Batteries and how (not) to charge them

Here is an EXCELLENT article about rechargeable batteries. It details how (and why) you should charge and discharge each type of battery in order to get the most out of them.

If you have anything with rechargeable batteries (and who doesn't?) I highly recommend you give this a once-over.

Bluetooth Rocks!

So I have been meaning to read up on this article I came across with Bloglines about 3 and 1/2 months ago (yeah, it's been a little while!)

It's a way for me to control my PC via my N810. I can control my mouse, keyboard, presentations, even media.

Here's the link to the site/article.

Create your own DVD

A friend of mine had a few videos and wanted to play them on a DVD player. The last time I researched how to do this, I was very disappointed to see that there were really no viable solutions (i.e. there were no solutions unless you wanted to drop $300 on software).

Well, now I have some good news. There is a FOSS application called DVD Flick that rocks.

This app will walk you through creating the menus and even does some more advanced stuff (like advanced video editing, subtitles, etc.)

It will also burn it to a disc for you, if you wish.

My favorite extra feature is that while it is encoding, it has three buttons: "Cancel", "Minimize", and "Entertain Me". The "Entertain Me" button launches a Tetris game that you can play while the DVD encodes. Why isn't this in Outlook?!

A PDF here, a PDF there...everywhere a PDF

So you've got all these PDFs and you want to shove them all together into one big one eigh? Well, MergePDF is your tool. I love freeware!

I'll track mine, you track yours

Wait, that's not how it's spelled, it's got one of those "mac-ie" names...gross.

iTrackMine is a cool little app that allows you to keep track of all of the media you have, without having some crazy proprietary database or some ugly spreadsheet. Might be worth a look.

Lights, Camera -- wait, no camera, Action!

Have you ever wanted to show someone how to do something on a computer, but you are forced to do it over the phone for some reason? It can be pretty tough.

ScreenToaster is a great app that allows you to record what you're doing (with audio if you wish) and then save it all for someone else to watch later. I know this could be great for me. Now if I could just get people to watch the videos... ;-)

Dust off that ol' jukebox!

Got an old computer?
Want a music server?

VortexBox is here to save the day!

It's a great app that you can use to turn an old machine into a music server. Once this is installed, just pop your CD in the drive, and it rips it automatically!

Who Crashed?

"This program has performed an illegal operation...here's a bunch of debugging data that only makes sense to the nerdiest of nerds: 0xBLAH 0xBLAH 0xBLAH"

Sound familiar? I thought so.

Well, now you can make sense of all of that debugging mumbo jumbo with "WhoCrashed".

RFID is not secure...surprise surpri--- oh, wait.

No surprise here, RFID chips are not a good place to store secure stuff.

At least, that's what I get from this post.

He claims to have ripped off 2 passports in 20 minutes, and with a device that has a range of only 30 feet!

Keep those things in a Faraday cage!

My N810 Review

Here is my Nokia N810 review.



And a couple of links about it:
Nokia USA
Wikipedia

Paint yourself secure

Are you paranoid about whether people are getting on your wireless network?
Are you worried that your wireless signals might be killing the birds outside?
Do you really like the color "neon green"?

Then this paint might be for you!

That's right, it's a new paint that keeps your wireless signals from leaving the house!

20 Petaflops is a LOT!

Here is a link to the new supercomputer that IBM is building.

Just a couple of points:

• 20 petaflops = 20,000 teraflops = 20,000,000 gigaflops = 20,000,000,000 megaflops
  
• Over 1.6 million processors (how many does your computer have...1, maybe 2?)
  
• 1.6 terabytes of memory = 1,600 gigabytes = 1,600,000 megabytes (a little more than your 1 or 2 again)

It's a good thing we're all about "going green"... :-/

Unix in Windows

I hate being in the "DOS" prompt and typing `ls` only to see:
"'ls' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file."

Here's my answer: UnxUtils

(and yes, I did write batch files at one point, but this is much easier IMHO.)