Bushnell Yardage Pro Tour — my new golf gadget
I broke down and bought a laser yardage meter. I played with different ones, and in the end, I picked up the Bushnell Yardage Pro Tour model.
It was small. Easy to use. Fit nicely in my hand. Nice semi-rubberized tactile feel.
Yesterday, I played at the Ranches Golf Club in Saratoga Springs / Lehi. More than once it was nice to be able to shoot the pin to get distance rather than look for a sprinkler head, walk off yardage, guess the distance at your angle, etc.
One thing this gadget can’t do for me, however, is to execute on the yardage with the right shot.
Nokia E61 up and running…
My Nokia E61 finally is configured and working. I had to break up the configuring across a few different nights. It also was a bit more complex to configure than my Treo’s have been.
Here’s the snags I ran into and how I solved them:
- Message Centre
Getting text messages to work was simple, but I didn’t have the information I needed. I found the info on Cingular’s forums. I also had to read further on a Nokia blog that I needed to make sure that the number was configured with the “+” sign in front of the number. After adding this, everything was great.
Solution: configured w/ Cingular SMS service number: +13123149810
- Wireless Networking
I found that my E61 was working fine when I was at my office. However, I couldn’t get the E61 to connect when I was at home. I read on a Nokia site somewhere that my Linksys wireless router WRT54G didn’t work with 802.11g when running in mixed mode. I set the router to “b” only. But I continued to get a connection error. I plugged in my little 3Com wireless travel access point, and immediately I was able to connect.
Solution: purchased a Netgear 802.11g wireless router…all is well.
- Exchange Connection / “Certificate Error contact the application supplier”
I found that my IT team had created their own certificate rather than using a certificate provider. My had to install the certificate to authenticate my mail client to our server. However, when trying to accept the certificate, I would get the error “Certificate Error contact the application supplier.” Apparently, this is a common issue. It’s a protection setting to prevent malware from making it onto the device.
Solution: Tools > App. mgr > Options > Settings Change “software installation” from “Signed Only” to “All” and “Onlline certic check” to “off”. Installed my company-created certificate.
I’m starting to get used to the Symbian Series 60 3rd Edition (S60) OS. It’s very powerful. HOWEVER, I will be honest, I find the menus and organization of the system a bit weird. I keep going to the Tools > Settings > menu and I browse through the settings only to never find the item I’m looking for.
Secondly, the number of clicks it takes to 1) find a contact and 2) dial the contact number is far too many steps (1. Contacts > 2. “enter letters to filter names” > 3. joystick to name > 4. joystick to number [cell vs. home] > 5. select Call > 6. mouse out to Voice call > 7. select. I’m hoping to find a better faster way to make calls.
Finally, I have similar issues with email. I love the “Blackberry-like” experience of receiving and sending mail. I love that my calendar, contacts, AND email are synced automatically. But again, the number of steps it takes to delete / reply is far more than my Treo experience. I fell like I’m always confirming yes / no / this / that.
I’ve got to find out if there is a Power user mode.
Blackboard Backpack 2.5 ships today!
It’s finished. Blackboard Backpack 2.5 has been completed. Another project wrapped up. If you’re a student using Blackboard, you got to try out Backpack. It’s cool. Let’s you take your Blackboard courses and put them on your laptop so you can use them without a web connection.
Booked my travel for The Medialist Touranment
I’m in. Going back to Scottsdale.
Matt “twisted” my arm to come down and play. But when he offered to let me shack up, I was in.
Three days. Three courses. Eagle Mountain, SunRidge Canyon, and my favorite, We-Ko-Pa. September 8, 9, 10th.
Slow golf sucks
If there’s one thing a golfer hates it’s waiting for hackers who are playing slow golf. They look for balls, try to hit miracle shots–cause they saw it on TV once, take 10 practice swings before each shot, etc., etc. Even the Wall Street Journal wrote about it today, offering reader suggestions for improving pace of play. Here are my favorites from the article:
| Be considerate of faster players. | The common theme of all the emails we received was that common courtesy toward other players would go a long way to solving the slow play problem. |
| Let faster groups play through. | This was the No. 1 piece of advice. Any time the group behind you is waiting and a full hole or more is open in front of you, stand aside so the group behind can play through. On par threes, where many backups occur, hit your tee shots to the green and then let the group behind hit their tee shots. That way, when they are finished putting you will be ready to putt immediately. |
| Resist the pressure, or temptation, to play from the back tees unless you are qualified. | At many courses, the back tees should be used only by low-single-digit handicap players or better. |
| Accept that a lost ball is truly lost. | The rules of golf allow a maximum of five minutes to search for ball, but consider abandoning the search long before that when warranted. Encourage others in your group to hit while you are searching, and if anyone is waiting, never spend extra time collecting other balls. |
| Pick up if you are out of the hole. | There is no need to play every ball into the hole if you have already lost a hole in match play. Even for handicap purposes, there is a limit to how many strokes can be reported — at the most, three over par per hole. |
| On the green | Repair divots, mark and clean your ball and line up your putt while the other players in the group are doing the same, or putting. As simple as it sounds, many players don’t do this, and it is a major cause of delay. If you take off your glove before putting, remember to do so before it is your time to actually putt (and remember also to put it back on before it is your time to hit off the next tee). Record scores on next tee, not on the green. |
| Work on taking fewer practice swings and less time in getting ready. | Readers generally recognized that people enjoy playing at different paces, but several reported that when they pared down their pre-shot routines, they actually started scoring much better, and enjoying the game much more. |
Car dealers…oh boy
I had to take the family rig in to find out why the engine started screaming when turning on the AC — didn’t want the wife and kids stranded without AC. While I was working away at a table in the lounge area, I couldn’t help but hear the conversation to my back. It was a family working on a deal to get a Toyota Sequoia.
This was both a comical and insulting event. The family spoke english as a second language. The culture of both the sales manager and the oldest son / lead negotiator in the family (looked like late high school) were at complete ends of the spectrum.
I was a reminder of why I have yet to establish a long-lasting friendship with a car sales person. It’s one of those things where to survive, you’ve got to be a total jerk to protect yourself.
I was happy when I saw the father standup and take his family and business elsewhere.
My latest gadget — Nokia E61
Couldn’t help it. I had to. My current phone is so OLD…it’s been with me now for about 20 months. Plus I had the $%&# Treo reboot just one too many times during a call last week.
I was way past due to upgrade. I’ve been watching the E61 since it was announced last fall. I confess: I just broke down and had to “import” it myself before it makes it to the states.
I’m sure you’ll be getting my full review once I’ve had a second to transition from my Treo. Can’t wait to play with the WiFi support and SIP client to make VOiP calls at Starbucks as if I were at my desk — mobility rules!
The content below is from the Nokia web site.
- Supports the most common features of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel (Microsoft Office 97, 2000, XP and 2003). Compatible with Zip Manager and Adobe Reader
- Multi-tasking abilities: send and receive emails while talking on the phone
- Access to up-to-date calendar and contact information
- Works in offline mode – read and write email even when network is unavailable
- Large user memory: up to 64 MB + support for miniSD card
- WCDMA provides fast, wide-area connectivity
- WLAN provides fast, local-area connectivity
- Large, advanced high-resolution screen shows images sharper and reduces scrolling
- Documents and applications appear with high clarity
- User-friendly, sleek design
- Easy to configure
- Rapid and simple deployment and management
- Feature rich device – conference calling capability, speakerphone, email, and messaging
- Sleek, stylish design – premium metal materials and thin construction
- Full keyboard with backlight
- Large landscape screen
- Easy, one-handed navigation; one-press access to email
- Email LED indicator light
- Support for a choice of email solutions
- Native email client
- Intellisync Wireless Email
- Supports push email solutions that provide immediate notification when a new email is received (Intellisync Wireless Email, BlackBerry Connect, GoodLink, Seven Always-On Mail, Visto email technology)1
- Works with security and collaboration solutions (Nokia mVPN, Symantec Firewall and Anti-Virus, Pointsec Data Protection, IBM Tivoli, Nokia configurator)
- ActiveSync with IMAP4(with idle)/POP3/ email protocols
- Contacts and calendar compatible with Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes
- Internal security: device lock and device wipe
- Additional security solutions separately available, such as Pointsec Data Protection and Symantec Firewall and Anti-virus
Another Parallels moment
Been pounding on the upcoming Blackboard Backpack 2.5 release, but I’m doing it on my Mac. I love Parallels. Pop open that VM and I’ve got a fresh clean environment for testing my Windows XP software client! I’ve really got the best of all worlds.
Greatest Hits of Beattie Construction
I was at our Beattie Family Reunion recently. I had a great time seeing my Uncles and Aunts. It was also fun to talk to the cousins that are my Mom’s age that I was able to meet and associate with.
After the reunion, I came home and dug up an audio track that I recorded while talking to my Uncle Morgan. It was a fun story about my early construction career. I discussed a scarey moment when I shot a 16 penny nail from a nailgun through a beam, off Neil Baird’s cheek (he’d just come out of a coma), and into the shoulder of my Uncle Davawn who happened to be visiting the job site. With the today’s knowledge that all turned out okay, it’s really a pretty funny story when you look at it from Morgan’s, Davawn’s, and my perspective.
Sure am sorry about that Uncle Davawn!
Play/Download MP3
Tim O’Reilly’s Four Big Ideas about Open Source
Tim O’Reilly’s post today highlights some of the challenges Mr. O’Reilly is seeing with Open Source. It was good to see his perspective. As a user, I love the idea of free software that includes all the best ideas and quality through a large collective effort. But as an employee in a software company where VC funding and time to market are almost always required, it’s been hard to see how to truly participate in the new open-source business model. It was refreshing to see that Mr. O’Reilly recognizes this challenge. His blog post is also a great example of how Mr. O’Reilly is engaging his readership to gather the best ideas, objections, and insights so his pubilc presentation includes a wider view than his own. Great stuff.
Tim O’Reilly’s Four Big Ideas about Open Source, include:
1. The architecture of participation beyond software.
2. Asymmetric Competition.
3. How Software As a Service Changes The Points of Business Leverage.
4. Open Data.