The World of Scott Mindeaux

Busy Last Few Weeks

Wow…it’s July already! Can you believe it? Where has the time gone? The year so far has had me going up and down and left and right. Work has been keeping me busy but happy to say I finally have some help with a new intern who’ll be helping me out on the Operations side of my job. On the Creative IT side, we are forging ahead with our CS5 upgrades and the experiment with using Subversion to track Flash programming has been a success for the Flash Dev team. We are currently experimenting with using Subversion in a Photoshop environment with a Photoshop plug-in. Have you used Subversion in a graphics setting? If so, write in and let me know how it has been working for you.

On the personal side of things, I have been feeling very tired lately. Ever since my heart scare earlier this year, I’m still finding myself to be very tired. Lately I have been having meals and literally falling into comas. I have a feeling my blood sugar levels are to blame and that I’m experiencing high and very low sugar levels. My insomnia continues to plague me and for the 18 millionth time Doc, its not sleep apnea. The problem isn’t that I’m waking up, the problem is that I cant get sleep in the first place. Like right now, its like 0127 and I’m WIDE awake. I think Tylenol PM doesn’t do a thing for me. Perhaps a visit to Dr. Zamini is in order. I have’t seen my primary care since the heart scare incident a few months ago. Might be time to re-evaluate my no sleeping pill request.

On the foodie side of things, I have been doing recipe testing for work. One of our clients in getting ready to post some recipes online and I was asked to recipe test and to photograpgh the food. Last weekend I spent 2 full days prepping and making the recipes, making sure the recipes work and then take pictures of the recipes for the website. How exciting yes? Despite the long hours, I had a great time. I still have 5 more recipes to get through, but hope to get through them this weekend.

All this food photography has raised my desire for a DSLR camera. I have been taking pictures with my trusty Canon G2 Powershot. Yes it’s old, but I think it takes great pictures. I also took similar photos using my new iPhone4 with the tap-to-focus feature and I have to say that I was impressed by the photos. Standby for a comparison of the smae shots on FoodieInDisguise.com in the next few days.

So I said I wanted to buy a DSLR. Well, I bought one today and its is a Canon Rebel XSi, just the body, no lens. No lens you ask? That’s right. This way I get a good deal on the body and can make a more informed purchase on a lens. A few have recommended this and a few that, but I’m interested to hear from other food photographers on what they use. So if you have a DSLR and can offer some words of advice on a lens, let me know.

Well time for me to try and close my eyes. I will try to keep writing more, I promise.

iPhone4 on June 23? I think so!

Can it be true?

I just got an email from Apple a few minutes ago confirming a June 23rd delivery date…

Is Apple making up for the horrible delays on pre-order day by giving those who got thru a present?

I Relaxed Today Watching Nascar

Yep you read that right. Did you know that back in the early 2000′s I used to like Nascar? Yep. I even collected Nascar die-cast cars for a couple of years. I was doing some recipe testing in the kitchen when I was flipping channels and came across a Nascar race. This was the Pocono Race hosted by Gilette. The race was almost over when I got there, about 5 laps to go. Things got interesting in the last two laps where they called a green checkered flag. There was an incidents just before the 2nd lap and the officials decided to allow the race to continue. Denny Hamlin in Number 11 completed the race, but not before there was a huge crash involving at least 8 cars. The Number 9 car was blocked on a turn and went into the green then he went into traffic causing a pile up. Pretty intense.

Congrats Denny on your win!

So it’s Been Over a Week…How’s the iPad?

So alot of readers have been emailing me this past week asking how I like my iPad so far. I wanted to spend at least a week with my iPad before I started putting my thoughts on paper (or on the pad in this case…)

After waking up late on Saturday, April 3, I can still say 10 days later that I’m still a happy iPad owner. Here’s what I have to say so far:

1. Since I got my iPad, I’m using my iPhone for just phone calls now. The experience on the iPad is so much richer. It’s not just the larger screen. Working with iPad developed apps, you find yourself in a different world from your iPhone/iPod.

2. What are my main uses? Email, browsing, note taking and watching movies. When I’m at work it supplements my laptop. I take the iPad to meetings and use that for taking notes. When at my desk I find that I have the mail app open 80% of the time. In addition to Exchange support, I have my MobileMe, GMail and Pop accounts on there. I can check all my email in one place. I don’t have any personal email on my work laptop, so this is perfect. Before the iPad, I had all of these capabilities on my iPhone. Exchange support on my iPhone has allowed me to stay in touch with the office even when I”m at home. There are still many people out there that say that reading email on the iPad can’t be so much different that on the iPhone. That’s probably true. But, I like that I can read my emails without having to resize every time. The speediness of the iPad also allows me to flip thru emails and scroll much faster.

3. Let’s talk about speed. This thing is FAST! Upon the first swipe of your fingers across the screen you know that this is wicked fast. Pull up Google maps and your swiping and pinching and expanding in lightning speed! Its like those multitouch screens on NCIS Los Angeles and CNN.

4. But it’s just a huge iPod Touch right? No. I can’t say enough that this is MORE. Yes, it can run the thousands of apps already written for the iPhone/iPod. But that isn’t where the magic is. The developers that have already written apps specifically for the iPad know where we want to go. I would say that the majority of iPad developers did it right by re-writing the app and taking advantage of larger real estate on the screen. Those that simply “exploded” the app miss the ball. It’s only a matter of time before those same iPhone apps are re-written for the iPad.

Some of my favorite iPad written apps?
WeatherHD - for the simplicity that it is. The subtleness of the videos is awesome
Epicurious – Recipes, recipes – need I say more?
The Elements – the way the Chart of Elements was meant to be shown. I would have taken more interest in science if I had this in high school.
GoSkyWatch – hold your iPad up to the sky and see where the constellations and other heavenly bodies are.
Zinio – my portal so some of my favorite magazines including Macworld and Saveur.
Asphalt5 – I’m not much into games, but I like this driving game as I race against the clock, using my iPad like a steering wheel
Autodesk SketchBook – drawing, layer support. It’s not Photoshop, but it can export to it. Tons of brushes, effect and the ability to have up to 6 layers. WHen you’re done you can export it to Photoshop thru a special interface in iTunes.
Netflix - movies, shows all streamed to my iPad.
ABC Player - all my ABC shows like V, Brothers and Sisters and Flash Forward all streaming to my iPad.

There are so much more! I can RDC into our servers, I can VNC into my Macs at the office. I can stream non-DRM videos from my MacPro at home over the net. Another nice app? Craigsphone. See Craigslist in a way you never have.

So battery life? I can make it thru an entire day on my iPad and still have some room before I plug in at night. It’s nice to know.

So what don’t I like about my iPad?

1. Where is the damn TAB key?
2. It’s hard to hold when its not in a case, its slippery
3. When you have to hold it in a grip in your hand for long periods, it can be taxing.
4. When you hold the iPad like a pad of paper, your thumb is on the “screen”
5. When in landscape mode, you have a close to full size keyboard. Problem is that you want to lay your fingers on the “keys” like a regular keyboard. It took a couple of days to learn to “hover”
6. Some of my favorite iPhone apps haven’t been Padisized yet (is Padisized a word?)

Wishlist?

1. Tab key
2. SD Slot for storage of files
3. There are others, but most will be addressed in 4.0 of the next OS release.

So I mentioned that I don’t use my iPhone that much anymore. That’s not true. I don’t take my iPad everyone I take my iPhone. So when I”m in line at the grocery store or stuck in traffic or out having dinner, the iPad is my bag or at home. Do I wish I had 3G? Sure, but I don’t need it, it would be a nicety. Where I need to get a quick data fix while out n about, I have my iPhone.

There is still so much more to say about the iPad, but my head hurts and my recent sleeping habits make it hard for me to concentrate. I’ll get more of my thoughts down over the next few days.

So overall on a scale of 1 to 10 where do I rate my iPad. I’ll say an 8+. I use it everyday, so it has become a productivity tool for me. App developers are just hitting the tip of the iceberg on what the potential this device can have. I can’t wait!

My iPad, My iPad

So after all the craziness from yesterday – I felt like I was in the episode of ABC’s Modern Family. Phil’s wife, Claire set her alarm to wake up early so that she could get in line and buy an Apple iPad for her husband’s birthday that day. However, the alarm went off and she fell back asleep. She finally woke up and snuck out of the house and spent the day looking for an iPad – everyone was out!

My alarm went off at 7am and I didn’t wake up until 9:30. Oh no! I missed the launch moment. Yes, I had one on reserve, but I wanted to be there for the opening of the doors and the Apple employees clapping and cheering on the guy that brought his couch to sit in position #1 in line! I wanted to be, at least, in the Top 20 that would walk out fo the store holding that white Apple bag with my iPad in it.

By the time I got to the store, it was around 10:00am. There were two lines. One for those who reserved and the other for those who didn’t. The “other” line was aobut 2x longer than my line. I got into line and Jay, a cute Apple employee (aren’t they all cute?) was coming down the line and checking reservations. Meanwhile I had gotten an email from Lisa Lohnes saying she couldn’t find her confirmation email. I emailed her back and tried to call her but I got the numbers mixed up and left a really long message for some poor woman. Sorry about that. Anyway, Jay comes up to the group in front of me and he asks if they have a reservation and they say no. Jay sends them to the other line. Haha. No, seriously, it was sad. So he comes up to me and I give him my last name and he says, “Scott?” I said yes and he was just about to walk away when I asked if I can inquire about a friends reservation. I asked if he could check for Lohnes and he said “Lisa?” and I said “Yes!”. I thanked him and immediately called Lisa. She was still at home waiting for an international video Skype call from her daughter Elise who is in England this semester.

By the time I got into the store it was about 10:35. Not bad, not bad at all. Keon was my assigned sales person. I told him I had a 16GB iPad on reservation. Now at this point I said I had a 16 and wanted to upgrade to a 32. Keon waved a manager over and asked. After about 1.5 seconds the manager turns to me and says they can’t accommodate upgrades, but if I wanted to stand in the “other” line I could get one. My other option was to purchase my 16 and then return it. However, if I opened it, I would be subject to a 10% restocking fee – $49.95.

What if I had not ever mentioned that I specifically had a 16GB model. From what I could tell, the only person who had the “list” was Jay on his iDevice (I couldn’t tell if he was on an iPod Touch or iPhone). Could I have walked up to Keon and he would have asked me which one I had on reserve and if I said 32 would I have gotten one? I guess I’ll never know, but regardless of the fact, I got my 16GB iPad and never been happier!

Keon asked me about accessories. Note to Apple store on the next big launch. Don’t squish all the accessories in one place. Throw caution to the wind and spread the accessories throughout the store so  that 25 people aren’t crowding the little wall space you created for it. Then in a couple of days, you can place the inventory in its final resting place in the store. I got the dock and a case. The Apple case  you ask? No. I opted for a case by InCase. Why?

The Apple case was very disappointing to me. It was very flimsy and not as rigid as one would have hoped. To me it was like a thin layer of neoprene around a piece of cardboard. There was a “flap” in the case that just looked like it would tear at the seams in just a few uses. Sorry Apple, I had to go with a 3rd party solution. The Incase case was much thicker, in leather or faux leather and secured my iPad in it much better than Apple’s. It also allowed for three different viewing angles when being propped up for landscape mode. It also sports an elastic band to keep the lid closed when in transport.

So I picked up my items, paid for them and then walked out of the store. I wanted to hold my hands up in the air in victory when I walked out the door, but the moment was lost when I woke up late…

The first thing I did was to call my friend Scott in DC only to find out that he was on his way to the Clarendon Apple Store in Arlington. He had to take the Red Line from Dupont, transfer at Metro Center to the Orange Line. I told him I had mine in hand and told him about my decision on a case.  After that I got in the car and rushed home.

First thing to do was to unbox.

Next was to connect it to iTunes for initialization and to register my iPad with Apple. Now once the initial setup was done I was presented with a list of apps. Both iPad and iPhone. I made the mistake of syncing without first realizing what I was doing. So next thing I know is that all my iPhone apps are now on my iPad. I didn’t want any of my iPhone apps on my iPad. So I started deleting apps from the iPad on the iPad itself. A task that would have gone much faster in the screen interface on iTunes. Haha.

Now I was ready…

iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches Should Aid in Medical Treatments

A co-worker and friend were talking yesterday and surprised by how much the medical community hasn’t really gotten on the bandwagon on using consumer technology like the iPhone, iPod Touches or the upcoming iPad.

If you are regular reader of my blog, you know I’m a Type II Diabetic, asthma suffered and insomniac. We were talking about how the iPad should be used to connect and collect data from various consumer medical devices. For example, for those wearing continuous glucose monitoring devices, that data should have the ability to be intercepted by an iPad where the data is collected and can be viewed.

How about a scale that transmit to your iPad? Let’s say you’re trying to lose weight. Wouldn’t it be kewl to stand on your scale and it transmit that data to your iPad. You can track your weight accurately and see trends in gain and lose. I can’t trust myself to enter my weight accurately if I had to do it manually! <smirk>

I have to collect blood samples daily to test for my blood sugars. How about a device that can do this and send the data directly to my iPhone without having to move the reading stick?

There are alot of “trackers” available on the apps store, but it all relies on manual input of data. Sure…to be true to my treatment, I owe it to myself to make sure I do the entries. But wouldn’t it be great if my “iDevice” can just collect the data for me? Timestamp the data and its there. It’s accurate and my doctor can be emailed my results on a weekly basis. There is no fibbing that I took readings last week. If the iDevice doesn’t have an entries it’s because I didn’t do it. The doctor doesn’t have to figure out if I really took the readings or not or if the numbers I”m giving him are correct.

So are there devices like that exist? Do you make a glucose reader that transmit to an “iDevice”. Let me know, I’ll be a customer!

One recent app that I am still evaluating for effectiveness is an app called Sleep Cycle. With the iPhone’s built-in accelerometer, it can detect and analyze what state of sleep you are in and wake you up when you are in your lightest sleep mode. I have been using it for 3 weeks and for the most part, I think it works. You move differently in bed depending on the sleep mode you are in. When you are in REM sleep, you don’t move. The phone analyzes the pattern in your sleep over the last several hours then uses that data to determine if you should wake up “earlier” than what you set the alarm for. Huh, you ask? Let’s say you set your alarm for 0730. Based if you are in a light sleep period by your pattern, the app could start your alarm at 0710 instead. People are more likely to awaken when in the light sleep mode. Some analysis and research says that waking up instantly while in a deep sleep mode can cause crankiness and you’ll feel more tired.