zen.org Communal Weblog

Hubby’s gonna kill me, cause I’m being such a waffler on my new [tag]mobile[/tag].

I don’t like the Moto interface that I have now. I use the Voda webtext more than anything, cause I don’t think the Moto that intuituve. So I’m looking at new phones (and a new carrier, JEEZ Voda is expensive!)

The two phones I’m looking at are the Nokia 6230i and the Sony Ericsson W800i. Why am I torn? Here’s why:

Nokia: Love the interface. Everyone knows it. Good cam, good phone. Battery life *sucks*, from what I’ve heard. Screen is a little small, and only okay resolution.

SonyEricsson: Supposedly the best phone out there right now. The cam is freaking 2mp! The MP3 player in it isn’t the big deal for me. The screen is apparently awesome. Battery life is amazing (9 hours talk, I think, or standby…whichever, it’s double the Nokia). The interface tho…I only played with a SE interface for about 2 minutes, and I don’t know if I like it or not.

My problems are thus: If the interface is the thing, why not go with the Nokia? Cause the SE is apparently the better phone! And the battery is better. But on the Nokia, the battery life thing can be fixed (a little) by a sw upgrade, apparently. (And the shop guy said his goes a couple days without a charge.) And I like the interface.

So I’m torn. ALL OPINIONS WELCOME, please!!!!

[tags]nokia,ireland,sonyericsson[/tags]

Last Sunday’s Zippy really struck a cord.

Karlin Lillington, a tech writer based in Dublin and one of the best in Ireland, wrote an article in the Irish Times about the crappy way the EU rushed through the data retention scheme and how ultimately embarassing it is for all of us. Luckily, since the IT is a pay site, Karlin posted it to her blog as well. Good on ya. Someone that the gov might actually listen to, considering they’re not listening to the average Joe on this one.

I always like the concept of USENET, Gnutellia, Podcasts, et alia. No central control. Even if the creators, corporate backers, et alia, should go away they will still continue. Look at those chumps that liked NeXT, BeOS, et alia, *puff*, they are gone. If Mr. Torvold, Mr. Stallman, et alia, fell into one of Mr. Dunderbeck’s machine GNU/Linux would still go on.

So, I missed an Internet cultural revolution. Online communities of people I’ve never met with easy to use interfaces (sorry USENET). I’ve had a few online acquaintance but they have all faded out after a time. I skipped things like Frapper, MySpace, et alia, as they have central control. I was listening to a Podcast the other day, and the announcer asked me to put myself on his Frapper map. *click*, *click*…*type*, *type*, a little pin over Yardley, PA, USA (er Morrisville, PA, stupid shared Zip Code) with my name on it was now there.

I day or so later Frapper sent me email, The following members have joined since you last checked .... A few hours after that username from location would like to be your friend. “Lemonade? I made it just for you!” Was this friend I cry in the dark for help? A lonely soul grasping at the last vestiges of hope to a stranger who listened to the same Podcast? No, it was some band trying to promote themselves. I guess they got the email The following members have joined since you last checked\nSven Heinicke. Plus, when I visit my Frapper account it tells me “Currently you do not have any friends.” Now I’m depressed, perhaps on my last vestiges of hope and should reach out to strangers who listen to the same Podcast as I. Perhaps I should start a band?

Well, I haven’t tried to remove my Frapper account yet, and the band did have some cool songs on there MySpace page. I’m considering making this band my friend. That way I will not be reminded that I “do not have any friends.” Sigh.

I get a pretty steady supply of suggested links for The Kids on the Web, a collection of Web pages I started back in 1995 (10 years ago, my goodness I can’t handle some of these realizations). Not all of the email is constructive. Some is just plain silly. For example, today I was asked to link to a site where my “kids” could “Explore a worldwide directory of MBA programs and business schools that includes admission tips, scholarship links, and glossary of terms.” MBA? The Master of Business Administration degree doesn’t seem to really be in line with more than 99% of what my site is offering.

I wrote back with the simple question, “What age group of children do you believe would find these of interest? ” The response was one of the most entertaining yet.

Dear my friend.
well they can find about 12 age.
I would like to exchange link with you.
please let me know if you are agree.

Since I’ve yet to meet a 12 year-old with a focus on getting their MBA, I wrote back with the brief response, “No thank you.”

I’ve been using GNU Emacs built from CVS at work. About once a month I update the files and rebuild. Today I rebuilt it, first time since 2005-11-30, and space no longer does file name completion, tab does. When I think about it this is a better idea, but I’ve been hitting space since Widener, when Gopher was popular.

My Dad quit smoking, after pneumonia and a week of almost never getting out of bed because felt like crap. I guess I can switch from space to tab.

I’d like to get a new one. I don’t like the Motorola interface, really. I do like Nokia’s, but I haven’t played around with many other phones. I can get an upgrade from Vodafone now…

I was looking at the Nokia 6820 (aka E70). I like to text, but I like querty more :-). A good camera is helpful. MP3 option…eh. No biggie for me. Sync’ing with OSX would be good (but I have to research more on that). I don’t want a PIM, cause I have a Filofax that I love.

What are your favorite phones? Why? Help me out here!!

Elana

A fun bit of craftsmanship: handy instructions on how to make a RFID blocking wallet using duct tape, helping the passionate privacy advocate fend against the RFID‘s own pervasive version of a pandemic. EPIC has a similar fix on a postcard, theirs involving aluminum foil to protect your passport.

Why worry about your passport? Check out Bruce Schneier’s recent article in Wired, where he points out a fatal flaw in how the U.S. State Department will be issuing passports containing RFIDs starting in October 2006. The chip in the passport could be readable by someone up to 69 feet away from you.

I don’t think any regular Zen.org readers need/should to visit this site, I thought I would want search engines to start finding it and this seemed the fastest way. Even though I have no home page yet, I put up a work page. Enjoy at your own risk.

P.S. It probably sucks in IE.

I’ve just started playing with Quicksilver, and I’m quite impressed. No more serious deep clicking to find a file on one of these darn partitions. And I was just learning about the Append To… feature, which is quite fun. I think it’s only for OSX, but if you’re a fan of 43 Folders, you’ll already know about it.

I do think the docs need a little help. I’m middling techie, and it took me a little while to figure out what the heck it does.