When I first got the Sony Ericsson c905a, I debranded it to enable its WiFi capabilities that had been disabled by AT&T. I did this because I don’t want to pay for a data plan, but I do want to be able to access the internet from my phone when WiFi is available.

Working with the default browser was a little clunky and I soon found Opera Mini as a popular alternative mobile browser. I downloaded it and tried to install it, but I kept getting prompted about what internet connection to use. Since I didn’t have a data plan, it didn’t know what to do. I tried fiddling with settings here and there, but nothing worked. I gave up after finding no help from Google and used the default browser for the next 3 months.

Today, I decided to search again. While I didn’t find someone addressing my exact problem, one of the search results was able to lead me to try something new. I entered fake information for a data plan.

This also allows me to watch videos using the YouTube app, which I previously was unable to do.

I guess the default browser is smart enough to know to use the WiFi when a data connection isn’t available, but installed apps aren’t. With these fake settings, they try to access the internet via the nonexistent data account and fail before resorting to the WiFi.

These are the steps I took:

1. Go to Menu->Settings->Connectivity->Internet Settings->Connect Using
2. Click “Add”
3. Select “PS Data”
4. Enter anything for the Name. I called it “No Data”
5. Click “Save” (leave APN blank)
6. Select your newly created data account and it’s good to go!

Last weekend, Molly and I got up bright and early for the 5.5 hour drive to Naples, NY. That’s where my aunts Ellen and Karen host the family Christmas party every year.

The weather wasn’t horrible, but the roads were a little slick in places. One benefit to the conditions was that there wasn’t any traffic, so I didn’t have to deal with that.

We arrived around 11:45 and had a great time visiting with everyone. It was nice to get to know my cousin Arthur’s girlfriend and to see uncle Bill after so long (could it have been 10 years?).

As always, the food was great and we got to bring a lot of goodies home with us. We got a nice calendar of elaborate tree-houses, which is great because Molly and I were sort of at a loss as to what kind of calendar to get for our kitchen this year. (Last year was easy, since we had been planning a trip to D.C.) I got a few gift cards. I also got a bunch of my grandmother’s genealogy papers. Aunt Karen had remembered that I was working on the family tree from last year and thoughtfully provided me with these valuable resources.

Molly and I stayed at a bed and breakfast called Bristol Views, which was a pleasant experience. The living room had a warm fire that was very comfortable to read beside. The bathroom attached to our room was large and everything was clean and cozy. Breakfast was blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, and fresh applesauce. The blueberries and syrup were from local sources, which was a nice touch.

After breakfast, we stopped by my aunts’ house and said our final goodbyes before heading back home. We made a stop in Cuba, NY and checked out their “famous” cheese shop. It was pretty cool and we ended up buying three different kinds of cheese. So far, we’ve discovered that Goat Milk Cheddar goes well on a ham sandwich, Irish Blarney is really good melted on crackers, and Switzerland Swiss Emmentaler (aged over 90 days) is good all by itself.

My company tries to facilitate learning among its employees throughout the year. One way they do this is by hosting Lunch & Learn sessions where a developer makes a presentation on a software development topic and lunch is provided by the company.

We had 15 talks last year. After each one, all of the attendees were asked to fill out an evaluation of the presentation. The points were tallied and my presentation, “Fundamentals of jQuery and the jQuery Event Model,” received the highest score for 2009.

I can’t take all of the credit, though. jQuery is pretty awesome in its own right.

There is some facebook thing going on where girls post what color bra they are wearing to raise breast cancer awareness.

I think we are all aware that breast cancer exists. I don’t see how telling the world what color bra you are wearing helps the cause.

Anyway, I was reading through my facebook feed and saw this:

• Girl 1: pink
• Girl 2: purple
• Girl 3: pink polka dots!!!
• Girl 4: Snake skin!
• Girl 5: TACO BELL!!!

It took me a minute to figure out that the last friend in this list wasn’t participating, she was just excited about Taco Bell.

This is just to cover some of the things I didn’t blog about last year.

I have a new sister. In August, my parents adopted Maria, who is now 6 years old. She was in the foster care system for 4 years, all of which she spent in my parent’s care. Now she is officially part of the family.

Over Thanksgiving break, Molly and I went to Arkansas to celebrate her grandmother Valle’s 80th birthday. At Valle’s party, Molly recited Esau Wood from memory (video), Trey sang a song about Valle set to the tune of “This Land Is Your Land” (video), and Molly’s grandfather sang “Heart of My Heart” to her w/ the accompaniment of a barbershop quartet (video). Special thanks to Carmen for the videos.

We got to hang out with Luke and Brian for a bit while we were down there. They had both gotten engaged (no, not to each other) just a few weeks before our visit, so it was great to be able to visit with them during this exciting time. I’ll be making a trip or two back to Arkansas for some wedding action this year.

Molly’s parents came to our house the weekend before Christmas. We celebrated the holiday with them by preparing a ham dinner and opening some presents. This is when Molly gave me Rock Band 2, which is pretty awesome.

Molly had to work Christmas Eve and the Monday after Christmas, but we managed to get to Pennsylvania and back during that time. Nicholas was also home for the holidays, so it was great to have the whole family together for a couple days.

Stuff I got:

• Rock Band 2 Special Edition
• electric weed whacker/edger
• Super Mario Bros Wii
• “S” christmas ornament
• set of 5 nutcracker ornaments
• Brand New’s “Daisy” cd
• The Killer’s “Hot Fuss” cd
• “A Crooner’s Christmas” cd
• “What’s the Connection? : Amazing Links Among Seemingly Unrelated Things” book
• amazon gift card
• hot plate
• assorted pecan tin
• white candy coated pretzel tin

New Year’s Eve was spent at Kevin & Barb Ziegler’s party.