folks can breathe some fresh life into FB design and functionality-wise. Perhaps I’ll then get drawn back to FB through the Instagram side-door. Time will tell.

An Open Letter To IBM CEO Virginia Rometty | TechCrunch

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Apr 092012

An Open Letter To IBM CEO Virginia Rometty | TechCrunch.

Do people increasingly believe that freedom is dead? Augusta is a private club. They can do what they want. Certainly, the author has a point that unlike GM, IBM is still a private company and if they want to pull their sponsorship, they are free to do so.

Why is Augusta an “outdated organization”? Because they won’t bow to non-member pressure to how they run their club? Because they are under the impression that America is still “the land of the free”?

Perhaps the Black Caucus should permit non-black members as well given that is part of a public institution? Should we protest Black History Month as it is exclusionary? Isn’t Black History all of our history? How about LGBT groups, gatherings, celebrations?

If diversity is to be cherished, why not all diverse groupings?

This kind of silly article reflects idiotic PC thought that isn’t bringing us together, but further driving us apart. One would have thought that electing a black president would have drawn everyone together, but as the Trayvon Wilson debacle has shown, we are driving each other further away.

Want to focus on diversity and minority, then focus on yourself. You are a minority of one. Take care of yourself. Take care of your family. Look out for your neighbors as best you can and look at how much happier you are and how much more pleasant society becomes as a result. Our liberties are individual liberties for “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness”. This includes establishing a private club with whatever membership rules you want.

Perhaps the CEO of IBM, Virginia Rometty should establish a women’s only club and pursue getting a PGA and / or LPGA major played there.

What happens when social surveillance goes mainstream? — Tech News and Analysis

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Apr 022012

What happens when social surveillance goes mainstream? — Tech News and Analysis.

If you share everything on your social networks on “public” settings, you are just asking for trouble. Cut everything back to “friends only” and prune those you don’t actually know and trust from your friends list. Turn off “friends of friends’ capability as well. If you don’t know how to use Groups on FB or Circles on G+, learn.

Blackberry plans new focus on enterprise users

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Mar 302012

BBC News – Blackberry-maker RIM plans new focus amid $125m loss.

While focusing on your core customer baser, large scale enterprises sounds like a completely reasonable proposition on the surface, the problem is that those organizations are comprised of end-users. What employee wants to be saddled with a phone that can’t do half of what his kid’s phone does? There’s already a BYOD revolution going on. If “consumer” users don’t want ‘em, then they ain’t bringin’ ‘em!

RIM’s main strength is their presence in the data centers with their BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server). Their OS was only interesting back in the stone ages where email was really the only thing the device did. Their browser has always been awful and they were way too late to try and get into the apps game for their own OS and this isn’t getting better with the ongoing delay of Blackberry 10. Blackberry should throw in the towel on the OS and go with Android. Take Android, twist some of the back-end security stuff to tightly integrate with BES so enterprises can sleep well. Rebrand a couple hot phone styles from HTC, Samssung and Motorola with Android-BB on them. If RIM wants to stay in the hardware business, there are some strongly devoted folks to the BB style keyboard. Build a couple hot styles of these including a “retro” version for those with large hands and thumbs (seriously, I loved typing on those monsters). However, the OS underneath should be Android taking full advantage of that app community.

Heck, go ahead and build out a managed marketplace like Amazon’s so that enterprise IT shops can again sleep at night knowing that Android-BB apps are being examined and passed as secure by BB. Tie this into the BES infrastructure so this can be managed by the enterprise per their policies.

Will this happen? Probably not. There’s likely both an ego challenge to dumping their own OS work and an investment challenge as they are probably so far along with BB 10 that they feel they need to see the investment through to the bloody, bitter end. Too bad for RIM and even worse for their investors that rode this thing down.

Google+, developers hope to revolutionize video chat with new ‘Hangouts’ apps

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Mar 292012

Google+, developers hope to revolutionize video chat with new ‘Hangouts’ apps – SiliconValley.com.

Well the numbers don’t lie about Facebook’s headstart over Google Pluss:

845 million vs. 100 million users

7 hours / month vs. 3 minutes / month

I guess me and my family are the outlyers as we almost exclusively use Google Plus having mostly abandoned Facebook. I do several Hangouts a week with family members. We post to our Family circle multiple times per day which is significantly more than we ever did on Facebook. Now, none of us really ever gamed on Facebook and I’m not aware of anyone gaming on Google Plus, though my brother in law and I have begun playing Zombie Lane.

I know for me, I switched to Google Plus as I prefer the simplicity and cleanliness of the UI as well as for the simplicity and control of Circles. I now am able to have a single Google Plus account and keep my various “selves” separate. With Facebook, I had 3 different accounts (so much for the real name requirement) to keep my personal life, my professional / public life and my online gaming life seprate. I know FB added Groups, but it was late with this hideously obvious feature. Also Groups feels very tacked on. For instance, when I go to share something on FB, I don’t have a choice as to what Group(s) should see it.

Perhaps my family being all Android users has something to do with it. G+ ties in nicely to everything else we’re doing on our phones. I take pictures and they automatically upload to Photos where I can simply share them or not. Bouncing back and forth between posts on G+ and more private email replies is a no-brainer. Contacts, Latitude check-ins, etc. all correlate nicely and just works without having to think about “what app am I in?”, “I should switch to the FB app and share this”, etc.

Another minor gripe I have about FB is that it won’t hold the sort I want; Recent. It really wants me to be on Top Stories. I have to change this almost every time I visit.

Just one man’s experience along with his major circle of contacts, his family. I think the rumors of G+’s death are hideously exaggerated. Whatever you prefer though, can’t argue against having choices, eh?

Apple’s War on Android – Businessweek

Digital Life, DRM, Tim's Opinion No Responses »

Mar 292012

Apple’s War on Android – Businessweek.

Interesting and reasonably in-depth look at the Apple related patent wars. Definitely reinforces why I’m not an Apple fan-boy. Interesting to see a company so devoted to quality so often also cling to policies that relegate them to minority player. I guess so long as your revenues and profits are sky-high, who cares? I can definitely respect that, but I just won’t be using their products while they remain so committed to locking me into the digital ghetto called iTunes, iOS, iCloud, i-anything as it currently stands. Open up Apple and truly claim your spot as digital ruler of the world.

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