everyday

I was just playing around with Flickr on my iPhone and noticed that you can upload images to your Flickr account via a unique email address that is specific to your account. With this new found knowledge I set about uploading a few pictures to test it out, and it works great. I then began to think that it would be nice to be able to tag the photos from the email (the subject line becomes the photo’s title), but how to do this wasn’t readily apparent. A quick search on Google led me to this handy bit of information from the Flickr Help:

Just type “tags:” in the subject line or body of the email followed by the list of tags you want added to the photo(s).

Doesn’t get much simpler than that! Here is a link to the set I created for pictures uploaded from my iPhone: http://www.flickr.com/photos/celerity/sets/72157611915278668/.

[UPDATE] Feature request - Allow separate email addresses for individual photo sets in my Flickr account.

[UPDATE] Apparently Apple added geocoding to the camera when they released the iPhone 2.0 software update, very nice…

The New York Times has just posted an article about a particularly annoying pet peeve of mine. Since owning an iPhone I have had numerous arguments with people regarding the iPhone’s lack of MMS (picture text messages). These people ridicule the iPhone over it’s lack of this “feature”. The basic argument is thus: “My phone can send pictures in a text message, why can’t your shiny new iPhone?”. No matter that their phone can’t send or receive email, which is an exponentially better messaging platform than SMS or MMS. What everyone that has argued over this fails to understand is that they are being ripped off by this amazing and wonderful “feature”. The cell phone carriers are charging exorbitant amounts of money to send tiny, text based messages and blurry photos to and from cell phones exclusively (excluding the SMS/MMS to email gateways). I can send a photo attached to an email to a phone or computer. It can be viewed on any number of devices and it doesn’t cost me anything extra. SMS should be free, it doesn’t cost the cell phone carriers anything (relatively) to deliver the messages. MMS should go away and be replaced with email on all phones. Neither should be touted as a “feature”.

On a side note: I am actually a little upset that AT&T requires that I have a text messaging plan in my contract, I would prefer to never send or receive messages via text messaging as it is an old and over-priced technology. That I am forced to pay a flat rate for a text-messaging plan is ridiculous.

Amidst all the turmoil in the US auto industry I have decided to compile a short list of cars that, if offered in the US by any of the Big 3 would sell well and perhaps reverse their current state of affairs. Common to all three of the cars in this list, small, economical, good quality, safe, fun to drive, not made by the Big 3. I don’t want a giant truck or a car designed by accountants and built for fleet sales.

1. Honda Civic 3 Door: Unfortunately, this vehicle is only available outside of the US. Apparently the major auto manufacturers don’t think that Americans want to buy sporty, economical and uber-convenient hatchbacks.

2. Subaru Impreza WRX: Unlike the Civic, this one is available in the US. Fortunately Subaru have seen the error of their ways in regards to the less than stellar performance of the 2008 model year and have made the 2009 WRX more like it’s predecessors. Only time will tell if it will maintain the iconic rally car status of years past. Unfortunately, the gas mileage is not all that impressive.

3. Audi A3: This is such a nice car! The only problem with this one is, of course, the price.

Keeping your email secure is probably the single most important aspect of your online life. Every web-based service that you use, more than likely, will send allow you to reset your password using your email. Imagine if someone was able to access your email, they would be able to reset the passwords for your bank, cell phone, water bill, etc…

To help thwart would be attackers take a few moments to ensure that your Google Mail is secure (the same goes if you aren’t using Google Mail).

• Google now has a feature that forces the use of HTTPS when accessing Google Mail
  1. Login to Google Mail
  2. Click on “Settings”
  3. Select “Always use https” in the “Browser Connection” section
  4. Save changes, log out and back in
  5. Verify that you are using a secure site (there should be a lock icon next to the URL)
• Use a strong password that is unique from your other services
• Do not provide access to your email to any 3rd party (no Facebook, MySpace, or LinkedIn). While it may be convenient to have these sites look through your contacts, it is like handing them the keys to your kingdom

If you follow these simple steps, you will make it much more difficult for people to hack into your email.

We Californians just passed Proposition 1A which provides funding to build a high-speed rail network throughout California! There is some information on the rail system at http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/. I can’t wait for this to happen. I think that the outdated system of freeways and the current lack of viable public transportation is a terrible thing. Finally we can catch up to where we should have been 20 years ago.

Record voter turnout, relatively accurate elections and a Presidential race that was tempered with respect and fairness (for the most part). I am pleased with the outcome and hopeful for our future.

I was impressed with Senator McCain’s conciliatory speech. Had he ran his campaign in the same manner, the outcome may have been different. He spoke well and truly seemed sincere in his support of his new President Elect.

President Elect Obama’s speech was, as I have come to expect, nothing short of eloquent and moving. His unrivaled ability to motivate people to better themselves and their community is most welcome.

I read an interesting article on Time.com with statements from a variety of foreign leaders and prominent members of foreign society that reflects the hope that the entire world shares for Barack Obama.

I just used Git for the first time and I think I finally understand what all the hullabaloo is about. Git is a distributed source control tool being used by the Linux and Ruby on Rails community.

The difference between Git and other source control systems like Subversion is that there is no need for a central repository for your source code. Your code remains completely distributed amongst the various machines and people that are working on it.
I currently use Subversion to maintain my source code, but I am thinking that I may like Git better.

UPDATE: To install Git on Mac OSX (10.5) I used the following, graciously taken from this forum post at Slicehost.

First, get the source code for the latest stable build here, then:

sudo apt-get build-dep git-core
tar xjf git-1.5.5.1.tar.bz2
cd git-1.5.5.1/
./configure
make
sudo make install


I have had my iPhone 3G for a few months now and I really enjoy it. I am not in love with it like I thought I would be though, but I don’t think this is necessarily a poor reflection on the phone at all. Although I don’t think about how much I love it every time I take it out to use it, I do find myself thinking about how much I use it. It may be the single most useful device I have ever owned. I find myself using it all the time. From web browsing, email, finances, maps, games and of course the phone I am using it all the time. It is odd, I thought I would be in love, but I guess I don’t love my Leatherman either I just use it, all the time. I even think this may be a testament to the device. I may not think about how great it really is, but I can’t imagine not having it! I also have a work supplied BlackBerry Curve, but that just sits on my desk all day. All other phones pale in comparison to the iPhone. I suppose that my lack of love for the iPhone is a big step forward for me as I have tended to despise every other attempt at a “smart” phone that I have had prior to the iPhone. I hated how I wished they would do one thing or another. I do not dislike anything about the iPhone, as a matter of fact I rather like how it does most things.

Unfortunately I missed the final Presidential Debate last night. I went to watch it online, and once again ended up at hulu. I have ended up at hulu with increasing frequency lately. I have watched the Daily Show and Saturday Night Live to name a couple. Hulu seems to have finally gotten online TV right. The video is freely available, embeddable and linkable. There are ads, but they are minimal and I honestly don’t mind them in exchange for an easy to watch and well presented experience.

I was first turned on to hulu by a weblog post “Hulu figures out how to bring TV online” at Signal vs. Noise.

I just noticed that Google Maps has a nice new Public Transit feature called Google Transit [more information]. This is a very welcome and at the same time depressing feature. Welcome because I am a staunch advocate of public transportation. Depressing because the trip I was just mapping is 28 minutes by car, and 2 hours by public transit. That is unfortunate.