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I am quite surprised how little information is available to address a recent issue with the Maps application not reading offline map tiles on the iPhone/iPod touch despite creating system links. Turns out the existing MapTiles.sqlitedb is not compatible with the latest 2.2 firmware and the database needs to be converted. More information here:

http://imapsmanager.com/mapConverter/mapConverter.htm

and

http://www.touchpodium.com/2008/04/13/view-google-maps-locally-with-maps-offline-01

Once converted, simply SSH over the converted file to the ~/Library/Caches/MapTiles folder. I have tested it and works perfectly now. You can use Touchcmd to quickly configure and rename files to swap map tiles if you intend to use multiple geographic locations. Otherwise, simply replace over the MapTiles.sqlitedb and you should be up and running again.

Some quotes you might hear in the morning after the election depending on who you talk to. Note that they are not representative of anyone or any group in particular, nor do they necessarily represent my views.

“What!?! You mean I wasn’t voting for Obama?! Whoops….”

“I better not lose my job in the next 3 years”

“What a bunch of wasted votes on NZFirst”

“Wow, John Key’s residence looks awfully like a huge palace compared to Aunty Helen’s”

“But Obama’s so blue centre-left Democrat presidential campaign looks so much like National! They even played the ‘change’ card! Now you are telling me we have a centre-right government?”

“Good riddance for X”

“Oh. My. God. what have they done to Sarah Palin”

“I guess no one cares about the environment……enough”

“I won lotto!”

Whichever quote that might be, it may be troubling times ahead. (maybe not for the last one). Again, they do not solely reflect on my opinions.

The most popular musical of all time was in New Zealand so I had to go watch it. Andrew Lloyd Webber had certainly hit the right note with this musical adaptation and it was worth every minute of it. One can truly appreciate why this is Broadway’s longest running musical; 21 years to be precise and countless music theater awards. The last time the Phantom was in New Zealand was 12 years ago so you might have to wait a bit for the next one if you decide to skip this time round. Highly recommended that you attend this.

So Raymond wanted to find out how much he owed Wilson Parking while at Wellington

Dessert on Sunday October 5, 2008

So, earlier this week I received a new batch of Acuvue Oasys contacts to replace my 30 day Night and Day lenses by CIBA Vision. So much for lasting 30 days, the most I had on was 4 days consecutively before it became too uncomfortable to wear. Hopefully this can be a testimonial to whomever that intends to try CIBA Vision - be warned.

Sunday soccer match sees an anti-climax draw with the Wellington Phoenix v Central Coast Mariners for the A-league season at Westpac Stadium.

So Google has decided to jump into the browser market called Chrome. Here is my take on their attempt:

One box for everything - Very interesting concept having the search, history and address bar in one place which really makes you think why on earth do existing browsers out there have a dedicated search box. Note that with a bit of tweaking, you actually can configure other browsers to search directly from the address bar anyway.

New Tab Page - Nothing new here, Opera has implemented a similar speed dial feature eons ago.

Application Shortcuts - Already in Firefox; in Mac OSX Leopard, you can even save portions of webpages as widgets to the dashboard instead of the whole page with Safari.

Dynamic Tabs - You must be using a sub-standard browser if it does not have tabs or have difficulty rearranging and managing them. Chrome’s dynamic tab behaviour is similar to Safari and to a certain extent that of Firefox and Internet Explorer. If the tabs now appear at the top of the address bar instead of below it, so what?

Crash Control - No comment here - all browsers will crash at some point, the recovery expectation has always been the same to restore the previous session. I have not played with Chrome long enough to experience one yet.

Incognito Mode - Amazing what names people will try to come up with instead of just calling it “porn mode”. Nothing new. Available in Safari already.

Safe Browsing - Does sound awfully familiar with Internet Explorer’s “Phishing Filter”. When Microsoft introduced this feature in Internet Explorer 7, there was uproar from the public claiming Microsoft could potentially keep track of what websites you visit when a website is cross-checked against their database. How come no one is complaining when Google implements a similar feature?

Instant Bookmarks - Firefox 3 introduced a one-click bookmark feature. How much instant do you need to be?

Importing settings - Actually, this is a good switching technique. Of course, you want people who try out your new browser to be a painless experience, thus you will think of a easy way to import existing content from other browsers.

Simpler Downloads - Nothing breakthrough here. I will be pretty annoyed if a download bar actually stays on my browser window occupying precious real estate on my laptop screen, even worse if the file download takes a while. Safari and Firefox can be configured to download files with minimal interaction, having default download locations and even process downloads according to their extension.

Other features include:

Developer Tools - Great for developers, useless for everyday users. There should be less and less emphasis on memory management these days. There is a Javascript debugger and Javascript engine. A Task Manager is available to show resource allocation. Again, this is useless for typical everyday use unless you are one of those stats obsessed people that has every single usage meter that measures everything from your CPU speed, memory usage, thread count, temperature etc. I have 4GB of RAM and I the need to call up a task manager is few and far between - obviously this statement may change in the future but it is more-than-enough to load more-than-enough webpages for now.

Setup and configuration - Small install file and standard configuration settings such as proxy servers, search engine preferences, password behaviour and download locations.

At the end of the day, Chrome feels like a mutant hybrid of all the major browsers out there. Based on Webkit, this is the very same platform that powers Apple’s Safari browser, which has been noted for its superior rendering performance over other browsers. The memory management concept would be useful for implementation on mobile devices with limited resources, certainly to think browsers “hog” up memory should be a thing of the past unless you are still on a machine with 256MB RAM (my condolences for that).

Here is an analogy - there are only so many ways you can design a flush system on a toilet. What we really need is a truly innovative way that will completely change our behaviour on how we browse and search the web. There is nothing innovative about Chrome that is not already available in other browsers. I think there is still a fair bit to go before it becomes a serious contender to the browser war.

For more information on Google Chrome, visit http://www.google.com/chrome

For the last time, McCallum + Partners DOES NOT EXIST. The Telecom ad that features staff singing and dancing to the song by Elemno P is completely fictional.

Alarm bells should be ringing left, right and centre when you have:

a) No drinks to be seen on a Friday night drinks event
b) A surprising number of “hot” chicks working for a law firm
c) used a stage set that reminded me of Saatchi & Saatchi’s familiar office in Parnell.

Telecom must be really desperate to feature the use of their technology on a nonexistent company. Perhaps your claim of faster broadband in New Zealand should not be taken literally too. Oh wait, I believe many of us already do.

And Saatchi & Saatchi - shame on you. It is misleading and unethical - at least you could have put an asterisk at the bottom of the ad saying “serving suggestion”. Perhaps you should go back and learn transference of brand image and association. When other companies claim their laptop fits into an internal office envelope, it really does.

And this goes without mention the fake ad by Land Transport NZ’s demanding you have side curtain airbags on your next car. Or the fake CGI fireworks at the Olympics or the lip-syncing. Moving along now…