With the purchase of my G1, and the cancellation of my Sidekick Data Plan, I can no longer be reached at ringthief@tmail.com (my old T-Mobile address)
If you swap the “tmail.com” for “gmail.com” however, that is my normal/main/active address.
Also the default and best working chat client on the G1 is Google Talk, so that just became the most reliable IM to get me on (used to be the default AIM client on Sidekick)
I got my Google G1 in the mail today. I love it.
The GPS and maps are a cinch to use, most everything else ties into my google account (which I like). Despite rumors I heard that accessing another gmail account required a hard reset (because the phone is ties strictly to one account) I had no problem setting up my other gmail addresses as pop/imap/smtp email.
It is extremely handy, and QUICK to use. By quick I mean, the info is there when you need it. I could get directions on my sidekick at mapquest.com for example, but it was a slow process, and if I needed them on the fly I might have to just pull over and wait for them to load so I don’t pass a crucial turn while page is loading.
The maps are one of my favorite features. They are just like the google maps you see on your PC, but you’re location is shown in real time on the map, and anytime you ask directions you can specify (quickly) that they are “from” your current location. No need to find a nearby address and use it as a “from”.
I’ve found a few apps for geocaching but haven’t go to test them yet. They seem to be designed strangely (radar gui instead of arrow) and I will probably write my own.
The barcode scanning app that links directly to price comparisons online is also nice.
The blood alchohol content calculator is quick and easy, also uses timestamps. There’s even a cab-calling app, lol.
The internet is real, and not mutilated to fit the screen like smaller phones.
Great as a mp3 player.
Can store files via USB.
Come to think of it, the phone just replaced my phone, mp3 player, thumb-drive and GPS unit, plus is easier and faster to use than any of those items.
My least favorite feature so far would have to be the camera. I was happy to be getting a phone that can take clearer pictures, but they are slow to take. There seems to be a delay after you hit the button, which makes it hard to capture spontaneous moments.
Everything else works better than I’d hoped, and I must stress the speed at which you can get what you need. I can’t count the times “Oh I can look that up easy!” on my Sidekick turned into a suspense filled waiting game where “easy” and “fast” are clearly not related.
I love the snow, it’s finally sticking for the first time this winter. Just got back from a long walk in it with Faye and our dogs.
I already voiced my opinion on unintelligent voters in a half-joking way. That opinion really hit home for me today as I stood in line behind a mentally challenged voter. At first I didn’t realize she had a condition. She looked about 18 or 20 and seemed to have bed-head, and was waddling around after someone I assume was her father or brother in an overly clingy way, but what do I know, maybe she’s not a morning person.
I overhear her ask the guy what Proposal 1 is. He says he doesn’t know, all he hears about is Proposal 2 (embryo research) but he hasn’t heard about Proposal 1. Being the good samaritan I am I chime in “Proposal 1 is for Medical Marijuana”. She glances back and forth from me to the guy she’s with and says “What’s medical mari-na-na?” at which point I notice she’s a little cross-eyed and vacant. Medical mari-na-na? That’s just cute any way you look at it and I can’t help smiling at her. She gushes to the guy “he smiled at me!”.
This is where it gets very ugly. Don’t get me wrong, this is a cute kid and it brightened my day to run into her, she even offered me a (very carefully explained) piece of candy later. I don’t just hate slow kids or anything, I would have loved to sit her down and carefully explain what medical marijuana is so she could make an informed vote. No the scary part was this guys answer to her question (”What’s medical mari-na-na?”). “No!” he barked. “Say no on both…” (Proposal 1 and Proposal 2).
That is unthinkable in my book. He’s just telling her how to vote, and she’s doing it, even though she has absolutely no idea what medical marijuana is. This totally reinforces my offhand remark about requiring an IQ test to vote. Even when someone is borderline and could make an informed decision if things were carefully explained to them, we can’t trust their caregivers to explain anything carefully to them. Instead he just drags her around so he gets to vote twice.
At first I was a little pissed that the girl ahead of me “cancelled out” my vote with hers on Proposal 1, when she didn’t even know what it was. I prefer to look on the bright side however, and realize I cancelled out HER vote on Proposal 1. Yay me!
Also newsworthy is the typical crazy-old-homeless-guy I saw on the way out squawking “I voted” maniacally, over-and-over, to everyone he saw while shaking and wobbling. Wtf man. Why even have a vote?
Now I’ve said my peice on “special” voters, but this also got me thinking about Proposal 1 and Proposal 2.
Proposal 1 is a no-brainer in my book, and I am greatly saddened to think that anyone is against it. The only ad I’ve seen running about it features a store-front with the logo “Canabis Company” and a ton of smoke literally rolling out of the door. A voice over tells you that after California adopted the use of medical marijuana “clubs” like this started popping up in strip-malls, where “they” grow it, sell it, and smoke it, just blocks away from schools. The obvious implication is that it’s just an “excuse” to get high, and that kids could breeze through and pick up a bag of weed on the way to school. The bias knee-jerking and conditioning here simply astounds me.
First off, you need a prescription to get medical marijuana. Not just an easily forged doctors note, but a document issued by the state (like a drivers license) that shows you have the right to buy and use it. It is policed far more than alchohol, and there is absolutely no way a kid is going to walk into one of these “clubs” on the way to school and walk out with weed…
Besides how strongly it is monitored and enforced, a perscription serves another purpose which I would think should be the bottom line. A DOCTOR thinks it is appropriate for that patient. A medical doctor, having taken a hypocratic oath, with his whole career on the line, perscribed it with a straight face. If you think there is some kind of conspiracy involving stoner-doctors, you are an idiot.
About the portrayal of these places as hives or nests for drug users. Think about it. If it’s available, surely there is a place to get it. They set up their own state regulated facilities so you don’t have to see it flying around your local pharmacy, and of course they provide you a place to smoke it which is just courteous if you think about it. What would the alternative be? You want people filling up their homes with the smoke? Smoking it around their kids, or in public? Maybe next to you on the bus?
The government has done such a fabulous job with their propaganda that most old and out-of-touch people simply think it’s “drugs” and “always bad”. People in extreme chronic pain are forced to simply live with it because there are people in the world dumb enough to think a doctor prescribing a drug to someone is just a facade, and all these scientists are part of a conspiracy to legalize “getting high”. People are so very stupid I should be allowed to shoot them…
Propsal 2 is a whole other can of worms. Frankly if you are for or against this it’s your call. Unlike Proposal 1, I think either way is valid and neither makes you automatically stupid. I do take particular issue with the way it’s being spun however. 90% of comercials I’ve seen say it will cost us in raised taxes. The same comercials usually reference right in the comercial that “they” say it won’t cost us, but “they” are lying…
Without doing any research on the subject at all, I know spin-doctoring when I see it.
You don’t point out in an ANTI Proposal 2 ad that as written it’s free, and then imply that “but maybe it’s not” unless it really doesn’t have a built in cost. That’s hurting your own point. No reason to say it unless it’s true and saying the opposite would be illegal. One ad even went so far as to take a quote where someone said it “should be publicly funded” and compare that to the statement that it’s no cost, as proof that it’s “bull”. Of course the words “should be” quickly disappeared so you were only looking at “publicly funded” and not the fact that it was an opinion.
I think at the end of the day, the only reason you would launch an entire anti-prop2 campaign based on a hypothetical (”maybe” there is a cost) is because it’s much less convincing to say “Vote no on proposal 2, because my priest says so”.
Vote however you want man, just don’t give me your shitty logic.
“Proposal 2 is free, but,, IS IT REALLY? *dramatic music*”
The answer is probably “yes” or they wouldn’t be telling us facts about it’s freeness, and opinions about it’s expense (in a ANTI-prop2 ad no less). I don’t evenhave to research this. The anti-prop2ads have for me if you posess critical thinking skills and can read between the lines.
MAJOR kudos to these guys! Oh my god!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMV0LKlVj8I
Happy Halloween!
…here’s the 5 minute version:
Find some way to express to me that you are the absolute boss of me, and things are going to be your way.
Been playing Urban Dead again recently, this time in a group with some people I actually know for a change.
You guys add each other to your contact lists, and meet up in Heytown at the Chaffey Alley Police Dept.
