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Airport Security
Last SUnday, we returned from our week long trip to San Francisco/San Jose and as usual came back on a plane. This was our first flight after the new rules about no liquids and the increased paranoia about terrorism. The San Jose airport didn't appear to have tighetened security and we passed through security without problems as usual. Most people seemed to be adjusting to the new rules. When we arrived in San Diego, I saw national guard troops at the gates apparently inspecting all carry on luggage. The difference in security at the airports makes you go "hmmm". It isn't unusual to have different rules and practices at different airports, but if the government is serious about security, it needs to be consistent. What kind of scared me about the troops is that they had a bucket full of confiscated liquids and gels; this was at the gate where all the passengers had already passed through the security checkpoint. Were the security screeners asleep at the wheel? Shouldn't everything have been searched before hand?
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Apple Newton - 10 year old technology lives on
I received my Newton MP2100 last week and it is everything that I had remembered (for the most part). The handwriting recognition works well and everything seems so elegant about this 10 year old technology. In fact, I'm writing this while sitting at the beach watching my wife surf (I'll post it when I get home). People have developed WiFi and Bluetooth drivers for it (the Newton I purchased had both a WiFi and a Bluetooth card) and there are tons of programs for it. In addition, I know many in the old Newton developer community, so I have a wider access to free programs (free is always good). In addition, I loaded the HP IRDA printers drivers for it and was able to print from any application to my LaserJet 2100MP; a feat that still cannot be accomplished on Palm OS. I found a few email programs out there including MailV so that I can send my notes and such to myself via email. People are working on or have written apps to communicate with OS X. There are a few down sides to the Newton. It has always had a heap problem so you have to be careful with how many programs you install. I'm using NewtCase to "freeze" stuff I'm not using. The device doesn't have USB so transferring stuff over the serial port (while doable) is slow. It doesn't have color, but I'm not sure I mind that. I'm still wading through the hundreds of programs available to see what I want to install. SO far, I have a ToDo list program and I'm using Notes and Calls.
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TiVo needs to get a clue
I called TiVo and after 20 minutes, go to speak to a support rep. When I mentioned that I had a Pioneer box, the rep said to call TiVo. I said, no, it is a software issue and it happened after the upgrade this past weekend. Then she said that the issue will be resolved in the next update, but didn't know when that would be available. So why did she tell me it was a Pioneer problem? Today I hate TiVo.
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Nice job, TiVo!
We got back from our trip on Sunday and found that the TiVo (Pioneer 810H) was stuck. I yanked the power cord and rebooted it. It came back up and said it had done an upgrade. OK, fine, I like the TiVo upgrades as they add new features. However, this time TiVo made a royal mess. First off, the unit needed a kick start to get running after the update meaning we didn't record shows for 2 days. Second off, navigating the menus is extremely slow. Third off, one of the shows we recorded after the upgrade (Saved on TNT which my wife really likes) had some hiccups where the picture was pixelated and it stuttered during playback. Reading the forums shows that I'm not the only person with this problem.