The ePiC rAMblInGs of Justisengard

So the National Safety Council wants to ban cell phone use in cars.  Not just the use of the hand-held device, but bluetooth, non-hand-held devices as well.

Safety Council Calls For Cell Phone Ban

So talking on a cell phone while driving is bad, because you are not concentrating on the road.   I do not think anyone disagrees with this.  The article says that talking on a hands-free device makes you four times more likely to crash.

“Everybody agrees with this study or report that cell phone use
completely should be banned because it’s more of a mental thing. You’re
not concentrating on driving.”

So it is about not concentrating on driving.  Hmmm, well what about talking to others in the car.  You know having a verbal conversation with others while driving.  If I am using a hands-free device to talk, such as a speaker phone built into the car or a bluetooth ear piece — how is that any different?  Are they going to ban anything that distracts the driver from concentrating on driving.  What about music?  What about eating and drinking in the car?  If we are going to ban one, we should ban them all.

I am typically against any paternalistic laws, but I can see the logic and restricting the use of hand-held cell phone use.  You only have one hand to drive.  However, banning the use of hand-free devices is going a bit too far.

Trademark Files for Leopard Systems Preferences Logo

Really Steve, do we have to trademark everything? Stop wasting time with all you copyrights and trademarks and hushing everyone at Apple from tell anyone what is coming next and work on fix the broke iPhone 2.x platform, iPhone battery life, and the pathetic MobileMe system. On MobileMe, how bad is it when Google provide a much better platform for free that we can bget from MobileMe for a $100/year. Stop filing patents and fix your services.

You know, this article may have just hit me the wrong way, bit I had to say something. Senator Hillary Clinton, you lost, get over it! I mean come on how many times do we have to hear ‘what of’ scenarios of how things might have been if this or that did or did not happen. The simple fact is, we live in the here and now, and lets move forward.

Iowa Without Edwards

I do not want to hear for the next several weeks about how Clinton might have done this or that, or how Edwards took votes away from her, etc, etc. Just as I do not want to hear about how Nader cost Gore or Kerry the election. Gore and Kerry cost Gore and Kerry the election for not talking about issues. …but that is another topic…

You’re On Candid Camera

A Bush administration program to expand domestic use of Pentagon spy satellites has aroused new concerns in Congress about possible civil-liberties abuses.

What the hell? I mean just how far are we going to let President BombsaLot go? Please, someone explain how far fear is going to allow our country to become a fascist state?

Rep. Jane Harman,
a California Democrat who chairs the House Homeland Security
Subcommittee on intelligence, told Newsweek that majorities in both the
House and Senate intend to block all funding for the domestic
intelligence center at least until August, when the Government
Accountability Office, an investigative agency that works for Congress,
completes a report examining civil-liberties and privacy issues related
to the domestic use of picture-taking spy satellites.

Thanks Jane, but what is there to look at or review? Am I going to need to worry about explaining everything I do to big brother soon?

Steve Jobs, can you explain to me why iTunes on Leopard cannot download and play a video podcast at the same time?
I do not run iTunes in the background all the time. So when i start it up to watch, typically Diggnation, it starts to update and download all my podcasts, some large some small. When iTunes finishes a download it updates the iTunes database, and I get the rainbow beach ball with now sounds and video for the video podcast I am watching. Oh, and it is not like it pauses the podcast, the podcast still runs, you just cannot hear or see it while iTunes does some update. WHY, tell me why Apple cann fix iTunes to not do this? Please someone explain.

Company claims to sell Mac clone for $399

It would be lovely if this nice little company down in Miami Florida had a chance in hell of lasting. However, Steve Jobs, seems to forever remain with the corncob shoved waaay up there, and is never ever going to loosen his iron fist grip around his absolute control of Mac hardware. I am not going to deny that this strategy has it advantages. One Microsoft and Vista owners have learned with non-working device drivers. But it is a dream….one day. One could also argue, given the recent success that the absolute control and over charging (Apple tax) for their products has not been a problem. If people are willing to pay the ‘Apple Tax’, myself included, why would Steve wanna change. My answer to that is market share. When Michael Dell calls you up and says, ‘Steve, what is it going to take for Dell to put Mac OX on our hardware?’ That is opportunity knocking.
Do not get me wrong I love my Macbook Pro, and OS X, but Apple has been making some poor choices in my opinion of late.
The whole ‘bricking’ iPhones, making everyone wait a year for an SDK and then denying developers access for no good reason. Talk about a complete control freak. Apple could have the consumer phone markey locked up if they would simply get out of the draconian control mindset. The whole one wireless carrier it stupid, and unecessarily limiting your market. The obvious Apple Tax price of the iPhone is the same. If Apple had released the iPhone for $199 with minimally AT&T and T-Mobile, and worked with the other carriers, and simply not fought with iPhone developers, so we could have free apps — they would have domainated the mobile phone market by now.
Oh well, it was but a dream….like is OpenMac…

I came across this in a round about way, but it is something that one should consider before simple giving any website your username and password.
I search for any of your friends, Bebo and Facebook tell you to simply give them your Gmail, Yahoo, AIM, username and password and they will magically search through your contacts and find any of your friends on their site.  Simple, easy…right.  Well it is, and they say that they will not use your password to do anything else.  Well it seems the good people at Bebo lie.

Is Bebo using your AIM credentials behind your back?

So warning to everyone:
1)  Do not give Facebook, Bebo or anyone else your username and password.  It is just asking for a problem and not real smart.
2)  If you have already done this, by all means change your password now.
You have been warned…

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iPhone 1.1.3 to bring Home customization, Locate Me, more

Well, all I can say is that it is about time that the good folks at Apple finally decided to start added some features and learn from the iPhone application hacker community that they have a wonderful platform on which to build new features and apps.  …and that they need to get off there asses and start developing.  I mean give me a break, if the iPhone Hackers can do all this development in there free time and for free, why cannot a big corporation with a stock price around $190 do at least as much if not more.

Ok, I will stop ranting, as i willbe looking forward to the 1.1.3 firmware update.  However, I will have to unhack my iPhone now to update it, so the good folks at Apple do not brick my phone.

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.Mac Services such as my email are currently down. 

Not real happy about this Mr. Jobs.  Good thing I have Google as a back.  However the problem with this, that Google is free.  I paid for the .Mac Services.  If Apple is going to get into the Services market, you might wanna put some of those iPhone profits into the quality service.  Just a thought…

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‘Golden Compass’ incenses both Christians and atheists

Ok, as Puken Luken stated to me earlier today, any movie that gets this many people upset, I gotta see.

It amazes me when religious folks or other groups with ideologies complain about movies and such, and then say to never see then.  If your religion, faith or ideology cannot stand up to a little scrutiny and a couple of questions, then maybe it is not as strong as one thought in the first place.  Good ideas, faiths and ideologies are the ones that can stand up to the strongest scrutiny, questions and challenges.  To me, it speaks volumes about the strength of the religion, if they fear one movie or book.

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