Happy Christmas, if your into that sort of thing. For a present, heres a stamp of Santa taking a dump down a chimney. Enjoy!
Monthly Archive for December, 2006
And the internet is still playing about. For the past 2 weeks our Internet connection from AOL has been going up and down. This is due to a “line upgrade” which will “make our line faster and more stable”.
Before we had this upgrade, our connection was fast enough. I’m not downloading HD content or a new Linux distro every day, but I do get about 200mbs of podcasts and bebo. The speeds where great before the upgrade and with an unlimited amount of bandwigth I could download all I want. So why did AOL need to upgrade?
So I called, Twice. The first time I spoke to a nice man in India. He was helpful and told me to turn the connection on and off. It took an hour and by the time it was done, we had the Internet, for 1/2 hour.
The second time I called I spoke to someone in Ireland. They checked my line and said, change your filter. Fine I says. I tried it. Works, for 2 hours.
So now I have to call them after Xmas, seems like the day off. The animals. So hopefully, it will all be sorted before the year is out.
Its not the most exciting wireless system, but GPS could be something that makes the iPhone stand out.
Photography
Any phone thats worth its salt nowadays will have a camera. One feature that has been found in iPhoto 06 is the use of Geotagging. Lets say the iPhone has GPS. Every time you take a photo, the phone gets the current GPS location and saves it to the photo. This makes uploading to Flickr easyer and perhaps useable in an iLife app?
Buddys
Lets say you’r best mate has an iPhone When the phone is turned on, you could locate where your buddys are, see below.
iLife
There has been pleanty of rumors about anouther iLife app. A mapping application. Lets call it “Columbus”. “Columbus” would have full mapping abbilitys. It would also be able to get photos from your iPhone and Flickr to show more close and acurate pictures of that area. A mini version of Columbus could gove you infomation about where you are, where to go and where your friends are. If you think about it, iCal tells you what your doing, Address Book says who your meeting, and Columbus shows you where your going.
Theft
Lets say that your flashing your iPhone about, people see it, admire it. Some people want too closer a look and take your prized possession. No fear. If GPS was in the iPhone, you would be able to track it with “Columbus”. Every time the stolen phone is turned on / off, phone call is made or text / email sent, its current location is sent to Apple’s server. This can be acessed with “Columbus”. Perhaps screenshots are sent or infomation about the theaf.
After finding an iMac G3 down the dump yesterday, I’ve been playing with it and found a few more things.
When I first plugged it in, the screen flickered and dimmed. It dimmed down and up. Hopefully not going to exploded or electrocute me. I’m still here so its not killed me yet. I also found a few ports on the back of it. One was a RAM slot which has 256 mbs or RAM. The other port found is an external monitor port, VGA. Dual monitors are always fun. The last owner, a Mr John Moore, had installed a new hardrive. A small boost from 8 gigs to 40.
While exploring it turns out that whoever had it last was a fan of gaming. There old Mac OS 9.2 has Tomb Raider and Quake. All the fun you can have with less than 4 mb of graphics power, and the OS of 1997!
One last secret I found in the old beast is Mac OS X. Yes, it runs Mac OS X. Puma, 10.1.3. Its fast and speedy. Plus it also has iTunes 2, iPhoto 2 and iMovie 2. Wow. Life just gets better and better. 
Perhaps soon I will be able to update it to Panther and perhaps have an update.
So the last thing to do is to find a price for this beauty on eBay. There is one for sale. £80. Its not even upgraded. Who knows what t do now. Put a little more fiddling will always help.
With all these new Macs that are coming out every few months, people discard there old ones. Goodbye G4, hello Intel. So I was more than happy when an old G3 came my way.
I’m an avid Mac collector. They may be big and chunky, but there collectible. Since I got my first Mac a year and a 1/2 ago, 7 Macs have come my way. A PowerMac G4, 2 Motorola based systems, iBook G3 Dual USB, PowerBook 5300, and a Bondi Blue iMac G3. Some have gone to a better place, others have found a way onto my wall. But today, I can add one more to my collection. A iMac G3 Snow White.
So we go to our local tip to drop off a broken camping lamp. My dad pulls up. I get out, take 3 steps forward and find myself looking down at a small white monitor. It was damp with dew dripping off it, but internally, it was still working. I take t home for the small price of £5.
I dry it off and give it 3 hours to dry. Cautiously, it plug it into the electric socket, and turn the switch. Nothing explodes, which is a good start. Pressing the power-button, something odd happened. Out came a CD. Somebody forgot there P!NK : Try This CD (iTunes Link). So it all starts up, boots up, and goes into Mac OS 9.2. Its fast and does everything it should. Its working perfectly. Now I wonder if I can get Panther on it.
I shall post more information soon. For now, check out my Flickr.
