blackberry Posts

Blogging From My Blackberry!

19 Dec , 2008 No Comments

One of my biggest challenges with this blog is finding the time to write new posts. It seems like sometimes life moves too fast to get all the things done we want to in a day! So, I realized I needed to adapt and go mobile if I ever wanted this blog to grow. I made a bunch of tweaks to the default WordPress software (which runs this blog). At first things crashed and burned – scratch that – they didn’t even get off the ground. The first dozen tries resulted in posts filled with random characters as if someone given my Blackberry a good shake (or tried to see if Blackberry’s can float – hint: they can’t!). A little bit more tweaking of the encoding methods being used by the Blackberry device and parsed by the WordPress software and presto! I’m blogging from my Blackberry!

There is one small limitation that’s yet to be solved. While text posts work fine, there’s still not a good way to send pictures I snap on my Blackberry up to the site to be included in postings. There actually is a software add-on available for this purpose, but it opens up a major security hole. No thanks! I’ll stick to posting plain old text rather than compromise security on the server. I’ll write my own sofware to securely address this issue when I find some extra time, but until then, I’ll just add pictures manually after the posts go live (like I did with this one). At least I can do all the time consuming part of actually writing the posts easily on the go – in my car, in the air, or basically anywhere!

Blackberry's Don't Float

11 Sep , 2008 No Comments

Well, I’ve personally confirmed that Blackberry’s don’t float!  My little experiment wasn’t really by choice but rather by a very late night of working and not paying attention as I got ready for bed.

It was about 3am and I was just finishing washing my hands in the sink when my elbow hit the side of my Blackberry 8830 phone clipped (not so securely) to my pants pocket.   An instant later I heard a thump sound which I knew was the sound of something bad… my Blackberry had gone for an unexpected swim in the toilet!  It’s at this moment that I paused briefly thinking to myself – do I just reach in there and grab it?  For those of you who know me, you know the Blackberry is sacred to me so a moment later I reached in and grabbed it to rescue the device from its watery grave.   I immediately pulled the battery and dried it off… but would it work again?   I pushed the on button but no dice – I figured that it was dead already!  Perhaps I shouldn’t have paused for a second before swooping my hand into the toilet to grab it out and the little guy would have made it.

So, the next day I went off to Verizon and shared the results of my exciting experiment with them – it turns out many others have done the same as me so my research was hardly groundbreaking.   About 15 minutes later and I was walking out the door with a brand new Blackberry 8330 Curve.   It’s a great phone and I love the camera and video recorder.  The keyboard is also much better than my previous Blackberry.   Anyway, I’ll leave the review for another time, that’s not the point of this post.  The bottom line is I love the new Blackberry!

But one thing still daunted me in the back of my mind…  could I still revive my old Blackberry?  Not that I’d be using it anymore now that there’s a new kid in town with my Blackberry Curve…  but, it was worth a shot regardless.

The CPR begins!  After doing some quick research online, I found two methods that are known to be good ones for reviving dead phones.  Instead of choosing one or the other, I did both.   First, I soaked my Blackberry in rubbing alcohol.   This is supposed to remove moisture (and also get all those nasty toilet germs off of the keys since it might someday be pressed up against my face again!).   I soaked it for a while and splashed it around a bit too.  I let it dry overnight sitting on top of a cable box which gave it a warm place to rest and recover.  The next day I used the second method I discovered.   I put the Blackberry into a bag of plain white uncooked (very important!) rice.  I sealed it up and let it sit for a few days.  The uncooked rice is supposed to absorb any type of moisture.

The conclusion:  (Drumroll…) I pulled my former Blackberry out of the bag… put in the battery…  on came the red light… then an few moments later… LIFT OFF!   The device started booting up and worked perfectly!  One of the things that makes Blackberry’s great is their ability to survive disasters – whether dropped, thrown, or even drown… they just keep on kickin’ and won’t ever give up the fight to survive!