Mike's Daily Lockup

That Myth is Busted...

This was so good that I just had to post it to my blog.

[credit goes to Wil Wheaton]

From the set of Pirates of the Caribbean (in Hawaii)

The Black Pearl

Blog posted here.

Ortiz Splash hit Home Run - He won the Derby.

Ortiz hits one to the fountain in center field. This is from the 2010 Home Run Derby at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

Home Plate

All ready for the All-Star Game

Blog posted here.

My first movie made in iMovie for iPhone 4 - Go USA!

So after waiting in a 13.5 hour line for an iPhone 4 down in Irvine (I have to give a shout out to Scott and the Geniuses at the Apple Store), I have to say I have been blown away by what the new iPhone can do. I don't really consider my self an Apple "fanboy," I still run Windows for work (and also Linux when you really have to dig in), but I had to say the chance to stand in line on launch day was actually fun. You may be saying in your head, this guy is nuts (Trust me, I get that alot even outside of standing in line for 13.5 hours), but I could not have been in line with a better group of people. One guy flew in from New York, another was from Arizona, a group in front was from the video game company Blizzard, a family from England, and a flight attendant. While some in line dropped off due to waiting too long or having appointments, we kept encouraging each other to stick it out, we may have moved mere inches at one point for two or three hours, but we all stood firm. When a fight nearly broke out in the afternoon we all wanted to tweet it or blog it. After getting sunburned again for the umpteenth time this year, I really need to move to Seattle, I'm starting to get one heck of a tan.

We joked we all could have gone to happy hour over at Yard House and still get back in time to wait some more in line. But when we finally made it in, the bar we all sat down at was the Genius Bar. We were all sunburned and tired, but we all gave high-fives and fist bumps in celebration when we got our new iPhones. I just have to say while it was great to make new friends, I've done the line waiting (previous record for me in line was waiting for Indiana Jones at Disneyland on opening day - 6.5 Hours) but I'll never do it again, the next time I make new friends, it'll be with a beer at an actual bar.

The video above was made entirely on my iphone, since this is just a demo I only used some pictures, (I hope to add some video footage from the USA v. Algeria game from the ESPN Zone and footage from the where I watch it on Saturday)

The tie with England was USA Soccer's "Moon Shot."

Yeah, we tied, but for most people paying attention to the World Cup the tie on Saturday was our "Moon Shot." The one point that marked the USA's attempt to stand tall with the soccer giants of the world (I know, it's Football for you non-Americans).

 
And to David Beckham, yes, that goal did happen...

(Before I start getting the comments and e-mails, yes the photo has been photoshopped, and here is the original source: http://iammattjordan.tumblr.com/post/691370396 )

Sam the Eagle's Tribute to Memorial Day

"A stirring mix of music from all the nations of the world, but mainly the United States of America..."

It Came From Inside the House!

 
From XKCD.com

Why you will never see the Facebook "like" button on The MDLU

Most blogs start out as hobbies, they act as a place for a person to deliver their musings and ideas to the world. In most cases people leave comments or link to your posts if they agree (or disagree) with you. The MDLU has been to me nothing but a hobby, a place for me to post pictures, discuss technology, law, or criminal justice issues, or basically just give my two cents on the world around us.

When social media made it big, we all rushed to try the latest and greatest in online networking. Some flocked to MySpace, some flocked to friendster, and others went to facebook. Yes, some went to twitter (but it came along later). Facebook served as a place where family and friends could share information and not fear as if their information was going to be "released in the wild." The privacy settings in the beginning were pretty solid. But as the need for Facebook to make money grew, the users privacy slowly eroded.

During the first facebook privacy change my friends (including myself) rushed to update our settings. However in the process we lost the tough security for the new "improved" security (notice, improved is in quotes. Yes, you can add your own air quotation marks). I spent hours going through the settings again just to make sure they were close to what I had. Just when we think it's safe to get back into the water, Facebook thinks it is a good idea to share what are friends are reading on the websites that we visit. There have been plenty of times while visiting CNN, Huffington Post, and Pandora where my friends have been staring back at me when all I want to do is just read the news or listen to music for the day. If I want to see what my friends are reading I'll have them tell me or e-mail it to me. 

Facebook keeps pushing the privacy line to the very edge. Just recently if you had a filled out profile, your jobs, schools, and interest were changed from links to pages, with the information from those pages now clogging up your newsfeed (with your friends being updated on what schools you've added to your profile). I have yet to see this change occur on my page, but I have noticed it on the profiles of others.

If staying on top of the privacy game is a challenge for a tech savvy guy like me, I'm afraid for the millions of users who lack even the basic knowledge of the Facebook privacy settings. It is due to the fact that Facebook does not notify its users of the pending changes or allow users the option to retain their old privacy settings that I will not add the "Like" button to the posts here on The MDLU. If you want to like my post do it inside whatever remains of the walled garden that is Facbook, but you'll never see the button here.

Anaheim Angels Baseball - Matsui at Bat

I finally got around to uploading this from the Anaheim Angels v. Minnesota game at Angel Stadium in Anaheim. Yup, That's Matsui in a Halos uniform...