Transcending Ordinary

I have so many things to blog about (dell mini9/vostro90 using OSX, trip to thailand, startup ideas, etc etc), But I’ll start with the easiest and one others can use information from.

Ok, before the 3.0 iphone update, I used my 3g iPhone with netShare over wireless or iphone tunnel over usb to share my phone connection with my laptop.  Now I have an even better solution, and you don’t even need to jailbreak your iphone.  I’m getting just over a meg a second connection with this quick setup.  Basically, you are going to connect your iPhone to your computer using USB or Bluetooth, and browse the internet on your computer like normal when we are done (using your phone’s internet connection).

Follow these steps:

A) Open terminal (Applications>Utilities>Terminal) and copy/paste this line:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes carrier-testing -bool TRUE

after hitting “return” nothing will happen, that’s ok.

B) Then  download this file and unzip it.  You’ll be left with a file called: ATT_US.ipcc

now, open iTunes and connect your iPhone (if not connected already)

there, select your iphone and while holding the alt/option key, click “check for updates”  this will open a browse box, select the ATT_US.ipcc file.

this will add the carrier settings to your phone.

C) One the phone, go to Settings>General>Network and turn on Internet Tethering, I would recommend using usb rather then bluetooth, but it’s up to you.

D) Last, you will then be prompted with an error saying that a network connection can not be opened (or something like that).  Click ok and in network properties and just hit the “apply” button, then close.  Wait a few seconds, and your phone will then say “internet tethering” at the top and you are all set to browser the web.  Of you do not see any of that, simply disconnect and reconnect the iPhone.

Keep in mind, that AT&T might wise up and stop the service they were planning on charging for but we are now getting for free

Another brisk day in sunny, San Francisco :)  More iPhone videos with another tip, when editing video with iMove, from an iPhone, don’t create a new project with the iphone 3:2 aspect ratio if you intend to upload to YouTube.  Save with 16:9 so that you can use the HD picture settings provided by YouTube for higher quality.  Yesterday’s clip I saved in that format, you’ll notice how much more clear it is then Saturdays clip below (click continue reading).

Also I’m happy to say, the first OneTaste resident came out to play a few games today, Greg.  He mentioned that he played organized basketball before, and he certainly lived up to expectations.  The first game he and I won, alot to a little :)  The second, we split teams, to make things more fair :p

Also, you’ll noticed unlike the video I posted before with just my shots, this one includes every shot made, regardless of the originator.

Continue Reading »

I took some video I shot after work on friday to make this first clip using iMovie rather then my previous (free) program, avidemux2_gtk. Also I learned that you can embed higher quality youtube videos by adding ‘&ap=%2526fmt%3D18′ to both values of your movie url values in the embed block (“param value” and “embed src”) click continue reading to see the difference.

Continue Reading »

After skiing out west at Lake Tahoe I decided to see just how different the conditions where back east at a resort I used to frequent in Pennsylvania called Whitetail. I have to admit that I skied at Tahoe a day after they got lots of new snow, Whitetail however… didn’t have much snow. Even with more snow, it seemed like the snow out west was… “fluffier.” Maybe it has to do with the extra humidity back east vs dry conditions out west. You can hear the ice scraping under the boards.

Anyway, the first clip is my friend Will Kern shooting me, the second is me shooting his run. Keep in mind, this was the first day using my iPhone to record video. Too much movement I know:)

Continue Reading »

So, thanks to my good friend Jim, who’s currently in Colombia, I had a nice place to stay in the Lake Tahoe area.  My brother was flying in for a wedding later in the week, so we decided to catch up last weekend and see what this “west” snow is all about.  Having snowboarded on the east coast the last few years, I often heard about how much better the conditions were out west.

We arrived in Truckee on saturday after a 3 hour drive.  Sunday we had breakfast there in Truckee, then a huge lunch in Reno.  While there we played a bit of blackjack.  I used basic strategy and managed to make $15 on the $40 I started with.  I joked with Peter saying, “I’m hungry, we’d better go make some money so we can pay for lunch.” :)  The great thing about gambling area’s like Reno or Vegas is that aside from gambling, everything else is cheap, especially the food
Continue Reading »

A week, like any other, full of change.  At then end of the week, I spent some time reflecting on things and realized just how busy I was and how, because of the changes, how stressful it seemed.  When compared with other weeks, I realized that it was only more of the same.
Continue Reading »

One advantage of being in, arguably, the tech capital of the world, are the conferences.  This week the Moscone center hosted Macworld 2009.  Luckily AOL was a big sponsor so I got free tickets  I’ve been to many conferences last year through my cousins company, and others through AOL, that Macworld didn’t carry much luster to be honest.  It was pretty typical and unfortunately I didn’t have time to visit many of the breakout sessions.  When I heard Apple wasn’t going to participate in next years conference I was shocked, after all, every company/product in attendance was build for or because of Apple.  I feel like they left their main supporters out in the cold.  Unfortunately it feels like Apple has so much going for it, what it can do whatever it wants.  As if they are so far beyond their competitors that they do not need to do the little things, like support trade shows for mac-centric vendors or give iPhone users copy/paste.  Anyway, here are pictures of the conference:


And pictures from the AOL sponsored Macworld Blast after party:

The big event this weekend was the Soapbox race sponsored by Red Bull in Dolores Park.  There were some 75k people there and 35 soapbox cars.  We got there after maybe the 3-4 car started and I stayed till the end.  There were tons of people there and maybe 4 big displays mirroring the event.  I was able to shoot decent video from a few of them, though the last one didn’t turn out well at all, but was my favorite skit/run put together by the Star War’s team.  Here are a few pictures of the event, along with a video I uploaded to YouTube.

Last sunday Ron and I walked over to Fleet Week, it’s an airshow at the waterfront that happens ever year.  It ran all week and we often saw and heard planes flying overhead while at work.  Once there, we meet up with another friend Damon, at the marina, who introduced us to some Japanese friends of his who were drinking/cooking on their boat.  Teriyaki beef with mexican beer:P

After picking up Rons car, we went over to the Burning Man Decompression.  I’ve always hear friends talk about this desert event and was interested in seeing what BM was all about, albient in the city and a much smaller version:)  Yeap, lots of interesting costumes and pryo :p

Here are some preview pictures (click continue reading for the rest):

Continue Reading »

Yesterday I took the CalTrain over to Stanford’s campus and visited the Cantor Museum.  The museum holds many of the works created by Auguste Rodin a french sculptor, donated by B. Gerald Cantor a philenthropic businessman from New York.  The museum also contains donations from the Stanford family as well as information on the tragic depth of their son Leland Jr.  Here are a few images from the visit (click “Continue Reading” for the rest):

Continue Reading »

The Love Fest just when I thought I’d seen it all If I had been to woodstock, I’m sure it would have been similar to this, albeit a few more drugs :p My friend Joyce called me in the morning and we went around lunch time. It was surprisingly close to my house and easy enough to find, just follow the music:) This city certainly has a life/culture of it’s own. Here are a few pictures:

Continue Reading »

Well I arrived on tuesday, to start my first day of work here at Bebo on wednesday

After taking the Bart from the airport and walking a few blocks, I arrived at Bayside Village.  As far as corporate appartments go, I must admit I was pretty dissapointed with the inside of my apartment.  I guess I’ve gotten used to things like corian countertops, walk in closets, hardwood floors, etc. from my house in DC, or my last corporate apartment in KC.  All that aside, the location is really all that matters, and that is superb.  On the short walk to work I pass the Giants stadium, a borders, whole foods, great resturants, a museum, caltrain station, zipcar lot…  Here are a few quick pictures upon my arrival:

Wow, as I consider ways websites try to build competitive advantages that are not easily replicated, one of the biggest leverages their size/money to create another advantage.  Here’s another brilliant move by Google, read the AP article here.

They’ve launched a Satellite into space today to capture imagery data, better then their current provider.

I was listening to a podcast about Google in Asia and wasn’t sure how well they might compare with local search companies like Bidu going forward.  Well, rather then indexing the data of others for search, they are gaining an important data source themselves that will certainly provide another strong competitive advantage.

The last one came last week in the form of a web browser, Chrome.  Many were quick to point out its inability to drive revenue and that it wasn’t necessary in a world of IE’s, Firefox’s, Safari’s, etc., however it further adds capabilities/opportunities to an emerging company who could use it to springboard into other business areas like office, desktop, even OS.

Ok, I think most tech guys people have a handful of domains registered.  Ya never know when you might actually get the time to use one right?  Well I’ve registered quite a few over the years, unfortunately not all in the same place, and not all updated before their expiration
Continue Reading »

Its seems each year I’ve got something going on around the house After all my traveling, I’ve had some time to get to a few things. In the last two weeks I’ve changed a shower rod/curtain, installed a cabinet in a bathroom, and gave my deck some much needed attention by resurfacing it. The deck turned out great, later that day it rained and seeing the water bead up put a smile on my face:) Last, I’m reaping the benefits of work done two summer ago, here’s a few shots of my perennials.

Upgrade the shower rod to the curved type:

Install new cabinet in bathroom (notice the modification ; ):

Deck Before:

Deck After:

Perennials: