Category Archives: technology

Living on the cloud: “Ciao: del.icio.us” , “Hello: pocket”

Week 31
Tuku, Finland

Since 2011 I am member of del.icio.us.  I would say I am a frequent user of it, as in this time I have collected there 8,482 links. The last link I saved was on July 4th, 2017.

Today I decided to startto declutter my browser. This implies to save some links.  Then, surprise!!!  Del.icio.us button on my browser did not allow me to save 🙁   Calm people! It is not the first time Del.icio.us has a problem.

What do next? of course, to research what it is going on. After some challenges, I was able to log in on my browser. I start to explore inside my account how to save my link and then I got the following message:

Delicious finalized

Delicious finalized

NEWS (for me)  del.icio.us has been bought by Pinboard. According to Wikipedia this happened on  June 1st.  Honestly I had not idea about this.  Perhaps I will dig on my emails to see if I was informed somehow….

Nevertheless, now my direct challenge is: what I will use?

Researching again, I found pocket. Apparently it is a nice tool. The following video sold it to me:

Now starting on pocket. Hopefully I can export my links from delicious! New task for my TODO list.

However all this adventure brings me back to a topic I am often think about: be aware if your life depends only of a cloud!

— cais

iPad only displays white screen

Week 26
Joensuu, Finland

My lovely iPad started to get VERY slow. Which one think was completely normal taking into account only two factors: (1) I had a lot of tabs open and (2) it might be getting in age. My iPad I got it on my defense back in 2012. It is an iPad2 model A1395. No so young, but special for me.

Anyway, I decided to turn it off and on…. but SURPRISE!!!!

It did turn off, but in return it only display a white screen.

PANIC!!!!!

As a good QA person, which at the moment ‘I am, (my laptop named Sr passed away, recently I my last kindle was damaged, so, the idea to lose my iPad too, was not particularly exciting).

Then, searching in the internet hive of information, I found this video:

Voilà, it came alive again! 🙂

My “old” iPad keeps working as new !!!

frustrations generated by apple inc.

Week 48
Joensuu, Finland

For over a decade I’ve been using Apple computers blindly. One of the reasons of my loyalty has been: I can focus on what I need to do instead to invest valuable time on fixing the computer in order to do what I want to do. I subscribe myself to the philosophy: plug & run 🙂 

When the operating system OS X came out in 2001. It was a time of glory!  It was possible to increase the potentiality of the Apple machines making them even more interesting.

Then apple’s “branding” has been growing stronger over the last years. Myself I keep married with the principles that make me adopt apple long before: I want a reliable machine with a plug and run philosophy. I am not patient to solve unexpected problems. However those principles that made me adopt Apple computers are slowly being blurred by an uncritical attitude of the actual brand philosophy.

Let me give vent to my actual frustrations with this brand.

1. What type of  globalisation is promoted by Apple?

Perhaps the globalisation is on the hardware, because one can get the same machine in most of the countries that have the buying power. But I have questions about the applications.

My apple account is from my home country, Mexico, and I want to keep it like that. I have my personal reasons to support my decision.  Because it is a Mexican account, when I search for software at the Apple Store I only get the offers available for the Mexican market.  I have no visibility of what other countries offer unless I get into those markets. So, I created an account for the USA, German and Finnish market, and I can tell you there are differences.

Is Apple building a bubble of information in a market that by nature should be global? at least to my understanding. Additionally, to have access to other markets today implies to put an effort and of course to posses several credit cards!

 

2. Does Apple Inc. want to bridge the digital divide?

Some publicity might say yes. Apple is interested in education and schools. On practice, I have my doubts.  I think the educational market is a very profitable market. But I do not see the intention of bridging the digital divide in practice.

For example: if one wants to update the operating system to Mountain Lion (10.8) it must be done via Apple Store. I really search to avoid this approach, but there was not other option at least here in Joensuu unless I go to an authorize distributor and pay extra money to update my machine. So, let’s assume all apple owners  posses a credit card, because you MUST have one to buy on the apple store and you download OS 10.8

Now Apple Inc. might think that all owners of an Apple computers have good Internet connection. Of course we are paying a considerable amount of money for be in the apple world, so it might be natural to assume that all these consumers have all the state-of-the-art infrastructure  Well, the assumption is wrong. One could read the thread of discussion in apple, some people needed to spend even days updating the operating system.

If people have to pay per minute the Internet, this is a fortune!

3. Does Apple Inc. keep supporting plug and run applications?

Hmmmm….. for its authorized software yes.

The company wants control, perhaps always wanted that, but now I am able to see it and it is sad for me.

I downloaded software that is not on the apple store. Then, I needed to do different things in order to run it, as the machine directly told me:

no authorised software
no authorised software

 

Besides that, I need to re-find the library folder, which is a powerful folder and in OS 10.8 is hidden.  *** AGHR***

I admit these were not HUGE problems. It took me some time to find out, and now it works. Well, at least most of the things, and I regret that I update my machine.  But what bothers me is why these changes? which one is apple’s vision?

Summarizing: the three facts I describe in this post I live them while updating my MacBook Pro and they trigger my frustration and disappointment. The question that I have now is:  What is the price I am willing to pay for a computer that offers selective plug & run possibilities? What is the actual value?

Perhaps nowadays for me the cost is not only on money, but it is stepping on my principles. The “value” is getting a bit too high I confess….

Time will tell….

*sight*

*sight*

 

Photo source in here

internet inside the bus

Week 40
Kuopio, Finland

In August 24th after I landed in Oslo, I needed to take a 1.5 hrs drive (aprox.) to my destination, Gjovik.  I got surprised in this bus drive, as I could connect to the internet inside the bus, and for free!!!! 😉

Today on my way to Kuopio I am missing the internet connectivity while I am on the road. Of course one can use the mobile phone, but nevertheless, it is not the same….

Finland you are one of the most connected countries in the world, but in reference to bus transportation, we are lacking behind!

connecting to the intenert in the bus

connecting to the intenert in the bus

connected to internet for free in a bus

connected to internet for free in a bus

how to catch an iPhone thief

It is my impression that USA promotes detective movies, novels and TV shows. At least it has a wide sample of that genre. Then when I read the article of  “how to catch an iPhone thief” I could say the fact that happens in the USA and in CA, makes it just the perfect location.

Actually, if I want to look at it as a game definitely all the “pervasive games” and ARG could follow this interesting real-event that really put the “player” in action, and learn from it. This is what I call motivation, creativity and use of your skills and knowledge to recover what belongs to you.

Mr. Sam describes in his post how he recovered his iPhone. It  is a very detective story. Worth to read!


iPhone recovery. - Original photo from the post

Photo source: http://iphonetheif.blogspot.com/2010/01/iphone-theif-bust.html