Categories
Blog News

What punctuation mark are you ?

Hmmm. Not really what I expected ! I am intrigued as to the qualities of the “dash” so if anybody can tell me what the qualities are I’d thank you kindly for it.


You Are An Exclamation Point


You are a bundle of… well, something.
You’re often a bundle of joy, passion, or drama.You’re loud, brash, and outgoing. If you think it, you say it.
Definitely not the quiet type, you really don’t keep a lot to yourself.

You’re lively and inspiring. People love to be around your energy.
(But they do secretly worry that you’ll spill their secrets without even realizing it.)

You excel in: Public speaking

You get along best with: the Dash

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

Categories
Apple

A quick tip : adding a birthday to a contact in your MAC OS X Address Book

I find it very hard to add additional information to the Mac OS X Address book : there are only some basic fields, but when you want to add something like a birthday field I can’t find it, unless it’s a custom field.

I know the birthday field exists, as it is added in some of my contacts (don’t ask me how, probably via a long-ago sync with my windows mobile address book).

But just now I found a way to add them quickly – just use your iPhone to edit your contact, select from the bottom of the list the ‘additional field’ and choose the ‘birthday’ field. Easy as pie, and it’ll sync to your Mac Address Book as well !

Now why couldn’t this list of all the additional fields be just as easy and available on the mac ?

Categories
Apple

iPhone Firmware 1.1.3 now "unlockable"

While the latest iPhone firmware version 1.1.3 was already jailbroken, it seems that it is also now unlocked so that you can use any sim card in it.

This is not even from the iPhone Dev/Elite team, somebody else called GeoHot (or George Hotz ) is responsible. However, from what I read, this only describes how to downgrade an existing 1.1.3 phone to a lower version, but not how to keep it at 1.1.3 ‘unlocked’.

My iPhone is running 1.1.2 very well right now, so I think I’ll wait a little bit longer until there’s a good and complete guide to unlocking 1.1.3 and keeping it at the same level. Plus there is always the chance that one or another thing breaks or deletes keys/programs that are specific to your iphone.

There’s also supposedly another unlock possible from the iPhone Dev/Elite team, but they are keeping it secret until after the SDK is released. IF the SDK is released as scheduled for end of Januari, of course….

Categories
Apple TechScience Future

Open helix structures in space contain liquids better than closed containers.

Instead of using coffee cups in space, dear spaceman, try drinking your coffee from corkscrew (helix) cups.

I have a hard time to see how somebody on Earth managed to find this solution to a problem in space, but it is very cool ! Potentially, it could also have big implications in nano workings, where things become so small that gravity is negligible and you need to devise alternate ways of containing fluids.

Categories
Apple Hardware

Macbook Air costs 1699 euros in Europe, 1799 dollars in the States

Buying a Macbook Air in Europe costs 1699 euros. Converted to dollars you pay 2499 dollars instead of 1799 dollars if you bought it in the States. A price difference of 600 dollars !!

Conclusion : Europe is richer than America.

Categories
Apple

How the iPhone blew up the Phone Industry

There’s a great article on the Wired website on the strubbles and tribulations that went with developing the iPhone and selling it to the wireless divisions of the phone companies.

Highly recommended to get a glimpse of how much effort went into developing and marketing the iPhone.

Categories
Blog News

A great idea ?

Just got a great idea, or well, perhaps just an idea.

My son Sam, who is almost 2.5 years old, always wants to see animation movies (especially Wall-E) on my iMac. I can start them up for him, but sometimes he wanders into my computer den on his own and starts banging on keys to see if he can do it (he has a VERY strong will of his own and doesn’t always ask what he wants).

One time I actually needed to reboot my iMac, and I still don’t know how he activated one function that involved screen scrolling – I can’t even find it back in the settings !

Wouldn’t it be great to have a screensaver running that could identify Sam (some toys nowadays already can do that, so what not an iMac) and propose him to run animation. Or perhaps you could configure it to automatically start playing content (animation, movies) from a specified folder when somebody walks by that it recognises ?

That way my computer could be locked and he could still come and check his animation out…

Categories
Blog News

Running again

Yesterday my wife started running again, the first time after the festivities. Inspired by her and my once-again bulging belly, I resolved to go running as well, so after the children were off to bed, I went out in the dark, windy and cold evening for a small 3 kilometer circuit. The last time I had gone for a run previously was the 24th of december, and before that only twice in November (for which I don’t have data as this was in France on weekend vacation).

For the first and a half kilometer I was cold, with cold sweat on my brow. Even though my head was covered, the cold wind managed to chill me. Breathing was very hard, probably also because my seasonal asthma is kicking in. It couldn’t be because of my speed, as 7.25 minutes per km or worse is not exactly fast !

But after my half-way point it seemed that my body suddenly remembered what it was supposed to do, and suddenly I was no longer cold, my breathing became easier and my feet found their rhythm again.

And wonder of wonders, my right knee/upper leg decided to play along and didn’t give me any trouble at all. Perhaps because I stretched my leg muscles before starting to run ? I’m still apprehensive that this pain in my upper leg will return, so we’ll have to wait and see.

It was a good run. I didn’t really like the darkness, I prefer seeing where I run, I like running with the setting sun, but all in all I was very glad that I had done this.

Categories
Pictures

Converting RAW pictures using Automator and DCRAW

I’ve just found this useful mac tool : an automator tool for converting RAW pictures (of just about any camera, 284 different types at the last count, using the dcraw library) called RAWConvert.

So my simple workflow for processing pictures, which so far was bash-based can now be automated ! In fact, most of the script I wrote using ImageMagick I no longer need. Still, it worked well for me, so I’m still quite proud of it.

Update : seems not to work in the latest automator on Leopard. I fired off an email to the developer to see if he can help.

Categories
Blog News Websites Caught !

www.international-orders.com customer service is no good. In fact, it's bad.

When I ordered my iphone I ordered it from the USA via the site www.international-orders.com.While the actual delivery was speedy, the follow-up was not. When I ordered it I didn’t want to take any chances with customs and taxes, so I payed to have it shipped out to me including prepaid taxes and customs duties for the additional amount of 157,49 dollars extra.

However, 2 weeks after receiving my iphone, I received an additional invoice from fedex, asking me to pay another 27,99 euros. This turned out to be the invoice that was supposed to have been prepaid by International Orders. However, it was not prepaid. The Fedexbill clearly showed the tick marks that the recipient was to pay for the customs fee.

So I asked them to refund me the 157,49 dollars I had already payed. That’s 109 euros I paid them to pay a bill of 27,99 euros. Clearly they have a serious profit margin on pre-paid customs and duties…

At first they apologized, then they hemmed and hawed, and then only wanted to pay the additional bill and no refund IF I could show them proof of payment ! I wonder how I, a Belgian, can convince an American that yes, this piece of paper in Flemish that I sent to you is indeed proof of payment…

Really ! First you get a customer who pays you to send it prepaid, then by making a mistake you make him pay more and potentially a fine ( the iphone was undervalued on the form), and then you want to reimburse him only for the additional cost and then only if he has shown you proof of payment !

My advise : be careful when dealing with internet shops, and be especially careful with International Orders !