according to jeff

My phone system upgrade is complete, and I’m happy to report that I’m happy with the results.

Here’s what I previously had.

1. An office phone number through QWest.
2. A home phone number through QWest.
3. A cell phone plan through AT&T.
4. A two-line phone in my home office to manage my “work” and “home” phone lines.

As I previously wrote, my two-line phone started having problems and needed to be replaced. This opened the door to think about alternative solutions.

So, here’s what I’ve done.

1. My office phone number has not changed, but my office phone line has been disconnected. My office phone number now rings to my cell phone.
2. My home phone number has not changed.
3. My cell phone number is now my “work” number.
4. My two-line phone in my home office has been replaced with a one line phone and a bluetooth gateway to connect my cell phone to the system.

Now, my “work” number is my cell phone, not a land line into my office. So, even when I am working off-site, I’ll have access to my business phone. When I am home, then the bluetooth gateway connects my cell phone to my home phone system, so I can make and receive cell calls using either my phone system or my cell phone.

Switching my cell phone number to my work number was easy, but did take a few days and a few phone calls to work out.

In summary, I’m pretty happy with the new system, and would recommend both my new Panasonic phone and the XLink bluetooth gateway.

I’m in the midst of replacing a 2-line Siemens Gigaset 8825 with a 1-line Panasonic KX-TG1063 and an XLink BTTN Bluetooth Gateway.

The Gigaset has been a great phone. The base unit is in my office, and we have satellite phones positioned around the house. It’s been configured to ring only base unit for line one (my office number) and to ring all handsets for line 2 (our home number). The only issue that we’ve had with it is that the microwave interferes with reception of the wireless handhelds.

However, the LCD screen has been gradually degrading, such that now only the bottom two-thirds of any phone number is shown, and the answering machine has recently stopped working altogether. Interestingly, it gives you (the caller) the impression that it is working, but it isn’t.

I’ve opted to replace it with a 1-line phone, and will probably request that the phone company disconnect my office line. Thus, the Panasonic purchase. I opted for a phone with a handset so that my Plantronics headset can still be used with it.

Since I’ll use my cell phone as my primary business line, I looked for a base phone unit that would connect to the cell phone via bluetooth. There are some available, however, the various options didn’t meet my other requirements. So, instead, I’ve opted to try an add-on unit (the XLink) that will pair the cell phone with the base unit, allowing the cell phone to be used from any handset. It should work well for incoming calls, though outgoing calls may still require that the phone be “on” and “unlocked”. Another advantage of the XLink is that it will let me see what home service is like with a cell phone instead of a land line.

So, is it an upgrade, or not? I’m going from two land lines and one cell line to one land line and one cell line, but am connecting the cell line to the phone system so that it behaves (mostly) like a land line when within range of the base. I think I’ll like it. Economically, it will take 6 months or so to hit the break-even point, where the savings from removing the second land line will pay for the new equipment. After that, there will be monthly savings. So, it seems to be an economic upgrade.

Practically, even though I’m switching from two land lines to just one, I think it will work just fine. So, I might not call it an upgrade, but it isn’t a step backwards either.

But geekly, it’s a huge upgrade!

Yesterday, Apple announced the iPad, which is projected to ship in the US in March (WiFi version) and April (WiFi + 3G version). My status as an iPhone developer doesn’t get me any super-secret inside information. Apple didn’t rush a review copy to me. I don’t know if the three Laridian iPhone apps are among the “most” of the 140,000 apps that will “just work” on the iPad. (However, I expect them to work just fine.)

So, just like most of you, my faithful readers, I’ve only seen the information at the Apple Web site, watched the video, and read some reviews and opinions from other Web sites, such as:

• Wired: Would You Buy an iPad? Wired Readers Weigh In
• Wired: How Will the Apple Tablet iPad Change Our Kids’ Lives?
• CNet Poll: The Apple iPad: Will you buy one?
• Telegraphs (UK): Apple iPad review
• Engadget: Apple iPad first hands-on!
• LA Times: The iPad shows up the Kindle; will Apple’s iBooks store challenge Amazon?

Some of these articles and article commenters seem to get it, such as the author of How Will the Apple Tablet iPad Change Our Kids’ Lives?. However, I’ve been surprised how many are not getting what seems so clear to me.

This quote from Wired’s Would You Buy an iPad? Wired Readers Weigh In article reveals the confusion.

Though Apple’s Steve Jobs introduced the iPad as a device that would occupy the world between smartphones and laptops, potential customers aren’t convinced. A full 71 percent of 934 readers polled said they won’t buy an iPad, because they are happy with their smartphone and notebook.

To understand the iPad, you have to first understand what it isn’t. Steve Jobs makes that clear in the above quote. The iPad isn’t a phone. The iPad isn’t a laptop. That is, the iPad isn’t expected to do all of the things that you might do with your phone or your laptop. Yet, 71% of the poll respondents “won’t buy an iPad, because they are happy with their smartphone and notebook.” These 71% don’t understand what the iPad isn’t.

So, if the iPad is not a phone or laptop, what is it? From the Apple video, it’s pretty clear: the iPad is a mobile media machine.

• Surf the Web.
• Read a book.
• Listen to music.
• Watch a movie.

Sure, you can install the iPad version of Pages and write a term paper on it, but that’s not the primary purpose. So, comparing it to a laptop isn’t reasonable.

But comparing it to my iPod and Kindle is. And, based on what I’ve seen and read so far, the iPad is looking pretty good. Yes, it costs twice as much (or more), but look at all of the extra stuff that it can do!

Here are some of the common complaints or concerns that I’ve seen.

• The iPad name suggests that Apple has a serious lack of women in it IT department.
  Seriously? I never made that connection. iPad is just a derivative of iPod. And beside, the IT department has nothing to do with a product’s name. That would come largely from the marketing department.
• “Ink” technology (i.e. Kindle) is better on the eyes than the backlit LED that the iPad uses.
  I really like reading my Kindle, so I’m a fan of Ink technology. Still, I can’t read it in the dark without a pretty bright light shining on it. And, I usually spend most of my day in front of a computer screen, and my eyes don’t feel fatigued at the end of the day. So I’m not yet convinced that this is an issue.
• The iPad doesn’t allow multitasking, so I can’t listen to Pandora streamed from the Web whilte I read.
  OK, you have a point. On the other hand, the iPad is an iPod. My iPhone doesn’t multitask either, but I can listen to music from the iPhone’s “iPod” feature while doing anything else. Plus, I don’t listen to Pandora. Now, if you were to tell me that something important was missing, like that MLB won’t have an app for listening to live baseball games, I might agree with you.
• The Web browser doesn’t support Flash.
  OK. This might be annoying every now and then. However, my Kindle not only doesn’t support Flash, it doesn’t support ANY Web browsing.
• Once again, Apple comes out with an overpriced toy.
  I admit, when I saw Apple introduce the iPad as a magical and revolutionary device at an “unbelievable” price, I was skeptical. I wouldn’t classify the $499 price for the least expensive model as “unbelievable”. While it is expensive, it’s not necessarily outrageous.

The iPad has been “announced” for a full day now. I haven’t seen one in person. But, based upon what I have seen and read, I think it looks very promising as an upgrade to my Kindle.

For pretty much most of the past ten years, my typical Friday has included lunch out with my Laridian associates. Since Laridian doesn’t have a central office, Laridian staff all work from home offices. Those of us located in the Cedar Rapids area met at a local restaurant around 11:30 for a weekly social session and staff meeting. We tried all kinds of restaurants, found some that we’d return to, and found a few for which once was enough. I often blogged about our lunch experience and may have introduced you to some possibilities that you might not have been aware of otherwise.

Alas, however, after ten years or so, the era of Friday Lunch has come to a close. Oh, I’ll still be eating lunch on Friday, but it won’t be the same Laridian Friday Lunch. It will just be lunch. And, as such, it might be just a tad less interesting to you than before. Somehow,

“Today’s Friday Lunch consisted of a turkey sandwich and a peach.”

just doesn’t seem as mesmerizing. (Let me know if you disagree.)

Many life transitions are bittersweet, and this is one. I’ll miss the Friday Lunch, but am enjoying the new era: the coffee shop era.

My 8-year old NetVista PC (that’s about 88 in human years) has begun serenading me when it reboots. During the RAM test, a series of different toned beeps are emitted, leading me to suspect that some RAM is starting to fail. Interestingly, after the machine has been turned off for a while, it quietly boots. This makes me suspect that the problem is heat related. Until just a moment ago, I wasn’t having any unexplained crashes, so I’m hopeful that this will be easily corrected.

The fan has been louder than normal lately, so I think my first strategy will be to open the case, blow the dust and dog hair out, and confirm that all fans are spinning.

If that doesn’t resolve the problem, I suppose I could try to decode what RAM it uses and order replacement chips. Ugh. I wonder if replacing the motherboard is feasible? Souping up the processor and RAM in one fell swoop sparks a little bit of interest.

This may come as a surprise to those that know me, but I’m not really excited about the possibility of buying a new PC. It raises too many questions:

1. Do I want a desktop format (easier to maintain) or a laptop (for portability)?
2. Do I want to wait for Windows 7? (I don’t like Vista and XP is hard to find, so the answer is probably “yes”.)
3. Is my software — some of which is quite old — 64-bit compatible?

I’m going to try to avoid needing to answer these questions; instead, I’ll just make sure I have good backups of my data.

As you may know:

1. I’ve been working on an Apple iPhone project.
2. Apple recently released version 3 of its iPhone operating system (OS3).
3. I had early access to beta versions of OS3 for my iPhone and the new OS3 software development kit (SDK) and tools.

It might surprise you, however, to learn that I didn’t take advantage of the early opportunity, and only recently updated my iPhone and my developer tools.

While many computer professionals jump all over these early updates, I’ve not seen as much value in it. After all, I already had plenty of tasks on my to-do list, and doing those with new and potentially buggy tools and operating system wouldn’t speed things along. Thus, I just kept at it with the current tools until the new version was actually released. So, while other iPhone programmers have been “in the know” about OS3 for a while now, I’ve just started looking at it.

What have I found?

The new XCode does a better job of detecting some less-than-perfect programming code. For instance:

    char * str = "a constant string";

should more properly be:

    const char * str = "a constant string";

XCode will now let you know of this, and the problem is generally easily corrected by the proper and judicious use of the “const” keyword.

However, the new SDK also introduces some changes. The compiler was able to warn of many deprecated properties and methods, and the documentation identified the preferred replacements, so many of these corrections were quite simple.

However, other changes were more insidious, and by insidious, I mean less obvious, and by less obvious, I mean changes that are only found by running the program and watching what happens.

As an example, consider the UITableViewCell. Prior to OS3, the setSelected:animated: method could be used as a signal to configure the custom cell’s colors to indicate that the cell either is or is not selected. However, in OS3, this method is now used only to signal that the cell is or is not selected. Visual changes are to be made in response to a new method, setHighlighted:animated:.

While there are ways to automatically warn of such behavior changes, there are drawbacks to these methods. Thus, whether to put those methods in place is a (perhaps) debatable point.

Fortunately, this particular issue was easy to spot and relatively easy to find and fix. So, even though my good code went bad, it is good again!

Unfortunately, PocketBible is not compatible with the iPod Flea.

As my faithful readers may recall, I work for a small company in the Christian publishing market. Specifically, my company creates and markets Bible and Bible-related software products for (mostly) mobile computers. For each of the ten years that we’ve been in business, all of our staff has worked from our individual home offices. We haven’t ever had a central office.

Through the years, we’ve had occasional periods where we might work together at some one’s house. For instance, when Microsoft was preparing to introduce the first Pocket PC, my friend and business partner Craig and I were hard at work to create the first PocketBible for Pocket PC in time to demonstrate it at the Pocket PC launch event at New York City’s Grand Central Station. At the time, Craig’s office at this house was large enough for one, but not two. My office, on the other hand, was in a large but roughly finished room in my basement. I remember the wallpaper was particularly colorful and made to appear as if paint had been randomly splattered on the wall. So, for several weeks, we worked together in that basement room to reach the goal of finishing PocketBible for Pocket PC. However, by and large, most of our time has been spent working individually at our own offices.

While working at home is great (Craig and I both have different office space in our homes than we did those many years ago), for the past several weeks, Craig and I have been trying something new. We’ve been meeting together twice a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) to work off-site — that is, away from our home offices. We’ve been meeting at one of several local coffee shops (or similar locations) and setting up shop.

It’s been great to “get away” and focus on programming tasks, instead of other work-related work, on these days. I’m not sure how long we’ll keep it up, but for now, it’s been a good experience.

Here are a few things that I’ve learned.

My MacBook: if I turn off my AirPort (wireless Internet) except when I actually need it, and don’t listen to music via my Mac, then my MacBook battery will last most of the day. However, it’s important to have access to an electrical outlet to prevent having to stop prematurely due to a drained battery.

My iPhone: MLB At Bat turns my iPhone into a baseball game radio machine… I can listen live to any MLB baseball game. So, sometimes when there’s an afternoon game, I plug in listen.

My Bag: my Rickshaw Bagworks bag (previous articles here and here) has been a great bag for such a day. It has room for my MacBook and accessories, plus notebooks, books and spiral-bound documentation. I have a bag that is essentially a computer sleeve (I wonder where that is), but this size is much more practical for day away from the office.

On Being Welcome: I’ve been pleasantly surprised that the coffee shops don’t mind us hanging out, using their wireless (and sometimes electricity), and working all day. Of course, we do buy coffee, lunch, snacks, etc., throughout the day.

So, where have we been?

• Java Creek: Java Creek has become our “normal” spot for Thursdays. Several varieties of coffees are available, and the menu is extensive, which makes for a great lunch. Coffee refills are not free, but we can run a tab all day long and settle up when we leave. Seating is comfortable, and the music is nice but not obtrusive. Power outlets are readily available. I’ve been known to stop for a jelly-filled donut on my way…
• Coffee Emporium: the Coffee Emporium has become our “normal” spot for Tuesdays. This is convenient for me, as it is just a few blocks walk away. The interior is a bit more spartan than Java Creek, but is still comfortable. Coffee refills are not free, but again, we can run a tab all day. The lunch menu is more limited than Java Creek, but I’ve not yet grown tired of it. And I’ve recently learned that the breakfast sandwiches ($3) are awesome. (Since I like to be up for a few hours before eating breakfast, it’s nice to be able to find a light breakfast wherever we’re at.) Unfortunately, power outlets are limited, so there’s really only one table that works for us.
• Roasters: Roasters is the smallest of the coffee shops that we visit, and the wooden seats aren’t comfortable for a whole day. However, if you’re into lots of coffee selections, this is the place for you. A Mediterranean restaurant shares the space, so lunch choices are good. Power strips are available, but coffee refills are not free. As with the other coffee shops, we’ve been able to run a tab.
• CoffeeSmiths: CoffeeSmiths filled up in the early afternoon with people working on laptops, and after school with loud high school kids. On the positive side, the seating was very good and the tea selection was great. On the negative side, the lunch choices were more like you’d find in my kitchen than at a restaurant. Power is limited, but has been available when we’ve been there. While at CoffeeSmiths, we met a young man working on an iPhone program related to disc golf, so that was pretty cool.
• Oscars: it doesn’t have the coffee shop vibe, but the coffee refills are free. (Since I don’t drink a lot of coffee, that doesn’t mean much to me.) However, they also offer Kathy’s Pies. Craig has had lunch here most every Saturday for the past two decades, and that’s pretty cool, too. Unfortunately, Oscars doesn’t offer free wireless Internet. That would be a problem except for the fact that one of the other companies in the strip mall has unsecured wireless that we can use during their business hours.