Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

Rich People Must Be Following Me

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For most of the last decade I lived in Fairfax County, VA . . . and for most of that time, Fairfax County was ranked as the richest county in the United States (even with folks like me dragging down the averages ;-)). Last year, Melissa and I moved to neighboring Loudoun County, Virginia, and now, no thanks to us, Loudoun County now ranks as the richest in the country. I think the rich people are following me.

According to Forbes Magazine, the median family income in my new home county is a whopping $110,643/year.

That sounds great and all, and Melissa and I are actually slowly creeping up toward that number, but this ranking does not (apparently) take cost of living into consideration. As I often have to point out to my friends from southern Virginia, everything costs a lot more up here. In SoVA you can get a decent apartment for well under $1,000/month; up here in NoVA, almost anything under $1,400 is a roach-infested dump. It all evens out.

If you measure by quality of life, or use cost-of-living adjusted values, I’d bet the relative ‘richness’ of Loudoun, Fairfax, and the other local counties on the Forbes list would be a bit above-average, but probably not at the very top of the list.

Ladies: Would You Wear These Shoes?

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I was at Target today picking up a number of random things, and Melissa dragged me to the shoe aisle where I noticed . . . this.

I’ve noticed that many of my female friends have been complaining lately that the clothing styles are really bad this year, and I’m starting to understand what they mean. I cannot think of any reason whatsoever that any sentient human being would buy a pair of shoes like this.

It seems like some sort of jewel-encrusted starfish carcass, which I doubt is a flattering look. So what’s the verdict, lady readers? Would you wear these shoes?

Det. Mike Baylor Won’t Be Fired

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Even in gun-friendly Virginia, where it is perfectly legal to carry a holstered firearm openly, it is a crime to ‘brandish’ that firearm in the hand except when there is a serious reason (like, for example, to deter an attack by a violent criminal). In Washington, D.C., it’s not even legal for a normal citizen to carry a firearm at all . . . so all the gang-bangers and criminals carry anyway because they don’t care, and we law-abiding citizens get to be totally defenseless when we face them. Nice.

Gun owners like myself take our rights and our responsibilities with regard to firearms very, very seriously. We don’t carry guns to scare people or to hurt people, but to defend ourselves and our loved ones in the most dire of situations (situations we hope we will never have to face). We respect the police and the important work they do, but recognize that they cannot be everywhere and are unlikely to be able to help us fast enough when we’re faced with violent crime. That’s why we carry. The old saying goes, “When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.”

Detective Mike Baylor of the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) is the moronic schmuck who, in a city where responsible gun owners have to go completely unarmed, pulled out his service handgun and waved it around semi-threateningly to deter a bunch of people throwing snow-balls around in the Blizzard of 2009. This is a huge no-no in the most gun-friendly of places, and you would think that in gun-hating Washington it would be a capital offense. If I had done this on U St. & 14th NW back in December, I’d probably be in prison right now.

Baylor, however, is apparently above the law since he is the law. He will not be charged with any crime. In fact, MPD Chief Cathy Lanier has announced that Baylor’s actions, while ‘inappropriate,’ won’t even result in his termination. While he may be subject to administrative punishment, Baylor will keep his job with the MPD and will be put back on duty. “I don’t think this is a termination offense,” Lanier said.

How can it not be a termination offense for a police officer when it’s a felony for everybody else? Love to hear your thoughts on this, Chief Lanier.

Strange Kitty Advertisement

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Being a commercial illustrator has to be an interesting job. It has to be a strange mix of actual creativity and design-by-committee and, as countless examples in advertising demonstrate, sometimes it works well and sometimes it doesn’t.

I guess if you’ve convinced me to stop, look at an ad, and take its picture you might call it a success. This strange kitty got my attention at the grocery store for some reason. I didn’t end up buying ‘The Goodlife Recipe,’ but now their strange kitty is on my website for no apparent reason whatsoever. That has to count for something.

I’ve never known a cat with eyes that big. It looks a little crazy to me, especially since it thinks in triangular thought bubbles. I think the tongue should be picking the nose; that would have added an extra notch of crazy and matched the eyes and triangle thoughts well.

When you consider the message of this ad though, seriously, it tells you that ‘The Goodlife Recipe’—which is apparently a cat food—is either intended for strange kitties or will make otherwise-normal kitties turn into strange kitties. Excellent messaging, I think, because normal kitties are boring.

Palm WebOS 1.4

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Of course, mere days after posting my in-depth review of the Palm Pre Plus and the Palm WebOS operating system, the much-anticipated WebOS 1.4 update came out. The updated operating system was released on Saturday, February 27 to Sprint customers, and Sunday, February 28 to Verizon customers like Melissa and me.

Palm’s update mechanism is dummy-proof: the phone downloads the update and installs it on its own while it’s charging (usually overnight, I’d assume). From what I’ve been reading, this is spread out over time to prevent Palm’s servers from getting overloaded. If you’re a nerd like me who can’t bear waiting for the OS to do its own thing, you can also manually initiate the update whenever you like. I did it Sunday morning, as soon as I read online that the update was available. I have no idea how long it would have taken for the phone to find out on its own.

The update probably took a half hour or so to download (over WiFi) and install. Download times likely would have been quite a bit longer over the data network, even on 3G. After completing the download the phone reset itself and installed the update (with a classy, no-frills, round progress indicator). Without any hiccups, everything was ready to go

The biggest new feature Palm brings out with WebOS 1.4 is video recording. Palm took their time bringing this feature to the platform, but they did a good job with it. It records in the MP4 format and allows for limited editing and direct sharing via YouTube, Facebook, email, and MMS. Beyond this major feature addition, WebOS 1.4 mostly offers increased polish and incremental improvement. The LED in the gesture area will now blink to indicate you have a waiting notification. When you launch an application, a ‘placeholder’ card shows up immediately which lets you know it’s doing something (and lets you preemptively close the app. if you opened it in error).

Performance seems to be slightly improved and ‘snappier,’ and battery life seems to be improved. I seem to be getting about 20 percent better battery life so far, which is pretty significant. All-in-all, a solid improvement. Thanks, Palm! :-)

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.