Macs suck: file paths

I am starting on a new series I call “Macs suck”. Case in point: file paths.

OS X is a UNIX system (BSD in fact). Paths are thus in the form /directory/subdirectory/file. But OS X presents paths in a convulated form: Drive/directory/subdirectory/file. Notice the problem? Programs which expect form A, when given a path in form B, get totally confused since that path isn’t valid!

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New Cellphone: Motorola W490

I now have a new cellphone: The T-Mobile Motorola W490. Like all recent T-Mobile phones, it has their fabulous myFaves service and EDGE data. Like any respectable modern cellphone, it has Bluetooth 2.0 support, as well as a microSD slot, exterior screen, and 1.3MP camera.

Pros:

• World Phone (GSM) on T-Mobile USA’s amazing network, with free national roaming on both 850 MHz and 1900 MHz.
• Fast EDGE data with free tethering via the USB port or via Bluetooth (requires a proxy on the tzones plan)
• Uncrippled phone for the most part (Java apps have iffy Internet access, but I’m just on the tzones plan)
• Stylis “thin” Motorola phone, people thinks its a KRZR (at NONE of the cost)
• AIM/ICQ/Windows Live/Yahoo! Messenger

Cons:

• the Motorola buttons are a bit.. odd
• You can’t use exterior screen as an egocam
• J2ME applications can’t use the internet without some hacking that damages the built in applications

Got any more comments on this phone, T-Mobile service, what not? Hit me up in the comments.

AT&T Messenger 5.0 review

AT&T released their new AT&T Messenger 5.0 IM client (http://www.att.net/messenger), based on the former BellSouth Messenger client acquired from the AT&T purchase of BellSouth almost a year ago.

AT&T Messenger is probably one of the few branded IM clients provided by an Internet provider and only available to their Internet customers. It’s currently only available to AT&T FastAccess DSL and AT&T WorldNet customer. There’s no expected date for AT&T Yahoo! customers to have access to the client. However, AT&T Messenger is based on Jabber, so you can IM all of your friends on Gmail, Livejournal, etc.. just by adding them. They can add you via your bellsouth.net or att.net email address.

Another great feature: multi-protocol compatibility. You can add your Windows Live Messenger, AIM, and Yahoo! Messenger accounts and chat with your friends on those networks. While you can’t recieve files, etc.. from those users, the 3 special features of AT&T Messenger are available to you with them, such as file sharing, photo sharing, and webcam.

AT&T provides 3 really cool features with their client:

1. AT&T File Sharing: Send a file to a user on AT&T, or any other protocol it supports, and it’ll send the user a download link to the file
2. AT&T Folder Sharing, similar to Windows Live’s product
3. AT&T Photo Sharing lets you share photos with ease, manage them locally and send users a link over IM
4. AT&T Video Sharing lets you watch each other’s webcam, even if the other user doesn’t have AT&T Messenger

Overall, their IM product is not bad, even if it can use a better UI. It’s functional and fairly bug free. Kudos to the AT&T Messenger team, and if you have Jabber, hit me up at jhaygood86@bellsouth.net