I find it interesting how reporters and bloggers supposedly ‘In
the know’ can state a platform has failed before it even hits the general
public.
Their bias is obvious and not
well informed. The idea of having the
same interface (phone, tablet, pc) is intriguing to a lot of users. Yes, the differences between Windows 7 and 8
are glaring. Much like the differences
were between Windows 3.1 and Windows 95.
Back then the media had the same mantra towards Microsoft. I've never been a pundit of any camp, and
have/had hardware from all, iPhones, Windows Phones, Android tablets, PC's
(both windows and apple).
Microsoft
has had some miserable failures (Win ME for short), but so has Apple (Newton,
PowerMac Cube, Apple III, Emate, etc..).
That is the nature of the business.
Steve Jobs was criticized for abandoning the PowerPC chip for the Intel
X86 chipset, but that turned out to be an amazing change in how the Mac’s
operate, giving even more power and flexibility to an already powerful
system. Bill Gates once said that we
would never fill a 20mb hard drive, now I dare you to find a modern operating
system anywhere that would fit on one.
For every (r)evolutionary step in computing you have to learn and
sometimes relearn the interface. The
same has happened to the different versions of Mac OS through the years. But saying a system failed just because you couldn’t
use software on a platform (that Microsoft already told you that you wouldn’t be
able to use) is like Chicken Little crying out about the sky.
Did you (the bloggers/reporters) say the same thing to Apple when they
announced the iPad when they said it cannot run MacOSx software? Of course not,
they have two completely different uses and interfaces. What Microsoft did here was give us a product
that while different, shared ‘some’ API’s and the basic interface across three
platforms (Phone, Tablet, PC) with the understanding that not all the software
on the PC can run on the Phone or Tablet, anything on the phone or tablet can
run on the PC. I think that’s the
biggest point people are missing.
There are hundreds of thousands of applications on the iPhone/iPad that
users use every day, but cannot access on their Mac. But now, if you have the App on your Windows
Tablet (RT or Pro) you can run the exact same app on your PC! Forget all the software we’ve been holding
onto for 10yrs that while works is completely out of date. Challenge the software vendors to make their
applications portable amongst all Windows devices RT/PRO/Phone etc!
Back in November I made a conscious decision to cut sugar from my coffee in an attempt to live healthier and lose a little weight. Well back in July I made another change. I had lab work done at the VA and was told my sugar was a little out of whack. I got home looked at my kids and realized that I needed to be here for them for many years to come.
So what did I do? You got it, in one fell swoop I completely removed all artifical sugars from my diet. I've gone from drinking Pepsi & Coke and Sweet Tea to Pepsi Max, Coke Zero, and what I grew up on in New Mexico, Unsweet Tea. And you know what, I regret it or miss it at all. Its been almost a month now that I've done the change and you know what... I feel amazing.
So it probably wouldnt be a blog post about sugars without a formula and some math right? So here goes, I was drinking, 3 to 4 20oz soda's a day. So on the high end, thats 80oz of pepsi a day. 8oz of Pepsi has 100 calories and 28 carbs. So its scary thinking that in Pepsi alone, I was consuming 800 calories, and 112 carbs. I'm no fitness genious but I do know that that is a scary amount to consume in addition to my regular food intake.
Pepsi Max on the other hand is 0 calories and 0 carbs. So I've completely eliminated that from my daily intake. What has it done for me at this point? Well, I can tell a dramatic change. The shed over my tool has started to shrink, and my belt for the first time in a long time is too big, I had to go to the store today to buy a smaller belt so that I could keep my now over sized pants on my hips. Yes, its only been a month, but I think that I have lost 6-8 inches already. I haven't hopped on the scale to tell what the actual numbers lost are, but I'm confident that its going to be a significant number. So I will update this post when actual numbers are available for comparison.
Interesting Revelation Today, I wanted to see how many calories I was really saving
by eliminiating the Cream & Sugar from my coffee. Considering I drink 5+ cups a day at work,
and I used to put two creamers and two sugars in each cup of coffee.
I've come up with a simple formula:
Here are your constants:
Sugar has 49 Calories per Tbsp
Creamer on average has 45 Calories per Tbsp
and Black Coffee itself has on average 2 calories.
Here are your Variables:
Substitute X for Cups Of Coffee
Substitute Y for Each Tbsp of Creamer (in each 8oz cup)
Substitute Z for each Tbsp of Sugar (in each 8oz cup)
Total Coffee Calories = X*((Y*45)+(Z*49)+2)
So Mine would Read: 5*((2*45)+(2*49)+2).
Total = 5(90+98+2)
Total = 5(190) Total = 950
Can you believe that? 950 Calories a day just in Coffee? That doesnt account for lunch, or a soda or anything else for that matter...
So what has elminating sugar & cream from my coffee done for me? Okay, here it is: In four weeks now, I have lost almost 40lbs. Crazy isnt it? But put it into perspective.. I'm a tall guy, 6'6" and before I cut the sugar/cream I was at (I'm almost embarrased to say, 378lbs) I dont look to be as big as the scales read (never have really). But now I'm under the 340 mark and working myself down further as I go.
If I eliminate 950 Calories per day from my diet, five days a week thats 4750 Calories per week, and 19000 Calories in a months time!
Considering my body was used to the extra calories to get by, suddenly depriving the body of almost 1000 calories/day apparantly did something. Of course now it's slowed down quite a bit. The Losses are not quite as dramatic as the first couple weeks. But, it's slowly progressing and I am feeling bettter at the same time. Sadly, I have a hard time combining excercise as much as I need to (injuries from my military service tend to prevent that) but I'm walking more than I used to, so that tends to help.
I've been looking at my site and thought that http://gizmohd.blogspot.com was kind of an odd url for it. So I did looked around and tried to get a url that matched what I was saying. I talk alot about personal responsibilty, so I tried getting a name that was close. http://personalresponsibility.com was taken and has been parked, strangely so have a lot of similar names. Maybe the bots recognize a lot of talk about personal responsibility out there and snatch them up, who knows. So I took a different route. So I chose http://www.alioofficium.com. Why you ask? Well, literally translated from Latin to English (Alio = Personal, Officium = Responsibility). It may or may not be the proper use of the words, but it works for me.
So my mind has been wandering again as late. The media is flooding us with stories of healtcare and who's doing this and who's not doing this. What can be done, what should be done. But there are a couple of things that have stood out. No matter what the outcome, who's going to pay for it? I understand now that an idea is out there to put a tax on Tax on Sugar of all things. Here's what bothers me. The nanny state, no I'm sorry the government, has it in their mind that they know whats best for us. And if we don't agree with it well, Tough titty said the lion to the kitty.
Obama stressed in his campaign that he would NOT raise taxes on the middle class. Well he's partially correct, he didnt do it outright, but under the guise of 'we know better than you do'. And heres where congress ended up taxing the PISS out of average people. First off, let me preface this by saying that I don't smoke, I don't drink but I probably still drink too much coffee.. But in January congresse passed a Cigar Tax that put a tax on each and every cigar sold. Okay at the outset this sounds like another jab at those Rush Limbaugh types. But think about it. .Who smokes those Swisher Sweets, Hav-a-Tampa Jewels, etc.. You got it, middle to lower class individuals. So we've added a 53% tax to these 'mass made cigars' and a $1 a cigar tax to the hand made, cigars. If you consider the cost of many of these handmade cigars, the $1 a cigar tax is a pittance at $5 (20% tax) to upwards of $50 a cigar (2% tax) compared to the 53% tax on a $5 box of Swisher Sweets ($2.65). So isn't this a middle/lower class tax increase? Oh wait.. never mind, the tax is supposed to fund.. just what? A Children's Health Insurance Program? It's not funding my kids' insurance, is it funding yours? Lets just ignore the fact that that Tampa Florida just lost a major industry because Hav-A-Tampa had to shut it's doors and moved to Puerto Rico. I'm not condoning smoking, my dad smoked all my life. I tried it, and I didn't like it so I stopped. But like anything else, people make choices and decisions all their lives and they have to live with those choices.
So lets get back to the sugar issue. The thought thats out there is that if we increase the cost of 'sugar' or sugary soda's obese people will get healthy or skinny. What a wonderfully Orwellian concept. While your at it make sure you are practicing Right Think so you will live a healthy and happy life too! as Earl Pitt's says.. Wake Up Umerkah! Lower income neigherboods have some of the highest obesity rates in the country! Why, it's not completely the sugar's fault.. It's not the child's fault if the child is obese. Parents are very culpable for the causes and risk factors when it comes to obesity. I'm by NO MEANS a skinny man, I never have been and I never will be, I'm 6'6" 280lbs, but I'm not fat, I could use to be in better shape, but who couldn't? Like many kids my age we grew up on the cusp of what our kids today consider average technology. But most of MY childhood was spent outdoors. I did have a Coleco Vision and can remember playing it to the wee hours of the morning on the weekends. But only after we came in for the night. I think too many parents today may have (of no fault of their own) been brought up in front of the television and that was their babysitter, and that's what they know.
I dont know about you, but I was never issued an all encompassing instruction manual on parenting when mine were born. Can someone forward it to me if I missed that day of class? Instead, I know how my mom and dad were with me. We didn't have a lot, my dad had prostate cancer from the time I was five or six, so we did as well as we could. Dad worked hard, and so did Mom. I still to this day remember going with mom to Matthew's Furniture while she was working and watched Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Band (the Bee Gee's Version) on Laser Disc in the early/mid 80's. But again, I'm getting side tracked. What I'm trying to say is that before my kids can even think about getting on our computer or watch a movie, they HAVE to play outside for at least an hour or more. And they are active they play hard, I am amazed sometimes watching them eat, considering there are times when they eat twice what I do, but in a healthy way. The do not get soda except on rare occasions when we go out to eat or maybe if they are spending the day with me running errands on the weekends, and then only Sprite or clear sodas.
I think if we can just get back to basics, understand family values and know where our place is in this Government and what their place is, we will not only survive. But be magnificent. We have SO much potential in this country that is wasted. How hard is it to play 'Guitar Hero'? Okay, well How hard is is to ride a bike? How many of you parents have kids that have 'Guitar Hero'? How many of those parents can say that their kids have their own bicycle that has been used in the last week, month, year? I work on computers 8-10 hours a day, I write software that makes things do what salesmen and users ask it to do. But, come Saturday and Sunday daytime, I do my damnedest to unplug. I had a PS3, I had an Xbox, but I sold them. I felt like I was being drawn into an endless cycle, work/home always plugged in and and never really taking time to enjoy life. I dont need the government to tell me how I'm supposed to live my life, that's for me to decide. I dont work for congress or the President, when I was in the navy, never once did I pledge an oath to the senate, or the judiciary. Yes, my oath stated that I would obey the orders of the President and those Officers appointed over me, but always the Constitution first.
We didn't go into the military to get rich, some of us needed to discover ourselves, some wanted a way to pay of for college. We chose to defend a piece of paper, and that's what it amounts to really. The most heartfelt and inspired document that the world has ever known. And this document has been the basis for many many countries when they decided to free themselves of tyranny in one form or another and embrace freedoms and liberty. Some chose a democratic government, some a true republic and a few like us that chose the best of both worlds, knowing that true democracy is chaos or the 'mob mentality' and a true republic is nothing more than Lord's and Ladies, we chose a democratic republic. One were We the People had say in who represented us and our needs. But somewhere along the way we forgot that We the People are in charge. Not those we elect, they are figure heads and mouth-pieces for us. It is our vote that gives THEM power. It is our LACK of participation that gives our opposing viewpoints credence. Somehow over the years silence has become implied consent. But recently, more often than not if you have an opposing view, all of a sudden your racist or a bigot. So let me let the current administration's Secretary of State say it best (and I cant believe that I am agreeing with Hillary about anything at this point, but here it is).
Believe what you may, Say what you mean. But always remember this. If a day goes by where you didnt learn at least one thing new about anything, you wasted your day and should have probably just stayed in bed all day.
