June 2010 Archives

More 100mm macro love

Apple isn't a victim of their own success.  They are badly managed at the distribution and retail levels — abusing their customers to feed their hype-driven marketing machinery.

It starts with my trying to reserve a phone on the date Apple themselves said everyone could place an order.  Their system, probably AT&T's databases, were overloaded and my first attempt to place an order didn't work.  I received a browser message to try my order again later.  I immediately did.

This time I tried to have the phone delivered to my home address.  The order went through!  I got my phone yesterday.

I then got an email saying my first order had also worked and I should pick up my phone at a specific Apple store.  What?  How weird!  But, OK.  Cool.  I could give that phone to the HU, who planned to get one anyway but hadn't placed an order.

My subsequent attempts to order a phone for my mother all failed repeatedly and said I had to go to the Apple store.  The nearest Apple store to her is about a 6 hour drive.  At her age, she won't be doing that.

Yesterday I and the HU went to the Apple store to be sure I could give my phone to the HU.  We were told that as long as we were both there I could.  Cool.

Today I drove by to check out the line.  Apple advertised that they will have two lines:  one for those customers who pre-ordered their phones and one for those who were just hoping to get one.  One line extends from the Mall entrance all the way off of the mall property and all the way down to the golf course at the Marriott.  Literally thousands of people are standing in this line that is probably a mile or more long!

I asked one of the store employees who was near the mall entrance how long the line was for people who had pre-ordered the phone.  He said, in not too pleasant a tone, that he had no idea.  It was all one line.  The store didn't divide the line up until people got to the door of the store.  What???!!!!  So the people that pre-ordered are having to wait even longer because of the people who didn't pre-order?!  That makes zero sense!

He went on to say that if I wasn't standing in the line (currently in the blazing sun) when the store closed, I would lose my reservation.  (A female employee had just told another customer the exact opposite.  Who go the correct information?!) He said that hundreds of people had spent the night in line.

This is insane.  This is inept management.  This is inexcusable.  Sure, it was fun the first time, but Apple has had 4 tries now to get this process right.

I told him Apple had lost their mind and that they could keep their precious little phone.  I wonder who will get the phone I ordered not realizing that the order had even worked?!

This is pure horse pooh!

Just wait until they all get their shiny new devices only to realize that the marvel of engineering, the new antenna system that is the outer edge of the phone, doesn't work so well when you hold the phone with your hand.  But then, who actually holds the phone in theirs hands when they place a call??????

Related articles:

• iPhone 4 has folks lining up in droves at Apple Stores worldwide (edibleapple.com)
• Apple iPhone 4 Release: Lines Grow As Frenzy Kicks Off (PHOTOS) (huffingtonpost.com)
• Hundreds line up to buy new iPhone (washingtontimes.com)
• IPhone 4 sells briskly on first day of sales (cbc.ca)
• IPhone 4 Launch: The Scene From Austin (blogs.wsj.com)
• New iPhone selling briskly as hundreds line up (mysanantonio.com)
• iPhone Lines 2-3 Times Bigger This Year, Stores Are Selling Out (AAPL) (businessinsider.com)

No, really!

I complain so often about AT&T that I feel compelled to say something, anything, good about them when ever I can.  Today I can.

My new iPhone 4 was having connecting issues in the house, even with the MicroCell.  I called the support number the AT&T rep at the AT&T store gave me in case I had any problems.  The first thing that completely and utterly blew me out of the water:  a real live human being that spoke English as his native language answered the phone on the second ring!  But even more than that:  the real live human being that spoke English as his native language that answered the phone on the second ring was the actual tech support guy that immediately and courteously fixed the issue.

Now, ladies and gentlemen:  that's astounding!!!!  But it gets better.

When the phone was up and working with a re-invigorated signal strength, the tech support guy set up a return call for me on a specific time this Friday to make sure the fix solved the issue!  Someone from AT&T's technical support group will confirm the steps we took today worked?!

My god!

Now, that's what I call customer service!

of an iPhone 4!

It arrived at 9:30am at the front door via the stork (FedEx guy).

I unboxed it ceremoniously. It is beautiful, and smart — just like it's father (me, course)!

I turned it on. It asked to be connected to the mother ship. I plugged it into my Macbook Pro. iTunes then displayed my phone number and requested my billing zip code and the last 4 numbers of my social security number. It then said my activation session session had expired. Retry.

After three failed retries, I called Apple support. They told me to reboot my computer. I did. It activated after requiring 3 DNA samples —well, not really, but you are forced to agree to god knows what*. The moment it activated, my call to Apple support on my old iPhone was disconnected.

I then unplugged the new phone from iTunes and replugged it in as directed. iTunes is now installing all of my old iPhone's content onto the new phone.

I must say, and this is really actually very important to me, this is the best product delivery and activation process Apple and AT&T have ever had. I all but went on a safari camping out when I purchased my first iPhone from the Apple store at Lennox Mall. Activating it took hours (almost a whole day)! And each subsequent purchase was fraught with stupendously long lines but better activation times. This one they almost got completely right!

Amazing how long it takes to transfer about 24gb of data to the new phone via USB 2. It's now finished transferring all of my applications and is now working on sending over the video and audio content.

*Apparently iOS 4 users are now sending Apple retina scans, urine samples, blood and stool samples, along with our current location at every breath we take. The mother ship will use this information benevolently, of course. They will ply us with iAds tailored specifically to our personal DNA profile so as to extract as much money from our bank accounts as possible. The power of the tethered device is not to be underestimated!

Oooooooh!  Loooook!!  It's teething already!!

Related articles:

• Preparing for iPhone 4 Launch Day (cbsnews.com)
• Christmas Coming One Day Early? iPhone 4 on 6/23 For Some? (geardiary.com)

Well, my iPhone 4 is supposed to arrive tomorrow!  I can't wait.

I downloaded iOS 4 for my existing phone and iPod Touch to get accustomed to the new operating system.  So far, the thing I like the most is Folders!  My application icons are all grouped in a way that makes sense to me.  Instead of having an insane number of panes through which I had to slide, I now only have 3!  This is a vast improvement.  Now, of course, I want more.  I've become such a visual person; I'd like to choose the icons for my Folders.  :o)

I also understand that a user can opt out of the iAd system, so Apple doesn't collect info about your interests, by visiting http://oo.apple.com ith any device running iOS 4 or later.  You should get a message, "You have successfully opted out.” if the process is working; otherwise, “Opt out not successful.” will appear.

Related articles:

• Apple's iOS 4 Available for Download [Video] (globalthoughtz.com)
• iOS 4 Update (slog.thestranger.com)
• iOS 4 Releases Today (apple.slashdot.org)
• Apple iOS 4 released to widespread criticism (v3.co.uk)
• Apple Launches iOS 4 for iPhone, iPod Touch (wired.com)

The hyper, militant, radical, evil, ultra-conservative, Republican noise machine has reached a new level of shill: stop beating up poor little innocent BP. [Insert a string of vile profanities of your own choosing here.] Listen to these idiots.

At the very least, BP should go out of business. Frankly, I favor the US nationalizing all of their assets. Just please spare Tony a yacht.

Related articles:

• Krauthammer: Barton's apology was "the most politically stupid statement of the year" (hotair.com)
• Michael Tomasky: BP and the GOP (guardian.co.uk)
• GOP Defending BP: Cutting Off Their Heads To Spite Their Necks (alan.com)

This is as much to help me remember this as it is to share the info with all humanoids on in interwebs...

This is the post production process I used when creating the Malaga Cove time lapse shorts.  After importing the footage from the camera into the computer:

1. QuickTime Pro 7 ›› File ›› Open Image Sequence...
2. Make sure images are in their chronological shot order
3. Select the first image and click "Open"
4. Select 24 frames per second and click "OK"
5. After the huge file is created, make sure you are displaying it at 100%
6. File ›› Export ›› Export: Movie to QuickTime movie [bottom left drop down]
7. Select "Options..."
   1. In the Movie Setting Dialogue, ›› Settings...
      1. Compression Type: Apple ProRes 422 (LT)
      2. Frame Rate: 24 fps
      3. OK
   2. Back in the Movie Setting Dialogue, ›› Size...
      1. Dimensions: Current [Make certain it is the full frame size of the original photos if you wish to pan and crop in Final Cut Pro.]
      2. OK
   3. Select "OK"
   4. Name the file and save it.
8. Create a sequence in Final Cut Pro with these settings:
   1. Frame Size: 1440 x 1080 [HD (1440 x 1080) (16:9)
   2. Pixel Aspect Ration: HD (1440 x 1080)
   3. Editing Timebase: 24 fps
9. Import your media and design your project — the fun part!
10. Once the project is completed in Final Cut Pro ›› Export ›› Using QuickTime Conversion...
    1. Format: MPEG-4
    2. Options
       1. Video Format: H.264
       2. Data Rate: I usually use over 4,000kbits/sec [The higher the number the larger the file size but the better the visual quality.]
       3. Image Size: I usually export three different sizes (three different exports): 1920 x 1080 HD, 1280 x 720 HD, and 640 x 360
       4. Frame Rate: 24fps

Related articles:

• Malaga Cove Sunrise (Time Lapse) (timtyson.us)
• Malaga Cover Time Lapse (Noon) (timtyson.us)

The banks were too big to fail.  Google is too big to be anything but evil.

I'm sure everyone has heard by now that the little Google street car that has mapping our world (while very cool, it takes away our privacy) was also snooping around everyone's wireless networks.  If your network was unprotected when the Google street car came by your home or office, Google took your email and password information as well.

Don't tell me the very bright people at Google haven't been doing analysis on the human cognition of password creation.  To the nefarious among us, we are nothing more than data.  I'll never forget overhearing a restaurant dinner conversation here in LA, "Yeah, I like so-and-so, but that's just one data point!"

As far as I am concerned, Google can never be trusted.

Wi-Fi traffic intercepted by Google’s Street View cars included passwords and e-mail, according to the French National Commission on Computing and Liberty (CNIL)."

[Source: Google Street View Wi-Fi data included passwords and e-mail | Security | Macworld.]

This is the second time lapse I shot at Malaga Cover yesterday.  This one was shot at ISO 100 with a 5 second interval and includes a bit of panning.  As you can see from the comment at the other Malaga Cove time lapse, I met lots of interesting people yesterday morning.

So, here is the noon time lapse of Malaga Cove. Don't forget, you can click the full screen button when it starts playing.  You can see the little tiny surfers and the water currents moving about.  The one below is HD: 1280 x 720, so be sure you have your window as large as you can get it before clicking the play button. (If your monitor is too small to play the HD version, you can view the smaller version directly underneath the HD version.)

I'm not exactly sure why, but the HD version plays rather poorly over the internet using MediaBoxAdv; so, I just have it pop up in a separate window for excellent playback.

Related articles:

• First CineSlider Time Lapse (timtyson.us)
• Malaga Cove Sunrise (Time Lapse) (timtyson.us)
• All of the time lapses posted at timtyson.us (timtyson.us)

I mentioned in my post yesterday about this time lapse, that I wasn't able to get a transition from complete darkness to light because I shot this time lapse so close to today -- the longest day of the year, and you can't park your car until 5:00am. At any rate, here is the first time lapse from yesterday.

My face got totally fried!  The breeze was delightfully cool (a bit cold actually before the sun came up), probably in the low to mid 60's.  So I had no idea I was cooking myself!

The cloud action, while not as dramatic as the fog coming in to engulf the cove and then moving out again, was still awesome!  (The camera frame is actually considerably larger than the 16:9 video frame; so, you don't get to see the full effect in this video.  Though what is here is great.)

Technical: Balancing three variables: the exposure time (very dark and then very light conditions in the same time lapse) with an aperture that will provide the best depth of field and sharpness with the shortest possible shot interval so the continuous motion of the waves in the finished time lapse appears as smooth as possible.

I placed my ISO at 400 since I would be shooting in very decreased light in the early morning hours but also in very bright light by noon. The exposure time (at f5.6) is pretty significant when its darker outside but then ran up to 1600 (at ISO 400) when it was noon). So I set my shot interval to be 20 seconds. (My experience has been that in near dark conditions, at ISO 400, the exposure time can be over 20 seconds.  In yesterdays darkest time the exposure was only 2 seconds, but I just now noticed this!  Rats!  I could have done a 5 second shot interval.) Regrettably, once the sun comes up, a 20 second exposure time creates jerky wave motion. But the cloud action is pretty cool.

Therefore, halfway through the time lapse, I stopped and adjusted the ISO to 100 and the shot interval to 5 seconds. So, in the second time lapse I will post from my day at Malaga Cove, the wave action is considerably smoother. Stay tuned for the second time lapse to be posted later.

But, in the mean time, here is the early morning time lapse of Malaga Cove. Don't forget, you can click the full screen button when it starts playing.  You can see the little tiny surfers and the water currents moving about.  The one below is HD: 1280 x 720, so be sure you have your window as large as you can get it before clicking the play button. (If your monitor is too small to play the HD version, you can view the smaller version directly underneath the HD version.)

I'm not exactly sure why, but the HD version plays rather poorly over the internet using MediaBoxAdv; so, I just have it pop up in a separate window for excellent playback.

Related articles:

• First CineSlider Time Lapse (timtyson.us)

This morning I got up really early (3:45AM) to shoot a time lapse of the Galaga Cove along the Palos Verdes Shoreline Preserve. Unfortunately, the area is not open for parking until 5AM; so, as tomorrow is the longest day of the year, I missed the transition from complete darkness to sunrise. It was already fairly light out when I arrived at  5AM. Probably just as well: the cliffs are a sheer, straight drop off, and I didn't want to plunge to my certain death by mis-stepping in the darkness. I placed the tripod just inches away from the edge!

The time lapse was with one shot ever 20 seconds for 7 hours (from 5am until 12pm) as the slider travelled 29 inches. (About half way through I switched to one shot every 5 seconds which is yielding a much smoother time lapse.) Regrettably I could put nothing in the foreground here for a parallax effect. The surf was very active for the summer time, and numerous suffers were enjoying the unusual wave action. Regrettably, the weather didn't do anything too dramatic during the time I was shooting, though the sunlight was varied and some heavy clouds considered coming in but didn't.

I shot this picture of this area several months ago when a thick fog enveloped the cove. I was hoping for something even more dramatic with the fog moving in or out but had no luck this morning.

But this is what the same area looked like today:

At any rate, I had some interesting conversations with a couple of surfers--guys about my age. I learned from one of them that, about 20 years ago, the city purchased the houses on the western side of the road along the Pacific Ocean. They allow the original owners to live in the houses until they die. Apparently the entire hillside is slowly sliding off into the Pacific Ocean. The land, otherwise, would easily be worth tens of millions.

One of the surfers was very into photography. He spoke of the many pictures he has taken over the years at this spot. He said it was very much like the south of France, another place he loves to shoot and surf.

One of the surfer dudes I talked with said the brown in the water indicates rip tides:  where the current is pulling the seashore sand back into the ocean.  I've always heard of these as a child growing up on the Gulf Coast (may it rest in peace) but had never been able to see them as you can in this picture.

As you will be able to see when I post the time lapse, soon, I promise, the weather was glorious beyond description. As a result, I got a sunburn on my face without ever realizing it. I don't think that paradise could be as perfect as this day.

I have frequently posted vituperant remarks about AT&T. The company generally is loathsome. Their 3G network service here in Manhattan Beach is horrid. I can barely get a signal at the house. I frequently drop calls. Incoming calls frequently just go straight to voicemail without my phone ever ringing. LAX rarely even gets 3G service, just the horribly slower Edge network.

But I now have something good to say about AT&T, sort of...

I read a tweet about a microcell for AT&T. I googled it to find out what it was. Apparently, if you have bad 3G reception, you can purchase this microcell that, if I understand it correctly, basically offloads your cell phone calls and data to the Internet.

So now I get a full AT&T cell signal in the house, most of which didn't get a signal at all. And now my cell phone calls and my cell phone data access is offloaded to Verizon's FIOS network. Up to 10 people can place calls simultaneously through my MicroCell "tower" here in the house.

It seems to work well, but I haven't had any incoming calls yet. At least AT&T had a good idea of allowing customers in areas with poor service to set up their own mini cell tower in their homes or businesses.

I'm sure you noticed that my Fitbit tweets stopped for a while.  I'm confident of your concern about my exercise level.  Therefore, I update you:

My original Fitbit died.  It would just turn itself off at random times.  Fitbit was good enough to replace it with no questions asked!  So now, I have a new one.  The regular (daily) updates should have started in earnest today.

As busy as today has been, I still only walked 5,423 steps so far.  Sad how indolent I am.

Related articles:

• Liking My New Fitbit (timtyson.us)

Well, Wordpress 3.0 has been available for download as a beta product until today.  It went alpha.  So I downloaded it having heard good things about its stability and usability.  I'm especially interested in exploring the merging of MU into the base installation.

My upgrade was not without issues though:  immediately after the upgrade the Wordpress version of my site was dead and the Admin login area was as well.  What to do?!  After a quick hustle or at wordpress.org's forums, I went in and disabled my plugins folder by using my FTP client to rename it and create an empty plugins folder.

Poof!

Everything worked again.  I added plugins one by one until I found the offending one:  Lifestream.  When I have a bit more time, I'll check for an upgraded version of the plugin.

[P.S.  It occurs to me that many of my readers at this rendition of my site may be completely unaware of the fact that I have been running a parallel site, testing it for compatibility and such.  This has been going on now for some time.  If you want to check out the Wordpress version of timtyson.us, just click here.

Related articles:

• Download WordPress 3.0 (earnblogger.com)
• Wordpress 3.0 release video (sciencetext.com)
• WordPress 3.0 Released, Download And Upgrade Now (ghacks.net)
• WordPress 3.0 "Thelonius" Is Now Available (steffanantonas.com)
• Wordpress 3.0 arrives, with multi-blog support and new default theme (downloadsquad.com)
• What's New in WordPress 3.0 (tipsblogger.com)

Digital Photography School has an interesting article on creating one shot panos and even 360º videos.  The GoPano Optic, by Eyesee360.com, mounts onto many camera lens and comes with software, PhotoWarp, to unwarp the resulting "donut-like" image into the pano.  It's interesting.

I've found a couple apps for the Mac and/or the iPhone that are curious.

Xslimmer
This app removes the extra PowerPC code that makes your applications work on both the PowerPC chip and the Intel chip.  After the application is slimmed down, it will only work on the Intel chip.  Hello, I gave my last old PowerPC Mac away a year ago.  I only need my software applications to run on Intel machines.

Frankly, however, this scares the beans out of me!  So I tried it on just one application.  That application still seems to work just fine.  Even if it didn't I could restore the application since I chose to have it backup the original before it slimmed it.  (I don't know if that means it just made a copy of the code it removed and can add it back or if it backed up the entire application.)  But I confess to still being afraid to purchase the little $14.95 app and use it to slim down all of my apps.

The application will also remove unwanted languages from the code of the application to slim the application down even further.  I only need English.

Amazingly, if I were to slim down all of my applications, I would recover almost 3 gigabytes of disk space!  Maybe over time I'll try one app at a time until I get my courage up.

Air Video
I've heard about this app for the iPhone and the iPad before.  Today I bought it.  It allows you to stream video content from any of  your computers on the network to your iPhone or iPad.  I read excellent reviews of the application.

It was incredibly easy to set up.  It is amazingly easy to use.  Astoundingly, it will convert file formats on the fly!  In other words, I can watch an avi file from my laptop on my iPad in realtime without having to wait for it first to be converted into a format that plays on the iPad.

My only regret with Air Video:  that I hadn't purchased it sooner.  An amazing little gem!

Near my hometown of Pensacola, this photo of Orange Beach, Alabama:  what once was crytstal clear, slightly blue/green water — so clear you can see your toes on the white sandy bottom. Now, ruined — probably forever. (Click to enlarge.)

I'd vote for her!  Shoot, I'd campaign for her!  She's attractive and charming.  She's witty and articulate.  She speaks core American values.  She does her homework.

Obama, while infinitely better than his wretched predecessor, has been astoundingly disappointing as president.  This disaster affords him the opportunity to do right by the American people and fulfill one of the primary duties of government:  protect and defend — not from some invisible "terrorist" threat, but from the very visible threat of capitalism gone awry, greed and excess, of government beholden to transglobal corporations and not the people.

Once again, Rachel Maddow nails it in her "fake speech to the nation as fake President Obama."

Texas Republican Joe Barton shows he only cares about the oil industry.

“I’m ashamed of what happened in the White House,” Barton said today as a House Energy Committee panel began a hearing on BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The Obama administration called Barton’s comments “shameful.”

The London-based oil company agreed yesterday to Obama’s request to establish a fund to pay damages from the spill, and to temporarily suspend dividends as Gulf residents and businesses begin filing claims. BP said it will commit $20 billion to the fund.

Source:  Bloomberg:  BP's Spill Fund a $20 Billion Shakedown, Rep. Barton Says

Tony Hayward's appearance before Congress is just another expensive governmental "go-through-the-motions" sham.  I still maintain that the oil industry as a whole should be regulated like any other public utility.

Related articles:

• Rachel Maddow Blasts BP COO Doug Suttles: 'Not Even Remotely Believable' Answers In Interview (VIDEO) (huffingtonpost.com)
• BP Destroying Evidence at the Scene of the Crime - Why the Hell are They Still in Charge? (videocafe.crooksandliars.com)
• No BP Dividend; Feinberg to Oversee $20B Spill Claim Fund (themoderatevoice.com)
• BP chairman apologizes for Gulf oil spill (sfgate.com)

And by contrast, Tony Hayward.  And the past and present CEO of Home Depot provide a lesson in contrast as well.

In the past I hated going to Home Depot.  The sales people were invisible.  And when you caught one with the angry glare of death, s/he was most unwilling to assist you in any way.  The CEO had cut the number of people working at Home Depot.  Many of the ones that remained were bitter having to do more work.  It was all about the bottom line for that CEO.

Today, with a new CEO, I walk into Home Depot and am all but assaulted with as many as 3 sales people at the doorway asking if they can help me find something!  The more abundant number of cashiers call out for customers if they have availability in their line.  It's no longer all about the bottom line.  This CEO gets it:  It's about people!  If you serve your customers well, they reward you with their business which then in turn impacts the bottom line.

I've been to Home Depot several times over the last few weeks.  I still can't get accustomed to the amazing level of service!

My friend Mark, who travels as much as I do, was recently in the Jacksonville, Florida Airport and shot these photos with his iPhone.  This is very clever and creative design!

If we saw the guy's head through the far windows up in the ceiling, I would have foamed at the mouth!

Tim Likes!

"No, no, no!  On this planet you can only use 140 characters when you speak."
(Click the pic to see the larger version.)

Experimenting with the Canon 100mm macro EF 2.8L IS lens while the laundry runs.  I've have this little guy for years.  He sits on my desk looking at me from time to time.  I played with the shot just a bit in Lightroom 3.  (Click the image to see a larger version.)

Today I saw a bumper sticker that read:

"Proud user of fossil fuel."

So, what does that mean? Drill baby, drill? Someone in my family works for the oil industry? I'm a weirdo?

I just don't know what to make of it.

Strange, indeed.

I have made no secret of my disdain for the Mormon effort to influence the outcome of an election in the state of California by spending millions of dollars to mount a campaign of lies and deceit.  I have never understood why the Mormon church is so aggressively funding this campaign against civil rights, and I had no idea as to the magnitude and scope of their efforts and their financial influence in the election.

Why, exactly, are these people so insistent on forcing people who do not share their religious beliefs to live by their religious beliefs?

What is striking about the numbers is that although Mormons make up less than two percent of California's population, they made up more than 71 percent of campaign contributions, according to the film. Jeff Flint, a strategist with Protect Marriage, the group that spearheaded the Prop. 8 campaign, told the New York Times that 80 to 90 percent of the early volunteers who walked door-to-door in election precincts were Mormons. "

[Source: '8: The Mormon Proposition' - Exclusive Clip Reveals Church Coerced Members to Raise Millions For Prop. 8 Campaign (VIDEO).]

I haven't seen this Sundance Film, but this very excerpt is shocking and disturbing, portraying their church more as a cult of strong armed coercion than a faith practice.

Related articles:

• '8: The Mormon Proposition' is a powerful expose (trueslant.com)

Last night, around 2:00AM and just now, we have had two earthquakes that shook the house.  These were very short in duration and located out in the bay, just off the coast here in Manhattan Beach.

This is a link to the data about the most recent earthquake.  And this is a link to the data about the earthquake in the wee hours of the morning.

Related articles:

• Hundreds reported feeling Santa Monica Bay earthquake, 3 aftershocks (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
• 3.6 Earthquake Strikes Santa Monica Bay (laist.com)
• Los Angeles Earthquake... "Peace, be Still" (beliefnet.com)
• Breaking News: 3.6 Earthquakes rattles nerves in Santa Monica/West Los Angeles area (economy4abc.blogspot.com)

In light of the fact that AT&T is ending their unlimited data plans for iPhone users, capping them for fees to punish the data hogs, I find this tweet by Josh Helfferich excellent.

"Let's just get AT&T to fix the oil spill, they've been capping everything else lately." -- Josh Helfferich via Twitter"

[Source: "Let's just get AT&T to fix the oil spill, they've been capping everything else lately." -- Josh Helfferich via T....]

Software Updates
I admit that I use technology more than the average person. Maybe I need to change that, because I am sick to death of sitting down to work at one of my computers only to be greeted with a bunch of software updates — which I always feel compelled to do immediately and be done with. Then, 5 minutes later I launch an application I need to use only to find that there is a new version available for download. Three minutes later I'm ready to get to work.

Only now, the new version has a damned bug in it and will not do what the old version did just fine. It crashes. I relaunch to try it again. The crash reporter comes up. I fill it out. I get so fed up trouble shooting software that I pay to own. Obviously these software companies do not test their work!!! Then the software crash reporter has to gather my system information. Well damn —that takes a good 5 minutes. And of course it will take a day or two (or week or month) for the support team to respond and then weeks before a software update is issued — oh god!!!! another software update. Hell!!!!! A half hour passes and I haven't accomplished anything! This pisses me off in a HUGE, HUGE way.

AT&T Has New Data Plans
AT&T is trying to get the message out that the new plans will save most users money unless you are a "data hog!" Well, let me tell AT&T something. I am a data hog. And I pay damned good money to be one too! Get off your greedy, stingy ass and stop trying to blame your customers, who pay for your service, for the fact that your service is crap! Instead, --novel idea here-- invest some of your profits in upgrading your network!

And AT&T wants you to believe that the new rates will save 95% of their customers money. Yeah, right!!! This year. Just wait boys and girls. How long before they raise the rates and make even more money off their already over-priced, crappy network?!!

I bought an iPad without 3G, because I refuse to give AT&T another penny of my money. I loathe this company! I use my MiFi from Verizon for my network access when I'm out of range of one of my WiFi networks. Screw you, AT&T. Verizon has a pervasive 3G network that works!

BP MUST Go Out of Business
I have never in all of my life seen a company CEO that is as arrogant, self-serving, calloused, and evil-hearted as the CEO of BP! He is tired of the oil spill and "just wants his life back?!" What a #$%@ing bastard!

What about the 11 people that were killed by what appears to be company negligence*? What about the entire ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico? Watching the poor birds violently gasping trying to catch just one more breath to stay alive before their inevitable death is too heartbreaking. What we can't see are all of the different kinds of sea life that have been poisoned to death in the water by BP's oil, toxic chemicals, greed and negligence! And they are spending $7,500 a day to purchase search terms from Google to get their spin out as the top search results about this horrific environmental catastrophe.

These poor creatures have no idea what is happening to them as their flesh is burning, their eyesight is taken, and they painfully struggle to survive the impossible.

As far as I am concerned Tony Hayward and his company can rot in hell!

Photos Source: Caught in the Oil: boston.com

*See the 60 Minutes exposé

Related articles:

• AT&T says 'enough' to you data hogs (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• AT&T Sparks User Backlash With End to Unlimited Plans (Update2) (businessweek.com)
• AT&T Sparks User Backlash With End to Unlimited Plans (Update1) (businessweek.com)

Back on April 2nd, I wrote about the trip down to Halong Bay, Vietnam, when we stopped at a sewing factory and purchased a tapestry for the house.  Well, it is finally framed and now hanging on the wall in the living room.  As you can see, it's very large!  Though these pictures have a great deal of reflection because of the bright sun at the time of day I shot them, I'm posting them so you can get a sense of the tapestry.  The piece is actually double framed.   (Click on each photo to see the larger version.)

When you click on the two pictures below, you can see some of the detailed sewing work.  (You see the reflection on the flowers through the front window.)

Related articles:

• Vietnam: Day Three - Halong Bay (timtyson.us)