What the hell? Part III

Posted on by Forge77

I’ve posted in the past about my goings in life… Rather Cryptically but nonetheless I’ve posted about it. Things are still the same as they have been.  A bit quieter, A bit of new, a bit of old, Trying to rebuild my life from near scratch.  You would figure in almost a year things would calm down or go away … No such luck, Its a painful thing, and I live with the hate thrown at me every day for crazy shit I’ve had nothing to do with. While this life is a new, and trying to rebuild and set a base for myself, Its a day to day struggle where I wake up each day and remind myself to move forward and not dwell in the past.  I still want to be left alone by this person and they may never understand or even understand what damage they have done.  As I work myself to the next step, I’ve finally followed up and started to update this site on a semi regular basis and while maybe no one reads this I am trying to get myself back into the swing of things.

On that note, updates will keep coming to the site as i try to find my place with the site again. After taking such a long break from coffeecommander I feel like I’ve slipped in my abilities with posts.  While I can vomit out a 900 word post I am just feeling that I slipped where I could get more across in less words.

SD Wifi to Compact flash fun. Compact flash Adapter fix.

Posted on by Forge77

I bought a Wifi SD card for my Digital Camera.

I jumped at getting a slightly newer camera, while it takes compact flash I thought about finding something like an EYE-FI card or Flashair. small problem, you’d think something like that would be a higher market value to someone with an SLR camera. But, after looking around I found all the cards with WiFi are only SD.    with with the amount of tablets and phones I have. I figured why spend a ton of money on a huge Compact flash card.  So after a bit of looking around I purchased a toshiba flashair card. the next step was to purchase an adapter from SD to compact flash .  the WIFI SD/SDHC/SDXC To Compact Flash CF Type II Memory Card Adapter I bought was a generic card but, while I was not sure going into this because there was very many mixed reviews on using an adapter with a compact flash.

While the card with the Wifi SD card worked ok the range was severely limited, it was limited to about 3 feet at best. After looking at the card for a bit I noticed that there is a big metal face to the CF adapter.  I did a little surgery to the card itself.

IMG_20140310_203145

As you can see the two cards side by side.. Taking the CF adapter apart was actually very easy, using a razor I dug a bit under the metal face and popped it up a bit, After that It was very easy to remove the metal faceplate.

IMG_20140310_203209

As you can see the metal piece is pretty much decoration and has no structural value .  when I place the SD card back in a lot more of the card was exposed.  the final look of the card was a bit more open.

IMG_20140310_203241

With the removal with the face place my range on the FlashAir card did not only double it went up by a factor of ten. I could keep connected to the card from across the house with a max range of 40feet or so.

Phone fun ∞+1xπ, The empire strikes back.

Posted on by Forge77

Awhile back I had gotten the Galaxy Nexus , and the phone through and through was a pretty good phone other than needing a small nuclear power plant to keep the battery up.  While the nuclear power plant option was a little steep in price I did get a Satechi 10000 mAh Portable Energy Station, Its as close as you can get to nuclear power for a phone without the radiation hazards.  Not to mention that the nuclear power plant has some mobility disadvantages.

Funny enough after a year plus with the phone I realized it had the same problem with its predecessor the phones antenna was not up to par, there were nights I was ready to eat my phone due to the antenna dropping calls or doing other strange shit.  Alas though … the Galaxy Nexus met its end, While the phone was tough it was not tough enough when it picked a fight with a concrete floor and the floor won.  While my comment about the back battery cover feeling like your going to break the phone is only partially correct. The phone itself can take some serious abuse.

The phone I chose as its replacement was the LG nexus 5 , It improves further on the Nexus line of phones with some disadvantages. You loose the ability to some degree to replace the battery on your own, while the battery is “non user serviceable” with a few tools you can get the battery replaced on your own.   Battery life is improved a slight bit while 24 hours is still the high bar for keeping a charge on the phone with light use as I am looking at my phone now and with 38% of the battery left and 1day and 2 hours on battery.

Continue reading “Phone fun ∞+1xπ, The empire strikes back.”

What the hell part II?

Posted on by Forge77

I’ve been trying to keep up a more updated pace to the website. But nothing like it used to be. While my days still start and end with coffee. Everything in between is still a bit chaotic.   It seems wishful thinking on my part for one peaceful fucking day. With what pieces of my life I have left, they are essentially the most important to me.  While being able to keep minor things , I’ve had to think about things and move forward with stuff finding a way to define myself.

Being more or less kicked to the street is a hurtful thing… been there. seen it. done it.. fuck it… While its been over two months since this has happened. the wound is still fresh and still getting torn into on occasion.  I just wish to be left alone by the person that is causing all my issues in life.  That person seems to have a psychosis to thinking I am still a part of there life and somehow still doing things.  I just want to be left alone.

What the hell?

Posted on by Forge77

Every time I sit down and think to myself I should update this , I end up getting distracted lost or some crazy batshit thing happens.  As the last few months for myself have been on the level of insanity a few can fathom. Normally its wake up , get a cup of coffee and start the day, and its all pretty strange when your cup of coffee has been coming from random locations..

My life has been blown up to little pieces more than a Michael Bay film Combined with a die hard sequal.  Spending the last 2 months reassembling the pieces remain and keeping some dearly close to the heart while working with new pieces.  Just for the craziness for what life is , it’s  about moving forward with yourself.  Keeping the insanity to a level that’s tolerable and finding that good cup of coffee when you can..  I normally don’t let people be privy to my personal life and the last few months has had me at a crossroads,  A complete conversion to new things while leaving the old behind as for the old only let to a circular repeating track.

Moving ahead, I am going to try to update here more often. it has been something I’ve missed doing.

Phone fun ∞+1 Just because its been awhile.

Posted on by Forge77

So, As we left off way back when in phone fun MMXXIV I ended up with the Nexus S 4g, Since I’ve had that phone it was pretty smooth sailing as far as a phone goes. The phone was durable to the point of being thrown into a wall multiple times.

This edition of phone fun has ended up with a mostly positive review of things since I decided to upgrade to the Galaxy Nexus , this phone is step above the nexus s and has more bells and whistles .. namely a FUCKING NOTIFICATION LIGHT!!!!.. Holy hell do you miss those when you don’t have one.

If is there is one thing a phone must be with it has to be a notification light because you become obsessive with checking if you have missed any messages.

There are a few complaints about the Galaxy nexus….

They are minor, Yet annoying..

The back battery cover feels like you’re going to break the thing when you try to access the battery, Also with the battery is its life , You feel like you need to carry around a small nuclear power station in order not to run the battery down. Phones are progressing at an amazing rate, but the technology for batteries are not. Going 24 Hours is the high bar for newer phones, if you lock yourself in a room for a day and ignore every phone call , You might get over one day.  Even with batteries progressing at a slow rate why don’t companies at least mitigate with a small change to the the phone that would go many miles by simply putting a solar cell on the back cover. Sure it doesn’t solve anything if you live in a cave but what the hell .. Its a start.

The other minor issue is getting Google voice to work with the phone when transferring from one phone to the next, which seemingly has a strange fix. If you update your phone to the most recent version of Google voice you will have errors and the phone will never sync to it. The way around it seems to be using the stock version of Google voice which works out.

but so far this phone seems to be a win .

Stick that in your “cloud” and smoke it II

Posted on by Forge77

Now that the cloud services are hitting the market more and more, the more bullshit things that the corporate droids are saying what it can do.  Honestly, the state of the cloud is something closer to smog.  You don’t see the problems with the cloud till you are totally engulfed in the cloud of smog, and through the “information superhighway” your creamed by some asshole in a mack truck and get your car stolen with your wallet and by the time you come out of the cloud you’re naked and asking your self “WTF JUST HAPPENED?!”

Matt Honan learned this the hard way. He got hit in by the mack truck of social engineering when someone retrieved his password than went on a rampage of deleting his accounts and spamming with other accounts.  One of the biggest problems with the cloud is there is only a single point of access, Once that’s broken it becomes fuck all and pretty much if you don’t have it backed up to solid media such as a DVD or a backup drive , you might as well just light your computer on fire in the end.  Even if you do have your media backed up on the computer that you’ve connected to the stink cloud, in all chances you may end up with your device wiped due to that single point of access and accounts attached to it.

Also with the perceived “Security” that the cloud has its really just unicorn farts and rainbows due to in part the end user.  How many people will just log into there cloud putting in the password every time or will they hit save password and screw themselves in the fact that its just “easier”, Not to mention a lost device could doom all of your information  since there is interconnectability in the toxic waste cloud.

It just makes me wonder about the security of the cloud thing.  If someone can call and pretend to be you, how many other ways is your account on the exhaust cloud vulnerable. If media is able to execute in the cloud is there any stops to malware infecting your account and possibly everyone else with an account on the server or node your clouded information is on .  Likely your information is stored like a cesspool everyone else’s shit is in the tank with yours.  If someone finds a way to gain root access, Than pretty much rather than one account being hit thousands or more could be affected in the process.  Since the security in the cloud is based on black magic , someone named tom and  a cookie with m&m’s next to the keyboard to hopefully distract the person or persons trying to gain access to the information.

Websites, portals, and social media platforms have been dealing with these problems and can be directly relatable to the possibilities of problems that are ahead. Blizzard being the most recent, Linkedin , Amazon all being hacked  With the biggest problem of you’re taking someones word for if your information is safe or not.  Sony being hacked last year left customers in the dark for days with the hacking of their servers .  So it only leaves you guessing if the “cloud” goes down for an extended time.

Also, some people are taking a liking to the cloud for other reasons security aside.  At kotaku Patricia Hernandez likens the point of the portability of the “cloud” and how her information is accessible everywhere.  Try saying that when the internet goes down , or the authentication server shit itself and you have lost complete access to the game since you cant grab an internet connection. She goes on to say…

But overall? The benefits of the cloud outweigh the drawbacks for me. Everything feels more convenient with the cloud. I can buy the games from my home, without having to go anywhere. I don’t have to worry about space, which tends to be sparse for me. And even if it wasn’t, if you’ve played games as long as I have, then you’ve accrued a sizable collection.

Having something being easy is not worth it when it comes with eroded customer rights, lack of ownership , Security issues, Likely needing to be bound to an internet connection. sure the cloud has some good things with it but, over all its just like a cloud left from a stinkbomb, It can be fun, have long lasting implication and at the same time can be your worse nightmare as Matt Honan learned. On another end is since all your information is bound to one point, if you get banned from said cloud, Your information and possibly your money with it due to any expenditures you have bought and is bound to said cloud.  Sure you don’t have to worry about scratched disks , or loosing the books with the game . but, in all its not worth loosing everything because someone decided to make a stupid decision and leave your whole account open due to a hole somewhere and everything is gone.  Also worth mentioning is if a company goes out of business with your cloud, than your cloud becomes a fart in the wind and is gone. Since you have no control of how stupid a company can be or have any control when some company decides to end its science project with a cloud saying its too expensive to maintain.  you could loose everything in a moments notice including material stuff that matters such as credit cards, memories of events due to you only having your pictures in one place or other important work when your device suddenly clears itself due to someone hacking into your cloud and hitting wipe devices.

If the cloud is to succeed, there has to be allowed user changes and changes in the accessibility of the cloud, the future of cloud gaming may kill off any user modding and free creativity.

Don’t get me wrong, the cloud has its uses. but, what is trying to be done with the cloud is building a bank with a glass vault. One rock and its all over.

Dunkin Gonuts advertising gone wild.

Posted on by Forge77

Apparently dunkin donuts is trying smell based ads , I guess we can be thankful that its not taco bell .. Though i could imagine that ad as cheech marin and Tommy Chong shitting their brains out and going “duuuude yo quiero taco bell”.  I’m just not sure on this one but, since it’s based in another country perhaps they have a better smell than most dunkin donuts i’ve gone to around here. I’ve come to a bit of a truce with dunkin donuts and they have seemed to have learned there lesson from serving boiled cat vomit.  Since a few year back when bluesteel and I were getting consistent bad coffee(read: bad milk, watercoffee etc) we swore off dunkin for quite the few years.

Its just weird to try to use advertising by smell, and the jingle don’t they do enough already? They would likely tattoo the back of eyeballs and forehead if they thought it would sell more coffee with the logic of getting more impressions.  Seriously instead of coming up with random shit like this , improve the coffee and the people will come, otherwise you will just piss people off on there way to work with this and they will just wait till they can get to the coffee at work.

Rather than put your ads everywhere and go into visual overload or just plain lying,  improve the product. In burger king the other they removed the wall painting to add vinyl pictures of people having a meal on the wall and the first thing I thought about them is “what the fuck fast food joint has this kind of service” since the pictures on the wall were a large salad in a metal mesh bowl, people with smiles drinking out of glasses, and burgers that had no bearing on burgerking it self, it was more to remind you, If you spent this money at a real restaurant this is what you could of had for $8.

Maybe in europe they have that kind of service, but not here. As i’ve said – Improve your service and product, and not try to play the follow the leader or someone on acid thought of a really cool idea for advertising stoned off there ass. Divert 10% of your ad budget to the people and the products and you will create a better impression than trying to give the image of a good impression on TV that you know was thought up while people laughed and say  we don’t do this shit.