ipod Touch 16G

Okay, I know I said I wasn’t going to get it. But, work has been a bit stressful lately and I needed a release.  Besides, I had already transferred the money from savings to checking. So on Wednesday, I bought the 16G iPod Touch at the LaCosta Apple Store.  I got it home and was pleasantly surprised that I did not have to deauthorize my 2nd Gen iPod.  I didn’t realize the authorization limit of 5 applies to computers, not devices.

After having it for a couple of days now, I’m very satisfied with my purchase. My rave’s are:  1)  The lock-button – not only does it lock the screen, but it turns it off and saves battery life; and 2) When listening to a podcast, if I pause it and go to another podcast or application and come back to it, it picks up where I left off.  This is a huge deal since on my 2nd Gen I’d always have to remember or write down where I was at. Something that made listening to audio books a pain.

Although I like it, I can come up with two rant’s as well:  1) My iMac has frozen twice each time I’ve had it plugged in; and 2) It is very thin, almost too thin.  I bought a slip cover for it and that seems to help. I think I’m just used to have weight and feel of my 2nd Gen.  I haven’t gotten too much into buying apps yet, I wish the iTune’s store would play a preview of the apps instead of just screenshots.

It is all about the podcast

2008 was definitely the year of the podcast for me. While I bought my first iPod back in 2002 and started listening to podcasts in 2005, it wasn’t something I was into until this year.  With my 1 hour commute to work each way, I am able to get through about 10 hours during the working week.  Although I grew up in the TV and not the radio generation, I much prefer to listen to the radio than watch television. In addition, it has fattened my wallet. I used to be a heavy magazine buyer (SCIAM, Economist, Atlantic Monthly).

Below are a list of the podcasts I currently listen to on a regular basis.  Most of them fall into science and technology. However, I am starting to branch out a bit. I put a star next to my favorites. If you have a favorite podcast or just would like to provide a recommendation, please submit a comment below.

Science

• Science Magazine*
• Science Talk*
• The Science Show
• Nature*
• Futures in Biotech
• Brain Science

Technology

• This week in Tech
• gdgt weekly

Current Events/History

• No Agenda*
• 60 Minutes
• BBC History

Business

• Knowledge at Wharton
• HBR Business Idea Cast

Literature

• BBC World Book Club

Blast from the past – Compaq Presario and Windows 95

A few weeks ago, I had lunch with a friend who runs his own consulting company. He asked if I knew structural equation modeling. If I did, there might be some side work I can do for him in the future. In graduate school, my multivariate professor’s specialty was SEM. I signed up to do a directed study to learn more about SEM after getting exposed to it in my multivariate stats class. In the process, I obtained a copy of EQS and a user’s guide.

The only problem is that the copy I have is on my Windows 95 machine, a Compaq Presario from the ‘97 to ‘98 era. After a quick trip to Target and Rite Aid to pick up a keyboard and mouse with PS2 connections (Windows 95 doesn’t support USB) I was up and running. Above are a couple of picures, notice the miniscule amount of RAM this machine has. However, it runs the stats programs I have (see other picture) just fine. Another notable piece of stats software is GANOVA (one of icons in left-hand column). I used this software to perform the matrix algebra calculations for my Master’s thesis.

I haven’t run this machine in probably 8 years. It is like a mini time machine. Although I don’t have a lot of files, the ones I do have take me back a ways. I have a couple of icon sets I created for an MS Access DB program I built for Sempra Energy. I’ll save that for another post since the story behind the icons is pretty funny. I called Michelle up to check out some of her files she still had on the machine. Most were some of her early court reporting school work. I dare not plug this machine to the internet, I don’t know what would happen. Just want to use it to get back up-to-speed on SEM.

Itunes podcasts not auto updating

2008 was the year of the podcast for me. A little late in the game, but you know how the old saying goes.  Nowadays, I religously listen to about 8 weekly podcasts and another handful on a monthly basis.  I manually update my podcasts and songs so not to clutter it up with my wife’s stuff.  Every Sunday evening, I plug it in, download the latest podcasts and I’m good for the upcoming week.

Why then do I seem to randomly get the ‘!’ icon indicating I have not updated a certain podcast in a while and I then have to go through extra steps to download it. Although it is not a huge deal, I have to sometimes go back through the Itunes store and resubscribe to the podcast.  Seems something is awry. Not sure if it is Itunes or the podcaster updating/changing addresses.

Free stickers from the Gmail Team

Free stickers from Gmail

When I was a kid in another time, I remember sending away for stuff  through the mail.  Save five box tops from Cap’n Crunch along with $5 and get a cold war era fighter jet.  Tonight, Michelle brought in the mail and handed me what I thought were more Xmas cards to tape to the mantle.  Instead, it was an envelope addressed to me in my own handwriting.  Was I applying for a library card?  Evidently this is the same process I took to secure my first library card when I was 8.  No, about a month ago I read the Gmail Team at Google were giving away free stickers. All that was needed was to send a self addressed stamped envelope. It had been so long since I did that and I am a little embarrassed to admit that I had to search ‘SASE’ in Wikipedia just to make sure I did it right.  Thank you Gmail Team at Google for the free stickers.  Now only if the blue chip stamp collecting would come back in style. I am in need of an alarm clock with a radio for Gabe’s room.