Kid Update January 29, 2006
Posted by a1291762 in : Uncategorized , add a commentIsaac has moved to 4 feeds every 5 hours. That gives him a night sleep from 10pm – 7am. He might go longer at night but he doesn’t want to eat more at each feed and doesn’t want less time between feeds. At 4 hour feeds he was getting fussy and fighting us. He’s happy now going the extra hour and is back up to 150ml. Isaac is very different to Emily when it comes to eating.
We went to church today and Emily went into the creche. It’s the first time she’s been left with a total stranger and she was fine with it. She didn’t even wait for me to leave before she was playing and everyone thought she must have been going to day care since she was so good. It’s so nice that the things we’ve been working on for so many years are starting to pay off.
You've got Java January 26, 2006
Posted by a1291762 in : Uncategorized , add a commentI found the reason my Java games weren’t running. It seems that moto4lin was not creating a .pat file. I just copied one of the existing ones, gave it the right name and now I can play Java games. Woot!
I was trying to create some MP3 files for the phone and I’ve basically decided that Audacity is crap for anything that is over 10 seconds long. That seems to be the minimum length file it’ll write. Luckily I can use iTunes to encode MP3s at the right rate. My SMS sound is now the AOL classic, “You’ve got mail”.
Ring tones suck, Lilypond rocks January 26, 2006
Posted by a1291762 in : Uncategorized , 1 comment so farAfter buying some ring tones I realised that one of the songs (Super Mario Brothers theme) was crappy. It was slow and had a 4 second delay at the beginning (in my opinion, that is unacceptable for a ring tone). I downloaded the file to my computer but I couldn’t find any free midi editors for Mac OS X. Luckily I remembered that LilyPond can convert MIDI files. I converted the file and all seemed good. I removed the delay at the beginning and sped up the song then generated a MIDI file. That’s when I found out that LilyPond needed to know the names of the MIDI instruments (the converter hadn’t saved them). I found a program that told me what the file was using for each of the parts. Unfortunately, there were some MIDI drums being used and the LilyPond converter had just used the note frequencies. It took a while to find the right info (most of what I found applied only to older releases of LilyPond) but I finally found out how to get LilyPond to do MIDI drums. A quick search and replace in vim and I had the drum track fixed.
I find it ironic that the commercial product was bad but some free software (moto4lin, vim, LilyPond) could correct it.
I found out that Virgin doesn’t charge for GPRS usage but that’s because they have severe limits on what you can do with it. Basically MMS stuff only works to certain other networks and WAP only works to Virgin’s site. It’s pretty clear that the guys who did Virgin’s site don’t understand how everything works though because they specifically say that WAP and MMS work but they say that GPRS doesn’t work (even though it’s the transport used for both of these, there is no CSD support).
I really want to try out Opera Mini (it’s been publicly released) but you can’t download it without having WAP access to http://mini.opera.com/. Wait a minute… There’s a download link that wasn’t there before. Now all I have to figure out is how to upload Java files to my phone so that they work (no luck with that yet).
Bree graduates, gets work January 24, 2006
Posted by a1291762 in : Uncategorized , add a commentBree has finished her Master of Special Education. She can’t officially graduate till April (stupid University) but she’s already got work. She’s doing 2.5 days a week at a special school. Her mum has come to the rescue for child minding but it’s starting to look like we’re going to have to put Emily in day care before she’s 3.
Virgin Mobile redeems itself January 23, 2006
Posted by a1291762 in : v220 , add a commentI (finally) have a new Motorola V220. I have my original number. I have GPRS. I (will soon) have the unlock codes.
I went all the way to Brisbane because I knew there was a V220 in the Virgin Mobile store there. However, when I got there I enquired about unlocking the phone and they said the only way I could do that was to put at least $80 of credits on the SIM card that came with the phone. I told them that I would not do that because I didn’t want to get a new number and they told me to bugger off. Needless to say I didn’t buy a phone from them, or the case I was looking at.
However, I was thinking about it and the more I thought, the more I figured that they must have been morons. It was Virgin that told me I needed both a new phone and a new SIM card. How on earth could they penalise me for being an existing customer?
I looked around at the Virgin resellers near my house and was surprised to find a V220 at Dick Smith. I got it and confirmed that the hardware was working. I got a case from a bargain bin. It’s not leather like the one in Brisbane but it has a velcro flip that goes over the phone so I’m more confident that it won’t fall out.
I called up Virgin today and the guy on the other end, after hearing my plight and seeing the file notes (which document my sad tale) ordered the unlock codes for me. He also enabled GPRS on my SIM card (the one with my real number).
I could literally jump carriers now. I only have $20 credits with Virgin which isn’t hard to use up. I’m actually tempted to stay now though since they’ve redeemed themselves. At least for a while. There’s lots of paperwork to fill out when you change carriers anyway.
In related news, I’ve been hacking my V220. When you open the cover it now has my name instead of the Motorola logo. I’ve uploaded the photo I took on the first phone (which I use as a wallpaper) and the ring tone I purchased (Lee Harding – Wasabi). I removed a bunch of crap that I don’t need (useless built-in ring tones, pictures, videos). Why you can’t normally remove this stuff is beyond me.
I had $20 credits on 2 SIM cards (with numbers I didn’t want) so I figured I’d buy some ring tones and games. I think these are generally a waste of money but then I had some money to waste. I got a Super Mario Brothers ring tone ($3.95) and 2 Java games at $5.95 each (Yu – A Warrior’s Tale, WW2 Battle for Europe). I got them from Virgin Vibe because I can’t access other sites from my phone (this is intentional because I only have a prepaid account).
I found a site with free midlets but they can’t compete with the stuff you pay for. I might put my own stuff I make up there. Due to the download restriction on my account I used moto4lin (which runs on Mac OS X too!) to upload games. I even uploaded my hacked up version of MicroTank (a J2ME example app from Sun). Something’s wrong though because I can’t play the games I uploaded.
Waiting for a MacBook Pro January 23, 2006
Posted by a1291762 in : Uncategorized , add a commentApparently, retailers in Australia were expecting a shipment of MacBook Pros on 20 Jan. However, Apple has now said that the first shipment will be mid-Feb. The problem this causes is that many people (and most businesses) won’t order something they can’t see and now retail outlets will have no hardware to demo until mid-Feb. According to the place my MacBook Pro is ordered from, this is good news for people like me who have already ordered because there will be no large business orders taking up stock from the first shipments.
When the Mac Mini came out, we ordered some for work from the Apple store. However, retail outlets had access to Mac Minis for weeks before we got our orders. Resellers get the stock early so they can demo it but I guess if there’s enough stock they’ll sell some too. That’s why we didn’t order the MacBook Pros from the Apple store.
I hate all this waiting… I’m so excited!
Updates January 18, 2006
Posted by a1291762 in : Uncategorized , add a commentWhile doing the drainage and ramp, my brother managed to drive his truck into the fence (I can’t believe I didn’t blog about that). Tomorrow, it will finally get fixed. The sagging side gate will also get replaced.
Our new fridge and washing machine arrive tomorrow. I’m amazed that the 2 weeks we were quoted was accurate.
Bree is having an interview with a school. Assuming all goes well, she will get a contract. It’s a special needs thing so she’s totally stoked.
Emily is so clever. She has a puzzle that is too fiddly for her to do but she can identify the correct pieces by both name (they’re sea creatures) and shape. She can find items in picture books. Her vocabulary is continuing to grow very fast, outpaced only by her comprehension.
Normally I’ve left by the time Emily wakes up but I was running late this morning and she must have heard me because when Bree went to get her she said “Is he here?”
Virgin Mobile Sucks January 18, 2006
Posted by a1291762 in : v220 , 1 comment so farAs of now, Virgin Mobile officially sucks.
They would not talk to me for 10 days after the courier said the phone had been delivered because that’s the “turnaround time” for this sort of thing. Worse, when I rang after 10 days, they still had no idea what was going on. I had to talk to a supervisor.
After taking a while to check, it seems that my phone was approved for replacement but apparently things just stopped there because they had no more V220’s in stock. Worse, they are not getting any more in stock. The supervisor said I should check the web site to get a new phone but I told her to bugger off because I specifically wanted the V220. I really can’t see how someone that sells phones would think a similar feature list means the phone is the same. Anyway, they are going to give me a full refund.
Of course, the really annoying thing is that immediately after getting off the phone with them, I rang one of their retail stores and low and behold there are V220’s on their shelves! What self-respecting company cannot identify stock in it’s own retail stores?
I’m so pissed off that I’m probably going to switch carriers now. Unfortunately, I have to spend $80 on recharge credits with the new phone before they’ll unlock it. After that, I’m definitely shopping around.
She will be mine. Oh yes, she will be mine. January 16, 2006
Posted by a1291762 in : Uncategorized , add a commentThere’s been some early reviews of the Intel-based iMacs and it looks good. The MacBook Pro has similar components so I’ve decided that waiting for MacBook Pro reviews is not needed.
The salary sacrifice means that the purchase is actually made by my employer. Our regular computer supplier offered us a discount over Apple’s price. I also heard that they expected MacBook Pro stock in later this month, rather than mid Feb, which is what Apple is quoting.
It’s all moot now because my order is in. I’m committed. Soon I’ll have a 15.4″ MacBook Pro powered by a 1.8Ghz Core Duo.
Some say I’ll just be an Apple beta tester. Some say new products are due in a few months that will blow the MacBook Pro away. Some moan about the things that were removed or downgraded compared to the previous model. I don’t care.
I shall call the new machine Eve, because I’m hopeless at making up names and a webcomic I’m reading just inspired me.
Isaac changes sleep/eat patterns again January 12, 2006
Posted by a1291762 in : Uncategorized , add a commentAfter 2 weeks, Isaac has decided that he doesn’t really want to sleep all night anymore. Since we’re not interested in getting up at 3am, that means feeding at 10pm. It’s very strange because he’s been playing with his feeds, going 3 hours then back to 4 and I think he just gave up.
We fed him at 10pm last night and while he didn’t seem too happy about it, he didn’t wake up at 3am like he did the three nights previously. He took an extra feed or two the last few days so we think he might be about to grow. Perhaps after he’s done his growing he’ll go back to all night sleeps.