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Why I will never own anything Apple!

Trail Boss — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 23:21:43 +0000

Apple won a decision today from the ITC in its suit against HTC. The complaint, being able to click on phone numbers or dates from the touch screen to make calls or open calendars.

Now I’m not a wizard when it comes to programming, but its not hard to write applications that look for dates and phone numbers, and hook an application api to call an app specific function. And I am sure there are several different ways to code it.

HTC already has 4G, faster CPUs, and just an all around better interface. But Apple would rather litigate than innovate. Granted,the iPhone was a marvel when it came out, but how many years ago was that.

But, I have never liked Apple, probably for the same reasons I don’t like Microsoft. Scratch that, there are many more reasons to loathe Microsoft. But back to the original point, Apple has always been riddled with proprietary hardware, multimedia codecs, and other software. Case in point, we still have not found a way to get music on my son’s Ipad2 yet, (which I did not purchase for him) short of jail breaking it. And I am not about to build a Windows PC just to put itunes on it so we can transfer his Amazon and Walmart MP3s.

Blogging from the bus…

Trail Boss — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 18:54:38 +0000

I am on a long contract in the Medical Center, so I am taking the opportunity to check out our Houston Metro. I have not used our Park and Ride for several years, so I used the Metro website to plan my trip, they weren’t even close. After walking around downtown to find my stop, I missed the last Park and Ride. Fortunately there was an express that was still running. This morning I got off a the recommended stop, I found a closer one this afternoon.

Overall not bad, once I get settled into the routine.

The Left Coast

Trail Boss — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 03:25:19 +0000

I’ve never been to California, but I just spent my first week there. I made my travel and accomodation arrangements so I could make use of the bus and light rail system. The Valley Transit Authority has assembled a much better solution than our Houston Metro system. I was able to get most everywhere I needed to go in a reasonable amount of time. But like our Houston light rail, no one uses it here either. This surprised me, after all, this is the state known for its leftist and environmental extremists. Every other car had some sort of green initiative sticker on it, and usually only had one occupant, the driver. So in the typical left coast fashion, they want us all to use public transportation, but won’t use it themselves. I did see some folks out commuting on their bikes. Given the climate and gas prices, if I lived there, that would be my choice. I was also surprised how dirty Sunnyvale was. there was trash everywhere.

San Houston Area Council’s Soggy Scout Fair…

Trail Boss — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:02:18 +0000

Three inches of rain and winds at 31 Mph gusting to 36 Mph made for a very soggy Scout Fair this year. It rained for the better part of the day, soaking all of the Scouts that braved the weather and setup their outdoor exhibits. Needless to say, attendance was down a little bit this year. There we still plenty of things to do inside the Reliant Arena, and for the most part, a majority of the booths were occupied.

Our Troop built our annual structure, despite the rain, and occasional interuptions of lighting that made us hve to seek shelter inside. But it has never been said of our Troop that we are or have ever been “fair weather” scouts. Kudos to everyone who participated, and attended in spite of the weather.

Lunar Conjunction

Trail Boss — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:11:44 +0000

If you were out in the early eveneing on Monday December 1st, you would have been able to see the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter in the night sky. I noticed it coming back from our barn after feeding the horses.