Tag: tech

Types of Windows users and I wish we’d bought a Mac Mini

Wil Shipley, in a DrunkenBlog interview:

The two types of Windows users I’ve identified at my café are:

a. I use Windows to run Word and Excel and browse the web (and read e-mail in my web browser), and
b. I’m a programmer and I spend all my time in a Windows IDE or hacking around with my system.
I’m sure there may be a third category of user out there, but this has been my observation as well. My wife and parents clearly are the first type of users, and could just as well be served on a Mac. The SuperToad falls in to the second camp; he makes his living as a Windows programmer, but he does so with a Mac on his desk as well. Plus, he’s still getting mileage out of a decrepit, original orange iBook.
Since my switch to Macintosh over a decade ago, one of the reasons we have kept a PC or two in the house was due to my wife’s work. She’s a corporate attorney, and could always work from home, if need be. After our move to Dallas, the firm she worked for here had a VPN system set up, and she could work on items in the firm’s document management system from home, just as if she was sitting in the office.
Her new employer, however, being tied in to the stock market and the myriad regulations therein regarding insider trading, etc., does not have such a system in place. You work at the office, or you work on a company-provided laptop, or you don’t work. Also, my wife’s position also is not as intensive in outside-normal-business-hours work as her former firm life was. She doesn’t need a PC at home any more.
Last year, when her old desktop PC was giving up the ghost, and I set out to build her a new one, if we had known then she was going to change jobs, I wouldn’t have bothered. I would have milked the old PC until after she moved in to her new career, then replaced it with a Mac Mini. Hindsight is always 20/20.

WallyPower 118 redux

Back in April, I blogged the WallyPower 118, beating the boys from Uncrate by, well, by a lot. Granted, Uncrate’s only been online since June 11th.
Looking at the trailers for The Island, it seems the WallyPower 118 is going to make a cameo. (I’ll save you some time: Trailer 2. Don’t blink.)
I still want one when I win the lottery. Jeff, you’re heading the list for crew. You’ve already got the uniform.

iChatting

Chat on iChat

Sony Ericsson rocks

More than a month ago, my Sony Ericsson Akono HBH-602 Bluetooth Headset stopped syncing with my T616. I could get it to connect to the phone via Bluetooth, but the BT connection would drop out randomly, and often. I finally got around to calling SE tech support on this issue. I told them I was sure it was the headset, not my phone, as I had no issues syncing the T616 via Bluetooth to my PowerBook or Cube.

I was issued a RMA number, and given an address in the DFW metroplex to ship the headset to. “Just the headset, please,” is what the rep on the phone told me. No problem. Just the headset. This, of course, happened just before the long July 4th weekend, when we were traveling to and from New Orleans, so I didn’t actually ship the headset out until Friday the 8th.

Today, my replacement headset arrived, via FedEx. Not only did my replacement headset arrive, but I got the entire headset kit! In other words, they just pulled a retail box off the shelf and shipped it to me. So I got an extra AC adapter–that works with the T616 phone, too–and some more of the color plates, which I won’t use. (I stick with the silver.) Kudos to Sony Ericsson!

Thoughts on a podcast

I will confess: I have not only thought about putting together my own podcast, but fantasized about what I would say, the music I would play, etc., etc. I have looked in to what tools I might use. I have had instant message discussions with a certain someone on teaming up to do a podcast, even discussing possible opening-theme music. My friend Richard has enthusiastically prodded me to do a podcast.
The more and more I think about it, however, the more and more I’m thinking this is one online fad I’m going to sit out. (Though I will not rule out guest appearances on someone else’s podcast, should someone ever wish to have me.)
First, there is the issue of “what would I talk about?” I thought about doing something Macintosh or technology-related, since that has been my professional, and personal, field of interest. Richard thinks I would be really good at doing something politically oriented, and I thank him for that compliment. However, there are a lot of people out there already doing podcasts in these areas, and frankly, doing a better job than I could hope to pull off. A case in point is that the certain someone mentioned above used to be a radio DJ, and would likely put me to shame.
Second, and more importantly, I’d like to stick to writing. Like Jeff, it would be a craft I would welcome to make a living at some day. As my family will tell you, I have long talked about being a writer, churning out novels. Normal blogging already cuts in to the time I should be devoting to such writing, and podcasting will only draw my attention further away. Reading Gruber and listening to Maciej has only convinced me this is the right course of action to take.
I’m not ruling out the possibility totally, but in the near future it seems highly unlikely.
Just in case you were wondering.
Which I know you weren’t.

Backpack widget

Well, a widget I can actually get some use out of…
Chipt Productions has released a widget for the Backpack service from 37signals.
Darned if Gruber didn’t beat me to it.

Eric rocks

I have been lamenting the fact that I did not go with a Flickr Pro account a few months back, instead opting for another service. At the time, it was probably the reasonable decision, as the Flickr Pro accounts didn’t have all of the amenities they do now.
So I had actually been considering anteing up for the Flickr Pro account, because I realized I would use it more than the other service.
Tonight, out of the blue, during an IM conversation, Eric offers me a free-for-a-year Flickr Pro account he was given as a in-beta Flickr Pro account holder. “Problem” solved!
However, even though I am filled with gratitude for Eric’s generosity, he doesn’t want word getting out. He’s trying for that curmudgeon rep, and if he appears all nice and everything, that will never happen. So make sure you don’t link to this post any where. Maybe you shouldn’t even be reading it. Maybe I shouldn’t be writing it. Maybe I should delete it…

Reverse DNS Lookup

Not sure where I found this, as it was jotted on a card in my Hipster. A free service, you can perform reverse DNS lookups. If you don’t know what DNS is, don’t bother clicking.

Fiber optic installation attempt: Day Two – Success!

The installation technician arrived at approximately 10:45 AM, with, as promised, a co-worker in tow. An hour and fifteen minutes later, with still no progress, reinforcements arrived. The original extra co-worker departed, and two more technicians joined. This would lead to there being a total of five different installation technicians which have worked on wiring us up to the new fiber connection.
The lead tech from the reinforcements had the wiring issues diagnosed relatively quickly, showed the assigned tech where he had screwed up, and they proceeded to punch down the wiring in to its proper locations. By one o’clock, we had phone and data coming over the fiber. Sweet.
Then I set to the task of dumping the free D-Link router provided for my Netgear WGT624 router, since it sports 802.11b and g wireless connectivity. Verizon FiOS, like a lot of DSL service, uses PPPoE. I made the necessary changes to the Netgear router, but still couldn’t connect to the Web, or check e-mail, on the PowerBook.
I had the Network preferences set to Automatic, and apparently PPPoE doesn’t like this. I had earlier set up a network location called Home-Wired VZ, and was able to connect on the new fiber connection with the PowerBook plugged in via Ethernet. So I duplicated that location, renamed it to Home-Wireless VZ, and changed the connection from Ethernet to Airport. Voila! Connected to the fiber wirelessly. C’est bon!
Michael urged me to test the speed. On the Upload Speed Test, I selected the Largest file size, and got the following results:
+ connection rating is 5 stars, the highest
+ upload speed was 1528 Kbps
+ the file uploaded at 187 kB/s
+ Testmy.net’s TruSPEED: 1635 Kbps
+ the connection, via Airport Extreme, is running 27 times faster than 56k and can upload 1 megabyte in 5.48 seconds
Then came the Download Speed Test, again, with the Largest file selected:
+ connection rating is, again, 5 stars
+ download speed is 3906 Kbps
+ connection downloaded the file at 477 kB/s
+ TRuSPEED 4179 Kbps
+ the connection, again via Airport Extreme, is running 70 times faster than 56K and can download a 1 MB file in 2.15 seconds
How do you like them apples, Lee?

Fiber optic installation attempt: Day 1

Installation of our new Verizon FiOS service was to take place today (Thursday, the 7th) between the hours of 1 and 5 P.M. When the hour of three o’clock arrived, and not a word had I heard with regard to the tardiness of the installation technician, I inquired as to his whereabouts with the Verizon FiOS customer service department.
According to the English-is-my-second-language representative I spoke with, there was a “hold” on our account. Our installation order also failed to show that we were getting the voice service alongside the data service, despite the written verification of this we had received the week before. The English-is-my-second-language representative declared he would have to escalate this to his supervisor, and they would call me back with a new installation date. Also, he was unable to tell me why a “hold” was placed on the installation order. Needless to say, I was not happy.
At 4:37 PM, I received a call from the installation technician, whom also speaks English as a second language, stating he would be on our doorstep momentarily. He did just that at approximately 4:50 PM. Installation then commenced.
By 9:45 PM, installation was still not successful. The phones were working, but a data signal could not be detected by the free D-Link router provided with our order. Knowing that I would be dumping the D-Link for the Netgear wired/wireless router already in use with the Comcast cable connection, I tried it on the newly installed line, and it failed to register a signal as well. Signal detection did occur at the outside box on the side of the house. Signal was being lost somewhere between this newly-installed fiber optic connection box, the OnQ junction box in the house, and the newly-wired dual plate in the study. The dual plate sports both a RJ-11 and RJ-45 connection.
It was finally determined by the two technicians–yes, he had called for reinforcements in the past five hours–that there was some sort of wiring transposition going on. In other words, the already-in-place wiring they were dealing with was different from the Verizon-standard wiring they were used to, and they would have to determine where the changes were so they could make all the wiring play nice with one another and let me get to online life at five times the speed to which I have become accustomed.
They asked if they could come back tomorrow. With the supervisor in tow. Apparently, he has deeper experience, especially with “odd” wiring arrangements. I expect them first thing Friday morning.
Stop smiling, Lee.