Brian A. Thomas .com

Weighing in on Francisco Lorenzo vs Humberto Soto

Brian A. Thomas — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:35:27 +0000

So Francisco Lorenzo wins via an undeserved disqualification against Humberto Soto, thanks in large part to Lorenzo’s whining and acting as if the glancing blow was an actual hit. Now the WBC has decided to take the title away from Lorenzo. Now I have read some commentators suggest it isn’t fair, that a ruling is a ruling, however wrong, and Lorenzo should keep his belt. Originally, after watching the replays myself (thank you YouTube… ref Frank Cortez giving an interview here) I thought this was the correct decision, but upon further thought, I agree. While Lorenzo was clearly hamming it up trying for the DQ, the ruling was the ruling. If they want to give the ref, or at least the sideline judges and boxing commission the ability to use instant replay then that is one thing, but from what they saw, they decided it the way it turned out. Let Lorenzo keep the title, everyone in the boxing world will brand him a coward and he’ll loose the belt his next fight, be it a rematch or another match. If they want the belt to be left open, then the rules should say that a DQ results in a vacant belt.
What I don’t get is the comments from YouTube people against Cortez. The guy made a bad call, but from his angle and without the benefit of instant replay he made the correct call. Was it the correct call from our angle and having the instant replay? No, but refs make bad calls all the time. In this case it cost Soto a deserved title, which is perhaps why some of them are faulting Cortez, but again, we all have to play by the rules. Soto violated the rule by hitting Lorenzo while he was down, though yes, it looks like the punch may have been in process already so perhaps hard to stop, and Lorenzo’s acting helped things along. Don’t blame the ref, blame Lorenzo.
I should qualify all the above by saying I am not too familiar with either fighter. I do recall seeing Frank Cortez on a few other fights, and thanks to us not having TV, I haven’t seen many fights for a while.

A MySpace, Facebook Application for the Google Android Phone

Brian A. Thomas — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:32:06 +0000

I talked how I was wanting to learn Java, so I could start making programs for the Android mobile phone platform.
A project that I thought of, but is perhaps beyond my ability for any time soon, is an application that will tie in with MySpace, Facebook and expendable to other social network websites.
Basically, it searches your friends lists, and if they have an Android phone as well and the location tracking feature turned on, you can see which of your MySpace/Facebook friends are nearby by using the Android’s built in GPS. There are variants I saw of this out there, but none I know tie in directly with the current social network, rather they setup their own networks.
Bes I can figure it, each user who has an Android device, sets up an application on their MySpace/Facebook page that detects when they enable the location feature on their Android. For privacy reasons, all it shows on the webpage itself is that location tracking is on. The back end of the application that the Friends can’t see, but the user can, allows them to block certain friends, or allow only certain friends to see their location.
If two friends have their location tacking enabled, then when they look at the application on their Android, it shows where they are via Google Maps. You can see in an instant if your friends are running late to meet you at the movie theater, or see when a friend arrives in town and a host of other cool features.
At the same time, there are the normal security concerns if some pervert is using a fake MySpace account to find young girls or something like that. I haven’t figured a way around that, but in all honesty I don’t know as if one does need to, since if they already got friended, they are already in, and as I said, the back end allows you to add only select friends to the location tracking, so hopefully that added level of security will be enough. Still the end user license would need to be written in a way so that the developer would assume no responsibility for abuse of the system. Personally, I would add a warning when they add friends to the location tracking that reminds them to be extra careful of whom they allow to track their location (this would be a dialog box that pops up each time, but would probably have a check mark so you could avoid the message next time). By default, it wouldn’t have any friends listed in the allow column.
Anyhow, that is the basics of it. I have more details floating around in my head.
Some of the variations out there currently (well, currently may not be the right word since Android itself isn’t out yet, but these are the ones that I know of in active development) that I know of:
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Learning Java

Brian A. Thomas — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:31:56 +0000

There is a phone platform coming out called Android, which is a project of the Open Handset Alliance. A number phone manufacturers are going to be making mobile phones based on the Open Handset Alliance specification, all of which use Android. To program for Android, you need to know Java, and so I am starting on a path of learning Java. I chose C# over Java eons ago as I was mostly interested in Windows programming, so Java’s ability to compile on one machine and run on many others, even if they weren’t Windows machines, be they Linux, Mac or whatever, wasn’t a concern. Most mobile phones use Java for their games and applications. Apple’s iPhone is cool, but to program for it, you have to have a Mac, so no programming for the iPhone. Plus the iPhone’s market is limited right now do to the exclusive AT&T deal (you can unlock the phone and run it on T-Mobile for example, but most people won’t go through that much trouble). nVidia has a chipset coming out, but for the moment, none of the Tegra based phones are for Android, but Windows Mobile based phones (and other handheld devices). nVidia is a member of the Open Handset Alliance, so they may support somebody making a Tegra based phone that conforms to the Open Handset Alliance and Android. This will be cool since they seem to have the best graphics of the phones.
There are a couple of caveats however as I embark on learning Java. First, while most Java programs can be ran on many platforms, this doesn’t seem to be the case with Android’s implementation. While the language itself is the same, you can’t compile a program that will run on both Android and say a Windows machine, another cell phone, or something like that, and vica-versa. The problem is they apparently use a different virtual machine to run on than all other implementations. They did this so it would run better on a mobile platform as I understand it. It isn’t clear to me, but it looks like since the language is the same, you could do two compiles, one for Android and one for everything else, but I may be wrong on that part… of course if you use Android specific APIs, then it won’t work on anything else.
Anyhow, I am presently staring on reading Head First Java, 2nd Edition (I am just borrowing that copy, so I don’t have a good hardcopy of my own yet…). Early into the first chapter we do an exercise where we do the “99 Bottle of Beer on the Wall”. The program compiles and runs fine, but, as they note, the output isn’t 100% correct. It took me a while, but I found it.
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Don’t Freak Out, Cell Phones Can Not Pop Poppcorn

Brian A. Thomas — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 11:02:24 +0000

There are several versions of the following viral video going around where a few kernels of popcorn are popped using cell phones.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg_dyD0Nsjw

Not only is it impossible to pop popcorn with cell phones, they are most likely a viral advertising campaign seeing how many similar videos were posted the same day by a few users. It could be a massively coordinated joke, but be it a joke or viral advertising, they are fake. See Physicist Debunks Cellphone Popcorn Viral Videos, and Snope’s entry which mentions the popcorn bit while debunking an earlier version of the joke where somebody cooked an egg between two cellphones that were on for 60 minutes (also not possible). The Snope’s article also includes a video where the British show Brainiac expands on the egg experiment by using 100 cell phones.

Interesting Video on Jury Nullification

Brian A. Thomas — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 12:03:22 +0000

There is one essential right you have as a member of a jury that the judge will likely not instruct you on, as a matter of fact, he will likely be upset it comes up. The jury can acquit a defendant if they feel the instructions given to it by the judge were wrong, or most prominently promoted by defenders of freedom, if the jury feels the law itself is unjust. This doesn’t overturn the law, unless a large series of juries return the same result. This is called jury nullification. Largely however, it deals with bad instructions to the jury from the judge than the jury judging the law itself.
This video is presented in part by a much younger Ron Paul…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA4GKG__B-s

That is part one of three. More parts:
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Ari’s Glasses

Brian A. Thomas — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 05:18:55 +0000

We picked up Ari’s glasses the other day. Here are some shots (today was a big photo upload day, so be sure to check out our full photostream at Flickr).

Pick Me…Pick Me At The Travel Bug Tree (GCXW4Z)

Brian A. Thomas — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 05:14:27 +0000

I found my first geocache! I specifically picked Pick Me…Pick Me At The Travel Bug Tree (GCXW4Z) first because it was supposed to have a Travel Bug in it, and when we go camping here soon, there will be a gathering of geocachers who will trade Travel Bugs. Also, based on it’s location on Google Maps, I figured I could find it before I got a GPS. Good on both counts!
The Travel Bug, is Buzz (TB121WH). As I said, I’ll be taking him camping with me, where on some day and time at some location on the campgrounds, some geocachers will gather for fun, talking, and trading of Travel Bugs. Since I won’t have time to get my own Travel Bug ready (I plan on getting one with the goal of sending him to New Zealand and then all over New Zealand, spending some time in the Nelson area if it can), I figured finding a local one would do, and I would do what I can to help it travel. Buzz’s goal is to visit all 50 states. He’s been in 7 states that I see off hand. Hopefully I can send him towards the West, or at least to a state he hasn’t been to yet. Once traded and we are back, I’ll drop the new Travel Bug off at the same location.
The cache itself was a fun find. I think when I go back to take the new Travel Bug, I’ll practice a little cache in, trash out since there seemed to be a few beer bottles lying around. Sara and Ari were with me, but I left them in the van while I ran for a quick search since we were on our way to her parent’s house and didn’t want to dedicate too much time looking for it. I was about to give up before I stumbled upon a likely spot and found it.
Just in case the pictures may spoil (though I tried to make sure I didn’t show too much) I’ll bury them below the break… of course if somebody got here via Google anyhow, they are probably looking at the full post, in which case advert your eyes.
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Father’s Day GPS Deals

Brian A. Thomas — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 12:17:37 +0000

Amazon has some Father’s Day GPS Deals. Unfortunately none of the GPSrs that I am looking at are part of the deal… as a matter of fact, none of the ones that they have a deal on would work for much of any of the stuff I want a GPS for aside from road navigation, none of them would work for geotagging photos, though a couple would work as very basic geocaching units, but aren’t really meant to be taken on a hike as they aren’t rugged enough. So I am still looking at the Garmin eTrex Vista HCx Color High-Sensitivity Mapping Handheld GPS as the unit of choice (at the low end, or the Garmin 010-00422-00 GPSMap 60CSx 2.6-Inch Mapping Handheld GPS at the high end since I decided against a Garmin Colorado 300 Bilingual Handheld GPS Unit with North American Maps for now due to firmware issues… though those will be cleaned up… probably soonish). I detailed everything in my last post, Locked Down on a GPS Choice.

Locked Down on a GPS Choice

Brian A. Thomas — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:04:43 +0000

I have decided on which GPSr to get.

This costs $234.09. (Not sure why they don’t show the price on the front, perhaps it is too cheap to advertise on the picture since everyone local sells it for $299.99… so see, were getting a deal here.) I am also willing to toss in some on my own cash to help, though I would rather use my money to get some of the accessories, such as the street maps….or getting the 60CSx below which sounds like it would be better for turn by turn directions.

A few notes. Notice the HCx added to the name, this is an important feature over the regular Vista… Also notice is a Vista not a Legend.

Father’s Day is coming up, and I’ll remind people that I spent over $80 on Mother’s Day.
Perhaps people can team up together to get it. Mother… father… Sara… Perhaps some still owe something for my Birthday (LOL).
Of course we need a few accessories to go with that:
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Crossing the Border? Be Advised, You are Guilty of Copyright Violation and Your iPod, Laptop, etc will be Destroyed

Brian A. Thomas — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 12:32:04 +0000

Canada is cracking down on copyright violations. If you have content the border guards so much as suspect of content on your iPod, laptop, cell phone, etc violating copyright, they can destroy it. The Yahoo! news story that reports this, seems to indicate that the whole iPod or Laptop itself will be destroyed, not just the suspected content.
There is no mention that guards will be given any special training to decide what is illegal or legal content.
All the real security concerns we may have about border crossings, and they are worried about searching people’s iPods and the like for copyright violations. This is more asinine than the drug war where we worry about putting somebody smoking an herb that God commands in the Bible to be used in jail than murderers rapists and thieves. It’s like the police said, “Why worry about spending manpower on stopping murderers and rapists, or keeping them in jail when we can put a non-violent drug user in jail.” So now Canada’s border patrol is like, “Why worry about terrorists or other threats to national security, we need to worry about copyright violators.”
The US and most of Europe are in on this deal as well.
On the good news side, it seems an upcoming G8 summit will shelve the idea for now.