Biz Monkie

293 posts
Boisterous laugh, great smile, serial killer eyes. "the Confucius of Central Indiana" - Botswana Meat Commission - Follow me on twitter: @monkeybiziu

Basic Tools Everyone Should Have

When I started college, along with sheets and towels and other things I never had to buy for myself, my mother insisted on getting me a small collection of tools. I didn’t understand why, but she insisted on it anyway.

Now, several years later, my toolbox has expanded dramatically, including all manner of esoteric items that may only have a single purpose. For this article, I wanted to share what I’ve found to be the most useful and indispensable tools and supplies you should keep around your home.

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Droid Does: Improving Battery Life on your Android Device

I often hear people say “My Android battery life sucks!”, to which I usually reply “Yeah, unless you’ve tweaked it, it probably does.”

This article will explore some easy ways for any Android device user to improve their battery life, using…

MonkeyBiz’s Rules of Android Battery Conservation.

First off, let’s talk reasonable expectations. No amount of tweaking will make your phone battery last forever. In fact, barring something extraordinary, your phone will probably top out at 16-20 hours of normal use. With an extended battery, you might hit a full 24. Consequently, charge your phone every night. Continue reading →

The Battle for the Soul of the GOP

From Glenn Beck, via Mediaite:

“If you have a big government progressive, or a big government progressive in Obama… ask yourself this, Tea Party: is it about Obama’s race? Because that’s what it appears to be to me. If you’re against him but you’re for this guy, it must be about race. I mean, what else is it? It’s the policies that matter.”

 

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The GOP: Feature or Bug?

I started my career in software development. One day, shortly after I started, my team was having a meeting in which we were discussing that period’s workload. There were new items, old items, and really old items. Some of these issues had been present since the software launched years earlier, and no one could seem to crack them. The running joke was that these things had been present in the software so long, they were no longer bugs, but features, and if we removed them we would get approximately a billion support phone calls from users that had been working around it for so long they had no idea what to do once it was finally fixed. They had been a problem for so long, they had gone from being bugs, to being features. Continue reading →

Ground Zero: A Report from Blackish Thursday

Generally speaking, I avoid crap like Black Friday or Blackish Thursday. The things I’m interested in are rarely on sale, and the ones that are are frequently just as cheap online. However, the last two years I’ve indulged on single items that were significantly cheaper. This year, I found a single item I was interested in.

Now, in previous years, my travels have taken me to Meijer (which, for those of you unfamiliar with it, is basically Not-Wal Mart) and Best Buy (late in the day, so it wasn’t insane). This year, because Batman: Arkham City decided to crap out on me, I decided to give Toys R Us a shot. I figured, “Hey, it’s 10:30pm on Thanksgiving. Only crazy people would be at Toys R Us at 10:30pm on Thanksgiving. I should be able to get in and out without much trouble.” Continue reading →

The Human Fund

Earlier today, Sean Parker, the founder of Napster and one of Facebook’s earliest partners, as well as a partner in Spotify, tweeted “You guys are really attacking me for being the 1%? I was broke and couch surfing just a few years ago. […] I have a whole new set of problems to deal with now: security, extortion attempts, kidnapping threats, death threats, etc. Life better b4?”

Mr. Parker is worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $2.1 billion. That got me thinking: why can’t we help relieve this nation’s billionaires of the terrible burden of their wealth, while helping ordinary Americans make their dreams come true? Continue reading →

The GOP Presidential Candidates Walk Into A Bar…

One Friday night, sometime soon, you find yourself in Iowa. Don’t ask how or why; you’re just in Iowa. Now, as anyone that’s ever been to Iowa, or read about Iowa, or is even vaguely familiar with Iowa knows, the only thing to do in Iowa is drink. You leave your hotel and cross the street, wandering your way to a local bar. The bouncer checks your ID and lets you in, and you discover all the GOP Presidential Candidates are drinking there. You sidle up to the bar, order a drink from the bartender, and start checking out the crowd. Continue reading →

Rick Perry Lit Mitt Romney’s Country Music Award On Fire: A Conversation with MonkeyBiz and Thunderclees.

One afternoon, Thunderclees and MonkeyBiz had a chat over GMail about writing an article on Rick Perry’s tax plan. This is that chat.

MonkeyBiz:      Howdy

Thunderclees:   So I’m Thunderclees—what’s your ID name?

MonkeyBiz:      Monkeybiz.

MonkeyBiz:      Which means this conversation is going to be very confusing for everyone, especially Bots
Continue reading →

Droid News: Ice Cream Sandwich, and the Future of Android

Last night Google introduced the next version of Android, Version 4.0 (also known as Ice Cream Sandwich).

Ice Cream Sandwich, or ICS, represents the biggest step forward for Android since the transition from Android 1.6 (Donut) to Android 2.0/2.1 (Eclair), which represented the first time Android was considered a true player in the mobile operating system world.

So, let’s talk about what ICS brings to the table, future ICS devices, and the future of Android itself. Continue reading →