REAL Universal Access

I'm still in the process of migrating from Windows to OSX. During this process I run into the most annoying things. The latest annoyance is the way different operating systems access (read AND write) files on volumes (internal, external, network etc.). Windows uses the well-known driveletters (C:, D:,) for local resources, and \\<servername\ networked resources while Apple uses so-called volumes for both. If you try to use a Windows file reference on a Mac, you're out of luck. This is also true the other way around. The reason for this 'rant' is that I use photo catalog / manipulation software on both Windows and OSX. At first, I used different programs on the platforms. This became a problem when I added photos to product X on OSX. When I needed to some work on the Windows machine, I had to add the photo again to product Y on the Windows machine. This results into two different libraries with almost the same content. After some searching I found iView Media Pro (which unfortunately has been acquired by Microsoft). This piece of software is used for cataloging different kinds of media, AND the same software is available on both platforms. Unfortunately, even though the media catalogs could be read on both platforms (the catalog holds the thumbnail and other metadata about the original), the reference to the actual media is platform dependent. So the metadata was showing up, but the actual file could not be read on the other platform. The same problem occurs with Adobe Lightroom. Available on both platforms, but the catalogs can't be exchanged. Why is it so hard to have a product which is available on multiple platforms, and uses some sort of database to be able to exchange data between them? Am I the only one running into to this? Network storage is getting cheaper and cheaper. More people are using network storage to have their content online without have the need of a dedicated (workgroup or enterprise) server. These appliances are accessible through smb, cifs, webdav, etc. Every OS can access the content, but every OS/application uses a different markup. Standardization has a long way to go.....

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Speed Photography in New York

And again a ridiculous law in the United States. The land of opportunities, and lame laws. Starting in August 2007, you can't be in one place for more than a half hour to make (scenic) photographs or shoot some video. This includes the setting up of your tripod etc. So no more waiting for that special sunset, or waiting for the sky to clear for that one special shot of/for your sweetheart. To make it even more ridiculous, you also need an insurance of 1 million USD if you need more time (which means you need a special permit). No doubt that this is initially intended for the professional movie makers or photographers, but there's the fear that this will be abused to harass the common man/woman/tourist. It must be very handy to have very general laws/rules, which the government can interpret as they see fit. Why don't they just pass a law which is states "It's illegal to....". In this case they can fill in the blanks whenever they want... Oh wait, they already did... The Patriot Act.

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Nokia E61 features in Die Hard 4.0

Well it sort of features in the new Bruce Willis action movie. The phone is visible for a couple of seconds [50 minutes into the movie].

This first picture shows the phone numbers on the businesscard. I guess he's gonna make a call to the other characters cellphone ((202)-555 1313), but why enter '12'? A slip-up or is this just a typo since he's under a lot of stress :-)

B.t.w. mister Willis doesn't have much to do (see calendar), and he obviously has some bluetooth device, otherwise one wouldn't put the Bluetooth menu in the standby menu on the phone.... Other observations show that there is no cell reception and that his battery is almost empty. This does match up with the events (to come) in the movie. So they did mind the (very) small details.

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S40 Support for CA Certificate Import

Someone requested S40 support for the CA certificate Import 'Wizard'. This 'tool' is being used over 50 times a day, so I guess that it works :-). Knowing that it is being used, I added S40 support (theoretically that is, since I don't have such a device). Just select the type of device you have (S60 or S40 based). Depending on the selection the extension, and MIME type will be changed. The S40 devices expect a different MIME type (application/vnd.wap.hashed-certificate). So I added this MIME type to my webserver and associated it with .cer files. More information on this page. Note, that you need to upload a WPKI certificate instead of a normal one. I'm still figuring out what the exact difference is, so I might do a conversion.... UPDATE: import on a S40 doesn't work, so don't bother.

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Nokia E61i Sync Nightmares

I use my Nokia E61i with my corporate exchange environment to synchronize my agenda. The installation of the Nokia Data Suite is pretty straight forward (no reboot required). After the installation I paired the phone with the OS, and am able to synchronize my agenda... This is where the horror begins; as soon as I reboot the laptop the Nokia is unable to sync. It connects for about a second, and the logs show a succesfull sync, but nothing happends. It is possible to browse the phone with the Data Suite application, and I can make a backup. So everything works except synching with Outlook (which is opened AND connected to the Exchange server). If I try to sync my contacts to my Mac Book Pro (using iSync), everything works and keeps working. The only way to solve this is to remove the Data Suite application and reinstall it. After that I can sync, until I reboot. Also, reinstalling is creating extra COM ports. 2 COM ports for every reinstall. last week I had 8 bluetooth COM ports on my system. No way of removing them (the OS keeps 'finding' them after a reboot), but to use System Restore point. I tried 3 different versions of the Data Suite (even the one released earlier this week), but the behavior persists. By the way, synching using the USB cable doesn't solve anything, so it seems to be a sync issue in the Nokia Datasuite and not just BT related, since all other functions do work.

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Robots in Disguise

Just a few more days, and Transformers (trailer) premieres here. For someone who grew up watching the DJ Cat Show (SkyChannel) this is a dream coming true. After reading this review, I can't wait to see Optimus Prime kicking MegaTron's ass

IS IT THURSDAY YET???

UPDATE: Just saw the movie, and it was awesome. The special effects were beyond awesome. There are lot's of references to other blockbusters like Independence Day, Armageddon, and Men in Black

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Apple iPhone

Apple released the iPhone last Friday in the US. I didn't report on this, because a) I can't get my hands on it atm, b) there was a lot of media coverage this weekend, c) I had better things to do. They sold over half a million phones this weekend. That's great, BUT.... There are some elementary things missing on the phone. Things I couldn't live with. Most of them are mentioned here. As you might have noticed, I have a Nokia E61i at this moment. This phone was meant to be kinda temporary, since the iPhone won't be available in Europe just yet. But if Apple won't resolve most of those 'issues' there won't be an iPhone for me. How lame is it that you can't use Bluetooth the way it's meant for transferring files, 'abusing' it for a modem, so you can hook it up to your laptop and surf the Internet. At this moment, every other (Windows Mobile or Symbian based) phone on the market with has more functionality than the current iPhone. The only drawback on the current phones is that they're not made by Apple. So I'll stick to my Nokia until they fixed those elementary functions.

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The US Health System

Last night, I watched the latest Michael Moore documentary about the US Health System called Sicko. And, he does it again. For an average European, it's hard to imagine that people are left without proper medical care. It seems that the only thing that counts is making vast amounts of money, with an obvious disregard of human life. Sure, the United States is the land of opportunity, but at what cost? How can those medical insurance executives live with themselves? I guess that the millions earned are keeping them happy. There's a saying that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, but in this case it's barren rotten wasteland. Things are not as bad in Holland as we might think, so if you have any doubt about our medical system, you should watch this movie.

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Mazzy Star

Last week, I watched a new episode of House M.D. It was an episode in which a patient dies (which doesn't happen a lot in House). In the final scene there was an awesome piece of music by Mazzy Star called 'Into Dust'. Yet another band with a great sound for my iTunes library. Too bad that their latest album is a over a decade old....

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First Nokia E61i Annoyance

Not every device is perfect. Even the Nokia E61i has its faults. I have a Jabra BT250V Bluetooth headset with my E61i, but the reception is terrible. As long as there's a line of sight between the phone and the headset everything is fine. As soon as I move a bodypart between the two, the reception goes berserk. Even when the Nokia is in my pocket, the reception is terrible. Also, sometimes the Bluetooth connection disappears. Even when the devices lie next to each other. This didn't happen with my older phone (the Nokia 6230i). Perhaps it's the combination.. Perhaps not, but it's definitely annoying. There are/were some other annoyances; like not being able to properly configure the Nokia VPN client with a Cisco PIX firewall. I'm able to succesfully connect, but after that no bit (or byte) is transmitted through the VPN tunnel. So far I blame our corporate firewall. Also, the E61i does respond very well to bouncing on concrete pavement :-( . Or not being able to watch YouTube videos (-> Flash 9) on the phone (which uses Flash 7) .

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