Bits vs Atoms

I've Moved

2008-11-21T12:06:00.002-07:00

All of my posts are now going here.

Black Coffee Mugs

2008-03-03T10:30:00.003-07:00

With my Mr. Coffee going out I resorted to the plastic drip apparatus that fits over the coffee mug. It worked pretty well and fit snugly on most of the coffee mugs but one, which was my favorite mug. Oh well, it had to go. I also decided to sort through the other 12 mugs sitting on top of my desk. As I took them to the office kitchen for cleaning and recycling I noticed I couldn't tell whether the black coffee mug was clean at the bottom. As I at times leave a little coffee in the bottom of the mug and not wash it out if I'm in a hurry I had a brain fart! You can't tell if there's old coffee residue in the bottom of a black coffee mug. Coffee mugs should never be black or dark brown or any dark color on the bottom of the inside. Period!

Long Time No Post, Washing Machine Broken Atoms

2007-04-17T07:19:00.000-06:00

I took quite a break on this blog. That's normal as it happened once before between 2000 and 2004. Why write if my heart's not into it and I hate to just throw up some drivel so that I can say that my blog is current? Nope. But maybe it's because I just drank short of 6 ounces shy of a pot of coffee or maybe my aura is glowing a blogger's rainbow, it's time for another post. Heaven forbid it's because I have something to say.

Today's diatribe deals with the washing machine's atoms or any appliance atoms that need to be fixed. Of all the appliance's we take for granted, the washing machine is really the only appliance we can't live without. It's the appliance that if it's on the fritz, our schedule will get discombobulated having to wash clothes elsewhere at a friend's house or worse, at the laundromat.

It started when I got word that the spinner wouldn't spin which also meant the drainer wouldn't drain. I can handle the spinner not spinning better than I can handle the drainer not draining as I have to cup-by-cup by hand drain the tub. A proper analysis of a broken machine always starts with the easiest fix possible as if you're talking with a relative trying to use a computer. "Is it plugged in?" It really could be that easy but usually isn't. I started with the knobs and tried see if the spin cycle was somehow confined to having the knob in just the right spot on the dial. Each time I did this more water would rush into the tub which meant more hand-to-hand-cup-to-cup draining. Argh! I looked and the lid-switch would depress but not normally. I should have investigated this further and saved my self a lot of time and hassle. At that point I gave up the diagnosis and retreated to form a plan.

Google has an answer for everything. Everything that is everything has been discussed and is now indexed through Google. Somebody out there has talked about a Series 80 model Kenmore washer that has failed to drain and spin. Sure enough, roughly 2,000 bites on this Kenmore chatter. I opened up the first three and they provided more useful information than the service manual. While it could have been any number of things wrong with the machine, I now had a list of steps to do to take the washer apart and do a proper diagnosis. Nah, too much work.

"So and so used a guy that charges $35.00 an hour and he's honest." Great. Looking at the Sears phone number for service and a $65.00 charge that could be credited towards a new washer if the repairs proved to be prohibitive. Meanwhile, loads went out of the house and hours later loads came back in the house folded in neat stacks as the broken appliance sat pulled from the wall inoperable with a half tub of water getting stinkier by the day.

Somehow I mustered up enough motivation on Saturday morning to take a stab at the dead appliance. Long-story-short of it was the back panel came off with difficulty and cussing the fact I could've reached the same hardware by tipping the thing backwards. The panel went back on with half the parts, difficulty and cussing. I tipped the washer and removed the pump which in turn dumped it's contents all over my fresh shirt. The pump was clean and working properly as were the lines. The agitator was fine. I reassembled everything and tilted the beast back down.

I took a break and went back to the computer. I pulled up the Sears Web site and noticed they had an appliance sale. Don't they always have an appliance sale? A meeting with the head of the Laundry Department suggested a front loader and red would be a good replacement. Argh! $650.00 to $1,000.00. That was enough of a motivator to get back at the beast. I started again with the lid switch. I took out the two screws and noticed the problem right away. Cracked plastic. Two dabs of super glue and it was fixed. I was both happy, overcome with joy and pissed at the same time. I did have to eat a mouthful of tub water but then again I didn't have to eat $1,000.00 for a replacement as well as remove the old one and store it until big trash day. I think the Laundry department was a little disappointed as well as a new red, front loader wouldn't be arriving for some time in the future, but joy that underneath and behind the washer was now clean (one of the foulest places on earth).

I wonder how many washers are tossed because of that switch. It probably has a higher failure rate than the other mechanical parts of the washer and many are tossed instead of applying two dabs of glue. How many people have the time to really get to know the washer and find the problem? How many get taken because they chose to call a repair person who said it was the motor and in reality, it was a switch that could be fixed with two dabs of glue.

Fabricating Aero Cycling Bars

2005-09-06T22:00:00.000-06:00

One of the worst decisions I ever made was to sell my Trek road bike in a garage sale for $40. I thought I'd never ride it again, as I was interested in off road cycling at the time. Now, I'm riding more roads than trails and wish I could have that bike back. It had the clips, the aero bars and everything that I want today.

I recently sold my heavy (45 lbs.) mountain bike on Craig's List to a UT student. In it's place I bought a light, 27-pound Bianchi and starting to change it's soul from a mountain bike to more of a hybrid with road accessories. Last weekend at Frankenbike, I purchased some used cycling shoes for $20 and a pair of clipless pedals for $15. By the way, the recumbent made an appearance at Frankenbike and got it's picture taken. Take a look at Frankenbike #3.

The next thing I wanted for the bike were some aero bars. A friend had passed along a Nash Bar catalog and they still seemed expensive for a couple of pieces of tubing, bolts and padding. Some getting upwards around $140. REI's sale brought them down to the $110 range. I thought I could build something for far less money, after all, it's bars, tubing and padding.

I took a stroll through Home Depot last weekend and found a lightweight broom handle to start with. Moving over to the plumbing section I looked through the PVC section and stumbled across everything I needed, or thought I needed. Connecting pieces together like a Lego model, I came up with a design that resembled most of the aero bar concepts.

Three days later and the aero bars are on the bike. I tried them out last night, after I had glued the bars into place and put new grips onto the other bar and tightened everything down. I won't be able to put any weight on them but who does anyway. They're light and the placement of the shifters works fine. All of the weight is placed on the padding and transferred down to the main sterring bar. The flex but allow me to steer in either direction. Total cost for the aero bar parts came to $8.45.

Sometimes atoms are too expensive, based on the brand or other market factors. It seems everything related to bicycles is expensive. Browsing through the local bike shop I saw bikes for $1,400, shoes for $120, handle bars for $75. This may seem like no big deal to others but I find the stuff extremely expensive for a bicycle and accessories. But then again, I lean towards function over design or brand in most cases.

Maybe I've watched too many episodes of Biker Build Off or American Chopper, where they tend to fabricate many of the things they put on their motorcycles, excluding the engine and tires. Fabrication of parts doesn't have to include welding. It can be PVC if it stands up to the stress of the purpose it's used for. And fabrication doesn't have to only include bike parts, motorcycle or bicycle. So many things can be fabricated form found parts in the hardware store.

My recumbent bike is testament to fabrication. It works, it functions, and it was a joy to build.

Main Entry: fab·ri·cate
Pronunciation: 'fa-bri-"kAt
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): -cat·ed; -cat·ing
Etymology: Middle English, from Latin fabricatus, past participle of fabricari, from fabrica
1 a : INVENT, CREATE b : to make up for the purpose of deception
2 : CONSTRUCT, MANUFACTURE; specifically : to construct from diverse and usually standardized parts
- fab·ri·ca·tor /'fa-bri-"kA-t&r/ noun

Atoms - Flavored Water

2005-06-24T11:41:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, I purchased a bottle of water at the grocery store. I usually fill a bottle with filtered tap water but having none in hand, I piced up a bottle to go with my sandwich. One bottle stood out from the rest. A bottle that you would use after all of the product is consumed, just to have a cool bottle design filled with filtered tap water. The bottler is MetroMint.

After drinking a few sips I paused. I've tasted this before. Hmmmmm. This tastes like mouthwash.

I've filled the bottle with filtered tap water now for three days and the mint still permeates the plastic as the water has a hint of mint.

Next up is the new Trek sports drink. I bet you tastes like Tang. It does come with an attached carabiner for $1.99.

Atoms - Imagined Apple products

2005-03-24T08:35:00.000-07:00

Business 2.0 Magazine hired former Apple designer Robert Brunner to speculate with some future Apple designs. Sweet!

Now put the display from the iPod watch into the Apple Shuffle.

Music bits - A reader emailed yesterday asking what I'm listening to as I don't put that information in my blog. Some blogs post weather, mood and music choices. I think that's a little too much information but here ya go. I'm listening to mp3.de, a German version of what mp3.com use to be before they sold it and it bcame commercialized. yesterday I was listening to the electronic ambient selections. Today, it's the jazz artists listed on the charts.

Atoms - Frozen Fish Sticks

2005-03-21T18:20:00.000-07:00

Grocery store layout is somewhat like Web information architecture. You categorize products and their proximity to other products based on relationships much like content is categorized and placed into various info buckets.

Recently I ventured to a grocery store, starts with an "R" and went to the frozen foods section to pick up a box of fish sticks. Another woman, with three sugar-soaked kids were looking for the same thing. Thinking I just couldn't see the fish sticks, I walked the three-frozen food isles at least four times. If men don't ask driving directions, do they also not ask where frozen fish sticks are? I eventually did ask and the manager said he'd show me.

By the direction he took off for, I knew they were in an entirely different area of the store. As we passed the lady and her kids, I told her to follow as the manager was showing me where they were. We walked to the northeast corner of the store, next to the meat counter where the fresh fish counter is. Next to this counter is a small frozen food display, where frozen fish sticks and a couple of other fish products are available. I asked the manager what the hell they were doing way over here. Using this methodology, I may also want chicken strips and does that mean I need to go to the butcher counter? Or maybe I want vegetarian hamburgers, made with black beans so I need to go to the produce section? He and I could both tell I was being a smart-ass but still, he thought frozen fish sticks should be next to fresh fish and not in the frozen food isle.

He soon left and the woman and her three kids walked up. She was confused but glad to finally find the fish sticks, although her kids had changed their minds and now wanted chicken strips.

This is what makes designing Web sites tough. For the vast majority, one option will work. But for the few that can cut themselves with a bar of soap in the morning, fish sticks are with fish, chicken strips are in frozen foods, frozen pizzas are next to frozen bagels.

I've seen this a few other times. During Christmas, certain products are pulled from the location in the store and placed at the end of the isle for promotional purposes. Most stores have the product in both locations, so if you want to pick it up from where you normally associate the product you can do so, or at the promotion spot. Every once in awhile, they pull the entire product and just put it at the promotion site at the end of the isle. I then have to check the end of each isle.

Now if the store wants me to walk each isle and every isle, that's just plain mean. As the customer, I want to get in and out fast and the store that helps me do that is the one that's going to get my business. Whether it's online or in-person it makes no difference.

A PDA download of the grocery store layout would make all of this a mute point. I could download it into the Palm when I enter and then query the frozen fish stick isle. The recent SXSW conference did this for me with all the keynotes, panels and featured speakers. It proved to be a very useful tool. However, I realize conferences are different than retail or food marketing. Grocery stores want me to walk to the very back of the store for the gallon of milk, just so I can pass all the other stuff that doesn't sell as well or that we really don't need.

SXSW - End of the Conference@ Bruce Sterling's Party

2005-03-16T20:07:00.000-07:00

I had always planned to go to Bruce's party. In past, I would sit in the audience as he invited everyone in attendance to his house. However, the weight of the conference would take its toll and I would succumb to exhaustion. This year I was exhausted from all the brain food from the last four days and actually felt full. Brain full, like the fullness you feel after eating too much at Thanksgiving. But I changed clothes and decided I had to make the effort or I'd regret it next month and the feeling would grow until next year and the fear that there wouldn't be another Bruce Sterling party, as this year it wasn't at his house, but rather at the VFW Hall.

Bruce is teaching industrial design out in California. He may be too busy next year to make it back to Austin. He may be too busy running full-scale dinosaur 3D files through the ABS plastic printer.

This was to be the year I had to go.

I arrived a little after 7:15 p.m. The sponsor, WIRED Magazine had several people putting last minute touches on everything which indicated I was a little early. Not knowing what to expect, I wanted to get a good parking place and did so right up front. I went into the beer tent and grabbed a glass from about 20 that were ready available. As I made my way through the VFW Hall, only about ten people had arrived. They had the look of joggers preparing for a party marathon. Easy steps, not saying much, pacing themselves for the 26.2 miles that would later come.

As I made my way through the dining area three people were talking and drinking. As I glanced over I caught the name of Steven Wozniak on the SXSW pass. I did a double-take thinking someone was playing a prank with the badge. Maybe the theme was to come as your favorite geek or sci-fi writer. When I glanced at the face, it was Steve Wozniak, one of ten people to arrive at the party early.

I approached the group of three and Steve was holding up a sheet of two-dollar bills, stitched together and was discussing his use of them to a WIRED editor and friend. Steve offered to trade the editor a sheet of the bills for her non-stitched cash but she was reluctant. Basically, he offered two $2 bills for three dollars. A great trade but she was still reluctant. I offered Steve $5 for the two bills, a gain of $1 for Steve. Steve said that wouldn't do and offered a whole sheet of four $2 bills for the five-dollar bill. A gain for me and to made a trade with the incredible Steve Wozniak was precious in itself.

As some friends arrived and joined the conversation, we somehow went from the stitched bills to Segway Polo, a sport Steve is very active in, out in California. It seems to be catching on out there and Austin may become the next franchise for the sport. However, after hearing the repair cost for a Segway headlamp, it may be some time before I get to participate.

By this time crowds had filled the various rooms and even the large room upstairs. This is where Bruce was attending a table distilling wine into brandy with an interesting little still powered by three tea-light candles.

The party was well worth it and a great ending to the SXSW conference. Something I'd always heard.

Bits - Sunday SXSW - 5:00 Panel

2005-03-13T17:55:00.000-07:00

Open Source Infrastructure

Room's cold. Brrrr.

Network was funk again but once I grabbed another IP I was fine.

open APIs. Embracing open standards.

Tribecast - Canter Blog
foafnet.org
foaf - ? code snippets, modules

It sounds like Martino (presenter has been hammered about his video blogging choice). I guess he chose the wrong one, maybe Windows Media Player. He says he selected the standard based on what his users wanted to use. Maybe. Maybe a media whore who will suck the MS teat to make a buck. What about you pick the one that's best, not the one that you think you'll sell your API to MS later on. And this panel was supposed to be Open Source. Infiltration of the Reds, the MS whores. Lock the doors.

Side note, just plugged in for juice and the plug's hot. So the defunct plug in 17ab was restricted to that room it looks like.

Marc Canter of OurMedia

Matt Mullenweg who wrote WordPress

Paul Martino (Founder, CEO) Tribe.net

Side note - A woman two rows in front of me reached over her plug for juice. I saw where her juice plug lights up bright green when juice is flowing. That's a nice design element.

Back to the discussion. Paul Martino just got two more strikes against him. He said there's not a MySQL UI. There's plenty of them, maybe not the ones he wanted so that's what he should have said. Not that there's not a UI for mySQL. He also mentioned "Soup to Nuts". Hmmmm. Gladwell snap judgement here - he's a CEO and probably doesn't know what he's talking about as much as Marc or Matt. Gladwell's findings that over 30% of CEOs are 6' 2" or taller doesn't apply to Paul. Hmmm. What's going on here?

Off to the Web Awards.

Sunday SXSW 3:30 Panel

2005-03-13T16:16:00.000-07:00

My coffee run precluded me from getting a good seat for the XHTML presentation. In fact, I couldn't even get through the door. This one looked pretty good and from the attendance, would've been one to see. I then went next door and about seven people were in attendence for the RedSox blog presentation. Hmmm, time to move on. Went back to room 17AB for the We the Media: Dan Gillmor Presentation. The bandwidth still sucked in this room.

Journallist turned blogger maybe with something to say. The powerpoint needed some work. Maybe good examples so I continued listening. I saw the slide, "Foundation Principle, with a bullet that reads, My readers know more than I do." No shit. I packed up and headed out to a cumfy chair and to blog and use the time more wisely. Plus, it was time to put Malcolm's findings to work and make a snap judgement. Hopefully, a good one.

Sunday SXSW - Keynote Malcolm Gladwell

2005-03-13T16:15:00.000-07:00

Sitting room only again in room 17AB of the convention center. The network is funky and the SSID isn't correct when I boot up. Hmmmm.

Malcolm has no powerpoint and walks around the stage enlightening the audience with his findings on snap judgements; the basis of his book Blink.

Many, if not all of the examples spoke of in the presentation, can be found in Malcolm's book or in these notes.

Richard Posner's contrary view. Messenger-Inquirer contrary view.

Personally, I think there's a lot to be said that Malcolm brings forth and the examples he draws upon. I do believe that there are snap decisions made by each of us based on experiences through our lifetime and contributed from millions of years of DNA construction. But then again, this is a snap decision on my part and I'll have to look at more evidence. Or would Malcolm say I've already made my snap decision which will be the same as my researched decision and so I shouldn't waste my time. Now I'm confused. I think I'll trade this tall coffee for my free SXSW beer for the day.

Regardless, Malcolm was a good presenter and made me think. One of my four criteria items for a conference. Side note, it doesn't look good for the swag I mentioned earlier. It's another of my four required conference items. I didn't do a thorough walk-through of the tradeshow but the booths I did pass (80%) most had cheap pens, gum, Starbursts or nothing. More when I get a chance to really check it out.

Atoms - Conference Minimum Requirements

2005-03-12T17:45:00.000-07:00

Still debating whether or not to hit any of the parties tonight. May just wait until tomorrow.

I did have a thought about the minimum requirements a conference must provide after getting nothing from the Zeldman presentation.

So here are my minimums and they're all atoms.

1. The conference should provide me the information about what it does, a method to communicate and allow me to make choices of where to go, what to do, etc. in a quick and easy way.

SXSW has provided me with the full catalog, the PDA schedule (sponsored by Ask Jeeves) and a little late but better late than never. It's also organized well. Thank you.

SXSW has a community blog but not an easy link from what I can find on the site. I remember in years past an easy to get to blog. Still looking.

The SXSW forums haven't been updated today which leads me to believe these are dead for the conference. Maybe they'll be revived.

2. The conference should give me something for attending; i.e., a t-shirt, a cup of coffee, a glass of wine or a bag are a few of the things that come to mind.

SXSW has provided me with the bag. Great to use at the library and the grocery store or to bundle up dirty clothes when camping.

SXSW provided free breakfast tacos, orange juice and coffee this morning. Excellent!

SXSW provided a late-afternoon beverage of my choice, including alcoholic beverages. Excellent! And will do so each day of the conference.

3. At the tradeshow, the booths should provide swag. I know the economy's been rough but if you're going to show up and have a booth, bring the SWAG. And it better be good swag. None of this chicklet crap or putt-three-golf-balls-in-the-hole-to-get-one-our-10-pieces-of-swag games. Good, crowd creating, elbow-my-buddy-out-of-the-way-swag.

The tradeshow opens tomorrow, so I'll let you know. A conference is sometimes judged on the amount of swag it attendees take home. So far the swag in the bag has been minimal, a couple of plastic CD covers (already have plenty), a key chain bottle opener and a couple of magazines (Linux Journal is good).

4. A conference should schedule panels that provide brain food to its attendees. Panelists, keynote speakers and presenters should provide at least one piece of brain food during their presentation.

Today's first presentation did that quite well. As soon as I get a grip on my schedule, the blogs and why my digital music player is messed up, I'll have time to think about everything Alexander spoke of in greater detail.

The Zeldman presentation didn't provide one piece of brain food. Not a crumb. A complete disappointment.

SXSW - Keynote with Zeldman

2005-03-12T14:50:00.000-07:00

First day of the conference and already I've seen the best presentation and the worst presentation. Zeldman's keynote should have been the first panel and Alexander Manu's presentation should've been the keynote. I would shout ARGH!, but I was able to see Mr. Manu's presentation so all is good. However, Zeldman's keynote was packed past standing room only and people were crawling over one another in the aisles and in any remaining space in the corners. Most of these people missed a very good Manu presentation.

This keynote was promoted as "gives his perspective on the current state of blogging, design and the web standards movement." Hardly in depth, it was mainly a gloss-over of all three items.

zeldman.com | A List Apart | Happy Cog

This guy has a lot to say and it wasn't said here today. He mentioned he was upset about his wife not being able to attend and that must be why he spent all of twenty minutes on the plane creating his powerpoint.

Sidenote - the powerplugs in the keynote suite (17AB) were not working. There was a brew-ha-ha last year whether or not SXSW participants could juice up their laptops or not. The convention center finally allowed it and turned the juice back on for the plugs. This year it seems they may be selective over which plugs get juice. I need to check the other suites to see if the same thing is happening there or the one plug I've so far checked is out.

Oh well... on to the 4:00 free drink and then the 5:00 panel. More to come.

Bits & Atoms - SXSW startin' up

2005-03-12T11:15:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that a year has past since the last SXSW, but it has. Free breakfast tacos this morning were a nice welcome. Mmmmmmm!

There seems to be plenty of coffee carts around and later today the organizers are providing free drinks at the same temporary park facility where the tacos were plenty this morning. Mmmmm.

Weather's great, coffee's plentiful, bandwidth's adequate. Picked up my SXSW bag of goodies and purged the worthless stuff so I'm ready for the 2:00 p.m. keynote.

The first panel was perfect. Alexander Manu (Ontario College of Art & Design) presented a wonderful powerpoint The Imagination Challenge, explaining how we lost our "play" in everyday work.

Any presenter that starts out the powerpoint with a photo of his son playing with his balls (tasteful and in context) is going to get your attention and start a conference with a bang. Mr. Manu played one of his own inventions, a voice scratch player on his Palm Treo 600. This basically setting down the thought we should learn how to play more. We've lost that and need to regain it.

SXSW blurb | TT1 - Axis International

Key points of the presentation.

DJ Crush - we should listen to
Heart Attack - TV show we should watch
Tiger Woods - $52 million dollars paid to the golfer to "put the ball in the hole"
dichotomy between work and play
play is never a task
sense of seriousness should be in our play
corporations should create a "Chief Possibilities Officer"
Alexander reads Trend Watch
Lego mission statement - "Add value to plastic". Example - Bionicle line.
organized exploration of possibility = play
Alexander ends with "What if your toilet could speak?" and "What if your toothbrush could speak?"

I had my SD card primed with music yesterday and somehow blew out the tunes so I'm listening to KUT via the Palm radio. I picked up a SD card reader this morning so I can start grabbing some of that great SXSW music roaming about the net.

Lost Bits - Palm Tungsten E

2005-02-16T11:38:00.000-07:00

Another year, another Palm and another group of bits have managed to vanish.

I traded my Palm m105 in for a Tungsten E over a year ago. I was amazed at the increased capabilities of the Tungsten E. As with every other computer, I managed to load it up with various apps and data. One app in particular, I had used with the m105 was Documents to Go. It's the app that allows you to view and create MS Office documents on your Palm.

Before I get into DTG, let me explain why I switched from the m105. The m105 uses two AAA batteries and frequently I would run out of juice. At this point, and many times when inserting new batteries I had on hand the m105 lost all of it's data. I would have to wait until I got home to resync and get all of my data and apps back. This became annoying and I needed something that could use a charger. The Tungsten E seemed to be a well-deserved update that allowed for charging, rather than using batteries.

Soon after buying the Tungsten E, I loaded it with DTG. Over the past year I've been adding new passwords and various other documents into it. I used the spreadsheet feature to calculate the gas mileage for the Isuzu Rodeo versus the Honda Nighthawk, etc.

I also utilized the Palm calendar alarm feature to remind me of various cable programs when they came on. This would prove to be my downfall. While it was very efficient to get a beep to remind my one of my programs was getting ready to start, and also remind me what channel I needed to tune to, I became very dependent on this feature. I loaded it up with cable listings, radio listings, along with various meeting reminders and what not.

When the Palm wants to notify its owner that they have a reminder or scheduled event, it powers itself on and then beeps. If the notification goes unnoticed, then it shuts off and repeats again in another five minutes. This repeated effort utilizes battery power. And you probably see where I'm going with this. You have to be present, or in close proximity to the Palm device to be reminded, otherwise the battery will drain. And so it went.

One Saturday afternoon I had stayed in bed nursing cedar fever. I didn't want to watch anything, listen to anything or talk about anything. I just wanted to stay under the sheets and suffer. My Tungsten E thought differently. It repeatedly reminded me to listen to the classical music station for the piano program, the guitar program. 60 Minutes on CBS, Boston Legal on ABC, and a few more. It spent all weekend beeping, but I never acknowledged its presence or its reminders.

I was revived by Monday morning and ready, bright and early, to take a look at my day's schedule. Nothing. A black reflective screen that had no life. Only my reflection could be seen. It dawned on me I had let all of the reminders go unnoticed. I quickly plugged it into the charger to give it enough juice to boot up. After about thirty minutes I checked it again and there was nothing but the basic data and apps present. OK, I'll do a hotsync when I get to the office I thought.

When I synced at the office everything came back, except for Documents to Go files and my personal photos. Those items had vanished. Even when I resynced on the mac, which operates as my paranoid backup syncing station. Nothing. Again, everything was there except DTG docs and my photos. Gone. Vanished.

Lessons learned...again.

The Palm is very good at what it does. I couldn't live without mine. I do daily brain-dumps of everything I don't want to carry around in my head. And I still want it to remind of the things I need to watch or listen to or people to talk to or meet with. However, I will pay more attention to the needs of the Palm. Just as the dog needs a walk, the cat needs me giving her water, the bunny needs a daily scratch on the nose, the Palm needs it's juice, if utilized as my personal assistant, beeping me when I can't remind myself. It has become another pet.

I've reworked my habits so that it gets plugged into the charger when I get home and taken off when I leave. So far is just the amount of attention it needs and is satisfied.

Atoms disguised as Bits - Kodak Kiosk

2005-02-04T16:31:00.000-07:00

Let me start by saying I had certain expectations taking my SD card to Randall's grocery store, where a Kodak Photo Kiosk was located.

Expectations
1. I would be able to walk up the kiosk and plug my SD card into the kiosk.
2. I would be able to navigate through the process.
3. That it would need no other intervention, other than paying for my photos.
4. that it would be fairly quick and the photos would be better than my old inkjet printer (currently sitting at the local Goodwill).

Expectation number one was pretty straightforward. I was able to also get through number two as well. However, I then got to number three. The woman behind the counter knew I'd need some help as the screen changed and asked for a password. Since this was my first time, I knew I didn' have one. She came around to the fron of the kiosk and started typing. I was confused, so I asked why she did that.

"I have to do that for everybody".

I mentioned that it sort of defeats the purpose of having a kiosk pointed to the front of the counter doesn't it...that she has to stop what she's doing and enter a bloody password for everyone using the device.

"It prevents unnecessary prints being sent to the printer", said the woman.

I said, "OK, I've chosen my prints and it's ready to go."

She then pulled a paper film bag from the other side of the counter along with a pen and wanted me to fill out my information. A paper trail for my prints?

I said, "No, you don't understand, I'm not dropping off any film today, I just want the prints from the kiosk here."

"But sir, you have to fill out an order so I can print them out".

"What? I thought the order is in the kiosk. I entered my last name and first name".

"Yes, but I also need the paper and since I'm in the middle of processing another roll of prints, you'll have to wait for about thirty minutes for your prints".

I was really confused at this point, "I thought the prints came out of the kiosk?"

"No sir, they come out of the same printer as the rolls of film".

By this time I was annoyed and confused and feeling misled, so I filled out the paper, took my paper stub and went next door to shop for some XBox games. I returned about twenty minutes later and handed the new clerk my paper stub and paid for my two prints, which were included in an envelope, the same type as photographs from film.

I really thought I could go in, slip in my SD card, punch a couple of buttons and then have a brief interaction with the clerk to pay for the photos.

Atoms - Apple announcements great but not earth-shattering

2005-01-11T16:05:00.000-07:00

Today's announcements of new hardware were great for Apple products and I wish they would have happened sooner but that's not how Apple does things.

1. Headless (Mac Mini) - this idea has been out for awhile. Look at the Wintergreen Systems MiniBook at eCost. $432.70 for basically the same thing. I wouldn't be surprised if SJ took one these and layed it on the engineer's table and said "Make it a Mac".

When I test the MiniBook, it seemed to get really hot. I hope the vents on the back of the Mac Mini are adeqaute for ventilation.

2. Flash iPod (iPod Shuffle) - while I understand the creation of this piece, I'd rather have an iPod with 512MB internal memory and the ability to load my own SD cards. I'd load the 512MB with the OS and a few tunes I'd always want around, and then allow the SD card to be a holder of the majority of my tunes on separate cards.

For me, the Palm Tungsten E ($199), with Real Player and Pocket Tunes and the ability to swap out SD cards is still a much better bang for the buck.

MacWorld Expo keynote this morning

2005-01-11T10:50:00.000-07:00

Since there's supposedly no stream of the keynote this year :(, I'll be monitoring the blogs to read what's new.

Mac Observer

Mac Daily News

On the wish list;

1. A sub $500 headless mac.
2. An iPod that accepts flash memory cards.

Atoms - writing with a Sharpie Pen on a CD or DVD

2005-01-07T09:12:00.000-07:00

I bought some cheap HP CD-Rs the other day. They work great and I've yet to have one not burn the data. However, when trying to write on the bloody discs with a sharpie, the results are less than satisfactory. There seems to be a glaze coating on the top side which provides a slick surface which to write on. Not only that, HP has placed their logo and dark blue ink over three-quarters of the surface.

The best CDRs and DVRs are the ones that are totally blank on top which allow maximum writing space.

BITS versus Atoms, born versus made, that sort of thing

2005-01-05T17:53:00.000-07:00

Though this blog may differ with the mainstream, as I have yet to purchase an ipod or Tivo and choose to use cheaper alternatives if they perform the necessary tasks. Many times they do that and more.

My latest tech toy is a 2.5", 40 GB hard drive within a Firewire case. I've been connecting it to the computer with the ATI video card. This card allows the Time Warner cable to connect to the back of it. Using the ATI software, a complete listing of the day's programming makes recording easy as a click of a mouse on which shows to record.

Once the show is finished, I can disconnect the small 2.5" drive and take it with me. That means I can now watch my shows when I want and where I want. Try doing that with the TIVO.

Total Cost = $98.00

Firewire cable - $9.00
Firewire Case for hard drive - $20.00
Used 40 GB, 2.5" hard drive - $69.00