PEBCAC

I’ve been out of action for two or three days and just communicating with work via the cell, e-mail and updating the adapt photos site. I’ve realized this kind of constant connectivity is probably how I ended up on my butt in the first place.

Below is a 4 hour excerpt from a day last week. It’s almost exact in the events that happened, without precise time signatures. It’s no wonder, living in a world of on demand/in demand reality, that our natural cycles get out of whack.

• 4:00am Fall asleep researching AT labs and coding web posting script for cell phones.
• 6:00 Wake up and have hot tea from machine. Check Media Center for Tivo’ed shows, find Secret Passages and SouthPark. E-mail shows up in a side-window. 12 from work. Answer them while drinking tea. Tea gets cold.
• 6:30 Can’t relax, go in and grab iPod and cell phone. Cell Phone synced with rest of e-mail systems and calendar last night using Bluetooth and the SymbianOS. I should have put the shopping list on there. I hop in the car to go to Giant Eagle.
• 6:32 When I get in the car, I pop the ipod into the Fm Transmitter and listen to a podcast about disability law and current precedent. Five minutes into the drive, a call comes in over the wireless headset in my ear. I turn off the ipod and drive five more minutes then I need to taking the call.
• 7:00 Undock the iPod and fireup the Mp3 player on the cell phone and listen to the Engadget podcast over the headset while I shop. The other podcast was boring me to tears.
• 7:02 Login to the Personal Shopper, this way I don’t have to deal with cashiers and everything is bagged and ready to go at checkout.
• 7:24 Phone call comes in from a friend overseas, the podcast instantly pauses. When the call is done, the podcast returns
• 7:40 I’m not sure what kind of yogurt to get Steph. I tap the button on my headset and say “Call Steph”. The voice activation calls her and I find out we like Yoplait Whips.
• 7:45 A text message comes in from someone at work. Tells me to check my e-mail. Standing in Giant Eagle, I open opera mini on my phone and check the message. Really no big deal. Back to the podcast.
• 7:55 Make it through the automatic checkout in about three minutes.
• 8:00 Back in car, dock the iPod and check out the NPR movie reviews. Maybe I’ll get some time to experience life this week, rather than hear about it.

In heaven, there will be no plastic.

Sometimes I feel like a Talking Heads song, not in a good way.

It’s not a flying car, a UFO or even a relic from the past… it’s really all three, with a little bit of C-130 and Spruce Goose thrown in for luck. The boys in Ohio might have done it again with the Dynalifter. The hybrid of a jetliner and blimp must yield positive results, right??? Well, If it works, it will be a revolution in transport and aviation. If it doesn’t work, it’s still pretty damn cool…and will eventually be sold on ebay.  

 In the process of installing, configuring and testing googlemail for domains. If it’s working. My gmail account should be setup here?. I Love Google.

Maybe at mail.andy-cooper.com, if the redirect works. E-mail me if for some bizarre reason you want an @andy-cooper.com e-mail address.  

After a mentally exhausting blitz of cell phone buying mania, I finally got my bill from Cingular. Despite MANY calls to customer service and MANY hours in MANY Cingular retail stores, my billing was royally messed up. Trust me, I did everything to verify orders, etc. But talking to Cingular is like falling through the looking glass. If you ever think you died, call Cingular, they’re bound to have someone that insists you’re alive. Just don’t call back, because you never get the same answer twice.  

So, in a fit, I cancelled service and returned EVERYTHING. I won’t get into the billing issues YET, but it’s one of a thousand I’ve had with Cingular over two years.

Because my complaint with Cingular has never been their service or handsets, rather their support/billing, I went to T-Mobile. T-mobile has had a history of decent customer service and has the newest handsets on the market. So I picked up an MDA, which actually felt better than the 8125. Steph got the Samsung t809. Both seemed great replacements for the 8125 and W600 (although the w600 is about perfect for what it is). Anyway, We used them a couple of hours away from home, no problems. Unfortunately, 30 feet from the house, we lost all signal. We don’t have a land line, so the cell signal must be strong.

This stunk! T-Mobile was cheaper on the handsets, cheaper on the voice service and much cheaper on the data packages. So, I tried handsets from verizon and sprintel…NOTHING. I was forced to retreat to Cingular. They are the only carrier that works at home. At least the network is strong. And that’s about all I can say right now.

So…. in an effort to cool down, I went browsing through Best Buy. I noticed the Nokia 6682, a phone I admired previously, was priced at under $200 with a 1yr contract! No rebates! Out the freakin door! Wonderful, moments earlier I spied this phone in the Cingular store for $369 in a 1yr. Why not the 8125? No one had it, again…and every store in a 100 mile radius was back ordered. Besides, I loved the 8125, but it wasn’t suitable for life on the move (the formfactor just isn’t small enough, and even with the price deal, it’s damn expensive…waiting for the Q). I was too worried about carrying it to actually carry it all the time.

Well, the Nokia 6682 has a large LCD, responsive interface, nice camera (1.3mp) and, I only learned this after I got home, runs the Symbian OS! So, I’m playing with this psuedo smartphone and expect to post pics and a review soon. Oh yeah, a nice feature I just discovered is that it plays mp3’s over bluetooth headsets….more to come! 

Followup:Hundreds of members of ADAPT drove the city of Nashville to a grinding halt as their chants echoed off the concrete of Legislative Plaza. ‘Our Homes, not Nursing Homes’

ADAPT is in Nashville to push for reform of the Medicaid system, in order to provide home and community based services for persons with disabilities, as an alternative to living in a nursing home. The Tenncare system is particularly horrid, and people are dying as a result of the lack of services. People would rather die, then live in the hell of a nursing home, as many testified this past Sunday.

Over a dozen ADAPT members were arrested and approximately 80 cited at yesterdays demonstrations. Local news coverage was reasonably heavy, although most tended to concentrate on the impact on state employees, rather than the issues of ADAPT. Other outlets have had much more balanced coverage.

Keep up to date with the ADAPT Action Report, Tom Olin’s Photos, more postings here, and someone write to that jerk at WSMV, Mark Stewart and tell him to report the real issues.

Andy- SWPA ADAPT.

Please excuse the several hour outage over the weekend. We exceeded our bandwidth. Thanks to Tnet for upping our limit to 1Gb.

I promised to post some videos taken with the 8125. They are linked below with general descriptions of the settings, etc. Pics are posted in the Misc. Gallery and Page 2

    *all videos in Mpeg-4 Format. Will play in your browser with QuickTime. All times approximate.*

—-

Spinning Mini Bull Terrier - 7 seconds. On porch 5:00pm sun. No flash/Light. Wacky dog

Walking with Camera - 16 seconds. Inside. Flourescent lighting/inside. Walking with camera at waist level in hand.

Driving with Music - 37 seconds. Holding the camera on the dashboard. Nice picture, but listen to the music cut in and out. That’s not my spiffy hyundia, it’s the recorder. Otherwise not bad.

Barking Rott - 10 seconds. Early morning sun. Dog being silly.

All settings were at full resolution, etc… The night video is basically worthless. And one sample is posted below:

Rottie Inside at Night - This is in a bright room, at night, with incadescent light and the pda light on. Stinks! But to be expected.

I’m looking to actually make a 3 minute film using clips, etc.. We’ll see what happens. Obviously not using these clips.

A special shout-out to Modaco and HowardForums for all their data and great forums.

Elvis, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis won’t cause half the shake, rattle and roll of ADAPT entering Nashville. This week, ADAPT, a national disability rights group, is expected to hit Nashville to push such issues as Tenncare, Money Follows the Person and MiCASSA. The event is being reported by the Tennessee Independent Media Center, and when the action happens, will be covered nationwide. Check in here for photos, videos and updates of the Action in Nashville. 

 With definite shades of Terminator, Honda has improved their ASIMO to enable running. If we can arm them with Shotguns, we’ll be kicking butt…or having our butt kicked. I’ve played with robots for years from the Mindstorms and OmniBot (thanks dad!!) to the Aibo, but watching this video is a little scary to be honest. Especially when you notice the children waving, laughing and reaching out to the robot as though it’s alive…because for all intents, it is.

But I for one welcome our robot overlords and remind them that with my technical skills I could assist in enslaving the other humans to work in the litihum mines.

Your Dog thinks you have bad taste, and modern designers are proving them right. If it’s not expensive houses, it’s art deco beds. Maybe Astro needs a massage, or a new bath robe. When Dada isn’t wacky enough, there’s always something more outrageous…and, really, why shouldn’t your dog have a better house than you?

 

Man is no longer a slave to his four legged friend! 

We have 4 dogs who, obviously, produce quite a bit of solid waste. While I’ve contemplated turning it into some sort of fuel, I’d be content with several doggie dooleys…or so I thought. With shades of Envy in their head, A British Company, in development with the British Aerosol Manufacturers, is developing a concept product, Poo Poof, that uses liquid nitrogen to freeze dog poo and color it blue. Apparently the waste can then be easily scooped up and disposed of and obviously blue is less offensive than the, ahem, regular shade. Check out their Pdf here or locally. Demand it be brought to market! No more scoop, bag and trash! 

picked up by bloggingpet.com (kewl site) - thanks all.

this was blogged using the 8125

 

As you can see from the pic below(taken with a Sony W600i), I settled on the Cingular 8125. Thanks to some assistance from a Cingular rep, while I still contend the general company have a severely screwed concept of customer service,  the device became affordable.

Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way. The major problem with the device is cost. Locked versions are selling for $400-600 on ebay. Even though I got a deal, with a device this expensive I was hoping to use Cingular’s insurance, but no such luck. Unfortunately/Fortunately, I’m on the run and while major accidents are not common…they do happen. So I found Safeware, and talked to their sales reps. It seems to be a great service/company…I’ll be adding my iPod as it’s cheaper than applecare and covers dropping, etc…

The Features

Phone

Admittedly, like all PDA Phones, talking is second to computing ability. However, the 8125 strikes a nice mix. With Bluetooth, the handset can be tucked away in a pocket. And with Microsoft Mobile Voice Command, dialing and navigating become seamless. The only quibble is that the bluetooth headset is not directly compatible with Voice Command. This is a limitation of the OS. With all that…the sound is impressive, dialing a breeze and bluetooth a joy.

CAMERA

The camera is the best I’ve seen on a PDA and one of the best on a cell phone. Pictures are crisp and interpolate to 1600×1280 (if desired). The flash is annoyingly bright, but hey, it’s effective. The camcorder is also effective and records as long as your media allows. Pictures will be in the gallery.

WIFI/EDGE

The Wi-Fi is solid, although the settings stink. Third-Party software abounds for discover and configuring Wi-Fi. Once connected, I pulled speeds that were only limited by the processor. I consistently connected at 11mbps. When I get the ‘G‘ network installed, I’ll post new numbers. Using EDGE and the proxy, I pulled 150-170kbps, not bad at all. I’m hoping to sell my office on the data plan for 39.99. Unlimited connectivity is too tempting. Mmmm…

PDA

Based on a HTC platform, the 8125 is running at 195mhz…seemingly pokey for a pocket pc, but the device seems responsive and hasn’t bogged down yet. The onboard software and mobile office run great. I was even able to use remote clients to access my VPN.

MultiMedia

Media Player 10 is my favorite player, as it integrates with Microsoft Media Center and other products. It’s written much tighter than iTunes and faster. I copied over several MP3’s in no time, and converted a 700mb+ video file, encoded at 576×240 at 128kps. The video took about 20 minutes to encode and transfer. This is on a P4 3.2 with 1GB of ram…and I’m doing other things. Anyway, the videos and music play flawlessly.

General Build

Well, it’s no Razr or SLVR, you will know you are carrying this phone. At almost 8oz, it’s no lightweight. But, it fits into a pocket without problem. The dedicated buttons are great. Profiles, Wi-Fi, the Camera, Volume, Bluetooth, IR, Internet Explorer, and Outlook are all available via external dedicated buttons. Very nice.

The unit is solid, the keyboard has some play on the keys, but locks solidly in place when pulled out. The screen is bright and quick. The front buttons have a little play as well, but nothing major. Well done and feels like it should, expensive.

Conculsion

Well worth the wait! The 8125 is all that I thought a smartphone/pda should be, when I started looking and buying 5 years ago. If you’re a mobile user, heavy internet/e-mail user, blogger or anyone needing constant contact with the netsphere, this is the phone. It’s a great phone, PDA, media player, and mini-laptop.

Highly Recommended.

 

Okay, back to smarter phones…the Cingular 2125 or T-Mobile SDA. This little baby was running Windows Mobile 5. It still wasn’t the 8125. Nontheless, I decided the 8125 was never coming out. Since I don’t wait well, needed an Internet and text powerful phone…this would do.

The build felt a little cheap and plasticy, but I had no problems with it and it felt pretty good overall. Picture quality with 1.3megapixels was very nice and the phone was response in most applications.

Net surfing was fast on EDGE networks and data transmission a snap. Of course, the phone was missing mobile office capability and a keyboard. I figured I could buy the keyboard seperately.

Well, all was well. Phone worked, bluetooth good…taking a picture at night and 2 pixels were burnt to red and very obvious on dark shots. UGH! The phone would need to be returned if my obsessive compulsive disorder would be controlled.

So, I returned the phone yesterday, 3/5/6, during a break from working at home. I was in Greensburg picking up pet supplies and ran in to exchange the 2125…and was greeted by a shiny new 8125!! I accosted a sales person, who didn’t even know it was on the shelves, and cut a Sweet deal on the 8125.

So, the 2125 is a great phone…and like the Sony w600i, I would still have it…but the 8125 is a thing of beauty. Review to come…

The Motorola SLVR

After giving the Sony away, I went looking for a replacement. I talk about 1700minutes a month and decided a more dedicated handset was in order. I figured the 75-100 text messages and 5 megs+ of data could be integrated into me using regular texting, rather than the luxury qwerty keyboard on my trusty but obsolete nokia 6820…so I went with the SLVR 7.

Again, nice form factor, solid build, good sound quality and good bluetooth implementation with my h500. The screen is beautiful, and for VGA, the camera very nice.

But the phone has a couple of major problems. Setting up profiles is seemingly impossible. This is a necessity for meetings and traveling through offices etc… Second, the implementation of itunes stinks and you can’t use the songs as ringtones. Finally, the glossy black finish is sexy…and a dirt magnet. This is not something you want to hold next to your face and then show people. I imagine for women, the issue is compounded with makeup. Eww…. But most importantly, the etched keypad is stylish, but makes surfing and texting impossible. This is a necessity with work. At this time the 8125 was unavailable locally…so the search continued.

In conclusion, solid product…but probably not as good as the Razr. Not for me… Read the Cnet review

After weeks of ’in the field’ consumer research, testing, ownership, returns…and fights with tech support, I’m reporting in with reviews of the:

• Sony-Ericsson W600i, Motorola SLVR 7, Cingular 2125 and Cingular 8125

Here’s the Sony

I picked up this phone a couple of weeks ago, when the ATT service went to hell at my house. After much debate, mostly over my acknowledged distaste for Cingular, I went to check out new handsets. I went for a minimum contract so I’m tethered to Cingular for the least amount of time possible, obviously. 

The Cingular 8125 was what I was really after, but it appears there are problems with the supply at this time. Nonetheless, I really needed a business phone, but the little orange Sony grabbed my eye.

The formfactor is small, albeit boxy (it’s certainly no Razr). However the phone feels very sturdy. I thought the swivel formfactor would be prone to weak spots and twisting, this is far from the case. The phone can be used closed, open completely, or partially swiveled…and there’s no play or weakness in the build quality.

The LCD is bright and the phone works in both portrait and landscape mode. It’s super fast playing video games and the 1.3 megapixel camera shoots 4×6 quality shots with a mutlitude of realtime effects.

As for functionality. The phone call quality is impressive and bluetooth implementation is flawless. More importantly, the interface is super customizable, very intuitive and fast. This interface has been used by Sony Ericsson for years, but is layered with new visual tweaks…very cool.

But, this is branded as a Walkman phone, and that means Music. This phone rocks mp3’s like no other. In fact, if it had expandable memory, I’d sell my Ipod…okay, not really. However, this phone/player has great software for playing mp3’s and a dedicated button for activating the player. Sound quality is impressive with the included earbuds and loud when played over the built-in speakers. Incidently, if you spend money on ringtones, you won’t need to with this phone. Any mp3 can be set as a ring tone. You can’t do this with the itunes phones.

Despite being a great phone, it still wasn’t suitable for business…but I bought it. Thankfully Steph fell in love with it…and the pink faceplates. So she’s sporting it now, while I moved on to something else….

Here’s the ZD-net review

I’ve been working out more so I don’t look so lumpy for the wedding, but my fears of a doughy body are over!

Thanks to the good people at Mattel, I can have the body I’ve been looking for.  I just hope they make them to fit a 6′1″, 145lbs adult. It’s a comic book toy, of course they will!

Oh yeah, made some updates….usual places. Enemies List, Friends, Media, etc….

Lately, I’ve noticed the seeming deconstruction of language. Of course, I’m not the first to notice this, and much like the apocolypse, we all think the end is going to happen in our time.

But there are plenty of signs that the language is actually evolving into a series of phenomes, pictograms, halfwords, and online acronyms. And this is NOT a deconstruction, it’s something new, and actually has more subtleties than proper English…and it’s a lot more effecient.

I’ve been using yr for years in place of: your, you’re and year.

The past couple of yrs, BRB and BTW have crept to the forefront of my speech. And while saying LOL in an e-mail is fine, verbalizing it in speech shows a mild disdain for the speaker. Like “Yeah, this is where yr trying to be funny.”

I’ve played with dialect programs, removing vowels from text, l337 5p3ak and they all seem legitimate forms of communication. Sure, Babelfish is nice, but soon we’ll all be speaking Spanglish or some other mashup dialect.

100k1n6 4ward 2 1t!! Prince would be proud

 

In the age of Dual Core Pentium 4’s and even faster AMD’s, we’ve got computer power to spare. The average home computer is able to process a expotentially ever increasing number of calculations, faster than commerical supercomputers of only a decade ago.

In an effort to put these extra CPU cycles to work, a number of distributed computing projects have emerged. These projects take your free/unused CPU cycles and use them to compile data that is latter anazlyzed by a centralized system. This is most famously used by SETI with their SETI@Home project.

Below are some other distributed computing project, from the profound to the profane:

• Folding @ Home - looking for protien disease cures
• Einstein @ Home - looking for gravitational waves
• A Thousand Monkeys…
• Climate Prediction
• FightAids @ Home
• DrugDesign

So get of yr lazy bum, stop stealing music, playing games and downloading porn. Put yr computer to good use. It could save yr life.