Rants n Reviews

Okay, so now that a federal judge has ruled unconstitutional Prop 8, the "gay marriage ban" voted into law by California voters, let the fun begin!

I can't wait for the idiots in downtown Pleasanton to be marching on the corner of Hopyard and Valley, holding up stupid signs about how the federal government usurped "states' rights AGAIN" or "Marriage is between a man and a woman" or some other such crap.

I personally don't care whether gay people can marry. I really don't even care if heterosexual people can marry (though I would find it very funny if two straight men got married just because they could).

What I do care about is equal rights and the Constitution. And since I'm not a judge or lawyer, I can't comment on whether the federal judge made the right interpretation of the 14th amendment. But I can tell you with certainty that until his ruling is overturned, it's LAW.

A federal judge today overturned California’s ban on gay marriage, saying the voter-approved initiative violates both the due-process and equal-protection clauses of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment.

As an aside, I heard today somebody who was a little miffed about the decision and he posited the question (prefaced by the concept that this ruling supported equal rights for all):

So do you support equal rights for the unborn?

Why, no, I don't. Why? They're not born. They have no rights. Sorry to sound insensitive, but they don't. Correct me, from a legal basis, if I'm wrong. (I know that the Supreme Court has a much more nuanced interpretation of this than I do.)

Secondly, that issue has been adjudicated already. Read Roe v. Wade. Abortion has been legal in the US for decades now.

What really puzzles me, however, is the fact that many pro-lifers are in favor of the death penalty. I know there is a difference between a murderer and a fetus – one committed a crime and the other isn't able to. So "eye for an eye" and all that.

But why don't murderers have equal protection under the law? If it's wrong to take another person's life, then how can we possibly justify taking of a person's life by the state?

You really can't have it both ways. You gotta come to the same conclusion on both, whether you come out in favor of "ending a life" or "saving a life."

I invite civil comments, please

Calif. gay marriage ban overturned; Yahoo! News tweets live from L.A. – Yahoo! News
gay marriage, gay marriage ban, gay marriage ban overturned, Prop 8 overturned

It’s not often that I need a cross-over Ethernet cable any more, since more networking gear has Auto-MDX on most ports, but every now and again I do need to dig out a cross-over cable. I usually can’t find one, and need to crimp a new one together, which I promptly lose when I’m done with it. If this happens to you, or if you happen to need an ATM cross-over cable or a T1 cable, you might be interested in the Universal Network Cable. Simply roll the selector wheel to the selected cabling standard and this cable becomes what you need: straight through, rolled, cross-over, and more. Brilliant.

It’s $30 at ThinkGeek, and $23 at Fry’s online. Get ‘em while they’re hot!

The Universal Network Cable is a universal network cable
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With all of the Antennagate hoopla since the release of the iPhone 4, you’d think that owners of the new phone are never able to complete a call normally. According to a recently published survey from ChangeWave Research, iPhone 4 owners are reporting fewer dropped calls than iPhone 3GS owners.

5.2% of iPhone 4 owners reported dropped calls during the month of July, while 6.3% of owners of the iPhone 3GS said they had experienced dropped calls in a June survey. The survey also noted that one in five iPhone 4 owners said that the antenna issue had caused them problems, but respondents also overwhelmingly felt that Apple’s solution (the free case / bumper giveaway) was acceptable.

The survey contained more fascinating information about the iPhone 4. While 72% of iPhone 4 owners are Very Satisfied with their phones and another 21% weigh in at Somewhat Satisfied, those numbers are lower than what ChangeWave saw for the iPhone 3GS in August of 2009. At that time, 82% of iPhone 3GS owners were Very Satisfied, and 17% were Somewhat Satisfied. ChangeWave believes the tidal wave of negative publicity around the release of the iPhone 4 may be the cause of the lower numbers for the new phone.

Even more fascinating were the results of a survey question asking "What do you dislike the most about your iPhone 4?" While the same question about the iPhone 3GS last year found 41% of respondents griping about the short battery life, a huge number of iPhone 4 owners find AT&T to be the worst thing about the phone. 27% found the requirement to use AT&T's network to be their top complaint, while 24% found the coverage, speed, and quality of the AT&T network to be their top beef.

ChangeWave thinks that now that the wave of negative publicity about the iPhone 4 has passed, the phone may eventually surpass the customer satisfaction figures of the iPhone 3GS.

[via AppleInsider]

TUAWReport: iPhone 4 owners report fewer dropped calls than iPhone 3GS originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 04 Aug 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: iPhone 4 owners report fewer dropped calls than iPhone 3GS
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In what seems to be a bit of a time warp, a number of sites are reporting on the ability of Apple’s MobileMe iDisk application for iOS devices to stream music from a user’s iDisk, including support for background audio via multitasking. The …
‘MobileMe iDisk’ Music Streaming Functionality Gaining Renewed Attention
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I remember when I was 16 and I first started driving, I would sit there at the gas station pumping my gas holding the pump the entire time thinking about how annoying it was.

Then one day I saw some guy put the nozzle in and walk away from the pump.  I was dumbfounded!  It was that day I realized that most gas nozzles have a little metal piece underneath you can flip down so you don't have to hold the pump while you fill your car.

But I learned a bigger lesson: Sometimes in life there are things you don't realize you don't know.

Knowing the meaning of "riding bareback" is not one of those things.  What an idiot.

[via The Bilerico Project]

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Best To Keep Your Learning Experiences Off Twitter
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