Corridor 9

So I was browsing around the web the past few days looking for a cheap copy of some software and thought I’d search for a “deal-a-day” software site when I ran across one of the most extensive deal sites I’d ever been to.

Dealsucker.com

Dealsucker shows a whole plethora of deal-a-day sites. I used to manually check woot.com and steepandcheap.com, but now I can just check Dealsucker and get those, as well as many others out there!

Some other items that are listed on Dealsucker include REI Outlet gear, Backcountry.com deals, wine deals, software deals, and lots more.

Have a look and see if they have anything you want.

You may have heard or read recently the the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a Washington D.C. law banning homeowners from owning a handgun. The video above shows a bit more information and clears up some bogus “statistics” regarding the myth that more guns = more violence.

It’s a sad day when I have to worry about whether the police are going to do something like this to my kid. You can be sure that if some cop abuses my kid like this I’m going have his job!

You can read more about it from the Baltimore Sun at: http://tinyurl.com/34nxuv

Taken from Engadget: http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2008/01/22/htc-chimes-in-on-video-driver-controversy/

So there’s been a relatively weighty grassroots effort the past few weeks to convince HTC that there’s something horribly flawed with its Qualcomm MSM7xxx-based devices — essentially that video acceleration isn’t nearly as well off as it could be because the company isn’t taking advantage of the chipset’s ATI Imageon circuitry. HTC has weighed in on the hullabaloo today, and in short, the news isn’t good for anyone hoping to get a software update out of the deal: “HTC believes the overall value of its devices based on their combination of functionality and connectivity exceeds their ability to play or render high-resolution video. These devices do still provide a rich multimedia experience comparable to that of most smartphones and enable a variety of audio and video file formats,” reads the official response, in part. Furthermore, the company has officially confirmed that Imageon drivers are not in use on the affected devices, but that it “plans to include video acceleration hardware in future video-centric devices that will enable high-resolution video support.” To be totally fair, HTC never promised Imageon acceleration to begin with — but it’s a shame that we’ll apparently be looking at buying new hardware to get it.

Naturally I had to send an email to HTC:

I am very upset on your decision not to update drives on an the Kaiser. This device is obviously hindered due to the fact that that the drivers were not included. However, your decision to ignore your customers is the real problem here.

So, I will not be purchasing any more HTC devices. I will be telling everyone I can about the POOR support HTC provides the end user. I have already put this up on numerous websites, including my own http://www.corridor9.net, and plan on spreading the word in whatever way I can.

I am saddened by the decision of a company who cares more about profit than customers.

Been doing a lot of googling on hammocks lately and I simply couldn’t pass posting this one.

HTCClassAction.org

Welcome to HTCClassAction.org. This site is intended to spread awareness about the issues with recent HTC Smartphones and PocketPCs, and gather information for a possible class action lawsuit against HTC. That class action lawsuit will be a last resort though, hopefully we can raise awareness and publicity high enough to convince HTC to solve these issues without a lawsuit. It has however now been over six months since the first affected device was released, and as of yet, HTC has done nothing.

HTC TyTN II Video Issues - htc

Taiwanese PDA giant HTC released their latest flagship PDA phone called HTC TyTN II (also known as Kaiser, Tilt and MDA Vario III) but recent discoveries show that maybe it’s not so much a powerhouse after all. Due to lack of proper driver support for the video part of the Qualcomm MSM7200 chipset users are left with a seriously handicapped unit with very poor support for gaming, video and photo. Granted, the phone is mostly intended for business users who will rarely see the effects of these issues but it’s still leaving thousands of customers who want to fully utilize the phone with a slightly bitter taste in their mouths.

Been playing a beta for some time now. Here’s a trailer.

Need to charge your Ipod while out on the trail? Just bring along a few onions and some Gatorade.

A friend at work turned me on to this. Thought I’d post it here.

Yes, I know I still haven’t blogged day 4 of the hiking trip.
Yes, I know I haven’t posted anything here in a while.
Yes, I know I have lots of good news to share.
Yes, I know…….. BE QUIET ALREADY!!!! I’m gettin to it!

I’ve been hacking my phone the last 2 weeks and it’s taken a lot of time. I haven’t gamed, blogged, or even had any nook……. never mind. Besides…. I’ll get to that later on this week. I’ve got so many things going on to blog about I’ll likely have quite a few posts lined up so keep coming back for sure.

UNTIL then…. I found this on the web and darn near crapped my pants from laughing! It’s KID FRIENDLY, so that means you’ll like it mom.

UPDATE: I do apologize greatly. I was laughing so hard that I didn’t even pay attention to some of the language and offensive jokes that were in the show. I will try to do a bit better next time in only placing Kid Friendly content here.

Look at all that wasted water…
Wait. Look closer.

Everything you see except for the man is chalk! YEA!!!! Tell me about it! Chalk drawings that look so real. Check out more at the painters website: http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/pave.htm

While it’s old… it deserves a place here at C9

1. Keep your priorities in order
2. Know when to act without hesitation

A college professor, an avowed atheist and active in the ACLU, was teaching his class. He shocked several of his students when he flatly stated that for once and for all he was going to prove there was no God.

Addressing the ceiling he shouted: “GOD, if you are real, then I want you to knock me off this platform. I’ll give you exactly 20 minutes!!!!!”

The lecture room fell silent. You could hear a pin drop. Ten minutes went by.

” I’m waiting God, if you’re real knock me off this platform!!!!”

Again after 5 minutes, the professor taunted God saying, “Here I am, God!!! I’m still waiting!!!”

His count down got down to the last couple of minutes when a SEAL, just released from the Navy after serving in Afghanistan and Iraq and newly registered in the class, walked up to the Professor. The SEAL hit him full force in the face, and sent the Professor tumbling from his lofty platform.

The Professor was out cold!! The students were stunned and shocked. They began to babble in confusion. The SEAL nonchalantly took his seat in the front row and sat silent. The class looked at him and fell silent…..waiting. Eventually, the professor came to and was noticeably shaken. He looked at the SEAL in the front row. When the professor regained his senses and could speak he asked:

“What the heck is the matter with you?! Why did you do that!?”

“God was really busy protecting America’s soldiers, who are protecting your right to say stupid crap and act like an butthead!!! So he sent me!!”

ONE NATION UNDER GOD!!!

While I’m not a card carrying, pocket protector member of the geek culture, I still consider myself a geek to some extent. I’m a linux phreak, tech junkie, email addict, and all around computer nerd.

I ran across this guys page while looking up solutions for a problem I’m having with iTunes. I especially like his title “Tech / Faith / Life”. It’s real cool to find other Christians out there who share the same interests as me. God knows Kristie doesn’t understand my desire to recompile kernel drivers to properly integrate my Treo into Evolution.

In February Rep. Carolyn McCarthy introduced the Assault Weapons Ban and Law Enforcement Protection Act of 2007 which attempts to regulate assault weapons. Unfortunately it appears that Rep. McCarthy didn’t know what she was even trying to regulate. Isn’t is just like lawmakers to propose legislation without even researching the subject. Seems to me that the terrorists aren’t following the laws we have in place now, so the only people this is going to effect are the law abiding citizens trying to arm themselves.

Think about this: What do you think would have happened had the colonial Americans not armed themselves?

I’ve been quite under the weather the past few days. As most of you know I absolutely hate spending money for doctors visits. As a result when I do get sick or infected it turns out to be rather bad the time I get something to take care of it.

So, because I’ve been down with a severe case of strep throat the past few days and haven’t much to say, I thought I’d enlighten you to a few sites that I visit frequently.

TreeHugger.com: Worried about the environment but not sure what you can do about it? Treehugger will let you know; from in depth articles, to upcoming news and events Treehugger is the place to find your “green thumb”.

Gizmodo.com: Are you a closet geek? Do you drool when driving past a Best Buy? iPhone? Need I say more… check out giz for all the kewlest tech gadgets.

LifeHacker.com: Computers make us more productive… Yea right. Lifehacker recommends the software downloads and web sites that actually save time. Don’t live to geek; geek to live.

Apparently, since I’m Caucasian it’s okay for me to call my brothers and sisters Whitey. But if an African-American calls me Whitey I should be offended?

You all know I love pushing the envelope here at Corridor9 so this should be nothing new for you, but if you haven’t seen the TV lately, you’re probably wondering what the heck I’m talking about.

It all stems from the backlash over a comment that Don Imus made last week during his TV/Radio show. Now, let me be perfectly clear here so you understand exactly where I stand…

I do NOT agree with the comments that Don Imus made, nor do I support  anyone making racial slurs and claiming that it’s part of their “First Amendment Rights”.

{You did see that my statement was in bold print right }

No, this post isn’t about the statements that were made by Don Imus as much as it’s about the statements made by others regarding the situation.

Steve Capus, NBC’s News President, recently said that “there was a tremendous amount of pain caused by these comments”. What about the songs sung by a majority of hip-hop rappers today? Is there a significant amount of pain caused by these songs currently being played on the radio? I don’t hear anyone telling Snoop that the lyrics he’s famous for are painful.

Danielle Smith, editor-in-chief for Vibe Magazine, says that rap lyrics are “Artistic expression” and should not be confused with the comments of Don Imus. Her exact words were, and I quote: “I think there is a difference in a black person saying something about another black person, than a white person saying something about a black person.”

What makes the n-bomb so blasé among black culture yet so exceptionally derogatory for others. Last I heard, calling a person of Hebrew descent a “jew” was still racist; is it any less so when a fellow Hebrew says it?

If it’s wrong for me, it’s wrong for you, and it’s wrong for our kids. Isn’t it time we stop regurgitating the double standard of our forefathers and start teaching our kids to live their dreams, instead of letting society teach them that their life is nothing but one big nightmare.

Unfortunately, as we see so often, big corporations can still force the little man to do what they want when they have the money. Here is a clear cut example:

As many of you know I’ve been using Gaim for quite some time now. Gaim is a multi client instant messenger. Basically it allows me to chat with people on Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, and others all from one program instead of having to open a program for each network.

In the beginning the project was called GTK+ AOL Instant Messenger. Naturally AOL had a fit because their name was in the program name. So the developers changed the name to Gaim and AOL was satisfied for a while. When they trademarked AIM, they threw a fit again.

Well… it seems that their big money has finally forced the little man to do what they want yet again. Gaim will officially be known as Pidgin from here on out. This is a sad day for the open source community.

You can read more here: http://www.pidgin.im/index.php?id=177

As a former Customer Service Rep for Gateway, I speak from experience. This is EXACTLY the way it is when calling tech support. They make you get a license to drive a car, but any idiot can surf the web.