JohnA lifeBlog

June 25, 2008

Sen. Barak Obama
c/o Obama for America
PO Box 8102
Chicago, IL 60680

Dear Sen. Obama:

We’ve not met, but I’ve been a fan for a while. In fact, as a life-long Republican, my second-ever donation to a Democrat was to your campaign after you delivered a truly amazing speech about your relationship with Rev. Wright. It was the speech that one would expect from a true straight shooter.

My first every donation to a Democrat was to Chris Dodd, actually, when he announced that he would filibuster any attempts to pass retroactive immunity for the telecom companies who spied on innocent American citizens without a warrant.

Back when Sen. Dodd made that pledge, you supported him, and agreed to follow suit. Thanks to that kind of leadership, the measure was defeated.

I gave you $100, Mr. Obama. And I was looking forward to giving you $2,200 more by November. But your recent comments and actions are not those of a leader looking to defend the Constitution. Instead, your words and actions are actually quite difficult to discern from the same messages being offered by the McCain team. Actually, your recent comments about the “Protect AT&T Act” are so similar to McCain’s comments that there is no way to tell you two apart.

As the now de-facto leader of the Democratic Party, you have failed, sir. You have abandoned our precious Bill of Rights in a vain attempt to curry favor from a sliver of voters who are already pre-disposed to avoid you.

Obviously, I cannot vote for McCain this November. I am trying to decide if I should vote for you, or simply leave my selection blank. At this point, I have become jaded, and see you as simply another in a long line of candidates who abandon their core values once the polls start to roll in.

In any circumstance, you have lost a supporter who loved to talk about your honesty and integrity. You lost $2,200. And you made me cynical, seeing that this election is politics as usual.

Sen. Obama, you can still correct this. Refuse to support any bill that includes Telecom immunity. Sadly, though, I’m sure your council of advisors has already made up your mind for you.

Respectfully,
John Anderson

Ok, as most of my long time readers know, I am a total steak addict. Steak has always been my favorite food, and my favorite cut of steak is the Ribeye.

Previously, the only place I could get a USDA Prime Ribeye was from Stoney River, the most awesome steakhouse in Atlanta. Actually, in recent years, they have stopped advertising that they serve only USDA Prime beef, which means that we should defer to Ruth’s Chris Steak House. Sadly, none of these steakhouses show their prices. By visiting a industry trade site, I did find this recipe for a steakhouse in Atlanta that only serves USDA Prime. Since I have never been there, I cannot vouch for the quality. But at least they show their prices online. However, using my incredibly awesome Kindle, I asked what the average price per pound for a prepared USDA Prime Ribeye steak is. From my research, it is about $30.54. We’ll see what the Kindle researchers say. Recently, though, my local Costco featured USDA Prime Bone-In Ribeye steaks for only $8.99/lb.

Let’s compare. This is a crappy picture of the USDA Prime Bone-In Ribeye I am about to prepare:

I actually chose this picture because it shows that this steak is, hands down, the most well marbled steak I have ever prepared.

The steak was prepared and cooked using Alton Brown’s techniques for ribeye steak as demonstrated in the Good Eats pilot episode “Steak your claim“.

Bottom line is that the AB approved, home prepared Ribeye was by far the most delicious steak I have ever enjoyed.

Tomorrow’s blog will discuss the details of this test, as well as what I did to make it more enjoyable.

An online study evaluating the characteristics of 25,000 American adults found avid technology consumers tended to score highly in personality traits such as leadership, dynamism and assertiveness–but low in modesty.

Gadget buyers more assertive, even arrogant

I just used the NowNow feature for the first time. Here is the message they sent in response:

Your Question:
Can the tivo hd do 720p over component cables?

Answer from NowNow:
Yes

TiVo HD Digital Video Recorder (DVR)(TCD653080)
Product Overview:
Video output modes include: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i
from: http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=TCD653080

“Another difference is that the DVD player can only output 480p over component cables while the HD Tivo could (and should) output 720p or 1080i.”
from: http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9571

“And the Series3 offers flexible high-def options that maximize its compatibility with HD sets: you can choose to output everything via component and HDMI at a set resolution (1080i, 720p, 480p, or 480i), so-called “hybrid” resolutions (all HD content at 720p or 1080i, all standard-def content at 480p), or “native” (everything is displayed at the resolution in which it was broadcast).”
from: http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-video-recorders-dvrs/tivo-series3-hd-dvr/4505-6474_7-32065631.html

Hope that answers your question,
Have a Great Day

Yes, I asked a question for free wirelessly from my Kindle, and they researched it, and sent me the answers to my Kindle wirelessly for free 5 minutes after I asked.

I am falling more and more in love with this thing every day.

Yes, I am now one of those pretentious Kindle owners. That being said, enjoy these Free tips!

First, don’t buy a single book until you’ve checked out FeedBooks.com’s Kindle Section.

Next, press ALT-T whenever you need to know what the current time is. The cool thing is that Kindle doesn’t insult your intelligence. Last time I pressed it, Kindle flashed “Quarter Til 7″. How cool is that?

Finally, since the Kindle books are standard MOBI books, you can use your existing tools to find pre-processed books to add to your collection.

Ok, so my Amazon Kindle arrived today, and I cannot be more impressed. I find myself reading faster and enjoying myself much more while doing so. The device is clean, the screen is amazing, and Amazon has delivered a fantastic user experience. I can see why Kindle users buy so many books per device. I’ve already picked up two, Getting Things Done and Freakonomics.

The bottom line is that this device really does change the way readers consume material. I can’t wait to see how much more I end up reading because of this revolutionary device.

I’m Voting Republican

For the first time in history, every single move a candidate makes will be scrutinized and publicized on the web. This video, recently featured on YouTube, is simply an opening salvo in the online battle for the White House.

And it’s really funny.

Delicious Monster has released version 2.0 of their fantastic Library application. I recently upgraded to the release, and they didn’t fix any of the bugs I reported. Sigh. Anyway, here is my updated Library. Remember that I don’t catalog my standard DVDs, only HD-DVD / Blu-Ray, as well as all of my games.

JohnA’s Delicious Library

The app is much more responsive than most of the betas. Check it out!