The Perfect Storm

Seems like everything has been set in motion for the perfect storm leading up to this weeks availability of the Apple TV. The blogosphere is going crazy over it. We have already seen the traditional unboxing photos, the internal shots, and now the modding has seriously started.

The Apple TV is impressive by itself, even without any modification. However, 40GB storage is a little short for some, so someone already upgraded it with a 120GB drive, simply by using Carbon Copy Cloner like you would do in Mac OS X. Even more interestingly, some have already installed Quicktime codecs such as Perian to be fully compatible with xvid.



What makes this device really exciting is that it runs a modified and somewhat simplified version of Mac OS X, so in theory it should be able to run almost any Mac OS X application out there. I am sure we will see the USB port soon support things like keyboards, external harddrives and photo printers. Later we might even be able to see support for more advanced devices such as EyeTV. It's also just a matter of time before someone makes the Joost Mac client run on this thing.

The case for staying...

Wikipedia is great, but...

... you still have to proof-read! That was the lesson a publishing company in Canada had to learn, the hard way:

The brochure, a type of business directory distributed to hotels in the community, said Sioux Lookout was "full of drunks" and "a dirty little town." It also suggested people living in the community should move.

Read more at:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2007/03/12/sioux-lookout-brochure.html

My Home - My Castle

My wife, Elena, and I have been working to set up a charity project in Kyrgyzstan for a while now. When we visited Osh in the southern part of the country in 2006, it was our hope to find a worthwhile project to support. During our stay we met with Anara, a teacher, who worked to provide help to students of a practical college in Osh. Together with Anara, we have now set up a project called "My Home - My Castle".

The students of the practical Lyceum (college) in Osh are mostly from less fortunate circumstances, in many cases orphans, and are largely ignored by the Kyrgyz government. The project tries to solicit funds for an open facility (the "Home") that will imitate home/family environment intended for recreation, social activities and psychologist consultation. The facility will contain three rooms: kitchen with full kitchen equipment, living room with couches/TV/Computer and a room for the psychologist.

We have a lot more information about the project at http://www.myhomemycastle.org. For now we will first try to talk with family and friends to raise the sufficient amounts. So far, no legal entity has been established for the project. All expenditures and activities will be described on the website and we are looking to make this as transparent and little administrative as possible. To donate, please use the PayPal button on the right side of the site. Any amount will go a long way!

Going to California

And now, a little personal note to the millions of my blog readers out there: I just got a new job! I will move to California at the end of the month (March) to join Apple as a Web Developer in Cupertino! I am incredibly excited about the opportunity and it's honestly a dream come through. Since Apple is generally a tight-lipped company it will be limited how much I can talk about my work there. But in any case I will continue to post my random ramblings here as always...

So, that said, let's get back to regular programming...

How to not design a cell phone

When I signed up for a contract with Verizon last summer I got a free cell phone with my subscription. Since at the time there was absolutely no phone that seemed appealing to me, I opted to just get a free one. I figured that someone would soon release a cell phone that would entice me enough to pay up for it at a later stage anyway.

Now, more than half a year into using the freebie, I have to admire how something like this made it to market! It's an absolute joke as a cell phone. I don't expect a free phone to be the holy grail of cell phones, but still, did anyone even test this thing before releasing it?

Here are some of the amazing features of this LG:

There is no way to turn just the vibration on. Either you have to have full ring volume AND vibration, or lower volume but no vibration. Kind of beats the purpose of vibration, no?

The battery indicator is no indicator, meaning, if it shows two more dots on the battery, it could actually mean "I'll shut down any time now, and I won't warn you before hand".

When talking on the phone, there is no way you can enter a number (let's say someone is giving you a number over the phone) and then have that appear after the conversation ends. The number you dial will disappear as soon as the conversation ends. Incredibly annoying!

In the "Last Calls" list there is no way to see what number the call came from, just the name of it (it does not roll as let's say a Nokia would). Irritating when you might have several numbers listed per contact.

When running out of batteries, it plays a horrible shutdown tune (and really loud!) even though the phone was in silent mode! (I love it when this happens at the movies!) The same thing also applies when I turn the damned thing on!

The phone will without pre-notification just restart itself every now and then...

I assume some of the blame for the behavior of this phone can be taken by Verizon. We know that the telecom giants cripple the features on cell phones on purpose. And I know that LG can make at least a half-decent cell phones if they want to.

Anyway, it would have taken anyone a day of regular use with this thing to find these flaws. How could they have gone unnoticed?

Guro at MySpace

My sister, Guro, has finally got a MySpace page where she is able to promote her musical pieces to the whole world! She is currently attending Trøndertun Folkehøgskole and has put together a new band recently.

Anyway, there is a lot to say about MySpace, but check out some of her music. And don't forget to leave a comment on her profile too!

http://myspace.com/guromariavikingstad