Updates Defined
Posted in: Editorial | Comments (17)
The Updates blog is about movies, software, apps, smartphones, photography, and fun. We’ll occasionally dabble in religion for the sake of truth, but otherwise we try to stay light-hearted here.
Here are some examples of what the Updates blog is all about:
- How to Watch Netflix on Your Android Phone — a post about how I used Playon to run Netflix on my Samsung Captivate in North Carolina, through a Time Warner modem and Belkin Router. Since returning to Florida, I have been unable to get Playon to work using a Centurylink 660W modem. Welcome to the real world.
- What’s Next for Harold Camping — this is an example of shining the light of truth on a false religious premise. I really can’t stand organizations like Family Radio, that sell people on things that are impossible to predict like the end of the world. People donated tons of money to this organization; meanwhile, that money could have been sent to victims of tornadoes, floods, and earthquakes. The money donated to Family Radio could be used to find a cure for diseases. Instead, the money went to pay for billboards proclaiming 5/21/2011 would be the date of the Rapture. What a complete waste of money and precious resources. Harold Camping should be ashamed.
- Royal Pain in the Posterior (Princess Kate Wedding) — we occasionally give our take on celebrity events. We try to give a real world perspective to things like the Princess Kate wedding, where seemingly every major news outlet on TV and online was inculcating the public on who Kate was and how her wedding was a fairy tale. Whatever. Ask Princess Diana if she believes in happily ever afters in this lifetime.
- Darker than Black, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Chinese Connection, Moribito — I rarely get to watch movies or TV; so, if I actually watch something, I like to talk about it.
- Wizard’s hat in the clouds — I love taking photos of interesting sites and items that catch my eye. Cars, clouds, weird M&M shapes … things you won’t see anywhere else.
If you’re bored with the hum-drum, SEO-driven, same-old headlines from Yahoo, Drudge, Rotten Tomatoes, AOL, Twitter, Facebook, Techcrunch, and other sites, be sure to add us to your RSS feed; break the monotony and read the DailySkew!
Tony Vahl @ May 24, 2011
Lower Taxes to Bring Back Manufacturing?
Posted in: Editorial, technology | Comments (0)
So, I heard the other day on Macbreak Weekly that if an $229 iPod was built in the USA, it would end up selling retail for something like $287. The research info came from Harvard Business Review.
I found this pretty amazing. I always assumed, with labor costs, that it would be $1,000′s of dollars to sell an iPod Touch built in the USA. Apparently, the cost of shipping from China is comparable to labor costs for products built in the USA.
Anyway, this reminded me of something similar I had heard years ago at an LED company I worked for at the time. The sales person was explaining to a customer that it was cheaper to build in the USA because you don’t have to worry about shipping costs from Asia.
So, since there is very little difference in cost, one has to wonder why Apple is building products abroad? Maybe it’s because they want to sell the iPod Touch at the cheapest price possible. That makes sense, from a numbers point of view.
One thing that was brought up by Andy Ihnatko was that corporations like Apple have tons of cash overseas, and they are avoiding America’s high corporate tax rate.
So, this made me think: if we the people lowered the corporate tax rate, would this bring back manufacturing?
Now, before you freak out and say, “Vahl! How can we give evil corporations a tax break! They don’t deserve it!” Ask yourself this: would you rather big companies like GE and Google pay 0 taxes by keeping their money overseas, or would it be better if we lowered corporate tax rates and got these companies to pay some taxes?
The answer is obvious, to me anyway. It’s just a thought, and a potential side benefit is that manufacturing would return to the US, and slave labor would be reduced around the world. Just sayin’.
admin @ January 22, 2012
Riker Leadership
Posted in: Editorial, Star Trek | Comments (1)
I think we can learn a lot from Commander William Riker from ST:TNG when it comes to leadership. In particular, Riker’s character in the show demonstrates that is possible to not have all the perfect characteristics of a leader and still be a great leader.
I am currently watching ST:TNG straight through on Netflix. I’m in the middle of Season 3. There have been some great Riker episodes. One episode, in particular, showed Riker’s leadership skills.
Riker and Picard were participating in a War Game. Riker was in charge of an old derelict ship, and he had to do battle with the Enterprise. It was an exercise to get them ready to battle the Borg. They wanted to work on strategies for facing a superior opponent.
There was an advisor on the Enterprise who was monitoring the War Game scenario. This advisor was an expert on strategy. He did not like Commander Riker. He thought he did not have what it took to be a good Captain. He did not like his personality type. The advisor said Riker was too jovial and light-hearted.
Picard viewed Riker’s joviality as a strength. He defended Riker, saying that his light-heartedness engenders loyalty, and when push comes to shove, Riker would do anything for his crew.
Riker is an Enneagram Type 6. As a fellow type 6, I was floored by this episode, having experienced similar critiques from upper management when I was in a leadership position. Type 6′s get put down upon because we don’t seem to show the appropriate amount of seriousness. Picard understood that Riker did take things seriously; it’s just his style to be light-hearted on the surface. It’s just how he relates to other people, even his subordinates.
The advisor did not like that style.
Needless to say, Riker proved the advisor wrong, and put up a great fight against a superior opponent. He also showed an ability to improvise, which is a strength of healthy individuals who have the Enneagram type 6 personality. The advisor had to admit he was wrong and eat it.
Just because someone has a classic leadership personality type does not mean they are meant to be a leader. Individuals should be judged on a case-by-case basis when judging up-and-coming leaders. Unfortunately, it can be difficult for people to become leaders if they are blocked by stuffy eggheads like the advisor in that ST:TNG episode.
I’ve heard the talk about how I’m too jovial and too friendly in the past. Meanwhile, my teams have consistently outperformed other teams working on the same project. Guys like me may not look the part, but I just point to the results and keep pressing ahead. I believe in myself; it took years to develop that skill, since I don’t fit the mold, but once it’s there, you just have to go out there and push.
admin @ January 16, 2012
TWiFT: Stitcher, Kindle, and Froyo
Posted in: technology | Comments (0)
This week in frustrating tech: my Stitcher and Kindle apps totally failed on me this week. Here were the specific issues:
- Stitcher would not download TWiT podcasts. I finally gave up and downloaded the Mediafly TWiT app in order to listen. In the past, the TWiT app had been frustrating to deal with. The app looks different, and I hope it performs better this time around. So far, so good
- The Kindle app would not download books I had recently purchased, or samples. Later, the Kindle app would not update; I get an error message saying, “Cannot save to phone or SD card.”
I rebooted the phone. I uninstalled and reinstalled the apps. I tried various combinations of the above and more, and got nowhere.
Since this was happening to two apps, I concluded that this could be a compatibility issue with apps built for Android 4.0 ICS that are running on Froyo 2.2, or it could be that my stock build of Froyo 2.2 was FUBAR’ed for some reason. I’ve also been having issues with my speaker not playing audio on occasion; that appears to be a short in the hardware. So, it might be time to call in the warranty on this phone, for hardware and software reasons.
I’ve had the phone 13 months, and it’s already on it’s last legs. That’s not good, Samsung. The Captivate should last a little bit longer than that.
Anyway, the Kindle app finally started working and updating after one more reboot. I’m not sure why that reboot was different than the prior reboots, but it worked.
The Stitcher app is still flaky, unfortunately. It won’t play TWiT, and it won’t continue where it left off on other podcasts. Very sad, considering Stitcher is one of my favorite apps.
Bottom line: I think the Android OS fragmentation is rendering older phones useless. The fact that Samsung and AT&T cannot keep up with the OS upgrades is ruining the customer experience. I am strongly considering switching to a pure Google phone experience next time, or trying a new OS altogether.
admin @ January 14, 2012
TWiFT: Reiko 3.5mm iPhone Cable
Posted in: technology | Comments (2)
The 3.5mm Reiko iPhone/iPod video cable is an absolute joke. It does not work as advertised.
"Don't buy. Don't buy."
According to the product description, it’s compatible with an iPhone 3G. My mom has an iPhone 3G. I bought it for her so she could watch her Netflix on her TV (she does not have landline Internet). I thought you just plug it in, and the TV Out thing would just work.
Well, guess what? It doesn’t!
I’m writing this post because the product description is incredibly misleading, and I want to help prevent others from making the same mistake I made.
Here are the main things I want you to remember:
- the iPhone does not have a TV Out setting, like Android. So it just doesn’t put your iPhone screen on the TV
- the iPhone will play video and display photos of stuff already recorded on the phone. That’s it. It will not play video from apps like Netflix and Youtube
- Your best shot is to get a component video cable for your iPhone from Apple; be sure to read what the video is capable of on Apple’s site, or just go to the Apple store and ask one of their Geniuses to tell you what the limitations of the Apple certified compononent video cable for your iPhone or iPod are. It may cost you $50 to get that cable, but as the old saying goes: “You get what you pay for.”
I hope that Amazon pulls this garbage product from it’s offerings. Oh, and for the company that sold me the product and finally offered a refund after three emails back and forth: you know you’re wrong. I’m sure you’ve gotten other complaints. Stop using a Universal Translator to speak to me in Victorian-style English. Stop ripping people off. Stop selling that LaME product, or make it clear that it only works for Android and videos you already recorded on your iPhone/iPod device. Clarify your product description; that would be the right thing to do.
admin @ January 2, 2012
History Twins Skew Review
Posted in: Comics | Comments (0)
So, I found a new web comic the other day called The History Twins, by FT and BT — a father/daughter team. I ran across their comic through Twitter, thanks to @TheAcsMan (great stock market perspectives).
The History Twins is a labor of love, as they are promoting the cause of finding a cure for a child named Dillon, who has a rare disease. We here at the DailySkew have that in common, as we are looking for a cure for Simon. I was really touched by the reasoning behind the web comic.
The concept of The History Twins is awesome. The creators are mixing history with humor. I saw one with Alexander the Great which mocked his looks. Perhaps they should do a follow-up where they mock Collin Farrell’s looks, but I digress.
My only criticism of the strip is that the word bubble that comes first should be directly above; if it is off to the right, my eyes are trained to track to the left. Maybe it’s a Manga thing?
Other than that, the strips are humorous, and I love that The History Twins incorporate history in some of the strips. Damian and I are lovers of history and blend in historical perspective whenever we can to our posts. So, it’s nice to see someone pushing history to the masses.
Oh, and as a long time comic book fan, it’s nice to see thought bubbles in a comic strip.
Anyway, check out The History Twins and support Dillon’s Cause.
I also did a podcast review about The History Twins here.
admin @ January 1, 2012
K’naan Troubador Skew Review
Posted in: Music | Comments (0)
So, for the past week I’ve been listening to K’naan’s Troubador album. I first heard about it on NPR’s The Takeaway, a show that attempts to be a sarcastic yet serious news show. Let’s do a quick Skew Review of this fantastic album, shall we?
- T.i.a. — This is real. This is Africa. I think about rappers bragging about their gold chains here in the USA, and they are totally melted by the reality K’naan describes on this song. This is one of the best lead tracks I’ve ever heard for an album. His rhymes are so real; when you’ve lived it, you don’t have to brag. You just spit it.
- ABCs — not bad. Good hook. I found that the 2nd to 5th songs kinda blended in when I first heard it. After second and third listens, I fell in love with those tracks.
- Dreamer — good song. He talks about how even though he’s had bad experiences, it’s okay to feel good and live life. Also: one of two mentions of G.W. Bush. It was a different perspective on Bush which was not politically motivated.
- I Come Prepared — I’ve grown to love this song. Damian Marley is awesome on this song.
- Bang Bang — more of a fun, light-hearted love song. Adam Levine provides awesome vocals on the chorus. Oh, and K’naan does a great job singing on this album! He ain’t just a rapper. Very talented artist. And he learned English when he moved to Canada from Somalia. Oh, I didn’t mention he’s from the mean streets of Mogadishu? Oh, yeah. This is real.
- If Rap Gets Jealous — this was on his first album. In this new version, he recruited Kirk Hammett from Metallica. The chorus is super heavy; kinda reminded me of how Janet Jackson’s Black Cat kicks in, or when Anthrax and Public Enemy did a mash-up song, back in the day.
- Wavin’ Flag — this is an awesome, uplifting song, yet grounded in reality. It’s hard to do both: I guess you gotta live it to sing it. This was the song that I heard on the Takeaway that led me to checking out K’naan on Google Music. Great chorus hook. Total ear worm.
- Somalia — he actually mentions the Pirates of Aden in this track. He doesn’t apologize or defend, he just describes and mentions. When K’naan talks about seeing a Gloc, he’s serious. He didn’t volunteer to see it. War just erupted. Oh, and Somalia is the place where the streets have no name.
- America — worst song on the album. I actually think Mos Def is on there as a parody of American rappers focused on materiality and sex.
- Fatima — one of the saddest songs on the album. It’s about a neighbor’s daughter he was in love with who was taken away by gunman. Whew. Deep. Intense story.
- Fire in Freetown — cool song. The last few songs on this album are my favorite on the album; just have to skip that America track.
- Take a Minute — Man, what a deep song. Catchy beat. Mentions Ghandi. Talks about how his mom got beat up and survived. Intense.
- 15 Minutes Away — This is about waiting on a Western Union Money Transfer. I remember being a teenager away at College, waiting for some cash from my mom and dad. Brought back memories. Funny song.
- Heaven — Saddest song on the album. 1st verse: Iraq war vet. 2nd verse: a woman layed off from her job. 3rd verse: being separated from his best friend in Somalia. Whew. You think you have problems? Get your Perspective ™ right here, on this track.
- Remixes of Wavin’ Flag — I could play Wavin’ Flag all day. Awesome hit song.
Overall, K’naan does a good job rapping and singing. He borrows from M&M and Kanye in some of his stylings. He is versatile and extremely talented. His lyrics are profound. Buy the album. It’s a dose of perspective.
admin @ December 31, 2011
TWiFT: Flixster and Ultraviolet
Posted in: Movies, technology | Comments (4)
So, I got the Green Lantern DVD the other day. Attached to the package was offer to watch the movie online and download a digital copy through Ultraviolet.
Having used iTunes to download digital copies of Inception and Thor after buying the DVD, I was hoping it would be just as easy. It’s convenient to have your favorite movies on your laptop when you’re travelling, as I frequently do. It’s better than carrying a bunch of DVDs with you.
Anyway, turned out Ultraviolet was not as simple as the iTunes method.
Basically, you have to create an account through Flixster (wait, I thought this was Ultraviolet) and enter the code there. From there, I was asked to download a Flixster app from the Mac App Store (great, I gotta download yet another program) to run the movie. Once installed, I went back to the website (not the app, the website) and was allowed to download the movie. It would not download until I installed the app; it would not download from within the app.
Frustrating.
The app itself makes iTunes look good, which is really hard to do. iTunes is one of the ugliest apps in the Apple universe, but you get used to it after awhile, you know? Flixster managed to make an even more unwieldy, annoying app.
Tangent: why would Flixster feel like they have to reinvent the wheel? Aren’t there existing partners to work with on a media player?
So, I managed to download Green Lantern, along with a bonus movie called Emerald Nights (way better than the live-action movie). So, that made the frustration worth it.
A couple of weeks later, I decided to delete the movies from my hard drive and see if I could watch it online. After all, I need the space on my laptop.
Well, after clicking the Watch Now link on the Flixster website, I got an error message saying I have to create an Ultraviolet account over at uvvu.com. I went ahead and set up the account, verified the account, went back to Flixster, and was told it’s still not working.
So, for some reason, the two websites aren’t syncing with each other. I put in a help ticket yesterday and eventually was told how to fix it. I haven’t done it yet because I have a life. It is the holiday season, after all.
Is there a good reason why there are two separate websites to run streaming video? Why can’t the streaming video run through Flixster? Why do we need Ultraviolet as a middle-man, anyway?
I’m sorry, Flixster and Ultraviolet, but if you’re offering streaming video, I expect it to work like Netflix or Hulu. I expect to have use just ONE account, and stay on the same website. Stop making me jump through hoops. Stopping treating me like an airline passenger walking through a TSA screening. Treat me like a human being, and make it simple. Make it work.
If the movie industry is that afraid to offer streaming video, then why offer it? I’m happy to download it, if that’s the only way the movie is available. Otherwise, offer the streaming at the same site where you can download it. Sheesh.
admin @ December 24, 2011
TWi Frustrating Tech
Posted in: technology | Comments (0)
Welcome to TWiFT: This Week in Frustrating Tech. Here are the devices, computers, and operating systems that sucked away hours from my life for the past seven days for no good reason:
- When I upload a video to Youtube on my Samsung Captivate and it says, “Completed”, I expect it to be completed. Instead, I check Youtube’s Video Manager and my upload is not there. Wash, rinse, repeat — I get the same result.
Since I cannot mount my Samsung Captivate to my Macbook (that would have been a great episode of TWiFT), I had no choice but use the slow bluetooth connection to move the video to my laptop.
- I bought a laptop for my wife this Christmas. I decided to be proactive, and use Windows Easy Transfer to move the files from her old machine to the Christmas Gift. She went shopping one afternoon with our daughter, so my son and I set it up. The estimated time to complete the transfer was 1 hour and 30 minutes, so things were looking good. The transfer would be done before my wife got home, right?
Wrong.
The estimated time slowed down to 4 hours and 42 at one point. Not sure why.
The actual time it took to complete the transfer was over 10 HOURS.
I had to hide the new laptop next to the bed. I slid the keyboard underneath and covered the screen with the edge of the bedding.
Oh, and 3/4ths of the way through the process, the old machine shut off. When I restarted Windows Easy Transfer, it did not recognize that a previous transfer had stopped. Luckily, the only thing left was stuff from a Sharing folder, so I knew where the transfer had left off, and continued from that point.
Windows Easy Transfer: easier than previous transfer programs from Microsoft, but still pretty unintuitive. And slow.
- The search for a gift for my Mom. She wants a tablet or IP television device.
She does not have Internet. “I don’t want another bill,” she says.
She is a computer illiterate who loves her iPhone. The best choice for her would be an iPad with 3G connectivity.
The cheapest iPad Apple is selling is a $399 refurbished first-generation device. That one comes with 3G connectivity.
Sorry, but I don’t have $399 to spend.
Next, I look at the world of Android tablets and realize that, even though some of the devices are amazingly cheap (below $100 for a 7″ touchscreen tablet), I also know that Android OS force closes and crashes ALL THE TIME. My mom would be thoroughly frustrated by that. I love my mom, so I will not be buying her an Android tablet.
How about a Roku? Well, that would be great, except she needs Internet for that to work, plus a subscription to Hulu or Netflix. And, there’s no guarantee she could work the remote.
How about my wife’s old laptop with a 3G USB device to give her Internet?
1. Another $25/mo bill for me? Hahahahaahahahaa
2. My mom using a laptop running Vista? Haahahahahahahahaaa
3. I could install Ubuntu, which is much snappier, but Netflix still doesn’t run on Linux.
4. Not sure if my Mom is ready to graduate from touchscreen to touchpad interface.
Buying my mom a tech device with Internet is like the Kobayashi Moru no-win-scenario in Star Trek. I wish Kirk were here to help me, ahem, beat the system with a cheap device that magically plugs into the ‘Net.
admin @ December 4, 2011
Translation: AT&T Withdraws Bid for T-Mobile
Posted in: technology, Translation | Comments (0)
Original Text from the AT&T Public Policy Blog:
On Nov. 22, 2011, the Federal Communications Commission indicated a proposed order was circulating that would designate for hearing the applications of AT&T Inc. and Deutsche Telekom AG For Consent To Assign or Transfer Control of Licenses and Authorizations, WT Docket No. 11-65. On November 23, 2011, AT&T Inc. and Deutsche Telekom AG electronically withdrew without prejudice, as of that date, the pending applications listed in the Public Notice released by the Federal Communications Commission on April 28, 2011 in that proceeding. Associated manual notification of withdrawal filings also are being made.
AT&T Inc. and Deutsche Telekom AG are continuing to pursue the sale of Deutsche Telekom’s U.S. wireless assets to AT&T and are taking this step to facilitate the consideration of all options at the FCC and to focus their continuing efforts on obtaining antitrust clearance for the transaction from the Department of Justice either through the litigation pending before the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Case No. 1:11-cv-01560 (ESH) or alternate means.
As soon as practical, AT&T Inc. and Deutsche Telekom AG intend to seek the necessary FCC approval. As a result of the FCC’s action, AT&T expects to recognize a pretax accounting charge of $4 billion ($3 billion cash and $1 billion book value of spectrum) in the 4th quarter of 2011 to reflect the potential break up fees due Deutsche Telekom in the event the transaction does not receive regulatory approval.
DailySkew Translation (What AT&T meant to say):
On Tuesday, the FCC hinted that they were going to punt our application to merge AT&T with T-Mobile to a judge for a hearing, which means they want to reject the deal without having to take direct blame from us for preventing the creation of thousands of new call center jobs here in the USA. So, on Wednesday, we (us and Deutsche Telekom, the company that owns T-Mobile) withdrew our application for the merger. We refuse to gratify the FCC or the DoJ or the Obama Administration with a successful rejection.
To all our panicked shareholders: we are waiting until the results of the 2012 Presidential Election are in before giving up on this deal. If Obama wins, obviously it’s over. We’re also waiting for the results of the DoJ case against the merger to play out. With any luck, we’ll have a friendlier Attorney General in place before the judge rules against us.
Since we agreed to give up $3 billion in cash to Deutsche Telekom AG if the deal failed, we will be exploring other options to cover that loss. These options include raising rates on minutes, raising texting rates, raising data plan rates, raising the cost of our phones when signing a 2-year deal with AT&T, laying off workers, and closing stores. When you gamble, sometimes you lose. Thankfully, we have options to help recoup our losses.
admin @ November 25, 2011
