Looking Through A Glass Onion

I know that most of the people who read this blog don't do so for my opinions on computers & technology, but there's been something bugging me lately - Steve Jobs.  See I looove Apple products & their design aesthetic - but, I recently bought Android - powered phones for my wife & I, mostly because AT&T's network is crap in my area.   As such, I've been paying a lot more attention to articles, podcasts, etc., regarding phones in general.  Even the least technology-oriented of you have probably heard about the controversy of the leaked iPhone.  While I definitely didn't approve of the treatment of the journalist (yes, media outlets, some bloggers are legitimate journalists, get over it), what really ticked me off was this interview, where Jobs said the following:

     "I got a lot of advice from people that said, 'you've gotta just let it slide..You shouldn't go after a journalist because they bought stolen property and they tried to extort you'...I ended up concluding that the worst thing that could possibly happen..is if we [Apple] change our core values and start letting it slide. I can't do that; I'd rather quit."

Never mind that not only did they NOT try to "extort you" (actually, they tried to give the phone back first), Let's talk about your "core values".  Apple included freakin' CIRCUIT DIAGRAMS with the Apple IIe.  Now your hardware is locked up ten ways from Sunday.  It's not user servicable.  We can't write our own code or install programs unless you pre-approve it.  We have to use your approved accessories, or resort to buying knock-offs from Chinese sweatshops for pennies on the dollar.  You've bent over backward making concessions to get into bed with the music & book publishing companies.  You deny access to one of the most popular Internet platforms of all time because of a stupid fifteen-year-old grudge.  You ruin people over speculation on a web site.  You're so far away from Apple's "core values" that jack-booted thugs kicking in a harmless tech journalist's door is the least troubling thing in the big picture.

Remember, "If you can't open it, you don't own it".

Project Files: High Voltage

So the wife & I have several mini-vacations planned this summer - one of the things that's always a pain for a gadget freak like me is running all over the house, rounding up & unplugging all the various chargers / cables / batteries / etc. for all my gizmos, and packing them away.  The good news is that you can get a charger for just about anything on eBay nowadays, usually for under three bucks shipped (as long as you're willing to wait for it to come on the slow boat from China).  Over the past couple of months I've been buying bits & pieces to make a kit that would be able to charge damn near everything I own, from just about any source - then it could live in my truck or suitcase and I wouldn't have to worry about it any more.  I had a gift certificate to Dick's Sporting Goods that was expiring, and found a cool little North Face travel bag on clearance that looked perfect for it.  Here it is:

Contents:

3.5mm audio cable
110v AC to USB adapter (x2)
2000mAh battery w/ USB / mini-USB / Nintendo DS adapter
iPod A/V output cable
USB angle extension
USB female to male adapter
USB to Samsung cable
Retractable mini-USB cable
12v outlet splitter
Retractable iPod cable (x2)
Retractable USB cable (x2)
12v Nintendo DS charger
12v to USB adapter
Spare headphones (x2)
AA/AAA battery charger
4 AA & 4 AAA lithium ion rechargeable batteries
4 AA Energizer Titanium batteries
12v to Motorola charger
Stanley 4-in1 screwdriver
Gerber Artifact multi-tool

I'm still waiting on a 110v AC to 12v inverter, and a 110v charger for the wife's phone to arrive in the mail to complete it.  When this is in my truck, it accompanied by a 400w inverter, so that gives me yet another option.  One of these days I'm gonna pony up for one of those really nice Brunton folding solar chargers, and I'll be good to go anywhere...

I'm A Pincushion, Gotta Face the Facts

Hey all. Sorry for the lack of updates, but school has been kicking my butt this quarter, and it's gonna get worse before it gets better - I've got a mid-term on Sunday. While that definitely doesn't help my stress level, today I went to the doctor for my annual check-up and got inspected, poked, prodded, folded, stapled and mutilated, which is one of my least favorite things. Then my roommate tells me he's going to be moving out in a couple of months - not on bad terms or anything, he just wants to be closer to school & work (gas prices are killing him) so that will necessitate some belt-tightening on my part. It's kind of a catch-22, because I often thought that it would be nice to have the place all to myself and that I was getting a little old to have a roommate, but he's one of my best friends and we've lived together for seven years, so I'm sure it'll be weird when he's gone. Overall, not the best week.

Anyways, I stopped by my friendly local soul-sucking SuperUltraMegaMart for something the other day, and some guy was in the parking lot hawking CD's. Turns out he was part of a local group of rappers (what's the plural of "rappers"? Gaggle? Troop? Pod?) who've had some success locally with a song about the city that's gotten some airplay on the radio and used on some locally-produced TV shows (I think I heard it the other day on one of the local sports wrap-up shows). I gave him a few bucks for a CD, and noticed something: It looked damn good. I remember the days when my friends who were in bands would record to a Portastudio and spend hours dubbing tapes on their boomboxes and xeroxing black-and-white inserts. The CD I bought had a full-color laser printed cover that looked like it was shot by a professional photographer. I also noticed that it wasn't only a CD, it was also a "DVD magazine", so apparently there's some video content on it as well, although I haven't had a chance to look at that yet. The CD, along with the fact that I've been obsessed with podcasts lately, has me thinking about how far we've come in terms of producing and distributing content in the last twenty years, and how Hollywood and the RIAA are only trying to make things more difficult. But I realized it doesn't matter: I'm to the point were I could almost cut off my cable TV service and throw away all my radios & CD players, and I wouldn't really miss any of them. High-speed Internet access is dirt cheap, and if I was so inclined I could easily grab any TV shows I wanted via BitTorrent or Emule. Almost all of my radio listening has been replaced by podcasts - (the few show I do listen via a radio to are also available as podcasts if I wanted them). Spending as much time on the web as I do, a local band with a well-promoted website has a better chance of me noticing them than a giant cardboard cutout for the latest manufactured pop star at Blockbuster. I transfer all of this content, as well as files ripped from DVD's that I legally purchased, to my cell phone (although some people want to make that illegal). The entertainment industry is trying to hang on as long as they can, as evidenced by the many news stories that have been circulating in recent weeks. I urge you to get involved in protecting your rights by calling or writing your representatives or getting involved (at least read up!) via the many organizations and groups dedicated to consumer's rights.

I Like To Be There When I Can

Back to normal - it was a crazy week, but I got to catch up with friends & family & spend time with my nieces & goddaughter, so that was fun. I got some DVD's (a few that I'll probably talk about here, after I watch them) but since most of my hobbies revolve around tech or music and my family is brain dead in that regard, everyone just gives me cash, which I combined with some Rat Shack gift cards from a mail-in rebate (that I had given up hope on receiving) to buy these:

The headphones are Bluetooth, which I think is the one of the coolest technologies to come around in a while (I know it's not exactly new, but I haven't had much experience with it until recently). When I got my Mac I thought it was extremely cool that I could sync my Treo from anywhere in the house without hooking up any wires, and now I can plug a tiny transmitter into my MP3 player/Treo/home stereo/computer and not have to deal with any wires at all (handy when I'm out & about, or at work). I also bought some software for the Mac, and found some other apps that will hopefully allow me to convert video recordings from my computer (running Beyond TV) to watch on the go. Man, I'm a geek - hopefully I will be getting the bike roadworthy this week, that should get me more in touch with my macho side...

The Dorkcycle

As an engineer (okay, I don't actually have an engineering degree, what with the being retarded in math and all - but my job title does have "engineer" in it, so back off, Poindexter!) I occasionally come across a product that impresses me on that level - it's rare, since the engineers must have to smuggle it out under cover of darkness before the marketing weasels find out about it and proceed to cram if full of "value added" features that focus groups indicated were a good idea. (These focus groups are usually composed of soccer moms and idiots, two groups of people I don't need designing my products). An impressive product doesn't have to be rocket science, and more often than not it's something that solves a problem as simply and elegantly as possible. One of the things I've been hoping to do for a couple of years now is to shoot some video from my motorcycle - since I have lots of video equipment and plenty of cheap "spy-cam" type cameras, you would think this would be pretty easy. Unfortunately, one of the disadvantages of dirt-cheap foreign electronics is that sometimes, the only person who can give you specs for things like voltage and adapters is the guy in the Chinese sweatshop who has the blueprints in his desk. After trying to cobble together an external lens for use with my video camera (since I'm too cheap to buy one of the pre-made kits), I decided to explore different options, such as mounting the camera directly on the bike - a dicey proposition, since my video camera is one of my prized possessions.

I first came across the RAM Mount page a few years ago, after seeing some Iron Butt-type BMW aficionados talking about them on a forum. I decided to give it a shot, and was extremely impressed with the quality of the gear - they have systems to mount everything from laptops to cameras to cell phones on cars, motorcycles, ATV's - even airplanes. One thing I really appreciate is that it's all modular - while you can by a pre-assembled kit, you don't have too - I bought a 1" tube mount (for the handlebars), a 1.5" tube mount (for the frame), an arm, a suction-cup mount (for the gas tank) and a camera base. The stuff is simple, solid as a rock, and cheap to boot. I have no doubt that I will be returning to their website to buy more components so I can transfer everything to my car, as well as mounts for my cell phone, MP3 player, etc. RAM knows where its bread is buttered and now offers many of it's motorcycle-oriented components with a chrome finish, which even I think is a bit ridiculous (and I'm putting the Kuryakyn family's kids through college). But the interesting thing I noticed on their website was this picture:



Now, this picture is obviously meant to illustrate the many different types of devices that could potentially fit on a given motorcycle. You'd have to be insane to actually try to ride a bike with that many gadgets & gizmos on it at once. But I got to thinking: That would kick serious ass. My friends know that although I can do a halfway decent biker impression, I'm still just a dork at heart - you're telling me I can combine geek toys and motorcycles?!? I think I need to get one of the bikes that is favored by the ultra-utilitarian-function-over-form high mileage wierdos, like a Honda ST1100, Yamaha FJ1100, or Kawasaki Concours (although some of the really weird ones go for exceptionally freaky bikes, like the Pacific Coast or the GTS1000) and just load that sucker up. All I would need is an auxiliary tank and I'd be in business. Maybe if I souped it up I could compete with the ultimate dorkcycle...

One For You, Nineteen For Me

...so I've been up to my eyeballs in paperwork for the past week. Tax time is looming, and due to dealing with buying a home, probate court, my own financial crises, etc., most of my pertinent paperwork from the past year is spread out in a wide swath from one end of the house to the other. I've finally got it all corralled into one central area, but now it needs to be sorted, collated, folded, stapled, and mutilated until it resembles something I won't be horribly embarrassed to give to the fine professionals down at the H&R Block (although I'm thinking of buying some of that fancy software and doing it myself this year, 'cause I'm a glutton for punishment).

-Just some random miscellany of interest:

-Family members are taking part in the revelry at Daytona as we speak - I'll post any pictures that make it my way when they return.

-I have some bits n' pieces on the way that will hopefully allow me to shoot some cool motorcycle videos as soon as the weather breaks - if everything works out, I will post the camera rig as a project file and hopefully get out on the road with it in the next few weeks.

-I received iLife '06, and it is a big improvement. I haven't had much of a chance to play with iWeb yet, but I'm thinking of using it to greatly expand this site, since I have some free webspace that I'm not using. We'll see.

-Not much on the music front except I got a killer deal on an iControl for Garageband, hopefully it will inspire me to record some stuff I can share with you guys.

I've got finals in a week, so I might be scarce until then...

Bright antenna bristle with the energy

Many moons ago, I was a bass player. To be blunt, I was pretty lousy - strictly a root-fifth kinda player, but I enjoyed it. I had a couple of roommates who were a decent guitarist and a passable singer, respectively, and we would jam together once in a while.

The main reason I played bass was the same reason as 90% of all the bass players in the world - I was never a very good guitarist. Seriously, go see some local bands (you don't do that enough anyway) and talk to the bass players - almost all of them began as guitarists, but started "filling in" on bass as a necessity. Sure, there's the occasional guy who grew up obsessed with Geddy Lee or Jaco Pastorius, but those guys are weird and usually wind up composing sci-fi rock operas in their parents' basements. See, guitarists & singers are a dime a dozen. Drummers are pretty common, but are frequently replaced due to their tendency to drink all your beer & sleep with your girlfriend (but they're the ones with a van & a rehearsal space, so it's a fair trade). There is always a shortage of bass players, because nobody's that into it. I mean, really, if you were an average kid growing up in the suburban wasteland of America, did you wanna be Eric Clapton or Jack Bruce? Jimi Hendrix or Noel Redding? Eddie Van Halen or Michael Anthony? I rest my case. Nobody likes the bass player. That's okay, though, I looked at it as job security.

My favorite part was the gear - I had a beautiful Ibanez bass, as well as several others. I had an insanely large Trace Elliot amplifier rig that I got for a song when the company was sold off. And oh, the stompboxes. I had dozens of 'em. Everything from your everyday Boss & DOD effects to vintage Electro-Harmonix boxes and outrageously expensive pedals from boutique manufacturers. I had to build a massive pedalboard with a custom wiring system to hold 'em all. I would run a synth through a ring-mod through a flanger and just get the trippiest space-rock noises ever.

After getting out of school and suddenly finding myself with a job and a car and a mortgage, I didn't have much time to play and was pretty much perpetually broke. One day I was sitting in my home office, paying bills and generally lamenting my lack of funds, and my eyes wandered over to my gear. Thousands of dollars' worth, just sitting there, gathering dust. So I slowly sold all of it off via eBay, and that was that.

What's the point of all this? Well, as I've mentioned, I recently bought a new Mac. It came with the requisite (and handy) iLife apps, including iDVD and iPhoto, but the kicker was a relatively new addition: GarageBand. I opened it up and played with it a little. I like to edit together vacation videos & family photos into movies to give as stocking-stuffers, and initially I thought "This might be a cool way to add some simple background music". As I played with it a little more, I realized: I could actually do something with this, music-wise. Sure, it's not ProTools or Logic, but it's a surprisingly feature-rich program for home recording, considering it's free. It's light-years ahead of the little 4-track PortaStudios I used to play around with. And just like that, I was back into it. I bought a simple USB keyboard to use as a MIDI controller, but that wasn't enough - soon I was dusting off my old mics and heading to eBay to bid on some basic mixers and cables. My town is blessed (or cursed) with both Sam Ash and Guitar Center retail locations, and it wasn't long before I was headed their way (during a freak snowstorm, no less) - I needed a guitar. I am consciously trying to restrain my budget, so I bought the cheapest Strat they had in stock. I could practically feel my wallet itching at the effects counter, but I settled on the least expensive multi-effects pedal I could find. Weird, because I was always an analog snob before when it came to effects. I have started tearing my home office apart in order to dig out everything I'll be using, and to re-wire the computers to do what I need. It'll probably be awhile before I have anything I'm ready to share with the world, but someday I hope to post some stuff here. I will post some pictures of my "home studio" setup as soon as it's in order. The bad news is, the big Guitar Show is coming to town in a month - Lord help me...

I got nuthin'

Well, I got squat done this weekend, due to pulling some muscles in my neck/shoulder area that sends an exquisite pain shooting through me whenever I raise my arms or turn my head to the left. Thing is, I don't even remember how I did it - I don't recall having done anything particularly strenuous in the past few days, I just woke up and rolled over and YEOWCH!!! As my Dad used to say, "It's hell to get old, boy".

I did get the Mac hooked up, and am learning the in & outs - it's a very strange thing for me to feel out of my element when it comes to using a computer. Now, I don't claim to be a guru or anything, but computers have been a big part of my life for the past 25 years - from junior high, through college, and into my work. I am literally surrounded by dozens of computers at my desk at work:

Welcome, my friend, welcome tooo the machineeeeeen...

I put about as much actual thought into using a computer as a mechanic does when using a wrench, or a janitor does when using a broom - that is, none at all. It's just a tool that helps me do what I want to do. It gives me a whole new perspective to be apprehensive. I will do my best to remember it next time I find myself losing patience with someone I am trying to teach.

It's mostly fiddling around right now, and the stuff that's got me spooked is the little stuff - no taskbar at the bottom of the screen, minimize/maximize button in the wrong corners, etc. It will all work out with time. Oh, and I just noticed that the handy little "edit html" tools in Blogger are missing with the Mac web browser, so I'll have to try getting Firefox working again (I tried last night, but there's some bugs in the Mac version and I lost patience with it). Check back later in the week, there's more entertaining stuff coming, I promise. I snapped a few truly frightening "before" pictures of the office yesterday - I mean, seriously, you will lose all respect for me. Hopefully I can redeem myself with the "after"...

Movin' on up...

Is there any better feeling than knowing there's a box full of shiny new hardware on the way? I can almost smell the outgassing long-chain monomers now. Things have been kinda tight this year financially, but I forgot that I can cash out excess personal/sick time at work at the end of the year, so I converted enough to swing the new computer and to put a deposit on a new engine for Das Bus.

This will actually be my first Mac - At home, I've been a Windows user exclusively (except for playing around with some Linux distros) ever since I packed up the Commodore 64, simply because games were important and commodity hardware is dirt cheap by nature. The Mac Mini changes all that, though. Persistent problems with Windows (nothing unusual, just the same problems everyone has) coupled with ever-more-frequent hardware problems with my 4-year-old box in the past year made me decide to give it a shot. A co-worker assures me I can use my current external USB hard drive & DVD burner, and I haven't played PC games since college - 95% of my computer use nowadays is simple email, web browsing, typing letters and pulling pictures off my digital camera. The only potential sticking point was that I have some high-end software (PhotoShop, Adobe Premiere) that I won't be able to use anymore, but A.) most of the versions I have are already 5 or 6 years old, and B.) I rarely use them for anything more complicated than cropping photos or editing home movies, so I don't think it's anything that the iLife bundle can't handle. (Besides, there's a spankin' new PowerMac G5 gathering dust at work with Final Cut Studio if I want to get fancy. Throw in OpenOffice and the Gimp, (both free), and we're set.

Probably the only way to make this entry remotely interesting is to mention that a former co-worker of mine was in one of the original Apple "Switch" ads. Aaron was the Network Admin at a television station I used to work at, and became very familiar with the Macs used by the editors & art department - he's become quite the Apple devotee.

WTB: Base of operations

Living on a single income with a mortgage, there isn't a whole lot of extra cash for luxuries (and I'm still begging off with the student loan people). However, I have decided that as much as I love condo livin', I need more room for my projects. I am casually looking for a few acres on the outskirts of town that I can put a pole barn or a Steelmaster building on (or maybe not). I don't want to finance the land so it will probably take me a few years to afford it, but soon after that you may well hear rumblings on the news about a "compound", and my name will undoubtedly be married to phrases such as "ascent to leadership" and "month-long siege".

I went riding the other day on orders from Lucky, since he was bedridden and unable to do so himself. I'm glad I did, as it was a beautiful evening and the bike will soon be going into hibernation - although, for some reason, I am currently engaged in negotiations to add another to the stable, although I'm sure it will need some modifications to make it more my style.

Mr. Jalopy had a great post the other day about the Apple II that made me nostalgic for my own early days of computing - after a short-lived interest in the TI 99/4a that my parents recieved as a promo with the purchase of wall-to-wall carpeting for the upstairs, I spent a summers' worth of lawn-mowing profits on a decked-out Commodore C64 that was cast off by a neighborhood rich kid who got an Amiga for Christmas. (I still have a closet full of Commodore gear that was given to me years later, still in the original boxes, that I haven't had the time or energy to hook up yet). Seeking a quick fix, I downloaded Frodo, which promptly borked my Treo. (To be fair, it's been testy ever since I tried installing some web-based Hotsync software the other day). I eventually got it working, but I can't get it to see the .d64 images - but just bringing up the console is badass. Takes me back to Grade 9 all over again. Too bad I don't have those old phone-book-sized Basic manuals anymore...

Can you hear me now / is it in you?

The aforementioned Treo 650 is a dream come true for a gadget-freak like me - I can usually leave the man purse behind now, since my phone/camera/MP3 player/Palm/dayrunner has now been consolidated into a single device. I still had a year left on my contract so I had to pay full price for the Treo, but in my opinion it was well worth it (even though the phone reception sucks ass compared to my Nokia 3589).

So, a few weeks ago I stopped for gas on my way to work. I noticed a sign advertising 32oz. bottles of Gatorade on sale - 2 for $2. Since they recently took away the water cooler and the vending machine at work steals my money 50% of the time, I grabbed a couple on the way out, tossed them onto the passenger seat and drove on.

When I get to work I shut the car off and start to gather my stuff to head inside. When I reach for my phone, I can't help but notice that it seems to be a lot colder and wetter than I remember - turns out that the bottlecap on one of the bottles of Gatorade was cracked, and since the seatcovers in my car are neoprene (the material wetsuits are made of) my phone had been marinating in a puddle of Citrus Cooler for the last twenty minutes.

(Just for your infomation, if any piece of valuable electronics you own ever gets wet, the ABSOLUTE LAST thing you should ever do is TURN IT ON. But that's the first thing I did, of course. The phone actually did turn on - when the keyboard backlighting turned on, the buttons were ORANGE, and the phone was switching back and forth between different applications at random.)

I actually did get the phone working again - a quick search on teh intarweb reveals that this happens surprisingly often, and it could have been worse (I read stories of people dropping their cell phones in swimming pools, the ocean, and even a port-a-potty). I removed the battery, flooded the phone with denatured alcohol, rinsed it thoroughly, and put it in the oven on the lowest setting for a few hours. Every feature on the phone worked, although it was a little "swollen" looking from it's time in the oven, and the LCD had some funky ghost images on it. I called my provider and they agreed to send me a new phone for $50 since I didn't have insurance but it was still under factory warranty (I might have left out some of the details about what happened...)

Testing...

..trying to get posting to work from my Treo. If you can see this, it works.