This evening Sibylle received an email from Delta letting her know that she has been upgraded to 1st class for the Atlanta to Kansas City leg of her return trip. The date on the notice was for Saturday, August 14th and not Sunday, August 15th.
Turns out when we made the reservation back in early July we picked the 14th and not the 15th as the return date and then promptly forgot and started using the wrong date. Fortunately she will be able to complete the items on her list tomorrow, Friday, and transfer to the hotel (La Village) for one night before coming home on Saturday.
What makes this story better is what happened earlier today…
A couple of days ago we talked about getting her a reservation at La Village for the last two nights of her stay so that the bed could be taken out of the apartment, and so she wouldn’t have to figure out what to do with a wet towel, et cetera, the last morning. I made that reservation and had the confirmation copied to her email address.
This morning she got to reading it and discovered that I had booked the WRONG MONTH. Hotels.com has a great interface, but it assumes when you go to make a hotel reservation that it is at least two weeks away and not later that same week. I didn’t pay attention to the week, just the days of the week. Fortunately I was able to call hotels.com and move the reservation to this weekend. Or course now we’ve paid for one night that she won’t use, but that’s a small price to pay since she’ll be home Saturday night.
Oh, and one more thing.
When she discovered the real return date for her flight she called me on the phone. I was in the car and you can’t talk on a cell phone in Manhattan in a car any more (legally), so I pulled into a parking lot to take the call. When I put my phone back in my pocket I stuck it in the other front pocket, the one where my wallet lives.
Yeah. You see where this is going…
I returned to my office (closest place with Internet connection) and called her back via Skype. As I was setting up the Skype call, Sibylle called again so I pulled my phone out of my pocket. Now it is worth noting that it has been 105º every day for about a week now, and everything is sticky as a result. My phone stuck to my wallet and pulled it out too.
On to the floor.
Without me noticing.
Once Sibylle and I had the whole plane / hotel deal figured out and knew that she could finish up a day early and that she would be home a day early, we said good night and I set off for the grocery store. Wen I arrived at the self-check out I didn’t have my wallet.
I raced back to work, realizing that it must have gotten pulled out with my phone, but I couldn’t find it in my office. Not on the desk, not on the floor. Nowhere. Panic.
Back to the car – not here. Back to my office – not there.
Finally, I forced my self to catch my breath and calm down. Then I saw it, on the floor on my office. It was right out in the open, just hard to see.
So.
Sibylle will be home Saturday night and I have found my wallet but lost my mind. Otherwise everything here is good.
Step One: Go to the movies.1
For reasons not explained the theater decided to follow 7 or 8 minutes of commercials with 10 minutes of music videos, sans the video part. The lights were halfway dimmed but the screen was blank as we were regaled with two-and-a-half pieces of “music.” I observed several people leaving the theater after looking back at the projection booth - presumably to ask why we were getting music instead of the movie. I used my cell phone to call the theater and complain.
Once the music was stopped, in mid-atonal wail, the previews started. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good trailer and frequent the Apple Trailers site to see what is coming out soon. But somehow the theater never manages to show those trailers. Instead you get previews of movies that ought never to have been made in the first place. And not just one or two, but nearly twenty minutes worth.
Next time the show time is listed as 5:20 I’ll know to arrive at 5:55.
This is an incredibly important topic, one that is difficult and hard to look at directly. People are afraid of dying and perhaps more afraid of loved ones dying. Medical science and our health care system can do incredible things, but it can also overwhelm the people it is treating and their families.
This New Yorker magazine article discusses at length the idea that we as responsible people need to discuss, well ahead of any illness or disease, the qualities of life that are important to us. Unless we face our own ends now, when they are still abstract and manageable, we won’t (most likely) be able to overcome the fear, uncertainty, and doubt that will arise when we are suddenly faced with them later; and the lack of preparedness will be hugely costly in terms of emotional suffering for all involved later.
It is not an easy read, not one that will leave you feeling upbeat or satisfied. But it is a vitally important one, and one I recommend you all take the time to complete.
Over the years I have joined and left a number of high-volume mail lists and I’ve finally come up with a set of guidelines that help me to consume the entries that interest me while not getting lost in the sea of entries offered.
By high-volume I mean something like the Android Developers Google Group. Yesterday this mail list generated 207 messages in my inbox. Two-hundred-and-seven. If you don’t cull that flow frequently and effectively you’ll have 800 or thousand messages waiting for you.
So in no particular order here are the things I do to pare the list down.
Unfortunately many posting to these technical mailing lists go unanswered. Either the subject isn’t descriptive enough, or the message itself is lacking in specificity. Lots of these are along the lines of “I’m getting an error, please help.” Only without proper spelling, grammar, or punctuation.
As I am a beginner at Android development I skip the unanswered messages as there is nothing there for me to learn.
There are some posters who repeated refresh their original posting. A majority of these are people who keep pestering the group wanting to know why no one is answering their particular question. A few are people considerate enough to post a solution that they found elsewhere. I tend to skip these largely due to the increasing shrill “why aren’t you answering my question” replies.
All mailing lists (at least all technical mailing lists) have a guy who snipes at everyone and everything. They complain about top-posting, or repeating the entire message instead of just the portion being responded to. Often then deride the original poster for not having availed themselves of Google or online forums or tea leaves or something. These “get-off-my-lawn” types do occasionally answer a question, but I tend to skip threads with a response from them as the holier-than-thou attitude gets old fast.
A good mailing list will include a maven or two, and perhaps a guru. These people take the time to answer questions completely, often siting sources or reference material. I learn a lot from these threads and enjoy reading them. Bonus points for a thread that attracts more than one guru provided answer.
A well-written subject line can be enough to entice me to open the thread and follow it to its conclusion. Sometimes even if “that guy” is a responder. And as I run into my own issues, finding a thread that addresses it is always welcome.
These guidelines help me to triage the torrent of incoming messages from high activity groups. Even with a fairly ruthless application of these rules I sometimes end up declaring email bankruptcy and marking all the messages as read so I can start over.
An HTC Droid Incredible through Verizon.
Usually when Apple pushes out an operating system update I wait a day or so to see if there are any reports of major problems or gotchas, and then I update my system. The release of 10.6.4 recently was no different. After waiting a day I saved all my work, closed all my running applications and started Software Update.
For the first time in the more than seven years I’ve been running Mac OS X the update failed. It very nicely recovered and rebooted me to 10.6.3. At first I thought the download must have been corrupted so I tried it a second time, with the same unsatisfying result.
Over the weekend I downloaded outside of Software Update the package and tried to install it. Still no luck. This evening I hunted up the combination update package and tried it with no success. I ran Disk Utilities to verify the disk and correct the permissions, and tried the combo updater again. Failed.
Searching for “10.6.4 update fails” on Google lead me to this Apple forum thread, which talks about SmartBoard software as being the potential culprit. Just a couple of weeks ago we installed two SmartBoards at work and I installed the drivers and application on my laptop so I could interact with the boards. The Apple forum linked to a thread at Smart Technologies that explained the issue and how to resolve it.
It seems in a fit of incredibly poor software citizenship, the Smart installer sets a limit on the number of open files - for the entire operating system and all programs running on it. This file handle limit not only prevented my update from running, it caused me to get some fairly vague messages that had me thinking something was corrupted.
Once I deleted the /etc/launchd.conf file that Smart Technologies saw fit to spam onto my computer the update ran smoothly and completed without a hitch.
Bad Smart Technologies, bad!
In order to enable Internet access while we are in Germany without having to rely upon Internet cafés or access to (usually per-per-use) WiFi, Sibylle and I invested 50 € in a Tchibo Internet Stick. Tchibo is nominally a coffee company, selling fresh ground beans and other coffee related items. However they also sell some small electronics including a USB based mobile modem.
Sibylle purchased the device in March when she was in Germany and successfully used it for a week to access the Internet. The only glitch she experienced was the registration process. Unless you follow the included instructions carefully and register your device within the first 24-hours of use, the time you purchased reverts to a by-the-hour billing plan. This meant that she used up 20 € in a day. By completing the registration that same 20 € pays for one month of “flat rate” service. Sibylle was able to speak to a helpful service representative at Tchibo and convert the plan from hourly to the flat rate plan so the 20 € wasn’t lost. More on Tchibo’s service representatives in a minute.
On our current trip we both are here with a total of three Internet capable devices: my MacBook Pro, her HP laptop, and her iPod Touch. Our planning was to connect one of the laptops to the Internet via the Tchibo and share that connection for the other two. Our first stop in Stuttgart after arriving with the Tchibo store at the Stadtmitte stop on the S-Bahn. For 20 € we bought a new month’s worth of service. At a nearby Starbucks we plugged in and added the new time only to gain no access. Tired and frustrated we packed up and made our way to Leutenbach where we tried again. This time everything worked. Our guess is that adding additional time takes a while to register and trickle down to the account.
I was unsuccessful in sharing the connection from her Vista machine. The various sites I looked at had detailed instructions that never quite lined up with the dialogs I was seeing. Abandoning that idea I next tried to use the Tchibo on my MacBook Pro. While the device mounted and showed a package, I wasn’t able to run the package successfully. After a night’s sleep we called the service number to ask for help.
In the United States we are used to hearing the phrase “this call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes” and consequently don’t really stop to think about what that means. While I don’t speak Germany, Sibylle assures me that no such phrase is uttered when you call Tchibo. I lost track of how many times I called, perhaps 8? 10? Several calls I ended in frustration as the person I reached spoke no English as wasn’t willing to transfer me to someone else. One suggested in very broken English that I needed to call the hotline, which is how I ended up talking to him in the first place.
Two of the calls resulted in English speakers, and between them I managed to figure out how to get things working.
The Tchibo Internet Stick, or Surf Stick, is really from O2, so searching the Internet for “Tchibo” and Mac OS X don’t really help. Tchibo has no drivers or installers on their site either. You have to go to the O2 site to find the installer necessary. Here’s the page where I got the installer for Mac OS X 10.6:
http://portal.o2online.de/nw/support/downloads/software/surfsticks/loopsurfstick/loop-surfstick.html
Once the download competes and has been unzipped, you need to attach the Tchibo USB device to the Mac before running the installer - it contains the package the installer actually installs. With the USB plugged in run the installer and follow the prompts. My installer included an English language PDF complete with screen shots showing the installation process. When it asks for the package to install, point to the “Mobil Provider” file on the USB device.
After the install completes you will see two new devices added to System Preferences under the Network preference pane.
Select the HUAWEI Modem listed on the Network preference pane and set the phone number to be “*99#” (without the quotes). That’s star-nine-nine-hash. Leave the account name and password blank.
Next go to your Applications folder and run the “Mobil Partner” application located in the “Mobil Partner” folder. This application will ask for your PIN number, which should be on the plastic card where you punched out the SIM installed in the USB stick.
I was told that the APN or access point name was “webmobil1” (no quotes) but I was never asked for that nor did I have to enter it anywhere. I suspect that since our Tchibo was originally installed and configured on a Windows machine that the SIM already knew the access point information.
Once the Tchibo Mobil Partner application is running you should be online. If you check the “show modem status in menu bar” option on the HUAWEI configure in System Preferences, you’ll be able to see your connection time at a glance.
From the Sharing preference pane you can opt to share your connection via Ethernet or Wifi. I was able to share our connection via Wifi and everything worked on both computers. It’s not the fasted connection in the world, but it is enough for email and web browsing.
When Apple started the original “Switchers” ads on television I desperately wanted to get an Apple PowerBook as my computer. Its elegant form combined with the Aqua user interface and Mac OS X seemed like an unbeatable combination to me. I haunted eBay and Amazon auctions (remember Amazon Auctions?) trying to find a good used machine. Unfortunately most of the offerings were scams, each time I managed to win an auction the seller always had some reason why they couldn’t use an escrow service or otherwise complete the sale.
In January 2003 I finally bought my first Apple laptop, a Titanium PowerBook G4, a machine I used on a daily basis until this past October when I upgraded to a new Unibody MacBook Pro. The entire Apple experience has been very satisfying for me; the applications, the fit and finish of the operating system, the community around Apple and their products. I am an Apple fanboy.
When Steve Jobs announced the iPhone three and a half years ago I was utterly taken with the device. That I could have in the palm of my hand a miniaturized computer was astounding, that it looked beautiful and performed fantastically was unbelievable.
I’ve never owned an iPhone however, at first because I was in the middle of my 2-year contract, and later due to not feeling like I could afford the extra $30 a month on a data plan. This spring, however I felt like the time for waiting and excuses was over - I was ready to get the new iPhone as soon as it was announced and available.
There were some concerns however. We live in Manhattan Kansas, which doesn’t have 3G support from AT&T yet. There are rumors that 3G support is coming “later this year,” but those rumors are now more than a year old. Even if I were to buy a new 4G iPhone after its release this summer, I would only be able to connect at Edge speeds whenever I was out of WiFi range. And people I know in town with the 3GS model complain about every call being dropped. As I only have a cellphone (no land line) I need reliability; dropped calls would be more than a nuisance, they would be unacceptable.
And I admit I have some concerns about the walled garden that Apple is building around their flagship product. I fully support Apple’s desire to protect themselves from some of the platform fragmentation issues and 3rd-party dependencies that would come with a more open platform, however, I think their heavy handiness in this pursuit will eventually cost them.
Over the past week or so I have been considering getting an Android based smartphone. Until a couple of days ago I knew very little about Android or the handsets that incorporated it, but I knew there was a large, rabidly supportive community growing around these devices. Through several of the people I follow on Twitter I tracked the announcements from Google’s IO conference this past week, including the 2.2 release of Android. As a result I have become very intrigued by the possibility of an Android phone.
Like many people my desire for a smartphone centers around convergence, I want a single device to replace three devices today: my Palm m515, my 5th generation iPod, and my Sony-Ericcson w600i cellphone. Since 1997 I have owned four Palm handhelds, starting with a Pilot and currently with a Palm m515. The m515 works beautifully but the Palm software hasn’t been updated in eons, and the synchronization and charging process is clunky. My aging iPod, stashed away in the armrest of our Honda Insight where it provides music through the car’s auxiliary channel, is over four years old now and has about an hour of battery life once unplugged. And my cellphone, while serviceable and extremely rugged, is just a phone.
I am not overly attracted to the tens of thousands of apps that are available for the iPhone. My use cases are few and rather specific. I want to read eBooks (I have over 200 eReader titles through my Palm), I want to send/receive SMS text messages, I want to interact with Twitter, I want to do email, web browsing, and perhaps instant message chat. I would make good use of maps and navigation tools, and I would love to have a GPS for tracking bicycle rides and neighborhood walks. Through my cello playing I have become aware of a couple of music related applications I would like to have, a chromatic tuner and a metronome.
Becoming more aware of the Android OS made me wonder if it was worth looking into as an alternative to an iPhone. Certainly several of the HTC designs were beautiful, and with Verizon as the provider I would have 3G service in Manhattan on day 1. Telling myself that I was only going to look and see, I stopped by the Verizon store yesterday and asked to see the HTC Incredible. Having visited a Verizon reseller on Friday who didn’t have even a mock up of the Incredible I figured I was safe. Ha. They not only had an Incredible, it was a live phone that I could interact with.
There are any number of lengthy reviews online that explore the HTC Incredible and its features in depth, so I won’t do that here. However I will say that I was extremely impressed. I think HTC has raised the bar on Apple and produced a phone that is every bit as capable, as beautiful, and as versatile as the iPhone. Moreover, give the lack of AT&T 3G coverage where I live and work, the Verizon phone is better.
Since leaving the Verizon store I have confirmed that my favorite eBook application is available for Android, as is the Twitter application I like. The chromatic tuner application for iPhone is also available for Android. The HTC web browser is webkit based, and since Android comes from Google, Gmail and Google Calendar are tightly integrated as well. As a bonus the beautifully done and highly functional chromatic tuner application for iPhone is also available for Android. In short I can find no compelling reason to not get an HTC Incredible instead of an iPhone. And I can find at least one reason to not get the iPhone (no 3G service).
I’ve spent the last 24 hours talking about every aspect of these choices with Sibylle, including comments about how wonderful it is to have a choice and to go through the angst of deciding. In the end there is only one thing that might make me regret choosing the HTC - an announcement in early June from Apple that the new iPhone will be available through Verizon. I say might because now that I’ve played with the Incredible and read reviews of the phone, the Android OS, and the HTC Sense extension, I have to say that presented with both an iPhone 4g and a HTC Incredible with equal service offerings I would probably choose the HTC.
I haven’t decided whether I should order an Incredible today, and gamble that Apple won’t announce a Verizon contract in two weeks at the World Wide Developer Convention (WWDC), or whether I should wait until after the WWDC keynote to make my choice. Everything I’ve read leads me to believe that Apple will extend their relationship with AT&T for at least six more months. I think AT&T is offering the $15 per month, no contract required 3G service on the iPad as a stay against Apple switching to another carrier. But I also recognize the goodwill people feel toward Apple is being harmed by the relationship with AT&T, and that unless AT&T vastly improves their network, and fulfills the promise of tethering, that Apple will start to pay a price for not switching.
Mostly I guess my hesitation is giving up the dream of owning an iPhone. I am disappointed that there is no 3G service where I live, and I am increasingly disheartened by Apple’s insular stance on some issues. The Verizon store is open this afternoon from noon until 6 pm. Who knows what will happen.
Shortly before 4 pm this afternoon I became the proud owner of a receipt for a HTC Incredible from Verizon. The actual device will ship in about 2 1/2 weeks on June 11th. Until then I’ll have to amuse myself with pictures online and the Android Emulator.
{{ $image := .ResourceGetMatch “incredible.png” }}
What I need now is an Android countdown widget. Oh, and Android phone to run it.
I started playing violoncello six months ago.
I have only seen or talked to my brother twice in four years.
I have been to Germany twice so far this year.
So far this year I have read 36 books.
After a 15 year hiatus I have started riding my bicycle again this year.
I commute 8 minutes (each way) to work when driving.
I commute 20 minutes (each way) to work when bicycling.
Twenty-seven years after I completed my Bachelor’s degree I am starting a Master’s degree.
Every year it takes longer and longer to write these lists. This year’s was started on April 12th.
I now own three bicycles.
Our car is a hybrid and we average about 40 ~ 42 mpg.
If I live to be 98 I am now middle aged.
Ever since the Bicentennial I have wanted to live to see the Tricentennial.
I’ll be 116 years old on July 4, 2076
My cello repertoire (including single string, five-note pieces) is 35 pieces now.
This web site, which I created, is now over 14 years old.
In addition to corn I now eat cooked carrots. My mother would be so proud.
I have had the same cell phone for over 4 years.
I have had nine jobs since graduation from college.
After Illinois, I have lived the longest in Kansas.
I have, or contribute to, six web sites.
I have ten email addresses.
I can now read music.
I still haven’t been to Alabama.
Our household has 5 laptops, 4 desktops and one iPod Touch.
The Winne-the-Pooh stories are still my favorite childhood books.
I can count to twenty in three languages.
I can count to one hundred in two languages.
I don’t know how high I can count in my cradle language.
By the end of this calendar year, I will have traveled outside of the United States ten times.
This calendar year alone, I will travel outside the US three times.
18 months after having Lasik surgery on my eyes, I required trifocal glasses to see properly.
32. My favorite new sandwich at Panera is their Cuban - without the pickles, please.
I believe that there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.
I prefer Twitter to Facebook.
I am a “see you later” person. As opposed to a “I’ll be in touch” or “It’s been nice talking to you” person.
The older I get the spicier I like my food.
I can now say things like “Twenty-five years ago…” and have it mean a period of time when I was an adult.
I have read Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon once every year since it was publish in 1999.
I don’t remember my dreams but I do remember Christmas when I was two and a half.
I have studied, and hold rank in, two martial arts.
I am the fifth generation in a row in my family to be married twice.
My middle name, Hanford, is my great-grandfather’s middle name. And his father’s given name.
After losing 57 pounds 3 years ago, I’ve regained 15.
I’ve had my left earlobe pierced twice.
I’ve had 5 surgeries (involving a scalpel) and 6 procedures (involving an endoscope).
The song Suite Judy Blue Eyes always reminds me of summer and the swimming pool.
I prefer Coca-cola and Macs to Pepsi and Windows.
I’ve had a beard since 1998.
Today I am seventeen thousand eight hundred and ninety seven days old.