Weekly round up... week 1

It's taken me 2 days to get around do doing this..... damn i'm lazy. Anywho, time to get up.




I'll start off with that. If you haven't heard, Apple has gone crazy with their law suits against HTC and the other Android phone makers, but, for fear of sounding like a broken record i'll not go into that.



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I'm a divider.
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On a brighter side of things, Neil Patrick Harris finally got a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.




Now, since i'm not one to spend while day on MTV and VH1 following the comings and goings of stars, i won't go into this either. I couldn't resist mentioning it though because.... well... Neil is just awesome. True story.

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I'm a divider.
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For the ladies i've found this. 14 Ways you can be Sure you’ve Married a Geek If you're reading that and shaking your head to most of it..... you're screwed.

 
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I'm a divider.
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And last but not least, it turns out my dad was wrong when he said video game would get me nowhere. It turns out some gamers are helping scientists "map the structure of an enzyme that could help solve a crucial part of the AIDS puzzle". Guess my dad screwed me over when he took my playstation away..... bastard. You can read up on it in this article on Gizmodo, ~click here~ , which also link to an article published in Nature Structure & Molecular Biology.

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Well wishes for Steve and free Stanford education.

Now, you all (who ever happens to stumble upon this) may know I'm a long time fan of Apple. Wait, did I say fan? I meant hater. But any way, that's beside the point. Read the news yesterday and leu and behold, Steve Jobs has resigned as CEO of Apple. :D

I had some other stuff here, but after watching the video above, i can do nothing but respect this man. I'm touched by it and can't think of much else to say on it.
I am saddened by the news of his stepping down. He is a brilliant inventor and marketing genius. As much as I've bashed Apple in the past they aren't bad... they just aren't much better than the rest... I would rank them about the same, but still Macs sell for 100s even up to $1000 more than comparable PCs. And there's the bottom line, I've never hated Mac because they were bad, they aren't. They're just over priced, and here's the man who mad that happen. I coin the "Prince of Marketing" (<~not being sarcastic there). He'll still be holding a position on the board, but with his still ongoing medical leave since January leave ( i wish him all the best), we'll see how thing will go. Good luck Mr. Cook (new CEO).

I'll put the Stanford stuff in another post.

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Free Stanford education

Something hit my eyes the other day and I couldn't tell whether to believe it or not. A story that Stanford University is going to be running free online classes. Now, according to the information you wouldn't get an actual grade (this is reserved for regular paying students) but you would get a Certification of Completion. Further investigation found this (Stanford Engineering Everywhere) on Stanfords website.....so....it's legit then.
Now, there's already thousands of people signed up... as you would expect.... but i don't expect half of that to actually take part, and even less to finish. The classes are run assuming you don't have too much prior knowledge about the field so don't be alarmed if you haven't taken any advanced courses before. Doubt the Cert of Completion will get you a job on it's own, but it sure a hell couldn't hurt. If you want to check out the classes and sign up the links are below.

Introduction to Databases
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning

Looking at some other free courses offered by big name schools. Will post more later....

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iPhone vs Android vs Windows Phone

If your a sucker for the glitter of commercialism then there's only one choice for you when you go to buy a smartphone, so go buy your iPhone and get out of my sight. I'm not even going to get into that one.

Now, for those who have a bit of common sense the choice is a little harder. Recently i've been wanting to go towards HTC Android phones (or maybe Motorola's Android phones), i think this is mostly just the techie in me trying to get out though because beside the hype Android isn't much better than the iPhone. It's certainly not worse than the iPhone and it has more features, but it's slow to respond touchscreen and poor user interface turned me off the minute i actually touched one.

This brings me to the third choice and, in my opinion, the best one. Now i know there are people out there who hate the Windows Phone, but lets be honest, the one's talking the loudest are the Apple fanboys who've never even touched the Windows phone to have a legitimate opinion of it.

My company recently switched to Windows Phones for company phones (the HTC HD7 is the one i got a hold of) and i absolutely loved it. The touchscreen felt immediate to the touch, unlike any Android phones i've used, the interface is simply, well laid out and easy to use (you don't need to be a windows user to understand it). I felt like i could just pick it up and get straight to work without having to scratch my head or turn to the internet to figure things out, or maybe i've just gotten too use to the minefield that is the Blackberry interface. Either way i love the Windows phone and it wins the bid for the smartphone i'm gonna get next

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How Harry Potter Should Have Ended

Click Here

Just found this and it is funny as hell...... enjoy. :P

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Love and Hate

So again I find myself loving something, and hating something.
What I love - Where life is leading me.
What I hate - the 'stereotypical' black person.
Oddly enough they both coincided a few days ago.
So, a few days ago I was invited to a car launch by a coworker. I'm not exactly in a position to buy a brand new car yet, but I figured I'd go and take a look, no harm in seeing what's on the market. So we get there, free food, free drinks and some really nice cars. Right about then I'm thinking to myself, this is where I always wanted to be and, fingers crossed, things will keep going up.
As I stand there in the middle of the parking lot, drink in hand and a silly grin on my face, 2 gentlemen standing next to me are talking and I hear one say "that car looks great, the only thing I'd change is the rims. Put some sport rims on it".
Now really, wtf?! Is that all you people think about? Putting rims and spoilers and other crap on cars completely ruining them? Is this where society has lead us?
This reminds me of a time; I was traveling in a taxi and the driver was talking to the other passenger in the car, and you knew they were from the "hood" because they were talking about who had the biggest gold chain in the community as if it were a marking of high standing in the community. The passenger even boasted that her son's gold chain was bigger than another persons (from the conversation I gather she was referring to a gang member). She seemed so proud. While everyone is out getting an education "they" sit their content with gold chains then later complain of being treated unfairly by society. Now, I know this doesn't represent black people, don't get me wrong, but this is the community I grew up in, and I think I turned out ok, but it pisses me off to hear people talk like that.
*some text to end this post with*

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A night on the town... interrupted.

I stepped out into the night, looked up and saw that the night sky was clear, the moon bathing the city in its glow. But quickly I reminded myself that I didn't have time to stop, I was already late. As I sped to my destination I took a few shortcuts, although it was late no-one would dare touch me, or so I thought.

As I walk through one especially dark alley I saw a figure suddenly move forward to stand before me. The street light above him flickered, barely giving any shape to the figure before me... I'd have to fix that later.

I looked at him and said, "Do you know who I am?" in the most powerful voice I could manage.

As he moved slowly closer I began to see his face, his mouth drooling, a look on his face saying he probably didn't know much of anything. Then suddenly I noticed the knife in his hand. I reached behind me and a bit of panic came over me as I realized that I was unarmed. "Why would I need it anyway?” I thought to myself before leaving home, a statement I now regretted.

But just before I could plan my escape I saw something, another figure coming towards us, walking slowly, casually, as if nothing were amiss. His long hair blew in the evening wind, not distracting however, from the sword he carried. He wielded a sword longer than he was, but held it effortlessly as if it were nothing more than a piece of paper.

As he reached closer to where I stood my attacker changed targets. He lunged forward with his knife but obviously no match for my rescuer. The robber received quite a nasty slash to the face as he was simply brushed away.

My rescuer now stood before me. He turned around and with a smile on his face said, "You're late, my Queen."

I blushed. He knew he need not address me as such. The attacker, unfazed, charged forward again.

My rescuer turned around and, now tired of this battle, raised his sword and delivered a blow so powerfully the attacker flew backwards leaving a dent in a trash bin on the other end of the alley.

He turned again, a calming smile on his face with not even a bead of sweat.

“Why do you have your sword?” I asked.

“You never know when you might need it” he replied with a wide grin on his face.

I smiled, just happy that he showed up. Even through my sturdy composure, he could tell that I was shaking a bit. He reached out and cupped my cheek with his palm and ran his fingers through my long blond hair.

“Are you ok?” He asked.

I buried my face in his big, strong chest and said, “I’m always ok when I’m with you, my King”.

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