Category Archives: Technology

May 09 2009
Technology

The Hunger

It builds.  Slowly.  Like a wave miles from shore, barely perceptible.  Easy to miss.

Then, building in intensity, it results in a flurry of activity, an unstoppable force focused on one thing:

Building a new computer.

I don’t know why, considering there are about three of them in the house right now.  I suppose I could get away with just rebuilding one of them, updating the internal components into something a little faster, with a little more RAM, a lot more hard drive space, possibly one of those quad cores.

I think I look at it as a research project, mainly out of wanting to keep up with technology, but also to see how far I can stretch the dollar.  Right now I’m thinking something small that fits properly in my entertainment center that can actually be a media center.  It’ll be different than the three other rigs I’ve built, but that’s a good thing, as I seem to have fallen into a rut with the piano black Sonata Antec cases.

I think part of this is really just getting fed up with not being able to find a suitable HDTV Tuner slash DVR combination.  Market forces have not provided me with a satisfactory solution, so I guess I’ll just have to roll my own.

May 04 2009
Technology

WPhone

Test post to see if the wordpress mobile admin plug in works.

Update: Huzzah!

Apr 24 2009
Technology

Netbook time

I really consider the netbook more of a gadget than an actual computer.  Something with a real keyboard that happens to be able to access the internet and “act” like a computer.  Or enough like one that I can do all of the things that I need it to do while I’m out.  Like post to wordpress or access my email.  That’s all I need it to do.

The Dell Vostro 9 inch netbooks keep going on special, starting at $249 with a 16GB SSD.  I’d run Ubuntu of course, as it would be pretty familiar to me at this point.  Plus the 16 GB hard drive would pretty much force me to really think about which apps I’d need to run on it. I’d like to see one in the wild of course before I end up making a decision to drop that cash.

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Apr 04 2009
Technology

An Important Reminder

Today was productive, mainly because I got to take nearly 300 pics.  The new compact flash card seems to be working in the D70.  I was getting image corruption errors with the old 1GB card occasionally, and the new 2GB card seems to be fine so far.

I got some great pictures of people in their kimono as well as some street action.  I enjoy working with people to get portrait although I’m still working on my framing.  I really want a second flash now, I think I’m at the point where I could really use another one for creative lighting.  I did get some great shots during the magic minute yesterday and they look great.

While I have other hobbies, I have a special love for photography because it’s rewarding.

Hearing, “Oh wow,” after I show someone their picture always makes me smile.

That’s why there’s nothing so unnerving to me as the thought of losing pictures, the tiny slices of time and light that I worked so hard to get.  Or alternately, paid zero attention to craftsmanship and took anyway.  Either way they’re still important.

Which reminds me it’s time to do a backup of this machine.

And everyone, please do a back up of your computer.

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Apr 02 2009
Technology

Roomba redux

So.

Woot.com the other day had the 535 series Roomba for $150 and I bit.  New Roomba just arrived and is now charging where Roomba-kun used to be.  Now I have two robotic vaccuums.  Which may be two too many, but I really don’t care, because robots are awesome.  In all seriousness though, at least I have another robot for vaccuum duty while I repair the broken gear assembly cover on Roomba-kun.

I don’t know how he managed to break that piece, it’s pretty far up in the unit and doesn’t seem to be anything other than a weak piece of plastic.  Of course now I have this feeling that I threw away a “mysterious” piece of plastic a year ago.  It doesn’t matter too much but it’s still bothersome since he does have a sharp jagged piece of plastic on his underside.  It also looks like that piece also protected the gear assembly, since I can peer into its inner workings now.

I have the feeling that’s not supposed to be the case.

The new Roomba came with a brush cleaning tool which is fantastic and should have come with the original Roomba.  I just used it on the old brush and removed so much entangled hair with one swipe.  If you’ve got a Roomba and don’t have the brush cleaning tool, I cannot recommend it enough.  It turns  a disagreeable project into a simple step.

I have the feeling this new one wil be Roomba-chan, considering that the demonstration voice is female.

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