...more recent posts
I have put off upgrading my iPhone to iOS 6 because of the loss of Google Maps which I use all the time, while the Apple replacement has been thoroughly beaten down by every single report. But now I have to build something that will only work on iOS 6, so I've just updated. I can't speak to the accuracy of the maps (or lack thereof) but I can say "Wow!" The 3D view, with or without satellite overlay, is super cool. Really impressive.
When I plug an iPod touch into my Mini Cooper, the iPod says something to effect of "This accessory will not charge your iPod". Now my Mini is an obsolete accessory. Shit.
Warning: flame war in the comments at that link.
Windows 8 has the earmarks of being a Wordstar 2000.
Never heard of Wordstar 2000? Exactly.
Take the single most popular program in its category, which was kind of klunky in ways, and replace it with something completely different (but with almost the same name!), thereby inviting your users to re-examine their options. If ya gotta learn something new anyway, why not survey the market?
On the other hand, Windows 8 could just be a more spectacular Vista -- an embarrassing waste, but not a death blow. (XP still works fine!}
I have some Carhartt pants that have a special cell phone pocket, about where a hammer loop would be. In my haste to start a load of laundry, I failed to check that pocket.
So now I have a Droid 2 that's an unhappy phone. It powers up, but no display. I moved service back to my Droid 1, which other than the keyboard is a mighty fine phone. Unlike the Droid 2, the basic telephony UI doesn't have the appearance of a UI designed by someone 20 years away from presbyopia. And the speaker phone volume goes all the way up to annoying!
So I check on the Droid 4. Five hundred and forty nine dollars, retail, with no contract renewal. Or $99 for a refurb unit -- but only with a contract renewal. Somewhere in between, perhaps half retail, is a new unit with contract renewal. Contract renewals get rid of the grandfathered "unlimited data". I don't use anywhere near the limit. But goddammit, I might. One day.
To me this pricing is like Safeway, but more insidious. If you ever go in a Safeway, you'll notice the way they do "sale" pricing. Do you want to pay "absolutely fucking ridiculous price" or do you want to pay "discount price that only comes with a discount card." What Safeway is doing is coercing you to submit to data tracking.
VZW is practicing the same sort of coercion, but they're coercing customers into new contracts. And they get to do it by talking about "subsidized price". They're doing you a fucking favor.
So, I'm a Droid 1 user.
Better video compression is coming soon.
Here’s a blast from the past:
Hello,
You are receiving this message because your email address is associated with an
unmigrated legacy Blogger account. As we announced in April of last year, legacy
accounts will no longer be accessible after May 30th, 2012 unless they are updated
to the Google Account system. Any blog content associated with this account will
also be unmodifiable after that date.
It was 1999 when Jim started this site; wow. I remember using blogger in the early days, and agonizing when it went down at inconvenient times. I trust this has no implications for our content at this point..?
Default email signature on new Samsung phone.
Screened call follow up.
VLC for Android, including HW acceleration.
Field Guide to the Verizon/Specturmco/Cox deal. Doesn't sound good.
DASH, which has HLS-like and smooth-streaming-like capabilities, is another MPEG standard. VLC is supporting it.