Monthy Archive: June 2009
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June 15, 2009

Life : Absence

Well, I hadn’t planned on taking a 2 week break from blogging.

Here’s the thing – I’ve been inspired of late to write some longer pieces which are unsuitable (both because of length and tone) for posting on my blog; and having written them, I haven’t had the energy to write something appropriate for this venue, so no posts. I may actually be working up to writing a book or two – we’ll see. What’s more, I didn’t write anything for this blog over the weekend (when I usually get ahead of things) and given that this is a busy week, it isn’t clear if I will have the time to do more posts this week. I do have some ideas for posts – it is just a matter of setting aside some of my own mind-share to write them up.

Since I am posting, I thought I’d put out a bit of a life-update.

Last week Apple finally announced a 32Gb iPhone. As previously noted on this blog, that was my minimum spec so I have pre-ordered an iPhone which I will be picking up on Friday. What’s more, since I am a programmer and I will soon have a programmable device with me at nearly all times, I have signed up to be a registered iPhone developer so I can develop some apps for myself. My hope is that some of them will be useful or entertaining enough to make available to others on at the Apple App Store. Unfortunately, this means breaking down and learning a new programming language (Objective-C) and a new Application Programming Interface (Cocoa). For those who don’t know, Apple’s OS X is a completely different operating system than System 9 and before, so while I was somewhat of a virtuoso at the old Mac OS, that is of no value to me now. Until now, I really didn’t have any reason to learn the new system (I don’t use it at work); but perhaps now I do.

Related to that, I have been using a Mac more at home (a hand-me-down from Anne). My desktop PC is quite ill, and I haven’t gotten it fixed yet, so I have been using the Mac for web surfing and writing. Anne is hopeful that the whole process will lure me back into the Mac fold. We’ll see. Certainly if I like developing for iPhone, it is a small step to developing for Mac (iPhone uses a striped down version of the Mac OS X). Plus, for development reasons I will have set up the Mac as the computer I sync my iPhone with, so I will continue to use the Mac for certain things regardless.

On more note: This Thursday (barring all unforeseen), I will officially “join” the Eucharist community (one of the groups of Jesus followers we have been involved with in SF). Their concept of being a member as opposed to just a participant is interesting and I hope to blog on it someday – I think there is some real virtue in their approach.

Well, until I post again. . .

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink

June 22, 2009

Life : iPhone

As people who follow me on Facebook already know, I purchased one of the new 32GB iPhone 3GS’s last Friday. While I had wanted to get an iPhone since they first came out, I realized that I needed 32Gb storage on it minimum to do the things I wanted, so I have patiently waited until now to buy one.

I am quite satisfied with the results.

For me, this is largely an exercise in gadget consolidation. In the past I have (in theory) carried around with me:

- my cell phone, to act as a phone and a camera for the occasional opportunistic photos I wanted to take
- my iPod to act as a music player and a photo wallet (although you couldn’t really see the photos unless you connected the iPod to a TV, at least I always had them with me)
- A book to read when I have dead time to fill (or, these days, my Kindle)
- my Nintendo DS to play games when I have dead time to fill and don’t feel like reading

In practice, this is just too much stuff to carry around. There was a period where I always had my phone and iPod (and usually a book) with me; but it became too much of a pain. Likewise I carried around my phone and my DS (and usually a book) for a while; but again the benefit wasn’t enough to overcome the sense of pocket-clutter (and the discipline to keep everything charged). So I always settled back on just having my phone and book (or phone and kindle now) and lived with the lack of tunes, games, photos, etc.

For me, the great thing about the iPhone is that I now have everything I want with me in a single, reasonably sized device.
- it is a great phone
- it is a pretty good occasional camera (with video too now)
- I can store all of my photos on it and actually show them to people in a reasonable way
- I can play games on it when I have a few minutes to kill
- Amazon even has a Kindle-book reader app for the iPhone, although between the size of the screen and the luminescent display, I wouldn’t want to use it that often.
- Plus, I get something I never had – web access in my pocket. Now when I am “out and about” and need to check some web site quickly (perhaps to make some decision on where to go next), I can do so. I can even manage this blog via the iPhone’s brower without problems.

This is a really big win for me.

As noted above, I don’t think the iPhone is a solid replacement for the Kindle, so I will also keep that with me most of the time; but that brings me down to two devices when I travel, which is pretty good. What’s more, I can cut that down to one (just the iPhone) when I have to. As expected, my usage model does mean that I need 32Gb of storage in the device; but now that that’s an option, I’m set.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

June 29, 2009

TV : Virtuality

Just watched the pilot/movie “Virtuality” by Ron Moore who helmed the recent “Battlestar Galactica” remake. It has not yet been picked up as a series, which is a shame since it blows away anything else on TV today. A rich story, a complex mystery, a settling that provides scope to explore a lot of things. Pretty impressive. Plus, Moore has the recent track record that shows he can deliver.

I don’t want to spoil anything so I won’t go into any of the surprises - if you have not seen it I recommend you go watch it on: Hulu. However on face value, the story is: humanity has launched its first mission to another star system (using realistic technology, by the way). The mission is backed by a consortium of companies who are making back at least part of the cost of the mission by presenting it as a reality TV series (with product placement by the crew). She ship’s psychologist serves double duty as the show’s producer (no conflict of interest there!). The only private time the crew have is when they retreat into their virtual reality modules which are custom programmed to allow they to escape the stress of the ship.

In the pilot, various plots are set in motion - news from Earth is bad, one of the crew is ill, strange things start happening in the virtual reality modules, and there are hints that the story is a lot more complex than what I described above. Oh, and did I mention there may be a murderer on board? There are so many things they could explore just using what was in the pilot, I sure hope someone picks it up.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink