Quantcast - Audience Measurement

Top websites, by traffic.  Google still number one.  facebook number two.

http://www.quantcast.com/top-sites-1

LA's J. Paul Getty Museum partners with Google to 'Goggles-enable' its entire permanent collection

LA's J. Paul Getty Museum partners with Google to 'Goggles-enable' its entire permanent collection
http://pulse.me/s/q3Qj

Los Angeles area art fans: you've now got your own personal curator right in your pocket.

Jorte Calendar app | Android Central

http://m.androidcentral.com/android-central-editors-app-picks-june-25-2011

I just downloaded Jorte myself and I love it. Syncs great with Google calendar. See review below.

"If you're discouraged by the lack of customizations for Sense's calendar, or by the rough-and-tumble appearance of Motoblur's, you have to give Jorte a try. Of all the personal organizers that swamp the Android Market, I'll deem Jorte my favorite. Sure, calendars are pretty straight forward and standard, but Jorte's customizations are unmatched.orte gives you the choice of just about any size widget you can think of, and with different themes, color options, and styles to choose from, you can match your widget to the rest of your UI, eliminating the sore thumb that is your phone's standard offering. Choose which of your personal calendars to display, which holidays to include, and even which day to start the week with. Jorte also comes with an easy-to-use scheduler and to-do list, and it supports importing these elements as well. If you choose to create them on the app, you can export as a CSV file to your computer or other devices. Even if you're happy with your phone's standard calendar (though, I doubt you are), give Jorte a shot. It's free, it's useful, and it's pretty. Case closed."

Why I can't read Scott Adams anymore

Interview with Salon.com Writer MaryElizabeth Williams
DILBERT.COM BLOG | JUNE 22, 2011
http://pulse.me/s/kNO4

I've read Scott Adams for a long time and have always been disturbed by his juvenile attitudes towards women, and relations between men and women. Everyone has a right to their opinions, but I can't stomach his. I also don't think he realizes or cares that these opinions are losing him readership. Hiding behind "I'm just kidding" or attacking his critics, rather than intelligently defending himself, just reinforces that he knows what he is saying is indefensible. But what does it matter? Look at the website traffic! Mission accomplished.
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Sobering: Fukushima: It's much worse than you think

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/06/201161664828302638.html

"Japan's Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters finally admitted earlier this month that reactors 1, 2, and 3 at the Fukushima plant experienced full meltdowns. TEPCO announced that the accident probably released more radioactive material into the environment than Chernobyl, making it the worst nuclear accident on record.

Meanwhile, a nuclear waste advisor to the Japanese government reported that about 966 square kilometres near the power station -an area roughly 17 times the size of Manhattan -is now likely uninhabitable.

In the US, physician Janette Sherman MD and epidemiologist Joseph Mangano published an essay shedding light on a 35 per cent spike in infant mortality in northwest cities that occurred after the Fukushima meltdown, and may well be the result of fallout from the stricken nuclear plant. The eight cities included in the report are San Jose, Berkeley, San Francisco, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Portland, Seattle, and Boise, and the time frame of the report included the ten weeks immediately following the disaster. "There is and should be concern about younger people being exposed, and the Japanese government will be giving out radiation monitors to children," Dr MV Ramana, a physicist with the Programme on Science and Global Security at Princeton University who specialises in issues of nuclear safety, told Al Jazeera. Dr Ramana explained that he believes the primary radiation threat continues to be mostly for residents living within 50km of the plant, but added: "There are going to be areas outside of the Japanese government's 20km mandatory evacuation zone where radiation is higher. So that could mean evacuation zones in those areas as well."

Gundersen points out that far more radiation has been released than has been reported. "They recalculated the amount of radiation released, but the news is really not talking about this," he said. "The new calculations show that within the first week of the accident, they released 2.3 times as much radiation as they thought they released in the first 80 days.""
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Hazardous materials, 1. Concrete, 0

A box of hazmat liquids (drano, ammonia, bug spray, etc) leaked thru the cardboard box onto the concrete floor.  It actually dissolved the top surface of the concrete. This is what it looks like, one $100 pressure washer later.

Pressure washers are cooooool! I used it to lift the black moss off the front stoop. You have to get just the right fan width in the spray, and the right distance from the ground. Then you can just slowly and evenly sweep back and forth to lift off all manner of surface contaminants.  I love my pressure washer. The trick is to turn the hose on as far as it will go, so it can feed the motor.

Phone update

The phone never recovered. That ATT returns store is huge. They are obviously expecting lots of returns. They didn't question my excuse that "the kids played with it and the screen stopped working". They transferred all my files in 10 min. The new Inspire looks brand new.

They sold me on insurance tho - and the program is different than before - 5 bucks/mo to get a no-questions-asked replacement for $100. Sounds like a good deal to me.

3 days without my phone almost killed me!

So why do some apps store their data NOT on the SD card? Screw u Poweramp for storing the playlists in memory. Now I have to recreate them. Gah. 
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Shakeup at HP

"The company thanks Pete and Randy for their efforts and wishes them the best in their next endeavors." kThxBye.
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truth be told

my phone took a bath in the toilet.  it's not yet working again.  i shook it out,took off the covers and took out the battery.  it's spent 2 days immersed in uncooked rice.  i put it in the oven at 170degC for 4 hours last night.  everything seems to work except the touchscreen layer.  i'm assuming in day or two it will dry out.  i've dropped 3 blackberries in water and they all recovered eventually.  of course they were all very brief submerges  - well less than 10 seconds.  i dont buy insurance because it is a bad deal.  it's expensive and the deductible is high. 

i may try to return it under warranty since the water sensitive stickers did not get wet.

in the meantime i'm shopping for a backup phone.  every girl needs a backup phone.  i can get a samsung fascinate for around $200 on ebay.  this model had issues with gps although you can find individuals who claim theirs works great.  i really want the fascinate for the fantastic super amoled display.  the latest samsung phone, the charge (verizon) / infuse (at&t), also appears to have gps issues according to the interwebs.  the charge on verizon has BLAZING internet speeds (see post below).  whereas my little 3.5G htc inspire gets maybe 3Mbps down and 1.3Mbps up.  woo hoo!! (sarcasm on)

not so fast

uh oh, this samsung "charge" smartphone still seems to have gps problem:

http://androidforums.com/samsung-droid-charge/344428-gps-problem.html

sob

17Mbps downlink speed?

17?

Mbps?

but...but...but... I need a world phone...don't i?

http://phandroid.com/2011/05/02/samsung-droid-charge-review/