joeblog

11:32:41 AM BuCkSaTaN: So did you say you didn’t like the Wacom Bamboo tablet?

11:33:18 AM Skippin’ Smilin’ Hat-Boy: i said it’s a great mouse but not a very good drawing tablet

11:33:58 AM Skippin’ Smilin’ Hat-Boy: it especially sucks if you switch from an intous to the bamboo

11:34:28 AM BuCkSaTaN: I got one, I like it a lot. Good portable tablet.

11:34:44 AM Skippin’ Smilin’ Hat-Boy: okay.

11:35:05 AM Skippin’ Smilin’ Hat-Boy: what did you have before?

11:35:31 AM BuCkSaTaN: I have an Intuos 3

11:36:24 AM Skippin’ Smilin’ Hat-Boy: i guess we just use it differently

11:36:39 AM BuCkSaTaN: I guess… haha

11:36:55 AM Skippin’ Smilin’ Hat-Boy: i noticed a huge different in pressure sensitivity but that’s to be expected.

11:37:26 AM BuCkSaTaN: I just changed it in the prefs… they’re in system preferences.

11:37:33 AM Skippin’ Smilin’ Hat-Boy: ughh

11:37:47 AM Skippin’ Smilin’ Hat-Boy: that’s not what i’m talking about

11:39:52 AM Skippin’ Smilin’ Hat-Boy: maybe after a few years of painting digitally you will understand or not. depends on how you draw

11:40:28 AM Skippin’ Smilin’ Hat-Boy: when i speak about pressure sensitivity, it has nothing to do with the pressure slider in the prefs

11:44:04 AM BuCkSaTaN: I guess us lowly cartoonists know nothing about pressure sensitivity…. I will try harder to get better at this…I am new to the whole world, so… thanks for the tip!

11:45:54 AM Skippin’ Smilin’ Hat-Boy: relax…

11:46:20 AM BuCkSaTaN: I have so much to learn, oh seasoned professional…

11:46:36 AM Skippin’ Smilin’ Hat-Boy: i keep talking about the pressure points in the tablet and you keep mentioning the slider.

11:46:52 AM Skippin’ Smilin’ Hat-Boy: what do you want me too say?

11:47:19 AM BuCkSaTaN: Yes, I know… oh woe is me and my uninformed methods of getting my ideas onto this wretched box of wires and chips…

11:47:38 AM Skippin’ Smilin’ Hat-Boy: oh brother

11:48:27 AM Skippin’ Smilin’ Hat-Boy: the pressure in the tablet is EVERYTHING to me. it’s the difference between me breaking my monitor or not

11:49:04 AM BuCkSaTaN: I can only hope to learn from my mistakes and follow in the great shoes of Skippin’ Smilin’ Hat-Boy… My only hope is that I am able to reach beyond my meagre and underdeveloped talent to rise above my lowlt station. Thanks chum!

11:49:36 AM BuCkSaTaN: I will try harder to understand Obi Wan… thank you for your sage words and solid consumer advice.

11:49:51 AM Skippin’ Smilin’ Hat-Boy: jesus

How not to get my attention…

Two things to start. I have wifi and I have an iPhone – as you may have surmised from previous bitching and whining. I’m thinking, with this magical pairing (rising above chocolate and peanut butter in my mind) I might want to use my iphone, to download apps and such at home and the office, with the benefit of this crazy wifi.

First things first. How does wifi work? Well, I am no expert, but I’m thinking that if I have a wireless router in my home, the iPhone, when switched to wifi mode – bypasses 3G and uses my paid internet connection to communicate with the outside world. (I am no expert as I’ve said, so correct me if this is either simplistic or completely off the wall). I think you know where I’m going here.

Next step. Ask Fido whether or not they charge for using a wifi connection – that isn’t theirs. The answer? Well, according to the knowledgeable CSR I queried, I would not be charged for data transfer if I am already using my PAID (capitals intentional) wifi setup as my entry point. [Insert ear-piercingly loud Evil Laugh here.] This is not the case. Even after scouring the web for backup research, I grew weary and watched re-runs of “Designing Women” instead.

Anyway, I decided to try a little experiment and keep an eye on my data usage with their wonderful little app. (Very useful by the way). It hit the 500 (approximately) MB point and there was this foolishly huge 100MB game I wanted to download. Thinking, oh I’ll save that 100MB for more important things on 3G, but willing to take the hit to prove my point, I waited until I was home and wifi was turned on and operational.

The very next morning, the 100MB was tacked on to my data. Now, unless I sleep-surf on the iPhone or my cat has managed to grow thumbs, this was the game hit I expected.

Is this a scam? Or am I dull in the ways of the interwebs and how it works? We shall see when I call Fido this week and ask them again. (Tip: it’s always good to waste your time calling a service provider several times until you get the answer you want. Some of these kids nowadays don’t give a shit about customer care…wah wah wahhhhh…)

Update: Speaking to a friend of mine he has told me about his experience with Rogers, which sounds a little hinkey to me, but if this is the case, is Apple to blame?

4:34:36 PM Wolfie-Pie: i actually called rogers about this myself
4:34:45 PM BuCkSaTaN: And?
4:34:49 PM BuCkSaTaN: What did they say?
4:35:54 PM Wolfie-Pie: apparently it’s an apple issue and not a rogers or whomever issue
4:36:16 PM Wolfie-Pie: at times even though your see the wifi icon and believe you are connected to wifi you actually may not
4:37:09 PM BuCkSaTaN: That’s ridiculous.
4:37:42 PM Wolfie-Pie: yep
4:38:41 PM Wolfie-Pie: he said the way to test it is walk in and out of wifi range and if it stalls then you really were on wifi but it doesn’t then you were actually on 3g
4:38:51 PM BuCkSaTaN: Seriously.
4:38:55 PM Wolfie-Pie: yeah exactly

Update: How wide is your anus? Because Fido/Rogers loves to ram it in deep.

I’ve called and asked about how I know whether or not I’m getting dinged for data charges when I use my iPhone at home on my wifi setup.

Fido: It’s not their problem – it’s Apple’s.

I ask how much it is to upgrade to the iPhone 4. (I’ve been with them for a year – since Oct 2009.) The CSR tells me I won’t be eligible for their “reduced rate” pricing until May 2012.

I say, “Are you kidding?” No. He is not kidding.

The CSR says, if I want to upgrade now, it’ll cost me 600+ dollars – almost 700 dollars to upgrade my phone with fido. A PHONE. You know, I am so incredulous at how stupid we are as human beings, I have to say it again… A PHONE.

I say, “Wow. That’s a lot of money. Are you sure?” Yes. He is sure.

He then explains, well, you could give your iPhone 3GS to a third party, then get a minimum plan of 25 a month with data (anywhere from 30-80 dollars a month I imagine), then get yourself an iPhone 4 for the NEW CUSTOMER INTRO PRICE  of … are you ready for this? $169. Then if I put my Fido dollars on it (currently, 70 dollars or so) that comes off of it for a grand total of $99 dollars.

How does this make any fucking sense to anyone but Fido? They treat the fresh meat like good chums and spit in the face of a customer that’s been paying them 100+ dollars a month for a year. Hmm.

Yes sir, may I please have another?

One of the most annoying issues with Microsoft Excel is its’ inability, to my knowledge, to zoom in and out of a large document. Numbers, by Apple has rectified this problem with their own spreadsheet editor. Or have they?…

See, right there in the View menu, a lovely little zoom feature.

Now, given that I consider myself a “power-user”, whatever the fuck that means, I use “command-keys” rather than have to use my pen or mouse to go up to the top of the screen every time I want to do something. Cool! A zoom in and out key-command solution for both my prob—–

No. It brings up a preferences menu instead. Fuh-ail.

9:54:32 AM BuCkSaTaN: I hate the color picker on Flash… I don’t want the application colors you fucking chowderheads – and stop changing the hex code as I mouse over shit… I mean what the fuck.
9:55:44 AM Kirby: I have the same problem with apple applications.
9:55:56 AM Kirby: there is one for iPhone development that doesn’t let you enter a hex code.
9:56:04 AM Kirby: you get to pick form a palette of crayons.
9:56:07 AM BuCkSaTaN: haha
9:56:11 AM BuCkSaTaN: Yeah that’s in there for sure…

9:56:19 AM BuCkSaTaN: I need hex of course, so that’s out. What a stupid feature. Crayons. You chuckleheads, get it together. haha  How about plug-ins for the color palette… forget Pantone! Here’s swirling puke! Pick from numerous shades of vomit in our technicolor yawn add-on!

Piece. Of. Shit.

UPDATE!!

Still. A. Piece. Of. Fucking. Shit.

10:26:22 AM BuCkSaTaN: I’d love to do a YouTube video where someone is trying to teach an Adobe product to the public and it keeps fucking up.
“And then, you copy the vector from Illustrator over to… oh wait… we’ve got the spinning beachball… okay… hang on… well, it doesn’t seem to be moving. Hmm. It says ‘Not Responding’…. er… okay, so we could wait or we could – well now my mouse is frozen… all right… well, if my computer wasn’t frozen now, we’d have a nice Smart Object in Photo… ah fuck… now it’s quit on me…”

11:16:08 AM Gjuddy McMudd: haha

When I quit Illustrator and just sit there – no button pressing, no switching, no mouse/tablet movement – just staring at the screen, Illustrator magically starts right back up again, presumably feeling that I haven’t used it enough. WooooOoOoOooooo – it’s the ghost of Illustrator past! Aghhh!