James Shane

My yearly rumor round up based on no scientific application what-so-eva! 100%:

• Snow Leopard
• Steve Jobs will pop up at the last minute, and join Phil in the following...

90%:

• New iLife, iWork
• New Mac Mini

75%:

• Cinema Displays
• 17 inch MacBook Pro

25%:

• New Intel chips in the computers

10%:

• iPhone Nano
• New iPhone OS
• Mac Netbook

0%:

• iPhone for Verizon

The hype machine has been a little quiet. Probably a good thing.

@jaggedpen: *reading twitter post from bugfrog contain the word jaggedpen* You forgot the @. @bugfrog: So. @jaggedpen: How am I suppose to find it without the @? @bugfrog: You just read it. @jaggedpen: Yeah, but my name doesn't have the @ next to it. How am I suppose to see it? @bugfrog: You just saw it. @jaggedpen: ...

Well, it's been a ride, and I learned a lot. Thirty days, four days no post. Donated a little money to charity. Now, I will reward myself by just saying thanks to everyone that read a few posts. My Twitter post was even bookmarked on a social site! I don't know what's next, but I will be posting more in the future. Plus, I'll be doing to NaBloPoMo thing again come February. Ta-Ta for now!

I did it. I totally voided the warranty and jailbroke my iPhone. This means I can download and install applications that aren't authorized by Apple. Why would I do this? Backgrounder - When you start a program on the iPhone, you are pretty much stuck with that program until you are done with it. Once you press the home key, it"ll stop the program and reset the session. Backgrounder lets the program run in the background, so you can switch between programs without losing their sessions. WinterBoard - This program allows you to tweak the look in feel of the iPhone. Change the look of the icons, the background, and also the sound. Give the iPhone a little personal touch. Cycoder - This application changes the still camera of the iPhone into a video camera. It captures the video and sound on to the iPhone so that it can be downloaded for YouTube upload. Qik - Qik does the same to the iPhone camera, but instead of saving the video on the iPhone, the video is streamed live to the Qik website. There, other's can see your live event. Life casting here we come. Rumor has it this will be released legally to the App Store soon. Openssh - Openssh puts a Secure Shell client and server on you iPhone. What? Well, for those that don't know secure shell, it's a way to connect, command and copy assets (files) to/from the iPhone over a encrypted channel. I.e., copy those files to you computer made by Cycorder. Making the iPhone an accessible storage drive. Now, how does one jailbreak the iPhone? Go here. This is the tool I use.

Sorry I missed last Thursday, and another apology for moving this iPod Check to Friday. First up is Dannii Minogue. Who?!?! It's Kylie Minogue's sister. She has a lot of sounds going on in the club scene. I heard about her from one of my favorite internet radio sites XRM Radio. I heard this song on the movie Real Genius. I fell in love with the song due to the fact that the movie parallels my life. Boy genius not accepted into normal society, must stop a egotistical professor from building the ultimate in laser warfare. Ahh, good times... For those who hate country, leave now. It's not quite, but close to it. Alison Krauss is awesome. Her original style brings my home every time. If you ever wanted to swing over to country music for a bit, she is a great place to start. Are you surprised I like this crap? I like it all.

Thankful for... Not: My acid reflux. Am: $4 Zantac at Walgreens Not: The current economy. Am: My job. Not: The cold. Am: Enjoying a warm Dr. Pepper, with a slice of lemon. Not: WordPress' constant upgrade request. AM: Not publishing the whole site at each post. Not: The 1,000 mph bus going down my street every 15 minutes. Am: My apartment that is close to every thing cool. In these trying times, I tend to break even.

Another traditional Thanksgiving dish. Number of happy eaters: 6 What you need:

• 6 medium potatoes
• 1 cup whole milk
• 4 slices whole-grain bread
• 1 cup onion
• 1 cup celery
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley
• 2 tsp Mrs. Dash
• Salt and pepper to taste

What you do: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cook, peel and mash those taters. Mash them up with 1/2 cup of the milk. Dice the bread into little squares, place them in a bowl with the rest of the milk, let soak. Chop up the onion and celery, put them in a skillet with some oil. Saute over low heat until onion is brown and celery is tender. Combine the onion and celery with the potatoes. Stir in bread, parsley (chop it first) and Mrs. Dash. Salt and pepper it. Pour the whole mass into an oiled baking pan, bake it for 60 minutes. You'll know it's done when the top is brown. Serve with butter, and enjoy!

This is a recipe I tried last X-mas, and it went over with grand reviews. What you need: 2 lbs Brussels sprouts 1/2 cup red wine 4 tbsp honey 2 tbsp soy sauce 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch What you do: Cut the stems off the Brussels sprouts and cut a slit into the base of the sprout, about 1/4 inch deep. Mix the wine, honey, and soy sauce together, then mix that with 1/2 cup of water. Now, stir that with the sprouts and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes. Uncover and stir every so often for 10 more minutes. Add some water to the cornstarch, then quickly stir that with the sprouts for five minutes. Remove from heat. Enjoy!

When I was younger I had a book that instructed me on how to draw cars in 3D. I'm horrible at drawing, so it didn't help. The last section of the book talked about the cars of the future. How at the turn of the millennium, our cars would have the power of flight. The world's skies would be full of cars powered by jet engines, and the roads would be just landing strips to the destination. The picture in the book showed floating traffic lights, floating traffic signs and happy motorists riding in floating cars like this:

Ugly, but freaking cool! Cars that owned the road at the time looked more like this:

So, here it is 2008, almost 2009, and I have been waiting over three decades for a flying car. At this point, I expect to look up and have the sunlight interrupted by undercarriages involved in sky-ly traffic jams. Instead, I see these vehicles rule the sky road:

In October of '95, I had to under go a back operation. The odds weren't in my favor for a 100% guarantee that the operation would be a success, but for me to live a better life the operation was a must. I went under the knife for about 12 hours. Two Doctors took shifts adjusting my back and fusing a couple of bones against my spine. The operation turned out well, with a few minor complications, but the hardest part had to be the two weeks after. I was stuck in a hospital with little communication to the outside world. My home was about 100 miles from the facility, so my parents took shelter in a local Ronlad McDonald House (RMDH). There they were able to come to the hospital at anytime to check on my progress. When one parent decided to spend the night in the uncomfortable chair next to my bed, the other went to the RMDH and got a relatively good night's sleep. The RMDH made a trying time easier to accept, and allowed my family to support me during my hospital stay. My first donation goes to them as a thank you for what they do for families that need assistance. Without them, families wouldn't be able to ease their minds and focus on the loved ones that need attention.