Ha, our phone GPS once freaked out on us. We followed its directions and drove into an abandoned parking lot. It said, good job, well done, you are now on the interstate. We were all, uh... And we were! Just directly underneath the relevant ramp. We just couldn't tell because of the surrounding buildings. So we drove out, and around, completely confusing the GPS, and then were fine. It was pretty funny, though.

Ha, that's why I was so hesitant to get my Mom a GPS. "They get you were you are going, just not the way you would have chosen". I reminded her a million times, GPS doesn't know everything. I made her use it for her routine stuff for 2 weeks first. So she can get used to the cadence, and how it gives directions, and see it's screwey things like pointing you into a parking lot! Oh technology. Just when you think you have solved all problems, you find a bug.

Just when you think you have solved all problems

Answer: never gonna happen, don't ever exhale on this one, nope.

My father has been labouring under this misconception for decades. He seems to think he's one explanation (from me) away from automating his entire life with...well, now it's a $500 laptop, and not the 8 year old desktop.

no matter how fancy the computer, there will always be PICNIC errors (Problem In Chair, Not In Computer)

OK, this has nothing to do with my iPhone.

If you had to scan many thousands of photos (all shapes and sizes) into a computer, how would you do it? Are there any flatbed scanners (or scanner software) that allows you to scan many pictures at once and save each to a separate file? Any self-feeding scanners that can handle many different photo sizes?

Who has the best software for recognizing faces and tagging photos appropriately?

Also, anyone have experience with a service that digitizes 8mm home movies and burns them to DVD or saves them as movie files?

I'd be hesitant to feed that many pictures into an autofeeder. The edges of the pictures would need to be in pristine condition, and that is rarely the case, unless they were flatbed stored in archives or something. I think at best, you would end up with a bunch of pictures not quite square, and worst, mangled prints in a jammed machine.

As for the video transfer, I google searched "video transfer to DVD", and tons of options came up. First is: [link] No clue how good/bad they are. Look to see if there is a local company in your area.

I would probably wait for a groupon (I've seen at least two in the past several months (not sure which groupon/livingsocial/etc)). Though in that case you could only send one size of picture and would have to do the rest on your own.

I figured out I was looking on the wrong floor of a parking garage that way once. I was very nearly convinced it had been stolen.

Heh. I have done that many times (given the multitude of places I go, usually in a rental car I don't recognize, you'd think I'd have a parking app!). One time a coworker and I parked in Santa Monica in a garage...and when we tried to go back, thought it was stolen, realized we were in the garage...and proceeded to have to go through three MORE identical garages before finding the car.

So, kinda awesome: I ordered an iPad last week (refurbished so cheaper). I had expected it would get to me before I left for a week of training, but no. So Monday they try to deliver it, and I call FedEx and ask for it to be held, they say "Only the shipper can do that!" (which doesn't make any sense, since they check ID at pickup but not at the address). So I call Apple, some guy says he knows what I'm speaking of and will contact FedEx.

...lo and behold, I check today and they already made the third attempt! (I figured yesterday maybe they just hadn't got the message yet). So I call Apple, they say they note that the guy talked to me Monday, etc. I point out that now FedEx will return the package, since they hold two days (Friday) and I'm not back until Saturday.

The lady on the phone was nice, and called up FedEx to conference them in, and this time they were like "Well, I'll put a note, and can't promise they'll hold it an extra day". Er, OK. And the Apple lady was like "well, do you want to just cancel the order?" and I was like "NO, I want an iPad!" and she told me if they have sent it back, she'll ship me a new one overnight. Which is cool, since really it's FedEx's fault.

...and then she said because it had been such a PITA, she was giving me a $100 credit! SWEET!

Apple really does treat you right. Unless you are a Chinese worker. [Er dig is at Apple not you. It turns out Chinese labor is about 2% of total costs. So if enforced decent treatment for workers employed by contractors and that doubled the cost for Chinese labor, the extra cost would be lost in exchange rate fluctuations. ]

This is an interesting iPhone case looking for kickstarter funds. Can't be your only charger, but it would sure be handy in a pinch.

So, I'm still having transcoding issues. Here are two files--the first one streams fine to the TV using PS Server 1.50.1, the second one, no go. But I can't work out which of those stats between them is meaningful, and how I'm supposed to be able to tell on downloading, or what I need to know if I'm going to convert them myself.

Anyone know?