Anthrocon 2010 with an iPhone 4
Jul. 4th, 2010 06:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
strredwolfThis con has been very intresting time, in the Chinese sense. Once again I was rather busy with everything, the timing was a mess... and I had some new tech to boot. I came home tired and happy. A good con... but not without some pitfalls.
Thursday -- Someone forgot to apply for those stimulus funds.
My origional plan was to fly in, head to the Apple Store in Shady Side (being the closest), and pick up an iPad (aka the Monolyth, playing of 2001: A Space Odessy). A few things would change that last part.
First, Steve Jobs (aka evil Stevie) announced the iPhone 4, with a release date that day and pre-orders to boot. I elected to put one on reserve.
Second, the store sold out of iPads over the Father's day weekend -- demand is still that strong. I got a heads-up from fur that works in the store (and now I know two of them that are there).
So, the plan became fly in, get AC badges, go to Apple Store, pick up iPhone 4. I had installed iOS 4 on the iPhone 3G, which turned it into a slow dog of a phone that crashed durring a call. Yeah, that's called Windows Mobile. Trade-in!
I arrived at the store at 1pm, taking the EBA/EBS buses on the very bumpy (WHERE ARE YOUR STIMULUS DOLLARS NOW) East Busway. I got my iPhone 2.5 hours later, and headed back to meet my roomate in the Zoo.
Afterwards, with some syncing, a trip for pizza and some items: picking up some printouts from the Fedex Office, grab some flash memory from the Office Depot, and a pizza from a Pizza Primma.
Tom Smith also played a pre-con concert, which was very nice and I got the roomie to come. He bought a CD. Tom's that good.
Friday -- THE PIXELS! WHERE ARE THE PIXELS?!?!
The iPhone 4 is one slick peice of hardware. It's very fast, due to it's latest A4 chip that's roughly 800 Mhz and has 512 Mb of working RAM in it. It's display is very crisp; 328 dpi is nothing to rant and rail against.
However, there's a few problems. AT&T is a culprit here still: it's DNS servers started having problems that continue to this day, slowing down lookups. I had to reload pages pulled from my 3G card through them; I'm now wondering about Verizon's MiFi module or my own Beagleboard.
But Apple has some things going wrong as well. The signal bars aren't accurate; they use a logrythmic scale instead of a linear scale, and they top off at 60% of the normal measurement for signal strength. (Apple has sent out a press release saying "Ooops, wrong algorythm, we're fixing it in a few weeks with a software patch.") The scale only hides a big problem: The signal DOES drop depending on how you hold it, and it's slightly more severe than a 3GS and a Nexus One when held normally (not the "DEATH GRIP" shown to have nearly double the signal loss).
All those combined had me hold my iPhone 4 gingerly. The only chance I had to hold it intelligently was when I was being Drake Perth (my partial fursuit's persona), and that needed a pogo Stylus to work it.
I did get the chance to hit up the Furry Ham 101, getting to see the K1TTY ham op and a few furs around Maryland. Afterwards, the fursuit, to which I had some difficulty with my contacts. I kept at it for a few hours before popping out. I didn't get a chance to go back into fursuit, even though I walked around the dealers den as Drake.
I gotta get a fullsuit that I can wear my glasses in.
I had heard from WitchieBunny that 2 was fretting over his work, and decided to just crank on new material for AC... and by the time midnight hit on his "Work on this" day, he had too much... and it was all good.
Saturday -- And the improv begins
My "Art done cheap" panel was all improved, little prep-work, and a bit of a mess. I'm really not to proud of it, and I needed to do alot more work on it. However, there's a few limits and I hit one of them in which I cannot do two panels and fursuit. I miss alot. Thus, this was the last year for that panel.
Tom Smith, again, was excelent. I really wish more people came and heard him, as he's got alot of music that everyone would like.
Of course, Uncle Kage is always an entertaining story hour.
I heard that Big Mama's was suffering through some scaling issues with folks piling into the old Steel City Diner-turned-BBQ House; long waits caused alot of furs to walk out, a few observed health violations... I bet she wasn't prepared for the AC flood like what Fernando's and Corey's is known for. I'll pass it for this year.
Sunday -- Last chance before the dead dog party...
The con slowly starts winding down. The Multifurry panel I think both I and the Programming staff mis-named, and I prepped a bit more but really didn't pace it out. Better planning is needed. I'll shake it out with Tazel Sixpaws for FC.
The 2-gether again charity performance is always worth it, but I wish that I could get a better seat. It wasn't completely audible even with the AV guy switching out mics.
After closing I just wanted to get a burger and have some alone-time. No such luck, alas...
Monday -- It went back home...
With everything already packed up, I and the roomie checked out and made our seperate ways. Checked in with Southwest... who suddenly decided my fursuit container was oversized and sent it over to have it inspected manually by the TSA. Then, thunderstorms hit Baltimore and the flight was delayed by 2.5 hours.
The roads are still bumpy. Why haven't they repaved them yet?!?
Tuesday and beyond -- CrAzYnEsS
So as I head back to work, I pull out my iPhone 4... and the cellular service started sucking more along the Amtrak line over the 3G, but AT&T's "Delay DNS" tactic continues to this day. It's a combo of problems. I'm happy about the phone, not happy about the service.
And yet, I'm still tired, and ready to sleep in tomorrow.
A good con.
Thursday -- Someone forgot to apply for those stimulus funds.
My origional plan was to fly in, head to the Apple Store in Shady Side (being the closest), and pick up an iPad (aka the Monolyth, playing of 2001: A Space Odessy). A few things would change that last part.
First, Steve Jobs (aka evil Stevie) announced the iPhone 4, with a release date that day and pre-orders to boot. I elected to put one on reserve.
Second, the store sold out of iPads over the Father's day weekend -- demand is still that strong. I got a heads-up from fur that works in the store (and now I know two of them that are there).
So, the plan became fly in, get AC badges, go to Apple Store, pick up iPhone 4. I had installed iOS 4 on the iPhone 3G, which turned it into a slow dog of a phone that crashed durring a call. Yeah, that's called Windows Mobile. Trade-in!
I arrived at the store at 1pm, taking the EBA/EBS buses on the very bumpy (WHERE ARE YOUR STIMULUS DOLLARS NOW) East Busway. I got my iPhone 2.5 hours later, and headed back to meet my roomate in the Zoo.
Afterwards, with some syncing, a trip for pizza and some items: picking up some printouts from the Fedex Office, grab some flash memory from the Office Depot, and a pizza from a Pizza Primma.
Tom Smith also played a pre-con concert, which was very nice and I got the roomie to come. He bought a CD. Tom's that good.
Friday -- THE PIXELS! WHERE ARE THE PIXELS?!?!
The iPhone 4 is one slick peice of hardware. It's very fast, due to it's latest A4 chip that's roughly 800 Mhz and has 512 Mb of working RAM in it. It's display is very crisp; 328 dpi is nothing to rant and rail against.
However, there's a few problems. AT&T is a culprit here still: it's DNS servers started having problems that continue to this day, slowing down lookups. I had to reload pages pulled from my 3G card through them; I'm now wondering about Verizon's MiFi module or my own Beagleboard.
But Apple has some things going wrong as well. The signal bars aren't accurate; they use a logrythmic scale instead of a linear scale, and they top off at 60% of the normal measurement for signal strength. (Apple has sent out a press release saying "Ooops, wrong algorythm, we're fixing it in a few weeks with a software patch.") The scale only hides a big problem: The signal DOES drop depending on how you hold it, and it's slightly more severe than a 3GS and a Nexus One when held normally (not the "DEATH GRIP" shown to have nearly double the signal loss).
All those combined had me hold my iPhone 4 gingerly. The only chance I had to hold it intelligently was when I was being Drake Perth (my partial fursuit's persona), and that needed a pogo Stylus to work it.
I did get the chance to hit up the Furry Ham 101, getting to see the K1TTY ham op and a few furs around Maryland. Afterwards, the fursuit, to which I had some difficulty with my contacts. I kept at it for a few hours before popping out. I didn't get a chance to go back into fursuit, even though I walked around the dealers den as Drake.
I gotta get a fullsuit that I can wear my glasses in.
I had heard from WitchieBunny that 2 was fretting over his work, and decided to just crank on new material for AC... and by the time midnight hit on his "Work on this" day, he had too much... and it was all good.
Saturday -- And the improv begins
My "Art done cheap" panel was all improved, little prep-work, and a bit of a mess. I'm really not to proud of it, and I needed to do alot more work on it. However, there's a few limits and I hit one of them in which I cannot do two panels and fursuit. I miss alot. Thus, this was the last year for that panel.
Tom Smith, again, was excelent. I really wish more people came and heard him, as he's got alot of music that everyone would like.
Of course, Uncle Kage is always an entertaining story hour.
I heard that Big Mama's was suffering through some scaling issues with folks piling into the old Steel City Diner-turned-BBQ House; long waits caused alot of furs to walk out, a few observed health violations... I bet she wasn't prepared for the AC flood like what Fernando's and Corey's is known for. I'll pass it for this year.
Sunday -- Last chance before the dead dog party...
The con slowly starts winding down. The Multifurry panel I think both I and the Programming staff mis-named, and I prepped a bit more but really didn't pace it out. Better planning is needed. I'll shake it out with Tazel Sixpaws for FC.
The 2-gether again charity performance is always worth it, but I wish that I could get a better seat. It wasn't completely audible even with the AV guy switching out mics.
After closing I just wanted to get a burger and have some alone-time. No such luck, alas...
Monday -- It went back home...
With everything already packed up, I and the roomie checked out and made our seperate ways. Checked in with Southwest... who suddenly decided my fursuit container was oversized and sent it over to have it inspected manually by the TSA. Then, thunderstorms hit Baltimore and the flight was delayed by 2.5 hours.
The roads are still bumpy. Why haven't they repaved them yet?!?
Tuesday and beyond -- CrAzYnEsS
So as I head back to work, I pull out my iPhone 4... and the cellular service started sucking more along the Amtrak line over the 3G, but AT&T's "Delay DNS" tactic continues to this day. It's a combo of problems. I'm happy about the phone, not happy about the service.
And yet, I'm still tired, and ready to sleep in tomorrow.
A good con.
