Posts
I haven't blogged for quite some time, because I am currently Producing and Directing a film (www.LeadingLadiesMovie.com). It's a lot of work, and takes a lot of time. However, this news is so note worthy, that I thought I would take a moment.
When we move into our production offices, there was no live internet. This is when I found out that the Omnia is superior to the iPhone.
I lived without computer access to the web for about 4 hours, then remembered I had the wifi tether .cab on my computer. I uploaded it to my Omnia, installed, and within a couple of minutes my Omnia was transformed into the most glorious WiFi router! Not only did I have access to the web, but I had the entire office hooked up with high speed internet!
The clincher came when Erika was video Gchatting Mikey, Brett was downloading files, and I was checking Gmail. You heard that right, multiple users and one of them was using VIDEO CHAT (on her Mac).
Are you freaking kidding me? Omnia wins.
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Friday, May 22, 2009
Omnia vs. iPhone :: OMNIA WINS!!!
Friday, May 1, 2009
Google Docs Are Complete Garbage (and making me very angry)
Answer me this: what good are documents that you can never access? I have been trying to get my 20+ person film production staff to use Google Docs over the past two weeks. No fewer than three times a day am I unable to access Google Docs. Not only that, but none of the people in our domain can see the documents until they are actually "shared" with each specific individual ("share with everyone" has never, ever, ever worked). What a pain in the ass to have to make sure I select each and every person I want to be able to access each document with (since "share with everyone" doesn't work).
I am soooooo sick of this screen:
Google, you are slipping. Big time. I'm actually thinking about using MS Live Mesh for document sharing. Pay attention, Google. Fix yer shit.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Verizon Omnia i910 GPS Finally Hacked!
I'm elbow deep in budgets, schedules and SAG paper work, so I haven't had time to try this yet, but people are reporting it working! If I get a free moment between now and Sept. 25 [ugh!], I'll be sure to try this out and post my results.
Until then, please let us know if this works for you.
Viva la Hackers!
ps Be careful not to brick your phone!
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Friday, April 17, 2009
Warning: Zip Domains is a Scam
At some point I plan on developing a nice little widget for musicians that allows you to post and advertise your gigs via a widget that can be posted on blogs and web pages. A couple years ago I acquired the names GigWidget.net and GigWidget.org. When I did, I received a couple e-mails regarding GigWidget.com... organizations asking if I want to purchase the domain, since I had the .net and .org versions. They were asking for more money than I wanted to pay, so I declined.
Recently I started getting e-mails again, telling me GigWidget.com had recently become available and asking me if I wanted to purchase it through their company. The first e-mail (from domains@dcinchq.com ) said I could buy GigWidget.com for $99.95. The second e-mail (from sales@zipacquisitions.com at "Zip Domains") said I could obtain it for $49. I then got another e-mail from the same address and "company" stating the same price. Then came two more e-mails from domains@dcinchq.com showing a price of $99.97 and giving these links:
http://www.dcinchq.com/
http://www.dcinchq.com/faq.
Then I got an e-mail stating:
Our company specializes in acquiring expired domain names to help individuals and businesses protect their brand online.
The domain name GIGWIDGET.COM expired recently and we were able to secure it.
We noticed that you own GIGWIDGET.NET and felt that you may be interested in acquiring the .COM version of your existing domain name.
It is now available for a one-time fee of only $30.00 USD.
To purchase or learn more, please visit http://zipdomains.com/checkout.php?domain=gigwidget. com
Thirty bucks. Not bad for a domain that I actually did want, but I wanted to check out the legitimacy of Zip Domains first. The very first Google search popped up somebody saying that they had had a similar experience, but that the domain was just freely available. So I went to my registrar, typed in the name GigWidget.com, and sure enough, it was available to the world. So I purchased it for my regular price, and now I own the domain without having gone through the channels of Zip Domains, which I consider a scam company at this point.
They were suggesting that they had exclusive rights to the domain, and that I could obtain it only through them, which is false. The domain was freely available, and at a MUCH lower price than any of the prices they offered.
Just wanted to let people know that if you get an offer from Zip Domains, just go to your registrar and buy the domain on your own. Zip Domains is just trying to scam you for extra cash.
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Sunday, April 5, 2009
My Favorite New Band: Phoenix
I have drunk the Kool-Aid, and I have fallen in love. Sign me up for the field trip to South America, as long as Phoenix is flying the plane.With just the right amount of reverence to Bowie and Byrne, Phoenix crafts pop-deliciousness with a fervor for life. I'm not quite sure how they've been flying under my radar up until now (especial considering my penchant for Daft Punk, LCD Soundsystem, Sondre Lerche and the aforementioned David Bowie and David Byrne). Perhaps it's because these guys are Frogs, and live far, far away.
I feel a little (just a little!) like I'm getting old, like my finger slipped for a moment from the pulse, like LCD SS, losing my edge. I hate it when I discover a band on SNL. It means I haven't been paying attention. But last night these guys definitely whipped me out of a trance when they injected 30 Rockefeller Plaza with their bouncy, dulcet tones.
The drummer simply exudes joy as he bangs out happiness with precision and abandon. The lead singer is cool, without poking you in the eye with it (I'm so sick of hipster-indifference posing as cool, so thank the MCP for somebody who just is cool). Wifey says the guitar player looks a little like Johnny Depp (I guess in dirty, Edward Scissors Hands kind of way), and even I can see that the keyboard player is wicked hot. So hey, not only are they sonically pleasing, but visually as well!
I'm listening to United while I type this. "If I Ever Feel Better" just started playing. Oh, oh, oh, me likey!
Phoenix. New album drops May 25. Check 'em out.
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Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Omnia Ground Zero reboot
I'm not quite finished with this list yet, but I'm going to post it anyway.
As previously posted, my Omnia was hosed last night, so Verizon gave me a new one. This is the process I followed today when reinstalling, hacking and re-configuring the phone.
Can I just say that Microsoft does a damn fine job of making it REALLY fucking hard to get things done? There's no way it should take a person five hours to simply get his phone functioning as it should in the first place. Bastards.
These are the steps I've taken so far:
- installed MyMobiler (control phone from PC)
- switched to Today screen (deselected crappy Samsung Widget)
- installed Paul from Modaco's .NET configuration CAB and .NET 3.5 update*
- installed CeRegEditor CeRegEditor is nice, because it automatically uses an interface from your PC (not the phone itself), but it is only for RegEdits, as opposed to Total Commander which is a RegEditor, file explorer, and editor for any type of file
- installed Total Commander
- turned of motion rotate
- assigned camera button to rotate
- RegEdit - disabled keyboard auto deploy for SMS and MMS
- RegEdit - enabled Today 2
- updated Opera cache and download folder to utilize My Storage
- switched dpad to optical mouse
- set upper side "menu" button to Task Manager
- updated and merged all my contacts on the Windows Live website then downloaded Windows Live to sync contacts (this step took an eternity)
- setup NuevaSync.com exchange server to sync Google Calendars
- installed VITO Audio Notes Touch
- installed iDialer
- installed GreenButton
- installed PocketCM contact manager (took a good, long look at iContact, but it didn't offer all the goodies of PocketCM)
- installed PocketCM themes
- installed SoftKey Manager
- mapped left key to PocketCM
- created program screen .lnk file and mapped right soft key to it
(why is it that my blood pressure shoots through the roof whenever I have to make major changes/upgrades to anything PC/Microsoft related?)
In the end, I still think the offerings of WinMo and the Omnia are superior to the Mac alternatives (iPhone), but it sure is a freaking mess trying to get to the point where you can actually function.
*In case the .NET updater thread ever disappears, here are the steps:
- Download and install both CABs (to internal memory!)
- Run .Net Configuration from your Program Menu
- Navigate to the 'Device Policy' tab and select version 3.5
- Selecting 'Apply' then 'OK'
Omnia i910 Frozen Like a RocketPop (or, When is a Mobile Phone a Hose?)
what's playing: "The Wrong Band" by Tori AmosLast week, the night before I got on a plane to LA, I powered down my Omnia after recharging was complete (wanted to retain full juice for the flight). When I woke up in the morning and powered on the phone... it was frozen. Once the phone was powered up (after going through the boot up animation and the WinMo green screen), it would freeze with either a blank screen (just tiny icons up top) or the screen as it should appear (but not functioning) or somewhere in between (sometimes almost there but missing, say, the calendar).
I tried the soft reset and I tried holding the soft reset, but the phone would always freeze after reaching the Today screen. The power button didn't work at all (wouldn't power down the phone). The only way to power down was to remove the battery. So once the phone was frozen, I had two options: soft reset button or remove the battery.
After trying various combinations of things for about an hour (holding soft reset while removing battery, removing battery, soft reset held for different amounts of time, etc.), I finally got the phone back to functional condition by removing the battery, plugging the phone into my laptop, reinsterting the battery, and powering the device up.
For those of you looking for a solution to your frozen Omnia problem, don't get too excited by my find.
Last night my phone froze up again, and this time, nothing I did would fix it. I finally took it into the Verizon store this morning, and they simply replaced the phone. They were going to just swap it, but I was all like "Um... that phone has my bank passwords, website passwords, and a bunch of other stuff on it." They didn't seem to think that was an issue, but I made them look up the Hard Reset key combo so I could wipe the phone before handing it over. I assume somebody who REALLY wanted to could probably still find some stuff on there, but I'm hoping Verizon does at least a DECENT job of wiping the phone before it reaches it's next phase of life. Plus, I didn't really have all my bank and web passwords on there, just my Gmail and Ebay... so not too terribly critical.
Now I have to load the new Omnia with all my hacks and mods again, so that will be kind of a pain. It does give me the opportunity to install only the things I want though, so I'll be putting together a "this is what I loaded onto my phone now that I know what I'm doing" post. Keep an eye out for that one in the next couple of days.
Also, the previous Omnia had a Zagg Shield on it. I've heard good things about Zagg's policy for replacing the shield, so I guess I'm about to find out first hand how that goes. It's also kind of a pain to have to spend another hour installing the shield.
I'll keep you posted.
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