On the edge of the CrackBerry ?
Oct 05
Well, by the looks of it the website is back up and running, so I should be able to post another article. Yesterday and the day before something went wrong over at the funny-farm where Knightwise.com was hosted and apparently the collective SQL Database array decided to shit itself and leave us hanging out to dry for about 2 days straight. I’m still in the process of figuring out what in wankers name went on, but things seem to we working ok.
This weekend, one of the first this year, has been spent mostly at home. As the weather outside decided to lay out a setting that would even make the Duracel Bunny depressed, we cuddled up in ‘the embassy’ (a nice nickname for our home) and have spent the majority of the day in our hobby room upstairs. With Neelix and Nyana sleeping, watching tv and surfing, I have some time to get behind the pc and get some outstanding work done. So far most of my activities have been : Trying to record the next episode of the Knightcast (Trying), Securing one of my remote Linux servers and documenting the whole thing for my school project, cleaning up my massive itunes music collection and listening to some of the "freshly acquired tracks" that I have sorted so elegantly. Its a good thing I have the 24 inch Imac to hide behind otherwise people could quite easily think i’m mad since i’m bopping my head up and down, Senheiser Headphones up and bopping away to the music.
On saturday i sold the last of my G4 macs. The little mac mini I still had ( I had been using it as a Linux server) got adopted for some small ammount of cash by an 11 year old Mac enthusiast who, with this machine, got his first Mac. I installed the machine into perfectiona and bothered to slide a crapload of freeware and open source software on the desktop. This way this little guy won’t be bothering his mom for at least some time to come.
Saturday afternoon my central heating guy came by to install a thermostat downstairs and I had to lend a hand. When he asked me if I had a manual for the boiler in the basement I had to look at him and gently shake my head. His worried expression informed me I did however need one , so Google was my friend. Together we went into the basement, took the Acer laptop with us, checked the model number and found a PDF of the manual on the net. Pretty cool huh 🙂 Halfway in looking over the PDF (we did not of course print it out) the Craftsman and the IT guy were interrupted by the sound of a .. BLACKBERRY ? And what do you know ! Heating-guy pulls a BLACKBERRY from his pocked and quickly replies to an email. I was stoked ! Quickly afterward the whole situation turns into this techtalk babble between geeks. He’s bitching about the buttons on his Pearl being to small, I show him my HTC ! This is my heating guy ! He’s more geeky than me ! (when it comes to blackberry anyway). Love it !
Now I have been playing with the idea of getting me a Blackberry. Since i’m on the move quite a bit, a more permanent means to connecting to the internet is becoming apparent. Up to now freeloading of open Wifi was a pretty cool way to get things done, however more and more people secure their wifi networks these days. The dumbo-dumb days are unfortunately over. So I needed a fallback scenario to get on line when I needed to. There is of course the issue of "what do you go online with : Go for a 3G Usb modem and use the Acer Netbook, or use the smartphone with a GPRS connection ? The former is more powerful then the latter, but the latter is more convenient. Its quicker to whip out your cellphone and check your emails or Twitter, then to boot up a complete netbook. So I had been looking at GPRS contracts, 3G contracts and even Blackberry solutions. At 15 euro’s a month they don’t come cheap and the 100 megabyte data cap is not really smiling in my direction either.. But its worth a look. A Blackberry would form the "instant communication umbilical" between me and my life on the internet. And as much as I look at the possibilities, I also am a little frightened of the whole concept. With Mobistar having a deal on the Blackberry Curve 8320 for a peasy 225 euro’s (if you buy it toghether with a blackberry contract) the Blackberry is within my grasp.. But then what ? Will I become one of those "Crackberry addictees" ? or might it be a disappointing experience ? I do know that , having already done my research on the apps I can run on it, the Blackberry would tie me into my web based life pretty smoothly. Syncing the Google calendar, Getting my Gmail on the BB, Contact sync software for the Mac is also out there.. and the list goes on. Portable SSH client, Googletalk, Irc… Tie that together with the fact that the BB 8320 comes with Wifi, a digital camera and a micro sd card .. this could be leaning towards the perfect device for a sweet price ?
