tech – Page 5 – Moby Files: Blog

Busted!

OHMERGERD! It’s busted!

As you can see I had an unfortunate mishap with my phone. Arrrgh. Ironically, I had yet to get a single scratch, ding, or dent on it up until the fateful drop yesterday. I knocked it off the top of the Zipcar while unloading Costco. More astutely, I did a mad grab finger flip 3 or 4 times before it flipped, flew, and fell on the concrete cracking the screen and busting the camera as well.

Motorola appears to offer a warranty repair, which means I pay to have it fixed. They are shipping me a temporary replacement in the meantime. I finally find a phone I am happy with and I go and break it. *grumble grumble*

I guess it is good I didn’t sell the G4. I was gonna tough it out but the screen was barely usable. I had to connect it to Bluetooth keyboard just so I could clean off a few things. Points to Tmo for making the process to activate my old SIM super easy and quick It took literally just a few minutes.

Sadly, I find myself still hating the G4. ^[1]Please remind me to never ever buy a LG phone again. I had such a negative reaction when it came on I was a bit surprised. I don’t think I’ve ever been so annoyed by an Android variant before. The OEM version is just annoying. The only nice thing about the whole thing is the sense tap. Going back to it is such a contrast to the Moto X PE. The pure Android experience has spoiled me once again it seems.

Pray for my baby to be returned fast.

References[+]

References
↑1	Please remind me to never ever buy a LG phone again.

Moto

I recently purchased the mid-range Moto X Pure Edition and I’m absolutely loving it so far. I know your shocked that I got a ‘non-premium phone‘ but it is true. I’ve been so frustrated with this years premium offerings I didn’t really have a choice. **If you don’t want the long drawn out version, you can skip to the last 3 paragraphs.**

It all started with my upgrade from the S3 to the S4. I loved the S4. The battery was immensely better along with a faster chip, better screen, and all around it was a decent phone. Life was good. Then Tmo comes along with their Jump! plan. And while not a necessity, I tend to like the emerging tech phones. I’m a geek, its in my blood. I’m definitely in the ‘heavy user‘ category and require a phone with a strong battery. Since few ever meet both requirements, it made it easier to change devices often. Said freedom might have been a slight downside as you read on.

After more than 6 months I made the ‘jump’ to the S5 and was sorely disappointed. ^[1]I seem to remember an unfortunate incident with my S4 and the back tire of my motorcycle necessitating an upgrade anyway The battery life went down and not much else improved. Sure on paper it had a nicer screen but in reality it looked and felt the same. Plus, Sammy in their greed started diverging away from traditional Android for their home-brewed version, Tizen or some shit. It sucked. But I was able to root it and get rid of a lot of the bloat. I stuck out my 6 months but was chomping at the bit to switch. I’d heard rave reviews about the HTC M8 and gave it a whirl. I didn’t even last the full 14 days before returning it. Beautiful phone, great camera but dreadful battery life. I gladly forked over the restock fee to get rid of it.

I heme’d and hawed until I settled on the Sony Z3. For all my bitching about Sony’s lousy customer support, the Z3 was an absolute dream. I wasn’t a fan of the square edges but it was excellent. I could use it all day and it still had battery when I plugged it in to go to bed. It has become the benchmark for battery on all my future phones. Sadly, after unfortunate drop from a vehicle while in LA, I was forced to jump again. It is no secret I’m hard on my toys and luckily enough, I was 1 day over my 6 months. Jump! lolol The Z4 was still a distant release candidate and had virtually no real upgrades other than the name and knowing Tmo was ditching any future OS upgrades for the Z3, I switched back to Sammy and the S6.

As you probably know the S6 was getting high marks for finally being a beautiful phone. And it’s true. It is a beautiful phone. Imagine my total surprise to see the battery life went down even more. I’d say it was on par with the S3, which was dreadful. I could barely muster 4 hours of heavy use out of it. An absolute failure IMO for any smartphone today with a premium label. I think I’ve given up on the S-line. Needless to say, I didn’t even last the full 14 days again.

Against my nagging instincts, I jumped to the Lg G4. Something told me not to get it but I couldn’t remember anything specific so I got it. It had a noticeably better battery life right off the bat. And by ‘noticeably’, I meant I went from awful to mediocre. But having exhausted all my jumps, I resigned myself to stick it out. It was not to be though. I quickly grew to hate the damn thing. The device overall worked fine; however it was ugly and annoying. Lots of little things just bugged the ever lasting shit out of me and I couldn’t stick it out 6 full months. (Oh the first world drama, right?)

At the annoyance of my bank account, I broke away from going thru Tmo and got the Moto X Pure Edition direct from Motorola. I had misgivings after witnessing Lenovo brutalize IBM’s laptop business after taking it over. I was concerned they’d do the same to Motorola. Surprisingly, my fears were once again unfounded. I love the X Pure. It may not be a premium handset but it sure acts like one. True to their statement, it came with almost pure Android. You’d think it was a Nexus device if you didn’t know better. There is very little bloat, and I mean very little! If you’ve ever gone from a Nexus to an OEM version or vice versa, you understand the description here. No fancy launcher, no gimmicky overlays *cough – touchwhiz*. Just Android. That also means only a small handful of apps running in the background constantly zapping your battery.

Since you aren’t going thru a carrier, you get a little extra say in small aesthetics when ordering online. Normally, I scoff at such things but I have to admit, I like my personal twist of colors. You can choose colors for the back plate, the back insert, and two little front accents meant to protect the screen from scratching when you lay it face down. The battery is not up to par with the Z3 but it performs quite well under moderate to heavy use. I’m pleased and can live with it. If you use an idle throttle app, like Juice Defender, you’ll probably get way more battery as the cell radio seems to run a lot unnecessarily. It doesn’t offer wireless charging, but it really does charge super fast! Almost 50% in just under 15 minutes. The camera is pretty good and definitely the fastest focus I’ve experienced on a phone. Low light photos are slightly above decent but not awesome. Beyond that, it is a solid camera, front and back. NFC, Bluetooth, and Wireless all work fine.

It’s funny because I caught myself smiling as I took it out of the box. Setting it up was super simple and all my annoyances with the G4 melted away. I absolutely love the Moto X Pure.

References[+]

References
↑1	I seem to remember an unfortunate incident with my S4 and the back tire of my motorcycle necessitating an upgrade anyway

Follow

I got into a rather odd conversation with a casual friend on social media the other day. Apparently, he was ‘disappointed’, as he put it, that I had yet to accept his friend request on ‘site C’. He follows me already on Site A, B & D, but somehow my not accepting him on site C was somehow an imaginary slight. In the end, he seems to have “unfollowed” me on said sites. I’m devastated. /sarcasm

I’ll be honest here, I don’t get this sort of behavior. Even if you are a good friend I know in person, I may not follow you on every site that we might mutually be on. I use different social outlets in different ways. Sometimes our interests may overlap enough that I follow someone on multiple sites. Sometimes they don’t and I won’t. That is pretty much the end of my reasoning. The implication I got was that he felt since we were ‘friends’ I had an obligation to follow him? It seems a bit odd to me to base a ‘friendship’ on whether we follow each other online everywhere.

Now this particular person and I have never met in person. Granted, that wouldn’t be an immediate reason either way. I ~~stalk~~ follow several people I’ve never met daily. Heehee But, I also don’t feel any obligation to follow people I know on every site I’m on. Actually, if I know you in real life, I feel like I’m obligated even less.

Is this a thing? Is there something that has developed as some bizarre unwritten rule? I’ll be breaking it if it is but I’m just checking.

*
And on a related tangent but not the same person, if you block me ^[1]and we know each other in the biblical sense because we have differences in political views, be sure to block me again when you get kicked off of Facebook and create a new profile whining about getting kicked off for posting nudie pics. It saves us both the awkwardness of being recommended in the “People who may now” section…

References[+]

References
↑1	and we know each other in the biblical sense

Moved

You didn’t even notice it but I switched my domain manager and web host recently. Actually, I switched last month. After my rant about my old host, I got several emails asking why I was still with them. I started asking myself the same question. They weren’t bad, we just weren’t a good fit.

I guess after my 1 and 1 disaster, I had extremely low expectations. hehehe After some searching, I settled on InMotion. I can’t even begin to tell you how happy I am with the switch. As happy as I was to be away from 1 and 1, I’m that much happier to have a host I feel is a really good fit. First, they deal a lot with WordPress, so can answer many related questions w/o delay. They also offered a discount on my first year of service so ended up cheaper than my previous host. After the first year, they’ll be pretty much the same price. They also offer 24/7 tech support by phone, web chat, an email. They transferred all my existing data, blog included, for free. I was a bit shocked when I read that part. They even transferred existing emails. ^[1]I always use IMAP instead of POP3 so had plenty of emails on the server. I’ve never had a host do that! I had a tiny snafu with an internal domain configuration and they fixed it on the spot when I called.

Speaking of domains, I decided to have Google manage my actual domains. I transferred all but one from Tucows and the process was pretty easy. The Google domain management tool is pretty easy. They even offer email forwarding for domain only accounts. Email for a domain usually requires a host to physically store it. Google apparently allows you to create forwarders for no extra charge.

So, I’m all settled with the new host and so far extremely happy.

References[+]

References
↑1	I always use IMAP instead of POP3 so had plenty of emails on the server.

Destiny

I’m totally hooked on this game. Ugh! It has been over a year and I still play

it at least once a week. Bungie’s goal was to create a game that would be a francize for up to 10 years. I think they might have succeeded. The game is continually updated every 3-6 months with new DLC (downloadable content) to expand its maps. It also incorporates online play, alone or with others.

I’ve always been a gamer who plays for fun. While I am competitive, I prefer to do so with fun in mind. I have never been someone who focused solely on winning. The developers have managed to capture aspects of both types of game play, competitive and fun, to reach a very broad range of players. If you are a competitive player, you have to reach a certain level thru the campaigns, but once you do you can be as competitive as you like. There are whole segments that deal solely with competing. You can play in a group of friends against the game or against other players. If you’re like me and you enjoy campaign modes, there is plenty to keep you busy.

I judge my games by 1) if I finish it, 2) how many times I finish or continue to play it. The game by its nature is designed to never end. Well, not anytime soon anyway. hahaha New content expands the breadth of the game all while tying into what you already know. I have to say the developers did a good job of building a game that will indeed last for a decade.

If you’re reading this and are a more hardcore gamer, you’re probably familiar with much of the drama that has unfolded in social media and Bungie’s own forums. Frankly, I find it a bit childish and counter-productive. First and foremost, developers rarely give the level of interaction and feedback to players that Bungie has with this game. Maybe they’ve given too much because many have taken to acting all butt-hurt and entitled because the game didn’t live up to some of the promises put forward before the game was released. One, the game wasn’t designed solely for the hardcore player. It was designed to appeal to all manner of players. Two, if the game was such a disappointment, don’t play it.

Anyhoo, I’m still addicted to it. It has captured my attention like no game before it. Even more than the original Prototype and the Dead Space series. I eagerly await the next set of expansions.

WeMo

Does anyone else use these? I’ve been using the Belkin home automation line called WeMo and I kind of like them. I’m only using the outlets so far but they apparently offer a range of different products. The premise is anything plugged into the WeMo outlet can be turned on/off remotely via the app. You can also develop rules or schedules as well.

The first one I got was a little finicky. I think they were still too new back then as it had several bugs. Over the span of a few years and multiple flash updates, they’ve gotten better. I’ve read good and bad reviews on them. Most of the bad reviews seem to revolved around more robust use. I’m wondering if it is a software limitation of too many devices.

I’m up to only 3 now and they still work just fine. The one thing I really like is the app doesn’t require a bunch of users or account log-ins. If you have the app installed and are on the same wifi network as the devices, you can see and manipulate them.

I’m considering moving to light switches as well now. I’d love feedback from anyone else who has mixed devices on a network.

Trifecta

You may have noticed some changes to the theme. You might have also noticed there are new links to my other domains.

Each has it’s purpose and I’m working on integrating them together so they look and feel the same. My goal is one seamless look that blends all three sites together. Eventually, I hope to have floating or scrolling tabs instead of links. However, said tabs require some tinkering and testing of the theme and/or CSS. I’m not quite advanced enough to write it from scratch so I’ll have to find an example that I like and incorporate it here. ^[1]The image above is actually referred to as a Celtic Triquerta but it is often referenced incorrectly as a trifecta

Sfmoby.us
Of course, this will continue to be the blog. The only changes here are a new background image and links to the other domains.

Sfmoby.com
I’ve already started this one and it will continue to be a repository for photos and social media stuff. Basically, if I post it anywhere on social media, regardless of platform, I want it to show here. It is trickier than it sounds. Not all platforms export directly to WordPress. I think the exception will be twitter. I’ve pulled away from twitter a lot. I’m just tired of the idea of micro-blogging. Of course, I say that now. I may change my mind. There are plenty of widgets that drag in twitter feeds.

Sfmoby.net
Is new and will be a repository for some of my stories. Did you know I used to write short stories? I did. I was told often that I was pretty good at it. Even in high school, I got high marks for creative fiction. I might also try to fold in a dream journal. I’m not sure how dedicated I am to the idea though. haha I’m still tinkering w/ideas on this domain but I definitely want it to be a more creative outlet than a journal.

I remember saying once back when I was still new to blogging that I wanted my blog to be a central hub for my online life. I even built a few website templates for it. Then came along social networking and I got sort of side-tracked. The idea of a central hub has stayed with me an I find I’m coming full circle again. I got a little down on myself for awhile because I tried to force too much into my regular blogging. As the need to tackle personal growth waned, I felt pressured to fill the void. I think on some level I even rebelled a bit.

Anyway, feel free to check’em out.

References[+]

References
↑1	The image above is actually referred to as a Celtic Triquerta but it is often referenced incorrectly as a trifecta

Imported

Good news! After 5 years, I’ve finally been able to import all of the posts from my old blog. I started the sfmoby domain with a fresh database as WP grew a lot in those first few years and my old mysql table was quite cluttered. I didn’t want to import all the errors from the old database basically.

That’s the good news. The bad news is I may have inadvertently imported duplicate pages and user accounts as well. If you were signed up as a user on both blogs, you might (and I say might) see double emails for new posts if you are/were subscribed. I will be reviewing them slowly. You’ll most likely just need to reset your password as if you lost or forgot it. And conversely, if you notice a problem logging in, just go thru the lost password process.

Some images didn’t come across either. I’ll have to manually update them one by one. ^[1]WP didn’t always support short linking very well This will also take some time to complete. While most of you won’t notice anything, I’m giving everyone a heads up.

This also means I’ll be retiring the old archive as it is now in one place. Once I have purged and/or corrected everything I can, I will delete the old blog completely. I’ll keep the old URL for some years to come but it will just redirect here.

If you have any problems with your user account, please email me directly.

References[+]

References
↑1	WP didn’t always support short linking very well

Still

It appears le blog is still being subjected to random brute force attacks. If you notice long load times or get a "500 internal server" error message, it is because I’m being timed out by the server to prevent it from crashing. ^[1]Nifty little protection mechanism I didn’t even know servers did that. lol I’m not gone, just try again in a bit and it will be back. If you get updates via RSS, you shouldn’t notice any issues.

I keep getting grumpy notes from my ISP about my server CPU stats. It isn’t me specifically that is being targeted. I’m nothing special in the grand scheme of the big interwebs. However, WordPress has some weak areas that bots and hackers routinely try to take advantage of to proliferate s p @ m. They basically take advantage of inherent internet workings to overload a server with too many page requests.

Anyway, I’m having to step up my game a bit. I’ve turned on site-caching from the server instead of from within WP. This just means a visitor gets served a cached copy of my index page vs the server rendering a file from scratch every time someone visits. Loading a static file only consumes bandwidth vs compiling php files on each request. The cache file gets updated every time I create a new post.

Hopefully, this will cut way back on the server load. If the problem continues, I’ll most likely move my blog to WP servers. They do a lot of work on the back end to prevent this sort of nonsense. I mean it is their product so it makes sense. lol My ISP helps when I ask but they are smaller and leave most of the burden on me. I simply don’t have the resources to combat such things.

Time will tell.

References[+]

References
↑1	Nifty little protection mechanism I didn’t even know servers did that. lol