Here's your sign

KRQE-TV/YouTube Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CN

Read an article earlier this month about a worker at an Intel plant that sued over a "kick me" sign others placed on his back. The lawsuit wasn't just because of the sign, but because people at work actually kicked him. You can go read about it if you want.

The thing is, it gave me an idea. What if somebody put a sign on Obama's back?

Now, I don't know if he'd sue, but I'd be willing to take that chance. But would you?

If you had the chance to put a sign on Obama's back, would you? And, if so, what would it say?

1 Corinthians 13

Son, you're now married. Whether you realize it or not, your world has changed.

Yes, this is the dreaded "Dad's giving me advice and I didn't ask for any" situation that arises ... well, all the time. It's kinda what I do.

I'm gonna suggest you go read 1 Corinthians 13. Almost any translation will do. If you use the King James Version, it'll say "charity," but that word from 1611 would today be rendered as "love." Anyway, go read 1 Corinthians 13.

Now, why would someone with my marriage track record be someone you'd listen to? Maybe I'm not someone you need to listen to. Then, again, maybe I am. Hear me out and decide.

Go read 1 Corinthians 13. Yes, that's the third time I've said that. Maybe I think it's important. And maybe you need to go see why I think it's important. So go read it.

Now, about the wedding. It was beautiful. Yes, the rain kinda made things wet and sloppy and just plain rotten at times, but that was nothing but stuff around the wedding. The wedding itself was beautiful. Your vows to each other brought tears to my eyes. Everybody was looking at the two of you, so I got away with it.

Remember when it was all stressing you out, and in the elevator, when it was just you and me, I said to let those that are wanting to do their stuff do their stuff? I wasn't telling you anything you didn't already know; you were already doing that. But, I said it anyway, to reinforce what you were doing. You were doing the right thing for the circumstances, and I wanted you to know that.

See? You already know what to do. You're a grown man. Now, you're a grown married man. I'll be offering advice, but, like the "let 'em do their stuff" advice, it'll often be things you already know. When I do that, I'm trying to reinforce what you know. I can't teach you much anything new, except by example, and then, it's often examples of what not to do.

Kinda like, "Huh. Look what Dad did. Look where it got him. I need to not do that." So, yeah, I can be of some use, even if it's an example of what not to do.

But, I also have some good advice on things to do. Like what I mentioned earlier: go read 1 Corinthians 13.

Oh, and this next bit isn't easy, but it's necessary: After you've read it, go live it.

Netflix and Sarah Palin

Maybe I'm just a humorless jerk, but I didn't find this funny:

#SarahPalinFilms "Iron Sky" nflx.it/11AZvLR twitter.com/netflix/status…
— Netflix US (@netflix) May 1, 2013

You see, the lefties had started a Twitter hashtag #SarahPalinFilms trashing the former governor and GOP vice presidential nominee. Netflix saw fit to join in the Sarah-bashing.

Then, when asked about it, lied. So that's two strikes. But, the first is enough for me.

Now, had they done such a thing with Barack Obama also, then there'd be the chance that Netflix was ragging on both sides of the political spectrum. But, no. They only poke fun at the right. So, this right wing nutcase isn't sharing any more of his money with Netflix. After all these years, I've canceled my Netflix account:

I'll be able to find enough to watch without them. It's a shame, though. I've been a customer a long time.

Too bad they don't respect their customers. At least, their right-wing customers.

The break-up

I'm not sure I expected this day would come, but it has. And break-ups, despite their necessity, are never easy.

I fell in love at first sight. We were so compatible, it seemed. We went many places together, and I found the whole relationship to be very satisfying.

Oh, sure, there were the occasional problems. Many times, it was because when the situation required my input, I would totally screw it up. But, on those situations, I'd realize my mistake and make it right.

However, the misleading things from the other in the relationship began to gnaw at me. And, one day, I had simply had enough. I knew a break-up was inevitable.

And, being a guy, I did what any guy would do: I began looking for ... well, let's just say I wasn't entirely faithful.

Now, I'm moving on. The relationship is over and I've severed ties.

Despite everything, I'm not bitter, and I truly believe I would be welcome back. But, I really don't think it'll happen.

So, Waze, you were a pretty good GPS for my iPhone, but I'm now with Google Maps. Still, I truly do wish you the best.

These are not the doctors you're looking for

Calling Dr. Killbot

Robots have been in the news lately. There's a robot that's been operating on people, and killing some of them.

I know. You're thinking that the Three Laws won't let that happen. Well, guess what? The Three Laws are just fiction. Killer medical robots are real.

There's an AP report out of Chicago that tells of one busy robot:

... a million-dollar, multi-armed robot named da Vinci, used in nearly 400,000 surgeries nationwide last year ...

Did you know that? Some multi-armed robot has been doing surgery all across the country, at the rate of over 1,000 a day.

And, if that's not enough, it's a killer robot:

... the high-tech helper is under scrutiny over reports of problems, including several deaths that may be linked with it ...

If I had told you when Congress was getting ready to pass Obamacare that in 2013, we'd have killer robots operating on people, you'd've said I was a right-wing nutcase.

Yeah, well, the Associated Press backs me up. We got killer robots playing doctor. And not in the fun way.

You thought all you had to look out for was drones. But now you have to be wary of multi-armed killer medical robots.

If I were you, I'd play it safe and avoid all multi-armed robots. For a while, at least.

Trippin'

Photo: Ramon Espinosa/AP

Seems some folks are getting their panties in a wad over Mr. & Mrs. Shawn Corey Carter's trip to Cuba. You may know the Carters as Beyoncé and Jay-Z. Or, you may not.

Mrs. Carter is the one called Beyoncé, in case you aren't familiar. She's a singer or something. She also acts. You may have seen her in the Austin Powers movie Goldmember where she played Tamara Dobson.

Mr. Carter is a singer and part owner of the Brooklyn Nets, a former ABA team.

Anyway, now that you know who they are, they're catching a lot of grief over their trip to Cuba. They went for their fifth wedding anniversary.

"So, where do you want to go for our anniversary, Sweetheart?"

"Well, I've always dreamed of walking the streets of a city where there are chickens running around loose."

"How about Cuba? Lots of places like that down there."

"Perfect!"

Okay, maybe that's not how it went, but then again, maybe it was. You don't know.

A couple of Florida Congressmen (okay, a Congressman and a Congresswoman) are all up in arms over it, according to the Washington Post.

Personally, I don't have a problem with their trip to Cuba. I'm all in favor of them going there. I'm even more supportive of them staying there.

Simple.TV vs TiVo

In my quest to find the best cable-cutting setup, I'm looking at something called Simple.TV (that's not just its name, it's its Website).

Simple.TV is a DVR. Only, it doesn't connect to your TV. Which sounds kinda odd. But, here's how it works.

The idea is to connect the Simple.TV box to your input (cable, or, in my case, antenna). Note that it only works with unencrypted (ClearQAM) digital channels. That means if your cable provider is sending analog signals (some still do), then it won't work. It also won't work on encrypted channels (Comedy Central, AMC, HBO, etc.). But, since I cut cable and am using an over-the-air (OTA) antenna, I'm good.

You need a hard drive for storage. They don't include any onboard storage, but the device will work with most USB external drives. But, you gotta buy that extra.

The Simple.TV box also has to be connected to your network via ethernet port. That is, wired. As in not wireless. Which means you either need to have a cable/antenna connection near your router, a good network extender, or a really long LAN cable.

The final thing is, you need a Roku box.

Remember when I said that it doesn't connect to your TV, which is kinda odd? Well, they get around it by using Roku. That also means that a single Simple.TV box will support up to 5 TVs. Most DVRs are for a single TV, so that's a nice feature.

So, how does it work? It works okay, but it's got some bugs.

Here's the good: price.

Compared to TiVo, it's cheaper. A lot cheaper. Both a Simple.TV box and a TiVo Premier box run $149. The Simple.TV setup requires a hard drive (around $69), so that makes the initial cost more. But, it's the cost of the service that makes the savings of Simple.TV over TiVo.

A year of Simple.TV service is $49. TiVo is $14.99/month, which works out to $179.88/year. And there's your savings.

Now, here's the bad: it's not as polished as TiVo. In fact, it's barely polished at all. The TiVo interface is vastly superior. Vastly. Did I say "vastly?" Well, I will: vastly.

Using the TV interface (via Roku) to schedule a recording is a pain. The selections say "Beta" and they mean it. It's not ready for prime time. You can view what's currently playing, and what's coming up next, and ... that's it. There's a "Browse Upcoming" area that's not totally useless, but with a little work, could be.

The best way to schedule recordings is via the Website. Even then, there are some simple things that Simple.TV didn't think about. For example, you can't rearrange the priority of the shows. TiVo makes that fairly easy to do. Simple.TV? Not so much.

I won't sit here and trash Simple.TV, but I will say that it's inferior to TiVo in many respects.

What would make Simple.TV better? Multiple tuners, for one. Or, at least a way to seamlessly link two devices to one account. But, that's a nice to have. They need to fix the other stuff first.

Like what? Well, they should improve the interface. I'd like to be able to easily find and schedule shows. You can't do that via the interface. Sure, the Website is an option, but that's not simple. As in Simple.TV.

They also need to fix the Website. If you want to change the recording options for a program, the screen tells you to go to the Website to do that. Only, that page doesn't exist. And, looking around the pages that do exist, there's no readily apparent way to alter the recording options on a show.

I suggest someone at Simple.TV pony up and buy a TiVo. Use it. See how it's done. Look at the functionality TiVo offers in finding and recording shows via the interface. You don't have to clone TiVo, but you do need to look at what they offer, and find a way of offering the same functionality. Or, at least, make your functionality easier to use. You know, simple.

As you can tell, I'm a fan of TiVo. But, it's expensive. Don't get me wrong; it's a great service. But I wish there were cheaper alternatives.

Simple.TV shows a lot of promise, but they haven't yet delivered on them. I haven't given up hope. I'm not yet ready to recommend it, but I haven't sent mine to the cornfield yet.

Envahisseur étranger?

The Associated Press -- and apparently it's the political correct crowd with whom they are associated -- has decided to stop using the term "illegal immigrant" to describe an illegal immigrant.

According to the AP blog, Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll says:

The Stylebook no longer sanctions the term “illegal immigrant” or the use of “illegal” to describe a person.

So, what should they call them?

I kinda like Jay Leno's suggestion (as quoted by Andrew Malcom):

AP, the world's largest newsgathering organization, bans the term 'illegal immigrant.' From now on AP will call them 'undocumented Democrats.'

Maybe there's a better term for an illegal immigrant.

Foreign invader, perhaps?

Easter 2013

Luke 24: 1-9

1. Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.
2. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.
3. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.
4. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments:
5. And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?
6. He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee,
7. Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.
8. And they remembered his words,
9. And returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest.

Firing up the Kindle

Upgraded my Kindle recently.

The more accurate way of saying that was I passed my Kindle -- what was a good little e-reader -- along to someone else and bought a Kindle Fire HD to use.

Why did I spend the money? I mean, the little Kindle device worked just fine. Well, if I hadn't had some Amazon gift card credits that offset a good portion of the cost, I may not have made the purchase. At least, not just yet. And, without the credits, I may have purchased the standard Kindle Fire, rather than spending the extra money for the HD version. But, I did so I did. And I'm glad I did.

Again, nothing wrong with the standard Kindle, not even the low-end cheap one I had. But, the Kindle Fire is a great little e-reader, plus it's a very good little tablet.

The one I got is the smaller, 7-inch version. It's just a little bigger than the standard Kindle devices. It connects via wifi only. The larger 8.9" Fire HD has AT&T 4G LTE capability starting at an additional $50/year. The Kindle Keyboard and a version of the Kindle Paperwhite have free 3G connectivity included.

It's kinda hard for me to compare the Kindle Fire to a standard Kindle e-reader without breaking the functionality into two categories: e-reader and tablet. I'll cover the e-reader part first.

The standard Kindle e-readers currently come in four varieties: Kindle, Kindle Keyboard 3G, Kindle Paperwhite, and Kindle Paperwhite 3G. The Paperwhite versions, which I haven't used, come with a built-in light. I hear it's nice. The Kindle and Kindle Keyboard models don't have a light. If you need a light, they sell covers with extendable light sources. Or, you can turn on a lamp.

The Kindle e-readers (the non-Fire Kindles) can be easily used in direct sunlight, just like a book. As e-readers, they're great. I love the convenience of having a lot of books available in one little device.

The Kindle Fire doesn't need a light source. Just like you don't need a light to see the content on your computer screen, you don't need a light to see the content on your Kindle Fire screen. The drawback is in direct sunlight. While the Kindle Fire does appear to do a better job at handling glare than my older iPad (1st generation), the standard Kindle has no glare, and therefore, problem at all in direct sunlight.

The Kindle Fire is a color screen, and allows to set the r-reader display to black text on white background (default), white text on black background, or black text on sepia (my preference).

With the standard Kindles, you press the buttons on either side to turn the pages. On the Fire, a touch on the edge of the screen or a swipe will change the pages.

The most obvious difference is the e-reader displays are black-and-white (just like a book) while the Fire displays are in color. When browsing the store for more content, the color is nice.

Strictly as an e-reader, the Kindle e-readers are slightly better -- but only ever so slightly -- than the Kindle Fire, in my mind.

That brings us to the tablet portion of the comparison. And, there's no comparison. The Kindle e-readers are strictly e-readers. So, it may be better to compare the Kindle Fire to the iPad. And I will.

As a tablet, the iPad is a better tablet than the Kindle Fire. But not a lot better. While the iPad is an excellent tablet, the Kindle Fire is a very good tablet. Make that a very, very good tablet. Almost excellent.

The advantage the iPad has is in the apps. The Apple App Store has a really huge selection of apps. The Kindle Fire, although an Android table, doesn't access the Google Play store. Amazon opted to go the Apple route. You get your apps from Amazon. That does help weed out a lot of really useless apps, like is common in the Google Play store. But, it also keeps out some good apps.

When I started adding apps to the Kindle Fire, it had the apps I wanted to add first. Of the apps on my iPad that I use regularly, it's primarily local news apps and games that are lacking. For the news apps, the Web browser covers adequately for my purposes.

Where the Kindle Fire shines is music and videos. The integration of those categories into the interface is seamless.

The Kindle Fire integration with Amazon Instant Video is better than the iPad integration with iTunes. Switching between your local library and the online store simple refreshes the content on the page with the Fire. On the iPad, switching from local library to the online store obviously switches apps. While it's not a problem with the iPad, the Kindle Fire does it better.

Overall, though, I like the iPad as a tablet a little better. I don't like the iPad as an e-reader, though. While iBooks works well, and while there is a Kindle app for the iPad, the Kindle Fire does a superior job of integrating e-reader functionality into the tablet experience.

So, as an e-reader, the Kindle standard e-readers are better than a Kindle Fire, but not by much. As a table, the iPad is a better tablet, but not by much.

I suppose the best way to boil it down would be for me to assume I have none of the devices, but had experience with all the devices. That is, if suddenly, if I had to replace them, what would I do?

I'd buy a Kindle Fire.

And that's someone who really loves his iPad talking.