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Wooooo I ordered my T3. Expecting it Friday….

Spam is getting absolutely ridiculous but I think it’s more tolerable since we can laugh at it.
Here’s one entry:

       47 Nov  9 James Sanders              (7809) You're fired                                       

Oh no!!! Luckily I wasn’t too depressed and I kept going..

  N  60 Nov 12 One Minute Millionaire     (5931) You're Hired

Whew! First I’m down, then I’m up! I’m even Steven!

I also like the ones touting CD’s of email addresses or “Meet single christians in your area” Those companies obviously got their money’s worth in targeted distribution lists. And who the hell do you know puts your name or email address in the subject? Thanks spammers, putting my email address in the subject is an express ticket to the spam folder. Enjoy your flight.

And they’re starting to screw up too…Pretty soon, I’ll be able to add a filter for subjects with “<RANDOM>” or “<FIRSTNAME>”

Well, take a seat, because I have some shocking news. I am dropping my smartphone (integrated PalmOS/cel phone) and going to separate devices. So far, I have a Sony Ericsson T610 activated on TMobile. I plan on getting a Tungsten T3. What’s the common thread? Bluetooth, and by extension, iSync. One of the main reasons I got a Smartphone 3 years ago was because managing multiple address books would be a pain, if not impossible. iSync was just a gleam in Steve Job’s eye, but now that it’s here, it makes managing the address books easy. I simply set a ‘for phone’ category in the Mac’s address book, and only those entries make it to my phone.

The other main impetus for this transition was all the realllly fun stuff I can do with Bluetooth. Apple has integrated it into their OS and their built in apps, such as the Address Book, where you can dial a BT phone, or send an address to it. 3rd-party developers have also really kicked in here and produced some fine apps:

• Salling Clicker allows you to control various apps via your BT phone. It also has features that react to incoming calls, including muting/pausing music/movies and displaying Caller ID info from your Address Book (with picture)
• PhoneAgent can help you manage all aspects of your Sony Ericsson phone, from managing/editing themes to working with the address book. Just about anything that’s stored on your phone can be dealt with by this app.

There is also an app designed to install files to a BT-enabled Palm, but I’m sure Apple’s BT File Exchange app can do that job.

Can’t wait to get the T3 so I can stop carrying my Smartphone. To be continued.

Got my Panther CD last night. The install was remarkably painless (except for the waiting). A few things didn’t carry over, mostly web related (had to start apache, mysqld, and make a new php.ini) but basically everything was working immediately. Launchbar and Synergy wouldn’t behave, but after I wiped my Startup items, and re-logged in, it all worked fine. Some notes:

• Expose is as cool as expected
• It’s very fast
• Many apps have been consolidated into other apps (Disk Copy is part of Disk Utility, Process Viewer is part of the new Activity Monitor)
  

Wooooo! I got a new 15″ Aluminum PowerBook G4 with SuperDrive. Nice. I had a little problem with the latch, but a bit of tough love took care of that.

Some new shows have entered my field of view that I’d like to share with both of you.

• Dead Like Me (Showtime) – Girl gets hit by a flaming toilet seat, dies, and becomes a grim reaper.
• The Joe Schmo Show (SpikeTV) – A reality show that’s not real..he thinks it’s real.. yadda yadda, you’ve seen the ads.
• Most Extreme Elimination Challenge (SpikeTV) – Japanese show where people go through extremely painful stunts to win a contest (their prize seems to be a secret). What makes the show great is the dubbed dialogue Americanizes the show (the names are all American-ish).
• Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn (Comedy Central). Like Politically Incorrect, but all comedians.

Got a 30 GB iPod after my old one has become useless, like the company that makes it. Here’s my initial impression of it.. “Hi, I’m a 30 GB iPod.” Ahem, but seriously folks…

• Buttons are a bit unresponsive at times, and too responsive at others, but generally OK.
• Backlight doesn’t stay on when I put it on. It should.

That’s all I remember at this point. I think I have a few more points soon though.

Finally got my photo album manager to a nice final state, though it could probably use some tidying.

Also, I did some for those pages that mimic the php.net web site: if you type a keyword or an album id # after /myphoto/ as an address, it will go to the appropriate album.

This should help you understand what entertains me, TV-wise.

• 24 – Tuesdays (Fox). Don’t bother watching now if you haven’t been, just wait for the DVD.
• Alias – Sundays (ABC)
• Boston Public – Mondays at 8PM (Fox)
• Family Guy – Sun-Thu 11:30 PM (TOON, coming soon). This is the Simpsons, without any censoring.
• Futurama – Occasional Sundays at 7PM Fox, Sun-Thu 11PM TOON Great Scifi (and Macintosh) gags.
• George Lopez Show – Wed (ABC)
• Scrubs – Thu NBC – JD’s imagination is soo overactive!
• Wanda at Large Wed 9:30 (Fox)

Back in February, I spent a long weekend in New Orleans with my parents. They had been there a while back and wanted me to see it too.

We stayed in the W, which are known to be trendy. Here are some examples:

• Bellhops that look like SoHo maitre D’s

• The Housekeeping staff use Radio Flyer wagons for carting their stuff around.
• “Good morning” and “Good evening” mats at the elevators
• Disco ball in the covered driveway. It must turn into a very drafty dance club at night.

In room amenities:

• high-speed net access, plus access via TV.

• VCR/VCP (what, no DVD player?)
• CD player, for which you can order CDs from the W’s catalog
• cordless phone (that’s a hotel first that I’ve seen)
• Magazines including Wired

Down in the French Quarter, we saw several street artists: psychics, caricaturists, and those guys/gals who stand in various frozen positions. But there was a great quartet of acapella singers that my mom remembers from last time. There was also a marionette puppeteer whose puppets played instruments. They bent their knees under apparent strain as they blew hard notes on the sax, and grabbed the mic as they sang the blues, all in between peeking in the money trunk.

The restaurants we ate in were all in capital letters in Zagat (that means really good); they’re legends. We also visited Mardi Gras World, which is the home of the company that makes most of the Mardi Gras Parade floats.

It had occurred to me on that Friday I was in NoLA that Alltel probably had a presence down there. They’re the only ones with the Kyocera 7135, so I thought I’d see if I could find one there. I had to call one of their bigger stores on Monday to see if they get a phone there from another store. They did, and I got it!!!!!