Chris Sims

Last iPhone Post, I Promise

2007-12-14T03:43:29Z

I think everyone knows about the problem with the iPhone's headphone jack. With it being countersunk in so deep, most headphones other than the horrid ones the phone comes with won't fit. I lready had some pretty great headphones of various types. I just knew at least one of them would fit. I was quite irritated to discover that none of them would, even ones specifically designed for portable players. That almost kept me from buying the phone since I take headphone listening a bit too seriously. Fortunately Shure, the makers of my favorite in ear monitors (earphones), came out with a great adapter. My earphones are a bit too good for the iPhone since like all iPods the sound is rather bleh, but it's not my primary mobile music source so I am trying to let it go. One additional issue I ran into with the Shure earphones and adapter is having to (or think I had to) take the plug out of the adapter to use them with anything else like a PSP or a portable amplifier. It has taken me all these months to finally get a look at the adapter;s plug and compare it to a headphone's 3.5mm plug. They are the same legnth! iPhone compatible headsets just have an extra section on the plug for voice chat. The adapter's plug fits in any other device that has a jack for a 3.5mm plug. While waiting in line (a long, long line) at the store tonight buying Christmas gifts I tried the adapter with one of my PSPs. It worked fine. I'm so happy. . "sniff".

JQuery Help, Thanks Google

2007-12-14T03:28:40Z

I have to admit that the text we are using for JQuery feels a little. . dry. At least it does after the Head First HTML text. I searched Safari Bookshelf and only found five or six books that mentioned it. Most of them dealt more with AJAX. What to do? Ask the Google. Google knows all, including the existence of the JQuery site.

Perhaps Links Would Work

2007-12-14T03:16:59Z

As I mentioned in a previous post I wrote about a question on how to get people to hover their mouse pointer over parts of a page to trigger a script to run. I have no idea why it was a question at all. Links seem to be pretty obvious as a way to attract a mouse pointer. All you need to do is make whatever you want people to point at, look like a link or clickable image. That would be relatively easy with JQuery. You could even use it as an actual link if the user has javascript turned off in their browser.

Dude, You're Bringing me Water

2007-12-11T15:13:22Z

As with just about everything these days, I have gotten behind on the podcasts I follow. While watching a Digg Nation video podcast from last month I saw a mention of a story about what can happen to a career when we mess around with drugs. The guy that used to be the popular (?) spokesperson for Dell is now a waiter. How horrid. I think we all could tell he had something going on. I don't know why Dell even wanted him. He probably would be struggling even if he hadn't gotten busted for buying pot, but I wonder if he decided to give up the habit now. Hmmm. I wonder what ever happened to Ellen Feiss, the stoned girl that Apple put in an add for their Switch campaign. I wonder why she wasn't used on TV. I also wonder what she is doing these days.

Blogging Issues

2007-12-10T02:25:58Z

I have run into repeated errors while posting to the blog this week. I noticed that others have had issues lately as well. There is a relatively simple way around the issue though. If you click save and an error comes up, don't panic. Go back, either by the "Go Back" button on the error page or your browser's back button. Then, instead of trying to post again just click the publish button at the top of the page. When the pop up window opens click the publish button in it and wait for it to finish and click close. Check your blog and you should see the post appeared successfully. I always publish after each and every save of a blog entry. Even if I get an error, I know the post will be up.

Ubuntu

2007-12-10T02:00:54Z

Everytime my mother calls me to report a problem with her computer and Windows Vista I think that I probably should have put Ubuntu on it instead of leaving Vista on there. I put Ubuntu on both of the laptops I use at work and it is phenomenal. They run Ubuntu faster than Windows or other versions of Linux like Suse. Stene Hamilton's post about Ubuntu is right on. A buisiness or school can save a good sized fortune in buying computers with no OS and installing Ubuntu Linux on them. Microsoft would love for everyone to believe that the cost of running Linux is higher than Windows because of the cost of support. I don't know where they come up with their numbers. It costs a lot more to become certified in Windows than Linux. A person would spend a lot of money getting ready for a Microsoft exam. Getting ready for a Linux exam would require the same free and open software the buisinesses would use.

Build Your Own

2007-12-10T01:46:07Z

I completely agree with Kyle Spears' post about building your own computer. Falcon Northwest, Alienware, and now even Dell build great rigs if you are willing to pay for them. Just as Kyle says you can build a machine that is just as good, or even better for a lot less money. Newegg is where I got all of the parts for the computer I built this September. You can aslo get some good prices on parts from Tiger Direct and Amazon. If you don't know what to put where in a rig of your own, take a look at Tom's Hardware Guide. I would like it if they could post more articles, more often. But, as it is, they do a spectacular job of keeping their readers up on hardware. And of course, the best place to learn about how to build a computer is from books. We're all in college to get that fancy book learning. Go to your local book store to get some more info on what to do.

TV, HDTV

2007-12-10T01:33:59Z

I just saw James' post about HDTV. I got my first one a while ago, and upgraded two years ago. I feel like I could use a newer model since Sony didn't think we needed 1080p input on any conncection at the time. The TV does do a good job of upconverting 1080i so I'm trying to let my irritation go. The world could probably use more HDTV content now, but with both Blu-ray and HD-DVD players out, I can make do with movies and TV shows on disc. I put together some wish list items for both HD-DVD and Blu-ray movies. Gifts cut way back on the cost of fleshing out my collection.

Hover Mouse Pointer Here

2007-12-10T01:21:53Z

The usual problem I have with web page content is still with me. What to put where and why is the most important part of page dreation if you ask me. One think I've come across lately is the hover issue. Not a hover delay issue or anything, though that could be because I haven't gotten that far. If I put parts of the page with a hover or some other change, what is the best way to het users to give it a whirl. I thought about putting some hover code in a navbar, but the layout of the nav bar needs to relay to users that what they are looking for might be available that way. I don't want to put too much extraneous data on the page. I'll cross the "What if JavaScript isn't enabled" bridge when I come to it.

RSS iPhone App

2007-12-07T20:48:12Z

The other day while playing around in the application installer on my iPhone I noticed an RSS reader app. MobileRSS seemed like it would be pretty nice. After I installed it I found other good geatures like the ability to choose a font size. It would be good on bad eye days when to read up on the feeds I follow. I was sad to discover that the font size you set only affects the titles of the feeds and not the actual feeds themselves. The reader for Google on the iPhone can't change the font size either (yet) but at least the default size is easy to read anyway. MobileRSS was a bit of a dissapointment.

Maybe We Should Use the Internet Instead

2007-12-07T16:22:46Z

I was forwarded this link yesterday. I had wondered in the past, based on the condition of the envelopes when they arrive, how much trouble the post office was having with them. I have also wondered how much trouble they were having with some of the envelopes from GameFly. GameFly rents games for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance. Those cartridges are a lot thicker than a DVD or game disc. I think we are getting to the point where sending movies via snail mail should be falling away. Streaming video over the Internet is working great on Netflix's new feature. High Definition movies are still far too bulky to stream over the net, but regular movies look pretty good. If you have a home theater PC you can even view them full screen on your television.

Save Your Money

2007-12-06T15:57:58Z

Do not buy this. I saw it in Best Buy and immediatly snatched it up. I didn't think about the fact that it could be horrible, I just knew I needed something like it. My receiver is great, but it doesn't have any HDMI ports. I needed an HDMI selector with Toslink digital audio switchind and that seemed to just the thing. When I saw some reviews on Best Buy's site slightly less than half of them were unfavorable, so I thought people either had bad cables, bad devices, or a bad television. I didn't hook it up right away since I didn't actually require it until I got a new Xbox 360. When I did, oh brother. The PS3 hated the thing. It worked all of once. I tried different cables and ports on the switch but no go. I plugged the PS3 back into the tv and put everything else into the switch. The 360, seemed okay. So did the cable box and the computer. I thought I was golden until I started actually switching between devices. The switch pparently has an issue with the HDMI handshaking. If the device is already on when you switch to it, you don't get a picture. The only device that I had that is ever off is the 360 since it can't fold protiens for Stanford or record television shows. To restart the cable box I would have to go behind the television to reach it's power cord and unplug it. If it's recording when I do that I lose a few minutes while it boots up and remembers it's supposed to be recording something. I hooked everything back up with the component cables and the ridiculous VGA connection for the computer which isn't wide screen for some reason. I could have saved myself some serious time, money, and aggravation if I had just waited and gotten a new receiver with HDMI ports.

Google Mobile (again)

2007-12-06T15:37:33Z

After my Mobile Blogging post was done I went back to Google. The weir errors went away, but you still can't zoom in. That's really weird because if a link to something opens in a new window it works normally, even if that site is also on Google.

Moblogging (Please Forgive the Typos)

2007-12-06T15:08:39Z

Recently, in class it was mentioned that that you can't blog with an iPhone. I thought I would try anyway. The issue: I dont type on this thing as fast as they do on T.V. You can't paste URLs in for links or highlight text to use the make link tool. Fortunately, I am not in a car because typing in a moving vehichle is horrible. I couldn't remember my password because all of my computers do so I got lazy. It took me ten minutes to come up with it.

Office 2007 Why Microsoft?

2007-12-06T13:48:27Z

I'm working in someone else's office in our Administration building for the Wi-fi and free coffee. She just started complaining about MS Office 2007 and saying how much she hates it. She can't understand why they made such drastic changes to make it so hard to do things that were so simple before. I really don't understand why they changed what they did either. One thing I always commended Microsoft on for it's office suite was that by the time most people get out into the world, they are at least a little familiar with MS Office. Microsoft used to have a great ad where a guy starts a new job and is completely lost. He can't use the copier. He can't make coffee. Faxing is a mystery. But, when he sits down at his desk he can run Office as easily as talking. I had switched to Open Office by then, but I really liked that ad because it was so true. When I sat down at a computer with Office 2007 on it I didn't know what happened to me. I've had to rely on that help menu and Google searches. I picked up a copy for myself so I could get it down a bit, and I now have the stupid new menu system and the xml based document types figured out. Should people really have to sit down with an old friend and find out he suddenly speaks a new language?