Archive for the 'technology' Category

Cell phone rudenesses

Published
by
Dave
on March 24, 2007
in midlife and technology
. 1 Comment

In the spring of 2007, everybody in the USA seems to have a cell phone. (Mobile, handy, whatever you want to call it.) Here in the suburbs of DC, they are used ubiquitously, but not always benignly. Driving while phoning, for example, is nearly as dangerous as driving while intoxicated. The Virginia legislature just passed, and the governor just signed, a law prohibiting cell phone use by drivers under the age of 18.

Maybe I’m a prissy old man, but I am amazed every day at the huge number of rude and/or clueless people who use these things. Like Pavlov’s dog, these cell phone users drop everything when their phones ring. They interrupt whatever social interaction, task, or meeting they are involved in (or witnessing) to respond to the ring of the bell, in hopes of getting the telecommunications equivalent of a morsel to eat. Continue reading ‘Cell phone rudenesses’

My iPod is dead, long live my iPod

Published
by
Dave
on March 8, 2007
in podcasting and technology
. 1 Comment

A couple of years ago, Christmas 2004, to be exact, my wonderful wife bought me aApple iPod 4th Generation 20 Gb audio-only 4th-generation iPod. It was a wonderful treat. I spent January of 2005 loading most of my favorite CDs onto it, and then began to wonder what the fuss was all about.

A Google search or two for “iPod” kept kicking up links to something called “podcasting.” I explored further, and my life was changed. I became a member of the second wave of podcasting, and I podcast to this day.

Last night, my iPod slipped off a table and hit the floor. This had happened a couple times before, but last night did it in. Continue reading ‘My iPod is dead, long live my iPod’

Too much Internet education

Published
by
Dave
on February 8, 2007
in blogging, podcasting and technology
. 0 Comments

I’m in the middle of a massive server move this week, and I’m getting more education than I bargained for.

I’m trying to move three domains (thewordnerds.org, davesmidlife.com, and daveshepmagic.com) to one account at BlueHost. The BlueHost folks are very helpful, their servers are apparently robust, the company is the beneficiary of many good online reviews, the service is cheap.

As you can see if you are one of the six people worldwide reading this post (ever), davesmidlife.com came over without a problem. It’s a little old WordPress blog and nothing more.

The big, important one is for The Word Nerds. The blog seems to have moved okay, and the forum has also successfully moved (although I still have to install anti-spambot modifications).

I am quite concerned that my iTunes does not see the Word Nerds podcast feed, but it may be too soon after the repointing of my domain name. Maybe the Internet is still looking in two places for my site. (Man, I hope so. This looks unsettlingly like a problem I was having with GoDaddy before I dumped them.)

Also, my K2 WordPress theme for The Word Nerds doesn’t work, so I’m using plain vanilla, with no graphic header and no sidebar links, for the time being.

Several domains that I own, that I intend to forward to the ones above, are not forwarding properly.

I am learning a lot about MySQL, WordPress, domain name assignments, and the Internet in general. However, I would have been happy with somewhat less education and somewhat more transparent functionality.

Gotta get me one of those things!

Published
by
Dave
on January 24, 2007
in media and technology
. 0 Comments

indexhero20070109.jpgOkay, a week and a half after Macworld, I find myself still abuzz about that iPhone.

Steve Jobs may be a genius presenter, but even so, it looks like a really neat product. Yes, I know it’s not open to the installation of other applications, but I don’t run any downloaded applications on the Sony-Ericcson W600i I use right now. The apps on the iPhone (Safari, in particular) are all I’m ever going to use on a phone/PDA.

I won’t buy one as soon as it comes out. I’ll give myself some months to cool off about it, and to let Apple get the bugs get worked out. But I probably will get one. I’m already a Cingular customer, so I wouldn’t have to switch. And I don’t have a video iPod, so that might be a marginal justification for that aspect of it.

Okay, y’all tell me now how stupid and starstruck I am. I don’t care. If it does the things Jobs showed off in the demo, and if it’ll connect up to my Prius’s Bluetooth connection, then I’m sold.

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