Canola UPNP client for Nokia tablets
So you’ve got a brand new Nokia 770 or N800 and some bozo in your office went and spent a grand on a UMPC and is showing off. Needless to say, talking about Linux, hackability and speed to a non-geek audience would be an utter waste of time. So what’s a geek to do? why install Canola of course! Canola is a media center type application for the Maemo platform. It runs on both the Nokia 770 and the 800. Although beau-coup memory is needed to have your multimedia on the device itself, you can also stream content straight out of your PC or NAS as long as you install the proper UPNP software. Update: Canola 2 is out, please help test it and provide feedback to the authors at http://openbossa.indt.org.br/canola/
Venture One
The Venture One sounds like a dream vehicle from reading its planned specifications, but hopefully a dream that will come true when the first model rolls off the assembly line in 2009. Ian Bruce is hard at work with several other companies to assemble the initial 3 configurations for this futuristic leaning 3 wheeler based on the Carver.
It is expected to give drivers sport car like performance with 100mpg and top speeds of 100mph, with the fun and excitement of a motorcycle thanks to a complex yet elegant hydraulic system that allows the front part of the car to lean independent of the rear.
MyVu Personal Video Viewers
There’s been some buzz lately about these Jordy looking glasses for watching video off of an iPod video. The displayed image is said to seem like a 27″ screen at 6 feet. I haven’t seen any in stores but it is available for order on the myvu website.
Here is part of what iLounge had to say about it: Read the full article »
Back to the USA…
Well, Vancouver was far less of a hassle than I expected. The consulate had my passport ready the same day and I was left with a couple of days to do some sightseing. Also, Budget car rentals at the Vancouver airport gave me over 100 bucks worth of coupons for all kinds of things from the Aquarium, the museum, McMillan space center etc. In short, I had a blast. I even had time to visit Whistler. I’ll be posting my videos and pictures shortly.
One more trip to Vancouver
Here we go again… I am leaving in 2 days for Vancouver again. This is a repeat of last year’s visa stamping thing at the US consulate there. It should go much smoother this time since they already have most of my information on their computers. I guess we’ll see if I am staying 6 days or a month and a half like last time 
On a brighter note, I have been mucking around with Ubuntu on an IBM Thinkpad T42. I have to say that so far, it pretty darn good after running automatix and bringing over the Tahoma font from the NTFS partition. Performance is acceptable and the features are just amazing. I will be taking this laptop with me to Vancouver and working remotely through VPN, which incidentally was a breeze to configure on Ubuntu. Read the full article »
Morocco Underground
These days, I am learning more and more about my own people. This video sums up to stuff you don’t see on TV. Nobody here is wearing white dresses or long beards, just twenty somethings having fun. Exciting stuff, including a dropped lawsuit against Hard Metal band due to intesive riotting/protests. I guess Morocco will be shedding its 3rd world label any decade now…
Sony Ericsson W600i
It’s been a while since my last post. I have been busy with projects at work and had little time to play unfortunately. I did however buy a Sony ericsson W600i. I only had it working for 2 days though, as it was pretty much a brick the morning of day 3. It wouldn’t charge or even so much as light up. Needless to say, I RMA’d it right away.
In my short 2 day experience with this phone, I really loved it! Despite this obvious problem, it had excellent reception, and voice quality was great both on speakerphone and headset. It also does a good job at serving music despite its limited 256MB of space. My favorite features are elsewhere: Class 10 EDGE with fast Java. Programs such as Google Maps Mobile and Mobile GMaps looked and performed wonderfully on this little beast along with 3D Java games and other excellent utilities. Internet access through bluetooth was also a breaze and worked at a “blazing” 128kbps in most signal conditions here in the bay area.
Samsung T509
In my quest for a cheap bluetooth capable class 10 EDGE Phone, I tried T-Mobile’s version of the Samsung SGH-T509 (T509 for short). It is slim, has a good UI and works as advertised. But the geek in me wanted more; like running Google Maps Mobile on it since it is Java capable. Small little problem with that. You see, T-Mobile wants you to buy their games and theirs alone. So they had Samsung rig the firmware to only allow signed midlets to access the network!! There is a deal breaker for me. Unlocking the phone let’s you use other networks but does not remove the T-Mobile customizations to the firmware. In other words, their version of this phone gets the thumbs down from this geek. Phone went back to TMO and I am back on my quest 
Blender 3D – Yes its open source!
Blender 3D is open source 3D modeling and animation software that runs on Windows, Linux and OSX. This is sort of like 3DMax only much much much better.
It was used for such things as the staging of Spiderman 2 scenes, the open source movie “Elephants have dreams too” and other impressive videos. Checkout www.blender.org for more info.
The real transformers are born!
‘nough said!
KnowledgeTree DMS
Version 3 of KTDMS really proves how far open source software has come in recent years. Quality wise, it is not in the same league as SugarCRM or even Joomla, but in it’s defense, it does’nt have a huge community behind it…yet. This version brings powerful workflow management, precise permissions by document/folder for roles, groups, and users. It also tries to provide support for organizational units which can have their own unit administrators. Despite all these features, this is not for the faint of heart as documentation is scarse and you are on your own to come up with a deployment plan that fits your own company. If you already have a system in place and you want to migrate to a platform you can customize, then this is for you; otherwise, spend the money and buy a NexPrize or Documentum DMS.
Nokia 770 vs UMPC
Well, I’ve had a couple of weeks to play with my N770 and here is why I think Nokia is going to nail UMPCs to the wall:
- Form factor: Bigger is NOT better when you have to lug it around! 1.7 pounds!! If i need a bag then i might as well carry a nice compaq presario with me. You know, the pretty skinny grey ones selling for 600 bucks…The Nokia on the other hand is barely noticeable in my inside vest pocket! Weight and size are perfect!
- Ease of use: I have to admit, XP has it’s usefullness when treated to a mouse and a nice keyboard. Mobile OS, it is not! The challenge here is that mobile applications have to be built for mobile use. I mean, sure, MS Streets is nifty, but it is no tomtom! Let’s face it, the screen is way too cluttered for a driver who can barely look at it while driving!
- Price: 500 to 1000 dollars…or 369 dollars…well…
Nokia 770
Great new tablet from Nokia running on a 250 Mhz ARM CPU and a Nokia Debian based Linux distribution called Nokia Tablet OS 2005 (version 2006 coming out soon). This thing would be no nicer than say a Zaurus in terms of hardware specs if it wasn’t for the builtin 802.11g WiFi and the GORGEOUS 800×480 touchscreen! Battery life is said to be a little over 3 hours with the WiFi on, and 7 days on standby.
Back from Morocco :’(
I spent 2 wonderful weeks in Morocco between Tangier and Casablanca. I took a few pictures and they’ll be coming up soon along with some videos. I was having so much fun, I forgot to take pictures
I spent most of my time there visiting family, helping my parents prepare their retirement residences, and eating as much Moroccan food as I could. The remaining time was spent watching satellite tv, which by the way blows the doors off anything we have here in the US. My parents have a motorized dish that gets most the European satellites and Hotbird alone has some 500 (good) channels on it!! I am green with envy
As far as being setup with marriage candidates 
this was done somewhat discretely with some minor brain washing on my mom’s part (love you mom! ) but nothing really interesting. Plus 2 weeks is barely enough to get over jet lag, let alone get to know someone well enough to decide on marriage…
Look forward to pictures from modern day Morocco in the coming days…