Posted By RichC on June 25, 2009
If you don’t mind wasting a few minutes, here’s a new search tool site called Spezify which finds bits of random information from different websites and posts them in a unique and visual way. Spezify.com was started a few months ago in April, but went live on June 15, 2009 (follow on Twitter: @spezify).
Try your name, a quote or some topic that has had ‘somewhat’ of a web presence.
Posted By RichC on June 24, 2009
After a couple of weeks with the Palm Pre I’m learning to be more productive with the hot little smartphone device. The earlier cut, copy and paste complaints for supported apps complaint has become less of an issue and I’m enjoying the improved camera, yet still miss added camera features and video. There are also several functions that I miss after years of using Palm OS dedicated PDAs and smartphones (Palm Pilot, Visors, Treo 600, Samsung i500, Treo 700p and Centro), but there are several huge improvements over Palm OS devices too … not the least which is the ablity to have several applications running at the same time and still be on the phone. Email now rivals the Blackberry and the over the air ‘synergy’ for contacts and calendar something way ahead of competitors. In my opinion these feature make the Pre a productivity device, although it is still considerably behind a notebook computer. I’m not sure how one measures user productivity in ‘speed’ tests similar to the one below (if you have an Atom netbook or a Android device give it a try and send or comment your results). LINK to test.
That said, the comparison devices that I have used and can fairly compare the Palm Pre (besides the Treo) are the Windows Mobile phones and first generation iPhone and iTouch devices. Nevertheless, after considering pocketable options — the Pre is really pocketable — the only competitor I could see myself gravitating to would be the iPhone and probably only the speedy 3GS model, but realistically until there is a physical keyboard I just can see myself switching (hint, hint, Apple – remember my 2 button touchpad and 2 button scroll wheel mouse gripe from years ago) .
As for speed, the new iPhone 3GS does seem to be showing some pretty impressive numbers. I noticed the benchmark testing using SunSpider JavaScript and thought why not give my Palm Pre a try. As you can see, my test was close to what the Medialets test turned in – 48.6 seconds to my 49.6 seconds … considerably behind the newest iPhone. For the fun of it, I also ran my 2GHz Core 2 Gateway notebook running Safari 4.0 on Windows 7 Ultimate RC (balanced power setting) scored a 0.81 seconds compared to the 2GHz Core 2 Mac running OS X v10.5.7 scoring 1.36 seconds and Safari. Is there really that much of a difference?
Posted By RichC on June 23, 2009
I’ve been struggling to finish and tweak the install of the Microsoft Windows 7 Release Candidate OS before my Beta version expires — 8 days from now. Unfortunately for me, I embraced Windows 7 after switching from Vista back in January and couldn’t imagine going back, so onward I planned to go. The initial install coming from a 32 bit Vista OS was very easy, but the current move from the Beta to the RC not so. The install is not for the technically challenged IMHO.
Here’s what I did:
For the most part I was back running with necessary software and had what I needed for work today. Still to go are the extra items that I’ve been fighting with today. VLC, iTunes, Capture Express, Total Recorder, Palm Database, Truecrypt (probably don’t need?), Macrium, Adeona, the all important Sugarsync (causing me problems since directories have changed) and the biggest headache … Tweetdeck 0.26 and Adobe Air. For some reason the Twitter client wouldn’t function? Eventually I uninstalled and found a 0.25 version which installed fine and automatically updated to the new 0.26 version. <= If you have this problem … try it. (I’ve got the old verision if you can’t find it on the web)
So besides getting my desktop the way I want it, figuring out why my installed programs don’t show up under “Programs” in the “Start” menu, bitlockering my systems partition and grabbing some spyware checking software, I think I’m on the road to running Windows 7 RC.
My advice is to purchase a new hard drive but don’t partition it unless you must or are going to use it for a different OS — ie. Linux or Windows XP. Unless you need Bitlocker, don’t bother or just create a single small partition for your critical files.
Here’s PDF of my scores using the “Windows Experience Index” tool.
Oh … and its a good time to give Sugarsync a try … 2GB FREE.
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Posted By RichC on June 21, 2009
Today being Father’s Day has me reflecting on the two fathers in my life. They are both terrific dads and are great examples for me, as well as their grandsons. Shamefully for me, we didn’t prioritized getting together with them this year as we have in the past. Normally we are together for an annual Cincinnati Father’s Day weekend, but it has been usurped by other family activities (not all ours) — in our case my wife and son are both working and my daughter is diligently studying for her M2 medical boards this Friday — a big deal if you are familiar with these things.
My normal reply would be ...”there’s always next year,” but then … this morning my wife mentioned morbidly that this could be the last Father’s Day for her dad (Gulp … this was not like her); perhaps we should have driven to New York to be with him ( a little late now)? Although I don’t say this kind of thing out loud, I do think about it. Now my brother on the other hand, is a bit different. One year he did a calculation of how many times ‘we’ would statistically see dad based on life the average expectancy and the number of visits we average with him per year — now that’s just disturbing.
Anyway … Happy Father’s Day to all the dads reading this and ignore my brother’s calculations.
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Posted By RichC on June 20, 2009
Belated post. It’s an interesting photo included for my Audubon ‘birding’ friends. Yes it is a tweaked photo.
😆 I’m dating it as a Saturday entry which I missed this week.
Posted By RichC on June 19, 2009
Great tip from Paul Thurrott of winsupersite.com about shopping with Microsoft’s new bing.com websearch tool. Besides being a Google challenging search tool, it can also save/make you some money. You’ll need to sign up for ‘cashback’ using a Windows ID email (ie. live.com), but by using the impressive search website and associated vendors (huge list), you’ll be able to have cashback plunked right into your Paypal account. Give it a try.
Posted By RichC on June 18, 2009
Our local VW TDI group is working on a ‘welcome bag’ item for this year’s TDIFest 2009 near Washington DC (Herndon, Virginia). CinciTDI.com group, which hosted the TDIFest OH8 last year, has decided to offer up something for the registrants. Initially we though about a small canvas portfolio bag, a 12 LED flashlight (still pretty pricey), a small tool kit (cheap-ish Chinese tools) and now a small Jotter (below) that could be used at the TDIFest or even afterwards in the car. Thoughts from those of you that are reading this from CinciTDI?
EDIT 6/19/2009 — Other items mentioned above
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Posted By RichC on June 17, 2009
This was suppose to have posted from the Palm Pre to my blog … obviously my test and photo didn’t post. (I’ll have to look into it) Anyway … after a long rain delay early in the game, the Red were able to finish on top with solid pitching and hitting fromLaynce Nix. See Story
Posted By RichC on June 16, 2009
After a week slipping my new Palm Pre smartphone in my front pants pocket, I’ve decided it really needs a little protection if it is going to last a few years. Since the ‘cute’ little pouch that comes packaged with the Pre is not well suited for daily pocket use, in my opinion … I’ve opted to recycle a “lost but found” Blackberry slipcover case.
The slightly wider case actually works very well and the phone is easy to access, but doesn’t readily fall out. I’m hoping that the case will also offer just enough protection if dropped and still make it easy to access the phone. Other Palm Pre owners who prefer carrying their phone in a pocket might want to consider this option until a premium slip case is fitted for your expense phone.
Now if only the little cut that is on the left were on the right (photo below), the tiny Pre speaker would be easier to hear.
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Posted By RichC on June 15, 2009
Here’s an excellent video from the World Air Games in Turin, Italy showing a test flight flown by Space Shuttle astronaut (STS-75) Maurizo Cheli in the electrically powered SkySpark Single “Motor” Land aircraft (a lame attempt at aviation humor on py part). What makes this flight unique is that it has achieved an airspeed record of 155mph (250km/h) for an 8-minute long battery powered flight. The project plane, a Pioneer Alpi 300, is capable of 186 mph straight and level flight so expect to hear more record breaking flights. (long time blog readers might recall that my current Sonex project plane was electrically powered two years ago – link)
The engineering firm is Digisky along with Turin Polytechnic University and they have worked with both fuel cell and battery powered project. This aircraft is powered by a liquid-cooled 75 kW Valentino synchronous motor by Sicme Motori that weighs in at 55 lbs (25 kg) with energy provided by lithium polymer batteries. The team plans on focusing on a “hydrogen fuel cells powered engine” project.
(source: EAA)