This is the website of Abulsme Noibatno Itramne (also known as Sam Minter).
Posts here are rare these days. For current stuff, follow me on Mastodon
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Bleh, it seems the replacement phone they gave me, despite being “Bright and Shiny” has this problem. Basically the accelerometer’s notion of “down” is off by about five degrees from the real “down”. Which makes using any app that relies on knowing how the phone is oriented somewhat more difficult than it should be. OK, fine, this means mostly games. I realized something was amiss when I tried to play a game or two of Doodle Jump and it kept not going straight when the phone was straight. It made it really hard to play. Of course, there are also some serious and important reasons why this is a problem, like, well, like… well, I’m sure there is something.
From what I’ve found online, the only fix here is to take the phone to be replaced. Since they just gave me this one less than 10 hours ago, I presume that won’t be a problem other than the annoyance of taking it in and then having to restore from backup yet again.
But still. Bleh. Guess I’m making another trip to the Apple Store sometime in the next 18 hours or so. Sigh.
I have been neglectful. Way back in June I made a post titled “iPhone 3.0 Bug with Shuffled Podcasts“. In a subsequent iPhone software update I noticed that they had fixed part of the problem, but didn’t post. Then in a second update, they seemed to have fixed almost all of the problem. (Although I still notice that my playlist full of podcasts doesn’t retain the order I have it in on the iTunes side.) Basically, it all works again. Although on a couple of occasions I’ve noticed it not seeming to work, but I think that may be when I’ve had syncs that got stopped before they were done. Anyway, the last update which seemed to have an effect on this was just after Alex was born, so I was a bit distracted and never posted about this. Anyway, thank you Apple for fixing this. Much appreciated. :-)
Along the same lines as my last post, my dad sent me a note recently letting me know that my stepmom Cathy has been contributing lately to a site called Suite101.com. You can see all of her articles here. Here is a bit from the most recent:
AIDS Funding Scandal in Washington, DC: City to Investigate Waste and Abuse by AIDS Groups
(Cathy Sunshine, Suite101.com, 5 Nov 2009)
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The District government has drawn praise for expanding HIV testing and needle exchange programs. But widespread anger has greeted recent revelations that the city paid millions of dollars to nonprofit groups that in many cases delivered poor-quality services, or no services at all, to residents suffering from AIDS.
In October 2009, the Washington Post revealed the findings of a 10-month investigation into DC government funding of nonprofit groups that serve people with AIDS. “Wasting Away: The Squandering of D.C. AIDS Dollars” documented widespread fraud, waste, and abuse.
The newspaper reported that from 2004 to 2008, the D.C. Health Department’s HIV/AIDS Administration awarded grants to more than 90 organizations, mostly with federal AIDS dollars. The investigation found that about a third of these groups had serious deficiencies in their service provision and business practices. Many of the most troubled groups were supposed to provide housing for people with AIDS in the poorest wards of the city.
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I’ve of course added the RSS feed of her articles to my Google Reader subscriptions. Looks like she is writing on a variety of topics, from restaurants to the zoo to AIDS to the Peace Corps. Should be interesting to read. :-)
I try to point out when I see items by relatives or friends. Here is one from a cousin of mine on Huffington Post:
Note to Assignment Editor: Not Your Dad’s National Security Establishment
(Heather Hurlburt, Huffington Post, 5 Nov 2009)
I’m getting a little exhausted with reading assessments of President Obama and his team’s first year that feature ten white men (own it, National Journal), or six male “experts” including the writer, President Obama and John Bolton (that’s you, Politico). Foreign Policy “wins” this sorry competition with a roster that is less than 25% female and 20% minority voices.
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So I set myself a little test. Could I come up with a truly great list of names – people whose assessments of the Administration I’d read, and twitter, and link to – that flipped this balance? And, just to make it harder, could I do it without Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell, and Condoleezza Rice?
…
I saw this on Facebook from Heather, then I saw it in Google Reader from my Huffington Post RSS feed and marked it as something I wanted to post later, then after that I got a note from my mother also pointing me at it. So I figured I should go ahead and get it posted. :-)
One question though… Heather, where are you twittering? I couldn’t find you with a simple search on Twitter. :-)
So in regard to the iPhone problems I described here… we finally went to the Apple Store Genius Bar about 40 minutes ago. After doing a full system restore to factory state first to make sure it wasn’t a software problem… it wasn’t, duh… the problem showed it’s face again in under 10 minutes… they decided to call it a battery issue and swapped me out with a bright shiny (OK, probably refurbished, but brighter and shiner than what I went in with) replacement phone. They charged us $79, which was less than I expected.
So as soon as I get home and do a restore from my last backup, my phone should be in better shape than it has been in a long time. Woo. I can live with that.
| In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…
Sam talks about:
- GPS Developments
- Falling Back
- Random Stuffs
Just click to listen now:
[wpaudio url=”http://www.abulsme.com/CurmudgeonsCorner/CC20091102.mp3″ text=”Recorded 2 Nov 2009″]
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Be scared. This stuff has been bubbling under the radar for awhile. The DMCA passed in the late 90’s with broad bipartisan support in congress (it was actually unanimous in the Senate). It has been overall a horrible thing. If this ACTA stuff ends up getting into law in anything resembling these leaks, it will be much worse. So far though, I haven’t seen any of the revulsion at these kinds of things that one sees online translate into any actual resistance to these sorts of things by the people in government who will actually end up deciding what happens.
Leaked ACTA Internet Provisions: Three Strikes and a Global DMCA
(Gwen Hinze, EFF, 3 Nov 2009)
Negotiations on the highly controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement start in a few hours in Seoul, South Korea. This week’s closed negotiations will focus on “enforcement in the digital environment.” Negotiators will be discussing the Internet provisions drafted by the US government. No text has been officially released but as Professor Michael Geist and IDG are reporting, leaks have surfaced. The leaks confirm everything that we feared about the secret ACTA negotiations. The Internet provisions have nothing to do with addressing counterfeit products, but are all about imposing a set of copyright industry demands on the global Internet, including obligations on ISPs to adopt Three Strikes Internet disconnection policies, and a global expansion of DMCA-style TPM laws.
Still waiting to see actual Pirate Party candidates on any of my ballots. They will probably instantly get my vote as long as they aren’t otherwise complete nutjobs. Which knowing small third parties in the US, they probably will be. But I can hope.
My iPhone 3G now only works when it plugged into a power source. The rest of the time it reboots every few seconds (not long enough to actually finish booting) until it runs out of battery.
Sometimes after having been plugged in for awhile it will be ok for up to half an hour before it starts the rebooting thing. Sometimes. Not usually.
But it works fine as long as it is plugged in. Joy. I always wanted a cellphone that only worked when attached by a cord to a power source. Wonderful.
Of course I went out of warentee a couple of months ago and had neglected to get AppleCare. Bleh.
Maybe it will magically fix itself if I bash it a few times with a rock.
Or not.
Well, I’m home. Time to crank out the rest of these.
City of Bellevue Council Position No. 7
Three candidates. Once again, son’t we have primaries to make it only two? Bleh. Lets see… Mike Creighton: Is he related to the guy on the Ports ballot? Retired Insurance Salesman. Served on the School Board and City Council, and was Mayor for awhile. He is the incumbent, having been appointed to fill a vacant position. Robertson: Has been on various planning commissions, including relating to light rail. Low tax advocate. Finley: Small business owner. For neighborhoods and stuff. Blank website. (At least in Safari.) Looking through stuff, I think I’m leaning toward Robertson. So I will vote for JENNIFER ROBERTSON.
Bellevue School District No. 405 Director District No. 3
One candidate. Chris Marks. Sorry Chris, out of my objection to candidates with no opposition I will be writing myself in. So I vote for SAMUEL MINTER.
Bellevue School District No. 405 Director District No. 5
Two candidates. Mann: For parent, teacher and community involvement in school decisions. Local standards and a lot of happy fluffy stuff. All about accountability and accessibility. Mills: Has been on school board for eight years. Says the schools are really good, but there is still work to be done. His website was done by students, but isn’t as good as the one done by that other candidate’s kid. Anyway, Mills didn’t have much to say about what he would actually do, what his principals were or whatnot. Mann was pretty vague, but I liked the things she did say. I will vote for PATTI MANN.
Public Hospital District No. 1 Commissioner District No. 2
I don’t even know what this office is. But there is only one candidate, Carolyn V. Parnell. She may be great. But she shouldn’t be unopposed. I will write myself in. My vote goes to SAMUEL MINTER.
Public Hospital District No. 1 Commissioner District No. 4
First of all, this appears to be about the administration of a hospital and other facilities in Renton. Don’t know why these are elected positions, even if it is the regional public hospital. It just seems strange. OK, two candidates. Miller: Incumbent. He’s a VP at a bank. Degree in business. Bunch of endorsements. Heide: He is a Doctor. Founded a Stroke Center. Running on a change platform to clean up problems he sees. I think on balance I like what I see ftom Heide. I will vote for AARON HEIDE.
OK. That is it. Time to fold it all up, shove it in the envelope, and since it is too late to mail it, head to the collection center at a local mall and drop it off in the big mailbox looking thing.
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