BlogAid

From Andy Budd’s BlogAid:

You can help the victims of this terrible natural disaster by pledging the proceeds of any advertising or affiliate schemes you have on your site for the month of January to your country’s Tsunami Earthquake appeal.

What a great idea. This is a no-brainer for me and I’m pretty sure most webloggers feel the same; this project has the potential to raise a lot of money. Good luck Andy.

Top five (individual) weblogs

I’m occassionaly asked whose sites I read and which I most enjoy. My response usually involves a pointer back to my links page and/or my OPML file, which contains the addresses for all of the feeds I read each day. For those that don’t want to work your way though my admittedly long and somewhat eclectic list, I present to you my top five personal websites:

John Gruber

If you have a Mac and a single nerd bone in your body then there is a good chance you’ve read this site. John has a wonderful way with words and consistently writes interesting and compelling articles pertaining to “Mac nerdery.” His writing sometimes walks a fine line between flowery description and superfluous overkill, but he always seems to pull it around and make clear his point.

Jason Kottke

Let’s face it, when it comes to weblogging, Jason is the man. He’s been doing this for a very long time and is constantly bringing something new to his site and the medium. What is more is that I’m not sure I’ve ever felt someone was as “like” me as Jason seems to be — it’s absolutely uncanny how his posts sometimes read how I think.

Russell Beattie

Russ is me, squared — he takes my gadget passion to a whole new level (at least as far as mobile phones go; just wait until I have money Russ  :P). I think what I like most about him is the fact that he absolutely holds no punches — he’s going to tell you exactly how he feels whether he’s talking about the latest Symbian OS or the dingbat we currently call president.

Rui Carmo

There is no question that Rui is the most prolific writer of the bunch and I sometimes wonder how he has time work on his “day job.” One needs to look no further than his index to feel compelled to write about something, anything. He has a great grasp of “tech,” and like Russ above, has no problem telling you exactly what’s on his mind.

Dunstan Orchard

As I’ve said to many people (and probably even to Dunstan at some point), this is one of the best looking sites I’ve ever seen — his attention to detail is truly inspiring. Beyond the dynamic cartoon weather headers, the site is rich with content, not the least of which are his gorgeous photos (which he seems to be posting more frequently).

Soliciting comments on the Belkin TuneBase FM

I recently got an iPod mini for the strict purpose of using it in my car (and on flights) to sample new music. I’m looking very seriously at the Belkin TuneBase FM for iPod mini and am pretty sure that quite a few readers of this site already have one. I’d appreciate any information you guys could give me. I played around with an iTrip on my 2G iPod a couple of years ago and was very disappointed — hopefully Belkin has made some progress in this space.

Dear busy

We’ve had a good run and it pains me to say this, but I’m afraid you just don’t do it for me anymore. I need a new word; something that better describes the way I feel; something more accurate; a word that, when used to rebut friendly fire, provokes understanding and acceptance.

But, until I find that perfect word, it’s you and me baby.

IOGEAR Bluetooth Mini Mouse

A couple of weeks ago I purchased IOGEAR’s Bluetooth Mini Mouse and have been rather pleased with it so far. This is my third Bluetooth mouse and while the first (Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer) was just horrible, the second (Logitech MX900) wasn’t that bad, thus the obvious question of why I got another mouse. Beyond my usual urge to get the newest [insert gadget here], the only real impetus behind me getting the third one was size (and resolution).

Admittedly, the “Mini” part of the name is not a misnomer — this thing is tiny, but despite its stature the mouse is packed with features, a lot of which its much larger competition is missing. The feature that initially drew me to the mouse was the fact that you can charge it while using it. A USB 2.0 cable plugs into the front of the mouse and charges the rechargeable batteries while you work (or don’t). The fact that there’s no cradle makes it very portable and eviscerates the need to worry about whether the batteries are going to go dead; simply pop the cable into your bag and you’re set. It also has an on/off switch so that you aren’t wasting the batteries when not using it. While this might seem like an obvious feature, my first two Bluetooth mice were without it.

I should also mention that the mouse has 800 dpi resolution and can reach up to 66ft (instead of the usual ~30); why one would need the extra distance is beyond me, but you never know.

Road Tools PodiumPad

A few months ago I ‘reviewed’ the iLap and pointed out some problems I was having with it. I recently bought something similar, a Road Tools PodiumPad, and while it doesn’t work very well as a “lap rest” (not that it was designed for that), it is perfect for raising the height of your notebook to a more comfortable reading/typing level. It’s incredibly sturdy and there’s no noticeable movement as you pound away at the keyboard.

The same rubber is used throughout (both on the bottom of the pad and on the parts that touch the bottom of your notebook) and it’s very sticky — your notebook is not going to slide off. I mention this because the iLap would, depending on temperature, allow the PowerBook to slide right off the front of it; as the weather got colder the rubber feet on the bottom of the PowerBook became less apt to ’stick’ to the aluminum iLap.

One very useful feature of the PodiumPad is that it can swivel 360°, which allows you to easily show others what you’re looking at and to move the notebook slightly to the left or right as you change seating positions.

As odd as this may seem, I really have nothing negative to say about it. It would be nice if there was an attachment that you could use for your lap, but, outside of that, I’m pretty pleased.

One more week

I feel like I’ve been neglecting this site some lately. My time is being stretched incredibly thin between a certain someone and law school finals. As soon as exams are over, I should be back to my normal posting routine and will start replying to the growing mountain of ‘non-pressing’ e-mail.

As you were.

Sharing TiVo data

There should be a way for me to share my TiVo “schedule” with other users. For instance, I’m headed back to Florida pretty soon for xmas break and I’d like my dad’s TiVo to record all the shows that my TiVo will be grabbing while I’m away (so I can watch them at his house and not have to wait until I return to California).

Here’s how I think the process should work:

1. X makes a request, through TiVo.com, of Y’s schedule
2. TiVo sends Y an e-mail asking for authorization to share the schedule
3. Y authorizes (or doesn’t)
4. TiVo alerts X that Y’s schedule is now available
5. TiVo automagically puts Y’s schedule on X’s TiVo
6. TiVo adds all of Y’s shows (that don’t conflict with X’s) to the “to-do” list
7. TiVo walks X through the conflicts and lets him configure accordingly
8. TiVo allows X, at any time, to remove all shows added from Y’s schedule

Simple, right? Right. In fact, the initial request should allow X to specify whether the schedule should be mirrored or if the shows should be recorded only on Y’s TiVo until X decides to have his TiVo start recording them again.

Forgive my ignorance if this can already be done, but I’m pretty sure it can’t (at least not through a method as simple as the one outlined above).

I’ve got reservations

How can I convince you it’s me I don’t like
And not be so indifferent to the look in your eyes
When I’ve always been distant
And I’ve always told lies for love

I’m bound by these choices so hard to make
I’m bound by the feeling so easy to fake
None of this is real enough to take me from you

Oh I’ve got reservations
About so many things
But not about you

I know this isn’t what you were wanting me to say
How can I get closer and be further away
From the truth that proves it’s beautiful to lie

I’ve got reservations
About so many things
But not about you
I’ve reservations
About so many things
But not about you
Not about you
Not about you
Not about you
Not about you

From Wilco’s Reservations

“Lots of Robots” redux

A few days ago a reader informed me that Andy Murdoch had released volume two of his Lots of Robots movie. This second installment is a continuation of the first and I suggest that you just watch the work in its entirety. Quoting from my previous post on volume one (almost two years ago, damn):

Andy Murdock’s Lots of Robots is one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen. As you watch the video, stay cognizant of the fact that this guy did everything himself: the story, the writing, the music, and all of the animation. Wow.

Nothing’s changed. Enjoy.

Before the Internet

By Dave(?)

Google Hacks

A few months ago Rael Dornfest asked me if I would like to contribute to the second edition of the Google Hacks book he writes for O’reilly (he’s actually in charge of the entire “hacks” series). More specifically, he wanted my input and knowledge as it pertained to Gmail, because there was going to be an entire chapter devoted to the webmail service in the new book.

After doing quite a bit of research I organized my ideas and findings and gave Rael everything I had come up with. A few days after I submitted my work, he asked if I would like to be the technical editor on the book. I of course jumped at the opportunity and really appreciated being asked to take on the task. I’ll admit, it got a little hairy there for a while trying to juggle my commitment to the book with law school and interviewing and this site and… you get the idea. Notwithstanding the time crunch, I would do it all over again and am actually in the process of making that happen.

That said, go out and buy the book — I thought I knew a lot about Google, but after poring over this book from cover to cover I realized that I was quite ignorant (not anymore!). Word from the top is that it should be on shelves by the end of the year.

Kenyon & Kenyon

After nearly two months of interviewing and “hobnobbing,” I’ve accepted a summer associate position at Kenyon & Kenyon. To try and relay my excitement and relief here would be an exercise in futility, so I’ll simply state that I’m excited and relieved and will let you qualify those adjectives with whatever order of magnitude your imagination can come up with (you’ll likely still fall short).   :)

Not for nothing, but I genuinely feel that I could not have found a firm more in line with my interests and long-term goals. They’ve gone out of their way to make me feel wanted and I’m extremely appreciative of being given the opportunity to work there. It should be a great summer and I’m very much looking forward to making the most it.

Browser session restoration on Mac OS X

There is one very specific thing that my browser must be able to do: restore my session (tabs and windows) upon browser quit/crash. It never ceases to amaze me, and moreso as the years march on, how few browsers actually have this ability. The only browsers I’m aware of that offer this natively are Opera (for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X) and OmniWeb 5 for Mac OS X. That’s it! I don’t get it, but I digress as I’ve complained about this many, many times in the past and more of the same drivel now isn’t going to change anything. It’s apparent that the masses don’t want, or rather, don’t realize that they need, this option. Where I can’t live without it, it seems that most don’t even know to want it, but that goes back to my argument that 99% of the population seems to be apathetic to the fact that they’re inefficient (which is fine *shrug*).

I’ve wanted to use Safari since it burst onto the scene, and for a very short time I did, but there was that nagging problem of not being able to restore my session when something went awry (you’d probably tell me “nagging problem” was too weak a description if you were sitting next to me and saw me lose all of my open tabs). Let there be no question, Safari is a great browser, but it couldn’t do the one required task that I needed (it can now; read on).

There are a few solutions under Mac OS X, but most have deal-breaking disadvantages (at least for me).

OmniWeb 5, which I actually put in my Required OS X Programs list earlier this year, and which John Gruber wrote a great review for, probably has the best implementation of session restoration that I’ve ever seen. Hell, the browser itself is one of the best I’ve ever used, but I just couldn’t bring myself to shell out $30 for it (a reasonable price, but with cheaper solutions available it went to the bottom of my list).

Another option for Mac OS X is Mozilla Firefox. I love Firefox and I have used it through all of its various versions and name changes since the very beginning many years ago. As you might have guessed, Firefox doesn’t restore tabs, though through extensions the capability is there. For the last few months I’ve been forced to use Firefox v0.8 even though they have been releasing newer versions for a while (including the big 1.0!). The reason for this inability to upgrade is simple: the SessionSaver extension that restores tabs for Mac OS X will only work in Firefox ≤ v0.8. The extension is excellent and really does a great job, but I don’t like the fact that I’m stuck in an “older” browser and I’m pretty sure that development has stopped entirely on the extension. Yes, there are other extensions that will do the same thing, but they don’t work quite right in Mac OS X. Take Tabbrowser Extensions for example. This plugin is perfect if you are using Firefox in Windows, but it has never worked correctly in Mac OS X. I check every new version, but it’s always the same story — “Last tabs don’t reopen at next startup in Mac OS X” — this has been the case for at least a year.

Sick of being stuck in v0.8 of Firefox, I started to look for other solutions. I heard about various AppleScripts that could essentially do what I wanted within Safari, but these required manual save and restore actions on the part of the user. So, not only does it require the user to remember to save/restore at quit/shutdown, it does nothing for the user who accidently quits the browser or who’s computer/browser crashes.

Another, ultimately equally useless option, is Safari Helper. While a decent program, it exists completely separate from Safari itself and requires the same manual interaction I was just talking about.

Despite the ostensible lack of solutions, there is actually one little program out there that does the trick. Saft for Safari is the best thing I’ve found for session restoration on Mac OS X, and it also offers quite a few other neat features to boot. I really put this “plugin” to the test before I actually bought it, and have yet to have a single problem with it — it handles tab/window restoration wonderfully. Notwithstanding the fact that I really don’t use any of its other functions, I paid my $10 with no real trepidation because it does exactly what I need and has made Safari usable for me.

California snow

The True Story of Audion

After reading this story and posting it to my Bits section, I came across John Gruber’s take on it, and instead of typing up something similar I figured I’d just steal from him.

Ordinarily, this is the sort of thing I’d post to the Linked List, but it’s simply too good — extraordinarily, wonderfully good — and thus deserves your full attention.

Get yourself a lovely beverage, disconnect the phone, quit your IM client, and enjoy The True Story of Audion, by Cabel Sasser of Panic Software. One of the greatest Mac stories I’ve ever read. Joyous, exciting, heartbreaking. Note: most of the links are pop-up footnotes; don’t skip them.

Seriously, read this. You’ll thank me. Plus, there will be a quiz next week.

Favorite photos

I’ve just spent quite a while going through my photo collection and pulling out the pictures that I like most. I’ve put these into a new photo set I’m going to call Personal Favorites and will update it as new photos are shot (they’ll be put into the front of the set). You’ll notice that quite a few of these are not in any of the previous sets I’ve put up. Please keep in mind that all of the photos in the set were taken with a Canon PowerShot S30, which I’ve had for three years now!

On a related note, I’ve decided that I’m going to get a digital SLR as soon as I can — I’ve put it off for way too long. They’ve really started to come down in price and I have my eye on two models in particular, the Canon EOS 10D Digital and the Canon EOS Digital Rebel (300D) (now available with an all-black body). As far as I’m concerned, the main difference between the two is price. The 10D and the Rebel have the same CMOS sensor and essentially have the same firmware, but the Rebel’s is slightly crippled (though you can get back some of the functionality through a firmware ‘hack’). The Rebel ships with a lens, but the 10D does not (and the lens I want is ~$450!). The best part about the Rebel is that it takes the same lenses as all of the higher-end Canon SLRs (Canon’s EF lens lineup; I think there are now more than 50 available lenses). So, the way I see it, if I were to get the much cheaper Rebel (when you take the included lens into account) and then outfit it over time with the lenses that I want, those lenses would work on any future [Canon] SLR that I might get. Seems like an easy choice if you ask me, but if you feel that there’s something I’m missing here please let me know.

Bay Area Events

For whatever reason I thought I already mentioned this here, but apparently not. For the last six months or so I’ve been subscribed to the Bay Area Events syndication feed. If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area I strongly encourage you to take a look at the site. Every Friday it lays out the goings-on in the Bay Area for that weekend. It first lists the events that are going on all weekend and then lists those activities that are taking place on a particular day. Next to each listed event is a “$$$” label (if it isn’t free), a short description, and/or a link to the relevant site. It’s a great resource.

Are you kidding me?

Shame on you America. Shame on you.

I just came across Todd Dominey’s post, and I might as well have written it myself. A couple of excerpts:

With the exception of the political cartoons, movies, and endorsements linked in my side bar, I resisted the urge to personally write about it. And I could have written plenty — the race had consumed nearly all my attention and energy, not to mention conversations among friends, family and coworkers. It permeated nearly every nook and cranny of my day to day life, and despite the outcome, I’m quietly thrilled to have it all back.

I strongly feel Bush doesn’t deserve another four years, and I would bet there are plenty of Bush voters who would privately admit the same. But there were clearly more powerful forces at play — most notably morality, religion, and fear — that not only solidified Bush’s base, but brought them out in record numbers.

On why I don’t allow comments

I’m often asked why I don’t allow comments on this site. The short and simple answer is that I just don’t have time to moderate them. There’s no way I could let them go unmoderated and so to keep up with them would be more than I could handle. That, together with comment spam and the fact that I would have to reply to any question/comment directed towards me (I can’t help it), would be too much. I might open the site up to discussion in the future, but I doubt it as I seem to be getting exponentially busier as the years march on.

Please America, re-defeat Bush

I’ve moved to Dreamhost

After being made aware of the great deal going on over at DreamHost, I couldn’t resist moving my site (from Apollo) to their service. The entire transition took less than 36 hours and now, save a few DNS hiccups in various parts of the world, everything is as it should be. I don’t want to tout DreamHost too much just yet as I’ve only been using them for a few days, but I can say that I have nothing to complain about so far (which is rare). The following are just a few of the options I’m getting for $19.95/month:

• 2.5GB of space
• 64GB bandwidth/month
• Unlimited MySQL databases
• Access to raw log files
• 75 sub-domains
• …plus all the obligatory usuals like SSH, multiple server-side spam-filtering options, mod_rewrite, etc

If you end up getting an account with them, please do mention me, jblanton, as the referrer (their referral policy is great; you hear that Apple?).

I’m pretty sure I’ve covered all the bases, but if you notice that something is broken please let me know.

Stuck in the middle

I’m currently in the process of moving justinblanton.com to a new hosting provider and so access to this site will likely be limited until the DNS changes fully propagate and I get all of the CMS stuff setup on the new server.

As you were.

Quicksilver iTunes plugin

I just wanted to make sure all you Quicksilver users out there were aware of the ability, through the iTunes plugin, for you to have the name of the artist, the song name, and the album art displayed on top of whatever you’re doing each time a new track starts. I can’t begin to tell you how brilliant this is for someone like me. I often put all of the albums on shuffle and I like to know the name of the song and the artist as soon as I cut to the next track (using Quicksilver of course) without having to bring iTunes to the forefront.

Before this plugin I used iTunes Track, which is actually quite nice and provides customizable transparency levels and the ability to specify both the size and color of the display window. Until just recently though, it failed to update the song information unless you used iTunes Track itself to change the song. That’s since been fixed and you can now set the rate at which you want it to update, but the software still doesn’t display the album art. The iTunes plugin for Quicksilver handles this wonderfully by displaying the album art on top of the artist and song name in the middle of your screen for approximately two seconds each time a new song begins playing. Couple this plugin with Fetch Art (an AppleScript that connects to Amazon and pulls down the album art for every song in your collection) and you’re set.

TiVo… finally

After years (literally!) of putting it off, I finally purchased a TiVo about two weeks ago. People that know me couldn’t quite understand how I could be without the technology, and frankly, given my propensity to watch anything and everything under the sun, I can’t say that their disbelief wasn’t well-founded. Despite my [ir]rational holdout, the service hasn’t completely eluded me the past few years; my dad has had it for quite a while (and has seen it through many variations, including the current 250GB HDTV model) and every time I came home from college I swore I was going to get one.

There were two reasons why I held out for so long. The first is that I don’t have a phone line; for the longest time TiVo required you to have a phone line for the initial setup. With the introduction of the “Series2″ devices, ethernet adapters (wired and wireless) could be plugged into the USB ports on the back of the box and used for service calls, but you were still required to have a phone line for the initial setup (this is no longer the case; see below). The other reason I waited so long was because Comcast kept telling me that they would be offering DVR services “soon.” “Soon” has turned into a year and a half of empty promises — you’d think that Silicon Valley might be where they’d like to rollout their new services, but apparently not. So, yah, that’s ~$15/mo they’ll never see from me.

My machine is a Series2 box running v4.0+ of the operating system; this version allows you to not only do all service calls over your broadband network, but the initial setup can also be done over the network (read: without a phone line). I first tried to get on the network using a very old Netgear USB-to-ethernet adapter I had lying around, but the TiVo didn’t recognize it and so I bought a cheap Netgear 802.11b wireless USB adapter. After inserting the adapter, rebooting, and setting up the machine to get on my wireless network (completely mindless), I was in business and immediately began to connect to the TiVo service and pull down channel information. Brilliant.

As usual, I do have some mild complaints. The first, and this is something we’ve been hearing for years, is that the TiVo “Suggestions” service is broken. My TiVo is constantly recommending (read: recording when there is free space) Spanish soap operas (I’ve never explicitly told it to record anything from the Spanish-speaking channels, much less a soap opera) and other equally random programs, such as “Totally Nascar!” I’d be much less annoyed by this if there was a way to “mark” multiple programs for deletion instead of having to delete each of them separately, but as far as I can tell this can’t be done. Granted, I could turn the feature off completely, but sometimes it grabs shows I wouldn’t mind watching.

My main gripe though is with the online scheduling. If you don’t know, this allows you to tell your TiVo to record something through the Internet. For example, I had class during the third presidential debate last week and forgot to tell my TiVo to record it. So, I logged into my TiVo account, went to TiVo Central Online and proceeded to tell it to record the debate that was to take place in a few hours. I was immediately sent an e-mail letting me know that my request was noted and that I would receive another e-mail once the TiVo service got confirmation from my machine at home that it would record the program. After not receiving the second e-mail for a couple of hours I began to think something was wrong.

I assumed that as soon as I made the online request my instructions would be immediately forwarded to my machine and that would be that. That’s not how it works. Your TiVo doesn’t actually see your request until the next time it connects to the TiVo service, which, for Series2 devices connected via broadband like mine, is supposed to be once an hour (or so says the FAQ), but for whatever reason, mine only updates once a day. I haven’t yet had time to figure that out, but notwithstanding the infrequent service calls, why doesn’t the website simply talk to the TiVo as soon I’m done making the request? Actually, extending that idea to its probable conclusion, why isn’t the TiVo a web server? Why can’t I simply login to my TiVo when I’m away from it? I’m sure this is just around the corner, but I’m still confused as to why I can’t do it now.

Another thing I’d like to see with the online service is the ability to view both the shows currently on my TiVo and the shows to be recorded later that day (again, something that will be taken care of when you can simply connect to your TiVo directly).

On a related note, yesterday Engadget interviewed Mike Ramsay, the CEO of TiVo (whom I met).

A cursory look at the Sendo X

To make a long story short, I was recently asked to sell a Sendo X for one of the attorneys I worked for at Ariba this past summer. It was a little awkward because, well, I’m the one who pushed the X to begin with (my constant talk about mobile phones tends to make people listen… eventually), even though I told him that it probably wasn’t going to be what he wanted/needed and that the Treo 600 (which he ended up getting) would be the better choice for him.

Given current time constraints and limited time actually spent with the device, I don’t have too much to say about it. One thing I can say for sure is that I’m glad I didn’t buy it — it’s one of those phones that I would have sold rather quickly. Between the Sony Ericsson K700i, the Nokia 7610, and the Sendo X, I think the clear winner, at least for me, is the 7610 (my current phone). While it’s not really fair to lump the K700i into the same category as the other phones (it cannot be considered a “smartphone”), I pretty much had my “next phone” narrowed down to the above three. Anyways, I’m getting off course here and should probably bring the focus back to the X.

My main gripe with the X, and something I noticed immediately, was its thickness. This was my biggest worry after seeing pictures of it for the last few months (year?). It’s just too thick to carry around in jean pockets (at least for me). The phone also feels a little weird in my hands, which is surely due, at least in part, to its thickness. Sendo would have done well to “squish” the phone and sacrifice narrowness for less depth — usually a good tradeoff if you ask me. The phone is almost a little too narrow, especially in light of its depth — the whole form-factor just ‘feels’ weird.

It doesn’t feel very solid and ‘gives’ quite a bit if you squeeze it. From pictures I had seen online I was expecting a much more “polished” look, but when I saw it in person it just didn’t strike me as something that should cost as much as it does.

The best thing I can say about the phone is the “Sendo Now!” screen, which is an all-in-one display that takes over the screen when other applications aren’t in the foreground. It harbors all kinds of information including the last number you called/received, the number of unread e-mails and SMSs you have, your unfinished to-do items, calendar entries for the current day, and the ability to add shortcuts to any program on the phone. This software was one of the main reasons I was looking at this phone to begin with; it reminds me a lot of some of the better “launcher” and calendaring applications available for PalmOS (such as DateBK), or, dare I say, the Windows Mobile “Today” screen.

The “Now!” screen is the first in a series of customizable tabs available to you — you can add, delete, and configure these at will. One of the neater, built-in tabs, is “History,” which displays the last few programs you’ve selected. For each of the tabs, which Sendo calls “Panes,” you can also customize the function of the right softkey — very nice.

I’m kind of disappointed that I haven’t seen anything like this available for Symbian OS yet (at least not for free). Maybe Sendo will release this for Series 60, though I’m not holding my breath — it’s really all that sets the X apart from others in the Series 60 space.

Like I said, this wasn’t meant to be a review by any stretch, but more a glancing look at a phone I’d had my eye on for a while. I can say that I’m very happy with the 7610 so far and don’t see anything that’s going to knock it off its pedestal in the near future (save the Nokia 6670, which is basically the 7610 in a different body), though Russ might disagree with me on this one.

You might live in Silicon Valley if…

…you’re waiting in line at the Nordstrom ebar in the mall and the guy in front of you is on a Segway. This you-might-live thing seems to be turning into a series.

(picture taken with phone)

Misplaced love

I’ve never quite understood how I became the #1 result on Google for so many things. The search results that I’m most surprised about lately are those that have to do with mobile phones. At the time of this post, I was #1 for both K700i review and 7610 review (my last two mobile phones). Now, I certainly think that my reviews carry some weight, but even a perfunctory juxtaposition of my write-ups and those done by sites whose purpose is to review phones, would reveal that they can afford to (and have) put much more time and effort into the reviews than I can. I’ve written about this a couple of times before and I’m certainly not complaining about the traffic I get from Google — I always welcome more hits — it’s just that I don’t feel like I deserve the top position for some of the things that Google seems to think I do.  *shrug*

4 Sale: One Beleaguered State

A friend recently sent me this in an e-mail, apparently from a classified ad in a Florida newspaper:

4 Sale: One Beleaguered State

Lots of waterlogged property, beautiful views of crashing tidal waves. Land already cleared of pesky trees (some cleanup required). Lack of electricity and gasoline makes for fun historic living environment. Increasingly popular “see the stars, feel the rain” roof modifications on housing. Plenty of insurance agents available for consultation, however may experience difficulty getting one to return your call.

Sony’s smart about-face

It seems that Sony is waking up and starting to heed my advice.

Sony confirmed on Wednesday that it is working to add native MP3 support to its portable music players–a major strategy reversal that could help it compete more effectively with rivals such as Apple Computer.

The company is also considering expanding MP3 support to hard disk devices, sources told ZDNet France, but no decision has yet been made on that front.

It looks like they’re still waffling on MP3 compatibility for their hard disk players, but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before they ‘fix’ those devices as well.

Obviously the iPod is dead

This entry is a spinoff of another post I never got around to finishing. That post was about Apple’s current stranglehold on the mobile music market and what they’re going to have to do if they want to continue to dominate. Essentially, my argument was that Apple needed to start offering devices that could do more than just play music. If Steve Jobs thinks he can fight off the rest of the world with just music, he’s sadly mistaken — devices want to converge.

This segues nicely into what I’d like to talk about: the iPod as a mobile phone. At first glance, this might seem a little strange, but turn the logic around (i.e., the mobile phone as a music player) and it might not seem as far off. In fact, it isn’t “off” at all — a lot of the new mobile phones are capable of playing various audio formats, including MP3 (like my new Nokia 7610, and my SE K700i before that, and…). Why wouldn’t one want to consolidate the two devices? I’m obviously the wrong person to pose this question to because I’m that guy who absolutely can’t wait for my mobile phone (or whatever this all-in-one device will finally be called) to “contain” and “control” my life. That said, I can’t imagine a typical end-user who wouldn’t want to, at the very least, merge their portable music player with their mobile phone.

There are a few kinks in this chain to be sure, but nothing that can’t and won’t be resolved. The biggest hangup with moving music to a mobile phone is storage space. Currently the best mobile smartphones ship with 64MB or less of internal memory, though many of them also offer memory expansion in the form of various flash media. While the cost of solid-state media continues to fall, the reality is that it will take nothing less than hard drives to achieve the type of storage required for our music collections (solid-state drives will eventually rule this space, but we’re talking years). It should come as no surprise that this hurdle has already been cleared and mobile phones with HDDs are already upon us. Though there are serious issues related to hard drives in mobile phones, namely shock-resistance and the tradeoff between spinning platters and battery life, these issues are being taken care of and will soon be non-existent (hell, you need look no further than the iPod itself or Sony’s Network Walkman Digital Music Player to get a sense of how long a battery can be made to last and how durable such a device can be). Furthermore, these devices will be rather expensive (the Samsung linked to above will be $800) and I think it goes without saying that they will be treated with care (like most iPods now).

So, here’s the deal Apple, if you’d like to keep your competition down and sales of the iPod up, add a GSM or CDMA antenna to the music player and let it ride. I would be the first in line for such a device (shocking, I know) and I imagine that there would be a lot of people behind me.

As soon as smartphones start adding 1″ and .85″ drive bays, it’s not going to take long for end-users to realize that their two or three devices can be made into one, and there is no turning back when that happens. As good as the iPod interface is, and as pretty as the design can get, it’s not going to be able to compete with mass storage on a mobile phone.

Surely Apple is aware of the power they could wield if they came out with a mobile phone capable of playing music and has probably been contemplating such a device for a while now. There is some evidence available that leads one to believe that Apple is cognizant of what the future is going to require, most notably the recent deal struck between Apple and Motorola that will allow users to play iTunes AAC (FairPlay DRM) files on some Motorola phones. While this approach seems to belie the iTunes Music Store’s end-goal of selling more iPods, it could be working to do just that in the long run if the iPod is no longer just a music player. It’s well known that iTMS barely turns a profit and that the money, in this case, is in the device (and not the content… yet). Given this information, it’s quite possible that Apple is simply going to ‘tease’ the public for a while by allowing its files to be played on certain mobile phones. Then, and after the public is convinced that they need their iTMS music on their mobile phone, Apple will announce the ‘iPhone.’

I realize that this might sound odd, but quite frankly, there is no other option for Apple. You can’t convince me that consumers are going to buy a mobile phone based on whether it can play iTMS files as the Apple-Motorola agreement might have you believe. Nor can you convince me that Apple would be content with simply licensing its DRM technology to every mobile phone manufacturer and banking on iTMS sales. Apple needs to continue selling iPods to stay competitive in the digital music space and to continue selling iPods it is going to have to morph it into a more robust device.

If history is any indication, Microsoft’s format will ultimately be king and Apple will be left to fight for a share of the 10% of people that stay away from Microsoft as a rule. With that knowledge as a backdrop and the realization that Windows Mobile (Microsoft’s smartphone/PDA OS) is on a rapidly increasing number of smartphones, that Microsoft’s music format is competing directly with Apple’s, and that HDDs will soon be in mobile phones, one arrives at the logical conclusion that the iPod, as we have come to know it, is dead.

I’m not saying that Apple needs to create a full-fledged mobile platform to compete with Windows Mobile (oh, just imagine an OS X-based mobile phone though), but I am saying that they need a device capable of more than just playing music. It’s going to be hard to persuade Joe Public that he needs an iPod after Sprint offers him a Windows Mobile device with a 5GB hard drive and tells him that it can play WMA and MP3 files (in addition to being a, for lack of a better term, “pocket pc”).

While most everything I’ve brought up can be done today, Joe Public either doesn’t know about it or can’t afford it, and so Apple has a window, albeit a small one, to produce something before the cat’s out of the bag and service providers start offering these über-devices for $50 with a two-year service contract.

The quick and dirty solution for Apple would be to use the Palm or Symbian operating system to power a phone-capable device and bundle it with an iPod application that would emulate the Pixo interface (to satisfy those who’ve come to know and love the iPod user experience). While it’s anyone’s guess as to what Apple will ultimately come up with, I do hope they come up with something — the opportunity is huge — forget music and think ‘life.’

The incredibly satisfying part about all of this is that it doesn’t really affect me, at least not negatively. As soon as mobile phones with HDDs become affordable, I’ll have one. I couldn’t care less what proprietary audio formats it can decode because I don’t use, nor will I ever if I can help it, any of them. All I’ll require is that it be able to play the open, ubiquitous MP3 format — a very safe bet. Notwithstanding the fact that I’m unaffected either way, I, more than just about anyone, welcome and encourage an Apple mobile phone — let’s hope they realize what’s at stake here and produce accordingly.

Breaking Vegas

This weekend I watched a special on The History Channel called Breaking Vegas. The show walked through, in great detail, the MIT Blackjack Team’s very lucrative run at Las Vegas casinos in the early nineties.

BREAKING VEGAS goes inside the riveting story and shows us how the MIT group was founded and stayed in action for decades, eventually evolving into a full-fledged business–one with only one product, money, which it made by legally beating the casinos at their own game. Interviews with casino heads and former members of the team shed light on the opposite sides of this strange cat-and-mouse game, and we’ll see how their remarkable run finally came to an end.

Some of you might remember Wired’s Hacking Las Vegas, which recounts the same story, and save Bill Joy’s Why the future doesn’t need us, is probably my favorite Wired article ever. I encourage you to both read the article and watch the show — it’s a great (and inspiring) story.

I’m e-mailing like it’s 1993

I’ve eliminated nearly all of my spam, which was approaching 3000 a day. I now route my e-mail through both a pre-server-side filter, Postini, and a client-side filter, Mail.app’s built-in system (which is exceptional, and something I’ve touched on before). Since I’ve implemented the Postini filters only about two spams per day actually make it to my client, and out of those I’ve yet to have a single junk e-mail slip through Mail.app’s filter — I’ve effectively seen zero spam for the last two months. I actually thought about adding one more hurdle, maybe SpamAssassin or something similar, but given the complete success of my current method, anything more would probably be superfluous.

The main impetus behind my wanting server-side filtering was that e-mail on my phone(s) had become next to impossible — I needed to catch the spam before it got to my POP server. This is where the deal my hosting provider has with Postini comes in; all of my e-mail is now routed through Postini’s filters and then to my POP server after the spam has been stripped away. Postini sees 1.3 billion messages a week pass through its servers and claims that it typically blocks 98% of the spam before it reaches end-users (I’d say that’s a fairly decent data set to build effective rules upon).

Another nice thing about using Postini is that I’ve been able to go back to using Mail.appetizer, something that had become completely useless due to the large volume of spam I was receiving (though this was no longer an issue after the program was finally updated).

While Postini obviously works very well (2 << 3000), I do have some complaints (surprising, I know). The first is simply the lack of end-user customizability with respect to the filters. You’re essentially given a sliding scale of what you’ll allow to pass through — this scale has just five positions ranging from “lenient” to “aggressive.” It’s probably just as well that I don’t have a million options to play around with as I would spend hours doing just that, but I would like the ability there regardless.

The second thing that really bugs me is the fact that you can’t add a group of e-mail addresses to the whitelist (addresses that it will always let through and never hold as false-positives). When you see false-positives and tell it to deliver the message, you’re offered the option to add the address to your “approved senders” list, but there is no way to do this in the aggregate — I should be able to upload a file containing all of my contacts and have it add those addresses to the whitelist.

Battle in Beslan

The siege of a school here in southern Russia ended today in panic, violence and death 52 hours after it began. At least [340] people — most of them students, teachers and parents — died, according to official reports and witnesses, after two large explosions sparked pitched battles between the heavily armed hostage-takers and Russian forces.

Does anyone know why we haven’t heard more about this massacre on mainstream TV news? I’ve been following it some online for the past few days but don’t recall ever hearing about it on TV. Now that the seige is over, I see that it is getting quite a bit of coverage, but I didn’t notice any while the standoff was taking place (granted, I’ve been incredibly busy this week and haven’t watched much TV, but still, it seems odd).

“Taking advantage of the panic, hostages began to escape,” Lev Dzugayev, a spokesman for North Ossetia’s president, said in an interview, referring to the initial blasts. “The bandits began shooting them in the back. The special forces on our side had to cover the fleeing hostages. This is unfortunately how it happened.”

Scores of hostages survived, staggering from the school even as intense gunfire sputtered and grenades exploded around them. Many were barely dressed, their faces strained with fear and exhaustion, their bodies bloodied by shrapnel and gunshots. Many others never got out. Their bodies lay in the charred wreckage of Middle School No. 1’s gymnasium, the roof of which had collapsed and burned, a police officer said.

Men and women filed through lifting the sheets that covered the dead, which included children and Russian soldiers or security officers. Recognition brought wrenching, piercing wails. A mother in a red-and-white blouse knelt on the ground, weeping as she kissed her dead daughter’s face.

What a horrible, horrible scene. At least 155 children dead. I don’t know what took over, but when I saw the picture on the front page of this article, where the mother is looking down at her dead child, I just wept.

It reminded me of when I was watching the Colombine incident take place. I was sitting in my room in my first college apartment with my back to the TV. I was working on my computer when I heard the channel switch to someone commentating on the events unfolding at the school. I sat there watching and wondering what the hell these kids could be thinking and how their problems could manifest themselves in such an ugly, final way. This marked the first time that I had actually cried while watching some real event on TV. It just struck me like a brick, the sadness and curiosity of it all. In my personal relationships I empathize with others as naturally as I breathe, but never before had some remote, intangible event caught my attention or my heart in such a way. I don’t know, this incident in Russia worked pretty well to evoke the same reaction from me.

Get iTunes songs for 99 cents each!

Being from a rival school, I’m compelled to rag on FSU whenever the opportunity presents itself. How then, after reading this article in their school newspaper, could I not talk about it here? Some choice excerpts follow below.

In an effort to prevent illegal file sharing on campus, Florida State University is on the verge of finalizing a deal with Apple Computer, Inc. — a deal that would provide free iTunes software to students and allow them to download music for 99 cents per song.

I hate to rain on the parade, but, uhh, iTunes software is already free to everyone. Moreover, 99 cents per song is what it currently charges everyone. Let’s see if FSU’s man-with-a-plan can clear up some of this confusion.

Baker, the director of university computer systems at the FSU Academic Computing and Network Services Department, was appointed chair of a committee charged with finding a way to stop illegal file sharing on campus.

Baker said the idea originated from a concern for students who live on campus and download music illegally.

Good thinking Baker, I think you’re really onto something. The students were probably holding out for the iTunes stamp-of-approval from the university, and now that they have it, watch out ‘illegal’ file sharing, these kids are ready to pay.

Baker said that students can expect to see the project go into effect sometime in the next month. The license agreement is currently under legal review by FSU officials and will close soon, Baker said.

*Psst* students… *pssst* You don’t have to wait for the plan to “go into effect” to buy music through iTunes — Apple will take your money now! No questions asked. Tell them that FSU sent you and you’ll be able to get your songs for just 99 cents each.

The guy on the Apple end of this deal was a genius.

Nokia 7610

As some of you already know, I chucked my Sony Ericsson K700i about two weeks after I got it. The reason was very simple: the battery life was abysmal! Save that major hiccup, the phone was brilliant, but there was no way I could continue using it with such a broken battery. I might go so far as to say that it was the worst battery I’ve ever seen on a device.

Enter the Nokia 7610 (I have the white/silver model). This phone was actually the only other phone I was considering when I decided to purchase the K700i (the Sendo X was also on my radar at the time, but it wasn’t yet released). The main reason I initially decided in favor of the K700i was simply past experience — I’ve had good luck with SE phones. The main reason I initially decided against the 7610 was the design. Nokia has a long track record of feeling the need to push the envelope of mobile phone design (if you can call their designs “pushing the envelope”). This phone is no exception and Nokia has made some pretty crazy leaps as far as keypad and case design go, none of which I think will survive this model.

While I’d like to write a lengthy review of this phone similar to those that I’ve done in the past (most recently the K700i), I just don’t have the time and so I’m going to briefly run over some of the things I like/dislike.

I guess I should start with the battery. I have no complaints. I’ve read every review of this phone (I think :) and a few of them point out that the battery life isn’t too great, but I have to respectfully disagree. Battery life is somewhat ’subjective’ (unless we’re talking about the K700i  :P) and can fluctuate wildly depending on what you actually use your phone for day in and day out. Having said that, I’ve been rather impressed with the life of the 7610 given my use requirements. I routinely get through two days of heavy usage without having to recharge (this includes taking numerous pictures and videos, talking for extended periods of time, and moving files between my computer and the phone with Bluetooth) — not bad for a full blown “smartphone.” I should also mention that the standby time is excellent.

I find the form-factor as close to perfect as it can get. It could stand to be slightly thinner, but that’s really the only negative thing I can say about its shape and size. When you consider all that the device contains, the form-factor is pretty impressive. The phone feels very solid; no noticeable creaking or battery-cover movement. Its shape also allows you to stand it up on a flat surface so that you can take timed (or just steadier) pictures and videos.

I use the 1.3MP (1152×864) digital camera all the time — much more so than I’ve done with past camera phones (I think this is number five). Case in point: when I was at the hospital, I used the camera to take pics of the top of my head so that I could see the gash before they put in the stitches. The white-balancing system works fairly well and I’m quite pleased with the overall quality of the pictures. In fact, the quality is such that I now want to save the pictures I take with it (with previous phones I saved the pictures just because I’m obsessive-compulsive  :P). The refresh rate on the viewfinder is exceptional.

Given the RS-MMC memory-expansion slot and the 64MB card that ships with the phone, I find myself taking video (176×144) of everything. A nice feature of the video recording is that you can mute the microphone if you wish. Playback on the device could be a little smoother, but it’s really nothing to complain about.

The phone ships with the Opera browser, which makes for very easy web nagivation when on the move, enhanced further by the large 16-bit TFT screen (176×208). The entire browsing experience has come a long way since I first had Opera on my Sony Ericsson P800 a couple of years back.

Speaking of the P800, that was the first, and until now, only Symbian phone I’ve owned. The real difference between the 7610 and P800’s implementation of the OS is the user interface that sits on top of it — the P800 uses UIQ while the 7610 uses Nokia Series 60 (Second Edition). The two interfaces aren’t really comparable though as UIQ is more stylus-centric where Series 60 is focused on keypad navigation. That said, I don’t have any real complaints about the interface on the 7610. It could be sped up in certain areas, but for the most part it’s pretty solid. I do like the fact that the softkeys are completely customizable and that you can add whatever shortcuts you want to the “Go to” menu, though this could be made a little better by allowing you to point deeper into the menuing system when making shortcuts.

As can be expected nowadays, the interface can be given an entirely new look through the use of themes, which are allowed to change almost everything on the 7610, including the clock faces, default icons, and backgrounds.

The “Gallery” program for viewing images and video (and other files) is pretty nice and like all of the programs on the phone, allows you to easily switch between phone memory and the MMC card. I’ve actually stopped using the “Gallery” program altogether though, in favor of Nokia Album (Thanks Russ). The Album application allows you to view a time-based thumbnail display of both your videos and images (together). It’s great.

The speakerphone and regular speakers could both stand to be a bit louder — I frequently have the volume cranked all the way up. As for voice quality, I’ve yet to have a single complaint from anyone on the other end.

As I’ve mentioned many times before, I use my phone as a morning wake-up alarm and the 7610’s “Clock” program handles this wonderfully. Once the alarm goes off, the right softkey snoozes for five minutes and the left key turns it off entirely. Like ringtones, the alarm sound can be any audio file, including MP3s. The only thing the application is missing is a recurring alarm option.

I had absolutely no trouble pairing the phone with my PowerBook through Bluetooth. Unfortunately, the 7610 does not sync with iSync. I knew this before I purchased it (another reason I hesitated to get this phone), but assumed that the next version of iSync would add support, especially in light of the fact that the Nokia 6600 and Sendo X, both Symbian Series 60 phones, are suupported. I was wrong, iSync v1.5 was released a few days ago and 7610 support is still missing. Grr. Apparently the hangup has to do with the fact that the 7610 uses SyncML for syncing where the other supported Symbian phones use something called mrouter. Frankly I don’t give a shit what it uses, just get it working Apple!

Because syncing with the PowerBook wasn’t an option, I actually had to export all of my contacts from Address Book and schedules from iCal, import them into a temp Outlook account on a Windows machine, and then run the Nokia synchronization software from there. This option is fine as a one-time way to move everything over, but the fact that my calendar, contacts, and to-do lists aren’t continuously sync’d makes me freaking crazy; hopefully a hack will emerge or the next version of iSync will support it.

And finally, I have to talk about the wacked-out keypad found on the 7610. Oddly enough, like everyone else that has used the funky keypad, I’ve come to like it and find it very easy to navigate. Don’t get it twisted though, if Nokia decided tomorrow to come out with the same model but with a “normal” keypad, I would get it. While the keys feel great when they’re pushed, I wouldn’t mind for the action to be a bit quieter — the clickety-clack is quite noticeable.

The third semester

I’ve had quite a few people ask what I was taking this semester, and so I’ve decided to list the classes below.

• Evidence (required) — with Gerald Uelmen, a member of OJ Simpson’s criminal defense team. Given that he can’t seem to go 10 minutes without talking about OJ and the fact that one of the required texts is a book he wrote concerning evidence issues from that case, I think it’s safe to say that I’ll have a good handle on the “trial of the century” (and hopefully evidence) by the end of the semester.
• Copyright — with Tyler Ochoa, a well-known name in the field.
• Business Organizations — I think this will be my favorite class of the semester. The professor is very excited about teaching and I find the subject matter pretty interesting.
• Constitutional Law I (required)
• Appellate Advocacy (required)

I’ve purchased 10 books so far for this semester (not including supplements) and the total cost is hovering around $650 — such a fucking racket!

Cut Here

“So we meet again!” and I offer my hand
All dry and english slow
And you look at me and I understand
Yeah it’s a look I used to know
“Three long years… and your favorite man…
Is that any way to say hello?”
And you hold me… like you’ll never let me go

“Oh c’mon and and have a drink with me
Sit down and talk a while…”
“Oh I wish I could… and I will!
But now I just dont have the time…”
And over my shoulder as I walk away
I see you give that look goodbye…
I still see that look in your eye…

It’s so hard to think “It ends sometime
And this could be the last
I should really hear you sing again
I should really watch you dance”
Because it’s hard to think
“I’ll never get another chance
To hold you… to hold you… “

I should’ve stopped to think - I should’ve made the time
I could’ve had that drink - I could’ve talked a while
I would’ve done it right - I would’ve moved us on
But I didn’t - now it’s all too late
It’s over… over
And you’re gone..

I miss you I miss you I miss you
I miss you I miss you I miss you so much

But how how many times can I walk away and wish “If only…”
But how many times can I talk this way and wish “If only…”
Keep on making the same mistake
Keep on aching the same heartbreak
I wish “If only…”

But “If only….”
Is a wish too late…

From the The Cure’s Cut Here

Note to self

Next time you’re walking near the side of a building while talking on the phone and looking at the ground, be sure to glance up from time to time so as to save yourself from being nearly knocked out by the metal edge of an air-conditioner and having to wait hours at the ER to get stitches in your head.

Nevermind all of the reckless, throw-caution-to-the-wind things that I’ve done in my life, it’s a damn air-conditioner that almost takes me out.  :P

Thanks Charley

It seems that nature didn’t think my quick trip home was hectic enough and decided to throw a hurricane into the mix. Hurricane Charley, while leaving most of my friends and family (and their properties) unscathed, still managed to screw up most of my few days back home. Not only did it bar me from seeing certain friends, but I was all set to go wakeboarding with my brother’s sick new Hyperlite board and his friend’s Ski Nautique, which is equipped with an 8-ft ski-pole and waterbags that can generate a 3.5-ft wake!!! I wanted my brother to capture me doing some flips and other tricks on video, but we couldn’t even get into the water on Saturday because of Charley’s lingering bad weather.

If you know me only from this site then you probably have no idea of my experience with and love for both skateboarding and wakeboarding — I was really looking forward to getting back in the water, but I guess I’ll have to wait a bit longer. Grr. Maybe this winter break will be one of those crazy Florida winters where it’s 90° in the middle of December. One can only hope.

While there’s much more to write about from the trip, including the obligatory “hurricane party,” I’m afraid I’m too tired and have too little time to elaborate here.

I took the picture below a couple of days ago while in the Orlando International Airport before heading back to California; as you can see, my gate and those surrounding it were a bit disheveled from the hurricane. I really wanted to get some aerial shots of the much more serious damage, but my seat position made it impossible.

A short ‘break’

Yesterday was the last day of my legal internship at Ariba. I’m headed to Florida later today for what are sure to be a few very busy days back home. Too many people to see; too much to do; too little time.

I’ll be back in California late Sunday — my second year of law school begins on Monday. Joy.

Sony, put the gun down

There is no doubt that Sony’s new Network Walkman Digital Music Player is a wonderful little device. It looks great, has an insane battery life, ships with a decent-sized HDD (20GB), and weighs just 3.8oz. The problem though is that it doesn’t play MP3 files. The user is left to use Sony’s proprietary ATRAC3 or ATRAC3Plus formats, which means that any MP3 file you want to put on the player must first be converted — a very time-consuming process — I’m sure Joe User’s just chomping at the bit.

By restricting the player to just its format, Sony has also severely restricted its prospective userbase, which will now be limited to clueless end-users and those few willing (and patient enough) to convert their entire collections. I’d guess that a good number of iPod users, whom I’m sure Sony would like to steal away from Apple, are not iTunes users at all (or only in a very limited capacity), which means that Sony had a chance to move them away from the iPod (hell, I looked at the device myself), but because they locked it down I can’t think of anyone who would even consider it. Sony is offering no compelling reason to switch and is likely dissuading most people by requiring them to take the unprecedented step of converting their MP3s. As for those who’ve actually used iTunes to build up their collections, it seems that Sony is too late to the game and will probably miss that group altogether — I just can’t see Joe User cracking the iTunes’ AAC files (FairPlay DRM) and then converting these unprotected files to either MP3 or WMV and then finally converting these to ATRAC3.

Advice for Sony and Others

Well, Sony, your first move should probably be to take care of the foot you just shot. Next, and this goes for all of you digital music device manufacturers, make sure your device can play the most ubiquitous and unprotected format available. If it can’t, it’s a good bet that it’s dead in the water and is going to fail, or at least not going to do nearly as well as it would otherwise. I don’t think it’s too terrible to limit the device to only one proprietary format (after all, the intention is to get people to purchase music from your online store), but don’t then deny users the ability to play other open formats, especially the format that’s not only the most familiar to consumers but that also spawned all of this digital music madness in the first place.

This point is likely obvious to anyone reading this, which begs an obvious question: why did no one at Sony see the flaw in their logic? Can someone please explain to me what they were trying to accomplish by locking out MP3? I’m serious, if you know (or think you know), I’d like to hear it.

Advice for End-users

If you actually pay for music (I’ve read that people still do this  :P) and can’t find somewhere online that sells what you want as an unprotected MP3 file, then don’t buy it online. Buy the CD, rip the album yourself, and keep the CD so that if and when a newer, better format is available and you feel the need to make the transition, it won’t cost you anything but time. Oh how I want to discuss on this site the way in which I gather and store music, but, umm, I can’t really shouldn’t.

I’ll be curious to see what happens when the iTunes format (or any of the other online stores’ DRM formats) dies out or is improved and all the people who have spent a decent amount of money on their collections want their music in the newer, better format, no doubt arguing that it costs the music provider nothing but bandwidth (as opposed to vinyl → 8-track → cassette → CD → dvd-audio → etc).

To steal a line from Goodfellas:

• “My new device won’t play format X, can I re-download my songs in format Y?” “Fuck you, pay me.” - iTunes Music Store
• “You guys just came out with format X². I’d like to upgrade my collection from format X to format X².” “Fuck you, pay me.” - Sony Connect
• “My hard drive died and I need to re-download all of my music.” “Fuck you, pay me.” - Walmart Music Downloads

I’m not saying that the music provider is right or wrong in these cases, but I’m pretty sure that the above responses will be (or are?) what one can expect.

The Killers

The Killers’ debut album, Hot Fuss, is shaping up to be my favorite record of the year (and, umm, as most of you are well aware, I listen to a shitload of music). Get it. Love it. You won’t be disappointed.

Step two

An excerpt from a good friend’s recent e-mail:

Ugh… I was just thinking that I am now one of those persons in your stories that buys everything you do.

Step two: figure out a way to make money off of this — the idea I proposed in the Apple Referral Program hasn’t quite taken off. I just can’t seem to get Apple or mobile phone/PDA manufacturers to adopt the system. It’s almost as if they don’t want to give me money.  :P

Sony Ericsson K700i

I didn’t intend for this review to be as long as it is, but it seems I got a little trigger-happy and couldn’t stop typing.

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Sony Ericsson mobile phones (I’ve had the T68i, P800, and T616) and the K700i is certainly no exception. Though there are a couple of disappointments, I have to say that overall, I’m pretty impressed. That said, let’s take a look at this phone.

Design

Though it’s a slight departure from previous designs, I think that the K700i looks great. I don’t quite understand the whole “dual face” thing that SE is trying to push (the idea that it “looks” like a camera on one side, and a phone on the other), but whatever.

What I do miss from the T61x is the identation up the sides of the phone. As I wrote in the T616 review, this made the phone feel secure in your hand, something that is difficult to do with such a small device. That’s not to say that the K700i doesn’t feel good in the hands, quite the oppposite actually, but the automatic comfort of the T61x is notably absent.

The phone feels very solid, almost like you could throw it against a wall and expect it to make a hole. Like most mobile phones, the only movable part is the battery cover, which fits very snuggly (no doubt due to the long “tracks” that run along the cover) and produces no rocking (unlike the T68i) when typing on the keypad and no creaking noises when squeezing the phone.

Keypad

The keypad buttons feel very solid and have a great tactile feedback to them. The keys are rectangular, transparent (kind of look and feel like glass), elevated above the phone, and layed out in a square matrix (as they should be). The function keys aren’t as ‘glassy,’ but have a more ‘milky’ look to them. The illumination on the keypad is excellent.

Joystick

I’m glad to see that SE has moved away from the square shape of the T61x joystick and gone to a completely round design similar to the one found on the T68i, though a little larger. It actually makes the control feel a bit more analog (it’s not), especially when playing games. Another good change is that the joystick can no longer “wake up” the phone — you have to either press the menu buttons or the keypad to bring the phone back to life (yes, you could lock the keys, but I hate extra steps  :P).

All of the joystick directions can be assigned shortcuts.

Data Port and Charger

My second biggest gripe with the phone (behind battery life; see below) has to do with the black rubber cover that “protects” the data port and charger. SE has never offered this on a phone before and I’m unsure why they decided to go with it now; it’s not needed and only makes it more difficult to charge the phone. Morever, it feels hyperextended when you have the charger connected to the phone. I have half a mind to remove it, but because I’ll probably sell the phone at some point, I’m compelled to leave it fully intact.

The charger connects the same as all (?) SE phones — there are two little prongs that snap into the connector. I’d much more prefer a single “plug” as is found on most Nokia phones.

Rock-switch

Under the camera button on the left side of the phone is the obligatory rock-switch. During calls it controls volume; incoming calls can be given a busy tone; in standby mode, information about the phone is displayed, including date, profile, model name, your mobile number, and free memory (sadly missing here is information about remaining battery life); and in camera mode it’s used to set the exposure compensation.

“Online” button

The right side of the phone has an “online” button that takes you straight to the WAP browser. I’ve never used this button in past phones, so I doubt I’ll start now. I don’ t think it can be assigned another function, which is unfortunate.

Camera Button

The camera button on the side now has a delay on it so you have to hold it down for a couple of seconds before it activates the camera.

Display

The display is amazing and really stands out from almost all other mobile phones. The screen is a very bright TFT capable of 16-bit color and features one of the best resolutions available today: 176×220. Text is very smooth and pictures are simply gorgeous — you have to look pretty hard to make out individual pixels.

There are no options to adjust the brightness or contrast, but I haven’t come across a need to do that yet. The screen looks great in direct sunlight and is very readable, perhaps moreso than any other mobile phone display I’ve ever seen.

Games

I was blown away by games on this thing. They look absolutely incredible. The Mascot Capsule Java 3D gaming engine is really impressive — this is one of the very first phones to ship with MIDP 2.0/CLDC 1.1 and J2ME 3D. Combine that with the resolution and brightness of the screen and the superb sensitivity of the joystick and you are left with a pretty decent gaming platform (the best I’ve seen yet on a mobile phone).

Memory

The phone ships with 41MB of available memory (you can get a couple more megs by deleting some of the installed applications/themes/games/etc). All of this memory is available to just about everything on the system, including image, audio, and video files. While there is no memory-expansion slot, I’m not sure that one is really needed given the fact that you would be fairly hard-pressed to fill this thing up with just games, applications, and audio/video/image files (obviously MP3s and MP4 video are a different story).

Syncing with iSync

This was not as easy as I had hoped, but given that there is no official support in the latest version of iSync for the K700i (which makes sense; the phone isn’t even available in the US yet), I was a little surprised to find that, after a little finagling, I could get it working out of the box. The trick is that you have to initiate the Bluetooth pairing from both your computer and the phone, one right after the other. After this is done you should see a K700i icon inside iSync.

I’m positive the next iSync update will have native support for the K700i.

Transferring files with Bluetooh

As expected, I had absolutely no trouble transferring files back and forth between the PowerBook and K700i, be them themes, pictures, videos, games, whatever. There is support for the new HID profile which includes both the ‘object push’ and ‘file transfer’ options of moving files between devices.

Files transferred to the phone through Bluetooth (or by other means) are placed in the appropriate folder in the “File Manager” (see below) based on file extension. If the extension is unrecognized, the file will be placed in the “other” folder.

Using Bluetooth to Browse the Phone

No trouble here either. I actually think the browsing is quite a bit faster than with the T61x. I experienced no problems moving in and out of directories and moving files back and forth.

Digital Camera

The K700i takes decent pictures, but nothing mindblowing. As usual, I really couldn’t care less whether it came with a camera or not. Until they’re 3MP and above, I just don’t care (it won’t be long). The pictures have a native resolution of 640×480 and can be interpolated to 1280×960 (but, um, why?). In addition to these sizes, you can also take pictures at 320×240 and 160×120 and the camera is capable of 4x digital zoom.

The design of the phone is such that when you take pictures and hold the phone horizontally, you’ll find the “snap” button on top of the phone along with the rock-switch that controls exposure compensation (of course you’re taking portrait-mode pics when you do it like this; the option to rotate pics is offered after taking them). You can take landscape pictures by simply keeping the phone vertical. The lens can be snapped by either pressing the joystick down, hitting the camera button, or pushing the bottom-left function key.

As expected there are all kinds of picture options, including black and white, sepia, solar effects, and negative. There’s also a “night” option. Somewhat surprisingly, there’s a panoramic option that is quite functional and something I wouldn’t expect in a camera phone like this. It takes three pictures and stitches them together to form a larger, [hopefully] seamless 1664×416 picture — it actually works pretty well. You line up your pictures by aligning a semi-transparent image of the previous shot that is overlayed onto the viewfinder.

The built-in image editor allows you to add all sorts of things to the images including text and freehand drawings.

One of the neatest additions to this phone is the “flash,” which isn’t a flash at all, but rather a very bright LED light. My limited use has shown that this actually does a decent job when taking close-up camera shots and video clips in low-light settings. It also works very well as a flashlight of sorts and is especially useful for finding the right key and getting it in the door at night. I only wish that you could assign the light a shortcut key, but instead you have to be in camera mode to invoke it (hitting keypad #5 turns it on while in camera mode).

The viewfinder looks great and the refresh rate is excellent.

There is a small mirror on the back just under the lens for self-shots.

Digital Video

Yes, this phone will shoot video as well (with sound!). You can choose between one of two resolutions, 176×144 or 128×96 (both weak for sure, but this is a phone). Again, I couldn’t care one way or the other if I could take video, but because I can, I’m finding that it’s something I play around with quite a bit. Further adding to the enjoyment of taking videos is the fact that you’re limited only by the available memory in the phone (as I mention above, 41MB, which makes for A LOT of video at these resolutions). You can limit the video to a length of 10 seconds if you want to shoot short clips for MMSs. All of the features and effects described above for the digital camera are also available for the video.

Like most other phones that are capable of shooting video, the format is 3GP (H.263), which can be played back on the phone or a computer (yes, you get sound when playing back video on the phone).

File Manager

The file manager built into the phone is pretty nice. It’s broken down into seven folders: pictures, sounds, videos, themes, games, applications, and other. You can move, rename, copy, and delete files from within the file manager. One neat (and long-needed) option available here is the ability to mark several files at a time for deletion (among other things). The photos in the pictures folder are shown as small thumbnails (four per screen) and you can even have it run a slideshow of the pics.

You can also view information for each folder such as the number of files within the folder and their total size.

All of the regular options are here for transferring files: Bluetooth, IR, MMS, or e-mail.

User Interface

I love the interface. It’s very similar to that of the T61x, but with a few changes. The most notable is the sharpness of the icons in the main menu (which is due more to the increased resolution than anything else). They are layed out the same way as the T61x: four rows with three icons each. As you cycle through the icons they ‘magnify’ quickly and then shrink to a size that is slightly larger than the unselected icons, changing looks in the process. A nice touch is this circle ‘cursor’ that follows your joystick moves and jumps from the sides or top/bottom of the screen as you “wrap around” the menu. It looks great.

This phone also makes use of tabs, which I think is a first for a phone-only device, and certainly makes for a better user experience.

Themes

The K700i uses graphic themes and is capable of displaying animated wallpapers. Currently, I’m using a theme called “Nemo” that mimics the virtual aquariums available on the Finding Nemo DVD. The background wallpaper to this theme is gorgeous and little bubbles rise up from the coral at the bottom. It’s pretty neat.

I’ve run through most of the themes currently available, and have seen some pretty impressive collections, though not too many that I would consider using. The number of available themes will grow rapidly as this phone starts to take hold around the world.

[I got an e-mail from someone pointing me to a movie he made that shows off the animated wallpapers — take a look]

Phonebook

I can’t say that I have any complaints with the layout of the phonebook. The menu has been redone a little bit so that more information can fit on the screen. When viewing your list of contacts all you see is their name, but as you highlight each name, the view expands around the name to expose the main contact number for that particular contact; you can then scroll to the right to reveal other numbers and e-mail addresses attached to that contact. Depending on what is selected (number or e-mail address), pressing down on the joystick either engages a phone call or presents a compose window for an e-mail. Pretty slick.

Obviously, you can also attach a photo to a particular contact for photo caller-ID and can have custom ringtones as well. Voice-dialing is also supported.

Messaging

You’ll find all the usual suspects here: SMS, EMS, MMS, and e-mail (IMAP4/POP3/SMTP).

One of the complaints of the T61x was the number of steps one had to go through to get to an SMS compose window. That has been taken care of with the K700i by allowing you to assign this to a shortcut (when I want to send a text message, I simply tap the joystick left). Another really nice touch is a ‘recently sent’ list; this pops up after you’ve composed the message and displays a list of the 10 people you’ve most recently sent an SMS to, while also offering the option to search your phonebook for a number. Overall, the messaging options and associated menus are done very well.

E-mail

Nothing too groundbreaking here except for the fact that you can now send attachments of any file type (even if not understood by the phone), which is a very neat feature.

Multimedia

The K700i comes with a lot of multimedia options, including the ability to listen to MP3s, an FM radio, and some “DJ” software that you can use to create music to be used for whatever (e.g., ringtones, etc).

Media Player

The “media player” can handle the following file types: MP3, AAC, WAV, AMR, MIDI, and MPEG-4 video. It can be put into the background so that you can do other things on the phone while using it.

While 41MB is a shit-ton of storage for a mobile phone, it obviously doesn’t go very far in the way of MP3s or other storage-intensive media (where are the half-terabyte phones?  :P), which is why the media player will rarely, if ever, be used by me, but I thought I would mention it. For the sake of this review I loaded up a few MP3 files to test it out. The sound out of the loudspeaker was excellent and there is an equalizer so that you can adjust the sound to your liking. You can also listen to the music through the supplied headphones.

FM Radio

This is an SE first. It’s been a while since I’ve had an FM radio in my phone (not since the Nokia 7210 and 7250), but I doubt I’ll use it any more now than I did then, though it will be good to listen to Stern in the morning again. Like the MP3 player, you can either play the sound through the headphones or the loudspeaker, with the only caveat being that heaphones must be plugged in because the antenna is contained within the cord. You can save up to 20 presets by frequency number.

Ringtones

As is expected, ringtones can be either MIDI (40-chord polyphonic), MP3s (and other supported formats), or anything that you record. Unfortunately, your options aren’t so great when it comes to message alerts as you are limited to one of six pre-defined sounds.

Organizer

The functionality here is very similar to that of the T61x models. Included are a calendar (viewable by week or month), tasks, notes (all of which can sync with your computer), timer, stopwatch, calculator, and alarms (both single and recurrent).

One neat thing about the notes is that you can have one displayed on the main screen to remind you of something; it’s displayed on top of a transparent window, which looks really nice.

The calculator works the same as the one on the T61x, which is still the best I’ve seen on a non-’PDA’ mobile phone.

Internet

Instead of searching the net for Internet settings and putting them in manually, I used the Wap Set-Up found on the SE site. An SMS message is sent to the phone that automatically loads up the settings for my particular provider. I must admit that I’ve become quite fond of this after having used it on the past few phones that I’ve had.

The built-in WAP 2.0 browser (which is quite capable of displaying pages built with XHTML and CSS) is one of the best that I’ve seen — I can’t say that I’m blown away by anything, but I don’t have too much to complain about either.

I think this phone is the first SE device to support GPRS Class 10 speeds in addition to both CSD and GSM Data.

Speakerphone

Unlike the T68i or T61x, this model comes with a speakerphone. Both the loudness of the speaker and the sound quality from the microphone are excellent — friends can’t tell when I’m on speakerphone. The only complaint I have is that there is no easy way to turn on the speakerphone. You first have to be in a call and then you have to hit the joystick and scroll down to the option, which means that most of the time you will have to tell the person on the other end to hold on. I’d like to see a way to turn this on before making or receiving a call.

Battery Life

The biggest disappointment of this phone is the battery life. It doesn’t make sense that SE would use a battery that is smaller than the one found in the T61x (700 mAh as compared to 770 mAh), knowing full well that the more demanding screen, Bluetooth, loudspeaker, and camera would suck up power like crazy. I’m having to recharge the phone almost daily with regular use, even though I have the screen set to turn completely off when I’m not using it. The specifications claim a talk time of 7 hours and a standby time of 300 hours — not even close.

Miscellaneous

Remote Screen and Remote Display

The “remote screen” option allows you to shoot media over to a Bluetooth Media Viewer (MMV-100) device such as a TV, which means that you can view images or sounds from the phone through the TV.

The “remote display” program lets you use the phone as a remote control for your PC (much like the the third-party Salling Clicker has allowed Mac users to do for a while now).

Has it really been five years?

I got an e-mail from a friend this morning congratulating me on the 5th-year anniversary of this site (how I didn’t notice this is beyond me). It was five years ago to the day that I registered this domain. Damn. This was the last in a long line of domains that I purchased and was initially going to be used only for e-mail — I wanted an address-for-life. It has since become much more than that and now somewhat serves as a repository for my life (well, the geekier side of my life anyways).

For years I was really reluctant to put any content on the site (I didn’t start writing here until 2002) because I was scared that I would become obsessive with it — good thing that hasn’t happened *cough*. It’s turned into a labor of love, and while it does eat up a lot of my time (more than I’ll ever admit), I’ve never regretted working on it.

As long as I continue to receive positive feedback from random strangers and real-life friends about what I’m writing/doing here, I’ll continue to produce.

Here’s to another five years.

Nested archives with Movable Type

I’ve wanted nested archives on this site for a while, but didn’t get around to figuring out a way to do it until a few days ago. I wanted:

1. a list of the months in which I posted something;
2. each element of that list to be linked to the archive page for that month;
3. a list of posts under each month that were published during that month; and
4. each element of that list to be linked to the individual archive page for that particular post.

The entire point of this is to consolidate the list of individual posts with the month in which a post appears. I wanted to merge the list of individual posts with the list of months in which I posted (I’m removing both of these pages as soon as this entry runs its course).

I figured that there was no “direct” way to do this with Movable Type (I realized later that I was wrong; keep reading) and so I started looking at the MT Plugin Directory for a plugin, but there weren’t any that fit the bill. I tried a combination of various plugins, but still couldn’t come up with the functionality that I wanted, which I thought was rather simple.

I began whipping up something in PHP, but quickly realized that there had to be a better way; there had to be a way to do it directly through MT. It didn’t take long for me to figure it out (or for me to feel like an idiot for not trying to do it like this from the beginning).

The following is a very quick and simple way to achieve what I described above (and illustrate on my main archive page) using nothing but MT tags (I’ve included the actual markup that I use as well):

<MTArchiveList archive_type="Monthly">
<h2><a href="<$MTArchiveLink regex="noExtension"$>">
<$MTArchiveTitle$></a></h2>
<ul>
<MTEntries>
<li>
<a href="<$MTEntryLink regex="noExtension"$>">
<$MTEntryTitle$></a> 
(<MTEnglishOrdinal number='[MTEntryDate format="%d"]'>)
</li>
</MTEntries>
</ul>
</MTArchiveList>

If you’re confused by the “regex” stuff in the link tags above, have a look at my post on future-proofing your URIs. The MTEnglishOrdinal tag is part of a plugin I use called DateTags; it takes in the cardinal date number and passes back ordinal numbers (i.e., 1st, 2nd, etc).

Not for nothing, but I really like the look and feel of my main archive page now. On a related note, I’ve changed the menu (the right-hand column) around a bit for archive pages — tried to make it a little more relevant/helpful.

Mail.app and broken spam filters

Mail.app is often lauded (and rightfully so) for its exceptional spam filtering, but what to do when the filters start breaking down? It seems that after the file that contains your filtering rulebase (~/Library/Mail/LSMMap2) becomes too large, Mail.app effectively stops catching spam. I’ve experienced this more than once and each time it has come on rather suddenly, leading me to believe that there is a specific filesize threshold that, when crossed, breaks the filters (the last time I noticed this the size of the LSSMap2 file was ~8.5MB).

The only way to “fix” this is to remove the LSSMap2 file (Mail.app recreates a new, blank file when you restart the application). Yes, this means that you have to start training the application again, which, for at least a little while, puts you in the same position you were in before you removed the file.

Enter JunkMatcher:

JunkMatcher filters spam using flexible regular expressions, IP query against multiple blacklists (such as SpamCop.net) and varoius other techniques such as email property matching, HTML final rendering matching etc. You can match against almost every bit of a message (including attachment filenames and charsets), and the raw material for matching is cleaned out for you to defeat some of the tricks spammers use to obfuscate their messages.

To get my rules back on track again, I simply let JunkMatcher “define” the native filters by using it for a few days. This means that you have to actively look for false-positives (I always get quite a few with JunkMatcher’s default rules), but I’ve found that after just two or three days (given the extremely high volume of spam I get; >2000/day) the filters have been “trained” well enough that I can turn JunkMatcher off (until LSSMap2 decides to shit on itself again).

It isn’t the best solution, but for now it does the trick and has stopped me from implementing Knowspam or something similar.