I didn’t know we were closed at work, staff report, untill I was on my way. Apparently we are having our first snow storm with possibly a foot of downfall. Naturally, everything is shut down, did I get the message? Nope.

Its been a good couple of months since I’ve had wings… it seems that a lot
of my friends don’t like them, and wings are a great food to share. I
suppose it means I need new friends… any applications? #snap

Oh me of little faith. And here I was thinking the goodness wouldn’t come to the G1 till Summer of 2009…

The core Android development team just announced a roadmap for  a special branch of code, called “cupcake” that will be merging into the main branch in January 2009, giving much needed fixes and features to G1 users.

via the roadmap - During Android’s transition to an open-source project, some development has continued to happen in a private branch.  We are working to move the rest of these changes into the open as soon as possible, and all future open-source work will happen in the public git repositories.  All changes that have already been submitted to the public repositories will be merged into the newer code base, so nothing should be lost.

Click though the jump to read about some of the features and improvements that cupcake has for the G1.

Read the rest of this entry »

In a desperate move to stop up the $15.4BN state deficit, Governor Paterson has declared war on the pursuit of happiness, hairspray, and Keystone Light.

yanked from Buffalogeek
$4BN in new taxes and fees to include:
– Fat tax on sugared soda
– SUNY tuition hike
– Sales tax on cable and satellite TV and radio
– Repeal the sales tax cap on fuel
– Higher beer and wine taxes
– Higher cigar taxes
– Increase auto rental tax
– Higher luxury good sales tax
– Increase civil service exam fees
– Local fee for hiring a public retiree

In honor of our impaired Governor, or more rather pure mockery of his ridiculously faillike intents, I, We, WNYMedia present for your enjoyment, a site in Helvetica:

PATERSONISYOURNEWTAX.COM

Coded by me. Snark curtesy of the fine residents of NY.

I loved that it snowed last night. Even downtown received a substantial
couple of inches. Here in Depew, the snow has been spotty, with only a
steady layer from last night as well. Its all the better, since I’d rather
not lose any vaction days to bad weather closing the workshop. #snap

I have dated John since February 2008, and I feel closer to him in more ways than I have with anybody else. I also live further away from him than anyone I have ever been with. How can I be so close, yet so far away?

Its the Internets baby.

My relationship with john was cultivated directly from social networking. We met on BearCiti, a friendly and well designed bear niche dating/hookup/oggling community. I oggled, he oggled back, “you’re My Type,” “OMG Woof!” From there we’d chit chat and IM, and bit by bit the urge grew to get on a plane to see a man I never met before, who’s mother thought I could be a crazy person (a valid fear I think). We met, fell in love, and then the realization hit that I would still have to live in Buffalo, and John (at the time) still had to live in Annapolis, and neither of us liked the idea of being apart. We had to give it a shot though. Luckily, with us both being geeks, we have a few tools that we use to build a relationship, 400 miles apart…

• Twitter – This is a lifestream spew of all my thoughts, rants, and aversions. John follows me on twitter and I follow him. We follow each others friends and have a comfortable network of people that share our thoughts. Twitter allows me to know whats going on with John, and vice versa. I know his thoughts in 140 characters. and he knows mine.
• IM – God we talk alot. Both of us use IM for work purposes, and all day we chitterchatter, rant and rabblerouse. Occasionally we get work done, but its good to know I have a link to him. IM is the good old standby.
• Blogs/podcasts - I blog (duh), and John does occasionally, but this is more than just our content. Its the content of the web. So many of my relationships have fizzled because we have ran out of things to talk about. The web is a series of tubes and they go on forever.  We share our web findings and our snark on a daily basis. From all this, I learn how John feels about things, his interests and opinions are a vital part of me feeling close to him.
• Flickr – This was something I wanted, whether together or apart. I wanted dinner parties and flickr sets. I get it all with John, and even though sometimes we quarrel over who gets upload rights, flickr archives it all. There has never been a trip with out a flickr set attached to it. Flickr doesn’t just benefit John and I, our friends and family see us in action (well, that set is private, actually) and provides a little validity, whether they need it or not.
• Phone Sex – This one’s a little bit archaic but Its the absolute most important thing besides physical contact: hearing your lover’s voice. John is the first person I talk to in the morning (I call and wake him up) and the last person I talk to at night. We have done this every day. I text a lot too, and with a smartphone I can manage and use all of the above social apps wherever I am. I admit to being a bit attached to my G1, but I’m also really attached to Scranto.  And as crude as it sounds, nothing is more fun than getting a dirty picture message out of the blue.
• Video Streaming – Here’s our most recent example: John and I aren’t spending christmas together due to logistics, but I still want to experience some bit of the Holiday Spirit with him. His present arrived a little early due to need, and he opened it last night over uStream. I watch and we talked as he unboxed it, smiled, and tried on his fancy new headphones. Sure it was a little weird, but you know what, it felt like I was with him. I got to see the look on his face, the joy of the gift, the appreciation. Thats what Christmas is all about right? That and spiked eggnog. I will admit we use video for other purposes, too… just not over uStream.

I don’t like long distance relationships, and neither does John. We do more than make it work, we thrive in it. All of it has to do with love, dedication, and a little web 3.o.

There a many other benefits of the web that can benefit long distance relationships. Think about finding cheap travel or job hunting. LDR’s used to get a bad rap because they were difficult to maintain and communication was limited to phone, or letters (something about paper, and stamps.. don’t know).  If you have hesitations about getting closer to that person who’s not so close, think long and hard about why you want to take the risk. Dating someone across the way can be heartwrenching, and no amount of twitter can help that. However, things have advanced in the ways of communication, and as long as you can maintain a strong connection, the miles don’t suck so much.

P.S – Its totally ok now to date someone you met on the internet. Don’t be a prude, update your snobbery book. kthx.

My Maps Editor is a recent free addition to the Android Market, the result of 20% time from Brian Cornell, a software engineer at Google. The app allows full viewing and editing of the My Maps section of Google Maps, with a few bonuses like GPS support and local caching. With My Maps (you can find this as a tab in google maps), you can add placemarks, shapes, and paths, upload photos, and insert HTML formatted content in the placemark description. You can then share your custom map, keep it private, or open it up to collaboration.

With this application you can create, edit, share, and view personalized maps on your Android powered phone synchronized with the My Maps tab on Google Maps. It supports full editing functionality for markers, lines, and shapes, plus the ability to mark your location using GPS or attach a photo directly from your phone.

Click through to read the rest of the review, and see lots of pretty screenshots.

Read the rest of this entry »

One of the downsides when it snows is that the bus routes all fall out of
whack. It doesn’t matter that we have the most snowplows in all of NY if
Buffalonians still can’t drive like normal folk.

Because of this, my gap between buses shrinks from 6-10 minutes to a near
impossible -45 seconds under. Thus, I get off the 20 early and skirt across
a block to the ass end of the Lafeyette Hotel to wait for the 6 in the poor
people zone.

#snap

Brian! AKA Cincycub! Thanks for entering, those who did. Brian your tacky awesomeness is on its way…

I learned a couple things about doing customs, and I really have a respect for the artist who can replicate hundredfold. All I did was sew a few sweaters and scribble with some Krink Pens (which RULE). Anyways… Merry Christmas and shit.

#snap

This is one of the few apps I get to review while writing a review… WPToGo. Concisely titled. WPtoGo is the lone WP posting app. Works via the XMLRPC pathway (as most of these blogging apps do), you have the ability to create posts, save local drafts, and upload photos.

Formatting wise, you can blockquote, bolden, italicise, and link

Nothing is WSIWYG, and the inputbox is hard to navigate with even this small a post.

Pictures are automatically embedded, and you have the choice of maximum size, orientation, and whether you want the fullsize photo uploaded as well. There is not an option to take a picture at that moment, only what’s in your gallery.

Another bummer is no tags, but you can choose your categories.

For a blogging app, it will do, but I’ve gotten very comfortable moblogging using flickr through email. I don’t have a need for this app.

I guess that means I’m still waiting for the real WP app to be developed…