Windows PC Internet Messed Up

I'm just killing all these tech problems around the home. My Windows desktop's internet stopped working recently, and I could only access a few sites, Google.com being one of them. I thought the problem was with the Linksys WRT54GL with Tomato v1.28 firmware that I recently set up, but that wasn't it. I plugged it into the modem directly, but that wasn't it. I installed a bunch of Windows updates very recently, but that didn't seem to really matter either. I googled "can only access google" since it was one of the few things I could actually see, but there were very few concrete answers.

Luckily, the wireless was working, which isolated the problem and helped me to research the problem. A few virus scans later (there was a few Java exploits and a Trojan from a Format Factory installer), I still couldn't access the full internet. Luckily, I happened upon this thread. It advised me to check out an article on TCP/IP Winsock Catalog Corruption. I followed the simple steps:

1. Grab an Administrator-level command prompt.
2. Run 'netsh winsock reset'.
3. Restart your computer.

And that did it. Anyway, if you run into something similar, that should work for you. The reason I'm posting this is because so many threads from years ago addressed the topic, but none of them had any real answer. This one worked for me, so maybe it'll work for you too. Cheerio.

Fixing an Xbox 360 E74 Error; iDroid 3G

Yo bros,

It's been a while, eh? I just got home from Fort McMurray this past Friday morning, so I have a bit of time to do a few projects. The two on display today are installing Android on an iPhone via the iDroid Project, and fixing an Xbox 360 E74 error. Hardware for both was provided by a friend. Let's just say his name is Andy.

The iDroid bit was very straightforward. There really isn't anything to say about it except that I can't wait for it to come to later iPhones. It's still really chalky and laggy on the iPhone 3G, but the mere fact that it works is amazing. Here is a shot of "Andy's" iPhone 3G.

I'm following @iDroidProject on Twitter, and they seem to be making a lot of progress. It's cool, but not usable for me at the moment.

Next up is the Xbox 360 E74 error. The basic premise is that the graphics processor unit (GPU) is overheating, so you need to fix the heatsinking situation. Typically, you have to undo it all and put on some new heatsink compound on the GPU. I didn't take any pictures of this fix, but I will recommend the resources that helped me fix it. There are a lot of garbage videos and tutorials out there, but I found these to be top notch.

iFixit repair guide

Llamma's Xbox 360 3RLOD (three red light error) X-Clamp Fix Tutorial

YouTube - Remove the Xbox 360 X-Clamp in 45 Seconds

The Source - Nexxtech Heat Sink Grease

Memory Express - Arctic Silver 5

Memory Express - ArctiClean

It's still to be seen whether this will actually fix the Xbox or not, but at the very least, these are the steps I took to fix it. Maybe they will help you.

MacBook Pro on the Big Screen

My MBP 13 is a mid-2010 model, meaning audio can operate on mini-DisplayPort-to-HDMI adapters. In my search, I found two models.

Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/DisplayPort-Female-Adapter-Macbook-Laptop/dp/B002HU629E/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1288575735&sr=1-2

Moshi via Apple Canada Education Store:

http://store.apple.com/ca_edu_108284/product/H1824ZM/A?fnode=MTY1NDA3Ng&mco=MTgwOTAzMjI

Ultimate laptop idea

How's this for an idea for future laptops? Detachable capacitive touchscreen monitor that streams the display wirelessly using WUSB or WiDi. Maybe not as a standalone device, but as a different method of interacting with the device. It's not like an iPad or separate tablet device, but sometimes I just want to take off the screen of my laptop and pull it closer and play with it. With the surge of tablet attention these days, I think the laptop needs to fight back for relevance. If I had the wherewithal to implement such an idea, maybe I would. It's kind of like how the Eee Pad seems to work. Although the iPad comes with a keyboard, it isn't the same as if your laptop's display goes free. Make a fully functional laptop at 13.3", then remove the monitor to roam free with a "tablet" that doesn't have to carry the weight of all the electronics except for wireless cards, battery, battery charger and touchscreen controller. That much glass already weighs quite a bit, and carrying it around can be tiresome. I'll be around for a couple more decades, so take your time, manufacturers. :)

Finally! Progress!

Harro Kitty,

I finally made some progress on the iPhone app front. Yipee.

I was reading Saurik's article, Upgrading the iPhone Toolchain, when it suggested that I should join the chatroom #iphone at irc.saurik.com. Luckily, I took that bit of advice, and users AWright4911 and Maximus gave me a bit of help. I was gonna try and bother my co-worker, Nihal Ahmed, but he could not be reached for comment. Anyways, I learned lots with just a few answers to some of my questions, which I am going to catalogue here. If it isn't immediately obvious, I have very little programming experience, so my blogging is aimed at those enterprising entrepreneurs who want to start something completely out of their current skill set and comfort zone. A lot of it will be painfully obvious for those well-versed in programming, so if anyone actually reads this blog, you can correct me when I'm way off.

• Here we go. Apparently, Cydia takes Objective-C. You write it, debug it on your device by signing it, then send the code to BigBoss or ModMyi. I don't know what I was imagining when I thought of the Cydia app approval process, but it was good to get that bit of input. Lots to learn still. I now have to get cracking on learning Objective-C.
• Also, I don't need the iPhone toolchain if I have a Mac, I think.
• Even better, I found theiphonewiki.com. Much to read about there.
• Now I can make more sense of iPhone Open Application Development.

Not much else to share. I'll bring more knowledge back when I actually get some. There is hope!

Apple Regularly Shooting Itself in the Foot

Yes, Apple is about to eclipse Exxon as the biggest company, but I still think it can do better in some very easy and practical steps. With the wave of success it's been seeing in the last two decades, it's hard to imagine that they can still do wrong. Sometimes I think "Who can stop Apple?" Turns out the answer is pretty simple: Apple itself. As we witness an Apple that loosens the rules to the App Store for anti-competitive practices, why not keep the magic alive by being even less anti-competitive? There are plenty of things that need some pixie dust in the Magical World of Apple. Listening, Steve?

• iTunes
  
  What can run iTunes smoothly besides the dodeca-core Mac Pro? The beast is sluggish and slow, and it tries to do too much for too many devices. If iTunes were optional and drag-and-drop were available, man, think of all the new possible sales. iPhone as portable hard drive, iPod touch as portable hard drive, iPod nano as portable hard drive, the possibilities are endless!
  
  
• Video codecs
  
  Seriously, Apple makes some of the most advanced consumer electronics, but the iPhone can't/won't play an .avi file. Think of all the consumers who own .avi files but won't use the iPhone because they'd have to convert all 100GB+ of video to some Apple-approved format that's totally the same thing. Is this the wonderful user experience that Steve Jobs really wants for his customers? Even if they all turned to iSheep, there's a huge part of the market that won't get an Apple TV just because it's too much trouble to convert all those videos. Meanwhile, I'll stick to my Xbox 360 that CAN play my videos. Hmmmm, decisions, decisions...
  
  
• Prices
  
  This is a big one. So big, in fact, that it comes last on my list. Sure, Apple is a premium brand, but premium can be synonymous with "big waste of money." I shop for value, getting the most for my money. If something is well-built and will last a long time, I'll pay a bit extra for the higher quality stuff, but that quality-vs-price curve breaks down very low for some Apple products. For instance, MacBooks are grossly outspecced by PC notebooks, though admittedly offering a better overall experience, but there's only so much a smart spender will shell out for that difference. When you're getting the same specs at almost 60% the price, it's a really tough argument. I only went with the MBP 13 because I have a student discount, free iPod touch and printer. I can't imagine what it's like for the rest of the market paying regular price for all these things. Yeah. Drop the prices or hold sale events with better discounts for everyone.

Pretty foolproof, non? Of course, Apple will continue in its merry own way, disregarding my words of wisdom to its own benefit. I mean, if you really want to capture the market with a deathgrip, you could loosen the "rules" for a bit of cash. I mean, if the Apple TV is going to have more success, it really needs to be able to stream whatever people are already packing and not just new purchases, much like how iTunes can play music not originally bought in the iTunes Music Store. I'm just saying...

So much new shiny

Hello faithful followers,

I know you've been dying since my last update. It's been a while.

I sold the Nexus One. I prefer the iPhone touchscreen. I'm used to it, and even iPod touch 1Gs have the feel and response that I like. Yep, I waited two hours in line at the West Edmonton Mall Apple Store, and I picked up the iPhone 4 black 32GB.

I haven't picked up the AppleCare protection, but I will eventually. I hear it's the bomb. Buying it unlocked made more sense economically for me. Going on contract would only be a little bit cheaper because I was still within 24 months of my last hardware upgrade with Rogers. They allow you to upgrade to an iPhone if you got the one from the last year, but the discount is much smaller. I figured if I got the factory unlocked one, I could sell it to a globe-trotter or someone in a different region where unlocked iPhone 4s are hard to come by. (Any AT&T prisoners interested? >=D tee hee hee)

I also picked up a MacBook Pro 13" (mid-2010). I know I'm gonna get a lot of flack from the "PC" crowd, but I still maintain that I'm not a Mac. =p I got the MacBook Pro for a bunch of reasons.

• I want to program for the iPhone.
• I really like the MacBook Pro aluminum body.
• I wanted something that runs StarCraft 2 decently.
• I like the 13.3" size for laptops.
• Boot Camp gives you the best of both worlds.

Had I gone for an equivalent PC, I would have imported the Toshiba Portege R705, exclusive to Best Buy in the States. As far as I can tell, it offers you everything you could want in a 13" laptop. Low weight, optical drive, Core i3, 4GB, HDMI, Intel WiDi (love that name, by the way), USB/eSATA, good price point. It was pretty much perfect, however, I never had a chance to play with it. The price difference between the two is somewhat alleviated by the student discount on the MBP, free iPod touch and free Canon printer. Yesh. I pretty much needed a new computer to get OSX to program on the iPhone. I ultimately couldn't figure out a comfortable solution to develop for the iPhone on my PC, so I gave up and gave in.

Yeah. That's happening. The iPhone 4 ships with 4.0.2, unfortunately. I'm now wondering whether I should go full Apple SDK or stick with Cydia. How real should I keep it? Hm...

Alright, back on the fence we go...

As the entire Internet must know by now, I'm trying to decide between the iPhone 4 and Nexus One. I like Android, but I don't like the Nexus One as much. I don't like iOS as much, but I like iPhone. Ah, software-hardware integration.

I like Android. I like Froyo. I like having every feature Android offers. Everything feature in Android is baked in, but the iPhone needs jailbreakers to provide them, often at a cost. Jailbreaking is infinitely more difficult than unlocking the N1 bootloader, and I prefer having the internet as a portal as opposed to Cydia. As impressive as Cydia is for iOS, it's slower than having something like xda-developers or Google to look for good apps. Plus, it's real quick and simple to install apps. Mind you, I admire what Jay Freeman and the iphone-dev team have done with what Apple gave them in iOS, but I think what Google allows is simply better. USB Debug mode, allowing installation of non-Market apps, these options are priceless for smartphone owners.

I like the iPhone hardware, much like I liked the MacBook. I'm not particularly partial to iOS or OSX, but I don't mind them. I really like Windows 7 and Android, so what is a brother to do? The N1's screen is slow and laggy. Typing can be quicker, but it's finicky and temperamental. I truly adore the Android keyboard's autocorrect. I didn't really try any of the custom keyboards, but they're probably great. I couldn't get Swype to work, but I didn't try too hard either. Nevertheless, the overall performance and integration of the touchscreens with their underlying software is what matters. I don't know what it is with the N1 and Android 2.2 FRF91 MCR, but it's laggy. I don't like iOS as much because of what we have to deal with in the 21st century, but I can text my baby much easier.

I wonder if I'll miss Android too much if I go back to the iPhone. The iPhone uses an ARM processor, right? Someone please get Android on iPhone 4. I'd gladly pay for that. Maybe I should donate a bit.

More Nexus One Thoughts

Allo there, mates,

I don't like the idea of writing a review, so I'm going to keep spilling my thoughts and impressions on bits of scrap blog posts.

- I originally thought that the N1 had crappy battery life, but it turns out shutting off auto-sync for Twitter, Facebook and my Google account solved all that.

- I still don't like the touchscreen. It's not as responsive as the iPhone's, and the keyboard screws up frequently enough to bother me. It's nowhere near as good as the iPhone's which feels like the screen is absorbing your touches, drawing it out like syrup from a maple tree, eh? Typing is...different on this thing.

- I really like Android. The N1's touchscreen is beginning to bother me, but everything else about it is so awesome. Openness wins here. USB drag-and-drop, built-in rooting and unlocking, option to install non-Market applications, USB debugging, every feature missing from iOS basically handed right to you. Let me expand on this one.

• Autocorrect. It rocks. You're provided with options, and you can easily input your own words. Flaming awesome.
  
  This is a bit of a different issue, but everytime I mis-spelled "it's" in iOS, it would change to Irma. I hate Irma. I don't know who Irma is. It's obvious that I'm trying to say "it's." Get rid of Irma. Her name is too old. I don't think something like that is remedied in Android, but it bothered me so much that I thought I'd mention it.
• Contacts. Aggregated from Twitter, Facebook and Gmail contacts. Sweet. I can click on my contact's picture (oh yeah, there's that feature too), and a dialogue menu of sorts pops up with options to phone, text, find them on Google Maps if you have their address in there, or just look at their contact card. I think it's fairly easy to accomplish this in iOS, but it's even more fairly easy to do in Android. Booya. Oh yeah, you can add shortcuts to, for example, text one of your contacts directly from the home screen. I thought of that as an app idea for iOS, but look at what we've got here...
• Google Account syncing is probably one of the best things about Android. I think Google Accounts beats MobileMe easily. Gmail, Google Calendar, Picasa, YouTube, Google Talk. Where's iChat? How will Apple compete with BBM?
• Unlocking and rooting. I know jailbreak is great, but I'm continually amazed at what comes out of the unlocked-and-rooted community (I'm not sure how to refer to it). Google basically trades root and unlock for your warranty, and you get to do everything possible with your phone. SBSettings is already built-in, though you can extend its power with a rooted app. I just changed the boot animation to this. I also have a multi-coloured trackball that lights up to any colour I choose and blinks at any rate I choose. Talk about control. And that's just a simple little app too. I need more time to explore, but I think that rooting beats jailbreaking. Give me more time to decide.
• Browser. It's so weird to have Flash on my phone. It feels like I have Google Chrome on my phone. The browser is slick and fast. I like its responsiveness. Plus, I can surf Digg.com and Cracked.com without hesitation.

- I use my phone mostly for texting my baby. We'll be long-distance for at least another year and a half, so I need a phone that types well. I wonder how I'd feel if I went back to iOS just for the typing capability. One could argue that the autocorrect and custom dictionary beat out the touchscreen anyways. Oooh, it's getting harder and harder to leave Android.

I could go on, but I'm distracted at the moment. I'm gonna go play Modern Warefare 2 now.

Nexus One thoughts

Hello World,

I'm having a lot of fun with my N1. I like the whole bit about unlocking it and cooking ROMs and having full control of the device. It's sweet. Here are just some thoughts I've been having while discovering my new toy:

• Typing is really fast. I think it's faster than that of my 3GS.
• I like holding the device in my hand. It's so smooth and easy on the hands. It's thinner than my 3GS, but it also doesn't have a case. I doesn't know if I will get one for it. I probably will.
• I strongly disagree with anyone saying the AMOLED is a "nightmare" in sunlight. This past weekend, I pulled it out in clear and sunny Calgary weather with my polarized sunglasses on, and it was perfectly acceptable to me. I took off my shades, and obviously, the visibility was much better. This effect reminds me of what I see in the audio world. People think they should hear something, and therefore they hear it. They spent so many hundreds of dollars on this piece of equipment, and therefore their sound automatically must be better. Like everything in life, if it's more expensive, it's better, right? I honestly don't know what people are looking at. I wonder if this is a case of LCD manufacturers harping on AMOLED technology, and some people are drinking the koolaid. I'd say the screen is perfectly usable. I know the 3GS's screen was much brighter in sunlight, but that isn't to say that the N1's AMOLED screen is a nightmare. I'd say it's probably just an exaggeration, borderline wrong.
• Froyo is so snappy. I really like it. I even called my brother just to share my jubilation. So easy to use. Probably faster than the 3GS in some areas, but I can't really comment without a side-by-side test.
• I feel that this Android 2.2 + N1 is what Google always envisioned. As always, there are still some rough edges and some areas that need to be ironed out, but I think it's a really great device. Great software, great hardware, easy to use, quick response. I know it's a real geek phone, but I think a lot of "normal" people would like this thing.
• I haven't even tried out Flash on this thing yet. I'm just excited I can start surfing digg.com again and not get that blasted question cube everywhere I click.

That's all for now. Will come up with organized thoughts someday. As you were.

Taste the Nexus One

Booya. Nexus One arrived and everything. So much to catch up. I'm only going to speak in truncated sentences for brevity. There are things I like about the N1, and there are things I find distasteful. Let's throw up a pros and cons list.

Hates/Cons:

• Eclair is soooo slow. I can't explain how crappy it was. At least, my expectations were high. I can't believe the N1 actually shipped like that since it came out. Unbelievable. I was running the EPE54B AT&T/Rogers/Bell/Telus firmware, which is further than the shipped T-Mobile versions, as far as I read. Nevertheless, everything was clunky and slow, the response was abysmal, and I felt like I had made a terrible purchase because of it.
• Mm, pretty much everything compounded from the whole slowness thing. Where to begin? Typing was a nightmare, battery life was a bad joke, location was lost. I hated almost everything since it was slow.
• Why no wake-with-trackball-click? Sometimes I feel Android is just different for the sake of being different, ie. different from the iPhone when it doesn't need to be. There are plenty of features that can fit into both OSs without patent infringement or copy-catting.
• I don't like how everything is thrown into that one main app listing thingy. I want them all out there after I download them.
• There aren't very many good games in the Android Marketplace. Give it time, I suppose. I wonder how hard it is to program for a platform with infinitely many screen settings. Apple seems to have a hard time with just 2.
• I miss the ability dTunes from Cydia gave you to download any song you wanted if you felt like listening to something. I fear I cannot do this in Android.

Likes/Pros:

• Hardware is so slick. I love holding this thing in my hand. I hate the shape and size of the iPhones 3G and 3GS. I wonder what the 4 will be like. Nevertheless, the curves and rounded edges are such a dream on this thing. It's like the lead hardware designer had my hand size in mind. I want to high-five him. Internet-five!
• Froyo FRF83 is wicked awesome. Because of the super confusing method of upgrading, I was caught just after unlocking my bootloader when the OTA hit my phone; go figure, eh? The top two improvements, from my three days' experience with Eclair, is that A) typing is much more palatable and B) the speed has just shot through the roof. Everything else hinges off those two improvements for me. You know what my expectations were coming into this whole Android mess. I think the speed is probably on par with the 3GS with either having the edge in certain areas.
• Notifications bar is so ballin'. No more "IN YOUR FACE!" pop-ups for low priority events. Oh yes. I will likely miss that when I hit iPhone 4. :(
• USB drag-n-drop. The world has gotten so used to Apple's strict policies that the freedom to use the capacity you paid for feels alien and wrong. Even though I only have a 4GB microSD, I will use this thing as a USB drive. Drag-n-drop tunes is new, but it's also awesome. Nevertheless, I am glad I have everything organized via iTunes, but at the same time, I'm glad Android doesn't need it to sync. Oh sheesh. That segues me nicely into...
  
• ...cloud syncing! Never you mind, Apple. The Internet's got it figured out for us. Syncing it all to the Google account is so easy. Nevermind iTunes+iTunes Music Store+App Store integration, Google Account is here! Can't wait to start syncing browsers...
• Search button. I'm not used to it, but I think I'll get used to it.
• Dedicated period and comma buttons. Thank you, God and Google.
• Google Navigation. I won't use this feature much since I won't have a car to drive until January, and I usually just figure out the route to my destination before getting too far anyways. I still think GPS navigation is a toy. I prefer to know beforehand where I'm going before I head out. That's just me.
• How can I forget built-in rootability? Thanks, Googs. Even though I voided my warranty, the ability to install any firmware I want is pretty much golden. Thank you. Even though the FRF83B OTA came out half an hour after I unlocked my bootloader, I still like the ability to do what I want with my device.

That's all that really comes to mind at the moment. Things are so exciting now. New toy. Very interesting. I'd say that the N1 on Froyo is a competitor to the 3GS, and that's still a compliment for El Goog which is still the newcomer in the market. There are a lot of little nitpicks about Android that I like, but there are probably just as many about iOS that I miss. Overall, I think that the smartphones are just about the same. What matters is the services they provide. I can listen to music on either, I can play games on either, I can text and call people on either, I can go on the internet on either. I'd say Android and iOS are about even in terms of user experience for me, though I'm still in the honeymoon stage with Android. My pros/cons list can go on, but I have not the desire to pick things apart just yet. I'm just ecstatic that my N1 has Froyo, and arguably, the review and comparison should start now. I made a pretty big gamble on Froyo, and boy, am I glad I did. I'm not much of a risk taker, so that was a big sore point for me up until the update. Once I get a bit more settled, I'll create my own take on a guide for unlocking and rooting the N1. For now, check out theunlockr.com's guides. I'll try to make mine as newbie-friendly as I can, ie. make it the set of instructions I wish I had before going into this process. Alas, I've only had a little taste of Froyo, but first impressions are really positive.

I think Google deserves a round of applause and some thanks. Thank you, Google, for giving the world Android and the N1. Thank you for Froyo. I'm so glad I got this phone now.

Nexus One has arrived, sort

Harro Kitty,

Today, my Nexus One was delivered, but not really. No one was at home to receive the package, so DHL will try again later or the package will have to be picked up. This is so exciting. Just when FroYo was open-sourced as well. This is so exciting. Perfect timing. Now alls I gotta do is activate the SIM card and pick it up. I'm so excited to try this whole Android thing out. This FroYo business seems to be the talk of the town. Only a few more days.

Note: I wonder what I was thinking about in the previous post when I wondered if I could carve out a microSIM card. That's only for the iPhone 4 and iPad, so I don't understand what was going on in my head. I guess I was looking so far ahead that I already owned an iPhone 4. *shrug* I'll probably do just that, but we'll still have to see...

Official Google Method

Oy oy,

So that eBay auction went down the drain. Dern it. Alas, the seller never got back to me about the damage on the corners, so it looks like I'll be obtaining my phone officially. It'll cost about 100 dollars for shipping, but the mere fact that I can't find anything for sale tells me that I have a good chance at recovering most of my losses if I sell it. The plan is to experience the newest, best Android public release and compare that with what I remember from my day-to-day with the iPhone 3GS. I've been reading up a bit on forums about people's experiences with the N1. Seems part of the N1 crowd is a spoiled bunch. They're the first with 2.1 and 2.2, and some of them can't stop whining.

"There are too many bugs. Release it faster!"

"They released the last one too fast, and now there are too many bugs!"

>.>

Nevertheless, I myself am excited for 2.2. I know I've never had any other Android, but I did play with the N1 at OmegaCell in Edmonton. It seemed really slow. Part of the big deal of Froyo is that everything is supposed to be a lot tighter and quicker; the OS should be lighter. I'm quite excited about that since I always liked how tight the integration between OS and hardware was on my 3GS. We'll see how everything balances out on the N1.

For the record, this is my view looking into the whole N1 experience:

• I had the iPhone 2G 16GB, and then I got the 3GS 32GB when that broke.
• I jailbroke my iPhones. My favourite "apps" were
  ProSwitcher + Activator + Backgrounder
  SBSettings + Rotation Inhibitor
  Notifier
  GlovePod
  20 Second Lockscreen
  What I liked about them was that they solved the problems that Apple never did/could. Gesture-based operation was probably the best thing. The things I used most were Messages and Mail, and being able to swipe from anywhere in the OS to open either of them was the best.
• I hear lots of great things about Android on Engadget.
• I don't know a lot of people with Android, so I haven't played with it much.
• People rave about the notification system. Being able to pull down the status bar seems pretty sweet. It's like a useful Windows 7 Action Center.
• Built-in rootability is sweet. XDA Developers seem like they have everything down pat.
• Sense UI seems sweet and all, but it can't keep up all the time. That's why I'm going with the N1, to have the most up to date Android experience.
• The N1 feels great in my hand. I hated the iPhone's width ever since the 3G. I miss my 2G. I look forward to holding the N1 again.
• My left jean pocket misses having a phone in it.
• Swiping better be quick. I'm going to hate slow swiping and poor touch response. I hate seeing new devices "compete" with the iPhone by having a capacitive touchscreen with lag. Yes, I've seen the report where the screen HTC used for the N1 is totally crappy compared to that of the iPhone, so I'm a bit anxious. I used to be a text entry speed demon on my 3GS, but I fear it will be a bumpy transition to the N1's screen.
• Will I be successful in carving out a microSIM card?
• Will a rooted Android be able to overcome my attachment to a jailbroken iOS in the time it takes for Apple to release the iPhone 4 to Canadians?

Procurement of my Nexus One

Hello internet land,

I'm currently figuring out the best way to get my phone. I can buy it straight up from Google, but since they ship with DHL who charges 70 CAD cash-on-delivery, I can't get it shipped to my apartment. I work during the day, and there is no guarantee I can get the item shipped during the weekend when I am home. Further, the total cost of the phone ends up being around 650 CAD, meaning you pay around 100 for shipping. Not cool, IMO. Kijiji and Craigslist all turned up empty in the Fort McMurray area, so it seems my best option is to get a used one off eBay. There are a tonne of units that are even more expensive than buying it from Google, so there are only a few worth getting. I prefer getting the "Buy It Now" button because I don't like fussing around with sniping and such. Then you have to whittle it down to just AT&T/Rogers units since I'm with Rogers. Not a lot of choice, so please don't snipe me. :P

If this doesn't work out, maybe I'll have to get a brand new unit. For those keeping track, that's a difference of 150. Maybe it'll be the better choice in the end. I still have a bit of time to make my decision.

I wonder what this means for my iPhone app.

Phone Transition

Hello all,

I know I've been away for a while, but I was on a week-long cruise from LA to Mexico and back. I got home two nights ago, and I'm slowly piecing my life together. The cruise is important because that's where I lost my iPhone 3GS 32GB. It somehow went missing, even though at least 7 people searched the entire room, the card swipe and security cameras showed no break-in or unauthorized entry, and I know for sure that I left it in my room. At this point, it seems no one will compensate me for lost electronics, so I am now in a bit of a jam. I've always wanted to try Android a la Google Nexus One, but the opportunity never came up. I'll be blogging my experience with Android, being an avid iPhone user for something like two years. By avid, I mean that I jailbroke, tweaked, SSH'ed, tethered, the whole shibang. I even started a tiny bit of work on my own iPhone app. ;) We'll see how things go. Maybe I'll have to scrap the whole iPhone app idea seeings as I don't even have one anymore. =T

Yes. I wanted to let you all know this tragedy that has befallen me. If you feel so inclined to send me some startup funds for my N1, I'd be more than happy to take your charity. It hurts financially to lose something so valuable. I don't think I have any followers besides Carrie, so I'll understand if nothing shows up in my PayPal (which can be reached at *cough cough* joneeboi at gmail dot com). I'm just saying... :P

DMOJiA p3 - Etch Installation Instructions

Oy,

Apparently there are already some good instructions on how to install Debian Etch. Just my luck that I found them when I didn't need them. Maybe someone here will benefit from it. It's pretty good actually. Everything you'd expect from a good walkthrough. Good formatting of text, pretty pictures, detailed instructions, all things I can't be bothered to do despite my distaste for poor documentation. Go figure.

Debian Etch Installation Instructions:

http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT8550165372.html

Here's an older version:

http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT8143350649.html

He opts for KDE as opposed to GNOME, which was something I hadn't actually considered. It's a nice change of pace from the measly looking GNOME, but I still couldn't figure out the whole wrong-resolution business.

To keep track, I had to run the Debian installer 4 times today. I'm becoming a pro. I tweeted a few days back that I installed Linux at least two dozen times in as many days. I can't say whether that will be the case for you, but I just want to have the platform setup correctly before I move forward. These kind of enterprise-level changes are very costly to do later on, so better to get it right the first time supposedly.

The ethernet problem went away. I just can't keep the ethernet cable plugged during startup. If I connect once startup is done, then all seems to be good.

Also, a neat tip is to remove the cdrom from the list of repositories once you get all set up. It's mentioned in that first link, but I'll repeat it here to emphasize its importance. Sign in as root with

su

Password:

Then type in

pico /etc/apt/sources.list

Comment out the cdrom line by adding "#" at the beginning, or you can just erase the whole line. Never know when you'll need it again. This tweak makes it easier install things like kde. My system kept checking for it in the cdrom, but my "cdrom" was my USB. It obviously didn't detect it, so just get rid of it. Let it download it from the repositories in that sources.list file. I have to say, I think that's one of the coolest things about Linux/Debian/APT. You can install, update or upgrade whatever you want using Terminal and the sources.list file. Just say

apt-get install kde kdm gparted anyprogramreallyprovidedit'sspelledcorrectly

and it just grabs it from whatever repository has the latest version. That's so sweet. It's probably also the most confusing part of it for non-nerds/geeks/dweebs/dorks.

Picture stolen from http://chuckthisblog.files.wordpress.com

Developing My Own Jailbroken iPhone App p2

Heyo,

I'm back. I installed Debian Etch AMD64 over Lenny, so now I'm fully operational. Who knew that 2.6.18 referred to the kernel version? I ran into a problem where the ethernet didn't connect. If I didn't connect the ethernet cable during startup and plugged it in after it finished booting, the thing would connect with the network. However, for some reason, the wireless wouldn't work. This page has a few ideas, but I didn't have any energy to test any of it out. So now, I have the correct kernel and such, but internet is a no-go.

Here are links to the installation files:

Installation images: http://www.debian.org/releases/etch/debian-installer/

initrd.gz, vmlinuz: http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/etch/main/

Pick the appropriate from "installer-version/current/images/hd-media/"

I was also having some troubles understanding some concepts, so I need to pore through this article from saurik's website. From my understanding, you have to download some SDK headers instead of downloading the entire SDK just to extract them. Also, apparently it's kinda not legit to distribute headers for SDK 3.0 or something, which is why it's impossible to find it. I don't understand any of this, so more learning and discovery (and explanation) must follow. I fear I may have to start from the beginning, plus I have lots of Erica Sadun's stuff to go through still.

I'm also going to get a few reference textbooks. One is "Code Complete" by Steve McConnell which is in its second edition. I already have Jonathan Zdziarski's "iPhone Open Application Development, Second Edition", but we'll see what else I can get. I still haven't figured out whether the open toolchain works in C, C++ or Objective-C, but that shall soon come. Regardless, there's http://cplusplus.com/ for part of that, if need be. I don't have much programming experience, as I've mentioned already, so let's see how quickly I can pick up whatever language it is I have to learn.

Who's excited? (Ugh, so much to do...)

Developing My Own Jailbroken iPhone App

I've been wanting to do this for a while now. In my Electrical Engineering program, I simply haven't learned enough about programming. Many of the jobs I applied for require mastery/competence in some form of programming or another. That's why I'm combining that fact with my enjoyment of my jailbroken iPhone. It's a great platform with many developers making it easier to use every single day. I won't get into the whole "To jailbreak or not to jailbreak" or "iPhone versus Android" cans of worms, except to say that it simply comes down to how the system fits best into your life. Shall we? This will be as much a tutorial as an adventure journal. I have found very little documentation on the matter, so I'm trying to lay at least some form of foundation for that. I have absolutely no idea why there aren't more guides on how to start developing for jailbroken "iDevices" (it's in quotes because, though referring to iPhones, iPod touches and iPads, Apple has many "iDevices," eg. iMac), so I'm trying to make at least some form of comprehensible handbook. It may or may not be improved over time into a bona fide tutorial. If there is some sort of gag rule on guides for developing for jailbroken "iDevices," I simply haven't read anything in my extensive Googling, so on we trudge.

There are a lot of basics that I'm skimming over here. If you have any questions, ask a question in the comments. I'm only providing this documentation as a complement to what I used and whatever else is out there. Don't take this guide to be complete or necessarily correct. I take no responsibility for any damage caused to your system.

For now, I won't say what I'm trying to do for fear of someone with actual skills swooping in and making the app before I get a chance to. I know this isn't in the spirit of sharing and openness, but this is a learning experiment for me (and you). I won't learn as much if someone goes ahead and creates an example of what I'm trying to do. I'd just be copying and differentiating from them. In this way, it will help the reader form some sort of understanding of what it's like to blaze a new trail.

So where am I starting? I have a PC, and I want to keep it that way. Unless I absolutely have to, I don't want to shell out so much money for a MBP. I may be more easily tempted if the 13.3" MBP gets the Core i3. Thus, according to iphone-dev at Google Code, only certain platforms work with the iPhone toolchain. I am going with Debian because that's what saurik uses. I tried installing Etch, but I couldn't figure out how to get that done. I ultimately went with the Lenny version of Debian, so we'll see how that works out later on. Since that was a huge sore in my side, I'll try and break that down in this post.

I installed Debian over USB onto a new partition. I think that means you need a separate partition. Unfortunately, I didn't have a big enough second partition, so I had to back up all my stuff and reinstall Windows 7. You may need to grab a new key if so. Luckily, I got my copy of Windows 7 Professional from the Microsoft Developer Network Academic Alliance, so I got a new key pretty easily. I don't see why you can't reuse the key if you format your hard drive, but it probably has something to do with money. Anyways, so I did that and gave myself about 50GB for my Linux partition. Should probably be enough. We'll see how that turns out.

You need to have Linux installed before you can set it up, so go ahead and install whatever Ubuntu you want on your new partition. I used UNetbootin to install a Ubuntu Live CD to my USB, and that's how I was able to format the new partition to ext3, which is the file system that Linux uses by default. You're supposed to use Debian 2.6.18 according to iphone-dev, but it was so confusing figuring out how to get it installed. I don't understand how Linux source files work, so searching for 2.6.18 was a bit of a bust. I'll just walk through how I installed Lenny, and I'll try to figure out how to get the actual 2.6.18 on my computer later. I'll explain about that when the time comes. For reference, the link the Etch Installation Information can be found here. Boot the USB from the BIOS, install Ubuntu, and update all your packages.

By the way, for the super beginner, apt-get is a sweet package. It will install stuff within your list of sources just by saying

apt-get install the-particular-name-of-whatever-it-is-you-want-to-install

To update anything already installed, type in

apt-get update

This works the same way in MobileTerminal on your iDevice as well. You add sources, install single packages within those sources, and then update them whenever. Cydia is just a graphical version of this process.

As per the Lenny Installation Guide, in order to get the USB boot, get the necessary vmlinuz and initrd.gz files from the server. You should be within Ubuntu by now, so pick whichever platform your computer uses (mine was AMD64), click on installer-(yourplatformhere)/, click on current/ (there were other folders, but it just worked for me by going with the current folder *shrug*), images/, hd-media/, then grab the initrd.gz and vmlinuz. The gtk folder holds the graphical installation files, but I didn't go that way. It was "easy" enough going with the non-graphical version, so do whatever you want. For the sake of following my work, grab the non-gtk files.

Then follow this part of the guide to boot from your USB. Back up whatever is on that USB first. Install GParted to format your USB into FAT16. I recommend installing the Master Boot Record to your USB to save time. When you boot up from your USB from the BIOS, you may see a screen that says

MBR FA:

Click "A" on your keyboard. It stands for Floppy or Advanced, I believe. Then another screen should pop up that says

MBR 1234FA

You should click "1." Then one or two lines will pop up describing something. You might then see something that says

boot:

at which point you should type in

vmlinuz

Then the installer should do the rest. You may or may not see these screens. I saw them sometimes and sometimes I didn't. I think that MBR stuff only showed up for Etch and not for Lenny, but I still had to type in vmlinuz. Moving on.

The non-graphical installer should now pop up. (The installer seemed kinda graphical, but maybe I'm missing out on something even better than BIOS-type graphics.) You have to choose all your settings, plus you need a wired internet connection. Debian doesn't start off with wireless, eh? We'll get to that later. When it asks to connect by DHCP, you need to keep retrying when it asks and plugging your Ethernet cable in and out until it works. Eventually, the installer will ask if you want to install from the CD/USB or from the network, but I just chose to install from the network at this point, even though I had a full CD. This way, you'll be up to date and stuff. That's kinda cool. Yeah, just do that. *shrug* >_> Don't forget to choose the Desktop Environment. I also chose Laptop and Base System, but I'm not sure what Laptop really does. The Desktop gives you the pretty GUI you're used to from Ubuntu. When I installed Etch, it didn't have my laptop's 1366x768 resolution, so things were looking really weird with the 1200x768 resolution. It was also remarkably slow.

You'll also need to set up your wireless connection. As of this writing, the MadWifi project was in transition to ath5k or something, so these instructions might become dated. Anyway, follow these instructions:

http://madwifi-project.org/wiki/UserDocs/FirstTimeHowTo

Some problems came up, but they were resolved using this thread.

http://madwifi-project.org/ticket/2112

See the post at "03/18/09 11:43:02 changed by teetz@gmx.de"

At this point, that's where my development has stopped. I'll let know how things develop. Mind you, this post sums up three weeks of frustration. I've barely even gotten into any of the programming. Alas, good experience for the scholar, yes? I will go back and try to install Etch instead of Lenny, but the process remains almost completely the same. It's just switching out one installation image iso to another almost. We'll see how that goes. See? Everyone's learning. Yay for documentation. Yay for weekend projects. Hope this post helps at least one person. Thanks for tuning in.

Windows 7 on MacBook Pro

I'm looking for a reason to get a MacBook Pro. I really like the unibody aluminum enclosure, but I don't really care for using the Mac OS X platform. I really like Windows 7, so I want to know how fast that runs on a MBP. 13" is all I need, and if the integrated graphics run Gmail video chat, YouTube and TV shows well enough, then I'm happy. It's definitely a nice piece of hardware, but I wonder if W7 will run smoothly on the hardware.

I try to not be a hater, so I will admit that the MBP is a pretty little number. 13" is a good size, and it isn't as expensive as the intense, super large MBPs. Some good PC laptops go for around 1K, so I think that's a decent price point for a decent computer. However, I don't feel any draw towards OSX, whereas I fully enjoy the experience with W7. The one click trackpad is also pretty sweet-looking, so maybe that will pair nicely with W7. I just worry if it'll run quickly enough. I've read battery life drops in this kind of setup, but two hours is plenty for the kind of work I like to do.

Pros:

- pretty little computer

- nice size and weight

- Boot Camp

- Touchpad is pretty sweet

Cons:

- I've read that MagSafe isn't safe at all

- I've read that the cooling fans don't spin fast enough

- Does W7 run quickly enough?

My current laptop is the HP dm3-1020CA. It's a cute little laptop, basically a 13" HP Envy, which looks more or less like a MacBook. It cost me 750 CAD, which was a bit surprising. Spec-wise, it's really impressive. AMD Athlon Neo X2 Dual Processor 1.60GHz, 64-bit, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD, 4 USB slots, HDMI out, Wireless N-draft, tiny little card reader built-in. It runs like a dream, and the keyboard is really nice. Considering I'm a really touchy-feely kind of guy that played piano for 13 years, I think my opinion of a keyboard carries more weight than some people. I had a Toshiba A100 and a L300D, both of which had a Canadian keyboard. (Who the heck uses a Canadian keyboard? Canadians use it because they have to because manufacturers think we use it, as evidenced by th fact that there are laptops with Canadian keyboards in Canada that Canadians use. Ugh.) I hated them. The Canadian aspect of the keyboard annoyed me to no end because I had to adjust my LShift-ing by reaching my pinkie out every time I capitalized a word. Blech. Nevertheless, the keyboards on those computers just sucked, and I hated them. This dm3-1020CA has a real solid one. The keys are sturdy, and I can really pound away on it if I'm typing an angry blog post about how much I hate some keyboards. One annoying feature is that the F keys can only be accessed through a Fn button. I hate this. I looked up free programs to reassign keys, but none of them work. Can someone point me to a good one? In summary, even though my dm3-1020CA has a Canadian keyboard and the Function keys are annoying, I likes it.

That being said, I think the future of portable computers is in thin-and-lights. I know netbooks are all the rage right now, but I hated the one I tried. The keyboard was cramped (gotta hate crappy keyboards), and I couldn't video chat with my girlfriend who was in Australia at the time. Upgrading the RAM and slightly overclocking the CPU did diddly-squat, so I'm left with a bad taste in my mouth. I tried the ASUS EeePC 1005HE, which my research determined was the best for me. My HP thin-and-light rocks the show. The RAM gets a bit hot, but I like it warming up my hands. Toshiba has a competing TnL, the T130D-006, but I didn't like it as much. Yep. Mine rocks the show.

Bottom line: I like my laptop, but the MacBook Pro is so much prettier. The aesthetics is what really gets me, and if it can putter out enough power on Windows 7, I'm all in. Thoughts?

My iPhone Apps

Hello all,

I am going to list out all the iPhone apps/tweaks that I have. I own an iPhone 3GS, so take that in consideration for some of the more resource-intensive apps.

Before I go ahead and list off the apps I have on my phone, allow me to explain the type of iPhone user I am. First off, I jailbroke my phone. Yes, I did. The phone is just so much more useful when I can control every part of it. After I restored my phone once, I tried using it without Cydia and so on. I felt the phone was so useless (besides the smartphone + iPod aspects). That's not to say that the phone is a completely different beast when jailbroken such that everyone should do it. I guess part of it was that I was used to having it jailbroken, but it's also because there's inherent merit to jailbreaking your phone. Anyways. If you need further convincing, I suggest you do further reading.

I am pretty utilitarian, so I don't care for themes or soundboards. Get WinterBoard and Customize out of here. I used to do it, but I just got so bored of looking at the themes. It slows down the experience, much like "Six Icon Dock" and "Five Column/Row Springboard." I don't play a lot of games, but I have a few. I don't invest my time or money in the latest and greatest FPS or RPG or what have you, so this list isn't helpful to you if that's what you're looking for. I'm not into cracking apps from the App Store, so again, this is the wrong list. Also, I'll pay for an app if it's worth it or if I want to support the developer, but there isn't much I'm willing to pay for.

Now that that's been said, on with the show:

Essentials

• Cydia - I used to have Installer back when it was around, but when I heard Cydia was open source, I jumped ship immediately. I am nothing short of amazed at Jay Freeman's (saurik) work. Rock and Icy are probably fine. I'm really only interested in tweaks and nifty System packages.
• SBSettings - Does this even need any explanation? The combination of easily accessible toggles, power control, respringer, IP address viewer, icon hider, Mobile Substrate manager, memory-freer and more make it one of the most powerful tools available on the iPhone. You might hear someone say, "Oh, you only save 4 seconds from going into Settings->Wifi->Off. How busy can your life be?" Well, do the math and consider how many times you're going to turn off every feature (3G, EDGE, Wifi, Bluetooth, rotation, etc.) and multiply out the time over the expected life of your phone. 'nuff said.
• Five Icon Dock - I didn't like Six Icon Dock, and I don't care to pay for Infinidock. Five is a good number. I hold in my dock (in order from left to right) Messages, Phone, iPod, Safari and Mail. I use Mail and Messages the most, so that's why they're on the ends. I put iPod right above the Home button because that's usually what I'm accessing when I go to the Springboard.
• 20 Second Lock Screen - Some of you may be surprised at finding such a small tweak as an essential. I like this "app" mostly because of its use as a flashlight. I don't have a flashlight app because I have this thing. Plus, I find 5 seconds too short, even if it's not for flashlighting. I like to put pictures of me and my girlfriend on my lock screen, so I like to gaze at that for a while instead of having it re-lock after 5 seconds or instead of having something like Cydget/LockInfo/SmartScreen (other apps that you'll notice aren't on my list).
• CyDelete - Remember the days when you had to uninstall things after Cydia loaded, downloaded new packages and reloaded before you could access your packages? Remember those late nights when you felt like trying new apps and uninstalled them all over the course of the last 10 minutes of your night before you fell asleep in the process?
• GlovePod - I live in cold Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I need gloves. This tweak minimizes the whole "capacitive touchscreens are bad because you have to take off your gloves to use them" aspect.
• Notifier - I have push GMail enabled, so it's nice to know every now and again why my phone just buzzed. One of my very favourite apps.
• reMail - Companion to your Microsoft Exchange account. I use this with my GMail account because you can only search as far back as 50 emails when it's pushed to your phone. Even if you don't push GMail to your iPhone/iPod touch, get this anyway because it downloads all your emails (minus attachments) to your phone. My ~10,000 emails took up ~63MB. Just do it. It's free.
• OpenSSH - Turn that iPhone into a wireless USB drive! Manually edit all the sqlitedb codes you want! Recover your music if your laptop is stolen! (That last one actually happened to me.) Remember when Apple used to let us use our iPortableDevices as USB drives? Whatever happened to that? "Here's 64GB. Only use it for music, videos and photos."
• Automatic SSH - Avoid SSH connection timeouts with this package.
• PrivaCy - No brainer. Don't let those mobile ad companies spy on you. Only Google should be allowed to do that. Your free apps no longer phone home.
• QuickReply for SMS - Reply to your texts in whatever app you're using at the moment of arrival. Hard to say how much you'll like it until you use it. Consider it an extension of multitasking.
• Rotation Inhibitor - Seriously, how basic is this tweak? No more landscape mode when you check your email, texts or websites in bed. Wow. Another one of my faves.
• Rogers My Account - Keep track of your minutes, SMS/MMS, data usage, billing information. Great for those with limited minutes, data or messages. It actually saved me from going over my data limit one month; getting Google Maps to follow you when you drive on the highway is a bad idea on a limited data plan. 5 cents per kilobyte is very steep, Rogers.

Nice to have

• afc2add - Enables USB browsers like iPhoneBrowser when jailbreaking with Blackra1n. Do it.
• Backgrounder - I don't like to always wait for Cydia to load, so I background it in conjunction with...
• ProSwitcher - Palm Pre-style interface for multi-tasking. Take that, iPad.
• Dropbox - Nowhere near as powerful as the native Dropbox application for the desktop, it's nice to be able to access your files on the go. If you don't use Dropbox, you aren't cool.
• dTunes - I don't use it regularly; I merely use it to show iPhone and/or jailbreak haters what a jailbroken iPhone can do.
• BTstack - Get it just because it's cool. I have neither a Bluetooth mouse nor a Bluetooth keyboard, but I like having it anyway should the occasion arise. Another point for the jailbreak community.
• GV Mobile - Again, nice to have, but I don't use it. Google Voice hasn't come to Canada yet either, so doubly useless for me. Call me a wishful thinker.
• Landscape TV Out - I don't watch my iPhone-formatted videos on the 42" plasma. There's HDMI out on my HP dm3-1020CA, thank you very much. But still, look how cool! Apps on the TV!
• Lonely Planet's Mandarin Audio Phrasebook - I got it back when it was free. Such a great app. I can now tell the Chinese authorities that I've been raped.
• MakeItMine - I changed my carrier from "ROGERS" to "JARRIE," the Hollywood celebrity couple name for me and Carrie. Just because I can. Booya!
• MobileTerminal - Another "look at what my jailbroken iPhone can do" app. I SSH into the computers at school, open MATLAB and type in "why". Highly recommended! A++!
• MultiIconMover - For all the mornings you wanted to move more than one icon but couldn't.
• n64iphone free - "Hey, my phone can play 'Super Mario 64'. Can yours?"
• psx4iphone - "Hey, my phone can sort of play 'Final Fantasy VII'. Can yours?"
• Tempo - I'm a drummer. This is probably the best drumming app you can get. Paid app. I do wish I could listen to music while it ticked away, but that's a minor thing.
• TM Zero - Tower Madness Zero. Fun game. Tower defense with lots of levels and towers. The ads aren't even that annoying. I should probably buy it for how much I've played it. It's embarrassing how much I play this game.
• Veency - I only ever use this to type long texts on my laptop instead of with my thumbs. Another cool proof of concept too. Haven't figured out how to replace MobileMe's lost phone feature though.
• WeatherEye - The iPhone's native weather app was annoying. This one will suffice. A bit sluggish for all it's expected to do, but it does the job.
• YourTube - I just like this because copumpkin's the guy that helped Max Weas code MxTube. This is an example of me supporting developers. If I'm not mistaken, he's on the iPhone Dev Team as well.
• Youversion.com Bible - I like this Bible app. It's free, has lots of translations, but it also needs to connect to data to access most of those translations. I downloaded The Message as an offline translation, so it works for me.

That's the current state of my iPhone. I don't recommend all these apps to everyone, I just wanted to share what I use and why I use them. This list also isn't meant to convince anyone why they should get an iPhone over any other. "Get an iPhone because you can stop it from rotating, bro!" Any thing you get should be something that fits your needs, be they budget, accessibility, the accepted standard in your group of friends, etc.. Sharing is caring, so make of my list what you will. Hope this helps someone.

Player Haters

Greetings,

Now, if you know me well, you may know I hate tech player haters. You probably don't know me well, so I'll tell you: I hate player haters. Don't know what a player hater is? Not sure what type of player hater I hate (in case you're one of them)? I hate the type of player haters that hate on Apple just because it's popular. You may hear these player haters saying something like,

"I hate the iPod. I think they're so stupid. This Player from Obscure Company is less powerful and less feature-rich, but it's better because the iPod is popular."

This type of player hater has issues with "following the crowd," and they scapegoat popular things even though it has nothing to do with the player at all. Now, I'm not saying that the iPod is a perfect device. It certainly has hardware and software merits, but there are things I don't like about it and there are other devices just as good (or better). I'll talk about that some other time. A player hater may also be heard saying something like,

"Screw the Google Nexus One. Who cares? It's so expensive! You can get an iPhone 3GS for cheaper."

Well, actually, unsubsidized, the iPhone is a lot more expensive. Mind you, it's a couple months older, but the "cheaper" assessment is based on subsidized pricing and not outright payment. (I'm from Canada, so you'd have to buy it unlocked and unsubsidized if you wanted to use it on the future Wind Mobile network.)

Another nitpick is the comments against Wind Mobile that go to the tune of,

"How hard is it to switch frequencies? I can't bring my phone over, but how hard is it for them to just use the frequency of a Rogers phone so I don't have to buy a new one?"

Bro, the frequency is different because that's the spectrum that they bought. Ugh. (Maybe I should point these things out at the source so that it doesn't bother me or well up inside.) Either way, I'm going to keep maintaining this blog.

The point is that you can't discredit anything just on one point. I like how my Analog Electronics prof put it (I'm paraphrasing):

"In design, you have to consider a solution to the problem as a multi-dimensional optimization problem."

That means you have to consider all aspects before making a judgement. You have to find the best balance of all parameters before you can say, "Yes, this $999, solar-powered, LED-backlit pencil sharpener is right for me." Most importantly, you have to continually ask yourself, "Is this the right fit for me?" What good is a device if it doesn't fit you? I'm not gonna buy my grandparents a Twitterpeek.

Bah! That is all. Bottom line:

• Multi-dimensional optimization problem
• Is this the right fit for me?
• Stop player hating

Also, I hated English in school. I can't believe I'm doing it in my free time.

First Post

Hello Internet Surfer,

My name is Jon. I really like technology. I have an opinion. I don't really care if no one cares about that opinion, I just feel like I need to share it. I could probably comment on the various blogs I follow, but how many people would really be able to read my opinion? Seems oxymoronic, I know. I don't care if no one reads my opinion, but I want more people to read my opinion. I figure that people will eventually catch on if I continue to put my thoughts out there. I think I've found a comfy position relative technology where I don't just subscribe to everything put out by a particular group (like your average Mac-tard) and I'm not completely oblivious to its existence (like those living the Amish Paradise), but technology actually mostly enhances my life. I want to share that with people. I hope my blog posts add value to your life. I'm really clueless about this whole blogging thing, but I know that Google is kind to search terms. Maybe someone will stumble upon this humble blog. Anywho, enough jibber jabber. That's who I am, that's why I'm doing this, so let's do this.