Love the Dilbert, and it hit home run today with this comic strip!
Seriously, Apple, you need to shape up… you are making me hate you even more! Â Innovation, my butt!
Silicon Valley Nerd Tour
So while I was in the Silicon Valley area, I decided to do the ultra nerd tour! Â I already missed a few like Twitter and Yelp but here are those that I managed to see… in the order of places visited…
Apple (even though I may not like it!)
Seagate!
Google!!
Intuit
Facebook!
Facebook II!
Skype
HP
Nokia
Microsoft
Yahoo!
eBay
Netflix
Motorola
nVidia
Tesla
They had a Tesla showroom at San Jose mall area that Jim & MJ took me to! Â It was awesome looking car! Â Just… bit out of my range at $100k…
Asus Transformer Review
So thanks to Chase’s cash back program, we got an Android tablet! It’s got Tegra 2 dual core processor, 1 GB memory, 10.1″ IPS screen, 16 GB storage. Yeah, it sounds like every other tablet, but this one has some unique features.
Though I haven’t got it, this tablet has an actual keyboard that you can attach to it. It then becomes a laptop. Ta da… It has transformed!! 😛 Anyhow, it also has a microSD card slot and mini HDMI. And let me just say that it’s beautiful! Text, contrast, graphics are all great.
What makes it even better is that Asus has included two awesome apps: MyCloud and MyNet. The former is a DLNA media sharing app and the latter can access Asus’ cloud AND your own computer! That was ingenious!!
I upgraded it to 3.2 soon as I got it up. It’s perfect! Battery life is awesome too!! So far so good!
Score: 9/10
Syma S107/S107G R/C Helicopter Review
Yup. Â You are looking at an R/C helicopter. Â In fact, it’s Syma S107 from Amazon.com. Â And no, I am not endorsed by them. Â That would be wicked cool! Â 😛 Â You see, there are two wishes that I knew that would never happen to me: 1) professional racer and 2) pilot. Â So R/C (Radio-Controlled) vehicles come in. Â However, most of you should know that airplanes are hard to control as you are in the AIR! Â So you’d think that flying a helicopter would be worse! Â Well, I am here to prove to you that it’s not!
I have NEVER flown any kind of R/C aircraft previously!  You see, this one has gyro to help in stability and while it’s not perfect, it’s enough to help a newbie like myself fly one!  And to top that, it’s only $18!  This one charges via USB cable or from the remote control.  The 3-axis remote control takes 6 AA batteries (can you say re-chargeable?!) and after about 40 minutes of charging, you are set!
I was nervous at first but in minutes, I had this thing moving in the apartment!! Â Without breaking anything! Â It is quite durable as I hit it on the (rotating) ceiling fan! Â Yikes. Â I had a blast and look forward to flying it some more OUTSIDE (range is only 30′ though) tomorrow morning! Â Meanwhile, here are some pics I managed to squeeze in… Â Flying and taking pics at the same time ain’t easy… who figured?! Â 😛
  
Kindle Textbook Rentals! Where were you when I needed you?!
So Amazon.com is moving to rent out textbooks. Not the regular thick paper books, mind you. The electronic copies! This will save students so much money since new books are way too overpriced and when you re-sell it, you get gypped!
I wish I had this back in the days… not to mention that e-textbooks will be sooo much lighter!!
Netflix: How I got Screwed
Netflix had it for me. I could watch practically humongous selections of TV shows and movies online be it on my laptop, at home, or on my Android phone. And if one wasn’t on that streaming list, I could just have the DVD/Blu-Ray sent home. No late fees and life was great. But as the pic above shows for me, they just changed the plan.
Instead of $12/mo. for 1 DVD/Blu-Ray plus unlimited streaming, they were gonna split it up at $8 each, which meant that it was now going to be $16/mo.+$2 extra if I wanted Blu-Ray option. I get it. I understand that it’s expensive to ship all those DVDs and that they underestimated how popular discs are still and how expensive it is to ship them and process them, but for someone like me who borrowed DVDs that Netflix just didn’t carry for streaming, I rarely rented the discs. Now I am forever penalized?!
You know what, Netflix?! We used to have a great relationship… now you screwed it up for me. So you know what I’m gonna do?! I thought about just sucking it up and getting the (now) $18/mo. plan (which will be about $20 after tax and such). However, I said I’m gonna let Netflix know how I feel…
How do I do that?! By poking where it hurts. My spending that $8/mo. on Hulu Plus. Â You see, one weakness… actually TWO weaknesses, of Netflix are these: 1) stream selection still has a LONG way to go… there are hardly less than 20 Korean movies and 2) the latest/current seasons of TV shows take forever to become available. Â Hulu Plus solves that!
So you know what, Netflix?! Â Go shoot yourself in the foot, ’cause that’s what you are doing now! Keep it up and I might just have to quit you!
Missionary that built a Flying Car!
I know… the title of the post seems… unbelievable! But it’s true… this missionary wanted to be able to reach the indigenous tribes in Ecuador easily and so sought out to solve the problem himself! Not only that, powered by a 250-hp Subaru engine, this baby will do 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds!
I salute you, Mr. Saint (yes, that’s his name!), on a job well done! His non-profit group I-TEC will build and sell this puppy at $80,000 and hopes to build about 100 per year! Wish I had one!
I found a man who not only has heart for missions but also the innovation to make it happen! My hero of the year!
Video can be seen here.