Top 10 Reasons _NOT_ To Own A G1

I thought I would try and be objective after talking up the G1 with a top ten list.  Some of these are resolvable by just writing applications, so I expect the list to shrink over time (or maybe I’ll find new aggravations):

10. Battery seems weak, especially when you have crappy service coverage and the phone is constantly searching for signal.

9. OpenGL ES version is not the latest and greatest.

8. T-Mobile’s 3G infrastructure is still really weak.

7. No multi-touch gesturing (is this patented by Apple?).

6. Some navigation is awkward requiring the use of buttons and screen touching.

5. Alert notifications cannot be customized by type.

4. No way to kill (manage) applications that are running in the background.  I really want to know what kind of resources the apps are using when I return to the home screen.

3. Not enough storage for applications pack rats such as myself.

2. No native PDF support.  Gives a nice error though 🙂

1. MachDice.  A really sweet die rolling application that uses the OpenGL library that doesn’t exist on the G1 yet.

Top 10 Reasons To Own A T-Mobile G1

In other words, ten reasons I don’t own an iPhone (or the G1 is just as good).  And in no particular order, here they are:

10. It’s not AT&T.  Honestly, I don’t have a terrible grudge against them, but several people I am close to do.  My service provider happens to be T-Mobile as well.  Call me a shill.  Meh.

9. It has a physical keyboard.  I had a Blackberry as my last data phone.  Definitely spoiled by full qwerty access and the tactile response.

8. Applications that I write can easily be put on the phone, for free.  Last I checked, you have to pay out $99 USD and own a Mac.  Neither of which I had after buying the phone itself.  I still would like to own a Mac though.

7. My fairly content relationship with Google.  I enjoy most of the services that Google provides and having a device that is built to play well with my internet love affair is just dandy. (Yes, I refuse to capitalize the internet…take that!)

6. 3G.  Okay, my city doesn’t have it yet, but the end of the year is going to level the playing ground in most major US cities with our competitor.

5. Cross-platform development kit.  Maybe a little unfair to fill the list with dev arguments, but the fact is, you can develop for this phone on your choice of three major operating systems.  Thanks Java.

4. ShopSavvy.  I was a little pessimistic about this app after some bad luck with its lacking database, but it has grown tremendously since opening day.  I’m going to retire my other barcode scanning apps now.

3. Standardized USB communications port.  It looks a little wonky, but it works fine with a Mini-USB connector.  I know iPhones use that connector similar to the iPod, which I own, but I own far more Mini-USB cables, and I like being able to switch between all my other devices without carying a bunch of different cables.

2. ConnectBot.  It’s an SSH app that rocks the block.

1. I can find Uranus any time thanks to this stellar app called “SkyMap”

There are still several improvements that could be made to the G1, and maybe I’ll gird my loins up to write a top ten to counter this list.  I do admit that, as of today, I would buy maybe an iPod touch so that I could have that MachDice, die rolling, app currently available on the iPhone/iPod touch.

Wet + Phone = Wet Phone

Seriously or humorously? Then again, the serious version could be humouring to some. It all started when I was cooking dinner. Then, my mom called. The phone found its way into a bowl of water in the sink. It was almost a Rube Goldberg, but not really.

ANYWAY, your phone vibrates to holy hell when it gets wet. It’s sort of the electronic version of a man screaming when he’s on fire. I quickly popped it out of the water and put it in the oven on 425 for 30 minutes, or until golden brown.

My keen mind said, yank the battery real quick. My not so keen body, cooperated. Now I’ve dug out a can of air and am operating on it while I use an older phone (thank goodness for sim cards).

Turn For The Better

I might repeat myself a touch here.

I got my computer partially restored. I still don't have the 120GB hard drive, and I'm finally starting to accept it as a loss. The interesting bit is that before moving into my new place (yeah, the whole emancipation from sister-in-law thing which I don't recall explaining fully), I decided to dir /s my drive into a text file on another hard drive.

Had I the space to fully back it up, I would have. My nature, and new philosophy is to be more redundant. Moreso in computer data than real life, heh.

So I sent myself this E-Mail containing said text file of the now missing data, and here's where the whole rant/zen action comes into play:

Just data massage this shit and figure out what can/can't be restored…move on, watch shit tons of anime and forget that the world is cruel and material things are why we suffer.

–Josh

Now, when I say this. It's more of a personal note, hence less well formed. I'm not saying that I want to forget "material things are why we suffer" rather the cruelty of the material nature of my problem.

My dwelling on the whole debacle has been rather taxing on my relationships with everyone and everything I know. I want to move on. I'm finally feeling ready to accept this particular loss. Thus, the turn for the better.

I'm also pretty excited that I'll soon be back to modding Oblivion, watching anime, and balancing my other bajillion hobbies. I'm not ready to transcend my physical body. Heck, I'm just getting back into the swing of touching this mechanical beast that causes me so much pain.

So, before you go, remember this: If you get burned playing with fire, don't let that hold you back. Get some asbestos underoos and hop back into the flames. Saying that makes me understand that silly billboard of the surfer that suffered limb loss from a shark attack. "Me, quit? Never!"

Hah! It still makes me laugh. What a silly billboard. If my computer ever took my arm, I'd beat the crap out of it. Then I'd have it stuffed and mounted over my fireplace…if I had one. Finally, I'd buy a more obedient computer.

PC Woes Continue

I've been rather busy lately. With moving into a new place after back-to-back weekends of vacation, I'm just plain ol' exhausted.

Earlier this week, I tried booting up my PC. The biggest hard drive was missing. I do some basic troubleshooting and see that it's no longer listed in the BIOS. Further troubleshooting up to today has proven that it fails to consistently detect. The result is that I just want my data off of there safe and sound.

Reboot the PC, Windows fails to start. What happened? It could be the several reboots that took place. I tried to do them as safely as possible. It could be that hard drive. But, even without the drive, that damned thing won't boot past the start screen of Windows.

If you look at one of my previous posts where I lost a hard drive and in turn, left me re-installing Windows on my other machine, then you are in for a real treat. This is the same make/model of drive. It had a worthless 1-year warranty, so I cannot replace it. And now, it has killed another OS.

If you want to know, just don't buy the WD-1200JB or whatever, it's a 120 GB Caviar SE (PATA) drive that has a 1-year warranty. I understand why that warranty is so low, it's because the drive is utter crap. I'm sure others have complained about it, but here's the lesson you need to not forget:

** DO NOT BUY HARD DRIVES WITH 1-YEAR WARRANTIES **

I haven't had much inspiration to even touch a computer, except at work. Could this be the end of computers as I know it? I've got tons of other hobbies. I'll just mull over it for awhile and get back to you. I'll still blog, since I have access at work. I just don't know if I can bring myself to use a computer again, at least any time soon.

A Keyboard, Two Hats, and A Hibachi

We stopped by storage today. Yeah, living in smaller area requires additional storage at my current stage of “stuff”. I think we were looking for a cleaning tool, but couldn’t find it. So instead we left with a keyboard, two hats, and a hibachi.

What pray tell did I get the keyboard for? Well, I needed it. My F5 on the ex-current one has been mashed so often that it has pretty much become useless, unless you need to hold F5 for incsonsisten periods of time. Rather than remap the key on all my beloved apps, I dropped in this dusty spare. It’s a Dell QuietKey, black, and works just fine. The one was some Micron, which was all fine and dandy until that damn F5 lost the will to rebound from depression. (tee hee)

The other goods, well, they’ll come in handy down the road. Say I go camping, catch some fish and need to fry them, but before doing so, the hat will help protect my head. So, aside from not getting what we needed from storage, I got some really good stuff.

R.I.P. Hard Drive

Lost a hard drive the other day. Fortunately it was on my wife’s machine and contained minimal “necessary” data. The down side is having to start over and find a replacement drive. It literally b0rked the whole system, so I ended up re-installing Windows on a spare hard drive.

At this point, I’m still in the era of AGP video cards, IDE hard drives, and 32-bit/0.13 micron processing. Not that you can’t have a usable system at that rate, but I am a bit behind. I’ve been running these boxes for almost 2 years, and I usually upgrade between the 18-36 month range.

With the thought of upgrade floating around. The replacement drive will most likely come in the flavor of SATA. This would usher me (read: my wife’s PC) into the PCI-E/SATA/64-bit world. I mean, I could run these machines til they break, but I like to actually enjoy my games. I don’t toss the old parts, I actually keep them around just in case. It’s always nice to be able to assemble a quick system of old parts, if necessary.