Picture My World

Someone was thinking when they came up with Jajah.com.  Internet telephony that doesn’t require you to be tied to your computer with a headset or have to buy a special phone.  It’s cheap, too.

The iBot is a new wheelchair concept.  Simply amazing and addresses the fundamental needs of chair-bound people.  Seeing something like this makes me wonder what other things we could revolutionize with some creative thinking.  (Referenced over on the UIE blog.)

This is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time (because it’s so true). Check out the video on youtube.com. Sorry - the video was removed from youtube.com.

The City of Vancouver recently introduced new garbage cans and automated pickup. The new garbage trucks have a robotic arm that grabs the can and dumps the contents into the truck. The trucks now have just a driver and no one needs to break their back lifting heavy containers. Residents also get a single trash can that’s on wheels that’s also easier to move than most people’s old containers.

It sounds and looks great. So, why hasn’t our garbage been picked up for the last two weeks? (more…)

Hell has frozen over! A Google product leaves beta! Amazing.

I got an iPod nano the other day (an early Chanukah gift) and it’s love at first listen. My first impressions:

* It’s small. Yeah, yeah, you know it’s small — but until you hold one in your hands, you can’t appreciate it’s actual smallness.
* It fits perfectly into my jean’s change pocket.
* You can’t beat the industrial engineering. No visible screws or fasteners, a shiny metal back, smooth plastic front and rounded corners make it a pleasure just to hold.
* On the negative side, the plastic is already scratched — the reports are true. This isn’t something that bothers me too much. Since I opted for the white model, I suspect any scratches are less noticable than if it were black.
* The backlight is *bright*. At night, it’s blinding.
* Podcasts (if you can find ones of decent quality) are great and can be a nice change of pace from music.
* The scroll wheel looks great and is nice for navigating long lists, but I have some issues with the interface. Maybe I’ll delve into that in a later post.
* Is there such things as ear buds that actually stay in your ears? Apple’s ear buds are so-so in that department.
* It’s got Solitare!

Since I won’t cycle with headphones (people who do must have a death wish), I am now tempted to take the bus so I can listen to my new toy. There goes my exercise.

This [article in the NY Times](http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/business/yourmoney/04techno.html) about “thinking tools” for the Mac contains the following misperception:

Others may follow next year, when Apple Computer begins producing Macs based on Intel processing chips like those that PC’s use. That change will make it easier for software vendors to create both Mac and PC versions of their programs…

Intel-based Macs will do no such thing (although I’m sure Apple doesn’t mind this kind of press). The truth is that the CPU inside the Mac doesn’t matter one bit because software developers must write their programs to two different OS APIs (that’s Operating System Application Programming Interfaces for my less technical readers). In other words, you need to write different code for Windows and Mac OS no matter what kind of chip they are running on. And, for most software, the type of chip doesn’t affect the code at all.

This mistake doesn’t affect the main point of the article, but it misleads the reader to think their favourite applications will soon find their way to Mac or Windows. Uh uh.

Have you seen small groups of teens hanging out? Why are they all plugged into their mp3 players at the same time? I’m seeing more and more kids walking around together, yet they are all wearing headphones. Why didn’t we see this with walkmans? Why mp3 players? What is going on in our society that’s leading these people to be together but not. Have TV and movies finally convinced kids that their lives need soundtracks at all times?

Maybe I’m just getting old.

I finally have a bit of time to spend processing photos from my [Rainier trip](http://jay-photo.com/blog/?p=201) and the computer starts acting up. After a few minutes, it slows to a crawl and can’t be restarted without a cold restart. I thought I noticed this problem after watching some AVI videos in Windows Media Player but a reboot fixed it. I should have payed more attention because now it’s happening after a reboot.

I suspect some sort of virus or malware (probably malware) and am now trying to find it. What a pain in the ass and supreme waste of time.

Update: After restoring to the last known good configuration, things seem ok. Spyware scanners only found a few cookies and nothing more serious. I did have a scare where the keyboard stopped working once Windows booted. Did I mention that computers suck?

Problem
———-
Cell phone can no longer connect to voicemail. The phone is programmed to dial *789 to access voicemail and before Sprint was bought by Rogers, this worked fine. Now it doesn’t.

(more…)

Who has time for something like this? (From Apple’s latest eNews email.)

If one life’s not enough for you, try on a Second Life by participating in Linden Lab’s massive multiplayer online role-playing game. A virtual community, Second Life offers “a virtual world—a 3D online persistent space totally created and evolved by its users. WIthin this vast and rapidly expanding place,” say the games developers, “you can do, create or become just about anything you can imagine.”

Can I get a virtual family and raise another child?

I went shopping during my Seattle trip in [Lynnwood](http://maps.google.com/maps?q=lynnwood%2C%20WA) at an [Albertsons](http://www.albertsons.com) grocery store. They have 4 automated checkout stands where you can scan your purchases and pay (almost) all by yourself. I was happy to get the chance to try out these devices. I didn’t take the time to observe anyone else using the system and am only reporting on my own experience.

The first thing I noticed was the store employee standing at a workstation in the middle of the four self-checkout kiosks. He had a computer screen and was obviously monitoring everyone using the system. I also noticed a pole above each kiosk that had a red, amber, and green light. I immediately envisioned myself making a mistake and triggering a flashing red light (and maybe a siren, too). I was a little nervous as I approached the kiosk. (more…)

I’m currently obsessed with all things backup related.

On Dave’s suggestion, I installed Second Copy and have it doing incremental copies of all my data to the second HDD. (I’m not thrilled with its interface or error handling and it seems a little buggy, but whatever…)

One problem with this whole automated backup scheme is locked files. Most notably Outlook’s .PST file. I searched Outlook help regarding backups and found this entry about the Outlook Personal Folders Backup Tool. On install, it creates a “Backup…” menu item where you can setup regular backups. Unfortunately, you have to quit Outlook in order to backup its own file… I usually have Outlook running all the time, but usually shut it down once a week. Better than nothing.

This news is making its way around the web quickly, so you’ve probably already seen it. Google Maps is awesome. I love the large viewing area and quality map content compared to MapQuest and the rest. The panning blows them all away, of course. Google’s really bumped up the interactive quotient in this application. I love it.

YahooInstall

Originally uploaded by JZip.

Funny how Yahoo! provides the illusion of control without actually handing any over. The checkbox to make Yahoo! your default search engine is uncheckable.

That’s one way to beat out Google.

Scott spent a sleepless night upgrading his blog to a new version of Moveable Type along with some other goodies. It’s ironic (or maybe tragic?) that his blog still looks the same after all that effort. Don’t get me wrong — I’m not suggesting it wasn’t worth it. There are some real changes in switching photo galleries so he can display his Flickr photos. Also, the experience was probably fun even as it was frustrating, Scott no doubt knows more about MT than ever before, he has a sense of accomplishment, and he was productive during a bout of insomnia.

Is the point of a blog the content or the blog itself? Everyone draws a different line. Now that I have my own customizable solution, we shall see where my line gets drawn.

As I complained to Dave about my hard drive woes, he mentioned a Linux variant called Knoppix. Its claim to fame is that it can fit on a CD or other similarly sized storage device. Its other claim to fame is its ability to read NTFS volumes (that’s the disk format used by modern flavours of Windows, for you non-technical folk). So, I burned it onto a CD and popped it into the Dell… alas, no joy. It can’t read the drive either.

Hope is not totally lost, though. One of my IT buddies at work has some data recovery software that might just help. We’ll try tomorrow. If that doesn’t work, I know some local companies that are more than willing to take $500 from me to poke around with the drive. I really hope it doesn’t come to that, but it’s hard to put a price on months of lost baby photos.

Crap.

The hard drive on my Dell crashed today. Dell is sending a replacement, but I’m very disappointed because 1) it failed after less than four months and 2) my last backup is older than that. “It’ll never happen to me.” Bah.

The drive is a Maxtor. This is the second Maxtor drive to die on me. The first one was maybe a 10 MB drive that died under warranty maybe 15 years ago, so it’s nice to see they’ve kept the same quality standards. I’m going to get a second drive for peace of mind and it’s not going to be a Maxtor. Is Seagate any good?

Update: A bit of web research tells me that everyone has their favourite HD manufacturers. Some people actually swear by Maxtor. I guess it doesn’t really matter and you’ll be burned by the odds eventually.

Blogger cannot publish my blog properly anymore. It times out after getting “so” far. Is it because I’m publishing to an FTP site? Is my web host to blame? Should I bother contacting technical support, or will I have better luck asking the Magic 8 Ball?

One of the problems with technology is that you eventually hit a boundary between systems. The systems have to interact and that’s when everything falls apart. Fingers point, accusations fly, people become luddites overnight. Upon reflection, that’s the problem with human beings, too. Everyone is fine as long as they don’t have to interact with others. How can we expect to build solid technical solutions when we cannot even master our own communication protocols? Spike’s Magic 8 Ball says, “Concentrate and ask again.”

Learn to type 1 handed or maybe buy one of these. (No, I don’t have one…)