Where is the app?

I have a problem with software purchases online.

There should be a law... if you buy a product (for instance a full version of a facebook app) that it is the responsibility of the product provider to make sure you can always use that product. If they sunset the app, you should still be able to use that product offline in some capacity if able.

I loved playfish, they made a great game called "Who has the biggest brain" I had several friends whom I competed with all the time to top each others' score. They even made an iphone app. I puchased the upgrade on facebook to be able to use all the tests and then I bought the app so I could play on my iphone. Then the game dissappeared... I could no longer use it on facebook and the app would not work if it was not connected to their site. I purchased the game and now it is gone. It would not be a big stretch to set it into offline mode so that people could still play the app locally. Or even let people download the facebook app so they could play it locally in their browser. I BOUGHT THE APP! Where did it go!

This is the same as buying a sweater at Walmart, wearing the sweater, having the sweater become your favorite and then Walmart coming to your house and taking the sweater back without your consent or knowledge. It is just not right...

https://apps.facebook.com/biggestbrain/
gone...

my money...
gone...

https://help.ea.com/article/retirement-of-playfish-games
my trust in playfish and ea...
gone...

How to unbrick your iPhone or iOS device

I am an iOS developer. When the new iOS 5 beta came out, I got excited and wanted to be one of the few that got to play with it before everyone else. It was late in the day and I tried to rush the firmware and before you know it. It was bricked. *sob*

In case you don't know, when someone calls your phone or pretty much any electronic device a "brick" it is because the firmware has been messed up somehow and there is no way to fix it. Therefore it's only useful purpose is as a paperweight or a brick. Bricking your smartphone is not good. There is no turning back. However, there is a issue with this. when you are updating your "firmware" on your iOS, you are not just updating the firmware, but you are updating the operating system as well. These are two very different things. A firmware malfunction is deadly. An OS malfunction is salvageable!

It seems that if you get the itunes icon with a usb connection going towards it. This is just a OS issue and the firmware is most likely fine. Good news for you! You can save it. Here is how.

First thing you will probably see when trying to do a restore and why you think it is bricked is a 1065 error which basically says to reboot your machine, restart or re-install your itunes and try again. This will mostly likely not work unless you are really lucky.

To do a lower level restore, you need to hold both the power and home button down for a few seconds on your device to make sure it is off. (Just because the screen is blank does not mean it is off.)

Then hold down the home button (just the home button is needed) for 10 seconds. While you are still holding it down, connect your device to iTunes. Doesn't matter if it is a PC or Mac, works both ways. It should show you the apple logo on the screen and then the itunes connect image that you've seen before. You can let go of the home button at this point. It should also pop something up on iTunes saying it detected a device that needs a restore.

Now this is where things get a little different from others. If you just screwed up your firmware for most reasons, you can just hit the restore and it should download the latest version of the iOS and install it for you. However, if you tried to update to the beta version of the iOS, this will not work as there is a safety check on the device to make sure you don't try and downgrade your iOS. I think it is error 1015. This happens about halfway through the install bar on the device. Because you tried to beta your device, you need to do something extra.

Hopefully you still have your beta iOS firmware still. I would recommend re-downloading it as it might be the reason you have this problem in the first place. Then, when it is unzipped and waiting for you. Hold down the "option" button on your mac (or the "shift" button on the PC) and click on the restore button on iTunes. This should bring up a fileview for you to find the iOS that you are updating to. select that and you should be off to the races.

20 minutes later, it should have the OS installed and you can now re-sync your stuff onto your device.

UFO Sightings

How come, now that everyone has a camera phone, you don't hardly see any new sightings of UFOs, yetis, monsters, big foots, etc?

You would think that with the advent of modern technology with smaller, better and cheaper cameras out there, you would see many more of these "proofs". That along with the internet, you would think that the world would be already drooling over the latest sightings, yet nothing.

I guess we are too busy drooling over celebrity gossip or something... 

Cowboys and Aliens origins

In case you were wondering where the idea originated...

The Far Side

1995

Random Question:

Why are humans the only species that don't have bones in their "boners"? What sort of mutant evolution process took it away? 

How Not to Choke

http://news.uchicago.edu/article/2010/09/21/psychologist-shows-why-we-choke-under-pressure-and-how-avoid-it

- whistle while you work to stop from over-thinking
- practice, practice, practice
- don't worry about stereotypes, think of the exception
- meditation, learn to relax whenever you need

I'm screwed...

How to tell if you are screwed as an intellectual;
1) You are a night hawk
2) You make sure to never have 'accidents' during relations
3) You over think situations which can result in evasion
4) You are more gullible to lies
5) You are self loathing/ self destructive
If you are most of these, you are really smart, but you are also screwed because you think more than act which keeps you from living and being more successful than you could be.

Source

Makes you smarter

Makes you... ah hell who am I kidding!

One of my favourite movies of all time...

De-motivational; Pylons

That should shut him up, at least until they drop a nuke

Ah yes Starcraft... I hated when he told me I needed to construct more pylons... Looks like I am not the only one.

I'm just not that crazy... most of the time.

de-motivational: 4th place

To be Fourth, yeah, it sucks.

Yes it does, which is why I go for last

If you are going to be a failure, be a spectacular one!

De-motivational; No Matter What...

He reminds me of Kratos' nice brother... Sratos

No matter what, your pet will never be as awesome as a MINIATURE GIANT SPACE HAMSTER!

In case you are wonder, this pic is from a awesome game that Bioware did a long time ago called Baulder's Gate. I loved that game... best RPG ever!... next to fallout.

De-motivational; Double Rainbow

It means you need to get out more

OMG So Intense!

I love this video and I love the songs made from it!

Original http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI

Song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX0D4oZwCsA

Demotivational; Reality: No matter how good she may look now, somebody, somewhere is tired of putting up with her shit.

Reality: No matter how good she may look now, somebody, somewhere is tired of putting up with her shit.

I love this poster. Explains things so well. In fact, I think I will post more "posters" that I think are neat.

I know many women that don't understand this concept. In fact, one woman I know who is very hot keeps telling me all you need is good looks and wild sex to keep a man. She is of course very wrong. Sure it may keep him as a loyal pet for a little while but eventually... (maybe when she stops looking so hot if he has low self worth) he will dump her ass.

Several men I know don't either until they have on of their own.

Guys from a Girls Perspective

... and this is the simplified version

Women have so many categories for men that they don't even know what to do with them half the time. And then they wonder why men can never understand them or know what they want.

To help women understand what the average single man is thinking about women...

The unfortunate key word is 'WANT'

Notice the red circle is smaller for the guys with a girlfriend. 

Whether or not he will actually have sex with those girls depends on; 

-his beliefs (religion, morales, family history)

-whether he can get away with it (Thanks Chris Rock)

-how much he cares about his girlfriend at the time of the opportunity

Movie: Insidious

It has been a very long time when any movie gave me the chills, especially a horror movie. Well, I got one in the middle of the movie "Insidious". It is a throwback to the classic horror movies even with the old school music. (My friend who has not seen many old horror movies thought it was very odd.) I won't tell you exactly where I got the jitters but it definitely happened.

The movie as a whole was pretty darn good too. No plot holes, no items outside the realm of the movie logic, no impossibly stupid or smart people. I did guess the ending but my friend did not. Also no crazy amount of gore for no reason. What really kills a movie (other than the commercials giving away the ending, which this did not luckily) is seeing more blood come out of one person than they could possibly have in their entire body. This never happens and I am very glad.

So if you like to be scared, or are one of those people who like to spend half of their time in the theatre watching a movie between their fingers, give this one a try. Watching with a packed house made it even more fun. I swear some girls were just screaming because so many others were freaking out next to them. Don't worry, I'll be there to protect them :>

The path to my own demise

Here is what I've been feeling for the last few weeks, in order. Luckily I don't feel more than 2 or 3 of these at the same time;

- cold chills, could not get warm enough
- sweating buckets, felt like I was melting
- sore throat, could not swallow without being in a lot of pain
- swelling
- no sleep, always very tired

lucky cat

- not hungry at all
- could not see in 3D. odd feeling realized when I was trying to pick up soup and ginger-ale
- everything tastes like metal (from the medicine)
- little appetite, would make normal size food and eat only a bit of it. The rest would be thrown out.
- slight nausea, looking at certain food makes me feel sick, also looking at a monitor for more than 5 min
- constant coughing, dry cough, can't figure out why and can't stop
- weak, probably from the lack of food

at least my eyes didn't change colour, this time...

Well that is it so far... it's been over a week now. The worst part was the sore throat so I figure I am on the home stretch but still.

I did some checking and found that since I had scarlet fever as a baby, I am more susceptible to these sorts of things. Never been like this before. Usually I am good after a few days. Ah well. What doesn't kill me, will make me invincible!

Strange Dream (2011-02-13)

I dreamt I was one of the Beatles, I think I was Geroge. We were very close to breaking up but still hanging on together. We promised someone that we would put on a concert and were joking about the problems with being "in demand". We walked outside and found that we were on the front deck of a battleship. We met the general and he told us the plan, I wasn't paying much attention to him, I was talking with John. Part of me wanted to warn him about his death but I couldn't figure out a way to do it and "stay in character". (Don't ask what that means, it was a dream so I have no idea.)

Maybe I was sent their to change the past?

Right before the general finished talking, he pointed over behind some large cannons and said something about the Monkees. I walked around and there they were all worried about playing the concert too. What?! We are playing WITH the Monkees?! We all had a look of disgust like we were too good for that, but we didn't say anything to be polite and at that point, didn't have much choice.

They actually liked each other

We went to our backstage corner, ignoring the other band and started testing out our equipment, I picked up a odd looking guitar which was made of an odd wood/plastic combination. It also had a bunch of buttons like the new rock band guitars. Paul said something too me about our first song and I instantly started playing it on the guitar, I was really good! No idea what I was playing however. I figured this was a good time to talk to John about his assassination and then I woke up.

If I could turn back time...

Raising Kid Tips #31

Tip from Maggie;

Tell your kids that their is a vertical line on their tongue that shows up when they lie. They may or may not believe you but you'll find that when they are telling the truth, they will show you their tongue willingly. But if they are lying, they will keep their mouth shut as much as possible.

Lies!

Truth with a bang

Raising Kid Tips #34:

First off, I don't have kids, not even married. But I would like to have kids someday... maybe. But I also want to make sure they grow up right so I gather tips from various sources;

Something I learned from the Tiger Mom...

Make you kids do something they hate, all the time. Don't let them quit. Like a musical instrument or something else that with practice, they can get good at. If they start to really like it, give them something new as well. This will teach them determination and that avoiding or complaining will not get them anywhere. Many parents let their kids quit things they don't like many times before they even have a chance to get good at it. The few friends that I have that were forced to learn some musical instrument that they hated, they jump at the things that NEED to be done, no matter how much they don't want to. Everyone else (including myself to a degree) avoid the things that they don't want to do until the last minute or even worse, sweep it under the carpet and pray that it goes away.

Already talked to one friend with kids about it, he love that idea and will start doing that to his kids next week... I'm sorry kids, it's for your own good.

I don't care how small your fingers are!

Plus side, if they get good, you have a personal chef

Just because it's on the internet, doesn't make it right

http://www.braingle.com/brainteasers/9026/survival-of-the-sheep.html

I disagree with the answer. I GREATLY disagree with the answer. This is exactly what happens when you have an accountant try and solve every problem. They use their own logic and don't take into account the real world. Sure it sounds logical but it is still wrong.

Ok, enough ranting, here is the question;

There is an island filled with grass and trees and plants. The only inhabitants are 100 lions and 1 sheep. 
The lions are special: 
1) They are infinitely logical, smart, and completely aware of their surroundings.
2) They can survive by just eating grass (and there is an infinite amount of grass on the island).
3) They prefer of course to eat sheep.
4) Their only food options are grass or sheep.

Now, here's the kicker:

5) If a lion eats a sheep he TURNS into a sheep (and could then be eaten by other lions).
6) A lion would rather eat grass all his life than be eaten by another lion (after he turned into a sheep).

Assumptions:
1) Assume that one lion is closest to the sheep and will get to it before all others. Assume that there is never an issue with who gets to the sheep first. The issue is whether the first lion will get eaten by other lions afterwards or not.
2) The sheep cannot get away from the lion if the lion decides to eat it.
3) Do not assume anything that hasn't been stated above.

So now the question:
Will that one sheep get eaten or not and why?

Here is their answer (mine is under)

The sheep would remain untouched. 

In fact, the sheep would remain untouched if there is an even number of lions on the island, and would be eaten immediately if there is an odd number of lions on the island. 

Here's the reasoning:
Consider a scenario with just one lion and one sheep: The lion will eat the sheep. Why? Because after he eats it and turns into a sheep himself, there aren't any lions on the island to eat him, so he is happy.

Now look at a scenario with 2 lions and 1 sheep. Here the sheep would remain unharmed. Why? Because if any one of them eats it, and turns into a sheep himself, he knows that he awaits certain death because he will then be a sheep and the other lion will be the only lion on the island and nothing will stop him from eating the sheep. 

So now we know for a fact 1 lion and 1 sheep - sheep gets eaten. 2 lions and 1 sheep - sheep doesn't get eaten. 
We can now make a conclusion about 3 lions and 1 sheep: the sheep will definitely be eaten, because the lion that eats it will know that by eating he leaves behind 2 lions and 1 sheep (himself). And as we already know 2 lions and 1 sheep is a situation where the sheep survives.

You can use the same logic to go on to 4 lions and 1 sheep, and then all the way to 100 or 1000, but it will always be true that with an odd number of lions the sheep gets eaten and with an even number the sheep doesn't.

Why can't we all just get along?

Now this question apparently makes it into interview questions for jobs and schools. I am honestly not sure if the result is a pass fail if you get it wrong but if they do, then you don't want to join that group that is that narrow minded anyway.

Here is my answer depending on how smart you make the lions or sheep.
1) If you make the sheep smart but he is paranoid, he would start killing the lions. Nothing can happen to him and if he is afraid (and who wouldn't be with that many lions around) he would just go nuts and kill off as many lions as possible until they were gone or totally afraid of him.

2) If the lions REALLY want to eat the sheep (because meat is so good) then they could either kill the other lions (with the same logic as above) or they could team up and ALL eat the sheep together, thus all turning into sheep and everyone is happy.

3) Going more into the induction approach as they did... If there was only one lion, yes, he would eat the sheep. If their is 2 lions, then they would not because they would not eat the sheep as long as their was at least one other lion on the island. You can move THAT logic up and thus any quantity of lions greater than 1, the sheep will be safe. (not the odd, even bull crap that they use)

Before and After