These are my links for January 16th through January 26th:

• Handgunlaw.us –
• Best Choices for Self Defense Ammo –
• Post your character builds! –
• Archaeologists find new clues why the Maya left –
• The Notes of Japanese soldier in USSR –
• Female Student | Attractive Student | Dead Website Girl found –
• Official Samsung LNxxA650 Owner’s Thread – AVS Forum –
• As Above So Below – Bridge in South Austin near SoCo – dedicated to Trey (not me)
• S100A10 – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia –
• Stuxnet cyberworm heads off US strike on Iran – the Stuxnet worm included one component designed to send Iran's centrifuges spinning out of control and another to record normal operations at the nuclear plant and then play them back so that everything would appear normal while the centrifuges were tearing themselves apart.
• Austin Rodent Control & Rat Exterminator TX –
• Austin’s Wildlife Removal –

Well, the wife and I got iPhone 3G’s today.  But they really should be called iPhone 2.5G’s.

After Wired’s article about the survey they did of 3G users in various locales across North America, I was ready to discount the iPhone 3G’s troubles with the 3G network as mainly due to faulty local networks.

Then again, something didn’t sit right in that conclusion.  It all became crystal clear as the young, stoked Apple attendant was ringing up the phones.  We talked a bit about the Wired article, and I told him I was confident about the iPhone being ok here in Austin, because of the article and my current phone.  I have had a Samsung Sync SGH-A707 for almost 2 years now, and the one problem I have never had with it is bad reception.  I have 5 to 7 bars (which is max on the phone) on 3G almost the entire time I am in town.

Then he said, “look at it now”.  I did and it showed 5 bars of 3G on the Samsung.  It never wavered while my wife was getting her iPhone setup.  Then as my iPhone was setup, I saw that it has only one bar of 3G for a brief moment and then switches to 3 to 5 bars of Edge.  That was enough test for me.  The Apple store employee says they never get 3G at that store or around it on the iPhones.

I sit here now, in South Austin (the store was in North Austin) with the new iPhone showing 5 bars of Edge, reading this rebuttal to a rebuttal of the Wired article…  essentially saying it is ‘mostly’ still the network.

It’s not the network.

I remember that the Samsung Sync is known for its exceptionally high radio strength.  But Wired’s survey chart certainly shows Austin as solid green for network stability/strength.  And yet the phones we just purchased have a very hard time connecting anywhere in town with more than a couple bars, and drop to Edge a majority of the time.  It was a good theory, and I appreciate the survey, but unfortunately it isn’t backed up in reality.

• InterfaceLIFT »
• James Lipton was a pimp in France » from the Actor’s Studio
• How to Fix Your Motherboard for $15 | Tom’s Hardware » Capacitors are one of the leading causes for motherboard failure, see how to recognize and replace them.
• Gene6 FTP & Mail Server Forum -> How to »
• Project Euler »
• Review: Samsung 226BW LCD, "C" Panel | AndrewSwihart.net »

• BeetlesMod CSSource Admin Plugin »
• Google Send To Phone »
• Screensavers – Best Of »
• Chocolate Bacon Candy Bar »
• Samsung 226BW A and S series: »

Recently, I updated my aging phone on our Cingular contract with the Samsung SGH-a707, also known as the Cingular Sync.

I have been pleased with it so far, especially the bright and very sharp screen, the 2 megapixel camera, and the shape and feel of it. One great feature that I have yet to have on a phone is the Bluetooth connection. The SGH-a707 performs great with it on general file transfers and such, but I wanted to use Samsung’s own PC Studio software so that I could more easily transfer files and manage my contacts.

Unfortunately, this is where the problems occur. Luckily, I found the solutions for them.

First, after downloading version 3.01 of the software, as listed on the Samsung support site as appropriate for this phone, I am not able to initialize a serial Bluetooth connection through the software. The install of the software goes without a hitch, but after detecting the phone properly on the Bluetooth connection, it fails to connect on the serial port designated for it. I tried manually creating serial ports and connecting to it, with the same problem. The Bluetooth adapter and the phone report there is communication going on in their icons, but the Samsung PC Studio fails to connect to this stream.

It turns out the SGH-a707 comes default from the factory with a connectivity setting that interacts directly with Windows Media Player. After switching to the included PC Studio profile, the PC Studio software then connects perfectly (well, almost. Read more below). The way to do this on the phone is to go to Menu >> Settings >> Connectivity >> Select USB Mode >> PC Studio.

Well, that worked perfectly, but only because I had already installed the newer version of the Samsung PC Studio software, version 3.1. The SGH-a707 support webpage only lists version 3.01 for download, even though the newer version has been out since 11/22. If you try to connect to your phone contacts in PC Studio 3.01, the software will hang and you’ll have to end the task manually. In 3.1, this issue has been fixed. I have no idea why Samsung doesn’t list the newer version on the support page.

You can grab it here: Samsung PC Studio 3.1

Hopefully this will save some stress for those of you who get this new phone. The only other issue I have with it is the fact that the back battery cover very easily slides off. That problem is not isolated to my phone, as I tested a few others. While it had never fallen off, I was concerned about losing it. So, I just put a small strip of clear tape over the seam, and that keeps it in place.

update (2/16/08): The above links may or may not work, the current Samsung PC Studio is version 3.13 and the link to downloads is now here.