Hans Rosling's 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes - The Joy of Stats - ...

Amazing data visualization:

Jailbreak iOS 4.2.1 Untethered iPhone 4, 3GS, iPad, iPod touch with Redsn0w 0.9.7 [How to Guide] | Redmond Pie

The iPhone Dev-Team have just released their “backup plan” (Redsn0w 0.9.7) for untethered iOS 4.2.1 jailbreak. The just released beta version of Redsn0w will enable you to jailbreak (untethered) iPhone 4, iPad and iPod touch 4G on iOS 4.2.1.

Jailbreak iOS 4.2.1 Untethered iPhone 4, 3GS, iPad, iPod touch with Redsn0w 0.9.7 [How to Guide] | Redmond Pie

One turkey a day

According to this article: WHFoods: Turkey, turkey is white meat (breast), high in protein, and good source for Omega 3 fatty acid.

One of the great advantages of turkey is that much of the fat can be easily removed making it a very lean source of protein. We recommend roasting turkey to keep it moist and bring out is best flavor. Turkey dries out quickly so it is important not to overcook it; it is also important not to undercook it. For more on the Healthiest Way of Cooking Turkey see the How to Enjoy section below. While usually associated with the holidays, turkey can be enjoyed year round. 

This chart graphically details the %DV that a serving of Turkey provides for each of the nutrients of which it is a good, very good, or excellent source according to our Food Rating System. Additional information about the amount of these nutrients provided by Turkey can be found in the Food Rating System Chart. A link that takes you to the In-Depth Nutritional Profile for Turkey, featuring information over 80 nutrients, can be found under the Food Rating System Chart.

 

Turkey 4.00 oz-wt 113.40 grams 153.09 calories Nutrient Amount DV (%) Nutrient Density World's Healthiest Foods Rating tryptophan 0.38 g 118.8 14.0 excellent protein 34.09 g 68.2 8.0 excellent selenium 36.40 mcg 52.0 6.1 very good vitamin B3 (niacin) 8.50 mg 42.5 5.0 very good vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) 0.64 mg 32.0 3.8 very good phosphorus 254.01 mg 25.4 3.0 good zinc 1.97 mg 13.1 1.5 good World's Healthiest Foods Rating Rule excellent DV>=75% OR Density>=7.6 AND DV>=10% very good DV>=50% OR Density>=3.4 AND DV>=5% good DV>=25% OR Density>=1.5 AND DV>=2.5%

Make sure to serve turkey roasted and fully cooked. Wait 15-20 minutes before carving, and enjoy! 

How to swing like Rocco Mediate: 12 Nights at the Academy: Rocco Mediate and Jimmy Ballard - Golf Video | Golf Channel

The golf channel has the awesome "12 Nights at the Academy" series, especially this one 

12 Nights at the Academy: Rocco Mediate and Jimmy Ballard - Golf Video | Golf Channel, in which "Rocco Mediate and swing coach Jimmy Ballard will discuss with viewers how Mediate changed his golf swing and resurrected his game after nearly retiring due to lingering back injuries". Check it out since the tips in there is real and useful, not like the ones gave out by Hank Haney, which are completely useless. 

If you don't have to watch video, I'm summing it up here:

1. Stand all and wide;
2. Keep album, especially the left album connected with the body and keep it down;
3. Push the right foot forward at the start of the down swing;

Some notes, though, even though everything Rocco and Jim said made sense, but changing swing is easier fo the pros, since their eye hand coordination, especially at impact, are almost perfect, that's why they are pros. The tip is for everyone, but not for everyone. For example, push the right foot could be diaster for some amateurs, since they'll move their body forward, rather than around. So the take home message here is that, the tips are all valid and useful, but you need to first understand how a golf swing should be,  before you can apply the tips. and fore......

The AWESOME Automation Guide For Mac Users [PDF]-makeuseof.com

Every Mac user should read this guide, which is made up of easy-to-understand demonstrations and screenshots. Among other things you’ll learn how to:

• Use smart folders to manage your files and folders
• Using iTunes’ smart playlists to organize your music
• Find the photo your looking for with iPhoto
• Sort your email without any effort, using Mail.app’s smart filters and folders
• Using Automator to script without any programming knowledge

In particular, it shows you how to create a smart folder, just like the one on Windows: Recent Places, which I don't think OSX has a default smart folder for it.

The AWESOME Automation Guide For Mac Users [PDF] from makeuseof.com

How to Use a Google Maps to See Nearby Rental, Sales and Foreclosure listings

Big picture shows you how to find foreclosure listing using Google Maps,

Google Maps Foreclosure Listings

1. Punch in any US address into Google Maps.

2. Your options are Earth, Satellite, Map, Traffic and . . . More. (Select “More”)

3. The drop down menu gives you a check box option for “Real Estate.”

4. The left column will give you several options (You may have to select “Show Options”)

5. Check the box marked “Foreclosure.” 

Actually, the feature has been around for a while now, and not only can you search for near by foreclosure listing, you can also search for real estate sales and rental listings. Especially the rental listing, which don't show up on MLS listing, and can help the landlords to determine how much he/she should list the rental for, or  for investor to see how much rental potential the property has.

Howto solve IE's Unknown Runtime Error in Javascript

OK, this type of error is really case by case, specific to IE, but in general, Internet Explorer, even though many users and developers don't really care for, is actually stricter on checking the HTML compliance, which is not necessarily a bad thing especially for javascript development. I came across this post when trying to debug this weird error: Unknown Runtime Error, when I'm trying to insert a custom dojo widget in the page. According to the post and discussions, this error could be caused by trying to manipulate innerHTML, or nested form tags, etc.. In my case, it was the nested form tags (thought I figured this out myself, but earlier comments already pointed this out). The rule of thumb is that once you see a "Unknown Runtime Error" from IE, there is something not compliant with HTML standards in your code. The practice should be, first, check your javascript code using JSlint.com to fix all the missing semicolons, or comma, that Firefox and Chrome would simply ignore, then, if the error persists, check to see if you're trying to manipulate innerHTML from within the javascript, or nested Form tags. Hope this will help!

Amazon or Costco or else

I've been ordering a lot of stuff lately from Amazon, from bluray movies, books, toys, to hair product, electronics and accessories, and even sub-woofer. Small or big, light or heavy, all came in within 2 business days by Amazon Prime free 2-day shipping, and no sales tax! Just about the time that I think I can buy everything from Amazon, I ordered a couple of the laundry detergents and fabric softeners. They are heavy shipments, all came in within 2 days, but the portions were much smaller than the ones I'd find at Costco or Target store at similar prices. OK, so I saved on sales tax, and a trip to the store, but paid more for less. That being said,  I think Amazon is changing the way people shop, the only advantage Cosco has right now is that they sell grocery, and Amazon doesn't and probably very hard to do so to compete. Movies, music, books, electronics, toys, etc., are perfect for Amazon shopping!

HowTo Jailbreak Firmware iOS 4.2.1 for iPhone 4

Redmondpie.com's has this very straightforward guide (Jailbreak iPhone 4 4.2.1, iPad, iPod touch with Redsn0w [VIDEO GUIDE] | Redmond Pie) to jailbreak your iOS device. According to the video, this instruction is suitable for 4, 3GS, 3G, iPad, and iPod touch. Written instruction is here.
You will need:

1. iOS 4.2.1, which you can find the links here;
2. iTunes 10.1 for Windows or Mac;
3. Redsn0w 0.9.6b4 for Windows or Mac (if the link the zip file is broken, just google "Redsn0w 0.9.6b4", I found a link here);

First install Redsn0w, if you're using Windows, first scan the zip file with an anti-virus program (you should too if you use a Mac, and don't get me started on this), I use Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware 1.46;
The video and written instructions are using Mac, but the Windows screen is almost the same, so just follow the instructions. One note though, this jailbreak is NOT a untethered jailbreak, which mean you will need to boot it to the "jailbroken state" and connected to a computer every time you reboot your device. I don't reboot my iPhone very often, but need to keep in mind though, the jailbroken iPhone is NOT as stable. I'll update the blog once the "untethered" jailbreak is available.

Cloud computing? The internet is down!

Time Warner internet service has been down since 5:30pm pacific from Los Angeles to San Diego, maybe also other areas. Now try to cloud computing, :-). The big assumption for cloud compuinh is that the internet connection is as reliable as electrcity, but currently it is not! Thank god I still have my iPhone with me so I can blog this.

How to re-create the Show desktop icon on the Quick Launch toolbar in Windows XP

I didn't think this would be this involving or hard as the task is so simple, but apparently if you can't find that "Show Desktop" file, you need to re-create it.

To re-create the Show desktop icon yourself, follow these steps:

Click Start, click Run, type notepad in the Open box, and then click OK.
Carefully copy and then paste the following text into the Notepad window:
[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop
On the File menu, click Save As, and then save the file to your desktop as 'Show desktop.scf'. The Show desktop icon is created on your desktop.
Click and then drag the Show desktop icon to your Quick Launch toolbar."

(From Microsoft support site)

Windows 7 is much better, you can just Ctrl-Tab to find the desktop

Shattered iPhone 4 screen

I accidently dropped my iphone 4 on the sidewalk, actually, my son did. The upper right corner shattered (I’ve dropped my iphone 3G so many time, nothing happened, both are with cases). After searching on the internet, someone had cracked screen, either from dropping or something else got their iPhone replaced with no charge! So I decided to try my luck at the applet store with geeks. After they examined the screen, I guess they were trying to see if the cracks is like a spider web originated from a corner, or just random cracks, in latter case, they may replace the phone for free (but you have to try), they informed me that I’d need to pay $200 for a replacement. then I snapped: “Screw you, screw all of you, I’m spending another $200 on this phone!”, well, that was all in my head. I packed my phone and left.

The take home lesson was: warranty was void, now, even if I can live with a crack screen phone, no free repair or replacement if other parts of the phone stops working. In hinder sight,  what I should have done was, first try to find a 3rd party service provider to replace my screen (“Genius” at apple store said this would void the warranty, but they can’t tell, trust me, they are not real Geniuses), WITHOUT reporting my phone to Apple, so they don’t know, and just abuse all the button on my phone, and hope for one of button stops working and ask for replacement.

Further reading: With Antennagate over, is Glassgate next for the iPhone 4?

What do you use Twitter for?

I still don’t quite get Twitter, and how do people use it. I do have a twitter account, I tweet once in a while, and am following a handful of interesting people. I happened to follow guys who tweets quite a bit,  and usually find myself drowned in the sea of tweets.

For businesses and celebrities, the “followed by number” can only be a popularity statement, but there is no way for a business or a celebrity to reach to their customers or fans via twitter, who’s gonna go through all those tweets? We now live in a texting world, maybe there are people who need to tweet every 2 seconds. Not for me though, I don’t need a real time web, or a social media solution, I need a “near real time” solution, I tweet to keep a mini journal of what I’ve been doing, and where I’ve dined, etc., I don’t really need to do this “real time”, twitter won’t allow you to edit your tweet, I guess that beats the purpose. I like Yelp’s check-in feature, I can use it to keep track of my boring life.

Twitter is a record keeper for me, if they keep it closed from google searches, only real use of it would be a real time web repository, which may have some commercial value, but not too much. I just envision an app that keeps track of where I've been for a period of time, or a trip to a theme park, collects my location data at an interval in the background, and integrate with map data to figure out if I’m in a bar or a coffee shop, and most importantly, keep the data private! Maybe I’ll write it, I’m here to just claim the idea first.

Update: Twitter is NOT a Social Network, Says Twitter Exec

P2P video streaming is the future!

I watched most of world cup 2010 games online, either from ESPN3 on my PC or mobileTV on my iPhone. I’d expect more and more live sport events, or just live events, being telecasted by streaming. The performance of those world cup games varies, as well as some of PGA tour live streaming. CNN once tested with P2P technology via a 3rd party provider, it was semi successful, but met with some in browser installation and privacy concerns. With online streaming, especially live streaming going main stream, P2P is definitely the technology to go, I’d load up with P2P stocks! We shall see in a couple of years.

Technorati Tags: p2p,online streaming,streaming

Netflix on your iPhone

I was just about to cancel my Netflix account, this new Netflix iphone app came out today. I have been a Netflix subscriber for a while now, on and off. Recently, I’ve using my Samsung Bluray DVD player to stream videos from Netflix via a wired (wireless connection is slow and not watchable) network connection. The quality has been up and down, but there just isn’t much new contents out there, and you have to wait for another 2 weeks before you can get the new releases is a big turnoff for me. Now we have the nice iphone app, so I can watch “Office” anywhere I want, I think I’ll hang on to Netflix a little longer now.

Tiger’s back?!

Only days after his announced divorce, Tiger Wood is back on the golf course, and sharing the lead at Barclays on the first day. He doesn’t need a putter change to get better, though the putter was the only club not made by Nike, so maybe he should return a favor to Nike for sticking out for him. Anyway, maybe it’s too early to tell, but at least Tiger can officially go out and party with no string attached, which would be a good relief for him, and put himself in the old comfort zone. Many sports radio show hosts have been hinting something like this, the national syndicated ones are more subtle, local ones are straight out saying he needs all the women. We shall see, I hope Tiger Woods will be more comfort on the course and with his game.

What’s in Tiger’s Head

I think everybody watches sports regularly would hear something like “What’s wrong with Tiger’s game?”, though I think a lot of people know. Tiger Woods came back from a knee surgery after laying off for almost a year, but became a contender right away, winning tournaments, there wasn’t anything wrong with his game. Ever since November of last year, Tiger’s game has gone south, all of sudden, he couldn’t drive well, has changed the ball he plays, now, at British Open, changed his putter, why? I don’t think there is anything wrong with Tiger’s game, his swing, his putting, he’s just missing all the wild parties he used to have, which would release the tension and stress, and put himself into a comfort zone. Golf is a mental game, once he can party again, he’ll be in his groove! Go Tiger!

Free case from Steve, and he loves you!

I have been saying this all along: “iphone is everything but a phone”, after I got it, I have been wondering why other companies were still making smart phones. Hands down, no contest.

Now, with this iphone4 hoopla, Steve is telling you that “He loves you!” and giving out free cases, what else do you want from him, or Apple? i think this may have been blown out of proportion as well, I guess people are more interested in what he say today than anything else. Still will get the iphone4, if Apple or BestBuy call.

The unofficial review of 2010 world cup Jabulani match ball

The unofficial review of 2010 world cup Jabulani match ball
I have to admit that I’m a little obsessed with the Jabulani match ball. I’ve read article about it, heard people talking about it, saw how it’s been played in the world cup matches, and played with it, I think I have enough information to make a good review. First of all, the ball is made of plastic-like material, not leather, and is heavier than I originally thought, and handles and feels well. Two things in my opinion make the ball unusual: first, there is no traction on the ball, since there is ONLY 8 fake panels molding on the ball plastic surface making it “perfectly round”, but diminish its ability to grab on the ground, those little edges on the surface are intended to increase the traction, but don’t make much of the difference; secondly, the multiple layers make the ball traps the energy inside, and releases it slowly, unevenly, translating into unpredictable ball flight.

We’ve seen one strike by Messi in the Argentina vs Germany in slow motion went high, but clearly the ball jumped at the last moment, the same happened to Klose in the same match, a perfect ground pass jumped at the last moment resulting in the high ball instead of an easy goal. Not to mention the mishandled goals by the goalies in early stages. All the these, IMHO, were due to the fact that the energy trapped in the ball released slowly making the ball “flies on its own”. There have been so many crosses, and straight passes went long and out of reach, making the players looked really bad. They are the best players in the world! It’s the ball! The ball is heavy and with no grab on the ground, soft passes would end up short, harder passes would just either go far or skid off the grass. Giving the players credit, they adjusted, and made fantastic plays, such as swirl the ball to shoot, instead of strike it hard with all mighty (usually ends up high), but with a price: they’ve been changing the way they used to play, which is not something soccer fans want to see.

Why Adidas made and FIFA decided to use Jabulani ball? They should’ve known better, don’t they? More goals, soccer matches need more goals, world cup needs more goals. The ball characteristics doesn’t work toward any team’s advantage, but, with the unpredictable ball flight, could mean more goals, at least this is what FIFA was hoping for. I’m all for more goals, but not to achieve this by changing the way the soccer is played.

Brazilian played a sloppy match

Brazilians played a sloppy match today, the early goal didn't help them but, I think, ended up hurting them, 'cause they were getting too relaxed, making sloppy passes. The attacks were very unorganized, not efficient at all. Dani Alves can only play on the wing, he's NOT a central midfield ball controller, he held on to the ball too much making Dutches defense easier.
Dutches were aggressive, well prepared, and didn't let early goal affect their original game plan. They possess the ball well (51% vs 49%) against the Brazilians! Ref was too soft, probably was prepped by FIFA, not willing to issue yellow cards in the beginning, the match did get physical, even though it didn't get out of hands, but the soft tone encouraged the Dutches, ended up not in Brazilian's favor.
In general it was a good match, but a classic for sure.