My original iPhone has a flaw. (Gasp! Don’t tell Steve)
The cheap plastic lens on the back of the phone is flush meaning that any sliding, even in and out of a case, can scuff the lens.
Recently, my photos from the iPhone have been getting blurrier and blurrier. I thought there was no hope.
I read online that some people were have success repolishing their scuffed iPhone lens with a product called Meguiar’s PlastX, which us for car headlights.
It took me three tries, using different buffing techniques, but on the third try my lens shows not a single scuff.
Last night during, on BBC America, the BBC broadcast all evening what I believe to be the same election coverage that was shown on BBC 1. That was an interesting different perspective, even though most of the commentators in studio were from the US. (Which seems fair since they would be the most knowledgeable on the subject.)
I was surprised at the rather disorganized nature of the broadcast. Quite often the host David Dimbleby never knew what was on screen, people were regularly cut off in mid-sentence as things popped up. It wasn’t the by-the-numbers production I would have expected from the BBC.
A couple of highlights: The Gore Vidal Interview in which Gore Vidal appeared to be, simultaneously, unable to hear Dimbleby, stoned, senile and belligerent… but mostly just incoherent.
And then (actually they occurred in reverse order) John Bolton, George W. Bush’s embarrassing one-time choice for US-UN Ambassador, was a talking head on the program at times. (Bolton was embarrassing because instead of being a “straight shooter” he’s always just an ass, and gives the impression he dislikes the UN and foreigners. – Good thinking when you made that choice, George.)
Anyway, Bolton was, typically, combative.
At one point, an in-the-field reporter was interviewing (If I recall correctly) the head of the Colorado Republican Party. He asked him if it was a surprise that a state that typically votes Republican was voting for a Democrat. The party official responded by stating the reporter doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The report asks, something like, “What do you mean, Colorado has voted for a Republican president the last 9 out of 10 times?” The party official proceeded to aggressively argue they elect lots of Democrats, talking about congressmen and governors. The BBC reporter kept trying to bring it back to the presidential election, which is what he was talking about. The party official just kept accusing him of being ignorant of the facts.
When they returned, Dimbleby turned it over to Bolton, who in his best asshole form said,
I’ve been waiting for just the right moment to blog this one for a couple of months now. I think in keeping with my earlier post about the Out-Of-Office notice, that we should be reminded that it isn’t just the English and the Welsh that don’t always get their translations sorted out.
No, not a dirty swimming pool – I couldn’t care less about that. It’s dirty tricks.
It’s been known for many years that the Republicans don’t like high voter turnouts. Little old ladies in Sun City, high paid executives who can take time off whenever they want and crazy religious fanatics make up a sizable portion of their core voting block. These are people who are either strongly motivated by self-interest or just have nothing better to do.
Typically, poorer people vote less often. Further, poorer people tend to vote against the Republicans. Ergo, the fewer voters deciding our future, the better – or so their logic goes.
Now, I may be opinionated and downright arrogant at times, but I try not to be a hypocrite, so in the interest of disclosure, I’m going to say that I’m not 100% onboard with the whole notion of 100% voting. We need an informed voting population more than we need a large voting population. Let’s face it – many people (dare I say, most?) are not informed. They don’t have time or inclination to be informed. If they do, few have the the critical thinking skills to divorce dogma from reality. (Nor do they have the desire to do so.) Our system elects unqualified morons to do a job that, at its core, should be one requiring the highest levels of critical thinking and fair-minded judgement not the skill of being a populist.
I believe that electoral reform is the single greatest issue that needs to be addressed by this country. It is at least 50 years overdue.
That’s for another post… someday.
That’s not the system we’ve got. Right now, the voters in this country are a self-selected population. That population is not, in any way, tied to the notion of being better informed. So, given the system we’ve got, I’d rather see a larger voter turnout than a self-selected smaller turnout of people motivated to vote conservative. (I intentionally avoided the word “Republican” at that point.) The only way to break that self-selecting bias is to get everyone possible to vote.
The Democrats (of which I am not one – neither am I a Republican) often make great efforts to get voters registered and motivated to vote – the Republicans fight them.
I remember years ago when Arizona adopted a motor-voter law – that is, you could get registered to vote at the same time you got your drivers’ license. The Republicans fought it tooth and nail. At the time I naively didn’t understand. Didn’t they want to get a mandate from as large a population as possible? (Short answer: No) The Republicans also tend to dislike absentee ballot (except from the military), early voting, extended voting and registering and voting on the same day. All of which make it just a bit more convenient for someone with a job they need to keep to get out and vote.
This election has seen record numbers of voter registrations, absentee ballots and early voting. Several states now have had to extend early voting hours to accommodate the people wishing to vote. The Democrats are rejoicing, the Republicans are bring out the dirty tricks.
This video, put out by the Obama campaign, outlines some of the dirty tricks being pulled, and how to avoid them. If you’re a borderline voter, don’t be fooled. If you’re an adult citizen of the US and you haven’t had your rights lawfully taken away (such as by felony conviction) you’re entitled to register and to vote. (Although in many states, including Arizona, it is too late to register for this election.) You cannot be deprived of government benefits, student aide, or hauled off to jail for late traffic fines. (Although, if you haven’t paid your traffic fines, they can haul you off to jail, but not because you are voting. Either way, pay them or fight them in court, you deadbeat.)
While I was out at lunch today, I got a text message from a friend informing me of something truly amazing, the text read: “England vs Stanford Superstars is on ESPN2 (20v20 cricket).”
Could that be true? Could Stanford and his millions have enough pull that a cricket match would be shown on American television?!
I rushed home, arriving about 15-20 minutes into the 2 hour highlights program just in time to see England lose their second, third and fourth wickets, including the mighty Kevin Peterson, before I got the TV warmed up and myself comfortable on the sofa.
What followed was the second most embarrassing display of cricket I’ve ever seen, England were all out for 99.
What followed was both opening batsmen for Standford’s Superstars carrying their bats to an easy victory in about 10 overs. The Superstars won by 10 wickets.
If the England team were Japanese, they’d have to commit suicide.
All-in-all, not the best introduction to cricket for American audiences. I wonder if they’ll ever repeat the experiment.
It would seem everyone in the US with a legit iPhone and contract received a message from AT&T this week telling us we’ve got free WiFi at of if their hotspots around the country.
Friday I decided to try it. At lunch we went to Borders Book (Barnes & Noble in disguise) with has an AT&T hotspot.
I immediately tried to connect. It detected my phone as an iPhone and asked for my number. After which I repeatedly got a failure notice. After several tries, I gave up.
10 minutes later, I tried again. This time it worked and I was told I’d receive an SMS message with a link to activate.
After several minutes the message arrived. Too late, of course, as we’d already left the book store.
I tried again today at a Barnes & Noble on the other side of town. Again, I got the repeated failure. Later, as I was leaving, it worked. This time I stuck around long enough to test it.
It does, indeed, work but the initial failure is very problematic and inconvenient.
I wonder if they knew I was planning to use the wifi to look up books on amazon.com to see if I could get a better price?
Have you ever sent an e-mail to someone about something important and you get a reply almost immediately from them and you think, “Good, I can get this issue taken care of right away?”
Here’s an example of the how that can go wrong. The sign above is in English and Welsh. The Swansea council asked, by e-mail, for the English to be translated into Welsh.
Unfortunately, the e-mail response to Swansea council said in Welsh: “I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated”.
The BBC article goes on to talk about a few other (somewhat less) embarrassing mistranslations into Welsh.
I was born in Arizona (albeit in a more liberal city than where I currently live), and there are a lot of things that commend this state.
The politics of the majority of its people is not one of them.
You can generally rely on Arizona to be a Republican state in any election – which is one of the reasons that I think we need a whole new electoral system, since my vote is almost invariably completely lost in the noise and I am effectively without representation. (Yet I’m still taxed. Hmmm… Taxation without representation. That’s got a catchy sound to it, doesn’t it?)
Today I heard something that gives me hope.
I telecommute on Wednesdays, which is usually one of my most productive days. No one is around to bother me and I can really go heads down and get some computer work done.
The only thing that interrupts me are phone calls at home. Since I’m at work, I generally let the answering machine answer for me, only picking up if it’s actually something important. Of course, that doesn’t stop me from hearing what the call was about. Imagine my surprise when I heard this:
I’m calling for John McCain and the RNC because Barack Obama is so dangerously inexperienced, his running mate Joe Biden just said, he invites a major international crisis that he will be unprepared to handle alone.
If Democrats win full control of government, they will want to give civil rights to terrorists and talk unconditionally to dictators and state sponsors of terror. Barack Obama and his Democratic allies lack the experience and judgment to lead America. This call was paid for by the Republican National Committee [and phone number]
I got a McCain Robocall!!! He’s running scared in his own state!!!! A state that wouldn’t elect a democrat if you covered him in butter and bacon and served him on a sandwich with some nice fava beans.
And I love the fear-mongering tone of the message… “…he invites a major international crisis that he will be unprepared to handle alone.”
Thank goodness that a good president surrounds himself with competent advisors and cabinet members so he doesn’t have to do things alone. (Unless he’s a cowboy moron.)
“Civil rights to terrorists…”! Gasp! Or does he mean, “Suspected terrorists”, read: People, not found guilty of a crime. Come to think of it, even murders and pedophiles in our jails have, by laws, “civil rights” (certainly, somewhere diminished civil rights, but civil rights nonetheless.)
And he would, “…talk unconditionally to dictators and state sponsors of terror”!!!! Again, gadzooks! Talk to them?! I suppose he means as opposed to, as past administrations have done, given them money, military aide and sold them weapons.
F-ing hypocrites! And besides, what fool wouldn’t at least try to talk first to someone with an opposing point of view before adopting a posture of belligerence. There will be plenty of time for belligerence later.
I hope this portents great things to come… ie, the crushing defeat of McCain even in his home state.
David Tennant has announced that he will leave the award winning BBC drama Doctor Who when he has completed the filming of four special episodes which will be screened in 2009 and early in 2010. [From BBC – Doctor Who – News]
