More of the Same

"World's thinnest smartphone!" Because the Droid RAZR doesn't exist.

"4 inch screen!" Because it's 2010 and that's groundbreaking.

"5th row of icons!" Because we can't think of anything better to do with that extra space.

"New connector cable!" Because Micro USB just isn't good enough.

"Turn-by-turn navigation!" Because we're going to patent that and then sue you for that too.

"LTE!" Because now it just became 2011 and that's groundbreaking.

"An amazing new feature called panorama!" Because we slipped back to 2010 again, apparently.

"EarPods!" Okay seriously, come on.

Samsung said litigation would hinder innovation. In a sense they were right, because Apple clearly has been too busy filing lawsuits to be innovating. I was hoping for something revolutionary to keep Google on its toes.  As it stands, even Windows Phone 8 is more threatening to Google, if only Microsoft can play its cards properly.

Liars

Every now and then, I accidentally visit Yahoo.com and find stuff like this.

I wish I got paid to waste bandwidth and other people's time.

Wedding

Shot a wedding a few days ago. The couple seemed very happy.

I realized two things:
1. I really don't like shooting weddings.
2. I don't think I want to get married.

Secret

Ooh, that's my favorite airline.

Problems With The Columbia MBA Application

• User ID and password e-mailed together in plain text upon creating an account.
• "Save and Continue" button only at the top of each page, requiring user to scroll up many times.
• This: "Important Note: To upload your photograph, you must insert the picture into a Word document before uploading. You cannot directly upload a jpg or gif photo image file."
• Drop-down list of many undergrad majors to choose from, but said list is not alphabetized.
• Box for "post-college activities" which was a required field.

As a coveted Ivy League school, I expect much better than this.

The Future: Compromised Browsing

In Adobe's words, per the product description in the Android Market:

Bring the FULL web to your device with Flash Player- videos, games, apps & more

Flash Player enables a complete web browsing experience by enabling access to your favorite interactive content. Flash Player on your device gives you:
• The freedom to access the same rich web content you experience on a desktop PC from your mobile device - anywhere, anytime;
• Uncompromised browsing without ‘empty boxes’ on web pages.

To view some examples of how Flash Player enables you to see your favorite interactive content on your device, please visit m.flash.com on your device browser.

So much for that.

On Public Transport

9th on the list of "best cities to live car free" is beautiful Los Angeles. I quote: "Due to its extensive public transit system the area has avoided a complete automobile-based culture."

Suppose, for a moment, that you want to take a MetroLink train from Los Angeles to Irvine. Essentially, there is one train an hour. This is important, because trains are routinely 30+ minutes late. If you're departing in the morning, you better not miss the 8:00am train because the next one isn't until 12:45pm. If you're departing in the evening, you better not miss the 6:30pm train because the next one isn't until... The following morning. And once you get off the train, good luck getting to wherever it is that you actually need to go, because everything is miles apart.

As an example, let's say you lived in Fountain Valley, and were in downtown Los Angeles for the day. Things didn't go as scheduled, and it's 9:15pm. You search on Google Maps to see what you can take to get home. If you drove in your own car, it would take 45 minutes. Instead, this is what Google tells you: 6 hours, 32 minutes. You can't take a taxi, because that comes out to $130.

Your options at this point are as follows:
A. Go for the trek. You'd have to be very brave to wander around public transit for 7 hours at night in Los Angeles.
B. Stay at a hotel for the night, and go home in the morning.
C. Take public transport to LAX, and then hop on an airport shuttle. This isn't cheap either, and it takes close to 2 hours to get from downtown Los Angeles to the airport on public transport. Google Maps suggests that if you drive, it will only take 23 minutes. You can't take a taxi because that's $67 and if you combine that with the airport shuttle fare, you might as well take the taxi all the way home.
D. Hitchhike.

Orange County has many people living in it, and Fountain Valley is not a small city. Neither is it far from a major interstate. The driving distance is about 38 miles, which is not unreasonable. It's about the same distance as Seattle to Tacoma or Dallas to Fort Worth. Public transport just isn't a realistically feasible option in Los Angeles.

Sounding Off

Stuff like this is why I dislike Apple. As if their litigious spree on Android handset manufacturers wasn't enough ("Your device is rectangular? We invented the rectangle so you'll have to pay up."), now they're going after a family-run café.

I'm surprised I haven't been served a court injunction for looking like a human, a design Apple trademarked with their "Steve Jobs" product line.

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Okay, next up is this idiocy about supposedly "racist" Halloween costumes. The idea is, if you're a white person, you're not allowed to dress up as a black basketball player. Better not dress up as a mummy either, because that's probably going to be considered insensitive to the Egyptians. 

The very notion that these people are implying that dressing up as someone or something from outside one's own ethnicity is insulting in itself. It suggests that dressing up as a ninja is somehow different from dressing up as a cowboy. Ever hear of anyone putting up a fuss because an Asian person dressing up as a cowboy is promoting a culturally insensitive stereotype?

As a Japanese person, I don't care if some non-Japanese person decides to dress up as a geisha, ninja, sumo wrestler, or anime character. 

Think about it. If you say, "I bet Italians would find your Super Mario costume offensive" when in fact Italians don't feel that way at all, doesn't that imply that you're the one that is holding some sort of prejudiced view?

Well, at least we got a new meme out of this mess.

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Next: PETA filing a frivolous lawsuit against Sea World as a publicity stunt. This is time, energy, and money that could be doing something productive, but instead we have to deal with this inane nonsense. They could spend their money feeding the hungry in Africa, but instead they have chosen to do this. Members of the judicial system will spend many hours of their time on the case when surely they have better things to do.

Imagine if PETA got its way here. You can say goodbye to your pet dog and cat, that's for sure. Everyone would have to let them free, and they'd all have nowhere to go and nothing to eat. How's that for ethical treatment of animals?

I love animals just as much as the next person, but the world would unquestionably be a better place without PETA.

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Occupy [place]. I don't even know where to start with this one, so I'm just going to post this.

Oh, and this too.

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In conclusion... I've had a rough couple of days. I can't say things are going terribly well at the moment.

On Cell Phone Service

The first result is from my home in southern Orange County, CA. Orange County has a population of just over 3 million.
The second result is from somewhere around here in Inyo County, CA. Inyo County has a population of 18,546. If Inyo County were a city in Orange County, it would be ranked fifth from the bottom in terms of population. Inyo County is pretty huge: it is the second largest county in California and the tenth largest in the US. This makes the population density especially low, at 1.8 people/square mile.

Now, I'm not saying it's a bad thing that I get good data reception even in the remotest of places. My issue is with the fact that I get almost no reception at home, in a fairly populated area. It's not just data, the problem is with voice as well. Get with it, Verizon.

Heap Of Rust

Redefining the phrase "rust bucket" is this 1967 Jaguar E-Type.

The whole car appears to be held together by some straps. It doesn't even have a floor, which means it's worse than a rust bucket. I mean, a bottomless bucket is pretty useless. 

And they want $18,950 for this? Run. Run like hell.