http://www.richardmethod.com/2009/12/30/my-2010-predictions/

Now, usually people who do the blog prediction thing wait until late December or early January, but I’m bored so I’m doing mine now.

I’m going to include each item and my reasoning on whether or not it came true or not. OK, here we go.

PERSONAL PREDICTIONS

Barring any unforeseen events, like a KFC opening next door to my apartment, I will lose around 50+ pounds this year.
Well . . nope. Didn’t happen

My Spanish studying will start to take hold and I may actually have a complete conversation with someone in Spanish.
TRUE. I can now order the following in Spanish at the local Wendy’s. Spicy chicken wrap with a large diet coke and small strawberry milkshake.

I won’t lose my job.
TRUE. I actually got a, what you could call, promotion. My own office.

By the end of the year, I’ll have most, if not all of my credit cards paid off.
PARTLY TRUE. I’m about done with the small stuff, but the big one is left to go. But, I’m using the Dave Ramsey snowball method so it shouldn’t take long to pay off.

Fighting my ADD tooth and nail, I will become more organized and will actually achieve some goals.
TRUE/FALSE. Still trying, but it’s hard.

There is at least a 50/50 chance I might actually have sex this year. Miracles do happen.
FALSE. Yep. The life of a computer programmer continues to be boring.

I will have at least one tragedy happen to me.
TRUE. Had a good friend commit suicide. Sad doesn’t describe how I feel about that.

I will go on at least one date.
FALSE. Again, my life is pretty boring.

ECONOMY PREDICTIONS

Xmas sales will be seen as being pretty bad and a small to mid size bankruptcy wave of various retails stores will occur. This will of course increase unemployment, which I don’t see going below 9 percent.
TRUE. TRUE. TRUE. Boy, did I ever nail this one.  Here are some links to prove my point.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/239897-jobs-report-proves-we-d-better-get-on-course
http://seekingalpha.com/article/239928-jobs-report-is-a-double-dip-red-alert-manufacturing-and-exports-at-risk
http://seekingalpha.com/article/239954-after-all-the-hype-jobs-up-an-anemic-39-000-unemployment-rises-to-9-8-quicksand-of-stimulus

As the year drags on, the belief that we are in a recovery will fall apart creating the distinct possibility of another recession.
TRUE. I’m marking this one true even though we are not *technically* in a recession, it sure feels that way to me.

Either California or New York, perhaps both, will declare some type of fiscal emergency. I don’t think that there is legal precedent for a state to actually file for bankruptcy, but any emergency fiscal action will be seen as such.
FALSE . . BUT.  Since the Republicans gained control of the House and increased there margins in the Senate (thank you Jesus), a bailout of California or any state is looking pretty grim. The american people are sick of bailouts. So, this could be updated to TRUE pretty soon.

Greece, Japan and maybe Britain will do the same.
TRUE. Marking this TRUE even though they haven’t technically done so. They are bankrupt. As soon as the current loans run out, things will be getting pretty bad in Europe.

Consumer spending will stay flat for most of the year.
TRUE. I have to say, I nailed this one.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-01/u-s-consumer-spending-rises-less-than-forecast-incomes-unexpectedly-drop.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/04/business/economy/04econ.html

THE NATION PREDICTIONS

A major terror attack will occur.
FALSE. There were some small attacks, but nothing as big as I had thought would happen. So, I’m marking this one FALSE.

The President will bow to at least 3 more people.
FALSE? I really don’t know about this, I’ve lost count.

The phrase Jimmy Carter 2.0 will begin to take hold as President Obama continues to wonder through the darkness.
TRUE. TRUE. and TRUE. Boy, I sure did nail this one. I vaguely remember Carter and this President is making Carter look like a genius.

Taxes, in one form or another, will be going up.
FALSE. The Republicans, and for that matter, many Democrats wouldn’t dare.

The Republicans will sweep the mid-terms providing some much needed balance in Washington.
TRUE. Nailed this one to.

THE WORLD PREDICTIONS

Israel and/or America will bomb the nuclear sites in Iran. Iran will then retaliate by attacking various oil wells which will send oil prices through the roof. This will occur only if Iran isn’t overthrown by it’s citizens, which is looking more and more likely everyday.
FALSE. Didn’t happen. However, I do believe that either the CIA and/or MOSSAD  created the Stuxnet worm to attack Iran’s nuclear program. See some links below.
http://venturebeat.com/2010/11/29/computer-worm-that-hit-irans-nuclear-equipment-is-also-taking-out-other-industrial-systems/
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/how-worm-turned_520704.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/sep/26/iran-computer-bug-attcks-nuclear-plants

The fraud of climate change will begin to take hold and the nations will not pass any type of significant climate legislation.
TRUE. Seeing the liberals freak-out about Climategate was hilarious. I think that the public is finally awake to the belief that climate change is one big hoax.

Afghanistan will be brutal for a while, but will calm down towards the end of the year.
FALSE. Sorry to say it’s been bad for most of the year.

MEDIA PREDICTIONS

At least one major newspaper will go out of business.
TRUE. Actually, more than one went out of business. Here is the list.

I forget when exactly it was, I think it was December. My office sits inside the old Emory Card office located in the DUC. The DUC is basically the student center for the entire campus. Needless to say, it stays pretty busy. As I approached the office, I glanced a bit to my left into the TV room. There I saw approx. 50 people all viewing with intense interest the 50” plasma TV.

My first thought was, “Oh Lord, another terrorist attack.” So, I quickly darted inside to see what was happening. To my shock, on the TV was then President-elect Obama giving some kind of news conference. I then turned around to view the faces of the 50 people in the room. All of them, basically, were in a trance. Looking back on it now, it’s still creepy to imagine, but understandable. After all, I do work at a pretty liberal school and have basically seen it all. So, this event, although shocking, was to be expected.

That was almost 2 years ago and ALOT has changed since then. No longer do you see liberals walking the halls with the look of nirvana on there faces. No longer do you see hordes of liberals gathered around TV screens licking there lips at the site of Obama. No, it’s gone.

I think I can report to everyone that Obama, barring some miracle, will be a one-term president. With the oil spill, health care bill and the two ongoing wars, liberals have had enough of Obama.

It’s sad. They actually bought all of the “calming of the oceans” speeches which promised a lot, but was never delivered.

Now, the TV room sits empty, except for that damn kid playing the piano. Oh, what I wouldn’t give for a news conference.

Most of the emails contained various questions that I felt could best be answered here instead of replying individually.

So, here we go.

OVERALL DESIGN
Holding the iPad was very comfortable. It weighs approx 1.5 pounds so it is heavier than an iPhone, but still not too heavy.

It has the same orientation sensor that is built into the iPod touch and the iPhone, so you can switch between regular and landscape. You can even rotate the device 90 degrees placing the HOME button on the top, instead of the bottom.

The built in keyboard is of course bigger than the iPod touch. Typing felt ok except when you were in landscape mode. I had to stretch my thumbs a bit in order to hit certain letters so I pretty much stayed in the horizontal position.

Even though the keyboard is bigger, typing anything more than a sentence or two will be a challenge. If you plan on responding to emails, I’d buy the external keyboard docking pad.

The picture quality is very good. Viewing videos in Netflix and iTunes were very close in detail to DVD. According to Apple, a 10 hour battery life is common. I didn’t have a chance to test that, but I’m a bit skeptical of that statement.

The screen does a very good job is showing you every fingerprint that has come into contact with the unit. I’d plan on carrying a small box of tissue paper to clean the screen when needed.  Also, I would definitely consider purchasing some type of carrying case to prevent any scratches from occurring during day to day use.

APPS
When it was introduced during MacWorld, Jobs said that it would run all of the iPhone/iPod apps currently out. He was correct. But, there are plenty of bugs that crop up when running on an iPad. For example, on my iPod I have a remote desktop client that I use to remote into my vista workstation in my office. I was able to install it to the iPad, but when I tried to login using the keyboard, for some reason the caps lock was enabled and I couldn’t disable it. So, I wasn’t able to login.

I’m sure that bug fixes and enhancements will be forthcoming soon so I’m not too worried.

When you launch an iPhone/iPod app on the iPad, the window size is the same as an iPhone. If you look at the lower right hand corner of the screen you’ll see a circle with 2X inside. Pressing this expands the app to full screen.  If the app is image intensive, you’ll notice some blurring and display issues. Like I said, I’m sure these will be fixed soon.

One thing that I was real pleased with is that iTunes treats this as a completely separate device. So it was possible to have both my iPod and iPad sync on the same iTunes install. All of my apps and songs were synced with the iPad with no problem. However, syncing the iPad took a bit longer than my iPod. Synching 10 apps and 50 songs took about 3 minutes. I noticed that an iTunes update was available as of late Friday evening so maybe this will be addressed.

FLASH? Nope.
The default browser on the iPad is Safari. This version of Safari supports HTML 5 natively so there is no Flash installed. The iPod, iPhone and now the iPad have no Flash installed and I don’t see any in the future given recent comments by Apple. I don’t know what has warranted this type of response from Apple, maybe some Adobe executive ran over Steve Jobs dog or something, but the only way I see Flash support is:

1. Adobe and Apple make up. (Or, perhaps we could see Microsoft’s SilverLight on the iPad)
2. An engineer figures out a way to install Flash.

OVERHEATING
After I had sent my initial review to Local-L, I began the process of packing up the iPad so I could return it. When I picked it up, it was extremely hot. I pressed the HOME button and red the following message:

IPad needs to cool down before you can use it.

So, there appears to be some cooling issues. I found the following page that discusses this issue.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/Techies-Fume-Over-iPad’s-Hidden-Weakness-3098

EXCHANGE
An Exchange client is built into the iPad, so I was able to setup my email account relatively quickly. It took three attempts because setup screen kept defaulting to the server name of owa2010.emory.edu, when it should be owa.emory.edu. I don’t know if I typed this in myself by mistake, or it’s a bug, but on the third try it worked. A Gmail client and Mobile Me client are also included.

SOUND
I wasn’t expecting to be impressed with the sound quality, but I was. I played samples of one movie and 3 separate songs and I really liked what I heard. It’s definitely better than the iPod, but not as good as external speakers.

WEB
I wanted to separate this part from the above Flash topic because it focuses primarily on web issues.

For the web designers/developers that are reading this, I think that the iPad will open the door to new opportunities in web design.

I’ve already read a few forum posts about web designers reworking there sites to display differently when viewed by the iPad. As for myself, I’ve already installed the User Agent plug-in for Firefox and configured it for iPad. I plan on doing some experiments on this myself.  One developer said that he was going to “touch enable” his site so that more features were available on the iPad version. Who knows, perhaps a year from now a high school student could be using their iPad to research colleges and come across a “touch enabled” version of emory.edu.

DECISION TIME
The overall questions of each email hinted at the following one, “Should I buy the iPad?” If you read my previous review, you’ll know about the various Wi-Fi issues that are causing some pretty serious connection issues. There is also the price of $499 which is pretty expensive.

Also, the idea of being an early adopter of an Apple product should be considered. I remember breathing a sigh of relief when I held off on the purchase of the original iPhone only to see a price drop and new version shortly thereafter. My advice is as follows:

1. If you have $500 just sitting around and don’t mind being an early adopter, buy it. For all its flaws, it is revolutionary and could spur the explosion of the tablet era.
2. If you think that you’ll throw away your current laptop after purchasing this, don’t bother. This device will not be replacing your laptop anytime soon.

LINKS
I’m going to include some YouTube links that I’ve found since Saturday concerning the iPad. The one showing the 2 year old girl is priceless.

DEMO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JPTaoDwOz4

REVIEW
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Luj263H_56A

FIREFOX iPad SETUP
http://lifehacker.com/5508260/how-to-use-gmails-attractive-new-tablet+friendly-interface-on-your-regular-old-computer

2 YEAR OLD GIRL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT4EbM7dCMs

Well, I think that covers everything. I hope I’ve answered everyone’s questions. If not, please feel free to email me directly at rmethod@emory.edu.

Oh, by the way, one last thing. When I returned the iPad to the Apple store, they charged me a 10% “restocking” fee. Go figure.

If you’re considering a purchase, here are some items of interest that may help in your decision

WIFI ISSUES

Since Saturday, I’ve been reading various comments on the Apple support forum about Wi-Fi issues. Condensed, these issues appear to be.

1. Unable to locate a nearby Wi-Fi network
2. Weak of low Wi-Fi signal strength
3. Unable to access the internet

My first test was to try and connect to the Emory Unplugged network which took about 2 minutes. After that, it worked perfectly. I spent about 10 minutes walking around the DUC testing the connection and it worked great. Then, I decided to pop off campus and try some local Wi-Fi sites. Big difference.

I went to 3 separate sites carrying both my iPod touch and my iPad. The iPod touch had no problems at all finding and connecting to these Wi-Fi sites. The iPad, on the other hand, had some pretty serious issues. When I did connect, it was either VERY slow, or it would drop off after a few minutes. I would then have to reset the Wi-Fi adapter and it would then reconnect.

After reading various posts on the forums, it’s my understanding that the Wi-Fi router has to be a newer model and have the latest firmware installed. This is great if you have access to the router admin site to upgrade the firmware. If not, you’re out of luck.

Just a side note here, props to the Netcom team for having great wireless in the DUC.

Here is the apple tech note in question about Wi-Fi issues.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3237

This is my favorite part.

“If you are having connection issues, move closer to the Wi-Fi router or hotspot.”

CHARGING

I hesitate to mention this one, but I think it needs to be known.

If you plan on using the same USB connector that you use with your iPod touch to charge the iPad, not going to happen. Yes, you can use it to sync with iTunes, but it won’t charge. When the iPad is plugged into the USB adapter, you’ll see a “NOT CHARGING” status in the upper right corner next to the battery icon. That is, unless you have a MAC, then it charges just fine. Go figure.

In order to charge it, you’ll have to use the AC adapter that is included with the package. The tech article below does say that the iPad will charge connected to a USB 2 port on a PC, but I couldn’t get it to work.

Here is the apple tech note in question about charging issues.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4060

APPLICATIONS

Most of the applications that I bought for my iPod transferred over pretty easily. There were some imaging issues with some of the apps that went full screen. I’m sure these will be fixed in the future. The Netflix app really rocked.

One thing about iPad apps is that there a bit expensive. Whatever you paid for iPod apps, double it for the iPad version.

Well, that’s it. My iPad is back in its box and inserted into the bag, along with the receipt. First thing tomorrow, it’s going back. I just can’t condone a $500 purchase for a “tablet” computer that has no USB, no DVD and serious Wi-Fi issues. Maybe in the future, after a price drop and a bug fix release, another trip to the Apple store will be made until then, I’ll use my laptop.

I hope this helps.

Richard M.

Here is U.S. President Barack Obama BOWING to Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio at MacDill Air Force Base on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2010 in Tampa, Fla.

Ok, I’m sorry folks, but this is getting ridiculous.

Oh, I feel a blog post coming.

I’m going to do mine a bit different and break things down by subject. Here it goes.

PERSONAL
1. Barring any unforeseen events, like a KFC opening next door to my apartment, I will lose around 50+ pounds this year. 

2. My Spanish studying will start to take hold and I may actually have a complete conversation with someone in Spanish.

3. I won’t lose my job.

4. By the end of the year, I’ll have most, if not all of my credit cards paid off.

5. Fighting my ADD tooth and nail, I will become more organized and will actually achieve some goals.

6. There is at least a 50/50 chance I might actually have sex this year. Miracles do happen.

7. I will have at least one tragedy happen to me.

8. I will go on at least one date. (See no. 7)

ECONOMY
Ok. Here’s where things get depressing

1. Xmas sales will be seen as being pretty bad and a small to mid size bankruptcy wave of various retails stores will occur. This will of course increase unemployment, which I don’t see going below 9 percent.

2. As the year drags on, the belief that we are in a recovery will fall apart creating the distinct possibility of another recession.

3. Either California or New York, perhaps both, will declare some type of fiscal emergency. I don’t think that there is legal precedent for a state to actually file for bankruptcy, but any emergency fiscal action will be seen as such.

4. Greece, Japan and maybe Britain will do the same.

5. Consumer spending will stay flat for most of the year.

THE NATION

1. A major terror attack will occur.

2. The President will bow to at least 3 more people.

3. The phrase Jimmy Carter 2.0 will begin to take hold as President Obama continues to wonder through the darkness.

4. Taxes, in one form or another, will be going up.

5. The Republicans will sweep the mid-terms providing some much needed balance in Washington.

THE WORLD

1. Israel and/or America will bomb the nuclear sites in Iran. Iran will then retaliate by attacking various oil wells which will send oil prices through the roof. This will occur only if Iran isn’t overthrown by it’s citizens, which is looking more and more likely everyday.

2. The fraud of climate change will begin to take hold and the nations will not pass any type of significant climate legislation.

3. Afghanistan will be brutal for a while, but will calm down towards the end of the year.

MEDIA

1. At least one major newspaper will go out of business.

2. Media and Entertainment companies, seeing the futility of business plans based on advertising, will start charging for various content. Look for subscription type business models.

3. The “mainstream media” will continue it’s decline into obscurity.

4. Expect more scandals like Climate Gate.

5. At least one reporter will have an on-air orgasm while talking about President Obama. 

Cops fear that 25 British-born Muslims are plotting to bomb Western airliners.
The fanatics, in five groups, are now training at secret terror camps in Yemen.
It was there London-educated Umar Abdulmutallab, 23, prepared for his Christmas Day bid to blow up a US jet.
The British extremists in Yemen are in their early 20s and from Bradford, Luton and Leytonstone, East London.
They are due to return to the UK early in 2010 and will then await Internet instructions from al-Qaeda on when to strike.

Oh by the way, thank God for the British. There more on top of this than anyone. God save the Queen.

Don’t sweat any of this. The Muslim world loves us again. Plus the geniuses at DHS tell us this isn’t part of any larger plot, so go back to sleep. It would be terrible if we offended anyone by labeling them as suspects.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, headed by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Lieberman, will host a conference next week (27-31 December) for Israeli Heads of Missions. At the conference, Israel’s ambassadors and consuls general serving throughout the world will discuss broad diplomatic and strategic issues.

This is the first time a conference for all of Israel’s Heads of Missions has been held. The idea is to facilitate direct dialogue with the country’s leaders, mutual updates on major diplomatic issues, and a discussion of action plans to deal with the challenges awaiting the State of Israel in the international arena in the coming year, including the Iranian threat.

This is a glaringly obvious deduction that anyone, with any kind of common sense and reasoning should realize, and that is that the United States Government cannot and will not totally protect the American people from a terrorist attack. The only people that can prevent such an event from happening, is the American people themselves. This is one instance when the “Nanny State” just does not work. A perfect example of this is the person that prevented this horrific act of cowardice from taking place. His name is Jasper Schuringa and he is not even an American. Jasper knew that it was either the terrorist or him; and he acted accordingly. Jasper deserves the highest of honors from our Government that is because he did, what our President has not seem interested in doing, and that is to tell the terrorists that the battle is on and that are willing and able to fight them in any capacity that is required to defeat them. Jasper did not wait for the big “Nanny State” government to do their job; he simply took care of business and for that, he should be commended. To any progressives reading this — I am sorry, but dithering around on the issue of Afghanistan is not what I consider leadership. By dithering, I mean delaying the increase needed in troops and then not sending the number of troops asked for, by the commanders on the ground. That is not leadership — that is a sad joke, which sums up this President in a phrase.

Another thought is this; for all of the errors in the thinking of the Libertarians and their idiotic Party, they do have one thing right, and that is that these terror attacks are result of war. As along as the United States of America has forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, there will be these sorts of attacks on our soil. The problem is that the libertarians believe that we should just pull out of the Afghanistan war and admit defeat. This would be grave error on the part of our Government, it would prove to Al-Qaeda that the United States is weak and can be easily defeated. If anything; at this point, the United States should step up its attacks on the hiding places of the Al-Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan and other places abroad. Ronald Reagan believed in peace through strength, and the United States should continue that policy now, by not allowing these wretched terrorists win the battle. We should do this by making these Islamic thugs lives a living hell and chase them to the ends of the earth, as President George W. Bush pledged to do in the days after 9/11.
The United States of America has a rich history of defending the homeland, and we should continue that traditions until these turban-wearing thugs are thoroughly defeated and victory is realized.