Category: Water Cooler

Filtered Bubble – Your View Of The World

It may never have occurred to you, that your web experience is being tailored to your views.  This might not bother some people, but I find it a bit troubling.  That might sound like a good thing at first, but if you consider that information that you might not like, but would still rather be expose to is being filtered out before you have the chance to decided if you want to see it or not.

This is the filtered bubble that is your internet experience.  This TED talk gives a really good idea of what and why this is happening.  I have long believed that we are further apart on political and social issues, there is a greater divide, because we have many news outlets (radio, tv, and print media), that are producing content to suit a certain segment of consumers.  Thereby, not providing truly balanced or diverse pieces.  This has the effect of consumer only tuning to outlets that pander to the views they already hold.

Do check out that video, it is pretty interesting.

What The Hell Is Planking?

I should be more sadden by this story of some guy dying from ‘planking‘.  But I am more alarmed that people are doing some crazy thing just for a few minutes of fame on the Internet, be it YouTube or FaceBook.

I wasn’t aware there was something called ‘planking’ and that this was some new craze.  What the hell is wrong with young people today?

Protect Your Computer and Mobile Devices With ‘Prey’

Today’s computing devices (mobile/smart phones, tablets, laptops, etc.) are very valuable to us.  It is not only the cost of acquiring it, but the addition of all the personal information we have on it.

What if it was stolen?  How would you recover it?  Or wipe it clean of your personal information remotely?

That is why I am using ‘Prey‘.  Prey has many features, but all are designed for you to be able to track, monitor, wipe, and/or possible help you recover your stolen/lost computing device.  Check out the ‘how it works’ video on the site.  It is not the only software of that type, but it is one of the best and easiest I have found so far.

Worst Allergy Seaon?

Apparently it is.  If you are experiencing allergies for the first time or your allergies are worst than usual.  Then it could be because of this is one of the worst allergy seasons.  Due in part to very rain to wash away the pollen.

I personally know several individuals who are having worst allergies this season or feeling allergy symptoms but don’t usually trouble from allergies.   I too have allergies that are worst this time of the year, but strangely, they haven’t been that bad.  But my allergies are strange to begin with, and have nothing to do with pollen.

Gotta See – Model Airport of Hamburg Germany to the Finest Details, at a Cost of Over $4 Mil.

I saw this story at Gizmodo and you have to check out the video on YouTube (link in the story) at least.  If you want to know how they did, then you can read the story.  But trust me, this is very very impressive.  I can’t say anything more than go check it out for sure.

As you watch the video, at first, it is hard to believe that is a model with working lights and so on.  Oh, I almost forgot to mention.   There are also some other things that are possible with this model that are not shown in the video.  You get those juicy bits from reading the article.

Speed Demon – TomTom Has You Tagged

Apparently, some models TomTom GPS sends your GPS data back to the central office.  TomTom then feed this back to local government and law enforcement authorities.

Now they say they will stop doing that.  I think they should be sued.  They should have put some note in plain sight, saying that using this device may provide your speed to the police.  If you are thinking that speeding is against the law, it kills, etc.  You won’t get an argument from me, but I don’t think companies should be providing information about your behavior to law enforcement without you first knowing that could happen.

Saw this story over at Slashdot.

 

GPS Maker TomTom Submits Your Speed Data To Police

Posted by timothy on Thursday April 28, @01:58PM
from the put-your-speed-trap-riiiiight-here dept.
An anonymous reader writes “The GPS systems in TomTom’s Live range all feature built-in 3G data cards, which feed location and route information back to a central server. According to CNET, this data, along with users’ speed information, is being made available to local governments and the police.” From the article: “Knowing the cops can see where you’re driving and how fast you’re going is eye-opening stuff, but TomTom says the data is anonymous and can never be traced back to an individual user or device. Ordinarily, we’d be reassured by this, but we recall Apple saying something similar before the location-tracking excrement hit the phone-carrying fan.”

Sitting All Day : Bad For You

I was listening to this story about how sitting is bad for your health.  Actually, it worst than you may thing.  I too work at a desk, sitting all day and then sitting in a car on the way to and from work.

No wonder I am pining for my days on the farm.  Yes, the farm, my farm.  I can’t wait to get to living on my farm.  You don’t need to live/work on a farm to be more active.  But, for me, it is something I am have been dreaming of since I was a kid.

Too Cheap To Fly

My wife’s father used to tell them, “good thing isn’t cheap, and cheap thing isn’t good”.

My buddy sent an email about a new Airline (RedJet: http://www.flyredjet.com) with flight within the Caribbean for as little as $9.99USD.  Now don’t get me wrong, I love flying and was never afraid to fly.  But if someone will put me on a flight for more than 10 minutes, and charge me only $10US.  I am gonna think very hard about dat.

I have decided, ah think I aint gonna fly.

That is why I don’t eat cheap fast food like McDonald.  The economics just doesn’t make sense.  $.99 for a burger, which includes; bun, meat, lettuce, tomatoes, human labor to server it, transportation cost, raising and slaughtering the cow, and profits.   All this, I am getting for $.99 or even $2.99.  I just figured that I am eating crap for that price.

So I checked it out and some flights were $39.99 between Jamaica and Trinidad.  I still think that’s too cheap.  With a full flight, of about 130 seats, that is only $5,000.00UD for aircraft, crew, booking agents, fuel, etc.  Seems to be cutting the bone just too close.