So I do have to say that I’m quite impressed by Timex and their Triathlon watches that they offer that come with a GPS locator. Can we just say, “Whoa.” I mean seriously that’s pretty wild that you have the ability to a) be traced, but also b) be able to track distances that you’re running for training purposes all the more accurately. I surmise that it’s still commercial grade in which case it could be anywhere within 150 foot radius but for all intensive purposes that rocks. And the price, still pretty low as the highest seems to be $300. Check it out at: http://www.timex.com/bin/detail.tmx?item=753048113774#
Archive for the ‘Gadgets’ Category
Timex with a GPS Locator?
Saturday, September 16th, 2006Zapping your hard drive quick and easy… at only 125 pounds…
Sunday, June 18th, 2006Dark Reading – Host security – Researchers Find Technique to Quickly Erase Hard Drives – Security
If you’ve ever been worried about someone snooping your data perhaps after you turn your work laptop into your employer when you leave, you might want to consider using something like Jetico’s BCWipe. It’s a program that essentially writes 1′s and 0′s all over your harddisk, making the data unretrievable without some super pricey equipment. Additionally it usually can take up to a day to wipe say a 100 GB harddrive (yes, even a 7200 rpm drive will take a while).
So sure, that’s fine if you’ve got a couple of days to plan things and you need to make sure that your drive is wiped before you leave, but what about those instances where you just need to wipe something immediately? Well, it would seem that the US Government is investigating doing something about this. Many times there is a need for the immediate disposal of media, and using something like the aforementioned software just doesn’t cut it. Enter the media disposal system reference in the aforementioned article. Holy smokes that’s sweet. But my curiousity is why not just use a good ole fashioned microwave? I mean, when I was in college, I used a microwave to destroy CDs from time to time and they were more or less unreadable. However, by no means do I suggest this, as it is hazardous to both your health and a fire safety issue.The only caveat to the story is that the device weighs a whopping 125 pounds. Granted it mentions that they’re working on putting together something that is a little more transportable, but for the time being it would seem that’s a little out of the question.
6 Places to use Ajax
Saturday, April 29th, 2006So I get a kick out of the fact that now four months later that Alex Bosworth’s article on 6 Places to use AJAX is coming up on digg.com. Maybe there’s hope for me afterall?
Nonetheless, I find it interesting that there is such an outcry for using Ajax anywhere and everywhere. On the discussion boards that I read on a regular basis, I hear people talk about how it would be great to start programming all of their applications with Ajax mixed in. It’s interesting to see this idea put forth mostly because it’s completely useless to think that way.
I remember writing a simple form program a year ago for a friend and doing it all in Javascript so that it would have form validation, embedding it in code that would then be displayed on the page. My friend came back and said, “But why not write it entirely in PHP?” Sure, PHP was what the server was using for its backend application server, but JavaScript worked perfectly fine for what the need was.
I see this occurring more and more with regard to Ajax. There’s a need for it here and there such as Alex mentions, but there are times where it’s basically pointless to have such code included when it adds a level of complexity that some coders aren’t ready for and in some instances becomes so much of a hindrance to the end user that it drives people to other sites in search of the information for which they seek.
[Listening to: MLB.com - Houston Astros at Cincinnati Reds, bottom of the 4th inning]
Getting your PERM on…
Saturday, April 29th, 2006So over at the SWING group, a part of the Computer Science department at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, there’s a group working on a project known as PERM – Practical End-host collaborative Residential Multihoming framework.
Yes, not your usual perm, not the kind that you wear in your hair, unless of course you’ve got an 802.11 network router interweaved in your french braid.
So what does this mean? How is this useful? Well, in some cases if you’re good friends with your neighbors, it allows you to truly maximize the bandwidth that you have and extend the range of your wireless device that you use to connect while at home. And for those of you that don’t know your neighbors well, but you can see that they’re one of the 30 wireless networks nearby, you are essentially extending the hand of friendship, getting to know your neighbors maybe and exchanging WEP/WPA keys and getting your groove on with this PERM.
What do you mean there are multiple networks in your neighborhood? Well in the case of the northern Virginia neighborhood that I reside in, there are approximately 30 802.11b/g networks that I can pick up, though I’m pretty confident that we’re the only 802.11a network in the neighborhood.
So what’s the point? Check out the PERM project, test it out, play with it, extend your mobility and really get the best bandwidth for your buck. Sure it probably invalidates all of the internet providers terms of service that you signed when you started your service with the company, but hey it couldn’t hurt to try it out as a scientific experiment right?
[Listening to: MLB.com - Houston Astros at Cincinnati Reds, bottom of the 2nd inning]
Oh my Gaud… look at her mouse ;-)
Sunday, February 26th, 2006
So are you feeling like your mouse really just doesn’t fit the rest of your desk’s look or you feel like you need something that will differentiate you from the rest of your colleagues, then look no futher than Neiman Marcus‘s Crystal Computer Mouse. It’s a three optical mouse with enhanced wheel scrolling technology. My only gripe is that it’s not Mac compatible.
For the times when you just feel that you need to impress your friends and make them see just who you really are… (thanks LT)
BlackBerry on the RIM
Friday, February 24th, 2006It would appear that a court injunction may be ruled on shortly. A U.S. judge apparently stopped short of ordering a complete shutdown of Blackberry’s services, which could be quite devastating to the users of the Blackberry service. For more on this developing story, check out this Yahoo! News story.
Google Local and Google Talk on the Blackberry
Saturday, January 14th, 2006Well, it would seem that I have dodged yet another technology bullet. Google seems to have released Google Local for mobile. You can download it to your cell phone, and now recently they’ve added the ability to have it on your BlackBerry. Fortunately for me, my BlackBerry is not on the list which means that I still just get to use the regular Google Local interface that is available in mobile mode. But wait, I decided to go to the site through the browser that is included on the 7250 and look at that, it sees my BlackBerry as a 7290 and installs and operates without a hitch. Rock on!
For more information about the future of this venture, check out the article on ZDNET – BlackBerry gets Google-ized. Looks like when Google Talk comes out, I’ll truly be able to move and groove and still collaborate with colleagues and friends. Better yet, think how cool it would be if the Google Talk client will be able to offer the Voice over IP offering that the current client does.
Hawking Technology WiFi HiGain Antenna
Thursday, September 29th, 2005The more and more I think about it, I start to wonder, “Why should I pay for an internet subscription backhome, when I can get something like this?” But then I of course realize that I must pay my due to the services that I procure. Still a pretty nifty device that I think that I might pick up for when I’m at a location where WiFi is somewhat iffy.
Viva las Hawking Technology!
Strange Behaviour of the iPod Shuffle?
Wednesday, September 21st, 2005Last week my iPod Shuffle 1 GB went berzerk. For some reason all of a sudden it lost half the songs on the drive and additionally would only play through 8 tracks and then hop back to the first of the 8. When attempting to power it off, it continued playing for a good 10 seconds.
So, I went and plugged it back into my computer this evening (since I’ve had a little down time) and it went and pushed nearly half of the music back onto the Shuffle (wow, where’d it go? how’d it get corrupted?). It seems to be working a little bit better, but for some reason it’s not shuffling when it’s put in shuffle mode. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I’m thinking it might be time to return it and get a Nano.
[Listening to: Shiver - Maroon 5 - Live - Friday the 13th (4:49)]
