I’ll admit, I really have a man-crush on themes like Made by On‘s Equilibrium WordPress Theme. They are so open and fresh and so easily readable. With ton’s of white-space, this theme really let’s a LOT of fresh air into the page.
And then… I start to hate it. 
Facebook has crushed its competition: MySpace & Friendster. Still, Facebook continues to make a mess of its “friendliness” towards its users.
I will not attempt to answer that question, but will do my best to alleviate one of Facebook’s major flaws: Status RSS Feeds.
Twice in the last three months, Facebook (and its programmers) has completely messed with the ability of its users to make use of their Facebook Status Updates on the own personal websites & blogs. I mean, if they want us to use your service… then allow me to use your service! If you are like me, what you’ve been seeing is this in your widget: Facebook Syndication Error.
Gah! Again? What seems to be happening, is Facebook has chosen to periodically change your Authentication Key. It’s the piece that indicates that “Yes”… you ARE who you SAY you are. Continue Reading »
iPhone4
Yeah, I drank the Kool-Aid. 
In my defense, for all you Android fans, I’ve been among the Motorola camp for many years: switching my Nokia “brick” for the Moto RAZR and then the RAZR2 & its fabulous camera (a cellphone which VZW dropped mere months after I switched… still not sure what THAT was about.)
Alas, I’ve been limping along on the RAZR2′s ORIGINAL battery for 3 years before Apples’s iPhone4 was finally relinquished to Verizon’s expansive network of CDMA towers. Yes, it won’t do data AND voice at the same time… but, neither did the original iPhone… until the iPhone 3G was released. So… Bite Me!
I’ve been impressed so far. Of course, there’s been a bit of a learning curve, but much of that has been setting the phone up to work for me: setting Alarms, Ringtones (which there aren’t many built-in), and organizing my Contacts list. The actual “swap” at the Verizon Store from my Moto RAZR2 to the iPhone 4 was fairly straight-forward. It took some time to finally Activate it, but I suspect it had much to do with the number of Verizon customers doing the very same thing as I that Saturday afternoon.
I had waited a couple weeks before making the switch; I really don’t consider myself an “early adopter”. I watched the multiple Gawker sites and kept a close eye on Engadget to read the general reaction. I read about the similar “Grip of Death” that plagued the AT&T version, but knew that if I picked up a decent case… I wouldn’t be having those issues. Spent some cash on a package of Pure-Gear “Display Protectors” and was impressed with the amount of thought that went into assisting the user on how to best apply the “cover friendly” scratch-guard. The fact that they included a screen wipe (the same I find when purchasing high-end SLR camera lens’s) was most impressive. Now, I know why they cost $15 for 3 protectors.
As soon as I got it home, I immediately sync’d it to my Windows XP desktop. Even though iTunes can be a little buggy & bloated, it sync’d with no problems and quickly began scarfing my tunes. With that finished, I quickly began downloading applications from the iTunes Store: Find my Phone, PS Express, Labelbox, IMDb, Facebook, Twitter, Remote, Skype, NPR News, CNN, RedLaser, Mint, eBay, Craigslist, SoundHound and as many Free Angry Birds games as possible.
The REAL standouts are:
These are really “niche” applications, but they really show the capabilities of the iPhone 4 and how easy it can be to integrate all the gizmo’s inside.
Now, I’ve had this phone for 6 months and it’s still running like a champ. I did manage to crack the backside glass shell, though. I’m not sure why Apple decided to surround the iPhone4 in Gorilla Glass, but it was a pretty bad move. My old Nokia or Motorola RAZR would have shrugged-off that waist-high plummet to the concrete with aplomb. The iPhone? Not so much. I’m keeping most of the shards intact by pasting a section of Clear Packing Tape to the back shell.
Obviously, my next case will something a bit more durable than a silicone rubber sock. Although, I enjoyed the anti-slip feature when I placed the iPhone on the dash of my Mercedes. Fortunately for me, replacing the back glass is rather cheap: $20 – $40 bucks on eBay, including tools.
I can count on one hand, the number of times a single charge did NOT last me the entire day. In addition, I’m suprised I didn’t break the glass sooner, as I typically carry the iPhone4 in my back pocket. After all those hours sitting at my desk or driving between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids… I’m amazed I hadn’t bent the thing in half.
I’m also impressed with the fact that I’ve yet to replace the initial screen-protector. Yeah, it’s developed a few tiny bubbles… but, they’ve never impeded the scrolling features. Win!
My ONLY complaint: The front-facing camera sucks. Oh, GAWD, does it suck. I’ve retired my personal digital camera for the iPhone4′s back camera, with built-in HDR recording capabilities. But, that front-facing camera? GAG!
All-in-all… this is one solid phone with more features than I suspect I’ll ever really use. The cell-phone has finally matured.
Using the “OLD” version of TMA? The version before WooThemes took it over? Still having problems? Well, quit using that antique edition and download the latest version of “The Morning After” from WooThemes and get busy!
I had tried to put the “beat down” on TMA back when I’d first started blogging… it was a rather disappointing endeavor… my PHP and WordPress skills were simply not up to the task. But, I’d blogged about the experience never-the-less. Mr. Spencer, the master behind the men’s fashion website at i.con{blog}, pinged me a few weeks back… asking all sorts of questions regarding “The Morning After” WordPress theme and my experiences. What began as a simple query, turned into a slew of emails on Categories, Tags, SEO, PHP, and The Morning After theme modifications.
Gridlock Theme
Well, knock me down with a feather. I haven’t looked at hyalineskies Gridlock Theme since I began using WordPress back in 2004. Hailed by many as one of the first ‘magazine style’ themes, I cut many a tooth during those months attempting to force Gridlock to bend to my bidding. It was work. Gridlock was a pretty locked-down theme as far as WordPress Themes are concerned. But, things have chanced since the days of WordPress 2.x and I was curious how Gridlock had grown. Hyalineskies is not longer available, as Eston Bond has moved on to other things. But a decent run-down of its functionality is still up on his site and is still being managed at Github.
Site5 put together a pretty sweet theme when they created Boldy. I’d been considering it for this blog for over a week and decided to give it a try. Alas, in the end, I ditched the idea. But, only because I couldn’t quite massage it to meet my needs. However, for someone putting together a portfolio, this theme should be near the top of your short-list.
While working with the theme, I ran across a quite a few confusing problems that I would like to address / fix here.
Most of the traffic to my website appear to come from people interested in my Senior Design RFID Project that I finished back in 2008 to graduate from the University of Iowa Engineering Department.
They search fairly typical keywords: RFID, manchester, decoding, hid, hack, spoof, 125kHz or other basic parameters of RFID technology.
These key-word searches increase during the middle of the semester, when I surmise the students are scrambling to figure out how to make their OWN RFID Senior Design projects work.
It’s cool.
Recently, some guy going by sketchsk3tch on Instructables referenced my senior design project. It was VERY kind of him to add my project to his list of references, but wasn’t to happy with what he mentioned in reference to my project, stating, “School project, cool ideas, missing some details though.”
Missing some details? Like what? The entire schematic is up on that page! What more does this guy need?
Which brought me to another issue: Why didn’t he ask me for those missing details? Because, I would not have provided the REAL missing piece: The Arduino Code. Yeah, he would have “stolen” the Arduino code (the Java-like code that instructs the Atmega168 PIC we used for the project). Well, maybe he wouldn’t have “stolen” it, but I’m confident any bits he used would NOT have been attributed properly.
…and that is precisely the reason the entire RFID project is NOT up on my website. I hate leachers. Period.
As much attention my Senior Design Project seems to get from across the globe, I refrain from providing some of the critical pieces to make the entire project work. It’s self preservation.
So, to those seriously interested in my project, skim through my website and have fun. It’s for the community to enjoy. Ask me questions! I’ll answer, but don’t be surprised if I make you work at it. How else are you really going to learn?