We were not ambitious enough to head out before dawn, but serolynne and I did head to the Melbourne, FL AT&T store around 10am this morning to look into getting Cherie an iPhone 3G.

We were hoping to get in and out with maybe an hour's wait.

Hah!

The line looked as if Rolling Stones or U2 tickets were about to go on sale!



The unmoving line stretched around the front of the building, and down the side. The folks in front looked like they had been there already for ages, and some of them even had lawn furniture.

It looked like it might take all day waiting in the hot FL sun to get an iPhone. Assuming that the store did not run out of stock first, which I am guessing is exceedingly likely.

I guess we will have to try again once the mad initial rush has passed. We have way too much to do in our final days in FL to spend too much time waiting in line for a phone.

Meanwhile, my iPhone 2G is in the process of downloading and installing the 2.0 OS update. And that to me is much more exciting than the faster radio and built in GPS that the iPhone 3G hardware adds.

But while I get the new toys, Cherie is stuck with her Razr for at least a bit longer.

Poor girl...

This weekend Fritz is moving into a rented room up in Titusville. The money he will be saving on commute costs and vehicle wear (not to mention hours of his life gained) certainly justify this switch. He'll still be our housemate on weekends, until the house sells that is. But this arrangement should work out great for everyone involved.

With Fritz gone during the week, it no longer makes sense for us all to be splitting the costs for premium cable TV / and high speed Internet. So rather than dropping back to basic service, serolynne and I are contemplating cutting the cable entirely.

I just switched our half of the house network to use our Sprint Novatel Merlin EX720 and CradlePoint CTR-350 Router as our upstream connection, instead of the cable modem.

And we really can't notice any performance difference whatsoever.

Music and videos stream just fine, and the net feels just as fast as it ever has on BrightHouse Cable.

Since last year, it looks as if Sprint has upgraded the local wireless to a full EVDO revA signal. And that rocks.

According to the DSL Reports Speed Test, this is the performance we are currently getting via wireless:

Download Speed: 1199 Kb/s
Upload Speed: 240 Kb/s
Latency: 94ms

The cable modem tests out much faster (6033 Kb/s, 464 Kb/s, 62ms) - but in day to day use, it hardly seems noticeable. We'll be keeping our eye out for any hiccups - but very likely by this time next week we will be cutting off cable entirely.

This setup works amazing well. And the best part? We can take it with us (almost) anywhere!! *grin*

I cut away from Photoshop World for a while yesterday afternoon to head over to the Orlando Millennia Apple Store for a Genius appointment, to try and persuade Apple to replace my fried iPhone.

No problem.

The tech spent ten minutes trying to get my iPhone to wake up, he used a little scope to peek up the headphone jack to make sure the moisture sensor was still white (it turns pink if the iPhone gets wet, voiding the warranty), and then he declared my old iPhone officially dead. He then did a little bit of paperwork and handed over a shiny refurb unit.

Yay!

I also decided to switch my service over to AT&T from T-Mobile while I was in the process of reactivating the iPhone today, avoiding the need to hack and unlock the new one.

(Hacking the iPhone has gotten trivially easy BTW - look here for details...)

Why AT&T now, after holding out for so long on T-Mobile??

I initially stuck with T-Mobile because I initially viewed the iPhone as an experiment - I didn't expect that it would fully win me over. It actually literally WAS an experiment at first, since a client was paying us to do some UI evaluation and research.

But the iPhone UI won me over. My biggest complaint was the lack of third party application support, but the new iPhone SDK has brought more developer enthusiasm to the iPhone than exists on any other mobile platform. Even on various PalmOS developer mailing lists, the main topic of conversation lately has been the iPhone. I expect that as soon as the iPhone 2.0 OS ships this June, there will be a plethora of amazing software released.

My other major complaint was the lack of 3G speed. That will almost certainly be solved by June with a major iPhone hardware refresh, and based upon how AT&T and Apple handled the 16GB iPhone model - upgrading will NOT require a contract extension.

AT&T will give me vastly better coverage than T-Mobile, and slightly faster mobile data speeds. My monthly bill will drop a trivial amount, and the one downside is that my monthly minutes will be cut from 1000 to 450. But seeing as I actually only use 300 or so minutes a month, that really isn't a loss.

AT&T has won me over. Now hurry out with 3G!!!

Some of the biggest issues that have kept me from getting an iPhone were the following:

• It is a closed device, with no support for developers or applications.
• It is locked to AT&T - with a two year contract.
• It is expensive.
• It isn't 3G.

Times are changing...

Last week Apple dropped the price by $200 to an extremely attractive $399.
This week the first open source tools to break the AT&T SIM lock have emerged.
And - despite being an officially closed platform - the iPhone has already been cracked wide open.  There seems to be more software development happening lately on the "closed" iPhone than on the "open" Treo.

The iPhone is an amazing piece of hardware running Unix / Apple OS X under the hood.  No walls Apple could ever build would be able to keep hackers and developers away from such a tempting platform.  PalmOS and Windows Mobile look old and musty by comparison.

So...  I am off to the Apple store to pick up an iPhone this afternoon.  I plan to skip the AT&T contract, and use the hacks so that I can keep my current T-Mobile plan.

Now if only it came with 3G data speeds.  *sigh*

Last night as we were setting up camp at Beales Point State Park (near Folsom Lake, CA) - serolynne asked me "what is that beeping?"

The beeping turned out to be our Xantrex XM1000 Inverter - flashing an "E05 - OL" code, indicating an overload condition and depriving us of AC power. *ugh*

I spent the evening tearing apart the electrical system to try and isolate the problem, only to conclude that the inverter was internally broken. It was still giving us an "overload" with no load at all...

Perfect timing, just two days before Burning Man. If only that were the only glitch I was dealing with...

Here is a rundown of all the broken, busted, or sprained things I've got to worry about - and how I am dealing with them:

Xantrex XM1000 Inverter: Perpetually overloaded, but still under warranty. Xantrex gave me an RMA without much fuss, so hopefully I'll have it mailed off tomorrow and repaired within a few weeks. In the meantime - I spent today rewiring the electric system to use the old 400W inverter. It is up and working after a day of hard work - BUT - there is not enough power to drive the blender.
(No SolarSmoothies on the playa!!!)

MacBook Pro: Kent called back today, and after consulting with engineering he has decided to authorize "a special one-time-only out of warranty repair." He set up an appointment for me to drop off my Mac at the Apple store in Reno on Sunday - with luck it should be fully functional by the time I return from BRC.

Treo 650: My Treo has been flaky ever since I dunked it in Monster Kaos a year ago. But over the past few weeks it has gotten significantly worse, and now in addition to the fiddly keyboard - my phone is now only holding a charge for at most a few minutes. And just this afternoon I reached into my pocket to grab it - and the antenna popped off! *ugh*

It is time for a new phone - but what? The iPhone looks like lots of fun, now that it has been hacked wide open... But the costs and the downsides are pretty extreme too... Also worth considering is a Treo 755P (Palm OS), a HTC 6800 (Pocket PC), or perhaps even a BlackBerry. Whatever I get, I need to decide soon...

HP PSC 2510 Printer: I've always hauled a printer around with me in Tab, and last year at Burning Man I set up the "Solar Studio" and did photo portraits and 8x10 printouts right on the playa. This afternoon Cherie and I set up the printer to test out our ink supply, and print out a new stack of business cards. But... All the printer does now is click. It never even fully wakes up when you turn it on. Dead. *ugh*

Casio Exilim EX750: The other core component of the Solar Studio is my uber-sweet Casio digital camera. But... Ever since Oklahoma (May), there has been a faint black dot in the upper left corner of every picture I have taken. No amount of lens cleaning seems to make a difference either. It is probably time for a new camera, but not until after Burning Man. *ugh*

Email: The email server I share with the Geeks has imploded again, and though our email backup is working to forward all my incoming mail to Gmail, all my filters and spam prevention tools are now broken. *ugh* I think it is time to move my mail hosting to DreamHost...

Bike: The chain on my bike is jammed. I can probably fix it myself, but I had hoped to have time to do so (or have a professional do it) before Burning Man. But with so much else to do, it will just have to wait until I get there. Hopefully I can find one of the bike repair camps for help if I end up needing it...

Jeep: The dimmed AC light is now back to full brightness, and Jeep seems to be running great. But... I worry whenever an electrical problem (like a dim light) miraculously heals. It will be a while before I fully trust the work done by Great Valley Jeep...

Girl: And even my girlfriend is broken. Well, not broken - just sprained. Cherie took a bad step out of Tab last weekend at SolFest, and ever since she has been hobbled. Though fortunately - she has been healing rapidly. I am hoping that she is back to full speed by the time we arrive in Black Rock City on Sunday.


Egads, that is a long list...


But - surprisingly, I am feeling great. Last night was full of growling, snarling, and frustration... But today I've just been plugging away getting stuff fixed and handled. And - there is nothing here that I can't handle. It actually feels good to face down challenges, and not be stopped by them.

But, enough for this week - ok?

Despite Jeep heaping fame and glory upon us by using some of our photos for a national advertising campaign, all is not right in the Jeep world...

Early Wednesday morning we dropped Jeep v2 off at Great Valley Chrysler Jeep in Sacramento for scheduled maintenance and to have a check engine light looked at. The service tech told us we should expect Jeep to be ready by 6:30pm, and to expect a call in the afternoon. No problem.

Come 5:30pm we hadn't heard from them, so I called. Our service tech (Chris) had already gone for the day, but we were told that it looked like they were waiting for a part - and to call in the morning to find out when on Thursday things will be ready. *grumble*

Thursday morning I called and spoke with Chris. He said that the part had not arrived in the AM, that it might arrive in the afternoon, and if not he would personally make sure that things would be handled first thing on Friday. I was a bit upset, but he assured me he would call me with a status update to keep me posted on when my Jeep would be ready.

He never called.

I just called an hour ago (Friday afternoon now!) to again check on things, and after being bounced around on hold for a while I was eventually again talking to Chris. He told me that "most of the parts" came in, but that the key PCM computer was still missing and due in on Monday. I told him that was not acceptable, that we had weekend plans, and that we'd come and pick up Jeep tonight and find a different dealer who can handle the repairs. He told me that was impossible - our Jeep was taken apart and not drivable. He then checked, and told us we were also not eligible for a loaner car - but we could call Chrysler and if "we complained to them loud enough" they might step in to arrange one.

Not that a loaner would do us any good since we need to tow!

Fortunately we have Tab securely parked behind Sean and Lindsay's place, and they have let us make ourselves at home here. But now we are forced to miss out on a clamshell trailer rally we were considering going to this weekend, and until Great Valley finishes with things - we are trapped here in Sacramento.

The most frustrating thing about this is that Great Valley (and especially Chris) has done such a bad job of keeping us in the loop, and updated us on just what is wrong and what the status is. They never once pro-actively called us, despite repeated promises to do so. And they have given us false estimates of when things would be done every step of the way. If they had called us on Wednesday and said "the check engine light indicates a PCM replacement, which may take a week" I could have opted out and handled it later, or made alternate plans.

What sort of dealership assumes that it is OK to keep a car for a week without any notice - particularly when the car was perfectly drivable when we brought it in and the initial estimate was for less than a day?!?

The way Great Valley have been handling things demonstrates anything but "Five Star" service.

*grumble*

Cherie and I just ran out to grab some dinner at a Taqueria in San Leandro, and on the way saw the line of people camped outside the Cingular store, waiting for the iPhone to go on sale tomorrow evening.

Egads.

I'm not sure I've ever seen such excitement, hope, and hype around a new product. Apple's marketeers have outdone themselves - masterly generating unprecedented anticipation. Kudos to them.

But - I wonder if they will be able to avoid a backlash if the iPhone fails to live up the lofty expectations that so many have for it.

I know that I've increasingly become disillusioned with the iPhone. My first response when it was announced was "Must... Have... NOW!" - but now that it is less than 24hrs from shipping, I have all but lost interest.

Here are a few of the reasons:

1) You can't use it as a modem to get your laptop online. *grrrr*

2) It is 2G and not 3G. Opening the New York Times web page takes reportedly nearly a minute. That is NOT an acceptable user experience. Apple should have either built a proxy server architecture to speed things up, or should have taken another six months to get 3G speeds baked in.

3) It is a closed platform. If it was open, developers would flock to it with unprecedented excitement and creativity, and would unleash a wave of incredible applications. Now - all we get are the meager basic apps Apple has chosen to build in.

4) It has only rudimentary PIM capabilities. You can't have multiple calendars, or categories of people. You can't cut-and-paste text. You can't even SEARCH?!?!

5) It is NOT an iPod replacement. My iPod holds 30GB of music, and that is barely enough. Even the more expensive iPhone only holds 8GB. And the memory isn't even expandable.

6) It has built in Google maps, but it does NOT know where you are. It would have rocked if the iPhone had integrated mapping with a GPS.

7) It only works with bare fingers. No stylus support. No hope of ever being able to do anything more precise than finger-paint level precision manipulation of the screen. And it won't even work if you have gloves on!

And so on...

*sigh*

It annoys me to see so many reviewers gushing over the "amazing" high-resolution screen on the iPhone. I had a Sony Clie PDA with that same 320x480 resolution YEARS ago, and I only just recently retired my Palm Tungsten T3. Palm could have (should have!) come out with a Tungsten-X form-factor 320x480 phone years ago. I'd take that over the iPhone any day. But instead, all we get is the same old Treo over and over again with only the meagerest of improvements. The Treo still doesn't even have WiFi, or a decent web browser! Gads!

I could make a list of major flaws just as long for the Treo as I have for the iPhone, though I think on balance the Treo is actually overall a better choice than the iPhone.

But - no one ANYWHERE is making a decent data-centric phone. And that makes me sad.

And incredibly frustrated.

The universe lined up the perfect Jeep for us - right when and where we needed it. Who am I to say no?

Introducing Jeep v2 (VeeTwo?):


We spent a long sweaty day in the hot Texas sun yesterday moving EVERYTHING from Jeep v1 to v2. We had to move the paramotor, the roof rack, the bikes, luggage, tools, a lap desk, and much more.... Amazingly - one of the workers at the dealership just happened to have EXACTLY the bike rack we had been contemplating buying. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will work with Tab when we go pick her up today. He saw us struggling to load the bikes on the roof, and walked over saying "I think I may have something here that might help..." Wow - what are the odds! (We hadn't been able to find any bike stores in FL that carried the Thule SpareMe, and yet this random Jeep dealership in Texas just happens to have a used one sitting in the garage...)


We wanted our first tank in our new Jeep Liberty CRD to be Biodiesel. This Shell station was listed as offering B20. I get a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that I can burn veggie oil in my new Jeep. I also get a warm sunny feeling from our sweet new sunroof!



The overall buying experience was fabulous - Mark Nix, Jerome, and everyone else at Benny Boyd Bastrop really showed us how great a car dealership can be. They even took a personal check - so we didn't have to scramble getting a money order. Nice!

Now that we are fully moved in to v2, it is time to go pick up Tab (she spent the week getting resealed) and get back on the road. Westward ho!

Jeep needs four new shoes.

And though I had planned on waiting until California to buy them for her, the spinout and unrepairable flat from last week have accelerated the timetable dramatically.

She also needs an alignment, and an oil change. And likely soon a new battery, and some repair work on the battery cable.

Even the spare tire has dry rot and needs to be replaced.

She's really not doing all that bad for a 2002 model with 86k miles on her, but suddenly I am contemplating throwing a significant amount of money into an older vehicle that may have other lurking repairs that could prove costly sooner rather than later. Her transmission is a bit quirky, for instance...

And I think Jeep has been trying to tell me that she is ready for a rest. Just this morning when I was headed out to buy the new tires - she decided not to start. (I was able to fix it, but - *ugh*)

While I was out fixing the balky Jeep, Cherie did some speculative net sleuthing - trying to track down an elusive Jeep Liberty CRD turbo-diesel. The diesel Liberty has gotten some rave reviews, including being called "the environmentalist’s SUV" thanks to its relatively amazing fuel economy. But Jeep only offered the diesel option in the US for the 2005 and 2006 model year, and they are pretty rare. Cherie was only able to find a handful for sale in all of Texas, mostly 2005 models with high mileage.

Almost all of them were far away.

All but one that is, which she found listed on Austin's Craigslist. A 2006, with only 16k miles. Equipped with exactly the specs we want. Being sold by a dealer just 40 minutes away. A dealer willing to take a trade in. Offered for less than blue book, and way less than what some private parties we found were selling older diesel Jeeps for.

It even had a factory tow package, and would be ready to take Tab without needing a hitch put on.

It was as if the perfect vehicle was just sitting there waiting for us. It was even my favorite dark green color that I had commented on just the day before!



So rather than going out to buy new tires, Cherie and I spent the afternoon checking out a new Jeep.

Jeep v2 is in many ways almost identical to our current vehicle, but she does have a few major advantages over Jeep v1:

• Anti-lock brakes, traction control, electronic stability control, rollover protection, and a few other new electronic tricks to keep all four wheel where they belong...


• Full time 4WD. (Jeep v1 has "part-time" support only...)


• Increased towing capacity. (5000lbs vs 2000lbs)


• Side airbags. (Jeep v1 only has front...)


• Sunroof!


• Fog lamps.


• Remote unlock integrated into the key itself. (No more big fob to carry around!)


• Compass & Trip Computer.


• Steering wheel radio controls.


• More comfortable seats.


• Larger fuel tank! (20g vs 17g)


• Near mint condition, and still under warranty for another 20k miles!

Oh, and best of all - she'll get 25% to 50% better fuel economy, especially while towing. And considering that diesel is significantly cheaper than gas, that improved economy will really add up fast!

She can also burn biodiesel too.

Downsides:

• One less 12v power jack.


• No iPod jack on the factory radio (though I can add one for $140, or they will help me swap in the Alpine radio I installed in Jeep v1 last summer...)


• And of course, we will need to get used to the clatter of diesel...

Anyway - we took a test drive, and were impressed. The dealer then took a look at Jeep v1, and surprised us by offering us full blue book on her - despite the need for new tires and an ominous check engine light.

BTW - I've never dealt with a friendlier more low pressure car salesman in my life than Mark Nix at Benny Boyd Bastrop in Bastrop, Texas. By the time I was done going over Jeep v2 in detail it was getting late, and he offered to let us take her home for the night to do some more research and come back to finish the deal the next day. Or - if we didn't want to take her, they offered to give us a new tire (free!) for Jeep v1 to replace the dry-rotted and leaking spare to get us home safely. Impressive service indeed!

We took Jeep v2 home with us, and now I am up late pondering... Is it worth it? The universe certainly seems to be pushing us towards the new Jeep... I am amazed - the perfect Jeep also happens to be the closest, the cheapest, the newest, and the lowest mileage. And it comes with a very fair trade in offer too, so I wont have to fuss with selling Jeep v1...

I need to make up my mind in the next 24hrs.

Should I throw down $13k+ to get what is potentially our ideal adventuring vehicle? Or should I just buy a few new tires and handle other miscellaneous repairs, and keep going with the Jeep that we already have...

I headed out to buy tires, and I came home with a new Jeep. What a day!

alchmst and his wife Deb came over this weekend to visit, talk business, and adopt two of my children.

Front row: Skifter #1 (PowerBook G4 12") & Skifter #2 (HP TC1100 Tablet PC)
Second row: Chris, Skifter (MacBook Pro 15"), Serenity (Dell D820), Cherie
Back: Dragon (Dell C-series), Fritz, Gir (Dell gen2 XPS)

For the first time since the mid 80's, I now only own one computer. It feels... weird...

I miss my kids already. I hope they have found a good new home.

Much to my geekly delight, I just discovered that my watch automatically adjusted for daylight savings time, despite the new schedule.

I posted about my uber-cool-watch back in August 2004 when I first got it - and I continue to be in love. It is simple, beautiful, elegant, and "it just works" - the way that all technology should be.



From my first post:
The Casio WVA-450TDJ-2AJF is brand new, and only available in Japan. I had to get it imported. But is is SO super cool, and it is everything I ever wanted in a watch.

• It is solar powered - never charge it, wind it, shake it, or anything.
• It syncs to the atomic clock signal in Denver - you never need to set it and it is always accurate to within a second. (Update: And it even pays attention to DST updates!)
• It has an attractive analog face, but also a small digital readout for world time, stop watch, and other good stuff.
• It is titanium with a sapphire crystal, and waterproof way deep. Darn near indestructible.
• AND -- it looks great! :-)

After nearly three years of constant wear and some pretty extreme conditions, my watch still looks nearly new.  Titanium and sapphire are SO nice on a watch.  And so is not ever needing to charge or set it.  I wish all gadgetry was so simple, and so durable.

I need a new phone.

Contemplating my lust for the iPhone and my need for faster data access, I decided yesterday to explore the option of getting a Cingular HSDPA compatible phone that can serve me now, and remain in service as a modem once the iPhone comes out.

(Damn iPhone lacks HSDPA speeds - grrrr...)

So I stopped into a Cingular store yesterday to ask some questions, and to fondle some hardware.

Mind you - this was an official Cingular store with three staffers present. Not some mall kiosk.

Their cluelessness blew me away.

1) HSDPA? What is that? - "Uhm, it is your fast data network that your company is spending billions to roll out. The next step up from UMTS..." They stared at me with blank looks - no one in the store had ever even heard of it, and didn't know which phones they had were compatible... *gargh*

2) UMTS, like 3G, yeah, uhm... - They had heard of UMTS, so I asked which phones were UMTS compatible. "Uh, the ones with 3G stickers on the signs... And a few of the other ones, I think, maybe..."

3) Phone as a modem? No - you can't do that! - I explained that I wanted a phone that would work as a modem for getting my laptop online. "No - that isn't possible" But I do it every day with T-Mobile. "We have PC cards we can sell you for that - it is impossible with a phone. Maybe it works on T-Mobile, but it is impossible on Cingular..."

Actually, no - it is very possible on Cingular. But figuring out which of the crazy variety of Cingular data rate plans allows this is just about impossible to comprehend. I didn't even bother trying to ask the store staff to explain the rate plans...

4) iPhone? Who knows when that is ever coming out.... - June. As announced by your very own CEO the day before. Every Cingular staffer in every store should have gotten some sort of briefing sheet and FAQ on how to handle the interest in the iPhone. Cingular should be getting folks signed up and on waiting lists...

5) Blackjack? Uhm, we don't have a demo unit... - I did want to check out the Blackjack, the new Windows Mobile media phone Cingular spent millions advertising heavily on TV over Christmas. It is small and cute and has HSDPA, and it is only $149. That might work nicely for me. So I asked to try one, and they did not have a demo model. Only a plastic mockup. Useless! They didn't have a demo 8525, or even a Treo 680. Despite the giant smartphone display in the front of the store, the only smartphone they had available to try was the Blackberry Perl. And though the Perl lacks a 3G radio and is useless as a modem, I was very impressed by the micro-track-ball UI and unique mini-keyboard. It is perhaps the best non-touch-screen UI I have seen on a phone. Targeting business customers like they do, I am shocked that RIM hasn't done the work to make this into a great modem - it is a natural fit.


If it hadn't been for some hands-on time admiring (polishing?) the Perl, the trip would have been completely useless.

The Cingular website is almost as useless as the store. Which phones are HSDPA? Which phones can be used as a modem? Which phones sync with a Mac? Next to no information whatsoever!

The really sad thing is that none of the other mobile companies are any better than Cingular. There is SO MUCH room for improvement in how phones are sold it makes your stomach turn. *ugh*

I so wish there was a better alternative...

The iPhone announcement today ended up being even cooler than I had hoped it would be.



Michael Mace and I were chatting online as we watched the coverage of the keynote - and this afternoon he turned our chat log into a blog post in his most-excellent Mobile Opportunity blog covering the mobile industry.

Reading the chat transcript is interesting - you can see just how excited two jaded mobile industry geeks who have seen it all can get when fully under the influence of Steve Job's reality distortion field.

(If you care about understanding the mobile space at all, you should be reading Michael's blog btw...)

I also spent a lot of time "sparring" this afternoon with roadriverrail in response to this post of his calling the iPhone "crappy". We both share a lot of good thoughts and commentary - this is a good thread to read.

Though I am pretty sure that I want the iPhone to be my next phone, there are a few problems with it:

1) It is not 3G - only EDGE.
2) It is locked to Cingular - potentially for "multiple years".
3) It is not going to be out until JUNE! *argh!*

And then there are the unanswered questions:
1) Will it work as a modem for getting my laptop online?
2) Is the software development platform open? How open? Full API's? Just Widgets?
3) Is Google Maps location aware or not? Is the potential there for real-time driving directions?

I really wish I was in San Francisco right now so that I could dig for details at MacWorld. Waiting until June to get a closer look is going to suck...

I've been playing around with fun ways to make a bit of extra money online, and towards that end I've made myself into an Amazon Affiliate.

If there is any Amazon shopping you have to do, I'd be eternally appreciative if you do it via my own personal Amazon store here.

I've chosen to feature nine of my favorite tech toys on the front page, though all of Amazon is accessible by searching or following links. Check out the page and tell me what you think.

And for future reference - the link to my Amazon Affiliate page will always be found on the sidebar of radven.livejournal.com, and soon featured at the upcoming redesign of www.radven.net.

So far I've already made $1.02. Wow!

*grin*

One of the most frustrating thing about traveling around so much in Jeep has been the lack of audio stimulation. Jeep's factory CD/Tuner lacks any sort of aux input to get the music from my iPod or laptop to play. Worse - the radio is broken in a bizarre fashion that makes radio channel surfing all but impossible. And the CD player, well - I don't really have CD's anymore now that I've dumped them all into my iPod.

So for the past two months, I've been listening to the same CD over and over as I drive - a great mix CD put together by Team Snout for some past Game that they ran.

But that CD was getting VERY old after the 50th pass through.

One of my projects while I was staying with Sunshine down in San Diego was to remedy this - and I bought the Alpine CDA-9856 from Crutchfield.


Sunshine was kind enough to let me use her kitchen table for soldering on...


Pulling Jeep's dash apart was fun.


The final result!

I now have a direct iPod hookup in the glove-box that keeps the iPod charged and out of sight, but it is fully controllable from the Alpine's main display. Even the artist, album, and track names show up properly. I also have a secondary AUX input tucked under the passenger's dash so that I can plug the laptop or any other audio source in as well. And for future expansion - the CDA-9856 is HD and Satellite radio upgradeable. Nice!

Unfortunately - the user interface was NOT thought through. There is NO way to quickly search around for a song or an artist on the iPod other than by scrolling through the entire list one line at a time. Seeing as I have nearly 8000 songs in my iPod, finding a song that starts with M could literally take hours. Who designed this thing??!?

It also would have been a no-brainer to include a special PodCast playback interface - a natural content type for in-car listening. As it is, PodCasts are lost in the shuffle of the thousands of other tracks - nearly impossible to find unless they are pulled out into a special playlist. *ick*


Open letter to Alpine:Hire me to do some UI flows for you - I could fix this with a few days of work. Hire SOMEBODY. And actually test your design with a FULLY LOADED iPod. Please. Your customers will thank you!


But despite the UI issues - the CDA-9856 surprised me in just how much better it sounds than the old receiver, even though I didn't upgrade the speakers. Wow! And even though the iPod playback is practically limited to only browsing by Playlist - the overall musical joy in Jeep has gone through the roof. I had almost forgotten how much happiness music could bring me. With music back in my life - the drive up the coast towards Seattle this week flew by.


One sad note though... I made one of the classic upgrader's mistakes.

When I removed the old radio from Jeep, I forgot to eject that favorite mix CD I had grown so fond of. And now there is no way to get at it without re-hooking that old radio up. Gargh!


Open letter to Curtis and Team Snout: Can you hook me up with another copy of the CD from your archives, or maybe just the files in MP3 format? It was the CD that starts out with a backwards message, then the song "Just Can't Get Enough", and it includes my all-time favorite game mantra "Who Needs Sleep". Thanks!

This so totally rocks!

We just got in a Segway at work today that we will be giving away at a developer conference later this month.  And of course, we just HAD to try it. 

I've just spent some quality time zooming through the halls, and it is SO COOL!!!

My geek techno-lust meter is pegged right now. 

I want one, badly.  Just not $5k badly.  :-)

For years I have been searching for the perfect watch. 

I at last found it.

The Casio WVA-450TDJ-2AJF is brand new, and only available in Japan.  I had to get it imported.  But is is SO super cool, and it is everything I ever wanted in a watch.

It is solar powered - never charge it, wind it, shake it, or anything.

It syncs to the atomic clock signal in Denver - you never need to set it and it is always accurate to within a second.

It has an attractive analog face, but also a small digital readout for world time, stop watch, and other good stuff.

It is titanium with a sapphire crystal, and waterproof way deep.  Darn near indestructible.

AND -- it looks great!  :-)

I love it!  I couldn't be any happier with my new toy.

Now I am a watch geek too!  :-)

   - chris