Blog

Misticriver.net has the specs of the new iRiver u10- it’s a little video/music player but a couple things caught my eye. It plays OGG and it also can play TXT (text files) as well as support Flash Lite 1.1. This is a bit of a big deal. Anyone can not only throw ebooks on this little fellow but, with Flash Lite 1.1 you could potentially develop a lot of games, applications and interactive learning content. Anyway, glad to see there’s an easy way to make applications for a portable media player finally coming out. Link.

One more Sony Librie hack for the day….Having to plug the librie to the AC power adapter AND the USB port seems kinda stupid since the AC adapter is outputting 5.2V, nearly the same than a USB port.So I decided to get rid of the adapter and get the required power from the USB. It is very easy to do but you will have to cut the power connector from the original adapter. To do it just follow this scheme… Link.

Getting Google maps on a phone with a GPS. The launch of Google Maps in the UK this week has coincided with the desire to write some Python code for my Nokia 6630 mobile phone. As Matt Croydon’s PythonForSeries60 shows, there are an increasing number of interesting projects written using the Python SDK for the Nokia phones. Link.

Interesting use of the Unreal Engine. Tactical Iraqi is a computer-based, self-paced, learning program that in about 80 hours teaches English-speaking people totally unfamiliar with Iraqi Arabic how to speak enough to accomplish tasks and missions in Arabic. [via] Link.

A lot of people are talking about those fancy TV/LED belt buckles, I unfortunately even built one that displays searches from the web. Both have an interesting novelty factor, but there are more useful things you can do with the buckle real estate- like making a wallet out of a cigarette case. Link.

These are scary. It all started one day with this guy, the origional Etherkiller, developed with a few misc parts to warn new users that the IT department is not to be messed with. You too can make one at home, connect the transmit pins of the RJ-45 to HOT on 110VAC and the recieve pins to Common. Modify to suit tase by varying pinout. This led to some general discussion that this particular device really is in a class of devices, now called the “killers”, which need to be made. Link.

SLOOH is a membership based site that allows you to look at universe real time (tricky term I know) through a robot controlled observatory. Through their user interface, you can capture photographs during the mission and save them in your mission log book. During the mission, they have storytellers that will explain the history, mythology, science and beauty of the subject.[via] Link.