Scott R. Sullivan

October 29th, 2009 by Scott

Research in Motion recently announced they have acquired Torch Mobile:

Torch Mobile is excited to announce that our company has been acquired by Research In Motion (RIM), one of the most renowned mobile technology companies in the world. Our team of developers will join RIM’s global organization and will now be focused on utilizing our WebKit-based mobile browser expertise to contribute to the ongoing enhancement of the BlackBerry® platform. (Source: Torch Mobile)

Torch Mobile specializes in development of their own Webkit based browser. What is important is that RIM has apparently acknowledged the general consensus of their current browser and have decided to go with the Open Source Webkit.

Webkit is becoming the de facto framework for mobile device browsers. The iPhone has used Webkit since it’s introduction several years ago. More recently, Android (from Google) is using it, and Apple’s Safari desktop browser uses it.

This is important for several reasons. First, is that it hopefully will make developing web pages easier since Webkit is becoming the standard.

But the more significant reason, in my opinion, is that Webkit’s framework is very robust, small, and standards-compliant. It’s what has made the iPhone’s browser so successful for the past several years and why Palm’s Pre was introduced with it earlier this year.

When future versions of the Blackberry begin to show up with Webkit based browsers, we’ll start to see what has already happened on the iPhone. People will be using their phones for more and more powerful tasks.

December 25th, 2008 by Scott

Merry Christmas from us to everyone. On this beautiful winter morning, it is nice to remember what Christmas is all about.

After all, it was Jesus who died for our sins so that we could be saved. It is humbling to know there is nothing we can do, it is all through God’s grace that we are forgiven our sins. God bless you.

Scott

November 5th, 2008 by Scott

Well gang, another report out that this has been a RECORD year for hurricane INACTIVITY. This year has seen the lowest activity in 30 years!

(Source)

It is still amazing to this day that people still believe in the environmentalists. The stats don’t lie. There is no man-made global warming. The only warming trend was a short one caused by the sun activity. Since the solar activity has subsided, the planet’s temperature has been cooling ever since.

And as a result, water temperatures cool, reducing hurricane activity.

October 24th, 2008 by Scott

[flv:/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/ajdigital.flv 368 208]

I just finished Angie’s video. Click the link above to watch it! I created this specifically for her Live Digital Caricature work, which has been keeping us very busy.

You can see more of her work at http://livedigitalcaricatures.com

October 15th, 2008 by Scott

The silence from the global warming crowd has been, well, predictable. Allow me to fill the void:

Story 1 from Alaska: Glaciers are growing again

Two hundred years of glacial shrinkage in Alaska, and then came the winter and summer of 2007-2008.
Unusually large amounts of winter snow were followed by unusually chill temperatures in June, July and August.
“In mid-June, I was surprised to see snow still at sea level in Prince William Sound,” said U.S. Geological Survey glaciologist Bruce Molnia. “On the Juneau Icefield, there was still 20 feet of new snow on the surface of the Taku Glacier in late July. At Bering Glacier, a landslide I am studying, located at about 1,500 feet elevation, did not become snow free until early August.
“It’s been a long time on most glaciers where they’ve actually had positive mass balance,” Molnia said.
That’s the way a scientist says the glaciers got thicker in the middle. (Source)

Story 2 from Oregon: 118 Record Low Temps

Cold temperatures set several new record lows this weekend, including a low of 22 Saturday in downtown Pendleton (Oregon) that broke a 118 year-old record of 24. (Source)

Story 3 from California: More Record Cold

Temperatures dropped to 31 degrees in the Ukiah Valley on Saturday night and early Sunday morning, the coldest Oct. 12 morning since record keeping began in Ukiah in 1893, said Troy Nicolini, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Eureka. The previous record was 34 degrees in 1916.(Source)

As I’ve said before, we’re actually going cooler, not wamer, in recent history. After all, temps have actually been steady and/or falling for the past ten years, not rising like they make us think.

I just don’t understand why the global warming crowd won’t just admit that the temperature of the earth is affected by the sun cycles, not by us gas guzzlers. Sigh. Even in the face of pure scientific fact, they will refuse to accept what is obvious truth.

June 29th, 2008 by Scott

Angie and I spent the weekend visiting friends and going to see Les Miserables since it was playing in Philly. Not only is Les Miserables a wonderful production, but it is also nice to see that a production that makes a big deal about doing what is right (instead of what is easy) and listening to God is still popular in this day.

The next day (after spending the night at Loews Hotel in Center City) we strolled down to a coffee shop for breakfast and hung out at Independence Hall.

I’m always in awe when I’m at Independence Hall. After all, we used to be the nation’s capitol for a short time and this city was where our great country was born. It seemed appropriate that on Friday, when the Supreme Court ruled against a gun ban and re-affirmed an individual’s right to bear arms, we were right down the street from the building that drafted the original document.

We can’t forget our Constitution, the Bill of Right and the history that has given us the freedom that so many today take for granted.

June 14th, 2008 by Scott

Pennsylvania just passed a ban on smoking in most public places. It also imposed a $1,000 fine for offenders. They did this in the name of public health. Who can argue with that?

Now I’ve never smoked in my life. A few of my friends do. Most of them do not.

I am not going to dispute the harm of smoking. I know it is bad.

The problem is that congress knows it is bad for you, too. Yet, they tax it so much that they are making HUGE profits from someone’s addiction and unhealthy habit. How is it ethical to profit off of someone else’s cancer?

To me, there is one answer. Congress is just as addicted. Except they are addicted to the money they rake in from this poison.

Ethically, congress had only two options.

Option one, get rid of all cigarette taxes, thus getting rid of blood money. I’m all for congress reducing taxes in any form.

Option two, ban cigarettes altogether. Classify it along with Cocaine or Heroin and make it illegal. If tobacco is as bad as congress says it is, why don’t they just ban it all instead of doing this wimpy “no smoking here or here, but there is okay.”

Personally, I don’t care which option they take.

So the question is: Congress, can you kick your own addiction?

May 25th, 2008 by Scott

I took a few quick pictures this weekend. On Saturday night, we were both working at a gig in Harrisburg. She was doing Digital Caricatures and I was in Harrisburg for magic for most of the day.

When she finished, we stopped by Perkins on the way home for breakfast at around 1 a.m.! While sitting there, I snapped a quick picture of my wife, Angie. Just thought I’d share.

I have been playing around with the 50mm prime lens I have. The 50mm is a great lens since it restricts your field of view. With a standard zoom lens, we too often just zoom in. With a 50mm, your stuck at, well, 50mm. So you’ve got to think about your shots a little more.

This picture of Angie was taken with the 50mm, then I desaturated it in Photoshop to give it a more artistic look. Portraits just look cool when done in Black and White. *grin*

This picture was taken at the front entrance of the Luxor Casino in Las Vegas. While out there two weeks ago, I took this picture with the same 50mm lens. Another great feature with the 50mm is that its a fast lens. This one is f1.8 and so I can get some great depth of field shots.

April 4th, 2008 by Scott

For all those who think that coffee is bad for you, for all those who think coffee takes years off your life, I’ve got a bit of news. According to researchers:

Coffee may cut the risk of dementia by blocking the damage cholesterol can inflict on the body, research suggests.
The drink has already been linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer’s Disease, and a study by a US team for the Journal of Neuroinflammation may explain why.
A vital barrier between the brain and the main blood supply of rabbits fed a fat-rich diet was protected in those given a caffeine supplement.

Source: BBC News

Gotta run. Me coffee’s brewin!

March 22nd, 2007 by Scott

202 Republicans in the House. 49 Republicans in the Senate. 28 Cabinet members. The President and the Vice-president. That’s eerily close to the 300 Spartans defending their city from the massive, approaching army of Persians.

The liberal left has been attacking conservatism for decades. It’s nothing new. However, recently, they have stepped it up a notch. And I’m not just talking about Hillary’s latest comments in New Hampshire complaining about the “vast, right-wing conspiracy.” If only it were only that much.

But they’ve done much more.

Take, for example, liberals adding pork to a military spending bill. Forget that during last year’s elections, they made cutting pork a priority. Forget that they were going to work a 5 day work week like the rest of us.

Forget that they threatened to cut funding to our military during a time of war. Forget that one of their presidential hopefuls attacked the military by saying that if you don’t study, you’ll end up stuck in Iraq.

Forget that today they voted and passed a bill to cut and run in Iraq.

Unfortunately, it seems that the Democratic party has been more obsessed with the pursuit of power than the safety of our country.

In doing so, this administration is having to spend time defending being attacked from the left instead of spending time defending our country from the true threats.

When listening to the left, one can easily think that they have lost their interest in even pretending to care about our fight for freedom. Instead, we have special investigations on crimes that were never committed, pulling administration aides away from protecting our nation, hearings on global warming and other silly concepts.

The caricature above was drawn by my wife, Angie, after we saw the film, ’300.’ I made the comment that at times it seemed like President Bush is constantly spending more time defending his actions and beliefs to an emboldened left wing. With that, the caricature was born.

We must keep our eye on the true threat of an ideology that hates us for who we are. They hate our religion. They hate our freedom. They hate our prosperity.

The question is, which ideology fits that description better? Democrats or radical terrorists?

Caricature above is Copyright, 2007, Angie Jordan.