Like every kid I always wanted a cool pet, but unfortunately, like you, I was the kid who only had 2 goldfish. In recent years, I have not liked pets so much and I thought it was because I didn’t want to take care of them. Then someone gave me a better reason not to like them. “Most animals intelligence quotients are so low that rather than doing things for other beings, they do everything for themselves.” They like you because you give them food and water, because you keep them in your climate controlled house, because you scratch them, et cetera. Perhaps it hit me harder than it will hit you because I loved to feed fish when I was ten. I really do not think that most animals have certain emotional capabilities, including love. Am I too harsh?
::Update::
Since writing this, I have learned about the limbic system in mammals, which is responsible for emotion. I am now agnostic towards the idea of pets and their ability to feel love.
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September 17 2007 | Thoughts | No Comments »
Every single time I withdraw money from an ATM machine I have like a nanosecond of frustration when I realized that what I withdraw has to be a multiple of the 20 dollar bill (or 50). I quickly throw it to the back of my brain when I tear my receipt. Finally, just recently, I stopped for a second and gathered that nanosecond of deep realization that things didn’t have to be this way.
Why can’t I get my money in multiples of tens, fives, or why not oven ones? Why can’t I withdraw 13 bucks? The technology to do this has always been available. It’s because the same company (Diebold) owns the majority of them. I would even go as far to say that big business usually cares more about business and less about innovation. Every time I go to The Home Depot I always get 10 dollars cash back because… well I can, and should be able to. It just reminds me how there are so many little things that could be made, or presented better.
A little more insight about getting cash back. If you need to, and you are at a gas station, Wal-Mart, or something of the sort, you can always buy something, then get cash back from the cashier. You shouldn’t have to pay $2 to withdraw YOUR OWN money. At least when you get cash back at one of the aforementioned places, you get something for your 2 dollars.
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September 11 2007 | Thoughts | 1 Comment »
I was reading a music based entertainment magazine the other day and it was talking about music leaking before it is released, and how its pretty much impossible to stop it from leaking early (as of now). One of the artist went on to say that leaking is only a bad thing if your album sucks.
If you think pirating is a problem, then these days, it is a really big problem. Last December, The New York Times revealed that there is an average of 22 iTunes songs per iPod.
The price in music has always had a downward trend, so why today when music is so cheap, and you only need travel to your computer chair to obtain it, is piracy so high. Maybe that’s just it, obtainability. What if piracy is so high because people want it in the most convenient matter, cost aside? Then you say “Keith, once you put your information in on iTunes it could actually be easier to pay for music then steal it.” June 1st, 1999 Sean Fanning created the first way to obtain music on the internet. Sean Fanning created the easiest way to obtain music. Sean Fanning created Napster, and it wasn’t legal. Napster spawned an entire generation who at first, were geared towards accessibility. Now millions of people have it hardwired in their brains to pirate music. Whether they don’t think it’s wrong, or they know it’s wrong, the first time they downloaded a song on the internet, was illegally. So The Shins new album is leaked 3 months before release date, cost aside, we resort back to our instinct, our first, our built nature of obtaining music through our favorite p2p client. If there would have been an iTunes released on the same day Napster was, the ratio of stolen music on the internet to bought music on the internet today, would be at least the same, most likely lower. Because we didn’t punch in our information on iTunes the first time we bought a song, for our generation it will never be instinct.
I also think that people steal music, because it’s easier to obtain higher quality music. ITunes will sell songs with a bitrate of at most 192kbps, which isn’t even CD quality. I’ll post later about how we should have higher quality music.
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August 28 2007 | Thoughts | 3 Comments »
Some of you may have noticed that for awhile the header banner has changed it’s hue in the past. Well, I’ve decided to do that from time to time in order to show how often I will be posting. At one time it was blue because I was finishing up with finals and projects before my graduation, and had little time to post. I turned it back red for the summer, although my posting still was sluggish because of various vacations. Now, I am changing it back to blue because I’ll be traveling to the Philippines for 2 weeks and will not be bringing my laptop. See ya in two weeks!
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June 29 2007 | Ideas | 1 Comment »
Along with continued tech/sci updates, I’m going to change the main focus of Plooms to ideas. You know, the spurts of genius information you come up with while you’re taking a shower. Although most of the time pretty lame, they can still be way cool. Since the basis of Plooms was founded on a random idea, (integrating polls into posts for statistical value) I’ve decided that I want the main chunk of Plooms’ posts to be about Ideas. I will be adding two more categories; Ideas, and Thoughts. An Idea is a completely original, you know, idea. A thought is more of a question, like “what do you think about such-and-such if it were such-and-such way.” And with that, I will have openings for authors. No pay, I’ll just be starting a place for people to post their Ideas and thoughts. For the next 2 weeks I will be out of the country. If you are interested in writing, send me an email. It can be long, short, telling of yourself, etc. I don’t want to put out specific guidelines because I’d rather have it based on Idea. So, write me something, and I’ll read it when I get back.
kdavis@plooms.com
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June 29 2007 | Ideas | No Comments »
This post will mainly be an insight on my newly purchased T-Mobile Dash (HTC Excalibur). Although I do not own a Pearl, many of my friends do and I have used them extensively. At first glance out of the box the Dash is beautiful, more beautiful than the pictures. Small thin body, metallic front, and rubber back makes it a nice hold in hands. Then for the boot up (a little long) I find a colorful Windows Mobile 5. With that, I go to T-Mobiles website to get WM6 (free of coarse). After I download it I search endlessly on forums and websites to find info on Mac integration. I could only find one easy to use program called Missing Sync, that will run you a whopping $40. But wait, even if you think that’s not good deal for Macintosh integration, it only works with WM5 (for now)… so as soon as I download it, I will only be able to use it once to transfer WM6, which you need some sort of syncing program to do, then I am stuck not being able to transfer music, documents, etc.
On to the software… windows mobile 6 is great, I finally got over it and just used my PC partition through boot camp to transfer files. Windows Media Player is disappointing in that it can only play .mp3, wma, and wmv. So for my .mp4 and .avi, I had to download various media players. With the Dash’s not-so-fast processor, playing movies of great sizes/resolutions was impossible. Terrible fps. Short clips played and looked beautiful with the Dash’s Huge screen.
Along with the slow boot up, the whole WM6 interface was pretty sluggish, not because of WM6, but because of the low processor speed, and small amount of memory. With the more programs I had opened, the slower everything moved, to eventually it was saying I couldn’t open any more programs for there was not enough memory. Overall the operating system seemed great, but it’s hardware could hardly support it.
A week after purchase, I was packing up for California. Got in the car, pulled out the Dash to listen to some tunes and realized that there were dead pixels forming. I called up T-Mobile on the drive up only to find that it was a “pressure crack” aka “physical damage” that would not allow me to return the phone in during the 14 day test trial, and was also not covered by the warranty. By this point I was extremely upset. Through the course of my trip, the dead pixels formed a huge black ink blot the rest of the screen was a clean white of more dead pixels. I had just purchased a brand new phone hardly used it, never dropped it once, took extremely good care of it, and it was virtually worthless. It would be 2 weeks before I would come back to Arizona (today) and talk to a representative. They confirmed in was a pressure crack on the internal workings of the screen, and with a thin, larger display, you can’t have it in your pocket because any sort of pressure can damage it. The representative reassured me that they can’t do anything about it, except give me the number of the third party insurance company they use (and I did buy insurance.) With the decision already in my mind that I no longer wanted this phone because of it’s breaking in such a short amount of time (ridiculous!) I called the insurance company to see if I could claim for a Blackberry Pearl. They said the only way I could get a phone of equivalent value (Dash and Blackberry cost exactly the same) was if they were out of stock of my model. The insurance company was so crappy they couldn’t even tell me how long I have insurance with them. (To see if I wanted to call back when they were out-of-stock). I just said that I would cancel the claim and call back later. So I called T-Mobile back convinced that this was a manufacturers defect, and a screen should not break this easily without any physical trauma whatsoever. So tomorrow I will send it in for them to check if there was a defect. If not, the insurance will make me pay half the cost a sluggish fragile phone that I don’t want anymore.
When and if I receive a new Dash, I will probably sell it to some unsuspecting victim on eBay. At least the Pearl has a processor and memory that can definitely hold it’s own. The data plan on the Dash costs $10 more than the Pearl, and does not include international email like the Blackberry does. The main reason that I initially chose the Dash over the Pearl is because I live in Tempe Arizona, an area that is completely wifi. The Dash has a wifi card, and the Pearl does not. Direct push email does not work on wifi though, instead email checks every 5 minutes with WM6 and ever 15 minutes with WM5. I wish I would have originally got the Pearl along with the cheaper more extensive data plan. At first, the Dash was the phone of my dreams, but that’s the problem with Cnet reviews, they never show the “2 weeks later,” which leads me to wonder why it is the highest ranked smart phone on their website.
HTC Excalibur vs. REM Blackberry Pearl Specifications
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June 29 2007 | Technology and Thoughts | 2 Comments »
MIT has successfully demonstrates a wireless power transfer. The team powers a light bulb with seven feet of space and the members obstructing the direct line between the coils. Coined WiTricity, this could be used to power many devices without cords. The technique uses a type of electromagnetic resonance (much like resonance with sound) causing efficient power transfers unlike with radio waves. It also also does not need a direct line of sight for it to work.
I think this could be one of the most amazing inventions since cell phones. Imagine no wires at all. Not even outlets. You purchase a new television and all you have to do is set it where you want it and turn it on. It will automatically pick up (much like wifi) the power source it is keyed to. Or say if your cellphone runs low on battery, it could automatically start charging itself wherever it lay in your house. The article says that the technique is so inlaid in the laws of physics, they’re surprised no one has ever thought of it before.
::Update::
Read the comments, they’re full of information and opinion.
Through MIT
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June 16 2007 | Science and Technology | 8 Comments »
The new Super Smash Brothers for Wii has been long awaited ever first announced. Everybody was terribly disappointed when they read that it would not be releasing along side with the Wii, and it still may not even release this year in the US. It’s scheduled release in Japan is December 31st and in Europe, September 30th. With Wiis still selling like hot cakes, SSBB would do amazingly well if it could be released by Christmas. Do you think this will happen?
::Update::
Release date for North America is December 3rd 2007
::Update::
Nintendo announced addition of Sonic into the character lineup. This pushed the Japan release date to January 24th, 2008, and the US release date is now to be assigned.
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May 06 2007 | Technology | 1 Comment »
The creators of Gears of War have released 4 new multilayer maps today… but for a fee of 800 MS Points ($10). They will be free of charge September 3rd
- Bullet Marsh: In this Kryll-infested swamp, an old generator still powers the area lights. A few stray bullets could easily knock out the generator, leaving combatants to fend for themselves against the Kryll.
- Garden: This overgrown and crumbling conservatory still has a working fertilization and pesticide system. This system can pose a serious hazard to anyone who ventures into the greenhouse without first venting the air.
- Process: Teams must fight for control of this subterranean Imulsion processing plant, still active despite the cessation of the Pendulum wars.
- Subway: Timgad’s Central Subway station used to serve as a central hub for commuters. Now the tunnels are crawling with Locust.
I could see the price necessary if the maps were to revolutionize GoW, but they won’t. People will still play the old maps.
Through Major Nelson
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May 02 2007 | Technology | No Comments »
After testing for some time now, Joost will now be giving unlimited invites to its beta testers. To inform, Joost is an internet television service with over 150 channels. The creators of Skype have created Joost using peer-to-peer television technology which broadcasts in near TV quality.
Being one of the first applications of p2ptv, I am very excited to see how this turns out. If Skype keeps with it’s track records then this will undoubtedly be a success. There is one problem though… I need an invite!
::Update::
Brent from iBoughtAMac has been awesome in giving me an invite to Joost. If there is anyone who wants an invite, just comment on this post and I’ll throw one your way. Do not put your email in the actual post (to avoid spam) and don’t use temporary email addresses (spambox.us)
::Update::
I will no longer be giving out Joost invites
Through BBC
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May 02 2007 | Technology | 143 Comments »
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