Brian T. Nakamoto

I'm Voting For President Obama & Vice President Biden

2012-11-01T00:00:00-07:00

Some of us have short memories given how close the polls are between President Obama and Vice President Biden, and Mitt Romney and Congressman Ryan. Romney and Ryan claim that the President hasn't been cleaning up the multitude of messes he was elected to fix fast enough. However, their proposals for what they would like to do if elected don't bode well socially, don't add up fiscally, and aren't projected (e.g. job creation) to help the majority of Americans any faster than the steady progress being made with President Obama.

JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes 2012

2012-10-21T00:00:00-07:00

Supporting the Juvenille Diabetes Research Foundation by participating in their 2012 Walk to Cure Diabetes at the Great Meadow at Fort Mason, San Francisco next Sunday, October 28 at 9:30am. JDRF is Tightrope Interactive's charity of choice. You can support yours truly, and the Tightrope team by making a contribution (tax deductible) via JDRF's website. Tightrope Walkers need just a little more to be the top team...

34 Years Later

2012-10-11T00:00:00-07:00

Giants are back in the playoffs as NL West Champs! Re-elect President Obama! Still living and working in the city. RIP Hordes of Orcs. Starbucks supports Passbook payments on iPhone 5 and "the new" Retina display iPad. (Typing this post on a Retina display MacBook Pro. ) Niners are at the top of the NFC West! Still sleeping between SHEEX, and still friends. Mountain Lion pounced, and Apple is still going strong. The Standard Model of physics held true!

Penryn 2012 Food Bazaar

2012-09-15T00:00:00-07:00

Breaking blog silence to remind everyone in the vicinity of Placer County that Placer Buddhist Church's 48th Annual Food Bazaar in Penryn, California (right off I-80 between Roseville and Auburn) is taking place September 22–23. The event known for the best barbeque chicken teriyaki in town runs Saturday (11am–5pm), and Sunday (11am–4pm). Bingo is back on both days with a brand new light board in the air-conditioned hall (which also has new wheelchair-accessible restrooms)! Admission and parking are free!

A Three Hour Tour

2012-04-01T00:00:00-07:00

The Winter Holiday Hiatus of 2011 turned into a much longer lull, as blogging took a backseat to other activities, and will continue to remain on the backburner.

Six years later, the momentum of Steve Jobs has propelled AAPL towards the happy problem of large numbers. (Happy 36th Birthday Apple! ) Meanwhile, the Borg are poised to strike back against Skynet with Windows 8 in the mobile space, FWIW. IMHO, Microsoft should ship Office for iOS, and use their control of the server side to stymie Android's progress. Google has seemingly prevailed over Oracle's patent dispute.

On the political front, it looks like Mitt Romney will be the GOP's presidential nominee. He shouldn't be underestimated given that Republicans can rally around "anyone but Obama" with unlimited spending thanks to SCOTUS (who also sound like they're going to crap on healthcare). Citizens with enough energy to tackle a fourth issue should contact the FCC to encourage them to protect free cable television from companies that would like to profit even more from licenses granted to them by the public. Thanks!

Follow @btn for miscellaneous musings moving forward—for the time being...

Winter Holiday Hiatus 2011

2011-12-17T00:00:00-08:00

'Tis the season for spending time with family and friends, catching a cold, email overload, and failing to send out holiday cards. Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, etc. Have a great New Year! Go Niners!

CALM Act 2010

2011-12-16T00:00:00-08:00

The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act (S.2847, 2010) is now being enforced by the Federal Communications Commission, which should lower the volume on the remaining 30% of ads that are too loud (albeit companies can try to get a hardship extension through 2014).

RIP CEA Tech Enthusiast

2011-12-15T00:00:00-08:00

The Consumer Electronics Association moved faster than most of its members by ending its short-lived Tech Enthusiast program. Current members will receive a full refund in the form of a Best Buy digital gift card, and can access the site through the end of this year.

SkyDrive For iPhone

2011-12-14T00:00:00-08:00

The Borg finally released a SkyDrive app for Apple's iOS devices, a move they should have made long ago. Microsoft moves like molasses, and sucks at marketing so they have yet to educate the masses about their free cloud storage service. SkyDrive for iPhone is pretty basic, but works (unless one wants to open a .one with OneNote for iPhone). This cloud storage user would use SkyDrive more if it could handle 50 MB files like Dropbox, or the rest of Microsoft Office for iOS materializes.

Fix or Block MICA

2011-12-13T00:00:00-08:00

The intent behind the Mobile Informational Call Act (H.R.3035) is hopefully less nefarious than—unrelated—SOPA/PIPA. However, MICA's current language creates an even bigger loophole to give telemarketers the ability to robocall people's cell phones in the U.S. A practical ammendment to the bill would be to require telemarketers to pay mobile operators for the calls that they place to mobile phones, and prohibit mobile operators from charging recipients in any way for such calls.