Dale Dietrich – Page 9

October 12, 2008February 28, 2017

Bell & Telus Announce Canada-wide HSPA/GSM Network Starting 2010

Bell and Telus have announced the joint development of a long-rumoured, fast, nation-wide, HSPA wireless network to begin service as early as 2010.

In the near term, the network will support both existing CDMA mobile handsets used by current Bell and Telus customers, plus GSM–based handsets. GSM is the global standard currently used by Rogers in support of the iPhone, among other mobile devices.

Over the longer term, this 4G network could ramp Canadian wireless download speeds to as fast as 100 Mbps. Current Canadian 3G networks have 7 Mbps maximum download speeds.

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October 9, 2008February 28, 2017

Most Anticipated Fall 2008 Video Game Releases

Below are the fall 2008 video game releases that I’m most looking forward to, not sure of and two 2009 games that I’m chomping at the bit to play.

Fall 2008 Can’t Wait

Oct 17? – Max Payne 3 – Only Rumoured – but the Mark Walberg movie comes out Oct 17. Max Payne 1 and 2 were two of my all-time favourite games. [Update: Oops – so much for wild guesses]
Oct 21 – LittleBigPlanet (PS3) – Who isn’t looking forward to this one?
Nov 4 – Resistance 2 (PS3) – I enjoyed Resistance 1 much more than I expected.
Nov 7 – Gears of War 2 (360)– What’s not to love? Can’t have too many COGs.
Nov 11 – Mirror’s Edge – Looks like pure platforming fun like Crackdown was.
Nov 18 – Tomb Raider: Underworld – I hope they finally get frame rate issues resolved – every Tomb Raider to date has made me nauseous within a half hour.
Dec 2 – Prince of Persia 2008 – This one is looking like its getting back to its excellent PoP: Sands of Time roots. I wasn’t a fan of the intervening PoPs.

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October 7, 2008February 28, 2017

Three iPhone Relaxation and Sleep Apps Reviewed

Sometimes I have difficulties falling asleep – I can’t seem to shut the mind off. For years I’ve considered purchasing rather high-priced sleep assist devices such as this white noise machine. The idea is to help you fall asleep by distracting the mind with pleasing, relaxing sounds. But they always seemed too expensive and I was concerned they wouldn’t work.

I was delighted to see the 99¢ “White Noise” app on the iPhone’s App Store “Top 25 Paid” list. I thought for 99¢ I couldn’t go wrong. Turns out White Noise wasn’t so useful. So I went on to check out its competitors, Ambiance and aSleep, each of which are also 99¢.

They all provide essentially the same functionality – selectable looping sounds that can be set to turn off after a preset amount of time. But they all suffer from the same two problems:

Continue reading “Three iPhone Relaxation and Sleep Apps Reviewed”

October 6, 2008February 28, 2017

How to Sync ‘Work’ and ‘Home’ Email Addresses Between the iPhone and Outlook 2007 – Error Free

When adding contacts into each of the iPhone and Outlook 2007, there are built-in, distinct ‘home’, ‘work’/’business’ and ‘mobile’ telephone number fields. Yet, surprisingly, Outlook 2007 does not provide built-in, discreet ‘home’, ‘work’ or ‘other’ email address fields. Yet, the iPhone does!

As a result of this disparity, you can get very odd results when synchronizing your iPhone and Outlook 2007 contacts. Unless you are aware of, and properly handling, how the syncing works, it will seem as if the iPhone randomly categorizes email addresses originating from Outlook 2007 as either ‘home’, ‘work’ or ‘other’.

Happily, as described below, the Outlook and iPhone email fields do sync in a predictable way. With little effort, you can make sure that ‘home’, ‘work’ and ‘other’ email address fields are properly synched between Outlook 2007 and your iPhone.

The Problem

As you can see from the picture below (after the break), when adding new contacts in Outlook 2007, there are no built-in, discreet ‘home’, ‘work’, ‘business’ or ‘other’ email address fields. The only choice you have is the default non-numbered ‘E-mail…’ field, and the ‘E-mail 2’, and ‘E-mail 3’ fields (available from the pull-down menu).

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October 6, 2008February 28, 2017

iPhone’s iPod Touch Features NOT Bricked with SIM Removed

Back when I was doing my Rogers iPhone research, see here, I asked numerous representatives from Rogers (both on the phone and at the Rogers store) whether I would be able to use my iPhone as an iPod Touch-like device if/when I cancelled my iPhone service. The uniform answer was no! – that the iPhone would be bricked (wouldn’t even turn on beyond a warning screen) if I removed the SIM card.

Two months after purchasing my iPhone I set out to finally transfer all of my remaining contacts from my old Nokia phone to the iPhone. This required me to remove the SIM from my iPhone and put it back into my Nokia phone (the Nokia would not turn on without the SIM). In doing so, I tested Rogers’ theory that the iPhone would be completely bricked with the SIM removed. I discovered this was untrue.

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October 4, 2008February 28, 2017

Live Free or Die Hard (2007)

(3.5/5)

Reference: |
Reviews: IMDb External Reviews | Rotten Tomatoes 81% | Metacritic 69%

Yippy Ki-yay! For the fourth time in nineteen years, Bruce Willis enjoyably reprises his irreverent role as Detective John McClane in Live Free or Die Hard .

This is a fun, predictable, action-filled romp with a nonsensical plot and a nonsensical villain played unconvincingly by Timothy Olyphant.

It’s the second movie I have seen featuring Justin Long – the Mac in the “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” commercials. Is it just me, or does Justin Long seem to you as if he is the result of Zack Braff and Keanu Reeves mating? True to form, he played a computer hacker in need of Detective McClane’s protection. Amusingly, there wasn’t a Mac in sight! 🙂 I enjoyed his performance – exactly what you’d expect.

Continue reading “Live Free or Die Hard (2007)”

October 1, 2008February 28, 2017

Star Wars: Force Unleashed

(3.5/5)
Reviews: Metacritic 72%| Game Rankings 72% | zero punctuation
Reference: Achievements|
Walkthrus: Mahalo | WikiCheats | GameFAQ
Developer: Lucas Arts Genre: Action-Adventure
Engine: Ronin, DMM, Havok and Euphoria

Pros: engaging story – music – excellent auto-save points – genuinely fun – first rate physics – achievable achievements – fair

Cons: some camera issues – use of quick-time controls – boss battles – no co-op or online modes – corridor corralling

Fun

Simply put, for action-adventure fans, Star Wars: Force Unleashed (SWFU) is a fun game, with a nice difficulty ramp, good auto-save points and challenging for players at all skill levels. The primary gaming mechanic are force powers similar to the telekinesis powers in Deus Ex: Invisible War While a tad glitchy, the game was generally solid. Unlike so many other games, (except for the star destroyer boss battle discussed below) I didn’t feel cheated by silly gimmicks to prolong game-play or artificially make the game more challenging. It was generally all-round good fun.

Star Wars Story Between Episodes III and IV

Star Wars fans will enjoy the story. It is a reasonably immersive, entertaining and well told story about Darth Vader’s apprentice, Starkiller and his love interest Juno Eclipse. The story takes place between Episodes III and IV of the Star Wars series. However, it wasn’t a ‘bridge’ between the two episodes as I had been lead to believe. It was more or less an irrelevant side-story (much in the way the Enter the Matrix game was an engaging side story to the Matrix Trilogy) involving some of the familiar Star Wars characters (Darth Vader, Princess Leia (using Carrie Fisher’s likeness but not her voice), Senator Organa (using Jimmy Smits likeness and his voice), Senator Organa (briefly using Ewan McGregor’s likeness) , R2D2, Emperor Palpatine, among others).

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October 1, 2008February 28, 2017

Simple, Free Group File Renaming with Ant Renamer

This tip comes from Paul Thurrott on the Windows Weekly 76 podcast (available here).

How I long for the old days of DOS commands. It was so easy in those days to rename groups of files. X-Tree was (and still is) my all time favourite Swiss-army knife utility for the PC for this kind of thing. Though the developers tried, X-Tree never made the move from DOS to Windows successfully.

The Problem – Cryptic Digital Camera File Names

The most common need for file renaming these days is to properly name digital photos. My Cannon Elf creates thousands of .jpg files that look like this: IMG_1894.jpg. What the heck is that? I want to rename groups of photos by the event they depict (eg: Dad’s 77th Birthday 1.jpg). While there are ways of renaming groups of files in Windows Explorer (see here for example) the method is painful and error prone – I screwed up many a photo file name using this method.

The Easy and Free Solution – Ante Renamer

Along comes the free utility, Ant Renamer – available for download here. In seconds it can rename dozens/hundreds of IMG_### files, for example, to appropriate names reflecting the occasion they represent. It works in both Vista and Windows XP.

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September 29, 2008February 28, 2017

Canada’s National Do Not Call List Starts Sept 30, 2008

If you dislike getting unwanted telemarketing calls, starting Tuesday Sept 30, 2008, Canadians will be able to sign up for the new “National Do Not Call List”. The list Is modelled after the U.S. National Do Not Call Registry established in 2003.

[Oct 1 Update: The service is working intermittently right now.]

Once you put your number on the list, telemarketers (with exceptions listed below) cannot call you. If they do, you can report them. They face fines from $1,500 to $15,000 per infraction. The do not call list will not, however, stop calls from:

registered charities seeking donations
newspapers looking for subscriptions
political parties and their candidates, and
companies with whom you have an existing commercial relationship; for example, if you have done business with a company in the previous 18 months––such as a carpet-cleaning company––that company can call you. The biggest offenders like your bank, telephone company, cable company etc. can still call and harass you. Grr!

Unfortunately your registration lasts only three years. Mark your calendar to register again three years from now.

Questions and answers about the national do-not-call list are available on this government website. For more info, you can read about it here on Wikipedia or here on Michael Geist’s site.

iOptOut Option

Canadians may also wish to register with Michael Geist’s free “iOptOut” service which allows Canadian consumers to opt-out of calls from those organizations mentioned above that are otherwise exempt from the national list (click thumbnail for larger view). iOptOut’s FAQ is here.

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September 24, 2008February 28, 2017

Best Demos at Techcrunch50

I just listened to the TWiT podcast 161 were Jason Calicanis described two of the most interesting demos shown at the recent TechCrunch50 conference – tonchidot and swype. I also briefly mention the contest winner – yammer.

Tochidot:

This demo, by Japanese “tonchidot”, got the best audience response at the recent Techcrunch50 show. Watch the demo here.

It starts off slow. It’s hard to understand the Japanese presenter. About 4 minutes in an English presenter takes over and describes the technology. The idea is really cool.

It’s an iPhone app that interacts with the world around it. As you are walking around the real world, and looking at the iPhone screen, tags (text/audio) about your surroundings, that others posted earlier, appear on the screen in real-time. It uses the iPhone’s built in GPS to know where you are and the iPhones accelerometer to know which angle and which way you are looking. Anyone can add tags about anything they are looking at that anyone later can read/listen too. Ultimately, if this catches on, the world around us could be tagged full of information left by users that went before.

Suggested uses include, restaurant/store reviews, site-seeing guides, museum/painting guides, tourist destination information. Restaurants could post their menus that users could read just by pointing their iPhone at the restaurant. Theatre goers can get reviews of the current show by pointing their iPhone at the theatre.

The question and answer period was hilarious because the presenters clearly could not speak English. “We have a puppet” was an answer to one tech question.

The obvious answer to the unanswered question-and-answer question (what happens when surroundings change over time?) is that the tags would/could be organized by date. The most recent tags would be presented first (to reflect the world as it is now – or most recently was) with the possibility to dig down to older tags to read/hear about how the thing/place you are looking at was in the past.

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September 20, 2008February 28, 2017

Too Human

Reviews: Metacritic 65%| Game Rankings 68% | zero punctuation
Reference: GameFAQ |
Developer: Silicon Knights, Engine: Proprietary Genre: Action-RPG
Status: Abandoned after 3 hours

Pros: beautiful, well-rendered environments – user selectable save points – good graphics/character models – solid cinematic production values – good death/penalty system – online co-op (though oddly without story elements)

Cons: no camera control – nausea inducing – story didn’t grab me – too complex for little pay off – too much button mashing – ballistic aiming was poor – too much HUD – no story/direction screen

As a Canadian, with the Silicon Knights development studio just a few miles across Lake Ontario from me in St. Catherine’s Ontario, I felt obligated to give Too Human a try. Plus, after listening to dozens of interviews by Denis Dyack and with all the controversy swirling around this game, I was curious.

I made it just past the point where you have to choose to go the human or cyborg paths (about 3 hours in) where I abandoned the game. I’m generally not an RPG-playing, leveling-up, inventory-managing, kind of guy though I enjoyed both KOTOR and Mass Effect enough to finish them (I similarly abandoned Oblivion after a few hours, though I made it through a good 10 hours or so of Morrowind).

Camera Control Issue

Lack of camera-control is one of my bigger video game pet-peeves. Too Human is one such game. I listened to Dyack go on and on about the cinematic advantageous of allowing the game to control the camera – analogizing that movie viewers don’t control the camera. Sorry Denise, movie-goers are passive by definition. While your game was among the better games without camera I’ve played, every game like this is a loser for two big reasons:

they always make me nauseous (Too Human was no exception); and
I need/want to control my view to fight the battles the way I want to fight them – not the way a game designer intends.

I’ve only played a few games to the end that did not allow me to manage the camera: God of War 1, God of War 2 and Munch’s Odyssey. Most others I won’t even try. I’ve never managed any in the Resident Evil series for more than 10 to 15 minutes without needing to toss my cookies.

Continue reading “Too Human”

September 17, 2008February 28, 2017

Burn After Reading (2008)

(1.5/5)

Reference: |
Reviews: Roger Ebert | IMDb External Reviews | Rotten Tomatoes 79% | Metacritic 62%

The title should be changed to "Burn Before Watching". It’s an awful movie. I laughed a lot during Burn After Reading (2008). I laughed at it, not because of it. Given my general disdain for Coen Brothers movies, I only went to see it because a good friend paid for my ticket (it was my birthday).

This bit of drivel attracted yet another star studded cast, all of whom wasted their considerable talents on a movie about hapless physical trainers (Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt) trying to ply a hapless ex-CIA agent (John Malkovich) for money in exchange for the return of electronic documents of questionable intelligence value.

Tilda Swinton, who won the Best Supporting Actress award for her terrific performance in Michael Clayton (2007), was wasted as Malkovich’s one-dimensional, witch-of-a-philandering-wife. George Clooney reprised his O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) buffoonery as a Treasury Department body guard, engaged in multiple affairs with the Swinton and McDormand characters, among others.

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September 17, 2008February 28, 2017

No Crapware on a Mac

Paul Thurrott makes a very good point in the latest Windows Weekly podcast (Episode 74 at time index 50:10). It hadn’t occurred to me until he mentioned it, but there is no crapware installed on a Mac. He makes the very good point that part of XP’s and Vista’s negative reputation is due to the fact that Microsoft has no control over how the OS is tuned or what crapware hardware manufacturers like Dell, HP etc. install on Windows machines.

Every time I set up a new PC (whether for myself or for friends and family), I spend hours removing the inevitable crapware. This is such an endemic problem that there are third party crapware removal tools like The PC Decrapifier available to assist with the problem. Most new PCs come with the CPU-cycle-sucking McAffee or Norton anti-virus software which also needs to be removed but which can’t be fully removed without registry editing skills (I recommend the free version of AVG). To make things worse, with most every peripheral my family and friends purchase, they inevitably install the crapware that comes with it, which almost never needs to be installed for the peripheral to function. Most of these ridiculously unnecessary programs sit in the system tray, always turned on, never needed, constantly sucking more and more life out of their poor XP or Vista OSs.

When I look back on my recent Mac Mini and iMac setup experiences, it was a delight turning them on and not having to deal with crapware – not having to deal with system performance degradation from the unnecessary use of system cycles – not having to uninstall anything. That’s how a users first experience with a computer should be.

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September 17, 2008February 28, 2017

The Dark Knight (2008)

(5/5)

Reference: |
Reviews: Roger Ebert | IMDb External Reviews | Rotten Tomatoes 95% | Metacritic 82%

Wow! The Dark Knight was so good I would have wanted to give it 5.5 Dale-heads out of 5. But, its whopping 2.5 hour length, and the fact that I don’t have a graphic for 5.5 Dale-heads, pulls it back to a meagre perfect 5 out of 5. 🙂

I quite enjoyed Batman Begins (2005). The Dark Knight was even better. In this instalment, Christian Bale‘s Batman, Lieutenant Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman ) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) had been making significant strides in reducing the crime-ridden Gotham City we encountered in Batman Begins until a new arch-villain, The Joker (Heath Ledger), rose up to challenge them. And challenge-them he does.

Heath Ledger as the Joker was spectacular and is a shoe-in for Best Supporting Actor. He steels the show from Christian Bale, though Bale’s performance was very good too. Ledger’s creepy, nuanced performance of a sociopath is acting at its best.

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September 14, 2008February 28, 2017

Gary Vaynerchuk’s Wine Library Reserve Podcast

(4.5/5)

From Revision3’s stable of podcasts comes Gary Vaynerchuk’s (Wikipedia) entertaining and informative Wine Library Reserve podcast (available in HD). Gary begins most every podcast with: "This my friends is the Thundershow, a.k.a the Internet’s most passionate wine program". He isn’t exaggerating.

Note: He also has hosts the longer form companion "wine library tv" podcast that’s only available in SD.

In each 5 minute episode he first ‘sniffy sniffs", then tastes, spits out and ultimately reviews three to four different wines with exuberance reminiscent of Roberto Benigni’s acceptance of his Best Actor Oscar. His descriptions are funny, provocative, entertaining and informative. Graphics are generated on the fly depicting each of the the smells and tastes he encounters along the way from the initial sniffs, to the entry, the midpalet, the finish and the length. His descriptions range from the conventional (black current with a touch of spice) to the hilarious (this tastes like pooh mixed with tar). During the review pictured on the left he likened the wine’s taste to concrete dust. 🙂 He somehow manages to get up to a dozen or so smells or tastes out of every bottle.

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September 14, 2008February 28, 2017

Enchanted (2007)

(4/5)

Reference: |
Reviews: Roger Ebert | IMDb External Reviews | Rotten Tomatoes 93% | Metacritic 75%

Enchanted (2007) is a terrific movie that lives up to its name. Few musicals since the Sound of Music (1965) and West Side Story (1961) have been as satisfying and enjoyable as Enchanted. It had me pleasantly smiling from beginning to end.

Amy Adams plays Giselle, a princess, that literally falls out of a fairytale into Manhattan’s Time’s Square. My first discovery of Adams was her Oscar nominated performance in Junebug (2005) where she, but not the movie, was wonderful. In Enchanted she plays the same kind of unwaveringly, wide-eyed optimist character that she played in Junebug. She convincingly plays a fairytale princess, capable of motivating hard-edged New Yorkers into spontaneous song and dance. Somehow she pulled it off in an entertaining fashion. So much so that I rewound and watched that scene several times. Her That’s How You Know song got me humming along.

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September 12, 2008February 28, 2017

iPhone App Development – Where to Start

[October 4, 2012 Update]

On September 27, 2012, Apple accepted my first app, Fine Tip – Tip Calculator (buy it here, read about it here) into the app store. For reasons I won’t get into, I abandoned iPhone app development back in the fall of 2009. In August 2012, I took up the torch again. Within one month I was able to complete my first app.

Much has changed in three years. While most of what I wrote below still stands, ignore the book recommendations below. Instead, I strongly urge you to buy the two books below. Had they existed three years ago, I would have been able to develop my first app much quicker. I purchased them in August 2012 and had my first app done in less than a month:

iOS Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide (3rd Edition) by: Joe Conway & Aaron Hillegass: This book assumes you have some programming experience. This is a FANTASTIC step by step, guide that assumes you know nothing about iOS/iPhone development. (Buy it on Amazon here – or get the Kindle version like I did here)
Objective-C Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide by Aaron Hillegass: This book assumes you know nothing about programming at all! It’s a complete beginners guide to programming generally and iOS development specifically. If you know nothing about programming at all, start here. Then move on to the iOS Programming book above. I used it as a primer. It was very handy to get me back up to speed and as a reference book as I plowed through the iOS Programming book above. (Buy it on Amazon here – or get the Kindle version like I did here.)

[End October 4, 2012 Update]

[Original Post Last Updated: April 2009]

How hard could it be, I asked myself. I’ve developed my own applications in Basic and C. I can configure an Apache Server, install and use PHP, MySQL and other server apps. I develop and maintain websites and blogs from my home server. Over the last 15 years I’ve taught myself HTML, PHP, MySQL, CSS and the basics of Java. How hard could it be to develop a small application for the iPhone?

Let’s step back for a moment.

I have a very particular program in mind that I’ve wanted for years. It’s a very simple program – perfect for the iPhone (more on that in future posts). I could whip it up in C or PHP in about a day. I’ve never owned, or even used, an Apple computer of any kind in my some 27ish years of computing. I regard the iPhone App Store as a revolutionary new idea that pries control of mobile device apps from the big-bad telco giants and puts it in the hands of average consumers and developers — where it belongs. I see cloud computing as a very important part of our collective computing future. I want to get in on the ground floor. If my first simple program works out, I want to develop an iPhone app to work with my wishhh.com service. After that, who knows.

So, in August 2008 I registered to to join Apple’s standard developer program, purchased a Mac Mini (subsequently replaced it with an iMac) and set out to develop my first portable application for use on the iPhone.

Minimum Hardware

To develop for the iPhone you will need an Intel-based Mac running Leopard (OS X 10.5.3 or later). Any Mac released since 2006, laptop or desktop, should work.

Piece of Cake for Mac Cocoa Developers

If you have a solid grounding in Cocoa development (Apple’s Objective-C framework) with the xCode development on the Mac platform, developing iPhone Apps should be a breeze. Not so much for the rest of us.

Learning Curve for the Rest of Us

Below is a discussion of the hurdles I have had to overcome and the online resources I’ve found useful in my bid to become the newest iPhone App developer:

Continue reading “iPhone App Development – Where to Start”

September 12, 2008February 28, 2017

iPhone Firmware 2.1 Promises

I’m updating my 3G iPhone Software as I type this. The installation screen above is promising the following improvements. I for one am looking forward to the “significantly improved battery life” – my only real issue with the iPhone 3G hardware.

iPhone 2.1 Software Update

iPhone version 2.1 contains many bug fixes and improvements, including the following:

decrease in call set-up failures and call drops
significantly improved battery life for most users
dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes
improved email reliability, notably fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts
faster installation of 3rd party applications
fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes if you have lots of 3rd party applications
improved performance in text messaging
faster loading and searching of contacts
improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display
repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages
option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts
Genius playlist creation

I’ll update this after I’ve had a chance to test.

[Sept 17, 2009 Update: I’ve now had a few days to test and the battery life does seem to have improved. But not by as much as I first thought. My subjective guess would be that the battery is lasting about 10% to 15% longer than it has before the 2.1 firmware update.]

September 7, 2008February 28, 2017

I Traded-Up to an iMac

I took advantage of the Apple Store’s 14 day return policy and traded up to a 20" iMac ($1,299 Cdn). I returned the Mac Mini that I purchased two weeks ago.

I’m using the Mac as an iPhone App development platform. The Mac Mini just wasn’t quite enough for my needs.

Extended Desktop

The Mac Mini was gorgeous on, and took full advantage of, the 1920 x 1200 screen resolution of one of my 24" Dell monitors. ~~But, you cannot extend the Leopard desktop to a a second monitor with a Mac Mini.~~

[Update March 3, 2009: The new Mac Mini that came out in the beginning of March 2009 supports dual monitor setups with a Mini DVI port and Mini DisplayPort on the back. With this change it now makes the Mac Mini more suitable for iPhone development. Here are the full new Mac Mini specs.]

I am used to having my Vista desktop extended across four monitors. Having just one monitor on the Mac Mini (even a 24" monitor) was just too small for comfortable application development.

You can extend the iMac desktop to a second monitor and that’s exactly what I’m doing. The iMac has a mini-DVI port on the back for this purpose. I purchased a mini-DVI to VGA dongle and extended the iMac desktop to my second Dell 24" monitor (I switch that monitor back and forth between my iMac and my Dell XPS PC as needed – its my furthest right Dell monitor and to the left of my iMac). For now my XPS Vista machine is plugged into that 24" Dell monitor’s DVI input.

Continue reading “I Traded-Up to an iMac”

August 26, 2008February 28, 2017

Purchased a Mac Mini for iPhone App Development

Hell has officially frozen over. After 28 years of PC ownership, I purchased my first Apple computer yesterday – a mac mini.

I’d like to try my hand at developing iPhone Apps for the App Store. The SDK only works on the Apple platform (no SDK for you, PC developers). The big challenge for me won’t be the iPhone SDK so much as figuring out how to use a Mac. I’ve never spent more than a few frustrating minutes with the platform.

The Mac Mini Decision

Originally I was going to purchase an iMac hoping that I could use it in my growing array of PC monitors (ie: use its screen to switch back and forth between the iMac and just another screen in my array of PC screens). But, there’s no VGA, DVI or any other video input on the thing.

After an hour or so on the iPhone Developer site on my own and then another half hour with an Apple Store rep, we determined that the Mac Mini must be able to run the iPhone App SDK. Hence, as the cheapest way to go I decided that the Mac Mini was the best bet. After all, I have no intention to use the thing for anything other than Apple App development. And if it doesn’t meet my needs I have 14 days to return it.

I was a bit surprised that the Mac Mini doesn’t even come with a keyboard or a mouse. The Mac Mini was $649. The two extra peripherals were $49 each. And it cost me $99 fee to join the iPhone Developer Program. For $846 plus tax, I’m off.

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August 23, 2008February 28, 2017

Biden as Obama’s VP – Pros and Cons

Fresh off the announcement, these are my initial thoughts on the strategic pros and cons of Biden being named Obama’s running mate:

(a note on my personal opinion at the end)

Biden Pros:

Chemistry: The chemistry is right. They have an established working relationship having worked well together on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (with Biden being Barack’s ‘boss’).
Ends the Clinton Drama: After the speeches and roll-call next week, the post-primary Clinton drama will be ended. There will be no issue of what to do with “Bill” had Barack picked Hillary.
Scrappy Fighter: Barack can remain above the fray during the election campaign while Biden (who is no shrinking violet) gets down and dirty in the presidential fight/debates – similar to what Cheney did for Bush. He’ll effectively handle the Republican attack machine — in the words of Chris Matthews, “the Carl Rove, divisive, swift boating, character assassinating partisanship that calls every disagreement treason or appeasement, every electoral rival an enemy of the people”. Ha! 🙂
McCain Knowledge: Since Biden has worked with McCain for his entire career and knows him intimately, he’s strategically positioned to go toe-to-toe in debating McCain and his VP on every policy issue.
First Rate Debater: He’s a terrific debater. He’s well versed in every major policy area. He’ll be a good debater against any McCain VP pick.
Foreign Policy Chops: He’s extremely knowledgeable on foreign affairs and military policy (shoring up a perceived Obama weakness – he called for the surge YEARS before either Bush or McCain did). Biden should send flowers to Putin for the South Ossetia affair – which probably secured Biden’s place on the ticket. He has established personal working relationships with most every major foreign leader. Has travelled the world widely.
Third Pennsylvania Senator: While Biden is a senator from Delaware, he was born in Scranton Pennsylvania – a key battleground state that Hillary won in the primaries. Given Delaware’s proximity and overlapping media markets with Philadelphia, Biden’s considered Pennsylvania’s third senator. While Bush took most of Pennsylvania in 2004, Kerry won the state by taking Eastern Pennsylvania – the part closest to the Delaware border.

Continue reading “Biden as Obama’s VP – Pros and Cons”

August 15, 2008February 28, 2017

Legally Blonde (2001)

(4/5) romantic comedy

Reference: |
Reviews: Roger Ebert | IMDb External Reviews | Rotten Tomatoes (68%) | Metacritic (59%)

Golden Globe nominated Legally Blonde (2001) introduced me to two of my favourite (and two of the prettiest) contemporary actresses, Reese Witherspoon and Selma Blair. Despite its quirkiness, I laughed a lot and really it (it’s sequel Legally Blonde 2 (2003) – not so much). I saw it at the cinema when it first came out, again on DVD a few years ago and was happy to watch it once again when it was broadcast in HD on abc this evening.

In Legally Blonde (2001), after being dumped by her Harvard Law-bound boyfriend (Warren), fashion merchandising major Elle Woods (Reese) (with a 4.0 GPA) decides to make an unlikely application to Harvard Law School to impress upon him that she is marriage material. While very blonde (Reese sports some 40 different hairstyles in the film), Elle’s definitely not dumb!

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August 15, 2008February 28, 2017

I Purchased the 16 Gig Rogers 3G iPhone

On Wednesday August 13, I purchased a 16 Gig 3G Rogers iPhone.

Please see my “Rogers Canadian iPhone Plans – The Fine Print” post for the details on: (i) the actual (vs. advertised) hardware pricing; (ii) Rogers’ 30 day Buyers Remorse option; (iii) the applicable $125 to $500 Early Cancellation Fees (ECF); (iv) bricking on cancellation; (v) the jailbreak option/issue; (vi) the option to transfer the iPhone to a third party (and avoid the ECF); (vii) Canadian iPhone shortages; (viii) upgrading to future models; (ix) data roaming in Canada; (x) the 365 day warranty; and (xi) moving your SIM between phones.

Below I describe: (i) how I resolved my purchase impediments; (ii) the Rogers Buyer’s Remorse Option; (iii) my first impressions (I’m loving it); and (iv) the all-in Rogers iPhone and data plan cost.

Overcoming Obstacles to Purchase

In light of my strong aversion to cell phone contracts (let alone Rogers’ infamous 3 year iPhone contract) and early cancellation fees, there were several major obstacles I had to resolve before I felt comfortable enough to ‘purchase’ the subsidized 3G iPhone.

16 Gig iPhone is Too Small – Upgrade Dilemma: I carry around about 25 GB of music, 50 or so podcasts at any given time, workout and a few other videos/movies on my current video iPod (most of the storage is used for music). I’ll need storage space for the App Store applications I download. Plus, I’ll need space for email, contacts, pictures and visual voicemail. To manage with a 16 Gig iPhone, I’ll have to give up carrying most of my music around. So, I will inevitably want to upgrade to a 32 GB iPhone when it comes out. Resolution: As you can read in my ‘fine print’ post, the Rogers rep assured me that future models will be released for purchase at retail (as opposed to subsidized under contracts as is the case now). So, if he is right, at that time I’d be able to purchase and use the newer (larger capacity) unit under my current contract (and sell my 16 Gig iPhone). I rarely listen to music on my iPod anyway. Instead I use it mostly to listen to and watch podcasts. For now, I’ll use my current iPod for the rare times I want music while travelling.
Rogers Dataplan Issue: The initially announced Rogers data plans were ridiculous (see here). Resolution: I took advantage of the $30/month 6 GB limited time offer. Home WiFi data usage is not counted against 3G dataplan limits. The free Rogers/Fido WiFi hotspot usage is also not counted against 3G dataplan limits. I expect most of my data usage will be through WiFi so I’m hoping/expecting that the 6 GB limit should be enough for my needs – but I’ll only know for sure after a few months of use.

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August 15, 2008February 28, 2017

Rogers Canadian iPhone Plans – The Fine Print [Rewritten & Updated]

[This post is a rewritten version of an earlier July 28, 2008 post. I ‘purchased’ a 3G iPhone on August 13. In the mean time I spoke at length with two Rogers representatives on the telephone and spent a couple hours of quality time with "Jay" at the Rogers Store at Bay & King in Toronto. Click here for my prior summary of the Rogers 3G iPhone Rate Plan Offerings]

$199 and $299 Price ONLY on New Activations

I was unpleasantly surprised when I ‘purchased’ my 16 GB 3G iPhone, that they charged me $324.99 instead of the $299 advertised price. The Rogers rep (Jay) told me that the $199 and $299 prices are available only to new Rogers customers. I had been a month to month Rogers subscriber since November 2001. The representative explained that I was getting a special deal given that I’m a high-value customer. I was told that ‘lesser value Rogers customers’ face up-to a $50 premium over the advertised $199/$299 prices. I didn’t feel special!

30 Day Buyer’s Remorse Returns

Summary: iPhone purchasers can return an iPhone for a full refund and without having to pay the Early Cancellation Fees discussed below provided all of the following conditions are met:

the iPhone is returned within 30 days of activation to the store where it was purchased;
you have used less than 30 minutes of airtime (no more than 29 minutes);
you provide your proof of purchase (receipt – contract); and
the iPhone is undamaged and returned ‘like new’ with all pieces and original packaging.

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August 2, 2008February 28, 2017

Batman Begins (2005)

(4.5/5) action, super-hero, thriller

Reference: |
Reviews: Roger Ebert | IMDb External Reviews | Rotten Tomatoes (84%) | Metacritic (70)

This is a very good movie.

I watched Batman Begins (2005) for the second time both to prepare for The Dark Night (2008), and to test HD Internet movie downloads through my Apple TV (review coming soon). I was impressed when I saw it in the theatre back in 2005 and was impressed once again.

As a child Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) witnessed the murder of his parents. We discover him years later in an Asian jail as part of his ‘exploration of the criminal batman begins (2005) - liam neeson fraternity’. Ducard (Liam Neeson) urges Wayne to follow his master, Ra’s Al Ghul (a cameo role played by Ken Watanabe), to become more than just a vigilante. Ducard promises, that as a member of the ‘League of Shadows”, Wayne will learn to combat his fears, combat evil – and become a legend. That’s how Batman begins!

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