Category: Technology

I was reading javajack’s blog when I returned from WV when I noticed this post on his calendar widget .  I don’t use Yahoo! Widget Engine, but this full year calendar widget looks neat.

Congrats! 

[Update 2012-12-26 06:54:35] Javajack no longer blogs.  Removed the links.
Javajack’s blog – javajack.dynalias.net
Post on calendar widget – http://javajack.dynalias.net/weblog/tech/20070402fullyearcalendar.html
The yahoo widget – http://widgets.yahoo.com/gallery/view.php?widget=41655

I'm looking for a new computer.  A laptop to be specific.  Here's what I'd like:

• AMD 64 bit processor
• ultra portable (12 or so inch screen, but I'm willing to be flexible)
• 1 GB RAM (minimum…2GB would be nice)
• 100 GB or so hard drive
• Built in support for 802.11x (a, b, g)
• A docking station
• Preinstalled with Ubuntu Lunix
• I'd like it to be black
• under $2,000

So far, I've found this one from system76.  I thought I would post here to see if anyone else had ideas on where I could find what I'm looking for.

I've had a few people talk to me about the size of my pictures (I know…they aren't all up yet.).  You know…why do you have to take pictures that big?  Why put them on the web that large?

 Well, yes, I must take pictures at the highest resolution my camera will capture.  I'll never be able to get that high of resolution again; however, I can get them smaller.

Why put them on the web that big?  Well, what if you want the fullsize image?  Isn't it easier to download it right away rather than have to e-mail me?

So…as long as I'm paying the bandwidth bill, the images will be as big as I can get them.  That means maximum resolution and maximum sharpness. 

Well, I was thinking today about all the old cell phones I had.  I thought it may be interesting to post about those phones and plans.  Some of this stuff is 6-7 years old, so I may not remember all of it.  But, here we go.

My first cell phone was a Nokia 252.  It was on Alltel.  I don’t remember how much I paid, but I had 150 minutes doubled to 300.  Cyndi and I shared that plan which resulted in some interesting bills (we shared the first 150…not all of the minutes).  This shared minute stuff turned us off to shared plans for a long time (it was only recently we went with a shared plan again).  We had this plan for 1 year then we went to Sprint.

At about that same time for work, my boss made me get a cell phone.  That phone was a Nokia 5160.  I didn’t like it (I never liked Nokia cell phones.).  It was through the old AT&T.  On weekends, I would forward that plan to my Sprint phone. Don’t have a clue how much this plan cost; however, I know it was nationwide no roaming (and not the normal no roaming on our network back then…this was real no roaming.)  One good thing about this phone…it would get a signal just about anywhere.

Our first Sprint PCS phone was the Kyocera 2035 .  I don’t remember much about the plan, but I think we had 1000 night and weekend minutes.  We never even came close to using it all.  No such thing as sprint to sprint yet. The phone was ok, but I was getting fed up with candy-bar type phones.  By the way, the earpiece I bought to go with this phone (there was a special 2 for 1 sale, so Cyndi and I took advantage of it).  I’m still using it today. While the earpiece was a trooper, it broke after we moved to Richmond.  I really liked the design of that earpiece…it had a molded rubber in the ear canal part with a small (2″ or so) boom mic.  It was great! On another note, this phone had some kind of ability to access the internet.  Only text based though.  And it cost through the wazoo.

When we moved to Columbus, OH, I was in the mood for a new phone.  The battery on my 2035 was going kaput (I had to have it on the vehicle charger on my way to work and it MIGHT last the entire day.)  My dad had a Samsung something or other…I really liked how it flipped.  So, I was sucked in by the Samsung n400.  At the time, I didn’t care for flip-type phones (I still don’t really care for them…I’d rather have something of this design).  Our plan back then was for something like 300 minutes.  By this time we had unlimited nights and weekends along with sprint to sprint.  It didn’t take me long to figure out that I needed to purchase the extended battery for this guy.  And, even with that, I only was able to get 2…maybe 3…days out of this thing.  In Columbus, I had to buy a new battery.

When we moved to Richmond, we got terrible reception at our house.  So bad that we thought about ditching Sprint.  However, we went to the Sprint store and they let us use a loaner while they fiddled with our phones.  That phone had good service.  After a bit of looking at phones and contracts, we decided to go back to a shared plan (we currently share 800 anytime minutes, unlimited nights and weekends that start at 7pm, and sprint to sprint on one of the old fair and flexible plans).  When we did that, we were elligible for new phones so we picked up a pair of Sanyo vi2300s .  We used these phones until we left the US.  I really liked our Sprint service.  And these phones would hold a signal like nothing else.  Oh, they also supported AMPS which led to us getting service in some unusual spots!

When we moved overseas, I bought a Nokia e65.  It supported VoIP (even VoIP over 3g!) and I thought it would be helpful.  It turned out to be a great phone.  The VoIP functionality was awesome too!  When we moved overseas, we were on pay as you go for a few months until I signed up for a prepaid plan.  I got something like 300 minutes and 300 texts included.  I paid 1500 dinars a month (I think)…that amounts to about 25-30 dollars.  This phone finally died when the mic quit working.  I really liked the design and solidness of the phone.  When we moved to the UK, we got on a pay monthly plan with no contract.  I get 300 min, unlimited within the network, and 2gb data for 15 pounds/month.

I had been wanting a smartphone (specifically the Nexus One) but I held off.  When my e65 went on the blink, I decided to take the plunge and get a smartphone.  Seeing my parents’ droids over the holidays helped too.  So, I’ve had it for a few days and really like it.  I like being able to actually surf the net on the phone when I’m out.  I also like the built in GPS.

I upgraded my Nexus S, I decided to get a Nexus 5 (this was April 2015 or so).  I tell you what…the only thing to get when you get an android device is one of the Nexus devices.  Updates from Google.  None of the stuff that phone manufacturers think you need to have to help.  I like the nexus 5 much better than my Nexus S.  Better battery life, faster, and a nicer screen. In the UK, I still had my old plan that gave me 5,000 minutes and texts (for me, virtually unlimited) and all you can eat data AND tethering for £25 pcm.  We just returned from the US where we paid about $80 pcm for that service.

 Later on, I’ll probably post an update to this with prices, minutes, etc… after I have a tad bit of time to think more about it.

[Update 2011-01-18 07:56:18] I updated the list with new pictures and added that I had owned a Nokia e65 and Nexus S

[Update 2012-12-19 19:35:58] Updated some links.

[Update 2016-04-05 07:17:24] Added the Nexus 5 after owning it about a year

 

I ordered me a FON LaFonera a few days ago (for free nevertheless).  It just came and I just got it set up.

What’s FON?  Well, if I share my internet connection here, I can use other FON connections for nothing.  Sweet!  And it didn’t cost me a dime.

My big concern was security; however, it looks like they have that taken care of.  When I access my FON access point, I can’t see anything on my local network.  Pretty cool.  If you are ever around where we live, just give it a whirl.

[Update 2012-12-25 22:21:15] The LaFonera link I had went stale.  I’ve redone the link.

In this post, I talk about my challenges of finding an application to use with my Sansa and podcasts. Well, I settled on Juice. But, I still had an issue with playlists. Juice allows you to launch a program after a file is downloaded, so I decided to write a script to do what I want. I thought I would post it here just in case anyone else is looking to do the same thing.

Here are the steps to get the script to work with Juice (I’m going to assume you already have downloaded Juice, installed it, and have several podcasts actively downloading.  I have Juice 2.2.  If you have a different version, the instructions may be a bit different.):

1. Download the script (right-click this link and choose save target as.  Remember where you save the file)
2. Launch Juice
3. Go to File –> Preferences
4. Go to the Advanced Tab
5. Check the “Run this command after each download” checkbox
6. In the text box, enter the following text (making the correct replacements, of course):  BuildPlaylist.vbs “” “%n” “%f”
7. PathToVBS is the location you saved the vbs to when you downloaded it.
8. PathToPlaylistFIles is probably something like c:Documents and SettingsMy DocumentsMy MusicMy Playlists
9. You want to enclose each item in ” (those are double quote marks).  That way, Windows won’t barf on spaces
10. Click the Save button

That’s it.  If you need some help, just let me know.  E-mail me at matt (at) techs4esus.com.

The script is below (or click here to download it):

””””””””””””””””””””””””
”Written By: Matthew Maxson (matt@techs4jesus.com)
”Date: 1 Jan 2007
”Copyright (c) Matthew Maxson
”This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
”it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
”the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
”(at your option) any later version.
”
”This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
”but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
”MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
”GNU General Public License for more details.

”You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
”along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
”Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
”
”To view the GPL, visit http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt
””””””””””””””””””””””””
Option Explicit

Dim args
Dim num
Dim i
Dim fs
Dim fname
Dim WPLPath
Dim PlaylistName
Dim PathToAdd
Dim objTextFile
Dim objFSO

Function SortedFiles(objFolder, strFilePattern, strSortedBy, blnReverse)
‘From
”http://www.fpschultze.de/smartfaq+faq.faqid+124+PHPSESSID+8d9ee6d45fbecaf8b122c956a124ea58.htm
”Used with permission

Const TEMP_FOLDER = 2
Const WINDOW_STYLE_HIDDEN = 0

Dim objWS, objFS, objFiles, objFile
Dim strCmdLine, strTmpFile
Dim tmpArray
Dim i

SortedFiles = Array()
Set objFS = WScript.CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”)
Set objWS = WScript.CreateObject(“WScript.Shell”)
strTmpFile = objFS.GetSpecialFolder(TEMP_FOLDER) & “” & objFS.GetTempName
strCmdLine = “%ComSpec% /C DIR ” & Chr(34) & objFolder.Path
If Right(strCmdLine, 1) “” Then strCmdLine = strCmdLine & “”
strCmdLine = strCmdLine & strFilePattern & Chr(34) & ” /B /A-D /O”
If blnReverse Then strCmdLine = strCmdLine & “-“
Select Case LCase(strSortedBy)
Case “name” strCmdLine = strCmdLine & “N”
Case “size” strCmdLine = strCmdLine & “S”
Case “ext” strCmdLine = strCmdLine & “E”
Case “datetime” strCmdLine = strCmdLine & “D”
Case Else Exit Function
End Select
strCmdLine = strCmdLine & ” > ” & strTmpFile
objWS.Run strCmdLine, WINDOW_STYLE_HIDDEN, True
If objFS.FileExists(strTmpFile) Then
If objFS.GetFile(strTmpFile).Size > 0 Then
tmpArray = Split(objFS.OpenTextFile(strTmpFile).ReadAll, vbNewLine)
objFS.DeleteFile(strTmpFile)
ReDim Preserve tmpArray(UBound(tmpArray) – 1)
Set objFiles = objFolder.Files
For i = 0 to UBound(tmpArray)
Set objFile = objFiles((tmpArray(i)))
Set tmpArray(i) = objFile
Next
SortedFiles = tmpArray
End If
End If

End Function

function DoesPlaylistExist(ThePathToWPLFiles, ThePlaylistName)
”we need to figure out if the playlist already exists or not
Dim FSO
Dim TheReturn

set FSO = CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”)

if FSO.FileExists(ThePathToWPLFiles & ThePlaylistName) then
TheReturn = True
else
TheReturn = False
end if

set FSO = nothing
DoesPlaylistExist = TheReturn

end function

function CreatePlaylistHeader(ThePlaylistTitle)
”helper function to create the header
Dim TheReturn

TheReturn = “” & vbCRLF
TheReturn = TheReturn & “” & vbCRLF
TheReturn = TheReturn & “” & vbCRLF
TheReturn = TheReturn & “” & vbCRLF
TheReturn = TheReturn & “” & vbCRLF
” & Replace(Replace(ThePlaylistTitle, “.wpl”, “”), “_”, ” “) & “_SCRIPT TheReturn = TheReturn & “” & vbCRLF
TheReturn = TheReturn & “” & vbCRLF
TheReturn = TheReturn & “” & vbCRLF
TheReturn = TheReturn & “” & vbCRLF

CreatePlaylistHeader = TheReturn
end function

function CreatePlaylistFooter()
”helper function to create the footer of the playlist
Dim TheReturn

TheReturn= “” & vbCRLF
TheReturn= TheReturn & “” & vbCRLF
TheReturn= TheReturn & “” & vbCRLF

CreatePlaylistFooter = TheReturn
end function

sub MakeNewPlaylist(ThePathToWPLFiles, ThePlaylistName, TheFileToAdd)
”we’ll use this to make a new playlist
Dim FSO
Dim file

set FSO = CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”)
set file = FSO.CreateTextFile(ThePathToWPLFiles & ThePlaylistName,true)
file.WriteLine(CreatePlaylistHeader(Replace(Replace(ThePlaylistName, “.wpl”, “”), “_”, ” “)))

file.WriteLine(“” & vbCRLF)

file.WriteLine(CreatePlaylistFooter())

file.Close

set file = nothing
set FSO = nothing
end sub

function GetDirectory(TheFileToAdd)
”use this function to split the path/file passed in. This will allow us to include other
”files in the same directory
Dim TheReturn

TheReturn = Left(TheFileToAdd, InStrRev(TheFileToAdd, “”))

GetDirectory = TheReturn
end function

sub EditExistingPlaylist(ThePathToWPLFiles, ThePlaylistName, TheFileToAdd)
”if we need to edit an existing playlist, we’ll use this file
Dim DirToCheck
Dim DirFileList
Dim Folder
Dim FSO
Dim file
Dim Filenamestr
Dim PlaylistFilename

DirToCheck = GetDirectory(TheFileToAdd)

set FSO = CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”)
set Folder = FSO.GetFolder(DirToCheck)
DirFileList = SortedFiles(Folder, “*.mp3”, “datetime”, false)

set PlaylistFilename = FSO.CreateTextFile(ThePathToWPLFiles & ThePlaylistName,true)
PlaylistFilename.WriteLine(CreatePlaylistHeader(Replace(Replace(ThePlaylistName, “.wpl”, “”), “_”, ” “)))

for each file in DirFileList
PlaylistFilename.WriteLine(“” & vbCRLF)
next

PlaylistFilename.WriteLine(CreatePlaylistFooter())

PlaylistFilename.Close

set PlaylistFilename = nothing
set FSO = nothing
end sub

‘ OpenTextFile Method needs a Const value
‘ ForAppending = 8 ForReading = 1, ForWriting = 2
Const ForAppending = 8

set args = WScript.Arguments
num = args.Count

if num = 0 then
WScript.Echo “Usage: BuildPlaylist.vbs “
WScript.Quit 1
end if

WPLPath = args.Item(0)

if Right(WPLPath, 1) “” then
WPLPath = WPLPath & “”
end if

PlaylistName = Replace(Replace(Replace(args.Item(1), “:”, “”), “.”, “”), ” “, “_”) & “.wpl”
PathToAdd = args.Item(2)

if DoesPlaylistExist(WPLPath, PlaylistName) then
EditExistingPlaylist WPLPath, PlaylistName, PathToAdd
else

MakeNewPlaylist WPLPath, PlaylistName, PathToAdd
end if

[Update 2012-12-19 06:59:42] In getting ready to migrate my website, I found some broken links.  Fixed the link to the script.

For Christmas, I recevied a SanDisk Sansa e270 (I specifically got the e270r which has a little different firmware and it only available at Best Buy as it is configured to work with the Best Buy/Rhaposdy music service. Which, by the way, I received a 2 month trial to). I hadn't done any research, but I knew I didn't want a ipod (I had several reasons for this…the biggest was that Apple is too big andhas too much of an attitude). I didn't know it, but the Sansa is the #2 mp3 player on the market (right behind the ipod). It's biggest plus is a 20 hour capacity user replaceable battery!

It has taken me a while to figure some things out (like how I can subscrbe to podcasts, have them downloaded, and transferred to the player automatically). At this point, I have an ok solution and I thought I would write about it so it was available to everyone else. First though, I'll talk about some thing that didn't work.

Best Buy Music Store: As I mentioned above, the e270r came with a 2 month trial to the Best Buy Music Store (you pay $15/month and can download all the music you want to your player). This was my first stop. I signed up and started downloading. It was nice…I could search for music I didn't have CDs for, download it, and listen. I could also import my mp3s and transfer them to my player. I could make play lists, etc…. The only drawbacks were: the music you download is DRM tied to the player and service…once you quit paying the music stops working, there is no way to build non-music store playlists automatically (like for a podcast), and there is no way to subscribe to podcasts.

ITunes: I thought this would only sync if I had an ipod, but I thought I would give it a shot. I could downlad podcasts easily enough, but it wouldn't sync to my player. I found an add-on called idleTunes that claims it would Sync my ITunes playlists to other players. ITunes downloaded the podcasts good enough; however, I had no way to get the music onto my player. idleTunes helped, but it wouldn't create playlists in the playlists menu of my player (this means I was limited to the Sansa relying on id3 tags which don't always exist in podcast files). It also wasn't automatic. I had to manually tell idleTunes to copy the playlists.

Media Monkey: This app was highly rated on theanythingbutipod forums. I downloaded it, but didn't get very far. In the 5 minutes I spent playing with it, I couldn't get it to work. Therefore, I decided not to use it (I expect to get programs up and working fairly fast).

saCaster: I was searching UseNet and found reference to saCaster. I never even installed this because it wasn't free software (free in any sense…free pizza or free speech). Sure, there was a "shareware" version, but it was only a 15 day trial. I knew there had to be free alternatives out there, so I kept looking.

Windows Media Player: When put into PlaysForSure mode, WMP would recognize the player and sync files. I could also get playlists on my sansa (although, I have to sync twice for some reason). The only problem was WMP is a Microsoft app (I don't like Microsoft). It also doesn't have podcast support (if it did, I would probably be ok with this). It would autosync to my player. You can set up auto playlists, but you can only do that based on metadata in the file…you can't say "pull all the files from this directory." That is an aggrivation as some/most podcasts don't have id3 information filled out correctly.

Juice/iPodder: Juice (formerly iPodder…they changed names after a fight with Apple). This app provided a nice way to sbscribe to podcasts and will autodownload them. It's also free software (free as in pizza and free as in speech. It's distributed under the GPL) But, sigh, there is no way to coy the files to my Sansa. Even if it did, I doubt it would generate playlists.

After trying that, I was out of ideas. It had been 2 weeks since Christmas and I wasn't real happy with what I had figured out so far. Something shouldn't be this hard. Well, after trying Juice, I opened WMP up, and noticed playlists for the podcasts I had subscribed to. Interesting. So, I added a few new podcasts to Juice, synched them, opened WMP and they showed up. Once I set them up to sync, everything ended up on my ipod corectly.

So, where I am right now…I have Juice downloading my podcasts. WMP is set up to monitor that directory for new items to add to my library. Juice manages the playlists for me (when it downloads new stuff, it updates a WMP playlist). I can then sync things over to my sansa. I'll give this a few weeks then I'll update again after spending some additional time with this setup.

[Update 6 Jan 2007] Well, it turns out that my WMP playlists aren't being updated when Juice downloads new files. I don't know what the problem is, but I am looking into it. When I find out the problem, I'll post it here (with hopefully a fix too)

[Update 7 Jan 2007] I used sysinternals filemon tool to see what Juice was doing. It was checking some database in the WMP folder. This got me to wonder if it was checking to see if WMP knew of the files or not before adding them to my playlist. So, I fiddled with some settings in WMP and had it NOT monitor the folders where I download my podcasts to. For the time being, that makes a difference.

[Update 27 Jan 2007] Refer to this post for a script I wrote that solved my Juice podcast and playlist problems.

Cyndi and I have a new phone number.  If you want to try it out, call (804) 335-0835.

BTW, this is a Private Phone phone number.  I’ll post back in a few weeks to let you know how I like the service.  So far, it sounds neat.  I can give this number out to people and I don’t care if they sell it.  It’s only a voicemail service….people call, get prompted to leave a message, then we can call them back if they want.  I’m going to start giving this number out instead of our home #.

[Update 2011-01-18 07:55:11] Private phone went bust about 3 years ago.  And, I didn’t find this as useful as it may have been anyway.  BUT, today, Google Voice works great as a replacement for this….

[Update 2012-12-25 22:34:42] Removed the link to http://www.privatephone.com/ since it has been dead for some time.

I just thought I should let everyone know….the Pray4Serbs.org website (one of the reasons Cyndi and I came to Serbia) is now up.  Well, I should clarify….they had a site only it wasn't up to date and they wanted a redesign.  I got most things done in the states, but, as it always happens, everything needed changed when I showed up.  Hopefully everyone likes the site.

Go have a look, sign up, and get involved.  Let me know what you think.

www.Pray4Serbs.org

I found a new speed test page today (thanks Bill). It is neat with a really slick interface. See below for the results of my test: