WHARRGARBL!!1!
It’s not as though the Targus backpack that most employees use doesn’t scream “There’s a laptop inside - steal me!”.
But this is just a little too much. It’s kind of blurry, so if you can’t tell, the orignal sales label that says “Notebook Backpack” is still attached…
If this is you, PLEASE ditch the label! 
A coworker dropped by to show me one of the few gadgets I don’t have - an infrared laser thermometer. Simply aim, lase, and get a very accurate temperature.
We use it to measure the temperature of electronic components, but when we measured my arm, it read 99.0 degrees F - pretty accurate, I guess.
What I want to know is why doctors offices don’t use these? Faster and more sanitary than the ones they stick in your ear, mouth, or, erm, other places…
Cell Phone Towers - Portland, OR
Now this is awesome. Take the cell tower information provided by the FCC, then overlay it with Google Maps. Have a look at your neighborhood, and see where the cell towers are (or aren’t).
Now you know why there’s that dead spot around your house.
OK, now that I’ve been using iTunes 4.9 and a Color iPod for all of about 24 hours, I already have one significant gripe. In iTunes, and on the iPod, podcasts are now handled in a completely seperate part of the database from music. That means that if you shuffle through all of your songs, you’ll never run across a podcast. You have to specifically choose Podcasts in the source list, and then choose which one to play from there.
Nice, if you don’t want podcasts to clutter up your music. The downside? You can no longer add podcasts to any Playlist, Smart or otherwise.
I used to use a Smart Playlist called New Podcasts - a list that showed me everything with a Genre of “Podcast” (forced by my podcatcher, Doppler) and play count of 0. That gave me one list I could play through, and hear all podcasts that I hadn’t listened to yet. When I finished listening to one of them, the play count got incremented, and it disappeared from the Smart Playlist.
I haven’t been able to find any similar functionality for Podcasts in iTunes 4.9 or the new iPod. In fact, since podcasts are now in a completely seperate part of the database, I can’t even manually create a playlist. I have to manually scroll to and select each podcast episode individually. Bleh.
Anyone know of a way around this? Apple, if you’re listening, this would be a much appreciated improvement in future revisions of iTunes and the iPod software.
You’re never going to believe this. I didn’t, until I saw it with my own eyes.
Yesterday, I was resigned to the fact that I was going to have to return my new 20GB Color iPod to either CompUSA or the Apple Store. It simply wouldn’t boot, no matter how many times I restored the firmware, or tried other tricks. In a last ditch effort, I checked somewhere that, in times past, would have been my first stop - the ArsTechnica Forums. I did a search for “ipod exclamation”, and this was the first hit in the results.
Could it be something as simple (and weird) as a cable? I have a third party USB/Firewire iPod cable that I got a while ago sitting on my desk. Out of desperation, I hooked it up, and did one more firmware restore. Everything proceeded normally, like before with the original cable, but when it got to the final reboot…
Eureka! After showing the Apple logo, it booted up, instead of showing the “folder with exclamation point”. I have to confess, I did a little happy dance. I couldn’t believe that something like using a different cable for the firmware updated could make a difference, but there you have it. Just goes to show that the Ars Hive Mind really does know everything.
Anyway, I took it home last night, and migrated all of my podcast subscriptions from Doppler to iTunes 4.9, so I can take advantage of the iPod’s podcast functionality (show notes, etc.). I still use Doppler to catch mashups, but it’s nice to have my podcasts and music in completely seperate areas in iTunes and on my iPod.
Expect a lot more about the new iPod in upcoming posts and podcasts (and maybe even some video). I’m really impressed with it so far - it’s the best podcast playing solution I’ve seen.
It seems that Google is slowly opening its arms to RSS and XML. I just noticed a “new content” banner on my custom Google home/portal page. In addition to a new Gmail section, you can now add any RSS/XML feed, and the new items will show up on the front page.
Interesting, given Google’s reluctance to full embrace RSS/XML syndication in their web offerings (with the notable exception of Gmail).
Had a pretty nice weekend with regard to gadgets. Replaced our Uniden 5.8GHz cordless phone at home with a fancy new Panasonic that can do pretty much anything a modern cell phone can do (WAV ringtones, caller ID photos, color screen, etc.). It’s “just a cordless phone”, but the fact that it has a mini-USB port on the side, talking Caller ID, and came with a driver CD makes me love it. Expect more detail on it soon.
The other big gadget news was that I replaced my Creative Zen Micro 5GB (the one with the faulty headphone jack) with a 20 GB iPod Color. I got it all set up, synced over my podcasts and photos, etc., but when I pulled it from the dock this morning, it rebooted, and now won’t boot past the “Folder with an Exclamation Point” screen, admonishing me to visit http://www.apple.com/ipod/support/. Alas, I’ve been fighting with it all morning, following all of Apple’s recommendations (restoring the firmware, etc.). Windows and iTunes recognize it just fine, and will copy stuff over to it. But as soon as I disconnect it, it reboots and won’t go past that error screen.
Gah! Is there anything worse than having a new gadget, and not being able to use it?
I don’t know what I’ll do next. The Apple Support forums seem to indicate this is a fairly common problem. I bought it at CompUSA, and I bet they’d replace it if I fought for it hard enough, but I’m not 100% sure a replacement will help, especially since it works fine in iTunes, and multiple restores of the iPod OS haven’t helped. I’m also considering a trip to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store, but I’m a little skeptical that they can help, either, especially since I’m a Windows user.
Expect updates to this saga, as well as some photos (and maybe some video) as soon as I can get everything working. Any good gadget karma or wishes you could send my way would be appreciated.
“There’s something wrong with your pants.”
Of course, I wasn’t about to actually say something. :-O
Snapped with my Audiovox SMT5600 Smartphone on the way home.
Rachel and I are planning a vacation trip to Washington D.C. in October, and I’ve been using Google Earth to look for airports, lodging, etc., to help us plan.
The ability to see where we’ll be staying, places we want to visit, etc., and save them all as markers is awesome. I think it will be quite useful once we’re there, to plan out places to go and see.
Any suggestions or recommendataions for things to do in D.C.? I lived there for a few months in 1996. We’ve got the usual stuff like the Smithsonian, all the Capitol stuff, etc. What are the can’t-miss spots in D.C.? (Bonus points for geeky stuff, of course 
Hmmm. Testing:
Let’s see if I can get an ad to show up here. Perhaps for the Dell Axim Pocket PC.
# # http://tinyurl.com/68qbxb # # # http://tinyurl.com/68qbxb # # # # # # # # # #
# # # # # Who knew she spammed free web hosting on the side? # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # http://tinyurl.com/5ov8es #
TinyScreenfuls Feed (this blog)