The Celtics are off till Sunday so I thought I share the following link for those whose attention (like mine) will be turning to the World Cup. Follow this link to see the top free Apps for keeping up with the schedule, results and news on and off the pitch in South Africa. My iPhone and Tivo will definitely be my best friend over the next month!
Just a quick update… ipad pre-orders are now available with an expected ship / release date of 04/03/10!
ipad pricing:
16GB – $399
32GB – $499
64GB – $599
As much as some people love their blackberry, I truly love my iPhone. Hence, when Troy wrote his post about wordpress for blackberry, I quickly fired up my iPhone and went to the app store and found this app. One day their might truly be an iPhone killer, but in my opinion what truly sets the iPhone apart is the vast array of apps available at the user’s fingertips.
Sent from my iPhone
I’ve been an avid MAC user for quite some time and have been an admirer of their ability to push the envelope. Part of the allure was the simplistic naming conventions used throughout their line of products. Names like MacBook, iPod, iPhone, etc. Contrast this to other manufactures like Dell XPS, Microsoft Zune and other names that seemingly have nothing to do with the product. However, I like others were taken aback when the latest product in the lineup was announced as the iPad? For most this terminology conjures up thoughts of other items much more ubiquitous with our female readers. Now don’t get me wrong I get the premise of keeping in line with their naming convention of an “I” followed by a one syllable descriptive verb. However, given the connotations that arose shortly after the premiere I might have went with something like iTab or iSlate. I know someone might do the following as a joke, but if you follow the link you will that pre-orders are actually available. As someone who will in all actuality probably purchase an iPad, I can assure our readers I will not be purchasing the following iPad case. However, I applaud Etsy as I’m sure this will be a hit as a gag gift for more than a few iPad owners.
I believe the following pictures speak for themselves 
I’ve been using Firefox for quite some time and have been impressed at the vast array of plug-ins that are available for this browser. My initial switch was due to the minor, but infinitely convenient option to have tabs. Recently, I have installed the Firebug extension. This extension is truly one of the best extensions ever for Firefox, especially for a web designer like me. Firebug is a complete set of web development tools that help facilitate editing websites and also provides metric tools for measuring things like load time depicted incrementally by file. My personal favorite feature of Firebug is the CSS visualization tool which allows the web designer the ability to troubleshoot various parts of a webpage to fix stylistic or nesting issues. With an easy to use interface and ample documentation I would wholeheartedly recommend Firebug to users of all types.
If you’ve ever wondered about the origins of the term “the Real McCoy” then you are not alone. I’ve often asked people who is McCoy and how long have people being using this phrase? I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the phrase is in reference a famous African American inventor named Elijah McCoy. Mr. McCoy was born in Canada where his parents, former slaves in Kentucky; escaped to via the Underground Railroad. Mr. McCoy’s innate mechanical ability manifested itself throughout his child. Realizing their son’s potential, Mr. McCoy’s parents saved up enough money to send their soon to school in Scotland to study mechanical engineering.
Upon finishing his studies and earning a degree in engineering/mechanics Mr. McCoy returned to the United States settling in Michigan. The situation for African Americans in the US had changed since the days of his parents in part due to the emancipation proclamation, however; Mr. McCoy still found it increasingly difficult to get a job commensurate with his education. Instead of becoming an engineer, hiring managers at Michigan Central Railroad felt a “negro” was better suited to be a train oilman. As a train oilman his job was to lubricate the parts necessary to keep a steam engine going. The problem being that the hot pressured steam was corrosive to the metal parts and needed to be constantly lubricated. Mr. McCoy saw this as an opportunity and in 1872 patented his 1st device, a self-regulating lubricator that made use of the steam pressure in the cylinders to control the valve. A decade later Mr. McCoy’s device was wildly successful and as cheaper knock-offs begin to hit the market people who wanted quality would ask whether or not the lubrication system was in fact the “Real McCoy”. Unfortunately, steam engines were replaced by newer technologies which have overshadowed Mr. McCoy’s contributions, however; the tagline “Real McCoy” endures.
Source: http://www.usi.edu/science/engineering/MISC/emccoy/emccoy.htm
My father works at IBM and he brought the next African American inventor to my attention. Dr. Mark Dean was born in 1957 in the state of Tennessee. At an early age he experienced racism as a result of being one of a few African American students in his elementary school as a result of integration. One salient quote from Dr. Dean that illustrates the mindset at that time is:”one white friend in sixth grade asked if he was really black.” At that time Dr. Dean was puzzled by the question, however; as he reflects on that statement in this comment “That was the problem… The assumption about what blacks could do was tilted.” This bias continues to this day as often the first inclination toward African American students in predominantly Caucasian schools is slanted to their perceived athletic ability and not their intellectual capacity.
Fortunately for me and others employed in the IT field Dr. Dean was not deterred by his early childhood experiences. In 1980 Dr. Dean joined IBM and soon realized that the perceptions of him as a youth had followed him into adulthood as his colleagues were initially weary of who this African American man was and what exactly could he do for IBM. Dr. 
Dean quickly assuaged any doubts his colleagues may have had as he holds three of the original nine patents that provide the foundation on which all PCs are modeled after. Dr. Dean and fellow IBM co-worker Dennis Moeller devised the ISA bus system. The ISA bus system is essentially the precursor to USB/PCI/IDE/ and allowed early computers to interface with peripherals. Dr. Dean continued to work at IBM and his next idea led to the 1st GHz processor in 1998 which performed one billion calculations every second. Dr. Dean continues to push the envelope as an “idea man” who heads IBM’s Almaden Research Center. When asked what the limits of technology are, Dr. Dean aptly replies, “If you can talk about it that means it’s possible.” As someone who’s witnessed a myriad of technological advances in my lifetime, I believe this quote will be spot on for many years to come.
Reference: http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/computer-science/dean_mark.html
