Jason Miller: What's Happening?

Ha-Ha

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 02:26:28 -0500

I find the whole "tcot" thing really annoying on Twitter, so today I was glad to see this pathetic attempt at a tweet:

"New comment on ODAC News Monday 28 Jan:

A Bit of Construction

Sat, 02 May 2009 14:26:53 -0500

I'm going to be working on this site for the next few days.
...so things might be a little crazy.

Browse Cleaner

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:39:50 -0500

I think I have finally perfected the experience I want when I open up a web browser. The most important part is that it renders content correctly and quickly, and provides a basic development tools. Firefox has long been my preferred browser, but until now I have not taken time to customize its interface away from the leopard-styled default. Recently, though, this has changed. Mozilla Labs just released Personas, and as simple as the extension might seem, it has really changed the way I work within Firefox. I created a the simple CarbonHUD style using the four customizable fields and then proceeded to remove all of the toolbars I had (there weren't many...) until there was nothing left. The result is a great interface that simply cannot distract from whatever important things are going on inside the browser window. When multiple tabs are open, you can see the dimpled grey background, but the best way to use this setup is for web applications. Running a web app this way makes it integrate so seamlessly into your Operating System, it is great. This is what I mean:

Even with those tabs, it looks great. Here is another example:

... and of course it complements amoebaOS nicely:

Go ahead and try it out. You will need Personas for Firefox:

ColdFusion: I Can't Believe It's Not Web Development!

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 19:53:52 -0500

Ha,ha.

Satisfaction

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:00:21 -0600

Satisfaction: Sometimes, Life is Great.

Review: JBL Reference 210 Earbuds

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 15:24:49 -0600

Part of the JBL Reference Series Earphone System, the reference 210's fall short of the previous expectations I had for JBL audio. Most notably, the bass quality and performance is extremely poor. When reviewing in-ear headphones, I always compare the model in question with my current favorite, which happens to be Skullcandy's Ink'd in-ear buds. I don't feel compelled to write a review for that pair, because a quick search on Google reveals I am far from being alone in my awe at their sound quality and durability. Getting back to JBL's product (they don't seem to have a line for in-ear buds, so I assume this is their formal competition ** ) - another area where JBL falls short is in the build quality and comfort level. The very first thing I noticed when unpacking the product was the cheap-feeling wire, which turned out to be a good indication of the overall quality of the headphones. The casing around the drivers is much too large and round, which makes these earphones terribly uncomfortable for even the most casual use. Internally, the drivers in these buds are not amazing, but they are shamefully underused due to the case distancing them from the inner ear.
Summary:
Unfortunately, JBL seems to have lowered their standards for earbuds, and these are the result.
Spend your $20 on a backup pair of Skullcandy Ink'd instead, you'll be glad you did.
** I appears I was mistaken, after navigating the (confusing and poorly designed) JVC website, I found their "Reference 220" in-ear headphones. I'm returning the 210's for the 220's and there will be a review for that pair as well.

Twitter Economics

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:42:18 -0600

It seems people are "all a-Twitter" about Twitter itself, particularly the economics of Twitter's business model. I've been doing some research on the subject recently, and something amazing was revealed to me. It looks like Twitter is doing far better than anyone could have imagined.
I'll take a quote from the Twitter "About Us" page: "While our business model is in a research phase, we spend more money than we make."

Well get ready for a shock - Twitter might not be so revenue-challenged as they let on.

Please note, this article contains large amounts of satire. The picture is real, though.

A Little Political Analysis

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 23:39:23 -0600

I've been keeping relatively up to date on Barrack Obama's business through his weekly addresses and scattered bits of non-CNN news coverage. It continually annoys me to see people react so negatively to the new President's plans, when those same people (and many others) have been changemongers for the past 8 (or more) years. I'm not American, so I am not inclined to blindly accept all messages from white buildings in Washington as the truth, but I thought a little numbers comparison could prove useful in deterring the aforementioned mockery of this man's hope for the future of a country in need. I would like to put President Obama's broadband upgrade plan into perspective. First, I'll start with the facts.

The United States spent approximately $623 billion dollars on military initiatives in 2008. (Reference)

Comcast's 2008 Operating Expenses were approximately $6 billion. (from 2008 3rd Quarter figures: Reference)

The new President's general attitude toward military spending appears to involve significantly less investment in shooting oil fields in the middle-east, allowing one to be relatively confident in assuming the budget for military spending will be drastically reduced in the very near future. This means there will be a few hundred billion taxpayer dollars floating around the Whitehouse, and you can be sure the new administration will jump at the chance to put their money where their mouths are.

In the comparison between Comcast's and the US Military's spending, it looks like the plan to strengthen broadband isn't founded on the old Sam-in-the-pocket trick after all. Re-allocating even 1% of the military budget to broadband would be the equivalent of Comcast spending twice as much on expanding broadband service and strength.

I only hope the government here in Canada watches enough American news to catch this train before it leaves.

Comments are always welcome.