Jim rattled off a thousand ideas and MOST of them were terrible. But then he had the idea to just combine two of the clips and next thing you know he is trying to trademark the “JimClip”. Hours and hours hearing about the JimClip. But once he was doing that he was able to staple them way easier and with far fewer potty words (not ZERO bad words, just less). Trouble is he was going though them pretty quick and we were going to need even more! Thus I made a minor tweak to the design where instead of 8mm tall, I made them 12mm tall. And I took out the screw holes since that’s where they would break if the staple got too close. BOOM FIXED! Except that I also thought of one more change . . . .

Instead of the default printer settings I decided to change the number of perimeters.

You can see the effect of the change here:

As you can see, in one case there is infil being used and in the other, it’s basically printed solid. So far the big advantage of that change is that the C is more difficult to break and the long center stands up well too. In my testing I could flex the hollow 2 perimeter print and break it easily (usually at the holes) but I wasn’t able to break the 4 perimeter version unless I went insane with it. I haven’t tried to staple it yet since I don’t have the stapler (left it with Jim) but I suspect they will staple just fine.

You can also see how different the top layer prints too! These are SO MUCH STRONGER.

Of course, there is always a tradeoff. In this case, to print 12 the print time goes from 5 hours and 45 minutes to 6 hours and 42 minutes . . . about an hour longer. To compensate, I fixed another printer! Now we have 4 printers going!

I also put this . . .

. . . idea to good use . . . check out the lighting in our front door window!

That was super easy to do and it’s attached with just a few tiny pieces of velcro (which acts as thicker double sided tape) in strategic places.

It’s funny because supposedly it’s a “one click” process but wherever you read that headline you’ll see 50 links and 10 pages of text.

Advantages:

• It does seem faster but it’s no iPhone (probably not even as fast as the first iPhone let along the 3GS)
• Wifi tethering!  I can tether with a laptop or netbook to my data connection using just wifi.  The irony is that I would need to plug the phone in with USB anyway for power but still, tethering!
• Multi-Touch browser.  Again, not as responsive as iPhone be still nicer than the +/-.  Would be really nice in maps and I suspect that might come soon.
• More “screens” so I can have more widgets and icons in the locations that I want.  Not all that big a deal as 3 was enough, really, since I could get to the stuff I didn’t use much from the “pull up” menu
• Couple of new apps I couldn’t have gotten otherwise . . . pdf viewer and an office viewer.
• Discovered “MyBackup” which is an app that takes care of backup for apps and data so at the end of it all restoring back to the phone I had before took about 10 minutes . . . with the exception of my background image, ring tone, and some setup inside a few apps like latitude.  I had to install all of the apps one but with MyBackup I just had to okay each install one by one but it all went really fast . . . at least I didn’t have to remember what I liked and download it all one by one.
• Three keyboards to choose from . . . though, I already had two after installing an alternate a while back.

Disadvantages:

• Takes forever to boot up (but that was just the first time . . . it has to run some script)
• It was kinda scary though it was actually one of the easiest hacks ever.  More scary that most other projects because I *need* my phone whereas if I bust a PSP or my Wii or an XBox I’m just out some entertainment which is no big deal.

Sheldon

I got my wife the iPhone 3G the day it came out.  Waited in a line for a few hours and everything.  She had been using a Razr for about 3 years and it was time.  And we were already on the AT&T network so it was easy.  I would have gotten one for myself but a month before the 3G was announced I got myself a Blackberry Pearl so I wasn’t eligible for the $199 new customer price.

At the time the biggest problem with an iPhone was the $30 mandatory data plan.  It’s the only phone on any network that requires you have a data plan.  I like the idea that even though I’m locked in for 2 years I can get the $40/month voice plan to lower my bills just in case. And a year ago the iPhone was a 10 and there was nothing even close from what I could see.

Anyway, a few months ago I went to Google I/O and got one of the G2 HTC phones (it’s called a Magic or myTouch or something like that on T-Mobile).  It was a dream come true . . . a chance to use “the other cool phone” without paying for it.  And the best part is that I got AT&T to give me a data plan for $15 a month!!  Please don’t call AT&T and ask for that plan and ruin it for me.  No, seriously . . I’m glad that no one will be reading this.  And it sucks that I only get “Edge” speeds because apparently 3G isn’t a standard and AT&T and T-Mobile do 3G data in different ways so if I want 3G on AT&T’s network I have to wait until an Android phone comes out for AT&T.

Okay, so that’s the background info out of the way . . . I’ve never had an iPhone personally but being the techie of the house I do get how the iPhone works and use it occasionally and I always know about cool apps for it before my wife does.  And I’ve used a Blackberry for over a year.  And now I’ve had the Android phone since May.  Here are the results:

If you are a non-tech person, the iPhone is a 10.0 and sets the bar incredibly high.  If you can afford that phone, ignore all the stuff about how crappy AT&T is and just get that phone.

If you are a tech person it’s a much harder call because although the iPhone is great . . . it’s locked down!  So, a phone like the G2 or any other Android phone (once they come out!!) has an incredible appeal since they are so hackable.  It’s an 8.2 to the 9.0 of a iPhone (not a perfect 10 because it’s missing concurrent apps and no Google Voice app but those things don’t matter to a casual user).  The old blackberry I had would be a 5.0 at best . . . I mean, you can use maps and check gmail with those apps but getting the apps in the first place sucks because you have to get them directly from the vendor (although this is different now from what I understand) AND it’s still a locked down OS that no one want’s to develop for.

The apps and the speed of the iPhone is why it has any chance against an Android phone . . . and both of those problems will fix themselves if someone releases some decent hardware.  It needs to be powerful and WITH a headphone jack (even though bluetooth noice canceling headphones have got to be in the pipeline somewhere at Bose, right?).

I’ll do a pro/cons list about my Android phone some other time, maybe.

Sheldon

First step was to download the update . . . over 200 MB!!!  That’s going to take a while  . . . .

Okay, now it has to backup the iPhone.  I get a progress bar from hell that just keeps scrolling by.  After that’s done, another useless progress bar saying it’s extracting the files or something.  Next another annoying progress bar to say that it’s “Prepping the iPhone for an upgrade”.  On and on and on.   Probably more than 5 different progress bars.

After all that it couldn’t install the software (my USB ports are flaky) so it was in “Restore mode” and I had to do the entire process all over again (well, at least I didn’t have to download the update).  Lucky that it backed up the iPhone because everything was wiped out after the restore.  But I did get back all the apps I downloaded as well as the addressbook.  But I did loose all the music and video so I had to sync all that back up.

Two hours later . . . finally done.

Sheldon

The iPhone 3G reception problem is bad news.  While we were in DC a few weeks ago I was trying to look up maps and stuff and the iPhone was sucky so I switched off 3G thinking DC just wasn’t a good coverage area.  When we got back, I never switched it back (it is Sarah’s phone after all).  Then on Monday (several weeks later) I read that “Tris” (the Tetris clone) was being pulled from the App Store on Wednesday.  I grabbed up the iPhone and downloaded it.  (It’s pretty sweet by the way.)   The download took a while and I remembered about how I switched off 3G weeks ago so I switched it back on and put the phone on the dryer (that’s where we put our phones and keys).  Later that night Sarah does some laundry and I notice the iPhone is pretty hot sitting on the dryer . . . so I put it on the washer.  Next day, all calls are dropped after less than a minute.  At first I thought it was the heat from the dryer . . . but then Sarah said “It’s that Tris you installed!” and then it dawned on me . . . it was because of 3G!!!  I switched off 3G and all is well . . . sorta, I mean, it’s not “twice as fast” and it certainly wasn’t “half the price”.

That said it’s still a cool phone and I wish I had one.  It just sucks that it is advertized as better . . . and it’s certainly one of the most expensive options when it comes to the TCO (total cost of ownership) for a phone.

Sheldon

Sheldon

The new iPhone means a new post.  Stay tuned.

Okay, so, here is the deal. I get the Blackberry Pearl. Lost my Razr and for $50 (after getting a rebate card) I figure I need a change and the Blackberry charges with mini USB so I don’t need to invest in chargers. As you can tell it was a tough decision. It was!

The Blackberry is okay and it’s cool to have Google maps and GMail . . . comes in handy a lot more than you think. It does lock up and give me the spinning hourglass too much and without Google it would be worthless but it’s a few steps up from the Razr. Not sure if it’s worth the “data plan” fee but still, it is useful. I figure I’ll keep the data plan a few months to see if I use it enough and beside, I can’t let the mobile web pass me by.

Then I get the *second* bill. $40 more than I expect. Last time the “Blackberry unlimited” was charged at $25. This time it was $30. I guess it was prorated the first month and $30 is the normal fee. Okay, that’s kinda steep but that only accounts for $5 increase. Oh, and my wife made a few calls in Canada . . . there goes another $25. Still missing $10.

Going over the bill for the third time and IT’S THE TEXT MESSAGES!!!! No text messages are included with the $30 Blackberry plan . . . NONE . . . For that you gotta pay $5 more.

According to Apple you just pay another $20 per month as an existing customer to get 200 text messages and data. WHAT THE!?

So, to get what I would get with an iPhone (data and text messaging at least) on the Blackberry I need to pay $15 extra per month or $180 more per year! What am I missing?

Sheldon

I looked for all kinds of things that I thought might be doing it. I stopped every process but the bare essentials. I searched and searched and searched. I decided I needed to reinstall but I still have work to do so I just kinda dealt with it for a few weeks (I settled on an “in-between” speed so that if it was slow or fast I could adjust my movements to accommodate . . . it was brain training!). Oh, and the same thing happened with a similar but different mouse.

Then one day I plug my new BlackBerry in (I wanted an iPhone but the Blackberry was $50 . . . and even free now! . . and I lost my other phone so I had to do something) to USB and I got a notice on the phone saying there wasn’t enough juice to charge the BlackBerry. That’s strange because I plugged into a powered USB hub. Anyway, I figured the BlackBerry had some special power requirements or wouldn’t charge with just mini USB.

So I decided that I should buy a new USB hub thinking maybe that was the problem. I have no idea why I came to that conclusion but my old hub was one of the first USB 2.0 hubs to come out. I get a new Belkin. I go to plug it in and notice that something else had come unplugged . . . that’s right, my USB Hub!!! I plugged it in and ever since the mouse has been working fine. WHY WOULD YOU NEED A POWERED USB HUB FOR A MOUSE?! That and the keyboard was all that was ever plugged in there.

Sheldon