5:22:29 PM: I’m going to annoy everyone on my Twitter thing by liveblogging the iPhone update. Yay technology!

5:22:43 PM: Installing now btw…

5:25:41 PM: Verifying. Hrm, blog seems to not actually be getting these updates.

5:29:05 PM: Okay, the blog is working. My phone? Not so much yet.

5:30:56 PM: Oh, what’s this? A warning that an app I have contains stuff not suitable for those under 17? Crazy…

5:32:15 PM: What’s this? Done already? Huh… Wonder why so many other people had to re-sync everything, but I didn’t.

5:33:47 PM: “whats this? what’s this?” Who am I, King of frakin’ Halloween?

5:36:46 PM: Checking out some settings. There’s an App Store entry in Settings now.

5:38:43 PM: Trying the Find My iPhone thing now…

5:40:22 PM: Getting some strange feedback on the blog. I think I’m also going to setup a new twitter account just for liveblogging.

5:43:33 PM: Found it to within a several blog area… refining it to within twenty feet. Not bad.

Follow me below the jump for happy fun image, and a breakdown!

The Livingroom

As you can see, the living room is filled with pricey electronic toys. There are also some stuffed toys, and – now – a picture to go along with them!

Some notes:

• The Kobayashi Maru is supposed to be an un-winnable situation – the whole point is to see how you deal with pressure and impending doom.
• The Picture of Nadia and me was taken at Minus 5 Ice Lounge
• The autograph is not to me – I picked the book up second hand. It’s in great shape though.
• Yes, that is an HD-DVD drive on top of the 360. I thought it would be a good idea.
  I was wrong.
• The Mario Bros arcade machine used to belong to my parents neighbors. They were just going to throw it away one day, and I quickly claimed it, fixed it up, and put it to good use.
• The mouse is for the Mac Mini. I’ve been considering replacing it with the Logitech DiNovo Mini. Any thoughts?
• The Hitch-hikers plushies are from the movie – One of the few good bits of additional material in that film.

There you are – a peek into my living room.
Hope you enjoyed it!

Next week – My computer desk!

So, not much really to say – I might write up some thoughts on Fallout 3, and some thoughts on the 3G iPhone later… But for now? Just trying to get back into the groove.

Really? I find this hard to get behind… Rosenberg, Coldiron and I failed EPICLY to organize a BBQ using only Twitter as a means of communication – I can only imagine the chaos of attempting to do anything larger in scale.

To: All Staff
From: Tech Support
Re: The Color Printer
The network color printer is still out of commission – it is jamming, regardless of where the paper is fed from. We are aware of the problem, and are working as quickly as we can to fix it. In the mean time, please do not send any more jobs to it – they won’t come out anyway, so it’s just a waste of your time and mine. Also, please refrain from dropping by my cubical every five minutes to either ask if it’s still broken, or let me know that it is broken. I know it is – that is why there is a note on the printer in my hand writing saying that it’s broken. When it’s fixed, I’ll let you know – and remove the note. Until the note is gone, it’s broken.

One last thing to be aware of: Contrary to popular belief, beating the printer like a rented mule will not, I repeat, will not make it work any faster, and may cause further damage to both the printer and my sanity. The next person to use undue force on the printer will be choked with a CAT6 cable, as outlined in the employee manual in Chapter 32, Subsection 4F.

Thank you and have a nice day.

Sort of.

See, money has gotten to be a bit on the tight side lately, what with my actually attempting to pay off my credit cards within a reasonable amount of time and all that, so I’ve decided to take up some extra work on the side. Extra tech support work, stuff I’m already good at, stuff there’s already a market for.

So, I’ve started compiling a list of prices that currently existing support places charge, just as a baseline so I know what would be fair and what I should shoot for in order to undercut them, yet still remain profitable in the long run. I’ve also started looking into getting bonded so that I don’t have to worry as much about lawsuits or the like.

There are a few things I’m not fully comfortable with, but I’ve got the support of my parents backing me on this, so it’s not like I’m doing it entirely on my own. I hope to be up and running fairly soon, and once that happens, well… Who knows?

Side note: Have you seen what Geek Squad charges for stuff? $170 for a single application install! $150 to burn a DVD! I’m really not getting paid enough at work, that’s for damn sure…

I think it’s kind of funny that people get worked up over silly things such as this. Today, it’s slamming particles at one another at 99.999% C, just a few years ago it was the Y2K Bug, and before that? Rap Music.

I wonder – does humanity always have to have something to run screaming from? Are we, as a species, incapable of accepting that things are pretty much not that bad and we probably won’t end up going out in a blaze of accidental technological destruction?

That’s not to say we don’t have anything to worry about, because we sure as hell do. There’s the whole Climate Shift thing going on, and the steady threat of Nuclear Annihilation, but we spend more time worrying about things that aren’t going to kill us – or have a near zero chance anyway – than we do actually doing something about those that will kill us…

Bah! Maybe the LHC will just rip a tiny hole in space-time, allowing the minions of the dark Mirror Universe to spill over onto our Earth, bringing in a thousand thousand years of pain, suffering and tiny pointed goatees.

But I can’t really prove it yet.

Turns out my fears were unjustified. Oops.

• A copy of Windows
• Patience

Which of those two do you suppose I am not known for having?

Other than a few mild issues with the quality of the video due to buffering and home-network issues that seemed to be resolved by simply allowing the movie to play for a few minutes, and a few technical problems caused by not having Windows updated correctly because I use a fucking Mac, I didn’t have any major issues getting this working.

What I managed to take away from this is a renewed enthusiasm for the Netflix service, and a burning desire for the damn XBox update to happen sooner.

Thoughts after the jump…

This episode was one big fanwank – technobabble up the ass, every companion known to man standing around the TARDIS helping the Doctor Fly (Except you Jackie… You just stand over there…) and one improbable event after another.

This can be excused though, since it’s an RTD episode. He’s known for his Improbable Events, his Reset Button Endings and There Are No Consequences scripts. But, since this is his last episode, maybe we can let it go?

I’m pretty sure this will be the last we see of the majority of the companions at this point: Jack will go back to Torchwood, with Martha and Mickey in tow. Sarah Jane Smith will go back to her improbable son and her tin-dog (A last minute inclusion I was happy to have!) and do her own thing… And Rose? Yeah, her and her mum are safely tucked back in their parallel world, which is really, really sealed off for reals this time, honest.

Oh, and she has her own beau now too, a war vet that’s filled with rage and genocidal hatred, but that she can love and tame. Because, well, she did it for the Doctor, right? [eye_roll]

Which brings us to Donna: She ends the season right where we found her: Loud, arrogant and oblivious to everything around her. This whole season has had a theme of growth and change, of being more than yo start out, of her being the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT WOMAN IN THE UNIVERSE… And it ends with The Doctor wiping her god damn memory so that she doesn’t die!

What. The. Fuck?!

I’m sorry – I loved Donna. She was bold and brassy, and a lot quicker than she gave herself credit for. She finally comes into her own in this episode, and what happens? It nearly kills her.

Maybe that was the reset button: Donna has every memory of the TARDIS, of the Doctor, of her past year removed from her. She has to live her life like she used to, doing nothing, being loud and arrogant and self absorbed – not the woman we saw her become by season end.

How frustrating, eh?

Can I think of a better ending? Maybe: The Doctor find a way to remove the Time Lord knowledge that is killing her without wiping everything else, and the pain of constantly being reminded of what she had been – had known – is enough to ask to go home. She stays the fully grown person we know, the more active, stronger Donna – but on Earth, doing what she can to make a difference here.

Sure, it’s shades of Flowers for Algernon, but I think it’d work quite well in this context. It sure as hell would be less ham-fisted, and I doubt the audience would feel quite as cheated as I do right now.

That said, I’m glad now for the year long break. I think the show needs it, the writers need some time to evaluate where it’s going, and where it should go.

So, so long Donna Nobel – You were enjoyed, and you will be missed.