Author Archives: jaypoc

The truth will set you free, but more lies might piss off your customers.

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On Friday, Sprint had posted that an over the air update was available for download, though requesting the file wasn’t successful. I checked again Monday, only to find that the update had been removed. This was the long awaited Froyo (Android 2.2) update and it appeared to be up for an early test drive. Research later confirmed that was the case, but apparently sprint was only test-driving it. Leaked Sprint documents confirmed the details of this process.

I broke chat on the sprint site to see if the download was still available anywhere. I got one rep who knew nothing about it and another who insisted that he couldn’t give me their findings in the test run, but the official launch date of the application was pushed beyond the originally expected launch date of today. Well, today I got the update, as scheduled by Sprint’s early plan. It’s great that I have the application, but I’m getting really tired of Sprint’s customer service lying to it’s customers. Which is better? Lying to get the customer off the phone, or simply telling the truth and stating “We’re not allowed to comment on that, as it has not been released to the public yet.”.

Post-apocalyptic Zombie Experience

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I satisfied my craving for brains last night at Red Line Studios in New York when a group of creative living and undead gathered to film scenes for the pilot of an upcoming TV series. The zombie crew was headed by Vince Collura of ZombieNYC.com and featured 10 of us with full zombie face makeup and enough blood to satisfy the likes of Dracula! I’m no stranger to zombying around. Being friends with Vince, I have been to multiple Zombie-Crawls in New York including the recent Zombie Christmas Caroling event.

Heading into the city for these events is always amusing. I Wasn’t wearing any of the costume on my way in, but you could see the bottom of the suit sticking out of the bad that covered it and you get some interesting looks from people as you’re walking around with blood-stained and ripped clothing sticking out. Some people see the humor and are brave enough to approach you, while others just stare and keep their distance. I’m kind of surpised no police questioned me. Then again, I was running a bit late because of train closings, so better off.

Despite the trains I did get to the site on time, and helped flag down other zombies before sitting in the makeup chair. The shoot was only a few hours, and they only needed us for a handful of scenes. I don’t know too much about the show itself. I know that it takes place in the future after zombies have taken over. The main characters are survivors who have managed to find a secure location with the ability to reach the outside world. The zombie parts were filmed against a green screen, and while there were a few specific scenes shot, most of what we took part in were just scenes of zombies waffling around and eating flesh. what else would you have a zombie do?

After the shoot, we went out to dinner, and in the true ZombieNYC fashion, we decided to stay in costume. It’s always a blast seeing the range of people’s reactions. Some people fear you, others want to take pictures with you. I have no problem taking pictures with people, but I wish that I would find my pics sometime. The people you meet are generally very cool or interesting. For instance, sleeping on the train I was awoken by some loud and obnoxious kids who entered at Oceanside. Upon seeing me, still wearing my bloody dress shirt and makeup decided that they were going to sit with me on the train. I told them my story, and they explained to me how they were rappers and were nearly signed earlier. Two of them started rapping there for me. It’s not my thing, but they were pretty good. Better at their practiced stuff than free styling, but they were trying, and they were pretty entertaining so I went with it and it certainly helped the train ride go by. After all, the battery in my Zune was dead.

Every time I zombify myself and head into the city, it’s an adventure. When you’re willing to do something outside of the norm and outside of people’s comfort zones, they react differently and you just never know who you’ll meet or what you’ll experience when you stick yourself out there.

Check out my video-blog-short of the day.:

Apple Announces iPad G2

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Remember January 27, 2010? That was the day that Apple changed the way we use personal computers with the release of the first generation iPad. Aside from it’s shortcomings, I bought one. I’ve suffered with it’s lack of storage and limited uses, but now that apple has announced the iPad G2, things are looking up. features of the iPad G2 include:

  • Unlocked with capability to use both GSM and CDMA networks.
  • Supports G3 and G4 Speeds (where available)
  • SD Card Slot accepts SD/SDHC/SDXC cards for expansion
  • Dual 5 Megapixel cameras (One on rear, one on front)
  • Built-in Microphone
  • LED LCD replaced with Easier-on-the-eyes active color display
  • Multitasking Capability Added 7:11 PM

It’s a shame it took this long for apple to identify the shortcomings of its device, but the iPad G2 is definitely the correct answer to the first generation iPad.

I’m kind of surprised that Apple released what seem like no more than a 9.7 inch iPod touch with such limited expandability. I am looking forward to what other manufacturers come up with to compete with Apple. Hopefully we’ll see some of (or all of) the features I mentioned integrated into a comparably performing low cost tablet. Ironically, I’ve seen $400-500 web/application tablets released 5 or more years in the past and they all seemed to have disappeared. I wonder, If they had Apple’s reputation and marketing strength behind them back then, what would we be seeing today?

Okay, So maybe I can read after all.

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I’ve always enjoyed reading, when the reading was casual and on my own, but I always despised school requiring me to have a book read by a certain date. I have been very fortunate that at an early age I read some rather advanced books. One of the earliest I recall is J.R.R. Tolkein’s, The Hobbit. Being so into the story of the Hobbit-folk and Bilbo’s travels that I quickly moved on to The Lord of the Rings. These two books alone have gotten me through numerous book reports and childhood assignments. I also tagged along with Arthur Dent in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and the occasional sci-fi novel such as Alan Dean Foster’s Sentenced to Prism.

Beyond those, other stories and books are a blur. I grew fond of Science Fiction short stories and have read compilations by Isaac Asimov and Arthur C Clarke, among others. But my reading stopped early in High School. I always collected Science Fiction compilations and occasionally thumbed through them. It wasn’t until I read about an offer for a free book to all “Urban Exploration” interested bloggers. I added my name to the list and a book was sent my way. I read, and enjoyed The Unseen.

Since then, I’ve been listening to a few podcasts from the TWiT.TV network. This Week in Tech, This Week in Google, Windows Weekly, Security Now and all the others. One of their sponsors in Audible.com and aside from the commercials, the hosts all rave Audible.com.  I never thought that I would enjoy Audio-books, but I just finished my second. I’ve now read (listened to) more books in the past 6 months than I have in the past 5 years!

The first was “on Intelligence” by Jeff Hawkins. I listened to about 90% of it. Jeff is (or was) a bigwig at Palm and has some interesting theories on Intelligence and how the human brain works (and why Artificial Intelligence is so difficult). He goes on to explain how teh brain’s ability to predict the future defines it’s Intelligence. Not the long term or psychic future, but I’ll leave it to the book to explain his theories which are pretty interesting and with in my scope of knowledge of the subject, plausable.

The second book, I just sat around for 4 hours finishing was Dan Brown’s “Digital Fortress”. a Fiction novel about a cryptographers plot to take down the NSA. Things get out of hand when he turns up dead, after his plans have already been set into motion. It’s a great story that had me hooked early and even had me laughing and shouting at the radio as if I were watching on television.

Utilizing time driving to and from work, and out with friends, to time “on the can”, I made it a point not to go anywhere without my Zune, and it’s really paid off. I have a couple of books that I’m looking forward to. Some on Audio Book and others in hard-copy. Eventually I’ll review them: Larry Niven, Ringworld, Neal Stephenson, Anathem, and a few I can’t think of off the top of my head.

To share my love, and spread support for TWiT and Audible.com, You can take advantage of the deal I used to download the 2 audio books by visiting www.audible.com/twit2. You can cancel if you don’t want any others, or stick with them and get 2 books a month. They have other plans too, so definitely check them out.

The Night I Met Santa Claus

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I was standing on the platform looking at the train. It was packed. Had I stepped on, I would surely have stood the entire way to Jamaica station, which wouldn’t be so bad, but then at Jamaica I would have to find the next train to continue on. I was hungry and there was a direct train coming in just under 30 minutes. I had been out Zombie-Christmas  caroling all night with Vince and some new friends from ZombieNYC.com, so I decided to head back up into Penn Station and get a late dinner. For some reason, I always find myself at Kentucky Fried Chicken when I get food at Penn. This night was no different.

After eating, I set out to catch the 1:06 train. Standing in the waiting area was a hefty man carrying a large bag, wearing a red coat, red pants, and even red sneakers. He had a distinguished white beard and was wearing a festive Christmas hat not unlike my own. Okay, Mine had elf-ears and bells, but it was still your typical red/white Christmas hat. As a zombie-caroler, we were handing out candy canes to people, and I made sure to take a handful with me when I left the zombie crew at Bar None. so I approached him, addressing him as Santa and offered him a candy cane and some friendly chatter. He was in the city visiting some friends, though in my mind, he worked at Macy’s or some mall. He was very friendly and really played the part of Santa, so I smiled, wished him a Merry Christmas, and we shook hands as he handed me his business card. Simply a portrait of Santa Claus on one side, and a very well done cartoon of Santa’s workshop on the back. Above the portrait were the words, “I met Santa!”. I laughed and walked away thinking how funny it was that I had just met Santa in the middle of Penn Station. This is where the fun of the evening ended.

I watched eagerly as the clock approached 1:06, however the track number for my train never showed on the large display in the station. It wasn’t until about 20 minutes past the time my train was supposed to arrive that people started to notice the smaller screens reading that due to switch difficulties, there were no trains running between Penn and Woodside. This meant no trains in and out of Penn Station. Announcements were made advising that the subway would honor Long Island Rail Road tickets to Woodside, but there was no mention of trains from Woodside to anywhere else. I waited on line to speak with an MTA agent. At 1AM on a Friday, you can imagine that there are a lot of people, mostly drunk and/or tired standing around Penn. By this time, the departure times for multiple trains had passed, so there were an exorbitant number of people stranded in the station’s waiting areas. To make matters worse, there was one MTA agent working in the office. By the time I got to her, she seemed pretty irritated and gave me an attitude because I didn’t understand her initial answer. Rather than simply stating that there was no way to get to Hicksville via LIRR/MTA, she explained the entire region claiming that all the main lines were out but some of the interconnecting lines were operating. This meant absolutely nothing to me, as I don’t ride the train that often. I don’t know what trains interconnect to what stations. She eventually clarified and basically told me I was S.O.L until the track issues are resolved.

My cell phone was dead, so I ran into Duane Reed and picked up an emergency cell phone charger. As I walked back into the waiting area, I saw that they had announced my train was on track 20. Excited that they actually fixed the train, I bolted across the waiting room to the staircase that descends on the train platform. I took a seat on the train next to a man who with his jacket seemed to take up 2 and a half seats. Perhaps it was his way of trying to discourage others from sitting there, but I refused to stand any longer. My feet were killing me. No sooner had we begun moving, when the train came to an abrupt halt. We were stuck again, and this lasted a while. I tried to sleep, dozing in and out a few times. According to the authorities, the train had somehow managed to jump tracks with some cars on one rail and others on another. It took about an hour, though it seemed like an eternity for them to get the train going again.

I managed to sleep for a better portion of the ride. I woke up amazingly as the train opened its doors at Hicksville Station. I jumped to my feet, grabbed my jacket and bag and ran before the train left and I was stranded again. I had made it. I looked at the clock and it was 4:15am. The 1:06 train got me home 3 hours late! I hate to look back and think that I could have gotten on that first train and made it home hours earlier. But then I wouldn’t have met Santa Claus.