Brad Arsenault (dot com)
The Blog of Brad
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Days of Code: A Perl Uploadr // Day 2
Jan 16th
Today was an unproductive day, as you can see from my submissions of the day, or lack there of. The sum of all the time I’ve been able to allocate to this has been about an hour, but I’m in no hurry to rush this. Later will be the testing time when this file probably be a real SOB as it uses all three databases, and some functions and features of Perl which I’m not 100% familiar with. (see, lwn.net, it’s not Wranklage!)
However, I did sketch out the basic code for the file.pl. Take a look.
file.pl as of tonight in Espresso by MacRabbit.
Adventures in iPhone: Day 6
Jul 8th
I have had an iPhone for six days now and have loved every minute it of it, with the exception of my experience with the Rogers dealer I went to in Dartmouth Crossing not knowing of their $30 data plan for 6GB of data (as has been advertised on their site for Android phones and for both of the iPhone releases as a time-limited deal). it wasn’t too big of a deal though, the dealer who activated me gave me the number to the Dealer Service/Help line, after spending nearly an hour trying to get the plan worked out with this line and the staff in the store (the question “can an iPhone be activated like that?” was commonly used during my visit). When I got home I called the number on it and had my issue solved in under ten minutes flat (and that’s including authenticating my account, however at the end he said “I’m not sure where you got this number from, but please don’t call it again.”)
I should say that the overall experience was great! I was out of the store after more than two hours (I’m a new Rogers customer) and on my way to spend my day in Halifax. All that I can say is that 3G is awesome, I was able to burn through more than 200MB in <3hrs without trying. The speed of 3G may as well have been my home network because pages rendered over the 3G as fast as they rendered on my iPod Touch at home. I used RSS Player to download podcasts at 700KBps inside of Mic Mac Mall… the reception was everywhere, even inside of Costco.
But then I drove home. I lost 3G after about 15 minutes on the highway. So for most of my time with iPhone I will be using EDGE, which doesn’t bother me as much as I had thought. EDGE (with at least 4 bars) seems to have enough bandwidth to listen to TWiT.am or Last.fm, or to download email, check Twitter, or browse the web (albeit for a limited time before frustration sets in). My average speed (as determined by the SpeedTest.net app) is about 120kbps down and 140kbps up. Not so bad.
So in the past (almost) week I’ve done a lot with this phone that I’ve never been able to do before. Given that I’m not a complete virgin to the iPhone experience as I’ve had an iPod Touch for more than a year leading up to this… but there’s no comparison. Using the $1.99 app AutoStitch I made panoramas, something that I last did in 1998 on an 800MHz computer by hand, and this app does it all for you. The other app I’ve really got into is TweetReel, which is a combo-$2.99 app and online service that allows you to record a video or take a picture on your iPhone, upload it to the service and Tweet a link to the video. The quality isn’t so bad, here is a test I did this morning with it.
Panorama Made by AutoStitch
Another app I will definitely play with is called RK_Free (short for Run Keeper), which you use when you’re running, biking, or another outdoor activity where you would like to see your speed, distance, and a map of where you’ve been. This is a free version of the app and is limited to storing five runs. This is intended for the 3G/3GS, and according to the app information, isn’t accurate on other iPhones or the iPod Touches. The other issue I’ve had is in areas of limited GPS signal (on the screen as ‘poor signal strength’) it misreports my location and stated that I was travelling 165KM/h for a period of time and ruined the results for that bike session. But overall is a great app, especially because it’s free.
The other utility I’ve been playing with is MobileMe, or at least a free trial, and I love the push email, in fact I would have all of my mail be push, but $109 CAD/yr for it… I don’t think so. So I’ve also heard that Yahoo mail does push (for free!)… so I wondered what the difference in cost would mean, also whether Apple would truly allow someone else to do push for free. So I did a simple test, send a message from my GMail account to both addresses, with exactly 1 byte of data on each (lorem ispum) to see which one is faster responding. Here are the averages:
- Over Wifi MobileMe took <2 seconds to deliver the message and over EDGE, took 8 seconds.
- Yahoo took 10 minutes to deliver over Wifi, and over EDGE took 10 minutes and 31 seconds.
From what I can tell from this, Yahoo might as well not offer ‘Push’ for the extra server capacity it requires and just stick with the typical 15 minute-fetch cycle.
This is the best internet device-iPod-phone I’ve ever used.
Adventures in iPhone: Update
Jun 30th
I just thought I should drop a quick line about my iPhone. I had planned to get my iPhone yesterday evening: about 4:45p, and had arrived only to find out there were no iPhones available there! Not a big issue, the sales rep allowed me to leave my name and number for when a White 32GB iPhone, and she had noted that tomorrow (today, as I’m writing this) is their restocking day and an iPhone may be on it. This morning I anxiously awaited a call from them and to my surprise around 10:00a I got a call saying that my phone was in! They had my Nokia [something something] ready for me, Mr. Yang… d’oh! After a second of surprise I said that I wasn’t Mr. Yang; to my further disappointment today’s shipment only included 8GB (previous generation) 3Gs. She then told me that a ‘White 32 GB iPhone’ has been ordered in and will probably be in by next Tuesday (their next stock shipment date).
[DISCLAIMER: THIS NEXT SECTION IS A RANT]
This is aggravating; I am looking at signing away the next three years of my life to Rogers and >$2600. Because of the fact that I have to buy something from them that I could buy from two other companies, I should get a Palm Pre (Bell) or another phone from Telus, both of which have great EVDO coverage in my area, while Rogers only has EDGE. However, I constantly drink the Apple Kool-Aid and therefore will wait and will pay outrageously for possibly the slowest phone in my neck of the woods.
[/END RANT]
I also heard a rumor today that AML, the local Rogers authorized reseller for the Atlantic Canadian region is getting a supply of iPhones to their local branches ‘Thursday or Friday’. However I’m not convinced of my source’s credibility, though. **I do not endorse or except responsibility for this rumor.**
Adventures in iPhone: Day -5
Jun 24th
I guess this will do. This is my personal announcement that this Monday, as in 5 days, I will be getting an iPhone. After a trip to the local Rogers store here is what I’ve come up with:
32 GB White iPhone
| $20 MegaValue: 200 min, unl nights/weekends, 1000 sent SMS |
| $30 Data: 6GB (as close as a Canadian can get to unl data) |
| $6.95 SAF *BOGUS* |
| $0.93 NS e911 fee |
|
|
| =65.40 (incl tax) |
| -15% Eastlink bundle Rogers discount |
| =55.59 (final monthly total) |
Currently I’m paying $30 for my current phone; a prepaid Keybo (aka enV2 on Verizon in the US) on Telus which includes a few minutes, text messaging, and ‘wireless web’ (WAP), so for jut $25 more per month I’ll actually get something that I will use and love. Going back to that, I love the Keybo—the simplistic nature of it, the relatively low cost, and the lack of contract: but it isn’t a Smartphone, which is what I now realize is what I need. I do have some revisions to my previous recommendation of the Keybo: This phone is great for a phone, but not as a smartphone.
I’ve grown tired of the less-than-fluid interface and usability of the Keybo and although the iPhone is significantly more expensive and it’s like comparing a $25 pair Wal-Mart jeans with a $150 Abercrombie & Fitch pair—with the Wal-Mart pair not fitting just right so the pockets don’t really feel comfortable.. But I digress.
Suffice to say that I’m excited about iPhone. I’ve been in anxious preparation for a few days now, but have been ready for this for my whole life. It’s true love.
However, the whole iPhone experience isn’t new to me, I’ve had an iPod touch for more than a year now and have continued to upgrade it at the not-free-cost of $9.95 twice (for the 2.0 and 3.0) and so have been able to discover great apps like Tweetie, Tap Tap, Jelly Car, Crayon Physics, Touch Physics, Last.fm, CalcRPN, RSSPlayer, and Evernote. But on an iPhone with a persistent data connection, location aware-ness, and a camera will make some apps so much better, such as:
- Tweetie will be (4.0924 x 10^129) times better because it will give me Twitter when I’m board, not just when I’m home.
- Evernote is enhanced with both the data and camera in the sense that I will be able to make notes AND make picture notes everywhere | Last.fm is music—and I have music stored on the iPod-so if I have data everywhere then it could potentially replace my need to carry music entirely (for a small fee, that is)
- RSSPlayer—the built-in podcast client doesn’t allow podcasts over 10MB to be downloaded—however because I’m paying $30/mo for data, I’m gonna use it for what I want-and RSSPlayer allows you to download podcasts of any file size to your iPhone anywhere—and you can get them much before Apple has refreshed their podcast feeds.
One final reason that the iPhone is awesome: it gives me the reason to subscribe to (and pay for) Geoff Smith’s Ringtone Feeder.
I’m sorry for the length of this post, but I’m just so excited! :^)
Adventures in Linux: Day 6
May 27th
Wow, I’ve been busy and I’ve continued to use Linux and continue to marvel at its overall stability and amazing uptime. Today I did all of my typed work on my laptop, it was a chore to use a laptop keyboard, but OpenOffice is so much more wonderful on Linux than any other platform I’ve tried it on, and of course I have the typical stand-by, Google Docs. A far I’ve only but this laptop in the name equivalent to ’sleep’ in Mac terminology or ’stand-by’ in Windows terminology for the past three days without a single issue, I haven’t done that with Windows since… ever.
I’ve discovered that there is a lot of scripting possibility in Linux, but I still can’t wrap my brain around Python, however Perl scripting should be more than adequate for me. Last time I wrote I mentioned that it doesn’t remember my wireless network password, I discovered why. I had to set up my KDE password wallet (similar to the Mac keychain). It now works fine and can transition from wired to wireless with ease, and contrary to what I originally thought, the wireless on/off switch works fine.
I suppose I should move on to my daily complaints about Linux that I will eventually find a fix for: first, there are no good twitter clients. Second, network printing is less than intuitive and I haven’t got it working yet. Third, Google Docs in Firefox doesn’t display the same font as on Windows. Forth, Flash player sucks. Fifth, flash player REALLY sucks. Sixth, It’s depressingly like Windows.
**You can ignore the sixth reason, it’s not really a legitimate argument.**
You can ignore most of the reasons that I’m hating on Linux as they aren’t that real, Flash Player is a bit slow, but nothing worse than using flash on a Pentium 4, and the font issue is just a slight variance that comes with a different operating system. I can’t encourage readers to give Linux a try, I l-o-v-e Kubuntu. It works well in a virtualization platform like Virtualbox, Parallels, or VMWare (Microsoft VirtualPC is on the fence and not-so good, if you need free, go Virtualbox), but there is nothing like running it actually. Remember that PCs catch viruses, the Macs marketshare is climbing and will soon have viruses, whereas Linux is purely for people in the know and probably won’t have all of the issues, but is at the same time great for just about anyone to use.
