Terminal Junkie

The world is going upside down

thomas — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 03:59:58 +0000

Posted in I Speak

Record earning, stock downed 10%; while missed earning, stock soared 10%.
WTF is going on here?

Microsoft Surface Pro, why even bother

thomas — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 03:42:29 +0000

Posted in Geek Speak

http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/29/surface-pro-hdd-space/

From Engadget:

That 64GB, $900 Microsoft Surface Pro you plan on buying next week? Maybe you should temper your storage expectations a bit, as the base model actually only allots 23GB of that space for use. The larger 128GB version offers a bit more space at 83GB, but is still losing a massive 45GB of space to the full Windows 8 operating system and various included applications.

Why even bother releasing a bloatware?

A billion dollars in net profit per week is no longer good enough it seems

thomas — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 09:53:31 +0000

Posted in I Speak

http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/23/long-aapl/

Via TechCrunch:

Apple generated more revenue in one quarter than Google did in all of 2012. Hell, Apple is getting close to generating as much revenue in one quarter as Microsoft does in an entire year. Perhaps even more incredible is that Apple made over a billion dollars in profit a week for the first time ever. Profit is the money you get to keep. You know, the kind Amazon doesn’t make. Or, to look at it another way, Apple generated as much profit in two weeks as Google did in their entire last quarter.

Yet with Apple posting a record of $54.5 billion in revenue and a record quarterly net profit of $13.1 billion, the stock fell 10%. What were the investors thinking? Are they high on drugs or simply too greedy that nothing is good enough anymore?

An open letter to Apple on its App Store’s guideline

thomas — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 06:40:58 +0000

Posted in Geek Speak

Dear Apple,

Your ~~excuse~~ reason for removing 500px was because it did not adhere to Apple’s strict guidelines on ~~artistic nudity~~ pornography. If that is the case, may I raise some complains to have the following apps remove from App Store and iOS devices for the following reasons:-

1.Ability to view nudity or pornographic materials

All browsers including your very own Safari.
All RSS Feed Readers such as Flipboard, Pulse, Zite, Feedly, etc.
All Social apps such as Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ etc.
All Photo sharing apps such as Flickr, Instagram, and many more.
All video apps such as Vimeo, YouTube, Daily Motion, etc.

2.Ability to send and receive nudity or pornographic materials

All communication apps such as your Messages, Whatapp, Skype, Viber, Facebook Messenger, to name a few.
All emails apps.

How about just restrict iOS applications to just games and some productivity tools and do away with Internet connection while you are at it, so your users will have no chance at all to view any nudity and pornographic materials?

Yours truly,

Apple Fanboy since 1999

Lance Amstrong, the novelist

thomas — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 09:45:38 +0000

Posted in I Speak

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/armstrong-now-a-work-of-fiction/story-e6frg6n6-1226557777255#

Manly Library @ Sydney, Australia:

All non-fiction Lance Armstrong titles, including Lance Armstrong: Images of a Champion, The Lance Armstrong Performance Program and Lance Armstrong: World’s Greatest Champion, will soon be moved to the fiction section.

Oops!

What is so peculiar about our “twentysomething” age that we remember so much?

thomas — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 06:40:53 +0000

Posted in I Speak

http://mobile.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/01/reminiscence_bump_explanations_why_we_remember_young_adulthood_better_than.single.html

Katy Waldman, reporting for Salon:

Why are we so fixated on the no-man’s-land between childhood and stable adulthood? A little-known but robust line of research shows that there really is something deeply, weirdly meaningful about this period. It plays an outsize role in how we structure our expectations, stories, and memories. The basic finding is this: We remember more events from late adolescence and early adulthood than from any other stage of our lives. This phenomenon is called the reminiscence bump.

Google taking the same Microsoft’s road

thomas — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 05:24:13 +0000

Posted in Geek Speak

http://www.bgr.com/2012/02/23/iconfess-why-an-android-fan-recommends-the-iphone/

BGR:

	A new Android device is released almost every month from major manufacturers, often leaving consumers with severe cases of buyer’s remorse. Some manufacturers have at least promised to slow down when it comes to releasing smartphones in the future, but mobile technology advances too quickly to sit idle for very long. Lastly, each carrier and manufacturer is looking to out-do the competition. Rather than marketing devices and services with competitive pricing, these companies fill handsets with unnecessary bloatware and custom user interface skins. The skins are supposed to “enhance” a user’s experience but more often then not, they lead to incompatibilities, error messages, forced closures, poor battery performance and lag.

Does this sounds familiar? Remember Microsoft’s Windows? OEMs like Sony, DELL and HP release new computer models every other month with confusing names and overlapping features. On top of that they will slap you with a bunch of bloatware that you don’t really need and not to mention those ugly stickers. As to where Microsoft is heading now, will it soon befalls on Google?.

In the end, it is all about the whole user experience. Hardware and Software has to in full control by one party. Let’s hope that Google does learn from history. Buying Motorola Mobility is one good move. They should drop those OEM makers and make their own smartphones like Apple and gain back those user experience as it was intended do.

Microsoft pwned Google

thomas — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 04:37:34 +0000

Posted in Geek Speak

Microsoft:

	What happens when the world’s largest advertising business tries to sell productivity software on the side? Beware the Googlighting Stranger. Learn more at http://WhyMicrosoftProductivity.com

This is hilarious.

Sleep Evolution: How modern society alters the way we sleep

thomas — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 04:06:32 +0000

Posted in I Speak

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783

BBC:

	Ekirch found that references to the first and second sleep started to disappear during the late 17th Century. This started among the urban upper classes in northern Europe and over the course of the next 200 years filtered down to the rest of Western society. By the 1920s the idea of a first and second sleep had receded entirely from our social consciousness. He attributes the initial shift to improvements in street lighting, domestic lighting and a surge in coffee houses – which were sometimes open all night. As the night became a place for legitimate activity and as that activity increased, the length of time people could dedicate to rest dwindled.

Men create technologies to improve the way we live, but at the same time destroying the way we are designed to live.

Storify: Professional Journalist vs. Student

thomas — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:59:40 +0000

Posted in I Speak

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/dos_and_donts_for_using_storify.php

Dave Copeland:

	Here’s a great example of a Storify done by one of my writing students that covered yesterday’s March Against Hate at Bridgewater State University, and here’s a not so great Storify done by a reporter covering the same event.

Something every journalist should take note while using storify. Be passionate about the story.