Andrew's Random Stuff

SV:

2011-01-14T10:53:00.001+13:00

dear, I found a good company several days ago, and try to buy some goods,
and I received satisfactory item 5 days later.
Introducing to you: buybuyele.com , maybe also useful for you.

This Blog has moved...

2005-11-09T14:38:00.000+13:00

The new address is: andrewsmactips.blogsome.com

Andrew's Mac Tips has moved!

2005-11-04T21:23:00.000+13:00

The new address is: http://www.andrewburke.orcon.net.nz/mac/index.htm

The Truth About the Shuttle

2005-08-11T05:40:00.000+12:00

I've had a lot of time to spare lately, so I used a lot of that spare time to closely follow the recent flight of the space shuttle Discovery. In the interests of full disclosure I should mention that I'm quite a spaceflight expert.

Anyway, I tracked Discovery's progress using NASA TV and all the usual web-based outlets; I was gleaning all the same information fed to the media. And yet I came to one conclusion—and the general media came to a completely different conclusion.

Here's the thing.

This flight was easily the most flawlessly flown in the history of the program
The orbiter arrived on orbit and landed in better condition than ever before
The STS is, and always was, an experimental flight program

There are always analogies associated with spaceflight—to help the great unwashed get a handle on it (this pump could drain a swimming pool in five seconds; that engine could power a small town). Here are some more to help you appreciate what's involved in flying the shuttle: If getting an airliner to cruising altitude can be compared to driving your car from home and down the onramp to the freeway, launching a shuttle to orbit is like taking a top-fuel dragster, not a quarter-mile, but all the way up a ten mile hill. De-orbit and landing can be compared to the world's longest ski jump, only on tarmac instead of snow, through a slalom, at night, flawlessly.

That it works as well as it does is a testament to the genius and hard work of everyone involved.

As a test flight vehicle, every flight is cleared to go only after open items are understood from the preceding flight; open items are either solved, or worked around, or mitigated—factoring in acceptable risk. So it's not the end of the world if a shuttle program manager states that "obviously we won't be making any more flights until we better understand the foam problem."

Gap fillers are great for lessening tile chattering during ascent, and they are, at worst, a nuisance during re-entry as they could cause localized heating and scorching of downstream tiles—requiring early and expensive tile replacement. Like stones stuck in the tread of your tires, pull them out if you have the opportunity but don't lose sleep over them.

This post is getting way too long. The point is that the shuttle is not a clapped out death trap; it is in fact a fantastically successful high performance well understood thoroughbred.

I've now given up on the "press version of events." It reminded me of that "Planet could be wiped out by asteroid at any time!" hype-fest of recent years. Even after the California landing, jerks with microphones made an issue about the cost of ferrying the orbiter back to Florida.

Don't believe everything you read in the papers...

It's Good to be Back!

2005-08-03T20:09:00.000+12:00

Apple Mighty Mouse: Hands On Review

2005-08-03T10:46:00.000+12:00

Russell Beattie Notebook - Apple Mighty Mouse: Hands On Review

Mighty Mouse

2005-08-03T09:57:00.000+12:00

Released today, the Mighty Mouse (hate the name) makes the jump from one button to four. Sensors detect how many fingers are touching the mouse when it's clicked—that's two of the buttons covered; clicking while only touching the ball is the third, and squeezing the sides is the fourth.

It appears to have a trackpad/schrollwheel type array under the surface for the left and right clicking. So why not use the schroll wheel technology to detect two fingers wiping the surface to do the schroll thing, and do away with the ball?

That would tie in with the whole Apple Do More With Less philosophy, and probably be cheaper to make. Maybe next year.

Infomercials

2005-07-27T22:50:00.000+12:00

I suffer from frequent insomnia. Sometimes I just don't sleep at all—sometimes I spring awake at 4:00am and can't get back to sleep. Times like these I flick on the TV and scan the channels; on two or three channels there are a constant stream of infomercials. They're usually for food processors or workout equipment, and they're usually pretty poor. You've seen one—you've seen them all.

But, say what you like about them, they must be effective. Otherwise they wouldn't be such a fixture. And this got me to thinking.

What if there were a regular Apple infomercial? But being Apple it wouldn't follow the normal format. What if it was full of really useful information for existing Apple users:

This week we're going to talk about using iPhoto in conjunction with online services
This week we're going to explore the power of Smart Folders
This week we're going to look at keyboard shortcuts as well as Automator...

Naturally these shows (which you'd Tivo or tape) would have regular callouts where they'd say: "If you don't already have a Mac then call XYZ or visit apple.com"

Non-Mac users might be intrigued enough to say: "No way can my machine do that," or, "Mmm. I could always get the mini and give it a try..."

With re-packaging, some of these segments could be supplied on a DVD with every new Mac. If they were really classy then Mac owners would loan them to their non-Mac friends.

There's more to marketing than buzz generation and glimpses; detailed stuff does sink in. Everyone, when pressed, will admit to knowing about the Miracle Knife set, or Gunner Whatsisname's exercise ball.

Why not apply the infomercial to an operating system?

NASA TV - Live 24/7 broadcast of the NASA Select TV Channel

2005-07-27T22:47:00.000+12:00

NASA TV - Live 24/7 broadcast of the NASA Select TV Channel - Brought to you by United Space Alliance

Talk is Not So Cheap

2005-07-25T22:12:00.000+12:00

According to the latest buzz: about 50 percent of net users in the US and the UK are using broadband. That's great. I wish I were one of them.

As one of the remaining dialup users I've noticed a new trend that's probably related to the broadband thing that's happening. That is:
A fatter pipe leads to fatter files.

I'm a little guilty of contributing to this trend; in days past I'd make a concerted effort to keep any image files on a webpage below 20 kbs to aid the speed of loading—these days I've relaxed that to 50kbs for the sake of quality over ultimate speed.

Now, like most folks, I've lately been looking at podcasts. I right-click and download them manually rather than using any of the subscribe and forget solutions out there. As you can imagine, I can't tie up the phone line for hours on end.

Most podcasts I've grabbed range from 30 to 45 minutes in length, and they have all been MP3s so far. When MP3s are created they can be set to different compression levels depending on whether they are high quality stereo music—or simple spoken word.

Now we're getting to my gripe.

People are recording blah blah blah guy talking into a cheap mike for a half hour podcasts and encoding them at quality levels way higher than they need to be. I have started to download, then abandoned files that were up to 40 megs for 40 minutes of simple talk.

40 megs!

I've found that my tolerance inflection point for podcasts is 14 megs—beyond that I don't care how compelling the content may be—I won't be listening to it...

So please check the compression levels before encoding these files. Believe me: If it's just you blabbing, the higher compression Spoken Word settings sound just great.

Andrew's Mac Tips -- Quick Look -- NewsMac

2005-06-29T20:31:00.000+12:00

Andrew's Mac Tips -- Quick Look -- NewsMac

A new page published today.

Andrew's Mac Tips

2005-06-28T10:14:00.000+12:00

Andrew's Mac Tips

I have a new website for Mac switchers. See above...

My Big Prediction...

2005-06-05T11:04:00.000+12:00

All this talk about Apple switching to Intel. Intel won't be supplying CPUs to replace the Power PC chips used in G4 and G5 machines. They will be supplying an X-Scale type CPU for the new Apple small tablet device (bigger than a PDA—smaller than a notebook)...

The New Polo - In Depth

2005-05-18T20:34:00.000+12:00

The New Polo - In Depth

Yeah, yeah. Yada yada yada. What I want to know is: Where can I get a set of that luggage?

Gimpshop Fancy Effect Sample

2005-05-09T21:56:00.000+12:00

Stop me if I do too much of this!

Gimpshop Sample

2005-05-09T21:44:00.000+12:00

Its a bit clunky, but I get the feeling that everything I need is there, somewhere...

Paul Thurrott's Internet Nexus

2005-04-24T09:47:00.000+12:00

Paul Thurrott's Internet Nexus

"Sorry, Apple fanatics. If Apple came up with the phrase 'it just works' for the Switch ad campain, then they copied it from Microsoft. The software giant has been using the phrase for at least a decade, which of course is widely documented in many places."

Ok. Here's the thing. In Apple's case—it's true...

XShelf 1.1.2 for MacOS X

2005-04-19T20:41:00.000+12:00

XShelf

An awesome helper app; drag a file or a clip to the edge of the screen and then drop it on the shelf. Rummage for a destination and then pluck the file from the shelf and drop it there.

I love this kind of stuff! (Especially in brushed metal).

Omni This and Omni That

2005-04-15T20:51:00.000+12:00

A few weeks ago I mentioned an app called OmniGraffle, a gorgeous looking and quite complicated piece of software for creating flowcharts. As I said at the time: the full blown version is quite expensive but you can download a fully functional version for free that's only limited in that you can't have more than 20 things in any single chart.

Last night I went back to the Omni Group site and tried some of their other software. The first I tried was Omni Outliner Pro; it's the same deal—a fully functional download limited to 20 entries, only this time we're talking about a list maker; make entries and then slide them up or down to re-arrange them, or left and right to make them children or parents.

I have another app called DeepNotes that does just this, but with Omni Outliner Pro you can also drop images, links, movies and other objects as embedded new entries right in the list. You can also format the list's appearance in a million different ways. Personally I prefer the clean approach, but lots of folks like to assemble scrapbooks full of clippings (I'm talking real scrapbooks and real clippings) when they're pondering or researching something, so here's the ultimate digital scrpbook for those people.

I'm probably missing something; there's probably some very compelling other use for this thing. Either way—it's great fun to play with and looks fantastic, but for arranging ideas I'll stick to DeepNotes for now.

The next thing I tried from Omni Group was OmniDictionary which is a window that pops up, either independently or via the services menu, by which you can look up the definition of a word. It does this by searching various online dictionaries, but by navigating to the Mac OS X DICT page at ropersonline.com you can download a complete package of dictionaries for use offline.

The package was pretty huge at 36 megs, but it's oh-so great having a dictionary literally built in to the OS. All in all, a pretty productive night...

I-Mate Jam

2005-04-14T21:11:00.000+12:00

Stupid name but great device. It's a Pocket PC with phone and we've seen lots of those, but it really is tiny—about the size of the screenshot.

Best of all, it just feels great in the hand—very solid; great finish. Just a pity about the ugly OS.

JetClock 1.0

2005-04-14T20:39:00.000+12:00

My Newtons all shared a really nicely implemented widget called Time-zone; it was a map of the world showing your current location. If you tapped on any other location it would show that location's current time. It also had a really subtle band across the top that showed which part of the world was in darkness or daylight. As and added gimmick, it also told you the exact distance between cities. I seem to recall that you could also call up extra information about any city, such as its coordinates; dialing codes etc.

Cut to the chase Andrew!

Anyways... When I switched to Mac I was more than a little disappointed that there wasn't a similar gadget in OSX. Sure, there's a clock in the menu-bar, and you can configure its appearance in various ways—but that's about it. No time-zones.

Now I've found a freeware app called JetClock. After de-activating the built in clock display I set JetClock to run on startup. It looks exactly the same as the standard clock, but I can click on it and a menu drops down showing the current time in four other cities.

In the preferences pane there's even a map of the world with little pushpins in it.

It's half way to the widget in Newton, works flawlessly and looks like part of the OS—just the kind of program I like...

That's 9413 Nautical Miles to You and Me...

2005-04-09T00:43:00.000+12:00

FLUG REVUE April 2005: Boeing 777-200LR rolls out

Bored on those Long Flights? Get Lower!

2005-04-08T19:21:00.000+12:00

Sidenote...

2005-04-06T17:22:00.000+12:00

The screenshot tells most of the story. Touch the left side of the screen for the drawer to slide out and then write a quick note which is auto-saved. You can also drag text and images there.

As well as being a cool gadget—it just looks great, which is always a plus.

You can find it by searching on versiontracker...

Prepare To Get Dizzy...

2005-04-05T22:28:00.000+12:00

The World Wide Panorama

Looks Like Pop Up Headlights Are Finally Dead

2005-04-05T22:19:00.000+12:00

New MX-5 (or Miata). The big question is: Will the flares make it to production?

iLife 05

2005-04-04T21:20:00.000+12:00

Today I installed the new iLife 05 suite. So far I have only seriously checked out iPhoto, which is a great improvement; I can now do most of the kinds of things that I like to do to tweak photos, without having to install Photoshop or one of its derivatives. Naturally, Photoshop does a whole lot more: artistic filters, layers, better selection capabilities and so on—but iPhoto will certainly suffice for now.

Here's the feature I most wanted and it works a treat. When you slide the temperature control the separate colors of the histogram move about. When they're more or less merged then the white balance is corrected; sort of like setting the midtone gray point in Photoshop, only you don't need something gray to get a sample off. As a matter of fact, everything that you adjust changes the shape of the histograms in real time — very educational...

Styley Stuff Weblog...

2005-04-03T16:01:00.000+12:00

Josh Rubin: Cool Hunting

HP Design on the UP

2005-03-31T21:47:00.000+12:00

After really going astray with one horrible looking new product after another, HP are finally back on the right track. Here are a couple of new PCs that aren't ugly.

Well... The top one at least!

It's all relative...

2005-03-31T10:44:00.000+12:00

I just had my first purge. I'll rephrase that; I just spent half an hour deleting all of the stuff that I don't actually need on the Mac.

Whenever I download a program to try out I leave its installer on the Desktop until I decide whether I want to keep the app. If I do keep it then I drag the installer into a folder called "Archive." Tonight I copied Archive to a CD then deleted its contents.

Then I deleted all the music that I recklessly ripped from CDs without sampling first (music that turned out to be crap), and finally I deleted all the Quicktime movies that I'd dragged over from cover CDs (stuff like movie trailers) that was on the hard drive for the sole purpose of showing off the multi-media capabilities for people who look over my shoulder and say, "What's that thing do?"

The end result is that I now have another 2 gigs of free space. Two gigs. It's a lot and a little at the same time. What a crazy world we live in now; every new generation—add three zeros to all the specs. In the end I don't suppose it matters at all how big a file is as long as the ratios are still reasonable. By that I mean what the heck difference does it make if a music collection is 5 gigs if you have an iPod that can easily swallow that up.

But for me at least, it's still panic stations if whatever I'm using drops to forty percent free space. And yet I constantly drive my car with its fuel gauge between twenty percent and zero. Go figure...

The one dampener for me regarding the actual file sizes is the bandwidth bottleneck. When you're on dial-up certain tipping points come into play: when a file I want is going to be 10 megs then I sigh; 20 megs is a big deal; and 30 plus is simply a deal breaker. As Russell Beatie once blogged—when he recently moved into a new house without broadband it was like stepping back into a whole different world...

Ah, That's Better...

2005-03-28T21:34:00.000+12:00

I just spent the best part of a day setting up my old PC so that I could pass it onto my nephew. At first I wiped the drive and re-installed Windows with the idea being to cycle it back to an initial set of conditions, as it were.

Bad idea. Turned out to be a nightmare. Two or three essential DLLs wouldn't install from the install CD for some unfathomable reason.

In the end I restored a disc image I had made a few months ago and modified that—taking out all the apps and mods that might confuse a newbie.

What a piece of crap Windows and Windows PCs are. The whole experience reminded me of when I owned a 1995 Honda Civic and my Dad owned a 1975 Honda Civic; I'd sometimes have to move his car to get out of the driveway. Talk about chalk and cheese.

Now that I'm plugged back into the Mac, it's like I traded the Civic on an Audi A8...

Tofu

2005-03-27T23:23:00.000+12:00

Amar Sagoo - Tofu

I just installed Tofu 1.3.2. Here's a screenshot.

It's an app for reading text files. The main selling point, although it's free, is that the text is displayed in columns. This however, is not what I like the most about it; what I really like is that I can scroll using just the space bar, just like with a browser. It's such a simple thing, but they're usually the best. I can lazily read through a long document and step through with the space bar, and, even better—if I quit the document I can re-open it at a later time and Tofu remembers where I was.

Yeah!

You know how it is; there's an interesting article on a webpage that you want to read, but it's surrounded by clutter. If you're lazy (and easily distracted like me) then drop it onto Tofu and read it in the style that you choose including font and background color. There's even a new Services called View in Columns.

Last little gem: Set up margins to give yourself some white space. Get it.

Tilt and Slide

2005-03-27T00:40:00.000+12:00

You know how it is; you one day have a crazy idea and then you think, "Nah..." Then years later, there it is—implemented.

Years ago I was saving notes on my Newton about my idea of the ultimate PDA, part of my Savi project. One of the brain-waves was to have a built in motion—or orientation sensor. I imagined an attitude sensor that could be reset to local up, with a deadband of about 20 degrees of attitude change.

Because a handheld PDA has limited screen real estate, my idea was that you could display a graphic on the screen that was much larger than the screen itself; instead of scrolling about the graphic using the directional pad or scroll-bars you'd simply tilt the device to have the graphic slide about.

Well, now the Apple Powerbook has a motion sensor for parking the hard drive if the device is dropped. Already there are hacks available to navigate iTunes etc, by tilting the Powerbook. Here's hoping that the rumored Apple handheld will have tilt-slide.

Should'a patented it...

Mac mini Watch: Exploded View...

2005-03-25T00:24:00.000+12:00

With Mac Mini, Apple Builds a Smaller Box

Interesting article and graphic from the New York Times.

The Mini relies on a combination of strategies to keep things cool. Like some earlier Apple products, it relies heavily on what Mr. Schiller calls "passive heat reduction." This involved designing a heat sink for the warmest components and carefully designing interior airflow patterns. But the Mini also has an active system - a small fan that comes on when necessary to increase the airflow...

The Future of Apple? No...

2005-03-24T09:30:00.000+12:00

Some design studies from Business 2.0. More like "Your Name Here."

Great New Freeware...

2005-03-19T23:59:00.000+13:00

It's been a fairly quiet week as far as blog entries go. I haven't really seen anything that I want to share with the world. My criteria is a little limited at the moment. I'm going through one of those stages where I'm trying to accentuate the positive, as it were. Being a natural-born cynic, it can get a little boring at times; even borderline depressing. So, nothing but positive stuff for a while.

Here's something: A couple of excellent freeware apps that I've recently discovered...

ImageWell is for manipulating images and shipping them to my server. As you can gather from the screenshot, you can (after dropping an image onto the dock to load it) resize it, rename it, enclose it within a shape, add a watermark etc.

You can also add captions, circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one if you so choose. (I'm showing my age there...) Best of all, once it's initially configured, you can upload via ftp with one click. Very handy.

The second app, called Galerie works along the same lines, only this time you drop several images from iPhoto and select a few options before it assembles a complete web gallery. There are a lot of templates to choose from; some of them are pretty awful—some of them are great. The best news is that it resizes the images and adds such things a drop-shadows in the blink of an eye. Here's a quick and dirty sample gallery. to give you the general idea...

See, That's The Thing About Macs...

2005-03-11T17:28:00.000+13:00

The Omni Group - Applications - OmniGraffle

I just downloaded this flowcharting application called OmniGraffle and in one minute I'd created this mindless but incredibly cool looking chart.

The commercial app is about a hundred bucks, but you can get a fully functional beta limited to 20 things per chart from Version Tracker.

Google News Tweaked

2005-03-10T23:30:00.000+13:00

Google News

Although still in beta (it seems like forever) Google News has just been tweaked to allow shuffling of the categories. Not only that—you can create new ones. Naturally I tried Apple—got five stories about the computer, and one about the fruit...

Radio Recorder MP3 Thing

2005-03-10T20:56:00.000+13:00

PoGo! Products Radio YourWay

Radio YourWayLX TM AM/FM Radio Recorder
Imagine the ability to record your favorite radio programs such as AM Talk Radio, Sports, News or Music and play those recordings back at a more convenient time. Radio YourWay LX makes this possible! Set Radio YourWay LX to record any station, any time, totally unattended!
Automatically record radio broadcasts via a daily or weekly timer-function; totally unattended
MP3 Recording- Easily transfer and archive your recordings to a PC or MAC with an available USB port
Record from any audio source (CD, Cassette, or TV etc.) in MP3 format without the use of a PC!
Playback MP3, WMA or RVF files
Use Radio YourWay LX as a portable storage device for data files!

I don't know. I think in a wierd way, it's kind of cool. I can think of times I'd like to record radio... Bit pricey though.

Project: iPal...

2005-03-09T23:54:00.000+13:00

There is the vaguest whiff of a rumor making the rounds that Apple is working on a PDA. What with my ten years of using PDAs and my flawless handwriting, saying that I'm excited would be an understatement. I mention the flawless handwriting because I for one was never frustrated with handwriting recognition problems (except just a little with the OMP. Just a little because I was staggered that it worked at all!)

Here are some of the features that I suspect will be included in Project "iPal":

The Newtons were monochrome and later models had backlighting of the indiglo kind. Their displays were black on white in theory, but truth be told, were more dark green on light green. This made for amazingly low power consumption so long as you were frugal with the backlight. I used mine for probably two hours a day and could go for a month on a set of batteries. If the batteries did completely die, it wasn't that big a deal because the flash memory held everything in limbo.

The Pocket PC that I use now has a brilliant transflective backlit color display, but with the same kind of usage I get about two and one half days of use before panicking about recharging the thing because just about everything is held in fast powered memory and if the batteries dies then it's all lost. So what do I think is a fair compromise from the iPal? Safe data integrity, and four days of one hour a day use.

Now in order to copy some text from a webpage and have it appear in the Pocket PC I have to perform about six separate steps that include pasting the text into a TextEdit document, saving it, connecting the Pocket PC, dragging the file into the PDA, deleting from the Mac and finally deleting from the PDA. With the iPal I'd like to be able to select some text in Safari and either drag it onto the iPal icon or press a key combination; then the next time I sync the file is moved to the iPal and given a name taken from the title bar of Safari. Deleting the file from the iPal would mark the Mac copy for deletion as well.

Naturally iCal, Address Book and various user folders would have lite synchronized versions on the iPal. You could use the iPal with the keyboard stowed, using a clickable trackpad under your thumb. Slide within a document to scroll and click and slide to navigate menus.

I imagine that Apple will keep the first version of this thing fairly simple; working mainly as a portable repository for your contacts, schedule and documents and images. If they go the same way as they did with the iPod there will probably be a universal connector so others can sell hardware addons like phones and Airport remotes and GPS and who knows what else.

A lot of people are already saying they want built in phone, built in camera, full OSX operating system, screeds of power and capacity—but I don't see it. If iPod and mini, and some of the new Mac applications are any indication I think their philosophy will be to have it do just three or four things ridiculously well—and let the third party developers and hardware wonks—and end-users decide where to take it from there...

A New Look

2005-03-08T07:03:00.000+13:00

Thought I'd try a new look for a change. I'm still tweaking it, but I think the posts look a little tidier than before. This is the great thing about CSS and SQL: the ability to make changes to the style while leaving the content intact...

Good Take on Microsoft's Push into Security

2005-03-07T00:24:00.000+13:00

Demo@15: Tech To Touch And Be Touched

Microsoft's decision to give away anti-spyware software is a mixed blessing. On one hand, it's great that the company is finally addressing this important problem but I worry that the free product could have a negative effect on other companies that are developing what are likely to be far more robust anti-spyware programs.
The worst situation would be for Microsoft to be one of the only anti-spyware vendors around. That would not only hurt competitors but offer fewer choices to consumers and, worse, create a single target for hackers to attack. Users are better off being able to choose from several excellent security programs - even if they have to pay for them - than being stuck with a single program from Microsoft.

Amend that...

2005-03-06T13:14:00.000+13:00

It looks like I spoke too soon. I just saved another page using Firefox and it came out crap. This time the css file and some of the images were two folders deep so Firefox ignored them.

Back to the wish list...

Nope, too ugly

2005-03-06T11:27:00.000+13:00

In line with the new Mac oriented thinking, I have a new criteria that I apply when evaluating software that I install: If it doesn't fit with the visual style of the OS then it's out. One such app that I chucked was Firefox.

I know, Firefox users are even more zealous than Mac users. They site it's security, and the tabs, and all the add-ons that are available...

But to me—its just too ugly, and I don't like tabs now that I've discovered command-` so off it went.

I love the brushed look, and the clarity of Safari. However, like the original Netscape, Safari caches its files in some arcane format that makes examining the true makeup of pages almost impossible.

Say what you like about IE but with it you could save a viewed page in its original form, along with any images or linked css file or java scripts. I found this extremely useful.

Although this blog is hosted on an automated service, I do like to dabble in hand coding my own sites. In the PC/IE days if I spied a page somewhere that I liked the look of, I'd save it as a complete page and examine how it was built up; of course I'd never copy and paste someone else's code, but I would learn from them.

Recently I was checking out the promised new features in Tiger and saw that the new Safari would save pages complete, but that release is probably six months away so I got to wondering whether Firefox did the same thing—and sure enough it does, and it does it beautifully.

To make a long story even longer—I put Firefox back on. Now, when I'm curious as to how a page was built, I copy the address into Firefox and save it from there. So, shoot me if you're a Firefox zealot, but for me it's more a helper app than a full-time browser...

From the Less is More Department...

2005-03-04T13:51:00.000+13:00

Motorola PEBL V6 Gallery (MobileBurn)

Motorola re-discover their Small, Black and Sleek roots. Let's hope the interface is as clean...

Rad New Civic

2005-03-03T08:44:00.000+13:00

The Japanese seen to have a thing for Alfa Romeo, (semi-hidden rear doors) and I'm not complaining. Here's hoping the extreme shape reaches production.

Ad Speak...

2005-03-01T09:06:00.000+13:00

The latest ad-speak is not Buy, or Own, or Join. It's Celebrate. Who are they kidding? I hate this stuff. I know it's futile to get worked up about this bastardization of the language—but it just makes me cringe.

First there was Lifestyle whenever something was just too dopey to be categorized as being useful. "Check out our Lifestyle product line!"

Then everything was a Solution, then a Total Solution. Another new one: It's about... Let's package then all together:

We'll use the crap car shown below...

...It's about life being random. Celebrate diversity and show you embrace the total fusion lifestyle. Introducing the Saab Sub...

Jeez. This ad stuff is easy!

Subaru Morphs with Saab—Everyone Loses

2005-03-01T07:34:00.000+13:00

Morning Light

2005-03-01T07:18:00.000+13:00

Sometimes is does pay to be up early. Shot full-auto on the Fuji at about 6:00am. Sorry for the ubiquitous Sky Tower shot, but the lighting is nice.

Applele hiSpeaker

2005-02-28T22:54:00.000+13:00

Applele

I may have linked to this guy before. What an artist! Isn't it amazing what some people can make with a keyboard and a mouse. If I was Steve and he worked for me I'd say, "Yeah, we'll do that, and that, and that. Keep it coming!"

Times, and Tastes Change

2005-02-27T11:23:00.000+13:00

Back in the days of Windows 3.X I'd try various applications—either at work on other people's machines—or downloaded from magazine disks.

Try before you buy.

One of the, "Mmm, I could use this," criteria was: "How many toolbars does it have?" Having lots of toolbars up made everything look more professional; and often helped to justify the cost of some of the more elaborate programs. Word 6 was particularly good for this. You could turn on so many toolbars that there was hardly any real estate left for the document!

But time and tastes change. Recently I decided to change my computer—and at the same time I decided to change OS's from Windows to Mac. I decided to take advantage of that tipping point by also changing some of my computer usage habits.

Instead of being app-centric in my thinking, I chose to be task-centric; I'll explain what I mean. Under Windows I'd launch an app and do several things with that app, and then close it and move onto something else—it never really occurred to me to leave it up.

For some oh-so-subtle reason, on the Mac it just seems like the most natural thing in the world to leave an app Running All the Time and when I'm not currently using it—either close or hide the current window and bring the next thing into focus.

But what has this got to do with toolbars? Well, for some other oh-so-subtle reason, on the Mac I find myself staying on the keyboard far more and taking advantage of the keyboard shortcuts to do things I'd otherwise do with a click on a toolbar. It helps that once learned, these shortcuts are generally applicable no matter which application I'm in.

Ergo no need for the toolbars so out they go. The 90's it was more is good—the 00's it's less is good. Suddenly the iPod makes more sense aesthetics-wise.

Must get job to pay for all this...

Sonos Multi Zone Digital Music System

2005-02-27T01:05:00.000+13:00

Sonos Multi Zone Digital Music System

I don't know yet if it's any good—it sure is expensive—but it looks good and their site looks great! Check out Walt's review...

Mmm. Lucite...

2005-02-23T15:42:00.000+13:00

Macworld: Mac Gems Weblog

Mac mini — Eureka, I Scream

2005-02-20T02:02:00.000+13:00

When the Mac mini was introduced and the handful of stock images were making the rounds—something was nagging at me: Where had I seen this thing before?

And here's the answer...

I know—I have terrible taste in ice cream; what can I say? It was on special! Never mind that though. I was in an Apple Store today and saw my first "actual" mini, and that nagging feeling of I've seen this before came back. Then tonight I was doing the recycling and—Eureka—the connection was made.

Now none of this may be relevant in the US, but here in New Zealand all 2 liter packs of ice cream come this way. I even measured it: six and one half inches square.

From sunflower to ice cream carton—those guys...

Alien Reports Back...

2005-02-19T06:45:00.000+13:00

If there's one thing that the whole planet shares...
It's these things. They... Are... EVERYWHERE!

DB9

2005-02-15T16:11:00.000+13:00

Aston Martin (http://www.astonmartin.com)

Nothing profound to post today—Except to say,

"Wow! What a Car!"

Mac Mini Fan Noise...

2005-02-14T12:05:00.000+13:00

Russell Beattie Notebook - Mac Mini Fan Noise

Yes, it's true. According to this post from Russell Beattie, the normally quiet Mac mini spools up its fan—not based on the temperature—but on the expected demands of the web page it's visiting or the app that it's running. Apple have posted fixes before when Powerbooks have revved up unnecessarily; let's hope they address this issue with the mini.

Sounds most annoying.

(Almost) a Month with an eMac

2005-02-13T22:32:00.000+13:00

After three weeks it was time I fired up the old PC to see if there was anything I'd forgotten to transfer over. There were about 500 megs of video and music files that I decided to snatch.

I don't know why, but the CD burner on the PC decided not to cooperate, so I used the card reader and an SD card instead. It took forever to get the files into the card (using USB 1.1) and only about a tenth of the time to get it off, using USB 2.0.

I started to delete the files from the card using the Mac but that was taking a long time so I cancelled that and waited until the card was back in the Pocket PC and did it there. I suspect that the Mac was building a trash can on the card and moving the files there. I don't know, I could be wrong. I have seen new strange looking files on the card before after it's been looked at by the Mac.

So now my new rule is to drop files to and from the card and PDA, but tidying up chores are more easily handled from the PDA. I'm sure that if Apple swallowed hard and developed their own PDA this would be all the more elegant. Stranger things have happened.

The only clumsiness I experienced going back to the PC was closing Windows. I'd gotten so used to the left-handed Mac that I kept single clicking top left which would just bring up a window control menu in Windows.

Getting back to the Mac, I'm getting more and more used to file management. I really missed the two-pane tree and files layout of Windows until I caught onto populating the favorites pane in Finder with all my usual folders.

Two things are particularly elegant about this system: One is that no matter how many items are in the left hand pane — they resize beautifully in order to fit within the chosen size of window (within reason). The other is the spring-loaded folders system. I never get tired of how cool, and convenient, it is to drag a downloaded file from the desktop onto the hard drive and have the window snap open—wait until I drop the file onto a destination—then snap shut again. No biggie; but big enough to be super-useful.

So I'm whittling away at some minor post-switch frustrations. My current one is making dialog box choices using only the keyboard.

Duh! I only just this minute realized that you tab to the option you want then press the spacebar.

New Task:

Find a keyboard shortcut FAQ and laminate it...

Flying Magazine

2005-02-11T23:02:00.000+13:00

Flying Magazine

If like me, you're into flying, it's worth checking back with this site every month as they post some really first-rate columns and articles. Another great aviation site is Avweb.

Pseudo Pseudo

2005-02-11T22:07:00.000+13:00

I saw a funny thing on my morning walk today. I don't know if this is an example of irony or not. Irony is such a hard thing to pin down. Anyway, when I saw this, I definitely thought, "How ironic!"

So picture the scene. You're attempting to build a children's swing. You can't afford a brightly colored custom made plastic seat for your swing so you fashion one from an old tire. People have been doing it that way forever. You either hang the tire vertically from one point or horizontally from three or four points.

So what do I see today at the local children's park? A brand new fluorescent plastic factory-made swing seat that's exactly in the shape of an old tire.

Kind of reminds me of something...

Canon Digital Rebel 300D Hack

2005-02-10T17:05:00.000+13:00

Canon Digital Rebel 300D Hack - The Digital Photography Weblog

Isn't this the coolest bonus ever? It's a funny old world — manufacturing-wise — when it's cheaper to include something and hide it, than it is to leave it out...

Gigapxl Project

2005-02-09T10:20:00.000+13:00

Gigapxl Project

It began with a seemingly simple question. As a designer and builder of cameras, what could one do that has not been done before? The question came on the heels of an earlier project which involved the design and construction of an astrocamera having a resolution of 0.01 millimeter across photographic plates that are 356 millimeters square. Recognizing this to be the equivalent of 1250-megapixel imagery prompted the question of whether or not anything comparable had been achieved in the context of landscape photography. Some back-of-the-envelope calculations concerning the performance of conventional large-format cameras indicated that it had not. Thus began a quest which has become ever more fascinating; namely the pursuit of full-color panoramic landscapes which contain prodigious amounts of information. Early on, the goal was set at 1,000 megapixels. However, as technology has advanced, the bar has been raised to 4,000 megapixels; a figure that we expect to reach within the next several months. At this level, a real-world 90-degree panorama would need to be searched with 12X tripod-mounted binoculars before one could hope to accumulate an equivalent amount of information. Unsurprisingly, a host of problems have been encountered along the way. But the results have been spectacular. And so, the fascination continues.

iPod eBooks Creator

2005-02-07T16:27:00.000+13:00

iPod eBooks Creator - convert books (text files) into notes on iPod, notes e-books Apple iPod notes, plain text files conversion to notes Apple iPod txt

Well, I've decided it's only a matter of time before I succumb, so here's a possibly handy addon. What we need right now is an iPod emulator to try this stuff out...

Bill Gates: Genius?

2005-02-05T16:29:00.000+13:00

It's a slow connection day today, so I'll write instead of read. What's with this legend that states that Bill Gates is some kind of genius? I know that he's disgustingly rich — so he obviously has some business savvy — but to hear him talk...

Last week he was being interviewed on the BBC's Click Online. The questions were the usual ones you hear when someone is interviewing the world's richest dweeb; only slightly challenging so you'll stay on the list. You know the drill. What struck me was that I'd seen Bill Gates interviews before — dozens of them over decades, and nothing about what he has to say has changed at all.

He doesn't really answer questions at all; he has a set of about ten statements that he's learned by rote. When he's asked a question he chooses one of the statements as a reply. When it's a question he's never heard before: he looks slightly pissed off, pouts, then he once again chooses one of the ten statements as a reply.

The statements go along the lines of: "I'm glad you asked me that. At Microsoft we're having a lot of fun coming up with new ways to satisfy the changing needs of our customers, and it's a really exciting time we're living in right now — blah blah blah..."

Does he ever say anything that makes you sit up straight? Anything that makes you think, or cringe, or laugh; or even just say, "Ah hah!"

Steve Jobs is a natural. Larry Ellison is a loose cannon. Both of them are obviously bright sparks. I don't see any sparks coming from Bill Gates; to me, he's more in the mold of George W. Bush — a heavily coached buffoon. Only pure power drives his mystique, and celebrity. So what's the origin of that power. Is that power the result of genius, or the wildest stroke of luck...

Strange, but Sadly True

2005-02-04T18:08:00.000+13:00

According to a local newspaper, numerous complaints were received after a Fear Factor themed day of activities was held for local children — bored with their summer break. It transpires that offal was used to liven things up; during the relay race, chicken necks were used instead of batons, and fondling animal guts was one of the How Squeamish are You challenges.

The organizers said they didn't expect any negative reaction — they had prepared by researching whether any of the animals used were sacred to any of the ethnic groups participating, and besides, they had a clearly marked chill-out corner prepared for any children who took offense.

This is like some kind of Curb Your Enthusiasm episode (maybe I should pitch it?) The thing that made me laugh out loud was the idea of a chill-out corner. I could just imagine a group of lesbian activity organizers armed with clipboards and ring-binders, standing in an empty field and deciding, "The chill-out corner can go over there, under the trees..."

The Ugliness is Behind Us

2005-02-04T13:08:00.000+13:00

Engadget

From HP — the company with no apparent design coherence at all — an upcoming PDA phone that's totally inoffensive (if you're into that whole Treo slash Blackberry kind of thing)...

eMac — Two Weeks In

2005-02-04T01:14:00.000+13:00

Two weeks into eMac ownership and the sheen has worn off.

Well, no. I'm lying.

I'm still getting a kick out of using it, and discovering new features all the time; like how I can plug my PowerShot camera straight in without installing any additional software, and like how I can use the Summarize feature of TextEdit to strip all of the white space out of a pasted web article.

Two weeks in, and I'm still blown away by the quality of the display. This is the first computer I've used where Times New Roman-style fonts actually look good on the screen.

Okay — it's not a complete love-fest; there are one or two minor issues I'd like to resolve:

I really appreciate how it only takes three seconds to sleep it and three seconds to wake it up, only every time it wakes the screen contrast is high and I then need to tap either F14 or F15 to have it remember how it was.
In IE6 I could easily look in the Temporary Internet Files folder and copy out any SWF or MOV files I might want to keep — I wouldn't have the faintest idea where Safari keeps its cache.
IE also had a feature where you hit F11 and it's full-screen; so did Outlook and Explorer. I really miss that.
Lastly, I cannot find a way to go on and offline (yes, I'm one of the few still using dialup) without using the mouse.

Minor issues like I said; they're not deal-breakers, just open items for now.

It's still early days...

Mac mini Quote of the Day...

2005-02-03T22:16:00.000+13:00

Technology Insider (divisiontwo.com)

So is the mini a maxi value? For me, clearly, no. When I consider that a good deal of my time is spent running applications like Disk Defragmenter, Scandisk, Norton AV, Windows Update and Ad-Aware--none of which are available for the Mac platform--it doesn't make sense for me to "switch" to a Mac at this time.

Phone that's a camera, or camera that's a phone?

2005-02-03T05:09:00.000+13:00

Korean Biz/Tech

Either way it's pretty gosh-darned cool. Is Korea the new Japan?

Pantech & Curitel will introduce the camcorder-like PH-L4000V mobile phone this February. Powered with a 2.1 million pixel camera, flash and optical zoom, the product can record camcorder-quality pictures and video clips. The unique design has eared the company an iF Design Award, the biggest design award in Europe.

Bentley Announces Flying Spur

2005-01-30T21:01:00.000+13:00

Bentley Announces Flying Spur (www.vwvortex.com)

Bentley Announces Flying Spur A little over two years ago Bentley Motors stunned the world by unveiling a Grand Tourer masterpiece, the Continental GT coupé. Now, only 12 months after the first deliveries of that extraordinarily successful car, we are proud to announce the arrival of the fastest four-door in the company’s history; a car that shares the heart and soul of the 198mph coupé from which it is born – the Continental Flying Spur.

I like this a lot! It's obviously reminiscent of the Continental GT, while while having the stately proportions required of a Bentley sedan...

Week with a Mac

2005-01-27T14:41:00.000+13:00

I have been using the eMac several hours a day for almost a week. It's time to stop playing and start talking about the experience.

First up: I'm having the time of my life. I chose the eMac over the other models because it fit my budget and needs -- I wanted an all in one to save on clutter, but the iMac was too pricey. The eMac isn't my favorite looking Mac but that's more than made up for by the quality of it's construction. It's simply stunning how well made it is; not a single flaw. Compared to PCs, Macs are expensive, but I've never seen any PC that impressed so much – before even switching it on! Even the keyboard is ultra-heavy, flex-free and stable -- even the shiny Apple logo on the front is optically perfect. The one button mouse drove me crazy so I substituted a Windows mouse that I had lying around. That works fine, but it sure looks suddenly ugly compared with the rest of the setup.

Using the thing.

It does take getting used to; like switching to a foreign car where the turn signal stalk is on the "wrong" side. Everything that I want to do – file management-wise – is still available but the more advanced features are more hidden, and the terminology is definitely different.

In Windows, if I attach my USB card reader then immediately another six drives appear in Explorer – nothing happens at all on the Mac. However, when I insert a card, there it appears as a new "Volume." It's the same with CDs and DVDs; the drive is invisible but the media appears.

The other interesting thing that took a little getting used to was the way applications are displayed; There's only ever one menu bar at the top of the screen that changes to reflect the application that's currently in focus. All too often I would close a window (thinking I'd closed the app) and go on and do something else while the app was still running in the background.

After a while I just figured, "What the hell," and left all the apps I normally use running all the time. Despite my initial reservations, this doesn't seem to slow things up at all. Right now I have Safari, Mail, iCal, Address Book, iTunes, Text Edit, Stickies and Photoshop all running in the background but with no windows showing. Marvelous!

Apart from Missing Sync (for talking to my Pocket PC) and Photoshop (which I'm still evaluating) I haven't needed to buy any software to cover my regular chores; all of the built in apps are really top rate (with the possible exception of Apple Works) which appears to have been ported from OS 9.

I don't think I'll ever get bored with how "posh" everything looks. Even formally crappy looking websites that I visit. All that blarney from Steve Jobs about how the people at Apple are "artists" seems to be true. It's like there's a tiny graphic artist with excellent taste inside the box who's redoing everything before you get to see it.

There are a few shortcutting programs that I had running in the background in Windows that I sorely missed at first; One was called Wonderful Icon for opening apps using the keyboard, the other was AutoCorrect Plus which would complete words for me. I haven't found any identical replacements, but I did find a real donationware gem called Butler that I'll gladly pay for. It's a system-wide menu, combined with a pasteboard, quick searcher, iTunes remote – you name it. It's absolutely freak'n brilliant! It's one of those super-flexible OS extensions (like Standalone used to write for the Newton) that really feels like it's only limited by your imagination.

One more thing to note before I finish up for today: In all of the past week – in all the playing and tweaking and installing this, that and the other thing – I haven't broken a thing. Not one frozen app or crash of any kind.

So, do I have any regrets? Not one. Am I impressed with the Mac? Can a duck swim?!? And this from the lowest-end model in the range (apart from the mini).

Now though, I'm lusting for a Powerbook – so I can take it everywhere with me...

Mac'd

2005-01-20T15:24:00.000+13:00

I am writing this blog entry in a semi-translucent sticky notes window on the screen of my new Mac. I couldn't wait for the new mini, also, I decided to pass on my PC to someone else -- so I'd be needing a keyboard, mouse and monitor. So now I'm sitting in front of a gleaming eMac.

Couldn't be happier. It's a little weird, but I was prepared for that. The relearning curve is so steep -- after years of Microsoft; I think the trick is to imagine I'd never sat in front of any computer before, and take it from there.

My initial impressions: Beautiful construction, Beautiful interface, almost silent...

Mac mini Inspiration

2005-01-17T09:24:00.000+13:00

Thinking about the Mac mini. Notice the use of lower case for mini. I'm not going to get into that; What I wanted to mention was the nagging feeling that the thing reminds me of something, and I don't know what it is.

I've already come across three other comenataries where they've asked: "What is it that this thing reminds me of." Be sure that in a few days someone will figure it out, and the mini will then be referred to as the (blank).

Just like the previous iMac was referred to as the anglepoise lamp and not the sunflower which apparently was its real inspiration -- and just as the iPod Shuffle will be referred to as the pregnancy test-kit instead of the stick of gum.

Back to the Mac mini, any guesses?

StatCounter

2005-01-15T22:13:00.000+13:00

StatCounter website

Thanks to Russell Beatie for the heads up. This is the best traffic tracker I've seen. Shows you where they came from, what they used etc, and it's free...

New Passat: "Fusion," or Confusion?

2005-01-15T07:53:00.000+13:00

VW Vortex (http://www.vwvortex.com)

The previous Passat was distinctive due to its predominantly convex design theme. That "puffiness" and deliberate lack of trim elements gave it that special hewn from solid Germanic character.

This thing retains none of that. This is more a grab-bag of Accura/Lexus/BMW design cues. It's all thin and wispy and concave. Head-on is its best angle; combining Phaeton and Audi A6 clues, then we swing round to the messy Accura "A" pillar/hood/fender junction -- from there on back we have BMW's disastrous theme of too many horizontal elements and "jaunty" kick to the rear doors.

All those character lines crash to a halt as we swing round to the back end which appears to be a morph of at least four different manufacturers. The rubbing strips have been reduced to nothing more than chromed trim tape. Inside... Aagh... Where do I start? The door trims look like the old PVC stretched and stapled over hardboard doors from the 'Sixties; the seats are from an Alfa; the wheel is from a Yugo; the top of the dash is draped over something else altogether. Mmm. Did I mention the Pimp my Ride wheels?

That's enough. I'm done. Rant over. (Mutter. Mutter. What were they thinking...)

Mac Mini Pictures: It's Like Déjà vu All Over Again...

2005-01-14T23:36:00.000+13:00

Am I the only one who's reminded of the original Mac when looking at these pics? Well, the first two inches of the original Mac at least. You have to squint to see it...

Maybe it's just late...

Two great quotes heard today:

2005-01-14T16:50:00.000+13:00

The only really successful example of convergence: The Clock Radio.

Macs are incredibly easy to use -- once you know how to use them.

Mac Mini thoughts Part 2

2005-01-14T01:16:00.000+13:00

What is happening to me?

I'm being swept inexorably into the Mac whirlpool! Although I'm a long time PC user, I've always been fascinated by the Mac world so I know more than a little bit about it. I also know that it's ridiculous to compare Macs and PCs spec for spec; you might as well try to argue a winner between gasoline and diesel, turboprop and jet, or PVR and DVD.

Better to simply consider: "What do you want to do and how do you want to do it?"

Now, my PC is showing its age. It's time for a replacement. Being the cheapskate that I am I'll keep the monitor, keyboard and mouse and replace only the box. I want the new box to be above all, tiny; quiet and beautifully finished. I want to write, communicate and blog. I want to edit photos and watch DVDs. I want to edit HTML and fly Flightsim. That's it. Oh, and sync with my Pocket PC.

Looking at the available PCs I see the Shuttle which is quite compact and quite well screwed together. It is more high end than I need though, and makes too much noise. And immediately -- there go my PC options. Everything else is shoddy to look at, or too bulky.

So what's the deal with the Mac Mini? Evidently it's as well made as everything else they make and I like its looks and size. I also hear that it's fairly quiet. I can migrate my jpgs, text files and music; and possibly my Outlook email archive. So that's my "stuff" taken care of. I recently discovered an app for syncing with the Pocket PC (see post below) so that's another thing checked off.

So what does that leave? Compatible apps and Flightsim. I'm going to flip over all the cards and say that Flightsim is not an option on the Mac. But -- wait a second -- I'll still have my old box. I can always drag it out for the four or five hours a month that I feel like flying.

See how I'm leaning now? The next quandary is what to do about stocking the thing with appropriate software. I'll need a text editor, spell checking, keyboard shortcutting, an image editor, a calendar, contacts, email, ftp... What? You're telling me that's all built in? (Well maybe not the ftp.)

Mmm. Now I've run out of excuses.

There's no turning back. I promise right now that I won't turn into one of those obnoxious sanctimonious Mac zealots (he says that now...) So, while I'm waiting for the Mac Mini to actually arrive, I'll keep myself occupied downloading Mac freeware to cover all the things I do now, but iLife doesn't. I'll also be at the Apple Store playing with the eMac which apparently is the Mini's close cousin.

Wish me luck.

More Arguments For:

2005-01-13T20:04:00.000+13:00

The distortion field is still in effect. Take a look at the interface. I just wish that the hardware leaned away from the white lucite, and more toward the brushed metal...

Another Player with No Display, Except the Time...

2005-01-13T15:42:00.000+13:00

Watch Report | Review of the nTren MP3 Watch

iPod CouldaBeen

2005-01-12T22:21:00.000+13:00

Cult of Mac

Mark/Space, Inc. - The Missing Sync for Pocket PC

2005-01-12T18:40:00.000+13:00

Mark/Space, Inc. - The Missing Sync for Pocket PC

Now I'm rapidly running out of excuses. See below...

Mac Mini thoughts

2005-01-12T18:19:00.000+13:00

I like it. Not only as a concept, but possibly for myself. I'm glad to see that although it's pitched as a low-cost Mac, it looks as well crafted as everything else in their lineup. I think I'd get a real kick out of having a small sleek looking box like that on my desk instead of the ugly black PC thing I've got now.

Having said that, I suspect I may be being swept along by the famous reality distortion field; this could be a slow – sexy looking box that I'll regret owning a few months down the road. Being the cheapskate that I am, I don't want to be forking out for go faster parts after the initial buzz has worn off. I really like the fact that so much software comes with it, but how much photo editing can I do with iPhoto, and can the pathetic video card handle DVDs and full screen Quicktime movies without stuttering?

Here are some other things I have no clue about:

Can a Mac handle a zip file?
Can a Mac play a Real Networks stream?
Can I rig my Pocket PC, or at least its SD card to sync with the Mac?
Is it noisy?
Will my PC keyboard emulate the Apple and Command keys?

I've hatched a cunning plan for when they make their appearance here in NZ. I'm going to take along my USB card reader loaded with a card that contains some hi-res images, zips and other such files and see how the Mac Mini handles them. If it takes 20 seconds to show an image because of the lack of video power and RAM then I've blown my price point before I even start.

I told you I'm a cheapskate...

Media Monkey

2005-01-11T20:14:00.000+13:00

Media Monkey Website (http://www.mediamonkey.com)

Now that I'm starting to get with the program and and I've started ripping music to my PC, I decided it was time to catalogue it. I found this app called Media Monkey. The screenshot above is abviously squashed up to fit in this column, but you get the idea; it allows you to view your music files a million different way by accessing and showing the tags. You can also burn to CD; rip from CD; copy to mobile device etc.

It works just fine, and looks quite cool, however it saps the resourses of my ageing box more than a little. Still, it's probably the only viable iTunes alternative that'll run on 98...

Combination Tablet PC and Pocket PC

2005-01-10T21:35:00.000+13:00

Here's an idea right off the top of my head: A Tablet PC that has a Pocket PC inside it. The Pocket PC would be the phone version with bluetooth and wifi. When it's inside the Tablet, the Tablet would share those features. So, you're walking around using the Tablet and you can make and receive calls and check your email using the Pocket PC's cellular; that is if you're out of range of anything cheaper.

They would be continually syncing when joined so at any time you could whip out the Pocket PC and go lite -- still with all your stuff. I think this device -- along with a dock to provide a proper keyboard, mouse and monitor when you're at home -- would be pretty darned cool.

It's not quite the Savi setup, but it could be available sooner, rather than later...

Prelude to Podcasting

2005-01-10T20:37:00.000+13:00

I don't mean to blow my own trumpet, but -- toot toot!

Let me tell you why I'm so chuffed: I recently downloaded a podcast from a respected fellow who was detailing how he goes about making podcasts; I know it sounds a little geeky, but I was interested to know what sort of equipment he used.

Before his voice even got to a PC it went through a very expensive suspension microphone, then through two black boxes that filtered the clipping and background noises before being recorded into a compact flash digital audio gizmo.

Well, I thought the audio quality of his podcast was pretty good, and I wanted to have a go myself with the editing app he recommended, but I don't own a microphone. Then I remembered the teeny weeny hole in the top of my Pocket PC that's a mike for recording voice notes, so I figured I'd have a play with that.

After adjusting the gain to the highest quality settings, I recorded ten minutes of blurb onto my SD card and popped it into the PC.

Wow. I could not get over how good it sounded. Crystal clear, with virtually no hiss or background noise.

I wasn't sure how to get the sound from the pwi file into Audacity so I just imported it as raw sound and it worked perfectly. I then used the default Normalize and Amplify settings and exported it as a rather low bitrate mp3.

To my ears it sounds even better than the file that prompted this project. I feel I'm ready right now to start making podcasts; all I need is something to talk about!

So if you have a Pocket PC (mine's an HP 1910) record a voice note and play it back on your PC. The speaker on the PDA doesn't really do it justice...

BenQ Pocket PC Phone

2005-01-07T23:48:00.000+13:00

When will it End?

2005-01-07T23:26:00.000+13:00

Auckland in Summer. Rain Rain Rain. It's like in The Illustrated Man when he finds himself on that planet where the rain never stops...

I've got a new theory about the seasons. I'm surprised I never noticed it before:
It rains just as much in Summer as in Winter. It's just not as cold...

An Ugly Brick with a Spectacular Screen

2005-01-05T01:09:00.000+13:00

HP iPAQ hx4700 Review

I handled an HP HX4700 today. Just briefly -- I don't like the case or the touchpad idea, or the price of this thing. But the display is SPECTACULAR!!!

You have no idea how good it looks until you see one in the flesh. This is the best display I've seen -- on anything! Let alone a PDA. This display on a thumbwheel-controlled phone edition would be the ultimate (now, erase from mind and get back to 240X320).

PDA Navigation Brainwave

2005-01-04T13:06:00.000+13:00

Under the left thumb there's a press to click thumb wheel with a home button above it and a back button below.

Clicking the wheel reveals a base menu arranged down the left hand side of the screen. Hilighting an item automatically shows a sub-menu and clicking the wheel moves into that menu.

All apps would be full screen. Apps would be smart enough to stay in the last menu as required. System wide and user defined menus would always be available from the root.

Numbers and auto completing words would also be accessible with the wheel. A touch strip could be used instead of a wheel. The response must be instant; no special effects!

A hot corner at the top left of the screen would enable pen input. Click and hold followed by a turn of the wheel would step through the running apps. Turning without clicking beforehand would scroll through the current app.

Just When Subaru Got it Right... This Monster!

2004-12-29T09:59:00.000+13:00

AutoWeek - The Auto Enthusiast's Online Resource

A Working Watch This Time...

2004-12-23T22:04:00.000+13:00

Omega Speedmaster (http://www.omegawatches.com)

This one not only runs, you can click the buttons to use the chronograph!

ClockLink.com

2004-12-23T09:58:00.000+13:00

ClockLink.com (http://www.clocklink.com/)

What do you think of the clock? I discovered it when visiting Technology Futurist and clicked through to get one of my own...

From the "Is It Just Me?" Department

2004-12-19T21:07:00.000+13:00

Engadget is a pretty good site if you like to read the latest snippets on gadgetry; it wins all the awards and gets all the press. My gripe with it is this:

It takes FOR EVER to load! I mean, F O R E V E R !

It's not just a "don't tell me you're still on dialup" thing either. Gizmodo has about the same content on each page and loads in a tenth of the time. What's worse -- there's nothing to look at while it's loading. No placeholders for the images so you can at least be teased by the text, nothing but grayness for what seems like an eternity.

And thirteen meg podcasts that talk aimlessly about next to nothing? C'mon guys. Tighten it up a little...

A Big Ship

2004-12-19T20:52:00.000+13:00

A big ship arrived in Auckland Friday morning. I don't know the name of it; it's probably the Something Princess (they invariably are). Anyway, it was due to arrive at 8:00 that morning so I went down to Devonport at 7:00 to see that it was already across the harbor being tied up. I dashed down to Stanley Point and got this rather lame shot.

I think if I wanted to really relax on a criuse I'd like the thing to be a little less top-heavy looking...

Sexy Sony Phone

2004-12-14T01:09:00.000+13:00

Sony Ericsson Z500a

Click through to the "Try The Phone" section while you're there...

Wacky Screwball Comedy, Toyota Style

2004-12-05T19:31:00.000+13:00

I don't know. What with all this white earbud -- glowing blue -- soft cornered -- Mac inspired stuff going on. It all seems a little, gay...

Yes, But What Does it Sound Like?

2004-12-02T09:18:00.000+13:00

BBC NEWS | Magazine | Sound of music

When did you last read anything about an MP3 music player that mentioned the quality of the sound it reproduces?

Finally. A Keyboard I can Use

2004-12-02T01:30:00.000+13:00

I really like this idea, being continually frustrated with predictive text and so on. It's an LG phone and I sure hope we see them here.

Just in... A Real Digital Rangefinder

2004-11-27T03:01:00.000+13:00

http://www.luminous-landscape.com

One of my wishlist cameras was the Leica/Panasonic that was fashioned on the classic Leica rangefinder range; that is, until I saw one in the metal and plastic. The whole idea of a rangefinder camera is the great view you get through the optical viewfinder. The Leica/Panasonic doesn't have an optical viewfinder. Added to that, IT'S HUGE!

This isn't huge. It has an optical viewfinder, and all of the displays are mechanical analogue. Heaven. Now, I must go back and read the test. Hope it's as good as it looks...