However, here I am a couple Vista updates later in mid October 2007, and my saved passwords no longer work: I can’t access my Macs from Vista. The old saved passwords simply don’t work. These used to be of the form:

MACHINE\USERNAME (or machine\username)

For example, say my Mac is named “NORTHPOLE” in the Computer Name field of Sharing in System Preferences, and say my username is rudolph.

My login from Vista would be: NORTHPOLE\RUDOLPH
My password would be normal.

Well it was no longer working. I even tried the same via typing in my IP in the Network App in Vista: \\10.0.1.xxx\NORTHPOLE, then trying the same login.

Well I finally figured it out. Now it requires a MIX of caps and lowercase. The machine name must be caps, and the username (which goes to the Mac OS) must be lowercase.

So, in the above example, the correct login would be:
NORTHPOLE\rudolph

Go figure.

The song’s title is: “Cellphone’s dead”.

How apropos, as it’s an iphone without the cellphone, hahaha.

But the conspiracy theory? Obviously AT&T doesn’t want Skype on iPhone, and neither does Apple, at least not yet until the AT&T deal is done.

So is it coincideence? Just as Skype is kludged onto iPhone, the Skype network goes down worldwide. Software misconfiguration my arse =) I guess they the Skype techs haven’t heard of the concept of “restore from backup”.

Yes that’s an “M” for mega. This cellular service will be faster than wired home internet. By several orders of magnitude. Imagine the iPhone on this.

My ADSL is consumer grade, with 1.5Mbps DL speed, which is pretty standard for much of the US, with some regions at double that speed (3.0Mbps), or half that speed, 768 Kbps.

In related news DoCoMo is helping fund AT&T’s 3G network in the United States, specifically on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, which is a destination for many Japanese tourists, who find they cannot use their handsets because NTT’s 2G is proprietary and incompatible, and GSM is not included on their 3G phones. Read more here at PC World.

Of course AT&T’s outlets have been sold out completely for days, and since Apple’s online store is still showing a 2-4 week shipping estimate, look for prices on Craigslist and eBay begin to rise, at least until new production arrives.

UPDATE: Looks like this Friday July 6, many Apple Stores in some states (but not Texas or California) have received more units and are again in stock. If you really want a unit, and your area is sold out, hang out next Friday as that is the end of the 14 day unopened return policy. You’ll likely see many speculators returning their units then.

Try this: Go to eBay and open up say 20 different 8GB iPhone auctions with bids that are about to end soon in different browser tabs. You can check the ending prices in an hour or whatever by refreshing each tab. Then leave the browser tabs open. Check back in 24 hours, refreshing each tab again, and most of the auctions that ended over $750 will be canceled by eBay security, which apparently has over 2000 investigators currently on the lookout for iPhone fraud. When I checked early morning July 3rd, about 70% had been canceled in my (quasi) random sample. Results may vary on auction close time depending on the time zones the scammers are from.

Closing prices for legitimate auctions may inch higher as availability at Apple Stores becomes more scarce, but the scammers (with hijacked eBay accounts) may not tire, because once they win the auction, they receive the seller’s direct email address. Even if the auction is canceled by eBay security, they may try to get the seller to ship anyways through phishing.

See my own experience with a hijacked buyer in “eBay iPhone Fraud: Sellers Beware: Update 3 below). This scam attempted to convince me in dead earnest to ship the item to a specific address in Nigeria.

UPDATE 1:
Looks like eBay security is finally making a dent in the iPhone scammers. I tried another survey today for auctions for 8gig units ending later afternoon today (July 3) Pacific time. Out of about 15 auctions, only 1 ended suspiciously high, over $800. Yesterday a full two thirds in my small sample ended over $800, and were subsequently canceled.

UPDATE 2:
24 hours later on July 4, all auction ID numbers in my new sample were still valid, none canceled by eBay security. Looks like these past 36 hours, it’s been getting more probable that legitimate buyers and sellers would hook up with each other. Good job to eBay; I’m sure they dealt with a similar process with the PS3 and Wii.

Like many of you, I live on both sides of the fence. I’ve had Apples through the ][+ and SEs and PCs since the original 8086 and XT.

Currently I have a Peecee, specifically a Compaq laptop. However I <3 the Apple GUI.

So I wanted to share one teeny Apple-like tweak that gives me pleasure on my Peecee, a Dashboard jury-rig. If you have a Compaq, you may very well have those “One Touch” buttons along the top. I have one of these buttons set on something like Exposé. XP has a “show desktop” function, and that’s what I’ve set it to; it’s not exactly the same, but the essential gestalt gut feel of it is the same: If I’m sick of overlapping windows, I just reach for a physical button, without thinking, and they are gone. I push it again, and the windows are back.

To set it, do the following:
(more…)

But something was fishy.

The red flags: I had a reserve and the auction ended right at the reserve. I looked closer. The second place bid was in the range of what iPhones were selling for today, which was way below my reserve which I had set back when they were selling for more about 36 hours ago. That meant the winning bidder just bid WAY above the going price. Red flag number one. Then I got the email from eBay that I had sold an item. The email address of the winning bidder looked like a spam email, a senseless 15-long jumble of random letters and numbers @ jetable.net. That’s #2. I checked out jetable.net, and it’s an email REDIRECT service. That was red flag #3. I looked at the bidder’s account. Feedback was low, only 5. I looked closer and the last transaction was 2 1/2 years ago in January 2005. That was red flag #4. Damn. Well I’m nervous at this point, but figure if the PayPal address is truly confirmed, then who knows. I post a question to the eBay answer center and think. I’ve received no payment yet.

As I’m fretting with my capitalistic greed, I receive a new email.
It was from eBay’s security department and here’s what it said:
(more…)

Click here for auction. The auction lasts 1 day and will end on Sunday at 11:45am Pacific time.

BTW it was interesting to note that eBay instituted a wise set of iPhone selling restrictions. The gist of it is: 1) no Pre-sales; the seller must have an actual unit in hand. 2) The auction must be accompanied by a photo of the actual unique item. 3) The seller’s eBay account name must also be visible in this photo, along with the unit to be sold. It must be part of the scene (i.e. physically written), rather than Photoshopped in. 4) PayPal is the only method of payment for the iPhone.

Even still, there are risks for the sellers. Therefore most sellers are requiring buyers to list shipping addresses that are PayPal confirmed as being the same as the billing address of one of their credit cards. Whew. I noticed that the eBay staff was very proactive, and taking down auctions that did not comply; I’m sure they are trying to avoid any bad publicity, for which the potential does exist wiht this madly-hyped item. I also noticed that the earliest auction I saw was taken down or removed– before that happened, I saw it had an auction price of of $20,000.