I had thought it was just a generic word for robot, or the name for the latest phone from Verizon.

Apparently, "DROID" was mentioned once or twice in that "Star Wars" movie and if someone wants to use the term in an official product name, they've got to clear the rights with George and company.

Say you're a phone company like, oh, I don't know, Motorola. Now say that you've got a new Android handset coming out for Verizon and you'd like to call it the Droid. In order to do so, you've got to clear it with Lucasfilm. Now, say, you get permission. All of your ads and such, from here on out, will have to carry fine print that says something to the effect of "DROID" is a trademark of Lucasfilm Ltd. and its related companies.

So what apps would you want on your Star Wars inspired Droid phone? Here is my short wish list;

• Midichlorian Counter
• Droid Identifer
• Tauntaun Opener
• Trash Compactor Deactivator
• Natalie Portman's Cell Number

On Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009, the LCROSS spacecraft successfully completed its first Earth-look calibration of its science payload. An additional Earth-look and a moon-look are scheduled for the remainder of the cruise phase of the mission.

During the Earth observations, the spacecraft’s spectrometers were able to detect the signatures of the Earth’s water, ozone, methane, oxygen, carbon dioxide and possibly vegetation.

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I really did it this time...

After months and months (and months) of threating to switch to a Mac after Vista was released, and I was forced to use it (couldnt buy a new PC with out it), I took the first step down "Conversion Row" today and purchased a new 17" Mac Book Pro. This new purchase will replace my current PC workstation used for daily development and maintance on over 125 public and private .COM's and .MIL's. I am excited about the change and being able to follow in the footsteps of thoes that have gone before.

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What would you think of a datacenter that is sealed off from the world by entrance doors 40 cm thick (almost 16 inches). Located in central Stockholm below 30 meters (almost 100 ft) of bedrock:

This underground data center has greenhouses, waterfalls, German submarine engines, simulated daylight and can withstand a hit from a hydrogen bomb. It looks like the secret HQ of a James Bond villain.

And it is real. It is a newly opened high-security data center run by one of Sweden’s largest ISPs, located in an old nuclear bunker deep below the bedrock of Stockholm city, sealed off from the world by entrance doors 40 cm thick (almost 16 inches).

Above: The NOC is set in a cozy jungle setting. That light fog almost makes us think of cloud computing. Fog computing?

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A recent expansion of authority claimed by the Border Patrol to stop and search individuals up to 100 miles from any US border. They have created a map of what they call the US Constitution-Free Zone.

Using data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, the ACLU has determined that nearly 2/3 of the entire US population (197.4 million people) live within 100 miles of the US land and coastal borders.

Instead of intelligent, competent, targeted efforts to stop terrorism, illegal immigration, and other crimes, what we have been seeing in area after area is an approach that turns us all into suspects. This approach seeks to sift through the entire U.S. population in the hopes of encountering the rare individual whom the authorities have a legitimate interest in.

If the current generation of Americans does not challenge this creeping (and sometimes galloping) expansion of federal powers over the individual through the rationale of “border protection,” we are not doing our part to keep alive the rights and freedoms that we inherited, and will soon find that we have lost some or all of their right to go about their business, and travel around inside their own country, without interference from the authorities.

This just in: The bowtie-wearing, tuba-playing, onetime vice presidential candidate on the National Radical Meadow Party ticket is headed for that great comic strip in the sky; cartoonist Berkeley Breathed announced today that he is giving up his Sunday comic strip Opus to focus on children's books instead.

For those of you in your mid-30's and older, you remember Bloom County as a staple of the comic pages in a similar time frame as Calvin & Hobbes, and that time was probably the greatest the daily/Sunday comics have ever known. From running for the vice presidency to impersonating Michael Jackson, from gracing a ton of t-shirts to being one of the weirdest stuffed animals ever, from rocking in a heavy metal band "Billy and the Boingers" to cleaning up Bill's hair balls, Opus was perfect for that time.

That announcement signals the end of Opus, the charming penguin who has entertained comics readers for nearly 30 years, starting with Bloom County. Though Breathed has retired the character before, this time, he says, he means it.

Being unable to find any decent templates for Adobe Illustrator CS3 CS4 I had to make my own. So I (or anyone else) won't have to go looking I have posted it here.

NOTE:
I don’t design in Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF. On most days I don't design at all, if I don't have to so, YMMV!

Calculating the Gigabytes
First of all, you have to find out the total GB of data a single T1 connection can transfer, assuming that there’s no overhead or packet loss. (If you have stats for your packet loss or overhead, just subtract the overhead from the amount of data that can be transferred and continue with the equation.)

Assuming the optimal, a T1 connection can transmit data at 1.536 Mbps. To translate that to Bytes per second you divide by 8 (since there are 8 bits in every byte), and you find that a T1 can transfer data at 192 KBps. Multiply that by 60 seconds in a minute, times 60 minutes in an hour, and you will find that a T1 can transfer 691.2 MB (or 691,200 KB) of data per hour. Multiply that number by 24 to get to 16.589 GB per day.You need to multiply it by 30 days to get 497.664 GB monthly transfer.

Here’s the Math:

• 1.536 Mbps / 8 = 192 KBps (or 0.192 MBps)
• 0.192 MB * (60sec * 60min) = 691.2 MB/hour
• 691.2 MB * (24hours * 30days) = 497,664 MB (or 497.664 GB)/month

I had to do this myself just recently and figured that I would just post it here for future reference.

Josh is having a contest over at UsefullConcept.com

Its time to hold a contest!  One winner, and anyone can participate.  All to promote my RIAdventure cruise this February.  (social cruise for CF/Flex/AIR geeks and family from Miami to Bahamas)

The questions you have to answer are:

1) List your top reason someone should go to RIAdventure.
2) List your top reason you want to try out WOW (world of warcraft).

and my answers were:

I got this one...

Why should some one go to RIAdventure... cuz I'm gonna be there! (along with other top developers in the industry)

My top reason to try out WOW... All the "cool kids" are doing it... and I'm just a lemming.