iPhone Review

Okay, my 2 cents on the iPhone consists of 2 works: UTTERLY AMAZING!

The UI and the transitions between screens are awesome! I've never seen any phone user interface or PDA interface looks so smooth and have so much eye candy. The Google Maps widget is better than the web app!

There aren't many things I can fault with this phone but I do have a list:

1. No way to highlight, copy and paste text


2. No advanced preferences for mail, like marking the entire account as read, or only downloading unread messages on first poll


3. Can't re-organize widget icons on home screen


4. No instant messaging app or widget


5. No Bluetooth sync - syncing is done through iTunes through a USB cable, but I can't imagine why you can't sync contacts and calendars through iSync like everything else does


6. YouTube widget can't be tied to an existing YouTube account


7. No video recording


8. No games???!!!


9. No one-touch dialing or voice dialing


10. Virtual keyboard not for people with big hands or large fingers


11. No way to use music in iTunes as ringtones


12. Needs a camera of a higher resolution

Okay, so that's the bad list...here's the good list:

1. Zooming in and out of pictures and text is a major breakthrough


2. Navigating through iTunes via CoverFlow is awesome
3. 
   
4. Navigating through list by scrolling and swiping a finger across the screen is so intuitive


5. iPod can play music through the iPhone's speakerphone


6. The screen is really bright


7. Anything I didn't mention was simply awesome...I'm in total awe of this device

So far everything has been pretty smooth. Even setting it up on my wireless network at home was simple.

Was the device worth the hype? I think for the most part it was. It's an incredible device that does most things really well and puts it in an absolutely beautiful form factor, but do get the 8 GB model since that available space is for everything, including the phone's OS.

iPhone Buying Experience

Here's my review of the iPhone that I picked up at the AT&T Store near my house. BTW, almost all of the AT&T Stores have sold out of their allotment of iPhones so the only place left where you'll find one is at The Apple Store, or on apple.com.

Anyway, the AT&T Store experience was strange. It was a VERY controlled environment. When I got in line, an AT&T rep came up and took my name and assigned me a number (actually they assigned it to me through Christine who got there and held my spot for me). You had to stay in line and wait even though you were assigned a number.

Once 6:00 pm rolled around, they were only letting in as many customers as their were available sales people. This usually meant that customers were being let in one at a time. Once you got inside, there was a staging area where a sales person greeted you and confirmed who you were when they took down your name while waiting in line. This procedure prevented people from jumping the line or have people hold spots for other people. It was a good idea and it worked, especially when there were 3 police officers standing in that staging area. After they confirmed your identity, they asked you some questions that were designed to help the sales rep completing your order to upsell certain products like their DSL service or cable or whatever.

The entire sales process didn't take that long at all. They even ran a quick rudimentary credit check and gave you a pre-authorization number so that the iPhone registration process that you performed online through iTunes wouldn't do the same credit check.

By the time I left, I had waited about 45 minutes in line after they opened the doors at 6:00 and there were about 12 people in line still. An hour or so later, there was no line at all.

The Apple Store experience was different in that the queue control was not as tight as AT&T's as they were letting in 50 people at a time and any of those people could hold spots for anybody else. One of my co-workers got there around the same time Christine got to the AT&T store and we both left with our respective iPhones around the same time.

All in all, it was an alright experience. Sign-up and activation was easy as expected. It's amazing that you can't do this with any other phone or provider.

Happy Canada Day!!!!

O Canada...our home and native land...

What does this have to do with cameras? Absolutely nothing! I don't care!

Still one generation behind...

I finally got my Canon 20D after waiting 2 years after it came out, which has now been replaced with the 30D. And soon after I picked up the battery grip to make the camera feel whole...and it looks a lot cooler! :)

My last 35mm film camera was a Canon EOS A2 with a vertical grip. The vertical grip didn't store an extra power source, but only duplicated the shutter release, AE lock, and focus point selection buttons when shooting vertically. I didn't matter. The camera felt so much more solid and beefier than without it.

The BG-E2 grip actually lets you use 2 normal batteries (Canon BP-511A) in the grip, or 6 AA batteries that drop the performance of the camera and are to be used in "emergency situations".

I *TOTALLY* love this camera now. The only thing I wish it could do is duplicate the multi-directional control (kinda like a stubby joystick) on the camera as well.

The one thing I'm not terribly fond of is the pop-up flash. I'm not sure why, but the quality of the built-in flashes have gone down. The built-in flash on my A2 was actually zoom flash and was pretty good! But the light fall-off on the built-in flash on the 20D is very noticeable. At around 10 feet or so, I have to increase the flash power compensation by about a full stop to get a decent exposure.

The quality of the photos is so much better than the 10D. I don't know if it's the extra pixels (2 MP to be exact) or the newer DIGIC chip, but I feel more confident of the results shooting at a higher ISO now.

I was tempted to get the 30D but I'd have to pay twice as much for only a few improvements - larger LCD mainly. I've also heard that the 20D shoots better at higher ISOs. The big downside is that the 20D is noisier in actual decibels. The mirror slap of the 20D is noticeably louder than the 10D and 30D.

Anyway, I'm happy with the camera and the price I paid for it...plus I got $50 back from the sale of the kit lens on eBay that came with it. :)

Extreme Makeover: Camera Edition

I just went through and am about to go through a massive camera switch.

My previous camera line-up:

• Canon EOS 10D


• Hasselblad 500CM


• Pentax 6x7

My camera line-up as soon as I receive my newest acquisition and sell one of my current cameras:

• Canon EOS 20D


• Mamiya RB67

I'm dire need of a DSLR which is lighter. The difference in weight between the 10D and 20D is HUGE! The boost in resolution is huge. I was tempted to go with the 30D but one of my colleagues indicated that the high ISO images from the 30D were noisier than in the 20D. I don't know if I would take advantage of Picture Styles in the 30D, but the larger LCD panel on the camera back would be a big help, but I'm comfortable with the LCD panel in the 10D which is the same as the 20D.

I went the eBay route for this camera purchase since I had sold a lot of stuff on eBay and had enough in my PayPal war chest to pay for a 20D.

I got rid of the Hasselblad because I've had the camera for over 2 years and hadn't used it because I couldn't afford a lens for it. I bought the Mamiya RB67 because I got a good deal on it, but it's a HEAVY beast of a camera. It's going to be tough to hand-hold.

The 20D, as mentioned, will be SO much lighter than the 10D so I'll be happy about that.

In the meantime, I've been getting acquainted with the ins and outs of selling stuff on eBay...it's been quite the interesting experience and I've been learning a lot about some of the best practices when it comes to selling on eBay. The tough part has been figuring out how to charge for shipping, guess the weight of the item (I don't have a scale), and the dimensions of the box that will be holding the item during shipping -- all important things that get factored into how much shipping will cost.

Anyway, I'm pretty excited about getting the 20D, but I'm also hoping to get a good deal selling my 10D.

Does that manual come with a manual?

I've rounded out my medium format collection after acquiring a Mamiya RB67 Pro S through eBay. It was a pretty good steal for a total of under $300. I had to win 2 auctions - one auction was for the entire kit consisting of body, 90mm lens and film magazine, and the other auction was for the waist level finder.

In case anyone cares, it's a completely manual camera. No batteries required. So why the heck would you want a completely manual and mechanical camera? No batteries required, fewer electrical components...BUT, more mechanical parts that will eventually wear down.

I've also got a Hasselblad 500CM that's also completely manual but it's sans lens...plus I need to get a decent film magazine because the one I originally bought is a pain in da butt to wind with.

But back to the RB67...it's a frickin' beast...like big and heavy. I think the box it was delivered in said it was about 8 lbs...but that also means it's built like a rock. There's a lot to be said about all manual cameras. They never require batteries, which these days are pretty expensive. Back in the day, they weren't cheap, but they didn't cost $40+ but nor were they rechargeable like they are now. Those familiar with SLRs will remember the Nikon FM2 which was probably the most resilient all-manual camera that could shoot at 1/250th of a second, or even the venerable Pentax K1000 which was the students' choice for a beginner-level SLR.

I just love reminiscing. Of course my daughter will grow not knowing what the heck 35mm film is.

"FerrrrrrrrAAAAARRrrriiii"

Nothing much to post about. Just the coolest TV ad if you're a Formula One racing fan, Ferrari fan, car fanatic, or just like ads. If you're none of the above, watch it anyways.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6keMAMmn8B4

Apparently it cost $3.9 million to make, which according to Shell, is the most expensive ad made for TV.

And if you're a real Ferrari fan, get some free stickers on the Shell website.

That's all...go back to your TV watching.

Okay so I've offended some...

...but that doesn't mean that I'm not entitled to an opinion. That's the power of free speech. When I'm wrong about facts, I'll admit to it. When my opinion has changed based on new facts, I'll correct myself. So here goes...

So I was contacted by the photographer about my posting about their website and some comments and observations I made during a photo shoot. I'm going to try to make amends here and posting any corrections to facts on the original post as well.

1. The sitting fee for the photo session was actually $25, plus a travel fee of $50, plus some other payment that was made that no one has information on. So that being said, $25 is not a bad sitting fee. I say that because $15 at Sears Portrait Studio will get you photos, but those are cookie cutter photos, and not necessarily anything avant-garde nor extremely creative.



2. The photograph of the tree that I went on and on about was not her choice. Personally I would have mixed emotions about posting that photo, but given that the photographer's website is not secured by client, they really didn't have a choice but to post it.



3. The photographer would like a better camera (wouldn't we all like a better camera?).



4. I'll re-state that I'm a camera snob, but I'm also a camera aficionado, so that's where most of my opinion about cameras and how they themselves can project an image about a person comes from. I could write an entire thesis about it, but the photographer disagrees with me about this point, which they are more than entitled to. I'll also say that her argument about the camera not being indicative of the person behind it is true in practice - the photographer that I assisted for many years ago used a manual focus Nikon in addition to a medium format camera. But shooting a wedding with a manual focus camera was a little strange to me given that auto-focus SLRs are so pervasive. But he was a good photographer and he knew how to handle his gear and how to manage their limitations.

After my last post, the photographer was dismayed (understatement) that I took my complaints public without talking to her first. First off, my complaints were observations and my opinion based on my experience and my own bias. Take those for what you will. Secondly, I'm not a disgruntled client, but I do admit I should have taken my concerns to the photographer first. That's my mistake and I take responsibility for that. Be that as it may, I'm not the one who commissioned the photos so I don't know if I had the right to make contact nor speak for anyone else. My opinion was solely my opinion and not of anyone else's. There's the disclaimer.

In hindsight, my critique was heavy-handed in a very Simon Cowell way. I didn't need to tear someone down to get my point across, so for that I apologize to the photographer. They have started their own business, gotten some favorable reviews and happy clients from their work so the photographer should be proud of that. I'm not going to take that away from them. I will also say that she was very professional throughout. She took the initiative to make sure the family members were satisfied coming away from this.

That being said, my opinion on all other things in the post stand as they are. And those are just that - opinions. If you don't like them, you can rebutt and try to change my mind based on facts, but you can't take my opinions away from me either. You're free to make your own opinions known here as well...anything juvenile or irrational will be ignored.

So, that's it about that matter.

As for me, I'm still contemplating about what I want to do with photography. I enjoy it...it's what gives me joy, but to make it my job might make me enjoy it less...so that's what I'm grappling with now. Maybe I'm just chicken-sh!t. I did learn that my friend Michelle and her husband are planning a business shooting weddings as a business on the side. Good for them!

I hope everyone mentioned in this post continues to be successful, I don't wish anyone ill will...Can't we all just get along? Maybe we can when I'm having a better day.

Thinking about a second job...

Editor's Note: Parts of this post have been corrected based on comments from the photographer mentioned here. I've also added any supplementary opinions that have change based on those comments.

So someone in the family had booked a photographer to take some photos of the family (my wife and in-laws, nephews, nieces, etc.). We had to chip in for the $100 sitting fee which was no big deal. So we arrived in the atrium of the hotel where we were staying to meet the photographer.

UPDATE: The sitting fee was actually $25. There wa a travel fee of $50 (because the photographer drove a decent distance to get to the hotel), plus she was given another $25.

The photographer arrived. She was a younger woman, and she was carrying a small SLR case, basically enough to carry the SLR itself with plenty of padding and not much else. Off her shoulder was the strap to her camera, a Canon Rebel XTi, which is your garden-variety, entry-level, digital SLR, with a Canon Speedlite attached on the camera hotshoe. At that point I thought it was peculiar that a photographer that we were paying (in my book, if you make money being a photographer, whether it's part-time or full-time, you're considered a "professional"), had an entry-level camera.

I'm admittedly a bit of a camera snob. I judge people by the type of camera and brand of camera they use, especially people who are working photographers. I would think that someone we're paying $100 sitting fee would have a better camera. It would be the equivalent of getting your hair cut by someone using a pair of safety scissors. Mind you, a camera is just a tool and the photographer is the person using the tool to create a photograph. The photographer still determines lighting, composition, and the creation of the final product. So even if this person showed up with an old Canon AE-1, I would still hold my opinion in check until I could see how they worked. So that's what I did.

Ed. Note: I'm going to re-state that I AM A CAMERA SNOB. A photographer's equipment is not indicative of their skill. I would think in fact if they could produce great results with lesser equipment, they're probably a better photographer to be able to manage their limitations of lesser equipment. Be that as it may, I wouldn't hire a limousine driver if their fleet consisted of pick-up trucks. Note that I *did* say in the original post that "...even if this person showed up with an old Canon AE-1, I would still hold my opinion in check...".

So she began with a big group shot with all of us by a small tree in the atrium. Now, in my experience, posing by a small tree, or trees in general for that matter, have rarely led to the best results unless all the tree branches are covered by an abundance of leaves. The reason being, you have these branches that stick out, and in the resulting photograph you often have branches that appear to be sticking out of the people's heads. And in this photo, that's exactly what happened. My other concern was that even though there was a lot of natural light coming through the glass roof of the atrium, that typically results in shadows in the eyes. To counter that, you would use a flash to "fill in" those shadows (thus the type of lighting is called "fill flash") and create a nice catch light in the subject's eyes. Well, that didn't happen with our pictures because the photographer didn't use the flash she had mounted on her camera.

UPDATE: The shot of the tree that I spoke of above was not chosen by the photographer, it was suggested by the client.

Now, as someone who has shot a couple of weddings and assisted on many as a 2nd shooter, I have quite a bit of experience with photography. I'm not trying to brag, but that experience counts for something. I wasn't going to point out to this photographer that she use a fill flash or pose away from the tree, because we're PAYING this person to take our pictures. I would EXPECT them to know things about posing, lighting and composition. UPDATE: See update above about the tree photo. Also, if I were the photographer, I wouldn't take kindly to the subject telling me how to do my job, rightly or wrongly. I thought it was a courtesy that I let her do her job and we'd see how the results would come out.

Well, we moved on after the atrium shots to some other locations inside the hotel lobby. In there, you just HAD to use a flash so those photos came out better, lighting-wise. UPDATE: She did use a flash with the photos in the lobby.

Overall, the photos didn't look "professional". Now I'm not going to show you or directly link to that photographer's website because it's not my intention to completely embarrass or slam her. Now if you were to somehow find your way to the photographer's website (linked removed at the request of the photographer), you'll see what I mean. Even to the untrained eye, the photos don't look polished, especially for $100 $25 sitting fee. Especially when I can go to Sears Portrait Studio and pay for a $15 sitting fee. They're not bad photos at all. Some are pretty good photos, but they're not consistently great photos. I just don't feel we got $100 worth of photos.

UPDATE: I really shouldn't say that I don't feel we got $100 worth of photos. I don't speak for anyone else but me. My critique and my opinion are mine and only mine. I don't speak for the other people involved in this. If they feel that they got their money's worth, then that's fine. In reality, we only paid a portion of the total fee. The photographer made the point that we were not making her job easy with cell phone calls and kids running around, and that is an acceptable argument to make. I think given the somewhat uncontrollable (from a photographer's point of view) setting we were in, and how everyone was distracted with what-not, she made an admirable effort in getting everyone together. That I will say, unfortunately, that resulted in the photos (which have since been taken down). I say that is an acceptable argument, but I don't know if it's a valid argument because it's the photographer's job to control and mitigate the environment. I think everyone did the best that they could, but she needed an assistant present to help her out.

Now this is SOLELY my opinion. I'd like to think my limited experience as a professional photographer and as a full-time student studying the photographic arts gives some weight to those opinions. I'm not some lunatic bitching about something just to bitch about something. That's not even my style. If anything, I'd say my opinion is more of a critique than anything else, and I would say that some of the points about lighting and composition would come up if anyone with professional photographic experience reviewed those photos. Also, I have no bone to pick with this photographer. There's no grudge or ulterior motive. I'm giving my opinion just like anyone else is entitled to give.

UPDATE: I'm going to say this one more time...IT'S MY OPINION. Nobody else's. I don't speak for anyone else in the family, outside the family, or anyone in-between. Do not take my opinion as the barometer for how everyone else feels about the photos. If you are still seeing this as otherwise, that's no longer my problem.

So this has led to me to do some thinking. I KNOW I could do better, so why don't I? I FEEL that I could make a worthy try at producing photos of a higher quality. It's pretty much gotten me thinking that I could do portraiture as a side-business. These days, the only things I take pictures of are my daughter, but it's kept me in practice with everything I had learned in photography school and my time as a photographer's assistant to some degree.

I've even posted some of my old photos from over 10 years ago (back in the day when the only DSLRs were over $10,000) on Flickr.

Anyway, I've been thinking about it seriously and not-so-seriously. We'll see what happens.

LAST UPDATE: My opinions and observations of the actual event have changed given the points that the photographer made in her response to my posting. I did sympathize with the situation, but that's part and parcel of that type of job, especially when you're not working in a controlled environment. Beyond that, I should add in my observations that she was a very professional person to deal with.

I should apologize for not contacting her about my concerns rather than blogging about it. I mean, if you're dissatisfied with a service or product, you would try to have the service or product corrected, right? Well, I didn't give the photographer that opportunity so that is admittedly my fault. This photographer has had happy customers, produced good work, and is doing something she enjoys, and for that she should be commended.

Okay, now that we've taken care of that...my opinion on everything else still stands. One thing that is difficult in life, regardless of what you do, is hear criticism. I've studied visual arts and photography and have gone through enough critiques to get some value of them. While my opinion may have strayed beyond a professional critique, I felt I made some valid points. I know that doesn't get me a free cup of coffee anywhere, but I'm open and honest about it. I don't try to sugar-coat things because if all you hear are good reviews, that doesn't help you develop or improve as an artist. I hope the photographer got that much out of my rant (if she decides to read this). What I didn't do successfully (or at all) was point out the things she did well, such as interacting positively with everyone, getting the kids to cooperate, not getting frustrated about the setting, and being a complete professional...so it wasn't a "fair and balanced" critique.

That's all folks.

Inside the Business of iTunes

Here's an interesting article about the business of iTunes. The article talks about how the iTunes Store has as much influence on record sales as MTV once had.

I found the link to the article on TUAW.

Citizenship - what it means to me

First off, I'm not a citizen of the United States...just a plain ol' Alien Resident, a.k.a. Permanent Resident, a.k.a. Green Card Holder. So I have a unique and enviable position of being able to apply for citizenship. Having a Green Card, some might wonder, "why bother?" It's a difficult decision to make...do I want to become a citizen of the worst global images, when I'm currently a citizen of the country with the best image in the world.

Having lived in the States for the past 6 years, I share the opinion that the political climate needs to change, and I feel the need to express that opinion through a U.S. citizen's right to vote. As a spectator through the last presidential election and having witnessed how George W. Bush has led the country, and feeling completely helpless and useless in not being able to make my vote and opinion count, I feel that applying for citizenship now, when the country needs a boost in its global image and a paradigm shift in its dealings with the rest of the world, is the best time to do it. Besides, after paying U.S. taxes for the past 6 years and not have anything to show for it, I think it's about time it did.

One major factor in my decision is that I wouldn't have to surrender my Canadian citizenship. If that were not the case, I think my feelings toward U.S. citizenship would be different.

Another factor has to do with the requirements for being eligible for citizenship. They're fairly easy if you aren't a complete dumbass or lowlife. I found some sample civics test questions online got some lulz out of them. They certainly made me feel at ease over how incredibly stupid you can be before they give you the rights of a U.S. citizen.

For example:

Q: How many colors are there on the U.S. flag?
Q: What color are the stars on the U.S. flag?
Q: Who is the 1st President of the United States?
Q: Who is the current President of the United States? No, you can no longer use the search term of "miserable failure" on Google to find the answer to this question, but you still can on Yahoo.

Granted these are the simple ones, but it's sure to test the 5th grade knowledge of most people who were actually born in the U.S.

Oh yes, another requirement is that I may actually have to take an english test. Me....take an english test. Me...who came from an English-speaking country where I lived for over 20 years. Heck, I can do the english test in French. I can write and speak english than most natural-born citizens! I'm not bragging, but maybe the fact that I can blog in english should be an equivalent qualification for an exemption from the english test.

Mind you, I had to go through something similar when I had to get my Missouri drivers license. I had been driving for over 10 years in Canada and I had to go through a driver's exam (written and road tests) to get a Missouri license. I mean, we all drive on the same side of the road, the road signs are the same and in the same language (except there are no polar bear crossings in Missouri), the traffic light signals use the same colors, so why the presumption that I can't drive?

I didn't have to go through anything similar in Texas, even though everyone here drives like it's a different country altogether...go figure.

Testing the new AirPort Extreme

So one of my colleagues bought the new Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station for work but the Network Security Guru wasn't going into the office until after the weekend, so he lent the APE router to test to see if it's the right device for me.

I'll skip the beautiful aesthetics of the unit and cut straight to the features and functionality. At first glance, the setup was easy...it was slightly more technical than your average Apple setup wizard, but given the highly-technical nature of this type of device, that can be forgiven. At first, I noticed that many of the router options were not present. It wasn't until after awhile that I discovered that I was playing in the "simple" mode and not the advanced "manual" mode where all the advanced security settings were hiding.

After I got that figured out I started playing with the security settings. I should first mention that anyone who has used a typical router admin screen from Linksys or D-Link, using the Airport Utility is completely different since the admin requires a software application and the router cannot be configured via a web admin. Since it's an application, it looks completely different than your average web admin, so it may be confusing if you've configured other routers.

That being said, I actually found it a bit more difficult to find some of the settings I'd normally be able to find pretty quickly, such as MAC address filtering, shutting off SSID broadcasting, dialing down signal strength, etc.

One HUGE absolutely annoying issue I was running into was that any setting that I made and updated the router required a reset of the router, which meant it rebooted...and rebooting the device was not a fast process.

In addition, I had to reset the router 3 times to its default factory settings before I got my settings to work properly and finally stick.

Okay, so since I don't have a working printer, but I do have a USB hard drive, I gave the Airport Disk a try. At first I plugged in the drive into the USB port of the router, and something didn't happen right. I'm not quite sure but the USB drive did not show up in the Airport Utility admin. I had to reset the router...again, and then it finally showed up.

Setting up the security for the Airport Disk was easy and worked flawlessly with my MacBook Pro. I was able to see the disk, and was restricted to my assigned share. Data transfer was BLAZINGLY FAST, even in mixed mode (b/g/n compatible). I transferred a 12 GB VMWare image that was on the USB drive and it took about 11 minutes. I then transferred about 70 image files that were about 700 kb each to the USB drive and it performed that transfer in under a minute. The speed of data transfer was better than what I had hoped.

One other strange kept occuring...I had set up the router as it's own wireless network. When I went to switch wireless to and from my main wi-fi network, it wouldn't show the Airport Disk when I browsed my network until I performed a reset of the router. It was able to connect to the router fine, but I had to nudge it to get the disk to show up.

Okay, after figuring out that I should be using WPA/WPA2 Personal as my WPA setting, I finally got my 2 Windows PCs to connect to the network. It was excruciatingly difficult for my older eMachine laptop to connect mainly because of the older WPA setting would only work with its wireless network adapter. By big beef is with the inability for my Windows machines to see the Airport Disk on the network. I wasn't able to browse to it through a Windows Explorer through the "browse entire network" option, but I was able to connect to it by its UNC path. It worked but it wasn't very fast trying to connect to it. When I finally connected to the drive, I browsed to those image files that I had placed on the USB drive and tried to browse through them through the Filmstrip view in Explorer. It took several seconds for each preview to be generated on-the-fly so it was faster than my existing Buffalo NAS device, but it's not as fast as I had hoped.

I was conclude that as far as Airport Disk functionality was concerned, file transfer was good, and definitely as expected, if not better. Using it as a file server, it may not be as good as a real file server.

Of course, your mileage may vary.

Why Customer Service Sucks...

Do you ever wonder why we, the consumers, get such crappy customer service? Why we're kept on hold, in a call queue, for minutes on end...and then encountered by a customer service rep that doesn't seem to care?

It's because companies want it that way.

Customer service levels are kept at a minimum satisfactory level because it's actual cheaper to provide lower levels of customer service. The bean counters actually have the numbers to back it up. If you spend less time on a call with a customer, you get through more calls. If a call rep spends more time on the phone going above and beyond to help customers, it actually costs more to provide that higher level of customer service.

Okay, so shouldn't a customer service manager be concerned about low customer service levels? Shouldn't it be their mandate to provide better levels of customer service? Doesn't common sense tell you that better customer service will make people happier? Happier customers = customers who purchase more? Don't customers pass on customer service experiences, both good and bad? One would think that if a customer had poor customer service experiences, that they would go to the competition. Apparently lowering your level of customer service will save you enough money to cover any losses due to customers defecting.

Does this sound far-fetched? Maybe...but the VP at the company I work for has told its customer service department managers that their customer service levels are TOO HIGH. Yes, TOO HIGH!!! I've heard that statement from more than one person and on more than one occasion.

I don't think this VP is an evil person, I think he has a mandate, and an agenda, but it's hard to argue with real numbers that fly in the face of common sense and doing what's good for people. So does that mean he's a bad person for not doing what's right for the customer? I'd like to think that operating costs shouldn't be cut and customer service levels shouldn't be cut...but maybe companies should provide better quality, better service, things that will drive customers to their products.

Let's talk about DRM baby, let's talk about you and me....

As you've probably seen, Steve Jobs posted a manifesto on the iPod, iTunes, DRM, and the evil record companies.

My co-workers and I had a healthy discussion about the posting. I won't go into detail about what Jobs posted, but he played the victim of being bound to the big 4 record companies' demands (Sony, EMI, Universal and Warner) that all their songs that are for sale on the iTunes Store must have DRM, and that despite the European Union's whining about the iPod being tied to iTunes Store, it's not Apple's doing. If that's the case, why aren't they nagging Microsoft about their Zune device being tied to the Zune Marketplace?

Anyway, my co-workers and I were talking about Jobs insistence that the world would be a better place without DRM. If you, the consumer, had the choice between downloading music wrapped in DRM, or music that was DRM free, which would you choose? If you had to pay a premium for the DRM-free music, like say 20-25%, would you still buy it? What if you had to buy the album to get DRM-free music, whereas singles were wrapped in DRM?

What would it take to get the record companies to give up DRM, since, according to Jobs, DRM doesn't work? My co-workers and I bandied about suggestions that either the artists, the consumer, or the record companies are the impetus for change.

Let's discuss...

The consumer as the impetus for change? Doubtful since the record companies don't really care about the consumers since they have no qualms about suing them.
The record companies aren't going to change their tune unless they're given reason to, which is money. If they're given reason to believe that DRM-free music will produce more sales, then they'd go for it. But given that there's no evidence to support that hypothesis, that's probably not going to happen soon.

The artists as impetus for change? Possibly. The artists are the record company's golden goose. Without artists, the record company can only sell back catalog. If there were enough artists, and I mean major artists of the calibre of U2, Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, artists with a large and lucrative back catalog, left their labels and went independent, and sold their music online DRM-free, do you think the labels would pay attention?

There are some artists who have gone independent and formed their own label, including one of my favorite bands, the Barenaked Ladies. In fact, you can download their performances of their current tour and previous tours from Nettwerk in DRM-free, MP3 format. If you want the iTS flavor, you can get the same performances from the iTunes Store but wrapped in DRM. If the price for each of the albums were the same, which would you choose?

What about giving away DRM-free singles to sell the albums? While iTunes has a free download every week, it's still wrapped in FairPlay DRM which means you can only share the music with 5 computers. The giveaway is to a.) discover new music; b.) get you to buy the album; and c.) get you to explore the iTunes Store. While the download is free, you're still bound by the iTS terms and conditions.

I think we're all in agreement as consumers, that the current landscape of music sucks, both in quality and legal bounds, so who's going to make the ground-breaking moves to make ripples of change in the music industry?

Everything old is new again...this old Newt

So for nostalgia sake, I dug up my Newton 2000 and got it to sync with my MacBook Pro. It used to sync with my Powerbook without issues via a USB-serial adapter.

For some reason my MBP wouldn't recognize the adapter...I couldn't remember if it needed a special driver. I dug out the mini CD (why do they distribute software like this) and had to stick it in an old skool CD drive because the slot-loading SuperDrives don't do the mini CDs. Of course the drivers were not Universal Binaries. Luckily I found the USB-serial adapter manufacturer website and they had an updated Universal Binary driver. I downloaded it, installed it, rebooted and all was good.

I've no idea why I have these periodic moments of nostalgia, especially with my Newton. I can think of many reasons not to even waste the effort on using it, nevermind getting it to sync with my Mac, getting it access the internet, or getting it hooked up with Wi-Fi. But then, does Apple have a tablet (ModBook excepted), a PDA (wait, that would be the Newton), or any other portable, pen-based device? It's probably a reason why I'm pretty excited about the iPhone...mainly because I know that in a couple of hours, I'll put the Newton back in the drawer and won't see it for another 8 weeks again.

In a previous post I mentioned that my Palm had been resurrected from the dead and is now undead. But it's still not what I'm looking for, mainly due to the limitations Graffiti.

So why the iPhone, especially since it's not pen-based, is more of an entertainment device than a proper office tool? Probably because Microsoft products remind me of work, and having a personal device with Windows just reminds me more of work.

The Palm is Dead, Long Live the Palm!

My Palm Tungsten T3 died a mysterious death about 8 months ago. It froze...it wouldn't sync....it wouldn't reset....no amount of documented rescusciation brought it back to life. So it sat on my desk in the computer room, collecting layer after layer of dust.

Every so often, I'd walk by and turn it on to see, if by some strange miracle, it would spontaneously wake up. I was tempted to disassemble it just for fun, but I was aware that it had a built-in battery and probably a powerful capacitor. So I just let it be. It sat next to the retired Sony Clie that my wife used to use.

8 months later, after purchasing a used Sony UX-50, and then having that die a sticky death (it got covered in some syrupy, sticky mess that made it completely unusable), I was stll left without a PDA.

That is until yesterday.

I performed my montly ritual of vacuuming and noticed the corpse of the T3 lying off of its cradle where I had left it. I dropped it back into its cradle and the green LED popped on, and the Palm start up screen blinked on. What???? Yep, after 8 months of hibernation my T3 awoke. It looked like it had gone through a hard reset or the battery drained completely, flushing it of its RAM contents.

I cautiously synchronized it with my MacBook Pro which I maintained a copy of the Palm Desktop contents and the non-Universal Binary HotSync and it was back to its old self.

Since I'm doing the household finances now, I even bought a copy of Pocket Quicken to help me keep track of purchases. Kind of a small token of my appreciation for waking up after 8 months of slumber.

I'm still cautiously optimistic...I've no idea what caused it to go nite-nite for 8 months and the 4 tiny screws on each side of the PDA are still missing, so it could be a short-lived life...who knows.

On a slight tangent, this is the only Palm I've ever truly liked. There are no other newer or current Palm PDAs that have the compact form factor where I can have the 160 x 160 square screen and expand it by sliding the unit open to make it more rectangular. I enjoy the fact that I can use Graffiti anywhere on the screen and love the small compactness of it and allows me to use it one-handed. It's sad to think that if this dies again, I won't be able to find any PDA that fits my needs.

For the time being though, it's good to have my good friend back.

Laptop Security

So I recently got a new MacBook Pro, and the thought of it getting stolen cross my mind after hearing stories about government laptops getting stolen (mind you I've nothing as important or confidential on my laptop like Social Security numbers or anything like that) so I decided to see what I could to: a.) mitigate that possibility of it getting stolen; b.) increase my chances of my laptop being recovered should it get stolen.

Well, let's talk about what I could do to prevent it from being stolen in the first place. Anything I could do would basically be physical in nature, such as Kensington laptop lock (though I've nothing to really chain it to), but those are not completely foolproof. So what else could I do?

First off, I don't have a typical laptop briefcase that screams, "I've got a laptop in here!!!". You know what I'm talking about...typically they have Targus or Dell written all over them. Granted I have a geek-looking knapsack but it doesn't look like your average laptop bag (at least I hope it doesn't). I'm thinking about getting a very low-key messenger bag that I saw on Amazon.com...and it's dirt cheap too!

So keep your laptop in disguise!

Let's say your laptop gets stolen...what do you do? Well, if you're like most people, you'd be SOL. Many of the products I've seen are recovery software programs that clandestinely alert a central operations centre that your laptop has been stolen once it connects to the internet (which most thieves do). They typically send the IP address of the laptop, and that normally can help the authorities locate the physical location of the laptop, and thus the thief.

The most well-known product is LoJack for Laptops (formerly Computrace). Their website indicates that they recover 3 out of 4 stolen laptops that have their software installed on it, which is a pretty good percentage. My only complaint (and it's not really a complaint so much as that I'm a cheapskate) is that they charge $39.99/year for the service, but one of the few software products that support Mac OS X.

The other piece of software that's gotten a lot of media attention is Undercover from Orbicule. The software sounds a lot like LoJack for Laptops, but there are a few differences:

1. They only support Macs


2. They charge a one-time fee of $39 instead of an annual service fee


3. For Macs that have an iSight camera, external or built-in, the software when reported stolen and becomes activated, will snap photos of the thief and will send screenshots of the desktop

Why take screenshots? Well, the thief might be stupid enough to use the e-mail software or chat software installed on the computer, and thus reveal some info about them. Check out this recovery story from Orbicule and you'll see why that additional info might be useful.

To me, the price is right, but given that the detection center is just a hosted server and, from what I can tell, it's a small operation, so the viability of the company might not be as stable as a well-known or more-established company.

Still, it's an ingenious piece of software that uses some other techniques to aid in the recovery of the laptop, like darkening the screen until it becomes completely black.

Note that neither piece of software will work unless the computer is connected to the internet, but given the proliferation of the internet, it's not going to take long for the software to be activated.

Germany sells iPhones???

Say wha???

I found this on TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog)...apparently the iPhone is available for sale on Amazon Germany...for a mere 899 Euros...or over a $1,000 USD!!!

Apparently you're just pre-ordering it and it's available through T-Mobile Germany so the exclusivity of the iPhone for Cingular is only in the U.S....but for how long? Sounds like the phone can be unlocked, but knowing Apple, doing so probably disables a whole bunch of features.

Stealing thunder from CES

I have to say that only the power, aura and sheer anticipation of a Steve Jobs keynote at Macworld Expo could upstage the renowned Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Of particular interest were the respective keynotes by Steve Jobs at Macworld Expo and Bill Gates at CES. Nick Carr talks about the differences between two of the most important people in personal computers.

Anyway, being a self-admitted Mac fanboy, there isn't the passion and excitement when you listen to Bill Gates talk in comparison to listening to Steve Jobs talk...it's like Gates is trying to sell you something that even he doesn't believe in. Given Jobs' reputation for perfection, it's not hard to actually believe him when he tells you his products are "the best ever".

Anyway, I'm totally smitten with the iPhone (or whatever it will be called when it's finally shipped, pending Cisco's lawsuit over the iPhone name). Despite it's shortcomings (my biggest beef is that you can't sync wirelessly with your Mac), it's going to set the cell phone industry on its head. There's no other device that even looks like this device, nevermind that it has an interface that Nokia, Motorola or Sony-Ericsson can only dream of.

For the Ramen Connoisseur

I saw this on Gizmodo recently that every instant noodle connoisseur should have. It's a Ramen Noodle Cup Timer that looks like a cooker and even has a red LED under the "burner" to make it look like it's cooking.

Personally my favorite ramen has been Shin Ramyun and Tung-I Ramen Noodle, Chinese Beef Flavor.

It harkens me back to a time when I was poor and living off of ramen...like yesterday.