Sorry I have been busy--- so in a few words!

Open Source must be included as an option to closed source.

Hence--

Made on a Mac, but built for Blogspot!

Jacinto Noriega

I really am not joking, check Yelped for Paradise Volkswagen Indio

First Call

Paradise Volkswagen Indio CA

(760) 200-4000 Ask for Mike-- He was amazed when I showed him the video

Ask if the YouTube Car has been repaired.

Then call

Ryan VWofA

District Representative

1-800-822-8987 --

First Press 1,Then Press 0, and if you must know our case number is 90310111.

And ask him why the car can't be considered a lemon? And why a representative of VWoA must work with the Local Dealer to repair and supervise their work. Then ask him why the local dealer stated the car had lost value as a trade in because it hasn't been repaired. After four tries with so many lights!

You already have seen the videos, does that look at all random and non-dealer reproducible.

It's

Restarting Tech News--- Topless Style

Coming Soon 12 Cheap or Free Tech Gifts!

Preview of the first gift......

New Life for old computers!

Ubuntu---All the taste with half the problems of Windows!

or

Its that Leopard your using? Oh no, it's Ubuntu!

or

Cheap and easy thats what I want!

Why, oh why do I do it?

Not to say that today is something out of the regular, but let me summarize the past 12 hours.

1. Went out to a club

2. Got recycled (wasted sounds too permanent)

3. Came back talking and cheerful

4. Started working on fixing a computer or two

Well here I am with my sleep cycle interrupted, my eyes puffy, my head hurting and the

gorgeous Puerto Rican Men passing me by, but I'm ok with it since I am doing some Techie stuff for a friend. But, this isn't the first time this

has happened to me.

It all started when I was a young child and I needed to build some new city made out of construction paper. Now these city were not just simple drawing on paper, they where 3-D cities with mountains, trees and lego buildings. Later on I added flowing rivers, valleys lined with plastic wrap and colored with the blue ink of magic markers being powered by the used windshield wiper motor from a VW bug that was powered by the dismantled power-supply of a failed attempt to repair an old cassette radio. I was still in elementary school when these things where being created or fixed for my purposes. But I'm a quasi-adult now and things have changed a bit.

This time its not setting up a TV, fixing a router error, or becoming completely frustrated at a simple task like setting up a printer that doesn't want to run right due to a unknown software error or hardware conflict, um try deleting a print job on Windows.

It's those last type of problems that really just bring out the OCD

person that lays dormant in me during times of cleaning, working, and general tasks that any responsible person would accomplish in a timely manner. It's when I can't get the thing to work right. When I feel that they should be simple solutions, I get mad. SO upset that upset my own Bruce Banner gets pushed out of the way and my inner nerd rears his perfectly combed hair with his black framed spectacles with coordinated pocket protector ready to claim what is rightfully mine. A triumph over bad design and poor documental support.

When I am in this mode, I stop talking, start checking for internet help, and disconnect my mind from the weakness of my body. If I was a sports star, people would say I am

Mary Lou Retten, "Coach, I don't care if my hands are cramping and my eye sight is dismal, I am going to do it! I'm going to get the hard drive cloned, reinstalled and booting up before I leave the ass-formed valley in the foam chair. Even if I have to call tech support myself and

pay for it!"

I think this drive, or neuroticism, or contemporary machismo, isn't a bad thing... when there is truly a solution that can be found that relieves the mind splinter that forms when this primal behavior is activated. But on the few instances where a solution isn't possible (it's never unknown, or my own fault!) the feeling of failure is so deep and profound that it takes days, and countless other Tech successes to numb the pain enough where it can be ignored like a hang nail that is just pressing but no longer cutting into the flesh.

Today's task is about to finally to really get started: Cloning and changing hard drives on a

15" Macbook Pro. But like most Tech issues, the job you're asked to to has countless issues to be fixed and addressed first before the real job starts and with luck this next step will be quick and fast and since people don't know about all the pre and post prep work involved they will just think that I still have magical powers and skills that fixes things in a flash-- faster then accessing a flash drive that has all my special videos on it! ;)

The New Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico is ...

a) a state?

b) a colony?

c)just the home of J-Low and Reggeaton?

While spending time here in the most "Latino" land inside the jurisdiction of the United States, the one of the topics that gets a strong reaction from people is, "Statehood or Independence?"

While to an outsider, like myself, the answer to that question to lays in the semantics and subtle nuances of English. Even Obama has said that the definition of this island and its role in relation to the United States needs to be clarified and defined.

So should it become a state-- In which it would be the state with the 3rd highest recipients of WIC. It would also be the state that "exports" the highest number of people into the US military.

As a common wealth, they have no need for their own military, but also don't have a vote in Federal elections or in congress. The average Boricua doesn't need to pay federal taxes. and their island offers tourist a trip to Latin America, without having to exchange money, knowing the language and also eases the fear of their American rights being trampled on.

I shouldn't have a vote in this, I don't live here, but I as a American Citizen am affected by what the outcome will be. Do need to pack a passport to visit or can I complain about the high rates of unemployment and it's drain on our bankrupt economy?

This island should have been made into the cultural reception hall for Latin America and the United States. They stand in the liminal space between continents, cultures, and represent the changing world.

The indigenous people are gone from this island, pushed to extinction by slavery, disease and the exploitation that capitalism brings. Yet, they are still here in the hybrid Boricua--a mixture of Latino, Africano, Gringo and with sprinklings of other people. They are the new world. Not defined, by family heritage lineage, but their history it simply gives them shapes, colors and ryhtims that have come to repersent these people.

It's a new world, very few people are "pure" anything anymore. Socially liberal and fiscally conservative. Second generation Mexican-American Chicano. A Mac with Windows installed.

We are all this mixture or ideas, and philosophies that have crossed oceans, and barriers man made and natural. We all fight to not be defined by our past, and we don't need to hide from it, but should use it as a internal road map to tell us not where we are going, but where we have started our individual and communal journeys.

I am not Puerto Rican. I don't live here. I should not have much say in what is decided for this common wealth, but what is decided for this island does give insight to myself.

Do I need to stand alone? Do I need someone to look out for me? I'm not sure, and perhaps with sometime and reflection, I take a stand and leave this liminal transitional space and find that nothing changes or everything changes. Until then I still have bad J-Low movies and Pitbull's- "I know you want me (Calle Ocho)"!

The case of the missing Biodiesel

In our attempt to find a green balance in life, the last car we purchased was a Diesel VW Jetta. No, its wasn't the new Green Diesel that have been hitting the asphalt trails as of late with the nice dealer price hikes. It was a used Jetta, imported from Arizona during the short term ban on non-Tier 2 Bin 3 conforming vehicles in California.

Yes, we looked at the Hybrid options, but in reflecting in our driving patterns, it wasn't practical for us since we tend to do long haul freeway driving instead of the stop and go city driving that benefits from hybrid technology. Our bi-monthly road trips take us from Palm Springs to Sacramento with a short stop over in San Jose and San Francisco. This was apart from our more common trips out of our Coachella valley into the Inland Empire and LA. Our last car had over 70,000 miles in two year!

So we got it, loved it and then came the hard part, trying to fill it with Biodiesel in the Coachella Valley. After countless minutes spent web surfing and a few half hearted phone calls it became clear that finding a filling station wasn't happening.

I know that we should have looked into the availability of Biodiesel before buying the car. But, I really, really liked it. In my rationalization of impulsive actions I remembered that we drive out of the valley often, and I knew that in Central California and Northern California my key to a green earth was pumping and available. Well, it was until lately.

According to my research, the California State Waterboard had taken up the issue of Biodiesel blends that are greater than 5 percent (95% Diesel and 5% Biofuel=B5) and the safety of its storage in conventional underground storage and dispensing systems. Their findings are that there isn't enough data and research on the possible effects of Biodiesel on the integrity of storage containers designed for regular diesel, and there is a possibility that any fuel that leaks from these underground containers may not be detected by current leakage detection systems.

Now, in Kern Valley, a place plagued by poor air quality health alerts and one of the largest produces of produce could really benefit from Biodiesel. The switching over to Biodiesel can cut sulfur dioxide emission by 100% and cut carbon dioxide emissions-a major green house gas- from 80-100%. This agricultural center is a large user of diesel fuel in farming vehicles, Cummins Turbo Diesel pickup trucks and the big rigs used in the transportation of fresh produce to parts of the state and country. Even with all the Green lights to go they can't. The state has recommended to not have any underground storage of Biodiesel in blends over 5% in underground contains and Kern County is following these guidelines.

So, here we are and the cusp of a energy revolution and because of a lack of information, or some misguided information, fear is keeping us from reducing our dependance on oil in the state that could benefit the most from alternative forms of energy.

California+millions of vehicles=horrible air pollution

We are the perfect place to have alternative forms of energy. We have wind power and solar power fighting towards reduced carbon foot prints! We can be the state that trail blazes the direction the country needs to take to fight oil dependancy, to end our oil wars and to give people jobs so they can keep their homes. But this is the state that is issuing I.O.U's and elected a Terminator to govern and has people who believe chickens have a right to be outside free for a hour a day, but then revokes the rights of gay and lesbian couple to be married.

Here I am stuck, waiting for something to change and doing what I can to make change happen.

Back to my missing Biodiesel- the best I can do now is have a Biodiesel sticker on my bumper fill up with Biodiesel in places like Sacramento, San Jose and Santa Cruz and hope that none of my hybrid driving friends notices that when I am home fill up at the Flying J down the street! At least for the time being I still pay less a gallon then they do!

iTunes and Shazam

I know that iTunes is great at find the missing information of MP3's and AAC's. It uses the fragments of the information that is provided and I assume reference that with the CDDB along with song length and such. That is all good and grand when it works and you have some information from which it can start the searching of names titles and such. Yet, at times when I don't have internet access or when it's a mixed CD of which CDDB has no information I end up with countless Track 1's in my library. So here is my though, if Shazam takes a sampling of a song, looking for key notes or frequencies and sends this musical fingerprint to its servers to double check it on there own database, why can't iTunes sample the music files for which their is no information and send it to Shazam to figure out what Track 1 really is! That way I don't have to spend time typing the stupid names of songs!

iPhone 3G S

Okay, okay, we've heard the hype and the style...but c'mon, 3G S? What's with it? Faster processing and video capability... Oh, and MMS, but at the end of the summer. Wait, nope, that's done on 3G as well...what about our 2.5G friends...are they still there? Or are they putting theirs under water to "see" what happens....