Gadget Atrophy

Sometimes, despite how many gadgets I set up for myself to remember
things, something falls between the cracks. I can use Google Calendar
or Sandy or whatever to set a reminder for myself, but there are many
fewer things you can do if you accidentally fall asleep. Which is why
I want to be able to have my phone give me alarms even in silent mode
for some things, or perhaps program it to turn silent at times and
back on right after. This is a problem for many students - we turn our
phones on silent or vibrate during class, and often keep it that way
during the day and forget to switch it back later. Without the ring,
what's the point? Today's "smartphones" need to get on this. Stat.

Stop the Speaker Buzz!

This post might seem a bit noob, considering that I've taken so many physics classes. But in trying to fix my Logitech X-240 speakers (a nice cheap buy on Slickdeals if you can find 'em), I found out something pretty cool - the effect of electromagnetic interference on speakers because of induced current in the speaker input cables. The current creates an errant, high frequency (thus the buzz) signal in the cables on the way from your device to the output. Since I got my new laptop, I haven't been using my AC-powered external hard drive much. This afternoon, while listening to music, I turned it on and later realized that they were buzzing. It took some forum searching to find out that devices around the speakers and not just cable-crossing could mess this up.

To turn this into something bigger that it is.... many times we tend to thing that things don't matter or that once something is dealt with, it's done. Like deleting a file - it's still there (try Googling "ghost bits"), or the effect of phytochemicals on fad diets, or in this case, how cable clutter under your desk actually affects your speaker sound quality. Interesting how things are interdependent.

QwasiPad

I'm currently writing this from my iPod. But that's not special,
right? Wrong. It is actually being written on my iPod, which is
currently controlling my laptop, which happens to be on my desk while
I'm watching CNN using Livestation. A post on that piece of cool
software coming soon. But QwasiPad is something to be talked about
now. It's the cheapest and most easily functional computer-control app
that I've seen so far in the App Store. It works very easily with a
trackpad and keyboard which makes this quite easy to type an email for
direct-to-post on Blogger. Check it out - for $3 you can't go wrong.
And especially considering this is the first app that I've actually
paid for, you KNOW it's gotta be good!

El Toro

Yesterday I got to ride what I have now ranked on my top 3 coasters
I've ever ridden. This wooden coaster, located at Six Flags Great
Adventure in New Jersey, takes more turns and risks than many steel coasters and is far more frightening than anything except maybe Kingda Ka, located right near it in the park. I tend to underestimate wooden coasters, as do many people nowadays. But don't doubt this beast - by the end I was begging to be on a real bull instead of in my seat aboard El Toro.

Drexel Free Stuff

All college students love free stuff. Especially me. Many of my friends and associates often ask me where and how I manage to get so much free stuff and why I'm quite obsessed with it, so I decided to start a GCal for all the free stuff that's going to be around Drexel University and to some extent, the rest of Philadelphia as well. The link is below - you can subscribe to it using Google Calendar as it's public. If you use some other format, that's also compatible with iCal. The XML feed is also up for those who want to subscribe via RSS. I'll try to update this as often as possible, but its going to take me some time to add in all the stuff that's flowing our way this week! Also, it's not complete as it will be filtered to what is most relevant... free pizza is plentiful, but I try to hit the cool stuff like water ice, cheap Ross Commons food, etc. Enjoy!

ICal

XML/RSS

Sarah Palin Email Leak Spur Jokes

I was just on Gawker and the comments regarding Sarah Palin's Y! Mail leak are pretty hilarious, so I compiled them:

Internet: bridge to nowhere

Their in-home network = Alaskan Pipeline.

Their computer crash was the Exxon Valdez oil spill

Oregon Trail game = the Palin's driveway

MP3: the seal's mating call

Spyware = Siberian who got lost somewhere outside of Nome.

Antivirus software = rifle

Heated igloo=computer lab

Computer mouse = actual walrus

Keyboard = eskimo's ribcage.

Mouse=a real Arctic mouse

Power cord = Aleutian Island chain

Computer screensaver: aurora borealis

Printer = Aleut calligrapher

Cursor = Blinking Eskimo

Hard drive = small chamber deep in the base of Mt. McKinley

Seriously, who uses Yahoo of all things for work email? Some serious obstruction of justice questions are being raised...

The Next Gen Apps

Now we're starting to see some really cool apps and fewer "me too" types... such as those who joined in the deluge of Yelp-driven restaurant reviews and tip calculators.

Simplify Media: wirelessly access your whole iTunes library and playlists. Personally I think this should be built in, along with the Artist info and Lyrics capabilities. No longer is the tradeoff between cool device (iPhone/Touch) and having all your music (Classic) needed. You can keep as much as you want on your smaller capacity device and just stream the rest of them from your computer. Yes. This quite simply a media sever, but the best part is how easy it is to set up and quietly it runs on your computer, in terms of memory usage. It's great for singing along to your music without having to go to a lyrics site, search, and open up the song you want too. I keep it right next to the Remote app, first page.

AirSharing: I'm still trying to work with this one, since they haven't built Vista 64 bit support yet. Vista support is getting much better though with the upcoming 1.0.1 release. Updates later, but in short it lets you use your Touch or iPhone as a wireless USB drive. You mount it on your computer and you can transfer files back and forth and open up any of the recognizable formats (documents, presentations, spreadsheets, PDF) on the go, offline. Of course you can put other files on it as well, but not for viewing. I find myself using it for the openable formats, but not for others (since I carry a 2GB flash drive with me on my keys).