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Blackberry 7230 Resets, Won't Load
I’ve been using my 7230 faithfully for the last two years now. We got a pair when they shipped two years ago. Lately though, I’ve been having lots of trouble. The contacts won’t sync and have a strange error and the thing will randomly reinitialize itself. The Blackberry.net site is singularly useless for debugging, but…
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83(b) Elections and other trivia
Been doing a bunch of investments lately and boy am I learning more about tax and other law things. Section 83(b) election. What you have to do when you get all the restricted stock in a startup. Don’t forget to file.
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Mid-Range PC Recommendations
OK, so you don’t want to spend a mint, but get the best price/performance. In many ways, mid-range systems offer the best value. I need one to replace Calvin’s PC, so here is the recommendation. Again based on “Anandtech”:http://anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=2177&p=1: * AMD Athlon “3200+”:http://hometheaterspot.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php?masterid=1247981&blsrt=1. This is the last of the 1MB cache system, runs at 2.0GHz…
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Symbian Handsets
With really cool Symbian apps, I need to get a Symbian phone. Interesting to see which ones you can actually buy in the US: * Symbian OS phones:. Here is the list from the horses mouth. Amazing how few Symbian phones there really are. * “Symbian by Operator”:http://www.symbian.com/operators/phoneoperators.html. A nice little application that tells you…
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High End System Recommendations
So based on the Anandtech guides, here is what I’m getting for a high end system. This is a system I’d design for video, photo and gaming. Right now, the PC I have is just too slow for video editing and rendering (takes 3 hours to render a 15 minute video, its a good machine…
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What Memory to Get?
As usual, Anandtech has done an incredible job with its “guides”:http://http://anandtech.com/guides/ to buying PCs. I agree with most of the recommendations. Right now I’m getting a high-end system for video and photo editing and printing and another mid-range system for Calvin. Calvin’s old computer is dead and that means our backup now goes to my…
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Cooler Athlon XPs
While working on Bill’s Athlon 64, I discovered there are some things you can do for hot Athlon XPs. In the same “SilentPC”:http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?p=64530 piece, but there are some utilities that allow an Athlon XP to actually halt when idle. Apparently Windows XP doesn’t do this, so you need a special little utility to do it…
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Bill's Computer Unstable
Got down to San Diego. _I know, I know, guide to Beijing/Shanghai and San Diego are coming soon._ Anyway, checked out Bill’s Athlon 64 3200+ Shuttle SN85G4 is unstable after about 5 minutes. Here’s how to diagnose. Essentially, after about 5 minutes of running flat out, the machine hard shuts down. No windows error, the…
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Campy Compact Cranks
Campy CT Cranks. These are compact cranks, so you don’t need to get three rings in the front. Great for guys like me that don’t need 53×11 big rings. They are 50/34 rings vs. 53/39, so a little lowe4r range. Also, they are lighter overall apparently too, so that is even better.
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Klein Palomino
www.cyclingnews.com news and analysis . Well, there are sure a lot of great bikes now. The Klein got a glowing review from cyclingnews.com as did the new XT system particularly the cranks.
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Off to China
Well, I’m off the China for a business trip. A quick week. Amazing number of things that you have to do: * Visa. You have to mail away for this. * Destinations: East Asia | CDC Travelers’ Health. Check here to see what shots you need. The big one for China is Hepatitis A. I…
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Military Reading List
Military Books – Recommended Military Reading Lists. I admit it, I’m a student of military history as our family knows all so well. There are lots of books out there that aren’t of the usual blood and guts sort. Like all such things, there aren’t great recommendation sites. Here’s a great one. Organized by service…
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Guide to Notebooks: August
I haven’t covered notebooks before as this is a big topic and don’t buy many, but with the model change to Dothan, they are becoming pretty interesting. Given the performance improvments of the new Intel chips (AMD doesn’t play in mobile much), you should probably wait until notebook folks swap to the new 7xx series…
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Monitor Calibration
How do you make sure the red you scanned in, looks the same as the red you see on the monitor and the red you print? Welcome to the arcane world of color management and calibration. Some good guides are: * “About.com”:http://photography.about.com/library/weekly/aa031003e.htm. A good basic tutorial on how to set your monitor (6500 Kelvin, 2.2…
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Minolta Dimage 5400 Quirks
DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 | KONICA MINOLTA. Well I finally sprung for a 35mm and slide scanner. The price got right and the features too. Haven’t really given it a full workout, but there are a bunch of quirks about this machine that don’t seem to be documented anywhere. So here are some of the…
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Linksys NSLU2: Home NAS gets even better
Hacking the Linksys NSLU2 Part 1. With the first network printer that actually works easier running in our house (the Brother HL-5170DN is cheap and works well), I’m on to figuring out storage. For a long time, because network attached devices just plain didn’t seem to work (I’ve tried print servers, media servers, etc.), I’ve…
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Spending a Day in Seattle with 3 boys…
Jim Meyer is going to be in town and was wondering what to do. Will be in San Juans on Tuesday. Thursday to the Mariners game. Friday open. Boys 14, 11 and 7: * Mariners Game. Already going to one on Wednesday. That’s a great idea, although I’m sure it will be a sad event.…
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Top 10 Things for an 11-Year-Old Boy from Iceland
What if you are 11 years old, what is there to do in Seattle if you’re from Iceland and have never been here. Here’s a short summary for all those little boys who would be bored taking a walking tour. The top ten are: * The Boeing Everett Tour Center Home. Tickets are $10 each…
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Armadillo Song
LONDON HOMESICK BLUES . One of my favorite songs to sing to Alex when he is a little baby. I’m sure he never understood the words, but all the kids loved it. Has always brought back memories of me growing up and hanging out with a next-door neighbor, Mark Fraser, who would play cowboy and…
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Ultralight Business Travel: Packing
OK, besides getting the right travel bag (analogous to getting the right backpack), what else can you do? Like ultralight camping, ultralight business travel consists of looking everywhere for an ounce here and an ounce there. Here’s an example of before and after when I think about packing for a say a 3 day trip.…
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Dad's Login Page
One of the hard things about the internet is making favorites really work well. When folks are on different machines, it is really complicated. It is too bad there isn’t a central repository for folks settings for simple things like the links on a browser toolbar. So instead, a blog is a good way to…
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PC Buying Guide for August
Well, its that time again for PC buying recommendations. This time, great kudos to AnandTech’s June Overclocking Guide. I love this particular guide because it includes what machines overclock well to get you additional price/performance. I’m also in the middle of building up a high-end PC for my own video editing, gaming and digital photography…
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Tour de France Photos
www.cyclingnews.com presents the 91st Tour de France, 2004. Great photos from the Tour de France. The race may be over, but the memory lingers on.
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Scanners Guide 2004
Scanner Reviews (Editorial) Sorted by Date – Page 1 – eCoustics.com . eCoustics is getting better and better, they now are a meta-review site that looks at reviews from many magazines and also trolls for user reviews. Very smart. Here’s a quick list of recent scanner reviews that would have taken hours to get: *…
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Ultralight Business Travel: Your Travel Bag
Ultralight backpacking seems to be all the rage as is ultralight equipment in bicycling. I don’t see why there isn’t the same trend as people slep bags from one end of the world to the other. The technology is getting better all the time, but I see all kinds of folks dragging gigantic laptops, huge…
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good piece on filters
Filters. very confusing what to use now that photoshop exists. Two most interesting are a haze filter and a polarizer. I have a UV filter on all my lenses. He says B+W or Nikon are best, but Tiffen is half the price and probably OK. Don’t get ultracheap filters though.
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35mm Film Reviews
Edward C. Nemergut Photography. I’m buying another batch of 35mm film. Used 9 rolls of Fuji Superia-X ISO 400 film for nature and portrait photography. Results were Ok for the landscapes (mainly shot with a really neat 70-200 lense), but what was outstanding were the outdoor portraits (particularly on those overcast days in Alaska). Many…
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Quote of the Day (Stage 17)
Tour de France – Daily Scoop (Stage 17). _Those Texans can be so endearing_ bq. “I said to him, ‘How bad do you want to win a stage on the Tour de France?’ and he said, ‘Real bad.’ I said, ‘How fast can you go downhill?’ and he said, ‘I can go downhill real fast’.…
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Lance is a stud…Bike Lust continues
What about that Texan. An incredibly classy day today and I’m even more impressed with how hard those guys at the Tour De France work. And, for those of us looking for the perfect mountain bike, perusing Cycling news gives us the new Klein Palomino XV based on the Tuner Monoshock.
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Guide to Printers 2004
Well, it finally had to happen, but after 4 years, our HP 940 Csi inkjet printer finally died. Actually the death has been lingering. First we put in Christmas cards in and this destroyed the ejection mechanism. Then, the cool two-sided printing module failed. Now, it doesn’t power on at all. So on to a…