The following pictures were taken at a Walmart in Oklahoma City. The first depicts two American Indians on horseback with spears raised overlooking their land and grazing buffalo. The next picture is a large panoramic view of early American settlers wearing cowboy hats with their covered wagon stampeding onto the land. The last picture shows a more modern Caucasian woman with a cowboy hat riding a horse in the foreground and a city skyline in the background. The last picture is captioned “Oklahoma City”.

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Great history lesson, Walmart! Really. The natives were just chillin out, tending to their buffalo when a stampede of immigrants came along, pillaged their lands, and built a concrete jungle on it. I hope all those people who want to deport all illegal immigrants take a long hard look at this and think about how their own ancestors came to call this country their home.

Don’t you ever just feel like the last few weeks in technology were full of bad news and let downs? All you’re looking for is the light at the end of the tunnel. I always ask myself why the general population seems to hold people in tech related professions to a higher standard when it comes to service. I’m not saying we’re not excellent… but we’re not perfect. We make mistakes and truth be told there is not a giant magic easy button tucked away at the back of our desk drawer collecting dust waiting for the day when your priority #1, mission critical, last-minute-I-need-this-done-now, project comes along. Sometimes users request the impossible… or just the plain ridiculous, like the lady who wanted to remove the Pac Man from her Google.

Seriously though, why do other people/companies/entities get to screw up so bad and still skate on like nothing happened?

BP is still taking a big dump in the Gulf of Mexico. Progress with cleanup efforts and fixing the spewing oil leak is dragging on as if they think time itself will solve the problem.

It seems that Apple and AT&T screwed people over big time with what looks like an obvious bait and switch to me. One of Apple’s major selling points for the iPad was the ability to get an unlimited data plan through AT&T for $30 a month without a contract! Now shortly after the 3G versions are released, AT&T says they’re no longer offering unlimited data plans for the iPad or the iPhone. Even those who already signed up and will be grandfathered into an unlimited plan are forced into never skipping a payment – kind of like being on a contract, because I’m sure if you missed a month AT&T would just make you sign up for their new plans.

One final frustration of mine: T-Mobile should be ashamed of themselves! Verizon and Sprint are offering up all the awesome Android phones like they’re the ones that started this whole thing! C’Mon TMo – you offered up the first Android phone to the masses with the G1 and now your best offering is the MyTouch Slide? Where are the top-end handsets to compete with the HTC EVO 4G and the HTC Incredible or the Motorola Droid? TMo isn’t even directly selling the Nexus One but they should! They need to!

But hey, a little bird has been chirping about a big event coming soon for T-Mobile: Free phones on June 19th. If this is true, TMo could win over a lot of new customers and maybe that’s just what they need for the phone makers to consider giving TMo better handsets. I took the time to check out plans for two Android phones on Verizon’s network with unlimited data and T-Mobile still has the best priced plans. Here’s to more waiting for my dream phone.

My opinion of natural health supplements has always been that they might actually help and are natural so if they don’t they’re probably harmless. The most harm I could imagine them doing was for people to delay treatment taking useless stuff and having their condition get much worse. You know kind of like the nutters that have cancer, but instead of going to the doctor they try homeopathy, weird berries, and or praying. Then they die from something that probably could have been treated. You’re never going to get away from that kind of stupid even if they didn’t have health supplement stores people would just wonder into the woods to munch on mandrake root to cure their cancer or whatever.

Now you can’t just write it all off because there are chemicals in natural remedies that we use in real drugs. The only difference is that real drugs are concentrated and tested pretty well. I would rather take two aspirin than chew on the plants where salicylic acid comes from. But people just think natural is better somehow even though last time I checked “nature” is consistently trying to kill us. Strange that word natural you see that a lot on things now days. Even things that is not “natural”.  Even natural chemicals in health supplements can be dangerous. “But how can that be?” you say “Don’t they test this stuff?” Nope all they have to do is list the ingredients but since health supplements are not real drugs the FDA doesn’t have to approve them or make sure they work. Nobody really checks or knows whats in plants so they’ll just list things like ginseng, or root extract, etc.

Consumer reports did a study to figure out what’s in these things and found some scary things in common health supplements. The list doesn’t include common bad chemicals like lead and mercury which are also present. This is Ironic as the antivaxxers don’t like vaccines because of mercury but it shows up a lot in plants and in huge amounts in fish.

“Common name: Androstenedione What it is used for: Ups blood levels of testosterone and is often used by athletes for bodybuilding. Possible danger: Increases cancer risks; decreases HDL, or “good” cholesterol

Common name: Aristolochic acid What it’s used for: Found in traditional Chinese medicines used in treating such ailments as eczema, endometriosis, and backache Possible danger: Linked to kidney failure and cancer 

Common name: Bitter orange What it is used for: Works like ephedra, the stimulant used for weight loss, which was banned by the Food and Drug Administration in 2004. Possible danger: High blood pressure; increased risk of heart arrhythmias, heart attack, and strokes with its use 

Common name: Chaparral What it is used for: Has been marketed as a “blood purifier,” cancer cure, and acne treatment Possible danger: Linked to abnormal liver function that is often irreversible 

Common name: Comfrey What it is used for: Drunk as a tea or “green beverage” for stomach ulcers or as a “blood purifier” Possible danger: Contains toxins called pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs), which have been linked to abnormal liver function or damage, often irreversible, when taken internally. Deaths have been reported.

Common name: Germander What it is used for: Often used in weight-control formulations Possible danger: Linked to abnormal liver function that is often

Common name: Kava (or kava kava) What it is used for: Soothes stress and anxiety Possible danger: Linked to abnormal liver function 

Common name: Lobelia What it is used for: An herbal treatment for asthma, bronchitis, and coughing Possible danger: Difficulty breathing and rapid heart rates may result from its use 

 Common name: Organ/glandular extracts What it is used for: Treating disorders such as chronic hepatitis C, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus Possible danger: Theoretical risk of mad cow disease, particularly from brain extracts 

Common name: Pennyroyal oil What it is used for: Used topically as an insect repellent and disinfectant and internally for digestive and liver disorders Possible danger: Associated with liver and kidney failure, nerve damage, convulsions, abdominal tenderness, and burning of the throat. Deaths have been reported even with ingestion of tiny amounts; even topical application can be dangerous.

Consumer Reports rating: Likely hazardous Common name: Skullcap What it is used for: Relieves anxiety and insomnia Possible danger: Abnormal liver damage 

 Common name: Yohimbe What it is used for: A men’s aphrodisiac sometimes referred to as “herbal Viagra” Possible danger: Blood pressure changes, heartbeat irregularities, and heart attacks have been reported with its use.”

So next time you wanna try some natural remedies its probably a good idea to do some research into what their made of and whether it will kill you slowly or not.  J

Another example of users making me angry because they don’t bother to understand the technology they use. Apparently people are all up in arms over Google accidentally collecting data about Wi-Fi networks with their Street View cars. If you research the issue, you’ll find that payload data was only collected from unsecured networks. If you know anything at all about Wi-Fi, you know that these days securing your wireless router is so easy a caveman could do it. There’s no excuse for not doing it! In fact, if you wanted to, you could prevent your router from even broadcasting an SSID in the first place! You can’t sue somebody for invading your privacy if you are willingly broadcasting it unsecured for your whole neighborhood to see.

Do these people not see the irony? They’re suing Google for collecting data that they’re knowingly broadcasting out into open air but not a word about the fact that Google took pictures of their house! I bet these are the same kind of people that put their last names on their mail boxes for all to see.

I hope Google squashes these people. SQUASH.

All four of us have now upgraded from the factory battery to an extended battery for our T-Mobile G1s. Fox claims he’s able to get about 3 days of battery life from his phone now even while running multiple apps and receiving regular notifications from each. Trust me, I don’t need to know about tweets at 3am, so I’m hoping to exceed his time without a charge. Here are some pictures of the phone with its original battery and then with the extended. My G1 is the bronze phone and there were no matching bronze back covers for the extended battery. To be honest, I don’t mind the 3-tone look. Enjoy.

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Hey there T-Mobile! As a TMO customer for a few years now, I was super proud when TMO was the first carrier in the US to launch an Android handset. We were early adopters! Casadegeeks bought three of them and now all four of us have a G1. I think we’ve all reached that point now where the G1 is no longer fast enough. Time to upgrade… wait – where is the next generation of TMO’s Andoid handsets? Verizon has two awesome Android offerings now: Motorola Droid and HTC Incredible… Sprint just got the HTC Evo and even AT&T – exclusive iPhone carrier has some Android offerings. What do you have TMO? The original Android phone – G1, Motorola Cliq, HTC MyTouch – is that all? Even the upcoming HTC MyTouch2 (codename Espresso) is still lacking the new Snapdragon processor. My only real option for a next-gen Android phone on T-Mobile’s network is going to be the Nexus One. Why the complaining then, you ask. Who doesn’t want more choices?

It’s gotten so bad that people are resorting to starting rumors about T-Mobile getting the HTC Incredible – why? C’Mon T-Mobile! Bring it! You took a big step in bringing Android to the market, you should be the leading provider for the best, newest Android handsets! I want to be proud of Magenta again!

That said, unless there are more options soon on T-Mobile, I guess I’ll fork over my arm and leg to buy a Nexus One. In the meantime, go watch some of these vids about the Nexus One:

http://chatroulette.com/

Anyone who has been online for long enough can remember the early days of the Web. The days of plain text HTML web pages, dial-up, the recently deceased Geocities, and meeting random people in chat rooms. There was no social networking like Facebook & Twitter! You got to talk to whoever else joined chat with you and only a rare few had voice or even video.

These days you meet somebody new in the real world and the first thing they want to know is “Can I add you on Facebook?” or “What’s your Twitter name?”. People you never wanted to see again from high school can find you online after all these years and pick up where they left off – picking on you! Or not… maybe they are good friends and you laugh about them getting paper cuts while opening a bag of cookies.

So what’s so cool about this new-fangled ChatRoulette? It’s old school, baby! Kids these days never knew what it was like to experience the web so randomly. These days when the search engine is king and you can be sent directly to the content you want, you hardly ever find yourself just wandering the vast unknown of the Web. ChatRoulette brings that randomness back with a little bit of anonymity – yes you can see the person’s webcam, but don’t see a username, no address, no contact info!

So I say Happy Random Chatting to you all. Watch out for penis cams or old guys dressed in full body cat suits or Elmo and lets hope ChatRoulette doesn’t get turned into another social networking site.

When Jenny McCarthy set out on her foolish and unholy crusade to stop people from vaccinating they’re kids most people could understand where she was coming from. After all her son was diagnosed with autism shortly after he got his vaccines. These are same vaccines that the rest of us got when we were his age. It’s an easy conclusion to come too, as autism symptoms manifest around the same time that people get vaccinated. People’s brains are designed to pick up on things like this and we assume such logic is correct. Unfortunately for people’s flawed logic millions of people get vaccinated and have no issues. Studies have been done and the subject has been researched to death. It speaks for itself: Vaccines don’t have anything to do with autism. Otherwise a much larger chunk of the population would have it.

If she was anybody else she would’ve been written off as a random crackpot with a theory that’s been disproved. But unfortunately she’s a famous celebrity, which to the US public means she’s an authority on whatever she says she is. Never mind the total lack of training in anything medical related! So naturally she’s more or less completely responsible with a quarter of our population thinking that vaccines are bad and the record numbers of people not vaccinating our kids to diseases that used to kill people by the millions just 50 years ago! Because you know scientists are wrong and the blond chick with the big boobs is right.

So your thinking why should I worry I’ve been vaccinated so I’m good right? Well no. You see yes your immune to the bad things that you got vaccinated from …. So long as your Immune system is running well. But if you say get a cold and you immune system is weakened and you happen to encounter somebody with measles or smallpox then you have a higher chance of getting it. After all nothing is absolute. Nobody is 100% immune. The idea is remove the disease from the population by getting rid of enough possible hosts so it can’t get a foot hold, or “herd Immunity” as it’s called. Stop vaccinating kids and we lose that.

Just because life has a certain irony to it, turns out her son doesn’t have autism after all!!! He has Landau–Kleffner syndrome which has similar symptoms of autism but isn’t autism. She’s also supposedly reversed her initial position that vaccines cause autism. So there you have it. This is what happens when you listen to and think people know what they’re talking about when in fact they don’t. With something as important as preventing unnecessary deaths then its VERY important to listen to people that really knows what they’re talking about. Not B movie actresses that have been in playboy. But when were all dying of some horrible disease from the 1800’s we’ll at least know who to thank.

Google’s  Brian Axe, Product Management Director, just announced the acquisition of Picnik. The company that brought photo editing to the cloud. This new technology will allow you to do basic but impressive photo editing all without leaving the safety of your browser. I along with the Casa team will be reviewing this web app and posting our thoughts and comments shortly after. What does this mean for Picasa?

Unlike most things you see in Sci-Fi movies one intriguing and very useful piece of tech might be closer than I previously thought. No I’m not talking about flying cars or killer robots. I’m talking about a personal heads up display.  Something you wear as a pair of glasses or contacts that can display things like a GPS map or text messages. The University of Washington has made several contact lens style HUD’s that they’ve been testing and will hopefully develop into something that can be commercially made.

First a little background. Heads up displays have been around for a while in military circles for displaying information important to pilots so they don’t have to look down at gauges. They do this by projecting text and simple graphics on a sheet of glass that’s suspended in your field of view. The information displayed is small and semi transparent so you don’t have to worry about not seeing past it and crashing. Their surprisingly simple devices given what they do. Early HUD’s used CRT’s to display info, now they use LED’s to accomplish the same. The F-35 is equipped with a helmet mounted HUD so the pilot has access to critical aircraft info while turning his head to follow targets and other objects of interest.

Sound like something useful for your car? Imagine not having to look down to see your speed, RPM, fuel status, radio station, and environmental settings. Better yet if they had buttons on the steering wheel you control said things you would never have to look down or take your hands off the wheel. Once you think of the applications it’s mindboggling that our cars don’t have them. Seriously it took me only 5 minutes to think up the above applications for a HUD in the car. So the only thing I found on the internet was some half hearted articles about car HUD’s not catching on in the 80’s, and the American car company’s wonder why they’re going outta business.

That said it could also be useful for say people as they go about their business to see important info instantly. Instead of digging around for a Smartphone wedged in their pockets which they have to stare at and then promptly walk into a wall or other people. The advantage to something like that is its always with you. Ideally you would have it installed into your existing glasses or sunglasses, or better yet in a pair of contacts. Even if you didn’t need glasses being about to see text messages or twitter updates would be cool. Or get GPS info as your walking around in unknown cities, or the wood. The glasses wouldn’t even have to have the control electronics as it could offload that to a Smartphone.

Judging by all the car HUD apps for the Iphone and the Android platform it’s a safe bet that it people would love such a device. These apps apparently use the phones display to project an image onto your cars windshield in dark conditions, creating a primitive HUD. Once you have the glasses or contacts rigged up to be a useful HUD getting it to talk to Bluetooth enabled phone is probably easy. Once this technology becomes available you wouldn’t have to modify cars with HUD’s. Phones are getting better at displaying GPS info and even giving you directions. They can also figure out your speed, from just the GPS signal alone. This is definitely something that would be good for motorcycles as their limited in space as to what you can mount on them. Given the fact that something like this would make a company very rich and that there are people working on it should mean that we don’t have to wait too long on it. But you never know.

Links below.

Contact Lens HUD

Wearable HUD’s

Wiki on HUD’s