LinLog

Author's Note: Well, folks, it's time for another episode of "From the Archives"! The show where I take those old draft blog posts that I never published, flesh them out and add this lame intro, and then publish them so that I don't have to bother coming up with new content!

Today's post is my review of my very first smart phone, a Palm Centro. Of course, it was only sort of smart, because I was too cheap to pay for a data plan, which was kind of pricey at the time. Still, I really liked that phone. On the next upgrade (because Verizon was still doing the "upgrade every two years for an absurdly low price" thing in those days), I actually ended up downgrading to a dumb-phone. In retrospect, that was a mistake. But it's OK, because two years later i finally got a real smart phone (I believe it was the Samsung Galaxy Nexus) and never looked back.

Anyway, I figured this might be an interesting bit of retrospective trivia. This post was written on December 1, 2008, so cellt phones have obviously changed a lot since them. Enjoy!

Well, early last month I had my cell phone upgrade day. I dropped into the Verizon Wireless store on election day and picked out new phones for Sarah and myself.

For the first time since we signed up with Verizon, I got 2 different phones. For Sarah, I eventually settled on the Samsung Sway. Her requirements were pretty basic (camera, text and picture messaging, downloadable games and ringtones) with the one exception that she didn't want a clamshell design. Our last 2 phones were clamshells and she wanted something more like our first phone - a stick phone. Of course, they don't really make stick phones anymore, so I figured the sliding design of the Sway would be close enough. So far, she seems to like it well enough. The only problem is that Verizon, in their infinite suckiness, seems to have disabled the ability to set MP3 ringtones from files stored on the microSD card. Typical customer-hostile behavior.

I, on the other hand, totally geeked out this time and got a basic smart phone. I'd been going back and forth for a while, but I ended up going with the Palm Centro. So far I absolutely love it.

The Centro may be the low-end model (as compared to, say, the Treo), but it gives me pretty much everything I've always wanted in a cell phone. The reason I chose a smart phone was that I was tired of being limited by what Verizon decided I should be able to do. With a feature phone, you are limited not just by the hardware, but also by your provider's firmware. If Verizon decides you shouldn't be able to create custom ringtones or copy files over OBEX, you're out of luck. But a smart phone is just a very small computer - that's the main selling point. You have enough control over the system to add features and do some customization.

Let me start with the things I don't like about the Centro. There aren't many.
1) The single most annoying thing is the battery cover. It feels a bit flimsy and is hard to get off. This wouldn't be a problem, except that you need to get to the battery relatively often.
2) Relating back to point 1, you need to open up the battery cover to get to the microSD port. At least you don't need to take the batter out, but it's still annoying. The fact that the Centro has a side door for the card which you can't open with the battery case on just adds insult to injury.
3) Again, relating back to the battery, is the fact that the phone will actually crash on occasion. I haven't had any problems with the bundled software so far, but a few add-on programs have caused the phone to lock. And, of course, the only fix for that is to reboot the phone by taking out the battery.
4) Three words: non-standard data port. Seriously, what's wrong with micro USB? Plus, my data cable has a habit of falling out if I move the phone around the desk. Maybe that's just me.

Those are my only real non-fixable complaints. There are some other annoyances, but many of those are actually fixable by installing additional software. I'll get into a few of those must-have toys and utilities in another post. (Author's note: it's now 12 years later, so yeah, that's not gonna happen.)

So what do I like about the Centro? Pretty much everything else. On the hardware end, it's fairly nice. The touch screen is very handy and the QWERTY keyboard, despite being extremely small, is actually surprisingly easy to use. Yet despite the decent screen size and keyboard, the Centro still isn't that much bigger than a feature phone. It also has something I've never seen before - a physical switch to set the phone to vibrate mode. Still not entirely sure whether I like that or not, but it's certainly different.

On the software side, you actually get a fairly decent set of base programs to work with. The included PIM software - calendar, address book, todo list, memo app - actually isn't too bad. They also throw in a copy of Documents To Go, which can open MS Office files and PDFs. Unfortunately, the PDF viewer kind of sucks, but the Word document viewer seems pretty decent. And, of course, I was able to install a NES emulator, which is awesome to have right on your phone.

I've had a lot of headphones over the years, but until recently I never really had any good ones.  You know, headphones that cost more than $30.  But now I do, and I have to say it really makes a difference.

It started with Christmas.  Every year my company gives out a cool company Christmas present, customized with the company logo.  Well, this year the gift was a pair of Beats Studio³ wireless headphones.  These are really nice headphones.  I never would have spent that kind of money on headphones for myself, but they might actually be worth it.  They're quite comfortable, have a cord and Bluetooth, have good battery life, charge quicky, and have noise-cancelling.

The only problem with the Beats is that they're not super portable.  I mean, they're fine, but they're full-sized headphones and they block a lot of background noise even with the noise-cancelling turned off.  They're not optimal for things like jogging, or those times when I'm doing chores around the house and want to listen to  a podcast in one ear while I keep the other one free to listen for my kid.

So to that end, I bought a set of Raycon E25 wireless earbuds.  They're not Beats, but they're actually quite nice.  They're comfortable (as earbuds go), sound great, and come with a highly portable case with a built-in battery.  They're perfect for ad hoc listening, such as when washing dishes, or when exercising.  And while Bluetooth can be a pain in the neck at times, I have to say that wireless earbuds and headphones are much more convenient.  You don't realize what a pain it is to always be catching wires on things until there are no wires to catch.

So if you don't have a good set of headphones, and you have the money, I recommend you get one.  It's one of those little things that really does make a much bigger difference than you'd think.

Apropos of my previous post, here is a similar take, this time from an actual doctor specializing in infectious disease.  So it's not just me.

The short version: while COVID-19 is a serious matter, right now he's more concerned about the response to it than the virus itself.  People are losing their composure and doing crazy things, and it just makes the situation worse than it needs to be.

So keep calm.  If you're relatively young and healthy, you'll probably be fine, even of you catch the virus.  Just wash your hands and take reasonable precautions to protect the sick and elderly around you. 

And actually think about what you're doing.  Don't be like the clerk in Home Depot who insisted on standing a foot and a half away from me, or like the woman in Wegmans who was wearing a face mask while carrying around a cup of coffee.  Be sensible.   I know things are stressful right now, but it's not the end of the world - we will get through this.

On Friday I got a nice care package from the office.  They sent one out to everybody as a nice reminder of normalcy.  If we can't get to the free snacks, they'll send the free snacks to us!

The good people in Datto operations are the best.  They always do a fantastic job of keeping up morale and taking care of everyone.  Thanks, guys!

This week started "work from home for the foreseeable future."  It's pretty much going to be nothing but sitting around the house and going out in the yard for a while.

This is because, in response to the coronavirus epidemic, pretty much everything is cancelled.  Last Thursday the news announced the first case of COVID-19 in my Monroe County, New York, where I live. That morning my boss advised all his reports to feel free to work from home.  The next day, the CEO sent out a message that we were closing most of our offices and ordering everybody to work from home.  On Saturday the county closed down all the schools.  Over the course of the rest of the week, the state government announced progressively more closures, and yesterday put the state on "pause".  This means pretty much everything is closed, i.e. all businesses deemed non-essential. I'm still not 100% clear what counts as "essential", but it's not much beyond food and medical care.

Fortunately for me and my family, I made good career choices in my youth.  As a professional software developer, working remotely is generally not a challenge for me.  I'm also fortunate to be working for a company that sells BCDR solutions with a subscription model.  Particularly with the increased move to telecommuting, the need for backup solutions is not going to go away, and our subscription services mean that the company will have recurring revenue even if new sales decline.  So not only am I in a profession that is well positioned to weather a crisis like this, I'm working for a company that is not in any immediate danger of going out of business.

Sadly, this is not the case for many people.  My brother, who works for the state unemployment agency, is already preparing for a massive influx of claims as people who aren't able to work from home go on unemployment. Local non-profits have already started sending out solicitations for donations and people on social media are calling for everyone to support local businesses that will be hard-hit by the closures.  I don't know what impact this pandemic will have on economy, either locally or nationally, but it will definitely be bad.

And let's not forget the maniacs who are hording toilet paper and hand sanitizer and generally causing way more problems than they're protecting themselves from.  Or the other maniacs who are convinced that the pandemic is some kind of political conspiracy theory and take pride in flouting even common-sense safety measures.  I don't mean to downplay the seriousness of CONVID-19, but some of the reactions have been completely out of proportion to the threat.  This is not the "insta-death virus", but it's not just a case of the sniffles either.  It needs to be taken very seriously, but it's not a reason to panic.  Panicking always makes any situation worse.

At this point, my only hope is that the response to the virus won't do too much damage to society as a whole.  Yes, it's a serious issue; yes, lots of people will die; yes, the state needs to take decisive action to slow or halt the spread of the virus.  But let us not forget that while the risk of illness is shared by all of us equally, the costs of the response are not.  More of the weight will undoubtedly fall on those least able to carry it.  While people like me will probably be pretty much OK, the status of those affected by business closures an quarantines is far less certain.  So while it's important that we take steps to protect the people who are most in danger from the virus, it's also important to protect the people who are harmed by those steps.  There are no free lunches - everything has a cost and everyone is worthy of consideration.