Sadly, my time has come at WordPress.com. I’ve finally got my own server (rather, a friend gave me some webspace on his server), so I’m moving on to a dedicated blog on a dedicated server.

It can be found at http://anti.necrolounge.org/blog/ . All my posts have seamlessly carried over, so you aren’t missing a thing.

Update your RSS readers and such.

Many people in an IRC chat I frequent have told me that Xchat sucks. Well, I figure. I’ll take on a few IRC clients for OS X and take them on a test run. All clients tested are the most recent versions as of this blog post’s date.

First up is Ircle 3.1:

So I download Ircle via Firefox to my computer, and fire it up. I try to edit the server list to include the server I connect to. Guess what? Instant crash. We aren’t getting off to such a great start here.

So I reopen Ircle, and invoke the /server command to manually connect to the server. It connects fine. Whoohoo.

So let’s look at the commands. I test the one I use most often, which is /kick. In Xchat, the proper syntax is /kick nickname reason. Well with Ircle, it’s suddenly /kick #channel nick reason. What the hell is with that?

Another gripe with Ircle is it’s poor UI. Every channel opens in a different window. Everything looks primitive. Every little thing gains it’s own window, rather than being dropped into a drawer, or having everything hang off one main window, with tabs. Why is this?

For a pay-to-play client, these issues are unacceptable.

There seems to be no way to change any of this behavior, either. Moving on.

Price: $25.

Colloquy 2.1.

I will now take Colloquy 2.1 for a spin. Last time I used Colloquy, I thought it sucked. It’s got some major updates under it’s belt now, so I believe it’s time for a second look.

Upon starting, I get an opportunity to enter my nickname, and what server I want to connect to, and if I want it to remember said server. Brilliant! We are off to a great start.

It then opens a prompt for me to type my nickname password. Oh man, even more brilliance. I don’t have to /identify once I finally get on NexusNet.

So it connects pretty fast. How does it actually handle?

I use the /kick nickname command. Hallelujah! It actually works!

I also try to copy some text in and out of Colloquy. My god, the Timestamps are actually correctly placed now!

It even features iTunes integration too. That’s very nice, seeing as I have to install like three scripts to get that working under Xchat:

Anti is listening to I am the rain by Assemblage 23 from Failure

That’s sweet. I may actually switch to Colloquy if I really need to. There’s only one con: There’s absolutely no programming support, such as Python, Ruby, or the like right out of the box. Take that for what you will.

Also, Growl support is a major plus. Xchat has this, but it never seems to work.

Price: Free

MacIrssi.

I used MacIrssi a WHILE ago on my G4 about two years back. It looks like it’s been updated since, because I ditched it when I got a MacBook pro as it wasn’t intel-optimized. Let’s see where it’s gone now.

This is about as primitive as IRC can get here, folks. That should be no surprise as it’s based of Irssi, a UNIX chat client.

If minimalism is your game, then MacIrssi’s totally for you.

To get connected, you don’t pick out your server and click “Connect”. You have to manually type out /server irc.server.com to get started. And if you need to identify, there’s no such thing as /identify. You actually have to type /msg nickserv identify password.

For people used to a command line, MIrssi is a great client. Hell, I wouldn’t mind having it around. But having to identify each and every time using the full command gets real irritating for me, real fast.

You can change the themes and layout in the preferences dialog if you wish. There isn’t a great degree of customization for MIrssi.

But, in this case, that’s probably a good thing. MIrssi succeeds at being minimal. It’s not a half-bad client.

Price: Free

Snak.

Moving on, I gave Snak a try.

It opens up to a nice Setup Assistant. That’s a nice plus for people who are somewhat disturbed by going into /server commands and preference menus/dialog boxes.

Once that’s complete, it opens and throws you into a room, if you specified one in the setup assistant.

The interface is very familiar to devout Xchat followers like myself. Tabs across the top, userlist on the right, input box on the bottom…etc.

Unfortunately, while some commands work, you have to specify which channel you want to voice someone in, or which channel you want to kick someone in. /kick nickname doesn’t work here.

All in all, quickly glancing through the program, it seems to be very basic. Not sure if it’s worth the purchase price, however.

Price: $29USD

The winner?

I’m kind of tired, so I’ll end it here.

I’m really attracted to MacIrssi, but it’s not for me unless I’ve got time to kill.

I’ll have to say this is a tie between Xchat Aqua and Colloquy. Both are great clients in their own rights, and Colloquy has come a very long way since I last used it.

Let me begin with the big part of this small post. Version 3’s development has begun. It’s going to be a total rewrite with no Copy and paste used with v2. None at all.

Next: Version 2.1 is also being worked on. I’ve got some email feedback and a few updates via email, so that’ll be hitting in a week or so.

Today was an interesting day at work. This lady I know who always comes through the checkout (She always wants two packs of Winston regulars) showed up today. The checker I was helping out said “Oh, the lady with the iPhone? The one who uses Macs?”

I looked at him, like “Whaaaa?”

I found out what he was talking about when this lady came through the line. She pulled out her iPhone and started to mess with it. I took notice of it and said “Well, hey. That’s two of us.” And pulled out my iPhone.

She then told me “Get a load of this.” She fired up Mocha VNC on her iPhone. I’m no stranger to VNC. I’ve used it many times on my home network. But this was different. She was able to VNC into her home Mac (Which was running Tiger. Points for that), and control it. Over the cell network. (This was EDGE, so it was slower than molasses. But it still worked.)

My jaw must have hit the floor no less than three times.

I simply replied: “I DID NOT know you could do that over the cell network.”

As such, I confirmed it when I got home today. I flipped on the DMZ mode for my computer, set my VNC server to my IP address (On the iPhone) pressed the big yellow button and crossed my fingers.

After one false start (My computer didn’t pick up it’s new IP, I had to renew it’s DHCP lease), it worked!

I’m definitely going to be using this. A lot. I think I’ve found a compelling reason to keep 3G on now.

I’ve finally upgraded my iPhone 3G to OS 2.1, and I must say, it makes one hell of a difference.

Let’s begin with an issue many people (your dear author included) were having.

The SMS app Keyboard: The SMS app still takes a couple seconds (at least for me) to fire up. But once it’s started, I’m pleased to say that the keyboard no longer lags behind my actual typing. That was one of my big annoyances with the SMS app, as I use SMS quite heavily.

One thing I do dislike, though, is the repeated notification of SMS’s. Sometimes, I just don’t want to read an SMS, and as such, will not unlock the phone at that moment.

3G/EDGE Reception: Very improved. I get full EDGE (Most of the time) around the house, where I would get around 2-4 bars. 3G is around 3 bars, where I previously got NO 3G reception. 3G reception is moot for me because I keep 3G shut off for optimal battery life.

On that note, I also get absolutely no call drops. Random cut outs and some silence? Every now and then. But no call drops. Yet.

Battery Life: Improved somewhat. An 8-hour day managed to have my iPhone’s battery kneeled down and begging for a recharge. With the new firmware, It didn’t give me a low battery warning until 12 hours of mixed usage, which is quite great. This might push me to use 3G, eventually.

Overall reliability: The crashiness aspect of the iPhone seems to no longer exist, which is a good thing. Occasionally, Safari will hang, but it’s done that on my two iTouches, my ex’s iPhone 3G…so I wasn’t expecting much. But around the iPhone OS, it’s much more reliable. Apps do not crash much anymore, the iPhone doesn’t crash at all, like it used to. Very awesome.

So do I recommend an upgrade? Of course. Do it now, iPhone owners owe it to themselves to grab this update.

I guess I am very wrong on when I said that the iPhone 3G will work with the Media Max Unlimited data/text plan in my piece a few weeks back:

“What’s better is that my data plan (MEdia Max Unlimited) also covers the iPhone. MMU gives me unlimited texting, AND unlimited data. For $35. Not too shabby, considering that the iPhone 3G data plan is $30 and the unlimited texting for iPhone costs $20. The reason most iPhone users can’t get to it is it’s completely hidden in the online system if you have the iPhone. It doesn’t show you ALL the data plans, only the ones that are iPhone specific.”

I’m about three weeks into my iPhone 3G usage, and I just got a text message from AT&T that said my data plan is ineligible for the iPhone 3G, and that I had to add the data plan to prevent extra charges.

I got on the phone with AT&T and it was pretty easy. I just said to pull the data plan off my extra line, put it on my main line, and also add the unlimited texting to my line as well.

It was done within two minutes. Bam.

Hell, a lot of people know I use myspace. I use it to keep in touch with friends.

As such, I’ve been using the Myspace mobile application quite frequently. And I’m continuing to notice that it reeks of crap, directly opposite to the Facebook app.

I’ll look over a few cases here.

It takes forever to load, over EDGE. While you may blame this on the network itself, Facebook manages to be up and running in less than 8 seconds for me on EDGE. Myspace takes 15 seconds to load, even longer to load your profile picture and mood. Loading photos over myspace takes forever as well. This leads me into another point…

Suggestion: Care to optimize MSM for mobile access?

No Full-screen photo mode. Facebook has this. I can’t see a shot in detail because there is no full screen mode. There is a fullscreen button once you are viewing a photo, but the bottom button bar, the top button bar, and the status bar remain on screen. I can’t view a full photo? Meh.

Suggestion: Make it like Facebook. Fullscreen IS Fullscreen. I want NOTHING but the photo on screen if I invoke fullscreen.

Absolutely NO ACCELEROMETER SUPPORT. I don’t mind this in the vast majority of MS Mobile, but for photos, it’s almost a dealbreaker. Photos taken in landscape mode will always show up in portrait mode on MS Mobile, and for some photos it looks outright horrid. This is already bad enough with the faux “full screen” option.

Suggestion: Speaks for itself, really.

No easy way to delete messages. When I’ve already read a message on the computer, I want to swipe my finger across it, and punch the red Delete button that should appear. Or at least give me a way to DELETE THE MESSAGE WITHOUT READING IT. If you want to delete multiple messages (ha, fat chance), you have to open the message, tap delete, then tap OK on the message that appears, and open your next message. Very inefficient.

Suggestion: Give us swiping gestures, or at least a way to mark a message, then delete it, without reading it.

The Signout button is VERY badly placed. It’s a little skinny bar right between the status bar and the application’s title bar. You have to have small fingers to tap it right on your first try. I’d suggest moving it to the Home page in MSM.

No iPhone predictive text support. Yup, if you want to message or leave comments, you are on your own as far as typing goes. You mess up, you have to correct it. MSM doesn’t support the iPhone’s dictionary. What’d I like to know is: HOW did this slip past unnoticed?

As a last one: Stop using your own UI! Consistency is king. Make it look like an iPhone app, not like something else. That blue tinge irritates me all the time.

I hope someone at the MSM dev team reads this, and gets an idea of what needs to be done. It seems like MSM was just shoved onto the App Store and left to sit. I hope that’s not the case.

I watched Apple’s “Let’s Rock” event on the Gizmodo liveblog. Looks like we got some new developments in the iPod world. Let’s have a look.

1. The iPod touch

The iPod touch seems to have been revamped on the hardware side, with a new, thinner curved back like that of the iPhone 3G. It’s also got a chrome bezel, like the iPhone. The entire back is still chrome, meaning the entire thing is going to scratch very easily.

Some things to note are that the iPod touch now has a speaker for music. So it can be used to play music out loud. I didn’t see an actual speaker grill anywhere on the body of the iPod touch, so I’m guessing that it’s inside somewhere. While this means it will probably be louder than the iPod touch 1G, it will probably not be as loud as the iPhone 3G.

Another thing to note is the iPod touch now supports the iPhone headset. This means it gains a microphone as well. This is great news to anyone who uses ReQuall or Shazam, or any app that relies on a mic to operate. Also, can you say “VoIP”?

One more thing: The iPod touch’s battery now gets around 32 hours, as opposed to the 21 hours of the previous generation.

On the software side, the iPod touch now ships with iPhone OS 2.1. The iPhone users get it on Friday. Among the bug fixes, 2.1 gets the Genius Playlist functionality, which I’ll touch on in a minute.

2. iPod Classic

The iPod classic…This time around, it was more of a “Take one step forward, two steps back” kind of thing.

Nothing new on the software side at all. Nothing new on the hardware side, besides the fact that the 160GB model was discontinued, and the 80GB model has been raised to 120GB. It retains the same price. ($249USD)

I have a feeling those people who carry all their tunes with them are going to be up in arms over this. I knew a few people on the Mac OS X hints forums that said that 160GB isn’t enough for their library. Imagine it now.

While I can’t even fill up my iPhone with tunes, I know some people appreciate having all the space available to them.

3. iPod nano

Apple obviously didn’t like the 3G nano, as the nano is back to the same form factor as the 2G iPod nano, except it’s thinner, curved, and has a widescreen.

This time, you flip it sideways to view video. While some people may scream “ZUUUUUUUNNNNEEE KNOCKOFF”, it isn’t Zune-ish at all.

The iPod nano has an accelerometer in it, like the touch and the iPhone have. When you tilt the iPod sideways, it enters Cover Flow mode, just like the iPhone.

The nano probably got the most significant upgrade out of the three iPods. The form factor changed completely, the screen is glass, and the iPod OS has been retooled to work with the new screen. 8GB has become the bottom line, with 16GB filling the top end of the deal.

Battery life seems to remain the same, 24 hours audio playback, 4 hours video playback.

4. iTunes 8

iTunes 8 really isn’t too different from iTunes 7. There are a few cosmetic changes, however.

There’s now a little arrow button that shows the Album art alongside the track list in the library window. You’ll see it right next to the title of the “Name” column. Useful? Not to me.

Next up is the absolutely lovely visualizer. It’s simply called “iTunes visualizer”, and it’s the greatest visualizer I’ve ever seen in a media player. Ever.

Then, there’s Genius. I haven’t really run it through it’s paces yet, but it seems to be like Pandora and Last.fm. It recommends you music based on what you listen to. You could say this is an expansion of the “Just For You” feature.

I tried letting it generate Genius playlists based on one track, and it actually did pretty well. I could listen to the entire playlist without skipping one song. That’s excellent. Not to mention the music really did fit well together.

I’ll write more on it later as I get my hands on things.

Small blurb here.

If I want to just test something in Firefox, don’t stop me and say “HAY YOU NEED THIS UPDATE NOW!” Just let me use the goddamn browser, for fuck’s sake.

If I want to update, I’ll manually invoke an update check.

When I need to get something done as quickly as possible, PLEASE do not stop me from doing so.

Version 2.0 of the sorceress guide has gone live on GameFAQs.

Who’da thunk it to copy and paste it into Google Docs, then paste it right back into TextWrangler?

I wanted something cleaner and easier on the eyes. Also something more professional.

Let me know what you think.

So, I have to get to grips with the fact that v2.0 of the sorceress guide is likely going to be delayed well into September because the stupid line breaks will not work no matter how much I try to whip them into shape. So I will have to rewrite the entire thing from scratch again.

I’m not pleased.

Seeing a recent article on Gizmodo made me think of this.

Many people harsh on the iPhone for whatever reason. Because it lacks features, because it lacks capabilities. It lacks the ability to use MMS. Yeah, whatever.

But the truth is, while many believe all these features being omitted from the iPhone to be a dealbreaker, features isn’t what the iPhone was meant for. Not at all.

The iPhone was meant, rather, to bring the “it just works” thing over to the phone field. Compare and contrast the iPhone to another phone. Seriously, do it.

The iPhone, you wake it, slide your finger across the bottom of the screen, and boom, all the features are right in your face. Want SMS? It’s right there. Want the camera? It’s also right there. Pretty much everything you want to use is right on the home screen.

Compare to another phone, where things like this are buried deep in submenus of menus. It gets confusing, and it can take a while to find what you are looking for. Like, if I wanted to get to the calendar on my phone, I’d have to go to Menu>>My Stuff>>Applications>>Tools>>Calendar.

On the iPhone, it’s right there on the home screen.

The iPhone isn’t about features…it’s about making things easier to use, and providing a less frustrating experience for the end user. The only feature I do actually miss is the ability for the iPhone to pull numbers from the SIM card, which kind of sucks.

P.S: and to speak on that article I linked to…I have a feeling the reason Verizon didn’t want the iPhone is because it wasn’t red. Or didn’t have a red UI. Or something. Plus, CDMA networks suck…you have to get carrier authorization to bring your number to a new phone? No thanks.

As I wrote in my previous post, I had time to mess with an iPhone 3G. However, this time, I got some more extensive time to screw with it. This time, I mainly sought out to verify some of the claims floating in the blogosphere, mainly concerning the iPhone 3G and dealing with other SIM cards.

So as I got the iPhone 3G, I jammed the clip from my work’s nametag into the hole in the top of the phone, ejected the SIM, and popped my own in. I waited for the phone to start up…

Lo and behold, it did. The first time I attempted to make a call, it failed. Second time, I was able to call my other phone with no problem. Visual voicemail didn’t work, as usual.

Now, this came as a surprise to me since AT&T told me that iPhone 3Gs will lock if used with a SIM that the phone wasn’t activated with. Apple said the same exact thing. My guess is that they are just trained to discourage people from taking advantage of this loophole in their subsidization scheme.

Note: This loophole works for pretty much ANY phone on AT&T…open a new line, get a phone at contract price, only pay $10 a month. You ARE stuck in a 2 year commitment, but it’s a small price to pay for a new phone at a third of the price.

Though to their credit, these were retail employees I asked. They are pretty low in the food chain as far as things like this, I’d guess. They are sort of correct, but only referring to the first-generation iPhone, which did require an iPhone-specific SIM to work. Otherwise it’d lock.

Earlier this week, I contacted AT&T customer support (which was awesome, but that’s for another post), and one of my questions was “Okay, I got an iPhone from my ex, who said she didn’t like it…What do I do?”

She didn’t seem to be surprised at all. Didn’t say “the iPhone will lock!” or anything like that.

So that implies to me that the higher-ups know the iPhone 3G will accept any AT&T SIM. It’s carrier locked, not SIM locked.

What’s better is that my data plan (MEdia Max Unlimited) also covers the iPhone. MMU gives me unlimited texting, AND unlimited data. For $35. Not too shabby, considering that the iPhone 3G data plan is $30 and the unlimited texting for iPhone costs $20. The reason most iPhone users can’t get to it is it’s completely hidden in the online system if you have the iPhone. It doesn’t show you ALL the data plans, only the ones that are iPhone specific.

UPDATE: If you use the iPhone 3G on MMU for too long, AT&T WILL text/email you saying your data plan is ineligible for the iPhone 3G. You can continue on if you wish, but I didn’t. You have been warned. I will post a screencap of the email I got later.

Now, don’t entirely trust my claims, because if AT&T can tell iPhone data from regular phone data, and decide to charge me for said difference, then I’ll likely get hosed. But my AT&T account seems to be reporting that I’ve used 17MB out of Unlimited, so it seems to be taking.

Due to these developments, I’ll be having my own iPhone 3G within the week. Perfect timing, too, as my phone just gave up the ghost.

DO NOTE: The iPhone DOES NOT support SIM contacts. So if you had contacts saved to your SIM and you are hoping the iPhone will import or export to/from the SIM, you are out of luck.

Today I got to play with my ex’s iPhone 3G (Yeah, we still talk.)

How was it? Did the features work as advertised? I’ll go over that right now.

Let’s begin with the GPS. The Demo units at the AT&T store failed to work with GPS, so I figured now would be an excellent time to test this out.

I began walking down Monument Blvd, with iPhone on maps, set to locate me. First the crosshair appeared (indicating that it hasn’t pinpointed your exact location yet, but is guessing where you are. Soon after, the little blue blip appeared on my exact location. Excellent.

So I started walking down the street. And maps kept itself up to date, the blue dot slowly moving down Monument. Very precise, though I would think it might begin to chop up a bit if you are driving fast down a road, or something. I haven’t tested this.

UPDATE: Tested this on a freeway and a road. The GPS worked excellently. It was a little choppy, but it still managed to keep tabs on my location. The performance was smoother on a road, going around 35mph.

Next up was the 3G networking. Was it fast? Is it worth it? Yes and no.

In my area (Concord, CA), the 3G was hit or miss. I went to the Starbucks on Monument and while my own Nokia 6555b was able to acquire a full 3G signal, the iPhone was struggling to get a lock on the 3G network, often getting only one bar, or falling back to EDGE (and even GPRS. Ugh.)

But I did travel somewhat today, and was able to get a full 3G signal, and yes. It was indeed very fast. The only drag to 3G is the abysmal battery life. The iPhone was down to 20% of it’s battery at 6 PM today. (It had finished charging at 11:30 AM) This was more of a mix of things that caused this to happen. The GPS, browsing, playing games on the iPhone, etc.

Another point against the iPhone many people seem to have is the curved back. This, according to some, makes the phone impossible to use on a flat surface when using both hands for text entry. This is simply not true, unless of course you jab the iPhone with your fingers with the force of an elephant. When I was causally typing on the 3G, it didn’t rock as drastically as some would have you believe.

That being said, however, it fits so comfortably in my hands that I’d never want to use it like that, ever.

Another thing is the speakers. How’d they sound?

I couldn’t tell you how they sounded in comparison to an original iPhone as I’ve never played with one of those extensively. What I can tell you is that the ringer is plenty loud, and the music coming through the external speakers is also extremely loud. That’s great. I’m looking for a phone that can hold a candle to my old LG CU500 in the “loud” department.

UPDATE: Got to compare with an original iPhone…and yes, the iPhone 3G is VERY MUCH LOUDER. The iPhone 1G was…veeery quiet.

Excellent.

And to wrap up this mini-review, how did the software fare on the phone? I’ll tell you: Better than my iPod touch.

My iPod touch literally crashes every time I dare quit an application, or try to do something even remotely demanding with it, like listening to music and using Safari at the same time.

The iPhone only crashed once, and that’s because I was trying to run an app while another was installing. Not exactly the smartest thing to do.

So pretty much, I think I’m going to get me one of these things. I like the iPhone 3G. It feels like a solid product, and it’s features do their jobs as advertised. Plus, it’s the best music and web phone on the market right now. Nokia’s XpressMusic series seems to be moving in the right direction (a music phone with a 3.5mm headphone jack? FINALLY.) but the iPhone 3G has so many features, plus the App Store. It’s somewhat more expandable software-wise than any other phone I’ve seen.

Also, the Battery isn’t soldered to the logic board anymore. That alone makes it a deal-fixer to me.