New Laptop
I just got myself a Toshiba U400-108, which works really well with (K)ubuntu 8.04. I haven’t found anything yet which doesn’t work out-of-the-box.
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3 comments June 28th, 2008
In Memoriam
One of the greatest technology visionaries and science fiction writers to have ever lived. I have to credit Clarke, above all others, for making the potential of science exciting and immediate to me when I was growing up, despite the fact that most of his books are older than I am.
March 19th, 2008
Exchange Rate
So the new Macbook Air looks very, very cool. Its just the sort of laptop I like and would buy, if I could find a good enough excuse. However, a simple look (as of 17th Jan 2008) at the Apple store reveals that the lower end model retails for $1,799 or £1,020.43 (ex VAT), or an exchange rate of 1.763. Given that the current exchange rate is 1.971, this means Apple is charging £107.76 ($212.42, 11.8%) above what the raw exchange rate is.
Of course, Apple doesn’t have to use the current exchange rate and is probably protecting itself from future fluctuations, but it is really annoying to always be on the wrong side of the exchange rate.
1 comment January 17th, 2008
Los Angeles
Apparently the traffic there is infamous. I transferred via there on my way back from the States and even at the aeroplanes were gridlocked. This really annoyed the guy sitting next to me, presumably because he might miss his transfer. While he rushed off the plane, I waited for everyone else to get off (my transfer was in six hours) and then got off almost last. He was waiting outside in the jetway for them to unload some of his luggage that had been too big to fit in the overhead locker on the rather small aircraft, looking like he was going to explode. The moral; sometimes you should just check your luggage in, like normal people.
November 20th, 2007
Breeding
I’ve been ill for the past week or two, with some sort of cold & flu thing, which has been incredibly annoying. Not only that, but it makes the commute into work that much more unpleasant because I know I’m one of the people in the carriage who is infecting everyone else. And I hate it when other people do that. But I got thinking about the network of transmission; a DAG of disease sweeping through the population. I wonder if the clique would be commuters, on the tube, meeting every morning and evening to cross-breed their germs. Gathering new specimens and training them against their immune systems and drug regimens, selecting them for greater virulence and tolerance. The next morning, they’ll be back on the tube to try out their improved strains. On me (cf. Catch-22).
Its a bit like Petz (TM), but you don’t need AA batteries.
November 6th, 2007
Scary
Apparently the chance of two randomly-selected people having a DNA match is only one in 7,000, which means that the number of matches in the UK would be expected to be about 1,000. Now that’s scary…
September 24th, 2007
Bluetooth
As a necessary first step to getting my wiimote talking to my computer I bought a little USB bluetooth dongle (Linksys USBBT100 which works fine with Linux) and installed the necessary bluetooth stack. When I turned it on and scanned I found three devices within range, all phones, none of which belong to me. Its pretty common-knowledge that bluetooth has a longer range than advertised, but I was surprised to learn that it quite easily connects to other devices through walls or floors.
The people who designed the bluetooth protocol aren’t stupid and they clearly put some thought into making it difficult to eavesdrop or man-in-the-middle the connection with the pairing/encryption thing, but given the number of bluetooth stack exploits, it’ll be a while before I trust a wireless keyboard with my passwords…
July 29th, 2007
Backup Photos Revisited
A (long) while back I blogged about needing something to backup photos stored on my camera’s memory card while I’m on holiday in case my camera gets stolen again. In the end, I bought the Camera Buddy (40Gb) which, despite a confusing manual, takes xD cards and works absolutely fine under Linux as a usb-storage removable hard disk. Apparently it should also work as an 8-in-1 card reader, but that didn’t work out of the box and I can’t be bothered to get it to work. If I need to read the card directly I can do it via my camera anyway.
July 29th, 2007
Product Differentiation
Going to the gym is boring, taking the Tube is boring – I need something to pass the time. I’ve been taking a book to work for ages, because I can’t stand reading the Metro any more. It was fun occasionally, but its relentless lack of well-balanced or interesting journalism forced me to find something else. Also, I really hate the ink that rubs off on your hands.
On the other hand, books are great. They’re lightweight, low power, high resolution and engrossing. Sadly, they also require a great deal of room (compared to what’s available on the rush-hour Tube, anyway) and both hands to turn the pages. This is also the problem at the gym – can’t read and use the cross trainer at the same time. So I’ve been looking for something that’ll take away the boredom with the minimum of space, hassle and the maximum of entertainment. What I’ve realised is that no one product will do it all…
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1 comment May 13th, 2007