September 29, 2007

Well, I have some good news! I actually had a copy of Word. Its an older copy of 2000. Its still better then nothing! Well, I had OpenOffice but I feel better using Word since whenever a teacher gives you instructions for formatting, they are for Word. Plus OpenOffice is kind of a waste for my basic needs.

I am getting sick of seeing these schools collecting money on the side of the road. Look people, I don’t care if you need money for crap like football or baseball or swimming, you are not getting money off me. If the school can’t afford to have these things, too bad!

Well, now that I have that off my chest… ITS SATURDAY! Guess what that means? CHINESE BUFFET! Yes, I am excited about going for Chinese! We all know how much I love that stuff!!!

Also, we are going to pick up half a ton of pellets for the stove. So we have the truck for a little bit today. I like the truck better since there is more room. I could have taken the happy Acer but the T20 has better battery life.

I have been looking into some free games for the T20 to play in the car for when I am out of ideas for a entry. I am mainly looking for stuff that is easy to play with the TrackPoint only. This way I can use it in the car easily.

Well, I may have said this before but I will say this now. The screen protector on the iPAQ (that BoxWave one) is finally toast. So I put on one of the HP branded ones I had purchased when I got the iPAQ. It scratched really easy… I figure that it is the stylus so I am trying to get some new ones. The only ones I found in store are Belkin ones for the H2200 series. Well I will be trying them later today and I will keep you posted with an update later.

Many people wonder why there is so much road rage… Can it be that people can’t drive? Like when someone pulls in front of you and slows down. Seriously people, learn to drive already!

Okay, a little status update: the styluses did NOT fit.

September 25, 2007

Well, I decided that since yesterdays entry was so small that I should make a really long entry today. I have a really good outline made for today that I am trying to keep organized… Some stuff here may have been said before, either here or elsewhere…

First up is the whole one laptop per child thing. I think that it is a pretty good idea. We need to bring technology to everyone! Having a laptop is a really good idea since a lot of kids do not have access to a computer let alone a laptop. There are a lot of kids who do not have access to the Internet. Of course, where there is a good idea, there tends to be problems… One of these problems is that they will not be for the American children. This is for the poorer countries. Now yes it is nice to think of others, but giving computers to these people is, in my opinion, the wrong approach! We should be focusing on what is really important for them. Sorry Nick, but your plan is flawed! People in America may have more money but that doesn’t mean that everyone can afford a computer and Internet access! Now I am not saying the computer has to cost $100 like the poorer nations can get… The $100 price tag is due the minimum order being a million. Why not make a somewhat decent computer and Sell it for maybe 250. I think the people in these poorer nations would much rather food and money then buying 1 million minimum of these computers! People are starving, the last thing these kids need is a crappy computer!

There is going to be a special offer on these for the Americans however… For $400, you can get one for yourself. The reason is that you also send one to a needy child. So its like buying 2 but giving away 1 to a random person. The concept is great but the question remains… Will anyone actually buy one of these? I for one don’t want one! They are ugly and look way to toy like for me to want to use one. The colors are just plainly put, nasty as Hello Kitty in a blender! They also have quite a limited use to me. Since they were designed for children, they are small. Small size means a small keyboard! My NEC keyboard was small enough thank you! The operating system is also a crippled version of Linux… Though I am sure there will be hacks eventually. But I for one am not willing to wait for them… Needless to say, I will NOT be buying this one!

Laptops have been getting cheaper, but they are not cheap enough yet to me. There is no reason that they can’t make cheaper complete computers! They could sell them for about 250 bucks. Its not really that hard.

There is one way to lower costs by a lot. Using lower end hardware, with an optimized operating system. This could be a low powered Linux distribution! This could let you get away with a slower processor speed. You can also save money since Linux is freely available. Since its open source, you are free to edit the code to satisfy the needs of the computers. Not to mention all that free software that is available. Lets look at some of this free software…

OpenOffice.org is a very popular freely available office suite. One of the things that makes it such a good choice is all of the formats it supports. It supports Microsoft’s Word formats for example. This is really good since there are so things that Word can work on. This is including PDA’s and smart phones. It also can run on Linux and Windows machines. It does not need much to run good either. This makes it perfect for this solution. The only problem is the load time. Also, though not necessarily a problem, it takes up about 300MB. This is very small compared to Office 2007 though.

Linux as previously stated
There are some really good freeware programs that I love for Windows also however. I am considering a Freeware page for the site. This would for sure contain these following programs.

Firefox This is the one program I think should be standard on all computers. It is such a better browser. One thing that makes it better is that its safer then Internet Explorer. My parents have to run the spyware programs like Adaware quite often. I never have to since I don’t get that junk with Firefox. Not to mention all the plug ins that are available. One of my favorites is the AdBlock Plus plug in. Yes this is bad since it blocks the ads on websites, and the ads make people money. But you know what? I don’t care! It gets rid of the annoying ads on pages. This not only makes my web experience better but pages load faster. Why? You don’t have to wait for the ads to load!Why is Firefox Blocked? is a site that I hate. If a site blocked me from using either Adblock Plus or Firefox, I just won’t go to that site. Simple as that. You lose out on a reader of your site, good job! As much as I hate Internet Explorer, I won’t block users from this site. Why? I believe that if you block a browser, you deserve to be shut down. Thats Internet HATE!

I usually use Thunderbird for email since I do not like the Microsoft Outlook Express. I use it on my T20 but not on the Acer. I use Outlook 2002 on my Acer since that is what came with my iPAQ. I use this to sync to. I like using Thunderbird since its made by the same people as Firefox, Mozilla.

I also use Pidgin for instant messages. Why? The simple answer is that its the new GAIM. But what is GAIM you ask? Thats the open source multiple protocol messenger of course! I started using it on Linux and it stuck for Windows use. Now if they would only make one for my PDA! Well at least there is IM+ for my iPAQ!!!

Of course since I am back to XP, I need to have anti virus software. I hate Norton so I decided to try Avast. I must say, for free, this is the best program ever coded. They have you register once a year for a free serial code. There is one very cool feature I like: There is a pop up that talks saying the virus definitions have been updated. And this is also done automatically!

CCleaner is a perfect program for people who are obsessed with saving every last bit of space on the hard drive. This will rid your computer of a lot of junk. One of the thing it does, besides free space, is clean out your registry. I am not sure how much it helps but I guess every bit counts really. I tend to run the space cleaner part more, for the cache of Firefox.

What is up with this whole Microsoft Office thing anyway. I mean, they have how many versions of this thing? The one version costs more then my Acer! Ultimate is 680 bucks. What the hell! OpenOffice is free and does a lot. Why can’t Microsoft give you at least a basic version? I don’t mean word pad either.

See, in my opinion, Office should be a core part of the operating system, even if its really basic. That is one reason I will never buy Office, no matter how cheap it is. I would rather use OpenOffice for free. Not to mention there is also Abiword.

There is one reason I think that Office should be on EVERY computer though… When you are working on a file on a different computer. If Office was a core part of the operating system, this would be no problem. That is one reason I love a 4GB flash drive. They have portable OpenOffice and Abiword.<

Also, OpenOffice has a weird thing with it in my opinion. When you save as a .DOC file, versus a .ODT file. The DOC file is much bigger then if you had just used something else. Like say I save this entry as a .DOC as I am now. It will be smaller if I used the PDA to save the same document.

ODT files are great but I use DOC when I need to transport the files. I have decided to use only DOC files anymore since I store all my files on a flash drive since I can not really trust the T20 hard drive now.

I have been thinking about the ASUS Eee PC lately. This makes me wonder one thig firstly… When will it come out? It was suppose to be out in August! There was a Russian site that did a review of it. Since I don’t know Russian, I did what most people do: looked at the pictures.

This brings up an interesting point: The bottom is not flat. This interesting flaw can present some problems to me. It can be a pain to use on a lap or desk. Since its not flat, that could mean it will wobble. The thing is also small so lap use can become very awkward also.

Now, the most annoying thing on it is that bezel around the screen. There is suppose to be 2 versions. The 701 and the 1001. You can guess what the main difference will be: screen size. The 701 is a 7 inch screen, but the same size as the 10 inch model. This makes for a pretty big bezel around the screen.

There is also the problem with the price. They decided to play “change the prices” now. The cheapest model, which was previously stated to be 512MB of RAM and a 4GB SSD (solid state disk) and priced at 200 dollars is now 250 and is also now only 256MB of RAM and 2GB SSD.

Why am I mad over this? Simple! They stated a price of 200! I wouldn’t care if this base model was 200 bucks, as I don’t need that much space as they have USB and SD card slots on them, but its 50 bucks more! That may not seem like a lot but for what this thing is, 50 bucks is a big difference to me. They sell a 4GB SD card (not SDHC too!) for about 60 bucks, so why is the drop in memory costing an extra 50?

This PDA is starting to get on my nerves lately. For example, I get an error with ActiveSync, that is just the most generic thing an error can say! I don’t remember the text exactly but I believe it was similar to this. “An error occurred.” That really tells me soooo much!

The next thing pissing me off is the 7 item limit on the start menu. Okay, they can have space for 5 “recent items” but I can only have 7 programs? What if I wanted to have 12 instead? Nope cant do that! Also, unless you can navigate the file system and manually copy the shortcuts to the start menu folder, they will not be listed under programs. That means that if you use the menu setting, they will only be in one place! I like having them on both…

Also, I hate that recent programs thing. It really makes the menu long. I don’t care about my recently used programs! All I really want is Today Programs Settings. Thats it! I could do with a few applications I use a lot but its not really needed. I would also like the shortcuts to the programs I do want there to be icons, 5 per row, so I can keep it small.

Also, why is that when you remove a program from the device using the remove programs thing, it sometimes leaves behind the icon? I have having to delete them, whether it be by hand or by a programs doing. Its just a pain that I don’t think should be there.

Now this is one thing that I wish WM5 and 6 lacked… The whole soft key thing. They are nice if the device, like the phones tend to have now, when there is a hard key for them. They are a pain to use the device one handed if there isn’t! I liked the 2003SE bottom bar much better.

Also, why can’t I seem to find a setting to tell Pocket Internet Explorer how to handle the up and down buttons. I would rather see it be able to navigate by link only when I use the left and right keys. Would much rather up and down scroll by the page. If there is a setting for this, I sure haven’t found it!

Also, I would like to flip the bottom bar and start menu around to look more like Windows. I would also like to see themes for the actual operating system too. Not just the today screen and the bar colors. I would love to make mine look just like Windows 2000. There may be a third party application but I think it should be a core feature.

Also, speaking of core features, I thin we should be able to edit what we want installed in the ROM. This would mean more memory, which devices definitely could use more of. I do not use, for example on my iPAQ, the download agent. Nor do I use terminal server. I would much prefer the extra memory.

Of course. The need for third party applications annoys me too. Why should we need to fix what Microsoft didn’t do right? A good example is the close button. Why can’t it be more like SPB Pocket Plus where you can set it to be close or minimize on tap, tap and hold or gesture. Also, you can even have a context menu! The menu will have all the running tasks with close buttons and whatever menu item you have chosen.

There is also the junk that builds up from Pocket Internet Explorer. You can either clear this manually or with programs. Hey heres an idea, why not have an option to disable that junk? The cache is the worst waste of space on the device.

Now, if we can have storage cards that hold 4GB be the size of my finger nail, why can’t you just put that much space inside the device for the same price? Sure, I have a 4GB SD card for my iPAQ and a open compact flash slot, but why should I need to use them?

The PDA is good to keep organized though. I have been trying to use my iPAQ more and more. I have decided that the task program is good for setting up a basic outline for a blog entry. I can toss down what I want to cover as a task with a note. Then when all done, I can just check it off after I post the entry.

Of course, I was expecting to need to change that Boxwave screen protector sooner or later. This was a Boxwave Clear Touch that was on it when I got the 3 week old iPAQ… That makes it about half a year old. Not to bad I guess. But thats not the worst part…

I would have ordered my self some but I had already bought the HP branded ones before I got the iPAQ in the mail. This makes me annoyed as they are the worst things I have ever seen. They are thin and are really easy to scratch. In fact, I scratched it as soon as I took the stylus to the screen! So now I have 11 more of these things left!

I decided to try some Belkin ones I had purchased for my Axim before it did the Dell thing… I don’t know why but these also scratched incredibly easy. Maybe its because they were old but I am really annoyed. This means that I have to order the good ones before I can really use my PDA. That also means I have like 22 of these things! UGH! I guess I can use them for crappy devices that do not have a touch screen, like cameras.

Truth be told, I kind of miss my Axim now. Why? The thing was designed well. Too bad it wasn’t made that well! The thing has some features I miss terribly. Like one thing it had was a big battery that I got for it. That made WiFi use fun! But there was something else that made it good:

I had a clip on keyboard for it. It wasn’t a great keyboard as it didn’t light up and the buttons were rubber, but it was easier then using on screen data entry! This is of course the thumboard they sold for it. That was by far the best 20 bucks I ever spent on it.

The stylus wasn’t have bad either! It was weird as it was flat though. Everyone called it the fish. The truth was that made it quite nice to hold. Too bad the tip broke off my one and the one I was given fell out! The thing had some nice weight as it was all metal except the tip.

Of course, the best thing was the buttons. The jog dial on the side was much better then the ones from Clies. They were spring loaded so all you had to do was hold it down. The side buttons were also very handy. I had the record button mapped to rotate the screen and the wireless button hacked for WiFi only. Unlike the iPAQ, I didn’t need to hold them down for that!

On my iPAQ, the button mapping is a little weird really. I have the record button mapped to PocketPlayer and PocketPlayer maps that to the screen toggle. Then the Calendar does double duty with the hold function as rotate screen. The Address button hold function is the start menu. The messages button is held for iPAQ Wireless. The old iTask button is now the context menu of SPB PocketPlus and held for the today screen.

The return of using Windows and my iPAQ brought back something very annoying! USB! I hate USB since my Acer only has 2 ports you can use since the third is on the front of the casing. This requires me to use a hub.

You can say I hate hubs really. Why? They get in the way for one thing! I can never find a good place to put it! Then there is the mess of cables everywhere on the desk. There is however, one hub I will use. That would be the Targus ChillHub I have. Its the one with the 2 fans. The new one that blows air UP.

What makes this one so different? Well one thing is that it fits UNDER the laptop. The second is that all the ports go off to the back of the desk. I use it to keep the Acer cooler too. Always good for the processor!

There is also too many connectors anymore. We have B, mini, micro, and everyones favorite: the one device only dock connectors. I hate the dock connectors so much! Why can’t everything just use a standard? Please, will you companies just chose a single connector as standard?

There is also the fact that not many devices have a host port. This is not really needed on stuff like MP3 players but it could be very terrifically useful to use a PDA user. This means that you can easily transfer a file from your PDA to your laptop without a card reader, sync cable, or anything else. Just a USB flash drive.

Also, why can’t we settle on a stanard card for storage? Here is a plan… How bout a small card, the size of maybe Mini SD that is also a USB connector? ITS THE PERFECT MEMORY FORMAT! Its not only a card for your phone or camera but a USB flash drive! If I can think of this…

We are seeing a surge in mobile devices lately such as PDA phones and the…iPhone… Yuck! But with this surge in devices, you would think they would have more mobile sites. I am not as concerned with formating of the site as I am with the speed of loading.

When I go to a mobile weather site, I want my forecast FAST. I know they have some mobile news websites but there is a definitive lack of mobile forums and chats. I know that it is possible to have mobile versions as several ones I check have a mobile version.

I hope this made up for the short entries I have made in the past! I was going to make this longer but I got stuff to do!

September 23, 2007

A bit of a short one today as I am a little tired. Well, heres something I need to get off my chest… I miss Linux. There are some functions that I loved. Like the syntax highlighting and tabs in the text editor. I also miss that nice window switcher. Keeps the user interface looking cleaner.

I love my RC car so much. One of the teachers from high school moved in on the side street a few months ago and I seen him today. So I brought the RC car over too show him and he loved it. HE loved how fast the thing was. I wish I had an street car now to show him real speed. R C cars are great to show people! I just wish more people had them!

Tonight is the Family Guy season premier. I will not spoil it but its StarWars Theme!

September 22, 2007

Well, yesterday would have seen a 2 page entry if I didn’t lose the file! I moved it to a SD card and when I put the card into my Acer, no file. So I will try and remember what I wanted to post yesterday!

We went to a concert at Penn’s Peak last night. Very nice show. We went to see Orleans. The band was great and the one person was great at the guitar. I really enjoyed the show. My mom’s friend had gotten us free tickets!

I was happy I had my iPAQ with me. Got to love battery powered electronic distractions! I played a lot of Tetris and I learned something. Its easier to get a higher score if you take any lines you can get. Trying to set it up for the 4 line is more of a pain. You never get a line piece when you need them. You get a ton of them!

Well today we are going to the Bloomsburg fair. I cannot wait for the food! I am really hoping they have candy apples for one thing! That and I would love to try a deep fried Twinkie. I would love to go tomorrow as Bill Engvall will be there. I would love to talk to him! I hope that it will be cloudy today. I also have the camera so I will take some pictures.

The last time I went to Bloomsburg was for the programming competition. That was with school so this is a personal trip this time. We will pick up my mom’s friend which is an hour in the opposite direction though. Oh well, its worth it! We are getting in for free with one of her friends. If only the food was free too!

I forgot to mention that I took some pictures of the mountain at Penn’s Peak. I will put them and a bunch of other pictures I took into the end of this entry. We passed by the win farm again today so I tried to get some pictures but I do not think they came out well.

You know, I love OpenOffice even more now. I finally figured out how to get the auto completion to work! This is one of them accidental findings. Turns out when the highlighted text comes up, hitting enter will insert it. Another thing I found out is that you can select multiple bits by holding the CTRL key down while selecting with the mouse. Editing documents just got a lot easier!

I have gotten pretty far with C++ for the few times I have to work on it. I am on Basic Input Output, the fifth section of the C Plus Plus website. Though there is one thing on my mind… C++ is not very popular it seems. A lot of people seem to think its garbage. Linus Torvalds thinks its garbage. This is upsetting to me because it seems to be so widely used. Well that won’t stop me from learning it but it does beg the question…

Are there too many programming languages? I think there is. Off the top of my head: C, C++, C#, Visual Basic, Python, COBAL, FORTAN, Basic and its many forms, Java. Thats at least 9. While I see the need for the different languages for different purposes, I think there are too many that you can learn. Maybe its just me but I think we need an official programming language.

I am so glad its the fall. I cannot stand summer’s heat anymore! Of course this means soon I will leave the laptop home more often because of the cold at least I won’t be sweating. Freezing yes, sweating no! Plus I am hoping for some good snow this year because I felt ripped off last year! I want snow for Christmas for sure.

Me and a friend were discussing the use of a solid state flash based hard drive versus a traditional hard drive. I would rather a hard drive because they are cheaper per gigabyte of storage. Sure, flash based memory uses less power and is less likely to fail but there is the fact that memory can be written to for only so long. Sure its millions of times but that could be easy to do with something such as Linux.

So if a hard drive is more likely to fail, and I have had 2 laptop hard drives die on me already, why would I rather them just because they are cheaper? When it comes time to get a new one, you have a good reason to upgrade because they are so much cheaper. For example, I got an 80GB hard drive for my USB enclosure for only 70 dollars. Now its not a 5400 ROM drive but compared to a flash drive, its a deal.

We both agreed that the flash memory should stay in devices like cameras and media players. This keeps the price down. Plus it will last a lot longer in these devices.

You know, I am really glad that I have this ThinkPad. You don’t know how handy this thing is for me. Car trips are the best with it. The Acer is usable in the car but its big. Plus having the TrackPoint makes mouse work easier. Of course, I know I probably said all of this stuff when I got the thing.

Last night was the first time I have ever really used the ThinkLight. I though that it would be an uneven lighting since the light was off to the side. I have used it in dim lighting but never at night in the car. The full keyboard was lit up. I am just mad that I lost the entry.

I am glad that I got the WiFi card for it too. Its easier to just pop out the card then having to shut it off like on my Acer. This is some thing I have probably said before but I hate the button on my Acer. I am always hitting that stupid thing! It makes using the laptop on your lap a PAIN!

I am glad that I have so many memory cards and flash drives now. Since I don’t trust saving the files to the hard drive. I was stupid yesterday and saved to the hard drive. Well this time I am saving directly to the card! I am not going to be that stupid this time!

I had some of the best grapes that I have ever had the other day! They are used for making wine. They were so soft, sweet, and full of juice! Wow, my neighbor makes wine so he gave us a bunch of them. Wow, if you ever can make friends with someone who makes wine, ask for some of these grapes. The only bad thing is that they have seeds in it. I pick them out though you can probably eat them. I just don’t like crunching on them!

I have decided to do a automatic daily backup on my iPAQ. This is so I always have a backup in case something decides to break on me. Though I do need to fix the file association of Word files with Word Mobile. That stupid program I tried a demo of!

Well the fair was great! We got candy apples but we didn’t eat them yet. It was pretty hot. They had a lot of food but we didn’t get much. I did get a very nice turkey sub. They had this blue birch beer that was very good. I also got some French fries and a blooming onion. They were very good. I also had some orangeade. Very fun day!

I got a can of RockStar at a gas station. MMM! I haven’t had it in a while so it was a good change. Sure its not the best testing drink in the world. This was in the 24oz resealable cans they have now. It was only 50 cents more then I use to pay so good deal there.

I have a lot of pictures of the fair. Lets just say a little over 200 pictures. Google is going to love me! I should see about getting a pro account after this! These will be on the Bloomsburg Fair Gallery. There is a lot of animal pictures too so be warned!

Wow, my moms friends friend has a HTC TyTn. This was the Cingular model. I was not in a 3G area so I was only browsing on the EDGE network. The keyboard was nice but I didn’t get to use it too long to get use to it. I installed Google Maps for her so she can play with the satellite images. I also installed Stris 2 for her…

I would love to get one of these, even without the phone, since it has WiFi. That would be great for in the car use. Another good use would be the camera. I love my Lumix but I don’t always have it with me. I miss the Treo for that reason. Good thing the T20 has the light though.

There is two reasons I would not want the TyTn specifically: Micro SD cards is the first reason, They go up to 2GB and now 4GB with the SDHC versions, but I prefer having a regular SD card slot. The second reason is there is no specific headphone jack. You must use the USB port for headphones. Of course there is probably an adapter you can use. Most phones have a 2.5MM jack also.

There is always a hack that you can do. Cut the end of the jack off and make the 3.5MM standard plug into a 2.5MM mini plug. This makes a new problem, you can only use them on the small jack. Oh well, I don’t have to worry as I only have my iPAQ. I could also use the Zen Vision M I have too.

I am thinking that I should keep the pictures off of the server now since I don’t know how much bandwidth we have with Verizon. I wonder if I could find a better picture host. I think Zooomr that I use to have is unlimited space. I will have to look into it. Though I still have a lot of space on Google.

September 20, 2007

Well know, I assume someone has seen that the site was offline for a little while. Well that is because when my dad unplugged the LAN cable, it changed the IP of that computer. Not knowing I needed to change the IP for the port forwarding… I tried restarting the computer so I lost that nice 16 day uptime! UGH!

Well, this is going to come as a shock! I went back to Windows! Thats right, the evil Windows! I decided that Linux is just too much of a pain for me. I am glad that I can have my laptop on for a lot longer then I would get with Linux because my WiFi works 100% now. Thats always a good thing huh? Plus now I don’t need to use the virtual XP for C++.

I put XP Home back onto the Acer with the recovery CD’s. I decided to put Windows 2000 Professional on the ThinkPad T20… Oh but I bet your saying sonmething like “HE SAID THE T20 WAS BROKEN!?!?!?”! right about now. You would be right as I did say that it was broken… Anyone want to take a guess at why it was broken? The answer may shock you!

LINUX!

1Ok, maybe it wasn’t Linux but it was the installation on the hard drive that was causing the fans not to work. Now your probably wondering why I chose 2000 Professional instead of XP. Well simply put… The T20 has another problem with it… While this is an easy to fix problem, I do not have a very good means of fixing it..

The hard drive is shot!

Yes, that nice little 40GB hard drive I used with it is shot. It has the click of death sadly. The only 2 spare drives I have are my USB 80GB in the enclosure I bought, or the 20GB I ripped from and old MP3 player a while ago. Well, you can probably guess that I chose the smaller of the two drives. The 80GB would be a major waste on this thing!

So as you can see, I have taken a small break on the whole C++ thing to get both of these computers up and running, and the server working again. I plan on getting some C++ work done soon and even throwing up the source code with the EXE files here.

Well, I guess having all these flash drives is a good thing now huh? Well, I guess its time I get back to C++ now!

September 16, 2007

Okay, there has been a big delay in my updates and for that I am sorry. Here is why:

I have been learning how to program. I have started on Python and then I got sick of trying to learn it for now. I started on C++ now and have been pretty busy trying to learn that now. I have installed a virtual XP so I can run Dev C++ to code on.

Well… I went to a Poco concert on Friday too. Well, I didn’t take the laptop with me since I am getting sick of using it in the car… I have to use the inverter which drives me nuts since I hate using that thing all the time.

Yesterday was a BBQ in New Jersey at my mom’s friends house. I did bring the laptop but I didn’t feel like using it once again. I was going to keep typing my C++ notes but ended up doing other stuff. It was pretty fun but I just didn’t feel like using the laptop the time. I was busy eating!

I did get something nice today too! I got a swing arm for my TV. It was 23 bucks on clearance at Office Depot. I decided to get my TiVo back up. Weird thing is that I thought the thing was broken. I couldn’t get the thing to work last time.

Sorry for the delays. I will be a little more delayed as I keep learning C++. I will be busy with a friend as we are working on a game still..<

September 1, 2007

Short entry today thats just to serve as an update.

Went to Bonanza for steak today.

Found a great cleaner for my RC stuff. Its called Purple Power and is 5 bucks for a gallon at Walmart that you dilute. I have it at 10 to 1.

I will be tweaking some stuff and will consider adding a forum with in a week.

Short, sweet, and to the point! Tomorrow will have a better one I promise!

September 8, 2007

Well, I have decided to try out the full screen thumboard that SPB has. It is pretty cool. It even has stuff like automatically completion of word. It even attempts to fix my typos. Pretty sweet program but its a bit of a pain to hold the PPC like this and use my thumbs. I don’t think that this is a good way to use in say a moving car since there is no actual buttons. Its still a good method for when I am on the couch though. If all goes well, this can become a very useful thing for me. The thing that is good about this is that using the stylus can be a bit easier then your thumbs. The keys are less likely to mess up that way. Overall opinion, I don’t think I like it. Like a lot of complaints with the iPhone, I too prefer a real button. This is what the iPhone should have used!

Well, there is always my preferred method of input I suppose… That would be the Bluetooth keyboard from ThinkOutside. This is also one of the more expensive options though. If only it had the fifth row. It would be very nice to not have to use the FN keys. Of course, I have probably said this all before. Even though its a bit of a pain, I still love it!

I get Chinese again today! Woo! I say today because as I have said before, I start these entries in the morning and post them at night. But this paragraph isn’t about when the entry now is it? All I know is that I can not wait to get some food! I will be going to Super King Buffet this time. This is the one near Walmart, not the new one. Well, I guess this is a new one too but whatever! As long as the good is good, I am pretty much happy!

I am starting to think I have an addiction to balsamic vinegar. I actually bought a small bottle of Roland’s Raspberry Infused balsamic. I got to say that is some great stuff! Its more raspberry then balsamic taste in my opinion but its really good none the less. Like I used the plain Roland one, I drenched some sliced cucumber and croutons in it! MMM! If you don’t get a nice pucker off my salad, it needs more balsamic! I would have had some chick peas in it but we didn’t have any. I also like to get fresh bread and dip it into the vinegar! MMM MMM good!!!

I can assume most people have seen the 5 new iPAQ’s that HP has introduced. I am really upset about this. The one I would kill for, the 900 series, is a PHONE! I would kill for it without the phone part! To anyone who hasn’t seen the news yet… Its pretty much a Motorola Q running Windows Mobile 6 with a touch screen. So you can assume its my dream PDA because of the design! The 600 series, also a phone, is pretty neat. It has something similar to the Click Wheel on the iPod. Inside the numerical pad is a touch sensitive ring. This is the navigator. Pretty cool really but I don’t think it would be practical for me. If it was a QWERTY phone, maybe. The 100 and 200 series are your basic PDA. The 100 is QVGA and has an SD card slot. The 200 is a VGA and has the CF slot also. They are only a minor upgrade over my HX2495b. A little faster only. The 300 series is a GPS. Not much to say about this as I think its only for GPS stuff.

Okay, so you are probably thinking that if they are not a big upgrade for me, why do I care so much? Well, simple answer is that the PDA is not dead. This means that IF and only IF my iPAQ does happen to break, I have a replacement in mind! I do not plan on upgrading any time soon. By the time my iPAQ breaks these will probably be off t he market! I hope that my iPAQ can last a long time. I like to prove to people that an OLD PDA is not useless. I still play with my NEC from time to time!

I have to wonder why Linux just won’t work properly for me. Its really Broadcom’s fault! All we need are some proper drivers really! I am not asking for much, just that my WiFi would work. This is one of those things that makes me want to just go back to Windows! I tried a command that is suppose to unload the module for the WiFi, and then reload it. This did not seem to work. After I hibernate for so long, my WiFi will not attempt to connect. Guess I have too keep searching for a fix!

You know, I don’t mind using the iPAQ instead of a laptop that much. Its smaller for one thing. Its also able to be put in my pocket. I have my music on my SD card. The lovely 4GB card! So I don’t need to carry my Zen Vision:M. In fact, I have found a good audio player called Pocket Player. The coolest thing is that you can hit the notification icon it puts up to change tracks from any program! Pretty sweeeet!

What is even better is that since its so hot lately, I can use the iPAQ and not be burning my legs! Some people think that using a PDA doesn’t have any advantages over a laptop. Well, I would rather use my laptop, no lies there! The battery life is better on the PDA! I need to have good Battery life on my devices. I try to charge whenever I can but some days you don’t get a chance to charge! Another big advantage is size. The best thing is that I can toss it into my pocket when I’m out shopping.

Well, I wanted to get an extended battery for the iPAQ. I decided to just get a APC UPB10. This is a USB battery pack that lasts up to 55 hours. Its main use will be concerts where there is WiFi access. This will let me have WiFi on for a looong time. I will see my self using this a lot when I am on a car trip now since I am getting sick of carrying my laptop. I may not be able to type fast on the iPAQ without a keyboard but I can still get a nice sized blog entry kicked out! I will probably make a new charger out of an adaptaplug… Though I do not think I will get 55 hours, I am hoping for at least 10.

September 7, 2007

Well I have decided to try and use my iPAQ more now. I am putting a lot of games on it now. The thing has sat idle for so long.I might as well give it some more use. Though, games may not be the best use of the Thing, its or better then nothing I suppose.

Some days, I wish I Could get my hands on an old Apple Newton. They are old but still pretty cool. I wish my iPAQ had That good of hand writing recognition. I am tring to use the notes program now. I still have to go back and fix The mess ups. I Guess its not that hard to fix it but it is a pain! It would be nice though to be able to just write everything down.

Maybe its just easier to tap on the on screen keyboard. I just wish I had an easy to use tool to input data without tons of errors. Maybe if I had better hand writing, I could use the stuff like the transcriber. Maybe I should learn to write better huh?

It would be nice to get one of those new iPAQ’s. The new 900 series has a nice QWERTY keyboard. Why must it be a phone and cost 600 bucks?!?! I would want the 200 series if it had the keyboard! I miss the Treo for that sole reason. Its really nice to be able to type reasonabley fast with out me needing to have have a laptop or a full size keyboard. I love my Bluetooth keyboard, but sometimes I don’t have room to use it. It also doesn’t have the number row!

September 5, 2007

You know, I am still writing August! I hate changing months!

I made 15 bucks down my grandparents today. I helped trim the hedges. I will have to do the windows next time also. FUN!

Well, we all know what today was! Yup thats right, The Beat Goes On… The new iPods are here. I will not go into detail as there are other blogs out there like Engadget that covered the event. I will say that I am not impressed. The Nano is UGLY now… The Classic model is pretty nice with the 160GB model. The touch is pretty much the iPhone minus the phone. What disappoints me is no streaming radio??? That is what ruins it for me. Its all flash and available in 8 and 16 GB sizes.

Ya know, I have to wonder. The iPod thats made to do VIDEO has only 16GB of space. WHY??!?! I know its flash based and flash is expensive but WHY?!?! The iPod classic has 160GB of space and 40hr battery life. The Touch could have had a hard drive too! When will you learn to listen to the geeks Apple? Hell, my iPAQ can do more than the iPhone. And the operating system on my iPAQ is only 64MB not 700MB like the iPhone. So, is the iPod Touch the same way???

Also, I doubt we will ever see an iPod that can do Office. Hell, my PDA has so many more applications! There are even a lot of free applications. Get with the ball Apple! People want function over style!

Man why are laptops so awkward to use on your lap? I mean, they are not very comfortable! They get too hot sometimes for one thing. Its also a pain to get a spot where its balanced nicely. Sometimes its too top heavy or too wide. Sometimes not wide enough! Thats why those cheap lap desks really come in handy. I want to get a new one. My old one is cheap plastic. They can be hard to get comfortable with too though. The ones with the beanbag on the bottom seam to be the best. They are also usually the most expensive.

I cannot wait for the winter to hit here. In the summer, its just to hot to use the laptop some days. In the winter however, it’s great to use it when its cold. It is nice to just sit there with it. I also would like the fall to get here. Its getting cooler but some days are still pretty warm. I will miss sitting outside once winter hits though.

You know, I kind of miss school. Seeing everyon was something to do really. I do enjoy being out of school a lot though, I do have college to look forward too when I decide to go though. There is always work too I guess… I do plan on getting a job at a computer place so that will be fun. I bet they will love me when I recommend that people use OpenOffice.org instead of Office 2007… I will do my duty of telling people about Linux too!

Speaking of Linux… My WiFi is acting a little weird again. I don’t know why but it seams that I am restarting a lot to get it to work after I hibernate. Maybe its just random… Maybe there is a way to reset the network manager. I will have to find out I suppose. It would sure be easier then a full reset…

Man, you know, I am dieing for Chinese food! I am hoping we go this weekend. I love the buffets! Get some nice veggie Lo Mien! MMM! I also love the chicken on a stick there. I also love the deserts there. They have great fruit there.

I would love to get a new laptop in a way. The Acer is still going strong but I would love one that ran cooler. I don’t care about the dual core stuff really. I am not a gamer. Hell, as long as it can run Linux, I am pretty much happy! I don’t care bout much else. Though the more USB ports the better!

Thats one of the things I hate about my laptop. I only have 2 usable USB ports. There is another port on the front of the laptop. The front location is impossible to use. Great job Acer! Also, the side that my ports are on also limits the use when I use a mouse. Woo!

Not to mention the side my vent is on… That is more at the top of the laptop at least! IT doesn’t blow onto my hand so much. It blows onto your knee though. So thats not really much better. Thats really bad when its kicked into full gear and the processor is running at like 70C