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Wednesday, September 29, 2004

SanDisk Ups Ultra II Line, Including 8GB CF Card

Oh yeah! 

sandisk-ultra-CF-8GB.jpg imageSanDisk makes the future all futurey with the announcement of capacity upgrades across its entire Ultra II flash memory product line. Top end SD cards now will now max out at 2GB of storage, Memory Stick PRO at 4GB, and new CompactFlash cards at a whopping 8GB. Granted, they're a little on the pricey side, but I really don't think paying $1,000 or so for a single 8GB CF card is that bad.

SanDisk Leapfrogs Competition – Quadruples Top Capacity of Its High-Speed Ultra II Flash Memory Cards [ChaitGear]


[Gizmodo]

Gnomedex 4.0 schedule in Outlook!

Hey guys!  Some dude who is going to Gnomedex put all the scheduled items into Outlook and is sharing the pst file.

 

Here is the link.

http://www.blueneedle.com/wordpress/archives/2004/09/28/gnomedex-schedule-as-outlook-pst/

 

Stream MP3s from your PC to your Sprint phone

This looks neat… J 

Samsung MM-A700

We have a funny feeling that the people at Sprint aren’t going to be thrilled to hear about something that’ll suck up so much bandwidth on those “unlimited” PCS Vision data plans they offer (which are really only unlimited if you don’t start using up inordinate amounts of bandwidth), but a company called Quadline is offering a little software app called Catahoula Streaming Audio that’ll let you stream your MP3 and WAV files directly from your PC to your PCS Vision-compatible Sprint cellphone (note that it doesn’t work with any of the Sprint phones that run on the Palm or Pocket PC operating system).


[Engadget]

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

The Israeli skunk bomb

5 YEARS?!? 

Israel defence forces

We’re all for non-lethal weaponry, and we’re not the only ones who found it pretty encouraging when the hardcore Israel Defense Force start developing things like rubber-bullet guns (pictured right). But you’ve really got to feel for those rock-wielding rioters when they bust some worse-than-lethal non-lethal weaponry, like, say, the ultimate stinkbomb. The IDF is touting a synthetic skunk-spray odor-mortars, which admittedly doesn’t sound so bad until you find out that it’s so pungent that the stink stays on your clothes for 5 years. Remember, this stuff is way stronger than the real deal, which you’ve probably only caught whiffs of from a moving vehicle; we hear that few have had their faces doused with skunk-ass and lived to tell the tale.

[Via Near Near Future]
[Engadget]

Tuesday, September 21, 2004

VMware has ACE up its Sleeve

This kicks…  I signed up but don’t know if I will make it….   Maybe someone will put in a good word for me. J

VMware has announced a beta release of a new product dubbed VMware ACE that enables desktop IT managers to apply enterprise IT policies to virtual machines that contain data, applications and operating systems. VMware claims that ACE creates an isolated PC environment.
[BetaNews.Com]

Had to share this just because it made me smile.

Sing it with the Banana Phone song.

Fort Pickens drying up

It looks like the water is starting to go down a bit.



And folks can get between Pace and Pensacola again.

Component-style XM Tuner

This looks cool.  For the Media Center PC XM will be having streaming music later this year so that would do the trick. 

 xm

 

So we love our XM, we have one in the car as well as the portable boombox one. And while the boom box version is cool, it’s not sit-next-to-the-tv cool, which is why we’re full of stokedness at the news that  PolkAudio has released a componentstyle XM receiver unit, with the fancy fresh feature of being able to display channel number, artist name, and song title on your TV screen. We still wouldn’t mind seeing XM for the Media Center PC, it seems like a logical match.
[Engadget]

Monday, September 20, 2004

Blackout "D" shuts out Nashville Mustangs

The Daly City Renegades are undefeated!!!!
http://www.dalycityrenegades.com/
Site has sound so mute your speakers if you check it out at work.

My brother is number 97, second from the left and second row from botom.
To quote the team website:
Blackout "D" shuts out Nashville Mustangs 21 - 0 to win League Championship.

Washing Machine Reads Smart Tags on Clothing, Sends Emails

Hmmm.  This could allow us to find the rare and nigh un-catchable sock eater!! 

lg_washingmachines.jpg imageA new washing machine developed by the Dai Nippon Printing Company can read special smart tags on clothing and instruct the user the best method with which to wash the clothes. Not only that, but the LG-built unit can keep track of how many times a particular item has been washed, what material it is made out of, and can even send an email or SMS when your load of laundry is complete.

Read - Smart Tag Reading Washing Machine [I4U]
[Gizmodo]

TiVo Desktop 1.1 out

This is cool.  To bad it’s for Series 2 only. L 

I ran across a news item on DesignTechnica annoucing the TiVo 1.1 Desktop software for the PC, but the TiVo.com download site says the update came out last month.

Nevertheless, if you've got a standalone Series 2 TiVo with a network adapter attached, you can download these packages and stream music and photos to your TiVo for free, since TiVo stopped charging for the Home Media Option months ago.
[PVRblog]

Ivan Update

Ivan Update

Well, lots of news to talk about. John “Noggin” Butler and family have power again. John said that the power was from a nearby plant that generates its own power. There were crews going down Bell Lane fixing things up until 6:30. My mom said that there were crews out late in her neighborhood as well. Most of all the trees have been cut up and should be hauled out this week. My Aunt Vicky drove down from Huntsville with supplies and most importantly, a battery powered inverter. J They are hoping that there will be power later today. My Grandma Mo’ is doing alright. Her house wasn’t hit as bad as we first thought. Seems there is a tree leaning on the house but it doesn’t look like it pierced the roof. They were going to try and get to it today and assess the damage.



If you have not seen any of the pictures, take a look at these.

Fort Pickens

More of Fort Pickens. The small line at the top is the beach wall which usually has a beach on the other side of it…

Access road to Fort Pickens.



The Pensacola News Journal web site is where these came from. They have over 300 photos of the area. The damage is just devastating.

http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com

Friday, September 17, 2004

Pensacola News Journal

The local Pensacola Newspaper has up-to-date information about the local area. I was not able to grasp the devistation until I came here. Pensacola is trashed....

http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com

Family doing ok

Well, so far I have heard from everyone except Taryn, Jeane and my Grandma Mo'. Everyone is going ok for the most part. Noggin's new house had a close call with a tornado but only lost part of the fence around the pool and a few trees. Same with my grandparents house. Some trees down. No one has power and if they have water, it is a slow trickle. Be praying for them as most of Pensacola is destroyed.

Bill called me and said that Jim and family are doing ok. A look at the Technodaddy site tells me the same. http://technodaddy.com

Thursday, September 16, 2004

Increase iPod battery by 70%

Hey you iPod fans. This might be worth checking out. 

70 percent moreIt was nice of Apple to up the battery life on the new iPod to 12 hours from the sorta dismal 8 hours of juice the earlier ones got, but if you’re not quite ready to drop $300 or $400 to upgrade, NewerTech has a new replacement battery for first and second generation iPods that adds an extra 70% of battery capacity. The iPod originally came with a 1230mAh rated battery, while this Ultra High Capacity version tops out at almost double that, 2100mAh. Easily worth the $40 if it’s really that good.

[Via PowerPage]


[Engadget]

Hitachi bringing out new 100GB Travelstar laptop drives

Oh baby!  This would rock! 

Hitachi Travelstar

Just like clockwork Hitachi Global Storage Technologies says they’ll have a new 100GB version of their 2.5-inch Travelstar laptop drive out sometime before the end of the year. Seagate, Toshiba, and Fujitsu have also been ramping up production of 100GB laptop drives, so expect a flood of laptops with these in a few months.


[Engadget]

XM to Start Internet Radio Service

This is cool, but it would be better if they let current subscribers have the internet feeds for no extra cost.  I mean come on…  How are they going to know if I give my username/password to 5 people? 

xm_sat_logo.jpg imageXM Radio has announced their intention to market their own internet radio station, rebroadcasting (or simulcasting, I guess) the 200+ channels of music that XM subscribers now receive for $8 a month (or $4 if you already get the satellite service). Their intention to launch their own internet radio station clarifies their highly-antagonistic attitude towards the time-shifting software TimeTrax, as well as their decision to remove the USB-enabled version of their radio from the market.


[Gizmodo]

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

Kryptonite Evolution 2000 U- Lock hacked by a Bic pen

Wow.  I watched the video and it’s true.  If you use a bike lock, make sure it’s not this one as folks who didn’t already know about it do now… 

lock vs pen

Much to our surprise, we were able to hack our Kryptonite Evolution 2000 U- Lock with a ballpoint pen. This $50 lock is supposed to be one of the best for “toughest bicycle security in moderate to high crime areas”—unless the thief happens to have a Bic pen. We used to use these to lock up our bicycles, but we’re switching to something else ASAP. (Oh, and just to be trite, the pen is mightier than the lock.)

Click here to watch the video (WindowsMedia)

[Via Metafilter]
[Engadget]

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!

Yes, thats an antenna.

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Monday, September 13, 2004

iVan

Hehe.  This is just too funny. 

iVan

At least some folks are finding some humor in the seemingly endless wrath that Mother Nature has been bringing down on Florida lately:

Welcome to yet another hurricane, 145+ winds. Can ruin Mac, PC and iPod. The new Hurricane iVan.


[Engadget]

Broadcast flag coming in 10 months

I don’t do HDTV yet but I may just buy a card “just in case”… 

Here's a great visual reminder that you won't be able to build a linux-based HDTV personal video recorder after July 1, 2005, thanks to the broadcast flag.

Remember, if you wanted to make a computer-based PVR of your own, better buy that HDTV card before July 1st.
[PVRblog]

Friday, September 10, 2004

Vodafone Personal Assistant III (VPA III)

Ahhh, what a thing of beauty.  This is the one I want. 

vodafone_vpaiii.jpg imageVodafone has met the call of the XDA IIs with a Windows Mobile smartphone of their own, called the Vodafone Personal Assistant III, or VPA III. And the best bit of news? It's a quad-band, so it should be a mail-order lover candidate if you find its built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, SDIO slot, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and VGA camera appealing. If those specs sound at all familiar, it's probably because they are almost the same as the XDA IIs and the T-Mobile MDA III, as well. In fact, I'm pretty much losing all ability to discern one of these things from another, which will probably become even more obvious when someone tells me what other Pocket PC phone this VPA III should be reminding me of. (Probably the MDA III; the keyboards are almost identical.) (Thanks, Robert!)

Read - Vodafone launches Windows Mobile VPA III [InfoSyncWorld]

Related
XDA IIs, IIi [Gizmodo]

T-Mobile Germany Takes Wraps Off of MDA III
[Gizmodo]
[Gizmodo]

Thursday, September 9, 2004

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!

I found mark's new bike.

Hitachi SANRISE 32 Petabyte Array

Now I know what I would buy if I won the lotto!!!  1 Million Dollars will get you 32 Pedabytes!!!! 

hitach_20PB.jpg imageThe image at the right might remind you of good ol' HAL from "2001: A Space Odyssey." And if you replace "sociopathic murder man tendancies" with "giant storage array" you'd almost be right by saying it is HAL. Well, and it's sort of stupid, I guess. This analogy is falling apart.

What you're looking at is Hitachi's new "SANRISE Universal Storage Platform" high-end storage system. Not a typo. Now I will try and melt your brain with overwhelming technical details.


[Gizmodo]

Wednesday, September 8, 2004

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!

Katie wanted to get in a basket...

NASA's Genesis Capsule Crashes

Dang, talk about screw-ups! 

A capsule carrying samples of solar wind was to be plucked out of midair by a helicopter, but its chutes apparently malfunctioned. Amit Asaravala reports from Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah.


[Wired News: Top Stories]

Whirl-A-Drone

I don’t know why, but this made me laugh hard…

 

I have this mental picture of Osama running for his life while a flock of these things are chasing him around a corner…. Only to run into one coming the other way. J 

whirl1.jpg imageOur buddy Noah at DefenseTech points out a new unmanned flying drone that is sure to be darkening the skies over all the most fashionable warzones of 2014, this time using the power of whirling. Looking somewhat like a rotor that's lost its helicopter, the "Whirl-A-Drone" (just Whirl to its friends) is a twenty-foot automaton that will be able - assuming the upcoming open air flight tests give the Pentagon reason to fund more development - to hover in place for up to four days at a time.

Of course, even without on-board weapons, the Whirl-A-Drone should be a pretty decent threat deterrent in and of itself. Nobody wants a 20-foot spinning blade to come threshing out of the sky to greet them. It's lawnmower diplomacy!

Read - WHIRL-A-DRONE BEGINS TO SPIN [DefenseTech]

Related
Drones Archive [Gizmodo]
[Gizmodo]

Incoming

This looks neat.  I didn’t even know that we sent anything to the sun.  I hope it all goes well.  Oh, and you can watch it all on Live NASA TV

If you live in certain western states, you might be able tosee the Genesis fireball in the sky this morning.
[The Doc Searls Weblog]

Tuesday, September 7, 2004

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!

Girbils

Flickr

I saw this while looking at Jeremy Zawodny's blog  and signed up.  This is a neat tool, not only to store photos but to make a personal moblog on your own blog server.  So now I have an rss feed of my moblog and posts go right on my main site too. J

 

My pics are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/pjmorr/.  For now I only have two photos but I will import the rest later.

 

Oh and this will come in SOOOOO handy at Gnomedex. J  I am going to use the HECK out of it so get ready.

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!

Cup

Dell Smartphone Next Year?

This is noteworthy.  Dell is usually late to a market and when they do make something it usually starts a price war. J 

dell.jpg imageBrighthand is reporting that Dell may be considering entering the consumer cellular market next year, citing an anonymous source that works with Dell. It's funny, but whether or not you find this notable can probably be determined on how you frame this news. "Dell building cellular-network PDA hybrid," doesn't really give anybody a softie. "Dell to Launch a Mobile Phone," sounds a lot more interesting. Let's work with that.

It's unknown if this device will actually be a more phone-like device, like say the Treo or any of the Windows Smartphone handsets, but it is reported to have a small keyboard in place of a numberpad, and come in both GSM and CDMA versions.

Read - Dell's First Cellular-Wireless Device Expected Next Year [Brighthand]

Related
Dell PDA Archive [Gizmodo]
Smartphone Archive [Gizmodo]
[Gizmodo]

Samsung Shows Off "World's First" Hard Drive Phone

Ohhhh boy. J  Just when you think the perfect phone is out there…  You find another one. 

Unveiled yesterday in Japan, Samsung has shown what it claims is the world's first mobile phone that incorporates a hard drive.

The SPH-V5400 includes 1.5GB of hard disk storage as well as an FM radio, 64-voice polyphonic ringtone support, a 240 x 320 display and TV output preparing the way for the day when mobiles incorporate Microsoft Portable Media Center-style functionality.

When the SPH-V5400 goes on sale in South Korea later this month, it will retail for around $800.

View: More Information



Read full story...


[Neowin.net]

Monday, September 6, 2004

Newsweek: Netflix and TiVo to announce partnership, offer downloadable movies

This is cool but not the first ones doing it.  My BeyondMedia software has built-in access to download movies.  I haven’t tried it yet but it does seem nice.  The thing I like the best is the live365.com music. 

040903_netflix_vl.vmediumTomorrow's Newsweek carries a story about a new Netflix/TiVo partnership that sounds perfect for anyone that has a subscription to both TiVo and Netflix.

Subscribers who belong to both services will be able to download their Netflix DVDs over the Internet directly into the TiVo boxes in their homes, instead of receiving them in the mail.

There aren't many details, but the article makes it sound like the downloading and viewing will be instant when even on a good fast cable modem, it's likely a ~700Mb DivX encoded movie would take around an hour to download for viewing. Still, it beats having to wait several days for discs in the mail and having to return anything.

I'm curious how TiVo will be able to do this, given that it's likely to cut into movie studio profits from the sale of DVDs to home customers and video stores. Will Netflix be required to only allow x number of copies of a film downloaded, where x equals the physical DVDs they have purchased? Will they only let you have another movie when you delete the film off your TiVo?

And I hate to be an asshole that goes around saying "I told you so!" but I did float this idea two and a half years ago. I really wish my DirecTiVo could do this, because this feature alone would turn me back into a Netflix customer. It definitely sounds like a win-win for both companies, especially since just about everyone I know that has a TiVo also has a subscription to Netflix.
[PVRblog]

Sunday, September 5, 2004

How to Enable web based viewing and remote control over your Tivo.

Looks kind of neat but after all that is done… BeyondTV still works a bit better and doesn’t have a recurring fee.  Given time though, there could be a more streamlined way to do this. 

tivo_web_example"How to Enable web based viewing and remote control over your Tivo" is a geeky guide to controlling and streaming your TiVo from a website. It involves hacking together an IR remote that can be remotely controlled, and combined with output sent to Quicktime's streaming server, it certainly looks like a plausable way to do intranet sharing of your TiVo.

After getting it to work with a handful of simple parts, the author reports that internet viewing was possible, at 10 frames per second, and even possible on his phone when the stream was reduced to 3 fps. It mentions that there is a 10-15 second lag when controlling it remote, which would make surfing through TiVo menus time-consuming and tedious, but once video is streaming, it sounds like a great hack. Also, the coolest thing about the use of IR blasters is that it'll work with any TiVo, including new ones. [thanks George]
[PVRblog]

Friday, September 3, 2004

Bold New World for Bald Mice

 This makes me remember that Armageddon!!!! story and that made me laugh. J

Scientists find a way to grow hair follicles on furless mice using stem cells. Now, they hope to extend the research to humans. By Kristen Philipkoski.


[Wired News: Top Stories]

Thursday, September 2, 2004

Organic Computing

Healthy?!?  Have you seen the studies on how nasty a normal keyboard is?  I could eat out of my toilet and be safer…. 

 

Now, suddenly, I am not hungry…

Prolonged_Inactivity.jpg imageSomehow I think I could have told him that Chia + Keyboard == Sadness. Still, an entirely more healthy keyboard chow than most programmers subsist on. (Thanks, Gysh!)

Look - Slightly Larger Pic [Gizmodo]


[Gizmodo]

Windows Media Player 10 Released

Wow, hot off the press.  I checked out the page at 8:00 this morning and it was still showing the beta…  They must have waited for 9. J 

Microsoft has officially released Windows Media Player 10 onto their website. You can download it via the link above, site is a bit slow at the moment thought.


[ActiveWin.com Headlines]

More Hands-On With the iRiver PMC-100

Amen to that!  If Tivo would make a portable media player that would allow you to pull shows off your main Tivo I might buy a new Tivo and ditch BeyondTV….  Well, ok, so that’s a lie.  But it would be cool. J 

iriver_pmc_ak5.jpg imageSorobanGeeks got their hands on the iRiver PMC-100 series, the Microsoft Portable Media Center player that's expected any day now in stores. They also had a short sit down with the Vice President of iRiver's parent company, who seems to have a real hard on for Microsoft in the upcoming portable player wars, because the "PMC OS will work in total harmony with the future operating systems of Microsoft." I suppose that's true in a sense, but I still think that until someone can provide plug-and-play functionality, be it Big M or someone else, none of these players are going to be widely adopted. They're just too big of a pain to use.

You know who should make a portable media player? TiVo.

Read - iRIVER Press Conference... 1ères photos live de leur PMC !!! [PMW.SorobanGeeks]
[Gizmodo]

Wednesday, September 1, 2004

Get ready for Frances

I found a pretty cool place to find moving graphics for Hurricane Frances.

 

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/2004/FRANCES_graphics.shtml

 

I sure hope this one misses Florida, but it’s beginning to look like it’s headed right for it. 

Talking Free, Wirelessly: Hacking the Registry to Use a Bluetooth Headset

I had the posted a while back but when I went looking for it, I could not find it.  So.. Here we are again. 

Pocket PCs and Bluetooth headsets do not have a symbiotic relationship. Most Pocket PCs are not intended to work with a headset, so most people assume that it can't be done. Fortunately for us, most people are wrong.
A company called Widcomm provides the Bluetooth radio stack for the majority of Pocket PCs, and rather than making separate stacks available for each different device on their client list, Widcomm allows functionality to be...


[Pocket PC Thoughts]

HP iPaq h5455 update

I just discovered that there is an update to the fingerprint software on my iPaq.  I figured I would update everyone. J

Important Note!

 

 

 

  • This Fingerprint Software update does not change the software version found by pressing Start, Settings, System, and then Asset Viewer. To confirm
    that the Fingerprint Software update was successfully installed, check the software version found by pressing Start, Settings, Personal, and then Password.

 

 

 

 

 

Fixes

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Corrects issue with the password setting "Prompt if device unused for" so it does not default back to one hour when changed.

 

 

 

 http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/HandheldiPAQ/us/download/21671.html