July 2008 Archives

I now have an iPhone 3G.  6 hours invested in the process of obtaining one.  Finally, Apple & AT&T have figured out the little "tricks" to get accounts activated.

I have to admit, it's pretty cool.  Apple does a user interface (and hardware) better than pretty much anyone in the business.  I'm not an Apple fanboy, but I have to appreciate good design.

I drove by the 59 store, looked at the line, and decided I didn't want to wait in the heat.  Same thing at the Kirby store.

So, I went downtown to the Allen Center store, waited for a while, and then found out that the store was completely sold out.  People in the front of the line had been waiting since 6 am, and still hadn't gotten a phone because the activation process was taking so long.  And, supposedly, the store had only gotten 20 phones in stock to begin with.

Very poor planning on Apple and AT&T's part.  I'm not a rabid fan... it's just that my current phone (an old Windows Media 5 phone) has a dead battery that can't hold a charge, and the battery isn't made anymore.  So, I need a new phone, and I figured I'd try the iPhone.

Oh well.

...that gets your attention because of its brilliance.  And, I love those moments.

Now, I've been into electronic dance music for a long time now (since early college days, even late high school), and I pretty much spent my college years behind turntables DJing at radio stations, clubs, parties, etc.  But, even though I still love music more than almost anything else, other aspects of life have interfered with "following the latest and greatest" as I did in college.  Most of my new music is Radio 1 Essential Mixes acquired from Mixriot (was freshlymixed.com).

But, late last night, I stumbled upon the mixes of DJ Doboy.  This guy must be my mind twin, because we have exactly the same taste in dance music.  Progressive trance, classic late-80s/early-90s club, even some recent pop remixes.  But, better than the track selection, his mixing ability is second to none.  Not just beatmatching, but "mood matching", key matching, just good mixing skills.  I've just started to listen to his extensive collection of mixes, available all over the net.

Supposedly the guy has "retired" from mixing and sold all of his equipment.  Too bad, because he really has talent.

Lori Ann and I decided to buy a DSLR camera as an anniversary gift to ourselves.  (We celebrate our 5 year anniversary this Saturday.)  We've always wanted a nice camera, I've always wanted to learn how to take good pictures, and with the baby on the way, we figured it was time to take the plunge into serious photography.

After quite a bit of research, I finally decided on the Canon EOS 40D.  I bought the camera kit, which includes a lens.  I realize that it's not the best lens available, but it will get me started.  I've read through the instruction manual, so I know how to do most functions, but I don't know yet when and why to use them yet. 

I've always thought that I'm not the best "visual" person; I think more abstractly, which is why I'm good at writing complex computer programs.  But, just as I've never been a very "mechanically-inclined" person, but I can now work on cars somewhat competently (after lots of practice), I know that I can learn the basics of photography and will gain some level of competence after a while.

And, maybe I can start posting some pictures up on this blog, which seems a bit, well, plain...

And it was.  Slept in late, did stuff around the house, hung out with friends and my brother's family, geeked out at computer stores, played with computers at home.

A gigabit router sure makes it faster to talk to the home server.  I also installed Power Pack 1 RC for Windows Home Server.  Seems to be running well, and the backup of the shares on the server is really nice.

Lori Ann and I decided to buy a DSLR camera for our anniversary present.  I'm leaning towards the Canon Rebel XSi.