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I seem never to learn…

The naming convention the Fedora project has selected is odd. We’ve had Tettnang, Zod and Werewolf. Nothing one worries about when using the OS, but disconcerting in its lack of theme, I guess. The name for Fedora 9? Sulphur. Yes. Sulphur.

According to myth, it’s an ingredient needed to cure lycanthropy. I see a thread here. Though I’m not sure how those wanting to remain with running Fedora 8 (Werewolf) systems will feel about the next release being a cure for the previous one. A naming convention even Microsoft would be proud of…

Let’s just hope 9 doesn’t stink…

Remember when I promised no more posts on the topic of Nuvi? Well, I lied. The reason for this post: to demonstrate how to customize and extend your Nuvi. Getting over it? Good!

The Garmin website has a number of vehicle models available for download to replace the dull, default arrow. Available vehicles may be found here. The process is simple. First, download the vehicles you want, or the entire pack. Be warned that the entire vehicle pack requires a fair bit of internal storage. Connect the unit, browse to the internal memory and create a folder with the name vehicle inside the folder Garmin. Copy the vehicle files into there and done.

From the menu on the GPS, go to Settings, then Map. Press the Change button for Vehicle.

Choose a chariot.

With the right vehicle selected, the next topic is that of points of interest. These are easy to create oneself. But it’s a lot easier if a ready-made collection of useful POI‘s is available for download. Thanks to a group of dedicated POI gatherers, registered users on the Garmap website may download weekly updates to traffic, toll and safety hazards. The installation is not as complex as it seems at first. If you are registered on the Garmap website, download links for the files may be found here. As instructions are included in the download, I’ll skip that part. To update the GPS unit with the new POI data, get the latest version of the POILoader from the Garmin website.

The most important: police activity – slow down!

This being ZA, what would we do without signboards indicating hijacking hot spots and GPS units informing us of dangerous locations.

and finally, toll road information. Driving ain’t free, you know.

These customizations should keep you busy for a while and will probably ensure you have your GPS on all the time.

This is not a marketing exercise, just something I find quite amazing:

When I signed up for hosting space, the same monthly amount of USD 6.95 gave me 300GB. Now, the same monthly amount buys five times that! You need to pay in advance for 24 months to take advantage of that price point, but even then the savings for the bandwidth and available disk space are nothing short of mind-blowing. 1.5TB online. Need any more?

The humble Lego brick turns 50 this month. Rather than paraphrase it, I reproduce the story of its history from the official web site:

The LEGO history began in 1932 in Denmark, when Ole Kirk Christansen founded a small factory for wooden toys in the unknown town of Billund in the south of the country. To find a name for his company he organized a competition among his employees. As fate would have it however, he himself came up with the best name: LEGO – a fusion of the Danish words “LEg” and “GOdt” (“play well”).

Barely 15 years later Christiansen discovered plastic as the ideal material for toy production, and bought the first injection moulding machine in Denmark. His courage, input and investment paid off: in 1949 he developed the LEGO brick prototype, which continues to excite countless children and adults to this very day. Over the years he perfected the brick, which is still the basis of the entire LEGO game and building system today. Of course there have been small adjustments in shape, colour and design from time to time, but today’s LEGO bricks still fit bricks from 1958.

Production of LEGO bricks with Acrylonitrile Butadine Styrene (ABS) began in 1963. This matt finish plastic is extremely hard, has a scratch and bite-resistant surface, and is ideal for keeping the bricks connected. LEGO labs regularly monitor the high quality of the ABS for the bricks.

LEGO bricks are produced in special plants in Denmark, the Czech Republic and Mexico. The ABS compound is not delivered in a liquid form, but rather as granules, which are heated to 232° C until they melt. Injection moulding machines weighing up to 150 tons then press the hot and “gooey” plastic mass into LEGO brick shapes. The shapes dry and harden and, voilà – you have the famous LEGO brick!

There are 2,400 different LEGO brick shapes, which are produced with the greatest of precision and subjected to constant controls. Each injection mould is permitted a tolerance of no more than one thousandth of a millimetre, so that bricks of every colour and size stay firmly connected, allowing LEGO fans to build entire cities from all kinds of LEGO elements.

LEGO bricks in boxes that are not sold are melted again and turned into new bricks, in accordance with waste prevention and environmental responsibility.

Here’s to another 50 years of building. Still achievable in my lifetime

Quick recipe for toasting a 2GB USB drive including data, of course. Said data thankfully backed up somewhere else.

In hindsight, it comes as no surprise that motherboard manuals carry warnings to the effect of “before installing the motherboard and adding devices on it, carefully read all the manuals that came with the package“. Some of us deem such warning inappropriate. Especially when it’s just a minor adjustment that takes place.

Mistaking the 1394 pin header for the USB pin header may seem innocuous enough. The cable from the front panel on the case matches both…

Case closed, machine started and running. 2GB thumb drive inserted – surprisingly inactive, with just the slightest flash of the internal LED visible. Then…that smell you just know to avoid when dealing with anything electronic. Enough said: thumb drive burnt. Data gone.

Ho hum. Next time: RTFM

Philips division Polymer Vision is about to announce a very interesting device. The Readius features the first electronic paper display that rolls up when not in use. For now, it’s monochrome only, but colour versions are expected in the not too distant future. The primary function of the Readius, as its name implies, is for reading electronic texts. But wait. There’s certainly more! First, a look at the Readius with 5″ screen extended:

Interaction with the device takes place through 8 SimpleTouch buttons. Read books, E-mail, RSS feeds and browse the web. Check contacts and make phone calls. Then roll the display into the device

for convenient storage, making the Readius as compact as current mobile phones.

The Readius weighs about 120g with a 5″ monochrome screen. Given the display technology, battery life is claimed to be 30 hours – that’s with the display constantly on. Not bad at all. The device packs HSDPA, USB and Bluetooth connectivity with the ability to accept SD cards for storage expansion. And yes, it synchronizes your PIM data, too!

Amazingly, the first generation of the Readius should be heading to stores in Europe by the middle to end of this year. And you thought the iPhone was cool

Initially, the news of Heath Ledger‘s death didn’t register. Who’s this Ledger guy in any case?

Of course, he’s the actor portraying the Joker in this year’s Dark Knight. Rumours abound. I’m assuming all shooting has finished for the movie and that no special CG or stand-ins will be required.

Again, it seems that this is a tragedy brought on by the pressures of Hollywood. All in the name of entertainment…ours.

The two USB ports on the front of katana are unable to provide sufficient power for anything more than a thumb drive or an iPod. Never had that problem on P4, but I expect the Asus motherboard doesn’t provide enough juice for high-power devices to be powered on the header connections to the front of the enclosure. Though I have four USB ports at the back of the machine, it’s a bit inconvenient to crawl under the desk to fiddle with connections, and I intend using those for more permanent devices, like printers and scanners. Having had the problem of a WD Passport drive not powering up over the weekend after being plugged in to one of the front ports, I finally took the decision to get a powered USB hub set up. I found a decent solution in Targus’ Desktop 7 port 2.0 USB hub with audio pass-through.

For the price of ZAR 450, you get a 7 port, powered USB hub. The price is high, but compared to most offerings this is reasonable: most others cost ZAR 150 more and provide only 4 ports.

It’s a reasonably attractive device, provided with a base to save space on the target desk. The finish is black and grey with orange lights indicating activity and connectivity for the attached devices. The requisite power supply is provided – though lightweight, this is the one reason I would balk at carrying this device around with me: it’s another adapter that weighs down the kit bag. Read the rest of this entry »

Not only Eskom seems to be having issues with outages. A popular ZA personality is having an outage of a different nature.

I expect the issue of extending advertisements and unavailability of server and bandwidth capacity to be the last thing on his mind right now…

Pampoen!