February 2007

Bye-bye CompUSA

CompUSA is closing all but 100 of its stores (128 are closing), leaving only the Mt. Laurel location in NJ. Keep your eyes on your local store, as their inventory is being turned over for liquidation - there may be some exceptional deals.

Routers upgraded

I noticed that both TRENDnet and ZyXel had upgrades for their firmware available, so I upgraded both (actually all three, counting the offline ZyXel that I have). The TRENDnet user interface changed quite a bit - it looks much nicer now. However, the changes meant that the 'wan' script that I wrote needed an update. The script retrieves the information from the router and checks:

• Whether the IP addresses have changed, and if so updates the external DNS entries for my site,
• Whether the ISP DNS entries have changed, and if so updates my internal DNS,
• Whether anyone unknown (by MAC address) is connected to my wireless routers, and if so emails me.

The changes were relatively minor, as the information was on the same pages - they were just formatted differently. You shouldn't notice any change, but if you do, let me know.

Phone Fun

While playing around with the N800, I found that it provided access to two (empty) directories on my cell phone via Bluetooth: Audio and Pictures. I moved an MP3 from my laptop to the N800, then copied it to the cell phone. Sure enough, it's available as a ring tone! I copied a picture, and it became available as wallpaper! We set up our phones with our favorite songs and photos. Toys that play well with other toys are extra cool.

Breakthrough prosthetic?

 It has always bothered me. You've seen prosthetic hands before. They are clunky modified claws or hand-like devices that move in slow motion. It always seemed that these were devices designed by people in the medical field and not engineers (part of why I hold medicine at the same low level as voodoo).

Now, a company has developed a hand mechanism so life-like, it can play selections from Beethoven's "Fifth Symphony," Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer," or Chopin's "Minute Waltz". Wow! This thing must cost a million dollars, if it can restore such dexterity! No, it costs $17,  because it was made by a toy manufacturer. While my faith in human ability to overcome almost any obstacle is renewed, my faith in medical "science" is equally reduced. Maybe they could just license the toy and have the manufacturer replace the plastic parts with titanium?

As a side note, the image also reminds me of my favorite Outer Limits (original series) episode: "Demon with a Glass Hand."  

Visual Basic Now on Linux

As distasteful as Visual Basic is, it has been a sticking point for many companies trying to migrate to Linux. That problem no longer exists. The Mono project (basically an open source .NET) has announced that "it has developed a Visual Basic compiler that will enable software developers who use Microsoft Visual Basic to run their applications on any platform that supports Mono, such as Linux, without any code modifications."  The new VB compiler is available in Mono version 1.2.3. Most distributions will be packaging that for their next release - it's already in Fedora Core 7, which will be out in May. Ta-Da!  

Robot Chicken on Calvin and Hobbes

One of the funniest and most bizarre features ever on Adult Swim is Robot Chicken. One of my favorite segments from Robot Chicken is their take on Calvin and Hobbes.

Time Saver

New Critter in the Neighborhood

Barbara spotted a large bird sitting in a tree in the backyard, which turned out to be a young turkey vulture.  They are pretty big, with a body that will reach two feet and a wingspan of six feet (when fully grown). While I've frequently seen these guys about 50 miles north in the Clinton area, it's the first time we've spotted one here. When they are immature they still have feathers on their heads, which they eventually shed. I had only seen the adults before, so this smaller version with a different head took a while to hunt down in Google.

Publicly posted N800 reviews

I aggregated the information from my recent weblog postings on the N800 into reviews on Slashdot,  LinuxQuestions and Blogspot  - with all three pointing to a small Flickr photo album. This will allow any serious bandwidth reading (in case it hits Slashdot's front page, for example) to be handled by the respective sites. It will also allow the review to be indexed by the usual search engines.

N800, Part 4

I've been using the N800 long enough now to get a feel for its battery life. With the heavy use I've been giving it, a battery charge lasts just about what Nokia claims - 3 hours - with the WiFi and Bluetooth on. While you can extend that to 5-6 hours with the radios off (for example, watching a movie), you should expect to be charging the N800 daily. It is an Internet Tablet after all, and its primary functionality comes from connectivity. It would be nice if Nokia offered an extended life battery that replaced the back cover and matched the form factor. By increasing the thickness of the unit only about 50%, they could increase the battery life to several times the current limit..

Switching modes is straightforward; just press and hold the power button. A dialog pops up offering you the option to turn off the WiFi and Bluetooth radios, called offline mode. If you run any application that needs connectivity (like the browser), the unit will prompt you to exit offline mode. You can also lock the screen and buttons from this dialog, which is handy if you want to put the unit in your pocket and not have it power-up accidentally. To unlock, press the power button followed by the square center button on the cursor pad.

Some gripes, now that I have some experience with the N800:

The case that comes with the N800 is a soft eyeglass-like slip case. It's fine for preventing scratches, but something sturdier is needed to protect the unit when it gets thrown in a purse or pocket. Nokia has announced (but not yet made available for order at this time) a flip cover.  It's similar to the flip cover that the Palm Tungsten C has. It's not enough though for those that seriously use their device. It would be great if Nokia or one of the third-party case manufacturers provided a hard shell case.

The email program is very basic. It's OK for sending text messages, but you are better off with a web-based email account if you want to send or receive emails with images.

The web browser needs to remember the zoom associated with a web page, or at least with a bookmark. Either that, or allow setting a minimum font size (like Firefox). There's way too much zooming going on. While it is easy with the zoom in/out buttons, it's becoming intrusive. Switching between Boing-Boing, Slashdot and Fark requires hitting the zoom buttons two or three times on each page.

There's no way to "switch off" the unit, without shutting it down (which requires a 40 second boot). You should be able to just tell it to go to sleep, like a normal PDA. In its standby/lock mode, the display still powers up when you tap the screen or press a key. It times out and the display powers back off, but that shouldn't happen. It should just ignore everything until it receives the unlock sequence.

I've gotten used to being able to use my Zaurus in brightly lit areas (like full sunlight), thanks to its transreflective  screen. While the N800 has a much better screen (800x480 resolution vs. 320x240 on the Zaurus), the N800 screen washes out in bright light. That's true of most regular LCDs, but my Zaurus is almost 6 year old technology. Did they lose the recipe?

The software catalog for the N800 is too sparse. There are hundreds of thousands of Linux applications. Nokia needs a dozen folks assigned to the Maemo project to do nothing but port applications. There should be new useful applications daily from the vast pool of software. To an end-user, the available applications appear stagnant. To make the N800 attractive to non-software developers, the software must be available. To make developers interested, the environment must be useful and entertaining. Nokia needs to pay a small army to do the grunt work and kick-start the software catalog. Otherwise, there's a constant dark cloud of impending abandonment hanging over the environment.

N800, Part3

Today I installed xterm and SSH (both the client and server). This lets me use the N800 to connect to my home systems remotely. It also allows me to connect to the N800 remotely, useful for when you want to perform a large amount of text editing. Rather than use the on-screen keyboard (or carry a BlueTooth keyboard), you can use any desktop/laptop. For example, while browsing the N800 blogs at Maemo.org, I found an extended repository list, which makes getting new applications (some still in development) much easier - they all show up in the application installer. Rather than manually keying in a couple of dozen URLs, I just copy/pasted the list from my laptop web browser into an edit session on the N800.

I also came across the application wishlist in the Wiki, and added a request for a port of the IQNotes encrypting memopad application. This is an application I use regularly for storing private information on my Zaurus. My previous comment on the need for camera/snapshot and camcoder applications was already listed by someone else, as was a comment on the weak PIM applications.

I tried an experiment to see how small I could get a typical one hour (40 minute without commercials) TV program, while still having acceptable quality. I found that by setting the resolution to 400x240 with a video bitrate of 300Kb/s and 25fps, the image quality was good (like a VHS tape). I also reduced the audio to 16000Hz at 64Kbs, and surprisingly that sounded pretty good too. This reduced the size of a one hour TV program to 114MB, and doubled the encoding speed (only 19 minutes on my laptop)! With these parameters, a fully loaded (8GB) N800 can store about 70 "hour-long" TV programs. Take that Tivo!

In case you're wondering, the price of 4GB cards has dropped considerably recently, with the non-sale price about $40 for cards with good ratings. 

By the way, the method I'm using to move files to the N800 is via USB. The unit comes with a USB cable, and when plugged into a PC it appears as a storage device (one for each SD card). The N800 when connected this way essentially works like a flash reader, allowing you to move files easily back and forth. Unfortunately, the N800 can not be charged via the USB port, which means you'll need to bring the (small) wall wart charger with you when traveling.

N800, Part2

To answer the questions on the previous post:

1. The handwriting recognition is good, about as easy to use and reliable as on a Palm PDA. However, it doesn't use its own special characters like on the Palm - you just write normally. Barbara created a shopping list using the handwriting recognition, and it worked as expected. Even editing text was reasonably intuitive. For me, writing is harder than typing, so I personally wouldn't use it. Instead the built-in virtual keyboard is very good. You can click in any input field, and the keyboard pops up. There are actually two sizes - if you click with the stylus, a small keyboard appears, but if you click with your finger, a finger-friendly large keyboard appears. That was a nice touch (pun intended) that makes the interface very friendly.
2. The N800 accepts two full-sized SD cards (or mini/micro cards in a full-sized carrier). The 4GB SD cards have been confirmed as working correctly, so the total capacity is 2x4GB (8GB). As a point of comparison, the Zaurus I've been using (as well as Barbara's Palm) only has a 1GB SD - and that's plenty of room for hundreds of books, a few music albums, and a couple of TV shows. A one hour TV show takes about 250MB of storage, so 8GB is about 32 hours of (high quality) TV!
3. The stereo speakers are very good; the audio is better than I expected. I'm always amazed at the audio that comes out of the tiny speakers in modern electronics.

I loaded some additional applications:

1. FM Radio application: Excellent reception and quality, with a station forward/backward scan as well as manual tuning. You can assign any label to any frequency (for example, 'WMGQ - Magic New Brunswick, NJ'). The earphone cable must be plugged in to use the FM radio (it acts as the antenna), but audio can be played through the speakers even with the earphones plugged in.
2. GPE PIM: The GPE personal information management tools are not the best, but they provide basic calendar, todo list and contacts. I wouldn't use a separate PDA if I owned an N800, so these are essential.
3. FBReader: This book reader handles text, Plucker, HTML, Palm Doc, RTF, and Mobipocket book formats. This version doesn't have auto scrolling, but you can rotate the page and go fullscreen, which is very easy to read (with configurable fonts). There's a pre-installed reader for PDF files as well.
4. Media Streamer: An amazing application! This program connects to a UPnP Media Server, and can play music and video streamed from the server! On our Fedora Core 6 server, I installed the uShare media server (it's already in the Extras repository which is configured by default). Automagically, the media directory I configured on the server shows up, and I can play any of the music in our library, anywhere in range of our WiFi! Music, audio books and video on demand - very cool.
5. Maemo Mapper: If your cell phone has a GPS (or you have a standalone GPS receiver with Bluetooth - about $35 these days), this application turns your N800 into a "StreetPilot" - providing real-time directions with audio. This application alone would pay for the N800. The maps are freely downloadable - a much better deal than paying Garmin, Magellan or TomTom for updates!

I played with some of the included applications:

1. In addition the the above media streamer, there's also an Internet Radio player application. Many regular radio stations as well as some Internet-only stations stream their signal over the Internet. I tested that and it also works very well.
2. The RSS reader is simple, but great for keeping an eye on headlines.
3. There are a handful of games pre-installed, but many more are available for download. I need to get ShisenSho loaded.

I also encoded a video to test playback with the pre-installed media player. Some folks had indicated that playback could be jerky, but I suspected that was because the video hadn't been encoded properly for the device. Sure enough, playback was perfect. You just need to set your encoding for a resolution of 400x240 (16:9 widescreen aspect ratio) at a video bitrate of 600Kbps at 25fps with MP3 audio at 48000Hz sampling frequency, 128K bit rate, in stereo. Playback with these setting is indistinguishable from a high quality TV signal. The media player had no trouble playing the MP3s I loaded locally either.

I have found two gaps in the available applications that need to be addressed, both related to the video camera. While a video conferencing application is provided (using Google Talk or Jabber), there's no photo/snapshot or video recorder application. Since video already works, it seems that these would be trivial to create.

That's all for now!

N800 Arrived

The N800 arrived today! I was surprised by its size; I thought it was bigger from the images I had seen. Compared to my Zaurus SL-5500 PDA, its about the same size, but thinner:  

When I first powered on the unit, it started a first use wizard, that walked me though peering with my (Motorola) cell phone. I had never connected anything via Bluetooth, but the process was very simple. The N800 found my phone and offerred a PIN, which my phone asked for to authorize the connection. After enterring the PIN, the two were paired (able to communicate). The next step was connecting to my wireless LAN. The N800 showed four wireless networks (I had only known about one neighbor previously), and once I entered my key, the connection was established. Both processes were simpler than any wireless connection I had setup before.

Physically, the device is beautiful. The screen is sharp and clear, even with tiny text (and even without my reading glasses). I started the web browser, and had no trouble displaying my web log. What surprised me is the speed. This web log spikes the CPU on both my laptop and desktop, probably because of the CSS rendering. The N800 displays the page instantly. Very impressive.

My next test was software installation. Many folks remember the days of difficult software installation on Linux. While all modern Linux systems make software installation very simple (and provide attractive graphical interfaces), I was curious to see how the N800 handled this. I'm happy to say that installing software is just as easy - point and click:

I'll be posting more as I play with the unit, but my overall first impression is very positive. For the price of a middle-of-the road PDA, this is an amazing unit - and I've just scratched the surface of its capabilities!

N800 Shipped

I received shipment confirmation for the Nokia N800 I blogged about earlier.  The unit is being shipped from the UK, so it will likely take a few days. In the last few days, Nokia surprised folks by providing an FM radio function! The specs did not list an FM tuner, so this came as a shock. I wonder what else is hiding in there?

HD-DVD and Blu-Ray Fully Cracked

As something of a follow up to the previous posting, the encryption on Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs has been fully cracked, according to this article.  While a previous crack existed for specific titles, this new crack allows access to all titles. This means that Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs can now be copied as easily as regular DVDs. From the article:

"AACS took years to develop, and it has been broken in weeks. The developers spent billions, the hackers spent pennies."

You would have thought that people would have seen this coming after the encryption on regular DVDs was cracked. Somehow, the snake oil dealers still manage to convince content providers that while all previous schemes have failed, their newest scheme will work - for sure! Since the media must be decrypted before it can be viewed (we don't have chips implanted in our heads - yet), this will always be the case.

The current situation is now that the encryption will remain an annoyance to paying customers, but those that don't pay will be able to strip it off and do what they like. In other words, the media companies are rewarding folks for not paying them, with convenient easy to use media. How hard is it to understand this?

Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair has a rather lengthy and broad overview  of the current file sharing situation. Roll that around in your head... Vanity Fair. It doesn't get much more mainstream than that. The article itself is excellent covering many aspects: from Pirate Bay to MPAA, to the conflict between electronics manufacturers and content controllers. One quote stood out in my mind:

"Copyright is so incompatible with so many cultural and technological developments. This is going to be a growing problem for years ahead."

It's a good read if you've got a few minutes.

Stupid companies

You've probably read this story  by now, about Comcast Internet customers getting kicked off the service for downloading/uploading "too much" (an undisclosed value). Are companies run by retards? I'm not using "retard" in the derogatory sense, I actually mean people that are seriously mentally impaired (IQ below 70). I always thought that companies wanted to make money, but apparently, some companies have a goal of driving themselves out of business.

Here's how companies that want to make money deal with high usage customers when shared resources are involved... They charge! You don't see cell phone companies telling customers they are making too many calls. They tell their customers they are purchasing 'X' amount of a resource, and pay 'Y' for overages.

Similarly, the cable Internet companies should just state something along the lines of "you get 200GB down and 50GB up per month. If you go over that, you will be charged 50 cents per GB". See how easy that is? High usage customers pay for the resource they use, and the company gets more money to improve infrastructure. Companies can compete by offering more GB or reducing the overage charge. They can offer different plans, with different breakpoints and overage charge rates, just like cell phone companies. Simple, effective, profitable - not being done. Why do companies hire the mentally handicapped to set customer-facing policy?

Quote of the day

"I do not fear death, in view of the fact that I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it." - Mark Twain

RefreshBlocker

Have you ever gone to a web site and started reading something, when a few seconds later an ad, or survey, whatever comes dancing across the screen, blocking what you are trying to read? Well, if you are using Firefox, just install RefreshBlocker and you won't have that problem again. These sites use a special web instruction, called a META tag, to start a script after a short delay. Refresh blocker prevents that from happening unless you allow it - similar to the way Firefox's pop-up blocker works. Another reason to love Firefox.

eButterBug

For Xmas, I created a new bug sculpture for Tom. However, since he hadn't gotten out to visit us until today, I couldn't post pictures.  

The bug's body and wings are assorted integrated circuits, it's tail is composed of a pair of resistors, and the antennae are the read/write heads from a dead 2.5-inch notebook disk drive:

The "flower" stand uses the motor from the same 2.5-inch disk drive (allowing it to swivel), green and red wire nuts for the stem and petals, and a wooden dowel cap and LED for the center:

A single length of wire, with loops at the petal positions hold the stand together. As the wire nuts were tightened, they squeezed the dowel cap in the center, making it mechanically solid. Part of the fun in making these things is figuring out the mechanical construction. Of course, I've also got to figure out what to make from the parts I have on hand. At some point, after staring at a pile of parts for a while, the pieces come together in my head. I then try to recreate that with my hands, which has about a 1 in 3 chance of succeeding. When it "works" it's really satisfying.

GeekBrief - Linux Home Theater PC

GeekBrief.tv is starting a series on building a Linux-based home theater PC. The initial episode covers the case options they are considering. If you're interested in building your own HTPC (think super-Tivo), then you might want to keep an eye on the series.

I personally don't see a need for a HTPC, but some folks obviously prefer recording their own.

New Features in Beryl 0.2.0

We have the new version of Beryl - the 3D desktop for Linux - and it's really impressive. This has to be one of the fastest developing open source projects on the planet. Each release brings new functionality, both the best of existing operating systems and new innovation. There's a good write-up on the new features here.  Once again, developers on Linux have taken what was a weak area and turned it into the leading edge of technology. Zowie.  

Google Patent Search

I was just checking something on Google when I found Google Patent Search!  You can use all of Google's searching functionality to find matching patents now, which is very handy. For example, it took only a second to find the patent my brother filed while working at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Over seven million patents at your finger tips.

On Mac OS X

I've had my share of frustrations with the Mac OS X user interface. My problems can be summarized simply:

• Mac OS X prevents a knowledgeable user from doing what they want to via the GUI, and
• Apple has taken standard software products (like Apache and Samba) and implemented them in nonstandard ways, making administration unique (difficult).

Obviously, these negatives are positives for inexperienced users. However, inexperienced users can save 40% of the price of their Mac by buying a commodity PC and getting the same functionality and performance. So we're talking about inexperienced users with lots of disposable income.

I came across this funny today on YouTube, that echos the sentiment: