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Finally, Notes sync between iPhone and Computer

So I am fiddling around with a bit of commercial software in demo form and it looks like it will do exactly what I need the iPhone to do to mostly replace my Palm Tungsten C (finally).

As a phone the iPhone is simply awesome. Best sound quality of any mobile phone I have ever used.

As a camera, the iPhone is surprisingly good as a cheap point and shoot with tiny lens (it certainly will not replace a real camera, but it’s decent in a pinch).

As an MP3 player it lacks sufficient storage to do more than my routine podcasts and some music.

As a PDA or ultra-portable computer is where the iPhone has been shockingly lacking.

  • Calendar/Datebook: the iPhone comes with excellent Calendar/Datebook/iCal software that syncs with either MobileMe or iCal on your Mac (which can in turn be synced with Google Calendars).
  • AddressBook/Contacts: the iPhone comes with excellent Contacts that can be synced with AddressBook on your Mac or MobileMe.
  • Notes: here, the iPhone falls down; big time… first of all, out of the box the notes do not sync with the computer desktop (ouch). That was a show-stopper for me. Second, the absence of cut&paste buffer is very limiting. I am very happy to say that finally, through the use of ECamm’s PhoneView software, it looks like Notes can be synced with computer just fine (though rebooting the phone to sync is annoying). I am reviewing the demo, if it stands up – this solves the notes problem for me.
  • Reading documents, grabbed websites, books: looks like the iPhone has this stuff a plenty.
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2008 10 09 snolan Computers
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Good Day at Work

Got to help an old friend get set up at work today, as he is starting as a contractor.

Also got to use the rpcinfo, fuser, umount, killall, and mount commands again for the first time in nearly a decade… I love me some UNIX-foo, but NFS still sucks (though it fills the void).

Built more Xen virtualized opensuse 11 servers on top of opensuse 11 on HP Blade servers; fun, fun, fun.
Did I mention how much I loath MSIE and HP for making certain iLO features only work in MSIE? At least that part is short and most of the work can be done from command line and Firefox.

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2008 10 08 snolan Computers
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Negative Campaigns: Are they all the same?

The Obama campaign is running a negative campaign message on the internet. It is not the first, nor (likely) the last. Yet I see a very specific difference between the Obama campaign’s official messages and those of his opponents John McCain and Sarah Palin. His are factual and pertinent to the debate about wether his opponent is fit for the office being contested:

Yes, this message is ugly, messy, and very, very negative against Senator John McCain, but it is also factually true, accurate, and directly addresses a concern many people have about wether John McCain should be trusted with the power of the oval office. If McCain has a public record history of protecting criminals from justice, and making the public pay for the mistakes; is that not very important information we need to know and be reminded of before we vote?

Compare that, if you will, with Palin and McCain’s outright lies about Obama and Obama’s positions every morning on several different campaign ads in every television market where a competitive state makes running ads attractive. McCain has “approved this message” on so many false statements that we are questioning his integrity and ability to continue serving as a Senator. He has falsely claimed that Obama was trying to teach children about sex (Obama was trying to teach them about sex offenders, which is a big difference). He’s falsely claimed Obama would raise taxes (as much as I don’t like it, Obama is talking about Reagan-like tax cuts). In the Virginia TV market we get bombarded with these lies and misdirections every day. It is almost, but not quite as nauseating as the normal bombardment of crappy drug commercials for problems we don’t have.

Question is, will America notice the difference between negative and accurate and negative and deceptive? Obama is making a pretty big gamble that Americans are smart enough to figure it out. I pray he is correct.

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2008 10 08 snolan Economics
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New Yorker Endorses Obama

The New Yorker has endorsed, and it is worth the read.

New Yorker Endorses Obama

They explain, in good detail why this election is so important, and why Obama is the man for the job.

2008 10 07 snolan Economics
Environment
Foreign Policy
News
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Weekend Fun

Had a great, if exhausting, weekend with La Belle Compagnie in Charlottesville. Went to Shebeen Pub both Saturday and Sunday for wonderful South African food and pub food. Interesting mix of cuisines. The American History Weekend event was fun, lots of very interested visitors, and weather that got a bit too warm if you weren’t in the shade.

The drive along U.S. highway 29 is beautiful in light fog. Sadly, along the route somewhere a bearing in my driver’s side wheel hub gave out and it’s not under warranty…. $510.82 and several hours wasted at the dealer was how I got to start my Monday. Grrrr!

Reminder: in many, many states today is the last day to register to vote to be eligible to vote on November 4th. If you live in Virginia, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, or many other states; go get registered now.

Photos courtesy of Ed Thyberg:
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2008 10 06 snolan Cars
Fun
History
Local
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Obama Campaign has an iPhone application!?

Wow – Obama has an iPhone application:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/iphon

Interesting use of technology. I wonder if those same features can be made available to volunteers who do not have an iPhone (which I suspect is most of them).

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2008 10 02 snolan News Comments (0) Permalink

Congressional Elections: Virginia

It is very important that we replace the current congress with some fresh ideas, new attitudes, and a willingness to work with President Obama in the new government in order to get the change we need for our country and our world. That means targeting elected congress-critters who have been voting with the Bush administration, who are stopping the constructive process of government, and who are opposed by strong, progressive candidates who will serve the public well.

In most congressional elections, Virginia has very few choices to vote for by the general election. In years past many neanderthals have run unopposed for re-election or only been challenged by fringe candidates without a prayer of winning. This year (2008) is very, very different. There are Democrats running for every congressional seat (which is a first I think, for many years). Some are facing very difficult challenges; but several have a real shot this year because Americans are finally waking up to the lies of the modern Republican party.

I have already contributed a small donation to the Glenn Nye campaign to unseat Thelma Drake in the 2nd district. If you have not, and you are tired of Virginia being embarrassed by her antics; please contribute to Glenn Nye yourself.

I just now finally contributed to the Judy Feder campaign to unseat Frank Wolf (who is no friend of veterans) in my own district (10th). Please help unseat Wolf and get someone who will actually work for better health care into office. I also just contributed to the Anita Hartke campaign to unseat the horribly offensive and childish Eric Cantor in the 7th district. The 7th and the 10th are normally overwhelmingly conservative districts, but Wolf’s big spending habits and Cantor’s cry-baby antics have even die hard Republicans annoyed. We have a real shot at getting responsible public servants in office in both districts.

Perhaps the best shot we have of doing this in the state is the inspiring campaign of Tom Perriello to unseat Virgil Goode in the 5th district. Sadly when I went to contribute today, the Perriello campaign website could not SSL encrypt my transaction, so I did not contribute yet. It appears to be a small technical flaw that can be easily fixed so I hope it will be fixed and we can contribute soon. Please volunteer, donate, consider, and vote for these fine candidates I’ve linked to and watch Virginia become a moderate state again.

Update: Perriello campaign website now accepts secure contributions. I gave today, you should too.

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2008 10 01 snolan Economics
Environment
Foreign Policy
Politics
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Freestyles Photos

I danced this past weekend at Arthur Murray Fall Freestyles and took a few photos with my partner’s excellent Canon Rebel XTi. Pictures are up at my MobileMe Gallery. I have not had time to edit them much or write about the weekend, but it was fun.

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2008 10 01 snolan Dance
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Odd iTunes 8 bug?

I am not even sure this is a bug, but it is a strange and annoying behavior. When I upgraded from iTunes 7 to iTunes 8 for Mac, most of my Smart Playlists stopped playing more than one song with each play command. The playlist would only play one song and stop. Very annoying, you build a playlist to have music running and not have to worry about selecting a new song every time.

Scanned the support forums, every solution they suggested did not apply in my case (my songs were checked, the “use only checked songs” button was not checked, editing the playlist showed nothing unusual). As a last resort I deleted my smart playlist and created a new one with the same settings and name and… it worked.

Strange, but perhaps this solution will either help someone else noticing the same problem or someone will send in a reason why it happens and how to fix it without deleting and recreating the playlist.

As a side note, nothing gets rid of bad 1970s era ear-worms like medieval music! Miri it is!

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2008 10 01 snolan Computers
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The is_human() filter

Just a reminder folks, if you are going to comment here, you must answer the multiple choice question displayed as a required field in the comment page.

I am seeing some comments get rejected that look legitimate, because the question was left unanswered.

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2008 09 30 snolan Blogging
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