I recently upgraded from an iPhone (2G) to an iPhone 3GS. Wow! I heard nothing but bad news about AT&T after the iPhone 3G launch and was really concerned that I would be stuck with a 3G phone on an EDGE connection. So far, I have not experienced any major problems. I have been able to pick up a 3G signal whenever I am outside the house, which is basically when I need it most. Inside, if I turn off Wi-Fi, I am still stuck on EDGE, so no improvement there.

First, the iPhone 3GS is significantly faster than the iPhone 2G. Applications launch faster and games appear to run smoother. However, I blame some of the lag on the iPhone 3.0 software. After I installed the iPhone 3.0 software on the original iPhone, I discovered a noticeable lag whenever I selected the iPod button. However, I was not about to revert back to 2.x. So, I will say that the iPhone 3GS is perceptibly faster than the iPhone 2G.

However, the real improvement is in the data speeds. When I am out on the road and really need a piece of information, EDGE is better than nothing. Google, with its spartan interface, runs pretty fast on EDGE. So, I can still run some basic queries. Plus, I had grown accustomed to the limitations of EDGE and knew better than to give it more than it could handle. With 3G, the gloves are off. I can now exploit the full potential of the iPhone. For example, I needed to lookup the Apple Store on a map earlier today. I knew that I was only 1-2 blocks away, but was uncertain as to the direction. I think the iPhone 3GS was able to display a map of my location and stick a pin on the Apple Store in seconds. I was totally amazed because the iPhone 2G would have taken 20-30 seconds to download the map. I’ve been through more than my fair share of waiting for maps to download in the past two years. 3GS. Totally worth it.

Looks like a bento box. Yum.

24 hours after the sudden passing of Michael Jackson, I decided to take a look at how fresh the results were from various search engines.

WolframAlpha shows a date of birth and a date of death for former President Ronald WIlson Reagan.

For Michael Jackson, WolframAlpha only displays a date of birth.

Next, I compared Google and Bing. In the snippet from Wikipedia, Google’s cache is more up to date than that from Bing. Google’s display the date of birth and the date of death.

Bing does not.

Curiously, the snippet that Yahoo displays from Wikipedia excludes the date of birth. However, if I view Yahoo’s cache, I can see that they have the older version of Michael Jackson’s biography, like Bing.

Lately, I’ve been running through woks. On the cheap end, the $10+ wok from 99 Ranch is okay. If it doesn’t work out, you’re only out 10 bucks. No big deal. However, the wok is really light and the non-stick surface, while decent, is not durable. The last one I had only lasted a few weeks because someone (not me) first scratched the non-stick coating by using a metal spoon or other utensil while cooking and then later burned some vinegar in the wok so severely that it hardened and bonded with the non-stick surface. Just scrubbing the wok with a Dobie Cleaning Pad managed to exfoliate the non-stick coating from the wok.

Wok #2 was the Sur La Table 14″ Nonstick Wok. This was my first time using a carbon steel wok. The rest of my cookware is anodized aluminum. Anyways, while the carbon steel wok heats up very quickly, I was not impressed with the non-stick surface. This wok had the stickiest non-stick surface that I’ve ever encountered. Unfortunately, this wok also passed away prematurely when someone used sandpaper to clean the wok? Who uses sandpaper to clean cookware? Non-stick cookware!! So, another 50 bucks down the drain. At this point, I’m thinking that I should have just bought 5 $10 woks at 99 Ranch.

So, I’m stalling and thinking about my next step. I really like the $20 Tramontina wok I picked up last year at Costco. Made of anodized aluminum, this wok lasted about a year before the non-stick surface gave out, which really isn’t bad. One $60 wok that lasts for 3 years or 3 $20 woks that last for one year each? Finally, I ended up picking a Calphalon Contemporary Nonstick Flat-Bottom Wok for $80. The alternative was a pair of Calphalon Contemporary Nonstick Omelette Pans for $40, both prices factoring the 20% off BBB mailer coupon. I actually think the omelette pans were the better buy, but I really prefer the higher sides that the flat-bottom wok offers since it’s better at keeping all the food and oil in the pan. I’m hoping for this latest wok lasts for a few years. If not, that omelette pan looks very tempting.

I found the following news report on Reuters/Yahoo!:

Khamenei vows no retreat on Iran election result. The unexpected upheaval in Iran has thrown a spanner into Obama’s plans to engage the Islamic Republic in a substantive dialogue over its nuclear program, which Tehran says is peaceful but which the West suspects is for bomb-making.

Although the article is in English, I am pretty sure that these reporters are not American because we do not use the idiom “throw a spanner.” In America, we call spanners wrenches. So, in American English, we would say that the “upheaval in Iran has thrown a [wrench] into Obama’s plan.”

YouTube is down for maintenance and will be back shortly.

Wow. YouTube was momentarily down this afternoon. However, true to their word, they were back shortly. After a couple minutes, I was able to access their site again though midday outages are usually not because of “maintenance.”

Last year, I purchased Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive. It just dawned on me that book put a name to the practice I have been following for several decades: social proof. When visiting a Chinese restaurant for the first time, what’s the most important factor you should consider? Not the menu. Not the region of the cuisine. The most important factor is the clientele. That, more than anything, tells me what type of Chinese food the restaurant serves and whether the food will be to my taste.

Last week, I picked up a new 17-inch MacBook Pro because the previous one I had caught the black screen flu. Here’s my quick review.

• Speed. Nothing exciting really happens when moving from 2.4 GHz to 2.8 GHz. Mathematically, the new MacBook Pro has a 16% faster processor, but I cannot perceive the difference. At one point in time, a 400 MHz upgrade would have been good news.
• Keyboard. I really like the feel of the new keyboard. It provides the right resistance and offers a great tactile response. I was absolutely awed the first time I touched the internal keyboard. That said, I will still be doing 99% of my typing on an external keyboard.
• Screen. Now that matte screens cost an extra $100, I picked up my first glossy edition instead. The screen is not as reflective as I had previously feared. Totally usable.
• Hard Drive. Ho hum. Already had a 500 GB drive in my previous MacBook Pro. I’m glad Apple finally decided to upgrade the specs so I wouldn’t have to downgrade to a smaller hard drive.
• Memory. No change, except that the maximum memory capacity is 8 GB instead of 4 GB. Not willing to shell out $1,000 from Apple or $634 from Other Word Computing for 8 GB. Maybe in a year or so when prices come down. The only time that 4 GB really feels inadequate is when I’m running VMWare Fusion, and I try to run that as least as possible.
• Trackpad. I guess you get a larger trackpad when it’s not split between the trackpad half and the clickable half. Took me a few minutes to get used to this.
• Function Keys. In its infinite wisdom, Apple decided to move the functions around. Not better, not worse, just different.
• Ports. Ugh. Instead of ports on both sides of the MacBook Pro, Apple placed all the ports on the left-hand side. The front-loading SuperDrive is now a right-hand-side-loading SuperDrive. I was not pleased with this development since I previously connected a mouse to my MacBook Pro via a right-hand-side USB port. Fortunately, I still had an open port on my external keyboard or else the mouse would have to take a very circuitous route. That or learn to be a lefty.
• Latch. I like the magnetic latch instead of the physical latch. The latch on my even older PowerBook G4 is failing so I know those parts can wear out. Who knows how well the new magnetic latch will perform 5 years from now. Have to wait and see.

Of course, the most amazing thing for me was how Apple was faring during this so-called recession. The mini Apple store at the Stanford Shopping Center was absolutely packed during a weekday. Unbelievable. While other retail stores are closing or offering significant discounts, Apple is still cruising on.

Earlier this week, I tried to summon my MacBook Pro from its slumber. While the MacBook Pro turned on, the screen remained black. No problem. I know that if the MacBook Pro case is closed and I accidently touch the external keyboard or mouse, the computer will sometimes awaken with a black screen. So, I shut down the computer, restarted, and still saw the black screen. Now, I was worried.

I reset the PRAM and tried a bunch of other tips offered online, all to no avail. Eventually, I concluded that my MacBook Pro suffered from a defective NVIDIA graphics processor. Although I had purchased my MacBook Pro two years ago, Apple recently announced that it will provide free repairs for this problem for three years from the date of purchase. Actually, before the NVIDIA graphic processor failed completely, the screen did start to behave strangely. Nothing permanent though. I had only noticed in Safari that when the browser was loading certain background images, the colors would be off until Safari had completely loaded the image.

Anyways, I took a trip down to the local Genius Bar. The Genius saw the black screen and tried to hook up the MacBook Pro to an external monitor. That failed as well. He then took my MacBook Pro to a back room to run additional tests. After 15 minutes, he returned to tell me that my graphics processor was dead and that I would have to leave the computer with Apple for 3-4 days to change out the logic board.

Well, since I could not work without a computer, I picked up a new MacBook Pro, transferred over my files, and left my old MacBook Pro behind. See you in a week.

When Google Docs, works, the experience is truly magic. When it doesn’t, it is absolutely maddening. I’m stuck in one of those moments right now where I can’t edit or save my document.