A few days before the 3G iPhone was released I realized that I really wanted one. At first I thought it was a severe case of “iwantitis“, so I waited for it to pass. Since I’m not one to stand in line for hours for something, it was easy to let the release date come and go.

After a week I still wanted a 3G iPhone. To cut a short story shorter, about a week ago I finally got the iPhone from AT&T, after a 14 day wait. Getting one from an Apple Store would have required waiting in line – after two attempts at this I went the “Order from AT&T” route. Basically you pay for the iPhone with a credit card (only at certain AT&T stores) and they order it, which takes somewhere between 7 and 21 days. The card is only charged the day the iPhone is actually shipped to the store. You are then contacted and have 7 days to pick up the iPhone. When you pick it up, it is activated and you sign up for the two year contract.

One thing to be aware of is that you cannot return an iPhone, even within the first 14 days, without paying a 10% “restocking fee”. The restocking fee is waived if the box is unopened, but the box has to be opened in the store to activate the phone. It seems that Apple stores may do something similar. The reason I mention this is because the iPhone is not a regular cellphone or smartphone at all. The virtual keyboard takes some getting used to. That said the user interface as a whole is really natural and easy.

So what prompted me to join several million others and buy this micro-Mac-computer-cellphone? The excellent browser, email and internet on the go and the availability of third party applications were the main reasons.

In my recent blog about free Basic and C compilers I used some technology jargon and didn’t even realize it, as I have been working with compilers and interpreters so long I’ve forgotten when I learned the differences. It was the reference to “Free BASIC Compilers and Interpreters”. So I thought I’d give some definitions here.

A search for Interpreters on Pricegrabber.com found Interpreters and Translators of languages, alas not computer languages but spoken languages. It did find plenty of Programming Language compilers though, like this Intel C++ Compiler.

Wikipedia has definitions for both Interpreters and compilers, but they could be a bit confusing for those who don’t have some familiarity with programming. The Free Online Dictionary of Computing has a simple definition for an Interpreter:
“A program which executes other programs“, which is expanded in the rest of the article, otherwise it doesn’t can be misinterpreted.

A broader definition of an interpreter would be a programming tool that interprets and executes one line of a computer program at a time.

The definition of a compiler from the Free Online Dictionary of Computing is:
“A program that converts another program from some source language (or programming language) to machine language (object code). Some compilers output assembly language which is then converted to machine language by a separate assembler.”

Large portions of the Windows operating system (both XP and Vista) are written in C and C++ which is compiled.

A newer, bigger version of the Asus Eee PC has arrived. The Asus Eee PC 1000H Notebook has a 10 inch screen, and is now the biggest of the Asus Eee PC notebook series. There are a number of enhancements in the Asus Eee PC 1000H, including an updated look and feel from earlier Eee PC models.

Along with the larger screen, the 1000H has a more spacious keyboard. The 800MHz Celeron processor from previous versions has been replaced by a 1.6-GHz Intel Atom processor.  The 1000H is the first Eee PC to feature a hard drive rather than a solid state drive. It has a 80GB 5400-rpm hard drive for the Windows XP version. There is also a Linux version, the 1000, which has a 40GB Solid State Drive. Both Linux and Windows versions have 1GB of RAM.

Also improved are the Wi-Fi networking, sound system and webcam (1.3 Megapixel).

The notebook weighs 3.2 pounds, which puts it in the Ultraportable class, at a price quite unknown for an Ultraportable notebook not so long ago. It is however, one of the largest of the new crop of similarly sized mini-notebooks, and has a number of competitors in this up and coming market. The price of the Asus EeePC 1000H was dropped by $100 a week after it was released.

Today I opened a checking (current) account. Big deal, you say. It was - the whole application and approval process was done online. It wasn’t with an “Internet Bank”, but with a regular Brick and Mortar bank. There is a branch about 3 miles from my house, and another one close to where I work. I’ve actually seen the one close to home, but the one near my work I found via the Bank’s website.

My intention was to go into one of the branches and open an account. However, I spotted the option to open an account online. Since I know this bank from their TV advertising, and the website was professionally done, I knew it was fairly safe.

Previously I’ve signed up for a PayPal account, and then for an excellent savings account online, but this was a first for me. Being a checking account, they have to get your “authorized” signature somehow. So in the first set of checks the bank sends out, a method is provided to capture your signature.

Part of the process is a credit check which is then turned around to verify that you are who you are claiming to be. I had to do some quick online looking up for that one. Once your identity is verified, it is just a couple of choices. The bank really impressed me with the “You should save this information” prompts, and downloadable PDF files of important agreements. The whole process was followed up with an email outlining the important points. Very slick and professional.

There are a number of books available on the subject (see here), including one from the popular “Dummies” series, “Banking Online for Dummies“.

Not that long ago I was an Application Developer or “Programmer”, and couldn’t see a career in computers outside of programming. Well, I no longer develop software, but seem to spend all day “hands on” with a range of computers. As a substitute for programming, I like to “play” with various programming languages and compilers after hours.

Since this is more of a hobby I tend to avoid expensive compilers. Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition would be great, as it includes Visual Basic, Visual C# (C# is pronounced C Sharp, not C pound nor C hash), Visual C++ and ASP.Net. VS 2008 can build applications for Windows, the Web and Windows Mobile devices. Apart from the fact that using Visual Studio is too much like work, it would also blow my budget.

With my background in Visual Studio and most recently Visual Basic, I tend to look for Basic compilers. Surprising enough there are a number of them out there, including some very good free ones and some rather average expensive ones.

A good place to find free Basic compilers is at thefreecountry.com’s “Free BASIC Compilers and Interpreters“.

One of the first free Basic compilers I played with was the BCX BASIC Compiler. BCX is a Basic to C converter, and the package includes a free C Compiler, which can be replaced by one of a handful of C compilers (some of them mentioned on thefreecountry.com’s list of “Free C/C++ Compilers“). It is an interesting concept, and BCX is constantly being improved. It is also a way for a Basic programmer to learn C.

Not a car or a laptop.

No, this mini is the smallest mainstream desktop computer. The Apple Mac Mini with a 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 1GB RAM is a small cute box of a computer with everything you need except a monitor and keyboard. It runs Macintosh OS X 10.4 (a.k.a Tiger) and comes with Apple’s iLife ‘08 digital media productivity suite. The Mini includes a 120BG Hard drive, slot-loading DVD writer, integrated video card and built-in 802.11b and 802.11g wireless, Bluetooth 2.0. For expansion there are 4 USB ports and one Firewire port.

There is a new class of buyer for the Mac Mini: the Mac-less Apple iPhone Developer. With the required peripherals, the iPhone SDK (Software Developer’s Kit) and an upgrade to Apple Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard (as well as possibly an upgrade of the Mini’s RAM to 2GB), the Mac Mini becomes a development machine for the killer iPhone app a lot of developers are hoping to write..

Naturally the Mac Mini should not be confused with the iPod Mini which was the predecessor to the iPod Nano.

The Dell XPS M1730 Notebook is not quite back to school gear, unless money is really no object, and you don’t mind lugging a 10 pound plus notebook around.

The XPS M1730 is in the Desktop replacement category (7.5 pounds or more). This entertainment and gaming notebook is really well equipped, with an Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme X9000 processor running at 2.8GHz, which can be overclocked up to 3.4Ghz (this is according to Dell), 2GB RAM (upgradeable to 4GB), a choice of hard drives: a 400 GB RAID (2 x 200GB) 7200 rpm drive or a 128GB Solid State Drive. The screen is a 17 inch 1920 by 1200 pixel resolution active matrix display with a NVIDIA GeForce 8700MGT PCI Express x16 graphics card with 512MB of graphics memory (these are actually a dual graphics cards in a scalable link interface).

A 2 megapixel webcam with digital microphones is integrated above the screen for those important video conferences, or in-game chats. Keyboard illumination can be turned on for gaming in the dark.

Another great feature is Dell’s MediaDirect software, which allows you to play CDs and DVDs without booting the system.

There is also an optional Blu-Ray disc drive, with a choice of either a reader or a burner.

Although it is frowned on by some, I personally find Wikipedia quite a good source of reference material for my blogging. Of course I have to use common sense, and will try not to refer to an article that is just way off base. The rule of thumb of when in doubt check the references works fairly well.

Now Google has started a web-based encyclopedia-like service called “Knol”. Knol contains a number of knols. A knol is defined by Google as “a unit of knowledge” or “an authoritative article about a specific topic“. So far there seem to be a number of medical articles (some about medical conditions I’d rather not know about).

Now, personally I’m a fan of Google in that I Gmail and some of their other free software, both web-based and downloadable. This doesn’t mean that I think that everything that Google does is wonderful. In the case of Knol I’ll reserve judgment and continue to use Wikipedia while keeping an eye on Knol.

There seem to be varying views of Knol, from it being a possible Wikipedia killer “Google’s Knol Finally Goes Public. A Wikipedia Killer?” from InformationWeek’s Google Weblog, to it being “Wikipedia-for-cash” as Jack Schofield refers to it in his technology blog on the Guardian newspaper website.

Meanwhile you can pickup the “Encyclopedia Britannica 2008 Deluxe” DVD right here on Pricgrabber.com.

Databases, what can I say? Since getting drawn into computers and programming while using dBase III Plus, I’ve used many a database. Starting with the xBase family of databases (Clipper, FoxPro and others), then on to a mainframe hierarchical database I’d prefer not to name, then onto SQL.

For those who have not heard the term “xBase“, “xBase is the generic term for all programming languages that derive from the original dBASE (Ashton-Tate) programming language and database formats” according to this article in Wikipedia

One database I’ve worked with since version 1.0 was Microsoft Access. It is such an easy to use database it can be addictive in itself. I’ve often had to rewrite applications using Access as a database to use SQL Server. Otherwise Access is a good database management tool.

FileMaker is supposed to be the easiest database to use, but I haven’t had an opportunity to try it.

Then there are the big boys, the “SQL” Servers. Confusingly, only one is called “SQL Server”, and that is Microsoft SQL Server. The others are MySQL, Sybase SQL Anywhere, Oracle, PostgreSQl and DB2 (of course this is far from a complete list).

Naturally a database is preferable to a spreadsheet when the number of rows is more than 65k, or relationships are required.

Figures and charts, the things which warm the hearts of accountants and managers, these are the things in which Excel excels.

Excel is Microsoft’s spreadsheet, and users of other spreadsheets like Lotus 123 may well disagree that Excel is good.

To expand on my last blog entry, which had definitions of what spreadsheets and databases are and what they do, I’ll concentrate on spreadsheets.

Currently the top-selling commercial spreadsheet is Microsoft Excel. There are other spreadsheets available, like the aforementioned Lotus, or Calc, which is the spreadsheet program in the free OpenOffice.org office suite.

Although some of my first experience with computers revolved around databases, the first time I saw a spreadsheet I was really impressed at what it could do. Spreadsheets are easy to set up. It doesn’t take much to have a spreadsheet up and running to track or calculate small amounts of data. Often I use a spreadsheet just for tabular information which is going to be formatted and printed.

I’ve been trying to think of some rules of thumb as to when you should use a spreadsheet instead of a database. While researching this question I came across a very interesting article online called “Spreadsheet Addiction“, in which it is claimed that the overuse of spreadsheets is a major problem. It makes for interesting reading…