March 2008 Archives

On Friday night, circumstances evolved that I invited a friend of a friend to join me for Happy Hour at my favorite local restaurant/bar/grill. For the sake of the story we will call the friend of the friend - QBB, call the bartender - Devi, and call the place/bar/grill - Freddy's. All names & relationships have been slightly altered to protect the innocent or guilty as the case may be.

Upon arriving at Freddy's we both ordered the Friday Happy Hour Spice Shrimp special and a glass of wine. Conversation proceeded. As the evening proceeded, things got weird. Most of the other patrons around us at the bar/grill part were well-to-do beach-bleach-blond-Americans of indeterminate ethnicity in their 40s and 50s. As the Happy Hour progressed it became highly evident that every man within a 15 foot radius was going to come and talk to us, with his date / female companion's permission or not. As time wended on the females went from friendly to claws openly bared.

Why? Well, the friend of a friend, aka QBB, is a woman in her early forties who has made several set of choices to conform to the highest standard of Southern California's Culto de Corpo through a rigorous and disciplined regime of lack of eating, extreme exercise, and visits to the plastic surgeon. QBB is the Cali-Puerto-Rican Barbie Doll - tall, thin, tiny hips, big boobs, big eyes, hair extensions, etc, etc, etc. Fill in all the stereotypes of LA bimbos.

Except QBB is more complex than a bimbo. By choosing to go out with her it meant that for 3.5 hours all of the explicit and implicit gender theatrics played themselves out. QBB is very intensely involved in her current relationship but due to sub-conscious need or a lifetime of sending out sexual signals or both (ding ding ding), she attracts men and women in droves. QBB is inordinately proud of this, which is why I came out of the evening thinking most of those folks got pnwed by QBB.

While very tummy sick with the Mumbai bug meets the Austin bug and conducts WWIII in my tummy when I was in Austin for SXSW, I decided that the two weeks after I returned would be a "blackout" period. I warned clients, friends & family that I would be going into a two week blackout (March 17-30) and would not be available.

Today is the last day of my self-imposed blackout period. During this time I have have kept my phone on silent or just plain turned off. I have slept a minimum of nine hours a night and made a point to eat good allergen-free home cooked meals. I have only worked on stuff that needed to be finished or wrapped up and only visited with folks who I wanted to see.

Basically, I pushed the reboot button on my life after 3 months of madness and go-go-go-go-go-go-go. I am *finally* free of the last 2+ months of flu or tummy bug. I am caught up on my sleep & client work. Now I just need to catch up on some blogging.

I had an interesting Friday night and have a whole blog post in my head about it, but it will have to wait while I finish the documentation for a client. Maybe tomorrow.

Sat 03.29.08 - Share Online on the N95 is back to working again, as seen from this photo of Scruffy & Belle in their "Portable Pet Home" this evening. As I stated previously, Share Online is unpredictable and more than a bit capricious.

Thurs. 03.27.08 - Whilst walking the dogs today in Huntington Beach, I looked up and saw this plane coming in for landing - be it to Los Alamitos or Long Beach, I don't know as I did not see if the markings were military or commercial. But I love it when the planes come low enough for me to capture the photo with my mobile phone.

Due to the fact that Nokia's Share Online has decided not to work for me today, I uploaded this via the web interface of the MT software. As of today, I was able to get Lifeblog to recognize and post to Typepad, but not to Movable Type. Grrr...

Purple, people! Purple!

Many blessings upon the folks who approved a purple phone! Purple! Yay!

Do I need to say any more about a purple Nokia 6220? Like the Nokia N82 it has a 5 megapixel camera? Should I mention the Xenon Flash? Or the GPS? ... HSPDA? Huh...

But hey! The Nokia 6220 is Purple! Did I mention it comes in Purple?

Now when will AT&T roll out their HSPDA network that will be compatible with a purple 6220?

;D

Sorry folks, due to general busy-ness and completing tasks on my To Do list today, I did not take any photos to moblog here. I did see lovely things whilst out walking Scruffy this morning but didn't photograph them. An unintentional day off from photography.

I did check a bunch of things off my weekly to do list. Best of all, I am *finally* back in the proper time zone and caught up on my sleep.

Note to self: Correct about page, add contact info, and sort out portfolio site before week's end.

Mon 03.24.08 - Photo of Belle at the San Gabriel River low tide "beach" taken with Ms. Jen's Nokia N95.

One of the fun discrepancies of the Nokia N95 & N82 camera phones is that if you keep taking photos really fast, even in 'Sports' mode, and pushing the camera before it is ready to take another snap, it will white out the photo you forced it to take. I like this effect. It worked today as Belle was running up and down the low tide beach. In this case, I love all the white space, Belle's white head, and then the strong shadow.

Mon 03.24.08 - Now sending a 'small' image from the N95's Share Online to my blog, I wonder what size it will arrive at...

Update: The "small" setting on the Nokia Share Online 3.0 resizes the N95 photos to 640x480, which is my preferred size.

******

The March Madness 2008 Moblogging Saga (i.e. Lifeblog vs. Nokia Share Online):

1. The Big Switch Over, or Back to My Nokia N95
2. 03/22/2008
3. Dear Nokia, Time for some real UX testing...
4. How to Post to a Movable Type 4 Blog from Nokia Share Online 3.0
5. Scruffy's Clover Crown
6. Belle Running>

******

Sun 03.23.08 - Happy Easter!

Update: Here is the "medium" size in Nokia's Share Online 3.0 application. At 1024 x 768, it is still too big, not just for screens but also for the variety of folk who may visit one's site from broadband that really isn't that broad or from a mobile device or on dial up.

******

The March Madness 2008 Moblogging Saga (i.e. Lifeblog vs. Nokia Share Online):

1. The Big Switch Over, or Back to My Nokia N95
2. 03/22/2008
3. Dear Nokia, Time for some real UX testing...
4. How to Post to a Movable Type 4 Blog from Nokia Share Online 3.0
5. Scruffy's Clover Crown
6. Belle Running>

******

Since Charlie asked, I will reply...

Here is the how to steps that I took to be able to post / moblog (mobile blog) from my Nokia N-Series phone (in this case an N95) with Nokia Share Online 3.0 2.0 to this Movable Type 4.1 blog (MTOS 4.1):

1) First off, you will need to have your login user name and the associated Atom / Web Services password for that user name*. How to find this? When you are logged into your MT blog, look up in the top right corner for Hi "username", click on this link, it will take you to your "Edit Profile" screen. Scroll to the bottom under "Preferences", look for the last form box entitled "Web Services Password", click on Reveal. Copy this password.

2) Second off, you will need to know the URL to your MT install's atom script, it usually will be: http://www.yourdomainname.com/pathtomt/mt-atom.cgi/weblog/

Example: http://www.happyexampleweblog.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-atom.cgi/weblog/

3) Have your Nseries Nokia phone/mobile in hand, now is time to configure the Nokia Share Online on the phone. Click on the Main Menu button. Go to Applications folder and click on "Share Online". Click on Options. Click on "Add New Provider".

4) Provider Name: (whatever is best for you to remember) - I used "bpc" for blackphoebe.com
Protocol: Atom (if using MT or Word Press or Blogger, then Atom is your protocol)
Web Address: This is where you put in the URL for your Atom script.
http://www.yourdomainname.com/pathtomt/mt-atom.cgi/weblog/
Once all of this is filled in, click on "back", and it will take you to the next screen. If it doesn't, then click on new account & choose the provider you just set up.

4) Here is the fun bit, start filling in the details:
Service Provider: Click on the name of the Provider you just set up. Then click on OK, it will take you to the next screen:
Account Name: I used the same name as as the Service Provider I just set up or you can say MT
User Name: your MT username from step #1
Password: your MT Web Services Password / Atom Password Reveal from step #1
Image Posting Size: The fun really begins here... If you pick Original size it will be the size that your NSeries phone takes the photos at, if 5 megapixel then YIKES~. Pick small or medium if your blog readers are coming at screen resolutions of less than 2600 x 1800 (which is about 99.99% of the internet). Think of your readers' experience, not everyone has a big screen nor do they have really fast broadband. Also, if you are not on an unlimited data plan then you will most likely want to choose medium (1024x768 in the N95's case, still too big) or small (640x480 in the N95's case, just the right size for this blog), unless you like really expensive mobile bills. I used the Edit function in the onboard Gallery app to resize my images to 640x480 for posting the most recent photo.

5) Save the above. Nokia Share Online will most likely try to activate. If you are me, it will not activate and get cranky. If it doesn't and activates right away, then you rock. If not, log out, turn off the phone/mobile. Reboot/turn it back on. Go back to the Main Menu, click on Applications, click on "Share Online", move the select over the MT account you just set up, and click on "Options", in Options click on "Update from Server". At this point or maybe if you are me, then within 18 hours, Nokia Share Online will decide to make friends with your Movable Type blog and post photos & text to it. If it can't activate or update server, check back tomorrow and it should have pulled its little head out of its crevices and will be working.

6) Now post away... If you try to moblog a photo from the "Share Online" world icon in the camera app of your Nokia Nseries phone/mobile, you will find that you can't edit the Title or add a description and only the photo with the date set will be posted to your blog. But if you take the photo and then go to the Main Menu -> Applications folder -> Share Online -> click on the service provider you want to post to (in my case "BPC", my MT blog) and then click on Options -> click on "New Post", then you will be able to add your own Title, Description, and then insert whatever Audio, Image, or Video you wish to post. After finishing all the bits, click on -> Options -> Post to Web.

Now time to experiment. Have fun.

****
Notes:

* I have two username accounts for my blogging, "Black Phoebe :: Ms. Jen" is me posting from the web browser interface / admin of my Movable Type install and "Ms. Jen Moblogs" is only posts that I send from my Nokia camera phone to this blog directly. I do this to indicate to the reader what is a regular blog post and what is a moblogged post (posted from my mobile).

** If you are not a Movable Type peep, but prefer Word Press or Blogger or... and still want to moblog with Lifeblog*** or Nokia Share Online, this wikipedia article gives all of the atom URLs for various blogging services so you can configure your phone to moblog. If the Lifeblog on your Nokia Nseries phone is still working, then the above Atom username & web services password & atom script URL will work to set up to post from your phone's Lifeblog to your blog.

*** Michele Neylon has a great tutorial on how to post from your Nokia Nseries mobile's Lifeblog to your Movable Type 4 blog.

******

The March Madness 2008 Moblogging Saga (i.e. Lifeblog vs. Nokia Share Online):

1. The Big Switch Over, or Back to My Nokia N95
2. 03/22/2008
3. Dear Nokia, Time for some real UX testing...
4. How to Post to a Movable Type 4 Blog from Nokia Share Online 3.0
5. Scruffy's Clover Crown
6. Belle Running>

******

Two problems with Nokia's Share Online 3.0, one can't edit the title nor can one add a description before posting the photo to the web service / blog.

I was able to edit, resize, and rename the full sized photo of my great aunt Babe's bougainvillea bush from the Gallery on my Nokia N95, but once I opened Share Online it just sent the photo with the date that I sent it as the title, not the renamed photo name as the title. And then there is no description...

Ok, Nokia, no offense, but what the F*(k were you thinking to discontinue and disable Lifeblog when it was a fairly full featured mobile blogging app and replace it with a badly featured and thought out "share" app? Hello, maybe you should have put both out there and asked your customers which they preferred to use...

Hello... Helloo.... heeellllloooooo.... Are y'all awake up there in Espoo? Did you do any User Experience research with actual customers and power users rather than in house testers? Did you contact any real live mobile bloggers during the testing phase to see how we need an mobile blogging app to work with our photo / blogging flow? Heeeeeeeelllllllllooooooo.....

****

p.s. I added the text and renamed the title of this post from the web browser interface, not from the phone.

p.p.s. Listening to Motley Crue while I write cranky blog posts.

p.p.s.s. I plan on cracking open the box that I packed the N82 back up in to see if I can get the N82's working Lifeblog mobile app off of it and transfer the working Lifeblog sis to my N95 before shipping the N82 back to WOM World.

p.p.p.s.s. Next time I talk about updating one of my Nseries phones, stop me. Remind me that the Nokia Updater bricked my N80 and now has made my beloved Lifeblog inoperable. Huh... not trusting the transmissions from the mothership... huh...

******

The March Madness 2008 Moblogging Saga (i.e. Lifeblog vs. Nokia Share Online):

1. The Big Switch Over, or Back to My Nokia N95
2. 03/22/2008
3. Dear Nokia, Time for some real UX testing...
4. How to Post to a Movable Type 4 Blog from Nokia Share Online 3.0
5. Scruffy's Clover Crown
6. Belle Running>

******

Sat 03.22.08 - File under WTF!?!?!?!?!?!

After spending over 3 hours last night cursing the demise of Lifeblog the mobile app and attempting to get the new Nokia Share Online 3.0 to recognize the Atom script on this blog to no avail, today for no known reason whatsoever, Share Online decided to post this FULL SIZED photo of the Irvine Tollway Bridge over the 91 Freeway on is own volition. Thanks Share Online for not posting when I spent 3 hours trying to get you to participate and then posting out of nowhere on the freeway today. WTF?!?!?!?!?!

Despite its capricious ways, the good news is that Share Online 3.0 will post to Movable Type 4.1 blogs with no extra hacks. Yeah!

Now just to refine the process....

****

Update from Sun 03.23.08 : Since Charlie asked, I have created a how to / tutorial on getting Nokia Share Online 3.0 to work with one's Movable Type blog.

******

The March Madness 2008 Moblogging Saga (i.e. Lifeblog vs. Nokia Share Online):

1. The Big Switch Over, or Back to My Nokia N95
2. 03/22/2008
3. Dear Nokia, Time for some real UX testing...
4. How to Post to a Movable Type 4 Blog from Nokia Share Online 3.0
5. Scruffy's Clover Crown
6. Belle Running>

******

Photo by Ms. Jen with her Nokia N95, of which the Lifeblog is borked so this photo was uploaded via MT rather than moblogged.

First Spring Poppies taken on Tues. 03.18.08 by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.

Happy First Day of Spring! Happy New Year to the folks who celebrate the New Year with the beginning of Spring! While the technical vernal equinox was this morning at 5:48 am (GMT), the start of spring at 9:48pm last night for the Pacific zone.

The WOM World folk let me keep one of the Urbanista Diaries N82's through SXSW for better photo taking, but today I had to reset it back to factory settings & wipe the extra memory chip in anticipation of shipping it back to the UK and returning to the daily use of my Nokia N95.

To get my Nokia N95 back into daily use, I updated it to the most recent N95 update and optimized the files. Per usual, the update wiped all my settings and programs, so I had to reinstall ShoZu and Joiku, as well as redo my blog settings in Lifeblog. Only problem is that the 20.0.0.something update for the N95 has made Lifeblog incompatible with this install of Movable Type Open Source 4.1, or if not incompatible at least it won't recognize the correct settings. The N95 12.0.0.something Lifeblog worked just fine with this MTOS 4.1 install, and so did the most recent update / OS version for the N82. I have run through the phone's Lifeblog settings 7 times and reset them each time and it still can't find this blog. Bah!

When I met up with Charlie in London a couple of weeks ago, he was surprised that Lifeblog was installed on the N82 and said that the N82 would most likely be the last phone that would have Lifeblog. Charlie unofficially confirmed what I had supposed for sometime now, that Nokia has left Lifeblog to die.

This will be a problem for me and my daily moblogging from my phone to this blog. I have tried for a few years now to convince various Movable Type perl developers to make a mobile blogging plugin that would work across a variety of mobile platforms to moblog photos and text to one's MT 3.x or 4.x install, but to no avail. David Jacobs told me that his company, Apperceptive, has made such a plugin for paying customers and will be releasing a version to the public, but it has not happened yet.

Charlie is currently working with David on a blog for Nokia and hinted that one of the side projects would be a mobile blogging plugin for Nokia phones.

Please, please, please...

Mon 03.17.08 - Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Photo taken by Ms. Jen in Seal Beach with a Nokia N82.

Sat 03.15.08 - SXSW Day 9 or The Ides of March - Hometown boys, CH3, at the Devil Dolls / Crawlspace / TKO / Hellcat showcase at Red 7. Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.

Fri 03.14.08 - The Legendary Shack Shakers at the Ale House. Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.

Fri 03.14.08 - SXSW Day 8 - Belfast/London's Foy Vance.

Fri 03.14.08 - The Aggrolites at the Batanga party at Habana 6. Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.

Fri 03.14.08 - SXSW Day 8 - Mick Jones is a great live interview, very funny. Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.

****
My thoughts on this Interview with Tony James and Mick Jones of Carbon/Silicon from my Twitter stream:

msjen: is wandering around Flatstock before the 2pm Mick Jones panel.

msjen: Amusingly, there was a line to get into the Mick Jones interview. Now that Joe Strummer is RIP, I guess Mick is the elder stateman.

msjen: Tony James on SXSW: "It is amazing, it is like they took Glastonbury and dropped it into a city."

msjen: Tony James, still hot... Mick Jones has a beer with him.

msjen: Mick Jones on pubs: "They are all gastropubs. The no smoking thing has ruined it for everyone. It is a class thing."

msjen: Mick Jones is on fire - cracking jokes & acting them out. "I don't want to talk about anything." Takes a pull on the beer.

msjen: Mick Jones on what he learned from the blues while growing up: "You have to live it before you can sing about it."

msjen: Tony James to Mick: "Do you know your username?" Mick: "goingpostal?" Tony to audience: "Mick Jones, the man with no username."

msjen: Mick Jones on mp3s vs. cds: "The problem is you can't roll a joint on it or make a line."

msjen: Mick Jones now is telling the audience Texas history. Tony, "How do you KNOW all this stuff?"

Thurs 03.15.08 - I <3 the Asylum Street Spankers. Hands down the best band of SXSW! Absolutely amazing show.

Thurs 03.13.08 - Photo taken on 6th Street by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.

While I am *supposed* to take my anti-malaria pills, Mefloquine, for another 2 weeks, I am over it and done. I will not be taking my pill tomorrow due to 3 weeks of mild building up to medium bad reactions on a daily basis.

The first week or so, the only reaction I had to the medication was feeling like I was on 5 shots of expresso at any given time and not sleeping more than 5 hours a night. By the end of the second week on the drug, I was having occasional nightmares and feeling agitated. The last two weeks I have continued sleeping badly, having nightmares, feeling agitated and upset over small things, etc.

When I was in India, all of the non-US travellers I met were NOT taking any anti-malarial preventive medication and were very surprised that my doctor put me on it. Since I have returned, several British friends told me to throw the mefloquine away and only to take it when I actually get sick, as they had more reactions from the medicine than any other sickness they may have experienced in India.

When I was so tummy sick earlier this week, I had more folks email me or tell me in person here at SXSW that I should go off the mefloquine, as it may be contributing to my tummy illness.

So, this morning I called the Kaiser Permanente Advice Nurse to see what they thought about my reaction to the medication and if I could speak to a pharmacist, but as usual the Kaiser Advice Nurse was THOROUGHLY unhelpful. And wanted me to come into an LA doctor appointment, I told her that I was in Austin, and then she got exasperated with me and said that Kaiser could not help if I was not at home and why did I not call when I was in India (Uh... $1.50+ per minute phone charges to be put on hold for 20 mins. I think not).

She told me to go to the emergency center in Austin. I pointed out that they might not know much more than she did and would it not be better to leave a message for the doctor who prescribed the medication to me or the pharmacist at Kaiser? No, she said, I should go to urgent care here and not take any more of the medication until I can get into Kaiser next week. WTF?!?!? End of call.

When I get back I am changing health insurance. I hate Kaiser. In the meantime, as to not have more insomnia, nightmares, tummy and emotional agitation, I am not taking my pill in the morning. Larium, I am over you.

Thur 03.13.03 - Minipop, the 12:50pm band at the Noise Pop party. Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.

... Have fun at recycling!

Tues 03.11.08 - The sentiments of many on the last night of SXSW Interactive.

Tues 03.11.08 - Photo of Andy Budd and Richard Rutter by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen when laying like a lump in bed last evening while everyone else was out at SXSW Interactive parties having fun.

The short and sweet summary of this story is that in the last 3 weeks, I have only had two days (last Thursday & Friday) where I was not tummy sick in some fashion. Friday night I ate something funky at Iron Cactus which started another round of tummy troubles, which morphed by yesterday into a full case of fever/chills & trotting to the toilet. Basically the Bombay Bug was upset that the Austin Bug decided to show up and they have been throwing WWIII in my gut ever since.

Gatorade & Imodium are allievating the problems, but I am weak and worse for the wear. A fine way to spend SXSW. Bah.

Mon 03.10.08 - SXSW Day 3 - Photo taken by Ms. Jen at the Great British Booze Up.

Mon 03.10.08 - Photo taken by Ms. Jen while crossing 6th Street to attend the Great British Booze Up with a Nokia N82.

Sun 03.09.08 - Ernie, Shane, a friend, and Tom at Iron Cactus during the Fire Eagle / Flickr Party. Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.

Sun 03.09.08 - Elizabeth Perry and George Kelly. Photo by Ms. Jen at SXSW with a Nokia N82.

Sun 03.09.08 - Today is the Big Day. George Kelly and I will be conducting our Web Standards Confession Booth "Core Conversation" in the Ballroom E of the Austin Convention Center at 3:30pm.

Come on down, drop by, etc. to participate in the conversation and/or to give your confession. ;o)

Sat 03.08.08 - Towards the end of the annual Wine & Cheese party, Steve decided to have a bit of a lie down.

Sat 03.09.08 - After lunch. Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.

Sat 03.09.08 - At lunch at Las Manitas. Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.

Sat. 03.08.08 - SXSW Day 1 - I watch this tree, at the SW corner of 3rd & Trinity Sts in Austin, bloom and start to leaf out every year since 1998. It is fun to see its yearly show.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.

Friday 03.07.08 - SXSW 2008 Day 0 - View of West Austin at dusk from the hotel.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.

Fri 03.07.08 - SXSW Day 0, View from the Hampton Inn pool deck. Photo by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.

Thurs March 6, 2008 - Flying to Austin for SXSW 2008.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.

Thurs 03.06.08 - Arriving at LAX, next stop Austin.

Wed 03.05.06 - Taken by Ms. Jen while on morning walk with a Nokia N82.

Tues 03.04.08 - If you live or work or are within 25 miles of Long Beach and you don't get your hair / nails / skin done at Salon Pop & Barber Shop, well then... you are missing out. Salon Pop is my hands down favorite in SoCal. Great folk / stylists: Nicole, Lesile, Beth, Eva, Billy, Sarah, Armando, and Chelsea. Great decor & music, and great prices for a full service cutting edge salon.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82 while sitting under a hair dryer while the purple & pink were cooking.

I still have three city photo essays to post for y'all: Goa, Mumbai, and Vienna; but unfortunately work has intruded. Darned work that I have to get done before I leave for SXSW on Thursday. In the meantime, while I was packing up The Box to send back to WOM World today, I wrote up my thoughts on the accessories that I took out on my leg of the Urbanista Diaries mobile adventure.

The Nokia Bluetooth Keyboard : Like it, but it takes a bit of practice to get the typing right. Even with practice, I will still making more typos than I would on a regular keyboard, of which part of that may be the bluetooth keyboard's size and part of it may be the small screen of which I could not always see what I was typing. I had been looking into getting a bluetooth keyboard before the trip and using it to type a whole blog post to a photo rather than just a headline was very convenient. I used the keyboard to compose several posts to this blog via Lifeblog on the N82 and was quite happy with the results. The only thing that was a bit of a pain is that the keyboard was not automatically found by the N82 but I had to download software for the phone to run the keyboard.

Nokia BH-602 bluetooth headset: I really didn't use this while in India, as I was not making a lot of calls. I did start to use it when I got home to try it out and other than the awkwardness of it being made for a bigger ear, I quite like it. It doesn't fully stay on my ear and wiggles around a bit, but I do like the lack of wires. The sound quality is a bit fuzzy with some crackles. If the price were under $60, I would buy it. But given that it is over $100, I won't be purchasing one.

The Proporta Charger: This would have been a very handy accessory to have for the trip to recharge the phone batteries while on the go, as the phone would lose battery power about half way through every day of photos plus GPS plus Sports Tracker running. Only one problem with the Proporta Charger, it never worked. I got a gimpy charger that even when it was fully charged, it would not charge another device. I tried a number of times, Jay tried when he was in Chennai, and the Proporta was declared defective on arrival. Good thing I had my own Power Monkey with me and the Power Monkey ended up being the best and most used accessory of the trip.

Generation X Cell Antenna: Ok, they are small, cheap, and sticky, but it works. I put the cell antenna extender in one phone and had another one that I did not have an extender on and then would test both in multiple situations. The cell antenna extender worked to boost at least one bar for phone calls and improved data connections. For all of my friends who are complaining about the dropped calls on their iPhones, too bad that they can't get into the battery compartment of the iPhone to add one of these little guys.

Nokia GPS Modules: I didn't use these. I had good GPS reception everywhere and had no problems with GPS to Sports Tracker, except for the lack of cell towers in the Mumbai Harbor (which was not a GPS problem but a Sports Tracker settings problem), so I never trotted this out. I carried one with me, but didn't need to use it. Part of the reason I may have not cared to use this GPS module was the lack of screen and/or LED read out made it boring to use. It is just a black plastic ovoid. Huh. Screen please with geo-coordinates. Nokia, make this thing fun to use.

Now all these accessories are back in the box awaiting their trip back to the UK tomorrow via the nice folks at DHL. I will be sad to see the bluetooth keyboard and headset go.

Mon 03.03.08 - Driving towards the 110 southbound on Olympic Blvd., downtown Los Angeles, after having a lovely dim sum lunch at the Empress Pavilion with Megan and Murray McMillan.

Photo taken by Ms. Jen with a Nokia N82.

My evening was completely derailed by the onset of a migraine at dinner.

All photos taken by Jenifer Hanen in Bangalore, India, with a Nokia N82.

As a wrap up for my Urbanista Diaries adventure, I am going to be publishing photo essays of my favorite photos that I took in each city that I visited. Some of these photos are in my flickrstream, most of them on the nseries.com website, and some are new to everyone but me.

The above photos were taken in Fort Cochin & Surrounds, Kerala, India, from Wed. Feb. 13th to Fri. Feb. 15th, 2008. I really enjoyed how laid back Kerala was, it was a true treat from staying at the Delight Home Stay in Fort Cochin to the backwaters boat tour. I have previously blogged about it being "God's Own Communist Country."

Click on a thumbnail and then navigate through the lightbox slideshow by putting your mouse over the top right hand side of each photo, titles along the bottom.

Enjoy the photos, three more cities to come.

All photos taken by Jenifer Hanen in Bangalore, India, with a Nokia N82.

As a wrap up for my Urbanista Diaries adventure, I am going to be publishing photo essays of my favorite photos that I took in each city that I visited. Some of these photos are in my flickrstream, most of them on the nseries.com website, and some are new to everyone but me.

The above photos were taken in Bangalore, Karnataka, India, from Mon. Feb. 11th to Wed. Feb. 13th, 2008. Big thanks to Mohan Nadig for kindly shepherding me around Bangalore and all the great conversation. I truly enjoyed Bangalore and would like to go back and visit again. I do think that some of the call centers should offer tours and an opportunity to sit with someone who has answered your support or complaint call before.... ;o)

Click on a thumbnail and then navigate through the lightbox slideshow by putting your mouse over the top right hand side of each photo, titles along the bottom.

Enjoy the photos, four more cities to come.