Month: August 2003

Neat Stuff For The Treo

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So I am still playing with the new Treo 270 I got last week. I downloaded eudora internet suite for the palm. I am not a big eudora mail client user, but they have a cool palm mail client and web browser. I am comparing it to what handspring offers.

I also downloaded Landware’s Pocket Quicken 2.03. I used this software ages ago and it is awesome. it lets you sync up your quicken db with your palm. So I can figure out where all my cash goes.

I also am trying Handsprings Treo Picture Caller ID. It lets you assign a picture to display when a specific phone number rings. It is cool, but the photos take a lot of space on a palm. Also trying the demo for SilverScreen 3.0. It is a theme or skin for the palm. it is slow on the 33mhz dragon-ball processor on the Treo, but it makes stuff look nice. It probably will fly on the new Treo with the new Palm OS 5.

And of course lets not forget the old favorites Avantgo. That is the most used program for me on any PDA. Without Avantgo I wouldn’t get my fix of news every day while sitting on the train. I also have the newest version of Vindigo. That is my attempt at acting sophisticated and knowing where to go. NYC coverage on it is great.

And for the record I will not download any annoying music for a ring tone. I can’t stand them on everyone else’s cell phone. Phones are made to be put on vibrate. I may use my phone allot, but I do have some etiquette. Get a clue people on the train, railroad, etc!

In a nutshell, the apps make the Treo way cool. And the service actually working now makes it actually functional.

On Call

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When your dad says you have a crappie job what would you say? Oh, let me put things into context for you. My dad is a trauma surgeon in a emergency room for the past 30 years or so. He doesn’t do much surgery anymore but I am painting a picture for you. He has had a pager since the late 70’s early 80’s. Back then you called a number and the operator beeped the person with the pager. That person would then call into the switchboard and be put in touch with the person looking for them. So when I received a phone call today regarding an issue I was trying to get keith to look into he was like, wow your job is crappier than mine. That one line sums up the on call part of my job. Getting what in my opinion is stupid calls about users not able to do things like check their email. Normally they would wait till monday, but some people are high enough up the food chain that we have to help whenever. It sucks, but I like my pay check. Don’t get me wrong, I like what I do. It is just the on call part that sucks sometimes.

This day wasn’t a total loss. I got to spend time with my dad (not enough of it, but we hung for a while). I also got to do some shopping. I got Homicide Life on The Streets on DVD. If you never saw that show while it was on TV, go out and buy it on DVD. They have Season 1 & 2 out. It is probably THE best or one of the best TV shows of all time. In my opinion anyway. Thankfully allot of people say the same thing. I also got some clothes and Daredevil on DVD.

I got home just in time to get a mild migraine. Of course no migraine is mild so I ended up sleeping for like 4 hours. I feel a bit better but now my sleep schedule is totally off again. It is 10:30 and I am not tired. I am going to try to sleep soon. After my nap I took a Bextra. That may have helped a bit also.

Sleep Habits All Screwed Up

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So I got home at 3:30 Saturday morning from my crazy day at work. I slept till 1PM. I awoke to problems with 2 servers. One just needed a reboot because terminal services was not working. The other one wouldn’t return from a reboot. We have had issues in the past with that machine and its onboard RAID card.

Gus was nice enough to run down to our data center and fix the problem. I cleaned up my place and tried to rest for the remainder of the day.

I went to my parents for dinner. Carrie and Morgan were there. Morgan is still so cute! We ordered italian and sat around watching my mom freak out about all the dirt left behind by the construction crews from their kitchen/bathroom renovation. She won’t listen to everyone telling her to get a cleaning crew in to fix the place up. The place does look nice though.

A bunch of people are going golfing again in Princeton NJ sunday. I was on and off about if I wanted to go, but I didn’t have a car today to do the stuff I needed to do, so I need to go tomorrow. I called Dan and let him know. I want to golf but this turned out to be a bad weekend.

TREO IS BETTER THAN I REMEMBER IT

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I got my new Handspring Treo 270 from T-Mobile on monday. I got rid of my old one in March mainly because of poor data services by T-Mobile (why have a data phone with crappy service). Well I took the phone with me to our new site in Kingston Tuesday and today. Tuesday was weird because T-Mobile was turning on a new tower on top of the facility we are in. But after it was up I had great signal. Today I had great service most of the train ride up and all around town. I relied on it for getting my mail for work. It went out every 15 minutes and grabbed it for me. It alerted me when they come in. I wish the alarm was louder but I can deal. It is as big as I remember it, and the screan is no where as good as the HP Pocket PC I have used since the Treo, but it is still a good device. I think it will hold me over until the new smaller Treo 600 comes out this fall.

One down side is that I went through a battery in almost a day. the data access drains it allot. Thankfully I have a USB cable that plugs into my laptop and will sync and charge the Treo!