The new Facebook
Many, many people are against the new Facebook design. I've read about it in my local newspaper, the Pottstown Mercury. I decided to see for myself if I like the new design.
Honestly, I don't see anything wrong with it at all. It takes a little time (no more than 10 minutes) to get used to. Frankly, if you can't get used to it in 10 minutes or less, you might be Petarded. You should welcome change, not be averse to it. I never understood why many people my age are so critical of their parents for being totally against change but end up possessing the same trait.
Anyway, when I use the new Facebook, I feel like my focus is trained a bit more. There are separate tabs for Info, Wall, Pictures, etc. If you want to visit a different section of someones profile, you aren't distracted by the other sections.
Also, since I'm not a big fan of Facebook apps, this separation of Profile subsections is great. I can view a person's profile without being bombarded by all their pointless apps that they've added. Apps usually fall under the Boxes tab or a completely separate tab to themselves.
In conclusion, I don't see the need to create a group called '1,000,000 AGAINST THE NEW FACEBOOK LAYOUT!' It just shows that you're supporting the ideals of your parents (or preceding generations) blind conservatism and changeless outlook to the future. After all, we're the technology generation and I'd say that Facebook is heavily technology oriented. Did you think it'd stay the same for long?
Costco – Navigating the Free Samples
I really like Costco. From my personal experience, you can get a 3 month supply of the basics (toilet paper, soap, etc) for 3 people for about $90. They have a virtually unlimited return policy that really can't be beat anywhere else. They have a very helpful staff. Best of all the Costco perks, are the free samples that they distribute every day during lunch time.
When Sarah and I were on the way back from our vacation in Delaware yesterday, the traffic was so bad near Christiana mall that we decided to stop in to a few stores, one being Costco. It was so busy. The isles were packed, and Costco's isles are very, very wide. There were samples being given out at the end of nearly every other isle.
Pretty much the only thing I hate about Costco (and this has nothing really to do with Costco) is the huge amount of fat people swarming around the free samples. Free samples are no joke to them. The is a unspoken line very similar to like when you're at the deli at a regular food store. However, these fat people do not have any regard for this unspoken queue. They will jump in front of you, take multiple of the same sample, and look at you as if you're wrong for waiting in line like everyone else. Perhaps this is just how people are in Delaware? I don't think so. This is how the people that flock to Costco for the sole reason of exploiting the free samples. This is madness! No, This is Costco!!
Be Humble
When you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it--this is knowledge. ~Confucius
I read this quote and thought about my outlook on life. Basically, people should be more humble than they are on a daily basis. Everyone should take some time to sit back and consider that they're wrong. When you can finally realize that you're wrong, that's real power. At that point, you can make strides in a positive direction to learn a thing or two which will inevitably make you a better person. Moral of this blog: don't act like you know it all, something will always teach you that you're wrong in one way or another.
New Nokia n810
I'm sitting here typing this blog from my new Nokia n810 internet tablet device. It's a really cool little gadget. In my opinion, I think it could rival the Iphone (that is, if the Iphone didn't have a cell phone built into it). The n810 does web navigation, IM, VOIP, Bluetooth, and GPS very well out of the box. It runs on a customized version of Debian (a Linux distribution). Everything 'just works'. It isn't very often that you can say that about a device but the hardware and software combination is just great. Search youtube for n810 to see some cool videos of this device. I picked it up for $299 but the retail price is normally $399.
/End of sales pitch/
Piracy laws and US prison population
American prisons house ¼ of the worlds incarcerated population but our country has 5% of the worlds population. This seems a bit skewed. About 1 in 100 of American's citizens are behind bars. These facts tell me that our laws need to be revamped. Or, since that would impact existing functionality, our lawmakers should be increasingly careful about what new laws are introduced. This added care would likely lead to a lowered amount of incarcerations. American taxpayers foot the bill for the $60 billion annual incarceration cost. That's about $88/day per prisoner. Instead of paying to put and keep people in jail, we should pay to put everything through college or some other secondary education. With the greater amount of educated citizens, we'd likely see a significant decrease in crimes committed by our citizens. Perhaps if we put $32,120 pear year ($88 x 365) towards the college education of each of the 2.2 million American citizens in jail, we'd have a significantly greater chance to have a stronger, less criminal-centric society. To clarify who I mean by the 2.2 million people, I'm not talking about those individuals that are already in jail, but those that are upcoming youths who are at risk for future incarceration before the crimes have the chance to occur.
Instead of creating laws like FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) or ACTA (Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement), to name a selective few, we should be worrying about our growing prison populations while analyzing our laws and the need for new laws that are equally or more harsh than the ones already in place.
ACTA will essentially encourage ISPs to monitor the online activities of their customers, and report any and all activity that may infringe copyright law. Basically, the act will criminalize the downloading of unauthorized content (pirate material). Someone simply downloading videos or music should not be qualified to go to jail. After all, those downloads do little to impact the box office and DVD sales. A teenager is not a criminal for downloading movies he wouldn't otherwise buy because it's from an unfamiliar genre, for example. As a matter of fact, piracy exposes pirates to more movies than those that don't pirate material. It actually leads to more sales, in the long run, for movies and music that are pirated, especially if the content entertains the masses. Movie piracy causes a loss of $20.3 billion/year. It causes the loss of 140k jobs and will cause a loss of tax revenue of about $800 million. On the other hand: "... let's say people are forgoing paying for $6 billion in movies by downloading or consuming illegal goods but end up spending that $6 billion on iPods, computers and HDTV sets on which to watch the movies, which leads to $25 billion in job creation in the computer/software/consumer electronics field," Jason Shultz, staff lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, wrote in an e-mail. Essentially, piracy of intellectual property actually fuels our American economy just like the illegal drug trade does (which is, not to mention, supplemented by the government). I think it's safe to say without crime, the American economy would essentially collapse or somehow be crippled. I'm definitely not advocating any violent crimes. However, if there's a movie you want to sample before you go buy it on Blu-ray, you shouldn't have to worry about ending up in jail. Downloading intellectual property doesn't physically hurt anyone and we shouldn't try to enact laws that criminalize our citizens for yet another small government misunderstanding the needs of the marketplace.
Citations:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisons_in_the_United_States
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092801640.html
Assateague Island Vacation 2008
The (mostly) annual Assateague camping trip of 2008 is officially over. I've just settled in after unpacking my luggage. This year Sarah joined Kyle, Kyle's cousin Jesse, and I on the trip. In addition, we usually go in August, but this year we went from June 9-13. The main difference to going earlier in the year is that there were less mosquitoes which made the trip much more enjoyable. Instead of running to and from the car, we were able to sit outside of the tent/screen room most of the time.
This year we had many plans, like riding bikes on the trail on Chincoteague Island, attending the free Air Show in Ocean City, MD, renting jet skis, swimming everyday in the ocean just over the sand dune from our campsite, and lighting fires on the beach each night. However, on the second day there, my nose sprung a leak and started bleeding uncontrollably. I've had nosebleeds all my life but I've never had one last 40 minutes like this one. This caused us to make a trip to the Atlantic General Hospital's ER Room. The nurse packed my left nostril and we were sent along. The rest of the day, we sat at the camp and I relaxed.
Since we didn't make the trip to the OCMD Air Show on Tuesday, we went on Wednesday. It was awesome, minus the bandaging on my face for my nosebleed.
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Despite this, we had a great time at the beach. Thursday, we were going to rent some jetskis but since I needed to rest, Sarah and I basically sat on the beach relaxing and reading all day (11am to about 6pm). When Kyle came out to get us, it was dinnertime and I hadn't realized where the time went. I really love the beach. For dinner, we went out to eat at an all you can eat crab restaurant near the entrance to the park. We spent about 3 hours eating dinner as Kyle and I got all you can eat crab dinners. Jesse passed the time by looking at some of his 11.2 gb of pictures that he took with his Canon XSI on his laptop.
Overall, this trip was great. It was so nice to relax after not really taking a vacation of substance in the past two years or so since I started my job in 4/07. I didn't get sunburn as bad as in the past either, so that was also a good thing. It was definitely great to have Sarah along this time.
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