Humble 'Ville

Save $$$, Ooma's back at it...

2012-01-08T16:15:00.000-06:00

I'm really surprised by the quick turnaround on their refer-a-friend promotion. This used to be a twice a year thing, but it's only been a few months since the last time.

Also... the deal is different this time around. Previously the refer-a-friend code would get you a $50 discount off of the MSRP on an Ooma Telo. This time:

Get an awarding-winning Ooma Telo, FREE Ooma Bluetooth Adapter (a $30 value) and FREE shipping for $189.99

I may be off base here, but it looks to me like the base price off the Telo may have come down. I think this very well may be a better deal.

Also different... I have five codes to give out. Again, first come... first served:

Goldsmith Lane getting Bike Lanes

2011-12-14T09:22:00.001-06:00

This is the part over between Bardstown Road and Bon Air.

Saw this over on brokensidewalk.com. Every time I drove that stretch of Goldsmith I always thought that the road was really wide. Certainly wider than it needed to be. I have no idea why the road was ever built that wide in the first place, but this seams to me to be a pretty good use of the space.

Amplify’d from brokensidewalk.com

See more at brokensidewalk.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/vOMcCT

You know this is going to work twice...

2011-12-14T08:44:00.001-06:00

Excellent Penny Arcade today.

Amplify’d from www.penny-arcade.com

See more at www.penny-arcade.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/sEf4o2

So you think this is automatic?

2011-12-12T12:01:00.001-06:00

This is why engineers are important.

Amplify’d from xkcd.com

See more at xkcd.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/vpEtYS

When are the 12 days of Christmas?

2011-12-12T11:52:00.002-06:00

So according to the song... there are "12 days of Christmas", when is the First day of Christmas?

December 12th? Wrong.

December 13th? Wrong.

The "First Day of Christmas" is December 25th. Christmas Day. The twelfth day of Christmas is a little bit harder to figure out as it differs for different Christian traditions, but the twelfth night is always January 5th, which is immediately followed by the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6th. The Epiphany is the celebration of the wise men visiting the baby Jesus. Yes... the wise men took a while to get there. They did not show up on Christmas Day/Night as you might think.

I'm not a particuliarly religious person, so I don't know why this bothers me so much... I suspect it's the history buff in me more than anything.

The point is:

The Twelve Days of Christmas occur after Christmas day, not before.
Don't take down your Christmas tree before New Years... it's still Christmas. Christmas run nearly a full week into January.

For more info:

The same thing can be said of "Classic Rock"

2011-12-09T06:04:00.001-06:00

Click to read the fine print...

Amplify’d from xkcd.com

See more at xkcd.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/tW51ws

Is it possible to love a man I've never met? (Sorry dear...)

2011-12-08T20:24:00.000-06:00

"What our fans have to understand is you have a coach and we’re trying to build a program, so when all the noise in the system and all the rumors start, just don’t even focus on it," Strong said. "Don’t even turn your attention to it. Nothing is going to happen."

...

"At some point, just trust me," Strong said. "I’m not looking for a job. I have a job. I’m the head coach at the University of Louisville."

...

"Every time something happens, I’ve got to make a statement?" Strong said. "It probably makes other schools look good to say ‘Hey we’re pursuing this coach or we’re pursuing that coach.’"

"I work for an unbelievable athletic director, I work for a guy who has given me everything I have asked for," Strong said. "You have so much support from the university, from the city of Louisville. Now all of a sudden, a guy who couldn’t get a job has a job and has some success -- why would we ever think now that he’s just going to chop it and leave?"

"The University of Louisville is not going to become training ground for college coaches," he said.

Super Cheap apps on Android Market

2011-12-07T22:23:00.002-06:00

Meant to post this yesterday, and as it stands there's only a few more hours to take advantage of today's deals... to celelbrate the 10 billionth app download in the android market, google has reduced the price on certain apps to just 10 cents. 10 apps were offered yesterday and a different set of ten apps are offered today. Once you've bought an app (regardless of the price paid). You own the rights to use that app. Even if you uninstall it you can reinstall it later or reinstall it on any other android device tied to the same google account. Personally, I think is worth a dollar a day just on the off chance I decide I want the app later.

That said, my personal recommendation for today's apps:

Fruit Ninja: It's a simple, but adictive mobile game. Pretty popular on Android and iOS.
Readitlater Pro.... this is a great app for reading web pages, particuliarly once you integrate it with Google reader. I screen articles all the time that I know I want to read later. I can flag them in this app (clearing my RSS feed) and then revisit the article. The best thing is that you can sync while you have a signal and then read the articles offline without a connection later. This is really handy for Wifi-only devices like my hacked Nook Color... or catching up on articles while sitting on a plane.
Beautiful Widgets... great set of widgets to customize your home screen with clocks and weather. Not my personal favorite app in this category, but quite good and quite popular.

No idea how many days Google is going to offer this promotion. So far they've gotten me for about $1.50.

Amplify’d from www.androidcentral.com

We're on Day 2 of Google's 10-day, 10-cent, 10 billion app download celebration in which 10 apps will be sold for a dime.
Read more at www.androidcentral.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/rHTMbt

Not the right lesson

2011-11-30T20:50:00.001-06:00

Amplify’d from xkcd.com via Google Reader

See more at xkcd.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/sDwIW0

Brian Cushing is a scary dude

2011-11-11T08:47:00.001-06:00

David J. Phillip - AP -- Image used without permission.

No, that's not makeup. Can you image what his holloween costume looks like?

New Houston Campus Video

2011-11-09T13:19:00.000-06:00

I saw this video a couple of weeks ago internally. Surprised to see that it made it's way onto youtube. Anyway... I'm sure some of my family and close friends are curious.

I'm the stick figure off screen to the right....

2011-11-09T12:59:00.001-06:00

What else can I say.

Amplify’d from xkcd.com via Google Reader

See more at xkcd.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/sRweNv

Ooma Refer-a-Friend program is back

2011-11-06T20:14:00.000-06:00

Unlike last time where I probably spammed this out more than most want... I've been sitting on these for a couple of weeks now. It's not because my feelings on Ooma have changed. Rather, I've just been really, really busy with work and I'm way behind in my email. :)

Anyway... Ooma's Refer-a-Friend program is back. You can get an Ooma Telo directly from Ooma for $50 off of the normal MSRP and I can get an Amazon gift card out of the deal.

I really like my Ooma. I've had it over a year now and it's more than payed for itself several times over. I still occasionally get calls from my cable provider trying to talk to me about their telephone service and how I can get a great deal on it... I then inform them my VOIP provider costs me $0.00 for unlimited local and long distance. At that point, most of the soliciters acknowledge that they can't beat it and thank me for the time. :)

I have three referal codes. The first come, first served:

Another Worthwhile Free Amazon Android App

2011-10-26T22:10:00.001-05:00

You've got 2 hours. This guys endorses it and it costs you nothing, why not "buy" it so you can try it out later?

Amplify’d from blog.the-ebook-reader.com

Want to write ebooks on your Android phone or tablet? How about editing Excel and PowerPoint files. With OfficeSuite Pro 5 you can do just that and more, and today it is Amazon’s free paid app of the day.

OfficeSuite Pro 5 normally costs $14.99, so this a free app that you definitely want to get, even if you don’t have an Android tablet or phone just yet.
Read more at blog.the-ebook-reader.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/ufn9DO

Android users... go get "Read it Later Pro" right now

2011-10-17T09:13:00.001-05:00

I was intending to post about this.... but why write my own content when I can just leverage someone else's.

In all seriousness... I broke down and bought "Read it Later Pro" about a month ago in the Android Market and it's a great and really useful app. Certainly worth the purchase price and even better being free.

Yup free.

Today only in Amazon's Android App Store.

Even if you decide to un-install it. Once you own the app (regarldess of what price you paid)... your account knows that you own the rights to the app and you can re-install it later. So go pick this up now and debate later whether or not it works for you.

Amplify’d from feeds.the-ebook-reader.com via Google Reader

Read It Later Pro is Amazon’s Free Android App Today

If you’ve been living under a rock for the past six months you might not know that Amazon gives away a free paid Android app everyday. Today Amazon’s free app is Read It Later Pro, an app that allows you to save web pages to read later on various devices, “a DVR of the web” [...]
Read more at feeds.the-ebook-reader.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/rriEFQ

Please don't share this with your (or my) kids

2011-10-14T11:57:00.000-05:00

It feels wrong to like this.

Battle Damage

2011-10-14T11:42:00.002-05:00

Personally, I had spent my (not-quite-so) hard-earned allowance on Battle Damage Skeletor".

Amplify’d from www.penny-arcade.com

See more at www.penny-arcade.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/oud9Xc

18 hours to go on latest Humble Bundle

2011-10-12T00:01:00.001-05:00

Humble Bundle's latest offering will be expiring in much less than a day. The Humble Bundle is a periodic "pay what you want" offering for games. This time around the Bundle isn't quite as impressive, but that said, I've heard some great things about Frozen Synapse.

Since it's pay what you want (with a portion or even all of your donation going to charity), it's really silly not to check this out.

Amplify’d from www.humblebundle.com

See more at www.humblebundle.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/revVSu

Android 201: clearing settings

2011-09-28T08:10:00.002-05:00

A little more advanced tip over at androidcentral.... if you have a mis-behaving app on your android phone, the solution is to often clear cache or data.... here's how to do it.

Monkey Simulator Reproduces Shakespeare

2011-09-25T22:42:00.002-05:00

When I took simulations, I just wrote a program to simulate running a bank of elevators in a high-rise building (I can't wait for an elevator now without contemplating what the control software was having that elevator car do based on the time of day).

Anyway... this guy decided to write a simulator to simulate a monkey typing on a typewriter.... then ran millions of them until he successfully reproduced Shakespeare.

He's hoping to keep running until he reproduces all of Shakespeare's works.

Of course, once their done... what's he going to do with all of those virtual monkeys. Maybe it's time to start seeking new funding for the Super Monkey Collider (I'm sure scientists would be equally interested in the effects on virtual monkeys as on real ones).

Epic Touch 4G Useful tips and tricks

2011-09-25T01:07:00.002-05:00

As some of you may know, I picked up the (completely unreasonably named Sprint Samsung Galaxy S II, Epic 4G Touch last weekend after my Sprint Epic 4G suddenly refused to boot while I was travelling.

I had been looking forward to the Epic 4G Touch since before the name was known (anybody else recall the "Within" code name?), but I wasn't really planning to rush out and buy it... I was thinking I would at least wait a month, but I guess all I needed was a little nudge.

Read more after the break

I'll have to say so far, I really like it. Frankly, while I was strongly biased towards phones with keyboards (my three previous phones in chronological order was a Blackberry Curve 9330, Samsung Moment, and, of course, the Epic 4G). However, I was beta-testing Swype on my Moment, and it came pre-loaded on my Epic and was my everyday keyboard. Only on rare occasions did I ever bother to open the physical keyboard. I won't lie, if there was a "Galaxy S II" on Sprint with a keyboard, I would have felt quite conflicted... but as there isn't... I think I've learned that I might actually be happier without it.

See... the Epic 4G Touch is THIN. Just a hair thicker then three eighths of an inch. It's also incredibly light at 4.6 ounces. A keyboard would have just made the phone bigger and heavier.

Oh yeah, the 4.52" screen is gorgeous, and according to LINPACK the phone is more than 4 times faster then my Epic. Best of all, the battery life has been pretty good. I've actually managed to go a whole day without charging... which for Android (and a phone addict like me that's on it way too much... is actually quite good).

Anyway... I'm not intending to do a full review here, but rather to post to some useful links and info that's been popping up on Android Central's forums. If you want to read their review.... go right ahead.

The excerpt that I'm highlighting below is about how to customize the phone's lock screen... which is not a "stock" Android feature. At the risk of being a parent, I decided to use a photo of my kids for my lock screen:

Some other interesting articles popped up as well:

The first, again excerpted below, is exact instructions on customizing the lock screen.
The second highlights some of the unique features of the phone. For example, I had no idea it supported USB host until I read this post. Lots of useful info if you're curious about the phone.
The third, is a report from a user showing that he managed to get 30 hours of battery life out of the phone.

Amplify’d from forums.androidcentral.com

To customize the lock screen on other phones can mean needing to root the phone or install third-party software. Samsung has made it easy to customize the Galaxy S II Series right out of the box.
Read more at forums.androidcentral.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/qR6DEr

Android 101: Handling SPAM on your phone

2011-09-22T22:44:00.002-05:00

More tips after the break...

Amplify’d from www.androidcentral.com via Google Reader

Three things in life are certain: Death, taxes and e-mail spam. Here's how to take care of it in Android's gmail app.
Read more at www.androidcentral.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/qEXCdl

More Android 101: Bluetooth

2011-09-21T22:37:00.002-05:00

Android Central offers up tips on pairing bluetooth devices. I'll have to agree with their synopsis... it's pretty easy but not all phones and devices are created equal.

My first phone routinely had Bluetooth problems and my second phone (A Samsung Epic) would sometimes fail to negotiate A2DP. Restarting Bluetooth on the phone and reconnecting to the device would usually solve it.

Patents: What are we doing to ourselves?

2011-09-21T22:31:00.001-05:00

Please read this excerpt and shake your head.

Amplify’d from arstechnica.com

But anecdotal evidence is one thing. Data is another. Three Boston University researchers have produced a rigorous empirical estimate of the cost of patent trolling. And the number is breath-taking: patent trolls ("non-practicing entity" is the clinical term) have cost publicly traded defendants $500 billion since 1990. And the problem has become most severe in recent years. In the last four years, the costs have averaged $83 billion per year. The study says this is more than a quarter of US industrial research and development spending during those years.
Read more at arstechnica.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/nwbnzK

RSS TiVo for the Internet.... for better and worse

2011-09-19T23:53:00.002-05:00

In the ultimate irony, as the last story I'm sharing tonight before going to bed.... I offer you an article on the problem of RSS feeds. I'm doing this after clearing out my own personal RSS backlog which peaked recently at around 700 articles.... I saved this article for last.

I love RSS and I love Google Reader and I'm not sure I agree with the author, but I can agree that RSS can become a problem. Lately I've been deploying Yahoo Pipes to filter feeds for me to select just the articles I want (Previously I was manually scanning updates and marking all but select articles as read and just reading the key ones), but in spite of this.... I was way behind on things I actually wanted to read and share.

I titled this article "TiVo for the Internet" because that's how I really feel about RSS (I've been saying this for years so if you know me personally you may have heard this rant before).... before I had TiVo, there were shows that I "had" to watch (meaning I would watch every episode unless some higher priority life event came up.. .and ins one cases maybe I would record the show that conflicted with the real world... but more often then not... I would just miss it). Then there was the vast majority of shows that I watched.... clearly I liked them (otherwise I wouldn't have watched), but if I missed them... I missed them. No big deal.

Then I got TiVo.

Now I don't miss anything. My TiVo records any and every show that I like whether or not they are a priority. That means I never have to miss anything. And I don't. It's a blessing and a curse. I find myself now reluctant to start watching a new show, because once I start watching... I feel committed to watch each and every episode until the series goes off the air. My "season pass list" often has at least 40 (and typically more like 60) different programs its seeking out.

I'm not proud of this.

Using an RSS feed/reader for me is similar. Before RSS I would check slashdot.org (and a half-dozen other sites) a few times a day (or maybe just once a day) and read whatever I found... but if I was offline for a few days... it wasn't that big of a deal. Now that I have RSS... I don't miss those articles... they sit and pile up... and the more that's there... the more pressure I feel to clear the backlog.

I supposed this is the "Hi, My name is Alan and I have a problem" moment.

That said, I really have no desire to change either of these habits. Maybe that's just sad. However, I've been focusing on the negative above. The reality is... I spend less time filtering out garbage because I only record/subscribe to shows and/or sites that interest me where before I was randomly surfing and wasting time searching for content I cared about. Also, marking articles as read doesn't take much time at all. In the case of TiVo.. there's nearly always something I want to watch ready at the click of a button.

Anyway... It's an interesting perspective and I'm not even going to suggest that the author is wrong, but at the same time... I love RSS and I don't plan to stop.

Humble 'Ville

Save $$$, Ooma's back at it...

Goldsmith Lane getting Bike Lanes

You know this is going to work twice...

So you think this is automatic?

When are the 12 days of Christmas?

The same thing can be said of "Classic Rock"

Is it possible to love a man I've never met? (Sorry dear...)

Super Cheap apps on Android Market

Not the right lesson

Brian Cushing is a scary dude

New Houston Campus Video

I'm the stick figure off screen to the right....

Ooma Refer-a-Friend program is back

Another Worthwhile Free Amazon Android App

Android users... go get "Read it Later Pro" right now

Read It Later Pro is Amazon’s Free Android App Today

Please don't share this with your (or my) kids

Battle Damage

18 hours to go on latest Humble Bundle

Android 201: clearing settings

Monkey Simulator Reproduces Shakespeare

Epic Touch 4G Useful tips and tricks

Android 101: Handling SPAM on your phone

More Android 101: Bluetooth

Patents: What are we doing to ourselves?

RSS TiVo for the Internet.... for better and worse

Why keeping up with RSS is poisonous to productivity, sanity