- 1999-04-17:
Skimming the Hardware Overview pages at a certain site, I find that the Top slot (and the others too)
seems to be general use I/O ports capable of handling a lot of different equipment. Let's see, I have these chips, a little bit of wire, but where the h**k is my
soldering iron... - 1999-05-22:
After finding my soldering iron, I cobbled up a couple of IC's to work as a pulse counter, and connected it up...
Unfortunately, I used 74LSxx chips, so I ended up with the same battery life as a CE device. Will have to find a CMOS databook... - 1999-05-25:
Sitting in a hotelroom in Bergen, I start playing Worm2 again... Jaap must be a genious to build a snake type game on a 2 lines text screen...
(Also managed a new personal high score: 503. That's onto level 4 :-) - 1999-06-14:
Having just begun my vacation, I'we started to upgrade the equipment in the GadgetCave!™ a little bit...
I started with a Yamaha RX-V595RDS amplifier... This (not so) little beauty is a Dolby Digital surround sound Amplifier/Radio tuner...
with RDS. This system also came with a Magic wand(Universal remote). It must be magic, because any time that I try to turn on my TV(Samsung) with it,
it also starts my DVD(Toshiba) player... And trying to skip tracks on my DVD makes my VCR(Samsung) start on full forward...
Given the units price (5500NKr), and a lack of space, I only bought 2 speakers...
There's a Aux input on this box... Wonder how OMF 2097 (One Must Fall, old PC game with 90 feet high robots) sounds with the volume all the way up...
Also got a new high on Worm2: 514. (Darn addictive game :-) - 1999-06-18:
Went by the office to upload this page... My workstation hung on boot. After restarting, it reported 'One or more Services failed to start', and the mouse didn't work...
Checking the Event log, I found that it wasn't a 'service' but a 'Device driver' that failed... (NT can't even give accurate error messages.) guess that I'll either have to fix it or reinstall the bl**dy heap... - 1999-07-19:
I'we been back at the office for two weeks now... (A lot of catching up to do :-) My workstation had a faulty Motherboard, so I used it as an excuse to liberate a slightly faster one.
(Went from P120MHz/32MB to P166MHz/64MB) It may not seem like much, but it did have a Matrox Millennium card and a 32X CDROM.
Since I don't like NT very much, I also used the oportunity to install the latest release of Stardock's Windowblinds. Now at least NT don't look too awful...
During my vacation, I also got hold of a laptop computer. (what do I need a laptop for when I'we got a Psion?)
The Unfortunate computer is a Toshiba T2400CS. It's an old 486DX2/50MHz with 12MB RAM. I'll admit that it's not much, but it does come with PCMCIA slots.
Yes, that's the reason... A faster way to copy large amounts of data to and from my Psion S5.
At the moment the Toshiba is purring away happily with OS/2. (I don't like W95 either :-)
I even installed Akira Hatakeyama's Osuwari Multi program to liven up the desktop. - 1999-08-05:
A lot of stuff happened today:
A user at the office have a Canon Powershot Pro 70 digital camera, and I were asked to install the linking program to transfer pictures to the desktop PC...
Someone at Canon should be ashamed of himself. The only program for transfering pictures was a Twain driver. (Meaning the camera pretended to be a scanner). No easy drag'n drop program...
The end? The user buys a Sandisk Compact Flash adapter for the PC. The camera comes with a 15MB CF. And if you think that that's a lot, just remember that the camera has a max resolution of 1536 x 1024 pixels
resulting in pictures of up to 1.9MB... On the plus side, the camera can take two CF's, and possibly even the IBM Microdrive.
Getting home from work, I found two packages waiting for me:
The first was an Psion Organiser II LZ64 with a Comms link. Now I can finally transfer files to and from the II's...
The second was a package of Nitinol (Also known as 'Muscle Wire' or 'Shape Memory Alloy'). Let's see: A couple of Organisers with nice IO ports,
A metal that contracts when a current is applied, a couple of IC's, maybe some old LEGO pieces, and a maniac with a soldering iron...
- 1999-08-20:
Star Wars Premiere here in Norway...
At 19:00, I passed by the Cinema, and deciding on a whim bought a ticket for the 20:00 show...
(No, the show was NOT sold out. Movies are NEVER sold out on premiere day in Molde :-)
I must admit to not being too impressed. The 'famous' racer scene, could have used a lot more 'first person' shots and close camerawork to build a sense of speed. The scene also reminded me too much of Luke Skywalkers 'trench run' on the Death star... The scene only lacked 'Red Five, I'm going in'... The Sword scene in the powerstation(?), reminded me of the swordfight between Obi Wan and Dart Vader on the death star. (And also of Luke and Dart Vader,
both in the sky City and the Second Death Star)
And when Anakin destroyed the Droid control ship from the inside, I expected the same party as on Endors Moon afterwards.
One more thing on the 'racer scene': Some people here in Norway claims that the scene was stolen from a Seventies animated movie 'Flåklypa Grand Prix' (Pinchcliff Grand Prix in English), but I don't agree with them...
The Scenes in 'Flåklypa' was much better. Some easily affected persons got carsick... Now, that's how to measure realism! - 1999-08-27:
I spotted one of those infamous HP Jornada machines today...
It's bl**dy BIG! It's a LAPTOP running WinCE! I almost feel sorry for the losers who buy it. It's so big that it can't be a PDA, and it lacks most of what you expect to
find in a Laptop. (like Floppy drives, CD-ROM, the ability to run ordinary Windooze programs)
And the plastic they have used for it... It looks so Cheap and tacky. (Sorry, HP, but that's my sincere opinion)
The jornada is an improvement on earlier HP machines on one point though:
Since they use a Glidepoint system instead of a touch screen, they have eliminated the 'PDA tip over syndrome'...
- 1999-09-01:
I have been told that the Jornada that i saw was an 820, and that the 680 is somewhat smaller, and with an touch screen...
The 820 is supposedly meant for company executives... Oh well... The earlier comments still stands, just remember that it's about the Jornada 820... - 1999-09-11:
Owen H. Morgan came to town today. He sailed over from Ålesund where he's laid up for the coming winter. Nice boat by the way...
(Of course everyone knows that already, having checked out his Naomi J. on the web) He's having some trouble with electrical equipment...
Namely that he has a 12V system(most small boats have that), and just about everything needs 220V(AC)... I'm currently looking into building voltage converters to replace the PSU of some of the
equipment. (I won't mess with equipment that uses an inbuilt PSU, only external ones) - 1999-09-20:
Yes, I have heard about the new Psion S7, and the rumoured REVO. I'm busy saving up for the S7.
I have even gone so far that I haven't bought any cookies the last 2 weeks... - 1999-11-25:
A long overdue update... I'm writing this while listening to Mariah Carey's recording 'Daydream' on a SONY MDH-10 minidisc player...
This is a rather strange beast. A far as I can ascertain, it was made in 1994. So what, you say? MD players were made earlier than that...
Yes, but does all have a mini-SCSI2 connector at one end? Yes, that's right! SCSI! This little beast can actually be connected to a PC and used as a
portable data storage... 'But why haven't I heard about it', you say? It might be because it could never really compete with a couple of other systems like Iomega's ZIP
disks and those darn LS-120 floppys... Even if the MD could store 140MB, it was a little too slow (500mS seek time, 300KB transfer rate) to compete...
There's also the fact that it uses different disks for music and Data...
Interestingly enough, a ZIP disk for Toshiba portables now comes with hardware/software enabling it to copy music from CD's and play back directly...
I bought the unit in a online auction... It came without a battery... (not many rechargeables last that many years) Deciding on a whim, I popped by the nearest Sony HI-FI dealer, and asked
for batteries... (Sony LIP-12 Li-ion) Would you belive that it was in stock IN THE STORE... The battery (3,7V/1350mA) cost me almost as much as the player... It also illustrates how much the technology
have improved. This battery give me 2Hours playing time. My MZ-R50(1998 Vintage) with it's LIP-8(3,7V/750mA) give me 7Hours playing time...
Anyone wanting to learn more about MD's can check this site out: www.minidisc.org
Now for some rumours: SONY are supposedly planning to launch a new portable MD/Data unit next year.(Don't ask me where I heard, I won't tell you) What's new with this model? It's supposedly faster(it can hardly be slower),
and most importantly, it will use standard Music type MD's. I wonder if that means that we can transfer music to and from MD on our PC's? Not to mention edit it on PC...
What else has happened? I finally got a EPROM Eraser that I ordered from a mail order company. Now I can finally erase the Datapacks for my Psion Organiser II's.
I might actually set up a eraser service for Norwegian Organiser II users...
The game of the month is Might & Magic VI: The Mandate from Heaven.
I'm still testing out the EPOC version of Opera. This is part of their Project Magic, which is to bring the speed back into browsing on all platforms.
(For those that don't know, Opera is the third most used browser on the net today, with the only reason for not being number one that this one isn't free. Not only is it fast, but it also fits on a single 1.4MB floppy)
Windooze (l)users should really downlod and try it out!
And speaking of the net, this page will be uploaded with RMRSoft's RMRFTP program... (Finally free from using that cludge of an NT box at the office)
- 1999-12-09:
I have just heard the news that Ericsson is licensing M$ Explorer to use as a browser on their phones...
Sounds like a good idea. NOT! Imagine getting a GPF(General Protection Fault) on your phone...
I have more to pick with MicroDaft... A few weeks ago, I got Spam from somebody in England to my office mail... Not wanting more to do with the bastard,
I sent him a not too polite 'Go to hell' message, and told Don'tlook98 to send all future mails from the perp to the wastebasket. Yesterday, I noticed for an instant that I received two mail from
Novastor, and to my horror, Don'tlook98 sent them straight to the bin... I wonder how many other mails that it have done that with... (The rules are stored on the Exchange server,
so it can do this even if the user isn't logged in) Needless to say, I have now removed all deleteing rules. I wonder if Exchange/Outlook have a list of OS/2 friendly companies, and auto deletes mail from them if any
spam filters are activated...
As I'm writing this, I'm sitting in the car of oe of my coworkers, on our way to replace a NT server that just won't stay up... Wonder what's wrong with it...
There hasn't been any changes on it lately. Or rather, except Service Pack 5...
- 1999-12-17:
I now have a Tandberg ErgoClass TFT LCD scrren on my desk at the office... It's just for evaluation.
I have already found that it is perfectly capable of displaying 1024x768 pixels at 75Hz... The picture is crystal clear, without any flickering or distortions.
It's flat, and take very little space on my desk... A nice touch to these screens is that the advanced model(I'm testing the standard model), can be rotated 90° clockwise into a 'portrait' mode.
Nice if you're working with full page text editing and layout...
Now for the big question: Do I want one? No... I think that I'll stay with my Sony Trinitron 420GS 19' monitor... (The Tandberg is a measly 17' :-) But I heartily recommend it to anyone with a small desk and a heap of money
What else happened today? Nothing much... Dropped by the local Blood bank to deliver my 450ml of blood... Got a nice towel for it too... In Norway, you don't get a lot of money for the blood,
but a gift worth usually approx 40NKr ($5/£3.5) That's because they don't want to attract people desperate enough to sell their blood. This of course means that it's less risky to receive a blood transfusion here. - 1999-12-22:
I'm sitting in my car while typing this... (No, I'm not typing and driving. It's a ferry crossing) I popped by a mobile phone shop yesterday... I had to buy a Hands free set for use in the car. So what? The phone is a Nokia 2110. It's old...
Of course they had the set in the store. Why do I use an old phone? Because the 2110 is robust, and has the best reception of any phone that I have tried. (A lot better than the 8110 that replaced it from Nokia. I know this because the office supplied me with one)
But why did I buy the hands free set? After 01.01.2000, it's forbidden to use any mobile phone in cars without handsfree... (There's been several accidents linked to the fact that the driver
was using a hand held mobile phone... )
The gadget of the day is the Leatherman tool adapter... I know, it's not electronic or anything, but it transforms my Leatherman Tool something awesome... I can now use those small screwdriver bits with it.
- 2000-04-04:
I'm sitting at a Windooze 2000 presentation, trying not to fall asleep...
Booring stuff. So, what's new here? first of all, I managed to get hold of a Psion Organiser II Printer.
Quite a neat thing. The printer have a slot that you place the Org II in, giving the whole unit the appearance of a large desktop printing calculator...
(The unit is battery powered, and should be able to print continuously for up to a hour. More on that as soon as I get a new battery pack :-)
What else? Oh yeah... I got a new omputer: The Cambridge Computers Z88 Notebook computer. This is the first real notebook computer.
I'm planning to add a separate section on this site dedicated to this machine. - 2000-04-10:
I'm just now trying hard to stay awake at a M$ Administering Microsoft System Management Server... This stuff is booring!
It's a bl**dy big and ungainly product too. My advice? use Snow Software's Snowstorm product for software distribution, and Reachout
or somethig for remote control.
- 2000-05-15:
A lot of things have happened...
I got a set of rechargeable batteries with solder tags to build a new battery pack for my Psion Organiser II Printer, but when I tested it, the chargeing circuit was broken.
Opening the unit, I found the burnt up remains of a resistor...
Jaap at The Organiser II Homepage were kind enough to open his own and read off the markings of the resistor. The printer now works...
My Psion S5 have been suffering a few problems... (Broken hinges, gouges and so on...)
On Friday I got a little package from POS Ltd. in England...
It contained a new casing for my S5. Of course it wasn't a 'normal' casing... This one was painted Gold. Now my S5 is just about the coolest looking PDA there is...
I'll probably put up a page with pictures soon...
- 2000-05-26:
Today I received a cool gadget...
The Xircom REX-3DS, the smallest series of organisers.
How small? They're the size of PCMCIA-cards, that's how small. They're the same shape too... To synch them with your PC based programs, you just slide it into a PCMCIA slot of your laptop, and press the synch icon on the taskbar...
That does pose a few questions like: why would anyone with a laptop need a electronic organiser?
The answer is that it's not always desirable or possible to bring a heavy laptop. They also have a tendency to run out of batteries just before they are about to remind you of the important meeting...
How does it work? I have no idea... I inserted the batteries, and studied the manual. Then I tried to install the Truesynch or whatever software that came with it... I got the message 'The setup program has detected that a prior install/uninstall
have necessitated a reboot' or something like it, then it quit. Strange, because I had just booted the PC... I tried to start installing other programs... No other program reported that error...
I'll try to download a newer version after the weekend.
- 2000-07-22:
A small update...
As everyone can see, there's a new menu at the lefthand side... Not all the selections work yet... I will try to add pages for every computer that I get hold of. (Not necessarily just when I get it, but...)
The pages will be updated when I learn omething more about the computers.
But first out is the Casio PB-100 'Personal Computer'(yes, it says so on the front :-)
What else is new? well... I managed to borrow a Nokia Card Phone II recently... It's basically a dual band (900/1900MHz) GSM phone but with a few peculiarities...
It is shaped as a PCMCIA card, and uses a technology called HSCSD... It's a 'banding' technique, allowing the phone to use up to 4 GSM channels at once, giving it somewhat better DATA transmission capabilities than the average GSM phone...
Since it was shaped like a PCMCIA card, I couldn't help but test it in the Psion PCMCIA adapter... I slid it in, connected the adapter to my Psion S5, fired up Comms and typed AT.... Guess what... The phone answered... Now, if only I
ould get it to use the banding technology...
(I still can't get it to connect at more than 9600, and the help file isn't that helpful)
I did manage to get the REX card to synch... But only after deinstalling the synch program and removing every trace of it from the registry... It seems like it didn't like being installed on D:
- 2000-07-27:
What would you say to a laptop computer with 20Hour's battery life?
Quite probably: Where can I get it! Admit it, that's just what you have always dreamed of...
And now I have one! It's the Psion MC 400, and it was produced 10years ago. Imagine, a 8086 processor, a large LCD screen, touchpad!, a graphical UI, Multitasking OS... and NO GPF's...
(M$, cry your eyes out!) This of course means that all other projects are put on hold for a few days while I play with it and sets up the Magic Castle pages for it...
- 2000-12-02:
I have been playing with my newest PDA, a Psion netBook for a whole week now...
Imagine, a 190MHz SA1100 Processor, 32MB RAM, a backlit VGA Colour screen, full size keyboard AND 8,5Hour active use on one recharge, all packed into a 1,15kg Sub-notebook package.
The fact that it's built to be used don't hurt either...
- 2002-02-14:
I guess that I haven't been too good at updating these pages... Anyway, check out the Psion part of the Pocket computers section... I finally managed to get hold of the Holy grail of PDA's, the Psion Organiser One!
There's been a few(!) other new addiotions too...
- 2002-03-27:
I recently received the Option FirstFone, and have been playing a bit with it. Take a look in the assorted section to read more...
I've also begun typing in some manuals, and are just now working on the Casio SF-8000
On a more somber note, my boss received a compac iPac just before easter. I'm NOT impressed...
The 'TrueSynch' software (V3.5) doesn't like his Toshiba laptop so much that it has problems finding the serial ports(can't use USB because it's running NT 4.0), and it's bl**dy impossible to restart the software
WITHOUT restarting the PC...
The power connector on the machine is integrated in the DATA port(long, thin connector). This probably works OK when he uses the docking station, but that's a bit too fiddly to bring with him on travels...
He also got a 'Jacket' with two PC-Card slots and an internal Li-Ion battery to power them. This one have a round power plug, and when you insert the iPac into it, you can't use the docking stand, or get access to the DATA connector.
The PSU that accompanied it have both plugs, so that's not too much of a problem, or is it?
(He has to unplug it from the docking cradle to recharge the Jacket). He also got an extra 'slim' power supply to take with him on journeys, so that he wouldn't have to unplug the usual one. But... the slimline one only have ONE plug; the DATA plug...
He won't be able to recharge anything but the iPac with that.
Use the slimline to power the iPac while at the office, and bring the standard on travels?
Noo... You see, the docking cradle has a round power connector... - 2002-03-31:
Daylight Saving... AAARRGH!!!
Having to adjust all those machines.... - 2002-04-03:
Added the Web@nywhere watch in the pocket computers section.
Maybe it's time to add a section just for watches?
Note: If anyone happen to have an old Seiko wrist databank(and the cradle with keyboard) or the Sinclair Data watch, I might be interested... - 2002-05-14:
I've been playing with a new computer for a few days now. It's the Parallax Basic stamp 2p24 computer.
Want to know more? It's in the Special computers section... - 2002-09-16:
Listening to the CD 'Billie Holiday 20 reflective recordings'...
No, me listening to this kind of mood music isn't the point, what I'm listening with, though...
I'm using a digital wireless headset from Sennheiser (The HDR-30 to be exact), and to say that the sound is crisp, is an understatement. This headset is expensive, VERY expensive in fact, but if you like the music pure and at a reasonable level,
you can't go much wrong with this set.
That aside, it's not perfect. It uses a Ni-mh rechargeable battery pack, probably made for this model, which in itself isn't too bad, but...
You have to remove it from the headset and slot it into the transmitter to recharge it. That's BAD...
I would have preferred a system where the batteries were recharged just by placing the headset on the base.
The fit is quite good, the cups pivot several ways and the foam pads can be removed. (They're fastened with velcro. It may be possible to buy replacements) - 2003-02-15:
I know, i'm a slacker when it comes to updating this section...
Anyway, there's a whole lot of new computers in just about every section, and I've added a new section 'Toys' where you'll find game consoles and such.
Smartphones, what are they?
Do I class them as phones and stick them in the 'Assorted' category or as PDA's and stick them in the 'Pocket' category?
And when exactly is a phone a 'smartphone'?
My Siemens M50 runs Java programs and does WAP(which I don't use), but isn't classed as a 'smartphone'.
My Alcatel One-Touch Com phone was made before anyone invented the word 'smartphone', but still manages to do most tasks expected of a PDA...
In other news, I'm considering making a BIG battery pack for my MC400 and I'm awaiting the Siemens PocketReader.
Also winding its way to me is a solar panel rated 12V/120mA. In winter months it'll be used to keep my car battery topped up(I don't use my car much in the winter),
and this summer I plan to attach it to the front deck of my kayak(if it's waterproof enough) to top up a 12V battery which will then be used to recharge my cell-phone and Psion netBook while I'm off on vacation.
I've also tried refilling the ink cartridges of my Canon BJC4000 printer, using the JetTek set(bought at the local supermarket)...
It is VERY difficult to get the ink off your fingers, so I'm considering buying disposable plastic gloves. Also, anyone else considering that brand should buy themselves a decent 3mm drill(maybe a finger-drill like those 'opticians precision screwdrivers' they sell everywhere?),
because the screw they've included isn't usable at all. Anyway, the black cartridge went well, but the tri-colour... It seems it didn't take well to having been left on a shelf for a couple of years...
(I stopped using it because tricolor cartridges was too darn expensive) For anyone considering refilling I can also add that if there's a plastic cap around the bottom of the cartrides you buy, don't throw them away, but keep them for when you're going to refill the cartridge;
they're usually much tighter than using a piece of tape as the instructions recommends.
Another tip may be to buy a couple of disposable syringes at a chemist or apothecary, since the one that's included has a very poor tip and might damage the foam inside the cartridge. - 2005-06-25:
Got a PowerMac a few days ago...
Nothing special in that. I already have a couple of laptops. Anyway, this is a G3/266MHz desktop model, and today I got the VGA adapter needed to connect it to a normal monitor, fired it up and tested that it works...
Then it was tinkering time...
Knowing that there exists PPC Linux distros, I decided to test that... I cast my eyes on Debian and got a little surprise...
The PPC Distro is 14 CD ISO images, not counting the netboot and the 'businesscard' CDs. (I have no idea what the latter one is). I remember the first time I installed a Linux distro. I think it was a Slackware distro. It came on 63 3.5" disks(copied off from someone who had a CD with the disk images). Maybe I need to get a bigger HDD for the Mac? (It 'only' has a 4GB HDD)
- 2005-09-06:
We've begun to get laptops with 17.4" Widescreen LCDs at the office. I foresee a lot of breakage in the future... (To save weight, the screen is very poorly protected)
There is no good reason whatsoever to put such a large screen in a laptop!
Besides, calling them laptops is probably not accurate, either...
(They're too large and too hot to put on your lap) - 2006-02-16:
The staff at Parallax have just shown the first pictures of their next-generation microcontroller. forget all about PICs, SXes, or even the mighty AVR, from now on, the crown belongs to the Propeller.
Not only does it have 8(!) 32bit cores, 32KB RAM, 32KB ROM and can run at up to 80MHz, but it also have a PROPELLER BEANIE as a logo!
Methinks someone is taking a low kick at the designers of the CELL-chip destined for the Sony PS3... :-)
There's a discussion about the Propeller, and its capabilities in the Parallax Forum