Got a question about technology? Ask it here. Discussion of hardware, software, TiVos, multi-region DVDs, Windows, Macs, LINUX, hand-helds, iPods, anything tech related. Better than any helpdesk!
Dude!
Remember a while ago when we talked about the $99 Sheevaplug computer? I said that I wanted to get one of those, add a USB IR transmitter to it, and use it as a universal remote that I could control with my iPhone?
Well I went ahead and bought a Sheevaplug (they were back-ordered, it took over a month to ship), and also one of these, and I was able to send IR commands to my TV set!
That was the hard part; I wasn't sure that when I put everything together it would work. Now all I have to do is install apache on this thing and write a web app that I can control with my iphone. Awesome.
Thanks, Tom--the chown worked just fine--navigated the apparently unrelated paths precisely well enough that I can update from my main account now. Fie on the application for requiring me to be the owner, rather than just another member of the admin group.
I've been using a 3GS for a week and a bit now, I'm pleased to say it's pretty stable. I suspect the extra RAM helps compared to my first gen phone. Battery life is still not as good as I'd like. Video functionality is amazing, they should have called it the 3GV.
So far my experience with Windows 7 has been pretty good. It was just as easy to install as Ubuntu, which is saying something. Everything else has been pretty smooth too. It is quite Vista-like but it seems snappier. The memory footprint seems lower too, when doing video encoding, word processing, playing mp3s and burning a disc all at the same time; there was still plenty of memory left. The taskbar seems better sorted as well. One problem, I should have gotten the 64-bit version to try out instead of the 32-bit. I might see if I can grab that and redo the install.
One disappointment that has nothing to do with Windows 7. Ubuntu's video playback when running in VMServer isn't good enough to be useful to me.
LED clock munches bugs and converts carcasses into energy
Shades of Little Shop of Horrors' Audrey with this LED clock from Brit designers Jimmy Loizeau and James Auger. Part flycatcher, part timepiece, the gizmo harvests insects on a sticky roller covered in flypaper, before dropping the corpses into a microbial fuel cell.
The dead bug is then digested by the bacteria within, and the chemical changes are used by the cell to power the clock. Simple, huh? Well, simple if your mind moves in mysterious ways, I suppose. There's a close-up for fans of six-legged snuff porn below.
It looks pretty cool too.
13 year old kid reviews a 30 year old Sony Walkman
BBC Magazine gave 13-year-old Scott Campbell a gen-one Walkman in place of his MP3 player for a week, then gathered his impressions on the device:
It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette.
Another notable feature that the iPod has and the Walkman doesn't is "shuffle", where the player selects random tracks to play. Its a function that, on the face of it, the Walkman lacks. But I managed to create an impromptu shuffle feature simply by holding down "rewind" and releasing it randomly - effective, if a little laboured.
I told my dad about my clever idea. His words of warning brought home the difference between the portable music players of today, which don't have moving parts, and the mechanical playback of old. In his words, "Walkmans eat tapes". So my clumsy clicking could have ended up ruining my favourite tape, leaving me music-less for the rest of the day.
Two weeks ago I managed to forget a 256 Mb Compact Flash card from an old camera in my pocket when I did the wash.
Resigned to the loss of the data, I shrugged, tapped out a bunch of the water, and tossed it into the commercial dryer with my clothes.
Then I set it aside until today when I said "what the hey" and tried it in an old computer with a Compact Flash slot.
It was recognized and all my pictures appear to be there.
Wacky.
