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Just my luck. Or, just the way it goes when you buy anything tech: my copy of the fantastic RC flight simulator, AeroFly Professional Deluxe arrived last week.

As an aside, this is another typical example of brick and mortar losing out to an online purchase. I approached a well-known hobby store in Centurion with the request to order me a copy of the Mac version of AeroFly Professional. Since the Mac version is not a stock item, I was told that I’d receive a call indicating how long I’d have to wait. So I waited. And waited. No call, and certainly no indication of any kind as to whether or not the rather expensive software could or would be ordered. I did the only logical thing: hopped onto the IKARUS website and ordered online. Once again, the total cost including shipping and currency conversion was quite substantially below the in-store price I had seen. A brief wait of two weeks, and AeroFly flew into my post office box.

The simulator software on DVD and a cable to connect a radio are both included in the box. A huge variety of aeroplane and helicopter models is included, ready to fly.

And crash…

That’s AeroFly Professional Deluxe. In March 2010, the new aerofly 5 will be released, featuring a number of interesting enhancements.

If you’re looking for a high-end RC flight simulator, I can highly recommend AeroFly. Though I’d advise you to wait for the new version next year… And: order online!

Is there a market for this stuff?

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The latest B&H catalogue…

Certain to lead to temptation.

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It’s been ten years since moviegoers got to see the first installment of The Matrix. As a tribute, a number of fans with a passion for Lego have re-created the now iconic bullet-dodge scene in spectacular detail as a stop-motion movie.

The stop-motion clip is frame-accurate: each video frame from the segment in the actual movie was reproduced as a frame using Lego elements and minifigs. According to the website, almost 900 frames had to be painstakingly reproduced for 44 seconds of footage. The result is impressive to say the least. Check out the video clips here.

I just posted some notes on getting PDF content onto a Kindle two days or so ago. Today, Amazon announced a software upgrade to the Kindle that makes the device 100% more useful and versatile than it already was. The Kindle software version 2.3 that magically appeared on my Kindle and I noticed only once I received a notification mail from Amazon mentioning its existence adds native PDF support. No more messing around with file conversions or sending files to the Amazon Kindle account for half-baked PDF conversion: simply drag and drop a PDF file onto the device when connected to a computer, then read the PDF on the go.

I tested this with some Canon EOS instruction manuals and am happy to see PDF‘s in absolute detail and clarity – there’s simply no comparison to the conversion achievable with the PDFRead method I discussed earlier. This is where I see a lot of value in the Kindle: the ability to carry instruction manuals in PDF form anywhere, in a single, compact package. The sample below is not a screenshot taken from the Kindle, but the quality of the PDF in Acrobat Reader on the PC and on the Kindle is identical.

The addition of a native PDF reader is an absolute highlight – if you were still on the fence with regard to a purchase of a Kindle, this is one killer feature that may change your mind. Other improvements in the 2.3 firmware include the optimization of battery usage when the device is connected to the GSM network, the ability to view content in either landscape or portrait orientation and the ability to magnify sections of a document for clearer reading.

It’s just as well Amazon sent a note regarding the update – I probably would never have noticed even though the update had already taken place… Your Kindle will have the update too.

I still haven’t put up a review or any comments regarding the Kindle. It’s a great device and I’m using it more and more as time permits. The greatest killer feature (read killer for the wallet) is the absolute ease with which I’m able to browse the Kindle store and purchase books. A recent viewing of a documentary on National Geographic prompted me to look up a book by an author interviewed during the course of the documentary. The subsequent purchase of his book was an absolute no-brainer…

Another good use for the Kindle is the ability to display PDF documents. The standard way of having documents converted to PDF format is to send a document in an appropriate format to the service offered by Amazon. For a small fee (there’s also a free service), the input document is converted and sent to the Kindle once conversion has taken place. I’ve found the abilities of the Amazon conversion service to be mediocre, unless the document contains only text. For graphics-heavy documents, reasonably easy and free option is available in the form of PDFRead. PDFRead is a free, downloadable application that runs on Windows and Mac OS X. Its purpose is simple: take as input a file and convert it to a format that is suitable for viewing on a variety of readers, including the Kindle. The results for graphics-intensive documents are reasonable – don’t expect very crisp images. But it’s serviceable and certainly usable.

The application expects certain inputs, most importantly an input file and the resultant output file. Both formats should be specified and it is mandatory to enter a title and an author. Certain output options tweak how the resulting file will be output. For the Kindle, I use the profile prc-mobi-p for a portrait-optimized file.

A click of the Convert button, and PDFRead runs along. In the case of a PDF, each page is converted into an image and all images are later assembled into a cohesive output file for the Kindle.

The conversion process is one of best effort – images are slightly fuzzy and text not always clear.

The output file is copied to the Kindle via the USB connection.

If you require PDF content on your Kindle, this is certainly a very convenient and reliable method. Output depends on the content and the complexity of the images. Other than that, PDFRead is hard to fault.

On the Mac I use VMware Fusion to run various other operating systems and applications. The new release of VMware Fusion features many optimizations and some great features that integrate applications running on a foreign OS directly into the host environment. VMware achieves that with Unity and even provides a quick search  button from which applications can be found in a VM. In the past, I’ve used the VMware Converter to convert physical systems into virtual machines – it’s a great way to create an exact duplicate for reference purposes or hive off an SAP development system for use elsewhere, for example. A standard feature in the Fusion product is the ability to create a mirror image of a Windows system for use on the Mac. I unsuccessfully attempted to run this a number of times whilst G2S was still running the Windows 7 RC. The Migration Assistant is a small executable that is installed on the source machine – Bonjour is installed, and in true Mac fashion, the source is found by simply keying in the four digit value the Migration Assistant displays. On the RC installation, G2S would simply freeze and require a restart. No migration would take place. With the full install of Windows 7 Ultimate, I had absolutely no trouble. One requirement: after the installation of the Migration Assistant component for the PC, a reboot of the Windows machine seems to be necessary – I could not get the Migration Assistant to find the source machine, by Bonjour or IP address. After a reboot, the connection is instantaneous and the copy process begins.

For the 57GB or so of data to be migrated from G2S, about five hours was estimated. That’s over a wired connection. In practice, that estimate was too high. The operation completed after approximately three hour or so.

Startup of the VM on the iMac took a bit of time, especially since Windows needs to find a bunch of drivers and determine its new base of operations. After that, all functionality of the system together with all the data is available for use.

The VM will be a handy system to have access to when I’m out an about and have only the MacBook with me.

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I tried rather hard to get the new Mindstorms NXT 2.0 software to install on the iMac, but to no avail. Though the installer ran through without any hint of trouble, and even after following the suggestion to install Rosetta, no NXT application icon ever appeared in the Applications folder. I tried a number of times, had to shut down Firefox each time due to an update required to Adobe Flash and even had to sit through a number of system restarts. Nothing much helped. Removing the existing installation and then re-installing likewise had no effect. The only thing I could think of was that the trouble with the installation was somehow related to Snow Leopard. A good guess: a brief Google and I found a solution.

It’s not exactly complicated, but is something I would never have considered. The workaround involves the opening of an installer package and the removal of the preflight script.

Once that has been done and the package closed, another try at the installation yields the desired result: a working installation of the Lego Mindstorms NXT software on a Mac running Snow Leopard.

Here’s a rundown of the steps to get the software to work on Snow Leopard:1. Copy all files from the MINDSTORMS CD to a folder on your desktop. 2. Open that folder and look under “Parts”. 3. Locate MindstormsUnivEdu.pkg or MindstormsUnivRet.pkg. 4. Right-click (control-click) and choose “Show Package Contents”. 5. Navigate into the Contents » Resources directory and delete the “preflight” file. 6. Close this package and run the meta-package (LEGOMindstormsEngRet.mpkg) from the desktop to install MINDSTORMS NXT.

The rising up of the robots may commence…

Last night saw the final matches in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifications take place. With South Africa qualifying automatically due its status as the host country, 31 other teams have secured their place in next year’s tournament. On 4 December, the official draw will take place in Cape Town to allocate 4 teams per group with 8 groups in total. The draw will dictate when and where individual teams will be playing and enable fans to make final travel arrangements.

Here are the teams, based on their geographic region:

Africa – 6 teams

Asia – 4 teams

Europe – 13 teams

North America, Central America and the Caribbean – 3 teams

Oceania – 1 team

South America – 5 teams