Mobile Tech

The Best Laptop(s) I Ever Had

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Technology is supposed to get better over time. You are supposed to have a “better” computer, PDA, Phone, etc. as time goes by. But is that always the case? Think about cars. My dad talks about some old car he had in the 70’s that was probably the best car he ever had. Tons of people like classic cars, and would go back to them in a flash. Does anyone really want to go back to a 286 computer and use DOS again? That old 10lbs laptop from 12 years ago cannot be dreamed about. I mean you can think back to the good old days with nostalgia, but do you really want that old equipment over what you have now?

I just thought of that when I declared (with Gus) that the IBM Thinkpad T40 I have is probably the best laptop I have ever had. But if it wasn’t wouldn’t we have a problem? It is of course the newest laptop I have. It should be the best. Shouldn’t it? Now my last laptop an IBM Thinkpad T31 or the Dell Latitude C400 I had before that were good solid machines, but the T40 is just rock solid awesome computer. The little things push it over the edge from company computer, to the best machine I ever had.

On that same note, I have to say things about my Powerbook 12″ that I have. You can and cannot compare it to a Thinkpad, or a Windows computer. They are the same, and different at the same time. I think that the powerbook is also one of the best computers I have ever had. I have had machines the size and capabilities of the Powerbook before. It is actually a bit bigger than my Latitude C400. It is just better. The keyboard is the best or one of the best I have ever used on a laptop or off of one. The DVD Burner is amazing. The port layout and other features make it fantastic.

The question is when these machines get a bit older and I upgrade, will I look back and wish I still used them? After all their is always something better just down the production line.

The Different Ways To Communicate

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Going up to Kingston gets me thinking about how I use the communication tools at my disposal. If you ask anyone, I have too many gadgets. The problem is sometimes none of them work the way I need them to. Right now my blackberry’s screen is all screwed up so I have a hard time reading it. I need to replace that. On a good day the screen sucks, so I would like to get my mail another way. The Treo Mail program requires you to pay $50 a year. I don’t know if the mail function on the new Treo will be the same as the old one, so I don’t want to buy the Treo Mail if I plan on upgrading to the new Treo 600 in 2-3 months when it comes out. Eudora Mail for the Palm sucks, so I can’t check mail that way. The problem is I want to send and receive email on the road, but I don’t want to pay the crazy hotel charges for a phone call. I am thinking of getting software that will allow me to use my Treo’s GPRS data service on my laptop. the problem is the same as with the Treo Mail. Can I still use it when I get the new Treo 600? If so I am sold. If not, I don’t want to fork over 50 bucks.

Another problem with the blackberry is I use it for alerts all the time. If I start forwarding all my mail to it, I will get duplicate emails when I get an alert. (Alerts goto my mailbox and the blackberry, so sending my mailbox to the blackberry will duplicate some mail.) the other problem is if I turn on forwarding, I have to turn it off. It becomes a pain. I never know when I will need it or not. With the Treo, I can turn it on or off from the handheld.

It is crazy that I now have all these options, but still can’t make a decision on what to use. I want to get rid of one or two devices. Who needs a PDA/Phone, a pager, and a cell phone. It is too much to carry. In addition I have to carry around my thinkpad.

My Personal Phone Dillema

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It survived a month. I still have (and like) the Treo 270. I totally think having the unlimited data account that actually works in allot of places makes this device good, versus just using it as a cell phone. To tell you the truth I almost never use it as a cell phone. I do when my Verizon phone runs out of batteries or if I have to call a number I don’t have in my Verizon phone’s limited speed dial. other than that I don’t use it that much. I just forward my T-Mobile calls to my Verizon number.

That brings me to another problem I am having. I am too connected. Gus mentioned that I have too many numbers to remember. It is true. I have my primary cell phone. That is Verizon right now. I also have my old AT&T number that I don’t use, but can’t cancel it because the contract is up in December. I then have the T-Mobile number that I use for data. I also have my NYC work number and now I have a Kingston work number. I have trouble routing calls places. Right now I have a message in NYC telling people I am out of the office. My T-Mobile phone is sending call’s to my Verizon phone. And the Kingston voice mail is telling people they can press 1 or 2 and get me at other numbers. I don’t have a solution though. T-Mobile kicks but on the wireless internet so I keep them. Verizon has the best cell coverage, so I keep them. And I need my work numbers. Now in december if/when cell phone number portability happens I will cancel my AT&T contract and take that number and move it to T-Mobile so I can keep the good number. I need to see how I can pull that off.

On top of all that, I have a blackberry pager from work. I hope one day for the Treo to work well enough that I can get rid of the blackberry. I will see what the new Treo 600 can do.

Ipod is drained

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I went to grab my trusty iPod when I booted up my powerbook so I could listen to some music while I did this blog. To my dismay I found it drained of power. Turns out I really need a case for that thing. After a drunk night getting home from the bar I lost the case while on the LIRR listening to music. Without the case the keys get pressed and the iPod runs and drains its power. I know there is that lock switch but if you forget to press it you have an iPod without power. Thankfully for now I am using the powerbook to listen to music. I found headphones that work in the bottom of my luggage. Oh, thanks apple for making the iPod headphones not work in regular headphone jacks.

I am on Amtrak right now. Like I always say I do allot of my best writing on the train. I just passed the Tapanzee bridge on the way to Kingston. This trip is always relaxing, as long as you don’t get all wound up about traveling like I do sometimes. So far this has been a restful trip. As Gus would say, I am getting rid of all my negative energy and centering my Chi. Eh, something like that.

Not sure how hot it is today, but it looks beautiful outside right now. Being so busy recently I am trying to stop and take notice of stuff like that.

Power Is Back

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Wow, that was an interesting 2 days without power. What were you doing when the power went out? Everyone who lived through the outage probably has a good story to tell. This is mine.

I was in Kingston NY, finishing the setup of my companies new office. When power went out the group of us thought someone had tripped a breaker or something. We were pulling cable so you never know. Our first indication that it was a bigger outage than our office was the call Dan was on with a construction contractor over an hour away. He said power was out by him also. Then we received a call from our NYC office telling us that the power was out down there as well. After like 20 minutes of speculation one guy went to his car to listen to the radio. Dan, Keith, & I went to Dan’s car for the radio also. After a little bit dan had the idea to goto the store. He wanted bread and water. He wouldn’t let Keith and I get the stuff since (in his own words) he thought we would get 1 can of soda and a candy bar. We ended up getting 4 gallons of water and 2 things of bread.

Once we realized this was going to take a while we coordinated with our contractors about what to do tomorrow (friday). I originally was going to stay in Kingston and oversee the contractors if power came back. Unfortunately the hotel room I had didn’t have an outside window, so it was completely dark. At that point Dan was like screw this, and told me to come with him. Keith and Dan were heading to Dan’s parents in Connecticut. The reasoning was it was closer to the city and a place where we knew people. I hopped in the car and we were off. It was weird, the power was out yet ezpass worked. Also there were tons of cars on the road. The NY State Throughway looked normal. We only noticed a difference when we got to CT and we had no traffic lights.

Dan’s mom and dad were very cool. His mom made us sandwiches with everything she had left in her refrigerator. We sat on their deck and hung out after we figured out how to work the fuel burning lamp. If you were wondering it took 2 tech guys and an operations guy about 20 minutes to get a lamp to work. By 10pm or so we heard that power was slowly getting restored to NYC. we decided that if it came back Thursday night or Friday morning we would want to be near the office to get stuff working. It just so happened that like 3/4 of our company’s “crisis team” or people who work in emergencies were together far away from the office. Gus was the only one who was still down in NYC. So we got in Dan’s trusty car again and headed into Manhattan. He had well over a half a tank of gas in a honda so we were set for fuel.

The drive down to the city was interesting. Some parts of Manhattan had power, others didn’t. dan missed the exit on the Tribourough bridge so we ended up in traffic in queens. We turned around and were in manhattan in no time. You could see the hospitals because they were the only places with power in manhattan. Once off the FDR drive it was eery. The busy intersections had a cop or two directing traffic, but other intersections had nothing. We parked on 21st and Park Ave near our office and once the lights were out from the car the sky had this weird green glow to it. no lights to be seen. You could look down 21st street and see nothing.

The security desk at our office was lit by candles. We ended up walking up the 10 flights of stairs to the office only to find 6 hold outs who couldn’t or didn’t want to go home. We hung out there for a while and then Dan and I left to his place for some sleep. Keith for some reason stayed at the office. He figured he could sleep on the floor in the office just as easy as he could sleep on the floor in dans place. I didn’t care since I had called dibs on Dan’s comfy couch. Dan lives right near the office, so after a quick ride we were at his place and I was fast asleep. I actually slept like a baby that night.

We woke up at around 9 to no power. dan went to the car to charge his cell phone and get breakfast. My cell phone was dead and I didn’t have a car charger. I went to the backup phone but got no signal. Verizon still has the best service, even in a disaster. Dan found bagels so we ate and hung out. We played cards for a while and then decided to see if the office had power.

Well the office didn’t have power and we had nothing else to do. I convinced dan after a few minutes that Queens would be a good destination. My parents had power so that meant that I had power. We could get lunch, fuel and some AC. We trekked to Bayside and I filled Dan’s car up at the gas station by my house. I guess power was back for a while since we actually didn’t have a huge line for gas. We ate at Applebies and ended up napping at my place for a while. That air mattress is helpful when you have last minute guests.

At around 7:30PM we got the call that the office had power. We went back into the city so we could turn everything back on. We meet Gus there and powered everything on. It looked like everything came back fine. We got lucky. We went to eat and I caught car service home.

That was the end of my experience with the black out. I actually didn’t have such a bad time. I wouldn’t like it to happen again, but at least I didn’t have to walk for hours to get home. All in all, I finish the experience with some memories that I won’t soon forget.

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.

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!

Wireless Woes

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Still having AT&T wireless issues. They want me to get a new SIM card. So I went to the store. They were out. How they can sell phones without the card, I have no idea. I guess they use extra ones for replacements. I called customer care again and they are sending one, after I argued with them on why I won’t be charged $25.00 to get one. Why a SIM card will cause the dam phone not to work in my apartment is beyond me, but weirder things have happened.

Howard is looking to see if he has his old Treo 180 around that I can borrow for a bit. I am debating on if I want to get a Treo again. Now I am thinking if I can use his black and white 180, and live with it I may just get one of those till november and get the new Treo 600 when it comes out. That will save me from buying the color model that is like $300 and then want to upgrade it 3 months later. The black and white Treo 180 goes for like $130 on ebay. That is allot cheaper. I will see. If he doen’t have it I may just get it and take the risk on the $130.

On the plus side my new T-40 is great. And I got my cannon scanner to work with Mac OS 10.2 without a problem.

AT&T Wireless Officially Sucks

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Yes they do. So I bought a cheap used unlocked GSM phone on ebay. It is a Ericsson T-28w. I had one years ago. They are ok, but it was dirt cheap and unlocked. That means I can plug any GSM card into it and it will work. So I put my AT&T Wireless card in and the calls sucked just as bad as they did with my top of the line Sony Ericsson T-68i. I put my T-Mobile SIM in and the thing worked fine. It even worked decent at work, where T-Mobile with a T-68 never worked well. I was about to cancel T-Mobile last week and something told me to hold onto it for a while. I have gotten everyone to use the new number for like 3 months now, but I figured I should keep it around. Good thing I did. Now I don’t know if I am going to get rid of T-Mobile or AT&T. One has to go. AT&T, I love my phone number but that is about it. At this stage in my contract I am just thinking of keeping it and putting myself on the $19.95 plan and not use it. That is cheaper than canceling the thing. Then in November, I can keep that number and move it somewhere else. November is when phone number portability comes to cell phones!!! Finally. On the plus side the T-Mobile account is really cheap for allot of minutes. I get like 600 min with unlimited nights and weekends for under $40.00.

I am going to use both for a while, and see what happens. Thankfully I have my verizon phone still. Yes I have 3. I am only supposed to have 2, but I can’t seem to get rid of T-Mobile. I am really a techie.

Sitting around in the “good chair”

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So I was extremely lazy today. I did very little. I am still recovering from my all nighter. I always had trouble with those things. This one was actually not so bad, but I remain tired afterward. I am sitting up now watching a little tv, typing away on my new IBM Thinkpad T40 in my comfy Pier One Papasan Chair .

I have the chair in my living room until I get my couch. My mom called this week and actually wants me to take it soon, because they are doing work on the apartment and want to clear space out. I need to go and get it. Until I do I have the chair. I really do like writing in this thing. The funny thing is this chair is probably so bad for my back. Oh well.

The T40 is totally awesome. Looking at the T30 and T40 side by side, they look almost identical. The thing is the little bit of thickness that they took off really makes the difference. So far the battery life is good, but I have not completely tested it. I have spent my free time over the last 3 days installing everything on this new machine. I have allot done, but getting it customized the way I like it will take a while.

I did get some stuff done today. I updated my photo web site. I also made some changes on the blog. I have gotten the blog to work properly while pointing all my web traffic to my IIS web server and redirecting certain sites and directories to my apache box. I had issues with it before but figured out the security problems I was having. The blog’s new address is http://blog.Scott.ac/ The old address will continue to work, and redirect to the new address.

Other good news regarding the new T40 is that I was able to get installed and working. For some reason that offline blogging software never would work on my T30. Now I can write my blog while not on the internet using my windows laptop. As much as I like my Powerbook, I am going to try and commute more with the thinkpad.