iPad and State of The Union Adress: Which will be remembered?

I believe that neither one will really. And now you ask me why. Well, my answer may seem somewhat judgemental, as I haven't used the iPad or had a chance to hear the presidents speech. But nonetheless, I can conclude from reading about both from multiple sources that they are useless to us.

I cite first Engadget. The article of choice shows that a majority of their people who tested it found it underwhelming. There was not a whole lot of new groundbreaking technology. It seemed that it was just an expansion of the iPhone. Most of the apps that will run on it actually will be iPhone apps. I can't see why someone would need a netbook/iPhone hybrid. Just think about it. There's no point to it unless Apple can ad more features to it; like a camera w/ flash, word processing capabilities(or better than it has) and so forth. When those type of phone-laptop capabilities come together on a platform that does all very well, I'll be impressed.

The next subject I have chosen is the State of the Union Adress. I will not say much about it. All I will say is that President Obama's ideas on the betterment of our country will only cost more money of us, and as a result, cost us more jobs.

Neither one will not be remembered for anything remarkable. When someone looks back on this day in ten years, it will be to remember something else.

JR Network Engineer

Way back in November, my brothers and I were tasked with getting a new computer hooked up to the network. That meant running wires. The best way was through the vents. However, it wasn't as easy as dropping a string down the vent from upstairs and then pulling it out in the basement. Someone had to go into the vent and see if they could grab it. That job fell to Ben, whom you will see in this video that we made.

Facebook Is Now Evil Like Darth Sidious

I've been saying it for a while, but not very loudly. Facebook has gone to the Dark Side of the web. Not in a Vader way where there is hope, but in a Darth Sidious way. They have gone over totally and completely to the point that they cannot return to favor in my mind.

Facebook claims that with the new "privacy" settings, Facebook will be safer and more fun. I cannot disagree with this more. It seems that they are trying to take the same tact that Myspace or some others did, allowing plain strangers to automatically see you private info. Even though you can make your privacy settings reflect how much you want to share with strangers, Facebook is just taking this issue to lightly, and, as with any large company, turn a profit with it.

If I remember correctly, the reason I chose Facebook in the first place is the fact that I could choose who could and could not see my private info. It has been great for keeping in touch with people who I otherwise would have lost contact with. But this paradigm seems to be shifting for Facebook. Not only are they bullying us into sharing private information with the world at large, they've moved into taking back the vanity URL's to sell to large companies in order to make some quick money.

I'd say that it's time to step away from Facebook and use something different. In the next week or so, expect me to be using something different for social networking.

Chrome Is The Bomb-Digity

As you can see from the picture, I struggled to figure out how to make a screenshot in windows, but I finally succeeded in doing so. Now on to the subject at hand.

One of the things I really love about Google Chrome is its ability to run extensions flawlessly. One of the must-have extensions is actually built into the browser. It's a theme chooser. All you have to do is go to the Google Theme Gallery and pick one out. Plain and simple. The browser runs like the day you downloaded it. And the great thing about this is that you can just as easily switch back to the original theme.

Utah Cities Among Those With Fastest Average Internet Connection Speeds

I don't know why people are complaining about this, but in the last few months reports of other, "less advanced", countries having faster internet on average than us super amazing Americans have crossed my desk.

Few, that was a mouthful.... moving on.

Well, in this recent article it was reported that the U.S. averages around 3.9 mbps. That really isn't anything to turn your nose up at. The only thing limiting speed is the stingy ISPs who want more money but don't deserve it because of crappy customer service. But what really caught my eye was that two Utah cities were among those with the fastest average internet connections in the U.S. That makes me proud. I even almost live in one of them. It also goes to show us all that we haven't totally been forsaken. The providers in other parts of the country just need to take a look at the top ten.

Ah Cardboard....

Cardboard is almost as amazing as duct tape. Almost. But what really puts it up there is this fan-made Star Destroyer, made up entirely of cardboard. How's that for ingenuity?

Gallup Poll Says Americans Favor Profiling As New Security Measure

I'm not going to be totally long winded with this one here. I just wanted to throw this new poll out there. Gallup says that 71% of Americans agree that profiling based on age, ethnicity and gender as a way to improve airport security. I'm glad to know that I'm not in the minority on this one. If we really want to make security in the airports effective, racial profiling is a must. All of the airliner hijacking and bombing attempts within the last 30-40 years have been attempted by one group of people: radical muslim extremists.

Slashdot Blogger Says Full Body Scanner Makes Kiddi Porn

According to a Slashdot Blogger, there is an ongoing court battle in the UK over the legality of using full body scanners. Some contend that according to a certain UK law, the scanners create child porn, because the end result is a "pseudo-image of a child".

While I'm inclined to agree with interpreting that law in the same way, I am amazed that in some places(and soon in the U.S.A.) it has to come this to get people to realize the amount of freedoms lost just in the name of security. In my previous posts, I argue that the TSA has no bearing whatsoever on what they deem a threat, and therefor have nothing in particular to look for. This is dangerous. It's just like taking a blindfolded man, giving him a gun, puingt him in the room with hundreds of good people with only one terrorist, and telling him to shoot the terrorist within the next 10 seconds.

Racial and ethnic profiling is the only way to go if we must provide such stringent security measures.