Rubenerd

Of all the fun new features introduced in the iTelephone 3.0 software, I have to say making the landscape keyboard available in more than just the email client has been the biggest boon. Even though I'm just using my thumbs, As I type this post in the Notes application I'm noticing just how quickly and accurately I'm able to enter text. It's no full size keyboard I can hammer on with all my fingers at once, but it's good. Very good.

I noticed when Leo Laporte was reviewing the Palm Pre (another smart phone I'm very interested in) he noted that while he made far less errors on the Pre's physical keyboard compared to the iTelephone's touch screen, he was still able to type faster on the iTelephone because the on-the-fly error correction is so well executed. I have a Centro and used to had a Nokia e61i and I can also attest to this.

With this landscape keyboard though, I get the speed from merely touching a flat surface and the smart error correction, but because the keys are wider I'm making less mistakes and am able to type even faster.

While I like Apple products I'm not a fanboy and readily admit that the iTelephone's touch screen keyboard might not be everybody's cup of tea. I encourage you though if you've been holding out for precisely that reason to go down to an Apple shop or reseller and have a play around with the landscape keyboard on either the iTelephone or the iPodlington Touch. You might be surprised.

In the meantime, I just noticed the time in the screenshot there was 23:45. How very trippy.

Links shared from del.icio.us today:

The Six Ramsgate Residence by Wallflower Architecture » CONTEMPORIST

A stunningly beautiful house! I love greenery.

(categories: architecture design singapore)

(Update: Flickr profile was taken down)

A very good friend of mine and a nice guy Jerry Novak just uploaded a photo to Flickr he took using his new Lensbaby Composer. I thought it was beautiful until I reread his tweet, this was his first photo with it, now I'm also in absolute awe with waves of jealousy flowing through me like… waves.

I get the feeling I'll be describing myself as an amateur-amateur photographer for quite some time!

Jerry told on Twitter he was only able to get this one shot before security told him to stop; to their credit, the did let him keep this one picture. I think that's part of my problem as an amateur photographer (and podcaster, and blogger…), I'm far too self concious. Perhaps I just need to start taking my little D60 with my everywhere and just getting used to whipping it out in public.

Links shared from del.icio.us today:

Color Scheme Designer 3

(categories: software design graphics html)

Batman villains on Flickr – Photo Sharing!

Amazing detail, these guys did a great job!

(categories: comics photos flickr)

I finally caved in and added myself to the WeFollow directory thingy. Personally I think the whole idea of ranking people based on how many followers they have is juvenile and a bit silly, but there you have it.

The automagically generated tweet:

Just added myself to the http://wefollow.com twitter directory under: #adelaide #singapore #tech

For all my fabulous Aussie readers you'll be interested to know South Aussie Greens senator Senator Sarah Hanson-Young will be introducing a private members bill to allow same-sex marriage in Australia. This is huge.

“The Greens’ Marriage Equality Amendment Bill can bring Australia into the league of other forward-thinking nations who recognise that all couples should enjoy the right to marry,” said Senator Hanson-Young, Greens spokesperson on sexuality and gender identity.

“While last year we saw some historic leaps and bounds in removing discrimination against same-sex couples within this country’s federal laws, there was a glaring omission from that suite of legislation: marriage.

“It’s well and truly time our parliament rights this wrong and legislates for true equality.”

Senator Hanson-Young said the Australian community was broadly supportive of equal marriage, citing polls, petitions, and community attitudes

I admit I was ignorant of this: according to the current laws Australia doesn't even recognise same-sex marriages from overseas which is a bit embarrassing. Even though New York state doesn't allow same-sex marriage they still at least recognise others.

The Greens’ Bill will also repeal the prohibition of the recognition of same-sex marriages entered into overseas.

“It’s ridiculous that a same-sex couple married in Canada, for example, can step off the plane at Sydney International Airport and have their marriage considered invalid,” she said.

If this passes, Australia would join other progressive jurisdictions such as The Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Canada, South Africa and Norway, as well as the US states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa and Vermont in according the LGBT community the same rights, privileges (and therefore responsibilities) of straight people. It's interesting how all these places have gone to hell since introducing these bills isn't it? Oh wait, they haven't!

I worry some religious groups will be protesting this; I urge the Australian Parliament to dismiss these dissenting voices and respect the views held by a majority of Australians.

I talked about Sweden allowing same-sex marriage back in May.

I was in a hurry to get to sleep last night so I didn't talk much about this aside from posting a screenshot, but yesterday I was able to get my iTelephone unlocked and was blown away by how easy and fast it was.

I got my iPhone 3G from Optus which meant it was tied to their SIM card in Australia; travelling back to my other "home" in Singapore meant the device just became a fatter, glorified iPod Touch. Calling Optus from here though all I had to do was prove my ID and ask for it to be unlocked for it to be activated on their end. Optus claimed they usually need 10-15 business days to push through an unlock but because I was overseas already they "pushed it through" faster and promised it'd be done in 24 hours. And to their credit, it was!

Once I had backed up my iPhone in iTunes I did a complete restore, during which time I was told my carrier had some new settings to transfer which I presume changed the IMEI number to a carrier-neutral setting. When I popped out my Optus SIM and pushed in the SingTel Mobile 3G card I had from my Centro with the data plan, it worked beautifully.

I've had mobile phones for many years but this is the first time I've had to deal with the issue of "locked" phones which is more of an American phone company thing. The iPhone is an American designed phone so I guess this makes sense.

Anyway I'm super pleased I was able to get Apple and Optus to unlock it without question even though my 12 month contract hasn't expired so I can use my iTelephone here. Singapore has brilliant phone coverage, I've been walking around all morning with it and have had full signal strength for 3G the entire time. Back in Adelaide I only get a decent 3G signal in the CBD. The iTelephone was built for places like Singapore!

Successfully got Optus to unlock my iTelephone, also upgraded to the 3.0 software at the same time. I NEVER get full bars on the Optus 3G network in Australia, go SingTel! (The irony isn't lost on me that I bag out Optus while praising SingTel by the way!)

There's something poetic about having a phone connected to a Singapore network that has a weather application for Australia. Is poetic the word I'm thinking of? Maybe I meant grilled cheese sandwich. Yeah, that works.

Links shared from del.icio.us today:

Daylight Atheism

"Nighttime is for dreaming. Daylight is for action." Why can't I write taglines like that?!

(categories: blogs politics science atheism religion logic skepticism)

Sesto Potere – Il mio Blog: Singapore's total population grew to 4.84m in 2008

(categories: singapore news blogs economics)

Farah: Obama Wants to Kill All Jews! : Dispatches from the Culture Wars

(categories: politics nuts middleeast news science)

Yesterday I talked about the IBM Model M and the Nortgate Omnikey series of keyboards which were manufactured from the 80s to early 90s and that many people claim provided superior tactile and audible feedback with their buckling spring designs compared to modern, cheap membrane keyboards. Not only that, but because they were built like battleships many people are still using these keyboards with their latest machines!

There's both good news and bad news for people of my age who were too young to have used such keyboards when they were being produced. The bad news first: because these keyboards were so well built and are no longer being produced by their original manufacturers, second hand examples routinely go for hundreds of dollars on eBay and other online merchants. I saw an original Northgate OmniKey 102 fetch over AU$240.00!

The good news is, grilled cheese sandwiches are tasty. Wait, what? Not only that, but in doing research I came across two current companies that manufacture these keyboards to the original specifications of both IBM and Northgate, and while they're prices are higher than a typical 104 key Logitech you could pick up for a couple of bucks, they're far cheaper than buying originals:

CVT

Manufactures the 101 key Avant Prime for US$149.00 and the 116 key Avant Stellar for US$189.00. Both are built to the same specifications as the legendary Northgates, are reprogrammable and come with PS/2 connectors which means no hunting around for AT adaptors!

Unicomp

Manufacturers dozens of different keyboards, some of which have the identical layout and buckling spring designs as the IBM Model M series such as the Customizer 101 which are indistinguishable! The one I have my eyes on is the SpaceSaver which has the exact same keys as the IBMs but with a much narrower bezel. You can also order Linux keyboard layouts which have the [CTRL] and [CAPS LOCK] keys swapped which would be fantastic.

I remember back to when we first moved to Singapore and we threw away out first IBM desktop because it got damaged (to put it mildly!) in the move from Brisbane. I was too little to remember many of the details, but when I saw photos of the Model M keyboards I'm fairly sure that's the loud, fun keyboard it had, right down to the springy telephone-like data cable! Wish we still had that machine.

I find all this stuff fascinating. You can take that however you want.