jpreardon.com

I thought Apple might have sent a special, covert signal to my Treo 650 to kill it. It was quite suspicious that the phone function stopped working a few days before the launch of the iPhone. Conspiracy theories aside, everything worked fine on my Treo except for the phone. I could not make outgoing calls; incoming calls would ring through, but attempting to answer them would cause the phone to reboot.

Soft resets did nothing to remedy the problem. I contemplated calling Palm support, but I thought I would try a hard reset first. The short story is that the hard reset worked and restored my phone to working order. If you are interested in the long story, keep reading.

(more…)

Hopeful early adopters started queuing early this week to be among the first to get their hands on an iPhone. Tomorrow evening, the iPhone will go on sale and these people will get a chance to go home and take a shower–probably not until they have thoroughly investigated their new toy’s feature set though.

On this eve of iPhoneday, David Pogue has released a good list of questions and answers about the much anticipated device. Since this isn’t a communique from Apple’s marketing department, it asks puts forth some really valid questions like “Can the iPhone replace a BlackBerry?”

The answer to that and several productivity related questions is, unfortunately, no. Most surprising for me was that to-do lists and memos will not sync between the iPhone and PC. Perhaps Apple didn’t think that to-do lists and memos were important to the mass market they are trying to reach. But, with such a powerful and well engineered device, its a shame they didn’t include these basic functions.

When I think of an incubator, I envision a bunch of techies feverishly pounding out code for the next big social networking site. Either that or a warm container for hatching chicken eggs. La Cocina is neither of those things, this kichen incubator gives entrepreneurial woman a place to work on their food businesses.

The start up costs for a food related business can be, at best, difficult to overcome. Commercial space and the equipment needed to fill it are prohibitively expensive for someone just starting out. In addition to the kitchen space, La Cocina also has business and culinary professionals on staff to guide the entrepreneurs in their decisions.

This combination of space, tools and expertise coupled with the women’s entrepreneurial spirit and knowhow has led to success. Products from La Cocina can be found at markets and other retail locations throughout the Bay Area and California. Whole Foods is even thinking about introducing one of the products nationally.

via Freelancers Union Blog

Apparently, a street parking space is worth about $25. At least that was the going rate on the Upper West Side near the Beacon Theatre. Well, until very recently anyway. It’s doubtful that the entrepreneurial types at Avis Car Rental are still selling spaces or even employed by the company after this report from FOX 5 News.

This video is worth watching. It has all the trappings of classic, local news, investigative work: Producers packing hidden cameras, a reporter–appearing as if by magic–asking tough questions, arguments with said reporter and, of course, shaky camera work. Make sure you watch this one to the end for some bonus material (cops and EMTs).

via Streetsblog

In need of some summertime reading? Why not look to the CIA for material? The Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room has thousands of declassified documents online complete with redacted words and sentences. You might wish to start with The Family Jewels, one of the FOIA Electronic Reading Room’s featured collections:

The first collection, widely known as the “Family Jewels,” consists of almost 700 pages of responses from CIA employees to a 1973 directive from Director of Central Intelligence James Schlesinger asking them to report activities they thought might be inconsistent with the Agency’s charter.

To get an idea of the sorts of subjects that most interest visitors to the FOIA Electronic Reading Room, have a look at the top searches for the last two months. It should come as no surprise that “UFO” is near the top each month.

via slashdot

City Room is running a series in which DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan answers reader questions. Commissioner Sadik-Khan has already posted parts one and two of her answers and will continue to post more throughout the week.

So far, the commissioner’s answers lean towards the reserved. However, she seems very willing to experiment with things. One example of this type of thinking is clear in this reference to the congestion pricing proposal:

We’re not trying to lock the city into anything for all time. We want to try it, see how it works and see if we need to change it.

It’s very refreshing to hear this coming from the DOT commissioner. This willingness to try new things is much more important than any single answer she can offer this early in her tenure. I wish her much luck in transforming the DOT into a more agile and responsive agency. It certainly sounds like she is on the right path.

It looks like Astroland might be open another year! In December, it was announced that 2007 would be Astroland’s last season in favor of a new water park and a slew of condominiums. Now, it seems the plans are changing at Coney Island at a rapid rate. Recently, the condo plan was replaced by a new plan without condos. Nevertheless, the news that Astroland will be open for another season is more exciting than any of the artist’s renderings coming from Thor Equities.

Y’all ready to shoot the freak?

Make Music New York seeks to make this first day of summer more enjoyable by filling our streets and public spaces with live music. So, catch some music wherever you happen to be. There are hundreds of live performances throughout the city today. This is Make Music NY’s first year but New York is joining the ranks of over 300 other cities around the world that hold similar events on the 21st of June.

Mayor Bloomberg has announced that he is leaving the Republican party to become an Independent. Good for him.

Streetsblog points out that bike boxes are appearing at some intersections in the city. These street markings carve out a little space for cyclists between stopped motor vehicles and the crosswalk. This gives the bikes a head start and more visibility, two things enjoyed by the city cyclist.

While not all that popular in NYC, other cities have been using bike boxes for some time now. As an example, increasingly bike friendly London has these markings at many intersections throughout the city. Hopefully they will become a more familiar sight here as well.

It is great to see that the DOT is continuing to experiment with things that encourage bicycle ridership.