Digital Meanderings
Meanderings of a coder

“Citing the safety of the children as its top priority, Kansas City, Kan., Public Schools (KCKPS) outfitted its 157 buses with Motorola i265 GPS handsets.”
“We’ll be able to follow our loved ones via computer screen as they walk around the block or drive to work. Invasive? Maybe.”

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“I believe that the arrival of the iPhone is the best thing to have happened in the smartphone space … Apple has now completely validated the smartphone as the “phone of the future” and brought it to the attention of hundreds of millions worldwide who will now be more curious to learn about the iPhone and also other smartphones such as our Treo.”

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Today Google announced a new version Google Apps named Google Apps Premier Edition. Although I subscribe to the regular version currently I may switch to the Premier Edition since I now run a business.

My experience with Google Apps has been extremely positive. I love being able to separate my personal life from my business life while still using the Google’s great tools. While GMail is my favorite feature the other features are nothing to sneer at.

From a business perspective Google Apps just makes sense, especially if you run a small business. For email you used to register a domain, buy hosting, setup a mail server and bought/downloaded an email client. This was such a hassle, at least I always thought so. I want to spend my time performing tasks that make me money, not System Admin tasks that don’t. And that was for email, but what about other office tasks such as documents and spreadsheets?

For other office tasks, Google Docs is a nice solution although I don’t feel that it is truly ready for the enterprise yet. Don’t get me wrong, Google Docs is great for simple documents and spreadsheets but it does have its problems, all of which have been noted numerous times around the Internet. But when it comes to document sharing, Google does a great job! I’ve used it for a project (Shasradio) I’ve been working on and I plan on using for my consulting business.

Overall Google Apps is another great product from Google. I just have one piece of advice - remember to backup all of your information! Although Google promises a 99.9% uptime guarantee I don’t see any mention of a data guarantee.

Google Apps Premier Edition costs $50/year/user and provides a host of features, including an API. This has not been a paid advertisement, I just want to spread the Google Love.

With the release of the Neo1973 from NIC and the iPhone from Apple I start to wonder - why are there no interesting CDMA phones? Where I live CDMA providers such as Sprint and Verizon reign while GSM service is completely unreliable. So why no love for CDMA?

As for the iPhone I think the choice of GSM overe CDMA was purely a business move since Verzion rejected it. But what about the others?

I am not an EE expert but I think that creating a CDMA version of a phone would not be such a hard task. Are there licensing costs for CDMA that make GSM the cheaper solution? Does GSM have more market penetration? I don’t know, I should probably do the research.

What are your thoughts on the matter? Comments are open, so please let me know!

“This concept is an iPod dock that is actually part of a car stereo. The tape deck was modified to hold an ipod and dock it at the same time while letting your beats hit the stereo.”

In my opinion, this thoroughly rocks. I think the creator needs to write an article for MAKE magazine!

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Tonight is snowy in Sioux Falls and I’m a little bored. So I decided to write about some of my favorite podcasts.

• Geek Brief. A gadget oriented show by Cali Lewis and her husband Neil. Cali has a great personality and she’s great looking. Gadgets and a sweet, beautiful girl - what more could you want from a podcast? (Video).
• Mobuzz. A technology oriented show hosted by Karina Stenquist. She is another beautiful host, and she’s extremely intelligent. Her on-air banter is fantastic! (Video).
• This Week in Tech (TWIT). Another technology related show. The original cast is made up of the bastard children of TechTV, most notably Leo Laporte. Another regular on the show is John C. Dvorak. (Audio).
• FitPod. This an exercise related podcast that contains great music for getting you pumped up and keeping you going strong throughout your workout. Make sure you download “Fit&Run.” (Audio).

If you have a favorite podcast, email it to me at: zechariahs+podcast@gmail.com.

Read it and weep

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So, after watching the iPhone announcement
—the gadget we’ve all been jonesing for—what’s the first thing we all do? That’s right, figure out all the things that are wrong with it and why it’s not going to be the “killer app” for Apple.It happened to the iPod, why not the iPhone…

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As I’ve mentioned many times on my blog, I’m moving to South Dakota and I’m starting a new job. One of the interesting things about this move is the fact that my current company wants to keep me on as a part time consultant! I’ve always liked the idea of consulting but I’ve never been in the financial position to live the life. Thankfully with a part time gig I will be able to do it. Working as a consultant has one hangup - taxes.

A consultant is self-employed so they have to take care of their own taxes. This often means filing quarterly taxes, along with a payment. Consultants also have to pay extra taxes to make up for the taxes that are normally paid by the employer.

I’ve never liked filing my taxes. Thankfully since I’m single and I don’t play the stock market I’ve always filed the 1040-EZ. Now, as a consultant, my taxes will get more complicated. So I’ve been looking into a book keeping service. I’ve been thinking about Quickbooks but the software alone only takes me so far. I still like the idea of having a professional looking over my work and doing the actual filing. Enter payroll and bookkeeping services from Accounting Paradise.

With Accounting Paradise you sign up for an online Quickbooks account and fill in the required information. For a monthly fee (starting at $10/mo) they will prepare the necessary forms and help you file them. To see more how this works check out their “Working Together” page.

This post brought to you by the payroll and bookkeeping services from Accounting Paradise.

CNN is running an articled titled Low pay threatens judiciary, Roberts warns. The whole gist of article is that John Roberts, Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, says that the low salaries given to federal judges will allow only the rich to serve. Sounds like a valid argument until you read the what these judges get paid:

• Federal district court judges - $165,200
• Appeals court judges - $175,100
• Associate justices of the Supreme Court - $203,000
• Chief justice of the Supreme Court - $212,100

I understand that people in the private sector make gobs more but is a yearly salary of over $100,000 USD something to complain about? According to GlobalRichList.com making $165,200 a year puts you in the top .23% of the richest people in the world! If you are a married Federal district court judge making $165,200.00 a year and you jointly file your taxes you would pay $64,564.80* in federal income tax and net $100,635.20. This still puts you in top .64% of the richest people in the world!

I would love to understand why Roberts is quoted as saying that this problem “has now reached the level of a constitutional crisis.” Protecting and shaping this country’s legal system should be a privilege that is valued more than wages.

Roberts is also quoted as saying “Inadequate compensation directly threatens the viability of life tenure, and if tenure in office is made uncertain, the strength and independence judges need to uphold the rule of law — even when it is unpopular to do so — will be seriously eroded.” I think the more serious threat is the greed that shown by these judges. As I’ve proven previously their salaries are great. I realize DC is expensive but a net pay of $100,635.20 will most certainly provide for a comfortable life.

What are your feelings on the matter? Feel free to post a comment.

*Federal income tax is based on the 2006 Federal Tax Schedule.