Blackberry how dare you make a comeback

so I read this article http://www.wsj.com/articles/blackberry-classic-review-the-best-blackberry-ever-made-1419355406?mod=WSJ_hp_EditorsPicks

thought for a minute like... could I turn in my Iphone and go back to MY FAVORITE Phone and PHYSICAL KEYBOARD??? & the classic trackpad & handsdown blackberry PUSH email still the best ever - OMG!!

I got scared when I thought about a world w/ no EMOJIs.. no APPS (well no UBER, INSTAGRAM)..thats why I hung on to my old blackberry for the longest -- I didn't want the distraction of APPS.

This phone comes to Verizon next month -- I will go check out
I'm deep in the apple sauce but hey I value functionality over cool factor. I still have my iPAD mini for my iOS fixes LOLOL

#staytuned

**edit**
former post where I profess my love for blackberry
http://caplady1225.blogspot.com/2014/03/yes-im-apple-fan-girl.html

The new Microsoft

Great article culture change is hard but I applaud Satya efforts. As as a Windows
User from the 3.1 days lol I look forward to more positive change

How Satya Nadella Has Completely Changed Microsoft In Just 3 Months http://zite.to/1iQchx4

I have time to blog now.. Hello!

well the blog was dusty but I'm posting before I ht my "one year she no post anniversary" LOL

let see in the last year what's been up?

-Work: Quit my job at the big 4 much happier now.. still loving and working in infosecurity but the consultant life ay...I say this as we fedcontractor & govvies arise back from our furlough "holiday" meh...giving myself 1-2 years top I want to be working purely in the commercial work. My dream job is amazon.com which is in the DC Area trust I will get a job there!! 

-NBA season soon: still playing fantasy basketball and venting about my Wizards. I guess my  Lakers are gonna suck this year.. RIP Dr. Buss we are in turmoil

-Weight Loss: Not only have I kept my weight off from my highest weight ever to know I'm down a smooth 70 lbs.. but since late 2011 I've lost about 50 lbs.. amazing seriously. I'm down from 16/18 to 12.. I've never been this small EVER (as an adult). Yes the veganism helps but the exercise and the no car life in DC helps. I can now bike to work with my new job and I still walk everywhere. 

-Half Marathon: Ran the inaugural Washington DC NIKE HalfMarathon in April:  Again my old coworkers were the ones behind me getting in shape they run the marine corps, army 10 miler all the popular races so they were like leave that 5k baby stuff behind and go for the gold. Jogging is still growing on me but all winter I did my lil runs around the city..and ran (& WALKED ALOT)  that joint in about 3 hours. 

Let me tell you the next day this 31 year old body was in PAIN like slow walk pain LOL. What was most embarrassing my cowoker >50 did the race she was fine the next day. Horrible..my training was bad I did not get enough long runs (>.10miles) in so I shocked my body but damit I made it through the finish line and I would love to run this race again. 

-Current Obsessions:
Technology, Technology, Technology - Before I get into this let me stamp that I've been a gadget junkie since a kid. Seriously  in my only child world I was always an executive (cappy trait) LOL I had a filofax organizer as a kid, my family laced me with all gadgets the 1st was the almighty casio electronic organizer

and yes I had the ORIGINAL Palm Pilot during my last year of middle school.. 1st computer by 1995.  My senior year of high school I was interning at our town's only internet service provider.. so again STAMPED geeked from the 90s baby LOL

Anyway I'm loving this era we are in.. coding/development is cool, gadgets are a plenty the internet has soo much for learning/growing. Social media overload - I've calmed down with twitter (got old), IG i like and FB will always be there but I do take SM breaks time to time-- its soo easy to get caught up.

Given my maturation as IT chick- tech is fun but I realize to make it you have to tie to business value. So tech strategy blogs/articles are my new thing. I'm sooo sad to see how Blackberry has faltered but I enjoy reading and watching the OS/Phone/Internet/Startup wars that are going on these days

My current tech portfolio: Phones I have 2 LOL - my main line is blackberry - I'm sorry and i did try but i need a physical keyboard ..i just do. My 2nd phone is Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (rooted) with Sprint (unlimited data) it serves as my modem to keep my ipad computer and friends gadgets online when we are in a pinch lol. Basic dell laptop, my old kindle DX (great for reading). I plan to build a badazz PC next year to help serve for virtualization testing and I do want a MBP.

Juicing: Move over vitamix j/k green smoothies 4 life but my treat to getting a new job in August was the purchase of an Omega Juicer - Love Love Love green juice .. working my way up mentally to do a juice fast one day

Apple: not the fruit...so I am an Android fangirl however when my job gave me the iphone last year; life changed LOL. I was able to understand the apple fan'ism the phone was simple too simple but easy to use and practical. Coupled with the fact that apps still goto iOS first I've purchased the 64GB - Retina ipad and that joint is my baby! I do want a macbook (eventually) but that $$$$$$$ Apple is overrated but its a lifestyle and those purchasing financially are capable hence the extraordinary sales.

Shopping: Not so much these days LOL...one I had to take a hiatus during the weight loss as my clothing size was all over the place so if It wasn't coming from a target sale rack - I did not buy. Major progress as many many people reminded me that I wouldn't be caught dead in target clothes a few years ago LOL. I have not purchased a designer bag in almost 2 year. that's all I gotta say about this topic people can change. Don't get it twisted the capricorn in me still love nice high end things but I'm learning how to be more financially responsible and purchase things not so spontaneous. 

Welp that's its folks.. I'm hoping seriously to blog more and I want to migrate this blog to my own domain as I've learned how to manage wordpress sites..well see LOL

dusting these html pages off

what up fam!
omg...i'm so past due (like that's nothing new) on my blog entries; I have SOO much to talk about. For now since I have milliseconds of downtown let me just rock a freethought entry
I'm teleworking about to head into the office soon.
Enjoying a healthy breakfast. I've been on a whole grain kick as I realized that was lacking in my diet. I made Bob's Red Mill 6 Grain Hot Cereal with Flaxseed contains stone ground wheat, rye, corn, oats, spelt, Kamut® and flaxseed. I cook it with almond milk & add coconut & cinnamon - yumm-O!

Other than work I've been focusing on my health and utilizing the heck out of my bldg gym. I'm down about 15+lbs so far and inching closer to my 1st goal or reaching my high school weight.
I told myself that if I can eat a strict vegan diet and not work out - whats the point? might as well go back to eating meat. Now I see results from the marriage of good nutrition + exercise.

As a HUGE fan of android I"m very sad reading about google's change to the privacy policy. Its very scary and I'm upset to the point that I thinking about moving to the dreaded Iphone/Ipad combo.. hence I don't believe apple not looking at my data but at least they aren't a major hub of search engine data.

well my 5 mins are up and I must go.. more to come lata (me hope) :\

what have i been doing all summer?

working . traveling . gardening. enjoying life & shopping

LOL - hello! can you all believe we are looking at Fall my my time is rollin!

Let me pick up where I left off... so the DC move again my commute is wonderful but I tell ya what (king of the hill voice) lol not having my 495 has been killer.. meaning getting to places has been difficult. I must keep at it learning the DC streets. I've been enjoying taking the bike out to explore when I can get home by 6 and we don't have the kaboom thunder activity afterwork.

Now my bldg; granted I am not the friendliest person upon first glance but jeezus first of all everyone is import (new trend of DC) cars in the garage downstairs from Cali to Connecticut (alot of NYC of course).. these folks in here are not friendly I'm not going to play the race card but even when I try to put on a smile and 'ish *cold stares*. I swear I'm going to kirk out one good time on somebody next time they ask "do you live in the bldg?" Reminds me of Higher Learning "b1tch show me yo lease before u check me" LLS seriously .. big turn off!

ugh sprint service.. of course no way comparable to Verizon but I'll smile off the strength of my cheaper bill. I finally rooted my Android Phone to CyanogenMod (CM7) that def bought some stability to my phone and can I say i LOVE android.. while I have a macbook on my wishlist and respect iOS.. 'I LOVE ANDROID" The multi-desktops and widgets sold me.. now the security and stability - give it time and more on that later.

my current obsession:
i couldn't resist any longer and so glad i waited and did not hop on the IPAD bandwagon.
Got a tablet pc Android based (honeycomb) Motorola Xoom. My coworker put me onto woot.com so trust I did not pay full retail but OMG love love love my tablet.



Of course at work the Ipad mtg crew be going in... "why don't you carry your xoom to meetings" "why are you still using your paper agenda" I just realized as techy as I am LOL I'm a paper chick. Stickies, pen, pencils I write on paper - so I'm weaning myself off this habit. My beef with putting your life in a phone/tablet is security. I don't like clouds dont sync MY DATA.. I need everything password protected, encrypted - I need time to figure out how to secure my 'ish than I'm all for it. I tested Google 2 step password verification, in short summary send your device a code after you sign in with password. Gosh props to google joint worked so good I kept locking myself out but that's the type of 'ish I need. I'm such a private person I will be sad if my devices where lost but I'd die if my data was viewable by outside eyes.
my travels

Chicago


My job sent me here for 4 days for Auditing Oracle Application Course. Uhhh class blew my mind lol but OMG Chicago is a beautiful city. We stayed in downtown Chicago and did most of our exploring via foot lol. My coworker and I visited the Willard/Sears tower, Millennium Park and we ate well. Of course being a Vegan I didn't have time to find a place where I could get deep dish pizza but none the less the variety was on point.
I checked out the local tea scene which was dry... but Argo Teas was the local spot. I bought

Las Vegas

Embarrassing but this was my 1st time visiting "Sin City" My job sent me here in support of attending Black Hat (technical security conference). The conference no words was just blessing to be amongst so many smart individuals and learn about my field. Ok forget the slots forget the gourmet food options - the freaking shops :0 :0
I was just done with the lux brands being connected to my hotel
Shops as Pallazo kilt me..
I can't go back to Vegas alone... cuz nope I need a baby sister for my wallet LOL

& what happens in vegas... got shipped to DC
(badgirl)















Seattle

My family lives out here and since I was more than halfway across the country decided to spend the weekend in the Pacific NorthWest. The timing was perfect because although I've been to Seattle 4 times now my cousin was getting married so it was also a slight family reunion.
The usual coolness and clouds but I was able to get a peak at Mt. Rainer.
My cuzin took me to a fabulous tea shop in Tacoma - Mad Hat Tea. Overwhelmed I was...
picked up 2006 puerh tea cake, some black tea and ginger rooibos for my friend.
The owner was so sweet gave me a cup of ti kin yuan to go and man started my trip off on a bang!



my herbal garden

I'm going to make this a 2 part blog update To be continued....

news & views on current technology

what up peeps...bloggin live from the new home.. still renting but moved to Washington DC. Finally moved after talking about it for years.. #1 commute has been very draining.. working in VA - 9 yrs strong

I've finally stepped into cool phone land and divorced Verizon in the process..
newly minted sprint customer w/ an Android Device - Evo Shift - couldn't let go of my keyboard but other than me being a anti-touch screen chick and the nuances that come with it.. the phone is pretty vicious. The android app store def lacks the hollywood apps of Apple but is still very comparable in inventory.

Right now I have the Evo Shift, and 2 BB for work - one including the BB torch.

Today's post is a rant on RIM..inspired by these article in WAPO -"For federal workers, BlackBerry slips as device of choice" & Federal government loosens its grip on the BlackBerry

First let me highlight some other articles who are on the same page of me:

PlayBlackBerry bruised by rivals

4 ways for BlackBerry to stay alive

I lovvvvvvvvvvvvveee my blackberry no doubt.. it gets the job DONE no bells & whistles. BEST EMAIL MGMT EVER!

I loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee BBM - though my buddy list is dwindling BUT my first choice of messaging through & through.

I guess im becoming a late apple fan girl not for the cool gadgets but one of my favorites magazines Fortune is exposing me the BUSINESS side of the world - (super weakness for a g33ky gal like myself and being exposed even further working at "big4" /end rant) but you have to admire whats under the hood at a company that was hot in 80s.. cool in 90s and than took off..
respect to Jobs + his mgmt style.

I got caught up w/ the cool app life with my ipod touch..all still while loving my blackberry but I knew times were changing one morning the alarm on the BB was going OFF.. and I'm pressing the screen like mad only to realize hello.. no touch screen LOL!

So that brought me to a point in which I knew after my move I was going to switch my personal phone to Android...I like Iphone but the lack of physical keyboard was a deal-breaker PLUS too redundant to my Itouch.

Sprint had a special $125 credit for switching over.. said good-bye Verizon. That's another future Rant.. I never truly minded paying for the expensive service of VZW however in the last 1 yr myself and one of my homegirls admitted service has not been so peachy aka most dropped calls ever in span of being customer for almost 10 yrs. Given the 3/4G and stability of the other wireless carriers and for the most part I frequent metropolitan areas with good service - I could risk leaving VZW. #1 I was astounded that for 60$ I get unlimited everything .. like I had to keep asking the customer service representative how much was the data? the txt package? She kept reminding me 60$ = all in one LOL

So far given my new bldg cell coverage sucks in general.. I can see where Verizon outside is better.. but Sprint inside works in places I would never get VZW service. Big minus I miss being able to have pretty decent reception in metro- Sprint = total fail.

Ok ok back to my RIM rant-
pretty much RIM is the mobile MS, meaning you had the game on lock but dude check the rear view- your company is flailing..
-OS6 sucked.. like I cannot stand that wack frequent/all/favorite menu system- the thought process was there delivery not so smooth
+Webbrowser is improved but not the true to PC exp like one gets on safari or android
-App store- how about me and paypal aren't in a relationship anymore.. well no paypal = no appstore acess AT ALL- blew me to the worlds end!
+BB Torch very solid much better blend of touch & traditional than Storm

I don't have to keep nitpicking but bottomline RIM just released another weak product (BB Playbook) just google the review..I think it may have more software now but I know it shipped with no email or browser access //like wtf//

Rim needs to realize they need to OVERHAUL their OS or keep faith in this QNX acquisition. I'm no SME but basically QNX is an emulator and RIM has been selling the fact android software can work on the Playbook via QNX...so that's cool to have BBM/BB stuff & cool droid apps but that's admitting some defeat by deferring to another OS granted its somewhat embedded - not the strongest move.

What will kill Rim and seriously I see you Jobs.. I get it.. have everyone embrace your gadgets & computing devices.. rock with your own OS (iOS) your own internal services (mobile me)..shake, stir and ascend to the next level. As announced at WWDC apple has merged a whole mix of things and embraced the cloud (gag- me not a fan of cloud computing- another post).. recap below (wapo)

As one of the core new features highlighted today in iOS 5, iMessages has one purpose: to kill SMS. That is, traditional carrier-controlled text messages. iMessages will do this by replacing SMS with a service that Apple is in control of across all of their iOS devices. And here’s the real death blow: iMessages will be completely free.

Sure, you can argue that iMessages is limited due to the iOS requirement. But as Apple announced today, there are over 200 million iOS devices out there now. That’s a lot. Like Blackberry Messenger before it, Apple now has the strength to create their own device-to-device messaging application. And that’s exactly what they’ve done. And considering what a colossal rip-off SMS is, I can’t help but love this move. It’s exactly what I’ve been waiting for

"iCloud stores your content in the cloud and wirelessly pushes it to all your device. It automatically uploads it, stores it, and pushes it to all your devices." And by "automatically," he means it: in addition to every day content, such as purchased music, iBooks, photos and videos, device settings, and app data that will be automatically backed up over WiFi, Documents in the Cloud will effortlessly sync Pages, Numbers, and Keynote data between all of your iOS devices.

I'd def would embrace and hopefully SOON will embrace once I get an Ipad...my beef w/ cloud -C is.. it is what you put into it.. don't be mad if your world is stolen by hackers but for a person who knows what to keep on-line I have no beef w/ trying this new apple services and trust if you had a Macbook, Ipad, Iphone.. this will make your life simpler and people are gonna eat it up and Apple will get more business. Trust that i-messenger .. What do I need a blackerry for again?

Other than email and honestly Microsoft (wake up) should try making their new win 7 phones use the power of outlook to gain corporate email shares over RIM. Again I can only speak with a DoD voice.. and given the Ipad STIG was pulled LOL.. idk when or how we can say yes to iphone/tablets/android etc on sensitive networks. Trust right now one of my systems is mobile project the old school win ce.net phones - like security holes out the wazoo but we are stuck with using it bc - no "approved" DoD replacement.. but that's a rant on security in form of checkboxes (yet another future blog post)

anyway enufff ranting.. let me get to some fun stuff in my life than I must try get rest.

my move: woot! I never knew why but when I was 14 about the time my mom shot down my dreams with the whole I'm not paying for Howard University.. the ONLY time I give my mother full credit.. sorry HU peeps UMCP >>> HU (costs less & degree just as good if not better) heheh
but I faked, got cold feet.. at the end of the day I'm a small town country girl DC seemed overwhelming & expensive. But seriously the move has been great so far.. I'm broke as heck lol paying this fake Manhattan rent but the goal was to improve the work/life balance.

other stuff:
like people think IT folks be on the ish.. i know i be tired.. like the PCs in my home aren't fly flashy.. seriously they are patchwork jobs overloaded w/ RAM. I bring this up bc I went to my main site to search. I swore I had posted about my basil plant.. wholetime - why do I NOT have a search button on my blog - LMAO - terrible. My blog is stuck in the 90s LMAO! Imma try peeps to upgrade to wordpress & migrate to my own domain- maybe by end of summer or 2011- meanwhile I'll try make some cosmetic upgrades to "blogspot"

new obsession :Keriug Kcups machine- supply of the energy for this post. Blame QVC & 3 easy payments LOL.. its a nice machine w/ a huge variety of refills plus at the end of the day.. anything that takes away the urge to spend 5$+ at Starbucks = FTW

basil:

forgive me I believe the plant before & after growth pics are in the old BB - sorry.. all I have is the harvesting of the plant..not gonna fake it was SCARY to say like ok I can pluck this and throw it into my food LMAO.. but after much research apparently that's what you do.
So I ripped up 3 leaves tossed into this marinade I was making - fresh lemon juice, ginger, garlic & red wine vinny- WOW like it taste so Italian-y lol meaning that fresh basil made it POP.. delish. Next plants I want to grow : thyme, mint








bedtime peeps

back 2 back blogs... FTW!

as promised...let me jump right in because its Sunday night need to start getting mentally prepared for the M-F 9-5 grind. My new job...lets just say its with one of the "big 4" Audit firms in the US. I was hired as a Sr. Info Security Consultant lol sooo different from my normal title of Defense Contractor. I'm learning everything at the Big4 is different one all these audit/financial things mixed into EVERYTHING its weird in a we aren't in Kansas anymore way lol. I have so many compliance courses to take. At my old gig I barely had any corporate side taskers outside of annual evaluation. My job is still with the DoD family working in support of Military Healthcare which is such a blessing like in this time of a 'recession' I'm working in 3 fields heavily supported by government funds: Defense, Cybersecurity & Healthcare. I need to milk it for all its worth things can change so quickly. I'm still learning the ropes but being a 'consultant' is funny I do work but mainly I instruct others on what to do and I make sure they do it not in a managerial way but I''m 'overseeing' the end to end processes... blah.. lol
One thing about these Big4 is they are heavy players in the commercial world and good way for me to get on that side of the house (away from DoD) and maybe do so more traveling.
I'm only into month one so there will be more to report as I continue to get acclimated but IM HAPPY and do not miss my old project, agency or coworkers (minus a few folks).

my Kindle DX...SWOOOON



trust I had been eying ebooks readers for a minutes as talked about in several posts here. Since I'm older & wiser now LOL I don't like buying 1st generation or even 2nd electronics because new ones come out so fast example: Apple Ipods. However yes I sure did want to treat myself since one I def worked hard for this new job but with the Ipad release on the horizon I was scared Amazon would drop the price of the DX and I'd be short over paying. That's the risk you have to take but technically the KDX is the 3rd gen of Kindles and Im sure they are working on a K3 prototype you just can't win with technology.
I bought this device so that I wouldn't have to carry around 500pg+ technical books and let me say the reader does a great job of taking my tech pdf and displaying them on the screen. When I unboxed the Kindle it was even scary for me I kept touching the screen staring at the e-ink like eww weird lol. I love my device on the low low Amazon.com is my favorite website so the integration btw the site and the device is beautiful. The FREE 3g network built into the device is cool I don't play the net heavy on the KDX but its good to know I can wiki or tweet even check my gmail just incase my blackberry, comcast or whatever network is offline. I have been reading alot and slowly trying to get back into CISSP study mode...

Last topic I stopped into wholefoods (WF) in DC last week off the random.. yall know I do not mess with that expensive store. I stick to shopping at my main market which I fully endorse MOMs organic Market. I can't deny that WF selection of goods is impressive. I'm always on the search for a good rawfood/vegan bar so I went a lil crazy in there picked up 6 bars lol for reviewing.


LOL they are all Spirulina (basically algae) based.. don't get weirded out.. any green food mixed with the right amount of fruit & sweetness cancels out the seaweed taste you think the bars would have. Give me some time to digest and access but I'll have some comments soon..

welcome to the family

my new blacberry tour just upgraded from my curve.




this phone kicks azz!! excuse my french

how much stuff does one have to manage?

I got an email from a friend who's using twitter now.. for those of yall not familiar. Twitter is another social type application where you post updates on your life via phone, net etc. People subscribe to your page and basically read about your life updates. Its been out a for a while but now that a few famous people post on twitter everyone's hopped on the site.

So I'm like a person can have a blog, facebook/myspace/linked-IN page, twitter, regular email (personal and work), RSS feeds to manage. I refuse and mark my words here in this blog to join Twitter nation (no matter how hard my friend pressures me). I can barely find time to keep the blog rollin...luckily I can handle my facebook via blackberry... myspace is boring now but I keep it open to communicate with those who only have m.space . Linked in- my coworkers are pressing me to join to be hooked up with other professionals. I add new sites to my RSS list everyday-such a junky (49 subscriptions)

All I'm saying though is how fascinatated the world is with having your life posted on-line, and having your friends/strangers comment on the life that you post on-line.
I enjoy such sites too, but as infosec professional I read a story about someone's identity stolen through scrounging details about this person from all their social sites pages. That info was used to guess passwords and comprimise other senstive information. Its not like you have to be nicked out here but since everyone's updating their statuses every hour or so- "Having fun at mall" during that time someone who e-trailing you could use that as oppourtunity to ruff your house while your out. I'm just saying we need to be concious of what we say and do on-line because its a war going on (on-line) and that data breeches are happ'n constantly so just be wise when using such sites.


Email- gmail all day long- I actually decline to push this to my blacbkerry just cuz I don't want the joint buzzin all day long.

I have 3 work emails- my main joint i just had to dump half my emails into a .PST to bring my inbox from 500 down to 150 just so I wouldn't keep getting the " you are over the limit" email daily from the sysadmin. And then bammas want to send messages to both my gov't and contractor email- do you know how annoying it is to have daily dupes and while I'm kirking I don't understand how ppl can send attachments over 5mb! Someone sent me 2 emails totaling 10mb in attachments. I sure enough went down to their cube like- is there any reason you couldn't ask me to bring my thumb drive over to get the attachments. Like if I had not cleaned out my inbox those joints would been bounced back- anyway ppl please THINK before sending big attachments especially over work email. And let me add video forwards are not appropriate for work or person email - I HATE THOSE!

Google released their own web browser last night called Chrome. I have to give it up for google they are the internet Microsoft. Quick review of the browser IT IS FAST like zipping FAST, but until the product matures some by having add-ons etc it will not replace my FF3 with adblock and flash block= NO ADS at all while surfing. so what by 2012- Google take over the world?

Just venting about the state of the world we are truly in the information age- OVER LOAD!!