Yearly Archives: 2009

Why can’t I back up my wallet?

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I don’t carry a wallet. I keep some cash in my pocket and leave the wallet in the car. All it contains is a few credit cards, an insurance card and my drivers license. But when I couldn’t locate it for a day or so, I was facing the hassle of replacing those few items. No big deal.

Bigger deal? Updating dozens of online accounts that have my credit card info. Being without those services, even for a day, would be a major pain in the ass.

After looking in all the obvious places for my wallet, one of my first thoughts was why can’t I locate my wallet like I do my iPhone? Make it beep or show it on a map.

For that matter, why do we need to carry pieces of plastic at all. My phone is smart enough to contain all of the data and identity represented on the plastic.

I know that in some Asian countries, a growing number of services can be purchased with your mobile phone.

The only part of my life that isn’t backed up is on some pieces of plastic in a little leather envelope. Sad.

UPDATE: Looks like we might be closer than I thought. See link in comments and this story at Apple Insider.

Scott Adams: The building blocks of God

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“Humanity is developing a sort of global eyesight as millions of video cameras on satellites, desktops, and street corners are connected to the Internet. In your lifetime, it will be possible to see almost anything on the planet from any computer. And society’s intelligence is merging over the Internet, creating, in effect, a global mind that can do vastly more than any individual mind. Eventually everything that is known by one person will be available to all. A decision can be made by the collective mind of humanity and instantly communicated to the body of society.

A billion years from now, if a visitor from another dimension observed humanity, he might perceive it to be one large entity with a consciousness and purpose, and not a collection of relatively uninteresting individuals.”

“Are you saying we’re evolving into God?”

“I’m saying we’re the building blocks of  God, in the early stages of reassembling.”

— From God’s Debris: A Thought Experiment, by Scott Adams

DirecTV iPhone app

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directv-appI got out of the fitness center a little late tonight and realized I wouldn’t make it home in time to watch or record The Daily Show re-feed. Comedy Central used to re-run TDS and The Colbert Report one day later at 7:00 p.m. For some reason they moved the shows up an hour. I could watch the first run at 10 p.m. but I’m deep in REM sleep by then. And I think Barb Tivo’s the shows, so this was hardly an emergency.

But I remembered the DirecTV app on my iPhone. I got it mostly for the schedule but seemed to recall that I could set a show to record from the phone.

It was easier to make this happen on the iPhone app than it is with the remote from home. Seriously, the app UI is much easier than the on-board software that comes with the service.

Life should be as easy as a Mac

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I long ago lost track of how many computers I have owned. During the latter Windows days, I would by a new computer rather than go through the hell of trying to upgrade the operating system. It was just easier to buy a new box with the new OS already installed. But in every instance, it was necessary to re-install all of my applications and move my data over.

Our IT guys have assorted utilities for making “ghost images” and simplifying the process, but it has always been a pain ion the ass for me. Before I switched to Mac.

My new 13″ MacBook Pro arrived yesterday. I set it next to the 15″ MBP I’ve been using for the last year… connected them with a FireWire cable… and then just followed a few simple steps on the new laptop. And then I went to lunch.

When I returned, all of my apps, all of my data, and all of my settings had been copied over to the new computer. Done. I really can’t imagine how it could have been any easier.

The 13″ is about a pound lighter and you notice the difference immediately. (I keep the thing with me at all times) The smaller form factor forced Apple to move the little speakers and –although I don’t see them– the sound is as good as the larger laptop.

I doubt I’ll see the upper-end 7 hours of battery life but hope to get four, which would be a big improvement.

Last night Barb asked, “Tell me again why you got a new computer?”

“Because I’m a good boy,” I replied.

Scott Adams: Holy Land

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“Well, usually it’s because some important religious event took place there.”

“What does it mean to say that something took place in a particular location when we know that the earth is constantly in motion, rotating on its axis and orbiting the sun? And we’re in a moving galaxy that is part of an expanding universe. Even it you had a spaceship and could fly anywhere, you can never return to the location of a past event. There would be no equivalent of the past location because location depends on your distance from other objects, and all objects in the universe would have moved considerably by then.”

“I see your point, but on Earth the holy places keep their relationship to other things on Earth, and those things don’t move much,” I said.

“Let’s say you dug up all the dirt and rocks and vegetation of a holy place and moved it someplace else, leaving nothing but a hole that is one mile deep in the original location. Would the holy land now be the new location where you put the dirt and rocks and vegetation, or the old location with the hole?”

“I think both would be considered holy,” I said, hedging my bets.

“Suppose you took only the very top layer of soil and and vegetation from holy place, the newer stuff that blew in or grew after the religious event occurred thousands of years ago. Would the place you dumped the topsoil and vegetation be holy?”

“That’s a little trickier,” I said. “I’ll say the new location isn’t holy because the topsoil that you moved there isn’t itself holy, it was only in contact with holy land. If holy land could turn anything that touched it into more holy land, then the whole planet would be holy.”

The old man smiled. “The concept of location is a useful delusion when applied to real estate ownership, or when giving someone directions to the store. But when it is viewed through the eyes of an omnipotent God, the concept of location is absurd.

“While we speak, nations are arming themselves to fight for control of lands they consider holy. They are trapped in the delusion that locations are real things, not just fictions of the mind. Many will die.”

— From Scott Adams’ God’s Debris: A Thought Experiment

XM Radio burning up on re-entry

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This post from a year ago is still getting comments. The latest from “Will”:

“Just canceled. Used the corporate customer relations number. XM had my account all screwed up. They deactivated my account and would not waive the $14 reactivation fee. I asked if they could not or would not. They said they could do it, however, go %^&$ yourself. (not quite in those terms) I’ve been with them since inception and had up to 5 radios at one time. Kept canceling a radio every time they raised the family plan prices. Very short sited company. At least I saved a few hours on hold finding this number on this blog.”

My little post is 4th result of almost 98,000 search results. And all of the comments are in this vein. Doesn’t this scream that the company knows they won’t make it and have adopted a scorched earth strategy?

Scott Adams: Different Religions

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I just finished listening to the audio version of Scott Adams’ first non-Dilbert, non-humor book (2004): God’s Debris: A Thought Experiment. In the introduction, Mr. Adams identifies the target audience as “people who enjoy having their brains spun around inside their skulls.

I’ve read this small book (132 pages) twice before checking out the audio version. And I know I will read this book many more times, trying to wrap my mind around ideas the human brain probably will never grasp. Like religion.

“Imagine that a group of curious bees lands on the outside of a church window. Each bee gazes upon he interior through a different stained glass pane. To one bee, the church interior is all red. To one bee, it is all yellow, and so on. The bees cannot experience the inside of the church directly; they can only see it. They can never touch the interior or smell it or interact with it in any way. If bees could talk they might argue over the color of the interior. Each bee would stick to his version, not capable of understanding that the other bees were looking through different pieces of stained glass. Nor would they understand the purpose of the church or how it got there or anything about it. The brain of a bee is not capable of such things.

“But these are curious bees. When they don’t understand something, they become unsettled and unhappy. In the long run the bees would have to choose between permanent curiosity—an uncomfortable mental state—and delusion. The bees don’t like those choices. They would prefer to know the true color of the church’s interior and its purpose, but bee brains are not designed for that level of understanding. They must choose from what is possible, either discomfort or self-deception. The bees that choose discomfort will be unpleasant to be around and they will be ostracized. The bees that choose self-deception will band together to reinforce their vision of a red-based interior or yellow-based interior and so on.”

“So you’re saying we’re like dumb bees?” I asked, trying to lighten the mood.

“Worse. We are curious.”

Red Dawn trailer

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I never saw this movie but understand it’s something of a cult classic. Brought to mind by a clip from a recent news interview with the administration official who resigned over our presence in Afghanistan. He is of the opinion the insurgents are fighting because their country is being occupied. Made me wonder, would we ever stop fighting if a foreign army was on our soil, for whatever reason.

Black & white dreams

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My dreams always seem to happen at night. Rather the dream scenario unfolds after dark. Or so I’ve always thought. Could be all those episodes of I Love Lucy.

“A 2008 study at the University of Dundee in the U.K. found that people who grew up when television was invented sometimes have dreams in black and white, while those who have experienced only color television usually have colorful dreams.”

“…almost all of our dreams have a narrative quality. Most of the ones we remember also have some sort of troubling aspect to them, which is why they stick out in our minds.”

From article on what blind people see when they dream.