So just 3 more days until the LHC goes online this Thursday (the initial beams get injected on Thursday, the first collisions aren’t scheduled but for another 2-3 months or so).  Currently the whole thing is being frozen to 1.9 Kelvins using liquid Argon.  Can you say really cold?

Anyways the idea is that they’ll be able to recreate the big bang, but (hopefully) on a much smaller scale.  The internet is having a field day because the thing is so powerful it can create micro-black holes as well as other space-time anomalies, and the natural assumption is that we’re all going to die.  This suspicion of impending doom is further exaggerated by CERN (the orchestrating body) publishing reports stating that they "beyond reasonable doubt, heavy-ion experiments at RHIC will not endanger our planet"[src] (Murphy’s Law….) as well as the facility looking like the Black Mesa Research Facility from Half-Life.  More after the break.

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I was on Google Maps earlier and you now have two options for making a trip, by car (the default, the way we’ve always known Google Maps) and now via walking.

Gas in Oklahoma is going down thankfully, but it’s still over $3/gallon, and is gas really that high now that we have to force people to start walking?

Nanci Pelosi and other liberals need to realize that this gas problem can’t be solved by trying to force new technologies that don’t exist yet down people’s throats.  For example, hydrogen?  Yeah it’s refined from methane and currently emits more pollution in the refining process than do petroleum powered vehicles across the board.  Hybrids?  Sure great idea but expensive and the batteries are having issues both on public health/safety and environment empact from what I hear.  Ethanol, sure another great idea, but currently refined from corn and driving prices of corn sky high.  More after the break

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I took a short trip down Nokia lane today in pondering purchasing an N95.  As some of you who have read my About page, I already have an AT&T Tilt (HTC TyTN II) which is a very powerful device that I’m very happy with.

However, something with the UNIX-ness of Symbian made me want to try it out again but, after closer inspection, I remember why, after literally countless hours of studying and deciding, I chose the Tilt.

The big reason was the QWERTY keyboard.  I hate button mashing and lacking a hardware keyboard, I turn to my Tilt.

I also noticed that the Nokia uses a lesser chipset as well.  Only 332Mhz (for the primary processor at least, I couldn’t find details about the secondary processor) as opposed to the Tilt’s 400Mhz dual core processor (one 400Mhz primary ARM11 processor and a secondary ARM9 processor running slower to process radio interactions and such).  Correct me if I’m wrong though.

Another thing I noticed was it’s significantly smaller battery, 950mAH versus the Tilt’s 1350mAH.  Maybe the N95 has better power management than the energy sucking Ford-F450-of-chipsets that is the Qualcomm MSM7200 that the Tilt uses, but it seems as if it would have bad battery life as there really aren’t any 3G chipsets with a good track record.

Don’t get me wrong though, I respect the N95 and pretty much any Nokia smartphone to an infinite degree more than an Apple iPhone, I also find the Nokia fanboys much easier to get along with.  The N95 also has a couple of ups over the Tilt, namely the 5mp digital camera complete with Carl Zeiss optics, and more camera related features.  However it seems as if this (the camera), and possibly media (but the Tilt does a great job with media as well), seem to be the only areas where the N95 stands out above the Tilt.

Either way though, the N95 is an impressive device, but the Tilt is just that much more loaded with features.

So really I get quite annoyed with Mac-Addicts.  I have a great example why too.  Read this Gizmodo article.  Then check out this comment.  Pay particular attention to this part.

p.s. You are banned.

Wow, banning them for having an opinion.  Their comments really weren’t even that bad.  They were at the very least semi-respectful.  Their comments are after the break.

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Apple, I only use iTunes (well Quicktime) because it’s required by your MOV format.  If people would actually grow some sense and start encoding as H.264 or otherwise, I’d gladly stop using it.

However, you’re monopolizing worse than Microsoft during the 90’s with it, and I DO NOT appreciate MobileMe garbage software being loaded on my PC.

If you’re one of those, you can remove it by uninstalling “Apple Mobile Device support” or whatever it’s called from Add/Remove Programs.  While you’re at it you might as well ditch the Apple Updater as well.

I would like one piece of software, not a package of a bunch of your bloatware.  Kthx

But in their favor at least they made it easy enough to remove.

So a couple of the guys over at XDA-Developers have figured out how to run Google Android on the AT&T Tilt….which I happen to have.

Installation is a breeze and it’s a great way to dive head first into Google Android.  I haven’t used it much yet but I’ll be experimenting with it over the coming while.  Check out TiltSite.com for Android related information by me, and also keep an eye on my blog where I’ll be posting thoughts and comments about it.

So for a big rivalry comes Firefox 3 vs Opera 9.5, both of which offer performance and functionality increases over the previous versions, and personally, are both dramatically different from their previous versions.

You can tell Opera is focused on merging your devices using it’s own platform with it’s Opera Link, which will allow you to synchronize your bookmarks across the Opera 9.5 desktop version and Opera 4.1 Mini(the one of two available mobile versions).  I see Mozilla as sinking behind with the seemingly low interest in Mozilla Weave.

Both browsers have had a design overhaul and I have to say I favor Opera’s interface over Firefox’s.   The Firefox interface is very old style text menu driven still, despite further attempts at getting away from this.  Opera has a very nice and sleek interface and is moving more towards the image/icon based navigation system.

Finally, speed.  Opera seems to be a decent bit faster (and yes I do have pipelining enabled with a moderate amount of tubes) and seems to run applications very well, despite not being one of the big contenders.

Despite all of this, I don’t think I’ll be quick to change.  The shortcoming of Opera is it has fewer addons (called Widgets in Opera) and those that exist seem to have less functionality, plus they seem to be part of their own system rather than integrated with the browser itself like Firefox.

I’ll probably use the two in tandem with one another, as I like them both quite a bit.  Plus the ability to sync my bookmarks with Opera 4.1 on my Tilt is pretty cool.  We’ll see how things go when Firefox Mobile becomes available.

Verdict: Use ‘um both

So I made the switch to Firefox 3.  Well, not totally.  I “figured out” how to run Firefox 3 alongside Firefox 2, mostly for testing purposes.

Firefox 3 seems to be a nice improvement in certain areas.  I’m not entirely convinced yet though, especially since I found an Oklahoma State University theme that only works with Firefox 2 (already tried changing the version number in the theme and reloading it, no rice).

Either way though, I may switch between the two as they both have their specialties.  However, I’m switching to Mozilla Weave for cookie sync and using Foxmarks for bookmarks since Google Browser Sync is being discontinued….rats

So I was at the pumps today filling up and I noticed the State of Oklahoma Standards testing and noticed a few things interesting.  Just a thought but you can maximize your return by going for the pumps with the closest measurement to being accurate.  Oklahoma has a legal tolerance of +/- 6 cubic inches and I noticed regular was -2, mid-grade was 0′d, and Premium was +2.  Check the pumps next time to get a true maximum return.

Also, I always put in premium once every 5 fill-ups or so to help with engine gunking and carbon buildup.  Your ECU typically will compensate for the higher octane of fuel but most premium gasolines come with cleaners in them to help remove gunk(I use Shell V-power usually) and I seem to get better gas milage on higher octane fuels as well.

Finally, I don’t let my car go bellow 1/4 tank(I did this week but I try not to).  Reason being is the fuel pump.  Think gas is high, how about a $1000 fuel pump replacement job?  Fueling more often doesn’t hurt your gas economy much to the best of my knowledge and it can save you that fuel pump damage due to overheating and burnout.