My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on January 2, 2011

After talking with my daughter this past week about games for cellphones … and mentioning to her that I didn’t really play them, I took advantage of a slow afternoon to download the popular Angry Birds for my Palm Pre – big mistake. I ended up draining my battery and wasting hours of an otherwise perfect afternoon focused on slinging birds out of a slingshot at snorting pigs … at least I think they are pigs? Mesmerized by the simplicity and fantastic graphics, I did finally proceed to the 8th level of the “Lite” (free) version and was stumped as my battery died in trying to kill that grinning swine – something tells me that the game is not Audubon or Peta approved?. Ugh … why did I download this productivity killing game. Off with you I say … off my phone!

Category: Cellphone | No Comments »
Tags: angry, birds, Cellphone, game, smartphone

Posted By RichC on January 1, 2011

My son couldn’t stop laughing at this Top Gear holiday episode – a road trip from Miami to New Orleans – and wanted me to watch it. It takes a little time so I watch it on New Year’s Day on the computer.

“Crazy Brits” definitely applies to a few of the things they do.

Category: Automotive, Humor, Video-TV | No Comments »
Tags: top gear

Posted By RichC on January 1, 2011

Category: Misc | 2 Comments »
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Posted By RichC on January 1, 2011

According to a Smartmoney.com article by AnnaMaria Andriodis, we could see states and counties increasing taxes on new technology such as cellphones and e-books. Unlike Uncle Sam, state and county governments are required to balance their budgets and as local sales taxes and both the real estate and income tax stream of tax revenue dwindle they are looking to “a variety of pockets” and “they’re looking at what’s new and hot,” according to independent technology analyst, Jeff Kagan.

One of the more chilling examples of the overreaching taxman being cited is the downloading e-books. “When you buy an e-book for that new Kindle … don’t be surprised if you’re taxed not just by the state you live in, but also by the state where the server that you’re downloading from is located. A buyer living in New Jersey who purchases a $10 e-book housed on a server in Texas might pay $1.52 in taxes (7% sales tax in N.J.; 8.25% in Texas).”

As for cellphones, according to the research in the article, expect taxes on conventional and data driven smartphone plans to go up “about 2%.” “On average, 15% of a monthly cell phone service bill is already made up of taxes and fees, compared to 7% for most other goods and services, according to CTIA. But in 23 states, taxes run even higher, including Washington at 23.64%, Nebraska 23.44%, Florida 21.31%, New York at 21.1%. Municipalities can — and often do — tack on a tax, too.”

Audio segment from the WSJ This Weekend Podcast:

Category: Audio, Financial, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: audio, Cellphone, e-book, mp3, smartmoney, taxes, wsj

Posted By RichC on December 31, 2010

Taylor and his friends leaving for Chicago – Photoshopped (see below for original)

I posted a photo to Facebook with a tag line questioning that after taking three photos of Taylor and his friends before heading to Chicago for New Year’s Eve that someone would have their eyes closed in every photo. I counted to 3 before tripping the shutter but all three fail! Anyway my nephew thought that perhaps I was “adding a bat” to the photo, when actually I was just “photoshopping” to keep the eyes open. (click each for larger images)

Category: Photos, Social Media | No Comments »
Tags: photoshopped

Posted By RichC on December 31, 2010

It has been a positive year for those brave enough to stomach the stock market and remain bullish as the DJIA closed the year at 11,578 (up $7.80 today).

The year was far from a gentle, but still up except for the sudden and steep downturn prior to summer. In fact, hindsight says you would have been smartest to have put investment dollars to work in say … July … and if you tracked the DOW your gains would have neared 20% … not bad (see chart below). Of course most of us feel fortunate to have watched some of our investment losses return from the heavy losses a couple years back. Let’s just hope for a solid broad based recovery in 2011 … including jobs, confidence and real estate.

There are probably a couple feeling really smug  … those who’ve been buying gold and are up 30% in 2010.

Category: Financial | No Comments »
Tags: 2010, djia, investing

Posted By RichC on December 31, 2010

Either I was way too early in adopting Palm’s webOS and the Palm Pre smartphone, or the powers that be are dropping the ball in moving ahead quick enough to satisfy me with their OS and product line. It is too bad that Palm, then HP, did not develop the alliances with partners and market hardware that could keep up with their competitors – particularly Apple and Google’s Android. I’m disappointed at minimum and frustrated to be more accurate. I do really like the Palm Pre and am satisfied with my carrier (Sprint), but am currently having difficulty being optimistic, unless HP makes a quantum leap pretty soon.

Although the app catalog officially does have 5000 programs and my phones is just as efficient (actually more efficient since I’m running the chip at 1ghz) as it was on day one nearly two years ago, we’re still waiting for the next webOS 2.0 release, an Adobe Flash Player which was highlighted last year at this time, and new phone hardware (hardly anything new). The Palm Pre 2, which was disappointingly release first in France and then second with Verizon in the U.S. I think its odd that HP opted to offend the largest webOS user base on Sprint … or was unable to convince Sprint to sign on? I’m guessing I’m not alone in contemplating looking around at mobile operating systems which seem to have the momentum; or am I just venting frustration? Let’s hope 2011 brings improvement and pleasant surprises to loyal webOS and Palm phone users – I’m giving notice.

Category: Computer, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: hp, smartphone, webos

Posted By RichC on December 30, 2010

The gurus at WordPress.org have tweaked their programming code and issued an Important Security Update. Take note if you are self-hosted WordPress user and update your install as soon as possible.

Version 3.0.4 of WordPress, available immediately through the update page in your dashboard or for download here, is a very important update to apply to your sites as soon as possible because it fixes a core security bug in our HTML sanitation library, called KSES. I would rate this release as “critical.”

I realize an update during the holidays is no fun, but this one is worth putting down the eggnog for. In the spirit of the holidays, consider helping your friends as well.

If you are a security researcher, we’d appreciate you taking a look over this changeset as well to review our update. We’ve given it a lot of thought and review but since this is so core we want as many brains on it as possible. Thanks to Mauro Gentile and Jon Cave (duck_) who discovered and alerted us to these XSS vulnerabilities first.

Category: Computer, Software | No Comments »
Tags: security, update, wordpress

Posted By RichC on December 30, 2010

I saw a photo of a couple of crazy sailors (are there any other kind?) that reminded me of my teenage years with high school friend Charlie “Kamakaze” Matthews sailing the “Fiberpile” in late winter and early spring. We were so anxious to get back on the water that one of us would bounce up and down in order to break through the thin ice. Eventually we would icebreak our way to clear water and some brisk sailing. Great memories.
 

The “Fiberpile”

Category: Personal, Photos, Sailing | No Comments »
Tags: fiberpile, sailboat, sailing, winter

Posted By RichC on December 29, 2010

Words of the Year (video below) … wsj.com

“A data analysis of words printed in The Wall Street Journal reveals a trove of intriguing terms that starred in 2010 but could barely wriggle their way into 2009 coverage. Luge, robo-signer, Tamaulipas and jeggings registered spikes in usage.”

Category: Misc, News | 2 Comments »
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