April 14, 2008 at 6:40 PM · Filed under Mobile Gadgets
So, last week I canned my Treo 700p and picked up a new BlackBerry 8130 (Pearl) off eBay for $250 and I must say, it works really well and will work even better when I upgrade it to OS 4.5. I’m still trying to rack my brain and remember the names of all the cool applications I had on my 7250 years ago.
I already downloaded Opera which I still swear by on the mobile platform as being the best browser period. I also picked up jmIrc, J2ME VNC, and a few other sweet programs that’ll make my BlackBerry zoom zoom.
I’ll keep you posted in a day or two on how well this little gem of a Pearl works out.
April 7, 2008 at 11:37 AM · Filed under Personal Rants
My Wife and I planned to spend our hard-earned weekend lounging around in Sea World’s latest water park called Aquatica which opened just last month. It boasts two of the largest lazy rivers around and is packed with new rides and and gigantic wave pools hugging 80,000 square feet of sandy beach. Sounds like the ideal place to spend your off-time in Florida, right? Not in April.
It rained, and poured, and thundered, and was rather ominous the entire weekend, only slightly clearing up in the early morning only to continue the downpour around 1:30 PM. What a bummer! I hope next weekend won’t be as bad but you know what they say: April showers bring May flowers. For now, let’s put those damn flowers on hold because I want to splash!
April 5, 2008 at 12:21 AM · Filed under Apple / Mac, MS / Windows
Well, it appears I’m going to be using Microsoft Vista for a little while. Yesterday, my Hackintosh started to freeze up every couple of hours. After further investigation I realized that my USB ports, among other things, were failing on the motherboard. Serves me right for going sub-bargain-basement. I’m going to give my Mac hacking a rest for 4-6 weeks since it looks like the cat’s out of the bag and Mac OS X Leopard isn’t going anywhere new and exciting for a while.
Which leads me back to my first sentence. Yep, Windows Vista. Why did I do it, you might ask? Well, after being a hard core Windows XP guru since the pre-alpha days of Whistler when it was nothing more than Windows 2000 with some…. “stuff,” I’m looking for the next computer challenege to keep me busy and I think Vista’s just what I need. I’m still trying to get Vista “just right” so it’s usable with all my frequent applications including a wide range of high-end Adobe products. We’ll see how that goes as my next article will show you how to really make Vista fly, and I’m not talking about the common bullshit ways…
April 2, 2008 at 3:30 PM · Filed under Mobile Gadgets
I never imagined I’d hear myself saying this, but maybe ditching Windows Mobile, no matter how horrible the battery life, was a bad decision on my part. While I couldn’t get enough of my Treo 700p when I first bought it, after loading office apps, VNC, SSH, a decent e-mail client, and struggling to find software for tabbed web browsing, I’m afraid my Treo is doing too much and it’s slowing down.
And to add insult to injury, the phone doesn’t even support multi-tasking.
So, I’m left with two choices: 1) Go back to Windows Mobile, or 2) Go back to BlackBerry. While I’m quite experienced with Windows Mobile, the BlackBerry Pearl and new BlackBerry Curve look very appealing. The big draw back for me with RIM’s BlackBerry was that it didn’t have any real multimedia options. You couldn’t take a picture or capture video with it. For the corporate world, that’s acceptable, but as more and more people “gotta have” what they see on the hip of Hollywood, BlackBerry is more than a phone: it’s a status symbol.
While my Treo is good at doing some things better than most (BlackBerry), like lightning-fast web surfing via the Blazer web browser and zooming through Remote Desktop and VNC sessions with the touch screen, I just think now I’m ready to go back to a multi-tasking smartphone where I can leave applications running in the background without special memory hacks (Thanks, Palm).
While the future of the Treo looks bright, they’ve been promising ACCESS Linux for years and every year I think about keeping my aging Palm OS around is another year they push my expectations to another date. Thanks a lot, guys.
March 29, 2008 at 9:32 PM · Filed under Personal Rants
We’ve come a long way in the past 50 years as far as technology is concerned. As more new stuff comes out, it leaves most of us to wonder what new and exciting things we’ll see in the future. For a few people like myself, we’re left wondering not what cool things we’ll have in the next 50 years, but what things we won’t. Let’s face it, we already take what we have right now for granted, but what if all the things you see around you were just a memory when your kids are old and grey?
Live Television
When my Wife and I sit down to watch TV, we’re not watching it as it happens. It’s pre-recorded and aired at a later date with commercials and such. On top of that, we record shows on our TiVo-style digital recorder so we can fast-forward through the boring parts of our favorite ones. Needless to say, there’s nothing live about our living room. I know a lot of people won’t agree with me, but in the next 50 years, I see the few live shows we have (like news, etc.) to become a thing of the past on our televisions as more people surf the Internet to find out what’s going on in the world.
House Phones
Do you have one? I don’t. When I did have a land line telephone, it was only because my high-speed DSL connection required a wired phone line. I’ve since ditched the house phone and live exclusively off my mobile device (CDMA). It’s clear, always with me, and supports high-speed EvDO data. What more could I ask for? I see more and more people switching to cell phones and VoIP (Phone via the Internet) for lower rates, more portable service, and more calling options than ever before. Why not splurge on technology?
Cash Money
A while back, I went to buy something and couldn’t because they wouldn’t take my money. It wasn’t foreign currency or anything, just my bank card. Nowadays you can’t do jack shit without holding a major debit or credit card like Visa or Mastercard. Want to rent a car for that summer trip? Forget about a cash deposit. Even if you had a million dollars, most places now require a card to put on file on top of you paying in cash. Better luck next time!
What about that cheap hotel down the street? Sooner or later, you’ll need that shiny plastic thing for just about everything in the future. Better get used to stuffing your cash in the bank or on a pre-paid credit card because in the next 10 to 20 years, I bet you it’s going to be almost impossible to go anywhere without your plastic cash card. Didn’t Visa say it’s everywhere you want to be? No joke.
