BuhBoo.com

My latest obsession is the Palm Pre and I have been scouring the Internet reading everything I can and watching all the videos I can.

There have been a lot of interesting posts about the device, but one thing I’m getting annoyed with is the complaints about release date.

Palm has said that it will be out the first half of ‘09, period.
I actually am OK with the fact that there’s no more concrete date than that, if they need more time to ensure a stable device then I don’t care if it’s released the last day of June.

That view is not shared by most of the posts I’ve read.
I’ve seen numerous posts about people complaining there is no release date yet, how they’re going to go buy some other phone because they’re sick of waiting, etc…

The end of June isn’t even here yet, it’s not even MAY yet, how can people be so annoyed that it’s not here yet when we’re still about two months away from the deadline.

Stop making up dates, stop trusting in the rumor mill and just wait it out.

I’m more excited for this phone that I can put in words, but I’m not expecting it to be out before the end of the year (like Palm said), any earlier is a bonus.

Apparently I’ve spent too much geekin’ out and not enough time updating the site.

The good part of that is I have a ton of new geek projects, reviews, etc..

I’ll be posting those within the next several days, so the site should be a little less stagnant.

I’m getting ready to leave Vegas after a conference for work.

I did what most people do, played a few slots here and there and, of course, not winning anything.

So I decided to put all the Blackjack practice and tweaking I’ve done to the test and… Came out $55 ahead. The next day I tried it again and $55 bucks ahead and tomorrow I’ll try it again.

First, don’t play slots it’s 100% chance. Play a table game, others may give better odds, but blackjack is my game.
Here are my tips:

1) LEARN TO PLAY! If you do stuff like hit on 16 when the dealer has a 5 showing, or split 10s… These hints won’t help. There are LOTS of the little cards that show you how to bet. Learn the chart and practice for free on the computer, your phone, online, whatever. Learn the chart!

2) Always have AT LEAST 10 times the amount of the minimum bet.
For instance, if the table is $10 minimum, make sure you have AT LEAST $100.
You’re going to lose some hands, no way around that, you need to have money to float until you start winning.

3) Come up with a betting strategy. DO NOT double your bet when you lose to try and make your bet back. Here’s my method that works well:
- Bet the minimum
- Next bet (win or lose) bet the minimum again.
- next bet, if you won twice, double the bet. If you lost, bet the minimum.
- keep adding the minimum to the bet (if you win) but don’t get greedy, you’re going to lose eventually. I usually keep adding up to four bets in a row, then will reset to minimum bet.
- any time you lose, reset your betting.

For instance, let’s say it’s a $5 minimum and I keep winning hands, here is my betting:
$5 – $5 – $10 – $15 – $20 – $25 – $5

This way, after that second minimum, you’re playing with their money.
If you get a blackjack, count it as a regular win.

4) Dont get scared! Stick to the betting method, even if you’re low.

5) if your money is gone, walk away. You can’t win every single time so only bet with what you can afford to lose and don’t fall into the trap of trying to win it back, save it for the next day or next trip.

6) SET AN UPPER LIMIT! Your lower limit is zero, but make sure you set an upper limit as well. A good rule of thumb is to stop when you’ve won 1/2 the amount you started with.
For instance, if you sit at the table with $100, walk away when you have $150.

Some do not dos:
Don’t get greedy, walk away at your upper limit.

Don’t try to win your money back if you’re out, walk away.

Don’t Drink when playing, I know it’s fun but you’ll start doing dumb things.

That’s about it, again you have to learn to play first. Go find one of those charts.

Good luck!

I wrote this on my iPhone, so if it needs editing I’ll fix it when I get home.

** update 9/26
Another $50 this morning, that’s 3 days in a row.

I just watched Microsoft’s new ad with Seinfeld and it was really bad.

I understand what they’re doing, trying to reinvent themselves as a “hip” company.. but they’re just not and it was a really poor attempt.

That got me thinking about the three main OSs out there – OSX, Windows and Linux (whatever distro).
I started thinking about what I thought the roles should be and here’s what I think:

In a corporate environment:
Linux servers with Windows desktops

At home:
OSX

Linux is a GREAT and stable OS, but it’s not ready for a desktop OS.
It’s still a pain to configure and get stuff installed… although it’s come a FAR way since I first started using it.

Microsoft has the market cornered with the corporate desktop OS.
They’re not hip and never will be.
Strip all the fluff out of Windows and stick to the corporate environment.. it’s a stale corporate OS and it flourishes there… just keep it that way.

OSX is a fun, multi-media centric OS that promotes ease of use and creativity.. perfect for the home environment, not so good for corporate.

I prefer OSX, but I don’t hate any other OS. My main machine is OSX but I have, and probably always will, a Windows and Linux box.

Find a nitch and stick to it, don’t try to take over the world.

This is all just IMHO.. don’t bash me too bad.

Well, I wasn’t going to do it.
I was going to hold out on upgrading my iPhone to the 3G iPhone until a proper GPS navigation program came out.

Then I just checked the App Store and saw ‘Geopher Tools’. It looks like a Geocacher’s iPhone companion and has a hand held GPSish navigation screen.

Basically you can check Geocaching.com for caches in your are, put the coords in the app and the arrow points your way… I think I might be upgrading sooner than I thought.

I know you can do it with just the Google Maps, just put the coordinates in the map application and make sure your blue dot is heading in the right direction, but this one shows you distance, coordinates for your current location and digital compas.. cool stuff in the App Store tonight.