Yeah - Apple has had alot of issues with today's launch of the iPhone 3G.  It doesn't matter.  Apple is still laughing, and they're going to continue to laugh all the way to the iPhone 3G bank.

This was easily the worst launch of a mobile phone ever.  Does anyone care?  The press, maybe - but do any of the people who braved the crowds care if they have to wait 5 or 6 hours to activate their phones?  They might care today, and maybe tomorrow, but next week: nope.  The majority of the people who bought iPhones today are major Apple fans, not the general public.  99% of the rest of the population (who are interested in the iPhone) will grab it sometime in the next few weeks, when they get around to it.  The only way this whole ordeal can affect them is if they happen to catch some of the mass-media reporting.

As Robert Scoble puts it, it's worth the hell.  The love of the brand and product is greater than any problems that have happend.  Apple's PR doesn't even need to concern themselves.

The iPhone/Apple has won

Never before have I seen developers or the media (at least bloggers) more excited about a platform.  The facebook platform may come close, but the iPhone app store excitement is pretty rare.  Getting the developer community excited is important - and hard to do.  The benefits grow exponentially.  The more awesome apps that are developed - the more valuable the iPhone becomes.

All the hype and excitement about the iPhone has caused every major mobile provider to want to carry it.  Rules have finally changed for mobile providers across 22 countries today.  The power is finally in the hardware/software developers hands.  And it's about time.

4 days after I purchased my new monitor, I have a stuck pixel. That is at least what I think it is. It's a little blue spot on the monitor that didn't wipe away, so I'm assuming that it is in fact a stuck pixel.

Stuck Pixel On Monitor

The picture makes it look worse than it actually is, but the blue pixel is still definitely noticeable. After researching the issue on the web, I found that there are pretty much three choices to fix it.

The Software Method

I read about a program that will remove stuck pixels. After looking into this, I found a utility provided by WidowPC. It is not actually a program that runs. What the WidowPC tool does is runs a video that flashes red, green, white, black, and blue. I thought this sounded cool, so I downloaded and ran the video. I set my media player to loop the 52 second video, resized it, and placed it over the blue dot. After running it for 2 minutes, the pixel was still there. I decided to leave it longer and left for 15 minutes. When I came back the blue dot was still there. Hmm, oh well onto the next try.

The Massage Method

There is another method I tried that is called the massage method. If you have used an LCD monitor before and have pressed on the screen, you have likely seen the circle of discoloration left from your finger. What happens when you press on the screen is that the liquid moves around to other pixels. This sounded like it would work, so I gave it a go. I put a napkin over my finger, and lightly rolled it around. Well, this didn't work - even though I thought it sounded like the best method. Time for the last attempt.

The Tap Method

The last method to try was a method that involved tapping a pen on the affected pixel. This is similar to the massage method, by moving the liquid out in an attempt to unset the pixel. I gave a quick little tap with the end of a pen, and the pixel was cleared! I wish I had used this method first.

No More Stuck Pixel

The pixel is now cleared and hasn't come back in over a day. I was really worried when I saw this pixel because when I bought the monitor the seller offered me a pixel warranty. The warranty was $15 and assured something like free replacement on monitors with 4 or less pixel problems for a year. Having heard tonnes of warnings from the news/internet/etc. about extended warranties I decided to pass on the option. We'll see if this was the right choice, but for now, everything is good.

This is easily the coolest USB thumb drive ever created. The Ironkey was developed for the US military so their soldiers able to have secure file storage. It comes in 1, 2, and 4GB for $79, $109, and $149, respectively.

Amazing Security

All the drives data are encrypted and 100% unreadable without the correct password. The password is nearly impossible to get too - from the description:

First locally encrypted with 256-bit AES, using randomly generated keys encrypted with a SHA-256 hash of your device password. All of this data is then doubly encrypted with 128-bit AES hardware encryption.

Good luck breaking into that. By the way, you can't even brute force attack it. 10 incorrect password attempts and the encryption chip self-destructs making all data unrecoverable. Facing a physical attack? no way. You cant open the thing without epoxy going everywhere inside the thing wrecking the entire thumb drive again, making everything unrecoverable. Even if the attacker has an scanning electron microscope they will not be able to get in. The thumb drive is electron shielded, so it's pretty much secure.

Secure Firefox

Not only does it have crazy advanced 007 style security, it has what every person needs to hide their tracks effectively, a secure copy of Firefox. Firefox is a very popular web browser, and with good reason - it's amazing. The Firefox on the thumb drive creates a secure VPN tunnel to Ironkey's secure sessions service which all your traffic will go through. By going through this encrypted tunnel, it would be impossible to retrieve any information from the browsing session making it probably the best way to keep your secrets hidden.

Good Enough For War

The sales page says that the Ironkey has seen active duty in Afghanistan. If it's good enough for war, I guess it's good enough for me. Even though I don't do anything important enough to hide... I think I'm going to pick up a 1GB.

The other day I purchased a 22" LG L22WTX Widescreen LCD from NCIX. I decided to go with LG as my father has one (19"), and the university I go to uses nothing but LG LCD's monitors. My dad was happy with his, I like what I use at school, so LG was my choice. The price was fairly good, it was $289.99CAD before tax so I decided to go with it.

The Features

1680x1050 Native Resolution

3000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio

5ms Ultra-Fast Response Time

F-Engine

DVI Input with HDCP

Intelligent Auto Resolution

eZ Zooming

This monitor has everything I wanted. The things I were looking for were specifically, 3000:1 contrast, DVI, and 5ms response time. A feature that is not really advertised about this monitor is the swivel bottom. I really like this as it allows me to easily turn my monitor to show the person beside me some code or whatever I'm working on. F-Engine? Don't know what that is, but having it can't hurt.

Why This One

In addition to the features and reasons I mentioned above, this monitor just worked out to be the best. A 20" LCD doesn't have the same price:size ratio. That is, it is something like a $30 difference to gain 2" - well worth it. A 24" LCD on the other hand, is ~$740, which makes it a $430 difference to gain 2 more inches. I would much rather have two 22" monitors for less than one 24"... who wouldn't? 44 inches of monitor for $620 vs. 24 inches of monitor for $740? The answer is simple, two 22" monitors is the most intelligent choice.

LG L226WTX from the front

My Setup

The only problem with this monitor is it does not come with a DVI cable. It has a DVI port, but no cable so it's off to eBay for me. For now, I have it connected via VGA. Because I use my MacBook Pro primarily, I switch this monitor back and forth between it and my desktop as needed. To do this, I have to convert the DVI output on my laptop to VGA with the supplied Apple adapter.

Productivity

If you are not using at least a 19" widescreen monitor, you are not maximizing your productivity on your computer. With this LCD I can work longer, have more windows, and keep my computer organized while I do my thing. The next big thing that I buy, you guessed it - another 22" monitor. My personal throughput when programming, surfing the web, or even blogging must go up by at least 33% with a big monitor, and I'm sure that there is already research on this subject.

22" monitor compared to 15" MacBook Pro

Apparently the Canadian courts think so as well. The unofficial apple weblog reports that the levy proposed against iPods - the so called "iPod tax," has been defeated. It's a good thing too, with a $5 to $75 tax on iPods depending on their size, wow, no wonder retailers were pissed.

It wouldn't have worked

If iPods are suddenly $75 more expensive people are just going to turn to one of the many easier and lazier places than a physical store. You've heard of it - the internet. I'm sure Amazon, eBay, and any other online store that sells iPods would be pretty pleases if this tax went though. This is also the reason that the Retail Council of Canada was the biggest opponent of this levy. Retail stores would have lost major revenue.

Even the grandparents who are scared to buy off the internet when buying iPods for their grandkids would be affected. The elderly know when they're not getting a deal - they have a lot of time on their hands. Why buy in Canada when you could take a trip down to the U.S. and get the same thing for much cheaper, without even considering the weak U.S. dollar giving up extra savings.

Bottom line - iPods aren't chock full o' pirated music, and it's a good thing the courts recognize that.