Our New Galaxy Tab 10.1

Always on the hunt for new and exciting ways to blow our money, Krissy and I decided to buy a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 recently. We had been looking to buy a tablet for several months, but wanted to wait until the Honeycomb version of the Android OS was out as it was the first Android OS designed specifically for tablets. Previous Android-based tablets were built on a beefed-up version of the phone OS. Even though we're intimately familiar with the Android OS, having spent a lot of time with our HTC Evos, the Tech Writer geek side of us just HAD to RTFM (those who know what that means know, those that don't, well, don't). We were lucky it didn't end up in the trash with the packaging, but more about that later. I'm going to analyze the manual based on its content and the design.

Content

As a Getting Started Guide, its primary function is to give users some basics of operation. The manual of the Galaxy Tab is certainly no different. It walks the reader through the basic function of the tablet: charging the battery, turning it on and off, turning on wi-fi, using the navigation "buttons", etc. Organizationally speaking, the content has a few sections that seemed out of place as there are two pages that are found in the back which should have been placed a bit earlier. The first is a page that lists all of the Google Mobile services that require a Google account. In my opinion, this information is better suited before the page that discusses adding a Google Account. Listing these services before that step might encourage folks who don't currently have a Google Account to sign up for one. The explanation for Browsing the Web is also located in the back of the manual. Considering that one of the primary (if not THE primary) reasons for purchasing a tablet computer is for web surfing, this step could've been given more urgency. The steps themselves are very clear and concise. In fact, not a single instruction requires more than 5 steps. With today's Millenial (aka Short Attention Span) Generation, the brevity is sure to befit the majority of its audience. As we set up our tablet, the instructions were accurate and easy-to-follow.

Design

My fear of losing the manual stemmed entirely from its diminutive size. At a minuscule 4"x 2.5", the manual is only slightly larger than a business card. For those of us with impaired vision, the Lilliputian sized font was extremely difficult to read. Then again, the target audience probably all have perfect vision either due to youth or Lasik. Aside from the scale, the guide is well designed. All of the instruction headers are encompassed in "tabs" similar to those found on Google's Chrome browser. This makes it easy to locate each of the topics. The instructions are all accompanied by a variety of illustrations - many of which have visual callouts to direct the reader to some of the icons used for various tasks.

Overall, the guide satisfies the core requirements of effective guide writing. It is well-organized, informative, clear, concise, and effectively uses design elements to guide the reader through all of the procedures and all in a package roughly the size of an opened matchbook.

computer fail/octuplet fail/economy fail

Earlier this week, I got an itch to overclock my NVidia 8500GT video card (with baby on the way there's little expendable cash for a new video card). To do so, I'd have to buy another case fan because when you overclock computer components, they produce much more heat. Most third party vid cards (or gpus) already have fans on them, but they aren't designed for overclocking. I went to my local Frys and purchased this:


Initially, I though it would be perfect because it would force air directly onto the gpu. Unfortunately, the fan pointed directly at the video card fan creating a cyclone of hot air - the exact opposite of what I wanted. In the process, I also noticed that my power supply was a little low for the 8500. Another trip to Fry's for a new power supply and a case fan. And that's where everything headed south.

Normally, I would build my own PCs from scratch, but last year I found a great deal on an HP a6110n that was cheaper than it would cost me to build a comparable system. The downside of pre-builts is that the cases are usually way too small. In the process of trying to disconnect the power supply from the hard drive, I broke some plastic off of the casing making it impossible to reconnect the cables.


Granted, it was completely my fault because I tried to perform this maneuver without pulling the hard drive out. I went to the Tech Stop here at Google and they didn't give me much hope. We tried to put the drive in an external enclosure and that didn't work either. I took it to Central Computers in Santa Clara and they told my I was hosed.

Luckily, there wasn't a whole lot of stuff on that drive as I primarily use that computer for gaming, so I just decided to buy a new drive. Central Computers (who might become my favorite computer store) had a Western Digital Terrabyte drive for 99 bucks!!! Sold!!! Now I get the joy of putting my machine back together and reinstalling everything. Fun!!!


There has been a lot in the news lately about Nadya Suleman, she's the gal who, after already having 6 kids, decided to have the remaining 8 embryos implanted. Where do I even start? Why would anyone (aside from Mormons, Evangelicals, the Amish) want that many children? Was she some sort of uber fan of The Waltons or Little House on the Prairie? Now, it's coming out that she doesn't currently work, thinks that a career in Social Work will pay her enough to raise her spawn, and that her mom currently raises her previous 6 while she goes to school. This is just plain INSANITY!!! Further, she's already on welfare and is probably expecting the publicity to raise enough money to help raise her kids. What in the hell were the doctors thinking? How ethical is it to implant embryos into someone who is financially incapable of raising children? This is what pisses me off about our welfare system. Granted, there are plenty of folks out there that absolutely need governmental assistance, but for every one of them there are three people totally abusing the system. And, as usual, John Q taxpayer gets stuck with the bill.


Speaking of John Q taxpayer footing the bill, Time Magazine put out The 25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis. It's a pretty balanced piece, but it's pretty clear that the primary cause (as if we needed an explanation) was too much greed in the corporate sector. And the republicans still want more corporate tax cuts. If anything, we should RAISE corporate taxes. When will this country learn?

Pleasant Dreams.

god i LOVE the interwebs/slammin'

I have to make an announcement. I LOVE YOUTUBE. This feeling of gratification blossoms not from the fact that I work at Google (who owns YouTube), but it stems from the fact that it reflects the true voice of the people. I could spend hours upon hours watching European Durex commercials, a comic series involving a group of online "friends" and their addiction to WoW, music videos from hundreds of now defunct bands, SuperBowl commercials; the list goes on and on.

Saturday, after being rudely awakened by Aki, I decided to take a leisurely stroll around the YouTube neighborhood. I discovered a few new entries from slam poet Mike McGee. You see, Mike used to work for me at Kinko's back in the day and although I haven't gotten the chance to see him in MANY years, I still try to keep up with what he's doing. A couple of years back he won the National Slam Poetry championship. This feat is made even more significant considering Mike was born with Spina Bifida and shouldn't have lived to see beyond childhood. He has taken this "handicap" and turned himself into a powerhouse poet. Here is a sampling of his work:



While watching this video, I noticed in the "Related Videos" area a group piece by Buddy Wakefield featuring Mike and a young lady named Sarah Kay whom I'd never heard before.



Sarah's hauntingly beautiful voice intrigued me further so I decided to check out some of her vids. It was surprising that someone with such a calm and quiet disposition could put forth such passion. She's almost the anti-slam slam poet.



In a nutshell, I was exposed to two more incredible poets as result of checking in on an old friend. As much as technology can be used for evil purposes, so too can it be used for good.

Pleasant Dreams.

the kettle is black

It seems like everyone is chiming in on the various proposals surrounding the bailout and stimulus packages.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/05/fiorina.pay/index.html

Let me get this straight, Carly Fiorina, she who drove HP into the dirt and still walked away with $21 mil., dares to comment on the proposal limiting TARP CEO salaries to $500k. Who in the hell does she think she is???

"Our capitalist system works best when there is transparency and accountability." That goes without saying, but you and your Republibot friends like John McCain keep whining about how regulation hurts business. Without regulation, THERE IS NO TRANSPARENCY OR ACCOUNTABILITY!!! Do you honestly think that corporations can be expected to self-disclose executive wages voluntarily? Of course they can't. If that were the case, scumbags like Bernie Madoff wouldn't exist. And while we're on the subject, normally I'm staunchly anti-death penalty, but I would change my perspective if they could apply capital punishment to these white collared succubi. Besides that, given your and John McCain's past records, you have the economic know how of a shattered piggy bank.

"And it doesn't strengthen our economy when government decides how much each job is worth." Really? How about this? When you were at HP, you're annual base salary was $10mil./yr. If you were only getting paid $500,000/yr, that leaves $9.5 mil. At $40,000/yr, that $9.5 mil. could have saved over 200 jobs. That isn't a lot over the grand scheme of things, but when you consider how many executives there are in a company the size of HP, this type of action could have saved well over 1000 jobs.

Here's the bottom line - the free-market has created nothing but a cesspool of greed, overflowing with the muck created by lack of compassion for our fellow man. Granted, according to a report released today, the vast majority of CEOs in the companies propped up by TARP aid, don't make much more in base salaries than the $500k cap. However, their bonuses were in the several millions range. Answer me this Mrs. Fiorina, how does one get a bonus WHEN THEIR COMPANY IS GOING DOWN THE PROVERBIAL DRAIN?!?!?!?! Even the Trump thinks that salary caps are the right thing to do because as taxpayers supporting these companies, we have now become shareholders and have a stake in the company's success.

Further, I don't think that the salary caps should be limited to TARP companies. If Obama wanted to make real change, he'd apply this law to all executives. Let them make as much as they want (or the share holders are willing to give) in bonuses, but the bonuses can only be paid out under certain guidelines. The most obvious guideline would have to be that no bonuses get paid out unless the company is profitable. When I was a branch manager at Kinko's, I certainly didn't get bonuses unless my branch was profitable so why should this be any different?

There is a ridiculous disparity in this country between the haves and the have nots. If this isn't rectified (and soon), we're going to have a revolution on our hands (remember the Bolsheviks?). Unfortunately, whenever anyone talks like this, they are automatically labeled as a socialist or a communist. They falsely say that socialism encourages free-loading by those who don't WANT to work (as if these millionaire CEOs actually do any REAL work). All I'm saying is that this country needs to overgo a massive overhaul in many arenas if we expect to get out of this quicksand and it starts with the realization that trickle down economics was a failure on the grandest of scales.

Pleasant Dreams.

sorry for the lag

Seeing as I haven't posted since I returned from India (and have long since emerged victorious from the fascist claws of food poisoning), I guess it's time to do a few updates. Please note that I have decided to drop my normal "telegraph" style of paragraph structure and punctuation (or lack thereof) to increase readability.

On the personal front, Krissy is heading into her ninth month of baby baking so the little guy (yes, it's a boy) is almost ready to burst forth from her innards a la the first Alien movie. As such, we have been attending quite a few "baby prep" classes that constantly make me wonder how children were even brought into this world for the past couple thousand of years. Krissy has been doing a ton of reading (as English majors are often wont to do) and I've been picking up some choice tidbits via osmosis (though a lot of it is stuff I already knew from watching medical dramas on TV - thank you ER, St. Elsewhere, M*A*S*H, Trapper John MD, and General Hospital). The classes, however, have provided Krissy and I hours of entertainment at the expense of our fellow classmates. Here are a few choice quotes from the class:

"Will a Doctor be present in our room from the moment we arrive to the hospital?" - Sure, because Kaiser has hundreds of OB/GYNs just sitting around in delivery rooms.

"Do the forceps hurt the baby?" - Yeah, because having their entire bodies shoved through a 10cm opening is a joy ride.

"That's what a cloth diaper looks like?" - Apparently this gal didn't have younger siblings and had never babysat before.

And the Grand Prize Winner (in response to What is an Episiotomy?) Drum roll please...

"It's when the doctor makes an incision in the Cervix." - WHAT WHAT WHAT!!!

Krissy's shower was this past weekend so we came home with a ton of schwag for Aidan Miles (Aidan is Irish for "Little Fiery One" and Miles for my two favorite musicians: Miles Davis and Miles Hunt from The Wonder Stuff). We can't thank my family and especially my folks enough for being so generous. We were a little concerned that some might not be all that thrilled with the idea of a "Green" shower, but it sounds like everyone did what they could. I can't believe that March 10th is just around the corner.

On the political front, Barack Obama got elected!!! I can't even begin to describe how thrilled I am to have a president that doesn't cause me physical pain when he opens his mouth to speak. I can conclusively say the Bush was the DUMBEST president we have ever had. And DUMB mixed with unchecked power is a dangerous combination. Mr. Obama's first two weeks have been a bit rocky. He's made a couple of serious missteps in his recent staff selections (Geithner, Daschle, Killifer) and there are some things in the stimulus package I'm not too thrilled about - $88 mil. to "develop" a new Coast Guard cutter when they can just buy a brand new one from STX Europe for about $43.3 mil. I guess they want the Coast Guard to "build American." I think that if it doesn't relate DIRECTLY to job creation or helping people not have their homes foreclosed on, it shouldn't be in the bill. The Dems have the majority now, they can move on their pet projects later. The bill to lower executives' salaries is something I've been railing about for years now. Personally, I don't think it should be limited to TARP funded companies either.

I love how the Republibots lump all Obama supporters into the same "idiots that drank the Kool-Aid" batch. Obviously, they've never read the Pew Research poll that states that 43% of self-identified liberals have a Bachelor's degree or higher compared to 19% of self-identified conservatives. I'm not even a Democrat (though I'll probably be leaving the Green Party soon) and I fully support Obama. He's done more in his first 2 weeks than Bush did in his entire administration. For the first time in a long time, I look forward to the next four to eight years.

OK. I think that's enough for now. I'll try to be more consistent from now on (yeah, right).

Pleasant Dreams.

hyderabad pt. 8 (final thoughts)

i arrived home on saturday and now that it's wednesday...i guess i should do a bit of a wrap-up on my india adventure and hopefully throw in some things that i forgot to mention...

on last wednesday night...i had dinner with pooja at the google cafeteria...having spoken to her for the past several weeks...i figured i could breach the politics topic and get a better sense of india...there were two things that were plaguing my heart and soul everywhere i went...

the first of these came to the forefront during our excursion to mumbai and that was wondering whether or not independence is all it's cracked up to be...this became extremely noticeable during the mini-monsoon...as the flood waters roared through the streets and continued to remain on the streets in lake-sized puddles for several days after the rains subsided...i kept thinking about how just a little of infrastructure could've helped relieve all the problems caused by the standing water (from traffic congestion to malaria)...

as i watched all of the construction that was going on in hyderabad and the scaffolding made from nothing more than sticks...i kept thinking that osha would have a field day...it also made me think about how devastating earthquakes are in india...again a little infrastructure and regulation of construction practices could go a long way...

as i sat in cars/traffic where it would take up to an hour to travel 10 miles i wondered how a 20th century (let's not even think 21st just yet) freeway system would relieve the pressure...

what would have happened over 50 years ago if the indian people hadn't been successful and the brits remained in power...would things have been better...would india have the luxuries of modern day infrastructure or would the money have continued funneling its way back to jolly ole england...

this segues nicely into my next thought...what now???...as hyderabad and bangalore battle for the silicon valley of india moniker...what about the poor people...the poverty stricken of hyderabad play a stark contrast against the backdrop of industrialization...

sure companies like google are flooding the indian economy with jobs and money...but in the end...who does it really help???...i asked pooja if she felt that this new burgeoning bourgeoisie would let their newfound "wealth" trickle down to those less fortunate...she replied in the manner that i was most fearful of..."no...they are to involved with things nowadays" she said...so...india is still under the stranglehold of imperialism only now...instead of the oppressive thumb of the british...it's the even more oppressive fist of the mighty dollar...

those that say that america is not an empire are too ignorant to understand that imperialism is a lot more than simple land grabs...just because we don't "own" india doesn't mean that we don't wage a tremendous amount of hegemonic dominance over them...our mantra of "look out for number 1" echoes resoundingly across all developing nations and...as has been proven time and time again...reagan's trickle down economics can be blown to the winds like so much faerie dust...our influence has taken so many collectivistic cultures and perverted them into hollow...self serving...and arrogant individualstic cultures...

at the end of the day i'm torn about the future of india and the world for that matter...the fact that we have celebrities...athletes...ceos and the like that make millions upon millions per year...yet we still have insurmountable poverty in the world...saddens me to my core...what will it take for us to understand the words "whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren so you do unto me"...and some of these money-grubbing maniacs have the gall to call themselves "christians"...

again...i'm left with more questions than answers but i guess that is just my destiny...

pleasant dreams...

hyderabad pt. 7

on my last day in hyderabad i had decided that i would go see two of the most famous landmarks in hyderabad...the charminar and the buddha on the lake...food poisoning or no food poisoning...i went into work for half a day and got a very nice going away party from the team...which had grown to 20...i had actually arranged with ismael the day before so i could have sayeed take me for my sightseeing trip...

charminar was built by muhammad quli qutb shah...he of golconda fort and of dagger dodging fame...in order to relocate the capital building from golconda to what would eventually be named hyderabad...it was built to thank allah for sparing the citizens during a plague breakout in the late 16th century...it was also built to honor his queen and this is shown in the union of hindi and muslim architectural elements...in the detail of the ceiling you will see two circular rows of flowers...the top row represents islam and the bottom row represents hinduism...the name charminar shows this union even further...char is the hindi number 4 and minar comes from the arabic manara which means spire or tower...lo and behold charminar is made up of 4 towers...climbing the 142 steps up any of these four spires gives one a beautiful view of the market below...a melange of muslim and hindu cultures...there is a mosque located in close proximity to charminar which can hold 10,000 devotees at the same time...all in all it was quite a beautiful monument and sayeed should change careers and become a hired guide...he is extremely knowledgeable about the area and tells great stories...

after charminar we headed to the buddha on the lake...located in a very well kept park...the buddha statue sits in a completely man-made lake...and...according to sayeed...when he says man-made...he MEANS man made...as in men using tools not back hoes or diggers...the ferry ride to the statue was pretty interesting as it was a blend of hindus...muslims...and anglos...i guess it's because none of the religions fight about the buddha...the statue itself was enormous...standing at 17 meters tall it dwarfed all the visitors..though it wasn't as large as some of the buddhas we've seen in thailand...considering it was carved out of a single piece of granite is still very impressive...

all in all it was one of the best times i'd had in hyderabad and sayeed was such an excellent host...i was glad i was able to get some more time with him...

hyderabad pt. 6

where to begin on our exciting journey to mumbai (formerly bombai)???...considering how completely horrific the experience was...i think i'll just break it down to "lowlights" (the opposite of "highlights")...

lowlight #1: asking our driver (balu...yes as in the loveable bear from jungle book) if he had been waiting long and having balu respond with "i don't speak english"...holy s&$#!!!...we're in a completely different area that we know nothing about and we have a driver that we can't communicate with...this will be exciting...

lowlight #2: pulling into the king's international hotel and realizing that their website was way nicer than the hotel itself...a recurring theme of this trip was that bombay must have been a pretty hot spot back in the day (during brit rule) and has now been left to rot...

lowlight #3: having our rather stern sikh bellhop show us to our room and seeing a queen sized bed for all three of us...what would make the desk clerk think that three (and as far as he was concerned 4 because we had met another googler on the plane) guys would share a queen bed???...luckily...this was rectified fairly quickly...

lowlight #4: showing up to the hotel restaurant (whose food was actually quite good) and finding out that because it was india's independence day and as a result is a dry day (and i mean dry as in the town that kevin bacon moved to in footloose)...so we couldn't order booze with lunch...

lowlight #5: did i mention we weren't going to be able to get alcohol for the ENTIRE DAY!?!?!?!...

lowlight #6: walking to juhu beach (pictured) and realizing that it wasn't the spot for "the rich and famous" like the brochure said...

lowlight #7: calling local hotspots to see if anyone was breaking the dry day rule and being told a resounding "NO!!!"

lowlight #8: did i mention we weren't going to be able to get alcohol for the ENTIRE DAY!?!?!?!...

lowlight #9: finding out that our driver may not even be from mumbai because he didn't know where a particular chain restaurant that is located all over the world (no...not mcdonald's) and known to be a tourist destination (i'm not mentioning names to protect the innocent)...and when passerbys explained to him how to get there...he still couldn't figure it out...i'm not sure balu spoke ANY language...

lowlight #10: having the driver lean across me (practically crushing my family jewels with his elbow) so he can yell at an auto-rick driver who was getting a little close for comfort...said auto-rick driver had one of those maniacal gleams in his eyes coupled with a nervous tick which made me think i'd be getting a machete through the skull at any moment...if jihad puts the video on yoeutube i'll link to it...

lowlight #11: playing dumb by ordering beer at the aforementioned well-known chain restaurant...having the waiter walk away like it was all good...then having him return to let us know that it was a dry day...

lowlight #12: did i mention we weren't going to be able to get alcohol for the ENTIRE DAY!?!?!?!...

highlight #1: having the waiter at afformentioned well-known restaurant chain tell us that we could order mixed drinks...HOORAY!!!...our prayers have been answered...jihad rationalized it thusly...they wouldn't serve beer to us because beer doesn't look like anything else...but mixed drinks could look like coke or in my case a ginger ale (whiskey and 7) so if the authorities came by they'd be none the wiser...this is why i won't mention the restaurant by name...

lowlight #13: finding out that mr. rohan (balu's boss and our "handler") doesn't speak english either...

lowlight #13: asking our wonderful balu to drive us around downtown and be greeted by a blank stare...

lowlight #14: arriving to the "gateway of india" (pictured) and finding it under construction...

highlight #2: watching jihad haggle with the balloon salesman...trying to get ten balloons for the price of 1...that was priceless...

highlight #3: finding a sports bar...drinking beer...watching cricket...and shooting pool...

lowlight #15: coming to a complete stop every time balu saw me take my camera out then driving at 5 mph for ten minutes after i took the picture...

lowlight #16: honking from balu for no apparent reason...greg swears he honked at a tree once...

lowlight #17: dealing with the communication gap making me not excited to go anywhere...we went to haji ali which is this really cool mosque out on a peninsula (pictured)...normally this would be something right up my alley but i just couldn't get into it...

lowlight #18: ending up at a shopping mall...watching jumprope contests while jihad and greg picked up a snack...i know jumprope contests shouldn't be considered a downer...but it was at this point that i felt like hurling my guts out and started getting shivers and sweats...

lowlight #19: spending the rest of the evening alternately peeing from my butt-hole/curling up in the fetal position/watching the olympics/wanting to die...this has to be the mother of all food poisonings...

lowlight #20: having jihad scream at balu because all balu wants to do is take us to the airport even though our flight wasn't till almost 7 and we wanted to go shopping...we had just driven past a killer bazaar and balu couldn't even figure out how to go back to it...completely ridiculous...

there's a lot more...but i'm actually growing tired of being so negative...all in all...it was quite possibly the three most painful days i've spent in my life...i still haven't fully recovered from the food poisoning and now i've got a head cold to boot...i can't wait to come home...

pleasant dreams...