09.05.06
The HumanCar
A picture is worth a thousand words…
From Engadget.
09.03.06
iWoz
The Wozniak has finally published his new autobiography with an incredibly long title, “iWoz: From Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It“.
You can also read an interview he did at wired mag.
08.29.06
Southwest Airlines Interactive Route Map
Southwest has a nice little Interactive Route Map that can be amusing. Check on the “only show non-stop flights” so that you really see how popular those various travel destinations are…
08.26.06
Recondition That Battery!
A word on battery reconditioning… it’s a good thing. I love my ThinkPad (a little too much sometimes) and am very pleased with the battery performance. I can easily get 3+ hours on a single charge if I turn down the screen brightness just a bit. Very useful for watching a movie on a plane or sitting having coffee…
But one thing does tend to happen over time, the % readout in the taskbar starts to read incorrectly. For example, a couple of days ago I started up the laptop and ran off battery for 2:40 minutes (the screen was set the brightest it woudl go, and I disabled all shut-off timers). Now 2:40 is no slouch, but I believe it read less than 10% for the last 40 minutes of time! And in fact, as I was rapidly saving every 5 seconds, the battery lasted for 10 minutes between the 1% warning sound and when it actually shut off.
This happens over time as a battery ages. The % left is calculated based on the voltage coming from the battery. With age, the voltage tends to decrease, making it appear to the software as if the battery is running out of juice, when in reality it is simply getting older.
How do you deal with this? You can either buy a new battery every year or two (not a bad idea anyway) or recondition your battery at least once a month. Reconditioning consists of running the battery to absolute ZERO — not just waiting for it to go into standby or sleep when the juice gets low. You should create a power profile that is “disable all shut-off timers” (and disable the standby and shut down triggers) and then just let the computer sit there until it powers off. Make sure you don’t have significant programs (Outlook, Excel, etc.) running when it gets down to 1%, but you’ll probably still have several minutes of computing before it shuts off.
That’s today’s laptop tip… use it wisely.
08.22.06
The Battle Begins
From Slashdot:No Virtual PC for Intel-based Macs
The bigger news for me:
Microsoft will also be discontinuing support of Visual Basic scripting in the next version of Office for Mac.
Let the platform wars begin (again) in a completely passive aggressive way!
08.21.06
Software Licenses in the Real World
From Boing Boing:
The city of Hoboken had a contract dispute with the operators of a robotic parking garage; the garage operators cancelled the city’s license to its software and locked all the cars inside.
Can we say oops! Don’t mess with the software licenses when it controls things in the real world.
08.20.06
Lower Your A/C Bill
There’s an article over at TreeHugger about lowering your A/C bill by installing sunlight-blocking screens on sun-facing windows.
We’ve also used window film on the interior of our windows… essentially tinting the windows on our house. It helps reflect sunlight to keep rooms cooler when the sun is bright, and theoretically reflects heat inward when it’s cold outside.
08.13.06
Solar-Powered Wi-Fi (Gizmodo)
I’m not sure if this is best for the $100 Laptop project or just my back yard… regardless, let’s string together a few hundred of these and build a mesh network of WiFi across the whole darn neighborhood, eh?
08.11.06
Lack of Security Everywhere…
Lovely. Apparently there’s a security hole in the MacBook laptops that allows malicious users to take control of the laptop… just by being within WiFi range.
You’re 0wn3d! Wi-Fi driver hack attack demoed | The Register
The lesson? When you’re not using wifi, turn it off. Also, don’t assume your Mac is more secure… any Centrino chip could be at risk.