With my old Blackberry, I had P1 messages being signaled with a bell, so that whenever an e-mail came in from my boss, it would ring. I soon got to where I was dreading the "gong of doom."

So with my new one, I changed it to a sonar ping sound (it's a "ping," get it?). It seemed like a calmer sound, no Pavlovian twitch when the bell rang.

Only now I feel like I'm in Run Silent, Run Deep, trapped in a submarine below, hearing the destroyer criss-crossing above, searching for me on sonar, readying the depth charges ...

It's been a long week. :-)

Filed under :: Job Jollies :: My Mobile / PDA
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Got my replacement Curve, so I've yanked the SIM chip out of my loaner model and gotten my new one more or less back up and running. Yay!

(And only posting this with a picture of the other phone to Prove That Works. Yay.)

Filed under :: My Mobile / PDA
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Got a substitute Blackberry while my Curve is being replaced -- expect it some time Tuesday or so. The new one is an older, clunkier model, and I don't know if all the BB bits will work -- but at least I'll have a cell phone on me.

UPDATE: It appears at least the standard Outlook integration stuff is in place. Some of the extra bits aren't -- I'll have to see what I want to actually tailor on a temporary system.

Down side -- looks more like it will be Friday before the replacement Curve gets here.

Another downside -- changing from using the Curve pearl/trackball to using the traditional trackwheel and button. (And then, of course, changing back.)

But upside -- I can make (and receive) cell calls. Yay!

Filed under :: My Mobile / PDA
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After a whirlwind three-day-ish tour of New York City, we're back home. I have a ton of pictures to finish labeling -- and, of course, a ton of mail in my in-box. I also have to get my Blackberry fixed or replaced. That latter is the real PitA right now.

More as I get word in edgewise.

Filed under :: Blogging :: My Mobile / PDA :: Travel
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Ran across a reference to a new tool from Google, Sync for Mobile, which lets you sync your Google Calendars with your Blackberry calendar.

So I start pondering this as a way to get my work Exchange calendar synced onto a Google Calendar, which would make keeping track of items there a *lot* easier than either firing up Outlook outside of working hours or poking through my Blackberry to look at it.

Alas, after reviewing the help forums, it looks like it's not quite ready for this setup. In particular, there are issues with synchronizing to GCals other than the default (which is not what I want, even as an initial step), and there are even more serious problems with GSync deleting old events on the BB (and recurring ones more than 6 months out), which then Exchange treats as deleted, too. Yikes.

So ... maybe something to wait for a while before installing.

Filed under :: My Mobile / PDA
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My phone's desktop, taken at the Botanic Garden last weekend. Keeps a smile on my face and gives me something to brag about.

Filed under :: My Mobile / PDA :: Parenting :: Travel
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Okay, this is either going to be really useful, or one more way of cluttering up my life. Jott is an online service that (in its simplest form) lets you call their number, dictate up to a 30 second message, then forward that message (as text) to an e-mail or SMS address. It serves as a cross between scribbling notes on paper and stuffing them in your pocket and carrying around one of those little mini-recorders to dictate notes (and it does the transcription for you).

You can also set up Jott to send messages to others (Margie: "It had better not be 'be sure and pick up the milk' kind of messages") or even to various services -- there are options to Jott messages to Google Calendar, Blogger, and a host of other sites and services.

For my purposes, this lets me use Gmail as a To Do list. I can send Jotts to it (via a speed dial on my cell phone), create a filter/label so that they all bundle together, etc. I'm playing with it right now, but even as a remote note taking tool, I can see the value.

At the moment, it is free (in beta).

(via PC World) 

Filed under :: My Computer :: My Mobile / PDA
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A few weeks back, realizing I was going out of the country, and that another guy in my company had done so recently and discovered his Blackberry was not configured for international calling, I asked our telcomm folks to make sure that my BB would work while I was in Europe. 

Thursday or so, I realized that my BB wasn't connecting to the BES server (which provides all its data network connectivity). So, no Outlook mail, no Google Chat, no browsing, etc. Hrm.

Turns out now that, in turning on International Services, they managed to unplug the data services. Oops! And so the techs have my phone to get it working again, and I am wandering about with a curious lack of weight against my left hip ...

Filed under :: My Mobile / PDA
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Apparently I missed the Great Blackberry Outage of 2008. One of the advantages of being sick, I guess.

Filed under :: My Mobile / PDA
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I've been very happy with Opera Mobile on my Blackberry -- it stands head-and-shoulders above the two browsers that came packaged with my Curve.

And a bit of fun news is the announcement of Opera Mobile 9.5 real soon now. And, of course, Firefox Mobile is due to come out later this year.

Mobile browsing is never as fun or easy as PC-based -- but it is, of course, well, mobile, and anything that can make it easier is a definite good thing.

Filed under :: My Mobile / PDA
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