Month: April 2010

Once Bitten Twice Shy

I’ve mentioned from time to time here about my fascination with Palm and their products. I still think WebOS is probably the best mobile OS out there (via playing with the major platforms through emulators and a little hands on time with devices). I’ve been saying I’m going to get a Pre at some point but have been holding out as of late because Palm is in complete disarray. Well the developers of one of my previously most used Palm applications, DataViz, has made a recent annoucement:

We are continuing our efforts to work with Palm to clear the path for a full editing version of Documents To Go. However, given the current environment at Palm, as well as the necessary collaboration with the device manufacturer that is required to bring an app like ours to a platform like webOS, our Documents To Go editor product for webOS is essentially at a standstill.

As soon as we have any additional information, we will inform you immediately.

Thanks for your passion surrounding our solution.

I bring this up because a history lesson is required. Not only is Palm in financial trouble they also have a history of screwing developers over. A few years ago Palm introduced what would have been the first netbook, the Foleo. It was a very small laptop-like device that synced up with your phone (and didn’t have much functionality without your phone). It was a neat idea honestly and I was planning on getting one upon release.

Developers worked on applications to release on the Foleo. Quit a bit of time and money was spent by developers to make sure their applications were ready for the fast approaching release date. Then at the last minute (a few days before the scheduled release) Palm cancelled the Foleo. That was it, nothing to see everybody, move along.

Their reasoning was sound (although way too late). They were working on what would become WebOS at the time. The Foleo operating system, although Linux based, was completely separate from their upcoming WebOS. Palm decided a unified user experience (in other words only putting time and resources into a single operating system) was the way they should go. They promised a Foleo II running their new platform at an unspecified future date which never game.

This story is important to bring up because it shows why developers are skittish to dump money into developing Palm software. Not only is the future of the company uncertain but they still remember getting screwed over big time from the whole Foleo debacle. Developers are none too happy when a platform developer pulls the keyboard out from under their tired coding finger tips.

So the strike against Palm is two fold at this point. They aren’t making money and their still in an untrusted position with developers who remember what happened those short few years ago. I think these two things are going to haunt Palm for many years (if they survive that long) to come.

Blame Game is Go

Tam points out that Mayor Daley of Chicago has decided to attempt going above the authority of the Supreme Court:

Six years after the state Supreme Court dismissed his $433 million lawsuit against the gun industry, Mayor Daley today called for a change of venue — to the World Court normally reserved for disputes between nations and crimes against humanity.

Wrapping up the sixth annual Richard J. Daley Global Cities Forum, Daley convinced more than a dozen of his counterparts from around the world to approve a resolution urging “redress against the gun industry through the courts of the world” in The Hague.

Yes Major Daley, now to be known on this blog as High Priest Douche, wants to take gun industry members to the world court in The Hague. This court is generally only used for crimes against all humanity, not developing devices that help liberate humanity. The bullshit is thick with this one:

“This is coming from international mayors. They’re saying, ‘We’re tired of your guns, America. … We don’t want those anymore because guns kill and injure people,’ ” Daley told a news conference at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

“If we ship over poison to a country, don’t you think we should be responsible for it? That’s what they’re saying: ‘Be responsible for what you manufacture and sell in my country.’ … You have to think outside the box. You have to be [aggressive] about how you protect your people.”

Guns kill and injure people? By that logic you guys no longer want our cars… oh wait you probably don’t. By that logic you guys don’t want cars, period.

Every time an anti-gunner brings up the phrase, “guns kill people” I present a logical experiment (because logic truly is the anti-gunner’s worst nightmare). Let’s say I sit you down at a table and on that table I place a loaded firearm pointing at you. What will happen? Nothing, you’ll be fine. Now let’s say I put a punk who wants to kill you behind that gun what will happen? You’ll probably be shot. Now let’s say I take the gun out of the picture and just have the punk across the table what will happen? He’ll probably kill you with his bear hands.

The gun is incapable of killing somebody only the person wielding it can kill somebody. Guns are not an industrial pollutant or poison. If you release cyanide into the water and people drink it they can die. If you release guns into the water nobody will die from drinking it. It’s not a poison.

But logic isn’t something High Priest Douche Daley is good with. He only knows corruption and how to avoid the law (in this case the law of the Supreme Court). He didn’t get what he wanted so he’s trying to go to somebody who he hopes will give him what he wants. What if the world court ruled against him? Would he demand a new solar system court be created with a seat on Mars? Seriously this guy is a corrupt bastard.

Finally I’m going to throw out there that instead of thinking guns are poison think of them as liberation. Guns have help citizens living under tyranny to overthrow their governments… oh yeah that’s why these international mayors don’t like guns. It would give people a fighting chance against their corrupt rule.

Arizona Should Go For Gold

Of Arms and Law points out that Arizona now scores only two points on the Brady Campaigns report card. That’s two points! The only thing they need to do is pass a law forcing universities to allow carry on campus and they’ll be at the oft desired gold of zero points. If I were you citizens of Arizona I’d work hard on making this dream a reality.

Boy Scouts of Video Gaming

I admit I don’t know much about the Boy Scouts of America. I never had a desire to be in it and hence wasn’t. Besides pushing religious agendas I understand the Boy Scouts spend most of their time teaching children practical skills including survival. Well apparently they’ve now developed a belt loop and academics pin for video games. Here are the requirements for the belt loop:

1. Explain why it is important to have a rating system for video games. Check your video games to be sure they are right for your age.

2. With an adult, create a schedule for you to do things that includes your chores, homework, and video gaming. Do your best to follow this schedule.

3. Learn to play a new video game that is approved by your parent, guardian, or teacher.

So you have to explain why the rating system is important (which it isn’t). And then check your games to ensure they’re appropriate for your age? I’m sorry but from where I’m sitting that’s a parents job. I was playing games that would be rated 17+ when I was in the seventh grade. My parents allowed me to do this because the felt I was mentally mature enough to handle games like Doom. The game rating board is a guideline much like the MPAA movie rating system. I don’t see why the Boy Scouts would want to push this kind of thing.

And then there is the academics pin which has the following requirements:

1. With your parents, create a plan to buy a video game that is right for your age group.

2. Compare two game systems (for example, Microsoft Xbox, Sony PlayStation, Nintendo Wii, and so on). Explain some of the differences between the two. List good reasons to purchase or use a game system.

3. Play a video game with family members in a family tournament.

4. Teach an adult or a friend how to play a video game.

5. List at least five tips that would help someone who was learning how to play your favorite video game.

6. Play an appropriate video game with a friend for one hour.

7. Play a video game that will help you practice your math, spelling, or another skill that helps you in your schoolwork.

8. Choose a game you might like to purchase. Compare the price for this game at three different stores. Decide which store has the best deal. In your decision, be sure to consider things like the store return policy and manufacturer’s warranty.

9. With an adult’s supervision, install a gaming system.

So this pin has nothing to do with video games really and more to do with learning how to shop smart. Why not just call it the shop smart pin? Seriously if this is what the Boy Scouts are becoming what’s the point of entering your children into it beyond social interaction?

This Should Stop Those Pirates

I present for your review the Club-K shipping container cruise missile. Yes that is a cruise missile that fits inside of and launches out of a standard shipping container box. Oh and it should be powerful enough to sink those pirate boats near Somalia:

.”This Club-K is game changing with the ability to wipe out an aircraft carrier 200 miles away. The threat is immense in that no one can tell how far deployed your missiles could be,” said Robert Hewson, editor of Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, who first reported on the Club-K developments.

They also produced a commercial:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqwMzQiXlK0&feature=related]

Of course a weapon this brutally simple but insanely awesome could only be produced in Russia.

So Much for Peer Review

The climatgate won’t close. The IPCC has claimed that their 2007 study, which is under severe scrutiny, was peer-reviewed. Peer-reviewed, I don’t think that word means what you think it means:

The first report centred directly on the IPCC itself. When several of the more alarmist claims in its most recent 2007 report were revealed to be wrong and without any scientific foundation, the official response, not least from the IPCC’s chairman, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, was to claim that everything in its report was “peer-reviewed”, having been confirmed by independent experts.

But a new study put this claim to the test. A team of 40 researchers from 12 countries, led by a Canadian analyst Donna Laframboise, checked out every one of the 18,531 scientific sources cited in the mammoth 2007 report. Astonishingly, they found that nearly a third of them – 5,587 – were not peer-reviewed at all, but came from newspaper articles, student theses, even propaganda leaflets and press releases put out by green activists and lobby groups.

So much for the scientific process.

Can You Say Owned

Dvorak Uncensored let us know that if you buy property that you reasonably expect is stolen law enforcement is going to investigate. For the last couple of weeks there has been a saga going on at Gizmodo. They obtained what is believed to be the next version of the iPhone and they trickled out data for the better part of two weeks.

The saga involved how they obtained the iPhone prototype. After inquiry the story given by the Gizmodo people was they purchased it from a man who found it in a bar. Obviously the story sounds a little fishy and is dripping with potential criminal activity. Well that’s what the Feds thought so they raided the home of the Gizmodo editor who had the phone.

This story has intrigued me from the start. Not because I wanted to see the new iPhone, I really could care less about that. What I found intriguing was the potential legal ramifications involved here. It was very reasonable to believe the property Gizmodo purchased was stolen. To top that off this happened in California where buying merchandise you reasonably believe to be lost or stolen is a crime. Of course this case isn’t so black and white since journalists are able to get away with a lot more than you and me. Oh but we have yet another detail in that Gizmodo pretty much stated they knew the property was lost or stolen because the dragged poor Gary Powell through the mud. Mr. Powell is the Apple employee who lost the new iPhone prototype.

Still this case wouldn’t be a huge deal in my opinion if Gizmodo contacted Apple in an effort to return the device and in the mean time took some pictures and/or video of the new iPhone. But they also dissected the phone so they could show of the internals of the new device.

This should be an interesting case since it will further outline the rights of journalists in regards to buying reasonably believed to be stolen merchandise in order to do a story.