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Jimmy posted the details of how the other RB team members initiate new members into the team - somewhat of a hazing. Here is a video of the latest initiation. But make sure to read the full story at the RB Blog named Coder Hazing: Anthony Gets Punk'd...
JETS were so close to beating the Colts, so close. I shouldn't be upset, but I was/am. To come that close to the playoffs when no one even expected them to make the playoffs - I should be happy.
Oh well - it was a great end to a season. Thanks for it!
Well over three years ago, I bought a no-brand LCD TV from Niko. The company is now out of business, but the TV is actually still very good quality. However, the Niko rebate was a scam, the TV is solid. The TV I purchased back then was the Niko OTP-3211W 32" and it was pretty expensive looking at the prices you get today, but back then, it was the best deal I could find.
In any event, for over three years, I have been trying to find a remote control that would work with it. Non of the remotes I have tried had the proper codes to work with this TV. That includes CableVision and Verizon remote controls. I tried universal remotes but failed.
That is until last night. The Philips Prestigo 12 Device Universal Remote control came via a Woot deal the other day and I set it up. Although Niko is a brand listed in the set up configuration, that part didn't work. When I went through the rolling code set up, at about 250 codes in, the TV turned off. I was shocked. I cannot tell you how many remote controls I tried to get to work and this one did it.
So there you have it, the Philips Prestigo 12 Device Universal Remote worked with the Niko OTP-3211W 32".
My Dad sent me an article from JPost named Tefillin causes bomb scare on US flight (FYI, my dad uses the email this to a friend feature). The story is interesting.
A 17 year old boy took out his Tefillin on a flight, in order to pray the morning Jewish services. The thing was, he wasn't flying to a destination that has many Jews. Typically, when you fly at certain times (Jewish holidays) and to certain places (places with lots of Jews) you are bound to see a Jewish person putting on Tefillin in the morning to pray.
You would see this all the time if you flew to Israel or into New York or Los Angeles. In this case, he was flying out from New York but to Louisville, Kentucky. I don't think there is that big of a Jewish population in Louisville. Wikipedia says:
There is a Jewish population of around 8,500 in the city served by five synagogues. Most Jewish families emigrated from Eastern Europe at the turn of the 20th century; around 800 Soviet Jews have moved to Louisville since 1991.[56] Jewish immigrants founded Jewish Hospital, which was once the center of the city's Jewish district. Jewish Hospital recently merged with the Catholic healthcare system CARITAS. On one corner near Bowman field are located the one orthodox temple, Shalom Towers, the Jewish Community Center and Jewish Family and Vocational Service.
So not huge, at all.
I am honestly surprised this doesn't come up more often. Whenever I go through security with my Tefillin, I wonder if someone will question me. They are strange black boxes with paper in them. Just seems weird, I would think.
This boy took a 7:30am flight and the flight duration was 90 minutes. I am not sure why he could not have prayed before or after the flight. I guess the 90 minute flight is a good time to do that, but still.
Read more at JPost.com.
rushIMPRINT, a promotional product company, sent me a handful of RustyBrick branded Kippahs (also known as yarmulke or כִּפָּה). They came out pretty well and in fact, I honestly might wear them every day.
Here is a picture of the Kippah:
Here is Joe and myself wearing them:
How cool!
This goes well with my Matzah Kippah and McCippah - I just wish I received the LED Kippah, oh well.
You got to follow this company on Twitter @rushimprint and on Facebook at facebook.com/rushIMPRINT.
Thanks guys!
The other day, we got a shipment of RustyBrick Decals, which can be affixed to computers, laptops, phones, cars and so on.
Here is a picture of some of them:
I put two on my iPhone (one on case, one on device):
Want them? I wrote about how you can get these at the RustyBrick blog.
This time for a New York JETS fan is a bit unreal. Who would have thought they would be playing the Colts in the AFC Championship?
Who would have thought they would have won the final two games in the regular season to squeeze into the wild card slot? They had to beat the Bengels and the Colts to make that happen. Then they played the Bengels again in the wild card round and won. They beat the Bengels back to back. Then they go to San Diego and stun the west coast by beating the Chargers with two huge TDs in the 4th quarter. Just amazing. I was honestly in shock and amazement all night, including this morning.
JETS are one game away from the playoffs. Of course, they are playing the best team in the NFL next week. But hey - it is one game. The JETS are incredibly hot right now. Anything is possible. They can beat the Colts, it is possible.
Would I bet on it? No.
All those years of being a JETS fan and witnessing disappointment after disappointment... I just can't imagine them winning. But to see what they have done in the past 4 games - they are looking really good. Am I confident? No way. Do I hope? Yes, I do.
In my opinion, there should be exams given to people before they can buy an iPhone or smart phone.
I am sure this happens with all software developers and computer manufacturers, but errr!
The iPhone might be the easiest smart phone in the world to use. But people have no clue how to use it. They buy it because it is cool and they are training on how to make phone calls from it.
In fact, many of our "customers" have had their children install our apps on their devices for them. They have no clue how to update the apps, even thought a little red badge appears on the App Store icon, explaining they have updates. They have no clue how to use the features in the app, even though there is documentation on how to use it.
I cannot tell you how many emails, phone calls and so on - I get from people who are clueless about the features of either the iPhone or the Apps they purchase and download.
I know, I should not be surprised by this but today has been a frustrating day of support calls and emails.
I am a bit embarrassed to say I know someone who knows this person.
Check out the video:
Yesterday, we decided to purchase an unlocked Nexus One from Google to begin development testing of apps for that mobile OS. Here are some pictures of the Nexus One next to my Apple iPhone 3GS.
Update: Danny Sullivan has an excellent review of the Nexus One vs iPhone - he writes way better than I. Plus he is not an Apple Fan boy like me.
It all started with Mel Carson tweeting an excellent question:
Are 7 pillows really necessary when in a hotel room. I only have 1 at home!
Some people like, Lisa Barone, prefer to have many pillows. I personally like to have a flat pillow.
In fact, I take one flat pillow, fold it in half and sleep more comfortably that way.
The other night, I ended up with my wife's fluffy pillow and it didn't work out too well. I had a stiff neck the next day. The next night, I made sure to give her back her pillow and retrieve mine.
I suspect I am out of the norm when it comes to pillow preference. I would assume most people prefer a fluffy pillow over a flat one? I would also assume people would prefer more than one pillow. I for one, prefer flat, dull, single pillows.
Which moves me to the next topic... Tuck or no tuck? Me, no tuck - 100%. I hate the tuck.
As many of you know, we have the most popular Jewish prayer book on the iPhone platform, the iPhone Siddur. Every day, I get emails from happy users, thrilled with all the neat and useful features.
But I often get complaints from people on other mobile platforms. Why can't you make the iPhone Siddur for a Blackberry device or a Android device or better yet, a Palm Pre device?
Anyone who emails me about Blackberry, I simply tell them, it won't happen, I am sorry. Why? We cannot make the same user experience on a Blackberry app that we can on an iPhone app. For us to build something for the Blackberry, at this time, would make our product look ten times worse and due injustice to it. It won't lead to a happy customer and happy user. Palm Pre, well, we brought one app to that app market, the Pre Shabbat Shalom and honestly, it wasn't a fun experience. So we are putting that on hold.
We are extremely eager to build apps, specifically our Siddur, for the Android market. However, Android, over two years from when it was launched, still has zero Hebrew support. Yes, you can install Hebrew fonts, but it requires a lot of work and in a sense, requires people to do something they will be afraid to do.
So my question to Google is when will you support Hebrew fonts?
My question is also, should we, RustyBrick, wait? We are strongly considering building the iPhone Siddur for the Android device (aka the Android Siddur), but if Google does not add Hebrew font's we would have to provide a level of tech support that we are not accustomed to. It won't be as easy as installing the app. They will then need to be walked through adding Hebrew fonts, which is a big process for most people. Do we go ahead, build it, charge more and offer that support - or do we wait?
It makes me sad to see Android users lacking a quality Siddur. I don't feel the same for Blackberry users and Palm Pre users - I am sorry. :)
Decisions, decisions, decisions.
Update: Mike, one of the RB developers, wrote a blog post on Can Android Support Hebrew Characters?
Over the past few weeks and especially this week, a bunch of CNBC documentaries on companies like Apple, Google, AOL and others are airing. I watched the Inside the Mind of Google a few weeks back, it was interesting. Last night, I watched Welcome to the Macintosh - that documentary was awesome (my wife kept saying, you guys are such geeks).
Here is a look at my DVR:
Anyway, take a look at the "Tech Week" schedule at the CNBC TV web site and make sure you don't miss these shows. I am sure you can catch repeats.
The big local news over the New Years was that Cablevision and Scripps Networks, the network behind HGTV and Food Network, did not come up with a deal to make both sides happy. So now, if you have Cablevision, you no longer get HGTV and the Food Network. Unfortunately, I have Verizon FiOS, so I get HGTV and Food Network (more on that later).
I was reading my own blog, actually, I was just making sure there were not formatting issues and I saw an ad from the Food Network on my blog. I guess they were geo-targeting people in my area and showing this ad:
The ad takes you to ilovefoodnetwork.com, a site devoted to convincing Cablevision to poney up more money for HGTV and the Food Network. Of course, Cablevision has their own story at cablevision.com/scripps. Love how the war was taken to search ads and contextual ads.
I still get HGTV and the Food Network because I have FiOS. This is the one time I am upset I don't have Cablevision. If I had Cablevision, I would no longer have to watch these shows due to my wife enjoying them. I really am not into watching TV about other people's homes or cooking shows - I rather watch shows about sports or death.
It was blistering cold yesterday. Too cold to really snow and have the snow stick.
Yesterday, it was as low as 16 °F. It warmed up to 21 °F, but the warmest it got when I was outside was 19 °F. Today, it really warmed up, right now it is 26.
The interesting points were:
(1) The wind speed was higher in miles per hour than the temperature in fahrenheit. Looking at yesterday's weather conditions, you will see that for most of the day, wind speed was higher than 16 to 21 MPH, which was the temperature most of the day.
(2) The NY Jets played the Bengels in this weather and destroyed them. Boy did they all look cold. So the Jets go to the playoffs and play the Bengels again.
Happy New Years everyone!
Let me tell you how my New Years Day is/will look like for 2010.
5:30am : Wake Up & do wake up stuff
5:45am : Run through emails, do forum research, check feeds, etc.
6:25am : Morning prayers (at home, don't know of early place to go on New Years)
6:50am : At work
7:00am : More emails, misc items, update misc blog posts
7:15am : Pay bill, do deposits from previous days, etc
7:30am - 9:30am : Bill my clients, so they get a nice New Years Day surprise
9:30am : Remove 2009 file cabinet contents and replace with 2010 storage
10am : Write this blog post
11am : Go to see Avatar with some of the RB team
WHOO HOO!
3:30pm : Get home and scramble to get ready for Shabbos at 4:15pm
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