For the past 15 months, I have been a happy Palm Pre owner. WebOS is a pretty good OS and showed much promise. I loved that it was Linux and open. Sadly, WebOS didn’t take off at all and even though HP has picked up the torch from Palm, it still doesn’t seem to be gaining any momentum. Being a Sprint customer – since they are not interested in keeping the Pre – this means that when I upgrade I need to go to an Android phone, or a Windows phone since I want to have a smartphone and I’m not interested in switching carriers. Well, that’s a no-brainer…Android it is.
The biggest reason I decided to shop for another phone is that I wanted Mobile Hotspot functionality. The Pre Plus on Verizon has it; the Pre on Sprint doesn’t. Currently, Sprint has 3 phones that offer that capability. The HTC Evo, the Samsung Epic and the LG Opitmus S. Continue Reading »
Around my house, we don’t really celebrate holidays. We’re not curmudgeonly or anything like that, we just don’t. Both of our families live quite a ways away anyway, with mine scattered all over the US and we don’t have kids, so we pretty much treat the holidays as extra days off. I’m good with that.
As today is Thanksgiving in the United States, and even though we aren’t gorging on turkey and pumpkin pie (my waistline is ever thankful for that), I thought I would take a few moments and write about some of the things I am thankful for. Continue Reading »
The new Symphony of Science video is up — and it has many of my favorite skeptics & scientists in it! Carl Sagan, James Randi, Richard Dawkins and the Bad Astronomer himself! I think this is my favorite one yet.
30 years ago, Carl Sagan and PBS launched the Cosmos TV series and changed the way a generation of kids – my generation – saw the universe and themselves. Cosmos remains among my favorite series, and even though the effects are quite outdated by current standards, the information has mostly withstood the test of time. On the DVDs, where new or better information has been uncovered, it has been added – either by text or an update segment.
Cosmos is available on Hulu. If you haven’t seen it – or even if you have – I highly recommend it. More than highly, actually. Carl Sagan was a hero of mine and it is in no small part because of him that I am who I am and I am ever grateful.
Oh, and CFI has some new goodies in their store just for the 30th anniversary of Cosmos — handmade necklaces by Surly Amy of Surlyramics! You know you want one. I want them all, but stopped myself at two..
Also, November 9th is Carl Sagan Day. I wonder if anything is going on around here in celebration…
So, anyway, Happy Birthday Cosmos!! And thank you Carl Sagan!
A few weeks ago I got my very first Kindle. I had been wanting one since the first generation Kindle came out in 2007. Alas, it was priced way outside my discretionary spending zone. So, I looked on in envy to those folks I knew that had one. Finally, with the Kindle 3, came affordability, along with a stylish graphite color. I bought the wi-fi only edition at $139 and it is worth every penny.
I was a little concerned when I ordered it that it would end up being another gadget that I rarely used; I love gadgets, but have a tendency to tire of them fairly quickly. Very few of the gadgets that I have bought over the years have withstood the test of time. I needn’t have worried, though, I *heart* my Kindle and wonder how I managed to go so long without owning one. Continue Reading »
It’s been awhile since I’ve blogged, but I could not pass this up – although it has taken me a little longer to get to it than I would have liked. Rightfully, Judge Vaughn Walker, a federal judge in San Francisco, struck down Proposition 8 for being unconstitutional and I applaud him for doing so. Seriously, I did my happy dance. The law was unconstitutional and it never should have been on the ballot to begin with. I hope to see marriage available to all consenting adults nationwide in the near future.
Same-sex marriage will not threaten anyone’s marriage. It will not threaten families. What it will do is allow people – regardless of gender – to build families; to have all the rights and privileges that being married allows (medical rights, estate rights, etc) — to have the same rights as the rest of us have. Someone please explain to me how that threatens my marriage to my husband.
What I see every time a state comes to its senses and makes marriage available to all consenting adults is an outpouring of love and happiness from those that can can now celebrate their unions. It’s beautiful. And it’s worth celebrating.
I know I’ve been heavy on the video sharing of late and light on actual blogging. I’m in my summer “not much to say” thing, but I enjoy Symphony of Science and wanted to share. I hope you enjoy!
Here is (yet another) brilliant talk by my favorite particle physicist, Brian Cox, on why we need to fund curiosity driven science & exploration, even in difficult economic times. It’s 17 minutes very well spent. I watched this video over at Bad Astronomy, which is one of my favorite places on these interwebs. I do hope you enjoy this video as much as I.
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