Vanvalkinburgh.org

Mom must of been right about meeting people online. They might seem nice at first but they probably aren’t. Oh well.

The USB adapter I have from newertech, seems to be causing my mac to freeze up. Not using their driver though (can’t remember why I switched), using official ralink driver. Not sure if its the driver or the card, or both. The one on monoprice comes with a driver CD, says it works with OS X, so maybe it has driver on CD, or website to download driver from, don’t see it on their site. Not going to switch back to the newertech driver, pretty sure it was unstable, and its outdated. Don’t think I’ll buy anything from newertech again, I paid around 40 bucks for the USB adapter from newertech.

I guess I like speed more then a stable browser. Firefox 3.5 didn’t crash, but it is noticeably slower then Safari 4, at least for me.

Seems like some of my recent posts got replies by customer service or somebody that works at the company mentioned. Somebody should pay me to sit on my bum and browse the internet and respond to stuff all day. I already sit on my bum all day.

Or if no one wants to hire me, maybe I’ll just continue mentioning different companies and getting replies from them, it is kind of entertaining. I can make a post full of shit, like last post, cause I have a bad memory. Then they might reply. Now I don’t need to use customer service for anything either, I can just post on my blog, it seems to work pretty good.

Or maybe somebody will pay me to not mention their company, that would work too.

Oops forgot about profile I created long time ago, never used it, should delete, but to lazy.

Bought Canon PowerShot SD780 IS directly from amazon.com. Should get it by the 7th. If it doesn’t work or something I can easily return to amazon, the reason I bought directly from amazon. This camera might take better video then my flip video, it isn’t the new HD one… Should probably sell old camera’s and maybe flip video. To lazy rather just keep everything. Need a camera from every brand anyways.

Its a pain taking SD card out of camera plugging it into SD card reader, then copying all the files… Could use USB cable, but that’s a pain too, wireless is way easier, not sure though if 50 or 60 bucks for 2 GB is worth it. I’d have to start taking more pictures if I bought one, well maybe I would take pics, if I had one…

Eye-Fi

Maybe it won’t freeze anymore now. If it still does, then it might be the hard drive, or USB wireless N card, or something else. Hard to say, if its the hard drive, I’ll wait till it dies, and then send it back if its still under warranty. Still have the old drive that came with mini.

Mozilla released Firefox 3.5 today, hopefully it is more stable then Safari. Usually safari crashes at least once a day. Usually I think safari crashes on pages with a lot of javascript or something. Seems like it anyways, hopefully firefox 3.5 doesn’t have that problem. Firefox has lots of add ons too.

This is normal operation if your signal at the window isn’t strong
enough.
This amplifier is our lowest powered product and requires a good bit of
signal to get the job done.
Make sure the wires are also fully extended, reboot the unit, and test
it again.
If it’s still doing the same thing then I recommend looking into our
YX510-PCS-CEL which covers 4-5 good sized rooms. If you decide to do
this, then let me know where you bought it and when.

So according to them it is normal for you to have to keep phone sitting down to antenna to get a good signal. I already sent it back. Not worth 60 bucks to have to keep phone sitting down by the antenna. I can keep my phone in the window if I wanted to, and use bluetooth, but I don’t want to do that.

Was only 50 bucks at office depot, went to local store, 100 bucks online. Seems to work fine, still waiting for it to charge 16 hours. Finally setup my Linksys VOIP SPA2102 SIP ATA Adapter, using vitelity, they say you need to open ports, but I don’t. Behind two routers, to lazy to open ports on two routers. At first I could only make calls, then went to support thing on their site, and did their setup wizard, and it changed some settings on their server or something. Cool I can still send txt messages using Phone Plugins on mac while its connected to the cell fusion thing. That program is only 10 bucks, I already bought it, never tried the FoneLink program, my phone isn’t on the supported phones list for it, but it is for Phone Plugins… And Phone Plugins is a lot cheaper. Hmm doesn’t seem to always work while its connected to cell fusion, so have to disable bluetooth and then enable it.

From GE 28127FE2 Cell Fusion™ Cordless Phone

Got my cirago BTA-6210 bluetooth adapter today from buy.com, bought it on their ebay store though. So far it is working way better then the internal bluetooth on my mac mini. Can use my bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and connect to my phone, without any lag now, before mouse would start lagging or get disconnected. Not sure if the 2009 mac mini is any better at bluetooth, won’t ever know, don’t plan on buying a new mac mini.

There’s a really shitty picture of it.

There’s another picture of it.

You can buy the cirago BTA-6210 bluetooth adapter on amazon too.

The thing doesn’t work as advertised, messed with it all last night, and never got it to work a foot away. No point in wasting anymore time with it, so sent it back to amazon. Easy to send stuff back to amazon, they pay the shipping too. Selected refund, guessing they all do the same thing. Good reviews on amazon must of been written by the people who made it, or they paid people to write good reviews, checkout mturk.com, you can get paid to write good reviews on amazon… The thing isn’t worth 60 or 70 bucks, maybe 20 bucks..

Bought a zBoost YX300 cell phone booster on amazon. Seems to work sort of, I can talk on the phone without loosing signal if I move. I can browse t-zones sort of, kind of slow. Doesn’t really give me anymore bars, before I had one bar, but would constantly loose it. Seems to stay connected better now. Sometimes my phone says no bars, but it works.. So perhaps my phone is a dumbass, and doesn’t know if it has any bars or not. Don’t think I’ll send it back, seems to work good enough. Probably won’t really increase battery. It was only like 60 bucks on amazon. Would be funny if I sent it back though, I had to spit on suction cup things to get it to stick to window, haha. Oh yeah I’m not very far from the antenna that goes to cell phone… Sending text messages is instant now, even know it says I have zero bars.

Update
Think I got it working better now, put antenna on desk, where I’m at most of the day, if I go to tv, I can bring antenna with me. Don’t think I’m even a foot away now from it. Hmm think I get how it works now… Think your phone has to have at least one bar for it to work. cause phone works better still when sitting on desk, always get one or more bars while its just sitting on desk. So I guess it does give me more bars, when its on desk. Guess speaker phone works, haha.

There’s the antenna. And that is old cell phone.

So signal is pretty good while sitting on desk… Pick it up and it goes down to one or none. Hmm wonder why it doesn’t work on top of desk. guess it has to be right by it or something, haha. No big deal for me.

Pic of home screen with good signal. Wonder if you can get longer cable with antenna… or maybe a better antenna too. Guess I’ll find out after I trip on it and break it.

Update
Found this review, looks like they get five stars when holding their phone, wtf I can’t one or no bars when holding phone. Phone has to be sitting right next to antenna, maybe its because I’m more then 10 feet away. Pretty sure when I have it 10 feet or less away from base, I still don’t get signal when holding phone, at least not at desk. Maybe my thing is crap and doesn’t work right, to lazy to send it back. Or maybe my $200 cell phone is a dumbass. Going to try $80 cell phone. And then if that doesn’t work I’m going to get tape measurer.

Wait I should try calling somebody, hmm its 11:21 pm, I’ll try calling VOIP number. Maybe it only works for calls, which sucks if that’s the case. Other phone does same thing, if you put it right by it or under it, you’ll get full signal, now to call VOIP number after I look it up.

No green light blinking.. Damn it guess I need tape measurer.

Its about 10 feet away from fucking base thing, and desk is about 6 feet from antenna, but even right by the antenna it doesn’t pick up call, might pick up call if I put phone right by or under the fucking antenna.

These reviews must be written by the people who made it or something. Rebooting my phone 20+ times doesn’t work either.

Are you supposed to get “Network busy” with this thing? Haha, light still not blinking green. Changing settings on phone doesn’t seem to be helping either. The thing doesn’t blink green when it is handling a call, at least not for me. If I put phone on antenna and make a call, it doesn’t blink green, full signal then. So if you want to tape the antenna to your phone, this thing should work great for you. And putting it more then 10 feet away works. To bad I can’t hold phone.

Maybe there is interference, so maybe I should unplug routers, turn mac off, turn iPod touch off, turn blue-tooth off on phone, fuck that.

Looks like I need to send it back, either get money back or replacement. Hmm wonder if I can get new antenna only. I should email support.

Emailed support, now to wait and see what they say… Well amazon doesn’t offer an exchange program anyways… So I will have to return it and wait, then re order it. Won’t re order if it the price goes up though. Should wait for them to email me first though.

Update
Turned it off for a short time, it does blink green when it uses it, but will only use it if phone is under it, not touching it. When at desk it doesn’t use it. Ahh if you put it side ways you might be able to go farther then a foot. But only one bar according to phone. From the pic on that review they don’t have there’s on its side, strange. Sitting right by it and holding up to hear doesn’t use it. Think a foot would be the max distance if that, might be less then that. If you use speaker phone or a blue tooth thing it should work fine. Don’t move phone though. Wonder if there’s a way to reset it or something. Probably not. Oh yeah the window I put it in, my phone gets a full signal. So that isn’t the problem.

Nice reviews on newegg… One says antenna needs to be six feet away from base, and another says it needs to be as far as possible, one says they can be 20 feet away, another says less then a foot. So I guess less then a foot like I thought is right. Not sure how far the antenna should be, seems to work right on desk. So if I don’t want to use speaker phone, I’ll have to be right by antenna, almost touching it with my hear to phone, and phone to antenna. Oh yeah and its deactivated on newegg, maybe they are making new on that works.

It doesn’t always blink green either, guess only at random.

Maybe I’ll just use speaker phone or one of my bluetooth things that I don’t use. Hmm it would be cheaper to put phone in window and use bluetooth, perhaps that’s what I’ll do, or better do nothing.

Is that two or three times today? Damn Safari 4 is unstable for me, perhaps the new javascript updates are making it crash. Maybe if I disable javascript it’ll be more stable, then a lot of websites wouldn’t work, that might suck. Wonder if Safari 3.5 is released yet, don’t think so, and that was crashing to when I was using it. Couldn’t report the crashes in the Safari 4 beta, it never showed dialog, it shows that now, so I report all crashes to apple, who never seem to fix them. The safari 4.0.1 update didn’t say anything about fixing the crashes, something to do with iLife 09, that I don’t have, updated Safari though, and it already crashed. So obviously it doesn’t fix the crashing, perhaps Safari will be famous for crashing. Maybe I should use a text only browser, that should be pretty stable.

Damn it I should of slept longer, but my arm was hurting. Read on tuaw.com that 3.0 might be released at 10 am.

Update 10:20 AM
Just bought the 3.0 update its downloading now.

Looks like now they have no area codes available in WA. They let you change your number once for free, so I keep checking to see if a local number is available, have some 253 number, not my area code. No phone hooked up to it, nor is the computer turned on that its plugged into. Using virtualbox in ubuntu on a MSI Nettop 100, to run their bogus software. Don’t want to keep mac on 24/7, guess I could, not sure how stable the mac software is though. Not sure why I see ads on tv, since they don’t even offer area codes in my state anymore. Oh yeah I emailed them asking when my area code would be available, below is their response. Oh yeah to find their email, you have to search google, it is Dan@magicjack.com.

We apologize that your area code is not represented right now and we
are doing our best to add as many area codes as possible.
Sorry for the vague reply, but we will keep updating our lists as
fast as we can. Thank you.

Looks like their running out of numbers, and not adding anymore. Ahh well it was only around $30 on ebay. I should sell that linksys phone adapter I bought that I don’t need, was going to use it with vitelity, but changed my mind. Oh yeah you will be able to port a number to them “sometime in 2009″. Guess you don’t really need a local number, but then people that use the shitty local service, will get charged when calling you.

Instead of everyone switching to magic jack, how about get a skype phone adapter, both require your computer to be on 24/7, difference is skype is free. If everyone was using skype, you wouldn’t need to pay anything, its free to call skype people from skype. Then they’d probably start charging for it. Or pay more and get something that doesn’t need your computer.

Looking at spam comments, some moron keeps posting a comment, about how they make money, yeah by scamming morons probably. Me I make $0 per month by doing absolutely nothing other then sitting on my fat ass. Google ads doesn’t work btw, you have to get $100 to get check, and your site has to have better content then this shitty site. And amazon’s associate program doesn’t work all that good either, and neither does shareasale. So I’m loosing money every time I renew this domain or pay for hosting. Now go take your shitty spam comments and shove it up your fucking ass. Maybe when hosting expires I won’t pay bill, keep the domain for sure though.

Oh yeah forgot to say, their shitty site is .no-ip.net or whatever. Sure you could get their IP, would be funny if their using windows. Wait not on no-ip.info anymore, they probably learned their lesson, dumbass.

Doesn’t look like they want any calls their whoise info is protected. Their host is rathost.net, maybe they allow scam sites.

Ahh their IP is owned by iWeb Technologies Inc. That proves it is an automated post spam comment, guess they aren’t using a zombie computer, they rather pay to do their dirty business. Hmm do those guys allow spam? Probably, so no point in complaining to em.

Apple should really release a mac tablet before I have enough money for a macbook pro or iMac. If they release a tablet, I’ll get one of those, and then after that I’ll eventually get an iMac. Wouldn’t need a tablet and macbook pro. So maybe I’ll just wait till next year to buy new mac, or till they release a tablet, whichever comes first. Though they may never make a tablet, which would suck. But I’d line up to buy one, wait no apple store here, so can’t, I’d just buy it from their site.

Hmm not sure if I’ll get one of the 13″ MacBook Pros or a refurbished iMac. The iMac would be faster and have better video, but cost a little more then a new 13″ MacBook Pro, I’d get the $1,499 MacBook Pro, if I got one probably. By the time I can buy a new mac, they’ll probably have the cheapest 15″ MacBook Pro refurbished… So maybe I’ll get one of those instead. I like the SD card reader the new MacBook Pro’s have, then I wouldn’t have to use my card reader. They should add a SD reader to the iMac. I could get the old iMac model 3 GHz for just a little more then the new 2.93 GHz refurbished model, but want the new model with support for 8 GB of ram. I think what I’ll do is just think about it but never buy either, that way by the time I make up my mind they’ll be new models, haha. Or I might get one if my mac mini dies and can’t be fixed cheaply. Oh wait I still have my MSI Nettop 100 with ubuntu, so won’t need to purchase new mac, if current mini dies, can just use that. It can’t play games, but neither can my mini.

Update
Will probably end up getting a MacBook Pro. Probably the cheapest 15″ MacBook refurbished though, they should have em refurbished in three or four months. I suppose if I decide to get off my lazy ass and get a job, then I might be able to get one before then.