Archive for April, 2006
Major eye problems, slow blogging for a bit
As you can see in this photo I am having some kind of major eye problems. It started with pink eye, but seems I may have an allergy to the medicine initially prescribed as the whole area around my eye ballooned and now I can barely even open it up more than a slit. The photo shows my eye opened all the way. I have some new antibiotics, but so far not much has changed except that my eye is not red anymore 
I would appreciate any prayers for healing you would like to make so I can get back to work.
Reviewing gadget products is a bit like Christmas
In some respects being a product reviewer is a lot like spreading Christmas out throughout the year. I love seeing what the FedEx, DHL, or UPS man drops off while I am away at work. Most of the stuff gets sent back within 30 days, but that’s about how long people play with their Christmas toys anyway so that’s not bad. Some products are good and some are not, just like some Christmas gifts are good and some are not. The one aspect of getting lots of items to review that isn’t as fun, and not much like Christams, is having to actually write up the review after playing with the software or hardware for days, weeks, or even months. I currently have about 20 reviews pending and it is just very tough to catch up. I already only sleep 4-5 hours a night so I can’t cut too much more into that time. My wife is gone this weekend and the girls are staying at my mother-in-laws tonight so I think I’ll pull an all-nighter and try to write up 5 reviews for Geek.com.
Reactions to Chinese president's visit are opposite of what you would think
I was really into politics when I lived back in Washington, D.C., and when I was in the US Coast Guard and talk radio is still one of the main stations I listen to in my truck. I don’t really get into politics on my blog, but sometimes the situation is so outlandish that I just can’t hold it in any longer. Plus, this is my blog where I like to post my own thoughts to act as a kind of journal that I can easily archive and remember in the future.
As the U.S. and probably most of the world knows, the Chinese president made a visit out to the United States this week. He started off with a visit here to Seattle and caused some nice problems for our daily commute. I was a bit amazed how so many people in Washington welcomed the Communist leader with open arms, toasts, and extravagant dinners. I understand Bill Gates probably profits quite well from Chinese developers and techies and most of the reason people here welcomed him was for the money. However, I found it sickening that these same liberals who spew on and on about human rights in America were OK with hobnobbing with the president of a country that stomps on human rights every single day with forced abortions, killing of Christians, imprisoning people for minor reasons, etc. The completely biased Seattle Times posted an article today. In regards to President Bush holding a lunch rather than a dinner they had the nerve to state:
“(The choice of the lower-level protocol presumably reflected the administration’s sensitivity to criticism from members of Congress and others over China’s perceived economic opportunism and suspect human-rights record.)”
WHAT?!!!! “Perceived” economic opportunism and “Suspect” human-right record. There is nothing perceived or suspect about their actions and the Seattle Times should be ashamed for even stating such lies. Wow, I knew the mainstream media was biased and stupid, but I can’t believe they would state it so obviously in the paper. So it seems in the case of China, the conservatives care more about human rights and less about financial things while the liberals care more about economics rather than human rights. What a twisted world we live in.
One thing that I don’t like about living/working here in the Puget Sound area is how liberal people are and how hypocritical and vocal they can be about political, social, and economic issues. At least I stick to a single track for my beliefs, morals, and ideals.
Testing out a Nokia 770 Internet Tablet
Joel, the Chief Geek, sent me his Nokia 770 Internet Tablet to check out for a few days and I surfed a bit with it last night. The hardware is slimmer than I imagined it would be and of high quality. It takes a bit of getting used to the operating system and navigating around the device, but after an hour or so I am starting to get comfortable with it. I haven’t been able to get it to connect via GPRS and Bluetooth to my i-mate SP5m as the network settings appear to have some missing pieces and are not very user friendly. The handwriting recognition leaves something to be desired, but the on-screen keyboard has been adequate for me to enter URLs and search terms in Opera.
The video player works well in full-screen mode, but I still like the PSP better for video. If I could just get a Bluetooth or IR keyboard to work with the PSP then surfing could be cool too.
If you are looking for something to carry around the house to surf the net and perform some basic functions with and your only other gear is a desktop and a cell phone then this looks like a good solution. Since I am such a PDA Geek, I have other devices and a MacBook so I would actually pull out my Dell Axim X51v first for surfing before a Nokia 770. The Nokia is priced reasonably well at US$350 and I understand it can be tweaked quite a bit since it runs on Linux.
I’ll try to play with it some more this weekend and post my thoughts later. If you have any good tips on using the device, feel free to send them along.
Hosted Exchange keeps my MacBook and WM Smartphone synced
Posted by palmsolo in Apple, Smartphone, Windows Mobile on April 21, 2006
I have been trying to get the alpha version of The Missing Sync to work with my MacBook Pro and i-mate SP5m and things actually looked promising once when the sync started up before hanging and requiring a forced quit. The Missing Sync and PocketMac are still under development for the Intel-based Macs and Windows Mobile 5.0 so there is no working sync solution for users like me… or so I thought.
Jason Dunn has been a big supporter of 4Smartphone.net and their hosted Exchange solution. I didn’t really feel I needed this type of service for another $3 to $7 per month and it just went in one ear and out the other. After a recent discussion though I found out that I could add my MacBook with Entourage to the mix and get lots of things synced to one central server. A couple days ago I began my trial of 4Smartphone’s Pro account and have to say that I will definitely be paying for my subscription before the trial expires.
Setting things up was quick and easy and I now have my i-mate SP5m, Treo 650, desktop PC, and MacBook all synced together via this hosted Exchange server. I plan to add the Nokia N90 and N70 soon too. Another very cool feature of this for Windows Mobile 5.0 owners with certain devices is that we get real PUSH email functionality. I actually turned my settings down to 30 minutes to help conserve battery life, but it was very cool running it at real time for a day too.
So I now can sync my Calendar, Contacts, and Email between my devices and my Mac. Tasks are also synced to the server, but it doesn’t appear that this piece works in Entourage. I’ll do some hunting online to see if there is some utility that can add this functionality, though. While this is a cleaner and more efficient way, not to mention now backed up better than what I did, to sync my PIM data I still cannot sync files I have stored on my devices and I cannot install using .exe files from my Mac to the SP5m. There are generally .cab files available for applications so you can install by placing the .cab on a storage card. I also will backup my files and folders to external storage cards to keep my data safe.
I’ll still try the other Mac/Windows Mobile syncing solutions when they finish development, but I am very pleased with the hosted Exchange solution and recommend you give it a try yourself.
Treo 650 moving down my list, i-mate SP5m moving up
Posted by palmsolo in Palm, Series 60, Smartphone on April 18, 2006
I really do like my Treo 650 as my blog readers know However, I have been using it more and more as a phone lately as I travel a lot for business and I have to admit that it just isn’t as good of a phone as the Nokia N70 and the i-mate SP5m. Many people have been complaining that I sound muffled or there is a weird background noise when I use the phone, even without a headset. I was using the Softick Audio Gateway to listen to podcasts yesterday and when a call came in my Treo 650 did a reset so I had to quickly swap SIM cards since my mom was meeting me with family from Vermont in Seattle and I needed a more reliable phone. I do really like the Treo 650 for text messaging, but I am getting MUCH better with the Windows Mobile predictive T9 input too.
The Nokia N70 and N90 are incredible phones with very high quality performance and rock solid stability. My review N70 is out now getting the firmware updated and while the N90 has a high resolution display and a great camera, I need a vibration option for me to use it as my daily smartphone. I actually have been carrying the N90 to use as my on-the-go still and video camera, but wish there was something like Lifeblog for the Mac to be a companion to it. Lately I have really been carrying only the i-mate SP5m since it has a beautiful high resolution display, compared to the lower N70 resolution, and I do really like the Windows Mobile 5 OS and GUI.
One aspect of the Nokia, really a S60 limitation, is that none of the notes in my appointments are viewable on the device. I put directions and other key information in the notes section of my appointements and have left the house a couple of times recently with the N70 and actually had to turn back, pop my SIM into the i-mate SP5m and then go out again. The S60 just isn’t as strong in PIM functionality like Windows Mobile.
Parallels released Workstation Beta 4
These guys at Parallels are working like crazy and I just received an email that Beta 4 is now available. Improvements in Beta 4 include:
- Introduced full screen mode
- Introduced dual-monitor support
- Improved real CD/DVD support
- Improved, easier to use interface
- Better sound support, including a fix for Windows 2000 guest OS
- Networking kernel panics resolved
- Bridged networking issues fixed
- WiFi networking issues fixed
Wow, these guys are impressive! I already rarely boot into Windows using Boot Camp (sync my Windows Mobile devices) and once USB support is added to Parallels Workstation I will most likely remove the Windows partition created by Boot Camp. The prospect of dual monitor support is very cool since you could run Windows on one display and Mac OS X on another, how cool is that?
Movie comparing Windows with Apple Boot Camp and Parallels Workstation
I created a short video using a Nokia N90 running Windows in both a rebooted mode and in Parallels Workstation virtual environment. I ran HECSALV, my naval architecture/salvage engineering application, and Sling Player to compare the two and as you can see the virtual environment runs like a champ and is my preferred method.
I am having lots of problems trying to embed the Quicktime video into my blog format and have it be acceptable in multiple browsers so the easiest way to view the video is to just follow this dedicated link and check it out. Sorry for the minor inconvenience and if you have any tips for making this work please let me know.
Update: Peter just informed me that the QuickTime movie may have issues playing on PCs too. One option is to get a Mac like me and watch it with no problems:) I’ll try to make a WMV file out of it tonight and see if there is another format that works more reliably. Sorry.
Going to Seattle Mind Camp 2.0 in 2 weeks
Posted by palmsolo in Apple, Blog, Palm, Smartphone, Windows Mobile on April 17, 2006
I just finished paying the tax man a large sum of money, thanks to my wife’s very successful Party Lite candle business, and can now get back to geeking out late at night instead of filling out tax forms.
I found out that Seattle Mind Camp 2.0 is being held at the end of April in West Seattle and I decided to join in the adventure after reading about Mind Camp 1.0 after the event occurred last fall. Mind Camp is a 24 hour geekfest that runs from noon on 29 April to noon on 30 April and it sounds like my kind of thing. My wife, family and friends are always saying “You are such a geek.” when I start talking about the world of mobile devices and technology and I enjoy getting together with my geek friends at our handheld user group meetings, Mobius events, and other social events. Mind Camp only costs US$25 and is marketed as an event where 200 of Seattle’s smartest people get together see what happens. I don’t think I am one of the 200 smartest people, but I am enjoy talking with people about technology and other geeky topics and am looking forward to active participation at the event. I’ll be bringing some of my mobile devices and look forward to the event. If you are in the area, check it out, and if it interests you then come along and meet me there.
Happy Easter!
Easter is the most important Christian holiday, more so than Christmas, because it celebrates the unique event that defines Christianity. Without the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus, there would be no Christian religion. We are celebrating by going to our weekly church service, I am actually teaching the Sunday School class in April, and then having a family get together at my mother-in-law’s new house. I pray everyone has a blessed Easter and considers the sacrifice Jesus made for all of us. I think I’ll watch The Passion of the Christ since that movie refocuses me on what Jesus did for each one of us.
