Can you speak Ebonics?

If your answer to this question is yes, then the DEA wants you as an employee. It appears that DEA agents are having trouble understanding street lingo – thereby putting a crimp in their law enforcement efforts. Normally, I would find this to be laughable but I’m in the same boat as the DEA. When it comes to Ebonics, Hip Hop or whatever street lingo is being spoken these days, I’m an epic fail.

Take for instance these two statements and how I would understand them:

1. “Dat drink is d bomb!” This is supposed to mean “that drink tastes great!” For me it would mean “that drink is actually a bomb!”
2. “Yo slick!” This is supposed to mean “hello there!” For me it means “lookout – the floor is slippery!”

Again, when it comes to street lingo, I’m a kindergarten dropout. To put things in another way “Hip Hop for Dummies” wouldn’t even help me.

I can speak geek, however…

More Pestering

A while back, I blogged about the needless pestering in my life and how much it bugs me. Aside from it getting on my nerves, I often find the nature of the pestering to be quite bizarre. For instance, why would someone who has called the wrong number leave a message on a voice mail system which clearly identifies who its owner is?

Typical day again – I come home and find a few messages on my voice mail system.

First message. “Hi, this message is from Mrs. Scott, I’m calling to let Tony know that his prescription has been called in.” Well Mrs. Scott, since Tony doesn’t live here, I don’t know anything about his prescription – delete.

Second message. “Hello, this is Miss. Crown with Blue Cross/Blue Shield. I’m calling in reference to an enrollment application for last name Griffin who works for Acme Ford. The member’s first name is not listed and we need that information to process this application. If you could give us a call back with that information, we’d really appreciate it.” Miss Crown, appreciate this, whoever this person is, Griffin does not live here so you won’t be getting that first name info – delete.

Third message. “William is this your voice mail? I think I got your voice mail William, but it sure sounds different. Different voice on it and everything. Anyway, hey, this is Brian calling from the golf course. Just wanted to let you know that I closed the deal with the contractor. Everything’s on your desk just waiting for your John Hancock! Have a good one – bye!” Brian, anyone that leaves a message like yours on a stranger’s voice mail system has some issues. Furthermore, William does not live here and I don’t know anything about that contract – delete.

Fourth message. “Hi, this is Brenda, I’m just calling to let you know that I have the car now. It seems to be working OK, so don’t worry about taking it to the mechanic. Bye.” Well Brenda, I don’t know who you are and I really want to know why you’re driving my car – delete.

It’s stuff like this that makes me wonder about what people are thinking when they inadvertently call a wrong number and still leave a voice mail anyway. It’s also something that I will probably never understand.

What Were They Thinking?

Northwest flight 188 will probably be best remembered as one of the more bizarre incidents in aviation history. The pilots of this flight managed to overshoot their destination by 150 miles because of their use of laptops on the flight deck. Even more chilling is the fact both pilots admitted to being so engrossed with a new scheduling program on their computers that they completely lost track of what the aircraft was doing. For more than an hour, both pilots ignored cockpit warnings, calls from air traffic controllers and text messages from Northwest Airlines. Reportedly, it was only until a stewardess made an inquiry as to when they were going to land did the pilots realize what had happened.

Personally, I’m highly suspicious of the pilot’s explanation of what was so engaging on their laptops. Personal feelings aside, no matter what it was – the pilots of flight 188 were irresponsible for what they allowed to happen. Even though most modern aircraft can practically fly themselves, it is ultimately the pilot’s responsibility to maintain control of their aircraft.

Although flight 188 only resulted in both pilots having their certificates to fly revoked – it could have been more deadly. Any number of tragic scenarios, from a crash to the plane being shot down, could have occurred. If one of the aforementioned scenarios had happened, people would have been senselessly injured or killed.

When you purchase a airline ticket, or fare for any type of public transportation, you have the right to expect safe operation of that vehicle by the operator. Safe operation means staying in control of the vehicle, no matter how automated it is, and not being distracted by texting, tweeting or what ever else.

For now, the pilots of flight 188 have been grounded – and in my opinion, they deserve it.

Battery Tech, Why So 90’s?

I was reading articles on some technology Web sites which stated that researchers were making battery technology safer. Specifically, this research was aimed at keeping lithium ion batteries from overheating and exploding. This all sounds good to me as I have had some near misses in terms of Li-Ion batteries overheating. Although, things never went as far as a full out explosion, thank goodness. Which, if you’ve never seen a Li-Ion battery explosion – think of it this way – mini Hiroshima…

While it’s great knowing that advanced research is going into preventing my Motorola Q9C from turning into a bomb in my pocket, where are the same advances that will make batteries last longer? Everything from cell phones to computers have gotten smaller, faster and more capable than what they were in the 90’s. Moreover, we now have devices such as mp3 players and GPSes that were unthinkable in the 90’s. But the battery technology that powers these devices is still so 90’s.

Laptops in the 90’s could only make it about an hour or two on battery power. Today, laptops are only capable of making it maybe four hours. Yes, I know some netbooks can last up to twelve hours on batteries – but again, I’m talking about a full blown laptop, under use.

Cellphones in the 90’s made it about two to four hours, talk time and a few hundred hours, standby. Today, even with all the advances that took us from analogue to digital, cellphone battery life is about the same. So again, my Motorola Q9C will last me a few days on standby, but if I get to yapping, emailing, texting or browsing the Web, I only get maybe a day or so.

Even when it’s tech where I have no 90’s reference point, the results are still the same. My iPod Touch can stay on standby for a full week or so. If I start playing music, WiFi off, I get maybe two days. Turn on WiFi, and try to stream a movie, dead within a hour and a half.

Portable technology is made to be used, not to stay in standby mode, sleep mode or hibernation. As well, portable technology should be an enhancement to our lives – not an inconvenience. I shouldn’t have to worry about my laptop battery running out of juice at an important meeting. Nor should I have to worry about my cell phone’s battery folding while I’m in the middle of a business call. Also, what is the point of having a feature such as WiFi, if you have to turn it off to conserve battery energy?

Just as there is intensive research being put into making batteries safer, manufacturers need to put just as much research into bringing battery tech out of the 90’s. Instead of two or three hours on battery, a laptop should be able to last two to three hundred hours. Instead of maybe a week or so, a cell phone battery should last for a month, with use. Instead of disabling features such as WiFi and Bluetooth, devices should be able run without no additional battery strain with these features enabled. Standards like these would make portable technology truly portable and truly limitless.

It’s high time that battery technology be brought up to today’s standards and needs. As more and more of our technologies become portable or drivable (as in the case of vehicles), the battery technology that powers them should no longer be thing that limits them.

Tidbits and Interjections

So I was running around town today, doing some errands and along the way, I decided to see if I could get real world look at the HTC Touch Pro 2 smart phone. I tried the Verizon kiosk at the local BJ’s, nope, no HTC there. I tried the local Verizon store, again, no HTC there. Finally ended up in Best Buy and nope, no HTC.

Not able to see the HTC, I did what any other geeky type would do in Best Buy, I looked around. But let me interject here, some forethought before I continue. I always wondered why, when I was in a Office Max, Office Depot, Lowes, Home Depot, Best Buy or whatever store, people would ask me for help with their purchases or problems. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in Lowes and had people run up to me asking me about a lawn mower or something. Or like on a prior visit to Best Buy where a another customer asked me if I knew anything about computers – a bizarre question to me at the time, because the salespeople should know something about the computers they are selling. Or when I’ve gone to Office Max and had people asking me if I was the store manager. In fact, I actually had a man get mad at me because I informed him repeatedly that I was not the Office Max store manager. Every time I told him I was not the manager, he would tell me “that can’t be true, you look like the manager!” He finally gave up on me and exclaimed “well, who’s going to help me with my printer,” while stomping off.

Needless to say, I try to do everything that I can to avoid this kind of interaction when out shopping. Quite frankly, I just don’t like being peppered with questions about things, particularly if I’m trying to decide on a purchase myself. Consequently, I am not type of person that interjects himself into other people’s purchasing decisions – until today.

Back to the Best Buy and my looking around. After looking at a Nikon D5000 DSLR (very cool camera I might add,) I wound up over by the laptop computers. Which is where I overheard a conversation between a BB sales person and a customer. Which is also where I heard a “takes the cake” statement from the BB sales person. The customer had asked what did the 64 bit sticker represent on the laptop she was considering. The BB sales person replied “oh, that refers to the virus protection that the computer has – 64 bit makes it harder for hackers to get into your computer.” “Say whaaaaaat,” I thought to myself, as I continued to listen.

The BB sales person continued on with his confusing mumble jumble sales pitch – and – naturally, the customer became more and more confused as he went along. After the salesperson went away to check on something, I did interject myself into the customer’s purchasing decision. This is because the 64 bit statement was so egregious (and flat out wrong) that I was compelled not to let that go uncorrected. I informed the customer that 64 bit referred to the processing capabilities of the computer and had nothing to do with viruses or hackers. This did alleviate some of the customer’s confusion – and she was thankful that I did interject myself into things.

The whole experience gave me a bit better understanding as to why the likelihood was high that I would get asked for help in a store (even though I did not work there.) There’s a high probability that a customer will have some confusion about whatever they are attempting to purchase. If the sales people add to the confusion, the customer will likely end up asking someone else (other than the salespeople) for help. This does not make it any easy for a person like me – and – it only partially answers my question as to why this stuff happens to me. I guess it’s just something I’ll have to live with.

Dkoolgeek Manor Gets Virtualized But Needs A Bailout

On one of my servers, which is running Fedora 10 64 bit, I decided to finally get into virtualization. After looking at different types of virtual server software — I decided to go with Sun’s Virtual Box software. This was primarily due to my wanting to get something up and running fast with out a lot of pain. Sun’s software afforded me that in the sense that I was able to get it installed and running in about 15 minutes. After another twenty minutes or so I had two virtual PCs created — one for Win 7 and the other for SUSE 11.1. In prior attempts to install Win 7 and SUSE 11.1 on real PCs, I had encountered various issues which consequently resulted in failed installs. The Win 7 install on a real PC turned into a total nightmare and a system rebuild to boot. I was finally able to get SUSE 11.1 to install on a real PC but it was the third PC that I tried it on. On the virtual PCs, both OS’es installed with no problem. I thought that things would go haywire because of the virtual environment — but they didn’t — go figure! I am generally encouraged by the whole thing because I had wanted to get into virtualization but avoided it because I thought it was too difficult to do in Linux. But man, it’s sweet stuff — and I really like the Virtual Box software — it’s got a good feature set.

I found that I really like Win 7 and I’m looking forward to it being released later on this year. I’m hoping too that Microsoft will offer some type of upgrade discount for late adopters of Win Vista — like me!

SUSE 11.1 is nice as well — but it does not have the polish of a Fedora or a Ubuntu.

Anyway, Dkoolgeek broke down and bought another netbook — this time a HP Mini 1030nr that was on sale at Best Buy. My first netbook was a ASUS EEE PC 700 — which I generally like — but has it’s issues. The HP is a sweet machine — and is what I am posting this blog from…

Dkoolgeek Manor needs a bailout, however! I’m so ticked that these thieving bankers, wall street creeps and who ever else got trillions of dollars! Which, one question I have (that I’ll probably never get a answer to) is what did they do with all those trillions of dollars? I wish someone would give me a bailout — I would just need about one billion or so!