Geek

Fail.

This is a tech-related post but I have to vent about something so I’m putting it on my regular blog instead of posting it on one of my tech blogs.

The other day I posted that I started using an iPhone app called “TrailGuru” in tandem with my cycling. The app promises all sorts of geeky wizardry to accompany my cycling regimen by allowing me to track how many feet I climbed, how fast I went, how many calories I burned and the like. It even allows me to map my route to share with the world. The screen looks something like this.

trailguru.jpg

You will notice that in 1 hour, 10 minutes and 51 seconds I averaged 2.0 mph and traveled 2.38 mi. That’s riding _really_ slow.

Here’s the thing. Apple says that they give the premium computing experience to their users. They are the chicest of the chic, the finest of the fine and the shiniest of the shiny. This is why they have the power of approval on their app store; they don’t want anything installed on the iPhone that is going to compromise the iPhone experience. This fact has never been so prevalent than when Apple denied the addition of a Google Voice app, saying that it duplicated too much of what was already offered on the iPhone.

I guess I can get that, though I don’t really agree with it.

While TrailGuru promises the world through it’s application, it can’t really handle the iPhone very well. For two days in a row now the program has crashed whenever a text message is sent to my phone. The little pop-up comes up saying that I have a text message and then all is lost on TrailGuru. Everything but the timer comes to a halt, the battery drains and the phone gets really hot.

It’s a good thing this app is free.

There has been a small wave of iPhone abandonment in the tech world since the denial of Google Voice being added to the app store. I haven’t jumped on that bandwagon yet; for the most part I love my iPhone 3G dearly and I often find myself marveling at what I can do on this little technological wonder. However, I find it hypocritical of Apple to allow apps such as TrailGuru in all it’s crashing glory to be added to the app store fine and dandy when it can be crashed by something so obvious as a text message when they won’t allow better apps to be added because of a purported compromising of the Apple experience. That is kind of big brotherish.

In short, do I love my iPhone? Yes. Would I buy another one? No.

5 August 2009 by Geek 1

Admission.

I can’t remember if I have admitted this before here on my blog and quite frankly I’m too lazy to do a search on past entries, but today I found myself daydreaming at my desk at work about a dream I had long, long ago when I was a teenager.

I wanted to be a backup singer for The Human League.

 

human_league

 

That’s right, I once dreamed of being a touring backup singer in The Human League, probably best known for one of the definitive songs from the 1980s, “Don’t You Want Me” and a whole slew of other tracks here in the U.S. including “(Keep Feeling) Fascination” and “Human”.

In 1984 I purchased a Yorx Stereo (complete with recordable 8-track) at the local Ames. One of my very first purchases with my own money, my Yorx stereo had a turntable, the aforementioned 8-track, a radio and a cassette deck in it. It even had detachable speakers that could sit on a bookcase.

That Yorx Stereo played every Human League 12-inch single I had in my library (which was each title released to date) and it played each album over and over again as I studied and learned each lyric, each version of every single and the smattering of harmonies found on their records.

Why The Human League, you ask? Well, there are a couple of reasons for this. First of all, if I don’t squeeze my balls hard I sing baritone and I tend to linger more in the bass range. Some find this surprising. I have only sang tenor on a few occasions when singing in part of a group and that’s where the uncomfortable ball squeezing has had to come into play. The lead singer of The Human League, Phil Oakey, sings comfortably in my range, something that was a rarity in the days of Duran Duran and the likes of Boy George (and especially today!). The only other singer that I could really sing with in the pop world was Pete Burns from Dead or Alive, and while I loved their music, I KNEW I could not get away doing the Pete Burns thing in the small farm town in Central New York I grew up with. At least The Human League was relatively popular and yet they were eccentric enough to stand out in the crowd. Plus, all of their music was electronically derived. THAT was wicked cool to me, being a gadget geek and all. In addition, The Human League had a very “80s” look to them. I knew I couldn’t pull off Phil’s lopsided haircut but I could wear the slightly daring style that they did and not get beat up in school. (Funny that I didn’t get my first leather pants for another 20 years or so).

So yes, back in the day I had dreams of singing backup vocals for The Human League in concert. They came to our area back in the late 1990s during a rewind tour with Howard Jones and Culture Club. Working in radio at the time, I tried to pull some strings to get backstage and meet them but they had no interest in meeting anyone. Honestly, my hopes were dashed and I childishly punished them by pulling their catalog from the music rotation at the station for a while. While I knew I wouldn’t be able perform with them, I thought it might be whimsical to share my dreams with them before or after their performance, but no, it was not meant to be.

The Human League still performs live from time to time. Perhaps I’ll catch them at a future gig and share my little daydream with them. After all, these are The Things That Dreams Are Made Of.

In honour of my remembrance of this little daydream, I share one of their tracks. This is the single that preceded “Don’t You Want Me”, it’s “Love Action (I Believe In Love)”, also from the ‘Dare’ album. This track is actually part of a longer instrumental called “Hard Times”, which wasn’t released in the U.S. until later in 1983 on the Fascination! EP.

22 July 2009 by DJ Geek 3

Clippy.

My favourite Office character was Scribble, but I must admit that the geek in me laughed out loud at this video.

Link to Beyond Binary (article and video about Office 2010 on ‘Beyond Binary’ by CNET’s Ina Fried).

Good marketing, Microsoft. 🙂

9 July 2009 by Geek 0

Computive Schizophrenia.

Two days ago I was producing a video on my Linux box to prove that I could do it. Today I couldn’t live without my MacBook Pro.

It’s iPhone 3.0 day. While I’m not tripping over myself to go out and buy a new iPhone 3Gs, I have to admit that I do love my iPhone 3G and all things Mac and I am very excited by the pending update to the iPhone software. I guess once you go Mac you don’t go back.

DSC02486.jpg

17 June 2009 by Geek 0

Mobile Manners.

Intel just released these videos called “Mobile Manners”, featuring iJustine (Justine Ezarik). I think they are right on target and a hoot to boot.

There is a link in this first video that will take you to the others.

UPDATE: I need to adhere to these better as well.

17 June 2009 by Geek 1

Testing 1-2-3.

A very boring video as I try out some software on Linux.

[media id=83]
15 June 2009 by Geek 0

Stop.

“BREAKING: Los Angeles Lakers defeat Orlando Magic, win NBA Championship I More: http://sms.msnbc.com.” This is from 676-22.

Here’s the deal. I stopped SMS messages from Windows Live about a week ago. I was trying out some of the Live services and I thought I would turn on breaking news alerts on my phone so that I could sound informed at the office water bubbler (which was actually taken away due to budget constraints, now we just sort of linger around the limp ice trays in the kitchen freezer).

I have decided that the Windows Live / Bing / MSN services don’t really fit my needs as nicely as I wanted them to so I turned off all alert notifications to my phone. But they haven’t stopped. Nothing is checked, nothing is activated, but they still keep coming. And coming. And coming.

Yesterday morning I replied to one of the breaking news alerts with one simple command: ‘STOP’. I was promptly informed of this:
Msnbc.com: To STOP a program reply with the number:
1. NEWS
2. BIZ
3. SPORTS
4. HEALTH
5. ENTERTAINMENT
6. TRAVEL
7. TECH
8. All
http://alerts.msnbc.com

So I replied with “Stop 8”. No one complained about my reply but the messages continued. So then I tried just “8”. I received a message from the little beast: MSNBC: Sorry 2 see U go. You will receive no more mobile alerts after today. More: Visit http://alerts.msnbc.com

This was yesterday. But the messages continued.

So today I did the same thing and it gave me the same schtick. Let’s see if these alerts continue after midnight.

14 June 2009 by Geek 1

Geek.

I have been a geek for most of the evening, chatting with friends over various technological means and working on the Linux computer.

Whilst working on web stuff, I have been watching one of my favourite movies of all time, “Bell, Book and Candle” from 1959. If you haven’t seen it, I urge you to do so. You’ll find that it inspired a very bewitching comedy that was big in the 1960s.

11 June 2009 by Geek 0

About J.P.

Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.

Weird? Eccentric!

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