Zappini

I've been coveting an iPhone since it was just a rumor.

I had been lugging my laptop everywhere, because I can't be without my contacts, notes, calendar, and email. It was getting old. I progressively become more motivated to step up to the iPhone.

I finally bought one last week. Having recently bought a refurbished MacBook Pro (to replace the Mac Powerbook G4 I had destroyed), with great success (fucking great product), I was emotionally ready to buy a refurbed iPhone.

I checked the online Apple Store regularly. Finally a refurbished iPhone 8Gb popped up for $350.

AT&T also has refurbs available online. For $250. But I figured that once they had my credit card info, they probably had ways to enforce using their calling plan. No can do.

I used ZiPhone to jailbreak and SIM unlock my iPhone (firmware v1.1.4). Once I found the right utility, it was utterly painless; just install and run. (The INdependence 1.4 beta 5 I tried has a problem running on Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.2. Go figure.)

I already have a calling plan on a GSM network. So I put my previous phone's SIM card in my new iPhone. Worked immediately.

I truly, honestly, couldn't be much happier.

Playing with the iPhone, I'm using the included headphones, which have a built-in microphone. It's awesome. (Though I don't know how well my voice is heard by the other side.) Being able to talk and do other stuff, like typing, without scrunching my neck to the side is a huge improvement.

I hate seeing those bluetooth earpieces. A friend calls them "ear dildos". Maybe there's a compromise that doesn't make me look like a wankified Locutus of Borg.

There are a few necessary features missing.

I still need to figure out how to sync my (corporate overlord provided) Outlook calendar with my iCal/iPhone.

The iPhone currently doesn't support the To Do List items from my iCal, which seems like an odd omission.

Because I'm not using the AT&T + iPhone calling plan, I don't have Visual Voice Mail, which is kind of a bummer.

I haven't been able to connect to my domestic wi-fi. I have security enabled and there's no practical way to enter the WPA hex string, correctly, on the iPhone. I need to find a workaround.

I want to manage my medical bills like I manage my bank accounts. I struggle to keep track of all my coverage, copays, deductibles, refill reminders, etc.

I'm pretty sure I'd be a more contentious consumer of healthcare if I had a better way to manage my own affairs.

Where's the Quicken for my medical bills? If it doesn't exist, what would it look like?

The Economist, execrable war propagandist and perennial curmudgeon, again vainly tried to establish their relevance in the third millennium by kibitzing on the social experiment called Wikipedia, the online collaborative encyclopedia. Apparently Wikipedia is being torn asunder from within by competing visions.

Duh.

Unfortunately, this instigated another assessment of belly button lent on libertarian-leaning Slashdot: The Battle For Wikipedia's Soul.

Wikipedia's infighting is called a constitutional crisis. It's normal. The rights of the group (majority) vs the individual (minority). How to decide what the rules are. How to reconcile competing agendas. Etc.

Clay Shirky, one of the very few lucid, timely, and relevant commentators of this digital life, has already explained this phenomenon in his essay A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy. Read it to gain an understanding of the new world. One facet, at least.

Posting to blogger.com sucks. I've tried a few offline clients. I've tried posting via email. I usually end up posting via the web. The captcha gatekeeper sucks. It never works the first time; for this post, I've already tried three times. (Note that I already logged into my blogger account.)

Sucks.

There's some new blogger API for Java. Maybe that'll begat something that doesn't suck.

I might be forced to buy a blogger tool. I looked at Ecto a few times. Always felt it sucked.

Alternately, this exercise in futility may compel me to finally set up a basement server and I fix things for myself. Gods, I hate always having to start from scratch, reinventing the wheel.

You'd think this shit would get EASIER over time.

I'm so nostalgic for the offline mail readers from the BBS era. Like Silly Little Mail Reader (SLMR, pronounced "Slimmer") that most of the users of my BBS used.

I have a Dell laptop w/ Dell LCD on my work desk. Getting the !@#@% Dell to use the LCD correctly (resolution, extended desktop) was a pain in the ass. With my Mac, this shit just works.

Later, I needed to adjust the LCD's contrast and brightness. There's buttons on the front. So I twiddled for a bit, until I tired of the LCD's novel user interface. Reminds me of using a vintage HP LaserJet.

Why the hell are the digital LCD's settings not settable from the laptop itself? Like with a system preference or something.

VESA just announced some new monitor connector: DisplayPort 1.1. Whoopie! Nothing about controlling the LCD from the laptop.

Okay. This time I mean it. I'm really going to blog regularly.

I've been splunking through the archive of posts on Jeff Atwood's Coding Horrors. Great stuff. Recommended reading.

I've tried using an RSS reader. Just doesn't work for me.