Tag Archives: gadget

Jan 12 2009
Technology

Things I used on the last post

I realized I was going to write about the audio equipment I used for Ukulele practice.

First, the instrument.  It’s a Kala concert uke.  (Fun Fact!  “Uke,” pronounced, “Oooh keh” means something entirely different in Japanese!)  Concert ukuleles are larger than the sopranos, but smaller than the tenors.  It’s a bright sounding ukulele that doesn’t sound like it’s constantly in a tin can.  On the other hand, that “plucky” quality may be the sound you want.

Really, it’s a personal preference issue.

Next up, the tabs for the song, which are readily available on the internet.  Done.

Then there’s the matter of me having no musical training whatsoever, so that’s where the flash based ukulele chord finder comes in.

Finally, there’s the matter of recording.  I’m using a ZOOM H4 Audio Recorder, which is a great portable audio recorder, but I have yet to really start using it for its intended purpose, which was podcasting on the go.  It has a ton of features that I’ll never utilize, but it excels at  “click record twice for decent audio” performance.  It was about two feet away from where I was practicing, and I thought it sounded pretty good.

Even though I had a cold and was recording it in the bedroom.  I’ll try again with vocals after I recover.

It’s interesting to note that I didn’t do any audio adustment to the mp3 that I recorded for the last post, I just dragged that mp3 over from the recorder and sent it straight to the internet.

And now you know the rest of the story!

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Jan 09 2009
Technology

Technolust 2009

Bleah.  This cold is totally being passive aggressive right now.  I’ve been dealing with it but then I totally forgot that CES was going on.

As in, right now.

Just catching up with all of the announcements and everything.  So far the most interesting things so far are the MadCatz Street Fighter IV tournament edition stick and the tiny DLPs from Wowwee.

Finally there was the Palm pré which is just, “Wow.”  They’ve come a long way since I owned a US Robotics palm device. Continue reading →

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Oct 12 2007
4 Comments
Technology

Everything is better with lasers attached to it

To be honest, I don’t know what train wreck of reasoning led me to rationalize the purchase of a laser pointer assisted non contact thermometer. I’m still working on that whole, “need versus want” rationale.

Also on my priority action item list is “impulse control,” so that may have explained the ease with which my index finger clicked on the “proceed to checkout” button.

That said, walking around the condo shooting lasers to find out the temperatures of surfaces is amusing. Did I mention that it has a pistol grip? Well, it has a pistol grip. It’s only been a day, but I’m happy with my purchase of the, ahem, Raytek MT4U MiniTemp No-Contact Thermometer with Laser Sighting. The price really was the selling point here, and I got it the next day.

Which was strange, considering I selected super saver shipping. Normally that takes three weeks.

Perhaps now I can think of uses for it, other than finding out what the temperature of the air conditioner is, or how hot different spots on the iBook are, or checking temperatures on hard drives, or graphics processors, or lightbulbs, or the oven heating element.

I think tonight I’ll measure the temperature differences between the different walls in the condo and finally have a scientific measurement of that wall that just feels warm and I have no explanation other than there’s a dead body back there or a portal to the as yet undiscovered but often theorized about nineteenth level of Chinese hell.

Or maybe it’s one of the motors for the elevators in my building.

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Oct 07 2007
Technology

The Obsoletes

I have a box labeled, “The Obsoletes.” It’s filled with an older gadgets and whatnot that for some reason, I just don’t use anymore. Going through that box (not as big as you’d think) I found my Casio WQV-3.

It’s a wristwatch camera.

Here is a picture from today, some artwork that I found interesting in a coffeeshop in Rockville.

Greenberry Lithographs

And yes, this is full size.

Initially had a hard time getting it to upload the picture until I slowed down the communication speed on the infrared receiver. For some reason it defaulted to 4000000. After I dropped it down to 9600, I was able to send the pictures to my desktop.

I didn’t have any installation CD for this device at all, fortunately CASIO has a fairly comprehensive drivers page for them. That’s relatively good support for a six year old niche gadget that didn’t sell very well.

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Jul 17 2001
writing

You don't talk about Write Club

Another day, another write club meeting. Another occasion to celebrate writing. Like web design. Basically, we’re making up this fantastic language of almost cryptic runes that represent structure, images, sounds, layout and all sorts of neat shit. And it’s only going to get better. I mean, virtual worlds have their own language where you write about a sphere, in a certain way, and it appears in your world. I tell you, we are living in the future. Although we have the broadband to talk and broadcast video, I still wholeheartedly believe that our future lies in words.

The printed word.

It’s the only way we can communicate with our technology. With the advent of PDAs that recognize handwriting, we’ve come full circle. We don’t talk to them. They don’t read our minds, but they do read our gestures and our thoughts through our ability to write. Incredible.

But, I’ve blabbed on long enough, and spent way too much money. I’m getting old, aren’t I?

Speaking of age. Party at nations. This Friday. If you’re reading this, please come, I’m inviting you.

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