Technology

Put you App Store icon on a less frequented page. You’ll feel less compelled to check for updates and look for new apps.

Cory Doctorow wrote a piece on why he won’t be buying an iPad (which extends to why you shouldn’t either. I don’t agree with his article, but the vehement arguments against some of his have been equally asinine. Joel Johnson wrote an otherwise brilliant piece that says: So what if you can’t make iPad programs on an iPad. I don’t complain I can’t make new dishwashers with my dishwasher. Doctorow doesn’t outright call this out as an issue, but it fits with the theme of what he wrote. The problem is this is analogy is flawed. Let’s see if you can tell the problem with it if I put it in mathematical format. ...

I’m a fan of Low End Mac‘s Mac catalog. It’s a quick and easy way to go look up vital stats about old computers, such as when they were released, the original specifications, and the original price. I’ve settled many quibble’s using its information. However, their other columns present sometimes out of date, and sometimes even wrong information. For example, Charles Moore often writes about the failure of IMAP. This goes back years, but let’s check out the latest installment. ...

The recent Firefox 3.6 update made me re-examine my add-ons as always. What struck me as odd was that Google Gears wasn’t compatible. Clearly that was a mistake. Google couldn’t possibly ignore the chosen browser of most of the tech elite. It’s not totally ignored no. Indeed there’s a ticket for the problem. It has a Medium priority. Medium? Not working with Firefox isn’t that important? That got me thinking. The last time I checked, the latest Safari in Snow Leopard wasn’t supported. Still true. Also has a Medium priority. ...

I’ve been using Gmail for most of my mailing lists. There’s a very good reason for this. It groups things into discussions beautifully. I also subscribe to several mailing lists that reside on the same server. For example, I subscribe to BBEdit Talk and Yojimbo Talk, both of which are run by Bare Bones (shocking, considering they develop them). They don’t have a domain that’s dedicated to mailing lists, so the addresses are [email protected]. I’m also a compulsive filer, so I apply labels to these messages for quick manipulation. One label is “mailing lists”. Rather than map email “To:” each of these email addresses, I’ve been using the fact that filters work on a contains instead of match basis to simplify. For the longest time a filter that looked for “To: [email protected]” worked perfectly. It’s suddenly stopped working. It’s now an exact match. ...

While I’m going on and on about utility companies (because let’s face it, Verizon and Comcast are rapidly becoming nearly the same), how about I write up the experience I just had. I don’t normally expect visitors on a Saturday unannounced. Further, I don’t get packages. When I got to my front door, it was a Comcast employee. He warmed up by asking if I had Verizon home phone service. Well, seeing as I don’t like getting taken advantage of, the answer is no. He then asked me if I had a home phone. It’s clear where he was going, so I played along. Yes, I have internet phone service (Vonage in particular). He guessed that it was Vonage. ...

Verizon FiOS is looking real good, $44.95 for 15 Mbps down/2 Mbps up. My Comcast cable access is 8 Mbps for $52.95. Verizon sends me advertisements in the mail multiple times per week advertising their fiber internet service. Given, it’s lumped in with those mass mailers that clog my mailbox, but it’s getting sent directly to my house. They proclaim in big proud letters: The limitless fiber-optic power of Verizon FiOS Internet is now here. ...

Von-Age; the tele-fon works!: Vonage has sent me dozens and dozens of advertizements and free phone deals for months lately. Seems like they’re stalking me out after Verizon mentioned how I threatened to go into their Manhattan office three years ago in order to cancel my line faster (really it was a simple request they couldn’t/wouldn’t understand, cancel my line as of that day, they took 40 days to cancel my phone) ...

If you’re thinking about sound software right now, you’re way off. Instead I’m talking about the literal words. VOIP (Voice Over IP) is a really hot technology right now because it makes phone calls much cheaper than using traditional telephone service. I’ve pondered whether IP network use is cheaper than maintaining traditional phone networks, or if the telco’s were simply sticking it to everyone. Considering recent more aggressive pricing by the telco’s, I’d suspect it was the latter. ...

A little while back, Google announced it was hosting San Jose City College’s email. Prior to that, rumors started circulating that Google would be licensing its Gmail technology to others due to clues in the code. Honestly, I could not see a downside to this arrangement (paranoid delusions are not considered). Most college students don’t want to fiddle with email client configuration. A webmail interface is perfect for campus wide availability. The over 2 gigabytes of storage space works great for students to send files back and forth on a regular basis. Because it’s maintained by Google, it also means it’ll be available to students even after they graduate. And yes, I am still a little bitter that U-Mass is too damn cheap to give lifetime email addresses to graduates. ...