u l t r a m o o k i e

This will probably slip through the news since there’s this consistent Viagra driven love for Apple.  But, for those of you interested (from the Wall Street Journal):
Apple raised hackles in computer-privacy and security circles when an independent engineer discovered code inside the iPhone that suggested iPhones routinely check an Apple Web site that could, in [...]

This will probably slip through the news since there’s this consistent Viagra driven love for Apple.  But, for those of you interested (from the Wall Street Journal):

Apple raised hackles in computer-privacy and security circles when an independent engineer discovered code inside the iPhone that suggested iPhones routinely check an Apple Web site that could, in theory trigger the removal of the undesirable software from the devices.

Mr. Jobs confirmed such a capability exists, but argued that Apple needs it in case it inadvertently allows a malicious program — one that stole users’ personal data, for example — to be distributed to iPhones through the App Store.

I guess Uncle Steve is really trying to tell people that All Your Ifones Belong To Him.

Things just fell into place today and I got $170 back into my pocket!  The family was eating dinner at the local Chinese restaurant (China Delight II).  The restaurant had today’s San Jose Mercury, so I just had to have a peek.  And that’s when I spotted the ad above!  What?  Fry’s was having a [...]

Things just fell into place today and I got $170 back into my pocket!  The family was eating dinner at the local Chinese restaurant (China Delight II).  The restaurant had today’s San Jose Mercury, so I just had to have a peek.  And that’s when I spotted the ad above!  What?  Fry’s was having a sale and they were selling my HP dv2910us notebook from Fourth of July for $170 off! One Day Only!

So, I drove over to Circuit City and talked to Customer Service.  The woman behind the counter looked in disbelief at the ad.  She called Fry’s to valid that the price was correct and that the notebook was in stock.  The price was right and they had them in stock.  Win!

She called her manager over, a tall lanky young guy, and told him about the refund she was going to give.

“Did you call?”

“Yes.”

“They had it in stock?”

“Yup.”

“Ouch.”

While the woman did the refund, the manager ran through what seems to be SOP for Circuit City:

“I don’t know if you know, but you can still get a free wireless gee networking and a free printer with this purchase.”

Ugh.  I smiled and told him “no”.  Circuit City is quite relentless with their “free*” (*after mail-in rebate) stuff.

Anyways, win for me as I got the $170 back from Circuit City!

Are you really serious President Bush?  Are you really?  You want to lift the ban on off-shore drilling, but you will say…
“I readily concede it won’t produce a barrel of oil tomorrow, but it will reverse the psychology,” Bush told a White House news conference.
Hey, how about this sir:  Just tell the American public that [...]

Are you really serious President Bush?  Are you really?  You want to lift the ban on off-shore drilling, but you will say…

“I readily concede it won’t produce a barrel of oil tomorrow, but it will reverse the psychology,” Bush told a White House news conference.

Hey, how about this sir:  Just tell the American public that you’ll be spinning up the printing presses at the US Federal Reserve and that you will be handing out millions of dollars to each American citizen.

That money won’t really get out to the American public; but,  you know, “it will reverse the psychology” and help Americans spend more during this economic downturn.

That would be a better way about going at it than opening up for off-shore drilling, which will not help anyone.  And could potentially destroy our environment.  Stop trying to help your oil drilling buddies President, try helping the environment instead.

I don’t know what this says about what President Bush this about the American public.  Does he think that the American public is dumb enough to buy into this “off-shore drilling will lower the price at the pump” deal?  Or is the American public really dumb enough to believe that bunch of shit?

Sheesh.

As an effort to help streamline hiring at work, we are now doing interviews with representatives from different groups under the same business group umbrella.  I don’t know how the hell I got picked, but I represent my group during these interviews.  I hate interviews.  I hate getting interviewed.  I hate giving interviews.  I have [...]

As an effort to help streamline hiring at work, we are now doing interviews with representatives from different groups under the same business group umbrella.  I don’t know how the hell I got picked, but I represent my group during these interviews.  I hate interviews.  I hate getting interviewed.  I hate giving interviews.  I have only one standard tech question that I ask interviewees:

• Given the string “aaaabbbccdddddeefaabbbbccef”, write a script for me that returns:  “4a3b2c5d2e1f2a4b2c1e1f”.  This was a question that was asked by my former director when I was interviewing to join Yahoo!.  It’s a pretty nice question that lets me see how one thinks through a problem (or even if someone tries to think through a problem.  The answer seems easy, but it has some twists.

Other than that, I try to ask questions that are based on the resume of the interviewed.  Know Perl?  Tell me the easiest way I can get only the hosts common between two text files.  Know Red Hat Enterprise Linux?  Tell me the easiest way to find out the CPU in a box and how many cores it has.  Vi or Emacs?

I’m curious, what kind of questions have you gotten or do you give at interviews.  What do you think about the whole interview process?

At Subway, the goodies that can be had on a sandwich include:

Lettuce
Tomatoes
Olives
Onions
Yellow Peppers
Jalapeno Peppers
Bell Peppers
Cucumbers
Mayo
Mustard
Salt
Pepper
Oil
Vinegar

Today, I watched a guy order a sandwich like this:
“Hi, can I get my sandwich without tomatoes, olives, onions, jalapeno peppers, bell peppers, cucumbers, salt, pepper and vineger?”
Huh.  I guess that’s one way of asking.

At Subway, the goodies that can be had on a sandwich include:

• Lettuce
• Tomatoes
• Olives
• Onions
• Yellow Peppers
• Jalapeno Peppers
• Bell Peppers
• Cucumbers
• Mayo
• Mustard
• Salt
• Pepper
• Oil
• Vinegar

Today, I watched a guy order a sandwich like this:

“Hi, can I get my sandwich without tomatoes, olives, onions, jalapeno peppers, bell peppers, cucumbers, salt, pepper and vineger?”

Huh.  I guess that’s one way of asking.

The iPhone 2 has been announced.  Apple fanbois have thier credit cards out and their iPhone 1s on Ebay.  I’m sure the iPhone 2s will fly off the AT&T shelves, so whatever I am going to write here will not matter — and Apple fanbois can refrain from posting their comments, thank you very much.

Plastic [...]

The iPhone 2 has been announced.  Apple fanbois have thier credit cards out and their iPhone 1s on Ebay.  I’m sure the iPhone 2s will fly off the AT&T shelves, so whatever I am going to write here will not matter — and Apple fanbois can refrain from posting their comments, thank you very much.

• Plastic backing:  Ugh.  It’s so iBook!
• Same crappy camera:  Still no video recording.
• 3G:  The original iPhone should have come with it to begin with.
• GPS:  Same as above.
• iPhone 2.0 software:  Thank you Apple for releasing it for free for current iPhone owners.  I’m sure the same sentiment is not shared by your iPod touch users, whom you continue to screw over.
• The pricing switcharoo:  $199 is $200 less than the original iPhone.  But, the data plan costs $10 more per month — whether you are in AT&T’s 3G coverage or not.  That means by the end of your contract, you’ll have paid $40 more than a person with the original iPhone.  Not to mention, there are no text messages included with the more expensive plan.  If you want to get the 200 text messages that are included with the original iPhone’s data plan, add $5 a month.

Overall, I was not particularly excited by the new iPhone.  Sure, it’s nice to have the extra speed.  Sure, the real GPS is nice.  But, want to pay more just to get those two features?  No.  The biggest thing that turns me off about the iPhone 2 is the plastic back — it really cheapens the look of the phone.  Basically, the iPhone went from sleek MacBook Pro aluminum backing to cheap entry-level MacBook plastic backing — complete with your choice of black or white plastic.  I wonder if Apple will charge more for the black plastic iPhone — like how they charge more for the black MacBook.

Shouldn’t a tool that is advertised to help people open those f*cking blister packs (whoever invented them should be shot), NOT BE PACKED IN A BLISTER PACK?  The packaging even reads, “No more hard to open packaging…”  It should come with an asterisk — might I suggest:  “* after this one.”

Shouldn’t a tool that is advertised to help people open those f*cking blister packs (whoever invented them should be shot), NOT BE PACKED IN A BLISTER PACK?  The packaging even reads, “No more hard to open packaging…”  It should come with an asterisk — might I suggest:  “* after this one.”