iDream of Apple

iDream of Apple

    You wake up in the morning to the sound of your alarm on your iPhone. You roll over, grab it off of its dock where it has been charging overnight, and check your stocks, your email, your texts, your planner for the day, and whether or not your team won in the game you had been watching before you went to bed.

    You get out of bed, shower and get dressed to the sound of your iTunes library playing one of your newest iTunes purchases through your wifi enabled stereo system over your Airport wifi router. You use a recipe for pancakes that you had found at work a day or two ago, saved to Springpad, and are now reading on your iPad mounted above your counter.

    While you eat breakfast you have a Facetime conversation with your daughter who is visiting relatives in Prague. After breakfast you update your to do list in Remember the Milk with a note to get a present for your daughter's return in three days. While there you notice that you need to pick up some ice cream for a get together you are having at your house that evening.

    On your way out the door to go to work, your iPhone alerts you that the highway to your job is backed up because of a accident and suggests that you take the train. You follow the revised directions to the station and while you board the train, your iPhone automatically takes care of your ticket. Once you sit down you pull out you iPad and read some news and watch the Futurama episode that you missed last night so that you could watch the game.

    Halfway to work your boss calls and asks that you conference call with him and a client to discuss some changes to your latest offer to the client. You take the call and pull up the proposal in question in Pages on your iPad. The client has some questions about some of the figures in a chart on the document. You discover that there is in fact a slight error in the data and change the spreadsheet to reflect this error. The chart in the document updates automatically and you save the changes. The client sees the changes immediately and agrees to the proposal, deciding to agree now instead of at the meeting that had been planned for later. The client ends the call, and your boss offers to take you to lunch during the time you would have been in the meeting later.

    After the call you open iCal and update your schedule to indicate these adjustments. You also send reminders to your friends about the party tonight along with what food they should bring. You then take your turn in a game of Chess with Friends and swap some tiles in a game of Words with friends. The train indicates that your stop will be next so you gather your devices and prepare to exit the train.

    At work the doors open in response to a signal from your iPhone and you greet the security guard. In your office you plug your iPad into a dock built into your iMac as a screen extender. Your iMac informs you of a time change for one of your meetings and updates your calender to show the new time. You set your iPhone to route your calls through your secretary to lessen interruptions, then you retrieve updated files from your office server and get to work.

    At lunchtime your boss comes by to meet your for lunch with some bad news. The Italian restaurant that he had hoped to eat at is booked up and has no seats until supper. You pull up Siri Assistant and ask it to book you two seats for an Italian restaurant in thirty minutes. You and your boss go to his car which unlocks and starts via his iPhone, but won't let the engine engage until you are both buckled. You pull up directions on your iPhone and plug it into the GPS dock in your bosses car.

    At the restaurant you use a translator with the camera on your iPhone to translate the menu, and CrazyMenu to poll your Twitter followers as to what you should eat. After lunch your boss pays the bill with his iPhone and you use the GPS in your iPhone to figure out where you parked.

    Back at work you use the touch screen feature on your iMac to sketch a new proposal and to precisely place some images in a document. At the end of the day you discover that you do not have time to use the train and pick up food for the party in the evening. You go to the grocery store's website on your iPad, input your shopping list and pay for the groceries. You use your iPhone to locate and reserve a nearby Zipcar. Your iPhone works as the key and you head toward the store. You pull up in the pick up lane, show the employee your purchase ticket on your iPhone and he loads the groceries.

    Once at home you use HomeControl on your iPhone to close the shades, turn on the lights, start some music and light the fireplace. As your friends arrive they help set up the food, and begin to socialize. After supper you all retire to the living room and sync your iPhones to your Apple TV. Once synced you use Apple's Game center to launch a racing game on the TV. Each person uses their own iPhone as a controller and after the game everyone votes on the next game. After a few hours you have all played Scrabble, Uno, hangman, Scene it, battleship, racing, bowling, and more. You decide to start a movie. Using your iPad as a remote for the Apple TV you choose several movies from Netflix and have your friends choose the one they want.

    After your friends have all gone home you shut down your house with HomeControl on your iPhone, set your alarm for tomorrow morning, and get ready for bed. Before you go to sleep you have a Facetime call with your wife who is in Brazil on a humanitarian aid trip. After the call you plug your iPhone into its dock and it begins to play a soothing playlist which gently fades out once the iPhone sensors register the sounds of sleeping.

Imagine that.

Time does not equal money

Time does not equal money

flickr.com/photos/httpoldmaisonblogspotcom/4315218578/

Who decided time is money? The two concepts are far too different to say that on is equal to the other.

The theory is that if you charge by the hour you time is literally worth money. But who do you know that works twenty-four hours a day three hundred and sixty-five days a year? No one.

Also, if money was time, how would the economy exist with a system that gives everyone a dollar every minute; but they have to spend in within that minute and they can't keep it or give it to anyone else? It wouldn't exist. It would die before it started.

The guy that said that quote was probabily just a stickler about wasting time.

WhyPad?

WhyPad?

So... I've been thinking about the iPad. I feel a bit lost. Why the "worst Keynote ever" comments and the "behold the next Apple TV" (implying flop)? Sure, when I first read that there was a tablet (no suprise) I was a little underwelmed, "Sure, but what's it for?" I couldn't find a use for glorified Kindle/iPod Touch. Yeah books... so? Movies on a Kindle, bigger iTouch... What's its point.

I felt let down. So I did what I always do after an Apple anouncment, I watched it. And it hit me, I know what it's for. I know the unexpected target audience.

I've been reading every blog post and news article I can find and yet no one has mentioned who I think will the biggest beneficeries of this device; college students.
Update: http://theappleblog.com/2010/03/29/pros-cons-ipad-education/

I bought my iTouch for the primary purpos of taking notes. Sure I love the rest of it, I even use the other stuff more (because I discovered how useful "an app for that" can be), but notes were key.

Over time I've discovered that my Macbook Pro is better for notes with its keyboard, but if I had the bigger keyboard with longer battery, smaller footprint, an easy to use Pages, and maybe even my textbooks... That would be amazing.

So farther in my thinking for uses users and reviews I ran across a blog post that showed the future of computers, spurred by Apple, with suprising insight. A complete hiding of the file system and a better experience for the end user. The iPad is just a gentle step in that direction, making people see its viability and getting people used to the idea.

Other great articles and insights into the iPad:

This article says that Job's reminiscing comments were to set the stage for a transfer of power

http://theappleblog.com/2010/01/29/the-beginning-of-the-end-for-jobs/

This article states the importance of Apple making it's own chips

http://www.applegazette.com/featured-commentary/the-secret-big-bang-with-the-ipad-announcement/

And this article points out the genius new elements that went into the iPad

http://daringfireball.net/2010/01/various_ipad_thoughts

Riding a School Bus

Riding a School Bus

I have mixed feelings about riding school buses. One the one hand I rather enjoyed the time to think, relax, and watch people. But on the other hand it was painful some days. After long days at school, it was almost unbearable to know that I still had a forty-five minute bus ride followed by a thirty minute walk before I could get home and relax. Most days I even had things to do after I got home.

On those bad days, listening to the people on the bus was miserable. They would go on a and on about the dumbest things. No heat or air on plastic seats made it even worse. Those bus rides were dreadful.

But on the good days listening to people mindlessly ramble made me feel good about how much better off I was then some of them. I learned how to make myself comfortable on almost any day, whether it be heat or cold or rain.

Overall I think my times on the bus were good for me. I learned some valuable lessons from them and now consider driving myself a privilege.

P.S. We only had one wreck, and it didn't even make the news.

Image:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_School_Bus_Bus.jpg

Solitaire

Solitaire

They say that, in theory, every Solitaire game is winable.

I would stipulate that that is in fact a lie, designed to make you feel insignificant since you loose (you don't really loose, you just start a new game) the majority of your games.

TED On Work

TED On Work

First I would like to point out how much I enjoy TED Talks.
Second I would like to make sure you know how asome Mike Rowe is.
Got that? Good.

Here's both:



I like how right he is. I think it's a little scary how right he is, but I still like it.

http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2009/03/09/celebrating-dirty-jobs-observing-the-nature-of-hard-work/

The Future

The Future

Inspired by this article I want to make my prediction about technology in 50 years.

•99% of everything predicted will be wrong.

•Just like the explosion of computing that came after the mechanical revolution, I think there will be another technology that explodes otnto the scene. (And it's likely it isn't even invinted yet).

This prediction list is worth a read, but I think we will have everything on the list long before 50 years.

Also the comment about "probably owned by Google," made me smile. In 50 years I think Google will have been beaten by something, or will be much bigger than the article gives them credit for.

http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2009/03/31/no-more-geeks-in-fifty-years/

Image credit:http://www.flickr.com/photos/vermininc/2337307518/

Google vs Government

Google vs Government

People keep complaining that Google has too much information about its users and everything else. They say that it's an invasion of privacy.

But personally I think that I'd rather have Google know everything about me than the government. That's really sad. I'd rather have a private company know my secrets and habits than the government the people elected, know these things about me.

Why this level of distrust? Well, Google uses my information for ad targeting and other such things that effectively make my life easier. The government on the other hand uses my information for databases to track my life and my habits.

"These are the same thing," you say. Yes they are, but I trust a random group of people who want my business more than I trust the lying, bureaucratic morons elected to office by an uninformed gullible populous.

Ouch.

Image credit: http://www.logoogle.com/topic-google-logos02.htm

Onomatopoetically

Onomatopoetically

http://onomatopoetically.com/I have a (temporary) new favorite word:

Onomatopoetically

If you go to merriam-webster.com it has a pronunciation clip, cracks me up.

But you know what's even better? The definition.

"The naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it (as buzz, hiss."

Such a word for such a definition.

You know what else rocks? There's a whole website devoted to "The naming of a thing by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it."


Go on, I dare you to use it in a sentence some time today. 

New Year

New Year

By the way, happy New Year.

Don't get to drunk, since that is what I'm told "normal" people do on New Year's.

Don't be bored

Don't be bored

Just Stumbled onto this gem and loved it so much, that if you think it's dumb to put here, I'll use the excuse that I'm archiving it for later memory.



P.S. I love his title "if you're bored, you're doing it wron"

(I think it's supposed to be wrong, but who am I to correct such a genius?)

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett

One of my favorite authors is Terry Pratchett. He has written approximately two books a year since 1983. His best series is Discworld, a bunch of books about Rincewind ("Luck is my middle name," said Rincewind, indistinctly. "Mind you, my first name is Bad."), Death (who is perhaps the greatest character to ever exist, "DON'T THINK OF IT AS DYING, said Death. JUST THINK OF IT AS LEAVING EARLY TO AVOID THE RUSH." by the way Death always talks in caps. Death also has a horse named binky), The City Watch, The Wizards (which includes the Librarian, who is an orangutan), Susan (who is death's granddaughter and is also an incredible character. "She'd become a governess. It was one of the few jobs a known lady could do. And she'd taken to it well. She'd sworn that if she did indeed ever find herself dancing on rooftops with chimney sweeps she'd beat herself to death with her own umbrella.").

Anyway, I bring this up because of an article I read recently. Terry Pratchett has Alzheimers. I am impressed, however at his reaction to this news. Instead of telling you what he said, just go read the article.

Olympic Opening Ceremony

Olympic Opening Ceremony

I just finished watching the Olympic opening ceremony (I know a bit late).
And it kinda scared me.

Isn't this the most populous country on the planet?
Isn't this the country that kept outsiders out for thousands of years?
 So why are they trying to come across as a upcoming country on the world front?

I have below a list of the things that stood out to me when I watched it, I might flush them out, I might just leave it up to you to figure out what I meant...

The country's national anthem is called The March of the Volunteers;
          I was under the impression that China was a dictatorship.

The drummers were told to smile so they would not be so intimidating;
          It was still somewhat overwhelming, scary and disconcerting.

The reporters said that the footprint fireworks were, "Almost cinematic."
          Enough other places have already covered this issue.

The soldiers carrying the flag goose-stepped;
          I don't care if that's the way they've always done it, that's to much of a reminder of World War Two.

The Chinese character of harmony was repeated a lot;
          The reported said this represented the problems with China had with nature and natural disasters.

They symbolically replaced the Great Wall of China with tulips;
          What?

15000 performers, none of whom repeated.
          "Well, we have the people." (In forced labor and oppression {sorry})

The little kids seemed to be having fun.

The whole bloody thing is propaganda.
          From the Tulips to the "harmony with nature."
          Propaganda for their people and for the rest of the world.

When the camera passed Hugo Shavez, the reporters said he enjoys "tweaking" other countries especially the US.
          Tweaking?

It was really cool to see so many different races in the US march.

The US was giving the Chinese lining the track high fives.
          That was cool.

P.S. I'm surprised the reporters didn't mention that the chinese invented fireworks.
P.S.S. The closing fireworks were incredible.
P.P.S.S. The picture is from Boston.com/bigpicture/ and there are a bunch more worth checking out.

Reason #(something) I Hate Microsoft

Reason #(something) I Hate Microsoft

Do you know what the most recent thing I hate about Microsoft is?
XPS (XML Paper Specification).
It is their new answer to PDF; they want to beat PDF and convert the world to their "genious" XPS format.

Now, I normally don't mind to much with Microsoft's feeble attempts to take over the world, but this one hit home.

For me to print from my Windows, I have to "print" the file with Microsoft's PDF printer, then send it to my Mac to print it since the USB ports don't work on my Windows. Not to much trouble right?


Well Microsoft went and did what Apple was lambasted for; installed updates. I know, they do that regularly. But this time they uninstalled the PDF printer and installed in its place this XPS trash. They even installed a viewer, since we obviously don't have anything else that can read this new format.


Two problems:
     1.I can't open this new format on my Mac without paying $25 for Microsoft software to do so.

     2.The XPS view on my Windows doesn't even work, because my machine isn't fast enough to run it. Yea, go back and read that sentence again.

Now to sum up what I just told you; Microsoft, without asking, uninstalled a program that I use a lot. Microsoft then installed a program to replace the one they just removed, but using a format that no one can read yet. Then they nicely, without asking, installed a program to view this new format, but I can't use it since my computer is to slow!

And I have a computer security teacher that doesn't like Macs because they make him do things one certain way (which I do agree with, but that's just because it's the right way), but he doesn't think Microsoft does that. Read thise problems again. They screwed me.

Me No Englas

Me No Englas

I found this poor excuse for english on my car this morning:

The Internet

The Internet

Exposing myself to the internet as a whole is a very draining experience.
Sometimes I just have to retreat back to Google Reader to read things I know won't hurt my sense of decency in mankind.
Other times I have to leave the internet all together to regain the thought that there is good in the world.

-Me

Secular Smoothy

Secular Smoothy

I'm going to dip my toe in a very hot subject here. I hope I make it out alive.

Let's start with a very political statement, one of my beliefs; "Secularism is a lie from the pit of hell."
Now, let me explain.

All things were created by God; humans, plants, animals, just to name a few. But also beer, guns, sex, goverment, families, etc. Some created directly by Him, others by the brains He gave to people. Other things, like drunkenness and porn are things He created which were then distorted by the devil (who, by the way, He also created; but not for evil).

Secularism is a derivative of secular: "A doctrine that rejects religion and religious considerations."

Now, if secularism rejects religion, then it rejects God. If it rejects God, then it rejects everything God has made. Secularists oviously don't do that, since they are still breathing. So therefore they assign the tag of secularism to anything they don't think has any religious significance; such as food, clothes, air, goverment and anything else that they can see no visible connection with God through. Now, based on the definition, that means if they apply "secular" to anything, they are lying since God directly or indirectaly has created all things.

Now, when secularism is applied to goverment and all else is banned, that means that every politician has to set aside their religion to participate. But since religion is in everything, they simply lie so they can enact laws (that all work out to simply be a dirivitive of the ten commandments).

Government needs to be deeply rooted in religion; not the other way around, mind you, if rooted the other way people's sinful desires get involved and things like the crusades happen. But there needs to be a healthy mix.

What's wrong with Google (it seems a bit blue)

What's wrong with Google (it seems a bit blue)

I started noticing something earlier today and was worried I was loosing my mind (which I probably am), but I have come across site that confirm my suspicions that Google has changed their icon.






It's a shock. I don't really know how to take it.

I don't like it. It is to small to be able to see clearly, and more cursive than any logo they've had thus far.

The end.

So Much Time, So Little To Do

So Much Time, So Little To Do

I just saw this on LifeHacker and thought it was right on.

God vs Satan

God vs Satan

After approximately 15 hours of work over 6 days I am proud (Update, pride is a sin, so... pleased, yes pleased) pleased to present a representation of God and Satan based off of a description one of my ministers gave in a talk, "God is power, clothed in apparent weakness; Satan is weakness, clothed in apparent power."

After hearing that Quote, I wanted to find a picture of it. After much searching I couldn't find one, so I tried to figure out what I thought it would look like. Once I got an image in my head, I set about finding the pieces (This is where I explain that none of the parts are mine. They are found around the Internet.) After much failed searching, things started to fall into place and now, without further ado, I give you the result:

From Created by Me