My iPod Touch broke a couple weeks ago. It still plays music and games, but the home button broke and now I can’t get back to the home screen. I can’t believe Apple made this device with such a serious flaw. There is absolutely no way to get to the home screen without getting really creative.

I was complaining to my brother-in-law, who really likes Apple products. He asked if I had called a “Genius” yet. Nope, I haven’t. I don’t even know where an Apple store is, I’ve never been in one. I got this device at BestBuy. After going around and around with him he finally said, just throw it away and buy a new one.

After all you will get another iPod… No matter how much you complain, when you need a music player you will get an Apple product.

He was absolutely right! I don’t even know of another mp3 player on the market. Do they still make the Zune? iPod is so branded into my brain, I could complain all day long, but in the end I will get another iPod.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot. To start, I hate it when he is right, and second, there has to be a way to get all the benefits of an iPod without an iPod. After all it’s just an mp3 player.

A few days ago my wife got the Samsung Vibrant, or Galaxy S, whichever you prefer to call it. It’s simply amazing. Big screen with a thin body. It’s powerful and fast. Best of all, it plays video and music to perfection. It comes loaded with Avatar. You can jump to any part of the movie and in a second it continues to play… It’s super fast.

Android has solved my problem. Why should I buy an iPod when I can get an mp3 player built into my phone. Why would anyone buy an mp3 player again? whether it’s an Android device or an iPhone, the iPod is getting absorbed by another device. Just like the PDA was absorbed years ago by the smart phone. I don’t see too many PDAs anymore. That market tanked… and so will the mp3 player market AKA the iPod market.

So, that’s bad news for Apple.

You might agree or you might not, but when I see analysts on on CNBC giving Apple targets of $350-$400 I wonder why. A couple days ago I was listening to the radio and Rob Black gave Apple a target of $1,000??? A joke right. Of course he planted his target to five years from now, but seriously let’s think about this rationally. Let’s think about this from an Android fan boy perspective.

As I mentioned earlier, you don’t have to buy an iPod any more. You can replace it with a very solid iPhone 4. I’m sure you’ll be happy with it, millions of people are. But you can also get an very good phone from any one of the major carriers, including At&t that runs on Android.

The Droid X is awesome. The EVO is awesome. The Vibrant is awesome. The iPhone is awesome. Are they iPhone killers? not really, but they are definitely iPhone competitors.

Even with the iPhone rumored to make it to Verizon and T-mobile, when you look at an iPhone and a Droid X on the same table. I’d have to give the edge to the Android phone. They are very sexy phones. Looking at the home screen with the live background and widgets looks sharp. Compare that to a home page filled with apps on the iPhone and right away you are guided away from the iPhone.

Sure the iPad is huge right now, but you know Android and WebOS tablets are right around the corner ready to take even more market share from Apple.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been waiting to get my wife an iPhone for a long, long time, but we have both had bad experiences with At&t service. I was waiting and waiting to hear any news about the iPhone going to T-mobile. I would have bought her one, and I’m sure she would be thrilled to own one. Long story short, her Blackberry broke, she now has an Android phone and I’m sure she will have one for many years to come.

In Summary

I think the iPod is on the way out, Android is Hot, and $1,000 price targets for Apple are absolutely ridiculous!

Here is a simple introduction:

I was lucky enough to register for the beta trial of swype. I’ve been using it for a couple weeks now and would like to provide a review.

My phone:

T-mobile G1 – Rooted, Running 2.1 Cyanogenmod

My texting habits:

Last time I checked, I’m not a high school girl that has tons of friends in my network and have to be in constant contact with everything dealing with everybody. In other words, I don’t text very much. Mostly twitter, search queries, market searches, etc…

My Review:

After you install swype, your default soft keyboard is replaced with the swype keyboard. I got the following message displayed when activating the Swype keyboard:

This input method may be able to collect all the text you type,  including personal data like passwords and credit card numbers. It comes from the application Swype. Use this input method?

That message is a little scary, and obtrusive. I figure it is because I’m using the beta and they (developers) need to see how accurate the swyping is.

I agreed to the warning, simply because passwords on mobile phones are unsecure anyway and I’m not going to be doing any texting that incriminates me. Which brings up a good question, do you enter credit cards, passwords and other personal information using your cellphone?

Pros:

• The Swype soft keyboard alone is nicer then the default Android soft keyboard.
• It’s fun to swype. When you first install Swype, you’ll quickly realize that you will have to memorize the keyword for swyping since you can’t see half the keys as you move your thumb around.
• It’s amazingly accurate. Even on words that you know you messed up on, Swype will either get the word right or pop up suggested words. Only a few times did Swype  return the wrong word.

Cons:

• There is a learning curve. I’m still learning a couple weeks after I first started to us it, which means that swyping words is getting faster, but still takes some time to put together full sentences because I have to wait to make sure the words are correct.
• It’s a little slow. I don’t blame Swype for this, since I am using a G1. I’d like to try it on a more powerful phone. When I say slow, I mean, I swype a word, then have to wait because I’m not confident the word will be correct, but again, most likely it is… I just need to man up and trust it.

I’ll definitely use this technology for soft keywords from now on, but I have to admit, I still like the real keyword on my G1. Mainly because I use both thumbs to type and it has a better feel to it.

There are a few competitors in the app market that allow for sliding keys for text input. Most notably, Shapewriter. Which I haven’t tried, but it does get good reviews. When I tried to get is from the app market, I couldn’t find it.

I found this message on Androidzoom.com

We plan to take ShapeWriter off the Android Market on June 20 for an indefinite period of time. We ask you to update your ShapeWriter to version 3.0.9 which will not expire. In particular, the paid user should upgrade to the latest version ASAP.

Slideit is another sliding input keyboard. It costs money, so no download or review from me… Not because I’m cheap, but because I have Swype installed.

Marketing Content Fills 42% of Each Prime Time Hour
The combined total of 25 minutes and 15 seconds (25:15) of marketing content represents 42% of a prime time hour, Kantar says. Unscripted reality programming had an average of 19 minutes and 42 seconds (19:42) per hour of brand appearances. Combined with 14 minutes and 26 seconds (14:26) of network ad messages, each hour of unscripted reality programming contains 34 minutes and eight seconds (34:08) of marketing content, representing about 56% of total time.

Primetime TV Hour Includes 41% Commercials (2009)
Among all monitored network programming during the period, The Biggest Loser: Couples had the highest average volume of brand-appearance time at 48 minutes, 5 seconds (48:05) per hour. Rounding out the top five were Hell’s Kitchen (43:00); American Idol (40:49); Chopping Block (38:54); and Knight Rider (32:10).

Next time you watch The Jersey Shore, look for all the Bodman spray scents. You might not know what Bodman is, so just replace Bodman with Tag, or Axe body spray and you’ll understand. The product placement sticks out like sore thumbs in all the bathroom scenes.

It’s not just reality TV. The news shows are filled with just as much product placement.

I’m sure this isn’t surprising to you, but for many people hidden advertising has been the end of their TV.They are throwing them out and getting videos streams on their computers. But, if you think that jumping onto the internet for there streaming content is better. Well it’s not.

You might have an advertising free source today, but you will soon be bombarded by banner ads. They have to make money and we won’t pay for online content. Actually, we will, but not more then $3/month

Just look at Youtube. Youtube has Pre-commercials and banners popups in videos and even more banners on the webpage. But, it’s working. Youtube might turn a profit this year.

This doesn’t just touch on shows. This affects full TV networks like G4TV. You might have heard of G4TV…. It a tech channel, but if you’re not watching between 4 and 5pm you will probably miss the tech news. The other time slots are filled with Cops, Cheaters, Campus PD and Some Ninja show. I’m sure that ads sell much better, or bring in more revenue for these shows.

So, for me, I’ve just accepted the fact that all media is a vehicle to sell things. Usually things that I don’t need, but with some good marketing, I will get it.

Thank god we have new media to cover breaking tweets…

One thing I’ve noticed about Twitter is when they release something new… Twitter goes down

Click here to add twitter to your facebook page

I could not believe what just happened!

My wife and I both work at home, in our home office. So, everything she does I can’t help but hear. She is a real estate agent, and often gets calls to advertise herself on real estate websites.

Her phone rings, she answers it, and the quickly turns ugly…

I hear my wife say “No, I absolutely will not list with you, I’ve had a lot complaints and our company is actually filing a complaint right now. ..”

Guy on phone talks, but I can’t hear…

My wife answers with anger, “Because I had to spend a lot of time convincing my angry client that I did not give [Blockshopper] their  information…” At that point I turned around and asked, “Is that Blockshopper? Give me the F****** phone.

Sure enough it’s a babbling telemarketer trying to get my wife to advertise on Blockshopper.

From my previous post about my emails with Blockshopper founder, Brian Timpone

I guess we just have to believe you though, since you’re the founder. But, from what I see, page after page of Blockshopper complaints in Google, people don’t really find it interesting or useful. Try being more transparent, opening up with a blog that allows comments from readers. You’ll find out really quickly how much the public likes your website. Maybe instead of a big F*** Y** from Scarlett Simpson when trying to find out why people’s information is on Blockshopper would be a good start. After all, you want to be the community newspaper right? Try being a good community member first!

I would never want to be associated with blockshopper. I would never use an agent listed on blockshopper. I would never use a company that advertises on Blockshopper. Why would any real estate agent want to be associate with a website that has page after page of complaints and totally disregards their customers voices.

As far as the babbling telemarketer, it’s pretty obvious when you get a job a Blockshopper, the first thing they teach you has to argue with an angry customer.

“It’s all public information…” Yeah, I hear that a lot from you…  You guys just don’t listen. He sputtered out typical Blockshopper BS, then just hung up on me. Too bad, I was hoping to get some good information about why Blockshopper thinks it’s OK to use your information.

Blockshopper, please stop calling my wife to solicit your services… You have already damaged her reputation enough

Here is a Youtube video of Brian Timpone, talking about his “controversial service“.
Make sure to leave a comment telling them how you really feel

I often see the label of blogger or affiliate marketeer, but it gets so distorted.. So, in your mind, what do you do?

I have a social marketing business www.OracleLaunch.com which I am soon rebranding and relocating to another URL that is my main source of income, we used to build websites but now focus on SMO solely. I also am in the midst of starting 2 other businesses that I hope to grow to 5 figure a month babies and one I have a goal of selling for over 7 figures. I’ll start to monetize Escaping the 9 to 5 when I switch over to the new design so far I haven’t tried at all but have still made money through referrals and affiliates.

Your pretty honest in your posts. Do you ever write a post and then think, Jeez… why did I write that?

Almost every time. I have misspells and sentences that belie the fact that i was an English major in college. I often put out things and then think “that was so dumb”… but it’s all part of being authentic – I’d rather be criticized for the real me than put on a show and trick people into thinking I’m better more eloquent than I am in real life.

What other bloggers or websites do you have in your feed reader?

Pat Flynn
Everett Bogue
Diggy from UpgradeReality.com
SocialTriggers.com (Derek)
Glen of Viperchill.com
Jun Loayza
Clay Collins
The Middle Finger Project
Instigationology.com (Andi)

I see you do a lot of interviews… Is that your niche?

I just fell into that – I’ve always found that the #1 way to get to place X (say X = your dream life) is to find people who have done it and then mimic their patterns. Now note I don’t say mimic them, so don’t go out and do EVERYTHING Richard Branson has done, instead note HOW he did it and follow in his footsteps. Everything has a road map whether people realize it or not. So that is why I started to interview people, it was one of the ways I could talk to successful entrepreneurs without wasting their time. Then it just evolved from there. I want to share what they say with others so now it is a regular feature on my blog – and more importantly has just got accepted on iTunes as a podcast under “Business > Marketing & Managment” under the name (Drum roll please…) “Escaping the 9 to 5″…

We all know that working from home/coffee shops/traveling is great, but there as to be drawbacks… What is the the worst thing about building a lifestyle on the internet?

It’s lonely when you work on your own 8 hours a day… Sometimes I miss having more human interaction at “Work”, that is probably why I spend more time in coffee shops than in my home office which is far nicer. At least with coffee shops I “feel” as if others are around me and I’m not so isolated.

Do you have any pet peeves?

I despise people that talk or text on their phones issensantly while in line, at dinner, or addressing another human being. Affliction shirts. People that complain about their lives but won’t get off their lazy bum to do anything about it.

What are your goals in 1 year, 5 years, 10 years…

I will sell one of my businesses for $5,000,000, then invest it in mutual funds and live off the 5% interest for a year while I travel the world. I will be a multi millionaire by the time I’m thirty. I will start a charity after that called ‘AnOption’.  it’s where we offer the choice to pregnant women  and not prepared to go back to school, to start their own company, to get education and mental support in exchange for them adopting their baby out to a loving home who can take care of it properly. It’s not meant to be political, religious or take a stance against other forms of contraception – it’s just meant to offer people who aren’t ready “an option” and a chance to start over and really do something with their lives.

I personally think video is the future of content, but it’s so hard to get in front of that camera. I see you are a pro at it. What tips can you give to anyone trying to make
videos for their blog. How are the videos working for you?

Haha, I am sooo not a pro. I want to do a video 5 days of the week but most of the time I don’t because I either

A. freeze up
B. think I look ugly and don’t want people to see my like that or
C. forget what to say.

Videos are extremely beneficial to a personal brand and any business – I am still developing the huevos to do them regularly regardless what my insecurity tells me. But so far they’ve been great – one thing I suggest, never read Youtube comments. Many are nice, but some are nasty. So I don’t read them, I don’t need to have my confidence shaken or be affected by negative people. It seems like people are always ready to rip on someone who puts themselves out there and is different, it’s human nature I guess but it is best if one avoids reading it when possible.

Thank you again Maren, for this interview. It’s always goo to see how other web workers are breaking out and making their own future.

Since Brian said he would think about writing a guest post about Blockshopper, we will just leave it at that. The invitation will always be open.

Brian did respond with a little taste of why Blockshopper does what it does. Again, original email here. I will break it down now.

Matt– you clearly don’t know what we do or why we do it.

We collect and clean up public data and make it readable and useful.
And we write news stories about home transactions. Real people do
this– just like they’ve done at community newspapers for a century.

I’m interested what he means by “clean up.” I guess “clean up” means adding more information to it. Basically, they collect your name and address from public tax records, then clean it up by adding information to it that is found on social networks.

Real people don’t collect the public records. I’m sure you automate that part. Then you probably outsource people to then “Google” the names to find information.

Lastly, you’re not a community newspaper of a century ago. A century ago we didn’t have the technology to steal someones identity from a thousand miles away and never get caught.

This isn’t about keywords or some automated SEO trick; we have 3
million visitors because our content is useful and interesting.

I totally disagree!

People find Blockshopper be searching their names, schools, professions, etc… That’s why you do it. There are 300 million people in America, most of which will search for their name on the Internet. You’re just not going to get me to think otherwise. This is new media. It’s all about Google, SEO, keywords, and pageviews

My introduction to Blockshopper was from my wife’s pissed off client. He searched his name to find his personal information on Blockshopper, then wanted to know why my wife gave his information to blockshopper. My wife now has to stop helping all her other clients to ease his worries. She has to contact Blockshopper to get the information removed, at her clients request, and she gets stressed out. You don’t want to see my wife when she is stressed!

As for “I have no idea how profession or education of homeowners helps
the consumer with real estate,” you might ask one of those hapless
home buyers living in a half-filled or foreclosure ridden subdivision
if they wish they had been more interested in “who” was buying next
door.

This is ridiculous.

In your scenario, using Blockshopper, I can find out who just bought next door. Then what? I make a judgement about them based on their name, race, profession, education, religion?

Unfortunately, I can’t use Blockshopper to find out who is “going to” move in. They have to move in to get their name in the public records, then the “real” people at Blockshopper can mash their social profiles.

Continuing, I don’t like my new neighbor based on some factor I got from blockshopper, and I move? Is that how Blockshopper works? Are they trying to protect me from bad neighbors? Is that how they make online real estate better?

Seriously, to think that Blockshopper would have helped people navigate the “mortgage meltdown” is so beyond reality, it’s funny.

You refer to “who” is buying next door. I might be mistaken but I don’t think you post financial information on Blockshopper yet. So, to judge “who” is living next to me based on their Linkedin profile, whether it is good or bad,  is a bad thing to do.

Lastly, If I want to know anything about my neighbor, I’ll just go talk to them like a real community member does. Not Google them and judge them based on their Blockshopper info, behind their back.

In summary

Brian is right, I really don’t know what Blockshopper does or why they do it, but based on my experience with Blockshopper, I don’t like the website or the idea.

If you think I’m being biased, I’m not. I also don’t know anything about why tobacco companies do what they do, but since two of my family members have died from tobacco, I also dis-like hate tobacco companies.

I guess it’s all about judging companies and people. Blockshopper makes it easy to stereotype your neighbors.

First of all, I want to thank Brian for addressing my Blockshopper complaint. There are many websites that steal content and are hidden behind fake accounts or just straight up spammers.

Here is the original post

I don’t need to tell anyone that Blockshopper.com is highly controversial. It’s at the forefront of where the Internet is heading, meaning lack of control over our personal information.

Can we alter this path, or have we already lost control?

I received an email from Brian Timpone

Hey Matt– read your blog. I’m the founder of Blockshopper.

Point of clarification– we publish public information.

The information about an individual’s home purchase– collected by
government– does not “belong” to that individual any more than record
of their campaign contributions or lawsuits filed would.

It seems you are confusing personal information willfully submitted to
a social net or to a private company (e.g. phone company) with a
certain expectation and public information collected by governments.
Like every media outlet in the US has done for 100+ years, we collect
that information from governments and use it to publish derivative
news & data products.

If you think governments shouldn’t be collecting this information,
that’s another argument I suppose.

Glad to answer any questions for you about what we do/why we do it. I
think you’d be surprised by the answers.

best, brian

I have since replied, asking for Brian to write a guest blog post telling my readers why blockshopper merges information from social networks to public tax records.

Hi Brian,

I know what you do and why you do it… This has nothing to do with governments “big brother”. So let’s not go there.

Let’s focus on the fact you have created a website that pisses a lot of people off, Is using content from social networks to generate keywords for Google SEO, and tries to wrap a “web 2.0″ real estate website around it to make everything OK. I have no idea how profession or education of homeowners helps the consumer with real estate.

My whole argument is that we should have control over the content we put on social networks. We should have the right to opt-out from websites that use our content for purposes that we don’t agree with.

The argument of, “don’t use social networks, if you don’t want your information public” is total BS. We live in a world were being connected helps get a job, find lost friends, and learn new things. When companies start bending those rules for profits it creates outrage amongst the public.

FYI, I’m going to blog all this…

Brian, Not only would I like to hear your reasoning on why you made blockshopper, but I think a lot of my readers would too, Since you are glad to answer any questions about what you do, why you do it, please write a guest blog post for my website. I will not edit it and post it as a guest post.

It will be open to questions and comments from my readers and I’m sure it will be interesting.

Matt
I would leave you my phone number, but you probably already know it.

[UPDATE]

Brian’s response:

Matt– you clearly don’t know what we do or why we do it.

We collect and clean up public data and make it readable and useful.
And we write news stories about home transactions. Real people do
this– just like they’ve done at community newspapers for a century.

This isn’t about keywords or some automated SEO trick; we have 3
million visitors because our content is useful and interesting.

As for “I have no idea how profession or education of homeowners helps
the consumer with real estate,” you might ask one of those hapless
home buyers living in a half-filled or foreclosure ridden subdivision
if they wish they had been more interested in “who” was buying next
door.

Local news local because its about people, Matt.

Thanks for the guest post offer, I’ll think about it.

brian

So, for all the people that find my blog with the search term “blockshopper complaints”, BTW there are a lot, and to the one person that searched for “Blockshopper must die”, I think this is a great opportunity to ask Brian a question.

If you have a question for Blockshopper, please ask it in the comment section.

I see a lot of blog posts about why dedicated or cloud hosting is better then shared hosting. This is NOT one of the posts. When you manage your own server, you are responsible for people hacking your websites. I’ve never been on a shared host that has fallen down to hackers, but I know that it has happened.

I only host websites on the cloud. I need the freedom to code across the whole server. Nobody has hacked my server, but this shit happens all the time. Here is an example of what happens when a lame ass splogger (stolen post blogger) steals your blog posts with a bogus script that causes multiple connections, thus, taking you down.

Indications of a problem

First your site goes down. You check the other sites you host to see they are down also, which they are, so you know its a server issue. You open SSH, but its a slow. You finally get in and run “top” to see what the server looks like. You see a ton on httpd connections. You immediately know that something is wrong with your webserver. Either something is serving a ton of files from your server, ie. you’ve been hacked, or something is trying to make a ton of connections to your server, ie. denial of service.

Since you run a small webserver you wonder why you are getting targeted for a denial of service hack. Then you remember, you run WordPress and someone is probably trying to steal your content.

I go into my httpd.conf file and comment out two websites, virtual hosts, that I think might be a problem. I restart the server and it runs fine. I then uncomment out one website and see the server still runs fine. I comment out the other and the server goes down.

Since I now know that someone is hitting my websites, I go to the error logs and this is what I see

This is really self explanatory, cheaps1.info is hitting my server hard from multiple ip numbers.

I go to cheaps1.info and see they are splogging… stealing my content

You can see that post here. You can’t see it but they have all my posts. After I got the server back up, I got all the spam trackbacks in my comment section.

How to stop it

You can either block the ip or the domain name.

Since these guys are hitting me from multiple IP’s, blocking them by IP is stupid. I have to block the domain name.

To block a domain name from your server:
you need to block the domain name from hosts.deny. Usually located at /etc/hosts.deny
you add this code:

ALL: www.cheaps1.info .cheaps1.info

if you want to block IP numbers, you will use iptables:

iptables -A INPUT -s <ip-address> -j DROP

Always try to use IPtables to block crap like this.

to reload your hosts.deny file,

/etc/init.d/network restart

After I get the server sorted out, I do a whois to see how owns this domain name. Unfortunately, its a private domain registered with Godaddy. I call Godaddy supprt to report domain, and they tell me to email abuse@godaddy.com, which I do.
I’ll keep you posted with the updates.

I also check the locations of all the ip numbers

This really doesn’t help, unless they all pointed to Arizona (godaddy).

Anyhow, frustrating night dealing with these guys.

If anyone has suggestions about how to handle this stuff is greatly appreciated.

I haven’t listened (audible.com) to the book yet, but I have downloaded it and plan to listen to it tonight while I walk around Lake Merritt. I’m looking forward to it, because I spend so much time on the internet, reading blogs about “hot” topics like social media, internet marketing, blogging, etc. In my opinion, a lot of the information was created for pageviews. Commonly known as “circulation” for us that get newspapers and magazines still.

This post isn’t a review of the The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains but a reply to a recent Techrunch post by Eric Schonfeld, No, The Internet Won’t Make You Stupid.

I don’t understand how hard it is to believe that the Internet has/is rewiring our brains

The points that Eric, and many other people point out is built around the idea that since information can be spread faster, it is therefore better. Real-time, can’t get fast enough and applications provide all the essentials of day-to-day life.

Wait, hold on, what was I talking about… Oh yeah,

I’m not scientist and combine that with the fact that I’m getting older makes me feel like my memory is going away. But is it my age or my Internet habits that is making me feel sluggish and forgetful. I look at my grandma that was sharp as a tack until she passed at the age of 80. She read and did crosswords all the time. She called them mental exercises.

Look at grammar and spelling. I’m not good at either, but I know I have powerful tools that not only show me spelling mistakes, but some even change them before I even notice. I also know that a quick Google search can help me out in any grammar situation. I’ve had to Google “grammar affect effect” a few times. Within minutes I know which one to use, which is great, I love the Internet for that. The problem I should remember it after I see it, which I don’t. I get my answer and then I’m off to do other things, not to think about “affect/effect” until the next time I need to Google it.

The Internet is a Disruption Device

How many industries has the Internet destroyed, altered, disrupted. You give a negative keyword and the internet has done it. From travel to real estate, to social interactions, or lack there of, the Internet has made us all live different.

So why is it so hard to believe that the Internet has disrupted humans on an educational level. Sure there is more access to educational sources, but if I have to Google it everytime I need it, whats the point. As with any other mental or physical skill, the less you use it, the more unusable it becomes.

Of course, this has all been set into motion and nothing can stop it, so you better get use to using your smartphone, if you can remember where it is.

If unfamiliar with Whippits, watch this educational video

First of all, unless you just connected to the internet yesterday, Google has copied Bing and now allow people to upload their own background images. Many, many people hate this as proven by a huge backlash in the comment stream on  GOS and when Google “Forced” a background on their search page.

Their forced example was suppose to last for a day, but was removed in an hour.

Anyhow, I like it, and while Google does have some nice Google Wallpapers for their search page, I love large images of exotic cars. If I can’t find a nice car wallpaper, I’m a sucker for a puppy

I think this website (fast-autos) has some really cool car wallpapers that are really big. You will probably have to crop them to get the perfect fit as a Google Wallpaper.

My Current Background

Source for the above Audi R8 GT Google Wallpaper

Along comes Bing.com with their pretty backgrounds on the search page and highly relevant search results. Bing is easily the best search engine nobody uses…

Yesterday, Google unveiled the ability for users to add prettier backgrounds on their search page. There is a new link in the lower left corner of Google.com that lets you access the new feature. Not only do they allow you to choose from some pretty backgrounds already loading, but you can use Picasa, or upload an image from your computer.

Pretty nice huh. Much better then the plain old Google we all love like.

I also found a cool Chrome extension that adds images to new tabs called Visivo. Beautiful images but unfortunately the extension removes your most viewed pages…

If you don’t live in California, you probably don’t know who Chris Kelly is. He is currently running for Attorney General against Kamala Harris and four others. I mention Kamala because there are a lot of TV ads sparing the two over privacy. Chris Kelly worked for Facebook and help design the Facebook privacy policy.

I was writing another post about blockshopper.com and I ran across this:

Notice anything funny?

I see a big ass ad for Chris Kelly with the tag line “FIGHTING CRIME PROTECTING CONSUMERS”

What makes it ironic is that it is on Blockshopper.com, a website that uses your personal information for profit and doesn’t let you opt-out. I guess you can look at it two ways. Either he is trying to target the people that go to Blockshopper.com and then get pissed their information has been stolen, hoping to get their vote. Or, more likely, he has no idea that his banner ad is there.

Of course it is the later because he just posted a note on moveon.org’s Facebook fanpage his privacy concerns

I urge you to join me in changing your Facebook status to “Facebook: Privacy is a right, not personal preference. Stop sharing my information without my opt-in approval http://j.mp/RespectPrivacy”
SOURCE: MOVEON.ORG FACEBOOK FAN PAGE NOTE

Feel free to ask Chris Kelly why he is advertising on Blockshopper.com by using the contact form at kelly2010.com. Better yet, ask him what he thinks about websites taking YOUR personal information without YOUR consent.

Lately I’ve been getting spammed via SMS. The most recent spam SMS was trying to get me to visit 1stdebtstop.com. Since I do work in the mortgage and finance industry, when I see fake debt relief websites I get really upset.

First of all, I don’t think this scam has anything to do with debt relief. The same number (404 693-2475) sends out many different types of SMS messages. Doing a Google search I found people complaining about e-cigarettes, debt modification and facebook friend requests. This scam is all about getting more information from you, mainly just finding out if you are human. below is a quote from 1stdebtstop unsubscribe page.

1stDebtStop is a consumer product and services text message alert service. Receive 1 offer per week. Standard text message charges may apply.
Source: http://1stdebtstop.com/unsubscribe.html

Again, the unsubscribe page is only used to capture your phone number and verify that you are human. Do not use the unsubscribe page to opt-out.

Red Flags:

1. 1stdebtstop.com is registered in China on the worlds friendliest spam network Xinnet
2. 1stdebtstop.com has a huge unsubscribe link at the top of their website.
3. the domain name was created may-13-2010
4. Google 1stdebtstop or 404 693-2475 and find complaint after complaint
5. Any company that spams you doesn’t respect you as a customer

Just like getting email spam, if you don’t know who it is from, DO NOT unsubscribe or in the case of SMS, do not reply. These spammers are sending out thousands of text messages to random numbers. If you reply to the SMS, they now know that they have a real phone number. Best solution is to just block the number.

I use Chompsms for Android on my G1. Chompsms allows me to blacklist any phone number, but I’m not sure I completely understand it. There seems to be confusion on the Chompsms forums as to how this actually works and if it really blocks spammers or just hides notifications.

You can also try to block the spammer with help from your carrier. I use T-mobile, which cannot block a single phone number from sending SMS.

Google Voice is another option. GV has a very simple way to block SMS spam that is similar to blocking spam email. At google.com/voice you can flag any message as spam and in turn block that number.

What is really sad is these guys will make money from you. There are some people out there that will fall for this scam and either buy a product or service from them, or more likely, get their identity stolen…

I locked my keys in the car. As soon as I did, I had a funny feeling I was going to get screwed by a locksmith. mainly because I was at the mercy of the locksmith. I was in a hurry, I don’t have a lot of experience with locking my keys in cars, and I had nobody else to turn to.

Luckily I had my handy G1 the awesome Google search engine. I fired up the GPS and used the google map search to find a locksmith to unlock my car. I’m thinking it’s going to cost $75-100…

I the map shows “broadway Locksmith” I call them to get a locksmith. They were only a mile away.

The guy on the phone has no idea where I’m at. He sounds pretty confused and it was obvious that he was using Google maps on his computer to find my location. He kept asking what businesses where around me? “Any restaurants or stores?” he said.

Anyone in Oakland knows where International blvd is… this raised some red flags. Later, I realize he is probably outsourced…

I asked for an estimate.

He said the closest locksmith will call me and give me an estimated price and time, but it was going to be at least $40 for them to “just show up”.

About 10 minutes later I get a call. He again, can’t give me an estimate because he doesn’t know what it will take to get the car open, but it will be at least $40.

10 minutes later the locksmith arrives at my car. He looks at it and says he can’t use a slimjim because of the type of car. BTW, it’s a 98 toyota pickup. Manual doors, nothing electric.

He tells me it will be $140. So I’m thinking he has to somehow work his locksmith skills and pick the lock, or something along those lines. Something a normal person can’t do.

He goes to his van, come back with a wedge and a long tool that has a grabber on the end. He wedges the door wide enough to stick the grabber in the door and reaches down, grabs the door lock and unlocks it… It took all but 2 minutes.

I said “WOW, $100 for that??? it took you 2 minutes”

‘He said “hey, 5 minutes or an hour, it’s all the same.”

I said, “If its all the same, why didn’t you tell me it would be $140 over the phone?” he didn’t reply. I then said “Sh*t, you make $3,000 an hour, I’m impressed!”

Time to pay. All I have is my debit card. He says if I use my card it will be $155 because of bank fees. “Whatever” I said, I’m not paying that, you will have to follow me to the bank for cash. I complain some more and he is nice so he lowers the total amount due to $135.

The whole situation just didn’t feel right, so when I get home I do some research on this locksmith company I just dealt with.

Follow me here, The map below is from my laptop. It was slightly different with my phone, but it still proves a point. I searched for a locksmith and one of the results is Broadway Locksmith.

From my phone, I called them. The mobile version doesn’t have obvious reviews or anything like that. Plus, I’m in a hurry and not in the mood to do reviews… I need a locksmith fast…

Clicking on the Broadway Locksmith link, you come to this:

The address looks really weird to me because 1001 Broadway does not sound like an address a locksmith would have. This is a very busy street in Oakland. So I Google the address:

It’s the address for the Oakland Marriott hotel.

So, what does this prove???

Some guy/business was able to list his fake business into local Google results over a very popular business address.

Basically I called a lead generation system for locksmiths. These guys probably have fake locations all over America that show up on local map searches. A locksmith is charged $40 per lead from this company. I’m not that upset about the business. It actually sounds like a smart idea. What I don’t like is making fake businesses in Google search engine. I feel deceived. Lead generation is lead generation, what I’m pissed about is that Google was stupid enough to list the business in their local map search.

Seriously, Google, How hard is it to cross check the address?

Instead of paying a normal fee of $100, I had to pay an extra $4o. The only way I can complain is to blog about it, because there is no business to review on Yelp, or Servicemagic, or even the BBB. Even if Google removes the business from local search they will just find another way into the search results.

Google, please try a little harder? You have a million servers and thousands of employees. How hard is it to cross check an address?

New Post: Chris Kelly Fighting For Consumer Protection by Advertising on Blockshopper.com

I was introduced to Blockshopper.com by my wife. She is a Realtor and one of her clients introduced her to Blockshopper, but not in a good way. Her clients wanted to know why she gave them [Blockshopper] all their personal information including professional status, address, full name, images, etc…

Of course my wife, and in fact all Realtors, would not do this. It doesn’t serve any purpose for the Realtor and doesn’t help sell homes. In the case for Blockshopper, they use this information to spam the  Google search engine with keywords for better SEO. In my opinion, the website should be blocked from the search engines as with all other keyword spamming websites.

The background on Blockshopper is that it is operated by real humans (not scripts) that manually search and combine public information from property tax records and social media sites like Facebook, Linkedin, Myspace, etc…   This allows them to put together a real estate site like no other… Again, this is not a good thing!

I’m not trying to make the argument that personal public information cannot be used, nor linked together. My argument is that this type of “information connection” is strictly being used to spam Google search engines. It’s not being used to make it easier to find real estate, or help Realtors generate leads. It’s used to spam Google with personal information which will rank high in Google when searching for yourself and to sell advertising. Not only does Blockshopper appear in Google search results, but also in Google News results. How this is news worthy is beyond me.

The simple fact is that most of the complaints could be avoided if Blockshopper just let people opt out. The most popular request to blockshopper is to have their information removed, yet under normal circumstances, they (Scarlett Simpson) will not remove your information

BlockShopper publishes public records. Property ownership information is listed publicly in multiple places.

As for other personal information, BlockShopper relies on that which has already been willfully made public by the buyer and seller. We link to these online sources in our news stories. Please refer to our FAQ sections for further explanation.

If you need more clarification or have more questions we’re happy to oblige.

Source: Reply from Scarlett Simpson regarding request to have information removed.

They will remove your information if you have a stalker or other similar reason as to not have your information listed.

What does Facebook have to do with this? Recently, Facebook announced they are going to make their security setting easier to set for Facebook information. Facebook states that most users of social media sites have more relaxed security standards then the generation before them. With that being said, the common Facebook user will most likely agree to put their personal information on social media site if they can maintain control of their information.

That is where Blockshopper really pisses me off, especially with Scarlett Simpson’s Bulls*** canned response to our request to remove OUR information. I want control over my information and that goes beyond the social media networks I use. I should be able to demand my information be removed. We are only going to see more business models like this appear as our personal lives get placed on the Internet.

Will Blockshopper ever allow YOU to remove YOUR information? Probably not, as long as they are making money from YOUR information…

I understand that there are people out there that like Blockshopper. I would have a completely different outlook on Blockshopper if they would just allow you to opt-out. That’s all I want. It’s about respect. that would stop most of the complaints. But if they did that, Blockshopper would lose a lot of website traffic driven from complaint websites. To the advertisers, traffic is traffic, they don’t care where it comes from.

In an angry summary, when you see a blockshopper link while searching Google… don’t follow it. Blockshopper will not provide you any additional information other then what you can find on Trulia or realtor.com. Don’t honor the advertisers or the Realtors that are using Blockshopper to generate business from YOUR personal information.

Links:

• Blockshopper Complaints at consumeraffairs.com
• Blockshopper Complaints at complaintboard.com
• Blockshopper Complaint at my3cents.com

Google TV was announced today at Google I/O. Although it has been  in discussion for a while now, it really is a big deal. Unfortunately the demonstration presented was hardly awe-inspiring. Looks a lot like MythTV, Media Centers, AppleTV, etc… There is more to it, but the demonstration really focused on video only. In time we will see more of the Internet side on Smart TV’s other then more demonstrations of video on Smart TV’s

What is interesting is that Eric Schmidt knows that internet TV has been a flop in the past.

Schmidt needs Best Buy and its 180,000 “blue shirts” to sell this idea of a Web TV—which has been tried in the past and flopped—to consumers
Source: TechCrunch

The Youtube has the content, but it’s just not engaging. I have set up video feeds through my Xbox using Tversity many times only to whatch a few videos, and then I lose interest in the feeds. Don’t get me wrong, there are interesting and talented people on Youtube, but not one have truly captured me.

Much of the blame is that Youtube suffers from a poor recommendation engine and poor feed access. You can use the Google Data API to build your own, but that can be too hard for most people. With Google TV the recommendations should be much better and the ability to find content will be much better.

The second revenge – Tablet computers

Over the last decade tablet computers have flopped over and over, until now… Until Apple made the Ipad. Even though I find no use to own one right now, I can understand why they are selling so well.

The verdict is still out on whether Google will will help Internet TV get it’s revenge, or if it will continue to be a flop. Tablets on the other hand have definitely proven they are not flops anymore.

2010 –  year of the flop revenge… What else has flopped in the past that might get it’s revenge this year?

I got this information from isuppli.com via businessweek magazine.

• Aluminum Case: $35.30
• Memory: $29.50 (16GB) $118 (64GB)
• Display: $80
• Processor: $17 – Apple builds their own processors. They acquired PA semi in 2008 so they could build low power consuming processros for mobile devices.
• Battery: $17.50 – Non-removable
• Wireless: $27.10 (GPS and 3G) $8.05 (WI-FI). Totals $35.05 for the 3G models. Data Plans run $30/month from AT&T

The total cost to Apple for the base model: $187.35.

Estimates for Apple will be a gross margin of 54% or $269.95 for each iPad sold. With an estimate of 3 -4 million units sold in 2010, Apple will generate over a billion in revenue from the iPad.The large margin also gives the iPad some room to lower the price if competition gets fierce, or if they want to add additional hardware like a camera.

Whether you think the iPad is a revolutionary product  or think it was a revolutionary hype machine, you have to agree that is a lot of money for Apple.

The iPhone was estimated to sell 10 million units in 2008, but ended up selling over double that in 2008, and over 42 millions by the end of 2009. Could the iPad do the same?

He makes perfect sense, and it’s easy to see that Google is trying so hard to grab what Facebook and Twitter have seemed to nailed, social interaction, and social search. What peers are talking about and the information peers share amongst each other.

I was really disappointed when Google’s flagship social product “OpenSocial” died. It’s still around, but has no heartbeat. Since the group turned to a big spam board I called it quits. Now that I think about it, Google groups could be a really good social network, but gets no focus from Google and most groups eventually fade away.

OpenSocial was to compete with facebook apps, but on an open front. Opensocial would allow you to create apps for any social network. Sounded cool, but Google seems to think you can release a product and then let the buzz carry that product… Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way and Google has yet another social product get a lot of notice and then it fades.

So, is Rob black right?

Is Google relatively old?

Are they relatively old enough to be unhip and not able to connect with the new generations of Internet users?

What will Google look like in 5 years? They want to advertise in pretty much every medium realm known to man… So, I think they are going to just be a huge advertising company. they already are huge, but not known for it.

I personally think think Rob is onto something… I’ve talked about this with my friends and we all seem to agree that the search results from Google are getting worse and worse. Recently trying to find a tutorial for a simple Flash application, I was finding results dated back to 2004, not one or two, but half of the first page search results… 6 year old results for a product that has evolved many times in that period. Those search results are absolutely useless.

I do find it easier to just Tweet the question, or post to Facebook and let someone guide me the answer. Google better figure out how to do that or else there cherished Pagerank algorithm will be nothing more the  dusty old media, like newspapers and magazines.

I got access to Google Buzz today. I played with it a little, but IMO, it’s not that special right now. Of course the biggest problem is that I never built up my Google profile and have no connections with my Google contacts. I assume most people are like this since Google has never really broken into the social network arena. Even though I have used Gmail for years, I seem to have very few contacts, which is bizarre to me.

What I do like is that even though the status updates are small, you know that some are full blog posts, videos, images, etc… I always wanted a Twitter that had more information then just the ridiculous 140 characters. With that being said, it does look an awful lot Twitter or FriendFeed, or facebook status updates or… So needless to say, I’m not too excited.

What makes Twitter so special is that they allow 99% of the service get accessed through their API. You can pretty much do anything with the Twitter API except create a new user. This allows people to create their own twitter clients and applications. Most of us will agree that the main Twitter website is sad. The retweet function sucks, the automatic url shortening is poor, and overall hard to follow lots of people, even with lists.

Twitter apps make everything better Tweetdeck makes Twitter useful and recently I found Hootsuite, which seems even better.

Google had to have know that the API is what makes Twitter so powerful, yet they released Buzz with little but a empty shell of an API. They don’t even have an Android app available???

you can access the Google buzz code here.

Sure, eventually there will be many Buzz applications and most blogs will be buzz enabled to deliver real-time pushed content… meaning as soon as you post, it gets Buzzed. That’s really cool, but if you’re like me there have been many times you publish a post then need to edit right away, how will that work?

I’m going to play with it some more now and try to get PubSubHubbub working on my wordpress blogs, and I’m going to continue to try to figure out how to follow people on Buzz, which is probably the most basic thing ever, yet I can’t find out how to do it other then searching for people.

Google is again trying to conquer the social arena. This time with Google Buzz. Will it fall to the wayside like Opensocial or will it rise to the top above Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and all other microblogging / status / location based services?

One of the coolest things about working at Google is that employees are encouraged to create new and innovative products. While the core of Google’s business is advertising, Google tries to make as many products as possible. In other words they shotgun development and when all the shooting is done they see what they can do with the remains.

Google Buzz looks a lot like Google Wave. Wave was a huge buzz (pun intended) but as soon as beta testers got their hands on it, they quickly realized that even the developers of Google Wave has no idea how to really use it. It is really complicated and confusing. Maybe in a year or two people will understand it better, but for now it’s a mess.

In comes Google Buzz, which seems to be very similar to Google Wave, only that it’s working now and incorporated into Gmail.

Google Buzz seems like a good idea, since email is already a very understood medium and still considered the number one social app.

But why does Google seems to cross paths with their products. Why do they confuse us so? Why don’t they just move Wave were Buzz is and continue to grow the idea of Wave. Now they have two paths that users can jump onto and therefore will separate the public acceptance between the two. Please, Google, just make an executive decision as to what social app you want to push and push it!

Buzz also wants to differentiate itself another way: social curation. As Mike wrote about the other night,the social web right now is largely a mess. There’s simply too much going on
Source Techcrunch

How can Google Buzz differentiate itself when it’s really trying to be all things at once?

I agree, it is a mess, but what can you do? Do you want to stop companies from trying to make new services that can possibly change our lives? Of course not. But with overlap and separation between the services it’s inevitable that a big pile of junk will appear.

One thing I am excited to see is if Google Buzz is using pubsubhubbub which is a new technology that allows real time content updates via pushes… not queries. It’s like Twitter only you can pass anything like video, images, blog posts.

Pee-wee gets an iPad

Chris Pirillo (Lockergnome) unboxes the iPad

iPad with roadrage

Gorgeous, Beautiful, Revolutionary, Gorgeous, Amazing

Of course, no video can go without a Hitler rant

Do you know of a funny iPad or Apple video… Add the link to it in the comments

Before I offer my solution, I have to give props to Nalts.

Leave it to Nalts, a youtube celebrity, to make the craziest iPad video yet… Not only is he driving with an iPad mask, which seems highly dangerous, but he also used duct tape to attached the mask to his face… I was laughing when I saw the mask, but when I saw the duct tape wrappd around his ears, it was just too funny.

Here’s my solution to this whole problem… Too bad I can’t go back in time and offer this brilliant advice to Steve Jobs and possibly de-rail the epic failure that is the iPad.

Set aside the hype of this device, which was par for any Apple product. The name iPad created an instant joke. Combine that with a sub par device and the hate blogs will go crazy.

All they had to do was name is iPlate… a computer you can eat off of.

That’s it. Simply change the name and you will dominate an entire market that has been stagnate for decades, the plate market. Mr Jobs positioned this device as a device between smartphones and laptops… to replace the netbook market. Unfortunately, it is not a good replacement for netbooks, but it’s a perfect replacement for plates.

Is iPlate a game changer… Hell yes! Restaurants would jump all over this idea. Not only can you eat off the iPlate, but you can surf the web, watch videos, tweet what you are eating. You could even use the iplate to order your food and pay your bill, of course you can’t do it at the same time because it doesn’t multi-task, and for you foodies, you can’t take a picture of your meal because there is no camera.

The iPhone was game changing. It filled a need for a much better smartphone. It’s strong enough for power users and easy enough for old ladies, although I still think the blackberry is going to stay king of executive phone use for a long time, just because of the email abilities.

The problem with the iPhone and all other Apple products is the closed system. Steve Jobs basically says “You’re in my world now!!!” and if the innovation doesn’t live up to the expectations people are going to bitch. The iPhone was awesome so people didn’t complain. The iPad is a lackluster device, topped with a restricted system, and two wrongs don’t make a right.

Unfortunately we’ve come to expect that from our smartphones. For a larger device that’s supposed to replace your netbook as a complete portable computing solution, though, this is almost unprecedented — at least from a device that’s likely to have a great deal of influence on the market and on the design of future devices. That’s bad news no matter how you spin it.
Source: Mashable

Seriously, you can’t even share files between the iPad your home computers… There might be a way around this, like uploading to the cloud.

I love you Google… Not really, but this was a big win for them and the Android OS. It’s coming on strong, because it’s open, it’s got many more carriers and phone makers, and Apple dropped the ball.

Here are just a few of the problems with the iPad

• No Multitasking – WOW, I can’t listen to music and work on a spreadsheet at the same time?
• No USB – the universal adapter.
• No GPS – Where am I, and more importantly, where are cool places to hang out in my area. Location based services are all the rage, someone should have told Apple this!
• No Camera – I heard there was going to be a camera that let you use hand gestures to control the tablet… That would have been cool.
• Not OPEN – You have to play by Apple’s rules.

Don’t even get me started on the name iPad… iSlate was cool, iPad has already been coined iTampon which trending to #1 on Twitter today… That’s bad. I can’t believe…

Nope, not going there, gotta stop…

The feature I looked for most was the external microphone jack. When I vlog I want to have a microphone close to me. My office has bad acoustics and it sounds like I’m in a bathroom.

Overall the Vado is really easy to use and I’ve been using it a lot. Already have a an hour of my baby playing. It’s is really small, light and easy to carry around with you.

When I was doing my research on pocketcams, the biggest complaint that I saw for the Vado was the sensitive buttons and the gloss finish attracts fingerprints. In my opinion both are not a problem. I can hardly see any fingerprints on the case and the button are sensitive, but not to the point where it causes problems while shooting videos. When the camera is in playback mode, you will hit the play button by mistake when reaching into your pocket, but not a big deal.

Picture quality is great when the camera is steady, but the slightest movement will cause a lot of motion on the video. All pocket cams are like this though.

Overall, I think its a great camera. My last camcorder was the Sony DCR-SR40 if you want to see what I am comparing the Vado to.

If you have any other questions about this Pocket Cam, feel free to ask them in the comment section.

mobile computing on smartphones has been around for a long time. Probably the most well known smartphone was the palm Treo. That phone was the first to take people from owning a cellphone and a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). I owned a couple of them and would install apps all the time. There was no app market, we had to get them the old fashion way, by searching the internet and downloading them from personal homepages. I was able to find a disk once with about 700 apps on it. Everything from chess to SF Bart maps to GEOtagging. Of course, it was nothing like it is today, but don’t forget, apps have been around for a long time.

I remember buying Tom Tom Navigation for my wife’s Treo. Worked great and was a cheap alternative to buying a separate navigation device for her car. Of course it was all disks, there was no way to get maps on the fly with a download, and you had to use an external GPS unit to receive the location signals, but that was just the standard a few years ago.

I use to make apps with a program called Codewarrior. Codewarrior for palm was discontinued a few years ago due to the fall in popularity of the Palm Treo, and the Palm OS. The new Palm apps run on a hybrid HTML language… but has yet to gain any serious following. I have only seen one Palm Pre on the streets.

Codewarrior basically let you make forms and pages with wrappers to handle all the behind the scenes activities. It was crude, but you could definitely build apps and distribute them to other users without having to jailbreak or hack the phone.

It makes me think how palm, and the earlier smartphone companies didn’t see how smartphone apps would change the way we use smartphones?

Why did it take a company like Apple to unleash the next evolution in apps. Even with inferior data plans from 5-6 years ago, the companies should have still seen this coming. Many times I complain about new technologies and new media getting a lot of attention, when in reality the technology has been around for years. All it take is a tipping point I guess for them to hit critical mass and society to find a use for them.

In many cases they are correct, but of course technology marched on. Internet businesses imploded then regrouped to form many new ways to run a business. There is much to talk about as businesses find new interesting ways to march on, but this first post of 2010 will be more on the big picture for processing power over the next decade.

This next decade will be remarkable, 2020 is going to be exciting. Start keeping track of innovations and new technologies now so you can see the changes. Will they make our lives easier? probably not… look at computers from the last 2 decades. All we heard about was how they will make our lives better and improve our time management. Well, it hasn’t, we work more, spend more time away from “real” people and now spend a majority of time with followers from around the world.

We are hyper-social, yet interact with fewer people. We have more information about overall health, but the US is overweight. We have terabytes of past information about the stock market yet, we cannot predict outcomes to common stock prices.

Back to processing power. The end of a decade is a good time to look back to see how we have advanced with computers. The reason why I’m started to look back was because I was watching a show about the singularity of computers and technology. Singularity is the theory that someday computers will be smarter then humans and therefore be able to overtake humans… Terminator style.

Many people say this WILL happen, but the person on the show basically said that by 2030 computers will be so powerful that if singularity is going to happen, it will. If it has not happened by then, it probably won’t… I found that interesting, so I took a look at the fastest processors that we have today for personal computers and compared them to processors from the year 2000.

Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerating_change

Sure, there are supercomputers that can harness the power of multiple processers and in turn have much higher MIPS (million instructions per second), but singularity would seem that each processor will have to be able to manage millions of MIPS. Yes, I said a million X a million instructions per second, because that is how many instructions the human brain and nervous system can handle. Some say the brain can handle much more then that.

Currently the Intel i7 processor can manage 76,000 MIPS at 3.2 g. Compare that to a typical Pentium III released in 2000 which had around 830 MIPS. That is astonishing growth.

So, this decade will be special, either this decade or the next will be the gateway into new technologies that we haven’t even thought of yet. By the end of this decade we will have a very solid understanding of if, or when computer processing power will be able to rival the human brain.

A few months ago, I was in Office Depot looking for a printer. I used my G1 to find the same printer at Circuit City for about $150 less, and it was less then a mile away. I called CC and placed the order for in-store pickup while I was still in Office Depot. My wife and I were so happy. From that day I was hooked on the G1.

Back to buying crush it. I knew I overpaid for this book because I had my G1 with me loaded up with the Amazon app for browsing pretty much everything. It’s a good app and I recommend downloading it, not because of the price checking feature, but for product reviews. The app allows for  3 ways to find a product. You can enter the title, scan the barcode or take a picture of the book cover. Some books I tried failed on the barcode scan, but worked when I tool a picture of the cover.

The app lets you add  the product to a shopping cart and then sign it with your amazon username and password to order. I almost did order it, but since I only had one book in the cart, I would have paid shipping. I know this doesn’t  makes sense since I paid a higher price for the book and tax, but still I wanted it now.

I think one feature that is missing from the Amazon app, is the ability to find related books. I think I might have placed and order if I found related books so I could get free shipping. I spent some time looking for books on the shelf, but after scanning the barcode and then reading reviews, I found it to be taking too much of my time.

Like I said before, I recommend this app for the reviews, but if you are looking for an app to save money, download Shop Savvy barcode scanner. With Shop Savvy you can view multiple websites and compare prices, but Shop Savvy doesn’t provide reviews. Walmart.com is selling Crush it for the lowest price according to Shop Savvy ($9.50)

About 3 months ago, we booked a trip to Hawaii… SO yeah, I have to lose some weight. I was watching TV one night and browsing the Android app market on my G1 at the same time. I was looking for pedometers to track how far I walk and to see if any had a calorie counter on them. I found 3 apps that got me on my new diet, which have helped me to lose 20 pounds.

I don’t know how my thinking got so screwed up, but I will not drink a normal soda. I hate sugar and carbs and try to eat as much meat as possible. Yet, I’ll drink 4 beers a night and not think twice about it? I blame it on the media,  Atkins craze and slow burn diets.

The first app is aBMI, which is a body mass indicator. This will tell you that you are fat and need to go on a diet. If you already know your fat, skip this step.

The next thing I did was find out how many calories I need to maintain my weight at 190 pounds. I thought there was an app for this, but I can’t find it… So I just do a Google search for “How many calories to lose weight calculator”. Brings up a ton of sites that have calculators for this. They all seem to have different calculations so feel free to choose the one that fits your needs.

Since about 3,500 calories equals a pound, I need to cut down on my caloric intake and add some exercise to my day to lose weight. My goal is to eat less then 1,500 calories a day, and try to exercise and lose another 500-1,000 calories per day.

The next app I download for the G1 is awesome. It’s called CalorieCounter and tells you how many calories are in the food you eat. It goes way beyond just hitting generic food. You can find menu items from pretty much every major restaurant like TGIF, and Burger King. This app also goes into all food brands including generic store brands. It has everything. One thing I wish it had was a way to combine foods and make a custom food item like a sandwich. It will let you save foods you eat a lot, but doesn’t let you combine foods to easily add to your daily intake.

My plan is to eat small meals that are 300 calories each. So I can have 5 meals a day. Egg white and toast in the morning. Tuna sandwich for lunch… it is actually very easy to eat this way. I’m not hungry all day and I don’t get sleepy from large meals. Since I do go to bed really late at night, I seem to need a snack at around 10PM… I usually grab a banana or something (100 calories)

I look up one of my favorites, a foot long meatball sandwich from Subway… 1,600 calories, WOW

For the exercise, I want to see how many calories I burn. I download Cardio Trainer to map out where I bike, run, or walk and see how many calories I burn. Another really good program. Uses the GPS very well. Even when I don’t have a connection to the phone it still tracks my location. I mountain bike in the Oakland hills all the time and there is really spotty reception. I think the calories burned is off a little from other calculators I found on the internet. You can choose what activity you are doing, but I think biking on this app, is roadbiking, not mountainbiking.

I don’t use them everyday, anymore. I used them to change my thinking about dieting and food intake. Of course, the apps really had nothing to do with it. I could have done the same thing by reading a book or searching the internet, but with all the junk and bad information out there it’s hard to get your head on straight. Forget about all meat diets from the 4 hour work week. Forget about fats, carbs, sugar, etc…

1. Find out how many calories it takes to maintain the weight you want to be at
2. lower your calorie intake and exercise more
3. be steady and it’s easy to maintain.