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Oh, headphones
brian on 2007.12.27 at 01:55 pm
Today I received this from a friend,
Hi, Brian. I have a set of headphones that is supposed to block outside noise, but they’re not working as well as I had hoped. Is there a brand you recommend? I don’t want to blow out my ears on the subway by increasing the volume of my iPod. Thanks for any advice.
Well, I do have some experience riding the train and subway with headphones and an iPod. I was able to reduce the volume of my iPod by about 15% by using in-ear headphones. There are lots of choices, so here’s the volume I incoherently sent her:
Posted in: Technology · Hardware · Music
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Consumer Electronics Wishlist (Canon PowerShot G9, Sony Ericsson K850)
jake on 2007.08.21 at 08:18 pm
This week’s announcement of the Canon PowerShot G9 made the man-toy section of my brain go into high alert. It also made me recall the recent announcement of the Sony Ericsson K850. Two new products I may not need but I definitely want.
The PowerShot G9 could hypothetically be the perfect piece to fit into my camera gap. It can be almost impossible to lug even a smaller SLR around to take quick, simple pictures. And the G9 has the features on paper to fit my needs. The feature that worries me the most involves the RAW support. I love RAW too much to do without it, it’s why I have avoided point-and-shoot cameras in the past. I dealt with the poor RAW capabilities of the Nikon 8800 my dad owns. It is not fun when you have to wait seconds between shots and you miss something. If the reviews in a few months rebut this issue (and I stumble upon $500) the G9 will find a happy home with me.
My W810i is not that old and still more powerful than a lot of phones on the market (ahem, 2 megapixel camera). I’m not really in the market for a new phone. But the K850 is what would happen if my phone started hitting the gym. It even adds onto the quad-band capabilities of my phone. Here’s a list of some of the bonuses I’m drooling over.- 5 megapixel camera
- GSM 850 / GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900 / WCDMA 850 / WCDMA 1900 / WCDMA 2100
- Expanded Bluetooth capabilities
- Music formats: AAC, AAC+, eACC+, MP3, MP4, M4A, 3GP, WAV, WMA
And here’s a full comparison on Phonescoop. Too bad it’ll probably also be around $500 when it hits for an unlocked version.
Guess I’ll just add them to “the list” then.
Posted in: Technology · Hardware
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OLPC May Sell Retail
brian on 2007.01.13 at 12:26 am
The One Laptop Per Child (aka the $100 laptop) initiative is looking at ways to possibly sell the inexpensive XO device to the general public, says a story from the BBC.
One idea is that someone who buys one retail would actually buy two, with one being sent to the developing world.
I would like to go on record as saying
Sign me up.
I would gladly pay \$200 or \$300 for one of these devices if they would send one to a kid who could benefit.Posted in: Technology · Hardware
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Mobile Podcast Recording Hardware
brian on 2006.09.27 at 07:41 pm
Some Hot Recorders for Those Cool Podcasts
Read it before the New York Times locks it behind it’s for-pay firewall forever. I saved a PDF of the print version for my later reference.
FWIW, there’s were tons of the M-Audio MicroTrack device they mention in the article, at PodCamp Boston 1.
Posted in: Hardware · Media
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Verizon vs. Cingular Part IV: GSM Triumphant
jake on 2006.08.18 at 03:46 pm
The Sony Ericsson W810i has been purchased. Cingular is now collecting my money. Nothing significantly negative has changed. The phone is easily the best I’ve ever owned. It’s great that I can synchronize it with Apple’s iSync. Thus Bluetooth is more functional (And I originally thought my low cost headset was the problem, now I see it was the LG phone and Verizon’s proprietary software… though more likely the software). I’m enjoying the interface too. SE did a pretty good job on the software. And easily copying mp3’s to be used as ringtones is a lot nicer than paying $1.99 or whatever Verizon is currently charging.
The camera is only a slight step up on paper but in reality the pictures come out a lot better. Maybe it will even get me to take more random pictures.My reception doesn’t seem to have diminished. I can’t imagine problems in most of the locations I frequent.
For the actual purchase I went through Cellhut to get the best price. I gently sobbed when I noticed a couple weeks later that Amazon had the phone for about the same price. Amazon is defintely a guilty pleasure (I even have an Amazon Prime account).
As a bonus I’m now totally ready to go to the other side of the world. Of course we haven’t figured out the little details… like what body of land I’m going to… or how we’re going to get around… (Mainland Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand) but I can rest easy knowing my cell phone is just a sim card away from working.
Posted in: Technology · Hardware
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Wireless carriers make my head spin. Verizon vs. Cingular Part III
jake on 2006.06.28 at 10:12 am
Last year I opted for a one-year contract with Verizon so that I could reevaluate my choices quicker. I received a call a couple days ago from Verizon to resign my contract. I queried and luckily I have till August to actually make a decision.
But now Cingular’s parent company has to go off and screw consumers over again. (from Digg.) Is it really in my best interest to move to a new carrier who could sell my information because they’re feeling especially evil that day? I’m not one-hundred percent comfortable with T-Mobile in my area so I might have to make a lesser-of-two-evils decision.
My new phone of the day is the Sony Ericsson w810i. Along with quad-band and an upgrade to the camera it also sports all the things I liked about the k750i. Including the high price to buy it unlocked. Perhaps I will run a test with T-Mobile to see how well their coverage works in my area. But if that doesn’t work sufficiently I’ll be debating forever in my head whether I should move to new big, crappy company or stay with my old big, crappy company.
Too bad I can’t just keep it simple… I can get the Ask A Ninja ringtone for either phone, so that doesn’t help. Or just base it on the w810i functioning when I visit Australia.
And at least if I do switch to Cingular, my new email address ****@*****.*** [email withheld to prevent people like AT&T from acquiring it] will let them know how I feel about them.
Posted in: Technology · Hardware
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More on the $100 Laptop
brian on 2005.11.21 at 02:57 pm
If you’ve been following the One Laptop per Child initiative as I have been, then you maybe interested in this 8 minute video interview with one of the engineers on the project, from the machine’s unveiling at a recent UN conference in Tunisia. (via )
I continue to be fascinated with this project.
They also suggest that some of the companies contracting to build the units may make a commercially available version for purchase by the general public, for perhaps $200.
Why is this interesting to me, someone with access to dramatically faster and technically advanced computers? It’s the network, as Sun might say. The units, even when powered off, continue to act as WiFi mesh network nodes. Only one or two of the machines need to have a connection to the outside internet for all of them to.
If this happened in your neighborhood, you would have a peppy and robust shadow internet, even when the power goes out. Imagine the implications for public safety in times of inclement weather and other emergencies. A whole neighborhood or city could keep up to date, with out everyone requiring a generator.
Oh, the possibilities…
Posted in: Technology · Hardware
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Computer Woes
jake on 2005.09.30 at 07:53 pm
Well it looks like I’m going to be finally upgrading my desktop. The last major upgrade took place a little before construction of this site. I still have a little bit of troubleshooting to do but it’s not looking good. Unless I can diagnose it and just replace a particular component it’s more logical to start saving up and buying new parts.
It all started with a wheezing fan in the case attached to the motherboard. Along with the junky stock power supply and old case fans it sounded like it was going to take off and phone in traffic reports.
A few clicks later I had a new PSU coming on a Fedex truck. And a few more and a new cooler for my northbridge chipset was also on its way. All my worries were over.
Of course it’s never that easy. After I put my new parts in my computer beeped at me. It has a lot of nerve sometimes. According to the Abit KT7/KT7-RAID FAQ she was trying to tell me there was something wrong with her memory. Anyone remember me say anything about RAM? That’s because I didn’t.
I tried putting everything back the way it was with no luck. And I tried playing with which slot the RAM was in. No success.
So if I can dig up an extra stick of RAM that I know works (though I thought the two in my system were fine) then I’ll do a little more debugging. But assuming it isn’t anything easily corrected I’ll just start picking up some new components and start from scratch. Always exciting to build a new computer.
Posted in: Hardware
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Zen Micro, Searching, Javascript
jake on 2005.06.27 at 03:36 pm
Just a new link list.
Creative Zen Micro — Thank God my little brother doesn’t read these pages, at least I don’t think he does. In any event, he choose the Zen Micro over an iPod mini (just barely) so I ordered one from ZipZoomFly and spent a little time loading CD’s into it for him. Now he has a bunch of good albums and it gives me a chance to play with it ;).- I’m not sure what to do about searching around here. Currently we just use Google. Which isn’t too bad since Google loves us. Or at least we like to think so. I’m also looking into just using Full-Text Search like Textpattern does. Another possibility is using The Search Engine Project.
- Thankfully Javascript is making a comeback as a method for embelishing web sites (From Tom) like Gmail and Basecamp. The nicest part of these developments is separating the Javascript from the html code. Just like CSS from a few years ago we can clean out a little more of the soup in our code.
Posted in: Hardware · Web · Standards
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Tips to help your wireless
jake on 2004.04.13 at 10:16 pm
PCWorld ran an article to help troubleshoot and improve wireless performance.
Posted in: Hardware · Software
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One Less Car
brian on 2004.04.06 at 12:21 am
Thanks to the afore posted development, I will be adapting my commute to work. I have ordered a Lemond Poprad cyclocross bike from the fine people at Wheelworks. It's built and ready for me to pick up (hopefully Wednesday night). Then when weather and scheduling permits, I will be riding the two-to-three miles from Brookline to Cambridge. "Wait!" You say, "Boston is awful to drive in, the roads are nuts. Would that make cycling there suicidal?" Well, you might be right. Heck the former CEO of a local bicycle company once told me during an interview that I would be nuts to commute on bike in the city. During that interview, one of his employees called in to say she had broken her leg in a bike commute accident (no car involved, just a rainy day and a wet, slippery expansion joint).
However, I happen to be lucky. 80% of my commute would be on the bicycling paths of the MDC's Charles River Reservation. I would be segregated from auto traffic, while paralleling the raceway-like Soldiers Field Drive.
I can't wait to to start. I hope to trim my current commute (by the "T" that's light rail / subway for non-Bostonians) by half. Currently, I need to plan for a one hour commute to deal with the fluctuations in the schedules. Strike that. They don't even have a schedule. I think 30 minutes should be attainable with little sweat.
For those who are interested, I plan on wear cycling garb, and bringing clothes in my courier bag. Luckily, attire at work is jeans, a company t-shirt and of course, custom shoes. I leave the shoes at work in a locker.
I already have the iPod case for the cycling bag (which will be listened to in only one ear).I'll keep everyone updated on my attempt to shake up my commute, subdue pollution, undermine the funding of terrorism via oil sales, reduce road congestion, rail-car congestion, reintroduce exercise to my life and damnit, have some fun.
Posted in: Hardware · Politics · Sports
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Monday Morning Tabs
jake on 2004.03.29 at 09:23 am
Just some clean up before I get to work...
Action needed now on Xbox pirates - Umm... yeah, so let's mess with consumers just like the music industry.
"The impact on Xbox will be significant. VUG is currently exploring methods used by the music industry to prevent or disrupt casual 'piracy'."
Cause everyone just loooooves the music industry right now. This will not stop piracy, going after casual pirates should be done through education, not restricting them. I could definitely rant a little more here...
Report: Orbach may leave 'Law & Order' - Oh crap... He's pretty much my favorite character...
Samsung HT-DB390 Bluetooth Surround Sound Speaker - This is pretty sweet. I like the idea, though I already have a nice Harmon Kardon receiver so I probably wouldn't shell out extra money. But I'd love to see it be able to receive signals over Bluetooth too. I would love to just turn on iTunes and listen to music without connecting any wires between my Powerbook and the receiver.
Posted in: Technology · Hardware · Rant
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Diamonds are for everyone
jake on 2003.08.13 at 04:13 pm
Wired Magazine has a long article this month about new man made diamonds. Two different technologies have emerged recently where machines are used to fabricate diamonds. Diamonds are currently being monopolized by De Beers. They own a high percentage of the world's natural diamonds.
Along with creating diamonds to be used in jewelry there are many reasons to happy in the semiconductor business. Especially for Apollo Diamond, which was started with that end result in mind. A diamond can be heated well beyond current silicon chips.
I was not planning on buying my future wife a diamond a while ago. I figured she could handle something else, considering De Beers isn't exactly the type of company I would like to put money into. Now, especially considering I don't plan on getting married any time soon, I have an alternative to that plan. If she really wants a diamond I can just get a man made one and be promoting technology instead of a monopoly.
"It is not a symbol of eternal love if it is something that was created last week."
Well I beg to differ, I'd say it's not a symbol of eternal love if there's a stockpile in a warehouse that's collecting dust. Or if it is a blood diamond. I don't plan on giving De Beers any of my money.
Posted in: Technology · Hardware · Science
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Dense fog settling in
jake on 2003.08.08 at 04:45 pm
Two fog stories, completely unrelated, that are pretty cool.
The first one is about a camera technology that removes fog from film. Dubbed Dmist, the technology "can be plugged straight into a normal video camera."
The device works by taking out the light scattered by water particles so the picture can be recovered in colour, as if it were being shot on a clear day.
Professor Nigel Allinson, from UMIST, said it had potential for airports - where fog can shut down operations, costing thousands of pounds in delays.
The second reminds me of one of the shows in DisneyLand/World where they project images onto a mist of water. In this case a thin film of "dry" fog is projected onto.
The basic components of the screen are a laminar, non-turbulent airflow, and a thin fog screen (or any particles) injected into and inside a laminar flow. Created this way, the fog screen is an internal part of the laminar airflow, and remains thin, crisp, and protected from turbulence. When the screen is formed, images can be either rear- or front-projected onto it. The screen can be translucent (as in the images below) or fully opaque. Our current fog screen prototype already proves the operating principle with excellent results. The quality, size, and other features of the screen will be enhanced in the coming weeks.
Posted in: Technology · Hardware · Science
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Biostar has released a SFF PC
jake on 2003.08.08 at 04:22 pm
I'm surprised this flew under my radar considering all the tech sites I go to regularly, not to mention Anandtech and Blues News didn't have any coverage that I remember. Biostar released a SFF PC line recently that leaps to the front of the pack with Shuttle. There are four configurations, two based on AMD processors, and two based on Intel processors.
The one I'm most interested in is based on the Nforce2 chipset. It not only comes with basically everything my Shuttle has, it also provides a roomier case design, and SATA. Beautiful! This machine just jumped to the head of the pack for me, especially beause it's close in price to the Shuttle.
Reviews:
- Sudhian Media
- myWORLD Hardware
- Barebones.com (translated from French)
- jonnyguru.com
Posted in: Hardware
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Sanyo moving toward more OLED production
jake on 2003.07.03 at 01:22 pm
Sanyo will be moving production of 60% of panels to OLED from LCD by the Spring of 2004.
Posted in: Technology · Hardware
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Bluetooth locates small children in zoo
jake on 2003.06.30 at 08:56 pm
The Aalborg Zoo in Denmark is beginning to use a new technology to keep track of little ones. Using Bluetooth they have built a wireless network that keeps track of the "pods" attached to the child's clothing. Luckily they plan on implementing a wristband that will sound an alarm when removed.
This is a new idea that I see taking hold in many zoos and theme parks around the world. Imagine a little Mickey themed bracelet that keeps track of children in the Magic Kingdom. If it was included with the ticket or like $5 bucks a day I'd more than likely use it.
Now I just need to find some kids...
c|net news.com [from Gizmodo]
Posted in: Technology · Hardware
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Sony pushing OLEDs
jake on 2003.06.17 at 12:59 pm
This is from last week, but it's one of the technologies I've been following. Sony is pushing to use OLED displays in many of their small devices. I just can't wait till the technology goes from small devices to more large monitors.
Posted in: Hardware
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epaper making headway
jake on 2003.05.09 at 09:31 am
Wired and MsNBC both have an article that stemmed from nature.com. The article showcases a flexible screen from E-Ink. It's fairly small and only does black and white. But it's a nice step forward.
I mostly liked the electronic paper use in Minority Report, which I saw last week, for newspapers. I'm more interested in taking the ebook I've been reading mobile without printing it. And not on a tiny pda screen thanks, give me A4 or paperback size and that'll make me happy.
Posted in: Technology · Hardware
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3D Crystal Ball
jake on 2003.04.30 at 04:02 pm
Gizmodo has a link to an article about the 3D wonder. It is basically a monitor where a 3D image is displayed within a sphere. And it's under $40k not including installation.
The monitor consists of a transparent volumous bulb in which a high-speed spinning "plate" revolves, displaying images from pixel points on its surface. This requires the ability to flip between images at extremely high rates of speed (especially at the outter edge), and requires massive bandwidth.
Posted in: Technology · Hardware
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Variant method to cool computers
jake on 2003.04.16 at 03:44 pm
Some researchers at Purdue University have discovered a way to effectively use liquid cooling without a pump.
As liquid flows through the channels, it is heated by the chip and begins to boil, producing bubbles of vapor. Because the buoyant vapor bubbles are lighter than the liquid, they rise to the top of the tube, where they are cooled by a fan and condensed back into a liquid. The cool liquid then flows into the parallel tube and descends, creating a self-sustaining flow that eventually re-enters the microchannel plate and starts all over again.
Tiny bubbles are key to liquid-cooled system for future computers
Posted in: Technology · Hardware
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Build your own TiVo
jake on 2003.04.16 at 11:32 am
Gizmodo has a link to an article at ExtremeTech anout building a media PC with linux. It's part one of a three part series. I will post when those go up too. It describes with detail building a small PC to broadcast; mp3's, pictures, and movies. It also includes a TiVo style interface which allows you to record live TV.
I have been interested in building a machine like this for a couple months now. I don't have the dispensable cash to do it, but I plan on using a Shuttle SN41G2 to make mine. It'll run me a little more in the cost department, but would be smaller and has many integrated features.
The software being used in the article is Freevo. Upon reading through the discussionwww.shuttle forums base on the article, I came across some more information. MythTV is an alternative to Freevo. Also TitanTV stores free program guides.
Posted in: Technology · Hardware · Software · Linux
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802.11n? Too bad it's a few years off.
jake on 2003.04.14 at 04:35 pm
Gizmodo has a link to an article from 802.11 Planet. This article states that, based on an interview, a big jump in speed for Wi-Fi is being developed.
The High Throughput Group is trying to deal with some of these issues. "We're talking true throughput here," says Kerry. "We've had proposals running at 108 Mbit/s and on up to 320 Mbit/s."
Posted in: Technology · Hardware
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Turn original Nintendo Entertainment System into a PC
jake on 2003.04.07 at 03:34 pm
If you go to Nintendo PC you can learn how to gut your NES and put in PC parts. All this for under $500.
I for one love old Nintendo games. I can't get enough of them. But, like so many others, my Nintendo started flaking out on me. I'd have to blow into the games, then blow into the Nintendo, then try the game. 90% of the time, I'd get a flashing blue screen and I would need to try again. Well, I'd had enough of that, and decided it was time to do something different with my Nintendo.
I decided to put a computer inside my old Nintendo case. I could run emulators, play games with my regular Nintendo game pad, all on my TV. Of course, this was quite a stretch, but I made it happen.
Posted in: Hardware
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Nintendo apparently has bad timing
jake on 2003.04.07 at 03:21 pm
CNET reports today that Nintendo is claiming to fall short of expectations in revenue.
Yesterday Neowin pointed out an article on GameCube Europe that states Zelda is driving up GameCube sales.
Both articles point out the new GameBoy SP is selling well too.
Considering Zelda was released recently it could be safe to say that future sales will be good. Even if the last fiscal year wasn't as good as expected.
Posted in: Hardware
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Nvidia and Dolby present audio validation program
jake on 2003.04.01 at 10:11 am
To add to all the great features my Shuttle XPC includes, now it has one of three (currently) nForce2 based motherboards that meets this new standard.
Posted in: Hardware
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More mini PC stuff...
jake on 2003.04.01 at 09:52 am
TweakTown has a review of my Shuttle beauty. They gave it a 10 out of 10. For the most part I agree, only I think they should add in Serial ATA suport. That's about all I would need to make it a 10 in my book.
Iwill has a new mini PC (also) too, which is reviewed over at Hardware Analysis. This unit is cheaper, but it is also a lot less powerful. The Shuttle can handle a lot more with its intergrated parts than the Iwill. Which more than makes up for the P4 3GHz in the Iwill. But that's just my opinion... ;)
Posted in: Hardware
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MSI releases small form factor pc
jake on 2003.03.31 at 11:11 am
Maybe I'm a bit too into these things... ;)
Other companies are starting to compete with Shuttle's dominance in the market for SFF computers.
MSITM has released the MEGA pc. The first model is a P4 based barebones unit.
It adds some nice features, the front panel sports an LCM display. This displays things like the MP3 information of a file you're playing. In the plus versions there is also a TV tuner card and a 6-in-1 Card Reader.
I'm waiting to buy another one of these SFF PCs for things like this. Adding features and dropping prices would be great for this market. I really want to build a DVR with one of these babies. :)
Press release (from Gizmodo)
Posted in: Hardware
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Nvidia updates software for Linux video drivers
jake on 2003.03.31 at 10:32 am
cNet is reporting that Nvidia has new software that works with Linux to update video drivers.
The new installation software detects relevant details about the system its running on and automatically installs the correct drivers. The goal is to make it as easy to keep a Linux installation up to date as a Windows-based PC, Fear said.
This is great news for me, so far it works with only a few major brands including Mandrake, which is what I use on one of my machines at home. This machine is a Shuttle SN41G2.. Now I just need for the them to implement it for nForce2 also. Just to get the network and sound up I needed to play with a bunch of stuff after I installed Mandrake 9.0. It could have been a lot easier. ;)
Update - Bjorn3D has some thoughts on this subject. (article)
Posted in: Hardware · Linux
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