ReadRaymond

Sybille and I took a weekend hop to ACY (Atlantic City, NJ) for my Dad's 60th birthday - much to his surprise.  It was months in planning, Sandy doing most (all) of the work.  All we had to do was make our way to Vineland from the airport for the b-b-q and the loverly brunch the next day at a local winery.

It was a great weekend.  Full of laughs, happiness and love.  Happy birthday, Dad!

As the song says (and I played it while posting this):  It's Good To Be In Love from the album "Details" by Frou Frou.

I caught a little guy running around the patio . . .

He was just as curious about me as I was of him.  And for a while he was a willing model.  But in the end, he scurried off into the bushes for safety's sake - and for the safety of my flowers, which I have no doubt he was about to make his snack.

It makes me wonder about the carb content of flowers . . .

While posting this, I though of him and played: Run Baby Run from the album "Nicolle Chirino" by Nicolle Chirino.

I know is supposed to be paper, but I wanted my sweet to have a reminder of home.  Enter Nespresso.  After all, what better way to tell your bride of one year that she's still the woman of your dreams than through the gift of coffee?

Ah, but its Swiss coffee, you see.  And the new machine is sporting in its "Swiss" red.

While posting this, I drifted into memories of the last twelve months while playing: Nocturne from the album "Songs from A Secret Garden" by Secret Garden.

So I took a leap of faith a few days ago...thanks to George, who hacked two-to-three (at least) iPhones for use in Switzerland by him and his friends.  The software is iLiberty+ and is offered for Mac and the rest <wink> of you.  Now when he did it, he just bought phones and never registered with AT&T, using the "jailbreak" software in order to use the SIM of his choice.  This was especially important for the Swiss folk as its not even offered there, yet.

Now, Sybille and I already have iPhones and a family plan with AT&T, so hacking it wasn't really all that important to me -- until I looked at the software when chatting it up with the unofficial iPhone importer.  He kept talking about all these apps he had installed.

So I took a look.  Sure enough, there are basically three "cracks".  The second and third ones allow you to bypass iTunes and AT&T.  But it is the first one that unlocks the phone so that you can install 3rd party apps.  That was the one that concerned me.  And if you do it, I highly recommend using the 3 sets of recommended applications that are included in the install program.  As you can see in the photo below, I have many new offerings - and this is just the stuff on page two.  Plus new offerings are out on a fairly regular basis from what I can tell.  That said, I would like to bring your attention to the bottom-right app: Chat.  Its what the iPhone should have had from the beginning instead of SMS.  SMS costs as it is the way carriers rake you over the coals for something that doesn't cost them a dime to actually do.  Why on Earth am I on an unlimited data plan and paying for SMS texts?  Well, not anymore.  And it works like a charm.

Now, some might be concerned about the "brick" theory.  Forget it - especially if you have a iPhone that is legitimately registered with AT&T.  The next software update (most likely to be in June) will simply require that you reset your phone via iTunes.  This is not a big deal.  Sure, you'll erase all the sexy applications that iLiberty+ has provided -- but, "Hey!  You can just run the installer again.  It only takes about 45 seconds."  Duh!  Think about it.

Humm, while considering the "non-bricking" I played: Get Back from the album "1" by The Beatles.  Thanks for blazing the trail, George.