Technology Updates
 

On 1/12/2014 11:27 AM, KC wrote:
On 1/12/2014 11:11 AM, wrote:
On Sun, 12 Jan 2014 09:57:08 -0500, "F.O.A.D." wrote:

In my absence, the gurus at Evasi0n and saurik of Cydia himself came up
with a working untethered jailbreak and ancillary programs for the
iPhone 5S and the latest OS, so, finally, I'm able to customize my
iPhone. The customizations are mainly "tweaks" that expand upon the
features of the phones, such as adding more controls to the Control
Center and deleting the ones Apple puts in there that you might never
use.

Exciting, eh?

I was reading in USA today that Apple and Samsung are scared to death
about a new wave of smart phones coming out of China that run Android
and will retail for $100. They are cheap enough that the cell
carriers can give them away for a pretty short contract.

I still have not seen the need for one for me personally but I don't
even carry a phone.


It was nice yesterday when my wife was heading to the barn with a 6 foot
iron pry bar to displace a frozen feeder from the ground. She saw
lightning in the distance and I was able to pull up live strike
information within seconds. Turns out there was scattered strikes right
in her area, so we waited for an hour till the front and the strikes
were all 30 miles away, and over thirty minutes since any strikes within
20 miles or so and she went out to work the feeder... (note) when she
got there is was not frozen anymore... But I do love having that right
in my pocket...


No offense, but to me that's like standing outside in a nor'easter
getting soaked and checking your iPhone for the weather.

It says, "Rain". :-)

Technology Updates
 

On 1/12/14, 10:53 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/12/2014 9:57 AM, F.O.A.D. wrote:
In my absence, the gurus at Evasi0n and saurik of Cydia himself came up
with a working untethered jailbreak and ancillary programs for the
iPhone 5S and the latest OS, so, finally, I'm able to customize my
iPhone. The customizations are mainly "tweaks" that expand upon the
features of the phones, such as adding more controls to the Control
Center and deleting the ones Apple puts in there that you might never
use.

Exciting, eh?

Also, sent my 2003 vintage iPod off to a service center for a battery
replacement. 10 years off a single battery on an often-used device ain't
bad.

Update on the slighty used, holy boat shoe sale: bids are now up to
$2.73, leaving me only $3000 and change short of my goal of the purchase
price of a new Apple Mac Pro! I don't need such a powerful desktop, so
I'd only buy one with auction proceeds. Or maybe a raffle. I'm beginning
to think a raffle might work...hmmm. 1000 tickets at $5 per...hey now!


BTW ... here's what I've been up to with the iMac:

http://s802.photobucket.com/user/Eisboch/slideshow/Loft%20Studio

Oh, I forgot to mention...have you checked out Pixelmator? It's a very
nice "substitute" for Photoshop, which I have *never* liked because of
all its levels of complexity. Photoshop does a lot more than Pixelmator,
but Photoshop does about a zillion things I don't need to do.

Technology Updates
 

On 1/12/2014 11:38 AM, F.O.A.D. wrote:

On 1/12/14, 10:53 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:

BTW ... here's what I've been up to with the iMac:

http://s802.photobucket.com/user/Eisboch/slideshow/Loft%20Studio



Oh, I forgot to mention...have you checked out Pixelmator? It's a very
nice "substitute" for Photoshop, which I have *never* liked because of
all its levels of complexity. Photoshop does a lot more than Pixelmator,
but Photoshop does about a zillion things I don't need to do.


I have not. I've been using Gimp2 for years and have become very
familiar with it. I like it much more than Photoshop ... plus, it's free.

For cropping, sizing and basic enhancements of images I use Infranview.
Again, free and very easy to use. Unfortunately, they don't offer a
Mac version.

Technology Updates
 

On 1/12/2014 11:43 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/12/2014 11:38 AM, F.O.A.D. wrote:

On 1/12/14, 10:53 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:

BTW ... here's what I've been up to with the iMac:

http://s802.photobucket.com/user/Eisboch/slideshow/Loft%20Studio



Oh, I forgot to mention...have you checked out Pixelmator? It's a very
nice "substitute" for Photoshop, which I have *never* liked because of
all its levels of complexity. Photoshop does a lot more than Pixelmator,
but Photoshop does about a zillion things I don't need to do.


I have not. I've been using Gimp2 for years and have become very
familiar with it. I like it much more than Photoshop ... plus, it's free.

For cropping, sizing and basic enhancements of images I use Infranview.
Again, free and very easy to use. Unfortunately, they don't offer a
Mac version.




I just checked out Pixelmator. I'll download it on the Mac and give it
a try. Looks pretty cool.

Technology Updates
 

On 1/12/2014 10:53 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/12/2014 9:57 AM, F.O.A.D. wrote:
In my absence, the gurus at Evasi0n and saurik of Cydia himself came up
with a working untethered jailbreak and ancillary programs for the
iPhone 5S and the latest OS, so, finally, I'm able to customize my
iPhone. The customizations are mainly "tweaks" that expand upon the
features of the phones, such as adding more controls to the Control
Center and deleting the ones Apple puts in there that you might never
use.

Exciting, eh?

Also, sent my 2003 vintage iPod off to a service center for a battery
replacement. 10 years off a single battery on an often-used device ain't
bad.

Update on the slighty used, holy boat shoe sale: bids are now up to
$2.73, leaving me only $3000 and change short of my goal of the purchase
price of a new Apple Mac Pro! I don't need such a powerful desktop, so
I'd only buy one with auction proceeds. Or maybe a raffle. I'm beginning
to think a raffle might work...hmmm. 1000 tickets at $5 per...hey now!


BTW ... here's what I've been up to with the iMac:

http://s802.photobucket.com/user/Eisboch/slideshow/Loft%20Studio

Is that the secret room?

Technology Updates
 

On 1/12/2014 11:25 AM, F.O.A.D. wrote:
On 1/12/14, 10:53 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/12/2014 9:57 AM, F.O.A.D. wrote:
In my absence, the gurus at Evasi0n and saurik of Cydia himself came up
with a working untethered jailbreak and ancillary programs for the
iPhone 5S and the latest OS, so, finally, I'm able to customize my
iPhone. The customizations are mainly "tweaks" that expand upon the
features of the phones, such as adding more controls to the Control
Center and deleting the ones Apple puts in there that you might never
use.

Exciting, eh?

Also, sent my 2003 vintage iPod off to a service center for a battery
replacement. 10 years off a single battery on an often-used device ain't
bad.

Update on the slighty used, holy boat shoe sale: bids are now up to
$2.73, leaving me only $3000 and change short of my goal of the purchase
price of a new Apple Mac Pro! I don't need such a powerful desktop, so
I'd only buy one with auction proceeds. Or maybe a raffle. I'm beginning
to think a raffle might work...hmmm. 1000 tickets at $5 per...hey now!


BTW ... here's what I've been up to with the iMac:

http://s802.photobucket.com/user/Eisboch/slideshow/Loft%20Studio


That's cool...are those M-Audio speakers? They look very much like mine.

I like your desk...I'll bet your wife picked it out. It's too graceful
and curvy for a guy to have bought it.

Are you saying he doesn't like graceful and curvy?

Technology Updates
 

On Sunday, January 12, 2014 12:08:53 PM UTC-5, wrote:
On Sun, 12 Jan 2014 11:35:28 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"

wrote:



No offense, but to me that's like standing outside in a nor'easter

getting soaked and checking your iPhone for the weather.



It says, "Rain". :-)



It may just be a Florida thing but my wife gets local, interactive

radar on her phone. Our weather tends to be very localized and

generally fast moving so the radar is handy, if you were not looking

up.

Once it is on top of you, it is handy to look at the last hour to see

where it came from and where it is going. If you were watching, you

already know most of the time.

Coordinating what you see looking at the clouds and what the radar

says can give you a great insight into how the weather works.

Being on an inland lake, in the south, in the summer, makes you respect the weather and how quickly things can change. I always have my iPhone with me on the boat and keep an eye on the radar. The tree line limits the sight distance.

It was very handy the last time we did the river trip down to Charleston. We had thunderstorms crossing our path about halfway down. Backtracked a couple of miles and waited for them to clear, then hit an opening to make it down to the harbor. Without the weather app it would have been messy and dangerous.

Technology Updates
 

On 1/12/14, 11:51 AM, wrote:
On Sun, 12 Jan 2014 11:25:52 -0500, "F.O.A.D." wrote:

That's cool...are those M-Audio speakers? They look very much like mine.

I bought my wife a set of Bose speakers that are the size of a Spam
can and sound like a boom box.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41aYSHGKCwL.jpg

A typical Bose sound.
The only problem is you can hear the flaws in low bit rate rips ;-)


I know they are very popular and highly rated, but I've never been fond
of the sound that emanates from the Bose speakers I've heard. I don't
know why that is. My "main" stereo speakers are electrostatics, about
six feet tall, and I like they way they sound. I've got a pair of
M-Audio speakers on my computer desk, and they're adequate for that
purpose.

Technology Updates
 

On 1/12/14, 12:13 PM, wrote:
On Sun, 12 Jan 2014 11:38:11 -0500, "F.O.A.D." wrote:


Oh, I forgot to mention...have you checked out Pixelmator? It's a very
nice "substitute" for Photoshop, which I have *never* liked because of
all its levels of complexity. Photoshop does a lot more than Pixelmator,
but Photoshop does about a zillion things I don't need to do.

I have been using Paint Shop 3, 4 and 7 for years. Each version has
features I like for different things.


I used a version of Paintshop some years (decades?) ago, when Corel
packaged it in with WordPerfect. I went to WordPerfect after Xywrite
more or less died, but Corel made WordPerfect as complicated as Word,
which I use because I have to. I really have never liked Word.

Technology Updates
 

On 1/12/2014 11:35 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/12/2014 11:27 AM, KC wrote:
On 1/12/2014 11:11 AM, wrote:
On Sun, 12 Jan 2014 09:57:08 -0500, "F.O.A.D." wrote:

In my absence, the gurus at Evasi0n and saurik of Cydia himself came up
with a working untethered jailbreak and ancillary programs for the
iPhone 5S and the latest OS, so, finally, I'm able to customize my
iPhone. The customizations are mainly "tweaks" that expand upon the
features of the phones, such as adding more controls to the Control
Center and deleting the ones Apple puts in there that you might never
use.

Exciting, eh?

I was reading in USA today that Apple and Samsung are scared to death
about a new wave of smart phones coming out of China that run Android
and will retail for $100. They are cheap enough that the cell
carriers can give them away for a pretty short contract.

I still have not seen the need for one for me personally but I don't
even carry a phone.


It was nice yesterday when my wife was heading to the barn with a 6 foot
iron pry bar to displace a frozen feeder from the ground. She saw
lightning in the distance and I was able to pull up live strike
information within seconds. Turns out there was scattered strikes right
in her area, so we waited for an hour till the front and the strikes
were all 30 miles away, and over thirty minutes since any strikes within
20 miles or so and she went out to work the feeder... (note) when she
got there is was not frozen anymore... But I do love having that right
in my pocket...


No offense, but to me that's like standing outside in a nor'easter
getting soaked and checking your iPhone for the weather.

It says, "Rain". :-)



I don't know.. She was in the car heading for work, I was home with the
phone looking at weatherbug strike app from 40 miles away and focusing
on the farm she was heading to. Neither of us were "out in the rain" and
we were glad when she got there that she knew to wait a half hour or so
before getting started.... Find fault if you will, to me it's useful for
folks like myself who move around a lot...