Saturday, July 31, 2010

Untitled

Hike in have a beer and hike out. So lookingforward to this today.

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OpenAppMkt

Check out this website I found at openappmkt.com

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Thursday, July 22, 2010

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

BP's Photoshopped Command Center Just The Latest In A Pattern Of Deception

This seems a much better use of photoshop skillz than the typical "is this the new i(something here)

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BP's Photoshopped Command Center Just The Latest In A Pattern Of Deception

This seems a much better use of photoshop skillz than the typical "is this the new i(something here)

Posted via email from 27ray posterous

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Geoengineering fix won't suit everyone - environment - 18 July 2010 - New Scientist

If you thought geoengineering would be a quick fix to climate change, think again. A global agreement to cool the planet with sunshades could prove as contentious as last December's climate change talks in Copenhagen.

A new modelling study shows that deploying a stratospheric sunshade to cool the planet would have hugely varying consequences for different regions. What's more, although the sunshade could be tuned to adjust global average temperatures or rainfall, it couldn't fix both at once.

"People won't agree on what level of geoengineering is desirable," says Myles Allen of the University of Oxford, who was involved in the study. "It works, but it won't work the same way for everyone."

A sunshade of sulphate dust particles injected into the stratosphere would cool the planet by bouncing solar energy back out into space, much as the dust from some very large volcanic eruptions has done in the past. So Katharine Ricke of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and colleagues used a computer model to explore how a sulphate sunshade would affect climate change up to 2080.

They ran 54 simulations mimicking the effect of injecting different amounts of dust into the stratosphere. In all simulations, the sunshade was deployed in 2005, except for a control in which no sunshade was deployed.

The researchers assumed that carbon dioxide emissions would continue to rise until mid-century before slowly dropping. Without a sunshade, their model showed that this would cause a global rise in temperatures and precipitation.

The team found that introducing a sunshade reduced both heat and precipitation. But no matter how thick they made it, the team could not get both factors back to their starting levels.

Regional differences

The model Earth was divided into 23 regions, and the researchers found that each region needed different amounts of aerosols to get back to its initial conditions. "The optimum level of geoengineering is different for each region, and as time goes on those differences become greater," says Ricke.

Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Stanford, California, says the model should not be taken as an oracle for what will happen in specific regions of the world, but as a proof of principle. "It shows the kinds of things that we might expect to happen, and the kinds of disagreements we would see," he says.

Caldeira thinks that some countries may not even want to return to the previous climate anyway. "Countries like Egypt get higher rainfall with higher carbon dioxide," he says. "They might not see a return to colder, drier conditions as an improvement."

Journal reference: Nature Geoscience, DOI: 10.1038/ngeo915

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Friday, July 16, 2010

Carl Safina: The oil spill's unseen culprits, victims

This is a MUST watch. The time has come (pasted) to decide what we want our life planet species to be like.

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Thursday, July 15, 2010

May 08 Shanghai, China - a set on Flickr

One day in Shang Hai. Went for a bike ride. Went to the top of a crazy tower, drank beer by the river and learned from a Dutch couple about going Dutch, half naked super models trying to ride a mini bike, and a 60 year woman fixing my flat tire in the dim street lights... Just another day out in China.

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Friday, July 2, 2010

'Breaking Bad' Won't Return Until July 2011

A year. A fucking year. Ugh.

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Beverly Hills Community Opposition Building Against Westside Subway - LAist

Get over yourself, there are millions of people will want this and millions more who will use it over the life of the project. Suck it up for a few months, it's not like it will poisson your water or destroy your house. Why do i hate people? they are selfish and short sighted. No better that bacteria, endlessly reproducing with no regard to the impact their actions have on the environment. ugh.

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Daring Fireball: Translation From Apple's Unique Dialect of PR-Speak to English of the 'Letter From Apple Regarding iPhone 4'

Translation From Apple’s Unique Dialect of PR-Speak to English of the ‘Letter From Apple Regarding iPhone 4’

Friday, 2 July 2010

Source: “Letter From Apple Regarding iPhone 4”.

The iPhone 4 has been the most successful product launch in Apple’s history. It has been judged by reviewers around the world to be the best smartphone ever, and users have told us that they love it. So we were surprised when we read reports of reception problems, and we immediately began investigating them. Here is what we have learned.

We cannot believe we had to write this fucking letter.

To start with, gripping almost any mobile phone in certain ways will reduce its reception by 1 or more bars. This is true of iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, as well as many Droid, Nokia and RIM phones.

We cannot believe we’re getting shit for this.

But some users have reported that iPhone 4 can drop 4 or 5 bars when tightly held in a way which covers the black strip in the lower left corner of the metal band. This is a far bigger drop than normal, and as a result some have accused the iPhone 4 of having a faulty antenna design.

(No translation necessary.)

At the same time, we continue to read articles and receive hundreds of emails from users saying that iPhone 4 reception is better than the iPhone 3GS. They are delighted. This matches our own experience and testing. What can explain all of this?

It really is a better antenna and gets better reception, overall, than any previous iPhone. That’s really the hell of this whole goddamn situation. It’s like a two steps forward, one step back design, except maybe more like three steps forward, because this thing is faster at downloading, 10 times faster at uploading, and most importantly is better at not dropping calls with a weak signal. But, yes, there’s that one step back, wherein it can suffer from unintended attenuation when you bridge the lower-left antenna gap with your skin, and frankly, we’re a little pissed that this one step back is getting all the attention.

We have discovered the cause of this dramatic drop in bars, and it is both simple and surprising.

We are going to blame AT&T.

Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars.

We decided from the outset to set the formula for our bars-of-signal strength indicator to make the iPhone look good — to make it look as it “gets more bars”. That decision has now bit us on our ass.

Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don’t know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.

Yes, with no case on the phone, your signal strength can drop by about 20 or even 30 percent depending how you hold the phone. We’re going to change the bar algorithm so that you’ll only lose one bar (maybe two, if you’re holding the phone obnoxiously tight or have gross sweaty palms) if you’re holding it that way.

To fix this, we are adopting AT&T’s recently recommended formula for calculating how many bars to display for a given signal strength. The real signal strength remains the same, but the iPhone’s bars will report it far more accurately, providing users a much better indication of the reception they will get in a given area. We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see.

We are braced for the backlash when, after installing this update, people who weren’t experiencing any problems at all with their iPhones start complaining, loudly, that their phones which used to get five bars now only get three or two or whatever from the same locations, and we all know — us and everyone reading this — that Gizmodo will immediately declare that the update has made iPhone 4 reception worse, even though we’ve just explained that we’re not changing anything related to actual reception, but rather only to how we indicate signal strength.

We will issue a free software update within a few weeks that incorporates the corrected formula. Since this mistake has been present since the original iPhone, this software update will also be available for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.

(No translation necessary.)

We have gone back to our labs and retested everything, and the results are the same — the iPhone 4’s wireless performance is the best we have ever shipped. For the vast majority of users who have not been troubled by this issue, this software update will only make your bars more accurate. For those who have had concerns, we apologize for any anxiety we may have caused.

Don’t fuck this thing up for us. We mean, have you seen the Retina Display?

As a reminder, if you are not fully satisfied, you can return your undamaged iPhone to any Apple Retail Store or the online Apple Store within 30 days of purchase for a full refund.

We dare you.

And take your class action suits filed four days after we released the goddamn thing and stick them up your fucking asses.

We hope you love the iPhone 4 as much as we do.

Seriously, have you seen it?

Thank you for your patience and support.

Don’t hold it that way or buy a case.

Posted via email from 27ray posterous

Daring Fireball: Translation From Apple's Unique Dialect of PR-Speak to English of the 'Letter From Apple Regarding iPhone 4'

Translation From Apple’s Unique Dialect of PR-Speak to English of the ‘Letter From Apple Regarding iPhone 4’

Friday, 2 July 2010

Source: “Letter From Apple Regarding iPhone 4”.

The iPhone 4 has been the most successful product launch in Apple’s history. It has been judged by reviewers around the world to be the best smartphone ever, and users have told us that they love it. So we were surprised when we read reports of reception problems, and we immediately began investigating them. Here is what we have learned.

We cannot believe we had to write this fucking letter.

To start with, gripping almost any mobile phone in certain ways will reduce its reception by 1 or more bars. This is true of iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, as well as many Droid, Nokia and RIM phones.

We cannot believe we’re getting shit for this.

But some users have reported that iPhone 4 can drop 4 or 5 bars when tightly held in a way which covers the black strip in the lower left corner of the metal band. This is a far bigger drop than normal, and as a result some have accused the iPhone 4 of having a faulty antenna design.

(No translation necessary.)

At the same time, we continue to read articles and receive hundreds of emails from users saying that iPhone 4 reception is better than the iPhone 3GS. They are delighted. This matches our own experience and testing. What can explain all of this?

It really is a better antenna and gets better reception, overall, than any previous iPhone. That’s really the hell of this whole goddamn situation. It’s like a two steps forward, one step back design, except maybe more like three steps forward, because this thing is faster at downloading, 10 times faster at uploading, and most importantly is better at not dropping calls with a weak signal. But, yes, there’s that one step back, wherein it can suffer from unintended attenuation when you bridge the lower-left antenna gap with your skin, and frankly, we’re a little pissed that this one step back is getting all the attention.

We have discovered the cause of this dramatic drop in bars, and it is both simple and surprising.

We are going to blame AT&T.

Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars.

We decided from the outset to set the formula for our bars-of-signal strength indicator to make the iPhone look good — to make it look as it “gets more bars”. That decision has now bit us on our ass.

Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don’t know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.

Yes, with no case on the phone, your signal strength can drop by about 20 or even 30 percent depending how you hold the phone. We’re going to change the bar algorithm so that you’ll only lose one bar (maybe two, if you’re holding the phone obnoxiously tight or have gross sweaty palms) if you’re holding it that way.

To fix this, we are adopting AT&T’s recently recommended formula for calculating how many bars to display for a given signal strength. The real signal strength remains the same, but the iPhone’s bars will report it far more accurately, providing users a much better indication of the reception they will get in a given area. We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see.

We are braced for the backlash when, after installing this update, people who weren’t experiencing any problems at all with their iPhones start complaining, loudly, that their phones which used to get five bars now only get three or two or whatever from the same locations, and we all know — us and everyone reading this — that Gizmodo will immediately declare that the update has made iPhone 4 reception worse, even though we’ve just explained that we’re not changing anything related to actual reception, but rather only to how we indicate signal strength.

We will issue a free software update within a few weeks that incorporates the corrected formula. Since this mistake has been present since the original iPhone, this software update will also be available for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.

(No translation necessary.)

We have gone back to our labs and retested everything, and the results are the same — the iPhone 4’s wireless performance is the best we have ever shipped. For the vast majority of users who have not been troubled by this issue, this software update will only make your bars more accurate. For those who have had concerns, we apologize for any anxiety we may have caused.

Don’t fuck this thing up for us. We mean, have you seen the Retina Display?

As a reminder, if you are not fully satisfied, you can return your undamaged iPhone to any Apple Retail Store or the online Apple Store within 30 days of purchase for a full refund.

We dare you.

And take your class action suits filed four days after we released the goddamn thing and stick them up your fucking asses.

We hope you love the iPhone 4 as much as we do.

Seriously, have you seen it?

Thank you for your patience and support.

Don’t hold it that way or buy a case.

Posted via email from 27ray posterous

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Putting hard numbers to the iPhone 4 antenna issue

Steve Jobs, “Retire, relax, enjoy your family. It is just a phone. Not worth it.”

Grow up. You have 14 days to return the phone. but you had to have it the DAY it came out. next time wait, or deal. Most everything i have read said that the bars drop but calling is actually much better.

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