the P.Pole

I have received my brand-spanking-new iPhone 4 via FedEx (after they delayed the delivery by 3 days, and then sent it from Mississauga to Vancouver, and then back to the GTA to delay it one extra day). I also preemptively made a case for it out of a Moleskine notebook. Pretty impressive that the damned things fit together so snugly, considering I never had the iPhone with me while cutting, and based pretty much everything off of estimates and measurements from Wikipedia. I made another time-lapse video of the cutting process, and normal recordings for the unboxing and fitting of Ulrich (my phone) in his handmade crib.

Notes: The original audio track was supposed to be Kaela Kimura’s “Level 42″ but because the folks at Columbia Music are dicks sticklers about people promoting their artists on their behalf for free illegal use of their “property” they wouldn’t let me use it on YouTube and the audio got nuked. I then used an audio-swap feature of YouTube’s to substitute a pre-licensed song (the “I’m Feeling Lucky” automatic song finder gave me Finger Eleven’s “Paralyzer” after two tries).

I hope you enjoy the video, without the original, nicely cut and faded audio. Thanks be to Karen for helping me with the cutting of the pages, and Amy for her genius idea on how to bind and seal the pages together. Oh, and thanks be to Columbia Music, just for being the kind of company they are. Please, continue to set this kind of precedent for all those in the music industry and do for your artists what only you can do, and I’m almost sure you will have a flourishing business model on your hands. That, or crash and burn like the bags of fecal matter in airplanes low on fuel that you so desperately wish to resemble.

Hate for petty and childish business models aside, I’m loving the phone and loved making the case. I have indeed been able to replicate the attenuation problem (to crush the dreams of all those who were hoping some magical fix had been implemented in the second batch of iPhones), but it seems that it is only an issue in inherently weak-signaled places, and I do think the reception overall is actually better on the iPhone 4. For example, I get 3 bars that will drop to none or 1 when applying the death-grip to Ulrich from within my condo. As a reference, I normally get zero/no reception at all with my previous handset in the same spot. This proves that attenuation is still a problem. However, the fact that the phone even gets any reception in that spot at all indicates that the antennae actually performs better if not being cheated.

Whether you’ve been here the past few days or if you subscribed to me via RSS, you may have noticed that, since the 25th of July, 2010, this site had previously been pointed to one of those domain squatter’s pages (see here for an example).

Apparently, my claim on the domain had expired on the 25th but the notifications were never received by me. The WhoIs information was never changed with respect to my email address. To make things worse, I had assumed I was on an automatic renewal setup, so I never bothered to check when my lease expired.

You can imagine the shock I had when I went to make a post last night (probably about how much Statistics I’ve been doing over the week—a lot) and instead found a squatter on my page, with links redirecting to pole dancing lessons and pole barns. When I ran a WhoIs check, it said the “people” at Enom.com had swooped in and gobbled up my domain. I went there, and test-registered the domain. They wanted me to pay the $69 for something intangible that I owned a few days ago.

I asked a few people who’d know about this sort of thing (thanks Tim, Adwin, Stephen, and David) and the general consensus was that I was not getting my domain back. I contacted Hostgator about the problem, sort of in a panic, and the helpful support guy told me he’d do his best to snag it back on my behalf, and all I have to do is pay for the renewal for the coming year (since after all my lease did expire). So, $15 and one night’s worth of sleep later, www.the-ppole.com is back in my rightful possession, with all the WordPress installation + databases intact (I checked first thing this morning when I woke up).

Let this mark the start of a new age, where domain squatting bastards like Enom Inc. can cram it with their business model.

Re: Amy – The squatters’ asses have been soundly kicked.

5 things I will enjoy this summer:

• airsoft research and hunting
• iPhone 4G launch (June/July)
• make a new body for Phoebe my bass
• help Amy with a clay replicas of various WMD stuff (and claysoft armaments)
• minor amounts of exercise, including some weights and running/squash/Frisbee

I’ve lots planned for this summer (not formally, but there’s a ton of things I want to do). I’m excited, but damn is it ever hot here. Our house does not have any air conditioning. I spend my nights laying in my undies on my bed waiting to die of heat exhaustion or somehow fall into a stickily writhing sleep (enjoy the imagery, children). I wake up with sticky knee-backs (you know, the back of your knees) and that nasty feeling of having a layer of something truly mysterious between yourself and your clothes. Are you sweaty? Good, now lick the back of your hand. Taste that? That’s me. In your mouth. Enjoy.

The iPhone 4G!

First, see an article on Engadget about its discovery: here.

5 reasons why I am excited for this phone:

• Form Factor: my dear Amy and I have been ranting on about the ugliness of the “curvy” shape of the iPod Touch (post-first generation) and the iPhone as well. This flat-backed + sheer/vertical sided iPhone “prototype” is almost 100% what I’ve been dreaming about since I saw the ugly iPhone of yesterdays.
• I don’t own an expensive phone. I’ve never really gotten into getting particularly fancy/”premium” cell phones (hell, I never even used/needed one until I moved out to university). Thus, I don’t need to feel particularly guilty considering such a purchase eventually, since I’m not replacing anything fancy!
• I’ve been considering getting a nicer device to store all my “stuff” on + upgrading my iPod sometime soon, since I’m starting to run out of memory (see: the large, shared musick collection with my favourite girl in the world, simply named “The Library”) and would welcome the boost in storage capacity (the iPhone 4G they found comes with 80 GB memory, my part of the Library is about 31.5 GB).
• Completely replacing my iPod and my current cell phone along with some other stuff I don’t have (see: can I has email on the go now?) would save space in my pockets. I hate crammed pockets.
• Did I already mention the honking beautiful form factor? JUST LOOK AT IT.

Disclaimer:

I don’t work for Postbox, but I do appreciate their software and how it actually does what I want. This is why I am promoting it to friends and family alike.

This guide is written for Postbox 1.1.1, on Mac OS X (I’m on 10.6.2 at time of writing this), so I cannot guarantee success on the Windows version via the same steps, but all the settings in Gmail + preferences should be more or less identical.

When you get this set up, you should be able to archive messages just like in the web interface to keep on the Gmail servers, delete emails to the trash (or immediately) via Postbox, and get the most out of your Gmail-on-desktop experience. I hope this also helps anyone else who has trouble getting these things to work. I spent a good hour last night figuring it out.

If you read through this and try it out on a trial version, and you like what you see, you can save $10 on the purchase of Postbox by using a referral purchase page here (you will see a small message at the top confirming the $10 discount). Students with valid photo ID will get a 50% discount too.

So this application was mentioned by Lifehacker and I have since purchased it. I do not often purchase software (opting for the awesome freewares that are offered out there instead), but after using a trial version of this app, I instantly fell in love with the level of actual, real interoperability with Gmail IMAP. Having had no success with Mail or Thunderbird working properly with IMAP (i.e. archiving is wonky, as is expunging from the inbox), I tested this alternative out and found it to do exactly what I needed (mostly without any major configuration in the newer version).

If you’re looking for a feature list, please see their site for their marketing pitch.

I’m going to go over a quick guide to set up Postbox with Gmail, such that the archiving works along with trashing, inbox cleaning, and all that jazz. Currently, I have not found any other comprehensive guide that is proven to work that takes into account both the Gmail settings and the Postbox settings to ensure things play nice. Enjoy, and I hope this helps you if you’re having trouble.

Getting Postbox

First, you’ll need to go download a copy of Postbox (free trials are available for both Windows and Max OS X). Install by following the instructions (duh, straightforward, really). Go here for the download file (you’ll need to click the button at the top to get your OS-specific download, as their site automatically detects your operating system). Continue reading

Welcome the latest addition to our tech-family my brand new PS3 Slim. I did not get the increased (to 250 GB) model and opted instead of an extended, 2-year “don’t ask, don’t tell” warranty from Future Shop. This is mostly because I will later on expand the hard drive myself with something huge and inexpensive when it is time. Or, I will be streaming stuff off a home server anyway so there’s no need to store much content on the PS3 itself.

Anyway, other players in my game of chess include a HDMI (male) to DVI-D (female) connector bit, so I can connect my existing ass-kicking 22″, HDCP compliant computer monitor (Hans, as I named him), and—in the audio department—a pair of sister parts: a stereo audio RCA (female) to 3.5 mm (male) connector, and a 3.5 mm female-to-female bridge piece. With these two together, I will be able to game on my PS3 while plugging into audio with my headphones, or any set of speakers I may acquire later on.

Also, “Batman: Arkham Asylum” is on the way, so that’s going to be my main game for the next long while. In the meantime, MGS4 (that I bought last year) and Mirror’s Edge (today, new for $20 at Game Stop) will keep me preoccupied. I will also go ahead and set up a PSN account too. But, alas, it is time to bed. But yes, woohoo to the max.

Note: I have yet to come up with a good name (female) for my PS3 and am open to suggestions (though I reserve the right to ridicule horrible suggestions). Leave one (or more) in the comments if you please.

I am as shocked as you are. I have no idea who made this, or why they chose me (because they clearly had me in mind when programming this), but I am both honored and disproportionately concerned about this. I believe we can call shenanigans on this and get on with life.

I don’t know if I would buy it, but it was featured on the home page of the AppStore.

Note: I am neither promoting this app, nor telling anyone to boycott it. Enjoy it (or don’t) for the $0.99 price tag.