It’s getting a little harder for me to get my legs tight now. 17-20 miles a day isn’t getting it. I’ve either got to start doing drills or go farther. Today I’ll take the latter option if my stomach will cooperate by 4 PM. I’m thinking all of Crabtree, most of Rocky Road and the Ready Creek Loop should do it.
Constant Smartphone Wars – S4, G2, 5s
I always have to read quite a bit about the latest smartphone technology. I’ve also carried ever major smart phone manufactured in the last six years for routine (and not so routine) use. When I post reviews in forums or make claims in conversation to have carried all these phones I am not often believed. How could one person get a new phone every 4-6 months? Even better, I haven’t paid for a phone or paid my own mobile phone bill in over 11 years.
I’ve carried a Samsung Galaxy, S2, S3, S4, a Motorola Atrix 1 and 2, both with lap docks (some of the best phones and technology ever including the worlds first fingerprint scanner). I’ve carried and used iPhone 3, 4s and 5s. I have a like new 64GB iPhone 5s in my desk right now I could ask Verizon to swap in place of my LG G2 any time. Not gonna happen.
The truth of the matter is that iPhones have always been a few technological steps behind other smart phone devices with the display/touch exception. Apple fanboys will scream this is not true. The will tout iOS and screen lag as evidence of the iPhone’s equality or superiority. Lately iOS is just becoming Android. Yes, the touch processing was given thread priority on an iPhone from day one. That translates to the iPhone’s fluid feel. This feel is really apparent on iPads verses Android tablets. Scrolling seems smoother and response time seems faster making the iPhone superior in gesture response. But that’s where the superiority ends.
The iPhone’s pretty, brushed aluminum chassis is no match for the LG G2’s processor, battery, screen size, resolution, camera and GPS. The touch feel is not that far off from an iPhone any more either. Truth is the iPhone’s aesthetics, feel and iTunes keep Apple fans in the midst of their marketing realm. They will even copy the larger screen found on most Android devices this year, tout it as “revolutionary” and Apple fans will regurgitate this tardy, non existent superiority. Question is, will this larger screen actually hurt iPhone sales since the smaller size is actually coveted by many devoted iPhone fans who called the 4.5″+ Android screens “unnecessary”? Amazing how such unnecessary things become as necessary as air and water once adopted on an iPhone. Like NFC (Near Field Communications). Not necessary according to Apple fans. We’ll see about that.
In my role I typically carry the most powerful smart phone available in the US market within days of it’s release. When that’s an iPhone I will proudly let the world know I carry one.
Judge Harold Brown Singleton
I can never have a birthday without thinking of my grandfather. On April 19, 1971 I was a birthday present to then 65 year old Honorable Judge Harold B. Singleton of Amherst VA, representative to the Virginia House of Commons. I was first grandchild to a Charter Member of the National Honor Society when he graduated from EC Glass High School in 1925. He attended Lynchburg College and during that time found a matchbook in a restaurant that contained an advertisement for law books on the cover. He ordered them and became the youngest person to ever pass the Virginia state bar exam on his first attempt. In 1938 he opened a law firm with Lucien Shrader and in 1941 he was elected to the Virginia House of Commons for 14 years. He authored and sponsored the legislation that made it legal to buy soft drinks in Virginia and the 1950 revisions to the state code regarding the retirement plan for Virginia state employees.
In 1964 he was appointed Judge of the Amherst District Court. Later he became the Chief Judge of the 24th District Juvenile and Domestic relations court. In 1957 and 1958 he was elected National President of the Lynchburg College Alumni Association and National President of the Ruritan National Civics organization in 1963. A lifetime of great achievements and I did not learn the full extent of them until after his passing in 1994, my last year of college. Although he took me to coat and tie lunches to shake hands with US Congressmen, growing up he was just Pop. Although I saw him in the courtroom on a couple of occasions, something I believe none of his other grandchildren ever did, I spent most of my time with him in his extensive garden at Green Lawn, accompanied by our favorite dog Blanc. I will return to the house on the road I knew as Rural Route 40 very soon, although it is now called Father Judge Road in his honor, to visit my 94 year old grandmother who still resides in the only home I’ve ever known my grandparents to live in.
Major websites need to focus on making password changes easier and more intuitive.
Have you ever tried to change your password on Facebook? Google? Yahoo? Did you have to do an internet search to figure out how first? Don’t lie. I did and I’ve been behind a keyboard for a living for 20 years now. This unto itself creates a security issue because all of these sites (and more) recommend that users change their passwords frequently but they do not make it obvious where and how to do so.
Every site should have a prominent “Change Password” link at the top of the user account setting page. Not buried under “security settings” or a link to be sent by email for a password reset. Furthermore they should go to great lengths to insure their mobile apps have clearly presented options to change the account passwords and they should automatically log the account out from any other device immediately when the password is change.
Why the major sites have not made password changes and management a top priority is a bit of a mystery. I feel it may have to do with the fear of additional cost of support that may be required for users who change their passwords and then forget the new one or have trouble syncing passwords over multiple devices. Either way the scenario is the fault of the site designers who do not make changing and managing passwords more obvious and intuitive.
Bike shed is getting full.
The Fate of Hard Liners
I have no respect in my essence for those who would promote hard line rules and authoritarian control over compassionate, peaceful governance. I will fight against anyone trying to impose such staunch ideology for those who have historically invoked hard line positions on any culture incorrectly assume their agenda provides them superior force. The reality is that a wave returning from oppression is always more powerful the most rigorous attempts at control. For a society to be stable and to protect human rights any society must be able to flex the option of questioning authority. Absolute control is a fallacy that only exists in the minds of those trying to impose it. True freedom only exists when people a free from controls implemented in the name of religion, politics, and any military agenda.