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A brief wrap up of 5 things people seem to care a lot about

By Thomas Rye on July 20, 2010

You came to my blog so you’ll get my opinion… and we’ll waste no time getting there.

Polar Bear running out of ice?

Global warming. True or False?

False. To say that the only reason the globe is heating up is because it’s on it’s way down is turning a blind eye to a lot of other very plausible explanations. (I won’t even go into the research that shows the Earth may not be warming up at all, but rather cooling.) What about the idea of cosmic seasons? Perhaps the Earth has ebbs and flows of temperature on a very long cycle. What about natural evolution of the planet? If Earth really did start as Pangea, then why would it have stopped moving now? And why couldn’t water redistribution from the polar ice caps be the force behind the continual reshaping of the landscape of the world?

* I absolutely agree that we need to pollute less, find more sustainable energy now and respect the wildlife of the planet at a level that we do not push extinction on any more species.

Are there aliens on other planets?

Alien?

Yes. Don’t get all excited. Yes, I think there are other life-forms on other planets. There is plant life, fungi, and even insects of sorts, but I don’t think there are any mammals or humanoid like creatures in the great beyond. But even if there are, well, I’m sure they’re as far away from building a spaceship that could reach us as we are from reaching them. So stop wasting your life taking pictures of lights in the sky. It’s more likely government military testing or satellites.

Speaking of the government…

Did the government have anything to do with 9/11?

Planes only leave plane shaped holes

Yes, the government was about to lose control and loyalty of all of Americans to the fun loving ways of militant Islam so they had to make the Islamic extremists look bad… NO! Are you serious?! I am sure that plenty of mistakes were made having to do with the preparation and precautions about security, response to news of a possible terrorist threat and plenty of other things. That doesn’t mean that the government DID IT! Jeez. “Where’s the debris from the plane that hit the pentagon? The video looks like a missile!” Ya and that was some real high quality 1 frame per second video you watched on YouTube to make all of your conspiracy theories, wasn’t it?

Travel security got lazy. It had been so long since a real hijack/terrorist threat that we started caring more about fast security and check-in lines than we did about the actual security. And I’m sure plenty of us made complaints about airlines making us take too long in the lines. And so they responded – as any good company would to their customers. The lesson to learn here: Always consider the full ramifications of your actions when fighting for your conveniences.

We're killing ourselves and our children with foodIs Healthcare Reform a good idea or bad idea?

In the way they’re approaching it… bad. Pay doctors less so that everyone can get poor healthcare. “Hey but everyone is getting healthcare, right?”

I won’t spend much time on this because a lot of the Healthcare Reform is still being battled over in Washington.

Here’s how we SHOULD be reforming healthcare… Government programs and encouragement for Healthy Living. Obesity and the health problems that are related to it are the biggest expense in healthcare today. Just listen to Jamie Oliver.

BP spill cannot be toleratedWhat should happen to BP?

They are crooks and thieves as bad as Bernie Madoff. The company (at least all of it’s American assets) should be sold and all of the money be put into a fund solely for oil clean up and on-going environmental recovery of the Gulf. Sold to who? QuikTrip, Phillips 66, whoever is currently running their oil business ethically. “Oh but what about the jobs and what about the economic downturn if BP goes under?!” You mean the same economic downturn from when we bailed out all those crooks in the financial sector? Ya, that helped a lot didn’t it? No, people still foreclosed on homes, most of the higher-ups in those companies still got their bonuses and we still are shaky economically… and we’re paying for those bailouts still.

Understand this – the world will change… constantly. Big events like this may be tough, tougher even for some than others, but we will survive. Growing pains are the good kind of pains. We get so scared about losing jobs, but if it’s for the right reasons, then I can’t say that I’m opposed. I mean, is anyone upset that there are no more Blood Letters employed? Is anyone upset that “moat shoveler” or “pyramid building slave” are no longer available jobs? No, of course not. We have moved far beyond those things. What about a day when Oncologists do not have steady work. Will anyone be upset? No, because it means that cancer is a thing of the past. And I hope that we don’t bailout the oil companies when we are on the verge of using sustainable clean energy from some other source.

Posted in Blogging | Tagged 9/11, aliens, bailouts, BP, conspiracy, global warming, government, healthcare, jobs, oil spill, reform | 1 Response

Sprint HTC Hero – Re-Rooted and Re-Flashed with Apps2SD

By Thomas Rye on July 15, 2010

Finally took the time to redo what I did wrong the first time around. I realized that I never properly got Apps2sd working. So I was running out of space on my phone and it was getting bogged down a lot because it didn’t have available memory to run smoothly.

This was my main source of help on the rooting

Here’s the basic run down to get a sure thing:

  1. Make sure phone is not plugged into USB
  2. Turn off phone
  3. Turn on phone in recovery (Hold Power + Home at same time)
  4. Phone loads with simple green menu
  5. Go to Wipe >
    * wipe data/factory reset
    * wipe dalvik-cache
    * wipe sd:ext partition
    * wipe battery stats
    * wipe rotate settings
    (important for things to load right, especially if you had a custom ROM before)
  6. Go to Partition > Partition SD card (Swap = 0, Ext = 512MB, FAT32 = Remaining)
  7. Plug phone into computer via USB cable
  8. Go to USB-MS Toggle > Enable
  9. On PC: Drag your ROM .zip file on to SD card *
  10. On PC: If you want Live Wallpapers – drag that file on to SD card as well **
  11. On Phone: Disable USB
  12. Flash .zip from SD
  13. Reboot phone
  14. Before you do anything else – Press Menu > Settings > Manage Applications > HTC Sense > Clear Data (This gets the clock to show up on the home screen)
  15. Go to town on downloading apps and happiness

* Find a ROM that automatically enables Apps2sd if the SD card is partitioned.

* I use DamageControl 2.09.01 – Stable and fast 2.1 rom, especially when running apps from the SD card

** Live Wallpapers file

Read the info page on XDA Developers Forum

Posted in Phone | Tagged android, apps2sd, damagecontrol, flash, hero, htc, partition, root | 4 Responses

Cream of Wheat is SO good!

By Thomas Rye on June 10, 2010

Cream of WheatLast night I was so hungry it was making me REALLY grouchy. It was one of those hungers where you are starting to lose it and just get delirious… only with a good helping of straight up MAD. I remembered that I had a box of Cream of Wheat in the pantry, so I got it out and started to boil up 2 servings of it (both for me). I asked my girlfriend if she wanted some and she answered with a laugh – I already knew that she didn’t like Cream of Wheat. So I doctor up the finished product with butter and brown sugar and head into the other room where she is.

As I’m going to town on this bowl (after apologizing for being a total grouch 10 minutes earlier) she peeks over and makes a face. It’s at that point I decided to defend my beloved childhood meal and started to pry into her about it.

Me: “When was the last time you had Cream of Wheat?”

Her: “Look at it! It looks like… like… little eggs or something, bleh.”

Me: “Ok the texture might be unique, but it’s like a massage to your mouth and it tastes SO good!”

She starts to argue more (playfully, of course), but decides instead to just take a bite and (presumptively) hate it and put an end to the discussion.

*Takes bite, goes back to reading her book* ………. *Turns back towards me with a slight smirk*

Me: “You want some more don’t you?!”

I hand her the spoon and we split what was left of the bowl. She loves it now!

I call upon all of you that are against Cream of Wheat to give it another shot. Try it with butter and brown sugar or add some chocolate syrup or put fruit on top. It’s good.

[polldaddy poll=3327268]

Posted in Blogging | Tagged brown sugar, cream of wheat, food mood, girlfriend, grumpy, poll | 6 Responses

AT&T killing iPhone, helping Sprint and Android

By Thomas Rye on June 2, 2010

iPhone being killed by AT&T, will they switch to Sprint or Verizon

Unless you are not an iPhone user or do not know anyone who is, then you’ve probably heard complaints about AT&T and their iPhone support (or lack there of). Shortly after the iPhone exploded on to the mobile phone scene and changed everything (kudos Apple), it had competitors trying to catch up. It took a long time before any other phones were even in the same area code as the iPhone because of it’s apps that could do anything and the smoothness by which it is operated – a staple all Apple products have become synonymous with. Really, the Achilles Heel of the iPhone, since the beginning, has been it’s exclusive carrier, AT&T.

Exclusive contract

I’ll hand it to AT&T for getting the exclusive contract to carry iPhones. I’m not sure what they did or how they convinced Apple that it would be in their best interest, but somehow they did. I know that Apple is all about “exclusive” – their software is proprietary, their machines are closed, they’re not “compatible friendly” in general. Still, to limit their phones to one carrier that has some of the spottiest coverage of all the major carriers and limits the extensive abilities of their power product by capping data usage and adding huge charges for basic features (ie – texting), well, it leaves me confused.

But then it happened again. AT&T’s initial contract with Apple for the iPhone ends this year (2010), but they are in serious talks to get an extension and remain the exclusive iPhone network carrier through 2011. Which would get them to their projected 4G network availability date.

4G will change the game

Apple recently had a couple leaks of their new iPhone 4G (once on accident, once on purpose, I think). There are two 4G networks in the US right now… and AT&T is not one of them… yet. Sprint has already launched it’s 4G network and word on the street is that it is screaming fast. HTC (maker of the Hero for Sprint, an Android phone) has the first actual 4G phone on a 4G network available now – the HTC Evo. Verizon has plans to have a 4G network up in the next 2 years.

I expect that when AT&T exclusive contract extension is up in 2011, iPhone’s will go multi-carrier and release their iPhone 4G on Sprint and Verizon stay exclusive except move to Verizon as their carrier. Just a hunch. If you trust me, sell AT&T stock late this year and buy Verizon.

What do you think?

Are you an iPhone user? What has your experience been with AT&T?

Any HTC Evo users out there? How’s that working out for you?

Posted in Phone, Technology | Tagged 4g, apple, at&t, bad coverage, contract, evo, hero, htc, iphone, sprint, verizon | 2 Responses

BP chooses names for next “fix”

By Thomas Rye on June 1, 2010

BP failed project names

Posted in Comic | Tagged BP, failed names, gulf oil spill | Leave a response

BP is breaking records… Not good records

By Thomas Rye on May 27, 2010

BP is breaking records... not good ones

Posted in Comic | Tagged bet, BP, breaking news, Comic, exxon valdez, oil spill | Leave a response

How the BP oil spill SHOULD be treated

By Thomas Rye on May 25, 2010

How the BP oil spill SHOULD be treated

Posted in Comic | Tagged BP, ecosystem, government, oil spill, price gouging, response | 1 Response

How To: Get Un-Followed on Twitter (10 Steps)

By Thomas Rye on March 2, 2010

1. Tweet anything about “Get more followers”

If you advertise “get more followers” you can be sure that you will only get more followers that are just like you – trying to get more followers. There is no substance in that.

Case in point: @pyra_bang

2. Tweet links that go to any sort of multi-level marketing

Multi-level marketing, don’t get me started. Aside from that though, you can’t expect to get sales out of impersonal follow-at-random strategy. At least learn about hashtags, trending, and other social media tools that can help direct you toward people with money that don’t know how to spend it on good things. First tip: Search hashtags for #ispendmoneyondumbstuff

3. Have links that go anywhere other than where they say they will

Dirty tricks. Enough said.

4. No tweets

Either fill in your bio blurb or at least put an inaugural “Trying out this twitter thing” tweet

5. Duplicate your own tweets

We all have accidents or program glitches that duplicate posts something. But when I see:
XYZ is the best new supplement on the market
XYZ is the best new supplement on the market
XYZ is the best new supplement on the market
… ad nauseam, then I know that you’re a loser.

(This includes when you go to someones twitter page and see an @reply to 20 people with the same message)

6. Retweet your own tweets

see #5, it’s the same thing, really… thinly veiled Einstein.

7. Tweet at a “relevance ratio” higher than once every 15 minutes.

“Relevance Ratio” allows for more than the 1 tweet/15 mins from someone that tweets about things worth reading… or stuff that’s funny.

8. Every tweet is a link.

If I wanted to just “browse the internet” I have a BROWSER to do that. Get with the times, I don’t want just links, I want YOUR TAKE on the links. Sum up a story in 140 characters for me. To me twitter is a way to get EVEN FASTER information on the lightning speed internet.

9. Have an auto-responder Direct Message that sounds like a used-car salesman when I follow you.

“Thanks for following! I think we’ll be able to find you something to buy via my tweets very soon!” OR “Thanks for the follow! DM me any time if you have questions I can help answer!” – If you’re using an auto-responder when people follow you, chances are you don’t have time (or won’t take time) to respond to messages or mentions.

10. Chain many tweets together to encompass one thought.

They limited it to 140 characters for a reason… and that reason was not so you can see how many tweets you can overlap onto. If you can’t say it in one tweet – consider blogging! They go great hand-in-hand.

Posted in How To, Technology, Ten Steps | Tagged bad habits, etiquette, follow, multi level marketing, relevance, retweet, Ten Steps, tweets, twitter | Leave a response

The Man Trip (10 Steps)

By Thomas Rye on February 20, 2010

The Camp SiteThanks to my HTC Hero and WordPress for Android, I decided to use the 5+ hour drive to Bull Shoals Buffalo River Nat’l River to blog about it.

I’ll be making on-going updates as the trip goes on to try to encompass the essence of… The Man Trip.

  1. Plan to start traveling to destination at an ungodly hour (ie 4am)
    • Don’t get to bed til 2am the night before
    • Sleep past “scheduled” start time by hours (reasons: see above)
  2. Discuss and compare new gear bought for the trip focusing especially on masculine items such as knives and hatchets
  3. Minimal BeardTry to have a ratio of one GPS device per person. This is mainly for effect though
    • 4 GPS devices between two cars and we still found a way to get separated and add a couple hours to the trip by missing turns
  4. Once at destination, take a hike and talk with knowledge about things you don’t actually know how to do
    • identify and “track” animals by their paw prints
    • identify and comment on the type of wood in the area and it use for fire or camp set up
  5. Grow out facial hair… whatever you’ve got
  6. Hatchet ThrowDo simple man-activities 
    • Throw or skip rocks
    • Throw or skip very large rocks
    • Throw knives and hatchets at anything they’ll stick in
    • Build fire (see #7)
    • Build excessively large fire
  7. Build Fire
    • Big FireIf this were a ranked list by importance, this would be #1 followed by growing out facial hair.
    • If nothing else is done on the trip… this MUST be done
  8. Discuss how well you and your buddies could survive back in “The Olden Days”
    • Near the end of the trip as you begin to feel very comfortable and accomplished with your camping abilities
  9. Drink Beer
    • Even if you’re not a beer drinker.
    • Other booze will do as a substitute.Beans and coffee over the fire
    • Extra points if you drink the booze out of a rustic looking flask.
  10. Bring only enough food so that you believe you’ll actually have to kill something
    • Be sure to have a few extra granola bars or cans of beans to survive on when you, inevitably, do not kill anything
*Updates: 2/21 6pm

Posted in Blogging, How To, Ten Steps | Tagged camping, fishing, How To, road trip, top ten, travel | Leave a response

Sprint HTC Hero – Rooted (for Screen Capture)

By Thomas Rye on February 18, 2010

I wanted to do did a blog post and show some of the screens of my new Sprint HTC Hero phone. After a few failed attempts to get a good picture of it using my camera, I decided to look for a way to get a screen capture. I found out that you have to “root” your phone to be able to capture screen shots from it. So I went through that process.

This is the short list, “for advanced users,” you might say. This is simply for “rooting” only, not flashing ROMs.
Detailed How-To

Rooting my Sprint HTC Hero

Get Android SDK
– [FILE] http://developer.android.com/sdk/download.html?v=android-sdk_r04-windows.zip
– [LINK] http://developer.android.com/sdk/1.6_r1/index.html

Get proper ADB drivers
– [FILE] http://www.anddev.org/download.php?id=449
– [LINK] http://www.anddev.org/debugging-installing_apps_on_the_g1_windows_driver-t3236.html

Setup ADB
– [PROCESS] http://theunlockr.com/2009/10/06/how-to-set-up-adb-usb-drivers-for-android-devices/
– [ADVANCED]
– Start > Run > cmd
– cd\
– cd AndroidSDK\tools\ (or where ever your AndroidSDK directory is)
– adb devices
– if a serial number shows – you’re good

Got PicMe App for Screen Capture
– Takes it via PC (USB hookup)
– Creates an IP address to view live or static feed of your screen

Posted in Gadgets, How To, Technology | Tagged android, hero, How To, htc, root, screen capture, screenshot, sdk, sprint | Leave a response

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