Another Giveaway Entry for DCRainmaker

What another awesome excuse for a post. If you haven't entered before or even seen a post here on elijahnicolas.com in regards to DCRainmaker's blog giveaway, check it out again. More specifically, check out the post here or just click on the picture of the Garmin 310XT below.  Ending tonight at 11:59pm Eastern, Ray Maker is giving away another Garmin 310XT. What makes his giveaways awesome is that he is actually purchases these gifts for his followers. If I start rolling into that kind of dough, I'm PROMISE, I will start doing the same. Granted his blog is amazing in terms of reviews and just overall content so I have a lot to learn. Here's to making three entries for the latest and greatest!

The Future of Gizmodo and Responsible Journalism / Blogging

During the last week, the tech world has been all a buzz on the next generation iPhone (iPhone 4th Generation).  With blogs posting pictures of a phone that was left in a bar to actual video and tear down followed by the final outcome of a letter from Apple's Executive Counsel demanding the return of stolen property, there have been positive and negative views in terms of how this whole thing was handle.  Jason Chen went on video showing the actual iPhone 4th Gen, then hours later Gizmodo posted a story on the actual individual that left the iPhone at the German Beer Serving Pub.  Granted because of this, Lufthansa is offering an all expense paid flight in business class to Germany for the poor Apple Engineer, but I feel it's still a little harsh that Gizmodo publicly harassed the guy. Who knows, Mr. Powell will be forever infamous just like the little kid who cost a team the championship. I don't know. To date, Gizmodo has been accused and admitted to purchasing the device for a purported $5,000. It has been pointed out by others (prominently John Gruber of Daring Fireball) that these acts were a clear violation of law. Codes in California were even outlined and discussed concerning the transaction and sequence of events that transpired during the resulting loss of the 4th generation iPhone.

It has come to my attention that this entire mess, now comically dubbed iPhonegate, while it did generate an absurd amount of page views on Gizmodo, was mishandled. I have to admit that I am, what some might call, a geek, a tech fan boy, a lover of Apple and such but there is a line to be drawn.  I believe that media outlets, have a responsibility; a civic duty to the companies we all love.

The secrecy that Apple goes through to product their product launches and hide their work from competition is second to none in the industry.  This is also a reason why we get so excited and that excitement was taken away by the greedy.  What kind of "umph" does Steve Jobs and the rest of the crew have?   I'm sure they are scrambling around to get together some new slides (probably some depicting Gizmodo in a bad light.)  sidenote: are they still going to be invited to the conference?

Admittedly, I can't wait to fall in line all over again, buy two iPhones, one for me and the other for my fiance, and start video chatting.  I want to know more about the new iPhone but that's what the pent up demand and interest lead to... anticipation and excitement.  Leaks are completely different and are approached as rumors which make it fun. With the devolution of almost all the surprises, June/July 2010 is going to be less exciting.

It would have been a smart move to keep it amongst themselves and "do the right thing" for this slip up crossed the line.  If you want to read all about the next iPhone...check out Gizmodo's iPhone page!

Apple's Free Marketing?! updated: lost and not a hoax // Apple wants it back

Spanning over the last couple of days, two of my favorite tech blogs (Gizmodo / Engadget) released amazing images of what appears to be the next iPhone 4th Generation.  (I'm not going to refer to it as the iPhone 4G because I don't think that it is going to have a 4G chipset i.e. MircoSIM card slot or maybe that's what LTE is going to have)  Initially deemed to be real, then fake, now *definitely* real after a tear down revealing Apple logos in the internals, the weekend included people calling each other names, pointing out pictures from other forums, and tying this phone to a Japanese knock-off.  But the most blatant fact is that it happens to be recognized by iTunes.  Conveniently being remotely wiped by Apple when it was reported by the scared individual, I hope that this guy still has his job.  Although now I'm even thinking that it maybe was his job. I initially thought that there was only "one" lost iPhone 4th Generation but both blogs, I guess, are playing nice and sharing their spoils!?  The internet, particularly Techmeme, is all the buzz on iPhone 4G news and it's two months before the purported launch.  That's 60 days of free marketing and stock price adjustment!  Can anyone say amazing marketing scheme?!  It's all free, becoming viral and an exponential rate, and everyone knows that us tech pundits that haven't upgraded to the 3GS are eagerly & tirelessly waiting for a complete redesign since last year.  Of course the nerd, geeks, Apple fanboys, and dorks are going to be gobbling up all these good stories.  People at work today are going to be talking all about the good news.  Daring Fireball has even went on record stating that he does believe in fact that Apple has lost an iPhone.

The question here is who dropped this phone?  Was it really just an accident or a planned & amazing way to generate crazy excitement and hype?!  Did an exchange of money happen?  Viral explosion has definitely proven to be the best way of marketing on the internet.  Trending on twitter already for the last few days as well is creating a lot of buzz.  Even Jonathan Ive just reported via twitter "This isn't good" What really is going on lately with all the leaks at Apple?  If this leak was unintentional, I hope Steve Jobs doesn't go crazy or have a heart attack due to an increase in blood pressure.  I can imagine emergency meetings all over the Cupertino Offices right now.  On the other hand, I bet the guy that's tied to this phone is in Apple's dungeon getting some form of punishment.  All these stories in just the past few days are causing a frenzy and it's not going to stop until it's released!  It seems to be trumping all the iPad news but I guess in tech world, the Apple iPad is old news.  Coinciding with AT&T revoking any vacation for June, it's working out to bet a perfect media storm.  Everyone loves summer and I'm hoping that the "one more thing" is that it's going to be offered on Verizon!  Better yet, Sprint with it's $69.99 EVERYTHING plan!

(another story one about a Canadian Wireless Carrier claiming the iPhone 4th Gen in June)

update: Well, there we have it...the lost & stolen iPhone belonged to an Apple Software Engineer by the name of Gray Powell.  He happened to be drinking too many German Beers and the result: left his disguised iPhone at the bar.  I wish him well in the tech world. I'm sure he's famous now and can start his own blog too. (via @Gizmodo)

update2: Apple wants it's phone back. Gizmodo states that they didn't know it was stolen!? Seriously?! Here's the letter and the link! (via @Gizmodo)

Web 2.0 and the Posterous New Blog

Intro:

I recently signed up for a posterous site, http://adellelijah.posterous.com, to host both Adelle and I together in one cloud space and in doing so, I actually ended up creating two more different posterous sites, http://adellelisa.posterous.com and http://elijahnicolas.posterous.com so that we can post on an individual basis.  Adelle actually didn't like me posting my stuff to "our" site so I decided that we each needed a separate one for self preservation.  I'll just admit it already: I am a posting whore.

Over the last few months, I've been using the Thesis Wordpress Theme in order to help with Search Engine Optimization on elijahnicolas.com.  I love the simplistic layout of the Thesis Theme so much that I even ended up buying the commercial license to use on Peak Interest (www.whatspyi.com) as well as my fiance's blog (www.adellelisa.com) which she is very hesitant to update but at least it's there.  Over the years, I have graduated from the Blogger platform hosting a multitude of different sites, to trying out joomla for a hot second to finally settling down on wordpress as my choice for a content management system.  Of course, twitter came around along with friendfeed and now posterous all within the last year or so and I indulged.  All the while, I was only looking for that singular reasonable mean to have all my personalities talk to each other and reflect each other's status'.  With posterous, I think I may have found the perfect solution!

Body 1:

The basic idea of Web 2.0 was to forge a design template that allowed for an easy GUI interface for those that weren't code savvy.  It was to provide a simpler means to update ones' online mediums / personality sites and in doing so, collaborate with others in the virtual arena.  That's my personal spin in layman's terms.  If you want the "real deal," here's Wikipedia's here.

Posterous has done just that.  They simplified the entire process.  They have taken out the horrific means of uploading to an FTP site or Content Management System and instead substituted it with the easy medium we use everyday: e-mailing.  You can "attach photos, videos, MP3s and files" to your e-mails, send it off to space and boom...it's that simple!  You could always do that on Blogger.com with text and photos and use a not so great plug-in with WordPress, but with one touch, I can upload a picture with a small post to my posterous account directly from my email address, it detects where I want it to go and publishes instantly without a hitch not only to posterous, but to anywhere else that I'm connected to be it my facebook, blogger, wordpress or even twitter account.

I was thinking of having it update my actual wordpress blog, but that's when things started to come together in my head.  I finally drew somewhat distinct lines.  I have come to the definite conclusion that my posterous and mobile blog are one in the same.  That's almost a no brainer, with a slight difference that the blogger site has a black background and posterous has a white one.  Posterous and my trelijah mobile blog are just quick snippets of my life.  Twitpic and twitter are just even quicker moments that I deem "3rd class" per say.  Of course the hierarchy of it all would be a long post, such as this one, on elijahnicolas.com, a picture accompanied by a posterous moment then a tweet.

Conclusion:

It is however convenient to have one place to update every personality, but duplication starts to become rampant and I don't want that to happen.  For now, I guess I'll keep trelijah going along with elijahnicolas.posterous.com and maybe with time, just end trelijah.  But as I always keep on saying, you can always count on me for some type of update.  That's enough.

p.s.  I had to edit the template of trelijah to fit the new format of pictures.  I like them in the full form.  Nice stuff!

WordPress & the Veritable Plethora of Plug-ins

I just had to make a shout out and create a separate post on this awesome plug-in by BraveNewCode:WPTouch (Plug-In Website)/ WPtouch iPhone Theme (WordPress Plug-In Site)

WPtouch automatically transforms your WordPress blog into a web-application experience when viewed from an iPhone, iPod touch or Android touch mobile device. It comes complete with all the standard WordPress blog features: search, login, categories, tags, archives, photos & more. WPtouch also offers many customization features through a beautifully designed WordPress admin panel.

It's awesome as you can now visit simply elijahnicolas.com on your iPhone/iTouch/Android mobile device and load up a very friendly iPhone/iTouch/Android webpage.  Check it out, browse around and post a comment!

It was easy to activate as I don't feel the need to edit or do anything with it.  It's was way too simple as are many of the various plug-ins that are available on the WordPress Content Manager Platform.  Of course, if you want to view my website in it's normal site appearance, there's an option in the footer courtesy of the app's awesome interface options.

rating: Perfect 10!!!

The Last Month

It's been over a month since my last update, but since then, I've moved over to the CRJ700 / CRJ900 making an extra $1.00 for flying 20-26 more passengers while operating an aircraft approximately 20,000 pounds heavier.   It's been such a great aircraft but the mere fact that I'm flying something new and learning again keeps me grounded.

I've also started up another venture called "peak interest" so make sure to visit the website.  You can also follow @whatspyi on twitter for more up-to-date messages and happenings.  I've always wanted to start a podcast, so I finally found someone I can jibe with back and forth for countless hours and "peak interest" is the culmination of our efforts.  Beyond being a work in progress, it's rough on many edges, but fine tuning it is something that will keep me busy throughout the next few weeks.  I'm sitting here at Starbucks in Rancho Penasquitos and within the first 40 minutes, I've already added a few widgets to the new Thesis theme that I deployed a couple of days ago.  I know it's dangerous to go live right away with kinks, but since we're growing, I'm sure you wouldn't mind growing with us.

If you haven't already, listen to our podcast on www.whatspyi.com or subscribe on iTunes via this link (opens iTunes).

what's peaking your interest?

2.7 baby!

I couldn't wait until tomorrow, so right before I went to bed, here it is, Wordpress 2.7 - Coltrane up and running on the backend of elijahnicolas.com

Movable Weather Radar for the iPhone and iPod Touch

Finally a solution for an animated weather radar.  (thanks Zaphu)  There currently two applications that can do just this, but it requires a nominal fee of $0.99.  With the current reviews nearing the low 2 stars, I'm a little hesitant.  The author of Radar-In-Motion has mentioned that he will accommodate the quirks that others have been complaining about which might make it worth it later on.  

iWeathr

iWeathr is the best radar app for the iPhone that I have found so far. Navigate to iweathr.com and locate your nearest radar location. Note that you won’t be entering the city where you live but rather the location of a radar installation. For help finding the nearest one to you go here. This implementation allows both rotation and zooming in - very nice!

Another nifty weather iPhone web application can be found at http://iphone.my-cast.com/ It's a basic forecasting web-app but all that more powerful and simple.

*Update: kurt mentioned below that he prefers i.wund.com for it's simplicity and the mass information that is displayed on the iPhone screen for that particular location. I have to say that it definitely does show great information, but the moving map on iweathr.com is the basic one that is hosted by the government's weather website: http://adds.aviationweather.gov/radar/ which is the one that prefer using when scoping out the weather prior to flying. Thanks for the comments!

Up in the Air Again

I'm finding myself having to ride Mainline Delta quite a bit more these days as my AirTran options have diminished from 4 flights a day to San Diego from Atlanta to only one or two and even an occasional none.  It's a little frightening on how it will impact my commute as the Delta flights are pretty much always impacted and oversold, but I guess I'll have to make due.  My schedule for October is going to be as financially successful due to the lack of available trips to pick up and the fact that I had to cut one of my trips in half to an obligation in Fulton County.  If you forgot already, I'm set for a court appearance in relation to my speeding ticket that I got a couple of weeks back while driving to the airport. 

This is only my 3rd time using Qumana, a free blog editor for Mac OSX and I have to admit that I sometimes find the interface much more accommodating than the Windows Live Writer.  The reason for the transition back to using my Powerbook Ti is because I miss it.  It's the truth but the 667 MHz is sometimes just frustrating.  The battery life is long lasting and the size is great but the 30Gb hard drive also is a handicap.  I wish that I just had two good computers to use and stick with instead of being all over the place.  I have a broken HP dv1000 laptop at home that needs to be diagnosed (might need a new hard drive), a dual Pentium 3 1GHz tower that I've had for years which should still run, but I have no clue why it's not booting up and a box of parts sitting in Atlanta waiting to be put together. 

Powered by Qumana

The October Schedule

I finally converted to using Google Calendar and Nuevasync with sully, the name of mi iPhone blaco, and with that, my schedule will be posted and updated on a regular basis (<-- whatever regular means).  Nuevasync offers a free solution in competition with Apple's MobileMe (failure) but since it is in its infancy, certain features such as multiple calendars and colors still have yet to be implemented.  It's an awesome application and setup was a breeze.  Check out the link to the right or click here for my calendar.  If you have an Apple iPhone or iPod Touch, I would highly recommend checking out one of the best "how-to's" at theiLife.com written by Kevin Hobin.  If you follow all his set directions, I don't see how you could go wrong.  Be forewarned though that all your current contacts and calendars will be erased and replaced with the information on their servers.  Backup first and be sure to read the full instructions on how to do it without the sacrifice of your data. I'm not sure if I mentioned that I finally got my first speeding ticket in the Atlanta area, but because of my recklessness, I have to appear in court on October 9 somewhere in Fulton County.  I was, of course, going with the flow of traffic and was in full uniform on my way to work.  What makes things a little more difficult is the fact that I have to work on the day of my set appearance. 

Apparently, the state of Georgia or Fulton County what have you, doesn't mail you anything in terms of instructions or any corresspondance in accordance to the ticket/fine.  It is up to you to look up your fine, get a cashier's check and mail it in or visit the court house in person.  That's pretty backwards really and I can see how a lot of citizens could simply become tardy in that manner.  From my friend's experiences in California, you at least get a formal letter / citation telling you and giving you much clearer instructions.  It's just all a mess down here.

The 100 Credit Month!

I'm commuting on Delta Flight 1038 from SAN to ATL trying to get to my last two day trip of the month.  September concludes with my schedule being completed @ 89% on-time arrivals and departures and the awesome fact that I was able to break the 100 hour credit mark!  The Captain was an awesome character to fly with as we always went out and enjoyed the town.  We always had some lunch or dinner with great conversation and even visited some random places like the mall in downtown Stamford, Connecticut or Orange Country Choppers in Newburgh, New York.  It was one of the best months that I have had here at ASA.

The paycheck on the 15th of October is something that I'm really looking forward to!  I've been working hard with the commute and all so hopefully it will it will pay off in one way or the other! :)  You have to realize that I usually get credited about 70-80 hours a month and with the extra ~20 hours, it's going to boost my pay about a third of my usual.  I'm young right so I should be trying to do this each month, but it just really depends if you could hack it.  Exhaustion is something that I hate feeling, but when you fly with a good crew and have good trips, it only adds to the pleasure. 

Being back home in San Diego more and more helps out in the "being grounded" feeling department but with the split of our crashpad in February, finding another place in Atlanta is up in the air.  I'll have more on the living situation later but being with friends during the weekend in San Diego helps in recuperating the lost time. 

With the impending launch of a new Macbook Pro, rumored to be announced on the 14th, my paycheck is going to be accounted for.  I've been waiting for almost 7 years now and am in bad shape with my Titanium Powerbook 667.  (I've been mainly using my IBM T43p on trips though so it hasn't been that bad)