Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Rock Star Scientist Posters
As a designer you find yourself kicking yourself at least once a week wondering "Why didn't I think of that!" As a designer who holds science with great regard, I made sure to kick myself extra hard when I came across these Rock Star Scientist Posters.
Etsy seller and I'm guessing artist Megan Katasuskas created an epic collection honoring the people who truly deserve to be honored for their revolutionary ideas and innovative accomplishments.
The collection includes:
Julius Robert Oppenheimer - American physicist and director of the Manhattan Project. Known as the "Father of the Atomic Bomb."
Neils Bohr - Danish physicist who devised the model of the atomic structure.
Albert Einstein - Seriously, if I need to say any more then you need to get your parents money back for investing it into your high school education.
John Bardeen - American physicist and inventor of the transistor which pretty much makes all technology today possible.
Nikola Tesla - Croatian physicist whose contributions include the invention of the alternating current electric power system, wireless power transmission, the AC Motor, radio, x-ray, and the establishment of robotics, remote control, radar, and computer science.
Each poster is 10x15 Kodak Professional Supra Endura VC Digital Print with a matte finish. It does not come matted or framed (Which means if you send it through the US Postal Service they will likely bend the shit out of it.). And the complete set will run you $225 big ones or you can get them for $48 dollars each. Worth it!
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
You Get An iPhone And You Get An iPhone.....EVERYBODY GET'S IPHONE'S!!!
Already the tech community is a buzz wondering how many AT&T customers will be jumping ship. After all, AT&T, in 2010, was awarded the title of worst network amongst competitors.
But before you go ditching Ma Bell for Big Red, let's compare the two devices and see which company stands up better in the comparables (Non-real estate comparables that is. I really like HGTV.)
Design: Really no difference. They are both iPhones 4's. There was no attempt at better battery life or making it thinner. Same display, same 6-axis space awareness, same camera, same everything really. The only difference is Apple's attempt at trying to fix the antenna problem. But being that most resources say that the antenna problem only effected around 1% of users and most people were purchasing bumpers to begin with to protect the device if it ever falls I'd say the antenna issue is a non-issue.
Winner: Tie - Like comparing apples to apples. Get it?
Price: AT&T - $199 for the 16GB and $299 for the 32GB. Verizon - $199 for the 16GB and $299 for the 32GB.
Winner: Tie
Data Plan: AT&T - $15 a month for 200MB. $25 a month for 2GB. $45 a month for 2GB plus tethering. Verizon - $15 a month for 150MB. $29.99 a month for unlimited. $49.99 a month for unlimited plus tethering.
Winner: Verizon. I put Verizon more as a cautious winner. Once upon a time AT&T had an unlimited data plan which it dropped last June for anyone who was not already an AT&T customer. Verizon followed suit by creating data tiers as well. However, Verizon has held on to an unlimited data option. But I never put it past a carrier to try and pull the rug out from under their users. Also, on the issue of tethering, I never knew AT&T to fix their issue with tethering but I also have yet to hear anything about working tethering on Verizon either.
Early Upgrades at Launch: AT&T - Yes. Verizon - No.
Winner: AT&T. If you are a Verizon customer in mid contract you will have to wait until your contract runs out before you upgrade.
Global Roaming Capability: AT&T - Yes. Verizon - No.
Winner: AT&T. Though there are some reports saying that in some select areas out of the country you'll be able to use your Verizon iPhone. Such countries as Canada, Mexico, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and some others. Mainly countries where CDMA is still popular. But a trip to Europe will brick out your phone until you get back state side.
Simultaneous Voice/Data: AT&T - Yes. Verizon - No.
Winner: AT&T. The Verizon iPhone is a CDMA device. When it comes to wireless coverage your phone is either GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) or CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access). The GSM vs CDMA debate is as hotly contested as the HD vs Blu-Ray debate was and the console war. Historically the difference is that CDMA is older and was first known as the American standard. Then France got into the game and attempted to create a system superior to CDMA and thus GSM was born. GSM is very popular overseas and has recently been making in roads in America. CDMA is usually seen exclusively in the United States and parts of Asia. What does any of that mean? Well, if your phone is GSM then you typically have a SIM card. If it's CDMA then you don't. In this case, because the Verizon iPhone is CDMA you will not be able to browse the web while you are talking on the phone the way you can with AT&T.
4G Data: AT&T - No. Verizon - No.
Winner: Neither. This was actually a pretty surprising turn of events. This was the area in which Verizon would have been able to get some type of upper hand. AT&T does not have any type of 4G network infrastructure to speak of. Verzion, on the other hand, just released it's LTE network at CES. This would have been the perfect opportunity to show off their new networks chops. But instead they chose to leave this out. Now, to the defense of Verizon, it may not be the companies fault. Apple had no intention on having 2 different models for their iPhone 4 for the two separate carriers. In order for the Verizon iPhone to be LTE capable a minor re-design would have been needed to allow the iPhone 4 for carry the proper chipset. So this may be another case of Apple limiting itself. This does create an opportunity in the future for an iPhone 5 divide between the carriers, though.
Rated Talk Time: AT&T - 2G Voice: 14 Hours. 3G Voice: 7 Hours. 3G Web: 6 Hours. WiFi Web: 10 Hours. Verizon - 2G Voice: None. 3G Voice: 7 Hours. 3G Web: 6 Hours. WiFi Web: 10 Hours.
Winner: AT&T. Both companies are almost identical but it's nice that AT&T has the 14 hour Edge option.
Extra Points: Verizon. There will be one really cool thing that the Verizon iPhone can do which the AT&T iPhone cannot and that is work as a Mobile Hot Spot. That means up to 5 other users can piggy back off of your WiFi from your device. You gotta give it up to Verizon for this.
Final Result: If you are a Verizon customer, enjoy! You'll finally get to see what all us "iPhone snobs" have been talking about since 2007. If you are an AT&T customer, stay true. Yes, the network is better but everything you gain with that network will be lost once you lose all the perks of going from a GSM phone to a CDMA phone. CDMA has always been Verizons achilles heel. CDMA are for carriers who would rather rely on forcing loyalty instead of earning it. I use to be a Verizon customer and the idea of customer service was an oxymoron to them. Now granted, if AT&T is unable to give me the answers I want I just give Apple a call but with Apple already having an iron fisted grip on the device, do you really want a carrier who has an iron fisted grip on your options? If my iPhone breaks and I need to use my old 3G until I get the money or I get tired of the handset, I want the freedom to be able to pop out my SIM card and throw it into an Android or RIM. Though it will likely never happen, I still want that option. I don't want Big Brother Verizon telling me what I can or cannot buy and use.
Friday, January 7, 2011
So It Begins
In what is nothing more then a spiteful gimmick to show that the Republicans "respect" the support of Teabaggers in helping get them back in power, House Republicans today performed a procedural vote for the purpose of seeing what type of support could be found in the House for a full repeal of last years historic health care reform.
What that means is if health care reform, officially known as the 2010 Affordable Care for America Act or HR 3962, would be repealed, parents would no longer be able to keep their children under their plans until the age of 26, insurers would no longer be barred from denying service based on preexisting conditions, Medicaid would not be expanded and 30 million uninsured Americans would not find coverage by 2019.
Following the procedural vote the tally came to 236 to 181 in favor of repealing health care reform with two Republicans who were forced to vote present because they missed the congressional swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday due to having fundraisers to attend. Those two were Pete Sessions of Texas and Mike Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania. Which is technically a violation of the Constitution under the oath of office provision. I wonder if the GOP knew that while that were reading an amended version of the Constitution.
Because of the success of the procedural vote, Speaker Boehner will put a full repeal vote on the calender for next Wednesday which is likely to pass.
But don't fret, that is where it will end. With the Democrats still being in control of the Senate, the bill is dead on arrival after passage in the House. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has already said that any attempt to even put a repeal vote up on the docket would not happen as long as he is in charge. And, even if Republicans would have won the Senate last November, Democrats would have likely filibustered the bill to death the way the GOP has for the past 2 years.
But this procedural vote and next weeks actual vote were never meant to pass. It was meant to shut the Teabaggers up and try to score some type of moral victory by finding any conservative Democrat willing to jump ship. After the vote is defeated from even being introduced into the Senate, the House is already planning a game of chicken with the upper chamber by sending them a series of spending bills which, if passed, would chip away at health care reform, and if not passed would defund and possibly shut down the government.
In addition to the perks that would be lost if the signature piece of legislation for the Obama Era thus far were ever repealed, the Congressional Budget Office has also added that repealing the bill would cost the American people $230 billion over the next decade and nearly $1 trillion the decade following. A group of Harvard economists have also said it would cost America 400,000 jobs per year for a decade or more that would likely add 1.5 percent to our unemployment rate. In other words, it would be like instantly raising our 9.4% unemployment to almost 11%.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
I've Got A Raging Boehner
It's not doubt that the next 2 years are going to be highly contentious as the government finds itself split down the middle. But before we even get into that take a couple moments and hop over to Sons of Seventy-Six (http://sonsofseventysix.blogspot.com/2011/01/speak-up.html) to get to know a little bit about the new Speaker.
Best 5 Movie Musicals Of All Time
#5. Newsies
Before Christian Bale was rasping it up as Batman, he was dancing his way to the picket line in the Newsies. Take away the music and what you find is a history lesson about the exploitation of child labor and the start to the labor movement back in the 1890's. Though a cult classic today, the Newsies was a box office bomb back when it was released back in 1992. The film cost to Disney was a roughly 15 million. Not all that much considering what most motion pictures go for now-a-days. However, when the film only grosses almost 3 million it's easy to see why, in an entertainment environment of remakes, no one is talking about a Newsies remake.
#4. South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut
Even before Trey Parker and Matt Stone made their way over to Comedy Central they were singing it up on Troma Films with their iconic flick Cannibal: The Musical. Since then they have taken their love of Broadway to a new, possibly more immature but definitely more vulgar and fun environment. Their hit Comedy Central show South Park has musical numbers spread throughout all the seasons. Trey and Matt's blockbuster film Team America: World Police was a musical and the duo is currently in production of a Broadway musical called The Book of Mormon. This much love of musicals makes it no surprise that the two would turn their beloved South Park show into a major motion musical in South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut.
#3. Rent
This film really needs no explanation. It was epic, it was revolutionary, it was about poor people and AIDs, protesting and cross dressing.
#2. Hairspray
Hairspray was one of those movies that I only gave the time of day to because.....well.....I had nothing better to do at that particular time of the day. After making it through, this movie easily became one of my favorites. It's teeth rottingly, irritatingly sweet dialogue and cast makes it tough for a lot of people to enjoy but once you get past it's hyper corny exterior you finally understand why John Waters made this musical the way he did. The reason why Hairspray comes of as so, for lack of a better word, white is because it tells the story of a time when the white washed brain washed American culture believed that all things were good as long as they were white. The 50s and the 60s was white society on steroids and any conflicting cultures were "put in their place" through segregation. Shops were segregated, schools were segregated, bathrooms were segregated, even television programs were segregated. Hairspray shows the cracks in the fascistic white culture as the 60s hurdled towards the counterculture revolution.
#1. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Easily the best movie musical. I was aware of Sweeney Todd a couple years before Tim Burton got his hands on it and even had the pleasure of seeing the show at a local theater. So Burton nailing this musical on the head made it that much more entertaining and enjoyable. Burton gets a lot of flack for making everything with that Tim Burton aesthetic but with Sweeney Todd that aesthetic didn't hinder the story, it enhanced it. Not to mention that Danny Elfman's take on Stephen Sondheim's music actually created an improvement for a musical score which tends to be a little harsh for the ears at times.
Bonus - A Muppet Christmas Carol
Possibly the first movie musical I ever saw. It's A Christmas Carol, it's Muppet's, it's enough said.
CES 2011 Pre-Game
CES stands for the Consumer Electronics Show and has been at the forefront of technology since it's founding in 1967. What type of technology you ask? Blu-Ray, the Xbox, DVR, HDTV, DVD, Tetris, Nintendo, CD's, Camcorders, Pong, Laserdiscs, and VCR's just to name a few.
Not to mention all the other great perks of CES which includes brand new cutting edge technology, scantily clad booth babes, and.......uh......scantily clad booth babes in front of cutting edge technology.
The good people over at the HuffingtonPost did a great CES Pre-Game article so I am just going to borrow what they have done and then comment on their comments. Enjoy!
Original article from the huffingtonpost.com entitled "CES 2011 Predictions: 7 Trends To Watch At The World's Biggest Tech Show". (Seriously? Hey, HuffPost, if the length of the article is in the title then perhaps you should higher a word smith to shorten that shit up.)
#1. Android Tablets
HP: A new crop of powerful Android tablets could steal the limelight at CES, thanks to the Android 3.0 (aka “Honeycomb”) operating system, which is expected to be "optimized for tablets" and set to launch in the early months of 2011. CNETpredicts that Acer, Archos, Asus, Creative, Dell, Entourage, Fusion Garage, LG, Motorola, MSI, Notion Ink, Samsung, Toshiba and ViewSonic will all unveil their latest slates this week. SlashGear is hoping that last year's crowd-pleaser, the never-released Lenovo U1 Hybrid, gets its overdue resurrection.
CBot: iPad bitch!
#2. Alternative Tablets
HP: According to Fox News, HP is rumored to have several new PalmPads ready for CES. "All three [of these tablets] will run a new iteration of the WebOS operating system, version 2.5.1; they're collectively a spin-off of the never-released HP Slate," according to Fox. RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook could also make an appearance, PCMag suggests.
CBot: I'm excited to see where the tablet market goes but comparing non-Apple tablets is like comparing non-Apple smartphones; yeah, they are kinda cool but they just don't quite have the same polish and user friendly fun as what Jobs has given us.
#3. 4G Smartphones
HP: The Wall Street Journal reports that Verizon will trot out 4G smartphones (and perhaps a tablet, as well) by Samsung, Motorola, HTC and LG. All these Verizon devices are expected to run on the Android operating system. Though WSJpredicts that Verizon smartphones will be the stars at CES, Sprint and T-Mobile will also debut 4G products of their own.
As usual, Apple is absent from the CES roster, but many are practically salivating for a couple hints about the long-rumored partnership between Apple and Verizon, hoping Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg lets the cat out of the bag during his keynote address on Thursday.
CBot: Does anyone really give a shit about 4G right now? Honestly, who has the infrastructure amongst any carrier to support it and how many people, besides the real techaholics, really even understand what it is? Most people when they hear 3G still relate it as "Oh, that's the 3rd generation iPhone." Which, sidebar, it's not. 4G is just a brand so they can jack up the price and make the user feel as though they didn't just get ripped off.
#4. 3D TV, Mobile TV, Internet TV
HP: 3D TV was a big hit at CES 2010, and this year we could see improvements that aim to draw in consumers. For example, Samsung has created lighter, less obtrusive 3D glasses, and Toshiba will be showcasing glasses-free 3D technology. TechRadar predicts excitement surrounding 3D Blu-ray.ReadWriteWeb, meanwhile, excitedly anticipates mobile TV devices and 3D TV devices, as well a mobile TV receiver for the iPhone.
As for Android-based television platforms, rumor has it that Google is still ironing out the platform's kinks. "[I]t would be a breakthrough if the conference brought news that the major TV networks are ending the blockade that has crippled Internet-streaming boxes based on Google TV," writes TIME.
CBot: 3D TV - The saving grace of 3D will be video games. I know 3D movies are really big right now but they are still a gimmick. And no one wants to go home and have to throw on a pair of glasses (expensive ass glasses to boot) in order to watch your average every day television shows. Video games are a beast of their own, however. Most gamers are already throwing on headsets so what is adding a pair of glasses? If 3D manufacturers want this technology to last then they need to start pumping it into the video game market. They are the only consumers who will support a glasses base platform until the companies perfect non-glasses 3D.
Mobile TV, Internet TV - Yeah, what about it? We already have that.
#5. Big Announcements From Microsoft
HP: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer could drop a bomb on the tech world during his CES keynote address on Thursday. Ballmer might announce a Google TV competitor, which, Business Insider suggests might be "a stripped-down version of Windows tailored for set-top boxes and connected TVs." Since last year's Windows Tablet (the HP Slate) never came to fruition, there's a chance that Ballmer might unveil a fresh model for 2011. ReadWriteWeb speculates that a Microsoft tablet could run on a version Windows 7, or that we'll see the introduction of "a tablet-friendly Windows 8."
CBot: Hey, when's the Apple Press Event?
#6. Many and Varied Internet-Connected Devices
HP: This year, CES is likely to host a variety of new objects that connect to the Internet. ReadWriteWeb explains:
We're looking to see two classes of products here: an increased selection of Internet-enabled devices, such as Fords and Nikes, as well as devices meant to connect other objects and bodies to the Internet. We'll likely see more in the way of the AutoBot, which allows you to control aspects of your car with your smartphone, and other devices meant to retrofit that part of our lives that doesn't yet live online. A big one here, of course, is ourselves - we're expecting to see devices that help users monitor the one thing they care about more than anything else: themselves.
Engadget reports that LG, for example, will show off its new line of "smart" home appliances.
CBot: Right.....companies need to realize that, believe it or not, not everything needs the internet. For example, when one is surfing they don't need to be surfing the web through their surf board. My Christmas tree doesn't need Bluetooth. My condoms don't need pop-up ads.....HA! BAM!! Wait, I take that back, my Christmas tree could use Bluetooth. That would be pretty sweet. Either way, a dryer that I can check my Facebook on seems far more depressing then what I want to be.
The last item was called "Wild Card" so I decided to exclude it. If you want to read the entire article go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/04/ces-2011-predictions-trends_n_804328.html#s218855&title=Wild%20Card%20Products and check it out.
CES starts tomorrow and goes till January 9th. G4TV always has great CES coverage on the Saturday following the expo so that is Saturday January 15th.
Great Way To Celebrate Our First Hump Day Of 2011
If no one has started a site called "What Would Barney Do?" they need to get on it.
P.S. Ted is the worst.
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