Random Babblings

It’s been just about 2 months since I got my EVO.  This also marked my switch from AT&T to Sprint.  Now that I’ve had time to use the service I figured I’d share my thoughts about it.

Coverage (A)

The big providers in my area seems to be AT&T and Verizon so I was skeptical about the coverage I could get with Sprint.  A coworker of mine has had Sprint for years and said they’ve never had any issues with coverage.  So far the coverage has been great.  I have coverage most everywhere and usually the only times I don’t get coverage is when I’m inside certain buildings.  This tends to be rare so it’s really not a huge issue with me.  In some of the more distant areas of the city I have been known to be roaming (more on this later).  The only time I’ve ever really lost coverage was in the mountains in Tennessee.  Wasn’t really expecting much so I wasn’t disappointed.  My camera still worked so I was happy.  All said in done, coverage is not an issue.

Speed (A+)

Coming from AT&T there is no comparison.  Data speeds are super fast.  A point to note here is that I’m using a completely different phone with different hardware.  I’m sure this is a factor but I still don’t think AT&T can match the speeds.  I have seen my EVO download megabytes in less than a minute.  Impressive!

Plan (A+)

This is probably the best part about Sprint.  The plan I have is perfect for me and well priced.  For $69.99 a month (plus all the taxes and “government fees”) I get unlimited everything except minutes.

Minutes: My restriction on minutes is 450 “Anytime Minutes” which amounts to minutes to a landline that aren’t during nights and weekends.  Seeing that most of the calls I make are to another cell phone and at night or the weekend I’ve haven’t even come close to using up my minutes.

Data: My plan includes unlimited data.  Before I switched off of my AT&T plan I checked my data usage.  It wasn’t terribly high but I was usually over the 200 Megabyte mark.  I figured I wouldn’t be much different with my new phone.  I was wrong.  With my EVO I use a lot more data than I did with my iPhone.  My guess is because with the Android operating system processes are allowed to run in the background which can send and receive data constantly.  This along with my data speeds is probably the reason why I’ve used more data.  The unlimited data plan was a good idea.  The only issue I’ve had with my data is when I was data roaming in a more remote part of the city.  When I found out about it I wasn’t too happy.  The good thing is roaming is covered in my plan so it is no additional charge for me.  Awesome!

Text: I don’t have to much to elaborate on for texting.  My plan gives me unlimited texting and I use a ton of them.  It’s become my primary way of communication.  This is probably the main reason why I never use up my minutes.

Other (A)

4G: Not in my area.  I believe that Jacksonville has it an Orlando should be getting it soon.  Not a big concern of mine at the moment though.  As much as it would be nice to be even faster, my current speeds are more than acceptable.

My final rating for Sprint is a solid A.  I’m not sure how the share plans work out but I’d like to think they are just as good.  Hopefully they stay that way.

It’s rare, and I mean rare, that I actually recommend a movie.  There are a lot of aspects that all have to work together for me to thoroughly enjoy it.  A comedy or action movie are always fun to watch but there is more to a great movie.  Things that make a movie great for me are

• Relates to real life – Transformers is fun, Hot Tub Time Machine is funny but neither are really things that happen in real life.
• Detailed/Intricate stores – I like stories with a lot of depth and thinking.  Puzzles are always the best.  Who figured out The Sixth Sense before what was happening was revealed?
• Later analysis – I always like to analyze and revisit details of the movie with friends afterward.  Was the solution there the entire time?  What parts are inconsistent?  Did the ending reveal the entire correct truth?
• Time perception – The thing I hate the most is sitting in a moving thinking how long it is taking.  My mind starts to drift and I stop paying attention to the movie.  If the movie starts to drag on it fails.

Why am I telling you all of this?  Is it because I’m planning to become a movie reviewer and I want to be clear on how I’m going to rate movies?  No.  Well not 100% no, but close.  I’m telling you all this because I think Inception was a great movie.  It covers all the points listed above:

• Real life – They describe events and actions that I have seen or experienced
• Storyline – Complex enough to be intriguing but not confusing.  My brain had to stay in gear the entire time to keep track of what was occurring.  Had I missed pieces I would have been lost.
• Analysis – Just hours later I was discussing with friends points of interest we noticed in the movie.  We pondered inconsistencies and subtleties and how they changed the meaning.  Our final question: Did it fall?  (If you haven’t seen the movie that question won’t make any sense.)
• Time – Not at any point during the movie did I wonder when it was going to end or how long I had been sitting there even though the movie pushes two and a half hours.  (This isn’t entirely true.  I purchased a soda before the movie began so by the time it was ending I needed to use the men’s room.  I know, too much information…)

For me Inception floats to the top.  I don’t think I’ve seen a movie as good since The Dark Knight.  Surprisingly I want to see it again.  I’m sure there are many details that I missed out on watching it the first time.  For anyone that hasn’t seen it I recommend taking the time to watch it.  It’s definitely worth it.

A while ago, probably when the blog post was posted, I read this blog entry. This then lead to the reading of this post. After reading these two articles I knew that I wanted to have a camera with me all the time. I partially knew this already but carrying a camera with me is a pain. I already hate having to carry keys, wallets, phones, and what ever else I may need for my current adventure. This is why I love the idea of having a camera integrated as part of my phone. The big problem with this up till now has been the fact that the cameras integrated into phones haven’t been the best and most of the time were not worth the hassle. They either took terrible photos, took to long or to much effort to work, or were plagued by some other critical issue. My iPhone’s camera wasn’t too terrible, but it was very picky. Sometimes the pictures would be good, other times not so much (so example photos from the iPhone can be seen in this post). This is why I was very excited to hear about the 8 megapixel camera on the EVO. I had high hopes this would finally solve my problem of always having a camera with me.

I am relatively pleased with the photos that the EVO takes. The pictures turn out well and the software is fast (which is a surprise to me). The pictures are the best when the lighting and conditions are at their best but even under harsher conditions the photos still turn out well. Instead of just talking about them I figured I’d show them to you. Enjoy the gallery and let me know what you think or if you think I should try taking a picture under some certain set of conditions. I tried to get an assortment of conditions in the images below (some including usage of the flash).

Things I’ve noticed about taking photos:

• Lighting is important. If it is dark out the pictures tend to be a bit grainy and not as crisp.
• Certain conditions cause the software to take a bit longer to snap the photo. I believe this to be when the conditions aren’t the best and the camera is trying to focus.
• You have to stay VERY still. It seems like the camera is very susceptible to blury pictures if you move even a little. I’m guessing this is because there isn’t stabilizing software which would slow taking the photo down.

As an added bonus I’ve included a random video I took with the camera. I wasn’t overly interested in video but I figured I would give it a test run anyways.

I decided to take everyone along with me on my journey of opening my new HTC EVO. I know this has been done a bunch already but I wanted to do it anyways.

The items contained in the shipping box:

The contents of the shipping box including the phone (in its packaging) and the rebate forms.

The phone packaging was a bit strange. It reminded me of something I’d get a microwave dinner in.

All the stuff that was in the phone packaging (still in their packaging).

Everything out of the package and unwrapped. The list of items include: A return envelope for an old phone, cable, USB->Power adapter, battery, phone, “Important Sprint Information” book, “Basics Guide”, “Get Started” in English, “Get Started” in Spanish.

Now it’s time to get the phone working. Here are the pictures of the battery compartment open with the battery not yet installed and one with it installed.

The next step in the instruction guide was to plug it in and let it charge.

The next step was to turn it on. I wasn’t sure what to expect here so I did as it said and pushed the power button.

Start Up Screens

After the start up screen it takes off right into “Hands Free Activation.”

I waited a minute though and then my fear was confirmed; there was a problem with activation.

Since I was not working with a Sprint representative I pressed “Manual” as I was instructed to do. The phone did a quick check for network and then informed me that it couldn’t connect. I can’t say that this was a surprise to me. It then launched into a demo of how to use the keyboard. Since I had previously had an iPhone the demo didn’t teach me anything new but I went though it anyways.

After the demo I was taken to the home screen.

At this point I couldn’t get the phone to make calls or connect to the Sprint network. I logged onto the Sprint website and after chatting with a service representative I learned that my number have not completed porting yet (it was coming from AT&T). I called Sprint and had them adjust the time the porting would happen and a few minutes later I was up and running.

*Yes, all the pictures were taken with my iPhone 3GS which I’m probably going to sell.

I had never heard of the this until I read this post. To sum it up in a few words the “Bike Shed Example,” formally knows as Parkinson’s Law of Triviality, states that “organisations give disproportionate weight to trivial issues“.

I had never really noticed this before but after I learned about this I see it all the time. I was slightly shocked that I’d never really noticed this before. I started to think about this. I even noticed myself and the group I work with doing this all the time. Why do we do this though?

My take on this differs slightly from the argument given in Wikipedia. I think we do this because humans like the feeling of accomplishing something. Recently I was involved in a discussion where we were talking about how to implement threads and a thread manager in the application I was building. We spent a few minutes on it and them moved on to the next issue without actually deciding on a solution. That seems strange. Threading is a very complex task to undertake so why wouldn’t we want to decide on a solution? I think this is because coming up with the final solution is very difficult and will take much time and thought. There isn’t much instant gratification in deciding on a solution.

A little while later the group was discussing another feature and we spent probably at least 30 minutes discussing button placement and text. This is definitely trivial in comparison to threading. But after thirty minutes we had decided on a solution; we had accomplished something. This I believe is the key point. We didn’t mind discussing the buttons at length because we knew in the end we would have a solution.

Time to accomplish something is important to us humans. In the threading example it could easily take a day of brainstorming and designing to come up with a solution. The thirty minute discussion about buttons gives us that feeling of accomplishment in 1/16th the time (using an 8 hour work day).

Something to think about next time your group is in a drawn out discussion.

This past weekend just flew by. In short it was 3 days (spread out over 4 days) of audio enjoyment.

The weekend started on Thursday when I went to see PRISM put on by the Sebastian River High School Band and Choir. I am a huge supporter of arts in public schools and this concert is a exemplary example of what can be achieved. It is amazing what can be produce by high school students and their supporting faculty and staff. Every year I see the show I’m reminded of the exciting times I had when I did performances in high school (although I’m partial to marching band shows).

Friday was a scheduled non-working day for me. This worked out great as I didn’t return home until late Thursday night and it gave me time to rest up and finish some chores before the remainder of the weekend.

This leads us to Saturday. I got up Saturday morning and did some errands before heading downtown for the festivities. I wandered around the city for a while and stopped to have a drink and see a part of the Florida Gators game before meeting up with friends. Everyone arrived around 5:30 and we enjoyed some dinner before heading off to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The show was outstanding. The show by far is one of the best I’ve seen. Most people I’ve told about them don’t recognize the name but recognize the music. The music is only a small part of their show. The had the most elaborate sound/light/laser/effect choreography that I’ve ever seen. The videos of their shows do not accurately represent the complete awesomeness of the show. Any time they come to a town near you I STRONGLY suggest you go and see them. They are worth every cent of the ticket price.

The weekend wrapped up on Sunday when I went with a few friends over to Tampa for 97X’s Next Big Thing. Next Big Thing is pretty much the same as Buzz Bake Sale, which we’ve attended for years, but this year Buzz Bake Sale was on the same day as the Trans-Siberian Orchestra performance so we opted to go to Tampa instead. Another awesome day of musical enjoyment. We got there in the early afternoon and left right before the end of the last set in attempt to get ahead of the traffic. Overall it was an awesome day. We arrived home around 1 in the morning and I immediately fell asleep. I am extremely glad that I had enough forethought to take Monday off. I would have been miserable if I had to get up Monday morning and head into work.

Overall it was a very busy weekend but well worth it. All the planning feel right into place and everything went smoothly. Hopefully next year I can plan a similar weekend.

At 2:28 this afternoon space shuttle Atlantis lifted off and it was a beautiful launch. I wish I had photos to share with everyone. I try and watch all of the launches and can’t think of the last one I missed. I’ve always been a supporter of the space program along with science and education. It’s hard to believe that there are just a few more launches remaining before the shuttle fleet is retired (I think only five more remain). It hasn’t quite sunk in yet that I’ll never see a shuttle launch into space again after the fleet is retired. I’ve been watching the launches my whole life (my parents and I used to walk over to the golf course across the street to watch them) and I’ll be sad to see them go.

If you want to check out more about STS-129 you can go here.

Over the past few months I have slowly been acquiring Apple products. It all started with a MacBook that I purchased since my desktop was starting acting weird. Good thing I did as my desktop will currently not even start! I’m suspecting something is awry with either the power supply or mother board. The thing that made me actually spend the money on the MacBook was that I got a free iPod Touch with it. I figured at the least I could sell the iPod to help offset the cost of the MacBook. My MacBook has been great (it’s what I’m writing this on) and I for one believe that it is worth the money. I know people say that Apple products are over priced but I strongly believe that a quality product is worth the money. In this case I think they are worth every cent. The only thing I didn’t like about my iPod was that I wasn’t always connected with it and it had some duplicate functionality of my phone (lots of foreshadowing here).

Soon after I purchased the MacBook I convinced my roommate that we needed a Time Capsule. We went down to Best Buy and purchased on of their new 1TB models. The set up for the TC was a little more involved than I had imagined it would be but it did get us set up with the Time Machine functionality, a private network and a public network. Each of which required different privileges and passwords to get set up “correctly.” After the initial set up we haven’t had any issues with it and it is amazingly faster than the old wireless router we had. The only thing that is limiting us now is our slow connection to the internet. Transferring anything on the local network is by far the fastest I’ve ever had.

After having the iPod for a while I finally decided to make the leap; I went and purchased and iPhone. This was definitely the next step for me. It got rid of me carrying around two different devices (my phone and the iPod) and has become my connection to the world. It is synced with my MacBook and my online accounts so any changes that I make anywhere are propagated to all the others. No more trying to find email addresses or phone numbers. If I don’t have it I can add it instantly and looking up anyone’s information is always at my fingertips. I’m not quite sure how I ever lived without it.

Last but not least of my personal summer Apple purchases was Snow Leopard. I wasn’t sure I really wanted to spend the money to upgrade my OS right after I got my MacBook but the upgrade was only $30 and was well worth it. Apple definitely spent some time making sure it was well polished. I have been completely impressed by my MacBook and OS X. I wanted my computer to just work and for the most part it has succeeded in doing that. I think I’m now an Apple convert for life!

My enthusiasm for my Mac prompted my to buy one for my parents. My father’s computer had been in a sad state for months but I was putting off getting him a new computer. I haven’t really stayed up with the latest specs so I didn’t want to try and build one myself and I also wanted to stay away from the Windows debacle (Vista and Windows 7). I also didn’t want to have to put my parents through a big OS change; they aren’t the most computer savvy people I know. I figured since they’d have to get used to a new OS anyways I’d get them a Mac and hopefully it would be simpler for them to learn. Their first impressions of it were very positive but the final verdict is still out. I’ll check in with them around the new year and see if they still like it. If they don’t it looks like I’ll be buying myself a Mac Mini!

This past Friday Tim, Zach and I went and saw Dane Cook on his Isolated Incident tour. Before Dane took the stage we saw two great opening acts consisting of Al Del Bene and Robert Kelly. Both were great and an excellent precursor to Dane Cook. When Dane took the stage the audience went crazy. Having floor seats at the Amway Arena gave us a perspective of what the entertainers and sports figures hear when they are in the arena. It’s quite a deafening sound.

An interesting thing to note about the show was that the audience was rather young. Most of the people looked as though they were in college. This isn’t that surprising since that is Dane Cook’s largest demographic, it was just strange to see.

The show ended and the three of us decided to grab some food since we hadn’t eaten before the show. We wandered to downtown Orlando and got some food. We spent another hour or two at Church Street but nothing to exciting was happening and we were all pretty tired so we packed it up early and headed home. I had the back seat so I slept most of the ride home. It was a long day but a great finish to an even longer week.

Last week Orlando hosted its second Ignite Orlando (@igniteorlando). Ignite Orlando consists of presentations that are 5 minutes each with twenty slides that rotate every 15 seconds. Topics at Ignite Orlando 2 included legos, creativity, txting, and even tuna. Going into this I wasn’t sure what to expect. What kind of people would I meet? What would the presentations be like? I have to say it was awesome. Public speaking is not most people’s strong point, but here we were in a room full of strangers and people were giving great presentations. There were a few mistakes here and there but the audience didn’t care, they wanted to know what you were going to stay for the remainder of your 5 minutes. Before you knew it 5 presentations had been presented and an hour had past.

Ignite Orlando, or any ignite event, is something I would recommend for anyone. It’s a great opportunity to get out and meet others in your community and to learn a tremendous amount. I’m even contemplating putting together a presentation myself. For anyone that wants to see a presentation and learn how to make a good one check out the following video: Why and How to Give an Ignite Talk.

Following Ignite Orlando was Orlando’s first MP3 Experiment based on the MP3 Experiments of Improv Everywhere. We started at Slingapour’s where Ignite Orlando had been held and then made our way to a park less than a block away. Just as the Improv Everywhere site says we had many spectators wondering why we were running around and attacking each other with balloons. By the end of the experiment a small crowd had formed watching us as we wrapped things up. The only problem with this experiment is that it was extremely hot and humid out. By the end I was definitely ready to get inside and get some water; all in good fun though. I’m looking forward to the next one and can only imagine what may be instore.