Home Security Systems
So there’s been a recent break in in my neighborhood, and one neighbor has installed a new security system, and another decided to put her sign out for her Broadview Security that she’s had for a while.
And it brings something up that I’ve seen all the time, why can’t I just purchase the sign?
Honestly, why do we even put the sign out? Doesn’t that defeat the entire purpose of spending 100+ bucks installing a security system and paying 15+ bucks a month for monitoring services if the criminal will simply look at the sign and go “hmm… well, not worth breaking into that house if the alarm goes off!”
Sure, there’s a chance that the robber will continue with the break in anyways, and if you don’t have an alarm, well… shit. But if you do, it only reinforces the fact that this criminal is an idiot, and he’ll be rushing out before he has a chance to steal much.
Of course, I’m realizing that if the signs were open for purchasing anywhere, then people would realize immediately that they can’t trust the signs, and break ins would actually increase for those places that have a sign in front of the house.
I’m sure a lot of people would rather just purchase the sign than spend a lot of money on the actual system.
I know I would.
hmm.
iPhone Battery “Meter”
So, I was using my iPhone on wednesday, bright and early. I had it charging all night and then I unplugged it around 7 in the morning to get started on my day.
Full Battery.
I spend the entire day playing around with it, online, playing Boom, checking out the latest tweets on Tweetie 2… you know, my usual day on the iPhone.
Next thing you know, it’s 10:30 at night, and I’m looking at my phone… Still full battery. How is this possible?
I ended up rebooting, obviously under the assumption that the battery life shown on the phone MUST be wrong, and then when I started it back up, unsurprisingly enough it wouldn’t even LOAD unless I plugged it into the wall.
This got me wondering on a bit. Given that the battery was completely dead to the point that I can’t boot it up (and honestly, I’m surprised the phone didn’t die on me earlier in the day, like around 3-4 pm), I wondered if I hadn’t rebooted, how long the phone would’ve lasted until it shut down.
The way it was acting, however, I came to the absurd conclusion that the phone never would’ve shut off. But of course the battery would die eventually.
I guess I’m still just surprised that the phone lasted as long as it did.
Changes and LessConf
Hello to all of my new visitors from LessConf and BarCampJax. I had an absolutely amazing time there talking to everyone.
For those that don’t know, LessConf was a conference put on this past weekend in Jacksonville, with a variety of talks for Entrepreneurs and Developers. It was definitely a great time, and I’m proud of Allan and Steve for their hard work putting this together. A complete success, and I’m excited for the next time they have it. Every one of the talks were great.
Every time I go to a conference, I always get that spark of motivation to work on my own projects, or just just feel so much better with the network connections. This time around, with all the talk on brands and what not, and Gary Vee’s very inspirational talk about brand equity and the amount of self-confidence he has really got me going about my brand, and I’m anxious to work on my own brand and side projects more.
There hasn’t been any new updates here as I have been very busy with moving into my new place, as well as out on the job search. So basically my hiatus that I figured was going to come, actually happened a little later than I thought.
I’m finally taking the time out this week to work on a couple things. Blackened Sun will have some changes being made to it, in terms of setting up my about page, as well as a portfolio/resume. So please excuse the mess if you see one.
Also, I’m working on an exciting new project that I have been putting off for far too long. When I am finished enough to have people try it out, I will be announcing it here on my blog. A lot of the LessConf’ers as well as friends of mine already know bits and pieces of what I am hoping to develop and I plan to have something to show off by the end of this week. I think I can do it!
I believe my blog will be changing direction. I’m constantly torn on if this blog should discuss personal things, be a place for me to rant, or keep things professional and only discuss things related to my field of Web Development. I always felt like the blog should stay “professional” but I notice time and time again that I end up going out on a tangent and discussing my life, and other random thoughts I may have about things that happen around me. What are your thoughts on this? Do you like the blog posts I have so far, would you prefer a change?
I am going to promise at least one new blog post a week, though, regardless. I really want to make sure I keep this updated!
Remembering 9/11
I can’t believe it’s actually been 8 years already. 8 years ago that the two towers fell, and everything we know in this country changed drastically.
Sure, there were plenty of things that were at work well before that day, that affected us, but what the terrorists did on that one day changed the course of history immensely.
I still remember where I was that day. Some of us didn’t even know about it at first, like myself. I was walking into my Science class in high school to find the TV on CNN… and the scene on the screen was one of Hell on Earth. It was shortly after the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center, the dark smoke from the building blocking the sun from the camera, giving the sky this deep red color. It really did look vicious. I remember seeing the second plane crash into the towers on the tv, with utter shock.
I remember sitting out on the grass later, and everything around me just felt so surreal. I was just looking up at the cloudless sky, and seeing all of the plane jet streams heading in the exact same direction, to Logan International, spread across the entire sky.
It was incredible what happened the next few weeks. How all Americans finally FINALLY put aside all of their differences, and came together for the common good. However, the bad things also happened during the first two weeks. I’ve seen fellow students taking advantage of the moment by trying to get teachers to ignore teaching us. I know from their facial expressions and from their words that the students weren’t truly still devastated by the attacks, but wanted to not have to do work. That frustrated me to no end.
From this one devastating day, we endured 2 wars in two Middle Eastern countries, we’ve had laws passed to provide more security, and less privacy. I agree with some actions, and not with others, but I won’t get into that on here out of respect for the event that changed our lives.
9/11 had such an impact on everyone’s lives, in the United States and in some effect even abroad, that it’s definitely going to be one of those defining moments of the first decade of the 21st Century… I know it’s certainly helped shape the last 8 years of my life. How about yours?
Learning Something New: Alan Turing
I follow a lot of random news. I don’t visit many news websites directly, but I do get a lot of news from tweets on Twitter that sound interesting, and I follow through, and may even repost them if I find them interesting enough for my followers to need to check out. Lately, a lot of the news I tend to get are political (laughing at anti-Obama stuff from Huffington Post, etc), but I recently clicked on this new article on CNN titled “Petition seeks apology for Enigma code-breaker Turing”
From the article title alone, two things sprung to my mind:
- I didn’t know that Alan Turing, the Father of Modern Computer Science, the developer of the theoretical Turing Machine, was also the code-breaker of the dreaded Enigma machine of World War II that was vital to Nazi Germany war efforts.
- What in the world did they need to seek an apology for? I didn’t realize that Turing ever had a fall from grace.
Well, come to find out, Turing was the one that broke the Enigma machine, which is just plain awesome, given the importance of that to the Allies winning the European stage of World War II. He was one of many code-breakers of course, during that time, but the Enigma was definitely a major hurdle for the Allies.
Learning this gave me a higher respect for the man known as the Father of everything we know and use today when it comes to computers.
I mean, come on, EVERY day the majority of users on the internet use something that was originally created by Alan Turing. Every website you visit that uses a “security check” involving looking at an image with words and numbers that you have to type in. It’s called a Captcha and it’s known as a reverse Turing Test, testing the human instead of testing a computer (rather than vice versa. See the wiki entry for more information). The Turing Test was first described by Alan Turing in 1950.
Going back to the article, though. I was shocked to discover he was disgraced simply for being a homosexual. Well, for starters, I didn’t know he was gay before this article. That’s why I didn’t understand why they’d need to apologize. But of course, I realize that being gay was even more shunned upon back then than it is today, but it’s disappointing that someone, even with everything that they did for their nation, can become an outcast simply because of their sexual standings.
He was removed of his security clearance, because for some reason the government had (and still does, in the United States atleast, it seems) an opinion that homosexuals are more likely to be compromised, and more capable of divulging information. Grotesque enough, he was submitted to Chemical Castration for his choice in lifestyle, even if it was a completely private one at that, though he did agree to it in order to avoid a different sentence. It’s rather disappointing that he had to be subject to that. In fact, he committed suicide two years later, probably directly due to this (though this is not quite known).
I have brought this up in defense of homosexuality yet again, I think. I am not gay, but I tend to be a greater advocate for gay rights than even the homosexual people I DO know. I tend to speak out for equality more than they do. I certainly hope the UK Government comes through and apologizes for the way they treated Turing, especially after all of his contributions to their war effort, and what he stands for in terms of the last 50 years of advancement in Computer Science.
I hope you learned something new as well.