HARDWARE: SLINGBOX not recommended

Monday, October 24, 2011

SLINGBOX sucks.

I bought it with the intention that Our Girl would be able to watch her soap in the hospital.

Couldn’t get it to connect to the (at the time) Comcast router.

(At the time, I was working for Comcast and their official supprt reaction was “good”. No surprise there.)

SO, needless to say that was a waste and “Non returnable” to the Sling folks.

(Isn’t the first time I’ve gotten stuck with a “whte elephant” by a vendor. But like the elephant, I never forget. I have alist of “folk I’ll never buy from”. Hardware, software, carpet, windows, home improvement, cars, etc. etc. I get screwed a lot.)

Down the shore, I have a cable router that I can’t cancel for another year. So, let me see if I can get it working down there. Now it connects to the net, but when I go to register the website won’t give me anything other than “invalid password”. (How can any password be invalid?)

Go over to support, can’t get support on anything unless it’s within 90 days of purchase.

Argh!

(Maybe it’s time to annoy some Gooferment bureaucrats?)

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: The secret of longer life?

Monday, October 24, 2011

http://science.slashdot.org/story/11/10/16/0215224/dna-sequenced-of-woman-who-lived-to-115

DNA Sequenced of Woman Who Lived To 115
Posted by Soulskill on Sunday October 16, @02:20AM

*** begin quote ***

chrb writes

“The DNA of W115 — an anonymous woman who lived to the age of 115 years and left her body to science — has been sequenced. Despite her old age, W115 showed no signs of dementia or heart disease, and tests at the age of 113 showed she had the mental abilities of a woman aged 60-75 years. Dr. Henne Holstege of the Department of Clinical Genetics at the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam has suggested W115 had rare genetic changes in her DNA which protected against Alzheimer’s and other late-life diseases.”

*** end quote ***

Is this the secret of longer life?

I remember a Heinlein SciFi novel that postulated the premise that long life was genes. You wither had them or you didn’t.

Hmm?

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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: Remind me about availability?

Sunday, October 23, 2011

201110230029.jpg

Recorded after the World Series Game at approx 0030 EDST 23 Oct 2011.

Guess any day is as good as another.

lol!

# – # – # – # – # 2011-Oct-23 @ 00:30

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Posted by reinkefj

DATA: Getting content on to the ipad without spending money

Saturday, October 22, 2011

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/37815/37815-h/37815-h.htm

SNOWDRIFT
A Story of the Land of the Strong Cold
By JAMES B. HENDRYX

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: The problem of a digital bookcase

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Designing an infinite digital bookcase
Posted: 18 Oct 2011 12:29 PM PDT

(Cross-posted on the Google Code blog)

As digital designers, we often think about how to translate traditional media into a virtual space. Recently, we thought about the bookcase. What would it look like if it was designed to hold digital books?

A digital interface needs to be familiar enough to be intuitive, while simultaneously taking advantage of the lack of constraints in a virtual space. In this case, we imagined something that looks like the shelves in your living room, but is also capable of showcasing the huge number of titles available online—many more than fit on a traditional shelf. With this in mind, we designed a digital bookcase that’s an infinite 3D helix. You can spin it side-to-side and up and down with your mouse. It holds 3D models of more than 10,000 titles from Google Books.

{Extraneous Deleted}

Posted by Aaron Koblin, Data Arts Team and Bill Schilit, Research

# – # – #

I love the ability of reading books on the IPAD.

But, I’ve lost the ability of sharing a book with others.

And, it seems that everyone wants me to pay, re-pay, and pay again for the same content.

Ain’t going to happen! Can’t happen.

Reason #1: I can’t afford to buy all that content over again. Reason #2: Some of the content I want to have (i.e., Heinlein’s Starship Troopers) is not available.

And, I still have a grip with CopyRight law. If a book is “out of print”, how is that benefiting society. And seventy or more years under “protection”.

Sorry, copyrights and patents shouldn’t last more that a decade or two. And, just putting a ribbon on the donkey’s butt should give another decade or two of lock up. We, as a society, exchange the lockup for the benefit of everyone. Where’s the benefit of an extended lockup.

Argh!

# – # – # – # – # 2011-Oct-19 @ 13:18

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Posted by reinkefj

HARDWARE: IOS5 Wireless syncing

Saturday, October 15, 2011

http://www.macworld.com/article/163060/2011/10/up_close_with_ios_5_wireless_syncing_and_updating.html#lsrc.rss_main

Up close with iOS 5: Wireless syncing and updating | Mobile | Macworld

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The new wifi sync is a big benefit of doing the IOS5 update. but you have to turn it on. Who knew? Argh.

# – # – # – # – # 2011-Oct-15 @ 11:24

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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: GOOGLEPLUS invite if you want it

Saturday, October 8, 2011

https://plus.google.com/i/dvpVtEu9JJ4:1hsACMsbowE

[JR: GOOGLEPLUS invite for anyone who’s interested.]

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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: Verizon Ads

Thursday, October 6, 2011
Dear Valued Customer,                                                                                                                   en español

Your privacy is an important priority at Verizon. We want to let you know that Verizon will soon participate in a program that will improve the ability of advertisers to reach our Verizon Online customers based on your physical address. The goal is to provide online ads that may be more relevant to you.

This program uses your address to determine whether you reside in a local area an advertiser is trying to reach. However, Verizon won’t share your address with advertisers as part of this process. Advertisers won’t know it’s you specifically or where you actually live. If you do not want us to allow advertisers to send you ads based on your geographic area you can let us know by selecting here.

What does this mean for you?

Certain ads you’ll see while browsing the Internet may be directed to you and other Verizon Online customers in your area, so these ads may be of more interest to you. For example, a pizza chain may want to deliver their ad to give a special offer to people living in a particular area. Using this program, national brands and local businesses can tailor their offers, coupons, and incentives to your local area.

Protection of Your Personal Information

Verizon protects your personal information as described in our privacy policy. You can learn about Verizon’s ad practices or let us know that you do not want to participate by selecting here. If you don’t want to participate, you will need your User ID and Password to access the opt-out page. Please note that declining to participate won’t impact the number of ads you see, just their potential relevance to you.

For answers to your frequently asked questions, select here.

Sincerely,

Verizon

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“Your privacy is an important priority at Verizon.”

Yeah, right.

Deliver ads?

I don’t use any Verizon “online” services so how are they going to “serve” me ads?

Another confused “offering”?

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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: FACEBOOK had a wierd one

Saturday, October 1, 2011

*** begin quote ***

Facebook account is displaying random ascii symbols instead of English words: “4dd pixors / v!dz.” instead of “Add photos / videos”, and “P057” instead of “POST”, for example. Happens on every machine including iPad and in all browsers. Anyone have a clue what could be going on?

*** end quote ***

is there a language setting in facebook?

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That was it – the language setting had somehow been changed to LeetSpeak. Thanks!

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It was really just a strictly wild <synonym for donkey> guess. I didn’t even know that Facebook had language settings. Please pass along my “thank you”.

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Posted by reinkefj

HARDWARE: VERIZON FIOS TV grid empty

Saturday, October 1, 2011

The TV GRID is empty. Power glitch unlikely since nothing’s blinking. Reset by Verizon? Argh!

# – # – # – # – # 2011-Oct-01 @ 13:11

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Posted by reinkefj

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