Yet another piece of technology that was adopted from futuristic technology in media.
I’m referring to StarTrek’s PADD or Personal Access Display Device shown on so many episodes of the various StarTreks.
I realize that the Amazon Kindle has been out since November 2007 but I did not look into it because… several reasons. It didn’t seem catchy at the time, I rarely read physical books, the targeted ebooks for the Kindle are Digital Rights Managed (DRM) system, and the keyboard/controls are the opposite of sleek.
Apparently one year earlier Sony released a similar e-paper or E-ink device. Named the PRS-500, which had a 6″ screen, 4 level gray scale, and limited ebook formats supported. It’s amazing how the Kindle seemed like the first ereader.
One of the great advantages of the e-ink screen is they consume no power to display an image. They only consume power to change the image. This is possible through the control of pigment via static electricity of tiny capsules making up pixels.
The eBook scene has slowly grown; so more and more eReader have enter the market both locally and across the globe. The latest announced reader is the Plastic Logic which will use a 10.7″ screen, with unknown levels of gray scale (expect 8 or more), many supported ebook formats, touch screen, Microsoft Office document support, and wireless syncing.
And there really is a forum board for everything: MobileRead
01.8.09A Neo Freerunner to replace the fossil that is my current mobile phone.
If you are unfamiliar with Neo Freerunner, its basically a 400Mhz computer that fits in your pocket, has aGPS, WiFi b/g, displays in VGA resolution of 640 pixels by 480 pixels, has two accelerometers, uses tri-band (850/1800/1900 Mhz) GSM and GPRS for data access, is SIM unlocked (duh), runs Linux, and in the true spirit of free completely open. Completely open, as is here are the schematics to make one, oh and would you like some jam with your toast and crumpets?
Running on Linux allows it to do anything a regular x86 Personal Computer can do; assuming you or someone else has simply compiled that particular application for the architecture. And because it’s resolution is pretty high (for its size) you can display regular applications. Such as Pidgin.
Yes its been out for nine months. But hey, gotta start somewhere. There are already many distributions for the device; each with its own direction more or less.
01.5.09Hooked on phonics didn’t work for me.
Have you ever wondered how to pronounce a word? Or even more embarrassing, thought you knew how to say a word only to be corrected after saying it wrong? Well Forvo.com is a great site that should put an end to that. It has an excellent system for recording pronunciations from its members and posting them on an easy to navigate site. On the site there is a way to rank the recordings to evaluate and encourage proper pronunciations. This site provides a slight advantage over a similar feature on Dictionary.com in that it is more social connected (seems to be a trend recently), has friendlier non-robotic voices, AND names or anything you can type available for pronunciation.
Installing a Valentine One and VizAlert on the motorcycle.
Some people simply don’t like getting cited, others can not because of their driving license class, and other just like to be in the ‘know’ but whatever the reason installing a radar/laser detector on a motorcycle has been a practically useless exercise because the visual and auditory alerts go unnoticed/unheard usually when you have a visual on the LEO.
Earlier last year (March 2008) Speed Cheetah based in the UK released a wireless product called VizAlert that alerts a rider via 6 LED the band and strength of an incoming radar or laser signal. The unit consist of a brain box and a helmet receiver. The brain box as I’m calling it (properly called is the LASERnode or RADARnode) listens to the supported radar detector, interprets the signals, then transmits that to the helmet receiver. This product also has the capability of interfacing and working in-sync with supported laser jammers and a GPS radar/laser/photo enforced red light camera/high accident intersections.
I’ve owned a Valentine1 for a number of years, its been one of the best (top 3 easily) automotive accessory purchases I’ve ever made. Putting it on the bike never occurred to me to be practical until this product VizAlert came out. I knew about a few other products that intended alert the rider but all seemed finicky and didn’t indicate what the alert was for (in regards to the band and strength.) just that you were being hit by something.
So I was a bit skeptical on the performance of this product. I’ve since logged 7000+ miles with it and its been amazing. There isn’t any noticeable delay between when the V1 picks up the signal and VizAlert displays the alert (watching from a full tuck position in a known hot spot). My only complaint is LED alerts are difficult to notice when riding in the direction of the sun just before dusk.
My install consisted of mounting the Valentine One to the windscreen, running a modified CAT3 cable from the windscreen to the RADARnode location (there is a supplied RDI cable but it wasn’t long enough for where I wanted to mount it), and using the supplied pre-fabbed power supply to slip onto the battery terminals. The kit Cheetah provides is so easy to install. If you can route the cable from the radar mounting point to the tail and get access to the battery you can do this install.
As for the Cheetah USA, its ran by an awesome team who responded to my emails with 12 hours even on the weekend. Cheetah USA answered my questions verbosely which I see as the only way to answer a question. Even helped find a solution to lengthning the cable. Now, if SpeedCheetah would only get the LASERnode to work with Laser Interceptor.
This post really sounds like a sales pitch but take it simply as a testimonial from a really impressed customer.
01.3.09Stalker Tips: Discovering if a person is blocking you on AIM.
I might start a new series of blog post relating to tricks I’ve learned or thought of throughout the years to discover things. Which sometimes has the similarity of stalking. So here’s the first.
If you’ve been paranoid that someone has blocked you on AIM there are a few ways going about finding out if they have. One option is export your buddy list, create another screen name, and import your buddy list. That’s one option but it requires a lot of effort for a simple check. Thankfully if the person in suspect has a Facebook account with their AIM contact listed it will show if they are online with an icon adjacent to the AIM screen name. Its simple and effective.
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