The iPhone 5s

I've been waiting for this for a long awhile.  I expected long lines at the store.  I expected them to be sold out of the model I wanted.  I expected to have to wait for a month while everything is backorder.

I DID NOT expected the BUTTFUCKING I got from Verizon Wireless However.

I've been saving my Upgrade discount for over six month.  I been trying to match my two renewal plan with Apples projected release dates of their phone products.  My renewal date was in May.  I've been saving my pennies and watching the tech news on all the iPhone rumors.  So I waiting past the Opening Day on Friday, because that's always a madhouse and any first run of production of any high tech device has bugs.  

Monday night I walk into My Verizon store and wait for 20 minutes until I can see someone about order a new phone.  I've got cash and expect everything to be cool.  Between my discount, my trade-in iPhone 4 and cash I should have more than enough for a top of the line iPhone 5s.   Then the bitch shows up with spiked heels and the biggest black dildo I have every seen in my life!

Me:  I'd like a Black 64GB iPhones 5s.

The Bitch:  I'm sorry those are out of stock until Mid-October. (Please bend over)

Me: I expected that. It's Ok.  I'd like to use my upgrade too.

The Bitch: (Pouting) Ohhh.  Well let's look up your number and plan.

I rattle off some numbers.......

The Bitch:  I see you have unlimited data on your line.  (She starts lubing the dildo.)  Unfortunately, to use your upgrade you must change your plan to 2GB per month.  Verizon is no longer grandfathering any unlimited data plans.

Me:  WTF! (Aside: In everyone part of the world cell data is unlimited, and Wifi is pretty much everywhere.  It's only in the US the the Free Internet cost and arm and a leg.   BTW - I just thought about this If I upgraded in May to a iPhone 5 would Verizon still want to Fuck my ASS with the new data plan?  Or is this some Corporate bonehead idea because the new iPhones are out) Fair Warning: Can You tell I'm a Little Pissed?  I feel like punching someone!)

The Bitch: You can have your phone at $399 with upgrade discount and  the new dat plan or ....
(She bends me over and starts...)

The Bitch:  You can pay the full price of the phone $850 and keep your old plan month to month and not be in a contract.  (Now the Hard fucking Begin!)

Me: (Internal Monologue - WTF!  It only takes about $180 to make an iPhone!  I'm sure this BITCH would love to get me into a 2GB data plan then charge me up the ass for going over my data.  I'm going to have this phone for at least 3 years.  Who knows what cool stuff will happen then that will eat up my data.  I imagine sending and receive Chinese food transport as data through my phone!  My 2 dollar egg rolls now cost $50 because each egg roll use 10 Terabytes of data.  FUCK YOU LADY!   FUCK YOU VERIZON!)  I grumble.  I'll pay the full price.  (BY GOD I'M GONNA STREAM PANDORA EVERYDAY AND WATCH STREAMING PRON FROM THAILAND EVERY NIGHT!  JUST TO CRASH YOUR NETWORK!)

The Bitch:  Ok Sign here.  Would like the Protection Plan for an extra $10 a month?  (OH YOU LIKE THAT....  WHO A MAMA'S BOY?  YES YOU ARE!  SQUEAL LITTLE PIGGY!)

Me: NO!

The Bitch: Ok.  Your iPhone should be ready in a Month (Awwwww,  Don't pout...I'm not using my fist you silly boy!)

ALWAYS BE BLOGGING

I know I haven't be the most constitent blogger and I'm sure no one reads this, but I'm going to try and change that. 

I think one of the reason I don't blog as much as a could is because I like having a picture to go with each post.  I spend a lot of time looking for the right images that fits my mood and the post.  All of that takes too much time.

My second issues is mind dumping all over the pages.  Whenever I get time to blog, I've 500 things I want to say and not enough time to get it all down on the screen.  Writing is pretty difficult for me and always has been.  Just 500 words of intelligent prose takes me hours to compose, proofread (LOL), and format.  As it stands now I have over 10 draft post just sitting in my dashboard. 

My last issues, is more vanity than any thing else.  If I blog Five times in one day, I think it counts only as one long post because I like the date heading blogger uses.  :) So I always try to spread those posts out over the a few days so it looks like I'm really tearing up the blogsphere.

Up shot of all this?  I'm going to start breaking my own rules and just write whenever I want.  I'm sure the quality is going to go way downhill, but what the heck.  I feel this may be better than blogging every six months.

She's always Listening

The Illusion of Privacy

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

4th Amendment U.S. Constitution

In 1870, If I send a Western Union telegram to my lover in New Jersey about how much I love being with her.  Do I have a reasonable expectation of privacy?  Perhaps, but what I want is this message kept private from: my wife, my other mistress, my parents, my relatives and my kids.    There are at least two other people who know my secret.  Polly, the woman who took down my message knows what a said, and the person on the other end of the telegraph line that has to change all those dots and dashes back into my amorous intention and thoughts.   In reality, there are probably a dozen such people who know.  That nicely sealed telegram had to typed and placed in that nice yellow envelope.   I have the epectation that only my lover see my words, but the truth is a dozen people across the country know everything I said and I'm sure they are talking at the local bar after hours.

"Mabel, that short, fat, black guy came in again and told that New Jersey trollop how he want to suck her toes forever."   I don't know for sure if the operator is talking, but would I know she is not?  What I really care about is my list of forementioned people that have a positive image of me.  If they find my secret I am caught in my web of lies.  As long as Polly and her cohort does not mention anything to anyone I care about I am free and clear.

Perhaps the most secure conversation is the one you have in your head.  Second to that perhaps a letter you write, seal and deliver yourself.  After that all bets are off.  (Aside: Who in their right mind send a racin laced letter to the President?  Do you really think he personally opens each piece of mail, out of the hundreds of letter he gets everyday?) Once a thought leaves your head it is not really secure.  You may think it is private but it is really up to the whim of the message service.

The message service gives you the ilusion of privacy because they want to keep you business, but they resevre the right to refuse service or inspect what is being delievery to prevent them being libel, or damage to their infrastructure.   In today's age of information, everything sent through the net: Text message, Email, Voice, and Data gets copied and repeated a dozen times over.   Once sent over the net anything you have is no longer a secret.   So you camplain the government might be privy to all your secret, but you give away all your truly important infomation on Facebook, or your favorite shopping websites.  Your information is packaged and resold to complete strange, so they can target you for mindless products.   All the government is doing is collecting metadata for pattern recognition.  The same kind of metadata that is used to target ads can be used to catch bad guys.

Bottom Line: If you want to keep everything you have a secret, stay off the grid and be a hermit.

The Digital Mage

I am continually amazed by the age in which I live. The number of things I can track about myself is just astounding. Just today I generate enough data on myself to fill several files. This morning I removed the head band that monitors my sleep. I do this because of my sleep apnea.  I do this not because it is a cure, but because I've started sleeping on my side instead of my back.  I think this helps with my sleep apnea, but I can not be sure.  Checking my sleep patterns with a Zeo Sleep manager.   (The company has gone out of business, but my machine still works.)  So sleeping on my side seems to work.  I just need not to roll on my back for the rest of my life.

By The Way I'm Mowing My Lawn

I Don't think anyone realizes how fantastic 2013 really is! The only thing missing is a FTL drive and that just might be around the corner.

Remember those little writing pads the crews in Star Trek would walk around with, or bulky clipboard for all you Classic Trek fans? Well I got one, It's an iPad Mini.

Remember when Worf needed a new backbone and they grew one for him? Well, we are now at the point where we can grow kidneys, use cadaver bone for repairs, or regenerate shattered bone.

And those greasy fast computers on the starship?  You can now buy a quantum computer from D-wave.

How Fucking cool is that?!?

Good Thing! we don't have true Holodeck technology, Because that would end the human race.  Do you remember LaForge lost in romance or Lister hanging out with the bad girl in the trashy detective novel?  Maybe it's just me but if you give me a magic box where I could spend all day with (and the List is Long Folks): Handfuls of Movie Starlets, Several Porn Stars, Many High School sweethearts, A Plethora College Crushes, and Too numerous to count Random hot women I've met on the street and who would not give me the time of day!

Yeah go ahead and use your quantum computer for speech recognition, code breaking, and breakthroughs in Astrophysics.  Mine is providing the best 3d, five senses, experience with the women of my dreams and nightmares.  Yes!  I'm 48 and I'm that shallow.

Of Course, the clean up of my personal holosuite is a bit of a chore.

I've been pining for an Amiga 3000 for years.  When they first came out I wanted one!  Two Megs of Ram, 25 Mhz 68030 proccessor, Hires color graphics I was in Heaven.  In 1990, the Amiga 3000 had a $4000 price tag and only ran a limited amount of software, but I didn't care.

Time jump to 2010, The College I work at is throwing their Amiga 3000 away.  Yippie!  I've been waiting for this for years.  The college's video production studio finally upgraded to a Macintosh, so  I get this computer before it goes to the trash heap. 

Computer are the only thing that goes to pennies in 20 years.  So much, a computer is the only piece of equipment that falls off the inventory roll faster than toilet paper, because the value practilly disappears overnight.   A 20 year old car is a classic.  A 20 year old computer is a doorstop.  Unless you are a geek like me and you think old computer are like living museum pieces. 

The fun parts is I can tinker with it.   Just like my neighbor who spends his hours working in his garage on his classic corvette.  I need to start comb EBay for spare parts.  :)

Amanda's Back!

My AMD Goddess has been resurrected with more memory, a new hard drive and and a copy of Window 7.  It's looks like everything has final taken and that pesky Blue Screen of Death has taken a holiday.  I do realize that Amanda may be on her last legs here.  I don't think her motherboard is design with 2 GB DIMMs or higher.  That limits her to 4 GB of Ram. Only 2.75 GB of that is usable now, due to issues we have already talked about.  Amanda does seems to be happier in the 64 bit world.   The whole project was only $250, about fifty dollar shy of my first estimate, so it's all good.

Parts list:
1.  Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade

2. Western Digital 500 GB Caviar Black SATA 7200 RPM 32 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive WD5001AALS

3. Axiom - Memory - 1 GB - DIMM 240-pin - DDR2 - 400 MHz / PC2-3200 - CL3 - 1.8 V - registered - ECC

Amanda has Alzheimer's: A Building the Perfect Beast Postscript.
Amanda (My AMD Duo Core Goddess) has been having a problem. She tend to forget where she puts things. This is understandable since she is over 4 years old. Last time I had the blue screen of death Amanda had a bad memory DIMM. The fix was pulling the 512 MB DIMM. Problem solved. The Stick sat on my desk for over six months, until I had time to get a replacement from NeoComputer. The DIMM has a lifetime warranty so I can get a new one for free. After ordering one and waiting for a week, I return to find the the store clerk forgot to place the order. (Aside: the NeoComputer in Iowa City seems to have gone downhill in terms of quality.) Long story short: I walk out with a new 1 GB DIMM.

I go home and put my sexy bitch up on the bench and proceed to fondle her innards. She get her six month "dust and suck": CPU, Fans, filters, and GPUs get cleared of all the dust they pick up during the winter. I installed the new DIMM. and we are off and running. Things are great for about two hours of WoW time, but Amanda starts to act funny. POW! Blue Screen of Death (BOD). After a reboot and resetting somethings breaks again after 2 hours: BOD! This happens every time I tax her system with too much information: Playing a Game, while surfing sites with lots of Flash. (Damn You Jello PORN!)

I think I've got a bad stick of memory, but after doing some digging I thinking it is something else. Amanda is partially handicapped. She is a 64 bit processor using 32 Bit Windows XP. Windows XP (32 Bit) can only see about 4 GB of memory period. That includes allocation for RAM, I/O, Cards, Graphics Cards, OS Kernel Space, and a crap load of overhead. Amanda has always been a little twitchy when over 2 GB of RAM. Now I think I know the reason.

Window XP (32 Bit) likes to have 3.5 Gigs of RAX max allocated for running programs and data. The other 512 MB of RAM is for WindowsXP and bookkeeping. That's a gross simiplification, but it makes this next part easier to understand. By adding that new stick of RAM Amanda sometimes loses her mind: 3 GB of RAM, 1 GB of Ram on the Dual SLI Video Card, all that space needed for WIndows XP, USB Card, 3 hard drives, Sound card, and butch of I/O devices. So she forgets where things are placed, which leads to the BOD. The solution is getting Amanda to do 64 bits instead of 32.

Amanda is more than capable of doing such a feat. When she first came off the bench I had her doing Windows XP in 64 bits. XP64 was buggy as a candied apple sitting on an anthill, and many of the drivers I needed weren't 64 bit ready yet. So Amanda got the specail needs version of Windows XP (the 32 bits). That was four years ago, so it's time to make the jump.

Since, she is going back on the bench, I should give her a face lift and a tummy tuck as well. So I need to save some cash for the following: Windows 7 Home Premium (64bit), another DIMM stick 1 GB (Bringing her total to 4 GB), and another Hard Drive for the System. True, I could just reformat the old one, but I want to keep the old drive as a backup. This should set me back about $300.

Just after the new year Ingrid (My Mac Pro)started running slow than normal. Fine, just great. It's not bad, but it does annoy the hell out of me. I think it due to the new software I installed for for my Livescribe PEN. I can't prove that, but that's my guess. I call Apple and do some digging on the internet. The solution was to wipe the hard drive and reinstall everything. I wanted to do that as much as I wanted to run a 5k in minus 20 degree weather.
Ingrid has a second hard drive which is set as the Time Machine backup. I had planned for this possible problem, so I figured I'd wipe the hard drive and restore the system from the backup. Great! Long story short a full backup restore doesn't bootup. I reformat the hard drive, reinstall the system software (10.5), upgraded the system software to 10.6, run the updates. I drag what I can from the backup drive and restart the system. That takes me all weekend and a better part of a week.

The Best Thing I Got for Christmas

You seen all the crap I keep in my pockets and book bag: Blackberry, iTouch, PSP, iBook, etc... Each one has a charger and about 6 feet of electrical cord. In some cases I have two charges, one at home and the other for Work/Travel. The only good thing that has happen in the past two years: They are all rechargeable and most business are staring to use the Mini USB styled port. That last one is starting to change back into chaos. I guess the "powers that be" found out that the mini USB made thing to convenient. Poeple started using their computer to charge their phone and one crap. I do it all the time. The computer already on all day, night as well use it for something other than playing Freecell and WoW.

I'm pretty broken up about how many trees I have to kill in the form of coal to charge all my toys. I've been trying to use rechargeable batteries whenever I can, but even those are not the best for the environment. (By the way... all the sex toys run on rechargeable batteries and the line forms to the left ladies. Well except the 220 volt monster I own.)

As I was saying, I been looking for a solar recharger for quite awhile. The Solio Classic charger is one of the best I've seen. You can read the features yourself, but the key is it charges a set of internal batteries so you can use it anytime. When it's sunny you can charge your stuff or the Solio. At night you can plug your stuff in and it will charge your cell phone from the internal batteries. It's darn near perfect. The price is a little high for the basic package (about $80) plus you need special tips for each object you want to charge. I really wish the mini-USB port would just be the standard. Fortunately that's one of the tips I received as well, along with another tip for my iTouch/iPod.

I just charged my Blackberry today and it took about 2-3 hours. That's about normal for hooking it to the computer as well.


Now if I could convince the High Priestess to let me cover the house with solar panels maybe I could off set the electricity use in the lab and the Mancave.

I hate it when salespeople lie. It makes me want to start kicking their ass.

I at the Verizon Store in the Coral Ridge Mall paying my bill. (Full disclosure: Yes, I've been a Verizon customer for many years now, and I'm happy with the coverage area and that's about it. In the past 18 months I've gone through 5 Blackberry curves, three of those in the last six months.)

I overhear this conversion between a Verizon Salesman and a Potential Customer.

Customer: "I have a Verizon account and I'd like the add my daughter to my service. She would daughter would like an iPhone. Do you have anything like that?"

VZ Salesman: "Yes we do, it's a Blackberry Curve!"

(Lie number 1: The Blackberry Curve is nothing like an Iphone. As much as Verizon wishes it were true, it's not even close.)

I choke at this point and say and tell the clerk helping me that's so not true. She shrugs.

Customer: "She has seen that (The Blackberry), but she really likes the Iphone and thinks it's cool."

VZ Salesman: "This does everything the iPhone does and more. It's has an Apps Store just like the iPhone. Beside the iPhone doesn't have a camera."

(Bullshit! I almost scream across the room. I really wish I could have gotten the woman's name because she needed truthful information right now. The last statement was full full of lies and half-truths it just pissed me off.)

(Lie #2 (not direct but implied) The iPhone and the Blackberry Curve both have a GPS unit. The verizon version of the Blackberry Curve have the GPS disabled. This makes the VZ customer purchase the VZ Maps app to get the same functionality the iPhone has. That's $10-$20 a month extra.)

(Lie #3 (Half-truth) The Blackberry World App store is nothing like Apple's iTune store, but it is a store. Apple apps run from free to $40, withthe average price being $1-$3 per applications. Blackberry's apps run from free - $70, with the average price being about $5-$6 per application. Blackberry most common apps start pricing at $4.99, where Apple's are at 99 cents. I have used the Blackberry store and It's a pain in the ass to navigate and not nearly as polished as the iTunes store.)

(Lie #4 (Half-truth) The 1st gen model of the iPhone lack a camera, however it is now standard on all current models. If this woman got an iPhone, it wouldn't be a used two year old model.)

I could go on, but the main point is the VZ Salesman was a Douchebag. I had to leave before I really blew my top.

If the Blackberry is so good, why is Verizon desperate to get their hands on an agreement with Apple? Rumor has it that Verizon will get the iPhone late 2010 or early 2011. I just hope they don't fucked the iPhone with all the hamstring cutting they did to the Blackberry Curve.

If it weren't for Verizon better coverage in Eastern Iowa, I would so drop my plan and get something with an iPhone!

I spent last week at a conference in Des Moines with my trusty Refurbished iBook G4. I got this from Apple about 3 years ago and it has worked well on this little trips. However, I started getting Netbook envy sitting around my fellow teachers. Everything in the laptop world is a compromise. Those 17 inch widescreen laptop are cool, but the are a beast sitting on the tabletop elbow to elbow with several other overweight 8-10 pound laptop. I like the netbooks. The cute little screen and keyboards are a pain to view and type on. So I'm a stuck in a muddle, with wanting something light and big. I could get a Mac Air, but but I think the High priestess would freak over $2000 on a whim. Beside I spent far too much this summer.

So I'm typing away on the iBook G4. (No, she doesn't have a name. But I guess she should have. Something like Candy, Bubbles, or something in the lap dancer category since she spend most of her time on my lap anyway. I should think about that.) Anyway, she has been a little sluggish because her 60GB drive is almost full. I wanted to play a couple of hours of World of Warcraft, and since I haven't updated the patches in awhile I spent those extra hours downloading the patch. At the last patch window, the program says I only have 2.5 Gigs left on my hard drive and I need 3.5 Gigs. I dumps my Itunes Library and some other crap. I get 4 GB free. I download the patch. Then I get a message that the install will take another 6 GIGS! I find the space somehow and get everything install. This event just makes me say, "Fuck IT". I hop on Other World Computing and start looking for upgrades. YEAH! I can get a new drive for $50 and another 1 GIG of RAM for another $50. This is perfect. Prices for this model are just at that sweet spot. Low demand parts because my iBook is an older model, but not so old that the part are consider rare and expensive. I order the parts and they arrive back home awhile I'm still at the conference. Yippie, there is something to be said for ordering stuff at 5 AM.

I spend Friday night work on the old girl. The memory goes in place in about 5 minutes. I guess Apple wants you to do this upgrade. The Hard Drive is another story. I have to first backup the old drive. This is similar to the PS3 upgrade I did awhile back. Fortunately, OWC has a hard drive enclosure and drive package deal for $130. OK... more than I wanted to spend but I get a bigger drive in the deal. I put the new drive in the enclosure and "Clone" the laptop drive onto the new drive. After 3 hours of backing up, I'm ready to swap out the hard drives. I can tell Apple does NOT want me to do this.

There are more than 30 little screws that need to be removed and their locations noted. The whole laptop pretty much has to be disassembled, not a Pretty Sight. Thankfully I found some step by step instructions with pictures on the web. I get the drive installed and start closing up. I notice I got more screws than holes left and I forgotten a few parts still on the workbench. I take the iBook apart for the second time to get everything back inside. I close her up again and cross my fingers. I press the power button, and get a heartbeat "Bong". She LIVES!

Stacy..(hmmmmm Do I like Stacy?) has a new 250Gb Hard Drive (over the 60GB is had from Apple) and 1.5 Gigs of Ram. She works fine and she is a lot peppy too.

(Aside: I forgot to take pictures while doing this, so I swapped this picture from somewhere else.)

It's been a awhile since I've done a book here. This is Skin Trade, the latest book in the Anita Blake. After reading Blood Noir I gave up on this series, because I was too digsusted. Which is really saying something, if I'm offended. I guess she must have turned off a lot of fans, becuase this book tones down the sex A LOT. It's only the last few short chapters that gets racy. That's good, but I still want to see the old Anita Blake who spends her time shooting people. This book does make me want to go back and read Blood Noir, because I think I missed something.

Aside: While doing some searching for this book, I realized some of my favorite authors are coming out with book this fall. I'm quickly running out of self space in the house, so I may just breakdown and get a Kindle. The books are cheaper this way and take up less space. It's not an idea I have written in stone, because I do have other options, such as the Library, or sending things to my iTouch. It depends on the pricing, for the same money you can get a nice netbook. The way I figure my book discount compared with the price of a Kindle version book, I would need to buy 30 books to make the Kindle pay for itself at the $300 prictag.

SPACE: PART II
You can replace the built-in hard drive in the Sony Playstation 3 by yourself. It's really quite easy to do, but what they don't tell you is backing up your data on the drive is a pain in the ASS.

If You don't care about such things: your save games, your music you ripped from CD, your pictures, your movies, or anything else you. You can replace the drive in 15 minutes. However... Who is like that?

I choose to backup my system and replace the 80GB drive with a fast 320 GB 7200rpm drive. No problem, I just buy a external drive, backup the PS3 drive using the USB port and the Backup Utility on the PS3. Then I'll pull the drive, put in the new larger drive, and restore the system. OK... One hour tops I figure.

HA!

I shop around for a external drive and enclosure at Newegg.com. It's 1 TB (1000 GB) and on sale. Great! This should handle my needs quite nicely. They also have the 2.5 inch drive I need for the PS3. Everything comes in a couple of days, and after reviewing several YouTube DIYS video clips I think I can handle the transfer. I first I need to backup the original PS3 drive...

WTF!

The USB port on the PS3 only recognizes hard drives smaller than 32GB and in Fat32 formatting. WHY would SONY do that. How do you squeeze 80GB into 32GB? Several thoughts go through my head. 1 - F*CK - My new drive is useless, unless I reformat and repartition it. 2 - I've an old 40GB laptop drive partitions into to small 20GB drives. 3- Great I'll just copy the stuff I want keep in one partition and back the system in the other partition. 4 - What a Pain in the A**

WTF!

The PS3 doesn't see the second partition! Now I have to reformat the little drive into one 32Gb drive and leave the other 8 GB unallocated. Plus I have to cut about 40 GB of current files just to make the backup small enough to fit onto the USB drive. I spend the next two hours getting rid of stuff, backing up files to my PSP, flash drives, and anything else I can get my hands on. At about 11 PM, I'm done and can start the backup utility. My PS3 start cramming 31 GB into my little drive. My PS3 tells me it might take awhile (71 minutes).

Midnight.

I pull the old drive out, and install the new drive. I start the restore function on the PS3. Hmmm... the backup only took 29GB. How did that happen? The restore proceess will take another hour. Time for bed.

Morning.

After 10 hours and large sum of cash, the PS3 has a new drive. Now I'm afraid to use it. :P

Meet my latest addiction.

I've been using Netflix for the past 2 weeks. I've been scoffing at the monthly fee. Why pay $10-20 a month for movies I can get for a $1 at Mr. Movies? Now I know. I can now find all the old films the local video store doesn't carry, along with the current releases. I know it doesn't sound great, but I watch the first two season of MI-5 and a ton of other movies that I could never find here or at Best Buy. So the fee has paid for itself this month.

The other neat thing is I can watch movies and show on my computer when ever I want. So what you say? Remember the 52 inch mind bomb? I hook Mandi into it about the second day I got my Sony toy so I could watch stuff off my hard drive. Now I can run Netflix from Mandi and see it on the TV which is very KEWL.