I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a Nokia 770 Web Tablet. This thing looks like it could be the ultimate web appliance, not only for portable applications, but for household uses. Being Linux-based with an active development community makes the possibilities for this device enormous.
We have an old iOpener set up on the kitchen counter, and I can't describe just how useful it is to have easy, semi-instant access to the web. We use it for lots of little things, like checking IMDB during movies, following sports scores, and of course, looking for cocktail recipes. 
The iOpener is getting pretty long in the tooth, however, so the Nokia 770 looks like an excellent and convenient replacement, especially if it retails at around the $350 price point.
On the portable front, I'm not sure if I would actually carry a 770 around with me. However, I can say from my experience with the Tapwave Zodiac that surfing the net with a combination of big-screen portable and a bluetooth cel phone is a very usable experience, much more so than using the crummy WAP browser on the cel phone itself. I love being able to compare in-store prices with amazon.com just by whipping out the Zodiac.
I can't believe Nokia doesn't have an IR emitter on the 770! With the prices of color touch-screen universal remotes like the Philips iPronto and the Home Theater Master MX-3000 being over $1,000, the 770 could have been the de facto high-end programmable universal remote. Maybe the very interesting Philips RC9800i will find success on the coffee table.
ThinkPads [thinkpadx40issues, thinkpadlenovoupdates, thinkpadreference, thinkpadx40] come pre-installed with a nifty little tray app called Access IBM Message Center. It periodically alerts users when important ThinkPad updates are available. Until this week, I hadn't received any notifications since Lenovo [lenovodeal, thinkpadlenovoupdates] officially took over the ThinkPad product line from IBM.
This week, the Message Center icon lit up with a notification that there was an important update for the Intel WiFi drivers. When I clicked the update link, the new Lenovo ThinkPad web site prompted me to launch the ThinkVantage Software Installer application. The Software Installer synced up with an updater web service and found a slew of new updates for my ThinkPad, ranging from device drivers, app software, and even a new BIOS. With a single hiccup (I had to run the app twice to get all downloads), the ThinkVantage installer automatically updated everything flawlessly.
Since I installed the updates, my ThinkPad has felt more responsive than before, and wireless connections are much more stable. I'm thrilled to see Lenovo providing the same amount of active support that made IBM ThinkPads legendary.
I finally got around to adding a blosxom plugin to my blog config that pings blog-tracking sites whenever I update an entry on http://www.mikeyp.com.
I'm using a slightly modified version of the ping_weblogs_com_xmlrpc plugin written by Tatsuhiko Miyagawa. I have it set to ping http://www.weblogs.com, http://www.technorati.com, and http://www.blo.gs.
The question is, why the heck did I bother with this? So far, the only thing I've noticed is that recent posts from my site have appeared on Google's Blog Search. I wonder when the comment spam will start rolling in… ![:-\](/images/blog_buttons/disappointed.gif ":-\"){kind=small}
The always reliable audiophile Bill Machrone has published audio benchmarks and measurements for the iPod nano ![[B0007Y798U]](http://www.mikeyp.com/css/external.gif)
on his Serious Personal Audio Site.
The verdict? The sound quality is not quite as good as the iPod shuffle [ipodshufflecar, ipodshufflesound], but is otherwise excellent. Quote: "The nano is a winner, and a more-than-worthy successor to the mini."
Side note: Although I think the black version of the nano looks much cooler than the white one, a few hands-on minutes revealed two key words about the black version: fingerprint magnet
After installing an OmniFi DMP-1 in my Audi A4, I noticed that that it was overdriving the CD changer input, giving me a slightly noisy sound floor and some noticeable overdrive (distortion) on loud audio tracks. I decided to try a couple of line-level audio attenuators to see if they would help.
I initially purchased the Peripheral Attenuator which is intended for use in car stereo installs. It is a single plastic box with RCA input and output leads. The Peripheral doesn't have any rated db reduction. Instead, it simply has two manually adjustable potentiometers (one for each channel). Because there was no reference for the adjustments, I set the pots at 50%. With this setting, it worked as advertised, reducing the output of the OmniFi and eliminating the overdrive. However, it also noticeably affected the sound quality. It seemed to suck the bass right out of the OmniFi, and slightly collapse the stereo separation.
I then ordered a pair of Harrison Lab 6 db Attenuators from Parts Express. What a difference. Rather than being adjustable, the Harrison attenuators are strictly rated at 6 db reduction (they sell other ratings too), and physically separated per channel. Each is a solid metal cylinder with an RCA male output on one end and a female input on the other. Like the Peripheral attenuator, the Harrisons eliminated the overdrive from the OmniFi, but were totally transparent in sound quality. Bass output and stereo separation are excellent.
Interested in finding a review of the audio performance for the new iPod Nano ? Good luck! As with most previous iPod releases, nearly every review for the Nano ignores the sound quality, and instead describes the "cool look", "pretty screen", and gushes about it being "soooo cool!" In the list of reviews tallied by Engadget, only a single reviewer actually measured the audio performance, and as usual, it was the reviewer from PC Magazine.
According to PC Mag, the iPod Nano has solid audio performance, though not quite as solid as the iPod Shuffle [ipodshufflecar, ipodshufflesound], as long as you don't over-boost the EQ. And as expected, the included Apple Earbuds should be replaced immediately with some Etymotics (which I highly recommend).
Even though my ancient 1st generation 10 GB iPod still works fine, I can't help but want to buy a Nano. It's just soooo cool! 
My old DOCSIS 1.0 cable modem can't keep up with the new high speeds on Comcast, so I decide to upgrade to a DOCSIS 2.0 modem. I chose the D-Link DCM-202. Compared to my old modem, it is super fast. I'm getting download speeds of well beyond 5 megabits per second (compared with a little more than 4 mbps on a good day with the old modem).
There is one caveat with the DCM-202: It requires a firmware upgrade in order to work with Comcast. For a technical person, the upgrade process was a hassle, but not impossible. However, I have no idea how a regular person could ever successfully upgrade the firmware.
Especially when the instructions are wrong.
Here are some critical additions to the incomplete firmware upgrade instructions:
192.168.100.2. In addition, you must set that same address to be your Default gateway (as shown). Thanks to a poster on dslreports.com for finding that.
admin, hitron after the upgrade. It is actually still dlink, dlink.Is the process worthwhile? Absolutely, if you want to get every byte that you are paying for.
Every once in a while, a respected (and occasionally legendary) singer grabs some popular music, sets it to his own style, and runs with it.
Today, that musician is Paul Anka. He's taken a… bizarre… collection of hit rock songs from the 80's and 90's and has done what he does best: make them swing.
If you can imagine an old white man with a martini and cigarette in one hand, snapping his fingers with the other as he smirks out Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun, well, this record is for you. And me.
At the Game Developers Conference earlier this year, a student handed me a production quality DVD case of the game Squirrel Squabble. This weekend, I finally had a chance to install and play the game, and I must say, it is a ton of fun. As a cross between old school action platformers and puzzle stacking games, Squirrel Squabble is easy to learn, nicely addictive, and has very good production quality for a student project.
Judging by the news on their web site, it looks like these guys are bound for success. Awesome.
Dear Apple,
Your Quicktime Player for Windows sucks.
Each time I upgrade iTunes, the Quicktime Player insists on installing a useless tray icon process, even though I disabled it in my previous configuration.
Randomly, the Quicktime Player pops a dialog asking me to "upgrade" to a "Pro" version of Quicktime. Why on earth would I want a "Pro" movie player application?
Frequently, when I launch the Quicktime Player app, a dialog pops up that looks like this:
This must be the least-informative error message ever created. Each button option does absolutely nothing but cause this dialog to reappear. Constantly. Repeatedly. Endlessly. The only way to get rid of this useless and obnoxious dialog is to kill the Quicktime process and delete every file in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\QuickTime. I write-protected the file QuickTimeFavorites.qtr prevent this error in the future. Fortunately, the Quicktime Player application is too dumb to realize this.
Did I mention that the excellent open-source media player mplayer [mplayer, mplayersilent] plays Quicktime files fine? Without errors? Without nagging upgrade dialogs?
Love,
MikeyP
If you run SSH to allow secure remote logins to your server, you've probably noticed a big increase in unauthorized attempted logins. My main Linux box at home has been "under attack" nearly every day for the past 9 or 10 months. There is an article over on whitedust.net describing the situation, with a follow-up link describing some security solutions.
Nearly all of the unauthorized login attempts are coming from IP addresses in mainland China. It is a really weird sensation to know that Chinese hackers are trying to log in to a computer right here in my home office.
My system hasn't been breached, as I disallow root-level account remote logins and restrict user-level logins to a single account. However, since it still sucks to see log files fill up with unauthorized login attempts, I reconfigured the public SSH port on my router to a rarely used port. That simple change has, so far, deflected any further attacks.
I'm still impressed with the Mandrake 10 Linux distro (now known as Mandriva). Previously, an install of Mandrake 10 brought an ancient K6-233 back to life for me as a security camera capture system. Alas, the summer heat finally fried the CPU in the K6. I grabbed (yet another) old machine from the closet, pulled the drive from the K6, stuck it in the other machine… and it booted fine. Mandrake automatically recognized its new home and preserved all of my configurations, even though nearly every piece of hardware was different.
Pretty impressive, especially if, like me, you're used to recompiling the Linux kernel each time you make a minor hardware change.
Microsoft Excel is an incredibly powerful and complicated piece of software. Even though I use Excel daily for a myriad of purposes, I'm still constantly learning new features and tricks.
O'Rielly's Windows Dev Center recently published a helpful article about Using Pivot Tables in Excel. The article is an excerpt from Excel: The Missing Manual , which, judging by the quality of the article, I must now purchase.
Who needs an external USB drive enclosure when you can have this?
Barebones USB-IDE Cable with Power Adapter
Update: Now I see that there are a few of these available.
There are several tax credits available next year for homeowners who upgrade the energy efficiency of their homes. I'm particularly interested in the $300 credit for a water heater upgrade. My water heater is likely 20 years old...
For some reason, I want this watch:
I have no real use or need for a watch that runs PalmOS , but I want it anyway. It runs an older version of PalmOS (4.1 instead of 5.2). It has a tiny gray-scale screen. There is no Bluetooth . It needs to be recharged every day. It is pretty darned big and clunky for a watch.
But it's a programmable computer. On a wristband.
I've gotta have it.
