Lines, Language, Leno and an Earthquake… Our Third Day, Day

I had anticipated this day for a awhile. As Kari and I were getting ready to leave for the Tonight Show a 5.4 earthquake hit about 30 east of Los Angeles. Strong enough to get your attention. Having lived in Southern California my whole life, I’ve ridden through many quakes and never really feared them. That is until the Northridge quake. I lived in Santa Monica for that one and since then just a little movement brings back the fear of that night. According to Guitarist Mark Lee, the earthquake occurred during their sound check. Way to rock So Cal guys!

So after my chest stopped pounding Kari and I left Long Beach for Burbank. We arrived and got in line for the show. There were a lot of Third Day fans there. We ended being in about the middle of the line and had some fun talking with the other fans. The couple in front of us had just decided to come to the show that day and when the show’s pages started asking for tickets I saw that they were stressed about something. Turns out they only had standby tickets and were very disappointed that they were not going to get in. Just as they were about be made to move to the very end of the line I whipped out an extra pair of tickets and gave it to them. Needless to say, they were very grateful.

We finally were seated and had fairly good seats. At least they were directly in line with were Third Day was going to play. I was happy. Jay’s monologue was ok. I’ve heard better and I’ve heard worse. He does come out to meet the audience and take pictures with the folks before the show starts which was pretty cool. As for the guests, well let me just say it was painful. To be subjected to the foulest language that made this former Marine blush was a shame. I am not a prude by any means but it was bad, real bad. Especially when the majority of the audience was there to see the band. If you saw it on TV, believe me, it was much worse in person. The other guests on the show really drive home the idea of us being salt and light.

Thankfully, Third Day brought the presence of the Almighty when they played. I just felt His spirit throughout and it took away the worldliness of the other guests. They played their number one hit “Call My Name” and were awesome. I’ve seen them play it live three times in the last few months and this was definitely the best performance. But what really struck me was how they reacted after the show. They were hugging one another and it really seemed that this opportunity was special for them. They just seemed profoundly humbled by the entire experience.

After the show, Kari and I went over to Universal Walk and had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was just nice to sit and talk with her—just the two of us. Especially after a very stressful last few days that the both of us have been experiencing. Its important to spend time alone with each other and I always look forward to it.

We’ll be seeing our favorite band again in September. I have some great seats and a very special surprise for Kari. She’ll need to be ready to have her picture taken, with… Well its a surprise!

Tonight Show with Jaaayy Lenooo…

I have tickets to see the the Tonight Show tomorrow (Tuesday, July 29). Although I am a life-long Southern Californian I have never gone in person to see this show. Anyone care to guess why I am going—without going on to Jay’s website to see who will be appearing. Maybe there’s a coffee for the first one to answer correctly!

Book Club Reading List-Weeks 6 & 7

More book reviews.

If One Mac is Good…

Tommy's In Heaven

Then two are better. Tommy’s lovin it!

Let’s Bowl, Daddy’O

Had a fun day of bowling at the Montrose Bowl in the City of Montrose, Ca. It’s straight out of the 1950’s. My department at work took a day off to have some fun and relax. I even sported a bowling shirt! If your looking for a fun place to have a company party check it out.

Hey Daddy'O

Parent Lobbying Tips: How Parents Can Make a Difference

Special Education lobbying tips for parents.
See Tom’s Special Education Hot Topics.

iPhone For Me

Sort of. I will be getting an iPhone from AT&T so I can test in our corporate environment. I’ll have 30 days to give it a real workout and then decide whether to support it in our company or go exclusively with the Blackberry as we do now. In general, these are the features I will be looking at:

• Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync
• Push email, calendar, and contacts
• Cisco IPSec VPN
• Wireless network services
• Global Address List (GAL) support
• Certificates and identities
• Enforced security policies
• Device configuration
• Remote wipe

Specifically, I will be testing how these features work in “our” environment. Having these features are great but meaningless if they don’t work the way we do. The iPhone must do well in these areas for me to be able to justify the introduction into our company. The Blackberry does, so we will see how it stacks up. Not so much against the Blackberry but rather is it a viable alternative considering it does have consumer features that are attractive. Stay tuned.

Book Club Reading List Update

More book reviews.

Blackberry Bold vs iPhone 2.0

As my job as IT Director for my company, I need to decide which new mobile device to purchase for my use. I am listing what I believe are the pros and cons of the Blackberry Bold* and iPhone for use in our Exchange corporate environment. Do I go with the tried and true Blackberry or the iPhone with its promising new features?  So, based on the info below, and using as little bias as possible, which would you choose?

Blackberry Bold

They’ve been doing the smartphone thing the longest. I have used a Blackberry for the past five years. While some devices were better than others, they all did one thing well—work in a corporate email environment.

features/attributes:

• release date: mid-August
• display: 2.5″, 480 x 320-pixel, Transmissive TFT LCD, HVGA
• 65k color display
• Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g)
• Bluetooth 2.0 with full A2DP support GPS (enhanced and assisted), BB Maps is standard
• 1GB of flash memory
• microSD memory expansion (supports up to 16GB cards)
• 2MP camera, 5 x digital zoom (with flash)
• 4.5″ tall x 2.6″ wide x 1.5″ deep
• weight: 4.7 oz
• quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) HSDPA/UMTS (850/1900/2100)
• BlackBerry Media Sync allows you to transfer your desktop iTunes music to your BlackBerry
• browser allows full html support and allows user to view movies/clips from websites built for mobile streaming, RSS feed support
• battery: standby: up to 310hrs, talk: up to 5hrs

pros:

• Blackberry name.
• full QWERTY keyboard, the faster to text you with
• 3G
• brilliant display (same number of pixels as the iPhone 3G, but 1″ smaller screen = sharper image)
• Proven success with Exchange

cons:

• delay due to battery concerns
• delay due to overheating issues
• least open SDK (less cool apps unless directly from RIM)
• Web browser does a less than stellar job of rendering full HTML websites
• an inch deeper than the iPhone 3G

iPhone 3G (2.0)

New territory here for me but has intriguing new features. But is it ready for the corporate world enough for me to give it a try? If its possible, I can make just about anything work if its worth it. Note: I am a Mac, iPod and iTunes user.

features:

• 4.5″ tall x 2.4″ wide x 0.48″ deep
• 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen Multi-Touch display
• 480-by-320-pixel resolution at 163 ppi
• 16M color display
• weight: 4.7 oz
• 16GB model: Black or white
• Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)
• Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
• GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz) UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)
• Assisted GPS
• camera: 2.0 megapixels, geotagging enabled
• battery life: talk time: up to 5hrs on 3G, up to 10hrs on 2G, standby: up to 300hrs, internet: up to 5hrs on 3G, up to 6hrs on Wi-Fi, video: up to 7hrs, audio: up to 24hrs

pros:

• the real internet,  with support for web standards, SSL, and Cisco IPSec VPN (really shines here)
• with the SDK out there, the iPhone will evolve feature sets rapidly (within the bounds of the hardware)
• 3G
• big screen
• awesome photo interface
• compatible with iTunes
• highly rated call clarity
• an inch shallower than the Bold

cons:

• Exchange support is not fully tested, by me
• battery not removable
• the screen smudges because it gets touched all the time
• touch typing is different and new = scary, real QWERTY > virtual QWERTY
• no streaming video on the internet
• no voice dialing (not good here in California)
• no MMS messaging (think text messaging with pictures)
• no flash on camera

*I was thinking of waiting for the Blackberry Thunder, their first touchscreen attempt, but it is going to be a Verizon exclusive and we have an AT&T corporate account. So that is not an option unless I buy it myself—highly unlikely.

iPhone: What’s On Yours?

iPhone: What’s on Yours?
New Features, Reviews, Sites, Apps, Specs, Help, Questions, Answers, Support

Found this site that lets iPhone lovers submit their favorite apps and then people can vote them up or down. Good place to see what apps are out there and what others think about them. Click on Twitter bird to check it out.