Shopping Online Makes Green Sense

Millions of people drive to stores daily wasting much more combined gas than that one scheduled delivery truck that drives by your house daily so why not just shop online, save time, gas, money, and for now ... taxes!

Where to get good deals.

Walmart will ship you clothing direct to your door for as little as $0.97!
You can't afford to drive to Walmart for that price!

Shoes.com and Zappos will ship your shoes for free.
I wear a 10.5 2E, which almost nobody stocks in brick and mortar stores. I could drive around town all day and still not find what I'm looking for OR get free shipping for what's immediately in stock that's easy to locate within minutes.

Amazon.com Prime shipping for a low $79 annual fee.
We buy a lot of stuff from Amazon and it shows up in 2 days for a small annual shipping fee. It's so convenient it's down right scary because anything we want just shows up in 2 days. With the local California taxes up to about 10% it doesn't require \much online shopping to cover the cost of that $79 fee either.

Groceries delivered for as little as $6.95!
Considering not everyone has a car this is cheaper than taking a taxi or even a bus to go shopping. For those busy people on the go it's a serious time saver, well worth the price and for those lazy people, it'll keep your ass on the sofa glued to the tube longer for a small fee. Seriously consider when you tip the pizza guy $5 for delivering a single pizza that your entire grocery order could be delivered, including a fresh deli pizza ready for baking!


Seriously people, I'm finding it easier and easier to live in a cave and avoid the crowded roads and stores thanks to the internet.

All my income is direct deposit, no trips to the banks.

Most of my bills, as many as possible, come electronically to avoid all the piles of paper.

All my bills are paid by BillPay, no stamps, envelopes, no trip to the post office.

Clothing and shoes just randomly show up at the door.

Computer memory upgrades just appear tax free.

So on and so forth, the delivery man comes often to our house.

Why not?

It's GREEN for my wallet and GREEN for the planet!

Clarifying Ignorance Regarding Racist Remarks, Regions and Ethnicity

Yesterday I got into a shouting match with someone, not so surprisingly, over a stupid comment I made which made this person show his fucking ignorance.

I made a slur against a COUNTRY and it's citizens and got called a racist!

I asked if they even knew what a fucking race was?

Initially, there were 5 races classified as follows:

• Caucasoid race
• Congoid race
• Capoid race
• Mongoloid race
• Australoid race

This list has been further expanded into ethnic subsections but those are irrelevant to the topic of this discussion.

Let me give you a clue how insane and crazed people have become over the misuse of the word race.

If you malign the "Damn Americans" or those "Damn Canadians" nobody thinks twice about it because these countries are considered melting pots of the planet with every race imaginable inhabiting those countries.

Even the Mexican Constitution declares that Mexico is ethnically diverse with the second article defining their country to be a pluricultural nation consisting of Indigenous, Mestizo, and European peoples. International organizations usually report that 17% of the country's population is European or White., descendants of the Spanish colonial population. Additionally, there is a black population known as Afro-Mexicans.

I could go on and on, but you get the picture, Mexico is a diverse country is it not?

Therefore, how could a comment about the citizens of a country, collectively the "Damn Mexicans" be racist?

MEXICO IS A MULTI-RACIAL 17% WHITE NATION YOU FUCKING MORONS!

Heck, while we're on the topic, you ever get called a racist for bitching about the "Damn Catholics" or the "Damn Baptists" or even the "Damn Christians"?

Hell no.

However, if you say anything about the "Damn Muslims" you're a racist.

Muslim is a race?

I don't fucking think so, it's a RELIGION just like CHRISTIANITY and it has a multi-racial congregation that includes white, black and everything in between.

People have basically lost their fucking minds over the race word.

They don't know what race means anymore but if you say anything bad about any group of people you're a fucking racist.

Come on people, pull your heads our of your collective asses which all have little brown rings, and use the term racist properly, like when someone actually starts talking about skin color.

We may have different ethic groups, but to the best of my knowledge there is only ONE race of people left on the planet, Homo Sapiens.

Now do you know what a fucking race is?

Here's one of my favorite tales of racial and religious ignorance which is a perfect example to end this rant.

Some white lady that worked in the same building I did was standing at the lunch counter in the building deli and pulled a bottle of Snapple from the drinks and started going "See! See! My black boy friend says that circle with the K in it means that they support the Klan!". Not believing her amazing ignorance I loudly chimed in "That circle K means that Snapple is KOSHER and can be used by Kosher Jews and Muslims, look around your grocery store, many products have that circle K on it." She threw the bottle of Snapple down and bolted out of the deli all embarrassed for being an ignorant asshole.

Wake up, we're one race, the human race, get over your goddamn racist bullshit people.

More importantly, learn when to use the word properly and don't be an ignorant fuck.

The Internet Is a Basic Human Right? BULLSHIT!

Some article from the BBC just blew my fucking mind:

Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests.

Well isn't that a Mary fucking Poppin's rose colored glasses view of the world.

The Internet is a utility, just like phones and cable television.

If you can't afford them, you can't have them at home, so how is it a "basic human right"?

Starving people dying of hunger should be able to eat, isn't that a basic human right?

How about all the children that die daily from malnutrition, malaria, or a bunch of other diseases too numerous to count that a simple pill or vaccination would save, what about their basic human rights to live?

Then we have people dying in wars, drive by shootings, muggings, robbery and women in Cambodia are apparently being raped every time they turn around, what about their basic human rights to live and live without fear?

Well fuck them all, it's too complicated to fix all those basic human rights abuses.

Turn your head or stick it in the sand like an ostrich, ignore the real lack of human rights.

However, the MOTHER FUCKING INTERNET, now THAT'S A GODDAMN HUMAN RIGHT?

Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit.

What good is Freedom of speech when YOU'RE FUCKING DEAD!

Remember the phrase "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"?

Well, if you aren't fed, vaccinated and get a pill when you're sick, clean water, a roof over your head, basic human needs kind of shit, there is no life.

I'm sure people out there drinking water that looks worse than what I just flushed down my toilet, while sipping that cup of sickly bacteria infested mud, sits around with their peers saying "You know, if we just had the Internet all our problems would miraculously be solved!"

Driving a car to get to a job, school, home, shopping, etc. should be a basic human right too but it's a privilege and so is riding the bus or the train if you can't afford the fare. Obviously walking everywhere you need to go won't work for all things, nor would riding a bike assuming you could afford one.

However, that Internet, can't fucking live without it.

Sorry people, you had freedom of speech before the Internet and you still have it even if you can't get online. Obviously you aren't participating with the masses that can afford the Internet, but you probably couldn't afford to sit down in a nice restaurant and chat with them either.

Besides, the Internet is free at the local library.

Let's just explore how accessible the Internet is at the library just for fun and assume the library will let in the smelly street bums walking around with a load of shit in their pants to sit and smear it all over the library chairs and computers.

They have to let them in, right?

Not allowing the bum smelling fouler than a barnyard pig Internet access would deprive someone with crap oozing over his belt loop and urine filled squishing shoes his basic human rights, right?

Yeah, I knew all you Internet bleeding hearts bullshit artists were all full of shit and wouldn't let Mr. Squishy Pants in the library either.

Stay Tuned - Don't Touch That Dial

Yes, I'm still alive and kicking.

Just been busy lately and haven't had anything motivating enough to generate a big long winded blog post, yet.

How-to Download Files in Android's Browser

Adroid phones will just flat out ignore you when you try to click on items like a Word Document linked from a web page or as a file attachment in webmail.

This can be frustrating to your average computer user because your desktop browser will download any old file, no questions asked.

The reason behind this is because the Android phone's browser will only download files that already that have associated apps installed to handle that file type.

For instance, if you want to view a PDF document you will need to first have PDF Viewer pre-installed on the phone.

Likewise, you can't see MS Word documents unless you have something like IcViewer installed.

To find some viewers simply go to the Android Market and search for "viewer" and you'll find a bunch, some of them mult-format viewers.

The only thing I found annoying is that MS Word, Excel and PPT viewers aren't included in Android by default which are the primary file attachments most people get.

Come on Google, get your shit together, just because we can download apps doesn't mean the phone should require so much assembly. Just a few more pre-installed apps would reduce the frustration level for the less technical types out there.

Sprint HTC Hero : Tethering Worked First Time

I've been reading all this complicated nonsense about Sprint Hero and tethering, rooting the phone and all other stuff, maybe it's just dated but it was all out of touch with the reality of what the phone did in the real world.

I had my Hero plugged into the USB port, HTC Sync software was pre-installed of course, and simply pressed the following on the phone:

MENU -> SETTINGS -> WIRELESS CONTROLS -> MOBILE NETWORK SHARING

The "Mobile Network Sharing" is actually disabled when the USB cable isn't connected so it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the machine implicitly allows tethering.

Now to see you actually have a network, from the Windows Start Menu select "NETWORK" on the right hand column, then click "Network and Sharing Center" and VOILA! there's a new network connection titled "HTC Remote NDIS based Device".

How simple and freaking cool is that?

Didn't have to unlock the phone or do any rooting, it was simple as a single click in the menu.

Got a bandwidth speed of just under 450mbps on my first test but I was definitely loading web pages through the phone as I manually disconnected all other networking options.

The FUD though is about whether this causes extra fees on your Simply Everything plan or not as the Sprint salesperson warned us that using tethering is tracked separately and goes against your actual phone minutes and not your data plan.

If that means nights and weekends are free, cool.

If that means any time you tether it's burning up minutes, not cool.

Since Verizon offers Droid tethering for $30/mo. extra I can't imagine Sprint won't do something comparable or simply lose customers.

Let us know of your of tales of Hero tethering!

BarracudaCentral.org Reliably Blocks Rash of New Spam

I'm using several DNSBL's to block inbound spam, plus blocking China entirely, which makes for a very quiet inbox most of the time.

Suddenly there has been a rash of new spam that the old BLs just didn't catch and it started to escalate.

Initially I wasn't too concerned because a spam site pops up, you get a few emails, they get black listed and the DNSBL blocks them from then on.

This time nobody seemed to be stopping them, none of my go-to DNSBL's were working so I revisited the DNSBL Spam Database Lookup site and started testing the source IPs of the email to see which list would block them.

Much to my surprise only 2 lists, barracudacentral.org and spamcannibal.org were highlighting these spammers at all.

After extensive testing BarracudaCentral.org proved to be the best out of the two so Barracuda gets added to my email filter list.

If you haven't tried BarracudaCentral.org then you probably have spam ;)

UPDATE: a few spams slipped thru that only SpamCannibal flagged so since I'm in a zero tolerance mode, I added SpamCannibal to my filter list as well.

PubCon Heals The Crippled!

Some people are aware that I've been down with a really bad back which went out right after PubCon '08 meaning I've been barely walking for almost a year now. My back got so bad, and I have the x-rays to prove it, that the State of California actually issued me a permanent handicap placard this year! Not something I'm proud of, but it got me close enough to the door of the store to go shopping.

To explain what's going on, I have a couple of lower vertebrae with no disc between them that move against each other and sometimes slip which will send me down to the ground when it slips. This has been an ongoing problem since the 80's when I had a rather nasty high speed roller skating accident which has flared up a few times over the years. Over the course of the last year I discovered it was primarily tail bone compaction really causing me problems so I had to buy some special cushions and chairs to eliminate that problem.

It got so bad that I was unable to sit at my desk and do any work for more than a couple of hours a day for a couple of months earlier this year which finally drove me to find some solutions to the problem because not being able to sit at the computer is not acceptable.

The first place I went, and you must visit, is Relax The Back which is a great specialty store with all sorts of products for people with back problems.

My cheapo desk chair was the first thing I had to replace with some fancy (expensive as hell) ergonomic chair with lumbar support, other adjustments and memory foam!

Great, now my chair remembers every time I fart in it...

The cushion I bought for the car has a cut-out in the rear so my tail bone doesn't compress during long rides or take any of the shock from bumps in the road. This may not sound such a big deal, but I got so bad at one point that I had stopped driving for a couple of months and my wife was shuttling me around. After a couple of months of ass-rehab on the cushion and the office chair I'm back in the drivers seat without any problems.

Picked up a body pillow from Bed Bath & Beyond which hugged when you sleep also helped offset pressure in a couple of problem areas, but I think the bed will be the next item to be replaced.

Then I did some physical therapy for a few months until the insurance ran out on it and I was back in action somewhat walking better, using shopping carts at stores like walkers, and still getting mild panic attacks crossing wide open spaces with nothing to lean on if my back slips.

Anyway, I was barely put back together and getting a little better in time for PubCon and here comes my biggest fear, long walks thru airports, the massive Vegas hotels and of course the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The first day went about as expected, slow, painful and very carefully plodding along to make sure I didn't jar my back.

Surprisingly, the next day wasn't quite as bad and by the end of the week I was easily walking twice as fast as when I arrived.

The big bonus was I'm back to using escalators again after one near mishap!

Wow!

Not that I'm claiming to be fixed, had a few incidents throughout the week with back slipping getting in and out of cabs and such, but I'm certainly walking MUCH better than when I first got to PubCon which is a huge improvement.

So pass it along - PubCon heals!

Bellagio's Bland Overpriced Buffet

We've always heard the Bellagio Buffet was "OH SO GOOD" and it's always in the "TOP 10 VEGAS BUFFET" lists so we decided to try it.

BULLSHIT.

Why does everyone think the Bellagio's Buffet in Vegas is so good?

Who's doing the reviewing?

80 year olds?

The Bellagio Buffet's website says:

The freshest ingredients are brought together in an exciting display of taste and talent at the superb Buffet Bellagio.

That's a shame because those ingredients could've been frozen and defrosted as far as I could tell.

The day we dined at the Bellagio they had what looked like grilled WAHOO which was completely over cooked and dry as cardboard, blech.

We like medium rare meat but the slice of leg of lamb was a tad on the raw side and was lacking in any flavor or seasoning whatsoever, leg of BLAND was a more appropriate name for this dish.

I had some of the succulent looking rotisserie chicken, true, it was succulent but lacking in any flavor other than the chicken fat oozing under the skin.

The Italian dishes and Pizza were OK and the deserts weren't too bad, but for the money they charge it wasn't worth the price of the cab ride to the Bellagio, let alone the price of the meal.

Maybe they should learn how to season their food, good grief.

Android Phones Make Men Better Lovers than iPhone

Women, pay attention because this blog post could change your life!

Your sex life that is.

Does your man have an iPhone or iPod?

Throw those iFuckers away and get your man an Android phone for his birthday, Christmas, or just because you want the wettest wildest screaming orgasms you've ever had.

How is this possible?

Well the Android phones have a little clitoris sized trackball on the front of the phone and as your man becomes more adept at using the trackball on the Android he'll also become more adept at using that little trackball in your panties!

After just a few short days of Android phone use your man will be able to spin, glide and flick that trackball with skills that could rival a trained Gigolo!

Now all you lusty women run out and buy your man an Android phone NOW and in a couple of days kick back with your feet in the air and wait for him to want to show off his new trackball talents.

Enjoy the Android!

Poker, Charity and Big Glands

Last year it was easy to get into Purpose Inc's 2008 Poker Tournament, you just had to pay the entry fee and they picked the charity, easy peasy, no fuss no muss, just how lazy shits like myself prefer it.

Not this year, for Purpose Inc's 2009 Poker Tournament they're making me think about stuff and blog it, then post images, links and all sorts of crazy shit, too much like work.

Considering I already have lymphoma you would think I'd pick the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as my charity, right?

Well you would be wrong because when it comes to oversized glands, I prefer massive mammory glands over enlarged lymph nodes any day of the week so I'm going to pick the National Breast Cancer Foundation as my charity.

For what's it's worth, my mom is a 30+ year survivor of breast cancer and she was treated back in the dark ages using stone knives and bear skins and they just cut everything off back then and then irradiated the shit out of everything that was left.

Very savage medicine in the 70s.

Anyway, off to Vegas to play for my charity and I better win after going through all this bullshit!

Can Open Source Topple The Microsoft Monopoly?

I've been using Microsoft Software since 1980 and this is the first time in the history of computers that I think Microsoft is in a position to be easily toppled.

Who will topple Microsoft, will it be the next big computer company with a "Windows Killer"?

Nope.

It will be FREE software.

It will be OPEN software.

It's already here today, there's no waiting, you can download it all for free!

Free Desktop Software

It's called Ubuntu, which is a beautiful African word that I believe loosely translates into "Kick Microsoft's Ass".

As a matter of fact, Dell offers Ubuntu as an installation option right alongside of Windows 7 which costs extra!

Way to go Dell, they GET IT!

Ubuntu even has specific versions for Netbooks and Servers, so they GET IT too!

With Ubuntu you don't need to shell out big sweaty bags full of money to buy office productivity software, entertainment software, anti-virus, or even programming languages because it's all FREE!

Can you say it with me?

FREE!

What did I say?

FREE!

What do we like?

FREE!

So why are you still feeding the Microsoft monopoly machine when everything you need is:

FREE!

It's probably because you're just too filthy fucking rich and you can afford to give money away, right?

Mostly I'm talking about people that use computers like an appliance, that would just as easily be happy if their Tivo could browse the web and handle email.

These people using appliance computers are, in my opinion, what Ubuntu is all about.

Instead of Internet Explorer and Outlook you'll use Firefox and Thunderbird, or Chrome, you'll barely notice the difference except Firefox has lots of add-ons which are cool.

One major difference you'll notice switching to Ubuntu is the lack of MS Office's Trial which costs money to use after the trial period expires.

Instead you'll have Open Office which is FREE! and never expires and never requires an upgrade fee, what an amazing concept!

Free Mobile Software

Are you holding a MyTouch, Hero or Droid?

It has an OS called Android and is in all the hottest phones on the market.

Guess what, these phones aren't closed environments like iPhone or Windows CE and you can even program them for FREE!

None of this Windows CE proprietary bullshit, you can write in JAVA or script in PYTHON.

Getting the idea we're weaning ourselves off Microsoft?

What about computer professionals?

Some of you that are computer professionals all invested in the Microsoft landscape will come along bitching about how all these free software programs aren't so good and doesn't do everything you want.

You know what?

Most of this stuff would've been state of the art as little as 4-5 years ago, some of it even exceeds the state of the art, and the more people use the free stuff the more pressure and resources gets put on the free stuff to evolve faster.

Stop shelling money out for MSDN (mega waste) and big expensive tools like SQL Server when MySQL is FREE and using ASP.NET when you can get PHP for FREE!

You can program in C, C++, PERL, PYTHON, PHP, and so forth, and it's all FREE!

All the online documentation, support and tools, FREE!

So remind me again, why do you continue to support Microsoft?

Just because your computer came pre-installed with Windows?

Lame excuse, just pop in an Ubuntu DVD today and stop the madness!

PayWave Credit Card Cloned - Was My Ass Scanned?

In all the years I've been using credit cards I've not had a single incidence of credit card fraud until now.

Someone actually CLONED my Visa PayWave card and was using an actual physical copy of the card last weekend in person in Illinois, which is a long way from California.

The credit card fraud department caught the activity instantly, and shipped me a new card via UPS in 2 days.

I'm very careful about who has access to my card, always give the machines a quick look to make sure the swipe slots haven't been tampered with, general common sense stuff.

I never sign the back of my card, instead in big red letters it says "CHECK CARDHOLDER ID" so that the vendor will ask to see my drivers license in the event the card is ever stolen.

90% of my credit card activity is the same thing every month with trusted vendors but it's mostly all online activity which doesn't give you all the information you need to clone the card.

Typically I spend cash in restaurants, unless I'm picking up a tab, except a couple of places that I frequent all the time and know the people so it's not much of a risk there, been going there for years.

What possibly happened?

Recently we took a little trip and I've only used the card 3 times in places never before used, which would narrow down the search criteria quite a bit.

However, remember, this is my first ever Visa PayWave card.

I did some checking...

Did you know some claim you can have your RFID card scanned from as far as 20 feet away?

The credit card companies claim you only get the RFID number, not the actual card number, so the limited exposure is only $25 maximum payments using the RFID data.

The hackers disagree claiming some technology such as Amex is more secure than others like MasterCard PayPass.

OK, if the RFID technology is so secure then why was the Discovery Channel strong armed into not airing an episode of Mythbuster's censored by the credit card companies?

The hackers claim all you need is $8 in gear and you can start collecting RFID credit cards.

Therefore, having been burned for the first time EVER with a cloned card, I think I'm going to call the bank and get a new card without this PayWave nonsense because I don't need people scanning my ass to scrape credit cards out of my wallet.

FYI, this was the only RFID card I carry so if they were scanning my ass it makes sense that this was the only card that got cloned.

Why buy MS Office when Open Office is FREE

I've used MS Office products such as Word and Excel for about 20 years now and I've always upgraded to the latest version as needed.

When I got my new computer a few months ago it came preloaded with Office 2007 for a limited trial and guess what?

The trial expired and I didn't purchase.

Nope, I decided to bail on MS Office and try the free OpenOffice and see how it worked before forking over real money for MS Office.

For starters, I'm no longer the power user of MS Office that I used to be and I'm working outside the confines of an office that standardizes on MS Office so it's easy to make the switch.

The only thing I notice is OpenOffice seems slow loading and unloading, but after that it seems to run decent on my computer which is pretty fast.

None of my Excel spreadsheets had any issue being imported into OpenOffice Calc.

The few Powerpoint presentations I have made also imported flawlessly into OpenOffice Impress.

Now most of my Word documents were simple things, short letters, invoices and a business card template, all of which imported flawlessly.

However, I had a couple of manuals that were about 100 pages each which use style sheets and it imported the data just fine but the style sheet layout was lost. If I still had to maintain this publication on an ongoing basis then I would definitely consider getting Word instead of spending a bunch of time reformatting this document and re-inventing the wheel. Of course there may still be a way to properly import the 2 manuals but I didn't look too hard since they aren't very important at the moment.

Overall, for the low end home, student or business user, OpenOffice looks like it will do a great job.

I'll reserve judgment for power use of these applications until after I have to create a new manual or something and experience it's capabilities at a higher level.

Unleash HTC Hero Android's Bar Code Scanner

The purpose of this post is to show people how to improve their marketing efforts to the mobile market and speeding up basic information acquisition such as the URL to your site or your contact data is a major step forward.

How?

The Barcode Scanner!

Many of you are carrying phones around that have bar code scanners built into them and you probably have no clue about the true potential sitting in the palm of your hand.

Most people just imagine scanning UPC codes on products so they can do comparative shopping while standing in a store, but that only scratches the surface of the bar code scanners potential.

Just in case you haven't installed a scanner on your phone yet, the Android Market has a lot of barcode scanners for various applications and you can find them by going into the market and searching for "barcode" to find them.

For the purpose of this blog post, download and install "Barcode Scanner" by ZXing Team which did a lot of work that appears on the Android site.

Now, who knows what a QR code is?

Hardly anyone outside of Japan because that's where the QR code (Quick Response code) was invented by the Denso-Wave corporation in 1994. Now those codes are stamped on almost everything in Japan and almost all the Japanese camera phones can scan them so all you need to do is aim your phone in Japan and get the information in the QR code.

I think we're the Dense Wave here in the US because barely anyone uses the QR codes and they save a ton of typing time on a phone. Aim your camera in scan mode and when the bar code comes into focus the camera goes BEEP and all that typing has been done for you.

What kinds of things can go into a QR code?

• URLs
  
• Email Addresses
  
• Calendar Events
• Contact Information
• Geo Location
• SMS
• Plain Text
• Phone Number

For instance, here's a QR code for the URL of this blog.

To get this URL into your phone requires no typing, just enable the ZXing scanner and aim it at the screen. When it gets the QR code in clear focus it beeps and says "Open in Browser", how easy is that?

Way faster than stumbling around the on screen keyboard.

Just think, you can add a QR code all your web pages in the lower corner to include your URL and Google gives you a free QR Code API for generating these images. Now anyone looking at a web page that wants to put that URL in their phone just scans it in, simple as that.

Looks too complicated?

Not at all, here's the link to display the URL image shown above:

http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=qr&chs=120x120&chl=http%3A%2F%2Fincredibill.blogspot.com

To make life even simpler, the ZXing team put a QR Code Generator on the Google App Engine site that allows you to quickly create anything that their barcode scanner can scan.

Some other companies like BrightKite have already "got it" and they have a QR code for the URL on every page and they even have a direct link to their app in the Android Market!

This is how BrightKite links directly into the Android market search in your phone:

market://search?q=pname:com.brightkite.android

Now let's do something useful with this QR Code stuff, let's encode an entire contact information profile that you can put on your contact us web page, print on the back of your business card, or even print a QR code on a t-shirt and let anyone scan you in person!

Here's a sample contact card that's QR coded:

When you scan the above QR code after the beep it allows you to "Add Contact", "Show Map", "Dial Number" or "Send Email", all useful things to do!

What's all encoded in the above contact image?

John Doe
XYZ Corp.
123 Main Street, Everywhere, MO, USA
555-555-1212
john.doe@example.com
http://www.example.com

That's a lot of information for one little image!

The best part is it's universal information, doesn't require a business card scanner, USB cable or a keyboard to get it into your phone, just a 2 second scan and you're done.

Now that I've hopefully given you some useful information about QR codes, run out there and start putting QR codes on your business cards, web sites, t-shirts, and more.

Be inventive, tattoo your wife's name on your arm in QR code!

Explore the possibilities because I think the market, now armed with all these QR code scanning phones, is ready to be bar coded.

Sprint HTC Hero Android Phone Custom Notification

The only thing I found real difficulty with in it's initial intuitiveness on the Android phone was setting the custom notification sounds for various things to sound unique.

For instance, I have specific inbound emails that come from my alarm monitoring company when a server goes down and I need it to wake up the dead when the alarm goes off not just go "BING!" and go away.

So here's the dirt on making custom ringtones.

Plug your Android phone into the USB cable, mount it, and then create the following top level folders:

/notifications
/ringtones
/alarms

Those folders add new sounds for notifications, ringtones and the alarm clock respectively, just drag and drop your .wav and .mp3 files into these folders and they'll be visible in the list of sounds after you unmount the drive.

I uploaded a few very loud MP3 files and then set each notification accordingly.

To make a custom SMS or email message notification click on:
MESSAGES -> MENU -> SETTINGS -> SELECT SOUND

The files you uploaded into notifications should appear on the list.

Likewise, if you want to make custom gmail notification sounds:
GMAIL -> MENU -> SETTINGS -> SELECT SOUND

The software needs a little work to make this easier or some programmer with time to burn should crank out an app, but at least it can be done with a minimum of fuss.

HTC Hero Android Phone Music Sync

I'm not sure what all the fuss is about not having any software to sync music for the Android.

ADDED: MOUNT ANDROID PHONE FIRST
Many first time users don't seem to know how to make the Android Visible to the PC. Pull down your notifications window on the Android, you should see an entry at the top "USB Connected", touch that then touch "MOUNT" and your PC should be able to see your phone. An auto-play window should pop up on the PC and ask you what to do with this device.

I went into Windows Media Player like I would for any other music player, like my Zen.

Clicked "sync->refresh devices" and it popped up with the "Android Phone" which I added to the devices list.

Then I simply synch'd up my usual play list and it was on the Android in just a couple of minutes, no fuss, no muss, worked first time every time.

Sometimes I think people try to over think shit when the solution has been where it was supposed to be all along.

Sprint HTC Hero : Android Phone or Tricorder?

Just picked up my new HTC Hero phone from Sprint yesterday and it's pretty damn cool all on it's own but after installing a few super cool apps, it's damn near a Star Trek Tricorder!

Why do I equate the HTC Hero to a Tricorder?

Because it interacts with the real world in some amazing ways that are just the beginning of what's to come.

• It can hear and analyze voice and music
• It can see barcodes, do rudimentary iris scans, handwriting IDs and more
• Locates "life signs" with face detection
• Uses GPS to match real time images with maps
  

This is all way cool, it's not just a PDA, it's interactive with the environment and is starting to perform basic analysis of what it sees and hears.

I would suspect in a couple of years or sooner you'll be able to point your Android phone at someone's face and it'll locate them on Facebook, show you their twitter stream and myspace page within seconds and avoid those awkward situations where you can't remember the name of someone you know.

Better yet, for the safety of everyone, especially the children and ladies out on the town alone, it could easily tell you everyone walking nearby that is a sex offender or has a violent criminal record so you can easily avoid these people, tag their GPS location when spotted and alert everyone to be alert.

However, that's not here yet, but it's so close you can almost taste it.

What's here now:

Google Voice Search

The Google Voice Search hears about as well as I do so it gets about 90% of what I say correct but it's amazing, you barely ever need the keyboard.

Got a leak in the kitchen faucet?

Click the little search icon button on the front of Hero, touch the microphone and merely say "plumber" and Google gave me a list of plumbers within miles of my house.

Looking for Pizza? Burgers? anything at all?

Don't type it, just say it.

It's not limited to simple words either, it'll accurately type in a whole sentence but sometimes makes little mistakes like "Deck the halls with bowels of holly".

Voice GPS Navigation

You tell the navigation system where you want to go, it quickly plots a course, and starts audibly and visually telling you how to get to the next leg of your journey.

High traffic volumes and alternate routes are also taken into consideration but I haven't had a chance to use it for more than a couple of rudimentary tests but it was very accurate so far.

Google Mapping and Sprint Navigation Integration Failure

The only thing I'll ding the HTC Hero with, and maybe I just couldn't figure it out yet or maybe there's an app out there that will do this, but Google Maps doesn't appear to pass it's information into Sprint Navigator which is damned annoying and easily fixable.

It just makes sense that when I've already located where I want to go in Google that there would be a smoothly integrated link to Sprint's GPS Navigation system but I sure didn't see it.

Barcode Scanners linked to Product Databases

Possibly the coolest damn thing ever because when we're shopping from home at the computer we can compare prices, read reviews, and basically see if we're getting the best product available with the best price, or not.

When we're shopping in the real world these days it feels like you're naked, you can't look at the reviews, you can't comparison shop, so often we go home and end up getting something drop shipped from Amazon.

Now that's all changed with tools like ShopSavvy that combine bar code readers with online databases where you can compare prices, bundled options, reviews and everything you need to know to make a well informed purchase.

Music Recognition Software

Download the music recognition app Shazam and it can identify the song playing in the background at the local bar or restaurant, assuming it's not too noisy, or the background music on the TV show or movie you're watching or the all too obvious song on the radio.

It has accurately identified almost everything I've thrown at it except some music on the wife's soap opera.

Amazing piece of software, a must have.

Summary

I could go on and on about other apps that also do amazing things but you kind of get the idea.

The HTC Android phone has already transcended just being a device to chat on voice or text into the beginning of a very exciting combination of technologies that allow us to bridge the real world with the wealth of information on the internet.

What we're seeing now is just the beginning, my mind reels with the possibilities, which are virtually unlimited.

We're quickly converging on a single hand held device that is a truly personal digital assistant that can recognize objects, people, places, voices and even function as a universal translator some day real soon.

The next step will be artificial intelligence that filters and prioritizes all this data based on your own personal preferences and then the PDA will reach it's true potential and become invaluable, a device that could initially reshape the retail landscape because price gouging will quickly become a thing of the past.

I'm waiting for the next killer Android mashup app, what will it be?

Screwed of Prize by IMCharity Party

Yeah, that's right, I'm going to rant about a charity party.

However, before I rant, I'm going to 1st say it was REAL FUN and I had a REAL GOOD TIME and I'm wondering why the place wasn't packed way more than it was and where all you cheap SEM/SEO bastards were that could've contributed to the IMCharity?

Anyway, on with the rant...

After shelling out $50 to get inside which is nothing, it's for a good cause, I decide to go crazy and donate another $20 for the raffle which is supposed to give you 20 tickets.

This short little lady who's arms couldn't even hope to be 20 tickets long unrolls a "bunch" of tickets and hands them to me.

She walks away before I realize I've only got 18 tickets, not the 20 for $20 she advertised. How fucking hard is it to count out 5 and then fold them over 4 times for 20 tickets? It's not, it's easy peasy and quick.

Sure enough, the 20th fucking ticket won a prize and some other cocksucker had my mother fucking ticket!

I didn't actually want the prize, probably would've given it to a friend at the party, but the point was I wanted to WIN the fucking prize in order to give it to the friend!

$20 for 18 tickets, what the fuck!

They raised over $10,000 for Doctors Without Borders and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

That's wonderful work, but I still want my other 2 tickets which had the fucking winning goddamn ticket!

Hell, isn't it bad enough I actually have Lymphoma that I then get shorted 2 fucking tickets?

Anyway, great party, had a blast, even if I didn't get all my goddamn winning mother fucking tickets.

See you all at the next IM Charity! ;)

Alexa The Texting Sewer Diving Moron

A manhole cover left off and a stupid girl texting without watching where she's going meet their shared destiny in one smelly misstep.

I'll agree that the city employee that left the manhole cover off needs to be taken out behind the woodshed and let his Grandmother beat the shit out of him with a belt for doing something so stupid.

However, Alexa bears some blame here too walking around not paying attention to where she's going.

Who would they sue if she stepped in front of a bus and had to be scraped off?

I'm sorry, but both were at fault here and BOTH of them should be punished.

Stupid Alexa shouldn't profit from being to fucking stupid to not watch where she's going.

That's my opinion, what's yours?

If you don't agree with mine, I don't fucking care, piss off.

NEXT WEEK: Alexa still texting falls face first in newly poured wet cement sidewalk and becomes a statue.