Showing posts with label camera. Show all posts
Showing posts with label camera. Show all posts

Thursday, June 6, 2019

I Found Bladder Leak Underwear That's Actually Pretty

well, that's what the commercial says.
They're wrong.



  • For the first time in 40 years, Pizza Hut is changing its pan pizza recipe. Focus groups show the original one wasn't close enough in taste to its cardboard container. They fixed that.



We got some tornadoes recently, in AR, OK, OH, PA, NJ and NY.
The damage was horrendous.
But once again, knee-jerk humanity came out, pulled out its camera, and took video of the tornado. When did Take Video win the battle with Survival Instinct?

Bob Arkansaw knew the tornado was on its way and did the only thing he could: he whipped out his phone and took video of it.  Over there, on what remains of his house, is a small red stain that was once Bob.


Dear lefty:

  • Is there a colostomy bag that's actually pretty?
  • You're single, aren't you...


A Florida (you knew it was coming) man was arrested after assaulting his mother with a corn cob. Did they close all the schools in Florida? Are the clouds seeded with valium? Do they grow corn or was it imported? Imported corn causes the most damage - don't ask how I know....

A Florida woman didn't flush the toilet. When her roommate complained, a fight ensued, which involved yelling, spitting, and swinging a plunger. Plunger Control! Sensible people do not need to own plungers.


  • the Canadian Border Patrol seizes about two tons of amphetamine per year. They're frightfully quick, but have no teeth, eh?



A typical locomotive, with a 12 cylinder diesel engine, once powered 1,600 houses during a power outage. Each engine piston is larger than an entire car engine and the engine weighs over 30,000 tons. Trains are also an efficient means of suicide, if you ignore cleanup.



  • In case you woke up at 3am, wondering about Earl Grey tea, what makes it unique is oil of bergamot: this is what makes it taste like drinking soap.



A man who peed in a Memphis cereal factory has got 10 months in prison. When released, he will work for Shredded Wheat, helping to improve the taste.





Isn't Pervasive Surveillance Wonderful?
Someone kills a female, puts her body in a suitcase and throws it out. It is discovered at the trash dump. All haulers are interviewed: one remembers picking the case up at a dumpster. A neighbor's security camera fails to capture the killer depositing the case.

Detectives examine the suitcase, discover it's new, and pull the UPC code. The UPC shows it was only sold through Walmart, of which there are two locally. Walmart magically pulls the sales records and finds two people bought this suitcase. The first was at 9pm, so they pull up the security camera for the specific checkout lane. Records indicate the lady who purchased the case was a Walmart Rewards member, so they pull up everything she's done and check on her, to find she's got no criminal record.

Second person to purchase this suitcase (3am) was wearing a distinctive shirt, so it was easy to track him throughout the entire store.  A good look was provided by the cashier overhead camera; he also purchased disposable gloves, and calmly walked out. In fact there were several angles of him walking out. Then two parking lot cameras gave two views of him in the lot, plus what vehicle he got into and what direction it left in. The videos matched a verbal description of the man, plus the color and type of vehicle. He was arrested for murder.

That's how pervasive surveillance was used to track down a killer. Not mentioned was the rich amount of data available from his cell phone or electronic data going to the store.

None of us murder people (I hope), but are you comfortable with this level of surveillance? This is only physical... electronic surveillance is much worse. You may say to yourself that you're not guilty, so it's ok. It is not ok. We deserve freedom from this kind of monitoring, regardless. Just like certain agencies monitoring your email, phone calls, and browsing. We have Amendments prohibiting this sort of thing.

Please give this some consideration.






Party this weekend!!!

Friday, February 3, 2012

Samsung Galaxy 10 - Initial Impressions

I started my tablet life a while back, when my work carrier gave me a Xoom to evaluate.  It was large enough but heavy and not particularly ready for prime time, or at very least, not ready to be put into the hands of the public.

The next unit was a Samsung 7 tablet.  I have had the 7 for many months and it follows me everywhere.  It is supercharged with a 32g card, rooted, tweaked and forced to do my bidding [insert evil laughter].  I had a feeling what my main complaint was going to be right off the bat: it was too small.  Actually it was too small and just a little too old.

In spite of these shortcomings, the 7 served me well.  It started to accompany me to meetings, where the bottom fell out, kinda.  It was simply too small to be effective.  Taking notes was a PITA.  Aside from that, there's nothing really wrong with the unit.

So I decided it was time to check into ten inch tablets.  Much to my dismay, the field had not changed at all from before.  I told my friendly T-Mobile rep that, like all men, size was important, so I wanted to upgrade to a ten inch tablet.  She gave me the choice of the Samsung Galaxy 10 or nothing so I wisely chose the 10.

As any reader of the blog knows, I hate iDevices, so that was out even if it was a choice.  It astounds me that with the success of the iPad, there aren't tons of worthy competitors, even with T-Mobile.

T-Mobile got the 10 to me with blazing speed, as in the next day.

OPENER UP!


The Galaxy 10 is one sleek, slim device.  There were all sorts of OOHs and AAHs as I unboxed it and my coworkers checked it out.  The Galaxy 7 is a rather bulky affair.  The Galaxy 10 is just a shade heavier but the weight is better distributed.

First up is inserting the SIM card and charging the beast.  The included USB to Galaxy cable appears to be the same as the Galaxy 7 but colored differently.  There was a charger in the box also, plus a few small meaningless booklets.  It was a pretty short learning curve and the getting started booklet handled things well.

LAYOUT

When held in landscape mode, the speakers are on the sides.  The main connector is on the bottom. The power switch and volume rocker are on top, as is the SIM slot.  There is no place for an additional SD card, which is disappointing, but there is an adapter available that allows an SD card and USB access.  I don't believe we should have to pay an additional thirty dollars to use SD and USB but I'm funny that way.

Onscreen keyboards are an acquired taste.  They're fairly useless on a cell phone.  On a Galaxy 7 only the landscape keyboard is usable.  On the 10, both keyboards are good, as one would expect with more screen real estate.  And the screen real estate is nice.  The display is bright and sharp.  There is a ton of room to put shortcuts or widgets (or not).

ARE THERE CAMERAS?


You betcha there are cameras.  There are two: one facing you (lower resolution for video chatting) and one facing away (higher resolution for pictures and video).  I didn't bother checking the specs but they're not a secret.  I seem to remember 5 megapixels 720 video for the picture-taking side.

As things seem to go these days, there is no case.  In scouting the available cases I noticed some variety, including cases with built-in bluetooth keyboards.  The case is not optional: you need one to protect the device.  A side benefit to some is a stand that adjusts.  You don't want to type on a flat tablet, external keyboard or not.  Be aware that you will need a special case if you want to keep the device plugged in.  Look for an opening on the bottom, through which you will put the cord.

MORE FEATURES

A pleasant surprise was the available volume.  There was plenty of it, unlike my Sensation phone.

The onscreen layout is a little different from the 7.  There are no dedicated buttons on the bottom.  Instead the app button is up top (why?) and there are soft buttons at the bottom for the main functions.  There is even a screenshot button (complete with annoying shutter noise).  In fact, one of my first duties was to kill all the noises and blinkies.  I'm a big boy and don't need a noise every time I hit a button or a program comes up.  Nor do I need the haptic (vibrating) feedback with every key press.

There are five screens by default.  You should never run out of space or screens.   Like most android devices, you can populate the screen with shortcuts, widgets, wallpaper, live wallpaper, and presumably dead wallpaper.

There are the usual rotating effects but also a new tilt function, which can control screen size or brightness.  I haven't had a chance to mess with this yet; I have brightness on AUTO for now.  There is a button to allow apps designed for smaller screens to fill the available space or pan in.

APPS

The Galaxy 10 comes with Alarm, Asphalt 6, Blio, Books, browser, calculator, calendar, contacts, Dropbox, ebook, email, files, gallery, Gmail, Google Search, Latitude, maps, Market, media hub, memo, messaging, MobileLife, Google Music, music player, navigation, pen memo, photo editor, places, Pulse, Qello, Quickoffice, security, Slacker, social hub, talk, TegraZone, video chat, video player, voice search, world clock, YouTube, and Zinio.  Your mileage will vary by provider.

Quite frankly, I'd love to be able to remove most of the included apps but I can't.  I suspect this will require rooting, which I haven't considered or checked on yet.  You cannot remove Slacker, Zinio, or any of the social apps.  While I like Slacker, I stopped installing it because it seems to turn itself on all of the time, regardless of whether I'm listening to it or not.  And I have as much need for social apps as I do for female plumbing.

As android people know, installing your own favorites is a matter of going to the Market, finding the programs and pressing INSTALL.   Here are some of the apps that make my life easier:

  • gStrings - guitar tuner
  • Premier Guitar, TabApp Pro, Guitar Squid - guitar goodies
  • Drudgereport, World Newspapers, Sparse RSS - news
  • ES File Explorer
  • WiFi and Airplane Mode widgets
  • QuickPic - superior to included Gallery
  • Opera Mini - browser
  • ConnectBot, AndFTP, Remote VNC - remote access tools
  • Wolfgang's Vault, XiaaLive Lite - streaming radio
  • Scanner Radio - listen to police and fire scanners worldwide
  • and 3 versions of Angry Birds for my nephews

Your mileage will vary.


SECURITY

As with all phones and tablets, there is a plethora of features that might look nice but ultimately will suck the small amount of privacy you have left from your device faster than you can say Illegal Wiretapping.  Do yourself a favor and turn off the location tracking features.  There is no significant reason for anyone to know exactly where you are, either via satellite tracking or wifi/cellular tracking.  If you absolutely must let the entire universe know what you're doing and where, this is what Faceyspaces is for.  Or Twitter.  Log in and let everyone know that it's 5:15 and you've just had a terrific potty experience at Barnes&Noble.

Don't forget to go into the camera app and turn off geotagging.

OVERALL

I've only had the device for a few hours but I can tell I'm going to seriously enjoy it.  The larger screen will make all the difference for viewing anything and note-taking.   The nephews will love the look of Angry Birds and the wife will love some of the games I loaded for her.

More as it comes to me....