reocities saves geocities

Geocities lives on. It was terminated by Yahoo last week.

Geocities hosted my first ever web site. I thought it was gone forever from the web. Of course I have this gem on my computer at home - but what good does that do????????? None I say.

Lucky reocities saved it. Enjoy!

SiliconValley/Pines/1433

Public Option - the Insurance companies don't like competition

In case it has escaped you, there is a debate going on about the public option. Depending on who you listen to, a public insurance option will either kill you or solve all our problems. The truth, of course, lies somewhere in the middle of these two extremes.

The insurance companies, or at least Blue Cross Blue Shield have not been shy voicing their opinion. They don't like it. Which means, in part, that they don't like competion. To make their point they are spend lots of money. One small expense incurred by BCBS has been brought to my attention by a friend. He received a note card to sign along with a pre-paid envelope to send this note to his senator. He altered it a bit before sending it:

Nice going!

What about you, how are you voicing your opinion? Let me know in the comments.

Verizon Android Devices Look Good

A while ago I said that Verizon did not have the iPhone but I'd be tempted by an Andriod phone. I'm also most interested if the phone has a chip in it that I worked on.

Recently news broke that I'm likely to get my hands on just such a phone. The HTC Passion. Looking at video of the HTC Hero vs. the iPhone 3Gs (for the OS review), I'm getting very excited about seeing the Passion in person. I really like the contact centric and back-ground app capable Android OS vs the iPhone's app centric approach.

Seeing this mini intro to Android 2.0, which the Passion will have, really gets me excited. It looks fantastic.

Judging by Apple's market share, it seems these Andriod phones can't come a soon enough. I don't mind Apple cleaning everyone else's clocks - but choice is good too. Better is a choice between two good phones - rather than settling for a bad phone because you want the good network (Verizon).

Looks like HTC also gets it.

I'm looking forward to giving up my Chocolate, finally. What about you?

Tradition of independent press

Quoting Jacob Weisberg

"What's most distinctive about the American press is not its freedom but its century-old tradition of independence—that it serves the public interest rather than those of parties, persuasions, or pressure groups. Media independence is a 20th-century innovation that has never fully taken root in many other countries that do have a free press."


I concur. I find all the cable news disheartening. None seem to do any investigative jurnalism - where are Woodward and Bernsteins of today? Hmm, maybe Micheal Moore? Though none could say he doesn't have a liberal agenda.


So, where to get news? How about digg or Comedy Central? It's just too hard to say.

Verizon Android

As I said a couple days ago, Verizon called to remind me about my new every two promotion. I told them I wanted an iPhone.

But that's not 100% true. I'd also be temped by an Android phone.

I didn't need Verizon's There's a Map for That ads to know that ATT might not work for me. My friends iPhone gets no service in my home.

So I wait - stuck on the "best network" - without a smart phone that I actually want.

That might change with Verizon announcing support for Android phones. I'm pretty excited that they might come this year!

But what are the phones? All this year there have been rumors that one will be the Motorola Sholes. At a recent press conference it seemed the two phones were revealed. Today I see that an update to customer support software at Verizon stores has been updated - it shows two Android phones. The phones are the Motorola Sholes and Calgary. The HTC phone shown at the press conference is not there. That's a shame.

In any case, whatever the phones are, I can't wait to read reviews and see these for myself. Who knows, maybe I'll get one. Here's to choices!

Verizon iPhone

My contract is up with Verizon. Actually it has been up for 6 months or so. Last week they called me and reminded me that I have new every 2 deal with them. "We just want to make sure you know you are eligible for a new phone Mr. B." This of course I already know. I also know I would have to sign up for a new 2 year agreement to get it.

I've been holding out for an iPhone I say. OH, we have phones that are just like the iPhone she says. Which ones I ask? The Blackberry Storm she says.

I say: look, I don't agree. Call me when you have something that is either an iPhone or is just a smooth.

I've used both and I continue go to the Verizon store and try every new smart phone they get. None has been great. They suck really. Slow to respond, slow to do anything. Hard to configure and understand. No app store (with apps in it).

Who do they think they are kidding?

site stats

I signed up for sitemeter a couple weeks ago. I never knew if anyone sees this blog or not till now. Now I know that very few people see it. I'm still impressed with myself somehow.

Sitemeter is very cool. It can show me which pages were looked at, what search terms led to my site, where in the world the visitor was from, and so much more.

One of my favorite stats is the page rank:

14  http://mjbiren.blogspot.com/2008/09/iphoto-library-size-2.html
10  http://mjbiren.blogspot.com/2008/07/tastes-change.html
 7  http://mjbiren.blogspot.com/
 3  http://mjbiren.blogspot.com/2009/02/toshiba-tg-01.html
 1  http://mjbiren.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html

Very interesting. If you have a site of any kind - get yourself a sitemeter account and prepare to be surprised.