James McWhorter

Marmmot’s 15 degree bag

james — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 03:06:36 +0000

Went to Dick’s sporting goods today

Project Manager’s Survial Tools

james — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 14:13:11 +0000

I really enjoy Web Project Management.

To see the end result after lots of planning, thinking, and coordinating is very rewarding.

Here are a few thing that help me along the way:

A strong cup of espresso; first thing in the morning.
A legal pad with a lot of life left in it
An iPhone
A good team to work with
A sense of humor
A well organized to-do list categorized by priority
BaseCamp
Did I mention the coffee?

If you have anymore ideas please feel free to add ideas in the comment section.

Kevin Smith Promoted to Director of Design Services

james — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 13:56:18 +0000

Kevin Smith (AKA Smitty) has been recently promoted to Director of Design Services for ConsultWebs.

Congrats, Smitty!

Speed Up iPhone 3G + iOS4 with a Hard Reset?

james — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 03:57:18 +0000

I recently upgraded my iPhone to iOS 4 and like many others I noticed that everything slowed WAY down. luckily I ran across an articled called Speed Up iPhone 3G + iOS4 with a Hard Reset? which gave some very good advice. Basically the fix calls for a double Hard Reset.

To perform a Hard Reset, press and hold the Home and Sleep/Wake buttons on your iPhone simultaneously for 5 to 10 seconds. After a few seconds the Slide to Power Off notice will appear, ignore this and keep holding down both buttons. In another few seconds the device should abruptly turn off, followed by the Apple logo and a reboot. Now release the buttons.

If your iPhone remains powered off, wait about 15 seconds then boot the phone by pressing theSleep/Wake button.

The tip mentions that it may be necessary to perform the Hard Reset twice to get the desired effect. I tried this on my iPhone 3G. I performed one reset and it rebooted immediately. Before repeating I checked to see if I could notice any difference: maybe, not much, kinda hard to say.

I then did a second Hard Reset and this time my phone stayed off. Rebooted again, and was happy to find that yes, my iPhone does seem to be peppier – or rather, back to it’s normal pokey nature instead of incredibly sluggish. Apps load faster, Mail messages open quicker – yay!

A bit of Googling yields little information as to what exactly gets reset during this operation. What I found just notes that the iPhone is a computer like any other, and a hard reset typically clears all RAM buffers, caches, etc. That can indeed help with performance.

Worth a shot. If this helps – or doesn’t – with your iPhone, let us know in the comments.

Based on user feedback the Double Hard Reset (“DHR”) does appear to help a large number of 3G owners.

For more tips see our followup post iPhone 3G Performance Suffering with iOS4.

My Search Story

james — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 17:08:46 +0000

Kites & Carp

james — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 22:29:43 +0000

This weekend I went to check out the Georgetown International Kite and Culture Festival. As one might think I saw many kites, international flare and interestingly enough… dogs. I was was surprised to see how many kites were flying high this sunny afternoon. This has turned out to be a large event with lots of food vendors and and live music. If this was not enough excitement for one day I witnessed the catch of what had to be a 40-50 pound Grass Carp. I knew that the Elkhorn Creek had it’s secrets but I did not realize that they were so huge!

Here are some iPhone photos to illustrate what I saw today:

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Buckley Wildlife Sanctuary

james — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 02:28:22 +0000

Spring hath come and with it a million blooming flowers that are praying to escape a late frost. Today I went to Buckley Wildlife Sanctuary and took some low-quality photos with my iPhone. Most came out suprisingly well. Have a look:

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A day in Midway, Kentucky

james — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 06:40:23 +0000

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Anglin Falls – Winter 2010

james — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 07:07:01 +0000

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Updating The Coffeeshop's Router

james — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:52:06 +0000

There is a certain coffee shop nearby that I frequent when I need to get some work done away from home. The WIFI there has always been a little strange and has never really got a long with my iPhone and sometimes I cannot connect to my Netbook. This has been going on for months. Today I decided to take some action.

I was pretty sure that the issue was related to outdated firmware (which it was) on an ageing router so all I really needed to is update the router’s firmware and all would be good.

Here is my journey to upgrading the WIFI in my local coffee shop.

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