Pushing code to the phone, FTW! I managed to throw together a quick Hello World using the Android SDK, configure a FroYo emulator, and drop the code to my Droid 2. Not a bad little Saturday, really. Screen shot from the emulator… Webcam snap of code on phone… So it begins. Stay tuned for snippets.

Did you know that Mariah Carey has a ONE BILLION DOLLAR insurance policy ON HER LEGS? Sorry to do the all-caps shout thing, but that is pretty weird to me. Mimi is not alone here…there are all sorts of celebrities with huge policies on weird things. Today, we are talking insurance. Buckle up. Becks is out there too. David Beckham has a seventy million dollar policy on his legs and feet. Makes you wonder what exactly those soccer players are worth. Have you ever heard of America Ferrera? I sure hadn’t, until I read that she has a ten million dollar policy on her teeth. I’m going to say that one is a little unnecessary. Angelina Jolie? You guessed it…insured body for one billion, cash. I don’t know about the cash thing, but it sure sounded good. Better than The Boss in the 1980s. Speaking of The Boss, Springsteen has a seven million dollar policy on that raspy voice of his. How about that… Where did I read about this, you ask? I stumbled across a site with this info on it while looking for an online insurance quote. Not only did freeinsurancequotes have the car insurance quote I was looking for, but they had an article about the celebrity policies. They also had home insurance and life insurance info. Pretty slick…check it out. In the mean time, I’ll be looking into getting my bloggin’ fingers insured. What do you think they are worth? I’d bet hundreds.

Tech writers are the best. I most certainly don’t read the stuff that hits news aggregates because of informative banter and notable content, I read it for comic value. Well… comic value and insight into human nature. Most notably: laziness It seems to me that the easiest way to get published is to talk about a i* killer. Replace the wildcard with either “pod” “pad” or “phone”… …and write a half-assed article about a new product. Guaranteed Google, MSN, Yahoo, Drudge, or whoever else will have that bad boy on the front page. Protip: Next time you are charged with the task of covering a new Samsung product’s press release, save some time and just go with “End of Apple???” and be done with it. The whole killer angle was spent several years ago…when we nerds were buying Sandisk players, loading Ubuntu on netbooks, and making wild guesses on forums what RIM was going to do with the next generation of BB phones. Oh….the good old days. FWIW, I’ll put a Droid X up against all three of those products. For the price point, nothing can touch that machine…my Droid 2 included.

In the spirit of the season, I’d feeling merry. Promo code merry. I hope your season is filled with awesome technology, and I hope you take a tip out of my tech tip-book and use a NewEgg promo code for maximum FTW. I have a sickness. I can’t get Angry Birds out of my head. Even trying to plug NewEgg, I’m thinking about the egg-shooting Angry Bird… I used my artistic license to color that bird. Only an amateur would think that a blue Angry Bird would drop exploding eggs. Of course, the white Angry Bird is the egg dropper, and the blue Angry Bird is the shotgun-spray, ice attacker. Good stuff. What can I say about NewEgg that won’t be common knowledge? Promo codes. Savings.com is my first stop before I hit NewEgg… right now, they have a code up that saves between ten and fifty percent. Not too bad, for thirty seconds of work. They usually have a variety of codes up…pretty awesome. I’m still looking into TVs, hard. I have it hammered down to between 42 and 55 inches, and am leaning towards a 46 or 47…like this guy from NewEgg $700 for a Samsung 46" 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV…even the low end of that promo code range puts you in that tele for $630…probably under $600. Makes it hard to pass up. Anyhow, take a look. Tablet PCs, memory, you name it. NewEgg / Savings.com…do it. I’ll be playing Angry Birds, FWIW.

I don’t pull punches when it comes to my love / hate relationship with Google. Google may be Big Brother-esque, when it comes to the wi-fi sniffing and general evil empire building. They too are the same company who dropped Android on us, so for that I am thankful. Similarly, the Chrome browser is a “love”, but Chromium is most definitely in the “hate” catagory. As a publisher network conneseur, I can say that I am glad to announce that AdWords may have a competitor. And that, friends, is breaking news. MS Paint inducing breaking news. AdSense and AdWords are no friends of mine. Here is the basis of my stance. I had swantron.com living as a parked domain for a number of months after re-branding my old site. When I switched it to my primary domain, even though I had a redirect in place, I was flagged for illegial click activity. My appeal was made to deaf ears, though my point was valid. Regardless, I’m proud to say that Google AdWords, Meet Your Competition: Clickbook CPC. The most interesting aspect of Clickbook is that the cpc network has its sites set on Google Ad* from the start. Pay attention to some of the “big” sites…look for the Clickbook reminders. You may see some exposure via CNN / ESPN, because they have made the switch. I’m excited. I haven’t had much luck with any Ad* alternatives yet, so I’m the target publisher. Maybe I’ll be rolling in the pay per click loot before we know it.

Thanks for the Christmas caledar card, work. Nice, but I can make it better… BETTER NOW! Happy Holidays

A: Too cold for the Trail-90 Actually, number one might be “too cold for time in my ’lab.’” I need to get a box heater cranking out there and get to work. My soldering iron is collecting dust, as are my C++ haxx0r sk1lz. Winter can blow me.

Another comic by Drew that made me spit crap on my notebook…Married to the Sea is one of the best things on the webs.

srsly gyz… Arduinos, Air-Soft pistols, robot kits, Droids, and soldering irons. Seriously…I need some goddamn free time. Maybe this weekend…

Picture this. Winter. Montana. East of the Continental Divide…let’s say…about thirty miles. Windy. Cold as balls. You are in Bozeman. You need a North Face Jacket. Trust me. I’m not much of a coat guy. I can’t stand swaddling up in a big puffy coat. While great for getting too the vehicle, the puffiness is not very practical once in said vehicle. You could sit there looking and feeling like the Sta-Puff Man, or you could opt for a fleece. Like this guy…I am a fan of the North Face Denali. Even creepy robot lady looks stylish in the Denali… I can’t really put my finger on that one. Sort of creepy, yet sort of tantalizing. Pure weird. Enough about that, though. Vehicle and robo-ladies aside, let’s talk about the Denali Jacket. I like North Face products in general, because they are actually made well. Quality craftsmanship is hard to come by. Check out robo-lady’s jacket…I sort of dig the vertical and horizontal pockets. Those shoulders are reinforced…cuffs are elastic bound…cinch on the bottom hem. It is sort of in the details, and the Denali pays attention to them. Fleeces are perfect for layering, so you really can’t go wrong with this jacket. Don’t take robo-lady’s creepy word for it…hit one of those links to find out more.