This User’s ExperienceThe blog of Matt Henderson

I’ve recently noticed poor 3G network speeds when using my iPhone, and wanted to conduct some tests to identify which of the following could be the potential culprit:

1. Could it be the new 3.0 version of the iPhone operating system?

2. Could it be the new 3GS model of the iPhone?

3. Could it be a problem with my 3G provider, Vodafone España?

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In the Mac OS X operating system, when you copy content from one application, and paste into another, the source styles, in addition to the content, is copied into the destination. Unless you’re expecting or desire this behavior, your workflow is interrupted and you’re left with a bit of a mess to clean up (the effort of which relates to how quickly you discover what happened).

Most style-aware applications support a “Paste and Match Style” option, but some don’t (like “sidenote”, the application in which I’m writing this post.) For those, we’re kind of stuck.

Based on how I work (mostly in plain text), as well as most people I know, a preferred approach would be:

• “Paste and Match Style” should be the default behavior of the basic “Paste” function.

• The current “Paste and Match Style” option should be renamed and re-functioned “Paste with styles”.

• Applications that are particularly interested in styles (page layout applications, graphic design applications, etc.), could, on pastes which include styles, simply prompt the user, “Include styles with this paste?”

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from Matt Henderson’s Posterous

Sent from my iPhone

Posted via email from Matt Henderson’s Posterous

I’ve made an interesting discovery — Skype Support is run by a buggy computer system, code named “Sandra Valle”, that attempts to use artificial intelligence to read your mail, interpret it, and send out a canned response.

I placed an order for some Skype phones. They never arrived, even though the Skype website reported them as being delivered. Following is the transcript of my attempt to get assistance with the issue.

=============================

Hello Matt,

Thank you for contacting Skype Support.

You’ve contacted Skype Support which deals with Skype services (Skype accounts, Skype PC to PC internet telephony, SkypeOut, SkypeVoicemail, etc).

For any questions regarding hardware orders and other physical products on the Skype Accessories Shop we kindly ask you to contact the Skype Accessories Shop customer support team who will be able to help you with your order.

http://accessories.skype.com/info?&page=HelpTicketSubmit

Please make sure that the country shown on the top left of the page is the country you have ordered from.

If you have not yet placed an order in the Skype Accessories Shop, please do not choose the following categories:

• Where is my order
• Other issues related to my order

Only for above two categories the order number is necessarily required

Sandra Valle

SKYPE SUPPORT

=============================

From: Matt Henderson To: Sandra – Skype Support

Hello,

The link that you provided below will not accept my order number. I have spent more than one hour going through your site, and couldn’t find any other option to request help.

Can you please provide some assistance.

Kind regards,

– Matt Henderson

=============================

On Jan 14, 2007, at 7:25 PM, Sandra – Skype Support wrote:

Hello Matt,

Thank you for contacting Skype Support.

You’ve contacted Skype Support which deals with Skype services (Skype accounts, Skype PC to PC internet telephony, SkypeOut, SkypeVoicemail, etc).

For any questions regarding hardware orders and other physical products on the Skype Accessories Shop we kindly ask you to contact the Skype Accessories Shop customer support team who will be able to help you with your order.

http://accessories.skype.com/info?&page=HelpTicketSubmit

Please make sure that the country shown on the top left of the page is the country you have ordered from.

If you have not yet placed an order in the Skype Accessories Shop, please do not choose the following categories:

• Where is my order
• Other issues related to my order

Only for above two categories the order number is necessarily required

Sandra Valle

SKYPE SUPPORT

=============================

From: Matt Henderson To: Sandra – Skype Support

For goodness sake, will you please READ my email before replying with this boilerplate text.

1. I have placed an order with Skype, from the Spain store.

2. The telephones (Skype phones) I ordered never arrived, although from the Skype website, they appear as being shipped.

3. The Skype Spain accessories store feedback form will NOT accept my order number, 4565-0433533-001, therefore it is IMPOSSIBLE to submit a support ticket.

Please re-read number (3) ten more times, so that you stop replying to me with a suggestion to visit a form that won’t accept my order number!

If you do not respond to this email with some type of assistance, I am going to contact my lawyer, and begin a procedure to file a consumer complaint against this organization.

Kind regards,

– Matt Henderson

=============================

Hello Matt,

Thank you for contacting Skype Support.

Unfortunately, we have been experiencing extremely high volumes and as a result we are very sorry that we have not been able to get to your request for Billing Support in as timely a manner as we would like. As many issues have been resolved already, we are hopeful that your request is among them.

If your specific request has not been resolved, we genuinely apologize and will be happy to help you. Would you please try:

Knowledgebase – http://support.skype.com/?_a=knowledgebase User Guides – http://www.skype.com/help/guides/

Also, our forums are an excellent resource to help people get answers to specific billing issues. http://www.skype.com/community/forums.html

If your issue has not been resolved, and neither of these methods has helped, please contact us again, and we will do our best to respond as quickly as possible!

Again, we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience.

Sandra Valle

SKYPE SUPPORT

=============================

From: Matt Henderson To: Sandra – Skype Support

Hello there!

Thank you for your reply, and we apologize for the results of the last election. It really wasn’t our fault, even though the price of avocados has recently gone through the roof.

If you are in disagreement with color chosen for the cat’s socks, or the trolling motor that was stolen from the boat, please visit our forums, where users are happy to help with either. Some of them are even outstanding members of their own communities, and bank owners in the Caribbean.

Last, and certainly not least, please remember in your reply to make a small donation to your nearest zoo, in memory of Hunter Steve Irvin and the Dalai Lama. It could be tax deductible, unless we are presently in the year 2010.

Thanks again so much for your thoughtful reply. It is a pleasure to business with you, and the other coconuts at the outpost. And don’t hesitate to come back to me if this hasn’t cleared up the matter.

Sincerely,

– Matt Henderson

I’m happy to report we have just launched Word Count Journal:

http://wordcountjournal.com

Trying to get this app launched over the holiday period has been one of the most insane, yet bizarrely interesting, thing I have ever done.

I’m home in Georgia (USA), for the holidays. Our designer is home in Helsinki (Finland), for the holidays. Our developer is in Berlin (Germany). Our system admin is in Dublin (Ireland). The application key stakeholders are in New York (USA) and Hawaii (USA).

What a ride. Note to self: Never try that again.

Mr. Murphy, and his famous law, have been with us every step of the way. Network access to the code repository server got increasingly flakey during the countdown. Internet Explorer didn’t approve of any of our web-standards-based styling modifications. The Apple G5 on which we run Trac apparently got into a squabble with Apache and Python, and refused to let them play together any longer. Oh, and one family member had a gall bladder attack.

Somehow, Skype, instant messaging, Trac, Skype, Basecamp, email, Skype, Red Sky Cafe’s Wifi system and coffee, a bit of Skype, and a good deal of tenacity got us through.

So WCJ is launched, and that’s good. Looking forward to see what kind of acceptance the app has. In the first two days of operation, we already have about 140 user journals created! (And that’s not counting any private journals!) So it’s looking good.

And we’ve got some amazing stuff on the way in 2007.

Next planned launch: Just around Easter! Hmmmm…

This past summer, our family has spent numerous weekends exploring the mountainous areas of Andalucia. In particular, we’ve been exploring the areas around Gaucín, the valley behind Ronda containing Benoján, and the next valley up the road containing Villaluenga. For each location, we’ve located tourist maps containing listing of local trails for hiking.

Unfortunately, many of the trails around these areas are not well marked. For some, it’s even difficult to find them at all. And once you find the trail, it is, in many instances, easy to get lost once you start hiking.

The obvious solution to this problem is GPS. There are a couple (here and here of good websites containing descriptions of hiking trails, and downloadable GPS tracks and routes to aid in navigation. (In fact, as I would understanding it, it should make navigation dead easy.)

So, I’ve recently purchased a Garmin 60Cx GPS device, and have entered the seemingly mysterious world of Global Positioning System navigation.

Purchase. I decided to purchase my GPS through eBay, namely via a seller in the US. I was able to buy the device for about 60% of what it sells for here in Spain. Natively containing the US base map, the seller included a version of MapSource MetroGuide. Unfortunately, the software is a bit out of date — version 6, when the latest is version 8. Furthermore, MetroGuide is the least favorable mapping software sold by Garmin, and I will likely soon purchase the CityNavigator product.

In addition, as the 60Cx device accepts microSD cards, I upgraded the stock 64MB card to a better 1GB card. My hope is that I can carry around all the maps and routes I’m interested in, at all times.

Setup. For my purposes, a GPS isn’t that useful unless I can have it communicating with my computer. I use an Apple MacBook, and unfortunately Garmin hasn’t gotten around to developing OS X compatible software. Furthermore, many of the tracks/routes, etc. that I’ve found use a format compatible with a Windows shareware product, OziExplorer.

Fortunately, there is a great solution — Virtualization! I have purchased a license for the Parallels virtualization program for OS X; however, I’ve had problems getting it to recognize the Garmin device when connected via USB. A friend then passed me a beta version of the forthcoming VMWare Fusion product, and it works perfectly! (In addition, I find the VMWare product generally superior to Parallels, and will certainly be buying a license when it hits the street.)

So, under Windows XP, running as a guest OS under VMWare, on a MacBook running OS 10.4.8, I am successfully communicating with the Garmin 60Cx. Fantastic!

So far, I’ve installed:

• MapSource (from Garmin)
• OziExplorer, a shareware GPS mapping program, which, as far as I can tell, is the main Windows-based shareware utility for managing a GPS.
• SendMap. A Windows utility for sending maps to the GPS.

Practical Matters. Now that I’ve got my system all setup and (apparently) working, it’s time to figure out how all this GPS stuff works. On that note, I’ve already run into a number of conceptual issues I’m presently trying to figure out.

• Right now, I’ve used MapSource, and the MetroGuide Europe product, to download (to the Garmin GPS) all the maps necessary to provide full coverage of Spain. This was about 40 MB, and more than 50 small map “chunksâ€?. Question: How can I determine that the device stored all this data on the microSD card, as opposed to some internal memory?

• Another question: Is this something I even need to worry about– i.e. if the internal memory fills, does the GPS device automatically switch to the card when receiving data?

• Will software that interacts with the device “seeâ€? both the data on the card and any internal memory the device has?

• Let’s say I purchase CityNavigator. Should I first delete all the MetroGuide maps before installing the CityNavigator maps? How do I do that? (I didn’t see an option in MapSource for deleting maps.)

• Let’s say I have full coverage of Spain via CityNavigator maps, and then I decide to send a special topological map of some area I’m going to be visiting during the weekend. How can I tell the GPS that for this particular area, to use the topo map instead of the CN map? I have seen in the “Map Setupâ€? area a hugely long list of maps, and it would seem impractical, if not impossible, to identify which of the maps are the two that overlap, in order to disable one.

• I’ve seen that MapSource is document based– i.e. you can save and open multiple MapSource documents, each of which can contain any number of active maps, waypoints, tracks, etc. Why would I want multiple documents? Wouldn’t I want one single document that perfectly reflects the data presently on the device? If I open another document, and download all it’s data to the device, will it delete any additional data it finds on the GPS– i.e. is the concept of “downloadingâ€? to the device with MapSource the same as “synchronizingâ€? the active MapSource document to the device?

• I’m a little confused about the practical roles of tracks and routes, and the association of waypoints to each. Let’s say I want to record a path I’m walking and then publish it on the web– what is the best process for this? Should I simply start the track recording when I begin, and then save it when I’m finished hiking, and simply publish that? Is it necessary/desirable to add “waypointsâ€? to the track? (Is it even possible to add a waypoint to a track? Does it then become a “routeâ€??) Or, should I use the “routeâ€? concept?

• If a track doesn’t contain a waypoint, how can I tell the GPS to “Go To” the beginning of the track? i.e. how can I use the GPS to help me find the begin point of the track?

As you can see, I’ve still got a ways to go before I have my head fully wrapped around the practical concepts of using a GPS. Any comments would be greatly appreciated — either in the comments here, or via email to matt (at) makalumedia (dot) com.

Today our company launched a new website for Henderson & Henderson, LLC (which happens to be another company in which I’m involved.) H&H build one- to two custom dream homes per year in north Georgia, typically on Lake Lanier.

Henderson & Henderson, building north Georgia homes on Lake Lanier.

Over a period of a few days, MakaluMedia user experience designer Alex Bendiken (yeah, the Slashdot guy) and I worked together to specify and comp this site, and within just a few more days, Alex had it all up and running.

I couldn’t be more excited about it– I think it’s beautifully designed (very much in the Alex style), is fully built on WordPress, exploiting some its “Page” key-pair features to pull in Flickr images and specify the Google maps coordinates, and even to specify the state of the properties (“sold” or otherwise). And, hopefully, the site will be very “findable”, as its ultimate objective is to help market the properties.

Web application development is so much fun these days. Between Ruby on Rails (for custom applications), Drupal CMS (for complex publication and collaboration applications) and WordPress (for the small/medium complexity applications), just about all the bases are quite well covered.

One of the higher quality content weblogs around, please welcome to the Intarnet, the Playaz Ball Weblog:

Playaz Ball Weblog

While running with my iPod the other day, a drop of sweat fried one of my original iPod headphones. Could anyone recommend a set of good sport-safe earbuds or headphones? Please email me at matt (at) makalumedia (dot) com Thanks!

I’m back home now from a two-week vacation, visiting family in the US. Had a great trip, and only wish it could have lasted longer than two weeks. I’m still recovering from jet-lag, and hope to get back to somewhat regularly weblogging soon. In the meantime, this post is a placeholderer so that certain friends won’t tease me about having so little on my mind. ;-)

Just happened on this very interesting educational article, associated with the use of the Mathematica software.

Bare Bones Software has released Mailsmith 2.0. Whoo hoo! Integrated support for PGP, Integrated support for SpamSieve, loads, and loads, and loads of improvements and performance enhancements. And best of all… it’s a free update for registered users of version 1.5. :-)

Another gem from my Irish buddy Niall O Broin. Yet Another MacOS X / Linux Metaphor.

Daring Fireball pointed out a really neat Finder tip: Once you’ve initiated a drag-n-drop in MacOS X’s Finders, you switch applications in the middle of the drag. Very neat!

Well, I thought it was funny. The 3rd Annual Nigerian Email Conference…

If you want to see what techies are capable of doing when they’ve got their hands on a lot of data and a relational database, and no idea whatsover of user-interface design, have a poke around the new and improved VersionTracker.com.

Consistent alignment? Nope. Consistent color use? Nope. Consistent anything? Nope. Sensible use of contrast? Nope. Related things visually grouped. Not hardly.

I think every techie (myself included!) should frequently have a read of The Non-Designer’s Design Book, by Robin Williams.

As you can see, I’m redesigning the site (none of the Section links work yet.) Hopefully this won’t be a complete exercise in the name of vanity, since we’ll also be installing Movable Type for the Marbella Cycling website, and I’ll use the same mixture of MT templates and PHP that this site is now using.

Now that the Mac and the iPod support the AAC format, I’m re-encoding my CD library. The iTunes “auto-import-and-eject” feature makes this task much less daunting than it could be. Casually popping in CDs while I work, I should have the entire collection done in a few days. Since my original encodings were done at 192 bps (with variable rate enabled), the average filesize was about 7.5 megabytes. With AAC and 128 bps selected, it looks like that will be reduced to about 4.5.

Don’t know if the Music Service will be a big success, but it’ll likely be the bankruptcy of me. :-) I’ll be watching Version Tracker for some shareware controls to help restrict impulse buying. :-)

As I talk to people about the Apple Music Service, the question of “Why pay $1 when I can have it for free?” keeps popping up. For me, it boils down to the following (apart from the question of ethics):

(1) It saves time. You can spend loads of time trying to find and successfully download a song encoded with sufficient quality. I consider 20 minutes of my time saved worth a bit more than $1.

(2) Identification of new music. Being able to browse the service, check out recommendations of others, and listen to 30-second clips of songs and artists I’d otherwise be unware of are definite advantagse of this mode of music shopping.

What I’m now looking for is a URL format to allow exchange of song/album recommendations. NSLog(); reports that work on this is underway.

By the way, the port to open in order to share your iTunes music is 3689 (use your firewall).