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| Filed: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 at 12:10:37 AM |
| Filed Under: Announcements |
| It's Live! |
| Well, I finally found the time to get this site up and running again. Here's the first post... woo hoo! |
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| Filed: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 at 11:52:30 PM |
| Filed Under: Script Kiddies |
| There oughta be a law! |
Script kiddies have been making my life miserable for the last couple of weeks. These misguided people have nothing better to do than to write Web scripts which cause havoc on the Web.
And the worst part is that their scripts usually don't work... the ones I have been fighting with on my server are not written intelligently enough to actually do anything devious other than slow the machine down. Grr.
Someone needs to find these lousy excuses for people and lock them in a room where they have nothing to do all day but listen to Barry Manilow albums. Over and over and over. |
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| Filed: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 at 11:53:41 PM |
| Filed Under: Dogs |
| Learn from dogs |
You will never learn to appreciate the world until you own a dog. I have two: a Brittany, and a beagle.
I can't leave the house without taking them along. Their idea of pure joy is going for a ride in the car with me. Or doing anything with me, for that matter.
Their outlook on the world is that everything is perfect, and everyone is wonderful. I wish I could be more like them. |
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| Filed: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 at 11:54:41 PM |
| Filed Under: Stupid Drivers |
| Turn signals and lifespan |
I have to believe, although I have not found the statistics to back me up yet (although I will!) that more people are killed each year by drivers who can't be bothered to use their turn signals than by second-hand smoke.
And no, I am not a smoker. |
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| Filed: Thursday, May 17, 2007 at 12:04:53 AM |
| Filed Under: People |
| Illogical Ant-Establishment People |
Ever notice how some people feel the need to draw attention to themselves? They are the ones who have their body pierced in 20 places, take great care to dress differently than everyone else, and take great pride in how different they are.
And then they tell you that "I'm just expressing my individuality... I don't care what people think of me!".To me, it seems like they care a great deal about what people think about them. Otherwise, they wouldn't go to so much trouble to get noticed. It's a desperate plea for attention. If they really didn't care if people noticed them, they would dress and act in a matter to blend in with everyone else.
This seems totally illogical to me. |
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| Filed: Thursday, May 17, 2007 at 11:51:13 AM |
| Filed Under: People |
| Why aren't good people rewarded? |
Heard yet another story about how someone cleaned himself up after a lifetime of being a criminal and drug user. Now, he's a hero because he came over to the good side. Just a wonderful person and a great news story.
Why is it that we never hear the news about the person who made the right choices all through life, and never had to clean up his act because it didn't need to be cleaned up in the first place?
What makes the first person better than the second person?
I made mistakes myself when I was younger, and I paid for them. Did it make me a better person? A hero? No... it still makes me someone who didn't have the common sense to do the right things in the first place, and I bow to the people who did it right. They are still better than me. |
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| Filed: Thursday, May 17, 2007 at 4:39:22 PM |
| Filed Under: People |
| Spam and its victims |
Hey, I just won the European lottery! It has to be true, right? I got an email about it! Guess I won't have to work anymore!
***sigh***
You know, the only thing sadder than people actually sending out junk like this is that people actually fall for it. Rule of thumb: if someone is doing something like sending out junk like this, it's for only one reason: because it works. And the victims have no one to blame but themselves.
Remember how we all learned the "you don't get something for nothing" and "too good to be true" mantras growing up? What happened to that knowledge?
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| Filed: Thursday, May 17, 2007 at 7:14:38 PM |
| Filed Under: Personal |
| Physical Fitness |
Well, the doctor told me I need to lose 20 pounds (actually he'd like 40, but will settle for 20) so, among other lifestyle changes, I made the bold step of signing up for karate classes today. We'll see if the old bones can take it.
I have a son who just got his black belt, and another who will be getting his this fall, so it's also a way for dear old Dad to spend quality time with the boys (and a way for them to feel superior to me!) I think it will be a good thing. |
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| Filed: Monday, May 21, 2007 at 2:34:15 PM |
| Filed Under: Phones |
| Alltel Sold! |
For anyone who doesn't know, my cell phone provider is Alltel. News today is that the company was sold to a private equity group. The current management team is going to stay in place.
I am going to see the glass as half full and that the influx of investment dollars will spur Alltel to continue their acquisitions of other smaller providers to become more of a national player. Opinions on this topic seem to be split between (1) my view above and (2) that the new owner will sell off the company in chunks.
Time will tell... but here is the only thing that can be said for sure: the new owners will make their decisions, and any speculation by myself or ANYONE else is just that... speculation. Don't believe everything you hear.
This will be my only post on this subject unless I hear of concrete changes. |
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| Filed: Tuesday, May 22, 2007 at 5:28:46 PM |
| Filed Under: Computer Stuff |
| AOL |
AOL is the Internet with training wheels. It's for people who have to have the Internet, but want to make sure they don't fall off and have their hand held all through the trip.
Nuff said. |
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| Filed: Tuesday, May 29, 2007 at 1:44:26 PM |
| Filed Under: Phones |
| The Technology-enabled Cottage |
So, just got back from the annual trip to open up the family cottage.
Two thoughts:
- I really wish Alltel would get a data roaming agreement set up with Bell Mobility so I could use my PPC-6700's data features up there. It's unbelievable how much I have come to rely on my 6700... I don't even use my computer to check email anymore, as my 6700 notifies me when I have mail and I can do everything through it.
- I installed the most amazing device at the cottage. Since we can't get DSL or cable there, and I can't use the data on my 6700, we have a standard dialup account using the landline. I bought a device called the WiFlyer and it is the slickest thing. It works like a standard WiFi router, except that it has a 56K modem built in. You just program the WiFlyer with the ISP access number, username, etc. and it dials up when you want to access the Internet. Then, you can surf the Web using your WiFi laptop (I used my PPC-6700, which has WiFi as well). Good WiFi range, too... it was so cool to sit on the dock and check my email which is about 60-70 feet away from the cottage.
I am sooooo connected... |
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| Filed: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 at 10:27:08 AM |
| Filed Under: Phones |
| Alltel and Sprint EvDO |
So, lots of excitement the past couple of days. Why? Turns out Alltel released a new PRL (preferred roaming list). Those of us with EvDO capable phones thought that this might finally be the moment we were waiting for... almost a year after the announcement of Alltel and Sprint's reciprocal roaming agreement, that we would finally be able to roam on Sprint's EvDO network.
Sad to say, not the case. Turns out that the new PRL has some minor changes relating to Alltel's divestiture of some networks in Minnesota.
I am one of the few, the proud... the ones who have the ability to load PRL 40007 onto my PPC-6700. 40007 is the PRL for data cards, and has had Sprint EvDO roaming capability for the past couple of months. So, this doesn't affect me greatly... but COME ON, Alltel! How long is it going to take for you to get this online for all postpaid customers? I have to believe that there are users out there who went with Alltel based on the assumption that they would be able to use EvDO nationwide... and they are probably feeling more than a little cheated at this point.
Alltel excels in so many areas, and is such a good company to have as a provider. Why is it that they are dropping the ball on this one thing... one which has been proven to work already (as those of us with 40007 can attest)? |
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| Filed: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 at 11:39:19 AM |
| Filed Under: Announcements |
| Additions and Fixes |
Took a few minutes this morning to integrate the Alltel SID list and PRL download area into the main site. These items can be found under the "SID List" and "Alltel PRLs" links at the top. Now, you can navigate the whole site without getting stuck in a dead end... and it just looks "purtier".
One of these days I'll get all the CSS integrated as well. Got to pay the bills first, though... |
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| Filed: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 at 12:36:51 PM |
| Filed Under: Baseball |
| Brewers |
Is there anyone who isn't excited about the future of the Milwaukee Brewers?
I fall into the "long-suffering" category as a fan, and I go way back to the days with Del Crandall as coach and George "Boomer" Scott as the big star. So, I am not a bandwagon jumper.
I am so excited about the Brewers, though, and not just because they are off to a good start. My reason goes much deeper. Let's consider the starting position players for the Brewers:
3B Ryan Braun (age 23)
SS J.J. Hardy (age 24)
2B Rickie Weeks (age 24)
1B Prince Fielder (age 23)
LF Geoff Jenkins (age 32)
CF Bill Hall (age 27)
RF Corey Hart (age 25)
C Johnny Estrada (age 30)
This starting team has an average age of 26 years old! If you take out Jenkins and replace him with Tony Gwynn (age 24) the average age drops to 25 years old!
I'm not even taking into account the pitching staff, viewed top to bottom by many as the best in the NL Central, if not in the league.
I'm not buying my tickets to this year's World Series yet. Heck, the team could slide and miss the playoffs this season. But, this team will be a force to reckon with in the NL for years to come. This is the way the Braves and Indians of the 1990's were built.
I'm happy to be a Brewers fan. Life is good! |
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| Filed: Wednesday, May 30, 2007 at 12:47:12 PM |
| Filed Under: Computer Stuff |
| Error Messages |
Had another one of those calls I love today... those calls that are the bane of a network administrator.
A client called and told me "My email doesn't work." Asked her what the problem was and she said "I don't know... it just doesn't work. No one can email me."
So, I asked her what kind of error messages she was getting and she said "I don't know, I just close those when they come up." So, I spend 15 minutes on the phone with her having her check her mail (over dialup, no less) and not once, but THREE TIMES she closed the error window without looking at it. She said "I clicked Send/Receive, then an error pops up, and when I close it I don't have any new mail".
To cut to the chase, it turned out that she had installed some free firewall that worked exceptionally well (it kept her safe by not letting her do anything on the Internet!).
However, a word of wisdom... to make tech support much easier, take 5 seconds to write down the error message before you close it because it annoys you. You know that cryptic "0x0000...." thing? Copy it and paste it into Google. It's amazing how you will find 100,000 sites that explain how someone else had the exact same problem and how they fixed it. Google is your friend, and so are the error messages... they are not just there to get in your way. |
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| Filed: Friday, June 08, 2007 at 10:46:28 AM |
| Filed Under: Smart People |
| My Heroes |
Hey, I'm in the marketing business. So it would make sense that my personal heroes would be the ones who figured out a way to make heaps of money via creative marketing techniques.
In no particular order:
Ron Popeil (Ronco). He has invented and sold more useless crap to the world than anyone.
The guy who told the makers of Head and Shoulders shampoo how to double their sales back in the 1960's. He told them to add one word to the instruction label, right after "rinse". The word? "Repeat".
And finally, the genius who figured out that people will actually PAY for a t-shirt advertising a product. Coca-Cola did it in the 1980's with their line of clothes. Now, it's been done to perfection by Old Navy, Abercrombie and Fitch, Tommy Hilfiger, The North Face, etc. It's even better than free advertising... people are actually willing to PAY Tommy Hilfiger to advertise his products! Sheer genius! |
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| Filed: Sunday, September 02, 2007 at 6:43:04 PM |
| Filed Under: Announcements |
| I'll Try To Get Better... |
| ... about posting on this thing. Geez, I went to all the trouble to write the code for it and then promptly decided that other things were more important. |
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| Filed: Sunday, September 02, 2007 at 6:50:07 PM |
| Filed Under: Phones |
| WM6 on the Alltel PPC-6700 |
Yes, you read that right. Not the PPC-6800, but the PPC-6700. I have been running Windows Mobile 6 Professional on my old faithful 6700 for the past few days.
How, you ask? Well, once again, PPC ubergod Helmi_c has come through for us Apache (HTC internal name for the PPC-6700) users and ported a WM6 version that will work for us.
Been using it for a few days, and it's not bad. Not really that much of a change appearance and feature wise from WM5, but most of the improvements are under the hood as I understand it. One big difference is that Messaging can now display HTML-formatted email as, well, HTML-formatted email. It would be a big deal if I didn't hate HTML email so much, but to the vast majority it is definitely a plus.
I'll post more observations on this as I think of them, but so far so good... over 3 days and not a single lockup. Not bad for the ol' 6700.
You can find out more at http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=7671. Once again, thanks to Helmi_c, us 6700 uses get new life out of our old hardware! |
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| Filed: Monday, September 03, 2007 at 12:54:08 PM |
| Filed Under: Announcements |
| Hey, I need to fix this! |
Working on the past 7 day view. Something's not right. Bear with me while I figure this out.
***EDIT*** Solved. Date functions in VBScript are a real pain, you know?
Now, back to your regularly scheduled web browsing. |
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| Filed: Monday, September 03, 2007 at 1:25:29 PM |
| Filed Under: Computer Stuff |
| Chroma Key |
Went to Jo-Ann Fabrics yesterday and bought 5 yards of the cheapest green fabric they had. Why? I've been using Pinnacle Studio for the past few years to create video for websites, and it has the ability to do "Chroma Key" overlays (to the uninitiated, more commonly referred to as "Green Screen".
Set up the camera, and it works great! Looks like I have yet another new hobby to play with (as if I needed any more). Seriously, I see endless possibilities for creating Web video for our clients with this. |
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| Filed: Monday, September 03, 2007 at 1:28:43 PM |
| Filed Under: Owning A Business |
| Labor Day |
Well, it's Labor Day. The day that people celebrate by, well, not laboring.
That is, unless you own the company. I'm hard at work, as usual. Anyone who wants to start their own business because they want to have more free time is deluding him/herself.
Not that I would change a thing (I love owning a business) but you folks who work for "the man" don't realize just how good you have it sometimes. |
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| Filed: Tuesday, September 04, 2007 at 3:05:45 PM |
| Filed Under: Computer Stuff |
| I want a new laptop |
I would really like to buy a new laptop, but I can't seem to find what I want.
I use my laptop as my work computer... just plug in the monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc. when I'm at the office. I like not having to keep track of which files are on which machine. (As a side note, this explains why I don't own and don't need a USB flash drive).
The one I have been using for the pasy year is an Averatec AV3715. It's tiny (12.1" screen, weighs about 3.5 pounds). It uses an AMD Mobile Sempron 3000+ processor, and came with 512MB of RAM (though I was able to pry the case open enough to upgrade to 2GB or RAM).
I love this little laptop, but the one area it's lacking in is horsepower. While I could find a similar laptop with an AMD Turion 64 X2, that is only half of the equation as I would like to find one with dedicated (not integrated) graphics. And they don't seem to exist.
For some reason the manufacturers seem to think that us users who like small laptops don't need dedicated graphics. It's not a question of money... even though my Averatec only set me back about $700, I would be happy to pay in the neighborhood of $2000 if if would get me the specs I want. Bigger (15.4" screens) exist with these specs... why don't they make a small one? |
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| Filed: Saturday, September 08, 2007 at 3:31:34 PM |
| Filed Under: Announcements |
| Review of WM6 on my PPC-6700 |
Well, being a cautious sort I waited to post my full review until I had been running it for a while. I installed the WM6 (Alltel) last Friday (like everyone else ;)) and it's been a little over a week.
I am thoroughly impressed. Especially considering the "beta" status of this ROM.
The single most important thing I expect from my Apache is STABILITY. And that is exactly what I have received with this upgrade. I have reset my phone exactly ZERO (count 'em, 0) times in the past 8 days for reasons having to do with performance (had to reset a couple of times due to PRL updates, installing new apps, etc.) but I have had absolutely NO problems with the stability of the device.
Everything I need to run works great, and the phone never slows down (though it seems just a touch slower than the 3.5 v1.0.2 I was running previously). However, I will gladly take that minor (stressing that it is very minor) hit in speed if the tradeoff is a phone that I never have to reset.
Helmi (genuflecting and making the sign of the "H"), you are truly the best. You have outdone yourself with the most stable ROM for the Apache ever to come out of this community. I have already sent my $20 donation, and I encourage everyone else to do the same.
I was all set to move on to a 6800 (Mogul for you Sprint folks) for reasons having nothing to do with how well my Apache works (physlcally, it's starting to fall apart) but this is making it a very tough decision. Can't wait to see the kitchen.
I wholeheartedly recommend this upgrade for anyone who is considering it. You can find out more at the PPCGeeks website. |
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| Filed: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 2:21:17 PM |
| Filed Under: Announcements |
| I Finally Did It... |
Well, after almost two years with my trusty PPC-6700, I finally bit the bullet and replaced it. I now have a shiny new HTC PPC-6800 smartphone, courtesy of Alltel.
So far, so good... the two most important differences I see so far are (1) vastly increased storage memory (157MB on the 6800 vs 43MB on the 6700) and (2) much more efficient use of the battery... been running acbPowerMeter for the last hour and it looks like it idles at about 55mA, while my 6700 was closer to 90mA. In both cases that's with EvDO always connected and checking three IMAP mail accounts every 15 minutes. Quite a difference.
And it looks cooler, I guess... though that really shouldn't be an issue, right?
I'll share more thoughts after I've had it for a while, but I'm impressed so far. Going to miss my old friend, the 6700, though... it's been a 24/7 affair for the past couple of years and it rarely let me down (once I did what I needed to make it the phone it should have been). |
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| Filed: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 2:26:45 PM |
| Filed Under: Announcements |
| Update to PRL area |
| Added Alltel PRL 40020 to the PRL area. For some reason I went right from 40007 to 40023 when I had the chance. Apparently there were some issues with 40023 (though I never had any trouble) and Alltel rolled all the devices with 40023 back to 40020 a while back. |
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| Filed: Monday, September 24, 2007 at 6:13:49 PM |
| Filed Under: Owning A Business |
| We Grow Again! |
Hired yet another person today. It's amazing just how much a business will grow if you don't cripple it by trying to save money.
The best thing we could ever have done was to rent an office in a commercial office building after 10 years of running it out of our house.
Consider this: a little over a year ago, our business consisted of myself, my wife, and one part time person, all working out of our house because we "didn't think we could afford" to rent an office. We took the leap of faith, rented 1300 square feet for $1000/month, and hoped for the best.
Now, fast forward one year. Our business has almost doubled its gross intake, our part timer has been full time since January, and we have three additional people working 20 to 30 hours per week. Couldn't have done that working out of our house.
God is good... put your faith in Him and He will deliver. |
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| Filed: Tuesday, October 02, 2007 at 1:54:39 PM |
| Filed Under: Phones |
| Use Your HTC 6800 as a WiFi Access Point?!? |
Wow, those guys over at xda-developers have finally uncovered one of the pair of Holy Grails (the other being the enabling of the internal GPS in the 6700 and 6800)!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=332736
It looks as though it's possible to share the EvDO connection on your 6800 over WiFi! This has been asked several times over the past couple of years (usually regarding the 6700) and it looks like they finally have it figured out. Kind of kludgy at this time, but a custom DLL is in the works to make it simpler.
What does this mean? Basically, "tethering" your laptop to your 6800 using WiFi instead of Bluetooth or USB. I don't have Bluetooth on my laptop so this is something I have been waiting for, personally. The general idea is that the 6800 would act as an ad hoc WiFi access point... in theory, all you should have to do is connect to it via WiFi on your laptop. It should be way faster than Bluetooth as well since 802.11g WiFi is a huge jump over Bluetooth connection wise (though you would still be limited by EvDO speed).
I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but rest assured I will be in the next day or two.
Sorry if I sound a little too excited about this, but it's something I have been looking for forever (ok, the past two years anyway). |
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| Filed: Friday, October 12, 2007 at 1:01:02 AM |
| Filed Under: Cars |
| Might have a new project... |
... as if I have time for yet another hobby.
It's been years since I had a project car (I have always had an affinity for European sports cars). In the past, I have had a 1971 VW Karmann Ghia, a 1970 Opel GT, and a 1976 Fiat X19.
Problem nowadays is that anything available for sale is either (1) already restored, or (2) so far gone that they aren't worth the trouble.
Well, that may have changed. Tomorrow I am going to look at a 1980 Triumph Spitfire. The owner claims that it's in good running condition, which means to me that it's probably a rustbucket considering the asking price. Still, I have to look... and if I think there's any hope for it I will probably bring it home.
Driving it will probably take some adjustment since my daily driver is a Ford Excursion, which I lovingly refer to as the "urban assault vehicle". From the biggest thing on the road to the smallest. Ought to be interesting. |
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| Filed: Monday, October 15, 2007 at 8:24:04 AM |
| Filed Under: Cars |
| No new hobby |
Well, I went and took a look at the Spitfire on Friday, and it's a no go. As in, it didn't go. The seller couldn't get it started. At this point, I was still willing to talk with him, but he got all huffy about it and kept repeating over and over "you aren't interested anyway, so let's just forget it".
It was kind of weird... I was about to make an offer based on it being a nonrunning car, but he wouldn't even let me get to that point.
Well, back to the Excursion I go... |
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| Filed: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 at 9:10:51 AM |
| Filed Under: Laws and Politics |
| The 10th Amendment |
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved for the States respectively, or to the people."
Not sure whatever happened to this amendment... everyone always jumps up to defend freedom of speech, or freedom of/from religion. This one seems to be the most clearly stated of all the amendments, with no room for misinterpretation.
And it's the most violated amendment of all. My interpretation:
"If the Constitution doesn't clearly state that the federal government has the right to do something, then it can't. Only the individual states can."
Just something to think about. |
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| Filed: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 1:19:59 PM |
| Filed Under: Computer Stuff |
| Vista is dead... |
... for me anyway. At least until it becomes more mainstream.
I broke down and replaced my trusty old Averatec laptop (see an earlier post about this in "Computer Stuff" with a shiny new Sony Vaio VGN-SZ430N/B. Core Duo T7200 processor, 2GB RAM, and nVidia GeForce 7400 graphics with dedicated video memory. And it should be a screamer... except that it came with Vista Business preinstalled.
I was a good soldier and stuck it out for a week, trying to convince myself that Vista would work for me. But, now I am giving up. I just finished downloading all the XP compatible drivers from Sony, and later today this computer shall become what is capable of... a screamin' machine running XP Professional. With the hardware this laptop has, it should be the fastest machine I have ever owned if it has a "professional" OS installed.
Vista just has too many idiosyncracies for me, it's not compatible with a couple of programs I use, and I don't see why a machine with these specs should take 5 minutes to boot up and 3 minutes to shut down. Heck, a look at Task Manager once startup is complete shows that it's using 990MB of RAM... to do NOTHING! My Averatec didn't use 990MB of RAM when I was multitasking!
Nice try, Microsoft, but Vista's just not for me. |
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| Filed: Wednesday, October 31, 2007 at 2:57:15 PM |
| Filed Under: Computer Stuff |
| The Vaio "upgrade" from Vista to XP Pro |
Well, expanding on the earlier post, I spent about 5 hours upgrading my Vaio SZ430N/B laptop from the factory installed Vista Business OS to XP Pro.
Well worth it. The reinstall of all the Sony drivers was a bit time consuming, but everything works now except for the fingerprint reader (which I would hardly ever use anyway since I have a docking station the laptop sits in).
This machine just screams now. Not only is it running XP Pro, but it's a "clean" install from an original MS disk. None of the bloatware that comes with a restore disk.
The final numbers now (refer to the earlier post about memory usage under Vista)... I am using my Vaio right now, and with 6 programs open Task Manager shows 490MB of RAM being used. Under Vista, it took twice that just to get through startup without opening any programs!
If this interests you, the drivers are available here. It's a bit of work, but you won't be sorry. |
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| Filed: Saturday, January 26, 2008 at 4:04:07 AM |
| Filed Under: Phones |
| PPC-6800 Internal GPS and EvDO RevA Working! |
.. well, sort of anyway... but not for us Alltel users, at least not yet...
Someone over at PPCGeeks has obtained a test copy of the Sprint ROM update that enables GPS and RevA. Lots of Sprint users have installed it (with varying success) today and have proved conclusively that the internal GPS chip in the 6800 does truly exist and is a standalone (not aGPS) chip (as proven by putting the phone in flight mode, which turns off the phone radio).
PPCGeeks thread on 6800 GPS
While I wouldn't suggest any of us Alltel users try to upgrade to this ROM (it's Sprint-specific and has a few bugs) it is great news in that we now have hope for GPS being enabled on the 6800, which will make it the perfect device!
Now, we just have to wait and see if Alltel will follow suit (of course Sprint hasn't officially released this yet, so who knows how long it will be before Alltel does)... otherwise I am sure there will be custom ROMs available eventually...
Take THAT, iPhone! |
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| Filed: Thursday, January 31, 2008 at 5:26:26 PM |
| Filed Under: Phones |
| So, I took the GPS plunge on my 6800.. |
After a lot of research, I decided it was time to reflash my Alltel PPC-6800 to enable GPS and EvDO RevA (though I don't have RevA in my area, so can't test that yet).
Now, here's the latest.. having had it installed for about 24 hours...
First of all, I ended up installing DCD's ROM after all... had problems with missing files in the other ROM I referred to. So, these observations are specific to DCD's Alltel port of his ROM.
A note: Because you will need to reprovision the phone, I think it is important to make sure you are in an Alltel native area since you want to make sure you can get to Alltel's *228 after flashing. If you are roaming, you would have trouble I would think, in which case you would have to ##778 (##PST) and enter everything manually. I went through and wrote down ALL my settings in PST just to be on the safe side before I upgraded, though I ended up not needing them.
First of all, the ROM installed very cleanly. The order should be HardSPL, then DCD's ROM, and then the radio last as I understand it... though I ended up installing the reinstalling the ROM after the radio so I'm not sure how big of a deal that is.
Once everything is installed, you will see 1X and roaming. You must then do a *228 and select option 3 to reprovision the phone on Alltel's network to get back to EvDO and not roaming. The phone will reboot. You then need to *228 again select option 2 to update the PRL (as the ROM installs a really old PRL 30006 for some reason) or manually update your PRL to 40029 if you want EvDO roaming on Sprint (click on "Alltel PRLs" at the top of this page).
Then, you should be ready to go! No problems at all with either phone or data.... the *228s took care of all the setup.
Here's what I've noticed so far, as well as answering the questions I remember being asked:
DCD's ROM, being a "clean and simple" flavor, is pretty snappy (though the phone always seems faster after a hard reset, so I don't know how seriously I would take that).
I don't have a headphone adapter, but both the stock headphones and my Seidio amplified car kit (uses the miniUSB port) worked fine.
My Jabra BT350 Bluetooth headset paired right up and worked just fine. Can't say that the sound quality is either better or worse.
No RevA in my area, so I can't vouch for that, but a speedtest seemed to be right where I usually am (EvDO speeds between 400k and 900k depending on signal).
Now, about the GPS... it worked very well! I have Odyssey Mobile nav software (it came with my Holux GPSlim 236 BT receiver) and I installed it and configured it to use COM4 (which seems to be the consensus port to use with the 6800's internal GPS). It took about 5 minutes to find the satellites, but then it worked really well... I took it for a drive and it was consistently seeing 7 satellites and using either 6 or 7. It was pinning my location down well, showing me driving under overpasses as I was doing so, etc... I went down to a 25 foot range in Odyssey and it looked like my location was spot on.
So far, so good... other than the one lockup I had overnight, no problems at all... battery life seems fine and the phone is very snappy.
I'll give more info in a couple of days after I really have a feel for how well it's working |
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| Filed: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 at 2:13:37 PM |
| Filed Under: Announcements |
| Upgraded the database engine |
| Just a test post, actually. |
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