Galley Head, Ireland
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Posterous
My wife has 2 shelves in our kitchen full of recipes. They're in boxes, magazines, books, and scraps of paper.
I've been wondering how I could help her keep up with them and find just the one she wants. Of course the first thing that came to mind for me was technology, perhaps a data base?
Then I came to my senses. I played around a little with Google Docs but that seemed awkward.
One day, I came across posterous.com. All you have to do is to e-mail something to post@posterous.com and it's posted. They even clean it up for you. For example, if there are multiple pictures, they setup a picture gallery!
You can see her recipes here.
There's a great podcast about it here. 5:16 PM - 0 comments
My wife has 2 shelves in our kitchen full of recipes. They're in boxes, magazines, books, and scraps of paper.
I've been wondering how I could help her keep up with them and find just the one she wants. Of course the first thing that came to mind for me was technology, perhaps a data base?
Then I came to my senses. I played around a little with Google Docs but that seemed awkward.
One day, I came across posterous.com. All you have to do is to e-mail something to post@posterous.com and it's posted. They even clean it up for you. For example, if there are multiple pictures, they setup a picture gallery!
You can see her recipes here.
There's a great podcast about it here. 5:16 PM - 0 comments
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Geotagging
After our trip to Long Island last summer, I laboriously went through all my pictures on Picasaweb and geotagged them. I liked the result but not the effort!
So I've been investigating how to do this automatically. I searched high and low for GPS loggers. I looked at ATP PhotoFinder (original and mini), Sony GPS CS1KA, Qstarz BT-Q1000P, Canmore GT-730F(L), i-gotU GT-100, AMOD AGL3080, and more.
My key criteria were that I wanted it to be rechargeable via USB and to not require Windows drivers to get the data off the device.
The closest I came was the Columbus V-900. It recharged via USB and wrote KML files to a micro-SD card. That way all I needed was a micro-SD to SD USB adapter. Close enough so I clicked on "Submit" on Amazon.
Then I remembered my Blackberry Curve has GPS. Duh! I googled "Blackberry geotagging" and eventually found GPSLogger on some of the Blackberry forums.
It met both my criteria. Obviously the Blackberry is rechargeable via USB and GPSLogger creates standard format files on the Blackberry's micro-SD card.
The short version is that it just works. Surprisingly, it runs in the background. I've run it for 12 hours and it drew down about 1/2 the Blackberry's battery.
Here's the track in GeoLogger:
Here's the altitude:
And the speed:
Here's what I have for Options:
When you want to export the track, go to the path manager and "Export Path to Filesystem":
To apply the GPS data to the photos, I'm using GeoSetter. It's real simple but very capable.
Here's the result in Picasaweb.
Now I'm set for our next vacation. And I have to return the Columbus V-900. 10:25 AM - 0 comments
After our trip to Long Island last summer, I laboriously went through all my pictures on Picasaweb and geotagged them. I liked the result but not the effort!
So I've been investigating how to do this automatically. I searched high and low for GPS loggers. I looked at ATP PhotoFinder (original and mini), Sony GPS CS1KA, Qstarz BT-Q1000P, Canmore GT-730F(L), i-gotU GT-100, AMOD AGL3080, and more.
My key criteria were that I wanted it to be rechargeable via USB and to not require Windows drivers to get the data off the device.
The closest I came was the Columbus V-900. It recharged via USB and wrote KML files to a micro-SD card. That way all I needed was a micro-SD to SD USB adapter. Close enough so I clicked on "Submit" on Amazon.
Then I remembered my Blackberry Curve has GPS. Duh! I googled "Blackberry geotagging" and eventually found GPSLogger on some of the Blackberry forums.
It met both my criteria. Obviously the Blackberry is rechargeable via USB and GPSLogger creates standard format files on the Blackberry's micro-SD card.
The short version is that it just works. Surprisingly, it runs in the background. I've run it for 12 hours and it drew down about 1/2 the Blackberry's battery.
Here's the track in GeoLogger:
Here's the altitude:
And the speed:
Here's what I have for Options:
When you want to export the track, go to the path manager and "Export Path to Filesystem":
To apply the GPS data to the photos, I'm using GeoSetter. It's real simple but very capable.
Here's the result in Picasaweb.
Now I'm set for our next vacation. And I have to return the Columbus V-900. 10:25 AM - 0 comments
Sunday, June 21, 2009
KWORLD SA290-Q LE
I've been trying to find a use for the Astar MP-32HB HD TV that I got a couple of years ago. When I got the Sony KDL52W3000, I moved the Astar to my bedroom. I ran it on cable-ready for a while but that was all SD. Then I got a second HD DVR for it.
That had a couple of problems. First was the cost, about $30 per month to Comcast. Second was the noise. The hard drive kept spinning up and down. I replaced the DVR once but the second did the same thing.
Really, all I watch back there is the 10 o'clock news and the late night talk shows. It seemed silly to spend that much money for that but I had gotten where I liked the HD quality.
That's where I was when the digital TV transition happened. What that brought was that Comcast started carrying the local stations in digital format and in HD resolution. Unfortunately the Astar doesn't have a QAM tuner.
What I did is got a KWORLD SA290-Q LE from newegg.com.
Notice that it will also do VGA out so you could drive just an old PC monitor.
Read the reviews on newegg.com. Lots of people complain about it. The setup instructions are non-existent but the comment thread helps a lot. I bought a cheap programmable remote (GE 24950) and replaced the terrible remote that comes with it.
It has a bright blue light indicating power. That wouldn't do in the bedroom. I covered it with a 1/2 inch square of black duct tape. Perfect.
I feed the Comcast cable directly into it and get around 30 digital channels, no cable-ready although I had expected them also. Most of the digital channels that I've checked are HD, some 720p, some 1080i. I use component video to drive the Astar.
It'll pay for itself in 2 months. 6:19 PM - 0 comments
I've been trying to find a use for the Astar MP-32HB HD TV that I got a couple of years ago. When I got the Sony KDL52W3000, I moved the Astar to my bedroom. I ran it on cable-ready for a while but that was all SD. Then I got a second HD DVR for it.
That had a couple of problems. First was the cost, about $30 per month to Comcast. Second was the noise. The hard drive kept spinning up and down. I replaced the DVR once but the second did the same thing.
Really, all I watch back there is the 10 o'clock news and the late night talk shows. It seemed silly to spend that much money for that but I had gotten where I liked the HD quality.
That's where I was when the digital TV transition happened. What that brought was that Comcast started carrying the local stations in digital format and in HD resolution. Unfortunately the Astar doesn't have a QAM tuner.
What I did is got a KWORLD SA290-Q LE from newegg.com.
Notice that it will also do VGA out so you could drive just an old PC monitor.
Read the reviews on newegg.com. Lots of people complain about it. The setup instructions are non-existent but the comment thread helps a lot. I bought a cheap programmable remote (GE 24950) and replaced the terrible remote that comes with it.
It has a bright blue light indicating power. That wouldn't do in the bedroom. I covered it with a 1/2 inch square of black duct tape. Perfect.
I feed the Comcast cable directly into it and get around 30 digital channels, no cable-ready although I had expected them also. Most of the digital channels that I've checked are HD, some 720p, some 1080i. I use component video to drive the Astar.
It'll pay for itself in 2 months. 6:19 PM - 0 comments
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Firefox Again, Again
This time I think I've found a keeper. I've been really leveraging Google's Hosted Apps for my domain using e-mail, Docs, Calendar, Tasks, Voice, etc. What I've run into is that IE7 (with IE7Pro) suffers seriously from memory creep. And no, I haven't tried IE8. IE7Pro reportedly doesn't work consistently with IE8.
The symptom I observed was that my real memory used crept up over 1GB after a couple of hours of usage. My T42 only has 1GB of RAM so that's bad. I could see this by firing up Windows Task Manager and looking at the Commit Charge at the bottom right. The Mem Usage of iexplore.exe would be a couple of hundred MB. When I'd stop IE7 the Commit Charge would drop lots more than what was attributed to iexplore.exe. Something was leaking somewhere! I suspect Javascript.
I thought I'd try Firefox again, again. Wanting to get as current as possible, I downloaded Firefox 3.5 beta 4. I haven't had a bit of trouble from the beta.
Most of the Add-ons I'd used before are still valid with Firefox 3.5 beta 4. Only Tab Clicking Options wouldn't work with it. This was easily replaced with Close Tab by Double Click. You don't even have to set any options. On QuickDrag I also checked "Open tabs for text searches in the foreground."
Besides the previous tweaks, I also found one to make search results open in a new tab.
howtogeek.com says:
So far, so good. 11:42 AM - 0 comments
This time I think I've found a keeper. I've been really leveraging Google's Hosted Apps for my domain using e-mail, Docs, Calendar, Tasks, Voice, etc. What I've run into is that IE7 (with IE7Pro) suffers seriously from memory creep. And no, I haven't tried IE8. IE7Pro reportedly doesn't work consistently with IE8.
The symptom I observed was that my real memory used crept up over 1GB after a couple of hours of usage. My T42 only has 1GB of RAM so that's bad. I could see this by firing up Windows Task Manager and looking at the Commit Charge at the bottom right. The Mem Usage of iexplore.exe would be a couple of hundred MB. When I'd stop IE7 the Commit Charge would drop lots more than what was attributed to iexplore.exe. Something was leaking somewhere! I suspect Javascript.
I thought I'd try Firefox again, again. Wanting to get as current as possible, I downloaded Firefox 3.5 beta 4. I haven't had a bit of trouble from the beta.
Most of the Add-ons I'd used before are still valid with Firefox 3.5 beta 4. Only Tab Clicking Options wouldn't work with it. This was easily replaced with Close Tab by Double Click. You don't even have to set any options. On QuickDrag I also checked "Open tabs for text searches in the foreground."
Besides the previous tweaks, I also found one to make search results open in a new tab.
howtogeek.com says:
Type about:config into the address bar, and then put the following into the filter box:This time, I also turned off third party cookies.
browser.search.openintab
Double-click the value to change it to true.
So far, so good. 11:42 AM - 0 comments
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Atlantis Takes Off
This week I flew down to Orlando to see Atlantis take off. As this was the last mission to the Hubble the area was packed. I watched from a location on the Cocoa Beach Causeway (SR 520).
The last mission to the Hubble was in 2002. This mission was scheduled for 2004 but scrubbed as too dangerous after the Columbia disaster in 2003. Post-Columbia, the plan in case of orbiter damage has been to keep the astronauts at the ISS until they could be rescued. This isn't possible when going to the Hubble. Hence, the Endeavour shuttle was on the other launch pad in case a rescue mission was required.
What sounds like wind noise starting at about 1 minute into it is the noise from the launch finally reaching our location. That says we were about 8-10 miles away. It gets louder as the shuttle gets higher then dies down.
Click on the HD in the bottom right corner of the picture. Depending on your Internet speed, you may want to then click on pause and let it load before playing.
This was shot with my Creative Labs Vado HD using a tripod (at first).
Oh, I haven't told you about the Vado HD have I? Later...
This week I flew down to Orlando to see Atlantis take off. As this was the last mission to the Hubble the area was packed. I watched from a location on the Cocoa Beach Causeway (SR 520).
The last mission to the Hubble was in 2002. This mission was scheduled for 2004 but scrubbed as too dangerous after the Columbia disaster in 2003. Post-Columbia, the plan in case of orbiter damage has been to keep the astronauts at the ISS until they could be rescued. This isn't possible when going to the Hubble. Hence, the Endeavour shuttle was on the other launch pad in case a rescue mission was required.
What sounds like wind noise starting at about 1 minute into it is the noise from the launch finally reaching our location. That says we were about 8-10 miles away. It gets louder as the shuttle gets higher then dies down.
Click on the HD in the bottom right corner of the picture. Depending on your Internet speed, you may want to then click on pause and let it load before playing.
This was shot with my Creative Labs Vado HD using a tripod (at first).
Oh, I haven't told you about the Vado HD have I? Later...
View Larger Video |  |
Friday, May 01, 2009
IE8 Blocker
I'm really pretty neutral on Internet Explorer 8 right now. I haven't played with it yet. Microsoft just moved IE8 over to "Critical" status so it'll get pushed to a PC near you soon. I'm pretty conservative on letting things get pushed to my PCs.
With IE7 I used the IE7 blocking tool from IntelliAdmin.com. It worked great.
With IE8 Microsoft came out with their own blocking toolkit. Needless to say, it's bigger than a breadbox! It ends up creating a script that you have to run from a command line and set switches. Yuk.
In the end, it simply creates a single registry key. I created a pair of .reg files that do the same thing.
Just download this zip file. In it are 2 files, one to block IE8 and one to unblock IE8. Just open the zip file and double-click on whichever you want to do. Click on "Yes" in the dialog box that comes up and you're done. Look at them pretty closely. Use at your own risk.
As I was preparing this post, I went back to IntelliAdmin.com to see if they had done something for IE8. Needless to say they have. They have added IE8 blocking to their Network Administrator tool. Their article is here.
It's not quite as trivial as my .reg files (it requires an install) but I'm sure it's very good. 4:45 PM - 0 comments
I'm really pretty neutral on Internet Explorer 8 right now. I haven't played with it yet. Microsoft just moved IE8 over to "Critical" status so it'll get pushed to a PC near you soon. I'm pretty conservative on letting things get pushed to my PCs.
With IE7 I used the IE7 blocking tool from IntelliAdmin.com. It worked great.
With IE8 Microsoft came out with their own blocking toolkit. Needless to say, it's bigger than a breadbox! It ends up creating a script that you have to run from a command line and set switches. Yuk.
In the end, it simply creates a single registry key. I created a pair of .reg files that do the same thing.
Just download this zip file. In it are 2 files, one to block IE8 and one to unblock IE8. Just open the zip file and double-click on whichever you want to do. Click on "Yes" in the dialog box that comes up and you're done. Look at them pretty closely. Use at your own risk.
As I was preparing this post, I went back to IntelliAdmin.com to see if they had done something for IE8. Needless to say they have. They have added IE8 blocking to their Network Administrator tool. Their article is here.
It's not quite as trivial as my .reg files (it requires an install) but I'm sure it's very good. 4:45 PM - 0 comments
Friday, April 24, 2009
contxts.com
Sometimes I run across something that seems SO neat. So I go setup an account and play with it.
Then, I start wondering what I'm going to use it for.
I had that experience with contxts.com.
contxts.com is harder to explain than twitter.
Go to contxts.com and click on "get it free."
Fill in the form. Here's my sample.
And the result.
You can edit the field that is labeled "YOUR TXT CARD." You want to make this look kinda like a business card. Note that this field is simple text and is limited to 140 characters. Does this sound familiar?
I can't tell that the fields below with Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. do anything. I probably just haven't figured it out yet.
Ok. As one of my old bosses used to ask "So what?"
Here's how you use it. Say you want to share your contact information with a new acquaintance. Get their cell number (we'll use 601-444-2323 in this example) and send a text message from your phone (601-555-1212 in this example) with "send 6014442323" to 50500.
contxts.com will send a text message to 601-444-2323 with the text you put in the field of "YOUR TXT CARD."
An alternate method is to tell your acquaintance your "USERNAME" ("bogusname" in this example) and tell them to text that to 50500. They will receive a text message with the text you put in the field of "YOUR TXT CARD."
Here's what it looks like on my BlackBerry Curve.
Neat! Definitely. Useful? I dunno.
PS. Now that you understand this completely, go read foursquare's overview. Notice what shortcode they use. Huh? 9:34 PM - 0 comments
Sometimes I run across something that seems SO neat. So I go setup an account and play with it.
Then, I start wondering what I'm going to use it for.
I had that experience with contxts.com.
contxts.com is harder to explain than twitter.
Go to contxts.com and click on "get it free."
Fill in the form. Here's my sample.
And the result.
You can edit the field that is labeled "YOUR TXT CARD." You want to make this look kinda like a business card. Note that this field is simple text and is limited to 140 characters. Does this sound familiar?
I can't tell that the fields below with Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. do anything. I probably just haven't figured it out yet.
Ok. As one of my old bosses used to ask "So what?"
Here's how you use it. Say you want to share your contact information with a new acquaintance. Get their cell number (we'll use 601-444-2323 in this example) and send a text message from your phone (601-555-1212 in this example) with "send 6014442323" to 50500.
contxts.com will send a text message to 601-444-2323 with the text you put in the field of "YOUR TXT CARD."
An alternate method is to tell your acquaintance your "USERNAME" ("bogusname" in this example) and tell them to text that to 50500. They will receive a text message with the text you put in the field of "YOUR TXT CARD."
Here's what it looks like on my BlackBerry Curve.
Neat! Definitely. Useful? I dunno.
PS. Now that you understand this completely, go read foursquare's overview. Notice what shortcode they use. Huh? 9:34 PM - 0 comments
