Yes, it’s only been a day since I rooted (and three days since I bought) my nook color to act as a full-featured Android tablet, but I definitely have a greater appreciation for tablets than I did 24 hours ago.
I still don’t think that tablets are poised to replace PCs yet, but for many people, they’ll handle most of their common needs, such as web browsing and email.
I’ll admit, that I’m pleasantly surprised, usually the first thing I do when I get home is set my Macbook on the coffee table so that I have ready access to email, the web, facebook, twitter, etc. Last night I only pulled the laptop out just before I went to bed, and really, I didn’t even need to do that, except to charge the nook. Granted the battery on the nook can’t match the iPad’s, but it only comes up a couple hours short.
I have to say that I really like the nook’s size more than I thought I would as well, it’s not too big, not too small, and I think if Apple released a similar sized 7″ iPad for around 300-350, they would completely own the tablet market. Steve Jobs however has declared that form factor to be “dead on arrival”.
A couple people have asked about my netbook, and whether or not the tablet replaces it. The short answer (for now), is “I don’t think so”. Because the netbook runs full-fledged copies of Windows 7 Ultimate and Mac OS X 10.6.x, they also run more powerful applications, and I can dump SD card from my camera onto it and keep shooting. Right now neither of those options are available with the tablet.
So the breakdown is like this:
Macbook Pro – Great for everything, powerful, and while obviously portable, it’s not the most compact option. And there are places that carrying a 1500+ laptop isn’t always the smartest idea.
Netbook: Compact, good battery life, runs full desktop operating systems and applications. Out of the box though, most only have 1GB of RAM, which along with the Atom processors puts a crimp on processing power and speed.
Nook color tablet: Great form factor, $250 cost is accessible for more people than full size laptops and some netbooks. Beautiful screen, has limited android app support.
Rooted Nook color: Take everything above, now add a full Android OS with support for pretty much all Android applications that are available from the Android app store. If you have an Android phone, take away the camera and cell phone service and add a screen that’s probably about 3 times as large and you have a pretty good idea of what this thing is like. This was also by far the easiest hck I’ve ever done; download a couple of files, use Terminal to write them to the microSD card, insert the card into the nook, and done.
Expect more posts like this as I play around over time, but like I said, I’m far more impressed than I expected to be.
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For some reason, this just seems like what Summer should be.
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As of 11 AM Central time this morning, facebook has disabled my “3Horn” account, as well as the fan page for Naked Lens Photography.
I went to check facebook and it asked me to sign in, which was odd because I was already signed in. I logged in, and was immediately presented with a notice that one of my photographs of Courtney Crave was in violation of facebooks TOS. I signed the “I promise not to upload anything that violates the TOS agreement”, checked the feed, and then went to check my email.
A couple of minutes later I went to check the feed again and was (again) prompted to re-enter my password. As soon as I did, I was take to a page where I was informed that my facebook profile had been disabled. I filed an “appeal”, and I refuse to let this go away. It’s a matter of business as well as personal.
I have email from facebook about TOS violations that are timestamped 10:47, 10:48 and 10:52. After that is the notification of my appeal at 11:00.
For the time being, if you want to keep in touch and listen to me rant about shit that pisses me off, this is probably the best place to do it.
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When I was young, probably 5 or 6, the family went on a cruise: Jon, Mom, Jonathan (who was still an infant) and myself. These are a couple of things I remember:
At the stern of the ship at night, my parents drank a toast, tossed the glasses overboard and made a comment about Jaws. I remember being scared that some giant shark was going to eat the ship.
We were in the casino playing slots (by which I mean they were dropping coins and I was pulling the lever). Somehow Jonathan fell and had a horrific nosebleed that required us to see the ship’s doctor.
The ship stopped in Nassau, I picked up a conch shell as a souvenir, the only other souvenir I remember was a sculpture/figurine my mom bought. It was a mother whale and calf, made or porcelain and suspended above a driftwood base.
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I have 3 really big fears in my life:
1. Growing old alone.
2. Losing my memory. I mean amnesia, Alzheimer’s, that sort of thing.
3. Not having done something to make the world a better place before I die.
Now, number 1 is one of those things that I still hold hope won’t actually happen, but let’s face it, I only have control of 50% of the possibility. On the other hand, I am happy that I haven’t married someone, and then subsequently divorced them; not so much because of any “sanctity of marriage” crap but because I really hate disappointing people. I mean it sucks to break up with someone you’re dating, I honestly can’t imagine what a divorce would be like.
Number 3, that I may not ever know. Hopefully I will, I mean I’d like to thing that I could be an idiot savant and discover where missing socks go or something. At any rate, it’s a long-term goal; a work in progress.
Number two, now that’s one that I can actively work to fight. I’m not talking about eating fish or something, which while is tasty and full of nutritional stuff, would get old pretty quick. Not to mention, I really don’t need my apartment constantly smelling like grilled salmon.
No, what’s decided to do, is use my neglected blog not solely as a repository of my day-to-day life, but also as a record of my life past.
I occassionally remember stuff from years ago, sometimes intentionally, and sometimes just randomly. Now, instead of simply letting them drift off to Never-Never Land, I’m going to post them here, along with location and date (a best as I can remember).
Hopefully I’ll be able to use it as extra brain-space and lessen what I no longer remember.
So if you’re inclined, come along for the ride, and if you’re not careful, you might learn something before it’s done. So let’s get ready, eh?
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Last week, it came out that News Corp, the parent company of (among others) The Fox News Channel gave a 1 million dollar donation to the Republican party.
It also came to light that the second largest share holder of News Corp is a Saudi named “Prince Alwaleed bin Talal”. Prince bin Talal has been accused of being not a only terrorist sympathizer, but an active supporter of terrorist organizations.
So the question must be asked, does the Republican party accept money from terrorists? And if not, why won’t they return the News Corp donation?
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Following the example of some friends on LiveJournal, I submitted three posts to “I Write Like…” to have them analyzed, here are my results:
Guess I need to buy some new towels…
Incidentally, I’d imagine that if it took my LJ as a whole, all of the burlesque photos would probably create this one:
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The CoreLogic data suggest that the rich do not seem to have concerns about the civic good uppermost in their mind, especially when it comes to investment and second homes. Nor do they appear to be particularly worried about being sued by their lender or frozen out of future loans by Fannie Mae, possible consequences of default.
Wait, you mean to tell me that the rich don’t give a fuck about the civic good? That they really only care about making more mony for themselves and are willing to fuck anyone that gets in their way? I’m shocked!
I particularly like this guy:
His five-bedroom house, drained of hundreds of thousands of dollars of equity over the last 13 years, is scheduled for auction July 20. Nine months ago, after his latest business (he has had several) failed in what he called “the global meltdown,” the man, a technology entrepreneur, said he quit making his $9,000 monthly payments.
Think about that for a second, nine-thousand dollars. A month. My (admittedly modest) apartment doesn’t cost much more than that for a year. This guy was spending as much in a year, as some people spend in twenty to cover their mortgage.
But by far the most interesting statistics are these:
More than one in seven homeowners with loans in excess of a million dollars is seriously delinquent, according to data compiled for The New York Times by the real estate analytics firm CoreLogic.
By contrast, homeowners with less lavish housing are much more likely to keep writing checks to their lender. About one in 12 mortgages below the million-dollar mark is delinquent.
The delinquency rate on investment homes where the original mortgage was more than $1 million is now 23 percent. For cheaper investment homes, it is about 10 percent.
What does this really mean? It means that the poor and the middle class are actually trying to cover their debts, even if it isn’t necessarily in their best interests, the rich on the other hand, have no such qualms.
I’ll close with this piece, which best sums up the situation:
“Those with high net worth have other resources to lean on if they get in trouble,” said Mr. Khater, the analyst. “If they’re going delinquent faster than anyone else, that tells me they are doing so willingly.”
Or, in other words: Fuck you, I got mine.
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