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A favorite plug-in debugged…

Note: Ajaxified Expand NOW no longer works in WordPress 3.0.

As a replacement, I'm using Sliding Read More, which works perfectly (and with a nice visual effect). The following is only useful if you're running an older version of WordPress.

Recently (and very smoothly), I moved a couple of sites, including robservatory.com, to a new hosting company. I had been hosting with my good friend James, who runs Find Mac Stuff, for many years, but my small sites were really on too big (ie too expensive) of a server for my simple needs.

The move to the new company went well, with the exception of my favorite plug-in here, Ajaxified Expand Now, which expands articles in place, saving a page reload. It was returning an error message ("Error while connecting to the server. Please try again later.") instead of the content. So I disabled the plug-in, but asked James to take a look at the code.
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iPhone wallpaper collection

After updating my iPhone to 1.1.3 (and jailbreaking it, courtesy of ZiPhone), I decided I was bored of my current iPhone wallpapers—I've been using Rob Randtoul's very nice iPhone wallpaper collection, but felt it was time for something new. So this morning, I spent a bit of time trimming some of my pictures down to iPhone size, and found that the end results looked better than I was anticipating. So I thought I'd share the results, in case anyone wants more variety on their iPhone. Click the image at left for a larger view of the collection, and if you'd like to download the wallpapers, well, here's the link:

iPhone Wallpapers [1MB]

To use, just add these to your iPhoto library, then sync to your iPhone. I code my iPhone wallpapers with a unique keyword in iPhoto, create a Smart Album based on that keyword, then sync that smart album to the iPhone. Then use the Wallpaper section of the iPhone's Settings panel to set your wallpaper. (If you have a jailbroken iPhone and you install SummerBoard, you can use your wallpaper as a background behind the iPhone's actual screen, too, and not just the wake-from-sleep screen.)

Many of these aren't really suitable as wallpaper (especially in SummerBoard mode), but some actually work out pretty well.



Too much realism in flight simulation?

As a (non-active) instrument-rated pilot, one of my favorite diversions is X-Plane—as it's the closest I'll ever get to flying the "big iron." There are realistic touches in many spots in the sim, including the occasional bird flock visible during takeoff or landing at some airports. Now I'd seen these flocks on many occasions, but hadn't realized that they were actually...involved...in the simulation.

But the other day, I was taking off in a 747 out of Portland (not like we really get those here), and a flock flew across the runway just after I rotated. Despite my best efforts, the 747 flew right through the clump of birds, and the he results were...quite surprising, and more gory than I was expecting. Read on for the details and a (too realistic?) screenshot.
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Ten seconds with the Google Phone’s chat app

In case you missed it, Google recently detailed its mobile platform. One of the focus areas is an emphasis on driving context-sensitive ads to the mobile devices. I can just imagine how this will play out...text chats, for instance...

Rick: So Ted ... first, that new car stereo [KMart: All the best brands for less] you bought is awesome! So what should we do tonight [NBC Presents Jay Leno's tonight show] for fun? Want to catch [BassMasters fly rods are the best!] a movie? [Regal: Your best value in entertainment today!]

Perhaps it's just me, but I'll take my mobile platform ad-free, thank you very much--even if it means paying more each month.



A most useful home project assistant

toolI took last week off as vacation, though what I spent most of the week doing was far from a vacation: I tackled many of the jobs on the never-ending household to-do list. So instead of relaxing on a beach, I spent last week hanging three curtain rods and curtains, installing towel bars in a couple of bathrooms, and doing some work in the garage to hang a pegboard and clean up the work area--among many other not nearly so exciting tasks :).

Through it all, the cool little device pictured above helped me immensely. That round thing is the STRAIT-LINE Laser Level 30 (LL30 from here on out), a cheap and effective laser level. Until about a year ago, I used to futz with an old-fashioned bubble level whenever I needed to get something straight on the wall. However, for most of the jobs I was doing, a bubble level was next to useless. It takes an extra set of hands to hold it where it's needed, and it seemed it was either too big or too small for the task at hand. So on a sojourn to Home Depot, I spotted the LL30. For the price ($15 or so), I figure I couldn't go wrong giving it a try...and after just one project, I was sold.
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iPhone 1.0 forever

Macworld logoAs you've read by now, Apple released iPhone update 1.1.1 last week. This update adds some compelling new features, most notably the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, easily-accessible iPod play controls, louder speakerphone and receiver volume, and support for video out.

However, as you've also read by now, the update did a few other things. First, as Apple had warned, it turned unlocked iPhones into expensive paperweights, rendering them useless. (A Macworld staffer who unlocked his phone so that we could document this procedure, had this happen to his iPhones.) Second, if you had a modified iPhone that ran third-party applications, like I had, the update removed those apps. So much for my plea to Apple. Finally, if you used Ambrosia's iToner, or any other such ringtone utility, you discovered that all your custom ringtones were also gone.

Unlike most Apple software updates, I held off on running this one until there were some field reports about exactly what happened. Once those reports started trickling in, I came to a painful but obvious conclusion: I will never install the 1.1.1 update on my iPhone.

Read my Macworld blog entry, iPhone 1.0 forever, for the rest of the story...



Don’t break my third-party iPhone apps

Macworld logoDear Apple:

Please ignore my prior request regarding opening up the iPhone for third-party development. At the time I wrote that request, I was convinced that some Apple-approved method of running true third-party applications (and not just nicely-formatted Ajax Web pages) was a key missing feature in the iPhone's capabilities. Well, I've had my iPhone for a couple months now, and I've changed my mind: Don't worry about coming up with a third-party iPhone SDK. Really. Just pretend I never wrote that piece.

Instead, I have a new request. Just do nothing at all regarding third-party application development on the iPhone. Nothing to encourage it, and most importantly, nothing to discourage it, prevent it, shut it down, or otherwise stop it from happening. Thank you.

So why would I (fictitiously, of course) write the above letter to Apple? Is it because I no longer feel third-party applications are important to the iPhone? No, that's not it at all. Is it because nicely-formatted Ajax Web pages really do get the job done? No, that's not it either. So why am I no longer concerned about Apple providing an official third-party SDK? Quite simply, I'm not concerned because a number of very bright, talented, and motivated individuals have managed to actually do the job themselves, without any help from Apple.

Read my Macworld blog entry, Don't break my third-party iPhone apps, for the rest of the story...



The Great iPhone Price Drop Uprising of 2007

Macworld logoAs probably everyone other than Bill Gates probably heard, Apple dropped the price of the iPhone by $200 yesterday. And, very shockingly to me, this somehow upset a number of those who bought iPhones back in June. Over on the Macworld forums, I've been involved in some interesting discussions on the matter. Basically, my position is as follows:

  • Nobody was kidnapped, dragged to an Apple Store, and forced to spend $599 on an iPhone. Everyone who bought on June 29th did so freely of their own will. (Note that I'm a possible exception to that statement, as I was asked to stand in line by my employer. But since it was their money, I didn't really mind.)
  • Whenever you buy any piece of technology, it is a known fact that it will get faster, smaller, more feature laden, and cheaper in the future. Knowing this, I have always treated a technology purchase as a pure sunk cost--whatever you pay, whenever you pay it, it's gone. If the item's price changes in the near future, oh well. I made my decision, I have the piece of technology, and I don't really care if it's cheaper.
  • People are claiming the "value" of their iPhone took a $200 hit yesterday. There's only one way I see that as a true statement: if the user was planning on selling their iPhone on eBay today. However, since we're all on two-year contracts, I don't see that as a big market at the moment. So if you were going to keep your iPhone and continue to use it, your phone's value is unchanged: it's just as important to you today as it was yesterday.

So basically, I'm amazed at the number of complaints over this issue. In one of the forum threads, I asked those who felt this was an issue to explain what they would have done had Apple announced a $200 price increase instead of a drop. Would they have all rushed out to their mailbox to drop a check in the mail for Apple? Not surprisingly, it seems that wasn't a popular suggestion. People want something for nothing, basically.

You've probably also read by now that Apple has decided to grant a $100 store credit to all those who bought iPhones prior to the price drop. Hopefully this will silence the criticism, but I doubt it since it leaves $100 "missing" from the pockets of those who are complaining. From my seat, though, Apple didn't have to do this at all. When you choose to buy something, you're basically fulfilling a contract with the product supplier: I agree to give you this much money, and you agree to give me the product. Anything that happens after that (outside of normal "price protection" windows, which are not 60+ days in length) is just something that happens.

Anyway, am I all wet in my thinking? This demand for a credit due to a price drop seems unprecedented to me; nobody complained when iPod Photos plummeted $200 a few short months after their introduction. Why is the iPhone different?



Install third-party apps on the iPhone

iphoneSo the iPhone has been out for a couple months now, and I've pretty much left mine alone--no hacking of any sort, beyond trying out Ambrosia's new iToner. Then today, fellow Macworld staffer Chris Breen pointed me to Nullriver's Installer.app beta. Using this program, "hacking" your iPhone is amazingly simple. Run the Installer.app on your Mac, then switch to your iPhone and use the new Installer icon on the home screen. From there, choose which packages you'd like to install, and you're off and running.

So what's available? Quite a lot, actually. There's a screenshot app, which I used for the images you see here (click on each for a larger version). In the shot of the main screen, you'll notice there's a new row of icons on the phone; those were all added with the Installer.app program. There's a BSD subsystem, so you can ssh into your iPhone, and use scp (or SFTP in something like Transmit) to get files to/from the phone. There's a functional NEC emulator, complete with sound. The Apache web server. A terminal emulator. Perl, python, and ruby for the ultra-geeks. And lots more.

appIf something goes wrong (and it hasn't for me yet, but I tested the following to make sure it works), you just use iTunes to restore your iPhone, and you're back to a fully functional (and non-modified) iPhone. However, you are responsible for your own actions. I am not responsible for any damage that may result to your iPhone if you choose to try this out!

We'll have a lot more to say about this over on our iPhone Central blog next week, so tune in for much more detail. But if, like me, you've been waiting for iPhone hacking to get easier, a bunch of very very very bright people have made it so--if you've used a package manager on Linux (or something like Fink or MacPorts on OS X), you'll be right at home with Installer.app.

In a way, this work really could be considered embarrassing for Apple: a bunch of volunteer hackers have created a fairly amazing, professional-looking, and very easy to use third-party applications manager for the iPhone--all without any help from Apple, and it's done before Apple has even announced anything about official third-party application support.