Before I run to the Rivival to see Jonathan Richman, I thought I’d write down a few thoughts on the passing of Steve Jobs.

My parents purchased a Macintosh SE in the late-1980s, and it was our first Macintosh computer. I took to it pretty easily, and I remember my mother teaching me many things on the computer, including basic scripting in HyperCard, and playing in MacPaint, and MacWrite.

In 1994 I purchased MY first Macintosh computer. I had to let the rest of the family use it, though. It was a Macintosh LC 575. I upgraded from 8MHz to a speedy 33.3MHz. That 68040 processor sped through operations in no time. It was the first computer I upgraded the RAM and hard drive of, why my parents let me do that at 14 or 15, I have no idea, but man 2GB of storage in that machine!

In high school I did a co-op, and was positioned at Apple Canada’s head office. I did support for staff, I worked a bit in the tech shop, cleaning out old Macs, I did some work with data entry, but I have two very specific memories of my time at Apple.

1) I got to join when the tech team stripped down Canada’s first All-In-One G3. That machine was UGLY!

2) I got to join the staff of Apple Canada as they watched Steve Jobs redefined the computer industry by introducing the iMac. It’s incredible how that one machine changed the world. It was interesting that no one there knew what was being announced, and all were amazing, and then criticized the lack of floppy.

After my co-op ended I run the computer department at a camp, and when that ended, I later took a job doing sales at a Future Shop-esque store that no longer exists (and was owned by Future Shop). I was the Mac guy. After I got pissed at them, I took a job for a Toronto Apple Reseller. I stayed there for six years floundering, but from there I’ve since been working as the Systems Administrator and IT Manager for a private school. As the sys admin, of a large Mac network, I often get frustrated at Apple, and that extends to Steve Jobs.

Jobs was a brilliant man, and from what I hear, an ass. He revolutionized the computer industry, and by extension the world. When Steve Wozniak created the Apple computer, Jobs and he built a great company. Jobs then went on and gathered an incredible team to make the Macintosh. When he left Apple, the company floundered and struggled to stay alive. Against everyone’s expectations, they managed to stay afloat, and after purchasing NeXT, Jobs returned to the company, and made it into one of the most successful companies… not just technology companies.

That original Mac SE is sitting in my office today.

Here’s NH2F’s top 10 posts of 2010…

10) “Mayor Staypuft,” or Adam gets bitter about Toronto’s mayor, throws insults, but still puts forward good questions, to which no one cares to discuss.
9) “Fear Of Fighting,” or Adam yammering¹ about the author.
8) “Vistek,” or Adam yammering about shitty customer service.
7) “How Did JFK Get My Spaghetti Video,” or Adam photographs a hottie.
6) “The End of Stillepost.ca,” or Adam has an idea to make the world a better place, but no one gives a shit.
5) “Poutine,” or I’m drunk.
4) “Apple & Canadian English,” or Adam doesn’t like that his iPhone neglects his nation.
3) “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World,” or Adam writes about a film.
2) “The Doctor Is Out,” or Adam bids adieu to the 10th Doctor.
1) “Ward 29 Debate,” or Adam visits his all-candidates debate.

1. “Stop your yammering, and start your plannering, promposal-wise.” [↩]

I got an iPhone 4. It’s my first smart phone.

Signal
The one thing everyone’s talking about and the one thing I most noticed with the iPhone is the signal, but it’s not what you might think. My old phone was using Telus’ old CDMA network, I couldn’t make a phone call or receive a phone call with much luck in my apartment. While I don’t live in Toronto’s downtown core, I’m not far from it. At Broadview and Danforth, if you can’t get a cell phone signal, that’s just pathetic.

Now that I’m on Telus’ HSPA+ network (3G), my signal has drastically improved. You can call me if you want. I might not answer.

As far as the antenna issue that has been widely reported. Yeah, if I hold it in a certain way, I lose signal. I just don’t hold it that way, and Apple’s sending me a free case.

Apps
Here’s where I need help. What can you suggest? I don’t have many installed. Shazaam, Epicurious, Facebook, Twitter, Google Mobile, Google Earth, Remote, Urbanspoon, and VLCRemote. I don’t care about games, just applications which will make my life better. What can you suggest.

Calculator
Is it weird that I really love the look and interface of the calculator? My old phone had the shittiest calculator interface, and I used it all the time. This excites me.

32GB is not enough space
I have a large music collection, I want to have all of it on my iPhone. I can’t. Instead what I’m doing is putting what’s on my 30GB iPod (which will now live in my glove box) onto the iPhone, here’s the catch. To fit all that on, I need to use the new feature “Convert higher bit rate songs to 128 Kbps AAC.” Fab, perfect, except one thing. It takes forever to convert and transfer that much data.

Syncing and communication or use
When the phone’s syncing, which I said takes a while, you cannot use the iPhone. To do so will stop the data transfer. So if a call or more likely a text message comes in, to reply to it, you have to cancel the sync. If Emily’s wondering why it took me so long to answer her questions about going to the Miller abode, that would be why.

Sync Ringtones disables Manually Manage Music
I saw that my ringtones weren’t on the phone, so I turned on sync ringtones. Bad idea. That disabled manually manage music, and so all the music I spent days transferring was removed from the phone. Last night, it synced only about 2000 songs between 2am and 9am. We’re at 2179/4195. Sigh.

Battery life seems amazing
Can’t say more, until I use it more.

Google Sync
I use Google Hosted Apps with two domains, anklewicz.com/neverhadtofight.com (they’re the same) and myemployer.ca. I did a quick search to find out how to sync all the contacts, mail, and calendars from both accounts, and followed the instructions. Unlike the BlackBerry Google Sync, which falls to the symptoms of bad UI that BlackBerrys are known for, this was easy as pie, and I didn’t have to download any Google software. I just entered my account info into Mail, and it pulled all three things, calendar, contacts, mail. Fuck yeah!

Which calendar do you want
This one has absolutely nothing to do with Apple, that I can tell. When I connect my two accounts, it grabs the main calendar on each account. However, I have numerous calendars on each account. I have my FB Events calendar, my “Rock and/or roll” calendar, all the school calendars, etc, etc. To tell it to sync the other calendars, is roundabout and silly. You have to go to Google, and then log into your domain account, and then go to settings, and do this and that and choose this and that. It works now, though.

Making ringtones is fun

The screen and UI are elegant and beautiful

It’s much thinner than my old phone which did much less

I can’t answer it like Captain Kirk

The tinny speakers are kind of shit, but at a picnic or BBQ, you can bring it out to play music without brining another device

• I want this for my birthday.
• How to attract women.
• Google wants to bring 1 gigabit per second internet to you.
• Adam Giambrone throws in the towel.I’m iffy on this. I wouldn’t have voted for the man, because of the state of the TTC, but to have to drop out of the race because of his personal life isn’t right.
• Did you know they still do a MacWorld Expo? Why? Seriously, why?
• Google Street View… let’s visit the Yukon River in Whitehorse.
• Valentines day mixtape courtesy of Monitor Mix. Dear Carrie Brownstein, will you be my valentine?
• Fake Simpsons words that belong in the dictionary. (Courtesy of swhibbsy)

via The Muppet Newsflash