me? I’m starting to investigate with some thinking the Democrats might have it more than half right.

evidently, from a Biblical perspective we aren’t supposed to EVER turn our collective backs on widows, fatherless children and strangers.

so, France really has it right. that said, don’t be too concerned.

I have a lot of research to do. but, this line of thinking has curtailed my blogging for a spell (until this evening).

meanwhile, I think Google might be right as well. more on that later. I’m looking at my Nexus 4 I’m unclear why anyone cares about the Samsung S4. the Nexus 4 is the perfect Android device. I like it better than my iPhone. that said the iPhone 6 is bad-ass. but, look… the competition is great for the rest of us (just diversify your stock portfolio).

If it were miraculously available to him, I think Thomas Jefferson would have used the Nexus 4. and, he would have approved of the way Larry Page has grown into a skilled leader with a genuine vision that can lead us. HINT: this has a lot to do with a Ministry called Faith Comes By Hearing that I bet Page is unaware of, at the moment.

in any event, Jefferson John Adams and Ben Franklin honed a lot of political skill and then clout be serving as diplomats at one-point-or-another in France. Jefferson’s duties in France involved the negotiation of commercial treaties with several European powers. fortunately, he was not alone in this difficult task, having been preceded by elder statesmen Adams and Franklin.

all of this is tied together. seriously. stay tuned. but, we might know for certain in roughly eight years. now I need to find three hundred and fifty million dollars.

peace be to my Brothers and Sisters.

brian patrick cork

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so… the house I just moved my family into MIGHT be worth $700k. But, I would never pay that much, for anything.

I can’t even get my head around $100M and the sort of person that might care about such things. if I had that much spare cash there would not be a kid in school without reading glasses or shoes.

peace be to my Brothers and Sisters.

brian patrick cork

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“When love is suppressed, hate takes it’s place” – Havelock Ellis

in any event, once you start rolling the above quote through you head, you will begin to come up with countless example.

peace be to my Brothers and Sisters.

brian patrick cork

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I’m not bored. however, I am very sore from moving boxes all day (we just moved again).

“people who like Apple products are often referred to in a dismissive way as “fan boys”. I might prefer “discerning”. but, I won’t take any of it personally. I just like well made products with style.

all that said, what do people who call Apple evangelists “fanboys” call people who are followers of Google, Ubuntu, or Windows? or, Samsung, for that matter?”

A few years back Nicholas Johnson called me an Apple fanboy. that was the first time I had ever heard the term. if memory serves, he was taken aback a bit that I seemed unaware of the term and its meaning. he said that while standing in my doorway trying to convince me how awesome Google was in every conceivable way. this was after I gave him a Windows laptop and challenged him to figure out a way to put Apple’s iOS on it. he did, and was seemingly very proud of the effort. I still don’t know if that was done through a simple download or really tweaking drivers. so, I bought him one of the original Google Nexus One phones. he was very proud of it and liked to show me magic tricks it could do. today, I am using a Nexus 4, and I really like it. possibly better that my iPhone 5.8. mind you… it’s great because it’s very “Apple-like” because it’s stripped of all the subsidized bull-shit manufacturers like Samsung slap onto (overlay) their Android devices. …and, I’m telling you this on my Macbook Pro 13″ with retina display because blogging on my Nexus 7 or iPad is still uncomfortable.

the Urban Dictionary says this:

Apple Fanboy

1. A person who believes in almost anything that apple says and gives into it’s marketing strategy. 2. A prime target for apple marketers to impose their superfluously costing products to. 3. A person who honestly believes that Windows XP or Vista is Archaic, Inferior, Does Not Work, or just plain ripped off ideas from the Mac OS. 4. One who waits in line for days in some instances, for Apple keynote speeches. 5. One who believes adding an “i” prefix to anything is automatically superior to anything that does not have an “i” in front of it.

Most apple fanboys will possess three or more of the following:

iPod, iPhone, Macbook, iMac, Mac Pro, 3 or more Apple Connector Cables, A membership at Macheist.com.

they forgot the Apple iTV. I have two of those as well, and subscribe to Mac Addict and MacLife. 

and, this:

A single-layered thinking drone originally thought to exist in only small numbers. To help them assimilate into the real world, a computer with only simple functions so that the drones don’t get confused was created. Eventually, more products were produced after it was discovered that the number or drones are in the millions. While scientists have been unable to find ways to increase brain performance in this species, a corporation named “Apple” has had financial success in at least convincing that the drone specimen is vastly superior to that of everything else.

A specimen of “Apple fanboy” of this species will act partially retarded.

and, also this:

A person who fits at least one of the following: 1. only knows how to use a Mac and cannot handle a PC, gets very frustrated using one. 2. thinks that Macs’ hardware are much better (although statistically their failure rates are not that different from other laptops). 3. over exaggerate his/her passion for Mac products. e.g. I *need* an iPad to read my newspaper and magazines. 4. uses Apple as a status symbol. 5. buys a new Mac product without knowing the prominent features. e.g. GPS and FaceTime in iPhone 4. 6. thinks he/she is technologically savvy but actually knows very little about technology e.g. does not know the difference between 3G and EDGE, 3G versus Wi-fi. 7. Owns many Mac products and is very proud of it. 8. Feels entitled to get a new Mac product on launch day and get unreasonably angry when failing to do so. 9. Has absolutely no idea what open source is. 10. Thinks that the new features that Apple introduces are ground-breaking even though they had been available for years. e.g. 3G, multitasking. 11. When their Apple products fail instead of admitting that Macs can fail sometimes just like PCs, focus on how amazing the experience of getting it replaced at the Genius Bar. 12. Although Macs are better than a PC in some areas (and vice versa), does not know any of the evidences; just *think* that Macs are better. 13. Feels special and cool to own a Mac product although it is no longer a cult to own a Mac product, unlike 10 years ago.

but, don’t forget this:

Someone who bows before an apple shrine 2 times a day (sunrise and sunset). Usually ignorant and having a go at Microsoft and Google nerds.

my goodness… people who evidently think very highly of other company’s products certainly take a dim view of people who like Apple products. I need to come up with a word that rhymes with hypocrisy and blog about it.

I’ve been an Apple evangelist since 1985. today, I like any company that pushes others to innovate to our collective benefit.

by the way… this is funny (at least mildly entertaining)… I Googled, “what is an Apple Fan Boy”. I got some interesting bits-and pieces, including the following Youtube video. but, what actually funny is the advertisement that precedes the video is for a Google Nexus 7 – which I have and love, as everyone that reads this blog is fully aware.

peace be to my Brothers and Sisters.

brian patrick cork

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I’m trying something a bit different and unusual for myself, today.

…actually I do unusual things almost daily. however, in this case I am absolutely focused on a vital mission. perhaps the unusual part is the effort means helping Android, kind of.

did you even know there is an “Android” website that is separate from Google?

in any event, as most of you know I am an tried-and-true Apple evangelist, but also diligent about keeping an open-mind and heart around technology. this includes mobile devices, and technology in general.

my current efforts entail the setting aside of my trusted and always reliable iPhone 5.8 and making a go of the Nexus 4.

of course, I was amongst the first to try the Nexus One. It was interesting, but too much work to maintain my standards around efficiency.

Since then I’ve experimented with several other Android device’s to include the Samsung Note and recently the Samsung Galaxy S4. The GS4 just pissed me off because it remains complicated. email is a chore for Gods’ sake. I’ve seen Android phones get better and more powerful over the years, as Google and phone manufacturers pack devices with more and more features.

because Google lets device makers customize Android to suit their needs, Samsung, LG, and others have been adding their own distinguishing features. however, there comes a time when less is more. I’m convinced we’ve reached that time. so, the differentiator comes down to utilization, functionality, simplicity, and possibly elegance.

as much as Apple can be criticized for exerting control over what goes on its iPhones, it wins on simplicity. there are no competing agendas — just Apple’s.

however, I maintained my commitment to being open-minded and got my hands on the Nexus 4. I love it. as least as much as any reasonable human bean can genuinely love a soulless piece of equipment. but, this mobile device is inspired. while this blog post is not meant to be a review – that is forthcoming – the stage was set for my on-going investigation around utilization that has generated adventures, if not hijinks. the Android operating system the Nexus 4 runs is excellent. in recent years the Google-made system has become a healthy competitor to Apple’s iOS system for iPhones.

and, that’s the source and thusly, the standard set-forth of the problem. most Android devices are over-packed with bags of tricks. phones, in general, have become way too complicated for many people to use. in some cases it’s because these custom features work only some of the time. in other cases, you’re confronted with too many ways to do similar things. or, quality control is not a priority, and they don’t play nice with the outside at all.

all of this brings me to my point.

Apple innovated visual voicemail. other companies perfected it. but, Apple remains the standard for simplicity and elegance. however, I wanted a bit more customization, so I researched and went with youmail. it was easy to set-up on an iPhone. I don’t know about phones in general, but, the hearty list of manufacturers (i.e. Apple, Samsung), Operating System (iOS and Android), and service provider (AT&T, Sprint, etc) are comprehensive. in any event, it just works great and I have been content with all of it for roughly four years now.

however, after firing-up my Nexus 4 on AT&T (that was simple and accomplished at the local AT&T Store), I downloaded the youmail App from Google’s ever-more-robust Play Store and tried to set that up. typically this means accessing the phone interface, entering a simple code, *004*3478966996#, and you are good to go. voice messages are routed from AT&T (in my case) to youmail. it has some cool custom features that serve well both personally and professionally that include emails sent to me that allow me to listen to my voice messages in almost any manner that I see fit.

however, all of this failed me with the Nexus 4 in-hand. After repeated attempts I was left with a discouraging error code that haplessly read, “call forwarding connection problem or invalid MMI code”.

believe it or not there is almost nothing about this dilemma recorded by Nexus 4 or youmail users once “googled”, “binged”, or “yahood”. so, I accessed the youmail trouble forum. but, still found nothing. I was, however, encouraged to upgrade my service to a more premium plan. I was skeptical about that, and began to match it with some growing frustration. I initiated a trouble-ticket and “Irish”, a youmail customer service engineer began a ponderous and pointless exchange with me that included instructing AT&T to manually change some settings under call forwarding. NOTE: as it turns out “Irish” can be found on several forums dismissing issues relative to youmail complaints. so, my contact with AT&T and my experiential journey involved two ominous terms – “conditional” and “unconditional” call forwarding. evidently, carrier voice mail is forwarded to youmail through the “conditional” protocol. so, while working with no less than three AT&T customer service representative, and also four technical support people, that was ultimately escalated to a tier-two representative (whom was ironically the least helpful and knowledgable, for that matter), it became clear that no one knew how to solve the problem.

have you ever had the feeling you were the first and only person to have a technical issue when you sought help from customer and/ or technical support?

for the record, I also called LG’s customer service. they manufacture the Nexus 4. a decidedly desultory fellow with a Mexican accent (that was a first for me) came on the line and fumbled around a bit (he could not understand ME). he tried to ask a few questions but lost interest (I kept hearing, “we don’t need no stinking customer services for you, here” in my head) and ended the call with LG taking the position of, “does not support third-party Apps”.

in our socially networked world, should not everyone actually try to work with third-party apps and operating systems? I am now going to try and pull together some engineers that can create a ubiquitous platform. just watch me.

so… at the moment I don’t know if youmail is a problem specifically for or related to Android devices, LG devices, AT&T as a carrier, or just the Nexus 4. I don’t know if the Nexus 4 being unlocked, unbranded, and unsubsidized by a carrier are issues, either. but, all of that might be relevant.

however, I now have the work-around answer for the Nexus 4, AT&T and youmail. I came across an exchange between yet another foreign dude (his avatar picture made him appear like a technical rep with ear phones, and all), that I decided was some foreign exchange student and “Irish”. he had apparently upgraded from an 8gb Nexus 4 to an 16 gb Nexus 4 and youmail was giving him fits (I’m going to speculate, here, that some software changes between the LG manufactured models were the most likely culprit). now… for me that just clouds the issue. however, the not-so-easy solution was evidently to simply access the Nexus 4 settings interface and update call forwarding manually with part of the aforementioned code. how Irish managed to be forgetful of all this during our own exchanges just blows me away. but, the simple fact that even AT&T reps don’t have access to historical and relevant trouble-shotting history, also astounds me. all they will say is, “the Nexus 4 is not supported by AT&T”.

in this case, we have an example of how Chuck Carey’s Collaborate would be VERY useful.

so, I suspect that answers the subsidization issue question.

as I finally wrap all of this up, I sent “Irish” an email attached to my growing trouble ticket with its ever-more cold solution and response trail with the following information:

“You might want to update your forums and FAQs.

I called AT&T again and had them manually update my call forwarding, “busy”, “uninsured”, and “unavailable” with the +13478966996 number.

youmail now appears to work. at least for the moment.

The mystery remains why this is not accomplished by the usual and simpler method of entering *004*3478966996# into your phone and simply hitting “call”. in any event, is this related to Android, LG, and/ or unlocked phones? are you even going to respond to me? or, do I need to upgrade to a premium service just to confirm what I did on my own?

I can’t believe youmail was unable to address all of this with more adeptness unless you are trying to push people to upgrade to the more expensive service. I’ll relate all of this on my blog today for the sake of posterity.”

now you all know what I know (not real… I am way ahead, and with a comfortable margin. but, at least I’m willing to share – and, possibly give you, collectively, a benefit of a doubt).

I do however, suspect that the elusive and shadowily pipe-smoking dog that probably leads the shadowy organization ultimately known as “they” are likely involved.

peace be to my Brothers and Sisters.

brian patrick cork

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I don’t care if they re actually appropriate for running, anywhere.

I’ve already ordered two pair! the blue and the red (ish).

they have got to be awesome with Lacrosse shorts.

Reebok reveals an ambitious new shoe with the help of UFC star Rampage Jackson.

he’s funny.

this shoe evidently derives its name and inspiration from an All Terrain Vehicle. …duh.

the ATV 19+ features 19 irregular lugs, rugged overlays, a padded tongue, and supportive collar. these elements are designed to enable unhindered training in mud, snow, grass and sand. I absolutely plan to test them out realtime. oddly, I’m curious to see how their unique characteristics play-out on the Lacrosse field. probably badly. while the runner certainly takes its name and its function very seriously, Reebok will certainly have its work cut out for itself in order to sway athletes who are increasingly indecisive about whether less is more or more is more in terms of their runners.

but, I DONT CARE. they are wicked-cool, especially if you like crazy shit; and, I do.

I’m already in hot-water with Nike for sporting Montrails and Warrior kicks. for perspective consider:

Brian Cork Injures Achilles Tendon, Extreme Sporting World Draws Collective Breath

peace be to my Brothers and Sisters.

brian patrick cork

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this is just bull-shit. tomfoolery.

Apple was pushed down in an manipulative manner. now, the same people realize they have made a huge blunder that never accounted for panic and access to fast negative trading in the form of “program” triggers that had more criteria developed into them than most analysts are aware of.

this means that you had traders, analysts and fund managers at cross-purposes. The stock fundamentally does not belong at its current level. but, now they understand they could harm the entire market much like a virus.

a vital clue is what has happened with gold and oil. that means there is growing unease with fundamentals.

Its all rather fascinating, really. Just unfortunate.

If Apple Breaks $419, the Stock Market Will Break - the street.com“How Apple goes will have a strong bearing on which way the stock market moves.”

peace be to my Brothers and Sisters.

brian patrick cork

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here’s a provocative statement that won’t make sense until you read the entirety of this effort. so read on:

Google either doesn’t fully understand the situation or has trouble using the Nexus program to build clout for Android.

so… here is the punchline in advance…

as an Apple shareholder, I want Google, Android, Samsung – the whole motley lot of them to succeed in wild fashion. innovation creates success for everyone, the most hearty, in particular. that innovation and subsequent change is what creates opportunity for growth and improvement for the bold.

with that; all of that, with its implications, in-mind, ponder the following. do it! invest your time, passion, and money, accordingly.

Brian Patrick Cork: I dunno… 6.3 is pretty big to offer ease of use.

Gianna Messina: They have some of the WORST reviews online bar none.

 

…whoa…

in any event, I thought the Samsung S4 (NOT pictured below) had promise but remained a bit awkward compared to the iPhone. texting is still wonky, for Gods sake. I still don’t understand why people are so smitten with the Galaxy S III. it’s a known battery hog, an eye sore (what was Samsung thinking when it mucked up Android this badly?) and a glitch bomb (ranging from missed text and calendar notifications to wonky headphone and Bluetooth connectivity). to top it off, it behaves jerkily, despite its 1.5GHz processor.

what can possibly be exciting about a hand-held device, other than what you use it for? it’s a genuinely esoteric questions.

what matters?

I believe the difference will come down to bio-morphics and voice recognition. then size won’t matter unless you want to vChat or watch a video.

I have a Nexus 7 that I like better than my iPad(s). so, it’s not that I’m pushing any particular platform, today.

in fact, we are continuing to test Android devices. the phone I’m most taken with at the moment isn’t the iPhone 5 (although I just picked-up Haley Anne another iP5) no, it’s the (re-imagined)  Nexus 4 – a collaboration of Google and LG, representing the pinnacle of Android hardware and software (Jelly Bean 4.2). it runs smooth as butter, with a vibrant screen that is second to none. when I first picked one up I kept thinking “perfect” – providing I can truly customize certain Apps like simple texting. okay…  I’ve set it up: impressive hardware, best Android software ever, definitely a threat to the iPhone (the 5, but not the 6) … except.

…brief intermission…

NOTE: I was among the first to buy two Nexus One phones when Google first released them almost exactly three years ago this month. I can prove it. go read, selfless acts of Commerce. I actually acquired them because they were part of history and Nicholas Johnson was so dang excited about “the Google phone”. that was fun to watch. …he earned that.

wait… go read another post of mine where I discuss the Nexus One.

the scales of justice don’t, often enough, balance out against evil

it’s a crazy and interesting sprint down memory lane. it demonstrates how the creative and innovative quickly transitions to the expected and mundane.

in the end (that being defined inside twenty months), all “smart” mobile phones will be very similar. thusly, it will come down to what do you use it for. then size matters.

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