My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on September 4, 2010

As the Labor Day holiday weekend kicks off, I did some light technology housekeeping chores on my Palm Pre smartphone. Besides finally getting around to smoothing out my app card screen order, I updated my UberKernel and the  Govnah app to include a 1gHz screen-on mode. The doubling of clock speed may be pushing things a bit(I’ve been running 800mHz), but enough webOS Palm Pre guys have been doing it to make me feel like trying. Some are even cocky enough to try 1.2gHz! One of the advantages of the Govnah app is to manage the ‘screen-off’ 500mHz state and the screen-on 1gHz state in order to keep the processor cooler. The speed increase is noticeable and at this point both stability and battery life seem pretty good.

Another missing app was added back to my Pre too – a replacement for my non-working since webOS 1.4.5 update was MyTether (for connecting my computer to the Internet through my phone). Unfortunately after updating, I lost the ability to use my phone as a mobile wifi connection – something I only use when a public hotspot is not available. The solution for now (until a new version of MyTether is released) is to use the Verizon “Mobile Hotspot” app via us.ryanhope.freetetherd ipk. It works pretty well, but the connection seems a bit slower than before (above)?

I also updated another app a day earlier … and actually  finally purchased the Twitter app called Tweed for my Pre. I’ve continued to use this app daily using the free beta, but after a authorization change by Twitter earlier this week, it no longer worked. Thankfully, PivotalLabs decided to attract those of us still using the beta by lowering the price from the $2.99 Palm webOS catalog price to 99 cents – I splurged and it was about time!
😀

Have a great Labor Day weekend.

Category: Cellphone, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: app, mytether, tweaks, twitter, webos

Posted By RichC on September 3, 2010

Listen to the short audio clip (below) of William Shatner on his “communicator” during a New York Times Magazine interview; see if you can figure out what kind of cellphone he is using?

🙂

Category: Audio, Cellphone | 2 Comments »
Tags: ringtone

Posted By RichC on September 3, 2010

Although I have nothing against an all electric vehicle for running around town or commuting in the city, one has to wonder about the components being mined, transported and produced for batteries (or the eventual waste/recycling), as well as just how the power is generated in order to charge an all-electric vehicle – Edmunds ‘Swiss study’ article.

For many of us who live in the US and drive significant miles (we’re still a wide open interstate country), an efficient diesel powered vehicle might make quite a bit more sense. VW TDIs, and most of the newer clean diesels being sold, are a pretty green competitors and might even be a more economical choice for owners too –link — not to mention that their environmental footprint improves even more if they are being fueled with carbon neutral biodiesel.

Category: Automotive, Biodiesel, Volkswagen | No Comments »
Tags: biodiesel, diesel, Environment, ev, leaf, nissan, tdi, volkswagen, vw

Posted By RichC on September 3, 2010

I’ve been contemplating this week how to comment on last weekend’s gathering in Washington DC promoted by FoxNews commentator Glenn Beck, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it justice until reading a blog post by Lexington Green. I Think I See What Glenn Beck is Doing described the event, the purpose and why those attending came when invited by Glenn Beck. Well worded Mr. Green … confirmed by Beck himself.

Someone who asks what the rally has to do with the 2010 election is missing the point.

Beck is building solidarity and cultural confidence in America, its Constitution, its military heritage, its freedom. This is a vision that is despised by the people who have long held the commanding heights of the culture. But is obviously alive and kicking.

Beck is creating positive themes of unity and patriotism and freedom and independence which are above mere political or policy choices, but not irrelevant to them. Political and policy choices rest on a foundation of philosophy, culture, self-image, ideals, religion. Change the foundation, and the rest will flow from that. Defeat the enemy on that plane, and any merely tactical defeat will always be reversible.

Beck is unabashed that God can be invoked in public places by citizens, who vote and assemble and speak and freely exercise their religion. They are supposed to be too browbeaten to do this. Gathering hundreds of thousands of them to peaceably assemble shows they are not. But showing that the people who believe in God and practice their religion are fellow-citizens who share political and economic values with majorities of Americans is a critical step. The idea that these people are an American Taliban is laughable, but showing that fact to the world — and to potential political allies who are not religious — is critical.

Beck is attacking the enemy at the foundations of their power, their claim to race as a permanent trump card, their claim to the Civil Rights movement as a permanent model to constantly be transforming a perpetually unjust society.

…

Ronald Reagan said we would not defeat Communism, we would transcend it.

Beck is aiming to have America do the same thing to its decaying class of Overlords, transcend them.

Beck is prepping the battlefield for a generation-long battle.

He is that very American thing: A practical visionary.

See, simple.

Restore pride and confidence to your own side, and win the long game.

As Ronald Reagan also said, there are simple solutions, just no easy solutions.

God bless America.

READ entire post on ChicagoBoyz.net

Category: Politics | No Comments »
Tags: america, foxnews, glenn beck, rally, restore, Washington DC

Posted By RichC on September 1, 2010

In keeping with yesterday’s post of how law enforcement deals with challenging situations, police in California seemed a bit too aggressive in the case below. Perhaps they followed procedure … but if innocent, an incident like this can be frightening. Should police have handled John and Martha King differently?

John King shared his “guns drawn/detained in handcuffs” incident in an AOPA video conference call. What we learn is that a reassigned N-number and lousy research by the government’s El Paso Intelligence Center left local police with a black-eye and a pilot and his wife shaken.

Do you know the history of the planes and N-numbers you fly before planning an IFR flight?

Category: Aviation, Video | No Comments »
Tags: aviation

Posted By RichC on September 1, 2010

Hopefully listening, reading and keeping an open mind to a variety of opinions — Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and even Socialists — will give me informed opinions when I head to the polls to elect a representative.

Last night an interesting statistic was toss out by self-professed Libertarian John Stossel – it was a statistic that I needed to verify. Although personally I’ve already hypothesized that extending unemployment benefits does dissuade some people from aggressively finding jobs, I was surprise to hear the high numbers. The “one-third” comment Stossel made came from a 2003 Pennsylvania study which concluded that “28% of unemployed workers found work within a week of their unemployment benefits running out.” *

Disturbing considering unemployment benefits were just extended again … I do wonder if these statistics are realistic in today’s economy?

* Stepan Jurajda and Frederick J Tannery, “Unemployment Duration and Extended Unemployment Benefits in Local Labor Markets,” Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Vol. 56, No. 2 (January 2003), pp. 332–334.

Category: Politics, Video-TV | 2 Comments »
Tags: oreilly, Politics, stossel, unemployment

Posted By RichC on August 31, 2010

What would you do if you were security or police and asked to escort someone from the Alaska State Fair (private property) who was “loudly” exercising his constitutionally protected right to Freedom of Speech?

Some say security used excessive force … others express concern that the “provoked and angry Palmer Alaska resident, Sidney Hill was asking for trouble.

When security personnel discovered Hill had a handgun on him, “that’s when the whole thing changed … All the supporters went away when they saw there was a gun.”

PALMER — A 52-year-old Palmer man who was arrested while protesting at the Alaska State Fair has become a minor YouTube celebrity in the Valley.

Sidney Hill is familiar to local residents as the gentleman who spends most of his days on the corner of the Palmer-Wasilla and Glenn highways with his large “Impeach Obama” sign. When he brought that banner to the first day of the fair, he drew a crowd.

READ

Category: Politics, Video | 8 Comments »
Tags: alaska, free speech, obama, Politics

Posted By RichC on August 30, 2010

Every once in a while, the point of sale technique works on me … and today was the day. I coughed up $1.43 for a Palm Pre app called Neato! It’s a simple little application that runs on the webOS smartphone and receives webpage links, copied text and maps from a computer browser using a javascript bookmark button (installed on Chrome and Firefox).

Once installed and running on the Pre, the bookmarklet added to the browser bar can be clicked to send the page or text to the registered smartphone … so as long as the app Neato! is running in the background AND the screen is active (battery saving feature). The current productive use that I’ve found is with maps; I often look something up while at the desk and with a single click can quickly send it to the phone before heading out of the office.

A second use is to send a highlighted bit of text that contains an name and/or phone number and send it to the phone. One click and it is waiting to be used or copied to my contacts or calendar (slightly easier than adding to Google Contacts or Calendar and hoping it syncs before I need it). Nevertheless, I’d like to see a bit more two way communication (ie. phone to computer) and an archiving feature that saves and perhaps edits previous items. The app works easy with YouTube clips and photos/images too.

From the “How to” instruction within the app

neato! is pretty simple to set up, but it does take a few steps. From the main app card, tap the "Generate URL" button. The app will then display a URL that looks like this:
http://zhephree.com/neato/id/a1b2c

Visit that URL on your computer’s web browser. Do not visit it on your phone.

The web page that is displayed on your computer will give you a blue link. Drag that link to your web browser’s bookmark bar. Now that you have the bookmarklet "installed" in your browser, you can swipe the main app card away on your phone. Do not close the dashboard notification. It needs to be running for neato! to work. Now you can click the "neato!" bookmarklet in your browser and either the URL of the site will be sent to your phone, or the text that is selected on the web page.

Note: when your phone’s display turns off, neato! disconnects. It will reconnect when your phone’s display turns back on. neato! does this to conserve battery power when the phone is not in use.

neato! faq

How can I have Google Map links open in Sprint or VZW Navigator instead of the Google Maps app?

neato! uses webOS’s default apps to launch special URLs, such as Google Maps URLs. To have them open in Sprint or VZW Navigator, open the application Launcher. Tap the "Launcher" menu in the upper left corner of the screen and select "Default Applications". In there, change "Directions" to your carrier’s navigation app.

Sometimes text won’t send to my phone from a web page.
There’s a limitation in the length of text that can be sent.

Currently, small snippets of text around 120 characters can be sent to your phone. There’s also a bug where if there is a carriage return in your text selection, neato! won’t get the message. A fix is on the way.

Why does the neato! icon have to stay in the notification area?
This is the nature of webOS. Apps cannot truly run in the background for more than 60 seconds without having some sort of window or notification open.

Apps like the Facebook app, or your favorite Twitter app aren’t running in the background. They actually quietly open every few minutes, check for new data, and then either display a notification, or close. The problem with this for neato!’s purpose is that the minimum amount of time this can happen is 5 minutes. This would completely break the instantaneousness of neato!. So, unfortunately, there is no way neato! can currently run without an icon in the dashboard and still be allowed in the Palm App Catalog.

If I doctor my phone, will neato! still work?

Yep! neato! uses your phone’s device id to calculate your special URL and your custom bookmarklet, so as long as you have the same phone, your bookmarklet will still work. If you do get a new device, just tap the "Generate URL" button on your new device and get your new bookmarklet URL.

Can I send stuff from my phone to my computer instead?

Not yet! But plans are in the works to make this happen. You’ll get an update on when this happens.

Category: Cellphone, Computer, Software, Technology | 4 Comments »
Tags: app, smartphone, webos

Posted By RichC on August 30, 2010

As the tropical activity heats up in the Atlantic, I wanted to play a little more with raw data to see exactly what kind of projections are concluded. For those not in the bluewater sailing  or weather watching world, the data is downloaded and run in GRIB file readers. I’m using UGRIB and imported the data about 17:00 EST on Monday.

Currently the storm centers of Danielle and Earl are both spinning around in the Atlantic Ocean and they were impressively captured by NASA’s Terra satellite (be sure to click for larger files). Both of these storms are expected to impact land with Earl seemingly the biggest threat to the US east coast later this week. Below is a short video projecting the path.

Danielle started causing problems for U.S. east coast residents this past weekend with large waves and dangerous surf conditions and reports indicated that more than 100 people were rescued from dangerous currents in beaches from Maryland to New Jersey. According to reports, “large waves and dangerous surf conditions are diminishing around Bermuda today, and will gradually subside along the U.S. east coast over the next couple of days. Waves near 10 feet however are expected to develop this afternoon along parts of Newfoundland, Canada as Danielle tracks northward. Danielle’s maximum sustained winds were near 75 mph, and it is expected to weaken in the next 48 hours and become extratropical.

Earl is now consider a “major hurricane (Category 3)” and has  maximum sustained winds near 120 mph. Earl’s center was about 95 miles east-northeast of St. Thomas and 165 miles east of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The National Hurricane Center stated that "Hurricane conditions will be spreading across the northern Virgin Islands during the next few hours. Tropical storm conditions will spread over portions of Puerto Rico this afternoon with Hurricane conditions possible this evening and tonight. Storm surge will raise water levels by as much as 3 to 5 feet above ground level primarily near the coast in areas of onshore wind within the hurricane warning area…and 1 to 3 feet in the tropical storm warning area. The surge will be accompanied by large and dangerous battering waves. Earl is expected to produce total rainfall accumulations of 4 to 8 inches over the Leeward Islands, The Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico with possible isolated maximum amounts of 12 inches especially over higher elevations."

Category: Weather | No Comments »
Tags: atlantic, grib, hurricane, storms, tropical, weather

Posted By RichC on August 30, 2010

Category: Automotive, Volkswagen | No Comments »
Tags: audi, diesel, tdi, vw