Blackberry Desktop Manager Sync Error Fix

January 14th, 2010 § 0

An issue that I’ve met head on a few times since getting my Blackberry is I’m randomly greeted with a sync error. It’s an error that’s sort of crushing to see, that and it usually screws up whatever it’s trying to sync. Today I did some searching after my contact list went missing and came across a post over at VoIP Tech Chat where they went over a couple of fixes and I’m now going to go over what fixed it for me.

First I was greeted with this:

Where proceeded to try to retry a couple of times before getting frustrated and started googling. I came across their post where they outlined a couple of fixes that all circled around Mac OS X’s Sync Manager. The last fix on the page was one that seemed promising (that or I’m biased towards terminal based fixes). I opened up terminal and ran the command below:

/System/Library/Frameworks/SyncServices.framework/Versions/A/Resources/resetsync.pl reset

First I ran this with Blackberry Desktop Manager closed and then again with it running. Both times it told me that there were no matching processes but if you watch a list, say the list of calendars it will clear out and re-populate after running the command. Hope this helps!

In 2010 I Will…

January 2nd, 2010 § 1

Go generate your own New Year’s resolution here.

Thanks for the heads up Mrod!

Temporary Twitter Accounts

December 3rd, 2009 § 5

The other day while heading to class on the T I had a thought. Why doesn’t Twitter offer temporary accounts? For example, you have an event that you’re promoting via Twitter and once the event is done you don’t plan on ever touching the account again. Why not have a process to automatically remove these accounts? In comes a temporary Twitter account.

Ideally you would be able to create an account and set an end date on which the account would expire. For example if your event is December 11th you could set the account to expire December 15th so that you can see reactions and respond to them appropriately. On the expiration date the account no longer allows anyone to log in and if a user attempts to visit the account directly it will display a page letting the user know that the account was only temporary and has queued for deletion. Additionally at the same time the account becomes inactive it will tweet on last time so that everyone following the account will have been notified in some fashion, at this time the account will be removed from the following list of any followers for the account. After a waiting period, say 60 days, the account no longer displays a warning message to users and is returned to the pool of available names. This would allow for a wide variety of temporary events to interact while not wasting usernames, often times useful ones.

Let me know what you think of my idea in the comments.

Creative Advertising is Awesome

November 19th, 2009 § 1

Coming from a small town I never really got to see a whole lot of this awesome advertising that I’d see and read about via Twitter and other social media outlets. When I moved to Boston for school I knew that’d change, after all this is the city that’s famous for (justifiably) panicking over Aqua Teen Hunger Force’s prank. Today I finally got my first taste of some truly awesome advertising. As I walked into the George Sherman Union here at BU there was an odd bald man standing and staring out the door, strange but I continued to Starbucks. On my way I noticed about half a dozen other bald men standing just staring straight ahead. As I walked towards Starbucks one leapt forward, handed me a small bottle of Tabasco Sauce and told me that Fox’s Fringe was on tonight at 9pm. I certainly wish I were going to be around to see how Tabasco Sauce and lots of bald men have anything to do with the show.

All in all I was just excited to see some sort of fun advertising, and at least for me it was certainly an effective tactic.

Facebook is Pathetic

October 26th, 2009 § 0

I’ve been on Facebook since it was first opened to high school students, when it was still very basic. It was great, it was fast and much easier on the eyes than it’s dreaded counterpart Myspace. Then it became insanely popular and started to slow down, I understand that happening but it’s been in the news and publicized insane amounts over the past couple of years and it’s number of users has jumped through the roof. Granted I do not fully understand backend development on a site the size of Facebook but regardless, I find it a little pathetic that after all this publicity, money, and users that they still can’t manage to have uptime more than 1/4 (if even) of the time that I try to log on. For any other company on the net this would be inexcusable (look at Gmail’s recent outage and the ensuing outrage) but for Facebook it’s ok? Why?

Facebook’s development is great but to me it seems as though they’re moving too fast for their servers (or even users sometimes) to handle. They open the site to developers, great, but now it’s even slower and more annoying with all these applications. They open up their login to developers, great, but now if you try to use it you just have to pray that at that particular moment the site is responding and you don’t get stuck half logged in with a fancy little lightbox that you can’t get out of stuck over the site.

Today I pose one question and a possibly simpler answer. Why is Facebook able to get away with their terrible uptime/availability? My solution: Slow down. Stop trying to do everything at once, make sure the backend can support these ridiculous things.

I keep thinking that they might get on top of things and every time I do they swamp themselves with another release of the news feed or something of the like. I feel as though this is just irresponsible development and quite frankly, pathetic. I’m just waiting to pounce on the next big social network to get away from this horrid thing.

Sound Sculpture

October 20th, 2009 § 0

This is a pretty awesome video that I just came across thanks to GOOD. I had never actually heard of a sound sculpture before seeing this but it’s a pretty cool concept and the video is absolutely amazing, I’ve got a deep respect for Daniel Franke, the creator and his efforts. Take a look:

One Minute Soundsculpture from Daniel Franke on Vimeo.

Notice the detail in this, the reflection on the floor, the lack of movement as the camera moves around and shakes. I’m simply in awe and would love to know a little more about this.

New Portfolio Live!

October 1st, 2009 § 0

Screen shot 2009-10-01 at 9.30.32 PM

I’ve been trying to get around to creating a new portfolio for a long time now and I’ve just launched my new portfolio at http://portfolio.jamisonkissh.com. I attempted to keep the minimalist look of my blog that I adore but I’m not sure if I succeeded, please let me know what you think!

Holy Swine Flu!

October 1st, 2009 § 2

Today I was taking a look at the Republican American and local news to see what was going on back in my home state and I was simply amazed by the number of H1N1 stories in the news section. Take a look at the screen shot below for today…

Screen shot 2009-10-01 at 10.06.05 AM

Twitter Returns a 403

September 14th, 2009 § 0

So where else am I supposed to turn when Twitter is returning a 403 error? My blog of course. Just tried to go to the actual Twitter website and was presented with this screen

Screen shot 2009-09-14 at 8.02.18 PMI just found is strange that they let the server return it’s own error message than one of their usual fail whale messages.

Theater Supporters: We Need Help

September 10th, 2009 § 1

UPDATE: Hello and thank you for finding my post however we’ve migrated this information and updates on our efforts to a new website, http://www.savethetoh.com

Today my hometown, Thomaston, CT laid off the executive director of the Thomaston Opera House, Jeff Dunn and the funds development director, Kera Jewett. These are two of the four full time people that run Thomaston Opera House that were laid off. This comes after an announcement that the town would no longer support the theater in the coming years and the board of directors would need to lease the space from the Town of Thomaston. These measures remove extremely critical links in the financial handlings of the Thomaston Opera House. This opera house is one of the few, if not only extremely recognizable landmarks in the town. The town does not realize that by removing these links they are essentailly destroying theater and one of the last remaining forms of art that are publicly support (our public schools severely lack in the arts). This change has a huge impact on the town and the arts community that has grown and has been fostered by the Thomaston Opera House.

In an effort to help save our theater we are asking that supports of the arts (especially theater) contact the first selectman of Thomaston by the following means:

First Selectman
Maura E. Martin
158 Main Street, Level 4
Phone: 860-283-4421
Fax: 860-283-1378
Email: mmartin@thomastonct.org

In addition to contacting the first selectman I ask that you please share this via Twitter, Facebook, and any other means you feel necessary.

Please help us! We anticipate a website to support the theater to come soon as well as a flurry of updates that I’ll post here and on Twitter.

Update (9/10 11:11pm): At the moment the direct number is redirecting to the call board, enter extension 504 when the menu starts.

Update (9/10 11:14pm): Here is a wonderful note written by a member of the Thomaston Opera House’s community:

Staff Members Cut from Opera House

Thursday morning the Selectman of the Town of Thomaston made the rash decision to cut both the Executive Director and the Funds Development Director of the Thomaston Opera House, cutting staffing in half. This begs the following question:

What will happen to the Thomaston Opera House?

Jeffrey Dunn has been involved at the Thomaston Opera House since 1991. His success is obvious. After floundering for 24 years and enduring 3 closures, the Commission hired Mr. Dunn and a counterpart. From 1991 to 1999 they tripled the budget for the Opera House using the model of community theater. Mr. Dunn became the executive director in 1999 and to date had again doubled the budget of the Opera House, quadrupled attendance and turned it into what could be referred to as a “regional theater.” His standing in the local community and the region has had long standing effects on the Opera House and the Town at large. He is a member of Rotary, Economic Development and Arts and Culture Collaborative of Waterbury. He has helped the Town of Thomaston transition from a dying manufacturing center to a Main street centered around the arts. The Opera House was key in moving in the Black Rock Tavern to town and indeed many organizations in Town have stated they could not exist in Thomaston without the presence of the Opera House.

Jeffrey Dunn hired Kera Jewett the Funds Development Director in 2008. Ms. Jewett holds her Masters in Arts Administration from Drexel University and is a member of the Americans for the Arts. In her short time at the Thomaston Opera House, she was key in quadrupling the donor list, securing funding from new corporations and foundations, and doubling the subscribers that attended. Ms. Jewett is responsible for funding Phase II of the restoration effort at the Opera House, totaling in $150,000.

In addition to the development of the organization, Mr. Dunn and Ms. Jewett have secured $850,000.00 in capital funding since 1991 to a building the Town of Thomaston owns. While the organization does have a $100,000 deficit, it could be said that this is minimal in comparison to the capital improvements made on a facility otherwise neglected. The Opera House survives on a $500,000 and independently staffs itself and its operations, despite the connection with the Town of Thomaston.

Which begs the questions above. It is certain that without an executive director, without a fundraising department, and without leadership, the Thomaston Opera House is sure to fail. What will become of the Thomaston Opera House? Who will restore the building ready to fall? Who will grace to her stage when everyone else is gone?
If you love the THOMASTON OPERA HOUSE and seek its survival, please contact the Town of Thomaston [(860) 283-4421] in support of these positions and in favor of the success of the Thomaston Opera House.

Come show your support at the FINANCE MEETING TONIGHT AT TOWN HALL 7:00pm.

Go to the First Selectmen’s brown bag lunch every Wednesday from 12-2pm and tell her how you feel.

Go to the Selectmen Board meetings every Tuesday at 7:00pm.

Please continue to make the Thomaston Opera House a place where the community can come to laugh, cry, and play..

This note can be found in it’s original form from Jimmy Donohue on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=146679470488

Update (9/11/09 7:45am): The story has appeared in the local papers. The Republican American article does a very good job at highlighting the importance of the Thomaston Opera House and it’s ramifications.

Update (9/11/09 6:20pm): The story has appeared in more of the local papers. The Register Citizen, a Torrington based paper also highlights the importance of these two people. The comments on this post are also very interesting to say the least.

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