Reasons to Avoid Windows Vista
Windows Vista will be released soon, but I will not be an early adopter of this new operating system. I thought I would share my top five reasons for not upgrading: (more…)
1 comment October 27th, 2006
Create Scheduled FTP Job in Windows
There is usually more than one way to accomplish this task, but I have struggled with how to create a scheduled ftp job in Windows for a long time.
I recently ran into a problem which forced me to figure out how to create a scheduled ftp job. I needed to post results from my fantasy football league draft to a website so the slackers who couldn’t be at the live draft could more easily follow along and know who had been drafted so far. The software I use to conduct my draft (FFLM) can automatically generate HTML reports after each pick. I needed to create an FTP job that would take those HTML reports and post them to a website for the remote drafters to see. (more…)
Add comment September 19th, 2006
Fantasy Football Team Names
I am a big fantasy football guy. I have been playing fantasy football since 1998 and have done pretty well over the years. However, at the beginning of each season I struggle to find a team name worthy of my future league champions.
Because necessity is the mother of invention (and because I’m a geek), I started a project to build my own fantasy football team name generator using PHP. I wouldn’t consider myself a programmer of any particular merit, but it was a pretty easy task even for a beginner. (more…)
6 comments August 10th, 2006
Oracle PLM and the Item Catalog
One of my major projects at work the last few months has been to get the Oracle Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) tool up and running. Oracle PLM has also been known as Advanced Product Catalog, but the PLM name seems like it will stick. (more…)
Add comment July 19th, 2006
Ideal Cell Phone
The company I work for is changing cell phone providers so I get to choose new cell phone. What a frustrating process! I was extremely disappointed with the cell phones I had to choose from, and they were all the latest models. Today’s cell phones seem to be trying to be the one true convergence device. I don’t want a convergence device, I want a mobile phone.
Here are my requirements for a good cell phone:
Must have features
- Make and receive calls
- Storing phone numbers
- Clock
Most of my phone calls on my cell phone are relatively short and to the point. It’s not my only phone, as I will use a landline if one is available. However with the long distance deals and nighttime minutes, I occasionally use it to talk to far-flung relatives.
I don’t have a million contacts; I’m not a salesman nor a socialite. I have anywhere from 30-60 names of friends, family, and co-workers along with their phone numbers programmed into my phone.
I don’t wear a watch, so when I need to know the time of day, I look at my phone.
Optional features
- Bluetooth
- Text messaging
- Camera
It would be nice to have this capability to make a connection to my computer to transfer files or edit my contacts. However, my commute is only about 20 minutes, so a bluetooth headset isn’t very practical. Since bluetooth has more capabilities and seems more widely supported now than infrared, bluetooth would be a nice to have for my cell phone.
I rarely send text messages; I average 5 to 10 text messages per year, mostly replying to text messages from my little brother. However, I have sent a couple messages surreptitiously during long meetings mainly to relieve boredom or to tease another coworker who is stuck in the same meeting.
This is a very optional feature for me, but camera phones are ubiquitous now. I have very little occasion to take pictures with my cell phone — I have a regular camera for that. However, if I were in or witnessed a car wreck, a camera would be nice to have. If I were shopping for a house or car without my wife and wanted some pictures to show her when I got back, a camera would be nice to have. Unfortunately, the reasons for having a camera on my cell phone aren’t very compelling, so it would be a feature I’d be willing to lose, especially since the camera features tend to require extra buttons, size, and weight.
Useless Features
- Video Camera
- Music player
- Videos and Games
I don’t need to take crappy 15 second video clips with my phone; I can’t even imagine a time where having that capability would come in handy.
I don’t need my phone to play mp3s; I have an iPod for my music. Taking out the music play means you can remove the flash memory cards — who needs 512MB cards for holding additional contacts? The internal memory will already hold 1000, 950 of which I don’t need.
I don’t need to have video highlights downloaded to my phone; I have a TV for that. I don’t need gaming on my phone; I have an xbox for that. I would appreciate having that bandwidth to improve the call quality instead.
A phone that met this criteria would work for me. Removing all of the useless features that so many of today’s phones include would leave a phone that was just the right size for my pocket, had great battery life.
So, which phone did I choose? The Motorola E815 — probably the most feature bloated phone in existence. But, it was free. If my ideal phone exists, I haven’t seen it yet. Do you know of an ideal phone for me? What is your ideal cell phone?
1 comment June 9th, 2006