Posts filed under 'Computing'
If you’re both an iPhone user, and have a blog hosted or powered by WordPress, then you have something new to get excited about. WordPress for iPhone and iPod touch was released late yesterday on the iTunes App Store! I’m putting it through it’s paces by composing this post on my iPhone 3G.
While the app is very light on features, it has all the basic essentials for writing and submitting new posts, as well a editing existing ones. If your blog is hosted on wordpress.com, then you can even see a preview of your post in your site’s theme, however, those who host with an alternate hosting provider (or like me, on their own server) will see their post displayed with a generic theme. Hopefully a future version will offer the option to launch Safari to view a preview generated by your own server.
It even let’s you insert photos from the photo library or camera roll on your iDevice as well as taking photos with the built-in camera, right from within the app. Coupled with firmware 2.0’s ability to take screenshots, this could become an iPhone software reviewer’s dream come true.
So what are the limitations? The app only let’s you edit existing or write new posts. That’s it. There are no features for doing any other administration of your site for now, so we’ll still need to use mobile Safari for viewing/editing comments and performing other administrative tasks. Also, those of you who have become spoiled by the GUI editor or even the basic editing toolbar are going to have to brush up on your HTML and CSS, because all formatting has to be applied the old fashioned way.
Another shortfall, or what appears to be more of a bug, is that if your post includes a “more” tag to display only an excerpt on the main page, you won’t be able to edit any part of the post that comes after the more tag. It’s like the mobile WordPress app sees the more tag as the end of the article. There also doesn’t seem to be any support for optional excerpts. If like me, you like to only display an excerpt on your blog’s front page, this is going to be an issue. You can still use the app to write the post, but you’ll have to apply the excerpt manually via the web editing tools before you can publish your final post.
Probably the greatest limitation is one not in the app itself but in the iPhone OS: the lack of cut and paste. I’m not sure if my writing style is rare or not, but frequently when penning longer posts, I tend to move sentences and paragraphs around a lot during the editing process. There’s simply no way to do this short of deleting and re-typing… A LOT. Something I’m just not likely to do. I suspect this will make me a better writer, as I’ll be forced to think more carefully about what I want to write before I type it.
Where the lack of cut and paste really hurts though is with inserted photos. Since the app inserts photos at the end of your existing post text, you can’t move them around without writing down and retyping a lot of HTML code.
Again, you could get around this by planning your post ahead of time and inserting photos at the exact points in your post as you are typing it. If I decide I’d prefer to insert them earlier in the post, I’m SOL. Hopefully a future version of WordPress for iPhone/iPod touch will give you the option of inserting photos at any point in the post. But of course it would be better if Apple just got off their ass and gave us an elegant cut & paste solution already.
Limitations aside, I highly recommend WordPress for iPhone and iPod touch to anyone who has a blog powered by WordPress and would like the freedom of submitting or editing posts while on the go. Bloggers who use excerpts however may only find it useful for composing their post as they will still need to apply the finishing touches via the web interface.
July 22nd, 2008
[Update 4] Time flies when you’re having fun. I’m reminded of this as I think about the fact that I’ve owned my PLAYSTATION 3 for almost a year and a half now. I almost can’t believe I’ve been enjoying it for that long, but considering how much fun I’ve had with it, it’s no wonder. But another way to look at this timeframe is by how many months it’s been since the warranty has expired. Of course, how many months doesn’t really matter, it’s really just a question of whether it is expired or not.
Unfortunately my PS3’s age falls on the wrong side of that expiry date. Unfortunate because last night, my PS3 died. I was sitting on my couch racing a virtual VW Golf GTI around a virtual track in Gran Tourismo 5: Prologue (a fantastic racing simulator, by the way) when suddenly my PS3 beeped 3 times, shut itself off and just sat there with a flashing red LED. My first thought was that the game had just crashed really bad, so I tried turning the unit back on using the DualShock 3 controller. Nothing. I then tried pressing the power button on the front of the unit, the red light turned solid indicating the system was in standby mode. Another press and the system turned on, beeped 3 times, flashed a single amber LED and promptly shut itself down again with the flashing red LED as before.
I tried everything I could think of, including letting it cool off for over a half-hour and trying again, turning off the physical power switch in the back of the unit and even resetting the unit by holding the front power button for 10 seconds while turning on the physical power in the back. I also tried swapping out my upgraded 120GB hard drive with the original 60GB hard drive that came with the unit and even tried powering it on with no hard drive installed. Same thing every time.
So I called Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), and they’ll be shipping me a pre-paid shipping casket box for me to pack my beloved console’s remains in and send it off to be replaced. Since it’s out of warranty, it’s going to cost me $160 CDN plus tax. Not too bad considering repairing any electronics these days usually costs an arm and a leg and a new PS3 would cost me $400-500. Still, it hurts. But what hurts more is knowing that I’ll likely be without it for 7-10 days, by the time I get the shipping box, send it back and receive the replacement.
The replacement will most likely be a factory re-certified unit, which basically means refurbished. Sony assured me that the replacement is shipped out 3-4 business days after receiving the defective unit. This is a relief as I expected it to be more like 1-2 weeks. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I get a working PS3 unit in time for Grand Theft Auto IV’s release on April 29. It’s already bad enough that I can’t play Gran Tourismo 5: Prologue, which I just got 2 days ago.
I hope Sony’s standards for cosmetic beauty are strict, I’d hate to get a replacement PS3 that was in worse physical condition than mine is. The customer service operator told me they would ship my GT5P game disc back with the replacement unit, since it’s stuck in the drive with no reasonable way for me to get it out myself.
So I’m trying to look on the bright side. I still have the hard drive with all my game saves on it, which should work fine once installed in the replacement PS3 I get back. This is a good thing since I haven’t backed up my data in months. Also, not having the PS3 at home to keep me occupied will mean I have some free time to do other things, like work on my website, get out and enjoy the fresh air, and spend more time with neglected loved ones. I’m just bummed I won’t be able to taunt XBox 360 fanboys about the RROD anymore. Ah, of course I can, my PS3 will have to die at least twice before I have to worry about losing that privilege. 
Update 1 - 4/18/2008, 12:45 pm: I just received the return shipping box. I’ll be packing up my dead PS3 when I get home from work and dropping it off at the nearest Purolator depot tonight.
Update 2 - 4/20/2008, 2:30 am: I shipped my PS3 off on Friday evening. Funny thing is the paperwork that came with it, and that were emailed to me by Sony instructed me to attach a copy of my proof of purchase if my PS3 is in-warranty, but said absolutely nothing about how to provide payment if my PS3 is out of warranty. I called Sony back, and they seemed really out of touch about the whole process, which surprised me, since they supposedly have been dealing with out of warranty PS3 repairs for over 5 months now. They insisted I had the correct paperwork and that if I wanted to pay by credit card, that I should just write my card info and address on a piece of paper and include it in the box.
My confidence level in the rep I was speaking too wasn’t the highest at this point, since she had to put me on hold for several minutes to research the answer to every single one of my questions, all of which were pretty straightforward, like “how do I pay for my repair”? I wasn’t impressed and even asked for a supervisor to whom I expressed my disappointment with the poorly documented process, and the lack of training provided to the call center staff. He did apologize and understood my frustration, but said I was the first to raise an issue about the process with him. He did say he would pass my feedback on to the appropriate channels, and provided me the phone number of the repair depot in Ontario where my PS3 was being shipped so I could provide them with the credit card info by phone.
I called the toll free number for the repair depot, and the phone was promptly answered by a guy who shall remain anonymous to protect his job. After bringing him up to speed with my situation, he told me that he couldn’t take my cc info until they had received my PS3. He did confirm that there was definitely two different sets of paperwork/instructions for in and out of warranty repairs, and agreed that I had been provided the wrong ones. He instructed me to simply attach a copy of my receipt to the form as it instructed. When they receive it, they assume the in-warranty status has already been confirmed by the call centre and don’t bother checking the purchase date, so my repair would be covered under warranty.
So I did as I was instructed and am keeping my fingers crossed. I’ll be sure to update this article with the outcome of this ordeal.
Update 3 - 4/22/2008, 10:30 am: According to the online repair status website, my replacement PS3 was shipped this morning! So with a little luck, I should have it by tomorrow. Best part is, I was never contacted to provide payment, so looks like the guy I spoke to at the depot knew what he was talking about.
As an aside, the shipping and repairs are all handled through Purolator. Like many consumer electronics manufacturers these days, Sony has contracted out the shipping and repairs of their Playstation products, at least here in Canada. I don’t blame them, Purolator probably does it all cheaper and far more efficiently than Sony could do it themselves. This also explains why Sony’s support staff are somewhat clueless as to the actual behind the scenes process.
Update 4 - 4/24/2008, 10:35 am: Good news! I received my replacement PLAYSTATION 3 yesterday afternoon and there was no charge for it! The bad news is I tried reinstalling my 120GB hard disk that I had removed before shipping the unit back, and when I powered the unit up, it displayed a message saying that the hard disk needed to be formatted in order to be used. Crap. I sat for a moment wondering if there was anything I could do–nothing came to mind. So I went ahead and formatted it.
I dug out the old USB hard drive that I had last used to back up my PS3, and restored the last backup dated October 30, 2007. So I’ve lost about 5 months worth of game saves. Not the end of the world as I had finished a few games recently and already traded them in. The saves I will miss most are from Oblivion, which I had recently finished the main quest in, but still planned to go back and try to finish all the side missions. Probably about 10-20 hours of gameplay lost. The second worst loss is my progress in Assassin’s Creed, which I have been already been having a hard time motivating myself to play with all the other great games vying for my attention *cough* Call of Duty 4 *cough*. With the new COD4 maps coming out today and Grand Theft Auto IV hitting stores next week, I’m afraid my chances of picking up Assassin’s Creed again are getting pretty slim…
April 17th, 2008
[Update 2] We’ve known for a while now that major ISPs in Canada have been utilizing traffic shaping technology to throttle the transfer speeds of certain types of traffic. Rogers Hi-Speed and Bell Sympatico customers who use Bittorrent to transfer files know all too well. It’s for this reason that some consumers have been switching to smaller independent ISPs like TekSavvy. While it isn’t the main reason, I’d be lying if I told you it didn’t play a role in my decision to switch providers.
Well, if Bell is allowed to get away with it, looks like the honeymoon may be over. News broke yesterday in major news outlets, technology blogs and internet forums that Bell Canada has been traffic shaping the wholesale internet connections they provide to competing DSL ISPs who rely on Bell’s infrastructure to provide their service. That’s right, Bell is dictating their competitor’s terms of service. The worst part about it is Bell failed to notify any of their wholesale ISP customers that they were going to do it.
While some will say Bell has a right to manage their network to ensure all their customers enjoy good performance, it’s hard to see how this doesn’t run afoul of anti-competition laws. Bell sells a lot more than just internet service after all. They’re probably best knows as a telephone service provider, but are also the major satellite TV provider in Canada. When Bell started throttling traffic for their own Sympatico customers, it was already crossing the line since the services that were getting throttled, VoIP and P2P file-sharing are both upcoming competitors to traditional telephone and cable/satellite TV service.
By applying their traffic shaping to competing DSL provider’s wholesale lines however, Bell has stepped so far over that anti-competitive line that it’s not even a line anymore, it’s a tiny spec way off on the horizon. A deregulated DSL marketplace is supposed to promote healthy competition. One of the ways companies compete is by offering better service. But rather than compete fair and square, Bell is abusing their monopoly on the DSL backbone to force their competitors to reduce their quality of service to the same low level as Bell’s. So consumers are left with no choices if they want to deal with an ISP that doesn’t utilize traffic shaping, since the only other alternatives for most are the local Cable monopoly providers, most of which also throttle their customer’s connections.
If this is allowed to continue unchecked, how long before we see YouTube or iTunes downloads get speed throttled? With more and more of the world’s communication and media traveling over the internet, the internet monopolists will have more and more power to dictate how we use our internet connections. As a telecommunications and media competitor, Bell cannot be trusted to be impartial in choosing what protocols and services to apply traffic shaping to.
So what can we do about this? Get the word out. Stop doing business with Bell and let them know why. Write a letter to your local MP, the CTRC and the Competition Bureau of Canada, and let them know you think what Bell is doing is unacceptible, and that network neutrality is not only very important to you, but that you consider it essential to promoting open competition, innovation and free speech on the internet as well as Canada’s competitiveness in the global information economy.
Update 1 - 4/1/2008, 12:35 pm: There’s a petition up as well as related news articles at
neutrality.ca. If you support net neutrality, take a moment to
head on over and add your name to the growing list. They also have some
banner images in various sizes, perfect for promoting the cause and spreading the word to others via your forum signature, blog or in online comments:
Update 2 - 4/14/2008, 11:15 am: For those of you who would like to add your voice to the effort to get Bell to stop throttling their competitor’s internet traffic, a poster on DSLReports named “CanadianISP” has
posted simple and quick 4-step instructions that you can follow to notify the CRTC that you support CAIP’s (Canadian Association of Internet Providers) complaint against Bell’s throttling of third party ISP traffic. The whole process will take you at most 60 seconds of your time, so if you’re at all concerned with the direction Canadian internet access is going, I urge you to take the time to do it. To make it even easier, here are the instructions from the DSLReports topic:
If you would like to support CAIP in their efforts please file submissions with the Commission over the next week to show your support for the request for interim relief. These submissions don’t have to be very complicated.
All that you need to do is:
- Click on the following link:
http://support.crtc.gc.ca/crtcsubmissionmu/forms/Telecom.aspx?lang=e
- Select “Part VII / PN” from the list.
- Insert the CRTC file number (# 8622-C51-200805153) into the “Subject” Line.
- Insert the following suggested text into the “Description / Comments / Questions” box:
“I am writing to express my support for the application that CAIP has filed with the CRTC regarding Bell Canada’s throttling practices. I believe that these practices contravene Bell Canada’s duties as a common carrier and that the Commission should direct Bell to immediately cease and desist from throttling the traffic of independent ISPs.”
As someone once said, if you don’t do your part to try and stop this, then you forfeit your right to complain about it, ever.
March 26th, 2008
[Update 2] So I recently attempted to re-apply the Mac OS X 10.5.2 Combo update to my MacBook Pro in the hopes that it would fix an annoying little bug that is preventing the contents of my Desktop folder to get dynamically updated. To my surprise, when I went to select my boot volume to install on, the Installer wouldn’t let me continue stating:
“You cannot install Mac OS X Update Combined on this volume. This volume does not meet the requirements for this update.”
At first I thought my OS installation was corrupted, but before I reached for my Leopard install DVD to do a clean install I decided to investigate whether one of the recent Apple software updates may have caused the problem. Read on to see the results of my investigation.
Continue Reading March 25th, 2008
[Update 1] Well that couldn’t have gone any smoother. For those that have just tuned in, we switched Internet service providers this morning. I’m happy to report that the migration went smoothly and without issue. I’m actually quite pleasantly surprised that this is the case, since I haven’t had the best of luck in the past when it came to dealing with ISPs. They almost NEVER deliver what they promise. The fact that I was dealing with two ISPs in order to make it all happen borders on a miracle.
Bell was scheduled to suspend my Sympatico DSL service at midnight, so I decided I’d stay up and wait for it to happen so I could connect my new Thomson SpeedTouch 516 DSL modem up in preparation for my TekSavvy DSL service to be activated in the morning. So I figured I’d get some last minute email and websurfing in and then settled into playing Call of Duty 4 online on my PS3. In other words, what I do almost every night. My plan was to play until I lost connection, then install the new DSL modem, then go to bed and reconfigure my router to connect to Teksavvy in the morning. Midnight rolled by and I was still taking out tangos. One o’clock AM came and went and I was still defending democracy from terrorists. By around 2:15 am, I decided that my tour of duty might never end, and called it quits for the night, Sympatico Internet connection still operational. In the back of my mind, I worried that Bell’s delay in disconnecting me was going to delay the activation of the new TekSavvy connection.
Looks like those worries were unfounded since when I got up this morning at 7:00 am, I found my AirPort Extreme router’s connection light flashing amber, indicating a connection problem. I connected the SpeedTouch modem to the phone line and was happy to see the DSL and Internet status lights turn solid green. A few minutes later, I had my AirPort Extreme reconfigured with the TekSavvy settings and was connected to the Internet with our new static IP. A quick trip to my domain registrar’s self-serve website to reconfigure the artofgeek.com domain to point to our new IP and disable dynamic DNS and I was done. Then it was just a matter of waiting for the change to propagate to Internet DNS servers around the world and we were back in business. Total downtime was under 6 hours.
First impressions? My web surfing seems a bit faster, and my wife said the same thing when I asked her if she noticed a difference, but the difference isn’t immense from the limited amount of time I had to test it. There’s not much else to say at this point. It’s an internet connection, and it’s working. If you have any questions about our transition or the service, post them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them.
Update 1 - 3/18/2008, 9:41 am: For those interested in performance info, here’s my results from Speedtest.net on three seperate tests:
As you can see, the download speeds seem pretty consistent around 4,270kbps. The upload speeds vary more, but solidly between 500-600kbps. I only wish I had done these same tests with my Sympatico connection while I still had a chance. Keep in mind these speeds may vary depending on the time of day. I’m fairly impressed since right now is near peak hours for internet usage (between 9-10pm). I’ll run the tests again at different times of day to see if it stays consistently fast or not.
March 18th, 2008
Please note that Art Of Geek will be unavailable for a good part of Tuesday, March 18 due to an ISP migration. We’re migrating from Bell Sympatico to Teksavvy DSL. Unfortunately, there’s no way to be sure about how long the outage will be, but trust me when I say I’m going to try and make it as short as possible.
See you all when we’re back up and with a static IP address. No more short bouts of downtime because I have to reset my router. Yippee!
March 17th, 2008
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