Author: Max

February 27, 2013
Max Life, Religion , , ,

Thoughts on the challenges that the new Pope will face…

When it was announced that Pope Benedict XVI was stepping down, I wondered what the real reason behind his decision was.

As the leader of the Catholic Church, I like to think that he was aware of pretty much everything that goes on among the rank and file priests around the world.

Therefore I cannot see any reason why he would not be aware of the appalling instance of priests that sexually abuse children.

The Pope, is, or at least should be, the moral authority of the Roman Catholic Church and as such should, in my opinion at least, be responsible for bringing to justice those that abuse the exalted positions that allow the predatory priests access to those that they crave.

To me, at least, Pope Benedict failure to change the Vatican’s traditional methods of handling child sex abuse by priests and so abuse of children is criminal.There is no way that he was unaware of what goes on in the churches around the world. Every time you are exposed to the news, it seems that more and more cases spring to light almost daily.

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February 27, 2013
Max Life, Technology , , ,

So, you want to cut your cable bill…..

I am not sure when paying over $200 / month for cable TV, Phone and Internet became normal, but apparently this is pretty much what ‘everybody’ pays.

Decently fast internet is $65, the rest of the bill is consumed via Phone, TV and numerous little add-ons. Having a DVR costs over $20 / month, the actual DVR rental is $9.99, then you need the service too – which adds another $10, plus taxes and regulatory fees. Oh and HD programming costs a few dollars too, and so does basic cable and many other things. Log story short, cable TV with a DVR costs about $115 / month.

Luckily there is an alternative.

Almost 100 channels are available for free. All you need is an antenna and a TV that is capable of receiving digital (ATSC) signals.

The major issues though is that I simply do not watch TV live, I record a few shows each week and watch later.In other words, I need a DVR.

So, my journey started wwith finding an open-source DVR that I could use to record Hawaii-Five-O and Elementary to a format that I could playback on my WD TV Live or my jailbroken AppleTv.

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February 3, 2013
Max Diet, fitness, Life, Photography , , , ,

Too fat to be photographed…..

Yesterday a friend posted a link to a blog entry called ‘So you’re feeling too fat to be photographed . . .’.

All of the comments on the link were overwhelmingly positive.

But to me, the idea that even family and friends will look past the blubber is a little weird. Sure I look at the latest photos of my family and think ‘yeah, its lovely to see them’, but I also think ‘good grief, that loved one has put some pounds on since the last time I saw a photo’ or similar…

I notice and I am sure that I am not alone.

So reassuring fat people that you look great to your family, when, well, you are actually obese, or more, seems wrong.

So I wrote a comment that basically said that I thought that the ‘you look great to your family’ concept was right up there with ‘everybody’s baby is beautiful’ and that rose colored glasses prolong the issues. Simply anyone that is tipping the scales at the obese level (or more) has a much larger chance of running into serious health issues later in life. Fat is not healthy.

I may have also suggested that in pretty much all of the examples, that they looked to me like they all needed to get there fat asses to the gym and stop inhaling calories. But as the thread is long deleted, I cannot exactly remember.

I did have the grace at least to mention that one of my personal motivators on my weight loss journey has been a photo of myself looking rather rotund.

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January 23, 2013
Max Diet, fitness, Life , ,

218lbs Now merely Over Weight….

As of this morning I am down to 218lbs – for my British friends that is 15st 8. This means that my BMI is down to 28.

At 6-2 and 218lbs I am merely overweight, rather than obese.

This is pretty significant as my progress over Christmas was inthe wrong direction, from December 6th to January 8th I went from 219 to 225 and then back to 221. The last two weeks have seen me back on track, losing 1.5lbs per week on average. I over ate all holiday season, but I continued my fitness regime.

My target of ‘about 185’ remains in place, I have lost about 33lbs (2 stone 5) and I have another 33 to go, so I am, I guess, half way to my target.

While being ‘merely half way’ after all of these months of watching what I eat and working out on a regular basis may seem a little sad, I feel like I am much further towards my goal that the scale actually tells me.

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September 6, 2012
Max Diet, fitness, Life , ,

Becoming a little less fat..

I have been slowly gaining weight for the past few years going from about 210lbs in 2000 all the way up to a not so comfortable 250lbs recently.

I have tried eating a little less and I have tried going to the gym on occasions.

I ride a bicycle too, but nothing was working – the weight continued to accumulate.

In a recent photo I barely look like ‘me’. I look like a fat guy with a bad haircut and a misguided moustache.

I pass that photo on the stairs every day.

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May 21, 2012
Max Life, Technology

The not-so hyper connected generation(s)

I feel like I am an old man just typing this post.

A DEC VT220-A Terminal last Tuesday

But I am rapidly coming to terms with a new role in the technological world. That roles is as an ‘educated older man, to build solutions, not for the upcoming generations, but for my generation and one either side…’.  That does not fit on a business card though….

The current generation of computer users barely actually use computers. They all use cell phones and tablets, not those archaic boxes that we (my generation) call computers.

They do not have any idea about ‘running’ a program, they simply use an app.

They do not save data locally either, everything is expected to be available regardless of which device they use. Nobody keeps a diary, that is what Facebook and twitter is for. You do not e-mail your friend a photo, you either MMS it to a single recipient or you post it on Twitter or Facebook or you pin it or you instagram it.

Memories are now transient – the only inkling that you existed a few years ago is that you posted a photo on Facebook or maybe a video on YouTube.

Sales of actual physical photo albums are limited to the over-40’s set or maybe even older.

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April 19, 2012
Max Life, Technology , , , , ,

Why I am sick of Samsung Android devices….

I currently use an iPhone.

It is an iPhone 4, not the latest, greatest 4s, but an older model. However the one wonderful feature is t at it runs the absolute latest version of iOS. This may not seem important to anyone. But to me it is nice because it means that even though the hardware is older, the feature set and bug fixes are mostly all present. True, I do not have Siri, but the OS is up to date and all bug fixes are present.

Compare that to Android.

My previous Android phone was a Samsung Infuse 4G. When I got it it was running Android 2.2, which at the time was already outdated, with 2.3 (Gingerbread) already available. As far as I am aware, there was never an official 2.3 upgrade available. I took the ‘aftermarket ROM’ route in frustration and as such I gained many bug fixes, a performance and battery life upgrade and a much nicer phone.

At the end of last year Samsung announced that it would never see an official 4.0 release. So I gave up with it. It was a very nice piece of hardware, but the OS support was terrible. I sold it…

So I purchased a lightly used iPhone 4, which has the latest updates

Meanwhile I have a Samsung Galaxy TAB 10.1.

This runs the ‘Honeycomb’ release of Android. Since I got it about a year ago it has received exactly one update. 4.0 (ICS) has been promised for a considerable time, but once more it has not yet arrived.

As a habitual early adopter I now realize that Samsung devices are not for me…..

February 1, 2012
Max Life, Technology

Thank you AT&T

I have been an AT&T customer for quite a few years and I have rarely had a bad word to say about them. I have rarely experienced anything other than pretty good service from them. Their prices have never seemed too bad for our needs either. We have a grandfathered ‘unlimited’ data plan as well as a couple of tablet plans. I get a decent corporate discount too. I often read about the ‘evil empire’ and their terrible service, but apart from a couple of local ‘low signal’ spots I rarely have a phone that does not work.

Virtually without fail AT&T have managed to resolve my issues, usually first time too.

I therefore often do not understand the hate that seems to be directed to them.

Last night Dom came over, in need of a loaner phone. He is on T-Mobile and he is not due for an upgrade until March. He is also a Blackberry user and for reasons that are probably more related to RIM’s declining quality, they barely last ‘five minutes’. It seems that he is constantly complaining that his phone is broken. Last night his Phone was showing a serious screen issue, only the left hand ¼ of the screen was showing anything other than something that looked like TV noise. I tried the usual BB things, swear at it, pulling the battery, slamming it against the wall and threatening it with violence – none of this worked.

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January 25, 2012
Max Life, Technology , ,

Dear Hollywood

Your business model is broken and trying to fix it by hounding those that share content is probably not the best way to fix it.

 Let me explain.

A number of major studios have thrown their money behind a new digital content distribution system called ‘UltraViolet’, that in theory at least, allows you to rent or purchase a movie and watch it on multiple devices.

On the surface this is great.  Really, truly this is a great thing. Rather than rent a DVD or BluRay from Netflix, Blockbuster or RedBox for a couple of dollars, you can rent one directly from the studio; and you can watch the movie on any device.

Except an iPad, iPhone, Android Phone, Android Tablet, or a non-smart TV or connected device that does not support UltraViolet.

Oh and you need a fast internet connection too.

All of these are minor issues though and nothing a small investment in hardware or bandwidth cannot solve. Assuming of course the movies are available fairly quickly after they leave the cinema and that they are relatively inexpensive to rent/buy.

Sadly neither is true, a ‘High Definition’ movie is $19.99 and an ‘SD’ movie is $12.99 and the current plan appears to be to release the movies at the same time as the DVD/Blu-Ray.  Generally I can get most DVDs shipped to my door from amazon.com for about $10 or I can pay less than $20 for a BluRay, again, shipped to my door. Often Amazon will sell off movies a few months after release for $5 – $8 and there are many BluRays available for less then $10.

For example, one of the sixty movies that Paramount are launching with is ‘Rango’, their SD price is $12.99, the HD price is $19.99

  • I can rent the DVD from Redbox for $1.29 or $3.99 will get me the BluRay from Blockbuster.
  • I can buy the DVD that comes with a free digital copy that I can play on my tablet for $12.49
  • I can buy the BluRay/DVD/Digital Copy combo for $19.49
  • I can buy it on iTunes for $19.99 (HD)
  • I can watch it on Cinemax as a part of my $9.99 add-on to my basic cable subscription
  • I can buy it on Amazon Video On-Demand for $14.99 (HD Version)
  • It will be on Basic cable soon, so I can wait.
  • It is on torrentsRus with 10 million seeders for freeez !!!!1111oneoneeleven

In other words, UltraViolet, for this example movie is actually the most expensive (along with iTunes) and easily the least convenient.

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December 30, 2011
Max Life , , , ,

Why am I using an iPhone 4 ?

2011 was a crazy year for cell phone technology, I began the year with a HTC Aria running Android. I had replaced my iPhone 3GS with this on release of the iPhone 4. The Apple ‘walled garden’ finally pushing me back to Android.

The Aria briefly had a cousin in tow. I got a Samsung galaxy tab which I utterly adored. Unfortunately this was trashed and I replaced it with a nook color which is a hacker delight.

The Aria gave way to another HTC, this time a large screen Inspire. Which within a couple of weeks gave way to a Samsung Infuse with an even larger screen. The size of the screen matters as you get older.

All of these android devices gained custom roms. Wherever possible I use CyanogenMod ROMs as they are fast, minimalist and close to the standard Android experience than it is possible to find elsewhere.

My major gripe with Android is that the combination of carrier and manufacturer customization often make the android experience worse than the standard.

The Android OS is utterly fantastic. The standard UI is brilliant, the deep integration with google services rocks harder than Mötorhead in their prime. The variety of devices and screen sizes pander to everyone. Virtually any combination of carrier, screen size and speed is available.

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