This is a story about things going right for a change. Of course, for something to go right it first has to go wrong. I don't think I've ever bought anything technical without having some problems with it at first, and the new iPhone hasn't broken that trend.

On day one the Apple store was unable to set up my phone to send emails. Receive, yes, but not send. And we copied the same outgoing server information I had on my last phone, a Palm Treo 650, also sold to me by AT&T. Now, to be fair, the Apple folk said up front that my Internet service, Roadrunner through Time Warner, was sometimes a problem. They got everything else set up perfectly including their new MobileMe (still a dumb name) which through some sort of magic I'm sure Harry Potter isn't yet old enough to learn, if I make a calendar or address book change on one of my Macs anywhere in the world it pretty much instantly makes that change on all my Macs, the iPhone included. So, before I even left the Apple store my address book and calendar appeared on the iPhone and my home computers were miles away. Although most everything worked wonderfully, I still couldn't send emails.

When I got home I called Time Warner and they gave me the new codes which worked.

On day two I realized my voice mail didn't work. Nobody at either the Apple Store or the AT&T store could figure out why. I called Apple Care and they had me reinstall an entirely new system, but that didn't work either. When I hit the voicemail control, it did nothing. So I called AT&T technical support and a chipper young female laughed and said I'd be surprised but they had received tons of similar calls that day. I said I wasn't surprised. One day old new tech. Of course something was going to go wrong. Ultimately, all she had to do was remotely turn off my voicemail from wherever she was and then turn it back on. And it worked. Reinstalling my entire system turned out to be unnecessary. In fairness to the Apple Care guys, if you look at the iPhone manual, which is NOT included with the phone so they emailed it to me, it is the first thing they tell you to do if something goes wrong.

On Day two and a half, after my voicemail was fixed and after I had reinstalled my system, I discovered I couldn't get into the Internet where I had no problem before. No Internet meant also no email of any kind as well as no GPS. Noel and I had dinner that night with Elfquest's ever fabulous Wendy Pini and she insisted we go to the Apple Store near her. It was late and I thought I'd take care of it the next day, but it's hard to argue with Wendy, especially when all she wants to do is help. We got to the Apple Store while it was still open but the door was shut and nobody new was let in since they were finishing setting up new customer's iPhones. But I mentioned my problem to the woman at the door and she looked at the phone as if her baby had done something wrong and said "I'll get someone to help." A few seconds later someone came to the door, cast a spell on my phone and within seconds everything was working perfectly. On Day Three everything is still working perfectly and I love the phone all over again.

Through it all I was a basket case, but in every instance, the folks at the Apple Store, the AT&T Store, AT&T tech support and Roadrunner Internet spent an inordinate amount of always cheerful time trying to make the problem go away. Considering the iPhone was literally one day old it is amazing so many folk actually knew what to do. And even when the stores were closed, they went an extra mile to help.

We complain so often about tech support I just wanted to say that even when folk didn't have the answer, they tried to find it and worked at it until they got the right answers. This was a tech support story that went well.

Labels: iPhone Tech Support

This is a test to see if I can blog from my new iPhone.

Labels: Test. Feel free to ignore

Reviews have already been posted, even by Variety and the Hollywood Reporter, so I thought I'd finally add in my own. Dark Knight is absolutely wonderful. This may be the first "super-hero" movie that works as an actual crime drama with deep characterization as well as first class action movie. The reviewers have been heaping praise on Heath Ledger's Joker and honestly he deserves it all, and more. Not because of his untimely passing, but because he is simply that good. Months ago I saw some of his dailies and even in that rough footage he shone. The Joker is Batman's greatest foe for a reason; he draws all attention to him, and this Joker, reconceived for the screen, is unquestionably the best I've seen in comics, TV or movies. This Joker is real, and he's demented, but somehow you still love to watch him. For the first time I can believe him.

Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne and Batman, so powerful in Batman Begins, is even better here. His is a portrait of a tortured soul trying to find a way out. Aaron Eckhart does a wonderful turn as Harvey Dent. Special call out to Gary Oldman whose Lt. Gordon is the perfect study of a man who is overwhelmed but simply won't give up. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman, also reprising their roles, are, as always, spot on right. And Maggie Gyllenhaal has strength and power as Rachel Dawes. I won't put down Katie Holmes, but she never looked or acted like she could be an Assistant DA. I can believe Gyllenhaal.

I went to the Imax screening and also playing at the theater, although not in Imax, was Iron Man, Hulk and Wanted. In anyone's wildest imagination could you have ever expected to see four well reviewed comic book movies out in the same year let alone at the same month. I never read the Wanted comic so I don't know how honest it is to the original material, but Iron Man, Hulk and especially Batman, stuck extremely close to what makes those characters work and they have benefitted from it.

Dark Knight is a wonderful film. Others will review its story so I won't bother, but this is a movie no comic fan can afford to miss. In fact, it's a film anyone who loves the movies should not miss. It's that good.

Labels: Dark Knight

In the past I've tried to minimize the Blogger look to this page but for awhile I've decided to put back the top blue border in order to let anyone enter a word search to see if I've discussed the subject sometime in the past. For instance, if you type in "Raven" it will bring up every blog I've mentioned Raven in. I'm not sure I like the look of that bar, but we'll see. If any of you decide to use it to find past blogs or search a topic, let me know if you like it. If not, it gets tossed. This blog is a work in progress.

For those interested, marvwolfman.com is actually three different sites. The main site is my actual website. It features articles on writing, pages on some of my projects, my resume and much more. I pay for that site and use the Dreamweaver website software to compose it. The site is hosted by Earthlink.net and as I say they charge for the bandwidth. To go to it just click on any of the links to the top right that is listed as my site.

The second part of this site is this blog. I used to do this in Dreamweaver as well but a year or two back I moved it over to Blogger, which is a free service by Google. I made the move in order to make archiving easier. It also allows for you to post your comment on my blogs. If I'm out of town I can go to a public internet cafe and use their computers to log onto my Blogger account and add photos and text or I can blog from my cell phone and post it here, too. Many people use Blogger for their blogs (and some even try to get you to donate to what is a completely free service). Blogger offers a number of designs, but I customized it completely so this page - the one you're looking at - is not one of their templates but is the same design I used before moving over to Blogger. Further, rather than post it to the free Blogger's blogsite page, I publish to my own domain so it's on my site. So, in point of fact, although this page is done by Blogger and the rest of the site is done with Dreamweaver, they are both on the same site.

The final part of the site can be found by clicking on my travel photo section. The photos and movies are all on what used to be called dot mac (.mac) but now goes under the ridiculous name MobileMe. MobileMe is also a paid service but the website part of it is just one of many things a Mac user gets when they sign on. The photo page is on the Mac site and not my own, but it makes no difference as all you need to do is click on the words and you're taken there just as fast as if it were on marvwolfman.com. But it does allow me to put the higher bandwidth photos and movies on a different site which somewhat keeps down the cost to this one.

And that, I'm sure, is probably more than you ever wanted to know about how this website is done. So, if you like this site (and remember the website, unlike this blog, does cost cold, hard cash) we gratefully accept donations, large or small. Just click on the PAYPAL link at the top right of the page and send whatever you feel like. But even if you don't, I'll still be doing this as often as I can because I enjoy the give and take.

Labels: websites

Labels: Raven #5

I'm back from CONvergence in Minneapolis, tired but happy. Because of some last minute vital meetings and such I wasn't certain I was going to make it, but I am extremely pleased I did. CONvergence is a convention put on by people who simply want other people to have a good time. I can go on and on about it, but Mark Evanier brought his computer to Minneapolis and blogged about it there, so just go to his site and read up on it. What I will say is if you simply want a really good time at a convention, you can't do better than check out next year's CONvergence. I want to thank everyone, especially Mark, my wrangler. Great time. Great con.

I haven't told people why I haven't been able to blog much, but now the truth can be told.
Thanks, Ger

Labels: Prez

A quick note to let everyone know that I'll be attending CONvergence in Minneapolis from Thursday July 3 to Sunday July 6th. If you haven't been to CONvergence before, I can pretty much guarantee you'll like it. And should you not care for the amazing array of guests they have and programs they hold, heck, the Mall of America is just a hop, skip and a jump away. C'mon down and say hi.

Labels: CONvergence

That's right, LD, I've been way busy working on comics, a movie project and a game script which explains why I haven't posted these past few days. But assuming I get through them soon, I should be back in a day or two at most.

Labels: busybusybusy