Here’s a helpful “Tech Friday” post that is really just some smart advice – it has nothing to do with the photo of Tootsie above except that it was taken with the iPhone 5. Anyway, a client of mine regularly upgrades his high end phone (and now his iPad) every 2 years as permitted by his cellphone contract and takes advantage of the subsidized plans like most of us in the U.S. As a gadget guy, he looks forward to new in phone, tablet and computer technology, even though a new phone requires some out of pocket costs to upgrade. Most of us toss our old phones in a drawer or box, but could be selling that relatively useful phone if it were new enough and in good shape.
His advice: “Buy a top end desirable/popular phone and put it in a protective case as it improves the resale value of a two year old phone. Listing a “like-new” phone on eBay without a contract sells quickly and the $100-$200 can covered the out of pocket costs of a new phone.” (his last two “like-new” phones sold for enough to cover the cost of new phones and he’s been pretty successful in selling to upgrading his iPads too)
Just a personal comment on switching to the iPhone 5 from the Palm Pre. I had though that I would miss the physical keyboard, but have been shock at just how quickly I’ve adapted to iOS and the virtual keyboard. I have very few gripes about it and will continue to rave about the excellent camera … what an improvement over the old Palm Treo and Palm Pre. (above is a normally lit indoor photo and below is a macro of a flower using the camera on the iPhone 5)
The popular automotive site, Autoblog, wasn’t overly complementary when it came to parting with a 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI after a 12 month 20,000 plus mile test drive. This current and slightly larger body style has been widely criticized for its "cheapened" feel and less than European driving characteristics. Autoblog drivers did however say positive things about the little diesel’s fuel economy:
… we added up all of the fuel economy records in our logbook, divided by the number of fill-ups and came to this final observed number: 42.1 mpg. That’s right, our average just narrowly bested the claimed highway economy number. And, to be honest, we could have done better if we actually tried. Many drivers noted fuel economy of over 50 mpg, with Editor Korzeniewski taking the cake with one 53.8-mpg run, which he achieved without even trying.
Jacksonville, Florida beachgoers (although it is a bit cold for swimming) have had a large visitor named Mary Lee the last few days. I seems a 16-1/2 foot 3500 pound great white shark has been wandering very close to shore. Ocearch, a shark research group, has tagged and is tracking “Mary Lee” on a website and Facebook page. The nonprofit group is dedicated to shark preservation and was surprised to see the GPS signal moving this far south andthis close to shore (below). Founding chairman Chris Fischer tagged the great white shark off Massachusetts in September, where they are more common, but Mary Lee has been moving steadily south this year.
After seeing the location move near the surf and Jacksonville beaches, Fischer decided to call the Jacksonville Beach police from his home in Park City, Utah just to make them aware. The police took the information seriously and stopped to update a lifeguard station in the middle of the night to be sure there were no swimmers in the area. It was a cold night, so there weren’t any … but sent out a warning.
“Due to the size of the shark and the potential dangers we are recommending at this time that people stay out of the water until the shark leaves our area.”
I’ve held off until now before adding a couple thoughts to the discussion on the high profile killings last year which concluded with the December mass murder at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Commenting while emotions were raw was not something that was going to further logical debate … and probably still won’t since from what I can see the focus is still only on gun control.
What we know from the last couple of mass murders is that there are some commonalities. First, the killers are relatively young, male and mentally unstable. Second, they target defenseless victims where the killer is unlikely to encounter resistance … and third, the psychopath used a gun with plenty of ammunition. In order to seriously address this threat, it seems sensible to look at all of the above and come up with a more realistic way to prevent mass killings rather than singularly focusing on the weapon used. I currently not detecting much logic from the approach politicians are taking. If stopping the legal sales of a listed number of magazines and weapons classified at “assault rifles” in a nation of 3 million guns being the only “patch,” we aren’t serious about stopping another massacre. Of course the cynic in me suspects anti-gun advocates aren’t really focused on preventing killings, but are really only focused on restricting gun ownership in America?
If we were really serious, wouldn’t it make more sense to at least discuss the approach and treatment for those who are mentally ill or knowingly unstable … or address the stupidity of telling criminals and killers that they won’t face any armed resistance because they are in a “gun free zone.” Let’s get serious America and focus on a solution that has a chance of working.
My travel schedule this week was modified slightly to include a couple more cold calls in the Cleveland area that I’ve been putting off until the new year … not really my choice … but it works out so that my son Taylor will be able to go to a seminar and workshop while he is on his college Christmas and New Year’s break.
CSU session (Reserved for CSU faculty, staff and students): Monday, January 7, 2013 10:00am – 2:00pm – Application of Community Mapping
Presentation (Open to Everyone): Monday, January 7, 2013 3:00pm – 4:30pm – Community Participatory Mapping Presentation
Full day session (Open to Everyone): Tuesday, January 8, 2013 9:00am – 4:00pm – Hands on Application of Community Mapping Project Workshop Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University
Let’s hope the “hands on” exposure ignites a excitement to graduate and begin his job search with renewed interest? If for no other reason, the seminar might be a chance to network with people in a new area and offer a chance to exchange “hellos” just in case an interview opportunity pops up in NE Ohio.
Another ultra-small car (the third 3-cylinder) his headed for the U.S. according to reports from Mitsubishi. They have struggled to make inroads due to the stiff competition and sluggish economy, but are hoping Americans will consider their 1.2 liter 3-cylinder Mirage. Their small three cylinder economy car will compete with Ford’s EcoBoost turbocharged 1.0 liter and the 3-cylinder in the Smart.
Will the Mitsubishi small 79 HP be enough to boost small car sales in North America like the Japanese cars were in the late 70’s and 80’s?
Up and coming shoe technology that charges gadgets could be one of the more interesting inventions this year. I suspect we’ll see more wearable charging in the future.
"This charger works using pressure, as you walk you generate pressure that in turn generates energy, once you have arrived where you were going you can now sit down and charge your mobile phone," Mutua told CNC World.
The technology apparently works with any shoe except bathroom slippers, and can be transferred to another once a shoe gets worn out.
I’m not a big social networking guy, but I do send tweets to Twitter, post a newsy story or two to Google+ and send a photo or two to Facebook once a month for family(and to a lessor extent use a few other social networks) … but Google is using its behemoth size to muscle users into using G+ by force. They are actually requiring G+ to be connected to users’ accounts. Amir Efrati of the WSJ commented “people who create an account to use Gmail, YouTube and other Google services” are also be “set up with public Google+ pages that can be viewed by anyone online.”
Over the last year I’ve notice and have been concerned over just how “linked” my Google ID has become. I purposely avoid posting every action to social networks, but over time it is becoming challenging to avoid. Android users are faced with even more integration with Google Now as was demonstrated by my daughter’s fiancé this past week. He has been letting Google monitor his calendar, watch his movements and locations (Maps and Lattitude) as well as sift through his gMail account in order to automatically forward alerts to his smartphone. For example, Google noticed he planned to drive from Columbus to Cincinnati and sent him weather updates and traffic alerts. Then proceeded to check his flight out of the Dayton Airport AND sent him his boarding pass … and did the same for his return trip. Whoa there!
As Google Now’s marketing video says, “Google Now is always one step ahead.” Hmm – I’m not sure I’m ready?
Well the “fiscal cliff” has been averted for the time being … a sort of a “kick the can down the road” decision was made in Washington DC … to use two of the banished terms for 2013 (link). The deal with hardly dealt with spending, the deficit or the looming under-funded entitlements which are the biggest drivers of the U.S. debt. Most analyst conclude that President Obama won round one and has fulfilled his campaign promise of raising taxes on the wealthy with the top marginal tax rate he demanded be set at 39.6%. In fact, he was able to do this without cutting much spending as demanded by conservatives. Republicans can “try” to put lipstick on this pig by saying that they were able to move the “wealthy descriptor” income from $200,000/$250,000 to $400,000/$450,000 for individuals or married couples. That seemed to satisfy some (probably those earning $200-400,000), but the biggest perceived victory besides preventing a downgrade of U.S. bonds, was to protect every American from the same kind of tax increases. According to most economists, a tax increase on every American in today’s economy would have triggered a second recession and significant number of job losses.
The congress also negotiated lessor changes in dividend rates as well as long term capital gains rates hikes even though they did rise … but the smaller number was seen as a compromise and positive for the financial markets. Neither those wanting higher taxes or the side wanting lower (or no) tax changes were happy with the legislation. Unfortunately in the end, very little was done to balance the budget or deal with government’s excessive spending.
Next hurdle, the “debt ceiling” in February.
Congress broke a rancorous stalemate Tuesday to pass legislation designed to avert the so-called fiscal cliff. But the compromise bill, which blocked most impending tax increases and postponed spending cuts largely by raising taxes on upper-income Americans, left a host of issues unresolved and guaranteed continued budget clashes between the parties.
