TomTheGeek

PicAxe 08M Lego Tank

2010-01-29T13:09:00.012-06:00

Here's my first PicAxe 08M project, an IR controlled Lego tank. It features PWM Lego Power Function (LPF) motor control and a laser pointer "cannon". I built this because I wanted something fun to do with the PicAxe and Lego doesn't make any tank kits. This can be easily replicated using the LPF IR remote and receiver but where's the fun in that? The turret rotates but only by hand, the 08M doesn't have enough pins to drive more than two motors. In the next version of the tank I plan on adding motorized turret rotation and elevation.

IR control is done using a standard Sony TV remote control and IR receiver breakout from Sparkfun.com. You can see the receiver taped to the top of the turret. You could use most any IR receiver though, IR on the PicAxe is super easy to get working.

Power is supplied through the LPF 9v battery box. This is the voltage the motors are designed to work with and I didn't want to add a second battery box just for the PicAxe so I used a LM317 variable power regulator to drop that down to 5v on the development board. By using only the LPF battery box I can keep the battery weight down low for better stability.

The treads are direct driven using two LPF motors. In the next version I would like to build an adder/subtractor drive but I don't have the second differential gear needed yet. To drive the motors I used an SN754410 in a circuit I found at the Society Of Robots. The PicAxe 08M only has one PWM output so I tied both PWM inputs to the same signal. This means I can't run the treads at different speeds; steering would be smoother if I could but it works well enough for now. I found the wiring schematic and motor specifications for the LPF motors here. The LPF battery box and motors were connected using a LPF extension wire cut in half so I didn't have to cut the connectors off the motors. I feel a lot better hacking up a $2.99 wire rather than mangling the more expensive motors. The extension wire is the only Lego bit I had to modify, everything else is used stock.

The laser pointer cannon is hooked up to a spare output, I may eventually add a sound effects module for a more entertaining firing sequence. The laser pointer was added after these pictures were taken but you can see it in the video. I put a clear red cone that the laser lights up when it fires for effect.

Here's a (terrible) cell phone video demonstrating the tank.

This is the source code for the PicAxe, feel free to use this however you wish. It was somewhat challenging getting everything to fit in the limited memory of the 08M but by using a function for code that was re-used a bunch I managed to fit it all in there.

' IR Controlled PWM motor driver for the PICAXE-08M
' By TomTheGeek
' 1/20/2010

' Set Pin Variables
symbol RED_LED = 0 'FIRE ZE MISSLES!
symbol DIRRIGHT = 1 'foward/stop/reverse
symbol SPEEDCTRL = 2 'PWM output
symbol IR_IN = 3 'Infrared in
symbol DIRLEFT = 4 'foward/stop/reverse

' Other constants
symbol SPEEDMIN = 400
symbol SPEEDMAX = 1000

' Set Variable Registers
symbol SPEED = W0 'W0 = B1:B0
symbol PERIOD = B2
symbol motion_state = B3

' Initialize variables
SPEED = SPEEDMIN
PERIOD = 249 ' 4KHz PWM operation
let motion_state = 0

'Motion states:
' stopped = 0
' forward = 1
' backward = 2
' turn left = 3
' turn right = 4
' rotate left = 5
' rotate right = 6

init:
low SPEEDCTRL
PWMOUT SPEEDCTRL, PERIOD, SPEED

main:
infrain2  'wait for new signal
select case infra
case 116  'forward
    gosub pwm_on
    high DIRRIGHT
    low DIRLEFT
    let motion_state = 1
case 117  'reverse
    if motion_state = 1 Then 'going forward, pause before reversing to prevent tip-overs.
        pwmout SPEEDCTRL, OFF
        low SPEEDCTRL
        PAUSE 300
    endif
    gosub pwm_on
    low DIRRIGHT
    high DIRLEFT
    let motion_state = 2
case 52  'left
    gosub pwm_on
    if motion_state = 3 or motion_state = 0 Then 'drive tracks in opposite directions to spin
        low DIRRIGHT
        low DIRLEFT
        let motion_state = 5
    Else 'stop one tread and keep the other going to skid steer.
        let dirs = 010000 'change pin to input to stop tread
        low DIRLEFT
        let motion_state = 3
    end if
case 51  'right
    gosub pwm_on
    if motion_state = 4 or motion_state = 0 Then 'drive tracks in opposite directions to spin
        high DIRRIGHT
        high DIRLEFT
        let motion_state = 6
    else 'stop one tread and keep the other going to skid steer.
        let dirs = 000010 'change pin to input to stop tread
        high DIRRIGHT
        let motion_state = 4
    end if
case 16  'faster
    if SPEED < speed =" SPEED"> SPEEDMIN then
        SPEED = SPEED - 100
    endif
    PWMOUT SPEEDCTRL, PERIOD, SPEED
    pause 250
case 21  'FIRE ZE MISSLES!
    HIGH RED_LED
    PAUSE 500
    LOW RED_LED
else  'stop
    pwmout SPEEDCTRL, OFF
    low SPEEDCTRL
    let motion_state = 0
endselect
goto main

pwm_on:
high SPEEDCTRL
PWMOUT SPEEDCTRL, PERIOD, SPEED
return

Nokia is relavent again with the N97

2008-12-02T16:17:00.003-06:00

I've always liked Nokia phones, my first phone was a Nokia and everything about it felt polished. Everything worked, made sense and was very easy to use. For some reason though they never really branched out of the candy bar form factor and except for low end phones no one wants a candy bar phone anymore. It took Nokia years to even come out with a flip phone. However with the release of the N97 Nokia finally has a phone that shakes the candy bar form factor and it does it with style. If this can compete with Windows Mobile I may finally be able to make the switch back to Nokia.

Pop up notification of software RAID problems in Ubuntu

2008-11-22T19:29:00.014-06:00

I finally was able to setup a software RAID in my last install of Ubuntu 8.10 and I wanted to setup monitoring so I would know about any problems immediately. Ubuntu sets up monitoring automatically when you create a MDADM arrary but by default it only sends an email to the local root account. That would be fine for a server but on a desktop system a visual notification would be better. Here are the steps I took to enable a pop up notification whenever something bad happens to my RAID array.

To make the notification bubble I used notify-send. Notify-send is part of the notification-daemon package so install it with this command:

sudo apt-get install notification-daemon

In order to make sure our notification are working we need to be able to send a test notification. MDADM has a testing mode built right in, to activate it edit /etc/default/mdadm and add " --test" to the end of the DAEMON_OPTIONS string. This will tell MDADM to send a test message every time it starts.

Now we need to configure MDADM to run a program when there's a problem as well as setting the email address of where we want the notifications sent. Edit /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf and set the MAILADDR and MAILFROM email addresses. MAILADDR is where you want the email sent, MAILFROM is what shows up in the From field in the email. You may have to add the MAILFROM line. To run our program add a PROGRAM line underneath the MAIL line with the following:

# display local notification
PROGRAM /usr/sbin/mdadm-notify.sh

This tells MDADM to run our script when there's a problem. Now we just need to create /usr/sbin/mdadm-notify.sh and add the following:

#!/bin/bash

#get dbus session
eval `dbus-launch --sh-syntax --exit-with-session`

#show alert
/usr/bin/notify-send -u critical -c device.error -i /usr/share/icons/Human/32x32/status/dialog-warning.png -t 0 "RAID Status" "<b>$2</b>: $1" -h int:x:1250 -h int:y:20

There are a couple settings you'll want to change on the last line of the script. Most of all you'll have to alter the int:x and int:y values so they work on your system. I have a triple screen setup so my settings will likely put the notification off screen if you don't change them. Also the warning icon I used should be standard for Ubuntu 8.10 but if it's not showing up you'll have to set the path to an icon on your system. Finally be sure to run "sudo set chmod +x /usr/sbin/mdadm-notify.sh" to make the script executable.

Now we are ready to test. Run "sudo /etc/init.d/mdadm restart" to restart MDADM and send the test message. Adjust the int:x and int:y values if the pop up isn't where you want it or the icon isn't showing up and test again. Once you are satisfied with the appearance of the notification go back into /etc/default/mdadm and remove the " --test" from the DAEMON_OPTIONS string so you don't keep getting the test message.

That's it! Now if something happens to the RAID array you'll get a nice visual notification of the problem.

Google Chrome doesn't need Admin rights to install

2008-09-02T14:33:00.004-05:00

I just downloaded Google Chrome and love it. I won't be able to use it full time until there are some plugins developed for it but I'm betting I won't have to wait very long.

One curious thing I noticed though is that the installer doesn't require Administrator rights to install. Everything is installed in the users profile folder under [profile folder]\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome. Nothing is installed in Program Files.

This is not a bad thing per se, it's just unexpected. The only problems will be on networks where only specific applications are allowed. Once more plugins are developed it might become a bigger problem since with the right plugin you could get into a lot of trouble. I almost consider this a feature since I'll be able to use Chrome on computers I otherwise wouldn't be able to install an alternate browser.

at&t 8925 trumps iPhone, again

2008-06-18T17:39:00.004-05:00

I ruined my five hundred dollar 8925 by getting it wet, days before the new 3G iPhone was announced. I was waiting for it to dry out as they announced the iPhone's $200 price and GPS capabilities. I must admit, I seriously considered buying the new iPhone but in the end I shelled out another $400 for a used 8925. The iPhones software has come a long way and with the addition of 3G and GPS as well as full Exchange support it's that much closer to being a realistic alternative for me. The deciding factor though is that I really like A2DP, a real keyboard and the possibility of running Android at some point in the future. Also now that the price has dropped EVERYONE is going to have an iPhone. You thought RAZR's were common, wait till this time next year. So keep it up Apple, you're getting close but you're not there yet.

Lightweight Burning with XP

2008-06-04T13:43:00.003-05:00

Llosgi CD
Originally uploaded by Dafad∙Ddall

Competition is usually a good thing, but sometimes it gets out of hand. The competitors can get so concentrated on one-upping each other they forget what they were supposed to be doing in the first place and ignore everything except winning the competition. Case in point, burning software for Windows. Nero's Burning Rom used to be my software of choice and many geeks used it as well. It was fast, relatively small and gave you the advanced options needed to burn your CD the "right way". Roxio's Easy CD Creator was the only other real contender and came pre-installed with many computers. It didn't really work very well but had nice easy to use interface so it was good for people who just wanted to burn a CD and didn't want to deal with the technical details of it.

Even though they both were making burning software for Windows, they really weren't in competition with each other because their software was targeted at two distinct groups. Despite this they decided that they had to beat the other guy at all costs and engaged in a feature war that has left both bloated with all sorts of stuff that no one wants in their burning program.

Ahead is now selling "Nero 8 Ultra Edition" which includes photo, video and audio editing, YouTube integration, media streaming to Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, and for some reason, DVR functionality. Roxio ups the ante with "Easy Media Creator 10 Suite". Features include the same photo, video and audio editing capabilities but adds DVD menu creation and video capture. It also sports YouTube integration, mobile content conversion, and internet radio capture.

When did my burning software become an operating system by itself? All of these functions are better served with dedicated software, I just want my software to burn CD's, everything else I will deal with as I need it. Not everyone that burns a music CD is going to edit video. Thankfully some kind hearted souls have decided they don't want to install 2 GB worth of crap to burn a CD and have release FREE software that make both Ahead's and Roxio's software irrelevant.

InfraRecorder is a very basic software that is as about as simple as it can get. It doesn't have all the options I'd like but for 90% of the CD's I make it does a great job. I discovered it when I was looking for a free program that would let my friend burn an Ubuntu ISO image. It's released under the GPL software license so I can add features if I want or even remove them if they started padding the software with useless gimmicks.

CDBurnerXP is a much more polished product and does everything Nero used to do so well. It's still very easy to use but has enough advanced options that I don't need Nero at all anymore. It's not an open source software but it has a freeware license and doesn't include any ads or maleware.

Thank you iPhone, for bringing me 3G

2008-05-14T13:44:00.004-05:00

I just wanted to say thanks to Steve, Apple and the iPhone for finally getting at&t to do something with their 3G network. They had been dragging their feet with it for so long and I know I'd still be waiting for it if you hadn't come along and convinced them that they really needed 3G to push more iPhone sales.

Sources all over are reporting that the second generation iPhone (the black one on the right) is going to be released in early June which seems to make sense, when the first iPhone came out at&t's 3G network was very small and while everyone complained that it should have had 3G at the time it just wouldn't have made any sense. It was a great idea to launch an EDGE version early, let everyone figure out how great they are then only a year later release a 3G version once at&t has had the time to build out their network. They get to gouge the early adopters twice and since everyone signed a two year agreement they'll have to pay full price for the new 3G iPhone.

I'm just happy I get 3G on my at&t tilt, which by the way, is black.

US Bank charges $400 for a $10 overdraft

2008-04-03T16:14:00.004-05:00

My girlfriend, who has a checking account at US Bank, overdrew her checking account by $10. No big deal, happens all the time right? Usually they'll tack on some overdraft fees which sucks but is not unexpected. Pay the fine, bring the account current and everything is cool. So that's what she does, except she's still $2 overdraft somehow. US Bank does this rediculous thing where they charge you $8 dollars a day and so the charges keep building up. They of course don't bother to tell her and now they want a total of $400 dollars to bring the account current. She's already paid $200 to bring the account current, more than enough to cover the cost of the overdraft. WTF? Does that sound reasonable to anyone?

at&t activates 3G in Madison WI, 612 kbit/sec

2008-03-22T13:25:00.002-05:00

I was delighted to find this morning that my phone had finally switched over to 3G. I've been waiting for them to flip the switch ever since I picked my Tilt which is the first phone I've ever owned that supports 3G. I'm not sure what other cities were lit up as well but I am doing a little traveling tomorrow so I'll see how long I keep my new high speed magic carpet ride. It will also be interesting to see how this affects my battery life, it's been pretty good so far giving me at least two days of regular useage. As long as it can still give me one day I can live with that as I charge my phone every night anyways.

Does anyone make a scanner that doesn't suck?

2008-03-12T10:32:00.003-05:00

Why is it that nobody can make a scanner that doesn't make me want to go Office Space on it's ass? I've used a ton of different scanners and every single time it's the same thing, press the scan button and pray to the scanner gods while sacrificing a virgin in the hope that this time it will finally work. Do you know how hard it is to find a good computer tech only to turn around and offer them up as a sacrifice on their first day? If I have to scan any more pictures HR is going to kill me.

It's not really the hardware that's the problem. It's the god awful driver software. I had to install an HP scanner the other day and the driver software was a 150MB download! Adobe Photoshop CS3 in it's entirety is 150MB by the way. Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot. I don't need the scanner software to do image editing, cataloging, email, or make slide shows. I just need it to scan the image and send it to the computer quickly and without locking up the whole computer.

What they need to do is make scanners show up as a mass storage device. Memory is cheap these days, just scan the image to some internal memory then I can copy the files over to my computer as easy as copying a file. Have a nice user menu on the front that lets me adjust the DPI and image type and I wouldn't even have to install any software on my computer. If you're feeling fancy you could throw in a setting that could enable/disable auto-cropping and it would be the perfect scanner.

No one buys a scanner because of the software that it comes with so stop adding features, it's just making the quality of your software go down.

Paint the town with TomTheGeek.com

2008-03-04T15:49:00.003-06:00

Just for fun I opened a shop at CafePress.com where you can buy a couple different shirts with the TomTheGeek.com logo on them. Maybe you need a fuse for your Molotov Cocktail or maybe you just want all those girls to stop hitting on you, either way the shirts are available now at the low, low price of $20 for either the always popular black tee or the confidence inducing white golf polo.

FyreTV Unboxxxed

2008-02-11T10:10:00.000-06:00

FyreTV, the hottest boxxx you'll ever experience has been officially un-boxed by Scott over at SatelliteGuys.US. So far there's not much content to test with except for a small teaser video though they claim "around 20,000 movies" will be available once the service is up and running. Included in the package is the standard stuff though they do include a HDMI cable which is a nice touch.

The pricing starts at just ten bucks a month for 100 minutes of video with extra minutes available at .10-.30 cents each depending on how many you buy at a time. Individual movies will be $5-$20 with the option to buy just a certain scene from a movie without having to buy the whole thing. If those options are too complicate you can just buy all the content from a distributor for a flat monthly fee in the range of $10-$30.

FyreTV is in the process of rolling out the Beta which should last at least a couple months. Shipments were claimed to start February 4th but I'm still waiting for the final email where I can give them my address and other information. If you haven't signed up for the beta yet go to www.fyretv.com and use "Satelliteguys" as your promo code to skip to the head of the line courtesy of Estefano.

Server 2008 due Febuary 27th

2008-02-04T14:15:00.000-06:00

Today Vista SP1 and Server 2008 were released to manufacturers. I can't wait to get my hands on Server 2008. Server core version is a huge change for MS, we're finally able to free our resources from the clutches of the MS GUI overlord. Other improvements include better PHP performance for IIS, better IPv6 support, better hardware installation control, an improved firewall, Network Access control and finally integrated virtualization support. So unlike Vista, Server 2008 has some solid reasons for upgrading. Let me know how SP1 for Vista works out for you, ok?

Environment monitoring with 1-wire sensors

2007-12-10T16:16:00.000-06:00

I was looking for a solution to monitor our server room's temperature over a serial port and discovered the world of 1-wire sensors. 1-wire stuff is fantastically simple and has a wide variety of sensors and switches. The basic idea is that you can hook a large number of sensors to a pair of wires ( ground + data, hence 1-wire ) and can individually target and read each sensor.

Here you see the circuit I constructed as a 1-wire serial port adapter. The 1-wire sensors are run in parallel from the RCA connector. RJ-11 might have been a better connector to use in hindsight since the cabling is cheaper but it would be an easy retrofit if I ever want to expand my network. Right now I only have 1 temperature sensor (shown below) so the RCA connector is adequate.

The label you see on the side is a unique 64-bit address burned into each sensor. This is equivalent to the MAC address on a network card. The actual sensor is just a three pin through hole mount similar to many transistor packages. It's small enough that I was able to fit it entirely into the connector housing with a hole open on the end so that it's still exposed to the environment.

This is the final 1-wire adapter with sensor attached. It's not quite how I imagined it as I have to use an extension serial cable to hook it up instead of plugging the whole thing right into the serial port but it works and I can always change it later if I run into an appropriate connector. Ordering parts online is always a crap shoot unless you can see a picture. The whole setup cost under $10 and I can expand it to use more sensors if I want. All I would have to do is build/buy some RCA extensions and splitters.

The output of the whole system is the graph you see below. Not terribly exciting to say the least but considering the cost of the project it's pretty neat. I'm thinking about adding some window sensors for a cheap alarm system. Email notifications can be added to the polling script to notify you of any sensor conditions. In our server room the system is set to notify the IT staff if the temp gets any higher than 85F or below 55F. I doubt the server room would ever get below 55F but if it does it's a pretty good indicator that something has gone seriously wrong!

Shentech.com fraud warning

2007-11-30T13:57:00.000-06:00

These guys always seemed pretty sketchy but I never had any real problems with them or at least so I thought. Turns out they're taking people's credit card information and opening bogus UPS commercial accounts then using them to make large shipments.

Brusk says:

Indeed. I bought something from Shentech about 5-6 years ago, and incurred a world of hurt. I bought a mouse--an Dell-branded Logitech USB mouse for about 6 bucks (great mouse, still going strong). Then over a year letter I discovered that someone had opened a commercial UPS account in my name and used it to ship wholesale quantities of goods from China to Shentech's address in Queens. I found this out when I received the bill. UPS was good about it and the bill went away...for a few months. Then another similar bill arrived at my new address (I'd moved from NYC to California). Again UPS's fraud squad dealt with it. I guess it was pretty obvious that someone who doesn't have a business wouldn't be shipping several thousand pounds of equipment across the Pacific. But they did something nasty with my contact info, and I've watched my credit reports carefully ever since.

So yeah, Shentech is evil.

This exact thing happened to me only I didn't realize what was going on. I've ordered several small items from them (fan guards, colored screws, ect..) in the past and one day I get this bill from UPS for a shipment of t-shirts to an address in NY. I simply called UPS and got them to dismiss the charges and forgot about it. I got a second bill a little while later but I just called a second time and I've never heard from them since. Because it went away so easily I never really looked into it but I wish I still had the bill so I could verify that it had the same address.

If there are any remaining doubts about Shentech just follow the fraud warning link at the top and check out their rating and read some reviews. None of this is proven of course, it's merely second hand accounts and circumstantial evidence but given the number of people they've pissed off and the fact that they're shipping counterfeit laptop batteries that can explode or catch fire I won't be buying anything from them for a long, long time.

Enable IMAP on your Gmail account

2007-11-01T10:12:00.000-05:00

If you're like me you've been eagerly waiting for Gmail to enable IMAP access ever since you created your account. They've been slowly enabling it for a while now but today I learned a neat trick.

Go into settings and change your language setting to English(UK). Select "no" when it asks you if you want to enable it for your other google apps because the next step is to change it back to English(US). After that you should see IMAP enabled in settings.

No guarantees that it will work for you but it worked for me.

Wide screen monitors are a scam

2007-10-18T11:16:00.001-05:00

And here's why: they're not as big. LCD manufacturers love to say all sorts of things like "wider is better" and "you can see more" but they're lying through their teeth. Don't believe me? Fine lets do some math.

19" 4:3 ratio screen = 1280x1024 = 1,310720 total pixels
19" wide screen = 1440x900 = 1,296,000 total pixels

1,310,720
- 1,296,000
---------
= 14,720 fewer pixels in the wide screen

I don't care what configuration the pixels are in, if I'm getting less pixels it means I'm seeing less information.

The reason they can get away with it is that they always measure screens from corner to corner diagonally. It's the same dirty trick they've been using for years. They love it because it means they can sell more screens from the same piece of silicon. The customers think they're getting a bigger screen and they sell more monitors. It's a "win - win" situation where the customer loses and they win twice.

Agreed, wide screens are great for watching movies. But how often do I actually watch a movie on my computer and do I really need to optimize my entire display for that one activity? I watch far more movies on my entertainment center so why don't I just get a wide screen projector for that?

See Tom run. Run Tom run!

2007-09-26T11:54:00.000-05:00

If you log into your Windows machine with a limited account there are times when you need to run a program with administrator privileges. There are couple options here, you can log out and log back in as the administrator but that's always a pain. You can right click and select "Run As" but that requires you to enter the administrator user name and password each time and can get annoying. There has to be a better way...

This handy batch file runs any program dropped onto it with alternate credentials. Just copy and past the following into a new batch file and replace "myusername" and "mydomain" with the appropriate information.

RunAs.bat

set LINK=%1
set LINK=%LINK:"=\"%
runas /savecred /user:myusername@mydomainname "cmd /c %LINK%"

The first time you run it it will ask for a password. Because the /savecred option is set you won't have to enter the password after that unless it changes. If you consider that a security risk just remove /savecred and it will ask you for the password each time it's run.

at&t 8925 gets FCC approval

2007-07-25T15:35:00.000-05:00

Thanks to an anonymous tip I have learned that the at&t 8925 (aka HTC Kaiser) has now gained FCC approval. I was concerned that the Kaiser would not make it into the US because of the Qualcomm chip ban. Looks like it's not going to be a problem.

There will be three versions: KAIS110 has no camera while KAIS100 has one camera and KAIS120 has two cameras. I assume at&t will pick up the single camera version as that's what they have done in the past but you never know.

Cingular 8925 trumps iPhone

2007-07-12T15:57:00.000-05:00

The iPhone has been out for a while and I'm definitely not going to get one. The iPhone sacrifices functionality for usability which is great for the tech illiterate but for anyone with a brain the Cingular 8925 (on the left) has every feature the iPhone has plus more at about the same price.

Supposedly the Cingular 8925 will be available in August 2007. That is a phone I would be willing to wait in line for.

How much for the data only plan?

2007-06-15T20:19:00.000-05:00

How long will it be until you can buy a cell phone with nothing but a 3G (or 4G) data plan? Or more realistically how long before it becomes practical? Why pay for minutes when you can just buy unlimited data and do everything over that. Data is so versatile I don't know why they ever bother with voice.

Scratch that, I know perfectly why. First is money, they can make a whole lot more by charging you for each text message and each minute. Second is technology, phones only recently have become fast enough to do the proccessing for VoIP. Wireless technology is just starting to catch up in the US to the point where you have enough bandwidth to make VoIP calls without resorting to WiFi.

We've seen it happen with landlines so it's only inevitable that it will happen with wireless phones. It's not gonna happen anytime soon, I predict it happening in ten years at the earliest but I would put my money on it.

MOXI brings back the 30 second skip!

2007-06-06T14:26:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I started watching TV with my Motorola MOXI DVR and something was different, the menus were flipping in and out in an animated way that they haven't before. I look closer, and OMG!@!, I got the 4.1 updated firmware!! My Moxi is flying along like it never has, menus are super responsive and have a new shiny look to them. I start digging around and find two more surprises.

First, they brought back the 30 second skip!! It has always been a 15 minute skip which is pretty much worthless.

Second, they enabled external hard drive support!! That's right, now I can plug in a USB hard drive and expand the storage of my Moxi.

I am extremely pleased in the performance of the menus, before they were so god awful slow. The 30 second skip and external drive support is just icing on the cake. I'm still planning on ditching the Moxi in favor of a multi room MythTV setup but at least the Moxi will be easier to live with until I get it setup.

Do I want an iPhone?

2007-06-04T11:31:00.000-05:00

Do I want an iPhone? It's a question I've been asking myself for a while and I'm still not sure. On one hand it's gonna be a pretty fancy phone that's sure to get oohs and aahs whenever I take it out, on the other hand it's not really that extensible of a platform.

By that I mean I won't really have full control over what the phone can and can't do. Not that I have complete control now with Windows Mobile Platform but so far it seems like I will have more control than with the iPhone.

Right now I have the tools to write a program
myself that I could run on my phone. If Apple doesn't let me do that then I don't think I want an iPhone, no matter how fancy and slick it is.

I'm out of contract and I've had my current phone for quite a while so I'm in the perfect position to upgrade to an iPhone but I guess I'll have to wait until I can get my hands on one before I decide.

I'm really tempted to wait for the HTC Kaiser. All the same features as my Cingular 8125 but with GPS, High speed data and the display flips(!!).

Griffin Powermate working with Ubuntu Feisty Fawn

2007-05-02T23:58:00.000-05:00

There are lots of linux programs that will interface with the Griffin Powermate. Since I want to customize the buttons on my keyboard and mouse as well as the Powermate I choose to use evrouter. Installing evrouter in Ubuntu can be done with apt-get or the synaptic package manager.

The kernel modules are already loaded in Ubuntu 7.04 to support the powermate so I didn't have to mess around with that. Run "evrouter -d /dev/input/event*" to make sure the powermate events are being received properly.

The first problem that needs to be solved is to assign a static name to the powermate with udev so it will always come up under the same device name. Normally it will come up under different device names depending on how it was plugged in.

Create the file /etc/udev/rules.d/10-local.rules and add this all on one line:

SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{product}=="Griffin PowerMate", KERNEL=="event?", NAME="input/powermate"

That will force the powermate to come up under /dev/input/powermate every time it's plugged in. Now we need to set permissions.

Create a group called "powermate" and add the correct users. Now edit /etc/udev/rules.d/40-permissions.rules and add this line at the bottom:

ATTRS{product}=="Griffin PowerMate" GROUP="powermate", MODE="0666"

Now the group powermate will have read permissions to the /dev/input/powermate device. Next we need to create the evrouter rules file. Create a file called .evrouterrc in your home directory and add this:

Window ""
"Griffin PowerMate" "" any key/256 "XKey/XF86AudioMute"
"Griffin PowerMate" "" any rel/7/1 "XKey/XF86AudioRaiseVolume"
"Griffin PowerMate" "" any rel/7/-1 "XKey/XF86AudioLowerVolume"

This is a very simple rules file that can be expanded to do other actions once you've got the powermate working. I'm adjusting the volume using Xserve commands since I want the powermate to control system volume but there are specific actions to control XMMS if you use that. The XF86 volume commands only work if they have been mapped to keys on your keyboard.

The last step is to configure evrouter to load at boot time. This is done in Ubuntu under preferences > sessions. Click new and give it a name of "EvRouter" and for the command enter "evrouter /dev/input/powermate". That will launch evrouter and tell it to listen to the powermate for events.

That's it, restart and you should have a functioning volume knob.

Vista's got nothing on Beryl

2007-04-10T14:47:00.000-05:00

I just installed the beta release of Ubuntu and one of the things I wanted to try was Beryl. Beryl is a window manager that adds a bunch of seriously cool 3D effects to your Linux desktop. A bit pointless perhaps, but really really cool nonetheless. Vista's visual effects look stale in comparison.

The stylus sucks as an input device

2007-04-10T13:12:00.000-05:00

I've had my HTC Wizard (AKA Cingular 8125) for a year now and I can't wait for the HTC S710 to come out in the states. I've just gotten so sick of having to pull the stylus out to do the most basic tasks with the Wizard. I don't mind if the stylus is an option but everything should be usable with just the keyboard.

The most irritating is when I want to compose a text message. I type in the name of the person then pull out the stylus just to position the cursor so I can type the message. Tab doesn't work, enter doesn't work, down arrow doesn't work, nothing. To be fair I think it's like that because of a setting I changed. When I first installed the ROM I could use the down arrow to move the cursor but then I changed something and now it doesn't work.

The other part that pisses me off is going up a directory in the WM player library. If they just had a ".." entry I could use the direction pad and highlight it then click the enter button to go up a directory. As it is I can drill down into a folder but I have to pull out the stylus in order to go back up.

The only thing I would really miss the stylus for is cutting and pasting. That feature is really handy. If they could figure out a way to do that with a Smartphone I really wouldn't see the need for a Pocket PC version of Windows Mobile at all.

Microsoft stunts Office 2007 GPO deployment

2007-01-31T17:01:00.000-06:00

In the past it's been pretty easy to push a new version of Office to a group of users with Group Policies. For some reason MS thought this was a bad idea so they had to make things harder in 2007.

Sure they give you the great Office Customization Tool, but they don't let you use those files with a network install. All you get to use is a lousy config.xml file that hardly lets you pick what options to install. It won't even let you install over an existing 2003 installation, it leaves both versions on the computer. Not only that, the install doesn't finish until a user logs in. Why can't this happen pre-login?

My only real option is to use SMS server (which isn't an available option) or to write a login script to do it all for me. Isn't this why we use GPO's in the first place? I've pushed software 'manually' before so it's not terribly hard but WTF? Gee thanks Microsoft, you guys really out did yourselves this time.

Vista must be re-activated every 180 days, even for Enterprise users

2007-01-26T14:11:00.000-06:00

Man I just can't believe it. I work for a government organization and they are finally distributing Vista for us to start testing. Looking though the installation instructions I found this gem:

After activation, the system will require reactivation every 180 days (or 210 days after a new 30 day grace period). Reactivation requires no action by the SA, but the system must be on, connected to the network, and able to reach the KMS hosts. Reactivation generally should not be an issue for desktops, but may be an issue for laptops that are not often brought into the office. If a system does enter RFM because the 210 days have expired without reactivation, it is still possible to reactivate it manually.

Just f'ing great. This is the first OS from MS that I'm not that excited about installing.

www2.TomTheGeek.com is gone

2007-01-18T13:23:00.000-06:00

I've been getting a few requests from people looking for my old Hotline server www2.TomTheGeek.com. I'm sorry to inform you that the server and all it's files are gone.

Most people that contact me are looking for Brew files and I'm also sorry to tell you that unless your phone uses Brew 1.1 you will not be able to use them. They haven't been shipping Brew 1.1 compatible phones for many years now so unless your phone is 4 years old it will use a newer version of Brew. I repeat, the files I no longer have will not work with your phone.

Hotline was this great program to share files back in the late 90's but it's not used much anymore because it was buggy and they started including spyware in the newer versions. Nowadays Bittorent has all the files you could need so try there.

The Ultimate Dell 8IK Keyboard Fix

2007-01-11T11:36:00.000-06:00

The Dell Latitude CPx line of laptop is notorious for having keyboards go bad and mine was no different. Not all the keys would stop working, just the 8, I and K keys. Various fixes have been posted and I’ve tried them all but to no avail. Cleaning the contacts, removing parts of the metal keyboard tray that was supposedly shorting, etc. They would work for a few days then it would be back to typing with the onscreen keyboard. If I pounded my fist in just the right place I could get it to work but only until I moved the laptop again. This was getting irritating.

I could just buy a new keyboard but I wasn’t even sure that would fix it and replacement keyboards are pretty expensive around $60. I finally got the idea to replace the keyboard entirely with a slim USB keyboard. Logitech makes one to be used with the PlayStation 2. I bought a few of them before because of their small size and 8 foot USB cord and was impressed with their quality. They’re kind of hard to find but I got a brand new one off of eBay for $10 shipped.

The new keyboard was almost the perfect size to fit where the old keyboard was so I thought instead of carrying around an extra keyboard all the time why not make it fit where the old one went? I pulled the back off the keyboard and it was relatively simple underneath, just a metal plate for the keyboard and a small circuit board. I hacked off the plastic around the top and bottom of the keyboard and it dropped in perfectly, now to connect it.

The controller card for the keyboard wouldn’t fit without some modification but it didn't look to difficult. I decided to pull the ribbon cable connectors off the controller card so I could solder to those instead of the ribbon cable then mount the board off to the side where a modem would have gone if it were included in the laptop. This required soldering 24 wires from the connectors to the controller card which was a little tedious but the contacts weren’t too small so it was just a matter of being careful to not cross a connection.

Won't fit here:

Controller relocated:

Now that the keyboard would fit with its controller card I had to find a way to actually connect it to the laptop. I was really hoping it would be the type of USB keyboard that also worked as a PS2 keyboard with an adapter so I wouldn’t have to use a hub. Unfortunately it wasn’t and since I didn’t have any spare USB ports I had to fit a USB hub in there somewhere.

I already had an internal USB port as a result from my previous hack of adding internal Bluetooth so I just needed a small USB hub to split that port into two. I took a slim 4 port USB hub apart and hacked off two of the connectors and removed the other two and a few other unnecessary parts to come up with an almost quarter sized 2 port USB hub. I could technically still use the other two ports if I had to I would just have to solder directly to the traces. You can pick these hubs up today for around $10-15 dollars so total cost is still pretty low plus with the extra ports I could add internal Wi-Fi if I wanted.

Even as small as it was I still had a somewhat hard time finding a place to stow it inside the laptop. There was a nice unused space behind the video card that worked out nicely. I cut the wires I used for the Bluetooth module and spliced the hub into them. Then I added a connector to the wires going to the keyboard so I can easily disconnect it if I have to remove it for some reason.

One downside to using the USB hub is that the keyboard will no longer work until the laptop is booted up. When I was testing it by hooking it directly to the back port it would let me get into BIOS but I’ll have to use an external keyboard to do that now. This could be solved by moving the USB hub to the other port on the laptop and hooking the keyboard up directly but for now I’ll probably leave it the way it is since I don’t need to get into the BIOS very often.

Here’s the finished product.

Everything works as normal and I kinda like the way it makes the laptop look like a Frankenstein or something. I may find some black plastic to fill in the gaps on the sides but I’ll see how it goes. Right now the keyboard is just sitting in the gap, it’s not screwed down so I may find some way of securing it in the future. Finally, I can use my 8IK keys again!

My first MythTV box

2006-12-21T13:23:00.000-06:00

I finally set up my first MythTV box the other day and it's every bit as powerful as I thought it would be. MythTV is truly the all in one convergance box. It watches, records and streams TV, watches/rips DVDs, plays/rips CDs, plays games and displays pictures just to name a few things it can do.

The first thing I want to set up is encoding copies of everything it records into a smaller version for my phone. It's had finding video to load on my phone and this would be a never ending supply. I also have a large collection of NES Roms and a controller I'm going to hook up to play some games with. I'm planning on setting up at least one front end for it also in my living room (the main box is in my bedroom) so I can utilize it's power in the living room.

Mythdora is the particular distro I loaded my box with, Knoppmyth is also a very good distro but it didn't work for me the first time I tried it. I actually thought I would like knoppmyth better since it's based on Debian (my distro of choice) but after trying Mythdora I decided to stick with it since it installs a slightly newer version of MythTV and I thought it might be good for me to branch out a little in the OS department. For the record, Mythdora didn't work the first time either, I had to re-install it a second time. FYI: make sure you disable SELinux when going through the setup and everything will go smoothly.

Dump iTunes, Winamp is the hawtness

2006-11-22T09:49:00.000-06:00

I've used Winamp since the early 90's because it's always had the easiest to use playlist management. When they were bought out by AOL I was seriously concerned because it meant Winamp's almost certain death.

Fortunately they've actually managed to do a good job of keeping the core goodness that is Winamp while adding features that are pretty useful. In the latest version they have a feature called Winamp remote which turns your MP3 collection at home into a mini internet radio station.

Winamp also lets you manage portable music players which is great, I've been using Windows Media Player to manage the music on my phone but I am switching to Winamp for that, it's so much easier to use than WMP.

If you're using iTunes to copy music to your iPod stop reading this and download Winamp now. The only reason to use iTunes is if you're buying music though the iTunes store, but you'd never do anything that stupid would you? Would you?!?!? If you did then you deserve everything you get. Buying music with DRM is about the dumbest thing you could do.

The free version of Winamp isn't very limited but the pro version will rip your collection of CD's and let you burn mixes the same as iTunes. It's pretty easy to find a crack for it if you don't want to pay the $15 for the pro version though. I almost wouldn't mind paying the $15 if I thought Justin Frankel (the original creator) was getting any of the money. As it is I'd rather crack it and send Justin a check personally, he definitely deserves it.

Plantronics Voyager 510 Review

2006-11-21T11:30:00.000-06:00

It's hard for me to find a Bluetooth headset that I like. My first headset was a Motorola H500. It was small and charged using mini USB so I didn't have to carry an extra charger around but had a delicate ear loop so I couldn't just chuck it in my pocket, I had to be careful with it. It worked reasonably well though and was pretty comfortable.

Unfortunately it fell out of my pocket while on a motorcycle ride so I've been looking for a new headset. It had been a while since I last got the H500 and there were a lot of new headsets on the market so I wanted to look around a bit and get something a bit snazzier and possibly something with a noise canceling microphone. I actually ordered and returned two headsets before finally settling on the Voyager 510.

First I tried the Motorola H3, basically a H500 in a Razor like package. I was hoping it would be thinner to fit in my pocket better but it was actually larger and thicker than the H500. If it had been thin like the Razor I would have kept it but it was just too big and the audio quality wasn't what I was used to. The audio was very tinny and not very loud. The other reason I returned it was because I bought it from an eBay auction that said it was brand new but when I got it you could tell that it had been used.

For my second try I decided to just get another H500. They have a bunch of new colors out now but eventually I just got the standard silver color as the other colors just looked cheap. I bought it from another eBay auction that also claimed it was new but something about it just didn't feel right. Then after just a couple days the rubber on the ear loop fell off so back it went.

After two bad eBay experiences I decided to stop low balling it and buy from a reputable vendor. I was sorely missing my headset and I'd already wasted a month.

I had admired the 510 when it first came out and I've been wanting to try a Plantronics headset. Plantronics is a serious headset vendor. They make headsets for missions into space and anyone who makes a living over the phone. I knew I wouldn't be disappointed by the quality but I was concerned over the size.

What I didn't know until after watching a video review is that the headset is actually quite flexible and it folds flat reducing it's size. There is no delicate ear loop to worry about so while it is bigger than my other headset it's easy to throw in a front pocket and not worry about breaking.

The 510 is very comfortable and looks pretty sharp if not a little like a hearing aid. It gets very loud and the boom microphone picks up my voice well. Because of the folding action you can switch it to the left or right ear in seconds. It comes with a couple different ear pads for different sized ears or depending on how you want it to sit on your ear. It actually works really well without the ear pads at all which also cuts down on it's size, but I left it on there to keep dirt and crap out of the speaker. I may look into making a flush ear pad in the future.

About the only thing I don't like is that it uses a special plug to charge with because they make several stands that the headset docks with. This means I'll probably have to invest in a separate car charger for longer trips or alternatively I may turn it on only when I need it.

Overall I give the headset a 4 out of 5 stars, really good but not perfect. If I was using this at the office with a landline phone it would be a 5 out of 5 which is really where this headset shines but it still manages to work much better than most headsets on the go.

Reset a Lexmark Multi Function Printer

2006-10-04T15:10:00.000-05:00

We accidentally set a bad password on a Lexmark X422 and I couldn't find the procedure to reset it anywhere. I contacted Lexmark support and they sent me the steps to get into the configuration menu where you can reset the printer back to factory defaults.

Press and hold the Start and Stop buttons and turn on the printer.
Hold the buttons down until “Performing Self Test” is displayed on the LCD.
Release the buttons and “Configuration Menu” is displayed.
Scroll to the RESTORE FACTORY DEFAULTS item on the menu and press select.
Now scroll to RESTORE BASE and press select this sould reset your network card password. There is also a RESTORE NETWORK, this will erase the network configuration but will not reset the password.

I don't know how many other printers this will work on but I'm betting most of the all in one printers from Lexmark will work the same.

Blu-ray VS HD-DVD: Who cares?

2006-08-30T15:09:00.000-05:00

There has been much debate over which of these two new formats is going to become the next generation media and I'm getting sick of it. It's taken so long for either format to materialize that they just don't even matter anymore. It's going to be 2008 before there are enough titles available and the players have gotten cheap enough for the average user to even consider "upgrading".

I put upgrading in quotes because other than a higher resolution there really isn't anything else these new formats offer and because of added DRM you'll be able to do less with them than a DVD. So remind me again why I have to shell out my hard earned cash for this? I'm still using an ancient CRT television that can't even use the higher resolution so both formats offer exactly zero benefit to me.

The change to CD's and DVD's was almost overnight. There was a distinct advantage to the new technology that made our lives easier. HD-DVD and Blu-ray lack this and that's why it's taking so long to develop. Scrap 'em both and try again guys, you're just wasting your time.

What the hell are SAS hard drives?

2006-07-27T15:05:00.000-05:00

I hadn't heard of these until yesterday when I was pricing out a server. Apparently they are SCSI drives with a serial interface A.K.A. Serial Attached SCSI (SAS). All the benefits of SCSI with the small cable size of SATA. In fact the two interfaces are very similar and it's at least theoretically possible to run a SATA drive on a SAS interface. The reason is that SATA is essentially using SCSI commands already, but designed for only one device per port. SAS can be cascaded for up to 128 devices per port. The connectors are the same as you can see in the picture.

This would be great in a laptop since they are making SAS drives in the 2.5" format but with 10,000 rpm spindle speeds. Mostly these are being used in blade servers and such and not in laptops yet because power usage would kill a battery quick.

TiVo, TiVo, wherefore art thou, Tivo!

2006-07-11T12:51:00.000-05:00

TiVo, I love you, but what the hell is wrong with you? How can it possibly take this long to come up with a dual tuner, cable card compatible box with a freaking optical audio out? That's all I want. Something that works with my digital cable signal and gives me full 5.1 surround sound when it's available. It doesn't even have to be dual tuner, I'll deal with recording one thing at a time.

Instead you take years to come out with a dual tuner verison of the same thing. Wow, I'm really impressed. To be fair it may not be your fault, who knows what the cable companies are doing to prevent your success but still, your definitely dragging ass here.

While your out there making nifty software like TiVo2go I'm stuck in DVR hell with the box that Charter shoved down my throat. It's hot in here TiVo. I want you back.

Update: Well would you look at that, TiVo might have actually listened!

Hot new PS3 controller

2006-06-06T13:55:00.000-05:00

I completely missed this but apparently Sony ditched the boomerang controller and unveiled the final PS3 controller at E3. It proves that they really do have some smart people working there, it's just the management that's driving them into the ground. There are a lot of things to like about this controller and hopefully the PS3 itself will be just as well thought out.

First off I see a miniUSB port and that's almost always a good sign. It also uses Bluetooth for wireless play (brilliant) and has a motion sensor similar to Nintendo's Wii though I doubt many games will use it. The MiniUSB could be used to connect it to a desktop computer ala the xBox 360 controller as well as charge it for wireless use without requiring a separate wall wart. If we're really lucky they'll even let us use it as a Bluetooth controller for desktop gaming.

The design is very similar to previous PS controllers which isn't a bad thing at all, they have always been very easy to use. Heck I might have to pick one up just to use on my computer with NES games.

Slickr: Greatest Screensaver of all time is out of beta

2006-05-23T10:11:00.000-05:00

I really mean it, this is the greatest screensaver of all time. Slickr is a free screensaver that takes the power of Flickr and displays some of the best pictures on the web right on your desktop. Slickr can be setup to pull images from a specific user, group or just the most interesting images on Flickr.

That last one is what makes it so great. Flickr rates a pictures "interestingness" based on how many views, notes and comments an image has. Therefore the most interesting pictures on Flickr are literally the best pictures out of millions contributed by thousands and thousands of people on the web. Since people are always adding more pictures the most interesting keeps changing so there are always fresh new pictures to look at.

I've tried a couple Flickr screensavers and this one is the best. The pan and scan feature zooms in on the image then pans around slowly making a great slideshow. Since you can set it up to use use only pictures from a user or a group a family could create their own group. Everyone adds their baby pictures of whatever to that group and presto, automatic picture sharing!

The new features in 1.0.1 are:

If pan disabled, then the image does not fill screen (i.e. is not cropped)
Slickr Console, very new and possibly buggy
Shortcuts to Screen saver, console, and settings via the start menu
Added override proxy support
View time > 120 seconds, now moves up by minutes 119, 120 seconds -> 3, 4 minutes -> 1 hour
If connection error, then it will show cached images (instead of stopping on the current image)

Fixing a Powerbook G4 hinge

2006-04-26T21:13:00.000-05:00

We have an old Powerbook G4 at work that has a broken hinge that I am attempting to repair. Why bother repairing such an easily replaced part? When the replacement part costs more than the value of the laptop, that's why bother. I'm serious, a pair of these hinges run over a hundred dollars on eBay, and several hundred dollars direct from Apple. This for a part that was poorly designed and has a history of breaking. The actual hinge part is so hard to twist I can't move it with my fingers, I have to use a pliers. All that torque is transferred through a tiny little arm.

If you notice where the break was, it's in pretty much the worst place possible. An important part of the repair is loosening the tension on the hinge because it's pretty much impossible to repair this well enough to withstand the original forces. By loosening the hinge our repair only has to hold the screen in the right place and doesn't have to deal with all that torque, so it will last a lot longer. The other hinge supplies enough force to keep the display from flopping around.

To try and give the hinge a fighting chance I bent a small piece of metal around the joint. This wraps the joint in a sort of splint and gives the epoxy a lot more to hold on to. This is also a very important piece, it would be worthless without it. The best glue for this job is probably J-B Weld, a two part epoxy designed to join metal together. I didn't have any of that available so I used some gas tank repair epoxy instead. It's pretty similar to J-B Weld except that it is designed to fix gas tank leaks.

Here it is after mixing the epoxy and squishing everything together. It seems fairly rigid but I'll have to wait until tomorrow to test it. If this doesn't work I'll get some actual J-B Weld and try the same thing using that. If the J-B Weld doesn't work then I'm pretty much screwed unless I happen to find the best welder in the world and he wants to do me a favor because that's the only other option I can think of to try and fix this hinge.

So much for quality Apple hardware.

Update: Well I didn't even get to see how well the repair would stand up, I managed to break the hinge into three pieces before I could get it into the laptop. Turns out there is a channel in the hinge that is there to allow room for the power wires on the display. The little sleeve I made covered over part of that groove so I was trying to cut a little piece of it out. My hand slipped and busted the top of the hinge right on the hole that attaches it to the display. Good news is that it broke in a different spot so at least the repair was somewhat successful. Bad news is we'll have to come up with another use for the laptop without the screen.

New Car Designs

2006-04-19T09:17:00.000-05:00

Last week on my way to work some loser pulled out in front of me and I ended up scraping the whole left side of my car against his bumper. This of course is not good and I had to get a rental car for a couple of weeks while they fixed it. The car I got was a 2006 Ford 500 in a mid level trim package. Keyless entry and power windows but not the 6 CD changer or the wood trim or anything. It's a decent car, the window sticker says the MSRP was around 22k or so.

I've never been a Ford guy and after driving this car around for a couple weeks I doubt I ever will be. It's easy to tell what kind of demographic they were aiming for, the middle aged person that is afraid of too much technology. They are still using the old old style of locks, with the little knob that you pull up on to unlock and push down to lock. They've been using that style forever, but its a bit that an older person can identify with.

I'm not very fond of the new "euro" style dash layout either, everything is smooth. It's functional I guess, but it's just boring. I don't like how there is no cubby in front of the shifter, the only place to put things is in the arm rest which isn't very convenient or in the dash cubby which only accepts items under 1-2 inches thin. They do have trim levels that include a lot more features and would be pretty nice but I still would be unimpressed with the 500. Of course that's probably fine with Ford, I'm obviously not the demographic they were aiming for.

Woot! New Layout!

2006-04-13T20:45:00.000-05:00

Actually the layouts the same but the color scheme is what I'll be using on my new site www.TomTheGeek.net. I'm going to do network and database consulting as well as develop websites using Ruby On Rails.

MySpace hurts my eyes

2006-04-07T10:12:00.000-05:00

Okay so I've been messing around with MySpace latley because, you know, everyone is doing it, and it's just terrible. I thought we were past the days of flashing animated GIF's and scrolling marquee's but apparently not. I have no idea why MySpace fosters such terrible web pages but it's just a magnet for them.

On top of that it has ads all over the place. When "Ice age: the meltdown" came out there were no less than three huge ads on one page letting me know. Thank god for Firefox and adblock, otherwise it would be completly unusable.

With all the buzz about Web 2.0, MySpace is like Web 0.01 beta. Kids these days just have no style.

Optimizing flash memory

2006-03-27T12:28:00.000-06:00

I happened upon this forum posting that explains some good methods for optimizing flash memory. Depending how a memory card is formatted it will either hold more data or be able to write it faster. File systems write data in chunks and files almost never use up all the space allocated to it. You can gain more of this wasted space back by making the chunks smaller but at the cost of speed. Having to deal with a lot of smaller chunks takes more time.

Another aspect is the file system used. Today FAT16 has pretty much been phased out in favor of FAT32 because of it's inability to deal with today's large disks. That doesn't mean FAT16 is not a good file system though. It turns out its a bit faster than FAT32 and using the default settings is a good balance between space and performance considerations.

Get your Blackberry fix

2006-03-24T09:42:00.000-06:00

Blackberry
Originally uploaded by skidder.

Before I used a blackberry I thought they were pretty cool. Then I had to set a few up for some people at work. These things are like TI graphing calculators that send email instead of doing calculus. Maybe great for email and the occasional call, but thats it.

I really hate the term "crackberry", it ties mobile e-mail to a brand of device. Guess what? I have a Windows Mobile 5 device and it can check my Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and work accounts all at once. If we used exchange at work I would get push email just like a blackberry.

Maybe if I actually owned one for a while I might change my mind but I think Blackberrys will always be out classed by pocket PC devices. But then, for the less technically savvy people that's probably a good thing. They want a phone that just "gets email". They don't care what else it does. I feel Palm is the same way. Less powerful but easier for the average person to pick up and use.

So maybe that is the real power of the Blackberry, it's easy enough to use that people don't get intimidated by it. If it's to hard to use it doesn't matter what the device can do, it will end up neglected in a drawer. Crackberry really isn't that bad of a term then is it? It's like a gateway device that get them hooked on smartphones then they graduate to harder devices.

Just remember, the first ones always free kids.

Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2

2006-03-17T15:11:00.000-06:00

You may have heard that MS released a beta of IE7 recently. In fact I am posting this entry using it right now. IE7 has been a long, long time coming and I'm afraid to even say that if Firefox hadn't given MS such a run for it's money it might never have gotten here. It has some issues with forms right now, mainly it doesn't let you type in them very easily. In order to get the cursor in the Title box for this post I had to right click on it and say "select all". No amount of regular clicking would get me there.

I love this hilarious Slashdot Comment.

User: I wish to make a complaint!
Ballmer: (hurriedly) Sorry, we're about to ship Vista.
User: Never mind that, my lad. I wish to complain about this web browser, what came bundled not five years ago from this very operating system.
Ballmer: Oh yes, IE, ah, version 6. What's, ah... W-what's wrong with it?
User: I'll tell you what's wrong with it, my lad. It's dead, that's what's wrong with it.
Ballmer: No, no, It's ah... it's undergoing a security upgrade.
User: Look, matey, I know a dead browser when I see one, and I'm looking at one right now.
Ballmer: No no, i-it's not dead, it's... getting its user interface upgraded!
User: User interface?
Ballmer: Y-yeah, the UI. Upgradin'. Remarkable browser, IE, isn't it, eh? Beautiful layouts!
User: The layout-complete build don't enter into it. It's stone dead!
Ballmer: Nononono, no, no! 'E's bein' upgraded!
User: All right then, if he's bein' upgraded, I'll run 'im!
(starts typing)
IEXPLORE.EXE! C:\MYDOCU~1\HELLO.JPG
Looky looky looky! Happily rendering the Goatse Guy! Hey, IE, I've got lots of lovely RAM for you if you're running, Mr. Internet Explorer!)
(pounds keyboard)
Ballmer: There, the page refreshed!
User: No, he didn't, that was you clicking reload!
Ballmer: I never!!
User: Yes, you did!
Ballmer: I never, never....
(pounding Ctrl-Alt-Del on the keyboard again)
User: HELLO, WORLD! HELLO TASK MANAGER! PLEASE WAKE UP!
Now that's what I call a dead browser.
Ballmer: No, no.... No, it's just running a signed ActiveX Control in the background.
User: A ACTIVEX CONTROL!?!?
Ballmer: Yeah! You invoked an ActiveX control, just as it was wakin' up! Believe me, IE runs those easily, major!
User: Look my lad, I've had just about enough of this. That browser is definitely deceased, and when I booted its PC up after buyin' it not half an hour ago, you assured me that the PC's total lack of computational power was due to it being tired and shagged out after a prolonged virus scan.
Ballmer: Well, he's... it's, ah... probably needin' activation and authorization with Windows Genuine Advantage.
User: WINDOWS Genuine ADVANTAGE?!? What kind of talk is that? Look, why did the OS crash flat on its back the moment I plugged it into the router?
Ballmer: The Norwegian Bluescreen prefers kippin' on its back! Remarkable UI, though, isn't it, guv, eh? Lovely layout-complete screenshots!
User: (coldly) Look, I took the liberty of examining that browser cache when I got it home, and I discovered the only reason that the PC had anything to run on its hard drive in the first place was that it had been bundled in there along with the spyware and the DRM.
Ballmer: Well, of course it has DRM there! If I hadn't bundled that browser and nailed everything down with DRM, all the content would have nuzzled up to those wires at the back, bent 'em apart with its little bits, and VOOM!
User: "VOOM?" Look matey, this browser wouldn't "voom" if you put four thousand kilobytes of W3C standards through it! It's bleedin' demised!
Ballmer: It's not! I-It's just authenticating!
User: It's not authenticatin,' it's passed on! This browser is no more! It has ceased to be! It's expired and gone to meet its maker! This is a late software release! It's a stiff! Bereft of RAM, it rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed it to the system with DRM and your monopoly it'd be pushing up the daisies! Its spawned processes are of interest only to historians! It's hopped the twig! It's shuffled off this mortal coil! It's run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible! This.... is an INACTIVE X!
Ballmer: Well, I'd better upgrade it, then.

Finally, cheap A2DP Bluetooth adapters

2006-03-02T13:01:00.000-06:00

I have been waiting for A2DP Bluetooth adapters to come down in price for a while. I saw the Scosche UBCK on Gizmodo, made a quick check on eBay and scored one for $45 shipped. That's about the same price as those Griffen iTrips.

I want one so I can hook my HTC Wizard up to my car stereo using it's built in Bluetooth. Getting the transmitter is a just a plus, I might even sell back that part on eBay.

These are a much better option than FM modulators in my opinion, FM has pretty terrible sound quality and generally gets a lot of static. They really, really need to add A2DP support to iPods, it would be sooo convenient.

Sony hates you

2006-03-01T09:48:00.000-06:00

Music phones are catching on and really in the future no one will have an iPod and a phone, everything will be on the phone. While I can't carry my entire music collection with me on my phone yet, I'm sure I will be able to eventually. Sony however, just can't seem to figure out what makes a good MP3 player. First they ruined their stand alone players by making you convert all your music to ATRAC format in order to listen to it. No one wants to convert their music again, they want to listen to in the format they have now. As a result Sony MP3 players bombed, and almost no one has one. If you don't believe me all I have to do is mention the bean.

Since they can't make a decent stand alone MP3 player Sony decided to focus instead on the Next Big Thing, music phones. They make some pretty nice looking music phones but they all have at least one flaw, they don't hold enough music. Most of them only hold 512MB which is really not enough. 1GB should be the minimum anything that plays MP3's should have. Sony is working on a 4GB phone, lets hope they don't screw that one up too badly.

Today I noticed this gem, the Sony Ericsson W300i. Notice the big plug on the bottom. There's NO regular headphone jack. How can you make a music phone without a headphone jack?? Sony is either completely clueless or they really don't care about the user, they just want to push their accessories and memory formats. The latter sounds about right because instead of using the industry standard SD card for storage it uses you guessed it, the new Sony micro memory stick. Oh boy another micro memory format that only works in Sony products and holds a whopping 512MB (for now, 1GB versions are supposedly coming). It's nice to see a phone that exists solely to push other Sony products.

Cingular 8125 Initial Review

2006-02-27T10:48:00.000-06:00

I couldn't stand to wait and bought a 8125 on the 24th of Feburary. I've had the device for a couple days and it's very impressive. It's in a completely different class than my Audiovox 5600 Smartphone. According to benchmarks it's a pretty slow pocketPC but it's a lot snappier than the 5600 so I don't notice at all. I have yet to play a xvid movie on it encoded in its native resolution but the screen is phenomenal, very clear and much much bigger.

Edge data speed is great, much faster than regular GPRS. Using a stylus is taking some getting used to but you can do most things with the keyboard if you want. The speakers are louder and sound a lot better. The camera is pretty much standard though I love how it gives you a full screen viewfinder making it feel like a real camera. The keyboard is easy to type on and I love the backlighting.

I like how the miniSD slot is on the top but I'n not actually sure it matters, I install all my programs to the card so I can't really remove it unless I copy everything over to the other cards. Quite possible really but I havn't gotten around to it yet.

Because it's a pocketPC device it has opened up a new world of applications. A lot of the cool programs I couldn't run on my smartphone will work with the 8125. Battery life has been good so far, we'll see how that goes.

My biggest dissapointment so far has been that it's not a regular audio jack on the bottom, it's a regular headset jack so I can't plug headphones directly into it. They really should ditch the headset jack, if you have this phone you should be using a bluetooth headset anyways.

In all it's a much more capable device but because it has the keyboard people are actually less impressed by it than my phone. When I would tell people all the stuff I could do with my tiny phone they would be floored, now they pretty much expect it because it looks like a tiny laptop to them which it pretty much is.

Update March 14

I've had the device for a couple of weeks now and I am still very impressed with the 8125. I used the Cingular ROM and while it worked okay it doesn't have A2DP capabilities. Since I installed a Scosche A2DP adapter in my car, I was jonesing for a little A2DP action in my 8125. There is a Qtek test ROM over at the xda-developers.com FTP site that has push email and the A2DP bluetooth stack so I flashed that ROM to it and it's been working really slick. I no longer have to bother with a cable to listen to MP3's from my phone through my car stereo. Try doing that with an iPod! (iTrips don't count, they are an extra dongle and only get FM quality, A2DP is near CD quality) I haven't had a chance to try the push email yet but they are switching to exchange where I work so I should be able to use it eventually.

Tablet PCs are more popular than I thought

2006-02-24T10:54:00.000-06:00

I attended a conference this last week where everyone was required to bring their own laptop and I was sort of suprised by the resulting assortment of laptops that showed up. There were quite a few Dells, one PowerBook and 5-6 tablet laptops. This is out of around 25 laptops. No widescreen laptops that I saw, one micro portable laptop and one HUGE desktop replacement laptop.

There were a few of the slate computers like the one pictured that had no keyboard attached at all, this was the first time I have seen that form factor. They came with matching USB keyboards or I'm sure you could hook up any USB keyboard and mouse you had laying around.

During the conference we stopped at the local coffe shop where virtually every seat was filled by a student doing homework on their laptop. A lot more powerbooks and probably more widescreen notebooks than what the conference members had.

I personally don't like the widescreen laptops, the format just doesn't make any sense to me on a laptop. Sure you get more horizontal space but at the expense of the vertical space. Unless you are watching movies 90% of the time I would rather just have a normal 4:3 screen. If you need more space, get a bigger screen, don't mess with the ratio. I think the manufacturers like them becuase they look bigger but cost the same and they can claim it as an added feature. I think there are few applicatons that you do on a laptop that really benifit from the wider but shorter screen, other than movies.

Shozu for easier Flickr Access

2006-02-17T13:40:00.000-06:00

I finally got Shozu working on my Audiovox 5600, I tried setting it up before but it would never activate. Seems like they have a new version of their software that is a little less buggy.

Shozu lets you easily transfer cameraphone pictures to Flickr and other photo sharing sites. I have been posting pictures from my phone for a while now but I was unable to edit tags that go with each picture. This lets me do that as well as lets me read comments people have posted. Very Nice. Still in Beta of course so your mileage may vary.

Camera Phone are better than Voice Memos

2006-02-15T15:38:00.000-06:00

I've started using my camera phone for taking quick notes of things I need to remember and it's a lot faster than dealing with voice memo's or typing it out in a to-do item. A great use for this is whenever I'm at Blockbuster renting a movie I take pics of all the movies I thought looked interesting but didn't rent, then I download them when I get home. Really that's what camara phones are best at, they take pretty horrible pictures that won't win any awards but are perfect for remembering the name of a DVD. I've never thought taking voice memo's was very useful, I'd feel like a dork talking into my phone saying "need to pick up creme for that rash", now I can just take a picture.

I'm going to have to get me a Nintendo DS

2006-02-15T11:10:00.000-06:00

Funky playing 1
Originally uploaded by altermativ.

Those nifty Nintendo DSs are getting more and more useful. There is already a war driving app written for them and now Opera is working on making a version of it's browser available for the DS. Basically it would be a poor man's version of Nokia's Internet Tablet that could play games as well. It will be interesting to see how Opera uses the second screen, my guess is there will be a touch sensitive keyboard around there somewhere. These are going for around $100 on eBay which is pretty affordable.

Cingular 8125 is shipping for B2B

2006-02-06T12:30:00.000-06:00

8125 & 8100
Originally uploaded by tmcpheeters.

Today Cingular started shipping the 8125 to it's B2B customers. This hopefully means that a public release will be coming pretty soon. Now I just need to get a B2B account.

I have been waiting for this phone for such a long time I'm bound to be dissapointed by it somehow, but I think the only problem would be it's size. I know it's going to be a lot bigger than my current phone but I had a brick phone before so I think I'll be able to live with it. Not that this phone is huge, it's just not terribly thin because of the sliding keyboard design.

Update: The 8125 is now available from Cingular for general consumers. Woot! Now I have to decide to wait until I can upgrade (middle of next month) or just buy it now.

Gadget Porn

2006-02-03T12:00:00.000-06:00

Nokia N90
Originally uploaded by MobileBurn.

MobileBurn has some great shots of various phone keypads up close and personal. I think these really show the quality and detail (or not) that's put into phone design.

AGP rises from the grave

2006-02-02T14:50:00.000-06:00

A while ago I talked about the 6800 Ultra which at the time looked like it would be the fastest AGP card ever made since everything else was going to be PCI-e based. Luckily for those of us with older systems I was wrong. NVIDIA is releasing the GeForce 7800GS this weekend which is the 7800 GPU with an AGP bridge. So now we've come full circle, first we had AGP->PCI-e bridges to make AGP cards work with PCI-e, now it's just the opposite.

Either way this is good news. Mostly because it will drive the prices down on the 6800 series cards which I still need to pick up.

Goobuntu

2006-01-31T11:08:00.000-06:00

Google is rumored to be working on their version of a linux distro. It would definitly be interesting to see what Google brings to the linux table. Maybe everyone would finally stop having to pay MS for an OS unless they wanted to.

Here's a snip from a Slashdot comment. "Note that I'm not saying this will end Windows at all, but that it will end the Windows monopoly. Windows is good at what it does. The market doesn't need a new monolith - it needs real competition. That's the great part about linux and open source." (whole thing)

While I agree competition is a good thing and open source is great, as an admin I really hate having multiple system types to support. If the market comes out with tons of new operating systems it might make me wish for the days when everyone used Windows. Since this is just another flavor of linux I don't have to worry but before it was only people who knew what they were doing installing linux, now who knows who will be installing it.

Pocket Control PC

2006-01-26T11:50:00.000-06:00

I have been using this software for a while now and it's one of the neatest things I can do with my phone. If you have a bluetooth enabled Windows 2003 smartphone and a bluetooth adapter for your computer you can turn your cell phone into a remote control capable of controling the keyboard and mouse. The software has two parts, a server for the PC and a client for the smartphone. You need to be able to Activesync over bluetooth but that's the hardest part. Once you are connected through Activesync install the software on the phone and run the server on the PC. Put the server into listen mode then click connect from the phone. If all goes well it will connect to the server and you will then be able to control the computer from your phone.

This is great for me since I use my desktop in my office to watch downloaded movies in the living room. I had no way to play/pause the movie without getting up and walking into
office so this solves that problem. Of course that's a simple example, you could use this for just about anything. I don't give a lot of PowerPoint presentations but I could use my phone as a remote to flip slides. Lots of people have bluetooth laptops and phones and I bet they have no idea they could do this.

Best part of all, it's completely free.

The blogs they are a'changin

2006-01-23T14:05:00.000-06:00

I made a few formatting changes today, namely I added a hit counter (at the very bottom) and google adSense as well as removing my profile info on the sidebar. I put off adding the Google ads but we'll give it a go and see what happens. I am thinking about switching to different host so I can get more control but for now this will suffice.

Also I'm not sure but I may have been linking images incorrectly before. I usually find an image on the web somewhere then just use the add-image dialog and put in the URL of the image. I thought Blogger downloaded it then inserted the image for me so I wasn't stealing bandwidth. Turns out that may not be the case. Not that I get a ton of visitors or anything but I don't want to screw anyone over.

Bluetooth mice are hard to find

2006-01-18T12:01:00.000-06:00

After looking at pretty much every bluetooth mouse on the market I've finally settled on the V270 from Logitech. Mostly because it was only $30 after rebate from CompUSA but it's a no-frills mouse that seems to work pretty well. I really wanted a laser bluetooth mouse but there doesn't seem to be any of those on the market that are designed to be used with a laptop. Logitech has one but it's a full sized and has a recharging base so it wouldn't work well on the go.

I actually gave up looking for a bluetooth mouse and got the MS Notebook Laser mouse 6000 but the scroll wheel button was hard to use and didn't really fit in my hand very well. I was thinking I could just integrate the extra reciever dongle internally in my laptop but then I found out that the only way to turn off the mouse is by clipping the reciever into the buttom of the mouse, there was no seperate on/off switch.

This is a much better solution, it has a functional scroll wheel button and a seperate on off switch plus I don't have to try and cram another reciever into my laptop. I just wish they would make more bluetooth mice.

PE to be made public with Vista

2006-01-05T09:46:00.000-06:00

I've mentioned BartPE before, it's a really slick way of running XP from a CD allowing you to do all sorts of cool things. BartPE is a hack of MS PE, which has only been available to customers who sign a Microsoft Software Assurance agreement. With the release of Windows Vista however, MS will be releasing PE 2.0 to corporate customers meaning it will be a lot more available. I suppose legitimate home users will still get the shaft but I'm sure there will be plenty of copies available on P2P networks. It will be interesting to see how it compares to BartPE.

Picture Frame, Booting

2006-01-01T23:26:00.000-06:00

Picture Frame, Booting
Originally uploaded by TomTheGeek.

I took an old laptop we had at work and turned it into a digital picture frame using Damn Small Linux. It has an SSH and FTP server on it so I can add pictures to it pretty easily. Here it is booting up.

I will be making a second one of these using my own laptop. It will be a little different because it doesn't have a HD and I will be using a wireless card in it. I want to try and use Linux if I can but my WiFi card isn't supported very well. If I can't get the ndiswrapper to work I will just use a BartPE boot disk like I am using now.

Happy New Year!!!

2006-01-01T00:00:00.000-06:00

New Year 2006
Originally uploaded by kaypoon.

May 2006 bring you many cool gadgets and toys!!!

Free WiFi ! ( for now )

2005-12-28T15:01:00.000-06:00

WiFi
Originally uploaded by everdred.

Just last week Madison activated the first node in it's free WiFi network that will hopefully cover the city by 2007. It will initially be free then change to a subscriber based system after the network has been built out a bit. All of this is downtown of course so it is completely useless to me and may never get to my apt. since I'm not technically in Madison. Not really a big deal since I have WiFi at my house already but it would be nice if they had some coverage at the parks near me.

This will be a lot more important to me once I get a cell phone that has WiFi, hopefully not too much longer now.

Oddpost, er, I mean Yahoo Beta Rocks!

2005-12-16T14:18:00.000-06:00

I just logged into my Yahoo account and got to try the beta of Yahoo's new email client. It's built by the same guys that wrote Oddpost. It's a huge improvement on the previous version client and I'd say it definitely gives Gmail a run for it's money. I just hope their spam blocking is improved, or should I say implemented. When you clicked the spam button in the old version all it did was put the sender in a block list. Oh yeah, that'll stop'em.

Gotta love the tabs and also it does RSS. It really feels like a normal web client. If you can't get used to Gmail's labels I would definitely give it a try.

Amplifiying an IR signal

2005-12-13T11:18:00.000-06:00

Here's a really neat way of amplifiying the puny IR transmitter you find on many devices. You just need a IR diode (the transmitter) and a digital N-channel FET (basically a transistor). You then rig it up to power the IR diode from the battery and you get super IR power. I am seriously thinking about doing this on an old Handspring I have laying around, it's IR is pretty much useless not to mention it points to the side which is annoying.

Adding Internal Bluetooth

2005-12-12T10:19:00.000-06:00

I just bought a used Dell CPx laptop. It's not that fast but it gets the job done. I have a Bluetooth cell phone that I wanted to use as a wireless modem when I can't find a Wi-Fi hotspot. The CPx only has one USB port on the back but it shows two of them in the device manager. Inspired by TnkGrl I decided to try and tap the unused USB port and add a Bluetooth module internally. This would eliminate having the annoying dongle on the back of the laptop and also leave the USB port available for other uses.

Since the CPx is a fairly big laptop there is a little bit of room to play around with inside and I decided to try and keep the Bluetooth dongle as stock as I possibly could. TnkGrl had to remove the USB connector on her module for space reasons but I would rather leave it unmodified if possible. I had a USB-PS2 adapter that I wasn't using so I ripped it apart and got the center portion of the USB connector. This together with unsnapping the case of the Bluetooth dongle led to a very thin package although you can see the USB connector effectively doubles its length. If I didn't have as much space to play with removing the connector would mean you could fit this just about anywhere. I found a nice empty spot right under the palmrest and between the battery and CD drive. I had to cut a little notch out so the wires could slip through but its not visible from the outside.

Now that I had a good mounting spot for the Bluetooth module I had to figure out how to hook it up. I followed the traces from the existing USB connector and they seemed to go to an Intel chip that had PCIset written on it. It also had FW82371MB across the top and after a little bit of searching I came across the datasheet for it. It indeed did have two USB port built in. By examining the datasheet I found the USB pins that I needed. The chip has a XY coordinate system for its pins. The pins in red are what I needed to tap into. Actually finding the pins was nice but pretty much useless, there's no way I could get next to the chip to attach any wires, all the connections were hidden. By following the traces from the original USB connector I noticed that they went to the docking station connector first then to the chipset. This makes sense because normally with the USB in the back you have to remove any devices before you can dock the laptop. I know the docking station has two USB port instead of one so I figured they just added the connector on the docking station to the existing USB hub. Why they didn't add two ports on the back of the laptop I'll never know but I wouldn't be surprised if it was simply to help the sales of the docking station.

I took power for the new USB port from the existing port since the chipset has a specific power plane that is used for the USB system. The data pins I got from tapping the docking station connector. The wire I used was from an old PS2 mouse; the mouse cable has four different colored wires the perfect size for what I needed. I ran the wires up over the top of the board but that was probably a bad idea, next time I would run them underneath to keep them out of the way.

With everything connected it was time to test it out. Success!! I had a few issues at first because I didn't have good connections but once I fixed them it worked fine. Here it is all wired up and nestled in its new home. I ended up running some extra wire to the connector then folding it over to get it to sit nicely in the opening. I thought I might have to pad it a bit to stop it from rattling but the extra wire took care of that for me.

I plugged in a USB thumb drive in the back and it still worked fine. Here's the details for the USB hub now showing two devices connected.

The only downside to this hack is that because of the way the docking station works you will only be able to use one of the USB ports on it since one will always be used for the Bluetooth. I don't have a docking station so that doesn't really matter to me. It's much more useful have the second port all the time instead of just with the docking station.

Because I used a standard USB connector I could switch out the Bluetooth with a Wi-Fi adapter if I found that to be more useful (assuming I could cram it inside somewhere).

NanoParty in your Bathroom

2005-12-02T14:28:00.000-06:00

What we have here is a set of speakers that you plug your iPod Nano into so you can listen to music, nothing ground breaking. What I thought was interesting though was how they suggested using this in your bathroom, which is exactly what I do with my cell phone. So, $200 for a 2GB Nano and $50 for a set of speakers or $30 for an Audiovox SMT5600 (after 2 year contract) + 2 GB miniSD card @ $170 you can do the same thing AND have a great cell phone that's not much larger than a Nano. Humm, which one would you choose?

Also I'm glad to hear I'm not crazy for listening to my phone while I take a shower.

DD-WRT on my WRT54GS

2005-12-02T11:22:00.000-06:00

I just bought a new wireless router and of course I had to get a Linksys WRT54GS that has the open source firmware. I choose to install DD-WRT for now, I really don't have that advanced needs and DD is easily able to handle them. You can do some really crazy stuff with these routers and with the third party firmware can match almost all of the features of the much more expensive Cicso units. Hopefully I will be able to set up my VPN again, it has been down for a long time because I couldn't get it to work through my old router. Having VPN access would be really nice.

Update: I haven't needed to yet but I may add a parabolic antenna like the type found at FreeAntennas.com. They require no special hardware and do not require voiding the warranty on the router.

Consoles still suck

2005-11-25T19:19:00.000-06:00

Consoles still suck
Originally uploaded by TomTheGeek.

I finally got my hands on an xbox 360 today and it was pretty cool but I still would never consider buying one. Not when I already have a copy of Call of Duty 2 and they are still waiting to release it for the xbox. Consoles are for people who are too dumb to deal with installing a game on a computer. I'm convinced that console games will never be as good as PC games. Maybe the PS3 will prove me wrong though, who knows?

JP1 - One remote to rule them all

2005-11-24T23:52:00.000-06:00

Have you heard about JP1? It's a protocol that is used to program One for All and a few other universal remotes. I'm not talking about just setting them up to work with your DVD player, you can set them up to do macros like hiting one button and having your TV turn on, switching to the right input and the cable box turning on all in one step. It's a little complicated but it's also very powerful.

The best part though is that most remotes that use this are pretty cheap. I got mine from Wal-Mart for $20 and it can control up to 8 devices. I've seen a lot of programmable remotes go for over a hundred dollars and I can match almost all their functionality with mine. All the Pronto remotes use a touchscreen that you will have to look at in order to use, having actuall buttons makes using the remote a lot easier without looking.

JP1 isn't for everyone, there is a pretty steep learning curve but you can't beat it's value.

Visual Studio 2005, Not so Great ?

2005-11-17T08:30:00.000-06:00

Seems like there are some big problems with Visual Studio 2005 that I got a copy of yesterday. I installed it on a VMware machine the other day but I haven't gotten a chance to use it much yet so I don't know how bad it is but at least I didn't install it on my machine directly.

MSSQL 2005 Launch, Jackpot!

2005-11-15T13:27:00.000-06:00

MSSQL 2005 Launch, Jackpot!
Originally uploaded by TomTheGeek.

The security features were discussed next; it is now possible to do most everything as a low privilage user and get results from fuctions that are designated to run under a certain account making it a lot more secure. The rest of the event was spent discussing what the requirements were for upgrading, planning for an upgrade and going through an actual upgrade. At the end they had a raffle for a few prizes including a portable DVD player that of course I didn't win. As we left we were handed our very own copy of Visual Studio 2005 and a 1 client access licence version of MSSQL 2005. Very cool.

MSSQL 2005 Launch, continued

2005-11-15T10:04:00.000-06:00

MSSQL 2005 Launch, continued
Originally uploaded by TomTheGeek.

It's intermission and all the doughnuts are gone but I scored a Microsoft pen. In the first half they went over the improved availability and mirroring features. I probably won't use many of the mirroring features but they're good to know about. We'll see what they have to say in the second half.

Live coverage of MSSQL 2005 launch event

2005-11-15T08:02:00.000-06:00

Live coverage of MSSQL 2005 launch event
Originally uploaded by TomTheGeek.

I'm at the Alliant Energy Center this morning attending the MSSQL 2005 launch event. I'm here mostly to score some free swag ( I already got a cool notepad ) but it will be interesting to see what they have to say. It's been forever since they've had a new version of SQL server so there should be some big improvements.

HTC Wizard at Cingular

2005-11-04T13:44:00.000-06:00

This is the Cingular version of the HTC Wizard that I will be purchasing as soon as it is available. They redesigned the looks for Cingular and I have to say I think I like this version better. Supposedly it is going to be available before the end of this month. It would be nice but I'm not getting my hopes up until I see it with my own eyes. They are going for around $450 without a contract but I bet I'll be able to find one for a lot cheaper on eBay.

Thumpin

2005-10-25T15:54:00.000-05:00

Thumpin
Originally uploaded by TomTheGeek.

I went to Appleton last night and got this speaker box installed. Actually I installed it but they let me use thier shop and gave me a great deal on the equipment. It's not quite as loud as it should be yet but I will be tweaking it for a while.

My next phone

2005-10-08T10:12:00.000-05:00

Geek.com has a good review of the next cell phone I'm going to buy. It's the HTC Wizard A.K.A. over in Europe the QTEK 9100 or the I-mate K-JAM. It is supposed to be picked up by Cingular in the US in early 2006 but I don't know if I will be able to wait that long. I can buy an unlocked version right now for $674 but that's pretty steep even for me and I'm not sure if it's quad band or not.

This phone has so many features it's unbelievable. It has Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Phone Edition with integrated 802.11g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2, 1.3-megapixel camera, TI OMAP 200MHz processor, and 2.8-inch QVGA 240x320 display, EDGE support, IR, Mini-SD expansion (Up to 1 GB currently), Qwerty keyboard, USB Host capabilities, and Stereo Speakers just to name a few. About the only thing missing is GPS but the radios for that are pretty big so it will be a while before we see that integrated.

It is a little bit bigger than my current phone so I'm going to have to hold one in my hand to be sure, but I'm willing to give up a little portability for the Wi-Fi and EDGE support. I think I will really like the keyboard also. I've gotten pretty fast at T9 entry but it still isn't perfect. Hurry up Cingular, I need this phone!!!

Indash iPod

2005-09-29T13:20:00.000-05:00

I have a Pioneer CD/MP3 player in my car and I love the MP3 function, but I hate the player. I get about 7 cd's on one disc or I can dump a ton of random songs together and have a great mix for long drives. The problem is that no company has really come up with a decent interface for browsing all those songs on a CD, and it seems that Pioneer took a bunch of shortcuts when they were designing the interface because it's just clunky. So I'm selling my Pioneer in favor of the Alpine CDA-9855 pictured above. It's not quite an in dash iPod but it's darn close (and yes you can control your iPod from it if you have one).

I have always been a Winamp user and it's because they have a simple easy to use interface that works well. Random and repeat functions have dedicated buttons right out in the open and easy to get to. A playlist that actually makes sense and doesn't require me to import my files into any database just to listen to them.

I never liked Alpine very much mostly due to how they looked; now I'm starting to realize that they are really good players with a solid interface. They are easy enough to use that anyone can get in my car and know how to adjust the radio without me explaining it to them. This Alpine actually has a touch strip below the display that is used very similar to the click wheel on an iPod. Not quite as user friendly but very close. The best part is that I can get to the random and repeat functions without having to go through a bunch of menus, it's part of the touch strip.

Now I just need to decide on a sub and amp combo and I'll be getting close to my ideal car stereo.

Maybe a ReplayTV?

2005-09-23T10:32:00.000-05:00

I am trying out my new Motorola Moxi DVR that I got from Charter and it works well enough but there are some nagging issues that while not big enough to make me switch yet they are really annoying. The biggest issue I have with it is that it does not have a 30 second skip function. It used to, but then Charter turned it into a 15 minute skip function which is pretty much usless. I'm sure they did this so you can't easily skip the commercials which is the whole point of the 30 skip. It does have dual tuners which is really nice and because I'm avoiding an extra encoding through the S-Video port like I would with my TiVo the picture really looks a lot sharper. Those two factors are keeping me from switching to a ReplayTV, which has digital audio but has the 30 second skip and they are really cheap, $50 for a 160 hour version after rebate. So I guess I'm going to stick with my Moxi for now but if they better be walking on eggshells 'cause it won't take much for me to dump them.

Farewell TiVo

2005-09-13T16:04:00.000-05:00

I like my TiVo, I really do, but I think it is time for a trial seperation. I found my TiVo at a Goodwill second-hand store for the bargain price of $20. It was marked as busted but I bought it anyways because I was hoping that the HD would at least be salvagable. Turns out nothing was wrong with it all as far as I can tell. I can't test the modem cause I don't have a phone line, but that doesn't matter because it had the network adapter in it and I have broadband at home so I just get the updates over the network. I had to buy a remote for it but that was a good idea anyways because I was able to get rid of all our other remotes. Once I knew it was working properly I set about hacking it so I could extract shows from it among many other enhancements. I've been using it for a couple years now and it has become my friend.

I like my TiVo and I am sad to see it go. I ordered the cable company's generic DVR and they are coming to install it tomorrow. Why? The main reason was that it doesn't support digital audio. I get digital cable and have a surround sound system that I would like to use when I can. TiVo has been going downhill though, and unless they turn the ship around right quick they are going under. Instead of adding features they are removing them. I just heard today that they are not allowing you to save certain shows indefinitley. I have been shielded from most of these "features" because mine is a series 1 TiVo that they have stopped releasing updates for but I would be raving mad if I had a series 2.

We'll see how this new younger prettier DVR works out, and if it's even a smidgen better there will be one more TiVo on eBay for sale.

The ROKR is finally here

2005-09-07T11:29:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure exactly how long the iTunes phone rumors have been going around but it's been a really long time. Today we finally got to see this elusive phone ( called the ROKR ) and hear how it's going to work. Engadget has more info on the ROKR. Apple also announced the iPod Nano and killed the iPod Mini. The Nano is a mix of the Shuffle and Mini as it's flash based but has a color screen and a click wheel. It's smaller than a Mini but wider than a shuffle. I'm kind of disapointed in the ROKR, but I'm excited in what it will do for the mobile music business.

I think this is just the tip of the iceberg as far as music on your phone is concerned. I have 1Gb in my phone that I can use to store and play Mp3's but that is definitely the exception, most phones don't have much more than 128mb if you don't count Pocket PCs (I don't, they are way to big to be a practical phone). I think this phone will push the trend of having large storage on phones and get people to ditch their iPod in favor of a device that does everything. I almost bought a hard drive based MP3 player but in the end I knew it would stay at home because they don't fit well in my pocket and it's just another gadget to worry about.

Taste of Madison

2005-09-04T21:41:00.000-05:00

Taste of Madison
Originally uploaded by TomTheGeek.

This was the first time I've been to the taste of madison. It was pretty cool except the beer was pretty expensive and there was only a couple types to pick from. If its called the taste of Madison you can't have just one type of beer, it has taste too.

This is one of the sound guys for the 93.1 "the lake" stage. I'm always interested in the sound equipment at concerts. I know a little bit about it since I've done some audio visual work before.

Damn smokers

2005-08-29T21:57:00.000-05:00

Damn smokers
Originally uploaded by TomTheGeek.

We had another fire alarm tonight, false thankfully. When I looked out in the hallway it looked a little smoky but nothing was visibly on fire. Could have been a smoker, could have been some burnt toast, who knows. The fire department took quite a while to get here this time, I hope that does not become a habit for them. I feel a little safer knowing I have renters insurance but it would still suck. If the building ever does catch on fire I'll grab my phone then start chucking computers out the window.

Pimp My Computer

2005-08-29T15:13:00.000-05:00

JBensch over at DeviantArt.com put a picture of my computer on his site. I had him draw the flames which I then got cut out in vinyl by a sign shop. I am thinking about reversing the red and black on the front cover but I haven't decided yet. It would work pretty nicely I think but I would have to paint it so I may do a digital version first and see what I think.

I Heart Bart PE

2005-08-28T18:08:00.000-05:00

I got a hold of a busted laptop that had been struck by lightning and the hard drive no longer works recently. I was originally going to try and turn the LCD into a stand alone display but it turns out that is very hard to do because they leave out the important parts for you to be able to do that. Since the only thing broken is the hard drive I was able to build a Bart's Boot Cd with Bart PE that has drivers for my wireless card and runs Firefox. That's all I really need it to do, I like to have an internet terminal in the living room in front of the TV. You can get almost any app to run under Bart, Firefox is just the tip of the iceburg.

Bart PE isn't something new, it has been around for quite a while but except in recovery CD's I havn't had a reason to use it. I thought about using a Linux boot CD like a live SuSe disc but I had a lot of problems getting SuSe 9.2 to recognize my WiFi card before so I don't have much hope. Since Bart PE is just a stripped down version of XP I had no problem getting it to recognize the card.

Now if I can just get the battery working it would be perfect.

Fastest AGP card ever?

2005-08-19T18:08:00.000-05:00

This may very well be the last AGP card I buy. I just picked up a watered cooled version of the BFG GeForce 6800 Ultra on eBay for $300. I know I know, I could have gotten a 7800 GT for only $130 more, but they don't sell the 7800 in an AGP version. I just bought a new mobo and CPU so I don't really feel like upgrading again already, not to mention it would cost me another $300 minimum and not really be that big of a speed bump.

The card I bought is water cooled so I will be needing to switch to regular heatsink before I can use it. I'm not used to shopping for heatsinks for my graphics card but there seem to be only a couple choices available. There's the Arctic Cooling VGA NV Silencer 5 which is pretty close to the stock heatsink and there's the Zalman VF700 which is closer to their CPU cooler designs. I am leaning towards the NV Silencer right now because it outputs the hot air outside the case which will help keep my PSU cooler. That's important because this card will be pushing my PSU pretty hard. I remember seeing someone using a regular CPU heatsink on their graphics card so I'm going to look that up again and see if I can do something similar.

Where have all the DL DVD's Gone?

2005-08-17T10:19:00.000-05:00

Some CEO in charge of making dual layer DVD media needs to be bitch slapped. Why are the discs so freakin expensive? Dual layer burners have been out for more than a year; you can pick one up for under fifty bucks but good luck trying to get some blank media at a reasonable price. Single layer DVD's are around 20¢ apiece but dual layer DVD's are $3.50! Is the whole dual layer feature just a marketing ploy in order to get us to buy new burners or is the media really that hard to make? At this point I wouldn't be surprised if it's a conspiracy by the movie studios trying to keep DL DVD's off the market.

I don't have a dual layer burner yet because there's no reason to upgrade if the media isn't there. Does anybody remember 2.88mb floppies? I didn't think so. This is exactly the same situation, only the numbers have changed. Back when floppies were cool 2.88mb was a lot of storage and most people would have switched if they were reasonably priced. No one had a problem switching from single sided to dual sided floppies, so why 2.88? Some moron priced them to high and it just wasn't worth it.

Oh Dual Layer Digital Versatile Disc, we hardly knew thee.

Goosed

2005-08-16T09:29:00.000-05:00

Goosed
Originally uploaded by TomTheGeek.

I came out my apartment this morning and there were tons of geese everywhere. I don't know where they came from but it feels like a petting zoo in my back yard. As long as they stay in the grass and off my car we won't have any problems.

Till death do we part

2005-08-13T19:46:00.000-05:00

Till death do we part
Originally uploaded by TomTheGeek.

I'm not much for weddings but today I watched a good friend of mine tie the knot. I never imagined this girl would get married but she's never done things by the book. I wish them the best of luck and hope they have many happy years together.

Kaput & Zosky

2005-08-08T22:44:00.000-05:00

I think I just found my new favorite cartoon. It's called Kaput and Zosky and it's played on Nicktoons usually late at night. These two guys go from planet to planet trying to rule whatever civilazations they come across. It's not the funniest cartoon out there but I just love the main characters. I had a hard time finding any info about the cartoon and almost no pictures except for the DVD covers. I am probably going to pick up a couple of the DVD's as they're only $6.

Some great K&Z art can be found at kaputandzoskyfans.

Earmuffs are the new black

2005-08-07T12:07:00.000-05:00

Earmuffs are the new black
Originally uploaded by dreadfuldan.

I love this picture, I'm not even sure why. It could be the look on her face or the fact that she's wearing earmuffs indoors, I dunno. One thing is for sure though, this pic is proof positive that smoking does in fact make you cooler. Where are my cigarettes?

So now what?

2005-08-04T19:30:00.000-05:00

I haven't really figured out what I'm going to post about on this site. I think it will be a whole lot of nothing until I get the hang of it. Problem is I don't think people would find what I have to say interesting. I mean, I'm a geek so unless you're a geek also chances are I'm pretty boring. I guess there's nothing wrong with writing about geeky tech spec and whatnot, geeks are the most likely to read a blog anyways. Not to mention the title of this blog is TomTheGeek so I guess that pretty much seals the deal right there.

Unfortunately there are million + 1 tech blogs and there's nothing much I could come up with that would be anything different. I don't want to just post about stuff I found on Slashdot ect.., if you wanted to know what's going on at Slashdot you would be over there instead of reading this. So now what?

How about this for starters:

Since I mentioned Slashdot several times already, what is the deal with the spelling Nazi's correcting everybody in the comments? I know there are English majors or whatever that cannot stand to hear someone talk improperly but it's Slashdot, not an English forum. It's gotten to the point where they are just a given and people are apologizing in advance for their comment and half the posts are about how the article has a bazillion errors in it.

We can't spell. We get it. Now leave us alone. Go talk about complete sentances and pronouns in the corner with the other freaks and let us talk about routing protocols in peace. I'm sure there are plenty of forums dedicated to proper english, go bother them for a while.

I can post from my phone!

2005-08-03T14:07:00.000-05:00

I set up blogging from my phone so now I can post from wherever I can get a GPRS signal. Aren't you excited boys and girls?

Mice!

2005-08-02T13:50:00.000-05:00

Mice!
Originally uploaded by TomTheGeek.

Ha ha look at all these mice at the local pet store. I want to buy them all and set up a huge maze of space age tubes in my house for them to run around in.

Boobies!

2005-08-02T13:19:00.000-05:00

Woot! ~~First post~~ Boobies!