08.13.08
Posted in General Rant at 4:31 pm by Administrator
So…. my new iPhone said the battery was almost dead - which was interesting - since it was connected via the USB connector at the time - which, should, in theory, mean it was charging.
In iTunes, the little “lightening bolt” didn’t appear (which means it wasn’t charging). So, I looked online and people said to restart it - or “let it sit for 5 minutes completely turned off.”
Did both of those - no luck.
Then, I decided to think like a Mac user. In iTunes - it says “If you are experiencing problems with your iPhone, you can restore its original settings by clicking Restore.”
Hmmm…. hey, I was having problems - so, being a Windows user with my “Mac User” hat on - I clicked Restore. After an HOUR it said all things were a go.
Great! Re-plugged in and it asked if I wanted to register the phone as a new iPhone or restore from backup. So, thinking like a Mac User - I clicked Restore - thinking it just needed some clean up, etc.
Nope. It did the whole thing over again. Surely this time - iTunes would bless me with the “default” iPhone screen for synching, etc.
Nope.
So after some more searching - I found some posts by Windows users (and Mac users) that said to FORCE QUIT iTunes during restore and shut off the phone, turn it on, re-launch iTunes and re-connect.
Now THIS is advice I can use! Being a Windows user - force quitting and restarting is something I’m 100% comfortable with! So, I tried it - and guess what? It WORKED.
Not kidding.
WTF?
I think that firmware update did the old hose the iPhone thing. From the number of posts I went through - there are lots of people complaining of “slow downs” and “freezes” and all kinds of good stuff.
To sum up, in terms of that famous line in Disney’s movie Nemo, “Good feeling gone.”
They just blew the entire wad of good will they built up - and not just for me. There are horror stories of people staying on the phone with a tech for 2 to 3 hours, re-installing iTunes, etc. - all to no effect.
It’s the ultimate revenge - making Mac Users think like PC users!
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Posted in General Rant at 7:08 am by Administrator
So I’m still in the honeymoon period with my iPhone, but I have to tell you - it’s the bomb. Coming from my Charlie’s Angels Motorola - this thing is like the communicator in Star Trek.
Now, I’m not a person that is easily impressed - especially with gadgets. I’m not really a “gadget guy.” I still have a VCR. No, really.
I still have cassette tapes (although I’ve ditched my 8 Tracks and LPs, though). We still have a video camera that uses VHS tape (of course we have a new digital as one as well - but only as of 9 months ago!). My TV is notHD - and we only have one of them in the main family room (and an old one in our bedroom that is only used in the case the kids are in nuclear meltdown over who gets to watch what).
As I’ve said before - I was waiting for the Android phone - but then I got tied of waiting. I also wanted to see why in the heck grown people would stand in line (for a whole week!) to get some piece of gear.
Now I can sort of understand why it’s so popular. It’s really, really cool. It’s like a mini laptop in my pocket. I can do email, get stock quotes, surf the web (although that’s a bit retarded since Flash isn’t supported). I downloaded a couple of games, I can send Tweets from the road, it getsWIFI, and has turn-by-turn directions to help me out when I get lost.
The visual voicemail is cool and easy to use - and now I never have an excuse to not have pictures of my kids with me at all times (I downloaded over 100 - so if you see me in person - NEVER ask to see pictures of my kids!).
The keyboard was a little hinkey at first - but just like the Palm devices I’ve had - once you get used to it - you can really fly on that thing (although I won’t be doing long blog posts from it).
Now I’ve heard all kinds of people bitching about how the battery life is greatly decreased (from the 2G version), and how spotty the 3G service can be (it’s really terrific where I live), and how they’re disappointed at thecrapware that Apple let out on the App Store.
It’s funny though - most of the people yelling the loudest have bought their SECOND iPhone. A YEAR later. When was the last time you went out and bought a new (anything) the next model year? Would you go out and buy it again because it totally sucked and was a useless piece of crap?
I’m guessing not.
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08.12.08
Posted in General Rant at 3:57 pm by Administrator
I’m sick and tired of reading stories where people are pissed off because of the gMail outage. Yes, I agree that companies who host things in the cloud - especially with something as important to productivity as email - should do everything in their power to ensure uptime.
But hey - even the folks at Google are human. Servers fail. Protocols get messed up. Windows crashes. Some idiot hits a phone pole with fibre in it.
Stuff happens.
Especially in “the cloud.”
People who pay for services (and some do pay for Google services) - should still have a reasonable expectation of service failure. Yes, it sucks, and yes, it’s inconvenient - but hey, it’s a miracle the thing even works at all.
There are so many ways that a hosted solution (even with a multi-million dollar redundant uber server facilities) can fail. No one, not Salesforce, not Apple, not RIM, not Google, not Microsoft - NO ONE is immune from downtime.
That is part of the price you pay for the “convenience” of not having to manage your own servers. An oh, by the way, if you do manage your own servers - you will STILL have downtime. There will be times your ISP gets hosed, or DNS goes down, or a drive fails, or the new intern wipes your active directory store.
It WILL, for 100% SURE, happen. It’s the nature of technology.
If you don’t like it - sell your Google stock. Maybe you should do what we did in the old days - buy and Exchange Server and download and manage your own damn email. Or POP rather than IMAP the stuff.
I’ll bet your uptime with your own managed, on-premesis server is about the same as a solution hosted in the cloud. Technology is a really good thing… WHEN it works.
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08.08.08
Posted in General Rant at 2:45 pm by Administrator
OK, so I’ve had this phone now for just under 24 hours. I’ve upgraded the firmware, and OS (no jailbreaking for me - YET), and have visited the Apple App Store to download a few thingies, have put some photos on there, and of course synched my iTunes library.
The one thing I can’t do - EVER - it seems, is to put my contacts on there from Thunderbird.
So, when I got the the thing, I put my wife in there first (she was with me when I got it) - and took her picture and put in the the little contact window and everything.
Sweet!
Then, this morning, I wanted to get my other contacts in there - without having to type them. Although due to the age of my old phone - and the fact that a new SIM was required (or so I was told) - I will have to enter some of the phone contacts I have by hand.
Not such a big deal (or so I thought) - since I have most of them in my Address Book in Thunderbird - thus effectively shunning the ‘evil’ Microsoft empire’s Outlook.
Well, as it turns out - unless you’re on a Mac (I’m not), or using Outlook (I’m not), or using Microsoft Mail (I’m not) or have aMobileMe account…. HEY! That’s IT! I’ll get my free trial.
Signed up for it (easy) - set up the iPhone for it - easy - then hit Synch.
OOPS.
All contacts gone. Turns out it does a PUSH synch down TO the iPhone, but not the other way around! And if you’re not using a Mac, Outlook or MS Mail (I’m not) - then the synch will cheerfully erase ALL your contacts.
Gee… THANKS!
I’m really glad I didn’t sit there for hours typing in my contacts from my old phone - and THEN do the synch. I would have been beyond pissed off.
However, now I’m mildly pissed off that I’ll have to sit there tonight and manually enter all the people from my own phone… that really sucks. I’m not about to start using Outlook or MS Mail or buy a Mac just to have my contact details in there.
Looks like I’ll get pretty good at that on-screen keyboard, though…
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08.07.08
Posted in General Rant at 6:30 pm by Administrator
OK - so I’ve been assimilated into the Borg collective… of iPhone users.
Yes, I know!
I decided to replace my phone (and have wanted to for 6 months). I’d been holding out for the Android stuff - but it looks like that’s not going to happen in 2009 - and I’m not waiting 6 more months for the latest and greatest.
At some point, you just have to go for something.
I went to the local Apple store across the street from my office. Now, I WAS going to go into an AT&T store - but my colleagues who did - had to order their phone with a 10-14 day waiting period (or as soon as Apple decided to ship anything to them).
So, I decided to just jump to the mothership - and see what happened. It turns out - no line! I asked if they had phones - and they did - just no 8GB models (which I didn’t want anyway). So I got one of the last 2 in stock (that didn’t have a “will call” sticker on it).
The twentysomething guy that helped me (looked right out of the I’m a Mac commercial - scruffy beard included) - was efficient, and the transaction went smoothly. Asked for my phone number, last 4 of social and billing zip code. Then tapped a few times (on a Symbolic handset - NOT an iPhone!) - swiped the credit card, had me sign - that’s it.
Oh, and one more thing - unbox the phone - hook up to an in-store computer and do a little activate trick (no GUI, just iTunes) - took about 30 seconds.
In about 10 minutes - the whole thing was done. I could make and receive calls, text message, the whole nine yards.
The bad news is that I will have to manually type in all my contacts - since there’s no way to get my old stuff into the new stuff - and I don’t use Outlook (*shutter*) and I’m not on a Mac.
But that’s OK - I’ll have to see how quickly I can get up to speed on that whole virtual keyboard thingie…. we’ll see…
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08.06.08
Posted in General Rant at 2:48 pm by Administrator
Even though I share a birthday with Edith Roosevelt (1861), Lucille Ball (1911), Robert Mitchum (1917), Andy Warhol (1928) and M. Night Shyamalan (1970) - another year older this year feels like, well, another year older.
While I’m thankfully not dead - the old body is getting a little worse for wear. I’m starting to need longer arms to read medicine bottles, gravity is making my stomach hang down (and out), and I actually even considered getting one of those “map lights” to read menus in restaurants.
There have been some cool (and horrific) things that have happened on August 6th:
- Gertrude Ederle became the first U.S. woman to swim across the English Channel in 1926
- The first atomic bomb used in warfare was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945
- Jamaica gained its independence within the Britain Commonwealth in 1962
- Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his candidacy to replace Gray Davis as governor of California to Jay Leno on the Tonight Show in 2003
And somewhere in there - I was born. I can’t help but to recall a line by Steve Martin in The Jerk - “… I was born a poor black child…”
In my case - that’s just not the case. I was born in California to a teenage girl whom I’ve never met. I was adopted when I was only a few weeks old - and my parents are, well, my parents.
I’m not sure if it’s any easier to harder today, but I can imagine that back in the early 60’s it must have been difficult (to say the least) for a teenage girl to carry, and then ultimately give away, a baby. And yet, I’m sure there were pressures (as there is now) to simply “get rid of the problem.”
I’m very glad she didn’t make that choice.
I always get to thinking like It’s a Wonderful Life - right around my birthday. What would change if I simply never existed?
Well - the single biggest thing is that my kids wouldn’t be here. Neither would my future grandkids, or their kids, etc. And all the achievements and relationships and things they will do in their lives and all the people they will (and do) touch - simply would never be.
I really can’t picture that - nor do I want to.
What I want to do is to be thankful for all the people and the multitude of blessings in my life. I’m thankful that my parents adopted me - or I (probably?) wouldn’t have met my wife. If I had never met my wife, my kids wouldn’t be here.
*SHUTTER*
When I was a kid, I used to think that adoption worked like a bride throwing a bouquet in a reception. There were all these people who wanted a baby in a crowd, and a nurse (or someone in white) would take a baby, turn their backs to the people and toss the baby in the air. Whomever caught it - got it. Simple.
Of course nothing in life is that simple (or dangerous!). It takes all kinds of paperwork, time, money, waiting, worrying and nail biting to adopt a baby. My folks did that (twice - my sister is adopted as well).
So - Mom & Dad - THANKS for going through all the B.S. required - and thanks for jumping the highest in the crowd to snatch me away from the others.
And a special thanks to an unnamed, 58 year old, white or hispanic, rich or poor, alive or dead woman. Who, against all the social pressures (or maybe because of them) - gave 9 months of her life in order to give me the 44 years of mine.
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08.05.08
Posted in General Rant at 12:42 pm by Administrator
In a call a couple of weeks ago Apple’s CFO, Peter Oppenheimer, had a call with financial analysts in which he mentioned a “product transition” seven times. Of course, in typical Apple fashion - details were sketchy (as in NONE provided) - but I was thinking about it today in the shower and I have some speculation of my own.
I think it’s going to be a tablet PC.
Yep, you heard right - a tablet PC. It’s really not caught on all that much (except for vertical industry uses) - but I think if Apple just “super-sized” the iPhone - it would make one helluva a computer.
Add in a USB or FireWire port, keep the GPS chip, add a SuperDrive and a dual core Intel chip - done. This baby would run OS X (natch) - but, at least in theory, could run Winblows XP or even Ubuntu. But the version of OS X should be the “full” version - not some cut down iPhone-like OS.
It could also be offered in a couple of sizes - like a super compact 8 inch - a 10 and a 12 inch version. It would have the highly debated on-screen keyboard, but with a USB connector (and some sort of kick stand) it could have the ability to have an external keyboard and prop itself up as a horizontal or vertical monitor.
They have the handwriting technology left over from the doomed Newton - so throwing that into the OS might be a good idea as well.
It would ideally have a replaceable battery (HELLO!) - a padded carrying case (like those wetsuit-style material “condoms” for the MacBook) - and the ability to “dock” to something. I’m thinking an iMac sort of screen with a place to “pop in” the thing.
And price - yeah, well if it were < $800 (starter) - I bet a bunch of people would buy them.
Including me…
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08.04.08
Posted in General Rant at 7:27 am by Administrator
I’ve been wanting to write my impressions of the next supposed Google-killer-cum-search-site Cuil (pronounced “cool”). The problem is - apparently so did everyone else.
The site was absolutely killed by traffic requests when it officially launched last week. I tried many times over several days to get it to work - but to no avail. Finally, finally, when I was back home over the weekend - the site had recovered sufficiently to give it a whirl.
Initially, it’s a much different experience than the default list of links on Google. The search results are instead put in 3 columns across the page - like a magazine. For each of the links - there is a seemingly random image put next to it - which may or may not have anything to do with the actual search results.
It’s sort of slick - like a magazine - and on the top side of the right hand column (for most searches) Cuil provides an AJAX-powered category box that has related searches by topic (pre categorized by Cuil). For example - if you search for “FJR1300″ (a Yahama motorcycle) - you’ll see a group of other motorcycle manufactureres with sets of keywords.
Clicking on a keyword will basically refine the entered search box by appending those terms. So, if you wanted to search for articles that compared two bikes - it was more likely to show up. They have a black theme at the top and bottom - with prev/next paging controls that work more or less like you expect them to.
Cuil claims to have 3x more pages indexed than Google (140 billion versus 30 billion for Google) - and in fact, it was founded by some ex-Google employees and backed with a cool $33 million in venture capital. There’s no ads (yet), and during my tests - it seemed to search pretty quickly and give reasonable search results.
Whether or not it will become a “Google-killer” is yet to be seen. My gut says no way - but you never know.
I remember a scrappy little up-start company that wanted to take on the biggest search players in the world (Yahoo and AltaVista) and wound up doing a pretty good job. That company? Google.
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