Entry 3911 A Prior Love of Travel

I've said on here before about how I've traveled...how it's been a huge part of my life for 20 years now. The excitement of every day being different...starting the day in one small town and often ending it in another.

A life in hotel rooms, and dinners in--and from--restaurants. While others might find it tedious or lonely, for me it was just the thing.

It's easy to have such a life when you're alone, with no family or relationship or children at home. I once worked for a boss who kept wanting me to work just in my local area...I told him that he should take advantage of my situation while I was still by myself and could travel, because once that ended so would my traveling.

And, eventually, that is what happened.

A few entries ago I wrote about the great relationship I rediscovered...unlike previous ones in which I was often gone, traveling for my work, I would not want to be away for four days at a time like I always used to be.

And, there's another thing: this adorable kitten that was found last April in the parking/carport area where we live. She was just two weeks old, eyes barely even open.

I'll write more on this later on, in more detail, and with pictures as well. For now, let's just say I have fallen completely in love with this wondrous, precious and adorable little kitty.

Beyond just missing her--if something happened to her while I was gone, I could never forgive myself for not being there. It's very different--for me, anyway. It's almost like she's our little girl, but in a kitten's body.

It's like we now have the child we always wanted--when before we didn't get that chance, and thought it was gone forever.

--Sent from my Newton MessagePad 2100

Entry 3908 Welcome to the Modern Era!

The day I've been waiting for since June 11, 2007 has arrived...I am now the proud owner of an iPhone...an iPhone 4 16GB with AT&T as a carrier, to be exact.

I chose AT&T (amongst many other reasons) at least partly because I heard a few kind of unsettling reports about some unannounced changes planned by Verizon, seemingly timed to coincide with the official iPhone launch on February 3, 2011. Things like, well, this, from ARSTechnica, January 14, 2011:

"It's official: Verizon is ditching its "New Every Two" program and changing its early upgrade policy. Rumors began spreading earlier this week that Verizon had told sales reps to stop pushing the services, and Verizon has now confirmed with SmartMoney that this is indeed the case, and it will affect both new and old customers."

I worked for Verizon Wireless--first in Customer Care and then Technical Support. You know what they say about working at a restaurant--many times, with the things you see, you wouldn't want to eat there.

Another reason I chose AT&T was that Verizon’s CDMA network doesn’t allow simultaneous voice calls and data transfer (AT&T’s GSM network does)--from ARSTechnica, January 10:

“This is obviously a personal usage scenario, and many people who already use Verizon seem to have no problem with this limitation. There are some ways in which this roadblock can get annoying, though. For one, Verizon execs confirmed that the iPhone won't be able to get push notifications while you're on a call, so even if you're not surfing the Web, nothing that uses data will be able to notify you of anything until you hang up.“Secondly, the voice calls will interrupt anything you're doing over the data connection. So, if you happen to be downloading an app or using Verizon's personal hotspot feature to share the 3G connection over WiFi, receiving a phone call will mean that you'll have to choose between interrupting everyone's WiFi connections or simply ignoring the call.”

I got my iPhone on Thursday, January 20, 2011...since then, I've been busy with daily life occurrences, work, that kind of stuff. Plus, I wanted to spend a week with it and get a better feel for what it's like to...well, to have an iPhone.

How is it? Well, it's pretty much great. There's nothing bad about the experience (at least so far), except unlearning how to do things the BlackBerry way, and learning to do them more intuitively with the iPhone. It loads web pages much faster, makes it much easier to read email, and is just all-around more of a pleasure to use. No longer do I have to put up with the awful trackball experience like my BlackBerry 8500 Curve had--there aren't many things more frustrating than a broken mouse/trackpad on your computer...or when you try and move the Curve's trackball and...nothing happens. Without that trackball--like without a mouse or trackpad on your laptop--you're dead in the water.

Prior to the Curve, for several years I'd had a touchscreen Windows Mobile phone ...so when I got the BlackBerry in August 2008 I wondered how I would adjust to using a pointing device instead of just touching the screen. I reasoned that my laptops weren't touchscreen, and I've their trackpads for years, so what's the difference?

As I found out with that frequently broken trackball, a lot. I tried the fixes on the web...soon I grew tired of those repair attempts and would just drag an alcohol-soaked Q-tip over the trackball in the direction that it failed to work...eventually it would start up again. But of course, I don't carry alcohol-soaked Q-tips around with me, so there would be times I'd be somewhere and it would fail to work. That would mean, no email...no way to return a call...no way to access most of the phone's features. You see the problem.

Due to service contracts over the last few years with my wireless provider (Sprint), I've been unable to purchase an iPhone...either a new model had just been introduced (and I'm a believer of the philosophy "don't buy version 1.0!"), or I was in the middle of a contract. So I waited (often not very patiently) for the right time to come.

Of course, there was always the hope that Sprint would pick up the iPhone...after all, the Verizon rumors had been in existence from the day the first iPhone was announced, and there has always been a feeling that once the exclusivity agreement with AT&T ended, all sorts of additional carriers might get involved. (We've since learned that Apple anticipates shortages of the Verizon iPhone--on top on its existing struggles to keep up with its current AT&T demand--so there will likely not be any new carriers announced at least until they're able to get ahead of that supply curve.)

I'd like to take this moment to dispel the rumor that I only wanted an iPhone because it was from Apple. I wanted it because it's a well-functioning machine, brilliantly thought out and engineered. It does what it's supposed to do--you decide whatever that function is--and then does it better and more intuitively. Hmmpf--well, that sounds like most Apple products for the past 30-some years.

Was it like I expected it would be? Well, since my only prior experience was a few minutes with showroom models at the Apple Store...I suppose that answer is: yes. I know for example that something as simple as the iPhone's really genius voicemail setup has been one of the many joys of this experience. One thing I haven't had is any of the infamous AT&T "spotty service coverage" problems...no dropped calls, no poor signal...at least, not as yet. Looking at the AT&T Coverage Map, I can see there's likely some areas that will be problems here...I just haven't gone there yet, apparently. Possibly, even...I won't.

Except for the daily use of text messaging, email and phone calls, I haven't played around with the iPhone all that much. Finally the other evening I was able to take the time and find, evaluate and download/install a few apps from the Apple Store. I'm not a person who plays a lot of video games, but I've been told that there's at least a few game apps that I'll *have* to try on here...I won't be able to put the phone down, I've been told.

As someone who fourteen years ago spent nearly all his leisure waking hours playing "SimCity 2000" on the first Sony PlayStation for months.

I fear that addiction.

Entry 3901 A New Way to Share Experiences

It's been some time since anything's been added here...yes, all is well, and (no rhyme scheme intended) there's much to tell. For example: A company I had been with for more than 6 years has gone under and called it quits. Life's still great--well, mostly (you know me, I'll find something) ;). My current relationship is still going strong (more on that later). And, I have a new way to post entries here.

That last one--it's through email...while that's always been an option, it's usually been my way to sit down and just crank them out from the Mac laptop...you know, smoking cigars, drinking 7&7s, that whole thing. Well, I also have a Newton MessagePad NT2100 that I can use to email entries. I've had it for some time...just learned about the emailing entries part.

"Okay, so what's a "Newton MessagePad NT2100", you ask? Well...it's by Apple Computer, circa 1997...arguably the best thing about it is the amazing handwriting recognition (HWR for short). It's the ORIGINAL "PDA" (the then-CEO of Apple coined that term when it was introduced)...it's kind of big, as handheld devices go.

It's the grandfather of the iPad...yes, that's how important it is. The lessons Apple learned from the Newton, it applied many of them to the iPad.

What this means is I can write something down and send it by email here to Xanga, from the Newton...and it'll be posted. That's, "write it down"--literally yes, with my own handwriting--which it converts to text.

Much more can be found on the Newton here, at another website I have just for it: http://www.newtonphoenix.org .

There will be more to follow...a variety of different things, in the near future. Stay close.