I’ve been uncharacteristically quiet lately. No problems. Just been busy earning a living. But I will be writing soon. In the meantime:

I’m really enjoying my HTC Jetstream and using it in meetings for note taking. This probably will be my main Android tablet until its quad-core sibling, the HTC Quattro, is released, reportedly Spring 2012. I’m still using my iPad 2. There are apps I use which are available only on iOS, no Android equivalent. As far as Windows 7 is concerned … well that will have to wait another week or two

I’m still dithering over a phone to replace my aged HTC Droid Incredible (version 1, not 2). I’m very interested in the Android Samsung Galaxy Note if it comes to the US (probably early 2012) and works on the Verizon network (unclear, only AT&T confirmed for now). I’d also be interested in a RIM BBX phone. However, it doesn’t appear one will be available until about Fall 2012. That’s a long time to wait. early 2012 at best. If much longer than that, may be too long for me. Another candidate is a Windows Phone 7 Nokia Lumia 900 if it comes to the US (again probably early 2012) and works on the Verizon network (again unclear, only AT&T confirmed for now). At the rate this process is moving, the iPhone 5 may become a candidate.

That’s it for now. Until soon …

Rob Heinsman, the deranged artist who created this blog’s header, also created this drawing to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. However, even though his fiancée is Mexican-American, Rob does not quite understand the origins of this holiday. Instead, he believes it has to do with the sinking of the Titanic, even though Snopes has tagged that rumor as false. Oh well, good help is hard to find, especially when they work for free.

I upgraded my WordPress version for this blog. The upgrade apparently nuked Akismet, the plugin I’ve used to keep comments relatively spam free. I didn’t realize this for a few days. When I did, OMG. Literally thousands of spam comments. And in less than one week.

I’ve reinstalled and activated Akismet. That seems to have stemmed the spam tidal wave. However, I still have to root out the spam that was already there. That’s going to take a while

Unfortunately, spam has been the only activity on this blog for a few weeks. There’ve been a number of reasons for the quiet; new semester, squeezing in two vacations before the semester start, changing web servers, etc. However, I haven’t forgotten this blog, and will start posting real soon, like this weekend.

I’ve posted very little the last 2 months. We moved to a new house. We’re still unpacking, plus redoing the floors. We also had a contractor renovate our “old” home and now are listing it for sale or lease. I’ve also been busy working … they don’t pay me for my good looks (which per my secretary would be a minimum wage violation). All this has left me little time or energy to write.

Whether anyone has missed me or this blog or not, I’ve missed writing, and am starting again. Here are some planned topics:

Lenovo ThinkPad x201t Tablet PC coming today told you about my latest Tablet PC purchase, which was from one of my favorite vendors, Allegiance Technology Partners. I will be writing a review soon on the x201t for TabletPCBuzz (which has been patient in waiting for my review).

How I’ve networked our new home. including firewalls, WiFi and DLNA.

My latest adventures on my iPad.

Comparisons of our Android super-phones, including the HTC Droid Incredible, HTC EVO 4G, and the latest addition to my gadget harem, the 5” Dell Streak.

My wife’s Sony Vaio Signature Collection P mini-notebook.

See you soon!

… especially when it comes to final exams. It’s much less stressful to be the teacher giver than the student recipient. But it’s not a free lunch for the teacher. I do have to grade the final exams that I give my computer science students at the community college where I teach.

(more…)

Now you see why we don’t post very often. Seriously, these are our two indolent Italian Greyhounds, Micaela and Dante, doing what they do best during the day, so at night they’re well rested to party hearty and deprive me of my sleep. You can read more about these two on their Spoiled Dogs Support Page. I’ve also posted on Picasa Web Albums additional pictures which, if you’re hard up for entertainment, you can view as a slideshow.

What does this have to do with gadgets? Only that the small fortune I spend for their upkeep is that much less I have to spend on gadgets. Grumble.

Lately it may appear from this blog that the Viliv X70 is the only thing happening in the tech world. That of course is not true. There’s also the Viliv S5. It hopefully will be arriving next week.

Seriously, I will be writing soon about other subjects, including upcoming “superphones”, a new Bluetooth speakerphone I will be receiving tomorrow, and why I may not upgrade my Blackberry Storm to the Storm 2. And there’s that Zune HD giving me that “come hither” look. But in the meantime, back to making Windows 7 RC work on my Viliv X70.

I haven’t posted recently because, since my Plan A (finding a rich woman to support me) hasn’t worked (yet anyway), I’ve had to resort to Plan B (working 18 hour days), leaving little time (or energy) for this blog. Nevertheless, in my spare moments (of consciousness) I’ve tried to improve the appearance of this blog while keeping its appearance simple and uncluttered (basically because I don’t know how to make it more complex and cluttered).

I’ve cleaned up and enhanced the widgets on the right sidebar. The first widget has a link where you can follow me on Twitter (in case you’re really bored) or add this blog to your RSS subscriptions (in case you’re really bored). I’ve also added a menu on the main page and a contact me form. Additionally, each post now has a ShareThis link so you can share my posts with your friends (or enemies) via email, Twitter, etc.

Just because I haven’t posted lately doesn’t mean I haven’t been working on a number of posts. It’s just they’re still work in process. I will post them soon, including:

• My efforts at SEO (search engine optimization) to increase the number of readers of this blog (which shouldn’t be too tough).
• Putting through their first paces the Viliv X70 and the Viliv S5 which should be arriving in about 10 days from South Korea if Kim Jong Il doesn’t start a war there first.
• My never-ending battle with Vista (until Windows 7 arrives in October).

Talk to you soon. And if in the meantime you know of a rich woman whose taste in boy toys includes overweight middle-aged gadget geeks, please feel free to use the Contact Me form.

I write this blog for many and varied reasons. Not to sound corny, but this blog makes me feel part of a web community. This blog also provides information to my students regarding new gadgets and associated technologies. And to be honest, there’s a bit of ego and vanity involved also.

But the main reason is that the exercise of writing helps me better understand. I may think I understand a technology, such as, to take one example, resistive vs. capacitive touch screens. But once I start putting pen to paper (figuratively), I find my knowledge is superficial and incomplete. Perhaps to avoid the embarrassment of posting superficial or incorrect information, I research the issue … and learn … before I publish.

(I could say a similar thing about teaching. I may think I understand a concept. However, when I prepare to explain it in depth to my students, I sometimes realize that I don’t understand the concept as well as I thought I did. So again, I research … and learn … before I teach.)

Writing also helps me make choices. As you know, I am constantly dithering between gadgets. (Maybe that’s what the guy in the picture is doing too.) The discipline of writing helps me identify the various factors I should consider and then weigh them.

What do you think?

Never a Duh Moment told you about my trying to figure out the “Slattery, Joe” announcement emanating from my BlueAnt Supertooth 3 Bluetooth Speakerphone. I thought I felt dumb then when I finally solved the mystery (“Slattery, Joe” = “Battery Low”). Now I feel dumber.

Reviewing this site, I noticed that under What’s Happening?, the “post titles” Goodbye XT, Hello XT2, Windows 7 RC on Fujitsu P1620 and Windows Mobile 6.5 lacked the hyperlink of other posts titles. They also were not accompanying by information such as the publisher of the post (me), the date of publication, categories and comments.

I then embarked on a research project to solve this mystery. This included running a PHP console and SQL Update queries. No change.

I finally realized this was a solution in search of a problem.  Under What’s Happening?, the “post titles” Goodbye XT, Hello XT2, Windows 7 RC on Fujitsu P1620 and Windows Mobile 6.5 aren’t post titles. They were subheadings to the What’s Happening? post. So of course there were no links or other information that accompanies post titles because … they aren’t post titles.

I need more sleep.