Category: General

We stopped in the nearby Apple store this evening before dinner. I don’t know if they had any iPhones actually for sale, but they did have many of them out for a hands-on experience. Since I’m unlikely to buy one anytime in the foreseeable future, here’s my impression from 5-10 minutes playing with one.

Phone – no idea, the phones are activated, but I didn’t try calling anyone.

iPod – Yeah, it’s got CoverFlow… the single most overrated user interface I’ve seen. Yes, I have it on my iTunes, no I never use it. Why not? 5,759 songs, 100 album covers. Even with the new feature of iTunes to search and acquire album artwork, most of my music is without it. CoverFlow is just stupid without it, and even with it, it’s not that good of an interface. It’s inefficient. “Best iPod – ever”? Hardly. Sound quality was OK.

Maps – that’s cool

YouTube – I didn’t try searching, but the the videos in the favorites and recent were all so uninteresting I didn’t want to watch them. I did try one but it took so long I gave up before it played.

SMS – worked just fine, very nice

Web Browsing – Now this is the reason I’d consider an iPhone. I want (even it if it slow) to browse real websites at any time during the day. I rely on the internet to look up information frequently and this is the make or break item for me. Pages loaded somewhat slow, but everything I tried came up fine and looked great. I even posted a comment to my own website just to test it out.

Keyboard. I had no trouble adapting to the keyboard and, provided I was only typing characters, I had no trouble with missed keys, misspelled words or anything like that. What I did have trouble with was punctuation. I have never gotten in the habit, even in SMS messages, of omitting punctuation or ignoring rules of spelling or capitalization. The iPhone keyboard requires that you shift modes to get to punctuation, and I could find no way (remember, 5-10 minutes with this device) of shifting back without hitting the spacebar. So, when I tried entering a comment, the text was fine, but entering my e-mail address was a real nuisance. E-M-A-I-L-[SHIFT MODE]-@-[SPACE BAR][BACKSPACE]L-O-N-E-L-O-C-U-S-T-[SHIFT MODE]-.-[SPACE BAR]-[BACKSPACE]-C-O-M-[DONE]

For some reason, that process, while entering into an HTML form resulted in several failed attempts. The oh-so-cool [.COM] button that appears on the URL keyboard isn’t there on the regular keyboard.

Once they have flash and (hopefully) java enabled in the browser, this could be a viable device.

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David Pogue, New York Times columnist and musician…

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I guess there’s no written rule as to which direction is the “right way” to sleep on a sofa.

Technorati Tags: Books, Family, Flickr

To quote some of the dumbest lines ever used too often in Doctor Who, “What? What? What? What?”

Catherine Tate is set to return to the TARDIS for the complete 13 week run of Series Four of Doctor Who.

from BBC.CO.UK

Is this how Russell wants to get out his contract? First he destroys the ending of the best season yet of the revival series, then dumps possibly the best companion the Doctor has ever had and finally, brings in Catherine Tate for the entire fourth series?

I’m reminded of how desperate John Nathan-Turner was to leave the show, too.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Doctor Who, Dr Who, Rant

So I just happened to have $1198 (plus tax) lying around, so I thought, “Hey! How about a pair of matched iPhones?!”

Or, actually, I just found this picture on flckr… that’s all I could really afford.

In what capped off a terribly awful episode of Doctor Who (Last of the Time Lords) was the surprise (to me anyway) departure of Martha Jones as the Doctor’s companion.

Martha has proven to be one of the most competent and intelligent companions the Doctor has ever had and as such it’s been a real joy to have her on the TARDIS, although her school girl crush on the Doctor was a bit overplayed. Now, the word is out, she will be back, but…

As Doctor Who’s Executive Producer and head writer, Russell T Davies notes: “Series three has gained outstanding reviews and Freema has been a huge part of that success, gaining rave notices for her portrayal of Martha. Now we are taking the character of Martha into brand new territory with a starring role in Torchwood”.

What? Her character needed a little buggery before she could continue on in time and space? Seriously, Russell, Torchwood desperately needs help, but this isn’t the answer.

The Doctor will also have a new companion for the entire 13 week fourth series.

Link: BBC.CO.UK – More Martha!
and
Link: BBC Press Office – Freema Agyeman returns as Martha Jones and guest stars in Torchwood

Technorati Tags: Blog, Doctor Who, Dr Who, Torchwood

There’s a movement, started apparently in Japan after World War II to plant Peace Poles around the world.

Notwithstanding the efficacy of this approach towards actually achieving world peace, not too long ago they came to Taiwan. A group of Japanese went to certain important locations around Taiwan and placed these poles.

One of which, seen here, is near Alishan.

Now, I have nothing against this sort of thing, unless my tax dollars are being used for it, but it’s largely a non-event to my mind.

Not so, apparently, in Taiwan, as some people were protesting because the poles had been placed without benefit of a feng shui consultant and were ruining the feng shui of the of the island.

I had read about this “controversy” some time ago when they were placed, but I never expected to see one! I know my feng shui felt all out of kilter when I walked past.

If I though they had a feng shui practitioners union in Taiwan, I’d be inclined to blame this on them.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Taiwan, Travel

The single greatest scientific discovery of all time happens while I’m out of the country – typical!

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For a variety of reasons I rarely post on this sort of thing, but once in a blue moon I see something written that is so succinct that it warrants repeating.

It should come as no surprise to anyone who knows me that I am a dyed-in-the-wool atheist. (I put “should” in emphasis because every once in a while someone who ought to know better surprises me with a wrong assumption about my beliefs.)

There is a project called “This I Believe”, which seems to be designed to demonstrate the importance of faith. As if faith were a good thing! Faith is a human failing. An psychological defect in the make up of our imperfect brains, caused as a unfortunate side effect of an important aspect of our humanity.

Our brains are wired to learn from second-hand sources, such as our parents. It’s a necessary survival adaptation that allows me to know that I do want to meet a tiger in the wild without actually having to experience it first hand. That, if anything, is the importance of “faith.” I do have faith that a tiger is dangerous and not something I wish to come upon unprepared in the wild.

Unfortunately, that important survival skill becomes a liability if the information imparted is crap. In computer terms that’s GIGO: Garbage Input, Garbage Output.

Is faith in crap a good thing if it is something that “…gets you through the night?” No, it isn’t. This I believe: “Faith is a failing. Faith is a logical shortcut prone to erroneous results.”

Consequently I think the whole “This I Believe” project is intellectually bankrupt endeavor because it’s stated goal “…is not to persuade Americans to agree on the same beliefs. Rather, they hope to encourage people to begin the much more difficult task of developing respect for beliefs different from their own.”

As if respect of crap is any superior to faith in crap! We need to bring out the big guns to clear out the crap, not to learn to live with it.

Penn Jillette, half of the team of Penn & Teller and outspoken atheist frequently has some quotable words on the subject. My favorite has to be, “Read [the bible] because we need more atheists, and nothing will get you there faster than reading the damn bible.” (I can attest to this because I was only an agnostic until I read the bible from cover to cover, and often the people I encounter who supposedly believe in it have never actually read it except as passages here and there.)

He’s contributed an essay to the “This I Believe” project and squarely hits the nail on the head.

I believe that there is no God. I’m beyond atheism. Atheism is not believing in God. Not believing in God is easy — you can’t prove a negative, so there’s no work to do. You can’t prove that there isn’t an elephant inside the trunk of my car. You sure? How about now? Maybe he was just hiding before. Check again. Did I mention that my personal heartfelt definition of the word “elephant” includes mystery, order, goodness, love and a spare tire?

So, anyone with a love for truth outside of herself has to start with no belief in God and then look for evidence of God. She needs to search for some objective evidence of a supernatural power. All the people I write e-mails to often are still stuck at this searching stage. The atheism part is easy.

But, this “This I Believe” thing seems to demand something more personal, some leap of faith that helps one see life’s big picture, some rules to live by. So, I’m saying, ‘This I believe: I believe there is no God.’

Read the whole essay here. It’s worth the read.

Maybe I’m just posting this today because I’m still annoyed at the Mormons in Taiwan.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Religion, Taiwan