Here’s just one of the 131 photos I took during the first real holiday this year. I had a week off and went up to Fort Augustus with my girlfriend. It was really nice up there in Scotland. Plenty of gorgeous scenery.
We took a trip out on the Loch Ness and even saw Nessie (see Flickr Set)! Took a trip on the Jacobite Railway over the viaduct from the Harry Potter films
Well its my birthday next week. Grand old age of 24. Not really an anything age. Of course people are asking me about presents. And I don’t know what to say. At this very point in time, I can’t think of anything I want. The only thing I want is an iPhone and thats being paid for by my bonus this month, and its not even out for about 7 weeks.
But nothing comes to mind. No CD’s, DVD’s, things for the house, books, electrical goods, clothes, nothing. And that just leaves me feeling empty strangely. You would thing that the person who wants nothing has everything they could ask for and must be happy. But I’m not. I’m unhappy. Not always. And not in a constant depressive state, but in bouts of unhappiness. I was feeling like this yesterday. I think what is missing? Well a few things. Good friends for starters. I don’t really have anyone who I speak to loads, or hang out with lots. No best friend. Really its just the band who are my friends. And thats depressing to me. I have had a few rough times with friends in the past (accused of racism by my best friend, later, found out that my group of friends all thought i was a scheming manipulative person who cared about no one else, and then abandoned after I went out with my friends ex even though he was a complete b**stard to her and completely warranted being dumped but of course its not how well you know someone or how much you trust them, but the how LONG you know them that matters, and as the most recent friend, I get cut out easily. Well I hope you’re all miserable living at home with your parents still, doing the same thing you used to, not growing up and getting on with life) RANT! Wow.
So then i think “well I have no hobby that can be a present source” and I think what do I have in my life? I have the band, which I love being in, and the rest of my time is spent doing house stuff, or on my laptop.
I wanna expand my horizons. Next month I’m going to the Midlands Mac User Group in Birmingham. Hoping I’ll meet some interesting people who I get on well with and can geek out around. And maybe make a friend.
So really I’m just feeling sad with life. I’m not really enjoying work, can’t leave because its worth my time to stick around till next year, am running low on cash after moving and a holiday (£600 into overdraft!).
And next week its my birthday. And all I want to do is let is blow by. I’m gonna go out for a meal with Katie and thats it. Not taking the day off cos whats the point. Nothing I want to look forward to. So bring on 24. Show me what you can do!
I managed to enjoy a week off last week as I spent the time in a lovely log cabin in Fort Augustus, Scotland [see Flickr]. While there, I managed to miss most of the excitement around the Apple event in London on tuesday. And the big news was the iPhone is coming to O2.
Now I’ve seen a fair bit of coverage since then, mostly bad mouthing the iPhone (or O2) an I have to weigh in.
Firstly, there are many points people keep missing.
1. £269 for a phone! Well its not just a phone. Its also a 8Gb iPod with widescreen video mode, it is a full internet browser, a PDA, a camera and of course a phone. So big deal. It costs more than the usual FREE that most UK phone buyers pay. Buts its more than that. A 8Gb iPod would set you back at least £180, and thats just a tiny screen, no decent video capability. So deal with it.
2. Its too expensive for most consumers. Are most consumers going to want an iPhone? Its price point puts it at the high end of the market, appealing to Mac lovers, iPod fanatics, and those on the bleeding edge. Nooone expects every Thomas, Richard or Harold to go and get one on launch day (9th November). Most consumers will either a) have a phone or b) not be that desperate to be on the front end to pay that much. Its like in the US. It cost more than most phones over there yet over 150k were sold in the first week alone!
3. EDGE? Why not 3G? Well I believe Steve’s justification being battery life. I have a 3G phone. When I’m online, the battery dies like a limp dear caught in the headlights of a very wide, fast moving truck. He said coverage is the other issue. While that is true in the US, its not so in the UK and europe. So people moan about the speed. So what is the difference? Well this:
3G - 50kbps (3g)
2.5G - 8-10kbps (EDGE)
2G - 5-8 kbps (GPRS)
I tested my N70 on www.dslreports.com/mspeed and got back 50kbits/sec, on full bars. So maybe its true, EDGE isn’t as good as 3G. But not every phone supports 3G. And not everyone is a heavy enough “mobile internet” user to even see the difference. I certainly don’t. That of course leads on to the internet. Its the FULL internet, not some hosed down version, where the alignment is awful, the photos don’t line up. But what about flash? Well my N70 doesn’t do flash. Nor does the N95, so what are you really losing? Nothing. And with the “unlimited” [via daringfireball.net] WiFi with The Cloud (which includes BT OpenZones so include loads of phoneboxes around the country) those full pages from NY Times or The Guardian will be there in no time.
So stop your moaning. If you don’t wanna spend £269 to have the most revolutionary phone in many years straight away, then go back to your Nokia 3210 and enjoy mono screens, 16bit sound, and no chance of the internet, youtube, google maps or this blog on your phone! Tell it to Fake Steve!
And where does my iPhone tale go? Well I’ll be queueing at the Bullring store for mine on iPhUK Day, for my EDGE loving, multi touching, widescreen ipod/phone/web browser/email client/camera/thing that will make people go “ooohhh can I play?” to which I’ll say…no.
So I’ve moved house. Last weekend was the big day and we got a whole house moved in one day, that included picking up keys and going to Ikea.
Now the biggest problem is connectivity. And it explains why I’m in Starbucks doing this. We got out BT line connected last tuesday. Then I called Virgin to get Broadband ordered. And then it stopped, cos they didn’t have our new number on they’re system. So I called back the next day, and tried again, with no luck. So I tried a third time on Friday and had success. So our broadband will be active next thursday. THURSDAY! Thats a year away when there is an Apple Event between (New ipods, lots of them, and a cheaper iPhone YAY!).
But the real problem is the router. I had to switch back off my Linksys WRT54G using DD-WRT to my old Netgear DG834G as its phoneline broadband, not cable/dsl. And the problem is my Macbook Pro seems to struggle staying on or even finding the wireless network. And I don’t know why. Its plain as day there. Only one other Wifi box nearby, which is on channel 11 and I’m on 1 or 2. But I can’t get it to connect.
I can’t figure out why. It doesn’t matter too much now since there is no interweb connection but when that bad boy starts, I will wanna use it.
So if anyone else has an idea, or a similar problem with their DG834G, let me know. Where is my SSID!!!!
Update: Turns out the problem seems to be with the channel my DG834G was broadcasting on. I had it running on 1, which didn’t work well. After some browsing the Console and trying it out again, I noticed the problem. I’ve switched up to 6 and it works perfectly now.
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