iOS4 for the iPhone & Folder functions.

Apple’s latest mobile operating system was released this week. The changes to the operating system include much needed improvements such as tethering and folders. Small touches like being able to change the wallpaper behind the apps seem insignificant, but add a much needed change to the appearance of the phone.

The only issue that I have concerns the tethering. In order to turn this option on, you have to opt-out of the unlimited data iPhone plan. The catch is that once you opt-out, you may never go back to unlimited data plan. This, coupled with the fact that it’s $15 more a month to activate this option really blows.

This aside, the operating system makes me question if I need to purchase the next iPhone at all. Besides the few camera/video functions, I essentially have 95% of the features the new phone possessed by the new phone. However, I did recently crack the case to my 3GS, so I may get one simply for that reason.  We’ll see.

The new features to iOS4 can be seen here: http://www.apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate/

This is one of the greatest overdubs ever.  Just watch it.  Please.  :)

*The original article that sparked this post can be found here.

Today something snapped in me. I read, for what seems to be the thousandth time, another news story about someone brutally torturing and murdering a child. I’m tired of being forced to understand the brutality of people.

This was the story of a dad who against his better judgement was forced by the courts to send his 4 year old to his brutal death at the hands of his mother’s boyfriend. The 4 year old knew the mother was unstable and begged not to go see her. What followed were beatings, brain damage, burnings, and eventually the death of the child on Mother’s Day. As if this wasn’t enough, the mother let the boyfriend hammer the child’s face in to make identification more difficult if the body was discovered.

There are grey areas in many crimes. A wife comes home to find her husband in bed with another woman, grabs a gun, then shoots him, that’s a grey area to me. It’s a crime of passion. She didn’t intend on shooting him when she got home early from work, it just quickly happened. There can at least be a little “He played the game and took his chance”.

My God though, these bastards who kill, rape, and torture children, I have no sympathy, understanding, or compassion for these people. There are individuals in our society that have proven they are beyond the boundaries of rehabilitation for their crimes. If you willfully, knowingly, brutalize a child, you’ve broken the unforgivable rule. There is no place for these people in society any more. There was a boundary that was knowingly crossed, and when it was, they should face the consequences, and not by rotting in prison.

Then again, it’s not going to change. We’ve become a very soft society, full of excuses for why people are the way they are. We’ve blurred the line between reasons and excuses for crimes. The past and present give reason for why people do the things they do, but shouldn’t excuse the actions.

God help that father who put his child on the plane, and knows that his little boy spent the last few days of his 4 years in pain, being tortured, wondering why his daddy wasn’t there to help him, and eventually dying on a day meant to celebrate his mother.

My new biking site!

A few months ago I launched a new bike site entitled ohiobikegeek. Now that I have a few posts under my belt I figured that I’d start to promote it more. You can also follow the site on twitter at twitter.com/ohiobikegeek.