Did the math last night. Cable TV is a total rip job.

January 24, 2012 6:53 am via Tweetbot for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@dbwilldo

db

Something Stella and I have been talking about for a long time is cutting out cable TV. It’s expensive, and honestly, we don’t need it. With technology and some clever, here is how we are going about getting rid of the TV portion of our cable bill.

1. Most of the shows that we watch are on Hulu
2. The shows that aren’t on Hulu are available through Amazon for $1.89 an episode
3. Over-the-air TV is pretty good in our area, or so we have heard.

Of course, all of this is made possible by the Roku box that quietly lives in our entertainment center. While it’s not as slick or matching-with-the-rest-of-our-Apple-gear as an Apple TV, it’s not horrible looking, fits nicely in the rack and has a good feature set. It has HDMI out as you would expect. It also has digital audio, which comes in handy for the audio channels available (like SOMAFM, Pandora and others).

While I would love to have an AppleTV, the cost of media through the iTunes store makes it less than attractive. To be able to use it as iTunes for the entertainment system isn’t that attractive either since we have a Roku Soundbridge that will play damned near anything we want.

Ideally, I would like to add a new Mac Mini to this system with a Thunderbolt drive attached. That would give access to the web as normal like YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr and everything else we use, plus iTunes and Hulu for those shows that are still web only. With Boxee or Plex installed, a Mini would be pretty rad. It’s a pretty low priority item, so the spend can’t be justified at this time, but hopefully one day soon.

Step 1 will be adding an external antenna to see what kind of over-the-air performance we actually get. Luckily they are cheap no matter where you go. Stay tuned as I will be documenting the entire process.

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Tech-wise, PHL is like a step back in time. No power, no wifi. Not cool.

January 12, 2012 6:09 pm via Tweetbot for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@dbwilldo

db

Since I didn’t have WiFi and I wasn’t able to get any work done, I did some writing.

It all started back in 2007 when I acquired my very first Macbook. It was the first generation with the Intel processor and I liked it. Alot. It’s been one of the most reliable PCs I’ve had and is still in active use today.

Jump ahead to 2009 when I got my iMac. 20″ to be exact. It’s been my workhorse, being used to generate countless websites, blog posts, photos and hours of video. As it stands, it’s about the 3rd most reliable PC I’ve ever owned and if it lasts another 2 years I will jump to the number 2 spot.

For the record, the PC I have ever owned was one I built myself. A PII700 running all Intel internals with Samsung drives and Windows 2000. Got about 5 solid years of use out of that before I upgraded to something a little speedier.

I title this post 100% Mac Shop because I have always had a copy of Windows running somewhere. Either in VM on the iMac or Macbook, or in the shape of a laptop or netbook. Friends, I am here today to let you know that is no longer the case.

Instead of getting a mobile device running Windows (and saving a bunch of money) I decided to go mobile on the Mac. And not a Macbook Pro either. A 13″ Macbook Air. Thin, light and limited on storage. A machine that I know will take advantage of dropbox and iCloud. A machine that I will use primarily for editing text (or coding WordPress themes). A machine that has enough space to offload photos and videos from week long events. And if I run out of space, there is always FTP or dropbox. A true portable machine.

I will be using this for light photo editing. I might even attempt video editing on it as well. For video, I’m going to almost bet that it will not be the greatest for encoding, so I will save that for the iMac.

Toss in my iPhone and there you have it! I’m all Mac. Only took me 5 years to get here too!

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Besides the horrible look of Reader now, they removed 1 of the key features of Reader that I really liked; sharing. And by sharing I mean with other Reader users. You could follow people and have followers. It was nice and neat, all contained within Google Reader.

Sharing is there, but in the shape of one of the most requested features since Google Plus came out, via the +1 button. Instead of sharing with a few people that follow you, you can now share with the entire internet via Google Plus. Cool because that’s a feature that was sorely missing from Google Plus. But not really.

If you are a Google Reader user, you’ll get this. Instead of clicking the share button to share with your followers, you now click the +1 button to share on Google Plus. However, if you are a serial sharer, you are about to completely flood your stream with stories that you share.

I expect in about a week that Reader posts on G+ to be the same as those on Facebook that play Bejeweled Mafia Farms, constantly sharing updates and begging for guns or jewels or whatever happens. Flooding your stream with items that you might not want to see.

And how do you find items that are shared by others? Hope you have the right people in your circles so you get those bits that they shared? And when they share items that you don’t care to read, mute the posts? So much work for a system that used to work pretty well.

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The Good

• It’s fast. Faster than the Dinc for sure.
• I like the way it feels and like that it’s a little heavy.
• Siri, so far, is amazingly
• The whole “it works” thing
• Phone calls are clear
• Best soft keyboard I’ve used so far
• The Camera is fantastic, both for photos and video (samples coming)
• Battery life is unbelievable

The Bad

• Compared to Android, email kinda sucks, but I’m a Gmail user, so this is to be expected
• Contact management is confusing. But I might be trying to use too many accounts with my phone. The fact that the word Exchange is used when trying to get Gmail contacts should be cause for concern.
• Compared to Android and Blackberry, notification sound configuration is definitely lacking. For example, I could have 1 sound for SMS, 1 for Facebook. Doesn’t seem possible on the iPhone
• Quitting apps. So un-elegant.
• Notifications – I have still have tweaking to do, but driving down the street and getting a popup about an available wifi access point is terribly annoying.

Apps

• Dropbox 180MB upload limitation. Seriously? WTF is that about.
• Google + app is definitely not as good on iOS as it is on Android. And compressing my photos from the phone is super annoying (feedback submitted).

I’m not looking for suggestions or for any of you iPhone fans to jump to my rescue. I’m 5 days in with this device, and these are only my observations so far. Considering that I’m re-learning how to use a phone again, I’d say I was doing ok. Overall, I’m still super happy with the iPhone, just need to work through the things that I’m either not familiar with or require a different way to do them.

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I could stay up for hours reading all of the nice things everyone is saying.Thank you, Steve. For everything.

October 5, 2011 10:44 pm via TweetCaster for AndroidReplyRetweetFavorite

@dbwilldo

db

I never met Steve Jobs. Never saw him speak in person, never attended an event that he presided over. I’m not even a Apple fan boy, but am enthusiastic about their products. Up until the announcement of Steve’s passing, I was very excited about ordering my first iPhone.

This morning I’m driving into work in a car that is favored by Apple enthusiasts, listening to podcasts created by Apple enthusiasts on Apple computers thru my iPod. But, instead of being excited about ordering my first iPhone tonight, something is wrong. There is an absense in the force.

That feeling you get when something is not right, something is missing. It is strong with me today. I’ve worked in and around technology all my life, technology that was influenced or created by Steve. My first computer was an Apple IIe. I learned to program Apple basic and SuperCalc on Apple II’s in high school. 2 skills that helped me immensely through my 20′s.

Eventhough I was a Windows guy for a while, I still coveted Apple products. My first computer on my own was almost a Apple Performa. I’ve used iTunes since it was released, got my first iPod shortly after they were supported under Windows. And I’ve always used a mouse.

Steve Jobs is the reason you are reading this now. If it wasn’t for Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, personal computers wouldn’t be what they are today. If you are reading this on an iPhone or Android device, you can thank Steve Jobs for that, too.

Something is missing today.

Around the internet many people have many nice things to say or share about Steve. Check out Wired.com for some nice tributes. John Gruber, the boys from Panic Software and Andy Inhatko all have nice memories and stories to read too.

Things will be different from today going forward. While I don’t doubt that Apple will continue to create fantastic devices that we will talk about, dream about and covet, they won’t be quite the same.

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For those of you that aren’t playing the home game, I’ve been in the process of catching up with Dr. Who. It’s taken me a few months to get through season 5, but I finally did last week. Not only that, but we’ve been recording season 6 from BBC America so that when I did finally get through season 5 we’d be ready!

Also, Stella has been working through here 40×40 list, and thought Dr. Who night would be a great time to clear another 2 items from her list; cooking all of the 10 most difficult recipes according to Epicurious. On for last night were numbers 6 and 8, paella and baked alaska.

And they turned out AMAZING. To be truthful, at least according to Stella, paella wasn’t that hard. She does make an amazing risotto, and paella is pretty close to the same thing. And the baked alaska, something I wasn’t sure I was going to like because of the merengue topping, but it was delicious. Cold ice cream, warm strawberry sauce and crispy merengue. It was delightful.

As for Dr. Who, we watched the Matt Smith Christmas Episode with friends. I liked it and am excited for the next 2 episodes. We also watched the latest Castle, another show that I’ve enjoyed since it started, and this season is shaping up to be another great one!

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First, G+ had everyone excited. I’m still excited about it in fact. Then a new hotness became available that everyone went super duper crazy for. Spotify. And, to be honest, I don’t get it.

It appears to be a recolored version of iTunes with streaming capability. There is a mobile app that you can download and pay $9.99 a month to use. You can sync your iTunes library too if you have a premium account, plus a few other features.

Streaming on the desktop is speedy and the sound quality of the tracks is pretty good. No complaints. I haven’t gotten into the desktop app fully, mostly because the strength of Spotify, or the piece that every is going crazy about, is the premium mobile streaming service.

I’ve never been one to ‘rent’ my music. I guess I’m a little bit old school in that I still like to own (a questionable term to be sure) my music. I’ve switched from CD’s to digital downloads, but I still mostly download complete albums that I can use to build playlists that I sync to my ipod.

“But”, you say, “Spotify lets you stream your tracks to your mobile device db”.

Which I can already do on my phone using either the Amazon cloud service or Google music (which I haven’t tried yet). I need to check the new pricing on Amazon, but I have 20gb of online storage for $.99 a year. Google music is practically free too. There isn’t any discovery there, but I can listen to my music on any device I want.

So is the big sell for Spotify discovery? If so, ok, cool. I get that. In fact, as I write this, I’m using it to stream some Depeche Mode (unlike Pandora, I can listen to any tracks I want it seems). For this it seems pretty capable.

Or is the excitement about this for mainly iOS users that don’t have a way to sync, wirelessly, to their phones? That would make sense. And make sense that Spotify is released in the US prior to iOS 5 and Apple’s new iMobileMeDropBox service is released, which, I would think, would render Spotify moot.

I think it’s a nifty app. I also think that $10 a month a bit much to pay to have music streamed to a device. But, as I have already mentioned, I don’t get it.

What is it about Spotify that you are super duper excited about?

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You might have noticed some changes to Google properties this week. Gmail, Google Calendar and others have been updated with a new navigation bar and other layout tweaks. Don’t worry, it isn’t you, most everyone is seeing these changes now.

Which come in support of Google’s latest project, Google +. But what is it?

Google + is a new social networking site. Much like Twitter and Facebook, you can share status updates with your friends and followers. You can also share photos and video (directly from your Android device. IOS coming soon). On the mobile version, there is also a group SMS feature that looks pretty promising as well as a feature called Hangout, which is an audio/video chat room for up to 10 people.

For good information about it is or does, take a minute to listen to the This Week in Google Podcast , episode 101 where they talk to the engineers and folks at Google in charge of the Plus project.

And I like it.

One of the nice things, unlike Facebook, is the way privacy settings are handled. After getting their asses handed to them with the Wave roll-out, Google paid a little more attention to this with G+. Easy to access, easy to understand and easy to set exactly how you want.

Another feature that I’m excited about is the Hangout. Up to 10 of your friends can join you in a video chat where you can share videos and chat like you would in a normal chat room (share links and whatnot). I say I’m excited because I have yet to actually try this feature other than to use it to play videos while I’m doing other things.

Right now, the only down side is that it is still locked down. I can’t wait for more people to get in. I’ve got invites and will be handing them out just as soon as I’m able. If you get one, I recommend checking it out.

Before you do, you will need a google account. Already have a Gmail or Youtube account? You are good. If not, get one. And set up your Google Profile. That will save you from having to once it’s opened up for more people.

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So.Wheel chair + TSA = full terrorist pat down.Way to save us from the cripples and infirm.Stay classy TSA. Stay classy.

July 1, 2011 6:30 am via TweetCaster for AndroidReplyRetweetFavorite

@dbwilldo

db

Had to take Stella to the airport this morning for a flight to Seattle so she could catch a boat to Alaska. A trip that she has been planning for months with her best friend. A trip that she has been looking forward too for months as well.

Now, for those of you that aren’t playing the DonBurnside® home game, Stella broke her ankle taking trapeze lessons. She just had surgery last weekend to begin the repairing of what was broken. Storm Trooper boot, crutches and pain meds. That has been her week.

Fast forward to this morning, 0615. Location: Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. I get her to the Southwest check-in desk, a porter rushes over with a wheel chair. The Southwest agent arranges for a wheel chair at SEA when she lands and arranges a customer assistance boarding pass for me so I can get her to the gate. So far, aces.

Roll up to TSA. A very nice agent lets us in the fast lane (since I was pushing a wheel chair and rolling a knee scooter at the same time). Awesome. The man at the podium was patient as we handed over our documents and we go in line.

Items into the tubs as usual, the agent manning this station calls for backup upon seeing Stella in a wheel chair, festooned with her Storm Trooper Boot. I hear her call over the radio “This one is going to take ½ hour”. Great, but could see it coming. Actually, it was expected that some kind of extra scanning and whatever would take place.

Full pat down with Stella precariously balanced on 1 foot complete, they then had to spend 20 minutes x-ray’ing her Storm Trooper boot and wiping it down for explosives.

Now, here’s the problem.

The agent couldn’t have been less pleasant. She was obnoxiously rude and treated Stella like a criminal. She isn’t a criminal, she just has a broken ankle. Never once did she say please, thank you or even hint at some kind of apology for the inconvenience and physical pain. Nothing.

To be sure, the TSA has a shitty job and get hammered in the press on a daily basis. I am one that is happy they are there, doing what little bit they can to help keep flying safe. Whether or not they are actually doing anything to keep the skies safe is another argument that will be saved for another time. My problem is that most, if not all, of the TSA negative press and image could be solved with a little customer service.

A please. A thank you. Some sympathy for the inconvenience of having to go through a full body scan/pat down. A smile. Maybe use a name (it’s on the boarding pass). Something to make the experience a little more tolerable. It would serve the TSA well to model themselves, to an extent, after the modern day police force. Sure, they get a bad rap too, but never have I ever been mistreated by a cop. They are always professional and polite, even when they are giving me a ticket. Sure, you had a bad experience, but I’d bet it was something you did to provoke it. But, that too is not the discussion today.

A little professionalism. A little politeness. Maybe even some suckers. Something. It would go a very long way to improve the image of the TSA, both in the media and in the public eye.

At least until they make a 95 year old woman remove her diaper again. There are somethings that even the best customer service can fix.

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Also, cameras work way better with batteries. #facepalm

May 9, 2011 4:14 pm via TweetCasterReplyRetweetFavorite

@dbwilldo

db

If I had a dollar (US$1.00) for every time I forgot the battery for my ‘good’ camera, I would have exactly 2 dollars (US$2.00). Really not that big of a deal, but I also did not have my old and busted and trusty Panasonic DMC-TZ3. What did I have?

My Droid Incredible.

Again, not that big of a deal, but this was for work. And the Canon takes really good photos, especially since I think I might have figured out how to actually get it to take good photos. And the photos get used to create documents that our sales staff then uses to help sell our products.

But I only had the Droid Incredible. And my only battery was a hour away and an hour back.

I kept remembering everyone that has ever told me it’s the photographer, not the camera. This week I put that to the test and, if I’m honest, everyone was right. The photos below all came directly out of my phone. Ok, maybe not directly in the strictest sense, but if directly-via-photoshop counts, then yes, directly from my phone.

Sure I could have used an app like Vignette to process them, but in my experience with this phone, the photos that it produces aren’t suitable for my needs. Photos apps on the Droid introduce a lot of noise, do weird things with color and only make a photos that fans of Instagram seem to like.

While I had the right tool for the job, I had the wrong tool. So, I made due with a little trickery. And I think they turned out pretty ok.

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