There have been many times where police officers have had to use appropriate force when dealing with criminals and there are times where they go overboard. I was watching these videos on Youtube today and thought I should write up a post about situations like these. In the first video you can see the guy on the motorcycle going at a high rate of speed and pulling a wheelie while passing a bus in the slow lane on I95 in Maryland. There is no sound in the first video that actually shows everything and I am not quite sure why it was not included. In the video you will notice that at 2:40 the bike takes an exit to the right and starts to slow down for the traffic ahead. All of the sudden an unmarked car pulls ahead of him positioning itself to block the motorcycle. A man hops out, pulls out a gun and says get off the motorcycle 3 times before finally saying that he was with the State Police. I feel this is the only mistake the officer had made, his first words prior to pulling the gun out should have been Police don’t move. Everyone is scrutinizing the officer for pulling his service weapon however I kinda feel like he handled the situation properly. Not once did he actually point the gun at the individual and once the rider heard it was the police he started to cooperate and the officer holstered the weapon.
I believe this will be one really good feature of GMail, the ability to send and receive phone calls through your computer while you are logged into your email account (available to USA only). Since I use Google Voice this is automatically added to my GMail account for use. However at first try this morning I have not been able to get it to successfully call my mobile phone. While the phone rings and I can answer it I cannot hear anything on either the phone nor my headset on the computer. I continuously keep getting error messages like this:
Sorry! The voice chat with (xxx) xxx-xxxx failed due to an error [Code: 3 Remote: true] at 9:18 AM.
Click here to report this to Google.
I have been reporting the issues to Google but I wish this would just work. The best part that got me interested is that first it was automatically linked to my Google Voice account, second it is easy and free to make calls to any land line or mobile phone in the USA. International calls are available too at rates as low as $0.02 per minute. Have you been able to get Google Voice to work from within the GMail interface? What are your thoughts on this service? I think it would be beneficial if you remain logged into your GMail account all day however I already have my Google Voice number ring my mobile phone.
Someone with a very creative mind and musical talent has created an anthem for PHP. You just have to hear this song, make sure you pay attention to the lyrics.
My only question is what’s with the girls they have nothing to do with PHP nor programming, I guess they just wanted them there for the eye candy. Anyhow the lyrics to the song are pretty funny so let me know what you think.
Originally Posted by Chris Shiflett which also contains links to download the MP3 for the song or the entire album in MP3 format.
If you have been reading the other posts I have made you will know that I stripped my oil pan due to a defective torque wrench. The lesson learned is to test the torque wrench prior to using it, had I done that I would not have caused myself all of this grief. I contacted Parkway Cycle and asked them how much a replacement oil pan costs. They told me that it was $173 and while I found it cheaper online for $143 I am still opting not to replace it but have it fixed “for now” and replace it in the future. One of my friends is going to weld a nut to the inside of the oil pan so that the bolt will have something to screw into. Now on to the repair process.
The first thing I had to do was remove all of the plastics which was pretty simple. There are only a handful of bolts that needed to be removed and a couple push pins. Once all the plastics were off I climbed onto the ground to see just what needed to be removed. First I thought I could get away with removing solely the muffler and leaving the exhaust manifold connected. I was wrong and it turned out the manifold was the most troublesome part of the entire process. The bolts were locked tight and I had to spray them real well with PB Blaster to get them to release. Once they were strayed down I removed the coupling on the exhaust pipe that held the muffler to the manifold pipes. I removed the rear muffler by removing 3 bolts and then twisting, turning and pulling. If finally came loose and then it was time to remove the manifold pipes.
I hate to even say those words but yes it is out of service at-least temporarily. I guess when it comes to learning lessons I have no choice but to learn the hard way. I wanted to start doing routine maintenance on my bike so that I could learn more about the machine so yesterday I started with an oil change. I made sure to make sure that I was doing everything properly and I first started with removing the oil drain plug and draining the old oil while the machine was still hot from my ride home from work. Once all of the oil was out I removed the oil filter and let that drain for a moment or two as well. I put the new filter on and was ready to add the fresh clean oil to the bike. I picked up my manual and checked what the torque settings were for the oil drain bolt and it stated 16.5 ft-lbs. I picked up my torque wrench that I bought from Amazon and set it to 15 ft-lbs and got started. First I tightened the bolt with my hand and then used the torque wrench. Before I could do anything on the first turn I felt the bolt get snug and then let loose. I knew this was trouble as soon as it happened and I even knew what happened because I had read about it happening online. I just stripped my oil pan.
Ever since I bought my motorcycle I have been looking for a good shop where I could buy my gear and have my bike serviced. I started out by looking at Parkway Cycle which is located in Everett, MA. The service was great there but the location was a bit difficult to get to. You always have to deal with a ton of traffic and VERY limited parking to go to this shop. I had been talking with the staff there and they seemed really knowledgeable and helpful. However when it came time to make the purchase I did not want to have to deal with the traffic to go buy my gear. I had also found Greater Boston Motorsports (also known as GBM) located in Arlington, MA which seemed to have ample parking and a lot less traffic to deal with. I talked with the staff there on my first visit and they seemed just as helpful and nice as at Parkway Cycle.
I am writing this post from my new N900 which was provided to me by my employer. I have been using the phone for the last few days. At first i was a it concerned that i was not going to like the device, i will explain why next. When i powered the device on the first thing i wanted to check out was the ovi store. When it opened in the browser the first thing i saw was a nice message about having to update to Maemo 5 before i could use the store. I tried a few times to run the update while at work but it was dead slow and the update process hung up on me a few times before it was successful.
On Monday I was browsing through the App Store on my lunch break and was a bit surprised when I stumbled across a game called Harbor Master. The surprising part hit me when I was looking at the details page in the store. The game play seemed very familiar and very much like that of Flight Control HD. The concept is the same as with Flight Control, you have to direct the boats to the proper docks based on the color of the cargo the boat is carrying. I must admit that both games are very addictive, I mean to the point where I find myself playing them whenever I get a chance because you know “I just have to beat my high score!”.
Though the game play is very similar at first (and I was surprised they are made by different companies) you will quickly see that Harbor Master while following the same concept takes it’s own direction with the game play. When you first start a game you will see an empty harbor which will quickly fill with boats (if you play on high speed like myself). Some of the boats are small speedboats carrying a small amount of cargo and some are rather large cargo ships. You will notice that the larger the ship and the more cargo it has aboard the slower it will go. When you have a large ship with a lot of cargo headed into port you will notice that it moves at a slower rate than after it unloads. The attention to small details like this is what makes Harbor Master a truly great game.
Another twist is that you will see tornado’s (I think that’s what they are) appear from time to time. Any ships that are set on course for a harbor that hits the tornado get spun around and loses all sense of direction. You will have to direct this ship back to a port trying to avoid the path of the tornado. This tends to make the game a bit more challenging especially when you have a lot of boats on the screen and more than one or two are hit by the tornado. Another great twist is that a ship can be carrying several different types of cargo. You will notice in the screen shots below that there are some ships carrying multiple types of cargo. First you have to dock the ship at one dock to unload that type of cargo and then head over to the other dock to finish the unloading process.
Early last week a co-worker noticed I had the iPad and had asked if I had tried out the Flight Control game. At first I thought it was some flight simulator and was not that interested however he told me that it is nothing like a simulator so I just had to try it out. I came back to my desk and bought the application which is priced at $4.99. Seeing a price like that for a game I did not think twice on whether or not I should buy it. It seemed cheap enough and it was a highly recommended game. Once it was downloaded I played one game and was instantly hooked on it. I have been playing it as much as possible in my down time and just love the game. The game play is very smooth and very engaging for the user, once you try it I am sure you will be hooked as well.
The game play seems very basic and at first look you wonder why people are raving over a game that seems so easy. After playing a few rounds I quickly noticed that it is not that easy of a game to play. Once you have several aircraft on the screen with some directed towards a runway and others not it becomes seemingly difficult to keep your attention on all of the planes to make sure there are no collisions at the runways or in transit. I did not notice until today that the game actually takes advantage of the multi-touch feature that the iPad offers. You can use multiple fingers to tap different planes and hold them all in the holding pattern while using other fingers to direct planes where you wish for them to go. This is a very nice feature but after trying it for the first time I have come to the conclusion that it will take some getting used to before you can master that trick.
I have heard people gripe about the price difference between the iPad and iPhone versions of this game when the only difference is a larger screen and higher resolution images. Personally I cannot complain at all because I do not have an iPhone and did not have to pay twice for the application. I also do not think that $4.99 is that much to pay for a game anyway. What are your thoughts on the pricing of this game?
If you have not seen lately I have been posting reviews if iPad applications on my site. So far I have reviewed Early Edition and Hangman RSS HD but I have many more on my list. If you are a developer and would like me to review your application get in touch with me. I will gladly add it to my list of applications to review.
