iPhone 3G - first day

UPDATE: Looks like I'm not the only one having problems getting a reliable 3G connection. You would think that San Francisco would be well covered. If I could do it over again, I would probably just buy a used original iPhone and use that until the 3G kinks have been worked out. I'm still considering returning my 3G. $30 extra a month for a 3G network with bugs is a rip-off.

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My office is just a few blocks from the downtown San Francisco Apple store, but I kept putting off buying a 3G because I didn't want to wake up early and stand in line. But last Sunday I was working late and it was already 3am, so I decided to just keep working until 8am and I picked up a white 16GB phone Monday morning on my way home. The line was very short, just 3-4 people. I only waited for 2 minutes before being helped.

When I was buying the phone at the Apple store, I asked the sales guy how I could wipe my old iPhone clean so I could give it to my wife. I explained to him that it's a developer phone with the beta of 2.1 installed and that I didn't know how to downgrade it back to 2.0. I knew it wasn't something that wouldn't be possible unless I knew some trick to get iTunes to download and install a clean copy of 2.0. The sales guy was totally clueless and just lied to me saying just to plug it in to iTunes and it would do the right thing. I knew that was wrong and just said forget it then, if you don't know how to do it I don't want the phone. He then went upstairs, asked the Genius bar and they were also clueless. He assured me that iTunes would revert it back automatically. Well, when I got home he was wrong. iTunes refused to downgrade it. It's amazing that after all this time, the geniuses at one of the most high profile Apple stores on the planet can't answer a simple question. I called the store back and they said to call Applecare and ask them. I called Applecare, waited on hold for 20 minutes and they guy told me the procedure. Turn off the phone, unplug it from USB, hold down the home button and plug it in. iTunes then goes into forced recovery mode downloading the latest 2.0 OS and installing it. Very simple. I have know idea why the Apple store employees didn't know about this simple procedure.

I've been using the phone and have been disappointed with the 3G coverage. I live in San Francisco and I can't get a very strong signal in my house. It seems that most of the time I have 1 bar showing unless I'm in downtown. I've been cut off many times, and I've only made a few calls so far. Downtown coverage seems much better. My old iPhone didn't have problems with signal. I tried turning off 3G. It seemed to help, but can't be sure. I didn't do much testing.

Here's an interesting story. I was iChatting with one of my friends in Japan, and he bought an iPhone but couldn't get a signal in his house. So he calls up Softbank and they send a guy over to install an indoor antenna so he could get a signal. They didn't charge him anything, but my friend says you have to remain a customer for 2 years after the installation otherwise they will charge him. Do they offer a service like that in the US?

Another big disappointment with the iPhone 3G is the price of the service plans. I didn't read the agreement, but the guy at the Apple Store said it was $30 extra a month and NO text messages included? He said the old iPhone gave 200 messages, but the 3G costs extra. I think I heard it was $15 extra a month for text messages. Is this true? Seems insane to increase the price by $30 for a 3G network that's still in "beta" and no text messages? I wonder if I heard wrong. That doesn't make any sense, unless AT&T is evil. :)

Klaus Nomi - The Nomi Song

I saw a great movie recently about an 80s new wave artist named Klaus Nomi called "The Nomi Song"

I had never heard of him before watching the movie, but he's a very fascinating character. There's lots of videos and other information online, so rather than summarizing his story here, just do some searches on Google.

Here's two of my favorite videos by Nomi. When I first watched the movies I thought this guy was just weird, but after watching the documentary and his videos, I've started to really appreciate his talents. He was also one of the first celebrities to die of AIDS.

The first video starts off slow, but gets really good. I especially like the segment starting at 1:45.

Here's another video that's cool.

Japan trip report

I just got back from Japan recently and finally have some time to blog about it. I went for 17 days and had a great time.

If you've never visited Japan, I recommend it. There's lots of cool things about the city and culture that are worth experiencing. I remember the first time I went in 1991, not knowing what to expect, and my whole perspective on the United States changed forever. I always assumed we were the most advanced country on earth (I was young and naive back in those days). That's not to say Japan is perfect, but there are many great things there that I wish would make it's way to the USA.

One of the best things about Japan is the food. I'm not talking about fugu or high priced sushi or anything fancy. I'm talking about Japanese fast food, donut shops, pastry shops and even food from 7-11. Just about anything you try there will be good and the service will be good. Plus there's no tipping!

Here's a pict of one of my favorite places. "Mister Donut". Cheap, good coffee and a cute japanese girl comes by every few minutes to refill your coffee. What more could you want?

The infamous "Cocoa Float" at a great fast food place called "First Kitchen". If you're ever in Japan, you MUST try this. It's awesome.

Starbucks has a green tea frappuccino that is delicious:

During the trip I met up with some fellow mac developers living in Japan. One day we went to Kamakura to visit a Zen temple and sat in for a session of zazen. It was one of the most famous Zen temples. I can't remember the name at the moment.

I'm interested in Zen, but I'm too lazy to practice it. Maybe some day. One thing interesting happened during zazen. There were about 40-50 people there and we were all sitting down and the priest walks around carrying a big stick. If a person gestures to the priest, the priest will whack the guy on the back. But the problem is every other person requested getting whacked on the back so it was really hard to meditate with so much noise. I couldn't focus!

Here's a pict of me and one of my developer friends waiting to eat awesome Japanese beef stew in Kamakura.

I also stopped by my friends office to see what's its like to be a developer working in Japan. The office was very tiny, but it was cozy and enough room for a desk and monitor and stuff. (not the best pict, but the office was so tiny it was hard to get anything in frame)

Like a good geek I had to take a trip to Akihabara which is the mecca of the infamous "Otaku". Akihabara is home to the "maid cafe" phenomenon. Here's a maid on the street begging me to taste her treats. I found out later that the best looking maids are inside, but they are extremely strict about taking photographs. I was forced to erase a picture I took inside by an angry maid.

We visited a few Maid cafes and they were fun. It's wasn't what I expected. It's really quite normal except for the fact that the waitresses wear costumes. All the customers where normal people men and women. I expected there would be tons of geeks drooling over the maids, but it's wasn't like that at all. Good food and service.

I'm kind of perplexed how so many shops there are in Akiba selling dolls and figures. There are tons of them and all packed to the roof. Who buys this stuff? It's all very cute and fun, but in order for these places to all stay in business there must be tons of Otaku buying lots of figurines. They sell everything thing at these stores. Doll clothes, hair, doll paint. Once again it was hard to take a picture since the spaces where so cramped and tight with stuff. Here's some bare dolls you can buy and you can design your own anime character.

Here's another pict of one display case. The store is packed wall to wall with cases of figures. I just noticed the "no camera" sign on the left side.

Another shot of display cases stuffed with stuff.

We had lunch at the famous Otaku food stand. Star Kebab.

Me and the gang hanging out inside the Star Kebab.

We walked by this business which offers a high tech face massage given by a maid. I regret not trying it!

There were also lots of shops selling vintage game systems from the 80s and 90s.

Here's a classic. I wonder why it never took off?

Some vintage hand held game systems:

We also visited this vintage arcade. Every machine there was filled with almost every known game ROM imaginable. All the classics in one place.

Before the Otaku took over Akiba, it was home (and still is) to vendors selling every conceivable electronic part or device. You can find any type of resistor, switch, capacitor etc. There are rows and rows of these little one man shops no bigger than 6x6 stuffed to max with electronics with a little old man sitting behind it all selling day after day.

I only bought one thing in Akiba. This killer mask for my son Kai. It was only $2.

Here's a pict that really illustrates why Japan is awesome. This is a toilet on the public train. No graffiti, no trash, clean and safe. It wouldn't last 1 day in San Francisco. In SF they locked all the public toilets in the train stations for "Security Reasons" Where do they expect the bums to shoot heroin?

Here's the family in front of some Cherry blossoms. There were blooming why we were there.

Bought my kid another mask. His hero is Ultraman!

The toilet on the Bullet train for Gaijin like me.

My brother in-law is also a Mac user. He does page layout for game magazines and has a hardcore setup.

Here he is wearing the Steve Jobs uniform

My sister in-law is an awesome cook. Here's your typical Japanese high rise Kitchen.

Another thing great about Japan is the CD and DVD shops. Everything you could ever want and you can rent them. Most people rent them, copy them and return them the next day. It's super cheap.

My sister has this great place in Tokyo near Shinagawa station. They're on the top floor and have a great view of Tokyo.

Well, that's it. There was lots I didn't mention, but those were some highlights. Just like anything, you have to experience it. There's lots to see and do.

We need beta testers!

One of the more difficult things about being an independent software developer is making sure your software is as bug-free as possible. Note that I didn’t just say “bug-free” - if you believe the mythical completely bug-free application actually exists, I have some bridges, magic beans, and unicorns I’d like to sell you.

We ♥ you

Seriously, though, we couldn’t do what we do without the kindness of you, our customers. We rely on your feature requests to tell us what to work on, your license fees to help us feed our families and keep us in business, and your bug reports to help us fix Path Finder when it does something it’s not supposed to.

We already have an awesome group of folks helping us test Path Finder behind the scenes before we roll out a new release to the public, but we need help. With the release of Mac OS X 10.5 we are now in that strange and wonderful place where Path Finder supports two operating systems, and with that comes an even more complex testing environment.

We need you

We need your help kicking the tires whenever Steve adds a new feature, improves a new one, or rolls out a bug fix or workaround. Almost 60% of you have upgraded to Mac OS X 10.5, but that leaves 40% of you that are still using Mac OS X 10.4 and we need to make sure both operating systems (and both CPU types) are represented in our beta testing group.

Interested?

Here are the specifics:

• Beta testing is, for the moment, purely voluntary. We’ve talked about finding fun ways of thanking our beta testers but at the moment if you decide to help us, it’s for the love of playing with the most recent, cutting edge builds of Path Finder.
• Beta testing is inherently risky. You must follow the tao of backing up your system frequently. We try not to provide beta builds that could cause your computer to implode, but stuff happens.
• We require you to be involved. Obviously everyone is busy and the amount of involvement that any single person can commit to is variable, but we still expect that you’ll let us know if you find a bug and try to get us feedback when we need it.
• It’s all confidential. We don’t generally release beta builds to the public for a reason: they’re not ready for public consumption. We hope and expect that you’ll honour this by not sharing download URLs, builds, or any other pre-release information with people not on the list.
• Beta testing is open to licensed Path Finder 4 customers only. For now, at least.

We thank you

Update: Thank you! We got lots of applications and we’re digging through them now. We will get in touch with you if you were selected. Thanks a lot for your willingness to help us!