Well, I found out why the new apps I've added to my android phone don't show up on the screen. It seem that when you put an app in a folder, it still counts as an icon on the main screen. So if you add an app it won't display even though the screen is empty of other apps... the OS thinks the screen i s full. Very strange. I got an app that gives me more home screens, so that problem should be gone. If this behavior is documented in the User's Guide, I missed it.

On a non-related note, my 2007 Honda Civic is incredibly noisy. The amount of road noise on some surfaces (mainly chip seal roads) is incredible. My 1997 Volvo was virtually silent, and I miss it.

I've ordered the under-hood nose/heat pad that the more expensive Civics have as standard. We'll see if that makes any difference. I also have some stuff I bought at Home Depot that can be used inside door panels and other areas to absorb/dampen noise. I may have to wait for the weather to warm up a bit before I try to install it.

It took a while, but I've finally got my new phone working pretty much as I want it. The only thing that really still bugs me is that Android phones, at least the ones from Virgin Mobile, come with a severely limited amount of memory. It's hard to put very many apps on them without running out of memory and causing the thing to stop getting emails, etc. It's pitiful. VM puts a number of apps on it that I don't want or need, and they cannot be removed, making the lack of memory even more onerous. The iPhone doesn't have this problem (I wish I could afford one).

The Android OS is OK. Nothing to write home about. It does the job, but it's not very elegant. Some of the apps I've bought don't show up on the home page and I don't have a clue as to why this is. I've had to go in and use an app to put them into folders so they will show up there and I can use them. Annoying.

I could leave the iPod touch at home most of the time if the same apps were available for the Android OS. The three I miss the most are Maltin's Movie Guide, Geosphere, and MotionX GPS.

New Phone

I bought a new phone last week, after using my current cell phone for 7-8 years. I went with an Android phone, since iPhones are way to expensive (both to buy and to get a data plan for). After fiddling with the new phone for a few days, I am constantly running into low memory problems with the thing. It just doesn't come with enough main memory to make it a replacement for my iPod touch. I like the Android OS, but there are many older apps that won't let you move them to an SD card, and they hog main memory and seriously reduce the functionality of the device.

I was hoping to use the phone to replace my iPod touch for on-the-go use where I need connectivity, but that just isn't going to happen with the memory problems that I'm having. It's a nice phone though. Far better than my previous "dumb" phone. Everything I wanted to do on the old one required me to step through multiple menus to get to the function I wanted. I always had to get out the manual to even get to the list of numbers I had programmed into it. And the buttons were tiny. So was the screen. Even as a phone, I like the new one better.

The past six months have been pretty good, health-wise. I'm recovered from the surgery, and I ride my bike 2-3 times a week. I started out getting winded and sore muscles at less than a mile of riding, and now I'm up to about 15 miles without much problem. I ride a cross country mountain bike, not a road bike, so that 15 miles is probably the equivalent of 35-30 road miles. I don't ride on city streets, there are too many people out there who drive like I do. :-)

I've found that the same sort of prejudices occur within the biking community as in other groups, except maybe a tad more extreme. If you don't spend a lot of money on a bike, then you aren't taken seriously. I have yet to find much difference between the Walmart bike I have and other, more expensive bikes, such as my Specialized Camber. I've looked, and there is no verifiable information on the net that would suggest that expensive bikes last longer than inexpensive ones, or that they are faster, more comfortable, or handle better.

About the only conclusion I could draw at the moment is that the people who buy less expensive bikes may be not as "into" biking, and thus don't keep the bikes maintained as well, or that they tend to lose interest after a while because of family, etc.

Yesterday I updated my IOS things to IOS 5 (the ones I could, I have some old stuff). I haven't decided if it's really worth it yet. It was a hassle doing the upgrade, the servers at Apple were hammered, and it took a while to get things done. The process timed out several times. But it all got done.

I thought Apple would do better at explaining how to do things, but the procedure for getting wireless sync from iThings to iTunes on a computer was obscure, and it was a "learn by trying everything" process. It finally works, but there are some misleading statements in various places. Much like other companies, they just don't give you enough information on what's going on for you to make an educated guess and how to proceed when something happens that's not expected.

This whole iCloud business continues to leave me mystified. I converted my MobileMe account over to it, since I'd have to do that anyway in a few months when MM goes away. I'm still not sure what the interaction between iCloud and the iTunes store is (if any). Again, they don't tell you enough for you to figure out what's going on.

My contacts seemed to have transferred OK, but I'm confused about what's going on with the Calendar. The iCloud and MM calendars ended up with different things in them. I just don't think Apple has put enough thought into explaining what is going on.

It finally rained today, after months of no rain. I'd almost forgotten what rain and thunder was like. Too bad it will be absorbed in the ground by nightfall. I can only hope it will help the dirt trails at Walnut Creek Park, they've been getting pretty unpleasant to ride on because of the large chunks coming loose. I'll gladly give up several days of riding to get a better surface. It's all too easy to have a wheel skid and the bike go out from under you with all that loose stuff out there.

More chances of rain tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Bike rides

I went out yesterday and rode 15 miles on my trail bike (bicycle). That's a full 50% further than my previous longest distance. The temps are finally dropping enough so that it's still fairly nice by noon... only about 80F. The route I took was the entire length of the Brushy Creek Trail. I started in the middle and rode to both ends, figuring that I could bail out easier by parking at the middle.

The trail is mixed concrete pavement, crushed granite, dirt, and some sandy sections. I really don't like the sand, but the rest is pretty nice. There is shade for a lot of the distance. It's a pretty popular path for the area, so it was moderately busy, but everyone is very pleasant and co-exists nicely. I'll likely hit this one three or four times a month. It's about a twenty minute drive from my house.