Monthly Archives: January 2010

The NY Times Agrees with Me

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Yesterday, I wrote a brief post expressing my incredulity at the name of Apple’s latest product: iPad. Brad Stone of the New York Times seems to agree with me. Stone wrote an article about the iPad in the Technology section today. Apparently, the name of the product is causing a lot of buzz.

The first sentence of the second paragraph sums it up:

Many women are saying the name evokes awkward associations with feminine hygiene products.

But perhaps there’s a bright side to this story. Fujitsu, STMicroelectronics, and MagTek all have products with the trademarked name of “iPad.” If they decide to put up a fight with Apple over their apparent trademark infringement, Apple may be forced to give it up.

A similar situation happened a few years ago between Apple and Cisco over the “iPhone” name. By the time Apple released their iPhone, Cisco had already registered iPhone as a trademark. A brief fight ensued, with Cisco ultimately agreeing to let Apple use the name. There were some vagaries around a future partnership, but I never heard anything further about it.

In this case, it might behoove Apple to let Fujitsu, STMicroelectronics, or MagTek win any battle they choose to fight over the iPad name. Then they could “lose” the rights to that name, and go with a much better name like “iSlate”.

Steve, if you or someone in your company is reading this, I highly recommend you leave the “menstrual” name to those guys and choose something that’s more provocative than it is evocative. And it might even be a good idea to find a guy like Michael Cronan to help you out in the future.

iPad? Seriously?

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Of all the names Steve Jobs could have come up with to describe Apple’s newest product, he and his marketing team chose “iPad.”  Are you freakin’ kidding me?  Of all the other cool names floating out there: iTablet, iTab, iSlate, etc. the number one winner was iPad?  What’s next, iTampon?

As my boss pointed out today, “that sounds strangely menstrual.”  He further went on to joke:

I think I’m going to start a web site that will help people get the most out of their iPad. It will help them to get maximum usage from their iPad. I think I’ll call it Max iPad.

Anyone care to guess the domain name for such a site?

Steve, I know you were sick and needed a liver transplant because you nearly died. But seriously, if that’s the best you can do post-op, it might have been a better idea to leave the naming up to Phil.

Update: According to Twitter, Apple didn’t even have to release an iTampon in order for their current product to be castigated as such.

Apple Event Today

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Apple’s expected to unveil a new device today. The consensus seems to be that it will be some form of tablet computer: iTablet, iSlate, etc. There’s nothing new on the Apple home page this morning, but I’m sure it will be updated later today:

Apple Home page

Praise God for Trijicon

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Trijicon? Who the heck are they? I had no idea either until I read this article on Yahoo! News.

Trijicon is a US defense contractor based in Michigan. They make combat  rifle sights which can be used day or night to pinpoint the enemy.  But the unique thing about their sights is that they contain scripture references at the end of the stock number. The two specific references called out in the article are to “JN8:12” and “2COR4:6,” which of course are references to John 8:12 and II Corinthians 4:6.

The inscriptions have sparked criticism of the company and the military. Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said that his foundation has received complaints from members of the military. He sees the inscriptions as “religious favoritism within the military.”

But fortunately, the military and Trijicon are standing up to the criticism and complaints. According to the article, “A spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said the inscribed sights don’t violate the ban on proselytizing because there’s no effort to distribute the equipment beyond the U.S. troops who use them.”

So yay for Trijicon and the US military!  Praise God you’re standing up for your beliefs.

Praise God for Health Insurance

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One of the principles my dad impressed on me from about high school through college was the importance of having a job that provided health insurance. He always said that landing in the doctor’s office, or the emergency room without health insurance could be disastrous for my finances. He wasn’t kidding either.

My bout with pneumonia for the last few weeks landed me in the ER on the morning of New Year’s Eve. I was in there less than 2 hours. (We arrived at 4:00 am, and I was out around 5:50 am.) Total bill?

$1,9243.85

Yup, you read that right, those two hours cost nearly a thousand dollars each. Here’s their itemized list:

Item Cost
Medical Surgical Supplies $6.12
Respiratory Services $302.45
Emergency Department Services $1574.00
Self Administered Medications $42.28
Total $1924.85

I can’t even imagine having to pay that out of pocket. I mean, think of all the things we could pay for with that much money. That’s more than a month’s worth of rent. That’s more than a Canon EOS 7D ($1699.00). It’s more than my next lens, the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM ($1699.95). Heck, for some people, that’s even a used car.

All that to say my dad was right. Having health insurance is super important.

So what was our final cost for that visit with insurance?

$50

Yup, praise God for health insurance!

Back from the Marriage Retreat

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Charlene and I got back from the 7th Annual ALCF Marriage Retreat this afternoon.  It was awesome! Milan and Kay Yerkovich were the speakers, and they were great. They shared on the topic of “How We Love Intimately”. My goal is to write more extensively about the weekend over the course of the next week.  But the gist of what they shared was that we are all affected by the events of our childhood, and certain “wounds” or “injuries” we suffer as children have a radical impact on the way we connect and bond with others, particularly our spouse.

Understanding those wounds and their effects can empower us to work on them, and transport us to a place where we are better able to connect with our spouse physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Charlene and I had a great time, and we were pleasantly surprised to find a number of familiar faces at the retreat with us. If you go to ALCF, I highly recommend that you attend in 2011.

RAIN!!!

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I think we’re about to get dumped on here in California.

rain

Here’s the official word from The National Weather Service:

Issued by The National Weather Service
San Francisco/Monterey, CA
2:15 pm PST, Thu., Jan. 14, 2010

… A VERY WET AND WINDY WEEK AHEAD FOR CALIFORNIA STILL ON TRACK…

THE LATEST FORECAST MODELS CONTINUE TO DEPICT A SERIES OF STORMS WILL MOVE IN FROM THE PACIFIC AND IMPACT CALIFORNIA NEXT WEEK.

AFTER A BRIEF DRY SPELL THE STORM DOOR WILL START TO OPEN WITH A WEAK FRONT BRINGING LIGHT SHOWERS TO THE AREA ON SATURDAY.

THE FIRST OF THE MORE SIGNIFICANT SYSTEMS IS FORECAST TO SPREAD RAIN INTO OUR AREA STARTING LATE ON SUNDAY AND CONTINUING THROUGH MONDAY AFTERNOON. THIS SYSTEM COULD PRODUCE UP TO 3 INCHES OF NEW RAINFALL FOR THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS AND 1-2 INCHES FOR THE VALLEYS.

AFTER A BRIEF BREAK ON MONDAY NIGHT THE NEXT IN THE SERIES IS EXPECTED TO SPREAD MORE RAIN INTO OUR AREA THROUGHOUT THE DAY TUESDAY AND INTO TUESDAY EVENING. AN ADDITIONAL 2-4 INCHES OF RAINFALL IS POSSIBLE ACROSS THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS WITH 1-2 INCHES FOR THE VALLEYS.

A SECOND BREAK IS EXPECTED TUESDAY NIGHT INTO WEDNESDAY MORNING BEFORE THE NEXT AND MOST POWERFUL SYSTEM OF THE WEEK APPROACHES DURING THE DAY WEDNESDAY. THIS SYSTEM COULD LINGER WEILL INTO THURSDAY. TOTALS FOR THIS SYSTEM COULD REACH 3-5 INCHES OR MORE FOR THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS AND 1-3 FOR THE VALLEYS. AS THE FRONT MOVES THROUGH SHOWERS COULD PERSIST WELL INTO FRIDAY. ALSO OF NOTE… A VERY POWERFUL JET STREAM IS FORECAST TO BE OVER CALIFORNIA BY THE MIDDLE OF THE WEEK WHILE A DEEP SURFACE LOW IS POSITIONED OFF THE WASHINGTON COAST. THIS HAS THE POTENTIAL TO PRODUCE VERY STRONG WINDS AND HIGH WIND WARNINGS MAY BE NEEDED.

BY THE END OF THE WEEK AHEAD… TOTAL RAINFALL COULD REACH 10-15 INCHES AT THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS AND THE POTENTIAL FOR UP TO 20 INCHES IN THE WETTEST LOCATIONS. IN THE VALLEYS… 4-8 INCHES.

ANYONE WITH TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS NEXT WEEK SHOULD TAKE THESE STORMS INTO CONSIDERATION AND BE PREPARED FOR POTENTIAL DANGEROUS ROAD CONDITIONS… INCLUDING SNOW POTENTIAL FOR ELEVATIONS ABOVE 5000 FEET.

MARINERS AND THOSE AT LOCAL BEACHES ARE ALSO ADVISED TO CONSIDER THE POTENTIAL FOR DANGEROUS OCEAN AND COASTAL CONDITIONS MOST OF THE WEEK DUE TO LARGE NORTHWESTERLY SWELLS THAT WILL COMBINE WITH THE STRONG WINDS OVER THE WATER.

(Bold emphasis mine. All caps courtesy of NWS.)

I love that paragraph in bold above. 10-15 inches at elevation, with up to 20 inches in some places. 4-8 inches elsewhere. Sheesh. That’s a lot of rain. Whoever was worried about Global Warming and drought in California need not worry any more.

Quick, where’s my Ark?

Pneumonia’s No Good

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I spent the majority of the last couple weeks sick with pneumonia. I got sick on Tuesday 12/28, spent the the morning of 12/31 in the ER, and was finally feeling about 95% last Friday.

Lots of coughing, phlegm, fatigue, and sleepless nights. No fun.

On top of that, just as I was starting to get better, Charlene came down with a cold. So it was the sick caring for the sick around here for a few days.  After 2.5 weeks, I’d say I’m finally about 98%. I still have a lingering cough, but the rest of my symptoms are under control. Praise God!

We were super blessed that my accountability partner, Andrew, was willing to go grocery shopping for us to buy food. My brother-in-law, Jeremy, was also kind enough to stop by with some chicken noodle soup from Safeway. Thanks guys!

Funny story: Jeremy bought two different kinds of soup. I don’t remember exactly what they were, but let’s call them “regular” and “organic”. As is typical of Charlene and me, we couldn’t agree on which one we liked. I preferred the “regular” one, but she liked the “organic” one. The noodles and the flavor of the regular one were much better to me, but she didn’t like the noodles in the regular, and preferred the organic noodles. The good thing is that meant we got to split the soups, and we both got what we wanted. No sharing necessary 🙂 That’s the way it is around here.  Go figure.