If You Bend Me, Do I Not Charge?

This is brilliant! I want one. I'd buy it just to support use of the inherent underlying technology.

It's an awesome cell phone! I don't even know what the phone's capabilities are, but it's awesome! All I do know is that it's kinetically charged. What's it mean? "Hey, my phones running low on battery. Hold on a sec..." followed by the protagonist violently folding his phone repeatedly to charge it.

The screen bends, the keys are OK with the bending. I have to wonder what kind of actual electronics are in it, but guess what! They bend! Three cheers for Kyocera!

Apple: The Jerks That Know How to Design UIs

WARNING: RANT AHEAD!

That's it. I'm pretty sick of arbitrary limitations and restrictions. I had an idea for an iPhone application. Today, I decided to look up how to do it. It turns out that Apple doesn't have an API for bluetooth for the iPhone. I don't get it. Why do they arbitrarily restrict things? "Oh, here you go. You can have a steak, but you can't have a knife or fork to eat it with!" That might as well be Apple's motto. It would probably be the prettiest steak ever, too, and very user friendly. How would steak be user friendly, anyway?

Some other highlights from Apple...

• "Here's our BSD-based OS with a really well-designed user interface, but you can't install it on just any computer. You have to buy one of ours for a serious markup!"
  
• "Meet the iPhone. It has a fantastic user interface, but sorry, you can't use it to store files or take videos. Oh, and the camera has no zoom. We know the phone looks pretty, but we're going to restrict the hardware just because we're dicks!"
  
• "Check out the iPod. Guess what! No file storage. Only songs."
  
• "iTunes! We're going to sell you files with DRM on them so that you can only use an iPod or iTunes to listen to them."

This is a short list, and there are many many more issues. I just can't think of them through the fiery red haze clouding my thoughts.

What are the alternatives for somebody like me? Microsft "the Devil" and Linux "the raw contender." I have had enough of Apple's business practices. I had enough of Microsoft a long time ago, but that's for another time. Linux is free, at least. Ideologically, Linux is our friend. It just needs a bit of professional help to get to the masses. Ubuntu is a good start, but still falls a bit short. Fedora is becoming Microsoft. Slackware is nowhere near ready. I haven't seen hide nor hair of Mandriva or Suse in a long time.

If I could just get my own operating system going...

Don't Panic

It's amazing that nobody thought of it earlier. Or maybe somebody did (probably), but I never ran across it, and it probably wasn't free.

The application is called HearPlanet Free, and it is a tour guide application for iPhone. What more do you need to know? Go somewhere, download tour content, and hear what you should do. I think that's pretty cool.

I have only one condition. It has to say "Don't Panic" somewhere within.

Geez, What Is It With You and Cars?

Yeah. Uh-huh. Another car post. Here's another link abour cars. Here's a direct link to the manufacturer.

I want one. I'll start of right away by saying that. The XR3 is small. It's a two-person vehicle. It is (at least to me) visually appealing. It doesn't weigh a lot (1480 lbs). It should get amazing gas mileage (b/w 125 mpg and 225 mpg), and is a hybrid. The drawbacks? Biodiesel; it's not that plentiful around here. Home-fabrication; I'm a clutz, and it would be a lot of money to screw it up, or I'd run into a problem and never get it done. It looks complicated. Maintenance; I probably don't know enough about it to get it done. Plus, it won't go up on a standard pneumatic lift, so working on it would probably be difficult. That's probably my auto ignorance speaking, though.

If I had a little extra cash, I'd do it in a second. It'd be a fun project. Apparently the plans are around $200. Anyway, I've been happy about the recent trends in more efficient cars. However, these trends all seem to come from the one-off (or multi-off) companies. When will the major manufacturers do something this daring?

Semantic Mediawiki Problems

This morning I installed Semantic Mediawiki on a server for the first time and encountered a few problems with permissions. This is a very brief rundown on how I got it installed and how I fixed the problems I encountered...

First off, on installation, I had problems when clicking Initialise or upgrade tables button. To get around these problems, I used the database's root user to install Semantic mediawiki by changing the $wgDBuser and $wgDBpassword parameters in teh LocalSettings.php file.

After this, nothing worked. Whenever I tried to execute a semantic query, I got the following error:

...from within function "SMW::getCategoryTable". MySQL returned error "1142: DROP command denied to user ... for table 'smw_newcats' (localhost)".

The solution to this problem is to cd to $WIKIMEDIAROOT/extensions/SemanticMediaWiki/includes/storage and edit SMW_SQLStore.php to make the following modifications...

In function getCategoryTable (~line 1644 in my version):

• #$db->query('DROP TABLE smw_newcats', 'SMW::getCategoryTable');
• #$db->query('DROP TABLE smw_rescats', 'SMW::getCategoryTable');
• $db->query('DROP TEMPORARY TABLE smw_newcats', 'SMW::getCategoryTable');
• $db->query('DROP TEMPORARY TABLE smw_rescats', 'SMW::getCategoryTable');

In function getPropertyTable (~line 1706 in my version):

• #$db->query('DROP TABLE smw_new','SMW::getPropertyTable');
• #$db->query('DROP TABLE smw_res','SMW::getPropertyTable');
• $db->query('DROP TEMPORARY TABLE smw_new', 'SMW::getPropertyTable');
• $db->query('DROP TEMPORARY TABLE smw_res', 'SMW::getPropertyTable');

Save the changes, re-execute the query, and everything should be hunky dory.

Olympic Tech Envy

By now you realize I'm technologically inclined. I don't know why I am so fond of technology. It's not as though I'm one to like things just because other people do. If I did, then I'd be into things like reality television and the Motorola RAZR. I'm not. Granted, I own a RAZR, but I hate it. I purchased one not realizing its shortcomings. But I digress.

I have spent the weekend in tech envy. My family has the means to spend a bit. At least more than I do. My brother and my mom just bought iPhones. I got to play with them, and now I very desperately want one. I'm sitting here willing Dave to purchase his 3G iPhone quickly so that I can inherit (for a moderate fee) his old one. It's a phone and a PDA, but worlds better. It's fun.

I'm also sitting here watching the olympics on my parents' LCD HDTV. I don't really know why I want an LCD TV. It's not like I watch a lot of TV, I think. I mean I do, but we have a decent TV. This is a want that I can't explain.

One of the bigger pangs I've had this weekend, though, is due to my brother's car. He has a Subaru sTi. I didn't realize just how unbelievably awesome the car is until I drove it yesterday. It's a nice feeling, when pressing the accelerator, having your head pressed into the back of the driver's seat, hearing the turbo kick in, and just taking off. I realized afterward that it wasn't the tires that were squeaky, but rather my driving. The car's got enough torque to leave some of the tire rubber on the road surface. Now if only Subaru could figure out a way to get that going with better fuel economy, I'd be in business...

I also think I am too fond of the ellipse, but that's a thought to be explored at another time.

Desultory :-)

A whole host of strangeness...

First off, from the "things I wish I knew when I was learning what to eat" department, we have watermelon makes you horny. :-) 'Nuff said.

Then, a story that we all probably knew deep down, and that shows you the treachery of Cell phone companies, AT&T’s Text Messages Cost $1,310 per Megabyte. I always knew they were up to no good. And with their recent lack of desire to yield at all to a loyal customer on iPhone deals, they can go screw themselves. Maybe I'll send them text messages. It's a shame that they really don't see much of the cost from texting. Just poor little old consumer people.

Finally, in the "draperies department," solar curtains. I want some. This is the kind of stuff I want to see more used in the world. "Quick, it's sunny out, close the curtains so I can power all the toys I can buy by saving money on electricity."

The end.

Electronic Salvation

Eventful day today. Let me begin by saying, "Happy anniversary Karina and Kohnke." We were fortunate enough to spend some of today with them. We four went kayaking at Quiet Waters park. And so the fun begins...

My day began at 4:00 AM. I woke up for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Yesterday I put the Yakima rack on my car, and the plan this morning was to finish it off with the easy-to-mount kayak saddles. Seven out of eight bolts later, it becomes apparent that I'm one bolt short of a full rack, so to speak. So, 7:30 AM trip to ACE Hardware, to return shortly thereafter with the piece. Poof! Kayak rack is up and on. I'm so lucky that people who like to work on their homes wake up early.

Part two of the exciting adventure began at 9:00 AM. My initial estimate was that it would take about a twenty minutes to get the kayaks onto the car. Sure it would... Forty minutes later, the Kohnkes get a call from us, which was to be the first of many. Then, since our original plan was to stop briefly to get Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, we did so because we hadn't eaten and our combined stomachs would have triggered a good-sized earthquake. Of course, the line at DD could have wrapped a few times around the equator with room to spare for a return trip to the moon. Second phone conversation with Kohnkes ensues, informing them that we'll be a half hour late.

Trip to Annapolis continues (finally) with a tasty breakfast, eaten quickly in the car. Kayaks remain securely fastened to the RSX. All is looking good. "How do we get there?" Of course, neither of us knows. But we think we do, which is all that's important in the grand scheme of things. One wrong turn and several miles down, enter call number three to Kohnkes. After she returns our call, we're on the right track, ETA 45 minutes late.

We show up to Quiet Waters, find the parking area, and we're now 50 minutes late, which is something that my body and brain like to physically remind me of with every ounce of my scarred psyche. After pulling down the kayaks and walking the 30 more miles to the water, we're on the water in the kayaks. Finally. My body is screaming at this point from all the expended energy and muscular distress, and we barely started.

Now do most of that in reverse (except make it 85 degrees instead of 70), get us home , and give me about enough time to eat lunch, and then off to climbing. Yup, climbing.

Every part of me wishes fiercely that I wouldn't move right now. So I'm not. Fortunately, the fingers still work.

And now the punchline... The girl has wanted a GPS unit for awhile now, and Stealdeals had a link to a Garmin GPS for a good discount, so we immediately decided to make it a part of our family. Electronic Salvation is on the way to our front door...
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Stimulating the Economy, One Obsession at a Time

It's a shame. I'm sure I could stimulate the economy like a fiend if the government wanted to give me more than $600. I could burn through twice that easily. If I had my way, I'd immediately go out and put together a 64-bit machine (all priced out already) so that I could mess around with virtualization, Mac OS X, and Compiz Fusion, among other things.

In the middle of that, I'd take a break and go out to buy some ropes for an outdoor climbing setup. I'm just dying to spend time outside climbing on real rock.

On the way back from that, I'd go out and by one of the impending 3G iPhones. I really dislike AT&T, but then I really dislike all cell phone providers and phone developers, so it's just a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils, or rather the option that affords me the most fun. If I can't find a phone with a good battery life that I can sync with my Mac for an affordable, I might as well go all out and play with a new toy.

Oh, yeah, then I'd order a Mac Mini with a touch screen LCD and make a car PC, complete with GPS, radio, and an HSDPA data connection for completely mobility. :-) That'd get me Leopard, too, which would be very not bad.

Instead, I have to prevent myself from spending compulsively. I'll probably just choose one from my list when the check arrives. Maybe two, depending. It'll likely be the computer, since I just have so much trouble justifying giving AT&T any more money, and I dislike subscriptions pretty intensely. It pretty much seems these days like subscriptions entail ever-increasing costs and ever-decreasing customer care and service. Comcast blows. AT&T blows. Insurance is a pain in the ass, since you pay somebody to cover your ass and have to fight with them when something goes wrong.

Enough complaining. Time to return to the mold of being a good consumer.

Death by iPod

The girl would probably like to kill me. I have, as of late, taken on a metric @55load of projects. My latest... Frankenpod. A simple concept; to take multiple broken iPods and create some smaller number of working ones. However, when multiple is 2 and broken means neither one has a fully working harddrive, it makes life hard. It's taken me nearly 3 days of tinkering to determine which components are bad.

One of these days I'll put it down. I still hold out hope that the parts aren't really bad, though...