[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

Magnetic reversal! I really wish we could have a Bold Astronomy thread

And speaking of magnetic (& heliocentric) protection (and or lack thereof): Voyager 1 could be our mascot

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

Voyager is so 70's... even has a eight track tape in it.

(of sorts anyway)

[idssteve]

Hahaha! Love it! 99.30 sounds great!
Ya it is great to be back, I'm kind of gobsmacked that everyone remembers me & that everyone is still rocking their Bolds, at a time when even many BB10 users are wandering away from their Classics, etc

Speaking of which, what's this talk of retirement?

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

lol... retirement has gotten to be a well practiced habit... lol. This will be 5th "attempt". Depending on how previous lives are counted. I fulfilled my 5 year acquisition agreement obligation here 5 years ago. Management is incentivizing extended relationship and co-workers are tugging heart strings... That retirement walker seems designed to keep me on the job quite a while... hehe...

Another opportunity beckons also. Got all of eternity for resting... lol. one client has jested about burying me with a Bold in hand... to keep me on the job from the grave! Hehe...

Wife & I are mostly looking forward to prioritizing the greatgrandkid business, tho. . Maintaining seamless 24/7 "thought to thumb" communications has afforded a fantastic blend of "work & life". It's what these bolds do best! even in "retirement"...

[idssteve]

Magnetic reversal! I really wish we could have a Bold Astronomy thread

And speaking of magnetic (& heliocentric) protection (and or lack thereof): Voyager 1 could be our mascot

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

interesting you'd mention Voyager... I played a very peripheral role in that project... in a previous life... Back when Fortran, cobol, etc were still fresh in early memories. lol. One contact over there could possibly have transposed spelling... could that might be you? ?? if so, PM me? tiny world, eh? Lol.

[idssteve]

Voyager is so 70's... even has a eight track tape in it.

(of sorts anyway)

well, actually a "golden record" ... Mylar tape "8 track" would make a poor choice at such unimaginably cold temps. lol. I've always questioned the usefulness of "audible" communications considering impact even slight atmospheric density can have on audible reproduction. lol. That's assuming an ET type had evolved "ears" on a planet with anything resembling 14.7psi sea level, 80/20% N/O ratio, atmosphere... lol.




Voyager's "8 track". lol.

a grand attempt, at least!

[anon(10512033)]

I am still trying to process what I read in that BlackBerry log entry which you linked me to a couple of weeks back. It seemed to be saying EOL may not be quite so EOL.

I think that's exactly what it's saying. The length of the reprieve seems to be entirely unspecified though.

Then again the way people such as yourself have of using these 99s makes the whole concept "EOL" rather spurious in a sense.

Well, to be fair, all I ever really wanted was the equivalent of a Palm PDA with a phone built in, so as long as the phone still works, I'm content.

But Shaw (or rather, the CRTC?) appears to have given my household & thousands of other rural Canadian households a reprieve (full pardon?) on their LTSS (locally based free satellite television service) going EOL. So maybe, just maybe.... Two's a charm?

I hadn't heard about the LTSS being extended. I was eligible (our local TV towers were shut down), but opted to just cut the cord, and since then, Telus has run fibre to the house.

So with the fibre line, I signed up for Pik TV (basic cable over internet), which they effectively paid me to take in exchange for signing up for two years (they send you a Visa gift card worth more than the two year TV subscription). I think it's only available in BC and Alberta right now.

[Ursus Rufus]

I think that's exactly what it's saying. The length of the reprieve seems to be entirely unspecified though.

Indeed. Well such is the way of all things, eh wot?

I hadn't heard about the LTSS being extended. I was eligible (our local TV towers were shut down), but opted to just cut the cord, and since then, Telus has run fibre to the house.

So with the fibre line, I signed up for Pik TV (basic cable over internet), which they effectively paid me to take in exchange for signing up for two years (they send you a Visa gift card worth more than the two year TV subscription). I think it's only available in BC and Alberta right now.

I had received an email & phone calls in the spring explaining that Shaw planned to shut down LTSS in August & offering to continue providing "local" channels for a nominal fee (15 quid per month), or the possibility of upgrading (for substantially more).

My response was I need to think about it & I'll get back to you. But the summer was busy & I never got around to it. But lo, all the same channels are still there & here we are well past August & almost the end of September. So, whatever.
I think what happened was that there was enough clamor raised by LTSS customers nationwide & enough negative media attention that it caught the eye of the CRTC & some former heavyweights in the industry. I think Shaw was forced to back down. It isn't like they are stuck in a situation where they have to bleed revenue in order to supply millions of Canadians with free sat television. The numbers are small & by contract they are not even responsible for customer upkeep such as fixing dishes etc. I know because I've had to do my own out of pocket repairs & replacements over these last 8 years.

Also a side note FWIW -- Internet TV is just not an option in my area. We do not even have high speed service of any kind, nor any kind of high data packages available.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[Ursus Rufus]

interesting you'd mention Voyager... I played a very peripheral role in that project... in a previous life... Back when Fortran, cobol, etc were still fresh in early memories. lol. One contact over there could possibly have transposed spelling... could that might be you? ?? if so, PM me? tiny world, eh? Lol.

Oh i wish that was me! I was just a wee bairn back then & obsessed with everything Voyager. It even turned me into a Star Trek fan. (Yes I'm one of those weirdos that thinks Star Trek was never better, never more pure science fiction, than it was in the first movie, ST-TMP. And the VGER plot (although kind of borrowed from an old episode) was brilliant (& far superior in every way) & completely enthralling to a Voyager fanatic!



Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[Nguyen1]

ST: TMP was the best scifi Trek. About as epic as Star Trek ever got.

ST5 was the best TOS-like movie, with the best characterizations, plus some cheesy effects.

Wrath of Khan remains the best overall Trek film. IMO.
My 9900 uses Trek sound bites for some phone tones.

[anon(10321802)]

Nice to see we have some fellow Trekkies among us!

I enjoy all the movies - including the 3 reboots. I also enjoy all the series, excluding Discovery.

My fav series is TNG, with DS9 a close second.

[Ursus Rufus]

YayYy thanks for chiming in!

Yep Trekker for life here

Favourite series is TNG followed by Voyager
Favourite & I think best movie is STTMP although I enjoy all of them, with Search For Spock & WOK rounding out my favourites. Haven't seen all of the reboots just the first one & although I enjoyed it I was a little put off by two things:
1. The downgraded "science" in the fiction. OK I know only one ST film actually had a science advisor (ST-TMP) and the following ones all played fast & lose with physics but really come on a shipyard in Iowa?
Et cetera et ceteta et cetera. Fun movie but ... Ya. Blaurgh
2. The destruction of Vulcan. It's fun to play with timelines but unless there's a sense of "return to normalcy" the fun evaporates & we are left with plotline confusions & encumbrances that would make Tolstoy wince!

Anyway I don't want us to get in trouble for being off-topic and speaking of handheld communicators, here's a 9900 related question: Does anyone have a sense of the numbers of people worldwide still using a Bold? Or for that matter any BBOS device?
I mean besides the couple of dozen of us here haha

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[anon(10321802)]

I must confess I have long since retired my Bold 9930, as I left Verizon for greener (and cheaper) GSM pastures. But alas, my carrier (Ting) never supported BIS.

It's been several months since I've owned ANY BlackBerry device, let alone used one as my daily driver.

But I do have a white Q10 on order and I am planning to use it as my daily with a Nokia 2.2 to supplement for the few work and personal apps I need.

I, too, am curious how many Agent 99 and Agent 99.30 users there are remaining.

[Ursus Rufus]

Aha. Fascinating, Captain.. Now I’m curious why a Q10 instead of say, a Classic? And if you were a Canadian on Fido / Rogers like me, that still has BIS (& incidentally was the earliest telco in Canada to go GSM) would you return to a 99? Or.... Never have left one?

[Ursus Rufus]

I've always questioned the usefulness of "audible" communications considering impact even slight atmospheric density can have on audible reproduction. lol. That's assuming an ET type had evolved "ears" on a planet with anything resembling 14.7psi sea level,

Yes! Have rarely heard this voiced but yes indeed. I might want to debate some of the specifics here, but I’m totally with you in general on this. Brilliant.. Yep.

And to put a broader point on it, it’s like Arthur C Clarke said (I paraphrase): Aliens could be so alien that we might not even recognise each other as sentient beings..

I kinda can relate to that when I’m out & about with Agent 99 and people are like, “What is that? Is that a phone?”

[idssteve]

Yes! Have rarely heard this voiced but yes indeed. I might want to debate some of the specifics here, but I’m totally with you in general on this. Brilliant.. Yep.

And to put a broader point on it, it’s like Arthur C Clarke said (I paraphrase): Aliens could be so alien that we might not even recognise each other as sentient beings..

I kinda can relate to that when I’m out & about with Agent 99 and people are like, “What is that? Is that a phone?”

Haha... How many "slab phanz" in the General Forums recognize us Boldies as "sentient beings"...? Lol. Have we become "Strangers in our own land" ... ? ??? Lol.

Yep, life long Trekkie here. Life long "star brain", for that matter. I grew up during a period when science, math, ... Engineering... were just expected skill sets of "modern" life... An expectation that this might just be the generation of humanity that made it to "Apha Centauri"... Lol. Like many kids of the day, I collected baseball cards. I'd also amassed the full Mercury & Gemini Astronaut collection! Most of Apollo. Still missing a few of those. Girls had become the "priority mission" by that stage of life. Lol.

Roddenberry's (another ...berry? Lol) insight into cultural implications of technology was an ST big draw, for me. Technology, represented by the device in our hand this moment, that WILL prove existentially relevant SOME day. Imo.

Assuming we survive so long, we WILL some day be faced with inevitability of our neighborhood thermonuclear reactor (old Sol ) eventually running out of "gas"! The fate of Humanity, and chromosomal life itself, might ultimately depend on our ability to reach for other stars!

We'll likely be faced with threat of impact well before that, tho. Sobering to ponder that every molecule making up our "gravitational magnet" Home collected here via impact of some sort. Some of those impacts HURT! Just ask Momma Gaia and her oversized reptilian progeny! The bigger ya are, the harder to hide... Under ground or in pocket... Hehe... How might She "reach out" to protect herself from the next "Big Hurt"? Lol. Are WE to accept the challenge of projecting such protective influence beyond our terrestrial boundaries? Might that be why, and how, humanity evolved out of the last "big one"? ???

Coordinating such global efforts will almost certainly depend on communications technology. Like the "communicators" in our hand.

The Sun never sets on my global client base. After 8 yrs of training thought to thumb communications in effort to coordinate productive collaboration, I can personally attest to the proficiency Agent 99's siblings, and progeny, can assist to collaboratively coordinate "global" efforts. . Hopefully ALL of 99's hard won refinement won't be lost to history!

[Nguyen1]

For any Trekkies here, check out the “Star Trek Continues” fan episodes on youtube. The music, the cinematography, colors, editing, look of the episodes are pitch-perfect to TOS. The acting, the mannerisms, all reminiscent of 60’s acting and not amateurish like most fan films. Aside from different actors, you really cannot distinguish these from TOS episodes, they are that good, and I do not exaggerate.

[RaybanRJ]

Oh yeah I forgot to post these earlier here. I saw this at Staples today. (BTW I just accidentally purchased Tapatalk VIP for $1.29 so I could post more than one pic at a time lols I didn’t mean to) man you hit that finger print button without reading what’s on the screen and well, it happens

[Ursus Rufus]

Wow those are coming down in price & that makes them tempting. Well, for me, that makes the Key2 tempting. I have a KeyOne in my drawer that I do not use, as it has some major malfunction going on & I can't be arsed to factory reset it as I just am not a fan of the whole hybrid BB Android experience. And that's leaving aside the keyboard factor. I find the keyboard one of the worst I've ever used on any BB. It's not even from the same solar system as the Classic & the Bold. But it can't even compete with my old Curve 9370!

ALL of that said, I have had a chance to try out a the later Key model & the keyboard is much improved.

For now I'm sticking to Agent 99 and my Classic, & oh ya my iPhone (the family phone, mainly because of iMessage etc). If that price comes down even more on the Key2 that might be tempting though.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[Ursus Rufus]

For any Trekkies here, check out the “Star Trek Continues” fan episodes on youtube. The music, the cinematography, colors, editing, look of the episodes are pitch-perfect to TOS. The acting, the mannerisms, all reminiscent of 60’s acting and not amateurish like most fan films. Aside from different actors, you really cannot distinguish these from TOS episodes, they are that good, and I do not exaggerate.

Thanks for this! Wow it's incredibly true to TOS in the ways you mention. I know some Trekkers I have to pass this along to.

I must say swapping in these new actors for our dear old crew was a bit of a struggle for the first ten minutes but they've settled in now. The lead even seems to understand how to act Shatner without making a skit out of it. Still haven't caught on to the McCoy, but everything about it is so good it doesn't matter. And there's a couple of cool easter eggs or surprises in there! Thanks again

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[Ursus Rufus]

Haha... How many "slab phanz" in the General Forums recognize us Boldies as "sentient beings"...? Lol. Have we become "Strangers in our own land" ... ? ??? Lol.

Yep, life long Trekkie here. Life long "star brain", for that matter. I grew up during a period when science, math, ... Engineering... were just expected skill sets of "modern" life... An expectation that this might just be the generation of humanity that made it to "Apha Centauri"... Lol. Like many kids of the day, I collected baseball cards. I'd also amassed the full Mercury & Gemini Astronaut collection! Most of Apollo. Still missing a few of those. Girls had become the "priority mission" by that stage of life. Lol.

Roddenberry's (another ...berry? Lol) insight into cultural implications of technology was an ST big draw, for me. Technology, represented by the device in our hand this moment, that WILL prove existentially relevant SOME day. Imo.

Assuming we survive so long, we WILL some day be faced with inevitability of our neighborhood thermonuclear reactor (old Sol ) eventually running out of "gas"! The fate of Humanity, and chromosomal life itself, might ultimately depend on our ability to reach for other stars!

We'll likely be faced with threat of impact well before that, tho. Sobering to ponder that every molecule making up our "gravitational magnet" Home collected here via impact of some sort. Some of those impacts HURT! Just ask Momma Gaia and her oversized reptilian progeny! The bigger ya are, the harder to hide... Under ground or in pocket... Hehe... How might She "reach out" to protect herself from the next "Big Hurt"? Lol. Are WE to accept the challenge of projecting such protective influence beyond our terrestrial boundaries? Might that be why, and how, humanity evolved out of the last "big one"? ???

Coordinating such global efforts will almost certainly depend on communications technology. Like the "communicators" in our hand.

The Sun never sets on my global client base. After 8 yrs of training thought to thumb communications in effort to coordinate productive collaboration, I can personally attest to the proficiency Agent 99's siblings, and progeny, can assist to collaboratively coordinate "global" efforts. . Hopefully ALL of 99's hard won refinement won't be lost to history!

A good declaration of just about everything. Thought you might go full Heinlein on us there. Or may Douglas Adams! Heheh

And to the closing thought: Well, if the Bold's refinements aren't remembered they are consigned to oblivion. But I'm a Trekker so I'm hoping for more than just history or remembrance. I'm thinking Bold II

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[Ursus Rufus]

BTW I just accidentally purchased Tapatalk VIP for $1.29 so I could post more than one pic at a time lols I didn’t mean to

Tapatalk app (with which I could access all my Mobile Nations accounts) does not work on 99 anymore. But I'm using this old orange white & blue CB app & it is still working great!

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[idssteve]

Any ideas where to locate a "Reply to" button in Opera Mini? It disappeared a few months back and I've been doing "quote" thru brute force... Lol. Finally found where the "like" button hides now, lol. Guess might have to finally try the CB app... Lol.

[anon(10512033)]

Tapatalk app (with which I could access all my Mobile Nations accounts) does not work on 99 anymore. But I'm using this old orange white & blue CB app & it is still working great!

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

If you prefer the Tapatalk app/colour scheme, you can install Tapatalk, and then open the file browser and find the tapa3.db file in your "crackberry" folder. Copy the file over to the "tapatalk" folder. Open Tapatalk and you should be good to go.

If you do this, Tapatalk will only work with CrackBerry. It still won't work with your other accounts.

[Ursus Rufus]

If you prefer the Tapatalk app/colour scheme, you can install Tapatalk, and then open the file browser and find the tapa3.db file in your "crackberry" folder. Copy the file over to the "tapatalk" folder. Open Tapatalk and you should be good to go.

If you do this, Tapatalk will only work with CrackBerry. It still won't work with your other accounts.

Ah thanks for the explanation. I guess if it only works with CrackBerry I won't bother. This CB app is also a Tapatalk app & works fine for accessing CrackBerry.

For my iMore account I tend to use my iPhone anyway, although I suppose I could use Opera Mini when I'm with Agent 99

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

[RaybanRJ]

I’ll see if my Crackberry app works, I don’t think I use Tapatalk on my BlackBerry I just use straight CrackBerry app. I still take my 9900 everywhere I go when I travel like now, and I’ll fire it up and see what happens

[RaybanRJ]

Well this battery is going to have to go on the wall charger I hope I can prime it enough to get it going again