Miscellaneous Ramblings....

For those users of the del.icio.us online bookmarking tool, you will be happy to know that the site had a complete overhaul, which included adding an additional domain ( Delicious.com ). Other improvements include performance enhancements as well as more search capabilities. I am stil trying to decide if I like the new or old interface better.

Ever since I have purchased my 3G iPhone, I have been having way too much fun with the various iPhone apps, especially Facebook and Twitterific. So, in an effort to publish even more worthless information on the internet , here are some Twitter commands.

Finally saw the movie Wall-E with my nephew. This is the latest movie from Pixar Studios and, despite my low expectations going into the movie, I was very surprised at how much I liked it. I definitely liked it better than Cars, though I am not sure if I liked it better than The Incredibles.

This weekend (in between reconfiguring my nephew's new computer ), I had a chance to view a special by CNN called "Black In America", a two part special that examined the lives of Black Americans from different perspectives since the death of Martin Luther King Jr.
(This is evidently will be available for download on iTunes as well).

(Note: Another good examination was done by the NYTimes several years back called How Race is Lived in America, a fifteen part written series that also examined the issue of race in America from different perspectives.)

OK, I'll admit that I am very late to the party on this one, but my generous coworker has (again) shown me the light and hooked me up with the TV show Scrubs. Let's just say that I stop watching it at work, because I was trying to hard to not laugh out loud. (so now I am watching it at home laughing out loud - currently meandering through Season 1).

For those still on the fence regarding whether or not to take the plunge on the new iPhone, here are a couple of reviews from ARSTechnica, TechCrunch and CNet.

One week with the new iPhone and I had promised to post my initial impressions. For starters, I suppose the biggest plus is that I have an iPhone at all , especially hearing the news of shortages around the country, which are rumored to last maybe another month. It should be noted that I am somewhat merging both the iPhone and the 2.0 software review into one. Pros: 3G Network - I am so happy to be able to leave the Edge network behind, I could care less if the 3G network drains my iPhone battery down to nothing. Integrated GPS - can anyone say GeoCaching? Also is very nice with GoogleMaps (especially if you are directionally challenged - not that I would know anything about that ) App Store - In my own defense, I will leave out the amount of money that I have spent on apps, but will admit to blogging far more useless information now that I have the Twitterific and Facebook iPhone apps installed. (And I will also leave out the amount of time sunk into playing Aurora Feint and Trism ). Louder Speaker - There has been some debate about this around the net, but I can now hear my movies without having to practically insert the phone in my ear. Better Network detection - Supposedly one of the reasons for the plastic back on the phone was for better coverage - seems to work for me. Better Screenshot features - Can take easily take or capture Safari web browser images (via zooming in on the image and pressing and holding until the "Save" option comes up) or capture a screenshot of the whole screen. Cons: Slowness with the 2.0 software - There seem to be two main schools of thought (see comments in article) on this issue:       1.) Upgrading to the previously leaked firmware ( 5A347 as opposed to 5A345, which is the default firmware version that is installed on most phones )       2.) In the Settings --> Fetch New Data --> Set Push to "Off" and Fetch to "Manually" This seemed to work for me - definitely didn't notice the annoying several second lag when bringing up contacts and trying to select or search. Update (7/22/08): Sadly this doesn't seem to work. Slowness with iTunes Sync - This seems to be an issue/feature? with the new software wanting to back up everything - supposedly after the first full successful backup incremental backups are supposed to be faster, but not seeing it at this end yet.... No Cut and Paste?!?! - Enough said on this one! No Syncing of Notes?! - Fortunately thanks to the iPhone app Evernote, this isn't as much of an annoyance as it could have been. AT&T charging an additional $5.00 for SMS messages - This is more of a complaint against AT&T then the iPhone per say, but it does feel like AT&T is doing a little bit of the old nickel-n-dime action here. For another opinion on the 2.0 software, my coworker has weighed in with thoughts (twice ) - I should note that I installed the eBay mobile app purely on this recommendation, so if I go bankrupt from uncontrollable bidding, it is not my fault.

Sadly, SimonDelivers has announced plans to shutdown within two weeks, citing the high fuel costs.

After months and months (and months and months ) of endless rumors and a 2:30 hour wait in line, I at last got my hands on a 16 GB white 3G iPhone (we'll skip over the worthless 30 minute wait in the AT&T line only to find out that they only had 30?! iPhones at the store - wtf? ). Fortunately, by the time I actually made it inside the Apple store, the online iTunes store was back up, so I could walk out with my phone activated instead of just a nice looking brick. Initial reviews are that the 3G network speed upgrade, built-in GPS, not to mention the iTunes App store made it well worth the wait. I should have a full review up shortly. (By the way, for you iPodTouch owners, it looks like the 2.0 software is up and available - and no, I don't know why Apple is still charging for it ).

Since I was a big fan of Alex Gibney's Enron: Smartest Guys in the Room, I had a piqued interest in his later movie Taxi to the Dark Side. Very appropriately, this movie won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. Needless to say, I'll be viewing this when it finally comes to my area (hopefully before it is released on DVD {which is rumored to be on 09/30/08 ).

For those users of Google's ubiquitous Gmail client, there is now an added security feature which will let you monitor which computers have been accessing your GMail account past and present.

Apple has posted the iPhone 3G upgrade guide. In other launch rumors, it sounds like the iPhone 3G will have an 8 am US launch time this Friday (note: AT&T business customers will apparently have to go to the AT&T store).

After an adventurous weekend QWorst-style, it has finally been pounded into my head that they are shite. On Saturday morning there was a brief (and loud) thunderclap, followed by hail. Something told me to go check my DSL modem, which sure enough was out. Fast forward to 11:30 pm that night ( and I'll leave out the frustrating and boring details of all of the support calls made during the day only to get dropped and have no one call you back or update your case :-/ ),

Finally on Sunday morning ( at 6:00 am ) get ahold of another tech who must have had a magic wand who gets someone to (finally!) do "something" done at the central office and lo and behold the line trains up at last. Ask the tech very specifically to cancel the tech coming out since everything is now working, which he promises to do.

Which of course he didn't - a tech evidently came out to the house on Monday afternoon and left me a voice mail that stated "some rewiring was done on the outside of the house and now everything should now be working" - sigh!! So I come home to no DSL and no phone service either! After over an hour on hold I am told that the techs are gone for the day, but they can schedule one to come out and "unfix" what they "fixed" Tuesday @ 4:00 pm. Right as I am about to leave work on Tuesday, I get another call from QWorst stating that they won't be able to make it because of "a heavy repair load but hopefully they should be able to make the next day".
After days without internet or phone service, it should come as little surprise that my next call was to Comcast. Proceeded to pick up my cable modem and had internet again that night.

(The anti-climatic end to the story is that a quality tech came out on Wednesday and informed that the previous tech had hooked things up incorrectly ( color me surprised ) - at least the Wed tech was good and I actually had working phone service when he left).