A Quick Update from the Sheraton Denver...

I've spent the last 48 hours poring over all sorts of prepaid cell phone plans and devices, and I finally walked into Wal-Mart to buy something.

I was contemplating either the AT&T GoPhone™ or a T-Mobile Prepaid phone, both of which offered GSM, reasonably coverage, reasonable rates for International horsing around, etc etc.

The Wal-Mart I went to didn't have the $30 AT&T phone I wanted (with camera for $30 including $15 credit) so I opted for the T-Mobile equivalent for $29.99. It only came with $3.34 worth of credit (exactly 10 minutes of airtime) but I think overall it will be fine, since I didn't have to pay extra for a fancier phone, and the rates are far more reasonable with T-Mobile (for my purposes anyway: random photo tweeting and texting about.)

Once I got back to the hotel and online, activation was a cinch, although it didn't seem to activate the "data" portion (for MMS and "My Account" features, etc.) until a few hour later. 

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I actually really like this phone, despite it's cheap feel. (Just placing it on the table sounds like it's totally hollow–hilarious!)

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The display is awful, and the VGA camera is sufficient for my needs.

Anyway, having a good time blasting around the states. Stay tuned to the Twitter feed (or Facebook if you are so kind to be my friend there) for the latest on our little voyage!

Posted August 3, 2010 by Joel Adria 
 

Camp Fun

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Having lots of fun at camp...

(Random sunset photoshoot at the beach...)

Posted July 30, 2010 by Joel Adria 
 

Camp Fun

Having lots of fun at camp...

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(Random sunset photoshoot at the beach...)

Posted July 28, 2010 by Joel Adria 
 

It's the OreoBook!

I ordered a dead Black MacBook off eBay for a little under $200 a little while ago, and it finally arrived. I was hoping to do the following:

  • Replace my very blemished LCD backlight with a new display. The bits of standoff that broke over the years got ground into the back of the screen, creating some nasty dark spots on the screen. Since the Blackbook supposedly just got some rain on it, the display should have been fine. (It wasn't)
  • Replace the plastic bits that are very pwn'd from 4 years of use
  • Replace the optical drive in my MacBook which has issues reading low-grade CD-Rs of all things (DVDs it's been fine with oddly enough...)
  • Score another battery
  • Score another power adapter
  • Create an OreoBook

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I wish there was a new MacBook Pro in that box...

 


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Ah the BlackBook...

 


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"What's left of the power adapter"

 


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A little dirty, but nothing a little cleaning can't fix

 


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Third party battery is barely used

 


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Weird reconditioned serial # isn't the same as on the mobo inside...

 


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10 cycles... really? Hopefully I get some good performance out of this aftermarket little devil.

 


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Oh dear. That's some serious Thailand dirt in there. Have I mentioned it smells of burnt electronics and Thai food?

 


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"A little rain on it"? ummmm wow this thing really cooked.

 


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Solder smoke!

 


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Found a few of these while cleaning out...gross.

 


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The BlackBook has been beheaded!

 


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Post vacuum...

 


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Oh look, the Leopard Disc stuck inside the optical drive, as promised in the eBay listing!

 


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Uh oh. Pixel pixie dust? Not good.

 


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It's everywhere!

 


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I guess black pixels creates pixie dust at the bottom and top, but it clears up when you clear the screen. Not cool.

 


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Well THIS is not a nice replacement...

 

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I think I'll take crappy backlight over pixie dust...

 


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Hours later... the OreoBook emerges, with the BlackBook's battery, display bezel/case, and optical drive, but WhiteBook's screen.

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Cute!

 


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It wouldn't be an OreoBook if the bottom battery weren't black...

 


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Yum.

 


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Ok this thing is awesome.

 


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Oh, did I mention I messed up the lid states? It doesn't know when it's closed or open. Oh well, that's been broken for a while now anyway...

 


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Bits of MacBook everywhere... iSight still doesn't work either, which I may or may not fix at some point down the road.

 

This was a half-fun half-practical project. I realized that the real reason why I wanted a new MacBook Pro was because I wanted something that didn't look like crap. So this gives the old MacBook a new look for a fraction of the price, and fixes a few little things along the way like battery life and optical drive issues.

(download)

Posted July 3, 2010 by Joel Adria 
 

jolemobile

Now you can spot me anywhere around town!

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Service call!?

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Milk crate is super practical.

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Hurray for advertising!

Posted June 25, 2010 by Joel Adria 
 

Whiteboard of the Week - 20

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This week is another guest artist WotW, this time by the Mishax. A few notable sections:

  • Trademark Misha tarp
  • A wild Kevin appears with his clipboard and pen
  • Only after drawing did he find my black marker (which needs replacement)
  • The Tundra is apparently outfitted with Apple wheel hubs
  • John Cheese (Cleese) is finding Basil the Rat (Fawlty Towers - S2 E6)
  • Darth Vader antenna reference (See Duck Podcast 13)

Posted June 20, 2010 by Joel Adria 
 

Duck Podcast: Episode 13 (in HD!)

You may have already noticed, but the Duck Podcast has returned from it's rather long hiatus, and it's back with attitude! Or... High Def! Be sure to check out all the action on the official Duck Podcast website, http://duck.jole.ca.

Also, I've padded my YouTube account with old goodies from jolevideo, and some new stuff from my video archive. Be sure to check it out. I've been contemplating whether to promote jolevideo or just kill it off in favour of YouTube, since ol' Google has certainly made progress with the popular video service over the past few years. I'll be keeping both in service, but YouTube will be the primary public distribution area, with jolevideo being reserved for rejected videos.   

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Posted June 13, 2010 by Joel Adria 
 

Whiteboard of the Week - 18

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This week's whiteboard... isn't on a whiteboard, but close enough. Here is what the new jole.ca will look like eventually. I've been playing around with Apple Dashcode, an IDE/Environment for developping web apps. I've been throwing around the idea of consolidating all my stuff more conveniently to form a central jolemedia network site sort of deal, and Dashcode has impressed me enough to consider building it there. 

Here's a (very) rough sketch of what it will include:
  • Home page with a Facebook-like stream of all the media coming from jole
  • Blog filter
  • Photo filter with enhanced viewing options (other sketches were drawn for that...)
  • Video filter with similar viewing options
  • Podcast filter
  • Tweet filter

By filter I just mean clicking on it will show just those types of content. I'd like to have it so that it's very web-appy, and work nicely on all them iDevices the kids are using these days, and just in general make it easier and more enjoyable to browse the content I have. Maybe learn a bit of JS along the way!

Posted June 13, 2010 by Joel Adria 
 

Production: Livin' Inside Out

Ok, so I wouldn't exactly call this a major production in any way, but just like any show it had it's share of interesting challenges.

The sunday school kids put on a musical at my church, and did a pretty awesome job at it. First Baptist has a great little stage in the basement as part of Jubilee Hall, but almost never gets used. A year or two ago we upgraded the sound system with a fresh amp (which I now know was kind of overkill) and the Mackie DFX•12 shown here. I wasn't sure it was going to get used much, but the capacity would be there if a band or larger event were to ever take place. Livin' Inside Out was clearly that event. 

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I imported the wireless systems from upstairs for the event, and had two of the kids wearing the lapels, which worked surprisingly well. If there isn't much intensive dancing or anything lapels obviously work just fine. The third guy held a handheld since that's what we had in stock. A few other soloists simply stepped up to the SM58s I setup at the front as required. (Blocking in this show was not very complex.)

At first it was tough to get the system free of feedback when using the lapels, but I soon realized that it was really just exactly 1kHz that kept ringing back, probably from the design of the room. As soon as I cut that frequency in the 5-band built-in EQ, there were no issues. 

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QLab is always ready to go. The accompaniment CD was L/R Karaoke/Singing, so I plugged in the right channel into a stereo return which would send it mono to both L/R main mix. The disc was also "tracked" to allow jumping to particular measures in a song for rehearsal purposes, which meant a bit of manual time setup for the various cues so that they ran contiguously. I think there were still a few jerky points that iTunes Gapless Playback would have smoothened more effectively, but QLab let me focus on mixing the show and not pausing the track list before the next song.

 


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The kids mostly just walked up to the mics for their lines/solos, and their height made for convenient placement of the stands on the floor level, which eliminated rumble noise and stage footprint.

Posted June 6, 2010 by Joel Adria 
 

Whiteboard of the Week - 18

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This week's whiteboard of the week is another guest artist: Simon "Skully" Kully illustrates some sort of epic battle, along with "hell" later converted to "shell". Deep stuff. I'm sure he will comment on it further in the comment section, especially considering how the iPad seems to be saving the day.

 

Posted June 6, 2010 by Joel Adria