Flea Market find : HP Presario V6000

Picked up a laptop at a flea market this weekend....a HP Presario V6000. Powered up to a blank screen. This model had a lot of problems..specifically with the onboard nVidia graphics. The drive image was trashed, so I installed xubuntu, my current favorite distribution. Only problem seems to be a flaky Broadcom network card, soon to be replaced with an Intel W3945AWG ($3.99 shipped from eBay.) I have not been impressed with the state of Broadcom support under Linux.

Used my D-Link WUA-1340 USB wireless adapter to help complete the install. Linux works great with this adapter. This laptop will likely be used for video editing (OpenShot) and Puppy Studio 3.5 (with Rackarack guitar effects). The battery is toast, so this is effectively a portable workstation.

Dell e1505 in the media

I've been using my headless Dell e1505 for various projects. In the last two weeks, I have seen this laptop (with screen) in the media two different times : a Monk episode and a DelSym online commercial. What's the deal with this laptop?

Dent popping vs conventional body work

Had a big dent removed from my 1999 Quest van by the Dent Dominator today. GEICO pays me $775, I pay DD $200. Epic win, no bondo.

Alternative music keyboards : real or virtual

Came across a web site on alternative music keyboards. The Axis-49 keyboard from C-Thru is $439. An iPad running Musix is 99 cents plus the cost of the iPad (a refurb 16G is selling for $429). I understand that these are not the same, but this makes the virtual version quite attractive.

VPO Project : Success

Discovered the problem with running "jorgan-pup"on zombie (Dell Inspiron e1505 without a screen) -- needed more memory. Replaced the 512MB dimms with 1GB dimms. Works with LPK25 keyboard.

Plans now are to build a modern "portative organ", basically a portable pipe organ

• 2 manuals - 2 octaves each - staggered - I have spacer plates from the Baldwin and Gulbransen.
• Stop tablets from Baldwin
• Piston buttons from Gulbransen (or use switches)
• Dell e1505 as processor
• Internal audio
• 15 inch dell display
• external connections for keyboard and mouse (USB hub)

More details coming soon. Hope to have something working for FOSS faire next month.

The Problem with Jack

I have been working on two related projects : a virtual pipe organ (vpo) and a guitar effects processor. What they have in common is a PC running Linux. Most audio applications use a program called Jack, which is an "audio connection kit". Jack provides the connections between audio sources (like a virtual synth) and outputs (like the sound card in a computer).

I have been trying for the past two weeks (on and off) to get my computer to make a sound. Any sound. I read the online tutorials. They just didn't click with me. Something was missing. I was using some Sound Blaster Live! cards because they had been recommended for use with the VPO software. I could never get the VPO software (jOrgan) to generate any sound.

I decided to try a different tact with software called Rackarack. I decided to remove all the Sound Blaster cards and used the internal audio. I loaded Ubuntu Studio but could never get the Jack server to run. It would always fail with an error. Via Google, I discovered that Jack didn't work with Ubuntu versions after 10.4 (I was using 10.10).

I loaded a distribution called Puppy Studio, a custom distribution with audio multimedia packages. I booted from the CD. The Jack server started running.

I was reading an article about how to configure the Jack Patchbay and I realized what I had been missing. The Jack Patchbay has "outputs" which come from applications, and "inputs" which interface with hardware. Which seems backwards to me. The audio hardware is managed in Linux by a system called ALSA, which normalizes hardware so Jack can connect to it via the patchbay. The sound hardware was recognized by a system called Pulse Audio, which is used by ALSA to provide the connection to Jack.

I launched Jack, configured the patchbay based on the tutorial, plugged in my guitar and finally....sound.

If you want to use Linux to build an audio appliance, find a distribution with Jack bundled to avoid incompatibility problems.

unexpected error?

My work mail is dead. The new GroupWise server is giving me an "An unexpected error has occurred".

So, would an "expected error" be any better?

Project : Clavinova

I was recently given a Yamaha Clavinova CVP-87A.

It is a digital electronic piano with 88 weighted keys, rhythm section and recording/playback features. What you would buy if you did not have room for a real piano, but wanted the "feel" of a real piano. Beautiful rosewood cabinet. The piano is non-functional due to a number of defective components on the main sound board that have failed. The solution from Yamaha is to purchase a $500 replacement main board. Apparently, these failures were common, but not common enough to be recognized as a factory defect. Most people make the financial decision to buy a new piano rather than spend $500 to repair a 12 year old piano.

Upon inspecting the main board, the component failures are fortunately obvious, but unfortunately numerous. All are surface mount electrolytic capacitors....which are in some ways easier than replacing through hole parts.

The service manual has been ordered from Yamaha ($16, on CD) and soon another project will begin.

If the piano turns out to be unrepairable, it will serve as an excellent chassis (and keyboard) for a future VPO (Virtual Pipe Organ) project.

Update - 1/6 -: Received confirmation from Yamaha that manual has shipped

Battery upgrade for 30G iPod - the patient lives

I was getting about 20 minutes on a charge, so the battery obviously needed replacing. Ordered a kit from OWC. Got around to installing it tonight. If I hadn't forgotten to re-install a (non-critical) insulator, it would have been totally done in about 10 minutes. You can see the piece I originally left out in the upper right hand corner.  Doh!

The online video warned about the problems with removing adhesive, but it was no big deal (2 small pieces of double stick tape). Here is the patient on the operating table, about to close up :

Musical electronics @ MakerFaire : NC 2011

I'm working on some other musical projects, mostly involving parts recycled from old electronic organs and vintage computers. Current plans include a MIDI pedalboard as part of a virtual pipe organ, and C-64 related projects.

Flag-O-Matic @ MakerFaire : NC

My dad developed a product called "Flag-O-Matic" in the 1950's. It was a portable traffic light controller for construction sites. He built a working prototype, but it was never produced commercially. I'm planning to open it up and check for potential problems, then have it operating at MakerFaire : NC 2011.

The timing circuits in the Flag-O-Matic are all electromechanical -- mechanical timers and relays. What could be built today with an Arduino and a shield board required much more complex circuitry.

More updates as I progress.

Let the public vote on science funding?

The hare-brained ideas have started even before the new batch of Congress-critters have entered office.

They are calling on the public to vote on which science projects should be funded by the NSF.  How about we save some time and just attach some pushbuttons to monkey cages?

Larson Scanner for Unicycle

How to make a unicycle more menacing? Add a Larson Scanner from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. I modified a Minoura Swing Grip by removing the crossbar and replacing with a piece of vinyl tubing to enclose the Larson scanner.

Here's the YouTube video.

Visited Durham Ukelele Jam last night

Attended the Durham Ukulele Jam at High Strung Music last night. Everyone was very friendly -- I played a loaner Denim Flea (Concert) and my jamming neighbor kindly let me play her tenor for a few songs.

My mind was pretty much set on a tenor until I played the concert. While the tenor was a bit easier to play, the concert had the more traditional uke sound. The Flea played well, but they run about $200. I'd like to find something a bit less expensive. The Fluke has a larger body and would probably be easier to hold and play. The Flea and Fluke have a reputation for being very consistent from the factory, which is a consideration if I'm ordering online.

I was able to pick up chords pretty quickly, though during phrases that required rapid chord changes, I often reverted to guitar fingerings. Oops!

Vacation experiences with Windows Vista

Our villa in Jamaica is equipped with 2 computers on which I dare not enter any personal information. I just spent about an hour working on clearing some disgusting spyware from a system running Windows Vista Basic. Even after updating Firefox, the same windows keep popping up. First thing I tries was to uninstall Firefox. Which solved the problem in an unsatisfactory way.

Since the infection was limited to the Guest account, I thought "I'll just delete the Guest account".

Apparently, that is not possible. Seems pretty dumb. Thankfully, it can be disabled. So I disabled the built in Guest account, reinstalled Firefox and and created another regular account, which can be deleted and recreated as needed. Problem solved.

Deconstruction : Mini Arcade on eBay

Just saw this slick little cocktail arcade system on eBay. With a few minor mods, it would be much more usable as a desktop computer. If the LCD were attached to the lid, so that when it is opened, it would be oriented for desktop use. External USB ports would allow for easier use of peripherals.

Very nice build, though and gives me ideas. I have an LCD display with no stand that would make a nice tabletop game system along with the headless e1505 laptop.

Project : Mister for recumbent bike

My friend Eric wants to build a water mister for his recumbent bike. He would like to be able to vary the speed of misting. Manual triggering may be an issue as he has limited use of his hands. I suggested that we want to keep the system relatively compact, to make it easier to refill and take on and off the bike.

We brainstormed some ideas and came up with the following :

• Triggering : use a windshield wiper control - it already does variable speeds and allows for arbitrary delays. Most of these systems require 12V, which may be more than the motor for the mister needs, so regulation would be required. I suggested perhaps an optical sensor, but that requires extra circuitry. I suggested we start off with a simple switch and work up from there.
• Power : I suggested a rechargeable battery pack. Eric's SO Jenny suggested a generator which would require attachment to the bike. Perhaps solar? Again, I'm thinking start with a battery (like for a portable DVD player)
• Mounting : probably attach to the handlebars. If we used a bike water bottle, perhaps any existing water bottle holders could be used.
• Spray nozzle : I suggested a tube connected to a flexible stalk. If the water bottle holder was close enough to the handlebar, then everything could be attached to the water bottle

The Evolution of Air Travel

Flew U.S. Airways from Charlotte to Jamaica yesterday.

Two new revenue generators :

• Drop the temperature on the plane and sell blankets 
• Advertise credit card offers during landing announcements

Replacing a GPS : New maps or new GPS?

I have a Garmin Nuvi 200W which I like, but I'm finding more and more mistakes in the maps. Turns out map updates are $69. A newer model, the Nuvi 255W is available for $99. It has a faster processor and locks onto satellites faster. The old Nuvi 200w becomes the backup GPS/photo frame and the 255W takes its' place.

Keeping visitors away from the beach

Found this blog post in my Drafts. This happened about 3 years ago, but it really happened. The parking pass system rebooted while I was trying to buy a pass. The clock was 30 minutes off. I saw a car being towed through gridlocked traffic.

Here goes ......

Just came back from a whirlwind trip to the beach. My son Liam was having his pictures taken for promotional materials. I arrived the day before, and decided to spend some time at the beach. It didn't take long for things to go wrong. I appreciate their attention to safety. They just need to rethink customer relations.

Keeping Visitors Away From The Beach

- Establish onerous parking rates. At least $1.50/hour
- Don't maintain the machines that generate the parking receipts. Have them periodically reboot while the customer is attempting to purchase parking time.
- Set the clocks in the parking machines 30 minutes in the past. This way, you can sell 30 minutes of parking for the price of an hour of parking. This also creates a prime opportunity for towing cars in expired spaces.
- Configure the systems so that they only generate 1 hour parking passes, requiring the customer to return hourly to add more parking time.
- Tow the cars of violators during prime beach hours, causing traffic gridlock
- Establish rules for proper conduct at the beach, but don't post them anywhere
- If you choose to document rules, do so in an extremely cryptic manner. For example, to demark a zone in which swimmers should not enter the water, like near a pier, stick a red flag in the sand. Everyone knows people don't read signs with words :-)
- When the rules are transgressed, use a bullhorn to inform the offender, assuring public humiliation. Toss in phrases like "you need to watch your kids..you are not at Disney World"
- Don't enforce rules uniformly. This keep your visitors on their toes.

Saved from the dump - Dell Inspiron e1505

My sister gave me a Dell Inspiron e1505 that she found laying on the curb after the BGSU students moved out. Physically, it appeared to be in decent shape. I plugged it in and powered it on. I would get a one second visual of the Dell boot screen, then nothing. I plugged in an external monitor, and it appears to be working normally (other than the display). A little research indicates that screen failures were common on these laptops.

Otherwise, a decent laptop : Vista compatible, Express Card slot, SD card slot, 4 USB ports, external S-video/composite out.

As I recall, the LCD did not look so great, so "Off With Its' Head!" I removed the screen completely and powered it up again. System booted normally. Everything looks good. If I decide to add a touch screen to use with the virtual pipe organ project, I don't need to worry about integrating a touch panel onto the existing laptop LCD.

Just for grins, I started poking around on the laptop to see if it had any problems. It had 3 different anti-virus programs running simultaneously : Symantec, McAfee and AVG. Once I uninstalled those, performance improved dramatically.

Postscript : Finally figured out the part number of the inverter (note to manufacturers : don't use the letter I in part numbers). Ordered a unit from eBay for $9.

PostPostscript : Replacement inverter did not fix the problem. Found a $25 LCD display at the flea market. Using it headless. To get better wireless range, I pulled the antennas out of the lid and attached them to a wooden stand

I think I'll call him Mike : http://www.miketheheadlesschicken.org/

New keyboard for organ project

I had been working on soldering the wires to the Schober 61 note keyboards, but was not happy with the wire management. I had been keeping my eye out for controllers and found an Edirol PC-50 keyboard controller for $10 on Craigslist. Only $10? It had a bad key which I fixed with a pencil eraser. Planning to work more on the software, foot pedals and expression pedals and save the bulk of the soldering work for later.

Learning economics on the long drive

Spent almost 12 hours yesterday getting home from Bowling Green, Ohio where I spent the weekend "junking" with my sister. Spent most of the trip home listening to the EconTalk podcast out of George Mason University.

Especially interesting were :

• Boettke on Elinor Ostrom, Vincent Ostrom, and the Bloomington School
• Belongia on the Fed
• Gary Stern on Too Big To Fail
• Brady On Health Care Reform, Public Opinion

I always recommend Roberts' discussions with Nassim Nicholas Taleb :

• Taleb on Black Swans
• Taleb On The Financial Crisis
• Taleb on Black Swans, Fragility and Mistakes
  

C64 Muse ... almost done

C64 Muse
Originally uploaded by tom karches

Almost done. Need to add pots and figure out what to do with dead space with missing keys. Getting ready for maker Faire Sunday

Loudest Musical Instrument Ever Constructed

Part of my current pipe organ obsession. Found this amusing. In Guinness as the the "Loudest Musical Instrument Ever Constructed"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boardwalk_Hall_Auditorium_Organ

A quote from the page :

The Guinness Book also recognizes the Grand Ophicleide 16′ in the Pedal Right division to be the loudest organ stop in the world.

The Grand Ophicleide produces 130 dB at 1 metre distance

Check out the picture of the console. Largest in the world. Captain Kirk would be envious.

C-64 Muse assembled

C-64 Muse assembled
Originally uploaded by tom karches

Finally, everything is attached. Next test to make sure I didn't break anything in the process.

Maker Faire Projects

Maker Faire is coming up at the end of April and I'm busily working on the projects I want to show there.

- VPO built from Schober keyboards, Gulbransen pedalboard, Dell Mini 9
- Arduino pocket piano with full size 2 octave keyboard
- Home built Etherwave Theremin
- C64 Muse - C64 with full size 2 octave keyboard

I don't think the MidiBox SID is going to happen any time soon.

Last night I finally finished bolting all the C64 Muse parts together. It's not pretty, but it's movable.

The VPO keyboards are mounted to the keydeck. I purchased the heavy duty rubber feet yesterday. There is an amazing selection of samples of different pipe organs to use. I'm also thinking of using some of littl-scale's sample libraries. This would give me a VPO with chiptune voices.

Parts orders have arrived from Smash TV (Midibox DIN and CORE boards), Mouser (VPO, Arduino pocket piano, Theremin coils)

The Midibox stuff should go together nicely. The DIN boards only have about 15 components, thanks to the resistor networks. I will likely buy more DIN and CORE boards and retrofit parts from the old boards.

The Arduino Pocket Piano keyboard is wired. These have been a bear to get working right. I mounted the micro switches on coat hanger wire that run through the end blocks. If I do this again, I'll likely premount smaller endblocks to the wire and create an assembly that can easily be adjusted. I going to attach the switches to a DB-25 connector and use a DB-25 straight through cable to connect the keyboard to the CPU. I'm planning to either put the parts in a piece of PVC, or just have everything out in the open. I could build the PP as a standalone piece of gear, but I believe I'll just use the BBB Arduino and build the APP as a Arduino shield.

Acquired a Gulbransen Premiere Theatre Organ

After an arduous pickup operation on friday night, I am now the owner of a broken Gulbransen Premiere Theater Organ.

David came over Sunday and pulled the parts that he wanted from the
organ. Leaving me with a hulk containing 2 61 note keyboards, a bunch of transistorized electronics and a Leslie speaker.

David was a super nice guy. We both graduated from Cary High in 1978. He
has grandchildren. I have an 8 year old and a 13 year old. Different life paths.

The keyboards on the organ may be too complicated for my purposes, but
I'll hang on to them for now. Hoping to get rid of as much of the rest
as possible. The mechanics inside the organ are pretty amazing....like
"I would never want to fix this" amazing. There is a huge speaker in
there, hidden behind a bunch of filter boards. Will check the
condition as soon as I get in there. The amp is transistorized, with
paper capacitors which are probably shot.

What is most interesting is the stuff that David brought me in exchange for the parts he wanted :

Two 61 note keyboards with replacement tone generators from a Schoeber
Recital Organ :

http://www.users.cloud9.net/~pastark/sorecita.htm

Schoeber Organs were built from kits. The original tone generators
were transistorized and kind of unreliable. Along with these keyboards
I got are the original tone generators PLUS replacement tone
generators built by Devtronix (Model 243-3).

Mentioned here :

http://www.users.cloud9.net/~pastark/sotnot7.htm

They both use top octave chip technology like the Paia OZ Organ :

http://www.synthmuseum.com/paia/paioz01.html

These replacement tone generator boards were also built from kits.

So, assuming they work (David said they did), I have the guts of two
61 note organs. They boards are not that big. I could build a super
compact, standalone organ. I was thinking of something that I could
mount to the wall in Aidan's room, and he could fold up out of the
way.

He also brought in a bunch of filter boards for the original stops.
And full documentation for everything, including an article on how to
design your own organ stops. I have all those stop buttons from the
Baldwin. Perhaps they would work with this.

Perhaps you can scan these docs for me...they are double sided and I'm
not sure how I would reassemble them after scanning on the Epson you
gave me.

I believe there is also another tone generator for the pedalboard,
which may work well with the Baldwin pedals.

Interesting stuff.

Antibiotics can cause insomnia

I learned something new yesterday. Antibiotics can cause insomnia. Specifically Levaquin. Scary stuff.

Free wifi on delta today

On my way back from Dallas...discovered that I can get a free wifi session on my Delta flight. Coupon code "deltatrygogo" expires today. Enjoy....tom

C-64 Muse setback

I finished wiring the C-64 Muse keyboard, and it does not work. Actually, 5 of the keys work. I delved more deeply into the C-64 schematics and discovered that I can't piggyback a second keyboard matrix on top of the first.

What I'm planning now is to use the PC board from a C-64 keyboard and wire the matrix lines directly to the PC board. I'll remove the keyswitch tops for those keys that map to piano keys. I believe that I can still use one of the matrix axes to reduce the wire count. This will increase the wire count from 12 to (8+4) to 28 (24+4), which is not as bad as 48 (24x2). Just thinking it would be nice have this done by the time of my Dallas trip so that perhaps I can visit Paul Slocum while I am there.

Bizarre "Mobile Computing News"

I'm not sure what to make of this "Mobile Computing News" site.

Mobile Computing News

Here are some review excerpts. Decide for yourself.

Sony Vaio VGN-P31ZK/Q (who thought up that name?) :
"For instance you can check out the all new Sony Vaio VGN-P31ZK/Q which has a unique rectangular shape which looks pretty cool."


Asus Eee PC MK90H Disney: Decorated Netbook for the Kids
"The processor is the soul of any computer that is why this netbook is installed with a very powerful Intel Atom N270 processor."

Sony Vaio VPCW12S1E/P: Definitely One of the Most Attractive and Suave Pink Netbooks Around
"The device is provided with a warranty which makes it a reliable product. The fantastic rechargeable battery installed in this netbook offers long battery back up as well.

Netbook operating systems - Back to Jolicloud

This past weekend I tried out some different Linux based operating systems for my Dell Mini 9. Going into the weekend, I was running the alpha of Jolicloud, which for the most part, I have been happy with.

First I tried Easy Peasy, which is a Ubuntu fork, originally developed for the Eee PC. Used Unetbootin to create a bootable USB key and installed. Discovered that wifi requires additional drivers to be loaded manually to support the Broadcom card in the Mini 9. Didn't notice a lot of difference from Jolicloud. Easy Peasy prompted me to upgrade to Ubuntu 9.1, which immediately failed due to lack of drive space. That's what I get for using a 4 GB SSD.

Next I tried Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR) 9.1. Install went fine, but upon rebooting, I was greeted with messages of imminent drive failure. Some quick online searches show that the S.M.A.R.T. disk monitoring routines in UNR falsely indicate drive failure on Solid State Disks (SSD). My Mini 9 is running a 4 GB SSD. Just like Easy Peasy, the wifi did not work.

So, I reinstalled Jolicloud. This time, I left the default keyring password blank. Otherwise, the keyring password is required when connecting to wireless access points that require login keys.

Trying these 2 other systems made me appreciate Jolicloud even more. It just works.

Why not Windows? My Mini 9 shipped with XP, and I don't use it. Everything I do on my Mini 9 is in a web browser (Google Docs, Reader, Toodledo.com), so Windows is unnecessary. And slow. I've been quite impressed by Jolicloud on my Mini 9, and it runs on a 4GB SSD with almost 1G to spare. If your netbook is supported, I would try it.

Recycling the Baldwin 172 - the keyboards

Got a non-working Baldwin 172 from Craigslist for free. Took it home, it made some sounds, but could never quite get it to behave. The next day, all I could get was a single droning note. So on to the parting. What is the value in a 1983 vintage organ with cheesy built in sound effects? Even with non-functioning tone generation, it is loaded with useful parts.

- Two 3.5 octave keyboards
- A 1 octave bass pedal assembly
- Lots of control switches
- Spring reverb
- Volume pedal
- amplifier w speaker
- Furniture grade sides and top

Primarily, I'm looking for piano keyboard assemblies, the rest is bonus.

I've been taking photos. I'll get those pictures up shortly.

The keyboards, unfortunately, do not have a separate switch/key, they are wired in a matrix. The C-64/Cynthcart project requires a different matrix encoding, so the existing switches are not usable.

Fortunately, the switch mechanism is not recessed like in the gutted Oxygen 8 keyboard I started with, so replacing the switches should not be too difficult.

Another lucky break...these keyboards were designed to be easily adapted to different lengths, so creating a mechanically sound 2 octave keyboard should be pretty easy.

Music keyboards for the C-64 and Cynthcart

I've been playing with Paul Slocum's Cynthcart software for the C-64 :

http://www.qotile.net/cynthcart.html

The software is fun, but the interface leaves much to be desired. I would prefer a labeled control panel and a real piano keyboard. Of course, there are some complicating factors.

First, the switches on commercial music keyboards are matrixed completely differently than the C-64 keyboard.

See this diagram :

http://www.doepfer.de/DIY/Matrix_25.gif

This requires a complete rewiring of the keyboard. I tried to rewire one of these by hand, and it was a disaster. Consumer grade circuit boards were not designed to be modified. They fall apart. PC traces come off the board, etc.

The plan now is to build a panel to hold 25 micro switches, and I will wire the switches by hand. If I wanted to build just one of these, I would hack it out, but this may be more universally useful, so I'm considering designing a panel that would be cut on a laser cutter, with holes for the switches. I can then wire the switches however I wish.

Nokia 6350 for Mom

Mom prefers the old black and white Nokia phones, but they have started to become unreliable on the AT&T network. So yesterday, I got her a Nokia 6350 from the AT&T store. I wanted something that would be simple to use, and that would let me create a slide show for the wallpaper (for family pictures).

The slideshow feature I discovered by poking around in the phone. Google searches did not locate any mention of the feature.

I adjusted the fonts to the largest size, cleared out all the AT&T phone number cruft and added contact info for Kerry, Jennifer and myself.

I had purchased a 2GB SD card to hold pictures, but was unable to get the phone to properly recognize it. Instead, I configured the slide show to come from the "Recieved Items" folder. So all I have to do is send a picture over via Bluetooth and it automatically appears in the slide show. A more elegant solution anyway.

Big Junk Night : I'm 3 for 3

My sister lives in Bowling Green, Ohio, which is the home of Bowling Green State University. Every year, as the students are about to move out, they hold a "Big Junk Week" where residents load the curbs with unwanted "stuff" and turn the entire town into a week long free yard sale.

In past years, my sister scored replacement bathtubs and toilets for her early 20th century home. I've gotten functional music keyboards (some MIDI, some not). Last year, she brought me a first generation PS2, which required a laser adjustment.

This year's haul has been a fruitful one so far :

- Another 1st gen PS2 - disc detection on the PS2 uses the laser. If it gets dirty, no disc is detected. Fixed with a cotton ball and some alcohol

- PS2 Guitar Hero Guitar - Had a broken whammy bar. Fixed with 2 rubber bands.

- Wacom Tablet - not officially "big junk"...from my brother in law. Appears to work

- Micro USB cable - Generally not such a big deal, but we needed one at work to test a new SMS system, and no one else had one


It has also come with stuff that should have stayed "thrown away"

- A Sharper Image roll up piano - What a piece of junk. Totally unplayable.

I'm planning on making to trip to Bowling Green next year. Big fun.

---tom

Psychological Traffic Calming

I live on a street in old Cary which has turned into a speedway, especially near my house. I live at the end of a stretch of straight road that the leadfeet (leadfoots?) in my neighborhood can't resist. Here is a clever solution from a fellow in Hamburg : a Fake Traffic Camera.

Looks like a fun project. I have an official looking watertight box (thanks NCSU Surplus!) and stuff that looks like a lens (maybe even a lens...). Add a padlock to the box and I'm all set.

Bought another SSD for Mini 9

Picked up a 4 GB SSD pulled from a Dell Mini 9 for $8.50 (shipped) on eBay. Now I will have boot drives for OS X, XP and Ubuntu. Not exactly triple boot, but the changeover only takes a few minutes.

The MIOS studio software that is used to program the Midibox SID is unsupported on Mac OS X, but works under Linux, so this will provide me a way to reprogram my MidiBox SID after I upgrade the processor.

--tom

Saw III sampler figurines

These figurines are seriously creepy. First job was to remove and trash them. I'm thinking about recording scary sounds and have this activated by a motion sensor for a Halloween setup.

Another Dell Mini in the family

When Aidan saw the Mini 9 I bought, he was immediately jealous. So, we got him one for his birthday. Bought this one at the Dell Outlet, just like mine. In this case, I bought him the Vostro A90, which is a Vostro branded Mini 9. Only difference is that the black A90 is all black, where mine is silver below the keyboard.

Since I was planning on eventually loading mac OS X on mine, I didnt want to purchase another copy of XP. It adds about $50 to the cost. Rather than getting the Mini 9 with an 8GB SSD XP, I got him a Vostro A90 with a 16GB SSD, Bluetooth and the webcam for $10 less than the Mini 9. I figured we would use my XP license after I loaded OS X.

We fired up his Vostro and got to see Ubuntu. Visually, it just looks better than XP on the Mini 9. They have really done a nice implementation. The only problem that we had was the wireless was unable to properly negotiate a connection with my new 2Wire AT&T router. I had to explicitly set the 2Wire to PKA2, then everything worked.

Turns out now that Aidan wants Mac OS X on his Vostro. He is more familiar with my iMac than Kerry's Dell. Looks like I'll be doing the install sometime this week. I have a 16GB SSD and 2 GB memory upgrade on order for mine.

Merrill Lynch account liquidated

Finally liquidated my Merrill Lynch account. A 27% loss from it's peak. Sigh. Time to implement the Black Swan portfolio...

xpud - shortest path to the cloud....wow

Saw a forum reference to xPUD (http://xpud.org) as a lightweight OS to run on my Mini 9. Downloaded and installed it to a bootable 64 MB flash drive.

I changed BIOS options on the Mini 9 to allow booting from USB. Then I deleted syslinux.cfg, and renamed isolinux.cfg to syslinux.cfg.

Moment of truth. The Mini booted in about 30 seconds (maybe less). The entire OS loads into RAM (not SSD, the RAM) and then boots from RAM. This setup is amazingly fast. I can leave the default boot setup as Win XP, and boot xPud whenever I want. I am impressed.

Chronulator circuit board done

Finished the Chronulator circuit board last night and hooked up some meters. I haven't decided which meters to use yet, so I wired in some old transistor sockets and plugged in the resistors that control the meter scaling. Used the big meter for minutes and the small one for hours.

My next one will probably run on a small off the shelf arduino/freeduino kit with built in USB. That will give me a solid power source and the ability to control the meters from the computer.

Mini 9 is excellent

I've had a few days with the Mini 9, and I'm sorry I didn't get one sooner. Win XP runs faster on the Mini than on any other system I own. Excellent tool in the server room.

Refurb Vostro A90 available. Grrrrr.

Ordered my Dell Mini 9 from the Dell outlet earlier this week. Waited too long and all the Mini 9's with webcams were gone. Just discovered that the Dell Outlet Business section is selling the Vostro A90, which is the same as the Mini 9. With webcams. For exactly what I paid, $249. They even have units with 16 GB SSDs. Doh!

Dell Mini 9 memory expansion options

While waiting for my Mini 9 to arrive, I'm looking at SSD expansion. It comes with an 8MB SSD, which is fine for Linux, but a stretch for Mac OS X. There are basically 2 brands of SSD expansion : Runcore and Super Talent (STEC).

The Runcore is slightly more expensive : 16GB $78, 32 GB $127
than the Super Talent : 16GB $63, 32GB $109

There is a slower (2X slower writes, almost 3X on reads)
Super Talent : 16GB $49, 32GB $89

The big advantage of the Runcore is that the module has an integrated USB port. This allows Mac OSX to be installed on a Mac while the Runcore is attached as an external drive. This makes the install go much faster, and is simpler.

If you look at the high end Runcore vs. the Super Talent, the ease of installation on the Runcore is a slam dunk. For the 16 GB, the Runcore is only $15 more, with the 32GB, it is $19 more.

Comparing to the slower Super Talent is a different story. For the 16 GB, the Runcore is $29 more, the 32GB is $38 more.

Still, if this is something that you will use extensively, it's worth paying the extra $40 one time cost.

I'll probably upgrade the RAM to 2GB right away, install Linux and do the 32 GB upgrade down the road. It's somewhat hard to justify an immediate $130 expense to upgrade a $250 computer. Perhaps I can pick up a used 16GB from an upgrader.

This posthas a good rundown of Runcore vs. STEC

compromise

The mini 9's on Dell Outlet sold faster than I thought. By the time I checked yesterday, all that was left were Mini 9's without webcams. Ordered a 1GB, 8GB SSD, Bluetooth configuration. I could have gotten a 10, but I wanted small.

the evolution/devolution of netbooks

Our 21st anniversary was today; Kerry asked what I wanted. I think I'm going to get a Dell Mini 9 netbook.

As part of my job, I'm in the server room copying data onto printed spreadsheets. When back at my desk, I type in the numbers. It would be great to capture that data as it is generated and avoid double entries. It would also avoid repeated reprinting of my server data spreadsheets.

I like the Dell Mini 9 because it's small and light. The keyboard is a little small, but for my purposes OK. I'm really looking for small, goes everywhere. I don't want to think about whether I should carry it with me.

They discontinued the Mini 9 last month. Dell has stopped using the SSD, which I want for the durability and battery life.

They have black ones with 1GB of RAM, an 8 GB SSD and a .3mp webcam for $239. They have 512MB models for $10 cheaper without the webcam. The webcam would be worth $10 to me, so go with the 1GB.

I can always swap the SSD for a hard drive to run OS X. The Mini 9 is the only 100% OS X compatible netbook according to this chart :

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/12/17/osx-netbook-compatib.html

At best, the others have broken audio (HP) or broken ethernet (MSI Wind).

Had a discussion with someone at work today about netbooks. He talked about how he would need a hard drive so it could be loaded with Microsoft Office. This totally misses the point.

The netbook is the perfect interface to the...here it comes..."cloud". All your apps and data reside on the internet; the netbook is just a smart conduit. Local word processing is probably necessary, but bloatware like Word is just overkill.

The vendors (at least Dell) are missing it too. The netbook is evolving by losing its' SSD for a hard drive (bye bye battery life) and growing bigger screens (bye bye portability). Pretty soon netbooks will become ....laptops.

iPod Touch strangeness

I've been having problems with podcast listings on my iPod Touch where the podcast appears on the iPod Touch, but does not show up in iTunes. I could delete these podcasts on the Touch, but they would never go away. After reading about auto purging of listened podcasts, I played the podcasts in question, oldest to newest. The "phantom" podcasts were essentially empty (1 or 2 seconds long) and they all "played" in a second or so.

Once they were played, I could delete them on the iPod Touch, and after syncing with iTunes, they were still gone. Yay.

My remaining problems appear to be podcasts with improper metadata in specific podcast episodes. The July 8 edition of "On The Media" copies to the iPod and is visible on the iPod, but does not appear in iTunes on my Mac. No content is apparently copied as the podcast plays for a second then stops.

My workaround to make these broken podcasts playable :
- Convert podcast to AAC (from right-click menu)
- Copy podcast to iTunes
- Set Genre to "Podcast-Other"
- Create smart playlist on iPod to show these podcasts

Bjork, Volta, Voltaic, gestural controllers

I was listening to Bjork as the guest DJ on All Songs Considered. She has an esthetic I can appreciate ... blending electronic and natural sounds in her music. She is using a gestural control instrument from Reactable on her Voltaic tour that can be seen in this video from "Later with Jools Holland".

To get a feel for the Voltaic live show, here is a video of "Pluto" from the Paris show.

Just ordered a copy of Volta...looking forward to the listen.

Costa Rica Diary : Day 5

Today was pretty lazy. Woke up early -- 0630 -- even though I went to bed past 2230. Kerry and I went for a walk on the road leading to the villa. Saw some birds and of course lots of crabs. Nearly missed breakfast while reading on the patio, which would have been unfortunate as it was excellent. French toast, sausage, eggs, toast, pineapple and mango. Finished "The Black Swan", went swimming in the infinity pool.

Kerry, the kids, Stephanie, Carly and Darby walked up to Lookout Point. When we got back, had fajitas for lunch, which were OK. The beef was a little tough.

More afternoon lazy time....went back over "The Black Swan" to find favorite quotes. Got on the internet and looked at SD card based disk drive replacements for the C64 -- not sure what led me there. Went back outside, watched the kids play in the surf.

Kerry, the kids and I went on an ATV ride down to the beach. Took some pictures...then it started thundering, so we headed back. After about 45 minutes, we had a shrimp dinner.

Costa Rica Diary : Day 4

Slowly, I am becoming used to the keyboard on this computer -- it was designed for the Spanish speaking market, and the country settings in Vista do not quite match. I still don't know how to type a colon.

I tried to fix this once, but since Vista requires a reboot after changing the keyboard language, I decided to live with it. I feel like I am only one reboot away from a re-configuration marathon.

Today we did zip line rides through the canopy in Montezuma. I was at first somewhat reluctant to go, but glad I went. The height did not really bother me...it was so much higher than I normally deal with, that it did not really register that I should be afraid.

After that, a short ride into town and some shopping, then a ride back to the villa. Chicken quesadillas and fresh guacamole was served. I then went to the infinity pool to read some more of The Black Swan.

Costa Rica Diary : Day 3

Today we went ATV riding. Alan arranged it and all but Kerry and Stacy went on the trip. We cruised along the beach and through the forest adjacent to the beach. Crabs are everywhere. In some places it looked like the ground was moving.

Costa Rica Diary : Day 2

This was to be the day of the Internet Fixing.

Woke up around 0800. Had some breakfast, did some reading. Watched the ocean. I've always enjoyed the sights and sounds of the ocean more than swimming in the ocean.

So, I'm in Costa Rica, and I'm fixing problems. Can't get it out of my system.

I had been unable to get the wireless internet working yesterday.

Some additional complicating factors :

- The computer was running Windows Vista Home Premium
- Almost all the text is in Spanish
- The ISDN modem was a USB device

Normally, the USB network device would not such a big deal if we were connecting one computer. In our situation, the goal was to share the connection to the Linksys router, allowing wireless clilents to connect.

On Saturday, I had discovered and removed a redundant network cable from the router to the computer. I tried configuring the device for ICS, but could not get it to work. I spent my time on Saturday mostly trying to get the system back to English. Through some research with Mr. Google, I learned that this version of Vista did not support multiple language packs. We were stuck with Spanish.

I knew Alan would need the internet access, so when "Scruffy" arrived, I sat down with him to help him get it working. Scruffy arrived from the states 20 years ago on his sailboat, and never left. He is a good friend of the villa owner. He spoke Spanish and together we were able to move forward.

This was one of those situations where having two people working on a problem can be quite helpful. Especially since he could translate menus. We tried a number of configurations until we got it working. We also used Alan's laptop to help with the configuration of the router.

ICS - Internet Connection Sharing - wanted a dynamic IP address...and only the Linksys router could do that. If I set the range of DHCP addresses to start at 192.168.1.50, then the ICS connection would always get 192.168.1.52. I wanted to set the IP address of the router statically, but it would not allow me to set the gateway address to the same as the internet address -- 192.168.1.52, even though that appeared to be correct.

The implication of this was that wireless clients could never connect automatically, as DHCP was unable to deliver the proper gateway address. There was probably a way of fixing this, but I had reached the point where I just wanted it to work, and that any working repeatable procedure was acceptable.

Another complication we discovered -- the Acer PC had its' own wireless adapter, which would try to connect to the Linksys router. We turned it off to simplify matters.

After a couple of hours, we got it working -- with the caveat that IP, netmask and gateway had to be set manually on any wireless adapters that wanted to connect. It had not been working, and on a whim, I entered the IP address of Google.com, which loaded. The ISP DNS was sucky.

Just as we got it working, the PC spontaneously rebooted. Sigh. This computer BSOD a number of times, which seemed to be related to the flaky ISDN modem.

When it came back up, the Linksys Easy Configuration software loaded and somehow blocked the ICS connection. So we uninstalled the "helpful" Linksys software and rebooted again.

Here was the final configuration :
- Acer PC connected to the internet via the Intracom ISDN modem
- ICS used to bond the NIC in the ACER to the Intracom network
- ACER NIC cabled to LAN connection on Linksys router

On the Linksys router
-DHCP turned on
-gateway set to the base DHCP address plus 2

For any connecting wired or wireless hosts
- IP set manually to a 192.168.1.X address not already used
- Netmask set to 255.255.255.0
- Gateway set to 192.168.1.52
- DNS addresses set to the public OpenDNS.com addresses. The DNS servers of the ISP were unreliable.

I entered the configuration into Alan's laptop and gave it back to him.

He needed to download some software from Nikon.com to process his photos. At a maximum data rate of about 18 kbps, this took a couple of hours.

The download speed went up and down as the ISDN B channel kicked in and out. But it worked.

Costa Rica Diary : Day 1

Woke up at 0400 Saturday morning...made it to the airport by 0530. Flight left on time for Miami. So far, all uneventful. Met some nice folks in Miami that were scheduled to be on the same flight from San Jose to Tambor on which we were booked. She spoke Spanish and called Sansa to tell them that we would be a bit late. Missing the Tambor flight would put us on the bus to the coast, a long ferry ride and final drive to the villa.

The flight left Miami on time. We discovered that the crew had forgotten the immigration and customs paperwork. We would have to complete those forms when we arrived in San Jose. We arrived on time and madly filled out the handful of forms. Just as we were getting in the first line, our family was diverted to a shorter line since we had 2 kids. Immigration went relatively quickly and we rushed to the Sansa terminal. We arrived at 1330 for the 1400 flight and got checked in. Fortunately, the folks we met in Miami arrived shortly afterward and we all got on the flight.

The 25 minute flight to Tambor was remarkably smooth. Liam slept through the entire flight.

We were met at the Tambor aiport, which consists of a landing strip, a parking lot and a porta-potty. We paid our $1 per passenger airport tax and were on our way.

The drive from the Tambor airport to the villa was actually rougher than the commuter flight to Tambor. We arrived at the villa and met our host, Hansel. We settled in, and 4 hours later the others arrived. In the pouring rain.

I discovered that the internet service was not quite working. More on that tomorrow.

Dinner, then bed soon afterward. A long day.

keeping us safe - The dangerous lithium battery

Our Sun servers have CR2032 lithium coin cell batteries. Thes batteries are obviously very dangerous, considering how replacements are shipped. When one goes bad, this is what you get from Sun : A large box with ominous stickers, which contains a smaller box protected by "packaged air". Inside the smaller box is an anti-static envelope (protected by foam). Inside the envelope is a single CR2032 lithium coin battery.

For what it cost them to send me one battery, they could have bought me 20 batteries.

Alien Autopsy : Wierd POS terminal

I found this item on a recent trip to the Raleigh Flea Market. It appeared to be some sort of custom point-of sale terminal. It had :

• smart card slot
• credit card scanner
• PC card attachment
• large rectangular touch screen

There were no external markings. It was only $1, so what the heck. As is usual with such items, I take them apart.

The internals are a spectacular mess. Wires go in every direction. Copious silicone caulk holds it together. The PC Card/flash connector on the back goes nowhere. Apparently a design change.

I am impressed at the volume of stuff they managed to jam in there :

• smart card reader
• credit card scanner
• processor board
• VGA PC Card
• thermal printer
• 2 rechargable batteries
• 2 alkaline batteries, caulked in place
• 4 AA battery holder
• 2 AA battery holder
  
• LCD touch screen
• 2 pushbuttons

And of course the case, which is the best part. It will make a nice case for an upcoming project.

King Charles Troupe : 44 years of unicycle basketball

On my ride into work today, a spoke with an ex-member of the King Charles Troupe, a unicycle basketball exhibition team founded in 1968. It's a small world.

iPhone Repair : The New Frontier

My son's 1G iPhone has started misbehaving. Looks like the sleep/power button gets stuck down, which causes a reboot loop. Needless to say, he is not particularly enthusiastic about Dad taking his iPhone apart.

For now, I told him to not use the Sleep button...just allow the iPhone to power itself off.

Mr. Google was not particularly helpful. I did find a few people that have had this problem and fixed it by taking the iPhone apart.

I was thinking that it might be possible to use some alcohol on a swab or contact cleaner to free up the stuck button. I am seeing issues with the Home button also. Sigh.

I have ordered the official Apple Spudger Tool (Apple Part # 922-5065) in preparation for the inevitiable.

iPod Touch : Apps that sync data locally

When I bought the iPod Touch, I realized that I would not have :

• phone capability
• GPS
• camera

but I wasn't willing to spend the $1200 out of pocket expense ($199 + 24 mo * $40).

Most iPhone apps work on the iPod Touch, but data is only available within the range of a WiFi hotspot. So I concentrated on apps that can sync when the network is available, and still function offline.

The apps that I use that allow offline functionality :

• Memengo Wallet - Secure document storage. Syncs to memengo.com
• Toodledo - GTD style to do lists. 2 way sync to toodledo.com
• NY Times - free - Syncs NY Times content locally
• BookshelfLT - free - book reader with access to downloadable content (it caches)
• Stanza - free - Another book reader, access to more, different, content
  

favorite iPod Touch apps

A short list of my favorite iPod Touch apps so far (not pre-installed) :

• AOL Radio (free) - Dozens of streaming radio channels, free from AOL. Personal favorites are "Video Game Scores" and "Anime Radio".
• Google Earth (free) - Still useful even without the GPS. Can do simple location determination based on information gathered from Wi-Fi hotspots by Skyhook Wireless
• Google (free) - GMail, Google Reader
• Pandora (free) - streaming radio
• BookshelfLT (free) - EReader with access to many public domain and free books
• Memengo Wallet ($2.99) - encrypt private data, store encrypted copy on the web
• Evernote (free) - Synchronized notes capability
• Phanfare Photon (free) - Local access to phanfare.com photo albums
• Toodledo ($3.99) - To do lists, synchronized and shareable

iPhone or iPod Touch ?

So, I've been watching Aidan use his iPhone, and have been impressed with what is available through the app store. I am still using my 5G iPod, but the screen is a bit small for watching video. So perhaps a new 3G iPhone?

Well, I have a work issued BlackBerry 8703e, and it's hard to justify paying for another phone. The BlackBerry has Internet service. I have a very nice Sony-Ericsson k790a Cyber Shot phone on a shared AT&T service plan as my personal phone. Up till about a week ago, I carried both.

Also, with the iPhone, I determined the actual cost of the iPhone to be about $1200 when the required data plan is factored in.

I looked at the iPod Touch, and decided that the feature set was right for my needs. With the help of a $100 BestBuy gift card, I bought a new 16GB iPod Touch. In order to pare back down to 2 devices, I've forwarded the calls from my personal phone to the Blackberry, and my k790a has become a very fancy camera. Once my new case arrives, the iPod touch will take the place of the k790a as the second device that I carry.

gadget update : Aidan's iPhone

So my son wanted an iPhone, but there was no way he could afford a $40/month service plan. Solution? Purchase a used 1G iPhone (thanks Hal) and activate it without a data plan. While the new 3G iPhones require a 2 year data plan, repurposed 1G iPhones do not. Big thanks to Esai at AT&T for making all the appropriate account settings to disable the data service on Aidan's iPhone. He wanted to be able to text message, but the iPhone data/SMS plan is a bundle. The only way to get just SMS is to purchase the Family SMS plan, which is $30/month.

I don't think he has really missed it. He usually has access to wi-fi, so he can watch his YouTube videos and download apps from the iTunes store.

Had to reset the iPhone this evening; it would not power on. Mr. Google filled me in on the details and all is well.

blog revival : work status

It's been a while since my last update. Many changes. We are into our second year as a merged IT organization at NCSU. I've been spending much of my work time deploying new equipment. There is something especially satisfying about starting with a box of parts and seeing the results shortly afterward. We will shortly be deploying our new VMWare ESX cluster. But enough about work.

re the Colbert incident

Recently watched the video of Steven Colbert's presentation at the White House Correspondent's Dinner. Funny and sad at the same time. The John McCain "salad fork" bit was cold, cold, cold. And priceless. Unfortunately, only our comedians have the balls to "undress" Emperor Bush and his conspirators.....tk

The transcript, for your enjoyment :

Other links :
http://www.radioopensource.org/stephen-colbert-court-jester/
http://www.edbatista.com/2006/05/debord_stewart_.html
http://billmon.org/archives/002417.html
http://thankyoustephencolbert.org/

Froshmauskrieg - the battle between the frogs and the mice

German for "battle between the frogs and the mice". Used by Albert Einstein's secretary on a file folder tab.

Said folder contained information that " (described) the long and bitter dispute between the School of Math and the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study." Also useful for describing discussions involving email and calendar systems.

Here comes the judge...

After initially thinking I would be chief election judge in my precinct this year, I was told that the Democratic Judge would become the chief judje, as my affiliation is currently listed as "unaffiliated".

Got a call this morning that the Democratic judge had resigned, and I'm the chief judge again.

Training starts tomorrow and I get to see the new election equipment on the 17th.

GMail whoops

Two nights ago, I completed the moving of all my GMail to my iBook G4, where it will be sorted and a subset will be moved to my fastmail.fm account. It had gotten quite slow and kind of unreliable. This morning, I couldn't get access.

I currently have the GMail account forwarding to my fastmail.fm account, but not deleting mail so I can catch the few straggler accounts where the gmail address is my preference/id.

So I will be primarily be using my GMail address as a forwarding service. GMail likely does not mind much, it still provides visibility for their service while not having to keep my stuff.

Microsoft as earnest contractor? It depends...

Ross Rubin in his Switched On column, feels that Microsoft is being quite earnest in trying to please its' customers.

I would contend, that this earnestness exends only so far as determining which version of Windows the customer should be running. Sometimes, especially in the area of mobile devices, the devices should not be running Windows at all. But with Gates and Co., that is never an option, no matter how much sense it makes.

Early versions of Windows Mobile were nearly unusable, as they forced the user into the Windows "Start" menu paradigm, rather than Palm (who currently has its' own assortment of problems, like relevancy) who created a simple interface that was best adapted for how a mobile user interacts with a PDA. I still remember having to ask someone how to enter a URL into mobile Internet Explorer.

I see Microsoft repeating their mistakes again in the form of the UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC). Rather than design a interface which is available in seconds, and mostly concentrates on staying out of the way, we will end up with Windows XP Tablet Edition with the edges sawed off. By the time it is done booting, your opportunity for using that spare moment in time will have passed, and soon, it just gets left at home.

In this arena, I think Nokia has the right idea with the 770 tablet. It runs a version of Linux and has no hard drive. It is optimized for casual use. Turn it on, use it, put it away. It fits in a coat pocket and weights about half a pound. And sells for $350.

Super Nintendo (SNES) repair

If your Super Nintendo is dead, it is probably easily repaired. This posting has been sitting in my Blogger queue for 3 months. I'm planning to add pictures, but for now, I want to get at least something up.

Disclaimer : You do this at your own risk. If your house burns down as a result of these attempted repairs, it's not my fault.

One has to admire the engineering that goes into these consoles. They are built like tanks. I recently reassembled a Nintendo 64 from parts. Works like a champ.

On to the repairs...

Problem 1 : Broken power jack
Soultion 1 : First, make sure that the conductors in the broken jack are not shorted together. Remove the circuit board. Solder wires to the circuit board at the location where the power jack connects to the board. Purchase a replacement jack from Radio Shack. If you use part number xxx-xxxx, you will be able to use a -9v Sony power brick. Mount the new jack on the corner of the case nearest the power jack.

Problem 2 : Lost/broken power supply. Can't find a -10 volt power supply
Solution 2 : If the plug is ok, cut the cable off the power supply, and patch on a new one. Any 9 volt supply of at least 500 ma will work. It turns out that the -10v input is regulated down to 5 volts anyway, so 9 works as well as 10. Be sure to wire the polarity correctly.

On future repairs, I'm planning to install a bridge rectifier between the power jack and circuit board. Then the polarity is irrelevant.

Problem 3 : Power light does not come on (probably related to problems 1 and/or 2)
Solution 3 : The internal fuse is probably blown. The fuse is soldered to the circuit board. Remove and replace with a fuseholder and fuse. Or use a fuse with pigtail and solder it in directly.

If the cart slot is damaged, I don't know what to tell you. Cleverly, the connector can be unplugged from the main circuit board, making connector replacement easy. Assuming you can find one.

iPod utility on the cheap

I just bought a 5G Video iPod last month and I love it. What I don't love is the high price of iPod accessories. $30 for a rubber protective sleeve is just too much. I have also discovered that some accessories can be used in multiple ways. I keep all this stuff in a small carry bag.

- silicone sleeve - purchased from PC Microstore for $10 with free shipping.

- Belkin Auto Kit - The Belkin iPod Auto Kit is one of the most useful accessories I own. It is basically a car lighter adapter that allows the iPod to be charged and provides a 1/8 line out which connects to a cassette adapter of FM transmitter. The line out signal is amplified and adjustable via a volume control.

- 12 accessory adapter - This plugs into an AC outlet, and any 12V powered device with a car lighter plug can be plugged into it. Rather than buying both auto and home accessories, plug the auto accessories into the accessory adapter. Also works well for cell phone accessories

- cassette adapter - connects the iPod line out to a cassette deck

- passive portable speakers - I have a pair of passive Sony speakers which work fine. Target has the Sony SRS-P7's for about $10

- AV cable - I bought a camcorder adapter cable from eBay for $6. Since the wiring is different, I marked the RCA plugs with the correct iPod "polarity

These items can be combined in a variety of ways :

AC powered iPod "stereo" - plug the Belkin car kit into the 12v accessory adapter, then plug the passive speakers into the Belkin car kit. Volume is adjustable via the Belkin car kit.

self powered iPod stereo - plug the passive speakers directly into the iPod

iPod charger - the Ipod does not come with an AC adapter, so plug the Belkin car kit into the accessory adapter

Don't worry about Nintendo...

I have been listening to gaming podcasts lately and the usual doom and gloom stories about Nintendo. Don't worry about Nintendo. They are doing fine. Read the book "Game Over" and you'll understand :

- Everything they sell makes a profit. The more they sell, the more they make.

- They are utterly ruthless. Read the book if you want examples.

- Sony and Microsoft sell the PS2 and XBox at a loss. The more they sell, the more money they lose. Do the math.

- Sony is fundamentally conflicted. They make consumer electronics. They also are a media conglomerate. They make most of their money with their media division, but the consumer electronics gets all the attention. Their consumer electronics group would probably LOVE to make a completely open device like the Game Park. The media people say "lock it down".

- Sony and Microsoft are chasing after the same demographic : the hardcore gamer. Or at least it looks that way. I have a feeling that this market is not growing very fast.

- The Nintendo franchises (Mario, Zelda) are for the most part pretty tame. The games are fun. They are timeless. They are pure fantasy. They tend not to lose much of their sheen over time. Mario is 20 years old this year.

Most people don't care how fast the processor is and don't like controllers with lots of buttons. I know I don't. What I care about is how good the game is. I'm not interested in games where I shoot things that look like people (like Halo). I bet most people don't. This is about as antisocial as games get. They tend to attract controversy (and lawsuits).

Flock

First posting with Flock, basically Firefox with integrated blogging and bookmarking capabilities. First impressions : faster than Firefox. Blog posting appears relatively simple. Integrates with deli.cio.us. Also integrates with flickr. I'll see if I can upload some state fair pictures.

Read my mind : the Nokia E70

I've always liked the Nokia 6800 form factor, but it does not use the Series 60 interface, like my 3650.

Well, Nokia has just introduced the E70...which is basically a Series 60 interface in an updated 6800 form factor. Plus a camera and WiFi. Will do VOIP. A worthy upgrade from my 3650.

Stop buying PSPs. It just encourages them

Someone has discovered a buffer overflow that allows a PSP with 2.0 firmware to be hacked.

Imagine how many more PSPs Sony could sell if they encouraged PSP owners to develop applications for the PSP rather than trying to shut them down.

I admire the perseverance of PSP owners to unlock their hardware, but should they really encourage Sony by buying the intentionally crippled PSPs in the first place?

The new Game Park console, which has free development tools provided by GamePark, seems to be a much better choice.

What was NOT said about the ROKR iTunes phone.....

Blog comments everywhere are filling up with comments about the ROKR iTunes phone

I can sum it up as ......yada yada poo crap ugly yada

Whatever...I expected ugly....lets move along. The Pontiac Aztec of cell phones...

The RAZR is the only non-ugly phone that Motorola has designed. Go look at the crap they make for Nextel.

The ROKR has a 100 song limit, no matter how big your memory card is. This limit keeps it from competing with the Nano. Otherwise you could load a 2G flash card and make it a Nano. In the next week or so, someone will hack the firmware and fix this.

What I thought was interesting, that no one mentioned, was that the ROKR can play MPEG-4 video. The screen is big enough for casual watching. Having "stop making sense" on a phone like this would be awesome. But a different phone.

GameBoy Micro

My GameBoy SP has been hijacked. My son has discovered "Pokemon Emerald". He has also discovered the Pokemon card game, which I play with him, but I digress.

Nintendo has just announced the GameBoy Micro :

http://micro.gameboy.com/

and already all the geek experts :

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000520043660/

are chattering on about what a huge mistake Nintendo has made. Probably the same "experts" that considered the Apple iPod Mini a mistake (it has sold millions).

Nintendo is doing something very smart here. They are squeezing the GameBoy platform for everything it can give. They have the advantage of a huge library of GameBoy Advance games, something that the Sony PSP does not have (though I'm not comparing the Micro to the PSP). While Sony will make very little on every PSP sold, the margin on the Micro is probably significant (it will sell for $99.)

The Micro is not intended for the hard core gamer. Hard core gamers seem to think that every new product is intended for them. Nintendo is going after the casual gamer, one who in the past would typically not buy a GameBoy. Perhaps they tried out one of their kids' GameBoys and enjoyed it.

The Micro is truly pocket size, so it can go anywhere. The $99 price may seem steep, but combine it with the new Play-Yan media player. Assuming that the Play-Yan sells for about $50, the combined cost is the same as an iPod shuffle, but has a screen and can play mp3's and video. This does not include the cost of a memory card, which will add about $40. The entire unit will be slightly smaller than the iPod Mini.

I want one. The Micro release date coincides with my sons' birthday. He may be getting my SP and dad will get a new GameBoy.

We need podcast naming conventions

I have been listening to a lot of podcasts lately as an alternavive to FM and have been noticing that there are many ways podcasts can be named (track name), but most are not named such that they sort properly on your portable device (iPod, whatever).

This seems like such a trivial thing, but in order to organize the podcasts, I have to rename (pretty much) all of them so that the episodes sort in increasing date order. The track number field is particularly abused. Sometimes it lists the month, sometimes blank, sometimes the episode number. Often it varies among episodes from the same podcaster.

Some would argue that this doesn't matter, and technically, it does not. To me, an illogical or random naming structure makes the podcast appear a little less professional. This is particularly a problem, when upon completion of a podcast, the playlist skips to the next file, which may be a month old.

How to fix it (I apologize in advance if thie is difficult to follow...):

My preference is an abbreviated name followed by a date or episode number, like the following, with possible issues listed beside the different options :

ABBR-YYYY-MM-DD
ABBR-YY-MM-DD (YY potentially confused with MM or DD)
ABBR-MM-DD (short, but with year rollover issues)
ABBR-NNNN
ABBR-NNNN-YYYYMMDD (pretty damn long)
ABBR-NNNN-YYMMDD

Where
ABBR = abbreviated podcast name
YYYYMMDD = Year-Month-Day. Use leading zeros.
N = episode number.

Always use leading zeros to fill numeric fields to accomodate sorting i.e

099
100

rather than :

99
100

In short, make the first 17 characters important, because that is all the listener will see (at least on an ipod). Podcast names sort alphabetically when dates are specified appropriately)

OnTheMedia-20050801

or

OTM-20050801

or Coverville-101-20050801

where YYYY=year, MM=month, DD=date


Using episode numbers rather than dates immediately following the name allows a few more characters :

DailySourceCode-115-2005-07-27

or

DSC-115-2005-07-27 (this is what I do)


Remember to be consistent!
For example, don't do this :

Inside Man Podcast
Episode 2 of 4
Inside Man Episode 1

Don't include spaces, or at least be consistent!

Don't use month or day names! They don't sort properly!
For example, don't do this :

On The Media - Aug 1, 2005
On The Media - Jul 29, 2005
On The Media - Jul 22, 2005

As for track numbers, I would do :
track number = episode number
or
always "1"
or
leave it blank

No random numbers in the track field. This is just silly.

Also, no roman numerals. They don't sort numerically.
For example, don't do this :

Podfinder Episode III
Podfinder Episode II
Podfinder Podcast

Keep the podcasts coming!

Best Dreamcast games

The Dreamcast is a bargain as gaming goes; a console and a few games can be purchased for less than $50

Here are 2 of my favorite games :

- Looney Tunes Space Race - If I wasn't such a Looney Tunes fan (I own both DVD box sets), perhaps I would not rank it as highly. The graphics are spectacular. It is literally like being in a cartoon. Cartoon physics abound (characters hang in mid air before dropping). The racers trash talk each other in ways appropriate to their character. Shop areound and you can probably find it for about $10. Highly reccomended.

- PenPen TriIcelon - This game is just surreal, and super easy to play (steer and press two different buttons). It was one of the original launch titles for the Dreamcast in Japan, and minimal translations were performed to prepare the game for the american market. Basically, it is a triathalon on ice for mutant penguins. Can often be found for less than $5. Don't pass this one up.

home gaming setup

Just finished rewiring my video game console setup which consists of :

- Sega Dreamcast
- Super Nintendo
- Playstation One

Just had some family in town and my nephew played Looney Tunes Space Race on the Dreamcast. While they were out of town at the beach, I finally spent some quality time with "Crash Team Racing" on the Playstation. While it is a fun game, the quality of the graphics is atrocious, especially compared to the Dreamcast. While it is sad that the Dreamcast is no longer a supported gaming platform, it is quite a bargain as you can buy a Dreamcast with controller and AV cable at EB Games for $15. Purchase a console built before November 2000 and the entire world of Dreamcast emulation becomes available :

http://www.dcemulation.com/

Even if you just use it for playing audio cd's, it's worth $15.

what a week....

Began this week on monday morning with a visit to the SunCom store. See previous posts for grisly details.

Then took mom to the hospital to prepare for surgery on friday. Arrived at 11 am, left at 6 pm. Most of the time was waiting. Used some of this time to find the unolock codes for my Nokia 3650.

Tuesday...picked up new countertop from Lowes.

Wednesday... Started new countertop installation. Had to cut the old countertop to remove. Does not bode well for installation of new countertop. Fears realized...can't get the new countertop into place without removing some part of the room. Decided to remove part of the door jamb. Discovered interesting fastener holding parts of door jamb together. Door jamb removed, new countertop manuvered into place. Kerry hints that it might be a good idea to take part of the day off tommorrow.

Thursday...leave work early; check on mom's car (both have dead batteries.) It starts! Head home to install countertop/sink. Open box with sink, discover that Bone is not White. Go back to Lowes to swap sink (white is $8 cheaper..) Attach countertop, use template to mark hole to cut for sink. Follow instructions, but somehow the hole is too small. Spend about an hour making the hole bigger. Wished that I had a router. Job completed about 8:30pm. Take shower, go to mom's. Get to sleep around midnight.

Friday...must be at hospital at 5:30, which is 30 minutes away. wake up at 4:25. Check mom in about 6:00. Get coffee and breakfast around 7:00. Now 8:00 am. Hospital beeper is going off. Guess the surgery is starting....

customer service...sigh...

Perhaps I am not being completely fair to SunCom. It's just one example of not respecting your customers.

I once had my own consulting/training business. My livelihood depended on treating my customers well. Perhaps this is why I am sensitve to it.

How could SunCom do better ?

- Use music on hold instead of commercials on their customer service line.
I am already a customer. I am calling because I am having a problem. I don't want to listen to comercials, I want my problem solved. Also, the constant talking is very distracting. Doing useful work while waiting on hold like this is like trying to drive and talk on the phone at the same time. Doesn't work.

- Provide better service in person than via the phone.
When I come to visit a business in person, I expect better treatment than if I call on the phone. If you can't do better in person, let me know so I don't waste my time.

- Sweat the details
Tried to check my voice mail this morning; instead got an error that the voice mail number had not yet been defined. I'll be calling SunCom today to get the number.

Suncom - Episode 2

"Surely this process would move faster if I went to the Suncom store", I thought. At least I won't have to listen to Harry Connick Jr on hold.

So, I get to the store 15 minutes early. Once inside, it is explained to me that the process may take 35 minutes. I have one hour till I have to be somewhere else. Turns out that you DON'T get better service by going to the store. They call the same 800 number and wait on hold.

Finally, we get a customer service rep. The Suncom employee then removes the battery from my smart phone without turning the phone off first. Next, she tries to unlock the phone and is unsuccessful.

As an aside, one of the reasons for going through this "SIM switch" procedure was to get my phone unlocked. Their procedure for doing this is at the SunCom store is completely non-standardized. Basically, the store employees surf the internet for free "unlock sites" and use that information. Apparently, this is news to the customer service employee, who makes note of the URL.

I could have done that myself. Suncom is "the phone company". They have access to the fancy hardware phone unlocking gadgets. But they don't use them. They don't even appear to have a list of standardized procedures for unlocking phones. This is left up to the store employees to figure out.

She offers me a Nokia 3620 to replace my 3650. The Nokia 6680 is apparently not an acceptable replacement as "it is a smart phone". I explain that my 3650 IS a smart phone. No dice. I decline the 3620 swap and leave with my old phone and both the new and old SIM cards.

To be fair, the switchover with my wife's Sony-Ericsson T616 goes off without a hitch.

Later, while in a waiting room, I search the internet for unlock sites, find the right one, and unlock the phone myself. Thankfully, as around 6pm, the old SIM card stops working. I pop the new SunCom card into the phone and all is well.

Needless to say, I was not impressed by the experience.

Suncom - Episode 1

I am one of the lucky AT&T Wireless customers in the Raleigh, NC area that was sold to SunCom in exchange for access to cell towers in Virginia.

About a month or so ago, I recieved an automated call telling me I had to get my phone updated for service to continue, with a 800 number to call.

SunCom apparently misjudged the resources that this conversion effort would take, which was reflected in the 30 minute hold times on the 800 customers service lines.

Waiting on hold is bad enough, but at least there is generally "music on hold". The quality of this music varies wildly, but at least it is music, and usually instrumental. On the SunCom customer service line, however, you get the same 3 advertisements over and over, interrupted every minute or so with the obligitory "thank you for holding" message. All three advertisments are voiced by Harry Connick Jr., the current spokesperson for SunCom. Since the on hold "entertainment" is basically chatter, it is pretty much impossible to stay on hold and get any work done, as your attention is constantly redirected to the chatter.

To top it all off, this chatter is all advertisments.

Since I am already a SunCom customer, why do I have to listen to advertisments on the customer service line?

After 45 minutes on hold over 2 different days, I decided to go the retail store to resolve this. Surely the experience would be better. If only I knew......

riding the bus....more time for podcasts

About a month ago, after paying $2.25 a gallon for a tank of gas, I checked into other ways of getting to work. Turns out N.C. State employees can ride the TTA (local regional bus) for free.

So three days a week :
- I don't have to drive
- I get exercise, which I would not get otherwise
- I get an extra hour of time per day for listening to podcasts.

I have been listening to :
- Coverville
- 5 Minutes With Wichita
- Hour Of Slack
- Daily Source Code
- Le Show

New phone?

Typically I would be looking forward to getting a new phone; my contract is month to month. My phone has been the Nokia 3650 for the past two years, and I have been very pleased with it.

2 years later, there are no phones that are significantly better than the Nokia 3650 that does not cost less than $300 (with a contract.) I like the N-Gage, but it does not have a camera. I don't think I will ever get another phone without a camera.

The Sony-Ericsson 710 is very nice, but at $300, is too expensive.

Nintendo is smart...

Pundits are sounding the death knell for Nintendo on the introduction of the PSP. I think they underestimate Nintendo. If you want to understand how they operate, read the book :

Game Over : How Nintendo Zapped an American Industry, Captured Your Dollars, and EnslavedYour Children
by DAVID SHEFF

Read the section in the book about their response to MGM when threatened with a lawsuit over Donkey Kong. Their laywer flies across the country to tell the MGM president that they wouldn't settle. In person. The case never made it to trial; it was thrown out by the judge

Look at the GameBoy, the most popular handheld gaming system ever. Their newest system, the DS, will play all your old (and inexpensive to buy) GameBoy Advance titles, plus the new titles. The DS has two slots, a GBA slot and a DS slot.

The DS comes in a clamshell configuration, so the screen is protected from incidental damage. No such protection with the PSP.

PSP...Entertainment without boundaries?

I just went to the Sony website to get a link to the PSP page for a link, and discovered the slogan for the PSP :

Entertainment Without Boundaries

????

The PSP looks like something designed by a company with dueling hardware and entertainment divisions. It's as locked down as any media device on the market.

The PSP :
- is too expensive
- is too easy to break
- is too big to carry everywhere
- is crippled with proprietary UMD media
- requires an expensive memory stick
- games cost fifty dollars with no budget titles
- has no backwardly compatible media

If I want to get in some recreational video, I'll do it on my Nokia 3650. I can pull it out unobtrusively.

If you want a Nintendo solution, wait for the Nintendo branded $50 game cart that will play MPEG-4 files from a Secure Digital memory card. A movie theatre in your pocket.

If you've read this and still want a PSP, they have plenty of them at the store.

Music Thing is The Thing

I love MusicThing. Music Thing is a blog about musical technology. If you are into 70s and 80s analog synths, software synths, anything musically electronic. It is the place to be

The Nokia 3650 Essentials

I set up my sisters' Nokia 3650 this afternoon. Here is what I did :

• Put the memory card into a reader
  
• Create a "installs" and a "video" folder
  
• Copy some Jonny Quest 3gp files (or whatever you like) into the "videos" folder
  
• Copy the following apps into the "installs" folder :
  
  
  
  • Helix player - for MPEG 4 video. The Helix player supports more video formats than the Real Player that ships with the phone.
    
  • ReadM - ebook reader. Reads any text file. Even plays mp3s..
    
  • Calcium - Nice, easy to use calculator
    
  • Agile Messenger - fantastic, free, IM client
    
  • Card Deck - Free solitaire game from Nokia
    
  • Forward - moves INBOX messages to arbitrary files. Very useful.
    
  • Keyboard - Driver for Pocketop folding IR keyboard
    
  • Torch - Turns the backlight on. Yes, your phone is now a flashlight.
    
  
  
• Remember, when you start installing, everything goes on the memory card
  
• Put the card back in the phone and power up. I like to keep a installable copy of all apps that I regularly use on the memory card in the phone. The Nokia "Manager" installer application only installs SIS files that are sent to the phone via email or Bluetooth. To solve this. I sent FExplorer to her phone via Bluetooth, and installed it. Once FExplorer was in place, applications could be installed from the "installs" folder.
  
• Install all the apps by selecting the SIS files in the "installs" directory with FExplorer. The Helix player is installed in 3 parts, in order.
  

Transparent technology

My friend Rod has a Sony-Ericcson T616 phone, which he hates. One day, the phone made a loud screeching noise while next to his ear. He complained that the phone was difficult to use; I would agree as my wife has one. I chose that phone for her because it had a camera and supported Bluetooth.

Unfortunately, the pictures are lousy and the menus are puzzling (to me at least). It's like going to a movie and watching the projector

I offered him the use of a Nokia 3390, which I picked up at a flea market. What a wonderful phone this is. Excellent reception, crystal clear audio, and very easy to use.

I would describe this as transparent technology. With this phone, you just use the phone. Simple, uncluttered, intuitive.

Rod is using the phone until his contract expires in March. But I am getting it back :-)

Radio is dead....

...they just haven't buried the body yet. I was in my van this evening, listening to "Coverville" a podcast from "www.coverville.com" on the iPod. A 30 minute show that is not broadcast via radio anywhere in this country. At that point it hit me : Radio is dead. Noone needs it anymore.

Commercial radio in this country is pathetic. The big radio chains (Infinity, Clear Channel) have consolidated their programming into mush. Predictable playlists. Stupid DJ stunts. Their short term strategy of buying up radio stations and turning them into carbon coies of each other is coming back to bite them.

In increasing numbers, America is tuning them out. Viacom, the owner of Infinity, posted an 18 billion dollar loss this quarter, most of it due to lost radio advertising revenue. There are just too many alternatives to broadcast radio. Internet streaming. Portable music players like the iPod.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Something different....the Midibox SID

Though I administer computers and write software for a living, I have alwaye enjoyed working with electronics. Among my accomplishments....transplanting the logic board from a 5 gig iPod into a 20 gig iPod. And it actually worked. But I digress....

I recently started reading online about the SID chip. This was the chip that generated the sound in the Commodore 64. There is a Midibox SID project.

The Midibox SID project uses the SID chip as a sound generation device, but operates it under computer control from a dedicated microcontroller. This allows sounds to be generated that were never possible with the original SID.

It consists of a core processor board, a SID module and a DIN module, which provides for digital inputs to the SID, either rotary encoders (like a digital volume control) or switches. Combine this with a 24 character, 2 line display, this provides the ability to control the SID in real time interactively from the front panel.

I recieved the parts a few weeks ago and have started assembling the boards. More fun to come

The Nokia 3650 ages well

The Nokia 3650 is the most useful device I have owned. Almost two years later, Nokia is still selling basically the same phone (3660 and 3620). It has aged well.

• It's small enough to go anywhere
  
• It keeps my calendar, address book and to do list
  
• It syncs almost flawlessly via Bluetooth with my Macs (iBook, G5 tower)
  
• It plays MPEG4 movies
  
• With an IR keyboard, it can take notes
  
• Becomes a servicable flashlight with "Torch" software
  
• It takes pictures (pretty decent ones)
  
• Content is easily added or removed with a simple flash reader
  (I keep a SanDisk Cruzer flash reader in my pocket)
  
• Lots of free software
  

Downsides

• not enough internal memory
  
• only supports 128 meg flash cards (with current firmware)
  
• Bet you thought I was going to say "the %%^&** keyboard". Actually, I don't mind it.
  

My sister and brother-in-law are now 3650 owners.

Bluetooth Annoyances

I have a Nokia 3650 phone, which I use with two different computers at work via Bluetooth. My main desktop system, an Apple G5, keeps my address book and calendar. My Dell PC is used for Bluetooth Serial Port access, so I can sync AvantGo without having to pay 2 cents/KB to do so.

Every time I move from the Mac to the PC or from the PC to the Mac, I have to re-pair the phone with the computer, or nothing works.

Now I just need to wait for Apple to add Bluetooth Serial Port support to OS X. Doh.

Activision Anthology for Game Boy Advance

I just bought Activision Anthology for the GameBoy Advance. It include 55 Atari 2600 games including selections published by Activision plus some demo titles and games written long after the 2600 had left the scene.

It is especially nice that the Activision titles are the focus here. Activision was one of the most innovative 2600 developers. They made the 2600 hardware do things that is was not supposed to be able to do. The games are in general, a notch above the others.

The cart runs the well known Stella 2600 emulator. I know this because Bradford Mott is the lead emulator developer for the cart and he wrote Stella.

It completely rocks. Enduro, Spider Fighter, Megamania, Chopper Command, Air Raid, Pitfall...all the great ones are there.

It saves best scores, and rewards you with cheats that change the games. Scans of the cart label, box art and instructions are included in the game. A steal for $29.

The iPod mini

All the latest kvetching is about how the iPod Mini was a complete screw up by Apple. I don't agree. The main argument is that for $50 more, one could buy a 15 gig iPod.

This assumes that everyone bases their decision only on price. If this was the case, we would all be driving Yugos because they are so cheap.

If someone is in the market for a small MP3 player, there are a number of flash-based players for around $200. Most of these have a max capacity of about 256 megs. If I am a buyer who is considering these, now I have a choice where I can spend $50 more and get 4 gigs of storage.

If I am willing to carry around a bigger MP3 player, the regular iPod is the obvious choice.

Just over one year later, I find it amusing that Apple can barely keep the mini in stock, it is so popular.

Using the Nokia 3650 with the Pocketop keyboard

I'm happy to say that the Nokia 3650/Pocketop keyboard combo is quite usable. I used it yesterday in the server room at work to take notes. Significantly faster than using the numeric keyboard.

Gigantic : A Tale of Two Johns

This is a new documentary just out on DVD. It is about the band "They Might Be Giants". The band is brilliant and the DVD is awesome. See more at http://www.giganticfilm.com.