August 2008 Archives

It has been almost a month since I switched over to the new 3G iPhone and I have a few opinions I would like to share:

Likes:
The look and feel and ease of use
Ability to customize ringtones with Garage Band
Easy to check my emails on multiple accounts
Great web-surfing ability
Visual Voicemail
It's so easy to put people on hold and answer another call or merge calls together
iPhone App Store
iPod!

Dislikes:
AT&T service is terrible compared to Verizon. Hopefully if they come up with a software fix for the 3G service it will improve, but I drop calls all the time and the sound quality is all over the place - sometimes crystal clear and other times like I sound like a Dalek.
No customized text message sounds - WTF???? You can create ringtones but not text message sounds? Also you cannot change the sound for new emails and other events.
No Flash on Mobile Safari
Buggy sound event software. It's bad enough that I can't change the sound, but there are times when it won't even play the sound.
No video
No MMS - I have to go to a website to check them??

Don't get me wrong, I still love my iPhone. It is frustrating that just a few minor tweaks can make it so much better. I still need to get with it and create an application for the iPhone that people would be willing to pay 99 cents for so I can supplement my income.

I finished porting the entire What's New section into Movable Type. It only took me 5 years or so since I started using Movable Type to get it done, but as we all know never hold you breath when waiting for me to do something on the site. I have always had big plans and one day I will get around to doing them!

Next up: I am trying to figure out how to make a iPhone and m.clubjosh.com site. I have the old Lite site lying around here somewhere, and I will dust it off and see if I can get something worthwhile!

It seems that everything has stabilized, but I noticed that the new rebuild took forever. When I got home tonight, I discovered that it created a whole bunch of new archive pages - some of which seem redundant to say the least, but for now I will leave them be as I attempt to settle on the new design.

One thing I discovered - the new entry interface is vastly superior to the old version. I even discovered a long-lost Daily Update Entry from 4-23-2001 that never was published. Until now: Read Thinning out the Closet. Ahh memories!

I still need to tweak the pages a bit in order to add some navigation links in the header and footer, so pardon the dust.

I am currently mid-upgrade of my infrastructure for the Club Josh Daily Update. I went with the fresh install of the software, but it seems to be having some difficulties with the template system. I am upgrading from MT 3.2 to 4.12 which is a HUGE jump, so it looks like there is some massaging of the templates that need to be done.

Until then, the content in the archives is all there, it just looks all messed up. The big problem is the individual pages are not formatting correctly, and the main index page is not auto-building to the new templates.

At least the front page is still fine.

Oh and a shout out to Scott who identified the mystery Doctor Who episode as "The Invasion of Time" with Tom Baker. The good news is that it gets released on DVD on September 2, so I have already put it into my Netflix queue.

Since the end of the very good Series 4 of Doctor Who, I have been filling the void by Netflixing some classic Doctor Who stories and getting Daniel to watch them. So far, we have watched The City of Death, the Talons of Weng-Chiang, Genesis of the Daleks, Inferno, and The Three Doctors. I selected them based on an article in the press that was out around the finale of Series 4 that had mentioned they were among the best of classic Doctor Who. Now I am randomly adding ones that they have been referencing in the special features on the disks like Dalek Invasion from the William Harntell era, and the classic Cybermen story Invasion from Patrick Troughton. I have also selected a couple of later episodes with Peter Davidson, Colin Baker, and Sylvester McCoy just so Daniel can decide who he likes as the best Doctor. I am not sure if I want to subject him to the Doctor Who TV movie from 1996 though.

I also am itching to find that one episode I watched in college where there is a chase through the many rooms of the Tardis, but I can never find what that episode was called. It is also amazing how many of the First and Second Doctor stories are just plain gone. Bad BBC! There are some great episodes in that era that I would love to see, but just don't exist except for the audio.

I also was amazed to discover that Netflix has two ridiculously bad films in there archive: Beyond the Poseidon Adventure and Raise the Titanic. Two late 70's/early80's films I fondly remember from the Saturday afternoon movie. Of course I immediately added them to my post Doctor Who queue. I might move one up just to break up the Who, but so far Daniel and I can't get enough.