My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on August 30, 2010

Every once in a while, the point of sale technique works on me … and today was the day. I coughed up $1.43 for a Palm Pre app called Neato! It’s a simple little application that runs on the webOS smartphone and receives webpage links, copied text and maps from a computer browser using a javascript bookmark button (installed on Chrome and Firefox).

Once installed and running on the Pre, the bookmarklet added to the browser bar can be clicked to send the page or text to the registered smartphone … so as long as the app Neato! is running in the background AND the screen is active (battery saving feature). The current productive use that I’ve found is with maps; I often look something up while at the desk and with a single click can quickly send it to the phone before heading out of the office.

A second use is to send a highlighted bit of text that contains an name and/or phone number and send it to the phone. One click and it is waiting to be used or copied to my contacts or calendar (slightly easier than adding to Google Contacts or Calendar and hoping it syncs before I need it). Nevertheless, I’d like to see a bit more two way communication (ie. phone to computer) and an archiving feature that saves and perhaps edits previous items. The app works easy with YouTube clips and photos/images too.

From the “How to” instruction within the app

neato! is pretty simple to set up, but it does take a few steps. From the main app card, tap the "Generate URL" button. The app will then display a URL that looks like this:
http://zhephree.com/neato/id/a1b2c

Visit that URL on your computer’s web browser. Do not visit it on your phone.

The web page that is displayed on your computer will give you a blue link. Drag that link to your web browser’s bookmark bar. Now that you have the bookmarklet "installed" in your browser, you can swipe the main app card away on your phone. Do not close the dashboard notification. It needs to be running for neato! to work. Now you can click the "neato!" bookmarklet in your browser and either the URL of the site will be sent to your phone, or the text that is selected on the web page.

Note: when your phone’s display turns off, neato! disconnects. It will reconnect when your phone’s display turns back on. neato! does this to conserve battery power when the phone is not in use.

neato! faq

How can I have Google Map links open in Sprint or VZW Navigator instead of the Google Maps app?

neato! uses webOS’s default apps to launch special URLs, such as Google Maps URLs. To have them open in Sprint or VZW Navigator, open the application Launcher. Tap the "Launcher" menu in the upper left corner of the screen and select "Default Applications". In there, change "Directions" to your carrier’s navigation app.

Sometimes text won’t send to my phone from a web page.
There’s a limitation in the length of text that can be sent.

Currently, small snippets of text around 120 characters can be sent to your phone. There’s also a bug where if there is a carriage return in your text selection, neato! won’t get the message. A fix is on the way.

Why does the neato! icon have to stay in the notification area?
This is the nature of webOS. Apps cannot truly run in the background for more than 60 seconds without having some sort of window or notification open.

Apps like the Facebook app, or your favorite Twitter app aren’t running in the background. They actually quietly open every few minutes, check for new data, and then either display a notification, or close. The problem with this for neato!’s purpose is that the minimum amount of time this can happen is 5 minutes. This would completely break the instantaneousness of neato!. So, unfortunately, there is no way neato! can currently run without an icon in the dashboard and still be allowed in the Palm App Catalog.

If I doctor my phone, will neato! still work?

Yep! neato! uses your phone’s device id to calculate your special URL and your custom bookmarklet, so as long as you have the same phone, your bookmarklet will still work. If you do get a new device, just tap the "Generate URL" button on your new device and get your new bookmarklet URL.

Can I send stuff from my phone to my computer instead?

Not yet! But plans are in the works to make this happen. You’ll get an update on when this happens.

Category: Cellphone, Computer, Software, Technology | 4 Comments »
Tags: app, smartphone, webos

Posted By RichC on August 30, 2010

As the tropical activity heats up in the Atlantic, I wanted to play a little more with raw data to see exactly what kind of projections are concluded. For those not in the bluewater sailing  or weather watching world, the data is downloaded and run in GRIB file readers. I’m using UGRIB and imported the data about 17:00 EST on Monday.

Currently the storm centers of Danielle and Earl are both spinning around in the Atlantic Ocean and they were impressively captured by NASA’s Terra satellite (be sure to click for larger files). Both of these storms are expected to impact land with Earl seemingly the biggest threat to the US east coast later this week. Below is a short video projecting the path.

Danielle started causing problems for U.S. east coast residents this past weekend with large waves and dangerous surf conditions and reports indicated that more than 100 people were rescued from dangerous currents in beaches from Maryland to New Jersey. According to reports, “large waves and dangerous surf conditions are diminishing around Bermuda today, and will gradually subside along the U.S. east coast over the next couple of days. Waves near 10 feet however are expected to develop this afternoon along parts of Newfoundland, Canada as Danielle tracks northward. Danielle’s maximum sustained winds were near 75 mph, and it is expected to weaken in the next 48 hours and become extratropical.

Earl is now consider a “major hurricane (Category 3)” and has  maximum sustained winds near 120 mph. Earl’s center was about 95 miles east-northeast of St. Thomas and 165 miles east of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The National Hurricane Center stated that "Hurricane conditions will be spreading across the northern Virgin Islands during the next few hours. Tropical storm conditions will spread over portions of Puerto Rico this afternoon with Hurricane conditions possible this evening and tonight. Storm surge will raise water levels by as much as 3 to 5 feet above ground level primarily near the coast in areas of onshore wind within the hurricane warning area…and 1 to 3 feet in the tropical storm warning area. The surge will be accompanied by large and dangerous battering waves. Earl is expected to produce total rainfall accumulations of 4 to 8 inches over the Leeward Islands, The Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico with possible isolated maximum amounts of 12 inches especially over higher elevations."

Category: Weather | No Comments »
Tags: atlantic, grib, hurricane, storms, tropical, weather

Posted By RichC on August 30, 2010

Category: Automotive, Volkswagen | No Comments »
Tags: audi, diesel, tdi, vw

Posted By RichC on August 29, 2010

A few years ago Donna Lange sailed alone around the world on her small well built Southern Cross 28 sailboat (see PDF Brochure). I enjoyed staying in touch with her and posting on my blog. Brenda and I also enjoyed catching up with her as well last year in Annapolis for a boatshow and get her to sign a copy of her book, Captain D & Wise Mother Ocean. After her circumnavigation, she settled in West Palm Beach and is teaching nursing as well as continuing to speak, write, sing and volunteer with the organization Ocean Watch (see North American link). This summer, after prepping her sailboat Inspired Insanity, she set sail on a 1000 mile 12 day sail from Rhode Island to West Palm Beach – but all did not go as planned. She tells of her trouble off Duck, North Carolina.

Edit: Photos and video used in this post from Megan Claire D’Andrea and Ian Hilley.

Category: Sailing, Video-TV | 4 Comments »
Tags: donna lange, friends, mp4, sailing

Posted By RichC on August 28, 2010

Sharing a video from EAA Airventure 2010 … not mine. Thanks for the link Steve. (for another good video from the previous 2009 Airventure click here)

Category: Aviation, Video | No Comments »
Tags: airventure, eaa, flying

Posted By RichC on August 27, 2010

My father-in-law was taken to the hospital on Wednesday this week and since I was conveniently working in NE Ohio, I opted to head to Jamestown NY in order to lend a hand. Getting him to the hospital ended up being the right move and he is resting far more comfortably under doctor and nursing care than remaining at home. My mother-in-law appreciated having me around as all three daughters needed a couple days to adjust their schedules; I was glad to be able to help.

While here, I also took some time to take care of a few home projects, haul some stuff to the dump and mow grass. Interestingly, there is also a black bear spending time eating the ripening berries behind the barn and bulldozer shed. I failed in getting his picture, but can post a photo of his “droppings” … but won’t. Instead, how about a mistake that all of us make at least once in our lives? I stopped at McDonald’s on my way home and whoops!!!
🙂

Category: Personal | 2 Comments »
Tags:

Posted By RichC on August 26, 2010

USA Today reported last week that civil servants received average pay and benefits of $123,049 last year, while private workers made $61,051 in total compensation. The report, using data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, also said the federal compensation advantage had grown from $30,415 in 2000 to $62,000 last year … when did this happen?

Category: Politics | No Comments »
Tags:

Posted By RichC on August 25, 2010

Drugs, teens, alcohol and driving … not good combinations.

Eden arrested and released before crash

BEAVERCREEK, Ohio (WDTN) – Brennan Eden, the driver of the car that went airborne and crashed on I-675 in Beavercreek, Ohio Aug. 23 had been arrested and released by Beavercreek Police approximately an hour before the crash occurred.

According to a statement by the Beavercreek Police Department, Eden, 19, of Mason, Ohio, was arrested at approximately 6:13 a.m.

Police said the Eden was found in his car with a juvenile female in a parking lot near the corner of Beaver Vu Dr. and N. Fairfield Rd. Police said they found an unopened can of alcohol, a trace of marijuana, and drug paraphernalia inside Eden’s car.

Eden was cited for prohibition, drug paraphernalia, and drug abuse and released prior to 6:54 a.m. Police said Eden was cooperative and there were no indications he was under the influence of alcohol at the time of his arrest.

The girl was also arrested then released to the custody of her father.

Eden crashed his car at approximately 7:15 a.m. Witnesses said Brennan was passing other drivers at speeds of at least 100 mph before he drove off the left side of the roadway while passing a Sugarcreek Twp. police car. The crash was caught on that officer’s cruiser camera.

Eden lost control of his car and slammed into the concrete pillar of a bridge south of Indian Ripple Road. The force of the crash broke the car into three pieces and Brennan was ejected.

"He went down into the median, into the grass, hit the guardrail, went airborne and the car hit the center post of the bridge and literally exploded into three main pieces," said witness Mark Riley.

Brennan was was flown to Miami Valley Hospital by Careflight where he was last listed in critical condition.

Ohio State Highway Patrol Lt. Marty Fellure said they are still investigating the crash trying to determine Eden’s speed and why he was passing cars on the berm.

The crash shut down the southbound lanes for nearly six hours.

Megan O’Rourke; Web produced by David Robinson

http://www.wdtn.com/dpp/news/local/greene_county/eden-arrested-and-released-before-crash

VIDEO DELETED

Category: Misc, Video | 4 Comments »
Tags:

Posted By RichC on August 25, 2010

A couple day’s before our vacation, Sprint pushed out the webOS 1.4.5 update to Palm webOS phones. I resisted the urge to update prior to leaving (thankfully), as I had some concern that the Pre Backup Utility wouldn’t be sufficient to restore the ‘homebrew’ apps, patches and tweaks I installed over the past year, an assumption was correct in my case.

The actually update pushed overnight and was no problem, but attempting to restore the customization to the phone was a complete failure. The “restore” feature from the Pre Backup Utility whirled endlessly and by morning after a reboot had restored my phone to factory specs and no personal data whatsoever. The balance of the morning was spent synchronizing data via “the cloud” so I could at least have my contacts and calendar functioning again.

Back to tinkering again this afternoon after finally giving up on restoring my tweaks and patches using the Pre Backup Utility – a waste. Hopefully over time I’ll have everything back to the way I like it. For now, I’ve got UberKernel and Govnah running again in order to bump chip speed up to 800 MHz from the stock 500. It ran fine on the previous OS so I’m hoping the same for webOS 1.4.5.

From memory I’ve used Preware to install most of the patches and some of the programs that I use regularly. After flushing the text messages it looks as if that is back to normal … but my contacts are jumbled, I’ve lost speed dials and a few ‘homebrew’ programs.

Other than that, the phone is running again but seems to be draining the battery even faster than before??? Since I’m traveling Wednesday, I’ll give the new webOS a more appropriate test.

Category: Cellphone, Technology | 6 Comments »
Tags: smartphone, sprint, webos

Posted By RichC on August 24, 2010

Category: Automotive | No Comments »
Tags: