Mac Net Journal

Time will tell whether Apple is getting more than it bargained for with its latest update to the iPhone software. As rumored, the update turns unlocked iPhones into useless bricks, but a few high profile users who say that they haven't unlocked their phones are also running into serious issues after applying the update. Dave Winer and Robert Scoble have posts on what they see as a growing PR nightmare for Apple.

I am watching all of this from the sidelines, since I haven't bought an iPhone yet. I will be curious to hear from folks who have updated their iPhones. If it is now a brick, could it be because of specific third-party software that was installed on some iPhones? Or are iPhones that haven't had any tinkering done with them through third-party apps also turning into bricks?

Why so little posting in September?
Wednesday, September 26, 2007, 8:58 PM

This month is one of my lightest posting months ever on Mac Net Journal. Why? It isn't just that I have grown bored with what Apple has to offer on a day-to-day basis. While there is some truth to that, the main reason is that I am spending every hour of daylight that I am not doing my job outside working on painting our 1928 craftsman home here in Tacoma. Right now that means we are in a race against the seasons. The rain is coming. We're just hoping for a normal October, with a week or two of nice weather...

The passing of one of Washington's best birders, Patrick Sullivan
Saturday, September 22, 2007, 6:20 PM

News came through the Tweeters e-mail list about seven hours ago that Patrick Sullivan, one of Washington state's best and most prolific birders, died on Sept. 19. His death came just days after he and his mother, Ruth Patrick, who are normally both out birding across the state on a daily basis, helped lead well-attended field trips at the annual Washington Ornithological Society conference in Grays Harbor.

This is turning out to be a tough weekend. Natalie and I frequently ran into Ruth and Patrick Sullivan over the last few years when we were birding across our state. Starting with the year that we did our research for our book Birding Washington between 2001 and 2002, we would frequently find the Sullivans in snowy conditions in Eastern Washington, our out along the coast in Ocean Shores. Besides being able to find rare birds in Washington, the Sullivans were also prolific photographers. Here is their PBase nature photo page, including recent images...

You can get a feel for the Sullivan's birding from this Google search...

Saddened by the death of a PNW historian
Saturday, September 22, 2007, 8:57 AM

I was saddened to read and see news reports last night on the death of Walt Crowley. Crowley was the founder of the great Historylink.org Web site that provides the best online repository for Washington state history. Historylink.org was a real tool for Natalie and I when we wrote our most recent book, Washington Disasters.

My ties to Walt Crowley go a little deeper than using his Web site. Back in the late 1980s when I was a college student at the University of Puget Sound, I did a series of articles profiling personalities who then appeared on Seattle TV station KIRO. One of the more interesting interviews was when I sat down in a Seattle bar to interview Crowley and John Carlson - the two parts of the then popular Point/Counterpoint team that sparred over issues on the air, with Crowley arguing the liberal side of the issue and Carlson arguing the conservative side of the issue.

I don't even have my notes and article that resulted from that interview nearly two decades ago, but I can remember my thoughts after doing the interview - how I felt much more connected to the ideas of Crowley than Carlson, yet how both of them were genuinely likable.

The Point/Counterpoint segment disappeared from KIRO TV's evening news a year or so after my interview, and I believe Crowley went on to do some on-air political analysis during elections coverage. Then he became the state's unofficial online historian with the founding of Historylink.org. Carlson went on to become a conservative radio host - which is something he continues to do today - and he ran for governor in 2000.

Fittingly, last night I watched the first part of the KIRO TV news at 11 p.m. and saw the tribute to Crowley on the station where he once worked and where I once worked as a college intern. Regardless of what you think of his politics, there is no doubt that Washington just suffered a significant loss.

To iPod Touch or iPhone?
Monday, September 17, 2007, 10:37 PM

Adam Engst writes on TidBITS with a conundrum that is bound to be bugging others - to buy an iPod Touch or pay a little extra for an iPhone?

I haven't opted to buy either yet, but when I do make a purchase, it will likely be an iPhone. Now if someone would only create a foldable keyboard for use with the iPhone. That would turn a useful phone and computer into an even more useful tool - something fit for actual writing.

Ben Long's Tips for travelling photographers
Monday, September 17, 2007, 10:00 PM

Ben Long offers his insight about what to take and what to leave at home if you are packing for an extended trip as a photographer. I enjoyed this piece since I have trouble deciding what to take on one of my monthly nature walks at Point Defiance Park here in the north end of Tacoma, Washington.

Wow...I am sure glad I didn't just buy an iPhone
Wednesday, September 5, 2007, 10:53 PM

I know that Apple is offering some price protection for recent iPhone buyers. It's a good thing since the price of the 8GB iPhone just dropped $200.

There are a lot of things to like about the new lineup of iPods and the iTouch. The iTouch is especially interesting if you want to get the benefits of the iPhone without the actual phone and long term contract from AT&T.

Will today's news mean I am getting an iPhone soon? Maybe...