This page looks plain and unstyled because you're using a non-standard compliant browser. To see it in its best form, please upgrade to a browser that supports web standards. It's free and painless.

Paul's Time Sink

| Main | Albums |
Next» 

TuneJuice

Paul Westbrook | 27 February, 2006 23:27

Prod Image JuiceI bought the TuneJuice to allow me to watch more than 2 hours of video on my iPod.  The TuneJuice allows you to connect a 9 volt batter to an iPod to extend the playback time.

One interesting thing is that the internal iPod battery is not charged with the TuneJuice.  When the TuneJuice is connected, the battery indicator on the iPod just shows that there is more charge. 

Since the internal batter is not charged, I wonder if the iPod Dock connector has separate pins for external battery packs than for battery chargers.

Technorati Tags: ,

Gadgets :: Comment (0) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (0)

Torx screwdriver

Paul Westbrook | 27 February, 2006 23:06

I finally got around to getting a torx screwdriver to tighten the hinge on my PowerBook.  This was the same problem that was fixed at the Apple Store last October.

I find it pretty interesting that none of the tool sets that we have at home had a torx screwdriver, and that Home Depot only had one in the whole store.  This especially since most computers use torx screws.  Maybe there would have a better selection if I had gone to a store like Fry's Electronics.

Technorati Tags:

Computer :: Comment (0) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (0)

Podcast list

Paul Westbrook | 27 February, 2006 22:45

An appleScript has been posted on the Paint the Tiger blog that prints out the list of podcasts that are in iTunes.  This is a lot nicer than looking at an opml file. 

One thing that I would love to add is to have the html have link to the podcast itself in the generated html.  Unfortunately, this url is not made available from iTunes AppleScript dictionary.

 (More)

General :: Comment (0) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (0)

iSkin eVo3

Paul Westbrook | 26 February, 2006 14:28

B000Csh44K.01-A25O5Lwh2Xjc62. Sclzzzzzzz This week, the iSkin eVo3 iPod cover was delivered.  I really like this product.  The eVo3 covers the whole iPod, including the click wheel, with a rubber-like material.  Then there is a clear hard plastic cover for the screen.  This plastic cover allows viewing of the larger screen of the latest iPod.

The only negative of this cover is that since this covers all of the iPod, it is not that easy to move the hold switch.

Technorati Tags: ,

Electronics , Gadgets :: Comment (2) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (0)

Viral VW GTI Ads

Paul Westbrook | 24 February, 2006 20:44

Very similar to BMW's film series and Alpine's Mute movie, VW has released some GTI ads on YouTube. 

I find this type of marketing pretty interesting.

[via atmaspheric | endeavors]

Technorati Tags: ,

Cars :: Comment (0) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (0)

Google Widgets

Paul Westbrook | 23 February, 2006 21:59

Google has release three Mac OS X Dashboard Widgets.  I have installed the Gmail and Search History widget.

[via Google Blog]

Technorati Tags: , ,

Computer :: Comment (0) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (0)

Encrypted AIM without .Mac

Paul Westbrook | 23 February, 2006 20:25

A while ago, I mentioned that it would be nice to make the encryption that is available in AIM for .Mac customers compatible with other AIM accounts.  The Off-the-Record Messaging program provides a proxy that enables this.  This proxy essentially provides all of the key management and the encryption support needed. 

Unfortunately, it is not really integrated well with iChat or Proteus.  You need to use the proxy to accept the public encryption keys from the people that you are chatting with.  There is a plugin for gaim, and there is built-in support in Adium X, so the interface should be better in those applications.

[via macosxhints]

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

Computer :: Comment (0) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (0)

250 hp V6 in Nissan Sentra

Paul Westbrook | 23 February, 2006 20:05

VqspecvNow this is cool.  Someone fit the V6 engine from the Maxima, 350Z, and G35 into a B15 Sentra.  They are making a bolt in kit available for $4,500.  In addition, they are going to make it available for the B13 and B14 Sentra as well.

Maybe if I really want to increase the performance of our car, this is a very interesting option.

[via Autoblog]

Technorati Tags:

Cars :: Comment (0) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (0)

infrequently played podcasts

Paul Westbrook | 23 February, 2006 19:35

I just noticed that a lot of the podcasts that I have listed in iTunes had not been downloading new shows.  Also each of these had a exclamation point icon next to them.  At first, I though that this was because the rss feeds were not being parsed by iTunes.  When I clicked on the icon, I saw this message

Itunesstopdownloading

It looks like iTunes stops downloading podcasts if you don't listen to the shows.  I assume that Apple did this to prevent podcasts from filling up the disk.  This is fine, except it stops downloading them even if you manually delete the old files.  I think that they should change this to only stop downloading the new podcasts shows have not been listened to or have not been deleted.

In addition to that, iTunes should notify you that it stopped downloading podcasts.

Technorati Tags: ,

Computer :: Comment (1) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (0)

Downloadable content for SOCOM 3

Paul Westbrook | 22 February, 2006 19:42

Next month, Sony is going to make some new content available for SOCOM 3.  This will include new maps for online play.  The map pack will be $5.99.

I assume that this will use the online account, that was required to be created, when registering the for the online SOCOM component. 

One interesting thing that I didn't realize is that SOCOM 3 can use any USB Mass Storage device for storing this downloaded content.  I wonder if Sony will allow USB thumb drives to be used instead of their memory cards.

[via SOCOMBLOG]

Technorati Tags:

Games :: Comment (0) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (0)

Listen to your network traffic

Paul Westbrook | 21 February, 2006 23:54

Sound of Traffic is a pretty cool little application that "visualizes" the traffic on your network ports as audio sounds. The resulting sounds are pretty interesting. When my computer was not doing much heavy traffic, it sounded very similar to whale sounds.

Here is a mp3 with a sample of what this sounded like on my laptop.

[via macosxhints]

Technorati Tags:

Computer :: Comment (0) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (0)

disable recursion in Bind

Paul Westbrook | 21 February, 2006 16:41

I just noticed that my dns server was being used as a caching dns server for some random host.  In my log files, I was seeing ANY queries for x.h.ctrc.cc.  When I looked at the cache, this was for some encoded data.

Using the documentation on this page, I was able to fix this problem.  The way that I fixed this was to add the following to the options section:

// version statement for security to avoid
// hacking known weaknesses
version "get lost";

// optional - disables all transfers -
// slaves allowed in zone clauses
allow-transfer {"none";};

// optional - disable all recursive queries
allow-recursion {"none";};
recursion no;

Technorati Tags: , ,

Computer :: Comment (0) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (0)

Updated blogtimes plugin

Paul Westbrook | 18 February, 2006 20:53

Since I moved this server to a different timezone, just noticed that the representation of the time for each of the posts does not take into account the time zone offset.

I have a fix for the blogtimes plugin in my tree, and will be checking it in soon.

Technorati Tags: ,

Blogging :: Comment (0) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (0)

Video of Streetdeck

Paul Westbrook | 18 February, 2006 01:45

CNet has posted a video of the Streetdeck software running.  This software looks pretty cool.  I really like the gestural interface.

[via Autoblog]

Technorati Tags:

Cars , Electronics :: Comment (0) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (0)

AHT HDTV media player

Paul Westbrook | 18 February, 2006 01:39

Aht P2PodThe P2POD looks like an interesting media player.  It downloads or streams content over the internet to this box.  It uses a P2P network to allow faster downloads and reduce the cost for the content providers.

It looks like this box is going to be $150, and it will be available in the 3rd quarter of 2006.  I don't know what type of content will be available for it.  I don't know if there will be a price for each piece of content downloaded.

[via Gizmodo]

Technorati Tags:

Electronics :: Comment (0) :: Permalink :: Trackbacks (0)
Powered by LifeType
Design by Book of Styles