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Technology Updates
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! |
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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! I am still going through the learning and discovery process with the new iMac. Finally got enough courage to upgrade to Mavericks. No problems, despite hearing of some horror stories on some of the Apple/Mac forums. Starting to like it but still making adjustments. Got tired of having to expand Safari (zoom) to fill the screen every time you opened it so I downloaded and installed Chrome. Chrome keeps the zoom setting. One thing that drove me nuts one night: When I first got it I was fooling around with the settings and enabled the voice time announcement for every 15 minutes. Thought that was fun for a while but eventually got sick of hearing it. So, I went to the time/date preference setting and unchecked the box for the voice announcements. 10 minutes later, it announced the time again. Opened the time/date preferences and confirmed that the box was unchecked. 15 minutes later, another time announcement. So, I put the iMac to sleep. The next day I was thinking about it and "awoke" it. Sure enough, it started giving voice time announcements on the quarter hour. I went to an Apple support forum to see if there was any history of this issue and indeed there was. An Apple tech had posted the following to resolve it: ==================== You need to reset the NVRAM and/or PRAM. Shut down your Mac. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (?), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4. Turn on the computer. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys before the gray screen appears. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time. Release the keys. After resetting NVRAM or PRAM, you may need to reconfigure your settings for speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, and time zone information. If issues persist, your Mac's logic board battery (not a portable Mac's rechargeable battery) may need to be replaced. The logic board battery helps retain NVRAM/PRAM settings when your computer is shut down. You can take your Mac to a Mac Genius or Apple Authorized Service Provider to replace the battery on the logic board. ==================== So, I am thinking that this is BS. You shouldn't have to go through all that just to reset a setting. So, I shut the computer down, rebooted it (without doing all the above) and the voice announcements ceased. I had also installed the latest and greatest Garage Band version that requires Mavericks to run. After installing, I now had *two* GB icons in the Launch window. I thought the new one was supposed to replace the old version like what happens on a Windows machine. But, again after the reboot one of the icons disappeared. Mac computers are nice but they have their quirks. Being a long-time Windows user, I think Microsoft has done a pretty decent job in ironing out a lot of the issues that earlier Windows versions had. Also, I think using Windows NT as the backbone on Vista, 7 and 8 computers has helped. |
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On Sunday, 12 January 2014 10:57:08 UTC-4, 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! Funny you should mention the old iPod. My wife has a 2nd generation NANO with her favourite music on it and she wanted her own alarm clock with the docking station so she could both play her music and recharge the iPod. I already had an iHome unit that looks after my newer ipod. Trouble is, Apple changed the connector for their devices a year or two ago so we had to scramble to get the older style. Luck had it that the local Sears had a few Sony alarm clocks on sale for half price ($60.00) that fit the bill. I've been worried about how long her old ipod will last. I understand there is an adaptor available to bridge the new & old generation ports but I've read reports that it can be troublesome. |
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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 |
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On 1/12/14, 10:48 AM, True North wrote:
On Sunday, 12 January 2014 10:57:08 UTC-4, 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! Funny you should mention the old iPod. My wife has a 2nd generation NANO with her favourite music on it and she wanted her own alarm clock with the docking station so she could both play her music and recharge the iPod. I already had an iHome unit that looks after my newer ipod. Trouble is, Apple changed the connector for their devices a year or two ago so we had to scramble to get the older style. Luck had it that the local Sears had a few Sony alarm clocks on sale for half price ($60.00) that fit the bill. I've been worried about how long her old ipod will last. I understand there is an adaptor available to bridge the new & old generation ports but I've read reports that it can be troublesome. I've read reports of some older devices not working properly with the adapters. I think if you are taking that route, you should try before you buy. :) |
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On 1/12/14, 10:31 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! I am still going through the learning and discovery process with the new iMac. Finally got enough courage to upgrade to Mavericks. No problems, despite hearing of some horror stories on some of the Apple/Mac forums. Starting to like it but still making adjustments. Got tired of having to expand Safari (zoom) to fill the screen every time you opened it so I downloaded and installed Chrome. Chrome keeps the zoom setting. One thing that drove me nuts one night: When I first got it I was fooling around with the settings and enabled the voice time announcement for every 15 minutes. Thought that was fun for a while but eventually got sick of hearing it. So, I went to the time/date preference setting and unchecked the box for the voice announcements. 10 minutes later, it announced the time again. Opened the time/date preferences and confirmed that the box was unchecked. 15 minutes later, another time announcement. So, I put the iMac to sleep. The next day I was thinking about it and "awoke" it. Sure enough, it started giving voice time announcements on the quarter hour. I went to an Apple support forum to see if there was any history of this issue and indeed there was. An Apple tech had posted the following to resolve it: ==================== You need to reset the NVRAM and/or PRAM. Shut down your Mac. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (?), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4. Turn on the computer. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys before the gray screen appears. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time. Release the keys. After resetting NVRAM or PRAM, you may need to reconfigure your settings for speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, and time zone information. If issues persist, your Mac's logic board battery (not a portable Mac's rechargeable battery) may need to be replaced. The logic board battery helps retain NVRAM/PRAM settings when your computer is shut down. You can take your Mac to a Mac Genius or Apple Authorized Service Provider to replace the battery on the logic board. ==================== So, I am thinking that this is BS. You shouldn't have to go through all that just to reset a setting. So, I shut the computer down, rebooted it (without doing all the above) and the voice announcements ceased. I had also installed the latest and greatest Garage Band version that requires Mavericks to run. After installing, I now had *two* GB icons in the Launch window. I thought the new one was supposed to replace the old version like what happens on a Windows machine. But, again after the reboot one of the icons disappeared. Mac computers are nice but they have their quirks. Being a long-time Windows user, I think Microsoft has done a pretty decent job in ironing out a lot of the issues that earlier Windows versions had. Also, I think using Windows NT as the backbone on Vista, 7 and 8 computers has helped. I don't use Safari, and though I have tried Chrome a few times, the lack of availability of certain add-ons for it keep me on Firefox. I went through a NVRAM/PRAM reset a few years ago for a hard drive that was misbehaving. Ended up taking the iMac to the Apple store where the techs simply replaced the hard drive. End of problem. Every computer system has its quirks. I don't use Windows for anything anymore, though my wife does, and every so often I have to provide "tech support." She's on Windows 7, and it seems a lot more robust than some previous versions of that OS. |
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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. |
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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". :-) |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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? |
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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? |
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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. |
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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. |
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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... |
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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". :-) My point is the app I have on my phone says a hell of a lot more than "rain".. We work in the rain, even in lightning at times, but holding a 6 foot iron digging bar, not so interested in that. The app I have shows real time strike info and retains it so you can watch a storm with lightning come and go.. I like it a lot more than just guessing out there in the valley where we can't see things coming or going... |
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On 1/12/2014 12:26 PM, F.O.A.D. wrote:
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. I have a creative sbs 340 computer speaker system. All my other speakers are built into TVs, a Bose wave radio and a couple of Boston radios. They all produce wonderful sound. |
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On 1/12/14, 12:41 PM, KC wrote:
On 1/12/2014 12:08 PM, 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. I again will mention the "weatherbug" app we use. It has a awesome live strike feature that track the strikes with a ringed bullseye over your location if any strikes are within 15km... Then it tracks strikes and tells you when you have gone 30 minutes, with no strikes for 15km... and you are considered green again.... Not a monitoring program, manual checks, but I still like it to see where strikes are and how far from where I am going... Like I said, we work in rain, not lightning... You're describing the "spark" feature in weatherbug. I like weatherbug the best of all the weather apps I've tried. |
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On 1/12/2014 11:59 AM, wrote:
On Sun, 12 Jan 2014 11:27:14 -0500, 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... When you live in the tropics you learn to recognize the clouds that generate lightning before the first strike. When we are out in the boat, my wife has her phone, no need for 2 and around the house, I have this machine with the weather on a desk top icon. Yes, I can see it for you out in the open like that... Most times here in the NE, driving you can't see over tree lines or hills, more than a mile or two, maybe 10 if you are the top of a hill.... This thing has several times saved our asses. Another really neat thing I like is the google traffic where I hit a button and I get road conditions and traffic live and interactive so I can scroll my trip from start to finish and decide on the best route or change routes while driving like I had to do last month during a blizzard... was watching bad wrecks and delays, avoiding those areas real time... |
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On Sunday, January 12, 2014 10:11:11 AM UTC-6, wrote:
I still have not seen the need for one for me personally but I don't even carry a phone. I carry a phone because my wife says I have to in case she wants to get ahold of me. Of course, when I try to call her, I get a reply that she has a 'voice box' that's not set up yet and can't accept messages... "good bye" oh well. |
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On 1/12/2014 1:12 PM, Tim wrote:
On Sunday, January 12, 2014 10:11:11 AM UTC-6, wrote: I still have not seen the need for one for me personally but I don't even carry a phone. I carry a phone because my wife says I have to in case she wants to get ahold of me. Of course, when I try to call her, I get a reply that she has a 'voice box' that's not set up yet and can't accept messages... "good bye" oh well. Everybody knows "I do not answer my phone" but I hear it ring and will check it as soon as my hands are free... Folks that don't leave messages, don't get called back unless I recognize their number. If I get two calls in a row, I will stop and check to see who called... |
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On 1/12/2014 12:34 PM, KC wrote:
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... Not finding fault. I just got a kick out of your post. I forgot your barn is not near you. For boating purposes, I can understand the advantage of instant weather updates from whatever the source. For those equipped with radar, setting it to it's longest range is helpful also. You can often "see" thunderstorm cells. |
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On Sun, 12 Jan 2014 13:40:16 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote: For boating purposes, I can understand the advantage of instant weather updates from whatever the source. For those equipped with radar, setting it to it's longest range is helpful also. You can often "see" thunderstorm cells. === We see them on the boat's radar all the time, and you can see the motion of the storm system also. We try to miss them if we can do so by nudging our course a little one way or another. It frequently works, surprisingly enough. |
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On 1/12/2014 4:31 PM, Wayne.B wrote:
On Sun, 12 Jan 2014 13:40:16 -0500, "Mr. Luddite" wrote: For boating purposes, I can understand the advantage of instant weather updates from whatever the source. For those equipped with radar, setting it to it's longest range is helpful also. You can often "see" thunderstorm cells. === We see them on the boat's radar all the time, and you can see the motion of the storm system also. We try to miss them if we can do so by nudging our course a little one way or another. It frequently works, surprisingly enough. Really, different mentality... While we are not totally adverse to doing what we do (farming, biking, etc) in the rain, we do not want to do it in a rainstorm that has lightning strikes... you probably don't want to be in any storm.. |
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On Sun, 12 Jan 2014 16:53:40 -0500, KC wrote:
On 1/12/2014 4:31 PM, Wayne.B wrote: On Sun, 12 Jan 2014 13:40:16 -0500, "Mr. Luddite" wrote: For boating purposes, I can understand the advantage of instant weather updates from whatever the source. For those equipped with radar, setting it to it's longest range is helpful also. You can often "see" thunderstorm cells. === We see them on the boat's radar all the time, and you can see the motion of the storm system also. We try to miss them if we can do so by nudging our course a little one way or another. It frequently works, surprisingly enough. Really, different mentality... While we are not totally adverse to doing what we do (farming, biking, etc) in the rain, we do not want to do it in a rainstorm that has lightning strikes... you probably don't want to be in any storm.. === Rain by itself does not bother us but no one should head into a thunderstorm if there is any way to avoid it. Rain, both here and in the tropics, comes and goes all the time. |
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On 1/13/2014 12:27 AM, wrote:
On Sun, 12 Jan 2014 12:26:58 -0500, "F.O.A.D." wrote: 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. Like I said, the Bose sound. It seems to be aimed at people who have very good hearing in the higher ranges. The sound is very crisp. I worked on line printers long enough that my hearing has a bit of a notch in that area. I like that good old 70s deep sound you got from ARs or Sansui with cabinets that could hold a small child. Over the years Bose has earned a (often deserved) reputation for phony sounding speaker systems but that was not always the case. Way back when the original 901 speakers were introduced, they were met with very positive reviews by audiophiles of the time. Also, the Bose sound reinforcement designs in small sound system packages have been copied and emulated by many other small speaker and/or radio/CD/mp3 players manufacturers over the years. Back when "hi-fi" was the rage, there were two distinctive speaker "sounds", the "West Coast" sound and the "East Coast" sound. The West Coast sound emphasized the mid range and tended to be brighter sounding. The East Coast sound was a more mellow sound with the mids somewhat de-emphasized. The original 901 and even the original 501 Bose speakers were pretty good for their time. Obviously technology has advanced and, to me, the most natural sounding speakers today are ribbon types and some electrostatics. |
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On 1/13/14, 1:04 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/13/2014 12:27 AM, wrote: On Sun, 12 Jan 2014 12:26:58 -0500, "F.O.A.D." wrote: 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. Like I said, the Bose sound. It seems to be aimed at people who have very good hearing in the higher ranges. The sound is very crisp. I worked on line printers long enough that my hearing has a bit of a notch in that area. I like that good old 70s deep sound you got from ARs or Sansui with cabinets that could hold a small child. Over the years Bose has earned a (often deserved) reputation for phony sounding speaker systems but that was not always the case. Way back when the original 901 speakers were introduced, they were met with very positive reviews by audiophiles of the time. Also, the Bose sound reinforcement designs in small sound system packages have been copied and emulated by many other small speaker and/or radio/CD/mp3 players manufacturers over the years. Back when "hi-fi" was the rage, there were two distinctive speaker "sounds", the "West Coast" sound and the "East Coast" sound. The West Coast sound emphasized the mid range and tended to be brighter sounding. The East Coast sound was a more mellow sound with the mids somewhat de-emphasized. The original 901 and even the original 501 Bose speakers were pretty good for their time. Obviously technology has advanced and, to me, the most natural sounding speakers today are ribbon types and some electrostatics. I do admire the ability of Bose to market grossly overpriced gear these days to Americans...the under-TV set sound systems, radios, small stereos, earphones, etc. |
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On Sunday, January 12, 2014 4:26:00 PM UTC-5, Wayne. B wrote:
On Sun, 12 Jan 2014 09:25:15 -0800 (PST), wrote: 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. How far up river from Charleston can you go with a boat that draws 5 1/2 ft and has an air draft of about 20 ft? At one time the river was navigable from the fall line in Columbia all the way to the coast. I know there are folks who take jet skis down the river from Columbia, but I don’t know if they can still make it all the way to the coast. When we do the river trip, we put in at Lake Moultrie in Moncks Corner, and go down the Cooper River to Charleston. It’s about 40 or so miles, and in the main river run it’s 15 – 30 feet deep, so you would have no problem in that section. We do it from Moultrie because there’s a lock there that drops you 70 feet down to the Cooper River, and it’s a neat experience. https://www.santeecooper.com/committed-to-south-carolina/lakes/pinopolis-lock.aspx Charleston Harbor and the first few miles of the Cooper River is interesting, and of course there’s plenty to do, see and eat in Charleston. Honestly, once you get past that, the river is nothing but nature (not a bad thing) until you get close to Moultrie. There’s a section that can be a little tricky because it’s not marked well and there are flooded marshes (old rice fields?) along the river that have lured a few boats into them, getting them stuck. Oh, and I just realized there is a train crossing about halfway down the river. It is a drawbridge, but I don’t know what it takes to get it raised, as I can just fit under it. If you ever do decide to cruise up the river a bit, watch for the submarine base signs. There will be a RIB with a 50 caliber on it in the river, and they watch all traffic. No stopping, fishing, or pictures allowed. They WILL board you. Ask me how I know. :-) |
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On 1/13/2014 9:40 AM, F.O.A.D. wrote:
On 1/13/14, 1:04 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote: On 1/13/2014 12:27 AM, wrote: On Sun, 12 Jan 2014 12:26:58 -0500, "F.O.A.D." wrote: 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. Like I said, the Bose sound. It seems to be aimed at people who have very good hearing in the higher ranges. The sound is very crisp. I worked on line printers long enough that my hearing has a bit of a notch in that area. I like that good old 70s deep sound you got from ARs or Sansui with cabinets that could hold a small child. Over the years Bose has earned a (often deserved) reputation for phony sounding speaker systems but that was not always the case. Way back when the original 901 speakers were introduced, they were met with very positive reviews by audiophiles of the time. Also, the Bose sound reinforcement designs in small sound system packages have been copied and emulated by many other small speaker and/or radio/CD/mp3 players manufacturers over the years. Back when "hi-fi" was the rage, there were two distinctive speaker "sounds", the "West Coast" sound and the "East Coast" sound. The West Coast sound emphasized the mid range and tended to be brighter sounding. The East Coast sound was a more mellow sound with the mids somewhat de-emphasized. The original 901 and even the original 501 Bose speakers were pretty good for their time. Obviously technology has advanced and, to me, the most natural sounding speakers today are ribbon types and some electrostatics. I do admire the ability of Bose to market grossly overpriced gear these days to Americans...the under-TV set sound systems, radios, small stereos, earphones, etc. I agree. Americans are easily led and fooled. |
Technology Updates
On Monday, January 13, 2014 1:04:50 AM UTC-5, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/13/2014 12:27 AM, wrote: On Sun, 12 Jan 2014 12:26:58 -0500, "F.O.A.D." wrote: 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. Like I said, the Bose sound. It seems to be aimed at people who have very good hearing in the higher ranges. The sound is very crisp. I worked on line printers long enough that my hearing has a bit of a notch in that area. I like that good old 70s deep sound you got from ARs or Sansui with cabinets that could hold a small child. Over the years Bose has earned a (often deserved) reputation for phony sounding speaker systems but that was not always the case. Way back when the original 901 speakers were introduced, they were met with very positive reviews by audiophiles of the time. Also, the Bose sound reinforcement designs in small sound system packages have been copied and emulated by many other small speaker and/or radio/CD/mp3 players manufacturers over the years. Back when "hi-fi" was the rage, there were two distinctive speaker "sounds", the "West Coast" sound and the "East Coast" sound. The West Coast sound emphasized the mid range and tended to be brighter sounding. The East Coast sound was a more mellow sound with the mids somewhat de-emphasized. The original 901 and even the original 501 Bose speakers were pretty good for their time. Obviously technology has advanced and, to me, the most natural sounding speakers today are ribbon types and some electrostatics. Wasn't it the 901s that had a special sound processor box that hooked up between the pre-amp and amp? Basically an equalizer that shaped the audio to compensate for the speaker's lack of a flat frequency response. I always thought they sounded impressive... for a while. Then listener's fatigue set in, and I didn't like them anymore. I've been running a set of NHT's for a few years now. Great sound, very accurate. |
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On 1/13/2014 12:19 PM, wrote:
On Mon, 13 Jan 2014 01:12:16 -0500, "Mr. Luddite" wrote: On 1/13/2014 12:37 AM, wrote: On Sun, 12 Jan 2014 13:40:16 -0500, "Mr. Luddite" wrote: For boating purposes, I can understand the advantage of instant weather updates from whatever the source. For those equipped with radar, setting it to it's longest range is helpful also. You can often "see" thunderstorm cells. The local NBC station has a great interactive radar on their web site that is going to be better than anything you are likely to see on a boat. My wife can link directly to that radar on her phone and the Note II has a big enough screen to make it useful. That is our boat radar but she also uses it at work. I remember during the last leg of our trip to Jupiter, FL the VHF weather channel had thunderstorm warnings near the inlet. I set the radar out to max range (I think it was 60 miles on a Raytheon radar system) and could clearly see two, serious looking thunderstorm cells in our path. The thing I like about the NBC radar is that it is a 1 hour loop. You can see the motion of the cell. I also like the google maps app. Totally interactive with traffic and weather overlays... integrated with the google navigation, etc... |
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