SFGate: 

Issue: Spotty Wi-Fi service is not available everywhere on BART despite promises that it would be available by 2010.

There was some Wi-Fi on BART back in 2009 but it was spotty and rarely worked. Then there’s this little nugget:

The work costs the company about $100,000 a mile, Lee said.

I think I see what your problem is. You’re overpaying.

I thought about naming this post, “How Ultra Music Festival Sucks.” Seriously, why can’t Ultra do things like this? These tickets are magnetic card style, the welcome package is full-color glossy and it includes a key-chain, stickers and a pack of seeds. Yes, seriously.  A pack of seeds. It also has a booklet that covers everything you need to know about the festival with what you can and can’t bring in full text written out. No confusing small print like the UMF tickets or site. This is exceptional and so well done. Good job, Insomniac Events!

I’m actually not going to EDC this year. I wanted to and, of course bought tickets but I was then asked to go to Europe for work. I get back on June 4th but EDC starts two days later so it’s just not feasible with my work schedule. I sold the tickets at face value to an awesome fellow EDM lover. Hoping they have a great time in Vegas! This is going to be a great festival!

Sometimes, I see people walking on the road I take to work each day. Not the highway but the road with no markers, signs or road lines. It’s a road that goes for a few miles before turning into a dirt road and it’s the road that carries me home each day. Most people go 50MPH on it. There are no signs and no police but, since it’s lined with houses, I usually go 30MPH. There’s no rush so I just take it easy and that speed has saved me three times from hitting deer that occasionally stop in the road to look around. The people that walk my road are hard to place. We all judge. IT’s in our nature and I judge the people walking. Where are they going? Why are they walking? All I have to go on is their clothes. Those with workout clothes or walking beside a bicycle or with a walking cane must surely be out for a stroll to pass the time or get some exercise. Then, there are people with plain clothes that walk slow and rigid like they have somewhere to be but they’re in no hurry to get there. Those are the people who perplex me the most. 

Today, I creeped up on a man in a white shirt, worn jeans and half-laced boots. He was walking the opposite way and had a clean shave. I stopped to have a conversation. At the very least, I could find out what he thought about the weather. I was hoping for answers.

I slowed and asked where he was headed. “Into town” he said. I said I’m in no rush to get home and was gonna grab some beer anyway so I’ll take him. He looked relieved. Unintentionally, I apologized for how dirty my car was then realized it actually wasn’t dirty but just like my grandmother who apologizes for the lack of food while we sit around a loaded up dinner table, I didn’t really think too much about how dumb that sounded.

“I’ve seen you walking before” I said and that’s when he told me that’s not surprising. It turns out he walks into town every other day for work. His car broke down and the only way to get it fixed is to make money so he has to make it to work some way. We talked about local things, crops, food and the weather. Soon, we were in town and I let him out and gave him my number to call if he ever needed a ride. I gave him my work schedule and maybe we could carpool. Before he left, I asked how many times he gets rides. I was surprised when he said that people pick him up every other time. Twice a week, someone gives him a ride and they’re usually strangers and rarely does the same person give him a ride more than once.

——–

This got me thinking about life and situations. I have a car. It’s not a great car but it runs well and is in warranty. I can afford insurance and gas for it and it is reliable. It reminds me of the book I’m currently reading, “Man’s Search for Meaning” and the existential vacuum that can form when life ceases to have meaning or when life becomes mundane. The men who had hardship were less likely to suffer from depression than the men who could always rely on things working out. Those that went to work every day, collected a paycheck and paid their bills with little disease, tasks, debt or fears tended to be more dissatisfied with their lives compared to those living paycheck to paycheck with a sick child or, in the book’s example, the people in concentration camps. There is no comparison between the last two examples but are both modern examples of “hardship”.

The man I picked up is always aware that this is the day he may walk 5 miles to work or he may get a ride from a stranger. The fact that his journey to work is unknown makes his day more stressful but it also leads to an overall happiness where you savor life’s small successes. My drive to work is boring. I take the same route, sit in the same traffic and sometimes find myself parking in the same spot. Everyone at my work parks in the same spot every day. The walk this man takes can and will be different each and ever day and, although I would choose not to trade with him, I now recognize that advantages to living a lifestyle of uncertainty.

Sure, we all live a life of uncertainty but it’s different and each of us have our own uncertainties. For example, I know my car will start each morning but I don’t know if I”ll have an accident but, when problems arise so infrequently such as traffic accidents and speeding tickets, the fear of it tends to subside. It’s almost like fearing every day that you’ll get cancer. Very few of us fear that on a daily basis. Modern society has very little that is worth fearing daily. To meet someone who has an unknown in their life that is very transparent and recurring is something you don’t often whiteness. 

I’m still not sure how I feel about it if I had something so uncontrolled in my life each day. You can call me privileged or out of touch but, more of us have lives of certainty (day to day) than lives of uncertainty. IT’s easy to say I may not have a job next month or I may get cancer next year or my car might break down at some point this year but, those are big picture matters of life. To not know if you’ll be walking 10 feet or 5 miles when you leave your house every other day….that’s uncertainty and it sounds both freeing and scary.

I live my life like a marathon. It’s actually the wrong approach because I am burned out easily. I take on something new and then stop for a while or switch gears. It’s dangerous and it’s also often a turn off to people. I did that with beer from January to May. I’m still enjoying beer but not sprinting as much anymore. I only hope that the time I spend on beer today is sustainable and ongoing. It’s something I enjoy very much. I’ll be brewing my first batch tomorrow so that will be a lot of fun.

Knowing I’m like this doesn’t actually lead me to avoid getting caught up in something. I traveled a lot in 2010 and 2011 then, I just stopped. I went home for Christmas but I really took my foot off the gas and spent more time at home. I love where I live so it’s a great thing to be home alone with my thoughts, working on new things and writing. Well, this summer, the travel bug has hit and I’ll be on the road again. I’d like to share my schedule because it’s great to meet readers while on the road, make new friends and get travel tips from people who live in or have visited the places I’m going. From now until mis-September, I’ll be busy every weekend. The good thing is, almost every thing planned involves Elizabeth so maybe she can stop saying I don’t take her anywhere. I am a homebody so it’s hard sometimes to get out of the house and go do things. I’ll spend all day in the yard but don’t like spending the money do to things. It’s also a flaw but one I understand a bit more than my obsession for new things.

A brief update on my job since a few people have asked. Things are great. I am now 1 year and 9 months at my job. It’s not a long time for a career but it is now the 2nd longest job I’ve held. I work with amazing people all around the world and I am in love with Microsoft Products even more than before. Most of the hate around MS products stems from three distinct group:

• Those who don’t understand technology
• Those who are given old hardware, old software versions and a terrible IT infrastructure
• Those who don’t collaborate on huge datasets in an organization that employes thousands of people

I have been trained on the tools, have a great support team with great hardware and work on very collaborative projects so things like Sharepoint and MS Communicator are integrated. It’s an awesome setup and one that I love. Microsoft has done a pretty good job with Macintosh integration but it’s not quite there yet.

Also, TomTom is hiring. If you want to work for an amazing company with a global outlook, let me know. I can recommend people I know via LinkedIN which increases your chances or you can apply via our jobs site.

Anyway, let’s talk about the future travel planned:

Europe: May 23- June 4 (Skip past this section if you’d like. It’s pretty detailed)
I’m going back to Europe. It’s my 4th time in Amsterdam and my 2nd time in Belgium. It’s also going to be the 1st time I’ve set foot in London (outside of Heathrow as I’ve flown through there before).

Wednesday May 23rd: Boston to Amsterdam direct. Arrive May 24th at 5AM and check into the hotel. I have two full days of workshops in Amsterdam with my team and other groups we don’t see in person often enough. It’s going to be great. I will probably have dinner with my 3 counterparts that evening but, if I’m free I am going to try and sync up with a few iOS developers recommended to me by my friend, Dom Sagolla. A night of great beers and tasty Dutch food would be an awesome way to spend my one night in Amsterdam. After work one day, I’ll drop by a beer store in Amsterdam. I’m doing a trade with them in exchange for 3 beers from the brewery 3 Fonteinen. They have 3 of the 4 “Armand Seasons” Lambic beers. These were released a few months ago and I’m happy a store still has them at an affordable price (price of a few USA craft beers).

Friday, May 25th: After meetings are over around 17:00, it’s time to hop a train down to Gent Belgium via Antwerp. I’ll check into the hotel and, of course, grab a beer. My first of my beers in Belgium on this trip.

Saturday, May 26th: one of my co-workers has graciously offered to take me around the country on a beer tour. We’re going to the St. Sixtus (Westvleteren) Abbey, makers of one of the highest rated beers in the world. I have a few already in my cellar but would love to try this beer fresh at the brewery cafe and, of course by 24 of their beers to bring back with me. 24 of the best beer on the world costs a whopping 39 Euros. Not a bad deal but you also are committing to not selling the beers and enjoying them yourself or with friends. That day, we’re also visiting two beer stores. One in Gent proper and another outside of the city. Both stores are holding beers for me…about 30+ 750ml beers from some of my favorite breweries that make beers almost impossible to get in America. I’ll leave the 6 boxes of beer with my co-worker and go out that evening with one of my American colleagues to see the city. There are a couple of clubs in Gent that play the kind of music I like so I may check one of those out. Europe is where Dance music started!

Sunday, May 27th: Check out of my hotel and board a train to Brussels Belgium! I loved the time in Brussels last year with my friend Oliver. I arrive Sunday at 10AM and will be playing tourist at some places I didn’t get to go last year. At 2PM, I get on a local train to a small town called Buggenhout for the 2012 Weekend of Spontaneous Fermentation. It’s their 21st year of the festival. It takes place Saturday and Sunday and there will be over 70 beers available to taste for a very low price. I’ll get to meet some fellow RateBeer users and try some delicious beers impossible to find in America. That evening, I’ll be spending time at a couple of places that I wanted to to last time. Then, it’s off to bed.

*Sundays in European countries are generally very quiet. People truly don’t work on the weekends and a lot of shops are closed. I’ll have a limited number of things to do especially since Monday the 28th is a public holiday in Belgium. I’ll be in Brussels for most of Monday and it is the largest city in Belgium but there will still be a lot of places closed.*

I check out of the hotel Sunday afternoon and take the train back to Gent for work on Tuesday! This is going to be a great work trip. Tons going on and I get to work right beside my colleagues which is a nice change from day to day here in the US.

Tuesday, May 29th: I am going to a beer tasting that evening at someone’s house who I know from the beer forum online. That should be a great time! He invited me on Monday night to the Metallica concert but I am going to pass on that one. I don’t stay up late on work nights.

Wednesday, May 30th: Typical work day but after work, I’m heading to Antwerp which is a port town about 30 minutes north of Gent. I’ll be visiting the world famous Belgium In a Box warehouse where the owner, Kurt has generously opened his shop to me to pack up some beers. He is a professional beer lover and part-time beer salesman who specializes in shipping delicious Belgian beers all over the world. Instead of chancing my 6 boxes of beer to my own skills and perhaps getting stuck by Customs, I will enlist Kurt to help me out. I pack and he ships (for a fee of course). This means my amazing beers will be waiting for me at the UPS depot by the time I get home. After that, I’m going to the world famous Kulminator beer bar. The husband and wife team have beers dating back decades and you can enjoy deliciously rare and aged beers with beer lovers. It’s a very personal experience that the couple takes seriously. I’m VERY excited and it’s no coincidence that I’m shipping the beers off in Antwerp so I have that extra excuse to hop over to Kulminator.

Thursday and Friday are all work with some after work bonding with colleagues. There are a couple of shops in Belgium that sell specialty cheese, chocolates and mustard that I’ll be visiting. for the most part, those are free evenings with no plans.

*I was hoping to go to France or Germany on this trip. I badly wanted to visit France (again) and Germany for the first time but, I chose somewhere else because of timing*

Saturday, June 2nd: I wake up VERY early, check out of my hotel, and board my first high speed train direct to London. I have tons of friends in England and many more in Ireland but sadly that’s not in my plans this time. I’ll be in London around noon and staying with my friend Alex who I’ve known for close to 5 years now but maybe more. It’s been a while. I’ve only ever seen Alex in San Francisco and he and I are going to enjoy London. There are so many people to see while there but I can’t see everyone. I have a 4AM flight out of London back to Boston on Monday the 4th so it’s really only a day and a half I get to spend there.

*The great news is Alex will be coming to America for the Apple WWDC so he’s coming through Boston on his way back to London and hanging out with me up at the cabin for a week at the end of June. We’ll be having a great time. It’s awesome to see friends twice in a month especially English friends who I never get to see!*

and THAT is my European TRIP!

——————-

Beyond Europe

Now, let’s talk about the rest of the summer. It’ll be MUCH shorter. I promise.

As soon as I get home, I’m going to keg my home brewed beers that are being done this weekend. BIG deal for me as I’m so new to this but also very exciting!

June 15th – 20th: ALEX!!! My buddy is visiting New Hampshire as I mentioned above. There will be guns, fires and manliness out in the woods of New England! We’re also heading up to Burlington Vermont to see my best friend Lee and her husband.

June 17th: Sunday night in Boston seeing Cirque Du Soleil. I couldn’t get Alex tickets but he’s a grown man who’s gonna explore our nearest big city for the night. There’s a lot to do in downtown Boston.

June 23 – 25: Alex leaves, I scrub my cabin top to bottom because I have AirBNB guests EVERY weekend for the entire month of June and then Elizabeth and I drive down to New York to hang out with her best friend who’s flying in with Husband from Monterey. We’ll be staying in a nice hotel, doing touristy stuff and, of course, visiting Apple Stores! DUH!

June 30th: I’m hosting a BIG RateBeer BBQ at my house. Inviting a few people who are welcome to stay at my place over night or bring tents and camp out in the back yard with a bonfire and I’ll be smoking meats and serving some home brewed beers and some cellared beers + a few Belgian Treats!

July 1st: Friends from New York and Boston and maybe a few others will arrive. I’m thinking my Sisters may come up as well to spend a few weeks with me so they’ll all be arriving that Monday for my annual FOURTH OF JULY EXTRAVAGANZA. Preliminary plans: Kill one of the pigs and do a pit roast, fireworks, other tasty treats, movie nights, hiking the nearby Cardigan Mountain and more. Friends are welcome to stay as long as they want…well, at least until the next AirBNB Guest

July 14th: The Southern New Hampshire Brew Fest. Tons of local breweries will be represented. Elizabeth and I have VIP tickets and we’ll have a total blast.

July 21st: The Vermont Brewery Festival. This is  a big deal. A lot of my favorite breweries will be there and we’ll get to stay the night with my friend Lee if she’s in town or stay the night before. Not sure yet.

August 4th: Ommegang Brewery’s “Belgium Comes to Cooperstown” event which is an annual overnight camping event. There are a HUGE range of Belgian based and Belgian style breweries from all over the place. Great food, live music. It’s going to be a BLAST!!!!

August 11th: Hill Farmstead’s Annual Festival of Farmhouse Ales which is also AWESOME or so I hear. It’s a lot smaller than Ommegang’s event and that will make it awesome.

August 24th – 28th: SAN FRANCISCO! Going to San Francisco for my 26th Birthday (Plans are coming, I promise). We’ll be seeing an SF Giants game, going wine tasting (maybe) and going down to Monterey for the last leg of the trip. I’m glad I kept my Zipcar membership for this trip.

September 8th: The Hampton Beach Seafood Festival. Lobster will be at it’s peak and we’ll be enjoying some great seafood. I’m also going to be visiting a great friend, David Sakolsky who is now head brewer at Blue Lobster Brewing Company. It’s going to be a blast. A weekend of fun, that’s for sure!

September ??: Visiting my BFF in Cape Cod. Whenever he’s home for a few weeks, we’ll go down and see him. Not sure when that will be. Maybe October. Not sure yet.

And, that concludes my summer. In between travel, on free weekends, I’ll be brewing some great beers, taking care of my crops and animals and, when I’m gone, my neighbors I’ve promised some eggs and meat to if they help me with animal duties. So don’t worry, my chickens and pigs will be just fine!

It’s going to be a very busy Summer and, this was an exercise for my sanity and for my friends who are all over the world. I have to find time to go down to Florida to see family. Miss them so much! That’s all for now. Thanks for checking in!

I think we all saw this coming. How long could I sustain so much intake of technology articles and independent YouTube videos and cute cat videos and Tumblr GIFs? My first blog was published in 1999. I get emails from young guys who read this blog with birthdays in ’99. I’m an old-timer and I just can’t deal with the cycle anymore of being all blogger or all independent content that I take in. My blog has been so quiet because I’ve been trying to find a balance of my new style of content intake. The last 30 days?

• Subscribed to CableTV
• Picked up a Home Phone that plugs into the wall
• Upgraded to the iPad 3
• Subscribed to New York Times. Tried to get home delivery but they don’t deliver here. So went for mobile edition tablet+phone
• Re-Subscribed to The new Yorker
• Expanded my subscription to Audible to support more books per month.

What did I get rid of in the last 30 days?

• Completely ditched RSS feeds (Reeder, Google Reader, email notifications of new blog posts)
• Unfollowed on Twitter a few hundred more people most of which ONLY talk about technology. I now follow 42 people
• Removed more things from Facebook. Now, it’s only status updates. No location, likes, photos or anything there.
• Deleted my YFrog and TwitPic accounts. I now use only Tumblr and Flickr for photo sharing
• Moved 1100 of my 1200 Facebook friends to the Acquaintances group meaning I don’t see their updates anymore. This was easier than unfriending them.
• Got rid of my Boxee Box
• Cancelled my Usenet subscription
• Made a promise to no longer read comments on blogs or click links I see on Twitter and Facebook.

Holy Hell, that’s a lot of changes.

It’s been amazing. I don’t have any more free time but, when I think about watching a YouTube video, I open the New York Times instead. I read The paper on the treadmill instead of gaming videos. I watch well produced documentaries and movies instead of watching YouTube comment from amateurs. I choose now to spend an hour reading about the world than seeing what celebrities are doing (something I never really did anyway). I have no idea what Apple is up to. Their next product announcement won’t hit me until I see an email from Apple announcing it. Since ’99, I’ve watched every Apple announcement unfold live. Now, I get an email just like everyone else.

On the flip-side, I can talk to you about things beyond technology. I’m reading long-form books and news articles. I’m amazed at how great television shows are in their production value. Game of Thrones on HBO Go is really awesome compared to an hour of FailBlog videos.

I am happy with my decision but I don’t know yet how it will affect me. It’s too early to tell how this shift will affect me in my job or among my geek friends. Forgoing Podcasts, youtube and blogs for polished but corporate backed content that is loaded with ads well…I don’t know. We’ll see. For now, it’s a lot of fun!

A lot of the things I’m reading are behind pay walls. The Times and New Yorker have some free content but most of it is behind a login and a pay-wall. In the last two weeks, 5 articles have interested me enough to share on this blog along with feedback on those posts. I can’t share it here because most of you aren’t subscribers to those two sources. Not sure what to do actually. Of course, I can’t copy content from these sources word for word outside of a small snippet. I’m not sure what to do so I may STOP with the link blog or at least it won’t be as much content as before. That’s a bummer. I know some people liked it but if I can’t link to what I’m reading, what’s the point?

In January, I promised to read more books. Prior to 2012, I might have barely started a book each year. The last book I finished was an assignment to me in grade school so I had gone without reading for 7 years. I’m not a fan of fiction so I picked up a few books that appealed to me. Some are fiction but not all. Here are the books I’ve completed from January to May 1st:

• The 4-Hour Body
• Autobiography of a Yogi
• Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality
• The Complete Stories of Sherlock Holmes, Volume 1
• The Art of Manliness: Classic Skills and Manners for the Modern Man
• Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
• The Prophet & The Wanderer
• Man’s Search for Meaning
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• The Complete Joy of Homebrewing

In total, I’ve spent as much time as possible taking in these books. 4-Hour body and The Prophet & The Wanderer I went through twice so I could take in as much as possible. I’ll probably read The Prophet again on my flight to Amsterdam in a few weeks.

I pick books that are classics in they take me back to another time such as Sherlock and Huckleberry Finn. I also pick books that take me to another part of the world such as Yogi and Behind the Beautiful Flowers. Most importantly, I try to find books that expand my understanding of myself. I want to understand more about why I am this way both the good and the bad and this comes from books that talk a great deal about psychology.

I would have liked to read twice as many books this year but have been lacking mostly because I spend a great deal of time reading news and opinion on today’s world. I’ll do a better job at balancing that since reading is so new to me.

ShawnBlanc

And I’m not the only one. Within my circle of friends, I know several people who are also using their iPad as their portable computer. I even have a handful friends who have an iPad as their only computer.It is not a sacrifice to use the iPad as a primary device. I wanted to take a look at some of the most compelling reasons to use an iPad as your portable, if not your only, computer.

What? I did read the entire article. I’ve confessed my love of iPad and it’s many advantages. I use it daily until the battery dies but, when I go somewhere, my 13″ MacBook Air and iPad 3 are in my bag side by separated by a smart cover. 

What did Shawn miss on his piece? Well, he does actually cover what will be my biggest complaint in the post:

Two prime examples for me are my use of QuickBooks and InDesign. And then there are the things which can be done on an iPad or a laptop, but which are done more efficiently on the latter. Another personal example: email. I am much better at processing email with my laptop because of the many AppleScripts and keyboard shortcuts I use in order to file and act on my messages.

Which is why I could not get by with an iPad only. But I am comfortable traveling without my MacBook Air, and there are often times when I prefer to work from the smaller device rather than at the comfort of my Mac. The iPad is a compelling computer, and it is quickly maturing right before our eyes.

I don’t use QuickBooks or InDesign anymore but I use a lot of applications that DO require I manipulate items on screen with my track pad. The difference between my trackpad and the iPad’s touch screen? The fact that I don’t have to literally life a finger to manipulate items on my MacBook. I once worked for 8 hours in a cafe on my iPad. After an hour, my shoulder was in pain not just from muscle fatigue but from an old shoulder injury I have. Switching hands didn’t help. 

I tried the other day editing a roll of film from an SD card on iPad. An operation that takes 5 minutes in LightRoom took 1 full hour in iPhoto. I tried blogging from my iPad but inserting photos from Flickr code and holding my index finger over words…waiting and then selecting them to edit took forever. If you’re a man that doesn’t use the arrow keys, the iPad is for you but don’t come crying to me when your shoulder begins cramping up from raising it above up a few hundred times an hour.

I use my iPad to 0% each day but I use it for reading the times, watching YouTube, television and quickly reviewing emails if I’m walking to a meeting. To abandon my Macbook Air that is almost as thin and light as the iPad seems insane. If you were to give me a choice, I’d go with MacBook over iPad. 

Everyone has weighed in on the iPad 3. Anandtech published the only review that I will recommend. It’s the only iPad review that is a real review covering everything a potential buyer would like to know. I will be speaking in bullets because it’s important to keep this review short. I’ll wrap up with some overall thoughts.

The Good:

• iPad 3 is slightly snappier over the iPad 2 and a lot snappier over the iPad 1.
• The speed at which apps open and close isn’t that great but camera opening or refreshing of a web page is all faster. more tabs remain open in Safari but I don’t keep tabs open in Safari so I had to intentionally test it. I believe this is more related to the increase in ram. The CPU is unchanged and the GPU is “four times as fast” according to Apple but it’s a claim I can’t test.
• The screen is beyond gorgeous. I don’t see this as too amazing because this should have been included last year. Price point be damned! The iPad 3 has the screen the iPad 2 should have had. It’s still not right against the front though like the iPhone. It’s not sealed to the front glass which is a bummer but it’s still a step up. I’d like to see screen and glass flush together.
• More on the screen. Text is wonderful  and apps updated to take advantage of the new screen benefit. Webpage logos and images look like crap and older apps look bad. If you noticed non retina optimized things on the iPhone, you really notice them on the iPad.
• The single biggest reason you’d buy this iPad is for text and the second being the free WiFi hotspot that you get through Verizon with a data plan. If you live in an area with 4G, lucky you. I don’t but travel to places that do.
• The buttons feel more solid on the front and top. Then again, it’s new so maybe not.
• This felt like the first complete iPad from a setup point of view. I say that’s mostly due to iOS 5 and iCloud. I unboxed it and set it up completely wirelessly…almost. We’re getting there on completeness of this being a singular devices but not there yet.
• The camera is better on the back but no on the front. Who uses the back camera? No one. I’d prefer the front facing FaceTime camera saw a better quality than VGA.Maybe the next version.

The Bad: (Setup)

• I unboxed the iPad. It was at 90% battery life. It was covered in scratches on the back and over the speaker grill. There was glue all over the body I had to remove with rubbing alcohol and fingerprints all over the screen. Worst unboxing experience ever. I live in the woods so I’m used to things being dirty but, an iPad should arrive spotless and it didn’t. This isn’t white America entitlement. This is Apple user for 10 years expectations. I’ve never had a device arrive in such a bad condition.
• iCloud restore took 40 minutes on my 50 megabit connection. This is way too long. Apple fix this.
• App installs took 30 minutes before I gave up and connected the iPad to my iMac and installed them via the machine as they were already downloaded. The iPad was not happy with this. I had to do multiple hard resets of the iPad and force quits of iTunes to get this going including putting the iPad in airplane mode to keep it from auto-downloading apps.
• Total setup time was over 3 hours for a device with 50 apps and a thousand songs. Windows XP is faster to setup. Hell, my restore of an iMac from Time Machine backup over Firewire 800 is faster than that and my iMac drive has 1.5 terabytes of content.

The Bad: (The Device)

• It’s noticeably thicker. iPad 2 users, you will notice how much thicker it is and it’s very disappointing. iPad 1 users won’t. This aligns with my thoughts on Apple upgrade cycles now being every 2 generations and not every 1 generation.
• The iPad is also noticeably heavier than the iPad 2. You feel it as soon as you pick it up.  For the iPad to be heavier and thicker is, as many have said, the iPad battery is almost twice as large because of the screen, new chip and 4G LTE built in. Fine. I am a bit bitter because I don’t have 4G where i am but still suffer this thickness. Oh well.
• The iPad is incredibly hot. It’s hotter than my i7 MacBook Air. I melted a stick of butter and slice of cheese on the back of it. My hand sweats while holding it which isn’t good for a device that’s aluminum and gets slipper when wet. Seriously, this thing is hotter than any PlayBook or Galaxy Tab that I have used.  It’s hot and I hate that.
• The battery life is noticeably worse than the iPad 2. I used to never really watch or see the battery life dropping. Now I do and it’s very noticeable. Half a day of use meaning half of the day it was on the dock and the other half of the day I was using it casually from time to time and the iPad was dead by midnight. This is with the iPad cellular service completely disabled as in the radio is turned off and I’m only using WiFi. I’m using this at home the same way I used my iPad 2 and battery life is NOT 10 hours. This does not get 2 days of use now. It only gets 1 and that’s very disappointing.
• I wouldn’t care too much except charging it takes more than one evening. I get 6 hours of sleep a night. Getting the iPad from 0 to 100 % takes more than 6 hours. It takes 8 hours. By my calculations, it takes longer to charge it than it was actually operated. I get 8 hours of use and over 8 hours to charge it. That’s with the iPad plugged into the wall via the included adapter. One night, I put the iPad in airplane mode (from the previously cellular off, wi-fi only mode) and it charged in 4.5 hours to 100%. I shouldn’t have to put my iPad in airplane mode to charge it overnight.
• I did a full restore of my iPad. These issues still exist.
• Out of the box, fresh iOS installation and my iPad can’t handle my calendar. Neither can my iPhone 4S. I have 8 calendar items a day and meetings are all repeating so I have some that go through the next 12 months. Loading Calendar on iPhone and iPad takes 45 seconds. I hoped my iPhone was just needing a reset. Nope. The iPad has this issue too. Apple can fix this, right? Am I too busy to be an iPad user? Maybe.

Apple has embraced the 2-Year upgrade cycle. Apple doesn’t expect iPad 2 users to buy the iPad 3. Why would they? Within the last 12 months, they paid $500-$900 on a device so why buy another one? Exactly. So, iPad 1 users who upgrade will be in awe of the new device. The iPad 2 users won’t notice it’s thicker or heavier or has worse battery life. They’ll skip this and move right to iPad 4 next year which will be thinner and improved in every way over the 3 and they’ll be happy.

I’ve noticed not to be too mean to Apple or at least, if I am, that I put in my reviews that I buy EVERY new model. iPhone 3GS to 4S (as my girlfriend did) is a HUGE upgrade to her. For me, going to iPhone 4 to 4S is a meh upgrade and one that I sort of regret. If you don’t want device remorse, buy a new Apple devices every 2 years. rust me on this.

The iPad 3 is disappointing for a lot of reasons as you can see above. I’ve spent 8 hours setting up the device then resetting the device trying to fix issues with heat and charging. I’ve killed the battery down to zero every night with normal use. I read the iPad NYTimes App for 2 hours in a cafe on Monday and used 50% of the battery. Once again, I’m not activating Verizon on this until I travel so I’ve had cellular deactivated since I unboxed it. The first thing I did was go to settings and deactivate the cellular radio. That should give me an extra 10% of battery according to Apple. That’s a bummer.

The new iPad looks like the iPad 2, is heavier and thicker than the iPad 2 and is not that much faster or better than the iPad 2 and has worse battery life than the iPad 2 and is very hot compared to previous iPads but the screen is nice. That’s about it. The screen is pretty cool looking and that’s the only really great thing about it. If you’re not a big reader of books or newspapers, skip the iPad 3. Well, if you’re an iPad 2 owner (as the majority of you are), skip the iPad 3. If you have an iPad 1 then it’s a good time to upgrade. iPad 2 users should wait.

I give this a 3/5 as an iPad 2 owner a 5/5 as an iPad 1 owner. It’s important to differentiate that. This is the most negative iPad review you’ll see. I’m critical of my devices. Please not death threats for this post.

At the grocery store, I see they had fresh day old Maine Mussels at the seafood counter. They were cheap at $4 for a 3-Pound bag so I picked some up. I don’t usually shop for specific recipes so I took them home and tried to find what I had and if it matched up to any recipes online that I could follow. I found this recipe.

I substituted:

• Fresh tomatoes instead of canned ones
• Sweet Green Peppers instead of Red Ones
• Cayenne instead of ground red pepper (is there a difference?)
• I added 8-Year aged Parmesan that I grated over the dish at completion.
• Two garlic cloves instead of one since I love garlic.

I wanted to share this with you in photos how the recipe was followed and the end result. Enjoy!

All of the ingredients.

Sautéed Onions & Garlic

Dicing Onions

Sautéed Onion & Garlic adding Tomato and White Wine with Spices

Fresh Parsley

Mussels after being rinsed and scrubbed

Completed base

Chopped Parsley

Adding the Mussels

Boiling the Angel Hair Pasta for 4 Minutes

Chopped Parsley and 8-Year Parmesan

White wine for cooking and for drinking. I would have preferred something with a fuller body but my cellar is full of red wines

Angel Hair Pasta

Completed Steamed Mussels

Pouring the Mussels over the Pasta

The finished Dish

Up-Close

Dinner is served

That’s it! It took half an hour to make and was enjoyed while listening to a new Audible audiobook, The Prophet & The Wanderer. Thanks for reading!

I’ve been without an iPad for over a month so my Instapaper queue was a bit behind. On Wednesday, my iPad arrived so I’ve been reading 6 hours a day since then. I like linking to things here but it’s best to do it as I read things that are worth sharing. So, instead of posting dozens of links in separate posts, I’ll post them here with or without some personal commentary and I’ll break it into categories:

Also, mini-iPad 3 review coming next week at some point. It’ll be short. Trust me.

Apple – iPad 3:

• Why I Decided Not to Buy the New iPad – Well said and this shows more and more that Apple runs on a 2-year product cycle. They release devices yearly but, if you skip a year, you don’t miss out on much. I like this a lot
• Apple’s New Annual Upgrade Cycle May Wreak Havoc On Schools – This is a very tiny example of people who think Apple does one year upgrade cycles. They don’t. They do by products but it’s every 2 years. Plus, when did schools ever car about upgrading anyway? When I was in school, our tech was easily 5-10 years old.
• Why iPhonegraphy works: Convenience – Can we please stop calling it Photography and instead refer to it as iPhoneography?
• This Is the Only Reviewer With Balls to Tell You the Truth About the New iPad – Spot on. If you have an iPad 2, upgrading is pointless unless you just love being awesome
• Thoughts and Observations Regarding Yesterday’s iPad Event - I LOVED Shawn’s analysis. Even a month later, it’s a nice read
• AT&T, 4G, and the New iPad – If you haven’t bought an iPad yet and plan on doing so with a data connection, read this. I went with Verizon
• Mountain Lion: Hands on with Mail aka Mountain Lion’s Mail.app loses RSS support – This was the most awkwardly placed feature in Mail and I’m glad it’s gone. The pundits are arguing RSS is going away completely. I won’t hold my breath

SXSW:

• The Year Nobody “Won” SXSW – Good analysis
• Meeting People Is Easy, Remembering Them Is Hard, Knowing Them Is Harder - Highlight is pointless outside of SXSW, San Francisco and NYC. I’m tired of companies getting funded that only solve a problem that occurs in 2 cities and one week out of the year in Austin.
• The Power of Power at South by Southwest – The one thing SXSW is good for is showing us a glimpse into the future of computing. Things like Highlight are just ahead of their time but guaranteed, if battery technology doesn’t keep improving, it will be a very gloom future for everyone. We need huge improvements in batteries + even larger improvements in how we recycle and dispose of those batteries

Technology:

• Twitter Doesn’t Give a Damn Who You Are – Good read
• Dell XPS 13 review – Nice computer but why, after all of these years do PC makers still include terrible trackpads?
• It’s Time to Exterminate the Mouse – Yeah, as soon as PC makers start including better trackpads, the mouse can go away
• Your Heirs Won’t Care About Your Crappy MP3 Collection – A nice dose of reality to those of us who covet our digital files like anyone but us cares about them

Miscellaneous:

• Electronic Dance Concerts Turn Up Volume, Tempting Investors – Great stuff. My first Ultra in Miami was in 2004. Things have changed since then in a big way
• A Precious Hour - I really need to start doing this.
• Starbucks is Banking on Europe - Beautiful store. No exaggeration. This store just made my trip to Amsterdam next month TWICE as amazing
• Math doesn’t suck, you do. – To be shared with my little sisters and people who don’t think Math is worth learning.
• Skinny Jeans: The Staple of a Well-Dressed Geek’s Wardrobe – At my very skinniest, I was literally skin and bones and I weighed 190 pounds. I still had to wear relaxed fit Jeans because my ass and legs were so huge from working out. I had a BMI in the lower teens but couldn’t wear these things. Men who wear skinny jeans aren’t men. Please go and build a fence or something and work with your hands and then try to fit into skinny jeans. It’s impossible. If you’re not living the life of a man and doing manly things, skinny jeans are for you. For me, it helps me identify the men from the boys. No man that i know can wear them not because they’re fat like I am now but because they are active men who have muscle.

——-

Alright, I have about 20 more items in my Instapaper queue. These are a handful of the dozens of things I read in the past couple of days and what I felt were the best to share with you. Enjoy!

This post could be a bit premature. This October, I would have lived in New Hampshire longer than I lived in San Francisco. Thinking back on so many memories and accomplishments in my time spent there, it feels like I was in SF for a decade when it was June ’08 to August ’10. Two years and two months I lived there and it was incredible but, now I’ve spent a year and a half in New Hampshire out in the middle of nowhere where I know every neighbor and I’ve made a few observations. Let’s start with some examples of the two environments in the most drastic contrasts:

• Today, I posted an ad on Craigslist asking the community where I could get a pig butchered in the Fall. I’m planning on raising them. A guy called who has experience and came by the house to help me plan things and offered to set me up with some feed at no cost. Nice guy. Then, I realized he’s the guy who does my Summer / Winter tire changes every year in town. Nice guy. We had a beer by the river. He offered to even help butcher my pigs in the Fall.
• My drive to work doesn’t have traffic. I have a blinking red light in town and then have one more stop light before work. There’s no delay unless it’s snowing and, on those days, I work from my home office. I haven’t sat in traffic since leaving California.
• I have chickens and a garden. The garden is 3 times as large as my apartment in SF. That to me is remarkable.
• The other day I did some hip firing and various target practice with my new tactical shotgun in my back yard in the middle of the day.
• I can have a fire whenever I want in my back yard. I put down some wood and light it on fire and pull up a stump. It’s pretty awesome.

There are so many wonderful things about living where I am and, truthfully, I rarely take advantage of EVERYTHING there is here. For example, I drive past a mountain to go snowboarding every day and I rarely stop to hop on the slopes. I should do that more. So many of my friends drive for hours and spend thousands to go skiing for a weekend and I have 5 mountains within an hour of me. I’m stupid for not going more. I also have miles of bike able terrain but I don’t ride enough. I’ll do more of that, too very soon.

I guess my time in San Francisco was equally as rewarding as my time in New Hampshire but in another way.

In New Hampshire, there aren’t many job opportunities and there isn’t a lot of commerce. For the people who grew up here, there is this excitement around conveniences like Starbucks and Fast Food and 24 hour restaurants that you find in Boston or New York. I get the most interesting responses to saying I’m not from here and that I’m from Florida via San Francisco and everyone is so intrigued why I would move here to the middle of nowhere. The young couples from the city that come to my cabin via AirBNB and stay for a few days always say the same thing about how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful place among nice people and in an area that’s so relaxed and easy going.

They’re right but it makes me wonder why others don’t live this way as well. Six Months ago, I finally got around to reading 4-Hour Work week. Most of the book I was already applying and some things I was not. One thing that stuck out is that Tim mentioned guys he’d encounter on his adventures. These men were successful in America but always envy him because he is living the life while they’re just on a 5 day cruise and he is living in the Bahamas and they wonder how he can afford it and how lucky he is. The truth is that you can live the life and always be traveling and having adventures if you’re smart. The money I save by living in New Hampshire leads to a richer life. I don’t have 24-Hour sushi places but I have great friends, travel the world and money is not an issue anymore.

I think New Hampshire is GREAT. I LOVE it here but I am also very aware of the fact that my cost of living is 30% of what it was in San Francisco. The result is that there isn’t a single hobby or activity that is being held back by money. In the same month, I bought a 55″ TV, an iPad, AppleTV, Chickens, a bigger chicken Coop, vegetables for my garden and pigs all within a month of a 2-week trip to Europe without once having to use a credit card. CASH ONLY for me.

This is because I live in a very cheap area with very cheap day-to-day spending. My cabin in the woods leads to a lot of happiness but that happiness is amplified by the money I save by living here. No 24-hour Sushi place or In-n-Out burger can compete with the joy I get from paying all of my bills and then saving a bit and still having money to go do something awesome for a few days.

My happiness is a combination of the greatest job I’ve ever had with a wonderful cabin on 5 acres of land on a road with zero car traffic and the extra money each month to literally do anything I want to do. I count my blessings daily.

—————–

What I’m trying to say to my followers is that it’s alright to leave the city. I honestly believe that you WILL have a better life if you leave the city and move to the country. It’s very easy to think that you can’t cope with the comforts of city-life. The bus ride to work, the jokes with your co-workers that a homeless man puked on your shoes as you carry your Starbucks in hand and rush from meeting to meeting only to leave work at 7PM and go to some fancy restaurant because your apartment’s kitchen is too small to cook anything more than a Lean Cuisine meal. You stay up too late drinking and do it all again the next day. You tweet about the weekend in a month where you’ll rent a zip car and go out of the city. You look forward to it but you don’t have to.

It’s scary to think that my nearest restaurant closes at 8PM but why go out when I can cook great meals here with things fresh from my garden or buy food for cheap at the local grocery store at least cheaper than what I paid in SF.

My advice to those who are in cities by choice or not is that they get out. Get out not because cities are that terrible but because I feel that your routine is dangerous and each day in a city is a day you get closer to no longer living a full life. Life in the country, on the surface doesn’t seem to be for everyone. In fact, it is. Everyone can live like this and the only thing you give up is the convenience of late night food and really great martinis. When you realize that it’s more rewarding to be self sufficient, you can use the money you saved to build up the city around you.

At home, I have a home theatre and watch all of the latest movies. I have a full bar and beer and wine cellar. I entertain people, host parties and have events at my place. I perfected coffee and lattes at home so Starbucks is just a grind and boiling water away from being in my cup. I brought the amenities of the city to me. I think the biggest thing about living in the country that I can’t replace is the sex. The sex with such a diverse group of people and the amazingness that, on OKCupid, there are hundreds of girls within walking distance that are compatible with me and single. If you value city-life because dating and sex are so important to you, stay in the city.

I don’t care about sex or dating. It’s not because I have a girlfriend. It’s because I really DON’T care about it. I tell all of my guy and girl friends. The greatest women in my life are the ones that I never had sex with. I have the best friendships because I never ditched a guy friend to go talk to a hot girl or schemed and plotted to sleep with a girl friend of mine. In the country. I literally can not leave my house for 2 weeks and it’s fine. I have a freezer full of food, a big yard and a team based entirely in Europe. I don’t need sex or dating or cocktails with a friend of a friend who shares 200 mutual friends with me on Facebook. I don’t need that and if that’s what you need, stay in New York. If you’re in a city and you could care less about the dating and late night Dim Sum, then I challenge you to try living in a cabin in the woods.

It’s been the greatest experience in my life and I never want to leave. It’s been a dream come true living here.

—————–

I think it’s good that I mention that I rent my place on AirBNB. For friends, the cabin is free to stay in. You can stay here with me and I’ll cook for you or I’ll stay with my GF And you can have the place all to yourself. Any readers interested in a weekend getaway in the woods, feel free to check out my place on AirBNB.

Hi UMF. Congratulations on your 14th year! You’ve stayed in Miami, gone from 1 day to 3 and people from all around the world come to dance and party with you. That’s pretty awesome. Before this year, things were awkward. Well, it’s still awkward but in a good way. Your weirdness makes the party better but, in the past, things were hard to ignore. Congrats on reaching maturity and finally filling those extra large shoes.

Everything about this year’s Ultra Music Festival in Miami was better. It wasn’t bigger, the artist lineup was pretty standard and the vibe from the crowds was just like previous years but in a huge way, things were so different and it was amazing to see this festival mature from my first time in 2004 to 8 years later. In 2004, the festival actually felt pretty put together but, the growth was huge and, each year, it felt like things were getting worse instead of better. There were more cops, more power failures, more artists going over their set times, last minute lineup changes, issues with lasers blinding the crowds and nearby hotels and the constant feeling that things just weren’t going well. You wanted water or to find a bathroom or even go through security to get in and you felt like it was pointless and that things were being run by a group of high schoolers. It’s not all UMF’s fault. It’s a combination of a group with very little festival experience that literally learned as they went and the explosive growth that Ultra suffered through each year.This year, I think UMF knew they were going to sell out and they knew the head count and they worked tirelessly to accommodate that for 50,000 daily attendees and they did it well.

I only had three issues with UMF this year.

1. Camera Policies which I wrote about.

2. The HUGE and painful bottleneck of crowds going from the main entrance to the live stage. This bottle neck was painful and idiotic because there were fences setup by UMF on each side and, for many, they thought this was the only want to the live stage and it was grid-locked foot traffic for 12 hours every day to move from stage to stage there.

3. The stages and tents are STILL too small. There’s no way to fix this. Miami’s two largest parks have hosted Ultra and, each time, they aren’t big enough. The ASOT / Carl Cox tent had half of the crowds jamming from outside of the tent. There was no way to fit everyone in there that wanted to see the shows. The smaller Brasil / Korea / Worldwide tent had 30% of the fans also spilled out on the outsides. Finally, the Live Stage during headliners had people everywhere and still couldn’t hold everyone. It was awe-inspiring and very frustrating at the same time.

The 2nd issue was probably not foreseen from a planning perspective and the 3rd is unfixable. UMF literally can’t make their stages or tents any larger. This is as big as they can go without moving away from Miami which I hope never happens. Aside from Orlando, there’s no place in Florida with the hotel capacity for Ultra’s attendance and Miami’s downtown IS walkable and the majority of people stay downtown. In addition, a vast number of attendees are locals that go every year. They’re built-in ticket buyers every year and, moving to Orlando would hurt attendance for a few years. I think Miami is where UMF will always be so I don’t see the issues I documented being fixed aside from the pesky camera policy.

Enough about what Ultra did bad. Let’s talk about the good because what was outlined above wasn’t actually that bad. I’m going to use bullets as it keeps me from rambling

• Fantastic iPhone app and Foldable brochures that showed set times and artist Bios. The iPhone app wasn’t perfect but it was great for it’s purpose and was very easy to use
• UMF TV was live every day from Miami and broadcasted on YouTube. This was very very cool. I watched an hour of it on a day that I was too tired to arrive right when the gates opened. This looked like a professional production.
• There were no power failures, light show hijinks or late performances. Every production aspect was flawless except for Madonna asking everyone if they’re on Ecstasy, what a loser.
• Security was friendly and courteous even if they knew nothing about cameras and the lines to get in to Ultra went very fast every day I was there.
• I only saw ONE ambulance at UMF. It’s not that I don’t think kids were overdosing and going to the hospital, but for some reason I didn’t see dozens and dozens of paramedics running around like previous years. Why? It’s weird but the danger of UMF didn’t really hit me this year. it felt VERY safe. This is a big deal.
• When I needed water or food or a bathroom, there was one available. I never waited more than 2 minute in line for any of those things. Amazing.
• Shirts didn’t sell out even on the last day. They NEVER have shirts on day 3 available to buy. I went up and bought two XL shirts (because American Apparel is 2 sizes too small BEFORE you even wash it) and they had them! Wow.
• There were plenty of places to sit. I don’t think you realize how big of a deal this is. When I wanted to sit and relax, getting to a seating area was easy. There was one near every stage.
• Nudity was kept to a minimum. I didn’t see any sex and only one girl I saw had her boobs out. This was great! I hate seeing nude people and am glad that it was kept to a minimum this year.
• Undercover cops were everywhere. They were actively arresting people selling drugs but hands off on people casually doing drugs. This isn’t the best in my opinion but it’s a huge step up from previous years.

Overall, there were so many great things about UMF this year. Everything I listed seemed basic but these are all things that are better compared to last year. It was bad last year and the year before. This year was better and I can’t wait to go to UMF next year.

Worth it.

When you know every Comcast support prompt, you’ve been on the phone for too long. I called Comcast seven times tonight. Here’s a summary of how the events played out.

I don’t pirate content. I’d like to pay for it. So, a year after canceling cable, I’m back. Not because I care about the evening news. I just want to use Xfinity and HBO Go on my iPad, iPhone and Xbox. You can keep the cable box. I could care less about it. Allow me to watch True Blood and Game of Thrones from anywhere and we’re good.

For the last 12 months, I’ve survived on a 50 megabit Comcast connection with subscriptions to Hulu, Netflix and a few random iTunes Passes for my favorite shows like South Park. I paid for MLB.TV to get my sports fix and used Amazon Prime and iTunes for everything else. It was a good setup but not one that really brought me happiness in the television content arena. I bought a new TV last week, one that has 3D capabilities so I felt the 3D On Demand offerings from Comcast would be cool and, in turn, I could cancel Hulu, Netflix, iTunes season Passes and Amazon OnDemand and pretty much come out paying just a little more.

• Comcast Price for 50 Megabit Internet w/ Tax – $130 USD a month
• Comcast price for Triple Play (Digital Preferred + HBO +  Digital Voice) + 50 Megabit Internet – $210 USD a month

I figured this was a steal because I’m tired of relying on Skype for my home phone. It’s been a year and I really hate using it. I also realize that everyone that comes over has no idea how to use my home theatre setup. Oh, you want Mad Men, that’s on the AppleTV, Amazon is on the Roku, Pandora and other apps are on the Boxee including some ripped DVDs I have in MKV format on my iMac only play on the Boxee and I don’t really get Live TV but I do have Hulu. Yeah, it’s confusing and friends just don’t like using my home setup.

BACK TO COMCAST! YAY!!!!!!

Thursday, March 29th: Login to my Xfinity account, poke around and decided to get Digital Starter + HBO on my account. Talk to a chat representative, get disconnected.Talk to another rep and am told that I’m not the acocunt holder (my landlord is and she’s in Hawaii and I never hear from her) so I can’t add itTalk to another rep as my landlord (since I have written authorization to do this) and get the order through but then realize I can get voice too and actually save money so I do thisHalf-way through the call, “We can save you time and money so instead of shipping it to you and it arriving Tuesday, you can get your voice and cable box tomorrow at our service center” I agree to pick it up in person

Friday, March 30th: Go to Comcast service center around 2PM to pickup my equipment. What an unpleasant experience. Comcast in Lebanon, NH, you ladies are downright depressing. I wasn’t acknowledged and had to ask for assistance as everyone just typed away on their PCs and there was no pleasant hello and this is New England, EVERYONE is nice so I was surprised.I was given a very frowny face from the representative who said to her friend, “the online techs should stop screwing up these orders.” She didn’t tell me this, just voiced her gripes about the company to her friend. I asked, “Is everything alright?” She sharply said, “No.” and went to go grab somethingShe returns with a cable box and voice box and a self-install kit and scans some barcodes then, hands me the boxes and says, “You won’t be able to use this until Monday. Comcast screwed up your order.”This was the opposite of the sales representative’s words via chat just 14 hours earlier but it’s fine, I’m in no rush to get jacked back into the Matrix so alright.I wish her a great day and she reciprocates but not with a smile. That was a bummer but she was clearly having a bad day. This is a Comcast representative on a Friday. I’d hate to go in on a Monday. Sheesh.

Anyway, I take my equipment home and spend the weekend catching up on Hulu content with my GF and renting a few movies. We were outside mostly building a larger chicken coop and gardening.
Monday, April 2nd: It’s 9:00PM and I spend 20 minutes setting up my new cable equipment. This is not for the faint of heart. They really should ask if you’re alright with doing this. Wall to splitter to voice box and other cable to another splitter which goes to my cable box and Internet box then I the cable box won’t turn on because you have to have a direct connection when first setting up. My phone is via Skype so after setting up my cable box directly to the wall, I get an error but can’t call Comcast since my Internet is now offline. What a mess.

I call Comcast and go through way too many prompts. Luckily, the one area Comcast does well at is hold times. I was usually with a real person one minute after going through prompts. 1 minute is annoying but bearable.

Over the last 2 hours, I’ve been hung up on, transferred and moved around. At one point, I was on hold with someone who was helping and then transferred back to the main line again and asked to put in my info. Every time I was transferred, I was asked to put in my customer info again. What ever happened to, “let me get someone on the line” and then that rep, calls another rep, introduces me and then hands it off properly? That was far more efficient and very pleasant for customers. This should be brought back.

Finally, after the 2 hours, I get disconnected and call back again. The person answers and says that my problem is that the account hasn’t been setup correctly and that she deleted everything and put it in as a new order with my hardware info. It should be up in 24 hours she says.

I doubt it.

I forgot how bad of an experience cable is. I’ve had Internet via Comcast for a year and $70 more a month isn’t bad considering I’m saving on other services. Unfortunately, it’ll be nearly 7 days from phone call to service activation and that’s very depressing. All I ask from Comcast is that I’m not billed for any of this. From the 29th through when my service is activated, I don’t want to be billed. Is that too much to ask?
My living room is full of cables now and I can’t touch them until Comcast calls me tomorrow or Wednesday. Depressing..So depressing.

Comcast, I’m adam@adam-jackson.net and am in the 03741 area code. Please email me with a representative info and extension to call so we can get this resolved. Thanks.

UPDATE: So, it has been 2 days since this was posted and my service is restored. If there’s one thing Comcast is good at is escalation. They escalate the hell out of things very very fast. I spent another 4 hours on this issue since the post was written but my service is finally working. It was a long ordeal but everyone that helped me was very nice and friendly and professional so no issues there. It turns out my initial order was put in the system incorrectly and that is what caused the fall-out. It’s a rough situation for me but for also Comcast so I get it and everyone was awesome.

AnandTech is the only place I read Apple reviews. The get very geeky, go into intense detail and have zero Pro-Apple slant on their tone. This site treats all technology equally and they are very critical on how products are reviewed from Android to LED displays to iPad.

20,000 words and the first thing I’ll read when my new iPad arrives on Tuesday.

★

The iPad is revolutionary according to the marketing teams at Apple. It’s the most intimate computing experience in the world and, as of this writing, it has been 2 years since the original iPad was released and I’ve owned one sine the very beginning. I had my doubts but I justified purchasing one anyway. Then, I spent half an hour with one while mine was being shipped. I was still not sold on it. When I finally reviewed iPad, I used it for consumption but the app ecosystem and my trust in it was still low. I reviewed the iPad 2 and felt it was a good upgrade. At the time, I had no idea that the iPad 2 would be the iPad I fell in love with. Its combination of great apps with a solid 3G experience and great battery life made me use it all of the time. Two months after getting the iPad, I claimed it had revolutionized how I used computers. I used it’s battery to near completion each day and, since that post in May of 2011, my usage had only increased daily.

When the iPad 3 was announced, I sold my iPad 2. The plan was to get an iPad 3 but it was time for a test. Could I survive without the iPad? What would I miss most about it? Was it truly as great as I thought? It was and now, I can’t wait for my iPad 3 to arrive. I have been without an iPad for 2 weeks and it’ll be 2 more weeks before my iPad 3 arrives. I’m past the emotional “missing” of the iPad and the attachment is long gone. It’s time to write about what it’s like to not have an iPad from a day to day perspective. I understand that many people in the world don’t own an iPad. They can’t afford one and I understand that. Understand this is not how an iPad fits into everyone’s lives. This is a post based on a person’s experiences of having an iPad for 2 years and then going without. Did they miss it and what places did the iPad actually fill in their lives now that it’s gone. I’m not here to sell the hungry and homeless on an iPad. I’m here to explain how an iPad owner of 2 years computes now that he’s left with a MacBook and an iPhone. Enjoy.

I paid $829 + tax for a 64GB Verizon iPad 2 in March of 2011. One year later, I sold it for $600. This is less than I was hoping for but that’s mostly because of the emotional connection I had with this device. The first day without this device was difficult. I subconsciously wanted to keep grabbing for it next to me at my office, on the couch and in bed. Anytime I thought of an email, weather check, news article or funny YouTube video, the iPad was the first thing I grabbed for. In fact, I physically grabbed or it not just mentally. It’s scary to think that a device that’s been in my hands, on my desk and in my bag everywhere for 2 years is so attached to me but it was and it took 3 days before I grabbed for it out of habit. I was pretty embarrassed every time my hands went for it. Am I really addicted to this device? It seems so because withdrawals were just beginning. Over the next week, I refrained from the most basic Internet tasks. I stopped watching YouTube videos, RSS feeds and my Instapaper queue grew HUGE beyond my control. Basic Google searches I stopped performing and I sort of watched TV shows and movies with this weird angst or anxiety. Sort of like I was half into the television and half in another world full of emptiness. I wanted to check IMDB and Wikipedia but couldn’t. I was only half tuned into shows because the other half was mentally wishing an iPad was in my hand. My iPhone was also in reaching distance but I had zero intention to even glance at it. Two weeks later, I still care zero about the iPhone. It’s my pocket computer but not one I want to use around the house. It remains docked in the other room. I care about the iPhone very little because the iPad was my life and it’s gone now. The iPhone compares in no way to it.

After a week, this very scary and disarming survival instinct I had toward iPad went away. The weird thing is, I simply coped with my iPad-less life. In two weeks, I haven’t actually gone back to my life pre-iPad as if things aren’t as they were and I can’t go back. I’m thinking back to my year with a Windows PC tablet. Microsoft can say all they want how their tablet was first as in 7 years ago but whatever, I never felt attached to Windows tablet like I do with iPad. Windows tablet was a chore and iPad is this device that helps me do things so much easier and better in a way that’s far more enjoyable. The primary tasks I miss about iPad:

• Email reviewing each AM and PM
• Calendar Management AM and PM
• News Reeding
• YouTube Watching
• Instapaper Reading
• Newspaper Reading
• NYTimes Reading
• Tweeting during down-time
• Research during TV and downtime

The problem is, all of these activities have been disrupted by the lack of an iPad. I haven’t simply moved these tasks to iPhone or MacBook. I’ve stopped doing them entirely. It wasn’t that I was waiting for an iPad to magically appear. I just don’t want to do them. Why watch YouTube videos on my iPhone or MacBook? It’s not as fun! Instapaper, RSS, early morning calendar management? Meh. Just don’t do it. I wait until I’m at the office to do all of those things. I used to grab my laptop as soon as I woke up then iPhone because it’s all I had and then iPad but, without iPad, I don’t want to do either. I just wanna wake up and wait until I’m in my office to manage things.

It has been two weeks since iPad was in my hands. I haven’t seen or touched one since then. Still, my routine feels incomplete. I can certainly cope but things like Instapaper, Reeder, YouTube and passive research will never be the same. I miss the large screen that fit in my lap and I miss the touch interface and applications. I miss the 3G always on that paired with that large screen and I miss the smallness of the iPad and how it accompanied me everywhere I go.

Just yesterday I got home at 5PM and the weather was nice. “Why go out and sit by the river?” I said. “I’m not going to read on my iPhone or Macbook. Screw it. I”ll stay inside.”

The iPad has had a profound affect on my life and I can never go back or, if I do go back, it’ll be a lifestyle with far less consumption and far more creation. This isn’t entirely a bad thing but I miss reading and listening to great content and the iPad was the best device in the world for that. My Mac and iPhone will never equal the greatness that iPad provided.

iPad 3 reviews have been good but haven’t painted a compelling picture for upgraders like me. However, if you were to give me an iPad 1 right now, I’d use it. iPad 1 to 3 on their own aren’t a huge step forward in form factor but they don’t have to be. I’d be happy with any one of the three versions. Maybe iPad 4 will be revolutionary but it doesn’t have to be. I’m happy with version 1 still and that shows how perfect iPad was at release. I can’t wait to see what happens next but if iPad 3 was the last iPad, I’d use it for years.

My first Ultra Music Festival was 8 years ago in 2004. I was just out of high school and the only electronic dance artist I knew of was BT (Brian Transeau). I went and had a great time. Now, many years later, I invited Ben Hughes to go along with me. We had a great time and here are a few photos.

Apologies on the quality of these photos. Ultra has chosen drugs over cameras and doesn’t allow detachable lens cameras anymore. My camera is included but I snuck by with my 20mm fixed lens for my Olympus E-PL2. Every photo was taken without any zoom capabilities and this is the best I could do. Enjoy and I look forward to going next year.

Thanks for checking out these photos. The entire Flickr set is available here. I can’t wait for next year.

The first time I attended UMF in Miami was in the Spring of 2004. The festival lasted one day and attendee demographic was far different from its 2012 version that comprises of three days with more attendees that I could have ever imagined. Each year, Ultra’s organizers post rules for attendees on their website. Here they are:

Use of the Ticket constitutes agreement to the Terms of Purchase as well as the following terms: The ticket is a revocable license to the specific seat and for the time listed on the front thereof. Management reserves the right, without the refund of any portion of the ticket purchase price, to refuse admission or to eject any person who fails to comply with the rules of the venue. No refunds/exchanges. The ticket user assumes all risks of personal injury incidental to the event, whether occurring prior to, during, or subsequent to the event, and holder voluntarily agrees that the management, venue/facility, league or team, artist(s) performing, participants, participating clubs, UltraMusicFestival, Festival Productions, MXT, LLC., TicketJunkie, LLC., Ultra Enterprises Inc., the Event Promoter, Event Sponsors and all of their respective agents, officers, directors, sub-contractors, owners and employees are expressly released from any claims arising from such causes. Ticket purchaser/user bears all risks of inclement weather. Tickets lost or stolen can not be replaced. Event time and date is subject to change. The resale or attempted resale of a ticket at a price higher than that appearing thereon is prohibited and if discovered will result in the ticket being voided without refund. The ticket may not be used for advertising, promotion (including contests and sweepstakes) or other trade purposes without the express written consent of the artist and promoter (“Artist”). The use of cameras, video, or audio recording equipment is prohibited unless otherwise indicated by the venue, artists, or promoter of the event. If audio recording of the show is permitted, it is only to the extent and for the uses allowed under the Artist’s taping policy. The ticket user consents to Artists and their affiliate use of his or her image or likeness incidental to any video display, transmission or recording of the event. Avoid litter; please respect the venue and the environment.

WARNING: EXCESSIVE EXPOSURE TO LOUD MUSIC WILL DAMAGE YOUR HEARING.

WARNING: The first person to enter the venue with a Print At Home or other hard ticket is the only person admitted by the ticket. Therefore do not share or duplicate the ticket, guard it like cash. Price includes applicable sale and use taxes and any cash discounts.

The camera policy is actually unchanged from the last few years. Simply put, Ultra doesn’t allow any recording devices or cameras. Of course, with Smartphone cameras achieving 8 megapixels and very capable sensors, the rule is nearly impossible to enforce. I still think we’re a decade away from photos worth sharing from a device that also functions as a phone. Still, many attendees did have cameras with them. Thousands of people brought dedicated cameras to Ultra this year with the majority of those being point & shoot models. These are fixed lens pocket cameras  with usually a small aperture, minimal zoom capabilities and nonexistent or impossible to use manual photo modes. However, nearly every camera I saw was fully capable of recording HD video. In the past, attendees tried and failed at taking photos of their favorite acts because both the cameras and the operator of those cameras didn’t have the basic skills to take a great photo. Taking great photos is not easy. Every time I see a camera flash go, I know that photo won’t be as great as it could be. This year, video was the primary capture. YouTube is huge and Facebook supports HD uploads and even $99 cameras record in 720P so it’s a natural choice that video be the preferred capture. I also saw about 1 out of 25 cameras being SLRs with a few cases of individuals with multiple lenses and flash-diffusers despite there being no wrist-band on the person indicating press or an Ultra employee. I have no idea how SLRs made it into Ultra over and over again.

So, what we had at Ultra 2012 is roughly half of the attendees using camera-phones to take photos and videos and another 25% using dedicated cameras with the majority of that quarter opting for video. Now, the landscape for monetizing photos is not simple. I doubt many UMF attendees are going to monetize the photos but video is a different story. If a video at Ultra does well, YouTube will ping the content creator to monetize it and many opt for it. What’s a few extra bucks, right? I believe video recording is the single biggest threat to UMF’s bottom line because I realize that their rules only apply to things they can monetize.

• No cameras
• No outside food or beverages
• No outside merchandise like glow-sticks

My very simplified guess is that if drugs were legalized and Ultra had a way to sell those drugs, then they’d actually care about keeping drugs from getting in. Maybe I should step back a bit.

On Friday, I showed up to Ultra with an Olympus E-PL2. It’s a Micro Four-Thirds camera from early 2011. I had with me a quarter-inch long 20mm non-zoom pancake lens and a 14-42 f/3.5 stock lens in my pocket measuring 1.5 inches in length.. The 20mm was on the camera around my neck. The officer felt my shorts, pulled out the lens and directed me to the exit.

“This lens is too long” he says.

An hour later, I make it back to Ultra with my 20mm still attached and get in. The photos aren’t great given the fixed lens but the f/1.7 aperture does help as it gets dark.

On Saturday, I show up with my friend Ben. He has his Canon 70D and I believe a stock lens with a max focal point of 135mm. He puts both in his pocket detached and gets in fine. I go up next with my 45-200mm attached to my pocketable Four-Thirds camera that looks like a Canon G12 and am directed to the exit.

“No Detachable lenses” he says.

An hour later, I show up with my just my 20mm again and get in fine.

On Sunday, I just gave up. Ben had luck getting in on Saturday but didn’t push his luck again because the walk to and from our hotel is brutal. So, I just did my 20mm and dealt with it.

Camera policies are never simple. Those checking aren’t reading Amazing and DPReview religiously to find out what cameras do what and what you should allow into events like this. I get it that you won’t allow professional cameras. This is for the sole purpose of eliminating the chances of attendees profiting from images captured at Ultra. There is no other reason. Approved media and UMF photo staff are responsible for producing high-quality images. Attendees are not. “let the kids post over-exposed crap to Facebook. Whatever.”

I am not all that bent out of shape about UMF’s constantly changing photo policies that differ by year, day and by who checks your pockets. I’m most annoyed with the fact that illegal drugs are being used by the majority of attendees and Ultra does absolutely nothing to circumvent this use.

I’m not against drugs. I don’t use drugs but I’m not about intruding into someone else’s lifestyle. However, for the sake of this post, the policy on cameras and a guy bringing in a water bottle as being grounds for being shown the door are insane when you consider that thousands of kids from 12 to 25 are getting high out of their minds, often with very negative consequences at an event many parents consider to be safe and with reliable security. UMF is an all ages event.

My sister who turns 16 in July wanted to join me this year. She has a great camera I gave to her used. It has a 24x zoom and a pretty long lens and she can use it pretty well. I told her not to go because I can’t keep an eye on her and I trust she won’t buy drugs from strangers but I am not ready for her to be opened to the world of various drugs uses. Just this year, at age 25, I learned what “Molly” was and why kids wore sunglasses when doing it and what those crazy finger light gloves are for people wear. I’m 25 and she’s 16. I’m not ready for her to learn about those things.

However, I can’t help but laugh because my statement to her should be, “Sorry, you can’t go to Ultra. It’s not because of all of the drugs. UMF doesn’t care about those. It’s just your camera. You see, it’s too big and they don’t like big cameras. Here’s some ecstasy to start you off and $50 to buy some pot when you get through the doors. Have fun little sister.”

This is the issue I have. I have two requests of UMF that I believe will settle this matter once and for all.

• Be abundantly clear about rules and policies BEFORE Ultra starts as in a few months before. If there’s a camera zoom max, state that. If there’s a maximum lens length, also state this. If you have a megapixel max, please disclose it.
• Crack down on drugs use. Get rid of drugs to the best of your ability.

I saw a few undercover cops doing busts on guys selling drugs but most uniformed officers just stood around while pot smoke and wobbly legged teens passed right by them. This is absolutely absurd that you allow thousands of kids who can’t even buy cigarettes to trip balls for 3 days straight without their parents knowing. I spoke to a parent on my flight today. She saw me editing photos of UMF and said, “my son just went to that.” I promptly informed her the majority of kids that go do drugs. She was legitimately pissed off. “I paid $300 for a ticket and they allow people to sell drugs inside?” If parents knew how much drugs use happened at Ultra, you’d suffer a major drop in attendance. A large number of attendees are Miami locals and teens that have nothing to do that weekend and decide to go to UMF. You facilitate drug use and sometimes these are first time drug users. I hope you feel proud.

I have the money and resources to buy a camera that fits within Ultra’s specifications and I’ll produce exceptional photos at least considering that I am NOT an expert and am merely a hobbyist when it comes to taking pictures. I do it for fund and would love to show up at the gates each day with a camera that falls within your rules. Limiting us to detachable lens cameras is fine. A Canon G1X and Canon S100 will get me through Ultra and both are fixed lens cameras. Nikon now has a f/1.8 camera that fits in your back pocket. Camera technology is at an all time high if you have the resources to buy new cameras. I do and am sick of being turned away when you never really state what’s allowed and what’s not.

More people attending Ultra are monetizing video shot on their camera phones than photos taken with their friends SLR they borrowed that has flash-enabled and is on the Auto mode all day. Truly define what you want from us and we’ll comply. As for the drug use, I’m ashamed to promote this event every year. Do you realize that March is the largest traffic month all year for me. My page views jump 500% in March with thousands and thousands of Google results coming from this search term and hundreds of variations:

“How to buy drugs at Ultra Music Festival”

I hope you’re proud of your contributions to society. You facilitate drugs to teenagers. Great work.

I have been working on something new. For the last 2 years, this has been brewing and I’m finally ready to talk about it publicly beyond just friends. It’s important that we spend time on something before taking on a role of the storyteller. I’m not an expert in anything but I try to reserve opinions for things that I’ve spent a significant time of research and real-life experience. It’s time to do this with beer. Today, I’m announcing Adam’s Beer Blog.

I’ve never been a fan of Budweiser or Coors or Miller. At the very least, I drank Newcastle, Guinness and Stella Artois when I was becoming aware of beer. For the first 6 months, I drank those brands and then had Heineken at times when those beers weren’t available. Then, I moved to California and started going to bars that carried other beverages. Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head were the first craft beers that I enjoyed. I still enjoy Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Dogfish Head 60 Minute and prefer them over almost every beer. I drank craft beer from age 21 to 23 but then, in August of 2010, at age 23 (going on 24), I I wanted to celebrate at a bar and saw a Sierra Nevada beer but it wasn’t pale ale. It was 30th Anniversary Stout and it was $20. I was excited and ordered it. It was my first corked beer and the first beer large enough to share with a friend. Things had changed and I started trying bigger beers.

For the last year and a half, I’ve explored the beer world. In May of last year, I went to Belgium and had beer that changed everything. “Wait, Europeans have great beer too!??!” and I started exploring Belgian beers.

It has been one year since my last Belgium trip and I’m going back again this May. I’ve had over 400 unique beers in the last year and 250 in the last 3 months. In January, I began reviewing beer online via RateBeer and planning road trips around buying beer. I’ve traded beer with 40 people since February 1st and have 300 beers in my temperature controlled cellar.

It’s time to go all-in.

Starting last week, I launched a sub-blog to this one. It shares this design minus a few tweaks and has its own RSS feed. Adam’s Beer Blog is live and I’d like to share the purpose of the blog and the format for content.

I’ll post when I feel like posting and will be the only author. Here’s what you can expect as far as content:

• Beer Reviews. I’ll review cheap beers to pricey ones. Some beers I review will only be bottled 500 times and others will be bottled in the millions.
• Beer Videos. I’ll share videos of me drinking beer and wine and events that I attend. I’ll also produce short videos while traveling if the travel involves beer
• Beer Opinions. I’ll post my thoughts on beer trends, styles and other miscellaneous beer related news
• Beer News. If an event is worth talking about or a beer release is worth knowing about, I’ll talk about it.
• Beer Photos. I’ll take photos and post them. If you like my photography, expect some nice photos posted there

That’s the basic premise of this new blog. I’d be honored if you could check it out and add the blog to your news reader. This has been a project brewing in my mind for years and I’m happy to bring it to life.

http://adam-jackson.net/beer

http://feeds.feedburner.com/adamsbeerblog

This post is for everyone but mostly for GadgetDon who is a friend that I’ve known for 9 years and is an expert in such matters and took my tweets earlier the wrong way. I still encourage everyone to read it.

Apple on March 7th:

Customers can begin pre-ordering their new iPad today

Apple on March 19th:

Apple® today announced it has sold three million of its incredible new iPad®, since its launch on Friday, March 16.

In typical fashion, the bloggers and big-media echo Apple’s statement by saying that Apple sold 3 million iPads in 3 days. This is untrue. From an accounting point of view, yes it is an accurate claim but in the literal sense, it’s not.

March 7th at some point in the afternoon, Apple.com’s Online Store allowed customers to Pre-Order the devices. Their cards weren’t charged until a week later when the iPads left the warehouses around the world. Most cards were charged on Tuesday the 13th and iPads were delivered on Friday the 16th. Most bloggers will claim that Apple sold 3 million iPads in 3 days. Actually, iPads were reserved or pre-ordered on the 7th so that makes for a full 15 days of iPad sales and this is important as I believe the 3 million number would not be reached in only 3 days.

It makes sense that March 7th was the 1st or 2nd largest sales day for iPad followed by Friday the 16th when iPad arrived at Apple’s Retail Stores, Best Buy, Wal*Mart and other retailers. Customers still opt to purchase the device in person and some of the general public didn’t know a new iPad was out until it officially went on sale on the 16th and then jumped online to make orders. It also helps that the 16th was pay-day for some of America.

Regardless of the 16th possibly being the biggest sales day from a viewpoint of literal moving of products, the key here is that for 13 days prior to the 16th, millions of people went to Apple.com and pressed a button indicating their intention to purchase a product.

The argument here is that Apple “sold” 3 million in 3 days because that’s when units ended up in customer’s hands. I’m not fighting this fact. My argument is that half of the orders potentially came prior to the 16th when customers filled out their credit card info and clicked “Order” on Store.Apple.com for a new iPad.

I believe those same customers would have ended up buying an iPad maybe on launch day and maybe afterward but I don’t believe the 3 million number figure would have been achieved had their not been such a long lead time to release date.

3 million people absolutely would not have purchased an iPad starting Friday the 16th and ending Monday the 19th for a few reasons:

• Let’s account for a few hundred thousand that came from people going to Apple.com to buy an iPad realizing a new one is out. Yes, this is a REAL customer case.
• Also, Apple Stores had signs promoting the new iPad before the ship date and online email marketing and Apple.com having new iPad ads that customers saw and withheld their purchase of a new iPad OR sold / saved for the new iPad over the course of 15 days such as not buying a new purse or watch and instead saving for or pre-ordering an iPad

I think the last bullet is multi-leveled but I think you get the point. My point is I believe the number sold would be half of 3 million had Apple not allowed orders until Friday the 16th online OR you can wait in line to get it that day.

Of course, Apple wouldn’t do this. why make people wait to hand over credit card info? There’s no point. That’s fine and, as far as their press release goes, they’re legally obligated to say 3 million were “sold” in 3 days because the device wasn’t on sale until the 16th. However, media should be held to a standard that means they include this details that the iPad was available for pre-order as of March 7th. My one reason for this and I’m sure there are more.

Casual investors see 3 million in 3 days and think this is a gigantic number. It is. I’m not saying it’s not. The importance of journalists and bloggers saying the iPad was available for pre-order 13 days + 3 days and thus the 3 million sold is higher than it would have been if Apple has only listed the iPad for sale for 3 days and not 15. “Sale” is a term I’m not trying to redefine but “Order” is. 3 million were ordered in 15 days and this should be what is printed because it’s just more accurate versus 3 million sold in 3 days.

I’m not ignoring the fact that the iPad ordering online via Apple.com showed “ships in 2-3 weeks” 4 days after the iPad pre-orders were open (around March 11th). This means, those customers that ordered still haven’t received their iPad so, 3 million in 15 days could actually be twice as high if Apple were able to make enough iPads to keep ship times at March 16th for all who entered their credit card info.

So, I’m not an Apple hater by saying 3 million in 15 isn’t amazing. I’m saying that Apple sold 3 million in 3 days but technically it’s 15 days and just swap out “sold” for “customers ordered” and you’ll see my point

I’m wearing a short sleeve shirt today and riding around the mountains with the sun roof open. I even opened the back window so Goomba could get some fresh air for the first time in a car since October. We received a few inches of snow this week but it’s melting pretty fast and the roads are clearing up. We’ll keep getting snow through May but the heavy stuff is over with. Spring is here and that means preparing for the very short summer. Summer is usually spent preparing for the gruesome 6-8 month winter so we take summer seriously up here. It’s a great time of year. In truth, I’m most thrilled about being able to wash my car out in the back yard while Elizabeth and Goomba play. I’ll get to sleep and live with my windows wide open letting in the breeze freely move through the cabin. It’s going to be awesome.

The biggest cause for excitement is expanding my little farm a bit. This year, I’m going to go all out. Last year was alright. I had a dozen chickens and planted some crops. Unfortunately, the crops didn’t do to well only half of the chickens were still laying. It was my first year so, of course I had some improvements to make.

——-

Chickens, Ducks, Turkeys and Pigs!

On Friday, I’ll be ordering 10 chickens from a local hatchery. They’ll arrive and be ready for pickup the 2nd week of April. You can order day-old chicks but you risk losses of some of them and I’m not very experienced yet. These I’m ordering are 7-weeks old just shy of laying and I’ll move them into their new home, the chicken coop and pick up some fresh hay for them. This is exciting. Elizabeth and I are still deciding which kind of chickens to get. Here are a few of the options available at the local store. In addition to the chickens, I’ll be getting 2-3 Indian Runner ducks. They are quite adorable and lay eggs but they don’t nest too well so they just drop eggs around the yard. The plan is to let them live in the coop with the chickens and some backyard farmers claim that the chickens teach the ducks how to roost properly. I think that’s pretty funny and will be interesting to see first-hand.

In addition to chickens and ducks, I’m debating getting a turkey. It’s unknown to me how I’ll keep it though. How will I keep it from running away? Do I have to build ANOTHER pen to hold it in with shelter? That’s pretty expensive but I’d love to grow my own turkey for Thanksgiving. Plus, I can use the additional compost for next year’s garden. The turkey is still being researched. One thing is for sure, I don’t want any male birds this year. Male birds are just impossible to deal with and have almost no meat on them. They’re aggressive and mean and territorial so no males for me. The thing about turkey now that I think about it is that there are tons of turkey around wild. They’re in my yard almost all of September. Killing my own wouldn’t be that hard out of a flock but I need to check local laws. We’ll see what happens with this idea…

Finally, I’m going to get some pigs. Laugh it up but I think this is awesome. Piglets run about $75 and you put up some reinforced fencing about 20×10 feet of space and they’ll root around in the dirt and make it a muddy mess. You can feed them scraps but ideally, you feed them actual feed from the store. They grow to about 280 pounds in a year but can live for 3 years if you wanted to do that. The plan is that I get two pigs just in case one doesn’t make it or gets sick but if two do make it, one we’ll just slaughter and clean up on the property and do a pig roast. Anyone who hasn’t done this, you’re just digging a big pit and filling it with charcoal or wood and cooking the whole pig. The second one I’ll be sending off to a  butcher and I’ll get about 120 pounds of meat. A local Vermont blogger did the math already (these are 2005 grain prices)

Here’s the math: If you’re pen raising them figure on:
$125 for 800 lbs of grain per pig for the feed. Grain prices have been shooting up so beware that those are 2005 Vermont bag prices – adjust for your time and place.

$65 for a piglet

$35 slaughter

$65 for butchering (40¢/lb based on hanging weight of 180 lbs = ~250 lb live weight)

and what ever costs you have for the pen.

$290 or more in total

So $290 abouts not including maybe $100 for the pen. The investment goes down next year of course given I have the pen going. So, this year, Chickens, ducks and pigs and possibly a turkey. EXCITING! The primary reason I want to do the pigs is I want to get into curing meat. I’d like to attempt to do 50 pounds of cured meat that hangs in my enclosed porch all winter and even further. I’ve read a few guides and it would be cool to do a ham and some bacon cured. This started as an interesting way to experience what it was like before refrigeration was so accessible. Now, I find it almost necessary since I can’t store an entire 120 pound pig in my single freezer along with a turkey, ducks and 10 chickens. Given my small storage space and not wanting to buy a standing freezer, curing half of the pig would be cool and a good experiment. Some locals bag up their meat tightly and put it in the river behind their house. It keeps the meat cold and eventually freezes with the temperature dropping so fast. Anyway, I’m just rambling now.

——-

Expanding the Garden in my backyard!

I failed pretty hard with my garden last year. The starting issue was the depth of the soil. We built a raised garden and it was not very high for some of the taller plants like corn who need very deep roots. We’ll be doubling the height this year. Second of all, I had my neighbor get some soil for me. We didn’t till the existing soil and just put top soil on top of it….That soil was full of rocks. It was cheap $20 per truck load soil. This was dumb of me so we’re doing it better this year.

• Higher raised garden
• Better soil
• More soil
• Adding compost

I’ve been composting starting with the chicken manure last year so I have a lot more fertile elements to add to the soil this year and renting a till for a day will certainly improve oxidation of the soil and yield to better crops.

Another mistake I made was planting seeds in the ground later than I was supposed to so plants that have a long growing cycle didn’t fully mature before our fall set in where temps can hit freezing in October. So, we planted in May and had to harvest in late August and it was not enough time. This year, I’m going to germinate all of my plants indoors. I have picked up a few organic pots that I’ll be planting all of the crops in top soil and sitting on the window sill in the sun. So, from late March to end of April, that’ll be 4-5 weeks of germination and, following our last freeze, I’ll plant those bio-organic pots directly into the soil. I’ve also picked out a fancy irrigation system that will ensure the plants get water on days that I’m traveling. University of New Hampshire has some terrific guides on gardening that I’ve been reading.

What am I planting this year? Corn of course and maybe pumpkins. I want to do tomatoes, onions, potatoes and various pees along with peppers. Cabbage, kale and lettuce are a given and maybe other greens. My garden is about 30 feet by 15 feet so it’s pretty large and can hold enough vegetables to get me through the winter if canned and if I get a fully successful growing season. Let’s just hope we don’t get monsoon rain like we did last year. We got so much rain last year, my garden was a puddle for most of July.

So, last year, I got string beans, tomatoes and some peppers but that’s it and the plants that were successful were mostly the ones that I bought pre-germinated from the nursery. The things I planted myself didn’t do too well. We’ll fix that this year

Also, I planted about 5 wild Blackberry plants along the river last summer. Around this time, the animals that walk around and drink from my river will start to catch on to the blackberry bushes and help spread the old and dried up seeds around. So, maybe not this year but next year, I’ll have a few wild blackberry bushes to eat from. I know they can spread like wildfire and I say BRING IT ON! I have 5 acres so an acre of blackberry bushes sounds good to me. I can eat those things 3 meals a day.

——-

Beer Brewing!

In April, I’m picking up all of the parts needed to brew my own beer. That way, by June I’ll be drinking beer on tap in my home kegerator that I brewed myself. It’s about $100 to get started with parts and $40 in ingredients. Then, I have to build a kegerator and enjoy great beers. There are a lot of brewing groups up here to help me get started. I’ll talk more about this in April once I have everything setup.

——-

Roasting my Coffee Beans

Coffee is a huge passion of mine. A simple popcorn popper and some raw green beans by the pound from various websites and you can fresh roast your own beans. the investment is beans + $100 popcorn machine and I can begin roasting beans once a week and it’ll be a lot of fun. I need to do more research but it’s a big one and something I really want to take on and do. Growing coffee isn’t possible up here which is a bummer or I’d take that up as well.

——-

I think it’s important to become more self-sufficient. I wish one day to live completely off the grid free of utilities and the needs of a grocery store. Internet connection of course is essential. Everything else is not. Of course, saving my own seeds and breeding animals is essential for truly being sufficient out here and then there’s growing grain for the pigs and chickens but I guess I want to try to be a little more extreme each year. I’m failing more than succeeding but to have these skills is an exceptionally rich way of life and something I hope to pass on to my children. Respecting and appreciating what we put into our bodies and knowing the source is best when the source is your own back yard.

I’m so happy for spring. The trees will be green soon, the snow will be melting and I’ll be out in my yard every day growing my own food. It’s a beautiful thing and a remarkable thing. So, that’s the update. The snow is melting and I’m a happy man.

All of the iPad chatter this week was less about the specs of this new tablet. Everyone seemed convinced that Apple’s choice to simply call it, “The new iPad” was both strange and wonderful. Haters and fans came out to express their opinion. Apple doesn’t call it new “The new iPad” because everywhere I look in the places that matter, it’s being referred to as “iPad 3rd Generation”

Source. Store.Apple.com

I’ll post an update once the official Apple Support documents are published for iPad 3 but it’s not “Thew new iPad” and no one at an Apple Store will correct you if you call it that.

Macworld 2007

It was in 1999 that I started a blog on LiveJournal. It’s still out there and was a personal ramblings site similar to this. In 2002, I launched another site on Blogger. It was about technology. I was a terrible writer. In 2003, I began writing for a few sites that would have me. Most of those sites are now defunct. I wrote about Apple and mostly did product reviews. I was 16. This was a great honor. I finally purchased my first domain name in 2003, MyPersonalGetaway and it was only about Apple. I had a few friends help out with news and writing. I’m in debt to them. They helped me get my first advertiser and fund my first trip to San Francisco where my life was altered forever. In 2006, I moved to a proper domain name, DailyTechTalk.com and began branching out. I added ResoluteOpinion, MacworldBound and AdamandLauraGoWest. You could buy ad space all across all of the sites and I had writers and friends helping as they could and I even paid them for posts.

Then, I realized it was time to go back to basics. I had a full time job and couldn’t run 4 websites. So, I registered this blog and condensed everything to one page. It’s been a terrific experiment. Here, I average just 11,500 page views a month with around 4,000 uniques. I write about anything and everything. The site’s traffic has sat stagnant for the last 12 months in spite of my daily musings. Humans don’t like zeitgeist style writing from one person across many topics. I started this blog in January of 2009. Just over 3 years later, I’d like to launch a 2nd blog. I think I’m ready for this. The past 13 years of daily blogging has taken me here and it’s time to get serious.

Just like you don’t tune to Comedy Central for drama or read The New Yorker for the weather, you don’t read a man’s personal blog for technology news even if it’s in there periodically at times when he feels like writing about tech.

On the day of Steve’s passing, a seed was planted. I felt as if I half-assed my commitment to Apple. Buying products and camping out at stores is easy. Sharing my insight and opinions on the world of Apple has become 2nd nature but delivering those insights in a meaningful way has been missed since 2006 when I launched DailyTechTalk and wrote generally about technology with a bit of Apple mixed in. It’s time to go all-in on Apple in a way that matters.

————–

Let’s discuss what I want to do:

• Launch a weblog that I own and have editorial control over.
• The name will be so geeky that it makes you giggle just thinking about it (announcement soon)
• The blog will receive at least one post each day on weekdays that is a link + commentary
• I will author at least one editorial each week but there’s nothing stopping an additional post or two if I have free time
• I will interview people and companies who are creating things. Designers, developers and bloggers and the people shaping the future will be invited to speak with me and share their ideas.
• I will provide reliable live-blogs to Apple events, sometimes in person and other times through an in-person proxy at the event.
• The blog will be written from the perspective of a geek who lived in San Francisco but isn’t there anymore. Someone who sees things outside of the echo chamber
• The goal is to be pro-Apple and have a bias because I admit that I’m not a journalist but I use both Windows and Macintosh and will always offer a devil’s advocate analysis of the landscape with the “other side” perspective
• Rarely will I publish breaking news. Breaking news is mostly inaccurate and full of fluff. The goal is to publish meaningful editorials of announcements with my personal opinion and that of others.
• There will be giveaways
• There will be advertisements
• There might be a weekly podcast with guests. This would come later, of course.

I respect what today’s independent Apple-centric bloggers are doing. They keep things small, they collaborate, they are quick and honest in their analysis of events and they provide a big picture view of things. As a blogger, I see some issues with most of the independent Apple-centric bloggers. I’ll write this once but don’t expect me to revisit it:

• Support Apple unconditionally no matter what they do
• Make fun of and play a very elitist card to non-Apple supporters
• Call bullshit on people who disagree with them
• Rally their troops to attack anyone who disagrees with them
• Use very SEO optimized blog articles to game the system and post articles quickly to get links from Google as news breaks
• Ignore Apple’s competition
• Pageview Back Scratching. This is a big one. There are a lot of bloggers who are a member of a small group of high profile advertising networks. It’s coincidence that these bloggers who share an ad-network also link to each other’s posts at a double digit margin compared to non-ad-network bloggers. I see this happen a lot and it’s disappointing that a group of 12 guys share traffic and rarely link to blogs outside of the network.

So, my goal is simple. Soon, I’ll be launching a blog. It’s very exciting. I’d love your help! Here’s what I need specifically:

• Designer
• WordPress Developer
• Suggestions for Virtual Machine hosting with a host that can add server capacity on the fly
• Podcasting Support & Advice
• Applications for columnists. I won’t have regular writers but I’d love to have weekly or monthly columnists that are paid per post.
• Blog name suggestions (I have one but I’m up for any additional input)
• T-Shirt Designer
• Motion Graphics Designer for Video Specials
• General Thoughts and Ideas

I’d like to launch this in the next 60 days. It’s a lofty goal but I’m already drafting a lot of ideas. i have Tristan Mace who is my designer / developer but he’s an expensive yet talented guy. Others feel fee to apply. You can reach me at Adam@adam-jackson.net. I could attempt to do this all myself but that’s not any fun and I think involving all of you is the best way to help this blog become a success. Will you join me?

I’m excited about this and I hope you are as well. Let’s build something together. Thanks and goodnight.

via the March 2012 issue of BeerAdvocate Magazine:

Join the Discussion!

Let’s be honest. Lately, there’s been a lot of negativity in the beer world. Much of this is due to the vocal minority distracting  communities like BeerAdvocate.com and others. With their strong and frequently exercised voices, their din can often discourage others and make it difficult for more positive feedback to be heard. Pair that with the freedom to spew anonymous nonsense on the internet, and it can be brutal. And it gives the rest of us beer geeks a bad rap.

Time and time again, we’ve heard from both consumers and brewers alike: “I don’t get involved in discussion because of all of the negativity.” And we think that sucks. We need more voices in the discussion. Consumers, brewers and everyone else in the industry. We need all of you to be heard!

Here are some simple tips:

• Don’t be shy. You’re online. Engage people. Ask a question. Post an opinion. Reply to someone.
• Change the tide. Tired of negative posts? Post something fun, positive or thought provoking that rises above the BS. The general mood of an online community is often dictated by its users.
• Ignore the negativity. Block it out. Don’t respond.
• And if you can’t resist replying, don’t be antagonistic.
• It’s beer. Relax!

It’s hard for me to not take this as a response to my post last month. I posted an article entitled: “BeerAdvocate.com and How a Community Site Should be Operated” and it received over 5,000 views in the last 30 days with most of the traffic coming from private messages on Beer Advocate followed by Google.com searches and finally online mail clients like Gmail and Yahoo! mail. Not only was this a sticky post the resonated with current and former Beer Advocate users. It was also a post that inspired those users to share the post with others.

To my thoughts about this post being about me, the Bros would probably say, “Don’t flatter yourself!” and they are right. In fact, there are dozens of tweets and posts each month from BA users made anonymously around the Internet venting about how poorly the BA forum is operated because they’re too afraid to post with their real names in fear of their account being removed. Anonymity stems from two angles and each of them come down to fear. There’s fear of what you saying will have an affect in some way on your real identity such as job loss, embarrassment or your words affecting something of yours.

The readers of this blog know I hate anonymity. It’s something that should be abolished and we should be handed out national ID cards that link usernames to our real identities so we are held accountable for our actions. It’s why I posted the above linked post on this blog while my BA username was “AdamJackson” and was quickly deleted after I posted it. I believe in attaching my name to things because standing up for what is right is bullshit if you do it behind a mask.

So, the letter wasn’t for me and I’m fine with that. I’m a nobody. However, I see some very big holes in the letter written for this month’s BA Magazine. As always, I write this with little distaste, anger or conflicts. I write this as a person who has managed communities for the past 10 years and cares deeply about how the Alström brothers are piece by piece destroying the community that pays their bills.

———-

Much of this is due to the vocal minority distracting  communities like BeerAdvocate.com and others

What “others”? are you speaking of? If you truly believed in a free-flow of information in the beer world with true beer advocacy, you’d mention your competition. Other players in the Beer community welcome talk about Beer Advocate and link to BA on many occasions if the time is right and it’s necessary. However, you never acknowledge “others” and remove posts to your site that reference “others”. I believe this statement was written so you didn’t sound like a complainer for having very vocal users on your site because I’ve spent significant time in the last month on “others” and found there is no vocal minority causing any distractions.

their din can often discourage others and make it difficult for more positive feedback to be heard

Outside of BeerAdvocate.com, sure. This sort of talk can discourage and dampen the mood of the beer community. However, in the 25 days I was a member of BeerAdvocate, I never saw a negative tone from a vocal minority work to din the community. This is because any hint of criticisms from the longest and most loyal users was quickly removed and the user punished in a very severe manner. You see a lot of these posts but most of us don’t. All we hear is whispers about people that got banned and it’s a mystery as to why.

Pair that with the freedom to spew anonymous nonsense on the internet, and it can be brutal

Integrate Facebook Connect into BeerAdvocate.com. Moderation efforts would drop considerably. As for anonymous chatter on the web, this comes with the territory. If no one hates you, you’re doing something wrong. If you guys are able to work on BA full time and pay bills, there will always be people who bitch like me. However, ignoring this feedback is incorrect. You don’t have to take everyone’s advice but hearing people out is good since your income lives and dies by the community that logs into BA each day.

Don’t be shy. You’re online. Engage people. Ask a question. Post an opinion. Reply to someone.

As long as the engagement is in line with very tight and undocumented laws imposed by 3 people with no professional experience in community management outside of BA.

Change the tide. Tired of negative posts? Post something fun, positive or thought provoking that rises above the BS.

I did that once as documented in my last post about BA. I replied to a shrinking threaded conversation because it was late, we were all drunk and having fun. I was banned for a day and called “childish” by Todd.

And if you can’t resist replying, don’t be antagonistic.

“Antagonistic: Def. Showing or feeling active opposition or hostility toward someone or something.” I’m pretty sure calling my actions childish in public was an antagonistic move on your part. I’m over it but if I wasn’t so accustomed to anonymous haters online, I would have taken a lot more offense to your statement. Breaking one of your own rules is deeply discouraging because how can you expect others to take this up?

———-

As I said in my last post, it’s NOT an easy job running a community site. The response to my post in delivering very open and honest critiques that were published with my full first and last name from the Brothers was to permanently delete my account and IP ban me from the site forever. Your decision to do that was one I will never forget was the most poor way to handle a paying member who posted legit criticisms with feedback on how to handle things better. You saw a book on community management on the bookshelf that listed you as a poor example with feedback and your response was to light the entire book shelf on fire. To handle things this way is childish. Call me antagonistic if you’d like and ask me to ignore your negativity toward my very open and sincere feedback and ban my account after asking me to not be shy and actively engage with the community and this shows you are handling things in an entirely hypocritical way.

I would love to consult with you guys unpaid in order to set things straight. You don’t have to apply anything I tell you but I believe your actions are putting huge cracks in the community and I’d like to help. I don’t want my account back but I truly believe in BA as a beer advocacy site that does great things for the beer community. Maybe you can prove to us that you believe in the voices of users despite how critical their feedback might be. If you no longer care about those voices, then maybe it’s time to pass the company on to a team who isn’t so cynical, angry and defensive about a website.

“It’s beer. Relax!”

Exactly.

via Buzzfeed (can’t believe I’m linking to that atrocious site):

When it comes to reviewing a new gadget, all that really matters is the answer to one simple question.

Hilarious compilation of gadget reviews that joke about how a devices feels in their hand. I enjoyed skimming this. It reminds me of this post I did last year:

You know what drives me crazy beyond the sexual lingo around new gadgets? “It feels good in your hand.” There are a few extra ways to put this statement but every new phone feels “great in the hand” and I’m not quite sure what that means. Does that mean it doesn’t electrocute you or hurt? Everything feels good in the hand if you read every review. It’s a weird thing to say.

This has been driving me crazy for years.

★

Since completing a 30-day break from a lot of things, I’ve been too busy to actually write about the experience. I failed on a couple of things. One of those was no meat and another was no beer. I did well but caved in a few days short of my 30-day mark. There are no excuses for this but a lot of people have told me the 30-day mark is fine on one or two things but to give up a dozen things I enjoy for a full month is so intense that it was bound to fail. What’s remarkable is how I never really had any more free time during this break. I managed to fill it with other constructive items. First of all, I blogged more, read more and exercised more. I also went all in on collecting and cellaring beers and that took up a lot of my month. It’s pretty amazing how adding some of my hobbies back into the mix has actually made it harder to write about the detox as now I’m even more busy than before. One thing was important to write and I was reminded of this by a reader who emailed this:

I’ve just read your post about “your tweets” and was wondering.. So when you don’t spend that much time on Twitter, are you still up-to-date? I mean I get almost everything from Twitter: news, interesting things, blog posts, music some people share, apps, etc. How is it living with much less social media?

This was perhaps the most scary thing about closing Facebook, Twitter and other apps and removing them from my devices. I didn’t just commit to abstaining from posting. I abstained from even opening those apps to see what friends were doing. How did I handle this and how did I keep in touch with the world?

One friend suggested I subscribe to a newspaper. I did this while in San Francisco and it was a great way to start my day. Newspapers don’t deliver to my area so I get by with tablet versions of The Times. The thing is, the majority of my news doesn’t come from social media. I selfishly use Twitter and Facebook as broadcast and feedback mechanisms. Social media serves three purposes:

1. Syndication of my Photos, videos and blog posts as well as micro-thoughts that aren’t suitable for long form.
2. Feedback from users on the media I referenced above and answers to questions / problems I have.
3. Analysis of trends using Twitter Search and other search tools for work and personal research

I am not a use-case for the majority of social media users. Twitter has stated that a majority of their accounts have less than 10 tweets. Most of Twitter’s user-base is lurkers who follow other people. Of my 4,000 followers, only a group of about 200 reply on a monthly basis and the 10% do make up 90% of my Twitter replies. For me to use it as syndication tool is very unorthodox.

I will say that just having social media apps uninstalled was difficult to deal with for the first 2 weeks. I wanted to share things or see what a specific friend was up to. This was very difficult to be barred from accessing those services.

The biggest loss was the comfort of not being connected, not the fact that I was missing out on photos of food and drunken rants. I found out about a new Apple announcement hours later instead of immediately after. My life was no worse off with that delay. I still maintained a twice a day review of my RSS feeds which is under 20 RSS feeds around tech and world news. This kept me up to date but I was very careful about what I did read. Another goal was that I don’t read the same news twice even if two sources were reporting a different angle. Also, I would usually read the original press release instead of the blogger’s take on it. I vowed to send less things to Instapaper and books received preference over blog posts. I missed out on a lot of things this month but, as Peter Gibbons from Office Space famously said to the Bobs after being asked, “We see you’ve been missing a lot of work lately.” “I wouldn’t say I’ve been missing it, Bob.”

I missed things but didn’t miss them.

The key takeaway to my break from information overload was a well received dose of perspective. I don’t need to know everything to stay on top of what’s going on in the world. An hour of NPR, a scan of The Times and a twice a day scan of my RSS feeds and I’m good. I’m also debating unfollowing some people on Twitter. For example, Parth Debar is a friend of mine. He’s a smart kid who reminds me of myself of that age. The thing is, I simply can’t stand his tweets following my return to Twitter. He talks about Apple all of the time like it’s all that matters. He makes little puns and jokes about marketshare and stock prices and half-joking remarks about seeing a non-iPad tablet out in the wild and how insane that is. He’s a smart guy and I like talking to him over DM (which requires I follow him) but c’mon man! Enough about Apple. It’s annoying as hell!

There are a lot of guys like Parth. I was one of them but I evolved and now to talk about Apple that much is just depressing. I didn’t realize just how bad it was until I took off for a month and realized how sensational bloggers are at making things up and how insane fanboys are for debating a blog post that some guy came up with in 5 minutes following a press release that was clearly written in 15 minutes. IT’s just too much!

That’s the biggest thing. It’s the curation of content and realizing your time is valuable. That’s what I got out of this. My involvement in social media hasn’t changed as far as the three use-cases I posted above for how I used it in the past. However, my consumption of social media and news has changed in a huge way.

One year ago, I decided to spend $119 and be a part of the growing number of baseball fans who subscribe to a service that provides thousands of games to your television and devices via the web with no commercial breaks and DVR capabilities. It was my way of watching every San Francisco Giants game without any fear of missing out on the action or going through hoops to illegally pirate content. I spent $119 for access to games no matter where I was in the world.

The realities of MLB’s TV service are far different then what is advertised. Let’s go over the great things about MLB.TV. I’m only going to speak on the premium service since that’s what I subscribed to:

• Watch every single live game from Spring Training to End of Regular Season
• Watch games that happened in the past
• Pause, rewind and fast forward games with built-in DVR capabilities
• Games can be views within your web-browser or with dedicated apps that ship on the following platforms:
  • AppleTV
  • iPad
  • iPhone
  • Android
  • Xbox
  • PS3
  • Boxee
  • Roku
  • and more!

You can watch games anywhere as long as there is an Internet connection and that’s pretty awesome. I think the biggest and greatest reason I feel great about paying for a sports service is I become a number that other leagues can pull from. Basically, my paying convinces other groups to create similar services. MLB.TV was first followed by MLS, NBA and now NHL. NFL is the big hold out on an online streaming service. Paying for this shows that there is a market for putting these games online and a market that people will pay for. There are a lot of down-sides to MLB.TV and most of these aren’t the fault of Major League Baseball. The fault lies on groups that demand restrictions. Here are the restrictions MLB keeps in the fine print for Blackouts:

• Blackout Restrictions are a mess. I live in New Hampshire, 3 hours north of Boston yet I can’t watch Red Sox games. The same goes for Northern California and SF Giants / Oakland As games. MLB.TV works for me because I moved away from San Francisco. If I was a Red Sox fan, the service wouldn’t be worth it unless I want to watch the game the next day. Here’s the full Blackout restriction FAQ on MLB.com.
• Saturday games after 1PM are blacked out
• Postseason games are not accessible live. You can pay extra for that I believe or watch them after the game has aired. This is due to TNT / TBS exclusivities (same for Saturday games)
• Oh and that Blackout regions thing also applies to away games. Live in New England and the Red Sox are playing in Texas? It doesn’t matter, the game will still be blacked out.

That’s not all that is wrong with MLB.TV. Here are some more annoyances:

• When I first subscribed, commercial breaks were breaks in the game with a blue screen and you didn’t have to deal with commercials at all. Then, mid-season, I started seeing ads. To start a game, I’d see a minute of ads and a minute during each commercial break. I pay for a service and don’t want to see ads. There’s a workaround. If you use an Apple Devices (AppleTV, iPad, iPhone) you won’t see the ads. That might be different this year. We’ll have to see if they’ve engineered it to work.
• The DVR software sometimes doesn’t work and you must download a special plugin to use it. The plugin doesn’t work in all browsers.

Most of the problems with MLB.TV aren’t decisions made by MLB but their partners, advertisers and tv networks. I understand that but these make for a crummy experience. You can’t watch a local team live and you have to deal with ads.

This year, one major feature was added that I LOVE. At Bat ’2012 for iPad and iPhone are each $15. This is very expensive but, paying this you see live game plays, ball speeds and other stats while the game is going. You can also view highlights. If you subscribe for Audio only or MLB.TV, you can listen to / watch games with DVR functionality. It’s a fantastic application. $15 gets you a lot of great features! For me, I’d have the iPhone App for listening to games in the car and the iPad app I’d use at games or along side my TV as a way to see plays while watching the game live.

The problem with these apps is I’d pay $119 and then $30 in mobile apps. For the first time, MLB is making these companion app available for free to MLB.TV subscribers. AWESOME. This saves $30 for me so I’m stoked about that.

The only thing you have to deal with is that I pay last year’s price, but you pay this year’s price. Previous subscribers are locked in to their original price but, this year’s MLB.TV Premium price is $124.99 (a $5 increase).

Overall, I promised friends I wouldn’t be subscribing this year but I can’t miss out on the San Francisco Giants games so I’m going for another year. The mobile apps being included is a fantastic savings and now the Xbox 360 is supported. You have to love baseball to get this and, if you do, signing up is a no-brainer. Just be warned that if you watch games through a web browser, you’ll have to see a lot of advertisements. That’s my main warning.

You bought tickets to Ultra Music Festival 2012 in Miami! AWESOME! You’ll be joining 150,000 people on a pilgrimage to the greatest music festival in the world and now you just need some tips on getting there and what to expect. I’ve written a few previous guides to Ultra. You can read those if you want:

• Tips for Surviving Ultra Music Festival in Miami
• Why You Should Attend Ultra Music Festival 2011 in Miami
• My Thoughts on Ultra Music Festival 13 in Miami

What I wrote in the past is still very relevant for ravers making their first pilgrimage to Miami for UMF 14. The event takes place March 23rd – 25th at Downtown Miami’s Bayfront Park. Dozens of stages, hundreds of acts and some very expensive beer. Here’s the low-down on Ultra written by someone who has been to the festival 7 times. Talking about Ultra just isn’t as fun until you’ve watched a video. Just when I decide I’ve attended Ultra for the last time, I watch this and realize not going would be INSANITY!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkg3f02dFek&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr6pllT2TVU&feature=related

That’s just the 2nd to largest tent. This festival is MASSIVE and, at this point, the size of it is really just Miami’s zoning, noise ordinances and lack of gigantic public spaces that can hold the tens of thousands of people that storm the gates every day. There have been discussions that UMF would one day leave Miami but, each year, the festival returns home to shake the buildings and we’re all very happy about that. Miami is the best place in the US to have a festival like this. How about some tips?

Getting to Miami:

• This seems pretty easy but I’ll share with you my experiences on getting to Miami on the cheap and efficiently.
• Fly into Ft. Lauderdale. More flights, cheaper flights and the only problem is the ride from FTL to Miami takes about 40 minutes in a shared shuttle bus that costs about $15 each way. You’ll save about $100 on your flight or more and only add about 25 minutes of travel time to your hotel each way.
• Stay in downtown hotels. If you’re in Miami for a full week, spend the first part of the week in South Beach, then move to downtown on Friday. This is huge because each year, I see thousands of people waiting on taxis to take them from downtown back to South Beach. The walk is 5.5 miles on a highway with no sidewalks. It’s a mess and, after dancing for 12 hours, you do NOT want to take that walk. If you do want to party after Ultra after night, SoBe is an option but just know you won’t be able to find a taxi easily.
• Don’t worry about arriving on Thursday. Once again, for those just doing Ultra, the festival starts around 4-5 PM on Friday and the headliners don’t go on until 10PM. You’re fine to hop on an early AM flight and get to Miami around 2PM. Save the night in a hotel and just travel the day of.
• Don’t get a Sunday night flight back home. Use that day you saved by working a full day on Thursday to take Monday OFF. UMF ends at Midnight and even if you can find a 2 AM flight out of Miami, you won’t make it. Get an easy 9AM flight out of Miami and take your time getting home.

Preparing for Miami:

• If you’re like me, March is still considered “Winter” That’s New England for you. Miami can hit highs of 75-80 degrees in March. The low at 7AM might be 50 but it’s usually about 60 and extremely humid. I’m from Florida and love humidity. You’re probably not so here’s what to expect and how to pack.
• Your clothes will stick to you. No, you’re not sweating but the humidity causes clothes to stick and, if your’e a girl, styling your hair will be impossible. Just get a scrunchy and deal with it.
• It’s going to be very hot. Your Ultra uniform should be light and comfortable. Carry only what you need (ID, Insurance card, cash, Ultra ticket). Flip flops seem like a good idea but I’ve had my toenail torn off and my pinky toe broken by people stepping on my feet. Wear comfortable sneakers, shorts and a tank top. If you can pull off a hat, do it. The extra sun protection is great.
• Sunglasses as well as sunscreen are good as well. The problem is, once night-time happens, those sunglasses become useless and you have no lockers to store them while at UMF and there’s no re-entry. So, bring cheap ones. You will probably lose your glasses.
• Prepare to carry nothing with you but, if you must, get an easy to wear purse with a single strap.
• This is Florida. Just bring 3 pairs of “club clothes” if you plan on doing that, then 3 pairs of beach clothes (can also be used at Ultra) and something to sleep in. You’re done.
• It wouldn’t hurt either if you hit the tanning bed before coming down. If you’re not already tan, you stand out pretty bad among the locals. It’s scary.

The Basics to Ultra Music Festival and General Survival tips:

• Ultra does a terrible job at communicating the rules to attendees before the event. If they post rules, follow them but you’re hard-pressed to find them.
• No outside food or drinks
• No nudity but going shirtless once you’re inside is fine (men only)
• No professional cameras which really boils down to no camera lens that is 2-3 inches long. I see plenty of SLRs and DSLRs at Ultra but they won’t let you bring in a long zoom lens unless you’re pre-approved media.
• Camelbacks are fine and they may ask the contents and you just say water. No one has ever tested the Camel-back to make sure it’s not Vodka & red bull
• Purses are fine and so are very small back packs / totes. Expect to be checked if you have a bag and if you have cargo shorts with big pockets
• Rarely do the screeners go far unless you look / act like a total ass. Comply with a request to take off you that and empty your pockets if they ask.
• In all of my years, no screener has asked me to remove my shoes. I’ve heard from friends that keeping drugs in your shoes is your best bet. I don’t do drugs so this is a risk you can take.
• Side-Note: Plain clothes and Uniform Miami Police Department is at Ultra Music Festival. If you are drinking underage or popping pills, you can and will be arrested.

Surviving Ultra Once you get past security:

• You made it past the guys in all yellow and your ticket scanned successfully. Awesome! First stop is to get a wrist-band so you can buy beer. do this first to get it out of the way.
• Buy a bottle of water and drink it down. Trust me on this and you should have been drinking water all morning.
• Grab a schedule and just look at the current time slot and the next. Looking at who’s playing at 11PM won’t help you and you’ll just look at the program 50 times in a day anyway. Look at right now (noon) and 1PM and make sure you know when to move to another tent / stage.
• Take breaks. Every 2 hours, just stop and sit under a tree with some water.
• Don’t be an evil ass and push your way to the stage. You may be a 95 pound girl with cute pink pom pom shoes but EVERYONE you pass hates you with a passion and the fact that you’re pulling 5 girls behind you.
• What’s worse is you getting stuck half-way to the stage and stop in front of me awkwardly because you can’t push forward anymore and prevent like you didn’t just piss off 5,000 people to get here and stop.
• Be responsible. Water is required if your’e going to do drugs. Stop to pee way before it’s an emergency so you can make sure to get to the toilets in time.
• Most importantly, understand you can’t see every artist. You can only see half of the ones you want to see. It’s okay. The same people will be at Ultra next year.

Surviving the Multi-Day Ultra Music Festival Experience:

• You’re in Miami as a tourist or as a local but it’s Miami Music Week so you want to do everything! You want to party till 2 AM at Mansion and then go to another party that goes until 10AM and then get to Ultra at 2PM and party until midnight. The festival is 3 days long. Pace yourself. Here are some tips.
• Attend Ultra and ONLY Ultra. It’s an awesome event. From noon to midnight, you have something to dance to. Chill out at the pool until 11 and then walk over.
• Drink ONLY water. Don’t drink alcohol or red bull. Drink water and you can have some Gatorade as well. When I leave Ultra every night, I walk to a corner store and get a gallon of water, fruits, a protein bar and a gatorade. I inhale it all then go to bed. When I first wake up, I drink 2 glasses of water and get a big breakfast. Failure to do this leads to soreness, nausea and you not wanting to do day 2 or 3 of Ultra
• Take regular breaks. You can’t leave the park and re-enter but you can find a tree to rest under.

Camera Tips (applies to all festivals including Ultra):

• Any camera is fine. Any camera will take photos so don’t go out and buy something expensive your’e just going to drop and cry about
• Don’t use a flash. Under no circumstances do you need to use your camera’s flash at events. Disable it. You’ll waste your battery and have loads of photos of some guy’s head
• Use your iPhone if you want but taking photos / videos while jumping up an down screaming is not how you capture a moment. Doing this just makes it impossible for hundreds of people behind you to see and the result is you get a blurry video if you jumping up and down for 45 minutes
• When it’s time to shoot video or take a photo, stop and separate your self from the crowd and the rhythm. Focus on your subject, zoom and ensure the shot is framed correctly and disable flash and then click the shutter button. Not doing this is just you wasting your time.

Buying Ultra Music Festival 2012 Tickets Online:

• I paid $99 for my tickets. Some people paid $150 and some others paid $300 for their tickets. I believe the highest ticketed rate is $300. Paying more than this is scalping which is illegal in Florida. If someone who is a Florida resident is asking for over $300, setup a time to meet them and then call the police and have them meet that person instead.
• Talk people down on the price. UMF sold out in January so some people will ask for $1000 for a single ticket. Don’t pay this and instead just buy during pre-sale next year which happens in September / October.
• Tickets scanned cannot be rescanned until the next day. If someone says you can meet them and take the ticket for $100 and use it for the 2nd half of the day after they went in, they’re stealing your money. The ticket is useless at that point.
• Don’t post photos of your ticket online. The barcode can be copied and used by someone else and when you show up at the gate, the ticket won’t work.

The price of Food and Drinks at Ultra Music Festival:

Food and drinks are very expensive at Ultra. It’s expensive but you have no choice. Suck it up. The variety is pretty good. Burgers cost $12 and pizza slices cost $10. You can get a turkey leg for $15 and a red bull costs $5-$10 I think. Water was $5 I think but I can’t be sure. Just deal with it because, once you’re in, you can’t leave to eat and come back. Go to subway before going to Ultra and get a huge sandwich. Inhale it and that’ll hold you over until  later in the afternoon.

How to do / get / sneak in drugs at Ultra Music Festival:

This is THE #1 question I get asked the much. I’ve never done drugs before and frankly, I spend a majority of my time getting little kids to the paramedics because the kids overdosed or took ecstasy and didn’t drink anything and passed out. It’s a HUGE problem. My advice is go and enjoy the festival. Don’t do drugs and have a great time. However, people do ask me so I’ll tell you that most people sneak in drugs in their shoes. Having drugs is a good way to trade for food, water and other commodities. I’ve seen drug exchanges ranging from, “I’ll kiss you for x” to “I’ll pay you for X” to “Dude, you got any x I can have?” It’s up to you if you want to do this stuff. Please do it responsibly and don’t turn to me to make sure you don’t die.

That’s it!

See you all in Miami for UMF. I hope this helped.

Keurig Vue System (via):

Brew Stronger. Brew Bigger. Brew Hotter.™The revolutionary Keurig Vue™ Brewer works together with the new Vue™ packs to deliver the ultimate brewing experience.

Fox News:

Green Mountain will begin selling the new Keurig Vue brewers in “coming weeks” for $249.99–more than double the price of its basic Keurig machine. But the machines can brew fancier beverages, with options for cappuccino-like frothy drinks, stronger iced coffee and hotter temperatures.

and

Green Mountain expects the Vue to draw in a higher-end crowd of coffee-drinkers, those who want more options for how their coffee is brewed. But Vue is not trying to be an espresso machine, like Nestle’s pricier Nespresso line, nor does it intend to replace the original Keurig line, Stacy added.

Jtjdt sent this to me because I wrote this post a while back about Keurig machine and the issues with them. I posed a lot of reasons why K-Cups and Keurig are destroying the coffee industry. I’m too busy to really respond to this new machine but I’d like to preface that I’m not a coffee expert. I’m some guy from Florida with a couple of coffee making tools in my house and a passion for taking the time on each cup because I enjoy the taste of well made coffee. That’s really it and I see the threat of K-Cups in many ways.

This machine does a few things

1. Brew stronger coffee
2. Brew different types of coffee-based drinks
3. Brew more coffee per pod but I assume this means the strength isn’t less if you had brewed a smaller cup
4. You also brew the coffee hotter
5. Vue packs are reusable or something of that sort so you’re not just throwing away plastic cups, you’re actually able to reuse them.

Good.

There are still fundamental problems with this system BUT, the arguments I made are mostly moot and I see one things happening that I didn’t write in the last post. That’s the fact that Keurig isn’t truly threatening independent roasters or cafes. Keurig is threatening Mr. Coffee, Folgers and Maxwell House. I believe, after spending a few months heavily entrenched in the beer community, converting someone from Budweiser to Trappist Belgian Ales is a feat that takes place over a few years. However, getting someone to switch from Budweiser to Miller is millions of dollars and a few ads that have girls dancing around in cheerleader outfits.

This argument applies to coffee. Keurig with their Vue system may produce a better cup than Folgers via your Mr. Coffee system and switching to Keurig when Mr. Coffee finally dies and is out of warranty is something a lot of people will do. Those consumers were never going to order $50 worth of fresh beens from Blue Bottle and learn how to make coffee with a Chemex.

Getting angry because someone eats Velveeta cheese, prefers veggies from a can and drinks Bud Lights for that “great taste” is a waste of time. It’s also not class warfare. If I made a third of what I do now, I’d simply drink less beer in order to have better beer. I’d drink less coffee but higher quality and I’d just give up cheese instead of eating the fake stuff. I don’t vote for products with my dollar, I vote for moderation of my products with my dollar. However, the people drinking Mr. Coffee or Keurig could be rich or poor but asking them to stand over a stove and spend 8 minutes pouring a cup of coffee is something they’ll never do and I’m glad Keurig is stepping up to give them more choice and perhaps a better cup of coffee than the 1st gen K-Cup systems.

Technology will ALWAYS be able to catch up to what we can do with our own two hands. Choosing to use our hands when technology has made them obsolete is an individual decision and I won’t ridicule anyone anymore for choosing push-button over manual work.

Thanks Joe for the link.

iMore:

According to sources who have been reliable in the past, Apple currently plans to hold their iPad 3 announcement on Wednesday, March 7, 2012. Along with the 2048×1536 Retina display, the iPad 3 will feature a quad-core Apple 6 system-on-a-chip, and possibly 4G LTE networking.It’s important to note that even reliable information is subject to last minute changes by Apple — the advantage of being a secretive company that doesn’t pre-announce products or directions.

WAIT! WHAT!?!?!?!?

I stopped reading at that point. Yes, it’s true that Apple has been known to change things last minute. However, as soon as you state this, you are washing your hands of any hate when what you wrote ends up not being true. The entire post you wrote is just linking to other blogs that received tips from sources. How many sources are there? At this rate, Apple’s leaky ship has about 500 employees all blabbering about future products when the group working on the product may not exceed 50 AT MOST.

I’m done. I’m going to unfollow people who tweet Apple rumors and I’m following a new ONE STRIKE, YOU’RE OUT policy on blogs that publish rumors.

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