curious

iPhone jailbroken, easiest yet!

2009-11-02T05:00:53Z

Originally published at Curious's Journal. You can comment here or there.

Free jailbreak app, here: blackra1n.com/

You literally plug in your iphone, run the application, click on a button (the only button the app has), wait for aproximately 3min, and your iphone is jailbroken. Unlock and “Hacktivation” coming soon.

FYI: if you paid ANY money for jailbreak you paid someone who stole the work from others that was given away free.

Too late now, but forgot biggest reason to jailbreak

2009-09-21T20:40:55Z

Originally published at Curious's Journal. You can comment here or there.

Tethering. Only used it for emergencies or as a backup when a link goes down wherever I’m at. Hopefully they figure out how to do it in 3.1 even without a jailbreak.

iPhone Jailbreak Update

2009-09-21T20:16:47Z

Originally published at Curious's Journal. You can comment here or there.

Currently have an iPhone 3GS running 3.0. It is running 3.0 because there is currently not a jailbreak for 3.1 on 3GS. I’m seriously thinking about I really want Snapture via AppStore and it’s only $1.99 there, but requires 3.1. More apps are destined to be 3.1 only due to features of the API.

Why I’m still jailbroken:

Disable shutter sound (yes, turning off ringer, turns off sounds. But, I keep forgetting to turn it back on) Snapture, a 3.1 apps supposedly eliminates this issue though.
Ability to quickly toggle Wifi/3G/etc
Being able to broadcast video live from iPhone (doubt I’ll ever use this feature, but I’d love to have it)
Being able to ssh/scp to/from iphone
Being able to theme the iPhone

The other issue is that if I ever need to restore the phone, Apple only permits restores of 3.1.

F’ it. Here I go.

Kenilworth Aquatic July 5th ‘09

2009-07-07T21:16:26Z

Originally published at Curious's Journal. You can comment here or there.

CIMG9246, originally uploaded by CKoontz.

Took some pictures at Kenilworth Aquatic… using this post as an excuse to test flicker’s “to blog” feature.

Feel free to check out the complete set of pictures.
www.flickr.com/photos/jcurious/sets/72157620885286617/

Church of Scientology could prove reincarnation!

2009-06-22T17:51:05Z

Originally published at Curious's Journal. You can comment here or there.

The Church of Scientology is in the unique position to pretty much prove reincarnation because of what are known as preclear folders. According to the Church of Scientology one discovers that they lived past lives (www.scientology.org/religion/catechism/pg011.html) during auditing. Also during auditing, the auditor records the facts derived during an auditing session into preclear folders (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditing_%28Scientology%29#Preclear_folders). These facts often include exact time,date, names involved, and places of events. Scientology could produce copies of these folders redacting events that happened less then 6 generations ago to protect the privacy of those that may still be alive or recently deceased.

With the data we would first make sure there were no obvious problems:
-look for duplicate reincarnations (ie. there should be no more then one person claim they were Julius Ceasar) .
-look for disagreements in time/place/names (ie. if two people claimed to be involved in an event, they should agree on the time, place, and names involved, also events should be consistent across all reports).

Once we move past any obvious problem areas we can compare the data against known time/dates. This is where things get interesting. This is where you put historians on their toes. If historians claim certain details about someone’s past life claims are wrong, how do they show which one is right?

For example, someone could claim they were Elvis Borkerlockersmith and they were on the Titanic when it sank. Historians may disagree based on the fact that the name was not on the manifest and that there are no records that show that last name ever existing. Yet, it is possible that such a person existed and managed to get on the boat without being on the manifest. Perhaps the person was a stowaway or referred to themselves by a name that differed from their real name or something.

If reincarnation is true and we are able to pull up time/dates from previous generations then we might be able to completely REWRITE HISTORY and fix many assumed facts!

I would LOVE for the Church of Scientology to prove reincarnation. And, I hope that they use the facts learned in the auditing sessions to correct history books.

Please Church of Scientology, make this happen!

Cause of Autism

2009-04-02T16:33:25Z

Originally published at Curious's Journal. You can comment here or there.

At dinner yesterday someone mentioned that Vaccine usage is going down. When we talked about the reasons it was going down, I brought up the fact that parents are increasing afraid to give their kids vaccines because of the autism fears the anti-vaccine camp is putting on parents. Well that opened up a can of worms… and I got to see how far and wide this fear has been spread.

So, lets start off with the big ugly monster: The MMR vaccine “controversy”
THE STUDY:
-the claims were first raised by a study done by Andrew Wakefield
-The study was funded by a lawyer who was looking for trial evidence
-He had filed a patent on a rival vaccine which
-He did not publish reports that contradicted his findings
-10 of the 12 coauthors have since retracted
-Sunday Times claimed that they manipulated data and misreported results

There were lots of studies done after Andrew’s study that contradict his claims. For more details go here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMR_vaccine_controversy

What ultimately causes Autism? We don’t know… genetics appear to be a risk factor… Wikipedia has page that covers most of the popular theories and provides footnotes to studies (if any) connected to them:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_autism

Beyond looking for a cause or a cure - it is important to understand that people who have autism are just live everyone else. The way that they perceive and communicate with the world around them is normal to them. Unfortunately for them, most of the people in the world perceive it in a non-autistic way. Just because we may not understand each other, doesn’t mean they need to be cured to become people. They are already people.

PS. Check out this video by someone with autism talking about how they communicate with the world

My MacWorld ‘09 predictions

2009-01-04T21:12:41Z

Originally published at Curious's Journal. You can comment here or there.

MacWorld is a conference that Apple has historically made new announcements at here are the things I predict apple is going to announce. I think the keynote is going to focus primarily on iLife and the upgrades to the computer systems:

iLife ‘09:
NOTE: every iLife update except the last update was done in January. Most rumor sites haven’t predicted iLife updates, I’m going out on a limb with this one!
(90% sure of these features)
-Ability easily to share media across various social media sites
-iMovie will see a massive update - many iMovie6 features will be added like audio/video effects
-Better integration of features with iphone
(possible, but not sure how likely)
-iDVD gains ability to burn BlueRay

iphone:
-rumor sites talk about an iphone “nano” which doesn’t make sense to me product wise unless it’s extremly cheap…
-I haven’t heard anyone with an iphone complain that it was too big
-Banners seem to back up this rumor “Even the small talk will be Big” however these are MacWorld banners not Apple

iphone features:
-.mac photo sync
-several other features to tie into ilife update
-notification feature that was supposed to be released last year to be in next release
-bluetooth keyboard support (they are going to at least need to announce it to deter jailbreaking)

OSX:
-Will probably mention a few new features to expect in snow leopard which will likely get release on or shortly after WWDC
-May release preview of new Safari
-May release preview of Quicktime X

Announce replacement of rest of systems:
-Apple will really go into how “Green” the new line up is, maybe bring up Al Gore
-display ports across the line
-upgraded graphics across the line
-mac pro will sport multiple active GPUs
-xserve will get an update, but won’t be mentioned at the show
-imac will be slimmed down so that it looks just like an LCD screen
-macmini will be much smaller
-new macpro will be called “Fastest PC” or some other statement implying it is faster then the competition
-Apple MAY introduce BlueRay, not sure how likely though

jcurious @ 2009-01-03T21:39:00

2009-01-04T01:39:19Z

Originally published at Curious's Journal. You can comment here or there.

Photoswap is a highly addictive iphone photo swaping service… I took a picture of my laptop with the below text on the screen (as each picture was received):

Photos Received:
Blurry picture of carpet
Picture of a half painted bird ornament?
Concrete floor
Bed with random crap all over it
A bathtub that really needs a bath
Hardwood floor (what is with all the floors today?)
Rain patterned rain boots
Yummy home made cookies!
Lots of little magnets stacked together/ like a battery?
—Reply image with text letting me know what the above was —Duplicate reply image!?!
Blurry picture of a picture of a guy in front of a computer?
Stack of christmas treats
Blurry kitchen table with a fruit tray
Some bored looking dude in a pink floyd shirt
Set of tools
Pair of boots

I fail to see how any of the above was objectionable…
Maybe the Pink Floyd guy didn’t like being called bored looking?!? What do you think? (note, I never got to send a picture of the text with “pair of boots”)

BTW This is what it looks like when you get a temporary ban:

Evolution is real - 90 second proof

2008-12-04T05:06:43Z

Originally published at Curious's Journal. You can comment here or there.

RSS feeds I subscribe to & extra mention to some of my faves

2008-11-12T06:04:44Z

Originally published at Curious's Journal. You can comment here or there.

According to google reader I’m subscribed to over 300 RSS feeds.. below are some of my favorite feeds in each category:
BTW I’ve put up the .opml with some fam/friends blogs removed here: public Google Reader subscriptions

(Note, if your just looking for interesting blogs to follow, stick with a couple of the ones below for now )

Religion:
scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/ - noted biology professor, PZ Myers, lover of octopi, and athiest advocate
juliasweeney.blogspot.com/ - Julia Sweeney of SNL fame… if you haven’t listened to “Letting Go of God”, go to iTunes and listen - or get the DVD
factnet.org/ - cult watch group
randi.org/joom - James Randi Foundation,home of the 1min$ paranormal challenge
scientologymyths.wordpress.com/ - pro scientology website
xenutv.wordpress.com/ - noted scientology critic and documentarian Mark Bunker
forums.whyweprotest.net/ - anti scientology forums - subscribed to the “Breaking News” forums
also rss feeds from Religion sections of NY times, Washington Post, Yahoo

Cake:
cakewrecks.blogspot.com/ - proving that “You can do no wrong with cakes” is a lie
cakelava.blogspot.com/ - some nice cakes
feeds.pinkcakebox.com/PinkCakeBoxPatries - some awesome cakes

Cisco:
subscribed to field notices, security notices and some ccie bloggers -nothing of note

Comics:
I follow a lot of comics, here are a couple of note:
dilbert.com - duh
failblog.org - there really is too much fail in the world
www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/index.html - Joy of Tech - generally apple focused comics
truckbearingkibble.com - some of this guy’s stuff is pure genius!
community.livejournal.com/politicartoons/ - political cartoons

DC:
dcist.com -don’t keep up with this one very well, but it often has some nifty nuggets
welovedc.com - like dcist, but lighter

Dreamhost:
dreamhost blog (official and unofficial), status, discussion - if you don’t use dreamhost, you prolly don’t care

Games:
arstechnica.com/gaming.ars - only watching Ars Technica’s game feed now a days

Gov:
change.gov - watching the new administration take shape
www.loudoun.gov/news/index.htm - watching local government news
www.raisingkaine.com/ - liberal slant on virginia politics

Hearing :
Unless your hearing impaired, or know someone who is you probably won’t care for these ;):
community.livejournal.com/hard_of_hearing/
community.livejournal.com/hearingaidhacks/
www.hearingmojo.com/ - gadget blog for those who can’t hear well

IPhone:
Subscribed to WAY too many sites, some of note:
ericasadun.com/ - one of the coolest iphone developers
www.flickr.com/groups/iphonewallpapers/pool/ - iphone wallpapers
www.appleiphoneschool.com/
gizmodo.com/tag/iphone
weblogs.redeyechicago.com/iphoneblog/
justanotheriphoneblog.com/wordpress
iPhone Jailbreak community:
blog.iphone-dev.org/ - the jail breakers
thebigboss.org/ - the guy behind the best utilities
www.spaziocellulare.com/ispazio/en - awsome developer provides lots of docs

Jobs:
keeping my eye on craigslist sysadmin jobs in vegas and northern va
keeping up with news on verizon business

Military:
love keeping an eye on the latest in military tech… Wired’s Danger Room is the best of the best
blog.wired.com/defense/

Music:
www.coverville.com/

News:
boingboing.net - subscribe, you won’t regret it
digg.com - what do diggers think is worthy now?
groklaw.net - sco vs linux legal news
trying to find good low traffic pure news site… haven’t found a good one yet - open to suggestions

OS:
Huge number of feeds here… I’ll pull just a couple for each major OS:
All:
www.osnews.com/
Apple:
arstechnica.com/apple.ars
www.tuaw.com/
macenstein.com/default
www.macrumors.com/
OpenBSD:
undeadly.org/
Linux:
lwn.net/
arstechnica.com/journals/linux.ars

People:
(I removed fam/friends that don’t advertise their blog elsewhere)
jwz.livejournal.com/ it’s jwz, what else do you need to know?

Photos:
I’m a sucker for off-the-wall images
riotclitshave.livejournal.com/ often not safe for work, but really showcases some of the most edgy stuff out there
sadguysontradingfloors.tumblr.com/ there are lots of sad guy trading flore sites, but this guy is the best… the captions are hilarious
ffffound.com/ I follow a couple of feeds on this site

Popculture:
This is really more culture and “design” blogs
billboardom.blogspot.com/
consumerist.com/ - shopping/branding is part of our culture

Recalls:
Find your car at this site: auto-recalls.justia.com/ and subscribe to the rss feed… costs you nothing, could save your life?

Scooter:
killboy.blogspot.com/ - pictures of people riding Deals Gap
webbikeworld.com - best gear reviews
thescooterscoop.blogspot.com/ - THE scooter news site

Security:
arstechnica.com/security.ars
www.schneier.com/blog/

Tech:
hackaday.com/
google.blogspace.com/
www.uncrate.com/

Trailers:
www.traileraddict.com/

Vegas:
www.whilelasvegassleeps.com/

Wikipedia:
Random wikipedia feeds

YouTube user who used DMCA to silence critic apologizes

2008-11-03T00:10:55Z

Originally published at Curious's Journal. You can comment here or there.

Before you think about using the DMCA as a way to silence people you disagree with, watch this video:

Clearing up some “Libertarians for Obama” points

2008-10-26T08:02:54Z

Originally published at Curious's Journal. You can comment here or there.

People commenting here and Libertarians for Obama blog have indicated have pointed out some gaps in our statements. So I’m going to try to clear up some points. First, there are no true libertarian candidates in this election. Second, someone is going to win the next election. Third, I want the best possible candidate to win.

Other then Bob Barr, I didn’t go over any of the third party candidates that could technically win this election. So lets look at the candidates that could “technically win” (ie. their parties are eligible to win the minimum 270 votes need to win the election)

Bob Barr may have the libertarian party nomination, but his voting history says otherwise. Bob Barr did not became a libertarian until after he lost his job of 8 years in the Senate. He strikes me as an opportunist, not someone who believes in the fight. Ron Paul didn’t endorse him.

Ron Paul endorsed Constitution party candidate Chuck Baldwin. Yea, the Constitution Party is a bad idea. There is a reason why there is a separate Constitution and Libertarian party. The Constitution Party doesn’t just follow the Constitution, they throw in bunch of religion into the mix and claim it is constitutional. They want to force right wing morality, but at least be nice enough to let you complain publicly about it. Yea, No.

The Green Party wants to enforce “Green” morality. They are still working out the 2008 platform. Here is the 2004 platform to give you and idea of what they are about. www.gp.org/platform/2004/. Lets just say they make Al Gore look like the Exxon Valdez. Again, nope.

So again, we are back to Obama and McCain. Both are willing to expand the government. One of them is willing to greatly cut my taxes and those of everyone I know and love. One of them wants to cut back on the Patriot act. One of them wants to cut back on federal raids on state approved medical marijuana sites. That one is Obama.

Why this Libertarian may be voting for Obama

2008-10-25T20:16:23Z

Originally published at Curious's Journal. You can comment here or there.

I might not vote libertarian this year. Before I explain my choice, I’m going explain why the war in Iraq plays such a large role in my vote this election. Then, I’ll go into the candidates that are running. From there I’ll try to come to some sort of decision, hopefully.

The War

Reminders about the build up to the war for people who may not remember:
-The IAEA and UN found no evidence of continued nuclear or WMD development
-Iraq was at the time cooperating with inspections
-Bush could not get the UN to go along with an attack
-Bush could not get Nato to go along either
-Bush couldn’t even get France or Germany to join us
-Bush started giving random ultimatums including the “your either with us or against us” (which pretty much turn everyone else away from joining us)
-Bush started a war without a clear objective or exit strategy - no end game - no plan B if things didn’t work out
-When Bush started the war, he didn’t even invest enough resources.
-Most importantly almost no politician or media stood up to say, “Hey, this might be a bad idea.”

To me, it seemed so clear that in the lead up to the war something was wrong, and someone needed to say or do something - almost no one did. If it was clear to ME that something was wrong, it sure as hell should have been clear to SOMEONE who was in the halls of power.

Obama was not a US Senator when the Iraq vote took place, so we can’t say for certain how he would have voted on the bill. None the less, he started speaking out against going to war in October 2002 (the war officially started started Feb 2003). Obama clearly saw what I saw. McCain on the other hand not only supported the war, but in various interviews suggested the war could go on for 100 years (ala war in Korea). Now, Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate, voted for the Iraq war. Can you believe that?

Since so few people spoke out against the war in those days maybe information to congress folk was censored or limited somehow… I don’t know either way I had to dig deeper - esp. if I was going to vote for a candidate that did not share the beliefs in all the same freedoms I believe in.

Libertarian Bob Barr

Not sure I buy it.
-One of the most successfully anti-medical marijuana congressmen gets voted out, possibly due to his anti-medical marijuana views (now says war on drugs was wrong)
-Voted for Defense of Marriage Act (now say states should choose)
-Did I mention that he voted for the war?

Also, I spent a lot of time,energy, and money trying to get Ron Paul the Republican nomination. He lost. I think my efforts with Ron Paul helped energize a new generation of libertarians, or if nothing else - got people to google libertarianism ;). My Ron Paul activities made my libertarian mark for the year. So, this year I plan to vote for a candidate that has a chance of winning. Ron Paul had the fourth largest vote count in the Republican primaries!

Republican John McCain

McCain bothers me greatly because he seems to want things both ways all the time. He claims to be pro-free market, but he won’t defend it, unless you count him attacking Obama’s proposal for not being free market as demonstrating pro-free market views. If he is truly pro-free market, why didn’t he argue against socializing the bank’s losses? If he had the balls to stand behind his alleged “pro-free market” world view he likely would have gotten my vote. Now we are stuck. We going down the path of bailing out the banks So now we HAVE to go down the road of regulating the banks even future to reduce the likelihood of this happening in the future.

The ability of a candidate to make sound judgement is extremely important to me. McCain failed this task. Not only did he not unquestioned the war, but he mad an extremly poor chose for running mate. The VP is the person who handles tie votes in the senate and takes the president’s place whenever he is unable to lead. If you don’t know why Palin was a bad pick, ping me and I’ll explain, don’t want to get too off track with this write up. After Palin was picked and we all discovered how bad of a choice she was, the McCain camp could have had Palin pull out of the campaign to take care of her kids. This would have been a politically acceptable reason for her to back out and would have greatly improved my view of McCain.

McCain has no clear vision for the economy. He seems to shift his views with the polls or possibly though encouragement from special interests. I don’t know. Both Obama and Barr have a solid economic agenda which is vital when the economy is going down hill as hard and fast as it is. Hell, the one big thing he said over and over he was going to do, he isn’t even going to do that. He said many times that was going to institute a complete spending freeze, yet he has been making exceptions even before the election is complete.

McCain is the most anti civil liberty candidate of the bunch. McCain went so far as to vote for the anti-flag-desicration amendment to the constitution. The ACLU gave him a 17% score for last season, and 22% lifetime. He voted against Habeas Corpus, and for giving telecoms immunity from prosecution. He also voted to remove judicial protections to detainees Hell, he even voted to ban raves! Btw, did I mention Palin was a bad bet? She is even MORE anti-civil liberty then McCain. Yea, Palin supported book bans, and full abortion bans (even in cases of health/rape/incest). With the exception of gun rights, these guys do not appear to be very pro-personal freedom.

The McCain health plan is odd. It’s like he just said “lets just throw $5k per person to insurance companies” Wait, what? What is that supposed to do? What does that solve? There seems to be no overall vision behind it… it’s like it was dreamed up so that McCain would have a health policy. Again reaffirming my view that there is no overriding vision of the future with McCain. If I was looking for a CEO for any company, McCain seems like he would be the worst pick.

I worry that McCain’s presidency is going to be as hypocritical and misleading as his campaignCampaign is. Rather then debate issues McCain chose to spend the ending of the last debate focusing on the fact that Obama had associated with a 60’s extremist and on the fact that Obama hired ACORN to get out the vote for the primaries. If these issues are really important to you, I strongly recommend you check out the wikipedia entries for these things to get a more balanced view. The wikipedia entries provide footnotes and references. If you click on “Discussion” you can see all the points of contention within the articles.

Not only do I feel that these associations are non-issues… McCain and Palin’s associations are far worse. McCain was the only senator out of the Keating five ever to receive funds from him. Oh, and “Joe the Plumber’s” dad is Charles Keating’s son in law. Lets throw Palin in to the mix… Palin’s husband was a member of the UnAmerican Alaskan Independence Party between 1995 and 2006. The AIP just a group of people who sit around at a dinner dreaming of an independent state. They are very active, the founder of the party actually went to the UN, worked with the Iranian delegation to help them separate with the rest of America. Palin actually spoke to the folks at the AIP convention THIS YEAR. Oh BTW, did I mention that McCain participated in ACORN events? You can read ACORN’s response to this mess here: www.beyondchron.org/articles/ACORN_Teaches_McCain_About_Power_of_Community_Organizing_6211.html. Rather then go on, I just want to get back to my point. In the end, these things don’t really matter all that much. I’m sure all the presidential and vice presidential candidates have little skeletons in their closet. I’m sure each has done things they probably shouldn’t have in their lifetime. The more McCain makes these kinds of attacks, the less substance I believe he has. If he wins, I think we can expect excessive hypocrisy, deception, and outright lies.

Key Positions:
-Spending freeze (with an increasing list of exemptions)
-Cut Corp taxes from 35% to 25%
-Keep 35% tax cap
-http://www.johnmccain.com/Issues/JobsforAmerica/taxes.htm
-pro gun rights (big +)
-anti-abortion rights
-tends to vote for bills that mix church state (ie school prayer)
-work towards energy independence
-nuclear friendly (big +)

Democrat Barack Obama

Obama impressed me early on by being one of few politicians to question the war before we got into it. We need a president that will take that extra moment of time to question going to war before we send people into harms way. We also need a president who is willing to make himself available to talk to enemies if it improves our safety and position in the world. However, he also wants our goverment to take a much larger role in our lives, which to be honest creeps the hell out of me.

Lets get to the elephant in the room, the liberal economic views of Obama. This is the heaviest pill I have to swallow before I can vote for him. Obama believes that the best way to move the country forward is for the government to invest more in what he feels are the core needs of americans. Those needs are health care, education, and sound energy policy. In addition to these things he was to reshape the current tax structure to lower the impact on 95% of Americans. At the same time he plans to raise the taxes on on everyone else with the bulk of the increase resting the the shoulders of large corporations. This is the ugliest piece of Obama’s plan, his plan forces those who are the most successful to contribute a larger share of their income. The reason this doesn’t bother me as much as it should, is because I’m selfish - my taxes will go down in Obama’s plan. Additionally folks I know who are not as fortunate as I am will be paying MUCH less in taxes (especially compared to McCain’s plan). As for Obama’s health plan, he wants to try to negotiate lower health rates, offer a government backed health plan to compete against the market and insure that health care companies can’t reject coverage for preexisting conditions. With education, he plans to fund mandates like no child left behind and head start, support charter schools, etc. And to quote some school administrator Energy blah blah blah ;). So, yea more government, a government that competes with private business, and some changes in taxes. As yucky as all this is, it at its core based on the belief that everyone is entitled to health care, education, and as a nation we need sound energy. If I gotta be taxed, it’s nice to know that if I or any other American ever develops cancer or some other ailment that becomes a “preexisting” condition - it’s covered. BTW. if you look around, most industrialized nations have government sponsored health care and have been fine doing it for a long time.

As for civil/social liberties, Obama got an 82% rating from ACLU. He voted opposite McCain in all the issues mentioned in the McCain section, except for the anti rave law since he wasn’t in office at the time. While he isn’t nearly as pro-personal rights as most libertarians, he certainly scored better then McCain.

Key positions:
To improve the core of America the government needs to:
-insure all kids have health coverage
-make sure insurance won’t be able to reject based on previous conditions
-make health care more affordable
-make education more affordable
-improve education by funding and improving government mandates
-work for energy independence
-give those making less then $250K a tax break
(note: Obama has a tax break calculator online) taxcut.barackobama.com/

BTW two points (besides the stuff I talked already) that bother me about Obama when compared to McCain:
-not quite as nuclear friendly as McCain
-not quite as gun friendly as McCain

Who will it be?

So, I started putting this together for me. This document started off as a bunch of pro/con bullet points for each candidate. I’ve left out a lot of stuff including the divisiveness of McCain’s policies, the role religion plays in politics/government under each administration, the role of science in education and policy and lots of minor issues with each candidate. I left these things out because this document is long enough as it is and I would probably need to spend a lot more time explaining why each of those issues were important - detracting from what I had so far. Anyways, as I started to realize that my vote was may very well be not just a nonlibertiarian vote, but some may argue an antilibertarian vote, I needed to make sure I could explain my vote. You see, I feel that if you can’t explain something, you don’t really understand it and you are possibly just following a bunch of lemmings.

So it boils down to this:
-I really wish the Libertarian party had a chance this year
-A true free market approach would protect our economy in the long run
-McCain and Obama are not Libertarians
-McCain and Obama want to tax and spend
-The economy and our country - in disarray
-McCain had his chance to show he was pro-free market, but he voted for the bailout
-McCain appears to have no real vision for the country
-McCain appears to put politics before substance
-McCain scored worse on civil liberties
-McCain’s judgments have not been very sound
-Obama has a clear vision for the country
-Obama’s vision is not going to cost much more then McCain’s
-Obama was smart and brave enough to question the war before we went in
-Obama is willing to use every diplomatic solution that is available - before going to war

So, yea the libertarian party will be getting one less vote this year. Unless someone is able to present me with REALLY good reasons not to vote for Obama: he will be getting my vote.

Quicky review of Griffin Clarifi case for iPhone 3G

2008-10-13T04:25:35Z

Originally published at Curious's Journal. You can comment here or there.

I got this case because I often take pictures of computer screens and notes with my iPhone and they are always blury… This case fixes it with a slideable “macro”lens… I’m not crazy about the hard plastic mixed with hard rubber on the case.. I wish they made the whole thing hard rubber. Since this seems to be the only case that has a lens like this right now it’s hard not to give it a lot of stars ;). I put with and without lens pictures below. They were taken from roughly the same distance away (the lens slightly magnifies so it seems closer). As you can see, what used to be washed out is now very readable. The case is not cheap, but it is worth it for me ;).

Vendor Link:http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/clarifi

Amazing Grace/Alleluia revisited AGAIN

2008-10-12T05:08:33Z

Originally published at Curious's Journal. You can comment here or there.

In high school I was involved with a Christian youth group called “Young Life”. Most of the time at the meetings was spent singing songs, and I fell in love with the arrangement and how they segragated the singing roles to Amazing Grace - years latter I was on a quest to find a reasonable recording… and found it:
curious.org/journal/?p=50

Years later that linked stopped working and quest was on again, and I found the recording from the song writter:
curious.org/journal/?p=2129

While looking for new Amazing Grace covers, I found ANOTHER person who has recorded it and added a verse:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jBqPOqc0yw

Don’t know if Paul Coleman got the rights to Tony Congi’s song writting or not… but it was intresting to find another person record it using a new name.

MuxTape is goneish… Say hello to favtape

2008-09-26T04:52:11Z

Originally published at Curious's Journal. You can comment here or there.

Muxtape no longer hosts mix tapes so my muxtape is no longer available… so I’ve replicated the old tape as close as I could within the limits of favtape.com site. Have not been able to find Sinead O’Connor’s War (Live) on fav tape yet… also some of tracks are from unedited live coverage and not nessarily as good as tracks I had found for muxtape.
The “new” mix tape can be found at:
favtape.com/curious/Girls+cover+the+boys

Here are the details regarding the mix tape:
If you haven’t caught on all ready, I have a very diverse collection of music and musical interests. So, I had start off with a theme/challange… the “Rules” with this mix:
-Must be a cover
-The cover must be performed by a female
-The song must either be commonly associated with a male singer or written by a male writer.
-The cover must be unique, ie. the song should feel different from the original
-The covers must be unique in style from each other (ie. not all punk or country)
-Covers should not already be popular

1. Chromatics - I’m on Fire:
I discovered this one on muxtape. There are a lot of cover theme muxtapes that have this on their tapes, and for good reason :). Originally written and performed by Bruce Springsteen

2. T.A.T.U - How Soon Is Now:
The Russian duo put their unique voices this 80s classic. Written by Morrisey and John Marr. Originally performed by The Smiths

3. Scissor Sisters - Comfortably Numb:
Listen to this cover with an open mind. Sissor Sisters give this song a COMPLETELY different feel. If you let it move you, you will like it! Written by Roger Waters and David Gilmour Originally performed by Pink Floyd.

4. Sinead O’Connor - War (Live): [NOTE: this isn't on the "New" mix tape yet]
This is Sinead singing War at the Bob Dylan tribute concert where the a large number of the audience members tried to boo her off the state because she had ripped a picture of the pope on Saturday Night Live just days before. You can feel the emotion behind her singing this song, and the audience booing/cheering in the background. This doesn’t seem to fit well on this muxtape, so I may take it out. Written by Alan Cole. Originally performed by Bob Marley

5. Tori Amos - Amazing Grace:
Tori put her own spin on this Christian staple. Originally written by John Newton.

6. Kate Bush - Rocket Man
This cover may have made it onto the charts at one point, so I’m not sure if this violates one of my rules or not ;). Composed by Elton John and Bernie Taupin. Originally performed by Elton John

7. Cowboy Junkies - Sweet Jane
Blah blah blah, just check it out ;). Written by Lou Reed. Originally performed by Velvet Underground.

8. Blue Man Group - Baba O’Riley
If you every have a chance to see Blue Man Group’s MegaStar tour, see it… this is defiantly something wonderful to experience in person… (look for youtube videos of this to get an idea of what goes on during the performance). Written by Pete Townshend. Originally performed by The Who.

If you still interested in checking out after reading all that… go to

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Originally published at <a href="http://curious.org/journal/?p=2244">Curious's Journal</a>. You can comment here or <a href="http://curious.org/journal/?p=2244#comments">there</a>.Muxtape no longer hosts mix tapes so my <a href="http://curious.org/journal/?p=2213">muxtape</a> is no longer available… so I’ve replicated the old tape as close as I could within the limits of <a href="http://favtape.com" title="http://favtape.com" target="_blank">favtape.com</a> site. Have not been able to find Sinead O’Connor’s War (Live) on fav tape yet… also some of tracks are from unedited live coverage and not nessarily as good as tracks I had found for muxtape. The “new” mix tape can be found at: <a href="http://favtape.com/curious/Girls+cover+the+boys" title="http://favtape.com/curious/Girls+cover+the+boys" target="_blank">favtape.com/curious/Girls+cover+the+boys</a> Here are the details regarding the mix tape: If you haven’t caught on all ready, I have a very diverse collection of music and musical interests. So, I had start off with a theme/challange… the “Rules” with this mix: -Must be a cover -The cover must be performed by a female -The song must either be commonly associated with a male singer or written by a male writer. -The cover must be unique, ie. the song should feel different from the original -The covers must be unique in style from each other (ie. not all punk or country) -Covers should not already be popular 1. Chromatics - I’m on Fire: I discovered this one on muxtape. There are a lot of cover theme muxtapes that have this on their tapes, and for good reason :). Originally written and performed by Bruce Springsteen 2. T.A.T.U - How Soon Is Now: The Russian duo put their unique voices this 80s classic. Written by Morrisey and John Marr. Originally performed by The Smiths 3. Scissor Sisters - Comfortably Numb: Listen to this cover with an open mind. Sissor Sisters give this song a COMPLETELY different feel. If you let it move you, you will like it! Written by Roger Waters and David Gilmour Originally performed by Pink Floyd. 4. Sinead O’Connor - War (Live): [NOTE: this isn't on the "New" mix tape yet] This is Sinead singing War at the Bob Dylan tribute concert where the a large number of the audience members tried to boo her off the state because she had ripped a picture of the pope on Saturday Night Live just days before. You can feel the emotion behind her singing this song, and the audience booing/cheering in the background. This doesn’t seem to fit well on this muxtape, so I may take it out. Written by Alan Cole. Originally performed by Bob Marley 5. Tori Amos - Amazing Grace: Tori put her own spin on this Christian staple. Originally written by John Newton. 6. Kate Bush - Rocket Man This cover may have made it onto the charts at one point, so I’m not sure if this violates one of my rules or not ;). Composed by Elton John and Bernie Taupin. Originally performed by Elton John 7. Cowboy Junkies - Sweet Jane Blah blah blah, just check it out ;). Written by Lou Reed. Originally performed by Velvet Underground. 8. Blue Man Group - Baba O’Riley If you every have a chance to see Blue Man Group’s MegaStar tour, see it… this is defiantly something wonderful to experience in person… (look for youtube videos of this to get an idea of what goes on during the performance). Written by Pete Townshend. Originally performed by The Who. If you still interested in checking out after reading all that… go to <a href="http://jcurious.muxtape.com” title=”http://jcurious.muxtape.com” target=”_blank”>jcurious.muxtape.com</a> <a href="http://favtape.com/curious/Girls+cover+the+boys" title="http://favtape.com/curious/Girls+cover+the+boys" target="_blank">favtape.com/curious/Girls+cover+the+boys</a> Click on a song to start. Hopefuly this tape will stay up longer then the other one <img src='http://curious.org/journal/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif' alt=';)' class='wp-smiley' />

Useless reporting on Hodgeman

2008-09-19T16:21:05Z

Originally published at Curious's Journal. You can comment here or there.

I don’t get it, winandmac.com is reporting on Engadget and Gizmodo reporting on John Hodgman using an iPhone. I mean seriously it’s a commercial, why waste time reporting on this and posting pictures?

Palin on Sex Education

2008-09-02T18:21:32Z

Originally published at Curious's Journal. You can comment here or there.

Credit Card Companies won’t let Mythbusters cover RFIDs

2008-08-30T22:36:23Z

Originally published at Curious's Journal. You can comment here or there.

www.boingboing.net/2008/08/30/creditcard-companies.html

Gawker publishes audo of LRH talking about XENU/XEMU

2008-08-14T18:39:07Z

Originally published at Curious's Journal. You can comment here or there.

The story can be found here:

gawker.com/5037013/the-history-of-xenu-as-explained-by-l-ron-hubbard-himself-in-8-minutes

Obama apparently wants to hurt Nevada

2008-08-12T15:57:33Z

Originally published at Curious's Journal. You can comment here or there.

On one of the pro-obama blogs there is this story that talks about McCain and Obama and thier positions on the Yucca Mountain project To me it boils down to this:

1- Nuclear waste has to go somewhere
2- Yucca is pretty much ready to go

3- Yucca will bring lots of jobs to the area
4- Going anywhere else would be extremely expensive at this point
5- The investment in Yucca would be lost
6- Did I mention the nuclear waste problem does not just go away when Yucca goes away, right?!?
7- Having said all that, if they don’t go with Yucca I hope they go with Hanford, WA since that will guarantee jobs for the family members that live in that area for years to come

Anyways McCain has indicated he supports Yucca, as long as the waste doesn’t travel AZ highways… Obama apposes Yucca period.

Here is Obama’s anti-McCain/Yucca ad:

iPhone SSH apps… now and in the future

2008-08-10T21:14:51Z

Originally published at Curious's Journal. You can comment here or there.

As of this blog entry there are two ssh clients in the US AppStore:

pTerm $4.99 (site link) (app store link):

based on putty code
author states that 1.0 has serious bugs, 1.1 which should fix the bugs still waiting for approval
ssh/telnet/raw tcp support
pinch to zoom terminal
80×24 fix terminal size
supports cntl sequences, missing arrows/tab
xterm/vt100 terminal support
Future Plans: port-forward if apple permits, scroll, resizeable terminal, more config options

TouchTerm $2.99 (site link) (app store link):

vt100 terminal support
supports scrollback, custom colors
command history

One more SSH client is still waiting for approval (site link):

If rumors are to be believed it sounds like it is going to be fairly extensive client
Price expected to be $4.99
Resizable windows
Will have a built-in ssh server and crap to enable graphical input

If you have a jailbroken phone, install OpenSSH and MobileTerminal for free

Wish iPhone’s ipod app was more like remote app.

2008-08-08T16:48:20Z

Originally published at Curious's Journal. You can comment here or there.

I’m an advid collector of cover songs, so I have lots of songs that share the same titles. The iPhone has a built in app that lets you list songs by song names… it looks like this:

Apple recently came out with a remote app that lets you control your itunes via your iphone. The SongList is includes the Artist!

Oh thats not all! the Remote App has SEARCH!

Some guy named Tom has some other wish list items.

Newsboy live vs studio “I’m Free”

2008-08-05T22:25:14Z

Originally published at Curious's Journal. You can comment here or there.

Was listening to last.fm and heard Newsboy’s “I’m Free” come on. The version that came on was the studio version… it is not nearly as good as the live version…. if your thinking about listening to this is song, make sure you listed to the live version.

Thanks

Muxtape is nifty

2008-07-28T18:24:56Z

Originally published at Curious's Journal. You can comment here or there.

So there is a site that lets you upload mixtapes and listed to other people’s mix tapes…
www.muxtape.com

You can see the muxtapes that have the most fans by going here:
www.vobios.com/muxtape-most-popular/

If you want to get right into some covers:
covers.muxtape.com/

Expect a muxtape from me RSN