Scott Adcox

Doing More With Less Since 1972

Tag: android (Page 1 of 3)

Daily Reading List — June 5th

June 5, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Android vs. The iPhone: It’s All About The Cloud – Um…yeah. I'm a little shocked to read this epiphany from a tech writer who didn't realize this difference years ago. Am I taking it for granted that people understand the difference between Apple and Google's focus?

4 Habits Of The Most Resilient People – There's actually a 5th habit: Habitually post motivational posters/quotes to social media.

Sharks & Minnows – Punching and kicking on purpose isn't acceptable on the swim–too dangerous for everyone involved. On the other hand, as the guy who once grabbed my ankle and used me to pull himself forward found out the hard way, I ain't no punk either.

The 9 Biggest Reasons to Embrace Solo Running – I'm mostly a solo runner. The only downside to running solo for me is that I'm the only person I get to spend the time with. I don't like myself as much as I do my running partners 100% of the time.

As IT’s industrial age ends, the humanist era begins – Power to the people!

Remember when Mark Zuckerberg gave New Jersey schools $100 million? OOPS!!! – Fortunately for Zuckerberg, all most people are going to remember is that he wrote the check. #ForTheChildren

Roku Remote Stopped Working – Easy Solution – I love the internet on most days. Today is one of those days.

A Bachelor’s Level Computer Science Program Curriculum – If you want to learn it, here you go. Good for review too. And there are countless other resources available as well!!!

Chicago halts Uber try at airport pickups – Translation: taxi companies and airport upset that people don't like price fixing.

Triathlon, Do You Live And Die By It? – Anyone who ever accused me of this isn't aware of my results. Still, I could benefit from a healthy dose of it right about now.

What Ancient Cave Paintings And Teen Spirit Teach Us About Where Social Media Is Going – Of course, everything is alternative. Until it isn't.

Facebook Product Development Process

June 26, 2013 / / 0 Comments
  1. Get on Twitter and find 10-12 things that are successful (Instagram, Snapchat, Google Reader, Vine, etc.)
  2. Write these onto slips of paper and put them in a hat
  3. Pick a slip of paper out of the hat
  4. Try to buy that thing
  5. If you can’t buy it, build something kind of like it and sloppily integrate it
  6. Go ahead and start a group people can join to complain about the change

I will give them credit for trying out some new things like Timeline and Home for Android. Maybe not the most successful features, but at least they were different and showed some creativity.

I will also admit that for creating videos, Instagram>Vine. The problem is, for consuming videos Vine>Instagram, and most of us (especially me) should stick to consuming video instead of creating it.

The Facebook UX is an absolute train wreck.

I’m reading– February 3rd through February 29th

February 29, 2012 / / 0 Comments

How to make hard-to-obtain Sudafed from readily available street meth. – I’m on week 3 of a cough/cold. Haven’t resorted to medication yet, but at least this gives me options.

U.S. water bills to triple – Don’t worry…someone will declare it a right since it’s necessarily for life. That will magically make it “free”.

Skateboard Swing – Building this in 3, 2, 1…

Acer Iconia Tab A500ICS updates coming in April – This article complains that the update isn’t coming soon enough. I’m teaching my kids to be happy with what you have. Not everyone is getting ICS.

HTC: Updates to Ice Cream Sandwich in March – This will make March creep by. Maybe I should take out a 30 day loan to speed up time?

Contador loses Tour de France title – Finally someone else will get the chance to be crowned the best dirty cyclist in the game.

Masters athletes keep their muscle with age – “The authors also note that it’s these aspects of aging that tend to increase health care costs, so if each individual continues to develop their muscles as they age, the exercise could channel those unspent billions back into the economy.”

Does this mean taxpayers should be subsidizing my training?

I’m reading– December 14th through January 5th

January 5, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Plugin Performance Profiler – HT @mwender. This is a good one!

English Pronunciation – The next poem will be on conjugation.

California, There It Went – California, Rest In Peace. That could make a catchy tune.

Orientation to Android Training – On the late night to-do list

10 Myths about Introverts – INTJs unite!

Shakespeare Takes Center Stage In The Digital Age – I once wrote a paper asserting that "Romeo and Juliet" was meant to be a comedy, not a tragedy. The data says I'm wrong. That's what my professor said too. I'm now publicly admitting defeat.

A Tech,Education, and Fitness Link Dump

September 8, 2011 / / 0 Comments

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D) – Not often Mr. Reynolds writes something this verbose, but when he does, it’s almost guaranteed to be quotable.

And if I’m peeing all over the wave of hope-and-change hype that got him into office despite his obvious unsuitability, it’s to help ensure that nothing this disastrous happens again in my lifetime. I realize that it’s painful for those who fell victim to the mass hysteria to constantly be reminded of their foolishness, but I hope it’ll be the kind of pain that results in learning.

It’s Not A Mirror, It’s A Crystal Ball – How and why @techcrunch works. And why traditional media is failing. I hope TC doesn’t get watered down by this latest dust up.

The Amazing Colossal Syllabus – The worst thing about this mentality is something I’ve noticed in adults too: their idea of learning is attending a class regularly and getting a certificate of completion. The notion of internalizing the course material and applying it to situations not specifically addressed in the text is completely foreign.

Dim & Dash: Breaking Up – I was once accused of pulling a “frat boy move” when breaking up with a girl this way. Maybe I should have considered that a compliment since she seemed to have a penchant for frat boys.

Quick Math for Understanding Any Goverment Program – Our congressional representatives often measure their success by how many pieces of new legislation they’ve been able to pass. I think a more accurate measure of success is how many pieces of legislation they’ve been able to repeal.

Mauricio’s Ironman – Love reading these race reports! Can’t wait until I get my turn.

Jogging beats weight lifting for losing belly fat – HT @sram9. Personal fitness, like personal finance, is 20% knowledge and 80% behavior. Those numbers may be even more skewed for fitness.

Firefox for Android Tablets Unveiled – Wait…and we still don’t have Chrome on Android devices? This is good news at least.

Get Off The Sidelines, Google + Button Update Coming, and Netflix for Kids

August 30, 2011 / / 0 Comments

These link dumps every few days make it nice for me to keep some fresh content coming, even when I don’t have a ton to say. Of course, if you follow @sadcox on Twitter, you get this stuff almost-real-time…for FREE!

You Can’t Become a Man From The Sidelines – Join your local rugby club this season. Or learn to play an instrument. Or grow and kill your own food. Build a house. Paint a self-portrait. Anything is better than just watching other people live their lives.

Van hits, kills bicycle rider near DeLand – This is Sara McLarty’s father. Be careful out there.

Google+ Share to Specific Circles – Big news for publishers…you’ll be able to decide what images and descriptions are shared with Snippets.

Twitter Based Hedge Fund – Has someone finally found a way to tap the emotions of the market? I’ll stick with logic.

Tenured Professors: Get Out While You Can – This doesn’t seem outside the realm of possibility to me. “Get out while you can” may be a little strong, but contingency plans are never a bad idea.

90’s 411: Music, Fashion, Timelines, Movies, TV and More – I’ve perused this site to see if I can find the phrase, “Congratulations Possums on your 1998 Midwest Championship…” Nothing’s turned up yet.

New Swype Keyboard Makes Tweeting And Mapping A Breeze – Best text input method for Android gets better!

Netflix, Now For Kids – Out Netflix is already set up “just for kids”. All of the suggestions are for kids’ shows, because that’s pretty much all that gets watched. Seriously, this is a cool feature!

A Short “How To” Link Dump

July 18, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Lot’s of “How Tos” were read around here in the last week or so, and I’ve linked to some of the best ones. I was pretty excited to get Spotify too. This one may be worth paying for!

I’m also playing around with Post Formats in WordPress, which explains the drastic change in the way the blog looks. I switched to the Twenty Eleven theme and I’m going to be building off of that. The obvious change I’d like to make is to have a “Link Dump” format and change the way that appears here. I only post about 1/10 of what I read, and if I had a better format, I think these posts could be way better. Anyway…here are the links.

Got Spotify? Here’s How To Use It – Great guide to getting started.

How to Swim Straight in Open Water – One mistake I’ve made in ocean swims is not accounting for the current enough. Even though I started out beyond the break I found myself eventually getting tumbled by surf.

Was the Space Shuttle a Mistake? – You can begin throwing rocks and insults at me in 3, 2, 1…

How to Stock a Home Bar – Another part of the 5 year plan.

Learn jQuery & JAVASCRIPT for free – Can’t wait to finish my current project and dive into this.

“Download map area” added to Labs in Google Maps for Android – Very nice. Very fast. Thanks Google!

What Will Make or Break Google Plus

June 29, 2011 / / 0 Comments

I was thinking about Google Plus a little last night as I continually refreshed my screen hoping it would magically appear. I think there are a few things that can really make or break Google’s latest attempt at social.

1. Nobody has groups right yet

Twitter’s lists are great, but are basically read only. You can’t broadcast to them. This is in keeping with the way Twitter fundamentally works, so that’s cool. But as far as the people on your lists go, it is more of a mark of reputation to be on someone’s list than it is an indication of engagement from that person to you. Facebook has done a better job with Groups, but they aren’t even close to the three dimensional overlapping of sets of groups we are able to so easily process in our brains. Maybe Google is actually smart enough to tackle this abstraction.

2. Group Texting

Yeah, everybody has a group texting gadget, but Google has more reach. They bought Disco, and have seemingly re-branded it as Huddle. I hate texting, but this may make it a little better.

3. Ubiquitity (I just made up that word I think)

With Chrome, Google has the ability to offer a nice extension to make Google Plus always on. No need to visit a site or run a separate app to see what is going on…it can always be there, yet still unobtrusive. I don’t see why Facebook couldn’t do something like that with Chrome, but they don’t own the browser. Google could actually ship their extension as a part of the browser (and I bet they will), while Facebook will have to settle for being an extension. I don’t know the numbers on how many people running Chrome don’t ever install extensions, but I’m betting that number will rise as Chrome gets closer to the meaty part of the user adoption curve.

4. Android

Google already has a big market share for mobile, and they’ll be able to tightly integrate all the features of Plus into Android. iOS users are stuck with an HTML 5 webapp for now. Again, I don’t know what this has done for Gmail, and it was already a hit before, but this may be a huge factor. Bonus points if they offer up an online locker with plenty of space the way they did with Gmail at the beginning. That would be a big feature for storing photos and video.

Just some thoughts. I’m sure I’m way off base here. Tell me why.

***UPDATE***

Instant Upload from Android devices is a money maker! Coolest thing yet for any social platform I’ve used!

Running, Drinking and Nerding Out Link Dump

June 26, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Long Distance Half-Steppers –

“Self-knowledge is a bitch.”

I have been all of these people at one point or another, and I’ve definitely run with all of them. There are more I could add to the list too!

Desmos Graphing Calculator – I am in nerd heaven. I can’t wait to play with this gadget. I can’t wait until my kids are learning higher math and we can do this together!!!

Get Drunk Not Fat – My knees wish my brain had been supplied this information at an earlier date.

‘Til debt do us part :

Leverage is leverage, and leverage always brings with it increased risk.

True, but what scares me most is the amount of this “leverage” that represents items of depreciating value or Super Value Meals. And that’s just on the consumer debt.

HTC EVO 3D Review – Hope to get mine before it’s obsolete.

iDoneThis – Very cool, very simple service. Every day it sends you an email, and you respond with that you did. Makes TPS reports a snap.

The 5 Switches of Manliness: Provide – Haven’t even read this one yet, but if it’s half as good as the others, it’s a must read.

India’s $35 Android Tablet Finally Ready Ship – Would be hard not to buy at least one of these. HT @_Neville

High-Pressure Tactics Culture At Groupon – More dumping on Groupon. The more details I read about this company, the more I am wary of it.

Forget Student Loans, And Maybe Even College – Can’t say it enough times–student loans are horrible. The whole industry is basically pay day lending that you can’t bankrupt.

Short Groupon – “Groupon is essentially holding a portfolio of loans backed by the receivables of small businesses. If a business goes under, consumers will come back to Groupon for their money back. Unless Groupon is actually doing credit assessments on businesses that it chooses to feature, this is a big risk for Groupon.”

Perfect Iced Coffee – A couple of weeks ago, I decided to give up coffee for 30 days. This post is the first time I’ve regretted that decision.

Google’s Moats, “The Wire” Reviewed, and Hagar Abduction Link Dump

March 27, 2011 / / 0 Comments

Android as Google’s Moat – I like this take on Android as a defensive product for Google. I also like what that implies for us as consumers–costs keep decreasing while functionality keeps increasing. Can you believe someone wanted to charge for a web browser at one time? Now there are several free browsers, and they are still trying to out-do each other in features and speed!

The Quintessentially Victorian Vision of Ogden’s “The Wire” – Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

Are We Better Off Today? – Definitely. I think the problem is that we have a skewed idea of "comfortable". If I have food in my belly and shoes (hopefully some $1 Old Navy flip-flops) on my feet and I'm not bleeding, chances are I'd say I'm comfortable.

6 Common E-Mail Marketing Mistakes Small Businesses Make – Read the bold points as a checklist before you hit send.

Integration Of Google Voice and Sprint – A daddy of an announcement. Now…do I have to pick one number or the other to have seamless integration? I like having both.

"Red" rocker Sammy Hagar says abducted by aliens – Still trying to "Out-Dave" DRL. You sir, are no David Lee Roth

NYT’s DIgital Pricing Plan Discriminates By Device – Alternate Headline: Requiem to an Ass Biter.

I’m reading– December 22nd through December 29th

December 29, 2010 / / 0 Comments

10 Things We Learned in 2010 – Thanks to Mr. Dave Ramsey, I learned these things in the early 1990s. Almost 20 years ahead of the curve! Matters not…most people will forget this stuff in 5 or 6 years.

Track flight prices and check for airline refunds – Who was I talking to about doing something like this a while back? Oh yeah…emailing this to him immediately.

Will 2011 See App Makers Thinking Android-First? – Now I don't feel like as much of an idiot sitting here at Android 2.1 waiting for a Honeycomb phone to surface.

When the Diagnosis Is ‘Dead Butt Syndrome’ – Wait…so the contrapositive of this argument is that if I don't run I don't have to cross-train either, right? FTW!

How New Entrepreneurs Are Taking Advantage of the Great Reset – In front of and behind the firewall I might add.

Payday Lending Booms as Credit Cards Become Less Available – Two not-so-bold predictions. (1) Politicians will "do something" about this, probably at the state level. (2) As a result, payday lenders will be hurt, and lone-sharking at the street level will become a booming industry.

People always have and always will borrow money with outrageous terms. It's just a matter of whether they are going to lose their car title or the use of their thumbs when they don't pay.

If the market exists…

Stuff You Should See– August 19th through August 26th

August 26, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Grilled Cheese Academy – A real education

Financial Illiteracy Is Killing Us – Seriously, are there any non-profits focused on teaching financial literacy to kids? I will volunteer to help.

Tooth Regeneration Gel Could Replace Painful Fillings – Just ordered up some jelly beans to celebrate this news.

Facebook Places vs. Foursquare – Foursquare has a game/awards (kinda). The question with FB places is “why?”. Then again, you could probably ask that question about 90% of the content there.

Furman’s FIRST Running Program – No. Junk. Miles.

Lifehacker: Our List of the Best Android Apps – Already using most, so I’m linking to this mostly to validate my choices.

“I think the Internet is the most dangerous thing invented since the atomic bomb” –John Mellencamp – Sounds like Johnny Cougar doesn’t like having his cheese moved.

What Should I Do About My Virtual Life After Death? – Adding this to my list. It’s pretty far down, but on there nonetheless.

Real Estate’s Gold Rush Seems Gone for Good – hmph

Moving on – An early shot fired against book publishing. There will be more.

Fake Drink Spills save seats – Genius!

Lottery Ticket Art – Don’t throw away those scratch off tickets…you could still be a big winner!

Stuff You Should See– July 31st through August 16th

August 17, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Disney Princesses, Deconstructed – All you can really do to fight it is to push a fascination with ocean dwelling killing machines instead of Princesses. But it’s an uphill battle.

Muscles Remember Past Glory – I strongly suspect fat bellies have the same memory ability.

Thanks No For Skipping Your Immunizations! Whooping CoughIs Back – I wouldn’t let Jenny McCarthy give me dating advice when I was 19. Why would I listen to her parenting tips?

What Happened to Yahoo – Bottom line–nothing was happening at Yahoo, so things started happening to Yahoo. And why is that when I change my Yahoo! password, my Del.icio.us password doesn’t change. Exhibit A.

Ragnar Central Florida – Always wanted to do one of these…I may have found a team!

Endless Bummer – Don’t worry, it’s safe for work.

Unsuck It – Pretty useful, especially if you are low on bandwidth and need to bucketize terms.

The Third Stage of Personal Finance – Good motivator to start your day.

Facebook bug spills name and pic for all 500 million users – Uh….awsum?

Complete Guide to Maximizing Your Android Phone’s Battery Life – When following these instructions, make sure you’re holding the phone correctly.

14 Famous Man Caves – And not one has a spin bike or a punching bag. Where does all the anger go?

7 Discipline-builders for Remote Workers – I found this article very distracting. 🙂

Girl quits job on dry erase board – I like TechCrunch too, but if you spend an hour a day there, you must be reading at a remedial level. It’s not Faulkner.

Michael P. Fleischer: Why I’m Not Hiring – Interesting…and I thought it was just because he was a racist.

The Great Reset of Urban Development in Economic Downturns – Metropolitan corridors. I don’t like the sound of that.

Internet gambling freedom boosted by House committee vote – It’s comin’….

Rdio – Even more music.

Zone 12 Project gang: Little Blue Egg – I will put this right next to the outdoor shower. Or maybe inside the outdoor shower.

Build Your Own Outdoor Shower – Coming soon to a side of the house near me. I hope.

Stuff You Should See– June 29th through July 29th

July 30, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Free Nature Work/Sleep Mix You Control – Awesome…sometime music is too distracting. Want to try an mp3 for running.

Gmote Turns Your Android Phone Into a Remote Control for Your PC –

TweetEffect- When did you lose or gain twitter followers? –

FreshBooks – Online Invoicing, Time Tracking & Billing Software – Pretty cool for people who are one man shows.

Hey, Michael Moore, I’m calling you out – Random Mumblings – Big stick time.

Shit My Kids Ruined – I caint have nuthin' nice.

Appcelerator Developer Center – This looks cool…write your app in JavaScript and Appcelerator maps it to native code for multiple mobile platforms. Hmm…..

101 Fast Recipes for Grilling – Grillicious! Can't wait to get back to regular grilling. And by that I mean entertaining the kids in the pool while the real grill master does her thing.

Dishwasher Rules to Clean By – The "Quick Rinse" is my new favorite dishwasher feature.

Fannie Mae Cracks Down on Strategic Default – Do you really need someone to tell you that "strategically" defaulting on a mortgage is wrong? Sorry, but I don't feel pity for someone who is behind on their mortgage while they have sea doos and dirt bikes in their garage.

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