When Z-day Comes…

…how long will stuff keep working?

Take, for example, electricity. How long will our current power generators and distribution systems last if no one shows up to maintain them one day? How much human intervention is required to keep them going? Will I just keep getting bills auto-generated and stacked in ComEd’s outgoing mail pile?

How ’bout cell phone service? Will all the satelites and fiber optics just keep going until my service is cut off ’cause there’s no one to process my payments? Or the Internet? What if everyone at Google and AT&T just didn’t come to work? How long would their systems keep working?

What about GPS? Will TomTom guide the few remaining people through the  post-apocalyptic wasteland?

I just saw Terminator: Salvation (thumbs, up, mostly) and they seemed to have a fair amount of functioning infrastructure considering the situation. It didn’t seem luxurious by any means, actually quite the opposite, but they seemed to have some sort of digital network, electricity, etc.

I’m just curious. Seems pretty important to have that stuff working, especially since I can barely make a lasagna without internet access.

By the way, that show on History channel, Life After People, sucks. Seriously. Don’t waste one minute watching it. Great idea, poor execution.

Fake Steve is Back!

My all time favorite blog is back.

The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs is one of the funniest things I’ve read in years and Option$ was absolutely fantastic.

…you know, if you’re a nerd. Or fanboy. I am willing to admit guilt on both.

iPhone 3.0

I am fully aware of the fact that everyone and their dog has written about iPhone 3.0 in the last couple of weeks, but I’m doing it because some of you read my blog but not dozens of tech blogs on a daily basis.

A while back I wrote a post about Getting in Sync where I talked about trying to get my digital life in order and all of my data everywhere sync’ing without using a third party service. The conclusion of that process was that I was right back where I started because of one stupid, little problem: iPhone IMAP does not function correctly with an Exchange server. Instead of moving messages, it copies messages. So if you trash a message from your inbox, you have a copy of it in your inbox and a copy of it in your trash.

Last night I updated to iPhone 3.0 and that problem still exists. That is seriously uncool. I’m going to keep testing, ’cause it might have something to do with the fact that deleting messages doesn’t happen immediately. Why? I don’t know.

Other than that, I’m liking 3.0.

• Copy and paste is finally here and it’s already saving me a lot of trouble. Entering server names, UPS tracking numbers, and flight confirmation numbers is no longer awful.
• You can now select multiple photos and delete or e-mail them.
• Same with individual SMS messages.
• Search is pretty cool. Especially for email.
• You get another screen for all your apps. Because you clearly need more than 48 apps.

Still annoyed about a number of things:

• AT&T is the worst carrier ever. Expensive as hell, no MMS, no tether, etc. As soon as my two years are up…
• No video recording? WTF? (This can be achieved by jailbreaking)
• No voice control. Seriously? (Likewise, jailbreak)
• Still can’t remove Apple’s apps (Stocks, Notes, etc.)
• Still can’t customize homescreen notifications – like put my upcoming events, weather, etc.

This is definitely an improvement, but I am actually looking forward to my warranty expiring so I can hack my phone without consequence.

Windows 7

So, I rag on MS a lot. They make some baffling decisions and seem to be better at doing lots of things acceptably instead of anything well.

But Windows 7 isn’t that bad.

Would I chose it over XP? All things being equal (meaning RC1 is free right now), maybe – depending on what I need it to do. For a personal computer, Win7 will be great. For enterprise, I’m still thinking XP will be popular. Try finding Win7 drivers for your office’s 6 year old multifunction printer/copier.

Would I chose it over Vista? Yeah. It’s definitely an update. It looks good. Some serious thought was put into using it, with lots of little things that make it much better / easier than Vista. And anything you have working with Vista will work in Win7.

Would I chose it over OS X? All things being equal, no. Which means that it’s come a long way. Not having to emphasize the “no” with profanity means it’s a big improvement. It’s has problems, for sure. For example, it took 5 minutes for it to detect and use the Dell USB keyboard that I plugged in, and it wouldn’t do it until I opened up my laptop and logged in. Also, my iPhone. It has no idea what that is for some reason.

But you know what? All things aren’t equal.

Windows 7 will reportedly cost between $49 (upgrade) and $320 (full, not upgrade).

Snow Leopard will cost $29 (upgrade). I couldn’t find how much it’ll cost if you don’t have Leopard, but I would be shocked if it were more than $99 and suspect it’ll be closer to $49-$79.

I am not even going to get into how much it’d cost to get all the software for Windows that you’d need to compete with what comes included when you purchase your Mac, for two reasons: one, I’m kinda lazy; and two, everyone needs different things. Saying “you’ll have to spend $xxx to get video editing software on par with iMovie” assumes that you need video editing software on par with iMovie. Which, honestly, you may not. But if you’re wondering, go check out how much Microsoft Office costs.

This post, though, is about Windows 7. If you have Vista and are going to be sticking with Windows, Windows 7 is a definite improvement and you should upgrade when it comes out.

The Seventh(-ish) Annual Barbeque Symposium

This was a triumph.

I’m making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS

It’s hard to overstate my satisfaction.

• Goldsmith: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bgoldsmith/sets/72157619754345972/
• Julia: http://picasaweb.google.com/julia.swanson/BBQSymposium2009?feat=directlink
• Dunbar: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=101548&id=701680985&ref=mf

A Very Fun Thing I Will Surely do Again

A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again

I am just finishing another book, A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, by David Foster Wallace and have to say that he is my New Favorite Author. This one wasn’t as good (or at least not as consistently good) as Consider The Lobster, but it was a great read.

The thing that I think I really like about him and his style is that even if I don’t care, at all, about the topic of the essay, I still thoroughly enjoy reading it. For example, near the end of this book is an essay about Michael Joyce and pro tennis. I couldn’t care less about tennis, or Michael Joyce, but I read that essay all the way through and really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it not because it gave me a deeper insight of Mr. Joyce or tennis, though it did, but because his writing style is so in line with what I enjoy reading. He’s challenging in a way that few others are, while at the same time being approachable and humorous.

The titular essay “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again,” is a hilarious read about the despair of being on an island cruise. And the entire time I could see myself feeling the exact same way.

The Archipelago

Sweden is largely a collection of islands, some of them large, many of them tiny. Like backyard small. We have visited several of them in the last few days and they are amazingly beautiful, totally peaceful, and densely wooded.

Yesterday, Talia and I went for a walk and decided to wander into the forest. It was fun climbing around on the mossy rocks, but then I got bit by a couple of mosquitos that caused my hand to swell up. I’m hoping that goes away soon.
The weather has been pretty dumb. Windy as hell, cloudy, and cold. Any two of them would be fine, but all three suck. At least it isn’t raining.
Sorry this post is more like a random collection of thoughts than a coherent string of interconnected ideas.

The Bow & The Sea

Stockholm & the Sea

The third day in Stockholm we got up so Talia could meet with someone who manages the Stockholm branch of Hub (she’ll tell you about that), and then go shopping.
Shopping in Sweden is a little frustrating because everything is designed well, packaged beautifully, and priced accordingly. For example, wooden toys at this small shop were super simple, primary colors, very Playmobil and more than $30 for a little car. Screw that.
After some shopping, we set sail for this museum at the outskirts of Stockholm called Millesgarden. It was pleasant, but not engaging, so I slept in the shade.
Then we sailed out to the archipelago and anchored in this small, placid harbor for the night.
The next day was cloudy and rainy and we did almost nothing but read. Which is fine, but I would have rather spent a rainy day in museums in Stockholm than listening to old people music. Oh well.
Today is being about the same, except that we are actually trying to sail and not use the engine. Sailing, however, requires more time outside getting drenched by both sky and sea. Also, I don’t know what I’m doing so everytime I’m told something about starboard I just try one direction and see what the response is. Sailing by trial and error is not going over well with these experienced sailors. I can drive the boat just fine while powered by engine, though. Grand Theft Auto actually taught me a lot about how boats handle.
Speaking of traveling with septagenarians, we are now listening to a collection of sea shanties. Seriously.