Phone companies will cannibalize the Mobile OS

You see it every day and you just don't realize it. That person using their fancy new smart phone hacked it/has a paid app that they downloaded/has at least 10 MP3s that they don't "own" on it. The phone company doesn't want you to have any of that and they WILL stop you.

No matter how many times technology changes for the better or how awesome it is for the world, no one is going to be happy... especially the guys who are looking to making money off of it. I am currently a perfect example of this.

I have an HTC Incredible. Verizon calls it the DROID Incredible by HTC. It's a great phone and I love it to death, but getting the latest version of the Android software has been quite a pain. The Motorola Droid managed to get it before Incredible owners, which is a huge letdown by itself. I, however, don't really care. The official update is out and circulating to phones, but it doesn't matter to me. Not that 2.2 isn't important or a great update, but I've already got it.

Yep, I have it before it even came out. I've had it in several different flavors. Right now I have it in a flavor that seems to work better and have less bugs than those with the OFFICIAL update. Go figure. I have a phone that is "rooted" (Jailbroken to anyone with an iPhag...err iPhone) and I've already had this update for quite some time. The official version doesn't seem to really offer much more. But it should.

Soon we will start seeing phone companies take the Mobile OS technology and consume it. Verizon might end up with Android while AT&T ends up with iOS and T-Mobile gets Windows Mobile. Fuck Sprint, they might as well go out of business for all I care, lying pieces of shit. This may not be how it all boils down, but it will go that direction soon enough.

Why? Because of money. If people can so easily hack, change or manipulate this stuff then someone, somewhere isn't getting their money. Jailbreaking your phone could result in an automatic brick if Apple catches you soon enough. Verizon and Sprint have been slowly narrowing your ability to root and modify your phone on their latest Android devices. In the next few years we will see the Mobile OS become a huge market and you can bet that the phone companies are going to cash in on it.

Until they do I plan on having plenty of fun with my uber powerful smartphone and it's open source OS. Hopefully by the time they do that we will all be on a network similar to what they have in Europe. Pick your phone, pick your carrier. We will just have an extra step with "Pick your OS".

Sometimes real life interferes.

I have really had a whole lot on my plate, so my internet diary/blog/hatespew has been on hold.

My girlfriend and I just put her house on the market. We spent weeks moving stuff out and around so that we could clean. Carpets, baseboards, walls, tubs, toilets, counters. So much work. We moved our essentials to my parent's house, where we are staying for the time being. We moved much of our furniture out to the garage and boxed up most of our clothes and stacked them neatly in our closets. We arranged our "stuff" rooms as best we could and anything that didn't go to the garage was arranged to make the house look better or more spacious. My computer room got a good organizing and my good desk went out into the unused "office" area to show it off. Her stuff mostly got tossed into the closet in her own room since she had so much stuff: sewing machines, make up kits, hair products, etc.

The house is now on the market and that takes a lot of stress off of us. We still have some walls to touch up, but most of the work is over and all we will need is a U-Haul to carry it off. We are hoping to sell it quickly since it was listed at a modest price. With luck we can be out of there in time to get into decent house of our choosing before the housing market takes another dump all over itself.

I have also been looking for and may have a new job. I have kept my current job and I am working them both at the moment, while I go through this training process.

I am in the probationary period for a management job at Jimmy John's. If can manage to "cut it" for the next couple of weeks then I will have earned a trip to Illinois. While there I will attend a 3 week training course for Jimmy John's management/franchisees. I will get the whole run down from how the store should look, operate and function to how to perfect my sandwich making skills. I have had a whole lot of information thrown at me very quickly and it has actually been more challenging than I was expecting.

Any bozo can make a sandwich, but I have had some difficulties. Memorizing the menu by the numbers has caused me headaches and the amount of customization to the sandwiches is pretty tough. When you get an order that is nothing like what the sandwich is, it can get confusing. I am sure that I'll get it, but I might need to slow the pace down and work on my "skills" outside of a busy time.

On top of that new job, I have been working my primary job. I've been at a gourmet pizza shop for a while now and I've really been trying to get their menu down and learn all of the procedures. I am just now getting comfortable with all of that and I am having to memorize a whole new set of stuff. Ugh.

My brother works at this pizza place with me, he actually got me the job, and he is getting married in a couple weeks. I have decided to stay on at this job long enough for him to get in a small honeymoon. I love my brother and I want him to be happy. While missing work and losing out on some cash isn't really happiness, I want to be able to let him get some time off and enjoy his new, married, life.

My brother has been working 6 days a week (the pizza joint is closed on Monday) for the last several weeks and has been putting in more work and more hours than anyone else there. I know it is stressful and I know that he could use the time off, even if he doesn't leave or go anywhere.

On top of that I haven't really had much time to play any games. I did pick up a new game for trial the other day and I will have good things to say about it coming up soon. I am finally situated at my parents and things here are starting to die down and I am sure once I get the hang of my new job the stress there will clear up. Weddings, moving, jobs (new and old)... man, it's been a busy month!

I finally got a new mouse!

After weeks, maybe even months of not being able to double or single click when I wanted, being unable to copy and past easily and, most annoyingly, not being able to play a shooter worth a damn... I GOT A NEW MOUSE!

I didn't do a whole lot of research, because I was going to have to settle for what I could get my hands on anyway. I took a trip to our local "mall area". We have a Staples and an Office Max walking distance from each other. I started at Office Max but didn't really see anything that wowed me.

The mice today seemed pretty lame. They were all smallish and anything wireless looked like it was made for a laptop, not a desktop environment. I was a bit let down, but I still had Staples! I drove across the street, basically, and was greeted by a smaller selection, but better quality of mice.

I looked around and came across the newer version of the Microsoft Wireless mice. It's no laser mouse, but it'll do. I picked up a Microsoft Wireless Mouse 5000. It has a new technology that uses a blue optical light so it is easier to use on different surfaces. They claim it is just as easy to use on natural wood, concrete and carpet as it would be on your mousepad or desk. While I haven't tried it out, the mouse works great. It also boasts an 8 month battery life, while that sounds impressive I am not sure they mean that for someone like myself who spends a good deal of time at the PC.

I am glad to be rid of my Logitech mouse. It did do it's job but it just wore down way too quickly for the price that I paid for it and the amount of time I had it. I picked up my new mouse for 30 dollars at Staples, on sale.

Mobile games may be taking over.

Mobile games are making a pretty good push into the market now.

You can see new platforms like the iPhone and the Nintendo DS really doing well. Android phones are picking up speed, now, as well. The mobile gaming community is growing at an alarming rate and this isn't like the Gameboy days of old. This is a big time, big money business that a lot of big players are starting to put money in.

I don't have the time for a long-winded post spewing the same kind of stuff that I normally do. I don't have time to put up a couple of pictures for those of you that need motivation to read. I barely have time for this witty paragraph explaining my time crunch and how I am going to expand on this at a later time.

Keep an eye out in the next few months and into the holiday season for mobile gaming to continue growing. You might be surprised just how big this industry is becoming.

Facebook games need to STFU!

You aren't games, you aren't even remotely fun. Somehow you have tricked lonely housewives and tween aged girls into thinking that the

more time they invest and the more times that they clean out a fish tank or milk a cow that the game is rewarding them. It isn't a reward, it is a reminder to the rest of the world why they hate us. We live in such opulence that since most of us don't clean up after ourselves that we feel guilty and channel it into our tiny little farms and cities.

It's sad.

It is also very annoying. Being greeted day after day with requests from my friends to help them

find a hammer or a saw is pretty annoying. What about or present or past friendship makes you believe that I want to help you find a pixel shovel, seriously? Seeing post after post of someone trying to get me to help them accomplish some meaningless task in this game is infuriating. I almost want to get into my car, drive to their REAL house and punch them in their ACTUAL nose.

Leave me alone. No one cares about your fish tank. No one cares about your stupid fucking mini city where your little homies live. It isn't fun or interesting to anyone else. Keep wasting your days getting yourself infected with malware, spyware and potential viruses, but don't assume that I want to join you.

Assholes.

This is only further proof that Facebook isn't really for friends. My real friends wouldn't want me to help them harvest wood for a barn to put their virtual sheep in.