This is a graph of 5 minute increments of fuel utilization. Pretty awesome.

—Update—

Been about 2 weeks now, 1000 miles later, and I’m average 52.5 MPG per tank. Not too shabby. I have come to understand that it is all in the acceleration, take it ease there, and your good. 2 More weeks and there will be a complete write up.

Im building a new toy. An iPhone Simulator for Android. This is not just an image put on your screen, it is an html5 simulation of the iPhone home screen. Right now it does nothing, but hey, its cool. Im building some of the apps tonight, like the calculator (dumb but easy), and the phone dialer. We will see how it goes.

UPDATE:

I have the spring in the springboard home, fun to play with, and the preliminaries for the dialer. I know that the animations for launching apps is not there, but hang tight, it will be. Video Preview iPhoneSim

Update 2:

I have the calculator app finished, and have dialer functions working. Just need to find a way to dial directly instead of invoking the android dialer.

Download it here.

I currently have a netbook, Dell Mini 1010, that lives in the living room. Its a nice little machine, 1.6ghz 1gig ram 1366×768 resolution, but all it does is browse the web, and poorly. Its just bloody slow. I had originally purchased it to replace another netbook, HP Mini 2133, because of its “speed.” It is faster than that poor via C7, but its still horrible, not to mention this one has the Poulsbo chipset.

I started thinking, what do I want in a device here at the house?

• Great Web Browsing
• eBooks, including my collection of PDF’s
• Watching Videos
• Playing Games, nothing major
• Write and edit some documents
• Great Battery Life

Going through this list, the iPad is actually the device I need. Say What? Why not just get a laptop? Answer, too much, don’t need all that, besides, they are horrible for reading books. But what about the cons?

• No Camera
• No Multitasking
• No Open Development
• Can’t play my divx/xvid video collection

Well, the camera on my netbook I have used once, just to see if it worked. Never again. As for Multitasking, I have the capability to do it on my Mini, just no processor to, so I end up in single task anyway. Multitasking may come in iPhoneOS 4.0 too. As for development, I don’t write native apps, everything I do is in web languages. Im open to do whatever I want there, especially with HTML5 and webgl support in there. As for my existing video collection, took me about 10 minutes to create an html5 application that would transcode those files into mpeg4 and have them playing. Got to love the open source community there.

Android?

I have a Motorola Droid, rooted, running 2.1. While it is a nice device, the android operating system just does not scale up to this form. There are Android based tablets coming to the market, but just lack the polish for something I just want to work. Sorry Android Dev Team, your doing GREAT!, just keep going.

As much as it pains me to say, this is actually the device I need for what I want. Dang you Apple!

What is the Apple iPad?

In short, its a BIG iPod Touch. Nothing more, nothing less. It has a custom system on chip designed by Apple and their newly purchased PA Semiconductor. Runs at 1GHZ and has great power management. Runs the iPhone OS 3.2 with some new features like iBooks (Sad they recycled a name) and iWork.

What Apple Says the iPad is.

The best way to expirence the web, email, photos, and email. Hands down.

Technicial Specs:

• 1Ghz Apple A4 Processor
• 9.7 inch LED backlit LCD Display (1024×768)
• WiFi (A/B/G/N)
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Optional 3G HSDPA Modem (miniSIM)
• 16/32/64GB Flash Storage
• Accelerometers
• Assisted GPS

Whats Wrong With That?

The first thing I see wrong is also the first thing the music/movie/publishing industry will see right. DRM. This is the perfect device for further developing and extending DRM. Apple already has the closed architecture of the iPhone OS and App Store for locking down what you can do with the device. Ok, I know that’s harsh, but I like to do with as I wish with MY hardware.

The next thing is just something they had to have missed in development, the screen. Its 4×3, 1024×768. All new video content is 16×9. There is no way this will be in the second revision. While on video, the iPad will hock up to your television, but its through the dock connector and an adapter. Once you purchase the adapter you will still be restricted to 576p and 480p outputs. Hardly close to the 1080p resolution your big screen is pushing. That will lead to pixelicious video. Just give us Display port or HDMI.

Next is audio formats. In Apple tradition it supports AAC, AAC-DRM, MP3, Audible, and WAV. Not a lot of options. Moving along.

On to inputs. We have the dock connector, and … nothing. I could have forgiven this had there been at least a built in a camera. Thats right, no camera, and no SDHC for expansion. This device needed to include 2 cameras, one on the back, and one in front for video conferencing. Maybe in Revision 2.

This one goes in bold,  NO MULTITASKING!!!!! With a device of this power and size, this is inexcusable. PERIOD.

Concluding

I could go on about what should have been done, but there isn’t a point. Maybe when I get to hold one and play with it I’ll change my mind. As of now, I just see a big iPod Touch that has filled a gap in a market that no one knew existed. Nice try Apple, better luck next time. WOW what a bad name.

This guy was close with his parody.

This is a visualization of browser usage on the web. The orange is Firefox. Wait, that looks like the Firefox logo. see for yourself HERE .

This is man made, but even still, Firefox has invaded the human mind to the extent that we will create huge artworks to its homage. Check it out HERE .

Cats seem to love Firefox also.

Guess that’s not all cats love. But it still looks like a Firefox Logo.

Even lizards in Australia get it. Firefox is just better. Here is one showing its support.

Wow, is that the Firefox logo in SPACE! Sure does look like it. I think someone bigger than us is a fan of the fox. This should be evidence for you to drop IE and move to the more divine browser.

There it is. Show some love for the fox, go get Firefox 3.6 .

BTW, Google, I would love to see you get your chrome logo in a nebula.

Tomorrow I get to install a new OpteMAN connection, so I’ll be configuring that equipment. Other than that, I will try to fit in some Super Mario Bros. 3. LOL, still a great game.

Well, judging from the image you already know what this is going to say. This is what I want to change this year.

Eat Healthier: This is something I need to do. I have high blood pressure and I’m over weight, hrmmm, no brainier. I will go ahead and throw in exercise in there for good measure. If I am to go for it, might as well go big.

Write More: I recently saw an article on AnAndTech wanting more columnist. I thought to myself, I would love to do that. In order to do something like that I need to write more. Doesn’t have  to be about tech, but just more. The only way I will get better is by doing, and im sure anyone reading this gets tired of the pasted content, and the hrmmm’s and ughhh’s. Write more, and get better.

Do the Podcast: A couple of years ago now I started a podcast called NerdNews Weekly, the weekly only lasted 3 weeks and it died. I want to revive it in video form. I have all the equipment and no more excuses, time to just do it. Might not start off weekly, but I want to bring it back.

Get Organized: This just effects everything about me, I am an unorganized person. I will start off with my worklife, them move into my personal which will bleed into my OpenSource/Web life. Time to get organized and start giving back to the community more.

There you have it, what to expect from me this year. Hope I’m up for it.

Chris…

From the Internet to the iPod, technologies are transforming our society and empowering us as speakers, citizens, creators, and consumers. When our freedoms in the networked world come under attack, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the first line of defense. EFF broke new ground when it was founded in 1990 — well before the Internet was on most people’s radar — and continues to confront cutting-edge issues defending free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights today. From the beginning, EFF has championed the public interest in every critical battle affecting digital rights.

Blending the expertise of lawyers, policy analysts, activists, and technologists, EFF achieves significant victories on behalf of consumers and the general public. EFF fights for freedom primarily in the courts, bringing and defending lawsuits even when that means taking on the US government or large corporations. By mobilizing more than 50,000 concerned citizens through our Action Center, EFF beats back bad legislation. In addition to advising policymakers, EFF educates the press and public.

EFF is a donor-funded nonprofit and depends on your support to continue successfully defending your digital rights. Litigation is particularly expensive; because two-thirds of our budget comes from individual donors, every contribution is critical to helping EFF fight — and win — more cases.

Helloooooooo.

Just wanted to post this picture of my puppy.

She is a 3 year old Boston Terrier that doesn’t realize that she is a dog.

For some really pathetic pictures visit http://picasaweb.google.com/feekes