So... living in Germany as a non-German speaking resident... is interesting. It's the little things in our daily routine that you don't think much about until you change that routine. 

Take television for example.  When I lived in the Netherlands I never deviated much from the typical TV watching regime that most of us follow... you know.. watch a little around dinner time.. maybe the news in the morning.  It was easy there... a significant portion of the TV is broadcast in English, plus I eventually was able to speak a passable level of Dutch.. enough to understand anyway.

Now, living in Germany... it's a whole other story.  German TV is all dubbed... all the import shows are dubbed into German.  I've never been happy with dubbed TV... I just won't watch it.  I never watched it in the Netherlands either.  So, as a result I went without TV for about 2 years.  No big deal... I mean.. there's the internet right

Lately I've been watching Internet TV... using a proxy, I have a few choices like the BBC iPlayer, 4OD, and Zattoo as well as Hulu.  It's interesting to see the radical difference in commercials between the TV from the UK versus the USA.  On the US broadcasts... it seems to almost always have commercials about medication, especially non-essential medication... like stuff to make your eyelashes grow longer.

Now this is where it gets a bit... odd.  The commercials on the US channels I've been watching last about a minute... sometimes more.  They introduce something... say the eyelash growing stuff, or a medication to combat depression.  That introduction lasts about 5 seconds.  Then for the next 40 seconds or so they list out the sometimes terrifying side effects... the list goes on and on and on... and it makes me wonder... does anyone actually buy their product afterwards?  I mean, listing dozens of rather scary side effects is important - you should know what you're taking and it's effects, but.. nothing they've profiled in these commercials is actually necessary for someone's health and well being... make your eyelashes grow longer at the risk of going blind, changing your eye color, permanent discoloration of your eye lids and so on?

Maybe I've been away from North America for too long

The weekend has come and gone, and I have my new netbook.. woohoo!

I started this adventure in Germany... searching all over for a shop that would sell me a netbook with an English keyboard.  None would, with most giving the excuse that their distributors didn't have anything but German keyboard layouts.

Well... neighboring countries seem to have no problem with ordering netbooks with English keyboard layouts... so I did a quick roadtrip over the weekend to go pick up the netbook I ordered.

Due to a bit of a mixup, I ended up with the black EeePC 1005HA-H instead of the blue one, but that's a minor oops.  I also bought a 2GB SO-DIM as well, so I could bump the RAM up from the 1GB default to 2GB... an upgrade well worth the 30€ extra it cost.

This netbook only comes with Windows XP... yuck!!  So the very first thing I did on boot was repartition the hard drive and wipe that broken old OS off and install Linux.  I set up for dual boot, with Eeebuntu and openSUSE.... but how well does Linux actually work on a netbook? Was that a good idea?

The install of both Linux distros went smoothly.. .mostly.  A few bumps along the way.

The first install I did was Eeebuntu.  No issues at all to install.  I booted for a few seconds to test, and then moved on to openSUSE.  This install also went smoothly - except on reboot, I could no longer start up Eeebuntu.  Not sure why, and I didn't spend any time sorting it out.  I redid my installs (needed to change the partitioning layout anyway), and did openSUSE first, then Eeebuntu.  This order worked - the problem the first time around is something to do with how the openSUSE installed finds the existing Ubuntu install and sets up GRUB.  Maybe I'll revisit this later to sort it out... dunno.

Anyway.. booted up openSUSE, and bumped into the first big-ish issue... no network.  A little digging and I discover that the WiFi card drivers are in a newer kernel build.  ooops.  Sigh... switch over to Eeebuntu... same problem.. no WiFi, no wired network either.  Well.. that's annoying.  Ok, it's because I have a new netbook... new WiFi card etc... the older netbook (Eee 900) my friend has worked first try on Eeebuntu...

The solution to the network issue was fairly simple.  Find a newer kernel, copy the deb to a USB stick... copy to the new netbook, install the kernel and reboot.  Once I was running on the new kernel I could run the updates, which included the backports for the default kernel... which include the WiFi drivers.  Yay.  Boot to the updated stock kernel and I've got WiFi there too.  Remove the temp kernel... download and install the wired network card drivers and that's it... fully functioning netbook running Eeebuntu. 

I have to say... I'm impressed with the capabilities of this little computer too.  I've got a full desktop with Compiz running... it has no problems with the fancy animations etc.  The full OpenGL screensavers all work smoothly.  I've even installed a few games just to try it out, and so far... they all work.  Haha.. I'm almost temped to install World of Warcraft just to see if it'll work too

I still have a few things to sort out.  I want to get openSUSE working - I prefer it over Ubuntu anyday.  I also have to sort out the microphone.  There are apparently 2 microphones, one to the left and one to the right of the webcam.  They are noise cancellation/stereo mics, and Linux doesn't handle this particular setup very well... the result is that they end up canceling out all sound picked up by the mic.  There is a quick fix that I can use though... a tweak to the sound config that I plan to try later today.

Other than that... it was definitely a good idea to drop XP and install Linux. I'm a happy camper now

So, I've been spending far too much time lately trying to decide if I'll buy a Netbook, and what one to buy.  I've been fretting over models and colors... it's pretty sad really  

The first hurdle I faced, and probably the main thing that sent me into a downward spiral of reading reviews and compulsively reading Wikipedia etc. is the fact that I haven't yet found a single German computer store that will order me a laptop with an English keyboard - not even on special order.  I can have any keyboard layout I want, as long as it's German... which isn't much use when you want an English one. 

Someone kindly pointed me at a shop in Hannover (about 100km south of Hamburg) that refurbishes laptops, and many of the models they have available have English keyboards (I have to wonder though how they managed to get computers with English keyboards though).  They have a nice variety of laptops available, but none are netbook class machines... all are bigger, heavier laptops.  I decided to pass on them this time and focus on the netbook world - I will keep them in mind though.

So... options... I can order from the UK.. but.... prices.. oiy... it seems like the computer companies took the Euro price, and just changed the Euro sign for a Pound sign.  After exchange, the prices are considerably higher than buying here. 

The dilemna continues... what to do... buy in the UK at a high premium? Buy local and get a computer with the wrong keyboard layout?  Buy in a neighboring country?

I opted to buy in the Netherlands where I can easily get a computer with an English keyboard layout.  In fact I ordered the machine last night (an Asus Eee 1005HA-H in blue), and it's already there, waiting for me to pick it up.

Keyboard issues aside, why all the bother about it?  I want a netbok that will run on Linux.  in fact I've been trying hard to find one that comes with Linux preinstalled.  Seems that none of the retailers here carry the Linux machines anymore... only with XP Home...   Funny thing is, all that I asked so far said they don't carry Linux machines, and they are not sure why since so many people buying them are asking for Linux ones.  One shop I talked to got so tired of it that they now provide a printout of info on where to go to get some of the more popular Linux builds for netbooks they sell... so the customer can remove the unwanted XP and install the OS they requested in the first place.  Ha... funny how that works   Sadly... no one I've talked to has managed to get a refund for the unwanted XP license which they were forced to pay for.  That won't stop me from trying though.

Not a lot going on lately... well outside of work that is.  Work-side, I've been busy with things like doing voice-overs for OpenOffice.org screencasts, and even did a Podcast interview for an internal Sun Podcast. This is one of the screencasts we recently did:  Extensions repository  (YouTube link).  There are more... somewhere.

Hmmm what else... well, there is this nice photo I took in Malmo Sweden earlier this year... sunset on the Oresund (looking towards Copenhagen Denmark).

I am a rebel... I live life on the edge... I tear the labels off pillows... I drink outdated milk.  Look out world... errr.. no wait.. ummm.. right... ummm

So this weekend was a super exciting adventure.  Did I go bungee jumping?  Nope.  Skydiving?  Nope.  Well.. how about... hmmm.. OK... I stayed in as usual, and... can you guess?  Yah, if you know me, you know exactly what I was doing.  Sigh.

I added another hard drive to my computer.  Wow eh?  Will the excitement ever end?  Ha.  I'm now up to 3 terrabytes of disk space, and already thinking... I should have bought 2 new drives instead of just one.

Adding a new drive gave me the perfect opportunity to re-install Linux and get a clean start.  You know, you'd think I'd learn... it's never easy no matter what OS you pick and I spent most of teh weekend futzing with installs and configuring and reinstalling and reconfiguring...  My main OS is as usual, openSUSE.  I installed openSUSE 11.1 with KDE 4.3 and the latest openSUSE 11.2 Milestone (aka Alpha).  I also tried to install Ubuntu 9.10 Alpha as well... but that one won't boot for some reason.  The main problems from this weekend's adventures seem to be related to my custom partition layout, and the new ext4 filesystem format I started tinkering with on this install... openSUSE 11.1 doesn't speak ext4 by default (although I can enable experimental support for it if I'm really daring).

The update to KDE4.3 in openSUSE 11.1 went very smoothly this time around.  My previous install had a lot of debris left around from all the incremental upgrades I did from the initial 4.0.3 to 4.3.  This debris caused all sorts of interesting probelms... nothing catastrophic, but annoying at times.

So... up and running again.. and only 1 terrabyte of data left to sort through... eeep!

If anyone is interested in what KDE4.3 looks like (you know.. you guys who think Windows is the ONLY way to operate a computer), take a look at these links:

ZDNet Australia - a video made by some guys at ZDNet Australia where they showed KDE4 to some unsuspecting people, telling them it was Windows 7 and asking their opinions.

YouTube video 1 - A short video that just shows a little of what the desktop looks like

YouTube video 2 - A longer video demoing some of the features in detail

There was some excitement in my neighborhood on the weekend.  I was on my way to the local bus stop... I came around the corner just in time to witness the end of a major accident.  At the time it was really hard for me to tell if the person was pushed into traffic... or if the car that hit him ran a red light... or something else.  It was chaos... people running here and there.  Some trying to help the man who was hit... it was hard to tell exactly what happened, only that it was really bad for the guy who was hit by the car.

With a little help, I tracked down this news report (it's in German):

http://www.welt.de/hamburg/article4334287/Betrunkener-ueberfaehrt-Fussgaenger.html

The basic summary is... a 26 year old Russian was drunk (he had an incredible blood alcohol level of 0.254%) and driving without a license (it was suspended from earlier drunk driving convictions).  He ran a red light at a pedestrian crossing, and hit a 44 year old man who was in the crosswalk.  He hit the man so hard that the impact punched a hole in the windshield, and the man's head left a big dent in the pillar and roof of the car (this is a very solid structural part of the car).  Immediately after the accident, the driver and his passenger hopped out of the car and ran off to try and hide. 

Police and Ambulance were there really quick... they even landed a medical helicopter on the parking area at the adjacent bus garage.  The EMTs took over, and tried to take care of the pedestrian while the police, aided by another helicopter started a massive manhunt.  They caught the driver in a nearby playground, but didn't find the passenger though.  I'm guessing they will track him down in the end though.  Seems these guys were known to the local Police.

Unfortuantely the pedestrian died on Sunday night.  The injuries he had from the accident were pretty bad

It's rather scary to think how easily this can happen again there - even with totally sober drivers.  Loads of people ignore the crosswalk and dart across the 4 lane road just to avoid waiting at the crossing.

So... today I experienced something new... an MRI.

Two weeks ago... a Tuesday... I woke up and started my like most others.. you know, the usual aches and pains we all have.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  I took a sick day because I was coughing and sneezing from a minor cold and I didn't want to share it with my co-workers.  Turns out it was a good thing I did... shortly after lunch, I was no longer able to walk.  Well... actually I could walk, but it was extremely painful and difficult.

It took two days of resting up before I was able to hobble around the corner to the doctor's office.  When I walked into the office, the reception took one look at me and they knew something wasn't right... I was taken straight in to the doctor.. no waiting.  That's unusual.  Hmmm I must have looked rough

Anyway, the doctor checked me over, shot me full of Cortisone and Diclofenac, took me off work for a week, and sent me home.

It didn't help.  A week later I was still rather messed up.  Another doctor visit... another shot... more meds, another week off work, and an appointment with the spine specialist.  That appointment was for today.

The whole MRI experience is interesting.  They kept asking me if I had a problem with small spaces and if I was claustrophobic.  Not a problem for me... I was kind of wondering though why they were so concerned about my potential claustrophobia.  It all became clear once I was taken into the room with the big MRI machine.  They weren't kidding when they said it was rather narrow.  I just barely fit into the machine.

The procedure itself is rather simple.  You lay on a firm bed thing.  They give you ear protection, and a panic button.  You are raised up, and then into the machine.  Once you're in the machine, there is not much to see... although there is a "comforting" blue pastel thing right in front of your eyes... like about 3cm away.  Once you're in, the machine starts up, and it's.. noisy.. really noisy... the ear protection makes sense.  It hums, and clunks, and buzzes for about 10 minutes, and then it's done.  The result.. a whack of photos of my spine and other miscellaneous inside bits.

Turns out that I actually do have a problem too... a disc has gone all squishy and squirted out and is pressing on my spinal cord (you can see it on the image).  The result is that in addition to a lot of discomfort and pain, it's interfering with my legs making it hard for me to move about... to sit... to do anything really.  Sneezing is a bad idea too... a really bad idea.

So.. another two weeks off work with strict instructions to rest up.. take more meds - this time something called... Tramadol (makes me kinda loopy.. more so than usual)... plus I have to visit a Neurologist, and go for Physiotherapy.  It's all a nice test of the German medical system.. which so far is going rather well.  The Tramadol was free (ie covered by my medical coverage), the MRI was easy to schedule, and I had no issues with the fact I don't speak any German... everyone was really helpful, and worked with me, explaining it all in English.

Looks like it will be a long slow process to heal up from this though.  Arrgh... I hate being slowed down like this.  Then again... now I have no excuse for putting off reviewing for my LPIC-1 exams, and reading up on Python

Those of you who know me personally know of my rather... ummm.... well... my love for Africa.. the people, the food, the music. 

My first "real" exposure to the music I've really come to love was back in... ummm.. 2002? or was it 2003?  Somewhere back then when I was on one of my many trips to Nariobi, and I attended the Miss Kenya Finals.  The Finals were held in the infamous Carnovore Restaurant and Night Club (by the way, if you ever make it to Nairobi, this is a must visit place).  The event in itself was amazing, and a load of fun, but... it was also a chance for local-ish artists to come out and entertain the crowd between events.

The most memorable band... The Longombas singing Dondosa.  Sadly it's not up on YouTube, so you cannot see them perform.  You can listen though here on EastAfricaTube.  The two singers (brothers) came out on stage and when they started dancing... well you've seen the movies of the women screaming when the Beatles sang?... this was the same... it was deafening

This lead me into a whole new world of music... like Awilo Longomba, Extra Musica, Werrason, and many others...

A couple that really are top of my list.. Brenda Fassie:

and Lady Jay Dee:

If you're up for it... and feel like exploring a little, poke around in YouTube and look for:

• Ndombolo
• Mr. Nice
• E-Sir
• Ogopa DJs
  
• Saida Karoli
• Obsession
• Jose Chameleon
• Adhiambo
• Wahu
• Mr Lenny
• Luo music

The keywords are a mix of artists, song names and music styles... some traditional, some hiphop, and some dance styles.

Oh, another fun video to watch is from a very popular Kenyan TV show called Churchill Live, and the Dance 101 skit... good fun and a nice example of the fun dances they do in East Africa... enjoy

I'm in Sweden, visiting a friend who lives here.  We were poking about on the internet on Sunday morning looking for something interesting to do in Malmö... and I stumbled across a fishing trip thing.  It was only for 4 hours... they take you out on the Öresund (the bit of ocean between Malmö and København), and you can cast as much as you want... and catch as much as you want.  According to the Captain's blog, on Saturday they caught 90 fish.  Wow... seems good, and it's only 20 Euro.  So we show up at the harbor at the right time, and we're off.

The weather is amazing here right now.. the Öresund is calm, almost like a lake on a calm day.  We are taken out to a spot near the Øresundsbron (the bridge over the Öresund), and everyone casts their fishing lures... and the race is on to catch the first fish... which is immediately won.. by a 12 year old kid.  He caught a nice sized 1 or 1.5 kilo cod.  Everyone is over the excitement of the first fish and gets back to the important business of pretending to be professional fisherman... casting the lures, and reeling them in.  We potter aorund to several fishing spots the Captain knows and people are catching fish on a fairly regular basis.... except me... and my friend.  We do catch some rather impressive weeds though, and some huge pieces of seaweed.  Near the end of the 4 hour trip I start catching mussels... lots of mussels.  Little ones... they are in the weeds and when I inevitably drop my lure into the weeds, the mussels close up on the hook.  When I reel it in, I spend 5 minutes prying the little guys off the hooks.  They are each about the size of your finger.. not big enough to do anything with, but just big enough to get a death grip on the hook that makes it rather difficult to remove them.

So, the trip comes to an end.  We start heading back in to Malmö, but the Captain stops us one more time for a last few casts.  My friend casts and a few seconds later he's struggling with reeling in... "I've got more weeds" or so he thinks... he keeps reeling in... and I spot the flash of a fish... he managed to catch the biggest fish of the trip on the last cast of the day.  He's over the moon.. his first fishing trip... and he lands the biggest fish of the day... sigh.. meanwhile the fish were just mocking me... and making me think I had great strikes when it was only seaweed.

Now the fun part though my friend was squeemish about pulling the weeds off his hook.. now he has a whole fish to clean up... hehe... this should be interesting today.

By the way, this is the view from his livingroom window... looking out over the Öresund with the Øresundsbron to Denmark in the distance.  Nice eh?

This past weekend I decided it was time to take a road trip back to the Netherlands to visit some friends.  Since I am car-free, I have to either rent a car or take the train.  The trains are nice, but can be expensive depending on your destination.  After a bit of price comparing, it turned out that renting a car was significantly cheaper than taking the train... and faster too.  Driving the route takes just over 4 hours.. taking the train is over 6 hours.

Anyway, I booked a VW Golf and showed up at the rental agent to pick it up.  They didn't have one.  But... they kindly upgraded me to a Mercedes for the same rental price as the Golf.  Nice.  Haven't driven a Mercedes much.

This is where the little things come in... all the little things about a Mercedes that makes them such a nice car to drive.  Some things are common to most new cars... other things aren't.  The headlights come on automatically when needed... the rear view mirror darkens when you're driving at night, and there is a car with bright lights behind you... the windscreen wipers come on automatically if it starts to rain, and speed up or slow down based on how much rain there is... and my favorite... when you're stopped on a hill, the brakes stay on for a couple seconds after you release the pedal... just long enough for you to switch over to the gas, and engage the clutch.  No more rolling backwards in that second or so before you get the car moving.  This kind of freaked me out a bit the first time since I wasn't expecting it.  Once I realized what was up, I was looking for another hill to start off on

Now that I've driven a Mercedes on a 1000km road trip, I can really see why some people like these cars so much.

Aha!  Now I see it.  The work on the apartment building down the street from where I live is progressing at a steady pace.  It's just now starting to come together and look like something.  The workers have wrapped the building in styrofoam blocks (I assume for insulation), sealed up all the joints, and just yesterday started plastering over it all.  The result is a totally transformed building.  It was looking rather old and tired, weather beaten over the years it has stood there on the corner... now, it's looking almost like a new building.  It should be interesting to see the transformation once it is complete.  I wish I had snapped a photo before it all started so you could see the before and after.

The neighborhood I live in here in Hamburg is... a bit dodgy, but it's OK.... and it's changing.  Local businesses are closing up all over.  A couple of months ago, it started with the convenience store across the street shutting down followed shortly after by another nearby convenience store.  A month ago it was a large grocery store a few streets over.  Last week it was the bakery just 2 doors down from my apartment (I'm going to miss that bakery... they made some excellent stuff).  There are abandoned businesses up and down the street.

The vacancy rate in the local apartments also seems to be rising... now there are 3 empty apartments in the building I live in, and it's looking like there will soon be a 4th.  Plus the landlord has stopped pretty much all maintenance and upkeep on the building - I haven't seen the guy who used to clean the common areas for several months now.  He used to be by at least once per week to wash the entry floors, tidy up things, take out the trash bins etc etc.  I have a feeling he doesn't work there anymore... no one has cleaned the entry in a long time, and the trash bins are now just left on the street under my living room windows instead of being returned back to the spot in the back garden of the apartment building.  One of the tennants put the bins back a couple months back, and they were soon overflowing as no one took them out to be picked up on trash collection day.

There is one oddity of sorts though... signs that in at least one case, there is a lot of work being done to rebuild an apartment building, although, I am not exactly sure what it is they are doing. Just down the street is another of many unassuming bland generic brick apartment buildings.  It's the type that is found in pretty much every country in the world... simple, square, and generic.  The builders moved in a while back, taking over the whole street in front of the building plus a small park around the corner.  They spent a week setting up scaffolding, and then proceeded to paint the red brick exterior with a whilte paint.  Over that they are now building up a styrofoam brick wall, attached to the real red brick behind... they are basically wrapping the entire apartment building in styrofoam blocks.  Strange.. not sure exactly what they are doing... but it's a sign that not every building in the area is being allowed to crumble in neglect.

No, my thumb hasn't gone moldy despite the rumors... I've started growing Stevia at home.

Errr... growing what you may ask?  Stevia.  It's a leafy green plant native to Central and South America that is incredibly sweet (about 300x sweeter than sugar). 

I stumbled onto Stevia a couple of years ago, and tracked down a supplier here in Germany.  I've been ordering the processed stevia (white powder) and using it in my tea and other food for quite some time now.  It has a slightly different taste than regular sugar.  Sometimes you get a faint hint of licorice taste in it if you taste is raw off the tip of your finger.  Mixed into food it just tastes sweet... very sweet.  It is not as "heavy" tasting as sugar... best to say it's an acquired taste, and given the choice I definitely prefer it over sugar.

Anyway... growing it.  I managed to find a supply of seeds and ordered a package.  The seeds are tiny.. really tiny and also almost impossible to convince to germinate.  I researched and tried a dozen different methods, sorted out the husks and grey seeds from the black ones (the black ones are supposed ot be the good ones that will germinate).  I tried planting direct in some potting soil, I tried soaking and planting etc etc.  The only successful method was to sprinkle the seeds on some wet paper towel, and put the paper towel into a plastic bag.  I set the bag on the window sill for a couple of weeks, keeping it wet, and checking for sprouts. 

It took about 6 weeks, for the first hint of green to show.  From there I carefully transplanted the little plant to a pot, and hoped it would keep growing.  The first few failed to grow... but eventually I managed to convince one to stay alive, and now... now I have a fast growing plant.  it's looking good.  Another couple months, and I'll be able to sample it

From what I read, I should be able to simply use the leaves of the plant - mixing them into my tea or food wherever I want something to be sweet.  I can either use them fresh, or I can dry the leaves. 

It's an interesting experiment, but certainly takes patience to see results.

So... errr.. ummmm... yah... I went to Prague last week.... not for vacation though... this was work related.  Stopping in at the Sun offices in Prague was great.  Some really interesting people working there, and it's a very nice location/office.

Prague.... how do I feel about Prague as a city and a destination?  Well... it's a stunningly beautiful old world European city.  It has all those old elements of what many people think of when they picture Europe in their minds... old buildings, amazing architecture, statues on bridges... Prague also.. is... ummm... not sure of the right word or description here... something about the city feels a bit out of place like pebble in a poorly fitting shoe.  It is badly overrun with tourists (I don't like overly touristy places), and has a real strange mix of massive modernization and growth mixed in with places where time stopped a couple of centuries ago.

Thee things that I liked:

• The dark beer that I had in the restaraunt the first night I was there
  
• The metro system
• The architecture in the old town
  

Thee things that amused me (in one way or another):

• The animated dancing stick figure on the side of a building
• The brazen druggies in KFC doing lines of coke on one of the restaurant tables
• The persistent touts out in front of the many many "clubs" and "cabarets"

Three things that surprised me:

• The brazen druggies in KFC doing lines of coke on one of the restaurant tables
• The cost of things (much much higher than I expected)
• The blandness of traditional Czech food (at least what I ate was bland)

• The smoking.. oiy, the Czech people smoke.. way too much

(I know, that makes 4 things that surprised me, but... )

Well... I've sold out.  I have an iPhone

My mobile phone contract was up for renewal, and the phone company has been nagging me to renew it.  They were calling me once every week or two, they were sending me letters.  I kept humming and hawing... not biting on their sales pitches.  They kept sweetening the deal, offering me more for my contract price... different phones and so on.  Still I wouldn't bite... I was busy looking at what phones were available and which ones met my minimum "I want" criteria.  I would find a phone that looked right, do some digging and discover it was running on WinCE.  Bzzzzt.. automatic disqualification in my books.

Anyway, the phone company finally offered me a free 3G 16Gb iPhone with an all the extras contract for the same price as I was paying already, plus a couple months free, plus a few other goodies.  I went for it.

Like a numpty.

And now....

Well....

I am kinda of impressed with the silly thing   I love the reasonably fast internet access it has, and the interface is slick and easy to use.  it has the gadgets I like... like interactive Google mapping that ties in with its internal GPS receiver.  it works well for other things too.. like being a phone.  And most of all..... I can turn the volume up high enough for my deaf ears to hear when I am using it as a phone!!!  That was actually my number one criteria... volume.  This is the only phone that has enough punch in the volume that I don't have to keep it at max and then ask people to repeat themselves all the time.  I can even have the volume at half and still clearly hear the person I'm talking to.... yay!

OK, that's all the gooey puppie dogs and butterflies part... what isn't so good?

Well... within an hour of taking it out of the box I broke the OS it runs on... broke it so bad it went into a corner to pout and refused to come back out for about 3 hours.  Basically, to activate the phone I was forced to use iTunes, and Apple refuses to support Linux with their iTunes monstrosity.  This means I was forced to find an old copy of Windows XP, install that in a virtual machine, and then try to activate the phone.  It all seemed to go OK until iTunes decided that the phone needed a firmware upgrade.  In the process it rebooted the phone a few times... which kind of confused the virtual machine a little with the connect, disconnect, connect, disconnect, and the firmware upgrade failed.  No worries.. right?  Just boot the phone in recovery mode, reconnect it to iTunes in the virtual machine and "fix" it right?  Nope... more of the same, and then worse... total lockup of the virtual machine... and then for some bizarre reason.. the Linux host died a horrible death too.  There was nothing I could do to get that combination to work and do the firmware upgrade.  I was seriously annoyed.. broken iPhone, broken virtual machine, broken Linux... nothing in my apartment was happy... in the end I was forced to dig up an old hard drive, install XP on it natively and boot that XP on the "bare metal", and then fix the phone using iTunes.  That worked... just.

So... phone fixed, I disassembled the XP side of things, booted back to Linux, apologized
profusely to my computer for making it run XP. and things slowly returned to normal.  Mostly.

Since then I've been exploring the iPhone apps library - loads of free stuff in there, and just basically having fun.

Last night though... last night... I discovered... Podcasts.  OK, I knew about Podcasts before, but never really got into them all that much.  The bad part is.. in the podcasts listings... are... all the episodes of Happy Tree Friends which are now saved to my phone   Oh right... there are other Podcasts too.

So despite the rather annoying start... I am starting to really like this silly phone.  Have I joined the iCult of iApple?  Mmmmm not quite yet.