Apparently there are scenarios where the Apple iPhone thinks that the headphones are plugged in. For example here.
The solution is, as mentioned in many places, to repeatedly plug in and remove the jack. This will convince the phone that the headphones are not plugged in. Be sure to have the iPod playing something so you can hear when the phone resets itself.
It would be nice if Apple would determine what the source of the problem is and issue a patch that resolves it.
The same day that the Fox News web site was leading with an incindeary story about the “Office of the President-Elect,” they also had a funny story about National Public Radio (NPR) coverage of a prayer booth installed on public property in New York City.
The reporter in question, Margo Adler, has worked for NPR for many years and covered many, many stories for the broadcast network and is presently assigned to New York City. Why should her religious beliefs suddenly matter? Would Fox News have titled this story, and written the story itself, in the way that they did if a Christian reporter had been sent to cover the story in New York? How about a Muslim, a Jew, a Hindu, a Buddist, a Baha’i, or any member of dozens of other religions? I suspect that some faiths would not have garnered such attention or spin from Fox News and that a few others would have been treated similarly.
You can listen to the Margo Adler story that has so upset Fox News here.
I’m not a fan of Fox News (particularly the television network), but but I do read their web site (www.foxnews.com) as part of my efforts to remain informed. As long as you stay away from the overtly political “news” the stories are generally okay. To be certain their news stories do have more of a conservative slant (liberal media any one?). And that slant does lead to some funny stories.
In that vein, I’ve found a few things recently that have struck me as being funny.
The “funny” aspect of this is why does it matter? Why does it need to be pointed out like this?
Barack Obama is the President-Elect. He certainly has an office somewhere. The American people are asking him to speak with authority on the various crises facing the USA and the world. It would be presumptious and gross breach of protocol for President-Elect Obama to be speaking from a podium labeled with the Presidential Seal and “President of the United States of America.”
The article that was behind the picture on the front page paints a different picture. The article actually discusses what is provided by the American people to the incoming president to enable a smooth and efficient transition of administrations. Among the things that are provided: funding to support a physical office.
The lead in to the story is what is “funny.” It tries to excite the reader into believing that President-Elect Obama is somehow usurping the role of President.
I’ve written about comment spam a couple of times now.
Everyday brings comment spam and, occassionally, there are gems in the spam that just make you laugh. You want to send the spammers a message that says “nice try.”
One that came in on Adventures in Updating the iPhone – Part II was one such message. Buried down as the last line of the comment, past all the porn links was this:
Admin, if you read this, please do not delete, just move it to flood or offtopic.
thanks.
Well, I do read the comments and, this shouldn’t come as a surprise, I’m not going to move it to “flood” or “offtopic.” I am going to delete it. Why? I see no reason to help you sell your noxious wares.
I’m not personally oppossed to pornography. There is a place for that type of activity involving consenting adults. The First Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees that right. But I’m under no obligation to help porn spammers, or any other spammers, make money.
Updating the Apple iPhone software seems to be an annoying / frustrating experience. I’ve previously written about the nightmare update when the iPhone 3G was released.
While today’s experience wasn’t as bad as that last session, it was not without its problems. The iTunes application kept seizing the window focus and telling me about its progress. While I do appreciate knowing what applications are doing, it is not “okay” to steal the computer’s focus just to tell me that the application is still doing what I just told it to do.
This sort of messaging just isn’t that important. I just don’t need to know that badly. It is rude for applicaitons to take over like this. Apparently whatever task I was performing while this update is taking place is simply not important enough to allow me to continue doing it. Sorry, Apple, but you have things backwards in this.
I wonder: would the iTunes application have behaved this badly if I had used my MacBook Pro to update the software on the iPhone?
While there is no doubt that the USA is in serious economic trouble and that action from the federal government is required, the wisdom of the government handing the country’s largest corporations staggering sums of money is debatable.
Corporations like General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler arguably employ many of the best business minds that this country, and the world, has to offer. Yet their business strategies and product development have been short-sighted. They have paid little more than lip service to a sustainable long-term plan while focusing on short-term profits. There have been systematic efforts to undermine fuel efficiency and alternative fuels because “consumers don’t want these things.”
This writer isn’t sure who the American automobile manufacturers have been talking to develop their product plans, but it isn’t me. I purchased a Toyota Prius two years ago and haven’t looked back. I won’t purchase another car that isn’t at least a gas/electric hybrid. I’d prefer an all electric like the Tesla, but they aren’t widely available enough to warrant purchasing one.
Toyota, Honda, and others seem to have done a better job of listening to the American consumer than the “Big Three.” They seem to be taking market share by producing cars that Americans want. Consumer perception is that the vehicles are better built, cost less to purchase, and cost less to operate. I’m not certain about the “costs less to purchase” as the Prius cost as much as my Dodge Dakota Quad Cab. But the Prius is definitely well-built and costs substantially less to operate than any American vehicle I have.
The American car manufacturers have to demonstrate some real understanding of the situation and some real leadership in changing the industry. It isn’t enough to come to the American taxpayer by way of Congress and say, “Gee, the economy is real bad and if we have to declare bankruptcy it’s going to be much, much worse.” I have no doubt that the economy would be worse if one or more of the American major car manufacturers were to declare bankruptcy. A pile of taxpayer money isn’t going to miraculously solve their problems.
How can these American corporations demonstrate leadership? The first is to curtail their excessive executive compensation and perk programs. Most Americans find that paying top executives millions of dollars a year while asking the taxpayer to hand their corporations enormous amounts of money outrageous. Private planes to travel to Washington, DC, as reported in numerous news stories today, to beg for taxpayer money is … well, it leaves one without words to adequately describe the audacity of that act.
The second way that the American car manufacturers can demonstrate leadership is to begin delivering cars that the American public wants to own and drive. What makes the Prius so successful? Find out, duplicate it, and improve upon it. Why does the Tesla capture the imagination? Find out, duplicate it, bring the mass production techniques that Detroit is so famous for to bear to lower costs, and improve upon it. The folks that run these companies can surely figure out how to build more fuel efficient, more environmentally friendly, less oil-dependent vehicles and regain the confidence of the American public to purchase their products. (There’s a side-benefit in that the dependence Middle Eastern oil producers can be reduced or eliminated; but that’s a different essay.)
A third way would be to offer substantial incentives for Americans to trade in their giant gas guzzlers when purchasing a new fuel-efficient or alternative fuel vehicle. Instead of putting the vehicle back on the market it should be completely recycled (i.e. complete decontamination and reclamation of all materials). Not only would this be good for the environment, it would create an entire new industry and employ many thousands of Americans … assuming, of course, that the automotive recycling process isn’t sent overseas where it could be done more inexpensively and with less environmental regulation.
It really isn’t fair to the American taxpayer that these giant corporations retain profits for themselves when times are good and shift losses to the taxpayer when times are bad. But, if Congress is going to decide that it is in the best interests of the American taxpayer to issue a bailout to the American car companies then it should come with some major strings attached that guarantee that the companies will change their business practices. Holding these corporations to the leadership goals identified earlier is certainly a start.
As I go through the process of rebuilding my main computer due to a hardware failure (either the video card or the primary hard disk … didn’t bother to figure it out and just replaced both) I noticed something strange happening with the Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO) update.
Yep, that’s right the percentage of the update that is complete is 176% while the number of files would not even indicate 25%. And as I write this post the percentage is now up to 609% of complete.
The 2008 US Presidential Election is now finally over. Senator Barack Obama has made history by being the first man of African origin to be elected to the US presidency. History will continue to be made as President-Elect Obama chooses a transition team to prepare him for the task ahead and to help select and prepare the advisors that will serve in the Obama administration. The real history making will begin January 20, 2009 when President-Elect Obama takes the Oath of Office.
There is no question that the achievement is stunning and historical. Congratulations are definitely in order.
As a watch the progress of the projection of the 2008 US Presidential results, I’m struck by the performance of the various web sites I’ve been watching. I regularly check CNN, Fox News, and BBC News and tonight is no different. Naturally, all three news sites had differing presentations of the results.
CNN’s results were always updating, timely, and, most importantly, available and legible.
The same was true with the BBC’s results.
But with Fox News, the results were routinely unusable. At time, there was the “be patient” progress.
Or there was the “display it so small …” progress.
No amount of “refreshing” the display with the Fox News site would cause the problems to correct. They weren’t intermittent.
The conspiracy theorist would probably argue that the projected outcome was not to Fox News’ liking, so that deliberately made it hard for their internets viewers to see the results. I’d rather think that the design of their election presentation application simply wasn’t up to the load that they were receiving.
This is just my interesting series of observations as I watch this historic night of US elections unfold.
It has been a few years since AC/DC has released an album; longer still since I’ve purchased one. Their new album, Black Ice, is a solid effort. Certainly it isn’t as good as the classics like Back in Black and For Those About to Rock. It is hard to maintain the rebellious school boy image when you’re fifty-ish years old.
The Rock N Roll Train is probably the best song on the album. Stormy May Day has some interesting guitar riffs; the title track Black Ice is also good. It’s all typical AC/DC … something we criticize other bands for and, for some strange reason, let AC/DC get away with releasing the same style songs album after album.
The only disappointing facet of this album is the exclusive distribution arrangement with Wal-Mart. I’m not a big fan of exclusive distribution agreements, much less Wal-Mart as the distributor granted that privilege.
[The scan of the CD cover really doesn’t do the cover justice.]