Initially, the problem was the autodiscover URL was not accessible. That was an easy fix by adding a DNS entry. The tough nut to crack, however, was a 401 error. I went through the usual suspects of disabling the loopback check, setting back-connection host names, etc. None of which had an effect. It wasn’t until I tried logging into Remote Web Workplace directly did I get a huge clue:

This user account does not have permissions to access your network remotely. Contact your network administrator to enable remote access for this user account.

That was a very strange error indeed since users could access all other resources including Outlook Web Access. I finally decided to look through Active Directory, specifically the Windows SBS Remote Web Workplace Users security group. As soon as I added the main user group that contained all users, everything started to work.

Mozilla/5.0(iPad; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.21.10 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.4 Mobile/7B314 Safari/531.21.10

I tried Firefox and Chrome using their respective user-agent switcher plugins, but didn’t get very far. So go into Safari and select Develop->User Agent->Other… Paste in the above string, click OK, and make sure it’s active. Next navigate to iPad User Guide and check it out. Here’s hoping Apple will be releasing it independently or as a part of the SDK. Here’s also hoping it’s iPhone-compatible.

Obtained a dynamic DNS hostname from DynDNS. Even though my IP address doesn’t change all that often, it is dynamic. Therefore, there’s no guarantee that the IP would work. This was an extra precaution I wanted to take. Plus it gave me something easier to remember.

Installed LogMeIn. I did not require any of the features you get in the pay version. This allowed me to start/stop software as needed and manage the pictures captured by the webcam. Other remote admin services would work as well. VNC is a great alternative.

Flashed my router with the Tomato firmware. The WRT54G stock firmware doesn’t let you forward the magic packet to use wake-on-LAN to turn on a computer. Tomato lets you log into the admin interface and send the packet to any MAC address on the LAN side of the network. I did this just in case the power went out and I needed to turn-on the computer again.

I tried out two different webcam servers for Windows, Broadcam and TinCam. Broadcam is much easier to setup and will automatically setup port forwarding if your router supports UPnP, but it is limited to live video. TinCam has a lot more features, but it isn’t as user-friendly and you have to manually open up a port on the router. Both have trial periods, but are fully functional during the trial period. I tried setting up a Linux webcam server, but a lack of GUI or an easy to use config file meant it was faster to use Windows. I did not test any Mac webcam servers since my MacBook was coming with me. I ultimately settled on using TinCam day-to-day because I could schedule it to record a pic every 5 minutes of every hour (e.g., 1:00, 1:05, 1:10, and so on). Furthermore, the date and time of day is used for the filename. TinCam won’t let you capture pictures and run the video server simultaneously. You can run the image server though which updates every 5 seconds. So if you need an image log and live video, neither will work for you.

With the image server, I was able to watch what was on the webcam currently. In order to see the log, I installed Dropbox. Then I configured TinCam to save the captured images in a Dropbox folder. Now I can see a picture log not just on my laptop but also on my iPhone using the Dropbox app. This was VERY convenient. Furthermore, the app overlays the filename so I can see when the pic was taken.

Finally, I installed Skype on the computer with the webcam so I could occasionally talk to the cat. I created an account specifically for this. I configured Skype to auto-answer and maximize when video is initiated. Though I think as comforting as a familiar sound is to a pet, the cat appeared both excited and confused hearing a disembodied voice.

That’s how I mashed up available hardware and software to keep an eye on my cat while I was gone.

Based on the numbers provided by the keynote, the 9400M is 82% as good as the 8600M GT at best and 55% as good at worst. Looking at the numbers on the Apple website, comparing the new MacBook Pro to the new MacBook, the 9600M GT is 1.5 to 2.3 times better than the 9400M. I also looked at the benchmarks at Notebookcheck.com which say that the 9600M GT is 25% better than the 8600M GT and the 8400M is only 44% as good as the 8600M GT. So with all these relative numbers, the ranking is approximately:

If you’re not convinced, here’s the sanity check… 67/80 ~= 82%. 44/80 = 55%. 100/67 ~= 1.5. 100/44 ~= 2.3. (100–80)/80 = 25%.

So is having 1lb less weight and faster FSB and memory at the cost of having a GPU that’s 55% to 82% as good, smaller screen/resolution, and less connections worth an extra $250? I don’t plan to travel much, but when I do I like to travel light. I don’t plan to game, and I’m more likely to do more computationally intensive tasks than graphic intensive tasks. I also don’t own that many peripherals. While home, the laptop will be hooked up to an external monitor. The new MacBook fits my needs better, but the late model MacBook Pro seems to be the better value. I’ve got the money sitting in the bank. Decisions, decisions.

UPDATE (04 Jan 2009): Two and a half weeks ago, I was hired by a company as a contractor and they are predominantly Macs. The fan on my old Compaq seemed to be dying since the laptop overheats and freezes, so it had to be replaced. So I settled on purchasing a 15″ early-2008 MacBook Pro. My primary reason was lighting in the office was not conducive to a glossy screen and I got more bang for the buck with the MPB since there was very little performance advantages between the old and newer models. Then of course I hear it’s not easy to drag & drop and use graphic editors with the new trackpad. Plus I didn’t have to go through the added hassle and expense of purchasing an adapter for hooking up to my monitor. For resale value, I opted to get the 2.5 GHz with 512MB video ram for $1499 since the hard drive and memory can be upgraded later. In any case, it’s still cheaper than the 13″ 2.4 GHz Macbook. However, having traveled with this laptop to LA and back, I have to say, a 13″ version would have been more comfortable to use on the plane. Here’s hoping Apple, brings back matte screens and lowers the price on the 13″ models.

First, click on your device. Then go to the Podcasts tab. Sync all unplayed episodes of selected podcasts and check only those podcasts you don’t want to sync permanently.

Now for those podcasts you want to sync permanently things get a little complicated because you also want to automatically include any new podcasts when iTunes downloads them. To accomplish this you need to setup a Smart Playlist. So create a new Smart Playlist. For the first rule, set “Podcast is true”. For the second rule, set “Album contains” and then type in the name of the podcast that is in the album field. This field isn’t on by default so you may want to adjust the View Options so that field is visible. Make sure Live updating is checked (default). Once you have your Smart Playlist set up, I recommend you rename it to the podcast name. Also view the playlist to confirm the Smart List matches the correct podcasts and sort the playlist the way you want. The iPod/iPhone will keep this sort order.

Once you have all your Smart Playlists setup, click your device again and go to the Music tab. Check Sync music and Selected playlists. Then check off the playlists you want to sync including the Smart Playlists you created for your podcasts. That should do it. Hopefully, this will improve the way you manage your podcasts.

I did manage to buy an iPhone 3G. However, it was far from a smooth process. I called AT&T and the Cherry Creek Apple store to check availability and also if they can handle porting my number from a prepaid to a postpaid account. Apple said they had the phones in stock, and both said they could handle the number transfer. 4 hours later, after driving and waiting in line, I’m lead into the store by an associate named Kevin Cullins. Everything about the purchase was going smoothly up until the point Kevin tried to activate the phone and was informed by the device that the number was a prepaid account and that I either had to open a new account or go see an AT&T representative. Not wanting to disappoint, Kevin suggested I go to the local AT&T store just a block away and talk to his contact, Joel, and see about a way to correct the situation. Once I explained my situation to Joel, he relayed it to his boss, Greg, who personally came out and told me to go back to the Apple store, purchase the iPhone but start a new account, and then return to the AT&T store where they’d switch my old number for the new one and then cancel the new one. After following his instructions, I was finally able to go home with my new phone. The lesson here: if you’re an AT&T prepaid customer, upgrade to an iPhone at an AT&T store. Thanks go out to the Apple and AT&T staff for making what could have been a bad experience into a good one.

To help pay for my iPhone, I finally dropped my land line which I used to give out to businesses. It was a $45 per month luxury that when compared to a 3G data plan at $30 per month, provided little benefit. I was hoping I would stay with a prepaid plan, but after calculating the costs over 2-years, the prepaid play would have been $160 more. So unless the contract-less price of the iPhone drops by at least $200 it’s not worth it in my opinion unless your credit doesn’t allow you to go with a contract. (Though if your credit is that bad, is an expensive smart-phone really for you?)

So I’ve been using it for over a week, and I have to say I’ve been thoroughly pleased with my purchase. I’ve been using many of the features daily, and in fact, it helped with documenting my accident on Saturday where I got rear-ended where I was able to take pictures and notes. My favorite apps are Pandora and VNC. Pandora gives me customized, commercial-free (for now) internet radio that follows me everywhere I have AT&T data service. Much better than XM radio feature-wise if not quality wise. Because the iPhone 2.0 software now supports VPN, VNC lets me log onto my machines at work. All that’s missing now is native shell access. Jailbreaking my phone looks awfully appealing now.

I’ve tried other people’s Blackberries, Kyoceras, and Treos, and none of them were intuitive to use. I don’t need MMS, heck I don’t even have a txting plan which is an indication of how much I use it. A tactile keyboard isn’t necessary for me. If anything, I wish the phone had a better camera hardware and software comparable to what’s found on phones by SonyEricsson and Nokia. Copy and paste would be nice, but it’s not a deal-breaker. The iPhone is not perfect, far from it, but it offered me the best value proposition. I’m looking forward to the Android phones that will compete directly with the iPhone. By then, my contract should be over or I’d be eligible for an upgrade.

The new phone costs $40 more over the life of the 2-year contract. The upfront costs are lower. The browser speed is over 3 times faster than the original iPhone. Better features. But it still practically costs the same which, with all the upgrades, makes it a better value proposition than before.

The bottom line is that it’s an $80 per month expense. It seems AT&T won’t be providing a GoPhone option either which could have saved an additional $10–15. I wonder if you can choose an Edge data plan instead of a 3G data plan; that could be one way to save some money I suppose.

So yeah, the half-price savings is an illusion. You don’t save any money at all, but you do get improved features in exchange, and you’re not shelling out a fortune with the initial purchase.

Under utilization. Depending on the service plan you have, the advertised equivalent per-minute rate is somewhere in the range of $0.10–$0.25 per minute. However, in order to minimize your rate, you have to use up to but not over your allotted minutes. That’s the key. If you don’t use all your allotted minutes, then your actual equivalent per-minute rate is higher. My old plan had 200 minutes per month and I averaged around 160 minutes. At the time I canceled the service my monthly bill was $42. So I had an average rate of $0.26 per minute. That doesn’t seem so bad until I realized on my low volume months (< 100 minutes of usage) I was paying an equivalent rate of over $0.40 per minute. I didn’t have any rollover minutes with my plan but even if I did, again the under utilization applies. Just because you have unused minutes doesn’t mean you will actually put them to use if your average usage doesn’t change. So it’s no great loss to the wireless provider to offer rollover minutes because most people’s calling habits will not change. Overages. Wireless providers count on the fact that a) people don’t initially know their usage habits and b) people are slow to change their plans if their usage changes. Because of a) consumers tend to underestimate how many minutes they need. As a result they’ll go over and often pay two to four times their advertised rate. This happened to me once. I simply adjusted my calling habits, and I haven’t had an overage charge since. On the other hand most people don’t consider if their change in usage is a temporary or a more permanent change. Enter fact b). People are reluctant to upgrade to the next tiered plan because psychologically it means a higher monthly bill. Add to the fact that it takes effort on their part to change the rate plan and before they know it, a monthly bill is two to three times greater than had they simply changed the plan after the first month that they saw overages. You’re better off paying for a plan with more minutes than sticking with a plan with less minutes and going over.

Text messages. If you don’t purchase the unlimited text messaging add-on package, they get you coming and going depending on your provider and service plan. It’s one of the reasons why I was reluctant to give up my old plan. I wasn’t charged for messages I received, only for those that I sent. And the numbers just don’t add up. To send 160 bytes of data, the length of a single text message, it costs $0.15 which is also what my current rate plan is for a single minute. One minute of voice contains 38,400 bytes of data assuming a 5 Kbps compression rate. If you were to convert the text message rate to a per-minute rate it would be equivalent to 38400/160 * $0.15 = $36 per minute! And that’s just one way!! Talk about price gouging if you’re the consumer. But if you’re the wireless carrier, “Holy profit margins, Batman!” It’s so easy to understand why wireless service providers don’t want open applications on their networks. It would be way too easy for some third party to undercut this cash cow. I guess it’d be too much to ask for the US wireless providers to adopt a model like Japan where unlimited SMS is an included plan feature and not some premium-a-la-carte or add-on service.

Access fees. This is specific to AT&T’s prepaid Pay As You Go with free mobile-to-mobile calls. The advertised rate is only $0.10 per minute. Plus if you call anyone else who is an AT&T customer, you don’t get charged any airtime. Sounds great except for the fact you pay an access fee of $1.00. This fee is assessed once per day and only if you use a voice feature on that day. I took my bills and calculated the costs if I were on this plan. For one month, I would’ve paid $7.80 in airtime fees but $18.00 in access fees. For a different month, the charges would’ve been $3.30 and $32.00, respectively, where the majority of my calls were to AT&T customers. (Note: That particular bill covered more than a full month of usage.) This was my biggest clue that wireless providers overcharge their customers. Let’s say I only call one person who also happens to be an AT&T customer. This means I would not be charged any airtime; only access fees would apply. Let’s say that I call this person once per day every month and each call lasts one minute. The bill would be $30 a month. Now let’s say that each call lasts a full 24 hours instead of one minute, or each day I make enough calls of varying duration that fill the full 24 hours. The bill would still be $30. So as a business you’d want to cover this worse case scenario and still be profitable. This would indicate to me that $30 is the minimum a wireless provider would need to take in per customer (assuming there are enough customers) to cover all the costs of maintaining and growing the business. The fact that the cheapest plan be it prepaid or post-paid is currently $29.99 would be circumstantial evidence in support of that conclusion. Plus since no reasonable customer would ever use a phone 24/7, the rule of under utilization applies and that as long as the phone isn’t under constant usage $30 per month will still provide a decent profit margin. Which means that all these add-on features are just pure profit. Some circumstantial evidence in support of that is the fact that if you’re willing to tack on any add-on services, a sales person is more than willing to cut you a deal on hardware and accessories. They’ll make the money back in just a few months if that.

Roaming and long distance rates used to be among this list but as most plans these days include nationwide roaming and long distance that’s no longer an issue, at least domestically. Internationally, it’s a different story. At least now you can get your phone unlocked to allow using a local SIM card for the country you’re visiting and/or you can purchase an international plan if you remember to do so ahead of time.

I can only help but wonder if history is just repeating itself. The telecommunication industry is far from a monopoly even with AT&T being the largest wireless service provider, but it certainly feels like a cartel. Other than technology, there’s very little differentiating each of the incumbent providers. One typically goes with the provider who has the best coverage (which can sometimes means only one provider i.e., a geographic monopoly) and can support the device(s) one wants to use. It’s just when I compare the US to Asia and Europe it makes me jealous the bang for the buck and even the freedom of choice people there get. I have nothing against businesses making money, but I do have a problem with collusion and writing the rules in favor of the business player at the expense of the consumer through government lobbyists. My suspicions of the wireless industry’s anti-consumer practices will be confirmed when the phone unlocking exemption to the DMCA will not be renewed. The only reason it passed the first time was the lobbyists didn’t submit their objections in time. It’s why I’m rooting for Google to win the 700 MHz spectrum auction. We need more players in this industry, and players that don’t think in the same way as these former Bells.