So far I've updated two of the PCs at home to Windows 10--the Home Theater PC and my own desktop PC. So far so good, really. The upgrades went smoothly in both cases, and I was pleased to see that the desktop reports Windows is activated even though it was upgrading from an, er, unauthorized copy of Windows 8. Maybe that's part of M$'s plan, get even illicit users onto a licensed platform, so they can buy apps and whatnot (and might even pay to upgrade when the next version comes along). I normally don't jump on upgrades, but both of these PCs have had some annoying USB issues under Win8 that I am hoping the upgrade fixes. The movies the HTPC plays are on an external HDD, and it has an annoying habit of dropping out in the middle of playback--just enough to make the movie stop, but if I click to play again, it picks up just fine. And the desktop, occasionally it would just stop recognizing all the attached USB devices, which kills the Internet, mouse and keyboard. Makes it a bit difficult to do anything when that happens, as you might imagine!

So initial thoughts, I like the OS. It's not all that different from Windows 8 for me, since I always had my computers go to a normal Desktop instead of the hated Start screen, and I had Start8 installed to provide a Start menu. It's nice that Win10 defaults to the Desktop and restores the Start menu natively. Performance seems fine so far. The HTPC had one ugly crash immediately after the install, but it's seemed fine since. Haven't really tested enough to make sure the USB dropouts are resolved, we'll see. The desktop has been fine, it seems to have carried over all my settings and whatnot, which is nice, and so far all the software I've tried has worked normally. The one issue I had was with the USB WiFi adapter--it's dual-band but the PC was only seeing the 2.4GHz side of things, and for some reason after a day or so it started being reaalllllly slow with the WiFi. But I found a new driver for the WiFi adapter which seems to have fixed both issues.

So anyway, I figure I'll upgrade the girls' PCs soon as well, and Heather's. She hates Windows 8 so I think she'll like the idea. :)

I'd promised to post about my thoughts on iOS 8 after having upgraded my iPhone 5C to it a week or two back. Basically: I like it, and if you've been hesitating to upgrade for any reason, I say go ahead. It's not all that different from iOS 7 cosmetically, so there's no system shock. And it seems perfectly stable, with the same overall level of performance that I had before. In fact, it may be MORE stable, since the Waze app I like to use for navigation would almost always crash when I launched it, requiring a second launch--no such issues since upgrading to 8. I can't say I've used all of the new features 8 adds, but the recent contacts on the app switcher screen is nifty. And while I've not tried installing any 3rd-party keyboards, the addition of predictive text to the built-in keyboard has impressed me. It makes good suggestions, and apparently gets better as you use it as well (though I'm far from a heavy texter). Overall, two thumbs up.

I booked my flights for Indianapolis this morning, nice to have that done. And the timing is awesome--just yesterday Southwest sent me an e-mail for a double-points promotion covering the timeframe I'll be taking all 4 of these trips! Alas, the bonus points aren't good towards the Companion Pass, which I'm hopeful I can score for next year. But still, the extra points will be good to use towards family trips next year. We're hopeful we can make a Maine/Canada trip happen next summer!

The next trip after Indy will be Bakersfield, and there I have a small dilemma. I like to fly out early so I have most of a day to explore, but I don't know what I want to see this time. I don't think Disneyland/DCA is in the budget this time around, but that's okay. I did really enjoy driving around the mountains of Sequoia Nat'l Forest, and I wouldn't mind doing that again, but I feel like I should do something new. Maybe something along the coast? Something touristy in LA? Catch the taping of a tv show? Find a good park to hike and photograph? Los Padres? Carrizo Plain? I'll do some research, but any suggestions from you fine folks? I expect I'll fly into one of the LA-area airports and drive up to B'field, as usual, and then fly home out of BFD.

I'm planning to take Friday off work, since I didn't have much of a weekend due to the wedding. So maybe Thursday night for another HHN visit, eh? Looks like we're expecting our first cool front this weekend--every time I look, the forecast for Sunday gets cooler. Presently showing a high of 76F and overnight low of 57F. Lovely! And finally an end to this string of rainy days--I think I saw that we had widespread rain on all but 3 days of September, which tied the record. I like rain more than most, but enough is enough!

Okay, better get some work done before I go meet the girls for lunch.

Going to bed last night I remarked to the wife, "That sure didn't feel like much of a weekend." Just a busy one without much downtime!

Friday evening after work we all headed down to Disney's Boardwalk--I was meeting a family for a photoshoot, and Heather and the girls roamed around while I worked. I was warily watching the weather all afternoon, and seeing a huge mass of rain moving in from the Gulf. I almost got in touch with the client to reschedule, but figured what the heck, we'll just see how it goes. And it turned out great! It never rained aside from a few drops, but the rain in the area really dropped the temperature so it felt very nearly pleasant. And we had a great time roaming around shooting, so I was pleased overall.

Saturday morning I hit the road for Disney again for another family session, this time at the Grand Floridian. It was my annual shoot with a family I've been working with for years--I had to look back at my e-mail to verify, but this was year #6! Their kids have changed quite a bit since we first met, as you might well imagine. It was a hot weekend, so we mainly stayed indoors in the hotel, but we started outside (the hotel has a gorgeous 1929 Cadillac sedan that I like to use) and ended back outside as well. I was glad we spent the bulk of our time inside, though!

When I got home, I mainly waited for the parts to arrive to try fixing the TV. They both came, so first I tried putting in the new power board, since it's the cheaper one and regardless I didn't want to risk damaging the new mainboard if the power board was the problem. So I installed it and tested the TV, but it was no different, still flickering and not seeing good signals from the inputs. So I went to put in the new mainboard and.. no dice. It was the exact same board platform, almost all the same components, except for the two ribbon connectors to the screen itself. Bah. So I looked around online again, but the only board I saw that looked like the correct one was listed at $215, which was rather more than I wanted to spend to fix a TV set that wasn't that great in the first place. I broke the news to the wife, and she grudgingly agreed that we'd have to replace it. So I got to researching.

Oh, and somewhere in there I had more photography business: a couple who I used to work with are getting married next month, and asked me to be their photographer. So they dropped by to catch up since I hadn't seen them for a while, and talk about the wedding plans. It all sounds good, but the one thing we couldn't settle on was price. It's tough because I know they're on a budget, and really I wouldn't mind doing it for cheap since I consider them friends. But it's giving up a full day, basically, and my wife rightfully expects that I should be bringing home some money if I'm giving up the time and work. So I dunno, I guess I'll come up with a number to ask for, and let them know that it's open for negotiation. I just hate the business side of things, you know? I need a business partner to handle that stuff. :)

So Sunday became new TV day! I spent a good bit of time researching the models in my price range, and found myself rather limited by my needs. I have an A/V receiver, but it's only for audio, it doesn't switch video or have HDMI inputs or anything. So to support the cable box, Blu-ray player, and home theater PC I need 3 HDMI inputs, plus a component input for the Wii and a good old-fashioned composite input for my old game systems. That last was the real kicker, it seems like a lot of sets have now dispensed with the composite inputs, or only have it as a hybrid with the single set of component inputs, which means you can only use one or the other. Even in HDMI, 3 such inputs is pretty rare on the low-end sets. Also, the wife and kids don't like to mess with the HTPC, so I need a Smart TV that can stream from the computer with a reasonably simple interface (and hopefully offer some other good streaming services and whatnot as well). So looking around, the only model I found in the low-to-midrange that offered smart features with the input mix I needed was the Sony lineup. I liked Samsung's interface and faster processors better, but they lacked the inputs I needed (and cost more to boot). I used to be a big Sony fan, but somewhere along the line they let me down somehow, and I've not been too impressed with our Blu-ray player, which is Sony also. But my hands were a bit tied, so off to Best Buy we went.

I knew which model I wanted (there was no 42" set in the lineup like our old set was, and I didn't want to go smaller, so I opted for the 48" W600B set), so the purchase went quickly. The installation.. not so much. The girls helped me unbox the new set, and I attached the wall-mount brackets, and.. it wouldn't fit on the wall plate. On my old set, the screwholes for the mounting brackets were 200mm apart, but on the new set they were 300mm. So just as is my luck, with the wider spread the power outlet was getting in the way. Long story short, I added some strips of wood to bring the mounting plate out from the wall (and outlet) a little bit, and then I was able to get it mounted. But the whole process took a lot longer than expected, and that ate up much of the day. Once I was finally done, Heather wanted to go to a store to get some homeschooling stuff, so we did that. And then it was dinner time, and then we went on a bike ride around the block, and then we jumped in the pool. The girls had recently come across my box of old game system controllers and wanted to try them, so we fired up the Dreamcast for some Crazy Taxi. Fun! And it was nice to have an actual TV in place when TV time rolled around, too!

OH, we also got new foster kitties! Hermione had been begging to foster again--she remembered that we'd told her maybe after our vacation, of course--and Heather happened to talk about it with one of her flute-playing friends, who said they were fostering a houseful and had a mom and kitten who needed just a little more special attention than they could spare. Mainly, the mom tends to ignore the kitten, so they need to be watched more closely to make sure he's getting enough to eat. So I got the cage down from the attic, and we got that all set up before they brought the kitties over. The girls named the kitten Willy. He is pretty cute, and I doubt more than 3 weeks old.



And that was the weekend. Whew! Now time to end my workday. I didn't think I had any travel on the agenda this week, but my boss just rescheduled our meetings tomorrow from here to St. Pete, so I guess I'll be on the road after all. Ah well, it usually makes for a fairly good day.

So I've probably mentioned my cell phone situation before. I never had one at all until my job issued me one years ago. The first one was a Nextel flip-phone, dumb as they come even for its day. Little monochrome LCD screen with amber illumination. Yes, THAT bad. Eventually they replaced that with a BlackBerry--the old kind with physical keyboard and teensy trackball. The trackball died after a few years, and so I got a newer BlackBerry, same basic form factor, just a newer version (with the pressure pad thing instead of the trackball). A year or two ago I tried to angle for a different smartphone, since BlackBerry was long since surpassed by Apple and Android phones in terms of.. well, everything: speed, power, app selection and support, you name it. I got shot down pretty roundly that time, and told that my BlackBerry was JUST FINE. So I was hesitant to try again, but when my BlackBerry's battery life recently started going downhill, I thought I'd run the flag up again and see if I might have better luck.

So I sent off an e-mail, which got passed to someone else, who dropped my boss an e-mail for approval. My boss is notoriously bad about his e-mail. He's a busy man with lots of irons in the fire, so often an e-mail will linger in his mailbox and eventually get buried by newer e-mails, and that's that. But in a one-on-one call with him last week I asked if he'd seen an e-mail about my cell phone, and explained the situation. He dug through his Inbox and said "Oh yeah, here it is. Must have missed that one." Heh, really? Anyway, he said the only choice they gave him was to switch me to an iPhone 5c. I said I'd really prefer an Android phone if that's a possible option, so he said he'd reply and ask. And that was the last I heard about it--even though I spent the last 3 days sitting next to him in a training class.

Until yesterday, anyway, when I got an e-mail saying there was a package I needed to pick up in the mailroom. I had no idea what it might be, but thought maybe--just maybe--he'd come through for me on the phone thing after all. So I got the package today, and.. it's an iPhone 5c.

I was a little disappointed, to be honest. I consider myself a Google guy, I like the company and their products for the most part, and I like my Android tablet (for which I have lots of apps), so I was really hoping to stick with that ecosystem. More to the point, I am really not an Apple fan. I just never felt that attracted to their products, and basically regard them as overpriced badges of hipness. Without even getting into their business ethics and whatnot (not that Google are angels either, of course). No offense to any Apple fans in the audience, I hope. :) The first and only Apple product I've owned is my PC monitor, which is a fine monitor indeed--but it was given to me, and I know I never would have spent the money on it otherwise. The phone is pretty much the same--since it's from work, I don't pay for it, so really whatever they give me is groovy, right? If I REALLY want a specific device, I should pony up and pay for one personally. But I don't want to have two phones to keep track of, and why foot another bill for something I already get for free?

Anyway, I'm babbling because it's almost time to go home. So far, though, I must admit I like the iPhone. It seems pretty slick, good interface, good performance. The case they gave me to protect it leaves something to be desired, so I might go looking for a better one this weekend. I really don't mean to look this gift horse too squarely in the mouth, and I know a great many people would be thrilled to get a surprise iPhone. I just don't want to become one of those Apple cultists. ;)

And okay, iOS users--any must-have apps you recommend, or tips I might appreciate?

UPDATE: Rather than make a new entry on this somewhat silly topic, I thought I'd add to it here with some initial thoughts after my first weekend with the iPhone.

Positives:
-As expected, the iPhone's camera is very good, and while I'm sure I'll prefer to offload the pics at home and edit them with my usual workflow, the option of editing on the phone and uploading immediately will be handy.
-I do love the speediness of the device--it's quick and responsive, and so far I've noticed no lag whatsoever.
-Great app support. I think iOS still has the edge over Android in that respect--the vast majority of apps support both, of course, but it seems like most of the things that are one or the other are iOS and not Android, for whatever reason.
-The iPhone will be SO much more useful in the car--navigation is the first thing that comes to mind, of course, but there's also the thought of using it for music via Spotify, SiriusXM, and Pandora. I should inquire about whether there are data limits on the company's contract, though!

Cons:
-I was used to having the BlackBerry on a belt clip, at least when I'm at work. The size and weight of the iPhone sort of precludes that, I think. I don't mind carrying it in my pocket too much, but I worry about the wear and tear of doing so, and of course there's more of a chance of absentminded me leaving it lying around somewhere.
-Also as expected, there are things in the OS that Apple chose to restrict or not offer that I don't like. The ability to delete certain apps, or even hide them, for example. The Stocks app is one I have no use for, and yet all I can do is stick it in a folder and ignore it. With my BlackBerry I had the ability to create a number of sound and ringer profiles, so I could have a completely silent mode, a vibrate-only mode, and an audible mode. There doesn't seem to be any such functionality for the iPhone, and there don't even seem to be any apps to add anything like that. Seems silly.
-I've never been particularly good at typing on tiny mobile keyboards, but I seem to have a high miskey rate on the iPhone. I dunno if it's a combination of my big hands and the non-adhesive screen cover my case has or what. I'm learning to aim just a little to the left of the key I want, that seems to help.
-Speaking of the keyboard, I don't like that it always shows capital letters, whether Shift/Caps Lock is engaged or not. On the Android, the on-screen keyboard switches to lowercase when appropriate, and I like that since I know at a glance what I'm going to get when I type. Maybe there's a setting in iOS? Looks like not. Another bit of Apple silliness!
-Perhaps a minor quibble, but my Blackberry and Nexus tablet (not to mention my wife's Kindle and Hermione's Kindle Fire) all use a micro USB port for charging and data transfer, which made it simple to have a single charger and plug in whichever device needed a charge. The iPhone uses Apple's Lightning connector, so that's another cable required, or at least an adapter. Universal ports and cables=good!

Overall though, it's nice to finally have a true smartphone, even if it's an Apple product. :) I've ordered some cables and adapters this morning to scatter around so I can charge at home, in the car, here at work, etc. I think I'd like to look into a car mount as well, and whatever adapter makes sense to connect to the handsfree system I have. It does phone functions via Bluetooth, of course, but with a hardwired connection to an iOS device there are some other bells and whistles that become available, I think, like navigation instructions through the stereo. Worth checking out, anyway.