Recently in Compooper Stuff Category

I've redone the site so it's easier to navigate and fixes the broken links that resulted from the last site change. Yay.

This past summer has been a busy one for me. I've been learning "home improvement" at a house in the Sacramento Delta. I now know how to rewire lights, install doorknobs and locks, learned the ins and outs of the Home Despot and Lowes, how to clean and polish hardwood floors (on yr hands and knees!) and how to replace a garbage disposal. The aircon works and the gas has been turned on. As a result, the house is now livable save for a broadband connection. I wonder how long THAT will take?

One plus about being out in the middle of nowhere is that there's a two slip boathouse on the levee across from a slough. On a clear day it's kinda nice as long as you can deal with oodles of flying stinging bugs. Yuck.

This is why!

Generally, it works more often than it doesn't. Also, unlike Dish, I can use my TiVo!

Flying, generally, isn't a completely bad thing, if done properly. One of the things that has to be done "properly" is learning how to pack. Baggage should be light, as well as the non-clothing things that are now travel essentals.

I've been a MacHead for close to two decades now. I'm of the opinion that the MacOS is the best operating system for end user use and general headache avoidance. However, after spending the past couple of years lugging a MacBrickBook around the world, I've come to a realization about what I really use a comp for when I'm traveling.
Email, websurfing, blogging, booking travel, photo dumping (from the camera's memory card) and Skype.

Many of the netbooks out there can do all these things AND are a lot easier to lug around airports and the like. The problem is that the wizards at Infinite Loop refuse to build a netbook. Period. Which is a pain, considering the last true portable Apple made was the 12" aluminum that, if you ignore the warped cases, the G4 that generated enough heat to make shabu shabu and the squishy keyboard, was the perfect size for flashpacking. So, since Apple won't make one, guess it's time to make one myself. Kinda.

I held my nose and ordered a Dell Inspiron Mini 9 netbook. Since it's bad enough to order a Dell Dull, and worse off to have to pay for windoze, I ordered the bare bones stock model with Unbuntu on a 4 GB SSD, 512K RAM, a webcam and bluetooth since it's MUCH cheaper to order the upgrade bits through third party vendors. 32 GB SSD and 2 GB RAM for under US$100.

Now, why have I sullied my credit card to a company that makes crap pee cees that only IT geeks and people that don't know any better worship? Because, they got it right with the Mini 9. It's a good form factor, the screen is not too big or too small and you can actually do real work with it. Did I mention that you can install OSX on it? Yes you can!

Now here's the question. Are these netbooks made of precious metals? Made by hand by skilled artesians? Nope. Then why does it take a MONTH?? I'll update when and if it ever gets here...

I've just installed a plugin for MT called iMT (clever!). What it does is provide an iPhone friendly interface to make blog entries from (you guessed it) your iPhone.

It works well, so far. I can write basic, text only entries (no pix or links); said entries can be edited later on when I'm back on mah Mac.

Hmm. Is this now one less reason to bring my Macbrick along on the plane now?

Update from mah Mac: Here's the link to iMT. And since I do most (but not all) of my flying on UA, I'll still need my Macbrick for AVOD since UA dun have any. Of course, if I could convert my .avi files to iphone format, then I wouldn't have to lug my Macbrick...

Well, the first week of January has come and gone and MacWorld has done the same. My reaction: "Har"?

Prior to this year, I've been to 12 of these shows. Strangely enough, nothing worth going for this year. All the buzz is in Vegas at CES where Palm (remember them?) may have a device (with a very dumb name) that will give Apple a run for its money (and incentive to improve features and lower its price on the iPhone).

Besides CES, there's another convention happening concurrently. In fact, the industry that this other convention is showcasing is asking for a bailout (as are the rest of American industry). I wonder if they'll actually get some?

I'm waiting for the "Legacy Airline Bailout". Once they get that, nothing will change, except the fares, which will go up. More of the same...

Just finished subjecting myself to webhosted grief...

Upgraded to Movable Type 4.2. Got template issues (but strangely enough, the back end seems to be working fine). That's why the site looks like crap.

Am working on it, but the lack of responsiveness from the MT boards is making me seriously look at jumping to Word Press...!

I went to a seminar tonight about digital photography.

GOING DIGITAL: THE ABCS OF DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY

More than 3 million U.S. consumers will buy digital cameras this year. Whether you are an absolute beginner, a photography enthusiast or a professional photographer, join us as our panel of experts leads us through the latest trends, techniques and innovations in this digital field.

Sounds interesting, right? Wrong. The event's description sounded a lot more interesting than the actual event which had the co-founder of Flickr, a broadcast "journalist" and a baby boomer photographer whining about the injustice of how people without computer skills will lose out on sharing photos that are on computers, yadda yadda. About a third of the audience walked out after the first 20 minutes (the under 40 crowd). What was left was the over-40 crowd. Fun! *rolls eyes*

The event was held at the Computer History Museum that had a lot of (guess!) old computers inside. Very retro!

The computer that started an empire, the US$666.66 (in 1974 US$) Apple 1!

I think this is a very old ATC system...

Here's an almost as old IBM mainframe (ask your grandparents what this is)

This is a Cray-1 Supercomputer, circa 1976. I think it's a neat piece of furniture!

Modern day high end PC processors, like the ones in your lappy or desktop are 100 times faster than the Cray-1. Amazing lah.

Here's some other "amazing" stuff. Although it's more of the "wah lau" kind of amazing. While eating dinner, I saw people in polo shirts with their collars turned up. A lot. Is it the 80s' again?? When I was in the PRC, I saw a lot of this. Maybe the techies that go there to manufacture computers goods brought back this style??

Geez...

One of my friends drank the kool-aid and picked an iPhone up.

Lucky!

I helped him set it up to sync between two computers; the Mac (yeay!) for music, videos, photos and the pee cee (groan) for email, scheduling and contacts. I also configured the email client on iPhone so it could send and receive using EDGE.

That's my 838 Pro (AKA HTC Hermes) on the right and the iPhone on the left. Look how slim lah!

I repeat, look how slim!

iTunes on both Mac and pee cee controls the sync functions with the iPhone, much like ActiveSync does on the pee cee side. The main difference is that iTunes is a LOT easier to set up, simpler to understand and gives you more control over the process.

And after playing with it for several hours, I can't convey how impressive this piece of hardware is. Cannot. You should go to an Apple Store and playwiddit for yourself!

If it were only unlocked....!

To start off, these are probably the most crappiest photos you will ever see on this blog. It's the fabled iPhone in my grubby mitts...

Pictures were taken with my Dopod 838 Pro (AKA HTC Hermes). Good PDA phone, not so good camera.

I shoulda brought my K800 instead...

The iPhone really is a marvel. It's hella thin, looks like it belongs in the permanent collection at the MOMA and the screen navigation is really just like you see on TV. And that gorgeous screen! It makes YouTube videos and everything else look great!

So am I going to drink the kool-aid? Maybe...but my only concern is if I can get the damn thing unlocked. You see, here in the ewe ess of aaay, cell phone providers simlock their phones so only their SIM cards work on them. They justify this by their "subsidy", a discount of the overly inflated MSRP of the phone that they provide to you so you can be indentured with a two year contract.

However, the iPhone is NOT subsidized. You're paying full boat for it and it's STILL SIM locked? That's very wrong...and the only thing that's holding me back from taking the plunge.

So after my Friday night plans fell through (grrrr), I decided to do the San Francisco thing and geek out on the computer.

Walking Ixus has had the same look for three years; I figured it was time to freshen it up. Still working out some of the kinks, but the new sitemap goes something like this:

Archives and Categories are on the left.
Fun Stuff is on the right.

Kinda matches up with your left/right side of the brain thing, huh? Here's something else for your left/right side of the brain thing...