The iPhone, upon release, has been a great hit in the United States, and experts expect it will hit Canada before Xmas. It will probably be #1 on people’s Xmas lists! However there is a way to get it before that, because internet marketing blogger Gary Lee is giving away a free iPhone (visit this link to see how you can win) as part of his blog promotion scheme. According to Gary, the prize include a Brand New 8GB Apple iPhone + Fancy iPhone Bag that it came in + Free Shipping anywhere in the world (that fedex delivers to). It’s still sealed and in pristine condition!

A short note on Gary - he not only runs his blog, but he also runs a golf equipment website called bunker’s paradise (check it out if you golf), and has some sort of connection with PinkDeals.net which offers free online coupons and discount codes for various services.

There is the iPhone, in case you wanted to look at it and drool for a few minutes. Although the iPhone does sell in the USA, it’s still not in Canada (which is where the majority of my readers come from, according to Google Analytics), and this should be a great opportunity to get one before everybody else.

I already wrote about how space-conscious my home office setup is, and here are some additions to it. After I went through troubles with my old laptop screen, I purchased a new HP laptop, and the old one never got fixed. The new one runs Windows Vista, so testing in IE6 is out of the option unless I run some sort of a virtual machine, which would be just another resource-drain.

Anyhow, the solution was to run both my laptops, connected to a big monitor while I’m at home. This had a few loops to jump :

• How do I set it up so I can easily switch between the two computers on just 1 monitor? Having 2 monitors on my desk is completely out of the option due to lateral space limitations.
• How do I set up space for 2 laptops to be stacked up, while at least one of them can be set up and removed on a constant basis? The old broken one can stay, but the new one has to come with me all the time. Also, once again, space was a factor.
• It has to be easy for me to connect USB ports and what not easily.

So I started looking for options. I went to some stores to look for a shelving system that can help me out, but none of them fit the profile. Most of them were too big, too tall, and after stacking 2 of them the monitor on top ended up sitting too high.

I custom-designed the following shelves by going to Home Depot, having the wood pieces cut to my trim, and then using my hand-drill and some wood screws, I crafted these 17″ X 10″ X 1.75″ shelves. These shelves worked out perfectly - it gave less than 1/4″ room on the sides from my laptops, and in terms of height they had about 1/4″ of room on top of the laptops, which is perfect.

For the panel shelving I used some sort of compacted chip-board thingy, so it’s thin yet durable. Actual plywood was too thick - it would have added an extra 3/4 inch to the total height, raising the 22″ monitor too high.

So that took care of the space problem of having 2 laptops stacked with a monitor on top. This doesn’t take up any more space than it did when I opened my laptop and put it on my desk.

To enable switching between the 2 computers with a snap, I purchased a Belkin Flip. It’s a Y junction circuitry unit that couples 2 USB ports, 1 RGB Monitor output, and a speaker output to 1 input towards the devices.

By gently tapping on this switch, which is right in front of my monitor, the monitor view/mouse/keyboard switches over between the 2 computers in a snap.

As you can see in the following photo, the shelves I designed are wide open on all fronts, so that I can plug in the USB ports, use the CD/DVD ROMs.

The one thing I’d do differently next time is to add another inch in depth, because some of the components need me to push the laptops back and forth to fit it in, which isn’t so bad after all.

The last time I purchased a refilled toner for a laser printer (a nice big HP printer that cost a lot of money), it had color streaks all along the side, sort of like a rainbow spectrum going through it. I printed dozens of pages, and shook the toners again and again to rectify the printing quality but it did not do it.

A while ago I took a shot at those ink refill kits for inkjet cartridges.

Well, the ink was crap. The ink would dry on the surface of my cartridge, so every time I wanted to print a document I had to give it a moist wipe and then print within a minute, otherwise it would dry up again. It was ridiculous.

Bottom line? I will never buy any kind of refilled toners/cartridges again. Of course, not all of them are defective, but it’s just not worth having to deal with the hassle for a small amount of savings.

Yesterday and today I went through some Bluetooth headsets. And, yes, just like last time with my DVD player and laptop, I went through the purchase-and-exchange routine to find the one that I liked. I’m very picky when it comes to electronics, so that’s to be expected. And since I’m like that, I make my purchases at the larger stores like Futureshop or Bestbuy. I don’t care so much about the somewhat higher prices than online stores or the wholesalers like ATIC in Vancouver. ATIC has a horrible return/exchange policy and the staff are very unfriendly when it happens. I never shop there anymore - I can afford big-chain prices!

The first one I tried was a Motorola H500. This was done simply because my friend has some kind of Motorola bluetooth headset, and I never have trouble talking to him. So I figured Motorola’s bluetooth items would be good. This cost me $89.99 CAD + taxes.

I’m not even going to discuss the ergonomics, button layout, comfort, etc. My voice appeared choppy on the other end. I tried talking to other people with cell phones, as well as through houselines. I could hear them crystal clear, but they couldn’t hear my properly. After a few tries, I abandoned it.

I read some reviews of the motorola brands. I wasn’t going to spend too much money on a headset, so I didn’t even bother with the higher-end Motorolas. Instead, i found an item that Futureshop had for regular $79.99 but on sale for $39.99. I checked reviews on it, and surprisingly the reviews were more positive, and there was very little, if not zero, complaints about the transmission quality.

This was the Plantronics Explorer 320. This model was surprisingly satisfactory, and I had no troubles with it whatsoever!

The connection was established with just 1 try, without delays of any sort. It was recognized and connected in no time. According to the package it has up to 10 hours of talk time, so that should be more than enough. Most rechargeable headsets cap at 10 hours of talk time estimated. There are some models that run off AAA batteries that you need to replace on a regular basis, but they last 30 hours per battery. I personally wouldn’t go for that - charging up the headset at night is easier than having to buy batteries at all times.

The talk quality was reasonable with very little static, and so far there has not been any complaints about bad talk quality.

Also, the ear-hook is very soft and comfortable, yet I did not feel it was unstable. It held onto my ear without discomfort, and at times I didn’t even notice I was wearing it.

There is 1 switch on it that can be toggled up/down for volume, and pressed in for calling/hanging up. I find it to be very handy, and because the button knob is protruded, it’s very easy to find while you’re talking on it.

Overall, this is perhaps the best value I got for $39.99 in a very long time, and I am very happy with it.

I recently had an embarassing moment when I forgot an appointment that I made verbally while I was at a park. No, it wasn’t with a 12 year old girl, it was with my client who wanted to set up a meeting for me to meet another person in her business in a casual setting over dinner. She called me 30 mins after the time I was suppposed to show up, and said “Jeff, weren’t you supposed to be here?” Thankfully the meeting was around the corner at a fancy waterfront restaurant, so I just ran there and there was no harm done.

Anyhow. The point was, I felt the need to be more organized and meticulous when it comes to my scheduling, task priorities, emails, etc.

I purchased a Blackberry - or, as they call it, a Crackberry. I purchased the 7250 - the free one on a 3 year contract with Telus. I extended my existing contract. I could have purchased the newer 8xxx series one for another $200, but the dealership guy frankly told me that they basically do the same thing - the newer one is shinier, has a talk/end button and speaker phone, with a somewhat better screen. But the same core functions, nonetheless.

So, the list of 8 10 symptoms you are a Blackberry user :

• You constantly check your message and emails. It’s an addiction. Really is.
• Your text messages get annoyingly long and your friends start getting pissed off. But why not? After all, you have a full keyboard now with a larger screen!
• Your thumbs get over-developed.
• Your clients are impressed that you type in their contact info and appointment data right away. Your friends start giving you shit for having to punch in a night at the bar into your fucking blackberry.
• Your friends get used to you responding to their text messages very quick. And when you don’t, they get pissed off.
• When you get lost, you don’t ask for directions. You just turn on your Google Maps software on your blackberry. Your girlfriend gets even more pissed off at you compared to the time when you would just refuse to ask directions as you drive in a strange place. You don’t get any that night.
• Even when you have your computer in front of your eyes, you read your emails through your blackberry. Well, I do that at least. It’s pretty much like having a dual monitor system. One with the email from the client, and the other with the actual work loaded up.
• You start memorizing more PIN ids for other Blackberries than phone numbers. And that’s really really really sad.
• The first thing you check as you wake up is your Blackberry, and you use your blackberry to check up on the comments on your blog, moderate/delete them as you wish. Seriously, you can manage your blog from your blackberry to a certain degree.
• Any machine that requires multiple strokes on one button for a letter (such as… cell phones?) are simply inferior and out-of-date in our snobby heads.