After failed attempts and many computer reboots, I seem to have figured out how to use my Cingular 2125 (HTC Faraday) smartphone as a Bluetooth modem.  It seems you have to be aware of a few quirks to get it to work.  If you don’t follow the instructions exactly, you will get unhelpful error messages like “Connection failed.”

So, again, this applies to a Cingular 2125 Smartphone running Windows Mobile 5.0.  It also may apply to other Cingular smartphones.  It is also worth noting that this works with the Toshiba Bluetooth Stack for Windows.  At the time of this writing, you could find it here.  My friend Soren tried getting this working with the built-in Windows XP SP2 stack, and had different failures there.  In my experience it is somewhat easier to get this working over USB.  Here are some instructions that work for doing so.

So, let’s cut to the chase.  Here are some tips to help get your Smartphone working as a bluetooth modem.  First, look at the instruction manual on HTC’s site.  It is generally correct, but following it exactly didn’t work for me.

Quirk #1:

You need to specify the right GPRS access point.  I have the unlimited Media Net plan, which is one step down from the fancy full-IP-address plan, so I need to specify “wap.cingular” in the Advanced Initialization String.  If you have the full plan, I think you use “isp.cingular” here.  The manual also says to use the prefix “AT“, but in the case of the Toshiba Bluetooth stack, this is added for you behind the scenes!  So, drop the “AT“.

+CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”wap.cingular”

Quirk #2:

The phone number to use is *99#, however, I believe some other phones require *99***#1.  As a side-note, this number signifies that you want to use GPRS.  If you were trying to connect to a different ISP, you would use that here.  In that case, however, these instructions do not apply.

Quirk #4:

If at any point you disconnect the bluetooth connection abnormally, the phone must be rebooted or you will probably just get connection errors. 

After hours of frustration, I figured out how to build C++ DLLs and link them into scripts for the latest version of Python (2.5).

The idea is that you may have developed some C++ code that you would like to be able to import into Python.  There’s a really cool wrapper program called SWIG that helps you do just this.  But with all of the latest updates to Python, SWIG broke, and so did the graphing library I was trying to use.

In short, if you are getting errors like:

ImportError: No module named _pymfg

(Your module name in place of _pymfg)

There are two things you should know.

1. You may need to recompile your DLL using SWIG 1.3.30.  Prior versions are incompatible with Python 2.5.


2. You must to rename your DLL to PYD.

If you’re looking for a compiled version of the mfgraph library for Python 2.5, let me know.

So, I left a polite and detailed voicemail with my FedEx claim agent, Donna Buchleitner, on Sunday (five days ago).  Told her how I had actually taken care of the ”Shipper-approval” thing.  As one might expect, she never called me back.

Here is a video showing the results of senseless FedEx destruction of my stuff.  This could be your stuff!

In late August, I packed up my desktop computer to return home to Ann Arbor, MI.  After packaging it up in its original box, with the original styrofoam padding, I carted it down the street to a surprisingly pleasant FedEx attendant, and left NYC myself a couple of days later.

When I opened the box in Michigan, I was shocked to find that it was effectively… destroyed.  A picture or two will be posted later this weekend to show that I am really not kidding.  It seriously looked like FedEx workers had played kickball with my computer inside a box marked “Fragile.”  Now I can understand that things get broken while being shipped, and sometimes you just accept that.  It’s often not worth the time and agony to try to make the shipping company accountable for their behavior.

But this was egregious.  And it was expensive.  Just to give you an idea of how FedEx might be handling your packages, note that the molded styrofoam surrounding my computer was broken into 9 pieces when it arrived.  The case to my computer was dented.  More severely, the video card was chipped, my DVD drive somehow wedged in-between two bays.  Again, you need to see the photos to believe this.

After testing things for a few hours, I found that it was going to cost me $800 to get my computer working again as it was before.  I went to FedEx online, and started to file a claim.

This was September 10.

It’s now October 28, and FedEx has inspected my computer twice.  They incorrectly shipped it back to New York, and had to pick it up again.  It looks like a “box of junk” at this point.  I have probably wasted four or five hours of my life on the phone with their representatives.  Some are nice, some are downright unhelpful and bordering on mean.  Today, they sent me a letter denying my claim stating “FedEx policy is to resolve claims directly with the shipper.”  Brilliant FedEx, I am the shipper.  And just in case they were confused, one of the guys in the NY office faxed a letter to FedEx to confirm this.

My assessment is that FedEx quite simply is not robust enough to handle the complexities that arise with non-standard shipments  (such as my case, where I sent a box to myself in another state.)  Their claim resolution process is more of a puzzle than a process.  The large delays are supposed to make you decide it is not worth it:  Instead of contacting you by phone or email when they get confused, they just give up and cancel your claim.  (Then they trigger an automatic email to tell you that they made a decision, and you just wait 3-5 days to get it in the mail.)  Your problem, not theirs.

I don’t know about you, but I get very frustrated when I’m talking with someone on my cell phone, and there is a big delay between the time I say something and the other person hears it.  The problem is that phones sometimes have to add a delay into a phone call in order to get around the problems of a bad wireless signal or a slow communications network.  Phones and cellular providers can dynamically adjust the amount of delay (depending on how good the network is), but there’s a problem.  What if you delay the call by 2 seconds, and then the network gets better?  You’re stuck at a 2-second delay!  Unless, of course, you drop some of the conversation in order to reduce the delay.

But what part of the conversation do you drop?  Maybe you wait for silences… or cut out little tiny chunks so that it’s not very noticeable.  I just came across this patent which has another solution altogether.  The idea is that you use a sensor to detect how far a person’s ear is from the handset!  If their ear is close, you keep playing the delayed signal.  But if they stop listening, you can safely cut some of the conversation out and reduce the delay.  Sweet idea!

I don’t know if any cell phone makers actually do this in their phones, but just in case, if you find yourself in a laggy phone call, just… stop listening for a second or two.

… and as a result, we have made another round of significant improvements to Xanga Boost.  I know what you may be thinking, but we aren’t enslaved interns! Rather, we’re just driven to do this thing right.

It’s totally encouraging to see how everyone’s impression of this project has evolved over the past three months.  I think Xangans are starting to warm up to Boost.  It’s amazing to see that some people have nominated 40-50 items in a category.  And one of you guys has boosted over 600 entries.  ( p.s. We haven’t even officially launched! )

So, what’s new?

In the backend, we’ve adjusted methods to choose the best content.  Odds are you should see more relevant and fuller pages.  And we’ve really improved the way you view these results, with a totally revamped results page (read more from Matt).

 

Last but not least, we’re testing support for Xanga Videos!

Xanga Boost Tips:

1. On any newspaper page, try clicking “about” for an item.
2. Did you know you can mark items as a favorite with Boost?  We still have a few places to integrate favorites, but click the grey star on any newspaper page and see what happens.  Try clicking twice, too.
3. Try hovering your mouse over any video in the newspaper page.
4. Ever wonder how the Nomination +/- works?  Basically, when you nominate something, and it gets a score from the community, we add +1 to your score if it does well, and -1 if it does poorly.  “Well” and “poorly” are actually still being refined, so, more on that later.

What now?

More updates and bugfixes to come.  Until then, check it out and send us feedback!  (use the super-secret feedback link or just post a comment.)  Thanks!

Boost is nearing its first real hatch.  A number of items have already been nominated into the new categorized sections, and are incubating while the supersmart boost engine (which incidentally runs primarily on brainpower, so, really oxygen and caffeine more than electrons) is identifying the best content.

Some love Boost, some hate Boost.  (And, if you are in the latter crowd, or just don’t like a lot of unexpected visitors, you can now opt-out of having your stuff nominated.  Check out the new setting in your privacy page.  Thanks Marc, Matt, and Monsur for getting that done.)

Last I checked, not a single item had made it to the Today’s Best page.  (It’s not because nothing is good… it’s because we’re still pretty secluded.)  So help things along, we’d be immensely appreciative if you spent a few minutes with Boost, Beta 2.  Help us keep our caches nice and warm.

And go visit Matt‘s new weblog (well, same weblog, fancy new username) and tell him to write something about Boost, too.

Yesterday, Monsur and I were able to put our finger on a problem that was plaguing mobile devices.  Specifically, this problem would cause some mobile devices to get “stuck” at the SignIn.aspx page.

Monsur applied the fix to the main Xanga pages, but a few remain to be updated.

If you have a mobile device with internet, like a Sidekick or a Windows Mobile phone, try signing in!

Adam has been really excited about launching Xanga Uploader beta for the past few days.  It’s designed to improve the experience of uploading photos.  It runs not in your browser, but on any Win2000+ machine.

Usually every time we talk, some part of the conversation is about the uploader, or food.  Lots of times we eat food and talk about the uploader.  Anyway, I’m sure Adam would appreciate if you tested it out.

Thanks!

I just wanted to thank everybody, all 925 people who have actually boosted things, for trying the Boost beta.

Your feedback

Most of your feedback has been positive, and it has been encouraging to see.  A few pointed out that reading full Weblog posts can be time consuming!  Yes, though, we have done some things to increase the odds that you’re actually reading interesting material — and we’ll do more to that end; we’re obliged to ensure Boost is enjoyable.

Some of you are frustrated that the material seems all mixed in, and would like to see categories, especially for weblogs.  Definitely!  In fact, if you could suggest some categories, that would be very useful.  Leave your ideas here, or use the feedback page on Boost.

Problems encountered:

1. We’re aware of a problem where pictures don’t immediately appear while you’re boosting in IE6.


2. When you get an error immediately after you boost something, it usually means that the particular item has already been put onto the “Today’s best” page, or otherwise into the archives.  For now, just ignore the message and keep on Boosting.  We’ll improve this experience.

What’s next?

Matt and I will be improving things all around and deciding exactly when and how Boost will become tied into the rest of Xanga.  This could mean Boost will be down periodically, or perhaps act strangely.  Remember it’s still very much in development. Thank you for your help and patience!