Alien Ninja Sword Action
Watch the Alien Ninja’s sword skills as he defends himself against cosmic shuriken known as grapes on Earth.
On the galactic battlegrounds, you wouldn’t stand a chance against such swordsmanship!
The Caffeine Lineup
When you need a boost to keep you going…
Ounce for ounce, the original Starbucks Doubleshot with espresso and cream gives me the quickest caffeine hit. The Royal Mills/Ito-en Cappuccino is the best value drink coming in at $0.65 a can, and it tastes good too. I’m still getting used to the new Starbucks Doubleshot energy drinks with ginseng and guarana. There’s an aftertaste to this drink, but it keeps you going for hours. The new Dews are a sight to see, but the original is still the one for me.
The Secret of Alien Ninjas in Hawaii
Who knew there were aliens in Hawaii? Who knew there were ninjas in Hawaii? Who knew there were alien ninjas in Hawaii? What better place to reveal the secret existence of alien ninjas than Secret Island?
While at a picnic at Secret Island, a film crew was at work with some unusual subjects.
These are the Alien Ninjas which hopefully go viral on mobile networks near you. Producers from Los Angeles came to Hawaii to shoot these video segments that are supposed to be shown on mobile networks (aka cell phones). I’m not sure of the plot or story line other than there’s a robot, a male alien ninja, and a female alien that likes fruits (apples, bananas, and pineapples).
The Alien Ninjas are also launching a web site at alienninja.tv (I think, not active yet) and are going to Comic-Con 2008 after this Hawaii production.
Interestingly and coincidentally enough, a fellow alumni was heading the shoot and provided this information (though I probably mangled it after hours in the sun). And although I had to pass on being an extra in the evening luau scene, I did have a campy segment reacting to alien ninjas battling it out so keep an eye out!
Check out more behind the scenes pictures of Alien Ninjas!
Technorati Tags: Hawaii
Secure Mail on iPhone
Some notes about doing secure email on an iPhone using Mail app, not webmail in Safari.
- List of root certificates pre-installed with iPhone 2.0 software. Right ones are already there…
- Secure IMAP uses SSL over port 993.
- When configuring secure IMAP, my iPhone could not verify my settings. I was given the option to save or cancel. According to this discussion, save anyways.
- Go back to iPhone Mail app and check mail. Things should be working. 😉
- Still to do – fix sending email. Above steps allows receiving and reading email.
Read up on iPhone Enterprise Deployment Guide if want advanced features like installing a .p12 certificate on your phone. Easiest way is to build a configuration profile that includes your certificate then email that configuration to your iPhone. When opening this emailed configuration attachment, the iPhone runs through an install procedure. Be sure you know the password to your certificate! I really don’t know if this step is necessary to get secure IMAP email (I don’t think so).
Technorati Tags: iPhone
More iPhone Observations
Just a few more observations of my iPhone 3G.
Don’t ditch your camera. I was hoping to reduce the amount of gadgets I carry around using the built-in iPhone camera instead of a regular digital camera. Nope. While the iPhone camera is okay at best, it can’t beat a digital camera. The iPhone camera is low resolution (as expected), slow, and has no image stabilization. For close by, stationary subjects who are posing, the iPhone camera takes decent shots. Forget it for shots on the go.
Charge the battery all the time. Yeah, you can go without charging the phone every day, but you probably won’t have enough juice to last you the next day. If you typically surf the web on 3G and pass a lot of data, having a full battery is peace of mind.
Significant others get iPhone 2G hand-me-downs. The original iPhone still rocks, but I’ve now heard of a few examples where new iPhone 3Gs were bought and significant others inherited the replaced 2G models.
Technorati Tags: iPhone
My iPhone Observations
After one week of having an iPhone, here are some of my observations.
The iPhone is not a phone. I’ve made a few voice calls on it, but I hardly use it as a phone. Mobile access to data has been my playing ground.
The iPhone App Store changes everything. Adding new applications keeps expanding the role and usefulness of the iPhone. The App Store is also available over the cell service so you can access it at anytime. Initially, I thought you had to download iPhone apps to your computer then sync your iPhone to install the apps. Nope. You can directly install apps over the air.
Location, location, location. With a built-in GPS pinpointing your location, many apps take advantage of this and correlate your location with your data. Google Maps has that neato fly in sequence showing where you are. Services like loopt.com show the locations of your friends. Even Twitter tweets can be mapped to your location.
MobileMe sync. This actually works. When I first got my iPhone, I had a busy day and didn’t get a chance to sync it with my Mac. Yet, all my contacts were already there! This info was pushed to my phone in the background by the MobileMe service.
Battery life. The first day, I was constantly on the iPhone, pulling in data over Wi-Fi or the 3G network. This ran down my battery by the end of the day. I can see charging the iPhone daily or at least every other day.
Wi-Fi access. I like the way the iPhone finds Wi-Fi networks and prompts you to join these networks. Going Wi-Fi saves battery life and gets better speeds than 3G. When you return to a location where you previously joined its Wi-Fi network, the iPhone automatically switches over without needing to ask you.
No iPhone unboxing jollies at AT&T. I don’t know about you, but opening up and unboxing an Apple product is always an experience. Weird, but true with the Internet littered with Apple “unboxing” pictures and videos. Getting an iPhone from AT&T robs you of that experience however. Since you need to now activate the phone upon purchase, the iPhone box must be opened at the store (both at AT&T and Apple). While the Apple Stores let you unbox your iPhone, at AT&T, the sales clerk disrobes your iPhone for you. 🙁
Technorati Tags: iPhone
Five Hawaii Starbucks Closing
So Hawaii Starbucks locations weren’t completely safe from the massive closures nationwide. In this complete list of stores that will be closing, Hawaii is losing five current locations – three on Oahu, one on Maui, and one on the Big Island.
The three SBUX going away on Oahu are:
- Malolo Sand Island. I heard there was a Starbucks on Sand Island. Never went there.
- Victoria Ward Center. With four stores on the same street, the Ward area is saturated with coffee. Not sure, but this one might be the small one by the theaters.
- Hokua. In the luxury condo Hokua by PF Changs, this location is one of the Starbucks bookends of Ward. I always meant to check it out, but never made it past the Starbucks in Borders.
Come to think of it, of the four Starbucks at Ward, I only go to the one in Borders and the Gateway location by Wahoos and Sports Authority. I guess I’m not the only one if the other two are closing down.
YouTube Coming to Tivo
I thought this was announced awhile ago, but maybe now it’s actually happening. Tivo HD and Series 3 boxes will be getting an upgrade allowing YouTube access. Once you get the upgrade, you’ll have all that YouTube offers on your television.
Like this Christmas gift prank…
Abercrombie & Fitch, At It Again
Abercrombie & Fitch is at it again with its huge, risque signs in the entryway of its stores. Here’s one recently spotted at Ala Moana.
I must admit, these pictures make you stop.
If Abercrombie had a store for kids, would they have a sign like this?
Technorati Tags: Ala Moana
Comments Now Moderated
Over the weekend, there was some bogus comments left so I turned on comment moderation for Pulpconnection. What this means is that your comment won’t be shown until I approve it. Sorry, but didn’t want the junk comments from detracting from genuine words.
No Starbucks Specials for You!
Well for Hawaii residents anyways. There are quite a few on-going regional specials that Starbucks is offering, but I don’t see any for Hawaii.
For example, in New York Metro, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Boston and Detroit, you can get a free iced coffee on Wednesdays. In Atlanta and Indianapolis, hot or iced coffee is free on Wednesdays (if you have a special coffee card). You can see a list of regional promotions on Starbucks’ blog site that doesn’t act like a blog site. There are no permalinks to link directly to a post so you have to scroll down and look for the post titled “New Value Promotions.”
However, this doesn’t mean that generous SBUX employees in HI won’t honor these regional promotions. So if you happen to have a Free Iced Brewed Coffee Card, you can try it out around town.