Recently in Technology Category

And I hate it that the front door to the house isn't private property.  Daily, people leave fliers and business cards and unsolicited junk on the door!

This week's big news story:  the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has decided that the government can, without a warrant, sneak onto your property, your driveway, and place a GPS tracking device on your car that tracks everywhere you go.  We no longer have a reasonable expectation of privacy for our driveways, which even delivery people can use.

Shockingly, this ruling is actually getting some media coverage.

Plenty of liberals have objected to this kind of spying, but it is the conservative Chief Judge Kozinski who has done so most passionately. "1984 may have come a bit later than predicted, but it's here at last," he lamented in his dissent. And invoking Orwell's totalitarian dystopia where privacy is essentially nonexistent, he warned: "Some day, soon, we may wake up and find we're living in Oceania."

Source:  Time

Some have pointed out that if you are wealthy, you probably live in a gated community or have gates around your property that would extend your zone of reasonable expectation of privacy.  So only the poor people have less privacy.  But that's OK, isn't it?  I mean, wealthy people don't commit crimes.  Wealthy people don't bilk billions, even trillions out of the unsuspecting.  Enron never happened.  No Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme.  No Wall Street bail out while the captains of capitalism lived off the slaughtered fatted cow.

Besides, privacy died long ago in this country — during the George W. Bush administration, I do believe.  His cronies called it The Patriot Act.  Just the name says "Run!  Don't walk!"  During his administration and the Republican rein of terror, not only were hundreds of thousands of surveillance cameras installed all over this nation, but warrantless wiretaps, "enhanced interrogations," and god knows what else were made the order of the day.

And who are we kidding?  I'd bet my last dollar that the US government routinely snags the GPS satellite data from specific cars at will.  There really is no need to place anything on the cars of serious criminals.  That's so last century.  Only puny local police departments have to actually walk onto someone's driveway to plant a GPS under their car.  The big time crooks already have GPS as part of the most fashionable bling package.

The totalitarian state is here.  Is now.  We live it.  The Constitution and Bill of Rights are just window dressing from a time gone by.

Related articles

• Court allows agents to secretly put GPS trackers on cars (cnn.com)
• Warrentless GPS Tracking Of Your Car Is Legal If You're Not Wealthy Enough To Protect It (dvorak.org)
• The Government Can Use GPS to Track Your Moves (time.com)
• The Government's New Right to Track Your Every Move With GPS (time.com)
• Judge Kozinski Doesn't Track with the Ninth Circuit on GPS and the Fourth AmendmentCalls his fellow judges 'cultural elitists' when it comes to privacy. (abovethelaw.com)

Amazingly, people were swimming in the Gulf before, during, and probably after this storm.  But maybe, it was ok.  I never went down to the water.  If any oil or dispersant were around, it wasn't visible from the hotel room balcony.  Sunday night, the last night of the visit, a big thunderstorm came from the north.  I shot this short video of the storm moving out to sea.

Unfortunately, the progress bar does not show while downloading this HD video. Be patient. It is working. If you have a slow connection to the internet, be very patient.

I have always argued that, if you are funded with the public's money, the public has a right to know what you're up to with that money.  Transparency in a democracy is essential.  It prevents such hideous excess as the city manager of Bell, CA, making over $1.5 million in publicly funded salary and bonuses, which in my mind is a criminal act.

I've become so critical of the current "system," which I personally consider completely broken, that when I read or see/hear any news coverage, I immediately wonder, "Who is paying for me to receive this message?  Who is behind trying to influence my thinking in this way?"  And now that corporations can contribute any amount of money they want to our political system, the political influence peddling even gets more convoluted.

The Sunlight Foundation is working to peel back the layers of hidden influence.  They have designed a cool tool, Poligraft, such a clever name, to assist in disclosing who is funding what in Congress.  So when you read something on line, the hidden connections are just a click away.

Check it out by watching this short video.

Related articles:

• Sunlight Foundation Launches Poligraft, Bringing New Transparency To Political Reporting (huffingtonpost.com)
• Poligraft Tracks Influence on Government (readwriteweb.com)
• Poligraft Adds Level of Campaign Finance Analysis to News Articles (news.firedoglake.com)
• Poligraft Tool for Journalists, Politicos, Voters (currentbuzz.org)

The fact that this can be done, in total, from storyboard (if they had chosen to) all the way to upload to YouTube, on a $299 device, the iPhone 4, that also happens to make phone calls, is astounding. When Apple makes this all possible on an iPhone Touch and the iPad, they will rock the education market! Be sure to watch it in full screen.

I haven't posted much to my blog lately because I have been intensely busy, mostly with traveling, writing, and physical therapy.  And I have made some minuscule effort to avoid the computer as typing at the keyboard seems to train wreck my bad shoulder!

Recently, well, over the past several days, I used my Navigon application on the new iPhone as I traveled.  This application is awesome on its own.  On the iPhone 4, the app looks beyond gorgeous and functions with a level of smooth precision I had not noticed before.  I love it!

I use the app with the TomTom car kit.  I didn't give a second thought to using the car kit with my new phone, just assuming it would work fine.  Wrong!  The iPhone 4 is not as thick as the iPhone 3Gs, and this fact caused some connection issues.  Apparently the car kit needs the extra thickness to snap the phone firmly into the connector.  I even noticed a "rocking lever" that seems to need pressure to deliver electricity to the iPhone 4, which is not thick enough to press the lever.

The iPhone 4 appears to snap into the car kit fine.  But it does not get an electrical charge from the connector.  After some wiggling/pressing, each time I used it, I managed to get the phone to seat itself enough to get the charge.  Having electricity is essential as running a GPS app on the phone would otherwise very quickly deplete the battery.

I also noticed some wonderful updates to the Navigon application since last I used it.  I downloaded the panoramic 3D map information which adds more realistic display information.  And, for those who are not familiar with the Navigon app, I totally love how it implements highway signage information as you approach the signage.  It looks so realistic, just as the signs actually look when you arrive at them.  This feature takes so much guesswork out of navigating complex junctions.

The applications functions fantastically well in the background with the new multitasking iOS4.  And I also completely love the intuitive interface and GUI design.

On my recent trip to the Atlanta metropolitan area, I confess to finding the speed limit warning a bit annoying.  You can set the interval to 5, 10, 15, etc. miles per hour over the speed limit.  The application knows the speed limits and will say "Warning" while displaying an exclamation mark in a yellow triangle at the bottom corner of the speed limit sign indicating the actual speed limit.  In the top center I have the app showing my current, realtime speed.  This is invaluable information when traveling in unfamiliar areas.  But I knew the speed limits in the Atlanta area, had the interval set to 5mph, and the traffic was, as the traffic tends to do in Atlanta, speeding maniacally down the intestates.  So I heard "Warning!" every minute or so as I drove.  With my shoulder, I couldn't reach to adjust the interval while driving.

I'll have to update my TomTom car kit when they make one designed for the new iPhone 4.  But, I highly recommend the Navigon GPS application!

Related articles:

• On the road with the latest Navigon MobileNavigator (tuaw.com)
• Best iPhone Navigation Apps (brighthub.com)

I really don't like Apple's use of the word "magic" in their advertising campaigns.  To me, personally, it's a stupid choice of adjective:  the "Magic Mouse," the "Magic Trackpad," and how "Magical" the iPad is.  I wish they would ditch the "M" word.  It just sounds childish to me.

That said, the new trackpad keyboard accessory is awesome!  Aesthetically, it beautifully accompanies the Apple keyboard.

I do not like a mouse, of any kind.  The "Magic Mouse" was the best mouse I've used, but it constantly had connectivity issues!  I have always preferred to use a trackball.  I don't enjoy moving my hand all over a desktop surface.  In this regard, the "Magic Trackpad' is a dream.

Here are the things I like about it:

• I've yet to come across anything a mouse does that this trackpad will not do.  In fact it does more things than any mouse I've ever used will do.
• I love they way it feels to the touch.
• While it is larger than the trackpad on my MacBook Pro, it still has a small footprint.
• I can easily move my cursor anywhere on my large 27" monitors (2560 x 1600) , from corner to corner.
• I can rotate, pinch and zoom, zoom the screen, page back and forth, bring up the application switcher, scroll, and activate Exposé using the trackpad.  I can also point, click, double click, right click, as well as click and drag so easily with intuitive touches and finger slides.

I find the new trackpad vastly superior to the "Magic Mouse" and even my Kennsington trackball.  In fact, I like it more than any mouse-type device I've ever used.  This baby rocks!

Related articles:

• Magic Trackpad review (engadget.com)
• Apple Magic Trackpad first impressions (boygeniusreport.com)
• Apple Unveils Its Magic Trackpad (shoppingblog.com)
• Apple Magic Trackpad unboxing (unboxing.gearlive.com)
• Apple's Magic Trackpad Signals The End Of The Mouse Era (MG Siegler/TechCrunch) (techmeme.com)

I've already ordered one in each color!

Click photo to go to photo source.

Several years ago I discovered Todd Dominey's SlideShow Pro (SSP), which I use to present my photos here at tt.us.  (Check them out at timtyson.us/photos.)  Over the years SSP has evolved into a really slick, powerful, wonderful tool for managing both photo and video distribution.  As my knowledge and understanding of the various SSP products has grown, I would place this product in my list of Tim's All Time Favorite Digital Tools! It rocks!

In fact, since SSP had an export plugin for Lightroom, it was the deciding factor in my ditching Apple's Aperture and switching all of my photo management over to Lightroom--well, that and the horrendous performance issues Aperture 2 had.  (Now, I understand that a third party export plugin is available for Aperture.  But I haven't tried it.)

But SSP is Flash-based.  This now poses problems because Steve Jobs is having a spat with Adobe, and most people don't foresee Apple mobile products ever making use of Flash.  Sad, but there's nothing I can do about that.

Rather than focusing on the technology issues or the dispute, SSP is focusing on their customers' primary need:  finding excellent ways to share their work.  So they have announced a new component to their fabtabulous SlideShowPro Director:  a photo and video player that is built with HTML5, CSS3, and javascript instead of Flash!  This will allow content to display on the iPod Touch, iPhones, and the iPad!

Here is an overview of the new SlideshowPro Mobile.  I so love SSP!!

Related articles:

• SlideShowPro does HTML5, Flash (blogs.adobe.com)

Mac users:  Do you have the latest versions of iTunes (9.2), iBooks, and the operating systems for your iPhone and iPod Touch (iOS 4) and your iPad (iOS 3)?  If you do, you can do this...

You can easily place a PDF file of anything you can make a PDF file from (web page, documents, images, etc.) on you portable device.

If you make an alias of the iTunes application icon and place it in your ~/Library/PDF Services folder (where ~ = your user account), you can choose to print any document or webpage as a PDF directly to your portable device the next time you sync.

[Simply select the print command and click on the PDF button on the bottom left and then choose iTunes from the drop down list.  When you go to sync your portable device, be certain that, in iTunes, with your device selected, the "Books" tab is selected and you have checked "Sync Books."  Then simply sync your device.  Poof!  The PDF file(s) appear in iBooks on your device.]

I've tried this, and it actually works!  Nifty.

Other little scripts are available to do similar things with various twists.  Check out this link at Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes.

Everyone was excited about getting the new Apple iPhone 4.  But seriously, did these people test this device much at all?

First, the issue with the antenna signal decreasing surfaced right away.  My first call on the iPhone 4 fell victim to this problem when it went from a full strength signal to dropping the call with no signal at all.  Steve Jobs tells the world to stop hold the phone incorrectly —basically, don't hold it in your hand, and spend an extra $30 for Apple's new bumpers.

But I am finding other quirky issues with my new phone.

During calls, my phone appears to become confused as to whether I'm holding it to my ear and talking on the phone or whether I'm just holding it in my hand.  (Oops!  I forgot.  I'm not supposed to hold it in my hand.)  When I'm talking on a call with the phone to my ear, the handset appears on the screen, and my cheek presses the keys making the audible key tones we're all familiar with when dialing.  Then the screen blanks out when I remove the phone from my ear and the screen remains invisible and completely non-responsive no matter what I do from that point on.  I have to do several repeated hard reboots (Home button and Power simultaneously) to kill the phone and get it to work again.

During my first call about this issue to Apple technical support, the lady told me to do a complete backup and restore of the phone to correct the problem. Regrettably I got a phone call in the middle of the resyncing process and the resync didn't complete.  I called Apple back to make sure I wasn't going to lose all of my folders, etc.  This technical support lady asked me two questions about my issue:

1. "Are you using a screen protector?"  No, I'm not.
2. "Is your iPhone in a case?"  Yes, it's in a leather case I used for the iPhone 3Gs.

Oops!  Well, there we have it.  Not only must you hold the iPhone 4 "correctly" when placing a call so the signal strength doesn't drop to zero, you can not place your phone in a case or use a scratch resistant film to protect the front of the phone.  Doing the later apparently upsets the proximity sensor.  Oh, and if you want to hold the phone in your hand when placing a call and avoid having to hold it parallel to the orbit of Pluto the former planet, you have to spend an additional $30 for Apple's new bumper.

I've read in the blogosphere that despite Steve Jobs' claims that the new glass surface on the front and back of the phone is stronger than Iron Man's suit, it scratches rather easily.  I've always worn my previous iPhones (I've had them all.) on my belt in a leather case both to protect them and provide easy and continuous access.  I guess I could tie a string around my belt and around the bumper of my iPhone 4 and hope that doesn't disturb the proximity sensor.

I planned to purchase an iPhone 4 for my mother whose purse abuses every object it contains.  Without the phone being in some full-bodied protective case, it will be destroyed in her purse.  I'm sure she's not the only one that runs a roller derby inside her purse.

Another problem I have experienced was corrected by restoring the phone:  people can once again hear me when I use my Bluetooth Jawbone headset.  I could always hear them just fine.

Years ago Steve Jobs was credited with saying that customers don't know what they want until Apple shows it to them.  For the most part, that may have been true at the dawn of the digital era.  But today's tech-savvy customers do have a rather clearly defined sense of what they want and expect from their high tech devices:  continuous advancement without any regression from formerly attained benchmarks in design, function, and reliability.

I've always been a die-hard Apple fan boy, but Apple needs to start doing a better job of "getting it right" before they have to tell their customers they are "using it wrong."

[Update:  Others appear to have this issue too:  Macworld Article ]

Related articles:

• Updates on iPhone 4 Antenna Problem Articles [Apple] (gizmodo.com)
• Updates On iPhone 4 Antenna Problem Posts (gizmodo.com.au)
• Apple iPhone 4 Hit With Class Action Suit (abcnews.go.com)
• Apple Sued Over iPhone 4 Antenna & Reception Problems (macstories.net)

Apple isn't a victim of their own success.  They are badly managed at the distribution and retail levels — abusing their customers to feed their hype-driven marketing machinery.

It starts with my trying to reserve a phone on the date Apple themselves said everyone could place an order.  Their system, probably AT&T's databases, were overloaded and my first attempt to place an order didn't work.  I received a browser message to try my order again later.  I immediately did.

This time I tried to have the phone delivered to my home address.  The order went through!  I got my phone yesterday.

I then got an email saying my first order had also worked and I should pick up my phone at a specific Apple store.  What?  How weird!  But, OK.  Cool.  I could give that phone to the HU, who planned to get one anyway but hadn't placed an order.

My subsequent attempts to order a phone for my mother all failed repeatedly and said I had to go to the Apple store.  The nearest Apple store to her is about a 6 hour drive.  At her age, she won't be doing that.

Yesterday I and the HU went to the Apple store to be sure I could give my phone to the HU.  We were told that as long as we were both there I could.  Cool.

Today I drove by to check out the line.  Apple advertised that they will have two lines:  one for those customers who pre-ordered their phones and one for those who were just hoping to get one.  One line extends from the Mall entrance all the way off of the mall property and all the way down to the golf course at the Marriott.  Literally thousands of people are standing in this line that is probably a mile or more long!

I asked one of the store employees who was near the mall entrance how long the line was for people who had pre-ordered the phone.  He said, in not too pleasant a tone, that he had no idea.  It was all one line.  The store didn't divide the line up until people got to the door of the store.  What???!!!!  So the people that pre-ordered are having to wait even longer because of the people who didn't pre-order?!  That makes zero sense!

He went on to say that if I wasn't standing in the line (currently in the blazing sun) when the store closed, I would lose my reservation.  (A female employee had just told another customer the exact opposite.  Who go the correct information?!) He said that hundreds of people had spent the night in line.

This is insane.  This is inept management.  This is inexcusable.  Sure, it was fun the first time, but Apple has had 4 tries now to get this process right.

I told him Apple had lost their mind and that they could keep their precious little phone.  I wonder who will get the phone I ordered not realizing that the order had even worked?!

This is pure horse pooh!

Just wait until they all get their shiny new devices only to realize that the marvel of engineering, the new antenna system that is the outer edge of the phone, doesn't work so well when you hold the phone with your hand.  But then, who actually holds the phone in theirs hands when they place a call??????

Related articles:

• iPhone 4 has folks lining up in droves at Apple Stores worldwide (edibleapple.com)
• Apple iPhone 4 Release: Lines Grow As Frenzy Kicks Off (PHOTOS) (huffingtonpost.com)
• Hundreds line up to buy new iPhone (washingtontimes.com)
• IPhone 4 sells briskly on first day of sales (cbc.ca)
• IPhone 4 Launch: The Scene From Austin (blogs.wsj.com)
• New iPhone selling briskly as hundreds line up (mysanantonio.com)
• iPhone Lines 2-3 Times Bigger This Year, Stores Are Selling Out (AAPL) (businessinsider.com)

No, really!

I complain so often about AT&T that I feel compelled to say something, anything, good about them when ever I can.  Today I can.

My new iPhone 4 was having connecting issues in the house, even with the MicroCell.  I called the support number the AT&T rep at the AT&T store gave me in case I had any problems.  The first thing that completely and utterly blew me out of the water:  a real live human being that spoke English as his native language answered the phone on the second ring!  But even more than that:  the real live human being that spoke English as his native language that answered the phone on the second ring was the actual tech support guy that immediately and courteously fixed the issue.

Now, ladies and gentlemen:  that's astounding!!!!  But it gets better.

When the phone was up and working with a re-invigorated signal strength, the tech support guy set up a return call for me on a specific time this Friday to make sure the fix solved the issue!  Someone from AT&T's technical support group will confirm the steps we took today worked?!

My god!

Now, that's what I call customer service!

of an iPhone 4!

It arrived at 9:30am at the front door via the stork (FedEx guy).

I unboxed it ceremoniously. It is beautiful, and smart — just like it's father (me, course)!

I turned it on. It asked to be connected to the mother ship. I plugged it into my Macbook Pro. iTunes then displayed my phone number and requested my billing zip code and the last 4 numbers of my social security number. It then said my activation session session had expired. Retry.

After three failed retries, I called Apple support. They told me to reboot my computer. I did. It activated after requiring 3 DNA samples —well, not really, but you are forced to agree to god knows what*. The moment it activated, my call to Apple support on my old iPhone was disconnected.

I then unplugged the new phone from iTunes and replugged it in as directed. iTunes is now installing all of my old iPhone's content onto the new phone.

I must say, and this is really actually very important to me, this is the best product delivery and activation process Apple and AT&T have ever had. I all but went on a safari camping out when I purchased my first iPhone from the Apple store at Lennox Mall. Activating it took hours (almost a whole day)! And each subsequent purchase was fraught with stupendously long lines but better activation times. This one they almost got completely right!

Amazing how long it takes to transfer about 24gb of data to the new phone via USB 2. It's now finished transferring all of my applications and is now working on sending over the video and audio content.

*Apparently iOS 4 users are now sending Apple retina scans, urine samples, blood and stool samples, along with our current location at every breath we take. The mother ship will use this information benevolently, of course. They will ply us with iAds tailored specifically to our personal DNA profile so as to extract as much money from our bank accounts as possible. The power of the tethered device is not to be underestimated!

Oooooooh!  Loooook!!  It's teething already!!

Related articles:

• Preparing for iPhone 4 Launch Day (cbsnews.com)
• Christmas Coming One Day Early? iPhone 4 on 6/23 For Some? (geardiary.com)

Well, my iPhone 4 is supposed to arrive tomorrow!  I can't wait.

I downloaded iOS 4 for my existing phone and iPod Touch to get accustomed to the new operating system.  So far, the thing I like the most is Folders!  My application icons are all grouped in a way that makes sense to me.  Instead of having an insane number of panes through which I had to slide, I now only have 3!  This is a vast improvement.  Now, of course, I want more.  I've become such a visual person; I'd like to choose the icons for my Folders.  :o)

I also understand that a user can opt out of the iAd system, so Apple doesn't collect info about your interests, by visiting http://oo.apple.com ith any device running iOS 4 or later.  You should get a message, "You have successfully opted out.” if the process is working; otherwise, “Opt out not successful.” will appear.

Related articles:

• Apple's iOS 4 Available for Download [Video] (globalthoughtz.com)
• iOS 4 Update (slog.thestranger.com)
• iOS 4 Releases Today (apple.slashdot.org)
• Apple iOS 4 released to widespread criticism (v3.co.uk)
• Apple Launches iOS 4 for iPhone, iPod Touch (wired.com)

This is as much to help me remember this as it is to share the info with all humanoids on in interwebs...

This is the post production process I used when creating the Malaga Cove time lapse shorts.  After importing the footage from the camera into the computer:

1. QuickTime Pro 7 ›› File ›› Open Image Sequence...
2. Make sure images are in their chronological shot order
3. Select the first image and click "Open"
4. Select 24 frames per second and click "OK"
5. After the huge file is created, make sure you are displaying it at 100%
6. File ›› Export ›› Export: Movie to QuickTime movie [bottom left drop down]
7. Select "Options..."
   1. In the Movie Setting Dialogue, ›› Settings...
      1. Compression Type: Apple ProRes 422 (LT)
      2. Frame Rate: 24 fps
      3. OK
   2. Back in the Movie Setting Dialogue, ›› Size...
      1. Dimensions: Current [Make certain it is the full frame size of the original photos if you wish to pan and crop in Final Cut Pro.]
      2. OK
   3. Select "OK"
   4. Name the file and save it.
8. Create a sequence in Final Cut Pro with these settings:
   1. Frame Size: 1440 x 1080 [HD (1440 x 1080) (16:9)
   2. Pixel Aspect Ration: HD (1440 x 1080)
   3. Editing Timebase: 24 fps
9. Import your media and design your project — the fun part!
10. Once the project is completed in Final Cut Pro ›› Export ›› Using QuickTime Conversion...
    1. Format: MPEG-4
    2. Options
       1. Video Format: H.264
       2. Data Rate: I usually use over 4,000kbits/sec [The higher the number the larger the file size but the better the visual quality.]
       3. Image Size: I usually export three different sizes (three different exports): 1920 x 1080 HD, 1280 x 720 HD, and 640 x 360
       4. Frame Rate: 24fps

Related articles:

• Malaga Cove Sunrise (Time Lapse) (timtyson.us)
• Malaga Cover Time Lapse (Noon) (timtyson.us)

The banks were too big to fail.  Google is too big to be anything but evil.

I'm sure everyone has heard by now that the little Google street car that has mapping our world (while very cool, it takes away our privacy) was also snooping around everyone's wireless networks.  If your network was unprotected when the Google street car came by your home or office, Google took your email and password information as well.

Don't tell me the very bright people at Google haven't been doing analysis on the human cognition of password creation.  To the nefarious among us, we are nothing more than data.  I'll never forget overhearing a restaurant dinner conversation here in LA, "Yeah, I like so-and-so, but that's just one data point!"

As far as I am concerned, Google can never be trusted.

Wi-Fi traffic intercepted by Google’s Street View cars included passwords and e-mail, according to the French National Commission on Computing and Liberty (CNIL)."

[Source: Google Street View Wi-Fi data included passwords and e-mail | Security | Macworld.]

I have frequently posted vituperant remarks about AT&T. The company generally is loathsome. Their 3G network service here in Manhattan Beach is horrid. I can barely get a signal at the house. I frequently drop calls. Incoming calls frequently just go straight to voicemail without my phone ever ringing. LAX rarely even gets 3G service, just the horribly slower Edge network.

But I now have something good to say about AT&T, sort of...

I read a tweet about a microcell for AT&T. I googled it to find out what it was. Apparently, if you have bad 3G reception, you can purchase this microcell that, if I understand it correctly, basically offloads your cell phone calls and data to the Internet.

So now I get a full AT&T cell signal in the house, most of which didn't get a signal at all. And now my cell phone calls and my cell phone data access is offloaded to Verizon's FIOS network. Up to 10 people can place calls simultaneously through my MicroCell "tower" here in the house.

It seems to work well, but I haven't had any incoming calls yet. At least AT&T had a good idea of allowing customers in areas with poor service to set up their own mini cell tower in their homes or businesses.

I'm sure you noticed that my Fitbit tweets stopped for a while.  I'm confident of your concern about my exercise level.  Therefore, I update you:

My original Fitbit died.  It would just turn itself off at random times.  Fitbit was good enough to replace it with no questions asked!  So now, I have a new one.  The regular (daily) updates should have started in earnest today.

As busy as today has been, I still only walked 5,423 steps so far.  Sad how indolent I am.

Related articles:

• Liking My New Fitbit (timtyson.us)

Well, Wordpress 3.0 has been available for download as a beta product until today.  It went alpha.  So I downloaded it having heard good things about its stability and usability.  I'm especially interested in exploring the merging of MU into the base installation.

My upgrade was not without issues though:  immediately after the upgrade the Wordpress version of my site was dead and the Admin login area was as well.  What to do?!  After a quick hustle or at wordpress.org's forums, I went in and disabled my plugins folder by using my FTP client to rename it and create an empty plugins folder.

Poof!

Everything worked again.  I added plugins one by one until I found the offending one:  Lifestream.  When I have a bit more time, I'll check for an upgraded version of the plugin.

[P.S.  It occurs to me that many of my readers at this rendition of my site may be completely unaware of the fact that I have been running a parallel site, testing it for compatibility and such.  This has been going on now for some time.  If you want to check out the Wordpress version of timtyson.us, just click here.

Related articles:

• Download WordPress 3.0 (earnblogger.com)
• Wordpress 3.0 release video (sciencetext.com)
• WordPress 3.0 Released, Download And Upgrade Now (ghacks.net)
• WordPress 3.0 "Thelonius" Is Now Available (steffanantonas.com)
• Wordpress 3.0 arrives, with multi-blog support and new default theme (downloadsquad.com)
• What's New in WordPress 3.0 (tipsblogger.com)

I've found a couple apps for the Mac and/or the iPhone that are curious.

Xslimmer
This app removes the extra PowerPC code that makes your applications work on both the PowerPC chip and the Intel chip.  After the application is slimmed down, it will only work on the Intel chip.  Hello, I gave my last old PowerPC Mac away a year ago.  I only need my software applications to run on Intel machines.

Frankly, however, this scares the beans out of me!  So I tried it on just one application.  That application still seems to work just fine.  Even if it didn't I could restore the application since I chose to have it backup the original before it slimmed it.  (I don't know if that means it just made a copy of the code it removed and can add it back or if it backed up the entire application.)  But I confess to still being afraid to purchase the little $14.95 app and use it to slim down all of my apps.

The application will also remove unwanted languages from the code of the application to slim the application down even further.  I only need English.

Amazingly, if I were to slim down all of my applications, I would recover almost 3 gigabytes of disk space!  Maybe over time I'll try one app at a time until I get my courage up.

Air Video
I've heard about this app for the iPhone and the iPad before.  Today I bought it.  It allows you to stream video content from any of  your computers on the network to your iPhone or iPad.  I read excellent reviews of the application.

It was incredibly easy to set up.  It is amazingly easy to use.  Astoundingly, it will convert file formats on the fly!  In other words, I can watch an avi file from my laptop on my iPad in realtime without having to wait for it first to be converted into a format that plays on the iPad.

My only regret with Air Video:  that I hadn't purchased it sooner.  An amazing little gem!

Software Updates
I admit that I use technology more than the average person. Maybe I need to change that, because I am sick to death of sitting down to work at one of my computers only to be greeted with a bunch of software updates — which I always feel compelled to do immediately and be done with. Then, 5 minutes later I launch an application I need to use only to find that there is a new version available for download. Three minutes later I'm ready to get to work.

Only now, the new version has a damned bug in it and will not do what the old version did just fine. It crashes. I relaunch to try it again. The crash reporter comes up. I fill it out. I get so fed up trouble shooting software that I pay to own. Obviously these software companies do not test their work!!! Then the software crash reporter has to gather my system information. Well damn —that takes a good 5 minutes. And of course it will take a day or two (or week or month) for the support team to respond and then weeks before a software update is issued — oh god!!!! another software update. Hell!!!!! A half hour passes and I haven't accomplished anything! This pisses me off in a HUGE, HUGE way.

AT&T Has New Data Plans
AT&T is trying to get the message out that the new plans will save most users money unless you are a "data hog!" Well, let me tell AT&T something. I am a data hog. And I pay damned good money to be one too! Get off your greedy, stingy ass and stop trying to blame your customers, who pay for your service, for the fact that your service is crap! Instead, --novel idea here-- invest some of your profits in upgrading your network!

And AT&T wants you to believe that the new rates will save 95% of their customers money. Yeah, right!!! This year. Just wait boys and girls. How long before they raise the rates and make even more money off their already over-priced, crappy network?!!

I bought an iPad without 3G, because I refuse to give AT&T another penny of my money. I loathe this company! I use my MiFi from Verizon for my network access when I'm out of range of one of my WiFi networks. Screw you, AT&T. Verizon has a pervasive 3G network that works!

BP MUST Go Out of Business
I have never in all of my life seen a company CEO that is as arrogant, self-serving, calloused, and evil-hearted as the CEO of BP! He is tired of the oil spill and "just wants his life back?!" What a #$%@ing bastard!

What about the 11 people that were killed by what appears to be company negligence*? What about the entire ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico? Watching the poor birds violently gasping trying to catch just one more breath to stay alive before their inevitable death is too heartbreaking. What we can't see are all of the different kinds of sea life that have been poisoned to death in the water by BP's oil, toxic chemicals, greed and negligence! And they are spending $7,500 a day to purchase search terms from Google to get their spin out as the top search results about this horrific environmental catastrophe.

These poor creatures have no idea what is happening to them as their flesh is burning, their eyesight is taken, and they painfully struggle to survive the impossible.

As far as I am concerned Tony Hayward and his company can rot in hell!

Photos Source: Caught in the Oil: boston.com

*See the 60 Minutes exposé

Related articles:

• AT&T says 'enough' to you data hogs (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• AT&T Sparks User Backlash With End to Unlimited Plans (Update2) (businessweek.com)
• AT&T Sparks User Backlash With End to Unlimited Plans (Update1) (businessweek.com)

Well, despite the fact that I've had a horrible sinus infection/laryngitis this week, I have been wearing my Fitbit ever since I first got it. The results, even with being sick, are interesting.  I've noticed how unbelievably my stats dive when I spend a day working at the computer.  This must change!  And being sick has an interesting impact on stats too:  not exactly what I would have expected.

My best stats have been:

• 11,671 steps on May 18th (before I got sick)
• 2,693 calories burned on May 22 (when I didn't sleep at all that night because I was sick and couldn't breath)
• 5.58 miles walked on May 18 (again, before I got sick)
• 11 minutes of strong activity on May 17th (on the elliptical--but for 45 minutes!!! hello?!)

Because of getting sick, my 7 day averages compared to everyone using a Fitbit aren't that good yet.

• I average in the 30 percentile for steps per week yet...
• at the 61 percentile for activity.
• Distance and very active minutes are still crazy low.

My sleep patterns, as I already knew, are weird:

• I woke up an average of 8 times per night before I got sick.
• My three worst nights, when I couldn't stop coughing and couldn't breath: I woke up 31, 67, and 39 times! (Between that and the pain in my arthritic shoulder, I'm just amazed I didn't die.)

So, to check out my official fitbit page, visit Tim's Fitbit! And, for those who follow me on Twitter, I will start tweeting my stats as of today.

Related articles:

• Liking My New Fitbit (timtyson.us)
• The Fitbit Portends a Scary New World [Shut Up Fitbit] (gawker.com)
• My Sleep Graph (russellbeattie.com)
• Philips Changes Policy on Fitness Monitor (pogue.blogs.nytimes.com)

I received several email responses to my blog post about The Infernal, Never-ending Beep! Most everyone suggested it was the smoke detector battery. I have had to replace several smoke detector batteries in the house, all upstairs, even though they are also wired into the house electrical system. But I actually hadn't even thought of this as being a possible cause of the beep!

I went into the kitchen and searched for the smoke detector. The house has them everywhere except in the kitchen/den area. Great! Where is the most likely place to start a fire? Maybe the gas stove which actually creates fire??

Then this sickening thought occurred to me: What if the smoke detector is up there (on the 11 foot ceiling) but was covered up by the builder when they put up the fake beams. Much to my distress, this scenario made sense because the beep sound is muted! (See picture of the ceiling.  Click to enlarge.)

In a state of horror, I stood on top of a chair near the ceiling, with the top cabinets open (in case the smoke detector was enclosed above them). It took 12 minutes for the next beep.

No. The beeping sound, where ever it was, was definitely below me —over by the iMac on the desk in the corner of the kitchen. Why does it always sound like its over by the iMac??!!

Steve suggested that the sound might be coming from the electrical panel on the back of the house, which, interestingly, is on the outside wall behind the iMac. But electrical panels don't beep.

This morning, my mother sent an email with the subject: "beeping." She says: "try smoke alarm battery or alarm system". But how could it be the alarm system, which has never been activated? None-the-less, after breakfast, I decided to explore Steve's and mom's ideas. I went to the electrical box on the back of the house.

Interesting...

Next to the electric meter is a rather large box built into the wall itself. It was labeled, "Communications." Maybe it was the phone/cable system?

Electric screwdriver in hand, I unscrewed the case. Inside the box are two large plastic systems all sealed closed with numerous flickering lights monitoring the status for the house's fiber optic cable/internet/phone systems and the alarm system. All of the lights were flickering green except for one: the light next to "Replace Battery" on the alarm system!

My über geek mother was right!

I was afraid to try to force the plastic system cover open as it appears rather committed to remaining closed. I was afraid to press any of the buttons for fear the whole of the Manhattan Beach SWAT team might descend on the house if I set off the alarm system and woke the whole neighborhood, not knowing how to turn it off.

So, for a short time anyway, the beep persists. However, once the alarm company comes out to replace the battery, I will no longer suffer the beeping of his hideous heart.

Related articles:

• The Infernal, Never-ending Beep! (timtyson.us)
• The Mystery Beep (apartmenttherapy.com)
• Smoke Alarm Maintenance How To's (eon.businesswire.com)

The most brilliant storytelling ever on television. Ever!

Epic. Heart wrenching. Complex. Ever evolving. Captivating. Brilliantly crafted. Flash backs. Flash Forwards. Flash sideways. Convergence.

Ironically, I didn't watched it on TV until the final episode. Even then, I didn't see it live. I saw it on my iPod and my iPad as an iTunes purchase. Another first. Every episode.

I will miss the characters.

Brilliant!

Related articles:

• 'Lost' Finale Explained: Answering the Unanswered Questions (screenrant.com)
• Ending a Series Is Hard to Do (patspapers.com)

Well, after reports several weeks back that Apple had laid off a significant number of people from the Final Cut Pro team, I have been worries that Apple will either sell or even possibly eliminate Final Cut Pro. Now rumors are flying.

The first rumor indicates Apple will redesign FCP with an emphasis on making it more prosumer friendly and perhaps far less dedicated to professional video work. The FCP has been placed under the lead developer, Randy Ubillos, the man who, in my humble opinion, destroyed iMovie with his iMovie '08 release's new user interface and a sudden lack of features found in the earlier versions. Apple has now advertised for a senior visual interface designer for pro apps. Obviously something is afoot.

Amidst all the flurry of worry, Apple released a non-statement:

Final Cut Pro is the first choice for professional video editors, and we've never been more excited about its future," Apple spokesman Bill Evans told CNET. "The next version of Final Cut is going to be awesome, and our pro customers are going to love it."

I was peeved about Apple's last FCP release. So few substantive features were added. Now we live with the threat of a whole new interface design, and, if iMovie is any advanced warning, a loss of important features. Jeeze!

Related articles:

• Apple refutes claim that FCP will lose its "Pro" focus (edibleapple.com)
• Final Cut Studio won't be dumbed down (tuaw.com)
• Apple to keep the 'pro' in Final Cut Pro (thaibrother.com)
• Steve Jobs responds to customer's email about Final Cut Pro (tuaw.com)

I really like my Canon 5DmkII DLSR.  I've grown a lot more comfortable with it and am continuously amazed at what it produces.  Nothing astounds me more than the HD video it shoots.

I'm not a person who watches TV.  I've never watched the TV series House.  But this year's season finale of House is notable because it is the first TV episode to be shot entirely using the Canon 5DmkII.  Take a peek at the teaser.  The image quality is stunning.

Related articles:

• House Season Finale Shot Entirely on a Canon 5D Mark II [Photography] (gizmodo.com)
• Watch House? Like gadgets? Tonight's episode was the one shot on a 5D mk II (crunchgear.com)
• Season finale of 'House' filmed with Canon DSLR (macworld.com)
• Canon 5D Mark II used to shoot entire House season finale, director says it's 'the future' (engadget.com)

The Fitbit accurately tracks your calories burned, steps taken, distance traveled and sleep quality. The Fitbit contains a 3D motion sensor like the one found in the Nintendo Wii. The Fitbit tracks your motion in three dimensions and converts this into useful information about your daily activities.

You can wear the Fitbit on your waist, in your pocket or on undergarments. At night, you can wear the Fitbit clipped to the included wristband in order to track your sleep. Anytime you walk by the included wireless base station, data from your Fitbit is silently uploaded in the background to Fitbit.com

I ordered mine a long time back, several months, and it just arrived. I think it was on backorder when I ordered it. While that was annoying, it was certainly worth the wait. Today I worked at the computer a lot but still managed to:

• walk 9,292 steps
• travel 4.45 miles by foot
• burn 2,278 calories
• sleep 94% of the night (a miracle for me!)

One of the things I really like about the fitbit is that when I used my Octane elliptical today, it accurately tracked that data! (The Nike Plus doesn't.) When I walk near the charging station connected to my computer's USB port, the data automatically syncs to the web site. The site has lots of clean, easy to read and understand data charts. The fitbit even knows when I wake up at night and tracks the quality of my sleep. So cool! It will even automatically send updates using your Twitter account. [I haven't gone there, yet...]

Related articles:

• The Fitbit Portends a Scary New World [Shut Up Fitbit] (gawker.com)
• Consumers Like Medical Toys Too (medgadget.com)

I have been asked numerous times why I do not have a Facebook page.  Originally, I had three main reasons:

1. I thought Facebook would be another digital fad like AOL, MySpace, etc.  It would go away—and indeed probably will in time .  Something else would replace it.  Would I then have to jump on that social tool-du-jour?
2. I have two blogs that I enjoy using to share my professional and my personal "online me."  I don't need another online presence.
3. I became concerned that Facebook was an enormously successful marketing tool that, like almost any other American business, would, in the blink of an eye, sell its soul and all of the marketing data it accrued for profit and then to the devil called greed.

Then along came the huge issue of privacy concerns that is now plaguing Facebook.  The foolhardiness of this quotation, from Facebook's founder dropped my jaw!

You have one identity… The days of you having a different image for your work friends or co-workers and for the other people you know are probably coming to an end pretty quickly… Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity” – Mark Zuckerberg, 2009

Source:  Why Mark Zuckerberg Needs to Come Clean about His Views on Privacy by:  Kim-Mai Cutler

Is he serious?!  There is one me—the me, me. And I have numerous "identities," as does every other human being on this planet. Identity is the product of relationship or association. People have a work or professional identity, their identity as a spouse, their identity as a parent, their identity as a friend, their identity as a neighbor, their identity as a member of community, etc. To insinuate, let alone state, that all of these identities living in each of us somehow lacks integrity is to demonstrate a fundamental lack of understanding about humanity and the definition of integrity.  But there are additional layers of complexity here.

The notion of “radical transparency,” a term being brandished about lately, is, I think, based in a naïve and simplistic world view.  I recall as a young school administrator listening to adults confide to me the complexities of their life situations.  At the time I was too young to actually even believe them as they recounted the circumstances of their lives.  I couldn't imagine that so many people lived in such incredulous circumstances.  At the time, I didn't have enough life experience to understand how fragile the easy life of even simple privilege I had always been lucky enough to enjoy was.  I had little, if any, experience with the complexity of a broader scope of life.

A significant percentage of people would not live life better if they lived in complete, radical transparency.  And a significant percentage of twenty-somethings, like Zuckerberg, might think they can now but later find that life brings things into their lives they may wish to leave forgotten, not plastered all over the Internet.

And what of context?  Without context to clarify meaning, to provide an illuminating perspective, many things could be so misunderstood as to be immensely damaging both today and at some unexpected time in an unforeseeable future, especially when people only know the "virtual you" before getting to know the actual you living within the context of your life.  Moments in time that are the tiniest reflections of the whole of a person can supplant the essence, the potential, the intent and focus of a future life better lived.  If being an administrator taught me anything, it was that people need a dignified option to find a better way forward that provides them with the hope of a good future.

At the very least, Zuckerberg is brilliant (attending Exeter and Harvard) and exceedingly wealthy (Forbes estimates his 2010 net worth at $4 billion.)  He is a young man of wealth and privilege.  What he lacks is a sensible world view for the masses of people who lack the resources to ever control their own destiny.  He's foolhardy enough to think he can manage that for the 400,000,000+ Facebook users.

As things are now, Zuckerberg stands to profit most when you naïvely live his vision of radical transparency, of one identity—your Facebook identity.  He can then continue to mine and aggregate every bit of information about you shared on his platform.  You will be powerless to do much about it.  He can monetize and redistribute that information in ways oblivious to you, and oblivious he wants you to remain.

May 31st is set to be "Quit Facebook Day."  I think it's time for millions of people to send Mr. Zuckerberg a "It's time to get real!" wake up call.  Or, you can continue to let him control the future of your privacy.  It's your choice—for now!

Graphic Above Source: MoveOn.org

Related articles:

• Facebook CEO Allegedly Mocked Users For Sharing Personal Data With Him At Harvard (huffingtonpost.com)
• Change Facebook or Change Ourselves? (jilliancyork.com)
• On Facebook's Selective Transparency (allfacebook.com)

Even I have been growing increasingly wary of Apple becoming another loathsome, all-about-money, screw-the-customer corporation as it has experienced explosive growth and success in the past 10 years.  I've posted about some of these concerns before.  People seem to be increasingly sharing that concern.

It's appropriate that the Apple logo on the iPad is black. The Cupertino, California, company's image is taking on some awfully sinister tones lately.

 

For a company that made its name fighting for the little guy, it's a surprising reversal. In the past, Apple touted itself as the computer company for nonconformists who "Think Different." Now the company is making moves that make it look like the Big Brother it once mocked.

First Apple tightened its iron grip on the already-stringent iPhone developer policy, requiring apps to be made with Apple-approved languages, which disturbed some coders and even children.

A short while later, Apple rejected some high-profile apps based on their editorial content, raising journalists' questions about press freedoms in the App Store.

Then, police kicked down a Gizmodo editor's door to investigate a lost iPhone prototype that Apple had reported as stolen. Even Ellen DeGeneres and Jon Stewart have mocked Apple's heavy-handed moves.

Plenty of us love our shiny iPads, iPods, iPhones and MacBooks — state-of-the-art gadgets with undeniable allure. But it's tough to imagine customers will stay loyal to a company whose image and actions are increasingly nefarious. We want to like the corporation we give money to, don't we?

Here are five things Apple should do to redeem its fast-fading public image."

[Source: 5 Things Apple Must Do to Look Less Evil - ABC News.]

Here's the video of Ellen DeGeneres after getting a call from Apple.

Related articles

• Apple demands public apology for iPhone parody (go.theregister.com)
• Ellen DeGeneres gets a call from Apple (tech.fortune.cnn.com)
• Ellen DeGeneres apologizes to Apple for iPhone spoof (edibleapple.com)
• Apple Isn't Laughing at Ellen's iPhone Commercial Parody [VIDEO] (mashable.com)
• Ellen DeGeneres Says "Sorry" To Apple (geardiary.com)

Americans need to stand up and say, "Hell No!  We will not live out SciFi!"

Hollywood claims that, in the future, they will allow you to see movies that are currently in the theater at home on your TV set while the movie is in the theater.

Horse Manure!  Here's what Tim predicts: DVD's as we know them today will go away.  The price of movies will go up.

To see any movie, you will be forced to stream it over the Internet to your TV.  To keep you from ripping a copy of the movie by sending the audio and video feed out of your TV and into a DVR or other recording device, Hollywood will reach into your home, into your TV set, and shut off these outputs.

[Apple has already quietly pulled off shutting off your external computer monitor jack when playing HD content.  Did you know this Apple users???  Go ahead and try it on one of the newer Mac laptops.  Try plugging in a projector to your laptop (with the new MiniDisplay port) and playing an HD movie you purchased from the iTunes Store.  It doesn't work now, does it.  It will only play through the AppleTV or on a specific Apple monitor.  Isn't this just the most clever thing.  Guess what Apple is up to!]

What else will they want to do in 10 years?

Hollywood will soon have the power to remotely disable the analog outputs on your set-top box, under a decision by federal regulators on Friday intended to prevent home recording of new movie releases.

The move by the Federal Communications Commission grants cable and satellite providers the power to block consumers from viewing just-released movies in an analog format through a process known as Selectable Output Control. Hollywood requested SOC powers as a condition of allowing providers for the first time to release movies to their in-home customers while the film is in theaters.

The Motion Picture Association of America said its member studios would not authorize the early movie releases unless it won the ability to deploy Selectable Output Control. The reason: Analog video signals can easily be recorded, while dig"

[Source: FCC Lets Hollywood Turn Off Your Output Jacks | Threat Level | Wired.com.]

Boys and girls:  This is not a good thing.

Related articles

• Here Is How The FCC Gave The Keys To The Kingdom To Hollywood (lockergnome.com)
• FCC Lets Hollywood Turn Off Your Output Jacks (wired.com)
• FCC gives Hollywood control over your home theater (arstechnica.com)
• Silicon Alley Insider: OUTRAGE OF THE DAY: FCC Says Hollywood Can Turn Off Parts Of Your Home Theater While You're Watching Movies (businessinsider.com)
• FCC Gives Hollywood The Right To Break Your TV/DVR... Just 'Cause (techdirt.com)