Confessions Of A Berson Mind

This post will be all about cell phones:

Decided to write a post about my MMS issues with the combination of TMobile, my HTC Touch Pro 2, Windows Phone 6.5.x, and Manila (Sense) 2.5.  For every ROM I’ve installed with these settings, I haven’t been able to send picture messages straight away.  Found a fix at: http://thewingster.com/mmsfixm25.aspx — that works great, but I also make a few alterations to ensure success.  Here’s my tutorial.

1.) Flash a clean custom ROM.
2.) Install the fix found on that link immediately after a soft reset. If you wait until after you’ve opened a few text messages or done some other things, you may run into a permissions problem during the install.  Soft reset, then install.
3.) At this point, your picture messages may already work — mine do not.  The next step I undertake is to go to the Messages tab in Manila, and hit the All Messages softkey.  Next, Menu -> Settings -> Options.  In this window, I flick to the bottom, and change the photo resolution to Original, and choose whatever size I like for the camera (currently XGA).  I do this to ensure my photos won’t be sent in micro.
4.) Click done.
5.) Repeat the Menu -> Settings -> Options step, but this time, hit the menu button in this new window, and select MMS Server.  Make sure the SampleMMSC is selected, and click on it (that’s two steps). Here, I change the “Connect via” option to TMobile MMS.  If yours already says this, congratulations.
5a.) I also set the Send limit to 300KB.  One, because I once read that TMobile doesn’t permit messages larger than that (doubt this), and two, because my mobile data is slow enough as is — I don’t need to spend 4 minutes every time I send a pic.  Click Done, and get back to your home screen.
6.) Last tricky step: click the Start Menu -> and Settings. Then Connections -> Connections. In this window, go to the “Advanced” tab, and hit “Select Networks.”  You should see a dropdown that has Tmobile Data already selected — hit the dropdown and select Tmobile MMS. Then, click Edit. In this window, hit the edit softkey, click Next, and change the Access point name to “wap.voicestream.com” (no quotes).  Click Next and then Finish. Click OK and you should be back at the Network Management screen.  BEFORE you leave here, hit the dropdown again, and RESELECT Tmobile Data.
7.) A soft reset isn’t probably necessary, but not a bad idea.

After all these steps, my MMS works great — I send receive no problems, the pictures send and receive at the proper sizes…these steps work for my phone across a multitude of ROMS, and it’s not that tricky.

Hope this helps.

It’s been a little while since my last post, but I think this one should help to make up for it.

If you are thinking about finding a web company to host your website, then Berson3 Computers is the way to go if you’re worried about the environment.  Recently, the company that hosts our servers made the switch to green power exclusively.  What does this mean?  This means that your data, your website with Berson3, is stored on a server that is powered by Wind, Solar, & Hydro generators exclusively.  All renewable resources, all with the planet in mind.

Pretty sweet, don’t you think?  So why don’t you do something for your planet and have your site hosted by Berson3?

This one was a bit tough, but I’ve decided to simplify my choice by making a broad selection:

Any 80 PLUS Certified PSU (power supply unit) from PC Power & Cooling.

Too broad of a choice?  Well, wait for the explanation first.  The 80 PLUS Certification is based on insuring that the power supply with this tag is at least 80 percent efficient at a variety of PC loads.  So, if the tower is under 20 percent load, the PSU must still operate at at least 80 perecent efficiency…and the same goes for 100 percent load.  This certification is an incentive based system intended to get PSU makers to help cut energy usage in PCs (that’s over-generalizing the concept, but it’s more than adequate for this forum).

Ok, then why PC Power and Cooling? Well, if we save money and electricity by being efficient, then logic would follow that the most efficient PSU company should be the obvious choice…and that’s what PC Power has been for quite a while now.  The people at Maximum PC have highly recommended their products for years now, and the acquisition by OCZ, I look for the product to maintain its high standards while possibly dropping in price.  How do you lose?

But again, this post isn’t for me to decree to all of you what the best is or isn’t.  It’s to spark communication so that together we can create an as-enviro-friendly-as-possible PC.  So, please, if you have additional info, conflicting opinions, or anything…please post your comments.

I’m going to start off the Green PC Initiative with an easy selection to get us started: the hard drive.

I’ve selected a solid state hard drive as the HDD of choice for this project.  Due to the lack of moving parts inside of this drive, the power consumption will be lower than that of a standard platter/head drive.

And since we’re going to be spending a higher amount of dollars for this drive, we might as well select the best, and go with a 64 GB Mtron Solid State Disk.  Often regarded as the fastest disk drive around, it’s minimal power usage makes it perfect for both the environment conscious and the speed demons alike.

And now we’re off and running.  It’s only one part, and it’s a slow start.  But if you take an interest in this project, please post your comments/concerns below, and together we can make if not a “Green PC”, a much “Greener PC.”

Just a small window into the future:

The two biggest initiatives in the forecast for Berson deal with Security with our online forms, and the “green-ness” of our PCs.  This is only a bump in the blog form, but there will be plenty of information to come forth soon.