July 2008 Archives

Last weekend I complained that I had lived here in California for months now and had not experienced any earthquakes. Today I had my first. I must confess as it continued beyond 15 seconds or so, it was a bit unnerving. I felt like I lived too close to the train tracks. The earthquake produced no damage or harm that I am aware of and was probably a very small one by California standards.

I like this idea. It rocks. But how long before the parking mesh monitoring sensors get "smart"--know exactly how long you have been parked there, what your car tag number is, who you are, what your parking patterns are, issues you a ticket the second your meter expires, and mails the citation to your home address? Who will gain access to this information? Will the parking mesh monitoring sensors be able to "watch" the cars that drive by to learn who goes where when? I have an enormous growing concern about our surveillance society. Big brother is now!

This fall, San Francisco will implement the largest mesh network for monitoring parking to date. Around 6,000 wireless sensors from the San Francisco company Streetline will be fixed alongside as many parking spots, monitoring both parking availability and the volume and speed of passing traffic. The city hopes that displaying information from the sensors on Web maps, smart phones, and signs on the street will reduce the traffic and pollution caused by circling cars.

[Source: Technology Review: Find a Parking Space Online ]

As I observe people having more and more choice in the information we access, more and more control over the information that gets to us, more and more control over a "personalized," "it's all about me" lifestyle, I see less and less actual access to information. This is curious to me. This phenomenon is absolutely counter-intuitive.

One would think that with virtually unfettered access to the thinking of much of the world, we would have a broader swath of information from which to gain insight and deeper understanding. I suspect the exact opposite is happening.

I think we are so overloaded with information demanding our attention we develop sophisticated, perhaps even subconscious filtering mechanisms. We have our TiVo bring us only what we want to see. We have iTunes search for only those releases in which we have interest. We aggregate news in our RSS readers only from sources we "trust." After all, we all feel safer when we have our perspectives affirmed. We feel we are more in control of our destiny because we understand the path--what an illusion!

We have become too quick to judge and too slow to ponder.

We are actually making ourselves more narrow-minded, more myopic, more uninformed, as we focus our limited attention only on those things that affirm our present perspectives thus further convincing ourselves that we are right and the rest of the country, of the world, is doomed to hell. Each one of us is convincing ourselves that we really do know the mind of God. We are dumbfounded that those around us, even other people we like, don't "get it," don't see what is so obvious to us. They, after all, have their own deeply entrenched filtering systems protecting their perspectives.

I am convinced this isn't just unhealthy, its long term effect is dangerous. Such busied, narrowed perspectives allows us to conveniently hide from undeniable truths like the poverty exposed by Katrina. Further, we have already begun to see the horrendous effect this has had on our political landscape--unprecedented divisiveness and animosity exacerbating intractable positions that stymie our capacity to get along with anyone (including our spouses) or accomplish anything of substance. And media makes a lot of money by pandering to what divides us. This present path through information overload has obscured common ground.

One of the great hallmarks of the educated person is an appreciation for divergence, a healthy respect for varied perspectives, the whole notion of the contest of ideas--not to win, but for the purpose of fashioning a better, fuller, richer and more vibrant perspective that enriches more lives. Perhaps a more healthy attentional focus would be to avoid trying to win over others to our opinions and instead invest some energy in gleaning a deeper understanding from theirs.

I think I could write a book about this. This topic is huge, timely, and important!

I like these ideas and look forward to needing them.

You can print your own pictures or words on M&Ms! Cute. Cool. Would make nice wedding candy or new born announcements.

You can also print your own special messages inside those bite-sized Dove chocolate foils!

Personalize your chocolate experiences! Here is the link.

But fun!! Naturally I downloaded it! The motion sensor in the Mac, which is used to shut down the hard drive before the machine falls to the floor, saving the hard drive data, is used to have some fun.

for an old dog.

I just learned that if you click on the [control] key when you scroll the tiny mouse ball on the top center of the Apple Mouse, you can zoom the screen in and out. Handy! Very handy!

Who ever would have thought...

Too often technology just complicates my life. (Some of you are thinking: I can't believe you just said that! But it's true.) I guess we have to take the good with the bad, because life in any time has both. But sometimes a technology comes along that really makes me smile. This post is about such an application: Shazam.

I just learned about this application from one of my good friends who is driving around someplace New Hampshire, lost, listening to the radio, using his iPhone 3G to identify the music on the radio and his location on the map.

How many times have you been someplace and wanted to know the name of the song you are hearing: on the radio, in a movie, in the grocery store, at a restaurant. Maybe the song is a blast from the past (you can't quite remember the name or group) or maybe it's a song you have never heard and really like--would like to purchase. Now the information you need is just two touches away!

Shazam is a free application at the iTunes Store. Touch the Shazam icon on your iPhone so it will "listen" to the music. A few seconds later your phone vibrates, and Shazam gives you a picture of the album cover and all of the details of the music! I am blown away. This is an awesome idea. And It really works! Click on the picture in this post to go to the app on the iTunes Store.

You also get links to purchase the song right then on your iPhone from the iTunes Store. (You must be on a WiFi network at the time for this feature to be available.) You get links to any YouTube videos featuring the song. You can even attach a photo (from your iPhoto library or one you just snapped with your phone) to the song and share it via an instant email to anyone in your address book. "Hey! Remember 10 years ago when we heard this here..."

This is just insane. Loving it.

As most everyone knows, I travel a great deal these days. Today I printed out my boarding pass for Delta. Again, I love the convenience. But this time I was shocked. The boarding pass doesn't look the same at all.

Now I must first confess to believing that 98% of all advertising is nothing but noise, even graffiti as far as I am concerned. I LOATHE advertising! On rare occasion an advertisement has some merit on its own. Rarely.

Well, the new Delta boarding passes have full color advertisements on them. Damn! I'm printing out an advertisement, using my ink (which we all know isn't inexpensive!), so I can get on their plane?! Aggravation and irritation. I'm sure they are looking for every way they can find to make money to compensate for rising oil prices and keep fares affordable. And I must confess this is a clever idea as it has great margins: virtually no cost for Delta at all, just profit!

But the boarding pass also includes some useful information as well: the weather forecast for the place I will be. Now that's really useful and convenient, especially since they are forecasting thunder storms. They also feature recommended (read: paid advertisements) places to eat with their phone numbers, tours and other "touristy" information.

Well, they almost provided me a service but had to make some money out of it as well. OK, I'll take the good with the bad.

Who thinks up these things?

I tried to not give in; but, alas, I failed.

I now have a white, 16 GB 3G. I'm holding off on making any proclamations about the device at this point. But here's what I found fascinating: When asked why we had to wait in line for the phone to be activated in the store, unlike my last iPhone purchase experience, the Apple sales guy said,

I suspect it has something to do with the fact that about 40% of original iPhone purchases are jail broken and are running today on a different carrier other than AT&T. AT&T probably figures you are less likely to go with a different carrier if you already paid to set up and activate a plan with them and then have to pay a cancelation fee of a couple hundred dollars before putting your phone on your original carrier. The numbers are now stacked in AT&T's favor.

Wow! If I had only known! I've make no secret of my dislike of AT&T. Despite their claims, I find that they have fewer bars in more places--like, my house for example. Verizon knocks their socks off with actual functioning coverage in the places I travel--truly more bars in more places. (I have my laptop wireless broadband service through Verizon and have yet to go someplace I couldn't connect wirelessly on the Verizon wireless network! Unlike my AT&T cell phone coverage...) I suspect that the minute AT&T loses exclusivity of the iPhone, I'll bail.

AT&T charged me to upgrade to the 3G phone, and now charges me for the text messages I was getting for free in my contract that is supposed to last for 2 years. I'm only half way through. In other words, it's OK for AT&T to break the contract with me to make more money. I just can't break it with them without giving them more money. This just seems to me like clever jerks playing the system against the powerless customer base.

Again, no wonder AT&T has no customer loyalty, only customer loathing. In my humble, personal opinion, AT&T is a shining example of corporate greed, a system too big and too fat to innovate quickly enough to respond to the market So they devise ways to rip off their own market share and buy off more market share through purchases like Cingular, so they can rip them off too. And, just how did they get around those anti-trust regulations? Hmmm...

The NCLB president thinks it is funny that he is stupid and lacks any semblance of mental acuity. I don't. I think a buffoon should never be allowed into the White House. And here John McCain seems to be taking notes from the same play book.

We can not survive another idiot in the presidency. We need someone who has the capacity and the willingness to think carefully and critically, weighing all options before making an informed decision. How could the media keep the fact that Bush can't think from the whole nation so long?!

I just got this email and am adding the number to my frequently dialed list! This is not just awesome, the video is funny! I guess Google is working to not appear like another evil empire.

I think the traffic cones next to the stairs were put there because they are about to turn the staircase "on!"

I know, the rotating banner images at the top, from my photos through the years, are suddenly small. Well, actually, they are the same size they have always been. I am enlarging the width of my blog page and sidebar. The sidebar is now 240 pixels wide and the post area of my blog is now 492 pixels wide. I think this gives the blog a less "narrow" or squashed look. And since most people have decent monitors these days that can accommodate the wider size, why not!

So the rotating banner images are only 200 pixels wide. At some point in the not too distant future, I hope to refresh all of those images with larger that are 240 pixel wide. Ideas are brewing.

Additionally, you will notice that the seagull now appears in the Pick A Theme section in the sidebar. Theme selection is now, once again, completely up to you. You were directed by default to the Manhattan Beach theme, since I just created it a week or so ago. But if you want to use a different theme, they are now each fully functional. Just click on the small image of the theme you wish to use under the Pick a Theme section in the sidebar.

What goes around, comes around. Blik is on to something with a cool factor. Here we have yet another variation of a modernized late 60's, early 70's fad returning. This is plower power on modern plastics! I like these--for your car, your glassware, your walls. I especially like the Stone Jungle and Anise! Hmmm... wondering if it would fit anywhere here in the house.

The photo above is from Adam Bett's blog. In this same post, he features another picture of his creative workspace. Nice. Very nice.

I can honestly think of few things so appropriate!

SAN FRANCISCO: Reagan has his highways. Lincoln has his memorial. Washington has the capital, and a state, too. But President George W. Bush may soon be the sole president to have a memorial named after him that you can contribute to from the bathroom.

From the Department of Damned-With-Faint-Praise, a group going by the regal-sounding name of the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is planning to ask voters here to change the name of a prize-winning water-treatment plant on the shoreline to the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.

The plan - hatched, naturally, in a bar - would place a vote on the November ballot to provide "an appropriate honor for a truly unique president."

[Source: San Francisco may name sewage treatment plant after Bush - International Herald Tribune]

All over again! The iPhone web app Remote is awesome. I mention it in this post. Regrettably, my connection to the house's wide area network was spotty at the time, and I couldn't test it in detail. To be honest, I still haven't tested it in detail--that time issue. But...

Earlier I had read that the application controlled the music from your iTunes library running on your AppleTV or your computer. It does. I didn't try to make it do anything else because the application description I read didn't indicate it could do anything else. But, contrary to what I stated in my earlier blog post, the iPhone application Remote does in fact appear to control your entire iTunes library, podcasts, videos, etc.

This is awesome! It made me fall in love all over again with my "vintage" iPhone now running the iPhone OS 2 with several applications installed.

I don't care if "the iphone SMS pricing plan is now consistent with our other mobile device's pricing plans" with the addition of a fee for text messaging. It's absurd that anyone should be charging for a service that is probably all but 100% profit. As John Gruber pointed out over at Daring Fireball a while back, SMS on AT&T is the most expensive bandwidth on earth! This is legalized theft by taking. This is the convenience tax. This is a rip off.

So, I hope all of those 1,000,000 new iPhone purchasers (and that's just over the weekend) will not purchase SMS from AT&T and will not touch the SMS button on the iPhone. Instead, download the free AOL chat client from the iTunes Apps Store and follow these simple directions from our friends at TidBITS. You can SMS for free off AT&Ts 3G network!

Let's see, more or less, 1,000,000 new iPhone plans using the $5.00 per month SMS plan at AT&T: that's a $5,000,000 windfall every month! Now, certainly this isn't scientifically calculated, but it's probably in the ball park. While it's 1,000,000 new iPhone users, some upgraded their phones I'm sure, but not all of them went with the least expensive ($5/month) SMS plan. So I suspect it all comes out in the $5 million range per month--give or take a few hundred thousand.

I noticed over the weekend a huge number of full page ads by the other mobile carriers, even multiple pages by the same carrier in the same day's paper! They have got to be losing market share! Verizon should have had more sense when Apple first offered them the deal, because I don't care far giant corporate AT&T! Now, if I really did have "more bars in more places" maybe I would feel different about them.

As I have groused before, this is just the old AT&T monopoly acting like its old self!

I am really trying very hard to avoid purchasing a new iPhone. I don't know how long I can hold out. I'm too much of a geek. The speed appeals to me... a lot, though it is still too slow. I want broadband, baby! I want this thing to sizzle. But that will be many years out.

Anyway, at about 6:30PM, I went to one of my favorite burger places, which actually is at this mall. The line into the Apple store, which is about in the middle of the mall, wrapped around the mall on the outside. I asked the waitress if the line had been this bad all day long. She told me that in fact the line started forming the night before when she was getting off work! No one can now say my experience with the purchase of my iPhone a year ago was so bad! These guys are hard core!

The line was so amazing to me, I snapped a picture on my newly installed iPhone 2.0 software. I was shocked. It immediately asked me if I wanted the phone to use my location data as metadata in the picture file! I love it!! And all of the apps that are using location information... More posts on that later.

I'm too cheap to purchase the new iPhone, but... All of the vintage iPhone users can upgrade to the new iPhone OS, which brings everything but the speed of 3G and the GPS unit inside.

However, I may have to purchase a new phone in due time. Some fantastic applications at the App Store. I'm afraid that in no time, I will fill up my little 8GB phone. I particularly love the Remote. This thing works like a charm. I just wish it also would control the entire AppleTV interface experience and not just music being played through the AppleTV. I see huge implications for where all of this is going.

And while I'm at it, I couldn't live without my Jott account. And I love their new iPhone application. And I also love my RSS feed reader, NetNewWire, that also has a new iPhone application!

This thing rocks my world!

I know. I harp on the glorious ocean breeze. I just can't express how much I love it. Here on July 10th, it's 71º, and the curtains whip about with carefree abandon as should every human soul.

Too many times I've nearly been run over by someone not paying attention to their driving because they can not multitask: talk on the phone and drive at the same time! I'm glad we have this law, now in effect in California! I've always been astounded that we will ban driving under the influence from the roadways and put people in prison for killing someone driving drunk. Yet study after study indicates that talking on a cell phone impairs a driver's response time more than being legally intoxicated by most states' definitions. Yet the cell phone industry and people's need for convenience have prevented anyone from even mentioning banning talking on the phone in the car!

Arizona has an interesting approach to this issue. They make "driving distracted," which is more comprehensive than just talking on the cell phone, illegal.

Driving and talking using hand-held cell phones is illegal on all California roadways
- Hands-free devices, such as bluetooth handsets, wired headsets and car speaker phones are OK. You can also use the speaker phone function on your cell phone (though you probably have to yell).
- If your phone has the "push to talk" feature, that’s illegal to use too.
- First offense: $20, Each additional offense: $50. No violation point, but it will appear on your driving record.
- Exception to the law: calling law enforcement authorities for emergency purposes.
- Exempted from the law: Commercial truck drivers, tow truck drivers and operators of farming vehicles and emergency vehicles. Also, the law does not apply on private roads.
- The California law is primary enforcement: a police may pull you over and give you a ticket for using a hand-held cell phone while driving without any other offense.

Remember that I said two laws? In addition to the hands-free law above, there is another law coming into effect July 1st:

- No driver under the age of 18 can use cell phone, either hand-held or hands-free, while driving. That also means no texting. No pager, too.
- Exception: to call the police, fire or medical authorities for emergency situations
- If you’re under 18 and use a hands-free cell phone, the police needs to pull you over for another traffic violation before he can ticket you for this particular offense (it’s a secondary enforcement, not a primary one). BUT, if you are spotted using a hand-held cell phone, then that is enough for a cop to pull you over.

[Source: Neatorama » Blog Archive » New California Hands-Free Cell Phone Laws]

Photo credit: CC, Ford @ flickr

I didn't take the time to download this picture from my iPhone on the day it was taken, June 21, 2008, the longest day of the year. I didn't have my SLR with me, so the iPhone had to do: a photo of the sun setting over the Pacific Ocean on the longest day of the year. It sets over Malibu, the north section of the south bay.

As I mentioned in my last post (the next one you will probably read), I was in Tucson, Arizona, at the beginning of the week at a really lovely place, the Loews Ventana Canyon Resort. The weather was, of course, intensely hot, in the 100º range kind of hot. Even though this is monsoon season (a 10% chance of rain daily and clouds do show up--see below), the air was very, very dry--no humidity at all.

The low humidity makes the air feel surprisingly cooler than it really is. I was standing outside, about to take the top picture, very puzzled that my Hershey's chocolate bar was melting all over my hand. Then I realized that, despite the fact I didn't really file hot, it was hotter than hell outside! The chocolate never lies!

That night indeed we enjoyed a tremendous thunderstorm. The locals said that, when they were children, it rained like that every day during the monsoon season. The clouds would appear over the mountains and unleash rapid flooding. They worry that something is very wrong with our earth today as it seldom rains during the monsoon season any more. Much more global warming and this place could just spontaneously combust!

Outside the door to my room was the mountain, just covered with cacti of every kind you can imagine! Outside the windows on the other side was the city in the distance. If you look carefully in the center of the bottom picture, you will see a waterfall--quite unexpected. I later learned it only exists naturally during the spring snow melt and pools beautifully at the base.

These are just two quick pictures from my iPhone.

One of the interesting things about moving: you feel less than connected to the new place you move, especially when it is such a vastly different place: the south east versus the Pacific coast. Living in Atlanta for 20 years, I established over time a strong sense of connection. I knew my way around. I knew where to find what when I needed it. I knew lots of people. I had a strong sense of the history of place, the culture of the area. I had grown roots in the community.

Here in Los Angeles I am building that from ground zero, a process complicated by the fact that I have been out of town more than I have been in town since I moved here. My travel schedule has been insane, though I love it. So I really enjoy those few times I have to connect to place and people here in Manhattan Beach.

I feel comfortable eating in establishments that have been in existence for a long time, have a sense of place in the community. Having found one in Manhattan Beach, I have been fascinated by the old pictures of the area in the early 1900s, when Manhattan Beach had very, very little development. In fact, it was mostly just beach. The pier apparently was about a third longer than it presently is, the missing section having been destroyed by "the storm of the century" about 20 years ago.

The house stays open when I'm home. Though it's July, the weather is still very cool. In fact, it's been in the high 60's for the past few days that I've been in town, quite the contrast from Tucson, Arizona, where I spent the beginning of the week. And yes, I must speak about the ocean breeze yet once again as it is indeed heavenly.

While on the front balcony last night, enjoying the garden below and the nice breeze, two neighbors walked by and began chatting. Apparently the wife has lived on this street since she was 4 years old, I think she said. She spoke of what was here before the house this house replaced was built: a corn field with very poor water drainage. Well, I can't imagine how a lack of water drainage here would matter as it never rains! Curiously, one of the houses in the next block is designed exactly like a red barn. It is being either gutted on the inside or taken down entirely. I don't know which yet. I wonder... but no one thought about it in the conversation.

Building a sense of historical perspective and place...

Photo credit: CC, James Jordan @ flickr

It makes me want to play!

Designed by Shahar Peleg, Mirror Tic Tac Toe cleverly supplies only half X's and O's to play with, which become "whole" once they're placed on the board, thanks to their reflections.

[Source: DVICE: Mirror Tic Tac Toe makes me actually want to play the game]

I have fixed the browser compatibility issues for Windows users using Internet Explorer 7.

I have abandoned support for Internet Explorer version 6. Microsoft should be sued for ever perpetrating that browser on unsuspecting users all over the earth. It isn't standards compliant (never was) and mutilates the rendering of CSSs. And Microsoft got away with it for years! Appalling!!

While the latest version of Internet Explorer is a vast browser improvement for Windows users, I don't much care for it either as it still does not fully render all CSS statement elements. For example: CSS allows the use of transparency in the browser, but Internet Explorer can not render transparency so the Windows user doesn't see the page as intended by the page creator.

But back to my tirade. If you want to read my blog on a Windows machine, you will need IE7. To hell with IE6. But if you want a superior browser experience, you can download Safari (which does run on Windows XP or Vista) or download Firefox. Both browsers are enormously better than Internet Explorer!

Don't be of the Microsoft mindset: it's good enough! It's just good enough. To hell with that kind of thinking!!! For the love of all that is holy, download them now! See what you've been missing. Take the time to get beyond the slight learning curve and enjoy a better browsing experience!

Firefox (above)

Los Angeles is without doubt the place for all of the beautiful people. I've never seen so many attractive men and women in one place! This area is indeed consumed with physical appearance. They even advertise (nonstop it seems) breast augmentation, liposuction, plastic surgery--"give your wife the gift she's always wanted." It's a bit out of control!

So , in keeping with the spirit of my new home, and since I doubt I will ever become caught up in the health and beauty craze that consumes so many here, I decided it was time to give my blog a face lift! Ta Da!

No matter what theme you have been using to look at my blog, I am making everyone see the new theme for a while: the MBCA (Manhattan Beach, California) theme. What? You didn't know you could completely change the look of my blog by clicking on one of the themes in the sidebar? Well, yes. In the past you could. But for a while, this new theme controls all of the theme choices.

And, for a bit of added fun, I have a new MBCA timtyson.us splash screen, complete with cool movie of some pictures I've taken of Manhattan Beach since living here. To check out the new MBCA splash screen, simply click here.

Yeah, the evil empire! I guess this falls into the category of "When does it become theft by taking?"

Today is basic math day at CrunchGear where we discovered that if 160 bytes of SMS data costs twenty cents then 1MB (1,048,576 bytes) of data would cost 131,072 cents, or $1,310.72.

Check out the prices for a text message plan on AT&T, the exclusive carrier of the iPhone 3G in the United States. AT&T wants twenty cents ($0.20) per text message if you don’t sign up for a plan. A text message is nothing more than 160 bytes of data. The max is 160 characters, and one character equals one byte of data. Great.

In other words, if AT&T charged data downloads at the rate they charge text messages downloading 1MB of data would cost you $1,310.72.

Read more at CrunchGear

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

[Source: AT&T’s Text Messages Cost $1,310 per Megabyte]