Head in the Clouds

I know what I want from a cell phone. Here’s a hint – iPhone it is not. Not that I’m knocking iPhone, it’s just that I dream bigger….and I don’t care how touch screeny a device is.

I want a cell phone connected to a cloud.

For explanatory purposes I’m going to describe my ideal cell phone tied into Google technology…because it’s a popular cloud that we all know and love.

My ideal cell phone would access the exact same dataset that my Google Gmail account and Google Calendar access. If I update my contact or calendar information while using my desktop in a web browser - then I want that new information to be instantly available on my cell phone. I don’t want to have to sync it – I want to reference the exact information so that there is only one authoritative version.

I want my ideal cell phone to have biometric capabilities. I want to unlock it by placing my finger on it. When I place my finger on my phone the phone knows I’m holding it and I can get to all my contact information. If someone else has my phone, ideally they won’t have my finger, and they will not be able to access any of my personal contact/calendar information.

If I give my phone to someone else they should be able to put their finger on it and the phone will go out to the cloud and retrieve their information. By decoupling the information from the phone anyone’s phone will be exactly like your phone. Pick up anyone’s phone, scan your finger and your calendar and contact information will be there. Give it back to them and it’s their phone again. Imagine how handy that would be. You’ll never be without all your information.

Eventually the cloud will hold more information than just contact and calendar information. It will hold files, music, media, etc. All of it sitting there just waiting for you to access it. The only real differentiator between phones will be what methods of inputs they offer and how much viewing surface you get. The phone will be reduced to simple input and output. What it inputs and outputs will not be the concern of the cell phone company.

I wonder how long I’ll have to wait?

Now TV will suck

Dawn and I finished watching The Wire last night. It’s five seasons long, and for my money, it’s the best five seasons of TV drama that there is. I know Dawn and I have implored everyone we know to watch it…and at this point if you haven’t heeded our advice - then you are dumb. No seriously, wallow in shame and ignorance as you squander your TV entertainment. I have no pity for you.

I really respect a show that is willing to go out while it’s still going strong and not waiting until they’ve run their universe into the ground. The Wire does just that. They could have easily wringed a few more seasons out of it if they wanted to.

It’s probably a good thing that NetFlix doesn’t offer the show as part of their play on demand service. That could be dangerous to adults with other responsibilities. By forcing you to wait for the individual DVDs they force you to pace yourself. Of course now I have the predicament that my NetFlix envelopes won’t be greeted with unbridled enthusiasm. I’ve kind of grown used to the fact that each mail drop DVD was going to be pure entertainment gold. I guess I’ll have to readjust to an endless parade of crap I’ve never heard of.

Cat + Chair

It's been awhile since I've posted a Riblet photo. Tonight she was posing on a chair and I thought it looked like something that belonged in "Feline Architectural Digest" or perhaps "CEO Power Cats Exposed."

Riblet was cooperative enough to sit on the arm and let me go and fetch my camera and then fiddle around with the settings for a few minutes before I got this photo.

A Debate I Could Have Believed In

I blame that damnable NPR debate drinking game. It pointed out that Senator McCain likes to pepper his speech with “my friends.” So during last night’s debate I was sensitive to the phrase and each utterance resonated louder in my head than it should have.

This morning I was curious exactly how many times he said it. I was guessing somewhere in the 40’s….it seemed like he said it multiple times for each answer. I found a transcript of the debate and did a find and replace to see how many “my friends” there where. I was shocked to find out it he said it only 19 times. Funny how the mind can play tricks on you like that.

For my own personal amusement when I did the find and replace, I replaced “my friends” with “jackasses.” I was startled how positively I responded to the altered text.

In response to the question: “With the economy on the downturn and retired and older citizens and workers losing their incomes, what's the fastest, most positive solution to bail these people out of the economic ruin?”:

[… Significant portions of the answer elided, actually, I’m going to be eliding things like crazy from here on out …]

“Is it expensive? Yes. But we all know, jackasses, until we stabilize home values in America, we're never going to start turning around and creating jobs and fixing our economy. And we've got to give some trust and confidence back to America.

I know how do that, jackasses. And it's my proposal, it's not Senator Obama's proposal, it's not President Bush's proposal. But I know how to get America working again, restore our economy and take care of working Americans. Thank you.”

In another response while talking about reducing congressional earmarks:
…
“He voted for nearly a billion dollars in pork barrel earmark projects, including, by the way, $3 million for an overhead projector at a planetarium in Chicago, Illinois. Jackasses, do we need to spend that kind of money? “
…

In response to reforming Medicare and Social Security:
…
“Social Security is not that tough. We know what the problems are, jackasses, and we know what the fixes are. We've got to sit down together across the table. It's been done before.”
…

In response to energy policy:
...
“That's fundamental economics. We've got to drill offshore, jackasses, and we've got to do it now, and we can do it.”
...

Oh well, I’ve had my little fun at Senator McCain’s expense. For the record, I also plugged in the verbal crutch that the NPR's drinking game has listed for Senator Obama – “Now look.” But it return zero hits… So there was any fun to be had there.

Calling you out.

I started to feel a little bad that I don’t blog as much as I used to. Then I noticed that Blogger neatly displays your yearly and monthly posts totals. I’m at 117 posts for 2008. Not all of those are gems by any means. But they each probably represent some sort of small diversion for people that check my blog… and that has to be worth something.

Let’s compare that to some of my friends blogs. 7, 9, 19, 21, 26, 36. Wow, it’s kind of staggering how e-boring you guys are. Perhaps PowerPoint can illustrate the…errrr…point.

Yikes.

I'm Powerless Over the News

I heard it on the radio on my way into work. In the midst of an economic downturn Americans are tightening their budgets and are only buying necessities right now. This looks like bad news for retail stores and consumer spending this holiday season.

Thank you, Steve Inskeep. Thank you for confirming what I had already begun to suspect. The purchase of our ION Drum Rocker Premium Drum Set ™ was an unavoidable necessity. The thought was already in my head, but it sometimes helps to have it vocalized (and with such gravitas) by a respected news correspondent.

I’m glad that’s settled.

Non Sequitur

I don't feel the need nor am I in the mood to explain myself or this image. So there.

A Study in Responsibility

Christmas came early for Dawn, or so she said last night when she came home and found me assembling the ION Drum Rocker Premium Drum Set ™. I suppose it’s sort of true – the ION (I’m not typing in that obnoxious long name again) would have been her Christmas gift…If I felt like waiting until Christmas to give it to her. As soon as it was existence was announced earlier this year I knew that us purchasing it was a foregone conclusion. We would have one. The real question was when we would have one.

We recently bought Rock Band 2 and have been playing quite a bit recently. My thinking was that if I’m buying an extravagantly over priced video game peripheral we should try and milk all the enjoyment we can out of it. We might as well have it while we’re still playing the game on a nightly basis. After a month or so the shiny newness of Rock Band 2 will wear off and that will leave Dawn playing the drums at her regular frequency, like she has been for the last year. So I’m not worried that it won’t get used after the initial sheen has worn off Rock Band 2, Dawn does not appear to get bored of playing the drums….it just seemed like a shame not to enjoy the game to fullest while it was in it unbridled new game glory.

Or so I tell myself. Rationalization is a beautiful thing, no matter how tortured the logic is. If that doesn’t pass the test, then I’ve already cooked up a second reason I needed to buy the drum kit. When Dawn was in grad school she bought me Steel Battalion, at the time it was the most elaborate Xbox video game peripheral available. Last night I returned the favor by buying her the most elaborate Xbox 360 video game peripheral available (that I know of). We decided that it is the responsibility of the person in school to give extravagant video game gifts in order to help the non-student cope with the lack of attention they are receiving. Perhaps it’s not an ideal system, but there are worst things in the world than being told that you’re appreciated via the medium of video games.