Author Archives: scottsoapbox

Presidential Stupidity

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I know that the ability to articulate is not a true indicator of intelligence but communication mastery -or lack there of- can certainly create an image of intelligence (or lack there of).  For instance, is this really the leader of the free world speaking?

What they’ll say is, “Well it costs too much money,” but you know what? It would cost, about… It — it — it would cost about the same as what we would spend… It… Over the course of 10 years it would cost what it would costs us… (nervous laugh) All right. Okay. We’re going to… It… It would cost us about the same as it would cost for about — hold on one second. I can’t hear myself. But I’m glad you’re fired up, though. I’m glad.

Yup, it is. Or will be. That was our savior of change, presumptive Presidential candidate, Obama – off teleprompter.  Which begs the question: Can we elect his speech writer instead?  He goes on in the same meeting to talk about breathalyzers & “InHALators” for asthma patients.

Here’s the YouTube link in case you doubt the transcript:

OggSync 4.0h Crap

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In my quest to slowly remove Billy from my life (as much as possible in this MS Windows dominated world), I have grown tired of moving my giant email archives every time I have to reinstall windows to make it happy again. I had moved over my main acct to Gmail last year but my Windows Mobile phone syncs up with Outlook (only).  So I set out to find a way to replace this function with google (the next world dominator).

There are serveral programs that will sync your WM calendar with your google one from your device (google has something that can connect from your computers outlook and sync), but only one that claims to sync your contacts as well. That is OggSync 4.07.  Here’s how it went….

The calendar syncs are a tad slow even on my EV connection and for some reason it had to put my mom’s birthday on a totally seperate google calendar (shrug).  Other than that oddity it seem fine.  However the contact syncing was much worse.  The fastest way to sum it up is from my emails to support [notes added]:

ME:

Syncing my contacts A) took way too long [MUCH longer than the calendar sync we’re talking over an hour] B) made duplicates of many of my contacts on my device… not cool. C) I had to go and resetup my speed dial list

It defeats the purpose of a direct sync from my device to gmail if I have to then use a sync to outlook to clean up the mess OggSync made.

SUPPORT:

Sorry you are unhappy.  You can undo the sync by unchecking the “enable sync” and syncing again.  It will put the device back into the state it was before you started.

It is best if you start with a clean device to begin with. [this was not mentioned anywhere on the site, in the setup process, etc]

ME:

Ok, since I could “undo” the changes I figured I would give it another try.  I deleted some of the duplicate contacts on the google side and then tried syncing again.

This attempt was worse than the first.  It still believed that every contact didn’t match and therefore “updated/changed” every single contact even though were only 2-3 new contacts. It created even more duplicates & removed all my speed dial associations from my Sprint Touch.

Thus over this useless software, I tried your “unchecking” method.  After FOUR HOURS of “deleting contact xxx” (which i assumed was removing all the duplicates) it finally finished.  So I went to my contacts to see how the process worked.  My contacts list was EMPTY!  Trying to remain calm, I rebooted my phone hoping that would help: it did. My contacts were mostly back but in an EVEN WORSE state than before.

“Undoing” the sync created even more duplicates — we’re up to 4 copies of many contacts now and for some reason 8 of others and while others only 1.  Not only that anything that had been on my speed dial list was completely deleted.  That’s right the people I call the most, now I can’t call at all.

And to go one step further the FONT on my phone screen changed with the “undo” process so it doesn’t all fit on the screen!  I am now going to have to hard reset and re-install everything on my phone just to get it working properly again.

A refund was given.

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Science Searches For Life In Martian Ice

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phoenix-lands-on-mars.jpgThe Phoenix successfully landed on Mars last night. Assuming there are no technical difficulties with the solar arrays, camera, and robotic arm – the search for ice can begin in earnest. Ice, or rather water, is important because it is necessary to sustain life. While scientists are “pretty confident” that water exists on mars… they haven’t actually found it yet. No, just evidence of water – ie markings in the surface that sure look like water made them.

There are also the ice caps on Mars – but we don’t know they’re made of ice. I know this is a tad confusing with way that many PhDs talk about space, but the truth is the most powerful telescope in the world can only give scant information about even our own planetary brothers and sisters. We can quickly learn so much more by actually being there – or at least getting a surrogate there for us. (The reasons many can speak with such with such certainty is that since no one else in the world has been there – who can tell them that they are wrong?)

Assuming that ice can be discovered in vast the 1/2 meter drilling reach of the robotic arm – 10 years of scientific conjecture will be vindicated. But that’s not the real mission of the Phoenix. The ice is also hoped to contain organic molecules (containing carbon, oxygen, hydrogen) as the cu de gra for proof of life on Mars.

Now I know I’ve lost a few people there: How does a trace bit of carbon in ice prove life roamed around on Mars? Because science holds that life was created out of a primordial soup (water, amino acids & such + energy) finding anything loosely resembling this soup elsewhere would

  1. prove life existed on Mars since evolution is inevitable given the right building blocks and enough time.
  2. prove life evolved on Earth since life existed on two planets in the same solar system which statistically means that life evolved on thousands (if not millions) of planets beyond Earth. Meaning life here is not special or unique as implied by the biblical account of creation.

Pretty important couple of molecules, eh?