Lawrence "The Dreamer" Chen's Blog

Because I've been doing too much stuff with my TiVo HD DVR at the moment, I've decided to put off the purchase the Archos 605 WiFi. Instead I'm likely to purchase the MyDVR Expander for the TiVo.

There are rumors of the Archos 606 coming out later this year, while the details of what it'll do and look like are sketchy....the consensus is that Archos is going to have regular releases of new products (which kind of fits with most consumer electronics companies ) And, since it has been a major struggle of choosing between the Archos 605 WiFi or an iPod Touch....one would hope that the next version of the Archos will make the decision easier.

Plus the thinking to push ahead with the 605 at this point was based on wanting to have it before I go on my next trip (Penguicon).

So, quick cut to my netmap for April 2008....

And, now off to figure out where other gadgety goodness falls in my budget. Like moving up my next ThinkGeek order.

Apple is rebooting my Windows computer almost as much as Microsoft is now.

Today's reboot was brought to me by Apple...and my computer wouldn't come up after it.

Seems strange that the CPU fan died during this cycle...but eventually that's what it complained about.

But, seeing as it was down, I decided this was the excuse to open it up and replace the CMOS battery....and blow out some dust

It didn't help resurrect the CPU fan fault.

It seems to limp, guess I have to disable BOINC for a while.... And, see about getting a replacement fan for it.

Darn Dell seems to use some special, odd ball fan that is hard to find...doesn't even seem to be available from Dell. Good did identify some sites that carried pulls of the fan. So, I bought one. Kind of expensive...$119...though $58.33 is for next day shipping...which will hopefully put it on Monday (along with a few other items I'm expecting UPS to bring me that day).

Guess I need to see about getting a new computer, and not try to stretch any more life out of this one.

I suppose I might consider getting an iMac and VMWare to run the one Windows application that I know isn't available on the Mac, which I use daily (and have yet to find an easy way to convert from it...guess Microsoft needs to hold some of its users hostage.) Though I also have a few other Windows only things, that I may also have trouble giving up.

Of course, I do have that Gateway GT5636E.....

Though I'll probably want to buy different bits for it then....like a dual DVI video card. Though I guess I can scrounge the SCSI card....wonder if the other bits that I did get for it will still have a place in it then.

....the insanity of buy tech accessories for stuff I don't own or isn't for personal reason reasons.

The motivator this time?

I got a Motorola KRZR K1m for work. Using the EC-500, calls to my deskphone will optionally also ring through to this cell phone. It was partly because the on call cellphone will go away, with the number forwarding to either a person's work or personal cellphone when it is their week on call. I didn't want those calls going to a personal cellphone.

And, our workgroup seems to be standardizing on the KRZR (other units had gotten RAZRs, but the KRZR wasn't availble then).

I got the phone on Tuesday. One of the first problems is they had no belt holster available for it, the generic non-OEM one they stocked interfered with the side buttons. So, I went looking on eBay for one. Later I decided to take the plunge and buy a microSD card for it, though I didn't immediately know why....don't really need to use the camera part that much, and I already don't use my iPods much right now. Though the fact that I can use the MP3 player without headphones might be okay.

But, then I discovered that my blackberry charger didn't charge the phone overnight...at all. Turns out dual charger does some kind of sensing, and didn't like the KRZR....while it would let it have power to run plugged in, it didn't give it power to charge. Fortunately it doesn't take long to charge on the supplied charger, and battery life is great...so I can charge it up once in a while at work. Plus the 'dumber' blackberry travel charger will probably work, otherwise I do have other USB plug style chargers available from other gadgets that might work.

So, I'm not buying another charger for it...and if I were, I'd probably make work pick that up....

But back to the phone. It doesn't have a regular 2.5 jack on it, and it didn't come with a mini-USB to 2.5 adapter. And, the adapter isn't cheap, but I prefer over-head type headsets, because in ear pieces don't stay in my ear and my eyeglasses are painful enough, that I don't need clip on ear or temple types adding to that discomfort. And, the phone doesn't support stereo bluetooth headsets, and again would require the use of a special stereo headphone, or the adapter. Their special headphones is cheaper than the adapter. Though if I got the adapter, I could use my big over ear noise reduction headphones....though it sure would look strange.

Searching around, I found that they do make an over-head bluetooth headset....so late last night, I went online and found a place that had this as well as the special stereo headphones for the KRZR....and order them.

Now to see if I can geek out the sounds it makes....

Oh yeah, I have already set aside ~1.5GB of MP3s that I plan to load on to the 2GB microSD card that I've ordered for it....

Decided it was time to finally at least install TurboTax, so I could maybe start contemplating doing my taxes.

Except I couldn't get it to install. setup.exe wouldn't run, application error....ntdll.dll. As much as I hate it, I rebooted a few times.

The hate is because iTunes 7 has been weird....sometimes iPod Service will get stuck, consume lots of CPU, and iTunes will never detect the iPod, and I'll have to request it to be Safely Removed. Though I have noticed that it seems more likely to work if I boot the computer with iPod attached, but not my Blackberry.

Finally, I booted up in SAFE MODE...and was able to get the installer to run.

Pages: 1 · 2

Link: http://www.sendstation.com/us/products/dockextender/

Somebody finally created one. Now I can look at buying an iPod dock....

For quite some time I've been using noise canceling headphones on my iPod, and I find it hard to enjoy my tunes without them. Except, that I've been wearing the on ear type...and my ears get pretty sore after a day of listening to tunes....

I've been meaning to get a pair of over ear types....though they are pretty pricy and then I learned that I was going to get laid off. So, it dropped off my radar.

But, now that I'm working again....in a nice cold basement near the door to the data center, I once again thought that I should get around to investing in a nice pair. Especially that day where they had the door propped open and fans blowing....

Then while I was catching up on my email, I spotted that Sony was changing its MySony rewards program. And, they were offering a one time coupon of $25 off...as an option to its 10:1 points conversion. I have so few points that it translates to even less cash, so $25 was a big deal. So, I lept at the chance to get it.

Read more »

Link: http://lawrence.chen-online.net/index.php?title=judge_orders_apple_to_pay_up_for_bad_ipo&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#trackbacks

Much to my surprise, I found a letter in regards to this in my mailbox today.

The answer is that I have a $50 Store Credit. It is good until October 7th, 2007.

Hopefully, I'll find the opportunity to use it before it expires.

After recovering the /boot and /(root) filesytems on lhaven, I discovered that the data filesystem on the same disk was also damaged. The difference being it could at least recognize it as a filesystem, so I let fsck to do its damage.

Lots of stuff got disconnected, etc. But, they all look like old and files that I could tolerate losing....

Namely it affected the old /home location (which is now on a different disk, but I had kept the old location as a backup) and what are supposed to be the backup of my iTunes music folder. There was pretty much only one area that I didn't want to lose, and it seems okay.....1 of 3 DVArchive volumes on this system.

Read more »

Link: http://www.cdstripper.net/

I wrote over on AudioScrobbler, how I had ordered a pile of CDs recently.

Well, the first 8 CDs from that order arrived today. And, I was setting out to open the CDs and rip them into iTunes....when I remembered that I had bought a bunch of CD Strippers as Xmas presents last year.

Kind of hard to believe that before this, the last time I bought CDs was about 3 months ago.

So, now it was time to finally try out this gadget.

Read more »

Link: http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=170101338

The settlement, which won tentative approval in June, gives buyers of the first two iPod models either $25 cash or $50 in credit at an Apple store that can be redeemed for any Apple-branded product, including iTunes downloads. Owners of the third-generation iPod are entitled to a free replacement battery if theirs fails.

This is kind of disappointing...

I had a 3rd Gen iPod....from October 2003 to August 2004....and I was hoping to get a $50 credit for it. Considering I (initially) replaced it with a 4th Gen iPod...which is now a year old.

Which kind of implies that it is probably suited for another upgrade, where $50 off of a new iPod would be nice. But, I don't really need a new battery for my old 3rd Gen iPod. Especially, since the would probably only offer an apple branded replacement (or 50% refund of an apple performed battery replacement). Ignoring that the aftermarket iPod battery is of higher capacity, etc. Plus they probably won't like the fact that I opened up my iPod myself (kind of roughly too....and stabbing myself, because I tried to pry it open using my pocket knife, probably complicates things for me....)