Passion
Remember When iPod Sales Converted Buyers to Macs?
Remember times past when the sales of iPods led to Windows users switching to Macs? I wonder if a similar situation will occur with the Apple Watch and the iPhone. Because you need an iPhone to link with an Apple Watch, will this spur more iPhone converts as the Apple Watch gains momentum?
And before you pooh pooh the starting price tag of $350 for the Apple Watch, just remember how much iPods used to cost.
- March 2002 – Original (non-touch) Wheel 10GB $499
- September 2003 – 20GB and 40GB for $399 and $499
- September 2006 – iPod Video 30GB, 80GB for $249 and $349
iPod purchases led to purchases of $1000+ Macs, so could a $350 Apple Watch lead buyers to a $650 (unsubsidized) iPhone 6?
Dou’ssants Are Now Croissant Donuts
Fluffy like a croissant.
Sweet like a donut.
That’s all you gotta know as Safeway’s version of the cronut has changed names yet again. When the cronut apex was upon us, Safeway advertised Donut Croissants. Then came the more sophisticated French name of the Dou’ssant. Darn delicious I say. Now Safeway has dropped the pretense and has simply gone with the Croissant Donut. Still same price, different packaging, but still there.
Apple’s “One More Thing”
Uttered the first time since the death of Steve Jobs, the one more thing was the expected wearable, the Apple Watch.
Hmmm, the typeface used on Pulpconnection isn’t displaying the Apple logo when typing Option-Shift-K. This should be the logo ?.
Test Post Email Subscription
Gotta test if posting triggers an email notification. Plus here’s a bonus picture of the OG Liliha Bakery.
Converted to DreamPress
There, it’s done. Pulpconnection is back, and this time it’s running on Dreamhost’s managed WordPress service called DreamPress. Over the years, I went from a shared server to a virtual private server (VPS) that gave me more control but meant that I had to exert more control. That’s good and bad. There were times when things went haywire, and I didn’t know why. Of course, craziness could still happen with DreamPress, but at least, there’s dedicated support and more importantly a scalable platform. Instead of me allocating more memory to servers, DreamPress does the magic. How I don’t know. Like I said, magic.
The cost too of DreamPress is hard to argue. Right now, DreamPress is discounted to $20 a month. Try squeezing in enough memory allocation on a VPS for $20 a month. Doesn’t get you much. So by switching to DreamPress, I can reduce my VPS resources significantly for my other projects, more than $20 a month.
There’s more to learn about DreamPress, but overall I think there’s less to know like fine tuning WP installs and optimizing WP. The biggest learning curve for DreamPress is actually getting DreamPress to work for Pulpconnection. Dreamhost has an automated feature that converts existing “one-click” WordPress installs to DreamPress. Unfortunately for me, Pulpconnection wasn’t a one-click install or maybe it was back in the day but doesn’t now qualify as “one-click.” So what does that mean? A manual transfer to DreamPress.
For this Mac user, working via the command line is a frightening endeavor. Fortunately, there are good instructions, specifically this Migrating to DreamPress post. Read it and reread it. It’s all there. Okay, I noticed one or two minor changes, but they weren’t show stoppers. The scp secure copy created an extra subdirectory for the copied files but that was fixed with the Move to Parent feature in Panic’s Transmit.
The other scare was importing the Pulpconnection SQL database backup. From PHPMyAdmin, I found the Import tool, but the database was simply too large for the max import size. Dreamhost chat tech support came through by directing me to import through the shell. I had to literally write out the command line on paper to make sure I had all the parameters correct. Less than a minute later, the SQL import was silently done.
So here we are. Hopefully, less technical headaches and notifications that Pulpconnection servers had to restart for whatever reason. And definitely less stress for me. 🙂
Time to Change Up the iPod
It’s about time to change up the venerable iPod. Sure, it transformed Apple and led the company into new business lines, but the device itself is becoming an anachronism right before our very eyes. The basics of the iPod has pretty much been subsumed by other Apple iDevices. As a music player, the iPod still gets the job done, but nowadays, it’s about multifunction and flexibility. Listen to music, play games, AND be online – you get the picture.
So why not revamp the iPod line? Keep the iconic name but repurpose its ambiguous name. How about a multipurpose home device? One that acts like a WiFi basestation or extender. Supports Time Machine backups over the air? For certain models, why not? Include speakers? That could be possible to act as an AirPlay end point.
Charging station… now this has some promise. How many Apple chargers and cables do you have. Enough right? I have a basket of assorted cables and chargers to rummage through. How about the “new” iPod acting as the central charger that has USB cables to connecting your Lightning or 30-pin connector cable? Wireless charging anyone? Perchance the iWatch? You want yet another charging station for the iWatch or an integration of all the charging systems?
And of course, while charging your iPhone with the new iPod, the iPhone is backing itself up to the internal iPod storage then to iCloud (over time). How about caching new app updates to the iPod storage? Instead of reaching out to the Internet for updates, your iDevices just need to connect to your high speed, household Wifi to pull in the recent updates.
Yup, the iPod can ride again.
WordPress 4 is out
And to make tinkering even more fun challenging, I learned that WordPress 4 just released along with a bunch of updates for WP plugins.
Tinkering
Not sure why but Pulpconnection has been extremely slow recently. Parts of it work fine but other parts just fail to load. Gotta tinker around to see what’s going on. Unloading and uninstalling stuff to make things simpler then we’ll see how it goes.
LEGO Space 1976
LEGO is promoting its new VIP giveaway of a classic Spaceman minifigure with a collage showing LEGO space adventures over the years. Check out 1976.
That’s the Lunar Lander for which I still have the assembly instructions!
Another Air Jordan 3 Hybrid
And another hot seller for Nike. Seemingly any (tastefully done) crossover with the iconic Air Jordan 3 is an instant success with the latest being the Nike Zoom Vapor AJ3. Take the design from the AJ3, apply to the silhouette of the Zoom Vapor 9.5 Tour, make a limited quantity available at Nike Labs, and watch the pairs sell out in less than four minutes. When I saw the tweet announcing the Vapor release, it was four minutes old, and the Nike Lab site was already reporting out of stock messages.
Back in the day, I remember the P-Rod with the Jordan elephant print. This was the days before online kicks buying went crazy and just finding this shoe was super hard. I managed to see it in person once. Then came the Air Force 1 hybrid with the AJ3 which I managed to get a pair of and wore while watching President Obama leave in Air Force One.
I wasn’t so lucky with the Vapor AJ3. Just gotta hope a restock happens while you’re online so you have a chance of getting these. Or how about a black version of the Vapor AJ3?