Category Archives: Technology

A night in NYC with my iPhone

After a sweet evening in NYC watching Moonspank play at the legendary Bitter End, I was reflecting on how truly amazing the mobile phone is. I have an iPhone as most of you know, but it really applies to most mobile devices. Heres a summary of the evening:
– Got a call telling me my ride was here, went outside.
– Driving down, i cracked open the maps application to figure out the best route to Bleeker street from Mt. Vernon.
– Wanted to see what other bands were playing, went to the Bitter End’s Website to check.
– Made a move in my chess game with a friend who’s on the road (game has been going on for a few weeks now)
– Sent out a mass text reminding my friends in NYC of the event.
– Got to the Bitter End, but wanted some food for me and the peeps. Cracked open ‘AroundMe’ app, came up with the Half Pint about 2 blocks away.
– Jumped on Yelp to make sure the ratings were good.
– Sent the address of the Half Pint to my girlfriend and her sister so they could meet us there.
– Took a really cool picture of the green room at the Bitter End.
– Posted a pic of Moonspank to Facebook.
– Tweeted some Moonspank lyrics to the masses.
– Shot a short video of Moonspank’s “Electric Freak pt 2”
– After the show, jumped on MTA website to check the train schedules from GCT to Hawthorne NY.
– Posted a pic of Tony wearing a ridiculous hat on the train
– Verified my girlfriend got home ok via SMS
– Wrote a reminder on my ‘Now Do This’ app to pick up a new battery for my home phone (random I know, but for some reason i remembered i needed a new battery when i got home)
– Opened Log Me In on iPhone – went onto my office computer to check what time my conference call was for the following day, and the dude’s name i had to talk to. From my computer, emailed all the info to myself so i’d have it for the call.
– Played ‘The Void’ video game on my iPhone
– Went to sleep! zzzzzzzz

I reflect like this, because at one point in the night my iPhone locked up. I literally panicked! A dozen thoughts went through my head…how am i going to take pictures? How will i find out where everyones going after the show? How will i let my friends know where I’m at? Etc, etc! Luckily, I just restarted it and all was well. But that made me realize that our mobile phones these days are far beyond a convenience, they’re a necessity!

Call Yourself!

OK heres a cool little way to make your computer call you whenever you want. Its kinda like a wake up call, and combines skype, a batch file, and windows scheduled tasks.

First, install skype and add some credit if you dont already have it. Then, open up notepad, and put the following in it:
“C:\Program Files\Skype\Phone\Skype.exe” /callto:+18005551212

Replace the 18005551212 with the number you want to call. Save that file as callme.bat.

Now, open control panel then scheduled tasks. Hit ‘add scheduled task’ then under the prog list choose ‘browse’ and select the batch file you just created (callme.bat).

From there, just choose when you want it to run – daily, weekly, etc., and schedule the call.

This works pretty reliably – AND under advanced settings you can choose to have the scheduled task wake the computer up to perform it. I suggest if you do this, schedule the task twice – sometimes the first call wont work as the computer is still waking up and the net connection isnt activated yet.

This is a cool way to have a wake up call, a reminder, etc. I wouldnt be surprised if someday skype incorporates this directly into the interface, but in the meantime its a neat little windows hack. Enjoy!