A notebook of various projects.
Today’s sync dumped the new v3 operating system into the phone. Lots of improvements, including cut & paste, and the greatly anticipated text search through Email. But, I’ve been extremely happy with the phone since I got it so I wasn’t really waiting for a lot of new features. Sideways Email viewing will be nice as my eyes continue to get older.
Manufacturer: Logitech
Product: Wireless (RF 27MHz) Multi-Function Mouse
Model: MX 1000
Product Web Site: Here
Purchased At: CompUSA
Cost: Around $59 USD (normal 79, $10 instant rebate, $10 mail-in rebate)
The iMac recently purchased came with the normal Apple 1-button mouse. While the 1-button thing is an adjustment in itself, the size of the Apple mouse is tiny. We purchased the Apple wireless (Bluetooth) mouse with the unit, but this is the same size as the corded one. I’m not quite sure the perfect way to use the Apple mouse – I spend a lot of time pushing it with just my fingertips – but it’s been a little less than satisfactory. It does track wonderfully, however.
To make the adjustment easier we plugged in a Microsoft “Wireless Optical Mouse Blue”, which is a non-Bluetooth wireless mouse that requires a little “base station” plugged into a USB port. This mouse fits in your hand a little better, although its too small and its tracking on the Mac was spotty. So, we’ve been looking around for a better mouse.
CompUSA had on sale the new Logitech “Laser” mouse. This is a similar to the Microsoft product – non-Bluetooth RF connection to a USB connected base. However, there are a couple of interesting features. First, it has rechargable batteries built in which it charges from the base station (works like a Palm Pilot dock), so no scrambling for AAA alkalines in the middle of the night. Two, it is a physically larger unit that fits better in your hand, although a right-hander’s hand only (asymetical shape to it). Three, it has about 8 buttons on it – scroll wheel including side to side, 4 way button on the side of the scroll wheel (like a ring outside it), three buttons under your thumb, then the normal 2 buttons under your fingers. Finally, the optical technology is laser based and not the normal red/blue LED found in other optical tracking devices.
The laser technology is definately a step up from the normal optical technology. The tracking is dead on – never a skip or a lag. The tracking also works whether the surface is reflective or not. The documentation states that it is tracking “20 times” higher resolution than normal optical technology, which allows for finer, more accurate tracking. The laser seems to be outside visible light, so one down side is no cool glow from the mouse.
The number of buttons on the mouse would obviously make Apple nuts. The mouse comes with a control panel which allows sensitivity adjustments as well as changing the action for the various buttons. The pre-set configuration normally has them for scrolling, zooming, “forward” and “back” in a web page, and to step through applications like an alt-tab keystroke. Don’t see a need to change them now, although gaming would obviously change that desire. (Follow up – multiple buttons are an absolute need for Halo)
The installation was easy. The only unusual part is the need to charge the device prior to using it. Took about an hour. There is a tiny wall wart (real tiny, doesn’t block other outlets) which plugs into the base, plus the USB connection. Worked immediately without the software install.
LEDs on the top (3) tell you the charge status on the batteries. The mouse seems to conserve power pretty quickly with no motion.
The Good: Tracking and usage is amazing. No sponginess like some cordless mice, and it tracks the same whether I have it on the mouse pad or the desk. This desk is a semi-gloss wood finish which normally causes some tracking annoyances with the other optical mice.
The Bad: None.
The Annoyances: None.
So far, only used it a few hours, but its an impressive device if you can get it for the same price I did.
Overall: Function A+, Value B+
It’s best to avoid reading about upcoming computer products after you made a purchase… Think Secret – Revealed: New Power Mac G5, iMac G5, eMac Specs
Speaking of talking to a friend, I’m sitting here working on my computer and Skype woke up with my first phone call. And worked remarkably well!
I was using my corporate issue, utterly devoid of style (see 6th paragraph), Dell Cinderblock 9000 laptop, which apparently has a built in microphone. While compensating for the tinniness of tiny little built in speakers, the connection was remarkably clear. I was receiving a giant MP3 file, we were sharing links, all the while talking on a speakerphone connection.
While I know there is competition in this space, I can say my first experience with Skype was a very pleasant surprise.
Talked with a friend tonight who is up on Verizon’s Fios service. So, it does exist!
He’s very happy, it’s very cheap. As you surf around you’ll find out that this cheap, high-speed services does not provide a fixed IP. You can get one, but then it’s a $100 service (according to Internet hearsay), so, no longer cheap. Although cheaper and faster than a T1 line to your house…
Possibly DynDNS could deal with this, and maybe the IP doesn’t shift often. Don’t know — seems risky for running a web or Email server. Would be fine for a Half Life server, of course.
Was able to get phpMyAdmin working with little trouble. The configuration file is pretty easy to go through, and the documentation is very good.
Most of the time is spent with Apache config making sure the HTML source is only accessible on the local host. Not much of an issue since the machine isn’t accessible from the Internet, but it might get moved at some point.
Kudos to the developers: http://www.phpmyadmin.net.
Well, how exciting is this! Apparently, Microsoft is forming the MIIS Alliance (more). It’s nice to see some interest from a major IT player in older 16-bit interpreted programming languages. Maybe we should fire up the ol’ MV10000?
First, helps to set the wp-content “themes” directory to allow writing. Duh.
Not too bad. I’m starting from a template from Mike Little that is clean with both sides having a column. I think by the time I’m done its doing to have little in common with the original outside of the CSS layout information.
Some more details…
This site (and some others here) are powered by the wonderful WordPress “blog” content management tools. The site is currently powered by Red Hat-Apache-PHP-MySQL (the “LAMP” approach), and WordPress is an obvious selection with this framework. I’ve tried a bunch, and even use Blogger and some other things, but I want to spend less time coding and more time typing.
As I’m learning PHP, this also seems like a nice way to get into it, since the Theme and Plug In approach allow a high degree of tinkering or taking advantage of others’ tinkers.
I have multiple installations set up on this server. This is achieved by defining multiple MySQL databases and directories before the WordPress install script is run. The only down side is the multiple theme instances you need to define as they are in a subdirectory to the installation, but over time I think I can probably work with this.
This refers to the “ver.2″ model of this product.
Manufacturer: Belkin
Product: Bluetooth USB Adapter, 10 Meter
Product Model: F8T003 version 2
Product Web Site: Here
Purchased At: CompUSA
Cost: Around $40 USD
If you want the wireless keyboard with an Apple iMac product there are a few ways to go. When ordering directly from Apple you can request the Bluetooth option. This component is welded right onto the motherboard and is not installable later.
You can also purchase a USB adapter for your iMac, and Apple directly sells a D-Link unit. Both the built in and the D-Link unit are directly supported by Apple.
Of course, any old USB adapter will do, and the CompUSA sales person recommended this Belkin unit.
Installation is a snap, as you just plug it into the USB port, OS X recognizes it, and away you go. I did no configuration of the unit, the wireless keyboard and mouse worked without any attention, outside the mouse control panel to adjust tracking speed, etc.
The good: affordable, painless installation. Works without attention.
The bad: there are some down sides to using this after-market product. OS X clearly does not support this as well as the built-in and D-Link products. When the computer goes to “sleep” you cannot wake it up by pressing a key, which the documentation for the operating system and keyboard clearly indicate you should be able to do. This is most likely due to some secret handshaking going on between the OS and bluetooth products that is a little outside the normal supported features, in my opinion. It’s not that big a deal since a little push on the power switch will wake it up, but it might be an annoyance. Also, there is a longer than expected delay between the time the machine is restored and when you can actually use the keyboard and mouse. The small Bluetooth icon on the top of the screen indicates “connection lost”, and it can take a surprising about of time for it to some back up (pressing keys helps this along). Note that the OS X patch to 10.3.8 seems to have elimited this issue, although you still can’t wake the machine up by pressing a key.
The annoyances: There’s a little blue LED on the unit which indicates activity. It’s mighty bright, particularly in a dark room. It flashes every two seconds when the computer is sleeping, and can light up a dark room. Between the LED blinking the the pulsating power light on the front of the iMac it might be difficult to sleep when the computer is.
Oh, and it takes up one of the three USB ports on the back. I was surprised how quickly I filled this up. Bluetooth, Palm docking station, Microsoft Wireless Mouse (more on that later), Compact Flash card reader, and my USB memory thing and I’m already playing musical chairs with the USB ports.
Overall: Function B-, Value B
Twitter