.plan

Overall pretty great.  Obviously twice as fast, very snappy/responsive.  It loads websites much faster, etc.  Me and my friend Arun did some side-by-side-by-side tests at work yesterday between all three iPhones that have been relesed.  Here are the results for loading macrumors.com:

• iPhone 3G S: 10 seconds
• iPhone 3G: 17 seconds
• iPhone: 4 minutes, 24 seconds

The original iPhone only had access to a low-bar EDGE connection (Both of these tests were over cell networks, not wifi).  We also tried a few other sites which the 3G S similarly dominated, but I remember also clocking Google News (Classic/Desktop version) at:

• iPhone 3G S: 7 seconds
• iPhone 3G: 14 seconds
• iPhone: didn’t bother due to battery complaints from owner =D

Now, I didn’t have my iPhone 3G OS updated to 3.0 for these tests, and I honestly feel that the upgrade has shaved off about 2 seconds of website loading time.  But the 3G S is definitely much faster, and also when scrolling around web pages while zoomed in - you don’t that checkerboard background while part of the page loads into memory like you do with the 3G/original.  Launching apps/doing other things on the 3G S is also much faster.

The compass feature is cool especially in Google Maps, and I really like the new camera/auto-focus/exposure/macro system - that is one of the coolest parts, along with the very smooth video recording/playback, with upload to YouTube direct.  The only thing I’m not really sure I like is the slight change of screen hue.  It’s a close call, but I think that my iPhone 3G screen does look slightly better.  But yeah, the iPhone 3G S is pretty damn nice!

I found two features in iPhone OS 3.0 that I haven’t seen mentioned in the various “what’s new” guides I’ve been reading, and they are both pretty big deals for me.

1. Apple has taken out the auto-correct for “fuck/fucking”.  I can’t tell you how many text messages I’ve sent that accidentally say things like “It’s about ducking time!” or “Duck that”, etc.
2. There is finally an option to turn off repeat alerts for text messages.  You know, that annoying thing where you’d be sleeping and someone would text you, and your phone would make the notification sound, but you’d just moan a bit and go back to sleep without moving, and then the phone will make the text alert sound again a few minutes later, and then once more a few more minutes later, waking you up repeatedly, ALL FOR THE SAME ONE MESSAGE.  Duck that!  Luckily they came to their senses and made this an option, which caused me to do the arms raised in celebratory victory.

It’s quite a nice OS upgrade.  A lot of new and great features, some new effects, and a slight speed increase.  I think my iPhone is about 13% faster now.  There are however, still a few obvious features missing.  Why can’t I make my alarm be a song or playlist?  But overall, the greatest piece of technology just got even greater.  And this is not to even mention all the new features/extras that the iPhone 3G S has!  3G S mini review?  Ok sure.  [splitting, see next post]

I forgot to blog about this ordeal I had a month ago.

So I sprained my ankle real bad, crutch level bad (still not healed up). When it happened, I heard a crack, and it was worse than any other sprain, so I wasn’t sure if perhaps I fractured it or something. So I went to the Hospital (ER) to get it checked out.

I show up there, give them my insurance card, they type in my number, and? No Record! Yes, this is the first time I was using it, but that shouldn’t matter. No record, no record - FOR TWENTY MINUTES they wouldn’t admit me, as I stood there for half that time in pain on one foot as they fumbled around the computers and phones. Finally I just sat down on my own after saying “*SIGH* American healthcare” to the lady trying to sort it out, to which she responded “I know…” Anyway, turns out there was a mistake and my account was issued as a Northern California account, so then they kept assuming that I was from there/my employer is based there, which I told them I’m not and have spent a total of maybe one week up there in my life. They kept acting like there’s no way I’m right about my life.

Anyway, let’s observe the bullshit here. Not mentioning the making me stand there when they know my foot is injured/not believing me about anything/etc. The network: what the FUCK kind of system is that? When you have somebody from the same hospital/insurance system, with a card issued by the same hospital/insurance system, and you type in that number, it shows:

“No Record”

-instead of-

“Northern California Patient”

RETARDED!!! I mean how stupid is that? Totally ridiculous, it’s their own system/database. I was on the phone with them about this later on and they basically said they had no plans to implement something unified like that because the database would grow too large/slow with the size of medical records that get pulled up. I asked the guy how it’s possible that they’re able to look it up in customer service, and he explained that they don’t get the full records, just basic info. I suggested/asked why they can’t have a system where when they initially put in the number, it just gets the basic info, and then you can select “retrieve full record”, to which he had no answer yet no willingness to accept. At my follow-up appointment the staff said “We wish it was like that!” when I made the same suggestion. *EYE ROLL MAXIMUM*

They day after I sprained my ankle, me and Strange went to Blockbuster to rent a movie. I went up to the counter and told the man: “Now… at some point in history I had a blockbuster account somewhere in the United States…” He asked me for my driver’s license number, and found it immediately, updated my info, and I was ready to rent. The whole thing took about one minute.

Oh, by the way, the health insurance I’m lucky to have through my employer is supposed to be “really good”. Also, the care at the hospital, not very good. Among other things, it wasn’t until I was leaving that a random nurse on the way out noticed me walking funny with the crutches and showed me what the proper adjustments should be like. Thanks for making sure I’m all set, Kaiser!

Gotta love good ol’ Ed Schultz.  I agree with him on most things, and especially with both of these guys in the vid, but he also had me laughing pretty hard how he worked himself up and was going off:

LOL. Is there a word for cheering and laughing simultaneously? Oh man, if only Chris Farley were around to do an even more ridiculous version of it on SNL, he’d be perfect.

I’m kicking myself for not doing my original post a couple weeks ago, which had the same subject line and then contained only the following sentence:

Kanye West & Lady Gaga

Miss Strange sends word that they are going on tour together!  I have a couple of backblogs to post, one that’s been lingering forever about 808’s & Heartbreak, and one about Lady Gaga, which I’ll just do right now since it’s short:

I’d like to say that Lady Gaga is someone that I really like.  I think she’s got serious artistic talent, which results in a number of good songs, and I appreciate and strongly agree with her social, financial, and artistic views.  In short, I think she’s really cool.

And I feel the same about Kanye West (post still to come), and they’re both also very honest and real people, so I had been thinking that these two need to hook up.  I admire them both, so of course I’m very excited about the tour!  Hopefully the venues won’t implode from not being able to handle the level of artistry that will emanate from the stage.  It’s a gift to society when two artists like this make it to mainstream, and to have them share the stage equally to entertain the masses, just beautiful.  I’m not saying that either one is a perfect person or anything, for any haters who have already fainted by this time in the post.  But, I do believe they are great.

Some jackasses pulled the accoustic “Poker Face” off YouTube, which is too bad, as it was quite a good version, but instead you’ll just have to enjoy this one of “Paparazzi” from the same event:

There’s a huge tiger in the United States!  Do you see it?

If you didn’t find it, I’ve highlighted it below the fold.

Continue reading “Tiger America”

If you ever have any sort of problems, find this man.  If you think he’s got no way to possibly help you out with something, run it by him anyway and enjoy surprise.  A round of applause for Arun Murti.  I was going to post this a couple months ago when it was the last straw after he saved me tons of time on a project by telling me about TinEye, where you can upload a picture you have, and it’ll find it or the original unmodified version of it online.  This was just one of many incidents.  Do you have a blog entry you want to post where you think you found something out that’ll be cool or funny, or think you’ve found something critical about something?  Run it by him first as he may save you embarrassment/retraction.  Need general life advice?  Murt!  Etc, etc.

I don’t know if I’ve ever met such a calm and pleasant human container of knowledge and expertise.  One of my hobbies is to think of things to tell him about that he somehow might not know of.  The only pain he provides is the anguish of knowing him and knowing that Jeopardy exists, yet not being able to convince the two to meet!!

Dear Morgan,

I’m sorry.  Firstly, for posting a YouTube video a couple years back entitled “Morgan Webb Actually Being Cute” with a couple hits of criticism about you in the description, let alone obviously in the title of the video.  Then there was that time at E3, I think in 2002, when I blew you off.  I saw you standing there in an oddly vacant area of the show floor, alone, while the camera man was trying to fix some problem.  You were looking around, bored, lonely, like you wanted to talk to somebody.  I stopped for a moment to check out the scenario and make sure it was you.  I didn’t smile, and my demeanor wasn’t friendly when we looked at each other.  I could’ve been cool, we could’ve had a chat, but I just decided to scoff and leave.

I think a lot of the problem was that I thought you were cool back on The Screen Savers, but then your show X-Play… I thought it was so bad, and so annoying, and I associated you with that.  Recently, however, I found out that you went ahead and did your own thing, Webbalert, which was actually pretty cool.  And the level of sympathy I felt with you in your interview about creating and editing computer video, how you were really working hard on this and describing all the trials and tribulations…  it just made me think back to the E3 incident and the YouTube video and made my heart sink.

I was much younger back then and had a worst attitude, unfortunately.  I regret us not meeting.  I’d like to say I’m sorry, and that I was wrong about you.  You are indeed cute, among many other positives.

Sincerely,

Joz

Ah, the conservatism/censorship (same thing) of Wal-Mart.  Good for Green Day.  There’s a couple really good quotes from the guys in that article, such as:

They want artists to censor their records in order to be carried in there.  We just said no.  We’ve never done it before. You feel like you’re in 1953 or something.

Meanwhile, violent gory R-rated horror movies (or even unrated versions) like the Saw series, and other movies ridden with cursing are sold there, along with firearms.

By the way, in case you’ve never seen WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price, .plan highly recommends that you do.  They got it on Netflix streaming.  My girlfriend introduced me to it, yet for some odd reason her extremely liberal ass doesn’t want to ever finish watching the last 15 minutes of it.

Uh… ohhhhhhh

Now granted I do have a number of garbage albums on there that I was checking out and don’t intend to keep (I don’t mean the band, though I do have those tambien), but still, it’s not like there’s gonna be that many extra gigs of free space once they’re cleared out, maybe two or three gigs?  32gb iPhone idea is starting to seem like it’ll be v.cramped :/