withering mind

I was taking a walk at lunch andsort of surfing the radio and stumbled on the Kojo Nnamdi show on NPR.  He was interviewing some “VP of interviews or something” from Facebook. Yeah I know, riveting stuff.  Stay with me.  Some lady called up and went from 0 to bitch about the fact that her 11 year old daughter keeps sneaking online and opening a Facebook account (Facebook terms of service has something about being 13 with your parents approval).  She was concerned about the fact that her kid was talking to older guys and seeing stuff that wasn’t really appropriate for a 11 year old.  The Facebook guy kept rattling off facts about how they ask for your date of birth and some other information.  The lady kept on about how it is a major problem with her daughter and her daughter’s friends and she was all but demanding that Facebook do something about her kid making up a fake birth date and setting up an account.   I have never wanted to call into a radio show SO badly.
Has it not occurred to this “Mother” that unless she had a love child with Facebook, Facebook is not this kid’s parent. This lady doesn’t want to be the “bad guy” by setting rules for what her kid can and can not do.  She would rather  some dumb website (that has “a few” more members than my blog) come up with some magic code than can stop a snot-nosed kid from posting pictures of herself dancing with a poster of the Jonus brothers or what ever “tweens” do.

Hmm it is IMPOSSIBLE.
The worst part is everyone on the show acted like.. “Yeah Facebook, raise my kids.” And “Bad Facebook, you give away a free service now bend to my demands.” No one on the show called her out.  Not one caller said a word about that.
So I will say it here (where no one will hear).  Bitch raise your own kids, tell your kid “If you go on Facebook again you will get punished.”  And if they do it again PUNISH then, what ever that means to you.  Ground them, take away their computer or cell phone or cut the webbing of their toes with a envelope,  whatever that is in your house. You are only setting up your kids to be failures that can’t deal with the consequences of their actions.

In my previous life I might have .. well lets say “run amok of the law”.   I have found that as a general rule most low level criminals are very bold but not really ones to give forethought into pulling off a caper. Most of the time when someone sticks up a convenience store it is a drunken (or high) spur of the moment sort of thing. From what I have seen heard, it goes like this:
Crim1: Fuck this shit.  Lets rob that fool up at the quickie mart.
Crim2: I am drunk, we haven’t planned this in anyway and I have no way of obscuring my identity. ok lets rob him.
And off they go, normally they get picked up about 8 mins after they walk into the store because they are slow and dumb.
If they aren’t picked up at the store they are caught on tape holding their high school year book or they leave their wallet with a note in it saying “Remember not to lose your wallet when you rob the 7-11.”
If they were smart they would take 10 mins to build one of these neat hats. Not only would you be stylish but your face could not be caught on camera due to the camera blinding (yet invisible to our eyes) infrared LEDS. Video after the jump.

Invisible Mask – Funny bloopers are a click away

Well boo on me.  I haven’t really found a good way to mash up my newly found torrentula (torrent app for iPhone) and a rss feed or timer. No matter really, as 1. I can just pop it open before I go to bed and get what I want so it is ready for my drive in and 2. No one reads my blog so I am not letting anyone down besides myself.
On the note of driving in. I am still falling in love with my new hybrid ford fusion. I am still waiting on the VA special fuel plates so I can drive in the HOV lanes. Fortunately it is still summer and Congress is out so traffic is light and my commute is still less than a hour each way.
One thing that sorta sucks about the fusion is that the sync nav/radio/climate control/hard drive jukebox/back up camera/ipod interface/blue tooth phone controller has to index the iPhone every 2nd time I plug it in.  It isn’t that big of a deal, it takes 10mins with my 8 gigs of music. Two other things, it seems like no matter what setting I use, it always autoplays my iPhone whenever the bluetooth is on and the phone is near the car. Bluetooth audio is a real battery killer so I have to make sure I plug my phone in when I am in the car (has a iPhone usb cable in the arm rest).  Also the sync has a 10 gig hard drive mp3 player in it.. but as far as I can tell the only way to load music into it is with CDs.  Hmmm I don’t have any.  Well I have some left over from high school.  I don’t know about you but my musical taste in high school is a little embarrassing now a days. Most of my music is lets say “grey market” mp3s so I guess I will just leave the on board jukebox empty for now.

That is all for now.. I am working on a “cheapish” flash based camcorder review (flip vs insignia) but since one camcorder is in HD my MSI wind netbook can’t really handle it.  I have to do that from home. So don’t hold your breath.

Ok I don’t want to freak you out, but I just downloaded an app in cydia that will allow you to download torrents right to your iPhone. That’s right, iPhone torrents. If I can mash it up with a rss reader then you could have your iPhone download new music or video wirelessly with out iTunes. I will get back to you when I know more.

Well if you knew me then you would know that I really like cars. I test drive cars all the time. I am not sure there is a car that I haven’t driven (under 60k). Also I am not a big fan of the “green movement.”  Have you driven a Prius? I would rather have sex with a Prius then drive one, it is utter crap, and the “new Insight” might as well be a covered wagon since it drives and sounds like a golf cart.
So you say?  Then don’t buy one.. Well that my dear friends is the rub.  I live in a city that will allow you to drive in the HOV lanes if you have a “special fuel” car (read the VA side of Washington DC).  I drive in and out of the city daily. I live NOWHERE near the Metro and the commuter bus adds 30 to 40 mins to my hour plus long drive in and out.  Back in my wilder and less caring about life and limb days I rode a motorcycle into work, but after a few run-ins with taxis and soccer moms on cell phones I gave the bikes up. When I did ride my motorcycle it cut 20 to 30 mins off my commute. That is a ton of time.

So what is a car loving boy to do? Well I will tell you. You buy the well spec’d 60 thousand dollar Lexus GS 450h..

Ok.. no you don’t.  Well I don’t because that is a lot of lettuce for a car that doesn’t make you fall in love. Don’t get me wrong, it is a VERY nice car but to me at that price there are about 100 other cars I would rather have. To be honest, I don’t think I could pay that kind of cash for a car that wasn’t .. well a Lotus.
So what did I get? None of your business!.. Oh well I got a Ford Fusion hybrid. Why?  It acts and drives like a real car.  It is one big computer, I can not wait to start digging into this thing. Stand by for full review and tips and tricks.

Yesterday I left the house with out my phone. I live and die with my phone, because I tether my iphone to get online at work.  Did you know you can tether your iphone with out even jail breaking it? (even if you SHOULD jail break it). Update your iPhone to 3.0 and then go to this url on your iphone.

http://help.benm.at/help.php

I have my MRI today, so no good posts till tomorrow most likely.

We are heading back into the woods again this weekend (like every weekend).  Might get a new rig.. we shall see. Have a good weekend.

I have been logging some time with the Tin pushers over at FAA Follies for quite a while now.
I have worked in and around the Federal government for nearly all of my adult life.  I have always been SHOCKED with how poorly contracts are run and the arrogance and stupidity of nearly all of the upper federal management (more on that in later posts I am sure). The amount of greed and waste that I see on a DAILY basis makes me sick, but I do not work on systems that directly effect the public safety.

With that said the only reason the airplanes are not running into each other or the ground at an alarmingly high rate is because of the guys in the towers. The new “Project Management” management style takes all of the smarts out of being a manager.  At one time good management either knew the work being done because they once did it, or understood that they don’t know the job and TALKED with the guys of the front lines and figured out what they needed.  Nowadays, if you get your PMP and you can make a spreadsheet with tasks and dates, that is ALL that is needed to get something done.
Well guess what.. Your worthless PMP cert can’t keep planes in the sky. One day the government will figure out that you don’t need 1 manager per contractor ( if you count government and contracted management on the project I am on you get just under 1 to 1 ratio).  I just hope it isn’t after loss of life and limb.

I HATE APPLE.  I do not like when machines try to think for me.  It just drives me crazy.  But I do really like the iPhone.  I don’t want to like it but the app store makes it IMPOSSIBLE not to fall in love with this dumb phone mp3 player thingie.

With all that said the fact that Apple will not let you “skin” your iPhone means they are elitist and think their users are dumb. And for the most part most apple users are elitist hipsters that think they are talented wonderful flowers. They all have shaggy hair cuts and drive hybrids because they want to do something for “our mother”. Fuck them and fuck you. The next “designer” “friend” that tell me they want to move to Peru and live in a hut for a year. yet can’t change there own oil in because their Dad left when you where 15 for a Pre op tranny…

sorry.. I hate hipsters..
ANNYYYwho.. You should really take the time to check out all of the really cool apps that you can get your hands on when you jail break your iPhone. Top of the cool list is Winterboard which allows you to change the look and feel of your iPhone.. see my action shots below..
Keep in mind I like simple stuff. There are some really cool and different looking ones right in the repository, and they install just like the normal app store.. que action shots..
So how do you jail break your iPhone?
I am NOT going into that.. but I will toss you this
Iphonehacks it is a very good site to sort out how to do all of it.. REMEMBER to back up your iPhone with itunes before you get started.. so you can get all your stuff back on the phone.

There are tons of apps that Apple doesn’t want you to have.. Some of them really good (xGPS gps without needing to be online –read google maps off line) and some that aren’t that good (Asia girl slider I am looking at you).  I can’t say enough good things about it.  I do not know ANYONE that has “bricked” their phone. Hell my Dad used quickpwn all by himself and my wife has been using her jail broken phone for 6 months without issue. But if you do jack up your phone don’t come crying to me.

So go stick it to the Apple man!

I can not live without Top Gear UK, (TG Australia and Russia are “okayish”). I have been following the show for about 6 or 7 years. In the past it has been REALLY hard to get the show here in the good old US of A because BBC America runs it cut down and like 18 months behind.  F dat.  If you are a junky like me let me help you get your fix.
The boys and girls over at Final Gear are WAY more into it than me. They are also way more motivated than me because they post RSS feeds for all of the top gears and 5th gear shows as torrents.
BOO YA right?
Well if you are not all excited maybe you aren’t all up on torrents and the like. I am not going to really talk about torrents because it is WAY to much to get into.
What I will hip you too is a great app called MIRO. Miro is a Video player and sorta super watching tool built to replace your crappy TV with a window into the world of FREE entertainment. Too bad free entertainment stinks on ice (joking). We can however use MIRO to get our hands on some gray market video.
First off.. I don’t know if this is legal.. I mean we kicked England’s ass and then came back and saved them from Hitler, so I feel like we can do what we want.
Second off.. You can apply this to just about any rss feed with MIRO, so have fun let me know if you find a place with just the top movies (not that I would use it winky).
Third..hmm offly?… I didn’t invent or come up with any of this. I am just sticking what I do in one place.
With that said.. err typed, go and download MIRO and install it..
Then head over to Final Gear and peck around till you find the RSS feed for the show or shows you want.
(here is the feed link to all of the shows …http://feeds.feedburner.com/finalgeartorrents )
Now in MIRO click Sidebar > Add Feed ..BOOM paste the feed link in.

All you have to do is wait for it to start downloading. It shouldn’t take that long for the newest ones as Top Gear is one of the most downloaded shows on the interwebs.
That’s it.. Miro is a really great app and there is a TON of content for free just within Miro. Go and play with it.

Thanks to Final Gear for all the hard work you have a GREAT sight.