Monthly Archives: January 2010

When all else fails, just blame the weaker sex.

Posted by buffalochick on January 30, 2010 No comments

Approximately a week ago I developed some shoulder pain which hasn’t entirely gone away yet.  Days of having pain associated with moving my arm in certain ways is making me slightly cranky, or as my husband likes to say “In a mood.”  Let’s roll with that.

Some people watch the Superbowl for the football, others the commercials. Personally I could give a crap about either.  This year however two commercials, one about abortion, the other homosexuality, is getting some pre-air attention.

First up, the Tim Tebow anti-abortion commercial. I’m glad it’s airing. I’m glad he and Focus on Family are spending around 2.5 million on a 30-second commercial spot to let the world know he’s a piece of shit that thinks it’s ok to tell me what to do with my body.  Certain people would like to have you think they’re just looking out for you, but they’re not. They’re looking out for their own selfish interests and don’t care how that interest may affect you. They like to say there are other options and choices, but when all of those include carrying to term and exclude methods of not carrying to term, well the idea of  choice is laughable.  Women of all social and financial status have the right to unrestricted access to all health care options including abortion; legal (thanks supreme court) since 1973, a medical procedure recognized by the American Medical Association, and performed by specially trained medical doctors.  To say otherwise is demeaning to women as a whole, and a clear attack on womens’ ownership of their own bodies and health.

Homosexuality. As much as some people want to close their eyes and pretend it doesn’t exist or is a very small subset; homosexuality is common, deal with it.  CBS is still living in their own fantasy world, one where two women kissing is okay because it’s fetishy and something all-American football watching guys like, and two men kissing is either something to make fun of, or shunned because it’s not normal.  On a related subject; a state supreme court trial is going on in California to overturn the proposition 8 amendment, which stated the only legal marriage was one between a man and a woman. I’m crossing my fingers this gets overturned; there are a million reasons why it should be legal for people identifying as LGBT and only 1 reason why it shouldn’t, because some assholes think it’s not normal.

To sum up: anti-abortion commercials are good because it opens up (a one-sided) debate. Girls kissing is hot, boys kissing is gross so let’s make fun of it. It’s okay to get married and divorced multiple times, but we can’t let the gays do the same because there is something sacred about just letting heteros have all the fun.

Also, I can’t end this without including two really good media links on abortion and homosexual marriage rights.

Time for an intervention

Posted by buffalochick on January 26, 2010 No comments

Dear Toronto,

I know you’ve always marched to the beat of your own drum, but you need to get a grip. This behavior is shocking and completely out of character for you. If you continue on your current self-destructive path, before you know it you’ll end up like that loser Detroit.  You don’t want that, do you?

Lots of little things.

Posted by buffalochick on January 24, 2010 No comments
  • I’m normally the first one in line to say spending double digits on a key chain is ridiculous waste of money, but the nerd in me is squealing in delight. SHINY!
  • I stopped at a Barnes and Noble earlier tonight and got to play with a demo Nook.  It looked pretty good though I wish the whole unit was a touchscreen and not just the bottom. Loved some of the Nook cases. Maybe in a couple upgrades or so it will be developed enough to get me to cave and buy one.
  • My local grocery has Vanilla Coke again, but only in 12-pack cans. The most expensive form available. Fuck you, Coke.
  • I’m officially taking a break (does it count as a break when I haven’t picked it up in over a month?) from Moby Dick, and reading Spook Country as it’s on a loan.  I don’t know anything about it, other than the cover states it was a New York Times best seller. Twilight was a best seller too, and we all know a big pile of steaming shit that was.
  • Life happenings are necessitating a cell plan upgrade to family status. Definitely going with another Android, but I’m undecided if I want to go with a current model or wait a month or two for the new models to come out. The Nexus One is impressive, but they’re currently experiencing the same thing Iphone early adopters had, so I’m passing on that for now.

The little green dude

Posted by buffalochick on January 21, 2010 No comments

I admit that I’m a big fan of Android, but know most people don’t know much about it or have even heard of it. Consider this primer if your thinking of getting a new cellphone.

What is Android?

Android is an operating system (OS) developed for mobile phones. Android is owned by Google and developed in partnership with the Open Handset Alliance.

The open what?

The Open Handset Alliance is a consortium of Google and 50 other tech companies working together to develop open standards for mobile devices.

What exactly is an “open standard’?

Simply put, this refers to technology that is publicly available and often royalty-free. An example of this would be HTML or XMPP.

What does this mean for Android?

This just means that Android is more flexible in how it works, it resembles Linux more than it does Windows.

Ok, so what makes Android so special?

Glad you asked. Android takes this idea of being open and expands it to every part of a mobile device. Backgrounds can be changed at will. Application shortcuts and widgets can be placed and moved as you decide. Themes can be installed as easily as installing a market app.

There are currently 9 handsets across 3 carriers (Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile), with more models coming out next year. There’s a good chance you’ll be able to get the style you want, from the carrier you want.

Android can also be found on Acer Aspire One netbooks and the new Nook E-Reader from Barnes and
Noble.

While the Android App Market is quite a bit smaller than Iphone’s, it’s still respectable at 20k apps, with more being added daily. Android market is 62% free, something Iphone can’t say.

Is that it?

Nope! If you’re feeling adventurous, rooting your phone is an easy and worthwhile endeavor. Rooting your phone is simply unlocking functionality made possible by the device manufacturer, and blocked by the service provider. Things you can do with a rooted phone:

You can install the latest Android build directly from the Android source tree (otherwise you have to wait until your carrier distributes it).

Create full backups of the state of your phone.

Create and install custom Android builds.

Install Applications to your SD card to save space on the device and improve performance.

You can run applications that require root, like screenshost and auto rotate your browser.

Use your phone as a tether to connect your computer/laptop to the internet when internet isn’t available.

Turn your phone into a wireless router that provides internet access.

You can install a full Linux distribution, like Debian

That sounds over my head.

That’s okay if you feel that way, Android phones don’t have to be rooted. There are still many things you can do with the Apps available, such as GPS navigation, barcode scanner to help you find the best prices, taking and uploading photos to anywhere you want, games, music, movies, reading, or even listening to your local radio station, just to name a few.

Hmmm…

You can try a G1 emulator here: http://tmobile.modeaondemand.com/htc/g1/
* This is outdated, but gives a general idea of what Android is like



Random thoughts on a Tuesday

Posted by buffalochick on January 20, 2010 No comments

Sometime in the past few days the Golden Globe awards were handed out. I don’t know when exactly because I don’t pay attention to that sort of thing, but I know it went down because of everyone and their mother talking about it.  Hermits and recluse, it’s times like this I doff my imaginary hat to you.  I can think of few things more boring than sitting through an awards show, yet morbid curiosity is awakened. Not about the show, but the idea of award ceremonies. Lots of them.

The L.A. Times section, The Envelope, lists 23 award events from January through October.  If only count the major events, that’s still a whopping 9 events in 10 months. Whopping to me at least, and that is what I’m getting at.  Living a quite, routine, and mostly mundane life in Buffalo, New York, the notion of having a monthly get together to play dress up and partake in a round of self-congratulatory peacocking is completely ridiculous.

I tried to imagine how this would relate to the ordinary world, couldn’t get past just a few categories without moving into sillier things, like best office gossip or best meal in the cafeteria.