Ok so the smartphone-to-dumbphone downgrade ended up being a mixed success and failure. I'm back to a smartphone but I'm not obsessed with it, which is nice.

I went with the HTC Inspire 4G becuase it was the only phone AT&T was willing to offer me after 3 bad Samsung Solstice II phones. I'm very happy with it but I noticed that the battery life was horrible.

Here's how I fixed that crap, baby.

How to make the Inspire 4G battery last longer:

• Found this on the Android Forums, when you restart the phone IMMEDIATELY kill the following processes (unless you're using them for something specific):
  • AT&T Mark The Spot (if you have it)
  • AT&T Navigator
  • AT&T HotSpots
  • Maps Rate Places
  • *** I didn't have all of these, but I killed what was there
• Adjust your screen brighness down to about 10%. This was the single biggest factor for me. When my brightness was at 30% the screen was using about 65% of my battery. Big screen, lots of juice. (Settings > Display > Brightness). Disable Auto-Brightness.
• Set your screen timout to the lowest possibly setting: 15 Seconds. (Settings > Display > Screen Timeout) 
• IF you are in an area where you have NO cell signal (says Searching...) put the phone in Airplane Mode. Searching for a tower will drain any phone quickly
• IF you are in an area where you can't get a data signal or are bouncing between EDGE and 3g or H+, disable data when you don't need it
• DO NOT INSTALL ADVANCED TASK KILLER OR OTHER TASK KILLER APPS. Android 2.2 and higher does not need them and they will actually use more juice than they will save. On top of this they can cause instability by killing necessary services.

One last thing. Let's not pretend that a miracle is going to happen here. This phone is huge and has more power than your desktop computer did 10 years ago. It's GOING to drink battery like mad. The suggestions above should help significantly but it's not going to get you through 24 hours with 50% battery.

Just like you, I barely comment anything becuase the code I write is self explanatory and needs no explanation.
... or maybe it's that I'm in a hurry and since it makes sense to me what it is and why it exists, that I don't bother to talk about it.

Once in a while I run into a comment like this that just makes me giggle:

// send the request & get a response
response = GetResponse( request );

Genius insight, there. Thanks.

I'm a huge fan of DD-WRT. I originally installed it about 3 years ago on a Linksys WRT54G because XBox LIVE stopped working. The only device I've ever had an issue with is the Nintendo DSi. For some reason it could never connect.

Yesterday after some pretty bad storms the router was kind of unresponsive and I had to hard-reset it. While reconfiguring it I decided to do two things:

1.) Change the encryption to WPA2 Personal
2.) Add a virtual wireless host that had WEP for the regular DS games, like Mario Kart

The first goal was easy and much to my surprise the DSi connected to the wireless with no issue, I was able to get online and all that fun stuff.

The second goal, not so much. Unfortunately virtual hosts on my router just won't work no matter which configuration I give it. I can never get the network to actuall be created. I am guessing it's just that I have an old router. The previous version of DD-WRT had the same issue. So no WEP for me.

Now you may be asking "Why would you need WEP if the wireless is working on the DSi with WPA2?" Well, Nintendo, in it's infinte wisdom, implemented the wireless configuration for games with very little assistance from the device's OS. Actually, with almost complete independence. I have yet to find a reason why they would have done that. Almost every device I have ever seen handles the network configurations at the OS's level and then the software just uses what is available. Imagine if you had to set wireless up separately for every browser, anti-virus application, online game, photo manager (Picasa, iPhoto) that used the network? Yeah it's kinda like that.

*sigh*

I have started a new website (thegrindery.com) and rather than going the .NET route I decided to get on some UNIX hosting and use a Drupal distribution called OpenPublish. Overall, I am very happy with the features. The administration was a bit difficult to get used to, but overall, it's cool.

I have had some weird issues, starting with installation. Right off the bat, I had to edit the php.ini so that the memory max for a script was 128Mb. wow.

Back to the issue:

From there it got weird. One day while editing I went to create a new block and the Site Building > Blocks link was just gone. No worry, I just type in the path .... ACCESS DENIED.

WTFBBQ? I am the admin, the #1 user, grand high wazoo! I read a lot online about the themes, permissions, etc. Tried many things to no avail. I found another guy online who had the same issue and was in much more of a panic than myself. You can see the support ticket here (http://drupal.org/node/1059276).

Here's how I fixed it:
** NOTE... BACK UP YOUR DATABASE!!! I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE FALLOUT FROM THIS COULD BE WITH A MATURE SITE ***
Go to DEVEL > OTHER TOOLS > REINSTALL MODULES
I chose the following but I'm guessing that "Blocks" is probably all you need. I was having some other issues as well.
- Admin
- Blocks
- ALL context modules

After the rebuild, the option and permission was back. I have no clue what caused this. I DID notice that many database entries were missing from the menu_links and menu_router tables. It looked like there may have been some kind of db error while it was writing some data back, or something. Who knows. All I know is it happened, and it sucked.

When I first got my iPhone in November of 2008 my main motivation was to have a mobile calendar. That’s a lie. My main motivation was to have the iPhone because it’s frickin’ awesome; my excuse was that I needed a mobile calendar, which was true. At the time I was managing a group of developers and my meeting schedule was nothing short of spastic, and being that I have the memory of a goldfish, I needed something to tell me to show up places. I’ve since switched jobs and if I have 5 meetings a week it’s a heavy load. Being an individual contributor has its advantages.

After two years of the iPhone 3g I was still happy. I got to jailbreak it, play with all kinds of apps, and write software for it. Good fun. Though the performance has slowly degraded with each iOS upgrade it was still usable and convenient.

It was a shocking moment, then, when I realized that I really don’t need this phone, the internet in my pocket, or the constant “tug” to check Facebook, email, TWI, Dayton Daily News, and the many other things I was obsessed with viewing at an uncontrollable pace. Coming to terms with this was tough, but after realizing that between me and wife we could save $60/mo on our cell bill by using dumbphones I was ready to give it a shot.

Thanks to Greg at Switchphase I was given a free phone, the Samsung SGH-a737. Contrary to Samsung’s blatant bullcrap plug “The a737 is a high powered multimedia tool that allows you to get downloads fast and share real time videos with your friends.” I can tell you, this phone has no options. It takes a memory card and for the life of me I cannot figure out why. It does text messaging, has a camera, etc. Calling this phone a “multimedia tool” isn’t even exaggerating, it’s literally just lying. It’s a tool alright.

So here’s how this is working out. Moving from the iPhone to the Samsung wasn’t bad, my SIM card went right in and I was getting calls. Importing the phonebook was a complete pain in my ass, but thanks to Samsung’s PC Studio app I was able to get 200 contacts in the new phone pretty quickly over Bluetooth, though there’s no OSX app and I had to use Windows. I can’t believe that app even existed.

So here’s the feature by feature:

Form Factor:

• It’s a small phone, feels reasonably sturdy, so I’m not scared to drop it. Face buttons are explicitly locked to avoid ass-dialing. It’s a slider which I was fine with, I only wanted a slider or flip.

Receiving Calls:

• MUCH better. Not only can I answer it and hang it up easily without looking, I also have a sidebutton so I can send people (mainly Nick) straight to voicemail.

Sending Calls :

• Without Address Book:
  • Easy, the keys are small, but it works fine. Straightforward, no weird menus.

• With Address Book:
  • Kill me. The menu system on this phone is enough to make the Dali Lama storm a McDonalds with an AK-47. I really miss the contact management on the iPhone. A phone with a better menu or quicker access to contacts would be cool. But it was free and hey, it’s fine.

Text Messaging:

• This is the single biggest thing I miss about the iPhone. Most likely my issue here has more to do with the age of the phone than with the switch. This phone didn’t really have texting in mind when it was made back in 2007. Much like the iPhone wasn’t all that concerned about phone calls. They have an app for that.

Media:

• Forget it. If media like pics, video, and music, are important to you. NEVER GO BACK. Trust me.

Web:

• Much like media, web isn’t really a reasonable option here. For one the screen is like 1”x1.75”. It’s not really good for anything. It can DO it, but in a, “I can pedal my bike with my hands”, kind of way.

Apps:

• Again, not even an option, there’s some games but they feel like I’m playing an Atari 7200 vs. a PS3.

All in all, I’m happy with the change. It’s removed a level of distraction and anxiety in my life that I didn’t need and really never knew I had. I’m sad to see maps, music, and a few other things go, but I can certainly live without them. If those things aren’t important to you, downgrading will work. If you are the person that values having good games, video, maps, email, twitter, all with you at all times, then downgrading is going to be a frustrating trainwreck.

I still miss the tinkering. Maybe one day I’ll get another iPhone …. or maybe an Android phone 

I have been waiting to get iOS 4.2 to see if it could breathe a little life into a 2 year old (2... seriously) phone. I upgraded about an hour ago and I'm here to tell you... didn't do a darn bit of good.

You may see videos on YouTube or whatever.. .but here's the thing.. you can fake it.

Reboot your iPhone, IMMEDIATELY go into Messaging, YAY IT'S SO FAST .... now go to Safari browse a little, one page is fine... now go to another app, any app ... NOW go back to Messaging... LAME, STILL SUCKS. Opening your Camera or Photo app? Get ready for the same 2-8 second lag you had before.

Very disappointed, Apple. Very, very disappointed.

Theres going to be a post here in the near future debating converting to an Android or upgrading to iPhone 4.

So I was on Chris Pirillo's site today and whipped up a goofy script. Enjoy.

<div id="divContainer"></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
var img = document.createElement('img');
var ct = 1;
var div = document.getElementById('divContainer');
setInterval("ChangePic()",100);
div.appendChild(img);

function ChangePic()
{
img.setAttribute('src', 'http://chris.pirillo.com/images/heads/large/' + ct + '.png');
ct = ct >= 28 ? 1 : ct+1;
}
</script>

I found this very entertaining... and so will you. Actual YAHOO! Chatlog.

Mike: did u see all the stuff about Parallels 6?
Mike: supposed to be a 40% speed increase and a much faster Windows boot
Adam: I only saw a headline or so.  yeah I did see that part
Adam: funny how they are always faster
Adam: like how every Windows is the best windows ever
Mike: Yeah
Mike: hahha
Mike: seems like actually, every OTHER Windows is the best Windows ever.
Win 3.1 <-- worked
Win95 <-- ... uh...
Win98 <--- worked well
WinMe <--- .... where's the bottle of scotch
WinXp <--- Lasted almost 10 years...
Vista <--- like binary diarrhea
Win 7 <--- Awesome
Adam: oh yeah totally
Adam: but when they are introducing them on stage, EVERY one is the best one ever
Adam: to hear MS say it
Mike: Well yeah.
Mike: "With the exception of Windows 7. Windows XP, Windows 98 SE, and Windows 3.1 .... this is DEFINITELY the best and msot stable product we've brought out..."
Mike: just doesn't sound as exciting
Adam: haha yeah true
Mike: remember how complicated Win95/98 got with Win 95b/c and Win98 Upgrade, 98, and 98 SE being of completely different stability nad usually using different drivers.
Adam: crap I had forgot most of that but yeah that did get complicated
Mike: "It says it's for Windows 95"
"Yeah this is 95a Upgrade, you need 95b becuase you need WinSock 2"
".... wut...."
Adam: man that sucked

I'm really looking forward to not buying either of these. This motion stuff is SO gimmicky right now.

... unless of course one of them proves over the years to be really awesome, which I don't think will happen.

Rember this:
"OOOOOHHHH I GOTTA GET A WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiiiiii............ ok that was fun, where's my XBox controller....."

This week THQ made some bold statements about used game sales. It’s a point that’s been made many, many times before, and not just in reference to games but in other media as well, like the used software, CD, and DVD markets.

I’m a fan of used media because it’s inexpensive. I’m cheap, I’ll admit it. I don’t believe it’s piracy because I am purchasing a transferrable license to use something. The manufacturer has already sold the product and has received payment for it. The original buyer is no longer using the product and I am now using it instead. Nothing has been stolen, copied, or otherwise.

I read the stance of Tycho from Penny Arcade and it made some sense. You’re not buying something from the creator of the product, you’re buying something from someone reselling, and how is that not hurting the creator? But isn’t that the nature of buying anything used?

This paradigm isn’t really new to media, though, when you think about it. We buy used cars, used clothes, used electronics and appliances. How is that any different? Those used products are in direct competition with the new products.

In my mind this is just the natural order of things. I find nothing inherently wrong with the idea of purchasing used items, even media, it’s a financially sound thing to do as a consumer. There’s a trade off, usually the warranty is not transferrable, the product is not in perfect condition, pieces can be missing, etc.

There is, however a few unique things about several of these items, and that is “extra” features that are outside the realm of just a physical item, and that is access to other systems. When you buy a new GM car, you get a year of OnStar for free, but in a used car you have to sign up and pay for it. When you buy most games, you get an unlimited online experience as well as an on-disc experience. That part, to me, is questionable when it comes to used games, particularly. If I had to buy a used copy of Call of Duty, and it was $20, but I couldn’t play online, while the new copy was $59 and I could play online I’d spring for the new copy.

So what is a reasonable way to handle this? I think that crippling the on-disc experience for used-game buyers is a lousy way to go and will end up hurting the developer more in the long run (because the game experience to the end-user would not be of the intended quality). But what about cutting out the premium options of the game, online multiplayer, or very limited multiplayer (less maps, limited game types, timed games) then letting the used-game-buyers purchase a license for those premium services. That would also force the used-game retailers to drop the price of used games significantly, making the new games more appealing and possibly opening a new market for allowing the used-game retailers to sell pre-purchased premium-content cards.

Realistically, I see this problem solving itself in the near future. I’m really expecting the next generation of consoles to have an all-digital-distribution model or a subscription model. While that will kill some of the old-day fun of bringing a game to your friends house to play, it will certainly solve the issue at hand and models like NetFlix, Steam, and iTunes have proven to be wildly popular.