jramble

Another exciting post

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:49:19 -0500

I've just updated the blogging software and now I'm testing it. Exciting, eh? edit: upate work but new style didn't work edit 2: still not working edit 3: still can't change the template. Giving up for tonight...

Cloud living

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:55:03 -0500

I'm kinda thinking of trying to have all my notes and emails and such in the cloud. Seems like it would get around my sync issues with my PDA since I could access everything from any device regardless of which software I had installed. Then I could revert my netbook back to Linux and not have to worry about running out of drive space with XP, etc.

I'm storing a lot of notes in evernote and my to do list is slowly being migrated to toodledo. I'm sync'ing my PDA calendar with google calendar. Experimenting with using meebo for instant messaging.

But, I was just fiddling with gmail today and found some entries in the forum about some recent changes google has made to the gmail interface. People were used to working in a particular way and google changed some code and messed up their systems. I had the same thing happen to me with hotmail years ago and it still bothers me. I like new software but I don't like having it rammed down my throat.

And there's the issue of backing things up. I have copies of my emails going back to my first tentative forays on to The Internet way back when I thought that the be all and end all was CompuServe. I want to keep collecting my mails and I don't want to be stuck in a situation where through misunderstanding or (heaven forbid) violating some obscure Terms of Use item my account is terminated any files deleted. I do like having control of my stuff.

It doesn't look like the cloud is quite ready for me to move in completely yet.

My Windows Mobile 6.1 Today screen

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:15:27 -0500

Here is my Windows Mobile 6.1 Today screen which contains an array of plugins which making living in the WM world a little easier.

A: SPB Software Time which is very configurable and allowed me to have the time visible but not taking up tons of realestate on the screen. Also includes the date and a quick link for setting up alarms and timers.

B: Next is Twit Today which is a small plugin that allows me to update my twitter message without having to launch a full application or browser. I have Evernote and Toodledo set to accept messages through twitter as well so quick posts both of those can be made through here as well.

C: This is the Today plugin from the SPB Software Mobile Shell application. I'm using version 2 because, sadly, they've changed things in version 3 that I find make it less useful. Applications can be 'pinned' to the menu and can be started by clicking on them. It also includes a backlight dimmer (extreme left on top row) which is very handy for late night reading.

D: The built in Live Search plugin which I've modified to search google.com. Google has their own Today screen search but I find it overly large and, sorry to say, ugly.

E: Pocket Innovation System Monitor freeware plugin which shows memory and battery status.

F: WebIS Pocket Informant 8.51 which reads the internal PIM databases and displays the info in much more usable formats than the built in applications.

Currently I'm experimenting with sync'ing the tasks through Outlook to toodledo.com using a small Outlook plugin. This test has been moderately successful but I would prefer having a native Windows Mobile application.

No doubt the items here will change from time to time but this grouping is a good combination of usefulness and info for now...

How I love Windows Mobile

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:40:43 -0500

OK, I really don't love it but at least after six months I've made my peace with it. I have Windows Mobile 6.1 on a HTC TyTN II. It's often sluggish, sometimes crashes and has issues with corrupting the data on the storage card if the battery level drops too low. But, it does synchronize data with my desktop PC and there are tons of applications available so I've been able to get it set up fairly well. It's no iPhone and in some respects that's a good thing: I can run several applications simultaneously, I've always had cut and paste and I can buy my applications from a variety of competing software aggregation sites. Oh, and I have a spare battery and storage card in my knapsack.

The TyTN II has a slide out keyboard which I prefer to the virtual keyboard of the iPhone for typing longer documents (this review was typed entirely on the TyTN). The screen tilts to a perfect angle for reading the news sites when set on the table next to the cereal bowl in the morning.

Which leads me into one of the biggest deficiencies of the Windows Mobile OS. The built in web browser sucks. This is well known, but honestly it only sucks as much as the built in browser on my previous device: the Palm TX. At least with WM there are a few third party replacements (Opera, Iris, Skyfire) that I can install and use instead. My personal favorite is Opera 9.5, which while it's a decent browser, falls way behind when compared to Safari on the iPhone.

I've learned to install applications on the storage card rather than main memory because the device slows to a crawl if there's less than 20MB free; I've come to accept that I have to reset the device fairly often to keep it performing; I'm now used to double checking my data after a sync to make sure it was all updated both ways correctly. I've given up trying to get a decent picture using the main camera. The shutter lag is horrendous and I don't know if it's a hardware or software issue. Windows Mobile 6.5 is due out soon and even though my phone was released just over a year ago it's considered old and likely won't be updateable.

But, as I mentioned, I'm slowly learning the tricks to getting it to work for me and have downloaded some plugins to add search and twitter and useful info to my Home Page so me and my WinMo are settling in with each other just fine. If I could get the darn camera to be somewhat useable I'd even crack a smile when I talked about it!

Takin' out the trash

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:20:05 -0500

It was almost two weeks into the city workers strike when I trundled three weeks worth of garbage down to the temporary dump on the on the other side of the tracks this past sunday. I'm not a fan of the strike -- don't think they should be striking to keep benefits that those of us who're paying them would never get in a million years; ah, I digress -- but it started me to thinking that perhaps we should always have to take our garbage to some central place rather than having it picked up. It has definitely made me very conscious of what I throw out knowing sooner or later I'm going to have to load it into my buggy and cart it away myself.

It would be far cheaper to have permanent locations with big underground bins similar to the recycling bins in Amsterdam. There would have to be a lot of them spread throughout the city but a truck with a crane could swap these out lickety split with only a single operator. We, like most Torontonians apparently, opted for the smallest size garbage container and it's not even close to full when garbage day comes every two weeks. If the bin had slightly bigger wheels I'd be willing to make a garbage trundle every three weeks or so.

iTunes changes

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:00:43 -0500

I ran into something interesting on iTunes today. I had put a Chris Rea album (Road to Hell) in my shopping cart last week and went to pay for it and it's now listed as unavailable. I wonder if the new pricing arrangements also affect licencing in different markets. I wonder what other album I suddenly won't be allowed to download up here in deep dark Canada...

Something new to try

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 01:34:12 -0500

I downloaded some free blogging software for my windows mobile phone called SharpMT. This is the first entry. There is a light flaw I've noticed alredy which I'll be sure to send to the developer: the onscreen keyboard is staying up even though I'm using the thumb keyboard and I can't see what I'm typing. But, if it sends this entry at all I'll be happy for tonight. ;)

Grrr aeroplan

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:43:43 -0500

Logged into my account at aeroplan.com

You have been a valued Aeroplan Member since: May 06, 1997

Stay active with Aeroplan to avoid account milage expiration. If there is no activity in your account by April 28, 2009, your account will be closed and your miles will expire.

How can they say I've been a valued member for than 10 years and then practically in the same breath say they'll expunge me without a trace in just over a month ? Stupid. It's not like my account is taking up valuable space in a file drawer somewhere: it's just a few bytes in a database for pete's sake. Grrrr.

One and only post

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:13:29 -0500

My one and only post this winter in the glovebox lost glove blog. You are sooooo lucky.

Warning: Windows 7 rant

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 14:03:51 -0500

OK, I'm going to work really hard to keep myself from swearing here...

Here's what I want to do: I'm trying to edit a configuration file in my program application directory: c:\Program Files\MyApp\MyApp.ini

I opened it in notepad and it wouldn't let me save it after I made changes. OK, I thought, the permissions on the file are wrong. Fine, I reset the permissions so my user can update the settings. Then it would let me save the file.

Seconds later, my ini file is gone! It had moved it into the VirtualStore. No shortcut to the file, no indication that it was going to move the file, just boom, gone. No program that hasn't been explicitly written to deal with its ini file in the VirtualStore will know that's where the file is. Plus, I had expressly said that anyone can read and write that file. Leave the flippin' file where I put it!!

I then go to search for my file. I click on the start button and type its name into the Search field. My file shows up in the list and I click on it. It looks strange and I doublecheck where it's from. It had searched another machine on the network and shown me that as a file on my system ... again with NO indication that it wasn't on my machine! I had opened this file previously but it should not be searching remote machines and present results from them as if they're files on my local computer!!

I finally get the settings close to what I want and then copy the file from the VirtualStore back to where it belongs and reset the permissions. I start my program and realize that I need to add something else. I open the ini file again but the permissions have been RESET. I.SET.THE.PERMISSIONS.LEAVE.THEM.ALONE!

I'm trying to do things the 'right' way and not turn off UAC completely (I have it set for default) but it's this kind of thing that drives me INSANE!

Me and Windows 7 are not getting along at all.

The boy can't help it

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 15:28:13 -0500

An article at autos.yahoo.com suggests that a persons astrological sign has an effect on the likelihood that they'll have car accidents. Apparently, I'm in the worst group (Sagittarius). A quote from the article:

David Neave, director of general insurance for The Co-Operative Insurance, said: 'The results show that certain star signs are unluckier than others.'

I'm more a believer that driving recklessly or not being observant of the other drivers on the road is what would cause me to have accidents rather than being born under an unlucky sign. But, should the worst happen and I do have an accident it will be nice to be able to blame it on being a Sagittarian. It's out of my hands after all. ;)

To boom or not to boom

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:16:28 -0500

I was born in '61, which is interesting for more than being the birth year of Barack Obama. It's also a year that is either one of the last years of the Baby Boomer generation or the beginning of Generation X.

An article about Baby Boomers and social networks includes the quote: "Younger Boomers (ages 43 to 52) and 39% for Older Boomers (ages 53 to 63)" which puts me well into the boomer group, whereas Wikipedia suggests "the Canadian boom took place from 1946 to 1962", putting me right at the tail end. Wikipedia also suggests that Generation X envelops "the birth years as 1961 to 1982" so I get a GenX membership card too.

I'm content enough to be following the boomers: I figure by the time I need all the geriatric facilities they'll be ultra modern and have all the kinks worked out of paying for them on a lower tax roll. Not to mention they'll be begging for clients after the big bulge of them start dying off...

'61 rocks.

Digital camera wishes

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 17:47:06 -0500

I'm anxiously awaiting new stock of the Panasonic Lumix LX3 arriving in a camera store near me. Yes, it's expensive but it shoots RAW files and it's tiny ... just slightly bigger than the Canon SD870 that I cart around now. I had been previously lusting after the original LX but had heard that it didn't do that well in low light. The new one does better, plus it has a wider angle lens: 24mm vs 28mm!

Computer obsolescence

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:39:04 -0500

I upgraded an older computer (a first generation Asus Pundit) to Windows 7 from Vista. The update went quite well ... it was surprising how cleanly it managed to migrate the settings and preferences to the new OS. It took some time but when it was over I had Windows 7 installed and working.

Well, almost working. Apparently the video card (a PCI ATI 9250), which worked fine under Vista, was not supported by the new OS. I was able to get an image but it was stuck at such a slow refresh rate as to be painful to view. I searched for updated drivers but it was so old that neither ATI or Microsoft had any intention of writing updated drivers for it. I went on a quick search for alternative video cards but most stores I called either no longer stocked PCI video cards at all or didn't have one that supported Vista / Windows 7.

So, I was left with a machine that ran Windows 7 just fine but I couldn't look at.

This bothers me. The computer works fine for what I want to use it for (essentially anything other than Photoshop or games). In fact, I've reformatted the drive and reinstalled Windows XP and am typing this entry on it. But, because Microsoft has decided that they want to push Windows 7 and discontinue updates for Windows XP at some point I'm going to have to abandon it. If the people over there in Redmond are so smart why can't they create a driver system that doesn't have to be completely replaced every time they do an update?

cat traits

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 10:50:12 -0500

We have one cat who eats tape, one who eats envelopes, one who eats hair and one who eats too much.