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August 18, 2007
Updating my wish lists...
... for the upcoming holiday season. I noticed when I was on Amazon this morning that my wish lists were somewhat outdated. I have fixed this by updating it! The old iMac was still on there along with some outdated software I added last summer and a printer and scanner that weren't even made anymore. This is how lame my Saturday's are. My priority is to update my wish lists with the things I will never get anyway.
Posted by Decemberice at 02:02 PM | Comments (0)
August 15, 2007
Losing my mind...
... and being poetic about it.
So, yesterday... while driving down the highway after I'd already worked 40 hours since Sunday... I found myslef considering how much like a bird in a cage the soul is.
The Soul- by Decemberice
The soul is a lot like a bird in a cage, constantly struggling against it's confines. From a distance it looks beautiful, but up close it's messy, it has a mind of it's own, and it's waiting for any opportunity to leap right out of it's cage and take to the sky.
LOL That was retarded I know, but I thought I would share my delirious poetry with you all.
Posted by Decemberice at 10:02 PM | Comments (1)
August 13, 2007
My impressions on my iPhone...
... in all it's technological splendor.
So, in case the title doesn't say it, I'm clearly impressed with my iPhone. You'll never catch me without it at my side. Thats not to say it's all roses. It's a first generation product from a company that's never been in a business remotely close to this before. It has a glitch or three. It's simply a better phone than I've ever used before, and that is to be expected given the price tag.
Here are the shots as I call them:
Likes
- The phone functionality is still... functional. Very easy to access! The iPhone is easier to use as a "phone" than the two previous Windows Mobile devices I've owned.
- Graphical interface is amazing! From the translucent bubbly icons to browsing music with coverflow. There is fit and finish throughout all areas of the iPhone.
- It's extremely intuitive. The keypad changes based on which application you are using. For instance, when you are using Safari (the web browser) it adds a ".com" key to the keypad so you don't have to type that out. Volume controls are zero click access. Music pauses and holds it's place if you receive a phone call, then starts just where you left off when you hang up.
- The battery life is better than I anticipated.
- All the applications are simple and useful, nothing on this phone is more complex than it absolutely needs to be.
- Videos look flawless on it's display when it's clean of smudges and fingerprints.
- Syncing is very quick!
- Google Maps and YouTube actually work... and better than you'd expect.
- You can view Word and Excel files.
- Even in my podunk little town AT&T's EDGE service is faster than I had expected.
Dislikes
- Clearly the screen is always in need of cleaning, being the neat freak I am, I've taken to buying about a million moistened lens wipes a week and compusively wiping the screen down after each use.
- It doesn't appear to support flash. What the heck!?
- Setting the background is pointless because you only get to see the background picture briefly when you wake it up before it goes to the home screen which you can't change the background on.
- You can't use your music as a ringtone. In fact, you can only use the ringtones that came preloaded on it.
- You can't change the order of the icons on the home screen or add links to it without downloading unsupported hacking software from the web that only runs on Intel macs.
- You can't download from iTunes on the go, and it won't sync wirelessly with iTunes even over wi-fi. You have to plug it into your computer via the USB cable.
- Bluetooth headset can only be used while on call, you can't listen to music through it or hear the phone's audio queues through it. Plus, even when you are using the bluetooth headset you have to dial on the handset. There is currently no voice dialiing. Also, there is no file transfer capability via bluetooth which even my RAZR can do.
- The mail application is not fully featured and doesn't apply filters so I constantly have to scroll through all the junk mail messages I get because it has no junk mail filter in addition to not using my rules and filters I set on the PC I sync the iPhone with.
- Video podcasts never seem to work correctly on the iPhone.
- If you don't turn the phone off at least once every three days the applications start crashing on a regular basis.
- It only has a camera, no mini video clips, or audio recording for the iPhone. That shocked me a bit as even my 3 year old RAZR can take little video clips or record audio.
- It's not a fully functional iPod. You can't play the iPod games you've purchased on it. In fact, there are no games on it at all, and you can't download them like you can for AT&T's other devices.
My final opinion. Clearly it's a phone for the young and modern,but not necessarily advanced technology enthusiast. It lacks some of the basic cell phone traits like downloadable ring tones, customization, bluetooth functionalities, and video/audio recording. It had some stability problems when I first got it but I ran the initial update and that seemed to squash most of the bugs.
It's certainly not a business device at this juncture, though it certainly has the capability to be one with a few software additions.
I'm pretty sure this phone is just a starting point. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple began selling additional applications for the iPhone through iTunes. It's going to be interesting to see how it evolves. I really love mine, and I would recommend it fully just based on the luxurious user interface, let alone the ability to finally bring your entire audio library along on a phone that actually has a decent audio player built in!
Posted by Decemberice at 08:12 PM | Comments (0)
August 05, 2007
My thoughts on the V-chip...
...and censorship in general.
If there is one thing I've learned from following this argument on the news, in blogs, and so forth, it is that everybody has a different definition of what is acceptable. It might be influenced by religious beliefs, personal predjudices, great or poor parental skill... but it all comes down to matters of opinion.
It's rather surprising that the focus is still on censorship for the masses given how much a personal decision censorship is in the home. It's almost like saying we want parents to be involved in their kids lives and make decisions based on family value, but at the same time we don't trust them to make apropriate decisions so we'll just let our old friend the government decide what is acceptable. Of course that government is going to base it's decision on pressures from moral watchdogs with an agenda to push.
DirecTV boxes actually let parents decide what is and isn't apropriate in a variety of ways. For instance, you don't have to block an entire channel, you can just block time blocks within a channel. If you don't mind your child watching cartoon network, but don't want them watching the adult swim time-frame of that channel you can just block those hours.
I think that answer is superior to the V-Chip.
I know it's not just DirecTV that does this, but it's the service I'm most familiar with. I think it should also be noted that the V-Chip has to be enabled so it's not like the TV will simply bleep out anything and everything at it's discretion.
I really do believe it should be the decision of the household. For instance, I don't believe that nudity should be censored. It's a clear throwback to America's puritanical background that we consider nudity indecent or shameful. That's not to say that I think kids should be able to turn on the TV and see people having sex, because that is sex not nudity. I just think that American's do more damage than good casting the human body as something to be hidden and ashamed of.
I also take offense at any sort of censorship of the homosexual lifestyle, whereas some (most even) households don't.
It's a bit comical that all these years later we are still trying to pretend that gay people don't exist and that, when they do, we cast it in an unfortunte light like having cancer. That's why shows like Will & Grace are important for giving people a perspective of everyday life as a homosexual so that the myths about it are somewhat dispelled. Since TV seems to be the only medium to break through to the masses these days unless you are writing a Harry Potter novel, it's important that those who would have their children understand this have the option to unchain shows like W & G.
On the flip side, those who do not want their children exposed to such lifestyles should have the ability to make that decision to censor.
Again, I feel it should be based on the values of the household, and I firmly believe that the government should have little or no jurisdiction on those values. A standardized acceptance of what is right and what is wrong just doesn't fit the diversity of the American people and the diverse moral and belief systems that exist within that diverse group.
Posted by Decemberice at 05:51 PM | Comments (0)
August 04, 2007
Was there ever any doubt?
Find out which Transformer you are at LiquidGeneration!
Posted by Decemberice at 07:39 PM | Comments (1)