Sep 292011
 

H e just answered a question about easiest phone for a novice to use and he mentioned Android and Iphone. He said Android was more for advanced users and Iphone was the best for a novice, but he never mentioned WP7 or Windows Phone 7, which in my opinion is a very easy phone to use and most of the information you need is always right there, and I just wanted to mention to novices out there that you may want to take a look at WP7, I have a HTC Trophy and absolutely love it.

 Posted by at 1:46 PM
Sep 292011
 

Ok, I know I broke the rule and installed the beta on my WP7 trophy, but I heard too many things good about it to not at least try and no one seemed to have difficulty with the install. I also realized that when the official one came out that I would need to revert back to my pre-mango state to then go to full release Mango, I was worried but not too much since I do not really have anything major on my phone anyway. You can imagine my surprise when I plugged in my phone on 9/27/2011 and Zune told me that I had an update available….SWEEEETTTT! So I did what anyone would do in my situation and installed it. Which worked great for the most part, after about an hour or so of the install running automatically, I was pleasantly surprised when it said congratulations you can unplug your phone now. Like I said it went great for the most part, everything was still installed like it was when I started the install, even Wifi was online and ready to go, so everything is right with world….or so I thought, then I left my house and wonderful Wifi and boom, no data connection….dang it all, after searching high and low for fixes and seeing everything from reset your phone to hard reset to take your phone back to pre-mango state, I was a bit worried at this point but then I thought Microsoft wouldn’t really want their developers having to flash their phones back to factory to install this update, so I thought I would go with the simplest options first to see what would happen. I fired up Zune and found a Restore button on the main updates page, so I clicked it, which took me back to Beta Mango, ok fine, then I saw a post about Connection Setup Wizard by HTC being an issue and I had noticed some errors with it on boot up, so I thought what the heck and I uninstalled it and then immediately tried to update to full Mango again, after another hours or so, the same window popped up saying unplug your phone you are done, but this time I had Wifi off for testing and low and behold I was receiving data over my data connection….YEESSSSS and no hard resets no lengthy reverting back to pre-mango. So if you are installing Mango from your carrier and encounter no data connection afterwards, restore… then uninstall the connection setup wizard… then reinstall the update.

Hopefully that will help someone out there! And NO this was NOT Verizon Wireless’ fault as they have no control over the software we install, I think that is how it is with our PCs as well, we run the chance of messing something up anytime we install a simple app.

Sep 272011
 

I really liked the premise behind turntable.fm but never really felt like part of it, so I have decided to stop using it. Just so happens that this decision coincides with Pandora.com announcement that they have removed the 40 hour limit, thank goodness, 40 hours is crap for a month worth of listening, I can eclipse that in a week. Downside to Pandora, it takes a browser window, but I found a way around that as well, actually http://www.flexden.net/content/pandora%E2%84%A2-desktop-adobe-air%E2%84%A2-15-application-free?destination=node%2F3525 is a very good implementation of pandora, it uses a very small window and allows use of all of the buttons you may need including voting volume and fast forward etc. I highly recommend using that app, which is an Air app if you are planning on listening to pandora for extended periods. So if you are looking for music to listen to with the ability to customize what you hear, pandora may be what you are looking for, you can start with a generic radio station and then click the add variety option and add musicians to the list, which will change the flavor of the music being selected. Also voting on a song will change the music variety as well, voting thumb down removes a song from the playlist and thumb up accentuates that music type in your list. The site is a HTML5 site so it even runs on WP7 in IE.

Later

Sep 202011
 

turntable.fm is a very nifty site, it is a cross between chat board and radio, a place where normal people can play their favorite songs and let others hear them and vote on them as to whether they like them or not. Getting a DJ position on the turntables is hard but it does work out sometimes. They were having issues last week but it seems a fair amount more stable now. I am very fond of the I {heart] the 80s room and the mashup.fm room, and I am sure that you can find a room you like too. So if you are social or just want to be and you like music or if you even aspire to be one, you may want to give the site a try.

Later

Sep 192011
 

Just wanted to post a little something about my trip to Kings Dominion and some of the rides namely the Intimidator305 and the Dominator. Let’s start with the lesser of the two, at least in my opinion. The Dominator is a rather nice ride as it whips you all around I am including the info from rcdb.com for your information, it is a very exciting ride and has a lot of corkscrews and loops and is quite a nice ride.

Dominator: Length:4210′ Height:157′ Drop:148′ Inversions:5 Speed:65 mph Max Vertical Angle:57 Degrees G-Force:3.8 Elements:135′ tall Loop Cobra Roll Interlocking Corkscrews  Trains:3 trains with 8 cars per train. Riders are arranged 4 across in a single row for a total of 32 riders per train.

The next coaster I want to mention is the Intimidator305, this thing is AWESOME, I had heard a little about it from the site but hadn’t ridden it yet, I thought it was a magnet launch or even a gas launcher like the old HypersonicXLC, which I was quite sad to see go by the way, and was quite surprised when I sat down in the second seat and saw the cable coming down from the hill waiting to hook up, but when it engaged and started I was very pleasantly surprised, the thing HAULS! It climbs to the max height of 305′ very quickly and smoothly. and once you reach the apex, all bets are off, this ride moves and fast, hitting 90 mph at the max and with nice banking turns and some corkscrews and an almost 90 degree vertical drop, it is amazing and I recommend it for anyone that loves to ride roller coasters!

Length:5100′ Height:305′ Drop:300′ Inversions:0 Speed:90 mph Duration:3:00 Max Vertical Angle:85 Degrees  Trains:2 trains with 8 cars per train. Riders are arranged 2 across in 2 rows for a total of 32 riders per train.

Have fun!

Sep 192011
 

Ok, just thought I would make a quick post about a company I am sure if you have any connection to computers at all you know them, they are NewEgg.com. They are a rather excellent PC, accessories, and electronics distributor, mainly online through their website, but they also offer picking things up at their service centers, although I am not sure where they are exactly. I have been dealing with this company for a very long time, maybe 12 years or so. I have been thoroughly impressed with them every time I have dealt with them, including one time I ordered the wrong CPU for my motherboard, which was ordered at the same time, they worked with me to get the CPU the next day so I could use it in the system I was working on. The main reason I am writing this review is that two days ago I realized my CPU, actually the same one from 2005 that had to be reordered that I just mentioned, the CPU fan had died so I needed to order one, since it is an old CPU, I ordered it from NewEgg around 11 AM without the priority processing to save costs. I was amazed that I received an email saying here is your UPS tracking number at 1:45 PM the same day and that the fan would be here the next day, which I am sure has a lot to do with UPS as well, but I ordered it the free shipping method which was 2 or 3 day shipping, no way did I expect it to come the very next day after I ordered. Low and behold at around 9 in the morning yesterday it was on my porch waiting.

After all is said and done within 24 hours I placed the order and had it put in the computer which is absolutely incredible! So if you want to order something online, check to see if it is at NewEgg.com their prices are incredible reasonable and they are WAY FAST at getting it out as well.

Later

Get Adobe Flash player