Tivoli PAL (or iPAL): the iPod speaker accessory of choice?

Tivoli Audio -- Portable Audio Laboratory (PAL) in Basic Black

At $130 the price isn't bad. It's not as flash as some of the iPod speaker accesories, but it's ruggedly made and comes with a great radio. It might be interesting to pair this with an Airport Express and use it as a convenient iTunes and iPod extension.

Update 3/18/2018: We actually bought one of these and used it as an iPhone speaker for a while with AirPlay support via an AirPort Express. Microwave kept wiping out stream. So we gave up.

The Canon CP-220 dye sublimation printer for quick 4x6 prints

O'Reilly: Tired of Inkjet Snapshots? The Canon CP-220 to the Rescue

A very interesting accessory, esp for printing directly from the camera. Impressively integrated with recent Canon cameras. I could see recommending this to someone who wants to use a digital camera but doesn't want to deal with a computer. Also handy for printing at children's parties.

Update 3/18/2018: Updating this old post to see if it fixes the weirdity that the archive page tech.kateva.org/2004/12/ doesn't show as clickable any longer. This is the first post that breaks MarsEdit archive retrieval. BTW, this kind of print product would delight my daughter in 2018. When I wrote this in 2014 she was 2 years old.

O'Reilly: Exporting QuickTime Movies with Simple Video Out X

O'Reilly: Exporting QuickTime Movies with Simple Video Out X

Apple has a developer tool that allows QuickTime to be output as a FireWire stream to anything that accepts FireWire digital video input -- typically a high end DVD recorder or a video camera.

Digital Imaging Software Review: Vuescan 8.1

Digital Imaging Software Review: Vuescan 8.1

This comprehensive review doubles as a user's guide for VueScan film scanning. It's extraordinary.

Mousing firefox with the Microsoft Wireless Intellimouse

Firefox Help: Keyboard Shortcuts

Microsoft's software is pretty hit or miss (I could live without them), but I like their hardware. I paid $16 or so for a surplus wireless intellimouse 2.0. Version 5.2 of their software lets me map one of the many buttons to kestrokes. This page lets me know what Firefox mappings are available.

Now I use the small side button to send FF a Ctrl-PageDown, and thus to hop around tabs. Works great, but I may try another button.

Intellimouse s/w allows mappings to be application specific too ...

Slashdot Submissions: Sensor to detect furnace malfunction and send email

Slashdot Submissions

We returned from holiday to find that our furnace had died. Miraculously neither pipes nor radiators were frozen.

The repair service recommends a device that will turn on a light in the window when the temperature dropes below a critical level. The theory is that our neighbor will see this and call us.

That's fine, but I'd rather a sub-50F temperature event trigger email from my server. Then I can route it to my cell phone, etc.

Seems like either a commercial product must exist, or someone must have adopted this sensor/light device to trigger an email message. Of course I'd like something that worked with OS X, but I have a Wintel server as well.

This would be a great Steve Ciarcia article in the BYTE days, but I'm looking for something less ambitious than his recent work.

Belkin KVM switch recommended by a persuasive slashdot poster

OmniView SOHO KVM

Belkin gives you control over four computers--either PS/2 or USB models, or both--from a single PS/2 console. Our audio feature lets you switch between computers sharing speakers and a microphone, without having to unplug and re-plug them. Using the SOHO Series on Sun and Macintosh USB platforms gives you easy, cross-platform control. With its advanced features, such as audio and microphone switching support, the Belkin SOHO Series makes controlling multiple computers easier than ever.

---

Of particular interest if Apple's headless $500 iMac comes to market.