BRAIN DRAIN

I.

A little after New Year’s I had the misfortune of dropping my celphone.

I’m usually more careful when it comes to these things, and when it happened I already knew it was going to be bad. Indeed, despite the fact that the unit was otherwise intact — it was, previously, a very serviceable Nokia 7610 — it quite stubbornly refused to turn on. There were no new scratches on the casing nor cracks on the screen, yet all that remained was a lifeless husk.

These things happen, of course, so while waiting to have the damage assessed I began mulling over the prospect of buying a new one. Quite a few have caught my eye and it’s really about time I got a better model (I’ve even toyed with the idea of jailbreaking an iPhone), so I thought that if there were an upside to this unfortunate occurence this would be it. In the end, however, I decided to just roll with the punches and put off buying another one, opting instead to swap out the Cingular sim card in my US “utility phone” — a weathered clamshell Nokia 6101 — with my Manila-based Globe sim, in the hope of maybe holding out for a celphone I would really want.

Recently, however, I became the victim of yet another spate of celphone-related misfortune: as I was navigating through some furniture, a table edge caught my pocket and damaged the outer screen of the utility unit. As with the first instance, I knew the phone was irrevocably damaged as I felt more than heard the scrunch of the screen. In truth, beyond the all-too-visible crack and an area of damaged pixels the phone still works just as well (or badly) as it did previously; yet seeing the damage each time I look at the phone reminds me of how uncharacteristically careless I’ve been in the span of a month, and in that regard I’ve been inconsolable.

So I find myself in an unusual situation: armed with one-and-a-half damaged phones. Yet I still can’t find it in myself to invest in a new one, even a bargain unit, despite the fact I definitely need one now more than when I broke the first one. With the sheer bad luck I’ve been having with celphones lately, who’s to say what’ll happen if I do decide to take the plunge?

II.

Alas, celphone misfortune seems to run in the family: my brother, who’s had his phone longer than I can remember, has either misplaced his phone or was the victim of a pickpocket.

Misery truly loves company.

III.

A few months ago, I had to replace my Powerbook’s AC Adapter becaue some cable fraying ultimately resulted in sparks flying each time I’d plug it in. In theory, this could have been remedied by simply using some electrical tape to secure the damaged area, which was really very small. Yet I didn’t want to risk it, so I ended up making my first purchase at the New York Apple Store on Fifth Avenue.

Fast forward to this past weekend. For no apparent reason, the AC Adapter for my brother’s laptop, a.k.a. our dad’s older Powerbook, decided to call it quits on him, too. Since he had a bunch of papers due for his class, we discussed the matter and decided that he should just bring my adapter with him until I could drop by the local Power Mac Center to get a replacement. I did so the very next day and was absolutely scandalized by the price I had to pay.

In New York, the adapter cost $79, plus tax.

In Manila, the same adapter cost Php6,500. Depending on the exchange rate one uses, that’s equivalent to anywhere between $130 to $180.

It boggles the mind how anyone can get away with such a markup. Given that these things are manufactured in China, which is just a stone’s throw away from the Philippines, shouldn’t they actually be cheaper here than in the West? I am fairly certain that Philippine commercial tariffs have something to do with this, and that there’s a sad commentary just waiting to be written in this regard. At the same time, the scholar in me can’t help but point out that there’s a valuable lesson to be learned here about market segmentation and price discrimination. I just wish the lesson didn’t have to cost so much.

Since the Wii’s unveiling, there have been plenty of attempts to find alternative ways to make use of the Wiimote. From the innocuous…

…to the amusing…

…and anywhere in between. For my money, however, Carnegie-Mellon’s Johnny Lee’s is the most impressive one so far. By a mile.

Now if only there were a Mac version of the software involved…

A little random surfing brought Buzzword to my attention. A web service under development from Virtual Ubiquity, it’s described as “the first real word processor for the web, [...] a breakthrough in collaborative authoring for documents that matter.”

I haven’t signed up to try out the free preview yet (I’ll probably get around to doing just that over the holidays), but from what I’ve seen and read so far I am thoroughly intrigued. It would seem I’m not the only one, either: Adobe Systems acquired Virtual Ubiquity a couple of months ago, which I suppose is a very good sign of even greater things to come.

The iPod touch has occupied an inordinate amount of my attention over the past few weeks. When first announced, it quickly jumped to the top of my “must! buy! now!” list — until it became clear that it lacked several key features and fell short of working like a PDA. As a result, I’ve been spending a lot of time following efforts by the iPhone/iPod touch hacker community to “jailbreak” the device, biding time to see how things develop.

This week it finally happened: the iPod touch has been jailbroken. What’s more, it no longer takes sophisticated command line programing to get it done, as a couple of applications (at least one written by a 13-year old) can take all the fuss out of the process with just a few clicks of the mouse.

Honestly, I thought I’d be elated by the news, but I have mixed feelings about it. At a minimum, it just means that the gauntlet has been thrown down and another round of cat and mouse between Apple and the much broader end-user community has begun. I say end-user rather than “hackers” because, really, all these guys want to do is to expand the functionality of the product. While it’s remarkable how quickly the iPod touch jailbreak effort has borne fruit, it’s nonetheless worrisome that a future software update from the Cupertino crew may undo the modifications, if not brick the device outright.

I remain hopeful that Apple will see the light and realize that opening up the platform to programmers actually benefits their bottom line. At its simplest, the more the device can do for its potential end-users (such as myself), the more those people will be driven to buy it. Believe me, learning that enabling the add-entry functionality to the calendar just required including perhaps two lines of code to the jailbreak process left a very bitter taste in my mouth: to my mind, it meant that Apple deliberately crippled the device and thereby made their consumers worse off. Apple appears to have have already made a few steps to smooth things over: earlier in the week they drummed up publicity for iPhone and iPod touch Web Applications — a pathetic gesture in my opinion, albeit a well-meaning one — and more recently they’ve announced the availability of software developer kits as early as February of ‘08. Only time will tell what this bodes for the iPhone and iPod touch.

As much as I am already very tempted to head out to the Fifth Avenue store to get a new iPod, what’s kept me fence-sitting is the new object of my obsession: an Xbox 360.

It all started with a trailer for Ace Combat 6 that absolutely blew me away. So I started paying attention, and even my Wii fanboy sensibilities have to admit that the 360 is impressive. It truly is next-generation, and with the library of games already available, it’s a very compelling console to invest in, more so now that Microsoft’s announced a $350 package with two games just in time for the holiday season.

Given my situation, the problem with the 360 is just twofold. First, it represents a completely new investment (I don’t have the original Xbox) and a potentially costly one at that: its games cost around $60 a pop. Second, and more to the point, stories of the dreaded “red ring of death” problem that has plagued the machine — forcing people to suffer through having their consoles replaced multiple times — don’t inspire much confidence.

Times like these I remember why I decided to undergo a self-imposed “tech embargo”, and for the most part I’ve kept to it faithfully. Then again, as those closest to me know all too well, my willpower in such matters tends to last only as long as the release of the next shiny object that grabs my attention.

Over on the Aspac/Law blog, master of My-Tube Rey Leuterio has written about what he feels is the “most useful free web application in history.” Hyperbole? Perhaps. But it sure should rank up there.

It’s called Zamzar, a web service that does quick, easy, and (thus far) free conversion between a host of file formats. From the look of things it does just about every useful file format conversion one can think of for documents, images, music and video. This last category is particularly compelling as the site is able to take videos from Youtube as well as many other video-sharing sites and turn them into files that can be stored locally.

Upon learning this I couldn’t contain my inner geek and just had to try it out for myself. Having done so, it’s no exaggeration to say that using the site is as straightforward an experience as they come. In four easy steps, anyone can convert a file of their choosing into the specific format they need: upload the file (or enter the URL for Youtube-like videos), specify the desired file format, indicate your email address where a link to the converted file can be sent for you to download, and wait. When the file’s ready, you’ll receive an email that looks a little something like this (in my case, for an mp4 file of the Free Hugs video I posted a while back):

That’s all! Quick, easy and user-friendly, and not to mention at least five kinds of amazing, if not more.

It would appear that the web is awash with the news that the iPod Touch’s built-in calendar has been crippled. Presumably a move to differentiate it from the iPhone, the latest generation iPod will have a calendar only as functional as that of its numerous predecessors; that is to say, users will be able to view their appointments, but not add to them on the fly.

While it’s hard to gauge whether this will in fact be the case, I have no reason to doubt it: on the subway, I happened to be standing across a fellow that did have an iPod Touch (!), and who spent the entire trip between stations literally pounding on the touch screen in a desperate attempt to see whether he could add items to his calendar (no dice). Oh sure, I still want one, but let’s just say it’s become ever so slightly less appealing an idea.

The folks over at Blogger have just added a new feature that they’ve apparently been keeping to themselves for quite a while now.

Blogger Play is an ongoing slideshow of the photos being uploaded to Blogger in real time. Obviously, there’s no rhyme or reason to what one gets to see, but it does make for an interesting diversion.

And yes, they’ve taken reasonable precautions to keep what’s shown in good taste, albeit with the caveat that the odd inappropriate photo just might slip through the cracks every now and then.

As if the current line of iPods weren’t good enough reason to go out and buy one, Apple just had to announce new ones in time for the holiday season.

In all, the new additions to the iPod family offer updated features that range from the cosmetic to the pretty far out. The recently dubbed “iPod Classic” gets an all-metal casing, the iPod Nano now comes in more colors and boasts a two-inch video screen, and the entire lineup gets a new sibling in the iPod Touch, a phoneless iPhone and the undisputed eye candy of the bunch. Not only that, but in announcing these models Apple also decided to drop the price of the iPhone, prompting the company to give early adopters a rebate in the hopes of smoothing over any ill feelings (which brings to mind the anecdote of what happens when the man with experience meets the man with the money: the man with the experience ends up with the money, and the man with the money ends up with the experience).

Aside from guaranteeing that Apple will one again make a killing when these models hit the market, they also give consumers a wider range of choices to suit individual tastes, and at varying price points. Most of these price points are just about right: the new and improved Nano starts at $150 (4GB), while the iPod Classic — perhaps the real winner as far as value for money is concerned — begins at $250 for an 80GB model.

For my part, the real question is whether the iPod Touch is a worthy investment at $300 to $400.

Presently, I own a third generation iPod and have been thinking of upgrading to a newer model for quite some time now. The unit is still serviceable, so if I do take the plunge it will have to be in favor of something that has more to offer. On the surface, the iPod Touch fits the bill: apart from the added functionality of video playback and a touch-screen interface, it has built-in Wifi and a browser, making it practically a PDA. For me this is a real plus, as I’ve been in the market for a portable internet-enabled gadget that I can take along with me on trips where it would be inconvenient to bring a laptop.

The problem, however, is that the iPod Touch offers these features in exchange for considerably less memory: either 8GB or 16GB worth only. While that’s nothing to sneeze at per se, it’s certainly a drop in the bucket compared to what the Classic model (or my own existing unit) has to offer at considerably less. What this means, really, is that this latest iteration of the media player will be less an all-in-one repository for digital media (in its present incarnation anyway) and more a nifty toy that would be nice to have if one can afford it. Consider my situation: my digital library — mostly CDs but a fair amount of Podcasts, too — already pushes nearly 18GB. Of course, there is a good portion of that which I don’t listen to and merely dumped into my iPod because I could. While I’m more than confident it won’t be that hard to filter through my content in order to get it well under 16GB should I invest in this newer model, it still doesn’t leave much room for pictures, videos and storage space. In the consumer’s calculus this also matters, especially since we can all be fairly certain Apple will come up with a beefed up version in the not too distant future.

Either way, I’m quite certain that these new models will rouse me from my self-imposed tech embargo sooner rather than later. In the meantime, I’ll have to give some serious thought as to whether that shiny new toy is worth the price tag that comes along with it.

Re-wired

The ongoing saga with my internet service provider came to a head today with the unexpected arrival at our doorstep by a service technician.

Naturally, it was quite a surprise. Apparently, technical support representatives were trying to get in touch with me yesterday via the phone line we had transferred precisely to inform me that they were sending someone over to finally sort things out. Unfortunately, it so happened that the telephone I pilfered from the old house was one whose ringer has ceased to work, so all their calls went unanswered. Thus, our ISP sent someone over all the same, and I had to cut short a meeting I’d just arrived at in order to rush home and talk to the guy, since the laptop I brought with me was the one needed to test whether the connection was already working.

Obviously everything has turned out for the best, proving yet again that good things come to those who wait very impatiently. Or something like that.

Unwired

In the plans for the new house, my parents had the foresight to ask that the rooms be wired for LAN functionality, all in all a good idea considering the limited range of our older wi-fi network. Unfortunately, none of us seem to know how to get the LAN to work as it should.

After an afternoon spent in what feels like a Networking 101 crash course I seem to be back where I started, if not a few steps behind: not only am I thoroughly confused with regard to the router’s configurations, I also have a pair of what are apparently the wrong kind of ethernet cables (I got “straight” ones, and since they don’t work I’m beginning to guess that we need a couple of the “cross” variety to get things going).

I’m all for technology, but there really has to be an easier way to go about all this. Suddenly, the prospect of having to huddle in front of the router like moths to a flame doesn’t seem all that bad. I suddenly remember why we invested in that clunky ol’ thing to begin with.

Wiired

Of course, I have the slight advantage that the router is situated right outside my door, meaning that the signal is actually quite strong everywhere in my room.

That being the case, I figured this would be the perfect time to see whether I’d have any problems accessing the internet via the Wii here in the Philippines. Doing so was always an issue in the old house seeing as the internet service itself became painfully slow (something to do with the grid, I’ve been told) and our wireless network just couldn’t quite reach the Wii, given where it was located. Thankfully, after firing it up and waiting for what seemed like an eternity (yeah, still painfully slow, but more like a throbbing pain rather than anything terminal), it worked as expected, allowing me to perform a system update, see for the first time in months what new Virtual Console games are available, and check out other goodies.

And yes, nothing beats being able to see my blog on my tv (as if I haven’t done that before). But that’s just my vanity talking.

I. Lost in Motion

The family recently transferred to a new house, meaning that all of us have gone through the roller coaster ride that can only accompany such an experience. While the move itself has gone on smoothly for the most part, it appears to have claimed an unintended victim in the Master’s Diploma that I worked hard to obtain since the graduate school adventure began two years ago.

Usually, something like this wouldn’t bother me. For one thing, it’s really just symbolic more than anything else, and for something or another to get misplaced in the process of moving is just par for the course. Yet I can’t help but feel a twinge of sadness at the thought that nobody can recall where it was last, least of all myself.

I remain hopeful that it’ll turn up sooner or later. How can’t I? It’s gonna be a while (if at all) before I get the degree that is to follow.

II. More Technical Support Woes

I have a love-hate relationship with my DSL service here in the Philippines. Really, the “hate” part has everything to do with the technical support and customer service, which are some kind of terrible. This I learned all over again while trying to get our account transferred to the new house.

Of the things that went wrong this time around — and there are many, as practically the only thing that went right was that the line got transferred the day after I made the request — the one that takes the cake was a call to the customer service line that felt like talking to a brick wall. Typically, people in such cases get frustrated when they end up on the line with an automated system that asks them to key in an endless litany of numbers before they can actually speak to a human being. In my case, I was able to immediately get a real person on the other end of the line. Unfortunately, she so happened to be intelligent enough only to give any one of five scripted responses to anything I had to say or ask.

I’d rather not recreate the conversation from memory (I probably could if I tried, but the accompanying increase in my blood pressure isn’t good for my well being). Suffice it to say that this was probably the first time in my life I would have actually preferred to talk to a machine instead.

III. Selective Celphone Paralysis

My celphone appears to have suffered a stroke: the buttons on the right side of the keypad are now occasionally unresponsive.

I first noticed this when I almost sent someone a text chock full of jibberish. See, I use the phone’s predictive text input and am comfortable enough doing so that I tend not to look at the screen while keying in a message. Yet right before sending this particular one, I realized that some of the words didn’t come out right (and weren’t words at all) even if I pressed on the buttons the correct number of times. Apparently, now I have to press on the buttons either longer or harder just to get it to register correctly.

Yet the problem comes and goes. After a wretched weekend spent trying to adjust, my finicky old phone began functioning normally again. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t imagining things, but I’m all too willing to plead temporary insanity: there’s a newer model that I’ve been eyeing these days, with nary an excuse (nor funds) to take the plunge.

IV. The Best Laid Plans

When I first came to grips with the amount of free time on my hands while back home for the summer, I made a grand plan to spend my time wisely. I promised myself I’d spend two days a week working with my dad, another two days reading up for my dissertation, another two for personal matters and the last day of the week for whichever needed an extra day. Suffice it to say that nothing has gone according to plan, yet I’ve loved every minute of it.