Since yesterday, I have been trying out Nokia 6630, which has now replaced my worrisome Vodafone mobile data card. As far as I can tell, it turns out that my Thinkpad T43 uses a version of bluetooth stack that is not supported by Nokia PC Suite (a Broadcom one), so a USB cable is the only option for getting online; that seems to do it. But the phone itself seems to work fine. The camera resolution is 1,3 megapixels which is much better than the VGA of my old 6600, but way behind the 2 or 3 megapixels that the latest multimedia models are packing. But the OS is reacting fast, screen is clear and I like the touch of the keyboard. As the Nokia N series still has various baby illnesses, and E series delayed until summer, this model appears to be a nice compromise if mobile data is mostly what you are looking in a phone right now. The new HSDPA models are not far in the future also, and obviously we need a new communicator model with 3G/3,5G connection speeds. Until then, I will ride with this 6630. (Coming in from a bicycle trip, it just automatically transferred all shots via bluetooth to a date-format folder in my laptop, perfect! Now, if it only could use that bluetooth for a PC modem connection, too.)
Category: technology
anything technology related, not fitting into other categories
google calendar, part 2
Studying the Google Calendar again, I did found a way to import Outlook meeting data into it, from a tip from a Google Calendar Help forum. It seems you need to change your Windows XP system language into US English before doing the Outlook data export, to get date format right for Google Calendar. Well, there still seems to be various kinds of bugs in it, but the idea of having an easy way to share calendars is of course nice. Now, if this would only really work… 😦
google calendar import troubles
We have been looking for a group calendar that would be flexible enough and easily compatible with most PC and mobile calendar standards. Looking at the Google Calendar beta, this seems to be not so far now. But, when I have now been trying to test it, the import function from Outlook seems not to be working. There are some others who face the same “Failed to upload ical/csv file” error when importing from iCal, too. Wonder if there is some obvious solution for this?
Edit: there appears to be so many bugs in Google Calendar at the moment, that some people would prefer to call it Alpha rather than Beta. See: http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Calendar-Help.
blogjects and pervasive internet
For some reason, this actually sounds like fun: in the “brave new world of ‘blogjects” (according to Julian Bleecker) various objects and “things” will be having an influence in our lives to the point that they will “dissimate a record of their experiences to the net”. Hmm. It would be actually interesting to read the blog of my car.. or keys. My mobile phone would perhaps have too much sensitive information — would I want to allow it to start its own blog in the future? Of course, most of these would be private or restricted access only, I suppose.
testing the ubuntu linux in web server use
I am now starting the experimental migration from Windows world to the great unknown… that is, I am trying to run my own server now in an Ubuntu Linux box. The initial impressions are that this is an awkward hybrid: half graphical OS, yet more than half needs to be done with the command line. Might suit some, but I am really a graphical UI oriented person these days. Grrrr…
Edit: tonight, I have now configured and reconfigured both the Apache webserver, SSH/SFTP services, the user accounts and associated home directories and use rights a few times, in various combinations. While also being perplexed why some directories, terminal windows or applications follow the UTF-8 character set, while others go with the old (Latin1 / ISO 8859-1) scheme, and how to get them work together, why VNC clients (Win –> Linux box) do not appear to be able to transmit AltGr keys (needed in Scandinavian keyboards to input such essential keys as ‘@’) like the Windows XP Remote Desktop… And so on and so forth. But: if you are able to read this, then this OS/application set works at least to some point, and thus Ubuntu cannot be so bad? 🙂
logitech (dis)harmony
Never repair problems caused by an excess of complex technology by adding some more complex technology. Could it be named the Occam’s razor of IT? In Saturday, I bought a Logitech programmable remote control “Harmony 525” from a campaign in Stockmann warehouse store. I had two needs: to replace my pile of remote controls with a single one, and to use a programmable remote to finally make my Sony DVP-NS92 player region free — and now it seems that this damned thing wont do in either role. It was not so bad to be requested to locate and input all brand and model codes from every device into its control scheme: supposedly, after all, you are going to do this only once. But the outcome (after spending all the free hours in my hard-earned Sunday vacation) of the configuration process was that now my TV is in whatever input every time I use Harmony, and I need to find the other, original Sony remote in any case to correct Harmony’s tracks. The problem is, as far as I can tell, that the Sony TV is not using specific codes to go directly into specific inputs, and it also does not always go into the same initial input when you press the “Next Input” remote button — so, as the Harmony does not have any feedback channel from the systems it is trying to control, it will get it almost always wrong. So, I am just unlucky? It is so shame; the advertisement of the “truly universal” remote, based on a database with over 80 000 IR devices got me. The handset appears to need manual reconfiguration through a highly unreliable web/java client interface in all cases, as it gets all its default settings wrong. Spent more than 10 hours working on it, and just got a headache. And, to top the bill, I cannot even find a way to program Harmony to do the region-free trick. Doh.
lens: ef 17-85mm f/4-5.6 is usm
Time to move forward: the Canon kit lens is now officially retired, and I got a EF 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM as my main, general-purpose lens. It is by no means perfect, there has been much critique pointed at the softness/unsharpness and barrel distortion at wide angle, but there is no point for me investing into L series lenses at this point. The image stabilizer improves conditions when shooting in natural light, as I always do, and the zoom range is also right. It would be great to get into summery meadow to test it, but indoors and winter landscapes must do for now.
time goes by, digi-tv
The most powerful technology in the history? Perhaps clock, according to some techno-historists. This Saturday, at 12 noon, Peeko Näränen has his thesis defense, subject: digitalisation of television in Finland (not so smooth process).
ms raw thumbnailer and viewer
Apple has long been the favourite choice of digital imaging aficionados, but also the Windows world is trying to come along. MS has updated their RAW image viewer, and it is going to be a part of the future OS version. RAW images, described as “digital negatives” portray the image data exactly as it was captured by the sensors of the camera. Since their large file size and tricks of handling and editing, RAW files are not as popular as compressed JPEG files among consumers, but in professional photography they have distinctive benefits. As the screens, disks and memory sizes in computers are getting larger and better, it becomes more attractive to use image formats that do not damage the original data, like compressed file types do. Paul Thurrott’s article on Longhorn RAW image support is a good introduction to the Microsoft plans in this area, and the Win XP RAW image viewer is something we can use currently. But the large sizes are still putting high demands on your system – but updating the hardware is of course what we are expected to do too, all the time…
oxy^3silence
After an unpleasant series of respiratory infections (propably asthma-related), I decided to do so something about it. Two days of vacuuming, washing and reorganising was a good start, but I also decided to upgrade my air cleaner. The old one (a Philips) is now washing off the particles in the computer corner, while an Electrolux Z8020 takes care of the bedroom. An interesting example of how the “life sustaining systems” in our homes start to remind you of space stations. This baby can sense both the amount of microparticles and the current sound level, and adjust its speed and power relative to either.
frans goes blog 
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