We have released Sophie Early Release RC6, our open source book authoring tool. Sophie has come a long way and we’re not done by a long shot. Take a look!

The software is still beta, so there are bugs, but we’re fixing them as fast as we can. Your input is very valuable to us!

1. Attack Iraq because they have Weapons of Mass Destruction
2. Remove their leader, who actually didn’t like Al-Qaeda, tho he was a bastard, evil man.
3. Set the country into civil war
4. Allow Al-Qaeda to move into Iraq where they have much more room than in Afghanistan (Don’t charge them more rent btw)
5. July, 2007 announce you want to stay in Iraq 2 more years “to defeat Al-Qaeda where they have taken up headquarters,” which of course you master minded.
6. Prove yourself more ignorant than even simple minded web bloggers like myself
7. Do all of this while destroying the Constitution, which you think is a property on a Monopoly board

mmmm yes our economy is strong, Mr. Bush.

1 USD = 1.03621 CAD

Way to go. Keep dumping money in Iraq and moving all business to China. We’ll be third world in 25 years if not 5.

Americans, it really is time to wake up and realize we’ve been fucked by this choice of administration.

How long will it be before this great video of a baby using an iPhone makes it onto an Apple ad?

While golfing this weekend in Long Beach, WA, I broke out the iPhone and with the gloved hand, I was able to use the iPhone just as well as with my un-gloved hand. I was able to scroll google maps to where we were, pull up the satellite maps and plan my shots for the current hole.

The iPhone, however, did not help my horrible golf game.

I was trying to get the latest firmware to install on my 2.4ghz Santa Rosa MacBook Pro but it just would not install.

Finally thanks to Archon Fung over at Apple Discussions, I:

1. deleted the other firmware and system updaters from /Applications/Utilities/
2. deleted the receipts in /Library/Receipts for any firmware updaters
3. Ran System Update to get the 1.3 firmware again
4. Ran the updating process.
5. Success!

Score one for Mac users – Apple finally divorced full screen video playback in QuickTime Player from QuickTime Pro. Go get it now at software update!

Update: Or just download QuickTime 7.2 from Software Update and use QuickTime Player to export for Apple iPhone or Apple iPhone (Cellular)

None of my H.264 movies I make will play on my iPhone, because I make “QuickTime” movies with H.264. The trick is to make MPEG-4 movies and use the proper settings. Here is what I found works for converting my videos.

From Apple’s iPhone Page I extracted these steps:

• File Menu -> Export movie
• Choose Movie to MPEG-4
• Click Options
• File Format: MP4
• Video Format: H.264
• Frame Rate: Current
• Key Frame: Automatic
• Click Video Options…
  • Check Baseline (I left main checked)
  • Check Faster Encode

This made a .mp4 file. The final trick was changing my HTML to use the proper TYPE:

<object width="320" height="240" classid="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B"
        codebase="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab">
    <param name="src" value="http://www.geeksrus.com/movies/invisible_shield_iphone.mp4">
    <param name="controller" value="true">
    <param name="autoplay" value="false">
    <embed src="http://www.geeksrus.com/movies/invisible_shield_iphone.mp4"
        width="320" height="240"
        controller="true" autoplay="false"
        scale="tofit" cache="true"
        TYPE="video/mp4"
        pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/"
    >
</object>

If you are on an iPhone, Check out this example. Its rather very cool, as it lets you know there is a video and then tapping it gives you a video UI!

Yesterday I had Verizon switch my FIOS from PPPOE to DHCP. I was an early customer so I was on the cruddy PPPOE equipment. That was a long process but Keith rocked and got me taken care of within a day. Awesome!

Last night I start my usual routine of testing the SonicWall VPN with the Apple Airport Extreme N, just to see if DHCP affects the process at all. I disconnect the Linksys, connect the Airport to the ethernet jack, reset it to DHCP and oops, no internet connection.

Hmm. No IP, nothing. Damn! This is just DHCP, what could be wrong?

I plugged the Linksys back in and sure enough, it works. Ok. A little googling later I find an obscure post that says you must release the dhcp before switching routers, because Verizon caches the MAC address with your IP. Ugh!

I go to the Linksys Status page and click Release DHCP. Plug the Airport in and yay! I have an IP! Awesome!

Well not so awesome.

You see, switching to DHCP didn’t fix my VPN issue, so back to bridge mode the Airport goes. Plug the Linksys back in. No IP. Ugh, here we go again.

Fire up Airport Utility. Hunt, hunt. Damnit Apple, no Release DHCP button! I guess they figured that is an “Advanced” feature Airport users would not need.

Apple constantly blows this one with it’s routers – Not putting in features like MAC address cloning, etc, in order to make the routers simpler to support and then we get burned at 3am.

I had to call Verizon. 15 minutes later I had my DHCP released and the Linksys was working once again.

So now I’m really screwed. The Airport does not work with Elizabeth’s VPN, the router is over 4 months old (Because I’ve been patiently testing things for Apple) and now each time they want me to try something, I’ll need to spend 15 minutes on the phone with Verizon.

Sigh. Apple – Get on the ball and make your routers first class, please. Make them easy to set up and then add an Advanced tab for those inevitable cases when we get hosed. The world of networking sucks and while I appreciate the effort to hide it’s ugliness, you’ve only harmed me when I need to advance beyond the minimal controls.

Well this is ironic as the first post from my iPhone.

The phone was plugged into my Kensington powered hub when I unplugged the hub from the laptop last night. This am I went to get the phone and it was at 10% battery!

I am not sure but I recall iPods dying when plugged into a slept machine. Maybe something silmilar is happening?

Anyway i am in safari posting this because Verizon is reprovisioning my fios to dhcp.

My bedroom is directly above my office. This morning, we heard “bzzz bzzz bzzz.” We thought it was Elizabeth’s cell on the night stand. Nope, it was my cell phone, vibrating on my glass desk in the office downstairs.

Of course, we could barely hear Marimba playing at full volume. But the vibrations coupled through the glass, that we could hear.

Seems backwards, no?

There has been a lot of talk about how dumb Apple was with this new headphone jack design, that is recessed and needs an adaptor to work with 99% of the headphones in the market.

Today, being one who could not listen to audio into his car due to said jack, took my dremel to my AUX extension cable and trimmed, oh 1/8″ of the plastic shealth off. The connector is still protected, no exposed wires and it fits snugly.

Observations:

• Apple may have done this on purpose, to strengthen the jack via the narrower, metal top. I can’t tell that there is any play, and that seems like it would be less likely to break the solder on the headphone jack and mean fewer repairs.

• The audio pops loud if I plug the cable in when the radio is on. I think my old ipod did this also, but I rarely used the headphone jack in the car due to my (now non-working) Monster charger/line out adaptor. Turn down the radio first!

• The iPhonePod keeps different volume settings for headphones compared to the built in speaker, just like the Mac does. Nice.

• The iPhonePod pauses the music when you disconnect the headphones, like iPods do.

“This cnn.com feature is optimized for Adobe Flash Player version 8 or higher. You are currently using Flash Player 0″

I suppose that is indeed accurate.

TUAW has a nice tip for adding contractions.

This is a great job of inlaying video onto an iPhone screen! Very cool.

I spent $15 at The Beaverton Mac Store on a Invisible Shield for my iPhone.

You essentially:

1. Clean your ipod with a lint free cloth
2. Wash your hands very well
3. Spray your fingers with their solution (essentially soap)
4. Peel the skin off and place in hand, smooth side down
5. Spray the skin, both sides.
6. Slide around on phone, until speaker hole and button hole align.
7. Use included squigee to get bubbles off.
8. Wipe off excess water
9. Let dry 24 hours (took only 6 in this warm weather)

I have two very small vertical anomalies, like little cuts, that I can see when the screen is white beneath them, other than that you can’t tell its there.

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What if the iPhone had a biometric screen on top of the multi-touch support? Assuming the biometric worked and was not easily spoofed, that is.

Then you would not need a passcode. As you swiped to unlock, the iPhone would authenticate you as well.

So my friends and I are in a debate about what Apple said when about Flash support on the iPhone.

I did some searching but in the process I found this, on the site now:

http://www.apple.com/iphone/questionsandanswers.html

Can I view regular websites on iPhone or just mobile websites?

With the Safari web browser on iPhone, you can surf websites just as you do on your personal computer. You’re not limited to mobile WAP sites.

The first sentence does seem misleading. I can’t surf sites just as I do on my personal computer. Without Flash, Java or Quicktime, content is missing.

I wonder if a consumer agency will take Apple to task on this?

Safari uses the first phone number listed in your Address Book card. There is no direction UI manipulation gesture for controlling this order, but there is a preference.

Address Book -> Preferences -> Template

Make the number type you wish to be used by Safari (Home, Work, etc) be the first number type in the template. Set others as needed.

By default, Address Book only has Work and Mobile on the template, so Safari will always choose Mobile over Home. If you make the first entry in the template “Home” and then add a new entry for “Mobile,” your home number will always be used for Safari Autofill.

A little video shot with my MacBook Pro (video flipped in Quicktime Pro) on how the iPhone represents popup menus in Safari. On another note, does anyone know of shock therapy to keep me from saying “uhm” during silence?

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