August 2009 Archives
iPhone 3.0.1 Jailbreak
I decided to spend a bit of time last night jailbreaking my iPhone, using this tutorial on the Gizmodo website - and it all worked perfectly (although one bit missing in the instrucutions is that when the phone says it is “waiting for restart”, you may need to unplug and replug the cable to prompt it onto the next step).
It’s not that I’m particularly interested in installing dozens of unauthorised applications. Indeed, I’m quite happy with all the legit applications I’ve downloaded from the iTunes store. I did the jailbreak in order to unlock the phone and allow me to use another network’s SIM, ahead of an upcoming trip to the UK.
I’ve been stung quite badly in the past by data roaming charges. In one case last year, I had a similar trip to the UK for a week, and while there made only light use of the phone, but still managed to run up a staggering €160 of data roaming charges - based upon a cost of about €5 per megabyte. And although O2 Ireland have improved things slightly since then (you now only get charged for the first 4 megabytes each day while roaming - but still at €5 per megabyte - so a potential of €20 a day), I was still looking at a potential bill of well over €100 worth of data charges if I wanted to use data.
This is in contrast to the domestic data charges of an operator such as Orange, who charge a maximum of £2 per day for up to 25 megabytes usage - and that’s on their prepaid tariff.
And so it was pretty-much a no-brainer, in term of deciding whether or not to get my iPhone unlocked. I’m going to be saving a fortune while I’m away - and as I’ll have my UK SIM in the iPhone, I’ll not have to carry two phones around with me.
August 18, 2009
Dublin Bikes
Just spotted the advertising for the new Dublin bike rental scheme - called, funnily enough, Dublin Bikes - which is due to be launched on 13th September.
With some 450 bikes available in 40 different locations in the city centre, users can take a cycle for free for up to 30 minutes, and after that it’s only 50 cents per half hour.
Creative Programming
I’ve just spent a goodly amount of time this evening scanning the Edinburgh Fringe website, in search of interesting performances to see when I visit at the end of the month.
My main focus was on classical and choral music performances, because that’s the kind of thing that I’m interested in. And despite the mainstream media’s best attempts to portray the Fringe as solely a comedy festival, there are lots of musical things happening as well - in addition to theatre, dance, children’s shows, and exhibitions - but the scheduling of the stuff in which I’m interested shows a staggering lack of creative thinking.
Check out the amateur choirs and orchestras doing proper classical music, and you’ll that almost without exception all their concerts are at 7.30pm on a Friday or Saturday night. And while that’s a sensible programming choice for a wet weekend in November, it’s a crazy choice for the Edinburgh Festival - because everyone has ended up scheduling their concerts at the same time - thus dividing their potential audience.
As for me, I’ve found three different concerts I’d quite like to see - but I won’t see any of them, because they’re all taking place on the same Saturday evening - and I already have tickets for something else that night in the International Festival.
One choir I used to belong to is still going strong in the Fringe, with two performances this year. And back when they started, their original plan was to schedule their first concert for 7.30pm on a Friday night of the middle weekend of the Fringe - until I stepped in and convinced them to go for a 10.00pm slot on a Tuesday. My thinking was that we wanted to avoid clashing with anything else. Indeed, the plan was to make our concert the musical equivalent of a nightcap - somewhere for weary concert-goers to stop in for an hour’s reflective wind-down, on their way home from something else. And you know what? It worked, and continues to work today. In 2006 we sold-out our 400-seat venue about half and hour before the concert. In 2007 we sold-out a couple of weeks ahead of the gig. And they’re still playing to capacity crowds today - thanks to a bit of creative programming.
It’s just a shame that more groups haven’t thought a bit more creatively about when they schedule their concerts.
Wide Rider
Some more bike-related problems this week, which require a visit to my friendly local cycle shop.
Firstly, I discovered a few days ago that two of the spokes on my back wheel are broken. I noticed the wheel was buckled about 10 days ago, because the brake pads had been catching on a certain section of the wheel, and I had assumed that some moron had kicked the bike when it was parked up in the city. But the real truth is that two adjacent spokes on the same side of the wheel had snapped (I know not when), and the subsequent imbalance of tension from the spokes on the two sides had warped the wheel. So as an interim measure, I adjusted some of the spoke tensions around the break to staighten the wheel a bit, and kept riding. But I realise this is only a short term fix, and that I have to deal with it properly.
Secondly, my saddle - or rather the bracket that holds it to the seat post - is in a very poor state. The metal bracket has over time buckled quite considerably; such that the saddle now wobbles considerably front-to-back. It’s still okay to ride for short trips, but it does feel quite strange, and can sometimes press uncomfortably on the nethers.
Sadly, both of these mechanical problems almost certainly stem from the overly excessive strain placed on the bike by its heavy rider (me). I’ve had other cycle problems in the past because of my weight, such as a pinch flat and two sets of broken pedals, but generally the bike had held up remarkably well. It just gets expensive when these problems crop up, and my visits to the cycle shop have become frequent.
None of this has put me off cycling however. Ever since a friend of mine convinced me (some 9 months ago) to blow the cobwebs off my unused bike, I’ve been a convert - and have developed a passion for all things cycling. I used to walk pretty much everywhere, as I’ve avoided owning a car in Ireland, but it used to take a long time to get anywhere. Whereas on the bike, I can get to placed further afield than on foot, and much faster. And now, I hardly walk anywhere.
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