Surreality TV

After class last night, a friend downloaded the lightsaber app for his iPhone, and I downloaded the one for the Droid to mine. Our duel was a draw. Unfortunately, I couldn't use the Force to pull the roof down on his head and claim superiority that way, so for now the Empire and the Rebellion are at a stalemate.

So, I've been carrying it for over a week now, and I seriously dig this phone.

http://xkcd.com/662/

Seriously, the screen is phenomenally crisp and renders beautifully. The performance of the phone is fine so far, and there are plenty of apps in the Market. I think my favorite might be Google Places Directory. It grabs your current location via GPS, and gives you a list of categories and gives you a list of places nearby. You can tell it to Navigate to it from current location and it'll give you verbal directions while it maps the route (or you can just view the map, or you can exit if you know the area but not specifically where something was, etc). Goodbye Garmin and TomTom, I'm sure someone, somewhere, will miss you.

There's a nifty app for the DC Metro system that shows in real time what trains are coming into the selected station, how many cars make up the train, and how many minutes from the station it is. Metro Center, Gallery Place, and L'Enfant Plaza are really cool to use to show this off, as they are the three major stations in the whole system. Those three stations are within a mile of each other, and between them, you can switch from from any line to any other line. Right now, Rosslyn, the Metro station about a block away, has an eight car orange line train east two minutes out, a six car blue line train east six minutes out, a six car orange line east train twelve minutes out, a six car blue line train south one minute out, a six car orange line train west nine minutes out, and a six car blue line south train thirteen minutes out (of course, those numbers have changed since I started typing this). It was free in the Market.

And of course, there are a bunch of games, news, weather, productivity, etc. apps all there too (for example, Documents to Go lets me read Word and Excel files with the free version, the pay version will let me edit them and adds PowerPoint and PDF (reading and editing) to the mix).

I'm very pleased so far.

So, I've been carrying it for over a week now, and I seriously dig this phone.

http://xkcd.com/662/

Seriously, the screen is phenomenally crisp and renders beautifully. The performance of the phone is fine so far, and there are plenty of apps in the Market. I think my favorite might be Google Places Directory. It grabs your current location via GPS, and gives you a list of categories and gives you a list of places nearby. You can tell it to Navigate to it from current location and it'll give you verbal directions while it maps the route (or you can just view the map, or you can exit if you know the area but not specifically where something was, etc). Goodbye Garmin and TomTom, I'm sure someone, somewhere, will miss you.

There's a nifty app for the DC Metro system that shows in real time what trains are coming into the selected station, how many cars make up the train, and how many minutes from the station it is. Metro Center, Gallery Place, and L'Enfant Plaza are really cool to use to show this off, as they are the three major stations in the whole system. Those three stations are within a mile of each other, and between them, you can switch from from any line to any other line. Right now, Rosslyn, the Metro station about a block away, has an eight car orange line train east two minutes out, a six car blue line train east six minutes out, a six car orange line east train twelve minutes out, a six car blue line train south one minute out, a six car orange line train west nine minutes out, and a six car blue line south train thirteen minutes out (of course, those numbers have changed since I started typing this). It was free in the Market.

And of course, there are a bunch of games, news, weather, productivity, etc. apps all there too (for example, Documents to Go lets me read Word and Excel files with the free version, the pay version will let me edit them and adds PowerPoint and PDF (reading and editing) to the mix).

I'm very pleased so far.

I was never in the target audience for an iPhone because I refuse to use AT&T/Cingular.

This, however, looks like it should kick ass.

And it lives on Verizon, which is good, because I'm not about to switch carriers.

Yet another voice mail module dies. This one lasted three days. At present rate of time in service to death, the next one will arrive already broken.

Here, have something to laugh at while I go on a killing spree:

< Xyzzy > http://jalopnik.com/378838/and-now-your-jalopnik-moment-of-zen
< Xyzzy > "Honey, I don't think our Wall of Death act is thrilling enough."
< Xyzzy > "You're right, baby. Let's strap a basket to the side of your car and STICK A GODDAMN LION IN IT!"

EDIT: It's not even an original failure mode...

IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
...

Same as last time. And the one before. Gee, I wonder if maybe there's a design or manufacturing problem here.

Yet another voice mail module dies. This one lasted three days. At present rate of time in service to death, the next one will arrive already broken.

Here, have something to laugh at while I go on a killing spree:

< Xyzzy > http://jalopnik.com/378838/and-now-your-jalopnik-moment-of-zen
< Xyzzy > "Honey, I don't think our Wall of Death act is thrilling enough."
< Xyzzy > "You're right, baby. Let's strap a basket to the side of your car and STICK A GODDAMN LION IN IT!"

EDIT: It's not even an original failure mode...

IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
...

Same as last time. And the one before. Gee, I wonder if maybe there's a design or manufacturing problem here.

That every fucking time I have to deal with Avaya for any fucking reason it makes me want to kill people?

So, the voice mail module in the phone switch (the one that's a whole two weeks old) is fucking dead, as per my previous post. They courier a replacement module out, but it's got a newer major firmware release on it. Fine, whatever.

The software that I have to administer the voicemail? Only works with modules with the same major release number. Great, I'll just pop on over to Avaya's web site and get the appropriate version of the systems admin software. Oh, no I won't.

YOU CAN'T DOWNLOAD SOFTWARE FROM THEM THAT ONLY WORKS WITH THEIR FUCKING HARDWARE!

I've spent over an hour on the fucking phone getting transferred from support group to support group to support group. Our site ID in their database doesn't have any of our actual equipment associated with it. AND NO ONE CAN FUCKING FIX THIS APPARENTLY.

I swear to god, I'm going to drive by the Reston office on my way home and burn it to the fucking ground.

I WAS going to leave work a little early today, since I got up early, but noooo. The fucking voicemail system that just got replaced two weeks ago? Dead as a fucking doornail:

...
IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
IDE_Controller::reset(): isBusy
...

ad infinitum

What the fuck have I done to the universe?