Sandra Bullock is high on my list of favorite actresses. I saw The Blind Side and thought her performance was outstanding. Her acceptance speed for Best Actress was something special and if you missed the Oscar’s and didn’t see her speech I’ve embedded it below so you could watch it now.
I just love a good spy comedy. Here’s a 3:25 minute Hulu clip from Chuck, season 3, episode 8 that gives you a slice of what that show is all about. (Ignore the 30 second commercial at the start)
I’ve had a Mophie Juice Pack Air (product info) for five months now because, in my opinion, the iPhone battery does not have enough juice, period. I’m a heavy iPhone user so its battery usually lasts me until mid-afternoon.
From my experience you double your battery power when using the Mophie Juice Pack Air because it holds about the same amount of juice as the iPhone battery. I love my Mophie Juice Pack Air because of the extra battery power.
I found out about the Juice Pack while listening to the Today in iPhone podcast, and then I read an article over at Engadget.
In the morning I tend to load my iPhone into the fully charged Juice Pack and turn on the power switch so my iPhone is being charged and is using the Juice Pack battery. When the Juice Pack gets low or runs out I flip the switch to off and the iPhone starts using its own battery. At that point I usually swap out my Juice Pack with another iPhone case so I can charge the Juice Pack battery, which takes 2 to 3 hours.
I’ve done this the other way around: Where I have a fully charged iPhone and Juice Pack in the morning, but leave the Juice Pack switch in the off position (red) and run out the iPhone battery first, and then turn the Juice Pack switch to the on position (green) to charge up the iPhone.
However, the Juice Pack doesn’t fully charge the iPhone if you are using it and when the Juice Pack runs out of juice the iPhone can run down quickly, especially if you are using it heavily. At that point you have to find another source of power because the Juice Pack wouldn’t have had time to fully charge.
One slightly annoying thing is the noise that is made when the Juice Pack runs out of power. The iPhone will make a screeching sound when the Juice Pack runs out. That wouldn’t be so bad except that when the iPhone starts drawing power from its own battery the Juice Pack’s battery gets a reprieve, which then causes a temporary resurgence of power that quickly runs out again, hence another screech. This vicious loop will continue for a little while and drive you batty, or wake you up in the middle of the night wondering when the bats are going to eat off your face.
A second thing that bothers me is that the top and bottom fit together unevenly on one side. There is a slightly jagged point (see arrow in pic to left) that catches when I try and pull the Juice Pack out of my jeans pocket. The first time it happened the jagged point caught so that the Juice Pack was thrown out of my hand and hit the pavement. NOT GOOD. I assume it’s probably my particular case that has this problem, but if you’re going to buy one check this out straightaway and get one that has a smooth joining of top and bottom edges. I had mine quite a while before I even noticed this slight, yet annoying problem.
While I’m on a roll here I would like to explain how to put the top and bottom together. For a long time I tried to fit the top and bottom by first holding the two pieces. When that didn’t work I tried laying them down on a flat surface bottom side down, but the darned thing just didn’t want to fit together.
The trick is to lay the two pieces upside down on a flat surface and then the two line up perfectly and slip together like butter.
One quirk I have a hard time with is plugging in the male/female connector. It looks pretty simple, but the size is so small and after five months it still takes some doing to get the male/female power connector to mate. A this point I’ll refrain from several obvious jokes.
Lastly, the Juice Pack is flush with the iPhone case, which leaves the metal bezel exposed a susceptible to being scratched. I have another iPhone case made by InCase that fits over and protects the metal bezel. See the comparison below.
Even with all its faults, I need my Mophie Juice Pack Air. Until the iPhone has some REAL battery power, or Apple gives us the ability to switch out batteries in the iPhone I need another source for power. This is especially critical when I’m traveling. You know: planes, trains and automobiles. Nothing like running out of juice while watching a movie on a flight to England. Traveling without the Juice Pack is unthinkable.
App Review – Dragon Dictation for the iPhone
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The John P Health Challenge 2010 started out with high expectations and lots of energy, but ended very differently for me.
I took John P’s guidelines (The Rules) and made them my own. I changed my eating habits and created an exercise plan. I set a goal of losing 2 pounds per week knowing full well it was only a “best case” scenario. I tracked my food and water intake as well as my exercise output and that really helped my objectivity.
Father Daughter Dance
For the most part I did well with only two blips along the way. The first was a five-day trip where I gave away my daughter in “the wedding.” During that time I did “okay” with my eating habits, missed a lot of exercise, and failed ruthlessly with alcohol consumption.
However, I considered this a once-in-a-lifetime event and over the course of the next two weeks was able to get caught up to my exercise plan. And while I didn’t gain any weight that week, I certainly didn’t lose any.
The second problem started on Feb 18 while spending a week working in Canada. I picked up a nasty cough that I think was the result of a head cold or sinus problem. I do know that walking outside in 5 degree weather didn’t help things out any. To make a long story short, I didn’t start getting better until Feb 25.
In the middle of all that I caught a 24-hour bug from my grand-daughter that featured diarrhea and throwing-up. 
Needless to say, no exercising was done during the last 10 days. However, since I wasn’t eating very much, I did lose some extra weight. 
As a side note: I am now pretty good with a Neti Pot. Thanks Mom.
In spite of my setbacks I’ve managed to lose 11 pounds and hit 75% of my exercising goals in the last 8 weeks.
I plan to regain my strength, continue making healthy choices about food intake, and catch up to my exercise plan in this next month. There is more weight to lose this year and I want to start running again.
I probably shouldn’t put this in print, but my age is approaching the double nickel (Nov 2011) and I plan on running my fourth marathon after that particular milestone occurs so I can take advantage of a lower qualification time for the Boston Marathon, which is another story entirely.
I enjoyed the John P Health Challenge and have incorporated it into my lifestyle. And even though I was knocked down by sickness in the end and didn’t reach my entire set of goals for weight loss and exercising, I did make some good progress along the way.
Health Challenge 2010
14 Days of Health Challenge 2010
Halfway Point of Health Challenge 2010
44 Days of Health Challenge 2010
I recently switched my iPhone to Push Email and thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. Now it doesn’t work and I’m frustrated by not being able to understand what the problem is and to get it fixed.
I tried several things. Here are a few:
Between Apple and Google there doesn’t seem to be sufficient help documentation online to address problems with the iPhone email setup with Microsoft Exchange to get push email. And if you don’t check your web mail with your computer browser, you might not realize your iPhone is not receiving email.
I posted a question on the Google Mobile Help Forum: iPhone Push Email Not Working. Now I’m waiting for someone at Google to take notice and give some kind of response. Several people have this same problem right now and have posted comments.
If you’re having problems with push email not working on your iPhone follow the link above and leave a comment so Google will take notice.
This morning a Google employee, Douglas G, posted a link to another forum he started, which is directly related. Follow this to get some explaination: Google Sync outage information (1st March)
photo by kiankhoon
Recently I missed an episode of a TV show and watched it later on Hulu, where I found out that user controlled clips can be embedded on your web site. This gave me the idea of showing short excerpts of my favorite TV shows to give you an idea what they are like.
A necessary evil with showing a Hulu clip is the commercial at the beginning. I suppose we have to take a little bad with the good. Oh well.
A spy in Miami that helps people out with a great cast and neat spy stuff to boot. I love Burn Notice! Here’s a 5 minute clip that gives you a good idea of what the show is like. (Except that Fiona is not in this clip)
Hulu clip, season 3, episode 14.
I like Dropbox because I can backup files for free, share files or folders with others, and access files from multiple computers. Plus it’s easy to setup and use.
I went to the Dropbox website and read about all the neat features:
I took an online tour that covers the following topics:
I checked out the different pricing plans.
The Basic plan is free with up to 2.0GB, yet for each referral you get another 250 MB of bonus storage for free. The limit for bonus storage is an extra 3.0GB so you could potentially end up with 5.0GB of free storage.
Push email was not an option when I got my first iPhone. Unless of course you purchased Mobile Me, which I didn’t.
In 2009 Google announced it was offering push email by using Microsoft Exchange. This also included Calendars and Contacts info. However at that time you could only sync up to 5 calendars, which was not enough for me so I passed.
Recently there was some more publicity regarding push email and I found out that Google had increased the calendar sync limit to 25. So I decided to change over to push email.
When you go about this process of setting up, or in my case switching to, push email you have the option to include Calendars and Contacts. In addition, you can only set up one email account for push with Microsoft Exchange.
Here is a good reference video for the different features of Google Sync for your phone.
Here is how I had everything setup before going to push email. Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve made it three-quarters through the John P Health Challenge and am doing pretty good, if I do say so myself. I’m on track with my exercise plan and have been eating 30 to 50% less than I normally would.
Weight lost: 8 pounds
Exercises completed:
I’ve been keeping myself properly hydrated with the aid of the Water Your Body app on my iPhone. This really helps me with weight control and is fundamentally sound for healthy living.
I also keep track of everything I eat by tracking my food calories on the Lose It! app on my iPhone. This app also keeps track of all my exercise calories expended, and all the information is synced with my account on LoseIt dot com.
So the keys for me are setting up an exercise plan, keep track of all food intake and exercise output, and making sure I drink enough water each day. Sounds simple, but it works.
If you have any questions about the graph please do so in the comments.
Health Challenge 2010
14 Days of Health Challenge 2010
Halfway Point of Health Challenge 2010
A few months ago I bought the Tom Tom Car Kit for the iPhone. It cost a good bit of money $$, but I decided it was a “must have” with the Tom Tom iPhone app. That is until it broke on me. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
I thought long and hard about why I would purchase the Car Kit. It came down to all of the features and the fact that when I wasn’t using the Tom Tom app for navigation, I could still use the Car Kit for bluetooth (hands free) calling with my iPhone, which is important in Washington state.
As I mentioned, my Tom Tom Car Kit broke on me. It seemed to be a freak occurrence that shouldn’t have happened. I had just affixed the Car Kit to the windshield, snapped in my iPhone, and grabbed the holder to adjust the face of my iPhone toward me. The Car Kit has a ball and socket mechanism that allows positional adjustments, and has always seemed rather stiff to move.
This time it was acting particularly stubborn so I applied more pressure when it POPPED and I suddenly found myself holding the Car Kit with my iPhone inside. There were a couple of pieces that flew about, but the suction cup was still affixed to the windshield.
As near as I can tell a little plastic piece fractured inside, which rendered it unusable as a windshield mount. For the internal plastic to snap before the suction cup came loose from the windshield seemed rather hard to imagine.
Nevertheless I lugged the thing home with me and finally got around to calling the service personnel at Tom Tom.
What I found was not one, but two reasonably intelligent, pleasant, and efficient people. Of course it was helpful that I had purchased the Car Kit from Tom Tom and had an online account setup.
The customer service person helped verify my purchase with Tom Tom, setup a service request, and passed me off seamlessly to the warranty person to complete my claim. The second step was even faster where I received my instructions, verbally and by email, on sending the car kit back to Tom Tom and had my questions answered with alacrity.
I’ve sent the Car Kit back and am waiting for a replacement. As I said before, this seemed to be a freak occurrence. Thankfully Tom Tom agreed with my assessment and are standing behind their product.