Information Overload

2008 Was The Year...

iPhone 3G launched.
Finally visited Hawaii.
Also traveled to Finland!
Elected a new President!
Upgraded to a new automobile.
And to a new unibody MacBook Pro.
2009 will hopefully be the year of saving...
Scarlett Johansson got hitched in Vancouver. :,(

RIP Dash Hardware

Whoa. Was asleep at the wheel when Dash Navigation announced the demise of their hardware business back on November 3rd. Suppose it's just as well since the fourth replacement unit arrived last week. (Technically, it's only needed replacement three times since the first device was pre-production hardware.) It would have been cool if Dash notified their customers of their decision via an email in addition to their blog. Oh well, sticking with Dash until something better comes along. Dash's Send2Car feature is invaluable. It's also amazing that more car navigation systems don't have Internet capabilities. Perhaps Dash's decision to license their IP means that there will be more Net savvy devices in the future. It's only going to be the year 2009 after all. It would be really awesome if Apple designed an auto nav system...

$99 iPhone 3G

The $99 iPhone 3G has materialized from AT&T with two minor caveats:
1. They're refurbished units, which shouldn't be a big deal.
2. The sale ends December 31st, or while supplies last.

Meanwhile, Walmart is now selling brand new iPhones for a whopping $2 off list price.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library

Composing this blog post from the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in Downtown San Jose. Came to checkout the free wireless network (SSID: sjsu_campus) that's finally open to the public. Speakeasy's Speed Test is currently showing about 1,100 KBps both ways. DNS lookups can be slow. Authenticated SMTP, IM, and Cisco VPN seem to work fine. It's nice to have another place (tax payer funded no less) to work remotely. The only drawback so far is that there are currently a lot of people coughing and sneezing in the library. Fortunately, King Library is large enough for everyone to find their own little private nook. General public laptop users are no longer tethered to designated desks if they want to get online. All that's needed is a free library card.

SimCity for iPhone

EA managed to bring something that looks a lot better than SimCity DS, and a helluva lot better than SimCity Mobile to SimCity for iPhone and iPod touch. The iPhone version is basically SimCity 3000 at its core. EA built a Multi-Touch interface that works quite well. (It's worth a restart after initial installation.) Constant city construction takes a toll on battery life, at least on an iPhone 3G. Alas, IIRC, SC3K requires Mac OS 9. A Universal Binary version of SimCity 4 languishes at Aspyr, which is just as well since the franchise had lost its way at that point. It would be cool if EA released SimCity for iPhone for Mac OS X. Maybe Apple will eventually let all Mac users run iPhone apps on their Mac. They could build the iPhone simulator into iTunes, for example.

88 Minutes

88 Minutes is over-the-top enough to be entertaining, especially with Al Pacino as some sort of Seattle super shrink who stows a bomb detector in his penthouse safe. Pacino's character is prepared to the point where it takes longer than 88 minutes for his would-be murderers to catch up with him. They can cut into his cell phone conversations, but their elaborate homicide plans are no match for the doc and his trusty (or is she?) office manager. Not even the professor's sexy student aide with a porn star name can seduce the consummate professional. (Trivia: The actress who plays Pacino's aide made her big screen debut as Paul Atriedes' little sis!) Probably would have been disappointed paying to watch this film at the cinema, but it's a perfectly good home theater movie with managed expectations.

Merry Xmas

Joyeux Noëx (sic)

California's Parable of the Good Samaritan

Wonder if Apple would allow some sort of legal waiver iPhone app that a would-be good Samaritan could offer to a person in distress before they administer aid... Don't know the exact details of the case in which the California Supreme Court recently ruled that Samaritans can be sued for non-medical care. (ABC News sides with the Samaritan.) A morale of this story is that more stem cell research is needed so quadriplegics can be healed in order to avoid the aforementioned scenario altogether.

BlackBerry Storm

Finally spent some time with a BlackBerry Storm in person. The Verizon Wireless store had two on display, and the UI response on both of them was pokey enough to make Palm OS feel like a speed demon by comparison. Verizon's TV ad about the Storm's keyboard is totally misleading. Gave RIM the benefit of the doubt, and assumed they used tactile touchscreen technology similar to Nokia Haptikos. Nope. RIM's idea of a tactile touchscreen is a display that works like Apple's Multi-Touch trackpad except without the multi-touch. The Storm's squishy screen doesn't help one type, and actually enhances the cheap plastic feel inherent to BlackBerries. (Yes, flimsy plastic makes them lighter, which is a benefit for people who carry their phones in the breast pocket of their jacket.) It seems that AT&T has the best of both worlds in the U.S. They've got the BlackBerry Bold for CrackBerry addicts, and the iPhone 3G for the rest of us.

The Strangers

The Strangers is a case study of how not to defend yourself with a shotgun and a box full of "bullets." Seriously, cowering in the corner of a dark room when the deranged enemy only has an axe and a kitchen knife is not the best strategy when you're armed with a shotgun. Also, get help immediately after someone throws a large rock through your windshield, you notice your best friend's car is trashed, and other obvious signs that bad things are happening. Finally, feel free to glance over your shoulder when you know you're being stalked and get the tingly feeling that someone is behind you.