European Union Wants to Control Apple

Governments telling manufacturers what to do and forcing it upon them? I hope Apple stops selling iPhones / iPads in Europe. This is getting absurd as Apple has already created a lightning to micro USB adapter to comply with a law passed a few years ago. I mean, how do a bunch of bureaucrats even come up with this sh*t. Are they designers? Im sure there are much other matters at hand like their troubling economy.

This isn't the first time the European Union has sought to impose a charger standard on manufactures. In 2009, the Commission reached a voluntary agreement with 10 mobile phone manufacturers to adopt the micro-USB charge and sync interface as the industry standard. Apple signed the agreement, a Memorandum of Understanding, but has not replaced its 30-pin or 8-pin chargers.

Thursday's vote means this formerly voluntary agreement is no longer voluntary. For Apple, with proprietary chargers that factor into the optimization of the iPhone design, this law raises some troubling concerns. Apple already sells iPhone micro-USB adaptors, and perhaps it could start including them with new iPhones as a workaround.

via TUAW

The Truth to Syria

Depressing insight to what the truths of a civil war can be like through the eyes of Italian journalist Domenico Quirico --held hostage for 150 days.

In this place, when the hostage weeps, everyone laughs at the spectacle of his pain and sees it as a sign of weakness. Syria has become the Country of Evil, the land where evil triumphs and thrives like grapes on the vine under a Middle Eastern sun, and where evil displays all its aspects: greed, hatred, fanaticism, the absence of mercy; where even children and the old rejoice in their malevolence. My captors prayed to their God standing next to me, the suffering prisoner. They prayed content, without remorse and attentive to their rituals. What were they saying to their God?

via The Guardian

Past Weekend's Haps

The Chargers couldn’t lose because they had a bye week, JR and Veronica had their wedding shower, Adelle convinced me to head out to Disneyland before our pass privileges were set to expire, I got a chance to hang out with Dr. Nourani in Downtown San Diego, and I did a little work in finishing up my migration to my new MacBook Pro.

Disneyland was definitely a great highlight as the lines were short allowing us to ride what we wanted (California Adventures’ Soaring is still the best), the apple pie caramel apple was a delight and the biggest plus was seeing one of my college roommates as a Jedi Knight Instructing young Padawans on stage at a Disneyland show!  Mr. Stephan Oyoung, without a doubt has the best job.  Working 4 days a week teaching kids how to rid the world of the dark side with light saber techniques, what more could you ask in a post graduate occupation?!  Two thumbs up and kudos to you Jedi Oyoung.

On the day of voting, I got to witness a new dawn in Downtown with yet another college buddy, Dr. Nourani and was readily entertained with his residency stories.  I mention a new dawn only because it was about the time when Barack was making his acceptance speech and McCain ending his bid. Bobby's stories make me wonder where I would have been at if I did do a post-bac program in lieu of flight school.   We ate at Marsala (an Indian restaurant of course) which was tremendous but a bit overpriced then made our way to Altitude Sky Bar where we got to see the Madonna Concert without the Madonna.  Good times all around, but once again I find myself commuting back to work.  It’s been a while since I’ve been at the crashpad.  I can’t wait to get the band back together.  

links...

Well, my friend Jojo finally just sent me some of the links that he religiously checkout every time he opens up a web browser and I found an awesome picture of a pretty nice looking athlete. You have to check it out at http://withleather.com/post.phtml?pk=2811. I have to say that I'm pretty impressed and don't feel guilty to think that she's hot because she just turned 18! But man...I'm sure that after a few more records in college, she'll definitely be attracting some seniors when she steps on campus. Anyways...

Flying my trip today was pretty fun. I have to admit that I'm feeling really good about flying here at ASA lately because I've been blessed with having some awesome Captains while some of my other colleagues aren't that lucky. I was able to execute a night visual approach with a little more confidence but I was still a little behind (or at least I thought I was) in spotting where the runway was. That led me to keep the automation on a little bit longer until I was aware of my situation but everything turned out well. My speed on was target and my two landings today were great. I feel like I've gotten over the hump or plateau that I had a couple of weeks ago where things weren't going well. It's all good now though and I'm happy. I find that I'm heading in to Cincinnati more often these days and it's funny that there are quite a few ASA pilots hanging around the terminal. It seems like we are all getting more than 1 hour layovers and have time to get something to eat which is awesome. We all happen to congregate around the Subway / McDonalds tables. Look me up if I'm in CVG when you are!

I'm starting to feel like I'm saving more money by bringing my lunches and I've been into the commuting the day of my trip. So far so good from San Diego as I'm not getting too tired and I'm loving the fact that I'm able to see my friends and girlfriend on a more regular basis. I haven't been able to see my folks that often though as I'm only there for a very short period anyways. I'm hoping to be home this weekend for Mother's Day and the Padres game.

I was able to see the Padres beat the Braves in ATL which was awesome. They lost tonight though. Oh well...tomorrow should be awesome with Maddux vs. Smoltz. I'm happy for Nicolas Sarkozy in France. That should be awesome esp. with the fact that he wants to change the French and American relationship a little towards a more positive one. I'm also starting to exercise on a more regular basis and my diet is getting better. Things are good and so with that, I'm going to sleep now!

Sim V and fatigue

I was tired today. For some reason unknown to me, I just felt tired throughout the entire day. I can admit that it hampered my learning and performance a little bit today while in sim training, but it didn't necessarily downgrade it all too much. I thought that I did okay. It was the first time that we went through a full flight up to altitude and back down via emergency due to an APU fire. That was good stuff. I'm definitely looking forward to tomorrow's lesson and learning more. I think that these next two days off, I'll need to just hide out somewhere and study for 10 hours or so. Anyone been to the library at Emory? I think that I'll try to hit that up or something. We also practiced quite a few crosswind landings today. We went overboard a little bit and I have to admit that it was my first red screen where I added too much aileron correction. I'm definitely improving and getting it down. I can't wait till the moment that I can stand up and say, "I'm awesome!" That'll be a while, but man...I can hope and imagine that feeling right?

Had some awesome Hot Jalepeno Spicy Talipia again today from Johnny Carino's after mass. It was the bomb! All you can eat salad and bread too. So, I had two salads, saved half of the second, ate a lot of bread and saved half my entree and now I have a great lunch for tomorrow. I'm a little excited.

I noticed that there was a press release today by CAPT that states that they are lowering their program cost to the first 50 people. I hope that they are able to attract a few peeps. I have a house down in that area that is in dire need of renting out to students.

Alright, well, its a little later than I would like it to be and I need to wake up early too. Better get some rest. Goodnight!

I really don't like how Obama is against the Iraq War. Don't get me started, but that is definitely a downer. Chargers look like they are setup for 2007 at least almost. And...yeah...that's about it! Western Digital finally released their NAS (Network Attached Storage) External Hard Drive. I'm excited to pick one up and hook it up. I'm dying here without any form of extra space since my last disk failure. 2GB Flash drives are on sale at Best Buy for $29.99. That to me is a little cheaper than before. Almost so awesome that I wanted to buy one but I thought of all that awesome cash that I don't have and resisted. I think that I'm going to give up, what I like to call spontaneous-rogue spending, for Lent. Should prove to save me a couple cents here or two. Hopefully...

of confidence

There you have it folks. I finished CPT4 this afternoon with a better head on my shoulders compared to when I got out of CPT3. It was pretty bad in that I went in with too many questions and hesitations. As my instructor told me today, I just need to start doing things and act like I know what I am doing. I really do and trust me, I would tell you want I don't know and what I really know. It took a session like today to finally realize where I stand. As many of you know, I require a lot of personal reassurance anytime that I have a decision to make. I know that they are not training us to be Captains just yet, but I seek it for everything. I've always wanted to make everyone and anyone happy and just do things right. You could say that this is my strongest setback. I'm definitely a little more confident now today and I will be forging a new type of character for these next sim sessions. Shoot, I might as well carved it out right now and set it straight right now!

On other news, My Barack Obama set out for the Democratic Nomination today in Chicago, Illinois. He is definitely one of my favorites and for those that do not know me, I am a Republican. He's ideas and campaign platform for 2008 is a little on the unrealistic side and I can't say that I agree with everything but he is the first candidate, Republican or Democrat that I would actually see myself supporting. I just hope that Mr. Giuliani makes up his mind and announces something soon. He hasn't really had that much time in the public eye recently, and with the storm and Barack is part of, its definitely going to overshadow some of Rudy's efforts if he doesn't do something fast! That's just my point of view. What do you have to say about it? Here are some polling reports from some random website. Click Here

I have a lot to study and I'll try to post as often as I have been doing but its going to get a little tough really quickly. If you were to sum it up and check out my Google Calendar, you'll see that I'm set to finish training in just another 18 days. That's scary huh?

I'll also been working out so far three days in a row! I'm going to two weeks straight and hopefully it'll become habit. I'm also on the don't eat past 1900 (7PM) routine. As long as I'm here stuck in Atlanta without any type of nighttime entertainment, looks like I'll be able to stick to it.

between the dems and the reps

It looks like the 2008 election is already upon us with the announcements of Rudy Giuliani and Barack Obama looking to seek the their respective party's nomination. Gearing up to be the one who can end up looking good in the camera in terms of public speaking and motivation, it's really going to be hard for a Republican to win. He's going to have to pull off something amazing. Both these candidates are already in the middle in terms of policies, but its going to be during their debates, I think, that will separate them. I'm kind of excited for this one. I don't even want to mention the "other" Democratic candidate. I still think that it's silly. Just my humble opinion though.

http://www.joinrudy2008.com
Giuliani's website is definitely designed by a simple group with little flare. It's neat and definitely says a lot about him and his works. You can find immediate links to what he has done in his life and current news. No videos, flash or who-ha or anything like that. Just like I've said before, neat and simple.

http://www.barackobama.com
Barack's website is definitely a little bit cleaner and of a fresher style. It shows him off the bat appealing to an older crowd rather than the younger democrat telling us that he's in it for all the people. The picturesque interaction alone comes straight out of a book it seems like. It is appealing don't get me wrong, I'm just pointing out the obvious. His videos are definitely something to watch if you have always been interested and curious in him. They get your rield up and excited about his future as a candidate. He says to stay tuned for Feb. 10th has he will have another announcement regarding all this information then. Hey babe, he also went to Columbia for his undergrad.

I personally have a lot to learn about each of these guys. It's going to be such a close race. If you haven't read or listened to either of their books, you should give them a try. They almost seem to have similar bases and stories and are both written really well. Check them out.