Wagahai’s corner

I realize that most people know I’m rather conservative, probably to excess, however I’ll never understand how people can feel comfortable about making rude generalizations about other people (or their country, politics, religion, etc) when in the company of people who could be offended. To paraphrase the item that annoyed me.. was a comment to the effect of “if it had been a US plane that crashed, they’d have gone to war over it”. It’s crap like this that annoys me.. it would be one thing if there was some discussion happening where people were debating their country’s good and bad sides and trying to make a point about US policy against terrorists.. however this was made 100% as a smack about the US in the middle of a conversation about the plane crash that happened a few hours ago in Canada.

I find people’s choice of when and where to bash another group of people as a general sign of the ever declining world we live in. Political correctness has gone to far in regards to government involvement, however it would be nice for people to actually watch what they say occasionally and not go out of their way to be rude to others.

Since I’m still up and not too tired, figured I’d post about a new toy I recently purchased.. the Siemens SX66 PDA/Phone combo. Here’s my mini review.

Summary:
- Talk time seems to be over 7+ hours
- PDA use is a few hours of heavy online use (online, watching vids, etc)
- functionality is nice but as with any Pocket PC device, needs extra programs to make it work well

The specifics:
- Battery life.. wow.. if you don’t use the PDA, the talk time seems that it could last 8 hours or longer. They did some nice tricks to make this happen.. adjustable keypad lock to stop you from accidently turning the device on with any button other than the “real” power button. Backlight control, control over all of the various wireless options, etc.
- Pocket PC crud.. as usual, they like to “minimize” programs with the Pocket PC instead of closing them. SPB’s plugin for closing programs, making the “today” screen nicer and such really does well to fix this problem. It also is smart in allowing you to add the “last used program” to the exception list for programs you don’t want to close. Additionally I found a program called PhoneAlarm from PocketMax which adds profile support.. so when I am at home I can have all of my fun ringtones, but when I’m out in public I can have something a bit less annoying. Microsoft’s voice command also does wonders for the phone without needing to be “trained” for my voice. The voice commander was written smart enough that it knows to “ask” if it understood the command (especially cool when dialing the phone). Other software that I’ve enjoyed .. PocketTTY (ssh), PocketIRC, SPB weather, NetFront browser (java, css, etc..), Microsoft PocketStreets 2005 and more…
- The hardware itself isn’t anything too special. The keyboard is exposed by sliding the screen up. It has a cool backlight on it, but can be difficult to type on and is missing the control key (damnit!) I’ve also noticed that the microphone in the PDA is easilly covered up by my finger while on the phone and then I sound muffled to the other party.
- SD card slot.. add a 1gig SD card and life is SWEET - using PocketDVD I’ve been copying my Tivo shows to the device and can have a good number of shows available to fill my time if I’m out somewhere and bored.

After having the phone/PDA for about 2 weeks now, I can say that I am still mostly happy with it.. I am still searching for “the right headset” and a good windshield mount for it, but overall I’d say it gets a 4.5 out of 5 stars once you add the software.. without the software I doubt anyone would be too impressed - it would be locking up with memory problems and would be missing many functions people would like.

In a mostly unrelated topic.. I’m still looking for a good replacement for the Microsoft Exchange server so I can sync my outlook to something online and then have my PDA sync’d with my server.. that’d be really nice for my appointments and shared calendar.. but so far I’ve not been impressed by the hoops everyone wants me to jump through to get some replacement online (Apache 2, java stuff, special database, etc)

Headsets.. speaking of headsets… anyone remember back in the early 90’s you could get walkie-talkies that had only a single earpiece that went in the ear and no actual “microphone” - kinda government-like? ..any idea where I can get something like that for a current cell phone? I hate having the boom microphone style and am definately not wearing a full headset.. but I would like the other person to hear me.. and as I recall, those actually worked (at least the ones I tried did).. but can’t find them anywhere now (and no idea what to even search under)

Why does technology take so long to get to where it should be?

People have had wearable computers for a long time now in some form or another… yet nothing is commercially available to combine a belt-clip CPU power by kinetic energy, a display built into a normal pair of glasses and audio from an implant in your skull… Add in using Verizon wireless for it’s Internet connection and life’s quite nice for looking up data, keeping in touch with mail/messages, listening to music or watching news updates on the fly. I’m hoping they get well past this stage, at least available for end-users, before I die.. (and while I can still enjoy it)

Since I suck at blogging, I’ve come up with other things to post here besides my day to day activities to provide me with writing exercises.. in this case, the life’s lesson theories of things to share. I’ll only post a few per day (otherwise it becomes a large “thinking” project and will get put off).

When driving, look at the car(s) in front of the car in front of you. It will take the surprise out of the guy in front of you hitting the brakes.

Don’t be afraid to press buttons.. unless the name of the button shows that it will do something bad… be sure to read anything that pops up after you press the button (ie: “You have chosen to blow up the world, are you sure you want to?”)

If you get toner (powder) from a printer or copy machine on your hands, wash them with COLD water. Hot will cause the toner to stay (hot causes it bonds to the paper).

When flying around the world.. to avoid delays with customs, check luggage, stay for more than 3 days, don’t tell customs that you’re there “to meet someone from the Internet”, don’t forget to bring the contact info for who you’re meeting.. they don’t like that and will stop and talk to you for a while.

Ok, so daily I get to see bumper stickers, e-mails, TV shows, news reports all showing me what people want to sell me.. usually their opinions. The part I hate the most is having to see everyone’s opinions. I can understand that people need to educate others about their viewpoints if they feel strongly. The whole “team spirit” annoys me though.. lets put on bumper stickers that all say “we’re for X” without explaining WHY.. what makes it better than the alternative? Why do real men love Jesus? Why should I vote for Bush? What the heck is on Prop 10 anyway? Meanwhile, the minute that I decide to post my bumper sticker or raise my opinion in response, I can be assured that someone will immediately jump down my throat for forcing my beliefs on them or for being “wrong” even if it’s not a “right or wrong” issue. There are a few bumper stickers that I can tolerate because I can convince myself they are there for “good” reasons.. like the American Flag bumper sticker or window sticker. I like to convince myself that they posted it because they value their freedoms, they support their neighbor, they have travelled the 50 states and have found the wonderful nature that the US has to offer. I usually try not to think that they just want to make a statement about the military, that they like supporting child labor by shopping certain stores since we have the “freedom” to do it or that they throw their cigarette butts out the window just because it feels “American” to do whatever they want regardless of the consequenses. People need to think before they speak/post/put their bumper sticker on..

While I’m on a rant about opinions.. the whole political party thing needs to be dealt with. I consider myself a Republican.. I believe in holding on to the money I earn, not supporting everyone else around me unless it’s MY choice. I feel that rules need to be strict sometimes because there just are that many morons out there who would abuse everyone else if the rules weren’t in place. I don’t actually conform to the Republican party’s way of thinking.. even though I still “group” myself with them.. I don’t feel as they do about abortion, same sex marrige and various other items. ..of course, there’s no shortage of people who would love to blame me for Bush and his mistakes.. although he’s not my 1st choice.

..and while I’m ranting.. (wow, lets roll!).. what about all the people who can’t see the good in having both sides represented? Do they really think if everything just went their way that they’d be happy? Where’s the growth potential in that? Who’s going to represent the other people’s interests? Take Microsoft as an example of this one.. A LOT of people hate Microsoft.. they used to make really crappy software (yes, their mail client seems to be virus friendly still, however in reality I like XP).. they’re getting sued left and right because of anti-trust issues, they’ve definately done their share of “bad” things.. but they also were responsible for helping get a LOT of PCs into the hands of families. Microsoft is also responsible for a LOT of software development and office productivity advances. Sure, they look out for their own interests.. but they also have done good for the industry. Anyway, people who look at only one side of an issue also annoy me these days.. people need to be more tolerant and take the time to consider both sides of the issue. Life is not a debate you must win, you’ll find you get a lot more respect if you can agree that something is a stalemate, that both views are valid.

You get the picture.. it’s past midnight and I think I’m done writing for tonight.
..comments (opinions?!) are welcome ..hehehe