Monthly Archives: November 2005

Tech Stuff, Toys

My Dream Cell Phone

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Motorola announced two new cell phones today based on the RAZR V3.

The RAZR V3i is basically the same phone, with the addition of iTunes (big deal… I don’t care) and a microSD card slot (which I *do* care about). More memory is always good.

The other one is the RAZR v3c, which will give Verizon a RAZR phone offering for the first time. I don’t personally care all that much since I use Cingular, but one thing I *did* notice is it supports Verizon’s EV-DO high speed network. So uhm, why not put out a GSM based RAZR that supports HSDPA since Cingular is now rolling it out?

So my dream phone would be someone taking the new V3i (because of the microSD slot, not because of iTunes), add HSDPA (3G) support and throw in a GPS. I never thought a GPS on a cell phone was all that useful until yesterday when Google released a new Google Mobile app (which is really cool, and 10x cooler if you have a GPS in your phone).

Tech Stuff

Cingular HSDPA Network

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So I’ve been poking around this afternoon, and I’ve been finding reports about Cingular’s 3G (HSDPA) network rollout. Supposedly they started the rollout a few weeks ago, and it offers 400-700k data speeds.

The problem? Their website says nothing about it and even if it did, there are not currently any HSDPA enabled phones available… nice! 🙂

Audio/Video, Music

MP3 Ringtones

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Why do people pay $2 or $3 for a cellphone ringtone of a song? I don’t get it because most cellphones these days lets you just use an MP3 as a ringtone. Get a freeware/shareware application that lets you cut a certain part of a ringtone (no point in having a 5 minute ringtone) as well as down-sample the bitrate to make it smaller, and viola! You can make your own ringtones with music you already own. Or if you don’t own it, you can buy it for $0.99 from the Apple music store (cheaper than a ringtone and you get the full MP3).

I’m a Mac user, so I use Amadeus II for the task.

Coding

Geolocation Maps

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Based on some of the stuff I did for this, I made a system that can be used by any site (just copy/paste a tiny bit of HTML code and it automagically works).

Anyway, if you want to see where in the world people are from that visit this blog (or want to use it yourself), click here.

Home Automation, House Stuff

Home Automation Checklist

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Okay, I need to start making a list of things I want to be able to control from the home automation system for my house… So I’m just going to use this blog entry for that. If anyone can think of anything I’ve forgotten, please leave it as a comment and I’ll update this post as necessary…

  • Lights (indoor, outdoor and landscape)
  • Some door locks (front door, server room, office)
  • Heat and air conditioning
  • Music to any room (or outside)
  • Video (all TVs, central PVR/movie server?)
  • Fireplaces
  • Waterfall
  • Sprinklers
  • Spa
  • Cameras
  • Security
  • Windows (open/close windows, shades up/down, electrochromic maybe)
Jokes

I’m Gonna Waste Your Time

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When you get crazy people calling you trying to sell you something, I always try to keep them on the phone as long as possible so they get more annoyed than I am that they called in the first place.

Today for example some dude called wanting to collect bad debt that people owe me. Except I told him in the beginning that no one owes me anything.

Him: I’ll send my guys to the homes of people who owe you money and confront them face to face, blah, blah, blah…
Me: Cool, the debt collection posse… But no one owes me anything.
Him: I’m looking at your Better Business Bureau record for your company, and it shows you offer lines of credit. If that’s not the case, should I have them remove that?
Me: Sure.
Him: Huh? Really? You seriously want me to change your BBB record?
Me: I don’t care, because we don’t even have a BBB profile, so whatever you “change” isn’t going to affect me.
Him: Okay, so how much would you say your worst customer owe you? I mean a ballpark figure…
Me: Zero dollars.
Him: What about the guy that hasn’t paid his bill, how much does he owe you?
Me: Hold on, let me check my system… […wait about 2 minutes…] Zero dollars for him too.
Him: All businesses give terms of credit, so some of your customers haven’t paid.
Me: Really? Who? I’m curious where you heard all businesses give lines of credit though, was it my “BBB profile”?
Him: I only get paid when we collect money from your deadbeat customers. Wouldn’t you like some money?
Me: Yeah, I would like some money. I would be a little worried about where the money came from though since none of our customers owe us any money. But if you can find some money, I’ll be happy to split it with you.
Him: So how much did you say your worst customer owes you again?
Me: That would be zero dollars (plus or minus five dollars).

This basically goes around and around in a circle for about 20 minutes, finally he decides to ask me a question that I’m supposed to answer “Yes” to so he can say something smart and hang up on me. But he couldn’t even trick me into saying “Yes”. haha

Him: Let me ask you something… do you like chicken wings?
Me: No, not really.
Him: Do you like Hooters?
Me: I’m assuming not because I have no idea what you are talking about.
Him: Okay, do you like fishing?
Me: No, not really.
Him: Auuuuggghhh! <click>

I win. 🙂

Audio/Video

My 30″ Monitor Is Here

6 Comments

Okay, this kind of sucks… I now have the most bad ass computer monitor you can get sitting in my office (a 30″ Apple Ciniema HD), but I have no computer I can actually USE it with. hahaha

I ordered a new computer specifically for the monitor (the monitor was a gift/bonus), but I’m not going to be getting the new computer for about 3 weeks. This sucks… I’m now a kid not being able to play with my new toy. 🙂

Here’s a picture of it (CD jewel case to show scale)…

Coding

Google Maps API Is Pimp

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It’s not the first time I used the Google Maps API, but every time I do something with it, I’m reminded about how damn cool it is.

It ended up being relatively trivial to show where in the world all the people currently visiting the forum are at in the world. Added some color coded pins and made the pins clickable (you can also automatically fly to the location if you have Google Earth installed).

In truth, the hardest part really had nothing to do with the API itself… it was making a caching mechanism for geolocation data on the IP address (no point in querying the database for all IPs for every page view), so it just queries for IPs that are new since the last time someone looked at the page.

Check it out: //forums.digitalpoint.com/usermap.php

Tech Stuff, Toys

1kW Computer?

2 Comments

Rumors have been floating around that the quad processor PowerMac I ordered comes with a 1,000 watt power supply. I sure hope it doesn’t actually *use* 1kW while it’s on, because if it does, I might cause some California brownouts again. 🙂

Speaking of which, I hope the operating system has the ability to turn off CPUs (or just lower the frequency for them) on demand.

Law

Winn & Sims Employs The Borg?

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I think that Winn & Sims employees have a single collective conscious known as “The Borg”. How else can you possibly explain three employees independently making identical statements on their personal websites?

Quote:
“Hey Everyone! These are just a few of my law firm links, including my favorite Law Firm: Winn and Sims, APC. I just love working for them!”

A truly heartfelt testimonial as quoted from Aric, Lauren and Stephanie’s personal websites.


These three must be Borg probes masquerading as human beings, and you better believe I’m going to be reporting this to Star Fleet Command so they can start planning for the full scale Borg invasion. I wonder if you need a green card to work here on earth when you are an intergalactic alien?