The Digital Cobbler

I just handed back my iphone. It belonged to work and I changed jobs and I don’t get to keep it. So, now I’m without a cell phone for the 1st time in ten years. Will I survive?

I’m not sure. However, when I got the iphone in June I kept my old cell number by porting it to a voip provider who have very cheap, pay-as-you-go rates. This provider has a feature that emails me everytime someone calls and leaves a voice mail and, in fact, the email contains the voicemail as an attachment.

So, I’ve carried a wifi-enabled handheld device for years. In fact, at the moment I’ve just re-commissioned my old Palm Lifedrive and that device can usually connect in a wifi cafe and see the emails. Whether it can listen to the attachments, I’m not sure, but there’s also a voip app for the lifedrive which lets me actally make calls. But at the moment the lifedrive microphone isn’t working well and the audio from my calls is inaudible.

Anyway, there’s more work to do on this front and who knows, if I get this all sorted, maybe I won’t need no stinking cell phone!

We’re not the only ones with problems accommodating bikes on our bridges. Here’s an article from the New York Times illustrating the bridge, bikes and pedestrians problem is pinching the Brooklyn bridge.

So I was able finally to try out scoopler. Okay. Pretty handy.

In fact, it taps a thread that I’ve been thinking about for a while: the idea that the “standard” supply of  information content that means something to a given community has to include comments, criticisms, posts, and blogs by the very members of the community. And these posts and comments are now, increasingly, on these social networks that are hard for traditional information-agglomerating tools (website search (google), catalogues (library), listserv archives and digests, and so on.

Last time I tried to use it, scoopler were having some reliabilityi issues. But this time, while I think there’s still a few speed issues, it works pretty well and, in fact, it’s pretty handy to have. Especially for info on events and ideas that are moving fast. It’s worth checking out.

I read an article on a list about Scoopler and how it might be great because it was going to try to catch tweets and status post realtime and let you search for them. But I’ve tried to use it twice and I keep getting a blank search-page that says this:

Hmmm. Even late on a Thursday night. I guess the web never sleeps. But this doesn’t bode well for realtime tweet searching.

This (http://magiclantern.wikia.com/wiki/Magic_Lantern_Firmware_Wiki) is really cool! Now I’m not a videographer, as you might know. But, oooohhh, there’s something about hacking into the camera’s OS to make much more than what was originally intended that just makes my head spin. Who would ever predict that this would happen. If it catches on, film-making might never be the same. Wow!

Thanks to Baden for the tip.

A good camera makes a difference, no doubt. This taken with my Oly E-1, not w/ that iphone. But this camera is also kind of big and conspicuous. I think this guy grumped at me when he figured out I was taking his picture. iPhone doesn’t (so far) seem to get that reaction. Or maybe it’s just messengering on a miserable day is pretty grumpy work.

Walking with an iphone means I have a 2gb camera in my pocket, all the time. That means, I’m prone to taking pictures, all the time. Generally speaking, the total lo-res package is pretty bad but, still, a camera is what you make it to be. So here’s a couple pictures.

Went to Playland yesterday. Long day with a bunch of 13-yr-olds but it was plenty of fun. And there’s something I like about Playland. I think it has to do with the old, worn rides under their many coats of paint. It’s very honest, basic East Van. I’ve been going since I was a kid (but I didin’t grow up in E.Van). My Granpa used to have a booth in the midway during the PNE. He was a carnival man. But that’s a whole other story. Believe me.

Just finished a (mostly) complete arterial route ride. Didn’t really plan it this way but my usual crossing-light at Fraser St. was all clogged up with construction and I ended up at Prince Albert & Kingsway. What to do?

Well, the only thing that seemed sensible to do was: ride the arterials! So, down Kingsway I went. Then down Main street. Did I turn at 5th ave? No way! Straight on until Union St. and then over the viaduct and up Dunsmuir ’til hamilton. Next thing you know it’s an “all arterial” route. And, you know what else? It’s not so bad. I know lots of ink is spilled about safe riding routes (I’ve spilled some of that ink myself) but just taking a lane and going for it is the thing to do, sometimes.