The case for the UFO – a delicious conspiracy

Its the title from a strange and bizarre book I have never read, and I may never read it. The odd stories and conspiracy surrounding this thing are way out there, enough so that I don’t want any spooks poking around in my digital life. 

So why then am I writing this blog post about it?  Well – I have to admit that I love a good conspiracy theory and there is something greatly fascinating about the idea of Aliens and Stargates.  In addition, all of this has been the subject of at least one the Podcasts that Greg and I did some time ago.  To that end I was in a funny mood this AM and poked around Google to find links to a really interesting entry on the web site for  the “DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY OFFICE OF NAVAL RESEARCH“.  It discusses the the Philadelphia experiment  and contains the following quote:

… ” Two officers, then assigned to ONR, took a personal interest in the book and showed it to Jessup. Jessup concluded that the writer of those comments on his book was the same person who had written him about the Philadelphia Experiment. These two officers personally had the book retyped and arranged for the reprint, in typewritten form, of 25 copies. The officers and their personal belongings have left ONR many years ago, and ONR does not have a file copy of the annotated book. ” …

Odd – why would two officers in the ONR take an interest in the book?

Anyway, you can follow the same trail but starting out at the following link:

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-e/de173.htm

 

and

 

http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq21-1.htm

 

Hope you enjoy a really good conspiracy theory, because the stories behind the Philadelphia experiment have it all! 

 

Enjoy,

-Keith

Rocking The Zune Headphones

I recently traded in my old Sony headphones for a pair of the new Zune headphones. For $40.00 I must admit they are very nice.

Their level of “attention to detail” is mind blowing. For example they put magnets in the rear of each headphone to help them draw toward each other which keeps them from tangling up. Instead of a plastic or rubber coating to the wire they cover all exposed wiring with a fabric material which gives it a unique look and also keeps tangling at a minimum.

The sound is awesome too! It had very good bass response, which is a must. They are the “in your ear” type headphone so they have good passive sound isolation.

I think for 40 bones they are excellent and I highly recommend them. Maybe the people that design the headphones will take over the Zune software design department…very soon.

-Chris
This entire post was constructed on my Apple iPod Touch…talk about geeky!

Watch Netflix on your Xbox 360

Ok – I am running MyNetflix on my Windows Media Center PC, but I also own an Xbox 360 and this is awesome news.  Soon I will be able to watch Netflix on my 360.

“At E3, Microsoft and Netflix, the world’s largest online movie rental service, today unveiled an exclusive partnership to offer the ability to instantly stream movies and TV episodes from Netflix to your television via Xbox 360®.”

Get the full story:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/events/e32008/articles/0714-netflixteamup.htm

 

I can’t wait!

-Keith

Monkey Ball on the Touch 2.0

Well my exposure to the new 2.0 software on the Touch continues and what an adventure it has been. As soon as I upgraded I wanted to try one of the new applications so I bought the popular Sega © Monkey Ball. The game looks like it could be fun but when I tried to sync with my Touch, iTunes would just say “The application “Monkey Ball” was not installed on the iPod “Touch iPod” because an unknown error occurred (0xE8000013)”. I reported that problem to Apple today and all they could say (via their web site/iTunes) was the problem was noted but if I wanted support I would have to go to the application developer. Well isn’t that just great!!! The problem seems to be a sync’ing issue not the applications running. Apple is getting very good at pointing the finger at someone else these days.

So I went to the Sega website and created an account and look in their FAQs and forums. They recommended I reset my iPod Touch and I did but it didn’t solve anything. They then recommended I open a ticket but for the life of me I couldn’t find a link on their site on how or where I could do that. I would have had better luck finding gold at the end of a rainbow.

 

I was just about to give up when I remembered someone said that iTunes remembers your application purchases and that you can download them more than once with no extra charge. Well, I figure downloading straight to the iPod Touch might help me out installing Monkey Ball. Well, I did download it directly and it runs fine. So as I expected, it is not the application developers problem it was an Apples iTunes sync’ing issue, so much for their help on that problem.

Well, I played Monkey Ball for the first time and it looks great and is very tough to play. I sure it will be a little easier once I get the hang of play a game I tilt to navigate.

All in all, I’m loving the Touch 2.0 software and the applications….when they sync correctly

-Chris

iPod Touch after 2.0 upgrade

Yes, believe it or not I finally got my iPod Touch upgraded. I waited until Saturday morning around 09:00 CST and I fired iTunes back up and connected my Touch. It notified me an upgrade was available for $9.95. I proceeded to learn more about the purchased and agreed to the price. It downloaded the upgrade and notified me that the process could take around to 30 minutes, which it did. The software downloaded, it backed up my Touch and then performed the upgrade which took no more than 10 minutes. The upgrade process then reloaded my settings, music and podcasts, which took around 20 minutes. I was then a proud owner of an iPod Touch running 2.0 software.

Well, the big change was that I could load applications. One of the big new applications that they demo’ed at Apple was Monkey Balls which was a game developed by Sega. I went to the iTunes store and purchased Monkey Balls ($9.95), it down loaded and then when it installed/sync’ed on my Touch it told me “The application “Monkey Ball” was not installed on the iPod “Touch iPod” because an unknown error occurred (0xE8000013).” Great!!! I haven’t been a iPod Touch 2.0 user for 5 minutes and already I’m having trouble. Weird to, I don’t find an easy way to alert Apple on this issue and to get their assistance.

Not giving up I tried a free application called Twitterific, which down loaded and installed/sync’ed fine. And the application is awesome, fun to use and is very useful. Ok, at this point I’m hook!

Later while out and about and on the wireless network in public I still wanted a game, I bought Marble Mash straight from iTunes using the Touch interface. The game is simple, cute and fun to play. I wasn’t sure if balancing the Touch to let a virtual marble roll around the screen would be realistic but it is, very realistic!!!

One quirk that I have always had on the Touch is that it fails miserably at keeping the correct time. 7 times out of 10 it has the wrong date and 9 times out of 10 it has the wrong time. For example, right now it is Sunday 13^th of July at 01:47 AM (I know wicked early) and my Touch says it is Wednesday 9^th of July at 07:15 AM. So not just a little off, it is wicked wrong!!!

 

So the score so far is:

Initial upgrade process:             F

Finally working upgrade process:         B

First Game (Monkey Balls):            F

First Non-Game App (Twitterific):        A

2^nd Game attempt (Marble Mash):        A

Ability to keep sync’ed date & time:        F

 

I’ll keep you abreast of the situation as the saga continues to unfold.

-Chris

Look but Don’t “Touch”…..2.0

Today is a monumental day. The new iPhone were released at 08:00 with the new 2.0 software. While watching Leo Laporte’s Live StreamCast it sounds like the lines for the new iPhones were moving extremely slow and that many users were being told they could take their iPhone home and register them later. Though the iPhone is appealing the idea of a being a prisoner to a contract does not fancy me at all. Being a lover of music and video and general internet consumption I bought an iPod Touch last year. I bought the iPod Touch 16 GB model. Overall, I have been extremely happy with the Touch except when they offered the upgrade to version 1.1.4 at a premium of $19.95. Oh the nerve of Apple, Steve Job and any other that had hand in that decision. People can buy an iPod Nano and get updates for free but when they purchase an iPod Touch that is not bound to contracts and Apple figures they can extort monies from the faithful iPod Touch users during upgrade time. Their attitude toward the iPod Touch community makes me very livid.

I have cool down from the upgrade to 1.1.4 and now 2.0 is upon us and once again following suite with their greedy plan, iPod Touch users can upgrade but only at a price of $9.95. Wow thanks Steve Job, bless you and all your mafia ways. One thing I forgot to mention earlier, iPhone users got to upgrade to 1.1.4 and also to 2.0 software for……FREE. This makes it very obvious that iPod Touch users are being segregated and punished for their alignment to a product.

Ok ok, I decided to pay my money to the Apple mafia for protection and upgrade my iPod Touch to 2.0. Instead of getting updated software and good support, I get a run around and hassled. I upgraded my iTunes to version 7.7 first thing this morning. After doing so, iTunes doesn’t see my iPod Touch. Please remember I didn’t upgrade my Touch yet so that means the new iTunes is not very compatible with the iPod Touch. After working today and coming back this evening I gave iTunes another go with my Touch and low and behold it finally sees it. iTunes even tells me there is a new update (2.0) ready for purchase. I clicked on the update which brought up the following window.

OK, I click “Learn More” to carry me to the iTunes Store which should walk me through purchasing, downloading, installing the new 2.0 software. I clicked it and it did carry me to the iTunes store but it was the home page which gave me no options to purchase anything other than music. I disconnected and reconnected my iPod Touch a few times, reboot my machine and every time I got the same thing. Then after 30 to 45 minutes of trying to get the upgrade, iTunes now tells me the following.

Oh great, now the 2.0 upgrade that existed a few minutes ago doesn’t exist at all now. Oh I must have been taking drugs. I can accept that a company is having volumes problems but why can’t they pass that information on to the users so the users more informed and understand. Heck, twitter does it and their user base is growing. I just don’t understand why the Apple web site and/or their pop ups can’t say

 

I listened to some podcast today that were giving Apple the easy out of, “oh things are always tough the first day out like this”, “There no way they can anticipate the load they would receive”. Well I’m tired of people making excuses for Apple. They are a big company trying to become bigger. They need to get their act together. They didn’t know how many users were coming; bull crap! They should have an idea of how many user they currently have. Sounds like the majority of the people in line are the iPhone 1.0 users and I’m sure the new price attracted some new comers. If this same scenario had happen to Windows the press would be having a field day.

This all leads me back to the iPod Touch. I’m being charge for this experience and this is what I get! Come on, I wish all the iPod Touch users would drive by Steve Job’s house and throw their Touch iPods in his front yard with a tag that says I’m going to buy a Zune. Granted the Zunes are not perfect and even their software has a lot of let downs but they are the next runner up in my eyes.

-Chris

HACK: Use a PSP power cable to charge other devices

I was on the road recently and I needed to charge my Sony eBook reader,the PRS500 from its power adapter connection.  I did not have the supplied Sony eBook charger with me. So I stopped at a near by Fries Electronics on hunch that the PSP (Play Station Portable) Power Charger would work.  It did indeed. 

It turns out that many companies us the same 2.5mm power connection for their devices, and that several third parties make a USB to 2.5mm power cable for the PSP.  I purchased one of those for about $6.95 and I have found I am able to charge my Sony eBook reader and Toshiba Gigabeat with it.

Use with caution. You mileage may vary.

 

-Keith

AT&T offers iPhone without a contract for $400 (Source: AP News)

I am surprised people are not screaming about this from the roof tops. The AP is reporting that AT&T will allow the new iPhone (to be release on July 11th at 8am), to be sold with or without a contract. The “no” contract version will go for about $400.

Get the full story at:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TEC_ATT_IPHONE?SITE=CAGRA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

 

-Keith

Optimize your WiFi with Inssider or just be nosey

 

I have setup more than a few WiFi networks in my time and sometimes the air around me is noisy with WiFi signals, so its hard to know what channel to set the WiFi router to use.  In many cases you can leave it set to default and there is no issue.  However, there are times when knowing the least used WiFi channel or at least getting a good picture of the WiFi signals around would be a huge help.

My free software pick of the week to rescue: Inssider shows you a list of all the WiFi signals your WiFi adapter can see and then starts charting the signal strength of each one.  It also shows you relevant information about each network.  This is very handy as it allows you to see the networks and make intelligent decisions without connecting to the networks and breaking any laws…

 

Check it out at:

http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider

 

Put the WiFu back in your WiFi,

-Keith