Author Archives: John

Nokia N95 Cartoonise

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Saturn Sky (Cartoon)I love the iPhone for web browsing and email, but the Nokia N95 wins hands down when it comes to photos, and that’s important for me because I just can’t carry my Canon 20D everywhere I go. I can, and do, carry my mobile phone!

Tonight, as I was walking up to the ferry terminal in SF, this bright red Saturn Sky pulled up on the footpath area and paused. Long enough for me to get the N95 out and snap a couple of shots, but probably not long enough to have unpacked the SLR.

But then, while sitting waiting for the ferry to arrive, I discovered that not only can it take stunning photos (there is no comparison to the iPhone’s camera in terms of quality), but there’s also an image editor on the phone that can crop, resize, sharpen, adjust colors and even apply a cool cartoon effect. Oh, and then I can upload the full size image straight into my Flickr stream, all from the phone.

Saturn Sky (Cartoon 2)Update: Check out the punched up version (created using the Gimp to adjust the levels a little on the original image).

Now I just need to work out how to get something similar to that from the image editor in the phone, which is a lot less sophisticated than the Gimp or Photoshop 🙁

Skiing Ants

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Skiing AntsLast weekend we did a day trip up to Sugar Bowl, and I spent some of the time up there taking pictures, mostly at the Judah lodge area.

This shot, taken from the Judah lodge patio area, shows tiny people skiing (and snowboarding too) down one of the runs back to the lodge area. Even with the longest lens I have, they still look tiny on the slope.

My Flickr stream has more pictures from Sugar Bowl, including some photos of contestants in a ski & snowboard jumping competition that was going on there.

No Service

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No ServiceArrived at Sugar Bowl this morning to discover that my iPhone has no service here. Oddly though, my N95, which is also on AT&T, does have coverage, and in fact pretty much full signal strength.

Luckily, here in Judah Lodge there is free Wi-Fi (SSID: EXWIRE or exwire depending on where you are). That too is a little strange as the same network is available in the main lodge, but there it is a paid hotspot network instead (which I have now added to Devicescape’s collection as well).

Also, if you’re going to provide Wi-Fi, especially paid Wi-Fi with a 2 hour minimum and day pass option, you really need to make sure that there are plenty of power outlets available as well.

Nokia Maps & the 3D View

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3D ViewEarlier this week I was playing with the maps function built into my Nokia N95, which it seems is a version of Smart2Go. Aside from the slow start on the GPS (even with A-GPS it is not always that quick to get a location), the mapping works well and I’ve used it a lot.

My reason for looking at it in more detail was wanting to know whether the paid option has the one feature that is annoyingly missing from the free version: automatic recalculation of the route if you miss a turn. I didn’t get an answer to that, but for less than $15 I can enable the feature for 30 days and see how well it works on a test drive I guess.

The other thing I discovered is that the maps have a 3D view option (hit ‘0’ to toggle). I’d never noticed that option in the menu before. Switching to it revealed something odd though – the cross hairs that mark the GPS position adjusted to the new perspective. The box that normally keeps track of the GPS location until you move it manually away, did not take the new perspective into account. Take a look at the 2D version here!

The big thing with the 3D view, which is also a problem with the 2D view on the phone, is that it doesn’t rotate based on the direction you’re traveling. That gets very confusing when you’re heading south!

Microsoft Leap Issues

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In case anybody was in any doubt about the suitability of Microsoft products as servers, of any kind, The Register is reporting this week that something as simple as handling the extra day in February this year passed them by. Most amusing perhaps is that the technology preview, released just two days before the leap day, was affected.

Nonetheless, the SQL Server 2008 “community technology preview” was brought down by the dreaded Leap Year Day bug just 48 hours after Microsoft unveiled it. “We have recently discovered an issue with SQL Server 2008 CTPs that result in SQL Server 2008 not starting on Feb 29 GMT only,” read a statement from the company. “We recommend that you do not run or install this CTP on Feb 29 GMT to minimize any impact in your environment. You can install starting on March 1 GMT.”

The advice given by Microsoft? Don’t install it or run it on that day. Great solution guys. Would that answer be the same for production software? No reason to think otherwise since they left UK users with the wrong time on all their machines for a week not that long ago when they got the daylight savings rules wrong. So, that web site you run with SQL Server as a backend – just turn it off for a day to “minimize the impact” of their poor quality software. I’ve got a better idea: spend that day upgrading to a real platform (try Linux or FreeBSD).

But it gets better:

And there was a very similar problem with Windows Small Business Server. On Leap Year Day, Windows SBS was unable to issue itself certificates because it stamped each certificate with the date February 29, 2013. So, it failed to recognize the correct date. And it replaced the correct date with a date that doesn’t exist.

Not only did it fail to understand the leap day in the date, it then compounds the problem by producing certificates with a non-existent date on them instead of just saying the date is invalid! But since it is only a small business product, no problem just leaving it that way. They won’t sue Microsoft after all – they don’t have the cash to do that.

Old Blue

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Old BlueThis was the boat home last night. Top speed: drifting forwards. Seems that Encinal sprung a leak yesterday afternoon (not good on a boat), so they brought out the replacements. Old Blue apparently is well named, and only just managed a gentle drifting speed across the bay to Alameda – taking roughly twice as long as Encinal.

This morning, her sister ship Oski did the first run, and Bay Monarch did the 7:15am run. That’s right: two ships needed to replace the Encinal. Even then, we got in to San Francisco so late that I’m here at Starbucks waiting for the 9am bus.

Backslash?

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Backslash?Why is it that people just cannot get URLs right. The backslash in there between nchs and nhanes.htm is wrong. It shouldn’t be in the URL, and even more bizarre in this case: they only got one wrong. Didn’t anybody think that was odd?

It works, presumably because the CDC is also stupid enough to have fallen for the ‘Windoze can be a server’ lie. Windoze just about passes as an office automation suite. It is not an OS, and it certainly isn’t a server OS. Anybody who installs it as a server OS, or recommends it as a server OS, should be fired.

A Dream Yacht

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Ulysses - A DreamTied up right next to the Alameda ferry terminal on Main Street is the mega-yacht Ulysses. She is 192′ long and able to house 14 guests in 7 staterooms, in addition to a crew of nine.

Interestingly, she has an unusual history. Just prior to being launched from the New Orleans shipyard that built her, she was almost totally destroyed by fire. After buying her remains from the insurance company, her original owner, New Zealand businessman Graeme Hart, had her taken to Brisbane, Australia and refitted totally.

Now she is in Alameda, California, at the Bay Ship yard, along with another ship from the Trinity stable: Pangaea.

Customer Service?

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So, my recent trip to Toronto was booked on the United Airlines website, and I ended up with three flights (I went via Las Vegas on the way out) all with UA flight codes, although two of them were operated by Air Canada. As is pretty much the norm for United, the flight they operated was late leaving San Francisco (they had to perform last minute repairs at the gate while we sat on the aircraft). That, combined with the 30 minute interval between inter-terminal shuttles at Las Vegas, meant I missed the original flight I had been booked on up to Toronto.

The Air Canada check-in desk staff kindly moved me on to the next flight, and all went well from there. Now I get back and discover that United had credited me with the mileage for SF to Las Vegas, and Toronto to SF, but had missed the flight that was changed. On the rare occasions that their website manages to show past itineraries, I can see the change recorded there, so they know what happened. But apparently they aren’t smart enough to handle the mileage credit too.

So I call customer service to be told that I need to send the boarding pass and a copy of the E-Ticket receipt (which is almost impossible to get to on their website because of repeated errors) to them. Since it is hard to get at online, I ask if they can send me a copy of the receipt since I can’t seem to get to it. “No, sorry, you need to call a different number for that.” OK, can I file a complaint about the ridiculousness of a system where I need to print something generated by a United database and send it back to United? “Yes sir. Let me give you the number for that…”

And why am I sending any of this information to them on paper? This was an online booking, made on their website. They already know that I was moved onto the next flight (because they were late getting to Las Vegas – and from what Air Canada told me, that’s not unusual). They already credited me the miles for 2 out of 3 segments. How hard can this be to fix online?

Is there anything I can do without calling another number? No, apparently not. The customer service desk is apparently just a telephone directory for United’s many other numbers. All he could do was give me other numbers to call. And the first person I spoke to managed to cut me off when I asked to be transferred to her supervisor. The only thing other than a number that I managed to get is an email address for the complaints – customervoice@united.com if anybody is interested.