iPhone Whiners Unite
Did you hear? The Apple iPhone went on this sale this past Friday, June 29th. All of the tech Blogs endlessly gave a minute-by-minute update on long lines formed by the early adopters across the US.
The weekend elapsed and now we have a plethora of those early adopters complaining about everything from the ring tones to the unsuccessful phone activation. I just find this sort of bouncing attitude very amusing. Before buying their beloved iPhones, these people were certain that Apple could do no wrong. Forget the fact that you’re being asked to pay $499 or $599 for the 4GB and 8GB variety of the iPhone AND a2-year contract with AT&T (the exclusive carrier) that you have to sign to even use this sucker.
There aren’t any numbers that I’ve seen tracking the number of people who bought the iPhone for their own use as opposed to trying to make a quick buck selling it to other fans who were not willing to sit in line for days. But, I can imagine that a large number of iPhones were sold and now imagine that many people all sitting at home on the weekend trying to activate their respective phones. Is it really that much of a surprise that the AT&T servers were overwhelmed? But I guess to some, it truly is surprising as they’re whining about not being able to use their shiny new iPhone.
As much as the features of the iPhone are intriguing, AT&T’s prior history of lackluster service and Cingular’s spotty network hasn’t convinced me to switch over from my very reliable Verizon service. I might someday consider the iPhone, when Verizon starts to offer it and the price as dropped to about $49.99 for the 8GB variety and I can get it as a free upgrade.
Early adopters be damned. You guys can figure out all the quirks and issues, I’ll wait for everything to be ironed out and the 2nd generation phones to hit the market before I even think about getting the iPhone.
Cheers
PC Gaming Dilemma
I got into PC gaming shortly after my introduction to computers in my early teens back in the early 90’s. During that time, MS-DOS was the OS of choice and all games required some level of tinkering before they would function. Anyone from that era should have fond memories of EMM386 and counter-parts used to get a game to run.
Through all that mess, I still actively bought, installed, tinkered and played many PC games. At the same time, in the console market, the Nintendo Entertainment System reigned supreme. My father did buy an NES console for my brother and me and we dutifully played through Super Mario Brothers and were amazed that 8-bit graphics.
Ubuntu Edgy Eft
I recently decided to upgrade my computer to be somewhat relevant to todays CPU speeds and, more importantly, storage space. So, this past weekend I sat down to put the new PC together and having done so decided to install both Linux and Windows XP on there. I chose the Ubuntu distribution, as I had used the older Ubuntu Breezy and had liked it.
I got the newest Ubuntu Edgy Eft installer CD and booted into it and was surprised to see that I got the full GNOME window with a usable Linux as opposed to the usual install screen. This is, by far, the smartest thing any Linux distribution can do. Edgy Eft is actually a Live Linux CD that allows you explore what Linux has to offer before choosing to install it. All my peripherals were detected and optimized. So, I could watch videos, listen to music, browse the web and check my mail; all without having actually installed Linux.
Needless to say, I installed Ubuntu and couldn’t be happier. My hats off to an absolutely awesome distribution and installation method!
Cheers
Those Darn Chords
It took the birth of my daughter to get a little introspective about my life and the accomplishments in them. I look at her, barely in her third week of life and imagine all that she will learn, accomplish and teach. I, then look at myself approaching 30 and reminisce about the things that I just didn’t get done.
Prime amongst a growing list of things that I haven’t and probably will never get done is being able to play the guitar. Music, in general, has always been a big part of my life. I enjoy listening to it. Singing, albeit badly sometimes, to it and generally being surrounded by it. What better way, I thought, for me to get more involved in music than to play an instrument myself.
