Sunday Review

I just noticed it's after the end of June, which of course marks the half way point in 2009. Although they were intentionally NOT resolutions, I thought it fitting to look at what i'm doing by comparison to my "what i'll do" post from the start of the year, particularly as i'm in the directionless part of my life cycle right now.

- I said i'd eat better. At times I have and at times I haven't. Day to day I feel I eat well.

- I said i'd exercise. I am. The weights aren't getting touched but the cross trainer is more of what I need in any case.

- I said i'd play the piano. I haven't played it enough. I need inspiration to get back to it and learn some pieces other than those I learnt 10 years ago. Nonetheless, I bought the piano which was certainly a big step.

- I said i'd improve my guitar skill level. In general I think I am, although I still get frustrated on a day when I simply can't seem to play. It's like a jab telling me it'd be risky to attempt this on stage, which is something I like to do.

- I said i'd get a proper living room sound setup. This isn't that important to me right now, so i'm not doing it yet.

- I said i'd figure out my next career step. More confused than ever.

- I said i'd make more effort to understand important but far away happenings. Not much change here but I am trying to read more of the news, objectively as possible.

- I said i'd cook more varied meals. I've cooked better versions of the same sort of meals so far but I'm moving in the right direction. I have the kit I need now.

- I said i'd isolate myself less at work at lunch time. I haven't changed this and i'm still not sure I want to. I'll continue to think about this.

- I said i'd move into a terraced house giving me more space. Technically I did that although not in the way I meant. I semi regret not sticking to my guns here as my move to a first floor apartment within a terraced house has left me without a garden and downstairs neighbours. I miss having an outside of my own and I can't help be concious that every step I take is audible downstairs. Thankfully I don't seem to be annoying them yet and they're very friendly towards me. I certainly now have all the space I need and am making good use of it.

- I said i'd try harder to meet people. I can't say that i've done this, unfortunately.

- I said i'd try harder not to have "that argumentative tone" in friendly conversation. I think i've made progress here but I found myself doing it to quite an extent a few weeks ago. It's definitely a defensive defence mechanism. Will keep trying.

- I said i'd get into the local music scene. Good fortune meant I had friends gigs to attend regardless so I got to see some good bands. The scene in Leicester is very weak now though. I don't feel much urge to go out seeking new live music now. I think I may be going through a late 20s shift in interest.

- I said i'd visit more of the UK. Most of what i've done towards this has been within the last month, but I visited more of the Devon and Cornish coastline - Westward Ho! and Newquay. Planning to return to Newquay for a camp and bodyboard in August. Want to explore further north and the Welsh coast before too long. Running out of summer and running out of leave from work. Rediscovering camping has certainly been a positive too.

- I said i'd educate myself more on libertarianism but I didn't. First I came to understand that the term isn't specific enough. What I meant was the anarcho-capitalism, free marketeering etc. I never fully reconciled a belief in it and i'm less convinced that it's the only answer. I listen to Free Talk Live much less because as I may have mentioned before, I was finding listening to 6 hours a week of it was getting me down. I've recently started listening on a more occasional basis, certainly still agree with a lot of what is said, but I've come to see that touting these ideas whilst living firmly within the norm makes for a poor argument. Not the place to go into detail here though.

- I said i'd throw out every VHS cassette. I've done very well here although not quite there. I managed to give away all of my pre-recorded tapes to one person who seemed very pleased to be getting them. If they were for resale at a car boot sale I couldn't care less - very happy not to have binned them. What I did bin is about 2/3 of my recorded tapes. Felt great to throw away the tens of tapes holding stuff that I now have on DVD such as American Gothic and Red Dwarf. The remainder are things I don't have on DVD and don't really want on DVD, but maybe want to watch one more time before binning. I did however bin all the Friends tapes. Realistically I know that i'm never going to marathon through Friends at this point. Catching it occasionally on E4 and T4 on C4 is OK with me.

- I said i'd weigh less than eleven and a half stone. This morning I weighed 11, 13. Weight fluctuates with food and drink more than most people seem to realise, and by tonight i'll probably be 12, 4. In general the number is trending downwards and some muscle conversion is also definitely occurring. I'll be interested to see if I hit 11, 7 any time this year though.

- I said i'd drink less. Rather unintentionally, I have done. Not getting wasted much any more, which was more the point here. I will however almost certainly get wasted at a reunion style event next weekend. Swings and roundabouts people.

- I said i'd clean up more. I just can't stand doing it. I try to tidy more, but actual cleaning only really happens when it absolutely needs to.

- I said i'd find the best view in Leicestershire. I'm fairly sure it's Bradgate park looking down from the peak. It's dull compared to almost any view on the Cornish coast. I'm about done with Leicester, but I can't really move to Cornwall. Also, that's *too* remote. More on that i'm sure.

- I said i'd stop using stand by (on my TV) and I did until I moved, after which I forgot. It wouldn't hurt me to start doing that again now so i'll try.

- I said I wouldn't cave in to climate change propaganda beyond career supporting lip service. I am now involved in an environmental challenge. However that is career supporting, and i'm largely able to retain my genuine feelings on this publicly.

- I said i'd walk more and further. Absolutely am doing and will continue to.

- I said i'd code something outside of work. I haven't yet but i'm thinking about it again right now. Just don't know what to work on. Coding is a solution to a problem, not a starting point. Need to focus on *why* to code something first.

- I said i'd keep plants alive. None have died yet, to my credit, but I should still be watering them more and feeding them a bit.

- I said i'd visit Japan... Then I realised that the economy was in the shitter and visiting anywhere was prohibitively expensive at the moment, let alone somewhere that far away. Postponed.

- I said, finally, that i'd learn every country on the map. I didn't do that and I don't think it's very likely that I will, but I am trying to look at maps more.

Fair amount of tasks accomplished on that list. Not too shabby.

QUICK: How to Shoe-Horn a Celebrity into a Simpsons Episode:

Lisa: "Wow. <achievement and related verb>ing <occupation>ist/er <first name> <last name>. What brings you to Springfield Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms <last name>"?

Nice Ideas That Don't Pan Out... iPhones and OpenZones

One new feature of the iPhone 3GS is it's ability to automatically log in to hotspots. When I first heard about this being available it was in the US context and I assumed that the UK suppliers, The Cloud and BT Openzone wouldn't be likely to support it, as these services very much exist in spite of the iPhone, not specifically for it.

I was wrong of course, although I didn't realise until it bit me. Note that in the early few days I really had no idea what the icons in the status bar meant. Now that I do, this isn't that hard to spot if you're looking for it. Once you have logged in to BT Openzone once, and this means the secondary login that's normally web based as there is no WEP/WPA security on these, it will log you on automatically ever after.

This now means that every time I wander into the range of a BT Openzone hotspot, the iPhone puts 3G on the back burner and connects to it. So far this has only manifested itself in one way, and this will tend to happen in a busy shopping area likely to have strong 3G and hotspots - My connection will drop from excellent 5 bar 3G coverage running extremely well to a single bar failing WiFi connection.

For you see, BT Openzone for the most part is just some bar or coffee shop's router. I have spent more time than one man should trying to find sweet spots for BT Openzone and never once did I establish which business they were coming from or get 5 bars. They were also frequently unimpressive with 4 bars which normally is enough to sustain high speeds. My theory would be that these hotspots don't actually supply high speeds by design. The minimum of 2MBit/s that a good 3G signal is supposed to supply is in theory far superior to a weak WiFi signal, or a relatively strong one with a hypothetical cap of what felt like about 500KBit/s when downloading podcasts.

Something worse that I think's happening although I haven't confirmed it:

BT did a deal with a technology provider by the name of FON. In short, FON firmware loaded on to the BT Home Hubs and customers allowed to opt in or out of the scheme. Opting in opens a sandboxed Internet (sandboxed away from your home network, nothing else) up to others who have opted in and in return as an opter in you get to use theirs. BT could have been cool about this but must have seen the opportunity to boost the profile of their hotspot network, so the routers now messily broadcast not only the ssid for the "real" router connection and one called "BTFON", but also one called "BT Openzone".

As far as I can tell, an ssid is the only way to differentiate these hotspots, and at any rate it's all devices seem to use, therefore I have a feeling the iPhone will even try to log in to these hot spots, which it has no business doing. From testing at home (I am a BT FON opter-inner - it's a great idea and i've made use of it a lot already - plus realistically where I live nobody's gonna use mine ), the iPhone tries it's autoconnect, fails and then continues with the connection as normal, meaning stuck in pre-login, wider internet unavailable. For although it has connected to a BT Openzone hotspot, this type will only respond to BT FON authentication, not iPhone authentication.

Solution for BT which certainly won't happen - just use "BT FON" for the FON stuff.

Solution for Apple who never listen anyway - detect a login failure then disconnect from the hotspot. If it's the only one available, drop back to 3G. Simple.

Annoying things that I have to live with for now:
- When I'm going wandering away from home, WiFi needs to be turned off. Easily done.
- Can't use 3G to download Podcasts. No good Podcasts are under 5MB. Dumb limit.
- Can't even download as MP3 through Safari, but I can "stream" it in "Quicktime" - this is the same data I wanted to download, BEING DOWNLOADED. Why not let me save it for later?

I do like the iPhone though. No regrets. I do expect to eventually end up using an Android phone somewhere down the line for flexibility, although I remain aghast at how badly the overall initiative is still being handled. I've lost track of whether the Magic and Hero are the same phone or different phones, and I can't remember which one of them is also called a G2. This is how confused someone who has paid attention has got. It will eventually translate to lost sales.

Of all the long overly technical posts i've had, this has been one of them!