FreedomMind Blog

Journal One

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 10:07:18 -0500

As we approach the end of 2011, I find myself wanting to crank up the journal. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to do this, but I’m always held back by - well - inertia (laziness?). Even when I’ve acquired the motivation, I start the text editor and then stop because whatever topic I have on my mind is not worthy of a FIRST post. This time, I decided that whatever I write will be posted, no matter how empty, silly, or amateurish it reads. So there. My first subject is my previous lack of worthy subjects. I suppose that’s as worthy as an other; nothing world-changing here, but why waste my revolutionary thoughts on a post which I know will not be read.

If you’ve also been considering writing, but have been held back by similar restraints, you can use my example to get you started. I’m sure you’re thinking, “I can do better than that!”

Now I’ve done it. I’ve written my first entry. Now I just need to post it and I’ll be able to justify adding much simpler ones about insignificant subjects.

FreedomMind Images

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:49:00 -0500

I’ve created a new site to host my photos and other images. Since this page won’t have to serve the large (file-size) images, the pages should load faster - even when the posts contain references to the foreign-hosted images.

The new site is images.freedommind.com.

Hello U-verse

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 15:08:00 -0500

We have now had U-verse for about six weeks. For the most part, I will say that we like the U-verse TV experience, but there are some pros and cons.

Background

The most obvious difference between U-verse and any type of cable set-top box (STB) setup is that U-verse is IPTV (Internet Protocol Television). A quick, over-simplified description is something like this:

With cable, all the channels are continuously being piped through the line and the STB’s tuner or TV’s built-in tuner picks which one to display - sort of like broadcast radio or television signals are always in the air regardless of how many antennas are tuned to them. Because of this, you can have as many televisions (or STBs) as you wish tuned to as many channels as the cable provider offers. The down side of this is that the provider can only offer as many channels as can fit. This becomes even more significant with the advent of HD. HD signals occupy more bandwidth than SD, so every HD channel added to the lineup is at the expense of multiple SD channels. Note that this is less limiting now with digital television signals piped over wider bandwidth.

IPTV does not continuously pipe all channels like cable. Instead, it streams only the channel(s) requested at any point in time. The tuning requires a U-verse STB, so built-in tuners, TiVos, and other tuners are not supported. The streams require a good bit of bandwidth, so (currently) only four simultaneous incoming streams are supported. For most households, this is not a serious limitation - especially if most shows are viewed from DVR recordings - but it could come into play if multiple simultaneous broadcasts are desired (on multiple TVs and/or DVR slots). On the other hand, since only the requested channels are streaming in at any point, there is no technical limit to the number of channels (or other sources) that AT&T can offer. It’s comparable to the availability of web sites: millions of sites, but your internet connection may limit how many you can simultaneously download. The most significant application of this factor is that the HD version of every channel is available.

Experience Comparison

The user experience includes many areas:

Linear television
TV User Interface
DVR
- Viewing
- Programming
Applications

Linear Television

The video quality is excellent - almost all the time. We recently purchased one of the best quality televisions available (Samsung 55” LED), making it very easy to analyze the quality. We have noticed a little bit of occasional pixilation. I assume it is associated with the decoding, but it’s rare enough to be acceptable. Note that the quality of U-verse far exceeds that of DirecTV, whose additional layer of compression/decompression constantly adds even worse pixilation.

The audio quality is also good. It’s 5.1 surround sound. I’m no audiophile, but it seems to be as good as any other sources. The only real problem that we’ve observed is the occasional audio drop-outs: tiny deletions that sound similar to a scratch on a vinyl record album. Their frequency seems to have decreased since installation. In fact, I can’t even remember the last occurrence.

As mentioned above, U-verse offers HD versions of every channel. The wider selection of HD is a big plus. All of the streams for all STBs come through the Residential Gateway, so the limit of four simultaneous streams (2HD + 2SD) apply to the entire household. For a child-free household like ours, this is not a problem.

TV User Interface

This is an area to which I pay a lot of attention. It’s what I do for a living. I’m familiar with the U-verse UI from the perspectives of both user and designer. I have experience with TiVo, the default Motorola UI, DirecTV, and now U-verse. I will say that I still prefer that of TiVo. If you know me, you are aware that I am a Mac user. I recognize that modern versions of Windows have good interfaces, but not quite as desirable and user-friendly as that of the Mac. I would compare the TiVo to the Mac, U-verse to Windows 7, DirecTV to Windows 3.1, and the Motorola UI to… well… the Commodore Pet I played with in 1980.

When comparing U-verse to the TiVo, there are several subtle differences:

Navigation controls: TiVo’s controls are more likely to do what the user wants, often as a result of making functionality available in multiple ways. Pressing OK or RIGHT will typically select an item from a menu. Rather than making a universal decision about which one is appropriate, TiVo provides both. The U-verse remote control has a BACK key that functions like that of a browser, but TiVo provides the same functionality with the LEFT key, allowing the user to do more with just the directional keys. Little things like these improve the TiVo experience, giving it a slight advantage.
Sound effects: TiVo’s are so significant that even people who have never used a TiVo recognize them. With U-verse, the sound effects are optional - turned off by default. When they’re enabled, they prove helpful - especially for former TiVo users - but they don’t work consistently. Navigating up and down within a list doesn’t always trigger the sounds, but sometimes it does. The STB in our bedroom seems to do a better job than the one in the living room. I think it may have something to do with the living room STB being set to 5.1 surround sound.
Visual appearance: Of course, this is a subjective judgement and perhaps I hold U-verse to a higher standard because I work with those making some decisions about the visual appearance. I do believe the U-verse interface is too blue. I would like to see some contrasting and complementary colors.
Informational structure: The menu structures of both platforms are similar. The top-level menu for TiVo is a vertical menu like all others. Each menu level is “parallel” making them more obvious. U-verse has a horizontal menu whose sub-items are displayed in a vertical menu below the horizontal one. While this is handy, it is not as intuitive. I believe that, over time, users become more familiar, and therefore more comfortable, with it. The simplicity of the TiVo structure also makes it easy to know where you are and how to get deeper in or back out. The horizontal menu in U-verse confuses this.

DVR

Lexie and I watch recorded shows almost exclusively. Even when we’re watching “live shows,” we record the show and then watch it slightly delayed so that we can rewind if necessary and, most importantly, fast-forward through commercials. For us, the DVR experience is key. We had an SD TiVo in the bedroom and an HD TiVo in the living room. That gave us the ability to simultaneously record two HD shows and one SD show. Sometimes we would record the same shows on both devices (one in HD and the other in SD) so we could have the option of viewing the show in either room. Enter U-verse.

Viewing

U-verse provides Total-House DVR, a great feature that allows a single DVR to record and then any STB in the house to view the recordings. Since there is the inherent limitation on the quantity of incoming streams, the single 4-tuner DVR is all that is needed, anyway. What makes this so nice is that we only need to record shows once and then we can watch them from whichever STB we choose. We can start in one room and finish in another. The HD recordings show up fine on the SD screen.

The audio and video quality from DVR playback is very good. If there were never a need to rewind or fast-forward, it would be as good as TiVo, but obviously that is not the case. The biggest drawbacks to the U-verse viewing experience are in this area.

The view while rewinding or fast-forwarding in U-verse is not smooth and continuous as it is with TiVo. This makes it much harder to beging playing at specific point (beginning of scene, end of commercial break, etc.).
When the video begins playing, the audio is delayed. It usually takes a few seconds for the audio to kick in (at which time, it is synchronized with the video). That means that, upon resuming play after fast-forwarding or rewinding, you have to try to silently view the last few seconds of the previous event or commercial to insure that sound is resumed at the desired point.
The REPLAY key on the remote steps back a few seconds in the recording, but because of the audio delay described above, you have to hit REPLAY multiple times to get back far enough for the sound to resume as desired.

These three drawbacks exaggerate each other. It may be only a few seconds here or there, but with a DVR, this is a big part of the comfort and enjoyment of the user experience.

Programming

Scheduling and managing recordings with U-verse has pros and cons. Conceptually, it is very similar to the process for TiVo. Scheduling is slightly easier with the TiVo interface, but there’s not much difference in searching for or selecting a show and setting it to record. With series recordings, TiVo has a single listing of all series and allows you to set the order of priority. Such a list doesn’t exist in U-verse (yet). When I first began entering series into U-verse, I couldn’t figure out what to do. It appeared that whichever series I entered first would take priority over those entered later and that I wouldn’t be able to change the order. This is was the con.

Eventually, I entered a program that conflicted with another previously scheduled and had the opportunity to use the Conflict Resolution feature. That allows you to rearrange the priority for that particular occurance of the conflicting programs. Later, I realized that the list of scheduled programs is slightly easier to access and review than that of TiVo. The best part about this is that any conflicting items remain in that list, but are displayed with a “conflict” icon. You can select the items to resolve the conflict. On the TiVo, it required going into a poorly labeled submenu to see what wasn’t going to be recorded. Resolving those conflicts took much more effort and you’re not as likely to know they even exist.

The best was still to come. The next thing I discovered was Web Remote Access. This is, by far, the best web scheduling interface I’ve seen. In fact, I don’t even use the TV interface for scheduling and conflict resolution. Even when I’m at home, I do that with my laptop because it’s much faster and easier - and doesn’t require me to interrupt whatever we might be viewing. I can even use it to clear out existing recordings that I don’t expect to watch. The DVR hard drive is large, but I still don’t want it to fill up with dozens of Office reruns.

Applications

AT&T has provided some interactive applications that take advantage of the IP nature of IPTV. As expected, my favorite one is Weather On Demand. I use it almost every evening or morning to know what to expect. There are also some other applications that provide multiple views of live programming, information about awards ceremonies, Olympics, and more. I think this is a barely-tapped area for product enhancement. Picture the iPhone with only the default Apple-developed applications. If the decision-makers at AT&T will ever open up the platform to third-party developers, U-verse will be overwhelmingly successful. That’s a subject for another day.

FreedomVerse

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 13:55:00 -0500

Well… I didn’t follow up my previous post as quickly as I promised, but I can blame that on U-verse itself. One component of U-verse is the Residential Gateway device, which serves as a DSL modem, router, etc. With previous routers, it was easy to map internal IP addresses to external ports, but not so on the RG. As a consequence, FreedomMind has been down since the U-verse installation. But now it’s back: FreedomVerse!

I’ll admit that I haven’t been too worried about it and that’s why it has taken me so long to do the necessary troubleshooting and implement the required solution: configuring the firewall to “DMZplus mode” for the machine hosting the site. Fortunately, I have only one machine to expose to the internet because this mode is only available for one.

Other technical observations:

The default 192.168.0.x address range is a challenge to modify. It can be done, but requires all the devices, including the set-top boxes, to be restarted. Even then, they don’t want to release previous addresses. Maybe if I knew more, I could take care of this, but it was easier to just accept the default range.
The Max 18 plan to which I subscribe seems very fast. I suppose it’s not as fast as the 20Mb plan I had with Charter, but I can’t tell the difference.
The VoIP telephone service works fine. Since it is IP-based, there are some benefits such as logging, dialing from a computer interface, and more. The plan also includes many features that I may have had available even with my POTS line such as voicemail, call filtering, and many more - all configurable through a nice web interface.
The RG has four ethernet ports on the back. That’s probably enough for most folks, but one is required for the primary set top box, leaving only three more. When I mentioned to the installer that I needed more (TV, Blu-Ray, XBox, and NAS drive), he happily gave me an 8-port Netgear gigabit switch worth about $60: technical limitation overcome by excellent customer service!

I will document some of my TV-specific observations in another posting.

Goodbye Cable

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:11:00 -0500

This evening is my last evening with Charter cable. Tomorrow the AT&T technician is coming out to my house to install U-verse.

I’ll admit that a great deal of my excitement comes from the fact that one of my primary roles at AT&T is the design of interactive U-verse applications. One of the applications available at this time is Weather. I wrote the front-end code for the BellSouth version of the application which was slightly modified to become the AT&T version, for which I designed the information flow and layouts.

I’ll add another post tomorrow to describe the installation and my experience as a “new user.”

iJack-o-Lantern

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:38:00 -0400

This year I decided to try using some “grey” in my jack-o-lantern instead of just the standard black and white (or orange and white) I’ve used in the past.

I considered using a traditional halloween image like bats, ghosts, or even a face, but in the end, I chose the iPhone. The back of the iPhone 3G ( and 3GS) is so simple that I needed something more. The original (2G) iPhone design is more distinctive, with the black plastic section at the bottom, so I based my template on that.

Design:

Template:

Photos:

I learned some lessons with creating the translucent (grey) section, so I’m glad I created a simple design. The skin of the pumpkin is very dense compared to the soft interior beneath. It’s difficult to shave off the skin without going too far into the pumpkin or beyond the area defined by the design.

I used an X-acto knife and a utility knife to define the edges and a chisel to shave/dig. The thickness of the pumpkin wall was a little over an inch thick and I was trying to get the translucent part to be about a quarter of that. The nice thing is that once I got the outer skin off, refining the carving was much easier.Not surprisingly, the areas around the details (the top of the apple and the leaf above it) were the most difficult. The leaf is actually thicker than it is wide.

Next year I’ll try something a little more complex, but I’ll avoid having too many thin items close to one another. Additionally, I plan to get some clay-carving tools like ribbon loops (I think that’s what they’re called).

The Shining Moon If you’re a fan of the Kubrick/Clarke...

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:41:00 -0400

The Shining Moon

If you’re a fan of the Kubrick/Clarke movie 2001: The Space Odyssey, then you’re likely to appreciate the coming independent movie Moon from Duncan Jones.

SmoothMind I’m not a huge jazz fan. I enjoy hearing some,...

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 07:31:00 -0400

SmoothMind

I’m not a huge jazz fan. I enjoy hearing some, but I don’t collect it or even know much about it. There is one name in jazz that everyone recognizes: Mile Davis. His music is timeless and this video is a demonstration of that. It was recorded fifty years ago today. Just sit back and enjoy.

On April 2, 1959, producer Robert Herridge recorded the Miles Davis Quintet playing the classic “So What” in CBS studio 61, New York City. The piece was taped for an episode of the Robert Herridge Theater, titled “The Sound of Miles Davis.” CBS broadcast the show on July 21, 1960.

FloorMind We finally decided to replace the red carpet in our...

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:35:00 -0400

FloorMind

We finally decided to replace the red carpet in our living room with hardwood and it looks good so far. We plan to move the furniture back in tonight and return to our old habits in a more beautiful environment.

Bwling

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 21:04:00 -0500

My friends and I decided to go bowling today. It seemed like a good excuse to get out and socialize.

The photos below are in decreasing-age-order. The first one shows a crippled old man who really needs to exercise (me). Robb looks much better in the second and Jake is just showing off in the third.

First iPhone Post

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 11:35:00 -0500

This is a post from my iPhone using the WordPress app. It took me a while to get it set up because of a technical problem with my server, but it’s finally functioning. I’m hoping that I can add more frequent posts now. I imagine they’ll be simpler - probably text-only, but better than nothing.

I can add photos directly from the iPhone and that may prove to be a valuable feature. On the other hand, formatting is a challenge. Even the simple task of adding a link is troublesome. I would love to see some features like automatically adding the tags around URLs. I’m willing to give it a try, though. It is the first version.

By the way, if you try to set up the app with your blog and get the “can’t find the xmlrpc” error, check this iphone app not connecting article.

Jack-O-Lantern 2008

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 23:30:00 -0400

I really enjoy making jack-o-lanterns. The whole process of selecting the photos, turning them into templates, transferring the images to the pumpkin, and carving the shapes takes some time, but it’s worth it to create something eye-catching…even if it will only last a few days.

I believe that this year I’ve made my best one. The subject is pretty simple, but the design is more complex than any previous ones. I chose to use the faces of our puppies and, because I got a fairly large (wide) pumpkin, to put both faces on a single pumpkin. I’m proud of the execution. The photos aren’t great, but you get the idea:

On the left, we have Suzy:

And on the right, we have Boo:

The template I used to create the carving was made by posterizing and editing a couple of photos from my iPhoto collection:

Limited Perception My cousin sent me this great video segment...

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 14:33:00 -0400

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

Limited Perception

My cousin sent me this great video segment from a presentation from Michael Shermer at the TED conference. I would love to see the entire presentation.

It brings up issues about our limited ability to see things right in front of us and how our attempt to see certain expected things causes us to miss others.

Update: I found another interesting TED presentation from Michael Shermer: “Why people believe strange things.”

A Night in Singapore

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 15:33:00 -0400

Formula 1 has finally adopted night racing and it is brilliant… literally. The circuit is integrated into the downtown streets of Singapore, revealing a beautiful skyline in the background.

The lighting was strong enough to rival the sunshine of a daytime race. In fact, all of the bulbs are mounted with the same orientation in order to resemble the directional characteristic of sunshine. As bright as the city streets may be, the racing circuit stands out even more.

The colors and surfaces of the cars is brought out to a great degree by the contrast of the lighting.

Thanks to a couple of accidents and a long safety-car interruption, Fernando Alonso was able to overcome a poor qualifying and come from way back in the field to win the race.

My iPhone Apps 2

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 17:05:00 -0400

I’ve made some changes since the original My iPhone Apps post. Here’s a summary of the apps I’ve added and removed.

Purchased Apps

CubicMan Deluxe ($4.99) - an excellent but simple game in which you roll a box shape to reach a target point without falling over the edge. I like this one because it doesn’t require quick movement. Some of the stages require more logical analysis than others. I first tried the Lite version for free and enjoyed it enough to throw down for the Deluxe version.

Spore Origins ($9.99) - the iPhone version of the full-sized Spore game from Electronic Arts. The graphics in the game are amazing, so much so that just creating the appearance of your creature is fun by itself. The stages of the game are incrementally challenging and I look forward to wasting a lot of time as I evolve.

Trism ($2.99) - a very well-developed spatial game that combines logic, timing, and tilting to create combinations of triangular prisms (trisms). Scores can be shared online with other players. I just recently purchased this and I’ve already spent a good bit of time with it.

Free Apps

Air Sharing ($6.99) - This allows the iPhone to be mounted as an wireless storage device. As nice as this is, I haven’t really used it yet. It may come in handy at some point in the future. It could prove to be more convenient than transferring via email or flash drive. Note that this app now costs $6.99. I’m glad I got it for free!

Audi A4 Driving Challenge - a clever little accelerometer-based driving game from my favorite auto manufacturer. I haven’t played it much, but it’s free, so it’s worth having for the occasional fun.

Constitution for iPhone - a handy replacement for my CATO pocket version of the U.S. Constitution. I can’t wait to settle my first political argument by looking up an issue!

Cube Runner - accelerometer-based movement game. It’s good for a few minutes of distraction. I’ve also used it as a way to demonstrate the accelerometer when showing off the iPhone.

IM+ - an all-in-one instant messenger client, sort of like Adium or Trillian. This works well, but the interface is very basic.

Kaleidoscope - a visual novelty that generates a dynamic kaleidoscopic image based on selected photographs. Its value is limited, but it is cute. The motion is influenced by dragging and the accelerometer.

Meet Bubble -a cute level. I wouldn’t build anything based on its accuracy, but it might be nice for quick judgements.

Nearby - allows you to read and post location-based notes. I’ve looked at this, but haven’t used it productively yet. It might be good once users (including me) begin to post more notes. I’ll hold onto it and see how it develops.

Palringo - an all-in-one instant messenger client, sort of like Adium or Trillian. I’m torn between this and IM+. Currently I use Palringo, but if I had to do it over again, I would have chosen IM+ to avoid having to create a Palringo account.

Pandora Radio - streams custom musical playlists. The playlists are generated by a patented algorithm that selects songs that are similar to the one you begin with. You can have multiple playlists that are like your very own commercial-free radio stations.

Remote Desktop Lite - provides RDP services to desktop PCs. I haven’t used this productively yet, but I can imagine it might come in handy. I’m certain that this would be a must-have for tech support or networking specialists.

SolarQuest Lite - a basic accelerometer-based space game, similar to the old Defender game from the arcades.

TanZen Lite - a puzzle game that I haven’t spent much time in. It involves assembling shapes to complete a target composite. It might be a way to fill time with a logical, spatial challenge.

Toy Bot Diaries Free - a dynamic game that involves combining touching, dragging, and tilting to move a robot over, under, and around obstacles. I think there are other challenges and techniques, but I haven’t gotten far enough to encounter them, partly because the responsiveness is awkward.

Tris - a version of the old favorite Tetris or, as Lexie considers it, my iHeroin. I have spent more time with this game than any other feature of the iPhone, including web browsing, email, and the phone. I need this game to be removed but I won’t be the one to do it.

UniCon - a straightforward unit converter. While I haven’t used it yet, it’s one of those utilities that will certainly come in handy at some point. The interface is simple and clear.

WordPress - an iPhone client for managing WordPress blogs. I just downloaded this and haven’t used it yet. It’s probably easier than using browser-based interface on the iPhone.

Removed Apps

I’ve removed a few of the apps I had at that time, including:

Bubbles - useless novelty.

SnapMyLife - I never used it.

Yes|No Free - I did use it to help me decide about calling a poker bet or two, but the novelty has worn out.

A Fungus Among Us

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:55:00 -0400

As if the millipedes weren’t unique enough, now we have a huge fungus growing in the front yard. I don’t know what kind of fungus it is, but it looks sort of like coral. When I brushed my hand against it, it felt cool and damp. You can see that it has enveloped the small plant that was growing in front of it. I’ll keep an eye on it to see if it digests any more.

To give you an idea of its size, here’s a photo with a newspaper for comparison.

My iPhone Apps

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:03:00 -0400

Here’s a summary of the apps I’ve tried on my iPhone. I’ll keep this list updated as my experience evolves.

Purchased Apps

Super Monkey Ball ($9.99) - A clever game with amazing graphics. The control of the game (tilting the surface on which the monkey ball rolls) is done by tilting the device, using the accelerometer. I need a lot of practice, but I’m sure I’ll get it.

Enigmo ($9.99) - Another interesting game that consists of directing the flow of water droplets. This one is drag-and-drop rather than accelerometer, but it is fun.

Free Apps

AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) - This is a great IM client that partly replaces the need for costly SMS messages. I look forward to this becoming a standard.

AOL Radio - Sure… I could listen to music loaded from iTunes or carry an old-fashioned pocket radio, but this is a handy alternative with lots of radio choices.

Break - a game like breakout. I haven’t played it much yet, but it works well.

Bubbles - drag your finger around on the screen and bubbles appear along the path.

Google Mobile App - handy access to Google. I’m not sure if I’ll use this since the search is built into the browser, but it’s free, so I’ll give it a try.

Movies - When you need information about what movies are showing where, this is handy. It also provides quick access to IMDB.

PhoneSaber - This is a silly-but-fun application that displays a light saber and when you swing the phone around it makes sounds that Darth Vader would be proud of.

Remote - a handy replacement for the remote control hardware that Apple includes with its media devices (AppleTV and computers).

SnapMyLife - I loaded this, but I haven’t used it yet. I believe it is a way to photo-record your experiences, associating the photos with your location.

Twitteriffic - the great Twitter client made by the IconFactory. I use the Mac client and, not surprisingly, it feels just right on the iPhone if not better because I can report what I’m doing no matter where I am.

Urban Spoon - A fun restaurant finder with a Jackpot-style interface. Within a metro area, you have three criteria - all of which can be random or locked: geographic area, type of food, and price group. You spin the unlocked wheels and see which restaurant it yields. If you don’t like what it gives you, keep on spinning.

VoiceNotes - a voice recorder. I haven’t used it yet, but it seems like I might.

Yes|No Free - the equivalent of a coin-toss. I doubt I’ll keep this, but I want to hang on to it long enough to use it next time I need to decide about calling a poker bet.

YPmobile - a nice Yellow Pages client. I’m glad that AT&T did a good job with this one. I was scared that we wouldn’t have any apps ready for the initial release.

Zenbe Lists - a handy way to maintain lists. It’s perfect for to-do and grocery lists. The online version is just right for updating via the computer and easily syncs with the iPhone client. The interface is well-designed. I added this one to the main row of my iPhone because I want quick access to it.

Removed Apps

I’ve downloaded these apps and given them a try, but decided they weren’t what I needed. So far, all of them are free, so there’s no loss other than time.

Evernote - I thought this would be my note and list manager. It is accompanied by an client application for the computer. Both clients have an awkward interface and it may be good at maintaining complex information, but it is not easy with simple lists. Basic notes are hard to read, for example. The syncing is good, but it all comes down to interface and Zenbe is better. I haven’t yet removed the client from my computer, so I might give it another try.

reQall - This was my second try for a note/list manager, but I can’t quite figure out if its role is to help you keep up with stuff or to improve your natural memory.

Loopt - this app maintains your location and communicates it to other applications. Unfortunately, it does so through SMS and that’s just not practical.

Whrrl - this app lets you share your location with others, but the interface was not clear. I’m not sure if there was a problem in my area, but it never seemed to reflect my location.

Old/New iPhone

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:48:00 -0400

Lots of my iPhone-carrying friends are on the fence about upgrading to the new 3G iPhone. I have one of the “old” iPhones and I am planning on getting a new one, but it’s not because mine is lacking in features. The free software upgrade and access to many new applications have made the old models new.

The App Store is a very convenient system for software distribution. Some people might complain that Apple is maintaining too tight a grip on the market, but I don’t mind. It’s nice to feel confident that the apps aren’t corrupted with problems that will damage my device. Apple takes a cut from the profit made on the apps, but it’s amazing how many free ones are available. Most of the apps that I’ve downloaded didn’t cost me a cent.

So why I am I still planning on getting a new iPhone? It’s because I’m going to give my existing one to Lexie.

Blazing Ridge

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:58:00 -0400

For the first time in many years, we decided not to go see the Gwinnett County fireworks display in Lawrenceville. Instead we had a small display of our own at my friends’ house on Blazing Ridge. We did our best to make the street live up to its name.

Millions of Millipedes

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 19:16:00 -0400

We had a nice rain today and the yard was thankful. After it completed, Lexie and I stepped out onto the back porch to take in the rich green beauty of the cool damp yard. Lexie looked over at the back of the house and noticed something odd. There were lots of little things on the wall. She pointed them out to me and we realized there were millions of millipedes. Actually hundreds is more accurate, but they were millipedes.

I had my iPhone with me, so I took some photos. The millipedes are hard to see so you might need to click on the thumbnails so you can look closely at the full size versions.

This is the view looking down from the back porch:

To get a closer look, I went down to ground level and took a shot through the bushes:

This is the first time we’ve ever seen this. I wonder if it will be the last.