So Amy (our 13-yr-old) is tired of her red Samsung flip phone and wants something new / cool.  She knows that I will never support her getting an iPhone – no fruity computers in this Microsoft house!  Then I came home with a HTC Fuze (AT&T Windows Mobile smartphone with sliding QWERTY keyboard, wifi, GPS, etc etc etc.).  Now she decided that she has to have a smartphone.   I told her she had to wait until her contract is up (November). 

She said she has to get a new phone because her current one is “broken”.  Aha, I thought, a learning opportunity.  I have been trying to show Amy how to do problem determination on electronics, starting with never just saying “it’s broken”.  So I asked her what was wrong with the phone, since I had seen her using it earlier that night.  She went away and came back 10 minutes later with a list of 9 “symptoms” (written out and numbered).  I’ve reproduced the list verbatim:

1. won’t connect 2 internet
2. often doesn’t receive txts
3. turns on or off randomly
4. calls people randomly
5. doesn’t recharge properly
6. camera takes too long 2 shoot
7. is too big/old
8. is banged up
9. doesn’t have NECESSARY functions (i.e. proper txtn, calling, etc.)

I applaud her for setting out a list of user requirements, but she still has to work on her presentation – saying your phone is “banged up” is not the way to get your parents to agree you should buy an even more expensive phone. 

Now she’d be paying for this phone herself (after all it’s not Christmas) but Beth and I still need to agree before she gets it.  And since she’s already sending about 2,000 texts a month I don’t really want her to get a device that would make that even easier.  On top of that, these smartphones can be fragile, and her current phone really is banged up – it clearly has spent a lot of time bouncing around on the floor. 

So, we still need to decide what to do.  For now I told her to “wait ‘til your contract is up”, figuring that would give Beth and I more time to decide what to do next. 

Very funny -- a somewhat irreverent summary of the movie.   m15m: Twilight in Fifteen Minutes

See also:  28 Reasons That ‘Twilight’ the Movie Is Better Than ‘Twilight’ the Book.

If you have teenagers that are into the Twilight series you should (a) read the books, and (b) then read this! 

Everything old is new again.    Ancient Greeks pre-empted Dead Parrot sketch | Oddly Enough | Reuters

The title definitely gets everyone's attention!  This is probably the best article I've read so far on how to shoot and what to bring to the Galapagos Islands.  And it was written by Thom Hogan, who (amongst other things) wrote the book on the Nikon D300.         Shooting the Boobies - Galapagos Photography

Thom and Jason Odell (one of the "Image Doctors" on Nikonians Talk Radio) say tht you need to have two camera bodies when you go down there -- or to any once-in-a-lifetime trip.  So now I am trying to decde between two different "next cameras":  the Nikon D90 and the Nikon D700. 

The D90 is much less expensive, and would be my backup camera.  It has more of the point'n'shoot modes that Beth would like.  But it's big advantage (to me) is that it shoots 24 fps HD video.  Only short clips, and they eat memory cards, but it would give me a way to capture video on the trip and at all of the kid events that I often want 30-60 second clips of.  However, it uses SD cards rather than CF cards, meaning I'd have to cary two types of media.  Although it uses the same EN-EL3e battery, it uses a different grip (the MBD-80) meaning that my vertical grip would be for the D300 only.  The 90 is also a plastic body and not weather-sealed, so it really is just a backup camera.  But you can get one for less than $1,000.

So:  cheaper, wife acceptance factor, and video.  But plastic, non-sealed body.  Total 2 points for D90.

The D700 is basically a D3 squeezed into a D300 body.  Ergonomically it is the same as the D300.  Big advantages: full-frame sensor means wider wide-angle shots (the Nikon 12-24 would really shine!).  And the amazing, jaw-dropping high-ISO performance -- ISO 25,600 equivalent.  Pretty much 3 extra stops over the D300.  Finally, it uses all the same accessories - CF cards, EN-EL3e batteries, and MBD-10 vertical grip.  Also same lens compatibility as D300.  Other than the lack of consumer-level features, the only negative is price -- almost three times the price of the D90.  Ouch.  Add to that the FX sensor means I can't use any DX lenses; fortunately I only have two of them (my 18-200 VR or my 10.5mm fisheye) but the 18-200 is a favorite.

FX sensor, best-anywhere high-ISO performance, uses same accessories.  But high price and no DX lenses.  Total... 1 point.  Not what I was hoping when I started but the reality is that the D90 is probably a better investment for me right now.  Two years from now... maybe the D800?

  There are some things that I can't resist blogging about.  This is one of them.  Although it is ironic that as this article hit the press, the Canadian dollar plunged from 95 cents US to 85 cents.  And that's against the greenback; don't even talk about the Euro!

Quote

Canada rated world's soundest bank system: survey | U.S. | Reuters

MSN Careers - The Crying Game: Dealing With Tears at Work - Career Advice Article
"It is unprofessional behavior to cry in the office," says Sandy Dumont, an image consultant for the Image Architect. "This is particularly true if you are a woman, because it causes men to feel helpless to fix the situation, as well as possible guilt at having upset you."

True?  I don't think so, but it is an interesting and emotion-filled discussion in the office this week.

According to Nielson Mobile, the average mobile user ate up 357 texts versus 204 voice calls per month in the 2nd quarter of 2008.  Muh of this is fueled by the 13-17 age group -- 231 voice calls versus 1,742 texts!  That's over 57 texts per day. 

I'm not sure what this says about us, but it is definitely my experience with a 12-year-old daughter who sends over 1,000 texts a month but uses less than 30 minutes of voice in the same period.  The numbers are misleading, though -- kids use texting as a form of IM, so a typical text message conversation, lasting 10 minutes or so, could involve 20 or more texts each way.

I wonder if we're going to see issues of repetitive strain injuries ("texting thumb") on these kids when they get to their 20's.

Link: TextsVersusCalls

Very cool -- HP has decided to allow the behavior that its most loyal fans are already doing.  HP to Allow MediaSmart Server Memory Upgrades Without Voiding Warranties | We Got Served

Of course, this doesn't mean that the process is simple, or that they'll bail you out if you so something dumb like strip the #00 Phillips screw on the black grille covering the motherboard and have to drill it out with a portable drill to complete the upgrade (not that that would have happened to anyone I know).  But at least if my 475 dies, I can return it without having to remove the new memory and replace it with the old!

A very cool display of time-based data overlaid on satellite photos to visualize trends.  Link:  Britain From Above - Beautiful Use of Satellite Technology | FlowingData

For those of you who, like me, live on multiple machines, features like Live Mesh (for docs) and Live Favorites Sync (for favorites) are lifesavers.  So I was sorely pissed when I realized that Live Favorites Sync (which was never all that reliable) wasn't working with Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2.  But since favorites are really just subdirectories hanging off your [user] folder, they can more or less by synced with Live Mesh.  Here's how:  Sync your favorites with Live Mesh - Laurent Duveau.

I just tried merging the favorites trees of two PCs.  These trees were 95% the same so I really just wanted the new stuff to propagate both ways.  It worked.  Here are the caveats:

1. I couldn't get Mesh to use the Favorites folder until I quit from IE8.  Just kept erroring out during the setup of the folder.
2. This won't sync to the Live Favorites cloud.  But once youhave your favorites in your mesh you no longer need Live Favorites, and they don't work all that wel anyway, so this is better.  If you're somewhere remote and you need a favorite, connect to your mesh (www.mesh.com) and open the Favorites folder.  It's a bit more awkward but it works.
3. This won't sync deletes you've made prior to setting up the Mesh sync.  So if you cleaned up one favorites list, all the garbage will reappear.

I just did this 10 minutes ago so I don't know if there are other gotchas yet.

So the Android phone O/S is due to ship tomorrow.  And the pundits are all a-twitter wondering if this will be the iPhone killer... of course, if you're even asking that question you clearly don't get the market, since the two are aimed at completely different audiences.  But the amazing thing to me is that they never mention Windows Mobile smartphones when they talk about the competition.  This is part of Microsoft's problem:  buzz is created for hardware -- the stuff that people can see.  Since there are a  plethora (I love that word) of WinMo handsets but no one dominant one, it doesn't look like a winner.  But when you lok at the whole category, WinMo is very popular.

Now if Android doesn't suffer the same fate, it will be proof of that anti-Microsoft comspiracy!  :)

Link: Tuesday phone debut is first salvo in Android war | Business Tech - CNET News

OK, going to try this again:  getting content automagically from my Tivos to the three Zunes in my family.  Things have changed a bit because we now have a Windows Home Server as well... I am going to try running the conversion software on the server since I can't reliably count on any of the PCs in our house to be running a particularly user ID -- everyone in my house logs on with their own IDs which means that PCs get logged off and on again regularly.

This conversion process used to be really painful but a lot has changed in the last year so it is time to try it again.  Wish me luck!

TiVo Desktop 2.6.1 - Read This - TiVo Community

More buzz about Twitter.  If you're not there you should be.

BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Twitter as the canary in the news coalmine