SendStation - Products - PocketDock Line Out
This is a quite interesting product. The iPod standard analog out amplified to suit headphones. It works for speakers built for a headphone signal, such as most travel speakers. It's the wrong signal strength for a stereo system however, for that one should use the 'line out' signal from the iPod cradle (do not use the line-in for vinyl however, that's apparently an oddball standard).
This device is a more compact and less costly alternative to the cradle. It also allows an iPod to be charged with a standard 6 pin firewire cable. If you already own a Firewire cradle that's not being used, this is a real bargain at $30.
What I want in my next iPod, however, is a digital output option. Then I can bypass all the amplification and DAC issues and take advantage of digital speakers.
Sunday, August 15, 2004
Boing Boing: Recycle your PC equipment at Office Depot -- one item at a time! (until Labor Day)
Boing Boing: Recycle your old electronics at Office Depot
According to the Office Depot web site there's a limit of one item at a time and they really mean PC equipment (eg, what they sell). No TVs and no appliances.
It's a good deal in any case, it normally costs $25-35 to legally dispose of CRT. Of course if I make the trip I'll buy something at Office Depot as well.
Office Depot is doing a promotional event with HP in which the store will offer free electronics recycling through Labor Day for residents of the continental US.
According to the Office Depot web site there's a limit of one item at a time and they really mean PC equipment (eg, what they sell). No TVs and no appliances.
It's a good deal in any case, it normally costs $25-35 to legally dispose of CRT. Of course if I make the trip I'll buy something at Office Depot as well.
Saturday, August 14, 2004
Friday, August 13, 2004
Dans Data review of using USB to charge external devices
Review: USB mobile phone charge cables
Written in 2001, updated 2003. A very extensive discussion of using the USB 5V output to charge phones and more.
Written in 2001, updated 2003. A very extensive discussion of using the USB 5V output to charge phones and more.
palmOne Desktop 4.2.1 for Mac - Download
palmOne Desktop 4.2.1 for Mac - Download
A way to avoid the annoying registration/email/spam collection step.
A way to avoid the annoying registration/email/spam collection step.
Thursday, August 12, 2004
AirPort Express: Toslink converter
Wireless Networking (Part 25): "If your stereo has a Toslink optical input and you already have a conventional Toslink optical cable, Radio Shack part 15-1584 is an adapter that fits on one end of a Toslink cable to adapt it to the 3.5 mm mini optical jack on the Airport Express. Price is only $3 to $5"
Reports are that the analog output is poor quality, so optical is much preferred.
Reports are that the analog output is poor quality, so optical is much preferred.
X1.com -- search files and outlook -- a review
X1 instantly searches files & email. For Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora and Netscape Mail.
I took another look at this since Fallows wrote of it recently in the NYT. It's a product of Bill Gross, a Caltech undergrad classmate of mine. He made his initial fortune on a Lotus Notes module (long forgotten).
It's not quite ready for primetime. Some odd bugs and behaviors. Sent my CPU usage through the roof. Every time I hit the letter 'e' when searching in the file tag it jumped to the email search tag!!
Now it's quieting down after I tweaked the options:
1. Turned off all outlook/email/contacts indexing. Lookout works great for Outlook, and X1 doesn't search notes or tasks (meaning it's not useful for me).
2. Removed all the quick key entries for email. That stopped the 'e' problem, so now I can search for terms containing the exotic letter 'e'.
3. Restricted indexing to a subset of directories and to files under 2MB. In some directories limited indexing to file and folder name. If nothing else X1 may be fast way to locate directories and files.
4. X1 ONLY does stem searching. It doesn't do substring searching. This is a reasonable compromise for document indexing, but for finding folders/directories substring searching is feasible and necessary. So it's not as good for navigating directories as WCD (for example).
5. I need more control over what NOT to index, preferably using regex to define directory paths and files to exclude. X1 is indexing all of the FrontPage index files.
Given the above it might be useable. I have a LOT of content to index.
I took another look at this since Fallows wrote of it recently in the NYT. It's a product of Bill Gross, a Caltech undergrad classmate of mine. He made his initial fortune on a Lotus Notes module (long forgotten).
It's not quite ready for primetime. Some odd bugs and behaviors. Sent my CPU usage through the roof. Every time I hit the letter 'e' when searching in the file tag it jumped to the email search tag!!
Now it's quieting down after I tweaked the options:
1. Turned off all outlook/email/contacts indexing. Lookout works great for Outlook, and X1 doesn't search notes or tasks (meaning it's not useful for me).
2. Removed all the quick key entries for email. That stopped the 'e' problem, so now I can search for terms containing the exotic letter 'e'.
3. Restricted indexing to a subset of directories and to files under 2MB. In some directories limited indexing to file and folder name. If nothing else X1 may be fast way to locate directories and files.
4. X1 ONLY does stem searching. It doesn't do substring searching. This is a reasonable compromise for document indexing, but for finding folders/directories substring searching is feasible and necessary. So it's not as good for navigating directories as WCD (for example).
5. I need more control over what NOT to index, preferably using regex to define directory paths and files to exclude. X1 is indexing all of the FrontPage index files.
Given the above it might be useable. I have a LOT of content to index.
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