Tupelo Geek

Over the course of the last 10 years or so, we have had Presidents from both major parties in office. The result has been disastrous spending. We are now asking ourselves, “Will our children be better off than we are?”. For a long time the answer was yes but now I can’t say with certainty if they will or not. We have real debt that is more than what the government projected. What kind of accounts are working in DC? If the government were a person or family, people would be coming after our stuff for not paying our bills. The difference between Bush and Obama is not so big, it was basically who wanted to go down the road of Socialism faster. I will grant you Obama is going about 20-25 MPH faster than Bush was but the result is were still heading in the same direction under both. Don’t believe me? Read the chart.

Scary right? For this reason I cast my lot with the Tea Party movement which is not a political party mind you but a voice for returning a government to it’s founding principles. In closing, I would like to share a quote with you all.

Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society. – Machiavelli

Hey all, skipped a week last week due to the iPad announcement. This week is a get back on track post. I’m going to depart from the Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise to focus on one thing, health!

Weight gain setback

I recently went to the doctor as a result of a cold. Really it was just to get a note for work. As part of the visit I get weighed in. I am disappointed to say I have slacked off in this area and have gained some weight back. So my focus is to get more exercise in. Course when it is cold outside you really don’t want to take the dogs out for a walk. So I’m going to look at joining my wife’s gym which is right next to my work and is a 24 hour place which will make it nice when I get off of work. So I’m looking to drop the pounds gained back and then lose more I hadn’t lost before. 200 lbs. is about ideal for me I think which means I have about 50 to lose. Course the hard part is once I get there, how to maintain it. So that is the goal going forward.

Hello folks and welcome to another edition of Tuesday Tech Talk. We are 6 days removed from the iPad announcement so this will be like a post game wrap up type post.

More Thoughts on iPad

The more I see what this device can do, the more I want one. Quite simply it’s form factor and long battery life, makes it easier to use at a coffee shop. How many times do you walk into a coffee shop and all the available outlets are taken to plug in your laptop? With the iPad and a blogging app (I presume MacJournal will be making one for it.), you can just sit around anywhere and just type away on a very light device.

Another advantage of it is if I find something I want to show someone that is in another room, I don’t have to pick up the whole laptop and carry it with me to where they are. The 9.7“ screen makes it nice to share photos with someone among other things. If I were to get one I would go for the 16GB model. It is not something I am going to throw my entire music collection on. It’s nice that you can play music on it, but I don’t view it as an iPod or iPhone in that regard. What I would have on it is my photo library, eBooks, and documents using iWork.

iPad in the Enterprise

As I kind of speculated last week, there are some possibilities for using the iPad in the Enterprise. I look forward to seeing how creative companies get in utilizing it in business.

Docs, Books, and Music

Jobs stated that Pages will open Word docs, have book prices the same as Kindle, and have 6 days of continuous music play back. Interesting tidbit, Amazon recently gave in to Macmillan publishers on pricing. So the iPad is already showing signs of being a game changer in the eBook market. I guess this is Apple’s payback to Amazon when Amazon entered the digital music market with competitive pricing. Now if Apple can get McGraw Hill on board for text books and iPad sales in the education area would skyrocket!

Southwest Airlines adding WiFi to entire fleet

With the help of a small company known as Row 44, SWA will be adding WiFi to it’s entire fleet by 2012. Southwest btw is my favorite airline and yes, I will pay to use WiFi because I just can’t sit still for 2-4 hours and not do anything and neither can you I bet?

Jobs calls out Google and Adobe

Love how Steve Jobs took the bull by the horns here. He is right, Flash is dead and HTML5 is the future. I’m sure Scott Bilik may have something to add about this, uh oh did I just call out Scott? ?

Well that is all for this week. I promise to have some app reviews for next week’s edition of Triple T. Bye for now!

        Was reading the NY Times Technology section and read a point-counterpoint on why the iPad will be a Kindle Killer and why the Kindle will be just fine. I think they are both great products and will peacefully co-exist.
        If anything this is bad for the Nook, the Nook has an easy access book store with a color display of the store, but so does the new iBooks store and the iBooks store looks a lot more easier to browse. Point Apple. Now like the Kindle, the Nook uses E ink for page display making it easier on the eyes for long term reading. The iPad uses an LED-backlight which is more for short term reading and not as easy on the eyes. Point Nook & Kindle.
        But the Nook is priced at $259 same as the Kindle so question becomes who has the bigger store library? Point Kindle. For folks that like the color display and are more short term at a time readers (this would be me) but can then also use the Kindle app on the iPad to access the Amazon library and want a little more out of their e-reader Point iPad and Kindle per the Kindle app.
        So bottom line is Kindle can survive in the iPad ecosystem, but I don’t think the Nook can. Amazon will sell a ton of e-books to folks with an iPad with a far superior and well established library.

This was an ongoing blog post as the event unfolded. At the end of it you will find my analysis of the iPad.

iPad

.5 inches thin, 1.5 pounds — 9.7 inch IPS display

The 1GHz Apple A4 chip

10 hour battery life, over a month of standby

16, 32, 64GB flash storage

802.11n Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR

Speaker, Microphone, 30 pin connector

Support current iPhone/iPod touch apps

?

Live video feed of event

iBooks app for e-book collection on iPad

Kindle you officially have something to worry about now!

iWork for iPad

?

Keynote

Pages

?

Numbers

?

Pages, Keynote, Numbers $9.99 each for iPad

iTunes syncs iPad with computer like iPhone, iPod

$14.99 250MB a month or Unlimited data $29.99 with AT&T, NO CONTRACT pay as you go.

iPad starting at $499!!

WiFi or 3G model so you don’t have to get a data plan to use it.

Syncs with physical keyboard

?

Barnes & Noble Nook is dead when this thing hits the market! Kindle has a challenge on it’s hands.

?

Thoughts:

I really like how Apple has positioned this device between the iPhone and the MacBook. Starting it out at $499 for a 16GB model with no data plan required for it is smart! This model will be the most popular I think for the person that just wants to browse the web at a coffee shop, in a recliner or laying up in bed. It also allows you to put quite a bunch of e-Books on it too. Also with a 10 hour battery life, this makes for a long airplane flight friendly device for book reading or music and movie watching and with more airlines offering WiFi, even web browsing. This is also a great device if you want to show your spouse something online without having to drag your laptop over to where they are. It’s also a great gift for a spouse who does a lot of light email and web browsing but doesn’t want to invest in a $1000 laptop and having to worry about plugging it in and finding an outlet for it.

What it’s not meant for:

This is not a production laptop replacement. If you do a lot of heavy blogging, data entry, work proposals,etc. then the MacBook or MacBook Pro or iMac (or PC laptop/desktop),is still your better option. Also this is not an iPod replacement either. Simply put it’s form factor is not something you take to the gym and workout with.

Other areas of use:

Based on it’s size and all this could be a good device in industry for inventory management and POS checkout device. The 30 pin connector allows for devices that can swipe credit cards and other things.

The Bottom Line:

This thing is going to sell a megaton of units! It will be out in late March which means plenty of time for dads and grads gift in May and June. BTW, my birthday is in June and I hope to be a dad by Fathers Day (hint hint). I see the 16GB as the most popular model and the 32 & 64GB being bought by the folks that want their entire iTunes library on it. Myself I would get by with the 16GB. My iPhone has my iTunes library on it already. It is big enough to hold my entire iPhoto library and then some. I see Apple stock going to $300 a share easily.

Hello folks well we are one day away from the Apple Special Event and anticipation is building for the Mac Tablet/iSlate/iPad or whatever they are going to call it. So let’s dive right into things.

Tupelo Public Schools goes Mac

Very happy to read this about Tupelo Public Schools goes 1-1 on MacBooks. Basically it will start this year for Seniors at Tupelo High School and expand next year to all students in 6th-12th grade. Also teachers will be getting MacBook Pro’s as well as administrators. Tupelo is the first school district in Mississippi to go 1-1 which once again proves Tupelo is leading Mississippi into the 21st Century of technology.

Mac Tablet roundup

Ok so lets get all the last minute speculation wrapped up here. According to an article in the L.A. Times, a team from the NY Times has been at Cupertino to work with Apple on a NY Times app for a large screen version of it’s iPhone app. In addition to the New York Times, HarperCollins is apparently in negotiations with Apple on providing eBook content on the tablet.

What else at the Event

Rumors of a new iLife 2010 and maybe iPhone OS 4.0 are also in the mix for Wednesday too.

What would you like in the iPhone OS 4.0?

The folks at The Unofficial Apple Weblog had a third installment of what people would like to see in the iPhone 4.0 OS.

Apple and AT&T to end exclusivity?

Another interesting read is this about how Apple may announce the exclusive deal with AT&T is ending with the iPhone. This would allow Apple to make deals with Verizon, T-Mobile, etc. on an iPhone deal in addition to maintaining a deal with AT&T to offer it as well.

Well that is it for this weeks Triple T. Look for a post Wednesday evening on reaction to the Apple Latest Creation event. It is going to be an exciting week!

Scott Brown 52% 1,168,107 Votes

Martha Coakley 47% 1,058,682 votes

That is over a 109,000 vote difference between the 2 in Democrat Blue Massachusetts!

So what happened in this race, the race to fill Ted Kennedy’s seat? A couple of factors really. One is MA has more independent registered voters than Democrats. This is a state that elected Republican and Mormon Mitt Romney as Governor in 2002. Another factor, Coakley went negative on Brown and the people got tired of it. Yet another, Scott Brown’s line “It’s the People’s Seat” at the debate basically clinched it for him. The people liked Scott Brown the common guy who drives a pickup. It resonated with the working class folks of MA.

Oh yeah there is one more thing, the health care bill is still seen as a dog by the electorate poll after poll after poll. People are tired of Washington trying to force this down our throats. Make no mistake, this is a message for November. It’s not just Harry Reid and Blanch Lincoln that are struggling to maintain their seats, now Barbara Boxer needs to be worried about Chuck DeVore or Tom Campbell in California. If a blue state like Mass can elect a Republican so can California, like Mass it is an independent leaning state that does not like to be told what to do, ask Gray Davis for example.

Then there is the Blue Dogs in the South. I have one here Travis Childers and he is about to get a couple of serious challengers from the Republican side. 2010 is 1994 all over again only Obama seems more stubborn then Bill Clinton which means the Democrat losses maybe huge this year. People do not like an arrogant government and will let it be known. Bush came off as arrogant and it cost him Congress in 2006 and the Republican’s the Presidency in 2008. How interesting things can change though. Now it is Obama with the arrogance staring at a heavy party loss in November and if he doesn’t change course, will insure he will be a single term President.

Welcome all, I hope you are doing well.

Healthy

This week I have been hit with the flu bug. Sunday I called in sick to work and went to the clinic to get things checked out. They did a strep test on my throat which was negative and I also got a type of steroid shot which really helped as well as a prescription to some antibiotics. As a result I am beating back the cold but as a side effect I am eating more then I should. Hope to get back on track with the Healthy aspect next week.

Wealthy

Nothing really new to report here this week. Just monitoring the inflows and outflows.

Wise

Mostly political and tech blogs this week reading wise. Yesterday Scott Brown was elected Senator of Massachusetts so a lot of my attention has been on that race.

Apologize for the short update this week but I hope to have some more next week. Stay balanced!

Hello folks and welcome to another edition of Tuesday Tech Talk. This week I want to talk about Social Media overload and when to scale back. Also more Apple Tablet news and Google taking a stand in China. So lets dive right in.

Social Media trim back

After listening to Fr. Roderick’s The Break and he mentioned he had deleted some accounts on social media sites he just has no time for or anyone he knows on them, I decided to look at the social media sites I had signed up for but do not use much. After identifying them I then deleted my account on them. Here are the ones I am no longer using:

identi.ca

Brightkite

Utterli

FriendFeed

Last.fm

XT3

4Marks

Remember the Milk

What I kept

Plurk

Basically I got down to Facebook, Twitter, and Plurk. Plurk and Twitter are similar but with one regard, Plurk allows people to reply directly below your post where as Twitter it is not directly below it.

Twitter

On the other hand Twitter is massively used. From following TV shows, games to communications from Haiti and Iranian protestors wanting a better government. You can be caught up on the news quite a bit just by following Twitter and doing specific searches on content you are interested in. Hashtags are another benefit to Twitter say like you are writing about the Haitian Earthquake you can type #Haiti at the end of your post or anywhere else in it which makes it easier for others to follow.

Facebook

Lets face it Facebook is the reason I no longer have a MySpace page along with many others. If your a business and you are not using Facebook in 2010 your dead. I have seen local business using it to post specials like Atlanta Bread for example here in town will post their daily soups and chili. Also Romie’s Grocery posts their daily specials and of course Joe Joe’s Espresso posted their free coffee tasting on Saturday (btw they were all delicious, Joe knows his coffee and you should stop in and enjoy the great beverages and food as well as the always friendly staff.)

So using these 3 popular social media sites will do me just fine. I also use ping.fm to set my status to all at the same time.

More Mac Tablet speculation

According to a close contact within Apple, Boy Genius is reporting the Tablet is an iPhone on steroids. Also last week I wrote about the possibility of the Tablet having a webcam but according to Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, this may not be the case. Personally it would be nice to have one but it is not a make or break deal for me either way. Apple is also sending out invites for their special event on 1/17 for what they are calling their, “latest creation”. I think by now we all know what it will be. Among those attending will be Leo Laporte of TWiT so it will be interesting to get his perspective. Sometimes I do wish I lived in the San Francisco area and was part of the insiders club to attend these things. But then I think about how affordable our mortgage is in Tupelo and I’m quite content.

How the Apple Tablet could change our lives

Evan Agee has a great post about 5 ways the Apple Tablet could effect our lives. It’s a great read and worth checking out.

New touchscreen 22“ iMac later in the year?

Interesting tidbit here about a possible touchscreen iMac Apple may also be working on. Could it be Apple is going to be the one that will make the touchscreen effect we saw in the movie Minority Report commercially viable? Stay tuned.

New iPhone in April?

Some overseas providers are speculating on a new iPhone in April. This seems early for me being they usually roll out a new model around late June/early July. We shall see.

Google to stop censoring search results in China

Good on Google for telling China they are not going to play their Commie games anymore! They are even willing to pull out of China altogether.

This Week’s iPhone/iPod touch apps

MobileMe Gallery - If you use MobileMe for your photo storage there is now a free app to browse your library on it. I use both Flickr and MobileMe.

Political GPS – This is a nice little app. Answer 30 questions on social and fiscal issues and it gives you an idea of the spectrum of where you stand. Not surprising to anyone that reads my blog I am on the conservative-libertarian side of things close to Milton Friedman. They also have a paid version with a database of members of Congress and how they voted as well as including the US Constitution, something our lawmakers have seen to have forgotten about but that is a post for another day.

TWiT – This is the audio streaming app for all things This Week in Tech. Also has a bookmarks section to Leoville, TWiT.tv, TechGuy Labs, and much more. It is free.

Well that is going to do it for this week’s Triple T. See you all next week for #30!

Good Monday to you all! We are fresh off the second week of NFL playoff action and here is what is catching my eye today.

Norv Turner should be fired!

Can’t win in the post-season. Nothing much more to be said than that. He is like Marty Schottenheimer the previous coach of the Chargers. It’s time for the Chargers and in particular team owners Alex & Dean Spanos and General Manager A.J. Smith to do something bold and hire Bill Cowher. He has won a Super Bowl for one thing something the last 2 Charger coaches have not done.

The Annual Wade Philips choke

Well I can’t really say Wade choked on this one as the Vikings were just too much for the Cowboys on both sides of the ball. But when you lose 34-3 it doesn’t help your reputation. But it looks as if Jerry Jones is going to stick with him for another season.

Saints Roll

Unlike the Chargers, the Saints showed no signs of being rusty after getting a first round bye. They romped all over the Arizona Cardinals 45-14. They will face the Vikings in New Orleans for what should be one exciting NFC Championship game.

Colts doing what they do best

Colts really did a great job shutting down a Ravens team that blew out the Patriots a week earlier. No way do the Jets beat them in the AFC Championship.

Super Bowl Prediction

Saints vs Colts for the Super Bowl. Who does Archie Manning pull for in that one in Miami? My head and my heart say Saints though, sorry Peyton. Saints 31 Colts 21

I wanted to take some time to talk about something very serious. As many of you know Haiti was recently struck by a 7.0 powerful earthquake. To make matters even worse Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas prior to the quake which means a lot of their infrastructure and building codes are of poor quality. The result is massive devastation in the Port-au-Prince capital. The Presidential Palace has collapsed, the Parliament building also collapsed as well as it’s national cathedral, Early estimates are 45,000-55,000 deaths. This is a country roughly 700 miles off the coast of Florida. They are going to need massive international assistance. You can help in your own way through the many charities out there. Here are 2 that I want to share with you to contribute to. Lot of people may want to donate goods like can goods, water, etc. But what is needed most here is money. So please contribute whatever it is you can.

Catholic Relief Services

Food for the Poor

Ok so I have been Twittering and Facebooking this a lot lately so I decided to just put my thoughts here on what I think about the whole NBC situation with them canceling Leno’s prime time show and moving him back to 11:35p and trying to push Conan O’Brien and the Tonight Show to 12:05a.
First off let me say I am not a huge fan of Conan or Jay for that matter. But that being said, when you commit to someone taking over your longest running show on your network you owe it to them to make it work. Johnny Carson and Jay Leno had the benefit of a strong lead in to their show meaning a compelling show at 10p followed by local news followed by the Tonight Show. What they did with Conan was put Leno on at 10 so NBC (Ok Jeff Zucker) could have their cake and eat it too. Well what happened? Leno’s ratings tanked, people turned to something else killing the lead in for Conan.
What NBC does next is a circus. They basically tell Conan they will move the Tonight Show to 12:05am and put Leno on at 11:35p for a 30 min show. Conan, being the professional he is balks at it saying it will ruin the integrity of the Tonight Show. Basically the only person looking out for the best interest of the history of the Tonight Show is Conan O’Brien. Jeff Zucker whose dumb idea it was to put Leno on at 10p is now trying to cover his own you know what by keeping Jay and at the same time saying to Conan “take it or leave it but if you leave you won’t work anywhere else for 3 1/2 years”.
So basically I am siding with Conan cause he is the only one acting professional here and is getting the screws put to him by Zucker. If you want to let Zucker know how you feel you can contact him here jeff.zucker@nbcuni.com or at 212-664-2830. Also if you are inclined, use the “I’m with Coco” photo below as your profile pic.

Welcome all, hope your having a Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise week! This week I have a few things on my mind I wanted to share.

Healthy: Last week we were greeted with an Arctic blast through Tupelo. It brought extremely cold temperatures with a wind chill, getting as low as 0º. My question is how do you maintain a normal exercise routine when it is cold to the bone outside? I have no treadmill at home so my form of exercise is a 1-2 mile walk through the neighborhood.

Also last week Rory Markas the voice of Angels baseball died suddenly in his sleep at the young age of 54. Rory had been calling Angel games since 2002 and he coined the phrase “Just Another Halo Victory” after each Angel win. It really shook me up how a man that by all accounts seem to be doing the right things in his health could suddenly die one night. Guess the point is don’t take life for granted and enjoy everyday you are blessed with.

Wealthy: I have started to use Mint.com to track finances. Basically you set up your bank accounts and credit card accounts on it and it keeps you updated with upcoming bills and a weekly snapshot email of your finances. They were recently purchased by Quicken, I hope Quicken doesn’t screw it up.

Wise: Books I am reading right now. The Reagan Diaries, Signs of Life: 40 Catholic Customs and their Biblical Roots by Dr. Scott Hahn, and listening to The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck on iTunes. Look forward to sharing a review on each of them as I complete them.

Now a call I had enjoyed hearing the last 7 seasons of Angels baseball. RIP Rory.