Baidu Spider is MIA

Is it me, or my sites, that the www.baidu.com spider is no longer scanning? I have normally been scanned several times a day by that Chinese Search engine, but they all stopped yesterday? Perhaps a crackdown? Who knows, but there is a missing element now in the internet.

The Nokia N900 in use, a perspective.

I’ve had my Nokia N900 for almost 48 hours, and while I’ve have a few frustrations, I’m equally satisfied with the product. And so to keep it geeky and simple:

  • I’ve logged into the device (not really a phone) with SSH from my desktop. And it just looks like a standard Linux system.
  • I’ve logged in to my Opensolaris from the device shell (X Terminal) with SSH and that works like normal.
  • I’ve connect to the VLC server on my server, with VLC, from the device, and while the navigation of the screen size differences will be ‘fun’, it works as expected
  • I’ve Blogged from the device using MaStory.
  • I’ve sent SMS and received SMS’s, I received Phone calls. (gee)
  • I’ve been fetching emails, full html support (must turn off images)
  • I’ve found my location with GPS.
  • I’ve loaded up some songs, and they sound great with the stereo speakers
  • I’ve listened to internet radio, that works great.
  • I’ve used the keyboard, and I’m getting faster the more I use it.
  • I’ve browsed the internet, and it’s amazing, although my blog identifies it as a PDA (must fix that)
  • I’ve used the device to diagnose a neighbors laptop WiFi connection
  • I’ve taken a photo, not so great on the first try, no image stabilization, but relatively sharp
  • I’ve managed to post a photo to my Flickr account.
  • I’ve synced up my calendar and contacts with my Nokia 6300 backup using the Nokia PC suite (as OVI suite does not work)
  • I’ve connected to AOL and Yahoo IM with the Pidgin application.

However there is another list, of frustrations;

  • Battery life really sucks, mostly because I’ve had everything turned on (default) and have not found all the places to ‘tune’ them to better setting.
  • I can NOT get the Twitter application Mauku to connect to Twitter
  • I can NOT get the weather with OMWeather it won’t connect
  • I couldn’t get the MaxRoam SIM to dial anyone, though I could SMS
  • Some Apps from the App Manager WILL NOT DOWNLOAD no matter what I do, and there no indication about why they won’t download
  • I can’t get the FaceBook application which came pre-installed, to actually install, or function. It’s the same with several of the ‘pre-installed’ apps, they just don’t work without being ‘installed’ and they won’t install.

I am currently using a Vodafone Pay-as-you-Go SIM and it does indicate that I am connected with 3G. I have NOT tested it for dataroaming, or performance. The MaxRoam SIM did indicate that I was connected to a 3.5G O2 network But like I mentioned, I couldn’t call anyone, only SMS. I assume that it was my ignorance of setting for the MaxRoam SIM.

As for the phone itself, I like it, it’s a bit heaver than I thought, but a great deal smaller, it is not really any wider or taller than a Samsung Tocco Lite, but it’s almost twice as thick.

The keyboard is very small and not really thumb friendly, I started out using my fingernails to type. Now I can feel the contours of the keys, it sped up my typing a bit. I have a clear snap on case I bought from Amazon a month ago, but the screen section obscures the upper row on the keyboard, so I don’t have it on, so just the back is attached.

The resistive touchscreen is very sensitive. I have a Palm T/X and I know! It is nothing like the resistive screens of the past. There is virtual NO give to the surface, and while you can tell that it is ‘softer’ than a capacitive touchscreen, it has a great deal more precision. Just try and draw something in the ‘sketch’ app or better yet, the XJournal application.

Overall I could say that it’s a keeper, a Geeky keeper, and looks like it will be a learned love. It does do what I need it to do, be a computed device, with a phone in it.

I’m sure there will be other revelations, but I may be too busy playing with my new toy.

UPDATE : I’ve managed to get the missing FaceBook App to install and Mauku and OMWeather are working after I changed some of the connection setting on device to fixed ip addresses on my WiFi router.

Keeping up appearances

I almost let my new resolution go today, but 23 hours in, I decided that that would be too much of a slip. so I twitted that my blog, only got 873,101 Hits, 273,506 pages and 32,382 Unique visitors last year. And I thought I owed you, the reader, something more. So if anything comes to mind, I’ll let you know.

Internet Freedom of Speech

I’m always suspicious when a company US games company sues British blogger. What is the point of elevating an obscure blogger to Internet prominence? All this law suit is doing is broadcasting the bloggers opinion further, and if the blogger’s opinions are ‘untrue’ this just makes any damages to the company worse rather than to defend their ‘reputation’.

I think they are operating under the old saw that states ‘there is no such thing as bad PR’ , or they have bribed the courts in Australia, or they are seeking a clever way to declare bankruptcy.

In any case they are seeking to destroy Internet freedom of opinion, by using the more restrictive Libel laws from another country to censor this Blogger. Why not use the Iranian courts, then they could have sought to have the Blogger put to death, or something. I’m sure the Irish Blasphemy Laws could have been used. 🙂

Rejected out of hand!

I find it amusing that after I submitted my sites to the Social Media Award section of The Irish Web Awards none of them has even been visited. Rejected before even viewing them. That either is an indication, that your efforts are not worthy of examination, or that you are not acceptable. While none of my sites has ‘hit the big time’ it’s not a precursor to exclusion.

What do you think:

It doesn’t pay to be a cranky old Blogger.

I posted my latest fabulous project Fleeting Thoughts and no one read it. In fact, no one clicked on it, and no one commented either. The only conclusion is that either the project is rubbish, or because I’m a cranky old Blogger, with no friends. Obviously the latter, as the idea is fantastic ( if poorly executed by me), it now comes as no surprise to me, the cranky old Blogger, that social networks don’t support the cranky behavior, of cranky old Bloggers!

You have to be ‘Social’

So, if you are doing social ‘things’ on the internet, like Twitter applications, be sociable, have lots of followers, who also have lots of followers, who like to Re-Twit!

When having a Fleeting Thought, spell check.

I was thinking, or rather having, a Fleeting Thought and decided that I had a great idea, so I sought to buy the domain fleetingthought.com, and didn’t realize I’d mistyped the name, so now I’m the proud owner of fleetingthoght.com, 🙂 you can see now, how Fleeting my thoughts have been lately. It actually might work out anyway as the real domain owner of fleetingthought.com is little more than a squatter.

The substance of the Idea is sound, and I’m building out the Thought now as another project. It’ll be associated with the Twitter Client @fleetthoughts. And when I finally organize my thoughts properly, I’ll write more about it.

Failed WordPress Upgrade to 2.8

I attempted to upgrade WordPress to 2.8 from 2.7.1 and got this message, now I’ve not sure if I should try the automated upgrade again or resort to a manual one.

Downloading update from http://wordpress.org/wordpress-2.8.zip

Unpacking the core update

Could not copy file: /public_html/wp-content/upgrade/core/wordpress/wp-comments-post.php

Installation Failed

I suppose I should be grateful that it’s all still working.

What can you say

I’ve been neglecting the blogging, Twittering, facebook world lately as personal issues have, I was going to say crept into, but it’s more like slammed into, me again. It’s not depressing enough to hear about an incompetent Irish government politicians robbing from their citizens to bail out their friends. Or to hear about the number of mindless multi-nationals stumbling along destroying communities all over Ireland. I must now travel back to the U.S. during a Swine Flu pandemic to prepare for the death of my younger brother from Pancreatic Cancer.

Great, the next time someone tells me ‘things could get worse!’ is going to get a sock in the mouth.