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Sep.3,2010Here’s a quick video of all my current snakes taking their meal…
Tech-Tiles
Technology, Reptiles & More
This week marks the start of my first breeding “experiment”. I’m using experiment in quotes because I’m doing this breeding project as part of my passion for the hobby, not to “make big bucks” or produce a new genetic morph. I’m doing it purely for the experience.
I’ve read many things about starting breeding projects and some of the first thing that must be considered are…
- Can you afford to breed.
- Will the babies have a use.
I don’t take the subject of leopard gecko breeding lightly. I may offend when I say the next statement, but breeding leopard geckos on a very small scale does not cost much to start with. Honestly, taking care of a handful of leo’s doesn’t take much money either. Things can crop up, such as illness or geckos that won’t breed. I’ve already spent nearly $200 (male breeder, incubator, deli-cups, vermiculite) on this project and I don’t even know if I have viable breeders! Crazy, I know. But it’s my passion for the hobby that drives me to try. You could also say that the money spent was not wasted. I now have an additional, very handsome male, incubator and vermiculite for future projects if things fall through here.
Let’s try and stay positive though 
On the plus side, my geckos have mated. I paired Lily with Zeus. From what I have read, her first clutch will most likely contain a single egg and may not be fertile. She has the ability to lay ~3 more clutches off the single mating, about three weeks apart.
So I may be looking at around 6 eggs (if any). Leo’s are temperature sex dependent. I’ll be incubating for females. From what I have gathered from the genetics so far, their offspring should be ‘normal het albino’. Meaning they will look just like Lily but have underlying genes from Zeus (het albino). Since I’m incubating for females, in a couple years I’ll breed back one of the offspring to Zeus and that should give me a 50/50 mix of normals and albinos. I could be very off base here, but the albinism is a recessive trait so I think this may be correct.
I’ll let you guys know when the first eggs drop, should be in a couple weeks. I should have my incubator next Tuesday, I opted for the Reptibator which I have talked to breeders that use it and read the reviews online. Sounds like the best buy for the money.
And you may be wondering why Nolan isn’t getting any action. Nolan didn’t make weigh-in. I’ve read that leo’s need to be around 60 grams for breeding. No less than 55 for a female and Nolan weighed in at 54 and doesn’t quite have the best of appetites right now. Lily on the other hand weighed-in at 63 grams and Zeus was right around 55 grams.
Here’s a video showing my mealworm colony as well as the supers. Let me know if you have any questions about starting your own colony.
So I have settled on leopard geckos for my first breeding project. Sunday, I picked up a handsome male from GeckoLair.com. Thankfully they are kind of local and I got to meet Vanessa from GeckoLair.com to pick up the new guy.
Jungle tremper albino GIANT possible super giant! 100% het RAPTOR. Hatched July 9, 2009.
I have not settled on a name yet. Brandi mentioned Zeus (Father of Gods) but I’m leaning towards Achilles (ahem, manly beauty). He will probably be the only male breeder I will have, and I’d like to stay away from people names such as Hugh or Larry
I’ll create a gallery and post more pictures for the new one when I settle on a name.
Repticon was last weekend and it turned out to be a pretty good show. My wife Brandi and my Mom made the trip with me. I was searching for a Brazilian Rainbow Boa (BRB) and an Ornate Horned Frog. I had almost given up hope finding what I was looking for. I only saw two of the frogs, neither “wowed” me and I didn’t see any BRBs. On our way out I ran into an old friend, I told him what I was looking for and he directed me towards John Wiseman, a local breeder of BRBs.
On our way out we ran into a breeder of Veiled Chameleons. They were just too cute to not pick up. We already had a large screen cage, I got a great deal on it a couple months ago for $6. Now it has an occupant. Not many pictures were taken, sorry about that. I was too busy browsing and hunting. Below you’ll find the few pictures I did take. In one of the pictures you’ll see a huge tarantula, that’s my mom holding it!
Introducing Rev
John had a very handsome male with him as well as three neonates. I ended up picking the first snake he took out to show me. A beautiful male.
Introducing Doug
We also picked up a Veiled Chameleon. This was Brandi’s purchase and she did not get a card from the breeder.
Today being the day the iPhone 4 goes on sale at all AT&T stores, I find it fitting to finally do my review of the iPhone 4.
After waiting around 12 hours for the new device, I wasn’t very happy with it. After spending some time with it, I now LOVE it! Here is an outline of the things I really like:
- Battery – I have noticed a tremendous increase in battery life. When I got the device, it was 3/4 full battery. I did not charge it until the following night. And I used it quite a bit, Pandora, pictures, video, texts, some games and much more.
- Screen – The screen really didn’t hit me until I used my old 3G beside my iPhone 4. Huge difference.
- Multitasking – Finally, applications like Pandora and others are useful. I always got so annoyed that I had to quit Pandora so I could reply to a text or browse the web. No more! I can stream Pandora and do nearly anything else. I can even start it during a call so I don’t have to pay attention to the person I’m listening to.
- Speed – I never had the 3GS, but this thing is responsive! Taking pictures is really quick, opening texts is almost instant. Apps open in a flash.
- Design – It feels so nice in the hand. Nothing cheap about it.
- FaceTime – Yeah, it’s cool and the only way to explain it would be to show it to you.
- Camera – It’s fast! Tap focus is very nice and the pictures look very good. Comparable to my Canon digital elph.
There are many more things I like, but this isn’t an iOS4 review so I will leave out details like folders, voice control and the such. Now on to the cons…
- Glass backing – I thought the fingerprints on the back of my 3G were bad, they are much more visible now.
- Multitasking – Watch how many apps you open, they never close. I imagine this could lead to memory issues. I have not experienced it yet but I run the same 10 apps or so.
- Antenna – The design was good, but cell antennas are not like rabbit ears, reception does not get better when you touch them. I don’t drop calls because of it, but I do lose a couple bars. There are many fixes for this issue though, any case or even a small piece of tape to cover the bottom left quarter of the device on the antenna.
- HD Video – Nice feature to have, but you can tell the video was taken with a cell phone. Not by the picture quality, but by the jerky motion.
That’s all I got. Let me know if you have any questions. There are a LOT of new features in the new iOS4, but that would be another post.
AT&T plans to have iPhone 4 inventory – available on a first-come, first-served basis while supplies last – on June 29 in its retail locations, at www.att.com, and in business sales channels.
Taken from: http://www.facebook.com/ATT
If you want your chance to get the new iPhone, I’d say you’ll have to travel back in time and take your chances with the pre-order program.
Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Radio Shack have all confirmed that they will have the phone for sale. Best Buy is determined to fulfill pre-orders first, as stated on their forums. As far as the other two outlets, everyone is saying there will only be a few available units tomorrow.
Tags : iphone
Next week the new iPhone is released. I have been asked a million different questions about what I know about the release. I’ll try and sum it all up. Even if you don’t plan on purchasing the new iPhone 4, at least take a look at the new data plans and see if you can save yourself a little money on your current iPhone bill….if you have one.
Features you should know about:
- Longer battery life, up to 40%
- 5 MP camera with LED flash on the back. VGA quality (shitty) on the front
- FaceTime feature will allow iPhone 4 users to video chat while on the phone
- Call must be placed
- Must be connected via WiFi
- Actually a pretty cool feature from the demo’s I have seen
- Multitasking
- Kick-ass new display. Has more pixels than the iPad, and more than any other phone on the market
- HD (720p) video recording
So now you want it, here’s the skinny on availability:
- Online pre-orders are currently only taken through Apple.com
- White is ONLY available at the Apple store on release day. Expect mid-July for white availability
- Pre-ordering started last Tuesday. You’re out of luck if you want one next week and want to pre-order. Current estimation is July 14th the pre-orders placed now will ship
- On the 24th, you can visit any Apple store, AT&T store, Wal-Mart or Best Buy to purchase the new iPhone 4
- Pre-orders placed for pick up at the Apple store have precedence over other walk-in customers. If you go to the Apple store, be prepared for a huge disappointment while watching all the pre-orders getting fulfilled while you get pushed further and further back inline as they show up.
- In-store pre-order pick up is limited to the Apple store only so you will not have that issue at the other outlets
- People are already in line, so show up as early as possible
- Sales start at 7 AM, not sure if that’s valid for a 24-hour Wal-Mart though. I’ll try and get a definitive answer on that.
In addition to the new device, AT&T is also releasing their new logo (rumor has it). Employees are required to dress business casual wearing the new black shirts with a logo resembling a gay pride flag. Oh joy!
From my experience in the past, having done this twice, the time goes by pretty fast. I’m lucky with my local AT&T store because it’s next door to a CVS Pharmacy. As long as you have someone with you, food, bathroom, drinks etc., are all within reach. The crowd also makes the time pass. It’s very frustrating, but sometimes funny listening to all the people that find out they are not qualified for an upgrade and have to leave the line. At the 3G release, they would check your status if you were not holding something printed out saying you were eligible.
Probably the best part of the experience, besides obtaining a new phone, would have to be the people that think you are absolutely nuts. I didn’t think about this my first time going. I know that people would see us lined up outside the building and probably make comments while driving by, but I never expected that we actually inconvenienced some of their lives. A few people would show up and not know what’s going on and they would get irate when the manager of the store told them that they would have to wait at the end of the line just to be able to get a different phone or an accessory.
For hours we were blocking the entrance into the CVS mentioned earlier. The people working there would tell us to move, customers would call us stupid and shout things like “it’s just a phone”. Eventually, the authorities were called and we were told it was a fire hazard to block the entrance. At one point it almost became a game because the old lady that was working there just couldn’t handle it. She was on the verge of a break down. I KNOW she’s dreading the 24th, I’ll bet she even takes the day off.
It’s about the experience. It may be a phone, but on June 24th 2010, it will be the most advanced, standard setting phone available. I’ll argue all day about your FAILDroid if you want. And I’ll give you 20 reasons why it’s just not a phone…but that’s another post.
http://forums.wireless.att.com/t5/Announcements/New-Smartphone-Data-Plans/td-p/1934389
Having blogged before blogging was cool, I lost my passion for my online writing. Mostly due to people only looking at FaceBook, MySpace and Twitter for information about myself. I don’t like those avenues to express what’s in my mind.
Having had enough of FaceBook notes that went unheard and people not caring because they don’t share my passions, I have started Tech-Tiles.com. This website will be a mash-up of my TECHnical ramblings and all things repTILE.
Enjoy!
-J.B.
Tags : welcome