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December 31, 2004
Scientists Love $89 QX5 Computer Microscope
BoingBoing published a neat article that says that serious scientists love an $89 toy microscope that you can purchase from Amazon.com and a number of other on-line retailers. (Note that the price at Amazon is quite a bit less than $89.)
The QX5 Computer Microscope from Prima Creations has been uses successfully by Andrew Westphal, an astrophysicist at the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley. He reportedly said that a more sophisticated microscope's lens would have been damaged by the acid that's used to separate particles of microscopic space dust.
It's amazing that a device like this is sold as a toy for kids. I want one.
No Need to Click Here - I'm just claiming my feed at Feedster
Unpacking My Canon PowerShot A95
Canon PowerShot A95:
My new 5-Megapixel digital camera. See
more photos of the box unpacking.
[ Photo: Dave Aiello ]
December 23rd was a fun day at the Home Office. I received my Canon PowerShot A95 digital camera from Amazon.com. I started unpacking it right away and took a couple of test photos. Check out the box unpacking photos in the Operation Gadget Photo Gallery.
In case you're wondering why it took me a week to get these photos up on the site, I didn't have a working digital camera until I received the PowerShot A95, so I had to take these photos with my trusty Nikon N50 film SLR and get them developed the traditional way.
Hopefully now you'll begin to see a quicker turn-around on getting photos posted on Operation Gadget. Now I need to get the PowerShot A95 connected to my PC and copy the first photos off of it.
December 30, 2004
Mac Rumors' Buyers Guide Useful to Those Considering an Apple Product Purchase
My brother-in-law John Kuykendall is in the market for a new laptop. One of the products he's considering is the Apple iBook. He's primarily looking at the 12-inch iBook while I've been nudging him toward the 14-inch iBook with the SuperDrive because that model has a much bigger hard drive and the SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW) enables the use of iMovie and iDVD.
One of the useful websites I stumbled across in the course of discussing iBooks with John is the Mac Buyer's Guide from MacRumors.com. This site looks at the different Apple product lines from a historical perspective, tells when the last time each line was updated, and gives a purchase opinion (buy/neutral/don't buy) based on the likelihood of a new product announcement in the near future. There's no rumor or innuendo on this page, just information about what Apple's done in the past.
I'm planning on buying an iPod, and I agree that it would be better for me to wait a couple of weeks right now, given that:
- Macworld Expo begins on January 10,
- Apple typically announces new products at this event, and
- Mac Buyer's Guide recommendation is: "Buy only if you need it - Approaching the end of a cycle".
The Mac Buyer's Guide says it's ok to buy iBooks and iMacs at this time, since they both been updated in the last four months. It's saying to hold off on purchasing PowerBooks, PowerMacs, eMacs, and xServe servers.
One other note on Apple purchases; I normally steer people to local Apple stores because the purchase experience and support available there is worth a few extra dollars. However, people buying today need to look at the deals at Amazon.com because they are offering $100 to $150 rebates on iBooks at the moment. This makes Amazon about 10 percent cheaper than buying directly from Apple at the moment.
Nikon Coolpix 8800 Discussed by Chris Pirillo
Chris Pirillo discussed his initial experience with a Nikon Coolpix 8800. I thought his perspective was interesting, since he's been a Canon user in the past and decided to give a Nikon prosumer digicam a try. It seems like he will post additional comments soon, so I'd keep an I on Pirillo.com.
I finally bit the bullet and switched the other way. I was a Nikon user (film and digital) and decided to give the Canon PowerShot A95 a try. I got it on December 23 and shot about 200 photos on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I'll have more comments on my experience in the next day or so.
BBC Provides an Introduction to Podcasting
The BBC provided an excellent summary of the Podcasting phenomenon for people who haven't caught the wave yet. I've been listening to podcasts like The Daily Source Code by Adam Curry and Inside Mac Radio periodically while blogging. I don't care that I'm not using iPodder or something similar to transfer the programs to Kathleen's iPod at the moment.
I think I'm really going to get into the Podcasting movement once I've purchased my very own iPod. Kathleen wants all of "her music" on her iPod whenever she has time to use it. I have no issue with this, after all it's hers and I gave it to her as a gift.
I want to reserve more space on my iPod for changing content such as Podcasts and Audible audio programs. I'll also have my music playlists on it, things I listen to on the way to hockey games and in the locker room, as well as things I listen to while programming or blogging.
2005 Tour de Georgia Scheduled for April 19-24
We had a nice visit with Kathleen's aunt from Atlanta, Jane Kuykendall, over the Christmas holiday. Seeing her got me thinking of the Dodge Tour de Georgia. A quick check of their website indicates that the 2005 race is scheduled for April 19 - 24. No route announcement has been made at this time.
Regular Operation Gadget readers will probably remember my interest in the The Lance Chronicles television program which aired on The Outdoor Life Network. The Tour de Georgia was a major feature of this series.
I thought the 2004 Tour de Georgia was very entertaining. There's no doubt that it turned out to be helpful in judging Lance Armstrong's fitness for the Tour de France, still two and a half months in the future at that point. As was the case in the Tour de France, Armstrong won a stage in a sprint finish. At the time, some said that was indicative of the weakness of the Tour de Georgia field. I think not.
I'm pointing the dates of this race out to pro cycling fans who live in the U.S. in case they want to consider planning a trip.
December 29, 2004
Donated to the American Red Cross International Relief Fund to Help Tsunami Victims
Within the last 36 hours, I received an email from my friend Seshadri Rengaswamy who works for Tata Consultancy Service in Chennai, India. He wrote:
Hi Dave,
Sorry that I could not reply to you yesterday. I was on leave most of last week, in fact I felt the earthquake on Sunday morning twice for 5-10 seconds between 6:30 and 6:45am. I was wondering what was happening. There were no problems near our area.
Tsunami was very severe in Chennai and Tamil Nadu (state where Chennai is located). In fact the death has crossed 5000 in India mostly in my state. There are huge fishing communities who live along the coastline and they were all hit.
Sesh and I met when we worked on a consulting project together at a financial services company in New Jersey just after 9/11. He made a donation to my 2004 Tour of Hope Fund-raising Drive in memory of my friend Peter Frank which I greatly appreciated.
I just made a small donation on behalf of OperationGadget.com and CTDATA to the American Red Cross International Relief Fund. The Red Cross has proven over the years to be effective at directing financial contributions to disasters like the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunamis.
I made the donation in honor of my friend Sesh, so that he and his friends in India would know that their friends in the United States want to help the disaster victims in their country and in neighboring countries.
If you are interested in making a contribution in this time of need, you can visit the Red Cross' Donate Now! page at: http://www.redcross.org/donate/donate.html.
December 28, 2004
Polar AXN Series Heart Rate Monitors Reviewed by Joel McNamara
Polar AXN 300:
One of the AXN-series Heart Rate
Monitors reviewed by Joel McNamara.
[ Photo: Amazon.com ]
Joel McNamara wrote in yesterday to point out an excellent review of Polar AXN-series heart rate montors that he wrote. The review includes a number of photos of the three AXN watches (numbered 300, 500, and 700), feature comparisons, and an explanation of the differences between the Polar WearLink and T-31 chest straps.
Joel is the author of several books related to GPS devices and computer espionage, including Geocaching for Dummies, GPS for Dummies, and Secrets of Computer Espionage: Tactics & Countermeasures. He's working on a book about heart rate monitors.
I'm particularly interested in his thoughts on the Polar WearLink. He says:
The AXN 700 comes with the WearLink chest strap, which in my opinion is one of the biggest breakthroughs in HRM technology in a long time. Unlike the common hard plastic electrode HRM chest straps, the WearLink has the electrodes woven into soft fabric. The WearLink is more comfortable, fits better, and offers better conductivity since moisture doesn't dry out as quickly as on a typical plastic electrode strap (key features during dry, cold days or if you don't sweat very much). The other killer feature is you can replace the battery by yourself.
I'm in the market for a new chest strap since I apparently lost my T-31 at a recent hockey game that I officiated.
What I Did with My $15 iTunes Music Store Card
My wife gave me a $15 iTunes Music Store Card for Christmas to buy some of "my music" for our collection. I never thought I'd buy a complete album via iTunes, but I spent my $15 (plus 99 cents) on Best of Both Worlds, a two-disc compilation of Van Halen songs from the David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar eras.
I haven't listened to VH for a long time, but I've been thinking that many of these songs should be on my Up Tempo Rock/Pop playlist. This music was the background to many long training runs during high school and college.
Best of Both Worlds is currently about $21 at Amazon.com, but is only $15.99 on iTunes. There are 36 songs on this album, definitely a bargain when compared to buying the individual tracks at 99 cents each.
If you are still in the market for iTunes Music Store Cards, Amazon.com is offering five for the price of four through January 2, 2005. The promotion code for this deal is ITUNES544DEC.
Kodak Digital Photo Strategy Discussed in New York Times
The New York Times published an interesting article on Kodak's digital photography strategy yesterday. It talks about how Kodak rebounded from a 5-percent share of the U.S. market in 2000 to 19-percent today. That makes them number two behind Sony and just ahead of Canon.
There are a number of interesting points in this article, including that the Kodak EasyShare Printer Dock that works with the with many of Kodak's digital cameras is a popular accessory with some consumers. I have a tendency to forget that a lot of people aren't as tuned into issues like photo printing consumables costs as Operation Gadget readers are.
Kodak executive Pierre Schaeffer reportedly pointed out, "The reason people buy a Canon is not fundamentally ease of use, and the reason they buy Sony is not ease of use." Kodak's product line focuses on ease of use, as it did in the Instamatic and Brownie eras when its slogan was "You push the button and we do the rest." The Kodak model has never been about "cheap" necessarily, but it's definitely been about "easy". [ via Tomalak's Realm ]
How Do I Replace a GSM Phone Inexpensively?
Here's a mobile phone question that came in yesterday that I don't have a great answer for. Maybe some of you Operation Gadget readers can offer some suggestions?
Randy Stevens wrote:
Dave,
May be you can help me, I’m a bit desperate at this point. My daughter dropped her Cingular phone in the water. Called Cingular Customer Care who said since you are still under contract and have no insurance your best bet is to buy a new phone off EBay. I bought a phone that the person told me was unlocked however when we put her sim in it is asking for the subsidy code which as I understand it means it is locked, to T-Mobile. Cingular will not help me and T-Mobile says I have to have an active account. I can’t get T-Mobile service where I am anyway so I can’t even have an active account. I seem to be hung between two companies who are unwilling to help me. What can I do other than throw the phone through the window and contest the sale through EBay which could take months and she will have no phone all that time?
Thanks for any help you can provide,
Dave Aiello replied:
Randy,
That's a real unfortunate series of events. Several instances of fraud and deception connected with mobile phone sales on eBay have been pointed out to me, so I'd say that people need to exercise extreme caution when buying replacement handsets that way.
I purchased a reconditioned, unlocked Treo 180 via eBay back in May. Although the unit looked good when I received it, it developed a problem with repeated crashing and I returned it to the seller. The good news for me was that the seller (a company) guaranteed the device and refunded my money when it couldn't provide me with another Treo 180 that worked.
You said that the seller represented that the phone was unlocked. Did you tell him that the phone was not unlocked and ask him to take it back? Based on what you've said, I think the eBay seller is the only person with a responsibility to you with respect to that replacement phone.
If you have soured on eBay and you still need a phone, Amazon.com now sells a limited number of mobile phone models that are already unlocked. I trust Amazon to stand behind what they sell. (FWIW, many other Amazon partners such as Target, Toys R'Us, and J&R Music World are similarly trustworthy, although they are not selling unlocked mobile phones at this time.)
Good luck getting your daughter back on-line. If your eBay seller misrepresented his merchandise or is unwilling to replace the phone you bought, I would do everything in my power to make his life miserable, including complaning to his state's Attorney General. On-line auction fraud really needs to be stopped.
If any Operation Gadget readers have anything to add to my suggestions, or want to offer different advice, feel free to post a comment. Thanks.
December 27, 2004
AP Names Armstrong Male Athlete of the Year for Third Consecutive Time
What can we add to the story reporting that The Associated Press Named Lance Armstrong its 2004 Male Athlete of the Year? Here's the highlight:
Already recognized as one of the truly inspiring athletes of his generation, Armstrong took his cycling legacy a step further when he won a record-breaking sixth consecutive Tour de France in July.
And for his accomplishment, he was honored Monday as The Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year for the third straight year.
Armstrong joined Michael Jordan (1991-93) as the only athletes selected by sports writers and broadcasters three straight times since the honor was first awarded in 1931.
December 20 - 26, 2004 Weekly Summary
This is the Operation Gadget weekly summary for the fourth week of December 2004. I'm experimenting with a weekly summary so that readers who want to receive a periodic email with Operation Gadget headlines can receive the links to all of the articles published each week. I will post a mechanism for readers to sign up for this service when I work out the details.
The headlines:
December 22
- Reviewing MSN Direct Service on a Fossil Abacus Wrist Net
- Good Comparison of Wireless Data Solutions from BargainPDA
- Exec Hints at Apple - Motorola Mobile Phone with iTunes Support in First Half of 2005
- Challengers to the iPod mini Discussed in New York Times
December 21
- SantaCross in Southern California Won by Lance Armstrong
- Seattle Times Discusses Amazon.com's Holiday Shipment Effort
- TiVo Distributed Almost 2,000 Free PVRs to Bay Area Comcast Customers
- Glofun Raygun Game Coming Soon For Nextel i710 and i730
- FBI Uses IP Addresses to Apprehend Alleged Murderer
Does a weekly summary work for you? Is it a waste of time? Let me know by posting a comment. Thanks....
December 22, 2004
Reviewing MSN Direct Service on a Fossil Abacus Wrist Net
The folks at MSN Direct sent me a Fossil Abacus Wrist Net Smart Watch to play with and talk about. I got it a couple of days ago and I've been wearing it in place of my Tag Heuer 4000 Series Sport Watch, which is one of the memories of my previous life as an IT consultant on Wall Street.
I charged it overnight on Friday, set up my MSN Direct subscription on Saturday afternoon, and started trying to acclimate myself to the experience shortly thereafter.
I'm planning to speak about it in detail after I have the opportunity to put the watch through its paces. I will also publish some photos of the Abacus Wrist Net and its packaging after I receive my new Canon Powershot A 95. I'm supposed to be getting it in the next day or two, so maybe then I'll get started.
Good Comparison of Wireless Data Solutions from BargainPDA
BargainPDA.com published a useful review of wireless data solutions that are available from mobile phone carriers and hot-spot providers. The article focuses on the technologies deployed by each wireless data provider, then goes on to talk about the connection methods available to get your mobile device on-line. The three connection methods covered are WiFi, Bluetooth via a handset, and PC cards dedicated to wireless data network access.
There are few specifics about available billing plans, at least when this article is compared to other articles that approach the subject from the opposite direction.
BargainPDA uses the new Intellitxt contextual advertising system. I hadn't noticed the degree to which this changes the nature and purpose of links on a blog. I will have to watch carefully for when this service is in use in order to decide whether I like it. In this article, I found it slightly confusing.
Exec Hints at Apple - Motorola Mobile Phone with iTunes Support in First Half of 2005
Forbes reported that Apple Computer and Motorola are likely to announce a mobile phone that can play music from the iTunes Music Store. The phone may ship sometime in the first half of 2005. The source of this information is reportedly Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of applications.
Such an announcement would fulfill the promises that the two companies made at a Rosemont, Illinois meeting in July. That was also the meeting where Motorola CEO Ed Zander demonstrated the RAZR V3 mobile phone. [ via Brighthand ]
Challengers to the iPod mini Discussed in New York Times
I forgot to point out a New York Times "Circuits" column from last week where David Pogue compared the iPod mini to several similar hard disk-based music players. The players compared were:
- Apple iPod mini
- Creative Zen Micro
- Virgin Electronics Player 5GB
- Dell Pocket DJ
- Rio Carbon 5GB MP3 Player
This article was interesting because Pogue found something odd or not quite right about each iPod mini competitor that would be significant enough to give me pause before making a purchase. If I were in the market for a small disk based player, I'd probably still buy an iPod mini, because I'm so comfortable with the combination of it and iTunes.
It's hard to say what the optimal digital music player / digital music library management system would be, but iPod+iTunes is the best thing on the market today by a mile.
December 21, 2004
SantaCross in Southern California Won by Lance Armstrong
Lance Armstrong Wins SantaCross:
Nice photos at CyclingNews.com.
Good article at VeloNews.com.
[ Photo: Dorothy Wong,
CyclingNews.com ]
VeloNews.com covered the reports that Lance Armstrong won the "A" Mens Race at the SantaCross cyclocross event over the weekend in Woodland Hills, California. CyclingNews.com has an excellent photo spread with plenty of shots of Lance, Tony Cruz, and fellow riders in seasonal costumes.
For some reason, CyclingNews.com mixed the name of this race up with Scary Fast 'Cross a cyclocross event that was organized by the same people and took place a few weeks earlier. Why would an event named "Scary Fast 'Cross" take place at the beginning of December? It's OK-- their photos are good.
It looks like they had great weather for this event. I bet the riders in Santa suits had hydration problems that day. According to the VeloNews report:
With the bell lap Armstrong had a 30 second lead on the now furious Santa #1 who had trained all summer with several T-Mobile riders in South Africa for this event. Lance rolled in for the win to a thunderous crowd. As Santa #1 crossed the line for 2nd he shook his fist at the crowd threatening to put them on the Naughty List too for not cheering louder for him.
Note the LiveStrong cycling jersey worn by Armstrong in this race. Has anyone seen a jersey like this available for sale? How much money would we have to raise for the LiveStrong program to receive one?
Seattle Times Discusses Amazon.com's Holiday Shipment Effort
Martin O'Donnell pointed out a Seattle Times article that discusses the performance of Amazon.com's fulfillment centers during the 2004 holiday season. The article also provides some statistics about overall e-commerce sales:
Consumers spent $2.03 billion online during the five days ending Friday {December 17}, a 49 percent jump compared with the same days last year, according to comScore Networks, which tracks consumer buying online. ComScore attributed the increase partly to free shipping and e-mail campaigns to remind customers of deadlines to take advantage of standard shipping rates.
Two billion dollars changing hands on-line over a five day period is an amazing volume of business for consumer-oriented goods.
TiVo Distributed Almost 2,000 Free PVRs to Bay Area Comcast Customers
In case you didn't see the outcome of the TiVo giveaway in the Bay Area, The San Jose Mercury News reported that nearly 2,000 TiVo PVRs were given away to Comcast customers who had wanted Comcast PVRs but had not yet received them. More than 2,000 toys were collected for the Family Giving Tree, a San Francisco area charity "dedicated to fulfilling the Holiday wishes of children who would otherwise go without gifts."
As a result of the previous story on the TiVo give-away, Martin O'Donnell pointed out that the TiVo Series2 40-Hour Digital Video Recorder is now less than $80 after the main-in rebate at Amazon.com. They throw in free shipping, provided you are OK with receiving the PVR after the holidays. If you want one and you didn't have time to make the trip to Alviso for the event, this is a pretty nice deal.
Glofun Raygun Game Coming Soon For Nextel i710 and i730
Glofun RayGun: a Java-based,
GPS-enabled game coming soon
for the Nextel i710 and i730.
[ Graphic: GloVentures LLC ]
GloVentures sent me a Nextel i710 mobile phone with a Java-based, GPS-enabled game called Glofun RayGun installed on it. Glofun Raygun is expected to be available early in 2005, initially for Nextel i710 and i730 handsets.
This game allows you to track ghosts that are coming at you from all directions and "ionize" them before they ionize you. Running in the direction of the ghosts increases the range of your weapon. In the case of a GPS-enabled game like this "running" really means running. It looks like this game is best played at a park or in a backyard.
I'm hoping that Glofun Raygun is a good change-of-pace way to get some exercise outdoors. I plan to review it on that basis, in addition to how much fun it is to play.
I have to find a couple of good weather days when I don't have hockey games to officiate to put Glofun Raygun through its paces. The i710 arrived yesterday when the high temperature was about 12 degrees Fahrenheit. That wasn't a good day to try out the game. Maybe later in the week will be better, when the temperature is expected to moderate to the 40s and 50s.
FBI Uses IP Addresses to Apprehend Alleged Murderer
The Associated Press reports that FBI agents identified an alleged murderer by the IP address of her computer before apprehending her. Lisa Montgomery of Melvern, Kansas was arrested and charged with "kidnapping resulting in death" in the strangling of Bobbie Jo Stinnett of Skidmore, Missouri. Stinnett is the pregnant woman who was killed last week and had her baby cut out of her, apparently by her assailant. According to the article:
Investigators say that just before the slaying, Montgomery had corresponded over the Internet with the victim, Bobbie Jo Stinnett, about buying a dog from Stinnett. The same technology that makes instantaneous communication possible enabled authorities to crack the case in a matter of hours and rescue the premature baby.
The article goes on to say that investigators took Stinnett's computer and furiously searched it for evidence that ultimately pointed to Montgomery. A tip was provided by a North Carolina dog breeder who pointed out that Stinnett had been corresponding with people on a message board about raising rat terrier dogs. This led to the discovery of the IP address that was traced to Montgomery's house.
In June, Operation Gadget reported on the use of mobile phone technology by counter-terrorism agents to locate and apprehend al Qaeda operatives worldwide. It's good to see that the type of sophistication used in counter-terrorism is being applied to domestic crimes as well. Congratulations to the FBI on the apparent arrest of a brutal murderer. [ via Boing Boing ]
December 20, 2004
December 13 - 19, 2004 Weekly Summary
This is the Operation Gadget weekly summary for the third week of December 2004. I'm experimenting with a weekly summary so that readers who want to receive a periodic email with Operation Gadget headlines can receive the links to all of the articles published each week. I will post a mechanism for readers to sign up for this service when I work out the details.
The headlines:
December 17
- President Bush Orders Plan for Temporary Shutdown of the GPS System During National Crisis
- Tour de France Will Feature New Millau Viaduct in 2006
December 16
- Nokia 6600 Called "Cheap and Reliable" by Paul Boutin in Slate
- TiVo Offering Free PVRs to Comcast Customers in the Bay Area on December 17, 2004
- Game Boy Helps Reduce Anxiety in Children Before Surgery, Study Says
December 15
- "Hacker's Favorite DVD Player" in Stock at Amazon.com
- 64M Memory Card Offered with Purchase of Digital Camera by Amazon.com
- 3-Megapixel Mobile Phone Camera Module Coming Soon from Panasonic
December 14
- Peet Shoe Dryer Improves Performance of Boots and Skates
- Motorola A630 "Guaranteed to Amaze Your Friends," Says Mike Langberg
- Electronics Outselling Books According to Amazon.com
- Burton Headphone Beanie Reviewed by The Gadgeteer
- S'mores Nativity Set May Be Taking the Theme a Bit Too Far
December 13
- British Gadget Users Said to Be Becoming "Digitally Obese"
- Asians Generally Have More and Better Gadgets to Choose from than Americans
- Glen Fleishman is Writing a New Digital Radio Blog for Weblogs, Inc.
- Most U.S. Mobile Phone Users Do Not Take Advantage of Mobile Data Services
- Toshiba SD-H400 is the Cheapest "TiVo Basic" Device Available
Does a weekly summary work for you? Is it a waste of time? Let me know by posting a comment. Thanks....
December 17, 2004
President Bush Orders Plan for Temporary Shutdown of the GPS System During National Crisis
Many news organizations reported that President Bush ordered plans to be made for temporarily disabling the Global Positioning System during times of national crisis to prevent terrorists from using the technology to precisely target their attacks. Some people are scoffing at this, but they probably did not have friends or relatives killed on 9/11.
If a coordinated attack involving hijacked airliners ever occurred again, I think the president would be well advised to temporarily disable civilian uses of the GPS system. [ via Boing Boing ]
Tour de France Will Feature New Millau Viaduct in 2006
Millau Viaduct: To be part of the
2006 Tour de France. [ Photo: Stuart
Isett, The New York Times ]
The New York Times reports that the Millau Viaduct opened in southern France on Thursday. Billed as the highest road bridge in the world, it's 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) long and 343 meters (1125 feet) tall at its tallest point. That makes the Millau Viaduct taller than the Eiffel Tower by about 43m (139 ft).
The location of the bridge, part of the A75 highway between Paris and Barcelona, is in good location to be part of the Tour de France. In fact, the New York Times article says, "The {Societe du} Tour de France announced recently that its annual bicycle race will be routed under the bridge next year."
My question is, why not have one of the stages ride across it? In 1999, the Tour included the Passage du Gois during Stage 2. The Passage du Gois is an 18th century cobblestone causeway that is subject to tidal flooding. As a result of the slippery conditions, there was a 10-rider crash that split the peloton.
I think that crossing the Millau Viaduct wouldn't be any more dangerous than the Passage du Gois, and given the features of the viaduct intended to deflect the wind, would probably be safer. [ Registration required to read The New York Times article ]
December 16, 2004
Nokia 6600 Called "Cheap and Reliable" by Paul Boutin in Slate
The Nokia 6600 is still available at a great price considering its features. Slate just published an excellent review of the 6600 by Paul Boutin where he touts it as almost the antithesis of the Motorola RAZR V3:
So, why am I telling you to rush out and get a cheap, ugly phone? Because the Nokia 6600 lets you add the cool features you want without paying for the ones you don't care about. For the price of a calling plan, you'll start with plenty of gadgetry you'd think they would have saved for the glitzy, high-end models. There's a speakerphone, voice dialing, an audio recorder, a serviceable 640-by-480 pixel camera, a (silent) video recorder, RealPlayer for playing back audio and video clips, an infrared port, and a flash memory slot that comes loaded with a 32-megabyte card.
The folks at T-Mobile lent me a Nokia 6600 over the summer. It's a great phone. If you want a mobile phone that does phone tasks well, is inexpensive, and has some of the extras you'll pay a lot more for in a cuter model, you'll like this one. For all the talk about how fat it is, it fit in the back pocket of my jeans with plenty of room to spare; I'm in shape by the way.
TiVo Offering Free PVRs to Comcast Customers in the Bay Area on December 17, 2004
TiVo announced that they will give away TiVo units to Comcast customers who can get to TiVo's headquarters in Alviso, CA tomorrow between 11:00am and 1:00pm Pacific Time. In order to receive a TiVo, you will need to bring:
- a Comcast cable bill for current service,
- a photo ID matching the bill,
- a new toy or piece of clothing to donate to charity.
Note that you will need to sign up for the TiVo service (either $12.95 per month or $299 for the life of the new TiVo unit). Apparently this is being done to call attention to the fact that Comcast is having difficulty rolling out its PVR service in the Bay Area, and TiVo is attempting to capitalize. [ via Engadget ]
Game Boy Helps Reduce Anxiety in Children Before Surgery, Study Says
Researchers at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey performed a small study indicating that pre-surgery anxiety in children between four and 12 years old was reduced when they were given a Game Boy to entertain themselves. The study results will be presented by Dr. Anuradha Patel at a meeting of the New York State Society of Anesthesiologists in New York City on Saturday.
The study involved 78 children who were divided into three groups. Each child in one of the groups was given a Game Boy 30 minutes before they received general anesthesia. The other groups got to use other, more traditional anxiety coping mechanisms. According to Dr. Henry L. Bennett, a member of the study team:
{The} study showed that the most dramatic difference in anxiety was observed in the group that had the Game Boy right up until the anesthesia took effect.
Dr. Patel got the idea for the study from observing the 7-year old child of a friend who focused intently on the Game Boy whenever he played with it. [ via Kaisa's Blog ]
December 15, 2004
"Hacker's Favorite DVD Player" in Stock at Amazon.com
Martin O'Donnell pointed out this Tech Bargains article reporting that the Philips DVP642 DVD/CD/MP3/DivX Player is in stock at Amazon.com. Tech Bargains calls the DVP642:
... currently the hacker's favorite DVD player. Plays downloaded movies. DVD, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/+RW, CD, CD-R/RW, VCD, SVCD, MP3-CD, MPEG-4, Picture-CD and DivX 3.11/4.x/5.x, AVI.
... as well as about 7 or 8 other useful formats. The best part is that you can burn files in any of these formats on to a DVD disk and the DVP642 player will figure out how to play them.
The Philips DVP642 is number on on the Amazon.com Electronics Top Sellers List, so it may not be in stock for long.
64M Memory Card Offered with Purchase of Digital Camera by Amazon.com
Amazon.com had a sale going on digital cameras that ended this week. They replaced that promotion with a new one-- if you buy a digital camera from them, you get a free 64-Megabyte memory card that's compatible with the camera or you get a discount on a larger-capacity memory card. The biggest restriction on this offer is that you have to buy the camera from Amazon.com itself, not a third party selling on their site.
If you go to the free memory card offer page, you'll see links on the right to different types of memory cards that are available. Clicking on each of those links brings up a list of compatible cameras. This turns digital camera shopping on its head-- normally I find a camera I want, then figure out what memory card format it supports. You can also find the camera you want and see the memory card offer down toward the bottom of the page.
I've been watching the Canon Powershot A95, waiting for the right moment to buy it. (This is driven by credit card billing cycles more than anything else). The price went up about $19 since the last time I looked, but I get a 64M Compact Flash Card or a $24.99 credit toward another memory card if I buy now. I think the deal is better for me now, since I would need a large memory card to go with the camera.
Just to make things a bit more interesting, Amazon offers different credit amounts for different memory card formats. I guess we could break down which type of camera would be most economical based on the net price of the larger memory cards. I started to do that and the difference is only a couple of dollars here or there, so I recommend that you skip that exercise unless you are a real savings geek.
This promotion runs until January 4, 2005, so people buying gifts for themselves after the holidays will be able to reap the benefits as well.