Scuse me while I geek out for a bit. I wanted an old iphone back when it came out, but waited. My 1st gen razr was pretty lame. Really wanted a good web browser phone. I researched the iphone and it seemed cool. Even while waiting for it to show up I learned all I could about it. But I did not realize just how cool it really was. The phone part is just a feature actually. It really is a mini computer that does more than my regular computers in ways.

The GPS mapping is really cool. I wish it could track where you have been so you can upload it to the web or a PC, but apps are in the works for that functionality so I just need to be patient. I was surprised by how many programs use your location though. Weather, the camera, the yellow page app, movie checking apps, and even a really cool grocery shopping list program I found. The GPS is smart enough to know which part of my house I am in or what lane of the street. The directions in maps is plenty for a turn by turn on a phone.

I think this would make Alton’s head explode. Just think how nicely this would fit in your utensil drawer.

Pizza scissors are the new hotness.

Theresa got her iphone friday, my account got charged Friday, I was first in the queue friday, but I still wait for a “it has been shipped” tracking #.

We have put the hurt on Theresa’s iphone though. Battery power is not what you would expect. We were draining it quick over the weekend. Lots of fun apps out there. Trisim is horribly addicting. The maps with GPS is really fun to play with. It can tell if I am in the living room or near the back door. On our way to dinner last night it tracked pretty good. Said Theresa was in the opposing lane a few times and we apologize for all the houses we went through around 9th and D street. Got browsing down good, and it only crashed about 4 times on me. Ripped some movies and played bits of one on it. Was fun.

There are a bunch of applications that require you to register with their service. I did not do that on her phone. So there are many apps I want to try out that I will have to wait for. Found a good app for hooking into flickr and it allows you to download pics from it. That is really nice. The wordpress app works pretty good too. Since you cannot copy and paste, nor use a WYSIWYG to post, links will not show up very often if I post from the phone. Oh and if you want a pic in the post you have to upload it from the phone. I heard some groans about the camera, and I have to say it is better than I thought it would be.

I better have that darn thing by tomorrow.

UPDATE: finally got a tracking number during a marathon refresh session. About 30 clicks and 2 minutes in it appeared. eeeee

Test from T’s iPhone with a worspress app

I think I might have mentioned this, but the vid card on my work PC gave me troubles for a month till I figured out it was the graphics card. XFX has an awesome warranty and are going to replace it. I do not even need a receipt, but found it after a frantic search. During that time I have been using a macbook air and really like the little sucka.

The multi touch is just amazing. So easy to use once you get used to it. I hooked up a 19 inch LCD and it split the screen for me and I was good to go. I really have not done too much stuff with it other than work, but am getting pretty used to it. Being able to use linux commands in a terminal makes work easy.

My main gripe is the one USB port. It is really annoying. Right now it has an ethernet adapter in there and I cannot plug in a mouse. For $50 that ethernet dongle should have a few USB ports on it. If I was using this at home I would prob be bummed about the no disk drive thing too. It is their lowest end model and at 1.6ghz I have really not noticed it being too slow. It has 2gb of RAM and I usually have lots of programs going and it trucks along fine.

Oh yeah the thing is so fricking thin and small it seems impossible.
I still laugh when looking at the thing. ULTRA PORTABLE to the MAX

My itunes library was pretty messed up over the years. Some were in the apple format from years back and lots others ripped in linux. It was all messed up. Decided to clean it up and rip all my tracks in the highest quality mp3 format. Took me a bit to figure out the album art. There are sites that will take your song list and get the art for ya which is pretty cool.

I have two disk drives and was using both to rip songs. Some went quick and some took forever. Finally figured out my old DVD drive only read at 8X speed. Woops. Itunes would crash really hard every few hours making me reboot. Prob some swap file filling up or something.

Downloaded a bunch of apps, but have nothing to load them on to yet

My little linux geek honey bunny surprised me and got an 8 gb iphone as well. We are currently #36 and #37 in the wait line from the AT&T store.

it is so cute

If you’re a fan of both Lego and renewable energy, you’re gonna love the new Vestas Windmill set from Lego. It stands at over two feet tall, has a motor that rotates the windmill around on its own, and is pretty awesome looking. Unfortunately, there’s no way to rig a bunch of these together in your yard to help power your house, and they’ll actually suck up energy rather than create it like real windmills, but what are you complaining about? It’s a two-foot-tall Lego windmill! It’s awesome!

via gizmodo

I am pretty sure I will be getting an iphone here soon. I am a bit worried about the signal here in this fine star city. Anyone want to ease my fears or scare the crap out of me?

Good discussion over in the forum.

Coverage blows in so many ways. Usually can’t get calls/call out from inside The Mill. Can’t get signal inside MY OWN RESIDENCE! I have to go stand on the porch to use my phone at home, and frankly, sometimes I want to lay on the couch in my jammies to talk to my mom, and maybe watch tv at the same time. Nope. Have to go outside. As in, right onto A st. Any idea how fricken loud that is? Or have to go out into the back yard. You have no idea how angry-making it is. I mean, it includes text messages, though sometimes I can sneak those in where a call would have gotten dropped. Your dreams of internet cruising may be more like nightmares.

Instructables

I saw sfgabe’s cool “Fake-out Stolen Car Stereo” Instructable and it gave me the idea to make a fake faceplate for my truck’s new stereo. This faceplate is made using the original Delco radio/cassette tape player that came with the truck, some Velcro, and a lot of epoxy glue. I left half of a cassette sticking out of the tape player for added effect.

Follow along with this Instructable to see how I made my own fake-out face plate. Every car stereo will be different, but this Instructable will give you the general idea.

So I was having a heck of a time with my work PC. I tried 4 different linux distributions and each one was having major issues. Freezing for a few seconds, completely locking up, or restarting X. It kept getting worse too. There were some spots on my LCD which I figured were deap pixels. Ended up plugging in my graphics card from home after hearing the story of the vid card before it got to me. Yup the whole time it was the vid card. Working on getting it replaced and in the meantime I have a mackbook air to test out.

Besides being so cute and tiny it is pretty badass. I have never used a mac of any sort besides the floor model at Comp USA in Omaha. I took a look around and kinda sorta got it down. The air has a multi touch trackpad and it allows you to do some cool stuff. There is no scroll bar on the side, you two finger scroll in any direction. Lucky for me the guys here know their way around and have clued me into some stuff. The one USB is currently taken up by an ethernet adapter, I could really use a mouse. The thing is so tiny.