tintedpane.com

When booking a flight to LA for a friend’s wedding on AA.com, I tried to use a discount code. It didn’t work. Brought me to an error page. So I called customer service as was directed on that error page. They told me that the code would work online, but only for LAX. The discount is applicable to all neighboring airports, which I was trying to book the flight for, but it needed to be manually entered in by the service rep and wouldn’t work online. But with the new fees they’re charging for booking over the phone, I would lose out over the meager 5% discount. Sigh.

On the other hand, I’ve found a new travel research site, kayak.com. It’s a meta-airline/hotel/rental pricing site that searches most all of the popular sites out there for cheap flights and serves them up in an easy to digest presentation. Unfortunately, Southwest Airlines is still not a happy player when it comes to allowing third party sites to traverse their rates. So aside from SW, all other major carriers should be there (I haven’t verified that in any detail though).  They say that their revenue comes from advertising and clicks so it’s not a travel agency like orbitz or hotwire.

Zoom now affects images as well:

Zoom in/out: <CTRL>+scroll wheel

Return to default <CTRL>+0

I don’t think this was a feature prior to 3.0.

edit: it’s called Full Page Zoom

I hope we continue to fight for what’s right.

Fair Park, 2008

“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.” —Mark Twain

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” —Abraham Lincoln

“Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind. And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed, the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry. Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear and blinded by patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader and gladly so. How do I know? For this is what I have done. And I am Caesar.” Unknown

Now that the app store is about to debut, I thought I’d write a couple of thoughts about it. First and most importantly, I think that any app should strongly consider having an interface with the web. Let’s take a mileage program for example. By itself, it may have a great interface, and functionality. But in today’s connected world, we want access to our information the way we want it. Yeah, you’ll have your iPhone with you at almost all times (for access to the info), but it’d be great if the info was sync’d to a website and you can view it on your much larger desktop or laptop and utilize the larger format’s ability to display the data in different forms. You could then take the data in a csv file and interpret/manipulate it how you see fit in a spreadsheet program of your own choosing. It’d also be backed up more securely (free from loss, not from possible trespassing though ) than just having a sync with your local computer. Perhaps, taken to another level, data could be backed up into MobileMe or maybe Google could do a hostile takeover and offer MobileMe functionality for free.

Secondly, I’m hoping that with the wireless and GPS functionality built-in, these apps will grow and expand beyond those that were written for the Palm and PocketPC. Right now, iPhone apps are in it’s infancy. This stage is going to be very familiar to those who used to have a PDA. Hopefully, the weak and inferior programs (and/or redundant and overpriced programs) can be quickly weeded out and allowed to die a quick death.

Apps I’m waiting on:

• Smugmug browser (not just uploader)
• Remember the Milk
• Wordpress publisher
• Secure Facebook (https)
• Voice Recorder
• Google Docs/notes interface

Possible Cool Stuff:

• yelp
• evernote
• moocow pianist
• guitar suite
• pandora
• tuner
• whereto, vicinity - apps that return restaurant, bar, POI information based on your location
• limbo - tells your friends/otheres where you are and what you’re doing — kinda scary too

Might be time for me to get some better in-ear headphones.

Well, it was approved today. I’m very disappointed. Obama reneged on his previous stance against the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. I’m pretty sure McCain voted for it as well. At least Clinton held her ground. Some of Obama’s supporters created a website petition to try and change his views on it. Why do we keep losing our liberties? FISA will allow any American who has international ties to be spied on surreptitiously and “legally” by our government. I hate this current administration. The legislative branch is taking it up the ass and being such a bitch for the executive branch. And in the end, we the people suffer. I hope the EFF and the ACLU are successful in taking this to court. Let’s hope the judicial branch isn’t as lame as the other two. Who’s gonna stand up for our rights? Neither Obama nor McCain? Geez.