teh TODDtastic webLog-a-majig

So… just in case people haven’t heard or realized… the monthly plans for the 3G iPhones went up $10. Steve Jobs completely forgot to mention that during his keynote. So, even though the phone is a lot cheaper… the more expensive plans actually makes it out to be more expensive after your 2 year contract is up. Add that to the basic features it lacks, the lack of expandable memory, and the sucky At&t network… definitely should make you think twice.

George Carlin suffered a heart attack last night. This truly saddens me. George Carlin in my opinion is the best comedian of all time, or at the very least he is definitely up there. He changed the face of comedy with one of his famous stand ups – “7 words you can’t say on television.”

On a more personal side, George Carlin honestly changed my life. I have seen most, if not all, of his HBO specials and I can recite several of his speeches off the top of my head. He views on the world greatly changed mine to a much more laid back view. He also assisted in changing my view on religion– to which I personally want to thank him for. One of my favorite speeches is his “Religion is Bullshit” speech. Before seeing that for the first time, I was highly spectacle of religion but was completely foreign to the idea of not believing it, but seeing that speech, I started to really think and figure out exactly what I believe… which changed my life not only in the religion department, but just my own free thought on everything.

That said, I will truly miss George Carlin. I was always looking forward to actually go and see him live and every time I say I will do it next year. Each year I feared there wouldn’t be a next year because if you’ve seen him recently… he looked pretty old. I guess my chance to see him live is now gone.

R.I.P. George Carlin: May 12, 1937 ~ June 22, 2008
The world will never forget you.

I have always known about Yahoo! Answers because it comes up sometimes when I’m Googling for answers to things. I’ve found it helpful sometimes. I have never actually asked a question on it, tho, nor contributed answers. Well, today I decided to look into do such and I must say, it is a pretty cool thing. I’ve asked 2 questions so far and answered a whole bunch. I’m not yet at a level 2. But it is a cool concept and I think is a great way to get answers to questions.

So… for now I’m a bit addicted to it, and I recommend you check it out if you haven’t checked it out before.

As it stands right now… I am not too pleased with AppleCare. I got my MacBook Pro back today… and it looks like shit. The screen they replaced it with was clearly one refurbished from someone else. The back was all dirty, the case edge around the screen is all banged up, finger prints all on the screen. I was not pleased with that.

Then I started inspecting the rest of the computer, and I found that it was really dirty. There is some sticky shit on some keys, dirt smudges in a few random places, some sticky stuff on the bottom of the battery.

I thought those were the only problems… but then I discovered that the fricken casing is splitting down towards the IR port. It is an issue I’ve heard some people had, but mine was flawless before.

I take extra care with my laptop. I definitely didn’t get it back in the same condition.

However… Apple seems to be willing to fix the problem. I called ‘em up and I ended up getting their white glove, expedited repair service. They say that professionals do all the work, and it is inspected and made sure it is done properly.

Then after I hung up the phone… I had to pack up and get going. I shut down the laptop, and closed it like I always do (same amount of force and such) and walked away without looking or thinking twice about it. I come back and find it slightly propped open, meaning the latches didn’t catch… which has never been a problem before. I’m pretty sure it is due to the separating of the casing, so it should get fixed.

Basically, I’m very disappointed with the initial repair job… but hopefully they make up for it with this white glove service.

Basically it really makes me nervous about buying the extended warranty on my laptop. Like I hope I wouldn’t need to use it because the quality of the work may not be very good, which really disappoints me.

If I ever need it repaired again… I’d be very nervous to send it off.

Update: So I recieved my laptop back now. They fixed the scratch and the separating casing… but I wouldn’t quite call it white glove. It came back just as dirty as it did the first time. I don’t know why it’s so hard for them to keep things clean. I also noticed some more minor wear marks now that I didn’t noticed before. (and that weren’t put there by me). It wasn’t a piece they replaced (they list what they did) so I just didn’t notice it before sending it back and that is my fault. They are so minor that it is not worth yet another week being without the computer.

Also, I would hardly call it expedited service like I was told. It took the same amount of time as before.

All in all… I’m still on the edge about getting the extended warranty. I need to decide soon, though. Basically… Apple repair is NOT a service I would recommend. Personally, I’m more comfortable doing any repair myself. And I have such an option. If I were to gamble and not get the repair service, there are places out there that sell replacement parts that are new…. not refurbished parts. Or there are other services out there that will fix it for a decent price.

So… I can NOT recommend AppleCare. Sorry Apple, but you disappointed me. The quality of your repair service is very questionable and I can only hope that the survey I filled out about my recent AppleCare experience will make changes.

Update 2: No, I did not get the extended AppleCare service. I thought my money would be better spent just making any repairs myself or a third party for those more expensive items. The display and the Logic board are the most expensive items… but if either of those completely die… it might be time for a new laptop anyway (Not Apple, though… they made the new MacBook Pros really suck).

I just finished watching the Apple WWDC 2008 Keynote. I have to put my opinions out there for the world to see, and maybe even Apple.

First off, the things I like. Obviously, the 3G network is good, the $199 price tag is good, exchange support is good, more countries is good, and all the added functionality and apps are good.

Now what I don’t like:

1. Plastic backing – What the hell? Why?
2. The continued lack of picture/video messaging – Seriously… this is a deal breaker for me. I wont be getting the phone due to this lack of functionality alone. It gives me cause to wait before I get it, or even waiting for the next revision of the phone, which will hopefully have picture/video messaging. I know Steve Jobs is all into just using e-mail… but honestly, I don’t know half of my friends’ e-mail addresses, and they wouldn’t be able to receive my messages anywhere even if I did.
3. Shitty keyboard – I’ve been using my brother’s iPod Touch a little bit recently… and I can’t stand the “keyboard”. It is terrible to type on, I don’t know how it pleases Steve Jobs. It is constantly making mistakes… often time when I’m very carefully trying to push a specific letter. I can use T9 word faster on my current cell phone, and with fewer mistakes.
4. Non removable battery – This is also a bit of a deal breaker. My current phone’s orignal battery is starting to get pretty poor life. I can’t really fit it in the budget to get a new phone (though I may have to… but that’s because the whole phone has gone shitty). What if I traveled a lot and rarely had a chance to charge the phone? I can’t buy an extended battery, so I’m screwed. Why is Jobs all about not having batteries removable? Same deal with the MacBook Air. wtf?

So, come February, I’ll probably not be getting an iPhone… perhaps even until the next revision of the iPhone.

Not yet. But very close.

I am basically disabled right now. My laptop is getting a new display. It had an issue where when the screen was being slightly warped, such as by opening or closing it from the right side caused a vertical, blue line to appear on the left side of the screen. I googled this problem and found other people that said it can get worse if it isn’t taken care of. Basically, it’s some sort of loose connection in such a way that when the display is kinda of warped, it causes that line.

They claim that I could have it back by Friday. I desperately hope so. They said they over night it from the apple store to Apple to get it fixed, and then they over-night it from where it is fixed to it’s destination… and I said to send it to my place of work, which tends to drastically increase the possibility that it WILL be over-night. But, it is always possible the repair could take a little longer and I may not have it until Monday or possibly later.

Until then, of course… I don’t have a computer, since my desktop is at home and I am living with my brother for the summer. I honestly feel dead without my laptop. I just sit in one place for hours with nothing to do. It is so hard to find something to keep myself occupied with. I’m using my brother’s crappy kitchen computer to write thing blog post.

So, seriously, I better have this thing back by Friday or I might actually die.

Update: I will have it back by Friday… so I might just live!

I used to just use webmail for my main e-mail account (gmail) and my school e-mail. I’ve always used Outlook on my desktop for my ISPs e-mail because it’s not important and I rarely check it. But a few months ago I was chatting with someone and they made a compelling argument that made me want to try actually using a software client for e-mail. Just because it was there, I decided I’d give Apple Mail a go. It was a little rough starting… trying to get used to things on it and what not. But I gave it an honest chance and in the end I find I actually pretty much like it.

Recently my brother was telling me he used it and found that it sucked with his g-mail account because he had so much e-mail. I’m not sure why that would matter other than they initial sync. He probably didn’t give it enough of a chance. (We’re both using IMAP, btw.) He said he uses thunderbird and finds it to be much better. I had always heard about thunderbird but have never actually tried it, despite loving Firefox (which oddly enough my brother hates… he’s retarded in that sense).

So… last night I gave Thunderbird a go. I setup IMAP for my gmail and closed Apple Mail to give Thunderbird a good chance. Just over 24 hours later… I had closed Thunderbird and reopened Apple Mail because I can’t stand Thunderbird.

From the start, it just felt like crap. It has a very boring theme and it just feels like a hack off a web browser or something (which it is). Every time you click a folder it has to load up the messages… then eventually loads and scrolls to the most recently selected message. Such an operation is instant in Apple Mail. There was also a weird issue where some random message was just brought to the front of the list as if I had just received it… but it was from sometime in 2007. I tried reordering by date (again)… but it still insisted that I had just received this message.

Then after some time… I realized that you have to actually click on the various folders (labels in g-mail terms) to see if there are new messages in them. That is stupid and I couldn’t find any way to fix it. I decided to look for an Add-On. While I was looking through them… I found an Apple Mail theme and decided to try it out just because I thought the default theme sucked. I go to install it and it says it’s not compatible with my version of thunderbird (the latest, 2.0.0.14). I dismiss it as just that maintainer not keeping it up to date. I then found an add-on that might help with this new messages in different folders issue. I go to install that and lo-and-behold… it isn’t compatible either! Two add-ons in a row… both of which would actually improve my experience with Thunderbird. Why the hell are so many add-ons incompatible with the latest version of the software?!

Also… some general things like a stupid question every time I go to send an e-mail about using plain text, html, or both was really getting on my nerves. I just want to send the fucking message as it is… if it has HTML in it then that is what I wanted. Just send the damn message! It was also very slow at actually downloading a message when I click on it to read it.

I did a Google search on this just to see if I was alone in my thinking… and it’s evident that I’m not.

So… I recommend that you don’t use Thunderbird. Use Apple Mail (if possible), Outlook, or just webmail. (Honestly… Outlook is a pretty good mail client (Not Outlook Express)).