Once again another incremental upgrade of WordPress moving my install to the 2.8.3 release … and thanks to Keith Dsouza‘s open source plug-in — WordPress incremental backup, it’s a painless and pretty easy step by step process (perhaps 5 minutes with database backups and all).
Speaking of open source, one of the other projects that Keith is working on is a simple Twitter information look up application called Twitlookup. Although there are several functions, I expect that the dictionary and weather tools could get the most use. (The new app is down as of this lunchtime posting)
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I have a new found respect for Michelle Malkin as I watched her handle “The View” ladies and audience; she was better than most while promoting her book, in my opinion. (EDIT: thanks Scott)
I was traveling to western NY this weekend and “had” planned to use the Sprint Navigation app with GPS on my Palm Pre, but the GPS on the apps wouldn’t load correctly. I tried a reboot and switching the GPS on and off, along with multiple app reloads of both Sprint Navigation and Google Maps … foolishly dong this while driving (but it is on the windshield mount — see photo). I was trying to find directions to the Watermark Restaurant on the north end of Chautauqua Lake in Mayville NY, which was about 15 miles away from where we were staying. Nevertheless I was irritated that it wasn’t working and even more frustrated when my wife kept telling me to “stop playing with your phone.”
Eventually I gave up knowing that Mayville is a pretty small town. Thankfully I had no problem finding the restaurant since I was also being followed by my brother-in-law from Georgia (BTW — he is now a proud VW TDI owner!). Still, I was irritated that when I needed to use the GPS and mapping apps, the Palm Pre failed to perform.
The Fix … until Palm can correct the problem:
Load the Sprint Navigation app and minimize the ‘card’ so that you can load the phone app. Press ##GPS# or ##477# which brings up the GPS Information Screen. Select “Get Fix” and the phone retrieves the GPS info. Once the phone app is closed, return to Sprint Navigation and it should now work.
While updating my blog for yet another day from our recent vacation, I noticed that backdating vacation posts was more the norm than an exception. I glanced at the “Years ago on this date” right sidebar and re-enjoyed my blog archive about summer of 2005 trip to Calgary, Alberta, which was posted in August after our July vacation.
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As time keep ticking by, I’m so glad my son and I took as many trips as we did together. Great memories and good times. Where have the years gone?
Whew! I’m finally up to date with our European vacation archive … and a bunch of photos didn’t make it into my14 days of blog posts. Oh well, there are plenty to enjoy … except just this one loner photo and it will get its own post. It’s my daughter’s 23 year old “Big Bear” who’s taken every trip with her since birth.
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While on vacation ( updated blog posts here) I happened to meet a UK ‘tech writer’ who was up-to-date on the current smartphones. He has several phones and was comparing both the Palm Pre and iPhone 3Gs ( no UK GSM phone service for Pre yet). I found his comparison interesting and was very impressed with the speed of the iPhone 3Gs — the Palm Pre sure seems slow in app response and loading in comparison? Being on the aft deck of the ship with him that evening, I was particularly impress with the app he was using on it call “Ship Finder.” Very nice.
But after all the ‘cool’ apps excitement disapears and one is left with a monthly bill, what the device is really being used for? PCWorld did a comparison between several US based phones and plans — seems the Sprint Palm Pre looks pretty good?
I’ve been noticing that the significant advertising campaign Palm has spent their capital on (as well as Sprint) hasn’t seemed to slow all that much since it received free-press “pre-release” remarks and articles. From full page ads, to billboards, the sharp looking smartphone has certainly seen the “Apple” treatment in the ad spaces. Even the online WSJ has “in your face” Palm Pre advertising on the front page.
The final flight crosses the Ohio River and lands at CVG
We arrived home safely after a long day of traveling. Up at 4:45 AM in Southampton UK (5 hrs ahead of home EST) and grabbed a quick breakfast on the NCL Jade before ‘debarking’ and recovering our luggage. The trip to London Heathrow was slow, but comfortable as I had a bus seat all to myself.
Unfortunately we still arrived at the airport well before our flight and was questioned by both my wife and daughter about my lack of planning the flight home (a concern for my daughter since her “Prologue’ for M3 starts at 8AM Monday and she still had to drive to NEOUCOM). Finally aboard our Boeing 777 we enjoyed row 17 (better planning & seat picking as it is the extended leg seat behind first class and a hint for overseas flights) and took a nap after our decent tasting airline food chicken lunch.
We cleared customs after a ‘cattle maze’ and waited an hour or so for our flight to Cincinnati. After adding the 5 hours and drive home … we were pretty much ready for bed knowing it will be a busy day on Monday.
Hopefully I’ll get the Word docs and photos posted to my blog covering the several missed days shortly, as I wouldn’t mind having them there for posterity.
Passing close enough to a container ship in the Atlantic to read containers
The blog is missing a few days in posting due to a shortage of Internet minutes while on the cruise ship ($$$) and although there have been a few connections (very few public ‘free’) along the voyage, I’ve spent more time enjoying the vacation than updating my blog. That’s not to say that I’ve not typed a few thoughts to a Word doc and copied a few photos from my Canon XTi SLR camera, but I’ll just wait for home to archive them for posterity.
There have been a few moments along the way that seem to stand out … and one such moment is my “Is the safe locked?” question as we exit the cabin. Seems this will be remembered. (could have easily picked the 14 days of wrong turns while following Katelyn and Brenda around the ship … but I wouldn’t dare mention that!)
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We are spending our final night aboard ship over eating and enjoying a final show and mandatory family game of Rummy (we’ve had fun with this). While the girls are out and our bags are packed and outside our door, I thought I would use up the few last prepaid minutes with this post … sort of saved a few back for Katelyn to check her email and Facebook, but she was fine not logging in; must be nice not to be overly addicted to online services?
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she was better than most while promoting her book, in my opinion. (EDIT: thanks Scott)
Eventually I gave up knowing that Mayville is a pretty small town. Thankfully I had no problem finding the restaurant since I was also being followed by my brother-in-law from Georgia (
While on vacation ( updated blog posts 
