Arts IT Savvy

Just followed the simple, and comprehensive instructions on the ITS website for connecting the iPhone to the Monash Wireless network.  Worked beautifully. Straight forward, clear steps and screenshots.

Then tried the instructions for email, and specifically (as ArtsIT are now on Lotus Notes) those instructions. Hmm – not so good.  The syntax for the mail cluster is wrong, and the instructions didn’t result in email anyway.  Strangely, the settings for my pre-lotus notes days were still in my profile on the phone (ie using mail.monash.edu.au) actually worked, even though they probably shouldn’t have, and others have managed to crash the entire (new) mail server by using them, so didn’t want to cause that (and thus trying to get the Lotus Notes settings working).

Am investigating further, and will hopefully have a result soon.  It must be pretty close, given that I was able to access the email through the incorrect channel!

Update – problem seems to be that I had settings from pre-Lotus Notes days.  Deleting that account completely and redoing the settings from scratch got mail working.  However, we are there now, and seem to be all up and running.  Even so, the mail instructions did assume a higher level of familiarity with the device (and where the mail settings are found).  Still, not a problem for the majority of users (so long as the syntax is corrected (has been mentioned to ITS)).

I’ve been running some tests on an iPhone – typical user type applications, and will document my various experiences as they arise.

The first operation to attempt was unlocking the iPhone from an original network so that it could be used on any mobile network (Virginmobile in my case).  Locking a phone to a specific network is not limited to the iPhone – it has been done in the past to other handsets, depending on the deal being offered.

Costs will vary from carrier to carrier, in this case Telstra’s charge to unlock an iPhone is $150.

The process is pretty straightforward, and even better if you don’t follow Telstra’s instructions, and instead get the real steps required.  It can take up to 72 hours (or 3 working days depending on who you are talking to – 3 working days seems more likely, as there is a human step or two in the process (apparently)).

When you are ready to try to see if the unlock request has gone through, you do the following:

With no Sim Card in the iPhone, connect it to your computer and start iTunes.

Click on “Check for Update”

Click on “Restore to Factory Settings”

Re-sync phone to iTunes.  Now the instructions (apparently) require you to turn the phone on and off, but instead iTunes instructed me to insert the new carrier’s Sim Card.  I did this while the phone was still connected, and it did a few things, and reported back that the operation was successful.

Even better – it was.

It then took me through the (basic) operation of setting up a new phone (which simply means it does a synchronisation, and creates a backup).

All in all, a relatively painless operation, once I found out the real steps required.

I’ve been playing around with the device for the afternoon (and evening) so far – and am struggling to find reasons why it is treated with distain in certain circles.  So far it seems a very powerful device, with a very simple user interface.

I’ve always been a bit of a fan of the repackaging of modern tech into alternate forms.

One that caught my attention a couple of years ago was the ‘depetrification’ of the iPod as part of “Project RedWood” It may not be to everyone’s taste, but ZapWood does some amazing work.

Some other places documenting retro-modding of technology includes:

The Steampunk Workshop

ElectriClerk

Bit Tech

Slipperyskip

A range of drives that is catching our attention are the Quadras from LaCie

They range in size (both physical and capacity), with the 500GB being a very tidy small(ish) unit, through to the 2TB (and beyond) which are very large physically, but also with an obvious massive capacity.

The interface is USB, Firewire 400, Firewire 800, and my current favourite – eSATA.

In very rough terms, USB2 operates around 35 MB/sec transfer, which is similar to Firewire 400.  Firewire 800 doubles that, and eSATA runs at a quiet 165MB / sec (if you are transferring onto a RAID 0 configured drive, such as the 2TB).

Not everyone requires that sort of power / speed / capacity, but good to know they exist.

I’ve been doing some research into quality (but reasonably priced) portable audio recorders, and a couple that have really come to the fore are the Zoom H4

and the Zoom H2

Both seem to be quality units, with your specific requirements  determining which model is the most suitable.

The Zoom H4 is currently $449, and the H2 is  $329

In the past I have attempted a number of different wireless printing solutions, to varying degrees of success.  These primarily revolved around bluetooth solutions, either with an after-market bluetooth-USB converter, or a bluetooth capable printer.

I tried a different approach today – namely using a wireless router with a built-in USB port for a central printer or external harddrive.  In this case it was a wireless Apple router, but there are a number of different brands that have the same capability.

In any event, it just worked perfectly without any complex setups or configurations.

Apple are releasing a new iPod Touch and iPod Nano.

The Touch now includes a built-in speaker and increased battery capacity (and up to 32GB storage), while the Nano has increased capacity (up to 16GB), and an increased range of colours for those who care about the fashion.

Strangely, in my opinion, the Touch still does not appear to have Bluetooth capabilities, which I would have expected given it’s ever converging role with PDAs (and its ability to have contacts, calendar, email etc), and the increasing range of bluetooth headsets.

With the ever-increasing amount of data that people have (and rarely backup), the storage capacity of the backup solution is steadily increasing (or more precisely: exponentially where it comes to digital multimeda).

Once upon a time, a 1.2MB floppy disk was a significant storage capacity, then along came CDs, Zip drives, DVDs and I could go on and on.  There is a worrying trend that I am observing of people using USB keys, not only as a backup, but as the ONLY copy of their documents.  These devices are great for file transfer – they are compact, with pretty impressive capacity these days, and fast.  They also fail, and when they do so, there is very little that can be done to reclaim the data on them.

So use them by all means to transfer files from one place to another, but please, do not trust your only copy of a file to one!

Where it comes to backing up, there are a number of better options.  A high proportion of users would have less than 4GB of data in total, so the low cost solution of burning a DVD is certainly a good choice.  If you need larger capacities, (such as for large photo libraries, music collections etc), then an external harddrive becomes a cost competitive solution.

Something like this drive from Maxtor is a good choice:

It is small and light (around 170g, 125mm x 80mm x 15mm) and runs off the USB port of your computer.  It doesn’t need to be plugged into the wall, as it draws the power it needs from the USB port.

There are different models with different capacities, up to 320GB.  Inside is simple – it is a laptop harddrive, and that is why I regard them as being a good backup solution.  (Note I still say backup – I don’t trust any file to one location only – you should always have AT LEAST 2 copies of every file, (unless you don’t care if you loose it)).

This isn’t the only type of external harddrive that is available, and chances are if you’ve already purchased one through ArtsIT, it wasn’t the Maxtor – I chose it to show here as it is a good example of this type of backup solution.

The Logitech VX Nano is starting to really win me over as a suitable mouse for laptops (in particular).  It is not bluetooth (for reasons I am not aware of), but it has a very small receiver that you can leave permanently plugged into a USB port.

The mouse is quite small, and initially I thought this was going to be a negative, as I have a preference for a larger mouse, but after getting to use one for a while, its size is not a problem in the least.  It has a number of user-definable buttons, and a scroll wheel that works either in the traditional click-by-click fashion, or it can be set to free-spinning for quickly navigating through long documents, web pages etc.

The mouse has an on-off switch, which is definitely useful for a portable device, and has onboard storage for the USB receiver (if you are not leaving it plugged into the computer)

The receiver is tiny.  Excuse the US coin, but this gives some indications of scale.

In fact, the size of the USB receivers have been steadily decreasing over the years, as can be seen in this picture

So if you are in the market for a mouse for a laptop (or just for a compact, very functional wireless mouse), the Logitech VX Nano is certainly one that is worth considering.

Speaking of iPhone applications, the ANZ have already jumped on the bandwagon, releasing an ANZ Banking program for the iPhone.

That’s pretty ‘hip’ of a bank.

Hopefully though (just playing devil’s advocate here), it will be a little more secure than one of the other iPhone applications (a game) that automatically uploaded all the contents of your contacts to their server unencrypted (and without even announcing that it was doing it). One second you could be playing a silly Bejeweled-type game and the next all your business and personal contacts are getting hammered by phone and email spam.

The problem has since been corrected, but it just goes to show that anything you download onto your computer or mobile device, as innocent as it appears (or is intended), can still completely compromise your security and privacy.

Where it comes to computer security in the current era, the Howard Govenment’s “Be Alert but not Alarmed” message should simply be “Be Alarmed”.