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Archive for August, 2008
Off to WordCamp SA
I’m off to Cape Town for Saturday’s inaugural WordCamp SA.
As always, there is still time: if you’re in the area, pop in!
What a Marvel: PocketBooks!
Stumbling around the magazine section in the local CNA recently I came across a reasonable selection of Marvel PocketBooks. These are printed by Panini Comics and are pretty good value. Each PocketBook contains a reprint of a number of comic books in a handy format – the books measure about 20cm high. The stories are taken from popular titles such as The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and The X-Men and are a great way to catch up on some older storylines.
For example, The Amazing Spider-Man: The Spider Slayer collects the stories found in The Amazing Spider-Man issues 103 all the way through 111.
The selection available at the CNA is limited, though there is a decent spread of popular Marvel fare. From webhead
to Prof. Xavier‘s team
The PocketBooks are priced at a reasonable ZAR 69 each and their form factor makes them easy to stuff into a bag for a quick read during a trip.
Mickey Mouse Star Wars
3 years ago
by manfred
in Entertainment
Mickey Mouse and company are getting in on the Star Wars act. Oversized figures were a prominent and popular decoration in many Disney stores. Hence started the trend of the collectible Big Figures (Big Figs) line. This one is a new line of Disney Star Wars figures, specifically episodes I,II and III.
Mickey is Anakin, of course. My favourite is Donald Duck in the guise of Darth Maul.
Goofy, hapless as ever gets to be Jar-Jar Binks. Is there no hope for this guy?
Costing USD 200 each and produced in a limited number these are for the serious collector only, I guess. See them all here.
If the Big Fig thing isn’t for you, why not consider something a bit more practical and a lot cheaper? At only USD 25, you can adorn your monitor with this authentic TIE Fighter webcam.
May a decent resolution be with you…
Handy Converter
It’s been quite a while since I last installed any software on the E90. It’s always useful to have direct access to a currency converter. I don’t know how often I’ve googled the URL for XE (must remember to bookmark that!).
The built-in converter shipped as a standard application on the E90 caters for measurements and the like but not for currencies.
With Handy Converter, up to four currencies may be displayed simultaneously. Entering a value for any one of them automatically indicates the corresponding value for the other three. A great way to depress yourself: enter anything for the currency ZAR and compare to the others.
A subsequent screen lists all currencies with their relevant exchange rate to the base currency selected. It’s little more than list, but is a good reference to have access to.
And, what would a conversion program be if it didn’t include the normal conversions for weight, area, volume and the like? These are included too. I have yet to find a means of figuring out what size T-shirt fits Alexander – he normally ends up getting them two sizes too large regardless what size I buy…
I use Handy Weather constantly and rely on Handy Safe to keep a secure copy of all my passwords with me at all times. At USD 14.95, Handy Converter is expensive for the functions and features it provides. My primary gripe is the fact that the currency update is manual instead of the developer offering an automated or scheduled update. That would make sense, even if the rates were updated only once every few days. I’m buying this one purely due to the fact that the Handy brand applications are of a good quality, look good and are easy to use. I’ll live with the manual currency update, but do hope a scheduled update will be provided in a future release.
If you’re looking for a standard conversion utility that does not include any currency conversions, the standard Nokia application already on your device is more than adequate. If you are able to remember the URL for XE, you may consider a browser launch to that site far better value than Handy Converter.
E90 firmware update
A new firmware update is available for my Nokia E90. Incredibly, the version change seems quite dramatic: from the existing 7.40.1.2 to 210.34.75! That’s quite a jump. It looks as though this update has been available for some time, but has either only now been picked up by my Nokia PC Suite or has only just been made available to devices in this region. I’m assuming the latter, as I do run the PC Suite quite regularly.
The update is billed as a major software change, but mainly introduces improvements to the overall stability of the device. Here are some of the highlights:
- backup and restore improvements
- general stability improvements to the barcode reader
- improvements to the Bluetooth stack
- the web browser is now more stable, benefits from Flash Lite (YouTube) support and supports widgets
- better operation of the calendar application
- overall stability improvements to the camera, connections, FM radio, JAVA stack, maps, QuickOffice and WLAN
A useful upgrade to go through. I’ll need to back up my data, then charge the E90 as the updater is presently complaining that my battery levels are too low.
The Nokia Software Updater is available here and will determine the necessary updates for your Nokia phone.
Pandamonium
3 years ago
by manfred
in Moblogging
Kung Fu Panda is a hugely entertaining movie for kids and adults alike. It has many things going for it: the inept and lovable panda (Po), a nasty enemy (snow leopard Tai Lung), great voice talents (Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, Jack Black to name a few), a lot of action and a running time of just over an hour. The last point specifically guarantees that the little people don’t get jumpy and bored.
Po is a huge Kung Fu fan but is stuck in a rut in his dad’s noodle store. When a once-in-3000-years tournament comes along to determine a new dragon warrior, Po is accidentally chosen thus. That comes as a huge disappointment to the five hopefuls Tigress, Crane, Viper, Mantis and Monkey. It is obvious that these masters of the fighting art are non too pleased with the fat and lethargic Po.
More comfortable eating than fighting, it takes a lot of effort by Master Shifu to train Po to become a worthy adversary to the dreaded Tai Lung.
The ultimate battle looms and Po defeats Tai Lung as expected, though due to little else than believing in himself. A valuable lesson!
Brought to the silver screen by the same team at DreamWorks that gave us Madagascar, there are some scenes that may cause sensitive viewers a bit of anguish. Other than that, superb animation featuring some Matrix-esque slowdown speed-up sequences and a great story.
Kung Fu Panda is highly recommended for those three and older.
Gullwing take 2
Of all cars ever manufactured, the Mercedes-Benz 300SL must rank among the most desirable. The signature feature of this elegant sportscar was the unusual door mechanism, leading to its moniker Gullwing. Interestingly enough, tt was also given the name Widowmaker because many male drivers died when crashing their cars.
Doors that open that way don’t optimize the entry for the driver and passenger and lead to a very thick edge below the door to compensate for loss of rigidity. But it’s unique and rather cool.
As a homage to the well-known 1950′s classic, AMG in conjunction with Mercedes-Benz is readying the 2010 release of a new 300SL. Only 6000 units will be produced. The overall look mimics the original very closely.
The model with codename C197 has gullwings…
…but won’t need those to fly: the 6.2l V8 engine should push out 600HP. That’ll be good enough for speeds over the 120km/h mark 
USB security lock
3 years ago
The proliferation of removable devices is a great concern for those who want to ensure the safety of their data. For owners of USB thumb drives, loss or theft means sensitive data is open for viewing and exploitation. Naturally, encryption is a viable countermeasure. But, in the land of the rising sun, encryption is eschewed in favour of a physical security solution: Japanese gizmo manufacturer Thanko has come up with a rather novel, yet useless solution:
It’s a combination lock that is supposed to discourage access to the USB thumb drive. Somehow, I still believe in good old encryption. By the way, isn’t it funny how things just look funky with Japanese lettering strewn all over the show?
The ABC of wristops
The Wikipedia definition for the term Wristop worries me somewhat: the term “Wristop” especially refers to a device designed to co-operate with an insulin pump and to control it in the treatment of Type 1 diabetes. The Suunto Core is more likely to be used in situations of extreme height or depth – the concept of diabetes treatment is not one of its many features
The Core Wristops feature ABC functionality: that’s Altimeter, Barometer and Compass. And of course, they show the time, date and provide a stopwatch, too. The watches are fairly large, though they seem much larger than they actually are. Compared to my usual watch, the orange-black monster is huge, however!
Depending on whether the barometer or altimeter is active, the display will either show the present height above sea level or display a graph. Reference settings for both the present location’s height above sea level and the air pressure at sea level need to be made (quite often, in fact). According to the Potchefstroom Unit for Space Physics (unlikely source for this information), the sea level air pressure at Hermanus (26 above sea level – good enough for me!) is 760 mm Hg.
The battery is user-replacable and the casing is water resistant to 30m. One aspect I’m not too impressed with is the fact that the backlight setting is hardcoded and cannot be changed. After five seconds, it’s lights out, with no way of extending the backlight time. Settings are easily made once the sequence of button presses has been memorized – as with most digital watches, there’s a countdown timer, alarm and second time display, useful for traveling to different time zones. The Core also indicates the current temperature and is fairly flexible in allowing the user to select what data fields are displayed on the screen at any one time. The display is easily readable in direct sunlight and I find the overall construction and quality good.
The compass works rather accurately and permits the setting of a magnetic declination value. In conjunction with the barometer, there’s a weather indicator that is able to assist in the prediction of ominous weather. Useful for hiking and mountain climbing, though I doubt this feature will be of much use in the 30km cycle routes I do.
There are various designs and colour options in the Suunto Core range, though the functions are identical for all.
The user manual is concise and clear with some amusing use cases to illustrate the various features. Suunto could improve the terminology relating to the different function buttons, however: in the manual, the same button may be referred to as Menu, Mode and Select though the initial diagram with the button descriptions lists only Menu. It’s a bit confusing at first, but easy enough to figure out.
For now, I’m quite impressed with my new timepiece! I’m keen to see how long the battery lasts, especially with constant logging of altitude and an always-on compass.
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