In my criminal law and procedures class we argue real-life cases as prosecutors and criminal defense lawyers. Everybody is enthusiastic and gets involved.

In my environmental sciences class the professor made us argue about NO_x emissions. The class was unenthusiastic (to say the least) and few people involved themselves.

Does that mean the future leaders of tomorrow really do not care about the environment or did we all just have a case of the Monday’s?

You be the judge.

Labels: class, environment, mini-blog

Yes, this is another politically-motivated post. I am sorry. Soon this whole election ordeal will be over and you will no longer have to listen to the blather coming from me and millions of others on "Who's the better candidate?" and stories about "Joe the Plumber."

As I am so inclined to do, this is my attempt to convince you that once again, Obama is the better candidate in all areas. This time, I am tackling the topic of technology which is a part of our lives that will likely never go away and gains importance with every coming day. You probably are not surprised to find that both candidates have a very detailed section about technology on the "issues" sections of their websites. Rightfully so, because technology, its use, its governance, and its improvement are very important issues that the government should be involved with. What you may be surprised about is that both candidates are quite similar in their stances on technology-related issues. So what defines Obama as the better candidate over McCain?

Technology Use
That is a big one. Obama is not just talking about technology, he is USING it. His website is probably the most comprehensive and well-designed websites of any candidate ever to run for President of the United States. I suppose that is a tad unfair to compare the websites of past Presidential candidates to Obama's because technology changes everyday. He is, however, making full use of all his technological resources. Beyond his website lies his development and implementation of an online community for supporters to organize and gather resources to inform others as well as his EXTENSIVE use of one of today's most popular technologies, SMS (or text messaging). I can personally attest to his use of SMS because I normally receive two or three messages a day about campaign events. And finally, let us not forget of Obama's iPhone/iPod Touch application that still ranks one of the highest downloaded and most popular FREE applications in Apple's App Store.

Essentially, Obama is willing to put his trust in the use of technology and that is what appeals to me. He recognizes the value of using technology in his campaign to inform people. One cannot possibly say the same about McCain. He is an older candidate and thus not only knows less about technology (I may be stereotyping just a little), but is less willing to put his trust in it and value its usefulness in campaign matters. I refuse to vote for a candidate that fails to realize how important technology is in our lives and I believe McCain has expressed that failure.

The F.C.C. (add an emphasis of DOOM)
You likely are not familiar with the Federal Communications Commission. I will spare you my explanation of them because I am not to fond of them and it just would not be a nice thing. Do some research of your own and see how you feel.

All I want to say here is that I believe Obama recognizes that the FCC has numerous conflicts of interest that affect their abilities to fairly and justly make decisions. One example that comes to mind is the 700-MHz band issue from a year or so ago. The FCC decided that it would auction it off the 700-MHz band in blocks. Unsurprisingly, Verizon Wireless bought the largest section of the band for $4.74 billion. This was wrong and as an Amateur Radio enthusiast, I think that FCC made a huge mistake by doing this. Obama shares the same opinion and wants to review that decision. This, I think, shows that Obama is genuinely concerned with the procedures and policies of the FCC. And as I have expressed in the past to many people, the FCC needs a major overhaul because its members are influenced way too much by people with money that force them to make poor decisions.

Conclusion
I think Obama's appeal to me in the area of technology is that he not only can talk the talk, but he appears to be walking the walk. He is specific in his issues and has choosen the right issues to tackle. His use of technology in his campaign demonstrates his ability to put his trust in technology and value its usefulness in the lives of the American people. Technology is an issue that cannot be ignored and Obama recognizes this. That is why he is, in my opinion, the better candidate.

Labels: amateur radio, politics, technology

Note: This is not a comprehensive review. A quick search on Google will point you in the right direction for one of those. These are simply my first impressions and gripes about the iPod Touch after the first few weeks of use.

As promised via Twitter, this is my official review of Apple's iPod Touch. If you happened to read that twit, you would know that my initial response to the Touch was nothing short of ecstatic. But I wanted to give myself a few weeks of use before I wrote the review to see if my feelings had changed. I am happy to report that overall my feelings for my new toy have remained the same. There are a few exceptions, however, and I will get to those later.

Ordering and Shipping
I decided to order my Touch online through Apple's store. My main reason was this: I simply could not find a Touch ANYWHERE in Bloomington. I looked at Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target, and Staples. They all told me pretty much the same thing: small shipments come about once every three weeks and they are all gone within a few hours. I was not about to wait three weeks to get my Touch. What true nerd would? So I ventured to Apple's website to discover that not only would ordering it there be approximately the same cost as buying it in a store (with expedited shipping, too), but you could get two lines of text laser-etched onto your Touch for FREE! I was sold. A few clicks later and it was ordered.

Shipping, however, was a little worrisome. When it finally shipped out Monday morning and I got the tracking information, I saw that it was coming from China. "Oh, boy," I thought, " this is going to take forever." Even with the expedited shipping that I paid $10 for I imagined that it would take somewhere close to five or six days to get here, because with my luck surely it would get lost enroute. Much to my surprise, I came back from class on Wednesday and there sat my wonderful FedEx package from Apple between my door.

On a side note, be sure to notice that Apple requires you to sign for your package unless it is shipped via the U.S. Postal Service. In most cases, the package is going to be shipped via FedEx and they will require a signature. The good thing is that Apple gives you an option to fill out a release so that you need not be present to sign for the package when it arrives. Please note, however, that this release will release Apple and FedEx from any liability if your package is lost, stolen, damaged, etc. after it is delivered. If you are going this route, make sure you have a secure place the package can be left.

First Glance
I was like a little kid at Christmas as I was opening up the box. When I finally got it out, I was simply amazed at how small Apple has designed these things. My car key is thicker than this thing and it doesn't play music or have Wi-Fi. So simply put, I was satisifed with the product I had received. But wait, I got it laser-etched. How did that turn out? The answer: perfect. Just look at the picture.

First Use
Setup was a little daunting at first. Either it was an anomoly or my inability to use the Touch, but for some reason it would not turn on until I connected it to my computer and let iTunes do its thing. The battery was almost fully charged so that was not the problem. After it finally did boot up, however, things went much smoother. It connected to my wireless router with NO problem and I was surfing the internet using Safari and checking my e-mail in no time. If you do not know what you are doing, Apple makes wireless and e-mail setup very easy, but there are also advanced options for the more experienced users.

Okay, so what else can this thing do? I decided to take a look at the App Store to see what kind of good things Apple and other third-party developers have cooked up. I was a little disappointed to see that most of the desirable apps were either designed strictly for the iPhone (because it has GPS cabability) or cost an ungodly amount of money that I refuse to pay. (Yes, to me $0.99 is an ungodly amount of money.) Do not let this lead you astray, however, because there are some quality apps in the App Store that are not only free, but work tremendously well on the Touch. Not to mention that the majority of today's web apps have designed a special version for the iPhone and iPod Touch so that you can do everything you need to from the Touch's Safari browser.

My biggest disappointment was the lack of free Google apps. I expected Google to have developed so many apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch that I would be so overwhelmed my head might explode. Then I remembered that Google is focusing most of their mobile applications attention on Android and I was no longer shocked that more Google apps did not exist.

Downfalls
So far, I am not impressed with the Touch's battery life AT ALL. I have found that shutting it completely off will give you a few days of battery life as compared to a few hours if you just push the little power button on top. But who wants to do that? I do not want to wait a whole minute everytime I want to check my e-mail for the Touch to boot up. I am not sure what the deal is, but I know the battery has had plently of time to "condition" itself. I need to do a little reading and see what other users are experiencing.

Another downfall I noticed, and this goes for all Apple iPod products, is that the damn chrome finish scratches so easy. My video iPod that I have only had for two or three years looks like it has been through hell and back and has been dropped on every concrete and asphault surface along the way. The Touch is no different. I have only had it for three weeks now and it already looks miserable. I finally bought a case for it, but the damage that is there is already done. I think it may be time for Apple to reconsider the design of the back of their iPod products.

And finally, I am terribly disappointed in the availability of third-party add-on hardware. It appears that when the first generation of Touch's came out there was the ability to re-flash them with some custom software that added the ability to do certain things that a stock Touch could not do. This of course opened the doors to developing hardware add-ons that could be used with custom software. Apparently this functionality seems to have disappeared with the release of the second generation Touch and the opening of the App Store. I feel that this is a big mistake on Apple's part because they could be profiting quite significantly if they let developers access certain elements of the Touch (such as application access to the I/O of the Touch). Maybe this will change in the future, but until then that means no external GPS for location tracking applications.

Conclusion
I absoutely love this thing. To be perfectly honest, I bought this more for its quasi-ability to be a PDA. I could not care less about the music or anything of that sort. And to your surprise, I have not even put music on the Touch yet. I have over 5 GB of music on my desktop and not 1 MB has made it onto my Touch. At some point in time, I will put music on it and might review the quality of sound and video, but right now, I am more concerned with its PDA capabilities.

Labels: hardware, technology

Let's start something new. Let's document personality types that I notice in my everyday life. After all this blog is about my daily life, right? To keep these interesting, however, I shall only document the types that overly annoy me.

For this first issue I would like to tell you about the "talk out loud in an attempt to draw your attention and illicit a response from you" person. This person doesn't have the people skills to start a conversation with you so they'll do whatever they can to draw your attention to what they want to talk about without directly talking to you. Lots of exclamations and puzzling statements come from this person's mouth. Things like "Wow" and "I just don't understand this" and "How does that make any sense" are very common. They expect the other party to typically respond with a simple "What?" and that is how the conversation begins. Often these conversations are not of benefit to either party, but the conversation starter probably likes to hear himself/herself talk out loud.

I'm sure all of us are guilty of exhibiting this type of annoying trait every now and then, but this post is dedicated to those that exhibit this trait as their dominant personality. Learn some people skills. If you want to talk to me, talk to me. Don't try to draw my attention using this method. I usually ignore these people because I don't consider myself a fish and you are simply trying to use bait to draw me in.

More to come soon.

Labels: rants

This is a brief response to my friend Aaron's post about the possibility of a new civil rights movement. Check his post out at http://ethridgea.blogspot.com/2008/04/new-civil-rights-movement.html.

I had the opportunity to go and listen to Dr. Michael Eric Dyson speak in February during Black History Month. I would like to recommend that anyone who has the opportunity to hear him speak do so as many times as possible. He delivers a great message no matter what he's talking about and he always brings a humorous side to things that provides the audience with plenty of laughter.

Getting back to the matter at hand, Dr. Dyson provided an interesting message during his talk in February. He pointed out that today's prominent black hip-hop and rap artists don't deliver any quality lyrics, and for that matter quality messages or lessons, in their songs. I agree. His three examples were the following:

• Snoop Dogg constantly raps about smoking weed and fighting authority figures (police officers)
• 50 Cent, who's been shot approximately nine times, just doesn't get the message that his music isn't liked and that he needs to get out of the business while he's still ahead
• and finally, Soulja Boy Tell 'Em is a poor excuse for a rapper with his hit Crank That which speaks about a lewd sexual act that takes place after a guy, presumably Soulja Boy himself, gets rejected by a girl

Dyson hit the nail on the head. None of these songs speak strongly about an important social issue that is currently affecting the black community. The microphones are in the wrong hands.

I think Dyson may have been hinting to the issue of a new civil rights movement and how there is no motivation from prominent black entertainers to bring something like this about. Aaron is right about the nonexistence of a prominent black leader, but what the black community also lacks are prominent black entertainers that will use their talents to speak to the masses.

Labels: social issues

Well, I did it again. Another 5K (3.1 miles). This time my goal was to run it in under 25 minutes. Unfortunately I didn't accomplish that, but I did improve my time from the previous time.

Labels: running

This is a topic I've wanted to write about for a long time. Recently I've been feeling even more strongly about it because of some things that I've heard from people that I am relatively close to. It bothers me to hear what they say sometimes.

Let me also say that I am not a racist. I come from a small, rural county in Indiana that doesn't have a large population of black families. That, however, doesn't automatically make me a racist or a future member of the Klan. In addition, I think that racism is still a big problem in this country. Sure we don't have the problems we used to back in the 1960's or during the era of slavery, but it still is a problem. Furthermore, I think the government is contributing to the problem by creating policies and legislation such as affirmative action. That just opens the door to a long list of future problems.

I've noticed that wealth and social class come into play when individuals decide to refer to blacks and other racial/ethnic groups in an inappropriate fashion. For example, you will never hear my friends call a famous rapper or hip-hop artist the infamous "N" word, but if the individual they are referring to is black and not famous, let that word fly. I don't agree with that at all. Social class, status, and wealth trump all, including race. How does that make sense?

Another instance was when I was at a family function and overheard a discussion on politics. One individual stated, "We have a woman and a n------ running for President. I'm voting Republican." So in this instance, race is the determining factor of who will be the next President of the United States. Who cares if Obama's healthcare plan is better than McCain's, he's black so we can't vote for him.

These people need to wake up. The United States has long been known as the melting pot of the world. We have the most diverse population of any country in the world with races, religions, and ethnic groups from all around the globe. And the melting pot is only going to get bigger and more diverse. It is time to get out of the pre-1960s mindset and move into the 21st Century. I can understand that a little of this has to do with how these people were raised, but I've adapted to many things that conflict with how I was raised and I'm doing just fine. I don't think it's a matter of not being able to do it, I think it's a matter of not WANTING to do it. Too bad. Do it anyways. Or live your life in constant fear, hate, and violence.

Labels: politics, social issues

If you assume that:

• All white women will vote for Hillary Clinton
• All black voters will vote for Barack Obama
• All other voters will vote for a Republican candidate

Then this race becomes something based on statistics of voter populations. Obviously the above statements aren't completely true, but if the numbers were to decrease by half, then the situation only gets worse. Think about it. If instead of all white women voting for Clinton only white Democratic women vote for her, she stands less of a chance of getting elected. The same goes for Obama. If instead of all black voters Obama only had the support of black Democratic voters, his chances of a term in the Oval Office are significantly reduced.

Fortunately, Democrats have the following working for them:

• A strong desire to end the War in Iraq and bring American troops home.
• Bringing universal health care to the United States and its citizens
• Reforming education policy and ridding our country of the awful "No Child Left Behind" act

I don't know if that's enough to ensure a Democratic win in the November election, but to me it is plenty convincing. Chelsea Clinton did a decent job convincing me as well when she spoke at a campaign rally for her mother in the Grand Foyer at Indiana University's Auditorium on Monday, March 24. I had the privilege of listening to her and Sean Astin speak to a crowd of approximately 400 people.

Labels: politics

I just finished writing the following memo about special admission practices at public universities for a national and international policy class. These practices typically involve admitting students who are children of alumni or are of a specific race or ethnic group. My first instinct when told I had to pick a side was to say abolish these practices and use admission standards that revolve around merit. After reading a few things, however, I convinced myself otherwise. If you think about it, merit-based standards are no more "standard" than your routine doctor visit. (Maybe a bad comparison.) In addition, as I point out in my paper, student diversity and institutional financial security depend greatly on these special admission practices and standards. I would just like to point out that I think the majority of admitted students should be admitted because they deserve it based on their academics and involvement in their community, but I can understand why some universities need to admit students (who are likely good students and involved in the community anyways) that have parents who will contribute a good amount of money in addition to tuition to the university.

Labels: homework

Yes, yes. Long time no post. My apologies. I just finished up my first semester at Indiana University and the past week has presented many challenges including, but not limited to: seven hours of sleep over a three day time period, a cold that would make anyone was to curl up in a ball and die, and finals that present themselves as extremely hard and surprisingly turn out to be easy.

But, here I am. Lucky you. This shall be a post about all things random that I have been thinking lately.

With so many services for different things like e-mail, calendaring, social networking, picture sharing, etc. it gets a little hard to manage it all. Google (with the exception of social networking which I actually think they are working on) combines all of these services, but I don't really like Gmail or Picasa Web Albums. So here's the new layout... I'm continuing to use Blogger for my blog (obviously) and I've started using Flickr for my non-personal pictures that I take (my experiments with my amateur photography skills). I continue to use Outlook Web Access for my e-mail and Facebook for my personal pictures that include friends.

Personally, I feel that it is TOO complicated. In a perfect world all of these services would either be provided by one company and could easy integrate into any program that I needed them to or the services could remain separate but would still integrate easily with other programs or services. Unfortunately, this world isn't perfect.

Off that and on to another, the Live! section on my website now includes some real content. The live audio and video will come online very sporadically, and I'm still working on the live location portion, but the calendar is definitely up-to-date. Check it out.

Until next time.

Labels: promotional, website